About This Tracker

This site does two things. It shows the data center rules for every county, township, borough, and city in Pennsylvania, so you can see and compare them. It also offers free tools that help local officials write strong data center rules, and help residents propose rules to their own township, borough, or city.

What This Tracker Does

The Pennsylvania Data Center Ordinance Tracker is an independent project maintained by David Olson. For every municipality in Pennsylvania, it records whether a data center ordinance has been adopted or proposed, what that ordinance requires, and where residents can read it, so that residents and local officials can compare approaches across the state.

It serves two groups. Residents can find their municipality, read its ordinance, and see which protections it includes. Local officials, solicitors, and planners can compare their ordinance with the strongest in the state and draft a stronger one with the Ordinance Builder.

Why Data Center Ordinances Matter

Opposition to data centers has grown quickly in Pennsylvania. In a Quinnipiac University poll taken July 9 to 13, 2026, 74 percent of registered voters said they would oppose building an AI data center in their community,¹ and a March 2026 Muhlenberg College poll found that 64 percent of adults saw data centers as a crisis or a problem.² At hearings and public meetings, residents have raised the same concerns again and again: noise and heavy water use that could draw down wells and local supplies,³⁴⁵ new power lines and grid demand that could raise electricity bills for other ratepayers,⁵⁶ and air pollution from backup generators.⁷ They have also asked that data centers be kept away from homes, schools, and farmland,⁵⁸ and that the public not be kept in the dark by non-disclosure agreements between officials and developers,⁹ while a state lawmaker has proposed requiring money to be set aside to remove a facility if it closes.¹⁰

Pennsylvania municipalities cannot ban data centers outright. Under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, a zoning ordinance must allow every lawful use somewhere, and an ordinance that leaves a use out entirely can be challenged as exclusionary.

That is why each municipality needs a data center ordinance. When zoning is silent, a developer can challenge it and may win the right to build on the site it chose. An ordinance lets the municipality decide where data centers may go and set standards for noise, water, setbacks, and other impacts.

Sources

Where the Information Comes From

Every entry is drawn from public records, including zoning ordinances and amendments, meeting minutes and agendas, county planning commission records, and local news reports. Each entry lists its sources and the date it was last verified. Ordinances are rated from their full text against the 52 criteria of the Tracker Standard, and David Olson reviews the ratings.

How Entries Are Verified

Every entry links to at least one official or published source, such as the ordinance itself, meeting minutes, or a county planning commission record, and the tracker never states a date or requirement that its sources do not support. Every two weeks, entries with scheduled hearings or votes are checked again, and each entry shows the date it was last verified. When a correction is confirmed against a source, the entry is updated in the next two-week update and its verification date changes.

Updates and Corrections

The tracker is updated every two weeks, and each county page shows the date it was last updated. If an entry is out of date or incorrect, please submit a correction. You can also email corrections@padatacenterordinances.org. Corrections are reviewed within 30 days. The tracker is not affiliated with any government agency, developer, or advocacy group, and it is not legal advice.

Submit a Correction

How to Use the Tracker

Find
Look up your municipality to see whether it has a data center ordinance, what it requires, and where to read it.
Compare
See how each ordinance is rated against the 52 criteria of the Tracker Standard, including ten Core Protections.
Strengthen
Use the Ordinance Builder and drafting resources to write a stronger ordinance.