Municipal Monday — Issue 03. A weekly digest of regulatory and development activity from 32 Central Pennsylvania municipalities.
THE PATTERN — The data center ordinance wave is shifting from drafting to scheduled public hearings. Silver Spring Township advanced proposed Ordinance 2026-01 — data centers as a conditional use in its General Industrial (I-2) district — to advertisement on 5/27 and set a public hearing for July 22, 2026. That puts three firm hearing dates on the summer calendar alongside Hampden Township (7/2) and West Hanover Township (7/16, with the ordinance still in committee and the next Planning Commission meeting 6/25). South Londonderry Township re-advertised a revised ordinance and meets again 6/9. Lower Allen Township's Planning Commission carried a text amendment on 5/20. A related thread worth watching: alternative-energy conditional uses are starting to move on the same industrial ground — Silver Spring forwarded two structure-mounted solar farm applications for a parcel on Dauphin Drive with a 6/24 hearing. If you hold industrially-zoned land in any of these municipalities, the framework being written this summer is the one your project will live under.
ON THE BOARDS — Subdivision and land development activity stayed heavy. Silver Spring took up Sporting Green Apartments, a 252-unit, five-building plan. South Middleton Township advanced Keystone FC's Lisburn Road Phase 1 (Final Land Development, 68.5 acres, I-1) and Heritage Village. East Pennsboro Township returned to the Revised Final plan for Lands of W.E.B. Contracting, and West Hanover Township opened an 8-lot subdivision on Compton Drive.
LONG HORIZON — Comprehensive plan and ordinance-rewrite work is widening. Hampden Township moved to select a consultant to lead its Comprehensive Plan update. Mechanicsburg Borough's steering committee met 5/27. And East Hanover Township (Dauphin) is continuing a combined zoning ordinance, zoning map, and subdivision/land development ordinance update. Three jurisdictions in active rewrite mode means 12 to 24 months of moving rules ahead.
COST TO WATCH — Four municipalities have fee or escrow items in motion. Hampden Township adopted Resolution 2026-14 amending street-cut permit fees. Monroe Township approved Resolution 2026-13, a stormwater fee change. Newberry Township continued work on an escrow resolution and associated fee schedule (5/12 workshop, with a fire-escrow follow-up 5/26). Windsor Township carried its Resolution 2026R-05-02 fee schedule amendment. Each one is a direct line item for projects already in review.
If you own or are working land in any of the jurisdictions mentioned — especially the municipalities setting data center hearings this summer — happy to talk through what these changes might mean for a specific parcel.
Municipal Monday runs weekly. Next issue: 6/8.
Correction (July 1, 2026): An earlier version of this issue included items from Middlesex Township (Butler County) and Carroll Township (Washington County) — same-named municipalities outside our Central Pennsylvania coverage area. Those items and the affected counts have been removed.