Municipal Monday, Issue 12. A weekly digest of regulatory and development activity from 32 Central Pennsylvania municipalities.
THE PATTERN: The energy-siting conversation widened this week, and solar walked into it. South Middleton held its July 30 hearing on Ordinance #2026-03, a data center zoning amendment, the newest Cumberland County municipality to do so. South Hanover’s overlay hearing is still set for August 11. The newer thread is solar. Middlesex carried a Cumberland County application for a zoning ordinance text amendment to allow principal solar energy systems by conditional use in its Institutional district. Susquehanna’s Planning Commission took up Capital Region Water’s multi-acre array at its Pine Drive plant, where the applicant wants relief from the Stormwater Management Ordinance because the panels count as impervious surface under township rules. That question is the one to watch. Every solar applicant in the region will hit it.
ON THE BOARDS: Susquehanna’s Planning Commission carried four residential plans on one July 27 agenda totaling 378 homes: Creekview Heights at 178 units, Reichert Road at 97 lots, Beaufort Terrace at 73 single-family lots plus five open space and stormwater lots, and a waiver converting the 2150 Herr Street office building into 30 apartments. Two of the four were tabled. In South Middleton, the Georgetowne preliminary subdivision reached action July 30 at 115.51 acres and 196 lots, down from the 205 lots reported when the plan first came through.
Hampden carried a public hearing July 30 on a curative amendment application from Good Hope Ventures GH L.P. A curative amendment challenges the validity of the zoning ordinance itself, which typically means the applicant is arguing the ordinance is exclusionary as to their intended use. No use or acreage is on the agenda face. The minutes are worth a read.
LONG HORIZON: Comprehensive plans moved toward seated committees. Newberry authorized advertising its steering committee’s first meeting for August 5, and Middlesex selected its own representatives July 31. If you are working land in either township, the next twelve to twenty four months are where the rules you will build under get written.
COST TO WATCH: Three municipalities cut roughly $2 million in financial security this week, led by two Lower Allen reductions totaling about $1.36 million. Carroll Township has a further $687,635 release request on its August 3 work session agenda, putting the week’s total near $2.7 million. Separate from the bond churn, and more consequential for property owners there: Lower Allen’s finance report on that same agenda was a presentation on increasing the Fire Tax and implementing a new EMS Tax.
If you own or are working land in these jurisdictions, especially where solar or data center rules are still being drafted, happy to talk through what it means for your parcel.
Municipal Monday runs weekly. Next issue: 8/10.