Lower Mount Bethel Township PA data center ordinance (2026)

Lower Mount Bethel Township, Pa. (Northampton County, Lehigh Valley) — DATA CENTER ORDINANCE passed UNANIMOUSLY by the Board of Supervisors on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2026, expressly 'setting a benchmark for regulations as the township prepares to consider a farmland rezoning request for a hyperscale data center.' THE OPERATIVE RATIONALE IS PRE-EMPTION OF A PENDING RESZONING REQUEST, STATED ON THE RECORD: a resident asked the board to TABLE the vote so more feedback could be incorporated; SUPERVISOR RICHARDS (appointed on the 24th following the RESIGNATION OF ROB SIEGFRIED) was 'the most vocal in urging his fellow board members to avoid further delay,' responding: 'IF THEY PUT A PLAN IN TOMORROW, WE HAVE NOTHING.' THIS IS THE PENNSYLVANIA MPC VESTED-RIGHTS RACE ARTICULATED BY THE DECISION-MAKER HIMSELF. Under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, a landowner filing a complete application acquires protection against later-enacted zoning, and the pending-ordinance doctrine cuts the other way only where the municipality has already advertised its amendment. The township's choice — adopt a possibly imperfect ordinance before the application lands rather than a better one after — is the same strategic logic recorded at Montgomery Township PA data center curative regulations (2026) and Falls Township PA curative amendment on data centers (2026), where townships declared their OWN ordinances substantively invalid to control the remedy and foreclose developer validity challenges. LOCAL CONTEXT: TALEN ENERGY operates the Lower Mount Bethel Power Plant at 6079 Depues Ferry Road in the township — existing large-scale generation adjacent to the proposed site, the co-location pattern recorded throughout this dataset. THE ORDINANCE'S SUBSTANTIVE STANDARDS ARE NOT ENUMERATED IN THE RETRIEVED TEXT: setbacks, height, noise limits, water, district placement and whether data centers are by-right or conditional USE ARE ALL UNKNOWN and must not be inferred. THE FARMLAND REZONING REQUEST REMAINS PENDING and its outcome is not recorded by this entry. LEHIGH VALLEY / SOUTHEASTERN PA CLUSTER: Norristown PA data center ordinance (2026), Swatara Township PA data center ordinance (2026), Montgomery Township PA data center curative regulations (2026), Falls Township PA curative amendment on data centers (2026), Ligonier Township PA data center zoning regulations (2026), plus unindexed leads at Morrisville Borough, Whitemarsh Township, West Conshohocken and Upper Merion.