Know Your Rights
Pennsylvania law, the Plymouth Township zoning ordinance, and the state constitution give residents specific, named rights in this fight. This page is what they are, and how to use them in this hearing, on this property, in this township.
Standing: who counts as a “person aggrieved”?
Under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (53 P.S. §10913.3 and §11003-A), a person has standing to participate in a Zoning Hearing Board proceeding and to appeal its decision if they are directly affected by the proposed use.
For the 900 Conshohocken Road project, that includes, non-exhaustively:
- Residents of the Connaughtown neighborhood across Conshohocken Road from the site
- Other Plymouth Township residents whose air, water, traffic, noise, or property values can be reasonably affected
- Residents of Conshohocken Borough downwind, downstream, or sharing a watershed
- Residents of West Conshohocken, Whitemarsh, and Lower Merion within the affected radius
- Owners and operators of the adjacent Proving Grounds, Tee’s Golf Center, and the Schuylkill River Trail
- Statewide environmental organizations with members in the affected area, e.g., Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Sierra Club PA
Your rights at a special-exception hearing.
This is a quasi-judicial hearing, not a public meeting, not a town hall, not a campaign event. Pennsylvania law gives the applicant and the objectors specific procedural rights:
The applicant’s burden
- Must prove the proposed use meets the categorical definition for a special exception under the Plymouth ordinance.
- Must prove that the specific standards and criteria in the ordinance will be met.
- Must do this through evidence, testimony, exhibits, expert reports, not assertion.
The objectors’ burden (after applicant meets theirs)
- Once the applicant clears the first burden, a presumption arises that the use is consistent with health, safety, and welfare.
- Objectors must then come forward with concrete evidence (not Facebook posts, not generalized fears) that the use will have a high degree of probability of substantial detrimental effect.
- Expert testimony is the gold standard. Lay testimony about specific, observable, non-speculative impacts is also admissible.
Your specific rights at the ZHB hearing
- Right to attend, including remotely if the township provides a remote-participation option.
- Right to be heard. The ZHB will give a public-comment opportunity. Identify yourself, your address, and your position clearly.
- Right to present evidence. If you are an objector with specific evidence (a photograph, a sound measurement, an engineering letter, a medical statement), bring it. The chair will accept exhibits as part of the record.
- Right to cross-examine. If you have party standing (typically established by entering an appearance through counsel), you can cross-examine the applicant’s witnesses. Even individual residents can ask the chair’s permission for limited questions.
- Right to written decision. The ZHB must issue a written decision with findings of fact and conclusions of law within 45 days of the hearing’s close (53 P.S. §10908(9)).
Sunshine Act & public notice.
Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act (65 Pa. C.S. §701 et seq.) and the Municipalities Planning Code together set the rules for how Plymouth Township must notice this hearing.
- The ZHB hearing must be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation at least once each week for two successive weeks, with the first publication not more than 30 days and the last not less than 7 days before the hearing.
- A notice must be posted on the property at least one week before the hearing.
- The hearing agenda must be made available in advance through the Township’s ordinary public-notice channels.
- Written notice must be sent to the applicant, the property owner, and any party who has filed a written request to be notified.
Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law.
Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law (65 P.S. §67.101 et seq., enacted 2008) gives any person the right to request public records from a state or local agency. Plymouth Township, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Public Utility Commission, and the Governor’s office are all subject to it.
What to request, for this project
- The complete May 2026 zoning application as filed, including all exhibits.
- All communications between counsel for 900 Conshohocken Road, LLC and Plymouth Township staff or officials.
- Any pre-application water-allocation correspondence with PA DEP.
- Any PJM interconnection inquiry filed for the site.
- Communications between O’Neill, MLP Ventures, or 900 Conshohocken Road, LLC and Governor Shapiro’s office, the Department of Community and Economic Development, or the Department of Environmental Protection. (This is how the Concerned Citizens of Montour County uncovered the proposed appeal-bond requirement that Patch reported.)
How to file
Use Plymouth Township’s designated Open Records Officer. Most agencies accept email requests. The agency has 5 business days to respond, with a possible 30-day extension. A denial is appealable to the PA Office of Open Records.
The Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment.
Article I, §27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the Environmental Rights Amendment, also called the “Green Amendment”, provides:
“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.” PA Const. Art. I, §27
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Robinson Township v. Commonwealth revived §27 as a self-executing source of substantive rights. It is the constitutional anchor for objections that an industrial use will degrade air, water, or community character, and it is the strongest precedent against state-preemption efforts like HB 502 that would override local zoning.
Your appeal rights.
If the Zoning Hearing Board approves the special exception, the decision can be appealed to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas within 30 days of the decision under 53 P.S. §11001-A. The appeal is taken on the record made before the ZHB, which is why building a strong evidentiary record at the hearing is so important.
- Who may appeal: any “person aggrieved” by the decision (53 P.S. §11003-A).
- Standard of review: the court reviews for abuse of discretion or error of law. The factual findings are reviewed for substantial evidence in the record.
- Stay pending appeal: a court may grant a stay preventing construction during the appeal, especially if the appellant shows a likelihood of success and irreparable harm.
- Costs: appellate litigation costs money. We are coordinating with the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Sierra Club PA, and other regional environmental groups on shared legal capacity.
If the ZHB denies the special exception, expect the applicant to appeal. Your job in that scenario is to ensure the ZHB’s written decision rests on substantial evidence in the record, which means putting that evidence in front of them now.
Curative amendments & moratoria.
The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code allows a township council to enact a curative amendment with a 180-day moratorium on accepting new applications while the township writes a tailored ordinance. This is exactly what East Whiteland, West Whiteland, Madison, North Middleton, and West Pennsboro townships have done in response to data center proposals.
The argument: data centers are not a defined use in the Plymouth Township ordinance, so the township needs “a pause to write a zoning ordinance in peace,” in the words of East Whiteland Township Manager Steve Brown.
What a Plymouth data-center ordinance should require
- Closed-loop cooling mandate with disclosure of the makeup-water source and volume.
- Setbacks of at least 500 feet from residential property lines, with greater setbacks for combustion equipment.
- Tier IV backup-generator emissions standards or better.
- 24/7 noise cap at the property line, with low-frequency measurement protocol.
- Independent fiscal-impact study as a condition of any application.
- Independent water-feasibility study as a condition of any application.
- NDA prohibition: no application accepted where the operator’s identity or water-source contracts are sealed by NDA.
- Dark-sky-compliant lighting.
- Community Benefit Agreement requirement, with enforceable clawbacks tied to delivered jobs and tax revenue.
Plymouth Township Council meets the second Monday of each month. Showing up to that meeting and asking publicly for a curative-amendment moratorium is one of the highest-leverage things a resident can do right now.
A note on legal advice.
No Conshy Data Centers is a community-volunteer effort. This page is general procedural information about Pennsylvania law and the Plymouth Township process, it is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you intend to be a formal party to the ZHB proceeding or to file an appeal, you should engage a Pennsylvania-licensed land-use attorney. We can help connect you with counsel through the volunteer form.