Lowhill Township Preemptive Zoning (Lehigh)

Lowhill Township, Lehigh County moved first and wrote its own rules

Current stage

Ordinance adopted February 2026, with follow-up amendments under discussion.

Decision body

Lowhill Township

Top issues

The questions here are about the rules themselves, including how far equipment must sit from homes, what noise limits apply, and whether a municipality can set terms before an application arrives.

Established zoning for data centers (preemptive). Lowhill Township adopted data center zoning effective immediately at its February 2026 meeting, setting standards for setbacks, noise, building height, and water and electrical demand. Applicants must submit an electrical utility impact study and a water feasibility study demonstrating adequate capacity and supply, and data centers must use closed-loop cooling. Supervisor Siegel said the ordinance would control where and how data centers come into the township. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission reviewed the ordinance alongside Bushkill, Plainfield, and Washington townships in Northampton County; as of March 2026 seventeen Lehigh Valley municipalities had ordinances adopted or in progress. The township returned to the subject in July 2026 to consider further amendments, including how to treat distributed data center networks.

• 2026-08-01 Lehigh Valley PressBoard, planners discuss proposed data centersFollow-up amendment work including distributed data center definitions
• 2026-03-29 The Morning CallMore Lehigh Valley communities look to set ground rules for data centersSeventeen Lehigh Valley municipalities with ordinances adopted or in progress
• 2026-02 WFMZ 69 NewsLowhill Township establishes zoning requirements for data centersOrdinance requires utility and water feasibility studies and closed-loop cooling