SE PA Data Center Resources

[Bill Sabey]

Hello local government advocates and EAC members in Southeastern PA,

The Sierra Club, Southeastern PA Data Center Community Protection Team has been working on a set of resources to support local governments in the wake of the onslaught of data center development proposals in our area. I’m sure you have seen the news about townships and boroughs scrambling to assess the risks, invite public comment and, in many cases, show the potential developers that they would be better served someplace else.

We invite you to share these resources with your contacts with Environmental Advisory Committees (EACs), elected officials or staff members that you think might be engaged with the data center discussion:

• Data Center Fact Sheet for Local Governments
  
  

• Graphic about the Toolkit
  (printable version of image on the right)
  
  

• Draft Model Ordinance
  
  

• 5 page Pamphlet
  
  

• Intro Slide Deck with voice over (video)

All can be found at sierraclub.org/pennsylvania/southeastern/data-centers

We are working on more resources and intend to improve the set we have now to help local government staff and advisors find areas where their zoning and ordinances can be improved. Please reach out (reply to this email) to start a conversation.

We know there are a ton of resources, webinar recordings, in-person conferences out there. We encourage you to learn all that you can. It’s a shifting landscape. The toolkit on this page was built on the shoulders of many model ordinances, reactions to existing models and detailed research across Pennsylvania and beyond.

If you would like to join the team, please submit the volunteer interest form on the webpage. We meet on the 3rd Thursday at 5 pm via Zoom.

Thanks for the work that you do to protect our communities.

The Southeastern PA Data Center Community Protection Team