In the coming months, the Gilpin supervisors plan to be proactive by having conversations about how best to regulate potential data centers in the township.
During a meeting Tuesday, the supervisors authorized township Solicitor Tim Miller to draft an amendment to the township’s zoning ordinances regarding data centers.
“Right now, our zoning does not address data centers,” Supervisor Gary Hall said. “That’s an upcoming thing that could get very touchy and very delicate very quick.”
The amendment, Supervisor Charles Stull said, serves as a preventative measure should the topic of a data center arise in Gilpin.
“Right now, because it’s not in our zoning, it’s technically allowed anywhere and in any way,” Stull said. “(The amendment) would be specifically including data centers into our zoning and setting reasonable regulations surrounding them.”
It could take over a month before the draft is approved to be advertised to the community, he said. Following that step, a public hearing will be scheduled to hear residents’ opinions on the amendment.
“It’s simply, for now, authorizing our solicitor to prepare an amendment,” Stull said. “We don’t have any language yet. We don’t know exactly what those regulations will be. But the solicitor is going to put together a draft for us to review and go from there.”
Stull said that discussing regulations was prompted after seeing potential data centers arise in surrounding communities. He told TribLive that, to his knowledge, there have not been discussions of any data centers coming to Gilpin.
Springdale Council gave approval in December to construct an AI data center in the borough. Another data center is planned in Upper Burrell and, in the region, Homer City.
