See how we got here.

The Zoning Steering Committee's final draft of the new zoning ordinance is circulated. Section 2.01 lists five special overlay districts: Airport Hazard, Floodplain Conservation, Riparian Buffer, Redevelopment Opportunity and Wellhead Protection. The words "data center" appear nowhere in the 394-page draft.

At a Board workshop, the developer's attorney, PowerHouse CEO Doug Fleit, and the project team present the data center concept for the first time; the supervisors voice support the same day and send it to the Planning Commission. The minutes record no public comment.

The developer's attorney emails Zoning Officer Mark Carpenter and the township zoning consultant a pre-drafted Data Center Overlay ordinance for the township's new zoning ordinance — sent outside any public meeting.

The township zoning consultant confirms to the developer's attorney: "we have the Data Center Overlay language incorporated into the draft." The developer's text is now in the township's ordinance.

Zoning Officer Mark Carpenter emails the township's planning consultant to pass along direction from the Supervisors: "Allow Data Centers By Right in the Data Center Overlay District area (on the PennTerra & McNaughton properties along Country Club Road in the MU-1 Zoning District) and in the Industrial Districts." The same email conveys the Solicitor's opinion that the Comprehensive Plan is "obsolete and no longer relevant," so its Future Land Use Map "does not need to be updated before the Board of Supervisors consider the new Zoning Ordinance at a Public Hearing." That morning's workshop minutes record no mention of data centers, the overlay, or either property.

The developer's attorney tells the township his client will file a standalone overlay amendment "for belts and suspenders." Later that evening, he retracts that intention: "Powerhouse has decided NOT to do a separate amendment."

The County Planning Commission votes unanimously to deny approval of the township's full zoning rewrite "until CCPC comments are addressed." Zoning Officer Mark Carpenter attends and asks the county to approve it anyway, stating the comments can be addressed later through amendments.

The developer's attorney files the standalone Data Center Overlay amendment (TPF 25-7) for the landowner, KMWW Partnership. The application says the zoning must be in place as soon as possible "or else the availability of power is jeopardized and with it, the viability of the data center project."

At a workshop, the developer's attorney urges speed — PPL power will be allocated on a "first-come, first available basis" — and the Board schedules the overlay hearing for May 30, with the developer paying for the advertising. The 35-day clock starts.

At a 7:30 a.m. public hearing with, in a supervisor's own later words, "very little public attendance," five people speak. Four ask the Board to wait for more information. None speaks in favor. The Board adopts Ordinance 3-2025 anyway, unanimously, 35 days after it took up the request.

PAX-1 is announced as a ~$15 billion project at Senator McCormick's Energy and Innovation Summit; developer Igal Feibush joins a private roundtable with the President.

DEP issues a Notice of Violation for the unpermitted line through the wetland on Country Club Road, citing the Clean Streams Law, and requests an after-the-fact permit application.

Residents pack a township meeting with questions about the data center; PennLive reports the first organized resistance and skepticism.

The Phase 1A land development plan — PPL's substation site — is submitted to the township.

The Board adopts Ordinance 7-2025, the comprehensive zoning rewrite: the overlay is folded in as Section 2.18, the land under it becomes MU-1 "Mixed-Use Neighborhood," and data centers become by-right in the Industrial district.

The Board conditionally approves the preliminary subdivision: 693 acres, five lots, one data-center development.

The State Historic Preservation Office rejects the developer's "no adverse effect" memo and formally finds the project WILL have an adverse effect on the Appalachian Trail.

The developer's own noise study is completed: 532 generators across the campus.

In one meeting, the Board conditionally approves the final subdivision, the final Phase 1A plan, and the preliminary Phase 1B plan — 29 more waivers, modifications, and deferrals of township standards across the three approvals.

Five couples who live beside the site file a substantive validity challenge with the Zoning Hearing Board, arguing the Data Center Overlay is illegal spot zoning. Pennsylvania courts have been striking down spot zoning where they find it since the 1960s; the challenge asks the Zoning Hearing Board to find it here.

The residents appeal the May 6 approvals to the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas, asking the court to review whether the township followed its own ordinances.

Nine days before the hearing, the residents' attorney Nathan Wolf calls the Zoning Hearing Board's solicitor to confirm logistics. She tells him there will be no hearing, with little explanation given.

DEP issues its determination on the stormwater objections, answering one of the residents' four. The other three are left unaddressed.

After the Zoning Hearing Board let its 60-day hearing deadline lapse, the residents file their spot zoning challenge in the Cumberland County Court of Common Pleas, asking the court to strike the Data Center Overlay.

The two resident families appeal to the Environmental Hearing Board, challenging all four amendments that stretched a stormwater permit written for 58 homes across the 693-acre data center, and the DEP determination that answered only one of their four objections.