If you have driven past the fields along East Reeceville Road in East Brandywine and heard the talk about a data center, here is what is actually on the table. On Thursday, November 12, at 6 p.m., the East Brandywine Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on a challenge to the township's zoning rules. If the challenge succeeds, data centers could become a permitted use in the township's R-2 residential district, not just on one property but on every R-2 property in the township.

The challenge comes from the owner of 500 East Reeceville Road, a parcel of about 25 acres zoned R-2 Residential. The owner, listed in township records as 500 ER-EBY Trust, filed what Pennsylvania law calls a substantive validity challenge. In plain English, the owner is arguing that the township's zoning ordinance is legally flawed, and is asking the township to fix it with a proposed curative amendment. That amendment would add a definition of a data center to the zoning code and list data centers as a permitted use in R-2, the same way a single-family home is permitted there today.

What makes the hearing worth paying attention to is what the township already did this summer. On July 16, 2026, the supervisors adopted their own data center ordinance. It allows data centers only as a conditional use, and only in the Commercial Service and Light Industrial district. It also sets standards for lot size and setbacks, how the building looks from the road, energy use, backup generators, water service, heat, electronic waste, and noise and vibration. According to the township, the owner's proposed amendment does not include comparable standards. So the question in front of the supervisors is not simply yes or no to one building. It is whether data centers stay limited to the commercial and industrial district under the township's rules, or become allowed by right in residential neighborhoods.

This is not a typical public meeting. Hearings like this are quasi-judicial, which means they run more like a court proceeding. Attorneys can present witnesses and exhibits, testimony may be given under oath, witnesses can be cross-examined, and the board has to base its decision on the evidence presented. Residents who believe they have legal standing, usually neighbors who would be directly affected, must attend in person to request party status. The board will also take public comment before it decides whether to enact the amendment. The hearing is in the gymnasium at Brandywine Wallace Elementary School, 435 Dilworth Road in Downingtown. Doors open at 5:45 p.m., and the full application is posted on the township website and available at the township office at 1214 Horseshoe Pike.

East Brandywine is not the only township working through this. A few miles east, Green Fig and Sentinel Data Centers have been building a two-building, 1.5-million-square-foot data center on the 79-acre former Foote Mineral property on Swedesford Road in East Whiteland, a site that is still on the federal Superfund list. East Whiteland has issued two stop-work orders there this year, the first in July over dust and environmental questions and the second in late August over whether the local water utility could commit enough water to run the facility. West Chester Borough adopted a data center ordinance in July that allows them only as a conditional use in its industrial district, and Tredyffrin voted in April to write rules before any proposal arrives. Chester and Montgomery counties also published joint guidance this spring to help townships write these ordinances.

For homeowners, the questions are practical. Data centers add taxable property without adding students, which can help school budgets. They also need large amounts of electricity and water, often run cooling equipment around the clock, and tend to be large windowless buildings. Where they are allowed, and how far they must sit from homes, can shape how buyers see a neighborhood for years, which is exactly why the difference between the township's July ordinance and the proposed amendment matters.

No decision has been made yet. If you live in East Brandywine, especially near an R-2 property, this is a hearing worth attending or following. We will keep this page updated as the township acts.

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