At last Thursday’s Upper Merion Township Board of Supervisors meeting, two very different development issues came before the board.

One involved five proposed data center projects that drew significant opposition from residents. The Board unanimously denied the applications and related extension requests.

The other involved a proposed 205-unit apartment development at 720 Vandenburg Road.

That project was approved — but not unanimously.

Supervisor Greg Waks voted against the Vandenburg proposal after explaining that his frustration with the project centered on its lack of affordable or workforce housing.

The housing issue itself is not new. Attainable housing has already been the subject of ongoing discussion within Upper Merion, including at recent meetings of the township’s Economic and Community Development Committee. The topic is once again on that committee’s agenda for tonight.

What is becoming clearer, however, is how that ongoing housing discussion intersects with actual development applications — and with a broader question about the authority Upper Merion has to shape what gets built.

Taken separately, the recent votes dealt with very different types of development.

Taken together, they raise a much larger question for Upper Merion:

How much authority should the township have over not only where development occurs, but what developers are required or encouraged to provide?

Following the Board’s denial of the data center applications, a discussion developed publicly about how much power the township actually possesses when reviewing development proposals.

One resident argued that the applications had not been denied simply because residents organized against them, but because deficiencies in the submitted plans gave the Board grounds for denial. The resident suggested that a future applicant submitting plans that satisfy all applicable requirements could be much more difficult for the township to stop.

Another commenter called for changes to state law that would give municipalities greater ability to consider issues such as traffic, sewer capacity and other infrastructure constraints.

Supervisor Waks responded by saying he believes Pennsylvania’s Second Class Townships should have greater authority.

“I strongly believe that second class townships need much more authority but certainly not unlimited authority,” Supervisor Waks wrote. “I genuinely think most people would be extremely surprised if they understood our limitations.”

He added that he hoped to discuss the issue publicly in greater detail in the coming days.

Upper Merion is governed as a Pennsylvania Second Class Township, with a five-member Board of Supervisors.

For residents, the designation may sound largely administrative. But Pennsylvania municipalities derive much of their authority from state law, including the Second Class Township Code and the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code.

That means supervisors do not have unlimited discretion to reject a development simply because they or a large number of residents oppose it.

Applicants have property rights as well, and township decisions must be tied to the zoning ordinance, subdivision and land development requirements, and other legally applicable standards.

The data center debate appears to have brought that reality into sharper focus.

The same meeting highlighted the issue from the opposite direction.

Instead of wanting greater ability to restrict a development, the Board was also confronted with the question of how much influence the township can exert over the type of housing a developer provides.

Affordable, workforce and attainable housing have already been under discussion in Upper Merion. The township’s Economic and Community Development Committee has included an attainable housing discussion on several recent agendas, including tonight’s meeting.

The Vandenburg proposal provided a real-world example of how that policy discussion can collide with the development process.

At 720 Vandenburg Road, Supervisor Waks again raised concerns about the lack of affordable and workforce housing.

When addressing the applicant’s attorney, Supervisor Waks said he understands that a Second Class Township is not permitted to simply draft an affordable housing code requiring developers to provide those units.

But, he said, that does not mean developers could not choose to include them on their own.

More importantly, Supervisor Waks said he believes the Board can revisit Upper Merion’s existing code and create incentives for developers that voluntarily include affordable or workforce housing.

“There are things we can do,” Supervisor Waks said, describing the possibility of providing bonuses for plans that include affordable and/or workforce housing components.

The specific form those incentives could take has not yet been established.

Supervisor Waks voted against the Vandenburg project after making those comments. The development was approved 3-2, with Supervisor Jenaway also voting no.

The significance of the exchange goes beyond one apartment proposal.

Upper Merion has already been discussing the challenge of attainable housing in the township. With the Vandenburg vote, that conversation moved from a broader policy discussion to a specific question involving an actual developer:

What can the township do when a project complies with existing requirements but does not deliver a housing outcome some township officials would like to see?

At first glance, opposition to data centers and concerns about affordability in a new apartment development may appear unrelated.

But both raise the same underlying issue:

How much control should Upper Merion have over the final form of private development?

In the case of the data centers, the question is whether the township should have greater ability to restrict or deny projects when concerns arise about issues such as traffic, infrastructure capacity and community impact.

In the case of residential development, the question is whether Upper Merion should have greater ability to encourage outcomes such as affordable or workforce housing.

The desired outcomes are different.

The underlying tension is remarkably similar.

A developer may own property and submit a proposal that complies with the rules governing that property. At the same time, township officials and residents may believe the resulting development is not necessarily what is best for Upper Merion.

That leaves local officials with two questions.

What can Upper Merion do under the laws and ordinances it has today?

And what would township officials like to be able to do that Pennsylvania law does not currently allow?

There is an important distinction between powers the township does not have and powers it may already possess but has not fully used.

Supervisor Waks’s affordable housing comments acknowledge that distinction.

He said he understands that the township cannot simply require developers to include affordable units, but he also believes Upper Merion can explore rewriting portions of its code to make affordable or workforce housing more attractive to developers through incentives.

That puts at least part of the attainable housing conversation directly in Upper Merion’s hands.

A similar question may now emerge from the data center debate.

Are changes needed in Harrisburg to give municipalities more authority?

Could Upper Merion strengthen its own ordinances to better address concerns such as traffic, infrastructure capacity, noise, utilities and other impacts before the next application is submitted?

Or is the answer some combination of both?

Those distinctions could become increasingly important if Supervisor Waks follows through on his plans to publicly discuss what he sees as the limitations facing Second Class Townships.

The data center applications may have been denied last week, but the broader development conversation is not beginning with those votes.

It is already underway.

Upper Merion has been discussing attainable housing. Tonight, the Economic and Community Development Committee is scheduled to continue that discussion.

The Vandenburg application has now provided a tangible example of how those conversations can intersect with a project already before the Board.

The data center applications have raised a parallel question from another direction: what happens when a community wants greater ability to limit a type of development?

And Supervisor Waks has now publicly raised an even broader issue by questioning whether Second Class Townships have enough authority in the first place.

The central question is therefore not simply whether Upper Merion should have “more power.”

It is more specific:

What does the township want to be able to do that it cannot legally do today — and what could it already be doing differently under the authority it has?

The answers could shape future discussions about data centers, apartment development, attainable housing, traffic, infrastructure and the continuing transformation of Upper Merion.

For residents, that discussion may ultimately be about something larger than any one development application.

It is about who gets to decide what Upper Merion becomes.

Editor’s note: Upper Merion’s Economic & Community Development Committee is scheduled to meet tonight, with “Attainable Housing Discussion” again listed on the agenda. The topic has appeared on several recent committee agendas. Residents who cannot attend in person can also join the meeting by Zoom through the link provided with the township agenda.

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Thank you for reading,

Corey