By Josh McKnight | The McKnight Team
Newtown Township supervisors say the joint data center ordinance passed in August by Newtown, Upper Makefield, and Wrightstown is only a starting point, and they intend to push for stronger restrictions. No developer has applied to build a data center in any of the three municipalities.
Newtown Township PA real estate now sits behind rules that effectively bar data centers in Newtown and Upper Makefield, while some areas of Wrightstown still permit them.
Why the Ordinance Passed Before It Was Finished
Supervisor Elen Snyder explained the sequence directly. The three townships adopted the ordinance quickly to get initial protection in place. Amending it before all three had approved the original would have restarted the jointure review and the public advertising process, which meant months of delay with no rules protecting you at all.
So they passed the version drafted largely by the Bucks County Planning Commission, and they intend to tighten it from there. Residents at the meeting argued the adopted language is too friendly to applicants.
Their list is specific. A setback larger than the current 1,000 feet. Requirements that an applicant privately supply its own electricity, water, and sewer. Updated well-water protections, since the existing language dates to 2007 and a data center can consume up to a million gallons of water per day. Rules governing round-the-clock lighting and operations. And financial protections shielding residents from costs such as higher sewer rates. Several asked the board to model the law on the stricter Pennsylvania Future version instead.
What a Setback Fight Actually Does to Newtown Township PA Real Estate
Nothing yet. That is precisely the point of doing it now.
Zoning written before an application arrives is worth more than zoning written after one. Once a developer has a filing in hand, every amendment becomes a legal fight over vested rights, and townships lose those more often than you would expect. Newtown has no applicant, which is the cheapest possible moment to be strict.
Set that against what the numbers show right now. Zillow does not publish a separate value index for Newtown, so the county figure is the honest one: the typical Bucks County home is valued at $527,322, up 3.4 percent over the past year, with homes going to pending in about eight days, per Zillow data through August 31, 2026.
Eight days, at the highest county value in the region. This is not a market that needs data center ratables.
Why the Water Number Is the One to Watch
A million gallons a day is the figure residents raised, and it deserves more attention than the setback distance.
Setbacks address noise, light, and sightlines. Those are real, and they are also local to the parcels immediately around a building. Water draw is different in kind, because a large withdrawal affects an aquifer rather than a property line. If your home sits on a private well around Newtown or Upper Makefield, you are not necessarily within 1,000 feet of anything.
The well-water language in the current ordinance was written in 2007, roughly a decade before anyone in Bucks County was thinking about hyperscale water cooling. That is not a criticism of the 2007 drafters. It is a description of how zoning ages.
Reasonable people land differently on how strict a township should be against a use nobody has proposed. One view says protective zoning written in calm conditions is exactly how good land use works. Another says restrictions this tight simply move the project to a township with less capacity to negotiate. Both things can be true, and Wrightstown, which still permits the use in some areas, is where that question gets answered first.
If you own a home on a private well anywhere in the Newtown, Upper Makefield, or Wrightstown jointure, tell your neighbors this ordinance is being reopened.
What This Means for You
If you own Newtown Township PA real estate, your practical step is attending a supervisors meeting while the amendment is still being drafted, because resident input closes once a version goes out for public advertising. If you are buying on a private well in any of the three townships, ask your inspector for a full water panel rather than the minimum, and ask the township what its well protection language actually requires.
Zoning stability is a real component of value in Bucks County, so if you are weighing this area, know which municipality you are actually buying into, since the three townships in this jointure now treat the same use three different ways. The Newtown area guide covers how those boundaries fall.
Thinking about buying or selling in Newtown Township? Let’s talk.
