The Eastern Schuylkill Regional Planning Commission began preparing amendments to a zoning ordinance that would regulate data centers, warehouses, vacation rentals and other uses.

The commission handles zoning for the borough of Tamaqua and the townships of Rush, Schuylkill and Walker, and is comprised of representatives from each municipality.

Before the start of its Tuesday meeting, commission Chairman Gary Feathers, representing Schuylkill Township, turned the floor over to solicitor Tony Odorizzi.

“He’ll say a few words on where we are at here,” Feathers explained to the handful of attendees.

Odorizzi noted that it was essentially the first meeting that the commission was holding on the ordinance revisions.

“Last month, we talked about what we were going to do and now we are starting to do that,” Odorizzi said.

He expected that residents were likely concerned when they saw “data centers” and “warehouses” on the agenda.

“You can sit back a little on your chair. There will be no action tonight. Nobody is voting tonight to bring these in,” he said. “We have to figure out if we have to bring them in — and we do — and if we have to bring them in, (we need to establish) what are the rules going to be.”

Odorizzi said the commission will develop an ordinance that seeks to maintain the quality of life in the area while allowing for the new uses.

He noted that by law, the zoning must be revised because it currently doesn’t provide for data centers or warehouses.

“You have to provide somewhere in your zoning district for those uses,” Odorizzi said.

No revisions, he said, would be considered “exclusionary zoning,” meaning that the uses could be permitted anywhere in the entire district. But a revised ordinance would restrict where data centers and warehouses could be located.

Odorizzi said that the commission will work on revisions, which have to be approved by each of the municipalities.

“It will come back and get tweaked again. It will go back and forth,” he said of the proposed changes.

He noted that the ordinance must be in place by Oct. 11. The date reflects an 180-day time frame to update the current ordinance because of the “deficiency” — or failure to include the new uses — acknowledged by the four municipalities voting bodies.

“During those six months, nobody can go ahead and file for one of those uses,” Odorizzi said.

He noted that the process of preparing amendments to the ordinance is an involved process.

“There is a lot of work involved,” Feathers agreed.

The commission, along with engineer Bill McMullen of Arro Consulting, combed through sections of the current ordinance, and offered suggestions on changes and revisions.

At some points, commission members said that more research is needed.

The commission meetings are open to public and held at 6:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at Tamaqua Borough Hall.