Plymouth Township canceled a zoning hearing on a proposed data center after failing to post the meeting agenda online, as required by Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act.

The Zoning Hearing Board was scheduled to meet Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. to continue proceedings on a special exception application from 900 Conshohocken LLC for a data center at 900 Conshohocken Road. The township did not post the agenda to its website at least 24 hours before the meeting, a requirement under Act 65 of 2021, which amended the Sunshine Act.

MoreThanTheCurve.com first reported the missing agenda on Wednesday, Sept. 16. MoreThanTheCurve.com's Kevin Tierney reported that neither of the two places where Plymouth Township normally posts agendas, its online calendar and a documents folder, included one for the Sept. 17 hearing as of 7:48 p.m. that evening.

The township then announced the cancellation, calling the lapse an administrative oversight. According to MoreThanTheCurve.com's follow-up report, the township's notice said proceeding without proper notice risked invalidating the entire hearing.

MoreThanTheCurve.com reported this is the second time in two years that the site's reporting has led Plymouth Township to cancel a scheduled zoning hearing over a procedural failure. Details of the earlier incident were not available.

The Sunshine Act requires all township boards and commissions that have a website to post agendas at least 24 hours before a meeting. Board members who knowingly violate the act can face fines up to $1,000 for a first offense and $2,000 for subsequent offenses. MoreThanTheCurve.com cited a 2024 Legal Intelligencer analysis for those figures.

The township characterized the Sept. 17 lapse as an administrative oversight, not an intentional violation. Residents who believe the act was violated may file a complaint with the Court of Common Pleas within 30 days.

The data center application has been working through the Zoning Hearing Board since June 25, when the board, chaired by Brian Daly with solicitor Dave Sander, held its first hearing at Colonial Middle School in Plymouth Meeting. A July 28 procedural meeting continued the case to Aug. 6. The township had announced that the Sept. 17 hearing would move to the Karen B. Weiss Meeting Room at the Plymouth Township Municipal Building, with livestreaming and a public viewing location at the Greater Plymouth Community Center.

No new hearing date had been announced as of Sept. 17. The township said it will post a new public notice and a compliant agenda before the rescheduled session. Residents can track updates on the township's data center information webpage.