diff --git a/src/app/BUILD.gn b/src/app/BUILD.gn
index f714560afc15cb..84dbf2587bfeed 100644
--- a/src/app/BUILD.gn
+++ b/src/app/BUILD.gn
@@ -43,6 +43,15 @@ declare_args() {
 
   enable_eventlist_attribute = false
 
+  # Allow building ota-requestor-app with a non-spec-compliant floor
+  # (i.e. smaller than 2 minutes) for action delays.
+  non_spec_compliant_ota_action_delay_floor = -1
+
+  # enable time sync client for use in `time-synchronization-server` (if linked)
+  # TODO: this should probably be migrated to be time-synchronization-server specific
+  #       if the cluster build targets are decoupled as stand-alone units.
+  time_sync_enable_tsc_feature = 1
+
   # Systems that can spare a bit of RAM for InteractionModelEngine/delegate
   # pointers should do so (allows InteractionModelEngine decoupling and less usage
   # of global pointers)
@@ -65,6 +74,8 @@ buildconfig_header("app_buildconfig") {
     "CHIP_CONFIG_ENABLE_EVENTLIST_ATTRIBUTE=${enable_eventlist_attribute}",
     "CHIP_CONFIG_ENABLE_READ_CLIENT=${chip_enable_read_client}",
     "CHIP_CONFIG_STATIC_GLOBAL_INTERACTION_MODEL_ENGINE=${chip_im_static_global_interaction_model_engine}",
+    "TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE=${time_sync_enable_tsc_feature}",
+    "NON_SPEC_COMPLIANT_OTA_ACTION_DELAY_FLOOR=${non_spec_compliant_ota_action_delay_floor}",
   ]
 
   visibility = [ ":app_config" ]
diff --git a/src/app/chip_data_model.gni b/src/app/chip_data_model.gni
index 3763243e404407..42bc2f9b74ad64 100644
--- a/src/app/chip_data_model.gni
+++ b/src/app/chip_data_model.gni
@@ -35,13 +35,6 @@ _app_root = get_path_info(".", "abspath")
 template("chip_data_model") {
   _data_model_name = target_name
 
-  declare_args() {
-    # Allow building ota-requestor-app with a non-spec-compliant floor
-    # (i.e. smaller than 2 minutes) for action delays.
-    non_spec_compliant_ota_action_delay_floor = -1
-    time_sync_enable_tsc_feature = 1
-  }
-
   if (defined(invoker.idl)) {
     _idl = invoker.idl
   } else {
@@ -244,8 +237,6 @@ template("chip_data_model") {
           "${_app_root}/clusters/${cluster}/DefaultTimeSyncDelegate.cpp",
           "${_app_root}/clusters/${cluster}/TimeSyncDataProvider.cpp",
         ]
-        defines +=
-            [ "TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE=${time_sync_enable_tsc_feature}" ]
       } else if (cluster == "scenes-server") {
         sources += [
           "${_app_root}/clusters/${cluster}/${cluster}.cpp",
@@ -359,9 +350,5 @@ template("chip_data_model") {
     }
 
     cflags += [ "-Wconversion" ]
-
-    if (non_spec_compliant_ota_action_delay_floor >= 0) {
-      cflags += [ "-DNON_SPEC_COMPLIANT_OTA_ACTION_DELAY_FLOOR=${non_spec_compliant_ota_action_delay_floor}" ]
-    }
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/app/clusters/ota-requestor/DefaultOTARequestorDriver.cpp b/src/app/clusters/ota-requestor/DefaultOTARequestorDriver.cpp
index 60cc54277c36cd..d3efeaee6fb3a9 100644
--- a/src/app/clusters/ota-requestor/DefaultOTARequestorDriver.cpp
+++ b/src/app/clusters/ota-requestor/DefaultOTARequestorDriver.cpp
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@
 #include "DefaultOTARequestorDriver.h"
 #include "OTARequestorInterface.h"
 
+#include <app/AppConfig.h>
+
 namespace chip {
 namespace DeviceLayer {
 namespace {
@@ -49,7 +51,7 @@ constexpr uint8_t kMaxInvalidSessionRetries        = 1;  // Max # of query image
 constexpr uint32_t kDelayQueryUponCommissioningSec = 30; // Delay before sending the initial image query after commissioning
 constexpr uint32_t kImmediateStartDelaySec         = 1;  // Delay before sending a query in response to UrgentUpdateAvailable
 
-#ifdef NON_SPEC_COMPLIANT_OTA_ACTION_DELAY_FLOOR
+#if NON_SPEC_COMPLIANT_OTA_ACTION_DELAY_FLOOR >= 0
 constexpr System::Clock::Seconds32 kDefaultDelayedActionTime = System::Clock::Seconds32(NON_SPEC_COMPLIANT_OTA_ACTION_DELAY_FLOOR);
 #else
 constexpr System::Clock::Seconds32 kDefaultDelayedActionTime = System::Clock::Seconds32(120);
diff --git a/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.cpp b/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.cpp
index cc6c3f509c8937..a8433397ee6751 100644
--- a/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.cpp
+++ b/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.cpp
@@ -18,11 +18,8 @@
 #include "DefaultTimeSyncDelegate.h"
 #include "time-synchronization-delegate.h"
 
-#if TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE
-#include <app/InteractionModelEngine.h>
-#endif
-
 #include <app-common/zap-generated/attributes/Accessors.h>
+#include <app-common/zap-generated/cluster-enums.h>
 #include <app-common/zap-generated/cluster-objects.h>
 #include <app-common/zap-generated/ids/Attributes.h>
 #include <app-common/zap-generated/ids/Clusters.h>
@@ -37,10 +34,12 @@
 #include <platform/CHIPDeviceLayer.h>
 #include <platform/RuntimeOptionsProvider.h>
 
-#include <app-common/zap-generated/cluster-enums.h>
-
 #include <system/SystemClock.h>
 
+#if TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE
+#include <app/InteractionModelEngine.h>
+#endif
+
 using namespace chip;
 using namespace chip::app;
 using namespace chip::DeviceLayer;
diff --git a/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.h b/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.h
index c6012b19bb0836..ef40eaacc790c4 100644
--- a/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.h
+++ b/src/app/clusters/time-synchronization-server/time-synchronization-server.h
@@ -21,16 +21,10 @@
 
 #pragma once
 
-#ifndef TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE
-#define TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE 1
-#endif
-
 #include "TimeSyncDataProvider.h"
 #include "time-synchronization-delegate.h"
 
-#if TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE
-#include <app/ReadClient.h>
-#endif
+#include <app/AppConfig.h>
 #include <app/server/Server.h>
 #include <app/util/af-types.h>
 #include <app/util/config.h>
@@ -40,6 +34,12 @@
 #include <app-common/zap-generated/cluster-objects.h>
 #include <lib/support/Span.h>
 
+// NOTE: this is part of AppConfig, so this has to be checked for AFTER the inclusion
+//       of that header
+#if TIME_SYNC_ENABLE_TSC_FEATURE
+#include <app/ReadClient.h>
+#endif
+
 namespace chip {
 namespace app {
 namespace Clusters {