When Springdale council approved plans for a noise-making, energy-sucking data center in their square-mile borough, they framed it as a David and Goliath matchup. Except, in this case, David put down his sling and submitted to his towering adversary.
All but two of the seven councilors voted in favor of the development, though not one said they wanted it.
“I love this town,” said Councilor Jason Overly before casting his vote Dec. 16. “Do I want to see this data center come in? No I don’t. … But unfortunately … we’re going to be sued.”
The proposal calls for a 565,000-square-foot building and a 200,000-square-foot utility structure on the site of the former Cheswick Generating Station, which abuts neighborhoods on three sides. New York-based developer Allegheny DC bought the 50-acre site on Nov. 19 for $14.3 million, according to county records. The company says it will create local jobs and a tax injection, while “positioning Springdale for long-term success in a changing economy.”
Residents who packed the auditorium during the December meeting are not convinced. More than a dozen speakers laid out concerns with the 180-gigawatt facility that would need as much power as 150,000 homes. The noise, the sight, the pollution were high among them — but so was the question of who calls the shots in their town.
“So much is at risk here, said resident Margaret Fortuna. “Springdale has everything to lose, and all the people have everything to lose, and the data center has everything to win.”
After the vote passed 5-2, Springdale Manager Terry Carcella read a statement underlining council’s position on the legal threat.
“Pennsylvania law is clear that upon an applicant demonstrating compliance with … the zoning ordinance, approval of the application is mandatory and not discretionary,” Carcella said.
The approval stipulated 19 conditions, including noise controls and landscaping and screening provisions, which Carcella said could have been lost if council rejected the proposal because, on appeal, a court could rule in Allegheny DC’s favor with no conditions.
The Springdale data center is among some dozen regional AI-related projects planned or underway, including in Homer City, Upper Burrell and Stowe.
Most of Allegheny County’s 130 townships, boroughs and cities — including Springdale — have limited ability to determine where data centers are built and how they will operate because they have not updated their zoning policies to prepare for this influx.
“So many municipalities are facing this right now because virtually nobody’s ordinance explicitly provides for data centers,” said Brigitte Meyer, staff attorney at PennFuture. “Up until six months to a year ago, nobody even knew about this.”
Big opportunity, ‘real gap’
Regional stakeholders are largely bullish about the role AI and related industries could play in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
When leaders, including Gov. Josh Shapiro and President Donald Trump, converged in Pittsburgh for the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit last summer, they touted $92 billion in investments statewide as they urged the region to embrace the AI boom.
Shapiro even invoked the legacy of “the workers that forged the steel and went down in the coal mines” as he envisioned a new regional labor force staffing data centers and the power stations they depend on.
Allegheny DC projects the center will create 500 to 1,000 construction jobs and 80 to 100 permanent jobs once it comes online. “These are quality jobs for skilled workers, including electricians, HVAC technicians, and mechanical specialists,” according to its website. A lawyer representing Allegheny DC did not return a request for comment. Nor did the company’s public-facing consultant, Brian Regli.
Stefani Pashman, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Development, said Southwestern Pennsylvania’s energy resources and industrial infrastructure uniquely position it to leverage investments. She said the AI and energy boom could finally overturn decades of “anemic” growth by injecting capital and creating tens of thousands of jobs.
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“I’ve seen the data and each data center has direct construction jobs that are more temporary, but there’s long-term direct jobs,” she said. “And I would say that there’s kind of a multiplier effect” in indirect benefits from job creation.
Still, she acknowledged the pace of the industry has left many local leaders playing catch-up.
“There is a real need and a real gap and our policy frameworks are not there,” Pashman said. “You’re balancing that against a company that wants to come to the market very quickly.”
Getting in the right zone
Local governments like Springdale may be unprepared to protect their interests while embracing AI investments.
That’s in part because Pennsylvania case law places unique burdens on municipalities, Meyer said. Regardless of size, needs and attributes, every municipality is required to allow every form of legal business to operate somewhere within its bounds. And if a developer can convince a court they designed a code to deliberately exclude a particular use such as data centers, that petitioner can essentially build without restrictions.
“It’s a pretty dramatic loss of control,” Meyer said.
To help municipalities catch up with the data center influx, Meyer has developed a template ordinance that is free to adopt or adapt.
She said the top three concerns are: energy use, water use and noise.
There are limits to what boroughs, townships and cities can do to regulate these. Grid-supplied power, for instance, falls almost entirely under utilities and state regulators, Meyer said. In the case of on-site generators, Meyer’s model recommends treating them as a separate use so towns can regulate them independently.
Similarly, if developers plan to draw from the public water supply, regulation falls to the utility company. Though in rural areas, where well water might be tapped, municipalities can demand studies to show other well users won’t be harmed, Meyer said.
Noise is easier to regulate, Meyer said, pointing out that most municipalities already have provisions in place to rein in audible nuisance. With data centers, though, she said the characteristic low-frequency hum might escape conventional decibel-based noise caps.
“You could have a facility meeting the requirements, and it would still be creating a disruptive amount of noise,” she said. The model code calls for data center developers to enclose or screen off noisy mechanical equipment, conduct sound studies before and after construction, and to demonstrate that vibrations won’t be perceptible outside of the property boundary.
Jim Cirilano, an attorney and community advocate at Protect PT, said a similar dynamic has played out with novel fracking technologies — like injection wells — that local governments were unprepared to regulate.
When, for instance, Plum council tried to restrict injection wells through zoning revisions, drilling company Penneco sued and won, because it had filed development applications before the borough took steps to regulate.
“They were caught flat-footed,” Cirilano said.
Cirilano said the case demonstrates the need for municipalities to regulate data centers before industry arrives.
“Springdale Borough, like Plum Borough, did not have an ordinance in place for data centers before the application was filed,” he said.
Protect PT has worked with municipalities to develop protective ordinances to regulate injection wells and nonconventional gas wells, Cirilano said, and the advocacy group is looking to do the same with data centers. He said templates are a good starting point but each community should look to build an ordinance based on its unique needs. “You can’t cut and paste it.”
Meyer stressed the power imbalance at play for small municipalities up against well-resourced developers.
“Unfortunately, municipal officials are mostly part-time volunteers. It tends to be the things that get dealt with are the things that are immediately in front of them. They often do not have time to do a lot of preemptive actions.”
She urges them not to “wait until there’s a data center developer showing up in your office with plans, because at that point it’s too late.”
Driving the AI revolution or driving up prices?
While powering data centers is part of Shapiro’s pitch for jobs, questions remain about how to plug that gap quickly without a massive uptick in fossil fuel consumption and spiking bills.
Duquesne Light’s entire service to 600,000 households, businesses and industrial users peaks at around 2.4 gigawatts, according to VP for Energy Policy David Fisfis. That’s during the height of summer when air conditioning use surges. The Springdale data center alone would require more than 13% of that peak energy load — and it would run continuously.
“There’s clearly not enough generation to support all these data centers,” said Fisfis. It will require massive amounts of new generation, he said, as well as upgrades to utility company transmission and distribution infrastructure.
Duquesne Light requires developers to foot the costs of transmission infrastructure upgrades so it doesn’t fall on ordinary customers, Fisfis said. But they have no sway over generation costs as data centers drive up demand.
In Pennsylvania, electricity generators sell power allocations to utilities such as Duquesne Light at annual auctions, running from May to the following June. Surging demand, fueled in part by data centers, has led to spiraling costs in recent years, while political divisions over renewable and fossil power sources slow the increase in supply.
Looking ahead to this summer’s auctions, Fisfis said he expects Duquesne Light customers to pay an additional $212 million.
State officials, including Public Utilities Commission Chair Stephen DeFrank, recently testified to lawmakers about the need to tax data centers to offset consumer costs.
Fisfis said the utility encourages new data centers to develop their own power generation, though that isn’t required.
Homer City Redevelopment and Kiewit Power Constructors Co. are building a natural gas-fired power plant alongside a data center in Indiana County.
In Springdale, Allegheny DC acknowledges it hasn’t yet settled on a source, noting “Western Pennsylvania offers a variety of energy options including natural gas, nuclear and renewable sources. The region’s diverse energy infrastructure is one of the reasons this location is attractive for data center development.”
Where coal and Carson intersect
Industry is nothing new to Springdale. The detonated power station on which the center will be constructed spewed out more 600,000 tons of carbon emissions annually before it closed in 2022.
The area’s legacy, though, also includes perhaps America’s most famous conservationist.
Less than a mile from the site of the coming data center, Rachel Carson cultivated her appreciation for the natural world in the fields and woods surrounding the white timber homestead in which she spent her childhood.
The protected property preserves the legacy of the environmental icon who shifted the national conversation and whose work helped spur the formation of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency.
Carole Brennan, a Springdale resident of 51 years, hoped to channel that legacy during a protest outside the borough building Dec. 16.
“Our entire country has the Clean Air Act, due mostly to Rachel Carson,” Brennan said. “If this data center is approved, it would be a slap in the face to Rachel Carson. It would be a shame.”
The weight of those conflicting legacies and constituent voices left members of the defanged council feeling torn, as was Councilor Jeffrey Hartz when tearfully casting his no vote.
“Our job is to do what’s best for the community and people,” Hartz said. “It feels like we’re forgetting about the people.”
Jamie Wiggan is the deputy editor at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
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