Some Stowe Township residents arrived at a commissioners meeting Tuesday prepared to raise concerns about a data center they believed could be coming to a large industrial site along the Ohio River.
Before they got the chance, officials in the municipality just west of Pittsburgh addressed the issue themselves: There is no data center planned for the site, they said, and information circulating on Facebook suggesting otherwise is wrong.
“There’s no proposal sitting in front of this board for a data center to come to the area. So I don’t know where this miscommunication started from about there being a data center or not. That’s not true,” said Stowe Township Solicitor Bradley Matta.
The exchange highlighted a confusion that has persisted in Stowe for nearly a year, fueled by news reports, social media posts and a township zoning change that opened the door for data centers in industrial areas.
The owner of the 72-acre former Pressed Steel Car Company site also says no data center has ever been planned there. But some of the two dozen residents at Tuesday’s meeting said the confusion points to a broader problem: They often rely on Facebook to learn what their local government is doing because they don’t feel they receive enough information directly from the township.
“I think that’s what leads to these kind of interactions, where they’re making mistrust or confusion,” resident Sara Eve Rivera said.
The tension in Stowe comes as municipalities across Allegheny County — many already strapped for resources — are being pulled into a national debate over the rapid growth of data centers and how local governments should regulate them.
‘They’re at the same point they were years ago’
In 2023, a limited liability company associated with SunCap Property Group, LLC — a Charlotte-based commercial real estate development firm — bought a 72-acre property in Stowe that previously housed the Pressed Steel Car Company McKees Rocks Works Plant.
Matt Virgin, SunCap’s executive vice president, said in a July 20 interview that the company is still in the process of removing existing manufacturing buildings and grading the site for new development, which could include one to three industrial facilities. But no data center has ever been planned for the site, he said.
“If we were to change directions, I wouldn’t call [Public Source], I would go straight to the township,” Virgin said. “There’s no reason for me to do that at this point.”
Commissioner Tyler Kochirka said at the Tuesday meeting that he reached out to Virgin and Brian Dunn, SunCap’s director of development.
“I asked them three times: ‘Are you sure? Nothing else?’ And he said no, they’re at the same point today as they were years ago.”
SunCap urged the commissioners last year to allow for data centers in the township’s industrial areas, Virgin said. That’s due in part to “market conditions” and the company’s progress on the site “going a little slower than we wanted it to,” he said.
In December, Stowe’s commissioners passed an ordinance, which adds data centers to the list of acceptable uses in the town’s industrial areas.
Nearly all of the town’s land that is zoned for industrial use sits between Nichol Avenue, McKees Rocks Bridge and the Ohio River.
Transparency gaps
At Tuesday’s meeting, some residents said the confusion reflected a broader lack of communication from the township.
Rivera, owner of a local tattoo shop, said she would have opposed the zoning change last year had she known about the meeting, while others asked commissioners for more direct ways to receive township updates, such as a newsletter.
Commissioner Shyanne Rippole, a teacher who joined the board in January, said she remembered only being able to access meeting minutes from 2024 when running for her position last year.
“There’s been transparency issues in this township for a long time,” she said.
The lack of print media in the area is also a huge issue, she said, because the township doesn’t have the digital infrastructure to communicate with residents online. But it’s something that commissioners are trying to change.
The township recently updated its website. There are also efforts to stream public meetings online, she said.
“I’m a teacher,” she said. “Processes and protocols are very important to me, and that’s what this current board is working on.”
Mia Hollie is the economic development and housing reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at mia@publicsource.org.
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