A controversial data center has won approval from an Allegheny County borough.
The Springdale borough council voted 5-2 Tuesday to grant a conditional use permit to Allegheny DC Property Company.
The company needs the permit to build a data center at the site of the former coal-fired Cheswick Generating Station. The planned 565,000-square-foot building could be about seven stories tall, including cooling equipment on the roof. It could demand as much power at one time as more than 140,000 homes.
The borough council voted after more than a dozen residents urged the council members to vote no during a public comment period at the start of Tuesday’s meeting. No one spoke in favor of the project.
Carole Brennan asked the council members why they only collected testimony from the company behind the project and did not seek out expertise that could contradict the company.
She said no one from the council bothered to show up to community-organized town halls about the data center.
“Their absence spoke loudly and their absence said, ‘We really don’t care. That’s why we’re not here,’” Brennan said.
As Springdale council prepares to vote, residents worry how data center could impact life in town
Devon McCullough, who said he has a background in computer science, said he understands the importance of data centers in the digital age. But, he said, the development around artificial intelligence and the data centers that power it reminds him of the dot-com boom and bust in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“If all of this development suddenly bottoms out, all of this money being spent, all of the lives that are going to be impacted by this data center won’t mean anything if there’s no cause for using the data center anymore,” McCullough said.
Several people also voiced concerns about the center creating health risks and unending noise, as well as doubts that promised property tax revenue would ever materialize.
Several of the council members said they were voting “yes” to avoid a lawsuit. They said if the borough denied a conditional use permit after Allegheny DC agreed to meet all the conditions specified, then the company could sue and likely win in court.
Council member Jeffrey Hartz, one of the two “no” votes, said the borough has “been threatened from the beginning” that it could get sued if the permit was not granted.
“The way I look at it is, if you have to sue a small community like ours to invade it then you should probably not come,” Hartz said.
Hartz said he’s concerned about the psychological impacts noise from the center will have, and that the effects won’t be known until the facility is running and it’s too late to stop it.
“It’s our job as elected officials up here to do what’s best for the community and the people,” Hartz said, his voice cracking with emotion. “Appears to me that we’re forgetting about the people.”
Sound modeling provided by Allegheny DC indicates noise will be below the borough’s limit of 85 decibels, even when backup generators are running. Eighty-five decibels is similar to city traffic.
Council member Jason Overly voted “yes” even though he said he does not want to see the data center come to town.
“But unfortunately…we’re gonna be sued. We can’t afford it. We can’t afford to put roads in. I’m going to vote ‘yes’ because of that,” Overly said, as people in the audience shouted for him to vote ‘no.’
Borough manager Terry Carcella said the information presented to council “clearly demonstrated” that the conditional use permit application met the standard for approval, legally.
“Pennsylvania law is clear that upon an applicant demonstrating compliance with a specific criteria expressed in the zoning ordinance, approval of the application is mandatory and not discretionary,” Carcella read from a statement that had been prepared ahead of the vote.
After the vote, Brennan, who has lived in Springdale more than 50 years, said she was not surprised by the outcome.
“At least I know that I tried,” Brennan said.
James Binnix and his fiance Kailyn Wood said they were depressed by the vote and that they’re considering leaving Springdale because of it.
“We’ll have time to gather all we need, maybe fix up our house and potentially move,” Binnix said. “And it’s really sad because we moved here and [I] was very, very looking forward to being here for more than just five years.”
