Feb 7, 2026 By Mike Jones 5 min read

Data centers are coming whether people want them here or not, so it’ll be incumbent upon local municipalities to set aside certain areas where they can be built and legislate parameters for them to operate.

That was the main message of a town hall meeting held Saturday afternoon at Citizens Library in Washington in which the panel discussed how communities can protect themselves and their residents from the onslaught of the high-tech computing centers built in sprawling warehouses.

“It takes a while for communities to get their act together to (pass) ordinances,” said Kenneth Hillman, who is chairman of the Carroll Township Board of Supervisors and a member of the Washington County Association of Township Officials. “This is something that is coming. We have to regulate it.”

There are already about a hundred data centers operating in Pennsylvania, Hillman said, but that pales in comparison to the more than 700 that have been built thus far in Virginia, where tech companies have already mobilized. That means municipalities must act now to write and pass ordinances making it clear where data centers can be built and what guidelines they must operate under.

He pointed to Springdale in Allegheny County that was caught flat-footed last year when a data center was proposed in that borough, but its council had no choice but to approve it despite backlash from its residents. Hillman said municipalities must “thread the needle” between permitting data centers to operate while also setting restrictions to protect their communities.

“Once they come in, if you don’t have any rules, you can’t pass it afterwards,” Hillman said.

Attorney Dennis Makel has seen that first hand in his duties as solicitor for both Union and South Strabane townships. He said Union Township passed an ordinance last year regulating data centers that may already need to be rewritten due to the constant evolution of technology that seems to be moving at break-neck speed.

“It’s a fluid situation. We’re probably going to have to redo it,” Makel said. “You cannot stop them from coming.”

He said the ordinances cannot be “exclusionary” or they would likely be struck down by the courts in a lawsuit. But they can be written in a way to only allow them in certain areas and regulate the size of buildings, the noise they generate and other factors.

Rumors of a proposed data center coming to a 1,500-acre property near Zediker Station Road in South Strabane have not yet come to fruition since no formal application to build has been submitted to the township. But that hasn’t stopped township supervisors there from working on an ordinance to set restrictions just in case it does, although the process has stalled as it’s been tabled multiple times while officials continue to tweak it.

“Whatever we do in the township has to be from a commonsense perspective,” Makel said. “There are certain things we can do to minimize the impact.”

Of course, that means nothing if a municipality does not have zoning at all, such as the case in Monongahela Township in Greene County, where a data center and self-sustaining power plant are currently proposed to be built at the former Robena Mine site. The municipality and by extension Greene County’s planning commission have few options to limit development without a zoning map in place in the township.

“You don’t have anything you can do if you don’t have zoning,” Makel said.

Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi said companies are actively searching for places that have no zoning to give them an easier process to build data centers.

“They’re out there probing. They’re looking for no-zoning places,” Maggi said. “It starts with the local governments and ordinances. I’m not passing the buck down to the local governments, but they’ve got to have the zoning.”

WJPA Radio reporter Joe Jasek, who moderated the discussion that was organized by the League of Women Voters of Washington County, asked if there are “stop-gap” measures communities can put through now with permanent solutions later. Hillman said it was important to “get something in place” to regulate data centers before it’s too late, with the option of tweaking it later.

“From our perspective, we’re trying to get out ahead of it … because we believe we do have old sites that would be advantageous for data centers,” Hillman said of Carroll Township. “If you want to build a data center, fine. But here are the rules and regulations you have to follow.”

Ordinances must go through multiple readings and hearings to allow the public to have input on what sort of restrictions are put in place. Jodi Borello, who is a community organizer for the Center for Coalfield Justice, said they are looking for commonsense measures and transparency from local officials on what is included in ordinances.

“We want to make sure (the public’s) concerns are heard and their concerns are addressed,” Borello said.

That could be impacted by two bills being considered in the state Senate that would restrict what communities can put in their data center ordinances or even transfer oversight of the process to the state. Senate Bill 939, which would institute parameters for ordinances overseeing data centers to help with “fast track” approval, and Senate Bill 991, which is sponsored by state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, and would streamline the environmental permitting process under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Protection, are currently under consideration.

That’s why Maggi told the roughly 60 people attending Saturday’s panel discussion that it was important for them to make their voices heard to their elected leaders at the local, state and federal levels.

“Nothing gets a politician’s attention faster than a room full of people advocating for a position,” Maggi said. “If you show up and get our attention, you’ll get results. Don’t ever think your voice isn’t heard.”