Starpointe data center hearings potentially nearing end
Northern Washington County residents are eager for the Hanover Township Board of Supervisors to decide whether to grant a conditional use permit for a proposed 350-megawatt data center project in Starpointe Business Park after almost a dozen hearings to review the application.
The board has scheduled two additional hearings on Nov. 10 and 11 to give residents a final opportunity to cross examine witnesses representing Dallas, Texas-based developer Prime Data Centers LLC before voting to award the permit.
It is currently unclear whether the board will schedule further hearings into December, as the sluggish pace of proceedings so far has hampered the application’s review process.
Prime submitted a conditional use permit in May to build a seven-building data center and attached 350-megawatt natural gas power plant on an approximately 120-acre site within Starpointe Business Park.
If built, this facility would become the first major data center in Washington County and among the largest in the greater Pittsburgh region, which has experienced an explosion of data center development since the pandemic.
The developer has offered over a half-dozen witnesses so far to testify regarding various aspects of the project, including acoustic, electrical and geotechnical engineers, plus company executives in charge of the project.
Prime currently operates over 20 data center facilities in the U.S. and Europe, and chose Hanover Township for its potential next expansion due to its mature labor and construction trades market; pad availability in Starpointe; and reliable access to natural gas via the adjacent Rover Pipeline, according to Prime Project Lead Kate Nolan Bryden.
Bryden has repeatedly highlighted that the project will create hundreds of jobs to build and maintain the data center campus, and emphasized that Prime will fully comply with all applicable environmental regulations and the commonwealth’s Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) standards, which were signed into law earlier this year.
Residents from Hanover Township and surrounding communities quickly organized in opposition to the project after the permit application was submitted in May, with several individuals retaining attorneys to represent their interests during the conditional use hearing process.
These attorneys were joined by legal counsel representing the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Center for Coalfield Justice, who was awarded party status to the hearing after arguing that the project represents a potential risk to the local environment.
These attorneys and several residents have repeatedly claimed that Prime has acted improperly during several stages of the permit application process, particularly on whether the board of supervisors has the legal authority to supersede the township’s planning commission to review the application itself.
Throughout the ongoing hearing process, numerous residents have interrupted the proceedings to heckle Prime representatives and loudly object to their statements.
Township Solicitor Dennis Makel awarded more than a dozen nearby residents party status to participate in the hearing, which has resulted in several hearings completely dominated by these residents cross examining Prime’s witnesses to express their frustrations with the project.
These residents expressed increased frustration after it came to light that Prime employees paid for flights and lunch for several Hanover officials to tour one of their operational data center campuses near Chicago in July.
Bryden said the purpose of this trip was “educational,” to show the supervisors what a data center looks like in a mature market.
She said the supervisors did not discuss details of the proposed Starpointe project during the trip, and that such educational visits for municipal leaders are commonplace in the broader data center industry.
The supervisors will review the conditional use permit on Nov. 10 and Nov. 11, both at 6 p.m. at the Hanover Volunteer Fire Department at 9 Starck Drive in Burgettstown.