Packed house
South Strabane residents air concerns about data center ordinance
After several months of work, South Strabane Township is one step closer to enacting an ordinance regulating data centers.
Residents packed the South Strabane Fire Department station on Oak Spring Road for a public hearing on the ordinance that lasted about three hours.
Township officials will continue to make adjustments based on the audience comments, and the board of supervisors will eventually vote on whether or not to approve the ordinance.
Dennis Makel, the township’s solicitor, facilitated the meeting. Though many residents would suggest throughout the meeting they would prefer that data centers be outlawed, Makel made clear at the outset that is not a realistic outcome.
“First of all, I can’t stop a data center. If I say a data center is illegal, they’re gonna say, basically, it’s exclusionary. They’re going to have that ordinance locked out. I have to tell you, that’s the law,” Makel said.
At the heart of the issue is a 1,400-acre tract of land off of Zediker Station Road owned by CNX Resources. Since the fall, real estate firm JLL has been marketing the land as suitable for a large-scale data center that would power artificial intelligence.
Data centers typically consist of a series of large warehouses that are filled with servers and other computing equipment.
CNX’s property has not been sold, and there are no current plans to build a data center in South Strabane Township.
Public comments at Tuesday’s hearing were mostly, though not exclusively, against the idea of a data center being built at the Zediker Station property. Residents remain concerned about the energy usage, noise and potential pollution from a data center.
“In college speech class, the professor said ‘do a visual to get their attention.’ So I am dressed in farm clothes so you will remember the old lady who still lives and farms the land along Zediker Station Road for 75 years, and I’m proud of that. I am rooted here,” said Janie Deemer, a South Strabane resident.
Deemer went on to discuss the passion she has for her farmland, and recalled her father telling her, “Take care of that land, because they aren’t making anymore.”
She argued that a data center on the CNX property could negatively affect the property owners in the area.
“If this data center comes to our South Strabane, our property values are going to plummet. And what are we going to be leaving the generations to come?” Deemer said.
The current ordinance that South Strabane supervisors are considering includes several restrictions, such as a 500-foot setback from the property and a 1,000-foot setback from residential property lines. Deemer suggested those setbacks do not go far enough.
“I am recommending in this ordinance to place the setbacks to 1,500 feet from protected structures, 2,500 feet from parks and schools. The same as in our South Strabane oil and gas ordinance,” Deemer said.
Tom Platt, who is the secretary/treasurer for the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council and the assistant business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 5, made the case for the economic benefits of a data center in the area.
Platt, who does not live in South Strabane but represents workers in the area, said the construction jobs would also be a boon for other local businesses.
“Along with jobs that do come into the community for building, other businesses also thrive in the area. That is restaurants, gas stations, garages, small mom and pop shops. People do spend money in the communities that they work,” Platt said.
He added that there will be jobs available when the facility is completed, as well.
“Once the data centers are completed, there are maintenance jobs that are going to be needed as well. But in addition to that, we bring the opportunity for good paying union jobs and opportunities for members of South Strabane,” Platt said.
Makel pushed back on Platt’s argument, pointing out the temporary nature of the construction jobs and suggesting the amount of jobs available afterwards would be low.
“You don’t have 50 or 100 jobs. Once that building is built, you just have about 10 jobs there. That’s what I’m reading online. You might have a lot of construction jobs. But once it’s constructed, it’s just a big Sam’s Club with shelves full of computers,” Makel said.
The current ordinance requires that a developer enter into a “community benefit agreement” that would require paying the township an unspecified amount that would be used for police, fire protection or infrastructure.
The ordinance also stipulates that local providers of electricity and water provide letters affirming they have the capacity to handle the demands of a data center, and sets limits on how much noise the facility could generate.
CNX has offered sharp criticisms of the ordinance in letters to township officials, suggesting that it is tantamount to a ban on data centers with the number restrictions it proposes.
The South Strabane Board of Supervisors will hold its next meeting at 6:30 p.m. April 28. An agenda for that meeting is not yet available. The full data center ordinance is available on South Strabane’s website.