Mar 17, 2026 By Jon Andreassi 3 min read

Following months of public discussion, the South Strabane Township Board of Supervisors will soon be holding a public hearing on an ordinance regulating data centers.

The hearing will take place at 6:30 p.m. March 31 at the South Strabane Township Fire Department building at 172 Oak Spring Road.

Township officials have been working on drafting the ordinance since last fall, when real estate firm JLL began marketing a CNX Resources-owned, 1,400-acre tract of land off of Zediker Station Road as an ideal site for a data center. The land has still not been sold, and there are no current plans for a data center at the property.

Large crowds have turned out to public meetings in South Strabane to voice concerns about such a development, which would likely consist of dozens of large warehouse-type buildings that contain servers and other computing equipment for powering artificial intelligence.

“I’ve been telling everybody to hold off until the public hearing, and I think that everybody needs to come and speak their peace,” said Supervisor Jeff Bull.

The ordinance in its current form is available for viewing on South Strabane’s website. If approved by the supervisors, it would impose several regulations on the development of a data center in the township. Those include a setback from residential homes of 1,000 feet, limits on noise, and guarantees from electric and water providers that they have the capacity to support the development.

Public hearings include a stenographer who creates a transcript of the meeting. This is part of why Bull says it is the most important venue for residents to come speak on the matter.

“The community needs to come and place their concerns on the permanent record,” Bull said. “Someday if somebody would question something, perhaps the residents’ input will be considered, and we need to have it on the record what the residents’ concerns are.”

Prior to the public hearing at the end of the month, the South Strabane Township Planning Commission will be holding a special meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday where members will vote on whether or not to recommend the supervisors adopt the ordinance.

The next step after the public hearing will be for supervisors to vote on adopting the ordinance. It is not currently clear when that vote will take place.

“That remains to be seen. Will we finish the hearing that night? Will we have a special meeting? That will be up to (board of supervisors Chairman George Rowand) to decide,” Bull said.