Springdale Borough, Allegheny County
Dynamo DC, legally Allegheny DC Property Co. LLC, wants to turn 47 acres of the former Cheswick coal plant site in Springdale Borough into a data center campus with up to 180 megawatts of computing load, a data hall of about 565,000 square feet and a 200,000 square foot cooling and utility building.
The 565 megawatt Cheswick Generating Station retired in 2022, the same year Charah Environmental's redevelopment arm bought the site. Allegheny DC Property Co. submitted its conditional use plans in August 2025. The borough planning commission put off its recommendation three times that fall while the borough hired Thornton Acoustics and Vibrations for an independent noise study, and the Zoning Hearing Board heard the developer's variance requests on Oct. 22, 2025, including a request to raise the height limit to 75 feet. The planning commission recommended approval with conditions on Nov. 17, 2025, and the land sale closed for $14.3 million on Nov. 19. On Nov. 24, council heard about five hours of developer testimony after the only formal objector withdrew, and a real estate appraiser testifying at the hearing estimated roughly $2.55 million a year in property taxes for the borough, school district and county combined. Council approved the conditional use 5 to 2 on Dec. 16, 2025. Borough manager Terry Carcella was hired as Ebensburg's borough manager in March 2026, and Patrick Bono now manages Springdale. Residents planned a protest for May 30, 2026, and on June 10 the developer held an open house showing generators moved from the roof to ground level inside double enclosures, a smaller building, solar panels in the parking lot and closed-loop cooling, while advocates delivered a sign-on letter asking the county to require an air permit first. Allegheny County's virtual public meeting on the preliminary land development plan drew about 80 people on Oct. 14, 2026.
A developer acoustical engineer estimated the backup generators would be perceived at about 75 decibels at 23 feet, and Councilman Joe Kern asked whether all of the more than 100 diesel backup generators would run during an outage; the project architect said they usually would.
TribLive (Valley News Dispatch)The developer's plan shows parts of the site are contaminated with methylnaphthalene and arsenic, and the county's review said the application didn't indicate any completed remediation. The developer's engineers say an Act 2 cleanup is underway.
Pittsburgh's Public SourceThe June 2026 redesign moved the diesel generators from the roof to ground level along the sides of the building, where the developer's consultant says they will be doubly enclosed within walls to cut sound.
90.5 WESAThe developer's consultant confirmed the campus will run on grid power with diesel generators as backup. Its environmental consultant says those generators are the only on-site source of air pollution and that the company must show through modeling that it won't exceed EPA one-hour, 24-hour and annual limits before the Allegheny County Health Department will issue the permit it needs to build.
Pittsburgh's Public SourceThe company says it will use a closed cooling system with air-cooled chillers that run mainly on electricity. Neighbors who rely on well water worry about heavy metals reaching groundwater.
WPXI-TVBefore the county's October 2026 meeting the company said the site would be capped and an environmental covenant would restrict groundwater use, while county consultants asked where contaminated soil will go once it's removed.
90.5 WESAAdvocates say Springdale, Cheswick and Harmar are environmental justice communities long burdened by pollution from the coal plant, and they asked the county Health Department, county Economic Development and DEP to provide the added public process those areas get for air permits.
Breathe Project (press release)The Allegheny Front reported the project's 180 megawatts equals the demand of more than 150,000 homes, and residents raised concerns about strain on the electric system and recent power outages.
90.5 WESA / The Allegheny FrontThe developer promises up to 1,000 temporary construction jobs and up to 100 permanent positions.
Axios PittsburghSpeakers at the county's Oct. 14, 2026 meeting cited falling property values, and one longtime resident said she couldn't get even a low offer after listing her home.
90.5 WESAThe developer asked to raise the height limit to 75 feet, where borough rules allow 45 feet or 60 feet with roof equipment, and to build an 8-foot perimeter fence where the limit is 7 feet.
TribLive (Valley News Dispatch)The planning commission recommended moving site access away from a residential section of Duquesne Avenue.
Axios PittsburghLeaders: Marty Garrigan (treasurer)
Tactics: Educating residents on the county's land development process, protests, and pushing for the county to deny the plan
Public Source (Aug. 4, 2026) describes SAVE and Indivisible Allegheny Valley as the primary engines of opposition. Protect PT's Springdale page lists SAVE meetings on Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at From Italy Pizza, 1115 Lincoln Ave., Springdale.
Tactics: Organizing residents on the data center and other local issues
Named by Public Source as one of two primary opposition groups.
Leaders: Lauren Posey (environmental policy advocate)
Tactics: Community meetings, project updates, an air pollution dispersion map and email alerts
Axios reported Protect PT held a community meeting a week before the planning commission vote in 2025 and warned the borough's ordinances had no data center provisions.
Leaders: Debra Smit (press contact)
Tactics: Press conference and protest before the June 10, 2026 open house, and a sign-on letter asking the county to require an air permit before land development review
Organized the June 10, 2026 rally outside the borough building, according to Public Source.
Leaders: Talor Musil (field manager)
Tactics: Pushing for an investigation of local and regional health impacts, including generator emissions
Leaders: Phoebe Reese (co-chair)
Tactics: Calling for a plan without diesel generators and for towns to pass data center ordinances early
In Pennsylvania, the local zoning ordinance sets the route. A conditional use is decided by the elected governing body (supervisors, commissioners or council). A special exception or variance, and an appeal of a zoning officer’s decision, go to the Zoning Hearing Board. Each is a public hearing on a record: affected neighbors can ask for party status, cross-examine witnesses, and appeal. Municipalities can also adopt data center ordinances with enforceable standards.
Know your rights →Organized community opposition is the single most effective check on these projects in Pennsylvania. Show up to hearings, submit comment when it is taken, support legal and expert-witness costs, and press your municipality for a real ordinance. Pennsylvania municipalities cannot simply freeze applications, but a curative amendment under the Planning Code gives them a defined window to fix a defective ordinance.
How communities push back →