Springdale/Dynamo Data Center, Springdale, Pennsylvania

On December 16, 2025 Springdale borough council, in Allegheny County, voted 5 to 2 to grant Allegheny DC Property Company a conditional use permit for a hyperscale data center on the site of the former Cheswick Generating Station, a coal plant. Jeffrey Hartz, one of the two who voted against it, said: "The way I look at it is, if you have to sue a small community like ours to invade it then you should probably not come." Jason Overly voted yes and gave the other half of the argument: "We're gonna be sued. We can't afford it. We can't afford to put roads in. I'm going to vote 'yes' because of that."

The borough manager Terry Carcella put the council's position in law: "Pennsylvania law is clear that upon an applicant demonstrating compliance with a specific criteria expressed in the zoning ordinance, approval of the application is mandatory and not discretionary." The building is 565,000 square feet and about seven stories tall including the rooftop cooling equipment, with a power demand the reporting put at the equivalent of more than 140,000 homes at once.

Carole Brennan, who has lived there more than 50 years, was talking about the council members who had not come to the community's town halls: "Their absence spoke loudly and their absence said, 'We really don't care. That's why we're not here.'" Devon McCullough, who works in computer science, asked what happens if the demand is not there: "If all of this development suddenly bottoms out, all of this money being spent, all of the lives that are going to be impacted by this data center won't mean anything if there's no cause for using the data center anymore." James Binnix and Kailyn Wood said they were considering moving away. The concerns raised were health, noise, the promised property tax revenue that nobody could yet count on, and the effect on daily life.

The plans have grown since the vote. By August 2026 the Springdale data center, now developed by Dynamo DC, formerly Allegheny DC Property Co., called for a 652,000 square foot building 75 feet tall, with 124 generators and the potential to draw 330 megawatts, the Mon Valley Independent reported. The developer says it has changed the design to reduce noise and improve the site's look with landscaping and steel construction meant to reflect the region's heritage, and it held a public open house in Springdale in June 2026. Opponents have turned to Allegheny County, but its sustainability director, Brittany Prischak, said a county model ordinance would not be legally enforceable and that most of the issues residents raise are handled at the federal, state or municipal level.

The borough's permit stands; the project still needs further approvals, and the county says a team is assigned to hold data center developers to their promises.