Rex Cramer has lived on Porter Street in Springdale for more than 30 years.
When he arrived in the borough, he moved in directly across the street from a towering coal-fired power plant — the former Cheswick Generating Station.
The plant’s frequently fraught demolition concluded earlier this year.
But on Tuesday, Springdale Council voted 5-2 to approve a conditional-use application from developer Allegheny DC Property Co. seeking to build a massive AI data center at the site of the former plant.
Many council members said their hands were tied because developers had met the borough’s legal requirements, leaving a rejection vulnerable to a doomed legal battle.
“It’s going to be a nightmare,” said Cramer, a veteran of the First Gulf War.
More than anything, he’s concerned about the constant noise that would be generated by the center.
At night the power plant was relatively quiet, but Cramer worries the same won’t be the case with his new prospective neighbor.
Cramer is worried about falling property values. Now, he said, he’s looking into relocating.
“This started off as a great community, and it’s going downhill,” Cramer said. “And this is the nail in the coffin.”
Julia Sheffo, who lives on Lincoln Avenue near the site, was already looking to move. But the idea of a massive data center nearby is offering her even more incentive to eye the housing market.
She has lived on Lincoln for about 20 years and doesn’t remember the power plant as such a bad neighbor. But she opposes the center, saying it won’t benefit the borough.
“I don’t see the point,” Sheffo said. “It’s useless. It doesn’t do anything for the community.”
On nearby Grant Street, Bob Gaydos said he wasn’t surprised by the vote. He, too, has considered moving from the place he has lived for more than a decade.
“I’ll just have to wait and see,” Gaydos said.
Like Cramer, he said his main concern was the noise that will be emitted from the complex.
Colt Mack used to live in Springdale but now rents in neighboring Cheswick. He spoke to TribLive as he jogged through Rachel Carson Park near the site of the proposed center.
He said he’s uneasy about noise and water usage at the site.
Information on data centers in Northern Virginia, often described as America’s “data center alley,” has left him worried about the effects the proposal in Springdale could have.
“It looks like an overwhelmingly bad thing,” Mack said.
It’s ironic that a site that once generated large amounts of electricity could now host a center that demands so much from the grid, he said.
Though the site of the data center directly borders Cheswick, the borough doesn’t have any legal jurisdiction over the site or its development.
It also means Cheswick residents can’t speak during meetings in Springdale, which only opens its public comment periods to its taxpayers.
Now that developers have cleared the conditional-use hurdle, the project will enter its land development phase, which includes further approval from Allegheny County.
Brian Regli, a consultant for Allegheny DC who has served as the main spokesman for the project, said he hopes to be back in Springdale in early spring with a more detailed design.