Controversial data center in rural Washington County community at center of public hearing

A proposed data center at the back of an industrial park in Hanover Township, Washington County, is at the center of a public hearing on Wednesday night. 

The hearing, which started at 6 p.m., is over the conditional use permit for a data center project at Starpointe Business Park. The industrial park is home to 126 acres of a former strip mine, but developers have plans for a massive data center campus. If approved, it would be among the largest in the state. 

Alex Paris, who owns the site, has a sales agreement with the Texas hyper-scaler Prime Data Centers to build and operate the eight-building data center campus.   

The campus meets the zoning requirements and complies with a recently passed data center ordinance. It just needs final approval of the council.   

Paris told KDKA-TV last month that the project will create thousands of construction jobs, plus hundreds of permanent jobs. He added that it will generate between $10 million and $15 million in yearly local tax revenue. 

But there has been pushback from residents, citing noise, pollution and other quality of life issues. They have also claimed that the project has moved forward mostly behind closed doors. 

The solicitor said no decision is expected on Wednesday night.