Springdale Borough council has approved plans for a high-tech artificial data center after months of debate and public pushback. 

The borough's council voted 5-2 on Tuesday night to approve the proposed AI data center at the former site of the Cheswick Generating Station, according to KDKA's news partners at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A dozen people who live in the area spoke before the meeting and were each given three minutes to speak. 

"This is not something we want in our neighborhood," Patrick Zollner said. "Once that thing goes in, we're done. We will not have peace."

The Post-Gazette reports that all of the people who spoke were in opposition and complained about potential noise problems, pollution, and the aesthetic of the proposed data center coming to the community. 

"They said they're going to only start [the generators] between eight in the morning and six in the evening, but that's still going to be noise," resident Eric Rogerson said.  

A few borough council members expressed concern about the borough potentially being sued if the proposal didn't go through.

"The community would not survive us being sued," said councilwoman Dolly Stephens. "My family was born and raised in this town. My family has been part of this town all of our lives. No one loves Springdale more than me. I am voting yes to save the community."

Community opinion still mixed

There has been a lot of opposition to this data center in recent months, but one resident who spoke with KDKA-TV said he is for the data center.

"I think it's a great thing for our area," Carys Cloudwalker said. "It's one of those things that, again, the community can in fact, bring others and individual families together."

Rogerson hoped the space would be used for something else.

"Green spaces or something. I mean, something like that might be nice," he said.

Last week, the developer of the proposed center requested six variances to the zoning code to build outside of the dimensions that are currently regulated. Those requests were approved.

Data centers are not specifically accounted for or permitted in Springdale's zoning laws, so what council voted on was a conditional use permit that allows the site of that former power plant to become a data center.