Springdale council to hear more testimony about data center

More expert testimony is expected tonight as Springdale council decides the fate of a proposed data center in the borough.

Springdale’s three-person planning commission unanimously offered a recommendation for borough council to approve the project at it Nov. 17 meeting. Council will consider the proposal at its 5:30 p.m. hearing tonight.

Expert testimony before council began in October and will continue tonight. Developers already presented two witnesses at the first hearing last month, but they’re set to offer six more.

Developers from Allegheny DC Property Co. agreed to the commission’s 18 conditions for their proposal. Many govern things like noise, light and security at the site.

The planning commission recommended modifying one condition to allow developers to test backup generators only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. Another suggested modification is that developers perform frequency modeling in addition to noise modeling.

The body also recommended council continue to look at moving site access away from Duquesne Avenue and having developers perform ambient noise studies at the height where equipment would actually be located, rather than ground-level testing.

The site, which measures about 47 acres, would house a 565,000-square-foot hyper­scale data center and a 200,000-­square-foot mechanical cooling plant.

Taken together, the two structures would have a total area around the size of PPG Paints Arena.

A zoning request to the borough asks it to adjust its maximum height restrictions to allow the building to stand 60 feet tall, or 75 feet with rooftop equipment.

Brian Regli, consultant for land developer Allegheny DC Property Co., estimated the buildings would have a lifespan of 40 to 50 years.

Council members will have final say on whether to approve the project.