A message from Your Neighbors in Stowe, Mckees Rocks and the surrounding affected regions. 

Recently, ordinances were changed to allow for data centers to build within our communities. Since many of us didn’t have the opportunity to voice our concerns to this recent change prior to the fact, we wanted to voice that opposition to the ordinance change here. We are seeking to work alongside our neighbors on our council to address our concerns about the recent ordinance change. 

It is of the utmost importance that we as constituents be able to discuss, process and jointly decide such impactful changes to our community. In order for this to happen people need to be clearly notified where the community typically shares information. It is of the utmost importance that community members be given ample notice since most members of our neighborhoods, like ourselves, hold down multiple jobs, run businesses, raise their families, etc. We all have limited time to seek out information about our community. We expect this information to be shared in typical channels such as facebook neighborhood groups, Gazette 2.0, etc. We acknowledge that it is legally required to be announced in print media, however, that does not limit or prevent the ability to share it on more local and relevant channels. It was shared in a print newspaper based in Beaver Falls, which is 25 miles away from Stowe Township. edit I was just sent info that this was announced in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, there are still concerns with how to get the word to neighbors more directly. 

On August 11th 2026 (as well as in various voicemails left prior to that date), we had inquired about when and where this discussion would be taking place. We want to know why we were not notified after having spoken in community meetings prior to our concerns with this topic. Many of us had shown up and spoken at other council meetings voicing our concern prior to the ordinance change. We were told that the ordinance change was not up for discussion that day, but were not given a date at the time when it would be (just to hear the ordinance changed later). To this day, we cannot find when, and without proper notice, changes were passed without the community's knowledge or approval. This has led to distrust and rumors within our community. If this meeting was properly announced, then the fact that we still cannot find its announcement, speaks to the difficulty in which your constituents have in sourcing information about the changes happening here. This speaks to the fact that your constituents didn’t have a chance to learn and discuss prior to that change being made. 

We are still requesting information on when and where these meetings were announced to our community. Going into the future, we want to address how this information is made available to the public. It should be consistently announced in public spaces where people from our area typically go to get information about our region. These important meetings directly affect our community, not the community an hour away where it was announced. It is important that decisions being made in our community are favoring members of that community, and not those who stand to benefit from the building of these data centers far from their own homes. In the future, we wish our council to commit to announcing important conversations far ahead of the meeting date in spaces that are commonly seen and accessible to the constituents of this community that are affected by these major changes.

As to our reasons for opposing this change; they are varied and numerous but backed up by prior research. Data centers are resource heavy and extractive towards the communities they operate in, and in exchange, do not create many jobs or increase neighborhood foot traffic. Whose resources will be used to regulate these data centers, or to enforce self-regulation? It has also been shown to; increase temperatures in air and water (adversely affecting local wildlife), create noise pollution, immense pressure on local utility infrastructure, increase families utility bills, and much more. Once again to do this responsibly, would require more resources to dedicate to the monitoring and regulating of their effects on the community.

Many of us feel our neighborhood does not have the proper resources to hold such large companies accountable for their effects on our community. To our knowledge currently, the change to ordinance was made without first establishing the environmental, utility, health and safety guidelines needed to define what it is that we are allowing into our backyard. If we struggle to define this, we should ask ourselves how we can negotiate well with long term community interests in mind. Changing the ordinance without any guidelines or regulations in mind doesn’t advocate or protect our community from the known adverse effects that data centers have within miles of their operation. To negotiate this with a company with far more resources than our own, but without our long term health in mind is dangerous. We do not have the bargaining power to properly advocate for ourselves or the resources to independently monitor and sanction these large companies. We feel the current focus should be on regulating the current challenges in our community; public trash issues, lack of local businesses, high percentage of properties not occupied, increasing support for our local school district, etc. If we cannot get landlords to properly care for their yards, trash and tenants, how are we to stand up to companies with even more resources? The people living and working here have a different dream and vision. We want an industry that grows and cares for our community; not one that extracts our finances and damages our health.

If data centers are such valuable resources to the community, we should ask why as investors, builders, and landlords, these people aren’t offering to place data centers in their own neighborhoods.

We deeply appreciate your time in considering our wishes for the community we love.