Stowe Township commissioners have approved a change in the township’s zoning ordinance that will allow data centers to operate in the general industrial district.
The zoning ordinance amendment, which was approved Tuesday and will take effect immediately, came about two months after a local company was awarded a $6 million state grant to help develop a distribution and logistics park on a 72-acre brownfield site, the former Pressed Steel Car Co. McKees Rocks Works Plant, in Stowe Township.
The governor’s office said after the awarding of the PA SITES funding that the $6 million would be used for the acquisition of land along the rail spur, soil screening and disposal, rail spur reconstruction, stormwater controls, utility relocation, sewer line replacement and remediation.
Cheryl McDermott, president of the township Board of Commissioners, said at the time that SunCap Industries, which is developing the 72-acre site, was interested in building a data center there.
However, that use was not permitted until the township’s zoning ordinance could be changed to allow for it. Now that the change has been approved, McDermott said she’s optimistic that something positive will happen on the former brownfield site.
“We need growth,” she said Wednesday, “and that’s our last piece of developable property, other than some property at the end of Nichol Avenue.”
McDermott, who announced at Tuesday night’s meeting that she would step down as board president effective Jan. 3 but would remain on the board until her term ends on Dec. 31, 2027, said that if a data center were to locate on the RockPoint Industrial property, it might open the land up to other industrial park-type uses.
“That’s what my vision and hope is for the future,” McDermott said.
In other action at Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved the 2026 budget, which holds the line on property taxes. The 2026 spending plan calls for revenue in the amount of $3,057,794 and expenditures of $3,012,750.
That compares with the current budget figures of $3,047,394 in revenue and $3,031,294 in expenditures.
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