Zediker Station site (CNX/JLL) data center, South Strabane Township, Pennsylvania

No buyer has come forward for Zediker Station, the roughly 1,400-acre tract off Zediker Station Road in South Strabane Township, Washington County, that CNX Resources owns and the real estate firm JLL has marketed as a site for a large AI data center. But the prospect alone rewrote the township's rules: in June 2026 the South Strabane Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt a data center zoning ordinance and an updated noise ordinance, after more than six months of public outcry.

CNX, a natural gas company based in Washington County, teamed up with Chicago-based JLL in October 2025 to market and lease the site, about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. The pitch offered 400 buildable acres, natural gas reserves, plenty of water, and methane captured from coal mine ventilation, which the companies say can blend with natural gas for carbon-neutral power. The land is zoned for industrial use and has two rail lines; it had been marketed before for manufacturing and mixed-use projects that never went ahead.

A JLL brochure showed layouts with more than 40 buildings. Washington County Commissioners chair Nick Sherman welcomed the listing, saying in a news release that the property "is primed for development and represents significant economic opportunity for our community."

Residents did not welcome the pitch. At a packed supervisors' meeting in December 2025, Diane Ecker warned that "these data centers emit decibels that range from 75 to 96 decibels, when 85 decibels can cause hearing damage." Dan Adamski of JLL answered that the noise would be "much lower" than other permitted uses of the land: "At the property line, you won't even know it's there."

Township solicitor Dennis Makel warned that an outright ban would not survive in court: "Whatever we do must be legal. You cannot say, 'We can't have data centers in this township,'" he said. At a planning commission meeting in February, Kristin Prezel objected that a revised draft had cut the setback from homes from 1,000 feet to 850 feet: "The current data center draft ordinance is insufficient." In April, resident Cynthia Rossi said a data center campus she had visited in Ohio "looked like Armageddon; it was unbelievable."

CNX fought parts of the ordinance. In a March 19 letter, its attorney Blaine Lucas of Babst Calland argued that a required community benefit agreement was illegal and that the proposed setbacks would "eliminate most portions of CNX's Zediker Station property from development." Another Babst Calland attorney, Robert Max Junker, called the rules a "death by a thousand cuts" for any developer.

At the June hearing Junker asked the board to cut the setback from homes to 1,000 feet and allow neighbors to waive it; the supervisors kept it at 1,500 feet, the same setback the township applies to oil and gas well pads. Makel said that leaves only 651 of the roughly 1,400 acres available for a data center. Chairman George Rowand called the result "right in the middle" between residents who wanted more and the landowner who wanted less.

The February draft published by the township made data centers a conditional use in its light and general industrial districts, requiring noise and vibration studies, a water feasibility study for any private water source, and a decommissioning bond. Makel has said other Washington County municipalities, including Amwell Township, are using South Strabane's ordinance as a template.

One piece is still unfinished. A third ordinance, regulating fossil fuel power generation such as on-site generators at data centers, was tabled in July after residents asked for changes, and again in August when sections of the draft turned out to be missing. At its September 2026 meeting, the board again declined to act after Rossi pointed out that parts of the text were still missing; Makel said the error was likely an unintended typographic mistake by his staff and took full responsibility.

Any data center proposal for Zediker Station would come before the South Strabane Board of Supervisors, whose vice chairman, Jeff Bull, has urged neighboring townships to follow the township's example.