PSATS director says local communities should decide where data centers go

Dave Sanko, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors, said local officials—not state planners—should decide where hyper-scale data centers are sited because the projects pose distinct local risks.

"Our position is that those decisions need to be made in local communities, by people who live there, not by bureaucrats from Harrisburg or Washington that are, you know, just, you know, looking at a map and saying, let's put one there," Sanko said. He told hosts that applications appear to be "probably triple" real demand as developers file multiple proposals and test which community moves first.

Sanko outlined two technical constraints that drive the local stakes: cooling and power. He said operators must choose between heavy water use or large air-conditioning loads, either of which can strain municipal water supplies and the electric grid—especially in drought years. "Water supply is of serious concern," he said, adding that Pennsylvania experiences repeated droughts and that grids may not be prepared for sustained high usage.

He also urged townships to weigh emergency response and infrastructure capacity—citing building height limits and whether local fire equipment could reliably reach higher floors—as well as traffic, noise and possible effects on property values. Sanko said his association aims to equip local officials to evaluate those trade-offs when applications arrive.