Homer City Data Center: Indiana County, PA Zoning Impact

A decommissioned coal plant becoming the country's largest gas-powered data center campus is not a hypothetical proposal in Indiana County -- it's under active construction right now, with an air-quality permit already issued and a 2027 power target. Here is what that means for land near Center Township, and for the county more broadly.

This page covers what's specific to Indiana County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

From a 2 GW coal plant to a 4.5 GW gas-fired data center campus

The Homer City Generating Station, at 1750 Powerplant Rd in Center Township, was once Pennsylvania's single largest coal-fired power plant, generating roughly 2 gigawatts. It shut down for good on July 1, 2023, and by March 22, 2025 its demolition -- including the plant's landmark chimney, a visible regional landmark for decades -- was complete. Rather than leaving a 3,200-plus-acre industrial brownfield idle, the site's developers are building the Homer City Energy Campus: what they describe as the country's largest natural-gas-powered data center campus, purpose-built to meet growing artificial-intelligence and high-performance-computing electricity demand.

The scale of the new facility more than doubles what the old coal plant produced: a planned 4.5 gigawatt natural-gas power plant using seven high-efficiency, hydrogen-capable GE Vernova turbines, with first turbine deliveries expected in 2026 and a targeted start of power production in 2027. Pennsylvania DEP has already issued an air-quality permit clearing the way for construction of what could become one of the nation's largest gas-fired power plants, and Homer City Redevelopment has announced an agreement in principle with EQT Corporation -- itself a major Appalachian shale-gas producer -- to supply the natural gas the plant will burn.

What a project this size means for the surrounding land

A project of this scale -- more than 3,200 acres, a multi-billion-dollar power plant and data-center build, and a multi-year construction timeline running through at least 2027 -- inevitably reshapes demand for land, labor, and infrastructure in the surrounding townships. Expect increased interest in nearby land for worker housing, staging and laydown yards, and supporting commercial and logistics uses during the construction phase, along with longer-term interest in land near new transmission, gas-pipeline, and water infrastructure once the campus is operational. Center Township and its immediate neighbors are the most directly affected, but a project this visible tends to influence land-value expectations and development interest across a wider radius in Indiana County.

For a landowner near the site, this can mean genuine opportunity -- interest from developers, easement or lease requests for supporting infrastructure, or simply higher land values driven by proximity to a major employment and construction hub. For a buyer looking for quiet, low-traffic rural land, it means confirming a specific parcel's actual distance from the Homer City campus and understanding the county's or township's own comprehensive-plan expectations for how the surrounding area is meant to develop over the coming years.

Zoning and permitting questions worth asking directly

Indiana County has no countywide zoning ordinance, so Center Township's own zoning ordinance -- and any amendments adopted specifically in response to the Homer City redevelopment -- is the first thing to check for land near the site. Ask the township directly whether it has adopted or is considering any overlay district, conditional-use provisions, or infrastructure-impact requirements tied to the campus, and ask the Indiana County Planning Department whether the county's own comprehensive plan or any corridor study addresses anticipated growth around the site.

It's also worth checking directly with PA DEP for the project's current permitting and construction status, since a project of this scale and timeline (turbine deliveries in 2026, power production targeted for 2027) will continue to generate new permits, approvals, and possibly additional infrastructure projects (transmission lines, gas pipeline extensions, water withdrawal permits) as it proceeds -- each of which could independently affect land nearby.

Homer City's Data Center Rebirth: What It Means for Land in Indiana County, Pennsylvania

From a 2 GW coal plant to a 4.5 GW gas-fired data center campus

What a project this size means for the surrounding land

Zoning and permitting questions worth asking directly

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