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Gov. Josh Shapiro’s new fast-track permitting program is designed to send a message to potential developers: Pennsylvania will not slow your roll.
Housed within the Pennsylvania Office of Transformation and Opportunity, the PA Permit Fast Track Program streamlines approvals for large-scale developments that promise economic growth. State officials point to major investments and shorter construction timelines as proof it’s working.
But as the state works to accelerate development, some communities are pushing back against the projects themselves — particularly data center developments, which now make up more than half of those listed on the program’s public dashboard.
The program does not change environmental standards or eliminate public comment requirements, said Chief Transformation Officer Ben Kirshner, who leads the office. Instead, it coordinates communication among agencies such as the state Department of Environmental Protection and state Department of Transportation, assigning managers who meet regularly with project teams and help navigate applications.
“It’s not one-size-fits-all,” Kirshner said.
Each project receives customized support depending on its needs. “We’re like the customer service delivery team,” Kirshner said. “We all just try to get quick yeses and quick nos.”
There are nine projects posted on the Fast Track dashboard. CrossRoads East Business Park and Project Gravity are also in the Fast Track program, according to a Right-to-Know request submitted by the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.
Kirshner confirmed that both CrossRoads East Business Park and Project Gravity are accepted to the program and are in the planning phases.
Other projects in the planning phase, “will be uploaded to the OTO website once Coordinated Project Plans are complete,” Kirshner said in a statement.
The governor’s November 2024 executive order that created the PA Permit Fast Track Program says the OTO will, “assist in the operating and maintaining of a public-facing dashboard to display progress against established permitting timelines associated with designated critical infrastructure and economic development projects.”
Representatives for companies behind the two projects did not respond to requests for comment.
Project Gravity is one of six data centers planned for Archbald.
“It just feels like just another stab,” Tamara Misewicz-Healey said, who co-founded the Stop Archbald Data Centers Facebook group, which has almost 7,000 members.
Kirshner said OTO has regular meetings with Amazon, whose two data centers — located in Luzerne County and Bucks counties — are both enrolled in the Fast Track Program.
Amazon plans to invest at least $20 billion, which could create at least 1,250 tech jobs, according to the OTO 2025 Impact Report.
Another Fast Track project, The Bellwether District, is a 1,300-acre logistics and innovation campus in South Philadelphia, according to the PA Permit Fast Track dashboard. The campus will support research and industry. It will create around 19,000 permanent jobs, according to the dashboard.
The project is a redevelopment of the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery, the site of an explosion in 2019.
In southwestern Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County’s Pennsylvania Safety Transportation and Research Track, or PennSTART, is a part of the Fast Track Program.
The test track is developed by the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern PA in partnership with four other organizations, including Westmoreland County, according to pennstart.org.
It will support autonomous vehicle companies, transportation safety research, and highway rescue training for first responders, said Timothy White, senior vice president of business development and strategy at the Regional Industrial Development Corporation.
Participation in the Fast Track Program has cut permitting times by “just about 50 percent,” White said. PennSTART joined the Fast Track and was then assigned two liaisons, one from the state Department of Transportation and another from the DEP, White said. The liaisons met with the team every couple of weeks to, for example, coach them through permit applications.
“We're moving into construction, probably close to a year earlier than if it was the process that we would have engaged in three or four years ago,” White said.
Outside of the PA Permit Fast Track Program, Kirshner said that the Office of Transformation Opportunity answers questions for lots of companies, not just those accepted to the Fast Track Program. The office supported 300-plus businesses in 2025, according to the annual report.
Hannah Frances Johansson is a reporter for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership newsroom. She holds a master's degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Reach her at hannah.johansson@pointpark.edu.
The PMP Newsroom is a regional news service that focuses on government and enterprise reporting in southwestern Pennsylvania. Find out more information on foundation and corporate funders here.
Header image: View of the future Pennsylvania Safety Transportation and Research Track, or PennSTART, located at the RIDC Westmoreland Innovation Center in Mount Pleasant, on March 3, 2026. Hannah Frances Johansson / PMP Newsroom
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