The East Greenbush community was invited to be a part of the conversation over a proposal that would put a pause on data center development. The town board held a public meeting Wednesday evening.
If the proposal becomes law, it would place a moratorium on applications for permits, site plans or other land use approvals for data centers.
During the meeting, board members cited several concerns, including environmental and health issues, that could be created by the data center.
“The ironic part of nobody being here is that pretty soon almost every town like this is going to be dealing with this issue, and so far I’m just going to go out on a limb and say it — data centers have proven to be destructive.”
The construction of dozens of large-scale data centers is either planned or has been proposed at locations across New York state. However, the future of those projects is uncertain as state lawmakers have passed a bill that would put a one-year moratorium on data center construction. Gov. Kathy Hochul has yet to decide on signing the bill.
The East Greenbush Town Board will vote on its proposed moratorium at next week’s meeting.