A three-year data center moratorium has been passed in East Fishkill, a town in southern New York State, blocking a planned campus in the area.
The Town Board voted on Thursday evening to impose the moratorium, which will last until July 1, 2029.
That is, unless a data center is “ancillary to an existing or permitted use and less than 20MW or eligible for an Economic Development Special Permit.”
This will effectively put a stop on a proposal put forth by developer Treetop Companies to build a 1.16 million sq ft (107,910 sqm) data center south of Old State Road and Interstate 52, according to a drawing uploaded to the company’s website.
But it appears that Treetop never submitted a formal application for the project.
“There is no application before the Town. There has neverbeen an application for a data center,” said East Fishkill Supervisor Nick D’Alessandro on Facebook prior to the moratorium vote.
“In fact, under our current zoning, data centers are not even listed as a permissible use in our industrial zones.
“Despite that, the town board is taking the proactive step of introducing a three-year moratorium on data centers to give our community certainty and allow time for further study and discussion.”
DCD has reached out to Treetop for comment.
Treetop is a real estate company with business interests in industrial, residential, leisure, affordable housing, and office buildings. It is unclear whether the company has any prior experience with data center projects.
East Fishkill is not a data center hub. Most of New York State’s data centers are clustered in and around New York City and Buffalo, with smaller clusters in Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany.