NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — The North Tonawanda Common Council approved a one-year moratorium extension Tuesday night as the city works to learn more about a proposal to convert a cryptocurrency mining facility on Erie Avenue into an AI data center.
The proposal was presented to the planning commission last week by a plant manager of World Generation X.
The move comes as a separate $2 billion AI data center has been proposed for the former Tonawanda Coke Plant site on River Road in the Town of Tonawanda. The debate over data centers in the Tonawandas is intensifying even as the state legislature recently passed a moratorium on new data center permits to study their potential impacts on the environment and local power grids. The governor has not yet signed that bill.
At the start of Tuesday night’s meeting, Mayor Austin Tylec recommended the council move forward with the one-year extension ahead of the meeting.
"A facility that's currently grandfathered, we have to navigate those waters a little bit differently. I feel that this is the best way forward. A moratorium can only do so much for so long, and considering, the site there is more or less grandfathered in, we are in a very tight situation here. So, my recommendation would be to move forward with the one-year moratorium," Tylec said.
Residents commended the council for approving the extension.
"There's a lot more work needed, a lot more answers, a lot more questions to the answers, and we just need to get a lot of things in place. I'm in support, and I thank you guys for considering this today," North Tonawanda resident Mark Polito said.
"Just be careful with your water. Water is essential for life. If we don't, we're not here," North Tonawanda resident Tom Weisbeck said.
Some residents wanted a longer moratorium, feeling one year is not enough time to research the impacts on the city.
"I understand why the site needs backup power. A Bitcoin operation never did. A crypto miner can lose power for a minute and simply resume. An AI center cannot. A single blip can ruin a computing job that has taken days to run," North Tonawanda resident Cynthia Tysick said.
Meanwhile, the existing cryptomining facility on Erie Avenue has been a source of ongoing noise complaints for the past five years. The facility has received citations for violating the city's noise ordinance, and those cases remain tied up in court.
"And until the court catches up, they've got, I wrote eight of them, and we're still dealing with ordinance number one from a year ago. I wish I had better answers for everybody, but I've been here, I've been to every single meeting. You guys know, I'm trying," North Tonawanda Police Department Chief Glass said.
