TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Town of Tonawanda Town Board has unanimously approved a one-year moratorium on artificial-intelligence data center projects at Monday's meeting.
"Under the new town law, no application for a building permit or site plan approval for development of any data center with peak demand of 20 Megawatts or more may be filed, accepted, or processed by the Town of Tonawanda, exclusive of the Village of Kenmore. During the moratorium, the Town Board will consider and enact, if appropriate, new zoning regulations."
According to Supervisor John Flynn, the Town Board's moratorium mimics Governor Kathy Hochul's executive order, which states that new applications will not be accepted for a year.
"I know there is concern about the moratorium that a developer will be able to slip through the governor's executive order and our moratorium. I can tell you unequivocally that is not true. I'm telling you now, there is no back door," Flynn said.
In July, a $2 billion AI data center was proposed and planned to be at the former Tonawanda Coke Plant along River Road.
You can watch our previous reporting below.
WATCH: Hochul highlights data center moratorium amid proposal to bring $2B facility to Town of Tonawanda
