Even as town lawmakers approved a 6-month pause on new data center and battery storage systems projects, residents in one Hudson Valley community already home to a number of such facilities were not satisfied.
The moratorium passed Tuesday by the Orangetown Town Board will not apply to the company DataBank's plans for a second data center already before the planning board.
Matt Heinlen says the expansion would abut his property just over the border in Old Tappan, New Jersey. He’s worried about his family.
"I want to be very clear, I'm not against data centers," Heinlen said. "I think they are necessary infrastructure and there are appropriate places for them, but everywhere is not an appropriate place for a data center. A site immediately adjacent to a drinking water reservoir, so close to the residents, directly on top of class one and class two wetlands, and dependent on significant power from the existing grid, just simply may not be the right place for this.”
A Draft Environmental Impact Statement says the proposal would remove 0.1 acres of wetlands and 2 acres of forest. It would also be “within the range of” the habitats of several protected and endangered species.
The needed power for a second data center will raise the facility's total demand 50%.
Orangetown Supervisor Teresa Kenny pushed back on comments that the pause is just for show if it does not include DataBank’s expansion.
"This moratorium is not just about DataBank," Kenny said. "It's about other potential data centers that want to come to Orangetown. And the reason they want to come to Orangetown, all new to me, is that the infrastructure for these facilities is there already. That's why they're all coming here.
DataBank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
