If a large-scale data center wants to locate in Henrietta, it may have to give the town some sort of community benefit to do so.
The Town of Henrietta is reviewing a proposed local law that would prohibit data centers in all zoning districts except through incentive zoning in industrial zones or the mixed-use employment area overlay district. A public hearing on the local law is scheduled for the Henrietta Town Board meeting on July 22.
“We don’t want to shut them out,” said Henrietta Town Supervisor Stephen Schultz at the July 1 town board meeting. “We want to make sure they go in the correct location. And if they’re going to put an impact on our community, then we want to make sure they offset that impact.”
The town code does not currently address large-scale data centers. The proposed local law would let the town get ahead of large-scale data centers, Schultz said in a July 15 email.
The biggest issue with data centers are power consumption and water cooling, Schultz said.
The incentives the town could request could include upgrading the local substation or expanding sewer or water lines to more wide-flung areas of the township. Henrietta already has a shortage on power at its substation; Schultz argues a data center developer could bring in not just enough power for its project, but additional as part of the incentive zoning, allow growth in other parts of the town.
There is also the benefit of additional tax revenue for the town, Schultz said in the email.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced an executive order for a one-year moratorium on permits for data centers on July 14. Some mid-development projects like the Stream U.S. Data Centers project in Genesee County could be held up as a result. The moratorium gives the town more time to go through the process of crafting the local law, but Schultz said in the email that he sees no reason to not finish the process. The law can be amended if the state gives them different options.
“But if you don’t have a law in place and someone submits an application, you can’t put a new law in to address their application,” Schultz said in the email. “Which is why we want this law on the books now – before any applications come in.”
During the July 1 meeting, Schultz said developers have been “sniffing around” about a potential data center. One location that has received interest is acreage between Lehigh Station Road and Brooks Road. Nothing has gone further than initial inquiries yet.
The legislation includes threshold to ensure small, on-site data centers for local businesses are not caught up in the restrictions. Those thresholds include greater than 0.5 megawatts of power and 20,000 gallons of daily water use.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Henrietta weighs restrictions on large data centers
Reporting by Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | USA TODAY Network
