Residents Oppose Data Center Proposal in Heated Board Meeting
By JULIA DelPOZZO
SUNY Institute for Local News
ONEONTA
A crowd of more than 60 people packed into the Oneonta Town Hall on Wednesday night, October 8, for the monthly town board meeting. Concerned citizens filled the room to hear the latest on a proposal from startup Eco-Yotta Inc. to build an AI data center in Oneonta’s West End.
The item on the meeting agenda was a zoning amendment application for 357 County Highway 9. Eco-Yotta and its agent, Tirusha Pankaj Dave, seek to convert the land from residential-agricultural use to a planned development district (PDD), which can permit industrial use through flexibility in land use and design. This rezoning would give the company permission to develop a data center.
The proposed rezoning was first announced in July, and it received significant public opposition during August’s town board meeting. Eco-Yotta previously requested to have its application removed from discussion at that August 13 meeting. This meeting marked its reintroduction to the town’s official docket.
Eco-Yotta representatives gave a presentation at the meeting, saying the proposal was no longer a “data center” but instead a utility used for agriculture. Part of their proposal included using heat generated by computers in the property’s 10,000-square-foot barn for growing crops, also inside the building. T.J. Ruane, Eco-Yotta’s attorney, told board members the PDD will give them “the flexibility and the tools to put the limits on this, to make you guys comfortable that you’re doing what’s in the best interest of the community.”
Oneonta town residents overwhelmingly requested that the Eco-Yotta application be denied. The board, led by Interim Supervisor Brett Holleran, invited all in attendance to express their concerns on the issue during the meeting’s public comment section. A number of residents stood up to speak, many of whom delivered prepared remarks. The speakers voiced concerns over water use and pollution, abandonment of the facility, noise and light pollution, and higher electrical bills. One person in attendance shouted out, “We don’t want this here!”
Numerous members of the public stated that a data center does not serve the greater good of Oneonta and that it only benefits the private interests of Eco-Yotta.
Emily Smith, who lives near Cooperstown Junction, said to the board that data centers “have potential to be incredibly profitable and those profits aren’t going to come to our town—it’s an extractive model.”
Will Rivera, the Democratic candidate for Oneonta town supervisor in the upcoming November election, also spoke out on the possible development of a data center.
Rivera said, “Data centers consume a substantial amount of energy. A medium sized open AI data center uses enough electricity to power 400 homes. And when that much power is drawn it doesn’t come without cost. Someone pays and it’s never the developer; it’s the people.”
He went on to add, “People are anxious because they watch this proposal shift and grow with limited public information. If you do a simple Google search, you’ll find investigative reports and research from across the country showing the environmental and financial harm data centers are causing. We’ve read quotes from neighbors and towns just like ours who are struggling to afford power, basic water shortages, and watching their quality of life erode with no way out.”
During the more than two-and-a-half hour long meeting, the public commentators repeatedly expressed concerns over the potential negative impacts of a data center on the neighborhood and the environment. They also conveyed uneasiness over how little information had been shared with the public so far, arguing that Eco-Yotta has not released much detail about its plans.
Board member Patricia Riddell Kent said, “We’re finding there’s more questions than answers.”
The town board voted to table the issue until board members are provided more detailed information by Eco-Yotta.
In other business, the director of the Huntington Memorial Library, Alexander Benjamin, delivered a report. The library receives $50,000.00 a year from the Town of Oneonta. More than 1,200 town residents currently hold public library cards, which equates to roughly 25 percent of the town’s population. Benjamin went on to share the many things that the public library does for the community, including delivering literacy programs for children, providing community access to technology, and offering free tax services to the elderly. The library is also a place for information requests, such as how to find a lawyer, Benjamin pointed out.
This story was created by student reporters through the OnNY Community Media Service, a program of SUNY Oneonta and the SUNY Institute for Local News.
