Council approves new changes to the Zoning Code for high energy industries.

Council approves new changes to the Zoning Code for high energy industries

The site and operation of so-called high-energy usage companies, such as data centers and crypto-mining operations, would be governed by proposed changes to the city's zoning code, which were approved by the Niagara Falls City Council on Wednesday night. 

The council member Donta Myles voted against the zoning ordinance revisions, which were adopted 4-1.

A moratorium on "the creation, establishment, development, building, expansion, enlargement, and operation of commercial data centers" in the city was also extended by the council on the same motion until September 30 in order to facilitate the implementation of the new zoning regulations. The ban, which had earlier been extended to cover bitcoin mining activities, was set to terminate on September 13. 

The Niagara Falls and Niagara County Planning boards had both approved and recommended the council adopt the zoning code revisions.

There are already two bitcoin mining operations in the Falls, and another two to three are looking to open. The city is looking to purchase land for its Centennial Park project, but Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) has proposed putting a data center there instead. 

City officials have maintained that the Falls' Zoning Code forbids high-energy consumption enterprises from operating there, notwithstanding those businesses' ongoing operations. 

According to Dan Spitzer, the city's outside legal counsel for zoning-related issues, cryptocurrency mining and data centers are now illegal in the city, but we are working with the industry to draft (laws) that would enable them.

Data centers and bitcoin mining activities must only be located in areas that are classified for industrial purposes, according to the new Zoning Code revisions. The changes will add new restrictions that demand for greater set-backs of the high energy usage facilities from their neighbors, acting as a so-called "overlay" to the city's existing industrial zoning regulations. 

The adjustments place severe restrictions on the amount of noise produced by the high energy usage procedures. Data centers and cryptocurrency mining businesses had to switch to sustainable energy sources in order to comply with the original proposed Zoning Code amendments.

Spitzer claimed that it was eliminated after business representatives were able to convince the city that they were "using 95% renewables" by choosing to locate in the Falls. 

Myles argued that the new ordinance's noise restrictions were too lax and below the standards for manufacturing plants, thus he requested their suspension. 

Myles responded, "I want to make sure we're being fair here. The noise level requirement in the Zoning Code, in my opinion, is monastic quiet when (high-energy usage firms) are willing to invest tens of millions of dollars in brownfields.

Myles suggested a change that would suspend the noise limitations while a "noise study" associated with a modification of the city's existing noise level restrictions is conducted. When no other council members offered to second the amendment, it was defeated. 

Council Chair John Spanbauer said, "I'd rather start with a strict law and ease back if we find it necessary. 

Traci Bax, a council member, expressed her optimism that locals and high-energy enterprises could coexist. 

The emphasis in this place is on health and wellness, she said. "I think that's what this ordinance does."

The current bitcoin mining companies operating in the city have previously sought that their operations be exempted from the new Zoning Code regulations. When asked what his client may do in light of the council's ratification of the Zoning Code modifications, a lawyer for one of the operators, BLOCKFUSION USA, who was present in the council chambers on Wednesday night, declined to guess.

Article Credit: Niagara Gazette

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