Data Center Moratorium

Town of Hamden
Delaware County, New York
Local Law No. ___ of 2026
A Local Law Enacting a Temporary Moratorium on the Acceptance, Processing, and Approval of Applications for Commercial Data Centers

Section 1: Title
This Law shall be known as Local Law No. ___ of the year 2026 entitled “Town of Hamden Data Storage Facilities or Data Centers Moratorium Law”.

Section 2: Legislative Authorization:
The Town Hamden notes that institutional and technological trends, such as growing
computing demands of Artificial Intelligence and the increasing digitization of the economy,
have resulted in an exponential increase in the demand for Commercial Data Centers.
Many of these facilities have been constructed in rural communities due to the
comparatively low cost of construction and ease of access to electrical grid capacity.

While the Town appreciates the need for Commercial Data Centers and their potential to
positively contribute to the local economy, Commercial Data Centers are not a use which was
contemplated within the Towns Comprehensive Plan or land use regulations at the time of their
adoption, and such a use will need to be thoroughly evaluated and studied for its potential
impacts to the Town before appropriate regulations for such a use can be developed. Commercial
Data Centers are a new type of use and have the potential for significant negative impacts such
as increased energy usage, environmental impacts, visual impacts, and community impacts as
weighed against the benefits to local communities. These complex issues must be evaluated for
proper zoning to be implemented to regulate the use.

To address these concerns, the Town Board believes that the Town land use regulations should
be evaluated as they pertain to these facilities to ensure that Commercial Data Centers are
responsibly developed in our rural community, and placed and sited in harmony with
surrounding uses and in appropriate areas of the Town to protect and promote public health,
welfare and safety. A moratorium is necessary to temporarily prohibit the establishment of
commercial Data Centers in the Town to preserve the status quo while affording the Town Board
sufficient time to evaluate and to amend current land use regulations, or to adopt new laws
relating to Commercial Data Centers.

Section 3: Authority
This moratorium is enacted by the Town Board of the Town of Hamden pursuant to its authority
to adopt local laws under Article IX of the New York State Constitution and Municipal
Home Rule Law Section 10.

Section 4: Moratorium
For a period of twelve (12) months from the effective date of this Local Law, there is hereby
enacted a moratorium on the acceptance by the Town of Hamden of applications for the
establishment, location, and operation of Commercial Data Centers, or the construction of same.
A Commercial Data Center shall be broadly defined as a facility whose primary purpose is to
house computing, storage, and networking equipment for commercial gain, including for
cryptocurrency mining operations, server farms, and the provision of IT infrastructure and
services to external customers.

Section 5: Variances
The Town Board shall have the power, after a public hearing, to vary or modify the application
of any provision of this Local Law upon its determination that strict application of this Local
Law would impose practical difficulties or extraordinary hardships upon an applicant and that the
variance granted would not adversely affect the health, safety or welfare of the citizens of the
Town or significantly conflict with the general purpose and intent of this Local Law. Any request
for a variance shall be in writing and filed with the Town Clerk. All such applications shall
promptly be referred to the Town Board, which shall conduct a public Hearing on the application
on not less than five (5) days public notice and shall make its decision within thirty (30) days
after the close of the public Hearing.

Section 6: Severability
The invalidity of any word, section, clause, paragraph, sentence, part or provision of this Local
Law shall not affect the validity of any other part of this Local Law which can be given effect
without such invalid part or parts.

Section 7: Repeal Of Other Laws
All local laws in conflict with provisions of this Local Law are hereby superseded and suspended
for the duration of this moratorium and for any additional period that this Local Law is extended.
This Local Law also supersedes, amends and takes precedence over any inconsistent provisions
of New York State Town Law, the Towns Municipal Home Rule powers, pursuant to Municipal
Home Rule Law Sections 10 and 22. The Town Law provisions intended to be superseded
include all of Article 16 of the Town Law, Sections 261-285 inclusive and any other
provision of law that the Town may supersede pursuant to the Municipal Home Rule Law and
the constitution of the State of New York. The courts are directed to take notice of this
legislative intent and to apply such intent in the event the Town has failed to specify any
provisions of law that may require supersession. The Town Board hereby declares that it would
have enacted this local law and superseded such inconsistent provision had it been apparent.

Section 8: Effective Date
This Local Law shall take effect immediately, as provided by law, upon filing with the New York
State Secretary of State.