Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, pictured after winning re-election on Nov. 7, 2023. Credit: Anais Mejia | Central Current

County Executive Ryan McMahon plans to launch a task force to investigate the feasibility and effects of bringing a data center to Central New York, he said Monday during a press conference.  

The task force will help drive a study that evaluates concerns of residents in Onondaga County and will “identify and evaluate locations within the county that may be suitable for potential data center development,” he said. The study will also identify what he called “best practices” for building and operating data centers in the region.

Data centers have attracted backlash from local residents around the state and the country. Earlier this year, more than 100 people attended a public hearing on a data center planned for Genesee County, about 2 hours west of Syracuse. Residents panned the project.

Concerns ranged from noise pollution and water usage to utility price increases and costs to taxpayers. 

The task force is the first of its kind in New York State, McMahon said. 

“This issue is an issue that many communities, small to large, are tackled with,” said McMahon. “And there are cases where the community is pleased with the development that has happened, and there’s cases where the community is not pleased.” 

Some members of the community attended McMahon’s press conference. One interrupted to ask McMahon: “Name one [community] where they’re pleased.” McMahon said the press conference was not a public hearing and did not answer the question. 

The announcement comes shortly after state legislators passed a moratorium which bans the construction of new data center projects for one year. Gov. Kathy Hochul would need to sign the bill for it to become a law. 

The Lysander Town Board passed a six-month moratorium on data centers as the town considers whether to allow one to be built. About 350 people attended a public hearing in Lysander about the potential of adding a data center, and 2,600 signed a petition opposing it. 

The county’s study will cost $500,000 and could take about six months to be completed. A request for proposal will be issued to determine a firm to perform the study.

The study will look at public health, water supply, wastewater capacity, and other environmental and operational considerations, McMahon said. The county will also provide planning and technical assistance to municipalities reviewing data center proposals. 

County Legislator Maurice “Mo” Brown, a vocal critic of data centers, said he believed the study to be a “good thing.”

“I do want to applaud the executive,” Brown said. “I think that the county studying is going to reveal what we already know: It is not feasible to build a data center anywhere in Central New York.” 

While McMahon and Brown said the county doesn’t have ultimate power over the placement of data centers — whether they’re built is often determined by town boards, zoning boards and the state power authority — the county can have some influence. 

When the Town of Lysander was considering a proposal to build a data center, it came to the county’s planning department for support. The county also will have control over wastewater treatment attached to data centers. 

“If we get a proposal where the locals have said, ‘Yes, we approve the local zoning,’ the state of New York says ‘Yes, there is power,’ then we will look at it from the standpoint of, ‘Do we have the wastewater capacity in that particular area?’” said McMahon. The study would give tools to local planning boards to make decisions, he said. 

The task force will include members of the following county departments:

  • Planning 
  • Economic Development
  • Water and Environmental Protection
  • The Onondaga County Water Authority
  • County Health Department

The $500,000 price tag will be funded through the planning department budget, which has money set aside for instances like this, said McMahon spokesperson Justin Sayles. 

“Our local officials need to be informed and have all the information they can when they’re making these decisions at some point, whether that’s a year, two years,” said McMahon.

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Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...