Brookhaven Board Meeting Gets Heated, Approves Data Center Moratorium

A packed auditorium of residents urged Brookhaven Town officials to keep data centers out of the town, warning the massive facilities could strain Long Island’s electric grid, drive up utility costs, threaten the region’s sole-source aquifer and diminish residents’ quality of life.

Following testimony that was overwhelmingly opposed to the facilities, the Town Board unanimously approved an 18-month moratorium on new data center applications. The temporary ban will give Brookhaven time to develop its first zoning regulations governing where the facilities could be located and how they would operate.

“We are very concerned about the impact of large data centers on our energy grid,” resident Jordan Christiansen told the board during the July 16 public hearing. “We risk brownouts and blackouts. We can’t do this without having a plan in place.”

Michael Mannix of Coram urged the board to prioritize environmental protection alongside economic development.

“Protecting our environment and quality of life are just as important as economic growth,” Mannix said. “Adding data centers will require a great deal of electricity and will push our costs up even higher.”

Richard Perez said he supports technological advancement but questioned whether residents should bear the burden.

“I want to see development of technology, but not at the expense of so many people and their resources and infrastructure,” Perez said.

Ben Hogan, who worked at Stony Brook University’s Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences, described the heat, noise and power demands created by high-performance computer clusters.

“Industrial-strength earplugs didn’t even help,” Hogan testified.

Another resident said she had researched communities where data centers have already been built and urged Brookhaven to learn from their experiences. “We want to be ahead of that horse getting out of the barn before the doors close,” she said.

Several residents also questioned whether industrial buildings under construction along the Long Island Expressway in Yaphank and elsewhere could eventually become data centers.

Supervisor Dan Panico said those projects are being built in long-established industrial zones intended for economic development and cautioned residents against assuming every warehouse is a future data center.

“If you see a warehouse going up, it is wrong to assume that it’s a data center,” Panico said, noting there is currently no zoning code for data centers and that many projects are legitimate trucking, warehouse and Amazon distribution facilities.

Addressing concerns that developers could sue the town into approving a project, Panico said no applications are currently pending and the Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency will not entertain data center proposals during the moratorium.

“This town doesn’t capitulate,” Panico said. “We have gone through substantial litigation on behalf of our residents and we have won.”

Panico also acknowledged Long Island’s broader energy challenges.

“The chance of brownouts is real,” he said, adding that the state must provide a more realistic explanation of its long-term energy strategy.

He said the moratorium will give the Department of Planning, Environment and Land Management time to develop comprehensive zoning regulations addressing site selection, energy and water consumption, noise, environmental impacts, infrastructure capacity, public safety and opportunities for renewable energy integration. Councilman Jonathan Kornreich also addressed questions about cryptocurrency mining, saying officials determined those operations are unlikely on Long Island because of the region’s high electricity costs.

Offering a different perspective, Tatiana Lasalle of the Long Island Association urged the board not to adopt what she described as a blanket moratorium that could discourage future investment. She said data centers support artificial intelligence, cloud computing, life sciences and advanced manufacturing while generating tax revenue, and can be designed with technology that minimizes impacts on water supplies and the electric grid. She also noted that Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory rely on advanced computing infrastructure.

Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano, who opposed a proposed statewide moratorium, distinguished Albany’s proposal from Brookhaven’s local review.

“The data center moratorium issue comes down to two fundamental principles: local control and economic opportunity,” DeStefano said. “If Brookhaven wants to study the issue and consider its own 18-month moratorium, that’s the town’s right. Local officials, working with local residents, should make those decisions—not politicians in Albany.”

Panico said the moratorium will allow officials to gather public input and establish a comprehensive zoning framework before considering any future data center proposals, balancing responsible growth with the protection of Brookhaven’s infrastructure, environment and quality of life.