Canton Town Board Schedules July 8 Hearing on Data Center Moratorium

Town Board · Meeting of June 10, 2026

Canton Town Board sets July 8 public hearing on data center moratorium, targeting facilities above 20 megawatts. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to schedule the 5:30 p.m. hearing after more than 40 minutes of public comment in which eight residents and advocates urged preemptive action, citing grid stress, health hazards, and unfulfilled job promises at similar facilities. Supervisor Jim said the board had planned to act a month earlier but was delayed by the town attorney's illness, and noted that Canton's newly adopted zoning code contains no mention of data centers.

Town attorney Eric said the 20-megawatt threshold was chosen to exclude the local hospital and a community bank while capturing industrial-scale facilities; no data center application has yet been received. Power systems planner Anna Summer warned the board that the New York Independent System Operator had already issued a brownout and blackout alert for this summer from existing demand. Kim Hebb relayed the account of Steve Welch, a former worker at a Messina Bitcoin facility owned by the company seeking to expand into data centers, who she said was told by a pulmonologist he would die if he did not quit the $17-an-hour job that left beryllium dust in his lungs.

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Source: the Town Board meeting of June 10, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.