HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB 2024-07-31TB 7-31-24
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TOWN OF DRYDEN
TOWN BOARD MEETING
July 31, 2024
Zoom Hybrid
Present: Supervisor Jason Leifer, Cl Daniel Lamb, Cl Spring Buck
Cl Leonardo Vargas-Mendez
Absent: Cl Christina Dravis
Elected Officials: Bambi L. Avery, Town Clerk
Other Town Staff: Shelley Knickerbocker, Code Enforcement Officer
Loren Sparling, Deputy Town Clerk
Mark Spinner, Town Attorney
Supv Leifer opened the meeting and public hearing at 5:34 p.m.
PUBLIC HEARING
PROPOSED LOCAL LAW AFFECTING A MORATORIUM ON
CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING OPERATIONS AND DATA
PROCESSING CENTERS
Supv Leifer explained the purpose of this hearing is to consider adoption of a proposed
local law that would place a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining operations and data
processing centers and displayed the proposed local law and resolution introducing it. The
term of the moratorium would be eighteen months. The town is in the process of rewriting its
zoning. An application for this use was received and this use is not allowed under our current
zoning. Two written comments have been received and pr ovided to board members. The
hearing will be open for at least 15 minutes.
Comments from the public in attendance:
Joe Osmeloski, 2180 Dryden Road, said they received notification of a ZBA hearing that
had to do with a company that is applying for cryptocurrency mining in the building next door
to them. He and his wife know what it is about. The noise that the computers make is terribly
annoying. The applicant has asked for an interpretation and they are worried that they will
claim it fits the zoning as a service. The building has given them problems for years and they
would welcome something they could appreciate. Even when the cannabis guy wanted to buy
it, they would have been happy to have them. The building has tons of other issues other than
the issues before the board today. The applicant knows why they were turned down, but
obviously wants to get something on record. They are in favor of a moratorium and a law being
passed as soon as the board can do it that bans this activity. They also understand the state is
looking into more regulation of this type of business, but feel that any layer s the town can put
in would help them.
Sarah Osmeloski said the whole idea of bitcoin mining seems to go against the fabric of
Dryden. We’ve put in solar farms, have heat pump requirements, we have electric cars, and it
just doesn’t seem right that some company will come in and suck away all our green energy
and leave us back at square one. The town has made great strides moving forward and getting
away from fossil fuels. Right now, in New York cryptocurrency has to use green energy, so that
leaves others using oil and fossil fuels. She doesn’t think it’s a fit with the town.
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Mary Witman, Zoning Board of Appeals member, asked what happens after eighteen
months.
Atty Spinner explained the purpose of the moratorium is for the town to learn more
about this relatively new type of business. During the moratorium the town will study specific
types of land use and determine what type of regulation or local law is necessary to regulate
this type of business. During those eighteen months, the town studies and brings in whoever
they want as experts to discuss this particular issue and amend their zoning code or other
codes to regulate this particular type of use. Or they may decide its fine, and they can go
forward. It’s a period of time to put a pause on everything so that the town can investigate and
take the appropriate action and make sure this type of use won’t have a negative impact on the
residents of the town of Dryden.
In response to a question, Supv Leifer said the town does have a commercial noise
ordinance.
J Osmeloski said the moratorium wouldn’t prevent someone from taking legal action if
they wished. Atty Spinner said their theory on the legal action would have to be that the town
in passing the moratorium did it in an arbitrary and capricious manner, which would be a
heavy lift from a legal standpoint. The town has the right to establish a zoning code and
determine what uses and businesses are allowed in particular zones and the town is looking at
its code now for a rewrite. It is a proper purview of the town to investigate this and make sure
this is something that is in the town’s interest and if so, how to regulate it to be sure it is done
in a reasonable and proper manner so as not to affect town residents, town infrastructure, and
the energy supply. That is the argument for putting in a moratorium. If you didn’t do that,
you’d get applications coming in, you’d have to determine them, and if you had this type of
business in place prior to the moratorium, they would be grandfathered companies. The
moratorium is not a ban. It’s a freeze so that the town can address it appropriately.
J and S Osmeloski asked if the town would delineate between commercial and personal
crypto mining. There is someone near them doing it now, and they are far enough away where
it is kind of a background noise. But they can hear it; someone is doing it. It runs constantly
and is a low, annoying hum, but if they lived next door, it would be unreasonable.
John Bartolini said that the property they are talking about is at 58 dBA at night.
Cl Lamb said this use is not defined in our zoning. The reason to update the zoning law
every few years, and we are behind, is to keep up with changing industry. This is an industry
that started maybe eight years ago in New York. It is appropriate that we update our zoning law
and consider new things that are occurring and weren’t defined in our prior zoning. He feels
like we are on firm ground in that regard because we are doing what a responsible local
government would do, update our zoning to accommodate changing industry, and this is a new
industry. It isn’t defined in our zoning, and if it is not defined, then it shouldn’t occur in the
town.
Atty Spinner said it is certainly not a traditional service business.
Cl Lamb said if this is allowed in our zoning at the end of this process when we are
done, it would require a special use permit in certain places. His concern is not so much the
noise because it can be done quietly now. It is the burden on the grid. We have housing
developments that are being held up because of their impact on electricity use and how much
we actually support. He’d like some analysis on how much power this business would use,
how much we should tolerate and should that be defined.
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John Bartolini, who owns 2186 Dryden Road, said he is here to address questions and
help clarify things. He considers himself an expert on the town’s zoning law. He will be
submitting some evidence, case law, and some very relevant stuff. He told Joe Osmeloski he
would be a good neighbor.
He said there are very big problems with the proposed local law. He has resolved the
noise with the zoning. He has explained there is no noise. He doesn’t like noise and called the
local police department several times because of loud speeding cars on his road. There is no
noise from his facility. There is no pollution. They are not going to burn any gasoline. The
business does suck a lot of power; it eats power. He’s not here to talk about crypto and fight
for it. He has no passion for crypto. He is in business. Crypto is a means to build a data
center; that is the goal, but the crypto will generate the money so it has to be part of that data
center. He hates the building. It is an eyesore and embarrassing and he apologizes.
They were not allowed to turn the power on by the building department and were not
treated nicely. They have a Ryobi lawnmower and a weedwhacker that can’t be used here
because there is no power. The building is an Ugly Betty right now and it needs to be redone.
They wouldn’t let him clean it out or turn the electricity on, and weren’t very nice legally with
him, and he is here to straighten that out.
J Bartolini said he is here tonight to talk about the law. He pays taxes here. He wants
to dispel some notions. He is not some big crypto company. He has been a landscaping
company in business for 38 years with a great reputation. He is an e xpert on the town’s zoning
law and has become an expert on moratoriums. He has a case from Binghamton about twelve
years ago that says the town can’t do this tonight. He wants to know the reasons why we need
to initialize a moratorium. There are legal criteria the town must meet to enforce and start a
moratorium. You just can’t do it.
Atty Spinner asked what the theory of the case was that was mentioned. Bartolini
replied it spells out a three-prong test on why you can have a moratorium and the town doesn’t
have that here.
Atty Spinner said this is a new business, the town has not received an application for a
data center before, and it is something that uses a lot of power. NY Metro Cloud LLC’s website
indicates the per kilowatt price they are getting for the power, which suggests that the only
reason it is listed (no other businesses do that) indicates the use of a significant amount of
power.
J Bartolini said that is correct, but the town has no say over that. With respect to the
proposed law, there are three criteria that must be met in order to meet a standard. That
standard is strict. You can’t just impose a moratorium because his company uses power and
because it’s a new business. He hasn’t heard any valid reasons why the town has the strength
to impose a moratorium right now.
Atty Spinner said local governments have authority to regulate land use within their
districts. Municipal home rule is the authority.
J Bartolini replied home rule does not just allow the town to impose a moratorium. The
town has to meet three criteria. He read from a legal case in Binghamton that he said caused a
moratorium to be thrown out. The first criteria to impose a moratorium is that it is in response
to a dire necessity and he asked what the dire necessity was. Atty Spinner said to promote the
health, safety, and welfare of the community. J Bartolini argued that “dire” means an
immediate danger.
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Atty Spinner said Bartolini is talking about the police power version behind the
moratorium, not the land use version behind a moratorium.
J Bartolini said the second criteria is that it is reasonably calculated to alleviate or
prevent a crisis condition. What would be the crisis condition?
Supv Leifer said that is the point of studying this.
S Osmeloski said the crisis condition is that we don’t have enough power in this town to
support the business. Cl Lamb was just saying that we have developments that are on hold
because we lack electricity.
J Bartolini asked if the developments needed a permit to be built and received a positive
response. He said he does not need a permit. He has a right. He sees what the town has been
doing for 40 years.
The next criteria is that the municipality is presently taking steps to rectify the problem,
and he asked what the town has been doing to rectify the electrical problem.
J Osmeloski said getting solar. Cl Lamb said the town is working with our power
company, NYSEG, to improve the strength of the grid in this area because it has to be
upgraded. There is a long-term plan to upgrade the grid because we have more solar farms
coming online.
Cl Buck noted that the town is currently in the midst of reviewing and updating our
zoning.
J Bartolini asked what steps the town has been taking regarding crypto prevention.
North Tonawanda had horrible Frankenstein noise and pollution. He thinks there was an
issue closer, in Groton, which had a dam and was generating up to 100 kw of their own power.
It was very economical for the neighborhood and then the miners moved in, sucking up all
their power. All the neighbors had to pay a very high rate of electricity, and it jacked
everybody’s bills up. That’s a big problem. New York State wanted to ban crypto. He wants the
board to understand that up until Trump, he voted Democrat.
Supv Leifer asked that comments focus on the proposed moratorium. We don’t need to
get into politics; it is completely irrelevant to what we are doing here. It appears that there are
people waiting to comment and he needs to move on to them.
J Bartolini said this is a very complex matter that the town had not touched upon until
he bought that building. He can’t do what he has to do in three to f our minutes. This has to
be worked out and hashed out. He put it in writing and three to f our minutes is not going to
do it. The problem won’t be solved by quieting him down. If the board doesn’t give him an
opportunity to present stuff right now, the board will get one more charge on the first
amendment violations. He is not getting taken off track. Everyone else here spoke about other
issues. He is speaking to all the complex issues as they relate.
M Witman asked if during the moratorium there would be any additional public
hearings about this issue. She was told the town would take the time to study the issue. It
would become part of the discussions during the zoning rewrite that is already under way. If
the town board should decide to establish a committee to address this specifically, those
committee meetings would be public as well.
Supv Leifer said that is where we would get into the specific issues such as noise,
power, and other things.
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Cl Lamb added that prior to passing the new zoning law there would be public meetings
about different provisions of the zoning law such as where we think this industry would go and
at what level and size.
M Witman said she understood they would look at environmental issues and power
levels and asked about health effects. She was told that would be included in the study, as
well as the effects of steady levels of noise on people. That was also brought up during the
fracking discussions.
Cl Buck said she expects the fire departments will have questions such as would
additional training or equipment be required in order to service the community with this
changing industry.
Atty Spinner noted there are dozens of towns across the state that put in solar farm
moratoriums while they established regulations. It’s a land use moratorium to allow the town
to study it and make sure that their code is properly regulating those items.
Cl Lamb noted the reason Plattsburgh put a moratorium in place was the increased
demand for electricity and what it was doing to residential energy prices. Those prices spiked
and they had to do something about it. What the town is doing here is not inventing the wheel.
Other towns have done this to protect their residents.
Atty Spinner said the town does not have to wait until it has a problem to put in a
moratorium. It can be proactively addressed.
Cl Lamb noted that not one resident has come out and said they like the sound of this
project. A number of residents have relayed their concerns.
Cl Buck said she received feedback from the Conservation Board last night.
Cl Lamb said there have been private emails and conversations, but he can’t disclose
them. Supv Leifer said this is a public hearing on the local law, not on the project, so going
into details about what J Bartolini may or may not build is not in front of this board, nor is it
the question that was brought to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
J Bartolini said normal people are intimidated by towns, municipalities, and officials.
What the town is doing to him right now is very intimidating and he would like it stopped.
Supv Leifer said he read what J Bartolini wrote and it was clearly written to intimidate the
town. He asked J Bartolini to talk about the proposed law. Board members have given several
reasons why they believe a moratorium might be appropriate. It has not been voted on yet, and
there are still two other people on Zoom who may want to comment as well.
J Bartolini said he was not aware that the Town Supervisor was an attorney. He said if
this law passes tonight, he will bring two actions.
Atty Spinner suggested that there be no more dialogue back and forth and instead the
board hear comments. Supv Leifer said Bartolini could have another four or five minutes.
J Bartolini continued: In response to a dire necessity, is there one? (silence) He’ll take
that as a no. Reasonably calculated to alleviate or prevent a crisis condition. What is the
crisis? (silence) He’ll take that as a no. That the municipality is presently taking steps to
rectify the problem? (silence) He’ll take that as a no because there is no problem. His project
which has been referred to tonight, he didn’t bring it up. It is the subject here. We know it. It
caused this meeting to happen. The town was not nice to him and hasn’t let him turn on his
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power in the building, not at all, not even for a coffee machine. The town is cheating on the
zoning law. The town has a wonderful constitution here and has a noise code. It protects
everyone. His voice because of his culture is loud. He is probably speaking at peaks of 68 and
70 decibels. The town’s residential property is protected at night from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am at
58 decibels. The whirring being heard by the Osmeloskis is probably about 55. You can
download an app on your phone and determine what the decibel level is. Your right is to stand
on your property line with a decibel meter and determine how much noise is coming over your
property line. The code is very clear.
J Bartolini submitted a case (Vestal Gas Coalition vs the City of Binghamton) into
evidence and will email it to the town clerk tomorrow.
This law cannot be passed. It cannot be signed tonight. He asked that the town afford
him the opportunity to put a memorandum of law together on why it will be acting illegally in
passing this moratorium. Supv Leifer said he could do so.
Supv Leifer asked for comments from those attending via Zoom.
Michael Gill – no comment.
V40 ThinQ – no comment.
Loren Sparling said he is speaking as a resident of Dryden, but for transparency, he is
also the Deputy Town Clerk and a former Town Board member. Both he and his partner
strongly believe a study of cryptocurrency data mining should be employed. This is a big
problem in central and upstate New York. He is from Peekskill and there is a reason he moved
to Dryden from Westchester. This is a general study of the impact that cryptocurrency data
mining operations can have on a rural town heavily invested in tradition. He encourages the
town board to pass this local law for a moratorium. This is not project specific. This is a
general study of what is to come. Dryden has made a reputation for itself and has stood up
against fracking operations, and this is the next fracking operation.
Cl Buck said she is not informed enough at this point in time about cryptocurrency or
these services. She is here in this role to represent the people of the community, including J
Bartolini as a property owner. She also wants to be clear that Dryden is not an anti-business
community. Part of our due diligence in things like zoning is to help ensure that we set people
up for success as well. She would much rather help ensure that our zoning is in place when
businesses do go in for long-term success, whether it is a small business or a large business.
People invest their time, money and dreams to get businesses started and part of doing it
responsibly is to make sure that the services that the town is providing for the people who live
here are done right for long term, for sustainable operations, for business, the environment,
and all sides of it. She means it. We need to be smart and thoughtful as we move forward. It’s
a longer-term payoff.
J Bartolini said we’re here tonight because of him.
S Buck said his business might be the first to initiate the conversations, but this is a
fairly new type of business that is growing across the planet. He might be the first one, but it
is not because of him. The town needs to do the right thing in the long term.
J Bartolini said the town’s code is wonderful. It provides noise restrictions that are
unbeatable, and that’s good for the neighbors. If he couldn’t be there, he wouldn’t try. The
zoning is proper. It’s too broad and needs to be narrowed.
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Cl Vargas-Mendez said the board has already allowed over eight minutes for comments
from this particular resident.
J Bartolini said at this point he would leave, because the board was trying to silence
him. He’s kind of done. The board has been rude, not letting them turn their power on, has
not let him speak and every time he has to respond to a point that someone else brings up….
Cl Vargas-Mendez said Bartolini is the only one who has spoken for over twenty
minutes…
J Bartolini said if this passes tonight, the town will be getting a federal lawsuit and a 78
in no time. If anyone would like to talk to him, they are welcome to call him.
J Osmeloski said he has had his battles with the town and whenever he battles the
town, he only got three minutes. That is what they always gave him. That’s what they give.
There was no further public comment and Supv Leifer closed the public hearing at 6:23
p.m.
Cl Lamb said he doesn’t adhere to Bartolini’s arguments against this. He sees this as
an action with precedence, with North Tonawanda and Plattsburgh and the research he did
leading into this, which made him think this is a simple procedural thing the town should do
given, in particular, our zoning update that is underway right now. If that weren’t being done,
he wouldn’t think we were on as firm a ground. It is his sense that this gives us justification.
Atty Spinner said the best analogy to this question is that every town around here when
they received the first solar farm application and saw the extent of it and the potential impacts
of what that would do, they put in a solar moratorium so they could study it. During the
moratorium they had committees that studied it, developed a solar energy systems law, and
regulated non-commercial vs commercial. Bartolini’s claim is that it is a targeted moratorium
on him. He will read the case, but there are two k inds of moratoriums. There is an emergency
moratorium and the land use moratorium. The police power moratorium is to put a freeze on a
pending issue. This land use moratorium is to proactively address a certain kind of land use
so it does not become an issue in the future. This is a land use moratorium.
Cl Vargas-Mendez said the town does have the right, particularly since we are going
through a potential revision and update of the zoning law, to give us the time to look into this
kind of new business. We don’t have enough understanding of the impact.
Cl Lamb asked whether the upcoming ZBA hearing would have an impact.
Atty Spinner explained that Bartolini’s application was turned down because it was not
considered a permitted use. He is appealing that decision to the ZBA saying he has a service
business that is a permitted use. The ZBA will look at the zoning code, l ook at this specific
business, and see if it is the type and nature of the service businesses that are permitted uses.
If they say no, his remedy is an Article 78. If they say yes, he won’t be able to get a permit if
the moratorium passes tonight.
Cl Buck pointed out this isn’t about Bartolini. This is really about what are the right
long-term needs for our community. And one of the reasons we need to do this zoning rewrite
is because technology is changing so fast.
Atty Spinner said a fair reading of this is that he is saying that the town is targeting him
through this.
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Supv Leifer said one of the problems is the power draw. If he were to set up and then
other companies come, our grid can only handle a certain amount. We’ve had to work with
NYSEG for housing and for the solar projects.
Cl Vargas-Mendez said there is a potential for many impacts. The immediate one is the
question of power. We’ve also heard what has happened with issues of prior services. We need
this opportunity to have a time to learn more than we know now about the consequences of
bringing this kind of business to town and have reasonable regulations that provide for the
wellbeing of most of our residents.
Atty Spinner noted that the legal test in an Article 78 is whether the town board’s
action, in this case passing this moratorium, was not arbitrary and capricious, meaning there
was a good faith, valid reason for it, which board members have said in one form or another.
Cl Buck pointed out that J Bartolini said himself that this is a very complex issue. It’s
not just about him; this is a complex issue that we need to understand and take care of. There
may be things about it that we don’t know to ask until we study it. We need time to make sure
we do right by the whole community, including him.
Atty Spinner said he doesn’t know what the end result will be from a legal standpoint at
the end of the moratorium, but the idea that someone can walk in with an application for a
service business permit and just walk out with any type of review for something that draws this
much power, that makes this much noise…
Cl Lamb said he didn’t see the number for power. How much power does it draw?
Because the small ones can go up to ten or fifteen megawatts.
Supv Leifer said the website talks about price per kilowatt hour. The reason that they
list the price is so that people can figure out the cost it takes to mine whatever coin that they
are doing. There was a case in China where the mine shut down because the cost of electricity
got so high that it became unprofitable to do the mining.
Cl Buck said it’s not just crypto; this also includes huge data centers, which need to be
part of the study.
Supv Leifer said if one uses up the amount of energy available on the grid, other
businesses or housing, that we might want couldn’t come here.
Atty Spinner said the town has a comprehensive plan that encourages certain types of
development. If something like this thwarts areas of the comprehensive plan, it needs to be
looked at.
Other comments during discussion:
• The town should also consider AI data farms.
• Companies that do this are often in remote locations because there is a lot of
competition for power.
• Our world is running on data. It is not that we are biased against data, but we need to
understand so we do the right thing.
• If the town were sued, it would be a relatively quick proceeding.
• The intended property is very small. The state has said no one can park in front of the
building. There is limited parking behind. If it were to move forward , there would be
other obstacles blocking him such as 15 feet between the building and the property
line. It has 60 feet of frontage.
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• It could take a lot of water to cool these things, and that should be studied.
• If this use was allowed, it would need to be by special permit, and each site considered.
RESOLUTION #127 (2024) – APPROVING LOCAL LAW #2 OF 2024 – A MORATORIUM ON
COMMERCIAL CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING OPERATIONS
AND DATA PROCESSING CENTERS
Supv Leifer offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption:
WHEREAS, the Town of Dryden scheduled a public hearing for July 31, 2024 at 5:30
p.m. for Local Law No. 2 of 2024 entitled “A LOCAL LAW AFFECTING A MORATORIUM ON
COMMERCIAL CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING OPERATIONS AND DATA PROCESSING
CENTERS”; and
WHEREAS, notice of said public hearing was duly advertised in the official newspaper of
the Town and posted on the Town Clerk’s signboard; and
WHEREAS, the Tompkins County Planning Department reviewed the Local Law pursuant
to GML § 239-m and has issued a report thereon; and
WHEREAS, the Planning Board of the Town of Dryden reviewed the Local Law and gave
an advisory opinion on it at their meeting on July 25, 2024;
WHEREAS, said public hearing was duly held on the 31st day of July, 2024 at 5:30 p.m.
and all parties in attendance were permitted an opportunity to speak on behalf of or in opposition
to said proposed Local Law, or any part thereof; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, it has been
determined by the Town Board that adoption of the proposed Local Law constitutes a Type II
Action as defined under 6 NYCRR 617.5(c)(33) and (36).
WHEREAS, the Town Board, after due deliberation, finds it in the best interest of the
Town to adopt said Local Law.
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board hereby adopts said local law
as Local Law No. 2 of 2024 entitled “A LOCAL LAW AFFECTING A MORATORIUM ON
COMMERCIAL CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING OPERATIONS AND DATA PROCESSING
CENTERS”; a copy of which is attached hereto and made a part hereof; and be it further
RESOLVED that the Town Clerk be and hereby is directed to enter said Local Law in the
minutes of this meeting and to give due notice of the adoption of said Local Law to the Secretary
of State; and be it further
RESOLVED that this resolution will take effect upon filing with the Department of State.
2nd Cl Lamb
Roll Call Vote Cl Vargas-Mendez Yes
Cl Buck Yes
Cl Lamb Yes
Supv Leifer Yes
Supv Leifer said that was probably the longest anyone was ever allowed to comment at
a public hearing.
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There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:38 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Bambi L. Avery
Town Clerk
