--- title: "435 Megawatts Approved, 635 Planned: Massena, NY Votes 3-2 Against a Data Center Pause" description: Massena Town Board voted against a six-month moratorium on data center development, allowing a significant NYDIG project to proceed amid community concerns. image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66525ec138843cc1ccb1c325/68c301ebaa36be33aa2af8f7_1a3f16114a452999cc4d7d6b36ae1602_Obedio%20march%20of%20progress.png --- [Skip to content](https://hs.getobedio.com/blog/435-megawatts-approved-635-planned-massena-ny-votes-3-2-against-a-data-center-pause#main-content) [![Obedio logo with black text and an orange graphic composed of four circles and a diagonal arrow pointing up and right.](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66525ec138843cc1ccb1c325/66529844eddaa630d6da1b42_obedio%20gold%20for%20white%20background.png)](https://getobedio.com) [Team](https://www.getobedio.com/team) [Pricing](https://www.getobedio.com/pricing) [Contact](https://www.getobedio.com/demo) [Blog](https://www.getobedio.com/blog) [Login](https://obed.io/v4/login) Data Center Local Municipalities New York # 435 Megawatts Approved, 635 Planned: Massena, NY Votes 3-2 Against a Data Center Pause ![Obedio research](https://7528315.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528315/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-cms-elevate-theme_hubspot/elevate/images/avatar-placeholder.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=avatar-placeholder.jpg) Obedio research October 9, 2026 On September 16, 2026, the Massena Town Board in St. Lawrence County, New York, voted 3-2 against a six-month pause on data center development. The pause, a temporary rule known as a moratorium, would have stopped local approvals for new or larger data centers while the town wrote rules for them. Supervisor Raymond Lancto and Council Member Kristy Baker voted for it. Council Members Sam Carbone, Adrian Taraska and Jared Hollander voted against it, according to the Board's minutes. The vote leaves one large project moving through the town. NY Digital Investment Group, known as NYDIG, has asked the Town Planning Board to approve a site plan for an approximately 635-megawatt (MW) data center campus at 182 and 194 County Route 45. Its affiliate, North Country Colocation Services (NCCS), has operated in Massena since 2017. Its project page says the new campus would replace the bitcoin mining now on the site. The Planning Board's minutes of August 20 say 435 MW of that load has been approved by the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the group that runs the state's power grid. Another 200 MW request is pending. The company told the board the project does not need the extra 200 MW to proceed. ## At a Glance - **Item:** A local law for a six-month moratorium on data center development. Resolution 147-2026 records that it failed. - **Vote:** 2-3. For: Lancto and Baker. Against: Carbone, Taraska and Hollander. Baker made the motion and Lancto seconded it. - **Applicant:** NY Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), with its affiliate NCCS. NYDIG's chief financial officer, John Dalby, told the Planning Board both are subsidiaries of Stone Ridge Holdings Group. - **Project:** About 635 MW. Two buildings totaling about 870,000 square feet. 64 emergency generators. - **Power:** 435 MW approved by the grid operator. 200 MW more requested. - **Review status:** No Planning Board approval yet. The state environmental review had not formally started as of September 17. - **Next Town Board meeting:** October 21, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. ## How the Vote Came About On August 5, the Watertown Daily Times reported that Massena resident David Fenton was collecting signatures to ask the Town Board for a public vote on a three-year moratorium. Fenton told the paper he needed signatures from 5 percent of town residents who voted in the 2022 race for governor, which he put at 174 people. At the August 19 Town Board meeting, Fenton presented a petition that the minutes describe as having over 1,200 signatures in support of a three-year moratorium. Lancto accepted it. A speaker from NCCS answered with a list of benefits, according to the minutes: $7 million in commitments within the first two years, possible tax cuts and about 200 jobs. The Board then voted 5-0 to schedule a hearing on a shorter, six-month moratorium. The September 16 hearing ran 76 minutes. The minutes say attendees included labor unions, environmental advocates, Akwesasne community members, engineers and longtime residents, and that comments were both for and against the project. The Board then voted the moratorium down. Later that night, the Board voted 4-0, with Lancto excused, to form a working group on data centers made up of Carbone and Hollander. The minutes do not show the Board acting on the request for a public vote. ## Who NYDIG Is NYDIG is a New York-based bitcoin company. It is part of Stone Ridge Holdings Group, the asset management firm co-founded by Ross Stevens. NYDIG's chief financial officer, John Dalby, confirmed that ownership to the Planning Board on September 17. NYDIG offers bitcoin custody, trading and financing, and it has built a large bitcoin mining business. Dalby told the board the company is now moving into data centers. - Dalby said NYDIG runs about 20 sites in the U.S. and Canada, with nearly 1 gigawatt (1,000 MW) in operation and 500 MW in development. - He said it has four or five artificial intelligence data centers in development, and that Massena would be its largest. - In March 2025, NYDIG agreed to buy the bitcoin mining business of Crusoe. Crusoe said that business totaled more than 250 MW across seven states and Argentina, with about 135 employees. The same release named Tejas Shah as NYDIG's chief executive. NYDIG's path to Massena runs through Coinmint. Coinmint has hosted bitcoin mining at the former Alcoa smelter under a 10-year lease with Alcoa signed in 2018, The Block reported in April 2026. NYDIG took a stake in Coinmint in October 2024. After that, outside mining customers CleanSpark, Gryphon and Bit Digital said they would not renew their contracts, which freed about 110 MW, according to TheEnergyMag. NYDIG's Coinmint deal is also the subject of a lawsuit. Mintvest Capital, which says it owns 18.2 percent of Coinmint, has sued NYDIG in federal court in Puerto Rico. It alleges NYDIG effectively bought Coinmint for about $200 million without paying Mintvest fairly. NYDIG declined to comment on the case, TheEnergyMag reported in January 2025. NYDIG may also end up owning the land. In April 2026, Bloomberg reported that Alcoa was in advanced talks to sell its Massena East site to NYDIG. The Block, citing Bloomberg, described it as about 1,300 acres and a 435 MW hydropower site, with the deal expected to close in mid-2026. Obedio could not confirm whether the sale has closed. The 435 MW figure is the same amount the Planning Board minutes say the grid operator has approved. The town's records use several names tied to the project: NYDIG on the site plan, NCCS as the local operator, North Country Data Center on the escrow agreement, and Coinmint on the Planning Board's agenda. Together, the Coinmint stake, the lawsuit and the pending land sale bear on who will control the site and its power. ## What NYDIG Wants to Build The plan has shrunk since it was first filed. At the August 20 Planning Board meeting, the company said it had cut the number of buildings from three to two. Floor area fell from about 1.5 million square feet to about 870,000. Emergency generators fell from 314 to 64. The site would be split into four lots, one of them for a new substation. The company said the buildings will use a closed-loop cooling system. That means the cooling liquid is sealed and reused. It said no process water will be discharged to the St. Lawrence River. The system holds about 750,000 gallons of coolant. The town's noise limit for cryptocurrency mining is 60 decibels at the property line. The company's model put noise at the nearest residence, the American Amvets campground, at 40 to 50 decibels with every generator running. The company expects about 200 permanent jobs, with technicians paid about $100,000 a year on average. It said the total project cost is not yet known. ## How the Money Would Move The company outlined a host community agreement at the August 20 meeting. The minutes list $7 million when the first building is energized, $3 million when the whole campus is energized, and $3 million a year, adjusted for inflation, for 15 to 30 years. The minutes say the details are still being negotiated with the town. The company also offered a Rate Payer Pledge. It would cover any added electric costs for customers of the Massena Electric Department, the town's own utility. On its project page, NCCS says it is paying for all of about $75 million in grid upgrades. The same page estimates more than $500 million to the county, town and schools over 30 years, including about $140 million to the town. It calls those figures illustrative and non-binding. A payment in place of property taxes is being discussed with the county, the company told the Planning Board. Separately, the Town Board voted 4-1 on September 16, with Baker voting no, to approve a $250,000 escrow account to pay for the town's engineering and legal review. The Planning Board minutes say the starting figure was $100,000 before talks with NYDIG raised it. ## Where the Record Disagrees With Itself **How big is it?** The Planning Board minutes describe a campus of about 635 MW, with 435 MW approved by the grid operator. A North Country Now headline after the vote called it a 400 MW facility. **How many generators were cut?** The August 20 minutes say generators fell from 314 to 64. The company's project page says 316 to 64. **How many jobs?** The company now says about 200 permanent jobs. At the August 20 meeting, Planning Board member Shawn Burke pointed to an earlier promise of more than 160 jobs and said the site employs about 50 to 60 people. He asked: "How can we trust you about your job numbers." The company's page says about 60 people work there today. In 2024, NCCS's chief executive, David Fogel, told the Town Board the company had 85 full-time employees. **What is the executive's name?** The August 20 minutes record the company's finance chief as John Doby of NCCS. The September 17 minutes call him John Dalby of NYDIG, and that day's agenda spells it Dealy. **Brownfield or Superfund?** Dalby described the property as a brownfield site, meaning former industrial land. Jessica Jock replied that the property is a Superfund site with several orders on it, according to the minutes. Superfund is the federal program for the most contaminated sites. ## A Second Landowner Is Looking NYDIG is not the only company studying data centers in Massena. In a letter dated September 14 and filed with the hearing record, Arconic said it is evaluating data center development on part of its Massena campus. Arconic says it has been part of the Massena community since 1902. The letter says Arconic entered the state grid operator's interconnection queue in late 2025. That is the line projects join to get power from the grid. It says Arconic is advised by Cushman and Wakefield and is in talks with possible development partners. It also says no application has been filed and Arconic has not approved any project. Arconic supported the six-month pause. It said the cost of new power lines and hookups for a large new customer should be paid by that customer, not by other ratepayers. ## The State Pause and Whether It Applies On July 14, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed Executive Order 62. It pauses some state environmental permits for data centers that use 50 MW or more. The permits are issued by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The pause lasts until the state finishes a broad environmental study, and it has no fixed end date. A summary posted by the Town of Lysander says applications DEC had already found complete by July 14 are not held, and that local permits are not affected. NCCS lists DEC air and water permits among the reviews the Massena project needs. On October 7, North Country Public Radio ran a story headlined: "NY hit pause on large data centers. A massive project in Massena may be exempt." Obedio could not confirm the basis for that claim. The records Obedio reviewed do not show the status of any DEC application for the project. ## The Approval Path NYDIG filed for site plan approval and a minor subdivision in early April. It filed an updated plan in the week of August 16, according to the August 20 minutes. In June, the Planning Board asked the town Zoning Board of Appeals whether the project fits the industrial zoning. A Planning Board member said on September 17 that once the Town Board finishes rewriting that code, the Zoning Board will not need to rule. The project also needs a State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR). The Planning Board minutes call it a Type 1 review. First, the agencies involved must agree on which one leads. As of September 17, NYDIG's lawyer had not yet sent the packages that start that step. Once they go out, the agencies have 30 days to respond. Until that period ends and a lead agency is chosen, the Planning Board cannot start evaluating the review. On May 22, the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne said it strongly opposes the project and called for meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities. At the September 17 meeting, Marina Johnson said a company had placed sound monitors on Cornwall Island in July without permission from residents. ## Timeline | Date | Event | | --- | --- | | 2017 | NCCS begins operating in Massena. | | 2018 | Coinmint signs a 10-year lease with Alcoa for the smelter site, The Block reported. | | October 2024 | NYDIG takes a stake in Coinmint. | | Early April 2026 | NYDIG files for site plan approval and a minor subdivision. | | April 2026 | Bloomberg reports Alcoa is in advanced talks to sell Massena East to NYDIG. | | May 22, 2026 | Mohawk Council of Akwesasne says it opposes the project. | | June 2026 | Planning Board refers the site plan to the Zoning Board of Appeals. | | July 14, 2026 | Governor Hochul signs Executive Order 62. | | August 19, 2026 | Petition presented. Town Board votes 5-0 to hold a hearing. | | August 20, 2026 | NYDIG presents its revised plan to the Planning Board. | | September 14, 2026 | Date of Arconic letter on the moratorium. | | September 16, 2026 | Hearing held. Moratorium fails 2-3. Escrow approved. | | September 17, 2026 | Planning Board update. Review packages not yet sent. | | October 21, 2026 | Next regular Town Board meeting. | ## Why It Matters for Site Selectors and Developers Arconic's letter points to Massena's hydropower, power lines and large industrial sites. The record shows two landowners testing that. One has 435 MW approved by the grid operator. The other has joined the queue. The vote shows a local pause can fail even with a large petition behind it. The Board chose to write data center rules without a pause in place. The state order adds a second track. It holds some state permits for large data centers, but not local approvals. ## The Risks and Obstacles **The host agreement is not signed.** The payment schedule in the August 20 minutes is still being negotiated with the Town Board. **The state review has not started.** As of September 17, the lead agency step had not begun. That step takes at least 30 days. **The state pause may apply.** If a needed DEC permit was not complete by July 14, it would be held until the state study is done. ## What to Watch - The October 21 Town Board meeting and any draft local law on data centers from the new working group. - When NYDIG sends the lead agency packages, which starts the 30-day clock under the state review. - A date for the Planning Board's public hearing on the site plan, which was on its September 17 agenda. - A signed host community agreement and the final terms of the Rate Payer Pledge. - Any DEC ruling on whether the project's state permits fall under Executive Order 62. - The grid operator's decision on the extra 200 MW, and any filing by Arconic. This article is factual background and is not legal, financial, or investment advice. ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fhs.getobedio.com%2Fblog%2F435-megawatts-approved-635-planned-massena-ny-votes-3-2-against-a-data-center-pause](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fhs.getobedio.com%2Fblog%2F435-megawatts-approved-635-planned-massena-ny-votes-3-2-against-a-data-center-pause) ## Keep reading ### [New Jersey Data Center Development Data Three Votes, Two Absences: How Manchester, NJ Added Data Centers to a Redevelopment Site, and Repealed Them 5-0 a Year Later](https://hs.getobedio.com/blog/three-votes-two-absences-how-manchester-nj-added-data-centers-to-a-redevelopment-site-and-repealed-them-5-0-a-year-later) ### [Microsoft Asks Cherry Valley, IL to Extend Its Data Center Permits to 2029. The Planning Commission Voted 5-0. 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