The South Bristol Town Board will hold a public hearing Oct. 12 on a proposed zoning law that would prohibit data centers and artificial intelligence computing facilities throughout the Ontario County town.
The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 6500 West Gannett Hill Road. The town is inviting residents, business owners and other interested people to comment before the board considers the proposal. No vote on the law has been announced.
The draft local law would add definitions for data centers and AI computing facilities to the town's zoning code. It would prohibit use of land for either type of facility, along with infrastructure needed to operate a data center, including server buildings, cooling and water-supply systems, backup power equipment and electrical substations.
The draft defines several types of data centers, from enterprise and colocation facilities to larger hyperscale operations and smaller edge or residence-based systems. Its data-center definition excludes facilities used primarily for the internal operations of licensed health care facilities or providers, provided they do not serve as commercial processing or colocation sites for unaffiliated entities. The separate prohibition on AI computing facilities is written broadly.
The Town Board's Sept. 14 hearing resolution set the Oct. 12 date and directed the town clerk to post the proposed law. The publicly posted draft has blank adoption and filing fields; it is not an enacted ban. If adopted, it says it would take effect upon filing with the state.
Town Supervisor Lisa Moore said the proposal is intended to protect South Bristol's natural resources and rural character. The town cited concern about the energy and water demands of large data facilities and the Canandaigua Lake watershed. Those are the town's stated reasons for considering the ban, not findings that a data center has been proposed in South Bristol.
People may speak at the hearing or submit written comments for the public record, according to the town's announcement. The announcement did not specify a written-comment deadline or submission method. The town clerk can be reached through the town's website for current meeting information.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.