For decades, East Fishkill helped build New York’s tech industry.
asserted
Fishkill → build → industry
The hamlet, located 70 miles north of New York City, was home to a 460-acre campus where IBM researched and manufactured semiconductor chips for nearly fifty years.
asserted
IBM → locate → years
So when the news broke in early 2026 that a real estate developer, Treetop Companies, was exploring plans for what could become one of the largest artificial intelligence (AI) datacenters in the country, a roughly 1-gigawatt campus spanning more than 1m sq ft across about 143 acres, it seemed the town would welcome a new phase in its technological evolution.
uncertain
town → break → evolution
Instead, a furious backlash erupted before even a single permit application was filed with the municipal government.
asserted
application → erupt → government
Residents began attending town board meetings, organizing rallies and advocating for a temporary ban.
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Residents → begin → ban
Even before any plans for the facility were drawn up, East Fishkill’s existing zoning laws did not allow for the construction of large data centers.
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laws → draw → centers
The town issued a three-year moratorium on them anyway, a sign of the extreme ire against datacenters.
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town → issue → datacenters
The temporary ban, adopted unanimously in late June, forbids the town from considering new datacenters larger than 20 megawatts until July of 2029, while officials study their potential impacts on water resources and local ecosystems.
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officials → adopt → resources
The development company at the center of the controversy has appealed the measure.
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company → appeal → measure
“I just think that we’re at this moment where things are happening very quickly, we need to get our ducks in a row and think about the various ways in which datacenters and new energy usage will affect our long-term community cohesiveness, environmental quality, and character,” said East Fishkill resident and professor Tanya Radford.
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Radford → think → cohesiveness
The fight unfolding in East Fishkill is a single piece of a growing divide.
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fight → unfold → divide
Both rural towns and communities that once eagerly welcomed high-tech development are increasingly questioning whether AI infrastructure adds enough local benefit to justify its enormous appetite for electricity, water and land.
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infrastructure → welcome → electricity
“This is not an anti-tech town,” said Radford.
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Radford → say → ?
“I’m an educator.
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I → ’m → ?
I use technology.”
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I → use → technology
The saga began after Treetop Development purchased property in East Fishkill, initially pursuing approvals for a warehouse development.
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Development → begin → development
Residents later discovered that the company, through local property owner Donovan Drive Holdings, had entered the queue to have a project approved that would use approximately 1,000 megawatts of electrical service, an amount more consistent with a large-scale AI datacenter than a warehouse.
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that → discover → warehouse
This request for approval was not submitted to the town of East Fishkill.
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request → submit → Fishkill
Rather, it was submitted to New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)‘s interconnection queue.
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it → submit → queue
NYISO is an independent organization responsible for managing New York’s high-voltage power grid, meaning whenever a company wants to build a massive new project, it must formally ask NYISO for permission to connect to the grid.
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it → manage → grid
For those that call East Fishkill home, the NYISO filing quickly raised concerns.
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filing → call → concerns
The proposed datacenter would consume more electricity than the entire town of Buffalo, which has about 275,000 people.
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which → propose → people
“Residents have been speaking out against it to stop any application from coming into the town for the datacenter,” said Melissa Hoffmann, an East Fishkill resident and organizer with a local chapter of Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy nonprofit.
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Hoffmann → speak → Watch
But because no formal application had been filed with East Fishkill, town officials repeatedly stressed that there was nothing before the planning board to review or reject.
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board → file → Fishkill
There has never been an application for a datacenter,” East Fishkill supervisor Nick D’Alessandro wrote on Facebook in June.
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D’Alessandro → write → June
D’Alessandro later took down the post.
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D’Alessandro → take → post
His office did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
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office → respond → comment
He stressed that standalone datacenters were “not even listed as a permissible use” under the town’s zoning laws.
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datacenters → stress → laws
Nonetheless, in June the board banned their construction for three years “to give our community certainty and allow time for further study and discussion”.
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board → ban → study
Hoffmann said months of public pressure ultimately convinced the town board to extend what had initially been discussed as a seven-month pause into a three-year moratorium.
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what → say → moratorium
Tech town
East Fishkill has often been described as an “innovation hub”, making opposition to the datacenter proposal remarkable precisely because the town has not been hostile towards new technology.
International Business Machines Corporation, better known as IBM, transformed the town during the latter half of the 20th century into one of the nation’s leading semiconductor manufacturing centers, employing thousands of workers and laying the foundation for what is now iPark 84, home to mixed-use commercial and residential facilities.
Former IBM facilities remain a defining part of the local economy, and iPark continues to house technology companies.
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iPark → describe → companies
Residents have insisted that their opposition is not meant to hinder forward-looking tech, but is directed at the unprecedented scale of emerging AI infrastructure.
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opposition → insist → infrastructure
“The pushback is really to the size,” resident Fran Caracappa, a candidate for county legislature, said.
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Caracappa → say → legislature
People do not want to pay higher electricity rates because of a larger datacenter coming in and putting pressure on the grid.”
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datacenter → want → grid
Residents have also questioned whether the supposed economic benefits justify the costs.
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benefits → question → costs
Hoffmann worried that the data center would “provide very few jobs”.
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center → worry → jobs
Caracappa similarly expressed doubt that temporary construction jobs would lead to lasting employment for locals.
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jobs → express → locals
“It’s not going to provide work to keep people here like the previous tech businesses did,” Caracappa said.
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Caracappa → go → people
“So what’s the benefit to the town?”
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benefit → ’ → town
Cozy hamlet rejects development
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hamlet → reject → development
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
