Niagara Falls, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Niagara Falls Planning Board is set to have a public hearing Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers for community comment on proposed changes to the city's zoning code which will apply restrictions and limit location on high-use energy facilities in the area, specifically bitcoin mining facilities and marijuana grow-ops.
"While the city welcomes these mining operations into the community, the key to this now is making sure that they are also good neighbors with regard to the residential areas," said Niagara Falls Mayor Rob Restaino.
"The changes will confine mining operations to industrial or business park areas. You know, this is an old city and it isn't as though these locations are set off out in the wilderness. They are often adjacent to residential areas. Part of our zoning ordinance will include distance as well as decibel levels. We'll try to do what we can to allow the industry to continue, but also take into consideration the impact that they have had since their arrival on the residential areas that are adjacent to them," said Mayor Restaino.
This hearing is the next step in making zoning code amendments before the expiration of the moratorium (temporary prohibition) placed on the siting of high-energy use facilities, which was extended until September 13th.
These amendments are an addition to the current industrial zoning laws and will set precedent for high-use energy facilities to come. In addition to the noise levels and distance aspect of this plan, they expect the facilities to be more environmentally cautious, which will be included in this bill.
"Electronic waste disposal, all of those things that are also environmentally sensitive, the zoning ordinance attempts to take these high-energy users and make them responsible with regard to the energy they use, with regard to the noise they may generate and then relative to whatever electronic waste they may generate to be properly disposed," said the mayor.
What is bitcoin mining? Bitcoin mining is essentially the competitive process that verifies and adds new transactions to the blockchain market for a cryptocurrency (bitcoin) that uses the proof-of-work (PoW) method, which requires a lot of computer energy to generate, which is responsible for the whirring you can hear a mile away if you're located near a large mining facility.
North Tonawanda has a bitcoin mining facility on Erie Avenue called Digihost. There have been many complaints of noise from that plant as well as the several companies in Niagara Falls. North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec, when he served on the Common Council, called for a moratorium before the company moved to the city, but was overruled. He has now been in contact with the company on installing noise cancelling barriers in their facility in attempt to reduce the noise.
"The owner of Digihost and their managers worked with us," said Mayor Tylec. "They understood that noise was an issue and started modifying their pods to insulate that noise. Right now even they got approved for a quite large, quite tall wall that they'll be putting along Erie Avenue there that will definitely help dampen the noise as well."
"Work with the companies and see what they'll do to accommodate the surrounding area. We were lucky, my office has been lucky that they have been really easy to communicate with. They're open to ideas. They're trying to get more involved in our community, and certainly helped with this noise piece. We haven't had any complaints as of late but you never know. They're not running at 100% right now. We'll see what what happens when that that happens," said Mayor Tylec.
What's to follow after the Niagara Fall Planning Board hearing?
City council has requested the planning board to meet on August 10th to consider a recommendation on the amendments. The city council set its own public hearing on the zoning code changes for August 17th, which would allow the council to take a final action on the change during their scheduled meeting on September 7th.
"Because this is a zoning change, they (Niagara County Planning Board) need to have a chance to look at the ordinance and they've approved it. So I anticipate that subsequent to this public hearing, we're hoping the local planning board will approve it as well and recommend its inclusion to the city council. I know the city council is prepared to advance this statute because they've heard from the community as well," Restaino said.