For months, residents in Beacon, East Fishkill and the Town of Fishkill have been spotting signs for a potential data center proposed to be built in East Fishkill. Several protesters from these communities gathered at East Fishkill’s Town Hall in May 2026 for their Town Board Meeting (equivalent of Beacon’s City Council Meetings). Elected officials like Lisa Kaul, when she was running for New York State Senate District 39, have been speaking out about it, and positioning postcard mailers around the concept of No Data Centers.

But is there a data center coming to East Fishkill?

To find out the status of a proposed data center in East Fishkill, ALBB reached out to and spoke with Nick D’Alessandro, the East Fishkill Town Supervisor. On May 27, 2026, he told ALBB via phone: "There is no application. This is crazy.”

The professional trade organization which represents the Hudson Valley and Westchseter construction industries, Contractor Industry Council (CIC) and Building Contractor Association (BCA), published an article on May 26, 2026, which quoted Nick as saying: “No site plan, special permit application, zoning request, or other development application has been submitted to the town for review,” Mr. D’Alessando stated.

Are Data Centers Even Permitted In Zoning Law In East Fishkill?

No. The Town Supervisor Nick confirmed to ALBB that a data center is not permitted in an industrial site. However, Nick said: “Data centers are all around us. Very small ones. But they are necessary for chip productions. They never made any news because they are very small.”

In the May 26, 2026 interview with ALBB about this speculated data center, Nick gave ALBB the background to this data center development: “This property is an industrial property in town. They have a current application in for a warehouse. A logistics center. The town was in the midst of doing our Master Plan. During that process, we put a moratorium on industrial properties until we completed our Master Plan. That moratorium is set to expire at the end of June 2026.”

During that timeline, Nick told ALBB, the property owner came to East Fishkill and said: “We might want to change it from a warehouse to make it a data center.”

Nick continued: "But we know there is no power in this area. We dealt with this all the time with former IBM East and West centers. There is only 50 megawatt available."

Thus making the idea of this data center obsolete, ALBB asked? "Right. Then it doesn't matter. But he [the developer] didn't believe us. He made an application on how much power is available."

Nick continued: “We really didn't think much of it. But this grew legs.” Social media started blowing up with shares of a proposed data center for many more megawatts than are available. Food & Water Watch helped organize protests at the East Fishkill Town Hall meeting, and Lisa Kaul gave her speech against data centers in East Fishkill, which circulated widely on Instagram. In their promotional materials, neither Lisa Kaul nor Food & Water Watch seemed to mention the existing zoning laws that would not support or allow this data center.

“As we looked into this, specially data center, we found it is not listed as permitted use in any industrial site. It got better for us! But to calm everybody, we put up a resolution last week [in May] to extend our moratorium in industrial sites. Next month in June, we will hold our Public Hearing. We also put language in there on moratorium on data centers as well. To double and triple down.”

Nick continued: “The people don't want them in any other areas. But it doesn’t matter - we have to do what the law says.”

But don’t municipal laws change with new resolutions, ALBB asked? Nick answered: “It can't supersede a state law.”

What Does New York State Law Say About Data Centers?

“New York State is now looking at putting a moratorium on data centers. That would apply to anything new. Then it doesn't matter what we say.”

While Nick was trying to find cover under state law to not deal with the title wave of local pushback, NY State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, who is also Chair of the Senate Internet and Technology Committee, passed a Data Center Moratorium - the first in the nation if signed. However, Governor Kathy Hochul has not signed it yet, and has until the end of the year to veto it. Today (Wednesday, June 24, 2026) New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. said he supports a nationwide moratorium on new data centers.

As for the details of Senator Kristen Gonzalez’s New York legislation named The Responsible Data Center Development Act (S.10462): “legislation requiring environmental impact assessments, new rate classes for electricity and water usage, and labor protections on the development of data centers. It notably includes a one-year statewide moratorium on new data center permits for hyperscale facilities with a peak load of over 20 Megawatts.”

Back to East Fishkill

Nick seemed unaccustomed to such a public turnout to reject the hint of a local development. “We had a lot of people come to the last Town Board Meeting. That meeting wasn’t the time to discuss this. The Public Hearing is next month [June]. But all the people in the public were from Fishkill and Beacon. And the people speaking were running for public office.”

As politics entered the scene, the zoning details seemed to have gotten lost. Before publishing this article, ALBB reached back out to Town Supervisor Nick to check on the latest status. He said: “Moratorium is set for this Thursday and I feel it will pass. It will be a 3 year moratorium on data centers. The existing moratorium on all industrial properties will be extended for 7 months. We have heard nothing from the developer.”

Just an hour before ALBB reached out to him, Nick had published his own statement on Facebook:

There’s a lot of misinformation being spread about “data centers” in East Fishkill. Let’s set the record straight:

There is NO application before the Town. There has NEVER been an application for a data center.

In fact, under our current zoning, data centers are not even listed as a permissible use in our industrial zones.

Despite that, the Town Board is taking the proactive step of introducing a 3-year moratorium on data centers to give our community certainty and allow time for further study and discussion.

That’s what responsible government looks like: acting on facts, not fear.

Unfortunately, some are choosing to politicize this issue, spread panic, and organize protests over something that does not exist. Residents deserve honesty — not hysteria.

The Town Board will continue to lead with transparency, facts, and what’s best for East Fishkill.

At some point facts have to matter.

Town Supervisor Nick’s response was met with mixed reviews. Some applauded him for his straightforward tone, while others felt spoken down to. Do Hudson Valley residents have reason for concern which necessitated an aggressive, pro-active approach to block data center construction? Yes.

What A Local Professional Construction Trade Organization Says About Data Centers

“Locally, Rockland County has seen a number of data center developments, including projects by DataBank and JP Morgan in Orangeburg, with DataBank looking to build another in the county,” CICBCA reported. “However, data center construction, which is on the rise, has mainly occurred outside of the New York metro region and is facing backlash.”

The article went on to highlight a study by Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate firm, which reported that the data center sector continues expanding, but is facing pushback. “Across the region,” the report stated, “governments, utilities and local jurisdictions are introducing new regulatory guardrails and infrastructure requirements designed to oversee power demand, land and natural resource use, and long-term grid stability. Regulatory changes are increasingly shaping how and where development occurs. New permitting rules, zoning adjustments, infrastructure cost-sharing requirements, and local moratoriums are slowing approvals in several established markets and pushing activity toward tertiary locations where power availability, permitting timelines, and land availability provide faster paths to deployment.”

Based on this report, it seems that actions from locals working to block data centers in East Fishkill, and responses from local leadership, did align to so far bottleneck the path to data center approval. This may be one of the few times that different political leanings did align, but acknowledgement for such is necessary in order to proceed more united.