For one year from the law’s effective date, or until the law is repealed earlier, the Town may not accept, process, approve, conditionally approve, or issue permits or other Town-level approvals for constructing, establishing, using, or operating a data center or commercial cryptocurrency-mining operation.

Beginning on the effective date, no person may use or permit the use of any land, water, building, or structure anywhere in the Town for a data center or commercial cryptocurrency-mining operation.

The moratorium applies to all real property within the Town.

Failure by the Town Board, Planning Board, or Code Enforcement Officer to act on an application cannot result in approval by default or approval based on the expiration of a response period.

Data centers or commercial cryptocurrency-mining operations that were lawfully approved and operating before the law’s effective date may continue only as legal pre-existing nonconforming uses and must comply with applicable laws, regulations, and required permits.

A grandfathered data center or commercial cryptocurrency-mining operation may not expand; any expansion is prohibited by the moratorium.

A person seeking relief from the moratorium must obtain a hardship use variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals after public notice and a hearing.

To obtain a hardship use variance, an applicant must prove that every permitted use would fail to provide a reasonable return, that the hardship is unique, that the variance would not change the neighborhood’s essential character, and that the hardship was not self-created.

Any hardship variance must be the minimum variance necessary and must comply with all other applicable Town land-use laws and regulations.

The law exempts data centers used solely for qualifying health or medical services, educational services for a municipality or political subdivision, governmental functions for a municipality or political subdivision, or facilities consuming or projected to consume less than the law’s specified annual kilowatt-hour threshold; the provided text leaves that threshold blank.

The Code Enforcement Officer may issue written compliance orders requiring violations to be remedied and may issue appearance tickets for violations.

A violation may result in a fine of up to $250, imprisonment for up to 15 days, or both; each week of continued violation is a separate additional violation.

Violators may also face a civil penalty of up to $2,500 for each day or part of a day that the violation continues.

The Town may seek court-ordered injunctive relief and reimbursement of enforcement and remediation costs, including reasonable attorney’s fees.

Lawfully approved data centers operating when the law takes effect may continue as pre-existing, nonconforming uses, provided they comply with applicable laws, regulations, and required permits. This protection does not allow expansion.

Certain data centers are exempt from the moratorium when they operate solely for qualifying municipal health or medical services, educational services, government functions, or facilities below the specified annual electricity-consumption threshold. The threshold is left blank in the measure.

The Zoning Board of Appeals may grant a hardship use variance allowing a data center or commercial cryptocurrency-mining operation if the applicant proves unnecessary hardship, including substantial inability to obtain a reasonable return, unique property-specific hardship, no change to the neighborhood's essential character, and no self-created hardship. Any approval must satisfy other applicable land-use laws and be limited to the minimum necessary variance.