Data centers in Otsego County, New York: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Otsego County's data center fight has played out in the Town of Oneonta, where a startup called Eco-Yotta Inc. applied to rezone 357 County Highway 9, in the town's West End, from residential-agricultural use to a planned development district that could allow a data center. The request was first announced in July 2025. At an Oct. 8, 2025 town board meeting attended by more than 60 people, AllOtsego reported, Eco-Yotta's representatives said the proposal was no longer a "data center" but a utility used for agriculture, with heat from computers in a 10,000-square-foot barn used to grow crops. Residents raised water use and pollution, noise and light, abandonment of the facility and higher electric bills. Will Rivera, then a candidate for town supervisor, told the board, "Someone pays and it's never the developer; it's the people." The board tabled the application pending more information.

Rivera won the supervisor's seat. On Feb. 11, 2026 the town board voted 3-2 against scheduling a public hearing on a one-year moratorium drafted by the town attorney. Board members Joe Camarata, Brett Holleran and Teresa DeSantis said they had received the draft only minutes before the meeting; Rivera and Deputy Supervisor Patricia Riddell Kent voted in favor. Resident Georgia B. Smith submitted a petition with about 680 signatures supporting a moratorium. The board took the measure up again in March, held a public hearing on April 8, and in May 2026 voted unanimously for a 12-month moratorium on AI data centers and commercial crypto mining, WBNG reported. "We had over 700 of our constituents who submitted the petition to us sharing that they do not approve of these kinds of facilities to being developed," Rivera said. He said the board hopes to ban data centers after the moratorium runs out, and at a March committee meeting he had argued for denying the zone change outright.

The City of Oneonta, which is separate from the town, began drafting its own moratorium in spring 2026. Council member Scott Harrington said the city should adopt one for at least a year, and council members named water use as a main concern, The Daily Star reported. Separately, in November 2025 AllOtsego reported that two unnamed companies had asked Otsego Now, the county development agency, about building a data center at the Oneonta Rail Yards. Otsego Now CEO Jody Zakrevsky called the ideas "not viable" with the site's current infrastructure, noting "very limited gas, if any" and that the electric service "would have to be completely upgraded."

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.