5 days ago
Falls accepts NFR data center proposal for further review
The Niagara Falls City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to 'accept as complete' an application filed with city planners by Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) to establish a Negotiated Planned Development District, also known as a Planned Unit District (PUD) for the purpose of developing a proposed $1.5 billion data center campus in the South End.
Council members also approved taking on the role of 'Lead Agency' in the environmental review of the project.
NFR's application was also referred to the Niagara Falls and Niagara County planning boards and the city's Zoning Board of Appeals for further consideration.
Members had a few questions for acting City Corporation Counsel Thomas DeBoy regarding the application. DeBoy told Member Brian Archie (D) that NFR does not own all of the roughly 53 acres of land that would comprise the total project.
'But that doesn't prevent them from filing the application,' he said.
The first stage of the project, which NFR has dubbed 'Data Center at Niagara Digital Campus PUD,' is projected to occupy the same parcel of 12 to 15 acres of prime South End tourist district land that the city has proposed to use for its Centennial Park project. Control of that land has already been awarded to the city through the courts by an eminent domain proceeding.
The city has also recently filed a claim that asserts that roughly 5 acres of the disputed land, formerly the 10th Street Park, was never properly transferred to NFR as part of a 2003 settlement of an earlier lawsuit between the Falls and the South End land owner.
The resolution, approved by the council, specifically states that nothing contained in it 'waives any rights of the city to recover the park property.'
Asked by Council Member Donta Myles if approving the application could lead to 'more litigation', DeBoy told him, 'You could be sued either way you vote.'
NFR has said its data center campus project 'is anticipated to bring 5,600 jobs to Niagara Falls during construction, as well as more than 550 permanent jobs when all phases of the data center are up and running.'
NFR's original project application, filed in October, was determined to be incomplete by city planners. At almost 500 pages then, the application called for the Data Center at Niagara Digital Campus to be developed in five phases.
The campus would include eight two-story buildings and one one-story building, for a total of 1,232,715 square feet of space. The full development would cover approximately 53 acres of what NFR has described as 'mostly vacant land.'
The property would be bounded by John B. Daly Boulevard, Falls Street, 15th Street and Buffalo Avenue.
Included in the application is a rezoning request, copies of traffic and noise studies, an environmental and energy impact plan, a full environment assessment form, a verified ownership petition, a survey and legal description, a historical property assessment, and aerial maps showing the placement of the data center and various other key elements of the plan.
The project application was originally filed just over a month after New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, rejected a second appeal by NFR seeking to have its justices weigh in on the legality of the use of eminent domain to take NFR's land, described as 907 Falls St. and an adjacent portion of property along John Daly Memorial Parkway, for the proposed Centennial Park project.
After the appeals court ruling, Mayor Robert Restaino said the city would move forward with 'a valuation and acquisition' of the property where NFR wants to build its first proposed data center building. The city council is currently weighing an appraised bid on the property of more than $4 million.
