To Stephen Schultz, Town Supervisor, and Members of the Henrietta Town Board:

We, the undersigned residents and taxpayers of the Town of Henrietta, New York, as well as our neighbors and fellow visitors, write to express our serious concerns regarding the potential expansion of commercial AI and hyperscale data centers within our town limits. While we acknowledge New York State's temporary 12-month permitting freeze, we demand that our town leaders take action to protect the people it is their duty to serve. Our community, resources, and wallets cannot be sacrificed for AI.

Why We Stand Against Data Center Development in Henrietta:

1. Grid instability poses a serious and significant threat to our community. Hyperscale data centers pull massive amounts of power from the energy grid. We refuse to let local families foot the bill via skyrocketing utility costs or suffer the immense risk of increased grid instability. Data centers, even when regulated, could have the potential to require hundreds of megawatts of power from the town. Some data centers require more power than the entire town they occupy. If power outages in Henrietta are prolonged or become more frequent in duration, especially during extreme weather events like heat waves and blizzards, they can cause preventable deaths. Vulnerable populations like our elders, or those with health conditions requiring medical devices, are at the greatest risk. No one should have to die for AI.  These are the unacceptable risks we face if the town creates a law to regulate instead of ban data centers. 
   2. It is our human right to have access to clean air, land, and water. Data center cooling systems can require millions of gallons of water for daily operation. We must preserve Henrietta's fresh water supply as well as prevent local light, air, and noise pollution from 24/7 cooling operations.
   3. Data centers do not align with the quiet, residential, and rural beauty of our town.

It is the duty of the Henrietta Town Board to protect the people and the resources that are our fundamental human rights. They cannot be sacrificed for economic development initiatives. State, federal, corporate or institutional pressure cannot take precedence over the human beings who live in Henrietta.

Our Formal Request to the Town Board:

We fully support a strict local law prohibiting data centers from all standard zoning districts.