A DATA CENTER IN NAUGATUCK: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.

Let me begin with something that is important to understand:

There is no data center or AI proposal before the Borough of Naugatuck.

There is no company seeking approval for a project. There is no project awaiting a vote. And there is certainly no predetermined outcome.

What we do have is an opportunity.

And we should not close the door on that opportunity simply because the words data center or artificial intelligence create understandable concerns.

Our approach is straightforward:

Keep an open mind. Establish firm environmental guardrails. Follow the facts.

We want to determine whether there is a data center opportunity that can meet our strict environmental standards and provide extraordinary economic benefits to our taxpayers.

The potential location is approximately 35 acres in Industrial Park 3, adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant . This is not an undeveloped residential area or pristine open space. It is the former site of the Uniroyal Chemical Plant , once a major chemical manufacturing complex. Today, the Borough is working to return this former industrial property to productive economic use.

Our standards for considering a data center are demanding.

A potential project will not be allowed to draw electricity from the public electrical grid and will not take water from the adjoining river . Air emissions, noise, traffic, lighting, and other environmental impacts would have to satisfy the Borough's requirements as well as all applicable state and federal regulatory standards.

And there will be a significant financial guardrail as well.

For the Borough to consider moving forward, a data center would have to generate a minimum of $14 million annually in revenue to the Borough.

To put that number in perspective, $14 million per year would be more than twice the amount generated by our largest taxpayer, and approximately 14% of the amount of tax dollars that we appropriate each year.

This level of recurring revenue would have a profound long-term impact on our ability to fund education, public safety, infrastructure and other essential services while reducing pressure on residential taxpayers.

The environmental guardrails and economic benefits must go hand in hand .

If those standards cannot be met, there will be no project.

But we should not assume today that they cannot be met.

Much of the concern people hear today involves enormous AI data-center campuses—projects that can involve hundreds or thousands of megawatts of power, multiple buildings and very large tracts of land.

That is not the scale we are talking about exploring in Naugatuck.

Our available site is approximately 35 acres , and we will be exploring something in the range of a 100-megawatt facility . The physical limitations of the property themselves place practical limits on the size and type of development that can occur here.

This distinction matters.

A data center of this scale could serve many conventional computing needs that have existed long before today's generative-AI boom— online banking and financial transactions, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data storage, business applications and other everyday digital services.

It could also support some AI-related computing. We should be clear about that. But a 35-acre, approximately 100-MW project is fundamentally different in scale from the massive AI campuses occupying hundreds of acres that have generated many of today's headlines and much of the public concern.

Artificial intelligence itself has understandably created apprehension. People hear about jobs being replaced, autonomous machines, enormous energy consumption and technology developing faster than society can regulate it.

Those are legitimate subjects for a much larger discussion.

But AI and advanced computing are also already woven into everyday American life.

We encounter them when Google Maps finds the fastest route home. Banks use sophisticated computing to detect fraud. Email systems identify spam. Businesses protect themselves against cyberattacks. Doctors use advanced technology to assist in analyzing medical images. AI is here now.

Most people don't think about the data centers behind these activities. They simply expect these services to work.

And all of that digital activity requires physical infrastructure somewhere.

The question for Naugatuck is not whether we support or oppose every possible future use of artificial intelligence.

And it is certainly not whether we are willing to sacrifice environmental protection in exchange for $14 million a year.

We will not.

The real question is:

Can we find an appropriate data center opportunity for this 35-acre former industrial property that meets our firm environmental guardrails while generating at least $14 million annually for our community?

We don't know the answer yet.

That is precisely why we should explore it.

If the market tells us there is no viable project capable of meeting our requirements, we walk away.

If the environmental permitting process demonstrates that our standards cannot be satisfied, we walk away.

If a project cannot deliver the level of economic benefit necessary to justify using this important industrial property, we walk away.

But if a responsible developer can meet our requirements, protect the river, avoid burdening the electrical grid, minimize environmental and neighborhood impacts and generate at least $14 million annually for our taxpayers, then we owe it to the community to seriously consider that opportunity.

This is not choosing economic development over the environment .

It is asking whether we can responsibly achieve both .

So our position should be clear:

No promises.
No predetermined outcome.
No lowering of our environmental standards.

But also:

No closing the door because of fear alone.

We will keep an open mind. We will establish firm guardrails. We will demand the facts. And we will determine whether an opportunity exists that makes sense for our community.

If we can protect our environment and substantially strengthen our tax base, we should consider it.

If we can't achieve both, we won't proceed.

That is the standard. And that is how responsible local government should work.