BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- Plans to adopt crypto mining regulations in the town of Massena have been delayed another month after town officials agreed to review proposed changes submitted by county officials.  

According to town of Massena attorney Eric Gustafason, county officials recently weighed in on the proposed regulations and offered a few tweaks, some of which he liked and others he said "were not to his liking."

“Let’s see what we can do with the language. I didn’t necessarily agree with their plans but I thought maybe there’s a way we can make the law a little more streamlined and effective,” he said.

“I think there’s some opportunities to make some improvements to it and we’re working on that currently,” he continued.

Following the county review, Gustafson suggested the town "hold tight for another month" while he added revisions to the proposed regulations.

Once complete, Gustafson said a public hearing would be required prior to adopting the regulations.

The current moratorium will expire Sept. 30 but town officials can opt to end the moratorium sooner if regulations are approved.

“The St. Lawrence county Planning Board came back with recommendations. You will receive copies of these recommendations. I guess, basically considering the amount of people that spoke at the county on this, there were just some minor things that they had recommended,” Town Supervisor Sue Bellor said.

According to county officials, seven changes were recommended to the town of Massena.

The first is to strike the word "solely" from section 4.1.b. to eliminate confusion as to the legality of using shipping containers for "containment structures."

The next was to add the phrasing "Site Plan Review" to section 5.1 or remove the reference to Article XIII of the Massena Town Code, which encompasses site plan review.

County officials also said language to clarify if the town intends to exempt existing expansions of crypto mining operations should be added as well, including perpetual expansions that would not be reviewable.

Another recommendation offered was to remove the reference that would outlaw crypto operations that utilize storage containers outside of a building since such use of a container was already prohibited under section 4.1.

Three additional, non-binding recommendations were also offered, including the creation of a local law that specific standards based on the size of the operation. The propose law could that would apply to smaller operations could be enacted now while further regulations could be applied in the future for larger operations.

County officials also recommended creating a definition for shipping containers and suggested paginating the local law for easier reference.

While the county suggested some regulations that would differentiate between larger or smaller operations, Gustafson shot down the ideas saying they would cause "a lot of unnecessary confusion."

"“I didn’t like that particular resolution at all. But, there are certain items that were particularly important to the town, and certain items that I think can be covered by other legislation that’s out there," he said.

Gustafson said there was "an opportunity to take the draft regulations and streamline them a bit" to have something more consistent and defensible in the future.

Gustafson and town officials have been working in recent months to address a number of concerns raised by North Country Colocation Services CEO David Fogel, who previously said language needed to be included that would allow NCCS to expand.

Fogel previously said the $100 million expansion NCCS was planning hinged on the language offered in the regulations, saying investors would be hesitant to commit their funds if the expansion could be jeopardized by the regulations.

Fogel previously reiterated that NCCS is not seeking special treatment or to circumvent the planning committee and environmental review processes that take place in industrial sites.

"We simply want clarification of the language so that we can confidently move forward with our expansion project and to tell our investors that we can do this," he told board members.

If the expansion were to go through, Fogel said the operation could expand from the current 84 employees to 160 or so.

Once complete, the expansion could bring millions of dollars in tax revenue to the county and town, he previously said.