Jan. 23 - NIAGARA FALLS - Niagara Falls prosecutors are asking a state Supreme Court judge to find a cryptocurrency mining company guilty of violating a court order ordering them to shut down a high-end energy facility on Buffalo Avenue.
In a December 8 filing, the court is seeking a "daily fine" for US Data Technologies Group Ltd. and US Data Mining Group Inc., trading bitcoins in the US, for alleged violations of a temporary restraining order issued by a judge. , Sedeta III.
Sedita issued a restraining order on 1 December. Ordered U.S. Bitcoin to "cease participation in 'any form of cryptocurrency mining' pending the outcome of a hearing on the city's request for a preliminary injunction to close three cryptocurrency mining businesses currently operating in the city." a number of recent amendments to the city's zoning code that regulate the siting and operation of energy-intensive industries such as data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities.
City officials say ongoing cryptocurrency mining operations are a "public nuisance" and result in "permanent violations" of the city's zoning code.
The case was transferred from Sedita to the new State Supreme Court Judge Edward Pace. On January 25, Pace will hold a contempt hearing.
The outrage statement only applies to US bitcoins. A second cryptocurrency mining operation in the city has already closed after fire damage, and a third is said to be busy with new security, energy-intensive zoning requirements.
In November and December 2021, three cryptocurrency mining companies received letters from the city's code enforcement department claiming they had violated the city's zoning and zoning regulations and asking them to "cease and desist" until they complied with them.
In September, the city council, which voted 4–1 and was opposed by council member Dontay Miles, approved a series of new amendments to the energy-intensive zoning code. These changes were previously approved and recommended to the Council by the Niagara Falls and Niagara County Planning Board.
Citizens living near three cryptocurrency mining operations gathered in July for a public hearing to demand action on what they called the unreasonable noise generated by the cryptocurrency facilities.
“Earlier this year, noise invaded my home. He changed my life. It's constant, 24 hours a day,” said Brian Max, who lives next door to the American Bitcoin Factory, which was once an abandoned industrial plant on Buffalo Avenue. "I'm here for myself and my sanity."
In addition to the three bitcoin mining properties that are the subject of the current lawsuit, two or three other crypto entities are said to want to start operations in Niagara.
The new amendments to the zoning code limit energy-intensive properties such as data centers and bitcoin mining operations to places reserved for industrial use only. The amendments also act as a supposed "overlay" on the city's current industrial zoning requirements and add new restrictions that require energy-intensive structures to be further delayed by neighbors.
The amendments also set strict limits on the noise generated by energy-intensive operations.
Representatives of the three administrators mentioned in the lawsuit have already petitioned for the release of their property from the obligations of the new town planning code. Calls to a lawyer representing US bitcoin were not immediately returned.