NILES — City council’s second meeting of the month is two weeks away, but residents still have their questions and concerns about data centers.

During the public comments session of Wednesday’s regular council meeting, officials heard from resident Richard Strong, who thanked members for addressing certain zoning concerns at a hearing before the meeting.

Strong also wanted to touch on the possible data center moratorium, which officials are set to have a public hearing on implementing at 5 p.m. May 20, before the month’s second meeting.

The hearing comes after city officials heard from representatives for Bitdeer Technologies Group, a Singapore-based company focusing on cryptocurrency and AI cloud infrastructure.

“I think Niles has been more than clear, so far, that we do not want a data center — there’s no reason for a moratorium,” Strong said. “Just don’t zone, just don’t annex that property and let them fight it out in a rezoning hearing over in Weathersfield — you don’t need it.”

Strong said he hasn’t seen any good things about data centers all over the internet, except from the developers themselves.

Strong said Bitdeer itself has Niles slotted as a fully operational location in 2029, adding that annexing the area, 1047 Belmont Ave., which was purchased in May 2025 by California-based Whitetail Creek LLC, one of its subsidiaries, has been discussed for “a bit.”

“We had another councilman go on television and say that they were excited to be talking to Bitdeer,” Strong said. “Niles isn’t excited — not even in the least.”

Councilman Aaron Johnstone, D-2nd Ward, said there was a “two-part issue” when it comes to data centers, which people are confusing.

“So when you’re talking about Bitdeer specifically, that’s a piece of property, and there was an annexation agreement on that property,” Johnstone said. “We have made our stance clear; there was a public release — we have no interest in annexing property at this time.”

Johnstone said the upcoming moratorium hearing has nothing to do with Bitdeer or the Belmont Avenue property.

“The way your zoning is listed currently, you cannot prohibit these; if a piece of industrial property is approached and a permit is pulled, it’s coming,” Johnstone said. “There’s nobody sitting up here or out there that can stop it.”

Johnstone said a moratorium would protect the city’s current properties, noting that the Bitdeer property was about bringing land in through annexation.

Johnstone said the city had legislation slated for approval to bring in a consultant to help city officials draft restrictive language for similar businesses. The legislation was later passed as read.

In terms of the person on TV excited to talk to Bitdeer, Johnstone clarified that it was him, but he was focused on the annexation agreement.

“We are excited to expand our boundaries. We always are. Any neighboring community that wants to annex in. We just did two of them on Stillwagon (Road),” Johnstone said. “That expands our boundaries and your city grows — that’s a positive thing. Unfortunately, the annexation agreement that was in front of us is for a data center, and that’s soured quickly.”