Brookhaven disputes AI data center flyer, says no hearing scheduled
An AI-made flyer falsely claimed Brookhaven had set a hearing and vote on a Yaphank data center, but Dan Panico said no application exists.
Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico said an AI-generated flyer circulating online was wrong to tell residents that a public hearing and vote had already been set for a proposed artificial intelligence data center in Yaphank. Panico said there is no application filed with the town, no hearing on the calendar and no pending vote tied to the proposal.
The flyer landed in a part of Suffolk County where land-use fights can escalate fast. Residents who heard about the possible project were already talking about the strain a large data center could place on Long Island’s electric grid, along with possible hits to utility bills, water use and the environment. In Brookhaven, those concerns carry extra weight because the site in question is linked to warehouse land in Yaphank that has already been part of a long industrial development process.
Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency documents describe the Brookhaven Logistics Center as roughly 271 acres with about 2,461,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space. Wildflower Ltd. said in an April 2023 release that the project was expected to create 170 full-time and 21 part-time permanent jobs. The IDA’s 12-year PILOT arrangement started at $40,448 in the first year and rises to $2.11 million by the end of the term. The agency also posted a public hearing notice for January 7, 2026, on amendments to the logistics center project, underscoring that the site already has an active industrial record even without any AI data center filing.
Panico said an AI data center entity has been speaking with the Long Island Power Authority and the New York Independent System Operator about possible future power needs tied to the Yaphank warehouse properties owned by Wildflower. But he said that is not the same as a formal application. NYISO told the station it had no information about the project being discussed, and Brookhaven National Laboratory said it does not have current plans to build or host an AI data center on site.
The broader regional backdrop helps explain why the false flyer resonated. On April 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy identified 16 federal sites for possible data center and AI infrastructure development, including Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, and said it was targeting possible operation by the end of 2027. RiverheadLOCAL reported that the DOE’s request for information referenced an approximately 90-acre area in the southwest portion of the 5,322-acre federal campus, near the Caithness Long Island Energy Center in Yaphank, which has operated a 350-megawatt gas-fired plant since 2009. NYISO has also said large-load projects are becoming a major grid issue statewide, noting in August 2025 that 29 projects in its queue could add nearly 6,055 megawatts of demand, up from six projects totaling 1,045 megawatts in 2022.
For Brookhaven residents, the lesson is straightforward: do not treat a flyer as a filing. Verify whether an application exists, whether the town has posted a public hearing notice and whether the Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency or Brookhaven Town has placed the matter on a formal agenda before reacting to the claim.
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