EASTHAMPTON — The city is weighing a temporary ban on artificial intelligence (AI) data centers as the technology continues to be ridiculed by critics across the country and municipalities grapple with regulations.
The potential ban smoothly jumped its first hurdle Tuesday night, with the Planning Board showing unanimous support for the draft moratorium. The meeting was held alongside members of the the City Council ordinance subcommittee, who will now bring the draft to the full council for consideration.
“I think this is great,” Planning Board Vice President James Zarvis said about the draft. “I think we all know that it’s really important that we put better regulation on this.”
Proposed moratoriums like Easthampton’s have been spreading quickly throughout the state. Neighboring communities such as Northampton, Ludlow and others are also considering similar measures. The Northampton City Council will meet on Thursday to discuss its potential moratorium.
The trend comes on the heels of Holyoke enacting a permanent ban on data centers of more than 12 megawatts, becoming the first community in the state to do so. Just last week, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order giving municipalities the power to reject data centers, and in June, paused new applications for such facilities.
In Easthampton, if approved by the council, the moratorium would be added to the local zoning ordinances, temporarily banning data centers for 18-months while the city studies how to properly regulate data centers.
The moratorium was drafted by Planning Director Allyson Manuel with City Council President Koni Denham, who thanked Manual for being proactive and helping the city develop a draft.
Zarvis said that the 18-month time range is the perfect “sweet spot,” giving the city enough time to solidify a policy while still having some urgency to address a controversial issue.
Data centers are defined by the ordinance as a building or group of buildings primarily used to house many kinds of technology such as computer systems, servers, cryptocurrency mining equipment, and of course, artificial intelligence infrastructure. Zarvis said this is an appropriate definition that will not impact any business that may use some of this technology, but not solely for the purpose of a data center.
“A data center is something for which the purpose is solely, data center and data equipment, not a business that also runs servers,” Zarvis clarified. “That’s important.”
The City Council already voiced support for restricting data centers through a resolution passed in April, backing any necessary zoning changes to prevent new construction. City Councilor Kiam Jamrog-McQuaid said at the meeting that citizen concerns over data centers have spread across the nation but have also been voiced locally.
The main concern of data centers is the negative impacts they will have on a local community, including increased utility bills, unnecessary water use, environmental damage, noise pollution and more.
“Mirroring some of the national concerns about the impacts of data centers on a number of things — utility costs, the natural environment, the water use, all those things — there’s a lot of concern both nationally, statewide and also locally,” Jamrog-McQuaid said.
The next City Council meeting will be on Oct. 7, when the moratorium will likely be discussed.
