EASTHAMPTON — Easthampton is the latest Valley community to temporarily ban new data centers, as the facilities face growing scrutiny across the country and municipalities grapple with how to regulate them.
The City Council on Wednesday night passed the moratorium, barring new data center construction for 18 months while the city develops permanent regulations. The measure amends the city’s Zoning Ordinance to add the temporary moratorium.
“I think that we’re all aware of the national energy and climate around data centers and this really strong push to get these built, and then the impacts that they’re having on communities,” said City Councilor At-Large Kiam Jamrog-McQuaid.
The moratorium moved swiftly to approval, even though no data centers are currently proposed in the city. The Planning Board unanimously approved the measure last month, with members praising it, as did the council’s ordinance subcommittee, which Jamrog-McQuaid chairs.
Moratoriums like Easthampton’s have been spreading quickly across the state. Other Valley communities that have passed one include Holyoke and Shutesbury, while Northampton, Greenfield, Westfield and Ludlow are considering similar measures. Northampton recently formed a 10-member committee to study the impacts of data centers.
Last month, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order giving municipalities the power to reject data centers, and in June, paused new applications for such facilities.
During Easthampton’s 18-month ban, the moratorium calls on the ordinance subcommittee and the Planning Board to study permanent regulations on data centers. A number of factors would be considered such as permitting criteria, and regulations surrounding water use, noise, energy demand and more.
“That (work) would be incumbent on us after this passes,” Jamrog-McQuaid said.
The moratorium broadly defines data centers as a building or group of buildings used primarily to run technology such as computer systems, servers, cryptocurrency mining equipment and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The measure includes several protections for smaller data equipment used for businesses or government buildings. It does not ban accessory equipment smaller than 2,500 square feet, and it allows replacement, repair and limited expansion of existing equipment.
Jamrog-McQuaid said a resident reached out to him with concerns that the 2,500-square-foot limit may be too small, but the councilor said he was comfortable moving forward with that size. Responding to a question from Councilor Jonathan Schmidt, Jamrog-McQuaid said he was not aware of businesses or entities that would be impacted by this limit.
The moratorium was a collaboration of several municipal bodies and was originally drafted by Planning Director Allyson Manuel with City Council President Koni Denham. Denham thanked Manuel and others for moving it forward.
Mayor Salem Derby lauded the council’s work at the meeting. Derby, a member of the national Climate Mayors group, said data center regulations are being discussed at length among its members.
“One of the things that is front and center for all of the mayors that are in the climate mayor’s group is data centers,” Derby said. “I think moratoriums are where a lot of people are starting and trying to create some smart regulations.”
Data centers began garnering national attention in late 2022 when the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT ignited worldwide demand for chatbots and other generative AI products that typically require large amounts of computing power to train and operate. Now, Oracle, Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft expect to plunge more than $700 billion into data centers in the U.S. this year alone, according to the Associated Press.
Tech giants and developers need huge tracts of land to accommodate mammoth computing warehouses, so they’ve been exploring deeper into rural America.
The push has united conservative ranching and farming communities with left-leaning environmental advocacy groups, who share a combined concern about drought-stricken waterways, pollution in food-growing areas and shrinking farmland.
Governors who once pursued data center projects for their states are shifting their stances or taking steps to toughen regulations on data centers.
In some states, governors have halted their state’s sales tax exemption for new data center projects. Other states are trying to force data centers to pay for their own electricity supply, limit their water use, disclose more about their operations and win community support before they get a state permit or tax exemption.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
