AMHERST — Amherst officials are considering either a prohibition on construction of data centers or regulations that would guide their development, such as limitations on their size.
While a ban on all new data centers has been referred from the Town Council to the Planning Board and Community Resources Committee, the initial discussion at an Oct. 22 joint meeting focused on ensuring there is clarity in the definition.
District 2 Councilor Lynn Griesemer said the request for prohibiting data centers, co-sponsored by nine of the 13 elected councilors, comes as both Massachusetts and cities and towns across the country are concerned with use of electricity and water to power and cool such developments. A ban could be modeled after one already adopted in Holyoke, she said.
In addition to impact on town resources, data centers are not prioritized in any planning documents, officials said.
The prohibition would apply in all zoning districts. A facility would be considered a data center “if its electrical load attributable to information-technology equipment and associated cooling or power-conditioning equipment exceeds one megawatt, regardless of any other use designation or classification.”
At-Large Councilor Andy Churchill said he has heard a lot on the topic from constituents. He said the intent behind this is that the town has a limited amount of space and a limited amount of resources, and during a discussion on the future of the Hampshire College land, housing has been considered at the top of the hierarchy of needs.
“The sense is that this would not be the highest and best use for the needs of the town,”
Churchill said.
Planning Board Chairman Doug Marshall said he has no objection to the ban, but wanted to have a better definition of a data center, understanding, for instance, that if there is under 1 megawatt of information-technology equipment this would be a telecommunications center. But it might still be a data center if it manages information technology on behalf of third parties.
Council President Mandi Jo Hanneke, too, said she had a lot of questions about the language and wondered if there is a better way to regulate them.
“We hear a lot about data centers, AI and particularly bad things data centers can do in towns,” Hanneke said, pointing to increasing electricity rates and affecting water use. Yet so many people use AI, Gmail and Microsoft Cloud, all of which rely on data centers.
“It seems partly that this is a not in my backyard, let me use it, but don’t let me have it,” Hanneke said.
Planning Board member Angus McLeod said the issue is likely moot in town because land would be too expensive and that the large hyperscale data centers are not going to happen. Still, McLeod said he would like to make some smaller projects allowable by special permit in some zoning districts.
Marshall said what the public doesn’t want are huge buildings consuming lots of power and water and making significant noise.
“Why don’t we just regulate those things and we don’t care what happens in it?” Marshall said.
Hanneke said she would like to know what 1 megawatt looks like and its impact on energy and water. She also wondered if there could be provisions for requiring on-site green energy production to power data centers.
Planning Board member Bruce Coldham said he would prefer them to be in space or offshore as a way to sink the heat they generate.
“Space is where they belong, it’s very low temperature, you can dissipate the heat very quickly, the electricity can be generated without having to pass the energy through the atmosphere,” he said.
“We don’t have power stations in our backyards, and I don’t think we need data centers in our backyards,” Coldham said.
Jeff Bagg, director of planning and economic development, said if officials want to regulate data centers they would need to keep the public hearing open for a long time, whereas a moratorium, rather than a ban, would create a 12- to 18-month period where research can be done and more discussions can take place, outside a perpetual hearing.
Any ban likely wouldn’t affect the University of Massachusetts or Amherst College campuses, due to their land being in educational zones.
The discussion is expected to resume when the hearing continues Nov. 12 at 6:35 p.m.
The only public comment came from Hampshire College graduate Zain Salim of Northampton, who said large data centers should be opposed, not because they support artificial intelligence, but because they power a “corporate surveillance apparatus.”
“It’s being used for government mass surveillance, particularly by the current Trump administration in identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants, as well as dissidents,” Salim said.
