ATHOL – Voters attending Monday night’s Special Town Meeting will be asked to weigh in on a proposed year-long moratorium on the establishment of data centers in town.
Article 9 asks voters to enact “a temporary moratorium on the use, construction, development, expansion, or conversion of land or structures for Data Centers. During the moratorium period, the Town shall not accept, process, or approve any application for the construction, conversion, or establishment of a Data Center…”
The moratorium would prohibit the granting of special permits, site plan approvals or “any other zoning or land use approvals.”
The Nov. 9 STM gets underway at 7 p.m. in Memorial Hall at Town Hall.
On Sept. 8, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order saying no new data center can be built without the explicit support of the city or town where it is to be constructed.
Athol Planning and Development Director Eric Smith said the issue of a moratorium was first brought to his attention by Select Board member Marc Maxwell.
“Hearing about the issues of energy use and water use,” said Smith, “and the impact of those types of facilities on a town’s infrastructure, those can be really big facilities and that would raise concerns about their impact on the town’s water supply and energy use.”
“I’ve read about other cities and towns where data centers set up shop and some of it didn’t sound good because a lot of them were in residential areas,” Maxwell said. “I just want to make sure the town has a plan to come up with something for zoning, and look into everything to make sure the taxpayers won’t incur any costs from the power usage and the water usage. We need something to go on.”
Maxwell said constituents he has spoken with seemed to like the idea of having a moratorium in place, “or a plan in place. It may never happen in Athol, but it may, you never know. I think a lot of people are appreciative that the (Board of Planning and Community Development) came up with the moratorium. I know a lot people are against them, but if it was sited well and townspeople weren’t incurring any charges it might actually help the tax base.”
During the moratorium, according to the town meeting article, the Board of Planning and Community Development will evaluate the impact of a data center on municipal infrastructure electrical demand, water usage and wastewater capacity, along with environment, noise and public health. The goal, according to the article, is to give officials time to “develop and propose zoning regulations governing data centers.”
David Small, chair of the Board of Planning and Community Development explained, “It’s only for a year. It’s supposed to give us the time for what we want to allow for data centers to be established in this town. We want to look at siting, what are our criteria, what’s the water like, what do we need for setbacks; the types of things we’d do with any kind of development. But we need to figure out what the rules of engagement need to be.”
The moratorium, said Small, “Gives us time, it gives the state time so everybody can kind of figure out where we are in the whole process. I don’t see anybody pounding on the door to build a data center today. But we don’t know when there might be. So, I just think it gives us time to breath and actually let us go in with our eyes wide open.”
Small said the BPCD voted unanimously to endorse the passage of Article 9 and its meeting on Oct. 7. It has also received the unanimous support of both the Select Board and the Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee.