Holyoke bans future data center developments

The City Council discusses a zoning ordinance amendment that bans future data center development in Holyoke during its June 16 meeting.
Photo credit: Holyoke Media

HOLYOKE — Future data centers are banned in the city of Holyoke after the City Council voted 9-4 in favor of a zoning ordinance amendment during its council meeting on June 16.

The conversation around data centers has run rampant throughout the city of Holyoke over the past couple of weeks, but especially on June 11 and 16, when the Holyoke City Council Ordinance Subcommittee and full City Council discussed a proposed definition and zone change at their respective meetings.

The conversation began when a proposed data center at the former Hampden Paper Complex on Water Street sparked debate after the City Council discussed a zoning amendment to ban the facilities during its June 2 meeting.

The original zoning ordinance amendment order was filed on January 20, and the first public hearing took place on Feb. 4. The second and final public hearing took place and eventually closed on April 14. It was then voted out of committee and sent to the full council for a vote, which happened on June 2.

The data center proposal on Water Street was expected to use about 20 megawatts of power, which is enough to supply thousands of homes. Mayor Joshua Garcia also stated that it is believed that the proposed $200 million private investment would have generated $2 million plus annually in real property taxes. It would also have put a long-vacant property back on the tax rolls and help improve a section of Water Street that is blighted, Garcia argued.

The project, however, will no longer continue after this council vote.

After a lengthy debate on June 2, the zone change amendment was voted to be sent back to the City Council Ordinance Subcommittee.

Before the June 11 Ordinance Subcommittee meeting, Holyoke residents and community advocates gathered outside City Hall to voice their opposition to the data center development on Water Street. Following the outdoor demonstration, residents attended the Ordinance subcommittee meeting to show their support for a data center project ban.

Holyoke resident Susan Van Pelt voiced her opposition to data centers in a statement.

“Around the country, we’ve seen data center developers claim one thing and deliver something else. They’re using huge amounts of electricity and water while generating pollution in the form of noise, heat and chemicals,” Van Pelt stated.

After over two hours of discussion, the subcommittee passed a motion to move the ban language forward that defines a data center, strike out language from the definition for warehouse that currently allows data centers and prohibit data centers in the table of uses in the city.

The subcommittee also discussed language included in the original amendment to enact a two-year moratorium on the application for building new data centers, defined in section 2.0 of the Holyoke zoning ordinances. The motion failed 3-2 but was still presented to the City Council on June 16.
City Councilor Linda Vacon argued that the moratorium language that was provided by the chair was never requested by the subcommittee or seen by the subcommittee until a couple hours before the meeting, which violates the city’s rules, she argued.

According to the new amendment, a data center is now considered “A building or series of buildings that houses and supports the high-performance servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and related computing infrastructure and equipment necessary for storing, processing and distributing data and applications.”

The definition for warehouse previously stated, “A building used primarily for the storage of goods and materials, for distribution, but not for sale on the premises. including the storage of data and digital information.” The new amendment removes “including the storage of data and digital information.”

The amendment also changes section 4.3 table of principal uses to add the word “no” in the chart prohibiting the use of data centers in any zone in the city.

Section 3 of the amended ordinance states that the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, which has operated in Holyoke since 2012, can continue as a permitted use up to 12 megawatts.

During the June 16 City Council meeting, the City Council discussed the motion that the Holyoke Zoning Ordinance be amended to add a definition of “data center” as a use, and to clarify that this use is not allowable in any zoning district in the city.

Multiple residents protested outside City Hall before the City Council meeting, before using the public comment portion of the meeting to express their concerns with data centers. Many people against the data centers argued that the centers will adversely affect the environment and residents, while supporters said a ban could hurt the city’s economic development opportunities.

City Council President Tessa Murphy-Romboletti and City Councilor Meg Magrath-Smith filed an order to establish, by ordinance, a temporary ad-hoc committee to study and provide an analysis about the potential impacts of commercial data center development in Holyoke.

The committee, which would expire June 30, 2027, would make recommendations to the City Council regarding potential zoning and permitting requirements.

Based on the order, the committee would include one member from Holyoke Gas and Electric, Holyoke Water Works — or a member of the Water Commission — a member of the Massachusetts Green High Performing Computing Center, one member of the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Office of Planning and Development, a community member or resident appointed by the City Council president and a member of the City Council.

The City Council approved sending the ad-hoc committee proposal to the Ordinance Subcommittee for further discussion.

Benjamin Marshall, co-managing director of Chestnut River Power and Infrastructure, responded via email to Reminder Publishing about Holyoke’s recent data center ban approval and the company’s proposed data center site on Water Street.

“We respect the City Council’s decision and the residents who made their voices heard. This was a democratic process, and while we’re disappointed in the outcome, we take it seriously. Our proposal for 100 Water Street was always a modest one, a roughly 20-megawatt facility reusing the long-vacant Hampden Papers mill, powered by Holyoke’s own clean hydroelectricity and designed to pay its own way without raising residents’ rates,” Marshall stated. “We believe a project of that scale and design was very different from the large data centers driving national concern, and our hope was simply to put accurate information about this specific project in front of the community. We came to Holyoke because of its industrial heritage and its clean power, and we still believe in this city. Our door remains open if Holyoke ever wishes to continue the conversation.”