NORTHAMPTON — The city is seeking residents to serve on a Data Center Select Committee to study the impacts of commercial data centers, help define the different types of data centers and recommend regulations to govern their construction and operations.
Sponsored by Council President Rachel Maiore, Ward 3 Councilor Laurie Loisel, Ward 1 Councilor Gwen Nabad, and Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, the decision to establish a select committee on data centers came from direct feedback from constituents who shared concerns about the city’s protections around them being built in the community.
Both Maiore and Loisel told Reminder Publishing they and fellow councilors began receiving many emails from residents expressing concerns and even calling for outright bans of data centers in the city, prompting them to act and find the most effective approach for the community in taking on the growing issue.
With the growing question and concerns about what role, if any, data centers will play in Northampton, councilors decided forming a Data Center Select Committee would be an effective approach in learning more about the center’s impacts, defining specific data centers and coming up with recommendations for city legislation driven by the community. Before the committee begins its work, the city will look to implement a one-year moratorium on the construction of date centers, an idea that came from Maiore.
“With that, I decided that the best next move would be to immediately put a moratorium on the construction of data centers in Northampton to give us time as a city and as a council to figure out what data centers would mean in Northampton, and what regulations we would need depending on how the community feels about it,” Maiore said.
A public hearing will take place on Thursday, Oct. 29 through the Planning Board and the Council’s Legislative Matters subcommittee on a potential one-year moratorium on the construction of data centers in the city. Maiore added that she expects it to pass and that with a moratorium in place, it will give the community breathing room to start the select committee work and aid the city’s future conversations around data centers.
“If we want to regulate them, we need very precise regulations. These are big corporations sometimes and we need to have all of our ducks in a row, so we need time to do that,” Maiore said. “And also just define what a data center is. It’s interesting, we all have an idea of what that means but we need to put it in writing, we need to talk about it.”
Once in effect, the select committee would then work during the moratorium period on researching and learning more about the centers, defining them, and report back to the council with recommendations to better equip the city in the decision-making process once the moratorium is concluded. Maiore said that the goal is for the Select Committee to provide their findings and recommendations by April 1, 2027.
“What I want from the recommendations are, what do we want to accomplish here, what level, if any, kind of data centers are we going to allow here, and if we’re not, then we need that recommendation. Basically, we need to craft recommendations and then the city government will then craft an ordinance based on those recommendations moving forward, whether that’s a total ban, whether it’s allowing certain types of businesses, that’s what I want to the committee to look at. And I want the committee to talk to the larger community too and get their input,” Maiore added. “If there’s harms, are they harms we can mitigate? As well as what would those mitigations be? Is that equation worth it? Those kinds of things. Really guide city government to make legislation that reflects what the community wants.”
Loisel added that even as someone who is very worried about data centers in our society and its impacts to the environment, she feels there is still much to learn on the topic and with the current lack of knowledge does not feel comfortable at this moment deciding on a forever ban of the centers.
“I don’t know if there’s smaller scale ones that might be suitable for our community, so I didn’t want to just jump to the fear of data centers immediately. I think we need to get more information before we can make an informed decision and so that’s the point of this committee,” Loisel said. “I just felt like community involvement would be helpful. Giving us time to think it through based on solid information seems like the wise and mature approach.”
The city is seeking residents with professional experience and or advanced knowledge of the power grid and renewable power generation options, data center management and operation, closed-loop cooling systems and or water conservation, and local and regional hydrology are especially encouraged to apply.
To indicate interest, residents are asked to complete an online application available at northamptonma.gov/FormCenter/City-Council-13/Application-for-Data-Center-Select-Commi-179 by Oct. 15.
“We need to look at Northampton as a unique city with its own strengths and challenges, and what data centers would do to those specifically,” Maiore said. “I have a lot to learn as well, but I do know we’re going to need community input about our next move with data centers. We have a lot of great and very education folks, and folks with lots of experience out there, and we definitely need our community here. I’m just really aware of the role of council and city government, which is we are the guardrails for the community about any potential or negative impacts of data centers, and I take that very seriously.”
