Pittsfield Council to See 2-Year Moratorium on Data Centers
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council will consider a two-year data center moratorium from the Community Development Board.
The board endorsed the moratorium on Tuesday; it had previously voted to become the petitioner.
"I still think that it is a necessary, proactive, responsible measure by the city in order to take some time to assess the potential impacts of these improvements on Pittsfield and on the county, and make sure that we understand these systems and create some really truly responsible regulations that take into account all the different aspects of this technology," City Planner Kevin Rayner said.
The petition would amend City Code Chapter 23 and create Article 23-4 Section 4.332, "Data Center, Temporary Moratorium."
Last month, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order that gives municipalities the power to say "no" to data centers, and earlier this year, Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren petitioned to explore implementing a moratorium on the establishment and siting of data centers.
Based on web results, there are as many as 75 data centers or projects in Massachusetts, none in Berkshire County.
Rayner explained that he brought forward the same petition as before; it was sent to the council and then back to the board for a public hearing as part of the zoning amendment process.
It defines a data center as a building or group of buildings where the primary use is to house computer systems, servers, data storage equipment, networking equipment, and associated infrastructure necessary for the processing, storage, and distribution of data and digital applications.
One concern was brought forward: if other uses with features of data centers might be negatively impacted by the moratorium, such as a server room.
The city planner proposed adding that any accessory use to an approved principal use will be excluded from this definition. He believes there is a distinction there, and to ease concerns, will call it out in the definition.
"Let's say you own a manufacturing business and you need servers to back up your data and support your operation; when we look at that use from a zoning classification standpoint, we're going to call that manufacturing, not a data center," he said.
"But if you come and say we want to store data on a large scale in a building and lease out space for people to store data or make server room space, then we're going to say that's a data center, and that's not permissible."
It was recognized that the main thing they are trying to stop is large-scale data centers where someone buys a building and leases out space for servers. As long as they are not a principal use or larger than a megawatt or so, Rayner believes Pittsfield will avoid harsh repercussions.
He has already begun digging deeper into data center regulations to see what would work best for the city, recognizing that community input will be vital when proposing guiding policies.
These would aim to ensure that any future data center infrastructure won’t unreasonably tax local resources, and if allowed, a data center would be controlled and sited without adverse impacts on the area.
Artificial intelligence data centers are a relatively new conversation, and Pittsfield has no policy to govern them.
"I think we just want to put this wall up, and I don't know, maybe some will slip through, but I think that the biggest ones are going to be avoided until we can put something serious in place," Rayner said.
"Because right now we have nothing, we have absolutely nothing, so I think this is a good start."
The proposed moratorium gives a temporary period from adoption to Dec. 31, 2028, or until "reasonable" regulations for data centers are adopted by City Council. During this time, the Community Development Board and the city can better understand the possible effects on energy and resource consumption and observe how other communities react.
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