A proposal from Boston City Councilor Miniard Culpepper to amend the city’s zoning code and prohibit new data centers citywide is pending before the council, placing Boston among a growing number of Massachusetts communities weighing limits on the facilities after Gov. Maura Healey gave municipalities more say over their siting.
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Culpepper, who represents District 7, introduced the zoning amendment at the council’s Sept. 16 meeting, WBUR reported. “Boston’s density, scarcity of developable land and existing demands on our infrastructure make large-scale data centers incompatible with the direction we should be taking as a city,” he said at the meeting. The proposal would need approval from the Boston Zoning Commission to take effect.
What the Boston Data Center Ban Would Cover
The amendment would define data centers to include facilities used for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cryptocurrency and large-scale data storage or processing, as well as “co-location” centers that host servers for multiple companies, according to Universal Hub. Server rooms serving a single business, public telecommunications facilities, and computing equipment that is accessory to research labs or educational institutions would still be allowed.
Existing facilities, including the Markley Group’s data center at 1 Summer St. in Downtown Crossing, would be allowed to keep operating but could not expand, WBUR reported. Universal Hub noted that a developer could still seek a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeal, which would involve a community process. Culpepper told WBUR that, to his knowledge, no new data center projects are currently proposed in Boston.
The Case Made by Supporters
Culpepper’s proposal says data centers can place heavy demands on electricity, water, sewer and emergency-response systems and that the zoning code currently lacks a specific definition, which could allow such facilities to be proposed under broader use categories. “Boston should decide proactively whether data centers are an appropriate land use for our city, rather than waiting until a major proposal is before us,” Culpepper wrote in a statement to The Daily Free Press. A Boston University student interviewed by the newspaper cited noise, water use and electricity demand as reasons for supporting the ban; another said she is neither for nor against data centers but believes they should be regulated.
Concerns Raised About a Citywide Ban
Brian Kulis, a Boston University engineering professor who also works at an AI energy-efficiency company, told The Daily Free Press he has mixed views, saying he understands local concerns but believes building out AI infrastructure is important for the economy. He also noted that data centers support high-performance scientific computing used by universities. Nationally, President Donald Trump has said the U.S. must make way for AI and data centers or risk falling behind China, WBUR reported.
State Context and Next Steps
Healey’s Sept. 8 executive order requires data center developers to receive approval from the host community before state agencies issue permits, according to The Daily Free Press. Holyoke became the first Massachusetts city to ban data centers in June, and Lowell, Westfield and Shutesbury have enacted moratoriums, WBUR reported. Universal Hub noted that Councilor Ed Flynn had earlier proposed studying the effects of data centers in Boston.
The proposal joins other technology oversight measures before the council, including proposals to tighten police surveillance oversight rules, during a busy fall that also includes budget hearings on police detectives’ contracts. Any zoning change would go through council review before reaching the Zoning Commission.
Sources
- WBUR (wbur.org)
- Universal Hub (universalhub.com)
- The Daily Free Press (dailyfreepress.com)
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