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Planning board seeks narrower definition and 12,000-sq-ft cap to limit AI data-center development in Summit
Summary
On June 29 the Summit Planning Board reviewed a memo advising revisions to the town's AI/data-center ordinance, recommended a new definition to target large-scale AI operations, proposed removing data centers as a principal use in certain industrial zones, and agreed to an accessory-use cap of 12,000 square feet aggregate to limit ancillary data-center activity.
The Summit Planning Board on June 29 reviewed a technical memo and discussed tightening the town’s ordinance language to bar large-scale AI data centers while preserving ordinary server rooms and subordinate computer uses.
A board member introduced a memo prepared by land‑development consultants Joe Burgess and Tom Behrens that provides technical recommendations on the ordinance. “The memo provides input to Summit’s ordinance banning AI data centers,” the member said, and the board asked that the memo be posted to the planning-board website for public transparency.
Board planners outlined a proposed approach: adopt a new, clearer definition of “data center” that targets facilities built and equipped to perform intensive AI workloads (including high-density server clusters and specialized cooling/electrical infrastructure) while explicitly excluding smaller or ancillary server rooms that serve another principal business. The staff and members discussed how to avoid loopholes — for example, a developer using office employment numbers to mask an intensive server operation — and recommended removing the word “primarily” from certain definitions so that a facility cannot claim a different principal use to evade the ban.
Members examined possible quantitative limits for accessory data‑center functions. Staff referenced comparative job-density figures to explain the board’s intent: larger AI/data centers generate far fewer permanent jobs per square foot than other commercial uses, which informed the board’s aim to preserve master‑plan goals for employment and downtown character. After discussion the board agreed on a compromise threshold of 12,000 square feet (aggregate across principal buildings on a site) as the upper bound for accessory data‑center activity in the exclusion language.
The board also discussed the proper process for consistency review: planning-board review on whether the ordinance is “not inconsistent” with the master plan is a narrow assessment; if the governing body nonetheless adopts an ordinance the planning board will review consistency again after introduction. Staff emphasized administrative tools for enforcement: zoning-permit review, building‑permit plans and, when needed, administrative follow-up or appeals would allow the town to detect retrofits or conversions that change a building’s function post‑construction.
Board members asked staff to incorporate suggested ordinance text into the memo appendix and to circulate revised language before the next meeting so the governing body can receive a clean draft for introduction.
