Boxborough moves to study temporary moratorium on data centers, seeks narrow language to spare local firms

The Boxborough Planning Board directed staff to draft language for a temporary moratorium on data centers and scheduled a public hearing on Aug. 31 to consider the moratorium as a warrant article. The proposal was put forward by Chris Dowdy, who said a short moratorium would buy time to write bylaw language that didn’t accidentally exclude local companies that rely on data infrastructure.

"I really like the idea of a moratorium because the language on the actual bylaw might have to be delicate to not accidentally box out some companies that have that are already here or that have been here recently," Dowdy said, noting the need to differentiate between large cloud/data centers and local firms that are "data heavy" but not the same type of facility. Board members suggested metrics such as power consumption or a definition of "heavy energy use" as a way to distinguish a large data center from an internal server operation. Thane/Van (board/participant) recommended checking local electric utility data to understand typical power draws and tailor thresholds accordingly.

Alec offered to prepare draft moratorium language and coordinate with Chris and other board members prior to the Aug. 17 working session. The board emphasized a careful approach so the moratorium would be narrow in scope and crafted to protect local employers while preventing large, new data center developments during the drafting period.