At its meeting on Sept. 1, the Milford Planning Board discussed and approved a zoning bylaw amendment that would affect the terms in which a data center could be built in town.

With the proposed bylaw amendment, the construction of a data center would have to be considered under special permit, and only in certain areas of town. The motion passed, and the bylaw amendment will be sent to Town Counsel for warrant consideration, and then Town Meeting approval.

Data centers have been at the center of discussion and controversy for many municipalities in Massachusetts and beyond, said board member Christopher Wilson. 

“I’m not totally against data centers,” he said. “They’re an important component as technology evolves; it’s just whether or not, and how, we fit them into Milford if that was ever the case.”

Wilson said it’s important for town officials to get ahead of the verbiage, and draw some lines in the sand. 

“I think a perfect example would be that we did a good job allowing hotels, where a neighboring town did not, and we profit very well from those,” he said. “I just want to make sure that we’re not creating a situation where we’re never going to allow data centers in the town.”

Board Member Joe Calagione agreed, referring to a recent article in the opinion section of the Boston Herald titled, “The devil is in the data center details” by Robert Mayo. The article examines the growing debate over the rapid expansion of data centers in the United States and argues that communities need to look beyond the promises of jobs and tax revenue before welcoming these facilities. 

Calagione said it seems like the places that are being most deeply impacted, are not asking the right questions. “Places that have approved them, and are running into problems, really didn’t ask the right questions on the front end,” he said.

Calagione said stipulations like water and electrical usage, as well as buffer zones, need to be considered. Making these proposals into special permit designations would provide the town with the time and space to ask the right questions before it’s too late.

Calagione mentioned that newer designs for data centers include closed-loop water systems, where water is cooled and reused internally, as well as their own power supplies, off the local grid.

“We just need to be aware going forward that we need to ask those types of questions if, in fact, they come before us,” he said. “At the end of the day, the tax implications on the town are huge, and the traffic impact for something that big is small.”