City board backs temporary pause on large data centers

The proposed pause would target major facilities built for artificial intelligence work or cryptocurrency mining, not every server room or small business network.

The city’s Planning Board has endorsed a one-year halt on new large-scale data center approvals, opening the door for Keene officials to write a local ordinance while they study the issue more closely.

The proposed pause would target major facilities built for artificial intelligence work or cryptocurrency mining, not every server room or small business network. City staff would use the 12-month window to examine how such projects could affect water use, electricity demand, land use, transportation, public health, the environment, and city finances.

Senior Planner Mari Brunner said Tuesday that no large-scale data center applications are currently before the city for review.

Because the board approved the request, city staff can now bring draft language to the City Council. From there, the proposal would be sent to a joint session of the Planning Board and the Planning, Licenses and Development Committee before returning to the full council for a possible vote.

Planning Board Chair Harold Farrington said the point is to give the city a chance to get ahead of a fast-moving issue rather than react after a major project has already arrived.

Board members said the rapid expansion of large data centers, their heavy resource needs, the speed of technological change and the lack of zoning rules specific to these facilities amount to the unusual circumstances required under state law for a temporary moratorium. New Hampshire municipalities may impose a one-year pause on permits or site plan approvals if the planning board explains why the step is needed and how it serves as a corrective measure.

The board also concluded that the moratorium would give Keene enough time to decide how it wants to regulate these uses before any large project is built. Members tied the proposal to the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan and said moving too quickly could lead to development before proper rules are in place.

Keene’s Land Development Code currently does not offer detailed standards for data centers. It does allow them as an industrial use and describes them as facilities with networked computers and equipment used by businesses or other organizations to organize, process, store and share large amounts of data.

A major focus of the discussion was making sure the moratorium would not sweep in smaller facilities used for everyday information technology needs. Farrington said the language had to avoid capturing ordinary in-house systems. Mayor Jay Kahn, who also serves on the Planning Board, pointed to the 1,500 square-foot FirstLight Data Center at 310 Marlboro St., which serves small businesses and organizations.

City planners Mari Brunner and Evan Clements said the draft can be written to exclude data centers that function as accessory uses to a building’s main purpose, which would apply to some smaller operations.

Councilor Phil Jones, who first brought the request forward, said the next stage should focus on refining the definition of a data center, including thresholds tied to size, power use and environmental effects.

The city’s action comes amid a wider debate in New Hampshire and beyond, where communities are weighing whether to slow data center growth while they better understand the strain these facilities can place on local resources. Gov. Kelly Ayotte said this summer that she plans to support a statewide moratorium that could take effect next year, following similar discussions in places such as Nottingham and Rochester and growing criticism over a proposed project in Bow.