City councillors question plan for data center in Docklands Innovation District

By Neil Zolot

City Councillors and community activists are questioning the wisdom of allowing data centers in the Everett Docklands Innovation District. “We have to be cautious,” Councillor-at-Large Katy Rogers said at the Council meeting on Monday, January 12. “They use astronomical amounts of water and electricity to create noise.”

“We need to dive into what we’d be signing up for,” Planning Board member Stephanie McColaugh agreed before the Council referred the matter to the Planning Board for study. She called data centers “risky for the long-term security of our water and grid infrastructure. They can use as much electricity as 80,000 to 800,000 homes. It’s not comparable to any other development and would take money out of our pockets to support private development. As a blue-collar community, subjecting residents to increased electric rates, future water insecurity, diminished air quality and increased noise is a step in the wrong direction. While this may appear to be a quick economic win, despite minimal jobs after construction, the stain on our electric grid and water systems may well hamstring more fruitful development.”

“It’s not time for this,” Ward 2 Councillor Stephanie Martins added, also noting that the number of  jobs a data center would generate would be insignificant.

A data center is a facility that powers the internet by storing and processing data, supporting email, web searches and nearly every online service people use. The Science Feedback website reports there are 9,000 data centers worldwide, but more are needed and are in development. “Without them, our tightly interconnected civilization would not exist,” it explains.

It also reports data centers need and use a lot of power, often drawn from local grids, including power needed for cooling. Up to one-third of the power needed may be for cooling. They can run on solar and wind power, but the inconsistency of those sources requires conventional sources of power as well.

The Davis Companies is pursuing the option with McColaugh, commenting that they have “been in communication with National Grid and Jupiter indicating they are pushing this through with no community input, engagement or transparency on the impact this would have on our utilities or future growth.”

The Docklands Innovation District is part of the Commercial Triangle bordered by Lower Broadway, Revere Beach Parkway/Route 16 and the Mystic River. The larger area is the site of a planned lithium battery storage facility by Davis/Jupiter and a soccer stadium, among other things.

Other business

Mayor Robert Van Campen discussed using the Pope John XXIII High School building to help solve the school overcrowding problem during his campaign, while former Mayor Carlo DeMaria was planning on using it for veterans and elderly housing. Councillor-at-Large Michael Marchese objected to a resident’s idea that the councillors should all resign if the Pope John building is renamed after the Kraft family.

“I’m not resigning because it makes no sense,” he said. “We have a chance to do something without it costing people money, but when something is presented that will provide us revenue, everybody is up in arms.”

In other Public Participation, resident Joan Beckta suggested keeping the name Pope John or renaming it after two Everett residents who died on September 11, James and Mary Trentini.

The Councillors also approved formal requests that the Administration provide information on Memorandums of Understanding with Wynn Resorts/Encore Boston Harbor and the Krafts — enacted by DeMaria in the last few days of 2025. The agreement with Encore is reportedly setting up the possibility of two additional hotels and a new commuter rail station. Van Campen has expressed approval of the agreement in principle.

It was the first meeting with Councillor-at-Large Stephanie Smith as president. Aside from technical problems with the audio feed during the ECTV cablecast, things went smoothly. It lasted an hour and nine minutes with the first 45 devoted to appointments to the Police and Fire Departments and Public Participation. “We’re going to try to follow the rules tonight,” Smith said as she opened the meeting.

Moment of Silence observed for former City Councillor

The City Council observed a moment of silence for former city councillor Donald Michael Harney at its meeting Monday night at City Hall.