City Council Advances Strict Limits on Data Centers in Zoning Overhaul

By Neil Zolot

The City Council passed the First Reading or Enrollment amending zoning codes to limit the size of data centers at their meeting on Monday, June 8. The action followed a recommendation of passage by the Subcommittee on Legislative Affairs and Elections before the full Council meeting. Passage of a Second Reading or Ordainment is expected at the meeting on Monday, June 22. “It’s not a ban, but guidelines to make it extremely strict to build,” Councillor-at-Large Katy Rogers said.

As described by Chief Development Officer Monica Lamboy and Director of Planning and Development Matt Lattanzi, data centers will be limited to 20,000 combined vertical and horizontal square feet and five megawatts of power. Whichever number is smaller will take precedence. “Technology may improve and they’d require less space for the same wattage,” Lamboy explained.

The 20,000 square feet is about the size of the Parlin Library. A data center would probably be a boxy design, however, and would be subject to the Special Permit and Master Plan review processes on its design and how it might blend into the area, plus periodic renewals. “We transitioned from an outright ban to a process with a lot of requirements,” Lattanzi said. “We’re not banning them, we’re regulating them. The Special Permit process would be like any other project, but it would not be a one-time approval.”

For comparative purposes, City Hall has about 60,000 finished area square feet. A data center in the Macy’s building above commercial space in Boston’s Downtown Crossing is 800,000 square feet. Lattanzi said 20,000 square feet would probably be the equivalent of one floor of City Hall but divided into two floors in a multi-use building, presumably on the higher floors to allow commercial activity at street level. “There would be no stand-alone data center,” Lattanzi said.

A data center is a facility that enables the internet by processing data. E-mail, web searches and virtually everything the internet is used for use them. The Science Feedback website reports there are 9,000 in the world, but more are needed and planned. “Without them, our tightly interconnected civilization would not exist,” it explains. It is not a simple computer room, of which there are many all around the area.

The Docklands lnnovation District (EDID) in the Commercial Triangle — bordered by Lower Broadway, Revere Beach Parkway and the Mystic River — is the most likely site for one here.

Science Feedback also reports that 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.

Data centers also use water for cooling, the volume of which could increase water use rates for the residents because the volume of use will increase. The same is true for electricity. In effect, residents could be subsidizing the data center by having to cover the cost of more water and electricity being used citywide.

To address this, amendments to the zoning code also include provisions for data centers to use a closed loop cooling system in which water is recirculated through it, that data centers pay current electric and water rates if using city utilities and that data centers be required to pay for any upgrades to the electric system to meet their needs “so it doesn’t hit the ratepayer,” in Lamboy’s words.

“We want to make sure they’re paying the same rates as any other user,” City Solicitor Jaclyn Munson added.

It would also have to have its own generator as a backup power source in case of a power failure.

The changes also include provisions for preferences to residents for jobs relating to a data center and minimum distances from housing to avoid noise pollution or provisions for noise mitigating measures.

“Everett is committed to smart, responsible growth that benefits the people who live and work here,” Mayor Robert Van Campen told The Advocate. “My administration is open to innovation and investment that creates value for our community. At the same time, however, Everett is a dense city and an environmental justice community, so any proposal has to be reviewed carefully and held to a high standard. That means protecting residents from impacts related to electricity demand, water use, noise, traffic, emissions and quality of life in the neighborhoods. Our goal is not to shut down the door on opportunity, but to make sure development is done the right way, with clear rules, real safeguards and benefits that support long term economic and environmental goals.”

An Environmental Justice Community is one that has been overburdened with industrial uses and hazards and serves communities around it and has related negative health effects.

The new regulations limit the size of data centers, but not any quantity. Right now, the EDID is one zone, but Lamboy pointed out, “The Davis Companies is proposing a road network,” which could create more zones.

The Davis Companies has not made a specific proposal but has been pursuing zoning to allow them. “We have no current plans for a data center in Everett and no potential tenants or sub-developers have reached out to us to request the construction of a data center,” The Davis Companies’ Chief Development Officer, Mike Cantalupa, wrote to the City Council and Mayor in an April 8 letter. “Our efforts to date have been focused on the theoretical idea of a data center as a significant economic and tax contributor to the Docklands Innovation District and Everett.”

Representatives of the company showed up at the 5:30 p.m. subcommittee meeting but were told they would only be allowed to speak in Public Participation at the full 7 p.m. City Council meeting. When told by Rogers that the approval of the changes was imminent, they left and never returned.

The new regulations dovetail with a recent statement by Governor Maura Healey about her administration’s guiding principles as data centers proliferate across the country, drawing bright lines around energy independence and environmental impacts while a more detailed set of guidelines is under development. She said she has “directed my team to develop a framework and guidelines for Massachusetts on this” and she expects “to be announcing more on this,” in a statement released June 3.

She also acknowledged, “But those are the things they can’t — you know, you can’t suck energy off the grid and hurt other ratepayers, and you can’t do harm to our environment, especially when it comes to water.”

Nevertheless, the vote of approval was 9-3, with Councillors-at-Large Guerline Alcy Jabouin, Michael Marchese and, although she worked on the new regulations, Stephanie Smith opposed. “I still don’t know if data centers are the right thing for Everett,” Smith said.

Although she voted in favor of the new regulations, Ward 4 Councillor Holly Garcia said, “I’d like to make them smaller. I don’t see an issue in holding this over.”

“Something is better than nothing,” Ward 5 Councillor Anthony DiPierro countered. “This puts some cap on it, and it can be tweaked.”