Before Gov. Maura Healey this week signed an executive order giving communities protection against unwelcome data center development, the Wellesley Planning Board had a timely discussion on possible local data center rules. States and municipalities have started putting bans and other restrictions in place to thwart AI and cloud computing centers that suck up electricity and other local resources, generate noise, and raise other concerns.
The Planning Board at its Aug. 31 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording about 37 minutes in) had a brief discussion about the prospects of data centers coming to town, acknowledging at the same time that there’s not much in the way of available land to do that on.
Planning Board member Jim Roberti said that lawyers like himself have been getting inundated with continuing education on the issue of AI and cybersecurity data centers.
Not that there’s been any indication that an envisioned cybersecurity education and health and wellness center at MassBay Community College (to be funded in part through housing development across Oakland Street) would fall into the true data center category. But such a development could still raise concerns until more is known about what form it might take and how the college would go about operating such a facility.
Roberti recommended that the Planning staff at least start looking into what possible regulations and definitions could make sense for Wellesley to include in its zoning bylaws. It could be something to address via special permitting or an overlay district, he suggested.
Planning Director Rob Watchilla said “since we’re not really seeing a lot of pressure for these types of facilities in our town I don’t think a bylaw is needed in our situation that is really strict. Maybe one that prohibits certain types of data centers.”
He pointed to recent zoning changes in Mansfield that could serve as a model for Wellesley in that it regulates data centers based on tiers related to the power they use, ranging from no more than 2 megawatts to 20mw and above. Developing such rules would involve talking ahead of time with the Municipal Light Plant and Department of Public Works.
“We’re in luck that we’re not going to have some developer come in through some old factory building like they did in my last job and threaten to put a data center there…,” Watchilla said. “We don’t have any brownfield sites that are really easy to invest in.”
Watchilla said he could add exploring this topic as part of possible bylaw changes to be brought to Annual Town Meeting in the spring.
We’re not looking to build a data center, but your tax-deductible donations help us pay for web hosting and other Swellesley Report operating costs.
Hopefully you all are joking. Data centers need to be in the middle of nowhere because of the various types of pollution they cause. They are loud, all of the time. They are generally well-lit, all night long. They also generate air pollution. The biggest issues are the water waste since they use water for cooling and the large amount of energy they consume. It’s similar to living near a nuclear reactor. Wellesley is a densely populated suburb that doesn’t have 10-100 acres of free land to throw away.
This would be a worse “neighbor” than living next to Whole Foods with their very bright white parking lot lights that do not turn off at night despite town regulations that say they are required to do so. They also use lights that are brighter than the ones used (and fought over) at the high school field, even though they border the same wetlands.
I truly believe this would be a great monitory opportunity for the town. It’s not any worse than living near Rt 9-heck there’s more noise and pollution generated there than any data center. Heck even better than all the leaf blowers in town. Comparing it to a nuclear reactor is quite the dramatics. As far as space, the town owns the North 40 which would be a great spot. Other town owned land could be a wonderful opportunity as well.
Playing devils advocate a data center here in town could be a great thing. Companies wanting to build a data center could provide the town with excellent monetary incentives that could benefit the town immensely . There are plenty of wide open spaces in town on town property that could be excellent places to build.
And as one Planning Board member noted, such a center probably wouldn’t add much to the town’s traffic congestion.
Devil’s advocate is your self professed position and in the case of AI data centers quite accurate. What good is generated income for the few if the masses are slaves? Was the purpose of 5g cell towers better cell phone reception?
Hi “Kim”. It’s ok for one to have an opinion even though it differs from yours. Your use of the word, “sl@ves” offends me considering where it derives from. As for the 5G cell phone tower I have had zero issues as my service works phenomenal.
According to a Newsweek article dated 9/9/26 titled “Who Is Jacob Coxon? Anthropic Researcher Quits—Warns AI Could Kill Everyone”; “AI researcher Jacob Coxon has resigned from the AI company Anthropic, warning that the race to develop increasingly powerful AI systems could pose an existential threat to humanity.”
Could Wellesley leaders just say No and resist an AI dictatorship?