[Massplanners] Data Centers

Michael Zehner michael.zehner at bgllc.net
Wed Jul 2 12:20:50 EDT 2025


Former Mass planner, listserv lurker, living in NC and working for many communities in Virginia providing some third-party review for data centers. Virginia is a hotbed for data centers, Northern Virginia, but they are growing rapidly from that area to other parts of the state. Can confirm that water usage is a major consideration, as is energy demand and the sufficiency of energy infrastructure (upgrades to transmission and other lines, and additional substations should be expected) and noise impacts, among others. There are of course positives from a tax revenue standpoint, which can be an important consideration for some municipalities.

Best,
Michael

Michael Zehner, AICP, CFM, ENV SP
Director of Planning & Community Development

Berkley Group
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From: MassPlanners <massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org> On Behalf Of Indigo Planning LLC via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, July 2, 2025 12:14 PM
To: massplanners at masscptc.org
Subject: [Massplanners] Data Centers

Admittedly I don't know where opinions are on this but I did want to share: a central MA town is receiving email inquiries from a company called Paces about its local regs for data centers. For t
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Admittedly I don't know where opinions are on this but I did want to share: a central MA town is receiving email inquiries from a company called Paces about its local regs for data centers.

For those who aren't aware, there are municipalities across the country that are fighting against the establishment of data centers in their communities.

Amongst the other issues, significant water consumption is a major concern which doesn't impact just the municipality the data center is in but also residents in surrounding municipalities that rely on well water.

Delia Ferguson, AICP







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