Shutesbury Planning Board Tables Data Center Bylaw, Keeps Prohibition in Place

SHUTESBURY -- April 13, 2026, Shutesbury Planning Board unanimously tables data center bylaw, reaffirming town-wide prohibition. The five-member board, joined by associate Tom Seifert, voted Monday to abandon a draft zoning bylaw that had been in development for roughly six months and to reaffirm the use-table prohibition on data centers approved at the September 30, 2025 special town meeting. Member Michael DeChiara, who had led the drafting effort, moved to table the bylaw after concluding the complexity "screams to me the fact that we're trying to push a square peg through a round hole." Member Jeff Weston, in a lengthy statement, cited the town's existing $700,000 expenditure on PFAS testing and water filtration for more than 50 contaminated homes as reason not to invite any additional contamination risk, and argued the bylaw's noise and heat standards were unenforceable against a technology that generates low-frequency hum traveling more than two miles. Eight public commenters, including a self-described environmental lawyer named Sanford and resident Mary Lou Konka of Wendell Road, spoke unanimously against the bylaw. The board also voted to notify the Select Board of the decision before the warrant is finalized at the Select Board's April 14 meeting.