Dover-Foxcroft temporarily pauses data centers

DOVER-FOXCROFT — The town of Dover-Foxcroft has temporarily banned data center applications and projects for 180 days.

In that time, town officials will examine existing municipal ordinances to see if they need changes to regulate potential future projects. Extensions to 180-day bans can be granted as long as the town can prove the municipality is working on it and needs time. 

The move by the Dover-Foxcroft Select Board comes at a time when other Maine communities, such as Bangor for another six-month timespan, are banning data center construction. The freeze in Dover-Foxcroft, which has had no such proposals come forward, will allow town officials to review existing ordinances should a data center express interest in coming to town.

“There is no pending proposal before us yet, which is why we’re doing a moratorium,” Select Chair Steve Grammont said. “The purpose of this is to determine if what we have on the books is sufficient.”

Panic around artificial intelligence is ratcheting up across the country and bipartisan opposition grows against data center construction.

The Maine Data Center Advisory Council is working to regulate future projects in the state with a report due early next year. In the spring, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have placed an 18-month statewide ban on large-scale data centers.

The resolution Dover-Foxcroft leaders passed Monday evening defines a data center as any building, structure or facility or group thereof, whose primary use is the storage, management, processing or transmission of digital data and which houses computer systems, servers and associated components. 

The resolution could include such things as cooling systems and power supply infrastructure related to cloud computing facilities, server farms, cryptocurrency mining operations, artificial intelligence training or processing facilities and data storage warehouses.

The town has temporarily banned certain projects before.

Several decades ago Walmart was looking to purchase land on the Bangor Road. The town had no ordinance for large retailers and a store could have paid agricultural tax rates. 

“The purpose of this is not to close the door on development, it’s to make sure they’re paying their fair share,” Grammont said.

He believes there are regulations in place now, but a temporary pause will give the town time to evaluate and coordinate with the state.

“This makes sense to me that we would take time to be careful with ordinance if someone came forward with a proposal as they are proposing to do in other parts of the state,” Selectperson Cindy Freeman Cyr said.

The 180-day timeframe does not mean a business interested in a data center cannot approach the town, Grammont said.

“It’s not about being business friendly, it’s making sure we have time to evaluate this,” he said. “It’s foolish to say no to a net benefit, but it’s foolish to say yes to a net negative.”

Land use ordinances written a decade ago didn’t account for data centers. 

The community’s Climate Action Advisory Committee is investigating practices and safeguards concerning data center environmental impact, energy resources and economic development, with its report due in early 2027. The group proposed a temporary ban on data center projects of 10 megawatts or greater because they believe it would be in the best interest of residents and property owners in town.

More than a decade ago, Dover-Foxcroft paused large-scale projects in regard to a proposed east-west highway while adjusting the land use ordinance.

The Bangor Daily News’ Annie Rupertus contributed to this story.