Bill would forbid New Hampshire towns from enacting regulations specific to data centers

Opposition to data centers is becoming increasingly bipartisan in states across the U.S., but the opposite was true in the New Hampshire House on Tuesday.

The House Committee on Municipal and County Government split on party lines in their vote on a bill that would set guidelines for how towns can regulate data center development.

The committee’s Republican majority voted to recommend an amended version of Senate Bill 439 that would prevent towns from regulating data centers in a manner “more restrictive” than other uses allowed in the same district. The bill would also make data centers a permitted land use “by right” in commercially or industrially zoned areas. 

“A data center is an enterprise, and it shouldn’t be treated any differently than any other type of enterprise that seeks to do business here,” said Brookline Republican Diane Pauer, the committee chair and an author of the amendment.

But opponents said data centers raise novel and emerging concerns that may require unique regulations.

“I am very much concerned that we are opening the doors to large data mining centers in the state of New Hampshire, where we cannot afford to host them because we do not have sufficient energy or water to do so,” said Rep. Laurel Stavis, a Lebanon Democrat.

Senate Bill 439, from prime sponsor Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Stratham Democrat, originally sought to establish statewide requirements for data center development. As introduced, it would have limited data centers to commercial and industrial zones, established requirements such as setbacks and noise pollution limits, and enabled towns to regulate data centers further with their own local zoning rules.

The bill also required a prospective developer to supply written proof from the electric utility serving the site that there was, or would imminently be, sufficient grid capacity in the area to serve the data center. Data centers demand large amounts of power to run their servers, and are one driving force behind escalating spikes in electricity use and costs in areas with high center concentrations.

After a Senate amendment removed many of those requirements in January, Altschiller said the bill had become “a shell,” and asked the House Committee on Municipal and County Government to restore its original provisions during a hearing in April. She said data centers were among the most disruptive forms of development in the U.S., citing environmental impacts, high power use, and noise pollution.

Of the amendment, Altschiller said, “That is not a framework; that’s an abdication.”

On Tuesday, Pauer said she had researched data centers and other states’ regulations in the weeks since that hearing. Also listed as an author of the amendment is Rep. Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican. 

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Pauer said another goal of the amendment is to define data centers and ensure that other computer centers, like those at hospitals or telecommunications centers, are not affected by the bill.

In its definition of data center, the bill excludes computing facilities that occupy less than 25% of the floor area of buildings on a site; are used only for on-site business purposes; and are used by communications providers to support their networks.

Democrats on the committee said the bill was not ready and pushed for a vote of “inexpedient to legislate.”

Rep. Jim Maggiore, a North Hampton Democrat, said data centers were both inevitable and valuable. But he said he was against the bill, believing it needed more work and research to account for the unique concerns attached to the industry.

Rep. Eleana Colby, a Bow Democrat, said its language was “negligent and irresponsible.”

“Data centers, we know, come with their own unique set of problems or issues that we haven’t faced before,” she said. “I mean, there’s so much we don’t know.”

Combined with other zoning exemptions, the bill could result in data centers being sited near housing, Colby said.

Other representatives raised concerns about high water and power use by data centers.

“This bill, while it does go a long way towards defining what a data center is, it lacks standards for heat production, for noise, for all sorts of environmental effects that would be an imposition upon the lives of people who are either living in the district, if it’s allowed ‘by right,’ or even in a neighboring residential district,” said Rep. David Fracht, an Enfield Democrat.

Pauer said the purpose of including the words “by right” was to clarify that data centers should not be regulated differently than other businesses. New Hampshire does not currently have a state law defining or regulating the centers.

Ultimately, the committee voted, 11-9, to recommend the amended bill for passage. It will be debated on the floor of the House in the coming weeks.