NORTHFIELD — The Planning Board held the first of two scheduled public hearings to review draft bylaws for a data center moratorium and regulations on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) ahead of a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 19.
The board took no votes on either draft bylaw on Tuesday, and expects to take a vote to forward them to Town Meeting during its next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
Data centers
The draft data center bylaw, if adopted, would enact a 360-day moratorium on “any new construction and development within the town of Northfield of ‘data centers,'” defined in the bylaw as a building, or a set of buildings, housing and supporting “high-performance servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and related computing infrastructure and equipment” for “storing, processing and distributing data and applications.”
Similar to other communities that have passed moratoriums, the bylaw is designed to give Northfield time to research and understand the impact data centers would have. It states the town intends to use the time to study and analyze the impact of data center construction on public services like emergency personnel and schools, as well as secure policies and procedures for enforcement of conditions on data centers.
Having reviewed the language, Planning Board member Victoria “Tori” Luksha raised a point about the 360-day time frame. She said she thinks it’s worth tying the moratorium to the next fall Town Meeting, when the proposed halt on data centers would expire, thus mitigating any “dead zones” before a new data center bylaw goes before voters.
Member Joe Graveline asked about the Attorney General’s Office and its enforcement around the deadline, noting the state doesn’t want the deadline to “meander.”
“We can state it in a way where it’s from this fall meeting to the following fall meeting in one year’s time, so that it’s clear it’s a year,” Luksha said in response.
Vice Chair Tammy Pelletier said she’s not in favor of changing the 360-day language in the draft to anything “conditional,” and wants to make sure the town is following what the AG’s office is accepting from other communities when it comes to data center moratoriums.
With this in mind, Chair Margaret “Meg” Riordan said she can run the timeline language past town counsel.
During public comment, Northfield resident Margaret Livingstone shared her support for the moratorium, as well as having a full restriction on data centers in Northfield be adopted in a future bylaw. In talking with friends in the U.S. who live near data centers, she said the situation is a “disaster.” She added that these structures are designed to “ingratiate and enable the wealthy, and I’m talking hyper-wealthy.”
Northfield isn’t the only community in Franklin County to consider or adopt policies around data centers. The neighboring town of Gill passed its own data center moratorium during the first part of Annual Town Meeting in May, enacting a pause from May 4, 2026, to May 3, 2027. The AG’s office subsequently approved this bylaw in September.
Similarly, in the county seat of Greenfield, City Council voted unanimously last month to adopt a one-year moratorium on data centers.
At the state level, Gov. Maura Healey is also taking heed of communities enacting policies on data centers. She issued an executive order in September that requires local approval of data centers before any state permitting agencies can review the project. This declaration builds off the executive order signed in June to create a data center framework to “guide responsible data center development to ensure projects do not drive up energy costs, strain local infrastructure, or harm public health and the environment.”
A copy of the draft data center moratorium language is available on the Northfield Planning Board’s website at tinyurl.com/yh2v5ww7.
Accessory dwelling units
The other half of Tuesday’s public hearing was dedicated to looking over bylaw options for ADUs. A new bylaw would create a “clear route” for development that follows state regulation of by-right ADUs, and would also feature language for larger units, or more than one on a property, giving Northfield choice over its development policy.
According to a working draft document for both the Planning Board and town counsel to review, Article A is what would bring the town into compliance with state regulations on ADUs. If Article A is adopted by voters, then two additional articles, Article B and Article C, offer guidance on regulations for larger ADUs and more than one ADU as “separate local policy choices.” Some of the choices include removing family and owner-occupancy limits.
As noted in the draft information packet, Leyden’s May 2025 ADU policy was used as a “structural starting point” for Northfield’s regulations, but doesn’t include its short-term rental policy language. Rather, the draft notes that if having regulations on these rentals is the will of the residents, a draft policy will be developed and voted on at another time.
Having reviewed these regulations, the Planning Board provided some recommendations related to the short-term rental stipulation, along with revisiting building density requirements under state law and how that applies to ADU development in Northfield.
