New Bedford council advances data center ban, sends overnight RV parking ban to committee

NEW BEDFORD Updated 9:15 p.m. Nov. 13, 2026, with Mayor Jon Mitchell's statement.

New Bedford's City Council moved Mayor Jon Mitchell's citywide data center ban a step closer to law Friday night and sent his proposed overnight ban on parking RVs and campers to committee.

The council met for 27 minutes, from 6 p.m. to 6:27 p.m., in a special meeting at City Hall, led by Council President Ryan J. Pereira, that was moved from Thursday because the Veterans Day holiday kept the regular meeting notice from posting 48 hours ahead. Nine of the council's 11 members attended. Councilors Naomi Carney and Ian Abreu sent letters, read into the record, saying a work commitment and a prior commitment kept them away.

Data center ban moves to a second reading

On a motion by Councilor Shane A. Burgo, seconded by Councilor Joseph P. Lopes, the council passed the data center ordinance to a second reading on a voice vote, taking it up together with a rezoning of 30 Brigham Street to mixed-use business. The Committee on Ordinances had recommended approval after a public hearing Oct. 26.

The ordinance would move data centers onto the list of prohibited industrial uses in every zoning district, the overlay districts included. They are now allowed in the mixed-use business district and the IA, IB, IC and WI districts, according to the use table in the ordinance.

The agenda listed the ordinance "to be passed to a second reading," the step the council took Friday. Passing to a second reading is not final adoption, and the council still has to vote to pass the ordinance to be ordained, as it did with the plate camera ban Oct. 22. Under the state zoning law, a zoning change like this one needs a two-thirds vote of all members of the council to be adopted, which is eight of 11.

"I commend the City Council for promptly passing my proposal to ban data centers in our city," Mayor Jon Mitchell said in a statement posted on the City of New Bedford's Facebook page at 8:34 p.m. "Other cities across the nation have come to regret how data centers have undermined the quality of life in their neighborhoods, as well as the strain they have imposed on electric infrastructure and local water supply."

"The new ordinance will give us time to learn from others' mistakes and decide what kinds of zoning changes and other restrictions are needed to protect the interests of New Bedford residents," Mitchell said. Friday's vote was the first of the two the ban needs: the council passed it to a second reading on a voice vote, according to the city's live stream of the meeting.

We covered the committee's hearing in our Oct. 26 story.

RV and camper ban goes to committee

Burgo also moved to send the mayor's two ordinances on campers and RVs to the Committee on Ordinances, Councilor Brian K. Gomes seconded, and the council agreed on a voice vote with no discussion. No start date has been set for the ban or its $300 fine.

As written, the Chapter 23 ordinance would bar parking a recreational vehicle, motor home, mobile home, trailer home, camper or similar vehicle built for living in on any public way or city property from dusk until dawn. A companion change to Chapter 17 would list a violation under a $300 fine. In a Nov. 5 letter, Mitchell wrote that complaints about occupied campers and RVs continue, with many on Cleveland and Harbor streets in the South End and on Coffin Avenue in the North End.

Once the council passes it, the ordinance takes effect under Chapter 43 of the state's general laws, which gives the mayor 10 days to sign it or return it with his objections.

Our Nov. 11 story has the full proposal and the mayor's reasons for it.

Plate camera veto spread on the record

The council received Mitchell's veto of its license plate camera ban and voted by voice to spread it on the record. No vote to override the veto was taken. Under state law, an override takes a two-thirds vote of all members, and not until seven days after the veto returns to the council.

Councilor James Roy noted before the vote that the ban passed 8-3 and called it a decisive vote. "My question is why veto the protection this council adopted while we decide what happens next," Roy said. He added that the council was being asked to give the administration's position fair consideration and that "the council's decision deserves the same consideration and respect in return."

Mitchell has proposed his own ordinance that would allow the cameras under written limits, including a public hearing and council approval before any contract, deleting data after 30 days unless it bears on an open investigation, and audits. The council sent that ordinance to committee on a voice vote. The Police Department decided not to renew its Flock Safety contract, which was set to run out Thursday, Nov. 12, the mayor's Nov. 4 letter says.

We reported the mayor's proposed rules in our Nov. 4 story.

Appointments

The council rejected the mayor's appointment of Alyssa DaCunha of Dartmouth, whom the agenda lists as assistant director of the Board of Health, as executive director of the Commission for Citizens with Disabilities, 0-9 on a roll call. The Committee on Appointments and Briefings had sent it to the full council with no recommendation. Burgo said his objection was that the commission's board had no say in choosing its own executive director, and that his vote was no judgment on DaCunha's qualifications or her work in the Health Department.

Councilors confirmed Joana Goncalves as executive director of the Human Rights Commission 9-0, and she was sworn in at the meeting. They also appointed Sherie Pinzino as administrative assistant to the Board of Assessors 9-0 and approved, 9-0, the mayor's request to waive the job's education and experience requirements for her.

Last year's bills and other business

The council voted 8-1 to pay nine bills left over from the last budget year, with Burgo voting no. Before the vote, councilors cut the library bill from $469.26 to $233.88 after Burgo said part of it was for this fiscal year, which brings the nine bills to $33,783.92 by our count. Burgo said the bills could be paid another way, through the city solicitor's budget.

On a voice vote, councilors took no further action on six committee reports, including councilors' request for an accounting of the $713,441.91 the city received through the state's Winter Recovery Assistance Program and Burgo's request for a Committee on Audit review of the mayor's new staff hire. They sent 11 more orders paying last year's bills to the Finance Committee and two more of the mayor's ordinances, on the Board of Health physician seat and the Whaling National Historical Park representative, to the Committee on Ordinances.

The consent agenda the council adopted closes Spring Street from Purchase Street to Acushnet Avenue from 8 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, to 5 a.m. Monday, Nov. 16, for a temporary Zeiterion Theatre loading dock. It also grants closings downtown for the Christmas tree lighting Saturday, Dec. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m., and for the city's New Year's Eve celebration.

What happens next

The Committee on Ordinances meets Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. in Room 214, with Police Chief Jason Thody's recommended framework for plate camera rules on its posted agenda. The council's next regular meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 24, with agenda items due by 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 19.

South Coast 360 asked the mayor's office when the data center ban would take effect, whether any data center has been proposed in the city and what comes next for the RV ordinance, and will update this story with the answers. The meeting video is on the City of New Bedford homepage under Quick Links, then Meetings.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.