Four South Coast communities take up data center rules from Nov. 13 to Nov. 18

SOUTH COAST Data center rules come before boards and voters in New Bedford, Somerset, Rehoboth and Dighton over six days, from Friday, Nov. 13, to Wednesday, Nov. 18.

The meetings follow a Tuesday night in Swansea where selectmen put off a discussion of a proposed AI "inference point" facility after more than 80 people crowded the police station's conference room past its capacity, The Herald News reported. Taunton banned data centers outright last month and passed a one-year moratorium in case the ban faces a legal challenge, the paper reported.

Each community is taking a different route, with New Bedford and Rehoboth weighing outright bans written into zoning, Somerset at the first step toward a temporary pause and Dighton's Planning Board set to review a proposed bylaw.

New Bedford, Friday, Nov. 13

The City Council meets at 6 p.m. Friday in Room 214 at City Hall, 133 William St., in a special meeting called because Veterans Day kept the city from posting notice of the regular Thursday meeting in time, according to Council President Ryan J. Pereira's call of the meeting. The Committee on Ordinances recommends approving Mayor Jon Mitchell's ordinance banning data centers, and the agenda says it would then pass to a second reading.

Data centers are now allowed in five zoning districts, the mixed-use business district and the IA, IB, IC and WI industrial districts, according to the use table in the ordinance. The ordinance would list them as a prohibited use in every district, the overlay districts included. The committee held a public hearing on it Oct. 26 and voted that night to recommend it, according to its report.

Our preview of Friday's meeting has the rest of the agenda, including the plate camera veto and the overnight RV ban.

Somerset, Tuesday, Nov. 17

The Planning Board meets at 6 p.m. in the first floor Hearing Room at Town Hall, 140 Wood St. Its agenda lists a discussion of the selectmen's request that it consider holding a public hearing on a draft zoning bylaw that would put a temporary moratorium on data centers. The hearing itself is not on Tuesday's agenda, and town meeting would have the final vote on any moratorium.

Selectmen voted Oct. 28 to send the draft to the Planning Board, and Selectmen Chairman Allen Smith said then that he was not proposing a total ban like Taunton's, according to the Somerset Access Television recording of that meeting.

Our Somerset Planning Board preview has more on the selectmen's request.

Rehoboth, Tuesday, Nov. 17

Voters at the special town meeting will take up Article 10, which would add a definition of a data center to the zoning bylaw and list data centers as a prohibited use in every zoning district, according to the Planning Board's legal notice. A building would count as a data center when more than 25% of its floor area holds server racks and related equipment, or when the board finds that housing servers is its main purpose, the notice says.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the meeting hall, formerly the museum, at the Francis Farm complex on Francis Farm Road, with check-in from 6 p.m., officials told selectmen Nov. 2, as recorded by Rehoboth TV. Article 10 needs a two-thirds vote with at least 75 people present, the town moderator said at that meeting. The Planning Board voted Oct. 28 to send the bylaw to town meeting.

Our Rehoboth town meeting guide covers the other articles, including the Community Preservation surcharge.

Dighton, Wednesday, Nov. 18

The Planning Board meets at 7 p.m. in the lower level of Town Hall, 979 Somerset Ave., with a Zoom option. Its revised agenda lists a proposed data center bylaw from Brett Zografos for review, discussion and action.

The same agenda includes a draft 2026 Housing Production Plan from the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District, a discussion of allowing breweries and brewpubs under the town's zoning bylaw, and a change to the Hart's Memory subdivision at 128 Hart St.

Swansea, date not set

Swansea selectmen plan to hold the inference point discussion again in a larger space and have not announced a new date, The Herald News reported. South Coast 360 covered the crowd that filled the room in its story on the postponed meeting, and our preview of that meeting has the background on the proposal.

How to weigh in

New Bedford's council meeting and the Somerset and Dighton Planning Board meetings are open to the public. Rehoboth's town meeting votes are cast by the town's registered voters, and the town clerk takes questions at TownClerk@RehobothMA.gov. The New Bedford meeting is streamed live and recorded, with video on the city's homepage under Quick Links, then Meetings, the agenda says. The Somerset and Dighton agendas say those meetings are recorded, Dighton's for cable broadcast.

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