The Planning Board will hold public hearings next month for a proposed moratorium on data centers, home business signage, and “change of use” for properties.
The data center moratorium proposal would allow a temporary 180-day prohibition for building data center facilities 10,000 square feet or greater; the home business signage allows larger signs in specific areas downtown; and “change of use” would allow the Planning Board to waive site plan review for a commercial business if the impact on the neighborhood would not be greater than that of the business that preceded it.
All three hearings will be held 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept 16.
The Town Council had sent a proposal to the Planning Board for a temporary moratorium on data center facilities 100,000 square feet or larger, seeking input on a couple of items: the size of data centers and the effective implementation date of a new ordinance, if approved.
To better understand what a built 100,000-square-foot building means on the ground, the board compared actual properties of various sizes, using Marshwood High School (165,000 square feet), a football field (57,000 square feet) and the South Berwick Community Center (15,500 square feet) as examples.
Board member Clay Curtis noted that even Pratt & Whitney in North Berwick probably doesn’t have a data room as large as 10,000 square feet.
The proposed ordinance, drawn up by the town attorney, followed similar documents drafted by other towns, according to Town Planner Jeff Brubaker, who said the board could consider reducing the square footage number.
The board unanimously agreed to change the moratorium document language from “temporarily prohibiting data centers of 100,000 square feet or greater” to “…10,000 square feet or greater.” The revision, which would be retroactive to July 14, 2026, was then scheduled for the public hearing.
The board also voted unanimously for hearings on the other two ordinances, which required no further discussion as they had been discussed at previous meetings.
