Bucksport’s town council will soon consider a moratorium on data center proposals to buy time to regulate them, but opinions differ about whether a temporary ban is a necessary safeguard or would scare away much-desired business.
The town’s regulatory review committee, which is made up of councilors, voted after lengthy discussion Thursday to weigh the idea at an upcoming council meeting.
No one has yet proposed a data center in Bucksport, according to Councilor Tracey Hair, who introduced the moratorium after a resident suggestion last month.
“For me it’s not about being anti-business, anti-development, it’s not about saying no or yes to the infrastructure,” she said, describing the moratorium as a way to update regulations before the town is under time pressure from a real proposal. “It’s just that we can welcome new investment but we can also be cautious and careful, and that large local projects should meet local standards.”
Numerous Maine towns have considered such pauses since Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a statewide data center moratorium earlier this year to save a proposal for Jay’s former paper mill, which later went on indefinite hold in June due to funding issues.
Bucksport stands out among them as a place that has long been shaped by and receptive to industry, with realistic appeal to data center developers because of the infrastructure that served its paper mill. The town has deep-water access on the Penobscot River, a groundwater supply and abundant electricity from the power plant that once was used in papermaking and now operates below its capacity.
Conversation has focused around the mill site, almost all of which is owned by Whole Oceans, the company that proposed a land-based fish farm there more than eight years ago but never broke ground. A 2025 state-funded economic development plan even identified a data center as a potentially valuable reuse of the property.
But problems in other states where data centers have been built, including loud noise and large energy and water demands, are giving some Bucksport residents pause before embracing this particular form of industry.
On Thursday, other residents and officials countered that a new ordinance isn’t necessary and passing a moratorium would send a negative message to interested developers, potentially costing a boost to its tax base that they feel the town could not afford to lose.
“I don’t think it puts Bucksport in a good light towards business that we desperately need,” Councilor Ed Rankin said of the moratorium idea, noting local desire to ease property taxes through business growth instead of cutting services.
He supports moving ahead with a “common sense ordinance” but not a moratorium, suggesting developers would view the town as one that would fight them at every step and take their business elsewhere.
Rankin would want to hear all proposals and take them as they come, he said, a similar sentiment expressed by Mayor Paul Bissonette.
Bucksport has prioritized attracting new industry since the Verso mill closed in late 2014, and growing the commercial tax base has taken on some new urgency in recent years after the town spent down savings that cushioned it from losing the mill. Councilors have taken on cost-cutting in response that is likely to continue reducing services in future budget cycles.
When resident and former lawmaker Ralph Chapman suggested at an August meeting that the council consider a moratorium, he described data centers as primarily an environmental concern.
Councilor Paul Rabs supported the idea last month, raising potential issues then and again on Thursday that include water contamination, heat, high energy and water demands, and loud noise that could carry for miles.
“This thing will turn on and not shut off for 10 years,” he said.
Rabs also prioritized decommissioning requirements, which the town does not currently have for large proposals and did not require of Whole Oceans, officials said Thursday.
Hair emphasized Thursday that the moratorium was not intended to be anti-business and she was not proposing a ban. The idea was for the town to make sure its existing, or new, regulations are prepared to handle new data center technology that didn’t exist when local code was written, she said.
Code Enforcement Officer Luke Chiavelli said some tweaks could be made to the town’s existing land use ordinance and site plan review, but he thought a new ordinance wasn’t necessary and would scare off potential developers along with the billions of dollars they could invest.
“If we don’t have an ordinance we would have no ability to tell them no, outside of what we have,” Councilor Mark Eastman said.
Several residents spoke both for and against the moratorium idea for similar reasons. A resident with relevant experience has offered to help develop an ordinance if the town moves ahead with one, Hair said.
