Bucksport’s town council approved a six-month moratorium on potential data center developments in a divided vote Thursday after weeks of discussion on the subject.
The temporary ban is intended to give the town time to do more research and add regulations without the pressure of any official proposal on the table. Even some councilors who voted in favor said they wanted to avoid “foot-dragging” on making updates and indicated the move wasn’t a blanket effort to keep such potential developments out of town.
The conversation has higher stakes in Bucksport than some other Maine towns adopting such pauses because the former Verso paper mill remains mostly vacant and appealing for redevelopment; at least two data center-related companies have eyed it in the last year, though no applications have come to the town.
Residents have also generally prioritized bringing industry to town since the mill closed in 2014, and moratorium opponents have said they think a temporary ban would send a hostile message to potential deep-pocketed developers.
Data centers to support AI growth have often met with bipartisan opposition in other states for their resource demands that increase local utility costs, along with other concerns including noise and environmental consequences.
Bucksport’s mill site is mostly owned by Whole Oceans, which proposed a land-based fish farm there but never broke ground — meaning the town’s say over what happens there lies in its local regulations.
The company says it’s still moving ahead with that project, Rich Rotella, the town’s economic and community development director, told the Bangor Daily News last week.
But it’s also taking meetings with other companies interested in buying the mill site for other projects, according to Rotella. Beacon Data Centers contacted him in 2025 but appeared to drop out after talks of a statewide moratorium last fall, which was later vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills to protect a proposal for Jay’s former paper mill site.
This summer, a representative of Kratos Data Centers met with town officials and toured the mill site, he said, and was last in contact with him in August. The company appears to be a site selector for developers, according to Rotella.
Those visits weren’t widely public knowledge until last month, and councilor Tracey Hair previously said she didn’t know developers had already come knocking when she proposed the moratorium idea at a resident’s suggestion.
After two readings and a favorable public hearing, the council voted 5-2 Thursday to enact the moratorium. Ed Rankin and Teri Doty were opposed. The pause could be rescinded in less than six months if regulations are updated, multiple councilors have noted. Moratoriums can also be extended.
Rankin said he couldn’t support the version advanced Thursday because it covered all data center proposals instead of only larger ones. Councilor Mark Eastman, who did vote in favor, agreed that smaller projects appeared to be less problematic.
Size has been one theme of the local data center conversation, with some saying they haven’t found much evidence of problems with existing projects under 10 megawatts. Moratorium supporters counter that there are still unknowns about the projects regardless of size, and that even “small” projects come with large electricity demands.
