If Big Tech wants to build here, Massachusetts should name its price
The opinion article argues that Massachusetts communities should use their leverage over data center developers to secure substantial community benefits, including payments, infrastructure support, conservation commitments and property-value protections. It highlights moratoriums and development pauses in Lowell and Westfield, water-supply concerns in Newburyport, and a community-benefits proposal from NorthPoint Development in Pennsylvania.
The article argues that Massachusetts towns should not simply absorb the infrastructure, environmental and neighborhood impacts of data centers. Writer Kristin Tate says communities should demand tangible compensation through community-benefit agreements, such as household payments, electricity credits, conservation land, property-value guarantees and funding for local services.
The piece points to Lowell's moratorium on new data centers, Westfield's one-year pause on additional projects and Newburyport's questions about water capacity as examples of growing local resistance. It also cites a NorthPoint Development proposal in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, which would provide eligible households with $10,000, fund township services and contribute to workforce, education and recreation programs. The Healey administration's executive order requiring local approval for certain permits and encouraging community-benefit agreements is presented as a step toward giving municipalities more bargaining power.