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Voters approved a sweeping zoning amendment to limit where and how data centers can operate in Mansfield.

By Annie Jonas

May 13, 2026 | 1:31 PM

4 minutes to read

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As Massachusetts communities confront the rapid rise of data centers tied to artificial intelligence and cloud computing, Mansfield has positioned itself at the front of the state’s response.

At the town’s Annual Town Meeting on May 5, voters approved Article 23, a sweeping zoning amendment that creates strict limits on where and how data centers can operate in Mansfield. The measure effectively bars the kinds of large-scale facilities increasingly appearing across the country, while leaving a narrow pathway for smaller operations under close municipal oversight.

The move makes Mansfield the first town in Massachusetts to adopt a dedicated data center zoning bylaw, according to officials — an effort local leaders say was driven less by immediate development pressure than by a desire to avoid being caught unprepared.

Sarah Raposa, Mansfield’s director of planning and development, said the Planning Board recognized that even though there were no current proposals, the town needed to establish rules “in case something were to come up,” she said.

“We should be prepared,” Raposa said.

From there, town officials began studying how communities around the country were regulating the rapidly growing industry and what impacts large facilities were having on local infrastructure. Raposa said Mansfield quickly focused on two recurring concerns — electricity and water — by working closely with the town’s municipal electric and water departments to understand local capacity limits before drafting the regulations.

What’s in the zoning bylaw?

Mansfield’s new bylaw does not completely ban data centers, but it sharply limits where and how large they can be.

Under the rules, only Tier I data centers — facilities using up to two megawatts of electricity — would be allowed, and only in certain industrial and planned business districts with special permit approval from the Planning Board. Town officials said the two-megawatt cap reflects what Mansfield’s infrastructure can reasonably support. 

Larger facilities would not be allowed. The bylaw prohibits all data centers in residential and business districts, and bars medium-sized “Tier II” facilities (between two and 10 megawatts) and large-scale “Tier III” centers (more than 10 megawatts) anywhere in town.

Raposa said the goal was to prevent Mansfield from becoming home to a massive data center in the future, while still leaving flexibility for smaller-scale operations that may support existing businesses.

“It’s not an outright ban, but it limits the size, and therefore the constraint on our local resources in a very thoughtful, contemplative way,” she said. “We’re not going to have the first giant data center of the Commonwealth. But when there come these smaller offshoots, we won’t be caught flat.”

Town Manager Mallory Aronstein said officials tried to craft what she described as a middle-ground approach; one that preserved economic opportunities without opening the door to development the town’s infrastructure could not sustain.

“We were really trying to thread the needle of community and resource protection as well as economic development,” she said.

How the municipal electric department helped define regulations

Mansfield’s municipal electric utility became central to that strategy. Because the town controls its own electric department and offers comparatively low rates, officials worried Mansfield could become attractive to high-energy users if no safeguards were in place.

“It’s important that we had some guardrails put on this relatively new business type to protect the town,” Raposa said, “Because the worst is when you don’t have anything on the books, and they get in by-right, and all of a sudden you have problems.”

The bylaw also establishes a particularly detailed compliance structure. Applicants seeking special permits must submit engineering reports to the town’s department heads evaluating electrical demand, cooling systems, water consumption, noise, air quality, and other impacts. The town can also require outside peer review of the reports at the applicant’s expense. Approved permits last five years before requiring renewal, allowing the Planning Board to reassess facilities over time.

Noise regulation decades in the making

Raposa said officials were especially focused on noise, an issue that has generated complaints in communities with large data centers both locally and nationwide. Mansfield, which didn’t have its own noise bylaw in town, used the data center zoning process to modernize its own standards, moving beyond decades-old state guidance from the Department of Environmental Protection.

“The only thing worse than having a bylaw from 1996 is not having one,” she quipped.

Rather than measuring sound at property lines per MassDEP guidelines, the town will now measure noise impacts at “sensitive receptors,” including homes, schools, hospitals, or “other buildings regularly occupied by persons for residential, educational, medical, or congregate purposes.” 

The goal, Raposa said, is straightforward: “If you are at home sleeping with your windows closed, you probably shouldn’t be hearing a data center that happens to be nearby.” Noise from data centers is capped at 50 dBA during the day and 45 dBA at night, according to the zoning bylaw — about the sound of a refrigerator hum, Raposa added.

Not perfect, but perfectly adequate

Officials acknowledge the bylaw may evolve over time as more Massachusetts communities begin confronting similar challenges.

But for now, Aronstein said, there is pride in Mansfield becoming the first town in the state to be proactive before the industry arrives in force.

“’I’ll admit our bylaw may not be perfect,” she said, “but we think this works for us based on our unique circumstances.”