At a Thursday night select board meeting, Bow residents presented a petition demanding a temporary moratorium on new data‑center applications. The petition, signed by more than 800 community members, cites concerns about possible environmental and health effects, as well as the town’s capacity to handle large electrical loads.
Board response
Board representative Kip McDaniel said the town will scrutinize any future data‑center proposals more thoroughly than any other municipality in the state. “If a data center application comes towards the town, it will be vetted better than any other town in the state,” he affirmed.
Residents view the moratorium as a “step forward” after previous attempts to raise concerns were blocked. “That’s a step forward because before we were getting blocked at every step. This is a positive step forward, and I’m glad for that,” said Lynn Lull, a Bow resident who helped organize the petition.
Purpose of the freeze
The proposed temporary freeze is intended to give Bow time to research the impacts, costs and benefits of a data center. “That’s basically what we want to do is find out what is a safe way to do this,” Lull added.
Board officials explained that a moratorium would not merely pause applications but also prompt revisions to existing ordinances addressing large electrical usage. “We have already started discussing changes to our ordinances that would begin to address the concerns about large electrical use,” McDaniel said.
Current status
To date, Bow has not received any formal development application for a data center. In September, filings hinted that a company was exploring a project with power demands comparable to a data center, but no decisions have been made.
Following the meeting, the select board scheduled another session to hear further resident concerns and to decide whether a data center should ever be permitted in Bow. The planning board is not expected to vote on the issue until March.
Original reporting: WMUR (Hearst) – local news — read the source article.
