State Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio
By Lee Burnett
State Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio is urging the Sanford City Council to act quickly and impose a temporary pause on data center development in the wake of Gov. Janet Mills’ veto of a statewide moratorium.
Data center developments in Sanford, Jay and Limestone are free to proceed as a result of last week’s veto, which was sustained when the Maine Legislature Wednesday failed to muster a two-thirds majority vote needed to override the veto. Individual data centers could still be delayed if local officials act. Bangor has already enacted a six-month moratorium to review its ordinances. Mastraccio said Sanford also needs a moratorium, coupled with a referendum vote, to ensure the $2 billion-plus project proposed for south Sanford is adequately vetted.
“It’s very clear to me that the people of Sanford want an opportunity to weigh in on this and get some guardrails in place,” she said. Mastraccio points out that both a proposed oil refinery in the 1970s and a proposed casino in the early 2000s, projects of comparable magnitude to the data center, were subject to city-wide referendums.
Mastraccio said she has been in contact with Mayor Becky Brink, Deputy Mayor Maura Herlihy and Councilor Ayn Hanselmann and has forwarded them a copy of Bangor’s moratorium.
“They could enact an emergency moratorium with a two-thirds vote,” she said. “I would not think they’re doing their due diligence if they didn’t.”
The Sanford Springvale News reached out to Brink, Herlihy and Hanselmann but did not get a response.
Mastraccio said there is urgency to act because if the City Council leaves it to a citizens group to force the issue, it might not be until November that a moratorium could be considered by voters, given the extended time it takes to get citizen referendums on the ballot. By that time, data center developers may have secured sufficient legal standing to thwart a vote, she said.
“It’s better for the city to act, than wait for the people to write one,” she said.
Randy Gibbs, the lead developer of the Sanford Woods project, did not respond to a call for comment.
Mastraccio said a local moratorium would “tie in” with appointment of a Data Center Coordination Council, which in her veto message Mills pledged to create by executive action. The council was something that the moratorium legislation would have set up to consider data centers’ impacts on electricity ratepayers, water resources, and Maine’s environment. Mastraccio points out that the upshot of a moratorium could be to enact a local revenue sharing mechanism.
“There’s a lot of things the City Council could do that’s beneficial,” she said.
Stop the Sludge, the citizens group that is collecting signatures to force a citywide vote on a biosolids gasification plant proposed by Aries Clean Technologies, vowed to push for a citywide vote on the data center issue as well if the City Council declines.
“We would celebrate them if they did act. If they won’t, we will,” said Nicole Gorsun, a spokesperson for the group.
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