This story by Liberty Darr was first published in The Other Paper on  June 4, 2026.

As the conversation around digital data centers stirs strong emotions across the entire country, Vermont and some of its municipalities, including South Burlington, have hopped onto the conversation to get at least a bit of a handle on the rapidly evolving industry.

That’s at least the initial approach South Burlington is taking. The city’s planning commission has outlined some initial land use regulations related to the topic for a routine set of zoning amendments that are up for a public hearing later this month.

The topic of data centers is just one small subset in the planned amendments, according to Paul Conner, the city’s director of planning and zoning.

“This is fast moving, but we didn’t want to be caught on our heels,” Conner told the planning commission last month.

Data centers have become a buzzword around the nation and have faced significant backlash in some places, as proposals for the giant facilities pop up around the country. Opponents argue not only about the surging energy and water consumption associated with them, but also their propulsion of the artificial intelligence industry.

“We sort of joke in the office, there’s no such thing as a planning emergency, but you know, this is getting close to something,” senior city planner Kelsey Peterson told the commission. “There’s stuff in Massachusetts, stuff in New Hampshire, like there’s interest in the general New England area.”

Massive centers like those being proposed in places like Texas and Utah don’t seem to be on the horizon for Vermont yet, Kerrick Johnson, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, said in February testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure. He was commenting on H.727, an act relating to sustainable data center deployment.

In fact, Vermont is likely not the most ideal candidate for data center developers, who are looking for things like inexpensive energy, reliable grid performance and strong fiber network communications, along with an “expeditious, predictable permitting process,” Johnson said.

“Now, I’ll let you all decide how Vermont ranks in those categories,” he quipped.

According to a 2026 annual energy report from the Vermont Department of Public Service, the Northeast continues to have some of the highest electricity rates in the country, and Vermont prices have risen over the last two years more steadily than in some other northeastern states.

Johnson said the state currently has sufficient regulatory mechanisms to ensure protections for Vermont ratepayers but that they should be strengthened.

Massachusetts and Connecticut have passed legislation to incentivize data centers in the state to promote economic development.

And really, Johnson said, data centers of any size being built across the region could impact Vermonters in two ways: infrastructure costs of regional network service and wholesale power costs.

Vermont’s proposed legislation was vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott, who cited concerns over the possibility that the bill’s broader message extended far beyond just data centers and into areas the state depends on for many of its “best jobs.”

Like Johnson, Scott said the state already has substantial regulatory authority over the issue, through Act 250, Public Utility Commission oversight, environmental permitting requirements, energy siting rules and local zoning.

“The last thing Vermont should do is worsen our economic challenges by adding new and unnecessary regulatory systems,” he wrote.

Planning commissioners in South Burlington took a similar approach, noting that the definition of a data center is broad. While the proposal for amendments to the land use regulations now includes the city’s own definition of data centers, it also acknowledges data centers can exist in a variety of different ways and likely already do in the city and Chittenden County, for sectors such as the University of Vermont Medical Center or manufacturers.

In the proposed regulations, if a data center facility is 5,000 square feet or less, it wouldn’t fit the definition of a data center but instead would be considered “general commercial.”

The proposed regulations also differentiate between small- and large-scale facilities — above or below 20,000 square feet — and give different allowances for both. As the regulations stand now, small-scale facilities are permitted in only two zoning areas in the city: mixed industrial commercial and industrial.

Conner said the city will likely take a two-step approach to the conversation, with these initial amendments offering a stopgap until the city’s planning leaders and commissioners can further explore the topic. The city, he said, is not taking a firm stance yet.

Other municipalities have taken a completely different approach. According to reporting from the Valley News, voters in Royalton on Town Meeting Day approved a policy that would place a five-year moratorium on the construction of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency data centers.

The South Burlington Planning Commission will hold a public hearing for the slew of regulation amendments — which includes data center definitions — on June 23 at 7 p.m.