Preston — Planning and Zoning Commission members agreed unanimously Tuesday night to have Town Planner Kathy Warzecha draft regulations to prohibit or limit the size of data centers and large shipping centers. The regulations would include definitions of what qualifies as a “large shipping center,” and data center, and specify what the town doesn’t want, Warzecha said. Locally and nationwide, elected officials have seen pushback against AI data centers — including an unsuccessful proposal in 2023 by developer NE Edge to build one in Waterford on the Millstone Power Station property. Locally, there has been opposition to shipping centers as well, as Killingly residents are fighting Amazon’s plan to build a 1.3-million square foot warehouse there. Commissioner Victoria Schulz opened the discussion by saying many communities close to Preston have seen proposals for large shipping centers and data centers and specifically mentioned the Killingly project. “I feel like they’ve seen that with Killingly, where they pushed back against a few things, and they’ve gotten sued, because they didn’t have regulations for things,” she said. “I feel like we have a lot of farmland in Preston, and while we don’t necessarily have the infrastructure right now, it’s not that it’s not possible and not coming. So I think it’s best to have some at least basic regulations around them to at least get us started when they do potentially approach us.”

https://theday.com/news/920023/preston-looks-to-prohibit-data-centers-and-large-shipping-centers/