A proposed temporary two-year moratorium would prohibit the construction, development, and operation of data centers and cryptocurrency mining centers within the City of Keene.

Data centers are permitted only in the Downtown Growth, Downtown Edge, Commerce, Commerce Limited, Business Growth & Reuse, Corporate Park, Industrial, and Industrial Park zoning districts.

Data centers must comply with the applicable zoning-district dimensional and height limits; certain increases, including in the Industrial District, require a special exception.

In the Corporate Park District, no use may generate more than 100 tractor-trailer vehicle trips per day.

Data centers must provide on-site parking at 0.5 space per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area, excluding office space, plus 4 spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space.

Major site plan review is required for a new principal building over 5,000 square feet, projects generating at least 100 vehicle trips per day or 50 peak-hour trips, projects with more than 10,000 contiguous square feet of impervious surface, or disturbance of 1 acre or more. Minor site plan review applies to new buildings between 1,000 and 5,000 square feet subject to the stated thresholds.

Data-center development must comply with Article 21 site-development standards, and site work generally cannot begin until required Planning Board or staff approval is obtained.

Stormwater design may require a drainage report from a New Hampshire licensed engineer, must avoid increasing runoff onto adjacent properties or surface waters, and must use low-impact development measures unless on-site infiltration is impracticable.

Data-center sites must meet erosion and sediment-control requirements, including limits on soil and vegetation disturbance, protection of receiving waters and wetlands, stable slopes, and compliance with the New Hampshire Stormwater Manual unless the City Engineer approves otherwise.

Waste, loading, heating and cooling, electrical, and other areas likely to generate noise, dust, or disruptive conditions must be screened; ground-mounted mechanical equipment visible from a public right-of-way or adjacent property must be fully screened.

Outdoor lighting must use fully shielded or dark-sky-compliant fixtures, meet specified glare and footcandle limits, use white light no warmer than 3,500 Kelvin, and generally be turned off between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., subject to security, operating, and 24-hour-business exceptions.

Data-center operations must comply with property-line sound limits of 70 dB(A) during the day and 55 dB(A) at night in nonresidential districts, or 60 dB(A) during the day and 50 dB(A) at night in residential districts.

Handling, storage, or processing of hazardous or toxic substances requires disclosure in site-plan materials, applicable state or federal permits and plans, and potentially an initial site characterization if the City identifies a possible health or environmental threat.

In the Surface Water Protection Overlay District, new structures, roads, driveways, parking lots, or stormwater facilities within the protected buffer generally require a Planning Board conditional use permit; certain hazardous-material storage and other listed uses are prohibited.

Development in a special flood hazard area requires a floodplain development permit before work begins and must satisfy specified elevation, anchoring, flood-resistant construction, utility-protection, drainage, and compensatory flood-storage requirements.

A data-center project in a special flood hazard area may require a floodplain variance, which must avoid increased flood heights and additional public-safety threats, must not create extraordinary public expense, and must provide only the minimum necessary relief. Variances are prohibited within a regulatory floodway.

A floodplain variance expires if the authorized use or structure has not begun within two years of final approval; an extension must be requested and heard as a new application.

Altering more than 20,000 square feet of precautionary slope area requires a Hillside Protection Overlay conditional use permit, and construction is prohibited in prohibitive slope areas except for specified exceptions.

City sewer and water capacity may be evaluated through technical studies at the applicant's expense, and all new development must comply with the City's industrial pretreatment program.

Building or altering a data center requires a permit, and the plans, specifications, and proposed use must conform to the Land Development Code. A permit issued contrary to the Code or based on a material misstatement or misrepresentation is void.

A data center may not be occupied, used, or changed in use until the Community Development Department issues a Certificate of Occupancy.

The Building and Health Official may issue a written stop-work order for construction that violates the Code or approved plans, is unsafe, lacks a required permit, or otherwise fails to comply; emergency violations may be ordered abated immediately.

Land Development Code violations or violations of approval conditions are subject to fines, and each day a violation continues after a stop-work order is issued is a separate violation.

Regulated earth excavation may require an earth-excavation permit, detailed mapping, erosion and sedimentation controls, impact monitoring, reclamation plans, supporting analyses, fees, and financial security in the form of a certified check or letter of credit; performance bonds are not accepted.

The Planning Board may delegate review of qualifying minor site plans to a technically qualified Minor Project Review Committee, allowing eligible minor data-center projects to be reviewed administratively rather than by the full Planning Board.

The fee schedule sets service-connection permit fees of $15 for commercial buildings and $30 for industrial buildings, plus engineering inspection fees of $55 per hour; a data center classified in either category can use these defined charges.

The measure creates a Sustainable Energy Efficient Development Overlay District Incentive application category with a $100 application fee for qualifying energy-efficient development projects, including data centers that meet the overlay requirements.

Data centers are permitted by right in the Downtown Growth, Downtown Edge, Commerce, Commerce Limited, Business Growth & Reuse, Corporate Park, Industrial, and Industrial Park districts, subject to applicable use-specific and site-development standards. Data Center P

Data centers have a minimum parking requirement of 0.5 space per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area excluding office space, plus 4 spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space. Data Center parking requirement

No on-site parking is required for data centers in the Downtown Growth District because the Code waives on-site parking requirements in the Downtown Core, Downtown Growth, and Downtown Limited districts, subject to the stated residential-use exception. No on-site parking is required

Eligible projects in the SEED A Overlay District may use alternative dimensional standards, including a maximum height of 6 stories, or 7 stories with first-floor parking, no minimum lot size, and 0-foot front, side, and rear setbacks. Eligibility requires green-building pre-certification, with final certification required before a certificate of occupancy. SEED A incentives

Eligible projects in the SEED B Overlay District may have more than one permitted principal use on a lot and may establish a principal-use parking lot. The project must satisfy the Code's green-building eligibility and certification requirements. SEED B use incentives

A lawfully established data center that later becomes nonconforming may continue operating, and the associated nonconforming rights run with the property despite changes in ownership or tenancy. Authority to continue

A nonconforming data-center use may be expanded or enlarged with Zoning Board of Adjustment approval if it does not violate the district's basic dimensional requirements and satisfies the Code's neighborhood, safety, and facility-adequacy findings. Enlargement or expansion

If a nonconforming data-center structure is damaged or destroyed without the owner's contributing fault, it may generally be repaired or rebuilt to its prior size without increasing the nonconformity, provided the required building permit is obtained within one year and the Code's replacement and damage thresholds are met. Restoration of damaged structures

A proposed moratorium would prohibit the construction, development, and operation of data centers and cryptocurrency-mining facilities (or similar uses) in Keene while regulations are developed; the proposal was described as two years in some materials, while later materials recommended one year and cited state law as limiting a moratorium to no more than one year.

The Land Development Code defines data centers and permits them broadly without special restrictions.

Any data-center moratorium would be temporary and limited by state law to no more than one year.

A moratorium would use narrow definitions that exclude ordinary server rooms, including the City's own IT servers.

The Planning Board unanimously recommended that the City Council pursue an ordinance imposing a one-year moratorium on data centers or similar uses. The sources describe this as a recommendation, not an enacted moratorium.