The Data Center Divide
A policy snapshot ahead of the 2026 midterms. Mapping data center incentives, restrictions, and bans through legislation, regulations, and executive actions across all 50 states and 1,462 local jurisdictions.
Town of Lincoln
Strongly Anti-Data Center Policies
Lincoln’s enacted measure bars new or expanded data centers as a main use in every zoning district, including cloud and AI facilities. Small server rooms supporting another permitted use are exempt.
current law · Town of LincolnAdopted, not merely proposed: Lincoln's Town Council unanimously approves the data-center zoning ban on August 18, 2026, and the ordinance prohibits data centers in every zoning district.Lincoln zoning proposal prohibiting data centers (2026)
What this means
The measure would ban data centers in every zoning district, including facilities for cloud computing and AI, so new centers could not be built or expanded as a principal use (prohibited in all districts). It does not ban small server rooms that only support another permitted use, but that narrow exception does not change the overall effect (accessory server rooms excluded).
People behind it
- Kenneth (Ken) Pichette
Lincoln Town Councilor who advanced the townwide ban; asked the town planner to add the use and mark it N.
- Bruce Ogni
Councilor who agreed with the prohibition while noting future circumstances could change.
- Lincoln Town Council
Unanimously adopted the ban on August 18, 2026.
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- Lincoln Planning Board
Gave a unanimous recommendation, according to Councilor Pichette's account in local news.
- Lincoln Ordinance Sub-Committee
The Council agenda lists the data-center amendment and its committee history, including an August 17, 2026 recommendation.
Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements3
Prohibits data centers in every zoning district; the amendment inserts § 260-17K into the storage-use table with N in all ten district columns.
Defines a data center as a facility or group of facilities on a single or contiguous sites used as a principal use for storage, processing, transmission or management of digital data or applications.
Expressly includes colocation, cloud computing, artificial-intelligence computing, enterprise computing, edge computing and similar operations, whether for a single user or multiple users.
Benefits & exceptionsHide benefits & exceptions1
Excludes server rooms, network closets, telecommunications equipment and similar IT infrastructure when accessory and subordinate to another permitted principal use and intended solely to support that use's on-site operational needs. This is a scope exception for supporting infrastructure, not permission for principal-use data centers.
Sources
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