Sutton officials said Friday they are not backing away from considering the Kraft Group’s proposed data center campus, even after a week of sharp public criticism. The town posted an unsigned statement saying it has heard the objections but will keep evaluating the project rather than dismissing it.
The move keeps The Town in the middle of a fast-moving land-use fight that started after a rough proposal disclosed Monday called for a $16 billion campus with up to 900 megawatts of electricity demand. The plan would put 10 buildings on land owned by Unified Packaging about 10 miles south of Worcester, a scale that immediately drew the kind of scrutiny usually reserved for far larger cities and far less rural places.
More than 100 residents turned out Tuesday night to press their concerns about electricity use, water use, noise pollution and other possible effects. The town’s statement answered that criticism directly, saying that “considering an opportunity is not the same as supporting it” and that officials have an obligation to understand the project’s potential benefits, costs and impacts before making any decision.
That matters because Sutton does not have a zoning bylaw that applies to data centers, so the project cannot move forward on its own. Before any development could advance, the Select Board, the Zoning Board and Town Meeting would have to draft and approve new zoning language, and any zoning amendment would need a two-thirds vote at Town Meeting. Town Manager Austin Cyganiewicz said that meeting would likely take place in May, 2027.
The friction is already visible. Residents are mobilizing against a project they say could strain local resources, while the Kraft Group is portraying it as a possible long-term investment and saying it would proceed only if Sutton wants it. That leaves the town trying to manage a proposal that is still only under review, but is already big enough to shape the next two years of local politics.
