Say no to a data center in Gardner.

Beale Infrastructure withdrew after the City removed incentives for its proposed campus southeast of town. Background here on typical impacts — water, power, noise, zoning, grid costs.

Read the proposal Myths & facts

What this scale looks like

Aerial view of a large fenced data center campus: long gray buildings with dense rows of rooftop cooling equipment, parking and access roads inside the perimeter, green farmland on one side and open arid land on the other.
Marketing renderings make these projects look like sleek campuses. What gets built is heavy industry: long buildings with dense rooftop cooling, security fencing, large paved yards, backup generators, and round-the-clock operation — like the campus in this aerial, beside crop fields and open land. A site at this scale is a permanent industrial neighbor, not an office park. Illustrative aerial of an existing campus, not the proposed Gardner site.
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The full project page covers what we know — and what's still missing.

Specifics on power, water, generators, construction — written while Beale pursued the parcel, still useful reference if land use comes up again.

Read the proposal

Issues neighbors raised

Heavy industrial footprint next to rural homes — not a typical warehouse.

Water

Cooling at this scale needs enormous water and chemistry. “Closed-loop” can be revised after approval and this could contaminate our water supply.

Power

Data centers use massive diesel generators that require mandatory testing. The exhaust contains particulates and pollutants that are harmful to our health.

Sound

Cooling gear adds a low, constant hum 24/7/365. Chronic noise is a documented health stressor; kids take the hit early in sleep, focus, and daily stress.

Zoning precedent

Once land is zoned heavy industrial, the neighboring land is an easier “yes,” and the whole area can shift towards industrial.

Waste heat

Data centers give off enormous waste heat from cooling all that equipment compared to a typical building. That heat can be felt across roughly a six-mile radius around a site this scale.

Our grid & your bill

Data centers pull massive amounts of power from the grid and have a reputation for not paying their fair share of upgrades, leaving nearby households to foot the bill when rates go up.

More on this site

Myths, meeting timeline, documents, and an archive from when the proposal was active.

Myths & facts

Jobs, taxes, water, the grid, and what “industrial zoning” really signals.

Read myths →

Meeting timeline

Dates that were shared while the issue was active, plus links to City agendas.

See meetings →

Resources

Documents, regulators, other towns’ fights, and investigative reporting.

Open library →

Archive page — how neighbors organized (petition link, contacts) kept for the record.