EASTPORT — A public hearing on two citizen‑initiated ordinances aimed at halting a proposed underwater computing project in the Western Passage is scheduled for Sept. 9.
The group that petitioned for the ban has also asked the city to file for intervenor status in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permitting process so Eastport can actively participate as an interested third party.
DeepGreen Western Passage SPV LLC, the development company behind the proposal, previously described the project as an artificial intelligence data center in earlier versions of its preliminary permit application to FERC.
The agency accepted that application for filing in August, a step that does not grant approval or authorize construction.
Developer Louis Wolfson, managing member of DeepGreen Holdings LLC, applied in February to FERC for a 48‑month preliminary permit, just weeks after the company incorporated in Delaware. Wolfson told Monitor Local in an email that a preliminary permit is “a license to study, not a license to construct.”
The upcoming hearing follows the Eastport City Council’s approval of a 180‑day temporary ban on data centers, introduced by Councilor Karen Raye, and a Planning Board review late last month that produced recommendations on the feasibility of the proposed ordinances.
During a special session after the Eastport Planning Board’s August hearing, the board unanimously recommended that the City Council adopt the first ordinance — a permanent ban on large‑scale data centers — but dismiss the second, which would require voter approval for commercial and industrial development larger than 25,000 square feet on land and 10,000 square feet in the ocean.
The recommendation was based on the city’s legal analysis of the proposal.
In explaining the decision to recommend dismissal of the ordinance requiring voter approval, Planning Board Chairman Michael Morse cited the city’s legal counsel, the law firm Rudman Winchell, which called the proposal “unlawful and unenforceable” because it conflicts with the city charter.
The Eastport Coalition for Healthy Oceans, or ECHO — the residents’ group that brought the two citizen‑initiated ordinances forward — requested that an agenda item asking the city to file for intervenor status be added to the Sept. 9 hearing.
The request, originally sent to City Manager Brian Schuth and denied in a return email from newly appointed Clerk Tahirih Aaronsohn, was updated and resubmitted by the coalition Wednesday.
The initial request to intervene was proposed by the committee’s spokesperson, Joshua Nicholson, as “an agenda item to deliver a formal request letter to City Council regarding DeepGreen’s Western Passage data center.”
Later, Birdy Velveteen, a member of ECHO, told Monitor Local, “We wanted to address them as a coalition before the vote, and deliver a formal request to gain intervenor status with FERC.”
In the updated request, the petitioners said they “followed the agenda item request laid out in the city charter” and were told “the council is not inclined to place an agenda item at this time,” though Aaronsohn offered to accept the letter by mail or email.
In an email to the City Council, Schuth and Aaronsohn, ECHO members wrote: “The September 9th meeting is the last opportunity to have an audience with the city, and it is the most important meeting of this committee’s campaign. This meeting is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work (and thousands of dollars) given by the council’s constituents.”
Velveteen said she expects they will learn whether their updated request has been granted when the agenda is posted on Eastport’s Agenda Center website ahead of the meeting.
Reached for comment, Raye, who has taken on the role of data center liaison, said she was unsure of the petitioners’ intent to speak. She said she had heard about a request in passing, but was unaware a decision had been made. Raye added she would look into it, but did not provide additional comment as of Friday.
The City Council has expressed unanimous and open opposition to the construction of an underwater artificial intelligence data center and subsea computing system in Eastport’s waters, though some residents and petitioners have criticized the city’s decision to save legal dollars and wait until later in the project’s development to take action.
Since FERC accepted DeepGreen Western Passage SPV LLC’s preliminary permit application, half a dozen comments and motions to intervene have been submitted. In the two weeks since that filing, FERC has also accepted an application for a preliminary permit for DeepGreen Cook Inlet, a similar project proposed for Alaska’s Cook Inlet tidal waters.
Neither the DeepGreen Western Passage SPV nor the Cook Inlet SPV project has received a permit for construction.
If the City Council adopts the petition for a permanent ban next week, councilors will still have time under the 180‑day temporary moratorium to amend the ordinance language and return it to the Planning Board for approval.
The public hearing and regular City Council meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in the Port Authority Building.
