The Kraft Group’s $16 billion proposal to build the country’s fourth largest data center is facing intense pushback from residents in the small Massachusetts town.

The Sutton community showed out in force for the Tuesday night Select Board meeting, showing passionate and often rowdy opposition to the $16.75 billion proposal.

“Kill it now!” a chorus of chanting voices shouted as the Select Board attempted to move away from public forum Tuesday night.

The first Select Board meeting follows the release of the proposal from the Kraft Group and Unified Global Packaging Group for a data center campus on a property off Boston Road and Providence Road in Sutton.

The estimated $16.75 billion project – which the developers note is “several times the $2.8 billion in assessed value of all property in Sutton today” – would complete two buildings by 2029 and two more each year through 2033 in the small town, ultimately constructing what would become potentially the fourth largest data center in the U.S.

The fully constructed campus would draw 900 megawatts of power.

The town manager proposal presentation’s “deliberately conservative values” estimates the project would raise $10.4 million in property tax a year starting in fiscal 2031 and $27.8 million a year with all 10 buildings built in fiscal 2035, coming out to “about $2,300 less for the average single-family home in FY2031 and about $5,800 less in FY2035.”

Community members expressing universal skepticism had a lot of questions for the Select Board and town officials Tuesday, with one noting the project represents a “generational change that would redefine what Sutton is.”

Issues raised and then echoed by several board members included the complexity in negotiating a deal with the rapidly developing AI market, protections for homeowners, health impacts, power grid risks, water sources and much more.

One woman used her two minutes just to play a recording of the noise a data center made from nearby homes.

“This town had everything that we wanted,” said resident Mike Galli. “We wanted land. We wanted a dark sky, and we wanted a sense of community and nature. This is none of those things. I don’t want to see this town sell its soul and get stuck as the dumping ground of the AI industry.”

Galli cited impacts from smaller data centers, including reported walls shaking from the constant hum in Virginia homes, an estimated $260 million in health costs in northern Virginia, wells failing in Georgia and Indiana, and residents three miles away being unable to see the stars in rural Texas.

The Sutton Select Board said in a statement Wednesday that the town is “continuing the due diligence process regarding the data center proposal.”

“This includes developing a zoning bylaw to define and regulate the use, developing a benefits agreement pursuant to the Governor’s Executive Order, and engaging independent consultants to assist the Town with technical review of the proposal,” the Select Board said. “Ultimately, Sutton voters will have an opportunity to decide whether to approve the zoning bylaw at a future Open Town Meeting.”

The town board said they plan to release more information for dates, time and locations for a “robust public information and engagement process.”

Gov. Maura Healey said at a separate event Wednesday that she hadn’t yet seen the Kraft proposal, but would “follow what’s going on in Sutton.”

“I think I’ve been clear about data centers, and what needs to happen with data centers is, you can’t have a data center without community approval,” said Healey. “And then if there is community approval, then a whole bunch of other things need to happen. The data center needs to generate its own power. It needs to be clean, and it can’t diminish water supply, or wreck the environment.”

If the process moves forward, several submissions would be due to the state by Dec. 31, and the town estimated a Town Meeting vote could be scheduled for May. A town zoning bylaw addressing the data center issue would have to pass by a two-thirds vote.

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