Data-center law in Maine

Subnational jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

Maine's data-center permitting spine runs through the Site Location of Development Act, administered by the Department of Environmental Protection: a development that occupies more than 20 acres, or whose buildings, parking, and other paved or cleared, non-revegetated areas exceed 3 acres, may not be constructed or operated without the Department's prior approval under 38 M.R.S. § 483-A. No Maine statute grants data centers a dedicated construction, water, or air permitting track separate from this general Site Location Act and the state's ordinary building code and DEP environmental permitting programs, and the Public Utilities Commission's interconnection rules for new large electric loads apply as background utility regulation rather than as a data-center-specific enactment.

No Maine sales-and-use or property tax exemption naming data centers, data processing equipment, or similar language was found; the state's general sales-and-use tax exemption list at 36 M.R.S. § 1760 contains no such entry.

Instruments on record

1 instrument on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Land use

Who decides whether a data center may occupy a site, and through what approval?

Site Location of Development Act, approval required

In force

38 M.R.S. § 483-A

Applies to both

A person may not construct, cause to be constructed, operate, or cause to be operated, and, in the case of a subdivision, may not sell, lease, or offer to sell or lease, a development of state or regional significance that may substantially affect the environment without first obtaining approval from the Department of Environmental Protection. Among other triggers, the threshold definition reaches any development occupying more than 20 acres of land or water.

It also reaches any structure whose buildings, parking lots, roads, paved areas, or stripped or graded and non-revegetated areas exceed 3 acres in total, so a data-center campus of ordinary scale falls within Site Location review on its building and pavement footprint alone even where the parcel itself is smaller than 20 acres. Person is defined broadly to include a firm, corporation, or governmental entity of any level.

Source: Full text of law

Every entry cites the instrument it describes. None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the record: all jurisdictions.