Holyoke Council Sends Rent Stabilization Resolution, Data Center Ban to Committee

HOLYOKE — June 2, 2026 — Holyoke City Council referred a rent stabilization resolution and a proposed data center ban to committee after extended debate at its June 2 meeting. More than a dozen residents testified in favor of the rent stabilization resolution co-sponsored by Councilors Rick Purcell and Gina Tallheimer, including three tenants of 811 High Street who said they had been displaced after the building was condemned while paying rents between $1,350 and $2,000 per month for units they described as uninhabitable. The council voted by voice vote majority to send the resolution to the Development and Government Relations Committee, chaired by Purcell, after Council President Tania Fernandes Anderson said her consistent practice for three years has been to refer all resolutions to committee. On the data center ban — a proposal to prohibit data centers in all city zoning districts — the council voted 10 to 2 to return the item to the Ordinance Committee after City Solicitor Bissonette warned that a decision must be issued within approximately 90 days of the mid-April public hearing close. Councilor Panitch, who filed the ban order, put on the record that unnamed parties with apparent weight had lobbied against the measure "behind the scenes" the day before the vote. In the evening's only contested roll-call vote, the council approved a sewer rate of $8.76 per unit — up from $7.50 and short of the $9.11 the Board of Public Works recommended to fully fund the enterprise fund — by a vote of 10 to 2, with Councilors Linda Bacon and Kevin Graney dissenting.