Three more New Jersey municipalities have moved to ban data centers, as local officials continue to push back against the fast-growing industry.
North Brunswick and East Brunswick adopted prohibitions on the same night, while Stafford Township finalized its own ban a week earlier, adding to a growing list of communities restricting where the facilities can operate.
In North Brunswick, the Township Council adopted an ordinance Aug. 24 that designates data centers as “a prohibited use in all zones.”
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The ordinance defines a data center as any facility used primarily for storing, managing and processing digital data.
It also strips “computer and data processing” from the list of permitted uses in the township’s industrial and office research districts.
The push grew out of concern over the proposed redevelopment of an 87-acre property at 100 Fidelity Plaza, where residents packed council meetings to demand a voice in the approval process.
“We have an incredible data center in our town already: the public library,” Kristal Calkins, a North Brunswick resident, said in a press release from Climate Revolution N.J. (CRAN). “If there’s any investment to be done in data centers, it should be in our local public libraries with more visibility around the incredible free resources they offer and the amazing people who work there.”
East Brunswick’s ordinance bars data centers across all commercial, business and industrial districts. The measure defines the term broadly, including hyperscale and colocation facilities, cloud computing infrastructure, cryptocurrency mining operations and artificial intelligence processing, “regardless of how such facility is labeled or described.”
The ordinance ties the move directly to state action, citing Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s May 27 announcement of a statewide data center plan and a package of three bills she signed July 7 to help municipalities address the facilities’ impact.
In Stafford Township, the council adopted an ordinance updating its code to add data centers, which the ordinance bars from operating anywhere in the township. Ordinance 2026-22, which also restricts cannabis businesses, was introduced on July 21 and adopted after a public hearing on Aug. 18.
“Towns are watching their neighbors take action, residents are organizing across municipal lines, and every local win makes it harder for Big Tech to force massive data centers into communities that do not want them,” CRAN said in the press release.
The three bans come just days after Jersey City, Bayonne and Howell passed their own prohibitions. The total now stands at 37 municipalities, putting more than 1 million residents in towns where data centers are banned.
The movement is also picking up in towns that have not yet crossed the finish line.
Manchester Township took its first step Monday, introducing an ordinance after protesters filled the room over a possible data center near the Renaissance age-restricted community bordering the Pinelands.
Opponents have taken their fight to the streets and packed council meetings, while a petition from the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and Save Barnegat Bay urging a ban has gathered nearly 2,500 signatures.
The petition notes Manchester holds the only Pinelands lots in town zoned for a data center in a community that “already experiences frequent blackouts” and faces water restrictions.
Mayor Joseph Hankins has since said he “totally oppose[s] any data center in our town.”
Jackson Township introduced its own ordinance this week, though officials were split on whether the measure would help or hurt. Councilman Ken Bressi warned it could give developers more opportunities to challenge the town in court.
And in Kenilworth, tensions over the $1.8 billion CoreWeave data center already under construction boiled over Aug. 19, when a Kean University expert warned that powering the facility would worsen local air pollution.
“You are guilty of public endangerment,” one resident told the council during the meeting. “You have the power to end this project right now.”
The bans have not gone unchallenged. Developers have sued Montgomery, Andover and Monroe in recent weeks, with one suit seeking $300 million from Monroe Township in Gloucester County over claims that the township rezoned land to block a data center.