Last reviewed / updated August 3, 2026
OVERVIEW
Across New Jersey, data centers are being aggressively pursued by municipalities as a new form of “economic development.” These facilities promise tax revenue and jobs, but they also bring intense environmental demands—especially for water, energy, and land. In the Pinelands, where ecological systems are unusually fragile and interconnected, these impacts are magnified.
Yet time and again, decisions that could permanently alter the region are being made quietly, early, and without meaningful public engagement, often through redevelopment designations that bypass standard notice requirements. By the time residents realize what is happening, they are told it is already too late to object.
This pattern has now emerged in Vineland and Monroe townships, and it highlights a larger structural problem: municipal governments are not equipped to evaluate or regulate the regional environmental impacts of data centers. That responsibility should go to state-wide or regional entities like the Pinelands Commission. Until we can achieve this large-scale reform, residents should pay attention to redevelopment plans being created or revised by their town councils.
Learn How to Take Action.
Background Information
Why Data Centers Raise Red Flags in the Pinelands
Data centers are often marketed as clean, quiet, and low-impact. In reality, they can function more like industrial power and cooling plants, with consequences that ripple far beyond municipal boundaries.
Key environmental concerns include:
1. Environmental Reviews Too Late to Matter: DataOne did not publish an environmental impact statement (EIS) for its facility until February 24, 2026, when the facility was already partially built and operating. An EIS takes stock of the anticipated impacts of a project on community features such as the water supply, air quality, noise, and aesthetics, and considers alternatives to the proposed development including the “No-Action Alernative” to not build anything; but how can we take this analysis seriously when they’ve clearly already decided and built the thing?
2. Water Resource Impacts
Data centers require enormous cooling capacity, that typically requires millions of gallons of water usage per day. In the Pinelands, this raises serious concerns about drawdown from the Kirkwood–Cohansey aquifer, impacts on nearby wetlands, streams, and recharge areas, and competing water demands like residential and agricultural use.
3. Air, Noise, and Light Pollution
Data centers can generate constant or episodic pollution from backup generators, cooling fans, and mechanical systems. Cooling technology choices can significantly affect noise levels, especially in rural and residential areas not accustomed to industrial soundscapes.
5. Environmental Justice
Data centers and associated warehouses are disproportionately sited in communities with limited political power and areas already burdened by pollution, traffic, or health disparities. For example, approximately half of Vineland’s population lives in census tracts identified as overburdened by NJDEP. However, the lots associated with the DataOne project fall just outside of the area considered to be overburdened.
The Redevelopment Loophole: Zoning by Ordinance, Not by Public Process
Under New Jersey law, municipalities can designate areas as being in need of “redevelopment” or “rehabilitation” and adopt redevelopment plans that function as zoning overlays. These plans can permit uses—such as warehouses or data centers—that would otherwise be prohibited.
Critically:
· Residents within 200 feet are NOT notified when a redevelopment plan is adopted or amended
· That level of notice is only required later, when a specific project application is filed
· By then, officials often claim that the public is “too late” to object because the zoning rules have already been changed
Case Studies
Vineland: The Canary in the Coal Mine
The first hyper-scale data center to be built in New Jersey put a spotlight on the redevelopment loophole that facilitated a bait-and-switch that turned a golf course into a data center.
This case also highlighted the deficiencies in our current system, in which municipal governments are making decisions with regional consequences.
Vineland Timeline
1920’s: Sand mining operations begin, and are most active in the 1960’s-1990’s. The history of the lots is described in the 2017 redevelopment area plan.
2012-2013: Zoning board approves variances that would allow new uses such as an arena and athletic fields, fitness center, daycare, medical office, large storage and maintenance buildings, waterpark, hotel. This history was described in the 2020 Redevelopment Proposal.
2017: city council passes motion to develop a plan for redevelopment area
2020: Ordinance 2020-49 adopted, plans are made for “outdoor amusement” such as a golf course and clubhouse
2023: Ordinance 2023-51 Amendment of the redevelopment plan to include more blocks and more potential uses, such as paintball manufacturing, cigar lounges, or distilleries (still no mention of data centers)
October 4, 2024: Newly built “Silica Sands Golf Club” hosts an event for the Greater Millville Chamber of Commerce
August 8, 2024: Resolution 6652 of the Planning Board approves an application from “NEP Real Estate of Vineland NJ Urban Renewal LLC”, which describes a plan for 2,647,628 square feet of data centers to be built in four phases over twelve years.
March 2025: Nebius announced its plans to build a 300MW data center in NJ. Construction begins in the following months to replace the newly-built Silica Sands Golf Club with a Data Center.
July 9, 2025: Resolution 6720 of Planning Board: Application approves an amended plan that changes the applicant to “DataOne USA LLC” and changes the plan to add three buildings for power generation. The planning board adds conditions, such as the requirement for lawn irrigation and asks the applicant to plant 36 shade trees along nearby avenues.
February 24, 2026: The Environmental Impact Statement, released February 24, 2026 (after the facility was already built and running) claims that the “Project will be a net generator of water”, producing more than it uses.
Monroe Township: A Small Town in the Crosshairs of Big Tech
When warehouses were proposed to be built on a property for which “Data Centers” had been added as a permitted use just months earlier, Monroe residents had ample reason to be concerned. After seeing the bait-and-switch that had occurred in the city of Vineland, Monroe Township residents were wary of the same thing happening to their town. Although township officials and all of the associated documents listed only warehouses in the site plans, residents urged the town council to close the door on this site being converted into a data center. When the zoning was reversed, and a municipality-wide ban was then enacted in April of 2026, the wolf in sheep’s clothing revealed itself, as the developer made public their intentions to convert a warehouse into a data center. Then in June 2026, the legal challenges started.
Monroe Timeline
September 2019: Town Council adopts resolution R:221-2019, declaring that the area is in need of redevelopment.
February 2023: “Hexa Builders Redevelopment Plan” approved, which includes warehouses and office space as permitted uses.
March 12, 2025: Monroe Township Council adopts Ordinance O:02-2025 to add “Data Centers” as a permitted use.
December 23, 2025: Residents living within 200’ of the proposed 1.6 million square foot warehouse are given notice of the January 8, 2026 planning board meeting via certified mail. Details of the plan have given Monroe residents reason to suspect that this is actually a data center in disguise.
This mirrors a previous Monroe Township debacle from November 2022 involving a massive warehouse and townhouse development, approved despite overwhelming resident opposition. All of this was made possible because the decisive ordinance—adopting the redevelopment plan—was passed quietly months earlier, during the height of the pandemic, with only a $64.64 newspaper notice describing an “overlay zoning district.”
January 2026: The Planning board grants preliminary site plan approval for two warehouses (not data centers) totaling 1.6 million sq ft.
March 16, 2026: Mayor Wolfe announced in a video on Facebook that a data center will not be coming to town.
March 27, 2026: Pinelands Commission staff give a presentation on data centers, highlighting what would be possible to build and where. Read the synopsis on our blog or the recording on the Pinelands Commission YouTube channel.
April 22, 2026: Council passes two ordinances: one removing data center use from the Hexa site specifically (repealing O:02-2025), the other banning data centers township-wide.
May 12, 2026: The developer tries to force through an amendment to their plan that now mentions data centers. At a special Planning Board meeting, the board unanimously votes to deem Hexa’s amended site plan application incomplete.
June 2026: The lawsuits begin.
- June 5: Hexa Builders files a 102-page, 20-count complaint claiming Monroe’s ban violates the 14th Amendment (unequal treatment vs. similar high-water-use facilities like warehouses) and the First Amendment (data centers supporting AI/social media speech). The suit seeks to invalidate both ordinances, force approval of the application as complete, and recover $300M+ in damages plus fees.
- End of June: The developer appealed (Docket No. A-003527-A) the Pinelands Commission’s stance that the developer would need an amended Certificate of Filing to swap its previously-approved warehouse plan for a 1-million-square-foot data center plus 500,000-sq.-ft. warehouse.
Current Status: The Pinelands Commission is currently reviewing application #1987-0276.012 for a warehouse (not a data center). In response to the June 5 legal challenge, Monroe Township and other defendants had not yet filed responsive pleadings, and the court had not ruled on the merits of any claim. Pinelands Alliance has sought intervenor status in support of Monroe Township’s defense — pending approval by the court.
Manchester Township: Another Warehouse to Data Center Conversion
The only two lots zoned for data centers in the Pinelands are in Manchester Township are located right next to the Renaissance at Manchester retirement community. Pinelands Alliance is asking residents to sign a
1970s until the mid-1990s: This area used for sand and gravel mining.
2023: The Redevelopment Plan (adopted via Ordinance 24-02, dated October 9, 2023, revised December 28, 2023) was prepared by Morgan Engineering LLC and lists its permitted principal uses as: light industrial (manufacturing/fabrication/assembly), warehouses, distribution centers, wholesaling, flex space, indoor recreation, scientific or research facilities, business/professional offices, and indoor agriculture.
March 25, 2024: Pinelands Alliance and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation ask the Department of Community Affairs to not approve the Township’s determination that the area is in need of redevelopment, writing that the plan “epitomizes the problems with our current redevelopment laws, as the northern portion of the property that was previously disturbed as a resource extraction site (lot 31.01) will be preserved, while the untouched forested portion of the site (primarily lot 30) will be ‘redeveloped’. this plan to develop via deforestation in lieu of actual redevelopment is a farcical exploitation of New Jersey’s laws.”
March 27, 2026: Pinelands Commission staff give a presentation on data centers, highlighting what would be possible to build and where. Monroe and Manchester Townships were highlighted as the only two locations in the Pinelands where the construction of a data center would be possible under current zoning. Monroe Township has since banned data centers, leaving Manchester Township as the only remaining municipality where current zoning would permit a data center. Read the synopsis on our blog or the recording on the Pinelands Commission YouTube channel.
July 31, 2026: Pinelands Alliance and Save Barnegat Bay launch the petition demanding “No Data Centers in Manchester”
Current status (as of August 2026): The developer has township approval for warehouses, but is exploring the possibility of turning this into a data center.
Why the Pinelands Commission Matters:
The Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) provides protections that local zoning does not. In the Monroe case, the Pinelands Commission has the authority to approve or deny the changes made to the redevelopment plan. This means residents still have a meaningful avenue to intervene, by urging the Commission to reject the amendment that added data centers as a permitted use.
The City of Vineland is outside of the jurisdiction of the Pinelands Commission, but sits on top of the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer, from which the City of Vineland draws its water. The NJDEP is responsible for coordinating with the Pinelands Commission to enforce protections for outside of the Pinelands region that impact the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer.
Enacting New Public Notice Law
A law enacted last year requires the New Jersey Secretary of State, by March 1, 2026, to establish a webpage that includes hyperlinks to the legal notices of every public entity in the state. Public entities include the State, State agencies, and local governments. The Secretary of State’s webpage — https://www.nj.gov/state/statewide-legal-notices-list.shtml — is still under construction, and we encourage Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell, who will also serve as Secretary of State, to operationalize the webpage as soon as possible.
Changing NJ State Law
New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 40A:12A-14) gives municipalities broad power to designate areas in need of “rehabilitation,” sometimes encompassing entire towns, including undeveloped land. A statute intended to address blight is now routinely used to justify the destruction of forests and wetlands that have never seen a bulldozer.
Pinelands Alliance has been working with legislators to try to close these loopholes. Senate Bill No. 1857 would exclude farmland from the definitions of “redevelopment area” and “rehabilitation area” in the Local Redevelopment and Housing Law. Pinelands Alliance is working to make this good bill better by excluding forests from local redevelopment areas as well. We are collaborating with Senator Latham Tiver, the prime sponsor of the bill, on amendments that also exclude any forested land that has not been previously disturbed.
Take Action
All Towns- Pay attention to any redevelopment plans that your town council may be creating or revising—this is one of the best times to speak up about your concerns. There is a world of difference between challenging a redevelopment designation at its inception
and showing up after a project is deemed “approved by right.”
Urge your town council to pass the following measures:
- A resolution urging the Governor to take action. Ask your local leaders to support a statewide moratorium on data centers while work is done to understand impacts on regional utilities, communities, and the environment. View a model resolution here.
- An ordinance to explicitly prohibit data centers as a permitted use in your municipality. View a model ordinance here.
City of Vineland: Check out the resident-lead group Sustain SJ for updates on upcoming meetings.
Monroe Township: More details TBA
Manchester Township:
- Sign the petition to Manchester Town Council to ban data centers in the Pinelands.
- Attend the next town council meeting on Monday, August 10 at 6 PM. We are encouraging residents to speak during the public comment period to tell the council members that data centers do not belong here. Even just showing up to display your support with a sign or a t-shirt can make a big difference!
All residents – SIGN THE PETITION to the Governor
We urge Governor Sherill to enact a three-year statewide moratorium on the approval and construction of new large-scale data centers.
Read our March blog on Data Center Victories here.
