The East Orange City Council joined a growing number of local governments in New Jersey in passing an ordinance forbidding the construction of data centers.
This new law comes amid growing concern from environmentalists about the impact of these types of facilities on energy and water consumption, utility costs, noise, and their potential to pollute local waterways.
The ordinance states that the city’s infrastructure cannot support the “extraordinary demands” that data centers can have on electrical grids, the “unacceptable threat” to the water supply, and around-the-clock noise from cooling systems.
Councilman Bergson Leneus, who is credited with spearheading the new law, said he saw the construction of data centers raising environmental and ethical concerns. “I took a stand on this. I said, ‘Not in our city,'” he said. “My colleagues and the administration stood alongside me.”
“Most people aren’t aware that data centers are coming to densely populated areas,” Leneus continued. “They’re trying to find ways to make sure that the public is left out of these decisions.”
There was discussion from the Planning Board at its August meeting about whether a blanket ban was the best course of action or whether the city government should instead restrict the size of data centers. However, the ordinance passed without any changes after passing first reading in July.
“The council has made it very clear that it’s not something they want in the community,” said Alexander McLean, the city’s principal planner.
Councilman Christopher Awe wondered whether a total ban might be a “missed opportunity” for the city in a time when tech companies are brokering lucrative community benefits agreements with local governments
“The data centers are not going anywhere but there are now advancements in terms of how to mitigate all, if not, many of the environmental factors,” Awe said.
Although Awe considered a more middle-ground approach, the Second Ward councilman still voted for the ordinance in first reading but wasn’t present for the City Council’s August meeting to vote for the ordinance in final reading.
East Orange becomes the first municipality in Essex County to pass such a law.
Maplewood Mayor Vic Deluca indicated at the Township Committee’s meeting last month a wish to draft a similar ordinance in light of energy rate hikes from the nation’s largest utility provider, PJM International, which the company attributed to increased demand from data centers.
There are currently six data centers in Essex County. Most are concentrated in Newark. The five data centers there are all housed in the same building at 165 Halsey Street, according to the South Jersey Climate News. In Nutley, the Planning Board approved plans for their second data center last year.
Months ago, Millville’s Board of Commissioners passed a similar ban just in time to prevent the construction of a 2.6 million-square-foot facility, which would have been the largest data center ever built in New Jersey. It was estimated that the proposed data center would have consumed enough electricity to power 1 million homes and used a billion gallons of water annually.
