Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use Data Centers topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents urge Bayonne council to ban data centers, citing water, air and transparency concerns
Summary
Dozens of Bayonne residents packed the May 13 council meeting to urge elected officials to remove data centers as a permitted use in redevelopment plans and to adopt a local ordinance banning them, citing water use, noise, air pollution and lack of transparency in past approvals.
Dozens of residents who spoke during an extended public-comment period at the Bayonne Municipal Council’s May 13 meeting urged the council to remove data centers from redevelopment plans and adopt a local ordinance to ban them.
Many speakers tied their concerns to recent amendments that the city’s land-use documents allow data-center uses in three redevelopment-plan areas. “You can fix the mistake you made by amending the redevelopment plan now, today,” Caitlin Tynan Pongolinan said. Multiple residents noted that a December 2025 amendment to the Newhook Road redevelopment plan, along with earlier 2022 plans, currently permit data centers.
Why it matters: Commenters warned that data centers consume large volumes of water, increase local electricity demands, and can generate continuous noise and diesel-generator emissions during outages. Resident Natalie Ramos told the council that data centers could use “over 5,000,000 gallons of water a day,” and said the community could not accept long-term health risks without a full review. Several speakers connected the issue to procedural transparency and asked the council to build a more thorough record before allowing those uses.
Legal and process context: The city’s land attorney told the council earlier in the meeting that three redevelopment plans—most recently amended in December 2025 and in 2022—expressly permit data centers in certain plan areas and that any specific project would require a redevelopment agreement the council must approve. The attorney advised that the most practical route to change permissive uses is to address the matter during the master-plan reexamination due in 2027, or to collect a substantial factual record before amending plans to reduce legal exposure to property owners.
What residents asked for: Speakers urged the council to instruct staff or the planning board to begin redevelopment-plan amendments now, or to introduce a municipal ordinance that would outright ban data centers. Advocacy groups at the meeting offered model ordinances and said other New Jersey municipalities had adopted similar bans. Ben Jobeck, executive director of Climate Revolution Action Network, said he would provide a draft ordinance to the clerk.
Council response and next steps: Council members and staff repeatedly described the legal steps required to change redevelopment plans and confirmed there are no data-center permit applications pending. Several speakers asked the council to act immediately; staff and the city attorney stressed that amending redevelopment plans without a substantial local record could expose the city to legal challenge by property owners. The administration said a master-plan reexamination scheduled for 2027 is the standard vehicle to address whether data centers are compatible with long-term planning goals.
The meeting record: The council did not adopt a ban or a moratorium during the May 13 session; public comments were taken at the start of the meeting and the council continued with its agenda of ordinances, resolutions and introductions. Residents at the meeting said they plan to return and press elected officials to begin ordinance drafting or plan amendments before projects are proposed.
