Montgomery planning board recommends ordinance to ban data centers and detention centers, urges carve-out for local police holding cells

The Montgomery Township Planning Board on June 8 voted to recommend that a proposed amendment to Chapter 16—adding data centers and detention centers to the list of prohibited uses—be found consistent with the township master plan, while urging the township committee to add explicit language excluding the Montgomery Township Police Department holding cells.

The recommendation followed an extended discussion about how the detention‑center definition would apply to municipal facilities. A committee member raised the concern directly: “The definition of a detention center would seem to match the jail that's on the other end of this building…Is there no carve out for our own jail, which we're now making illegal?” The board explored two approaches: an explicit exclusion for the Montgomery Township Police Department or carving out the specific parcel that contains the police facility.

Staff read the draft data‑center definition into the record, which describes a data center as “a facility whose primary services are the storage, management and processing of digital data” and one that is used to house servers, network equipment and related components. Board members pressed whether the rule would capture small businesses that host secondary computer operations, and members said the “primary‑use” language is intended to exclude accessory or secondary uses.

One board member summarized the township attorney’s guidance: the attorney had advised that the board may pass the ordinance, though questions remain about enforceability against state or federal facilities. “At this point, the attorney has said that we can pass this ordinance…Where it's gonna end up, who knows?” the member said. Several members said the simplest practical fix for the board's recommendation is to add wording that explicitly excludes the Montgomery Township Police Department from the detention‑center prohibition and leave any final legal drafting to the governing body.

The board moved, seconded and approved a motion recommending that the township committee adopt the ordinance as consistent with the master plan with the suggested addition exempting the Montgomery Township Police Department; the motion passed on a roll‑call vote recorded by the board as nine yes votes.

Next steps: the planning board’s action is a recommendation to the governing body; the final ordinance text and any further carve‑outs will be drafted and adopted (or not) by the township committee.