Residents split over data-center ban as council debates notice and studies

At a packed public hearing the township heard sustained comment both supporting and opposing a proposed ordinance that would ban data centers across Berkeley Heights.

Adam Horowitz, a resident who spoke at the podium, framed the technical concern: "PJM ... announced that they were 6.8 gigawatts short of the reliability target," he said, arguing such demand could worsen local outages. Several residents urged caution and asked the council to publish comparable impact analyses—contrasting the possible effects of data centers against housing developments already approved at the Nokia/600 Mountain Avenue site.

Other commenters urged a precautionary approach, noting that a townwide ban can be amended later. One resident raised procedural questions about notice to property owners and warned the council could face legal challenges if notice requirements or timing did not meet statutory standards; the township attorney responded that the local timeline here (about 43 days since introduction) exceeded the timing in a cited out-of-town case. The council repeatedly described the ordinance as a change to permitted land uses that will require any developer wanting a data center to make a specific, public case for it.

The hearing closed with members of the public urging the council to either table the ordinance until more study is shared or to adopt it to protect residents; the council ultimately adopted the ordinance later in the meeting.