Articles Data centers
Bernards' Data-Center Ban, Explained: What Ordinance #2599 Prohibits and How It Passed
What Ordinance #2599 defines as a data center, what it leaves out, how the office zones changed, the Planning Board's review, the votes, and what was said, with a discrepancy in the minutes set side by side.
The short version
- Data centers, including cryptocurrency mining, are prohibited in every zone of the township.
- “Data processing centers” are no longer a permitted use in the E-1 to E-5 office zones.
- Adopted June 23, 2026, 4-0, after a 9-0 Planning Board finding that it is not inconsistent with the 2023 Master Plan.
What counts as a data center
The adopted text defines Data Centers as “a building, structure, or premises primarily used for the storage, management, processing, routing, transmission, or hosting of digital data, applications, or computing services through the use of servers, networking equipment, or similar electronic infrastructure, including commercial colocation facilities, cloud computing facilities, server farms, cryptocurrency mining operations, and wholesale digital infrastructure uses.”
It does not include:
- server rooms, network or computer facilities “clearly incidental and subordinate” to a property’s main use and run only for its occupant’s own business; or
- accessory data facilities of financial institutions, public utilities, hospitals, schools, government agencies or similar entities, if the facility uses no more than 20% of the building’s floor area or 10,000 square feet, whichever is less, is not the property’s main use, is not used mainly for cryptocurrency mining or off-site computing, and stays within limits on electrical load (2 megawatts of “Critical IT Electrical Load”), substations and standby generation (3 megawatts).
The ordinance also defines Critical IT Electrical Load as the electrical capacity dedicated to servers and computing equipment, excluding ordinary office heating, cooling and lighting.
What changed in the zones
- All zones (§ 21-10.3): data centers added to the list of uses prohibited everywhere, with exceptions for hospitals, public safety facilities and public utility infrastructure as the text sets out.
- E-1 to E-5 office zones (§ 21-10.5): “data processing centers” removed from the permitted uses and replaced with “(Reserved).”
How it passed
| Date | Step | Vote |
|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2026 | Introduced; referred to the Planning Board; hearing set for June 23 | 5-0: Asay, Hodges, McNally, Tompkins, Duarte McCarthy |
| June 16, 2026 | Planning Board: board planner Allison Fahey finds it “not inconsistent” with the 2023 Master Plan; the Board recommends moving all definition text into § 21-3 | 9-0: Bannan, Crane, Manduke, Mastrangelo, Schaefer, Seville, Smith, Subervi, Tompkins; Agarwal ineligible |
| June 23, 2026 | Amended to include the Board’s recommendation | 5-0 as listed (see below) |
| June 23, 2026 | Public hearing; adopted as amended | 4-0: Asay, Hodges, Tompkins, Duarte McCarthy |
The June 23 minutes record McNally as absent at the opening roll call and list him only on the amendment’s roll call.
Two accounts of the Planning Board’s finding. The Planning Board’s own June 16 minutes record its finding that the ordinance is “not inconsistent” with the 2023 Master Plan. The Committee’s June 23 minutes say the Committee “acknowledged the Planning Board’s Report finding that the ordinance was not consistent with the Master Plan at the township committee meeting on 06/17/2026.” The Planning Board met on June 16. The Committee’s minutes also head the original ordinance “as Introduced on 05/26/2025”; it was introduced in 2026.
What was said
- At the hearing: one speaker, Warren Township Committeeman Daniel Croson, of Warren, spoke in support, the minutes say.
- The mayor’s reasons, as Patch reported them on June 25, 2026: Mayor Ana Duarte McCarthy said data centers are “large industrial windowless structures” that “can be noisy,” with “humming and vibration that emanates from the transformers,” and that “a 200,000 square foot data center could put 100,000 gallons of water into the sewer system versus 20,000 on average for an office complex, and it could go up to 180,000 gallons per day for data centers that use evaporation towers.” She also said the ban “advances the master plan’s relevant conservation and environmental resource objectives.” The minutes do not record these remarks.
What is not known
- Whether any proposal or inquiry prompted the ordinance; none appears in the board minutes LocalWhy reviewed.
What residents can do
- Read the code. The adopted text is in the June 23, 2026 minutes and in the township code on eCode360.
- Any change would need a new ordinance, with a Planning Board referral and a public hearing at a Township Committee meeting.