JACKSON – The township became the 38th community in the Garden State to ban data centers with an ordinance that some feared would not be passed because of a recent decision by the township’s Planning Board.
Another large turnout filled the municipal building when the council voted 4-1 to ban data centers, which have become unpopular as they create a drain on electricity and water in an area. Large data centers are used for artificial intelligence that’s being added to lots of technology.
Councilman Chris Pollak introduced the ordinance to ban data centers. “I’ve been fighting to prohibit data centers in Jackson because I believe our responsibility is to protect our residents, our natural resources, and the character of our town. Tonight, we did exactly that.”
“I’m proud to have pushed for this ordinance and grateful to my colleagues who joined me in voting to protect our community,” he added.
An ordinance needs to come up for vote twice. At one meeting it is introduced, and at another meeting it is adopted. The vote to introduce the ordinance was 3-2. Councilman Ken Bressi and Council President Mordechai Burnstein voted against the ordinance’s introduction.
Between the introduction and the adoption, the town’s Planning Board came out against it, saying it was inconsistent with the master plan. Because of that, the ordinance would need four votes to be adopted. Burnstein wound up voting for the ban.
Pollak described what he observed at the Planning Board meeting. “I watched the meeting and, in my opinion, it seemed kind of politically motivated. Why don’t we look at what our Master Plan actually says? Its stated land use plan goal is to achieve a pattern and mix of land uses that archives various community planning objectives. The Planning Board Attorney seemed unsure as to what the Board was trying to accomplish with its argument.”
“He actually had to explain multiple times that by specifically prohibiting data centers this ordinance would make it more difficult for an applicant to gain approval,” Pollak added. “It would increase the applicant’s burden at the weight of evidence they would need to justify that use.”
Pollak added, “while planning board members were making the case against the ordinance their own attorney was saying exactly why it matters. It puts a higher hurdle in front of anyone who wants to build a data center in Jackson and that’s the idea.”
He noted that the Planning Board was a powerful non-elected body in any municipality. “It can shape what a town can become for generations.” He stated a bad planning board could ruin a community. “I have serious concerns about the leadership and direction of our planning board.”
Councilman Nino Borrelli thanked those residents who came forward and Pollak for drafting the ordinance. “I think we are being proactive here. We are getting a law on the Jackson Township books to address the matter before an application for a data center comes in or gets built in our town.”
Borrelli noted that down the road some verbiage could be modified to tighten up the ordinance’s strength similar to an ordinance that nearby Howell Township had approved.
“The Master Plan already gave us that protection. By adding an ordinance on top of that trying to fix what’s not broke confuses the whole purpose of non-permitted uses,” Bressi said before voting against the ban. He also took some offense over Pollak’s remarks about the Planning Board saying the Board operates “strictly by the law.”
Council Vice President Giuseppe Palmeri said, “I have heard that other towns have been passing ordinances to prohibit data centers because they have had problems. I’ve listened to residents and read emails and even spoke to residents at Jackson Day and both sides have shared their thoughts and opinions on this ordinance. No one wants the data centers – that much is clear from everyone. I don’t want to wait until we have a problem. If there is some word smithing that needs to be done, then we can do that.”
“There were extensive conversations over multiple months. There were obviously differences of opinion through the process of how we got to where we are right now,” Burnstein said.
“I think technology should make people’s lives better. It should not make people obsolete. As long as I am a councilman, I have a voice and I feel I have the obligation to use it to protect the environment to protect our community and when necessary to stand up for something bigger than just Jackson,” Pollak remarked.
Heidi Yay, a policy director for the Pinelands Alliance based in Cherry Hill said that she had been working over the past year on the data center issue and “before a year ago it wasn’t really on our radars. What we are concerned about today is the hyper scale facilities that have enormous water and electrical use like what is being constructed in Vineland. It is time to be proactive and ban them here.”
Activists with Climate Revolution Action Network New Jersey (CRAN) has been training and working alongside residents across the state to pass local data center bans and pushed for the ordinance, pointing to the strain that data centers put on the electric grid and clean water supply, and the need to protect Jackson’s sensitive environment which includes part of the Pinelands National Reserve.
CRAN Executive Director Ben Dziobek said “Jackson didn’t wait for a data center proposal to protect itself and pass a ban. This was a smart move by the council. Every week we’re seeing more and more towns stand up to Big Tech and block their massive AI data centers. People across New Jersey have figured out that these data centers are a bad deal, and they’re not waiting around for our state lawmakers to notice.”
Jackson follows Stafford Township as the second Ocean County town this week to ban data centers with Manchester Township having introduced an ordinance that would withdraw a zone where data centers would have been permitted, one day earlier.
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