HOWELL – The Township Council voted unanimously to block data centers from being constructed within the city limits.
The ordinance was adopted toward the end of a recent meeting. This ordinance was originally introduced at a previous council meeting on July 14.
Ordinances like these have become a hot topic as of late. Many cities across the state, and country in general, have been writing ordinances like these to ban the building of major data centers. Critics of data centers note how much energy and water they use, mostly for artificial intelligence, which has yet to create a profit.
“It really came down to the quality of life,” said Councilman Mike Wrubel. “It came down to the energy and water usage. It came down to the risk versus reward…does it outweigh the risk of creating this large facility that’s going to pull excess power from the grid. That’s going to create resource issues. That’s not something we’re interested in.”
Wruble went on to explain the differences with data centers. “The intent was always to ban AI hyper-scale data centers,” he said. “They’re the big AI data centers you see on TV; a million square feet, a 100 megawatt plus… Because the climate for the data centers is changing so quickly; the specifications around these things, on how they’re built, we had to lump in all data centers into this prohibition.”
“It’s going to take more time to try and define and breakout those different data centers,” said Wrubel.
Enterprise data centers, like the ones that house routers and other IT devices, are small and usually owned by a small company. These types of data centers are usually run in a smaller setting such as a closet or a room in a building. Hyperscale data centers, like the ones operated by Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, can range over 50,000 square feet. There are different types of data centers, all with various size, energy use, and carbon footprints.
Wrubel said the council doesn’t want to be overly restrictive when it comes to data centers in general.
“This ordinance was more or less a stop gap,” he said. “There’s a very big difference between an AI hyperscale data center – 100 acres, huge, effects the entire town – versus some of these other data centers.”
Amending it will probably come before the end of the year, according to Wrubel.
Data center impacts came up last year at a joint meeting of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, and the Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee. Christine Guhl-Sudovy, president of the Board of Public Utilities which oversees electricity, natural gas, and other energy sources, testified that the electric grid that provides power to 13 states and the District of Columbia has increasing demands on it because of data centers.
She said that of the 32 gigawatts of electricity needed in coming years, 30 of it is needed by data centers. Even if they are not in New Jersey, they are on the same grid, and therefore, New Jerseyans will be impacted by it.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers consume 10 to 50 times the amount of electricity of a commercial building of the same size.
At a recent Manchester Township Council meeting a vast majority of the people in the audience were in attendance to denounce the idea of building one such center in their town.
Other events at the meeting included an ordinance to acquire a parcel of land from the Department of Transportation along Route 33 near Okerson Road. The purpose of this ordinance is to preserve land, according to the council.
Residents also came to the podium to address certain issues regarding realtors who are aggressively approaching homeowners to sell their homes. Several residents said the council needs to act. Issues such as rental properties and selling of homes were spoke about at the meeting.
Mayor John Leggio addressed the issues brought to the council from the speakers. He said the council is there to impose the laws and ordinances, and little can be done from their perspective. Homeowners selling their homes to outside realtors who then use that home for rental purposes, has been a point of contention in Howell recently.
The next Township Council meeting is scheduled for September 15. The Executive Session (which residents aren’t allowed to attend) begins at 6 p.m. with the Regular Session beginning at 7 p.m.
