By: Kate Zaffarese, Follow South Jersey Community Journalist
MONROE TWP., NJ — After multiple lengthy council meetings in Monroe Township, Gloucester County, the town council is moving forward with a plan to ban data centers in the town before it’s too late.
Before the town council meeting on March 25, the council drafted an ordinance to remove data centers as a permitted use for a site in Monroe planned for redevelopment, with plans to completely prohibit data centers from the town in the near future. This came after community backlash against the project during the previous town council meeting on March 11.
The 1.6 million square foot site is located along Black Horse Pike on 159 acres of farmland near campground Jellystone Park, and a mile away from Whitehall Elementary School. The developer of the site, Hexa Builders currently has no tenants for the site.
The land, previously farmland, was originally intended for affordable housing when the site was planned for redevelopment in 2010. It was then updated in 2019 to be a warehouse, and the plan was later expanded on to include a data center as a possible use in June 2025.
Data centers, which house servers used to power AI programs like ChatGPT, have been popping up all over the United States in the past few years. There has been a growing concern about the impact these data centers have on the local community, with many reporting issues of noise pollution, rise of electricity bills, and excessive water use. Communities in states such as Georgia have seen a hike in their electricity bills and have reported a lack of clean water, which was instead used to cool the servers the data centers store.
Data centers in New Jersey
Data center development in other South Jersey towns like Vineland made citizens concerned that a similar situation would arise in Monroe if not dealt with before further development. There are currently more than 80 data centers running in New Jersey, with more on the way.
In Vineland, the data center in development has caused massive controversy and mistrust in the town. The project, which is only 25% completed, has already made a difference in the townspeople’s lives. A viral video posted by Vineland resident Scott Montgomery showed the noise pollution the data center has caused, a constant whine that can be heard half a mile away from the site.
Other towns in the state, such as Pemberton and Phillipsburg, have recently prohibited data centers. In New Brunswick, protesters worked to block a potential data center, showing that there is a process to prevent data centers from being built.
Public backlash in Vineland led to contentious council meetings, protests against the data center, and public distrust for the Vineland council. To avoid following the same footsteps as Vineland, Monroe took action to prevent data centers from coming to the town after citizens expressed their disapproval of the project.
The public speaks out
Jonathan Duff, volunteer for the Pinelands Alliance and Rowan University law student, found out about the project in January and created an ordinance in collaboration with Monroe council member John Valentine to strike down a potential data center. Though Duff contacted every member of council in January 2026, Valentine was the only one to respond to his message.
Valentine was the first member of the council to push back against the project, despite his initial support when data centers were first added as a possible use for the site.
“I didn’t know what a data center was, so I didn’t have a problem with it. The way it was explained to me is that it’s lower impact. Because at a mega warehouse, we’d have 700, 800 trucks around the clock, and the data center would be low impact, maybe 20 employees,” Valentine said. “I thought that would be better than having the trucks. Then I started talking to Jonathan Duff, [He said] do you understand what the data center will do? It’ll run us out of water, it’ll drain the aquifer…the town doesn’t want it, and I’m fighting against it.”
Though warehouses come with their own issues regarding pollution and traffic, they also provide hundreds of jobs. On the other hand, after construction is complete, data centers only need 25-100 people to run them depending on its size. Because of this and the stress that data centers put on the local power grid, more people would prefer a warehouse in their town than a data center, according to a 2026 Harvard/MIT survey.
Another issue with the data center is its water use. The land sits atop the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer, which provides water for more than 1 million South Jersey residents. Using this water for a data center would drain its resources, taking away drinking water from people in the area as well as the water farmers use.
Along with many other citizens at the meeting, Duff takes issue with the proposed data center’s impact on the environment he lives in.
“It impacts our local, very fragile local ecosystem very severely, much more severely than a lot of other places. I think the Pinelands is a beautiful place. It’s my home. I grew up here. Generations of my family are rooted here. And I think it’s so important that we maintain that unique biodiversity, that unique heritage, that unique birthright for future generations.”
Citizens first began to express their concern at a January 8 meeting, but it wasn’t until days before the meeting on March 11 that hundreds found out about this potential data center through various social media posts.
During the March 11 meeting, Duff delivered an impassioned speech to the council.
“The buck starts here, because this is the first proposal after Vineland for a data center. It is on the table. If Hexa Builders is allowed to construct a data center in this area, more will follow very quickly,” Duff said. “This has already been an issue with warehouses…all across this region we’re dealing with this scourge of warehouses because one community said ‘that’s okay, we’ll bring one in.’ Other companies take notice of these decisions.”
The meeting was packed with people upset about the prospect of a data center, and the next meeting on March 25 was no different. Both meetings stretched past midnight due to the long public comment portion, where Monroe town council members heard the townspeoples’ concerns about the project. Members of local environmental groups, citizens, and experts on the topic all came up to state their case against the data center.
One Monroe resident who found out days before the March 11 meeting, Ave Getsinger, spoke to the council during the meeting.
“Your job, the whole reason you were elected, is to protect us and our interests. We are the ones you are supposed to be protecting,” Getsinger said.
Council conflicts
During the March 11 meeting, the town council (with the exception of Valentine) was still on board with the plan to keep data centers as a possible use in the Hexa Builders proposal. After the meeting, the mayor and other members of council met with local environmental activist groups that attended the meeting such as Climate Revolution Action Network (CRAN), Sustain South Jersey, the Pinelands Alliance, and the Food and Water Watch. After considering more of the impacts this project could have, the council decided to take action to ban data centers preemptively.
In a video released by Monroe Township’s Facebook page on March 16, mayor Gregory Wolfe announced the council’s plan to remove data centers from Hexa Builder’s proposal and to work on a way to ban them outright in the township. At the March 25 meeting, he further explained their plan to prohibit data centers.
“Monroe township is committed to figuring out some legal way to lawfully ban data centers altogether. But it’s gotta be done the proper way, it’s gotta be done lawfully,” Wolfe said. “We’ve asked [the legal team] to go outside and try to really dig deep and find something that will have teeth in it to actually permanently ban them and not put this township in legal jeopardy. In the meantime, we will now have no permitted zoning for data centers…The last thing we want to do is create an unlawful ordinance, rush it, get sued, lose in court, and end up with a data center here.”
Though this move is only the first step to ban data centers altogether, Valentine argued that this measure does not go far enough to stop any kind of data center in Monroe, and that removing data centers from the proposal does not prevent them from coming back at a later time.
“It’s removing it, not banning it. So it could be reintroduced at any time…any municipality in the state of New Jersey has the right to ban heavy municipal use, the mayor could do this with a stroke of his pen. He refuses to,” Valentine said. “It’s not a ban, it’s not prohibited, so it’s gonna come back.”
What’s next
Now that the town has taken action to remove data centers from the Hexa Builders proposal, the next step will be for the town’s lawmakers to continue looking into the best way to ban data centers while protecting the township from litigation.
The proposal was discussed further during the next town council meeting on April 8, and will be voted on during the next council meeting on April 22 after its second reading.
The outpouring of the community throughout these meetings sent a clear message to the council: Monroe citizens do not want a data center in their town.
“We need to put humanity first here, not corporate profits, not the special interests that benefit from it, not here, not now, not ever. This is something that is so deeply impactful for the rest of my life, the rest of the lives of everyone that was in that room…It’s about what we’re leaving behind, not just what we have to live with, but also what we’re leaving behind for people who will be here after we’re not anymore,” Duff said.
- What’s Good in South Jersey? The Cubbyhole
- Data Center in Monroe Twp. Shuttered Before Development Starts
- Haskin Shellfish Research Lab at Rutgers Breeds Stronger Oysters
Follow South Jersey provides local journalism which highlights our diverse communities; fosters transparency through robust, localized, and vital reporting that holds leaders and institutions accountable; addresses critical information needs; supports people in navigating civic life; and equips people with the information necessary to partake in effective community engagement. If there is a story or event you think we should cover, please send your tips to news@followsouthjersey.com with “NEWS” in the subject line.
