Bell Works Data Center Issue List

The proposed Bell Works data center has generated understandable anxiety in Holmdel. Residents have heard sharply different accounts—some supportive and some critical—while the Planning Board application still contains important missing data, unresolved discrepancies and public claims that do not always match the filed record.

To help residents sort through that information, we prepared the Bell Works Data Center Issue List. archive.org/details/bell-works-data-center-resident-issue-list-guide . The guide identifies what is missing, where the application documents conflict with one another, and where the public narrative differs from or goes beyond what the application actually establishes. It covers electricity, water and cooling, operating noise, backup generators and diesel storage, groundwater and PFAS, steep-slope disturbance and traffic.
The goal is to equip residents and the Planning Board with focused questions for the engineers, planners and other project experts who will testify. Those experts should be asked to reconcile conflicting figures, identify the calculations and studies supporting their conclusions, and explain whether the assurances being made publicly will become enforceable conditions of approval.

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A project of this scale should be evaluated using complete designs, utility confirmations and project-specific impact studies—not assumptions or unanswered questions. The Township's own checklist expressly permits the Planning Board to request additional information when it is needed to make an informed decision.

This guide is intended to help ensure that residents and the Board obtain the facts necessary to understand the project's true impact on Holmdel before any final decision is made.

Prakash Santhana

Former Holmdel Deputy Mayor