Data Center Ban In Howell Reconfirmed In New Ordinance

HOWELL, NJ — The Howell Township Council reiterated a ban on artificial intelligence data centers in a new ordinance passed recently.

The ordinance, approved at the Aug. 18 council meeting, defines the types of data centers as part of banning all of them.

The ordinance opens with: "WHEREAS, the Land Use Ordinance of the Township of Howell does not permit data centers; and WHEREAS, the Township desires to reconfirm data centers as a prohibited use," before defining the various types.

It then adds "All Data Centers as defined in Section 188-4 and any and all uses related to the same," as part of Section 2, Chapter 188, Section 188-67, "Prohibited uses in all zones."

Residents thanked the council for approving the ban.

"I appreciate your due diligence in bringing ordinance 02618 to the table," said Joseph Bizonos, who has been speaking at other town council meetings in the area and encouraging residents in other towns to speak out against data centers.

"To me, this ordinance is a clear sign that you care about this town as much as we do," he said.

"We appreciate all of the public input along the way," Councilman Mike Wrubel said. "It really came down to quality of life. It came down to the energy and the water usage. It came down to a risk versus reward. Because, you know, let's face it up here, we need to weigh every option in this town in a risk versus reward basis."

Wrubel said the ordinance spells out the various kinds of data centers because while the attention has been on the large centers that consume vast resources, there are much smaller ones that are already in existence in many areas.

"They're all across the country," he said. "You don't even know they're there. So we don't want to be overly restrictive at the same time as not allowing these large hyperscale data centers to enter into our community," he said. "This ordinance was more or less a stop gap to give us some more time to try and define and consider some of these other data centers."

He said the town is likely to be amending the ordinance down the line to carve out allowances for the smaller centers that fit inside a house and don't consume more power than an average home or business.

"We can carve out certain zones where we can use them or on public property," he said. "So that's where we're going moving forward. I want to be completely transparent with you because I don't want you to think, oh, you banned data centers, now you're going back on it. That's not the case. There's a very big difference between an AI hyperscale data center, 100 acres, huge, affects the entire town versus some of these other data centers."

You can watch the meeting below: