MANCHESTER, NJ — The Manchester Township Council approved an ordinance Monday night removing the option for an artificial intelligence data center from a redevelopment plan approved in 2025.
The ordinance, No. 26-48, repeals a portion of an ordinance approved in August 2025 by the council that designated a property owned by the Stavola Corporation off South Hope Chapel Road for redevelopment and included a provision that specifically included data centers as an acceptable use.
The ordinance passed with a unanimous vote, and goes into effect in early October, 20 days after the ordinance approval is publicly advertised.
Residents who turned out to Manchester Township High School for the meeting thanked the council for taking action quickly in response to their concerns, which were raised in early August in regard to the 2025 ordinance and rumblings that a data center was in the works.
But many still raised concerns about the potential for a developer to try to build a data center in the township in the future.
Some questioned why the township didn't include a list of definitions of data centers. Others asked why the ordinance didn't include specific language banning data centers altogether.
Lauren Staiger, the township's attorney, said the ordinance repealing the data center provision didn't include definitions because the original ordinance did not define data centers.
Other towns in the area that have passed or are working on data center bans have included an extensive list in their ordinances of what comprises a data center, from a small center contained to a home to the larger warehouse facilities that have become the focus of intense criticism.
Staiger also said the township did not specifically say data centers are banned because Manchester's land use ordinances already include a specification that any use that is not listed as permitted in prohibited.
Data centers are not listed anywhere else in the township as a permitted use, and the ordinance repealed on Monday night was specific to the redevelopment plan for the Stavola parcel, she said.
Residents were not entirely satisfied with that answer, and raised concerns that a developer could come into the township and propose a data center and put it before the zoning board.
"D variances are relatively easy to get," said Jason Howell of the Pinelands Alliance, who urged the council to put in more strict rules. A "D" variance is what a developer has to request when they propose something for a property that is not permitted to be done where the property sits, for example a commercial business in a residential zone.
Staiger said the real controls on AI data centers can come at the state level.
There have been some groups that have pushed for a moratorium at the state level, but so far Gov. Mikie Sherrill and the state Legislature have not gone that route.
In August, Sherrill signed legislation that requires data centers to bring their own clean energy and establishes a separate rate class for these developments to shield other ratepayers from shouldering the costs of data center energy demand, according to an announcement from the state.
Other legislation she signed requires data center owners and operators to submit semiannual reports to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities detailing their water and energy use, to give "greater transparency into data centers' demands on the state's energy and water resources, including total energy consumption, energy used for cooling and information technology equipment, peak daily water use, water sources, and on-site and backup power supplies," the state said.
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