Secaucus Wants To Place Limits On AI Data Centers

SECAUCUS, NJ — You can watch the Tuesday night Secaucus town Council meeting here: facebook.com/hudsontv/videos/1430285015750934

Mayor Mike Gonnneli starts out at minute 30:12 saying there were multiple errors in recent news reports by Hudson TV. The man filming the meeting for Hudson TV replied that he did not write those articles, and that he would tell his boss.

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David Kraatz, running as a write-in candidate against data centers in the Nov. 3 election, was one of many people who spoke, nearly all of them against data centers in Secaucus. Kraatz continued to rail against data centers, and he got into a clash with the mayor, town administrator Gary Jeffas and Councilman Rob Costantino, starting at 1:04.

Seconds after that, a Secaucus Police officer who was present told resident Linda Weber, another data center opponent, to sit down.

It was a packed meeting, standing room only. Many people who support Gonnelli — plus town employees and the directors of all the town departments — were at the meeting, and they enthusiastically clapped whenever Gonnelli spoke.

Earlier in the meeting, before the arguing broke out, the town introduced an ordinance that places many new restrictions on new data centers. (This is Secaucus' attempt to limit AI data centers from opening in town.)

The ordinance can be found on pages on pages 8-14 of the October 27 Council meeting agenda. However, this ordinance only applies to the 12 percent of Secaucus the town has control over. Also, the town lawyer pulled this ordinance Tuesday night to make some changes, and it will be re-introduced on Nov. 10.

Here are some of the new restrictions:

• Limits peak electrical demand of a data center to 80 megawatts (MW)

• All new data centers have to come with emergency standby generator capacity (nearly all in town already have generators on site)

• They have to submit an electrical demand analysis with their development application.

• They have to provide a sound study before construction telling the town how loud the center will be.

• Once the data center opens, they have to do annual sound studies and during peak demand, and submit the results to the town engineer.

• The town prefers data centers use closed-loop recirculating water cooling systems.

• Data centers have to submit to the town a water use and conservation plans identifying average and peak daily demand, among other things

• The operator has to keep records of their annual electric energy use and peak electrical demand, water demand and consumption, cooling system operation, generator operating and testing hours, required air permits, inspections and acoustical compliance and submit these reports to the town.

The ordinance does not establish height limits for new data centers.

On Oct. 22, Gonnelli asked NJSEA Commissioner Jill Hirsch to limit new data centers located near residential areas to two stories, or approximately 35 feet.

Gonnelli says he needs Hirsch's approval to limit height. The question remains whether the NJSEA will work with Gonnelli to establish the new two-story height restriction.

Much of Secaucus falls under the NJSEA's regional zoning. There is an ongoing discussion over how the NJSEA has control over 88 percent of Secaucus.

The two new data centers coming to Secaucus — the CoreSite data center coming to 215 County Avenue and 275 Hartz Way, where Equinix is making its data center bigger — will both be four stories tall.

The Equinix data center will have a projected maximum usage of 50 megawatts; the new CoreSite facility will have a projected maximum usage of 75 megawatts, according to Hudson TV (that fact is not wrong; the mayor does not dispute it. He said they got other facts in their reporting wrong).

Both these new data centers will have the size and capability to handle AI work.

The town residents who are the most vocal against data centers continued to speak Tuesday night.

"Stop data centers in Secaucus," said resident Kathy McFarlande.

"I wish we could," responded Gonnelli.

In 2026, the nine data centers in Secaucus (there will be 11 once CoreSite and Equinix are built) paid a combined total of $11 million in property taxes, according to Hudson TV.

Secaucus resident Tom Hindle contributed reporting.