Two months ago, NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced a plan to restrict — though not ban — artificial intelligence data centers statewide.

Many local leaders say that’s not enough. Since February, at least two dozen municipalities have prohibited the facilities within their borders.

Since 1917, New Jersey’s entrenched system of home rule, or local government authority, has blocked all sorts of development, from garbage dumps and hazardous waste disposal sites to marijuana dispensaries and mandated affordable housing. Once it kept what is now the Great Swamp, in Morris and Somerset counties, from becoming a 45-square-mile airport. Now town officials are training their zoning powers on data centers in a state with roughly two dozen of them, and several under construction.

While the buildings enable high-value global computing to advance health care, test disaster responses and automate supply chains, they bring tremendous local downsides. The servers can take up acres that residents instead may want for more houses. The buildings draw heavily on electricity and water supplies. And in some places, the irritating hum of constant operations can be heard a mile away.

Public pushback

“Municipal officials appear to be responding to a level of public pushback that’s difficult to ignore,” said Alyssa Maurice, assistant director and head of research and polling at the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University. “Local governments may view data centers as attractive economic development opportunities, but residents are making a different calculation. Many residents appear to believe the potential downsides outweigh the economic benefits that local officials often point to, like increased tax revenue and relatively modest permanent job creation.”