Data centers may soon be prohibited in Winslow Township.
The township committee will hold second and public hearings at its Tuesday, May 26 meeting on an ordinance to include data centers as a prohibited use in all zoning districts of non-Pinelands areas. The committee – joining other area communities – introduced and passed the measure on first reading at its April 14 session.
“Our primary responsibility to our community here in Winslow Township is to make long-term smart growth decisions and protect the quality of life in our township,” Mayor Marie Lawrence said. “Data centers may play a vital role in the broader economy; however, they require an extraordinary level of electricity, water, and infrastructure that would place a significant strain on our local utility resources.
“This ordinance ensures we are making thoughtful and sustainable decisions that put our residents first.”
The ordinance defines a data center as a building or buildings occupied primarily by computers and/or telecommunications and related equipment where digital information is processed, transferred and/or stored, primarily to and from off-site locations. The use also includes crypto-currency mining, block-chain transaction processing and server farms.
Zoning ordinance amendments were referred to the planning board for review and recommendations and were found to be substantially consistent with Winslow’s master plan.
Also in the amendment is for the committee to consider prohibiting Class I licensed micro-cannabis cultivation facilities within the non-Pinelands areas of the township.
Legislation has been passed to regulate data centers at the state level. The state Senate approved a bill sponsored by M. Teresa Ruiz and Raj Mukherji that requires data center owners and operators to submit semi-annual water- and energy-usage reports to the Board of Public Utilities.
A bill sponsored by state senators Bob Smith and Linda R. Greenstein urges states in the PJM Interconnection region – Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. – to require that data centers obtain electricity from a new zero- or low-emission sources of energy.
And a bill sponsored by assembly members David Bailey Jr., Joe Danielson and Clinton Calabrese requires electric public utilities to develop and apply special rules for certain data centers to protect non-center customers from increased costs.
A public hearing on the data center ordinance will be included in the May 26, committee meeting, which will begin at 7 p.m.
