Montville Rising and the Visibility Brigade More on data centers in Montville

Strengthen Resolution 2026-350 before the Township Committee votes

The Township Committee is asking the Planning Board to reexamine the Master Plan with large data centers in mind. Montville Rising supports that. We're asking for four changes so the study closes the gap in our zoning code instead of leaving it open while the work goes on.

The Committee takes up the resolution on Tuesday, September 22, 2026. Petition open to Montville Township residents.

Sign the petition Read Resolution 2026-350

Petition to the Township Committee of the Township of Montville

Re: Resolution No. 2026-350, Emerging Issues Master Plan Reexamination

We, the undersigned residents of Montville Township, support Resolution No. 2026-350, which authorizes the Planning Board to undertake an emerging issues reexamination of the Master Plan and names large scale data centers as the concern. Studying the question and building a planning record before regulating is the right step, taken in the right order.

We respectfully ask the Township Committee to amend the resolution before adopting it, in four ways.

  1. Name the gap in Schedule C

    Schedule C permits "computer and data processing centers," but that term is defined nowhere in Section 230-54. It comes from an older classification of office-based business services, such as programming, software and record processing. A study of "large scale data centers" could run its full course without ever addressing that entry.

    Direct that the scope of the reexamination expressly include the "computer and data processing centers" entry in Schedule C, and recommend how it should be defined so that it cannot be read to permit a stand-alone data center. Section 230-124A, which prohibits uses not specifically permitted, does not close this gap, because this use is specifically permitted.

  2. Set a date

    The resolution does not say when the Planning Board's report is due, and reexaminations commonly take six months to a year. Set a target date for the report, and announce when the Planning Board will hold its public hearing on it so residents can be heard there as well.

  3. Draft an ordinance prohibiting data centers

    The resolution authorizes a study and requires a report, but directs no one to write an ordinance. Direct the Township Attorney and the Township Planner to prepare, alongside the reexamination, an ordinance prohibiting non-accessory data centers in every zone district of the Township, so it can be introduced when the report is delivered rather than begun then.

    The ordinance should define "data center," continue to allow computer and server rooms that serve a permitted business on the same property, and make clear that "computer and data processing centers" in Schedule C does not include a stand-alone data center.

  4. Protect the Township now, while the study proceeds

    A study and ordinance that take a year leave Montville exposed in the meantime, because an application is governed by the ordinances in effect on the day it is filed. Introduce now, without waiting for the report, an ordinance defining "computer and data processing centers" in Schedule C so that it does not include a stand-alone data center.

    In addition, ask the Township's health officer for a written opinion on whether a temporary moratorium on data center applications is warranted under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-90(b), given the Township's flood hazard areas and Critical Water Resources.

Presented by Montville Rising on behalf of the Montville Township residents who have signed this petition.

Why the timing matters

Under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-10.5, a development application is governed by the ordinances in effect on the day it is submitted. Not the Master Plan, and not a reexamination report. Only the ordinance counts.

As long as "computer and data processing centers" sits in Schedule C without a definition, reportedly as a permitted use in ten zoning districts, an applicant can file against the code exactly as it reads today. A study with no due date and no ordinance being drafted alongside it leaves that window open.

Other towns are acting. Gothamist reported on September 2 that 93 New Jersey municipalities have banned data centers, and the Pinelands Alliance's public list keeps growing. As those doors close, developers look for towns that still have a permitted use with no definition attached. Montville is one of them.

Doing this with a planning record matters too. A developer suing Andover Township argues that the township banned data centers with no supporting planning record and no change to its master plan. Resolution 2026-350 is how Montville avoids that problem, which is why we support it and want it to finish the job.

The stakes are local. This September, a diesel spill at the Equinix data center in Secaucus reached Anderson Creek. The Route 46 property under discussion sits beside the Passaic River, in a flood hazard area, above ground Montville has already designated as a Critical Water Resource.

For background, news and ways to get involved, see No Data Centers on the Montville Rising site.

Your privacy

Signatures are stored in a private Google Sheet that only Montville Rising organizers can open. We will not publish the list of signers on this website or anywhere else.

When we deliver the petition, Montville Rising will try to share it only with the members of the Township Committee, and we will ask that it not be posted or distributed further. We can't promise that will be possible. A petition given to a government body may become a public record under New Jersey's Open Public Records Act, and the Township, not Montville Rising, decides how to respond to records requests.

Your email address, if you give one, is never given to the Township. We use it only to send you updates if you ask for them, and we don't sell or share it.

To remove your signature before the petition is delivered, email montvillerising@gmail.com.