Millville bans – Millville’s Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday evening to ban data centers, arguing they clash with land-use goals, strain infrastructure, and harm public health and welfare—ending a proposed 1.4-gigawatt Millville Energy & Data Center Campus.
When the Millville Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday evening, the city sent a clear signal about what it will and won’t allow in its future: no large-scale data centers.
In an ordinance adopted during that meeting. the commissioners wrote that “data centers are incompatible with the City’s land use planning objectives. infrastructure capacity. and community character.” They went further. determining that “the construction and operation of data centers within the City would be detrimental to the public health. safety. and welfare.”.
For a project already positioned as one of the biggest of its kind in the state. the decision is a hard stop. The vote brings to a halt the proposed 1.4 gigawatt Millville Energy & Data Center Campus, planned to span over 60 acres. A1 Data Center, the company behind the project, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Millville sits in southern New Jersey. a region that has been attracting AI-related data center investment in part because of its proximity to major cities like New York and Philadelphia. along with access to natural gas and transmission networks. That geographic pull has helped fuel a broader rush. Several other data centers have been proposed—or are already being built—in the area. including a 300-megawatt data center in neighboring Vineland that would supply compute to Microsoft.
Large data centers have existed for decades, but their scale has grown exponentially as AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic seek more compute to power their products. In parallel, opposition has also spread through communities that fear the consequences of such massive facilities.
The ordinance reflects those fears in plain language. The commissioners wrote that “large-scale data centers and similar facilities generate significant infrastructure demands.” They also said that any jobs created by the project were limited relative to its size. The companies behind data centers have argued that they are good for communities because they create jobs. though many of those jobs are in construction and temporary.
Residents and advocates pushing back have emphasized costs that don’t always show up on project slides. Many Americans—described as a majority in a recent study as unexcited about AI—are resisting these massive data centers. They worry the facilities could drain water supplies. raise utility bills. bring unwanted noise. increase temperature levels. and impede quality of life.
One group at the center of the Millville push is the Climate Revolution Action Network. an environmental nonprofit based in New Jersey. The group told Business Insider in a statement that it spent months organizing residents to oppose the Millville data center. Kayleigh Henry. one of the group’s leaders. said: “This is a winning coalition and something we need to see more of across the country.” She added. “These corporations may have more money than us. but they’re no match for people speaking out and making their voices heard.”.
The Millville vote also comes as the fight is spreading beyond one city. The Climate Revolution Action Network and other groups are now working to secure a statewide moratorium on data center construction. This month, a coalition of anti-data center groups asked New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill to impose a moratorium on approving and constructing new data centers that use at least 20 megawatts of power “until regulations or legislation are implemented to protect ratepayers and consumers. maintain electric grid reliability. and minimize environmental impacts.”.
Back in Millville, the ordinance adopted Tuesday evening ensures that the proposed 1.4 gigawatt campus will not move forward under the city’s current rules—at least not in the form the project envisioned.
Millville AI data centers ban ordinance 1.4 gigawatt A1 Data Center New Jersey Vineland Microsoft OpenAI Anthropic natural gas transmission networks Climate Revolution Action Network Mikie Sherrill moratorium ratepayers electric grid reliability
So they just banned AI centers?? Seems kinda backwards.
I read it as they’re stopping a 1.4 gigawatt project, which is huge. But didn’t Millville already say they needed investment or jobs? Feels like they’re killing progress over vibes.
Wait, is this about like robots coming to town or something? “Public health safety and welfare” sounds dramatic… unless the power plants are gonna blow up or whatever. Also 60 acres?? that’s basically a whole neighborhood.
Good for them honestly. These data centers are gonna fry the power grid and then they’ll blame residents. I saw Vineland too with Microsoft, and I’m like, why does it always end up in NJ suburbs? Next thing you know they’re charging more for electricity and calling it “infrastructure strain.”