Data centers in Hunterdon County
Verified August 18, 2026
Shading is about what a town has adopted, not about whether anything is being built there.
Every town, and what it has on the books
- Banned by ordinance
Ordinance 2026-08. Adopted July 13, 2026
Data centers are a non-permitted use in every zone. Ordinance 2026-08 amends the land use chapter to bar them in all zoning districts; the Township Committee adopted it July 13, 2026. A reader pointed us to this ordinance.
Sources: Clerk's notice of adoption, Ordinance 2026-08 (PDF) · Township public notices
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- Banned by ordinance
Ordinance 2026-15. Adopted July 21, 2026, effective July 22, 2026
Data centers are prohibited in every zoning district, as a principal or an accessory use, under a definition broad enough to cover cloud, streaming, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence uses. The ban reverses the township's own March 2026 ordinance, which had made data centers a conditional use in the Industrial zone.
Sources: Committee minutes, July 21, 2026 · Committee agenda packet, July 21, 2026 · Land Use Board minutes, March 9, 2026 · Township ordinance list (2026-15 in the adopted table)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- Ordinance under consideration
Ordinance 26-28, not yet adopted. In the township's introduced-ordinances register; document dated August 12, 2026
A prohibition ordinance is in the pipeline. Ordinance 26-28, Establishing Data Centers as a Prohibited Use, sits in the township's introduced-ordinances register as of August 12, 2026 and still needs a public hearing and final vote. It follows a non-binding resolution of opposition the committee adopted July 21, 2026.
Sources: Ordinance 26-28 (introduced, PDF) · Township introduced-ordinances register · Resolution 26-7-180 (certified PDF) · TAPinto: Raritan Township Expresses Opposition to Data Centers (July 30, 2026)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Township ordinance index · Codified ordinances (eCode360)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Township website · Codified ordinances (eCode360)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Codified ordinances (eCode360) · Article XIV, General Zoning Regulations
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance found.
Records check incomplete.
Sources: Borough 2026 ordinances · Council agendas and minutes · Code of ordinances (Municode)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance. A small Comcast network building at 92 W Main St was approved by use variance in July 2025 because the use was not permitted in that zone.
Sources: Town website · Zoning department
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance. The township is home to New York Life's corporate data center on Cokesbury Road.
Records check incomplete.
Sources: Township ordinance list
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Township agenda center
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Borough public notices
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Notice of adoption, ORD2026-04 · Township news feed
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance. The borough's old telephone exchange building stands at Harrison and Second Streets.
Sources: Borough resolutions · Chapter 50, Land Use (eCode360)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance found. The borough publishes very little online.
Records check incomplete.
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance. A law firm's letter about the Governor's data center plan appeared on the June 15, 2026 council agenda as a received communication only; nothing followed.
Sources: June 15, 2026 council agenda · July 20, 2026 council agenda
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Borough legal notices
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance found.
Records check incomplete.
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Records check incomplete.
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Records check incomplete.
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Records check incomplete.
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance found.
Records check incomplete.
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance. The former Merck headquarters campus in Whitehouse Station, now the UNICOM Science and Technology Park, includes data center facilities.
Sources: Codified ordinances (eCode360)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance found. The borough's online ordinance archive is not yet populated.
Records check incomplete.
Sources: Borough ordinances page · Borough public notices
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance. Residents have publicly pushed for a ban; the township has taken no formal action.
Sources: Code of ordinances (Municode) · Township ordinances page
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Township 2026 ordinance list
Last verified: August 18, 2026
- No ordinance or formal action
No data center ordinance.
Sources: Codified ordinances (eCode360) · Planning Board sections (eCode360)
Last verified: August 18, 2026
Comcast network facility, 92 W Main St, Clinton
Small unmanned network facility. A converted former TD Bank branch of about 2,170 square feet. The Clinton Land Use Board granted a use variance and minor site plan approval on July 15, 2025, meaning the use was not permitted in that zone as of right. Two backup generators, drive-through removed, no staff on site.
This is not an artificial intelligence or hyperscale data center.
Sources: Land Use Board agenda, June 3, 2025 · Land Use Board agenda, July 15, 2025 · Data Center Dynamics · Cleanview project tracker · Data Center Map listing
New York Life data center, 110 Cokesbury Rd, Clinton Township
Corporate data center. New York Life's own materials call this its New Jersey Data Center. The insurer owns the 33-acre parcel on Cokesbury Road, which carries a Lebanon postal address but sits in Clinton Township per county tax records. It serves the company's own operations and is not open to outside customers. New York Life has said publicly it is shifting computing from its own data centers to cloud and rented facilities, so the site's long-term role is uncertain.
This is not an artificial intelligence or hyperscale data center, and it predates the current data center wave by decades.
Sources: County parcel record (Block 3, Lot 26, owner NY Life Ins Co) · New York Life cafe directory, "New Jersey Data Center" · Runtime: How New York Life is planning for life after the data center
UNICOM Science and Technology Park, 3 Merck Dr, Whitehouse Station, Readington Township
Corporate campus with data center facilities. The 1,100-acre former Merck headquarters campus, bought by UNICOM Global on October 1, 2018. UNICOM lists data centers among the campus facilities, alongside offices, labs, and command centers. It is a private corporate campus, not a commercial data center; no capacity figures have been disclosed, and no data center expansion has been proposed there as of August 18, 2026.
This is not an artificial intelligence or hyperscale data center, and it does not sell data center space commercially.
Sources: UNICOM Global acquisition announcement · Real Estate NJ on UNICOM's plans for the campus
Frenchtown telephone exchange, 114 Harrison St, Frenchtown
Telephone exchange building. The small building at the corner of Harrison and Second Streets that locals know as the old Sprint building. It is the borough's telephone exchange, built for United Telephone Company of New Jersey, which did business as Sprint, then CenturyLink, and is now Brightspeed. County tax records list the commercial parcel under a telephone company tax office in Olathe, Kansas. It houses local phone and network switching equipment.
This is not a commercial data center, and it is not an artificial intelligence or hyperscale facility. A reader pointed it out, and it is on the map because it is the kind of building people mean when they say there is a small data center in town.
Sources: County parcel record, 114 Harrison St (Block 41, Lot 1) · FCC: United Telephone Company of New Jersey
Statewide context
New Jersey has no data center moratorium
Governor Sherrill announced a four-part plan on May 27, 2026. Developers fund their own grid upgrades rather than passing the cost to ratepayers, report electricity and water use every six months, negotiate community benefit agreements against a statewide standard, and use union labor. The plan is not a moratorium.
Sources: Governor's office release
More than 25 New Jersey towns have banned or restricted data centers
The list as of mid-2026 includes Red Bank, Asbury Park, Millville, Logan Township, Neptune, Pemberton Township, Andover Township, East Greenwich, Sayreville with an 18-month moratorium, and Warren Township in Somerset County. Holland and Delaware Township are Hunterdon County's entries.
Sources: Hudson Reporter · GovTech
Two New Jersey towns are being sued over their bans, and neither is in Hunterdon County
Monroe Township in Gloucester County was sued for $300 million by Hexa Builders after banning data centers township-wide; the case moved to federal court on July 6, 2026. Andover Township in Sussex County was sued on July 10, 2026 by National Land Developers over a former airport site of about 97 acres. No Hunterdon County municipality is a defendant in a data center lawsuit.
Sources: GovTech: developer sues New Jersey town after data center ban · GovTech: data center bans emerge in 4 more New Jersey communities
A $1.8 billion AI data center is under construction in Kenilworth
Kenilworth is in Union County. Nothing of that scale has been proposed anywhere in Hunterdon County.
Sources: GovTech
Where New Jersey projects stand
Data centers are under construction or proposed in Kenilworth, Nutley, and South Brunswick. Proposals were rejected in Monroe Township and Millville, and withdrawn in New Brunswick and East Greenwich.
How this was checked
Statuses come from each town's own records: ordinance indexes, meeting minutes and agenda PDFs, codified code, and legal notices. For 9 towns the record could not be fully confirmed online, and those say "Records check incomplete" on the card. No ordinance means nothing was found on the books, not that a town has taken a position. If your town has moved since August 18, 2026, send it in below.
Heard about a data center proposal or ordinance in your town?
Tell us what you heard and where. Most useful is a meeting date, an ordinance number, or the name of the board that took it up. We check the record before anything changes on the map, and we will not put your name on it.
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