Millville bans new data centers, blocking giant proposal

The Millville Board of Commissioners voted on May 19 to ban new data center developments in the city, with an ordinance stating that "data centers are incompatible with the City's land use planning objectives, infrastructure capacity, and community character," according to Business Insider. The action stops the proposed Millville Energy & Data Center Campus, which Business Insider and ROI-NJ report would have been a roughly 60-acre development. ROI-NJ characterizes the project as a 2.6 million square-foot facility and says it would have drawn 1.4 gigawatts from the grid.

ROI-NJ reports the proposal would have used billions of gallons of water annually for cooling and drawn electricity at a rate ROI-NJ equates to powering over 1 million homes. Business Insider names A1 Data Center as the company behind the proposal. ROI-NJ reports that opposition was organized by the Climate Revolution Action Network (CRAN) and that CRAN Ecology Director Kayleigh Henry praised local turnout and coalition-building.

Companies planning large-scale data centers commonly face concentrated scrutiny when projects propose high grid loads and heavy water use; industry reporting frequently highlights energy and water demand as the focal points of local opposition. For practitioners, these resource-intensity concerns translate into longer permitting timelines, more extensive environmental review, and increased need to demonstrate grid and water-system mitigations in public filings.

Industry reporting frames Millville as part of a broader pattern in which communities in energy-constrained regions push back on data center siting. ROI-NJ notes parallel policy responses in New Jersey, including state-level proposals to require data center operators to report water and energy usage to regulators. For AI infrastructure planners, the Millville vote underscores the political and social friction that can accompany large, concentrated deployments near population centers.

Observers should follow whether developers pursue appeals, zoning challenges, or alternative sites; whether New Jersey regulators adopt new reporting or permitting rules referenced in ROI-NJ; and whether similar municipal bans or moratoria spread in other jurisdictions. Industry groups and local activists' organizing capacity, as documented by ROI-NJ, will be an important variable for future siting outcomes.

Local advocates and industry stakeholders will monitor municipal responses and any follow-on state-level regulatory proposals. ROI-NJ highlights recent legislative activity in the New Jersey Senate that would increase reporting for data center water and energy use.

Millville's ordinance removes a major proposed data center from consideration and highlights how resource and community concerns can shape infrastructure siting decisions.

The vote is a case study in how local political pressure and resource constraints can alter the trajectory of large infrastructure projects, with implications for where and how AI-focused compute capacity is built.