New Brunswick officials have sent proposed data center zoning and land-use regulations to the city’s Planning Board for review, a move that would require mandatory site-plan applications, indoor siting, and buffer distances from schools, homes and conservation land. The proposed rules touch two sections of city code and come even though no developer has approached the city about building a data center since a prior proposal was scrapped earlier this year.
What the Proposed Rules Would Require
The changes involve Title 17, New Brunswick’s zoning code, and Title 16, its land-development code, according to TAPinto. Title 17 governs permitted uses and buildings and the conditions attached to their development, and the proposed amendments to it would set standards for data centers covering noise, water use, energy generation and power capacity, along with where such facilities could be located. The draft rules would also require data centers to be sited indoors and would establish separation distances from schools, residential zones and conservation areas, per the same report.
On the Title 16 side, which covers developer procedures such as review requirements, application materials and evaluation, the proposed amendment would require data centers to submit a mandatory site-plan application. That review process would let officials examine a proposed facility’s effects on its surroundings before any project could move forward, the outlet reported.
Planning Board Can Recommend, Not Decide
The city’s Planning Board is scheduled to review the regulations for consistency with New Brunswick’s master plan and make recommendations, but the board cannot enact the ordinances itself. Once it reports its findings, the City Council will decide whether to adopt the proposed measures, and the council could approve or reject them; if adopted, the ordinances would become law, the report notes.
City officials have described the proposed rules as an interim measure while New Brunswick conducts a broader review of long-term land-use planning, a process expected to take four to six months. New Brunswick Mayor Jim Cahill announced in September that the city had retained Bignell Planning Consultants Inc., a Woodbridge-based firm, to review data center planning and prepare recommendations. Cahill said the comprehensive review will include professional planning, engineering, environmental, infrastructure and legal analysis, according to TAPinto.
No Developer Interest Since Jersey Avenue Plan Changed
Dan Dominguez, New Brunswick’s director of policy and development and city planner, said no one has reached out in writing, by phone or by any other means to express interest in developing a data center in the city. Dominguez said there has been no application or inquiry about such a project since the Jersey-Sandford redevelopment proposal, the outlet reported…