Secaucus, N.J. to introduce 80-MW cap and AI rules for data centers

Hudson TV Exclusive

SECAUCUS, N.J. — The Secaucus Mayor and Town Council are scheduled to introduce a zoning ordinance on Tuesday, Oct. 27, that would cap any new or expanded data center in the town’s Industrial Zone at 80 megawatts of peak electricity demand, ban once-through water cooling, require low-frequency noise studies, and limit routine backup generator testing to weekday daytime hours, according to the town’s newly posted council agenda packet.

The proposed ordinance comes three days after the Town of Secaucus released 468 pages of records to Hudson TV under the Open Public Records Act showing that Town Administrator Gary Jeffas emailed Equinix and CoreSite — the two largest data-center operators in town — on Oct. 8 to ask how many megawatts their existing Secaucus facilities use. The same OPRA response shows that nine data-center properties in town were billed $11,044,762 in 2026 property taxes across $242.1 million in net assessed value, with zero payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) or community benefit agreements on file.

What the Oct. 27 zoning ordinance would do

The seven-page zoning amendment — listed on the Oct. 27 agenda worksheet for first reading at 7:00 p.m. at Town Hall, 1203 Paterson Plank Road (following a 4:30 p.m. caucus and executive session) — amends Chapter 135 (“Zoning”) of the Town Code to separate data centers from warehouses and add a new Section 135-9.N setting performance standards in the town’s I-Industrial Zone.

Rather than enacting a blanket ban across town-zoned industrial land, the ordinance makes data centers an explicitly permitted use in the I-Industrial Zone subject to strict operating caps. In its recitals, the ordinance states that the Mayor and Council are “particularly concerned about the proliferation of hyperscale data centers that support artificial intelligence training, inference, machine learning, large language models and generative artificial intelligence that require excessive amounts of water and electricity and can cause detrimental environmental impacts.”

• 80-megawatt peak power cap: Under proposed Section 135-9.N(1), a data center’s maximum coincident peak electrical demand “shall not exceed 80 megawatts (MW) at full development buildout, inclusive of computing, cooling, mechanical, lighting and other operating loads supplied from all sources.” Contiguous or commonly controlled properties, or phased developments sharing electrical infrastructure, are counted together toward the 80-MW limit. Emergency standby generators not running concurrently with normal loads are excluded from the peak cap, and applicants must submit an electrical demand analysis.
• Separate definitions for data centers and warehouses: Section 135-2.B defines a “Data Center” to include commercial colocation facilities, cloud-computing facilities, server farms, cryptocurrency mining operations, artificial-intelligence computing facilities, and high-performance computing facilities, and specifies that “Warehousing shall not include a data center.”
• Ban on once-through cooling and private well water: Section 135-9.N(3) prohibits once-through cooling systems, states a preference for closed-loop recirculating cooling (unless an applicant proves to the Board Engineer that an alternative uses less water and energy), bars private groundwater wells or direct surface-water withdrawals as a primary cooling source where public water is available, and requires separate water metering and a water-use conservation plan certified by the water utility.
• Full-spectrum and low-frequency noise testing: Section 135-9.N(2) requires a pre-construction acoustical study by a qualified acoustical engineer modeling full-spectrum and low-frequency sound under maximum simultaneous operating conditions, followed by post-construction sound measurements during peak routine operation and annual sound studies submitted to the Town Engineer.
• Generator testing restricted to 9 a.m.–3 p.m. weekdays: Section 135-9.N(4) restricts routine testing and maintenance of fossil-fuel backup generators to Monday through Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. (excluding legal holidays), requires ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel and NJDEP air permits, and requires operators to submit annual compliance reports to the town covering annual electric energy use, peak MW demand, water consumption, and generator testing hours.

Because the ordinance amends the town’s municipal zoning code under the Municipal Land Use Law (N.J.S.A. 40:55D-62 and 40:55D-64), it applies to the portions of Secaucus zoned by the town and must be referred to the Secaucus Planning Board before a final adoption hearing. Much of Secaucus’s warehouse and industrial land falls under the zoning jurisdiction of the state’s New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA).

Oct. 8 emails: Town administrator asked Equinix and CoreSite for their megawatt use

The town’s Oct. 23 response to Hudson TV’s public-records requests (OPRA-Req-26-1514 and 26-1516, signed by Town Clerk Michael Marra) shows that as residents pressed Town Hall over data-center power and water use earlier this month, town officials had to email the operators to ask how much electricity their Secaucus facilities draw.

At 12:17 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, Jeffas sent an email to Tony Sclafani of Equinix in a thread titled “RE: [EXTERNAL] Meeting regarding data Centers,” with four other recipients copied, including Rey Banks (identified by Patch as Equinix’s director of external affairs):

“I had a questions that I figured you would be best able to answer. If I am wrong, can you forward to the correct individual? Can you advise the amount of power (Megawatts) used at each of Equinix’s Data Centers in town? I am fine if you want to wait until our meeting tomorrow to discuss.”

Two minutes later, at 12:19 p.m. on Oct. 8, Jeffas emailed Joseph Liccardo at CoreSite under the subject line “Power Usage”:

“Can you tell me the power usage (Megawatts) each of Coresites data centers use? Can you tell me what is being proposed for 215 County Avenue? If you want o wait for our meeting tomorrow to discuss, that is fine. Any questions, feel free to contact me.”

Both emails refer to a meeting the next day, Friday, Oct. 9 — four days before the Oct. 13 session Mayor Michael Gonnelli held with Equinix, CoreSite, PSE&G, Veolia, three council members, and a small group of invited residents. The town produced no written replies from either company and no earlier messages from the Equinix email chain. The town’s written Q&A on data centers, read aloud at the Oct. 13 council meeting and posted on the town website Oct. 16, did not include any megawatt figures.

Jeffas’s Oct. 8 question about what CoreSite is proposing for 215 County Ave. came five months after the Secaucus Zoning Board of Adjustment voted 5–0 on May 11 to approve CoreSite’s application for a four-story, 446,761-square-foot data center at that address, according to Patch. On Oct. 22, Gonnelli asked the NJSEA to cap new data centers near homes at two stories, though he noted it was too late to shrink the approved 215 County Ave. project.

Zero PILOTs or benefit deals; 9 data-center lots billed $11.04M in 2026 taxes

In its Oct. 23 OPRA response letter, the town stated it has no records of:

• any PILOT agreement, long-term or five-year tax abatement, or financial agreement with any data-center owner or developer since Jan. 1, 2022;
• any host community, community benefit, or developer’s agreement committing a data-center company to payments or donations to the town, the Board of Education, or the Municipal Utilities Authority;
• any budget document or report tracking total tax revenue from data centers or how that money is allocated;
• any record stating how many permanent or construction jobs a data-center project creates; or
• any emails since Jan. 1, 2025, between the mayor, the six council members, or Tax Assessor Michael Jaeger and CoreSite, Equinix, PSE&G, or the NJSEA regarding data-center taxes, PILOTs, or electric load.

The only property-tax exemption filings the town produced are 2014 and 2015 claims under a 1983 state law (N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.130 et seq.) exempting automatic fire-suppression systems from property taxes on four lots: 275 Hartz Way ($948,300 deducted from assessed value), 755 Secaucus Road ($881,300 deducted), 2 Emerson Lane ($755,600 deducted), and 800 Secaucus Road ($716,100 deducted). Combined, those four fire-sprinkler deductions trim $3,301,300 in assessed value — worth roughly $150,600 in 2026 taxes at the town’s 2026 billing rate of about $4.562 per $100 of assessed value.

Across the nine data-center properties covered in the town’s assessment and tax-collector ledgers, total net assessed value rose from $230,185,700 in 2022 to $242,103,500 in 2026, generating $11,044,762 in 2026 property-tax bills (which cover municipal, school, and Hudson County levies):

In addition to its regular tax bills, CoreSite was billed $636,858.75 in “added assessment” taxes at 2 Emerson Lane between 2023 and 2025 for newly completed improvements, while 425 Meadowlands Parkway saw its net assessment drop from $8.585 million to $6 million starting in 2024.

Data centers have become the central issue in Secaucus’s local election and civic debate following a Sept. 11 diesel fuel spill at Equinix’s 275 Hartz Way facility that drew scrutiny from Rep. Nellie Pou. At the Oct. 13 council meeting — the same night the council approved unagendized $10,000 raises for Jeffas and Town Attorney Julia Peschetti — resident and data-center critic David Kraatz launched a write-in campaign for the Ward 2 council seat against incumbent Councilman James Clancy.

Secaucus and Hudson County homeowners: Want to see how commercial ratables and rising municipal tax rates affect your home’s assessment? Check whether your property is over-assessed with GardenState.ai’s Property Tax Appeal check, model your bill with the Tax Shock calculator, and track your Home Value estimate.

Hudson TV asks: Should Secaucus cap new data centers at 80 megawatts and require public power and water reporting, or push for a stricter ban near homes? Share your take in the comments.