HOLMDEL — Residents opposed to a proposed data center at Bell Works urged the Township Committee on Tuesday night to help stop the project. They argued it does not qualify as a permitted use under the township's own redevelopment plan.

Somerset Development, which owns Bell Works, has proposed a 40-megawatt data center behind the main building on the former Bell Labs campus. The application went to the Holmdel Planning Board on July 24, according to New Jersey 101.5. The Township Committee voted Aug. 11 to make data centers a prohibited use in town. But the 2012 redevelopment agreement with Somerset lists data centers as a permitted use, and the township attorney has said the application will be reviewed under the zoning in place before the ban, the station reported.

During public comment Tuesday, one resident said the project was "the wrong project in the wrong place." She cited worries about noise, diesel generators, heavy power demand and effects on nearby land and wildlife.

She said the Planning Board's engineering consultant raised a concern in an Oct. 2 letter that the proposal does not conform to the 2012 plan. According to the resident, the plan allows a data center only within the general footprint of an existing maintenance building, and counts generators, transformers and switchgear as part of the data center. She said the proposed building extends past two of the existing walls, and that with the generator yard and other equipment it would cover about 34% more than the current footprint. Another speaker made the same 34% argument.

The first resident asked that the Planning Board tell the applicant it lacks jurisdiction and deny the application outright, rather than send it back for a redesign. She also asked that the committee reject any plan for a data center at Bell Works.

A resident of the Regency at Holmdel community said he is part of a group going door to door there, and that "the vast majority" of residents oppose the project. He said he does not oppose data centers in general, only putting one in such a dense residential area. Another Regency resident said he lives within three-quarters of a mile of the site and worries about low-frequency noise. "I don't know if they're gonna be able to sleep at night," he said of neighbors closer to the site.

Committee says it never endorsed project

One resident asked why the committee had found the data center a reasonable fit for the property in November 2025, when Deputy Mayor Brian Foster was mayor, while members now back a ban on data centers.

Foster, who ran Tuesday's meeting because Mayor Rocco Impreveduto was absent, said a data center has been an approved use at the site since 2012. He said the committee took no action on the project because there was no data center application at the time, and referred the matter to the appropriate board. Pressed by another resident about a "test fit" for the project, Foster said, "I don't know what a test fit is." He added: "None of us spoke about or voted on a test fit or anything." He said the township had sent a letter to the applicant's attorney about it earlier that day.

Foster also said only one current committee member was on the committee that allowed data centers at the site in 2012.

Speakers noted that two members of the Township Committee, or their designees, sit on the Planning Board. One speaker said the board's only November meeting had been canceled, leaving Dec. 1 as its next meeting. He argued the application could face a 120-day review deadline in December and suggested the board schedule a special meeting.

Bell Works and Somerset Development have said the project is about a tenth the size of the large data centers drawing national attention and that the local utility can serve it with existing infrastructure, according to New Jersey 101.5.