A month of viral videos, social media backlash, and mounting resident frustration has forced Secaucus leadership to change its tune on local data centers.

At tonight’s Town Council meeting, Mayor Michael Gonnelli announced the creation of a specialized data center committee. The panel will combine town officials and resident critics, bringing together three Town Council members, Town Administrator Gary M. Jeffas, the Town engineer, a Town Construction official, and local residents including Kathy McFarland and David Kraatz.

The sudden pivot comes after weeks of intense public scrutiny. The issue flared up at the August 25 council meeting when McFarland pressed officials on the town’s expanding data center footprint, the first time the topic had been brought up in Council Chambers in quite some time. Clips of her back-and-forth with Jeffas spread on Facebook and Instagram drawing local attention to issue already spreading nationally.

The tension escalated when Mayor Gonnelli released his August newsletter column, which defended data centers as quiet, high-value tax ratables essential to modern digital life. The column fell flat with many residents, triggering heated threads across Facebook and Reddit where critics accused leadership of misreading public concern and failing to grasp the difference between traditional server facilities and power-hungry artificial intelligence hyperscalers.

Facing a respectful room, Mayor Gonnelli attempted to deflect municipal responsibility by pointing to regional zoning constraints.

“88% of Secaucus is in the Meadowlands District,” Gonnelli stated, noting that commercial and industrial projects fall under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (formerly the Meadowlands Commission). Because the town’s planning board and construction official rarely review these projects unless a specific variance is triggered, officials argued their hands are largely tied.

“Bucking the Meadowlands Commission is a really tough thing to do.” Gonnelli claimed “I know we did it once before and we won, but it’s a really tough thing to do.”

In an effort to quell community pushback, officials laid out several technical claims regarding the town’s current footprint:

  • The Mori Tract Development: Officials sought to clear up rumors regarding the massive development along Paterson Plank Road near Walmart, confirming it is slated for a traditional warehouse and trucking terminal rather than a data center. The developer will be required to remediate 68 acres of former landfill space, preserve surrounding wetlands, and reconstruct portions of Paterson Plank Road.
  • Current Inventory: Secaucus currently houses 9 active data centers, with 2 additional facilities seeking approvals. Officials insisted these facilities serve traditional network infrastructure rather than the massive AI hyperscale builds drawing national outrage.
  • Water Usage & Discharge: Town officials claimed two local data centers operate on closed-loop, air-cooled chillers requiring zero municipal water, while others discharge used water back into the town sewer system for treatment.
  • Power Grid Protections: Addressing fears of utility rate hikes, officials cited Secaucus’s placement within the 13-state PJM Interconnection grid and pointed to state legislation signed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill in July 2026 requiring dedicated rate classes for large-load data centers.

While Mayor Gonnelli hopes to schedule the new committee’s first meeting for October 1, tentatively aiming for a tour at the local CoreSite facility, a venue and walkthrough have yet to be confirmed.

The Mayor’s jurisdictional dilemma is real. When the Meadowlands Commission holds the keys to nearly nine-tenths of our town, municipal veto power is practically non-existent. But pointing to regional bureaucrats doesn’t solve the fundamental problem for residents looking for answers, nor does it offer a clear path to make our voices heard where it actually counts.