South Brunswick residents push back against planned data center

There's another data center fight in the state, this time at South Brunswick. News 12 New Jersey's Christine Qualey tells us why residents are fighting back against a facility that they say was approved before they had a chance to object. The building you see here behind me is part of a huge parcel of land that will eventually become a data center. It's been under construction for over a year, but residents in the area have only started to raise environmental concerns in the last couple of weeks. This is Michael Van Pelt. He lives less than a mile from the former Princeton Nurseries property, slated to become a data center. But he only found out it was going there a few weeks ago. The way I found out about this is one of my neighbors, two days before the Department of Environmental Protection's public comment session, put a flyer in my mailbox. The reason the NJDEP is seeking public comment now is to decide whether they should allow Sentinel data centers to build several backup diesel generators at the property on Route 1 in South Brunswick. If there is an opportunity to impact the diesel generators and think about some kind of an alternative to that, that would be great. The plans to put a data center on that property were approved by the South Brunswick Planning Board back in May of 2025. It's only been in the last month, maybe a little bit longer than that, that people have truly been aware of it and have been able to raise their voices. The public comment period for the generators has been extended to November 9th, though some still hopeful to shut down the entire project. Maybe we can do what so many other communities have done. Maybe we can actually get them to not have this data center. A lot of people say, oh, it's too late, it's too late. Well, we have to try. Meanwhile, neighbors like Van Pelt, who has an autistic son, left considering whether they can stay in their homes once the data center is completed. My son is very sensitive to sound. His special education program is magnificent. Sorry, I'm a little emotional about this. His teachers are wonderful. And if he loses that, I don't know what we're going to do. In South Brunswick, Christine Qualey, News 12 New Jersey.