Cherry Hill residents will get their chance to weigh in on a proposed township-wide ban on data centers when Council holds a public hearing Monday. If adopted on second reading, the ordinance would prohibit data centers in every zoning district in the township.

Ordinance No. 2026-10 passed Council unanimously on first reading on July 13. The Planning Board took up its required consistency review at its Monday meeting, evaluating whether the ban aligns with Cherry Hill's 2018 Master Plan.

The measure would add data centers to the township's list of specifically prohibited uses, alongside junkyards, airports, landfills and waste recovery facilities. The ordinance defines a data center as any building primarily devoted to housing computer servers for AI, cloud computing, cryptocurrency mining, colocation services or large-scale data storage.

Businesses with existing server rooms wouldn't lose them. The ordinance permits accessory server rooms in non-residential zones, capped at 10% of gross floor area or 2,000 square feet, whichever is smaller. Those rooms cannot be used for cloud computing, colocation, AI processing or commercial data storage for third parties.

No data center has been proposed for Cherry Hill. Mayor David Fleisher has made clear he wants to keep it that way.

"Cherry Hill will not be the guinea pig," Fleisher said in a June 8 interview with local news site 70and73.com. "We know that the technology is evolving, but my opinion is Cherry Hill does not need to be a testing ground."

The push began when resident Jeffrey McKenzie addressed Township Council on Tuesday, May 26, citing electricity and water demands, noise and proximity to neighborhoods. McKenzie submitted a model ban from the Pinelands Alliance and pointed to the hyperscale data center in Vineland as a cautionary example.

The township then commissioned planning consultant Artheon, based in Camden, to study the issue. In a July 3 report, Senior Program Manager Christopher N. Dochney found large-scale data centers incompatible with the Master Plan's goals on sustainability, natural resources, and economic development. A medium-sized data center consumes roughly 110 million gallons of water annually for cooling, the report found, equivalent to 1,000 households. Larger facilities can use 1.8 billion gallons per year.

The report also noted data centers produce steady broadband white noise and rely on diesel backup generators that contribute to air pollution.

If adopted, Cherry Hill would join a growing list of New Jersey municipalities that have enacted similar bans. Millville, Monroe Township, Asbury Park, Red Bank, Warren Township and Sayreville have all prohibited data centers in recent months. More than 80 data centers already operate across New Jersey, according to prior coverage by 70and73.com citing South Jersey Climate News.

The July 27 public hearing is the final step before Council votes on adoption. If passed, the ordinance takes effect 20 days later.