A New Jersey town that fought a proposed AI data center is now backtracking on that opposition, according to NJ.com.
NJ.com did not name the town, the data-center operator, or the developer in the headline-level account reviewed here; the report frames officials as reversing course from active resistance toward a more open posture.
New York's own data-center gate is unrelated and unaffected either way: Executive Order 62, in effect since July 14, pauses any new data center in New York State that consumes or can consume 50 megawatts or more, until the Department of Public Service finishes its environmental review. That pause reaches New York projects only — a New Jersey town changing its stance has no bearing on the New York order, and New Jersey continues to set its own rules town by town.
The reversal fits a pattern this desk has tracked across North Jersey for weeks: a historic nursery site turned into a data-center fight, a Connecticut town fighting a project before it even has a site plan, and now a town that fought and appears to be softening. New Jersey's data-center map is being drawn one planning board meeting at a time, and which way a town breaks determines whether the electrical, mechanical, and sitework scopes tied to a project ever go out to bid.
**What to do next:** If you're chasing data-center trade work in North Jersey, track the specific town and project through NJ.com's own coverage and the municipal planning board's agenda — a reversal at the town level is the first concrete sign a stalled project could move back toward a site plan and, eventually, a bid package.