Andover Township’s Fight Over AI Data Centers Escalates to Court

Andover Township, a quiet community tucked in Sussex County, found itself at the center of a heated debate over high‑tech data centers that run artificial‑intelligence workloads. It all started with a piece of land that used to be Newton Airport – a strip that closed back in 2013 and later turned into a junkyard. In recent years the 97‑acre parcel at 248 Stickles Pond Road was eyed by Pennsylvania‑based National Land Developers LLC for a massive AI data center.

The township had already taken a step toward that vision. In September 2025 officials amended the zoning code to allow data centers on a roughly 812‑acre redevelopment zone that includes the Stickles Pond site. Early the next year they even bumped the maximum building height up to 65 feet, presumably to accommodate the tall, climate‑controlled halls that such facilities need.

But the mood shifted quickly. On May 7 2026 the Andover Township Committee voted 4‑1 to adopt a set of operating standards for data centers – a move that seemed to pave the way for the project. Just five days later, at a special meeting called by Mayor Thomas Walsh Jr., the committee turned on the brakes, passing a unanimous amendment that effectively bans data centers anywhere in the town.

The vote didn’t happen in a vacuum. Residents packed the Land‑Use Board meeting on April 21, voicing fierce concerns about noise, traffic, and the sheer size of a facility that could consume an entire block’s worth of electricity. The tension boiled over; police were called in to remove an outspoken speaker during the comment period, a scene that made local headlines and left many feeling the process had been anything but orderly.

Mayor Walsh, who has been quoted talking about the town’s finances, noted that the farmland currently generating about $29,000 a year in taxes could be replaced by a data‑center payment‑in‑lieu of taxes estimated at $4.5‑$5.2 million annually. That would cover roughly one‑third of Andover’s $11.4‑million budget, an enticing prospect for a municipality with limited revenue streams.

National Land Developers, however, sees the ban as a sudden, retroactive roadblock. On July 10 2026 the developer filed a lawsuit in the New Jersey Superior Court, asking a judge to overturn the May 12 ordinance and let the project move forward. The complaint argues that the township acted arbitrarily, failed to follow proper procedural rules, and violated the developer’s property‑rights expectations after the earlier zoning changes.

As of now, neither the developer’s attorneys nor Andover officials have responded to requests for comment, leaving the case to play out in court. If the lawsuit succeeds, it could open the floodgates for similar AI data‑center projects across the Garden State. If the ban holds, Andover joins a growing list of more than two dozen New Jersey towns—such as Red Bank, Asbury Park, Millville, Logan Township and Neptune—that have placed restrictions on these high‑power facilities.

For residents, the outcome will determine whether the quiet farm‑land scenery stays as it is, or transforms into a humming hub of servers and cooling units. For the developer, it’s a test of how far a municipality can go in saying “no” after a project has already been penciled into the zoning books.