"If someone is to acquire that, they could propose an industrial use," Phillipsburg's municipal planner and engineer, Tim O'Brien of Van Cleef Engineering Associates, told the town's Land Use Board on Sept. 24. "They may just need setbacks, but they could, in theory, put a warehouse on that property."
He was talking about five homes. They sit near Walters Park, Block 1804, Lots 1 through 5, and they are zoned I-1 industrial even though people live in them. Phillipsburg's 2026 Master Plan Re-Examination recommends moving them into the R-50 residential zone, along with Lynn Road between Meyner Road and Warren Street. The goal is to let those homes be rebuilt without being treated as nonconforming uses. The same document backs a townwide data center ban.
So one town, in one report, closed the door on a whole industrial use and also confirmed that some of its own houses sit on land zoned for industry. That pairing captures Warren County in 2026. The headline about a town's ban is the least useful zoning fact a buyer can collect. What protects a particular house is the zone that house is in, the zones beside it, and the fact that the large data center plans near Warren County are in Pennsylvania, where no New Jersey ordinance reaches.
Each Town Wrote Its Own Sentence
In January, the county offered towns a template. On Jan. 7, Warren County Commissioner James Kern sent a model zoning ordinance to every municipality, with an all-zone prohibition included as a local option rather than a county mandate. Towns took it in different directions.
| Town | Action | Date | What it actually covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phillipsburg | Ordinance 2026-08 adopted unanimously; master plan re-exam adopted Sept. 24 | April 14, 2026 | All zoning districts |
| Mansfield Township | Ordinance 019-2026 adopted | June 24, 2026 | All zones |
| Lopatcong | Ordinance 2026-06 passed on final reading | July 1, 2026 | ROM Research Office Manufacturing zone |
| Washington Borough | Ordinance 2026-04 introduced for first reading | Feb. 17, 2026 | All zones as proposed; adoption not confirmed in our research |
| Belvidere | Council rejected a copy of the model ordinance | Feb. 9, 2026 | No ban adopted |
The reasons behind the bans read almost word for word across towns. Phillipsburg's ordinance cited demands on electricity and water and said large facilities can use 3 million to 5 million gallons of water a day and draw as much as 300 megawatts. Mansfield's ordinance repeats the same water and power estimates. The wording is shared. The coverage is not.
Belvidere shows why. According to a council member's own account, which he describes as his personal view and not the council's position, the council turned down a hurried, unnumbered copy of the model ordinance. Residents had worried the BASF property could be converted. His account says the vote was not an approval of any data center.
Lopatcong Banned One Zone, and Its Planning Board Objected
Lopatcong deserves a closer look because its ordinance title says exactly what it does. Ordinance 2026-06 prohibits data centers "as a principal, conditional, or accessory use within the ROM Research Office Manufacturing zone." The ROM zone is where data processing centers had been a permitted principal use. The township's first draft, Ordinance 2026-04, would only have made them conditional uses with siting, water, energy, and noise rules.
Before the council passed the ban, the Planning Board found it inconsistent with the township's Master Plan, since that plan allowed data centers in certain zones. The council passed it anyway. Mayor Bill Wright described the move as precautionary and said no developer had approached the township and no center had been proposed.
The adopted ordinance gives a regional rationale. It cites strain on the PJM transmission system, JCP&L distribution infrastructure, and costs to ratepayers. It also notes that Gov. Sherrill's proposed statewide "guardrails" had not yet been defined or adopted.
The Master Plan behind all of this is old. Lopatcong's Planning Board has started re-examining a plan that dates to 1989. At its Sept. 23 meeting it took no action and talked about warehouse growth and whether the township needs more prohibitions. If you're shopping in Lopatcong this fall, the rules for what can go on nearby nonresidential land are still being written.
The Projects Are on the Pennsylvania Bank
In our research, we could not verify a single site-specific data center application anywhere in Warren County. The proposals that exist are across the river.
In Lower Mount Bethel Township, Pa., Talen Energy, Peron Development and J.G. Petrucci presented a 1.2-gigawatt campus at an April town hall. The site is at Martins Creek Belvidere Highway and Gravel Hill Road, next to the existing Talen plants. The Morning Call describes the Talen plant as part of the view at the Riverton–Belvidere crossing, visible from the bridge. The developers have since scaled the plan back. They still want agricultural land rezoned, which the Morning Call puts at nearly 240 acres and a September lehighvalleylive report put at about 284. According to the developers' revised plan materials, the cooling system will not draw groundwater or water from the Delaware River. That is a stated design, not a permit finding.
On Sept. 14, Lower Mount Bethel supervisors voted unanimously to make data centers a conditional use in the township's industrial district. The standards cover noise, environmental review, and closed-loop cooling. Township solicitor Jason Ulrich pointed out that no formal proposal had been received yet.
Farther north in Upper Mount Bethel, Slate Belt Holdings, a River Pointe Logistics entity working with Talen, has proposed a campus on about 754 acres west of River Road. The township's eastern boundary is the Delaware. The developer filed a zoning challenge, and a proposed memorandum offering up to $50 million was tabled instead of approved. By Sept. 22, supervisors had sent the township's own data center ordinance to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.
The Warren County towns along that stretch of the main stem include Belvidere, Harmony, Knowlton, and White. None of their ordinances can govern a parcel in Northampton County. In the 2026 coverage we reviewed, we did not find any Warren County official testifying about either project. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network did speak at the Pennsylvania hearings.
The Delaware River Basin Commission, which oversees the shared river, said it knew of about 24 planned data centers in the basin and that none had applied to it as of June 2026.
What the State Did About the Electric Bill
Many of the local ordinances say electricity rates are one reason for the ban. On July 7, Trenton passed a law aimed at that concern. The Governor's office says the Data Center Fair Share Act, S731/A796, creates a new rate class, makes large data centers pay their own energy and grid-infrastructure costs, and requires them to cut demand before residential customers are affected. That law applies statewide. Zoning stays local, and as shown above, it varies from zone to zone.
Dates on the Calendar This Month
- Oct. 5: Lower Mount Bethel supervisors meet.
- Oct. 13, 6 p.m.: Phillipsburg Council holds the public hearing and final reading of Ordinance 2026-28. The ordinance would add restaurants and fitness centers as principal uses in District 1 of the Riverfront Redevelopment Plan and allow drive-throughs as accessory uses.
- Oct. 20, 6:30 p.m.: Lower Mount Bethel's Planning Commission reviews the request to move three parcels from Agricultural Preservation to Industrial.
Reading a Parcel Before You Sign
The Walters Park homes show what to check before you commit to a house. A town can ban an entire use and still have homes in an industrial zone, where a different industrial use could be proposed next door. Before you go under contract in Warren County:
- Pull the zoning for the house itself. A residential home in an industrial zone is a nonconforming use, and rebuilding it can be more complicated. That's why Phillipsburg recommended moving Block 1804 to R-50.
- Pull the zoning for adjacent parcels. In Lopatcong, the data center prohibition covers the ROM zone. Other industrial uses and other zones are a separate question.
- Ask how old the master plan is and whether a re-examination is underway. Lopatcong's 1989 plan is under review right now, and Phillipsburg adopted its re-examination on Sept. 24.
- If the property faces the river, follow the Pennsylvania agendas. The Lower and Upper Mount Bethel decisions are made in Pennsylvania.
A Few Direct Questions
Does a town ban mean nothing industrial can be built near a house? No. These ordinances prohibit data centers. Other uses allowed in industrial zones remain, which is the point O'Brien made about the Walters Park lots.
Has a data center been approved in Lower Mount Bethel? No. The September ordinance sets the rules for one. The rezoning is still at the Planning Commission stage, and the township said it had not received a formal land-development proposal.
Has the Upper Mount Bethel zoning challenge been decided? Through Oct. 4, we found no published ruling from the zoning hearing board. On Sept. 28, supervisors tabled a decision on hiring a consultant to negotiate the $50 million offer.
If you're weighing a Warren County property and want the zoning on that parcel and the parcels around it explained in plain English before you sign, Freeman Smith can pull the maps and walk you through what each zone allows. Let's Connect.
