Andover HPC Data Center In review
National Land Developers registered Andover HPC Development in December 2025 at 248 Stickles Pond Road, a 97-acre former airport site. Andover Township first allowed data centers in a redevelopment zone along Route 206 (September 2025) and raised the height limit to 65 feet (April 2026), but after a chaotic May 2026 meeting with 300 residents, the township passed Ordinance 2026-13 banning data centers township-wide. No formal site plan was ever filed. National Land Developers sued in Sussex County Superior Court on July 10, 2026, challenging the ban.
Key facts
- Owner
- National Land Developers
- Filing LLC
- Andover HPC Development
- Size
- 97 ac
- Location
- Andover Township (Sussex County), New Jersey
- First proposed
- 2025-12-01
- Stage today
- In review
Source
read 2026-08-14
What to do next
Next step: An application is in the record. Ask the planning office for the next hearing date and request formal notice.
What has happened so far (19 events)
- 2021-09-01rezoning
In September 2021 the Township Committee adopted Resolution 2021-91, designating approximately 812 acres along the Route 206 corridor (43 tax lots, including the Stickles Pond Road parcel) as a Non-Condemnation Area in Need of Redevelopment. · source - 2024-01-01permit
In 2024 the 97-acre property at 248 Stickles Pond Road received approval for a 660,000-square-foot warehouse development with little public opposition. · source - 2025-08-01announcement
In August 2025 township officials first publicly discussed a potential data center at a committee meeting. · source - 2025-09-01filing
Township passes ordinance allowing data centers in Route 206 redevelopment zone. · source - 2025-10-01financing
Approximately 33 days after the September 2025 ordinance permitting data centers, the property owner satisfied a $1.28 million mortgage on the Stickles Pond Road parcel. · source - 2025-12-01announcement
Andover HPC Development LLC registered at 248 Stickles Pond Road address. · source - 2026-04-01vote
Township committee votes to raise height limit to 65 feet in redevelopment zone. · source - 2026-04-24filing
Attorney Anand Dash, representing community group Andover Responsible Development (a fiscally sponsored member of the NJ Highlands Coalition), filed a legal notice challenging Ordinances 2025-15 and 2026-08 as violations of state Municipal Land Use Law, threatening suit if they were not rescinded by May 7. · source - 2026-05-07hearing
Chaotic meeting with ~300 residents opposing data center; police confrontation. · source - 2026-05-07vote
At the same contentious meeting, the Township Committee voted 4-1 to introduce an ordinance creating additional data center standards including closed-loop water cooling, noise controls, and electric substation requirements; five days later they reversed course and introduced a ban instead. · source - 2026-05-08coverage
NJTODAY reported that the township attorney confirmed preliminary PILOT financial discussions had taken place behind closed doors, and identified recently formed entities Bridge AIX LLC and Bridge AI Group LLC linked to the project through Delaware registrations. · source - 2026-05-09announcement
Mayor Tom Walsh posted a video statement saying the Township Committee had directed the township attorney to draft an ordinance repealing data centers as a permitted use. · source - 2026-05-12vote
At a special meeting the Township Committee introduced Ordinance 2026-13, a township-wide data center ban that would repeal the two prior ordinances permitting them. · source - 2026-05-19hearing
The Andover Township Land Use Board found Ordinance 2026-13 consistent with the township's master plan. · source - 2026-05-28vote
The Township Committee unanimously adopted Ordinance 2026-13, prohibiting data centers as a use in all zones townshipwide. · source - 2026-07-10filing
National Land Developers files lawsuit in Sussex County Superior Court challenging Ordinance 2026-13 banning data centers. · source - 2026-07-16coverage
Andover officials said they intend to vigorously defend the ordinance, have no interest in settling, and expect to file a response to the complaint within about 30 days. · source - 2026-07-19report
The Sussex County Democratic Committee issued a written statement criticizing township officials over the ordinance's vulnerability to the developer's lawsuit. · source - 2026-07-27coverage
Insider NJ reported Mayor Walsh stated the township has funding in place to defend the ordinance; Sussex County Republican chair Joseph LaBarbera denied Democratic allegations that the GOP was lobbying for data centers, calling the claim a deliberate lie. · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (1 filed · 11 places to look)
Permits already on file (1)
Filings we have a source for — the record, not a place to look for one.
- 2024-01-01
In 2024 the 97-acre property at 248 Stickles Pond Road received approval for a 660,000-square-foot warehouse development with little public opposition. · source
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- New Jersey DEPThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- NJDEP DataMinerSearchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search Andover Township (Sussex County) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Andover Township (Sussex County) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- New Jersey Board of Public Utilities — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 40.980, -74.740 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
Recent news
9 stories tracked since 2026-04-13 across 6 outlets. 6× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 2× The dispute has escalated into litigation. Most recent: “Data center lawsuit against Andover Township dismissed” (WRNJ Radio, 2026-10-02).
- Data center lawsuit against Andover Township dismissed
- NJ town bans data centers, but the legal battle is only beginning
- Towns use home rule to block data centers, a step beyond Sherrill
- Ban on data centers being considered in Andover Township, New Jersey, after town meeting gets violent
- 2 NJ towns fight against proposed AI data centers
- A N.J. town torn apart by an AI data center fight now says it’s reversing course
- Data center wars erupt across NJ, as Andover backtracks on OK'ing massive AI facilities
- Chaos erupts at NJ town meeting as cops wrestle resident over data center fight
- Rumors of a massive AI data center sparked this N.J. town to take drastic action
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 9 headlines archived.
Around here
- Andover Township community briefing — Enactedno end date — permanent
- New Jersey briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in New Jersey
- 100 Jersey Avenue AI Data Center — New Brunswick, 37 mi Denied
- Hexa Builders data center (Black Horse Pike) — Monroe Township (Gloucester County), 91 mi In review
- DataOne USA / Nebius Vineland (Microsoft) — Vineland, 104 mi Approved
- A1 Data Center (Millville) — Millville, 111 mi Blocked by ban
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Andover HPC Data Center”, aigridwatch.com/projects/andover-twp-stickles-pond, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).