Hexa-Builders Redevelopment Area
1,600,000 sq ft

The Land Use Programs Office reported that two further Monroe Township ordinances were reviewed and found to raise no substantial issue with the Comprehensive Management Plan: O:31-2026, which bars on-site generators as a primary power source when fuelled by fossil fuels, nuclear materials, petroleum-based products or other combustible materials except in limited circumstances and requires power to come from the regional grid, zero-emission sources or clean generators, with enforcement provisions and penalties; and O:30-2026, which defines and expressly prohibits detention, correctional and carceral facilities throughout the township.

Pinelands Commission minutes report the amended warehouse and data centre application is under review, that the current redevelopment plan prohibits data centres, and that Hexa Builders filed a notice of appeal with the Appellate Division.

Pinelands Commission minutes report the applicant asked to build a data centre and a warehouse instead of two warehouses; staff required an amended Certificate of Filing, now under review, and said there is no right of appeal from that decision.

A Hexa Builders, LLC site plan, file MO-0511Sp, went to the county review committee listed as '1,500,000 Commercial', with no unit printed, and county review was waived.

Monroe Township Planning Board held a special meeting on Hexa Builders, LLC's amended preliminary major site plan (#562-SP) for a combined warehouse/distribution use and data centre, with electrical infrastructure, at 3043 South Black Horse Pike. The township's planner raised a jurisdiction question over which code governs the application; the board voted 8-0-0 to deem the application incomplete and adopted Resolution PB 27-26. Heavy public opposition at the hearing raised water use, property value and environmental concerns.

Pinelands Commission minutes report staff found ordinances from Monroe, Pemberton and Waterford prohibiting data centres raise no substantial issue.

Monroe Township's planner told the commission's policy and implementation committee that the township had adopted two ordinances banning data centres in the township and removing data centres as a permitted use on the Hexa-Builders site. He said the site is not near the Hightop Redevelopment Area, answering a commissioner's question about the two competing for water.

Pinelands Commission minutes report a proposed ordinance on data centre standards for the Hexa Builders plan was on the township council agenda but not introduced, and no data centre application is before the Commission.

Pinelands Commission minutes report the Monroe Planning Board granted preliminary site plan approval on January 8 for a 1.6-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution centre in the Hexa Builders Redevelopment Area.