I want to be honest with you about something before I take a side on this one.

I already wrote the Amazon box confession. I already told you that when the smiling package shows up on my front step I am genuinely happy. I already acknowledged that the warehouses along Route 322 I complain about while driving through South Jersey are the direct physical consequence of that happiness.  And yes I use the internet.  I use AI.  Chances are you do too.  The need is there for data centers.

I meant every word of it. And I stand by the argument.

But I am standing with the people of Andover Township on this one. And here is why.

What happened Wednesday night in Sussex County

About 300 residents packed a public meeting in Andover Township — a rural Sussex County town — to oppose a proposed AI data center on the site of the former Newton airport property. The meeting turned chaotic. A resident was grabbed, shoved toward a doorway, and slammed to the floor by a police officer who offered no apparent physical justification. The officer identified as T. Walsh then removed his nameplate and waved it at the cell phone cameras recording the scene. Officer T. Walsh is the son of Andover Mayor Thomas Walsh Jr.

The mayor had told the packed room minutes earlier that he was “almost embarrassed to represent you.” A woman in the audience responded: “We’re embarrassed that you represent us too, Tom.”

That is a New Jersey moment. I have heard a thousand of them on this radio station over thirty years. That one belongs in the archives.

The argument I made — and where it still stands

I wrote back in April that data centers have to go somewhere. That the AI boom powering everything we do every day requires physical infrastructure and that infrastructure has to land in the most densely populated state in America whether we like it or not.

I still believe that. But I also said something at the end of that piece that I meant just as much.

Just don’t touch my Pine Barrens.

And the Highlands are in that same category.

SEE ALSO: NJ complains about warehouses — but won’t give up Amazon boxes

Andover Township NJ | Google Maps

Andover Township NJ | Google Maps

Where the data centers should go

New Jersey has plenty of ugly. I say that as someone who loves this state fiercely and writes about its beauty every chance I get. We have the Pine Barrens and the Highlands and the Delaware Water Gap and the Shore and a hundred drives worth taking. We also have the Turnpike corridor. We have Route 1 through Middlesex County. We have Route 9 through Sayreville. We have industrial zones along the Raritan and the Hackensack that have been industrial for a hundred years.

Data centers are already going up in Kenilworth and Vineland and East Windsor. Some of those sites make sense. Industrial land, already compromised, already noisy and busy and not particularly beautiful. Put the server farms there. Fill the vacant speculation warehouses that dot the landscape with computer hardware instead of empty square footage. There is no shortage of already-developed, already-industrial New Jersey land that could absorb this infrastructure without anyone losing anything they value.

The former Newton airport in Andover is a different conversation. That is Sussex County. That is Highlands territory. The NJ Highlands Coalition is already involved, residents have set up a legal fund, and a second reading of a new ordinance is scheduled for the Land Use Board on May 19th.

The part that bothers me most

Residents demanded to know why the township was considering a PILOT program — a payment in lieu of taxes arrangement — that would hand major tax incentives to a company reportedly valued at roughly $20 billion while local schools remain underfunded.

Someone in that meeting asked the governing body directly: “How much are they paying you? We deserve to know. Nobody in this room wants this except for you six.”

That is the question that deserves an answer before any vote happens.

I need my Amazon boxes. I understand the infrastructure argument better than most. But there is a version of this that makes sense for New Jersey and a version that doesn’t. Building a massive AI data center in the Highlands of Sussex County — while giving a $20 billion company a tax break — is the version that doesn’t.

Build it along the Turnpike, or somewhere right on an interstate. Build it in an industrial zone that’s been industrial since before anyone reading this was born. Build it where the land is already compromised and the neighbors are already trucks and warehouses and highway noise.

Leave the Highlands alone. Leave the Pinelands alone.

The people of Andover got thrown to the ground for saying so.

They weren’t wrong.

Batsto Village and pine barrens lake trail — photos from April 2026

A family hike along the Batsto Lake Trail in Wharton State Forest, Burlington County, New Jersey — April 2026. The flat four-mile loop behind historic Batsto Village winds along the Batsto River and Lake through the heart of the Pine Barrens. The trail is easy, well-marked with white blazes, and accessible to hikers of all ages. Along the way — pitch pines, cedar water, spring wildflowers including a purple pitcher plant, and at least one unbothered garter snake.

Gallery Credit: Photos by EJ