The Data Center Divide
A policy snapshot ahead of the 2026 midterms. Mapping data center incentives, restrictions, and bans through legislation, regulations, and executive actions across all 50 states and 1,462 local jurisdictions.
City of Bayonne
Strongly Anti-Data Center Policies
Bayonne city has enacted a ban on data centers in all zoning districts, with an exception for previously vested rights; its description nevertheless says “if enacted.”
current law · City of BayonneProhibits data centers in every Bayonne zoning district by defining them broadly to include facilities using high-density digital infrastructure and associated power, cooling, telecommunications, backup-generation, battery-storage, and related systems.Bayonne Ordinance O-26-74 (2026)
What this means
If enacted, the ordinance would prohibit data centers in every zoning district, blocking new facilities and their expansion or operation under later approvals. It preserves rights that were already vested before the ordinance takes effect, but that narrow exception does not change the overall effect: an outright ban on new data center use.
People behind it
- Bayonne City Council
Introduced and adopted the ordinance prohibiting data centers in every zoning district in Bayonne.
- Bayonne Planning Board
Responsible for reviewing the ordinance and recommending whether it is consistent with the City's Master Plan.
Restrictions & requirementsHide restrictions & requirements5
Data centers are prohibited as principal uses, conditional uses, accessory uses, and temporary uses in every zoning district in Bayonne.
After the ordinance’s effective date, applications for development, zoning permits, construction permits, certificates of occupancy, variances, conditional-use approvals, site-plan approvals, subdivisions, redevelopment approvals, or other land-use approvals cannot authorize establishing, constructing, expanding, or operating a data center.
The prohibition applies broadly to facilities whose principal use is large-scale digital infrastructure, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency processing, data storage, hosting, networking, and similar technologies, regardless of the facility’s name or business model.
Existing final and vested approvals, vested rights, and legally nonconforming uses are preserved, but the ordinance does not create, recognize, or expand such rights and does not legalize a use that was unlawful before the effective date.
Computer servers, server rooms, telecommunications equipment, and similar information-technology facilities are excluded only when they are clearly accessory, incidental, and subordinate to a lawful principal use and are not operated as a separate commercial or industrial enterprise.
Benefits & exceptionsHide benefits & exceptions1
Protects vested rights, lawful nonconforming uses, and other rights accrued before the ordinance takes effect; it also preserves development approvals, permits, and authorizations that became final and vested before the effective date.
Sources
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