This NJ town’s data center fight isn’t over. It’s already been lost.

I've written about this pattern all summer. A town hears about a data center. Residents show up. Sometimes they win.

Vineland is different.

A family's story starts this one

Andrew and Stevi Groetsch built a modern ranch home in Vineland back in 2021, across from a peaceful stretch of farmland. A few years later, in September 2025, Andrew was reading his daughter a bedtime story when he noticed her windows vibrating.

A loud mechanical hum. He heard it again walking the dog at dawn.

The source was about a mile down the road: New Jersey's largest data center.

"We'd just spent a bunch of money to build a house," Andrew told The New Republic. "We pay taxes, a lot of taxes. We were pretty mad at that point. Still are."

The project itself is enormous

DataOne's Vineland facility spans 2.6 million square feet.

Reports put the project's value near $17 billion, with reported ties to Microsoft.

Most of its power will come from natural gas generated on site. The rest draws from the grid.

Cooling requires more than 400 fans, plus misting sprays on hot days, and residents have raised real concerns about water use during a drought that's stretched nearly two years in the region.

SEE ALSO: Jackson bans data centers: NJ's fighting spirit is back

Farmland sits directly across the street from the data center site, in a region residents say has defined Vineland for generations.| Google Maps

The board approved it anyway

Last month, the Vineland Planning Board voted 8-1 to approve the project's second phase.

The meeting ran past 11 p.m. Residents shouted "You sold us out!" as board members cast their votes. Some walked out before it ended.

Concerns raised that night went beyond noise: groundwater contamination risk, since the site sits in a protected wellhead area, and the impact on a region still known for farming.

One resident is now appealing his own property taxes, arguing a multi-billion-dollar facility should be shouldering more of the local tax burden than it currently does.

Vineland resident Nicole Petronglo put it plainly at an earlier meeting.

"These are not struggling manufacturers or local startups," she told the council. "This project is backed by global capital and built for global AI companies."

The fight has reached a congressional race too

This past weekend, about 100 people rallied in a Vineland park against data centers generally.

The rally was organized by Bayly Winder, a Democratic candidate challenging Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who's called for a national moratorium on new data center construction.

Whatever you think of that specific proposal, it tells you how far this fight has traveled. What started as a local zoning fight is now showing up in a federal campaign.

Why I think this one matters

Diamond Beach, Andover, Manchester, Howell, Jackson. Every one of those towns got ahead of a data center before it broke ground.

Vineland didn't. The facility is already there, already running, already audible from someone's backyard.

That's the part worth sitting with. Winning a vote isn't the only outcome that matters here. Sometimes the fight keeps going after the vote is already lost.