Piscataway, NJ Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Zoning & Siting (2026)

Chapter 21, Zoning, defines a DATA CENTER as 'a large group of networked computer servers typically used by organizations for the remote storage, processing, or distribution of large amounts of data' in the Township's general definitions section. That use is a listed permitted principal use only within the Warehouse/Light Industrial Redevelopment Overlay Zone District established by Section 21-30.1 for Block 421.1, Lots 1.03, 1.04 and 6.03 along River Road, an area designated 'in need of redevelopment.' Section 21-30.3 lists data centers alongside self-storage facilities, training centers and limited retail (capped at 2% of gross floor area) as permitted principal uses, on top of everything already allowed in the LI-1 and LI-5 Light Industrial Zones.

A data center sited there is capped by Section 21-30.6 at 60 feet for the principal commercial building, with mezzanine levels not counted as a separate story; accessory buildings are capped at 25 feet and two stories. Section 21-30.7 limits the whole overlay to 2,400,000 square feet of aggregate gross leasable floor area and 25% building coverage. Section 21-30.8 requires a 25-foot setback from all street lines and external lot lines (with an exception allowing a zero-foot line at the Middlesex Borough boundary for cross-boundary development) and bars any commercial building within 200 feet of a permitted residential use.

Cellular towers and antennas are expressly prohibited in the overlay regardless of underlying zoning. Outside this overlay, the Zoning Ordinance's district use tables reviewed for this record do not list data centers as a permitted principal use, so a data center proposed elsewhere in the Township would need a use variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment.