The city council of a New Jersey town killed plans to build a new AI data center after hundreds of local residents attended a meeting to voice their concerns. A public park will now be built at the location instead of a data center. “A data center in New Brunswick was canceled tonight when hundreds of residents showed up. When fight big tech and private equity we win,” said Ben Dziobek of the Climate Revolution Action Network. “We are going to be fighting against data centers everywhere in New Jersey,” Dziobek said in a video published to X. “And we say a big f*** you to Big Tech,” he added. Watch the crowd celebrate the announcement [EXPLICIT LANGUAGE]: A data center in New Brunswick was canceled tonight when hundreds of residents showed up. When fight big tech and private equity we win. pic.twitter.com/doZ63Pdwue — Ben Dziobek (@BenDziobek) February 19, 2026 Patch provided further info: It was going to be a small data center (27,000 square feet; the average data center in New Jersey is actually more than 400 percent bigger than that.) However, many New Brunswick residents were extremely concerned a data center would increase their electric bills. Data centers suck up a lot of electricity, and they are responsible for some of the huge increases New Jersey residents have witnessed in their electric bills in the past two years. Data centers also require massive amounts of water to keep their servers cool, so water bills increase, too. “Many people did not want this in their neighborhood. We don’t want these kinds of centers that’s going to take resources from the community,” said Bruce Morgan, president of the New Brunswick NAACP, who thanked the Council for “scrapping” the data center. Hundreds of people attended Wednesday night’s meeting. When Council President Manuel Castaneda announced the data center was canceled, he was met with claps from the audience, many holding signs that read “No data center!” Also, it was uncertain if PSE&G even needed a new data center there, the city said Wednesday. (This may signal a reduction in demand for data centers in New Jersey, although that is not certain.) Thanks to the New Brunswick City Council for replacing the anticipated data center with a city park for everyone to use and enjoy. New Jersey already has 69 data centers, including *12* close to New Brunswick. It’s about quality of life.https://t.co/7i5DmdD84n — For New Brunswick, New Jersey NJ (@4NewBrunswick) February 19, 2026 News12 New Jersey noted: Members of the Climate Revolution Action Network planned on attending Wednesday night’s City Council meeting. “The water usage of this facility will be off the charts!” said Ben Dziobek with the Climate Revolution Action Network. This was something that was slipped into the development proposal, but it was not supposed to be a data center. For the longest time, this was supposed to be housing and parks,” said Dziobek. As data centers expand, some legislators in Trenton want owners of those facilities to report electric and water use in order to keep track of the impact on local neighborhoods. In related news, tempers flared at a public meeting in an Oklahoma town over a proposed data center. Police arrested one man during the meeting as residents voiced their concerns about the water use and infrastructure of the proposal. WATCH: Tempers Flare At Meeting In Red State Over Proposed Data Center, Man Arrested