Kenilworth Approved CoreWeave’s Data Center With No Public Opposition. A Year Later, the Fight Began.

On the evening of May 15, 2025, the Kenilworth Planning Board met to hear one application. CoreWeave Inc. wanted to turn an empty laboratory building on the old Merck campus into a data center. The plan included 31 generators and a yard of 29 chillers. The board opened the hearing to the public. The minutes record what happened next: "No one wished to speak." The board approved it 8 to 0. The meeting ended at 7:55 p.m.

Eleven months later, on April 28, 2026, the same board logged 95 emails of opposition in a single day. That meeting ran until 10:55 p.m. By July, Kenilworth council agendas carried a notice that bags may be inspected at the door. On September 2, 2026, Ordinance 2026-14 was listed for introduction. It caps all public comment at 45 minutes per meeting, three minutes per person, one turn each. Final adoption is set for September 16, 2026.

Nothing about the data center changed in those eleven months. What changed is that people found out. By then the zoning decision was almost two years old. It was not a vote on a data center at all.

At a Glance

• Site: 2000 Galloping Hill Road, Borough of Kenilworth, Union County, New Jersey. About 107 acres. The former Merck office and research campus, empty since 2023.
• Company: CoreWeave Inc., a cloud computing company founded in New Jersey that rents out computing power for artificial intelligence work.
• The building: An old lab, three stories plus a basement. About 70,000 square feet per floor. About 247,000 square feet in all.
• The equipment: 31 standby generators on concrete pads. A cooling yard of about 50,000 square feet holding 29 chiller units and four water tanks. An electrical substation approved separately.
• Jobs: About 40 people, working in shifts, around the clock.
• Key vote: May 15, 2025. Application 25-003, approved 8 to 0. No member of the public spoke.
• Second vote: April 28, 2026. Application 26-002, a land split into four lots, approved 8 to 0 on the same night 95 emails of opposition arrived.
• Next door: Roselle Park moved on May 21, 2026 to ban data centers in every one of its zones. It has no vote on Kenilworth's.
• Live decision: Kenilworth's public comment limits come up for final adoption on September 16, 2026.

Why There Was Never a Data Center Vote

Residents kept asking when the hearing on the data center would be. The answer kept being that there would not be one. The answer was accurate. It is how the paperwork was built, two years before anyone was watching.

In February 2024, Kenilworth asked its Planning Board to study the empty Merck campus. New Jersey lets a town label a rundown or underused property "an area in need of redevelopment." That label unlocks a special tool. The town can then write its own zoning rules for that one piece of land, replacing whatever the ordinary zoning said. The board held its hearing in April 2024. The council applied the label in May 2024. In September 2024, by Ordinance 2024-15, the council adopted the 2000 Galloping Hill Road Redevelopment Plan.

That plan made a data center an allowed use on the site. Allowed means no special permit is needed. A developer does not have to argue that the town should say yes. It only has to show the building fits the rules on paper. CoreWeave's lawyer put it plainly to the board in April 2026:

"Under the redevelopment plan the present use of the property as a data center is a permitted use, that issue is not before the board this evening, tonight is just the subdivision."

Subdivision is the legal word for splitting one property into more than one lot. The board's own attorney said the same thing in June 2026. A Roselle Park resident had asked about schools within two miles of the site. The redevelopment plan was approved by the council, he said. The applications are approved by the Planning Board. Those are two different rooms, and neither one ever took a vote on whether Kenilworth wanted a data center. The council voted on a redevelopment plan.

What Was Actually Approved, and When

The campus was cut up before the building was converted. On February 27, 2025, the Planning Board split the property, about 107.41 acres, in two. One lot is about 35.907 acres and holds vacant land and Building K-11. The other is about 71.562 acres and holds the rest of the office campus. The data center sits on the smaller lot.

The power came next. On April 24, 2025, the board approved an electrical substation in an existing parking lot. That approval carried three small exceptions to the size rules. The published notice lists two. The plan has 11 parking lot trees where 14 were required. And the equipment sits 9.5 feet from the property line where 10 feet was required. The board was unanimous.

Three weeks later came the data center itself. At the May 15, 2025 special meeting, Michael Terlizzi, CoreWeave's senior vice president of data center operations, described the company to the board. It sells computing capacity rather than software. It had been operating in its current form for three years. He said CoreWeave then ran three data centers in New Jersey and 33 in all. Those sites drew roughly 450 megawatts worldwide. The company had 1.6 gigawatts of capacity under contract. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts. He said the site worked because the fiber in the area is good.

The engineer, Dan Miola, walked through the plans. The outside of the building barely changes: a new roof, new glass, a power wash. The work is in the yard. Thirty-one generators on concrete pads, ringed with gravel. A cooling yard of 29 chillers on a raised steel platform, plus four water tanks. An eight foot fence. Three loading docks. About 25 parking spaces, because only about 40 people work there.

Then the board opened the floor. Nobody spoke. The vote was 8 to 0.

Conflicting Dates in the Public Record

Two public documents give different dates for the hearing that started all of this. Mayor Linda Karlovitch told residents on June 3, 2026 that the study findings "were presented at a public hearing two years ago on May 15, 2024." The council adopted Resolution 2026-172 on July 1, 2026. It says the Planning Board held its hearing on April 29, 2024. It says the council applied the label on May 15, 2024. Those are two different events sixteen days apart, and the mayor's account merges them.

There is a second mismatch, and it is the kind that shows up in a title search. Kenilworth's Planning Board papers describe CoreWeave's land as Block 182, Lot 1.0102. The council's resolutions and the borough's published legal notices describe the same land as Block 181, Lot 1.0102. Anyone pulling the file should check both.

Roselle Park corrected itself in public. Its Resolution 111-26 first described the CoreWeave project as one that "has been introduced." Before adopting it on May 21, 2026, the council struck that phrase and replaced it with "is currently under construction."

Two smaller slips are in the file. Kenilworth's minutes of May 15, 2025 say the board opened and closed public comment on "Application #24-003." The item on the floor was Application #25-003. And CoreWeave's lawyer is written as Stephen Hehl in the 2025 minutes and Steven Hehl in the 2026 minutes.

The Town Next Door Moved to Ban Them and Still Has No Vote

Roselle Park borders Kenilworth. Its 5th Ward sits close to the site. Mayor Signorello told his council that a resident told him about the project on or about April 16, 2026. That was nearly a year after Kenilworth approved it. He then began attending Kenilworth meetings to find out what was happening.

On May 21, 2026, Roselle Park did the only two things it could do. It introduced Ordinance 2860, which would bar data centers from every zone in the borough, and set the public hearing for June 18. And it adopted Resolution 111-26, sponsored by Councilman Robaina. The resolution asks Kenilworth and the developer for basic operating facts. How much electricity and water will the site use. How often will the backup generators be test run. What will be done about noise. All members present voted for it. The resolution also backs the AI Data Center Site Selection Transparency Act of 2026, which it describes as a bill introduced by Congresswoman LaMonica McIver.

The proposed ban would protect Roselle Park's own land. It would do nothing about the generators across the line. Signorello told residents that CoreWeave had committed to holding a town hall meeting, and that if questions remained afterward, the borough would hold its own.

Timeline

How the Approval Path Worked

The sequence is set by state law. A New Jersey redevelopment plan is adopted by ordinance, and it can set the allowed uses for a single property. Once a data center is on that list, the later steps are technical: does the land split conform, does the site plan meet the rules. Those hearings are short. The board checks the plans against the written rules. The ordinance is the step that sets the use. In Kenilworth it was adopted in September 2024, under the name of a street address, not a data center.

A vacant corporate campus fits this route. It already has heavy power, water, fiber and acreage, and the town lost the property tax the site used to pay. Karlovitch made that case openly: the empty site cost the borough revenue that funds police, fire and schools.

Kenilworth spent 2026 running long, crowded meetings. As of the latest published minutes, the borough had not signed a redevelopment agreement with CoreWeave. It is doing that work in public. And Roselle Park, which it has no authority over, has asked in writing for an operating fact sheet and a contact person.

Roselle Park is a separate borough. It has its own zoning power and no say in Kenilworth's process. Its proposed ban would apply only inside its own limits. It would not reach the Kenilworth site, which sits close to Roselle Park's 5th Ward.

The Risks and Obstacles

• The CoreWeave redevelopment agreement is not done. Karlovitch said in June 2026 that the council still has to consider it. The July 2026 agreement covers the office lot and a different developer, not CoreWeave's lot.
• No power or water numbers are on the public record. Roselle Park had to ask for them by resolution. Neither borough has published a projected electricity load or water use for the site.
• The four lot split has no buildings attached to it yet. CoreWeave's lawyer told the board there was no site plan with that application. Any future building would come back for a public hearing, advertised in advance. The land is now divided into four sellable, buildable parcels.
• Roselle Park's ban has no published outcome. The hearing was set for June 18, 2026. No minutes for that meeting have been posted, so the record does not show the final vote.
• The public comment limits have a legal test to meet. Kenilworth's own ordinance cites a 2010 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling. Meeting rules must be set in advance. They must apply the same way no matter what a speaker is saying. The borough moved on the 45 minute cap while an organized opposition campaign was underway.
• The zoning is still being rewritten. Kenilworth's planner told the board in July 2026 about the draft master plan, the town's long term blueprint for land use. It turns the old Merck zone into an "innovation zone." It writes the extra rules that sat on top of that zone into the zone itself.

What to Watch

• September 16, 2026: final adoption of Kenilworth's Ordinance 2026-14 and its 45 minute public comment cap.
• The CoreWeave redevelopment agreement for the smaller lot. It is the last negotiated document Kenilworth holds, and the only place left to put conditions on noise, generator testing or water.
• Any answer to Roselle Park's Resolution 111-26. It asked for a liaison and an operating fact sheet. Watch whether Kenilworth or CoreWeave produces one.
• The CoreWeave town hall meeting the company committed to, according to Roselle Park's mayor. No date has been announced.
• New site plan applications on the four new lots. That is the first point at which a public hearing with advance notice is required again.
• Adoption of Kenilworth's revised master plan and the innovation zone that replaces the office research zone.
• Roselle Park's posted minutes for June 18, 2026, which would settle whether its ban passed.

This article is factual background and is not legal, financial, or investment advice.