The New Jersey Senate voted 38-0 on October 22 to make nondisclosure agreements around data center projects unenforceable in the state. Senate Bill 4304 has moved to the Assembly, where it was referred to the Science, Innovation and Technology 
Featured: Wide landscape photograph of the New Jersey State House in Trenton, where the state Senate voted 38-0 to ban data center NDAs.Committee.
The bill bars data center applicants and their agents from signing any agreement, including a nondisclosure agreement, that conceals project details or prevents public review. It works through the Municipal Land Use Law, which governs municipal planning and zoning. Agreements with an approving authority, a municipal agency, or a property seller would be against public policy and unenforceable, and municipalities could not approve a site plan or subdivision for an applicant that breaks the rule, according to Data Center Dynamics.
The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee advanced the bill on a 4-1 vote, the NJ State House News Service reported. Senator Holly Schepisi, a Republican attorney from River Vale, voted against it and said she had not seen a commercial deal of any size without a nondisclosure agreement. The bill's sponsors include seven Democratic senators and Republican Senator Carmen Amato.
"Transparency is crucial during the data center development process, especially since these projects can have a major impact on our communities," said Linda Greenstein, a Democratic state senator and the bill's prime sponsor. "This legislation makes it illegal for applicants who attempt to conceal data center development plans and makes clear that these agreements have no place in the approval process."
Senator Brian Stack, a cosponsor, said the agreements keep residents in the dark. "Residents deserve to know what is being proposed in their neighborhoods and how it could impact their communities," said Stack, a Democratic state senator. The Assembly companion is A2774, and the Sierra Club is urging the chairman of the Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Assemblyman Tully, to post it for a vote.
Other states have taken similar steps. Delaware's SB 312, signed August 26, bars state agencies, counties, and municipalities from signing nondisclosure agreements that hide information about data centers of 100MW or more, according to a Quorum review of 2025 and 2026 state data center legislation. Virginia's governor banned nondisclosure agreements for new projects by executive order, and New York's S.10708 went to the Rules Committee on September 30. Quorum counted 48 data center measures filed in New Jersey across the two sessions, seven of which became law.
Baxtel tracks 87 data center sites in New Jersey with 701MW of power. QTS Data Centers is the state's largest provider by site count with five facilities, and the largest single site is 165 Halsey in Newark at 80MW.
The bill takes effect immediately if the Assembly passes it and the governor signs it.
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