The New Brunswick City Council is finding opposition to plans to include an AI data center as part of a major redevelopment project in the city.

There are concerns that 27,000-square-foot facility could spike are electric and water rates.

Work has already started on clearing the property along Jersey Avenue where the data center would join a 600 unit residential complex along with retail, office space and a park.

Data centers pull massive amounts of electricity from the power grid and large amounts of water are needed to keep servers cool.

Those computers support everything people do online from use of social media to online shopping, banking and streaming.

There are concerns that usage could double the cost of electric and water bills for those living nearby, which is why some are trying to convince the New Brunswick City Council to cancel plans for the data center.

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.