Our township government is hiding something.
The areas around Stickles Pond Rd and Rte. 206 in Andover Township have been zoned as “areas in need of redevelopment”. The township has tried to attract business development since jump airport closed several years ago. At least two projects (maybe more) have been proposed for the airport property. One was a huge junkyard, which was opposed by residents over noise and pollution concerns, and another was a warehouse, which was opposed due to the prospect of 24/7 truck traffic in the area.
The property in question, 248 Stickles Pond Road, is close to several residential neighborhoods. In 2025, the zoning was revised to add data centers as a permitted use.
On 12/30/2025 a foreign Limited Liability Company was duly filed with New Jersey for “Andover HPC Development LLC” listing a business address of 248 Stickles Pond Rd. Business purpose: “develop high performance data centers”. The signer was Reuben Grinberg, authorized representative.
The website VentureDeal lists Reuben Grinberg as vice president, General Counsel of NYDIG, in the FinTech industry. The Company Description says “NYDIG is the Bitcoin subsidiary of Stone Ridge, a $10 billion alternative asset manager. We are aligned behind the mission of safely unlocking the power of Bitcoin through technologies and financial services that enable forward-thinking companies and investors to access this asset class.” There have been other resources shared online of NYDIG’s data center activities in upstate New York.
At their April 16, 2026, meeting the Township Committee agenda, with a few days notice, included an ordinance amending the zoning at 248 Stickles Pond Road on several points, the most obvious being increasing the maximum building height of data centers from 50 feet to 65 feet.
There were so many questions about this rezoning that the committee meeting had to be moved to the barn at Hillside Park, which was packed with residents in near unanimous opposition to the ordinance.
In his statement, Mayor Walsh said that no application has been made.
There was an extended public session with many questions asked, none of which were even acknowledged by the committee. They completely stonewalled. After the public portion ended, the ordinance was passed on a 4-1 vote with only Ellsworth Bensley voting no. The room erupted. The committee had a chance to answer questions, and they had a chance to table the ordinance, but they utterly ignored the public.
Also on that meeting agenda was an executive session that included “248 Stickles Pond Road - PILOT”. Executive sessions are secret, not open to the public. PILOT stands for “Payment in Lieu of Taxes”, meaning, that 248 Stickles Pond Road developers might be able to make an up front cash payment to the town and not have to pay any real estate taxes for possibly 30 years. As I understand it, PILOT payments go directly to the township, nothing goes to schools. The committee did not address the PILOT publicly.
Why won’t the committee answer questions about a secret project proposed for 248 Stickles Pond Road? Why is the committee discussing a PILOT for that property in secret?
The April 21, 2026, meeting of the Land Use Board also had to be moved to the barn at Hillside Park. In his advance statement, Board Chair Paul Messerschmidt stated that no application had been received for the property at 248 Stickles Pond Road and as such, no questions would be permitted on that subject. There were maybe 200 people in the room that wanted answers, and the board shut it down.
Sitting on the Land Use Board are two members of the Township Committee. They said nothing, although they had voted to approve the rezoning days earlier.
So, the property has been rezoned, the town won’t say why it has been rezoned, they say that no application has been received for the property, and they won’t answer any questions about it.
During public session at the Land Use Board, a speaker from Sparta stated that if you want to stop a project, you need to do it before an application is actually received, because once received it’s very hard to stop.
It’s obvious the Township Committee knows something we don’t. We are not being told what is going on.
Both meetings were quite oppositional, both from the boards and the public, with the boards treating the public not as constituents, but as adversaries. Committee members are elected, Land Use Board members are appointed volunteers, with the exception of the two committee designates.
Based on the “Andover HPC Development LLC” registration and the rezoning, it appears there have been backroom discussions about a 65-foot tall high performance data center at 248 Stickles Pond Road, the old airport. Based on the business registration, it appears we may get a large scale Bitcoin mining operation at 248 Stickles Pond Road.
We need transparency from our local government. What are they hiding? If we’re completely off base opposing this, show us why, don’t keep it all a secret. If all the facts were known, would they be proud?
More at https://protectandover.org/about/
Thor Carlson
Andover
