Maryland County Adopts Two-Year Moratorium on Data Center Development

Maryland’s second-largest county is the latest in the state to hit the brakes on data centers.

Prince George’s County on Tuesday approved a two-year expansion plan for server farms, the longest in the state. It is intended to protect citizens from the economic and environmental effects of AI while the Regional Council drafts comprehensive legislation on zoning, zoning and the construction of large server farms.

Power-hungry utilities, whose demand for electricity has driven up utility bills, have sparked a nationwide push to protect ordinary ratepayers and businesses from the costs of building the energy needed to operate.

The decision to suspend grew out of the work of the Qualified Data Center Task Force, which was formed after a proposal to convert the closed Landover Mall into a server farm attracting more people.

In its final report, presented in November, the task force recommended that the permitting process incorporate public input, public benefit agreements and zoning that keeps facilities away from neighbors and environmentally sensitive areas.

Tuesday’s vote made Prince George’s County the most restricted area for data centers in all of Maryland and the latest to join counties including Montgomery, Frederick and Baltimore counties that have halted data center development in recent weeks.

The growing backlash comes at a time when the surge in data center development, riding on the back of a coalition drive to lead the global AI race, has driven up utility bills and prompted states and communities to demand that technology companies pay for their own energy needs rather than push the cost onto general taxpayers. Maryland has approved a study of the industry’s impact on air, water, the Chesapeake Bay and the power grid due Sept. 1.

Krystal Oriadha, chairwoman of the Prince George’s County Council, supported the decision and said the two-year moratorium was a compromise.

“I support a complete ban. That’s what I’ve always supported, and a two-year suspension is what the council can agree on because there are different opinions right now,” he said.

He said the plan to turn Landover Mall into a data center “wake up everybody,” turning the national debate into a local issue as residents realized such a facility could be in “someone’s backyard.”

Vowing that he will continue to advocate for a full closure, he said the council was united after the decision that “no further work should go forward at this time.” Council members shared environmental, economic and ethical issues, he said.

But Oriadha cautioned that aspects of the data center boom are beyond the capacity of states or even counties to deal with.

“This must be handled nationally, because the organization does not know what state it is in,” he said. Prince George’s residents are “paying higher prices because the neighborhoods already have hyperscale data centers,” he said, referring to the data center corridor in neighboring Virginia, which is part of the same state’s power grid. Data center development, he said, “must be regulated at the national level to ensure equity and fairness when it comes to impact across the country.”

David Lapp, who represents residential taxpayers as Counsel for the People of Maryland, said the county’s suspension is buying time.

“Whenever data center development is pushed back, it gives us more time to fill regulatory gaps that expose common households to the cost implications of data centers,” Lapp said. Since the rules to protect taxpayers are still being written, “decisions are useful.”

Regulatory protection is being built on two tracks at the same time, Lapp notes, but nothing is finished. Electricity distribution costs fall under the Maryland Public Service Commission, which writes data center regulations, while transmission costs, capacity and power fall under the control of authorities that have ordered grid operators to propose changes. Delaying new projects, he said, “gives more time to close those defenses.”

Lapp dismissed the argument that an AI arms race justifies going too fast. “You still have this issue of who pays for that, and it shouldn’t be just ordinary households” the necessary regulation to protect it is still being developed.

State Sen. Katie Fry Hester, who played a leading role in pushing Maryland’s law on data centers, said there are fears the industry is growing too fast for governments to handle.

“People are scared because things are happening so fast,” said Hester, a Democrat who represents parts of Howard and Montgomery counties. Data centers have a very localized impact on water, air and noise, which do not yet have standards, he said.

Districts “need time to get their zoning laws or regulations up to date,” Hester said. He pointed out that Maryland lawmakers in the last term of the General Assembly created what they called the first state data center registry in the country, which would calculate energy and water usage and reveal the “phantom load” of developers who apply duplicates in different areas. But it doesn’t take effect until January 2027.

Counties have jurisdiction over land and noise, and local governments are free to impose stricter restrictions, she said. “Perhaps, we will have the best framework for data centers in the country,” he said, “but it takes time to go from law to practice.”