2025 Reflections | Sugarloaf Alliance

2025 Sugarloaf Alliance Highlights

Sugarloaf Alliance, Inc. is an all-volunteer 501(c)3 non-profit representing over 650 stakeholders in the Sugarloaf region. Sugarloaf Alliance is dedicated to the preservation, protection, and restoration of watersheds, streams, meadows, and forests in cooperation with volunteers, civic groups, and local, state, and federal agencies. To that end, it strives to protect the Sugarloaf Mountain area environment. Here's a summary of our work in 2025.

DATA CENTERS

In 2025, Sugarloaf Alliance (SA) continues to advocate for county “Critical Digital Infrastructure” (CDI) legislation that conforms to the recommendations of the Data Centers Work Group, and SA continues our efforts to educate the public about the policies under consideration. We began our involvement with county data center policy because acreage within the Sugarloaf Plan area was involved; we continue our involvement because the natural environment and communities in south Frederick County still are threatened by this industrial development.

In 2025, the County Council considered legislation focused on requirements for data center siting and construction, creation of a new zoning category to limit data center proliferation, and currently the county is considering the first mapped application of that zone. In 2025, SA submitted comments and testified before the Planning Commission and County Council on multiple occasions and encouraged SA members to do so as well.
SA created a petition to collect signatures opposing the Knapp/Young CDI legislation, which did not follow the Data Centers Work Group recommendations. (A County Council majority passed it anyway.)
SA supported the creation of the special zoning designation for data center development, called the CDI Overlay Zone. The intention of the zone is to limit the expansion of data centers so that they only can be built on selected and specially designated industrial acreage (not on industrial acreage).
Currently, SA is advocating to limit the application of the Overlay Zone to the sites already-approved for data center development. The county has been advocating for an expanded area around Eastalco in Adamstown.

Sugarloaf Alliance has joined the newly formed Maryland Data Centers Analysis Group as an affiliate. The purpose of the Analysis Group is to counter industry propaganda with research and facts.

SA supported legislation in the state legislature that would require a study of data center development in the state, including cost/benefit analyses. The legislation passed but was vetoed by the Governor.

INVESTING IN WORKERS AND WORKPLACES (IW2)

The Frederick County Planning Office and the county’s Division of Economic Opportunity teamed up to create the IW2 advisory group, populated primarily by folks in the business of property development. The county website says: “This plan…will increase land designated for targeted economic opportunity uses through the review of select growth areas and current land use designations…. A comprehensive rezoning will follow Plan adoption to implement the Plan’s recommendations.”

SA participated with other county smarter growth advocacy organizations to publicize the county’s public ‘informational’ meetings and together we succeeded in ‘hacking’ their public relations agenda to create real opportunities for the public to ask questions and demand answers.
SA noticed that the IW2 Plan maps looked a lot like the 2021 secret Amazon data center map.
In addition to educating, commenting and testifying, SA participated in a sign-on letter with 12 other smarter growth advocacy organizations to oppose the emerging plan. In June, we began to notice that the county was shifting the Plan content away from the initial 10,000 acres of comprehensive rezoning aspirations to merely “cleaning up” some zoning on smaller parcels.

MPRP POWER TRANSMISSION LINE

The proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) would run Pennsylvania through Baltimore County, Carroll County and Frederick County in order to bring power to Northern Virginia and “Data Center Alley.” PSEG, the project developer, must apply for and receive a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) before the project can proceed. Thus far, the PSC has declined to move the application forward. All three jurisdictions have opposed the project.

The proposed power line pathway runs through privately owned properties in the Sugarloaf Plan area, crossing Rt. 80 between Black Dog Farm and Park Mills Road. These lines do not use existing easements; new easements for the power lines would have to be created through negotiation or eminent domain.

Sugarloaf Alliance helped form and continues to participate in the Tri-County Coalition, a committee of advocates from Baltimore County, Carroll County and Frederick County.The Coalition serves to educate landowners and residents in and adjacent to the proposed MPRP pathway about their rights and the process through which they can advocate at the PSC.

WATER RESOURCES ELEMENT

The Frederick County Water Resources Element discusses the watershed resources of the County; the quality and quantity of drinking water supplies with respect to planned growth; the treatment capacity of wastewater treatment facilities and disposal of treated effluent; and a review of the County‘s stormwater management and non-point source pollution programs.

SA submitted comments and testified during the county’s process of updating this plan. We recommended and supported amending the plan proposal to include water-intensive industries like data centers.

CARROLLTON MANOR RURAL LEGACY AREA EXPANSION

The Sugarloaf Plan recommended expansion of the Carrollton Manor Rural Legacy Area to include the Sugarloaf Plan area. Inclusion allows - but doesn’t require - property owners to apply for preservation designation.

SA advocated for inclusion of the entire Sugarloaf Plan area in the expansion, but the county chose to exclude developer-owned properties. These are the same properties that would have been excluded from the Sugarloaf Plan itself had the Rt. 80 boundary and the Thurston Road cut-out map been adopted instead of the historical I-270 boundary between rural and densely developed areas.

PUBLIC INFORMATION ACCESS REQUESTS

Sugarloaf Alliance continues to file public information access requests with the county and the state in order to learn more about what’s going on behind the scenes.

We are grateful that the Public Justice Center in Baltimore continues to work with us in the courts to reinforce the principle in Maryland law that the members of the public should not have to pay for information or sue in order to learn the details of public policy development.