Sugarloaf Alliance

Critical Digital Infrastructure (CDI) Overlay Zone TEXT

Where Will Data Centers Be Located?

County Council to Vote on Tuesday, 8/19

 

On Tuesday, August 19, the Frederick County Council will consider whether or not to approve the CDI Overlay Zone text (Bill 25-09). Several amendments have been offered by Mr. McKay and Mr. Donald; these amendments align with the Data Center Workgroup recommendations and Sugarloaf Alliance's positions, which place additional constraints on data center location. [Note: Tuesday's vote is NOT about the Overlay Map, which is currently under review by state agencies. The Council vote on 8/19 is only about the legislative text which would create a CDI Overlay Zone in county code.]

 

If any of the amendments to the Overlay legislation pass, the County Council will hold a public hearing on 8/26 for public comment on the amended legislation (please hold that date), and the County Council will then vote on the amended legislation 9/2.

 

County Council meetings begin at 5:30pm and are held in Winchester Hall, 12 East Church Street, Frederick. See the 8/19 meeting agenda here.

 

It's Time Again to Write In and Show Up

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We encourage you to write emails to let County Council Members know that you support the proposed amendments to the CDI Overlay ordinance.

 

It is also important for as many people as possible to attend the meeting on August 19. The Council Members need to understand that residents feel strongly about this issue.

 

We suggest you emphasize these three points:

 

1)  No "By Right" data centers in industrial zones.

Bill 25-09 creates and defines a CDI Overlay zone in our county code. Sugarloaf Alliance supports the basic premise of the legislation. The Overlay Zone will eliminate the current right developers have to build data centers on any industrially zoned property in the county as long as they meet general LI or GI criteria. You'll remember our concern about the I-270 Sugarloaf Plan boundary issues, the Thurston Road cut-out (see the data center site plan), and the secret Amazon negotiations. Our community has been a target for data center development and developers still own those properties. This bill will further limit developers' siting choices and create more public process in the decision-making.
 

2) No data centers next to homes!

When the Overlay language was first presented by the County Executive in January, the legislation said "(d) The tract of land where the Critical Digital Infrastructure use is proposed

may not abut land that is zoned residential or is designated residential on the Comprehensive Plan Use map." Since then, the text has been revised, first to allow data centers 200 feet of residences, and now to allow them at a distance of 500 feet.

 

The CDI Overlay Bill 25-09 should be amended:

1-     to remove the setbacks, and

2-     return to the restriction that data centers should not abut residential areas at all.

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3)  Honor the commitment to protect preservation areas.

We ask that you stress in your comments the need for an amendment to protect land currently designated as a Priority Preservation Area (PPA), a Rural Legacy Area (RLA), or a Treasured Landscape Management Area as of 17 June 2025. Note that the Sugarloaf area is designated Treasured Landscape. These areas are rural, agricultural, and important to the county's conservation goals. We think this amendment will protect both Adamstown and our own rural community going forward. Please include the 6/17/25 date in your comments; it's important to the implementation.

 

As currently written, the Overlay Zone legislation would allow re-designation of acreage in protected categories for the purpose of expanding the Overlay area. Mr. McKay's amendment says that these lands can not be taken out of preservation categories during comprehensive plan processes like this one. (It's our understanding that part of the rationale for approving protected status in those areas in the first place was to prevent sprawl. Now some acreage categorized for preservation is in the way of - yes - sprawl. Oops. Some folks want to get that pesky preservation designation out of the way.) Remember, this legislation is not about the currently proposed Overlay map, which is Eastalcoa-area specific. This is about changing preservation designations for the purpose of upzoning. Who's next?

 

Frederick Magazine's recent article on the CDI Zone and map quotes County Council Member Knapp as saying "....This incremental approach will give the community and the county the opportunity to determine the impacts before we consider any kind of expansion.'” We appreciate the acknowledgment that there will be massive impacts, AND we've been complaining all along about incrementalist development plan revelations. Clearly there's a bigger vision. We'll continue to ask: What's the big picture? Who's next?

 

For more information about Sugarloaf Alliance's position on the proposed Overlay legislation and on the proposed Overlay map, see here and here and here and here.

 

Please write to the County Council, the Planning Commission and the County Executive.

 

Write to

Councilmembers@frederickcountymd.gov

Brad Young, Council President - byoung@frederickcountymd.gov

Kavonte Duckett, Council Vice-president - kduckett@frederickcountymd.gov

MC Keegan-Ayer, Council Member - MCKeegan-Ayer@frederickcountymd.gov

Mason Carter, Council Member-  mcarter@frederickcountymd.gov

Jerry Donald, Council Member -  JDonald@frederickcountymd.gov

Steve McKay, Council Member -  smckay@frederickcountymd.gov

Renee Knapp, Council Member -  rknapp@frederickcountymd.gov

 

You should also cc your emails to these two addresses:

County Executive, Jessica Fitzwater - countyexecutive@frederickcountymd.gov

County Planning Commission - PlanningCommission@frederickcountymd.gov

 

Please forward this email to your family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. The impact of this massive data center zone will be felt by everyone in Southern Frederick County. We all need to make our views known to the county government!

 

See you on 8/19!