Sugarloaf Alliance

The County has made public a signed copy of the NDA and attachment pages with additional county official’s signatures. The county has acknowledged that this does not complete our PIA request, and will continue to release additional records which Sugarloaf Alliance will publish at https://www.sugarloaf-alliance.com/content/rowan-nda-mpia as they become available.

Sugarloaf Alliance published a press release in response to the initial records received.

Sugarloaf Alliance initially submitted this MPIA regarding the NDA Frederick County negotiated with Rowan Green Data LLC between at least August 9, 2023, and September 20, 2023 as part of our mission to improve government openness and transparency.

Sugarloaf Alliance has a proven record of successful MPIA requests, having taken one case to the Maryland State Supreme Court and won for fees related to MPIA legal challenges. 

In this Newsletter:

• Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreement (DRRA)

• Investing in Workers and Workplaces (IW2)

• Data Center Briefing

Data center companies are suing the Board of Elections and the Referendum Committee to prevent the expansion question from coming to a vote.

YOU joined the movement to overturn the data center Overlay Zone expansion.

21,029 signatures were validated on the Referendum Petition - 15,611 were required to put the question on the ballot.

Who will decide what we vote on in Frederick County?

Read about the Overlay Zone Public Hearing and background and more

MPRP powerlines for data centers are projected to run through the Sugarloaf Plan area. The PSEG application is now before the Public Service Commission.

Click here to donate to Sugarloaf Alliance

In this Newsletter:

• Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreement (DRRA)

   

This is an update on the DRRA mentioned in the last newsletter since the proposed agreement represents a real and quickly evolving threat to the Sugarloaf region and to County land use policies and prerogatives.

The trial for the Data Center Referendum takes place on Friday at Frederick Circuit Court at 100 W Patrick St, Frederick, MD 21701 at 9:30 am. We have gathered some of the trial documents for public viewing.

The Sugarloaf Alliance invited all candidates for local offices to reply to a questionnaire seeking their positions on issues of interest to SA members: environmental stewardship, transparency in government, and data center siting and regulation. We have their responses.

The Overlay Zone legislation set up to 1% of county acreage to be available for data centers under this Overlay. The Planning Commission recommended limiting the Overlay to the existing Eastalco site and adjacent properties already planned to be industrial - a smaller area than the County Executive and staff proposed. On 12/23/25 the County

Council voted to expand the Overlay Zone, nearly doubling the area available to build data centers.

Read the results of Sugarloaf Alliance's latest Maryland Public Information Request re data centers here. Governor's office asks for enforcement "leniency

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2025 Reflections

2025 was a busy year! Click here to learn how Sugarloaf Alliance has contributed to smarter growth efforts in Frederick County and beyond.

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Learn more about Hidden Costs of the Cloud: Data Centers in Virginia