Sugarloaf Alliance
Preservation * Smarter Growth * Transparency in Government
July 5, 2025
CDI Overlay Legislation:
Sugarloaf Alliance Comments to the Planning Commission
Dear Chairman Davis and Planning Commission Members,
Frederick County has been grappling with data center policy publicly for more than four years, and behind closed doors since 2019. The problematic aspects of data centers are by now well known. While it certainly merits repeating, the potential impacts of data center development on a neighboring community are clear. The Planning Commission continues to bear the burden of protecting residents and communities from the negative effects of industrial development.
As the Planning Commission and other county officials consider new comprehensive planning required by data center development, you are faced with a puzzle: how can you assess the text of a plan element without a geographic anchor for your analysis? The text of the bill makes plain that the overlay area can abut residential properties. Shouldn’t those residents have an opportunity to weigh in on the text of the Overlay rather than months later when the map is released, and the terms of the Overlay are fixed?
Sugarloaf Alliance has been following the issue of data center development in Frederick County closely for five years. We offer these suggestions for the CDI Overlay.
Sugarloaf Alliance position on the CDI Overlay
1. The CDI Overlay should define a single, compact and contiguous area within the existing Eastalco Growth Area. Almost all of this land is currently zoned industrial and is the most appropriate for data center development.
2. Data Centers should not be located next to residential land. This was a Data Center Work Group recommendation, and a provision of CDI Siting Bill (25-05) until amended by Council. Experiences in Northern Virginia, and other locations, clearly demonstrate that data center operations are not compatible with residential land use.
3. The CDI Overlay should not be applied to any parcels currently within Rural Legacy, Priority Preservation, or Treasured Landscape areas. While this is a a provision of the CDI Siting Bill (25-05) there should be assurances that these protections will not be stripped from parcels within the CDI Overlay. The Overlay bill should contain an explicit prohibition on changing these land designations for the purpose of applying the Overlay. Such a prohibition is even more important given the as yet unknown geographic placement of the overlay.
4. Frederick County should not approve new Data Center site plans until a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis has been completed by an impartial third party. Thus far, there has been only the industry sponsored Sage Report calculating additional gross revenue, but ignoring additional county expenses for infrastructure, increased electrical rates, and increased health care expenses. It is possible that future data center development might lead to little if any net benefit and potentially considerable costs for Frederick County residents.
5. Future data center development must not require establishment of new power transmission rights of way nor construction of new power generation facilities within Frederick County. Outside of the CDI overlay zone, the data center industry should not be allowed to consume additional land within Frederick County nor should Frederick County residents be required to subsidize construction of infrastructure for this industry.
6. Future data center development must not require construction of additional water or waste treatment facilities funded by Frederick County taxpayers. Frederick County residents should not be required to subsidize construction of infrastructure for this industry.
7. A Citizens’ Advisory Group should be established to periodically review and monitor the implementation of the CDI Overlay, CDI Siting Bill, potential data center zoning violations (noise), and associated community concerns. This group should have a majority of members without financial ties to either the data or real estate development industries to provide credible oversight of the data center developments. An Advisory Group would serve a unique role in both community outreach and as a conduit for public concerns.
8. In keeping with the practices of neighboring counties, Frederick County should establish a business property tax structure for data centers in order to offset additional data center-related costs to the residents of Frederick County. Other surrounding counties in Maryland and Northern Virginia have tax structures that provide for significant revenue to the counties. Frederick County’s business property tax rate is currently zero.
9. Prior to approval of any additional data center developments, emergency response plans need to be formulated and made open for public comment. The potential fire threat that storage of many millions of gallons of diesel fuel within the CDI Overlay zone needs to be considered when approving these developments. The explicit language of the bill allowing dense data center zones adjacent to homes and communities makes emergency planning all the more critical.
Your discussions and recommendations regarding these and other data center policy and planning issues will strongly shape Frederick County’s future. Thank you for considering this and other input from residents and businesses who will be most affected.
Sincerely,
Sugarloaf Alliance