Where Will Data Centers Be Located?

CDI Overlay Zone MAP Hearing

Frederick County Planning Commission 

Wednesday, 10/15, 9:30am

Winchester Hall, 12 E. Church St., Frederick

Should Frederick County limit hyperscale data center construction to the existing Eastalco site, or should they allow expansion at this time, as depicted in this proposed map? On Wednesday, 10/15, the Frederick County Planning Commission will hear comments from the public, and - according to their agenda - they will vote on their recommendation to the County Council at the same meeting.

Focus for the October 15th Meeting 

Sugarloaf Alliance encourages you to comment - in person if you can - and by email (see below). The topic is data center location. This is NOT a decision about the merits of data centers or whether to have data centers in the County; that decision was made a couple of years ago. This meeting is ONLY about EXPANDING the zone designated for data centers. 

Sugarloaf Alliance opposes expansion of the Eastalco Growth area. Here are reasons we believe that expansion would be a radical change in the nature of Adamstown, Buckeystown, Point of Rocks, and rural southern Frederick County overall.

1) The argument that there will be positive net benefit to the county and or that it's worth the huge changes this industry will bring to the character of the region is not supported by any objective fiscal analysis of data center development or expansion.

 a) How much will an increased Eastalco Growth Area cost Frederickcounty taxpayers? 

 b) What is the NET revenue from this huge increase in industrial activity?  

 c) We're hearing in the media that electric bills will soar because of data centers, and we expect the value of homes in the Eastalco area to drop - how will that affect the financial impact on the county of adding more data centers? 

2) The Plan calls for the elimination of almost 1000 acres of farmland.  

All of this prime agricultural soil is in either the County Priority Preservation Area or the State Rural Legacy area, or BOTH. The Data Centers Work Group recommended against this, and current County regulations say no data centers in Priority Preservation or Rural Legacy areas. How can this even be under discussion?

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3) Both the county and the state appear unable to effectively monitor and regulate environmental violations from the current construction.  

Since start of data center construction, more than 100 major environmental violations have been cited. The Eastalco complex has been given “Stop Work” orders and there are two ongoing Maryland Attorney General’s Office investigations. In view of these violations, does the Planning Commission think it's environmentally prudent to expand the CDI Overlay by another 1000 acres?

4) Based on other data center complexes, the data centers that are already approved in the existing Eastalco Data Center Complex might be expected to use the same amount of electricity as TWO Baltimore Cities.  

a) Real numbers regarding the power demands and impacts on Frederick County apparently are still unknown for the current Eastalco data center area. How is it a good idea to double the size of the data center zone without that information? What's the rush?

b) Maryland is a power importer. Where is the power for the additional data centers going to come from? More power lines like MPRP will be needed to bring in the energy for this huge data center zone.    

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5) Frederick County’s climate successes will be undone.  

For backup power, data centers use diesel generators the size of freight train engines. The current Eastalco data center area will need over 1000 of these diesel generators. Expanding the data center Growth Area will require even more generators. Further, all the gains that the county and the citizens have achieved in the last 15+ years will be wiped out by the additional greenhouse gas emissions generated by the additional electric grid power used by the data centers.

Here is the presentation that will be made to the Planning Commission by staff:

https://www.frederickcountymd.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/16044

And here is the proposed CDI Plan:

https://www.frederickcountymd.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/16043

Send your email comments to: 

PlanningCommission@FrederickCountyMD.gov

CouncilMembers@FrederickCountyMD.gov

CountyExecutive@frederickcountymd.gov

Write one email and send it to all three addresses!

Those of you active on social media, please share! Remind people about the meeting and share your story.  

It really does take the village to get things done. This process is a long one and it’s still NOT OVER.