Sugarloaf Alliance

Sugarloaf Alliance recognizes the importance of data centers to support communication and information technologies.

 

Our focus on protecting Frederick County's Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape area from incompatible development - such as data centers - has revealed issues that we share with many other communities impacted by growing data center development pressure.

​

While we don't oppose data centers in general, we support common sense regulations to govern the industry, including those recommended by the county's Data Center Workgroup.

​

We support policies and regulations that identify and quantify all costs and benefits, including economic and other impacts on county electric ratepayers.

​

We support policy and regulatory changes to optimize:

• county tax revenues,

• minimize environmental and climate impacts, and

• control the data center industry's use of electric power, water and other resources.

 

We encourage the county to take a broad view of economic opportunity by promoting diverse current and future land uses and business opportunities, including agriculture. Experience in other communities demonstrates that limits on data centers' environmental impacts and their use of public resources are necessary to achieve that goal and to serve other community priority needs.

​