It wasn’t long ago that Frederick County was the only county in Maryland in turmoil over data centers. Now, the battle has spilled eastward into the suburbs of Baltimore and the District of Columbia.
New development proposals are stirring fierce criticism in Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties — along with legislative action to pause the high-tech invasion until stricter zoning and building codes can be implemented.
“What’s happening is local jurisdictions are forced to make these restrictions in a vacuum because the states and the feds are not [making regulations],” said Wala Blegay, a Prince George’s councilwoman who sponsored legislation pausing the approval of new data centers in her county last fall. “Business owners are just shopping jurisdiction to jurisdiction to get what they want.”…