County Commissioners approve data center moratorium

DENTON – Wading into a debate that concerns elected leaders and ordinary citizens throughout the country, the Caroline County Commissioners decided to put data center development on hold until they have more information to create a thoughtful regulatory framework.

At their Tuesday, July 21, 2026, morning meeting, Commission President Travis Breeding and Vice President Larry Porter adopted a resolution that places a 1-year moratorium on data center applications in unincorporated areas of the county. Commissioner Frank Bartz was absent.

By law, the Commissioners cannot make decisions for incorporated towns nor override their decision-making authority.

In the meantime, the resolution directs the Department of Planning and Codes “to review the current County laws and regulations which may apply to data centers and submit a report and recommendations to the County Commissioners, no later than April 1, 2027.”

“Basically, the situation on data centers in our county is that they are not mentioned in our current zoning ordinance, and there have been inquiries to the director of planning and codes from potential applicants for data centers,” County Attorney Stewart Barroll said.

Because data centers are “very complicated and very controversial facilities,” Barroll said, the recommended next step was for the county to “declare a temporary moratorium on data centers, which we are authorized to do in Section 175-232 et. al. of the Caroline County Code.”

“A moratorium is basically a directive from the Commissioners to staff not to process applications or review site plans or anything connected to the approval of a data center in Caroline County while the moratorium is in effect,” Barroll said.

Porter said the moratorium “would also give us the opportunity to put parameters in as far as what we're going to require those data centers to do.”

“There's a lot of information that's being spread out there,” Porter said. “Some of it is accurate. Some of it is not. One of the (pieces of) inaccurate information that I've seen is that data centers pay no taxes. Data centers do pay taxes. … Does that mean I'm willing to sell myself for a data center? No, but at the same time, I think it's our responsibility to look at these things, look at what every opportunity is that we have that is connected with data centers, take our time, make rational decisions. Certainly, certainly respect the wishes and the direction from the people who vote. That is absolutely critical to us.”

Porter said the Commissioners would be seeking information from the Maryland Department of Environment, especially exploring potential air pollution, as well as energy and water usage by data centers.

He also recommended Caroline residents reach out to elected state representatives with their concerns.

During the public comment section of the meeting, Ridgely Town Commissioner Brad Sears, an expert in constructing and managing data centers, said he intended to ask the county commissioners to adopt the resolution but make it stronger; however, it had already been approved. He said he had sent Breeding a full written assessment of his summarized comments.

Sears asked the Commissioners to consider directing staff to create a template data center ordinance that the 10 incorporated towns could use as a model for drafting their own policy. He also urged them “to bring environmental groups to the table now, as named partners in the study, not as adversaries later. It costs this county far less to have them working beside us than lined up against us.”

He also recommended adding a “real definition … with a real size threshold” of a data center while adding a “hardship waiver and severability clause.”

“A single large data center can drink the water of a small town and burn the power of a small city, and its generators can … foul the air we breathe,” Sears said.

Other county residents expressed concerns about data center emissions and proximity to data centers if residents live just outside of town limits, a concern also voiced by residents on Liberty Road in Federalsburg at a July 20 Town Council workshop to discuss a proposed moratorium of data center applications, drafted by Town Attorney Lyndsey Ryan.

The town council recommended a draft 10-year moratorium on data centers. It will be eligible for enactment at the council’s regular meeting at 6 p.m. on Aug. 3.

Before the meeting, over 2,323 signatures of Caroline County residents had been gathered by proponents of a data center moratorium.

Federalsburg residents again hashed out the same concerns they had voiced one week before on July 13. Calls for a complete ban on data centers coming to town were met with cheers and applause.

Just 90 minutes before the Council’s workshop, the Town of Federalsburg Facebook page posted a notice advising residents of its limited capacity to accommodate attendees to the public meeting. The Federalsburg Activities Center was opened for an additional 100 people, and the workshop was livestreamed.

Ten minutes into the meeting, technical problems with the livestreaming software held it up about 40 minutes. Once resolved, the workshop continued, with council members holding a public comment period afterwards.

Although the July 13 town hall saw many of the over 250 attendees criticizing the lack of specifics about the Fieldstone Technology Center in the industrial park, at the July 20 workshop some called into the question the character of the proposed data center’s developers.

Council Member Brandy James said that the town’s current Comprehensive Plan “does not allow for this type of facility.”

“I think we need to take a step back and we need to look at what belongs here,” she said. “We have a whole lot of businesses – Kraft Foods, Johnson and Johnson, John Deere – all pledging billions of dollars to expand and open facilities within the United States. We need to reach out to those types of manufacturers.”

Resident Jennifer Spencer said she wasn’t “100% against it, but why are all these data centers popping up like mushrooms across the entire country? Why are they in such a hurry to build these (centers) in little podunk towns that are desperate for money?”

Council Member Ian Ferguson replied, “Mark Twain said, ‘History doesn't repeat itself; it rhymes.’”

One attendee asked Mayor Kim Abner to elaborate on the “private conversations” she mentioned at the July 13 information session. She said the town didn’t trust her right now, with several attendees applauding.

Abner said she had received a phone call from County Administrator Katheleen Freeman about developers who owned property in Federalsburg who were interested in developing a “mixed-use technology campus.”

“So I had a call with them at that point,” Abner said. “They said this is confidential. It's not out in the wild yet because they just wanted to know if there was interest in a technology mixed-use campus.” She said she met with the property owners, and then learned during a closed session of the town council that the information was announced by State Sen. Johnny Mautz and Porter at the annual legislative wrap-up breakfast, which was public.

Abner was the only council member available to meet with the property owners at the site, while not mentioning the date of that meeting.

“At that point, they were like, ‘Well, what is our box we have to play in?’ That's what started the discussion of an ordinance so that you could narrow them down as to what they were doing, so they could have a plan to then present for discussion, because right now it is not a permittable use in our industrial park.”

Some council members agreed with attendees who called for a ballot initiative to vote up or down on allowing data center development in the town. “This is too big an issue for just the five of us to decide,” Council Member Debra Sewell said.