PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY — Prince George’s County adopted a two-year moratorium on data center development. The pause, the longest of its kind in Maryland, is intended to give the County Council time to draft comprehensive legislation governing the zoning, siting, and construction of data centers.

The moratorium resolution emerged from the work of the Prince George’s County Qualified Data Center Task Force, which was formed after a proposal to convert the Landover Mall into a hyperscale server farm triggered resident protests. The task force delivered its final report in November and recommended that the permitting process incorporate community input, community benefit agreements, and zoning restrictions that keep data centers away from neighborhoods and environmentally sensitive areas.

Krystal Oriadha, chair of the Prince George’s County Council, sponsored the moratorium resolution. “I support a full ban. That’s what I’ve always supported, and the two-year moratorium was what the council could agree on because there’s varying opinions right now,” Oriadha said. She added, “No additional project should be moving forward at this time.” Oriadha also emphasized the limits of local control, stating, “This really has to be handled on the national level, because the grid doesn’t know what jurisdiction you’re in.”

David Lapp, Maryland’s People’s Counsel, who represents residential utility ratepayers, welcomed the delay. “Anytime data center development is moved back, it provides more time for us to fill in regulatory gaps that expose regular households to cost impacts of data centers,” Lapp said. He added, “You still have this issue of who’s paying for that, and it should not be ordinary households.”

Prince George’s County is not acting alone. Montgomery County, Frederick County, and Baltimore County have also paused data center development in recent weeks. At the state level, Maryland lawmakers created a data center registry during the last General Assembly session that will list energy and water use and is scheduled to go into effect in January 2027. The state also commissioned a study on the data center industry’s impact on air, water, the Chesapeake Bay, and the power grid; that study is due September 1.

Why It Matters

Data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and water, raising concerns about strain on infrastructure and household utility costs. The Maryland Public Service Commission is currently drafting rules on how data centers should share electric distribution costs, while federal regulators have ordered grid operators to propose reforms on transmission, capacity, and energy pricing. Maryland State Senator Katie Fry Hester, who represents parts of Howard and Montgomery counties, noted, “People are scared because things are happening fast.”

Prince George’s County, located in Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C., has a population of 863,420. The moratorium provides a window for local officials to align development policies with environmental, fiscal, and community concerns before more projects advance.