The Frederick County Council is considering “how to develop a model for critical data infrastructure that leverages the benefits data centers can provide while protecting the environment and Frederick County’s quality of life” (Frederick County Data Centers Workgroup page).  This spring, the County Council will consider two very different bills addressing data center siting requirements: The McKay/Donald bill and the Knapp/Young bill. 

We, the undersigned, oppose the weaker Knapp/Young bill under consideration. The Frederick County Planning Commission also recommended against this bill as submitted.  Among other things the Knapp/Young legislation weakens noise standards and diesel generator operating limits from Workgroup recommendations. Moreover, the bill would allow “by right” data center siting as a permitted industrial zone use as long as a site plan application meets the general criteria. Because a developer would have “by right” privileges, site-specific issues of interest to the community would not be applicable and public process would be more limited. The bill lacks the floating zone recommended by the Data Center Workgroup and Planning Commission. 

We support the stronger McKay/Donald bill for the following reasons:

• The bill features tougher data center siting criteria and requires each data center application to be reviewed by the County Council, a process with more opportunity for public input.
• The bill includes many of the Data Centers Workgroup recommendations. The County Executive appointed an eleven-member Workgroup representing “industry, agriculture, technology, environment, labor and more.” For over seven months the Workgroup met with subject matter experts, regional officials, and individuals living and working side by side with data centers. The Workgroup’s report makes excellent recommendations and was approved unanimously. 
• One recommendation is especially important to Frederick County residents: the addition of a floating zone to county CDI code. The CDI floating zone would require each data center siting application to be reviewed by the County Council in a multi-step public process. The Frederick County Planning Commission also recommended the floating zone approach. 
• The data center industry is extraordinarily resource-intensive – in its demand for acreage, in its demand for massive amounts of water and in its demand for power (and connecting power lines). If “by right” siting is allowed, many data centers could be built, limited only by the amount of industrial acreage available. 

We believe that data center siting should be subject to a County Council approval process, so we urge Council Members to approve the CDI Floating Zone as proposed by the Data Center Workgroup and Council Members McKay and Donald.