PETITION UPDATE: Please read our most recent update for more detailed information.

Thank you for 1,150 signatures! The Charles County Against Data Centers coalition appreciates your support, and we urge you to help us motivate other community members to fight back against ZTA #25-187 and data centers in our county! 

We will leave the petition up to continue to collect signatures, but we recommend filling out our Action Network Form if you would like to get the most recent updates from us, or to get involved in outreach efforts to the community and local officials, and to receive updates about our campaign. 

YOU'RE INVITED: The Planning Commission is meeting on Monday, February 2nd at 6pm to have a work session about the ZTA. They will discuss and vote on a decision to reject or recommend the ZTA to the County Commissioners. There is no public comment component to this meeting, however we invite you to attend the meeting to show the Planning Commission how many community members stand in opposition. Feel free to make and bring signs to hold up to express your views on this issue.

Information about the meeting, including the agenda, can be found on the County website. If this will be your first time attending a Planning Commission meeting, check out this short Substack article with helpful tips.

Thank you for your support!

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Original Petition Text:

Residents, workers, visitors, and friends of Charles County!

We invite you to sign this petition and open letter to the Charles County Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners asking for more transparency and community involvement in the planning of data center development in Charles County.

The Charles County Planning Commission is holding a Public Hearing on ZTA #25-187 Data Centers on November 17th 2025 at 6pm in the Charles County Government Building. In addition to signing and sharing this petition, please attend the meeting in person or virtually and submit a public comment online and at the meeting.

ONLINE COMMENTS MUST BE SUBMITTED BEFORE 4:30PM ON FRIDAY, NOV 14TH.

Link to tutorial for submitting online comments + comment template.

Link to virtual meeting information.

Link to Planning Commission website with meeting agenda and ZTA text. 

Link to BayNet article about ZTA and hearing.

OUR OPEN LETTER:

Dear Charles County Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners,

As residents of Charles County, we are calling on you to reject Zoning Text Amendment #25-187 Data Centers. The introduction of data center development in Charles County will have wide reaching negative consequences on residents, and there was no engagement with County residents in the development of this draft ZTA. Here are our thoughts about the ZTA and the County’s actions in regards to data centers thus far.

1. We demand transparency and equal participation and inclusion in decisions like this that will have serious impacts to our community. 

Only one community meeting was held by the County on September 20th, 2025 before introducing this draft ZTA. The meeting did NOT productively engage the community, and did not allow for any open questions or discussion. When residents tried to speak out during this meeting, they were talked over and ignored by County Commissioners, Economic leaders, and County staff. There has been no public follow-up to the written questions submitted by residents.

It appears obvious that there have already been closed door conversations about allowing data centers in the County, without any input from residents. The County needs to be TRANSPARENT and HONEST with residents about any negotiations between the County and data center developers. Disclosure of communications should be a requirement integrated into the ZTA, along with a prohibition on the use of any NDAs between the County and data center developers.

2. Why is this ZTA happening on an expedited time frame outside of existing projects like the Zoning Code Update and Comprehensive Plan? 

This draft ZTA, introduced within one month of the meeting where residents were ignored, was clearly fast-tracked by the County to ensure that there would be limited time for residents to provide feedback. This public hearing is scheduled one week before the Thanksgiving holiday, a knowingly busy time. Residents are also preoccupied dealing with a government shutdown of unprecedented length. When there are already two projects less than a year from completion, why is this draft ZTA being forced through? Is there a reason why data centers cannot be considered as a regular part of these projects, and require such a hurried timeline with extremely limited public engagement?

3. We are concerned about the impacts to our infrastructure, our electricity bills, our environment, and our community’s well being.

Hyperscale data centers like those allowed through this draft ZTA are notorious for creating enormous strains on local resources, and causing noise and air pollution for neighboring communities. They create disruptions to the local potable water supply, which we know is already a problem point in the County, and cause electricity bills to rise due to increased demand, effectively forcing residents to subsidize data center operations while seeing minimal benefit in return. 

4. Any data center development should require a Community Benefit Agreement to ensure investment into local community services and infrastructure. Any data center development should require an in-depth fiscal analysis of the short and long term impacts to county finances. 

Portions of the ZTA are purposefully vague, such as provisions recommending the use of non-potable water instead of mandating that drinking water cannot be used for data center cooling. There is also no language that ensures that the data center developers and owners pay their fair share for the infrastructure they would require, and it seems that there has been very little, if any, fiscal analysis done on the long term viability of data centers beyond the small economic activity generated during construction.

We strongly urge you to reject ZTA #25-187 and to reconsider the approach to data center development and planning. We expect transparency about all internal communications and conversations with data center developers, and we expect thorough, meaningful, and frequent community involvement in the decision making process.

As your constituents, we hope that our wellbeing and prosperity is your highest priority in all your actions as local leaders and elected officials.

Sincerely,

Residents and community stakeholders of Charles County