Maryland is becoming one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the country, and communities are increasingly alarmed by what that growth actually costs them: diesel-powered backup generators near homes and schools, a strained power grid, and heavy water use, all decided county by county with little consistency.

Frederick County shows how badly this can go. County leaders approved zoning changes clearing the way for a roughly 2,500-acre data center campus near Adamstown, over strong community objections. More than 20,000 residents signed a petition asking for a public vote on the decision, but the Maryland Supreme Court blocked the referendum over a legal technicality. Voters got the final word anyway in June, removing the County Council President who championed the project. That should have settled the question. Instead, it exposed how little power residents have once a data center deal is already signed.

Michael Turner, a supervisor in Loudoun County, Virginia, has watched his own community become one of the largest data center hubs on Earth, and he is warning Maryland not to repeat Virginia's mistakes. Residents there once accepted the industry for its tax revenue. Not anymore. "I don't care. Raise my taxes. Don't build any more data centers," Turner said residents now tell him, describing how public patience has collapsed even where the financial tradeoff was supposed to be worth it.

Maryland does not have to choose between blocking every project and approving all of them. The state needs enforceable standards: noise limits, emissions caps on generators, and mandatory disclosure of energy and water use before any project breaks ground.

Sign the petition to demand the Maryland General Assembly and Governor Wes Moore set real data center guardrails, before more communities lose control of decisions that reshape their towns for decades.