The council voted 5-2 to approve the creation of a critical digital infrastructure overlay zone, which would have to be applied over a parcel of land before data centers or associated infrastructure could be developed there.
Council President Brad Young, Council Vice President Kavonté Duckett, and Council Members Renee Knapp, M.C. Keegan-Ayer and Mason Carter supported the overlay bill.
Council Members Steve McKay and Jerry Donald were opposed.
All seven members of the County Council and County Executive Jessica Fitzwater unveiled the proposed overlay, which they described as a “compromise” to the data center issue, in a joint press conference on May 6.
When applied, overlay zones add to or modify the regulations attached to a parcel’s underlying zone without changing the underlying zone itself.
The data center overlay described in the bill must include less than 1% of the land in Frederick County, amounting to about 4,200 acres.
A proposed map of the overlay released by County Executive Jessica Fitzwater in July includes 2,566 acres, but it is still under review. The County Council could decide to shrink, expand or adopt the overlay as proposed.
The overlay bill also addresses what the council hopes will happen if agricultural land within the overlay zone is rezoned to limited or general industrial, allowing it to be used for data centers.
For every one acre of agricultural land rezoned for data center use, the bill proposes that five acres of nonpreserved agricultural land be preserved by way of an agreement between the data center developer and the county executive.
The Frederick County Planning Commission recommended changing the ratio from one-to-five acres to one-to-ten acres, but no one on the council brought that recommendation forward as an amendment to the bill.
In his comments before the vote on Tuesday, McKay said he supported the concept and general location of the data center overlay when he met with Fitzwater to discuss it on May 5.
However, McKay said, he disagrees with some of the provisions that made it into the ultimate bill, including one that would allow data centers to abut residential areas as long as they are set back 500 feet from the property line.
“I think it’s lousy public policy,” McKay said of the setback provision. “And when that language was incorporated into this bill, that’s where they lost me.”
McKay also said he was opposed to the agricultural offset provision of the bill, expressing fears that it could amount to an illegal contract zoning scheme.
In his comments before the vote, Donald said the vast majority of his constituents in the Adamstown area are against the overlay bill.
He said he does not understand the “rush” to expand the data center footprint in Frederick County beyond the former Alcoa Eastalco Works site, where a campus of data centers is already being developed.
“We’re going to get some of these anyway,” Donald said of data centers. “Let’s go a little slower and see how it turns out.”
Knapp, who co-chaired the data center work group that Fitzwater convened in 2023, said she is voting to pass the overlay because it is “the right tool to identify and limit where data centers should operate.”
She said not passing the bill would “leave in place the by-right zoning for data centers and electrical substations that was established in 2022,” referring to an ordinance that allowed critical digital infrastructure to be developed on any land zoned limited or general industrial in Frederick County.
Knapp, who lives in Adamstown, said the community is now “at a crossroads.” She encouraged her neighbors to “fully participate as stakeholders, and not as adversaries” during the overlay mapping process latter this year.
In her comments before the vote, Keegan-Ayer likened the process of legislating data centers to baking a Smith Island cake.
She said the 2022 ordinance represents the first layer, followed by the data center siting and design bill passed earlier this year and the overlay bill passed on Tuesday.
“We now have several layers. We’re looking at the next layer, which is establishing this overlay process,” Keegan-Ayer said. “And because it’s a multilayered cake, each layer of that cake has allowed the public to come in and give us input.”
She also encouraged members of the public to continue doing so throughout the overlay mapping process.
Carter said he would support the overlay bill because by passing it, the County Council could ensure that the siting of data centers would be guided by “clear consistent standards that prioritize compatibility with surrounding land uses.”
Duckett said he recognizes that there are still legitimate concerns about how data centers will operate and their potential environmental impacts.
He said Quantum Loophole, the developer that was removed from the Eastalco redevelopment project after concerns arose about environmental and financial mismanagement, never should have been Frederick County’s introduction to data centers.
However, Duckett said, “it would be premature to dismiss this entire industry” based on the actions of that company.
“We owe it to our residents and our future to evaluate these projects carefully and critically, rather than making sweeping judgments that could close the door on responsible opportunities,” Duckett said.
In his comments before the vote, Young lamented the fact that discussion of the overlay bill has been “misdirected and hijacked” by those critical of the proposed overlay map.
“While this is an important decision, we have time to do that and that discussion will be held later this year,” Young said. “It should not overshadow the intent of [the overlay bill].”
In a text message after the vote on Tuesday, Fitzwater said her administration is “committed to managing growth responsibly, and the Council took an important step tonight to limit new data center development.”
“I want to thank everyone who invested their time and expertise in this important debate, and I look forward to our residents’ continued engagement as the process moves forward,” she continued.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Fitzwater’s proposed overlay map on Oct. 15.
To view the proposed data center overlay map, people can visit www.frederickcountymd.gov/9122/Data-Centers.
© 2025 The Frederick News-Post (Frederick, Md.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
