Land Use & Development
Data Center Sanity
We need to regulate and tax data centers, slow or stop approval of new projects and reverse the County Council’s disastrous vote to create the Critical Digital Infrastructure overlay on prime farmland.
The County Council’s decision to expand data center development in the Adamstown area has undermined the Rural Legacy and Priority Preservation programs, ignoring the Planning Commission’s advice, and the citizens who begged them not to expand the site. We need clean water. We need farmland. We can live without generative AI.
I am running to advocate for future-oriented, sustainable land use decisions over chaotic, short term “bet the farm” wishful thinking (pun intended.) The Council has abandoned the opportunity to be a leader in developing eco-friendly data centers, which are being developed elsewhere. Small footprint data centers with internally contained cooling systems and zero-emissions power are the future; Gargantuan, sprawling complexes may well be obsolete before this project is finished. Allowing diesel back up power and community water and electricity to run this complex is essentially turning the clock back 15 years.
"We need clean water. We need farmland. We can live without generative AI."
- LOUISA CONKLIN
Besides the effects of the proposed data center zone on agriculture, I am dismayed that the expanded Critical Digital Infrastructure Overlay comes within 900 feet of Carroll Manor Elementary School. Within Council District 1, this decision has exacerbated the feeling among southern County communities that our schools and students don’t matter. The people of Frederick County deserve leaders who put the community’s needs first when considering major zoning decisions, and this decision compounded public concern that our County puts developer needs before our most vulnerable residents: our kids.
Frederick County needs a much better plan for regulating data centers. In addition to putting public health protections in place, we need to pause on these developments so we can introduce legislation to tax them with a Business Personal Property tax. Without this tax mechanism, which allows the county to tax companies for their assets, in addition to their land, data centers in Frederick County will not collect nearly as much revenue as those in Loudoun County. We also need to establish an environmental escrow fund that data center stakeholder companies pay into, to protect the county if anything goes wrong or the project goes unfinished.
I support and have participated in collecting signatures for the Ballot Referendum. If elected to Council I will introduce a bill to restore the Priority Preservation and Rural Preservation status to the rezoned lands and begin to work on rebuilding the trust of farmers whose partnership is needed to continuously improve on sustainable agricultural practices.
