Calvert County commissioners have passed a six-month moratorium on data centers, a move that comes shortly after Amazon scrapped plans to build one amid a public uproar, officials announced Tuesday.
Starting Aug. 28, the Board of County Commissioners won’t accept any site plan applications for data center development for the next six months, it said in a news release.
Amazon recently withdrew its plans to build a data center with seven facilities near the nuclear plant in Lusby. Community members learned of the plans in late February through a posting for an Amazon construction manager job and were propelled into action.
They filled county meetings to voice their concerns about data centers. They chimed in at the polls, ousting three incumbent commissioner members — Earl “Buddy” Hance, Todd Ireland and Mike C. Cox — who had opposed data center development moratoriums previously.
The county board repeatedly rejected a data center development moratorium earlier this year, but this month, Hance indicated he’d back a pause on them.
Calvert County joins Baltimore, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties in having data center moratoriums in place. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network said three quarters of Maryland residents live in areas with a local data center moratorium or ban.




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