The land available for data center development in Frederick County could be significantly limited by a map before the state for review.

The Frederick County Council introduced a bill in June to limit the land available for data center development to a maximum of 1% of the county’s total landmass, or 4,200 acres.

Data centers would also be restricted to a central location north of Adamstown at the old Alcoa Eastalco Works. This plot would include Frederick’s current data center campus, Quantum Frederick, which encompasses 2,100 acres.

Without the bill, any industrially zoned land was available for construction, amounting to more than 5,000 acres. Additionally, this left the option of rezoning land for industrial use open, allowing the possibility for that number to increase.

Later in June, Jessica Fitzwater, Frederick County’s Executive Officer, announced an executive order freezing the consideration of any new data centers until September, to allow the bill time to go through the legislative process.

In July, a map of the proposed zone was sent to the state for a 60 day review which is due to be complete by the end of this month. The map further limits data centers to a maximum of 2,500 acres of land, centered on the current data center campus, Quantum Frederick.

The bill itself was officially passed in a 5-2 vote earlier this month.

Next Steps

Seven state agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Planning and Department of Commerce are reviewing the map. They will submit recommendations to the county by the end of the month or early October.

Victoria Venable, Frederick County’s Director of Government Relations, says that the state doesn’t have final say on the shape and size of the map. Instead, the county will use the state’s recommendations to guide further development of the plan. “These are comments for our County Council and Planning Commission to review,” Venable explained. “They do not have any sort of decisional power, it is just a process for them to be able to provide feedback.”

Once the state files its report, the County’s Planning Commission will have 62 days to review the notes and will hold a public meeting on October 15. Here, residents will be able to make their voices heard regarding the map.

After the review period, the Planning Commission will submit its recommendations to the County Council. The Council will then have 90 days to make any final changes or amendments to the map. A public meeting will be held before the map goes up for a final vote.

Limiting Available Land

The County’s data center bill initially limited development to a maximum of 1% of the county’s total landmass, Venable said, as a way to prevent the urban sprawl seen in Northern Virginia’s ‘Data Center Valley.’

While listening to residents, Venable says it was clear people in Frederick did not want to see the same kind of sprawl evident in other states. Limiting development to 1% of the county struck a middle balance. “We picked a number that we felt gave the industry room to grow within reason, but still restricted it,” Venable said.

The map could further limit the land available to data centers to only 0.6% of the county's landmass. That represents around 400 acres, in addition to Quantum Frederick’s current 2,100 acre campus.

Venable says the county does not anticipate that land being filled, even within the next ten years. This, she says, will provide the community certainty as the data center industry continues to grow in Frederick.

The county is holding an information meeting for residents this Thursday at the St. Joseph on Carrollton Manor Catholic Church in Adamstown.