County Executive Marc Elrich signed an executive order Friday to put a six-month pause on data center permits.
Elrich said data centers are increasingly becoming an important part of the economy — they support cloud computing, artificial intelligence, research and communications.
“But at the same time, local governments across the country are grappling with questions about the long-term impacts on energy demand, land use, environment sustainability and quality of life — none of those things should be sacrificed for a data center,” Elrich said.
He said it is “not a judgement on any specific proposal.” A data center planned at the site of the former Dickerson Power Plant had provisional approval.
The pause creates six months of space for the county to create rules and expectations before applications start moving through the permitting process, Elrich explained.
“The Internet is not a cloud, it’s physical”
“It turns out that the Internet is not a cloud, it’s physical,” said Sarah Kogel-Smucker, Montgomery County’a climate officer, ahead of the bill signing in Rockville.
“It is a big building with servers, it is fiber optic cables, it is wires, it takes energy, it makes noise, it uses water — and it provides innovation and economic development,” Kogel-Smucker said. She said the county wants to get it right.
Large data centers are facilities that house computer equipment used to store and process digital information like documents, records and infrastructure for data backups. They pose environmental hazards like air pollution, and use a large amount of water and energy. But as artificial intelligence grows, some think data centers are a sign of progress and have economic benefits like creating tax revenue.
Councilmembers support the pause
The six-month moratorium will last until December, when there will be a new county executive. Elrich is term-limited and is now running for county council.
Councilmember Will Jawando, who is running for county executive along his colleagues in the council Andrew Friedson and Evan Glass, thanked Atmosphere Data Centers — the developer for the Dickerson site — for “trying to be a good partner.”
“But good intentions are not assurances. We have to get this right and real protections and real guarantees,” Jawando said. In January, the state legislature comes back into session, and he hopes state lawmakers will take action.
Both Jawando and Glass have introduced bills to delay permits for data centers. The legislation introduced by Glass echoes the executive order to put data centers on a six-month pause. In the bill from Jawando, who Elrich endorsed for county executive, he proposed a two-year moratorium.
Councilmember Kristen Mink cosponsored the bill led by Jawando.
“These large data centers, they have a very broad-reaching impact, so all of us do need to be engaged on this issue,” said Mink.
Glass joined the signing but was not a speaker.
In a written statement afterward, Glass noted that his proposal for a six-month pause received no cosponsors, and his proposal for a data center task force was rejected as well.
“I didn’t wait until days before an election to do what was right,” Glass stated.
Glass said he is glad Elrich and his colleagues “now support my proposal.”
Both Glass’s and Jawando’s bills will have public hearings Tuesday afternoon. According to leaders, the bills will go through the council process as normal even with the new executive order.
“After working on the Dickerson proposal for years now, I know that establishing appropriate restrictions is complicated and it continues to shift based on the technology and based on the studies that come out,” said Councilmember Marilyn Balcombe.
Balcombe represents the district where the data center location was planned to take over the site of the former Dickerson Power Plant.
Council president weighs in
“I welcome the six month moratorium announced today by the county executive, which gives Montgomery County the room we need to chart a responsible and competitive path forward on data centers,” said County Council President Natali Fani-González in a written statement.
Fani-González said that with the moratorium in place, the council has more time to complete their work on the Data Center Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 26-01.
Under the current zoning code, a data center is considered a cable communications system and could be created anywhere in the county as a conditional or permitted use, according to Fani-González. The new ZTA would change that and limit data centers to industrial zones under conditional use with standards for noise and environmental protections.
Elrich signs executive order putting six-month pause on data center permits @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/LtsoLDkjsr
— Maryam Shahzad (@maryam_mcm) June 12, 2026
