Montgomery County councilmembers introduced two competing bills Tuesday that are both aimed at regulating future data centers.
A proposal by Councilmember Evan Glass calls for a 15-member task force to study potential risks and benefits of data centers.
A zoning text amendment sponsored by Council President Natali Fani-González, Council Vice President Marilyn Balcombe and Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles defines a data center as a new use subject to zoning requirements. The amendment also specifies the zones where data centers may be built and allows them only with conditional use approval.
Public hearings on both proposals are set for Feb. 24.
Under Glass’ proposal, the task force would study data centers in neighboring jurisdictions.
“There are a lot of questions residents have about data centers here in Montgomery County. We have seen what happens when they go unregulated in Northern Virginia,” Glass said during Tuesday’s council meeting.
The task force would be required to produce a report that deals with environmental, residential and utility-cost impact as well as possible legislation, policy or zoning changes.
The other proposal is for a zoning text amendment. As Fani-González explained, the amendment was written “after coordination analyzing jurisdictions across the Washington, D.C., region that have data centers.” Much of the details involved the county executive’s staff and “months of work,” she said.
“This is the start of the conversation,” Balcombe said. “We have every intention of engaging the entire community,” she said, noting that there will be town hall listening sessions on the issue.
“We need to make sure that data centers are implemented in only restricted areas. They should be conditional use only, in industrial areas only,” Balcombe stressed.
A data center at the former Dickerson Power Plant site already has provisional approval.
“This is already happening,” said Fani-González.
Terra Energy is interested in building a data center and battery energy storage facility on 292 acres of the 758-acre site of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant in Dickerson. The plant ceased operation in 2020.
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