Charles County commissioners pulled the plug on a contentious data center zoning proposal Tuesday, opting instead to start over with a task force and outside consultant after nearly a year of public pushback, according to highlights from the board’s July 21 meeting.
Commissioners reached consensus not to move forward with Zoning Text Amendment 25-187, which would have defined and permitted data centers under certain conditions in the county’s general and heavy industrial zones. The decision effectively ends, for now, a process that began in October 2025 and went through multiple revisions in response to community concerns.
The Charles County Planning Commission twice recommended against the amendment, most recently after a June 1 public hearing where opponents packed the room and chanted “no data centers,” raising concerns about noise, water use, farmland loss and impacts on nearby residents. Staff will now return with a framework for a task force and a consultant to guide public outreach and technical analysis, while the county monitors additional state guidance on data center development. Any future zoning change would require introducing an entirely new bill. Data centers remain a non-permitted use in Charles County for now.
Commissioners also held a public hearing on a separate and long-running proposal to extend collective bargaining rights to eligible county merit system employees, voting 3-2 to keep the hearing record open for 60 days rather than take final action. The legislation, Proposed Bill 2026-04, would create a new article in the county code establishing a formal process for most full-time county employees — excluding EMS staff already covered under a separate bargaining law, along with supervisors, confidential employees, appointed officials and part-time, temporary and contractual workers — to organize, select a bargaining representative and negotiate over wages, hours and working conditions. The bill has drawn significant attention because it would apply to the county’s roughly 700-person Department of Public Works, its largest department. Commissioners spent a work session earlier this month resolving outstanding issues, including a 3-1 vote to keep arbitration decisions nonbinding if contract talks between the county and a future union reach an impasse.
In other business, commissioners approved expanding the boundaries of the county’s Collaborative Community Improvement Project in Bryans Road to include Village Green Park, moving the pilot initiative into its next planning phase. The project, launched after Bryans Road and neighboring Indian Head were selected in 2024 from among five candidate areas identified as having higher concentrations of low-income and minority residents, has gathered resident input through community meetings and surveys over the past year. The next phase will focus on improvements to pedestrian access, transit amenities, signage, placemaking and community gathering spaces.
Commissioners also discussed a draft proposal for the county’s Affordable Housing PILOT — payment in lieu of taxes — funding notice for fiscal year 2027, directing the county’s Affordable Housing Workgroup to keep refining the plan and gather additional input from staff and housing stakeholders before returning to the board this fall, when commissioners also plan to weigh how long the funding term should run.
The Office of Equity & Access gave commissioners a quarterly update on community and employee engagement work, including efforts by the Community Reinvestment & Repair Fund Workgroup, and outlined fiscal 2027 priorities such as expanding workforce training and building a public webpage and dashboard to track progress. Staff separately updated the board on the Mixtape Concert Series, sharing lessons from its inaugural 2025 season and a proposed 2026-27 schedule that includes a country concert in October and an R&B concert next June, along with plans for earlier planning, stronger marketing and formal event partnerships going forward.
During two public hearings, commissioners voted 4-0, with District 2 Commissioner Thomasina O. Coates abstaining, to approve a Comprehensive Plan amendment aligning the land-use designation for 351 acres around Maryland Airport with the property’s existing watershed conservation zoning, correcting an inconsistency left over from a partial rezoning approved in 2024. The change does not alter the property’s current zoning.
Commissioners introduced two additional items scheduled for a Sept. 1 public hearing: Zoning Text Amendment 26-190, which would allow large retail stores over 100,000 square feet in the Acton Urban Center zoning district, drop a requirement that such stores be built as two stories, and cut parking requirements by 20% across all zoning categories; and the county’s 2026 bond issue, a proposed $100 million sale that would fund water and sewer work, school construction, government facilities, parks, roads and environmental projects.
Full meeting materials, including briefings, approval items and board and commission actions, are available on the Charles County Board of County Commissioners’ website under “Available Archives.”
