Calvert County commissioners will hold a public hearing Aug. 18 on a proposed six-month moratorium on data center site plan approvals, a move that comes just two weeks after Amazon Web Services withdrew its bid to build a sprawling data center campus near the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby.
The hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in the Chesapeake Hearing Room at 150 Main St. in Prince Frederick. According to a notice from the county, the proposed ordinance would pause new site plan approvals for data centers so officials can adopt updated zoning ordinance text amendments and heavy industrial use conditions, and complete studies the county says it still needs before deciding how to regulate the fast-growing industry.
Residents can review the full ordinance by calling the Department of Planning & Zoning at 410-535-1600, ext. 2356, or by visiting the county’s public hearing page online. The meeting will stream live on the county’s website and YouTube channel, and residents may comment by phone using a dial-in number and meeting ID provided by the county. Written comments will be accepted by email or mail through the close of business Aug. 17, the day before the hearing, and will become part of the official record. County officials noted the ordinance could still be substantively revised based on comments received at the hearing.
The moratorium proposal is the latest chapter in a data center fight that has consumed Calvert County politics for much of 2026. The controversy became public in dramatic fashion in March, when Amazon job postings for data center construction roles in Lusby began circulating on social media before residents had any formal notice that a project was under consideration, prompting confusion and anger about what agreements, if any, county officials had already made. Commissioners voted unanimously March 3 to begin exploring a possible 24-month moratorium on data center approvals, but that effort never took effect before AWS formally filed its site plan application in May.
AWS submitted its initial Conceptual Site Development Plan for the proposed “Calvert Technology Center” on May 4, paying application and environmental health fees later that month, and the application was accepted for processing May 27. As proposed, the project would have spanned roughly 2,000 acres of Constellation Energy land adjacent to the nuclear plant, with eight buildings totaling about 2.46 million square feet of data center space and an estimated 500 megawatts of power demand — enough, by industry estimates, to power more than 375,000 homes.
County departments and other reviewing agencies completed their first round of review on the concept site plan and sent comments back to AWS on July 13. Roughly three weeks later, on Aug. 4, the county announced AWS had withdrawn the application altogether, without publicly stating a reason.
The withdrawal drew a pointed response from Ethan Cox, a candidate for Calvert County Commissioner in District One, who said in a statement that he was “pleased” by Amazon’s decision but warned it does not resolve the underlying issue. Cox, a former Capitol Hill staffer and 2023 Northwestern University graduate now working as a consultant, said AWS could still choose to resubmit its application or that another developer could pursue a similar project on the same land. He called on the county to restore the site’s original farm-and-forest zoning designation, ban nondisclosure agreements between officials and developers, and prohibit hyperscale data centers in Calvert County outright.
Cox’s reference to nondisclosure agreements points to another flashpoint in the debate: residents learned earlier this year that Commissioner Earl “Buddy” Hance had signed an NDA in March 2025 with a company called Rowan Green Data LLC, later renamed Rowan Digital Infrastructure, fueling public frustration over secrecy in the county’s dealings with data center developers.
Cox is running to represent Southern Calvert County on a platform that includes ethics reform, opposition to overdevelopment, and support for stalled county projects including Dominion Regional Park, the St. Leonard Firehouse and the new Southern Branch Library. His campaign statement did not address whether other commissioners or candidates support the proposed six-month moratorium set for consideration Aug. 18.
Commissioners have separately moved this year to tighten data center oversight regardless of the moratorium’s fate. In May, the board voted to require any future data center proposals to comply with updated zoning text amendments rather than being grandfathered in under older rules. County officials have said they are not categorically opposed to data center development but want stronger environmental and infrastructure safeguards in place, given Calvert’s status as what the county’s own data center policy page describes as “a small, rural peninsula surrounded by water.”
Whether the Aug. 18 hearing results in the county’s first formal data center moratorium — after the earlier 24-month proposal stalled — remains to be seen. The outcome could shape how the county handles any future proposal on the Lusby site or elsewhere in Calvert County.
