A site plan circulating on social media that appears to show a large Equinix data center campus on Three Notch Road in Mechanicsville is fake, and no such project has been proposed, St. Mary’s County officials say.
The image shows two data center buildings of about 250,000 square feet each, rows of backup generators, two stormwater ponds and a gated entrance off Three Notch Road. It’s dressed up to look local. It carries Equinix logos and labels on nearby businesses, including Mr. Tire Auto Service Centers, which does operate at 28926 Three Notch Road in Mechanicsville.
The image spread fast enough that elected officials moved to knock it down. Commissioner Mike Alderson posted a warning on his official Facebook page: “If you see or hear of a post that says a data center is proposed for the northern end“ of the county, it isn’t true. [Del. Matt Morgan and Sen. Jack Bailey, who represent District 29, also said no such data center is proposed.]
The Chronicle found no application, filing or public announcement connected to the image. It doesn’t come from a county planning document, a real estate listing or an Equinix announcement. Equinix, a global data center company, operates a large cluster of facilities in Northern Virginia’s data center corridor and has announced nothing in Southern Maryland. The rendering also labels two businesses, “Drove Collision” and “Alvin’s Barber Shop,” that the Chronicle could not find along that stretch of Three Notch Road.
Why it caught on
The fake landed in a region already on edge about data centers. Across the Patuxent River, Amazon Web Services proposed a roughly 2.46-million-square-foot data center campus beside Calvert Cliffs this spring, then withdrew it in August after fierce opposition. Three Calvert commissioners who had opposed a pause on data center development lost their primaries. Calvert has since adopted a six-month data center moratorium and is weighing a two-year extension. On Sept. 30, Amazon announced a separate 20-year power deal at Calvert Cliffs, a deal Constellation says includes no data center.
St. Mary’s County is in a different spot. Data centers are not listed as an allowed use in the county’s Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. During an April discussion of the ordinance rewrite, a county board member urged colleagues to go further and write an explicit ban into the code. As Calvert and Charles took zoning steps earlier this year, St. Mary’s was monitoring the issue through its planning process. The commissioners are now finalizing the county’s 2050 Comprehensive Plan ahead of an Oct. 6 hearing.
How to check before you share
Real development proposals leave a paper trail. In St. Mary’s County, major projects go through the Department of Land Use and Growth Management and appear on Planning Commission and Technical Evaluation Committee agendas, which are posted publicly. A project this size would also need state environmental and utility approvals.
Before sharing a site plan or rendering:
- Look for a project name, an applicant, and a case or application number.
- Check whether the county’s planning office or your commissioner can confirm it.
- Be wary of images that pile local landmarks and corporate logos onto a polished aerial view with no source attached.
Residents with questions about any proposed project can contact St. Mary’s County Land Use and Growth Management or their county commissioner directly.
