Alana Davis put a question to one Charles County commissioner by name on Tuesday evening: would he still introduce a county data center ban, even if he knew he didn’t have the votes to pass it?
Davis, who lives in District 3 and leads the Charles County Against Data Centers Coalition, told the Board of County Commissioners during the Oct. 6 public comment session that hundreds of residents have emailed commissioners asking for a local ban. She said Commissioner Gilbert Bowling had committed to them in writing, and several times since, to introduce county legislation. State legislation, she said, is not a substitute, because commissioners have little say over whether it passes. She argued that a bill often has to be introduced more than once before it wins, and that a public hearing would give residents something to organize around before a new board takes office.
The first commissioner to respond said he had tried. Introducing a bill takes three commissioners, he said, and he did not have them. “I fulfilled my commitment,” he said, adding that he is “only one commissioner out of five.” If someone on the board seated in December makes the motion, he said, he will second it.
Define it first
Several colleagues spent their closing remarks on a different question: what, exactly, would be banned.
One commissioner pointed to the governor’s executive order, which covers projects using 25 megawatts or more, and asked ban supporters to be specific. A small business might have one or two servers, the commissioner said. A bank might draw 5 to 25 kilowatts, a telecom operator 10 to 100, and hospitals run large servers. The commissioner said any county bill should ask whether a project is large enough to need new transmission lines, a substation or its own generation. Another commissioner said he would back a ban on hyperscale facilities but would not ban a small business, or the county government’s own server room.
That same commissioner went further, saying Charles already has what amounts to a ban. With no approved use for data centers, he said, a company that buys land at Piney Branch or Morgantown still cannot “turn on the lights.” Commissioner Thomasina Coates said the county needs due diligence first, noting there is no data center bill in place.
Mark Smith, CEO of Carbon Country LLC, which owns farms in Nanjemoy and Indian Head, urged the same caution during public comment. He said the definition in the proposed zoning amendment would make “every single modern business” a data center and would effectively prohibit modern agriculture in agricultural zones. He asked commissioners not to rush into a moratorium with “poorly thought through definitional language.”
The election clock
Trudy Badou, speaking for the coalition, pointed to Calvert County, where Amazon Web Services withdrew its application and commissioners paused new applications for six months. She said three Calvert commissioners who opposed the pause lost their primaries. She told Charles commissioners voters have one remaining option: “See you at the polls” on Nov. 3. One commissioner noted that Calvert paused data centers rather than banning them.
Calvert’s story, covered earlier by the Chronicle, began with a public hearing on a six-month pause after AWS dropped its roughly 2,000-acre “Calvert Technology Center” plan. Maryland Matters reported that the three ousted Calvert commissioners, Todd Ireland, Mark Cox Sr. and Earl “Buddy” Hance, had rejected a pause several times, including by a 3-2 vote in April.
Where Charles stands
The Chronicle’s March look at data center planning in St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles described a Charles zoning text amendment, ZTA 25-187, first briefed to commissioners on Oct. 7, 2025. It would have allowed data centers in specific zones with 30 percent open space, 200-foot property-line setbacks and 400-foot setbacks from homes. On July 21, commissioners chose not to advance the amendment and told staff to return with a framework for the next phase, including a task force and consultants.
Elsewhere in Maryland, Harford County passed a ban on data centers unanimously on June 10, the first county to do so. Opponents there warned it lacks a precise definition and expect a court challenge, the same problem Charles commissioners raised.
On Sept. 23, Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order creating a seven-agency review of projects expected to use at least 25 megawatts, with a monthly public dashboard. Moore said the state “will not go around a local community’s ‘no.'” One Charles commissioner said the board would revisit the issue when the state issues its report.
A new board is sworn in Dec. 1.
