The data center fight in Montgomery County, Maryland
As of October 1, 2026, Montgomery County, Maryland has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Jul 28, 2026; documented end date 2028-01-28).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
18-month moratorium approved unanimously, alongside limits on data center development
SourceOfficial
read 2026-08-04
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
The project on the table
Dickerson Data Center Campus (Atmosphere) — Awaiting decision
Operator: Atmosphere Data Centers · Acres: 110
Atmosphere Data Centers (which took over the project from Terra Innovations, whose initial conditional-use application dates to January 2024) proposes a five-building data center campus on 110 acres at the decommissioned Dickerson Generating Station coal plant site; a major modification to the conditional use was filed in December 2025 and amended plans are on Montgomery Planning's development database. On 2026-07-28 the Montgomery County Council approved an 18-month moratorium on new data center approvals that encompasses this proposal; Office of Zoning and Administrative Appeals hearings had been scheduled for Sept 10-11, 2026.
Next: Heard 2026-09-10; decision pending. Call the board clerk for the vote date and get on the notification list.
Latest in the record
- 2026-11-12 — The Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings lists the hearing on case CU 24-13(a)(A) (Atmosphere Dickerson Property Owner, LLC; conditional use holder Terra Energy, LLC) as scheduled for Thursday and Friday, November 12 and 13, 2026, at 9:30 a.m. · source
- 2026-09-10 — Office of Zoning and Administrative Appeals hearings on the conditional-use modification scheduled for Sept 10-11, 2026. · source
- 2026-07-30 — County Planning Board review of the project scheduled for July 30, 2026. · source
- 2026-07-28 — Montgomery County Council approved an 18-month moratorium halting new data center approvals and applications, encompassing the Atmosphere proposal for a 110-acre, 5-building campus in Dickerson. · source
- 2026-07-28 — After the Council passed the 18-month moratorium, Atmosphere CEO Chuck McBride said the company was disappointed and would take time to fully evaluate the Council's action. · source
- 2026-07-16 — County Executive Marc Elrich, at his weekly media briefing, acknowledged that Atmosphere Data Centers had filed an appeal of his data center moratorium with the county's Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearings. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-08-14.
Where the decision gets made
County Council — Legislation, budget, and land-use policy for 11 districts — passed a unanimous 18-month data center moratorium Jul 2026. The OZAH hearing examiner handles the Atmosphere Dickerson conditional use case (CU 24-13).
Meets: Tuesdays 9:00 a.m. (full council); committees Mondays/Thursdays
Where: Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville, MD 20850
Public comment: Sign up for live testimony (Zoom or in-person) or submit written/audio/video testimony via the council's testify page.
240-777-7900 · website
Read from the official page on 2026-08-18. Meeting details change — confirm before you go.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Maryland.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Maryland briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Maryland
- Howard County (16 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-11-02
- Frederick County (22 mi) — Enactedexpires 2026-12-31
- Prince George's County (28 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-07-07
- Carroll County (32 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-02-19
- Baltimore City (33 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-06-16
- Baltimore County (37 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-01-01
- Washington County (46 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-06-30
- Chesapeake Beach (48 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
All 21 tracked actions in Maryland are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.