Frederick County is wrestling with whether to greatly expand where data centers can be built, moving beyond a former aluminum plant site into 1,500–2,500+ acres of mostly rural land.
The core AI infra issue is how much new power-hungry, noisy, high-density compute the county will allow, and where it will sit relative to residents and farmland.
Locals are pushing back hard on energy use, potential electricity cost increases, noise, pollution, and loss of rural character, while supporters stress the essential role of data centers in cloud, AI, and broader digital services.
There is already a countywide 1 percent land cap for data centers, and both current proposals stay under it, but the practical impact would be a large concentrated AI/compute estate in one area.
Operationally, this comes down to whether the council imposes strong guardrails such as cleaner power mandates, efficiency standards, and tighter siting rules or leans more toward developer flexibility.
The long-running fight shows how even modest-percentage zoning caps can still translate into significant regional AI infrastructure, with political risk if residents feel steamrolled.
The linked amendment and hearing context are worth a close read if you care about how local zoning will shape real-world capacity for GPUs and high-density compute in the Mid-Atlantic.
Source: Frederick County adds second public hearing over data center plans
