Baltimore County, Maryland is considering a one-year moratorium on data center construction while it figures out how to regulate a proposed 150 MW facility on 42 acres in Woodlawn.
The pause would block new permits until January 1, 2027, and force a planning board review of zoning, power needs, and public water impacts, with recommendations due by October.
This is a preemptive move: the county currently has no data centers, but the scale of the Woodlawn proposal would materially affect local grid capacity and utilities if it proceeds.
Equity is part of the debate, since current siting rules push high-impact data center development toward predominantly Black and Brown communities east of Pulaski Highway and south of Liberty Road.
The county wants to stay ahead of expected statewide data center legislation and retain flexibility to tighten local controls on energy, infrastructure, and land use for large AI and cloud builds.
For AI infra planners, this is another signal that local permitting, power availability, and community impact will increasingly dictate where GPU-heavy data centers can realistically land.
Worth reading in full for nuances on how one county is trying to get its arms around power, water, and zoning before the first big facility arrives.
Source: One-year data center moratorium proposed in Baltimore County | WYPR
