Calvert County Board Rushes Data Center Regulations Ahead of New Term
Calvert County's outgoing Board of Commissioners is pushing to enact stricter data center regulations before new members are sworn in, despite some having lost their seats for previously opposing a moratorium. The board aims to extend the existing moratorium by two years, remove data centers as permitted uses in industrial zones, and rezone land. The urgency stems from past public opposition that led to Amazon withdrawing a data center proposal in the county.
The outgoing Calvert County Board of Commissioners, including members who previously lost their seats for opposing a data center moratorium, is fast-tracking new regulations to restrict data center development. During a recent work session, the board directed planning staff to prepare for a vote on December 15 to extend the existing data center moratorium by two years. They also agreed to pursue removing data centers as a permitted use in industrial zones and rezoning heavy-industrial land.
This push for tighter regulations follows a history of public opposition in Calvert County, particularly against a proposed Amazon data center campus near the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby. A petition with over 10,000 signatures led to Amazon withdrawing its project in August 2026, after which the board unanimously enacted a six-month moratorium. Public comments on the current plan included procedural concerns about extending the moratorium, warnings about the regional power grid's capacity and rising utility costs due to data center growth, and calls to rezone the Lusby site back to forest and farming. A state-mandated study on data centers' environmental and economic impacts, due in September, has not yet been released. Despite some support for using the moratorium to define acceptable data center projects, the December 15 vote will occur with at least two new commissioners who campaigned against data centers.