Frederick County

Moratoriums and bans

1. July 1, 2026 Frederick County: Moratorium. The county executive put new applications for data centers and their substations on hold until Dec. 31, 2026, then on Sept. 14 extended the hold to July 1, 2027; parcels with public-facilities approvals before June 17, 2025 are exempt. New data centers are also confined to the overlay zone adopted in January 2026. (Frederick County Executive, July 1, 2026; Frederick County Executive, Sept. 14, 2026; Frederick County Council, Jan. 20, 2026)

Updates, newest first

1. Oct. 9, 2026 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · Technical.ly reported that Quantum Maryland sued the county executive, the county and its planning commission in Frederick County Circuit Court over the hold and the rejected agreement. (Technical.ly, Oct. 9, 2026)
2. Sept. 14, 2026 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · Fitzwater rejected Quantum Maryland's request for a Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreement, which carried a proposed community benefits package, and extended the application hold to July 1, 2027. (Frederick County Executive, Sept. 14, 2026; Frederick County Executive, Sept. 14, 2026; Frederick County Government, Oct. 25, 2026)
3. July 1, 2026 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · County Executive Jessica Fitzwater ordered a hold on new data center and substation applications through Dec. 31, 2026, exempting parcels with public-facilities approvals before June 17, 2025; a county map showed about 1,297 overlay acres in that exempt group. (Frederick County Executive, July 1, 2026; Frederick County Division of Planning and Permitting, July 14, 2026)
4. July 1, 2026 Frederick County: Moratorium · The county executive put new applications for data centers and their substations on hold until Dec. 31, 2026, then on Sept. 14 extended the hold to July 1, 2027; parcels with public-facilities approvals before June 17, 2025 are exempt. New data centers are also confined to the overlay zone adopted in January 2026. (Frederick County Executive, July 1, 2026; Frederick County Executive, Sept. 14, 2026; Frederick County Council, Jan. 20, 2026)
5. June 30, 2026 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · The Supreme Court of Maryland ended a petition drive, signed by more than 20,000 residents, to put the overlay map to a referendum. (NBC4 Washington, July 3, 2026; WYPR, July 2, 2026)
6. March 25, 2026 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · MDE's permit to construct for Amazon Data Services' data center at 3250 Digital Drive, with 99 diesel emergency generators, took effect after public meetings in April and December 2025. (Maryland Department of the Environment, Air and Radiation Administration, March 25, 2026)
7. March 12, 2026 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · Aligned's second building on its 75-acre parcel, IAD-06, a 72 MW building, reached its structural top-out; its first building, IAD-04, broke ground in 2025. (DatacenterDynamics, March 12, 2026)
8. Jan. 20, 2026 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · The council adopted the overlay map, about 2,615 acres, by a 5-2 vote, along with rezoning of about 838 acres to industrial use. (Frederick County Council, Jan. 20, 2026; Frederick County Government, Oct. 25, 2026; Frederick County Government Relations Office, Sept. 2026)
9. Sept. 2025 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · The County Council passed CB 25-09, limiting new data centers to a mapped overlay zone around the former Eastalco site; a June 2025 executive order had paused new applications while it was drafted. (Frederick County Government Relations Office, Sept. 2026; Frederick County Government, Sept. 2026)
10. Jan. 30, 2025 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · MDE issued Aligned a permit to construct 172 diesel emergency generators for a four-building campus at 5601 Manor Woods Road. (Maryland Department of the Environment, Air and Radiation Administration, Jan. 30, 2025)
11. Dec. 23, 2024 Quantum Frederick (Frederick Digital Campus) · TPG's Catellus took over as sole developer of the 2,100-acre campus after Quantum Loophole stepped back and the two sides dropped their litigation. (DatacenterDynamics, Dec. 23, 2024; Catellus Development Corporation, Oct. 25, 2026; Maryland Department of the Environment, Oct. 25, 2026)

Statewide

Chapter 640 of 2020 exempts equipment bought for a qualified data center from the state sales and use tax (the operator must invest at least $5 million, or $2 million in a Tier I area, and create at least five jobs) and lets counties and towns reduce or remove property tax on data center equipment; a 2026 bill to repeal both (HB 560) was introduced. (Maryland Department of Legislative Services, 2026; Maryland General Assembly, Oct. 25, 2026) The Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act of 2024 (Chapter 411, SB 474) exempts on-site emergency backup generators at qualifying data centers from the Public Service Commission's certificate of public convenience and necessity under set conditions; it also changes how corporate income tax from certain new data centers is distributed. (Maryland General Assembly, May 9, 2024) SB 116 of 2025 (enacted over the governor's veto as Chapter 10 of the 2025 special session) requires a state study of data centers' environmental, energy and economic impacts, due Sept. 1, 2026; Frederick County said in mid-September that it had not yet been completed. (Maryland Department of Legislative Services, 2025; Maryland General Assembly, Oct. 25, 2026; Frederick County Executive, Sept. 14, 2026) The Next Generation Energy Act of 2025 required each utility to file a separate large-load rate schedule by Sept. 1, 2026 so other customers do not carry the cost of serving them; the Utility RELIEF Act (HB 1532, Chapter 353 of 2026) lowered the large-load threshold from 100 MW to 25 MW, ordered a Public Service Commission registry of large loads by July 1, 2027, and barred data centers in most Baltimore City tax increment financing districts. (Maryland Department of Legislative Services, 2026; Maryland General Assembly, Oct. 25, 2026) Maryland data centers →