Prince George鈥檚 County sees tax revenue from large data centers as a huge economic boon at a time when its budget is severely strained, but the Maryland county is also putting further development of them on pause anyway.
County Executive Aisha Braveboy issued an order pausing the issuance of any permits for data center construction until after a task force finishes making recommendations to help guide their future development. At the same time, the county council began moving toward legislating its own moratorium, as well.
Council member Wala Blegay, who is on the task force, said the move has been in the works for months 鈥� before concern about the building of a data center at the old Landover Mall site blew up.
鈥淭he concern that we had is that, what if somebody starts putting something up while we’re doing this task force,鈥� Blegay said. 鈥淭his task force would not be taken seriously.鈥�
The task force is working to unveil a list of recommendations to guide the process of building data centers later next year.
鈥淲e do not have any requirements or standards with infrastructure, which is an issue, to leave it to project per project,鈥� Blegay said. 鈥淏ecause of the concerns people have, we do believe that standards need to be set ahead of time.鈥澛�
In 2021 the county council voted to streamline the approval process, which is notoriously slow in the county.
鈥淚 think everyone understands now that that was a huge mistake because the residents have a stake in where these data centers are located,鈥� Braveboy said. She said now is her chance to help the county get it right.
鈥淚’m in support generally of data centers,鈥� Braveboy said. 鈥淚 do believe it’s a really good economic tool in the right locations.鈥�
Blegay said right now the old Landover Mall site is聽one of three large data centers currently going through the process.
鈥淚f we’re going to move forward, we have to set standards, and we have to make sure that it’s well thought out,鈥� Blegay said. But she also conceded this could get litigated by any of the companies behind those three projects.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a risk,鈥� Blegay said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e working with our lawyers to make sure our actions are supported by law. But we do know that we do anticipate some litigation.鈥�
91欧美激情 has reached out to a spokeswoman for Lerner Enterprises, which owns the Landover Mall site.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2025 91欧美激情. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
