No referendum on Frederick data center expansion, MD Supreme Court rules

Frederick County residents will not be able to vote on the expansion of a data center campus.

In a brief per curiam order Tuesday, the Maryland Supreme Court upheld a decision earlier this month by the Frederick County Circuit Court, which ruled that zoning changes like the one affecting the data center campus outside Adamstown are not subject to ballot referendums.

The court wrote that it would explain its reasoning “in an opinion to be filed later.”

“Obviously, we are disappointed with the outcome and don’t agree, but at the end of the day, we’ve got more homework to do … to really effect change in Frederick County,” said Elizabeth Bauer, lead organizer for the local Data Center Referendum Committee group opposing the data center.

The “majority” of residents, she said, “are going to be pretty upset.”

Keith Forst, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in Washington, D.C., argued Tuesday that the lower court was right to keep the question off the ballot. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After the Frederick County Council passed an ordinance in December adding 1,000 acres to the area designated for data centers, the referendum committee attempted to put the ordinance on the November ballot. It argued that the 2,615-acre Critical Digital Infrastructure Overlay Zone would encroach on farmland and that the data centers would drive up residents’ utility costs.

The committee collected more than 20,000 signatures, and the Frederick County Board of Elections approved the ballot question.

Most of the campus will be occupied by Quantum Frederick, a “hyperscale” data center that, according to the county, would be one of the largest on the East Coast. The Social Security Administration and the Federal National Mortgage Association, known as Fannie Mae, also operate data centers on the campus.

Several property owners and data center operators, including Quantum Maryland, filed lawsuits challenging the election board’s approval of the proposed ballot referendum.

A judge ruled on June 18 that the zoning ordinance was not subject to ballot referendums. He also ruled that the ballot question was improper because the maps were unclear, and it did not include the full text of the ordinance being challenged.

Bauer said that the committee’s efforts will now turn to supporting candidates who want to scale back the development of data centers.

“I think we’ve opened the citizens’ eyes wide open, so I think we have a good chance at making effective change through the candidates that we are supporting,” she said.

“While we’ve lost this, the battle has not been won. We still feel very strongly that change is coming to Frederick County and that we can influence that change.”