County Council unanimously approves 18-month data center moratorium 

Passage of compromise bill follows challenge to Elrich’s executive order pausing new permits for six months

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July 28, 2026 5:20 p.m.

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No new permits for data centers can be issued in the next 18 months, the Montgomery County Council decided in a unanimous vote Tuesday. 

The data center moratorium bill is a combination of separate proposals from Councilmembers Evan Glass and Will Jawando (both D-At-large), who wanted to pause the facilities’ development for six months and two years, respectively. The council’s Economic Development Committee cobbled together the compromise during its meeting last week. 

Jawando said on Tuesday the council received thousands of emails about the two proposals in addition to dozens of comments during a joint public hearing last month.  

“The testimony was very clear several weeks ago that you all wanted to see a meaningful moratorium so that we can go through the tough issues,” Jawando said, adding that he would like to see more progress on tax policy, water usage and noise regulations before new data centers are built in the county. 

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During the Tuesday meeting, Glass said he hoped the moratorium would allow time for more community input. 

“Nothing will happen until we answer all the questions our community deserves,” Glass said during Tuesday’s meeting. “It is my hope that over the next 18 months we have some very serious and earnest dialogue with all of our stakeholders to answer these questions, because I don’t believe that the council … can answer those questions on our own.” 

The 18-month moratorium bill comes on the heels of Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) signing an executive order in June barring the county’s permitting department from accepting, processing or considering permit applications for new data centers.  

During the signing ceremony on June 12, Elrich said the order was “not a judgement about any specific proposal,” though calls for a moratorium followed increased public awareness of the plan to build a campus of data center buildings at the site of a former coal-fired power plant in Dickerson.  

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The developer of the Dickerson data center campus, Atmosphere Data Centers, is appealing a zoning interpretation based on Elrich’s six-month moratorium executive order, arguing the measure is unlawful because the council, not the executive, has the “power to legislate.” A hearing date for the appeal had not yet been scheduled as of Tuesday. 

In a Tuesday email to Bethesda Today, Atmosphere CEO Chuck McBride said the company is “disappointed” by the council’s decision to pass the 18-month moratorium bill. 

“Throughout this process, we worked collaboratively with the Council and other stakeholders to demonstrate that the Dickerson Data Center Campus is a unique redevelopment opportunity and to develop what we believe would be one of the most sustainable data center campuses possible,” McBride wrote. “We will take the time to fully evaluate the Council’s action and determine what it means for the Dickerson project.” 

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine