As the artificial intelligence (AI) industry grows rapidly and the construction of data centers—its core infrastructure—surges, conflicts within U.S. local communities are deepening. Amid the intersection of fierce resident opposition and local government dilemmas, an official from Loudoun County, Virginia—the world's largest concentration of data centers—visited Maryland to present realistic coexistence solutions and guidelines.
Speaking at the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) Summer Conference held at the Ocean City Convention Center in Maryland on the 13th, Michael Turner, a supervisor (council member) for Loudoun County, Virginia, stated that public sentiment regarding hyperscale (large-scale) data centers has turned noticeably colder in recent months.
Loudoun County, currently home to more than 250 data centers, has secured substantial local tax revenue through attracting these facilities. According to Supervisor Turner, until recently, explaining that property taxes were about 25% lower than in neighboring areas of the Washington, D.C. metro area thanks to data centers was enough to significantly ease residents' grievances.
Recently, however, the climate of public opinion has shifted completely. Turner reported that even when explaining the benefits of lower tax rates to residents, he faces the hardline response: "Raise our taxes, but don't build any more data centers." Nonetheless, he expressed concern over measures such as blanket bans or indefinite moratoriums on data center construction in response to resident pushback. This is because the tax revenues generated by data centers serve as a critical funding source for maintaining vital infrastructure, such as top-tier local schools and roads.
Currently, neighboring Maryland counties—including Frederick, Prince George's, and Harford—have placed moratoriums or total bans on new data center developments. In Frederick County in particular, plans were underway to develop a data center campus of approximately 2,500 acres by 2025, but more than 20,000 residents signed a petition in opposition. Ultimately, the county council president who had approved the development suffered a severe political fallout, losing in the primary election last June.
Supervisor Turner advised that rather than blocking projects unconditionally, communities need to establish sophisticated and strict "guardrails" to foster coexistence. As specific guidelines, he presented key measures local governments should take, including prohibiting non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with developers, enacting ordinances to limit noise and emissions from emergency diesel generators, mandating the submission of power and water usage data, and selecting locations that are adjacent to transmission lines while maintaining an appropriate distance from residential areas.
Deborah Carpenter, Director of Planning and Permitting for Frederick County, noted that a stalemate is continuing as high demand for AI and resistance to data centers grow simultaneously. She remarked that local governments face the difficult challenge of staying grounded and making necessary policy decisions amidst these conflicts.