The legislation would set up a zoning overlay in areas where data centers are located.
Frederick, Md (KM) A bill regulate where data centers can be located in Frederick County came before the Council on Tuesday
The legislation would create a zoning overlay which limits where data centers can be sited, and restricts these facilities to areas zoned limited industrial and general industrial “The CDI overlay appears to the best solution,” says Victoria Veneble, the Director of Government Relations for the County Executive’s Office, who briefed the Council on the legislation. . “As you’ll see in front of you, this language simply establishes the overlay. So it puts the language around what is and regulates that data centers can only go in land that has that overlay over it.”
According to the background material, the legislation concentrates data centers around the East Alcoa site where these facilities are under construction. It also limits to development to less than 1% of the county’s land. The purpose is to also provide transparency and opportunities for public input. The legislation maintains County Council control over land use decisions.
Data centers are not permitted in rural legacy and priority preservation areas.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman Jerry Donald brought up this question. “The area you were talking about around the old Eastalco site is a rural legacy area which involves the state. And as I understand it, the state has some rules about trying to pull something out of the map, or rezoning something in a rural legacy area. Has all this been addressed?”
Veneble responded “yes.” “We would want to make sure, first of all, there’s language in the bill that says we would not have the overlay over rural legacy. So that means if that is changing we would have to reconcile that through the Comprehensive Planning process. And that will have to go the state for approval,” she said.
The bill passed last week by the Council would allow data centers up to 100 feet from residential areas. That has generated some controversy. Council President Brad Young said the it not the intent to place these facilities too close to homes. “When we have a large parcel, a property to just say if it’s 1,000 acres and there’s a residential abutment that can’t have it there, was the intent. I think certainly, and I’m willing to go along with a 300 to 400-foot setback for the overlay, I’d be perfectly fine with that,” he says.
“We took a little bit of research on setbacks in general,” Veneble said. “The largest we could find was 300 {feet} for any uses. And that’s including some of our much more disruptive–I guess is the word–uses that require setbacks. 300 {feet} was the largest we saw. So that was going to be our starting point. But there’s a lot of room for discussion here.”
This legislation could be introduced next week before the Council. This bill would create the overlay through a zoning text amendment. Then a Comprehensive Plan Amendment would be drafted by the County’s Division of Planning and Permitting which would be reviewed by the Planning Commission. It would then be reviewed by the state and the County Council, which would approve the amendment.; A zoning map would be added to the overlay. Applications for zoning changes in the affected area could then be submitted.
By Kevin McManus