Last week, County Executive Aisha Braveboy extended the moratorium on “Qualified Data Centers” to June 30, 2026. While the pause is welcome, we haven’t lost sight of our demand: no AI data centers in Prince George’s County. This extension is a clear stalling tactic, plain and simple. Officials are pushing the decision past the June 23rd Maryland primaries to avoid accountability!
PG County residents have been overwhelmingly clear: we want a complete ban, not more delays. While the council “hears us” and the first moratorium in the fall was initially a win, the repeated delays signal their interests are aligned with Big Tech Billionaires. The struggle continues and so will our movement!
According to Google:
What Happens After the June 30, 2026 Deadline? The current extension of the data center moratorium shifts the political and regulatory landscape into a critical next phase:
The Legislative Battle: The 14 recommendations are not yet law. Once the moratorium expires, the Prince George’s County Council must formally vote to adopt these guidelines into the county’s zoning ordinance and code.
The Landover Impact: If the council successfully codifies these recommendations into law, the original Landover Mall plan (Brightseat Tech Park) will be forced retroactively into the new Special Exception process. Given the deep opposition from Council Chair Jolene Ivey and community activists, the project would face an incredibly difficult path to final approval.
Industry Pushback: Organizations like the Maryland Tech Council have warned that adding these intense layers of bureaucratic delays could cause tech giants to look past Prince George’s County entirely, starving the county of much-needed tax revenue to plug its $200 million deficit. Emerging Environmental Justice and Health DataOpposition to the Landover site has evolved from general noise complaints into heavily researched health and environmental arguments:
High Burden Score: New data from the CDC’s Environmental Justice Index ranks the census tracts directly adjacent to the Landover Mall site at a 0.86 out of 1.0. This places the predominantly Black community of Landover in the highest tier nationwide for cumulative environmental burdens and health vulnerabilities.
The “Counter-Report”: The NAACP and the Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice, and Health (CEEJH) released a joint “People’s Report”. It highlights academic findings indicating that unregulated data center expansions could trigger severe spikes in local air pollution and respiratory illnesses due to the diesel backup generators used during power grid failures.
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