Bethesda Magazine reports that no new permits for data centers can be issued in the next 18 months after the Montgomery County Council’s unanimous vote. The bill combines separate proposals from Councilmembers Evan Glass and Will Jawando, who had sought six-month and two-year pauses, respectively. A zoning text amendment, also adopted unanimously, makes large data centers a non-permitted use in every zone.
Jawando said the Council received thousands of emails about the two proposals, in addition to dozens of comments at a joint public hearing:
“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 added 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. More on the data center moratorium →