Data centers in Montgomery County, Maryland: 2 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Montgomery County will issue no data center permits for 18 months under a moratorium the County Council passed unanimously on July 28, 2026. The main project it stops is in Dickerson, in the county's Agricultural Reserve, where Atmosphere Data Centers wants to build on Terra Energy's land at a coal-fired power plant shut in 2020. After the vote, Atmosphere's sustainability chief, Chris Baughman, said, "It does not look like we can proceed at this moment."

The council also passed its first zoning rules for data centers, which define the biggest ones, called hyperscale, and bar them from the county for now. The pause covers projects already filed or approved but without a building permit. Council President Natali Fani-González said, "We need more information, especially from the state," meaning a state study of data center impacts due to the governor by September 1; as of mid-September it had not been completed. Darian Unger of the county Sierra Club had warned the Dickerson plan could be "an enormous electricity-price-hiking, water-stealing pollution-emitting energy hog."

An existing data center on Prosperity Drive in Silver Spring was sold on August 1, 2026, for $29 million to Sansone Group, which reportedly plans to expand its computing capacity. The council's 18-month pause replaced a six-month order County Executive Marc Elrich signed in June.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.