What’s Next for the Proposed Dickerson Data Center?

On June 16, some 80 Montgomery County residents testified before the County Council with their perspectives on data centers. The vast majority urged the Council to impose a moratorium on approval of any aspect of any proposed data center, including in Dickerson. A plurality supported a 2-year pause. Hundreds of people have submitted written statements as well—with similar support for either a 6-month or 2-year pause.

The rationale was consistent: County government (executive branch and the County Council) does not yet have enough information on the risks posed by large-scale data centers to make fully informed decisions. And the Council will need more time to draft a critical zoning ordinance and companion regulations to govern where data centers might be allowed, how they get built, and guardrails on their operation. That drafting process is underway, led by Marilyn Balcombe, the Dickerson-area representative on the County Council

The County Executive, Marc Elrich, earlier this month imposed a 6-month moratorium on any data center application approvals by County agencies.

Citizens told the Council at the public hearing that it should join the County Executive in enacting a moratorium—to assure that all bases (including legal) are covered and that solidarity among all branches of Montgomery County government on this issue is critical.

What’s Next?

The two moratorium bills now go to the County Council’s Economic Development Committee for consideration. That will likely happen in July. One scenario is that the bills get combined into a compromise. Many who testified called for such an outcome.

Notably, the Council has asked the County’s Office of Legislative Oversight (OLO) to write a report on data centers, with “a more detailed analysis of the potential impacts of new data centers in the County.”

What emerges from the Economic Development Committee will proceed to the full Council for deliberation and decision. The Council can amend any compromise reached in committee.

Clarification: if the Council enacts a moratorium, it will not in any way stop Council members and staff from continuing to draft new zoning and rules-of-the-road legislation covering data centers. Thus, Council members and staff can have discussions with Atmosphere, the company proposing the Dickerson data center, if they choose to.

A bit more complex is whether the executive branch agencies can have discussions with Atmosphere even as Atmosphere is barred from obtaining any approvals or permits. Two such sessions were planned, one on July 30 (Planning Board) and one on September 10-11 (Office of Zoning and Administrative Hearing) before County Executive Elrich imposed his moratorium. It remains to be seen whether those will be postponed. Both involve public testimony. The Montgomery County Planning Board is an independent advisory County entity and not subject to the jurisdiction of the Executive Branch. Letters to the Board this month request clarification by June 26 on whether it intends to go forward with the July 30 session.

Here’s a link to the Council’s staff report on one of the moratorium proposals.

Our Testimony

SCA testified on June 16. Here’s a link to our oral statement.

We’ll be submitting an additional written statement this week. Our website page on data centers has been updated to reflect our latest position statement. This page contains background on the proposed Dickerson data center dating back two years.

Please also see the web pages of our partners in data center advocacy—Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MCA) and the Montgomery County Climate Coalition.

One other link is a Substack post by Ethan Wechtaluk, dated May 29, 2026. We do not know this person nor can we vouch, of course, for any of the information it presents. But it was easily the most intriguing piece on the Dickerson data center we have read in a while.

Atmosphere CEO’s Email to SCA and MCA

As some of you may have already heard or read, Atmosphere CEO Chuck McBride sent us and MCA an email on June 10, 2026. That email is reproduced as written, and in its entirety, below—in italics. See our comment below the text.

From: Chuck McBride
Date: June 10, 2026 at 11:48:40 AM EDT
To: Caroline Taylor <caroline@mocoalliance.org>, Steven Findlay <stevenfindlay2@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Introduction to the Atmosphere-DC Communications Team in MontCo

Caroline, Steve,

You were friendly to our faces, but have stabbed us in the back repeatedly and I don't appreciate it.

We are the best data center company for the environment. Our water use is 0 gallons for half the year.

Your website continues to lie and exaggerate the water. We are not using 2M gallons a day. We are only using 69,300 gal per day on avg.

Our water use is low. We don't have noise issues and we don't have power rate issues. So what are you worried about?

Why try to stop a project that lowers your taxes and improves schools? We need data centers for our phones, for university research, for medical records, for banking/business, and cloud file storage?

Are you anti-progress? Are you funded by Neville Singham and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) like many of the other data center protesters?

Please back down asap. We are disrupting an industry that needs disruption and improvement. You're not helping the progress. You're actually harming what I thought your goals were.

Comment: This was and remains an unfortunate communication. A few days after we received this email, Mr. McBride followed up with an apology to both MCA and SCA.

Passions are high around this issue and the Dickerson project—on all sides. We choose to be magnanimous and accept Mr. McBride’s apology, albeit with lingering concerns about his judgement.

As to the substance of a few of his statements (i.e. water use), we refer you to MCA’s website and perspective. MCA staff is taking the lead on water use and cooling issues pertaining to the Dickerson project.

We welcome your comments to us on the Dickerson project at info@sugarloafcitizens.org. You can comment to the County directly; we urge you to do so by the deadline of Friday, June 26 if your comment addresses the proposed moratoriums.

After that, there will other opportunities to comment on the proposed Council rules, including through required public hearings. The timeframe of all that remains fluid for now, and in part awaits the Council’s moratorium decision.

Thanks for staying engaged on this critical issue for our community and for Montgomery County as a whole.