August 23, 2025 • 31 mins
Take a listen as we explore the world of data centers—their pros and cons, and what it could mean to build them in Prince George’s County as a way to grow the commercial tax base.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, welcome back to another episode of All Politics
is Local with me, your host,tamara Davis Brown.
Thank you for joining us, andonce again, I'd like to put in a
plug to say thank you, thankyou, thank you for making.
All Politics is Local, number79 in the top 80 of all civic
(00:28):
podcasts nationwide, and so weare really appreciative of you
tuning in, and thank you so muchfor also sharing the podcast
with your neighbors, family andfriends.
So today's episode is what's upwith data centers?
We're starting to hear a lotmore about data centers If you
(00:53):
live in the DMV in Virginia andnow in Maryland and in Prince
George's County, and so Ithought I would spend some time
talking about data centers.
So data centers are buildingsthat house the infrastructure
(01:29):
that supports the world'scomputing functions, servers,
process and store the data,commonly referred to as the
cloud.
Now, many of you have heard ofthe cloud, and we contribute to
the need to have more datacenters because we are using
(01:50):
more social media.
We're uploading our picturesand our videos on social media,
whether it's Facebook, instagram, all of those social media
sites, tiktok.
Everything that we uploadactually is uploaded not into a
literal cloud, and I'm sure youknew that, but it is upload and
(02:12):
stored on servers throughout thenation and those servers have
to be housed somewhere, and theplace that they are housed are
called data centers.
Data centers primary functionis to process and access data,
(02:34):
but they also store datasafeguarding sensitive
information, so it'sinaccessible to hackers.
So that's a little bit aboutwhat data centers are, and let's
jump in as to why we're hearingso much about them.
As I had mentioned, because weuse a lot of data and store a
(02:57):
lot of data.
Just thinking about socialmedia, you know if you have
thousands of friends and each ofyou are posting your vacation
videos, your anniversaries, yourbirthday pictures and research,
all those things.
All colleges and universities, alot of companies are moving to
AI to also streamline jobs.
We're using artificialintelligence to do the work that
(03:21):
many live people used to do.
So that also takes up a lot ofstorage and data processing that
(03:55):
we would normally use humanbrain and human minds for.
So with that, there needs to bea lot of storage here in the
District of Columbia, Maryland,and particularly Virginia.
Virginia is the home to lotsand lots of data centers, those
(04:21):
big mega sites, all types ofhuge, huge acres upon acres upon
acres of data centers, andwe're starting to hear now that
those data centers are becominga problem for local residents,
(04:42):
especially if they are locatedfairly close to residential
developments.
I have not driven into Virginiato go do any research on it,
but we're just starting to hear.
Like Prince William and PrinceFrederick County, those counties
are now getting some pushbackon proposals to build even more
(05:08):
data centers, and the reasonthat they are is because they're
starting to affect energyconsumption, with energy rates
going higher for the residents,as well as water consumption.
And you would probably ask well, why is water necessary?
(05:30):
Well, the servers.
They get very hot and they haveto cool down, so you have to
use cooling systems, and thecooling systems operate through
the use of water, and so watertables are lower, people are
experiencing higher water bills.
All of the bills are increasingin terms of utilities, not
(05:52):
because the residents areactually using more utilities,
more water, more electricity butthese data centers are and, as
you know, when demand goes up,the price also goes up.
So that's some of the issuesthat we're hearing in Prince
William County, prince FrederickCounty, both in Virginia,
(06:16):
regarding data centers so PrinceGeorge's County because we're
so heavily dependent onresidential property tax and
income tax.
We are really struggling andtrying to find a good commercial
(06:41):
tax base that can help buttressto pay for just the operating
expenses of the county, whetherthat's police, fire, teachers,
just parking planning, all ofthose different things, so that
we don't have to increase taxeson the residents.
And so there's a big push inthe county to see if we can get
(07:06):
data centers to come to thecounty.
Now there are some existing datacenters already in the county.
Most of them are in thenorthern and central parts of
the county and they actuallyrelate to a lot of federal
installations.
The Beltsville area is highlyindustrial and so that's an area
(07:27):
that has some existing datacenters that are related to
federal and potentially somestate uses.
Some of the larger data centersare run by your tech moguls,
such as Microsoft, amazon,facebook all of we now, as they
(07:53):
now call themselves Meta, butall of the big tech companies.
Amazon also has AWS.
Amazon is one of the big datacenter users as well.
So again in Prince George'sCounty there was a big push to
actually implement localordinance to make it easier for
(08:18):
applicants who are seeking tobuild a data center in Prince
George's County to go throughthe zoning and approval and
permitting process very quicklyand it basically shut out the
ability of the community to, ofcourse, have their say and give
(08:39):
their voice to whether or notthey want a data center near or
in their community.
So what the current countycouncil has done in Prince
George's County they created adata center task force that
started back in April of thisyear but recently they had some
(09:04):
community meetings.
They had one in the northernpart of the county, the central
part of the county as well asthe southern part of the county,
and I attended the last one inthe southern part of the county
on July 26th.
And Maryland National CapitalPark and Planning, the planning
(09:24):
division, actually put this on,put this public meeting on where
we as citizens were able to say, okay, this is if, do we want
data centers, yes or no?
If we had data centers, whatare some of the parameters that
should be considered?
What are some of the communitybenefits?
(09:45):
They wanted to know just ourwhole thinking about data
centers.
Now, park and Planning'sconsultant is a company by the
name of Gensler G-E-N-S-L-E-R.
I believe they're the ones thatactually kind of ran through
and got our input, but it shouldbe noticed that Gensler is a
(10:11):
nationwide consultant to datacenters and so or owners of data
centers, so they are very prodata center centric, pro data
center centric, and it came outa little bit in the presentation
and people in the audience kindof as well.
You know we like to push backon, you know all of the benefits
(10:33):
, but they didn't really talkabout a lot of the downsides,
which had to do with increaseduse of utility demand and how
that's going to impact localresidents here.
Whether or not you know ourwater tables are lower, whether
(10:56):
or not you know the grid for ourarea would be severely impacted
, and so those are some of thethings that we have heard.
There are one, two, three, yeah,four types of data centers in
(11:19):
terms of size, so I'll explainthose.
The first is called Edge.
It's about 5,000 to 10,000square feet.
The second is called Enterpriseor Corporate, which is from
10,000 to 50,000 square feet.
The third is Co-Location orWholesale, which is 50,000 to
(11:45):
350,000 square feet and wouldhave to sit on at least one to
10 acres.
And then the hyperscales.
These are the huge ones thatwe've seen being built in
Virginia.
They're the big tech campusagain, with users like AWS,
amazon, workspace, google,microsoft and Meta.
(12:07):
Those are over 350,000 squarefeet and usually need 10 or more
acres of land.
So we have seen that in thepossibility that some of our
existing commercial tax base isleaving.
(12:28):
So let's just talk about SixFlags, for example.
Six Flags has a huge amount ofacreage and I think you know
it's already been sold andthey've already got development.
But the land there could be apotential spot for a data center
(12:50):
only because the acreage is solarge and there is, in my
opinion, a way to kind ofcontinue to keep it buttressed
from the rest of the community.
So when you drive down CentralAvenue and you drive past Six
Flags, you really can't see thepark from the road.
Similarly, I personally thinkthat any data center rebuild,
(13:14):
regardless of how large and ofcourse I'm more favorable
towards something smaller, likethe edge, 5,000 to 10,000 square
feet, as opposed to these bighyperscale ones but you really
need to have that buttressbetween the data center and the
(13:37):
community so that you don't notonly just see this large
building but you don't want tohear it.
You don't want to hear.
Another complaint is noisecomplaints about the humming and
the buzz sound of not the datacenters or the servers
themselves, but the actualcooling system to keep the data
(14:01):
centers from over.
I mean not the data centers butthe servers from overheating.
I mean not the data centers butthe servers from overheating.
So there needs to be someforethought, and some of the
things that I had suggested atthe meeting is that all of the
data centers need to be on landthat is already zoned industrial
(14:22):
so that we don't have to gothrough any zoning changes.
So if we put them on industrialsites, that means that there is
rarely, if ever, any nearby,although there could be, just
(14:44):
depends on what part of thecounty.
So, like Beltsville, beltsvillehas a lot of warehousing.
Wholesale industrial sites thatmake it consistent with
potentially using that area inany industrial sites in that
area is a good potential for atype of data center.
(15:08):
I don't know how much acreageis available there, but
certainly the edge or theenterprise between the 5,000 and
10,000 and 10,000 and 50,000square feet might be conducive.
One of the things that we wantto be wary of is plopping a data
(15:29):
center in the midst of aresidential area, and I know
that there's a push in thesouthern part of the county to
try to put some data centers.
Here Again, we need it to be anindustrial site.
We need to protect historicpreservation areas and uses.
(15:53):
We need to, you know, protectany agricultural or farming area
that's already, you know, beingused, because in the southern
part of the county we have a lotof farms, we have a lot of
vineyards, we have a lot ofhistorical sites that we
(16:16):
wouldn't want to put somethingas industrial as a data center
there.
So those are just some of mypersonal thoughts.
(16:43):
Was the power usage, and youknow they admitted that data
centers are power intensive.
They need reliable, robustaccess to power and it's
essential for their operationsand can limit, you know, where
(17:04):
data centers can be located.
The second, as I also mentioned, was the water usage.
Data centers often need greateraccess to municipal water
supplies than typical industrialsites and must have proper
infrastructure to manage wateruse and discharge.
And again, they use those.
They use an excess of water forair cool chillers, for
(17:29):
closed-loop cooling, and theycan use reclaimed and
non-potable water to help datacenters lower their demand on
municipal water supply systems.
So for us that's WSSC water.
So another considerationbesides making sure there's
(17:53):
enough buffer between whereverthis data center is going to
land, not only to buffer thesound, but also make sure that
the type of cooling system thatthey have is not dependent upon,
necessarily, our municipalwater supply, wssc, but
(18:15):
potentially that they can gettheir own water supply and then
reuse it, you know, bring it onsite and then continue to reuse
it to cool the servers and thechilled air coolers and all
those things.
So that's a little bit aboutwhat data centers are what they
(18:40):
are considering.
Again, I don't know if there areany other particular sites, but
there are several sites in thenorthern part of the county, big
(19:02):
mixed-use development, and allthey built was apartments but
they cleared 1,000, well, Iwon't say 1,000, but they
cleared at least a couplehundred acres of trees and they
built absolutely nothing there.
And the other thing that reallyirks me about that project is
that that developer got a taxincrement financing a TIF, which
(19:28):
means that they pay theirproperty tax on a delayed basis
for the promises that they'regoing to build.
You know, this huge supermulti-mix use development with
all kinds of amenities, allkinds of shops and entertainment
and trails and this, that andthe other, and none of that has
(19:49):
materialized.
And so I say, you know, if youwant to, for as much land that
they've cleared, although theybuilt a whole host of apartments
, I've seen nothing else.
They can plop a data centerover there on that land and let
them have at it, but I doubtthat.
(20:10):
It's zoned industrial and Idon't even know if they have to
go through the rezoning process.
I know that they are on theparking planning's website
lately for some new activities,so maybe they're finally trying
to do something there.
But I just give that examplebecause I was just so frustrated
(20:33):
when that project passed andthen when that project was given
a tip and it sat there fordecades, for decades you know
that was during the Bakeradministration.
So we've had you know, almosteight years of the Brooks
administration.
We're finishing that out andthen coupled with the first term
(21:00):
of the Baker administration.
So I just get so frustratedwith the county giving tax
increment financing todevelopers and then they sit on
the land and don't do anythingand then when they build they
don't build what was promisedand we get left holding the bag
(21:22):
as usual.
So in any event, I just wantedto kind of highlight what data
centers are, what are some ofthe advantages not really
advantages, but what you know,what their uses are and what
some of the complaints thatyou're hearing Now.
Me personally, I'm atelecommunications attorney and
I actually have my own broadbandbusiness, last Mile Broadband
(21:46):
and our company would bedefinitely interested in
bringing fiber to data centers.
So I have a little bit of abias, I have to admit, to
wanting to see data centers inthe county.
I just want them to be properlyregulated and make sure that
(22:06):
they stay in the industrial zonethat they use.
For example, instead of usingelectricity from the grid, why
not have the buildings be allsolar so that they can be solar
powered Again?
Instead of using WSSC water,why not have them import water
(22:28):
from whatever source that theyhave to purchase it from and
then recycle it and reuse it,since one of the things they say
that they can do is usenon-potable water to service
those servers and to cool thoseservers.
(22:51):
So those are some of the thingsthat I'm thinking about, and I
think you know the smaller edge,the 5,000 to 10,000 square feet
or the enterprise corporate,just depending on the acreage of
land, would be something thatwe can consider If it's in an
industrial zone it's, you know,not too large like these big
(23:15):
hyperscale where we may not haveenough land to put that on.
But you know we're going tohave the like I said, six Flags
is going to be going away.
I don't know what we're goingto do with Greenbelt.
I guess we're going to kind ofkeep that as a placeholder for
FBI.
(23:35):
But we know it's not cominganytime soon and, based on the
current federal administrationand you know, there are some
other projects that haveprojects that have cleared land
but done nothing, I don'tnecessarily in other parts of
the county.
I don't know necessarily whatthey're zoned as, but we know
(24:00):
that there's some land availablein other parts of the county
that could be repurposed fordata centers.
You know I'm even thinking ofthe old land over mall area.
What are we doing there?
(24:21):
They tore down some of theapartments that were directly
across.
I don't know if they're goingto rebuild those.
They may be rebuilding those.
I know some newer apartmentshave been put up just past that
area so that one may be just.
That location may be just alittle too close to residential
(24:41):
area and it's probably not zonedindustrial.
It's probably just zonedcommercial, since it was
formerly a mall, but easy accesson off.
They could butcher, sit withsome more trees Again, put some
solar on top, things like that.
So I'm just thinking about someareas where we had some
(25:03):
commercial activity or we hadsome type of use and it's either
gone away or it's going away,six Flags being one, landover
Mall being another, theGreenbelt site for FBI Again, I
think we probably should hold onto that.
(25:24):
There may be a possibility oftrying to get that to come back,
but I don't think it's going tohappen in this administration.
So you know, we'll just have tosit tight there.
But then there's some projectsand some industrial sites in the
northern part of the county.
So if you'd like to find out,especially if you live in Prince
(25:47):
George's County, but if you'dlike to find out a little bit
more about the task force, theymeet let's see, both in person
and virtually at 11 am at 1616McCormick Drive in Largo.
So the next several meetingsfor the rest of the year will be
(26:11):
September 10th, october 8th andNovember 12th.
So you can go to just do asearch for Prince George's
County Data Center Task Force tofind out more information about
what they're doing.
I think the September 10thmeeting will be a good meeting
to hear a synopsis of all threepublic meetings that they've had
(26:36):
in the county and to see youknow what the next steps are and
what they're going to do.
So that's what's up with thedata centers.
We'll keep our eyes and earsattentive to what the county is
doing, is planning to do, but itcan be a good source of
(26:59):
commercial tax base withoutthere being a lot of
infrastructure that's reallyneeded.
And when I say infrastructure,I'm talking about roads and so
forth, because generally atthese data centers there's not a
lot of employees that workthere.
There may be a handful ofemployees to come check on the
servers, make sure everything'sworking properly, making sure
(27:22):
the cooling systems are workingproperly, and that's that's.
That's pretty much.
It Maybe some security orsomething like that, but it's
not a whole host of employeescoming onto a site.
You may have a handful.
Even at the large hyper scalecenters, there's still not a lot
of employees on site.
(27:43):
So that means that there's nota lot of traffic congestion
around those areas and so forth.
The only time there's going tobe anything in terms of traffic
and employees is the actualconstruction of those data
centers.
So you know, it seems like itcan make good money, but it
(28:04):
comes with a lot ofenvironmental cost, and that's
the big thing that we have to beable to balance.
And so to me it makes sense forthe county to start off a
little smaller.
Start off with some edgeenterprise, put those in some
industrial areas, allow them to,instead of being on the grid,
(28:27):
be totally off the grid and useany type of solar power, any
type of you know wind energy,whatever they want to use.
Anything besides coming on thegrid and increasing the demand
and increasing our utility billsis what we should be striving
(28:49):
for here in the county, so thatwe get the best of both worlds.
So I think it's possible.
It just needs to be properlythought out.
So that's what's up with datacenters.
Please continue to payattention to those.
I do highly recommend, if youcan't attend in person, to maybe
(29:12):
participate in the task forcevirtual meetings, especially on
September 10th, and we'll put inthe notes here this website
where you can actually view thevirtual task force meetings to
see kind of where the county isheaded.
And I think everything is, youknow, being reconsidered.
(29:34):
We have a new administration, anew county executive, so you
know they want to put theirstamp of approval and their
stamp of.
You know how they envision andwhat vision that County
Executive, brave Boy, has fordata centers and this potential
(29:55):
new type of project coming intothe county.
Again, there are some existingdata centers already in the
county.
It's not that they don't havewe don't have any, we have some.
They're mostly, again, eitherfederal or state sites.
I think there may be oneprivate one someone has told me
(30:17):
about that's in the Bowie area.
I cannot confirm or deny that,but there is a push by our
county council to build more, tobring in more of the commercial
tax base, so we'll see whathappens.
So that's what's up with datacenters.
(30:38):
Thank you for joining me on thisepisode of All Politics is
Local.
Please tune in again when wehave a few guests.
And again when we have a fewguests, we are looking forward
to Miss Marielle Randolph, whois the founder of Art for Growth
, who's going to be talkingabout her new feature film.
(30:58):
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We're going to record thatactually on Labor Day, so coming
up in September, actually onLabor Day, so coming up in
September.
But come back and see what'snew and help us to continue to
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(31:21):
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(31:46):
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You'll hear me next time on.
All Politics is Local with me.
Your host, tamara Davis-Brown.
Hi, welcome back to another episode of All Politics
is Local with me, your host,tamara Davis Brown.
Thank you for joining us, andonce again, I'd like to put in a
plug to say thank you, thankyou, thank you for making.
All Politics is Local, number79 in the top 80 of all civic
(00:28):
podcasts nationwide, and so weare really appreciative of you
tuning in, and thank you so muchfor also sharing the podcast
with your neighbors, family andfriends.
So today's episode is what's upwith data centers?
We're starting to hear a lotmore about data centers If you
(00:53):
live in the DMV in Virginia andnow in Maryland and in Prince
George's County, and so Ithought I would spend some time
talking about data centers.
So data centers are buildingsthat house the infrastructure
(01:29):
that supports the world'scomputing functions, servers,
process and store the data,commonly referred to as the
cloud.
Now, many of you have heard ofthe cloud, and we contribute to
the need to have more datacenters because we are using
(01:50):
more social media.
We're uploading our picturesand our videos on social media,
whether it's Facebook, instagram, all of those social media
sites, tiktok.
Everything that we uploadactually is uploaded not into a
literal cloud, and I'm sure youknew that, but it is upload and
(02:12):
stored on servers throughout thenation and those servers have
to be housed somewhere, and theplace that they are housed are
called data centers.
Data centers primary functionis to process and access data,
(02:34):
but they also store datasafeguarding sensitive
information, so it'sinaccessible to hackers.
So that's a little bit aboutwhat data centers are, and let's
jump in as to why we're hearingso much about them.
As I had mentioned, because weuse a lot of data and store a
(02:57):
lot of data.
Just thinking about socialmedia, you know if you have
thousands of friends and each ofyou are posting your vacation
videos, your anniversaries, yourbirthday pictures and research,
all those things.
All colleges and universities, alot of companies are moving to
AI to also streamline jobs.
We're using artificialintelligence to do the work that
(03:21):
many live people used to do.
So that also takes up a lot ofstorage and data processing that
(03:55):
we would normally use humanbrain and human minds for.
So with that, there needs to bea lot of storage here in the
District of Columbia, Maryland,and particularly Virginia.
Virginia is the home to lotsand lots of data centers, those
(04:21):
big mega sites, all types ofhuge, huge acres upon acres upon
acres of data centers, andwe're starting to hear now that
those data centers are becominga problem for local residents,
(04:42):
especially if they are locatedfairly close to residential
developments.
I have not driven into Virginiato go do any research on it,
but we're just starting to hear.
Like Prince William and PrinceFrederick County, those counties
are now getting some pushbackon proposals to build even more
(05:08):
data centers, and the reasonthat they are is because they're
starting to affect energyconsumption, with energy rates
going higher for the residents,as well as water consumption.
And you would probably ask well, why is water necessary?
(05:30):
Well, the servers.
They get very hot and they haveto cool down, so you have to
use cooling systems, and thecooling systems operate through
the use of water, and so watertables are lower, people are
experiencing higher water bills.
All of the bills are increasingin terms of utilities, not
(05:52):
because the residents areactually using more utilities,
more water, more electricity butthese data centers are and, as
you know, when demand goes up,the price also goes up.
So that's some of the issuesthat we're hearing in Prince
William County, prince FrederickCounty, both in Virginia,
(06:16):
regarding data centers so PrinceGeorge's County because we're
so heavily dependent onresidential property tax and
income tax.
We are really struggling andtrying to find a good commercial
(06:41):
tax base that can help buttressto pay for just the operating
expenses of the county, whetherthat's police, fire, teachers,
just parking planning, all ofthose different things, so that
we don't have to increase taxeson the residents.
And so there's a big push inthe county to see if we can get
(07:06):
data centers to come to thecounty.
Now there are some existing datacenters already in the county.
Most of them are in thenorthern and central parts of
the county and they actuallyrelate to a lot of federal
installations.
The Beltsville area is highlyindustrial and so that's an area
(07:27):
that has some existing datacenters that are related to
federal and potentially somestate uses.
Some of the larger data centersare run by your tech moguls,
such as Microsoft, amazon,facebook all of we now, as they
(07:53):
now call themselves Meta, butall of the big tech companies.
Amazon also has AWS.
Amazon is one of the big datacenter users as well.
So again in Prince George'sCounty there was a big push to
actually implement localordinance to make it easier for
(08:18):
applicants who are seeking tobuild a data center in Prince
George's County to go throughthe zoning and approval and
permitting process very quicklyand it basically shut out the
ability of the community to, ofcourse, have their say and give
(08:39):
their voice to whether or notthey want a data center near or
in their community.
So what the current countycouncil has done in Prince
George's County they created adata center task force that
started back in April of thisyear but recently they had some
(09:04):
community meetings.
They had one in the northernpart of the county, the central
part of the county as well asthe southern part of the county,
and I attended the last one inthe southern part of the county
on July 26th.
And Maryland National CapitalPark and Planning, the planning
(09:24):
division, actually put this on,put this public meeting on where
we as citizens were able to say, okay, this is if, do we want
data centers, yes or no?
If we had data centers, whatare some of the parameters that
should be considered?
What are some of the communitybenefits?
(09:45):
They wanted to know just ourwhole thinking about data
centers.
Now, park and Planning'sconsultant is a company by the
name of Gensler G-E-N-S-L-E-R.
I believe they're the ones thatactually kind of ran through
and got our input, but it shouldbe noticed that Gensler is a
(10:11):
nationwide consultant to datacenters and so or owners of data
centers, so they are very prodata center centric, pro data
center centric, and it came outa little bit in the presentation
and people in the audience kindof as well.
You know we like to push backon, you know all of the benefits
(10:33):
, but they didn't really talkabout a lot of the downsides,
which had to do with increaseduse of utility demand and how
that's going to impact localresidents here.
Whether or not you know ourwater tables are lower, whether
(10:56):
or not you know the grid for ourarea would be severely impacted
, and so those are some of thethings that we have heard.
There are one, two, three, yeah,four types of data centers in
(11:19):
terms of size, so I'll explainthose.
The first is called Edge.
It's about 5,000 to 10,000square feet.
The second is called Enterpriseor Corporate, which is from
10,000 to 50,000 square feet.
The third is Co-Location orWholesale, which is 50,000 to
(11:45):
350,000 square feet and wouldhave to sit on at least one to
10 acres.
And then the hyperscales.
These are the huge ones thatwe've seen being built in
Virginia.
They're the big tech campusagain, with users like AWS,
amazon, workspace, google,microsoft and Meta.
(12:07):
Those are over 350,000 squarefeet and usually need 10 or more
acres of land.
So we have seen that in thepossibility that some of our
existing commercial tax base isleaving.
(12:28):
So let's just talk about SixFlags, for example.
Six Flags has a huge amount ofacreage and I think you know
it's already been sold andthey've already got development.
But the land there could be apotential spot for a data center
(12:50):
only because the acreage is solarge and there is, in my
opinion, a way to kind ofcontinue to keep it buttressed
from the rest of the community.
So when you drive down CentralAvenue and you drive past Six
Flags, you really can't see thepark from the road.
Similarly, I personally thinkthat any data center rebuild,
(13:14):
regardless of how large and ofcourse I'm more favorable
towards something smaller, likethe edge, 5,000 to 10,000 square
feet, as opposed to these bighyperscale ones but you really
need to have that buttressbetween the data center and the
(13:37):
community so that you don't notonly just see this large
building but you don't want tohear it.
You don't want to hear.
Another complaint is noisecomplaints about the humming and
the buzz sound of not the datacenters or the servers
themselves, but the actualcooling system to keep the data
(14:01):
centers from over.
I mean not the data centers butthe servers from overheating.
I mean not the data centers butthe servers from overheating.
So there needs to be someforethought, and some of the
things that I had suggested atthe meeting is that all of the
data centers need to be on landthat is already zoned industrial
(14:22):
so that we don't have to gothrough any zoning changes.
So if we put them on industrialsites, that means that there is
rarely, if ever, any nearby,although there could be, just
(14:44):
depends on what part of thecounty.
So, like Beltsville, beltsvillehas a lot of warehousing.
Wholesale industrial sites thatmake it consistent with
potentially using that area inany industrial sites in that
area is a good potential for atype of data center.
(15:08):
I don't know how much acreageis available there, but
certainly the edge or theenterprise between the 5,000 and
10,000 and 10,000 and 50,000square feet might be conducive.
One of the things that we wantto be wary of is plopping a data
(15:29):
center in the midst of aresidential area, and I know
that there's a push in thesouthern part of the county to
try to put some data centers.
Here Again, we need it to be anindustrial site.
We need to protect historicpreservation areas and uses.
(15:53):
We need to, you know, protectany agricultural or farming area
that's already, you know, beingused, because in the southern
part of the county we have a lotof farms, we have a lot of
vineyards, we have a lot ofhistorical sites that we
(16:16):
wouldn't want to put somethingas industrial as a data center
there.
So those are just some of mypersonal thoughts.
(16:43):
Was the power usage, and youknow they admitted that data
centers are power intensive.
They need reliable, robustaccess to power and it's
essential for their operationsand can limit, you know, where
(17:04):
data centers can be located.
The second, as I also mentioned, was the water usage.
Data centers often need greateraccess to municipal water
supplies than typical industrialsites and must have proper
infrastructure to manage wateruse and discharge.
And again, they use those.
They use an excess of water forair cool chillers, for
(17:29):
closed-loop cooling, and theycan use reclaimed and
non-potable water to help datacenters lower their demand on
municipal water supply systems.
So for us that's WSSC water.
So another considerationbesides making sure there's
(17:53):
enough buffer between whereverthis data center is going to
land, not only to buffer thesound, but also make sure that
the type of cooling system thatthey have is not dependent upon,
necessarily, our municipalwater supply, wssc, but
(18:15):
potentially that they can gettheir own water supply and then
reuse it, you know, bring it onsite and then continue to reuse
it to cool the servers and thechilled air coolers and all
those things.
So that's a little bit aboutwhat data centers are what they
(18:40):
are considering.
Again, I don't know if there areany other particular sites, but
there are several sites in thenorthern part of the county, big
(19:02):
mixed-use development, and allthey built was apartments but
they cleared 1,000, well, Iwon't say 1,000, but they
cleared at least a couplehundred acres of trees and they
built absolutely nothing there.
And the other thing that reallyirks me about that project is
that that developer got a taxincrement financing a TIF, which
(19:28):
means that they pay theirproperty tax on a delayed basis
for the promises that they'regoing to build.
You know, this huge supermulti-mix use development with
all kinds of amenities, allkinds of shops and entertainment
and trails and this, that andthe other, and none of that has
(19:49):
materialized.
And so I say, you know, if youwant to, for as much land that
they've cleared, although theybuilt a whole host of apartments
, I've seen nothing else.
They can plop a data centerover there on that land and let
them have at it, but I doubtthat.
(20:10):
It's zoned industrial and Idon't even know if they have to
go through the rezoning process.
I know that they are on theparking planning's website
lately for some new activities,so maybe they're finally trying
to do something there.
But I just give that examplebecause I was just so frustrated
(20:33):
when that project passed andthen when that project was given
a tip and it sat there fordecades, for decades you know
that was during the Bakeradministration.
So we've had you know, almosteight years of the Brooks
administration.
We're finishing that out andthen coupled with the first term
(21:00):
of the Baker administration.
So I just get so frustratedwith the county giving tax
increment financing todevelopers and then they sit on
the land and don't do anythingand then when they build they
don't build what was promisedand we get left holding the bag
(21:22):
as usual.
So in any event, I just wantedto kind of highlight what data
centers are, what are some ofthe advantages not really
advantages, but what you know,what their uses are and what
some of the complaints thatyou're hearing Now.
Me personally, I'm atelecommunications attorney and
I actually have my own broadbandbusiness, last Mile Broadband
(21:46):
and our company would bedefinitely interested in
bringing fiber to data centers.
So I have a little bit of abias, I have to admit, to
wanting to see data centers inthe county.
I just want them to be properlyregulated and make sure that
(22:06):
they stay in the industrial zonethat they use.
For example, instead of usingelectricity from the grid, why
not have the buildings be allsolar so that they can be solar
powered Again?
Instead of using WSSC water,why not have them import water
(22:28):
from whatever source that theyhave to purchase it from and
then recycle it and reuse it,since one of the things they say
that they can do is usenon-potable water to service
those servers and to cool thoseservers.
(22:51):
So those are some of the thingsthat I'm thinking about, and I
think you know the smaller edge,the 5,000 to 10,000 square feet
or the enterprise corporate,just depending on the acreage of
land, would be something thatwe can consider If it's in an
industrial zone it's, you know,not too large like these big
(23:15):
hyperscale where we may not haveenough land to put that on.
But you know we're going tohave the like I said, six Flags
is going to be going away.
I don't know what we're goingto do with Greenbelt.
I guess we're going to kind ofkeep that as a placeholder for
FBI.
(23:35):
But we know it's not cominganytime soon and, based on the
current federal administrationand you know, there are some
other projects that haveprojects that have cleared land
but done nothing, I don'tnecessarily in other parts of
the county.
I don't know necessarily whatthey're zoned as, but we know
(24:00):
that there's some land availablein other parts of the county
that could be repurposed fordata centers.
You know I'm even thinking ofthe old land over mall area.
What are we doing there?
(24:21):
They tore down some of theapartments that were directly
across.
I don't know if they're goingto rebuild those.
They may be rebuilding those.
I know some newer apartmentshave been put up just past that
area so that one may be just.
That location may be just alittle too close to residential
(24:41):
area and it's probably not zonedindustrial.
It's probably just zonedcommercial, since it was
formerly a mall, but easy accesson off.
They could butcher, sit withsome more trees Again, put some
solar on top, things like that.
So I'm just thinking about someareas where we had some
(25:03):
commercial activity or we hadsome type of use and it's either
gone away or it's going away,six Flags being one, landover
Mall being another, theGreenbelt site for FBI Again, I
think we probably should hold onto that.
(25:24):
There may be a possibility oftrying to get that to come back,
but I don't think it's going tohappen in this administration.
So you know, we'll just have tosit tight there.
But then there's some projectsand some industrial sites in the
northern part of the county.
So if you'd like to find out,especially if you live in Prince
(25:47):
George's County, but if you'dlike to find out a little bit
more about the task force, theymeet let's see, both in person
and virtually at 11 am at 1616McCormick Drive in Largo.
So the next several meetingsfor the rest of the year will be
(26:11):
September 10th, october 8th andNovember 12th.
So you can go to just do asearch for Prince George's
County Data Center Task Force tofind out more information about
what they're doing.
I think the September 10thmeeting will be a good meeting
to hear a synopsis of all threepublic meetings that they've had
(26:36):
in the county and to see youknow what the next steps are and
what they're going to do.
So that's what's up with thedata centers.
We'll keep our eyes and earsattentive to what the county is
doing, is planning to do, but itcan be a good source of
(26:59):
commercial tax base withoutthere being a lot of
infrastructure that's reallyneeded.
And when I say infrastructure,I'm talking about roads and so
forth, because generally atthese data centers there's not a
lot of employees that workthere.
There may be a handful ofemployees to come check on the
servers, make sure everything'sworking properly, making sure
(27:22):
the cooling systems are workingproperly, and that's that's.
That's pretty much.
It Maybe some security orsomething like that, but it's
not a whole host of employeescoming onto a site.
You may have a handful.
Even at the large hyper scalecenters, there's still not a lot
of employees on site.
(27:43):
So that means that there's nota lot of traffic congestion
around those areas and so forth.
The only time there's going tobe anything in terms of traffic
and employees is the actualconstruction of those data
centers.
So you know, it seems like itcan make good money, but it
(28:04):
comes with a lot ofenvironmental cost, and that's
the big thing that we have to beable to balance.
And so to me it makes sense forthe county to start off a
little smaller.
Start off with some edgeenterprise, put those in some
industrial areas, allow them to,instead of being on the grid,
(28:27):
be totally off the grid and useany type of solar power, any
type of you know wind energy,whatever they want to use.
Anything besides coming on thegrid and increasing the demand
and increasing our utility billsis what we should be striving
(28:49):
for here in the county, so thatwe get the best of both worlds.
So I think it's possible.
It just needs to be properlythought out.
So that's what's up with datacenters.
Please continue to payattention to those.
I do highly recommend, if youcan't attend in person, to maybe
(29:12):
participate in the task forcevirtual meetings, especially on
September 10th, and we'll put inthe notes here this website
where you can actually view thevirtual task force meetings to
see kind of where the county isheaded.
And I think everything is, youknow, being reconsidered.
(29:34):
We have a new administration, anew county executive, so you
know they want to put theirstamp of approval and their
stamp of.
You know how they envision andwhat vision that County
Executive, brave Boy, has fordata centers and this potential
(29:55):
new type of project coming intothe county.
Again, there are some existingdata centers already in the
county.
It's not that they don't havewe don't have any, we have some.
They're mostly, again, eitherfederal or state sites.
I think there may be oneprivate one someone has told me
(30:17):
about that's in the Bowie area.
I cannot confirm or deny that,but there is a push by our
county council to build more, tobring in more of the commercial
tax base, so we'll see whathappens.
So that's what's up with datacenters.
(30:38):
Thank you for joining me on thisepisode of All Politics is
Local.
Please tune in again when wehave a few guests.
And again when we have a fewguests, we are looking forward
to Miss Marielle Randolph, whois the founder of Art for Growth
, who's going to be talkingabout her new feature film.
(30:58):
So I'm excited about that.
We're going to record thatactually on Labor Day, so coming
up in September, actually onLabor Day, so coming up in
September.
But come back and see what'snew and help us to continue to
climb the ladder of thesepodcasts that are really making
a difference.
And we're at 79 nationwide.
(31:21):
We want to move up the ladderon that, and so I know I need to
get on this microphone andrecord more, and I will endeavor
to do so.
But you listening, you sharingwith your friends, family and
neighbors also helps improvemoving up on that list.
So thank you so much and we'llsee you next time or we'll hear
(31:46):
you next time.
You'll hear me next time on.
All Politics is Local with me.
Your host, tamara Davis-Brown.
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