Prince George's County task force reviews community feedback on data centers, emphasizes advisory role on Landover Mall proposal

Prince George's County Qualified Data Center Task Force Co-Chair Edward Burrows opened the September meeting by telling attendees the task force will study data centers' economic, environmental and social impacts and make recommendations to the county government, but stressed the body has no permitting authority over projects such as the proposed Landover Mall data center. "This task force is not voting on the proposed data center at Landover Mall," Burrows said. "This Task Force does not have the authority to determine whether or not a data center goes anywhere."

The task force spent the meeting reviewing synthesized feedback from three community meetings held in July and one-on-one comments collected by the consulting team. Anthony Jones, the co-chair, said the group's recommendations will be advisory only: "Our recommendations are intended to be aligned with best practices from other jurisdictions that will best protect and promote the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of Prince George's County."

Nut graf: The presentation summarized public concern and suggested mitigation strategies that the task force said will inform a formal set of recommendations to the County Council. The consulting team quantified comments from the July sessions and identified environmental impacts (energy and water), governance/transparency, economic value, zoning clarity and design as the top areas of community concern; task force members pledged additional outreach and case-study analysis before finalizing advice.

The consultant team (Gensler) reported roughly 150 attendees across three July sessions (about 30–40 at the north meeting, roughly 70 central, and 44–45 in the south). Staff transcribed and categorized comments into six high-level topics by frequency: environmental impact (208 comments), governance and transparency (175), economic/financial impacts (110), design/aesthetics (109), zoning clarity and protections (96), and noise/disruption (39). Within environmental concerns, energy and emissions (82 comments) and water use (66 comments) were the most frequent specifics. The presentation noted community interest in mitigation such as renewable energy strategies, water reuse, buffering and site reuse rather than greenfield development.

The task force also reviewed the local legal and planning context discussed during the meeting. Chair Burrows said the council enacted CB-1-2021 in 2021, which amended the zoning ordinance to allow qualified data centers in the MXT zone and exempt them from District Council site-plan review; as a result the Landover Mall site proceeded to a Planning Board preliminary plan approval in April 2024 and now requires permitting through the County's Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement (DPIE) and other agencies prior to construction. Burrows was explicit that the task force's remit is advisory: it will analyze pros and cons, compile a report and forward recommendations to the County Council.

Members asked staff to improve demographic and geographic disaggregation of public-comment data at future meetings; staff said mapping by meeting location is in the dataset and that they could add ZIP-code aggregation at the next session. Community members and task force members also requested clearer definitions or a glossary to clarify terms such as "environmental impact" and "environmental justice," which staff agreed to consider for the public report.

One formal action occurred during the meeting: Co-Chair Anthony Jones moved to approve the minutes from the July 9 meeting; Councilmember Walla Blake seconded, and the minutes were approved (no roll-call tally recorded).

The task force identified next steps: staff and consultants will deliver case studies and comparative analyses of other jurisdictions at the October 8 task force meeting; the consultants will continue to digitize and make available the comment corpus; the task force committed to at least one additional large-capacity public meeting and to pursue invitations to technical agencies including PJM and the Maryland Department of the Environment. Staff said they are coordinating a possible site tour in Frederick County and will email details to members when confirmed. The task force reiterated that any statutory or permitting authority for specific projects (including Landover Mall) remains with DPIE and other regulatory agencies.

Ending: The meeting closed after schedule and outreach items were confirmed; members and residents were told staff will post materials, minutes and the presentation to the task force webpage and that the task force will return with additional technical testimony and comparative case studies before issuing final recommendations to the County Council.