Opponents of a contentious power line planned for rural Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties are appealing a court order that grants developers access to their land to survey the project route.

The appeal, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, came just days after a federal judge sided with the power line’s developers, granting company surveyors permission to go onto the properties of resistant landowners. Under the order, the New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group must provide copies of the court decision and 24 hours’ notice, taped to property owners’ doors, before entering their land.

Judge Adam B. Abelson called the surveys — which primarily examine environmental impacts of the project — “minimally invasive,” but to many in the path of the proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, they violate private property rights.

“This is about protecting our homes, our land, and our constitutional rights,” said Joanne Frederick, president of the group Stop MPRP, in a statement Wednesday supporting landowners’ decision to appeal.

Landowners opposing the power line also called on the appeals court to pause Abelson’s order granting access to their properties until after reaching its own decision. They also asked for an expedited briefing process.

The $424 million Piedmont Reliability Project, which would cut across close to 70 miles in three counties, has sparked uproar in much of Central Maryland, in part because it would shuttle electricity from Pennsylvania to the doorstep of Northern Virginia, where energy-hungry data centers are putting new strains on the regional power grid.

A spokesperson for the developer declined to comment Wednesday on the appeal.

PSEG first sought a court order to access 91 properties along its route in April and has not said whether it will need to seek additional orders to survey other parts of its route.

In their appeal, project opponents argued the court order prematurely granted PSEG access to their land without holding a trial and before regulators on the Maryland Public Service Commission could reach a decision about whether to green-light the project.

PSEG applied for a project permit from the PSC in December. To proceed with the permit process, Maryland regulators require the company to conduct these environmental surveys, work the company has offered property owners one-time payments of $1,000 each to complete.

The region’s grid operator, which hired PSEG to build the project, has argued the line needs to be in place by June 2027 to avoid possible blackouts on its multistate system.

In total, the Piedmont Reliability line would cross some 400 properties. The project remains in the early stages of the state’s permitting process.