Two data center campuses and an energy storage facility will spring up in the Agricultural Reserve — developers hope within the next few years.

It may seem like an intensive development for an area of Montgomery County established to preserve farmland, forests and historic barns and homes.

But the data centers, which house equipment to store, process and distribute data, including digital records and website hosting, will sit on property already zoned for heavy industrial use.

Some data center projects encounter little opposition. But elsewhere, neighbors worry about the facilities’ near-constant humming, and some community groups oppose them to protect undeveloped land. In Prince George’s County, local officials this fall paused plans for a data center in Landover after intense community pushback.

The Dickerson project hasn’t recently spurred intense opposition. But Upcounty community advocates have kept a close eye on the project as it has moved through the permitting and approval process in recent weeks.

“There’s a way, hopefully, that this can be done in ... the least damaging way possible,” said Caroline Taylor, executive director of the Montgomery Countryside Alliance, an advocacy group in the Agricultural Reserve.

A data center company on Friday submitted plans for approval, and the county will soon release further information about the project. But the data center campuses are still years from being built, according to a land-use attorney.

What’s being built?

Terra Innovations, a Florida based developer, owns more than 750 acres in Dickerson, including the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant.

Terra is leasing less than 300 acres for the two data center campuses and a battery energy storage facility.

The property includes a man-made whitewater rapids facility that the U.S. Olympic team once used for training. Low-density neighborhoods and farmland sit next door, as do the county’s waste incinerator and a large composting facility.

According to Montgomery Planning documents, the property is “large enough to be able to meet all the requirements for parking, lighting, and landscaping … and not affect the surrounding neighborhood.”

The battery energy storage facility will be built first. Jim Clifford, a land-use attorney for Terra, said the company and its lessee, the German multinational RWE, could receive final approvals within a year.

The facility will feature rows of battery storage units resembling shipping containers that store energy that can be tapped when the grid is under strain. There will also be an energy substation and an office building.

It’s not yet clear when construction will begin on the data centers. Clifford said that portion of the project is progressing more slowly, and it could be years before Terra and its lessee, Atmosphere Data Centers, receive all necessary approvals.

The Dickerson campuses, according to planning documents, will include seven data centers, administrative buildings and warehouses.

The facilities will use Potomac River water to cool massive computer systems and will exhaust the water back into the river. The decommissioned coal plant followed a similar cooling process.

What’s the alternative?

Taylor, whose organization has pushed back on planned developments in parts of the Agricultural Reserve, understands the allure of data centers.

Only the Potomac River separates the area from Loudoun County, Virginia, considered the data center capital of the world.

“It’s a dazzling land use,” she said. “When people start looking at Northern Virginia and the tax revenue and so forth, they think, ‘My God, we have to just roll out the red carpet.’”

Some Maryland officials have tried to do just that.

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore has repeatedly tried to remove red tape, including in 2024 when he successfully pushed for fewer restrictions on backup generators.

But top Democrats in the legislature haven’t always agreed with the governor. Moore vetoed a bill in April to more closely examine the environmental and financial risks that data centers pose.

But on Tuesday, lawmakers, citing the strain that data centers put on the electrical grid as ratepayers face surging costs, voted to override the veto.

Marilyn Balcombe, a County Council member who represents Dickerson, sees data storage as a public utility.

“I’m not opposed to the use of data. So, I can’t be opposed to data centers,” she said.

She sees an inconsistency in how people talk about the facilities. Discussing municipal waste, they urge more recycling. On climate change, they call for energy conservation.

But Balcombe says she rarely hears people say they should use less data to prevent the need for data centers. And it makes sense to her that Montgomery County’s data should be stored within its borders.

“If the alternative is let’s just build it in Frederick or let’s just build it in Loudon, is that an honest conversation?” she said.