Data center restrictions tracker · Maryland

Harford County Council, Maryland: data center moratorium (2026)

Data snapshot 2026-08-15 · part of Pricing the Fear of Data Centers

Harford County Council, Maryland, adopted a data-center moratorium on April 21, 2026. Its status in this snapshot is pending.

The record reads: "Councilmember Jacob Bennett officially introduced Bill 26-005 at the Harford County Council meeting on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, proposing a 90-day moratorium on data center development. The proposal responds to a developer's plan to build… (datacentertracker.org)."

Details

ActionClassStatusDateMW thresholdScopeSource
MoratoriumrestrictionpendingApril 21, 2026county-widedatacentertracker.org

Jurisdiction type: county. County: Harford County. Dataset: datacentertracker. Snapshot August 15, 2026; documented actions, not a census.

Elsewhere in Harford County

Maryland context

Maryland has 18 documented local actions across 14 jurisdictions in this snapshot. At the state level, the state has a ratepayer-protection law (enacted).

A town that says no to a data center gives up local tax revenue, not jobs: one large campus pays $2M to $90M a year depending on the tax regime, against roughly 50 permanent jobs. The parent piece prices it and lists the conditions that beat a ban.

Sources

Back to Pricing the Fear of Data Centers