Caroline County MD, Federalsburg and Ridgely data center moratoria (2026)

CAROLINE COUNTY, Md. and two of its incorporated towns \u2014 THREE SEPARATE MORATORIA at THREE DIFFERENT TERMS. (1) CAROLINE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS: a ONE-YEAR moratorium on data centers for THE UNINCORPORATED AREAS of the county, passed JULY 21, 2026. (2) FEDERALSBURG: council members passed a THREE-YEAR moratorium at a meeting in AUGUST 2026. (3) RIDGELY: town commissioners passed a ONE-YEAR moratorium WITHIN TOWN LIMITS shortly afterwards. THE STRUCTURE IS THE CONTENT. Maryland county land-use authority extends to UNINCORPORATED territory; incorporated municipalities legislate independently. The county's July action therefore covered none of its towns, and two acted separately \u2014 at terms differing by a factor of three. PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCE: coverage in Caroline County depends on which side of a municipal boundary a parcel falls, and the county moratorium's expiry around JULY 2027 does nothing to open Federalsburg, whose pause runs to roughly AUGUST 2029. Anyone assessing the county must check all three instruments. THE SAME SPLIT IS DOCUMENTED REPEATEDLY IN THIS DATASET: Cottage Grove WI 18-month data center moratorium (2026) (the village adopted its own 18-month pause BECAUSE Dane County's did not reach municipalities with their own zoning codes), Dorchester County MD one-year data center moratorium (2026) (council president: 'Each municipality would have to make their own legislation as to what they're going to do', naming Hurlock), Logan County KY 12-month data center moratorium (2026) (unincorporated only), Escambia County FL large-scale data center ban (2026) (expressly excluding Pensacola and Century) and Snohomish County WA six-month data center moratorium (2026) (unincorporated only). FEDERALSBURG'S THREE-YEAR TERM is at the extreme end of the distribution here, matched by five Arkansas counties and Highlands NY three-year data center moratorium (2026), and exceeds the 12-to-18-month ceilings municipal officials have stated on the record in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nevada \u2014 flagged for checking against Maryland municipal authority, not asserted as defective. MARYLAND COHORT: Worcester County MD data center + cable landing moratorium (2026), Montgomery County MD 18-month data center moratorium, Howard County MD S.M.A.R.T. Siting Act data center moratorium (2026), Dorchester County MD one-year data center moratorium (2026), Chesapeake Beach MD townwide data center prohibition (2026) and Baltimore Data Center Moratorium; more than half of Maryland's counties had acted by September 2026. DISTINCT FROM Caroline County MD schools AI policy (2026), which is the same county's SCHOOL AI POLICY and an unrelated instrument.