Worcester County MD data center + cable landing moratorium (2026)
Worcester County, MD — Twelve-Month Moratorium on Data Centers and Cable Landing Stations
Worcester County, MD · Worcester County, Md. resolution (2026); number blank in the official draft
- Status
- In effect
- Applies to
- Worcester County permitting bodies, which may not accept applications for or issue permits for data centers or cable landing stations, and the Board of Zoning Appeals, whose proceedings on those uses are halted; and any applicant.
The resolution imposes a moratorium on the application for or issuance of permits for data centers and cable landing stations in Worcester County, and separately imposes a moratorium on all Board of Zoning Appeals proceedings related to those uses, each for twelve months or until the Commissioners rescind it. It defines a DATA CENTER as one or more buildings used primarily for the storage, management, processing and transmission of digital data. Critically, it separately defines a CABLE LANDING STATION as a facility where subsea cable systems terminate and digital data is transmitted to land-based telecommunications networks, and expressly provides that 'A cable landing station shall not include data storage, management, processing or computation' — a distinct legal category, not a subset of data centers.
Who is protected: Worcester County residents, while the Commissioners consider energy demands, water and wastewater impacts, environmental harm and visual impact on surrounding properties.
Legal detail
Authority cited is Section 1-118(b)(6) of the Worcester County Zoning Ordinance, empowering the Commissioners to impose moratoria by resolution. The dual definition was drafted in response to a Globalinx proposal for a roughly 25,000 sq ft cable landing station near Snug Harbor Road by the Ocean City Municipal Airport, where the applicant argued the facility is not a data center because it transmits rather than stores or processes data.
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | Worcester County, MD |
|---|---|
| Level | County |
| Strength | Moderate |
| Enacted | July 7, 2026 |
| Citation | Worcester County, Md. resolution (2026); number blank in the official draft |
| Topics | data-center siting and energy · government use of AI |
| Agency page | Worcester County Commissioners, 2026-07-21 open meeting packet, item 13 — draft resolution text (pp. 152-154) |
Related data-center siting and energy rules elsewhere
- Superior WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Dane County WI Hyperscale Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- Madison WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Manitowoc County WI Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- WA SB 5982 (Data Center / Clean Energy) · In effect
- Dayton OH data center moratorium (180-day, Apr 2026) · In effect
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