ADAMSTOWN — On the way to the pizza shop where he works in the small Frederick County town of Adamstown, Israel Fernandez can look out his car window and see cranes towering over the tree line, piercing the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain.

At Italia New York Pizza 2, the only restaurant in Adamstown, Fernandez sees all kinds of customers — neighbors who have lived in the area for decades and are deciding to sell their homes, and construction workers stopping in from work creating nearby data centers for lunch.

The nearby cranes are planted in Frederick’s newly minted Critical Digital Infrastructure Overlay Zone — in simple terms, it’s the only area of the county where data centers are permitted to be built. This zone covers the site of a former aluminum plant, and is now home to the Quantum Frederick Data Center Campus that’s already under construction, along with an extra 1,000 acres of farmland to the north of this campus.

The Frederick County Council approved the boundaries of this data center zone in December, and it officially took effect Jan. 20. Some members of the council lauded this zone as an effort to contain data centers to a 2,600-acre span — a little over half a percent of Frederick County’s total land area. But to others, the council’s decision to open the extra 1,000 acres of farmland to data center development, rather than limiting development to a 1,600-acre area around the existing Quantum Frederick campus, was a major misstep.

“I don’t like losing customers,” said Fernandez, holding a handmade sign advertising a petition against the data centers. “If you aren’t comfortable where you live, [the data centers] shouldn’t be here.”

In response to the Frederick council’s vote, several hundred county residents have banded together to try to bring the boundaries of the data center zone to a public vote. The group aims to get 7% of Frederick’s voters, or about 15,000 people, to sign a petition requesting the referendum.

If enough signatures are collected, it’s “almost certain” to face a legal challenge from the county, said Steve Black, who chairs the Frederick County Data Center Referendum Committee. Still, volunteers are pushing forward.

Black said the group’s aim is to put the data center development decision in the hands of Frederick County voters: “[Voters] can directly fix this thing, and that is motivating a huge number of people in a visceral kind of way.”

The referendum committee has until March 20 to gather 15,000 signatures. They all need to be recorded on paper and cross-checked by the board of elections.

Black and Elizabeth Bauer, the leaders of the committee, have been coordinating volunteers to collect signatures across the county, from grocery store parking lots to coffee shops to local businesses. As of Monday night, they had 12,088 signatures; as the weather gets warmer, Black said, the group is getting hundreds more signatures daily.

“As a business owner, I feel that this is a completely apolitical position,” said Jon Cohen, owner of Beyond Comics in Frederick, who’s been circulating the petition at his store. “This is not about being liberal or conservative, this is about the right thing to do. … It’s not about making it easy or convenient for the data centers; it’s about making it convenient and comfortable for the residents of the county.”

Data centers — large buildings that hold machines used to power internet technology software — can bring in hundreds of millions of dollars for local governments. Frederick County has already collected some $55 million in taxes from the Quantum Frederick project, and could collect up to $215 million annually starting in 2036, according to an October study by consulting firm HR&A Analysis.

If more data centers are built on the land that was added to the county-designated zone, that money could increase, allowing more funding for the county government while keeping taxes level.

“Our budget is being pressured because of the tremendous amount of residential growth that we’ve had,” said Brad Young, a Democrat who’s president of the County Council. “This is a great new revenue source for our county that will take the pressure off the backs of our residential taxpayers.”

Yet data centers can also consume massive amounts of water and energy; the Quantum Frederick campus, once fully built out, will consume 864 megawatts of electricity, dwarfing the county’s current electricity needs. According to Young, it will be allowed to draw up to 1 million gallons of water per day from the county water system.

“For me, it’s an absurdity to do it in population-dense areas, or areas that are farming,” said Vic Winkler, a retired software engineer who signed the petition at Roggenart Cafe in Frederick on Thursday. Winkler worked for a long time to develop software used in data centers, and has written a book on cloud computing. Though he sees the need for data centers, the costs of putting them in Frederick aren’t justified, he said.

What’s more, the farmland that was added to the county-approved data center zone includes about 1,000 acres of land that’s designated by the state as having excellent soil quality. That makes this area eligible to be added to a preservation program, which would bans future development on that land.

The 1,000 acres in Frederick’s data center zone haven’t been officially placed in any sort of preservation program, and Young and County Executive Jessica Fitzwater told The Baltimore Sun that the owners of this land were eager to develop and “get value out of their farmland,” as Young put it.

Still, the choice to zone high-quality farmland for development has spooked some farmers in rural Adamstown. Cohen, at Beyond Comics, said he’s heard rumors of residents buying farmland near the data center zone in hopes of “flipping it” and selling it to developers.

“If we give up farmland, we give up our history, we give up control of a lot of our food supply,” said Sam Newhouse, a New Market resident who’s been helping train volunteers to collect petitions. “And as climate change intensifies, those are going to be two of our most valuable resources, energy and farmland.”

The seven-member County Council has been split on the issue. It approved the new data center map with a 5-2 vote; the two council members to vote against it were Republican Steve McKay and Democrat Jerry Donald.

Nevertheless, the council has been poised to fight the petitioning effort since before the signatures started coming in. In January, once the new map went into effect, the council also published an opinion by Frederick County Attorney Bryon Black, who argued that this map isn’t eligible to be put up for a referendum. According to Frederick County’s charter, only laws can be put up for a referendum; the data center zone was passed via an ordinance, and deals with zoning.

“A law is, ‘you can’t speed, you can’t let your dog off a leash,’ that’s a law,” Young said. “Where you can zone something is not a law. … I think you elect folks to make your zoning laws, and if you don’t agree with them, your option is to not vote for them next time.”

Steve Black — who has no relation to Bryon Black — said he disagrees. The word “ordinance,” he argued, is used interchangeably with the word “law” in Frederick County’s charter.

Ultimately, if the referendum committee collects 15,000 signatures by March 20, it’s the Frederick County Board of Elections that will decide whether the data center map can be put to a referendum. No matter what happens, Steve Black said he expects either the county or the referendum committee to challenge the Board of Elections’ decision, bringing the issue to court.

“Court cases do not resolve themselves based on public opinion, but I think it’s important for the public and elected officials to recognize the magnitude of the public pushback on this data center map,” he said. “The amount of people we have supporting this referendum, it can’t be ignored.”

Have a news tip? Contact Lily Carey at LCarey@baltsun.com.

• Sam Newhouse and Deborah Knox-Teitel gather signatures for petition at Dublin Roasters Coffee shop in Frederick. The Frederick County Council approved overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Michelle Stephey, of Frederick, left, signs the petition as Sam Newhouse and Deborah Knox-Teitel gather signatures at Dublin Roasters Coffee shop in Frederick. The Frederick County Council approved overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Michelle Stephey, of Frederick, left, signs the petition as Sam Newhouse and Deborah Knox-Teitel gather signatures at Dublin Roasters Coffee shop in Frederick. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Jennifer Waldo, of Frederick, left, signs the petition as Sam Newhouse and Deborah Knox-Teitel gather signatures at Dublin Roasters Coffee shop in Frederick. The Frederick County Council approved overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Lonnie Frazier, of Frederick, center, signs the petition as her husband, Sean, looks on. Sam Newhouse, left, and Deborah Knox-Teitel, right, gathered signatures at Dublin Roasters Coffee shop in Frederick. The Frederick County Council approved overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Sean Frazier, of Frederick, center, signs the petition as his wife, Lonnie, looks on. Sam Newhouse, left, and Deborah Knox-Teitel, right, gathered signatures at Dublin Roasters Coffee shop in Frederick. The Frederick County Council approved overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Jonathan Cohen, owner of Beyond Comics in Frederick, collects signatures at his store. He is a resident of Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Sam Newhouse, right, talks with Jonathan Cohen owner of Beyond Comics in Frederick, about the data center construction. Cohen collects signatiures at his store. and is a resident of Adamstown. Frederick County Council approved overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Israel Fernandez is the manager of Italia New York Pizza 2 in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• The center of Adamstown at the intersection of Adamstown Road and Mountville Road. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• The center of Adamstown, at the intersection of Adamstown Road and Mountville Road. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Carroll Manor Elementery School in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Construction crews clear trees at the site that will become the entrance of Bauxite 3 on New Design Road in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Sam Newhouse stands across the street from the construction entrance for Bauxite 2 on Manor Woods Road in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Sam Newhouse stands across the street from the construction entrance for Bauxite 2 on Manor Woods Road in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Construction of Bauxite 3 on the Quantum Frederick campus from New Design Road in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Bauxite 1 on the Quantum Frederick campus from Mountville Road in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Bauxite 2 on the Quantum Frederick campus from New Design Road in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Construction of Bauxite 3 on the Quantum Frederick campus from New Design Road in Adamstown. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

• Council Adopted Critical Data Infrastructure (CDI) Overlay Zone. The Frederick County Council approved an overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Courtesy)

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Sam Newhouse and Deborah Knox-Teitel gather signatures for petition at Dublin Roasters Coffee shop in Frederick. The Frederick County Council approved overlay map opening 1,000 additional acres up for data center development that aren’t a part of the county’s current Quantum Frederick campus. Local activists are gathering petitions across the community in hopes of putting the overlay map to a vote in a special election this summer. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff)

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