Community activists in PG County , MD get plan for data center development paused

[get these nets]

09/18/25

Protests cause Prince George’s leaders to hit 'pause' on data centers

A proposed data center at the old Landover Mall site sparked protests. Residents say they are concerned about environmental impacts and energy costs of such a development. In 2020, Prince George’s County leaders looked to neighboring jurisdictions and saw data centers as easy revenue generators...

wamu.org

 

[Gloxina]

Good! Folks gotta fight back

 

[WIA20XX]

09/18/25

Protests cause Prince George’s leaders to hit 'pause' on data centers

A proposed data center at the old Landover Mall site sparked protests. Residents say they are concerned about environmental impacts and energy costs of such a development. In 2020, Prince George’s County leaders looked to neighboring jurisdictions and saw data centers as easy revenue generators...

wamu.org

Have y'all been over there in NoVa where they have all them data centers?

 

[Aprogressivone]

I live in PG. This is the wrong move in my opinion. You had black folks bringing up Elon's Memphis data center and Meta's Georgia data center as the reason why we should not get it. You really had people that didn't know that Loudon County which is close by has tons of them. PG is broke as hell as we don't have many businesses here to help pay taxes.

That proposed site has been sitting empty since 2002 when Landover mall closed. If it was such a hot piece of property somebody would have offered the Lerners money for it years ago. Loudon county is the wealthiest county in America. A few modern data centers are not going to kill is. All we need to do is make sure it is built to proper standards.

We don't have racist leadership like in Tennessee here that would let someone illegally install gas turbines that were not permitted. We live in Maryland under black leadership at the state and county level. You literally will have black tech workers who literally design and build them posting in the comments of anti data center posts trying to explain the difference between in what happened in Memphis vs the proposed Landover mall site and people close their ears. They literally are like well Loudon can have it. Again wealthy people don't live in bad areas and really nice neighborhoods are near Loudon's data centers and also they have great schools. We have bad schools and are the poorest county surrounding DC. We are far behind and have way to many Nimby's/low information voters using sound bites for information.

Case in point, back in the day when National Harbor was built the residents didn't want their streets to connect to National Harbor. National Harbor has some of the most expensive homes now and a great live work play set up now. Meanwhile homes they are like 50 feet away outside of the official national harbor space require you to drive 10 minutes and basically go all the way on the highway just to get there. Town centers in Montgomery County or Nova would never have had that happen are are not built like that.

 

[the bossman]

I live in PG. This is the wrong move in my opinion. You had black folks bringing up Elon's Memphis data center and Meta's Georgia data center as the reason why we should not get it. You really had people that didn't know that Loudon County which is close by has tons of them. PG is broke as hell as we don't have many businesses here to help pay taxes.

That proposed site has been sitting empty since 2002 when Landover mall closed. If it was such a hot piece of property somebody would have offered the Lerners money for it years ago. Loudon county is the wealthiest county in America. A few modern data centers are not going to kill is. All we need to do is make sure it is built to proper standards.

We don't have racist leadership like in Tennessee here that would let someone illegally install gas turbines that were not permitted. We live in Maryland under black leadership at the state and county level. You literally will have black tech workers who literally design and build them posting in the comments of anti data center posts trying to explain the difference between in what happened in Memphis vs the proposed Landover mall site and people close their ears. They literally are like well Loudon can have it. Again wealthy people don't live in bad areas and really nice neighborhoods are near Loudon's data centers and also they have great schools. We have bad schools and are the poorest county surrounding DC. We are far behind and have way to many Nimby's/low information voters using sound bites for information.

Case in point, back in the day when National Harbor was built the residents didn't want their streets to connect to National Harbor. National Harbor has some of the most expensive homes now and a great live work play set up now. Meanwhile homes they are like 50 feet away outside of the official national harbor space require you to drive 10 minutes and basically go all the way on the highway just to get there. Town centers in Montgomery County or Nova would never have had that happen are are not built like that.

There's more nuance needed in this than Loudon county has a bunch so they must not be bad. To keep it short, Loudon county and PG County are on two completely different playing fields. LC was wealthy before data centers even started arriving there. On top of that Rt28, where a majority was built, was basically an industrial zone. Not the site of a former central hub and social anchor to the entire community like Landover Mall was. Yes it's been 20+ years, but "Better than nothing" is a poor argument imo.

BTW earlier this year Loudon county changed their zoning laws to stop the huge sprawl increase of data centers because now they're bumping up against residential neighborhoods. That Landover mall site and quite frankly the residents of the county deserve better

 

[Piff Perkins]

I live in PG. This is the wrong move in my opinion. You had black folks bringing up Elon's Memphis data center and Meta's Georgia data center as the reason why we should not get it. You really had people that didn't know that Loudon County which is close by has tons of them. PG is broke as hell as we don't have many businesses here to help pay taxes.

That proposed site has been sitting empty since 2002 when Landover mall closed. If it was such a hot piece of property somebody would have offered the Lerners money for it years ago. Loudon county is the wealthiest county in America. A few modern data centers are not going to kill is. All we need to do is make sure it is built to proper standards.

We don't have racist leadership like in Tennessee here that would let someone illegally install gas turbines that were not permitted. We live in Maryland under black leadership at the state and county level. You literally will have black tech workers who literally design and build them posting in the comments of anti data center posts trying to explain the difference between in what happened in Memphis vs the proposed Landover mall site and people close their ears. They literally are like well Loudon can have it. Again wealthy people don't live in bad areas and really nice neighborhoods are near Loudon's data centers and also they have great schools. We have bad schools and are the poorest county surrounding DC. We are far behind and have way to many Nimby's/low information voters using sound bites for information.

Case in point, back in the day when National Harbor was built the residents didn't want their streets to connect to National Harbor. National Harbor has some of the most expensive homes now and a great live work play set up now. Meanwhile homes they are like 50 feet away outside of the official national harbor space require you to drive 10 minutes and basically go all the way on the highway just to get there. Town centers in Montgomery County or Nova would never have had that happen are are not built like that.

All these things do is siphon resources and raise electricity costs. There is no reason for any community to want one in their city and I don't care what your tax base is. There is no benefit for humans, besides the handful of rich people trying to build them.

These things also lead to weird political games. Suddenly your politicians will have an influx of cash designed to ensure they vote for whatever benefits the data canter, even if it doesn't benefit the people.

 

[get these nets]

There's more nuance needed in this than Loudon county has a bunch so they must not be bad. To keep it short, Loudon county and PG County are on two completely different playing fields. LC was wealthy before data centers even started arriving there. On top of that Rt28, where a majority was built, was basically an industrial zone. Not the site of a former central hub and social anchor to the entire community like Landover Mall was. Yes it's been 20+ years, but "Better than nothing" is a poor argument imo.

BTW earlier this year Loudon county changed their zoning laws to stop the huge sprawl increase of data centers because now they're bumping up against residential neighborhoods. That Landover mall site and quite frankly the residents of the county deserve better

Yep

Zoning laws and enforcement being different in different counties would definitely be a big difference in how these centers are built and operated.

The "its better than nothing" deal is a loaded phrase. You end up with a net loss.

 

[WIA20XX]

 

[the bossman]

The "its better than nothing" deal is a loaded phrase. You end up with a net loss.

Facts. Once you build it there, thats all that will ever be there and the surrounding area for the next 30+ years. You lose any chance of any other major project that could benefit the community at large. No possibility for any mixed-use developments that could bring parks, restaurants, plazas, housing, rec centers, retail, etc.

Landover Mall was more than just a mall. It was THE place to be. where black families spent weekends, kids hung out, and it was always easy to bump into someone you knew. It was symbolic because it basically showed that PG had 'arrived'. You didn't have to go to all the way to Montgomery mall or Tyson's corner to shop or socialize. It showed that PG could stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the other DC Metro area counties.

Losing it left a big hole in the county's identity imo. What eventually replaces it will say a lot about how PG sees its future.

If you put that data center there, all you'll have is some soulless massive walled off concrete fortress that might provide a hundred jobs at best(probably mostly for outsiders). No storefronts or public space or any life really. just some big industrial compound cut off from the community all for what? for a little tax revenue boost.