Earlier this year, two hyperscale data center campuses were proposed less than four miles from each other in Calvert County, MD. But what are the details of these projects? And how did the community respond to these unexpected proposals?
The Proposed Project
AWS Calvert Cliffs
In March 2026, some Calvert County residents saw a LinkedIn post advertising a job opening at Amazon Web Services for a “Senior Construction Manager” for a data center in Lusby, MD. This caught many locals off guard, who were hearing about this proposed project for the first time. Residents quickly took to social media to express their confusion and frustration.
Source: Amazon Web Services
In response to the rumors, the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners hosted a public meeting with a representative from Amazon Web Services about the project. Amazon confirmed plans to construct a nearly 2.5 million square-foot hyperscale data center campus in Lusby. Amazon planned to lease more than 2,000 acres of land owned by the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, Maryland’s largest electricity producer.
As part of the lease, Amazon would connect to Calvert Cliff’s cooling system, which draws water from the Chesapeake Bay to cool its reactors. In addition, the data centers would connect to the power plant’s existing high-voltage transmission lines, although Amazon planned to buy electricity from the broader electricity grid, and not directly from Calvert Cliffs. The revenue from the project would also give Calvert Cliffs the long-term financial stability needed to continue operations and expand its generation capacity, according to a spokesperson from the plant’s parent company Constellation Energy.
Appeal Digital Park
Just three weeks later, developer Natelli Holdings announced plans to build its own hyperscale data center campus less than four miles away. Natelli seeks to build a 300 megawatt, four-building campus, known as Appeal Digital Park, on 133 acres of land currently owned by the county. This land, which was donated to the county in 2018 by Dominion Energy to build a public park, currently sits undeveloped due to a lack of funding. Natelli has offered $30 million to fund and build the park in a different location.
Source: Natelli Holdings
Community Backlash
Both data center proposals quickly found themselves at the receiving end of intense community backlash. Residents turned out in force at Board of County Commissioner meetings to express their displeasure with the proposals, expressing concerns about the potential energy, water, noise, and public health impacts of building data centers in their communities. At one meeting in April, residents even submitted a petition with over 1,300 signatures in favor of a two-year data center moratorium. In a 3-2 vote, however, the Board of County Commissioners decided to not move forward with a moratorium.
Source: Calvert County Board of County Commissioners
Residents also objected to the revelation that the Board of County Commissioners had signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with data center developers that explored building in Calvert County as early as 2024. County officials claimed that these agreements were only to protect proprietary information and were standard practice for companies exploring potential investment. All formal data center proposals would still have to go through the application process, which includes public notice and hearings. Many residents still felt misled by the County Council, which repeatedly denied that data centers were coming to Calvert County.
Residents didn’t just turn out at Board of County Commissioner meetings; they also turned out at the polls. During the county’s June 2026 primary elections, data center policy became a key issue for voters, and all three of the incumbent commissioners that opposed a moratorium lost their primary races.
After months of residents expressing their disapproval at rallies, County Commissioner meetings, and at the polls, the tide in Calvert County began to turn against data centers. On August 4, 2026, Calvert County announced that Amazon had cancelled the Calvert Cliffs data center project and withdrawn its site plan application.
Later that month, in a unanimous vote, the Board of County Commissioners passed a six-month data center moratorium, pausing all data center development in the county until February 2026. This includes the Appeal Digital Park proposal, which cannot move forward until the moratorium period ends.
Calvert County Data Center Future
Currently, no data center applications will be accepted or considered until the county’s moratorium ends in February 2027, including Appeal Digital Park. In addition, the Calvert County states it is “not currently pursuing or exploring data center development.”
The Board of County Commissioners is also using the moratorium period to consider permanent legislation on data centers. One proposal would allow data center development in the county but strengthen water use, noise, backup generators, and transparency regulations. A second proposal would permanently ban data centers in Calvert County. The Commissioners are also considering rezoning some properties currently zoned as Heavy Industrial or extending the current moratorium, but no draft legislation is yet available.
In addition, even with a moratorium in place, Calvert County is still not completely insulated from the impacts of regional data center expansion. On September 30, 2026, Amazon announced a 20-year agreement with Constellation Energy to purchase 690 MW of power from the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant through the power grid. As part of the deal, Amazon has committed to investing three billion dollars to expand the power plant by 190 MW in the next six years. Amazon has not publicly confirmed what this electricity will be used for, but it owns data centers across the region, including more than 60 in Virginia alone. However, it is still unclear what long-term impact this deal will have on regional data center electricity demand and Calvert County’s residents.
The future of data center development in Calvert County and the status of Appeal Digital Park remain uncertain. However, Calvert County serves as an example of the power of community organizing and electoral pressure can lead to real, concrete change.
Take Action
Want to stay up to date on data center development in Calvert County? Here’s how you can stay involved!
- Sign up for Nature Forward’s Action Alerts to stay up to date with the latest Maryland Data Center News and learn how to get involved.
- Stay up to date with organizations involved, including:
- Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund
- Citizens for Calvert
- If you represent another community organization working on this issue, reach out to us and we will add your information to this blog post.