Author: Emmette Gardner Published: May 11. 2023 The Frederick Newspost
In a contentious 4-3 vote, the Frederick County Planning Commission on Wednesday approved the first site plan, with conditions, for a data center on the roughly 2,200-acre Quantum Loophole campus near Adamstown.
Commissioners grappled with the gravity of their decision, as the site plan for Aligned Data Centers could be the first of many to come on Quantum Loophole’s expansive campus.
The applicant, Texas-based Aligned Data Centers, is proposing to construct a 450,000-square-foot critical digital infrastructure facility on an approximately 75-acre property off 5601 Manor Woods Road.
Thomas Howe, a technical program director for Aligned Data Centers, said the facility would be connected to Quantum Loophole’s “QLoop” fiber network that would span around 40 miles from Northern Virginia to Frederick.
At the facility, Aligned Data Centers would rent out space for tech companies to install computers and other data hardware, according to Howe.
Additional buildings will potentially be proposed on the property, though plans for them were not part of this application, according to county principal planner Graham Hubbard.
Of the many questions that commissioners had on the project, the ones that received some of the most discussion time before the site plan’s approval were related to the facility’s energy consumption and the noise from its 42 proposed diesel generators.
Commissioner Joel Rensberger said he would like the Frederick County Sustainability Commission to provide input, due to the facility’s power needs.
“We know that data centers are impactful, quite impactful, on everything from stormwater runoff to energy consumption and other considerations,” Rensberger said. “It would make me feel more comfortable if this was reviewed by someone who was smarter than me.”
Hubbard, however, said that stormwater and electricity usage are not under the Planning Commission’s purview.
Further requests by Rensberger to have the application reviewed by the Sustainability Commission — and potentially delay Wednesday’s decision from the Planning Commission — were ultimately shot down by other commissioners.
Commissioner Carole Sepe referred to an ongoing update of the county’s critical digital infrastructure ordinance, which this project falls under, as a way to abate future concerns about sustainability. But she said that was something the Planning Commission could not consider now.
The concerns stemmed from the study’s projection that when all 42 generators are operated during emergency situations, like a power outage, the generators’ noise levels would exceed a 70 A-weighted decibel (dBA) noise limit set by the county’s 2022 critical digital infrastructure ordinance.
The study showed that the generators would produce 71 dBA on the property’s southeastern line and 73 dBA on the southern line.
An exemption under a separate 2016 noise ordinance, however, excludes devices used during an emergency situation.
Future data centers are planned for across those property lines. County planning officials found that the noise standards had been met.
Howe said that aside from emergency use, one or two generators would be operated for about 15 minutes per day on a rolling schedule throughout the month to maintain them.
Commissioners moved on after questioning Howe and an Aligned Data Centers sound engineer for over an hour on the sound levels and generators.
In other parts of their meeting, commissioners used discussion time to ask what type of neighbor Aligned Data Centers would be in Frederick County.
Howe estimated the facility would have about 60 employees, but said it would generate other economic benefits through revenue from the facility’s tech company occupants.
“I think you’re investing into the future,” Howe said.
Tressler responded with a followup.
“Twenty years down the road in the future, will these become obsolete, or not?” he asked.
Howe said though electronic devices may change, the bones of the facility — its fiber, power and cooling technology — will stay relevant.
Rensberger weighed the significance of the project in his final comments before the commission voted on approval.
“Nothing like this has ever come in before,” Rensberger said. “We’re outside the fence in new territory. I wouldn’t want to be … sitting here 20 years from now and my other six colleagues look at me and say, ‘You had some basic reasons to question things, why didn’t you?’”
Sepe and Commissioners Craig Hicks and Robert White provided similar comments that, despite these concerns, the commission has to fall back on its legal framework.
Delaying a vote for information from outside commissions, like the Sustainability Commission, does not fall in that framework, Hicks said.
“I think we’ve just got to stop putting off making decisions on things at this point,” White said. “Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet. I think we have enough information to move forward on this at this time.”
Ultimately, Sepe, Hicks, White and Masai Troutman voted to approve the Aligned Data Centers site plan.
The approval included five conditions. One was the provision of secondary enclosure performance for the generators. Another was an emergency-use only road designation on the northern property exit.
Rensberger, Tressler and Tim Davis voted against approval.
Aligned Data Centers will require building permits and related approvals before construction can begin.
After the vote, Hicks offered final words to Howe as he and others departed the hearing room.
“We’re counting on you to be responsible,” Hicks said. “We want you to lead by example for these other centers.”
The News-Post emailed question to Aligned Data Centers on the construction timeline for the facility, what specific economic benefits Aligned Data Centers’ facility would provide Frederick County, how the company will abate noise concerns, and what other facilities the company plans to propose.
Company spokesperson Joanna Soucy responded in an email: “We will provide updates as more information becomes available, but at this time I don’t believe we will be able to respond to your questions in time for your deadline.”