Dear Mayor Scott and Baltimore City Council President,

We, the undersigned residents, taxpayers, utility ratepayers, environmental advocates, community organizations, and supporters of healthy communities throughout Baltimore City, urge you to publicly oppose the construction and expansion of data centers within Baltimore City. Immediate action is necessary to protect our neighborhoods, waterways, forests, public resources, and future generations from the growing threat posed by data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Baltimore stands at a critical moment. Across the United States, communities are increasingly confronting the environmental, economic, public health, and infrastructure burdens associated with large-scale data center development. As artificial intelligence and cloud computing continue to expand, so too does the demand for massive facilities that consume extraordinary amounts of electricity, water, land, and public resources.

Baltimore has an opportunity to lead. For decades, our city has already experienced the consequences of development projects that prioritize private interests over community wellbeing. Residents throughout Baltimore have witnessed the loss of mature trees, degradation of waterways, increased flooding, worsening heat island effects, environmental injustice, and the continued erosion of public trust in decision-making processes that too often exclude the communities most affected.

Data centers threaten to multiply these harms. These facilities consume enormous quantities of electricity and water while placing significant demands on local infrastructure, leaving residents to pick up the energy bill. Their construction often results in the destruction of forests, open space, wildlife habitat, and community resources that cannot easily be replaced, or would cost millions of taxpayer dollars to fix. There are public health consequences, too. People who live near data centers experience unsafe levels of air and noise pollution, and unknown long-term health effects. Baltimore has been working to strengthen climate resilience, expand tree canopy, improve water quality, reduce flooding, and create stronger, healthier neighborhoods. Data centers move us in the opposite direction.

Beyond environmental and health concerns, artificial intelligence infrastructure is expanding at a pace that is rapidly outstripping public oversight, scientific understanding, and democratic accountability. The AI NOW Institute has warned that the current trajectory of artificial intelligence is characterized by unbridled commercial surveillance, the concentration of power in a small number of corporations, and a lack of meaningful public accountability. But, as journalist and researcher Karen Hao has argued, large-scale AI expansion is not inevitable; instead of catering to corporations, we can take a community-based approach that prioritizes local needs, public participation, and democratic decision-making.

Baltimore should not become a proving ground for an industry that is expanding faster than our ability to govern it. Our city should invest in people, parks, waterways, schools, public health, affordable housing, climate resilience, and community wellbeing, not infrastructure designed to concentrate wealth, power, and resources in the hands of a few corporations.

We believe Baltimore deserves:
• Clean air and clean water
• Healthy forests and tree canopy
• Protected parks and green spaces
• Affordable and reliable utilities
• Transparent and accountable government
• Community-centered economic development
• Climate resilience and environmental justice
• Public investment that benefits residents rather than corporate interests

Therefore, we respectfully call upon Mayor Scott and Baltimore City Council to:
Publicly oppose the construction and expansion of data centers within Baltimore City. We ask that the The 10 MW Industrial Threshold: Small-scale local tech integration is manageable, but mega-facilities are an industrial drain on public infrastructure, be changed to 5 MW. While current state frameworks under the Utility RELIEF Act dangerously permit data centers up to 25 MW to completely evade strict large-load classifications, The Baltimore City Council and Mayor unanimously adopted the 10 MW threshold (Bill 26-0158), but 10 MW still puts Baltimore communities in danger. This permanently draws the statutory line where a facility shifts from an acceptable commercial business to a banned industrial resource drain.

Furthermore, we call upon Mayor Scott and Baltimore City Council to oppose the construction of Johns Hopkins University’s 25,000-square-foot data center in East Baltimore. There is a legacy of harm that will be repeated in East Baltimore if this data center is allowed to be constructed. For the sake of the residents of East Baltimore, and the sensitive ecosystems of Baltimore, we vehemently oppose the construction of this data center.

We also urge Baltimore City to reject any attempt to rezone or redefine data centers as an acceptable use within industrial districts as a means of facilitating their construction. Too often, industrial zoning has been used to justify placing environmentally burdensome facilities in communities that have historically experienced disinvestment, environmental injustice, and disproportionate exposure to pollution. Residents living in industrial areas deserve the same protections afforded to every other Baltimore neighborhood. No community should be expected to sacrifice its clean air, drinking water, public health, quality of life, or future simply because it is located within an industrial corridor. Baltimore must reject the notion that any neighborhood is a “sacrificial zone” for industrial development and ensure that every resident enjoys equal protection from projects that threaten environmental and community health. Baltimore has spent decades working to address the legacy of environmental injustice in neighbors that have disproportionately borne the impacts of highways, heavy industry, waste facilities, and other polluting infrastructure. Data centers should not become the next chapter in that history.

Therefore, reject any zoning amendment, text amendment, or land-use amendment policy that would permit or expand the construction of data centers within Baltimore City’s industrial zoning districts or any other zoning classification.

Baltimore residents are looking to you for leadership and protection from predatory corporations and developers. We ask you to stand with our communities, protect our natural resources, defend ratepayers, and help chart a future that prioritizes people over unchecked technological expansion. Baltimore can become a national leader in protecting communities from the environmental, economic, and democratic risks posed by data center development.

We urge you to act now.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

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