We, the undersigned community organizations, faith leaders, health and environmental justice advocates, and residents of Prince George’s County, write to express deep concern over the Prince George’s County Council’s ongoing practice of fast-tracking data centers and other high-impact development projects in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods already facing disproportionate pollution burdens.

Specifically, the Council is now advancing a legislative package that would permanently weaken public oversight and strip communities of meaningful say in land-use decisions. CB-92-2025 rewrites subdivision rules in ways that make it easier for developers to bypass traditional review safeguards. CB-105-2025 would create a new “Flagship Project Overlay Zone” to fast-track large developments with minimal transparency, with dozens of eligible properties pre-identified by the Planning Department before community consultation has even occurred. Lastly, CB-106-2025 would allow concurrent review of multiple approvals and even permit grading to begin before basic environmental findings or protections are in place.

Instead of aligning with community health protections and cumulative-impact best practices, the County is accelerating approvals for energy-intensive, industrial-scale facilities without requiring full health review, adequate transparency, or meaningful public input. These decisions replicate the same environmental injustice patterns that frontline residents have faced for decades, treating their communities as sacrifice zones for private profit.

This is environmental racism by policy choice, and the Council’s approach mirrors the Trump-era deregulatory model: expedited permits for corporations, weakened oversight, stripped public participation, and displacement of community voice. This was observed with the NEPA rollbacks during Trump’s first administration, and it is unfortunate to see the patterns making their way from the federal stage to the state and local arena. Frontline communities continue to face challenges from asthma, heat exposure, diesel emissions, truck traffic, and infrastructure strain resulting from earlier harmful land-use decisions, yet new burdens are being added before existing harms are addressed.

We call on the Prince George’s County Council to:

1. Enact an immediate moratorium on new data centers and other high-pollution land uses in already overburdened census tracts until a cumulative impacts framework is implemented.
2. Adopt CHERISH-style protections at the county level, ensuring the right to deny or condition permits where cumulative harms exceed thresholds.
3. Require the use of MDEnviroScreen to produce Existing Burden Reports prior to approving any major facility.
4. Guarantee meaningful public participation before zoning or permitting decisions, not after.

Environmental justice requires more than symbolism. PG County cannot continue marketing itself as an “equity county” while exporting pollution to the same Black communities that have borne the cost of industrial development for generations. Climate justice demands accountability, not rubber stamps.

We, the undersigned organizations and residents, urge the Council to reverse course and govern in alignment with environmental protection, public health, and racial equity. Communities deserve clean air, not political expedience. We stand ready to meet, testify, and mobilize until this becomes law.