Amazon is pulling the plug on a proposed hyperscale data center campus at Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant, abruptly ending a project that had become one of Southern Maryland’s biggest development fights. The withdrawal was announced Tuesday, just weeks after the proposal triggered intense voter backlash and calls for a countywide pause on new data centers. The project may be gone, but the broader zoning battle is very much still alive.
In a Tuesday release, Calvert County Government said Amazon Data Services Inc. formally withdrew its Calvert Technology Center Conceptual Site Development Plan and will not pursue the proposed project. The application covered a site near the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby. County officials said they will continue providing updates on major development proposals and application activity.
The project had been pitched as multiple data center campuses totaling about 2.4 million square feet. According to the county’s AWS project page, Amazon submitted initial documents in early May, and the application was formally accepted for processing later that month. County agencies sent the company its first round of review comments in July, before Amazon pulled the application instead of moving to the next round.
Calvert Voters Sent A Clear Warning
The retreat follows a June 23 primary election in which data center development became a central political issue. WTOP reported that all three Republican county commissioners who had opposed a pause on data centers lost their primary races. That included commission president Todd Ireland, vice president Mark C. Cox Sr. and commissioner Earl F. “Buddy” Hance.
The opposition was not limited to campaign-season frustration. A report from the Calvert County Environmental Commission called for an immediate pause of at least 12 months before data center approvals moved forward. The commission cited unresolved questions involving noise, water use, forest clearing, threatened species and the combined effects of two nearby proposed facilities.
Moratorium Vote Is Still On The Calendar
Amazon’s withdrawal does not cancel the county’s planned public hearing on data center rules. In a separate Calvert County Government release, officials said commissioners will consider a temporary six-month moratorium on site plan approvals later this month. The proposed pause would give the county time to review zoning amendments, adopt new regulations and complete additional studies.
Calvert is also joining a broader Maryland push to slow the data center boom while officials study its impact on power, water, traffic and land use. Queen Anne’s data center pause offers a recent example of another county choosing regulatory breathing room over a fast approval process.
Constellation, which owns Calvert Cliffs, told WTOP that the opportunity to create jobs, grow the economy and support digital infrastructure remains, while saying future investment can be handled responsibly. Another company, Natelli Holdings, has proposed a separate data center project nearby, meaning Amazon’s exit does not remove the industry from Calvert County’s agenda. Amazon had not immediately responded to a request for comment, WTOP reported.
The immediate question is no longer whether Amazon’s original campus will be approved. It is whether Calvert County writes tougher rules before the next proposal arrives—or keeps trying to catch up after the bulldozers are already part of the conversation.
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