An unexpected activist emerged to help block a $5 billion data center in Maryland

Taylor Frazier McCollum has been active in the opposition to the possible data center at the site of the demolished Landover Mall in Prince George's County, less than a mile from where she lived. If the project is built, the development could occupy more than 80 acres. Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR hide caption

Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR

The overgrown grass and weeds seem to stretch into the horizon on nearly 90 acres of empty land in Landover, Md. It used to be Landover Mall, but that closed in 2002, and the site has been mostly vacant since.

In 2024, the developer that built the mall won approval from county planners for a $5 billion data center campus, and word began spreading through the largely Black community nearby.

"I was like, 'Oh, hell no,'" said Taylor Frazier McCollum, describing the moment she learned about the project. She lived less than a mile away from it. "Why would you want to bring water-polluting, diesel-generating data centers right down the street from where people live, work, play? It just didn't make sense to me."

Frazier McCollum is one of a number of Americans whose political awakening was triggered by data center development. Across the country, community members have taken to local council hearings to voice their opposition. They've prompted — though estimates vary — about 500 moratoriums on data centers nationwide.

A different kind of land-use activist

Unlike a lot of land-use activists trying to protect their homes from threats in their backyards, Frazier McCollum does not own a home. In 2024, she and her young daughter were evicted from their apartment. She was working at a waxing center that cut wages, and she could no longer cover her rent.

"It was difficult," Frazier McCollum recalled. "Because I created the ideal life paying for us to live in this apartment and have our own space ... and then to have it taken away ... It felt like something that wasn't ever going to end."

They've moved around and were living in her grandfather's home when she learned about the proposed project less than a mile away.

Taylor Frazier McCollum in front of her grandfather's home, where she lived when she heard about the proposed data center site less than a mile away in Landover, Md. Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR hide caption

Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR

She created a petition that gathered over 25,000 signatures, leading to widely attended protests and culminating in multiple local moratoriums imposed on data centers throughout the county. It blocked the $5 billion project that was set to break ground between 2026 and 2027.

The fight pushed Frazier McCollum to the forefront of local politics. She went to county meetings, testified before Maryland legislators and endorsed political candidates. She found herself in a coalition of socialists, environmentalists, people angry about their electric bills and neighbors new to organizing.

Local media interviewed her, and people in data center circles called her "the Landover girl."

After some losses, the county needs revenue, and data centers could help

Staci Hartwell, a longtime local environmental activist, says she spent years struggling to get traction on the data center issue before Frazier McCollum came along.

"This is something that was happening in her neighborhood, and it was really like her awakening," Hartwell said.

But with data centers paused, some in Prince George's County worry about declining tax revenue. Last year, a local Six Flags closed. The NFL's Washington Commanders announced plans to return to neighboring Washington, D.C. Thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs. The county faces a budget deficit.

The possible data center site, which was once the Landover Mall, in Prince George's County. If the project is built, the development will occupy more than 80 acres. Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR hide caption

Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR

In September, Frazier McCollum appeared at a county council meeting to advocate for a fund for roof repairs, something her grandfather's home needs. Council member Wanika Fisher, who supports moving some data center projects forward, reminded her that the county needs development.

"Our county has an economic future that we have to grapple with," said Fisher, addressing the request. "I don't see where the money is coming from. I think we have to have a real conversation. And I'm not saying that a data center is the answer, but I'm saying it's worth the hard discussion."

Now Frazier McCollum is broadening her activism and going to new places

With the Landover project on hold, Frazier McCollum now wants a full ban on that and other data center projects. And with grants Hartwell and others have found, Frazier McCollum has taken her message to Black communities fighting data center growth in Atlanta, Memphis and even across the globe in Zambia.

"I feel like so many people are depending on this fight to be successful," Frazier McCollum explained. "Not just for myself, but even across the country, to set precedent for other people that are fighting against hyperscale data centers."

She's lost out on work to attend public meetings or knock on doors, and she's relied on family for rides and childcare.

Her father, Lacy McCollum Jr., sees the data center fight as rooted in civil rights.

"We're talking about the right to water, the right to clean air, the right to a place to live. That's everybody's fight, right?" Lacy McCollum Jr. said. "While I'm afraid for her, we need those people. We needed the Medgar Everses. We needed the Martin Luther Kings. We needed the Malcolm X's. People like Taylor, they jump out here so the people behind them get to make progress."

Some urge her to run for office. She says she wants to pay off her debt and traffic tickets and find a home first.

"I didn't want to have to focus on housing and the campaign and doing everything else," explained Frazier McCollum. "Now is not maybe the moment for it, but I do have aspirations to run for something."

In the meantime, she's pitching plans to turn the old Landover site into a sports complex or affordable housing, or to use some of it to support heritage tourism in the county. But none of those ideas, she acknowledges, would be as lucrative as a data center campus.

Jenny Abamu is a reporter for WAMU.