Taylor Frazier McCollum has been active in opposition to the potential 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 comes to fruition, the development could occupy more than 80 acres.
Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR
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Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR
Overgrown grass and weeds seem to stretch to the horizon on nearly 90 acres of empty land in Landover, Maryland. It used to be Landover Mall, but it closed in 2002, and the site has been virtually empty since then.
In 2024, the developer who built the mall won approval from county planners for a $5 billion data center campus, and word began to spread among the nearby, mostly black community.
“I thought, ‘Oh, hell no,'” Taylor Frazier McCollum said, describing the moment she learned about the project. He lived less than a kilometer from there. “Why would you want to put data centers that pollute water and generate diesel right down the street where people live, work and play? It just didn’t make sense to me.”
Frazier McCollum is one of several Americans whose political awakening was sparked by the development of data centers. Across the country, community members have attended local council hearings to voice their opposition. They have caused, although estimates vary, around 500 moratoriums on data centers across the country.
A Different Kind of Land Use Activist
Unlike many land use activists trying to protect their homes from threats in their backyards, Frazier McCollum is not a homeowner. In 2024, she and her young daughter were evicted from their apartment. She worked at a hair removal center that reduced wages and could no longer cover the rent.
“It was difficult,” Frazier McCollum recalled. “Because I created the ideal life by paying for us to live in this apartment and have our own space… and then to have it taken away from us… It felt like something that was never going to end.”
They moved and were living in his grandfather’s house when he heard about the proposed project less than a mile away.
Taylor Frazier McCollum in front of his grandfather’s house, where he lived, when he learned of the proposed data center site less than a mile away in Landover, Maryland.
Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR
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Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR
He created a petition that gathered over 25,000 signatures, sparking well-attended protests and culminating in multiple local moratoriums imposed on data centers across the county. It blocked the $5 billion project that was due to begin construction between 2026 and 2027.
The fight brought Frazier McCollum to the forefront of local politics. He attended county meetings, testified before Maryland legislators and endorsed political candidates. He found himself in a coalition of socialists, environmentalists, people angry about their electric bills, and neighbors new to the organization.
Local media interviewed her and people in data center circles called her “the Landover girl.”
After some losses, county needs revenue and data centers could help
Staci Hartwell, a longtime local environmental activist, says she spent years fighting to get traction on the data center issue before Frazier McCollum came along.
“This is something that was happening in his neighborhood and it was really like his awakening,” Hartwell said.
But with data centers on pause, 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, DC. Thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs. The county faces a budget deficit.
The possible data center site, 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
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Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR
In September, Frazier McCollum appeared at a county council meeting to advocate for a fund for roof repairs, something his grandfather’s house needs. Council member Wanika Fisher, who supports moving forward with some data center projects, reminded him that the county needs development.
“Our county has an economic future that we have to deal with,” Fisher said, addressing the request. “I don’t see where the money is coming from. I think we need to have a real conversation. And I’m not saying a data center is the answer, but I am saying it’s worth the hard discussion.”
Now Frazier McCollum is expanding his activism and reaching new places.
With the Landover project on hold, Frazier McCollum now wants an outright ban on that and other data center projects. And with the grants that Hartwell and others have found, Frazier McCollum has taken his message to black communities fighting data center growth in Atlanta, Memphis, and even around the world, in Zambia.
“I feel like a lot of people are depending on the success of this fight,” Frazier McCollum explained. “Not just for me, but even for the entire country, to set a precedent for other people fighting against hyperscale data centers.”
She has lost her job to attend public meetings or knock on doors, and has relied on her family to drive her and care for her children.
His father, Lacy McCollum Jr., sees the fight over data centers 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 everyone’s fight, right?” said Lacy McCollum Jr. “Even though I’m scared for her, we need those people. We needed the Medgar Evers. We needed the Martin Luther Kings. We needed the Malcolm Xs. People like Taylor, jump in here so the people behind them can advance.”
Some urge her to run for office. She says she wants to pay off her debts and traffic tickets and find a house first.
“I didn’t want to have to focus on housing and the campaign and everything else,” Frazier McCollum explained. “Maybe now isn’t the time for it, but I have aspirations to run for something.”
Meanwhile, it is putting forward plans to convert the former Landover site into a sports complex or affordable housing, or use part of it to support heritage tourism in the county. But none of those ideas, he acknowledges, would be as lucrative as a data center campus.
Jenny some is a reporter for TOGETHER.
