Prince George's County residents protest proposed data center at former site of Landover Mall

Residents of Prince George's County protest proposed data center

Protesters are hoping to get the attention of lawmakers regarding the plan to put a data center in place of the Landover Mall site. FOX 5's Tisha Lewis reports.

LANDOVER, Md. - Hundreds of people turned out to protest the possibility of data centers at the site of the former Landover Mall. Right now, the nearly 90-acre land sits vacant.

Not so fast say some residents who came out to the Prince George’s County’s data center task force meeting here today at The Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission headquarters.

What we know:

At least 300 protesters greeted the task force as tensions grow against a data center campus coming to the former Landover Mall site.

Protesters are hoping to get the attention of lawmakers. In addition to the demonstration, there's a change.org petition circulating across the community, garnering thousands of signatures from residents against the data center coming to the former Landover Mall site.

Wednesday’s meeting was a regularly scheduled data task force meeting. FOX 5 has learned the task force is reviewing environmental impacts on energy from data centers.

We’ve also learned the data center task force is planning to tour data centers in Frederick County. This comes after they already toured data centers in Prince William County in July.

What they're saying:

"I’m seeing what it’s going to do to the sentiment in the water and all these things and I don’t want that happening to my grandfather, grandmother and myself," said Taylor Frazier, the Change.org petition creator.

"Once we pull ourselves together we do have a voice, we do have power and we can stop this from being done," said Frazier.

The land is owned by Lerner Enterprises. The nearly 90-acre plot has remained vacant for 25 years.

FOX 5 has reached out to Lerner Enterprises. We are waiting to hear back.