Gaithersburg, MD Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Crypto Mining Rules (2026)

4 defines a data center or data/cryptocurrency mining facility as a physical location storing computing machines and related hardware, the servers, storage drives and network equipment that make up IT infrastructure, that either stores a company's digital data or performs cryptocurrency mining and its associated administrative and accounting functions. 10-1, the non-residential use table, marks the use a conditional use, requiring city council approval subject to conditions, in the I-1 industrial zone and the I-3 industrial and office park zone, and prohibits it outright in the CB, C-1, C-2 and E-1/E-2 zones.

3's definition of "conditional use" describes exactly what that approval track means: a use "that would not be appropriate generally, but that may be permitted if approved by the city council, and which may be subject to certain conditions," so an operator cannot simply file for a building permit but must obtain council sign-off first. 1-1 lists data center or data/crypto currency mining as flatly prohibited in all four floating districts, MXD, CBD, CD and MCD, with no conditional-use pathway at all. 1-1's residential use table carries no data-center category, the catch-all "all other uses not specifically listed" clause also bars the use from every one of the city's eight residential zones.