Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said Wednesday that he may call for a six-month moratorium on data centers, which would add the county to a growing list of Maryland jurisdictions that have paused projects or are planning to.

The county executive said the move would prevent companies from sprinting through the approval process before the County Council enacts stricter regulations.

His comments come a day after dozens of people packed a meeting room at the county’s Executive Office Building in Rockville for a public forum on data centers.

While some have welcomed data centers as a potential source of tax revenue, most speakers at Tuesday’s event shared concerns about data centers straining the electrical grid, raising energy bills and polluting the Potomac River.

Elrich said a moratorium should temporarily halt any permitting and approvals that remain for a data center project in Dickerson, at the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power plant just outside the bounds of the county’s Agricultural Reserve.

The county executive said he won’t move ahead with a proposal until he’s spoken to council members, who would need to approve any moratorium. He said he’s looking for the council to assure him they will adopt data center regulations within the next two months.

“The council’s going to have to evaluate whether they want the time to do this right,” Elrich said during his weekly virtual media briefing. “My inclination is to try to buy time with a moratorium.”

County Council President Natali Fani-González, who has said she did not support a data center moratorium, said she will review any recommendation from Elrich.

Fani-González and Elrich have been working on similar but separate proposals to determine where data centers could be built and what land-use regulations they must follow.

Meanwhile, Evan Glass — one of three council members running to succeed Elrich — has called for his colleagues to pump the brakes. He is pushing for a work group to study potential benefits and harms of data centers.

Data centers, industrial complexes that process and distribute massive amounts of digital information, have divided communities across the state and country in recent years.

Montgomery County has four data centers, according to the online tracker Data Center Map, all in the Upcounty.

Several Maryland counties have imposed moratoriums on data centers.

Baltimore County Council members enacted a freeze on data center developments Monday night. Carroll County officials are also considering a moratorium.

Frederick County adopted a six-month moratorium last year while officials debated stricter regulations on the industry, and Prince George’s County adopted a similar moratorium last September.