On August 25, 2025, former Maryland state senator Chris Shank donated $250 to Washington County Commissioner Jeff Cline’s campaign. Moshe Rubin, Chief Financial Officer of Diversified Capital, donated $500 that same day. By December 9, both men were sitting in a closed session meeting with the County Commissioners, identified in the minutes as members of the confidential “Project Team.” Officials cited an NDA as their reason for keeping the presentation private. As we previously reported, Cline returned both contributions on June 12, 2026, nearly ten months after accepting them and six months after that meeting. He still owes residents an explanation for those refunds.
The Burkholder-McDade annexation petition gives us another piece of this story. Diversified Capital is pursuing annexation through two subsidiaries: Burkholder Lane Acquisitions LLC and McDade Road Acquisitions LLC. They are asking Hagerstown to bring approximately 171.885 acres on Burkholder Lane and McDade Road into the City’s boundaries and give the land Industrial Mixed Use zoning. Both parcels are currently outside Hagerstown’s incorporated city limits. This is the developer’s formal application to bring them into the City, where Hagerstown would control their zoning and Washington County’s data center moratorium would no longer apply.
Hagerstown has already taken a step toward that outcome. On August 25, 2026, the Mayor and City Council approved the annexation plan, but final approval of the annexation itself is still pending. The approved plan describes the proposed zoning, conditions for water service, responsibility for infrastructure costs, and municipal services the properties would receive if annexed. The August 25 passage and effective dates printed on that document refer to approval of the plan. They do not mean the land has already become part of Hagerstown.
The City’s public notice schedules the annexation hearing for Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 1 East Franklin Street. It says the annexation resolution was introduced on August 25 and that annexation and the proposed zoning changes would become effective 45 days after approval of the annexation. Residents still have an opportunity to question this proposal before the City makes its final decision.
On June 30, 2026, Patrick and Denise Moler sold approximately 23.12 acres at 12660 McDade Road to McDade Road Acquisitions LLC, a subsidiary of Diversified Capital. That was the same day the Commissioners passed their sham data center moratorium. The petition expressly identifies McDade Road Acquisitions LLC as an affiliate of Burkholder Lane Acquisitions LLC, another Diversified Capital subsidiary, and includes the newly acquired Moler property in the annexation request. The original petition was dated June 24, with its legal description prepared earlier in June. By the time the Commissioners announced their pause, the annexation paperwork was already being assembled and Diversified Capital was acquiring adjoining land through its subsidiary.
On the petition’s last page, Diversified Capital CFO Moshe Rubin signed for the company’s subsidiary, McDade Road Acquisitions LLC, on August 20, 2026, with Chris Shank signing as his witness. Rubin was joining and adopting the petition’s terms, conditions, and exhibits on behalf of the subsidiary that had purchased the Molers’ property. The former state senator, Chris Shank, who donated to Cline alongside Rubin and appeared with him on the confidential County project team in which everyone part of the meeting is bound by an NDA, was now witnessing Rubin’s execution of annexation paperwork for a Diversified Capital subsidiary. Commisioner Cline had returned their money, but both men were still involved in advancing the development effort.
City officials were also meeting privately with Diversified Capital months before this annexation request. On December 9, 2025, the same day Rubin and the project team appeared before the County Commissioners, Hagerstown’s own minutes place Rubin in a closed meeting with the Mayor, City Council, and senior City staff. Connor McManus, Zack Fritz, and Boyd Rutherford also attended. As we previously reported, the City subsequently refused to provide the NDA and related records we requested concerning Diversified Capital. Residents are being asked to evaluate this annexation while the City continues withholding records about its dealings with the developer.
The County’s sham data center moratorium does not apply inside Hagerstown or any other incorporated municipality in Washington County. That gives the Commissioners a convenient talking point before the November election: they paused data centers. Meanwhile, a data center developer they met with behind closed doors, and with whom they signed a nondisclosure agreement, is pursuing annexation into a jurisdiction outside that pause. Apparently, residents are supposed to be reassured by the moratorium without looking too closely at where it applies.
Water and sewer extensions were already part of Diversified Capital’s Burkholder development plans in 2023. The June 5, 2023 Washington County Planning Commission minutes and a proposed one-million-square-foot warehouse at 12440 Burkholder Lane, with Connor McManus of Dynamic Engineering present. The minutes state: “Existing water and sewer services are currently available and will be extended to the site.” Plans to extend utilities to this property were in the County’s own records more than two years before the campaign contributions and confidential meetings, and three years before the Commissioners announced their sham data center moratorium.
The water provision in the annexation paperwork requires a distinction the City should make clear to residents. The Burkholder parcel is outside Hagerstown’s city limits but inside its Medium Range Growth Area. The McDade parcel is outside both. The growth area is a separate planning boundary used to guide future development and utility service; being inside it does not make a property part of the incorporated City. The approved annexation plan says City water lines would be extended to the Burkholder parcel as part of development following annexation. McDade would not receive City water until it is included in the growth area.
Condition 4 of the petition says the petitioner is not requesting City water for McDade “unless and until” that parcel is added to the growth area. That leaves a future water request open for the land Diversified Capital’s subsidiary bought from the Molers. LocalNews1 reported that City staff anticipated including annexed properties in the growth area through a future comprehensive-plan update. What development and water demand were officials anticipating when they discussed changing that boundary?
The survey exhibits show streams, wetland buffers, a 100-year floodplain and an existing forest conservation easement. They also identify 92.877 acres of remaining Burkholder land outside this annexation. The current request therefore covers only part of the larger Burkholder holding, together with the McDade property and a small road right-of-way. Any development proposal will need to account for those environmental constraints, and officials should explain whether additional development or annexation of the remaining land has been discussed.
Former Maryland State Senator and lobbyist Chris Shank should explain what work he is doing for Diversified Capital or its subsidiaries, whom he represents and whether he is being paid. Cline should explain why he accepted both campaign contributions on the same day and then returned both on the same day, nearly ten months after accepting the money and six months after signing an NDA and meeting privately with the donors. We keep hearing that the Commissioners have not approved a data center. Meanwhile, Diversified Capital’s subsidiaries are applying to move their land into Hagerstown and arguing that the Commissioners’ approval of the proposed City zoning is unnecessary. That makes the Commissioners’ role in everything leading up to a final development proposal more relevant, and their insistence that they have never approved one a remarkably incomplete answer.
Wow. They continue to revolt me and you continue to amaze with your depth of reporting