Denver’s mayor and city council Wednesday announced a “working group” of 26 citizens and experts on data center growth that will make policy recommendations amid a city building moratorium, putting developers on notice the ban could be extended. City Council approved a one-year moratorium in May, amid rising controversy from residents in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood of north Denver for opposing a 600,000-square-foot data center under construction by CoreSite. Globeville and Elyria-Swansea residents and advocates point out they have long been the victim of excess pollution from interstate traffic, the Suncor refinery, past Superfund polluters, the Purina plant and other industries.
Denver’s pause also comes as communities up and down the Front Range launch their own intensive debates about whether and how to site other massive data center proposals. Brighton’s City Council on Tuesday night approved a one-year ban on data centers, as neighborhood groups protest a 2.5 million square foot proposal in the northern part of the city that extends into Weld County. A city council member said that application had been withdrawn.
Date Center opponents in Weld County are now circulating petitions for a public vote on a ban there, after commissioners rezoned for a large Global AI data center in an unincorporated part of the county near Windsor.
Aurora, Colorado Springs and a handful of other cities are also debating data center rezonings and potential moratoriums. Denver data centers permitted before May were not impacted by the City Council moratorium.
“It will be Denver, not corporations, that decide if and how data centers may operate in our city,” Mayor Mike Johnston said, in a statement accompanying the working group appointments. City officials said more than 250 people expressed interest in joining the panel.
“This group brings together people with different perspectives to help us get this right: setting clear rules, protecting Denver’s resources, and putting the interests of Denverites first,” Johnston said.
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