Boulder County Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to restrict data centers to 50 kilowatts – ending the county’s data center moratorium created earlier this summer and essentially prohibiting large-scale data centers from operating there.
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50 kilowatts is a relatively low limit, compared to other data centers. 50 kilowatts can power a couple dozen homes. Over in Weld County, the Global AI data center is slated to start at more than 25 megawatts, or more than 20,000 homes, with the intention to scale up to one gigawatt.
Boulder’s planning commission initially proposed a somewhat higher cap of 75 kilowatts. That number was based on Energy Star’s guidance of what wattage delineates a server room versus a data center. County staff could still approve small facilities within light and general industrial districts on a case-by-case basis.
Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann initially agreed on 75 kilowatts, but after an executive session about legal concerns, thought a conservative approach would be better.
“(This) ensures we're not hitting right up against the thresholds of larger centers that will have negative externalities for noise and lighting,” Stolzmann said. “If we took a third of that off the top and brought it down to 50 kilowatts, we would be in a better position to protect our community from a health and safety perspective.”
This rule creates language defining data centers in the land use code, but it only applies to unincorporated areas of Boulder County, not cities and towns like Longmont or Boulder.
Commissioners agreed that 50 kilowatts was sufficient to allow for the growth of technologies in the Boulder area, like quantum computing, but still protects the health and well-being of residents.
Senior Planner Ethan Abner said he was worried that their restriction could be too much, but other municipalities could decide to do things differently to create more opportunities for the tech to grow.
Still, some residents, like Beth Egan, wanted more rigorous amendments to address environmental concerns. She was one of a couple of residents who showed up to testify.
“Every water usage in Boulder County affects every other water usage, and I don't think that should be dealt with on the back end,” Egan said. “I think on the front end, before anything is allowed as a permitted use, there should be specific code regulations that address those concerns.”
Other residents wanted to go as far as an outright ban, that no wattage was acceptable in Boulder County due to the environmental concerns.
“Across the U.S., people are rising up against data centers that have been forced into their communities,” Giselle Herzfeld, a resident and member of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, said. “You have the power to protect your constituents from this harmful development, and I assure you that you have the backing and support of your community in this decision.”
Abner said that a 75 kilowatt facility would only use 900 gallons of water, which is equivalent to the water usage of three homes in a day. He also added that there is already a noise ordinance in place in Boulder County that these low data centers would have to abide by anyway.
Claire Levy also affirmed that there’s sufficient guardrail language in place for their limited impact special review to make sure these concerns do not get out of hand.
“This is not the last word,” Levy said. “If we find that we're not able to address some of these issues, as people have testified…we've had many kinds of cases come to us through that limited impact special review process that I think we've had the latitude to address those concerns.”
Across the Front Range, communities are divided on data centers, with each taking different measures of precaution on how to approach them. Larimer County has extended its moratorium on data centers through February.
