Aurora City Council decides against voting on data center ban

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(The Center Square) - A ban against new data centers still hasn't won support from the Aurora City Council despite residents' calls for a moratorium.

The council in Colorado's third-largest city voted against a proposal to reconsider its decision against an indefinite ban on data centers. That angered attendees who booed the council during a meeting that began at 6 p.m. Monday and ran until 1 a.m.

“You're selling us all out!" a woman in the crowd yelled. 

Council members voted 6-5 against suspending council rules to consider a proposed data center moratorium that failed in August. The procedural motion needed seven votes to pass, so council members could not discuss or vote on the topic.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said at the end of the meeting that the city council would discuss the item again at its next meeting on Nov. 9.

At Monday night's seven-hour meeting, numerous Aurora residents spoke in favor of the city council passing a data center moratorium.  

Gary Zimmerman, an Aurora resident and board member of Join Unite, said it “sank my heart tonight" when the city council voted against suspending council rules, which would have allowed discussion of a moratorium.

Join Unite is a nonprofit that opposes the proposed 860,000-square-foot Trident data center in Aurora. The center would not be affected by the proposed moratorium, which would apply only to new applications for data centers. 

Zimmerman said he wanted to see council members protect the city’s “environment, infrastructure [and] residents before the cumulative damage becomes irreversible.”  

He told the council members who voted against discussing the moratorium, “Shame on you.” After saying this, crowd members also yelled, “Shame!” at the council members.

Zimmerman said the council members who voted against suspending council rules were “foolish,” adding that they “failed” Aurora residents.

Melissa Mejía, who is running for the Denver City Council’s at-large seat in the Nov. 3 election, told Aurora council members she thought the city “should ban new data centers.”

She said if elected, she would work to turn Denver’s temporary data center pause into a “permanent ban.” Denver’s data center moratorium ends May 21, 2027.

Mejía said Aurora, Denver and surrounding cities need to close the door on data centers together, so “that none of our communities becomes the easiest place to put a project that nobody else would take.”  

Aurora is around 25 minutes from Denver.

Mejia added that borders don’t exist when it comes to water shortages, energy strain or confronting corporate power.

If the city council implements the resolution banning data centers indefinitely, Aurora would not accept new data center development applications. According to the resolution, the moratorium will give the city additional time to “construct additional regulations for future data centers.”

Under the proposed moratorium, Aurora would take the time to establish data center regulations, including minimum distances from neighborhoods. Rules would also include noise mitigation.

Last week, Vantage Data Centers, the developer behind the Trident data center, asked Aurora to delay implementing new data center regulations for at least 90 days while it looks for alternative locations farther from residences, according to the mayor.

Coffman rejected the request on social media, saying a delay would let other data centers build close to a residential neighborhood.

“We need to move forward ‘NOW’ with new guidelines that protect residential areas, and until then, we absolutely must pass an indefinite moratorium, or ‘PAUSE’ until those new guidelines are in place so that we don't have another Trident situation,” he said.  

According to a website opposing the Trident data center, the proposed location is close to residential neighborhoods, parks and a school.