Aurora City Council rejects six-month data center ban

Aurora City Council voted against a six-month pause on new data center construction on Monday, but agreed to establish new regulations for future sites.

The moratorium, proposed by Councilmember Amy Wiles, was meant to give the city time to establish new rules governing where and how data centers can be built. The moratorium would not have impacted data centers already under construction.

"We are certainly seeing municipalities and counties across Colorado putting in temporary moratoriums on data centers," Miller told 9NEWS on Monday before the meeting. "Putting a moratorium in place buys us some time, but it doesn't set the standard, and we do need strong standards in place."

City Council decided against a pause on new construction Monday night. Councilmembers passed a separate resolution that gives City Manager Jason Batchelor 35 days to put together ordinances to ban evaporative cooling and establish buffer zones for data centers near neighborhoods. The city manager may also choose to add additional regulations within those 35 days.

"I just want to say that really we should be, we should ensure that any business that wants to locate in our city is compatible with zoning, water use restrictions and other environmental concerns," said Councilmember Françoise Bergan, who voted in favor of the resolution.