AURORA | A special council meeting scheduled for Monday to decide whether to implement a data center moratorium has been canceled and lawmakers intend to vote on the moratorium at the Oct. 26 meeting instead.

In a social media post, Mayor Mike Coffman said he’s canceling the special meeting because two council members who support the moratorium are unable to be there Monday evening.

“Without their votes, the passage of an indefinite data center moratorium is unlikely,” Coffman said on Facebook. 

The moratorium proposes a pause on accepting data center applications until the city has implemented new regulations, but does not provide a specific timeline.

The moratorium would likely not impact the Trident data center at its current location because the city has already accepted its application for development, according to city officials. It’s unclear how the moratorium would impact other proposed data centers in the city.

In addition to a moratorium, Coffman is sponsoring a prohibition on future tax incentives for data centers, which will be discussed at the Management and Finance committee meeting on Thursday. 

The prohibition would end the practice of remitting sales or use tax back to data centers in exchange for jobs. The city has already committed to four incentive agreements, with a max total rebate of about $83 million. 

One of the incentive agreements is for the Trident data center, which could receive up to $39 million in tax rebates.

In a different post last week, Coffman said that he supports a proposal to pause any new data center developments until new regulations are in place.

“We cannot be blindsided by another Trident Data Center disaster that is unacceptably close to surrounding residential areas,” Coffman said in a post on Facebook. “We must take a pause to prevent any further requests for data center applications until we have the right policies in place.”

Earlier this year, the council rejected a six-month moratorium, with Coffman casting the tie-breaking vote to oppose and kill it. However, since then, community backlash against data centers has swelled significantly.

A group of residents in the Windler, Reserve and Green Valley Ranch neighborhoods have organized against the proposed Trident data center, which is located nearby residences on East 48th Avenue.

Councilmember Amy Wiles credited the community for leading some council members to change their minds.

“I 100% give most of the credit to the community because I had tried to move this forward and be a little bit more restrictive back in the summer, and personally did not have the votes,” Wiles said.

Wiles said the goal is to allow the city to address regulations for data centers thoughtfully.

“Instead of doing you know one small change here and then having to go back and readjust it, and kind of doing things piecemeal, it will give us a little bit of time to sort of pull everything together at once and move it all forward,” she said.

If a moratorium passes, the council would have more time to consider already proposed regulations, as well as new ones. 

One regulation council is already considering is a residential buffer. In previous conversations, the council was leaning toward a 350 foot buffer, but Wiles said she plans to suggest a larger distance.

Additionally, Councilmember Rob Andrews said in a social media post that he spoke to Vantage and the company is exploring other, alternative locations and “actively looking at sites away from existing residential neighborhoods.”

No other locations have been identified yet. In a statement to the Sentinel, a Vantage spokesperson said the company is working with Xcel and the city to evaluate other locations to see if they meet the technical, energy and operational requirements needed for the facility. 

“At the same time, we continue to advance the current site, which is appropriately zoned for data center use and remains under review through the city’s established development process. No decision has been made to relocate the project,” Mark Freeman, vice president for global marketing at Vantage, said in the statement. “We remain committed to listening to the community and collaborating with local leaders and our partners as we evaluate the best path forward.”

Planning documents show the Trident data center will be approximately 860,000 square feet and located in Airport District zoning, which allows data centers as a use by right, which means the project can be approved administratively by the city without a public hearing, unless the project is requesting a variance. 

While Trident is not requesting a variance, city spokesperson Jennifer Soules previously said the city is working with the developer, Vantage Data Centers, to schedule a community meeting, but a date has not yet been set.

A development application and site plan for the data center were first submitted in August 2025 and the project is on its fourth round of reviews, according to the city. The project’s fourth submission is due by Oct. 26, though the deadline could change because the public meeting must be scheduled first.

In response to the community outrage against the Trident project, Coffman has said he plans to call the Trident data center up for a vote by city council and will ask his colleagues to vote against the project, regardless of the litigation risk.

The data center can’t be called up by the city council until it receives approval, according to Soules. 

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