AURORA |  City lawmakers will meet in a special session  Monday to decide whether to reverse a previous decision and instead impose a moratorium on allowing new data centers in Aurora.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday to discuss a proposal from Councilmember Amy Wiles for a potentially indefinite moratorium on accepting data center applications.

Mayor Mike Coffman said in a social media post last week 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’s 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 against 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.

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 told the Sentinel that the timeline of the moratorium is still being decided, so it could be an indefinite pause or have a set deadline. She 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,” Wiles 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.

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

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 around 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. 

Community uproar over the data centers has erupted up and down the Front Range this year, as communities in Denver, Colorado Springs and other municipalities have pushed back against planned data center operations.

>>>>>Data center controversy roils communities across the region and the nation

The local controversies mirror similar issues across the region, and the nation.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned about China’s technology gains and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said that recent proposals for federal pauses on data center construction might be a “dangerous prospect.”

Still, most registered voters oppose building a data center in their area, according to a July Fox News poll, including 60% of Republicans and 53% of MAGA voters.

This summer, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered a one-year ban on large data centers. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a fellow Democrat, said his administration would no longer prioritize data center projects when it comes to issuing construction permits or granting developers lucrative tax exemptions if they don’t meet certain standards.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a halt on approval of new data centers until audits determine their impact on the state’s electrical grid.

Abbott told ABC News that data centers hadn’t been working in collaboration with state or local officials and “basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them, and that’s why they got the backlash they deserve.”

The Republican Party’s Senate campaign arm is worried enough about the issue potentially deciding races in Ohio, that it drafted a memo outlining how to respond. But politicians on both sides of the aisle have turned data centers into a punching bag.

Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a Republican running for an open House seat, has pledged to halt their construction.

“If Silicon Valley wants to build their liberal empire, they can do it somewhere else,” he said in an ad.

That overlaps with an ad for the mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Democrat Paige Cognetti, who said “we are not for sale” when it comes to data centers. Cognetti is trying to unseat first-term Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan in a battleground district.

Trump has been undeterred, however, saying that what data centers mean “for a community is jobs and lots of money and lower taxes.” The president has also conceded, however, that tech companies and developers maybe “can use a little public relations help.”

Seeking to soften fears about rising utility prices, Trump says his administration has urged data centers to build their own power plants.

Yet, during a recent meeting in the conservative East Texas town of Tyler, residents complained of being forced to live in a “gas cloud” so data centers can get enough electricity.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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