Colorado's biggest data center could get approved with no public hearing
A 500-megawatt AI data center proposed for Aurora, Colorado could be approved by city staff alone, next to homes in a heavily polluted area.
What happened: Vantage Data Centers has quietly filed plans with Aurora, Colorado for what would become the state's largest data center: two buildings totaling nearly 862,000 square feet on 143 acres, with 500 megawatts of total electrical demand. That's about 11 times what Denver International Airport uses. Because the site is zoned industrial, city staff can approve it administratively "so long as no major adjustments are requested" "the project doesn't meet the criteria for a neighborhood meeting," a city spokesperson said. No planning commission vote or public hearing is required.
Why it matters: The site sits across from a new housing development and in a census tract already among the most polluted in Colorado, with asthma hospitalization rates higher than 96% of the state's tracts. State regulators have merely suggested, not required, that Vantage hold a community meeting before applying for an air permit. A similar no-hearing approval process let a data center rise in Denver's Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods, ranked among the nation's most polluted ZIP codes, before residents pushed Denver into a moratorium.
How it works, plainly: Colorado law lets many cities treat data centers like any other permitted industrial use, meaning staff sign off without elected officials or neighbors weighing in, unless a project requests unusual zoning changes. The Trident project plans 28 diesel backup generators and closed-loop cooling that still needs roughly 800,000 gallons of water for one building. Xcel Energy, expecting two-thirds of its future demand growth from facilities like this, has proposed rules forcing large customers to sign long contracts and pay for their own grid upgrades, but residents say it doesn't require renewable power.
The rollout: Aurora's council rejected a six-month moratorium but gave its city manager 30 days to draft rules on water use and buffer zones near homes. Statewide, areas representing about a third of Colorado's population, including pro-Trump counties, have paused data center approvals, echoing roughly 379 jurisdictions nationwide. Two Colorado bills that would have mandated renewable energy, hearings, and community benefit agreements died in committee this year, leaving the no-hearing approval path intact for now.