The data center fight in Denver, Colorado
As of October 1, 2026, Denver, Colorado has a data center moratorium in force (action taken May 21, 2026; documented end date 2027-05-21).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
1 year or until updated data center regulations are adopted
SourceNews
read 2026-08-04
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
The project on the table
CoreSite DE3 (Denver) — Under construction
Operator: CoreSite · Size: 75 MW
170,000 sq ft facility at 5050 N. Race St drawing 65-75MW. Under construction with no required community notice; opposition from the neighborhood was the direct catalyst for Denver's citywide one-year data center moratorium passed in May 2026.
Next: Under construction — pull the approved conditions and permits and hold the builder to them; an expansion or a new building reopens the record.
Latest in the record
- 2026-07-21 — CoreSite's data center generators/construction were drawing noise complaints from Elyria-Swansea residents as the facility neared completion. · source
- 2026-05-21 — Denver's one-year data center moratorium took effect, with the city convening a 20+ member working group of officials, utilities, unions, industry, and community advocates to recommend future regulation. · source
- 2026-05-18 — Denver City Council unanimously passed a one-year moratorium halting new data center zoning permits, after hours of community testimony; several members publicly apologized for not stopping the CoreSite project when they had the chance in October 2024. · source
- 2026-05-12 — Colorado lawmakers killed both major data center bills for the session, leaving regulation to the Colorado PUC and increasing pressure on Denver's local moratorium effort. · source
- 2026-04-22 — State air quality regulators pushed for public meetings over CoreSite's diesel generator permit amid community pressure. · source
- 2026-04-07 — Xcel Energy released a proposed large-load tariff to charge data centers the full cost of powering their operations (including 15-year contracts) to reduce bill impacts on residential Colorado customers. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Recent news
9 stories tracked since 2026-02-23 across 8 outlets. 4× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 3× Water use for cooling is straining the local supply. Most recent: “Denver, Aurora residents say they were kept in the dark about massive data center planned near homes” (Denver7, 2026-09-24).
- Denver, Aurora residents say they were kept in the dark about massive data center planned near homes
- Denver Residents Were Told to Let Their Lawns Die. Then They Saw Sprinklers Running Outside a Data Center and All Hell Broke Loose
- Locals rage over AI data center sprinklers in drought-hit Denver
- Denver data center continuously waters its lawn even after city announced drought restrictions, enraging residents — it’s unclear if site is breaking the law or using its own recycled water
- Denver Resident Shows Data Center Watering Their Lawn While Residents Face Water Restrictions For a Year
- Data Centers in Denver - City and County of Denver
- Data Centers in Denver - City and County of Denver
- Denver to form data-center regulation group ahead of 2027 moratorium deadline
- Denver set to pause data center development as mayor joins call for moratorium
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 9 headlines archived.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Colorado.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Colorado briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Colorado
- Commerce City (6 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Arvada (7 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Aurora (9 mi) — Rejectedterm not documented
- Thornton (9 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Broomfield (14 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-12-02
- Jefferson County (18 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-03-19
- Lochbuie (25 mi) — Enactedexpires 2031-07-21
- Longmont (30 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
All 17 tracked actions in Colorado are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.