Loveland council to weigh data-center impacts

LOVELAND — Loveland’s City Council members, who have been flooded with comments from concerned constituents that mounted with the revelation of the city’s talks with a data-center developer, will hold the first of two planned study sessions Tuesday to assess potential centers’ impacts and develop regulations to govern them.

The council Sept. 15 passed a 12-month moratorium on accepting applications for large data centers that would use at least 10 megawatts of electricity or industrial-scale cooling infrastructure, but the city is not prohibited from having less-formal discussions with potential developers.

Newly released city records show that a prospective buyer of the former Woodward Inc. property at 3800 N. Wilson Ave. continued working with companies interested in developing a data center on the site into late August while community members clamored for a moratorium on such centers. The discussions dealt with availability of water and power on the site, with the city saying that it could meet the demands of the developers.

The release of scores of emails constituting hundreds of pages were prompted by a Colorado Open Records Act demand filed by attorney Christopher M. Drake of the Drake Insurance Law office in Fort Collins. Drake then shared the documents he obtained on social media.

BizWest published news stories about a potential data center on the Woodward site on July 13, 14 and 17. Drake’s CORA request revealed that the city then began receiving large numbers of emails and calls from Loveland residents all in opposition to data centers, prompting a spate of email exchanges internally among city staff about how to respond.

According to a news release emailed to BizWest late Thursday, Emily Shockley, the city’s acting public relations and media specialist, wrote that, “while the city has no pending land-use applications proposing any type of data center, staff and councilors continue to actively look at potential impacts of data centers in general.”

The council held a study session on the topic of data centers Sept. 1, two weeks before it voted to impose the temporary moratorium.

According to the agenda for Tuesday’s study session, at which no votes will be taken, Development Services director Bob Paulsen will summarize current zoning and review protocols for data centers and potential code updates for regulating data centers by size, city attorney Vince Junglas will provide legal context for potential code changes and enforcement options, and economic-development director Marcie Willard will discuss economic considerations and impacts relative to data-center sizes.

Tuesday’s meeting will be held beginning at 6 p.m. in City Council chambers at 500 E. Third St. The agenda and packet for Tuesday’s meeting can be found on CivicWeb, and the meeting will be streamed live on Loveland TV.

Shockley told BizWest earlier this month that another study session, scheduled for Dec. 8, would look at data centers’ potential impact on area utilities.

Communities up and down the Front Range have been moving to delay decisions on data centers to get language on their development books.

In Fort Collins, Loveland’s neighbor to the north, the City Council voted this week to enact a six-month moratorium on the development of most data centers. Tuesday’s vote on first reading was unanimous, and the proposal will be up for final approval at the council’s next regular meeting Nov. 3. If approved then, the moratorium would be in effect until April 6.

In Loveland’s neighbor to the south, the Berthoud Board of Trustees voted 5-2 Sept. 23 to impose a one-year moratorium on data-center applications while city staffers develop regulations for the facilities, and Larimer County extended its moratorium on data centers in unincorporated parts of the county through February. That pause was originally enacted in January for six months but extended in July.

Brighton passed a one-year moratorium on Oct. 6 after a plan for an eight-building, 2.52 million-square-foot data center complex in the Weld County portion of that city spurred a city council member to propose a 90-day moratorium on applications for the facilities.

The Longmont council voted 6-1 in June for an outright ban on “hyperscale” data centers, Broomfield passed an 18-month moratorium in July, and Lafayette on Sept. 15 heard its city staff advocate for a similar one. Mead’s Board of Trustees voted 4-2 on Aug. 31 to impose a year-long moratorium, and Dacono may still consider one but  delayed a vote on a proposed one-year moratorium that was originally scheduled to be considered on Aug. 31 because city officials noted that the potential impacts of data centers on local infrastructure are not fully understood yet, and because they are also watching to see if the Colorado General Assembly takes up related legislation.

Meanwhile, the Board of Weld County Commissioners approved a data center near Windsor in an area that may be annexed into Greeley. The move prompted a citizens group to begin collecting signatures to require voter approval of data centers.

A smattering of other smaller communities in Northern Colorado have yet to tackle their own language on data centers.

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