In the coming weeks, the council plans to convene a group of community advocates and experts to make recommendations on what those regulations should be.
Data centers, which are buildings where tech companies, including giants such as Amazon and Netflix, store their servers and storage systems. The centers make everyday services like email, online banking, telehealth, streaming services and artificial intelligence language models possible for Denverites. They can also suck up massive amounts of water and energy.
The facilities have become a hot-button issue across the country as communities push back against construction in their areas. Neighbors of the centers complain that they create constant noise, pollute the air with diesel generators and exacerbate water shortages.
Dozens of Denver residents signed up to speak during the public hearing portion of the Denver City Council meeting. Many of them came from north Denver, where neighbors have expressed frustration about a CoreSite data center there. A community group from the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea Neighborhoods, located near CoreSite, hosted a press conference ahead of the meeting.
“This is an important first step,” Alfonso Espino said. “But we want to ensure … that we will make this moratorium mean something.”
There are currently 50 data centers in Denver, said Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, one of the sponsors of the moratorium.
About half of them — at least in square footage — are in council district 10, which includes central neighborhoods like Golden Triangle, Union Station and Congress Park, said Councilman Chris Hinds, who represents that district.
The pause on data centers won’t impact those that already exist or are under construction. If the council imposes regulations in the future, they could impact expansions, like one that CoreSite has said it plans to build on its campus.
The working group will include three council members, two representatives from utilities companies, two union representatives, one industry representative, three people from advocacy groups, seven community members, one subject matter expert and seven ex-officio members from Denver city departments. The council hasn’t yet announced the names of the people who will be in the group.
The group will study issues like zoning, energy use, cooling systems and renewable energy, according to a presentation slideshow.
The ordinance sponsors, council members Paul Kashmann, Darrell Watson and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, are in the process of hiring a facilitator for that group’s work.
During council comments, Kashmann responded to a resident who said they opposed the moratorium because it could discourage businesses from coming to Denver.
“The message that should get out is, regardless of the industry, Denver is definitely no longer open for unregulated businesses that, should that lack of regulation continue, present a real and significant threat to the health and welfare of the community.” Kashmann
The vote was unanimous, even though some council members criticized the idea of creating a task force rather than taking immediate action.
“This whole task force thing I’ve seen over and over again with the administration hasn’t ever worked out,” said Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez. “So I have concerns, but the least we can do is make sure that no more are being built right now.”
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