On Tuesday, July 21, the Pagosa Springs Town Council directed staff to draft a two-year moratorium on data centers within town limits, while staff — in conjunction with the town’s planning commission — seeks language to define what a data center is and possibly ban or regulate their existence.
Currently, the town’s Land Use and Development Code (LUDC) has no language defining data centers, prompting Planning Manager Owen O’Dell to say, “We don’t want to be caught on our heels” if a “big developer” were to come to town “throwing money around,” hoping to build a data center.
The LUDC needs to include language defining data centers to either implement smart zoning regulations or ban them outright, O’Dell said.
The town’s LUDC currently “does not address such use,” an agenda document on the matter states.
It states, “When an application is made for a type of use that is not specifically listed … the Director shall make a determination as to the appropriate classification of a new or unlisted form of land use.”
Currently, the most closely related use the LUDC defines “would be the use of a Warehouse, which is defined as: A structure containing an area available for the purpose of storing raw materials, goods, or property.”
While no developer has come to the town’s Planning Department wanting to build a data center, “we want to get ahead of the eight ball on this,” said Town Manager David Harris.
On June 16, the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) adopted a six-month moratorium on all new data center applications.
The county’s pause on data centers will allow it “to evaluate long-term impacts and establish smart zoning regulations regarding power use, water demands, and environmental effects,” the county’s website states.
Commissioner Veronica Medina has stated that data centers don’t seem to be a good fit for Archuleta County, citing “the draw on power and water that they tend to use.”
“Colorado is in a fight for its life for water, and if we don’t have water, we don’t have life,” she said.
In light of the county’s decision to bring about a temporary moratorium, O’Dell indicated he wanted to bring the matter in front of the town council.
Initially, council member Mat deGraaf said, “I’d like to keep this simple. No data centers in town limits ever.”
Council member Brooks Lindner agreed, adding, “I see no way that data centers would be compatible with our community.”
But the council’s newest member, Vahid Shabro, who also has a background in artificial intelligence, according to the town’s website, expressed that he would be against an outright ban on data centers.
Data centers would likely not come about within town limits, given the town’s layout, he explained, so banning them would not be necessary and may make the town look like it is anti-progress.
However, Mayor Shari Pierce noted that while the town’s current boundaries may not support a place for data centers, “we must also consider future annexations” and, therefore, have language in the code in place.
Pierce explained that she thought long and hard about the pros and cons, and that the cons of “the noise and the light,” as well as other environmental factors, made her lean toward at least a moratorium.
But she was noted she is reluctant to support an outright ban, because the “data centers of today may not be the data centers of the future,” adding that negative public perception would likely put pressure on developers to improve designs for these centers to have less of a footprint in the future.
Lindner then came around to the moratorium idea, saying, “I’d be in favor of a moratorium.”
deGraaf also implied that he’d be in favor of the two-year moratorium, saying, “We need to name the thing first” within the code.
An outright ban could come after the two-year moratorium expires, if the council, at that time, wishes to do so, he suggested.
When asked his thoughts on the matter, O’Dell said that he thought “a moratorium would be appropriate while we figure out the language and that would buy us time to figure out what the language should be.”
He added, “And that way if a big developer comes in to say, ‘I want to put a data center at Mountain Crossing,’ then we could say, ‘Well, we have this moratorium in place while we’re figuring out what the town wants to do with data centers and what we view is important for the community.’”
O’Dell continued, “Because, who knows, there may be a developer who is looking at every community in the state of Colorado trying to find those communities that don’t have any language or moratoriums.”
O’Dell also commented on places that are seeing data center development.
“I would agree that we are not the best option for a data center, but places like Page, Arizona, are getting data centers and Lake Powell is at an all-time low, so I think money talks with data centers … and I don’t want to get in a place where we’re caught on our heels,” he said.
The LUDC needs language and possibly “preventative measures” to protect the town, he added.
Pierce said, “We just have so much else going on here over the next two years, but if they [staff] can be keeping an eye on what’s going on out there with technology and improvements, then we can look at it again later.”
Council member Leonard Martinez said that “it’s the right thing to do, to name the thing and put that in the code so we are not caught off guard.”
The council decided to direct staff to first place a two-year moratorium on data centers and then deal with codifying them in the LUDC at a later point in time.
derek@pagosasun.com
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