Mayor plans to seek data center moratorium despite inaction

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) - Mayor Mike Coffman said he will propose another data center moratorium after Aurora City Council once again failed to reconsider an earlier ban.

On Monday night, when the city council considered revisiting an indefinite moratorium on data centers, council members who opposed the Oct. 26 motion to reconsider could have brought it back up for discussion. But none did, so there was no vote.

Coffman said he would propose a new moratorium at the city council’s next meeting on Nov. 23.

The data center moratorium is important because the city is working on implementing regulations in a study session, Coffman said. But he added those rules won't finalized until January.

He described the city’s current data center regulations as “inaccurate.”

If data center developers submit applications before the regulations are finalized, Coffman said they would come in “under the existing rules,” and the city could end up with another large data center like the proposed 860,000-square-foot Trident data center.

Aurora is still in ongoing discussions with Vantage Data Centers, the developer of the Trident center.

Numerous people on Monday spoke out in favor of the city implementing a data center moratorium during the meeting’s public comment period.

Despite the city council's failure to reconsider the data center moratorium, it approved, in a study session, an ordinance on Monday that would prevent the city from giving data centers sales and use tax incentives. The city council will consider it at its next meeting. Coffman introduced the ordinance, saying the city “should not be using tax incentives for data centers.”

He added that this “process is not transparent to taxpayers,” noting the discussions are done behind closed doors in executive session.

Mayor Pro Tem Alison Coombs said the city already has the “ability to vote on every sales and use tax incentive that comes before council.”

She recommended sending the ordinance back to committee to “develop a general policy regarding council oversight of sales and use tax incentives that applies to all of the incentives rather than specifically only focusing on data centers.”

City Attorney Peter Schulte said the ordinance would not open Aurora up to potential litigation from businesses.

According to the ordinance, the city “has a compelling interest in protecting public safety, promoting a healthy and sustainable business environment.”

The ordinance defines a data center as a “facility containing one or more large-scale computer systems used for data storage and processing for off-site users.”

The ordinance would apply to two existing city programs that permit businesses to receive tax incentives: Division 7 and Division 8.

Division 7 allows Aurora to use tax revenue generated by specific development projects to help finance road and infrastructure improvements. Division 8 provides tax breaks or rebates to businesses located in the city.

The city’s agreements with its four data centers fall under Division 8.

The city says data centers and their tenants have paid nearly $25 million in sales and use taxes to Aurora since 2021. Of that money, the city has kept nearly $15 million while returning $9.4 million to the companies.

The ordinance would not affect these data centers.