Colorado Springs City Council voted Thursday night to delay a hotly controversial data center proposal near Garden of the Gods, after a raucous daylong hearing with speakers overwhelmingly and profanely shouting down the concept.
A scuffle broke out between police and speakers who claimed they had been denied a time slot and grabbed a megaphone to denounce the project. Social media and local TV stations showed one man being hit with a stun gun while he was being handcuffed, as police and at least two protesters wrestled between the theater-style seats. Colorado Springs Police said on X.com they had “three people in custody” after the disturbance.
A final decision on the developer’s plan for a former microchip factory, recommended by city planners to the Council with noise and power limitations, will be delayed until at least April. Citizen groups had appealed the Planning Commission’s conditional approval to the wider council.
In their comments after the long public testimony, council members sought more information about potential noise and other complications from the new complex. The vote to delay was 7-2.
Matt Grubesic echoed many of the citizen speakers when he said the massive data center backed by corporate interests was one of the issues that has led him to activism and running for county commission.
“If we’re going to approve projects like this with an administrative stamp of approval, I have to ask, why are we electing you?” Grubesic said. “We’re not being represented. Reverse it. Send it back. This is a wrong decision.”
Developers had said the data center could draw up to 50 megawatts of power from Colorado Springs Utilities, and neighborhood groups have voiced fears of noise and other impacts on the area. One megawatt of power can supply annual electricity needs for roughly 500 to 1,000 homes.
Politicians voting on planning recommendations and permits for data centers throughout Colorado are looking over their shoulders at poll results like these: An independent survey of 1,389 registered voters by the respected Magellan firm found 82% of Coloradans “oppose a data center in their city or town, 77% oppose one in their county, 86% oppose one near their neighborhood, and 75% oppose one elsewhere in the state.”
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed favor a ban on all data center construction, rising to 68% for voters aged 18 to 44.
This burgeoning not-in-anyone’s-backyard sentiment is resulting in public meetings like Thursday’s Colorado Springs hearing, jammed with hours of citizens signed up for vehement denunciations of new projects and the billionaires perceived to be backing them.
Type of Story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.