Home Care In Aurora, CO

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman says the city needs to rethink how it approves data centers after a proposed massive facility in northeast Aurora began moving through the development process.

Coffman is now calling for the proposed Trident Data Center to be stopped, even as he acknowledges doing so could expose the city to a legal challenge.

"I think that those adjacent neighbors got blindsided. We got blindsided," said Coffman. "So we just have to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The proposed Trident Data Center would total 861,866 square feet near East 48th Avenue and E-470, across from several new residential developments.

Under Aurora's current code, data centers are considered a permitted industrial use in the area. That allowed the project to move through an administrative review process without a required city council hearing.

Coffman said he believes those rules no longer reflect the scale of the data centers now being proposed.

"They're very big, imposing buildings, and so I don't think that we intended that when those, what I consider outdated regulations, were written," Coffman said.

Earlier this week, residents packed Aurora City Council chambers to oppose Trident, raising concerns about its proximity to homes, noise, diesel generators and how they were notified about the proposal.

Amanda Smith, who lives in Green Valley Ranch, told CBS Colorado earlier this week she only recently learned about the project through a neighborhood Facebook post.

"I've been going around and telling people, 'Hey, get involved. Understand what's happening,'" Smith said.

Coffman said he believes Aurora needs to establish clearer rules for how far future data centers should be from homes, schools and other sensitive areas.

The city is already working on additional regulations for future data centers. Aurora has banned evaporative cooling systems in new data centers and has been considering other changes, including setbacks, noise regulations and screening requirements.

Those new rules, however, cannot simply be applied retroactively to Trident, Coffman said.

"We can't go back and change rules that were already in place at the time people made applications," he said.

That creates a more difficult question for the city as Coffman pushes to stop a project that was submitted under existing zoning rules.

In a social media post Thursday, Coffman said he wants Aurora to explore every available option, including calling the project up for a public hearing and asking city council to vote against it, regardless of potential litigation risk.

Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte has previously warned that the city could face potential liability if officials deny an application that complies with existing zoning requirements.

"I think litigation is always a tool. I hope it doesn't come to that," Coffman said.

He said legal fees are among the possible costs Aurora could face if the dispute reaches court.

The debate comes as another large data center proposal emerged near the Aurora Highlands. Plans for the Aerotropolis Logistics Center call for roughly 1 million square feet of data center space on approximately 500 acres east of the master-planned community.

Coffman said the second proposal makes completing Aurora's new regulations more urgent.

"We need to resolve this soon because we don't want a Trident situation coming up," Coffman said.

Coffman says that he is not opposed to data centers in Aurora. With large amounts of undeveloped land remaining in the city, he said there are locations where the facilities could be appropriate.

If City Council cannot agree on new standards quickly, Coffman said he would support temporarily pausing new data center applications.

"What I would prefer is to have a pause until new regulations are in place," Coffman said. "What I don't want is an arbitrary six-month or year moratorium."

Coffman said Vantage Data Centers, the company developing Trident, has not contacted him directly since he publicly called for the project to be stopped.

Vantage had been expected to hold a community meeting with neighbors later this month.

CBS Colorado reached out to Vantage for its response to Coffman's comments and to ask whether the company still intends to move forward with Trident as proposed.

Minority opposition on the Aurora City Council blocked a vote late Monday night on a proposed data center moratorium, prompting cries of “shame” from residents attending a raucous meeting.

Mayor Mike Coffman immediately said he would “be bringing back the same motion with the same resolution at the next regular meeting of the City Council.” The council next meets on Nov. 9.

The reconsideration motion on a data center moratorium, an earlier version of which the council narrowly rejected in August, came one vote shy of passing Monday. To bring the moratorium back, the motion needed a seven-vote supermajority on the 11-member council, but it received only six votes in favor.

Those voting no were council members Françoise Bergen, Curtis Gardner, Rob Andrews, Angela Lawson and Stephanie Hancock.

Gary Zimmerman, an Aurora resident, told the council, “You sank my heart tonight.”

“I wanted to see you helping us protect our environment, our infrastructure, our residents before the cumulative damage becomes irreversible,” he said.

Dan Bergander, a resident of The Reserve at Green Valley Ranch, a community for adults 55 and older that is near where a giant data center is planned, said the city’s failure to enact a moratorium on the increasingly controversial facilities “is going to be a stain on this council for years to come.”

“Make yourself the city that other cities look at for best practices when it comes to installing data centers,” he said.

Aurora’s moratorium would have halted any companies from bringing forth plans for new data centers in the city until city leaders could craft a new set of regulations for the sector.

Opposition to data centers in Aurora has been building for weeks, with residents crowding council chambers to speak out against an 860,000-square-foot facility — which could be among Colorado’s largest — that’s being pitched for land near hundreds of homes on the eastern edge of the city.

Coffman declared earlier this month that Vantage Data Centers’ Trident project “must be stopped.”

“The city of Aurora must explore every available option, to include my calling the proposed Trident Data Center up for a public hearing and then asking the members of city council for a ‘no’ vote to stop it from being built,” the mayor wrote on Facebook on Oct. 1.

That didn’t happen Monday night but the mayor said from the dais that there is an “ongoing discussion” with Vantage about having the company locate its project away from neighborhoods. The company has been working with the city for more than a year on its application for a data center at a 108-acre site just inside the E-470 beltway at East 48th Avenue.

Last week, Denver7 reported that Vantage told the city in a letter that it would look for a new site for its project in Aurora. It asked for 90 days to identify a new location and requested that the city not pass any data center regulations during that time.

Data centers have become notorious for their heavy water and electric power use. The centers are packed with servers and computers that run 24 hours a day, processing data and lighting up web pages and apps for consumers all around the world.

Many of the newer data centers are considered hyperscale facilities, meaning they are engineered for large-scale workloads and are at the heart of the burgeoning data-hungry artificial intelligence sector.

Several cities in Colorado, including Denver, Thornton and Commerce City, have imposed temporary bans on new data centers as residents worry about noise from the centers and impacts on water supplies and electric rates.

Local data center moratoriums continued to roll out as recently as last week, with Littleton taking a first step toward implementing a timeout of its own and Brighton finalizing a yearlong data center ban.

Aurora resident Ace Winters upbraided the council Monday for not pursuing a moratorium.

“The city has made it a planning and development priority to allow the construction of a massive hyperscale data center in Aurora that stands to raise the cost of electricity and drain the already limited water resources for every person in this room and across this city,” she said.

Aurora embarked on rulemaking for data centers in September. It passed an ordinance banning the use of evaporative cooling systems in the city. Those have been used in data centers to cool equipment despite their tendency to use large amounts of water.

The city is still drawing up setback distances for data centers from homes and businesses.

There are nine data centers in operation in Aurora, with another five working their way through the approvals process.

Aurora Water doesn’t much care which two days in a week you water your lawn, amid this historic drought.

But if your irrigation system starts up on a third day in the same week, the water world equivalent of a Flock camera is watching. The “smart” meters on every Aurora property automatically sense a spike in water use, and alert Aurora Water to confirm the violation and send out a warning or fine.

With updates at 15-minute intervals, the meters also detect irrigation watering during hot daytime hours when that’s against the rules.

The water surveillance, which Aurora Water officials acknowledge many of their customers might not realize exists, is one key to Colorado’s third-largest city so far achieving its water-saving goals in a year with record-low snowpack and abysmal streamflows into mountain reservoirs. Aurora says its 400,000 residents are using 27% less lawn water than in 2025, and managed a 9% cut from combined indoor and outdoor use.

Maintaining or even improving those savings is crucial as Aurora Water’s reservoir system sits at 49% full at a time when it should be above 80%.

Denver Water, meanwhile, has seen only about a 5% cut of water use compared with its previous five-year average among 1.5 million city and suburban customers. When Denver Water enacted twice-a-week watering restrictions in the spring, it set a target of a 20% cut from five-year average use.

Denver’s customers are doing better when using Aurora’s comparison with 2025 only, Denver officials said.

“Versus 2025, total water use is currently down about 7% and outdoor use is down about 16%,” said Travis Thompson, Denver Water communications manager.

The state’s largest water agency says it is encouraged by other statistics showing customers are using 21% less lawn water than they would have expected in the run of 95- to 100-degree days the Front Range experienced in July. In a summer that sits in the top 1% hottest and driest on record, the agency says, that’s a laudable savings mark.

One difference: Aurora Water spent millions of dollars in capital getting smart meters on every customer tap, while Denver Water chose to spend more of its capital speeding up replacement of aging, dangerous lead water delivery lines. Denver’s enforcement of drought restrictions to date has relied on thousands of neighbor complaints about properties watering more than twice a week, during restricted daytime hours or other violations.

“We have a far bigger tool than they have for being able to detect when people are using water irrigation water when they’re not supposed to,” said Shonnie Cline, Aurora Water’s deputy director of water internal and external relations.

Watchdog groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union in the past have raised questions about privacy invasions from smart home devices, including electric and water meters monitored by utilities. Especially by combining information from multiple meters, hackers or other bad actors could watch patterns and learn when people are home or away, are cooking, taking showers or other personal habits.

Cline said a better analogy than a controversial Flock camera is to see a smart water meter as a personal fitness tracker. “It gives you data and you are able to identify patterns that can improve your overall health if you make changes,” Cline said.

Aurora points out the smart meters for every customer work both ways, as a protection from leaks and potential property damage. Customers are able to log on and track their own use at the same time the city sees it, and could recognize a home leak while away on vacation, for example. During droughts, the meters will be one key to helping maintain reservoir storage for the benefit of the whole community, Cline said.

“There is a definite footprint that goes along with the data that indicates irrigation is taking place,” Cline said. “We have that pretty locked in where we can see when somebody’s irrigating, and so that’s why it’s interesting, because even when we send a warning, people are like, ‘But I didn’t!’ And then we’ll show them the data, and they’re like, ‘OK, I can’t argue with you, right?’ “

Denver Water, while enjoying higher water storage rates at its mountain reservoirs that have seen better snowpack, is not satisfied with customer savings rates and is now shifting somewhat from “education” to “enforcement” mode.

Denver had sent out nearly 3,600 warning letters but only five fines by the beginning of August. Fines will ramp up now that customers know what the rules are and Denver Water knows more about where the problem customers are, officials said.

Aurora Water, by contrast, has issued 234 fines after sending out more than 2,500 warning letters, including 10 of the highest $2,000 fines to businesses and large irrigation consumers. Only three customers were issued a second fine at the $250 residential level, Aurora Water said, and none had been issued a third fine. Aurora’s fines total more than $70,000.

Now that Denver Water has weeks of data on actual water use during drought restrictions, the agency can focus its communications on suburban areas with bigger lawns that haven’t cut back, said Greg Fisher, the utility’s manager of demand planning. Some of those suburban customers have no idea it’s Denver Water that collects their mountain runoff and delivers it to their local water utilities.

With only 5,000 advanced meters installed for 250,000 taps, Fisher said, word of mouth enforcement confirmed by onsite visits from Denver Water employees will continue to be the standard for warnings and fines.

“We continue to rely on, and I think it’s a pretty inventive idea, of letting our customers report water waste violations,” he said. “Even with the water people out on the street, we can’t be everywhere. So giving our customers the ability to report has been pretty powerful and I think effective for us.”

Denver Water officials do not anticipate asking their board this season to approve the next drought stage that would take lawn watering down to one day a week and add other restrictions. Denver Water would have to change its rate structure again to charge more for lawn watering that does occur to make up for loss of revenue from restrictions.

Plus, the utility thinks it’s a longer-term challenge to convince customers to change habits and stay “on board” with drought restrictions in the middle of what could be a multiyear crisis, Fisher said.

“We have a long game,” Fisher said. “This thing’s going to last a minimum of 12 more months, in my opinion, save for some sort of record-breaking snowfall this winter. So we’re in it for the long haul. I think we need to continue to up the message as we see conditions change. But at the same time, we really need to support our customers and have them stick with us for that extended period.”

People are capable of change, Denver Water officials said. The last drought this severe for Front Range customers was 2002.

“Our customers are using 100 million gallons less per day this year than they did in 2002, which is just stunning,” Fisher said. “And that translates to being actually 14% higher in our reservoir storage now than we were in 2002, because of our customers’ efficiency efforts over the last quarter century. We’re feeling really good about that. And that’s with significantly more population. … 200 to 250,000 more people.”

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Initial reports suggested the activity could be linked to a planned prescribed burn at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Thick smoke was seen rising over Aurora, Colorado, and was visible from Denver International Airport on Wednesday.

Photos and videos posted by witnesses on social media showed large plumes of smoke.

Planned prescribed burn

Initial reports suggested the activity could be linked to a planned prescribed burn at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Controlled burning operations were scheduled for the day near East 56th Avenue and Memphis Street.

Officials said smoke could be visible for several miles across the region, while the refuge’s Wildlife Drive and trails remained open.

Aurora Fire Rescue wrote on X, "The large plume of smoke that can be seen on the north side of the city is from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal’s prescribed burn."

Storm Chaser Sam Sagnella wrote, “Despite this being a prescribed burn, perhaps a WEA alert for Aurora, CO and vicinity would be warranted just to let folks know this is not an emergency. While this is a managed situation, a 1500 acre fire with a ton of smoke would understandably freak people out.”

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What is a planned prescribed burn?

A planned prescribed burn, also known as a controlled or prescribed fire, is the intentional use of fire in a specific area to manage land and reduce excess vegetation.

The burn is carefully planned and carried out by trained fire managers under suitable weather and environmental conditions. A written plan outlines the purpose of the burn, weather limits, safety measures, equipment, staffing and smoke management.

The fire is closely monitored and kept within designated boundaries to help ensure it achieves its goals safely.

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Main purposes of prescribed burns

Prescribed burns are used to:

Reduce wildfire risk: Clear excess vegetation, such as dead wood, dry leaves, brush and grass, that can fuel intense wildfires.

Maintain healthy ecosystems: Restore natural fire cycles in forests and other landscapes that depend on periodic burning.

Improve wildlife habitat: Encourage native plants to grow, recycle nutrients into the soil and provide better food and shelter for wildlife.

Control invasive species: Help limit the spread of unwanted plants and promote native vegetation.

Improve forest health: Encourage new growth and improve forage for grazing animals.

AURORA | Aurora city lawmakers ramped up outdoor watering and lawn restrictions Monday, essentially banning most outdoor irrigation from October to May, this year and going forward.

Aurora City Council members unanimously passed measures that essentially bans planting new so-called “cool weather” lawns, such as fescue or Kentucky bluegrass, bans new outdoor water features like fountains, and further limits irrigation.

“Not only are we in a short-term water crisis, we have a bit of a long-term water supply challenge,” Aurora Water General Manager Greg Marshall told lawmakers Monday as they considered the new restrictions. “We’re looking at ways to become more efficient with water in the community.”

As of Oct. 1, the city will ban residential and commercial grass irrigation, extending the ban-date until Oct. 15 for grassy areas still heavily utilized, such as sports fields.

The outdoor watering ban will remain in effect until April 30.

Marshall said early watering of lawns began in February this year and increased the heavy draw on diminished city water supplies as the effects of the regional drought persisted.

At the same meeting, city lawmakers banned the use of large-scale evaporative cooling in industrial and commercial buildings, citing those systems’ heavy draw on the public water storage system.

Enhanced grass and water feature bans affect only new installations, officials said. The outdoor watering restrictions affect all water users in the city.

“Water features” do not include swimming pools, but they do include any kind of ornamental features, such as a fountain or pond.

For new lawns, the city previously allowed small parts of residential back yards to install relatively thirsty “cool weather” lawns such as Kentucky Blue Grass. Those lawns are now prohibited in all new residential developments. Instead, the city requires planting lawns from grasses such as Tahoma 31 and so-called “dog turf.”

City water officials say the “warm weather” grasses use up to 70% less water than do grasses such as typical bluegrass and fescue.

In Aurora, water customers remain under existing Stage 1 drought restrictions. Those rules limit outdoor watering to two days per week and prohibit watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Officials encouraged residents to continue conserving water and follow existing watering restrictions. State officials said Colorado recorded its lowest snowpack accumulation season on record this year. The current water year, which began in October 2025, has also been the warmest on record in Colorado, contributing to early snowmelt, low river flows, diminished soil moisture and elevated wildfire risk.

Aurora Water Restrictions highlights

• Outdoor watering is limited to two days per week on assigned days. Watering is prohibited between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Water schedules for Aurora addresses is at www.AuroraGov.org/drought

• Drought surcharges of $2.15 per 1,000 gallons will apply to water use above 110% of a customer’s winter quarter average, after normal “tiered rates” are applied.

• No fountains or other outdoor water features.

• Water at restaurants is only served by request.

• Report water restriction violations and waste at AuroraGov.org/ContactUs