The Longmont City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to prohibit hyperscale data centers within city limits, adopting new restrictions aimed at preventing some of the largest energy-intensive facilities in the country from locating in Longmont.
Councilmember Diane Crist cast the lone dissenting vote.
The ordinance defines a hyperscale data center as a facility with a projected or contracted peak electrical demand equal to or greater than 5% of Platte River Power Authority’s nameplate generating capacity, or 100 megawatts, whichever is lower. Based on current capacity, that threshold is about 70 megawatts.
To put that scale into perspective, Councilmember Matthew Popkin previously noted that 100 megawatts is roughly equivalent to the average electricity consumption of about 50,000 Colorado homes. Longmontap largest existing data centers, he said Tuesday, use about 7 megawatts.
Putting up guardrails, Popkin noted, is significant because there are currently no state or federal guardrails governing how much electricity these data centers may consume.
The ordinance does not prohibit traditional data centers or many large commercial and industrial users. It does not affect even the largest big tech businesses in Longmont. Instead, it targets facilities operating at a scale far beyond what currently exists in Longmont and prevents them from putting down roots in town.
Council members also approved three revisions to amendments adopted during the ordinance’s first reading last month.
The changes clarify that the hyperscale threshold applies to facilities with electrical demand equal to or greater than the established limit, update language preventing expansions that would cause a facility to meet or exceed that threshold, and provide additional criteria for determining when multiple facilities should be considered part of a coordinated data center operation.
Popkin said the revisions were largely technical changes intended to better reflect the council’s original intent.
Crist argued the city already has safeguards in place governing large utility users and said she was concerned the ordinance singled out a specific type of business.
“Just like we treat citizens equitably, itap important that we treat all businesses equitably,” Crist said.
Crist also questioned whether the city should act before conducting additional study, noting that data centers support artificial intelligence technologies that many residents and businesses use daily.
“Itap a little, maybe, hypocritical to be a regular user of AI but insist that any producer of AI take their business somewhere else,” Crist said.
Several other members of the council pushed back on the idea of waiting.
Councilmember Alex Kalkhofer said local governments risk losing the ability to set their own standards if they fail to act before larger projects arrive.
“We have to do something now before something happens to us,” Kalkhofer said. “We can always modify this later with the same process that we’re going through now.”
Mayor Susie Hidalgo-Fahring described the ordinance as a starting point rather than the end of the conversation, noting that future discussions could address issues such as water consumption, noise and other impacts associated with data centers.
During public comment, one resident argued that hyperscale facilities often employ relatively few on-site workers despite their large infrastructure demands, while others urged the city to take a proactive approach before projects are proposed.
City Manager Harold Dominguez said the city has received inquiries from large data center operators in the past and that the ordinance will provide clearer direction moving forward.
