AURORA | Local opposition to data centers continued to be a theme at Aurora’s Monday city council meeting, with several public commenters urging the city to pass new regulations to limit where the facilities can be built, or even ban them.
The council, on a unanimous vote, approved an ordinance to prevent data centers from being built in mixed-use office-institutional zoned areas, which can be located next to or include residential units. Lawmakers will have a second vote on the ordinance before it goes into effect.
Previously, data centers were allowed to be built in mixed-use office-industrial zoning as a use by right, which means projects were approved administratively and typically without requiring a public hearing.
Under the new ordinance, data centers will not be an allowed use in mixed-use office-industrial zoning.
Council members supported the zoning change because the city is looking to distance data centers from residential areas and schools, which are allowed in mixed-use office-industrial zoning.
Data centers would still be allowed to be built as a use by right in areas that are zoned industrial and airport districts. Data centers can be built in certain mixed-use zoning restrictions under the conditional use process, which has additional requirements for public hearings and city council gets the ultimate decision.
While many of the commenters who supported the zoning change specifically spoke out against the Trident data center, which is planned for 860,000 square feet on 48th Street, the zoning change will not impact the project.
The Trident data center is located in airport district zoning, which allows data centers as a use by right.
While Trident is not requesting a variance, city spokesperson Jennifer Soules previously said the city is working with the developer, Vantage Data Centers, to schedule a community meeting, but a date has not yet been set.
In response to the community outrage against the Trident project, Mayor Mike Coffman has said he plans to call the Trident data center up for a vote by city council and will ask his colleagues to vote against the project, regardless of the litigation risk.
The data center can’t be called up by the city council until it receives approval, according to Soules.
City Attorney Pete Schulte said he has advised council members not to comment on the project if they intend to call it up because they could have to recuse themselves from future votes if they speak publicly before a formal decision is made.
A development application and site plan for the data center were first submitted in August 2025 and the project is on its fourth round of reviews, according to the city development portal. The project’s fourth submission is due by Oct. 26.