During a regular meeting held by the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) in Arboles on June 16, the board unanimously approved Resolution 2026-47, putting a six-month moratorium on data centers in the county.
The matter was brought up by Commissioner Veronica Medina earlier that day during a BoCC work session, where she explained that she had talked with other counties across the state about issues with data centers, “and just the draw on power and water that they tend to use,” noting that they don’t seem to be a good fit for Archuleta County.
Medina also mentioned technologies do change and that moving forward things may look different with data centers, but that the county’s current infrastructure and water situation would not support a data center.
“Colorado is in a fight for its life for water,” she said, adding, “If we don’t have water, we don’t have life.”
Medina explained that the county can only do a six-month moratorium at a time, suggesting that she would like to take the matter to the voters at some point and engage the community on if it should be a long-term ban.
Medina then stated that for most counties that have data centers, they draw the majority of power in the community.
“I just don’t think we can afford that,” she said, noting that the county already deals with power shutoffs due to weather events and that a data center might exacerbate that issue.
She also spoke about water usage being crucial “and something we really need to think about.”
Medina explained that in order to do a long-term ban on data centers being built in the county, zoning and land use regulations would need to be changed in order to prevent data centers from being built in any unincorporated parts of the county.
She added that the BoCC can issue a short-term ban, but mentioned that for a long-term ban, the “right thing” would be to go to the voters.
“Because when commissioners make the decision for the county it does not hold much weight at the state,” she said.
She explained that county can sometimes be overruled by the state.
“And it is coming,” Medina said, explaining that the governor’s office has requested the Region 9 and Region 10 economic development districts to do a study on data centers, “because the governor’s office feels like Archuleta County may be prime for a data center.”
Medina noted that Boulder County, Jefferson County, Larimer County and Weld County have issued bans on data centers.
In May, the city and county of Denver issued a one-year moratorium on new data center development.
When asked for comments, fellow commissioners Warren Brown and John Ranson indicated they both supported the moratorium idea.
According to Resolution 2026-47, “Archuleta County shall not accept applications or engage in pre-submittal activities for data center facilities, including but not limited to planning applications, building permits, engineering permits, or other development applications related to data center facilities, shall be accepted or processed by the Archuleta County Planning and Community Development Department.”
The moratorium will end on Dec. 15 unless terminated or extended by a resolution from the BoCC.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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