Incentive programs
Colorado still has no enacted statewide, data-center-specific sales and use tax exemption. The 2026 session produced another incentive proposal, HB26-1030, but the House Energy & Environment Committee postponed it indefinitely on May 7, 2026, by an 11-2 vote, so it did not become law (Colorado General Assembly, 2026-05-07).
HB26-1030 would have created the “Colorado Data Center Development and Grid Modernization Program” beginning in tax year 2027 and would have provided a 100 percent state sales and use tax exemption for certified data center projects. The final fiscal note estimated that at least three projects would qualify in 2027 with about $1.5 billion of capital investment and that five additional data centers would qualify in 2028; it also estimated state sales-tax reductions of $4.4 million in FY 2026-27, $29.0 million in FY 2027-28, and $59.1 million in FY 2028-29. Because the bill died, those exemptions and revenue effects did not take effect (Colorado Legislative Council Staff, 2026-06-08).
Earlier statewide incentive bills also failed: SB23-207 died in 2023 after proposing a temporary state sales and use tax exemption for qualified data centers (Colorado General Assembly, 2023-05-11); SB24-085 died in 2024 after proposing a similar exemption framework (Colorado General Assembly, 2024-02-28); and SB25-280 died in 2025 after proposing a longer exemption period with job, investment, renewable-energy, and water-efficiency conditions (Colorado General Assembly, 2025-04-07).
Local incentives remain possible under local economic-development authority. Denver previously approved a 15-year, 50 percent sales and use tax rebate for CoreSite’s Denver campus, capped at $9 million and tied to 75 jobs; that agreement remains a useful example of Colorado’s local-incentive path even though it predates the 2026 session (Data Center Dynamics, 2020-09-24).
Restrictions, moratoriums, and environmental constraints
Denver announced a proposed pause on March 11, but the legally operative action came later: City Council unanimously passed File 26-0431 on May 18 and the mayor signed it on May 20. The ordinance establishes a one-year moratorium on accepting or processing specified permit and site-development-plan applications whose primary use is a data center; operating and already-permitted projects are not affected (City and County of Denver, 2026-05-20).
Weld County adopted Code Ordinance 2026-01 on April 6, 2026, after about three hours of public comment and a 4-1 Board of County Commissioners vote. The ordinance adds data centers to the county code, requires proof of water and an electric “will serve” letter, sets a 65 dB(C) property-line noise limit, allows data centers by Use by Special Review in I-1 districts and by Site Plan Review in I-2 and I-3 districts, and prohibits data centers in agricultural zoning districts (Weld County, 2026-04-06; Weld County Code Ordinance 2026-01, 2026-04-06).
Other Front Range counties adopted temporary pauses while writing permanent rules. Larimer County extended its January moratorium on February 9 through August 25, then on July 13 extended it another six months through February 25, 2027 (Larimer County, 2026-02-09; Larimer County, 2026-07-13). Jefferson County imposed a ten-month moratorium on May 19 for new applications and rezonings in unincorporated areas, with an exception for already data-center-zoned Planned Developments at least 1,500 feet from a dwelling (Jefferson County, 2026-05-19). Boulder County imposed a six-month moratorium effective June 2 on accepting or processing data-center applications in unincorporated areas while it develops Land Use Code amendments (Boulder County, 2026-06-15).
Longmont chose permanent restrictions rather than a pause. Ordinance O-2026-34, approved June 9, prohibits hyperscale data centers requiring 100 MW or more and confines smaller facilities to the Primary Employment district subject to water-rights, water-efficiency, cooling, energy-efficiency, noise, and lighting standards (City of Longmont, 2026-06-09). Buena Vista adopted an emergency ordinance on June 9 pausing principal-use data centers through December 9 while it evaluates land-use regulations (Town of Buena Vista, 2026-06-09).
Additional rural and mountain jurisdictions acted over water, energy, noise, land-use, and emergency-service concerns. Grand County barred data-center construction through June 24, 2027 (Sky-Hi News, 2026-06-19); Archuleta County unanimously adopted Resolution 2026-47 on June 16 for a six-month pause (Pagosa Springs Sun, 2026-06-17); Montrose County’s Resolution 23-2026 imposed a six-month moratorium in unincorporated areas effective July 1 (Montrose County, 2026-07-01); and Delta County’s Resolution R-18 pauses new applications in unincorporated areas until January 7, 2027, or adoption of regulations (Delta County, 2026-07-14).
Broomfield adopted Ordinance 2313 on July 7, establishing an 18-month pause on new or expanded data centers with a projected electrical load of at least 10 MW while the city and county studies permanent standards (City and County of Broomfield, 2026-07-07; Denver7, 2026-07-08). The Town of Center also adopted a temporary data-center moratorium on June 18 (Town of Center legal notice, 2026-07-01).
Woodland Park enacted another late-window pause. After the council changed the proposed duration from 12 to 18 months, it unanimously approved Ordinance 1525 on July 16 (City of Woodland Park City Council, 2026-07-16; City of Woodland Park agenda packet, 2026-07-15). Two other measures had not reached a verifiable final result by the cutoff. Monument’s council discussed a possible moratorium on June 15 and deferred the decision and its duration to a July meeting (The Gazette, 2026-06-17). Hudson introduced Ordinance 26-13 on June 17 and placed it on its July 1 agenda for second reading, but the town had not posted approved minutes or an enacted ordinance by July 17 (Town of Hudson, 2026-06-17; Town of Hudson, 2026-07-01).
Colorado did not enact a statewide data-center moratorium or statewide siting restriction in the 2026 session. SB26-102, the main 2026 regulatory bill for “large-load data centers,” was postponed indefinitely by the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee on May 11, 2026, by a 9-0 vote (Colorado General Assembly, 2026-05-11).
SB26-102 would have required large-load data centers to meet renewable-energy procurement and water-efficiency requirements, report electricity and water use, comply with local model-code provisions, pay utility costs needed to serve them, and use community-benefit agreements in disproportionately impacted communities. The bill also would have barred utilities from using economic-development rates for large-load data centers and would have required demand-response or flexible-load tariffs, but those requirements did not become law (Colorado Legislative Council Staff, 2026-03-16).
The Colorado Legislative Council’s March 2026 environmental and public-health memorandum identified electricity demand, direct and indirect water use, diesel or fossil backup-generator emissions, noise, and transparency gaps as core policy concerns for data centers. The memo estimated that Colorado had about 57 data centers and cited an earlier estimate that CoreSite’s north Denver expansion could use 805,000 gallons per day. By July, however, CoreSite had revised that projection to about 115,000 gallons per day on average and 230,000 gallons at peak, while QTS said its closed-loop Aurora cooling system used about 2,400 gallons per day. The differences illustrate how project design and changing estimates complicate water-policy comparisons (Colorado Legislative Council Staff, 2026-03-05; Colorado Public Radio, 2026-07-08).
A July report from the University of Colorado Law School’s Getches-Wilkinson Center surveyed state responses to data-center water demand and found that states were using a patchwork of disclosure, efficiency, siting, and incentive conditions rather than a uniform approach. Its publication adds a Colorado-based policy synthesis to the local water debates driving the 2026 moratoria (University of Colorado Boulder, 2026-07-14).
Local governance and preemption
Local land-use control remains the dominant Colorado policy lever for data centers. The final fiscal note for HB26-1030 stated that the failed incentive bill would not have restricted local governments’ ability to regulate data centers or required them to participate in the proposed program (Colorado Legislative Council Staff, 2026-06-08).
The 2026 local actions now show three approaches: temporary moratoria while officials draft rules, permanent development-code restrictions such as Longmont’s, and direct siting standards such as Weld County’s. Aurora had begun exploring additional rules by July but had not enacted a moratorium; city officials reported that its nine operating data centers used about 0.3 percent of city water and that existing standards effectively prevent water-intensive evaporative cooling (Axios Denver, 2026-07-06).
A statewide local-planning survey helps explain the rush to temporary rules. Colorado Municipal League’s March summary of the Department of Local Affairs’ 2025 Land Use and Planning Capacity Survey reported that 71 percent of responding municipalities did not regulate data centers. The result measures municipal code coverage, not a statewide legal prohibition, but it documents how many communities entered the 2026 development wave without data-center-specific standards (Colorado Municipal League, 2026-03-17).
Legislative activity, 2024-2026
Colorado’s legislative posture remains unsettled. Incentive bills have repeatedly failed, and the 2026 session also rejected the first major regulatory bill targeted at large-load data centers. As of July 17, 2026, the legislature had not enacted a statewide data-center incentive, reporting mandate, water standard, energy-matching mandate, special ratepayer-protection statute, or statewide siting regime (Colorado General Assembly, 2026-05-07; Colorado General Assembly, 2026-05-11).
HB26-1246 was a third data-center-relevant bill. It would have created a category of “consumer-regulated electric utilities” for new industrial, commercial, and data-center loads served by off-grid generation and temporarily exempted those utilities from PUC regulation until they interconnected with the grid. The House Energy & Environment Committee postponed the bill indefinitely on April 30 by an 8-5 vote, so the exemption did not become law (Colorado General Assembly, 2026-04-30).
The 2026 fiscal notes are still important because they show the policy tradeoffs the state is actively evaluating. HB26-1030 framed incentives around capital investment and grid-modernization goals, while SB26-102 framed regulation around cost causation, clean-energy matching, water efficiency, transparency, and environmental-justice review (Colorado Legislative Council Staff, 2026-06-08; Colorado Legislative Council Staff, 2026-03-16).
Notable projects and local decisions
CoreSite’s Denver DE3 project remains the most visible Denver expansion. CoreSite describes DE3 at 4900 Race Street as the first building in a three-building Denver campus expansion totaling more than 590,000 square feet and 60 critical megawatts, with DE3 itself planned at about 170,000 square feet and 18 critical megawatts. CoreSite said the first phase was completed in June, and its construction page said operations were scheduled for June while generator commissioning continued as construction neared completion. Its sales page nevertheless still labeled DE3 “coming soon” and targeted availability only generally in 2026 as of July 17. The best supported cutoff classification is therefore completed first phase/commissioning, not fully available (Colorado Sun, 2026-06-18; CoreSite construction update, 2026-06; CoreSite, accessed 2026-07-17). Denver’s final moratorium exempts projects already operating or permitted (City and County of Denver, 2026-05-20).
Flexential’s Parker project has moved from announcement to construction. The 22.5 MW, 249,000-square-foot facility on 17 acres is a reported $192 million investment, is powered by CORE Electric Cooperative, and was expected to be completed in January 2027. June reporting also documented emerging resident concern about notice, noise, power, and water despite public hearings held during the earlier land-use approval process (Rocky Mountain PBS, 2026-06-15; Town of Parker, accessed 2026-07-17).
Novva’s Colorado Springs campus remains a current operating facility in the Colorado project baseline. Novva’s Colorado page, modified March 11, 2026, describes a 68-acre campus at 650 Sybilla Lane with 122,000 square feet, 40 MW capacity, Colorado Springs Utilities service, ambient-air cooling, and waterless-cooling features (Novva Data Centers, 2026-03-11).
DOE’s April 2025 AI-infrastructure RFI identified NREL’s Flatirons Campus near Boulder as a potential site with land, power, water, and broadband capability to host a 100 MW data center and energy-system test bed. The RFI identifies a possible federal-site opportunity, not an approved Colorado project (U.S. Department of Energy, 2025-04).
In Colorado Springs, Raeden proposed “Project Taurus,” a 50-55 MW retrofit of the former semiconductor facility at 1565 High Tech Way near Garden of the Gods Road. City staff administratively approved the project on June 11, but five of six appeals were accepted, moving the decision to a public hearing scheduled for July 23; the project therefore remained contested and not finally cleared at the July 17 cutoff (Colorado Public Radio, 2026-06-15; Colorado Public Radio, 2026-06-24; The Gazette, 2026-07-02).
Two additional Front Range project announcements appeared during the update window. Global AI bought 438 acres at and near the former Kodak site for $15.6 million and discussed an initial 18-24 MW facility, expansion first to 50-60 MW and eventually as much as 1 GW, with reported total investment ranging from $2 billion to $20 billion depending on final scale. Those figures remained preliminary: the unincorporated Weld County project was still under county review, and Windsor stated that it had neither approved nor endorsed it and had no formal utility agreement (Data Center Dynamics, 2026-02-09; Town of Windsor, accessed 2026-07-17). Data Center Dynamics also reported that 365 Data Centers and Carter Funds signed a letter of intent to develop data centers, beginning with an undeveloped site in Aurora (Data Center Dynamics, 2026-06-02).
BluSky AI’s Walsenburg proposal emerged as a disputed rural project in March. The company’s 2025 SEC filing described a $248,000 agreement to buy 36.06 acres for a data center of up to 15 MW, but March reporting found no formal sale action and found that the mayor and town administrator had not known about the proposal. The mayor questioned whether the town would provide municipal utilities and whether the facility would deliver enough jobs or protect local water rights; no local approval was reported by the cutoff (BluSky AI SEC filing, 2025-08-26; Colorado Politics, 2026-03-29).
QTS’s Aurora campus produced the most significant late-window environmental permitting development. One of three buildings was complete, a second was nearly complete, and site preparation was underway for the third at the campus, which is expected to require at least 160 MW. QTS sought an air permit for 98 additional diesel backup generators beyond 40 already installed, which would bring the campus to 138 generators with roughly 345 MW of backup capacity; state review and public comment remained pending at the cutoff (Colorado Public Radio, 2026-07-08).