Dear Council Member

I am writing to urge you to make Denver’s proposed data center moratorium more than a temporary pause. The moratorium only matters if the City uses this year to write and pass a strong, enforceable data center ordinance that protects communities before the next approval, expansion, permit, or utility agreement moves forward.

Data centers cannot be treated like ordinary businesses. These facilities have major impacts on energy use, water demand, diesel pollution, noise, heat, grid reliability, public infrastructure costs, and public health.

I am asking you to support a moratorium process that includes:

1. Strong community representation on the task force or working group, especially from disproportionately impacted communities where data centers are currently proposed or under construction, like Elyria-Swansea;

2. A prohibition on new large data center construction in disproportionately impacted communities, including Globeville, Elyria-Swansea, and other neighborhoods already carrying cumulative burdens from industrial pollution, diesel traffic, highways, displacement, heat, flooding risk, and historic disinvestment;

3. Strong limits on diesel backup generators, including a strict requirement that all backup generators meet Tier 4 Final emissions standards or cleaner; real-time public runtime reporting; independent emissions-control inspections; automatic shutdown when emissions controls fail; and permit consequences, fines, and expansion limits for violations;

4. A strong ordinance that ends by-right approvals and requires special review, public hearings, and full disclosure of energy use, water demand, diesel generators, emissions, noise, heat, wastewater, grid impacts, and infrastructure costs;

5. No public subsidies for data centers, including tax breaks, abatements, discounted utility arrangements, public infrastructure subsidies, or public financing that shifts the cost of private data center growth onto Denver residents, ratepayers, water customers, workers, or small businesses;

6. No loopholes during the moratorium for new approvals, expansions, phased applications, permit amendments, utility agreements, or energization;

7. Ongoing resident oversight after any ordinance is passed, with public reporting, enforcement authority, and real consequences for violations.

Please stand with impacted communities and make sure Denver uses the moratorium year to write enforceable protections, not vague recommendations shaped by corporations and lobbyists.

Sincerely,