The city of Colorado Springs administratively approved a controversial proposed AI data center near Garden of the Gods Road, but the fight over the project may continue if residents appeal the decision.
The decision announced on Friday could allow California-based Raeden to build the data center in the old Intel chip manufacturing facility located just southwest of the intersection of Garden of the Gods Road and Centennial Boulevard.
The proposal, known as Project Taurus, has raised numerous concerns among neighbors who are worried about the potential noise, as well as water and power consumption.
Neighbors near the proposed center can appeal the decision, triggering a hearing in front of the city’s planning commission. The commission’s decision can then be appealed to the Colorado Springs City Council.
The company has been open about its projected water and power consumption during public debate over the data center.
Jason Green, co-founder and president of Raeden, said the data center is cleared to use a maximum of 50 megawatts, The Gazette reported earlier. On a peak day, Colorado Springs Utilities produces 976 megawatts, according to its 2025 report.
The center is expected to require 200,000 gallons of water, as part of a closed-loop system so it won’t have to be replenished, Green said.
Raeden is also expecting to install 30 back-up power generators in case of a power outage and 36 air-cooled chillers. In the closed-loop system, chillers are needed to cool the water after the water is used to cool the computers.
On a typical day, 34 of the 36 chillers will run at 75%, according to a noise study submitted to the city.
The generators and the chillers will be surrounded by large sound walls, the plans said. To further mitigate noise, the generators will be placed near Garden of the Gods Road north of the residential area.
A third-party contractor evaluated the noise the data center could make using a computer model and found it “will not exceed local noise codes during normal operation, or during generator testing.”
Noise is an important issue to neighbors who say that when the building was used to mine bitcoin from 2018 to 2020, it produced constant noise.
If the project is appealed, the planning commission could hold a special stand-alone meeting to hear complaints, city spokesman Max D’Onofrio said.
The Gazette’s Brennen Kauffman contributed to this report.
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