Data centers are highly unlikely to come to Routt County any time soon, according to Routt County Planning Department staff. 

Routt County Planner Michael Fitz told the newspaper this week that the county’s Unified Development Code, adopted in 2024, includes a list of allowed uses, of which data centers are not mentioned. Any uses not included in that list are then “prohibited by default,” said Fitz. 

“There are great (and justifiable) fears in many parts of the country that data centers can pop up in agricultural areas,” said Fitz. “Routt County is blessed to have comprehensive zoning, which means even the most remote areas of the county are covered by a zone district and are explicitly restricted to uses that are permissible.”

“In most cases, that would be the Agriculture/Forestry zone district. Data centers are not an allowable use anywhere in the county in any zone district in the use chart,” he continued. “This is a significantly greater fear in counties that do not have comprehensive zoning — meaning many areas are ‘un-zoned’ with only certain areas zoned for specific uses.” 

The newspaper’s line of inquiry came after Steamboat Springs City Councilor Bryan Swintek summarized his takeaways from a fly-in advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. organized by several Colorado chambers of commerce, noting that he left with the understanding that “data centers are coming.”

“It’s not about if they come, it is when they come,” Swintek told his colleagues at their June 16 regular meeting. “At the federal level, nobody wants to touch it or get involved in it because they want it to happen because of geopolitical risks and this cold war with China — it’s a national security issue, and so we need them.”

“At the state level, states don’t want to touch it because it’s politically toxic to have to deal with that, and so they’re pushing it down to the local level,” he added, noting that if elected officials are interested in mitigating potential negative impacts of data centers, those conversations need to happen now.  

But Fitz clarified that, at least in Routt County, local officials will likely not have to engage in the data center debate, as the code inherently prohibits them from being built. 

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Data centers are physical facilities that house servers used to store, process and transmit digital information for everything from cloud computing and streaming services to artificial intelligence systems. They require significant electricity to run and cool equipment, and in some cases rely on substantial water use for cooling.

Their rapid expansion across the U.S. has prompted debate among state and local officials, who are weighing potential economic benefits — such as jobs and tax revenue — against concerns about energy demand, water consumption and land-use impacts, particularly in rural or drought-prone areas like Northwest Colorado.

The only instance in which a data center could be allowed by the code would be if a text amendment allowing them was requested and approved — something Fitz said would be “difficult” given the Routt County Master Plan’s emphasis on preserving agriculture viability, water resources, and clustering development in municipalities and growth centers. 

Anyone can request a text amendment, said Fitz, but they would have to pay for it, and the various county entities would “likely deny it.”

“(Planning staff) would evaluate the request and quickly come to the conclusion that it goes against everything espoused in the county’s Master Plan, and would recommend against the change,” said Fitz. 

The Routt County Planning Commission would then hear the application at a public meeting and likely vote to deny it. It would move on from there to the Routt County commissioners, who would hear staff’s recommendation of denial, and likely deny it as well. 

Data centers arose as a topic of discussion during Colorado’s 26th legislative session, where lawmakers asked themselves whether they could bring more data centers to the state while ensuring the power-hungry facilities don’t burden ratepayers and the environment.

Some Western Slope leaders raised concerns over what a push for data centers could mean for their communities’ most valuable resource — water. 

Researchers say a large-scale data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day to cool its systems. That’s enough water to serve a town of between 10,000 and 50,000 people daily, according to reporting by the Washington Post. 

If Colorado chooses to entice more of the thirsty facilities to set up shop, largely in metro areas, Western Slope leaders say that could mean more water being diverted from mountain communities in an era of severe drought.

“It would be extremely difficult to make findings that support adding a data center use into the (code) considering the goals and policies established by the Master Plan,” explained Fitz. “We can’t make text amendments that directly go against the Master Plan.”

The county would most likely come to the conclusion that the plan itself would need to be drastically changed, which would be tough due to its aforementioned underscoring of environmental sustainability. 

“The county’s growth trajectory has been shaped by the Master Plan going all the way back to 1980,” said Fitz. “I struggle to imagine a scenario where all of these long-standing codes, plans and policies could be amended to support a data center unless an extraordinary shift in the county’s values occurs.” 

Moffat County Planning Department representatives did not immediately respond to requests for information regarding what their planning code states about data centers.