Aurora City Council to possibly place strict regulations on new data centers

The City of Aurora could potentially put the strictest regulations on new data centers in the state and possibly the whole country.

But how will it impact the people who live there?

In a subdivision in Aurora, it may seem peaceful, but a constant hum is what the dozens of families near this CyrusOne data center deal with on a daily basis.

"You cannot only hear it, but you can feel it," one speaker said.

"We can't talk anymore, I have to go over to the fence or yell, it's that loud," another said.

Neighbors spoke to the city council on Wednesday night about how the noise, vibration, and energy usage are affecting their families. However, the city is trying to impose some strict regulations.

"We have been holding a lot of conversations, doing a lot of research," said Aurora's director of sustainability, Alison Lindburg.

The city put a nearly six-month moratorium on any new data centers coming to the western suburb.

During that time, Lindburg said they spoke with stakeholders, data centers, and developers to possibly place certain restrictions. If passed, new data centers would have to meet certain requirements for energy, water, and noise, and report that data annually. 

They would also have to get approved by the city council before building, and centers would need to bring their own clean energy and battery storage.

"We've had a lot of concerns about electricity costs rising, so we want to make our grid stronger," Lindburg said.

The problem is that those regulations would only be for new data centers coming to Aurora. As for the four already here and the fifth on the way, it wouldn't pertain to them, which has those who live in this subdivision next door to an existing one, beyond frustrated.

"We can only do so much with existing data centers," Lindburg said.

She said their hands are tied when it comes to data centers like CyrusOne.

"The transparency ordinance that we are trying to pass will require that those existing data centers tell us how much energy, water, noise levels, where they are every year," Lindburg said.

Next week, the city council will have a final vote on the restrictions when the moratorium is lifted.

The new regulations could go into effect as soon as April 1.