Project Taurus, an AI data center planned at an industrial park along Garden of the Gods Road, has driven weeks of debate in Colorado Springs since the first community meeting to discuss it in April.

The development plan for the project was administratively approved by the city’s planning staff Thursday but that will likely be the first step in a monthslong process to determine if it will receive final approval from city leaders.

The California-based company Raeden is planning to build the data center at the former site of an Intel chip-manufacturing facility at 1565 High Tech Way. Over the last two months residents have raised concerns about the proposed facility’s noise and how much demand a larger data center will have on Colorado Springs Utilities’ power and water supply.

Anyone who opposes the data center has until June 22 to file an appeal with the planning department, which would bring the decision on the development plan to the Planning Commission. City staff said that as of Tuesday afternoon, no appeals had been filed.

There are two categories of residents who can file an appeal to overturn the administrative approval. One set is people who own property within 1,000 feet of the proposed facility. A larger group of possible appellants is anyone who lives within 3 miles of the building and has previously commented on it by email or at a public hearing.

Earlier this month, city staff said the nine-person Planning Commission would hold a special stand-alone hearing about the data center in late July if it was appealed, given the high turnout and interest in previous events for the data center.

Either an approval or rejection by the Planning Commission could then be appealed to the Colorado Springs City Council, which would make the final determination on the development plan. The council hearing would take place weeks after the Planning Commission decision, possibly placing it in late August.

During the public comments at the City Council meeting on June 9, councilmembers were asked directly about Project Taurus and data center concerns. Dave Donelson responded to a resident about why the council hasn’t said more about the data center.

“I know it’s frustrating for citizens. They want their elected representatives to speak up immediately. It’s a foolish thing to do to speak up, because you’re going to get disqualified,” Donelson said.

Donelson said that in the likely event that the appeals on the project end up at a council meeting, councilmembers are expected to have an unbiased view on the merits of the project. Statements made either in support or opposition to the data center before that hearing could be used to ask for a councilmember to recuse themselves or could provide grounds for a lawsuit about the decision.

“Anybody up here that says something which you might find OK, might get them disqualified when it comes time for a vote. It’s just like a juror in a murder trial,” Donelson said.

Donelson said that for similar reasons, the council would likely stay quiet on the issue of broader moratoriums on new data centers until after the Project Taurus issue had been decided.

Council spokesman Michael Montgomery said that view was Donelson’s personal opinion and that the City Council “has not discussed nor taken a position on a moratorium at this time.”

Mayor Yemi Mobolade has no voting role in the process for approving projects like the data center and could not veto the final council decision. Mobolade said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that he would respect the established process for the Project Taurus development plan.

More broadly speaking, Mobolade said that data centers should have to clear a high bar to show they would not bring down neighbors’ quality of life.

“Economic development is important, and no one is arguing that investment and job creation are bad for Colorado Springs. But economic development alone is not enough. Data centers must demonstrate that they will not create negative impacts on the community,” Mobolade said in the statement.