The Colorado Springs Planning Commission on Thursday evening denied five appeals against a proposed artificial intelligence data center off Garden of the Gods Road.

The decision means the planning commission found city staff did not violate rules as they worked through and administratively approved the development plan. Citizen groups, like Integrity Matters, filed their appeal representing several residents of the nearby Chelsea Glen neighborhood and found seven grounds with 115 alleged violations, they said at the public hearing.

The Commission voted 6-2 to deny the five appeals. The residents and Integrity Matters now have 10 days to protest the decision, elevating the fight over Project Taurus to the full City Council.

The deadline is Monday, Aug. 3, city staff said. The document to file an appeal is available online, and there is a $176 filing fee. Integrity Matters has said it plans to appeal the decision.

At the planning commission hearing, residents asked for a moratorium on data center development in Colorado Springs. Moratoriums are taking hold in cities and towns across the Front Range. Monument on Monday approved a six-month moratorium, while Woodland Park approved an 18-month moratorium last week.  

The Colorado Springs Planning Commission cannot impose moratoriums nor change the building code, as those are legislative matters.

Commissioner Sheva Willoughby, one of the two commissioners who voted to uphold the appeals and reject the data center application, said the term “data center” covers a very broad spectrum of uses. She said the project may demonstrate a need for the city to distinguish between large- and small-scale data centers.

“The fact that the project may fit within the code’s current definition doesn’t necessarily mean that the code adequately distinguishes among those very different levels of intensity,” she said. “Codes are often revised in response to real projects that reveal gaps, ambiguity or consequences that were not fully anticipated when the language was written.”

The Commission’s Chair, Nadine Hensler, said she shares many of the concerns and questions brought forward by the appeals. However, she also recognized that data centers are part of everyday digital life.

“It doesn’t mean that every data center should be approved in every location,” she said. “But it does mean that the question before us is not whether data centers have a purpose, it’s whether this particular application satisfies the standards that we are legally bound and required to apply.”