A buyer who goes under contract on a Kissing Camels home in early March, on a typical financing timeline, could close before the Colorado Springs City Council decides whether an AI data center can run in the former Intel plant on Garden of the Gods Road. The Gazette reported that the Council has set that vote for April 13, 2027. That is one week after the city's April 6 municipal election and one week before new council members usually take their seats.
For anyone weighing a purchase or a listing on the west side this winter, the decision date is already set, and so are the terms the Council will be judging.
A Fixed Calendar Around an Open Question
The project is called Project Taurus. California-based Raeden plans to convert the former chip plant at 1565 High Tech Way, near Garden of the Gods Road and Centennial Boulevard, into a 50-megawatt data center. City planning staff approved the plan in June without a public hearing, under an administrative path tied to the last approval on the property, which was granted in 2000.
From there, the steps have come in a predictable order, drawn from reporting by FOX21, the Gazette and SoCo Digest:
| Date | Step |
|---|---|
| June 22, 2026 | Appeal filed by a coalition of Chelsea Glen and Kissing Camels-area residents, organized through Integrity Matters |
| July 23, 2026 | Planning Commission denies the appeals 6–2 and adds four conditions |
| Sept. 17, 2026 | City Council votes 7–2 to postpone its decision |
| Early December 2026 | Signatures due for petitions seeking the April municipal ballot |
| April 6, 2027 | Municipal election, with four council seats on the ballot |
| April 13, 2027 | Council's rescheduled decision on the appeals |
The mesa has a direct stake in that schedule. FOX21 reported that the June appeal named 65 neighbors in all, 33 appellants with legal standing plus 32 supporting community members. A citizen petition to the mayor and council had 5,349 signatures as of June 22. Chelsea Glen is the closest neighborhood. By The Monument Independent's measurement, the planned chiller yard sits about 370 feet from the nearest house there.
The ballot adds a second variable. According to SoCo Digest, the City Clerk approved a petition on Sept. 30 for a four-year moratorium on data center construction or expansion. To qualify, organizers need 24,861 valid signatures. The same report puts the signature deadline for the April 6 ballot in early December. By the time spring listings go live, buyers will know whether that question is on the April ballot.
What the Planning Commission Already Locked In
The Council will be reviewing a plan that already carries conditions. When the Planning Commission upheld staff's approval in July, the Gazette reported that it added four requirements:
- Public reporting of utility use for 10 years.
- A 50-megawatt cap, with any increase requiring Commission approval.
- A corrected "single sheet" to the existing building plan.
- Sound monitoring in C-weighted decibels as well as A-weighted decibels.
The second condition answers the power dispute that opened the appeal. Integrity Matters cited a confidential Raeden planning document, prepared for Colorado Springs Utilities, that described the building as needing "up to 300 MW of Critical Power (420 MW Gross)" to use all of its space. The application itself described roughly 50 megawatts. With the cap in place, anything beyond 50 megawatts would need another public decision.
Utilities' own numbers give the scale. The Gazette reported in June that Colorado Springs Utilities produces 976 megawatts on a peak day, according to its 2025 report. At the September Council hearing, CPR reported that Utilities CEO Travas Deal said CSU's largest data-center customer was "right around six megawatts currently." Raeden would also fall under CSU's large-load rate for users above 10 megawatts, which according to the Gazette requires customers to cover the related infrastructure and transmission costs. As of that June report, Raeden had not signed a contract. In a Sept. 18 statement, Raeden said it had committed to no increase in residential ratepayer costs and to paying infrastructure and operating costs.
That contract is one of the reasons for the delay. The Gazette reported that Council postponed so Raeden could work with Utilities on a large-load agreement and so the city could start workshopping rules for future data centers.
The Dispute Is Over How Sound Gets Counted
The fourth condition is where the argument actually lives. The project's approved noise study, prepared by the consultant DLAA, predicts about 41 dBA at the site's south property line during normal operation and 38 dBA on cool nights. Both figures are under the city's 50 dBA nighttime limit. The same page of the study gives C-weighted figures of 62 and 56.
The two scales weigh low frequencies differently. A-weighting discounts bass, and C-weighting counts more of it. The Monument Independent noted that the resulting gaps of 21 and 18 decibels exceed the 10-decibel difference at which the World Health Organization recommends a closer look at the frequency spectrum. The paper added that this screen does not by itself establish a health hazard or a code violation. The study's lowest modeled band is centered on 63 hertz, and it does not report the bands centered on 31.5 and 16 hertz.
The city's position appears in the Planning Commission minutes, as reported by the same paper:
Staff "did not require that information, because even if it was provided, there is nothing they can do about it."
That was Planning Director Kevin Walker, asked whether the study had to cover low frequencies. He also said the city would not recommend C-weighted limits, because no reliable standard links them to health effects. The Gazette's coverage of the September hearing listed low-frequency noise that the city does not regulate among the concerns raised most often.
On the equipment side, the plan calls for 30 backup generators and 36 air-cooled chillers behind sound walls, with the generators placed toward Garden of the Gods Road. A third-party contractor's computer model found the facility "will not exceed local noise codes during normal operation, or during generator testing."
The building also has a noise history. A bitcoin-mining business ran servers there from 2018, and the owner, 3G Venture II, listed "bitcoin mining servers" among its assets when it filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2020. In 2019, KOAA reported that a complaint about the operation's exhaust fans led the city's code enforcement office to buy new measuring equipment. The Gazette reported in 2020 that the sound did not violate city standards. Raeden's response to public comment describes the mine as "a noisy, city ordinance-exceeding operation."
The Council's April vote will come down to whether code limits written in A-weighted decibels are the right measure for equipment that runs around the clock.
Where Both Sides Stand Going Into Spring
Council members described the delay as a request for standards. "Accountability, rules and standards," Councilmember Roland Rainey said before proposing the postponement, the Gazette reported. Councilmembers Kimberly Gold and Nancy Henjum voted against postponing and said they were ready to vote. "Neither position (for or against) is a substitute for following the code we have adopted," Henjum said. Lead appellant Kate Kent of Integrity Matters called the postponement the second-best outcome, according to the same Gazette report.
On the moratorium, former mayor John Suthers, who represented Raeden during the approval process, told SoCo Digest that it "would essentially put a 'closed for business' sign up in Colorado Springs." Johanna Reeder Kleymeyer, CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, said Colorado Springs Utilities "has already placed strict guidelines and rules on large-load users."
The rules Council asked for are at the starting line. On Oct. 26, Mayor Yemi Mobolade told the Gazette that his office and the Planning Department were "in the very early stages of working on that in conjunction with City Council." Walker said little work had been done without more detailed direction from Council.
For a spring transaction, the known facts are these. The site has staff approval, upheld by the Planning Commission with conditions. Power is capped at 50 megawatts unless the Commission approves more. The Council's final word is scheduled for April 13. Signatures for April ballot petitions are due in early December. The city's Legistar file for the appeal lists the April 13 date on its agenda.
Common Questions
Is Project Taurus approved? City staff approved the development plan, and the Gazette reported that the Planning Commission upheld that approval 6–2 on July 23 with conditions. The City Council appeal is still pending, with a decision scheduled for April 13, 2027.
Where exactly is the site? According to The Monument Independent, it is at 1565 High Tech Way, the former Intel chip plant near Garden of the Gods Road and Centennial Boulevard, with Chelsea Glen to its south.
What would the moratorium petition do? As SoCo Digest described it, if it qualifies and passes, it would place a four-year moratorium on data center construction or expansion in Colorado Springs. Organizers can also qualify for a special election by turning in signatures by March 8.
This post is general information, not legal or financial advice. Anyone timing a purchase or sale around a pending land-use decision should confirm their own situation with the right professional.
If you are planning a west-side purchase or a spring listing on the mesa and want to set your timing around the April 13 decision, Trish Ingels offers private consultations for serious buyers and sellers, grounded in more than three decades of following this market closely.
