History of the Brighton Data Center Issue

Hello all! My name is Lori, and I (along with a wonderful team) lead Indivisible Bridge to Brighton. You have likely seen us around town, holding protests in various places on various issues.

We’ve recently met with and joined forces with a group called the DSA, Democratic Socialists of America (Adams County) on this issue of data centers in Brighton. I thought it important to share with the community how this started and some of what we know. It is my intent to be as open and honest as possible, but I am redacting names, and we are keeping a few eggs in our baskets, mostly because they are things we think are accurate, but still lack enough proof. This is #2 in a series of articles I will put out.

CONTINUED BELOW….

On July 17th, I was contacted by an Indivisible member who used to, but no longer, lives in the area. What I learned (see screenshots) was the city of Brighton was requesting bids regarding a sound study for data centers.

Our Indivisible group is busy right now, and I wasn’t sure we could take this on. I sat on it for a few days. As it happened, a member of DSA, Jordan, reached out to me, wanting to get to know our group, as we share some common goals. She shared issues she knew to be going on, and I did the same, including the recent information about the sound study for data centers.

Jordan took that information, something her group was also concerned about, and found the bid paperwork behind a paywall. You can see a copy of that bid by clicking here, but the pertinent part said:

“The City of Brighton, Colorado, located in the plains north-east of Denver in both Adams and Weld  Counties, has more than doubled in size over the last 20 years. Now a municipality of 50,040  residents, Brighton’s rapid growth has created numerous challenges. Brighton holds many acres of  undeveloped land and is mostly surrounded by large-lot and vacant unincorporated properties.  

As Brighton continues to see new growth, new and unforeseen land uses have made their way into  conversations with City staff. Specifically, the City has been approached by Developers to discuss,  process, and approve the construction of data centers. 

The City of Brighton is seeking professional assistance to define standards related to noise for future  data centers. The standards should ensure protection of the health, safety, and welfare of people  on properties near a data center. The City is seeking a consulting team with demonstrable  experience in data center noise modeling and mitigation, a proven ability to draft code regulations  related to data centers, assistance in drafting the parameters of a noise study, and knowledge of  state and federal regulations.“

With that information, I called city hall’s planning department , but was unable to talk to a person or get my calls returned. I went to city hall. After a second trip there, I was able to speak to a member of the planning department.

Here are my edited notes from that conversation with my thoughts in parentheses:

  • Notes from 8/4/26 with XXX from Brighton Planning.
  • XXX is only aware of 1 data center, and did not know why the sound bid stated more than that. (This seemed fishy to me.)
  • XXX stated that there was 1 developer who wanted to build a facility to house a data center, but there was not a specific data center/company going into it. XXX would not name the developer.
  • XXX stated s/he did not believe that anybody within the city had signed NDAs, and city council has not yet been involved in the process.
  • XXX said some things that were confusing. I tried to clarify, but was just as confused.
  • The city of Brighton does not have code for data centers, and they are working on that.
  • Something has 2 more rounds of review, then goes to planning commission, then City Council. But also, there would be 15 days public notice? (I feel like XXX was talking about 2 things at once… perhaps the land for the data center was 1 issue with 15 days notice, and the other was code for data centers. I tried to clarify, but was still confused. My take away was we need to have eyes all over this.)
  • Of concern, XXX did not know what infrasound was. XXX did not appear to know or understand how much water data centers took, but that the city would only be looking at their conservation, re-use, and making sure water was not dumped where they didn’t want it.
  • XXX did not know about anything about United Power or how much power would be needed.
  • (I think we also need to talk to Adams County Commissioners.)

This conversation led both Jordan and I to digging in to everything we could find. We’ve spoken to and/or corresponded with members or former members of: Brighton City Council, Thornton City Council, Commerce City City Council, Central Colorado Water Conservancy District, experts on energy resiliency, the CEO of United Power, tons of community members, and likely some other folks I’ve forgotten. We did records requests, combed through land records, looked through online records from the city and the county (Weld and Adams, as part of Brighton is in Weld County), read articles on the data center struggles other communities inside and outside Colorado are having, and so much more.

Jordan made a reel and posted it to the internet, while I sent out emails to our extensive local email list. Jordan’s video got widely shared. We requested people attend our meetings, Brighton City Council meeting (even though data centers were not on the agenda), a data center community meeting hosted by DSA, and (yet to come) Thornton City Council on 8/25, as they will consider a moratorium soon.

I estimate we had 150-175 at Brighton City Council, and likely would have had the same at the DSA Community Meeting, but folks were turned away due to fire code.

It’s important to note that there is no reason to think that Brighton City Council is deceiving us at this point in time. In my opinion, there is significant reason to be worried that they are uneducated about the dangers of data centers, or have already drunk some AI Koolaid believing this will bring jobs (see my last article here What do You Know About Data Centers?), or won’t take much water.

If any city council members are reading this, when you have your community show up in large numbers about a single issue, and you are looking down or working on something else, you give the impression that you don’t care or have already made up your mind and don’t want to hear what people have to say. This leads the community to believe negative things about you. I would kindly request that you mind your body language with your community, as you were alarming many of them.

With all of that said, I think data centers have snuck up on our community, our city hall is not prepared, we have no data center codes and this is how data centers have gotten into some communities. A lackluster sound code is not going to cut it. We need to be pushing City Council for a 5 year moratorium while we push City Hall/Planning/Zoning/Permits/Whoever to work on getting a wide range of protections in place for our community. At minimum, this should include water, water disposal, air quality, sound, including infrasound, wildlife, physical and mental health (research infrasound), heat (can it be recycled?), light pollution, power including backup power, property values, and effective fines for exceeding water usage, dumping of any kind (including water), sound, vibration, or light disturbances, and money held in case a clean up is needed or the project is abandoned.

I didn’t realize how much I had to say, and this is getting long. I’m going to cut it a bit short. If you’ve made it this far, thank you! There are many more parts that will be coming out regarding information you need to know to be educated on this topic. Check back at BridgeToBrighton.org

I will tell you we need help. We are not experts in this area, we are doing the best we can with the knowledge and skills we have. If you would like to help, please reach out. Just know we’re going to be extremely critical of helpers, as there are questionable actors in this game.

Look for more articles coming soon. Remember, democracy dies in darkness, but when communities stand together, real things can change! We need Brighton, Thornton, Northglenn, Westminster, Commerce City, Federal Heights, and Unincorporated Adams County united on this issue. Next mission: 8/25/26, please attend Thornton City Council meeting (Updates Meeting at 5:45, no public comment. City Council Meeting at 7:00 has public comment from ANYBODY no matter where you live).