The small town of Lochbuie, Colorado, has passed a five-year moratorium on data centers despite having no existing facilities or pending development applications, making it one of the more preemptive moves in a growing wave of local government restrictions on the industry.

A Proactive Ordinance With No Immediate Trigger

The Lochbuie town council voted on July 21, 2026, to pass an ordinance that prohibits the processing of applications "for the establishment or expansion of data center facilities within the town of Lochbuie." The ban is set to last five years.

Lochbuie Mayor Jamie Jeffery acknowledged to local media that no developers had approached the town about building a data center there, describing the measure as entirely proactive.

The decision was not made in response to a specific proposal or community backlash over an existing project, but rather as a forward-looking signal about what kind of development the town is willing to entertain.

"For now, our message is clear. You can go find a different small town to take advantage of, or some remote location that's going to allow you to put it in, but it's not going to be our town," Jeffery told 9News.

Where Lochbuie Sits in Colorado's Data Center Landscape

Lochbuie is located approximately 27 miles northwest of Denver, Colorado's capital city and the home of the state's largest cluster of data centers.

That proximity to a major data center hub appears to have informed the town's decision to get ahead of any potential developer interest before it materialized.

The town's geography places it within reasonable distance of the infrastructure corridors that have attracted significant data center investment to the Denver metropolitan area in recent years, making preemptive local regulation a practical consideration even in the absence of current applications.

Denver's Own Moratorium Adds Regional Context

Lochbuie's action comes just months after Denver itself moved to restrict new data center development. In May 2026, the Denver city council voted to approve a one-year moratorium on data centers following community backlash.

Denver City Council's moratorium was reactive, emerging from public pressure over existing and proposed developments; Lochbuie's is notable precisely because it was initiated without any such pressure or development activity.

The back-to-back actions in the same region reflect a broader pattern of municipal governments in Colorado taking legislative steps to control where and how data center infrastructure can be built within their boundaries.

The Duration of the Lochbuie Ordinance

The ordinance passed by Lochbuie's town council is specific in its scope, targeting the processing and approval of applications for both the establishment of new data center facilities and the expansion of any that might exist in the future.

The five-year duration of the ban is notably longer than Denver's one-year measure, suggesting Lochbuie is seeking a more extended period to assess how it wants to approach the issue before any permanent zoning or land-use rules are put in place.

What the Moratorium Does Not Address

Because Lochbuie has no existing data centers and no pending applications, the moratorium does not affect any current operations or disrupt any investments already in progress within the town's boundaries.

Its practical effect, at least in the near term, is to signal the town's position to would-be developers and to give local officials time to develop more permanent land-use policies before any formal engagement with the industry begins.

The ordinance does not appear to include any exceptions or conditional pathways for data center development during the five-year period, though the full text of the measure beyond the quoted language was not detailed in available reporting.