County to join regional effort on water guidance for large users; moves to treat data centers as conditional use in interim

County staff asked the board to consider becoming a participating community in a Colorado Water Conservation Board grant project led by Western Resource Advocates to research and co-develop decision tools and model policies for managing large water users such as data centers and bottling facilities.

Staff said the likely commitment would be modest (an estimated 50 to 100 staff hours over two years) and would not bind the county to adopt any particular policy; rather, staff said the work would provide technical assistance, locally tailored policy options and a toolkit other communities could use. Commissioners asked about staff capacity, political neutrality and whether the organization—'s work would steer policy outcomes. Staff said the local project team is oriented toward technical assistance and that participation could help the county shape options and correct misinformation.

Land-use interim action: Separately, staff recommended moving data centers to conditional-use permitting in the near-term DSO update to provide additional review authority while a broader DSO-plus package (with other items) is scheduled for 2027. Commissioners agreed the conditional-use step would provide an interim safeguard.

Next steps: Staff will prepare a letter of participation if the board wishes to join the grant effort (Western Resource Advocates was seeking letters before July 1), and will proceed with the DSO update steps that make data centers conditional use while deferring more complex items to a later DSO-plus process.