Aurora CO evaporative cooling ban ordinance, first reading (2026)

Aurora, Colo. (Arapahoe County) — ORDINANCE BANNING THE USE OF EVAPORATIVE COOLING SYSTEMS citywide, given UNANIMOUS INITIAL (FIRST-READING) APPROVAL on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2026. STATUS IS `proposed`: the source states plainly that 'both that and the data center measure will need to pass final approval votes at the next council meeting in two weeks to become law.' NO ADOPTION IS ASSERTED. THE REGULATORY INSTRUMENT IS THE REASON THIS IS A SEPARATE ENTRY FROM Aurora CO resolution directing data center regulations, moratorium rejected (2026). That entry records the August 11, 2026 council session at which a six-month moratorium was REJECTED 6-5 on the mayor's tie-breaking vote and a resolution DIRECTING data-center-specific regulations was adopted 7-4, giving the city manager 35 days to develop them. THIS ORDINANCE IS THE FIRST PRODUCT OF THAT 35-DAY DIRECTION, arriving in mid-September as the August entry anticipated — the follow-through, not a duplicate. TECHNOLOGY REGULATION RATHER THAN LAND-USE REGULATION: the prohibition attaches to EVAPORATIVE COOLING SYSTEMS AS SUCH, citywide and building-agnostic, not to the data center use. 'Evaporative cooling systems circulate evaporated water through the air and can use a lot of it, especially across large spaces.' The measure therefore (a) does not prohibit a data center, (b) reaches every building type, and (c) rests on a drought rationale independent of any judgment about data centers — which makes it materially less vulnerable to a challenge framed as exclusionary zoning or as regulation of a disfavoured use. THIS IS THE ONLY TECHNOLOGY-SPECIFIC COOLING PROHIBITION CURRENTLY INDEXED; compare North Carolina Senate Bill 730 (Data Center Water and Cooling… (state-level water and cooling bill). CONTEXT: 'a severe drought in Colorado'; 'one of the main targets being water-intensive data centers'; 'Data centers have become notorious for their heavy water use — with the liquid used as a cooling agent for the servers and computers that run 24 hours a day.' COMPANION MEASURE THE SAME NIGHT, also passed unanimously: a TURF AND IRRIGATION ORDINANCE that would (1) prohibit residents or businesses from installing cool-weather grass such as Kentucky bluegrass without WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE CITY MANAGER, permitting warm-season turf such as Tahoma 31 which Aurora Water General Manager MARSHALL BROWN said uses 60-70% LESS WATER; (2) ban installation of ornamental water features without city manager approval; (3) prohibit spray irrigation in NON-high-traffic areas between specified autumn dates (the existing equivalent ban already applies in high-traffic areas). Brown: 'What we saw this last winter was a lot of irrigation systems turning on as early as February.' The turf ordinance builds on a measure from four years ago barring cool-weather turf and ornamental water features in NEW DEVELOPMENT. THE TURF ORDINANCE IS NOT A DATA CENTER MEASURE and is recorded here only as context for the water-scarcity posture. FORWARD COMMITMENT, STATED: 'The measure is the first of a number of rules Aurora expects to enact on data centers this year, with plans in the next few months to dictate WHERE IN THE CITY THEY CAN LOCATE and HOW FAR THEY MUST BE FROM HOMES AND SCHOOLS.' Those siting and setback rules are NOT yet before the council and are queued as a recheck. THE ORDINANCE'S OWN TERMS — whether the ban is prospective only, whether existing systems are grandfathered, what exemptions exist, and how 'evaporative cooling system' is defined — ARE NOT STATED IN THE SOURCE.