Hayden Council Votes to Classify Data Centers as Heavy Industry

Steamboat Springs —The wind off the Flatirons cuts sharp against the siding of buildings along U.S. Highway 26, a constant reminder that Hayden sits in a landscape where every drop of water and kilowatt of power has a cost. On Aug. 6, the Hayden Town Council voted 4-1 to amend its municipal code, making it the first Routt County municipality to explicitly regulate data centers.

The Steamboat Pilot reported on the vote, which came after months of internal debate. Council member Elaine Hicks cast the only "nay." The amendment lands in Section 10.03.05 of the development code, the section governing use-specific standards. It now lists data centers as an allowed use within the heavy industrial category. But it isn’t a blank check. The code pairs that permission with strict limitations on size and power demands.

Town Manager Mathew Mendisco said the town has been watching the national trend for a while. Data centers are moving into rural areas, and Hayden is a growing community that can’t ignore the shift. The local pressure cooker started in 2024, when town officials believed a company was scouting both Hayden and Craig. That company didn’t explicitly say it was a data center. But its requirements told the story: 350,000 gallons of water and 50 megawatts of power per day.

Mendisco noted that utility rates across the nation have spiked anywhere from 10% to 150%. Those are the numbers that keep local officials up at night.

The interest hasn’t slowed down. In 2026, the town received two separate inquiries from site selectors: Pure-Green Colorado and Toto Labs Inc. Both companies have also expressed interest in developing in Moffat County, a neighbor to the north. Mendisco clarified that he doesn’t know who exactly these site selectors represent. He does know they asked questions about land use. Toto Labs requested an in-person meeting to discuss the code, a standard request for any developer.

Mendisco stressed that town staff try to keep strict separations between elected officials and potential developers. They do this to maintain the integrity of the land use process, even when the process is speculative. He said he is not aware of any Hayden elected officials having met with representatives from these companies.

Discussions with Pure-Green Colorado have centered on geothermal energy production. Staff answered general land use questions. Toto Labs asked staff to visit two sites near the business park and followed up with further questions.

The short version: Hayden is betting that writing the rules now is cheaper than fighting them later. The town is positioning itself as a place where big tech can plug in, provided it fits within the heavy industrial bounds. That means noise limits, water usage caps, and power draw restrictions that apply to the same category as a lumber mill or a concrete plant.

Read that again. Data centers are now legally grouped with heavy industry in Hayden’s code. That is a deliberate choice to signal that these facilities are not residential amenities. They are industrial loads.

What the town isn’t saying is how much of a strain 50 megawatts puts on the local grid. Mendisco cited national rate increases, but he didn’t provide a specific projection for Hayden’s utility bills. He noted the town is paying attention to impacts on power rates, but he stopped short of quantifying what a single data center would do to the average household’s electric bill in this valley.

The vote was 4-1, but the margin is thin enough to matter. One council member voted against it. That dissent signals that not everyone in the room is comfortable with the trade-off between economic opportunity and infrastructure strain.

Hayden’s neighbors in Craig have not yet adopted similar language. Neither has Steamboat Springs. For now, Hayden is the only town in Routt County with a defined path for these facilities. That makes it the first stop for any developer looking to test the waters in the county’s development code.

The wind is still blowing off the Flatirons. The water meter is still ticking. The town has drawn a line in the sand, or rather, in the municipal code. Whether that line holds when the first transformer arrives is a question for the next few years.