The future of a data center on Colorado Springs' Westside will take center stage at a special session of city council. The Project Taurus redevelopment plan was approved by city planning. Neighbors then appealed, and that was re jected by the planning commission. City council now hears the second appeal.Watch the hearing in the video below at 9 a.m. here A former computer chip manufacturing site along Garden of the Gods Road has the infrastructure and zoning fitting the repurposed business model of data center developer Raeden."Our development plan was approved because it met code. This site is zoned and entitled to be a data center that is already there, it is already approved, that is already in state. We then passed all of the gauntlet of requirements to develop a plan to develop that site that met every single instance of city code and was approved," said Jason Green, the project developer."Pollution, climate change, and particulates in the air, and that's just not an area that's appropriate so close to neighborhoods," said Justin Wolfe, who lives near the site.A grassroots movement from neighbors and others in the community has rallied to try to stop the data center. The developer says he has tried to be transparent and willing to address questions. Now he says the movement has escalated from concerns to a confrontation campaign."The threat level is high. It's disturbing. We now live in a world where apparently people think that that's acceptable. We have had to put forth a pretty significant amount of investment and time into ensuring the safety of the people that are involved in our project, me as well," Green said.Opposition counters that they are being ignored and that tactics like deploying a moving billboard need to happen to be heard."Put as many of those trucks out on the road this week, and we have to go out guns blazing on this until we go into the courtroom," Wolfe said.Open records requests turned up things like a text between Colorado Springs Utilities about 300 megawatts of available power at the site. Opposition says it shows Project Taurus misrepresented how much power they will use with their development plan showing 50 megawatts. Developers say that text was part of a site investigation to see the range of power potentially available, and the approved plan shows the power they will use."Is consistent through and through in the following areas. The number of chillers and the number of generators supports 50 megawatts of computers, period," Green said.The developer is standing by what is documented by the city. Opposition is claiming the data is flawed."It's pretty egregious some of the things that they are trying to misrepresent and conflate," Wolfe said.If the council decision does not go their way, both sides say they will go to court."This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy."_______Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching. ...read more read less