Weld County, CO Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Noise Limits (2026)

Weld County's Site Plan Review process, Division 3 of Article II of Chapter 23, requires certain uses, data centers included, to comply with a set of operation standards once the site is built and running, not just at the design stage. 1 sets the baseline: uses must meet the noise standards of Chapter 14, Article IX, which set dB(A) limits under Section 14-9-40. " The C-weighted scale registers more of the low-frequency hum that server cooling and generator equipment produce, which the standard A-weighted limit tends to understate, so the county built a second, data-center-specific ceiling directly into the site plan review conditions rather than relying on the general noise chapter alone.

A Data Center itself is defined in the code as a building or buildings housing information technology or telecommunications equipment "with no limitation on its peak electrical load," which may include ancillary offices, security buildings, cooling water tanks and up to fifty megawatts of backup generation capacity, and in the I-1 Light Industrial Zone District, data centers are a use permitted only by Special Review, meaning a public hearing and Board of County Commissioners approval before Section 23-2-160's operation standards even come into play.