Petitioners in Colorado Springs are preparing to gather signatures to place restrictions on noise levels, developments that use a large volume of water and surveillance cameras that use automatic tracking technology.

The City Clerk’s office on Monday gave final approval to the titles for four petitions filed by Adriane Nau, former Councilmember Joel Miller and his wife Anita Miller.

While the proposals are not explicitly regulations for data centers, at least two of them would have applied to the development plan for the Project Taurus data center that the Colorado Springs City Council is expected to consider on Sept. 17.

Anita Miller said she heard concerns from friends and family in recent months about tracking technology, water usage and noise complaints. She began working with her husband and their friend Nau to figure out regulations that could appear on the April 2027 ballot.

“I think that all of these involve citizens being able to have a say in what is rightfully theirs, whether it’s their property or their water or the tracking of their own physical being,” Anita Miller said.

The first of the petition questions would prohibit any development that causes enough noise to be “detrimental to the quiet enjoyment of property.” Any project that would violate this restriction would have to pay for two acoustical studies to show the development would have minimal noise impact.

The question is intentionally broad about what type of business could face these restrictions by opening in or near a residential area. Companies would likely know coming in if they were a risk to generate high levels of noise and would need to provide studies, Anita Miller said.

“The beauty of some of these initiatives is there might be a type of business that we don’t even know exists right now but would be a concern,” she said.

Another question attempts to enact the same limits for existing businesses by proposing to eliminate noise hardship permits except for free events. The restriction may not affect the Project Taurus data center because Raeden, the backing company, has never said it would need a noise hardship permit. But it would affect Ford Amphitheater and a handful of other events. The majority of noise hardship permit recipients would still qualify for future permits, Anita Miller said.

The third development-related proposal would prohibit any nonresidential addition that would use more than 200,000 gallons of water during any 24-hour period. The proposal includes built-in exceptions for recreation or medical facilities such as hospitals. Any other project would need to receive voter permission for its water use.

The Project Taurus data center would use 200,000 gallons of water to fill its closed-loop cooling system. The cutoff would have also included the Swire Coca-Cola bottling plant and other projects that Anita Miller said were in discussion with the Colorado Springs Utilities.

The fourth petition question would prohibit all “automated location tracking technology” from being owned, leased or operated by Colorado Springs. The affected cameras are commonly called Flock cameras, though the automated license-plate readers used by the Colorado Springs Police Department do not come through the company Flock.

City spokesperson Max D’Onofrio said the petitions will be sent out Sept. 9. The campaigns will have 180 days to gather more than 25,000 signatures from registered Colorado Springs voters.

Anita Miller said she rebuffed offers to use paid signature gatherers and planned to enlist the help of volunteers. A website will launch next week with more details about the petitions and ways for volunteers to get in touch.

D’Onofrio said the petitions need to be turned in by Dec. 7 to be certified in time for next year’s election. If they are turned in after the 180-day window, D’Onofrio said there would need to be a special election later next year.