While the proposed Project Taurus data center awaits its city council hearing, we learn about another project being fast-tracked in southern Colorado Springs that will have data center equipment and needs, but we are told is not a data center. Project Primestone will begin with a facility requiring twice the electrical power of Project Taurus and may ultimately use four times Taurus’ 50 megawatt appetite.

Seth Palmer Harris, the reporter who has filed a story about Primestone in the Pikes Peak Bulletin, fills us in. The discussion includes various ways developers fund projects in Colorado Springs, including metro districts, urban renewal tax incentives and Tax Increment Financing. There is much more to the story, so listen to this episode and read the report in the Pikes Peak Bulletin.

NOTE: When Dave mention there will be many “NIMBYs” at the September 17 Colorado Springs City Council data center hearing, he does not mean it in a derogatory sense.

LINKS:

Project Primestone Isn’t A Data Center – It Will Just Look and Feel Like One

Fight to Save OCC Downtown Development Authority Ramps Up

The Rotten Roots of Project Taurus – Episode 154 of Peak Environment

52nd Annual Commonwheel Artists Co-Op Labor Day Weekend Art Festival

SinkMS MiniGolf Tournament

Creek Week 2026

10th annual COLORADO SHORT CIRCUIT Film Festival

Starlight Spectacular

MENTIONED:

Project Taurus proposed data center

Brandy Williams

Colorado Springs Urban Renewal Authority

Colorado Springs Gazette

Phil Anschutz

Commonwheel Artists Co-op

Independent Film Society of Colorado Springs

Gold Mine Mini Golf

National MS Society

Fountain Creek Watershed District

Trails and Open Space Coalition

Loving the Springs celebrates the best of Colorado Springs and elevates the rest.

Plug into what’s happening in the Pikes Peak region, learn about awesome people, places and happenings, and explore opportunities to make life here even better. Longtime Springs booster Carrie Simison co-hosts with local gadflies Al Brody and Dave Gardner. All three love our two springs – Colorado and Manitou, so they give them the mic in this twice-monthly podcast. Nothing’s off the table – recreation, the arts, government, business, politics – if it touches your life, they’ll talk about it. We’ll invite the movers and shakers, conspiracy theorists, NIMBYs, YIMBYs, yaysayers and naysayers to join them.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and give us feedback and suggestions via comments at studio809podcasts.com/loving-the-springs or lovingthespringspodcast at gmail.com

Efforts in our community are helping individuals and their children achieve safety and wellbeing while challenging us to end sexual and family violence. TESSA CEO Anne Markley fills us in on all the local nonprofit agency is doing, including a confidential Safehouse, Victim Advocacy, Counseling and Children’s Programs, a 24/7 Safe Line, and Community Outreach and Education.

We learn that teens and young adults are especially vulnerable, with more unsupervised time, social gatherings, and new relationships increasing the likelihood of dating violence. And TESSA is doing a lot to address this, including hosting a special community conversation:

Digital Realities: Protecting Youth in the Digital Age

A community conversation about online safety

CSPD and TESSA

August 23, 4 to 7 pm, Ent Center for the Arts

Free, Register Here

TESSA Safe Line: 719-633-3819

LINKS:

TESSA

City Launches New Parking Enterprise Brand Focused on Making Parking Easier

MENTIONS:

Ent Center for the Arts

Wings Credit Union

Jelly Roll

Goat Patch Brewing

Give Pikes Peak

Empy Stocking Fund

Parking Upgrades Downtown

Paul Newman

Cool Hand Luke

The Charlie Block

Urban Egg

Poor Richard’s

Loving the Springs celebrates the best of Colorado Springs and elevates the rest.

Plug into what’s happening in the Pikes Peak region, learn about awesome people, places and happenings, and explore opportunities to make life here even better. Longtime Springs booster Carrie Simison co-hosts with local gadflies Al Brody and Dave Gardner. All three love our two springs – Colorado and Manitou, so they give them the mic in this twice-monthly podcast. Nothing’s off the table – recreation, the arts, government, business, politics – if it touches your life, they’ll talk about it. We’ll invite the movers and shakers, conspiracy theorists, NIMBYs, YIMBYs, yaysayers and naysayers to join them.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and give us feedback and suggestions via comments at studio809podcasts.com/loving-the-springs or lovingthespringspodcast at gmail.com

Venetucci Farm is a community treasure celebrating its 90th anniversary. Get the scoop on annual pumpkin giveaways, a flower farm, and much more making community happen in the aftermath of the PFAS water contamination disaster. Sam Clark, Executive Director of the Pikes Peak Real Estate Foundation, and Nikki McComsey, owner of Gather Mountain Blooms share the history and legacy, current happenings, and an upgrade in the works for 2027.

Also: Pikes Peak Bulletin Managing Editor Heila Ershadi updates us on PFAS groundwater contamination in the area (see link to her story below).

LINKS:

Venetucci Farm

Gather Mountain Blooms

Rocky Mountain Flower Fest

Contaminants on the Way Out of Rural Residents' Tap Water, Says Water Provider and State Health Department (Pikes Peak Bulletin story)

MENTIONED:

United States Air Force

PFAS contamination

Widefield Aquifer

Nick Venetucci

Bambi Venetucci

Pikes Peak Community Foundation

Gordon Price

Grass It Up

Mike and Amanda Bristol

Venetucci Pumpkin Ale

Bristol Brewing “Give Back Mix Pack”

Smokebrush

Friends of Cheyenne Canyon

School District 11

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Colorado Youth Outdoors

El Pomar Foundation

El Paso County

Liz Rosenbaum

Wigwam Mutual Water Company

Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment

Loving the Springs celebrates the best of Colorado Springs and elevates the rest.

Plug into what’s happening in the Pikes Peak region, learn about awesome people, places and happenings, and explore opportunities to make life here even better. Longtime Springs booster Carrie Simison co-hosts with local gadflies Al Brody and Dave Gardner. All three love our two springs – Colorado and Manitou, so they give them the mic in this twice-monthly podcast. Nothing’s off the table – recreation, the arts, government, business, politics – if it touches your life, they’ll talk about it. We’ll invite the movers and shakers, conspiracy theorists, NIMBYs, YIMBYs, yaysayers and naysayers to join them.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and give us feedback and suggestions via comments at studio809podcasts.com/loving-the-springs or lovingthespringspodcast at gmail.com