A month after Craig Mayor Chris Nichols signed a letter offering city support for Toto Labs’ evaluation of development opportunities in the community, the city has withdrawn the letter and acknowledged it should have gone through a public City Council process.

The reversal comes as Moffat County officials face their own questions about data center discussions, including contacts with companies interested in developing near Trapper Mine and whether county officials should have disclosed those contacts to the public sooner.

One of those companies was Toto Labs.

On July 14, Nichols signed a document titled “Official Letter of Support – City of Craig” addressed to prospective investors, financial partners and strategic partners of Toto Labs.

“The City recognizes the potential value that advanced technology, energy, and infrastructure investment can bring to communities seeking long-term economic diversification and sustainable growth,” Nichols said in the letter. “Based on the information presented to date, we believe Toto’s interest in Craig merits continued evaluation and constructive dialogue among local, regional, state, and private-sector stakeholders.”

The letter specifically said it did not approve a land use application, incentive, contract, funding commitment or other regulatory action.

But on Aug. 11, Nichols formally rescinded it.

In the withdrawal sent to Toto Labs and addressed to Matt Solomon, Nichols said the July letter had not been presented to or authorized by the City Council at a public meeting and could not be represented as an official endorsement of the city or council.

Solomon is listed as vice president of operations for Toto Labs and chairman of the Club 20 Foundation, according to the foundation’s website.

Nichols also asked Toto Labs to stop circulating the document and to notify any investors, financial partners or others who had already received the letter that it had been withdrawn.

On Wednesday, City Manager KC Hume provided clarification in a statement in response to questions from the Craig Daily Press.

Hume said Solomon and Phil Klevorick, representing Toto Labs, separately met with Nichols on June 7 and Hume on June 8.

According to Hume, Nichols’ meeting focused on potential data center development and Craig’s power infrastructure, transmission capacity, available land and workforce. Hume said his own approximately 30-minute conversation focused primarily on workforce housing, although data centers were discussed.

Hume said those meetings were exploratory and represented the entirety of recent city contact with Toto Labs.

“There were no negotiations,” Hume said in the statement.

The city says it has received no data center application, annexation request, permit application or specific development proposal. It also says it has entered into no incentive agreement, infrastructure agreement or memorandum of understanding and has signed no nondisclosure agreements related to data centers.

Hume acknowledged, however, that the July 14 letter should have been handled differently.

A letter carrying the city’s name in support of a private development interest, he said, should have been placed on a public agenda, considered by the entire council, opened for public comment and decided through a council vote.

“The City fell short of that standard in one respect,” Hume wrote.

The city’s reversal is unfolding alongside separate questions surrounding data center discussions at the county level.

Last week, the Craig Daily Press reported on Moffat County’s preliminary contacts involving potential data center development, including contacts with Toto Labs and Pure-Green regarding the Trapper Mine area. The reporting raised questions about what county officials knew, when discussions occurred and when those contacts became public.

During an Aug. 5 meeting of the Moffat County Planning and Zoning Commission, residents raised concerns about water, electricity, land use and the potential scale of future development.

During that meeting, Planning and Zoning Director Candace Miller said the review of data center regulations had been her “idea” and was prompted by her observations of developments at the regional, state and national levels and by the fact that Moffat County’s zoning regulations do not specifically address data centers.

At the Aug. 11 Moffat County commissioners meeting, commissioners addressed questions surrounding transparency in earlier county contacts and whether a moratorium should be considered while regulations are reviewed.

That meeting occurred the same day Nichols withdrew Craig’s support letter.

Solomon has been involved in economic development and energy-transition discussions affecting Northwest Colorado. His work has included the Northwest Colorado Energy Initiative, which has examined potential replacements for economic activity and energy production associated with the region’s declining coal industry.

Solomon has also been involved in discussions about nuclear energy and the potential storage of spent nuclear fuel in Northwest Colorado as regional leaders considered possible energy and industrial uses that could help offset the effects of anticipated coal plant and mine closures.

Solomon has also participated in energy development discussions elsewhere in Colorado, including conversations about nuclear energy and emerging energy technologies. Those efforts provide broader context for his work but are separate from the current data center discussions involving Craig and Moffat County.

The Craig Daily Press has repeatedly sought comment from Solomon since Monday. As of Wednesday afternoon, the newspaper had not received a response or indication that he intended to provide comment.

Emails to Pure-Green have also not been returned. 

Craig Station and Trapper Mine are expected to close as coal operations wind down, leaving local governments searching for replacement jobs, investment and tax revenue. Data centers have now joined nuclear energy, renewable generation and other industries being discussed as possible components of that transition.

But the past several weeks have also demonstrated that economic development discussions can become questions of public process long before a formal application arrives.

The City of Craig is now drawing a firm distinction between preliminary conversations and official municipal action.

Hume said no single city official, including the mayor, a council member or city manager, has the authority to commit Craig to a private development project or pledge city property, funding, incentives or contractual support. Such authority belongs to the council acting in a public meeting.

The city also emphasized that its involvement should not be conflated with Moffat County’s.

Craig and Moffat County are separate governments with separate elected boards, staffs and land use authority. The city regulates land within its municipal boundaries while the county oversees land use in unincorporated areas.

Hume said the city was not a participant in the county’s data center discussions and has no information about those contacts beyond what has been made public.

The distinction could become particularly important if a company eventually proposes a site outside Craig’s municipal limits but near existing regional infrastructure.

Craig is also adopting new practices following the Toto Labs letter.

Hume said any future city communication supporting or opposing a private development interest will be placed on a posted agenda for public discussion and a recorded vote before it is signed. He said he plans to present a policy to the City Council establishing that requirement.

The city also says it will publicly disclose any future contact involving data center interest, even if the contact does not develop into a formal proposal.

Any future project involving city land, utilities or municipal approval would be handled in open session with public notice and an opportunity for residents to comment, according to Hume.

Those commitments follow growing public attention to how both the city and county communicate about prospective developments before formal applications reach a planning commission or elected board.

For now, Craig says no data center project is under city review, no city-owned property is being evaluated for such a use and officials are unaware of a developer actively pursuing a site inside the municipal boundaries.

Moffat County, meanwhile, continues examining how its zoning regulations should address data centers if an application is eventually filed. During the Aug. 11 Board of County Commissioners meeting, Commissioners Tony Bohrer and Donald Broom discussed the possibility of a moratorium on data center development while that review continues.

During the same meeting, Commissioner Melody Villard defended the county’s handling of public disclosure surrounding its prior conversations with Toto Labs and Pure-Green.

That leaves both governments confronting a broader issue of how Northwest Colorado pursues large-scale investment while ensuring that residents are informed early enough to have a meaningful role in deciding what that transition looks like.