Vantage Data Centers has secured unanimous approval from the Laramie County Board of County Commissioners for a zone change enabling Project Latigo, a 1,835-acre data center campus roughly 12 miles south of Cheyenne, Wyoming, planned for up to 480MW of capacity and as much as $20 billion in total investment. The approval was first reported by ZoneWire and covered by CitizenPortal, local news, and ZoneWire's August zoning roundup.

The Laramie County Planning Commission voted unanimously on August 13, 2026 to recommend the zone change from Land Use (LU) to Planned Unit Development (PUD), and the Board of County Commissioners followed with a unanimous approval on September 1, 2026. The PUD framework is specific to Project Latigo and covers the full campus master plan. A site plan application and additional permits are still required before construction begins, with the build-out window targeted at roughly 2027-2030.

Vantage Data Centers is a hyperscale-focused colocation and build-to-suit operator with campuses across North America and Europe. The company targets large-footprint deployments for cloud, AI, and enterprise customers that require dedicated, purpose-built capacity at scale. Project Latigo would be among its largest single-site commitments anywhere in its portfolio.

Two details in the PUD filings are worth tracking for anyone building or operating in the Mountain West. First, Wyoming natural gas for on-site generation removes Vantage from the regional utility queue entirely, giving the project a power certainty that grid-dependent campuses in Virginia or Texas currently cannot match. Second, the water-positive commitment at 110% replenishment is a direct response to Wyoming's arid climate and the political scrutiny that large water users attract in the West. Committing to net water contribution before a shovel breaks ground is increasingly a prerequisite for community acceptance, not a nice-to-have.

A 480MW, multi-building campus built out over roughly three years is one of the largest single construction programs in Wyoming's history. The challenge is that Laramie County's population base cannot staff it alone.

Cheyenne is the staging point, but its relatively small metro population means the real recruitment geography stretches south along the I-25 corridor to Denver, Fort Collins, and Greeley, where competing data center, logistics, and energy employers are already drawing hard on the same electricians, pipefitters, heavy equipment operators, and mechanical trades. Wyoming's industrial heritage in oil, gas, and mining produces workers with directly transferable skills, but union density is lower than on Colorado's Front Range, so contractors will likely deploy a mix of regional union locals and non-union crews recruited across the broader Mountain West.

The single most consequential staffing detail in the approved PUD is one that rarely appears in zoning documents: Vantage has embedded on-site workforce accommodation for construction personnel into the plan. Modular housing at the site materially expands the effective recruitment radius, allowing the project to absorb large numbers of traveling trades workers from distant markets without being constrained by Cheyenne's limited housing stock or long rural commutes during peak build phases. For contractors bidding this work, that accommodation capacity changes the workforce sourcing calculus significantly.

For a full breakdown of roles, pay bands, and where the talent pipeline is deepest, see our guide to hiring data center talent in Laramie County, WY. Sources: ZoneWire, which first reported the commissioners' approval, with additional coverage from CitizenPortal, local news via Yahoo, the ZoneWire Laramie County zoning roundup, Strisker data center notes, and the Deploy Report campus registry.