If you're bidding on one of the big data center or energy jobs around Cheyenne, plan on figuring out where your crew sleeps before you break ground. Laramie County is making that part of the deal.
Justin Arnold, director of the county's Planning and Development Department, said the county has started requiring workforce accommodations for large projects on a case-by-case basis. Going forward, he said, it will apply to all proposed industrial developments. The goal is to keep temporary construction workers from soaking up the area's already tight supply of homes and rentals.
"That's just going to be the standard operating procedure on these moving forward," Arnold told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's Alyssa Tolman, in a story republished by WyoFile on Oct. 9.
Why the county is doing it
Several large industrial projects are proposed or under construction around Cheyenne at the same time, Arnold said, including data centers, wind farms and solar projects. Each one can bring a big temporary workforce.
"Data centers, when it's all said and done, they're looking at 250 (full-time) employees versus 2,500 (construction workers)," Arnold said. Wind and solar projects generally bring around 300 construction workers, he said, and only a handful of people for operations once they're built.
"Three hundred people coming here is 300 less units that the locals have available to themselves from the local supply," he said.
The rule covers construction-period workers only, not the permanent staff who run a facility once it opens.
Developers have several ways to meet it, according to Arnold. They can build workforce housing on the project site. They can build a general workforce housing camp that serves construction workers for several developers or contractors. They can build an RV park on site. Or they can contract with a company that specializes in workforce accommodation. Arnold said he's met with at least three or four such companies.
The requirement has already been applied to Project Latigo, a data center development proposed by Vantage Data Centers about 12 miles south of Cheyenne.
The wind farm test case
The biggest test right now is the Laramie Range Wind Project. ConnectGen Laramie County, an affiliate of Repsol Renewables North America, plans to put up 139 turbines on 41,220 acres of Farthing Ranch Co. land and state land, roughly 20 miles northwest of Cheyenne. Construction is expected to peak at 305 workers.
The county commission denied the project in September 2025. The developers then took it to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Industrial Siting Council, which approved a permit after a two-day hearing on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. That approval came with 26 conditions that haven't been made public yet. The council's administrator had said the conditions and other documents would be released about 45 days after the hearing.
Repsol still has to meet county requirements before it can start construction, and Arnold said county officials told the company workforce housing will be one of them. Repsol representatives told him on-site housing could conflict with existing contracts with the landowner. Arnold said he told them to find another way, such as contracting with an accommodation company.
It's not settled yet. Arnold said one of the state conditions could make Repsol's current plans unworkable. The company might ask to amend it, ask the county to postpone its local review, or withdraw and resubmit. "So, at this point in time, we don't know," he said. The final solution could also need approval from county commissioners.
Why it matters for Contractors
For general and specialty contractors chasing data center and energy work in Laramie County, crew housing is now part of the job, not an afterthought. Expect owners to ask how you'll house workers, and price it in from the first estimate. Travel crews used to booking motels and rentals in Cheyenne should plan for camps, RV parks or contracted lodging instead.
The rule also creates its own work. Someone has to build those camps, pads and RV parks, run utilities to them and keep them running. Site work, utility, modular and temporary-housing firms, along with the companies that manage workforce lodging, have a new market tied to every large project the county reviews.
That's also the point of the rule: every worker housed on a project site is one less unit taken off the local market.
Watch for the Industrial Siting Council's conditions on the wind project and for how Repsol answers the county. Its plan will likely show other developers what Laramie County is willing to accept.