After Marana approved rezoning for a new data center Tuesday night, and Pima County closed on the land sale for Project Blue on Christmas Eve, the two projects are now neck-and-neck to be the first large-scale data center in Southern Arizona.
Each of the projects has its own challenges and local boosters — including heavy support from building trades.
And they are also both going up against one of the most energetic organizing efforts to spring up in the area
over the past year: the No Desert Data Center Coalition.
Since its first meeting last summer ahead of Pima County’s vote to rezone a parcel of land for Project Blue, the group has galvanized hundreds of people to pressure Pima County and the city of Tucson to reject the data center proposal; traveled nationally to share their organizing playbook; and expanded to a series of teach-ins sharing their vision for a stronger local economy without data centers.
On Tuesday night, the Marana Town Council chambers were full and buzzing with energy — people were squeezed against the wall watching a meeting that could decide the fate of what town officials say could become Southern Arizona’s first large-scale data center. Opponents held signs, including one asking how council members would pay their own electric bills if a data center spiked rates, while supporters in bright orange safety vests spoke about trade jobs and economic growth during an hours-long public comment session.
By 10:30 p.m., Marana’s town council members voted unanimously in favor of the rezoning, excluding council member, Herb Kai, whose family owns one of the parcels slated for data center development. Kai was not present at the meeting.
“Marana cannot be the community that ignores opportunities,” said Mayor Jon Post. “We are going to create an area in our community where jobs are going to come.”
But if Project Blue is any indication, even a steady move forward doesn’t mean an end to efforts to raise concerns about the energy and environment impacts of the project: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, the city of Tucson and local organizers have all filed petitions to rehear the energy agreement for the county data center.
Sue Ritz, a U.S. Army National Guard veteran opposed to the data center, said she still hopes to put forward a citizen referendum on the Marana rezoning vote.
“The point of the referendum is to allow the citizens in the town of Marana to make a decision of what they want,” said Ritz, who referred to the long-term clean-up cost of PFAS compounds known as “forever chemicals.”
The need to clean up those chemicals is among the reasons that Marana is weighing a water rate hike, city officials said during Tuesday’s meeting. “There are too many risks to the community that aren’t being addressed,” Ritz said.
Data centers power rows of data storage systems and computer servers that are the backbone of the modern internet. While they have been around for decades, the recent boom in artificial intelligence has required larger data centers capable of handling larger workloads. Data centers require a significant amount of energy to run, and typically use cooling systems that rely on water — air-cooled technology does exist but often has a higher energy need.
Applications for a Marana data center were first submitted in October 2025, and reviewed by staff, according to a town website about the project. The developers held a neighborhood meeting Nov. 19. The Planning and Zoning Commission then held a public meeting Dec. 10, where commissioners voted unanimously, 6-0, in favor of recommending the town council rezone the land to allow the development of a data center.
Under consideration in Tuesday’s rezoning vote were two parcels, together totaling about 600 acres: One owned by the Kai Family Trust and the other by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Law firm Lazarus and Silvyn represented both property owners. Partner Keri Silvyn also presented to the town council about the proposed center on behalf of Beale Infrastructure — the same company developing Project Blue.
Each parcel is served by a different power company. Tucson Electric Power and Trico Electric are the two companies that would supply the data center. Trico is a not-for-profit electric cooperative whose members share in its ownership and infrastructure.
The town does not know the identity of the end user, according to Marana’s informational page.
Unlike Tucson and Pima County, the town of Marana already had policies related to data centers.
In 2024, the town introduced a new ordinance to regulate future data centers, requiring developers to conduct noise studies, ensure the source of electricity power is sufficient, assess future energy needs, estimate annual water consumption, delineate where it will source the water, and explain how the data center meets all of those requirements.
On Tuesday, Town Manager Terry Rozema said the data center proposal was in front of the town council because of the revenue it would bring the community. The presentation by Silvyn on Tuesday promised $5 billion in capital investment, $145 million in town tax revenue and 4,200 construction jobs. The project is expected to require 550 to 750 megawatts of power at full build-out.
“There is so much infrastructure in this community that needs to be built, that we do not have the money to do,” Rozema said.
One of the concerns raised by council members was noise impact in the area. The data center will be required to conduct a study with a qualified acoustic engineer.
Another was the impact of the data center generators. Those would only be permitted for backup power, but council member Patrick Cavanaugh said he expected the hundreds of generators necessary to power the center would impact Marana residents.
“I think the noise is going to be a lot greater than you think, and the soot and smoke coming out of those is not going to be pretty,” he said. “It’s going to cause a problem.”
Arnaud Dusser, the director of development for Beale Infrastructure, said the number of generators and their impact on local air quality would be overseen by county regulators. He also said while the amount of power required for generators is dependent on the ultimate design, data centers would be among the industries that could turn to generators in case of an outage.
“Data centers are critical infrastructure, in the same way that a hospital is,” he said. “You have continuous power to make sure that those critical elements operate.”
Public comment lasted several hours, with a large proportion of people speaking about the need for construction and building trade jobs and careers. Among the unions represented were the Western States Regional Carpenters Union, Local 1184 of the Laborers International Union and sheet metal workers union, SMART Local 359.
Fernando Lebron, a business representative with SMART Local 359, said major infrastructure projects like the data center are key sources of jobs in the region. Without them, workers have to travel to other areas for work.
“When our members are working, the benefits extend off the job site,” he said. “We support local businesses, contribute to tax revenue and invest in the community where we live.”
Opponents of the data center said they appreciated that there was an ordinance already in place to govern the possible project, but the long-term impact to water and the environment would be detrimental.
Some argued that council members hadn’t considered the wide range of long-term implications — and many speakers called for a citizens referendum, to offer all residents of the town the chance to weigh in directly. While many applauded the ordinance, others said it didn’t go far enough.
Marana resident Colin Mellars said while the ordinance contained many positive aspects, it also failed to identify key terms like “emergency” or what constitutes peak operations. Fines may also not be enough to deter bad behavior, Mellars said.
“Companies view these fines as the cost of doing business,” he said. “Take the time to consult independent unbiased experts. Take the time to improve the definition and structure of this ordinance.”
In the final vote, Cavanaugh, the primary council member to raise concerns about unforeseen costs and energy impacts to consumers, said he was voting yes because he was choosing to trust in the promises of the power companies and Beale.
“I need a lot of trust. I need to trust in the power companies. I need to trust in Beale. Nothing goes on the Marana citizens,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot: we can do this.”
The Project Blue data center east of Tucson is inching ahead, even as a new front of opposition has opened up. The land sale closed on Dec. 24, according to county documents, with sales proceeds of more than $27 million.
At the same time, a round of formal requests have flooded in for the Arizona Corporation Commission to rehear the energy agreement between Tucson Electric Power and Humphrey’s Peak Power LLC.
The requests have come from Attorney General Mayes, the city of Tucson, Daniel Dempsey with Underground Arizona and Tucson resident Reed Spurling.
Spurling, a member of the No Desert Data Center Coalition, said they filed the request because they felt the Arizona Corporation Commission had failed to protect them and other customers in its decision.
“Residential customers should not have to subsidize the costs of powering large data centers. The Commissioners must do their jobs as required to protect us, or risk losing their jobs in the next election,” Spurling said.
In her request for rehearing filed Dec. 30, Mayes accused Arizona Corporation Commission members of rubber-stamping the energy agreement.
That allowed the contract to move ahead with a key flaw: a provision that Mayes says lets TEP and the data center customer set its own rates by departing from the approved tariff. That decision should be made by the commission, she said.
“It is precisely because of the attractiveness of data centers and other large load customers to utilities that the Arizona Corporation Commission must be vigilant in carrying out the role created for it by Arizona’s founders,” the request said. “The stakes are high: deals whereby a data center or large load customer does not pay its fair share can result in the shifting of their significant costs to other ratepayers, discouraging growth and distorting markets in the process.”
In response to the attorney general’s application for a rehearing, Beale Infrastructure said commissioners engaged in a thorough and thoughtful discussion. “We trust their process and are hopeful that any concerns with the handling of the case will be swiftly resolved,” a spokesperson with the company said.
In a statement, ACC chair Kevin Thompson said Mayes did not understand the procedural role of the ACC. “This protest isn’t actually about process or form. This is more performative band wagoning theater from the AG,” the statement said. “The irony is that if the Commission rejected this special contract, TEP would still be able to move forward under existing tariffs and ratepayers would not realize the enhanced protections secured in this agreement that will actually reduce transmission costs for all other customers.”
Tucson Electric Power also contested Mayes’ analysis. “The assertions put forward by the Attorney General do not align with the facts,” spokesperson Joseph Barrios said in a statement to Arizona Luminaria.
The commission has 20 calendar days from the date of the application request to consider whether they will grant a rehearing.
Beale Infrastructure said they expected Project Blue to break ground sometime this year, but did not have an exact date.
In addition to the two data centers moving ahead in Pima County and Marana, the U.S. Air Force continues to have an open solicitation for a data center that could be housed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
“The Department of the Air Force is requiring offerors to demonstrate in their proposals how they would minimize and mitigate impacts and risk to the surrounding community, specifically related to the access to and affordability, reliability, and quality of energy, water, and communication bandwidth,” said a spokesperson with the base.
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This story was originally published by Arizona Luminaria and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
