Pima County passes 120-day moratorium on future data center projects

The Pima County Board of Supervisors narrowly voted Tuesday to approve a temporary moratorium on data center development in unincorporated parts of the county.

Under the resolution, future data center projects are not allowed to move forward for the next 120 days. Proponents say the pause is needed while the county works through new zoning requirements for data centers and studies their impacts.

The moratorium resolution comes more than a year after developer Beale Infrastructure first acquired county land to build the controversial Project Blue data center.

Another data center — called Project Gravel — is proposed on a 160-acre stretch south of Tucson. Supervisor Jenn Allen said the moratorium would help ensure the county studies all possible impacts of data centers.

“So just to be clear about the scope of it — air quality and emissions, water use and water stress, land use and green space, cumulative impacts and community vulnerability,” she said.

Allen said things like light pollution, construction-related dust and other issues would also be studied. But the resolution applies to future projects, not developments like Project Blue that are already in motion.

Under the original resolution, any project that had not yet received permits was subject to the six-month pause. But an amendment approved Tuesday night limits the moratorium to any data centers that have not yet submitted permits, meaning Project Gravel, south of Tucson, is also exempt.

Reed Spurling, an activist with the No Desert Data Center Coalition, says the resolution is a good first step.

“We’re looking for them to strengthen the rules on data centers and while they do that, this moratorium will be in place,” Spurling said.

Spurling says the group would like to see the pause strengthened into a permanent ban.

The resolution passed 3-2. It is valid for 120 days with the possibility of an extension after that period.