Pima County considers temporary ban on data centers

Supervisor Matt Heinz told The Center Square that the county, which is on the border with Mexico, is in the process of developing rules about data center developments due to them being “very large energy and water users.”

The idea behind the temporary ban is to establish “guardrails and guidelines so any developer or company” looking to open a data center understands the rules and knows what to expect, Heinz noted.

He added that there needs to be “adequate transparency for residents so they know what kind of projects” the county is “considering and interested in coming to the area.”

In Pima County, there is not a large presence of data centers, Heinz said. One center, called Project Blue, is currently being built as the county's first large data center.

Project Blue would not be affected by the potential moratorium, Heinz told The Center Square.

Pima County’s largest city, Tucson, implemented zoning regulations earlier this month governing large data centers, including where they can be located, design standards and requirements for noise, backup power, water use, environmental review and public notice.

State and local governments nationwide are grappling with how to handle data centers. Many of these governments are issuing zoning restrictions and moratoriums.

Jen Springman, a coalitions manager at the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, told The Center Square that a “fundamental misunderstanding” exists “about what data centers are and what they do.”

Many states and local governments are “starting to push back against data centers because they either don’t have the information about what they are and how they utilize resources,” Springman said.

A concern people and local governments have about data centers is the amount of water they use, according to Springman. This concern is causing local governments to be reluctant to allow data centers within their jurisdictions, but Springman noted, “Most new data centers coming online use very minimal water.”

When data centers use water, it's in a closed-loop system that wastes little water, she explained.

Regarding electricity concerns, data centers are large-load customers attempting to serve their own customers, Springman said. She added that America doesn’t have “enough generation or transmission online” to serve these data centers, leading to electricity issues.

But Springman called attention to the positives for data centers, such as they don't add to traffic or produce big chemical outputs.

She warned that a moratorium on data centers “sends a bad message that these areas are closed for business to technological infrastructure."

And when local governments implement retroactive zoning measures, it “does not eliminate demand. It just shifts investments elsewhere and raises long-term costs for consumers," Springman said.

She noted data centers provide “huge amounts of tax revenue,” which means people should be “encouraging communities to want data centers because they do provide a lot of good for the community.”

The tax revenue goes back into the community, Springman said.

As an example, Richland Parish in Louisiana saw some teachers receive one-time bonuses of $50,000 from large sales tax revenues the parish collected when Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, began building a large data center.

According to Springman, America has an “increasing demand for digital services,” creating a need for new data centers in the future.