More than 600 acres of land in Marana have been rezoned to allow for a data center campus set to be built by the developers of Project Blue.
Marana's council approved the rezoning of two properties west of Interstate 10 in a 6-0 vote after a lengthy public hearing Tuesday night. Dozens filled the council chambers to speak both for and against the project.Β
One of the two properties is aΒ roughly 300-acre plotΒ west of I-10 along North Luckett Road, south of the Pinal County line and Pinal Airpark Road.Β The land is owned by the Kai Family Trust.
Herb Kai, listed on the property details in the Pima County Treasurer's Office, is one of Marana's six Town Council members. Kai recused himself from the vote and his chair was empty during the public hearings. He "has not and will not participate in discussions, deliberations, or voting related to this project," Marana says.
TheΒ other propertyΒ is a 310-acre parcel atΒ 14990 W. Hardin Road, northwest of the intersection at North Luckett and West Hardin roads. It is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the Treasurer's Office.
An extension of North Luckett Road will be designed and constructed by the developers, which would ultimately become a public road, said Marana Development Services Director Jason Angell.
At full buildout, the data center campus will use an estimated 550 to 750 megawatts of power in its operations. Trico Electric Cooperative will supply power, Angell said.
Plans for the data center campus, which were recommended for approval by the town's planning and zoning commission last month, align with the town's data center ordinance enacted by the council last year. The ordinance requires data-center developers to disclose how much water and energy they use and to bring in their own water supply rather than rely on the townβs supply.
Marana's ordinance does not allow for potable water to be used for cooling data centers. That means the current proposal would be for the campus to have air-cooled facilities.
Marana Municipal Complex
Marana Water will provide water for office operations only, while Cortaro Marana Irrigation District will provide water for industrial, irrigation and fire suppression.
In the presentation to the Planning Commission in December, Beale Infrastructure said the data center campus would use 95% less water than what's currently being used on the parcels, that consume about 2,000 acre-feet of water per year for their existing agricultural uses. The air-cooled data centers would use about 40 acre-feet per year.
Nearly $1 million in one-time impact fees will be generated from the data center campus,Β attorney Keri Silvyn, who represents the developers, told the council. She said an estimated 4,200 construction jobs will be generated over the life of the project, and an estimated 400 "permanent jobs" will be generated
"These are jobs that are on-site, they include engineers, technicians, operations and security. About half of these jobs will be professional engineering jobs, the other half are security and other jobs associated with the site," Silvyn told the council.
Β The town says it could see approximately $15 million in annual tax revenues generated "at buildout of the first phase of the project."
Next steps, Silvyn said, are to design the site and work with Trico on an energy service agreement and obtain approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission.
The Marana data center campus effort follows a months-long push by Beale Infrastructure to develop Project Blue, a data center campus southeast of Tucson
Humphreyβs Peak Properties, LLC., a singe-purpose entity of Beale, which is also developing the Marana campus, purchased a 290-acre parcel of county-owned land last summerΒ near the Pima County fairgrounds with the intention to build a water-cooled data center campus that would be annexed into city limits. But after the Tucson City Council rejected the annexation attempt and refused to provide water service to the project in August, the developers pivoted to a design reliant on air-cooling.
County officials closed on the land saleΒ β purchased for nearly $21 million β on Christmas Eve.
Earlier in December, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted 4-1 to approve an agreementΒ under which Tucson Electric Power will provide electric service to the data center complex, which has since caught the attention of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
This week, Mayes announced she would be challenging the utility regulators' approval, saying the agreement illegally gives the two parties the power to set electricity rates for Project Blue's data centers, apparently without the state's approval. Mayes, in a news release, singled out a provision in the agreement that she says creates a loophole "and a dangerous recipe for massive price hikes for Arizona consumers."
On the same day that county supervisors approved selling the land to develop the data centers, Tucson Electric Power announced it would be seeking a 14% rate hike for residential customers. Spokespeople for TEP have said repeatedly the utility's filing for the rate increase results from the timeline associated with developing new rate proposals and has nothing to do with Project Blue.
Mayes, a Democrat who previously served on the ACC, will be holding a town hall regarding that proposed rate increaseΒ Tuesday, Jan. 13. She is formally intervening with the commission in the rate increase proposal.
The town hall is set from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the YWCA of Southern Arizona, 525 N. Bonita Ave.
Mayes is asking for RSVPs atΒ bit.ly/1-13TucsonTownHall.
