A lawsuit has been filed against Pima County over its rezoning of nearly 300 acres southeast of Tucson for Project Blue, claiming a "bodyguard of lies" was used to mask the intended use of the land.
Supervisors approved amending the area's plan and rezoning the land in June before selling the 290-acre parcel near the Pima County Fairgrounds to Humphrey's Peak Properties, LLC, for the development of the data center complex known as Project Blue.
The board's approval first required the county's zoning commission to recommend approval of the rezoning ahead of its vote to sell it.
County staff violated Arizona's open meeting law and misled the public "by failing to provide accurate and meaningful notice of the action the County intended to take," says the lawsuit filed by the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest on behalf of the No Desert Data Center (NDDC) Coalition and two of its members.
The rezoning application "was merely a necessary step to complete a prearranged deal" to develop Project Blue since "key terms for the sale of the county-owned property were already finalized," attorneys for the Coalition say in the lawsuit.
The application sent to the planning and zoning commission by county staff included "a grab-bag of hypothetical and irrelevant potential uses for the rezoned property — including office buildings, warehousing, coffee shops or hotels," the suit says.
"Buried deep in the documentation was a single passing reference to a data center in fine print, sandwiched among other uncontroversial, plausible 'concepts,' thereby surrounding the truth with a 'bodyguard of lies' designed to deceive the public," according to the Jan. 14 complaint.
Opposition of a planned data center complex known as Project Blue has been strong from the past several months, resulting in huge crowds at public hearings, like this one in August at the Tucson Convention Center.
"As a result of this misleading agenda, the rezoning application was approved by the commission without meaningful public notice or scrutiny, depriving the public, including Plaintiffs of their right to comment on the serious public health and environmental threats posed by locating a data center in Pima County," according to the suit.
The application also included potential plans for the property that attorneys for the Coalition argue were "phony" and an attempt to hide the true purpose for the land, because a proposed data center development would provoke "significant public opposition."
To avoid that, the court filing alleges, staff "omitted the purpose" for the rezoning application, "thereby misleading" and depriving the public and the Coalition's members to properly voice their concerns and opposition to the development, preventing informed public participation, the court filing argues.
Corona de Tucson resident Rye Whalen, a Coalition member and one of the plaintiffs listed in the suit, said it pains him deeply that a lawsuit has become necessary.
"From the onset of the planning and zoning commission process, it has been apparent that the county administration has been pushing for Project Blue. Unfortunately, the way the process was set up ensured that it would lead to this outcome ... it has become clear that the county administration's favoritism of Project Blue has resulted in a flawed and unfair process that has ignored the genuine concerns and opinions of the community. As a result, we have been left with no other option but to pursue legal action against the county," he said in a news release.
The Coalition says it's clear that county administration "designed the process so that the Board of Supervisors would vote for the sale" despite community members voicing their opposition to the project for over six months.
"They cannot expect us to quietly accept their decision in the face of this overwhelming opposition. Through their inaction and continued support for this project, (Supervisors Steve Christy, Rex Scott, and Matt Heinz, who voted for the rezoning and land sale) decided they'd rather face their own constituents in court than join us in facing down Beale Infrastructure. They will only listen to someone in a suit, so we’ve given them one," the Coalition said in a news release.
The plaintiffs are asking that the court rule the item on the planning and zoning commission's agenda violated Arizona's open meeting law and that the court declare the commission's approval of the rezoning application null and void. The suit also asks for attorneys' fees.
Kate Harrison, a spokesman for the county, said "we cannot comment on this pending litigation" on advice of counsel.
