A Pima County Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit between the opponents of Project Blue – a developing data center outside of Tucson – and Pima County and its Planning and Zoning Commission.
Plaintiffs argued the county deceived the public and violated state open meeting law and wanted the court to invalidate the rezoning.
Oral arguments were heard before Brenden Griffin, the judge for Division 1 of the Pima County Superior Court on Friday.
Griffin told attorneys representing the No Desert Data Center Coalition and county that the county did not violate open meeting law, even though the county staff with the Planning and Zoning Commission did not disclose the purpose of rezoning in its agenda.
Jared Keenan, executive director of the Arizona Center for Law and the Public Interest, called the ruling disappointing.
“It was clear from the judge’s questioning that the county attempted and did mislead the public about their true intentions, about what they were getting this rezoning for, it was not for a whole host of possible development plans,” Keenan said. “It was specifically for a data center and the county clearly did not tell the public that.”
Attorneys representing the No Desert Data Center Coalition that was born out of opposition to Project Blue, alleged that county staff failed to adequately notify the public of the proposed data center, before the land in question came to a rezoning vote.
The complaint alleges that county staff secretly negotiated the sale of nearly 300 acres of county land for $20,875,000, to an undisclosed buyer between 2023 and 2025.
“We’re going to regroup and plan to appeal,” Keenan said.
When the judge issues his ruling, the plaintiffs will have 30 days to file a notice of appeal and that will begin the appellate process. Briefing could last for several months and potentially lead to oral arguments at the court of appeals, Keenan said.
After the judge issued his decision, representatives for Beale Infrastructure shook the hands of attorneys representing Pima County. “It’s just amazing to me that a representative of the county who’s paid with our tax dollars, could go up and say that it doesn’t matter, not saying they lied, but it doesn’t matter essentially, whether or not they misled the public,” said Vivek Bharathan with the No Desert Data Center Coalition.
Bharathan, who has been a vocal opponent to Project Blue since it came before the Pima County Board of Supervisors in June 2025, said that he is looking forward to hearing more from the attorneys about the plan for an appeal.
“Because we’re still in it, we are absolutely opposed to hyperscale data centers in our communities,” Bharathan said.