On Tuesday, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to move forward on developing a four-month moratorium on new data centers in unincorporated Pima County.
The moratorium would implement a short-term freeze on data center permits and processes until a zoning code text amendment has been completed.
The vote on the moratorium was 3-2 in favor of the proposal. Supervisors Rex Scott and Steve Christy voted no.
County Administrator Jan Lesher will work with county attorneys and county departments to develop the moratorium resolution.
Board Chair Jen Allen told AZPM that part of the thinking behind the resolution came from the three-year moratorium on new sales-tax breaks and incentives for data centers Governor Katie Hobbs passed in June.
In the two-week span before Hobbs’ moratorium went into effect on July 1, the state received 113 data center applications, according to Axios.
“What that told me was that data centers are looking to sort of scoot under the developers, to sort of scoot underneath the fence before the gate is closed or before the gate becomes more difficult,” Allen said.
A draft of the zoning amendment could be completed in three to four months, Allen said.
Once a draft of the amendment is prepared, it will be released for public and stakeholder input and advanced through the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Supervisors in a formal hearing process that could take up to six months.
According to a memo from the county administrator, the supervisors directed staff to prepare an amendment to the Pima County Code last August.
County officials say the draft code amendment will be prepared using parts of Tucson’s newly adopted regulations for large-scale data centers as well as those of other jurisdictions throughout the state.
The supervisors also voted on Tuesday to direct the county administrator and attorneys to revise the county’s due diligence process, which requires comprehensive a environmental impact assessment and use of non-disclosure agreements for economic development projects – two policies that were passed last September.
Allen said the two policies were approved by the supervisors after the board voted 3-2 to sell unincorporated Pima County land near the fairgrounds to Beale Infrastructure for the construction of the Project Blue data center last June.
“This new policy says that for these large projects, we need to have a short-term, long-term and a cumulative impact analysis,” Allen said. “My request at [Tuesday’s] meeting was that any project that comes to the county that is a large water or energy user would trigger this impact analysis.”
Allen said she is asking that both the moratorium resolution and reform on NDAs and environmental impact analysis be sent back to the board by Sept. 8.
