Opponents of the planned Project Blue data center in Pima County filed to sue the county on Wednesday over alleged violations of Arizona’s open meeting law.
A case opened in Pima County Superior Court names the county and its Planning & Zoning Commission as defendants. A formal complaint in the case is not yet publicly available. The case was opened by the No Desert Data Center Coalition and two individuals.
In a statement to news organizations, the No Desert Data Center Coalition wrote that its lawsuit claims that the county “violated the Open Meeting Law by approving a major rezoning without providing the public with accurate or meaningful notice.”
“Under state law, public bodies must clearly disclose the specific actions they intend to consider or decide so the public can properly participate in the decision-making process,” the statement reads.
Arizona’s open meeting law requires meeting agendas to “contain such information as is reasonably necessary to inform the public of the matters to be discussed or decided.”
No Desert Data Center’s statement claims that the zoning commission’s agenda for the meeting in which the land for Project Blue was rezoned did not sufficiently indicate the site’s planned future as a data center.
“By the time of the meeting, key terms for the sale of the county-owned property were already finalized, and the rezoning was merely a necessary step to complete a prearranged deal for the development of a large-scale data center,” the group’s statement reads.
Talks between Pima County and data center developers interested in the site went back to at least 2023, Arizona Luminaria reported.
Tucson’s City Council rejected an annexation deal for Project Blue’s land last summer, leaving the project without a water source and prompting its developers, Beale Infrastructure, to pivot to an air-based cooling system. Last month, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted three to two to approve a community benefit and renewable energy agreement with Beale Infrastructure. The board had approved a land sale for the project in June 2025. Over the last several months, the project has galvanized significant community opposition — and support from construction unions — with crowds regularly filling county supervisors’ biweekly meetings for public comment.
A spokesperson for Pima County did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
