TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – The project that would bring a data center to Pima County may be dead.
The Tucson City Council voted unanimously to direct city staff to stop all work on Project Blue on Wednesday, Aug. 6.
The vote orders an end to further discussion or development of the project.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved selling the project 290 acres north of the Pima County Fairgrounds for the center. Project Blue still required the city’s approval of a development agreement and annexation of the land.
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The Tucson City Council will now discuss guardrails for any future data center proposals.
“I think that we need to attend to two issues, one: we need to decide the future of Project Blue in the city of Tucson; and two: Tucson needs and deserves clear and enforceable guardrails to provide the greatest protection to our residents and environment when it comes to data centers,” she told the council at the Wednesday study session.
The council agreed to consider an ordinance on large water users at its August 19 meeting.
“We want to make it clear to the manager that we want to end staff engagement around that project,” Ward Six Tucson City Councilmember Karin Uhlich said about the future of Project Blue.
More than 100 people filled the council chambers with people opposed to the project. As many held signs reminding the council to represent them and also to express concern about the proposed data center’s water usage, each councilmember explained why they would vote to stop further consideration.
“In addition to the water use, this was a problem because of the energy use,” Ward Three Councilmember Kevin Dahl said.
In her Ward 4 Newsletter, Nikki Lee said she believes the data center will still become a reality. You can read that newsletter here.
“And I also, which was a little less popular, had to turn over the other stone and look at the other side of the coin and say, what does this look like if we say no?” Lee explained before she voted to stop Project Blue.
The unanimous vote sent the crowd cheering, and those in the room said that they expect future proposals to have clear guidelines.
“There’s plenty of room in the US to build data centers in places that are better suited for it than Tucson,” said Ed Hendel, co-founder of Sky Island AI.
“This is the outcome we were looking for. We need to go back to the drawing board and make sure the protections are in pace that we need here for Tucson and that’s what we saw today. We’re very happy,” said Kate Hotten, co-executive director for Sonoran Desert Protection.
The mayor and council criticized how the project made it this far. They both called for city staff to align their activities more with the city’s general plan values and also questioned the activities of the board of supervisors and its staff.
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