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Opponents of the data center project cheered as the council voted against annexation. Photo by Yana Kunichoff.<\/p>\nThe Tucson city council voted unanimously Wednesday against bringing the massive and water-devouring Project Blue data center \u2014 tied to tech giant Amazon \u2014 into city limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After weeks of escalating public outrage over the lack of transparency around Project Blue, the council voted to end negotiations and remove the annexation and development agreement from the upcoming council meeting agenda \u2014 a move that effectively shuts down one of the largest development projects ever considered by the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can all agree this project got off on the wrong foot,\u201d said council member Nikki Lee, who represents Ward 4, where the proposed site is located. \u201cThe way that data centers are being built is not sustainable. This is not the type of development that residents of Ward 4 would like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucsonans have spoken out loudly and clearly and I hear you,\u201d said Mayor Regina Romero, who initiated the process for an ordinance placing limits on future possible data centers. \u201cIt is my responsibility to create guardrails to protect Tucson from this industry that is already here in Arizona.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cheering erupted from opponents packed into the council chambers after the vote, who jumped to their feet as the development company representatives behind the project left the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had hope but zero expectations,\u201d said Vivek Bharathan Wednesday, breathing a sigh of relief as No Desert Data Center members celebrated and cheered around him. \u201cThis is a huge win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bharathan said the group would, in some form, plan to take part in a coming conversation about how to protect Tucson\u2019s natural resources from future data centers. \u201cSome collection of us will be here to carry the work forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Opponents of the data center project cheered as the council voted against annexation. Photo by Yana Kunichoff.<\/p>\n
In a statement Wednesday, Beale Infrastructure said they were disappointed with Tucson\u2019s decision not to move ahead with Project Blue, despite working to make the proposal compatible with the city\u2019s climate goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a missed opportunity for the City,\u201d the statement said, noting that Beale believed data centers should be designed by working in close partnership with communities.\u00a0 \u201cWe look forward to sharing our future plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vote doesn\u2019t mean that Project Blue won\u2019t exist in the region in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beale and Pima County entered into a purchase and sale agreement for 290 acres of unincorporated land in June. The project developer was interested in having that land annexed into Tucson to access city water supplies, but could consider other locations to build outside Tucson city limits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moving ahead, the city council will begin the process of creating local ordinances to keep large water users accountable and update zoning requirements to address the impacts of possible future data centers. Those ordinances could be up for consideration as soon as the Aug. 19 city council meeting<\/a>, said Romero.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI feel a weight has totally lifted,\u201d said No Desert Data Center artist Maria Ren\u00e9e, who made one of the first visuals for the group<\/a>. \u201ci also feel a continued responsibility to show up and continue to advocate for policy that puts guard rails on large water users.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Council members also expressed concerns about how the process of Project Blue took place, echoing a conversation happening at the county level about the use of non-disclosure agreements spurred by concerns around the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that this proposal should have never made it this far,\u201d said Ward 1 council member Lane Santa Cruz. \u201cWe need to be the city that says not here, not now and not like this.\u201d<\/p>\n A new day for public power?\u00a0<\/p>\n The process may also have opened up a long-burning debate: the future of a public power option in Tucson<\/a>. Since October 2024, a group of organizers with the Democratic Socialists of America have run a campaign to encourage Tucson to break its contract with longtime energy supplier Tucson Electric Power and run its own energy utility.<\/p>\n Amid the data center debate, there were a flurry of questions over how TEP would meet the center\u2019s significant energy demand, and how to ensure the additional cost wouldn\u2019t fall on residential consumers. Earlier this year, the company asked for a 14% rate hike.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest piece of this project that concerned me is we have a flawed system here with not using public power,\u201d said Ward 2 council member Paul Cunningham. \u201cWhen the public power people came to me a few months ago I was like, \u2018maybe yes, maybe not \u2014 we\u2019ll see.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Since the debate over Project Blue, Cunningham said his opinion had changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get Arizona Luminaria’s weekly email<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no way in this situation to guarantee that if we did build this data center that some partial outbuild for the power supply to the data center wasn\u2019t going to be passed on to our ratepayers,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to work towards seeing that we\u2019ve fixed that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very excited to hear that Paul Cunningham recognized we need public power,\u201d said public power campaign organizer Lee Ziesche after the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n See all of Arizona Luminaria\u2019s Project Blue coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n Republish This Story<\/p>\n Republish our articles for free, online or in print.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t![\"Creative](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cc-by-nd-4.0.png\"\/)
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