Potential data center in Sahuarita faces opposition

At the corner of La Canada and Sahuarita Road, a few dozen people on Thursday urged developers and the Town Council to tank a potential data center on 221 acres of desert near a subdivision.

“We’re just beginning to build our movement against data centers in Sahuarita, so to have 100 people show up on a night that’s over 100 degrees, that means people are very committed,” said Rev. Randy Mayer, the pastor for the nearby Good Shepherd UCC church.

Over the last year, the sudden influx of “hyperscale” data centers has faced a stalwart pushback from residents who are worried the facilities would use massive amounts of water and power, while driving so-called “AI” products, including software for surveillance by federal immigration authorities.

“We would have had a lot more if it wouldn’t have been this hot, but this is an incredibly beautiful piece of land that’s in our backyard,” he said. He paraphrased a long-running slogan of local developer Jeremy Sharpe, who said of Sahuarita, “It’s all in your backyard.”

“This is our backyard and he’s trying to destroy it,” Mayer said.

In recent weeks, Mayer has been heavily involved in a push against the planned data center after Sharpe sent a letter to the town’s planning and zoning director asking if data centers could be permitted, the Green Valley News reported.

In August, during a HOA meeting of Rancho Resort residents, a representative for Rancho Sahuarita said the management team had held discussions with the data center’s developers.

Suzy Mason, Rancho Sahuarita’s vice president of operations, said they were “eagerly awaiting some feedback” for the development, which would affect a 168-acre area of property south of Rancho Resort.

Rancho Resort is a gated community for 55+ residents located within the larger Rancho Sahuarita housing development at Sahuarita Road and South La Cañada Drive.

Rancho Sahuarita holds a total of 221 acres of land designated as “Region 8” which surrounds the Sahuarita landfill and transfer station, between La Cañada and Interstate 19, with El Toro Road at the south.

During the HOA meeting, Mason said that Rancho Sahuarita did not have any contracts with the developer. Sahuarita officials said as of Wednesday, the town has not received an applications for a data center project.

Rancho Sahuarita officials told the Green Valley News they “regularly evaluate potential uses for the industrial-zoned land west of Interstate 19, near the existing landfill transfer station and major transmission lines — an area that has long been planned for industrial use.”

“Any project that moves forward there will be held to the same standard we’ve applied throughout Rancho Sahuarita’s 30-year history: thoughtful planning, quality design, and long-term value for the community,” said a spokesperson.

Mayer accused local leaders of being afraid of Sharpe, and noted that members of the Sahuarita Town Council were invited to speak, but not attend the Thursday’s rally. An official from Pima County said Supervisor Jen Allen would have attended the meeting, but was “under the weather.”

“Where are our councilmembers? They’re nowhere to be seen,” Mayer said. He said people in the community don’t want a data center, but “we’re the ones that will be stuck with it. Our health will suffer because of it.”

He said the town could halt the potential development and protect the “safety of our community, and to protect the environment.”

Mayer added a potential data center would be a “double wammy” for residents, driving up electricity and water rates.

“So, Jeremy, start walk away from this horrible, low-good, very bad idea,” he said, adding the council should “start standing up for your community.”

Data centers in Southern Arizona have faced a widespread outcry, including an under-construction project just southeast of Tucson—dubbed Project Blue— and another effort near Marana.

Fallout from Project Blue helped drive a potential 120-day moratorium on “hyperscale” data centers that’s under consideration by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

One resident worried that drawing the aquifer would not only use water, but could help contaminate the available water supply by drawing a sulfate plume from the nearby Freeport McMoRan mine toward the town.

“The more water we take away from the aquifer, the less water they have to protect our aquifer for this sulfate, and it will not be drinkable,” she said.

During a Sahuarita council meeting on August 10, nearly two dozen speakers said they opposed a planned data center.

Mayer published an open letter to Sharpe which said the developer had spent 25 years “selling people a particular vision of life in the Sonoran Desert” and that effort fueled growth in the region adding more than 25,000 people and 7,000 homes.

“Jeremy, that is quite a legacy. Which is why so many of us are struggling to understand why you would consider putting a massive data center right in the middle of it,” Mayer wrote in the letter, published by the Green Valley News on Sept. 3.

“This isn’t some remote industrial site miles from people,” wrote Mayer. “Your Rancho Resort is directly across the street. Five schools are within a half-mile. Northwest Hospital is less than a quarter-mile away—yes, the very hospital Rancho Sahuarita proudly celebrates as part of the Sahuarita Town Center.”

Dan and Jackie Mazur told the Tucson Sentinel they’ve lived in Rancho Resort for nine years, and said they would rather see the land developed into something the community could enjoy, including a recreation center.

“This is in the desert,” said Dan Mazur. “You can’t put a data center in the desert that’s going to draw resources, that’s going to affect the community, that’s going to affect the wildlife, that’s going to affect the environment. It’s just not a good idea to put it down there.”

Mazur said he was worried if a data center were built on the property, it would diminish property values, and he would sell his home. “We would try to get as much as we can before the data center does go in there, and lowers everything down to nothing.”

“If Jeremy Shaw lived across the street, I don’t believe he’d want a data center here either,” said Jackie Mazur.

Wearing a blue shirt urging a ban on data centers in Sahuarita, Robin Nourse said she has lived in Sahuarita for 25 years and would sell her home too.

“I don’t want to move, but I don’t want to be the last one out of this neighborhood with no property value,” she said. She also rejected the argument that people who use cellphones or computers can’t push back against the proliferation of data centers.

On Aug. 31, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called for a statewide pause on new data centers because they are “power- and water-intensive, and Arizona is challenged on both fronts right now.”

The next day, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce said supporters of a moratorium should take a pledge to give up “the many everyday technologies and services made possible by data center infrastructure.”

“If you’re willing to call for a moratorium on data centers, it stands to reason you’d be willing to give up all the modern conveniences they make possible,” said Courtney Coolidge, the chamber’s executive vice president. “So we decided to put together a pledge for anyone who wants to put that position into practice.”

“Everybody says that every time you use your phone, every time you use a computer, you use the data center,” said Nourse. “Well, I’ve been using my phone and my computer for 35 years before these data centers and it was just fine.”

“They’re trying to build a need for it. I think they’re trying to sell people on it,” she said. “Well no, it’s critical that we conserve what we have right now.”