TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The City of Tucson is inviting community members to participate in public meetings to provide input on proposed new regulations for large-scale data centers.
According to the City, these meetings are intended to present considerations for a potential amendment to the Unified Development Code (UDC) to establish standards and regulations for this land use.
The City of Tucson's Planning and Development Services is working to establish new zoning regulations for large-scale data centers to protect sensitive areas and address community concerns before any proposals are submitted, emphasizing a proactive approach.
Dan Bursuck, City of Tucson Planning Administrator, says as of right now, the city's zoning code has regulations for small scale data centers up to 50,000 square feet, but there are no regulations for centers larger than that. The community input will help set clear rules for location and design for any to come in the future.
"Generally those large ones have different types of impacts on the surrounding areas and the communities. And so this would put in guard rails to try to mitigate some of those impacts, things like sound, noise, water, energy, etc.," Bursuck said.
Community members attended the meeting to voice concerns about various aspects of data center development. Lynn Price raised questions about electronic waste disposal and its environmental impact.
"I'm very concerned about the electronic waste that will produce by data centers and what is going to happen to it," Price said. "When you put electronic waste into the ground, it leeches out poisons, toxins, things that will hurt the water, so I wanna hear more what people are thinking about the electronic waste problem."
The city clarified that no data center proposals are currently under consideration, but officials want regulations in place for future submissions. The initiative follows the city's experience with Project Blue, a previous development proposal.
"When the City of Tucson said, you know, we don't want this development, that was when they directed us to go and look at regulations. Part of the problem at that time was there just really weren't regulations in place," Bursuck said.
During the presentation, city officials explained that heavy industrial zones would be most suitable for large-scale data center operations due to their capacity to handle developments with significant impacts on neighboring areas.
Many attendees expressed opposition to data centers through verbal comments and written feedback during the meeting.
The committee will hold three additional meetings before presenting final revisions to the mayor and council for adoption of the new zoning regulations.
Virtual meetings will take place on Feb. 23 and March 4.
The last meeting will be in-person March 5 at Rincon High School.
You can find more information about the meetings here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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