The Pima County Supervisors approved a 120-day data center moratorium Tuesday, giving the county time to create new zoning regulations for large-scale data centers.
The moratorium passed with a 3-2 vote, with supervisors Steve Christy, of District 4, and Rex Scott, of District 1, opposing the resolution.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted after spending about an hour in executive session discussing the resolution with county attorneys. Before passing it, supervisors amended the resolution to apply to any development where permits have not yet been submitted, instead of where a permit has not yet been approved.
The moratorium would not affect Project Blue but could impact possible projects in Sahuarita.
Supervisor Matt Heinz, of District 2, asked the board to direct the health department to keep collecting relevant data of the public health impacts of data centers and create a risk assessment matrix. That request was also approved in the 3-2 vote.
Supervisor Andres Cano, of District 5, said the Pima County Health Department has raised serious questions about how data centers might impact the county’s water supply, air quality, heat, noise, energy, and the health of its communities.
“In a desert community already confronting drought and rising temperatures, we as a county have a public health responsibility to understand those impacts before we approve any projects that could place significant new demands on our resources and our infrastructure,” Cano said.
Supervisor Jennifer Allen, of District 3, agreed with Cano, saying the pause will allow the county health department to continue looking into potential public health impacts of data centers and incorporate those potential impacts into the county’s new zoning laws as they are finalized in the next 120 days.
“We need the time to do it right,” Allen said. “We need time so that we are not making land use decisions without understanding the full consequences on public health.”
Scott read the limitations section of the public health report attached to the resolution, which says the report is not a formal Health Impact Assessment nor a formal Environmental Impact Assessment.”
“Language in this resolution that quotes from the public health review therefore paints with far too broad a brush,” Scott said, adding that he would not support the moratorium based on the advice of legal counsel.
The resolution cites the “safety, health and wellbeing” of residents and of the environment as a reason to enact the temporary moratorium.
“The Board believes that data centers pose imminent negative public health impacts tied to not only energy demand and reliability, but also air pollution, water use in regions already under water stress, noise, and waste heat dispersion in a region demonstrating annual increases in high-heat temperatures, annually,” according to the resolution.
The resolution also acknowledges that Pima County has just been through its sixth hottest summer and is in the middle of a long-term drought, all considerations as the county develops regulations for data centers.
The Board of Supervisors is allowed to waive the requirements of the moratorium if a data center developer “shows the projected long-term impact of their project on local communities, air quality, electric and water quality,” the resolution says. But before considering any exceptions, the board is required to give notice to property owners within 1,000 feet of the proposed data center location and is required to hold a public meeting.
Within the 120 days, county staff will work with stakeholders and with the health department, make recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Commission in October, and ultimately propose new zoning regulations for data centers to the board for a vote before the moratorium expires.
The county started taking measures to strengthen regulations on large-scale data centers a year ago, in response to the backlash of the Project Blue data center land sale. In June 2025, the board of supervisors voted 3-2 to sell unincorporated Pima County land near the fairgrounds southeast of Tucson to Beale Infrastructure, for construction of the Project Blue data center.
Since then, the board has created policies that required county staff to take a deeper look at the potential effects of major projects and that created more transparency around non-disclosure agreements. Earlier this month, the board revisited those two policies and voted to expand transparency rules for NDAs and widen the county’s review process for major development projects that use large amounts of water or electricity, updating both year-old policies.
While several other cities and counties have rejected individual data center projects and added stricter zoning rules to regulate data centers, Pima County is the second governing body within Arizona to enact a moratorium. In August, the Hualapai Tribal Council passed a resolution “opposing irresponsible hyperscale data centers,” on its tribal land, according to a press release from the tribe.
The City of Tucson has also worked to strengthen its policies and regulate large-scale data centers since the Project Blue uproar started more than a year ago. Tucson City Council passed a large water user ordinance last year and updated it on Tuesday with stricter guidelines.
Last month, the city approved new regulations on large-scale data centers, making them one of the most regulated land uses in the city. At that August meeting, city council members also directed staff to continue looking into potentially banning large-scale data centers altogether after residents at a public hearing told their elected leaders that anything short of a ban on data centers is unacceptable.
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