Goldwater Institute Calls Pima County Data Center Pause Illegal, County Supervisor Disagrees

The Goldwater Institute, a conservative and libertarian public policy think tank, is challenging a four-month pause on data center development in Pima County. The group says the moratorium is illegal because the county cannot show that data centers pose an imminent threat. A county supervisor counters that the pause was written in line with state law and is backed by evidence.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved the moratorium last week. The county is weighing new zoning rules and studying the health effects tied to data center development.

Jon Riches, the institute's vice president for litigation, says the pause runs afoul of two state laws. One is Prop. 207, a voter-approved initiative that protects property owners from development rules that could hurt property values. The other is Title 11, which, according to Riches, allows a moratorium only when a local authority can demonstrate that the development creates an imminent threat.

Riches pointed to a recent framework for studying the health impacts of data centers, published by the Pima County Health Department and Johns Hopkins University. He says the document concedes there is a lack of empirical evidence showing how and where such facilities would harm public health.

"And what it appears they're trying to do is really put the moratorium in place so that they can then develop new rules. But state law is pretty clear that counties can't do that," Riches said.

Pima County Supervisor Jennifer Allen says the institute is misreading the framework. In her account, it is a tool for internally assessing public health effects, not the official justification for the moratorium. She agreed with part of the critique, saying the document is not a report identifying all the imminent threats of data centers, or of a facility on a specific piece of land in a specific community.

Allen says the moratorium rests on Title 11, which she says permits a pause on development when current zoning laws do not adequately protect public health. She says separate evidence shows data centers raise surrounding temperatures, which is why the county needs time to adopt new zoning rules.

"We have excessive heat warnings. We have death from heat, particularly in rural areas where people don't have the means to seek shelter," Allen said.

Riches said the Goldwater Institute would consider representing a property owner affected by the moratorium, but it does not yet have such a client or a case. According to Allen, the moratorium is set to expire in January, shortly after the county board plans to finish its timeline for considering new data center zoning laws.