Getting Ahead of the Data Center Wave: Why Maricopa Needs a Policy Framework Now

I know this topic is polarizing. I'm not here to tell you data centers are good or bad. I'm here to tell you Maricopa has no rules for them. That's the problem.

The data center industry is not what it was ten years ago. It is not a quiet server room tucked into an industrial park. It is one of the fastest-growing, most resource-intensive industries on the planet, and it is accelerating toward communities like ours.

Right now, the City of Maricopa has no specific policy governing data centers. No zoning definitions. No water use requirements. No energy standards. No reporting obligations. No penalties. No decommissioning requirements. Nothing. That is a gap we need to close now, while we still have the initiative, before a developer's application forces us to react rather than lead.

Pinal County, our home county, is already reacting. This article explains what the data center industry actually looks like today, what it means specifically for Maricopa, what our neighbors across Arizona and the country have already done, and the policy framework our city needs to get ahead of this.

The Scale Has Changed Everything

Data centers are not new. What is new is the scale at which they are being built, driven almost entirely by the explosion of artificial intelligence.

Consider what is already happening in Amarillo, Texas, where Fermi America's HyperGrid campus is setting a new baseline for infrastructure. Spanning 5,769 acres, the site includes 18 million square feet dedicated to AI research and development. Rather than drawing from the public grid, the campus is designed as a behind-the-meter system capable of generating up to 11 gigawatts of its own power. To put that in perspective, 11 gigawatts is equivalent to more than half of Arizona's record-high peak electricity demand of 19,361 megawatts, set in 2025, from one campus, on one piece of land in the Texas Panhandle.

Nationally, investment bank UBS estimated that $375 billion would be spent globally on AI infrastructure in 2025 alone, with projections reaching $500 billion in 2026. By 2028, analysts estimate $3 trillion in total data center investment worldwide. These are not office buildings. They are industrial power and water facilities at a scale that reshapes entire regional energy grids.

According to the International Energy Agency, a typical AI-focused hyperscale data center consumes as much electricity annually as roughly 100,000 households. The largest facilities currently under construction are expected to consume twenty times that amount, from a single building.

What Is Already Happening in Pinal County

We do not need to look to Texas to understand the urgency. Pinal County is already receiving data center applications at a pace that caught planning bodies off guard.

In 2025, the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed Vermaland's La Osa Project, a proposed $33 billion data center and energy hub spanning over 3,300 acres near Eloy. During that same work session, the Commission also reviewed Project Midway, a 215-acre data center campus proposed near Casa Grande.

Pinal County did not have a comprehensive data center regulatory framework when these applications arrived. It is now building one in response to pressure it did not anticipate. The City of Maricopa has the opportunity to build one in advance.

The city has not yet received a data center application. That window is Maricopa’s advantage. Once an application is filed, the policy conversation and actions shift from proactive planning to reactive negotiation, and developers hold more leverage in that conversation than our residents do.

Why Maricopa's Situation Is Specific

Every city wrestling with data center regulation faces questions about water and electricity. In Maricopa, those questions have answers that are more specific than almost anywhere else in Arizona, and our residents deserve to understand why.

Our Electricity Provider Purchases Every Watt It Sells

Electrical District No. 3 (ED3) is our sole electricity provider. It is a nonprofit public utility that has served this community for nearly a century and is actively investing in renewable energy, including new solar capacity brought online in 2025. Here is the critical fact about ED3 and data centers: ED3 does not generate the electricity it sells.Every megawatt-hour delivered to every home and business in Maricopa is purchased at wholesale prices from the regional grid and distributed through ED3's system. ED3 has no generation infrastructure of its own to scale up in response to a sudden massive new load. And, unless things change dramatically, they have no plans to create that infrastructure in the future.

For context, consider what major regional utilities are already doing. Salt River Project introduced its Large Customer Integration Process (LCIP) in 2025, requiring data center developers to pay upfront for all transmission infrastructure their facilities require, so those costs are not shifted to residential customers. SRP has approximately 8,000 megawatts of its own generation capacity and still found these protections necessary. ED3 has none of that generation capacity to work with.

A data center drawing from the same wholesale market that ED3 relies on would place pressure on both the grid and on the rates every Maricopa resident pays. One other key factor is that we’re not “built out,” which means we must protect utility options for future development. So, any data center wishing to locate in Maricopa must arrive with its own power generation plan. That is not a preference. It is the only arrangement that protects our existing consumers.

Our Water Comes From One Primary Source

Unlike Phoenix or Mesa, Maricopa does not receive Colorado River water at the residential delivery level. Our municipal water comes from two sources. The first is Maricopa Consolidated Domestic Water Improvement District which mostly serves the Heritage and Seven Ranches Districts. Our primary source is the Pinal Active Management Area aquifer, specifically the Maricopa-Stanfield sub-basin, through Global Water. Global Water holds a 100-year Designation of Assured Water Supply for this area. We are not in a crisis today. That is precisely why we need to make decisions now to protect future investment and sustainability.

The City of Maricopa, Global Water, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently signed a $6.5 million Project Partnership Agreement to construct a new aquifer recharge facility next to Global Water's Campus 1 wastewater treatment facility. That facility will return 400 to 600 million gallons of Class A+ recycled water per year back into the aquifer, strengthening the long-term water supply designation and ensuring Maricopa's assured water supply remains on solid footing as the city grows.

This investment tells us something important: our water future requires active stewardship, not passive assumption. If a data center arrives in Maricopa using traditional evaporative cooling, it draws directly from the same aquifer our residents drink from. There is no alternative source to absorb that demand. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day, or about 1.8 billion annually, usage that is equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people. In a city served by one primary water source, that is not an abstract concern. It is a direct competition between industrial use and residential need.

The Technology Solution Already Exists

Before outlining what our city should require, it is important to be clear: the technology to operate a data center without consuming our water or burdening our grid already exists and is being deployed at scale right now.

CyrusOne operates eight data center facilities in Chandler that use effectively no water for cooling, consuming only 180,000 gallons per year total for humidification. The company announced that all new data centers from 2024 onward will use zero-water cooling.

Microsoft announced a closed-loop cooling system for its data centers that recycles water continuously, with pilot facilities planned in Phoenix and Wisconsin, and all new data centers designed from August 2024 onward using this technology.

The argument that water-neutral or zero-water data centers are impractical is no longer credible. They are being built right now in Arizona, by the largest technology companies in the world. On the energy side, the HyperGrid campus in Texas is designed entirely with behind-the-meter generation, meaning it produces its own power and does not draw from the residential utility grid. That model is the minimum standard Maricopa should require.

What Our Neighbors Have Already Done

Maricopa is not writing this policy in isolation. Surrounding cities and counties have plans and protocols in motion, and their approaches form a clear roadmap.

Chandler: The First Mover

Chandler became the first city in the Valley to enact a data center-specific ordinance, passing it unanimously in December 2022. Chandler's experience is a direct result of years of resident complaints about continuous mechanical noise from existing facilities. Residents described windows rattling at night, and the issue drew national attention in 2019. Chandler's ordinance restricts data centers to specific Planning Area Development zones, requires a pre-construction sound study with results shared with residents before any neighborhood meeting, mandates that noise remain permanently below that baseline, requires annual noise studies for five years post-construction, and limits backup generator testing to weekday daytime hours.

Phoenix: Protecting Employment Corridors

Phoenix enacted data center zoning regulations in 2024 and 2025, directing new facilities away from employment centers, mixed-use areas, and transit-oriented communities. Data centers must obtain a special permit, mitigate noise if located within 300 feet of residential areas, and meet architectural and landscaping requirements to prevent what city staff described as "large, monotonous, undifferentiated building facades."

Mesa: Bringing Your Own Water

Mesa's Large Customer Sustainable Water Allowance ordinance requires any large water user projecting demand of 500,000 gallons per day or more to stay within a water budget and, in some cases, independently acquire long-term water storage credits and transfer them to the city before operations begin. This is one of the most directly replicable models for Maricopa's situation.

Tucson: Community Pushback and a Unanimous Rejection

The Tucson City Council voted unanimously 7-0 on August 6, 2025 to reject Project Blue, a proposed 290-acre data center campus tied to Amazon Web Services, following sustained community opposition driven by water use concerns and transparency issues. Two weeks later, on August 19, the council unanimously passed a large water user ordinance requiring any business projecting water use above a defined monthly threshold to submit a water conservation plan and use reclaimed water where available before connecting to the city's water system. The case illustrates what happens when a city without clear standards is forced to make a binary decision under public pressure. It also affirms that public voices and input can impact favorable outcomes when applied collectively.

The National Trend

Regulatory momentum is accelerating rapidly. Denver's City Council voted unanimously on May 18, 2026 to pass a one-year moratorium on new data center construction, effective May 21, buying time to develop comprehensive regulations on water, energy, noise, and siting. Illinois legislators introduced the Data Center Energy and Water Reporting Act (SB2181), which, if passed, would require all data centers to submit annual energy and water consumption reports by March 31 of each year. California authorized its Public Utilities Commission to assess how data center energy use shifts costs to residential customers. Utah passed the Data Center Water Transparency Amendments (HB0076), signed into law by the Governor on March 23, 2026, requiring data centers to disclose water use estimates to state officials before construction and annually thereafter.

The Policy Framework Maricopa Needs

Much of this framework builds on work developed alongside Robert Klob, who serves as Chair of both the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission and the City of Maricopa Planning and Zoning Commission. During my own time as Chair of Maricopa's P&Z, Robert and I worked through many of the land use and infrastructure challenges that specifically make data center regulation a pressing issue for this community. His proposed framework for Pinal County represents serious, ground-level planning work from someone who has been in the room when these applications arrive. The provisions below that draw directly from his framework are noted as such. I am grateful for his collaboration and build on it here.

The goal is not to keep data centers out of Maricopa, but rather to design and adopt standards that protect residential and business water sources balanced with implementation to facilitate development of projects like data centers. If done correctly, there is no reason why these two scenarios cannot coexist and be sustainable.

The city has land available for large-scale employment development, including the planned Industrial Triangle, and our long-term economic plan calls for exactly the kind of investment the right data center project could represent. The goal is to ensure that we meet requests for projects like a data center with proactive strategies that protect both sides. Companies that cannot meet these conditions should locate elsewhere. Companies that can meet them are welcome.

1. Define Data Centers in Our Municipal Code

Before anything else, the city needs a legal definition of what a data center is. Without one, we have nothing on which to base requirements. This definition should be specific enough to capture hyperscale and AI-focused facilities while not inadvertently capturing small commercial server rooms. Chandler's Ordinance No. 5033 established a clear, tested definition that Maricopa can adapt and adopt.

2. Restrict Location to Appropriate Industrial Zones With a Conditional Use Permit

Data centers should be permitted only in designated industrial zones, subject to a conditional use permit process. Every application should undergo individual review assessing infrastructure capacity, proximity to residential areas, noise impact, and water and energy implications before any approval is granted. They should not be a by-right use in any zoning category. Zoned industrial areas must not receive variances that would inappropriately enable data center locations to infringe unnecessarily based on applicant preference or influence.

3. Establish Change-of-Use Protections

A data center is a large, fortified, heavily engineered structure. Without change-of-use protections, a developer builds a data center, the economics of that use are altered for myriad reasons, and Maricopa is left with an industrial building that can quietly convert to a warehouse, distribution hub, or other high-impact use without any public process. Any building approved and constructed as a data center in Maricopa should be restricted to data center use only. Any proposed conversion must require full rezoning, a public hearing, and compliance with all applicable standards for the proposed new use. Administrative approvals and by-right conversions should be explicitly prohibited.

4. Require 100% Self-Generated Power

Any data center locating in Maricopa must provide 100% of its operational power from self-generated or independently contracted generation sources. No data center should rely on ED3's wholesale-purchased grid supply for normal operations. All substations, transmission infrastructure, and generation capacity required to serve the facility must be fully funded and constructed by the developer before a certificate of occupancy is issued. Any excess power generated by the facility should be offered first to ED3 at wholesale public-benefit rates for distribution to Maricopa residents.

This is not an unusual requirement. The HyperGrid campus in Texas is designed entirely on this model. SRP already requires data centers in its service territory to pay the full cost of all infrastructure needed to serve them. In Maricopa, where this specific and exclusive utility purchases rather than generates its power, 100% self-generation is justified as it protects current residential and commercial consumers.

5. Require Zero Net Draw on the Municipal Aquifer

Modeled on Mesa's Large Customer Sustainable Water Allowance.

Any data center locating in Maricopa must use closed-loop cooling or equivalent zero-water-consumption cooling technology. Any facility projecting potable water use above a defined daily threshold must provide long-term water storage credits to the city in quantity sufficient to offset projected annual consumption before a certificate of occupancy is issued. Potable water for cooling purposes should be prohibited, as should conversion from a zero-water system to a water-cooled system at any point during a facility's operation.

If a facility exceeds its permitted water use threshold during any reporting period, the city should have the ability to implement an operational adjustment or temporary shutdown until compliance is met.

6. Mandate Annual Resource Consumption Reporting

Any operating data center in Maricopa must submit an annual report to the city no later than March 31 of the current year for the preceding year, as defined by either calendar or fiscal year. Reports must be certified by an independent third-party auditor, paid for by the facility operator, and must include:

• Total actual water consumption by month, including source
• Total actual electricity consumption by month, in megawatt hours, including generation source
• Cooling system type and any operational changes during the year
• Noise monitoring results from required monitoring stations
• Number of permanent full-time on-site employees
• Air emissions monitoring results

Each annual report must be formally presented before the Maricopa City Council as a scheduled agenda item. The report becomes public record when placed on the agenda and must remain publicly available on the city's website thereafter. The cost of third-party verification falls on the operator, not the taxpayer.

7. Establish Meaningful Penalties for Exceedances

Implementation of enforcement protocols ensures that compliance is not optional and must be achieved expeditiously. Accountability demands clear compliance expectations are set with corresponding consequences for non-compliance.

• A formal notice of violation is issued when a facility exceeds any permitted threshold
• A compliance period not to exceed 90 calendar days follows, during which the operator must achieve compliance or submit an approved remediation plan.
• Civil penalties begin at $5,000 per day for facilities remaining out of compliance, escalating with duration and severity
• Repeated violations may result in operational restrictions, suspension of expansion rights, and suspension of operating permits
• Chronic non-compliance may result in revocation of all approvals and facility shutdown until compliance is achieved

8. Require Mandatory Job Creation With Real Accountability

The penalty formula and exclusion of construction and remote positions are drawn from Robert Klob's proposed Pinal County framework.

The data center industry frequently leads with job creation numbers during the approval process and delivers far fewer permanent positions once construction crews leave. Any data center approved in Maricopa should commit to a minimum guaranteed number of FTEs (full-time employees) at the time of application, with a baseline tied to national industry averages for facilities of comparable scale. Construction positions do not count. Disclosure must also describe the levels and titles/categories of employment. Construction, remote, or virtual positions would not be considered part of this requirement.

Compliance with job commitments should be evaluated annually. Facilities that fall below their committed employment levels should be subject to fines equal to one-half the Pinal County or other acceptable compensation standard median annual wage per unfilled position per year until the commitment is met.

9. Require Workforce Development Investment

Robert Klob's proposed Pinal County framework specifically identifies Central Arizona College and CAVIT as appropriate local partners for this provision.

Any data center approved in Maricopa should make annual, proportional investment in local vocational and trade education programs. Central Arizona College's Maricopa campus and the Career and Technical Education programs at the Maricopa High School campus are the natural partners for this investment. Relevant training areas include electrical systems, HVAC, plumbing, telecommunications, and mechanical operations.

Workforce development investment should also include structured on-the-job training and internship programs, creating direct pathways for local students and job seekers to gain hands-on experience within the facility itself. These OJT and intern opportunities should be documented and reported annually as part of the reporting requirements in Policy 6.

This converts a large industrial user into an active contributor to the local workforce pipeline. It perpetuates job creation with proactive education and practical training opportunities.

10. Enforce Architectural and Design Standards

The 60-foot wall plane standard and 1:1 height-to-setback formula are drawn from Robert Klob's proposed Pinal County framework.

Data centers are enormous structures. Without design standards, they produce exactly what Phoenix's planning staff warned against: monolithic, undifferentiated building masses that deaden streetscapes and undermine the character of surrounding development. Any data center approved in Maricopa should be required to:

• Avoid uninterrupted wall planes exceeding 60 feet in length
• Use high-quality, durable materials with context-appropriate finishes
• Fully screen all mechanical equipment, both visually and acoustically
• Apply a minimum setback equal to the building's height from any residential or civic use (a 1:1 height-to-setback relationship)
• Apply enhanced buffering adjacent to residential, agricultural, and conservation lands
• Meet minimum requirements for inclusion of art per our design guidelines

11. Establish Sound, Vibration, and Emissions Standards

Data centers operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Their cooling systems and backup generators produce continuous mechanical noise and vibration. Maricopa should establish maximum sound and vibration thresholds measured at the property line, with lower thresholds applicable when a facility is adjacent to residential uses, school zones, medical facilities, or civic spaces. Separate daytime and nighttime standards should apply. Pre-construction baseline noise studies should be required, with results shared publicly prior to as well as during any neighborhood meeting, and annual monitoring required for the first five years of operation.

12. Address Cultural Sensitivity Near Tribal Lands

Maricopa abuts tribal land at multiple locations within as well as adjacent to city limits. Cultural sensitivity as well as compliance with clearly established buffer zones must be required. Ground disturbance for large industrial development in our area carries the potential to encounter culturally significant materials. Any data center project involving ground disturbance near culturally sensitive areas should require on-site cultural preservation personnel during excavation, immediate work stoppage upon discovery of artifacts or remains, culturally sensitive recovery and relocation methods, mandatory cataloging and geolocation mapping, and formal coordination with appropriate tribal authorities consistent with all applicable state and federal preservation law.

13. Require a Decommissioning Bond

A data center is not a permanent fixture. Technology changes, economics shift, and large facilities become obsolete. Without a decommissioning plan and verified financial assurance, Maricopa could be left with an abandoned industrial structure and no resources to address it.

Any data center approved in Maricopa should be required to submit a decommissioning plan at the time of approval. That plan must be accompanied by the establishment of a dedicated decommissioning account held at a federally insured financial institution, with the City of Maricopa named as a beneficiary. The account must be funded at a level sufficient to cover full site restoration costs as estimated by an independent engineer at the time of permitting.

A paper promise is not enough. The operator must submit a minimum annual report to the city documenting the current balance of the decommissioning account, confirming the account remains active and properly funded, and providing contact information for the holding institution. These annual reports are public record. If the account falls below the required funding threshold at any point, the operator has 90 days to restore it to compliance before enforcement action begins.

The cost of any future rezoning or repurposing of the land falls on the landowner at the time of transition, not on the public. No certificate of occupancy should be issued until the decommissioning account is established and verified.

The Window Is Open. But It Won’t Stay That Way.

Our local, county, and State elected officials have an obligation to create and enact policies that protect us as opposed to taking action in response to a crisis or previously unregulated problem. This strategy enables time for research, comparative analysis, dialogues, and responsible action, all of which should involve applicable parties in multiple public forums. Data centers are not new. Rules for them still are.

Chandler did not wait until residents were losing sleep before it passed its noise ordinance. Mesa did not wait until a data center had already strained its water supply before it passed its large customer allowance. Phoenix did not wait until its employment corridors were walled off by blank concrete before it addressed zoning. Denver did not wait until a data center was already under construction in a vulnerable neighborhood before it called a pause. Pinal County is now scrambling to build a framework it needed before the applications arrived.

Maricopa has no data center applications on file today. That is our advantage. The window is still open, but it won’t stay that way.

Maricopa has room to grow, and we are the fifth fastest-growing city in the nation. We have available land, ample water supply, a highly-qualified and educated workforce, access to utilities, and unlimited opportunity. We want economic development, but that should be on our terms, not based on settling for or being leveraged into accepting whatever someone else wants. We have to make an investment of both dollars and legislation to protect our water source and our development process. Our neighbors in Pinal County are already being handed applications they are not fully prepared to evaluate. Let’s learn from that experience.

The good news is that technology to build a data center that does not consume our water or burden our grid already exists and is being deployed across Arizona. The better news is that we can proactively require companies wishing to come to Maricopa to use it. The best news is that we can decide what that looks like.

Moving Forward Together

I know not everyone is going to agree with this. Some of you reading this want a full ban and will not accept anything short of it. I respect that. Others think any regulation is an obstacle to economic growth. I understand that too.

My job, if elected to City Council, is to find ways to hand both sides a win! It is to make sure Maricopa has a seat at the table with real standards in place before the first application lands on that table.

If you have thoughts on this, I want to hear them. Whether you think I got it right, got it wrong, or left something out entirely, reach out. That is what the contact page is for.

And if you found this useful, share it. The more Maricopa residents who understand what is at stake before an application arrives, the better this conversation goes for all of us.

Sources and Further Reading

• Chandler Data Center Ordinance — City of Chandler
• Chandler Ordinance No. 5033 (PDF)
• Phoenix Data Center Zoning Update — AZBEX
• Mesa Sustainable Water Supply Ordinance — City of Mesa
• Tucson Project Blue Rejection — AZ Luminaria
• Tucson Large Water User Ordinance — AZ Luminaria
• SRP Large Customer Integration Process — Salt River Project
• Maricopa Aquifer Recharge Facility — InMaricopa
• CyrusOne Zero-Water Cooling in Arizona — Circle of Blue
• La Osa Pinal County Data Center Proposal — AZ Big Media
• Denver Data Center Moratorium — CBS News Colorado
• Illinois SB2181 — LegiScan
• Utah Data Center Water Transparency Amendments HB0076 — Utah Legislature
• Arizona Peak Electricity Demand 2025 — Arizona Corporation Commission
• Data Centers and Water Consumption — Environmental and Energy Study Institute
• IEA Energy and AI Report — International Energy Agency