Marana approves data center regulations amid community pushback

Marana has approved new regulations for data centers, setting rules that will affect future projects in the town and residents living near potential sites. The decision follows months of public debate about whether Marana is prepared for the growing industry and how much control the town should exercise over its effects. The rules focus on two issues that emerged as central to the discussion: noise from facilities near neighborhoods and what must happen if a data center eventually stops operating.

The regulations mean that any future data center proposed within Marana will have to meet the town’s new requirements before it can receive approval. The ordinance does not end data center development in the town. Instead, it establishes conditions for projects as Marana considers applications and zoning requests. Town officials began working on the rules in December 2024, making the approval the latest step in an effort to address concerns raised by residents and determine how the industry should fit into the community.

Noise is one of the most immediate concerns addressed by the new regulations. Data centers can operate large facilities filled with computer equipment and supporting systems, and residents have focused on the possibility that noise could affect nearby neighborhoods. Marana’s new rules include noise limits for facilities located close to residential areas. The available details do not specify the limits or explain how compliance will be measured, but the inclusion of noise standards signals that the town intends to regulate the impact of facilities beyond the property lines where they are built.

The ordinance also creates decommissioning requirements for data centers constructed within Marana’s town limits. Those requirements are intended to address what happens when a facility is no longer in use, rather than leaving the town to deal with an abandoned or inactive site. The specific steps, financial obligations, or deadlines in the requirements were not detailed, but the provision gives decommissioning a formal place in the approval process. Any data center project moving forward will have to account for that eventual possibility under the town’s rules.

The debate is not theoretical for Marana. A rezoning request for a data center near Luckett Road has already been approved. A second project application has also been submitted to the Marana Town Council. Those developments have made the town’s policy decisions more pressing, since the council is not only considering a general question about future growth but also dealing with projects that are already at different stages of review.

The approval has not resolved the community’s opposition. Sue Ritz, one of the most outspoken critics of data center development, argued that the council should have stopped the projects through a moratorium while officials gathered more information. She said residents needed the town to work with experts and create a stronger ordinance, expressing the view that the adopted regulations would not provide enough protection. Ritz also questioned whether the town was prioritizing its interest in attracting the facilities over what residents want.

Other residents raised similar objections during the council meeting. Greg Johnsen urged the council to remove the item from its agenda and reconsider the ordinance rather than approve it. The criticism centered on the idea that Marana should slow down, study the consequences more thoroughly, and determine what information is still missing before allowing additional data center proposals to proceed. Ritz likewise warned that the town needed to examine both what it knows and what it does not yet understand in order to protect the community.

The council’s decision closes one phase of the dispute but leaves the larger development debate open. The Luckett Road rezoning remains an example of a project that will be shaped by the town’s decisions, while the second application will proceed in a community where residents have made clear that regulation alone may not satisfy them. Future applicants will have to comply with the newly approved noise and decommissioning provisions, and the town will continue to face questions about how those rules are applied and whether they are strong enough.

For people across the Tucson region, the Marana debate offers a local example of the tension that can accompany data center growth. Marana has chosen to create requirements rather than impose a full halt, while opponents continue to call for more study and stricter limits. The immediate outcome is a framework for reviewing future facilities, but the response from residents indicates that approval of the regulations is unlikely to be the final word. As additional projects come before the town, disputes over neighborhood impacts, community control, and the long term use of data center sites are likely to remain part of the public conversation.