With some members acknowledging residents\u2019 concerns, Phoenix City Council last week approved a relatively routine matter for the planned 1-million-square-foot data center in Ahwatukee.<\/p>\n
Three residents urged the council on July 1 to withhold a vote on the abandonment of a 185-foot drainage easement and a 20-foot waterline easement in the vicinity of 48th Street and East Thistle Landing Drive, where California-based Menlo Equities plans to build a five-building data center.<\/p>\n
But Council voted 8-1 to turn over those stretches of roadway to the developer as Mayor Kate Gallego and two council members said they sympathized with residents’ concerns. Councilwoman Anna Hernandez cast the sole vote against, but did not give a reason for her opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City acknowledges the public benefit received by the generation of additional revenue from the private tax rolls and by the elimination of third-party general liability claims against the City, maintenance expenses, and undesirable traffic patterns, and also by the replating of the area with alternate roadways and new development, to be sufficient and appropriate consideration in this matter,\u201d according to the agenda item.<\/p>\n
Some nearby residents have formed a group called the Ahwatukee Community Alliance that is pressing the city to stop further construction of the data center, stating they submitted 31 questions to the city Planning and Development Department about it that have gone unanswered. Councilwoman Kesha Hodge Washington asked the department to answer them as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
Opponents also say they have asked state and federal officials to intervene on their behalf, citing concerns about the data center\u2019s impact on their health and quality of life.<\/p>\n
They have said the facility will generate a higher-than-acceptable level of noise and higher ambient air temperatures as well as increase the risk of cancer.<\/p>\n
Menlo already has cleared the 40.6 acre parcel of a four-building call center that had been on the site, which it bought in 2015 for $52 million.<\/p>\n
The site has been zoned since 1977 as Commerce Park and General Commerce Park, which city officials say includes data centers \u2013 long before such facilities even existed.<\/p>\n
While residents raised the issue of guardrails the city approved last year on data center development, city Planning Director Joshua Vednarik told the council that ordinance specifically exempts properties that had secured preliminary site plan approval prior to its adoption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the case for this property, so it is an allowed use on the site, and it is not required to adhere to the new standards because it had preliminary site plan approval prior to council\u2019s adoption of the ordinance last year,\u201d Bednarik told Council.<\/p>\n
Not spoken about but looming over the entire debate is Proposition 207, passed in 2006 by Arizona voters.<\/p>\n
The Private Property Rights Protection Act requires state and local governments to pay just compensation to a property owner if a newly enacted land-use regulation or zoning law reduces the fair market value of a piece of land.<\/p>\n
To avoid such compensation, the municipality must waive enforcement of the restriction for that property.<\/p>\n
Prop 207 affected the city’s handling of a facility that Aligned Data Center planned on Behrend Drive. It filed a claim against the city last year, noting that it bought the land in 2022 and that it was being held to standards Council passed last year that would dimmish the property\u2019s value.<\/p>\n
Aligned had purchased two office buildings on the site for $93 million in 2022 with plans for a 513,361-square-foot data center and office space.<\/p>\n
Council last March approved a waiver that included some size, setback and landscaping requirements, though Aligned’s attorney had sought to delay a vote, stating the waiver did not allow for the site to get electric service.<\/p>\n
During the meeting last week, several residents complained about the manner in which the Menlo Equities project was approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cA data center has no business being in our neighborhood,\u201d resident Alex Johnson told Council. \u201cIt is 300 feet from a friend of mine\u2019s backyard. The city has expedited construction by allowing the developers extended hours and has yet to respond to our concerns. This is waking up families in our neighborhoods. It\u2019s already a disturbance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are plenty of environmental reasons to stop this project,\u201d he continued, adding:<\/p>\n
\u201cI would just like to object and suggest that you guys consider what is happening in our community before we move forward, granting these developers any more rights to development until you hear from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson spoke a second time at the meeting as Council considered a request involving another data center near Desert Ridge.<\/p>\n
And he too indirectly acknowledged Prop 207, stating: \u201cEverybody in your neighborhood will also lose property values as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said claims of reduced property values by as much as 20% is \u201call speculative,\u201d but added, “so are the dollar figures that the data centers are bringing to the table.”<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like people who live in Phoenix to understand what data centers do to our environment and the health risks of it, cognitive and learning impairments in children, my daughter, your daughter, your grandchildren, arterial hypertension, increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, the weakening of heart tissue from infrasound,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMigraines, insomnia, vertigo, high blood pressure, anxiety, fluid in ears, and elevated cancer risk \u2013 That is what everybody who supports data centers is comfortable with in their neighborhood\u2026because the industry is lacking the infrastructure to build them properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahwatukee resident Kathy Monk told the council, \u201cWe recognize this item presents as routine \u2013we are asking that it not be treated that way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe easement abandonment supports a 257 megawatt data center campus, five buildings, nearly a million square feet of land, just hundreds of feet from daycare surrounding homes, schools, churches, and a senior care facility,\u201d Monk said.<\/p>\n
She said an independent study submitted to the city indicated the facility would exceed Phoenix\u2019s 55-decible noise standard. She also cited a recent an Arizona State University study that said data centers raise the temperature around nearby areas by 2.2 degree Celsius.<\/p>\n
Attorney Nick Wood, representing Menlo, said the company connected with over 400 neighbors and had received letters of support from \u201cseveral hundred\u201d residents.<\/p>\n
He also noted his client plans to include a pickleball park on the site at no cost to the city as part of Menlo\u2019s effort to be a good neighbor.<\/p>\n
Councilman Kevin Robinson said he\u2019s working \u201cto give everyone an opportunity to voice\u201d their concerns and that the action before council \u201cis not an approval of the data center itself.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe property owner already has a zoning entitlement to build a data center and that approval came many years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also said the action before the council last week \u201cdoes not expand, accelerate, or alter the data center project. It simply addresses a technical requirement tied to the site\u2019s layout.”<\/p>\n
Robinson also noted that when Council approved data center guidelines last year, \u201cwe had to establish an applicability period, a clear line that defined which projects the new regulations would govern.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter careful legal guidance, discussion, and consideration, Council determined that the ordinance would not apply to developments that already had preliminary site approval at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saying she sympathized with Ahwatukee residents\u2019 concerns, Mayor Kate Gallego said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been working very hard on reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noting Phoenix incurred stiff opposition from the data center industry \u2013 and $700 million in threatened litigation \u2013 to the guidelines Council approved last year, the mayor said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of data centers in this community makes us one of the epicenters in the world. The greater Phoenix area has one of the highest concentrations of data centers anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted the recently approved three-year moratorium on a \u201cgenerous\u201d sales tax incentive Arizona had been giving data centers. The Legislature and Gov. Katie Hobbs last month agreed to that moratorium, though it is unclear whether it covers Menlo Equities.<\/p>\n
The law states it \u201cprohibits the Arizona Commerce Authority from accepting applications for any new computer data center from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029 and further clarifies that no new data center can qualify for data center equipment (tax) exemption during this period.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallego said, \u201cIt is good news that the state of Arizona, on a bipartisan basis, passed a budget with a three-year moratorium on the most generous of the tax incentives, but there are data centers that will still get it in our community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of work to do on reform, and we are working very hard,\u201d she continued. \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time working with mayors all over the world, frankly, who are all facing this issue. This industry is expanding at an unprecedented rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working very hard to be as responsible as we can\u2026we\u2019re trying to navigate the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With some members acknowledging residents\u2019 concerns, Phoenix City Council last week approved a relatively routine matter for the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":922854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[372447,318692,5229,123376,5643,22076,1587,372448,111172,286138,1589,78288,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-922853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-ahwatukee-community-alliance","tag-alex-johnson","tag-america","tag-anna-hernandez","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-state-university","tag-az","tag-joshua-vednarik","tag-kate-gallego","tag-kesha-hodge","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-city-council","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116889295651071408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}