Tucson's Data Center Rules Stop at the City Line
Tucson's council takes up data center zoning Aug. 4, 2026 — half-mile setbacks from homes, a 50-foot cap, and rules that end at the city limits.
Half a mile from homes, fifty feet tall, no drinking water for cooling. None of it reaches the two largest projects in the metro, because neither one is inside Tucson.
Tucson's Mayor and Council take up a data center zoning ordinance at their regular meeting on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. A year in the making, it exists because of Project Blue — the campus this same council unanimously refused to serve with reclaimed water in August 2025, before directing staff to write rules so the next one would not be a surprise. The draft sets how far a facility like that has to sit from a house, how tall it can be, and what it has to prove about water and power before it ever gets a hearing.
- 20 MW
- Energy-use threshold in the draft definition, lowered from 50 MW during drafting
- 2,640 ft
- Proposed separation from residential zoning — half a mile, doubled from an earlier draft
- 50 ft
- Proposed maximum building height
- 7.48M gal
- Monthly water use that already triggers Mayor and Council review under Tucson's 2025 large-user ordinance
What the Draft Actually Regulates
The draft starts by defining the thing. As it advanced through the Planning Commission, a large-scale data center is a facility on one site with at least 25,000 square feet of floor area and energy use above 20 megawatts — a threshold staff lowered from 50 megawatts after public comment that the first number let too much through. Anything that qualifies picks up a package: a 50-foot height cap, separation from residential zoning raised to 2,640 feet, a buffer from commercial and office zones raised from 600 to 1,000 feet, landscaped screening, a noise study and battery backup. The applicant also has to show adequate water and power supply, disclose its energy mix including renewables, and skip potable water for cooling. The procedural piece may matter most: these projects would face a higher level of review than nearly any other land use in the city, with the final call made at the dais rather than at the counter.
Where the Rules Stop
A city zoning code governs land inside that city, and the Tucson metro is a patchwork of them. Tucson, South Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita and wide stretches of unincorporated Pima County each write their own. The two largest data center projects in Southern Arizona are in none of Tucson's.
In January 2026 the Marana Town Council voted 6-0 to rezone roughly 600 acres across two parcels along Luckett Road, in north Marana, for a hyperscale campus, with Trico Electric Cooperative and Tucson Electric Power splitting the power commitment. A second Marana application, the Ranch House project, surfaced on the town's website in late June 2026 and is early in review. Project Blue itself sits on unincorporated county land, where the Board of Supervisors approved its development agreement with Beale Infrastructure on a 3-2 vote in December 2025. Pima County is writing its own rules as well: a 4-1 vote in August 2025 directed staff to add review requirements for data centers and other large water and electricity users on CI-2 General Industrial land. Separate process, separate standards.
The Water Rule That Already Passed
Tucson did not wait for the zoning code to act on water. In August 2025 it adopted a Large Quantity Water User ordinance covering any customer proposing 7,480,000 gallons a month or more — roughly 230,000 gallons a day. Those users have to bring a plan to the Mayor and Council for approval, and at least 30 percent of the proposed use has to come from reclaimed sources. It applies across the water utility's service territory, which is wider than the city limits, so it catches projects the zoning code misses. That rule is much of why the approved Marana campus is designed to be air-cooled.
What to Ask Before You Buy Near Open Land
If a listing's selling point is the open ground behind it, the question is not what that ground looks like today. It is who writes the rules for it. A parcel a mile from your back wall can sit in a different jurisdiction than your house, under a different code, with a different height limit and a different setback.
Two steps, both free. Pull the parcel on the Pima County Assessor's map to confirm which jurisdiction it is in and how it is zoned. Then check that jurisdiction's active rezoning cases — every town and the county post them online. Large industrial users need flat land, transmission capacity and water, so applications cluster on agricultural and general-industrial parcels near substations and transmission corridors. Doing that before you write an offer is the whole exercise: it tells you whether the view is protected by zoning, by ownership, or by nothing at all.
Quick reference (August 4, 2026): Tucson's large-scale data center code amendment was scheduled for a Mayor and Council hearing and possible adoption on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. The figures above describe the draft as it advanced from the Planning Commission — amendments from the dais can change any of them, and the ordinance reaches land inside Tucson city limits only. Confirm adopted standards with City of Tucson Planning and Development Services.
The Takeaway
However Tuesday's vote goes, Tucson ends the week with something it did not have a year ago: a written answer, numbers attached, to where a facility like this can and cannot go inside the city. That is worth more to an owner than the vote itself, because it turns a political fight into a zoning question anyone can look up. The limit is just as clear. The metro's biggest campuses are in Marana and unincorporated Pima County, under codes still being written. Near the edges of the built-up metro, the fact that decides your block is jurisdiction — not the skyline, not the view, but whose code the parcel across the road answers to.
Sources
TucsonSentinel.com — "New data center rules on tap for Tucson; South Tucson to honor Pico de Gallo | The Tucson Agenda" — tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/080236_agenda_data_centers_op/new-data-center-rules-tap-tucson-south-tucson-honor-pico-de-gallo — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the ordinance reaching the Mayor and Council for a vote at the regular meeting Tuesday, August 4, 2026, and the year-in-the-making framing). City of Tucson Planning and Development Services — "Regulations for Large-Scale Data Centers: Unified Development Code Amendment" — tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Planning-Development-Services/Planning-Initiatives/Data-Centers-Unified-Development-Code-Amendment — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the amendment initiated at the August 6, 2025 Mayor and Council study session, and the requirements for disclosure of energy and water use, a noise study, additional setbacks, and a public review process). AZPM — "Tucson Planning Commission has more questions about proposed data center regulations" — news.azpm.org/s/103479-tucson-planning-commission-has-more-questions-about-proposed-data-center-regulations/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the 25,000-square-foot and 20-megawatt definition thresholds, the drop from 50 megawatts, the 50-foot height limit, the increased separation from residential and non-industrial uses, the June 3 public hearing and continued June 17 discussion). Tucson Spotlight — "Tucson residents push for stricter data center rules" — tucsonspotlight.org/tucson-residents-push-for-stricter-data-center-rules/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the residential separation doubled to 2,640 feet, the commercial and office buffer raised from 600 to 1,000 feet, the battery backup and landscaping requirements, and the proof of adequate water and power, energy-mix disclosure and potable-water cooling ban). KJZZ Fronteras Desk — "Tucson officials move closer to passing tighter rules for data center development" — kjzz.org/fronteras-desk/2026-06-04/tucson-officials-move-closer-to-passing-tighter-rules-for-data-center-development — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the Planning Commission advancing the proposal toward Mayor and Council). AZ Luminaria — "Tucson City Council rejects Project Blue data center amid intense community pressure" — azluminaria.org/2025/08/06/tucson-city-council-rejects-project-blue-amid-intense-community-pressure/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the unanimous August 2025 council vote ending the Project Blue water and annexation negotiations). AZPM — "Tucson passes ordinance regulating large water users after data center debate" — news.azpm.org/p/azpmnews/2025/8/21/226109-tucson-passes-ordinance-regulating-large-water-users-after-data-center-debate/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the Large Quantity Water User ordinance, the 7,480,000-gallon monthly threshold requiring Mayor and Council approval, and the 30 percent reclaimed-source requirement). AZPM — "Marana Town Council approves rezoning for Luckett Road Project, 600-acre hyperscale data center" — news.azpm.org/p/azpmnews/2026/1/8/227908-marana-town-council-approves-rezoning-for-luckett-road-project-600-acre-hyperscale-data-center/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the January 2026 rezoning approval, the two Luckett Road parcels in north Marana, and the project scale). Tucson Spotlight — "Marana approves rezoning for massive data center project" — tucsonspotlight.org/marana-approves-rezoning-for-massive-data-center-project/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the 6-0 council vote, the Trico Electric Cooperative and Tucson Electric Power supply commitments, and the air-cooled design required by Marana's prohibition on potable water for cooling). KOLD News 13 — "Second data center rezoning application submitted in Marana" — kold.com/2026/06/26/second-data-center-rezoning-application-submitted-marana/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the Ranch House rezoning application surfacing on the town website in late June 2026 and remaining in early review). AZPM — "Pima County approves Project Blue data center agreement" — news.azpm.org/p/azpmnews/2025/12/17/227685-pima-county-approves-project-blue-data-center-agreement/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the Board of Supervisors' 3-2 approval of the Beale Infrastructure development agreement on December 16, 2025). KOLD News 13 — "Pima County explores zoning amendments for data centers" — kold.com/2025/08/19/pima-county-explores-zoning-amendments-data-centers/ — accessed August 4, 2026 (for the Board of Supervisors' 4-1 August 2025 direction to initiate a zoning code text amendment for data centers and other large water and electricity users on CI-2 General Industrial land). All details are current as of August 4, 2026 and describe a draft ordinance scheduled for a vote that day; adopted standards, project schedules and rezoning cases change, so confirm current status with the City of Tucson, the Town of Marana, or Pima County Development Services before relying on any single figure. This post is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase real estate. Kyle Berglund and Tierra Antigua Realty fully support and comply with the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.
Topics
- Local Real Estate News
- Tucson
- Marana
- Pima County
- Zoning
- Land Use
- Data Centers
- Unified Development Code