Your Subdivision Has a Town. The Land Next Door Might Not.
Pima County paused new data center applications on unincorporated land for 120 days on September 22, 2026. What that jurisdiction line means for Tucson buyers.
On September 22 the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to stop new data center applications on unincorporated land for 120 days. The pause is temporary. The jurisdiction line it exposed is not.
You can stand in a backyard on the edge of Sahuarita, look past the wall at open desert, and be looking at land your town has no say over. Pima County made the point on September 22, when the Board of Supervisors adopted Resolution 2026-56 on a 3-2 vote and halted new data center development in unincorporated Pima County for 120 days while staff rewrite a zoning code that was never written with them in mind. The incorporated towns — Sahuarita, Marana, Oro Valley, the City of Tucson — write their own codes and are untouched by it. If you are shopping where the subdivisions run out and the desert starts, that boundary is now the most useful line on your map.
What the 3-2 Vote Actually Stops
Supervisors Jennifer Allen, Matt Heinz and Andrés Cano voted for it; Rex Scott and Steve Christy voted against. The scope turns on one word the board changed before voting: Heinz amended the resolution so it reaches projects whose permits for site improvements — grading, paving, flood control, construction — have not yet been submitted, rather than not yet issued. Anything with an application already pending is outside it. The resolution's stated reason is public health — energy demand, air pollution, water use in a region already under water stress, noise, waste heat. The board also told the health department to keep collecting impact data and build a risk assessment, left itself room to consider an extension, and set December 15 as the target for a draft of the permanent code text.
- 120
- Days Pima County stops taking new data center applications on unincorporated land
- 3-2
- Board of Supervisors vote adopting Resolution 2026-56, September 22, 2026
- 160
- Acres in the data center proposal just west of Sahuarita's town limits
- Dec 15
- Target date in 2026 for a draft of the permanent data center code
The 160 Acres West of Sahuarita
The live example sits west of Sahuarita, off La Cañada Drive between El Toro and Twin Buttes roads, alongside the rail line. Three parcels, about 160 acres, at roughly 2480 West Twin Buttes Road, owned by Sahuarita Holdings LLC — a subsidiary of Idaho-based W.R. Henderson Construction. The plan county staff saw, known as Project Gravel, describes eight buildings of about 203,000 square feet each, an on-site electrical substation, roads and parking, with full build-out projected for 2029. Two of the three parcels are zoned rural homestead, the designation written for ranch-style properties and mobile homes on wide setbacks; the third carries general industrial zoning left over from a chemical plant vacant since 2006. Officials say they received no documents showing the project's expected electricity or water demand, its operator, its jobs, or its construction cost.
Whether the pause catches it is genuinely unsettled, and the coverage splits: the Arizona Daily Star reported the project would be subject to the moratorium, KJZZ reported the permit-submission amendment leaves it exempt, and Arizona Public Media called the effect unclear because the developers say the land already carries industrial zoning. That is what a rule amended on the floor around a live application looks like from outside, and it is the honest answer to what happens next on that ground.
Why the Town Line Decides the Answer
Sahuarita cannot rule on that land, because the land is not in Sahuarita. What the town can do — and is doing — is fix its own code. Its park industrial zone has no defined term for a data center, which is why an August 2025 zoning administrator interpretation had to reason by analogy, finding the use potentially similar to permitted warehousing, research and manufacturing in exactly one place: the Park Industrial zone inside the Rancho Sahuarita Specific Plan, on La Cañada. That interpretation approved no project and grants no right to build elsewhere. The amendment now in drafting would define the use outright and set the setbacks, noise limits, generator testing and landscaping around it, with at least one public meeting this fall.
Project Blue is the other half of the lesson. The 290-acre parcel immediately north of the Pima County Fairgrounds, west of Houghton Road, was county land. The developers wanted Tucson to annex it for water service. The City Council said no in August 2025, and the county's sale closed anyway that December — the parcel was never the city's to decide.
Quick reference (September 28, 2026): Resolution 2026-56's 120-day data center moratorium runs from the September 22, 2026 board vote, roughly to January 20, 2027, and the board may consider an extension before it lapses. It covers unincorporated Pima County only — not Sahuarita, Marana, Oro Valley or the City of Tucson — and not projects whose site-improvement permit applications were already submitted. A draft of the permanent code text is targeted for December 15. Sahuarita's industrial-zones code amendment is separate and expects at least one public meeting this fall. Confirm all dates with Pima County Development Services and the Town of Sahuarita.
Three Things to Check Before You Write an Offer
Start with which government the parcels around you answer to: town limits here are irregular, and a subdivision inside a town can share a wall with county land. Pima County's development services maps give jurisdiction and zoning for any parcel. Then read what the adjacent zoning permits rather than what the ground looks like today — rural homestead land reads as open desert and is still land somebody can apply to rezone. Last, set up how you would hear about it in time. Pima County requires a rezoning applicant to invite neighbors at least 30 days before the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing and to hold that meeting at least 15 days before it, and both the county and the Town of Sahuarita let you subscribe to planning-project notifications. The 120 days will end. What replaces them is the standard a parcel across the fence gets measured against for years, and it is being written in public right now.
Sources
Arizona Public Media — "Board of Supervisors approves temporary data center moratorium" — news.azpm.org/p/azpmnews/2026/9/23/231316-board-of-supervisors-approves-temporary-data-center-moratorium — published September 23, 2026, accessed September 28, 2026 (for Resolution 2026-56, the 3-2 vote with Scott and Christy opposed, the moratorium's scope covering developments where permits have not been submitted for site improvements, the December 15 target for a draft of the new code text, and the statement that the moratorium's effect on Project Gravel is unclear because developers say the land is already zoned for industrial purposes).
AZ Luminaria — "Pima County supervisors approve data center moratorium" — azluminaria.org/2026/09/23/pima-county-supervisors-approve-data-center-moratorium — published September 23, 2026, accessed September 28, 2026 (for the 3-2 vote with Allen, Heinz and Cano in favor and Scott and Christy opposed, the exclusion of Project Blue, the board's direction to the health department to continue documenting public health impacts and create a risk assessment, and the June 2025 3-2 vote to sell the county land for Project Blue).
Arizona Daily Star — "Pima County narrowly passes 120-day data center moratorium" — tucson.com/news/local/government-politics/article_51ccaeb6-3675-42d9-adbd-df918d777514.html — published September 24, 2026, accessed September 28, 2026 (for Supervisor Heinz's amendment changing the trigger from permits issued to permit applications submitted, the resulting exemption for projects with applications already pending, the added ability to discuss an extension before the 120 days end, the health department risk assessment, and the report that the 160-acre eight-building proposal near Sahuarita would be subject to the moratorium).
KJZZ — "Pima County passes 120-day moratorium on future data center projects" — kjzz.org/fronteras-desk/2026-09-23/pima-county-passes-120-day-moratorium-on-future-data-center-projects — published September 23, 2026, accessed September 28, 2026 (for the 3-2 vote, the 120-day term with the possibility of an extension, the subjects the county will study, and the report that the permit-submission amendment leaves Project Gravel exempt).
KGUN 9 — "Pima County halts new data center permits for 120 days to update zoning rules" — kgun9.com/news/local-news/pima-county-halts-new-data-center-permits-for-120-days-to-update-zoning-rules — accessed September 28, 2026 (for the pause applying to unincorporated Pima County only, the county's stated concerns about water, electricity, air quality, heat and noise, and the Planning and Zoning Commission and Board of Supervisors review of the rewritten rules).
Arizona Daily Star — "New 160-acre data center proposed in Sahuarita" — tucson.com/news/local/government-politics/article_88b66e8c-6502-49de-832e-7cba5f958a77.html — published September 24, 2026, accessed September 28, 2026 (for the three parcels at approximately 2480 West Twin Buttes Road, Sahuarita Holdings LLC and its Idaho-based parent W.R. Henderson Construction, rural homestead zoning on two parcels and general industrial on the third with the former plant vacant since 2006, eight buildings of about 203,000 square feet each, the on-site substation, the 2029 build-out, and the absence of documents on electricity and water demand, operator, jobs and construction cost).
Green Valley News — "County pauses new data centers as project eyes land near Sahuarita" — gvnews.com/sahuarita/news/local/county-pauses-new-data-centers-as-project-eyes-land-near-sahuarita — published September 22, 2026, accessed September 28, 2026 (for the 160 acres west of Sahuarita's town limits and the location west of La Cañada Drive between El Toro and Twin Buttes roads alongside the rail line).
Town of Sahuarita — "Data Centers and the Industrial Zones Code Amendment" — sahuaritaaz.gov/m/faq?cat=55 — accessed September 28, 2026 (for the August 2025 zoning administrator interpretation limited to the Park Industrial zone within the Rancho Sahuarita Specific Plan, that it approved no project and does not apply town-wide or grant by-right status elsewhere, that the town's general plan does not name data centers as a preferred industry, and that public outreach on the code amendment begins this fall).
Green Valley News — "Town eyes zoning update with data centers in mind" — gvnews.com/free_access/town-eyes-zoning-update-with-data-centers-in-mind — published August 21, 2026, accessed September 28, 2026 (for the absence of a defined term for a data center in the town's current park industrial code, the setback, noise, generator testing and landscaping standards under review, the joint study sessions with the Planning and Zoning Commission and Town Council, and at least one public meeting this fall).
Pima County — "Project Blue FAQ" — pima.gov/3552/Project-Blue-FAQ — accessed September 28, 2026 (for the 290-acre parcel immediately north of the Pima County Fairgrounds and west of Houghton Road, its location in unincorporated Pima County within the Southeast Employment & Logistics Center, and the land sale closing in late December 2025).
AZ Luminaria — "Project Blue is back: Beale moving ahead with data center on county land" — azluminaria.org/2025/08/27/project-blue-data-center-pima-county-beale-infrastructure-tep — published August 27, 2025, accessed September 28, 2026 (for the Tucson City Council's rejection of the annexation in August 2025, the water-service reason the annexation was sought, and the contract terms that let the county sale proceed without it).
Pima County — "Concurrent Plan Amendment and Rezoning or Specific Plan Process & Submittal Guidelines" — pima.gov/1094/Concurrent-Plan-Amendment-and-Rezoning-o — accessed September 28, 2026 (for the requirement that a rezoning applicant send the neighborhood meeting invitation at least 30 days before the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing and hold the meeting at least 15 days before it).
All details are current as of September 28, 2026; moratoriums, zoning code amendments and development applications change, so readers should confirm current information with Pima County Development Services and the Town of Sahuarita before relying on any single figure. Nothing here is legal or land-use advice. 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
- High Growth Area
- Pima County
- Sahuarita
- Zoning
- Data Centers
- Unincorporated County
- Land Use
- 85629
- 85614