City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening everyone. Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate you spending some of your evening and your time to engage on this important community topic. My name is Corin Manning. I'm the director of the department of planning and development services for the city of Tucson. And I want to introduce some of the team who will be here tonight to present on this topic. Um, we have Carver Stru, principal planner with planning and development services, Nicholas Martell, our long-range planning section manager, Dan Bersik, planning administrator, as well as Tonnie Robertson, our facilitator for this evening, here to support the conversation and dialogue. Uh, so tonight's meeting is about regulations for largecale data centers. Um, this is a really important topic that's generated a lot of community conversation. So, we're really here to share information and have an opportunity for feedback and discussion tonight. Um, so data centers are a rapidly evolving technology. They're really new emerging use and our responsibility as a city is to make sure that our land use regulations keep pace with emerging trends in a way that reflects our community's values and priorities. So that's really what we're trying to do with these proposed regulations. Okay. So how tonight will go, what we are here to do. We're going to explain a little bit of background um why we're here, how we got here in terms of developing these regulations, talk a little bit about some existing city policy um and existing regulations. um talk about the process so far to develop regulations for large scale data centers um including our technical advisory committee and then share an overview of the proposed regulations for

large scale data centers um and have opportunity for feedback along the way. So tonight's meeting is really about sharing some information about what's proposed and then most importantly hearing from all of you. So there's going to be opportunity for feedback throughout the presentation and then at the end we do want to have time for questions and answers. So we do ask that during the presentation um we limit questions and comments to just clarifying questions um so that at the end we can have some dialogue and Q&A about this topic. Um and there's also going to be there's um comment cards and other ways to get input as well. Um, we have already gotten a lot of input and feedback on this topic. Um, and we've started developing a Q&A FAQ uh, form that some of you may have gotten when you came in. So, we've really tried to take a lot of the key questions and comments that we're getting and start responding to those and we will be building out that FAQ as we go through this process and get additional questions and comments. So all of your feedback is being reviewed by staff and uh responded to and integrated into the process. So how we got here? Um we are here based on direction from our mayor council to establish guardrails for our community related to large scale data centers. Following the consideration of the project blue proposal, mayor and council gave us direction to establish guard rails for our community to develop a regulatory framework for the for the use uh of large scale data centers to protect Tucson and our resources and to develop standards for this new use as well as a review process. So throughout the discussion of project bloom, we heard a range of questions and

concerns about large scale data centers. We heard from residents about issues such as water, energy use, noise, visual impacts, whole range of community concerns and issues um which are very important topics and a conversation that really affects our whole community and quality of life. That's why we're here today to engage in this dialogue and have more conversation about the impact of this use and how we can ensure that we have appropriate regulations in place to regulate um this emerging use. As we were going through the project blue discussion, we found that our zoning code does not currently have data centers as a clearly defined land use. So we don't have regulations for this type of use. This creates a lack of clarity for our community, creates uncertainty for neighborhoods, for our policy makers, um, and for potential applicants. So, what we're trying to do now is take a more proactive approach to develop these regulations and guard rails. Um, so rather than reacting to a specific proposal, we're here trying to establish clear and enforceable guidelines um, in advance of future proposals. So what we're trying to do is create clear standards that protect our neighborhoods, our natural resources, and provide predictability so that if a data center facility is proposed, we have an appropriate set of land use regulations and standards to evaluate a proposed development. Based on the direction from mayor council, we have done a quite a bit of research into data center regulations in other communities as well as the impact of data centers in other communities and we established a technical advisory committee to help inform the proposed standards that we're creating. We also developed a large quantity water users ordinance in the city. That was actually something that was in progress um prior to the project blue discussion and that

has been adopted by the city um and is being refined now based on public input. That ordinance is meant to work in parallel with these proposed zoning regulations for large scale data centers and we'll share a bit more about that a little later on. So again, tonight's meeting is not to discuss a specific proposal. The discussion tonight is about setting guard rails and establishing standards for our community so that if a proposal comes forward, we have conditions and a process in place to evaluate any proposals. So, I want to talk a little bit more about zoning regulations because zoning, which is what we're here to talk about tonight, is just one piece of a larger picture in terms of regulations that affect large scale data centers. So there's other local regulations that could shape where and how large scale data centers are developed. That includes things like the large quantity water user ordinance that I mentioned as well as economic development policies and other city policies. Um there's also federal and state regulations that come into play such as state economic incentives and the Arizona Pooperation Commission's regulation of our utilities. So tonight's discussion is really focused on zoning and land use regulations. Zoning is a uh zoning is a set of regulations that focus on where development can occur, where different uses can be located, how those uses are built, what specific conditions apply to different types of land uses. um that could be conditions, development standards like buffers, setbacks, screening, height limits, c certain standards like that that can be applied to specific types of uses. Um so zoning does not regulate water use, energy portfolios or energy infrastructure decisions. um those are

valid and important topics of discussion, but those rest with other review bodies and other entities that have purview in those areas. So tonight's discussion is really going to focus on what is within the city's control and what is before us at this time, which is zoning or land use regulations to provide appropriate standards and regulations for large scale data centers in Tucson. So let's get into that conversation. I want to thank you again for being here tonight, for being part of this important conversation. And I'm going to ask Tonnie to walk us through the process and ground rules for tonight. Good evening. Good to see you all. Uh my name is Tony Robertson with Southwest Decision Resources and I just have two slides. Meeting format. I think we've seen several of you were in the last meeting or two. So, good to see you again. Um, so your feedback is going to be collected in writing in these meetings via online survey which you'll be seeing a QR code and you can use your phone to get access to that website. Um, the paper form, the green form on the clipboard is the same questions. So either option works and you can take uh provide your comments during the meeting or after the meeting. I believe it'll be open through this month through the end of March. Um and then the sticky notes on the posters in the lobby. All of that feedback is being compiled and the city team is reading through everything very carefully. They did create the FAQ document that was in the registration table like Corin mentioned and they'll be adding more questions as they go. Um again, all written feedback will be made publicly available and shared with both

the planning commission and mayor and council. Uh conversation and additional written feedback are encouraged with city staff before and after the presentation um we will have a like the last inerson meeting at Pua High School will have a Q&A session here in the main in this room. Um, we're going to be asking that people keep their comments to under a minute so that more people can have a chance to speak. We had a number of people that wanted to be able to ask a question or make a comment last time. Um, this the website has all of the links, all of the information and uh we ask that everybody respect each other's time and refrain from disruption. And again, so in this room is the presentation. Um, we have different presenters from the city that are going to be walking you through the different components of the proposed zoning code and giving you a chance as you go to make comments in the uh online survey or the written survey. Um feedback again can be submitted in both both of those formats in and then the the uh the Q&A afterwards in the lobby is the dialogue opportunity directly with city staff. You're not restricted to any particular amount of time. There's posters that have all the same information that's going to be in the presentation. Again, this is about this proposed zoning uh code, but you a lot of you have feedback beyond that and we're gathering all feedback. So, I will turn it over to Parker.

All right. Good evening. Uh my name is Carver Stru. I'm a principal planner here with the City of Tucson Department of Planning and Development Services and I'm going to talk a bit about the proposal that that we are here to discuss tonight. Um as was mentioned earlier, this relates specifically to zoning and regulating largecale data centers. One of the first things that you want to do if you are going to regulate a land use is to define what it is that you're regulating. And so what we've put forward Oh, I'm sorry. Let me back up. Um going going a little ahead of myself. Uh I want to start talking first about what is a large-scale data center. So what is it that we're talking about before we start discussing regulating it? So a large scale data center is a warehouse filled with thousands of computers working 24/7 to store, process, and deliver digital services and data. uh data centers house computer equipment, networking equipment, storage devices. These are the items that power all of the digital infrastructure that we use. Most data centers have a number of different key components. Um these include server racks uh that house and organize servers, networking equipment uh which moves the data or processes the data, storage systems to store data, uh power infrastructure which obviously powers the equipment and cooling systems to remove the heat that is created by a data center. So really when we're asked to regulate data centers, the the purpose there is to set clear rules and standards for their location and design. The intent of this is to protect senate sensitive areas. Address impacts such as noise, scale, and other impacts early on in the process. Develop a process that ensures public input as data center proposals

are developed. and be proactive in terms of what standards should be in place versus uh reacting to a specific proposal as it comes forward. So the city currently has very limited standards related to how we regulate data centers. Traditionally as data centers were being developed is they were small relatively small they were viewed as storage uses um these were you know it made sense you're looking at it kind of like as a warehouse but for data and so they were regulated as such. However, as we saw new large scale and hypers scale data centers emerge as a land use that has never existed before, we started to look at it differently. And the city zoning administrator determined that a large-scale data center would be classified under the city's zoning code as a utility generating system use. As such, it could only be reviewed as a planned area development or a planned community development. Um, so this is really just defining what it would be as a stop gap measure and deciding what process could be used to review a proposal for a data center. Under the current code, it's very clear that we really don't have any existing standards to regulate their development or place guard rails on their development. As such, it's really at this point in time under the code largely up to a specific applicant to propose how they would like to develop a data center. Uh so with additional standards as we're going to be discussing tonight uh mayor and council can provide limitations or guard rails on how data centers would be developed

which could reflect values of Tucson. So this next slide really just shows what is currently in place under the red box which is essentially just a process for reviewing a data center proposal and then proposed standards that we are putting forward in this proposed zoning amendment and seeking your feedback on related to any number of things. you know, defining a data center, establishing where and how they would be allowed. Um, being establishing a clear and transparent public review process for specific data center proposals, requiring that a data center demonstrate access to water and power and disclose the energy mix in such a proposal. Um, prohibit the use of portable water for cooling if not subject to the large water user ordinance. requiring additional setbacks which would relate to noise impacts or other impacts on the community setting clear noise limitations any number of different items and we'll be going through these in in subsequent slides but I really just want to make the point that this demonstrates where we are looking at establishing regulations for where none currently exist other than that simple process. So as we talk about zoning, uh any authority to regulate land through zoning by a city or town in Arizona is given to them by the state. State law decides what can be regulated through zoning and is very specific that that the cities or towns can regulate land use, building size, shape, height, materials and purpose, site dimensions, setbacks, lot coverage, what percentage of the lot would be covered by a structure and the location and use of buildings. However, we are limited

through zoning on what can be regulated related to water and energy use. Uh, however, there are other provisions as as Corin had mentioned, zoning is simply one component of the entire process to regulate data centers. Um, and as mentioned earlier, uh, it's critical to define a data center when you are looking to regulate it. Additionally, due to the processes in place as well as the process being proposed, any data center proposal would need to comply with plan Tucson 2025, our new general plan. So the process for reviewing and considering and developing reviewing and considering a ordinance for uh zoning regulations for large-scale data centers is is outlined here. Um it begins with mayor and council direction where Marin council requested that city staff develop this code proposal. Uh we then formed a technical advisory committee which is an advisory committee made up of volunteer subject matter experts across a broad array of areas related to data centers who provided information and best practices on regulating data centers. From there we moved into our community meetings. This is the fourth of four community meetings that we have scheduled. two in person and two virtual to receive community feedback on the proposal. Now, for those of you who have been to the previous meetings, the the rest of this is a little bit different. Um, we've received some guidance that mayor and council would like us to uh go before them in April for a study session to brief and council on what we have heard in these community meetings and receive feedback. And so, that is the next step in the process that that will

be forthcoming. that is not a vote on anything. That is simply a study session to brief them. Um, as we go through that process, we'll continue to gather community feedback. The survey will remain open and then based on feedback we received. Uh the next steps in the process are a planning commission study session at a time yet to be determined, a planning commission public hearing where the public will be invited to speak specifically on this proposal yet to be determined and then mayor and council consideration. So more to come on that and certainly as we have more information on the specifics, we will be updating our web page on that. So, as we're considering developing these regulations, we are really looking at guidance from other plans and policies that are currently in effect within the city. These are plans and policies which have either been ratified by the voters in the case of plan Tucson or adopted by mayor and council as official policy. These include, as I mentioned, plan Tucson, uh the Tucson resilient together, which is our climate action plan, the city's comprehensive economic development strategy, the one water 2100 master plan, the large quantity water user ordinance, building codes, as well as other provisions within within the unified development code, which is our zoning code. uh things related to items such as rainwater harvesting or um other development standards that would be applicable for a structure like a data center just like they apply already to any other structure uh within the city. So the one item that I mentioned there is the large quantity water users ordinance and we've got Scott Shadweller here who is going to speak a little bit about that from Tucson water.

All right. Thanks Carver. Good evening everybody. As Cover mentioned, my name is Scott Schwab. I'm deputy director at Tucson Water. Uh, similar to this ordinance, um, we developed a large body water user ordinance. Um, last year, uh, it was put in place because we didn't have any guardrails up. We didn't have any, um, guidance on thresholds for water use. So, when a new developer, a new development, um, came to Tucson looking for water, looking to develop, um, we worked out the engineering piece, we worked out the hydraulics and whatever infrastructure was required. um you know we move forward with that if uh if applicable. So the large quality of water users ordinance was approved by mayor and council in August of 25. Uh it is in place today. Um it really sets the guardrails for um establishing what uh you know defining what a large water quantity user is. And that threshold was set at 10,000 ccf or that was the equivalent of about 7.4 7.5 million gallons per month. That's an annual average. Uh so they could use a little bit more one month or a little bit less one a month, you know, taking into account for weather, things like that. Um just to put that into context, our average residential user uses about 8 CCF. Um so this is the equivalent of about 1,200 single family homes or so. We do not have any portable customers on our system right now that use 10,000 ccf or more. We do have some on the reclam system, but those are mostly tied to large uses such as golf courses or whatnot. Um, so this ordinance applies to any large water user. In fact, this ordinance does not specifically call out data centers. It does not mention them um by name at all. It is any large water user that comes. So, any potential manufacturer um any other type of user that would use this much water. It applies to any new development uh that comes in. So from the ground up uh it would also apply to anybody who wants to upgrade their facility. Uh for example,

if they want to expand services and go from uh you know a certain meter size up to above 10,000 ccf, they would have to comply with this ordinance as well. Um what is required by this policy? Uh any large water users would have to submit a sustainable uh water service application which includes a conservation plan uh to Tucson Water for review. Uh this includes things like defining how they're going to use the water, what they're going to use, what their conservation policies are. Um is it being done in the most efficient way? Uh if deemed complete by Tucson Water, it will be put before mayor and council for their ultimate approval. Um where it will be presented. So that ultimately this is each large water unit does need to be approved by mayor and council. Uh similar to this ordinance as well, we did have a technical advisory committee uh that finished up just recently. We have stakeholders from the community from the economic development uh side, the environmental uh stakeholder groups. Um they all provided comments that information was presented to mayor and council uh last month uh for their review. So that is that's information that they are uh looking over right now. And if they do deem uh you know any updates or any modifications of the policy necessary, that's something I'll come back for in future months. That'll turn back over.

Thank you, Scott. So Scott mentioned a technical advisory committee for the large quantity water users ordinance. Uh I want to clarify that there was also a technical advisory committee formed for the data cent's zoning code amendment. They are two different bodies. So just just to clarify that they're comprised of of two different groups of people. However, the technical advisory committee for data centers uh was established based on direction that we received from mayor and council. Uh its purpose was to share knowledge and expertise and discuss key issues related to land use environmental concerns, resource consumptions, particularly water and power as well as infrastructure needs for data centers. The committee was formed to uh help us all learn about and provide input or on best practices, new technologies and approaches that were undertaken in other cities or jurisdictions. Uh the TAC was asked to advise on options to regulate large-scale data centers and recommend topics and standards for the proposed zoning amendment. I want to be clear that the TAC is not a decision-making body. They were simply advisory that were providing input into the proposed standards. Uh there there was a desire for consensus, but it wasn't always achieved. And so it we aren't necessarily saying that every TAC member agreed with everything that um came out of the recommendations but they did provide advisory input. So the TAC uh includes 13 members from various groups. Uh they range from watershed management to TE. So really we tried to get as many different groups as we could involved in the committee to provide their input. Um, additionally, we have uh had support from city staff across multiple different departments.

Uh, they were not members of the TAC, but they did provide input uh related to uh sustainability, energy use, uh, water resources, economic development, um, just across multiple areas to ensure that multiple different viewpoints were considered when when developing uh, some of the proposed components. Um and again these these the members of the TAC included environmental resources, power supply, energy equity, people also involved in data consent data center construction as well as people involved in the operation of data centers locally within Tucson. Uh we also looked at uh what the TAC thought was important at the very beginning of the process. uh we surveyed TAC members on what components were of greatest concern to them individually. Uh the feedback we received um was that water and energy consumption were of greatest concern which is something we certainly are aware of. Um air quality concerns also came ranked fairly high as did noise concerns and that was also really closely related to setback from adjoining land uses. uh so that and location so that they could be in areas that that were not already heavily developed. Uh concerns were also expressed about heat impacts uh provision of wildlife amenities, generator operation which certainly also relates back to noise and air quality glare design aesthetic screening vibration which also relates to noise and design features. Uh this is not ultimately the category of items that a category list of items that we came up with but during the process of kind of establishing where the concerns were it was a useful exercise of the TAC. Uh all tech materials related to the meetings

including meeting notes and presentation slides are available on the city's website uh which we will have a QR code for later in the presentation uh if you would like to review those. So now we're going to shift gears a little bit and talk about the actual zoning proposal that that we would like to get your feedback on this evening. So when we developed these proposed standards for large scale data centers uh we we essentially divided them into five specific categories which we're going to talk about individually and then poll feedback on. These include the definition, review process and location proposal for large-scale data centers, energy and water use and sourcing to the extent that we can regulate it through zoning setbacks, environmental compatibility, landscaping and parking standards and noise and generator use. So during the these presentation slides, uh we're asking or providing the opportunity for you to provide feedback on each of these proposals. Uh this can be done either through a QR code which will be up on the screen um in just a little bit or the paper sheets that some of you have as well. If you'd rather provide that information that way, we'll certainly accept it as well. I want to emphasize that both of those are the same sets of questions. They will go into the same set of documented responses that will be posted on the website and also provided to mayor and counsel and the planning commission as feedback that we've received on this um on this proposal. Uh there will also be the question and answer comment period and then additional time in the lobby for uh people to provide further

feedback. So uh the next slide is really for those of you who want to get into the survey. This is the QR code that links to the survey. It's a series of questions that we'll go through section by section. Um, if you don't want to do the survey online, but you want to provide information, feel free to raise your hand. We've got some people out here who can provide paper forms as well if you'd rather do that. The first two questions on the online survey are name and email address. You are welcome to provide that if you want. We do not require that as a required question. If you don't want to provide that, we can simply move to the next questions as we get through the process. But that's what you should be seeing if you're getting online. Okay. Now, we're going to talk about the definition of a proposed large scale data center. Uh, as I mentioned earlier,

that slide to accommodate people with disabilities that may not be quick enough to get QR code. Certainly. Thank you.

And the QR code will also be posted at each set of survey questions. So, if you're unable to capture it here, we can capture it at each survey question as well. It's the same QR code. Has everybody had the opportunity to capture the QR code? Okay. So, the next item is the definition of a proposed large-scale data center. As I mentioned earlier, defining a large-scale data center is key to regulating them. Uh currently we looked at how large the data centers are that we have within the city of Tucson and saw a natural break at around 30 to 40,000 square ft. And we're looking at those are the smaller data centers that we've just seen develop throughout time in the city. And so we wanted to establish standards for the larger scale ones that we are seeing being proposed elsewhere. And so we established a proposed 50,000 square foot threshold where a data center above 50,000 square feet would be classified as a large-scale data center. In the definition, we also included a general description of equipment and use of the site. We also included language about ownership and uh it being part of a facility or multiple facilities um establishing this under contiguous ownership. So it's to avoid people trying to essentially circumvent the definition of a large scale data center by building a whole bunch of smaller data centers in in a line. And so the intent of this again proposed language is to uh establish something that would allow us to regulate large-scale data centers as they were developed. And we will have a question on that on the survey uh once we get through a couple of additional slides.

So in addition to the definition, we would need to figure out where these might be permitted within the city. We looked at our zoning code and determined that our existing I2 industrial zone would be the appropriate zoning district for a large scale data center. This is really the zoning district that is most intense and it's intended to be for those land uses that would provide the greatest impacts uh around the community. As such, these are the areas that are located, as you can see on the map, in areas with very little development that are far away from the urbanized areas of the city. So, we are proposing that data centers be permitted through a specific process called the Marin Council special exception, and I'll talk a little bit more about that within the I2 zone. So, this would be something that is not by right, meaning that somebody could not simply come in and say, I want to build a data center. Here's my build. You have my permit application. Approve it. It would be a process where there would be a public hearing before our zoning examiner who is the uh um quasi judicial reviewer. There would be a neighborhood meeting and there would be consideration by mayor and council. So there would be steps in the process that would be public for public input on any proposal for a data center. Um this is essentially the highest level of review that we have for any land use. It's it's kind of very similar to a reszoning that would take place within a community. So in addition to doing a merit council special exception uh within the I2 zone, we would also consider permitting data centers through a planned area development or a planned community development which are also very similar to a resoning where there would be the neighborhood meeting, zoning examiner

review and merit council consideration. um those are very sort of project specific where there's a little bit more flexibility in the process but also the opportunity for additional community benefits. But it's really key to note in in those instances again that there would be a public process and mayor and council review. As I mentioned earlier, the process either through a Marin council special exception or a PAD or a PCD, planned area development or planned community development would require a neighborhood meeting. A neighborhood meeting is a public meeting where the public is invited to come to hear about the proposed data center project or whatever the project is um and ask questions of the developer at that point in time. Under our current zoning code, neighborhood meetings are required for any Marin Council special exception, any PAD or any PCD development. It is part of our process that is baked into all land use change. Under the current code for any of those, there's a notice requirement of 400 ft from the property line that property owners be notified of the neighborhood meeting and the proposed change as well as notification of all neighborhood associations within one mile. We are looking at propo or we are proposing extending that notification area due to the impacts of large-scale data centers as well as their potential location in largely rural areas. We're looking at extending that from 400 ft to half a mile and also requiring notification of all neighborhood associations within 2 miles. And so it's really seeking to have a broader notice area for the proposal than we would have for

for any other type of land use change within the city and the lovely property owners. That is correct under the current code. But if there's feedback on that, that is certainly feedback that that we would uh like to receive from you as well. You mean renters don't get notified under the current code? They do not. That is correct. So they would not be notified under this code. the the property owner would be notified and the neighborhood associations would be notified and they would have the opportunity to notify their tenants or not. But that is how the code is currently structured. What about the schools?

Schools are property within the notification area and they would be notified. So the next slide before we get to the survey is the proposed procedure for data center review. This is something I've already talked about, but I just want to lay it out in a uh diagram because I know it's it's a complex process and there are a lot of steps and steps sound similar. So I can certainly appreciate um trying to to really wrap your head around what all those steps are. But the first one is the neighborhood meeting and that is the public meeting where the developer of the proposal would meet with the public to provide property owners and neighborhood associations and anyone else who comes to the meeting with feedback on the proposal. Uh from there an applicant would uh meet with city staff and then submit an application. Um there would be again public notice of a zoning examiner public hearing that is fully public notice and a public hearing would occur with our zoning examiner who is a again a quasi judicial person who reviews zoning cases and then makes recommendations to mayor and counsel. Zoning examiner would make that recommendation and then mayor and counsel would consider the proposal. Mayor and council could approve, deny, or modify a proposal based on feedback received.

Is any of this required to be bilingual or interpreted through ASL? Certainly any ADA compliance would would be met and um certainly bilingual translation is available just like it is through all other city processes. Is the neighborhood meeting required to be in person? in the neighborhood meeting for project blue with just two people from the county, one person from the state, and a lawyer for project blue because that's the only people who are living anywhere near the area.

I really don't know about the neighborhood meeting that took place for project blue because it was in the county and so it was not a city process that was followed. But that really speaks to our intention to expand the notice area in the proposal for exactly that reason because if there's nobody that lives within the area, we want to notice a larger area to ensure that. Okay. Um so the next slide is back to the survey. If you'd like to provide feedback on the next section of questions, these relate specifically to the definition of large scale data centers and our notice requirements. And I can come back to the definition slide for a minute or so if people would like to review that again and provide any feedback whether you believe this definition um essentially goes far enough or needs to go further. And if you have any written feedback on this definition, uh that will certainly help us to receive that as well.

Oh, certainly. Yeah. Hold on. Here we go. Have you considered expanding the notification range because the sound profile of data centers is so much different and and propagates so much farther especially in this particular climate to capture more people that are affected.

I think that's certainly something that we consider and I would encourage you to place that in the comments as well if if you believe that that is important. Back to your definition of large scale, have you considered putting an upper limit to this definition? So then you know we don't have a medium acre data center. I think that's something again please provide feedback on that that will be very helpful for us to receive as well. Okay.

So, the next question really goes back to the the process for allowed zones and also the review process. Uh, so we certainly ask for feedback on the review process of the proposal of notifying to half an half a mile property owners as well as two miles to neighborhood associations. Do you feel that's adequate? If you have any other feedback to provide um please write it in the survey or on the sheet um so that we can document that as well.

Certainly go back to the one where it says 50,000 square feet. So if they build something 49,000 square feet, they don't have to go through this process. That would be correct. It wouldn't meet the definition of a large scale data center, but that's part of the reason why we are looking at 50,000 square feet and we weren't looking at 100,000 square feet or something like that because we we certainly looked at that as well and and there there are challenges from a zoning standpoint of regulating that, but please provide that feedback as well. Oh, we will again and again and again.

Are answers to the survey going to be made public? Yes, they will all be posted online on the PDSD website, provided to mayor and council and provided to the planning commission.

So, the input that we provide, questions and clarification that are requested, we indicated that a committee or a group are going to compile it to the convey it to the mayor. Is there going to be any representation from someone outside of the city um group included in conveying that? Because there could be a conflict of interest. Um we don't really have representation as to how the data is manipulated or conveyed. So actual verbatim comments for everything that we received will be conveyed. We may provide an overview of the number of comments received or even categories but the actual if you will metadata of every single specific comment that we receive whether it's through the survey through comments in the registration through post-it notes that were posted out in the lobby through chat comments that we've received from the online meetings. Um, it's any other comments that we receive, emails, those will all be provided to mayor and council in a single document as well as the planning commission. People uh have an opportunity to answer the survey questions specific to this. I do want to say also that the survey will be left open for some time. So, if you don't get it tonight, you can come back and provide additional feedback as well.

Yeah. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Dan Versk, who's going to talk about energy and water use.

Great. Um, thank you, Carver. Thank you everyone for joining us today. Really appreciate it. I do want to point out one quick thing um that might make it a little easier for people who are following along using the QR codes. So this QR code goes to uh the survey, but it's the same QR code every single time. So if you keep that page open, you're able to kind of follow along. So you can potentially if I go to the next slide, you could put it in your comments as I'm speaking. Um, and it'll keep you keep us from having to jump back and forth and having to remember kind of what we're going going over the specifics of it. So, just a little tip. Um, might help with some of the logistics of the survey. Um, but as well you also have the opportunity for the the written ones which is exactly the same.

Excellent. Great. So, um, wanted to talk a little bit about energy and water. Um as uh Corin and Carvin Carver had mentioned earlier um these are two items that um zoning really um is very limited in what um can be regulated through these which is part of the reason why you know we're looking at things like the large water uh large quantity water use ordinance and other methods in order to really try to address these things as we know they are very important to the community and very important to to the city of Tucson. And so um related to energy consumption and sourcing um we do have um some regulations and things that we are proposing related to this. We definitely want to get your feedback on this. Um, but the idea here is to provide information, public information that would be part of the application, part of the materials that make its way through through the review and to mayor and counsel so our mayor and council can make really the best decision possible and have all the information that they need in front of them. And so the idea here is that every applicant that if they were to come in, there are no applicants that have currently come in that are in um but demonstrate access to adequate energy supply at the time of the application. And so they have to show that through disclosure um that they have adequate energy um supply at the time of application. It's not something to where there is an adequate supply and then all of a sudden infrastructure has to be created leading to rate increases and things of that sort. Additionally, um the applicant must disclose proposed amount of energy, energy mix including renewables and application materials related to this. So again, you're providing all of that information so you can make that decision. Um again, mayor and council, this is part of their decision-m process. Um they don't have to approve this. They can approve this, deny this.

they could uh ask for additional conditions uh related to that based off that information. So again, putting the information in front of the public and front in front of our mayor council so they can make that decision. Um related to kind of water use um we have a little more leeway on this one um as far as what we can regulate and what we can do. Um but it's just not necessarily within zoning. Um, so what pretty much anything that any applicant that comes in must comply with the city's large quantity water user ordinance um if a Tucson water um customer and Scott had talked a little bit about this earlier, but it requires a water conservation plan. Um recycling water requirements impossible um and really require it and requires monitoring and compliance. um if they don't comply with it, there are um pretty steep penalties um as far as related to this um and and and for that. Um so if they don't fall within that however um which would be that 10,000 CFS that's got talked about um they would be um required or actually we would it'd be required to meet that the the the standard that is basically prohibiting the use of portable water. So they wouldn't be able to utilize portable water for data center cooling um if they weren't subject to the large quantity water use ordinance. Additionally to this um similar to the energy um they would be required to demonstrate access to water supply at the time of application as well. So yeah bringing all that information making sure that all that information makes it in front of mayor and council so they can make um a decision and understand kind of what's in front of them. All that information would be public. It would be submitted at the time of application early on in the process. So it's available to the public. It's available to the zoning examiners. It's available to staff. It's available to everyone.

Um, we have a couple questions. I'm going to hold up for a second. Um, hopefully. Yes. Will there be a requirement that they have some percentage of renewables or recycled water usage? Um, so there it's a great comment and a good one to submit and let us know. Um, as of now in the proposal, there are not a requirement for a percentage of renewable or or a percentage necessarily of recycled water. Um, they aren't allowed to use utilize portable water. Um, if they're under that and then that would be probably part of the water conservation plan if they were to do a large quantity of water user ordinance, right?

Why not? Um, that is that is why we are in front of you to get feedback related to that. So, that's that that is helpful. We appreciate it. Um, you mentioned state penalties. Could you elaborate on that? How big of a second? Um, related to that, I and and Scott and Chris. You know what we'll do? We'll look it up and then when we're doing Q&A, I'll make sure that we respond to that. Um, and make sure that, you know, it's it's pretty steep and it gets it multiplies as you have more less and less compliance over time. I can get those numbers

dollars. How are you going to They just cut you a check. How you going to How you going to counter that when somebody has millions of dollars will just be cutting your check? It's already happening across the country. Anyway, so um I'm going to have to move on, but we will have Hold on one second. I'm going to I will let Chris will come up and talk real quickly about this because he has the details related to it and then then we'll have to move on. Just to clarify, if they're using more than 7.8 million gallons per month since they can use more portable water. Um, it would be a part of their water conservation plan. In general, they have to offset all of that water use, but

my name is Chris Ary. I work at the Tucson City Attorney's Office. I'm going to answer the question about water use penalties in the large quantity water user ordinance that's been adopted by mayor council. There are of course some u financial penalties that occurred to folks who violate the slaughter conservation plan that they submit as part of the large quantity water user ordinance. But at the end stage of that there is the ability of the city to um enact flow restrictions or to restrict the water use manually and there's no amount of money that can um stop that. So I just want to point that out. Um, as far as offsets, again, what we're asking for in the large quantity water user ordinance is for applicants to demonstrate the most efficient use of water for the technology that they have and to also site their uh facilities in areas where there's proximity to reclaimed water if possible and to use as much reclaimed water as they can. Um, there are different perspectives about that and we'd love to hear your comments about whether you think these large facilities should use portable water or reclaim water or both.

Can you tell us where that valve is? We won't tell anyone. You told us which I did not understand that question. Who gets to decide when the water gets shut off if a large water user goes too far? So the the language in the large quantity water user ordinance doesn't talk about shut offs. It talks about flow restrictions. So they ask a large quantity water user will be submitting a water use plan and if that plan is not met then we will meter the usage so that it complies with that plan.

Who determines how much reclaimed water they should be using? Who decides what what's the best? There are a set of recommendations that are made on that in that respect by the city of Tucson water department director and some of that is related to proximity to the reclaim system but ultimately it's a mayor council decision.

Great. Thank you Chris. I appreciate it. Okay. Um moving on and we will have Q&A at the end. Just want to let everyone know um where we'll have the opportunity to be able to uh provide comments, ask questions, etc. Um so talk a little bit about proposed setbacks and this is something we've gotten a lot of feedback on so far and we do really appreciate a lot of the feedback um especially related to kind of noise impacts and things of that sort. So um in the proposal that is in front of you the one we've that we've that we've put in front of you um we have a required 400t setback from data center use uh to urban residential areas and noise sensitive uh areas such as schools. Um and additionally we have uh a required 200 foot setback um from data center use to commercial or office use is just understanding that the incompatibility of these of these facilities um really related to commercial or related to office especially related to residential um is not there and so this is intended to make sure that it's set back. We've seen, you know, a lot of situations up in um the Phoenix area where they didn't have regulations in place um for this and we have data centers right across the street from a lot of residential neighborhoods. Um they've measured you know heat impacts and noise impacts and things of that sort and this is really intended to um to mitigate some of that. Um we've had we've had several comments related to uh you know whether this is enough or not. Um we do really appreciate that. It's something we will be looking at. um as far as looking at potential revisions to um as we move forward um with this proposal. Um so that that's the current proposal um uh that we have kind of in front of you um related to proposed setbacks um as well for this um related to that uh there is a question in there related to that whether it's um appropriate or not um as well as you know open-ended question to

be able to provide your comments. Huh? Two questions. How come the slide doesn't have the same amount of stuff on it as the sheet? The sheet has two more items, landscaping. Oh, yeah. We're uh we'll be talking about that in a second. We're already within the times for community questions. It's 7:30. Yeah, we're we we're almost there. Okay, we'll be there. Okay. No, we How come the notification thing is is so large, but that setback is only 400 ft? I mean, that's nothing. Nothing. That's so tiny. That's not a quarter of a mile. Yeah.

Good things to comment on. We will take your feedback related, but we are looking at it. So, we appreciate it.

I'll let you know. Okay. A couple of other things that zoning can regulate. Uh, one of them being um noise. What's your name? Regulation. My name is Nick Martell.

Thank you. Um, so our proposal right now is to require a independent noise study that measures sound levels and tone. Um, that's something that would be in that 5565 decel area when it reaches a property line. So on the outside or the actual property line between um the proposed data center and any other land use. Um the other thing would be to set clear noise limits on that property line like I just said with those decibb um and then require sound walls or roof screening around generators um and then other loud equipment. So that's just to kind of uh a to block some of the uh the uh generators and some of those other visual aspects of it and also to block some sound. Is there any accommodation on that on the decel level for duration? Because even though it's 50 dB, 50 dB at a constant 247 pace has a different effect than just checking for a single.

So I believe that would be covered in the sound study that would be required for this. What what waiting scale are you using to the sound? a waiting specifically derates the sal of these facilities. I'd have to get back to you on that one.

Okay. Uh some proposed regulations for generator use. Um so generators are part of data centers in terms of backup power usually. Um so our proposal would be to use cleaner high efficiency generators such as tier 4 or natural gas or dual fuel. Um battery backups would be used first during power disruptions. So if there were a power disruption to use that backup uh battery first before getting into generators. Um there would be no load shifting allowed which is the uh running of generators instead of using grid power. Um and then generators run only during emergencies or required maintenance. Um and then that would be non-emergency uh maintenance would only be limited to 9 to5s on weekdays.

Who's going to regulate that and and how do you file complaints if they're not in compliance? So this would be regulated through our code enforcement. Uh code enforcement, you have a website, you can use um 311. There's several ways you can call code enforcement. Who monitors the load? Sorry. Um that would just be a regulation and if they were out of code with it, then they could be issued a violation. How would anybody know they were out of code? That would be up to our code enforcement department to enforce. Teen will take care of that. All right. I will leave this up for one minute um just in case nobody got it and then I'll move on just a second.

I'm going to go back to the compliance thing again. These guys have billions of dollars. So what are you going to do when they just keep cutting you a check and they keep violating stuff? You going to shut them off? You going to tell them to get the hell out? You can't do anything. You don't have the money against these companies. Why are you guys not thinking about this?

Thank you for that feedback. that stuff we would love to hear. Okay, moving on to proposed landscaping. Um so one of the proposed landscape um items here would be to require an enhanced landscaping border of 20 ft. Um that would be around the property line that helps eliminate some visual aspects of these data centers. It also um provides areas to provide um low water plants um uh desert plants for desert landscaping. Um and then to define a minimum parking ratio. That's also one of the aspects of zoning. Um a lot of these do not require a lot of parking and so we would not be requiring a lot of parking for them to use it. Um kind of limiting imperous surfaces at data centers.

So there are no jobs. Cool. Thanks.

Okay. Environmental compatibility. So we are going to utilize some of our existing standards. Uh we are not proposing any changes to environmental compatibility. Uh we would require applicants to adhere to any overlays such as the environmental resource zone um the wash overlays the water course amenity safety and habitat zones. They would have to utilize commercial rainwater harvesting and hillside development standards. This includes protection of existing aoyos and washes. Uh the use of low water and drought tolerant plants. Uh as well as a requirement of harvesting 50% of total landscape water demands. Um just then touching on some of those uh desert landscapes that I was talking about. Um and then utilizing an existing airport hazard district uh requirements on glare. A lot of our I2 zones are pretty close to the airport. So they would have to comply with all airport environment zone uh requirements.

Okay. On that last point, what where would I find Can you go back? Uh where would I find those standards? The state standards. These are in our unified development code. These would be in the overlay section of the UDC. Um if you would like, I can talk to you afterward and show you if you'd like to see them. Okay. Um going to give you another minute if you would like to put any feedback in for those landscape parking and compatibility.

Then no need to go back to the good All right, we just have a couple more slides before we can get to the question and answer comment section. U just wanted to emphasize I already covered some of this opportunities for further input and discussion. This QR code is for the PDSD website where information is going is all posted. Uh, as I mentioned earlier, we're looking at probably a mayor and council special or a study session in April and then to be determined on planning commission study session, planning commission public hearing and merit council consideration. Uh, we also have a um FAQ document that we are continuing to update and it's posted to the website. Uh, this is again the process uh that we outlined earlier. you've already seen that. Um, and so now we're getting set up for the Q&A section. Uh, microphone is being set up by Cesar. Uh, please line up behind the microphone to speak. Uh, we ask that you please be succinct and speak for no more than 60 seconds so that we can ensure that everybody has an opportunity to speak wishes to. And your questions during this Q&A uh, session will be included on the record of public input. um these are being filmed and these will be documented and sent to parent council and the planning commission as well.

Okay, great. So, we have about 20 minutes for Q&A. Again, no more than 60 seconds. We want everybody to have a chance their chance to to ask questions or speak. Can you give us the full 30 minutes?

Well, spoke pretty slow. So, So, um, Colleen is holding going to hold up cards to remind you of your seconds. Um, we know that in public hearings, you get three minutes. This is one minute because this is not a public hearing and we want more people that have a chance. So, um, and Cesar will be making sure that you also know when it's time to stop, but we really value your comments. So, go ahead. First, let's hopefully the mic is working.

Yes. Hi. Uh, my name is Vake. I'm a member of the no desert data center coalition um can you bring up the slide of the map please with the with the I2 zones. Um and while that's happening um I encourage everyone here to leave comments that say prohibit large scale data centers. I think we've heard tonight that whatever restrictions there are incredibly hard to enforce if at all. Um and so please do say just prohibit large scale data centers. It's not up to us to explain how to do that legally. It's up to our city staff to figure that out. Um so if you do know that though, please let them know. Um so this map, the purple area is the large is the um heavy industrial area to the south of the airport. If you see that little carve out south of that purple area, that's Summit. They have no uh representation in the city of Tucson, but they are 80% Latin. And they border the largest section of industrial, heavy industrial. You can see the western border there is the San Javier district of the Kona nation. So these are folks who are disenfranchised by these data centers and that's the heaviest concentration right there. This is environmental racism. So hi, my name is L. I'm here to represent myself as a geoccientist from the University of Arizona and I'm also here as a member of Tucson Red Action. Uh our group has made a list of demands and I'm just going to go over that real quick. Our first one, a complete dedication to the not one drop policy. This includes uh water and it's been amended to be an airbased project. We want to include that also all natural resources including petroleum, gas uh etc. Um our second demand uh we want a commitment to the prohibition of any data center. Um we demand that the city at every stage if you have spoken that you are only able to control this from a building code standpoint. Um all the

other groups um need to work with you to make sure that no data center can be made. Uh and most importantly we want a seat at the table. Uh this TAC board lacks proper representation by the people who will be affected most. We want energy experts, water experts from nonprivate, non um for-profit organizations along with gender and racial tribal voices. Great. And I'll just like if you have written comments for this this opportunity at the mic, please also submit those in writing.

Um my name is Reyes or doesn't really matter. Um, but if I go home and I turn on the faucets in my house, um, I will be shut off water eventually. So, why does this standard not, you know, follow liquid status centers? Y,

our water is our most precious resource in the desert. And they're already talking about cutting us off from the Colorado River water. Um, and the second point is the last time I was here that your tag group of experts, none of them were explicitly against data centers, which you have a bias in there. If you have true expertise, some of them would lead to the fact that they don't believe data centers are are a viable option in our desert. You're picking first on if these people are pro data center and then decide their expertise among them. It's not fair. Um, finally, there needs to be a prohibitive uses of this data center. There is obnoxious uses such as immigration enforcement and mass surveillance. Um, that needs to be My name is Kathy Thompson. Um, I'd like to quantify what an actual need is. We don't need a data center. We need schools. We need hospitals. We need homes. We need food distribution. We don't need data center all of our use to just sell us more crap. It's going to end up in the landfill. Um these companies are rushing to build these data centers because the private capital is drying up. Companies like Blue Owl, Apollo, they have seen great drops in their stock prices recently. They they are just rushing to just take advantage of communities. Um I'd like to also find out if you're going to find for excess water use, what are you going to do? Go to the Midwest or the Northwest and buy more and ship it here? I mean, the fine doesn't do anything. The water is a precious resource for life. It's not for this technology behemoth that we're going to look at in 10 years and say, "Who the heck let them build that thing?" Hi there. My name is Melissa Westbrook. Um, number one, looking at that panel,

it looks about white. Uh, secondly, um, this thing has grammatical and one very glaring numerical error. If you need someone to proofread, I used to be a proofreader and editor. Um, I will say to you that again, we do need to understand why are we building these things? Why this rush for AI? It's dangerous. It's dangerous in our public schools. And that's my area of expertise. So, I don't I grew up here. I'm a pr proud wildcat. Water is our most precious resource. We are not going to give it away. We don't have it. The Colorado River, you guys have got to Somebody's got to put the brakes on. If it's all about money, I got you. If it's all about money, hey, my name is Aiden. I'm a member of local IU 140 or I local 140. Uh, I just have two things to say. one, as far as I can tell, AI has been used to power the worst elements in our society just over and over again. I can't see any real reason that it would be a benefit to our city to have one of these data centers. On a more procedural point, uh I have experience working with a lot of large corporations. They're going to violate your policies. They violate policies, safety policies, environmental policies constantly and with no regard. And so if your first thought is not how are we going to prevent them or stop them when they do violate these policies, you're looking at it from the wrong perspective, you're you're not going to stop them from using too much water or too much power or too much whatever. They do it on a regular basis. They will easily put their employees at risk. They'll take the blood out of your veins if you let them. And so if you're not looking at them as your enemy, you're looking at this wrong.

HI, MY NAME IS DIANE Rosia and I'm a proud Tucson of 56 years and I'm a realtor. So, I house people here in our city. I have a question. Since Tucson already has a data center operating within the city limits at roughly 40,000 square ft of raised floor space, why wasn't that considered sufficient reason earlier to review whether the land use codes should address impacts such as setbacks, energy, water use, environmental compatibility, noise and generator use, and appropriate zoning before future applications arise. have an answer before the next comment.

Okay, sorry about that. Um, yes. So, honestly, we hadn't heard any concerns related to that and it wasn't until we heard concerns from the public that we really needed we needed to go in and actually create regulations related to this and look at those attacks. And so that is the reason why those data centers were just functioning within industrial areas and it really we hadn't had any complaints by neighbors around there or anything else. That's the reason why until this point we hadn't.

Hi guys, it's April. I wanted to bring up two things. When my neighborhood wanted to install a traffic calming device with a grant in our neighborhood, we had to get signatures from 60% of the residents on that street. And yet, these proposed notifications are actually nowhere near the amount that should be compared to something like a community trying to get a very real benefit like a traffic calming. Secondly, I know that we know as people who have code and write code and deal with code in Tucson, we know how to make land uses prohibited. We know how to make it prohibited for shelters, for rehabs, for many other actual useful land uses. And that's why Mayor Castle just had to declare an emergency around homelessness to get over those codes. I encourage you to learn from what you do well already and apply that to this situation. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Reed. Um, I'm I'm tired. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of coming to these meetings. I'm tired of saying the same things over and over again to the city officials, specifically mayor and council, who do not appear to be listening. Why should we expect mayor and council to listen to you or to listen to the feedback that we have given you when they were spending they spent a couple years before they told anyone about project blue working behind the scenes to make it happen? They were meeting regularly with Amazon every few weeks. I think 2024, 2025 to get advice from Amazon about Arizona water law and they never thought to tell the people of Tucson. These are the people you're reporting to. My question for you is, how are you, given that betrayal, how are you going to get them to listen to you? How are you going to get them to listen to us? Cuz I don't have any faith that they will. Hi there, Derek Espalos. I am an accountant, a data analyst, and a current candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission, which I can assure you is not going to protect anyone from anything that happens. So, I have three questions. I'm just going to throw them out there. Why should we trust this process? Because there, as was just mentioned, we've been through this process. We keep going through this process and no trust is never established. The second question is, are you going to disclose how you're scraping and putting together this data? Because having the binary options mixed with the comment option leads to a lot of statistical bias. And finally, when will Tucson understand that no means no?

No. Response before the next.

Yeah, I want to respond to that question and the previous question about the process and where is this feedback going? How do you know this is going to be listened to? So, our mayor council is very interested in the feedback from the public and the technical advisory committee. That's actually why they put a pause on project blue last summer so that we could have a broader community conversation about what are the safeguards we need to have in place for our community as these uses are proposed. So, I think it's exactly in reaction to what they heard from the community that they directed staff to make sure we have protections and guard rails in place for our community. So, that's their intent with this process. Um, and we will be taking all of this feedback to mayor and council in the next month or so um to give them an update on what we've heard so far and give them an opportunity to provide additional feedback and direction. Hi, my name is Leilani. Um, a comment and then a question. Um, under the location and design section, I believe there was a bullet that said the applicant would propose the regulations. I find that comical. Why would we afford the applicant the right to propose the regulations? I don't know if you're looking for feedback on how we should incorporate or mandate the process as well as the feedback on the impacts. Um, and then also with regards to the penalties that have been assessed, I'd like to know over the last 10 years what the financial penalties that have been assessed. He didn't mention, Chris did not mention uh and because we know there no one's monitoring it. Um and that would show that it would support that no one's

monitoring it. So the financial penalties I'm curious what that amount is. Um yeah, I know. But um you're good. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um with regards to the applicant demonstrating the access to energy Okay. Okay. Go ahead and respond.

I'll get back in line if there's still by the way I'm happy to speak and talk through the details of some of those. I'm not entirely sure about the um applicant proposing. Um I will say related to the large quantity water use ordinance. It was just put in place in August and as Scott has mentioned previously um existing there are no uh large quantity water people that would actually qualify for that that are on the portable system and the only ones that are really in the in the city. There's only a handful and they're on the reclaimed system as of now. And so that kind of gives you an understanding of how large of the that threshold is, but it also gives you an understanding of kind of the reason why there wouldn't be any penalties because no one is actually a part of that program at this point.

Good evening. Thank you for taking my question. My name is Albert. I am a retired uh environmental biology teacher. And one of the things I used to teach my students when it became the topic of water was the concept of water mining. And most people don't understand what water mining is. So I'm going to address you guys. That is when you take more water out of the ground than reflections. There's nothing in a hole and pumping water. Just water was limited by 2025 by law to stop water mining. And that's why we started blending cap water. Any development in town has to be a guaranteed 100year water supply. How is billions of gallons a month going to guarantee that this data center will will have enough water supply for a 100 years. And how are we going to do that without water mining? That would be my question perhaps for the lawyer of Susan. Thank you. I think the change 2030 used to be 2025.

All right. So to help answer that question, one of the requirements of the large quantity water users policy was that they do have to fall within our assured water supply. So that is one of the requirements that we would look at to make sure that we're not going above and beyond. Um so that is one of the things that we have that much water in the desert. We have that much water. We have a very resilient supply as of right now.

Okay. I want to let you know we have our hard stuff at 8 because we have to leave this room. It will continue in the lobby and staff will stick around for at least a half an hour and can talk individually with all of you. So, let's continue. We can get in hopefully three more people.

Hi, Elena native Tonan. Um, I want a future in Tucson, which is why I'm here. Um, I just want to add my voice to the many voices here who are asking to see more prohibitive zoning that would actually prohibit hypers scale data centers in the city t of Tucson limits. Um, I see some of the efforts in the proposed code to mitigate harms um from this development. I appreciate that and frankly it's just not enough. Um, I think we're still seeing that communities are facing disproportionate harms while we don't really get to see any of the benefits, frankly, of these projects. Um, I have major concerns about enforcement and monitoring. Who does this? Is this sufficient? Particularly, as folks have mentioned, for companies that are making billions of dollars. Um, you seem to imply in some of your answers and some of what I saw written that it's up to the public to like call in. Um, so anyway, I want to understand the enforcement and the monitoring mechanisms. Um, how do data centers fit into plan Tucson and how you're prioritizing economic development in the city? A plan Tucson general plan is a reflection of a city's values. Is like, do we value this? Is this within our values? Is this something about us? Hi. Um, I am not an expert in anything unfortunately. Um, I just had a couple of like facts that I just kind of Googled really quickly. Um, so that's a quick quick Google search. Um, you can see that AI in 2025 used about give or take 3 312 to 764 billion water liters of water this year, last year alone. And it's projected that in Phoenix um, data centers could consume up to 3.8 billion gallons of water per year. Tucson doesn't have that kind of water. Do we want the water to go to people in

communities or do we want it to go to data centers here? Yep. Hi, my name is Brandon. This might be normally where I take do the courageous thing and thank you for hosting this meeting, but we're not thankful that we have to keep coming out to these meetings and talking to you guys. Last summer, we told you we don't want a data center in the desert. It does not make sense for us. no matter what regulations you put on the screen, um it's just not right for the desert. It doesn't make any sense here. Um and instead of listening to us, you guys have jumped to this inevitability that the data center has to be here. So, let's just go ahead and figure out how we're going to regulate that. They're not inevitable.

They're not inevitable. That's what we're here to tell you. We don't have to have a data center in the desert. It doesn't make sense to do it. The first question on your frequently asked questions flyer is, can we prohibit a data center from being here? Yeah. Instead of answering that, you've just told us what a data center is. If you look at that, the question should be, "What is it actually?" You didn't answer the question. Um, but I think in one of your slides, you maybe did because it says that the city is able to control land use. Yeah.

So, instead of having these regulations and these conversations, how about we stop stop and talk about how we're going to not have a data center here. It does not make sense. We'll take the last question, but I think it should be noted that there's a complete error in the response to the first question. That's not actually the response. They just discovered this. Final question for comments.

Hi, my name is Lee and my question is why was TEP allowed on the technical advisory committee when they have a vested interest in building data centers? The for-profit company, the Canadian company that owns TP said they plan to spend$ 1.5 to2 billion on additional generation. So, it seems like we shouldn't have someone with a vested interest guiding this. Um, I also want to know if you're looking at all about the connection of this map and environmental racism cuz these seem like the communities like on the southside that have been poisoned for generations and generations. So, if you're not going to put one in the foothills, I don't think you should put a data center anywhere in the final question. Why is there so many police here? This is a community meeting. It feels like to have a whole line of police here. So,

yeah, I would really like to look at facts to include environmental justice and the history of of pollution in Tucson. Thank you.

We really need all the feedback. Thank you for sharing your concerns, questions, and input in this process. It is definitely going to shape what we take to Mayor Council and where this process ultimately goes for our community. So, thank you all for being here tonight. We will be around um in the lobby for more questions and discussion if folks have more time and more questions that you want to ask. Um but we do need to leave the auditorium now so that uh Ringcon High can close up for the evening. Thank you very much to Ringcon High for hosting us and thank you all for being here.