Mesa Council to vote on data center controls
Mesa is moving closer to getting a handle on data centers that have been proliferating in the southeast portion of the city.
Council voted 6-0 last week to introduce regulations, including where data centers can locate and how they are built. Councilman Francisco Heredia was absent. Council is expected to take final action Tuesday, July 8.
Over the past six years, 15 data centers have been built, approved or proposed on 1,500 acres and the city wants to ensure remaining land is available for the industries that bring in high-wage jobs and minimize impacts such as noise for residents.
“Based on hearing 60 data centers in Arizona and 15 are here in Mesa, that’s 25% of all data centers in Mesa,” Mayor Mark Freeman said July 1. “We have done a great job in attracting data centers and we’re just putting some guardrails about future development sites for them. So, I support the ordinance at this time.”
Three industry representatives at the meeting wanted more time to work through their concerns.
“When I think of Mesa, I think of economic ingenuity, economic innovation, a welcoming business climate,” said Cepand Alizadeh, representing Arizona Technology Council. “There are reasons why these data centers are coming to Mesa. Meta could have gone anywhere in the country but they chose to come to the City of Mesa.
“As we develop out 21st century economy based on advanced manufacturing, innovation, artificial intelligence, etc, we have to remember that we can’t have that without data centers. … If you want an economy based in AI, you have to have data centers to process all this information.”
He added that the data centers deliver thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of facility jobs and millions in tax revenues that go into funding public safety, parks and roads.
Councilman Rich Adams said that Mesa is grateful for the data centers that it has but “the real question here is how much of a good thing is enough?”
Jaye O’Donnell, Economic Development director, pointed out that Mesa was not prohibiting data centers and just wanted to continue building a balanced and diversified economy with a focus on landing high-wage jobs.
“When you look at the land mass that the data centers are using compared to other projects like advanced manufacturers, the job count for the data centers is much lower per acre,” she said. “We do feel when you’re looking at higher density, high-quality job counts we still need to preserve some of that land for the advanced manufacturers and other technology, research and development, biosciences, pharmaceutical companies and the list goes on.
“We are trying to achieve the highest and best use for the land for the community, for the residents surrounding those projects that we’re attracting.”
Adams also said he’s heard quite a bit of requests from the industry for more time and asked “what else is there to invest additional time in?”
City Manager Scott Butler said that staff spent time and effort into the regulations and held countless one-on-one meetings with industry members to address f their specific and individual concerns that are unique to each site.
“I do strongly believe we have a good product,” Butler said, noting that if Council approves the measure this week, tweaks can be made in future if needed.
Council held a robust discussion on the regulations at the June 26 study session.
Assistant Planning Director Rachel Phillips explained the need for extra consideration of data centers’ design and sighting due to their impact.
“We’ve received a lot of concerns from residents about the construction and the continuing location of data centers within the city because of their proximity to residential properties and the impacts that they have on those,” Phillips said, adding:
“They also merit some consideration for utility demand and coordination. Through these text amendments, we’re able to have an early kind of look at some of the energy and water consumption that would be needed for the facilities. That would really allow for the city’s providers to have a little bit of foresight and be able to plan for the future knowing what is going to be coming into the city for development and knowing what they would need to provide as far as capacity.”
Currently Mesa doesn’t define what is a data center and lumps it in with indoor warehousing and storage.
The proposal includes relegating data centers to general industrial- and heavy industrial districts. In many areas in southeast Mesa, data centers are allowed by right under existing Light Industrial zoning. Staff has proposed a waiver, which would allow for that to continue.
The proposal also includes the required number of parking spaces, a 400-foot separation from residential, a 60-foot height limit, mechanical equipment screening and a required sound study.
Councilwoman Jenn Duff suggested that the city restricts the use of water as a cooling source.
“All new data centers probably will be AI,” Duff said. “They require liquid cooling. …I’m concerned about allocating more water towards this use when we need water for other industries as well as our living.”
She noted cuts in the Colorado River water allocations to western states, including Arizona, due to an ongoing drought.
Water Resources Director Chris Hassert reminded the council that it approved last year a safeguard that caps how much large water-users can take from the city’s portfolio, requiring data centers to procure it from other sources. “It’s turned them towards looking at electric cooling or maybe even just going somewhere else altogether,” he said.
Duff said it was her understanding that AI data centers can’t be air cooled. Hassert said the city hasn’t seen data centers coming in that are water-cooled.
The electricity use was a problem for Vice Mayor Scott Somers.
“I’ve seen some studies saying up to 40% more power to air cool it,” Somers said. “And by air cooling, that’s where you’re getting the humming noise because of the power use and all the fans that are required to cool it both inside and out.”
Duff also asked if the city allows for data centers to generate their own electricity on site.
According to Anthony Cadorin, Energy Resources Program manager, the city has received requests before from data centers to generate their own power, which he said is challenging to do but possible. He pointed to Microsoft’s deal with the owner of the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island to power its data center and Meta was working with a nuclear plant in the Midwest for power.
“I think it’s going to be pretty challenging here,” Cadorin said. “So we’ll see where it goes.”
The department received comments in support from over 175 residents.
“The public is in favor of the amendments,” Phillips said. “But there was concern that this does not apply to Eastmark and a desire for those regulations to apply to them.”
According to Phillips, the master-planned mixed-use Eastmark is a planned community district, which allows it to establish its own zoning.
Somers noted that planning documents for Eastmark envisioned a vibrant “work, play, learn” community with a variety of jobs, walkable neighborhoods and sustainability.
“The frustration that echoes out there is that most of that vision hasn’t been delivered,” said Somers, who represents the area. “The houses are great but we’re kind of focused on one industry. You can’t even find a sit-down restaurant out there. If you’re going to find a job, you’re still going to get in your car and drive. The diversity of the jobs and our economic base out there is absolutely fundamental to the future of the city, the health and vibrancy of the city.
“We don’t want to be the data center of Detroit when the industry changes.”
According to Phillips, about 37 industry stakeholders, representing about 27 organizations, also submitted questions and comments.
“A lot of them seemed to be a little bit of misinformation that was circulated amongst the industry,” Phillips said.
“We continue to receive the same comments,” Phillips said. One of them has to do with the zoning restrictions …We heard from the industry that they felt like this was overly restrictive.”
Councilwoman Alicia Goforth wondered if staff gave enough time for the process. Industry representatives at the Planning and Zoning Board meeting wanted more time, saying they needed clarification and had more questions about the amendments.
“I can’t even get into how the irony is dripping with that,” Butler said. “When someone in an industry wants something, we move too slow. But now we’re moving too fast. I guarantee you the day on May 27 that email went out to stakeholders. Everyone in the industry knew within 24 hours what was being proposed here.”
“It was all hands-on deck talking to industry assuring those that had made investments that those investments were safe,” Butler said. “And educating people on a lot of misinformation that was out there.
“This has been framed by some, I think intentionally, that this is an anti-data center movement. It’s not anti-data enter. We’ve shown our commitment – 15 million square feet, 1,500 acres. We’re not anti-data center. We’re pro-diversifying the economy, we’re pro biotech, we’re pro-aerospace and defense, we’re pro-advance manufacturing. What we’re talking about is a balanced economy.
“I would argue that if we’d given six weeks right now there would still be claims that it was rushed,” Butler said. “I just think some folks aren’t satisfied with what we’re doing and they misinterpret what we’re doing. Frankly they’re taking an industry scale view on something that we’re trying to personalize for Mesa.
We feel like we’ve done our part for the industry. We love the industry, there’s been some great partners in that. We see what Meta and Apple and Google and others have done in our community and they’ve been good community partners but we’ve done our fair share.”