Could there be another data center in Marana’s future?
Last November, The Planning Center submitted plans for a tech park on an 841-acre parcel north of West Marana Road, just west of Interstate 10.
The urban design and architecture firm included plans for an "advanced tech hub" that would feature a data center as part of the project known as Ranch House.
For now, the proposal remains in the planning stages, and no public meetings have been scheduled.
The property, however, has spent decades in development limbo — and a data center is a far cry from the previous plan that the Marana Town Council had in place for the land.
In 2005, the Town Council adopted the Sanders Grove Specific Plan for the same site, which developers envisioned as a master-planned community on the 841-acre property.
This is what the developers of the Ranch House plan sought to build before they pivoted toward a technology campus that includes a data center.
A decade later, the owners amended the Sanders Grove plan, but its underlying vision remained largely unchanged.
Then, in 2022, The Planning Center unveiled a substantially revised specific plan, rebranding the project as Ranch House.
“There was an expectation that much of northern Marana’s farmlands would be developed today with several master planned communities featuring an abundance of housing and neighborhood‐level commercial uses to support these homes. That vision has not come to fruition,” the developers wrote in 2022.
The Ranch House plans initially were focused on a four-phase plan largely to build housing.
The 2022 Ranch House plan still focused primarily on housing, with development occurring in four phases.
That quietly changed last November.
Developers submitted new rezoning plans that would transform the site into a technology park anchored by a data center.
Plans dating back to November of last year include building a data center as part of their “advanced tech hub.”
Jackie McGuire, a candidate for the Marana Town Council, said she first noticed the proposal a few weeks ago while reviewing documents posted on the town's website.
McGuire is part of a four-person slate challenging the incumbents on the council, including Mayor Jon Post. She is also one of the plaintiffs suing the town over its rejection of referendum petitions challenging the Beale Infrastructure data center. The town argues the petitions contained the wrong legal description.
Given the controversial nature of data centers, McGuire said the town has an obligation to bring these projects before the public even when they are still in their earliest stages.
At a rally over the weekend, McGuire said that if elected, she would add more enforcement mechanisms to one of Arizona's first data center-specific zoning ordinances.
For now, officials familiar with the project said they continue to meet with town staff, and no formal hearing has yet been scheduled for the Marana Planning Commission, the first public step in the rezoning process.
In other data center news, the developer of the Rancho Sahuarita residential neighborhood has been in discussions with the Town of Sahuarita about building a 200-acre data center in the town of 38,000.
A town hall was held last week on the topic, and another public forum is planned for next month.
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Project Blue appears to have a branding problem.
One of the site's water ponds has turned a rather impressive shade of green after what appears to be an algae bloom.
As any pool owner knows, sunlight and heat can turn a large motionless (and possibly untreated) pool into a green pond pretty quickly.
Of course, it could be a new group of eco-terrorists we’re calling algae-fa.
Drone photos of part of a holding tank at the Project Blue work site, image courtesy of BG Boyd Photograph.