Seemingly out of nowhere, Marana became a focal point in the debate over data centers in Southern Arizona.
To get you caught up, we pulled together some of the news stories we highlighted in our “In Other News” section, and a few stories we wrote ourselves.
There’s surely more to come, so stay tuned!
Data centers get green light: The Marana Town Council approved a rezoning request to make way for a 600-acre data center, KGUN’s Madison Thomas reports. That decision came after a four-hour meeting, where more than 50 residents signed up to give the council a piece of their mind. That included both critics of the project and construction workers eager for the jobs the data centers could bring to Marana. The rezoning request came from Fremont Peak Properties, which is owned by Beale Infrastructure, the same company behind Project Blue. (January 8, 2026)
Not everybody agrees: Even though Marana officials approved the rezoning for the data centers, some Marana residents are trying to put the rezoning on the ballot so voters can decide, Madison Thomas reports for KGUN. The organizer of the effort, Jordan Greenslade, needs to round up 1,360 signatures. (January 12, 2026)
A tale of two cities: The recent green light the Marana Town Council gave to a data center project reflects public opinion, just like the Tucson City Council’s rejection of Project Blue reflected what Tucsonans wanted, writes Tucson Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock. Still, Marana residents now have to deal with the data center’s huge demand on the power grid, along with the society-level concerns over artificial intelligence. “To quote virtually every character in the Star Wars universe: ‘I have a bad feeling about this,’” Morlock writes. (January 12, 2026)
Throwing their hats in the ring: After the Marana Town Council gave the green light to a rezoning for a new data center project, three town residents are now running to unseat those council members, and they’re hurling accusations that council members took campaign contributions from the lawyer representing the data center developer, Arizona Public Media’s Katya Mendoza reports. (January 21, 2026)
@nytimes Two of the U.S.’s most contentious political issues — immigration detention and A.I. data centers — are converging in one swing congressio... See more
Signatures vs. servers: Groups opposed to the planned data center in Marana turned in 2,800 signatures to put the 600‑acre data center project on the ballot for voters to decide in the next general election. The signatures still need to be verified by the Marana town clerk, but organizers got twice the minimum of 1,382 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. (February 6, 2026)
Data center pushback grows: Marana residents are trying to get a measure on the ballot that would allow them to decide whether huge data centers can be built in their town, which could be the first in a wave of citizen actions against data centers, Jeremy Duda reports for Axios Phoenix. Political consultants are saying data center companies might need to plan for ballot measures opposing their projects. But ballot measures can only happen when an official action, like a rezoning, is involved, and even then, they’re hard to pull off if thousands of signatures need to be gathered and there isn’t an organized group behind it. (February 11, 2026)
Sorting it all out: A complicated legal battle is brewing in Marana, where a subsidiary of Beale Infrastructure (the company behind Project Blue) is suing the town, Katya Mendoza reports for Arizona Public Media. It’s a tangled web, but basically the subsidiary, Fremont Peak Properties, is trying to build a data center and they want the Town of Marana to put the kibosh on a petition to block it. But town officials say they legally can’t do that yet, which Fremont Peak says led the town to become “mired in weeks of unnecessary litigation.” (March 26, 2026)
By hook or by crook: A Mesa Republican lawmaker rewrote one of his bills to help Beale Infrastructure get its planned 600-acre data center in Marana past two referendums, the Tucson Agenda’s Joe Ferguson reports. The referendums are tangled up right now in technicalities, but the bill from state Rep. Jeff Weninger would clear the way for the referendums to be withdrawn and make way for the new data center. (April 13, 2026)
A portion of the 600 acres being eyed for data centers is currently being used for agriculture.
Devil’s in the details: A Pima County Superior Court judge put the kibosh on two referendums that would have given Marana voters final say on a 600-acre data center campus, Joe Ferguson reports for the Tucson Agenda. Judge Scott McDonald agreed with town officials that the language on the ballot measures wasn’t specific enough. (May 4, 2026)
Waiting in the wings: Another data center may be coming to Marana, although it’s still in the planning stages, per the Tucson Agenda’s Joe Ferguson. The 841-acre parcel has been in development limbo for two decades, first as a master-planned community and then as a four-phase plan for housing. Last November, developers submitted plans to rezone the parcel into a tech park with a data center. (June 29, 2026)