Phoenix to clamp down on data centers

The city of Phoenix in Arizona is set to clamp down on data centers. The City Council has approved a series of changes to better regulate data center growth in the city, including regulating locations and external design specifications.

The vote, which took place on December 10, targeted standalone data centers and will aim to locate future facilities away from the light rail and employment centers. The council will now work to update the general plan to add guidance for data centers, change rezoning requirements for primary-use and secondary-use data centers, and codify standards for design, location, noise concerns, and performance standards.

Phoenix’s economic development director, Christine Mackay, said: “Our goal is to ensure that our citizens [who] want to work within their neighborhoods can work within their neighborhoods. While [data centers are] great tax investments on the property tax side, their job activity is significantly lower than what we like to see in our employment corridors.”