Tucson officials in Arizona have approved its first rules for large-scale data centers, adding guardrails on where the facilities can be built and how they must operate in a desert city where water and energy use are under intense scrutiny.
The 6-1 vote followed public debate over how to balance economic development with local resource limits.
What happened?
According to KOLD, the vote came after a year of review, study, and community feedback regarding large-scale data centers.
Under the ordinance, as the outlet reported, a facility counts as a large-scale data center if it is bigger than 25,000 square feet or uses more than 20 megawatts of power. The new standards require proposed facilities to be built at least a half-mile from residential areas and no closer than 1,000 feet to office or commercial space…