The Pima County Board of Supervisors has approved two policy updates setting new standards governing non-disclosure agreements and environmental reviews for data centers and other major economic development projects.
The original policies were passed last year amidst ongoing fallout from controversies surrounding non-disclosure agreements and potential impacts from Beale Infrastructure’s planned Project Blue data center development.
The maximum duration for an NDA has not been reduced from five years to two, and the initial term length has been set at six months. The Board will now have to approve all extensions, with the first set at 185 days and the second permitted for a calendar year.
The update also expands the scope of the policy beyond the original language, which only covered economic development projects.
The County will revisit its current agreements under the updated policy. Companies with current NDAs in place will be notified their agreements are no longer in compliance, since they were signed before the new update was passed. A company will then have to inform the County if it wants to keep its NDA active and will have to realign the agreement under the new standard within 30 days.
The second policy update broadened Pima’s criteria for triggering what it refers to as “Enhanced Due Diligence” for major projects.
Projects from “large” water and electricity users will now be evaluated for environmental and natural resource impacts, public health concerns and cultural significance, among other items.
The policy defines a large water user as any project with water use levels equal to or greater than 10,000 centum cubic feet, the same threshold set by the City of Tucson.
The policies will be reevaluated and may be updated to deal with changes in technology, according to County officials. (Source: Arizona Daily Star)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Multiple jurisdictions around Arizona have imposed increasing levels of restrictions on data center zoning and development recently. AZBEX has covered the issue extensively, and much of our reporting is available at this link. Data center restrictions are also a growing trend in Nevada. Our Nevada sister publication, NVBEX, has also covered the issue. That coverage is available here.