By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX
The City of Goodyear received requests to rezone approximately 159 acres on the west side of Bullard Avenue for the development of yet another new data center.
Compass Data Centers submitted a request to rezone 103 acres at the NWC of Bullard Avenue and Yuma Road, extending to about half a mile south of Van Buren Street, from I-1 (Light Industrial Park) and C-2 (General Commercial to Light Industrial Park with a PAD Overlay. A second request was submitted to rezone 56 acres on the west side of Bullard Avenue, three-eighths of a mile south of Van Buren Street, from AU (Agricultural Urban) to Light Industrial Park with a PAD Overlay.
Goodyear City Council approved both requests at its March 25 regular meeting.
The new data center campus, to be located at 400 S. Bullard Ave, will consist of eight buildings with three substations. Each building will be 227KSF and 30 feet high.
Two of the substations will support 69kV. The first one, owned by APS, will be located on the west side of Bullard Avenue, half a mile south of Van Buren Street. According to the council report, I-1 zoning was approved for this substation by City Council back in September. The second 69kV substation will be owned by Compass Data Centers and will be located directly west of the first substation.
According to the report, “With the development of additional data center buildings, a third electrical substation will need to be built directly west of the second. It is anticipated that the third will be a 230kV substation and it will be owned by the data center.”
The third substation will have 50-60-foot-tall equipment and will be surrounded by a 12-foot wall. “The route of the 230kV electrical lines, on poles 140 to 160 feet tall, is not known at this time. APS will conduct an 18-24-month public siting process to determine line routes,” according to the report.
Since the property is adjacent to the Bullard Wash, the property owner will need to construct a 10-12-foot path, along with a 10-foot landscape buffer on each side. Also, a minimum 8-foot screen must be provided to screen any substation from residential property to the west. This pleased residents that took part in a Neighborhood Meeting regarding the rezoning application on February 27.
A timeline for construction has not been publicly announced.