Referendum Facts
Referendums do not stop development. They ask the Citizens to weigh in on developments by putting the decision on the ballot. If successful, these exact same questions will be placed on the ballot, and our Townsfolk can then say yes or no. It is pure democracy in action.
There are three referenda being circulated:
Two of the referenda address the rezoning of each of the two 300-acre parcels located on Luckett Road. One is for Luckett Road South and the other is for Luckett Road North. These two referenda address the rezoning for each parcel. This land is currently farmland. The rezoning allows each parcel to be used to build a data center.
One of the referenda addresses the Development Center. The Town extended 84 million dollars in tax-breaks to the developer, Marana Urban LLC, a company formed specifically for this project. The Town has also proposed leasing the land, 19 acres, for 75 years with an option to extend the lease to another 25 years.
The 84 million dollars is better used to address the budget needs of Marana, to provide flood diversion, fire stations, emergency services, and water infrastructure, vs. tax incentives to developers.
These referendums are being circulated because the projects are large and the long-term impacts are great.
The data center, once completed, will draw 1500 MW of power. The developer, Beale, is not an expert in data centers, they are a Billionaire hedge fund.
TEP is making ‘special deals’, covered by non-disclosure agreements, with Beale for Project Blue in Pima County. We expect them to make a similar deal for the Marana data center. We think these deals should be public because they can negatively impact our electricity rates. TEP has already raised rates twice in the last five years. When asked if the data center would increase rates yet again, their response was “We will do the best we can.”
TEP has made statements to the Arizona Corporation Commission indicating that the priority for energy delivery is to the largest user. Data centers will be the largest users. Residents then become the minority in any power emergency because data centers have equated themselves with Hospitals.
The Town received one bid for the Development Center. We believe the giveaways to the developer, whose major investors live in California, are too large.
Our town is struggling with a budget to pay for PFAS cleanup. PFAS has cost us 22 million dollars already and is raising our water bills 10.5 percent every year for the next five years. A $100 monthly bill today increases to $150 in 2030. Why are we paying for this? Because we didn’t know all the facts. Big decisions should not be left to a handful of people, no matter how well intended, if there are non-disclosure agreements that prevent them from knowing all the facts. This should be on the ballot.
