Phoenix data center assurances fail to sway foes
Menlo Digital has provided detailed explanations for its Ahwatukee data center regarding water, noise, and generators, but local opponents remain unconvinced. The Ahwatukee Community Alliance continues to challenge the project, arguing it was improperly approved under existing zoning without a public hearing. Construction is ongoing while regulatory and potential legal challenges are pursued.
Menlo Digital has provided extensive details on its one-million-square-foot data center in Ahwatukee, Phoenix, addressing concerns regarding water consumption, noise, and backup generators. The company specifies the use of air-cooled chillers, estimating annual water consumption at 8.1 million gallons for the entire campus, with most of it for landscaping, significantly less than residential alternatives. Menlo Digital also outlined measures to mitigate noise from thousands of fans and emergency generators, including sound attenuation and vibration isolation, and has brought on an acoustical engineer.
Despite these assurances, the Ahwatukee Community Alliance, led by Chairman Craig Evans, remains determined to challenge the project, arguing that the information is "too little, too late." Opponents are pursuing questions about noise, air pollution, water and electricity use, and fire safety. A core dispute revolves around the project's zoning: Phoenix officials maintain the data center is an allowable use under the property's 1996 Commerce Park zoning, thus not requiring a rezoning hearing. The Alliance disputes this, contending that a modern hyperscale data center, particularly with extensive outdoor equipment like rooftop cooling fans and 120 diesel generators, does not fit the original zoning and should have undergone greater public scrutiny and a proper zoning hearing.
The 120 diesel-powered emergency generators are also subject to a separate regulatory process with the Maricopa County Air Quality Department, where the Alliance plans to participate in a hearing expected in November. While construction of the five-building campus continues, the Alliance acknowledged the challenge of halting development but insists on their right to a zoning hearing, asserting the project is "not legal" without it. The ongoing situation pits rapid construction against the Alliance's regulatory, political, and potentially legal efforts to halt or significantly alter the project.