Pima County Widens Post-Project Blue Scrutiny to Big Water and Power Users, Tables Extra $1M for Housing

TUCSON — The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, rewrote two economic development policies written in the wake of Project Blue so that any project drawing large amounts of water or power, not only a recruited business, gets a full county review before it reaches the board. The board also approved $8.7 million for affordable housing but tabled indefinitely an extra $1 million its housing commission had asked for, sent its energy code back to staff with a four-part directive, moved $1,017,000 from contingency to keep the Office of Emergency Management running, approved a Tucson Electric Power substation off Ajo Highway, and heard the elections director and recorder review the primary.

Due Diligence and NDA Policies Now Cover Any Large Water or Power User

The board voted 4-1 on each of two updated policies: Board Policy D 31.3 on non-disclosure agreements and Board Policy D 31.4, the enhanced due diligence process. Both were adopted in September 2025, after the Project Blue data center fight, and applied only to economic development projects. Deputy County Administrator Carmine DeBonis Jr. said the update extends them to any large water or power project, whichever door it enters through.

The revised due diligence policy borrows the City of Tucson's definition of a large water user, 10,000 centum cubic feet (CCF) per month or more, and defines a large power project as construction or upgrade of a substation with input voltage of 115 kilovolts or greater, a definition taken from the county zoning code. Projects arriving through Development Services will get the enhanced review inside the existing entitlement process for plan amendments, rezonings, specific plans and conditional use permits. Economic development projects will be circulated to every relevant department for written findings, which go to the county administrator for a single recommendation to the board.

Chair Jennifer Allen asked staff to make sure every department understood that cumulative impact analysis, not just a project's "four corners," is expected of them, and pointed to the health department's new data center framework as the model. DeBonis said the policy's cumulative-impact section now refers back to each department's review, and County Administrator Jan Lesher called the health department document "that gold standard template" administration would use to build similar frameworks for other departments. "We've not yet had a project that's gone through this enhanced due diligence process," DeBonis said.

Supervisor Andrés Cano said his office had received information that some county staff were encouraged to refrain from sharing technical input on Project Blue, and asked what would keep that from happening again. Lesher said routing every department's findings through the county administrator was meant to guarantee all perspectives reach the board, that administration took the criticism "quite seriously," and that a minority-report mechanism could be written in. "Staff should never be afraid to speak to the board about issues within their departments," she said.

The NDA policy now covers land development projects generally, not only economic development, and both the activation and reactivation of an NDA trigger it. A draft letter in the packet asks every company with an existing county NDA to conform to the new policy; those that do not respond will have their agreements treated as invalid. The next quarterly NDA report to the board in executive session is due in October.

Allen said she does not support NDAs in government outside price negotiations but called the policy "a great step towards putting in place transparency." She said Arizona's light regulation "is what makes us really attractive for things like data centers," and that in its absence the policy is how the county gets information on impacts to land, air, water and public health. She supported the 10,000 CCF threshold but said she expects it to come back, since groups are pushing the city to lower its figure to about 2,500 CCF.

Housing: $8.7 Million Approved, Extra $1 Million Tabled Indefinitely, 3-2

The board approved the Regional Affordable Housing Commission's recommended $5 million for gap funding of new projects and $3.7 million for programs that keep people housed, three in favor with one opposed and one abstention. Through fiscal 2026, according to the county administrator's memo, the county has put about $24.5 million into the two categories, adding 618 units, with 1,239 more in planning or development, and helping 910 households stay housed.

The commission's second request, an additional $1 million for gap funding, did not get a vote. Cano moved to table it, saying the $8.7 million already approved puts the county "on the right side of investing in people" and that he looked forward to the commission's future advice. Asked by Supervisor Rex Scott whether he meant indefinitely, Cano said yes. Allen seconded, citing the contingency draws the board had made the same night and expects to keep making. The motion to table passed 3-2. Supervisor Steve Christy said afterward he had voted against tabling because he was prepared to vote on the money that night; Vice Chair Dr. Matt Heinz argued for it.

Heinz said funds approved now take at least 18 months to put a key in someone's hand, that the county ended the fiscal year with a fund balance nearly $12 million above projections, and that the one-time request did not have to come from contingency. A commission member who spoke at call to the public said elevated interest rates, unpredictable construction costs, fewer state-assigned rental vouchers and the sunset of the state low-income housing tax credit match, which the 2025 Legislature did not renew, have widened the gap on every project by $1 million to $2 million.

Energy Code Goes Back to Staff With a Four-Part Directive, 4-1

Returning to the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code amendments it adopted in May with a 120-day directive, the board voted 4-1 on a motion by Allen to: keep staff working with the Tucson-Pima Consolidated Joint Code Committee on energy load management and efficiency credits; accept the committee's deletion of energy monitoring and reporting because state law preempts it; explore incentives for builders to opt in to automatic receptacle controls and renewable-ready provisions; and bring back recommendations on the residential code.

Staff told the board the committee had raised the square-footage threshold for load management and efficiency credits from 5,000 to 50,000 square feet over upfront cost and workforce concerns. A review of city and county permits found 84 percent were for buildings of 25,000 square feet or less, and that storage and warehouse buildings made up 20 percent of permits issued last year, averaging almost 25,000 square feet in the county and 39,000 in the city. Staff's first proposal is to require warehouses of 5,000 square feet or more to meet the load management provisions, with draft language to the committee this month, Planning and Zoning in October, and the board this fall. The 2027 IECC arrives in early 2027 and staff want to review it proactively; the 2030 edition is not expected to keep the efficiency provisions.

The county's climate plan calls for cutting emissions 60 percent from 2021 levels by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050. Allen said she favors reviewing the code every three years rather than six, and asked county workforce development and economic development to look at the clean-energy trades shortage the committee cited. Scott asked whether the city must pass a matching motion; Allen said it need not, but that she had briefed every member of the mayor and council after the May vote and they were waiting on the county's next step.

TEP Substation Approved 5-0 After Tucson Mountains Association Raises Concerns

The board approved Tucson Electric Power's permit for the Tucson Estates 138-kilovolt substation on about 15 acres of state trust land off West Ajo Highway near South Spencer Avenue, 5-0, subject to standard and special conditions. Vivian Harte, newly elected president of the Tucson Mountains Association, asked for details on the transmission line that will feed it, the minimum pole height, and downward-directed lighting used only during work at the site.

Steven Eddy, TEP's director of public affairs, said the 46-kV radial lines serving the southwest side are at capacity and fail whenever a single fault occurs; both substations serving the area lost power for more than four hours in a storm last month. The new station lets TEP retire two older ones. Equipment inside the 12-foot masonry wall stays under 25 feet, but lightning masts and frames required by the National Electrical Safety Code will run 40 to 55 feet. Lighting will be downward-directed to meet the county's dark-sky rules and switched on only when crews are on site. TEP will file the transmission route with the state line-siting process this month; about 80 percent uses existing structures or utility corridors.

Asked by Allen about constituents' fear the substation is meant to serve a data center or a solar farm, Eddy said: "This project has no relation to Project Blue," nor to a solar and battery project proposed near Three Points that is outside TEP's service area. Cano asked TEP to commit to meeting with the association's leadership, and Eddy agreed.

Primary Election Review: Ballot Costs Down, ID-Verified Drop-Off Debuts, Votemobile Hit by Outages

At a 6:30 p.m. time certain, Elections Director Constance Hargrove and Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly presented after-action reports on the primary. Hargrove said ballot printing costs have fallen from about $565,000 in 2018 to $195,000 for the 2026 primary as vote centers matured. The county ran 120 vote centers for the primary and will have 126 for the general. Sheriff's deputies now escort election-night ballot vans from receiving stations, and supplies are scanned at drop-off and again at central receiving.

Under the new state law allowing voters to show ID when dropping off an early ballot on election day, Hargrove said more than 6,000 voters used the ID-verified line. Christy, who requested the item, relayed a voter's report of being sent to a second table; Hargrove said that is the process, not confusion, and that larger signs and more training are coming. Christy asked why Maricopa County reported the option sped up results while Pima said it saved no time. Cázares-Kelly said reconciling ballots her office never possessed took about three hours, longer than the roughly two hours it would have taken to signature-verify them, and that "this legislation was written specifically to address a Maricopa problem." Christy noted his wife's early-ballot packet never mentioned the option.

Cázares-Kelly said the Recorder's mobile voting unit lost a vehicle to mechanical problems, had generators overheat in the summer heat, and closed twice when power outages shut down tribal government offices on the Tohono O'odham Nation and at Pascua Yaqui. The office has bought a larger diesel truck and will not test new sites in November, sticking with the Marana Aquatic and Recreation Center, Robles Ranch Community Center, the Tohono O'odham Plaza in Sells and the library in Ajo. The University of Arizona will get one week of early voting plus a permanent drop box at the Student Union; the recorder said student registrations often need multiple visits because of proof-of-citizenship and the new proof-of-residency requirements.

Emergency Management, Search and Rescue Funded Together

At Christy's request the board bundled and approved 5-0, without discussion, the $1,017,000 contingency draw for the Office of Emergency Management and the $100,000 Southern Arizona Rescue Association contract extension through June 30, 2027. The OEM staff moved to the General Fund this fiscal year while their operating money was still budgeted from grants, according to the finance memo, which recommends permanent General Fund support starting in fiscal 2027-28. Henry Jacobs of the all-volunteer rescue association told the board a recent call for one dehydrated hiker in Bear Canyon ended with 14 patients.

Also at the meeting:

A historic-landmark rezoning for a 0.93-acre property at 4239 N. Pontatoc Road and a conditional use permit for a food truck at 16305 N. Oracle Road each passed 5-0. Three liquor licenses and a tax-relief petition for Via de Dios, approved on the assessor's recommendation, also passed.
Cano asked the county Department of Transportation and the Pima Association of Governments/Regional Transportation Authority for a pedestrian safety plan after several fatalities, including in District 5. Heinz, the county's RTA representative, said PAG/RTA is engaging the health department and the Chamber of Southern Arizona on it, and that RTA project spending has gone from $30 million to $40 million a year to more than $200 million under new executive director Mike Ortega, which is why so many roads are under construction.
Allen said the county administrator search recruiter will present semifinalists in executive session Sept. 22, and the search committee will interview them virtually Sept. 30.
Scott reported the Chamber of Southern Arizona's board endorsed Proposition 425, the measure to raise the county's expenditure limit.
Christy pulled six consent items; three health grant amendments dating to 2023 drew his question about the delay. Deputy County Administrator Steve Holmes said they had been stuck in the county's Workday transition. All passed. Cano asked colleagues to flag consent pulls in advance.
Cano opened the meeting with a moment of silence for Vincent Anthony Siqueiros and Cameron Davis Capara, killed outside a midtown bar in what police are investigating as a hate crime, one of two shootings in District 5 in the past month.
Revisions to Merit System Rule 14 were pulled from both the study session and the regular agenda at the County Attorney's request.

Earlier in the day. At a 1 p.m. study session, the board previewed two items that return for votes Sept. 22. Conservation Lands and Resources staff presented Board Policy C 17.1, a government-to-government consultation framework with tribal nations developed with the Four Southern Tribes Cultural Resource Working Group, along with a revised county land acknowledgment. Staff said it creates no new permitting system. Allen asked whether the county had considered co-managing conservation land with tribal nations or returning it to them; Director Kris Gade said formal co-management had not been discussed, but staff had discussed potentially returning some conservation land to tribal partners where appropriate. On the draft 2026-2029 economic development strategic plan, Allen questioned whether a department of six or seven staff can work seven target industries, tourism being the new one, and said she was uneasy seeing mining and an expanded defense industry among county priorities given the board's long fight against the Rosemont, now Copper World, mine. "I don't aspire for my son to have an engineer job building more bombs," she said. Scott said the county should build on its aerospace and defense base; Heinz called Copper World's owner Hudbay "one very bad actor" while distinguishing it from other mining companies the county works with. "Very un-Canadian," Heinz said. "They're kind of being jerks." Lesher said a planned early-childhood economic impact study may build on Rounds Consulting Group's existing First Things First analysis rather than start from scratch.

This report was drafted by Claude Sonnet 4.6 from a live transcript produced by Deepgram Nova-2, then reviewed and edited by Nicholas De Leon with Claude Fable 5.1, and published at 8:38 PM MST on September 8, 2026. Read more about how this is made.