The Pima County Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday and approved two key policy updates aimed at increasing government transparency. The board voted 4‑1 to revise the county’s non‑disclosure agreement (NDA) rules and to expand the Enhanced Due Diligence review to cover additional land‑development projects that consume significant water or electricity.
Vote and key participants
District 4 Supervisor Steve Christy cast the lone dissenting vote on both measures. Board Chair Jen Allen, who has championed the changes since the fallout over the Project Blue data‑center, praised the revisions as a necessary refinement of existing tools. “Like all tools, they occasionally need to be sharpened and refined,” Allen said.
Deputy Administrator Carmine Debonis Jr. explained that the updated NDA policy now applies to “other land development projects” beyond the previously limited category of economic‑development projects. The change ensures the county administrator must provide supervisors with a report detailing any project subject to an NDA.
Enhanced due‑diligence expansion
The Enhanced Due Diligence policy, originally focused on economic‑development projects, now explicitly includes any major project that is expected to use at least 10,000 CCF of water per month on average annually (about 7.48 million gallons) or that would require construction or upgrade of a power substation with an input voltage of 115 kilovolts or greater.
When a project meets either threshold, multiple county departments—including Environmental Quality, Regional Flood Control, Development Services, Regional Wastewater Reclamation, Conservation Lands and Resources, and the Health Department—will be tasked with a deeper review. The county may also request information from utility providers, municipalities, tribal governments, and other outside agencies.
After the initial review, the county administrator will deliver a preliminary report to the supervisors outlining findings and recommendations. As the project moves forward, additional reports can address growth‑inducing impacts, environmental‑justice concerns, water and energy use, extreme‑heat and wildfire risks, alternative options considered by the developer, and the developer’s past performance.
Background: Project Blue controversy
The policy updates stem from criticism surrounding Project Blue, a massive data‑center proposal south of Tucson that was approved in September 2025. At that time, supervisors voted 3‑2 to sell roughly 290 acres of county‑owned land near the Pima County Fairgrounds to Beale Infrastructure. Many details of the project were kept confidential under NDAs, including the involvement of Amazon Web Services, which was slated to operate the facility.
Residents expressed frustration over the lack of public information, prompting the board to label the new policies as “lessons learned” from Project Blue. The revised rules are intended to prevent similar opacity by requiring clearer reporting and broader review of projects that could significantly impact water, energy, public health, or the environment.
Implementation timeline
The meeting memo accompanying the vote included a sample letter that will be sent to companies, giving them 30 days to comply with the new NDA requirements to keep existing agreements active. Supervisors expect the updated policies to take effect immediately, with the first enhanced‑review assessments slated for projects already in the planning stage.
Board Chair Allen concluded, “I think this policy is a great step toward putting in place transparency and creating a process by which a little bit of the NDA can be retained, while setting clear communication about what that process is and when it ends and what can and cannot be obscured.”
Original reporting: Arizona Luminaria — read the source article.
