To the editor,
Maricopa is growing. The question is — growing for who?
I have asked that question on doorsteps all across our city. Today I am asking it about something specific. Just south of town, near State Route 347, plans are moving forward for a massive industrial complex — a data center, a natural gas power plant, and a battery storage facility — spread across roughly 500 acres, right up against the Ak-Chin Indian Community.
You may not have heard much about it yet. That is part of the problem.
Let me explain what a data center is, because most of us are still learning. It is an enormous warehouse of computers that runs around the clock to power the internet and artificial intelligence. It needs two things in staggering amounts: water and electricity. In the middle of the Sonoran Desert, in the middle of a water crisis, that alone should give every one of us pause.
The campus proposed near us is expected to consume hundreds of acre-feet of water every year. It will draw enormous amounts of power — and across Arizona, utilities are already warning that if every proposed data center is built, the rest of us could foot the bill through higher electric rates. Families who live near existing data centers in the Valley describe a low, constant humming that never stops. And the long-term jobs these facilities promise are few relative to their size — and may never go to the people who actually live here.
These projects are not inevitable. A community that shows up, asks hard questions, and stands together can shape what gets built.
Let me be clear about something. I am not against technology, and I am not against growth. Data centers will be part of our future. But there is a world of difference between growth that lifts a community up and growth that simply uses it up. Where these facilities go, how much water they take, how much noise they make, and who pays for their power — those choices matter. Right now, they are being made with very little input from the people who will live with them.
Here is what troubles me most. Much of this is being decided at the Pinal County level, on county land, in rooms most residents never enter. For the project near us, the public still does not even know the name of the end user, exactly where its water will come from, or its full demand on our power grid. When a deal this big is kept this quiet, we are right to ask why.
Other Arizona communities have shown that residents are not powerless. In Chandler, the city council listened to a packed room of neighbors and rejected a data center — even under heavy outside lobbying. In Tucson, the city refused to hand over its water and its blessing. These towns proved a simple truth: when neighbors stand together, they can change the outcome.
I have lived in Maricopa for 15 years. And for more than 30 years, across many communities, I have done the unglamorous work of service — feeding families, mentoring young people, building organizations from nothing. I did not begin that work for a title, and I am not asking for your vote to chase one. I am asking because I believe Maricopa deserves leaders who will read the fine print, sit through the county meetings, and tell you the truth about what is coming over the horizon.
If I am honored to serve on the city council, I will fight to protect our water and our wallets. That means demanding full transparency on every project. It means setting clear local standards for noise, water use, and where these facilities can be built. It means refusing to extend our city’s precious water to projects that do not serve our residents. And it means standing shoulder to shoulder with the Ak-Chin Community and our neighbors at every hearing where our future is on the table.
Maricopa is growing. Let us make certain it grows for the families who already call it home — for our children, our seniors, our veterans, and the neighbors we have not yet met.
That is the Maricopa worth fighting for. And I will.
Chrystal Allen O’Jon
Maricopa City Council candidate
![RJ Ruiz and Elvenee Dees practice roping at their Hidden Valley home on May 9, 2026. [Monica D. Spencer]](https://inmaricopa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/20260509-spencer-dees-rodeo-family-web-04-300x200.jpg)
![RJ Ruiz and Elvenee Dees practice roping at their Hidden Valley home on May 9, 2026. [Monica D. Spencer]](https://inmaricopa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/20260509-spencer-dees-rodeo-family-web-04-150x150.jpg)
15 Responses
Yes, no Data Center and I worked in one and it doesn’temploy many people. 1. It’s an eyesore. 2. It uses way to much water and energy. Water is already a crisis. 3. It looks like a prison and it lights up the night sky and you will never be able to stargaze at night, anymore. 4. Maricopa needs sit down restaurants, grocery stores, infrastructure and night life.
There’s no use for a data center here. Keep them in Mesa, Gilbert and Phoenix
I’ve been here 10 years and when I moved here, Maricopa prided itself for being a small, farming community.
Over the last decade, I’ve watched several farms disappear to make way for big box stores, apartments, and now a mother effing data center. Maricopa is a shell of what USED to be a really nice place to live and the blatant cash grab by city officials is repugnant.
They make excuses about how “we don’t have the funds” or “we don’t have enough residents” to implement absolute necessities like a REAL hospital, REAL employment that’s NOT minimum wage in one of our many, many fast food joints that they keep building, REAL opportunities for families to thrive here, but sure, they have plenty to build a data center.
All those pieces of garbage need to be voted out and never to return. They’re ruining this place.
This candidate alone can’t stop this but thank you for caring.Pinal county is selling us out.McClure and now Vitiello are wanting these here.McClure lives in the Saddleback area,plenty of open space there for these centers that provide NOTHING to our city.All these politicians are selling us out.Vote accordingly.
~$4B construction + ~$5.5B equipment investment
~$44 million/year in projected local tax revenue (property taxes mainly)
~1,000 permanent jobs (plus thousands during construction)
~ Sits in Pinal County (Maricopa/Ak-Chin area) and would fund local schools, county services, fire districts, and community college
~ high tax per acre + relatively low public service burden compared to housing development
~ brings new high tech industry base to an area that is currently lacking
~ Devour town’s electricity and groundwater, driving up costs for residents’ utility bills by a ton; some electric companies have already said they will stop providing power to people because data centers give them more money.
~ Drives up property taxes while lowering nearby home values
~ Excessive light and noise pollution driving away local wildlife within its radius
~ Complete eyesore
~ Destroys entire ecosystems
~ Drives away anyone considering moving here
~ Does not and will not provide “1000 permanent jobs”; one of the largest data centers in the country employs around 40 people.
We do not need it here.
Anyone on that AI bandwagon, all I can hear is “computer, think for me please” and it’s sickening.
Hmm…”ted freestone/fred calistranos”, this is the second all lowercase profile in favor of the data center on here, I smell a bot/bad faith user.
Your jobs are incorrect and it does nothing for Maricopa. It does not bring High Tech to Maricopa. It’s for Big Business’ that use SaaS for they companies instead of hardware onsite. It’s just a satellite hub of computers. Everything you do online goes through these data centers, that’s all. None of the BS you stated because you’re probably with the builders and invested in it
I don’t believe that O’Jon has done any research other than pick up on someone else’s talking points, however although the opinion is not original, I think Mr. Freestone is not correct here.
I have personally been in dozens of data centers as I own several businesses and have rented data center space. I have never seen one that employed more than a security guard staff and building maintenance. The people you see coming and going are tenants who go there to work on their systems / computers, not employees.
Data centers are a short term fad to support the ramp up with AI and SaaS across the globe, as technology continues to improve, and data centers move into low earth orbit (yes that is a real thing) where water and air conditioning aren’t needed, cities across the country will be left with modern versions of the old steel and industrial plants of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s. sitting abandon full of drug addicts and derelicts of the like.
So it’s not in the City of Maricopa? And it’s not on Ak-Chin land.
so have u asked the current council and mayor on their stance on this issue?
The Roaches from California are slowly poisoning our Local Politics don’t listen to an Idiot running for office that moved to Arizona who’s Originally from LA. For one thing the SRP Powerplant is being Built in Stanfield and this State does need more Power if the Population keeps growing the way it has!
Ah, the delicious absurdity of a desert hillbilly calling someone from LA a “roach”… you gotta love unfortunate local nativism…
I love it here but Arizona is still a flyover state… arguing about who is better, whether it’s people in Scottsdale versus Glendale or natives versus transplants, is like arguing over who is the biggest goldfish in the little bag you get from the carnival… 😂🤣
Also, “Old School”, one assumes you’d have a basic grasp of proper punctuation after being around all these years…
Our local politicians are majority Republicans, so technically it’s them who are poisoning our local politics. Maybe your beef should be with them instead of people who aren’t even in office.
While I don’t disagree with not building a datacenter here, I do disagree that the city should have any say in it. It’s not in city limits. This is literally what we have a county board of supervisors for. Last I checked, we voted for them, so the mechanism is in place to regulate these kind of things.
California politics belong in California. I agree Maricopa should not give concessions to, or try to lure in a data center, the problem is that this property is not in the city. Sounds like a typical California politician trying to make themselves relevant to a conversation they know nothing about. How many data centers has “O’Jon” been inside of? Probably none, because they don’t welcome visitors.
Stanfield isn’t hundreds of miles away though, it’s literally right next to us and we’ll be getting all the noise, heat, and light pollution from it.
California has nothing to do with anything regarding this subject. So what if she’s from Cali? Do you have an issue if Maricopa residents are from Illinois? Michigan? Maine? Florida? As long as whoever gets something done that will benefit the entirety of this town I couldn’t care less where they’re from or what party affiliation they are and neither should you. Enough with the typical R whining about Cali/Chicago/Blue State Du Jour, it’s a friggin broken record I swear
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