The De Soto City Council took another step forward on the Beale data center campus in a meeting on July 2, 2026, approving engineering and construction agreements to build a new water main connecting the site to the city’s municipal system. The council voted to authorize an amendment with engineering firm HDR and a preconstruction services agreement with contractor Garney to design and price a one-mile water line along a 99th Street alignment between Sunflower Road and Edgerton Road.

The vote requires the city and Beale to finalize a supplemental agreement documenting Beale’s shift to a fully air-cooled, closed-loop design and the resulting change in water demand. Because air cooling requires far less water than the evaporative systems originally contemplated, Beale’s new design does not need the full slate of water-treatment expansions envisioned in the original 2025 development agreement. 

In recognition of the community benefits that the larger upgrades originally contemplated would have provided, Beale confirmed, on the record, that it remains committed to funding $10 million in water system improvements, including a new well north of the Kansas River and replacement of the river’s raw-water crossing. When a council member asked directly whether Beale was standing behind that commitment given that the supplemental agreement has not been finalized, the answer was an unambiguous yes. Beale also noted it had already issued a public statement affirming the $10 million pledge.

Council members also used the meeting to press on two recurring resident concerns – groundwater and noise. Beale confirmed again that it has no plans and no need to drill private wells on site, since all water will come through the city’s system in partnership with Rural Water District No. 7. 

On noise, city staff acknowledged that the science around low-frequency sound from large cooling systems is still evolving, and reiterated plans to engage an independent acoustic consultant (an RFQ process is expected to be presented to the council on July 16, 2026).

How De Soto Is Thinking About Data Centers

Beyond the specific vote, the meeting offered a clear window into how the city frames its approach to data center development generally. City staff were candid that they aren’t endorsing the data center industry wholesale; rather, their confidence rests on nearly two decades of deliberate industrial land-use planning in De Soto, dating back to the community’s experience hosting the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant. The message from staff was that the same careful, long-range planning that shaped Astra Enterprise Park is now being applied to data centers, and that a data center is, by design, less impactful to neighbors than many of the other uses already permitted under the site’s light-industrial zoning, such as distribution warehouses and manufacturing.

That framing lines up closely with what the city has since published on its new Data Center Projects Hub. The website emphasizes that these properties were already zoned M-1 (Light Industrial) years before data center development began to expand rapidly, and that the city cannot legally exclude a permitted use simply because some residents object. 

It also mirrors the fiscal points made at the meeting – that large power users like data centers are required under Kansas’s new Large Load Power Service rate structure to fund their own grid upgrades and pay elevated rates, which the city argues helps stabilize costs for everyone else rather than raising them and that De Soto’s senior water rights on the Kansas River (roughly 8 million gallons per day) dwarf both current demand and anything a data center would require.

On the fiscal benefits of the project, the city’s projections remain substantial. Between electric franchise fees, sales tax on electricity, and PILOT and future property tax payments, De Soto expects more than $300 million in city revenue over the next 25 years from the Beale data center  alone, averaging around $12 million annually, a figure city leadership pointed to during the meeting as potentially transformative for future community investments like a new community center.

At the same time, the council isn’t treating these questions as settled. One council member introduced a slate of proposed ordinances covering an environmental health compliance officer, developer-funded third-party environmental review escrows, urban forestry and dark-sky lighting standards, and stricter local oversight of well drilling, explicitly framed as responses to growth driven by projects like this one. The council voted to direct staff and the city attorney to begin researching these concepts in phases, with a first report on findings on August 6, 2026.

What’s Next

With this vote, design work on the water main can proceed, and the city and Beale will continue negotiating the formal supplemental agreement reflecting the project’s air-cooled design and Beale’s infrastructure commitments. We’ll continue to share updates here on Beale’s Community Hub as the project advances through 2026 and beyond.

On May 18, 2026, the Claremore City Council held an extended public hearing and vote on a proposed multi-phase data center campus planned for the city’s existing industrial park. After a lengthy public comment period, the council’s own discussion offered a clear and detailed picture of the deal’s structure, and why several members ultimately supported it. 

Here are some of the key takeaways.

A Rare, Self-Funded Revenue Opportunity

The city’s finance and administrative leadership were direct about a structural reality facing Oklahoma municipalities – cities in the state cannot collect property tax revenue. Because of that, officials explained, the real upside of a project like this comes through electricity sales and the sales tax applied to industrial power use. Once the project reaches full operating capacity, city administration projects roughly $15 to $16 million per year in new revenue, comparable to the entirety of the city’s current annual sales tax collections. Importantly, this comes without any increase to residential electric or water rates, since the agreement requires the developer to cover 100% of infrastructure upgrade costs.

Direct Investment Beyond the Tax Structure

Independent of the incentive framework, the development agreement includes a $250,000 annual community payment for the life of the project, plus two $2.5 million deposits earmarked for local quality-of-life initiatives, including the city’s parks master plan. City leadership emphasized these are dollars the city otherwise rarely has flexibility to spend, given how much of its budget is tied up in core infrastructure needs.

A Carefully Negotiated Incentive Structure, Not a Giveaway

Several council members walked through the mechanics of the proposed Tax Incentive District (TID) in detail, clarifying that it is fundamentally different from a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in that it is a negotiated, in-lieu-of-property-tax arrangement that required unanimous sign-off from all eight affected taxing entities, including the local school district, county, and emergency services boards, each acting through their own public governing process. Council members were clear that this wasn’t something imposed on those entities, but an agreement those bodies chose to enter into after evaluating their own interests. Unlike a TIF, where a taxing entity typically waits years for a redirected revenue stream to repay infrastructure debt the city or authority had to take on, this structure asks nothing of the taxing entities upfront. Beale funds all required infrastructure directly, meaning schools, the county, and emergency services take on no financing risk or cost while still receiving a guaranteed negotiated payment on land that currently generates little to no tax revenue at all.

Addressing Community Concerns with Data, Not Assumptions

Council discussion pushed back on several widely circulated concerns. On water use, officials noted the facility’s air-cooled design would use an amount of water comparable to a couple of fast-food restaurants daily, far less than commonly assumed. On environmental and health concerns, several members pointed to over a decade of operating history at comparable data center facilities in the Tulsa region without documented adverse local health effects. On property values, officials cited regional reporting suggesting nearby property values have trended upward near existing data center developments, not downward. On power generation, city leadership confirmed there is no on-site gas or other generation planned or permitted under the agreement – all power is supplied through the existing utility infrastructure, with Beale funding all necessary substation and transmission upgrades.

Workforce and Long-Term Community Ties

Several building trade representatives and apprentices spoke about the project’s potential to keep skilled local workers employed close to home rather than traveling out of state for work, citing nearly two decades of experience partnering with data center construction projects in the region and the training pipelines these projects can support for the next generation of the local workforce.

A Deliberate, Multi-Year Process

Council members and city administration were clear that this proposal was the product of roughly two years of negotiation, review, and refinement, involving city planning, engineering, legal counsel, and all affected taxing jurisdictions, structured specifically to protect ratepayers and taxpayers from new costs while capturing new revenue for community priorities.

A Robust Public Debate

As with many large infrastructure and development proposals, the project drew a wide range of community reactions. The public hearing portion of the meeting included several hours of resident comments on both sides, with some speakers raising questions about environmental impact, property values, and the pace and transparency of the process. Council members acknowledged these concerns directly and described the final agreement’s terms, including infrastructure funding requirements and rate protections, as a direct response to public input gathered over the course of the process.

Following discussion, the council approved both the Tax Incentive District ordinance and the associated development agreement by a 6–3 vote, along with a series of related utility agreements needed to support the project’s power supply.

On January 6, 2026, the Marana Town Council held public hearings and votes on two related rezoning applications for a proposed 600-acre data center campus (Luckett Road North and Luckett Road South), representing what was described as the largest private capital investment in Southern Arizona’s history at roughly $5 billion. Both items ultimately passed by a 6-0 vote. 

Here are the key takeaways from the discussion.

A Xero-Local-Incentive Deal

Unlike many large economic development projects, town staff and outside speakers repeatedly emphasized that this project requested no local incentives at all. Marana’s own job-creation incentive ordinance specifically excludes data centers from eligibility, and the applicant’s independent economic analysis was built without factoring in any town-level incentive offset. Instead, Beale is fully funding all required infrastructure, including an estimated $20 million road extension, $15-20 million potable water extension, $15-20 million wastewater extension, and a multimillion-dollar contribution toward a regional drainage channel, all of which become town-owned infrastructure once complete.

Substantial Projected Tax Revenue

An independent third-party economic analysis presented at the meeting projected $407 million in combined state, county, and local tax revenue over the first ten years of just the project’s first phase, including $145 million directly to the Town of Marana, roughly $25 million to the Marana school district, and over $15 million to the local fire district. Speakers translated these figures into concrete terms – the fire district noted that $1.5 million per year, a fraction of its projected share, would be enough to fully staff an entire new fire station.

Jobs and Workforce Commitments

The project is projected to generate approximately 4,200 construction jobs over the first phase (2026-2030) and 400 permanent on-site jobs (engineering, technical operations, and security roles). Multiple building trades unions – including electricians, ironworkers, carpenters, laborers, and painters – spoke in strong support of the project. They emphasized that current work often requires two-plus hour commutes each way to the Phoenix area or travel out of state, away from their families, and that a local project of this scale would let them work and build careers close to home. Beale representatives also described early partnerships with Pima Community College and the Marana Unified School District to build local training pipelines.

Addressing Water and Cooling Concerns Directly

The project is designed as a fully air-cooled, closed-loop system that will not use potable water for cooling. Beale stated this results in a 98% reduction in water use across the 600 acres compared to its current agricultural use (roughly 2,000 acre-feet/year today down to about 40 acre-feet/year), and confirmed they are not requesting any variance from Marana’s data center ordinance, which already prohibits use of the town’s potable water for cooling. Town staff confirmed this ordinance, adopted roughly a year prior partly at the recommendation of another Arizona municipality (Chandler), was the first of its kind in the state adopted proactively, before any data center project was proposed.

Utility Assurances on Rate Impacts

Representatives from both regional utilities, Trico Electric Cooperative and Tucson Electric Power (TEP), addressed the frequently raised concern that the project would raise electricity rates for existing residential customers. Both stated unequivocally that the data center’s infrastructure costs (substations and transmission lines) are being borne entirely by Beale, with financial guarantees such as letters of credit and bonds in place before construction begins. They also noted that a scheduled 2026 rate increase already implemented was based on 2022-2023 cost data unrelated to the data center. Both utilities’ representatives stated the additional stable revenue from the project could help push future base rate increases further out for existing customers, since fixed infrastructure costs would be spread across a larger sales base.

A Robust Public Debate

The meeting drew a large and vocal mix of supporters and opponents. Supporters included the Marana Chamber of Commerce, the school district superintendent, the Arizona Commerce Authority, the University of Arizona’s research leadership, the Arizona Technology Council, and numerous building trades members and local business owners. Opponents raised concerns including the indirect water footprint of generating the power needed to run the facility, the pace of new data center development regionally, questions about generator emissions and noise near the adjacent veterans cemetery, requests for a public referendum rather than a council vote, and broader questions about state-level tax incentive policy for data centers generally. 

Council members and staff acknowledged these concerns as valid questions worth raising, while noting that the year-plus, proactive ordinance-drafting process the town had undertaken specifically to get ahead of these issues before any project was proposed.

Following discussion, both the Luckett Road North and Luckett Road South rezoning ordinances passed unanimously, 6-0, with one council member (a property owner on the south parcel) recused from the vote entirely.