Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema warned the city of Chandler during a meeting last week that failure to support the development of local AI-driven data centers would result in a loss of control for the city. The federal government, she said, will eventually intervene.
His comments came in the final part of a lengthy discussion Oct. 15 about a proposed data center and office campus planned for the South Price Road corridor in Chandler. The potential developer disputed city staff’s concerns that the project did not fit the region’s land-use vision.
Sinema, president and CEO of the Arizona Business Roundtable, encouraged the Planning and Zoning Commission to move forward with the proposal and embrace the emerging technology needs of the coming “AI revolution.”
“If we choose not to move forward with this development, the land will remain vacant until federal preemption occurs,” Sinema said. “Earlier this year, the AI Action Plan The policy established by the Trump administration says very clearly that we must continue to proliferate AI and AI data centers across the country. So federal preemption is coming.
Price Road’s proposed innovation campus — a potential $2.5 billion investment by New York-based developer Active Infrastructure — would include an AI data center and five additional office buildings. The developer is expected to find office tenants on the 40-acre site after construction.
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