In effect
Scope
Chandler Ordinance No. 5033 adds city code section 35-2214. It says data centers are not permitted to operate in Chandler unless explicitly approved as part of a Planned Area Development zoning district. An ancillary data center is permitted only if it occupies no more than ten percent of the building footprint, is used to serve the on-site property owner's enterprise functions and is not used to lease data storage and processing services to third parties, and is not housed in a separate stand-alone structure. The ordinance also says that before a data center is constructed in a Planned Area Development district, further process requirements in the section apply. It is a Chandler zoning amendment. It is not an Arizona statute, and it does not say an existing facility must close.
Dates
- Effective
- No single effective day is stated
- Scheduled expiration
- None scheduled
- Completion condition
- The opened ordinance states no expiration. It also states no separate effective date, so the 8 December 2022 adoption date is not stored as the legal effective day.
- Source document
- 8 December 2022
- Last checked
- 22 September 2026
- Issuing authority
- Chandler City Council
Summary
Chandler Ordinance No. 5033 amends the city zoning code so a data center is not permitted to operate unless it is explicitly approved as part of a Planned Area Development. A narrow ancillary exception allows a data center that stays within ten percent of the building footprint, serves only the on-site owner's enterprise functions, is not leased to third parties for storage or processing, and is not in a separate stand-alone structure. The ordinance says the City Council introduced and tentatively approved it on 5 December 2022 and passed and adopted it on 8 December 2022, and the city clerk's certificate gives the same 8 December 2022 adoption date. The opened text does not state when the ordinance took legal effect, so no effective day is stored. The ordinance states no end date. It does not regulate the rest of Arizona, and it does not by itself order a named existing facility to shut down.
What this does not establish
- The ordinance leaves a path for approval inside a Planned Area Development and a ten-percent ancillary exception. It is not a citywide prohibition without those exceptions.
- 8 December 2022 is the adoption date printed on the ordinance's passed-and-adopted line and in the city clerk's certificate. The ordinance does not state a separate effective date, and this record does not treat the adoption day as the legal effective day. The Arizona Republic publication dates printed on the ordinance, 16 and 23 December 2022, were not used as an effective date.
- No later Chandler ordinance repealing or amending Ordinance 5033 was opened.
- This city ordinance does not change the state computer-data-center tax statute or the 2026 pause on new state tax-relief applications.
Unresolved questions
- Whether any data center has since been approved inside a Planned Area Development was not counted.
- How the ordinance applies to a data center that was already operating in December 2022 was not settled by a nonconforming-use clause in the portion read.
Relationships
Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. A later implementation or a related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.
- No related action is recorded.
Sources
https://chandleraz.gov/sites/default/files/departments/development-services/PLH22-0053-Ordinance-No-5033-Data-Center.pdf