A dispute over referendum petitions seeking a public vote on a proposed Marana data center has spawned two lawsuits, after the organization that filed the petitions sought to withdraw them and the town rejected them on a technicality.

At the center of the fight is a roughly 661-acre data center development that the Marana Town Council approved in January over objections from residents concerned about water use and energy demands.

The competing lawsuits put the town in the middle of a three-way conflict between the petition organizers, allied advocacy groups and the developer itself.

The proposed data center plans were introduced to the Marana Planning Commission in December. The Town Council voted 6-0 in January to rezone 661 acres of agricultural land for the development, which is projected to bring about 400 permanent jobs and $145 million in tax revenue but drew opposition over concerns about water use and energy demands.

Two petitions with about 2,800 signatures each were submitted to the town clerk last month by Worker Power, a nonprofit social welfare organization that aims to preserve democracy and improve the lives of working families across the country.

The group has been organizing against data center development in the region since last summer, when a separate project known as Project Blue sought to establish roots in the city of Tucson, and has worked with various local advocacy groups on other issues.

On Feb. 17, news broke online that Worker Power was planning to withdraw the petitions. The group has not made a public statement on the issue and did not respond to Tucson Spotlight's requests for comment.

Marana officials received a letter that same day from Arizonans for Responsible Development, the Worker Power-sponsored coalition that had gathered the signatures, requesting the referendums be withdrawn, saying it "no longer supports placing these measures on the ballot," according to a news release from the town.

The news drew swift backlash online.

"If they follow through, they will lose our trust and support," resident Ethan Rigel said on social media.

Others echoed similar sentiments, with comments of "#LetMaranaVote," "Sellouts" and "Marana Deserves Better" flooding social media.

State law requires petition organizers to group signature sheets by circulator and meet specific filing requirements, or risk rejection. The coalition cited those rules in its withdrawal request, noting that the filed petitions lacked legally required property descriptions for zoning ordinances.

Despite the withdrawal request, Marana said it does not have the authority to pull petitions once submitted and that the town clerk was legally obligated to continue the administrative review process required by the state.

The petitions were ultimately rejected based on the filing deficiency, not the withdrawal request.

"This determination was based solely on compliance with statutory requirements and was not influenced by the request to withdraw the petitions," town officials said in the news release.

Representatives from the No Desert Data Center Coalition and Casa Maria Soup Kitchen condemned the decision to withdraw the petitions.

"This is a betrayal of our trust, and we promise we'll get into the why in the next coming weeks," the groups said in a news release.

The rejection has since sparked two lawsuits, both filed in Pima County Superior Court.

Marana Citizens for Ethical and Transparent Government and other residents filed suit Feb. 23, arguing the petitions did include the required property descriptions and that the town added additional documentation more than a week after providing the original ordinances without notifying petitioners.

Separately, Fremont Peak Properties, the Beale Infrastructure-owned company behind the data center, filed its own suit March 4 over the town's refusal to allow the petitions to be withdrawn.

The Town of Marana told KGUN's Madison Thomas it is aware of both lawsuits and is committed to transparency and respect for the legal process.

Arilynn Hyatt is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at arilynndhyatt@arizona.edu.

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