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The mayor sent a memo Thursday saying she’s asking City Manager Tim Thomure to prepare to “review and evaluateâ€� the types of data center regulations that other ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ cities have adopted governing zoning, water use, air quality and other issues.

Her goal is “developing a clear regulatory framework in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ that will ensure that the City has guardrails in place for data center development, and that will provide the greatest protections to our residents while supporting economic development,â€� Romero wrote.

Her memo didn’t say, however, whether she wants the new regulations to be in place either before or after the City Council decides whether to annex the Project Blue site into the city or grant it various development approvals. She also didn’t say if the regulations should be retroactive to Project Blue if they’re approved and if the $3.6 billion data center complexes get their final approvals.

Romero’s office had not responded to those questions as of close of business Friday.

The mayor has not publicly stated a position on Project Blue.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the project in a study session Wednesday afternoon, following three public meetings on Project Blue. The council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the annexation on Oct. 7 and on zoning for the project on Nov. 18, Thomure said Friday.

But in the mayor's weekly newsletter, she said, "I will continue to say that the City of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and Mayor and Council are not bound by any particular timeline when it comes to Project Blue."

While the council is scheduled to discuss the data center complex during a study session on Wednesday, Romero said, "There is not a vote or decision before us on August 6 that says yes or no to Project Blue. There is a study session item so that Mayor and Council can publicly discuss Project Blue."

Thomure told the Star Friday evening that developing a full regulatory package for data centers would likely take until January or February to finish -- if the City Council directs it on Wednesday to proceed with that course. 

By the time the council votes on zoning for Project Blue in November, "we would hace the information needed to identify and include any additional requirements" as part of the final approval of Project Blue, he said.

"My answer is yes, those processes could proceed simultaneously,"Thomure said.

In a related matter, Project Blue developer Beale Infrastructure said late Thursday it will work with ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Electric Power to develop a plan within 60 days to boost clean energy projects serving its planned developments in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ area. Particularly, the company pledged in a news release to “support the development of new carbon free energy resourcesâ€� for its future projects.

TEP spokesman Joe Salkowski reiterated on Friday, however, his past statement that a second Project Blue development will need to have a new natural gas plant along with new renewable energy projects to serve it — if future phases of Project Blue were to be developed at the scale identified in the City of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™sâ€� published fact sheet and other documents on the project.

Beale’s statement Thursday is consistent with what TEP officials told the Star earlier this week, “which is that TEP would expect to develop a mix of resources to serve potential future phases of Project Blue,� Salkowski said Friday.

“(Beale’s) press release reflects a commitment from Beale Infrastructure to work with TEP to develop a plan to bring on more clean energy resources in that mix. That plan will help inform the amount of natural gas generation we would need for potential future phases of the project.�

The mayor’s effort to develop new data center regulations and the developer’s commitment to clean energy for Project Blue’s second data center complex come as city officials are drawing hundreds of questions and an avalanche of criticism as they prepare to consider the project’s first phase. It would be a complex of up to 10 data centers on 290 acres that Project Blue’s landowner, Humphrey’s Peak Properties LLC of San Francisco, proposes to build on desert land at Houghton and Brekke roads on the far southeast side.

City and Project Blue officials have also said the developers intend to build a second data center complex at a still-unknown site in the city, near the first site, which lies in unincorporated Pima County.

But opposition has burgeoned dramatically in the two months since Project Blue’s plans were first reported on in local media. In particular, critics have hammered at its projected very high energy and water use, which would make the project the largest water and electricity user in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ metro area.

At a virtual public meeting on Project Blue run by city officials Thursday night, more than 500 questions poured in online from residents, with one questioner even asking, “How do you people sleep at night?�

Romero’s memo said the city needs to consider ordinances regarding the following:

— Potential amendments to plans and policies regarding land use, residential density maps, water infrastructure, utilities and/or transportation as they might relate to data centers.

— Regulations that align with the city’s climate goals, as outlined in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Resilient Together, the city government’s climate change action plan. The regulations should deal with “particularly energy use, our goal of carbon neutrality by 2045 and heat mitigation efforts,â€� said the mayor’s memo, to City Clerk Suzanne Mesich.

— Incentives and/or requirements for using renewable energy and implementing advanced technologies for efficient cooling “in order to preserve our natural resources,� Romero said.

— Benchmarks “for assuring we have an enforceable and feasible net neutral or positive water framework,� the mayor said, referring to the Project Blue developers’ commitment to insure it replenishes the city’s water system with as much water as it uses.

— Requirements to mitigate noise, heat and other possible impacts of this type of development and to require design review.

“Of course, I would expect that the process to evaluate and recommend a proposed regulatory framework would address key concerns already raised in the recent community meetings and will include engagement with Pima County regarding relevant environmental, health, conservation, air quality and permitting requirements related to data centers,� Romero wrote.

The review process should include engagement with area union officials to incorporate their feedback as much as possible, she said.

It would also include continuing efforts to track developments at the state level including at the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Corporation Commission as they relate to the protection of ratepayers, she said.

She was presumably referring to the question of whether costs of new energy sources such as solar or gas plants to serve Project Blue will be passed on to residents in the form of higher electricity bills. TEP has assured residents that won’t happen but many are skeptical.

In Beale Infrastructure’s news release Thursday, it said the new clean energy resources it will work on would help TEP serve data center projects that Beale is saying will potentially draw $3.6 billion in initial investments and support 3,000 temporary construction jobs and 180 long-term jobs.

Beale spokeswoman Mary Davis said it's "premature" for the company to say if its efforts to work with TEP to develop a plan for clean energy means it's committed to not having to build a natural gas plant to serve its second phase of Project Blue.

"As stated in the news release, Beale and TEP are working together now on a plan," Davis told the Star Friday afternoon.