Chandler AI Campus (Active Infrastructure) data center, Chandler, Arizona

The Chandler City Council voted 7-0 and blocked a proposed $2.5 billion AI data center campus by the New York developer Active Infrastructure on the former Orbital headquarters site at Price and Dobson roads in Chandler, Maricopa County, Arizona, on December 11, 2025. The vote came after a meeting of 4 hours and 38 minutes at which about 50 people spoke, only four in favor, and after about 256 residents emailed the council in opposition and 10 in support.

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema lobbied for the project, speaking at the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing and to the council. "I am also the co-founder of a national coalition called the AI Coalition Infrastructure and we work hand and glove with the Trump administration," Sinema told the council in October, AZFamily reported, and she warned that President Trump could step in if the city did not approve it.

The development agreement city staff negotiated would have required a closed-loop cooling system, the developer's own power supply, noise monitoring, and 750 jobs paying at least $75,000 by 2032, plus property and sales taxes even if a future law exempted them. Salt River Project said the substation the project needed would take at least five years, delaying opening to 2031, and would cost "north of $200 million," said economic development director Micah Miranda.

Residents worried about power and water use, noise, rate increases and how few jobs data centers bring. "We have already had some real issues with some of our neighborhoods along Dobson who can hear a constant humming from the 160 acres of data centers we already have in the Price corridor," said Jeff Weninger, a former councilman. Councilman Matt Orlando said his objection was the business case: "You can't give me a viable business case, and that's my concern."

The Price Road corridor already holds many of Chandler's data centers, including Aligned's PHX04 and PHX06. Since 2022, Chandler has required new data centers to win zoning approval as a planned area development, with sound mitigation and resident notice. Under that rule, any new proposal for the Orbital site would again need the Chandler City Council's approval.