Planning commission recommends approval of Price Road Innovation Campus rezoning, with stipulations

The Chandler Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-1 Oct. 15 to recommend City Council approve PLH-2446, the Price Road Innovation Campus, a rezoning and preliminary development plan to allow a standalone AI data center plus five speculative research-and-development/office buildings on a 40-acre site at 3380 S. Price Road.

Staff framed the proposal as inconsistent with South Price Road corridor policies in the city general plan, recommending denial. David (staff member) told commissioners the corridor’s policies give priority to knowledge‑based industries, single‑user campus settings and higher‑job uses, and staff concluded a primary data center does not meet those policies and would set a precedent for additional data centers in the corridor.

The applicant said the project is an "AI data center" and an accompanying tech park that they said would enable and subsidize new R&D buildings, demolition of the obsolete existing structure and new employment. "Calling this a data center is like calling my Walkman and an iPhone the same thing," said Adam Baugh, the applicant’s representative. Jeff Zigler, founder and CEO of Active Infrastructure, said demolition would take about six months and described a phased build that would place the data center on the west side of the site and R&D/office buildings to the north and along Dobson Road.

The preliminary plan proposes three development phases. Phase 1 includes Building A, a standalone data center of 422,877 square feet, and Building B, a speculative R&D/flex office building to the north. Phase 2 would add two R&D/flex buildings (each…