A new data center could soon rise just south of downtown Phoenix, near 7th Avenue and Grant Street, close to the former Paul Laurence Dunbar School. Mayor Kate Gallego and the Phoenix City Council have the power to stop it. They should revoke the waiver that opened the door to this project and keep the data center out of this neighborhood.

Last year, city leaders passed new zoning rules to limit where data centers can go. But according to the Phoenix Business Journal, the site's previous owner, LKY Development, reportedly asked the city for $10 million to make up for the land's lost value. Instead of paying, city officials approved a waiver letting a data center be built there anyway. On September 17, an investment firm called GI Partners bought the property, just over five acres, for close to $15 million.

The land sits beside an Arizona Public Service (APS) substation. The same report says LKY spent years working with APS to expand that substation so it could power a data center.

Rules written to protect Phoenix neighborhoods shouldn't be waived away for a single property. Neighbors deserve a real say before a project like this moves forward, not after construction starts.

Across the Valley, residents are already speaking up. On September 26, dozens of people rallied in Ahwatukee near a five-building data center campus going up beside their homes. "It's going to affect our neighborhood, our families, the air, the water," Pilar Berkoff told 12News. Protesters there plan to return every other Saturday.

The families living near 7th Avenue and Grant Street deserve the same chance to be heard. Sign the petition to tell Mayor Gallego and the Phoenix City Council: no data center here. Revoke the waiver before this project breaks ground.