Developers of a secretive data center in Grant County made their first public appearance in Southern New Mexico as commissioners approved a one-year moratorium on such projects Thursday.
The moratorium, modeled after Socorro County’s resolution and proposed by Commissioner Nancy Stephens, passed 4-1, with Commissioner Tom Shelley as the only no vote. It comes amid a broader legislative push for a statewide pause on data center development.
“If you’re driving, and you hear that there might be a danger ahead, you tap the brakes. You don’t speed up. There’s no hurry. We can pause. A year’s not that long,” Stephens said at the meeting.
Courtesy photo
The moratorium bars anyone from establishing, building, expanding or operating a data center or infrastructure built primarily to serve one (such as dedicated solar, gas or battery power, water supply systems, substations and transmission lines), in unincorporated Grant County for one year. During the pause, the county plans to study whether and how to regulate them, according to the ordinance. It will be in effect from Nov. 21, 2026, to Nov. 21, 2027, unless the county decides to repeal or extend it.
“This was the responsible thing to do given the huge scale of the proposed Site Layer 1 project and the fact that our county is not prepared to address the range of potential impacts from a project this size,” Allyson Siwik, executive director of the Gila Resources Information Project, said in a statement. “We need to be sure that the county is in the driver’s seat when big corporations come to town with lots of money to build a data center that could have serious consequences for our community.”
Developer speaks at meeting
Grant County residents learned of the data center in a legal notice in the Silver City Daily Press on Aug. 27. Upon reading about Site Layer 1 LLC’s plans to build a data center on the rural southern edge of Grant County, near Hachita and Playas, the community rapidly took action, sending letters to state Environment Secretary James Kenney and announcing their intent to introduce a data center moratorium.
“Maybe they thought that they could just slide it under the radar because that’s what they did: in a one-inch ad in the back page of the press,” Commissioner Eddie Flores said. “They applied for an air permit, and somebody noticed it, and that’s why we are here today — because somebody noticed it.”
The Aug. 27 notice provided scant information. It said the facility could consume about 2.3 million cubic feet of natural gas every hour. Its annual carbon emissions would be equivalent to those of about 282,600 cars.
Little else has been known about Site Layer 1 LLC, which is being directed by Granite Renewables. Its leaders are brothers Ian and Blake Marcus, and its only address is an empty floor of an office tower in midtown Manhattan.
At Thursday’s meeting, Blake Marcus provided more — albeit still sparse — details. He said they are planning a 715 megawatt solar and 715 megawatt storage project. It is not clear whether the project will be completely solar-powered, nor the data centers’ exact size — an Oct. 8 presentation to county commissioners said size is “fully dependent” on the result of an application to Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association.
That application, required before a project with a very large electrical demand can connect to the power grid, will be submitted Wednesday, with results expected in February, Marcus said.
Marcus said Site Layer 1 had “completed environmental diligence and an air permitting application” submitted to the New Mexico Environment Department — but advocacy groups and the department itself say that developers have not conducted sufficient levels of community engagement.
Drew Goretzka, spokesperson for the New Mexico Environment Department, wrote in an email the department has received the developers’ application.
“However, the applicant did not include any documentation of community engagement or input as the Department required,” Goretzka wrote. “The New Mexico Environment Department is unclear to what Site Layer 1, LLC’s ‘environmental diligence’ reference refers.”
Granite Renewables did not respond to The New Mexican’s questions on how the moratorium would impact its timeline.
Goretzka declined to comment on the implications of the moratorium.
Public comments
Community members of all ages gave public comment: The majority advocated for the moratorium, citing the data center’s projected health and environmental impacts and developers’ lack of transparency.
“Don’t look at this venture of allowing a data center to come into your lands. Examine it. Take it apart before you make a decision,” said Cornell Torivio, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition’s regional representative. “With the amount of water that we have in the state and the continuance of developments of uranium mines and data centers, we’re not going to leave anything for our children.”
The data center is set to be built on Hurt Cattle Co. Ranch, a historic, family-owned operation almost 35 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Located on a mix of private, federal and state land, the ranch runs parallel to the Alamo Hueco Mountains.
Lawrence Hurt of Hurt Cattle Co. Ranch said he was against the moratorium, acknowledging he stands to benefit. But, he added, the county does, too.
“The neat thing about the [industrial revenue bonds] is that the money goes to the county. It doesn’t go to Santa Fe,” Hurt said.
He also argued the data center would benefit the community.
“I have a constitutional right to use my property as I see fit,” Hurt said. “A moratorium would restrict my property right to get the most and best possible value for the property. The communities who have embraced these data centers have prospered quite well.”
Lack of community outreach
The company has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The New Mexican. Initially, it did not respond to Kenney either. The Environment secretary wrote Sept. 18 he had yet to hear from the developers despite calling, leaving voicemails and emailing.
Kenney followed up Sept. 29: “My concern is not about Site Layer 1, LLC failing to meet the minimum requirements for regulatory notice; my concern is about Site Layer 1, LLC’s lack of community outreach and engagement in the relevant New Mexico communities.”
In apparent response to Kenney’s letter earlier this month, Marcus presented remotely to the County Commission about the data center, in what residents called a “hardly audible” meeting.
At the Oct. 8 meeting, developers said they are starting as a solar generation and battery energy storage project “with potential future expansion to include natural gas generation and a data center.” There will be “thousands of construction jobs” and an investment in community nonprofits, schools and water restoration, according to the presentation.
“I couldn’t even really hear what was going on. It was poor. It was disappointing,” Chair Chris Ponce said. “Every question that was asked was not answered.”
The meeting took place the day after Granite Renewables said it submitted its air permit application to the Environment Department. As a result, 13 organizations sent a letter to Kenney on Oct. 15, urging the department to withdraw the application because the company has shown “utter failure to date to engage the public.” The letter says it now “falls to our state and county officials to ensure full public scrutiny” of the project’s environmental impacts.
Silver City resident Sienna Wright said during public comment that the Oct. 8 presentation was “unprofessional …and highlighted why we need a moratorium.”
“It left us all with a lack of knowledge about the scope of the project, its impacts, the timeline going forward. It seems they are not taking the time to meet with the public because they are in such a rush to get the project off the ground.” Wright said. “Community engagement is a two way street. We showed up, but the company has not. It takes time and effort to listen.”
