SpaceX Dec. 9: Cochise AZ and Starbase TX Hearings

Written by Chris Nunez

Two SpaceX-linked compute campuses face public hearings on the same day—December 9, 2026. In the morning and afternoon, Cochise County’s Planning and Zoning Commission will hear a special-use request for a large AI campus near Willcox Playa in southern Arizona. That evening, the City of Starbase, Texas, will consider a Chapter 312 tax abatement for a gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility on about 444 acres near the Port of Brownsville. Neither hearing is an approval. Both are the next public checkpoints for projects that, if built, would reshape fiber and power demand in their corridors.

We covered the Starbase notice in detail in SpaceX Starbase Super-Compute: Fiber and RFP Watch. This companion post adds the Arizona filing, puts the two sites side by side, and flags what telecom and fiber teams should watch.

What Cochise County is hearing on Dec. 9

According to Cochise County’s Legal Notice for docket SU26-22 and its Data Centers page (last updated Nov. 9, 2026):

  • Who: Tombstone Resources L.L.C. filed a Special Use Authorization request on Oct. 30, 2026, on behalf of the current landowners, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (AEPCO) and Southline Transmission LLC.
  • When and where: Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. (moved from 4:00 p.m. because of expected speakers), Board of Supervisors Meeting Room, 1415 W. Melody Lane, Building G, Bisbee. Speakers may take part in person or online.
  • Site: about 747 acres along U.S. Highway 191 near Cochise / the Apache Generating Station, zoned RU-4 (Rural).
  • Project: a “Supercomputer and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Campus with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS),” with up to nine computing buildings in four phases, plus electrical, cooling and supporting infrastructure.
  • Decision: the Planning and Zoning Commission may approve, approve with conditions, or deny. A majority vote is final unless appealed to the Board of Supervisors. The county says applicant figures have not been independently verified and that no compliance determination has been made.

Reporting on the applicant materials and the Nov. 4 town hall fills in scale the legal notice does not list:

  • Up to nine buildings of about 493,000 sq ft each; four stages of about 1.5 GW each toward roughly 6 GW at full build-out; a 24 GWh battery system; about $3.6 billion in applicant-funded power infrastructure, including about $500 million to enable Phase 1; and construction that could start as early as March 2027 if zoning is approved (Data Center Dynamics; Data Center Feed; KGUN 9).
  • The campus would be dry-cooled, with no industrial groundwater pumping for cooling; an existing well would supply a small potable / maintenance volume (up to about 10 acre-feet a year in the Arizona Republic / Tucson.com reporting) (Arizona Daily Star / Arizona Republic).
  • Conceptual plans also include roughly 90 MW of natural-gas backup generation for intermittent / critical loads (reported via KJZZ in Data Center Feed; consistent with about 10 MW per building across nine buildings in application summaries).
  • DCD identifies Tombstone Resources as a SpaceXAI affiliate. At the Nov. 4 town hall, SpaceX’s Riley Trettel / Trettle identified SpaceX as the owner and proposed long-term operator of the project previously filed under Tombstone Resources (Herald Review; Arizona Daily Star).
  • The Herald Review’s town-hall coverage also reports SpaceX talking about a larger future footprint—on the order of 1,800 acres and up to $50 billion—beyond the 747 acres in the pending special-use filing. Treat those as reported statements at the meeting, not as the acreage or investment figure on the county docket.

Hundreds of residents packed the Nov. 4 meeting. Opposition centered on groundwater, electric rates, wildlife near Willcox Playa, and rural character; other attendees pointed to jobs and tax revenue (Herald Review; Arizona Daily Star). A petition opposing the project has circulated locally. Written comments for the commission packet are due by noon on Friday, Nov. 27, per the county Data Centers page.

Starbase, same night: tax abatement, not zoning

The Starbase hearing is a different kind of vote. Per the City of Starbase’s Notice of Public Hearing (covered in our Starbase post):

  • Who: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) as owner and applicant.
  • When: Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2026, at 7:00 p.m., 48491 State Highway 4, Starbase, TX 78521.
  • Agreements: a Chapter 312 property tax abatement and a related Chapter 380 economic development agreement, inside the Cameron County Enterprise Zone.
  • Site: about 444 acres (Property ID 171887) between Boca Chica Blvd and the Port of Brownsville.
  • Project: SpaceX “proposes to construct, own, and operate a gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility.”
  • Investment: about $24 billion for initial phases, which “may be constructed over multiple phases and include future expansions.”

The city notice does not state megawatts, jobs, abatement percentage, water use or fiber interconnect details. Separate reporting on a pending TCEQ air registration describes temporary and later gas-turbine configurations on the order of roughly 700–750 MW; those are pending air-filing figures, not an approved plant design.

Side-by-side: Dec. 9 in two states

  • Hearing type: Cochise — Special Use Authorization (SU26-22) before Planning and Zoning. Starbase — Chapter 312 tax abatement + Chapter 380 agreement before City Commission.
  • Time / place: Cochise — 2:00 p.m., Bisbee (Melody Lane). Starbase — 7:00 p.m., Starbase City Hall corridor (SH 4).
  • Applicant on paper: Cochise — Tombstone Resources L.L.C. (SpaceX named as owner / long-term operator at the Nov. 4 town hall; DCD calls it a SpaceXAI affiliate). Starbase — SpaceX.
  • Acreage on the docket: Cochise — ~747 acres (Herald Review also reports larger ~1,800-acre talk). Starbase — ~444 acres.
  • What would be built: Cochise — up to nine AI / supercomputer buildings + BESS next to AEPCO’s Apache Generating Station. Starbase — on-site gas-fired power plant + super-compute facility.
  • Power scale reported: Cochise — ~6 GW in four 1.5 GW phases; ~24 GWh BESS; ~90 MW gas backup. Starbase — city notice silent on MW; pending TCEQ air filing reported ~708–748 MW of gas turbines.
  • Grid / power spend reported: Cochise — ~$3.6B applicant-funded upgrades (~$500M for Phase 1). Starbase — ~$24B estimated capital for initial phases (plant + compute together).
  • Cooling / water: Cochise — dry-cooled; no industrial groundwater for cooling (per application reporting). Starbase — not stated in the city notice.
  • Construction timing reported: Cochise — as early as March 2027 if zoning is approved. Starbase — not stated in the city notice.
  • What a “yes” means: Cochise — land-use approval (still needs building permits and outside-agency approvals); final unless appealed. Starbase — local tax / economic-development agreements only; air permits and grid interconnection sit with state agencies.

Arizona’s regulatory angle (sourced)

The county vote is only one gate. Power for the Cochise campus would run through Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) and AEPCO, and any large-load electric service agreement still needs the Arizona Corporation Commission.

In August 2026 the Commission unanimously approved a cooperative large-load review process (Docket No. E-01773A-26-0123) so that data centers and other big loads pay for the transmission and infrastructure they trigger, rather than shifting those costs onto other cooperative customers (AZ Free News; American Public Power Association). Staff reviews ask whether an agreement serves the public interest, whether rates are reasonable, and whether other customer classes would subsidize the project. As of early November reporting, no Tombstone / SpaceX agreement had been filed in that docket.

Separately, Cochise County added specific data-center zoning rules earlier in 2026. Data centers are not permitted by right; they go through Special Use Authorization with standards on water, noise, utilities, traffic, fire access and decommissioning (county Data Centers page). That is the process SU26-22 is testing at scale.

Texas has its own parallel pressure—an August 2026 ERCOT / TCEQ pause on new data-center grid connections and related permits, plus a governor-elect who campaigned on a data-center approval ban—as covered in the Starbase post. Two states, two approval paths, same calendar day.

What telecom and fiber teams should watch

Large compute campuses do not wait for the last permit to start shaping RFP, RFQ and middle-mile demand. Teams that already sell fiber, dark fiber, broadband or managed connectivity in southern Arizona or the Rio Grande Valley should treat Dec. 9 as a milestone, not as the start of mapping work.

Cochise / Willcox corridor. Pin the US 191 / Apache Generating Station / Willcox Playa area on the Map4 National Map. Score nearby fiber providers by nearest route or coverage. Watch for construction connectivity, OSP fiber, conduit and splice RFQs if Phase 1 moves, and for adjacent public demand—schools, libraries and clinics that can drive E-Rate, RHC, state broadband or municipal notices.

Starbase / Port of Brownsville corridor. Same screen for Boca Chica Blvd, State Highway 4 and routes toward Harlingen and McAllen, as laid out in the Starbase companion. Diverse high-capacity paths to carrier hotels and long-haul exits matter even while the tax vote and state permits are open.

Watch the documents, not the slogans. Acreage, megawatts and dollar figures still differ by source (747 vs. ~1,800 acres; county docket vs. town-hall talk; $3.6B grid upgrades vs. $50B total investment talk). Price circuits and crews on firm RFQs and filed applications—not on hearing-day headlines.

Key dates

  • Nov. 12, 2026, 1:00 p.m.: Cochise County LEPC special meeting on SU26-22 (advisory only) — county Data Centers page
  • Nov. 27, 2026, noon: deadline for written comments to appear in the Dec. 9 commission packet — county Data Centers page
  • Dec. 9, 2026, 2:00 p.m.: Cochise Planning and Zoning hearing, SU26-22, Bisbee — county Legal Notice
  • Dec. 9, 2026, 7:00 p.m.: Starbase City Commission tax-abatement hearing — City of Starbase notice
  • Reported Phase 1 construction (Cochise): as early as March 2027 if zoning is approved — DCD on applicant materials

Sources

Related: National Fiber Map for Telecom RFPs + Map4 Relay Launch · E-Rate RFP Alerts: Daily Telecom Leads Near Your Fiber

Questions: support@map4.net · Chris Nunez, chris.nunez@map4.net

Chris Nunez
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SpaceX Starbase Super-Compute: Fiber and RFP Watch