The city council of Limeira in the São Paulo state, Brazil, has rejected a bill for the build of a large data center campus.

First reported by BN Americas, the local mayor filed a bill to rezone the land from rural to urban, to allow the data center to be built.

Mayor Mario Botion went to the council to ask for the bill to be approved, after having received interest from an anonymous international client.

Currently, Brazilian law does not permit the sale of rural land to multinationals.

Councillors voted 12-8 against the bill, citing a lack of transparency.

Botion said the project would bring important development to the city and argued that if the council does not approve the project, the anonymous client will move to a different city for the build.

According to local press Todo Dia, the data center is set to span 350,000 sqm (3.8m sq ft) and would create up to 1,000 jobs during construction.

“When they contacted us, they were already in the advanced stages of the process. The pre-contract, purchase, and sale had already been signed with deadlines, which is why we urgently need to approve and discuss this project, and eventually, approve it,” said Mario Botion.

There are currently no existing data centers in the Limeira region. The city of São Paulo is home to operators such as Ascenty, Equinix, Scala, Microsoft, Aligned, and Elea.

Odata broke ground on its São Paulo facility earlier this month.