When a major development proposal threatens to reshape a community, it can be tempting to assume it’s beyond our control. The project is too big, the money behind it is too powerful, or the process is too far along for local residents to make a difference.

But rural Arizonans have shown what can happen when people refuse to sit on the sidelines.

When the Pinal County Board of Supervisors recently considered the La Osa Energy Center, a sprawling data center complex with a gas-fired power plant, residents packed public meetings, raised concerns about water, wildlife and environmental impacts, and urged the officials elected to represent them to take those concerns seriously. With support from RAZE, neighbors came together to make their priorities heard.

The proposal’s defeat was a victory for the community and a reminder of what residents can accomplish when they insist on having a say in decisions that affect their lives. That lesson extends well beyond one development.

Arizona’s recent election offered another opportunity for residents to make their voices heard. While the full picture of voter participation, particularly in rural communities, is still coming into focus, the election is a reminder that participation is essential to deciding our future. And that participation cannot end when ballots are counted.

Across Arizona, communities are facing urgent questions about water, energy and the cost of growth. How will new projects affect strained water supplies? Who will pay for the infrastructure it requires? What will they mean for utility bills and local taxes? These decisions have real consequences for families trying to make ends meet, young people hoping to buy homes in the communities where they grew up, and small businesses working to stay afloat.

These are questions of affordability, but they’re also questions of accountability. At RAZE, we believe people deserve to know what is being proposed in their backyard and understand the impacts before decisions are made. The people most affected by these projects should have the strongest voice so that decision-makers don’t overlook local priorities.

Now that the election is behind us, elected officials have an opportunity — and an obligation — to demonstrate that they are listening. Whether the issue is a proposed energy project, a utility rate increase, water use or the expansion of a data center, residents deserve transparency and a meaningful opportunity to participate before decisions are finalized.

Rural Arizona is not empty space on a map. It is home to native desert plants and wildlife, culturally significant landscapes, and generations of families, farmers, Tribal communities, and small businesses who have built their lives here. Its future should reflect the priorities of the people who call it home. At RAZE, we work across rural Arizona to help communities understand proposed developments, assess their potential impacts and participate in decisions about their future. That work is rooted in a simple principle: people should have the information and opportunity they need to make their voices heard.

That work doesn’t stop after an election. It continues at public meetings, in conversations with elected officials, through community organizing and whenever residents ask questions about decisions that will affect their future.

The lesson of La Osa is that residents have a right to be heard and that speaking up can make a difference. Our democracy works best when people take part, whether they are addressing their local leaders at a public meeting or making their voices heard at the ballot box.

If we want government to take affordability seriously, respect local priorities and listen to the people who actually live in our communities, we have to make our voices impossible to overlook. Rural Arizonans have shown the power of showing up. Now, our elected leaders must show through their actions that they are listening.

A fifth-generation Arizonan and former public school teacher, Natali Fierros is the executive director of Rural Arizona Engagement, the organization she co-founded to build durable civic infrastructure and leadership in rural Arizona.