City Council - public_hearing

We're going to call our special meeting public hearing to order at this time. And our clerk will read the role.

Bolden. Boys.

Aye.

Connor. Aye. Davis.

Aye.

Garrett. Present. Greer.

Aye.

Hanna.

Aye.

Kamer. Lombardo.

Aye.

McKittrick.

Aye.

Omobian? Aye. Somerville? Aye. Wilson? Aye. We do have a quorum.

Thank you. We do have one item that is up for public hearing, and at this time we will have our clerk read in item number one.

Notice is hereby given that the following open comment public hearing will be held by the Council of the City of Akron on Monday, July 27, 2026, during a special meeting to be held at 5 p.m. ordinance authorizing text changes to amend the zoning code to define and regulate data centers. This notice was advertised in the Akron Beacon Journal on July 11th and on Akron City Council's website beginning July 10th. Mr. Hossbach.

Thank you, Madam President. Good evening, Members of Council. The City of Akron is proposing to amend the zoning code to regulate data centers by defining and adding data centers to the list of uses requiring conditional use approval with specific development requirements. Data centers have emerged as a key land use concern in many communities. They can present unique challenges with potentially significant impacts on the electric grid, demand for public water, and high noise levels. However, the city recognizes that many businesses and institutions that are key to our local economy are also becoming increasingly reliant on off-site data storage and processing. As is the case in many cities, Akron Zoning Code currently does not explicitly define or account for data centers. Up to now, data centers have been approved as industrial uses. However, it has become clear that the range of considerations and challenges that accompany the growth of data centers requires a more deliberate approach. There are currently four data centers operating in the City of Akron. One of these data centers in South Akron has submitted plans for expansion of its existing facility. Those plans have received zoning certification because they were submitted prior to adoption of this text change. The developer has provided information on noise levels, water consumption, and electric consumption, similar to what would be required with this text change. The proposed amendments to the zoning code would define data centers and add them to the list of uses requiring conditional use approval. Additionally, any applicant requesting conditional use approval to construct a new data center, change the use of an existing property to a data center, or modify or expand an existing data center would be required to provide specific information that would allow the planning department, planning commission, and city council to fully evaluate the proposal and any potential negative impacts that it may create. The required information includes a study from the electric utility on projected electricity demands, projected water consumption, projected wastewater discharge to the city's sewers, and a noise study. The planning department would also be able to engage a consultant at the applicant's expense to assist with the evaluation of the proposal or any of the technical information submitted if necessary, mirroring the zoning code's treatment of cell towers. Adopting these text changes will facilitate a thorough review of any future data center proposal, allowing for the public to be informed about and comment on future proposals and provide for specific measures to mitigate any negative impacts to be incorporated into a development proposal. However, this text change is the beginning of this process of creating appropriate evaluation processes and regulations for data centers. Over the next six months, Planning and other departments will continue to examine this issue, how other municipalities are responding to data centers, and the best way to account for them within our zoning code and other approval processes. This ongoing process will allow us to bring further refinements to the zoning code to Planning Commission and Council that will incorporate best practices from around the country. This future revision will ensure that we are accounting for the full range of impacts that data centers may have on our community and that we are gathering the appropriate information for any proposed data center in our city. This will allow us to incorporate the right mitigation measures for data centers of different sizes and capacities. These could include specific development standards and landscaping requirements for data centers, noise thresholds, buffering from residences and other sensitive uses, limiting data centers to specific districts based on size or other factors, and energy and water efficiency requirements. This revision will also likely establish specific thresholds based on size of a proposed facility, electric demand, and water consumption. The zoning code is continuously updated to reflect new development practices and novel land uses and to promote public health, safety, comfort, convenience, prosperity, and the general welfare. The planning staff is of the opinion that the current proposed text change will ensure the data centers receive a higher level of scrutiny that is appropriate due to their potential negative effects on the community. Further text changes will incorporate additional mitigation measures and evaluation criteria, providing strong protections to the community. The planning staff and planning commission both recommend approval of the text changes as proposed. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So this time we're going to open up our public hearing. Do we have anyone here who wishes to speak in favor or against? If so, I'm going to ask that you please stand at this time so that you may be sworn in by our clerk.

Could you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you give will be the truth? If so, please say I do. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So we're going to begin with those who wish to speak in favor of item number one.

Hi, my name is Beth Field. I'm the CEO and Director of Programming for the Big Love Network. I live at 1111 Cary Avenue, Ward 9. I want to speak in favor of this current legislation. I first of all, I'M GLAD THAT THERE'S GOING TO BE ABLE TO START TO BE SOME SIGHT FIGHT CONVERSATION AROUND AS DATA CENTERS GET INTRODUCED INTO THE CITY. I'D LIKE TO PREFERENCE THIS CONVERSATION WITH UNDERSTANDING THAT I'M IN NO WAY AS SOMEBODY THAT WORKS ON ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM ISSUES across the city endorsing the build out of data centers. However, we've seen several go in already without any conversation with residents and with those that are gonna be directly impacted by it. And we have to do something to keep that from continuing to happen within the city. i appreciate the appreciate that this piece of legislation is here to kind of understand that but this piece of legislation doesn't legislate enough going site fight by site fight trying to fight these massive build outs is just going to leave residents exhausted and as we've already seen of where these data centers are THEY POP UP IN NEIGHBORHOODS THAT ARE PREDOMINANTLY LOWER INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS OF PEOPLE THAT ARE ALREADY WORKING A TON AND IT WILL BE REALLY DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO BE SITE FIGHT BY SITE FIGHT TRYING TO FIGHT THESE THINGS. WE REALLY NEED OUR LEGISLATORS and create clear guidelines around what is and is unacceptable data storage within our city. As somebody that works on justice issues, I understand that data storage is a justice issue. We want to make sure that our Video cameras from our body cams from the cops are able to have a place that are stored, right? We want to make sure that our hospital records have a place that can be stored, right? And there's a certain level of responsibility of our own usage that we have to understand. But these massive data center build outs are not for those things. Let's make that really clear and understandable. This stuff for like crypto mining and AI and all of these things are unnecessary and inappropriate in our region. The Great Lakes is the largest ability that we have to have fresh water on the planet. We need to save our water systems. These massive data centers, we can't be spending precious water in the age of climate change on data storage, right? We need to protect that as a city, as somebody that has control over the headwaters of the Cuyahoga River. um it is our job and our duty as a city to protect those waterways creating massive data centers within our city and within our watershed is not going to do that it's going to do the opposite the people that are proposing these massive data centers and massive build outs for our area would rather see children not be able to have access to fresh drinking water than see that AI doesn't get built out on every single app that could ever exist, right? And they'll do it, in the guise of creating jobs. These data centers are not creating jobs. They are taking people's jobs, okay? AI takes actual human knowledge and uses a computer to regenerate it into whatever slop it decides to generate back out to us. this is not job creation this is taking jobs so please do not believe the same old oh well we have to pollute in order to create jobs it's just a lie it's just an outright lie um And honestly, any massive build out that also needs like backup generators of natural gas and all of these things, we as a body of people in the city that are running the government that are supposed to be run by Democrats should be very suspicious of any massive build out in the country during this administration. our EPA is generally gutted. So when I'm saying this legislation doesn't go far enough, it's because I know that the president of ChatGBT is the number one campaign financer for the Trump administration.

Okay?

So any regulations coming from the EPA around these build-outs are not going to happen. We have to create them to protect our citizens, to protect our people from this extremely polluting industry. Extremely polluting industry. SO WHAT DO I THINK NEEDS TO HAPPEN? I THINK THAT THERE HAS TO BE A CAP ON BOTH SIZE AND USAGE. PEOPLE ARE GENERALLY SAYING A 25 MEGAWATTS CAP FOR USAGE IS PRETTY ACCEPTABLE, AND A SIZE CAPAGE AT 50,000 SQUARE FEET IS ACCEPTABLE. ANYTHING OVER THAT IS CONSIDERED A MAJOR DATA CENTER, AND WE DON'T NEED THOSE WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS, PERIOD. inappropriate for our bioregion, they're inappropriate for our city, and they will take precious area that could be used to actually generate real jobs instead of taking jobs from our citizens. There's also generally these places use about 25,000 gallons per day of major data centers. So obviously we encourage that data centers use a closed loop system for water coolage. The constant noise that is generated from generators on site can generally be capped. You can put a limit on frequency of using backup generators. Also, our grid system is not appropriate for major data centers. We already experience so many blackouts throughout the city. that if we add data centers to this equation, more so than what we've already done, we're gonna see way more blackouts in our community. And they can try and do onsite generation, but that's what creates all the pollution, all the noise, all the really bad stuff is a lot of the onsite generation, right? So we have to really cap what that looks like as well. Again, capping size will help that. WE ALSO NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS NEIGHBORHOOD APPROVALS AND FEEDBACK LOOPS. SOME CITIES ARE SECURING ECONOMIC BONDS BEFORE THESE PROJECTS GO IN SO THAT WAY WHEN THESE PROJECTS INEVITABLY FINANCIALLY TANK BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'VE NOTICED THE PEOPLE THAT RUN OUR COUNTRY BUT THEIR ECONOMIC SCHEMES TEND TO TANK. that we have backup as a city to be able to clean up their mess because it's gonna be some cleanup. And then also, of course, asking for community benefit agreements so that the community that has to be nuisance with this burden is getting something in return. There should also be air monitoring, on-site monitoring, and regulations around how much particulate matter can be coming off of site. And then whenever there is a violation to these agreements, there needs to be inspections where money is then charged to the entity and goes back to the city or back to the community benefit agreement if they're not fixing the problems. I want to reiterate to warn about build-outs at this time. Any major industry that wants to build out like crazy in this country, we should be very suspectful of. Do look into all of the environmental factors that are going to be needed in order to regulate these sites, because guess what? Our EPA barely exists. We have to do that on a local level. I'm happy to talk with people. I'm happy to send people more information. I'm pretty sure everybody here knows how to get ahold of me. And if you don't, I'm happy to give you my information afterwards. Beware the build outs. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Beth. Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak in favor? Anyone else wishing to speak in favor?

Hello, I'm Whitman Sullivan from Highland Square, also speaking in favor of pushing this for conditional use. I know council members did talk about wanting to put a moratorium in earlier today. I want to just caution against that just because, as Beth said, there are actually legitimate uses for some very small data centers, whether that be hospital, government use just to keep track of data. But at the same time, we still need to be looking at these and vetting these. Allowing, pushing these for conditional use, pushing these through permitting hearings and city applications will allow us to actually see what kind of applications are coming into the city of Akron, what their water, electricity, and land use is actually like, and allow us to further make, as Jim was saying, further make legislation that can actually cap size, water use, and electricity use, which is going to be necessary as we continue. Obviously, we don't drag every single data center for the next 30 years, even if they're like a 10 square foot data center through a conditional use process. So creating more robust legislation further will be necessary, and I am fully in support of a conditional use at this time.

Thank you so much. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor?

Hi. Larry and I live in Ward 3 here in Akron. And I'm speaking in favor of this legislation. Also to add to what the first young lady up here spoke about, I also wanted to add that it also gives off some rating of radiation, which also interferes with cell phones, home electronics, anything like that. Also, not only does it put a drain on our electric and our water, it also contributes to higher electric bills for residents that live near that facility. Also, an issue that nobody has brought forth is that it also affects anybody that would have a well. Anybody that uses well water in their homes is going to deplete their water table. So yes, I speak in favor of this legislation, although I stand against data centers. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Anyone else wishing to speak in favor?

I do when I get there.

Take your time.

Spine surgery will do that to you. Oh, goodness. Okay. I was confused whether I was going to be able to attend, and I should have put together a better comprehensive report. I'm Betty Zager. I've taught for 44 years in the Akron Public Schools. I'm retired, obviously, now. I want to thank you for the opportunity to have these public hearings. It's very gracious of you to do that and appreciate it. I think I've been giving AI reports to my church. I'm kind of nominated as the liaison to report on AI centers. So anyway, I've done three reports so far, but I keep discovering new things. I want to call, well, I see it boiling down to chambers of commerce and big corporations versus environmentalists and regular citizens. I know that Ohio is very proud that we are attracting new business. And I know our chamber of commerce is very interested in attracting new business. And they're a little bit against protests for AI centers because they say it's going to make an appearance that Ohio is closed for business. Well, I don't think that's true. I call attention to an example that I have close to heart. My cousin down in Palmetto, Georgia, very near Atlanta, they have the regular family, two kids and a dog. And the kids are, they love their, the students love their school district. But when I called to talk to Kira last week, she said, we're selling our house. And I've been down there several times, and I thought, what? It's a beautiful little home, and it has its pool, and it was just fantastic for the kids. Well, they found out in October that an AI data center is coming near them. And they didn't hesitate. They sold their home. They're building a new one. And it took them a time because they had to find it. lot within the school district that their kids love. So that's just one example. If we're trying to attract young families, and I think Ohio's becoming a lot more pleasant to come. There's a Midwest, coming to the Midwest because the coasts are having their troubles and our borders are too with all the wildfires and all the climate change. So anyway, I think it makes sense to have more strict. I'm in favor of the legislation, but I think it needs to be more strict. There's a wonderful thing that I discovered. If the name Erin Brockovich means anything to you, there were movies made about her. She's a strict environmentalist, and she has founded something, I think it was in May. It's called the Brockovich AI data center reporting map. And it's really a real wonderful source, a compendium of great information. In Ohio, there have been 155 community reported concerns logged in on this map. And Ohio ranks as the third highest in the country for crowdsourced community reports. We have 226 data centers throughout Ohio. That's a little bit Too much. And just to draw it nearer to us, in Cleveland there is a proposed data center, a hyperscale one. And you heard the young lady speak about what a small data center is, one that's acceptable. Hyperscale data centers are incredible. The definition is that a hyperscale data center differs primarily from the traditional data centers by virtue of its sheer size. A hyperscale data center requires a physical site large enough to house all associated equipment, at least 5,000 servers and quite possibly miles of connecting equipment. As such, hyperscale data centers can easily encompass millions of square feet. Just to draw a world perspective, at present, the world's largest hyperscale facilities exist within Inner Mongolia, region of China. That's where China Telecom operates a hyperscale data center that's roughly 10.7 million square feet. Put another way, the largest data center is the size of 165 regulation US football fields, all conjoined in a space 11 football fields wide and 15 football fieldings long. Not surprisingly, this humongous hyperscale data center, which costs $3 billion to construct, is outfitted with everything it needs functionally and even boasts resident facilities for the hyperscale data center operators. An upper tier of the three hyperscale providers currently have established a solid hold on the largest segment of the market. Amazon Web Services has 32% market share of all the AI data center building. Microsoft Azure has 23%, and Cloud Platform has 10%. I wish this were a little more together, but I'm urging you to not only pass the legislation, but to enhance it. And I hope it's not already too late. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing.

Anyone else wishing to speak in favor?

I'm Kristen. I'm with Akron DSA. I just appreciate the opportunity to address City Council, and I'm grateful that you guys are kind of getting ahead of the problem, even though it feels like an impending doom. So I'm just going to kind of read what I wrote. I think the conditional permits is maybe the way to go. I just would like to see it more enhanced with more restrictions. So I'm addressing city council today because I have grave concerns with regards to new or expanding data centers in Akron. Currently Akron has seven data centers, including a 380,000 square foot center in East Akron that uses enough electricity to power 63,000 homes. It's used for AI and crypto mining. I am sure most people are aware by now that data centers, especially large or hyperscale AI data centers, come with a whole host of negative attributes, including high water consumption for cooling, air, water, noise, light pollution, high electricity consumption that will drive energy costs up for residents, creation of heat islands, and the strain on the local aging infrastructure. Additionally, these tech companies usually target low-income and marginalized communities to set up shop because land is cheap and social vulnerability is high, and this decreases organized resistance. We are told by huge tech companies that AI is the future and that there will be a huge demand for these computing centers, but has AI not been all hype and no profit so far? Is this not just corporate driven demand at the expense of taxpayers? We're sold the tale of job creation and tax revenue, which in reality, the creation of a data center offers short term construction jobs and very little permanent jobs once it's built. Would construction jobs not be better served elsewhere in our community and not for the profit of billion dollar corporations? And with regards to tax revenue, these centers do have that potential, but often these companies are given government subsidies and tax breaks at the expense of working class taxpayers. Why should we be financially supporting corporations like Meta, Google, and Amazon? Also, what happens when the AI bubble will potentially burst and these companies abandon these data centers? Are Akron residents then left with the burden of repurposing these centers? I do understand that modern-day technology cannot exist without some sort of data center, but how do we know what our need is for more data center space or our future potential needs? How is this being looked into? I urge this council to include strict zoning verbiage to protect Akron residents. There should be a complete ban on any large or hyperscale data centers over 25 megawatts. There should be full transparency with contracts so the public is kept well informed about water use and energy requirements. There should be some sort of community benefit agreement with these businesses that require them to invest in our community. These companies should be making direct payments to an Akron community fund which these funds could be used for health and well-being services, digital access for the underserved, etc. There should be restrictions on water consumption, energy use, requiring a certain percentage of renewable energy, strict noise levels, light pollution after dark. Companies should be required to pay for any needed upgrades to infrastructure, and there should not be government subsidies and tax breaks. There should be rate payer protections that force these companies to pay full price for their power consumption. Data centers should be treated as a public commodity since we're subsidizing the cost but seeing none of the profit. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Is there anyone else wishing to speak in favor? Do we have anyone here wishing to speak against? You sure can. Yep. You can come to the mic.

Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you give will be the truth? If so, please say I do. Thank you.

I'm going to talk to you guys as a student of history.

And just for the record, can you give us your name?

It's Abe Shaw. And I'm with a demolition company and a construction company out of Pennsylvania. Anyway, there was a time when the printing press, the British and the Europeans made the printing press. And at that time, the Turkish Empire was the biggest empire, biggest. There was no China, there was no Russia, there was nothing in the world. So all the printers, because at that time, the Turks used to write books and sell by hand to Europe. And they asked the Pasha at that time that ban printing press because we're gonna lose the jobs. We're gonna lose the jobs. There are gonna be no jobs. All the people that make inks, paper that we write on, this is all gonna go away. And so the king announced, no jobs. I'm Turkish. I'm Turkish by origin. So I'm going to tell you a story of my origin. At that time, the Europeans came up. They took all the books that the Turks printed, and they printed them faster and faster. And small kingdoms became large. And today, the Turkish Empire is nothing. People think Ottoman Empire. They think Ottoman Empire was named after a stool. No, the stool was named after the empire, by the way. But having said that, that happened. At one time, when the textile mills came to England, everybody said, we make clothes with our hand. And the tailors and this and that would get unemployed. They were making clothes for the rich and the middle class. The poor would just have hand-me-downs. But a time came when the textile mills were allowed, and the poor started buying new clothes too. There was a time when there were horses and buggies in New York and Boston, and when the car came up, they said, this guy Ford, look at his thing. The noise it makes, the dust it creates, and the jobs we are going to lose because there are three people on a stagecoach. And the buses, one guy driving a bus. Let me ask you, how many of you came on a stagecoach today? How many of you? Or how many are you going to go home? These are the ways empire. Yes, I'm in favor of these guys too. There has to be regulation. There has to be guardrails. You make highways and then you make nudging lines. Those are the white lines that you follow. So these people are also there to have us put those nudging lines. But at the same time, do you know they say it doesn't create jobs? A robot can go into a mine. A robot can go into a mine and save five miners from getting lung disease. So now you're going to blame technology because the four guys don't have to have lung disease? You have to know the pros and cons of as a nation. To grow, every nation is like a tree. It will have branches. People are going to say about this fruit being rotten and that fruit being that, but it's still giving fruit. So what you do is you try to take the technology. Today, there is a plane going with three drones next to it, and it's all AI. in that master plane, the fighter plane that is saving three American lives, and they're not going to war. They're going in that plane. Do you know the United States is 18th in quantum physics? Quantum physics is what China does to make these planes that one plane can fly seven drones with it and save seven lives, Chinese lives. And you're going to be doing the same thing. Oh, let's take, we are not going to have quantum physics. Yes, there are closed-loop technologies. If Tesla can make a car that doesn't make a noise, what do you think? Americans cannot make a cooling tower without making noise? It's just you have to not fight technology, but you have to work to improve it. Do you know AI can still help people make medicine? It saves lives also. People talk about social media, it does this, and Google is doing that, and Amazon is doing this, and Google, and they go home and go on their computer and take the next parcel from Amazon. You're so against Amazon. Do you know what? Walk to your next bookstore down the street and you go home because There you have to be a hypocrite on one side and then be something else on the other side So let me tell you Amazon has taken a lot of jobs Amazon has closed a lot of stores so has Walmart What are we going to do? Blow them all off? Do you know that burping of cows makes more heat? So what's next? Killing all the farmland around Ohio because of methane gas? But you have to regulate. You can't have a farm right in the middle of Akron. But I do understand you still need a farm somewhere. So you can't say that progress The first social media was a newspaper. Nobody knows that. And there were people who would spread rumors. They say, oh, AI spreads rumors. Yeah, so did newspapers. Hearst once said, give me a picture, I'll give you the news. There were people like that, too. But there were people like that that made good newspaper and informed us. And that's how we had people like Abraham Lincoln reading small newspaper. They were, so please do not treat progress, things will change. If you don't change, other countries will come, and I will tell you, if technology doesn't cross borders, armies will one day, believe me. As a student of history, I know that. Less technology of a country, believe me, they will be all coming in here. to take over, because the next weapon is technology. That's the weapon that we have. And it doesn't mean that we put the people on the altar of progress, no. But work with us. As a student of history, I'll tell you, I'm always the first people that bought leather to Boston. People were saying, oh, you're taking all these leather guys that are washing their, tanning their leathers on the Boston River and stuff, and you're making these shoes factories coming out of England. But everybody got shoes. Bata was the first man, I don't know if you ever heard of Bata. Bata was the first man to make this industry. And people, poor people in Africa got shoes because he made it so cheaper. So, all I'm telling you It has to go hand in hand. But I blame the other side too, the technology side. They don't come to city halls. They don't explain themselves. They need to do that. So if you make a place where somebody that wants to open a data center, come and explain to you. He says, I can make Tesla without noise. Now I have to put noise in there because people are complaining and it doesn't make noise. You can have cooling towers like that. Europe does it all the time. Europe sells the heat from the data centers at half price to the poor people. You don't even have pipes to give anything other than New York. Where do you see them? Never prepared for that, did you? Now it's time to prepare for it. Say, hey listen, you produce the heat, we won't subsidize your data centers, but do you know what we'll do? We'll make those pipes to put heat into hospitals, heat into greenhouses, heat into poor localities. Yes, you spend money on that infrastructure. It has to go hand in hand. Government cannot be, it's a famous saying that a camel is a horse designed by a city hall. So let's not design another camel. Let's agree with the horse and I just want, just have to sit with them and say, hey, listen, anybody, all you have to do is not 10 megawatts or 20 or 5 million or two gigabytes, just have to say, you have to explain to us how is the city gonna benefit and how are you gonna benefit? As long as this thing is mutual, go ahead with it. Don't resist it from the start. If you do that, you'll have stagecoaches right now. No train, no iron horse running through the United States that made the United States and trade such a big country. No. People were against that. Drilling holes into the mountains. These mountains are going to fall down. Tell me which mountain has fallen down. Hoover Dam will do this. It will blast California. It will flood California. Hoover Dam saved 70% of California farmland. Hoover Dam did. And everybody was against. So much cement, so much heat. So please, in the end, be a student of history. Learn from history. And I'll just stop at that.

Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that information. Is there anyone else wishing to speak against? Seeing and hearing none, we will close our public hearing. Councilwoman Conner, what is the committee's pleasure?

Councilwoman Boyce?

Aye. Councilman Harner? Aye. And myself is aye. Thank you. Do you have any further comments, Councilwoman Conner? Okay, thank you. So the committee's report is favorable. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it.

This ordinance passes 11 to 0.

All right. There's nothing else coming before us at this time. Cousin McKittrick, did you have something?

Okay. Okay.

There's nothing else coming before us at this time, so meeting adjourned.

Council will meet in regular session at 6.30. Thank you.