Planning & Zoning Committee - Regular Meeting

We call to order the meeting of uh planning and zoning today uh January 27th at 3:11 p.m. We're going to start with uh the approval of the minutes from December 9th and ask committee members to take a moment to review before approval.

Mr. Chair, I move that we um approve the minutes for as as written. All in favor? I All right, we have approval of the minutes from December 9th.

Next up on the agenda today is the data center moratorum. Uh just to give a little context, roughly two weeks ago, we had a public hearing at a city council meeting uh with where we were presented with the moratorum for data centers. Um the uh council approved a a referral to committee and that's why we're here today to review the the ordinance before us related to the data center moratorum. Uh do we have someone from staff to speak on this?

Good afternoon councilors. Um Julie Bernard. I serve as assistant city attorney with um the office of the city attorney. I feel loud. Um and you know after uh you know we did have an an opportunity to confer with the chairs um on on this and understanding that the direction the chairs wanted to go or to narrow the scope of the moratorum or temporary suspension as we're calling it here. Um so it provided you a copy of some suggested changes. Uh it keeps the you know this is primarily related to what's exempt. Um it keeps the exemption that we had that um you know under this ordinance somebody who has already applied um you know made an actual building permit application has actually submitted plans you know not just chatted hey we're thinking about this or asking questions but actually have plans would not be subject to the operation if this suspension um those that are existing um already, you know, this is does not affect anything that's like ongoing operations, routine maintenance and things like that as long as they're not, you know, intens in intensifying the scale or scope of what they're doing. Um [clears throat] it would um provide an exemption for what we are calling for the purposes of the ordinance small data centers that have an I an aggregate planned IT electrical load of 1 to 5 megawws primarily serve businesses local or regional enterprises institutional users or single organization and do not require the construction of new off-site substations

major transmission upgrades or other regional utilities. infrastructure. Um, and small data centers may include enterprise or limited collocation facilities and are deemed to have minimal land use and infrastructure impacts. And then to also include um a medium uh data center. Again, these are classifications that we're using just for the purposes of this ordinance. May not be what we come out with on the finished on the final product. Um but those have an aggregated planned IT electrical load of greater than five megawatts and not more than 20 megawws. They support regional business operations, cloud services, managed services, collocation services or specialized computing applications and are designed to serve multiple unaffiliated users or tenants including collocation customers. Um and then also you know just routine maintenance, repair equipment, um etc. for you know existing data centers and um you know temporary would also exempt temporary data centers or technology facilities that are you know for response to disaster. You know something that where they you know if something were to wipe out you know some data infrastructure within an area and to get things back up and operational. Uh yeah there I understand there are some mobile uh facilities that can be deployed so we would not make those subject to the moratorum. Um so that you know that was uh again we you know worked on this quickly. Uh those were the thoughts. Um and again it's uh for the purposes of this we're not trying to stop something where somebody has made you know made

substantial investment in steps towards development. Um we are still looking at what the regulations need to be um across the board and uh that's the proposition that's before you and if the committee recommends it we can go ahead and move it and set a hearing with the council.

Thank you Julie for the presentation. Committee members do we have some questions? Okay, thank you. Um, so yeah, I appreciate that you that staff has um come back to us with these um this modified language that you know really um I think based on the public hearing that we we had, we heard from folks that the the concern was really with the larger or hypers scale um type facilities that, you know, are going to occupy a lot of property, use a lot of energy and other resources, you know, potentially emit um air pollution and those sorts of things. And and uh not necessarily with the data centers that we already have in our backyard um in around the city. Uh you know, most of those types of facilities uh most people probably aren't even aware that they're in a community. Um so um you know wanting to not interfere with the normal operation of um businesses that you know as part of their normal operations have to store data and you know have computing services available such as you know financial institutions and and the like. Um I think you know this uh sort of steers clear of interfering you know with any uh operations that um they need to conduct or you know smallcale expansions of their facilities. Um so um

if I may counselor I was going to make a couple of clarifications and that's one thing you know we mentioned hypers scale and we've seen some different sources where hypers scale is said to be 40 megawws and above and we've seen some that say 20 megawws and above. So that's why we chose the 20 megawws and why we didn't use the term hypers scale as to the we use it in the preamble but not into in the applicability um you know until we can review and make what determinations uh in in definitions we think are needed for Birmingham. And I also want did want to point out that like with other u moratoriums or temporary suspensions that we have done in the past, there is always an opportunity for someone to make an appeal to the city council if they are told by by um permitting staff or inspection staff or anything. You're subject to the moratorum. We can't do anything at this point. Then um the they have that right to appeal to the council. so for the council can determine whether or not it should move forward outside the moratorum or not.

Um and so we're we're keeping at the the time for the initial period at least at at 6 months.

I that is unless the committee wants to make that change. Um, you know, we've discussed to make a change to the zoning ordinance takes about 4 months for the entire process to happen. Staff is already working on, you know, looking at examples across the country and and making some recommendations as to what we see uh would fit for the city of Birmingham. That's going to take a little bit of time, but yeah, the reality is if we were from if we had it with the 180 days had it gone into effect last week, um we would have had to have everything wrapped up by July. So that basically means going to planning commission with really what our final recommendation is and assuming no committee is going to say we want to make these changes would have to happen in March. Um I think if we leave it at the six months and I still the clear I think the clear message from the council and from you know the administration is we're not closing down to business. We are just taking some time to make sure we can put some things in place because of this rapid expansion of these large facilities across the country. But we are still willing to work with everybody and work through that. Um, we would still recommend the six months. Again, we're already started on the work. So the hope is it won't go for six months that uh that we can have an answer before then but just because of the way things happen and way things moving through committees sometimes get you know some changes some push back we want to just make sure that we've got some time to move it. There is still the

possibility of doing a uh 90-day extension if needed. Again, we don't want to do all this work and get to the end and we're almost finished with it, but we need just a little bit more time to get it through the council process or whatever. So, you know, we would have that that opportunity that as long as there's substantial progress that has been made, the council could extend it for a short period.

Okay. So, in with respect to the forthcoming uh changes to the zoning code, um once staff feels comfortable that they've, you know, identified the language that needs to be amended, that would come to this committee, right? Um well it would I guess it would first go to planning commission and then planning commission would make a recommendation and then come to this committee

and then uh we would have to set a public hearing for the council meeting um and I imagine that would you know be um probably two to four weeks period and yeah and that is part of all that time there's notices that have to be sent, you know, at planning commission stages, you know, at at different stages there are notices that are sent. So, that takes some time, but that's roughly a four-week notice period to get to the council hearing.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I think that's uh covers everything. I did want to say um in the preamble I guess the last whereas uh it looks like you guys weren't settled on the language um with respect to um it says whereas oh I apologize yes I did have some um we probably need to um because we [snorts] didn't really use that term we may just say certain u data centers yeah I left that there because sure we hadn't had chance. So yes, thank you for pointing that out to me. We will we will pick a term. Okay. And put it there.

Yeah. All right. Thank you, counselors. Any other questions?

All right. Hearing none, I believe we are ready to make a vote on recommendation. So, I'll make a motion that we recommend uh this temporary suspension of permitting um to the full council for approval. Second. All right. All in favor? I motion passes. We have a recommendation to the council for the data center moratorum. Thank you. All right. Next up on the agenda is an update on appointments and reappointments. We're going to start with uh the Birmingham Historical Commission. Um and so, sorry, do we have someone to speak from from staff?

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Hannah Garmin. I serve as the historic preservation manager for the city of Birmingham and I um I staff the Birmingham Historical Commission. We are reappointing previous members while also appointing four new members, all recommended by the mayor. Okay, thank you. Yes, sir. Any questions from committee?

Yes, I have questions. So, um can you give some background? Is this the historical U commission been meeting? I mean, um, I was a little confused by the information that was provided that, um, some of these, you know, I guess the some of these folks were appointed as long ago as 1989, 1998, I'm sorry. um and their terms had, you know, have been expired for a couple of decades. So, what's going on there?

It was just um my predecessor um we just hadn't nominated any new they wanted to stay on the board. Um I believe uh that was one of the reasons these people want to continue to serve. Um and just as positions fell off, especially during COVID, we had a couple of members who passed. We're just now getting to staff those positions. Um, we also had a couple of resignations in the last year. Okay. So, does the commission meet regularly?

They do. When we have a quorum, we meet quarterly. I give them an update about our historic preservation um efforts in Birmingham as well as they assist with historic preservation month in May. Um they also meet to um to for to hear any appeals from the design review committee as needed. So they're a board that's established by our historic preservation ordinance. Okay.

Any questions from committee? All right. Hearing hearing none. Do we have a motion? Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion that we uh accept the nominations um for appointment to the Birmingham Historical Commission and recommend these appointments to the full council for approval. All in favor?

I. Uh, any opposed? All right, motion passes. Thank you. Next up, we have the ZBA membership update. Hello, Kim. Good afternoon. My name is Kim Spur. I serve as the city's zoning administrator. Um, we received a resignation letter from one of our ZBA members, Miss Wanda Wright. Um, she served as the realtor on our zoning board of adjustment. So, that leaves us with an empty spot on the board. We also have a super numerary spot that is available that does not have any professional requirements. Um so we would like to ask if um you guys could announce at the next two council meetings maybe adver help us advertise to receive um some applications so we can move forward to fill this spot in the super numerary spot.

Great. Absolutely, Kim. Thank you. So, two vacancies uh are up for the ZBA membership. One realtor position, one super numerary. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Last but not least, we have a Birmingham Planning Commission vacancy. Is there someone to come speak on that? Hello, Jess.

Hi, good afternoon. I'm Jess Maya and I serve as the planning commission senior planner in PEP. We do have one vacancy on the Birmingham Planning Commission. It is councelor Gun's term. He had to resign in October when he was appointed to city council. Um so I have advertised that on our website, but we would also like y'all to advertise it at the next two city council meetings. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Jess. Any questions from committee?

Just a question about the ZBA. Are are we still good with a current a quorum currently or I know that's often been an issue trying to get a quorum present.

So fortunately P&Z you guys met and we had some new appointments over the past year. Um and so we've been very fortunate that we've had great attendance out of those new appointments. Um we do we are a seven member board with the two super numer. So, with this one empty spot that I don't think it'll hurt us um because the attendance wasn't there the past year anyway. Um but we thank you guys for your encouragement and making sure that when you interview the applicants, reminding them that attendance is needed so we can ensure that all of our cases are heard in a timely manner. But the past six months have been fantastic.

One other question. So, um the the council approved um revisions to the zoning code that um with respect to parking requirements. Um and I know a lot of the previous cases coming through ZVA were for, you know, variances to those parking requirements, the parking modifications. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, a as a result of the change in the code, have we seen a significant decrease in the amount of those types of requests?

Absolutely. Um because of the parking modifications approved by council um to the zoning ordinance, we have not had any variances or requests for any parking related cases. Even when there have been parking overages, they've been handled through storm water and um pvious pavement and we have not had to take any of those to the zoning board. So that significantly reduced the case load for the the board. Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. All right. All right. Uh, we have a motion to adjurnn.

Yep. Motion to adjurnn. Second.