City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order for city council of Canon Falls meeting on Wednesday, November 5th, 2025. Like to get a roll call, please. Diane Johnson, here. Zimmerman here. Chad Johnson here. Jefferson here. Noach here. Croninburgger here. Montgomery here. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If I could get a motion to approve tonight's agenda. So move. Second.

Motion from Chris, second from Diana. Those in favor say I.

Oppos? Nay. It passes. [clears throat] uh public input. I'm just going to give people a quick reminder. We ask that you try to keep the applause and the cheering at a minimum. This is not uh sporting event. This is a meeting of city business. And also, we do have a lot of people signed up tonight. We still keep it to a half hour uh which normally would be uh 10 people 3 minutes a piece. I will have the timer here. If you go a little bit quicker, we can get a little bit deeper. There are obviously more than 10 people that have signed up. So, please be aware of your time. Uh public input is intended to afford the public an opportunity to address concerns to the city council. The public input will be no longer than 30 minutes in total length and each speaker will have no more than 3 minutes to speak. Speakers [snorts] may address topics relevant to the governance of the city. Speakers must sign up in advance, must provide their name, address, and the topic they intend to address. Comments must be on topic, respectful, pertinent to city business, and adhere to the applicable data privacy rules. Any speaker that violates these rules will be asked to sit down. And if the speaker refuses to comply, they may be removed from the meeting. Speakers shall not address topics that are the subject of a public hearing. All such comments shall be made at the public hearing. The city council will not generally act on issues raised by the public input, but may choose to schedule consideration of the item on a future agenda. Leading off tonight, Clinton Shawquist.

Good evening. Uh name is Clinton Chopquist. 899 320 Street Way

8999 320 Street Way. I'm the board chairman for Canon Falls Area Schools. Tonight I'm here representing Canon Falls Area Schools and the school's support for the data center. I first off want to say thank you to the entire community for the support and passing of the muchneeded operating levy. our school will now be able to move forward and give our kids the educational experience that they deserve and what the community expects. So very much thank you to everyone. I also want to thank City Hall, Sarah, Michelle, Ellen, and Izzy for all their assistance throughout their election process and for letting Josh and Lorie live at the old DMV area for the last couple of months. Last July, I initiated meeting with Tracked. During this meeting, Superintendent Samson and I learned about the potential data center and what that could mean for our community. During this meeting, we informed them about our funding struggles, and we made it clear to them that with the Dana Center using Canon Falls and resources that we thought our school should be the beneficiary, not the neighboring town as it would be built in their school district. Track recognized this that that this was a problem and immediately went to work on coming up with a resolution that would work for all parties involved. After many meetings, I'm happy to announce that we have finalized a deal. A deal that would make Canon Falls and its school a winner. I want to thank Administrator Roacher, Mayor Montgomery, Superintendent Samson, and the numerous people from track for all their time and work that they have put into this agreement. But I want to especially thank each and every one of you sitting up there. Without your constant push back on telling them over and over and over again that our school needs to be the winner, none of this would be possible. The school has no levers whatsoever in this process. You all hold the cards and I can't thank you enough for your support. Last month when I stood up here giving a presentation, I showed that our funding gap was around a million half dollars a year less compared to what we received in 2003. Because of the levy passing, we will now

get about a million of that back. But now we have a chance to fill the remainder. That's right, 500,000 a year and an increase of 15,000 a year every year after that. That is $13 million over the course of 20 years that will go directly towards our kids education and experiences at Canon Falls area schools. You all played a key role in getting us to this point, a point where we have the chance to set our school up for success for many years to come. Thank you. Thank you.

Next up is Jeff Samson, data center. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Jeff Samson, superintendent of schools for Canon Falls Area Schools. Um, [clears throat] I've been working with the EDA over the past seven years, uh, since I arrived here in Canon Falls to be the superintendent. And a lot of that's been telling the story of the schools and what we need to be successful and survive. Um, a lot of that has been uh the need for housing. Uh obviously students are important for schools because that is how we have and do our business and and and um are funded through schools or through students and with the need of students that comes with the need for housing and for sustained business growth uh in this area. Uh over that time as Clinton mentioned uh I've cut well over a million and a half out of our budget over the past four to five years. And uh if the levy wouldn't have been passing last night, we'd be up over $2 million right now in that time frame. And so it's vital that uh the the not only the the community understands, but the city council understands that the referendum did cover part of that funding gap that Clinton just talked about, but the the deal, the pending deal with Track would cover the rest of that funding gap for the schools. uh track has been great to work with over the time that I've been meeting with them with Clinton and I have been meeting with them. They've been empathetic to our plight here in Canon Falls with the school district and um in like Clinton had mentioned we didn't have any leverage in this process and so they were very empathetic and and looking to help us out and they didn't have to. Um, I I do ask that you guys do pass this tonight for the health of the school district moving forward as Clinton mentioned and that we can solidify our schools for years to come.

Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] Next up is Norah Felton Data Center.

Norah Felton 33079 County 24 Canon Falls. Wow. deals, deals, and deals that nobody's heard of, that nobody will maybe find out what the bottom line of all the deals are. It's interesting anytime we'd ask any questions or sent any text messages about things like what does the city benefit, who pays all the infrastructure, building costs, will the city's building out for track, who that's the carry cost. Who's going to carry those? The things I ask about the water and sewer and whether it can handle a data center. No answers. Only we trust our city administrator and our lawyer. And yet here we are tonight trusting them. But we didn't have a quorum after last time. And people even asked if we had a quorum. But maybe by the grace of God, maybe we'll get more answers tonight. It seems to me that if we can't get the proper normal procedure as correct as to how many we should have here to do a vote, how on earth are we going to possibly be able to represent this community against the titans that are representing these data centers? I know this seems like a big task. We did it for Zip Rail. We saved your tush about 10 years ago. Nobody [snorts] wanted to do the background work. Nobody wanted to look in and due diligence over what was really in the fine print of the deals. It would have cut the community in half. We weren't able to save the southwestern part of the city. They had jobs, but we put in four roundabouts cuz nobody wanted to listen. Now, we've opened Pandora's box for deals that nobody knows what they are. Pandora's box. It just says, "Anybody come in? Tell us what kind of shrubs you're going to put, how high your fence is going to be, and

how much money you might give us." Well, that 20,000 cow dairy that I know people are looking to site, that'll probably bring you more workers than the couple of people you'll need for this data center. It kind of reminds me of I kester was in the border league with us and I had a friend and I said, "Wow, you know, that was really some great footage in that commercial. What did the city get paid for that? That must have been a great deal for you guys." And she said, "Well, the filmers came in and they said, "You're going to have great visibility. Your your city will probably grow from this." only to find out years later, and you've probably all seen the commercial for Keester, Minnesota, Kester, an advertisement for Preparation H. [laughter] Next up, uh, Dean. His last name Carr.

Thanks, Dean.

Thank you. Good evening. I am Dean Couts. I live at 124 Main Street West in Canon Falls with my wife Marca. I am a fresh face appearing before you tonight. Over the past two days, Marcia and I have had the opportunity to visit with many of our neighbors to remind them of this meeting. I'm happy to see so many have chosen to join us here tonight. Over the course of those two days, we visited with 41 members of our community with the exception of five. The people we visited with are adamantly opposed to the data center project. This represents approximately 88% of those we visited with. This is in sharp contrast to comments made at the October 21st council meeting during which a council member indicated that the majority of people she had spoken with are in favor of the data center. It is really important for us to reconcile these widely divergent positions for the wholeness of our community. The common denominator driving the opposition to the project are concerns about the negative environmental impacts this facility will likely cause. I believe it is imperative that a robust comprehensive environmental assessment be performed by the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board prior to this project moving forward. There are currently four lawsuits in process regarding in part the deficiencies of relying on the curs cursory environmental review provided by an alternative urban areawwide review.

This is the kind of review that was conducted earlier this summer regarding this specific data center environment project. I recognize that we face a long dark tunnel of financial uncertainty these days due to a number of factors. I believe it is human nature to gravitate to those shiny things that might appear to relieve us of those financial concerns. In that regard, it is easy and perhaps comforting to view this proposed development as a light of hope at the end of our tunnel. That light grows ever brighter and more intense with each passing day and with each step of this process. The citizens of Canon Falls need your assurances that the light we are told to embrace is real and not the light of a train barreling down upon us to our demise. Thank you.

Thank you, Dean. Next up, Ferland Miller. Furland Miller, 1016 Minnesota Street West. Cannon Falls. I don't like getting involved in all this, but I'm here. [laughter] I see [snorts] everything on Facebook. I don't respond to Facebook. Lot of bad data on there. These people aren't telling truth. Property value in Rosemont alone are going up every day. They're building houses closer and closer to the data center. They're not moving away from it. They're moving into it. Egan is building a brand new data center as we speak across the street from housing. These things are not as loud or make that noise that everybody says they do. It's a great value to this city and it's time the city grows. lived here my whole life. This city has done nothing. We've everything we've ever done is give it away for free. You want to come here, we'll give it to you for free for 20 years. Track is being a partner to the city. They're not asking for it for free. They're putting into it to come here. We should be proud of that. This is one we don't have to give away. Thank you. Thank you, friend. Next up, Bill Peterson.

Thank you, Bill Peterson, 32487 County 24 Boulevard, where I live with my lovely wife, 10 chickens, Jackson the Wonderdog, and Dickens the slightly less wondrous dog. I would like the council to consider putting a pause on this. Um I had a friend who worked in public relations her entire career and her adage was as soon as you are sick of talking about something is exactly when people start to listen. And I think this crowd is testimony to that. The people of Cannon Falls are just waking up to what's going on with this. There are good reasons to do this. There are bad reasons to do this. There are reasons not to do this and we need really a full consideration and not for you folks. You've been working on this for over a year, but for everybody else who is just now paying attention to what's going on. The uh development agreement which you're considering tonight was being amended within hours of this meeting. Um there's language in there. Uh I'm a former English teacher. I'm sorry I stopped counting at six grammatical errors in the first couple of pages. It suggests to me that this can take some time to go over look at a little bit more carefully, perhaps work in some other um advantages to the city in this. As a former teacher, I love the fact that the school is getting money, but there are so many options for losing that money that it doesn't seem like it's a solid thing. So, I would really like the council to consider just pausing on the development agreement for a month or so, hold some public hearings, get some more public input, and really listen to the people who are being affected by this. Thank you.

Thank you, Bill. Uh, next up, Tim Demer. Thank you all. Um Demer Falls res half my years of life on this. Um yes, it's um I'm not as well spoken as anybody else. The minute I walk up here, my brain just um I would like to hand these out if I I may give them back too.

Okay. Okay. Huh? You're doing just fine.

Sorry. I'm sure Chad underline might stand out, but yeah, I guess brought in. I get um I'm drowned out from the data center, but I'm here. It's what I'm glad for all the people showing up for that and on both sides. It's it's the pause would be the greatest thing I've heard my thing that I think would be um and yeah, just want to leave that with you and I'll collect them up at the end of the meeting and see about issues I'm having with police. Um couple one particular officer and have them noted. Can part of that be read to us

the other end of um it says on ADA regulations for service animals

and it's um it's regarding things that I don't deserve I don't it's it's just and it and it falls under a lot of public public library is is a big part not just this cities there's you know cities that go 30 mile radius or as up at St. Paul yesterday. So, it's it's things that I hope can get addressed soon. And I'll leave this quote. I like an attorney left with me, not an a state attorney, so maybe. But do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But that was really good. I could add more words that like a list of synonyms that go along with my feelings and and um like being a victim but in a sense but hope to follow up like I wrote on the sheet what I'm going to talk it's just a repeat. I'm just coming back following up. I would have spoke last week but they ran out of time. I'll leave it for the rest of

Thank you. Thank you Tim. Uh, John or Sarah, should we keep one on file so that it could be You've already made copies. Okay. [snorts] All right. So, the public will be able to see what's on here. All right. Thank you.

Uh, next up, Tammy Riker, data center. My name is Tammy Rikerts. I live at 407 York Street North in Canon Falls. Let's go. Last time I was here, you were presented with a petition with nearly 600 signatures and you vote yes. Anyway, we shared information about the rising cost of taxes in our state, our county, our city, as well as the rising energy price prices for both the services that serve our community. You voted yes anyway. You were presented with documented facts about how it's affected the cost of water, the cost of electricity, and you voted yes. Anyway, so let's try this again and speak to legal matters. Lakeville and North Mano are suing their cities because of data centers. Farmington is suing their city specifically who is working with tract because as I quote from the lawsuit, tract has a proven history of preying on unsuspecting small municipalities in states that have no regulation on data center building industry. We're working with tract. Wow, that's scary. Oh, and I should mention tract is also being sued in the other states that they're working in, like Nevada. Castle Rock is suing the city of Farmington because they annexed some of their property. That sounds familiar. Pine Island is suing because of the data center. Herman Town is suing because of the data center. All of those lawsuits have been brought up within the last couple months. All of those lawsuits have the city council members and the mayor listed specifically specifically the one with trapped specifically the one in Farmington. Their mayor was

listed in the lawsuit. Now that's not said as a threat. That's just said as fact. Your names, the seven of you will go down forever with Canon Falls history. Some of you have long history here. You were born here. Your family, your great great grandparents, 17 cousins, whole lots of family from Canon Falls who love this city. People like myself who moved to the city because I love the city. We are saying something to you. over 600 people if you add in tonight's uh tonight's petition that we hand out to you, last time's petition, how many people is it going to take for you to listen? We do not want this. We love the schools. We love the children here. We love the city here. We love our neighbors here. [snorts] We want to be good neighbors. And this is not a good idea. tracked is not the final user either. So any deal that they say in their own AUR of 500 some pages doesn't matter because they are not the end user. They state so themselves. Hopefully you all read the 500page document. So in closing, think about this. You have a whole room full of people here who are asking you and you have a couple people who are asking you to do this. Are you really going to turn your back on all these people? Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, Michelle. I'm sorry, Michelle. What's the last name? All right. Thank you, Michelle.

Michelle Boing, 31378 Hemlock Drive. We've been told that this data center will create jobs and be overall great for the Cannon Falls community, but it seems as if the companies who use data centers don't even believe that. Lindy Stone, a lawyer for Microsoft, a company that is contributing and benefiting from the generative AI fueled data center boom, stated in a webinar that quote, "Data [clears throat] centers once they are operational, don't bring a lot of jobs. They do on the construction side, but you're not really getting a ton of that community benefit from having a data center really." She goes on to say, "Nobody really wants a data center in their backyard. I don't want a data center in my backyard." unquote. These companies are fine with data centers being in someone else's backyard if it means maximizing profit. Of the 250 plus jobs tracked claims will be created, how many of those positions will exist post construction and be filled by Canon Falls residents? Will these jobs be worth the roughly 267% increase over the last 5 years in utility bills that other communities near data center activity have experienced? Will this data center allow the tenant post construction to streamline operations by replacing human jobs with generative AI? Some tenants of tracked data centers include AWS, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle who combined have laid off thousands of people just this year. I would like the Canonfall City Council to give more consideration to the very real concerns of residents instead of viewing this project through rosecolored glasses. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh, next up, Peggy Lake.

Hi, I'm Peggy Lake, 31190 55th Avenue, Oxford Mill Road, Can Falls. And I as [clears throat] well am against the data center. I shouldn't say I'm against it. I'm asking to please put a pause on it. um make sure we have the legalities. If my well goes dry, who's going to take care of that? Um do the environmental impact study before you make this decision. Um I think it's irresponsible not to do this study before we move forward. So I'm all for getting the school extra money and [clears throat] tax money. That's great. But what's it going to do on the environment and environmental side? Please get that study done and then have another meeting. That's all I'm asking. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Teresa Rudd. It's Theres and it's Rudd and it's 302 Parkway Court in Canon Falls. And I wasn't planning to be here tonight. Um felt it was important. I'm one week out of having surgery. So, um I'm here so I don't have anything prepared. Um I hear a lot of things. I feel like we're grasping at the golden ticket that this is going to be the solve all. This is going to help our downtown. I've talked to some business people. They think that all these workers are going to come downtown and they're not. They're not going to take their lunch break to go and eat at Mil Street or at Brew Stoers. They won't have enough time while they're working. And I also don't think that it was made clear that once the data center is up and running, there won't be that crew that is there to come downtown. It won't be hundreds of people. [snorts] I also think that The reason Cannon Falls is Cannon Falls is the beauty, the serene, peaceful river, bluffs, parks, camping, lake. And if we put up a data center, will people want to come? Will they want to come camping? Will they want to come here? Will they want to come and bring

their students to the school? Even the school is getting all this great money. Will our student population go down because those families don't want to live here? So, I'm asking you to reconsider your thoughts and think about what's good. And I understand we're losing a lot of businesses, but frankly, I don't think this is our save all. I thank you all for your consideration. I also thank you for your work. Being on any kind of a board is a very [laughter] difficult job. So, I thank you. Thank you.

Um, we can do one more. Uh, this will be the last speaker. and Muselmer.

Good evening. Anne Bullsemeer, 6658 296th Street East, Canon Falls, Minnesota. Um so the comprehensive plan that was referred to in um is from 2003 and at that time hypers scale data centers did not even exist. So when it's referred to um now when they looked at the industrial park there was never anybody could imagine that a hypers scale data center would could be built out there. The first one was built in the United States of Oregon in 2006, 3 years after the Cannon Falls Comprehensive Plan was done. And now we've got a chance. There's money for a new comprehensive plan. I think this is really a great time to put this project on pause. We hear about transparency and community involvement and through the comp new comprehensive plan, this will happen. The citizens will all be engaged. I think that this time is through the comprehensive plan process. All the citizens can tell you their vision for the city through that questionnaire process. And before there is any fi final approval of this data center site, I really think that we should consider using that avenue for questioning the citizens and seeing what they want. You know, we know growth is coming. growth is going to come to the city. But let the people that h live here and have lived here all their lives, members of their families that have lived here for generations, settled this area, farmed this area, decide the fate of their beloved town. And I really feel that by using

the process that got voted through, it's been financed. Let's stop. Let's do a comprehensive plan and see what everybody wants. It's all I'm just asking. Thank you. Thank you. Can I ask one question? Nope. Public input is done and it's not question and answer. Okay. Our time wrong last time. Our time is up. Uh we're going to move on to public hearings. Uh resolution 2842 certifying unpaid utility charges to be collected by taxes. Sarah, if there's anything you'd like to say before I open the public hearing. I don't think so. Okay. I It's a normal It's a quarterly thing um that the city does.

All the council members, we've seen this before. So, public hearing is officially open. If you would like to step up to the mic and speak only on resolution 2842, certifying unpaid utility charges to be collected by taxes. Going once. Going twice. Third and final offer. All right. Public hearing is closed. Uh I would accept a motion to approve resolution 2842. Uh so move. Motion from Diane. Second. Second from Lisa. Any discussion? All those in favor?

I oppose carries. All right. Public hearing. Uh the second one resolution 2843 ordering improvements and directing preparation of final plans and specifications. Uh, Bill Angerman from WHKS is going to lead a presentation first before we open the public hearing. So, Bill, [clears throat] it's yours. Right.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, bear with me. I have a call tonight. So, um, so what we'll, uh, do is I'll give a presentation as you mentioned. Uh, we'll take public comments. So, this is for our 2026 street project, which is [clears throat] to reconstruct Fourth Street from Dakota to Washington and portions of Oak Street as well. So, I'll I'll move to the podium, but I'll explain that. uh at the end we'll be asking the council uh to act on the resolution uh that uh acting on the resolution requires a four-fifth majority is and is the first step or I'm sorry the next step in moving towards construction next summer. So with that short inter I'll move to the podium. Thank you. All right. Very good. Thanks, mayor. All right. So, a lot of what we have to do tonight. So, we are governed by Minnesota Statute 429. So everything we're doing tonight is found in that statute. So with that, we have to go over some procedures, we have to go over some timelines, um you know, costs, etc. And then as we mentioned earlier, public comments. So uh these are the items we're going to go through. Uh we're generally going to go through this pretty quick, but uh after the public has comments, council members, we'll we'll obviously take questions and uh hopefully answer anything you have or there's a comment from the public that you would like us to address. Either John or I we please uh ask you to ask us that. So, as I mentioned earlier, the project area that we're talking about is Fourth Street uh from Dakota to Washington and uh the little bit of Oak Street there, you can kind of see in the middle. What does this color coding

represent? Uh the color coding represents the assessments. So each parcel property which is highlighted in a black line uh have an assessment assigned to it. Uh because not all the lots are the same. So for example on the north side on the left you see those two lots are just red only. So red refers to that those lots will get a street assessment. The reason they will not get a sewer or water assessment is because there are no buildings on that property that use water or sewer. Conversely, to the east side, that's the Gemini property. I'm sorry, the Canon Equipment property. Uh they have three co colors. They have red for street. Uh green is the universal color for sewer and blue is for water. So that means that parcel would receive all three assessments. And as you can, you know, move down the line, you can see all the color. That's really just to help visualize uh help people understand that. And that corresponds. Then there's also a spreadsheet that's included um that goes into detail specifically about uh the lots how the assessments are calculated or I'm sorry proposed assessments are calculated. Okay. So a little bit more on the background. So city council so any assessment project you have to have an engineers report uh that's prepared for it. It has to document uh the reasons for doing the project. Also has to document the costs and a proposed schedule. Uh so you did approve that during October 7th meeting. Uh just a couple highlights of that. What's driving this project is our roads in this area in poor shape. Uh Oak Street for I'm sorry, Ohio Street for example is only 22 feet wide. So it's sub it's a substandard width. Also our sanitary sewer and water mane are old in this area and we have drainage issues as well. Uh one of the things that we've been asked this process is this project related to the track development project. uh this project is not related to the track development project. This project was actually initiated in 2023

and was broke up into three different phases. So this is the third phase of the project that the city council I guess technically started in 2022 uh that if for those of you that remember that the sewer bridge was part of the driving factor or getting rid of the sewer bridge. Okay. So what are we proposing or what's staff proposing? Uh so that all the streets will be reconstructed. They will get new pavement and they will have curbon gutter added. So a lot of the the road here does not have curbon gutter. This is consistent with last year's project which was Canon Street and Third Avenue. And all the streets will then be uh built to our city standard of 32 feet wide. As I mentioned earlier, the sanitary sewer and water are old. Uh the water man is approximately 50 years old. Uh we do not know how old the sanitary sewer is. Um it's at least 50 or years older or older with that exact age. Uh we do not have it's old enough we do not have records of it. Um but also [clears throat] as I mentioned we had storm sore particularly in that Ohio area. There's poor drainage there. We have had some drainage problems to the north and to the east uh with some flooding. So, we'll we'll we're not going to you can never fix flooding, but you can reduce it. So, we're going to uh do a good job to help reduce some drainage problems and flooding that we have. As I mentioned, we have to follow Minnesota's uh statute 429. So, these are the steps I'm just going to go over real quickly of what we as the city have to do. Uh so, number one, you have to determine there's a need. So, you've previously done that. Uh number two, you have to have an engineering study, which mentioned you approved in your October meeting. Um, and tonight you have to have a a public hearing. So, this is for this is what I call and for those of you that have been assessments before, this is what I call the thumbs up or thumbs down meeting. So, what we're doing tonight is we're going to have a resolution. Should we proceed or not?

Okay. Now, ultimately, this is not a hearing tonight about your value, your assessments. Now that obviously factors in because come springtime uh when we open bids for this project again if you move forward uh then we will know actual assessment amount. So actual assessment amounts are based on the actual bids received. At that point then we'll have a second public hearing [cough] where a person uh or property owner will have the ability to contest their assessment. Contesting their assessment means that they don't think their property will be worth more after the project versus before. That's the that's the test that we have to pass for statute is that when we do a project it improves or there's a benefit to the property. Okay. And then uh lastly you're obviously going to consider your input tonight to move forward. I'm sorry. Lastly on this slide, sorry. Uh then then later on in the agenda tonight there uh in the consent agenda uh there is um to move forward with the preparation of final plans and specifications. Um so then if you do that we will come back and I got a timeline here uh coming up but we'll come back uh later this spring with final plans. Um and again like all projects the city we have to publicly bidder projects. We have to take the low responsible response responsive bidder as defined by statute and then the intent is to construct this next year. As I mentioned earlier that's when the final assessment amounts are known. Right now, they're estimates. Now, we like to believe we're going to be plus or minus 10%. Um, but until we actually open bids, uh, we don't know. Sometimes people ask us, well, why don't you know? Well, what are gas prices going to do between them and what are pipe prices going to do? What are asphalt, you know, etc. So, this is our best estimate as of today. And then last two items, then the council will award a contract and then we'll build that uh next year. Uh some specifics here, just

the dates kind of been over. So again, this is our plans. We'll come back in March and there's a lot of things that have to go on between now and then. So that could shift, but really we'll be back here in March. If not March, maybe it'll be April, but it'll be around that time frame. Uh with the goal that we will award a contract in May. The goal is to begin construction in June. Uh this is a project then that we would want to see completed next year other than the final lift, the black top we typically complete the next year. So really this is fall about this time next year. Uh we would really want to have everything done other than that second lifted black top. Okay. The costs this is roughly a $1.6 million project. Again this is phase three of a three-phase project. This is what we've been planning for for several years. Um our assessment policy calls for certain portions of that to be assessed. uh that's about $300,000 of that project uh will be assessed to the buing property owners. The remainder of that does come out of our general levy. So the city bore [cough] your sewer and water funds. So uh we have a couple uh methods available to us uh and by ordinance how we can assess we are using the adjusted front foot method. So basically what that does is that you know how how you account for lots that are on corners. So how you account for corner lots those are always a little tricky. So that that is the method we're using for this one. Uh then as uh of the amounts uh our our practice and policy is that 20% of the the project costs are assessed 80% picked up uh by the city. Uh what that does is that leaves an assessment range. The assessments are there's a really big range mainly because we have a really big range of property sizes way more than we would typically have. We do most of the time if we have, you know, a residential neighborhood, the lots are, you know, 65 to say 80 85 feet. But here we have some

really big industrial properties. So our ranges are our assessments are going to range from $8,000 up to approximately $63,000. So with that, Mayor, uh that's the end of my presentation. So I'll go sit down and then now would be the time for anybody to offer any comments. So thank you very much. Thank you, Bill. So, we will officially open the public hearing for resolution 2843, the project that Bill had just discussed. Feel free to step up. This is just like public input. Uh, if you do have questions, we will consider, but it's not a conversation. It's not a back and forth. It's it's very similar to public input, and we'll do our best to answer when you're done. Okay.

I live right on the corner of uh Fifth Street and Ohio. There's only three houses on Ohio and so I'm concerned about how much that is going to raise the property tax on my home. Like how does it is it going to be taken out for that year or is it going to be added on for a number of years and broken up into chunks? John or Bill would like to take this? Mayor, do you want me to address this now or at the end or?

Let's wait till the end of the public hearing in case there's other questions that are similar that people would like to ask, but we'll get to that if there's anybody else that would like to speak. Could you also provide your name and address for the for the Sorry, Jane Roie, 1101 Fifth Street North. Okay. Yep. Thank you, Jane. And I can't answer that and we'll do that at the end. Normally the red house on the corner, now it's the blue. Is there anybody else that would like to speak here while the public hearing is open? Second chance to speak during public hearing. Third and final call. All right. Public hearing is closed. Bill, go ahead and answer your question.

All right. So, uh, mayor, that decision will not be made to the spring. Uh, but what the city council will typically historically has done is those are certified at the end of the project uh to go on your taxes. uh you do have the option to prepay if it goes on your taxes. Uh you will have the choice council. What you've done on your last projects is you've uh then put that on the tax bill and spread out over 10 years. Uh you will set the interest rate for that. Uh historically what you've done is you've set that at one percentage point above uh your basically the rate that you could borrow money at. So uh last time Sarah helped me out. Was that interest rates have gone up since the last project? But

it was like between four or five. There was a few projects and I think one was four, one was five. Yeah, four or five%. The other thing that the council does have the opportunity to do which you have done on previous projects, uh you have the ability to grant deferrals. Uh deferrals uh state statute allows deferrals for a hardship. Uh hardship you defined in the past is if your median household income is below 50 50% of it is in the county. Uh you've also granted senior citizen deferrals and you've also granted military deferrals. So again, those are determined uh when we come back in the spring. That's the the general gist [clears throat] of what the council's done in the past.

Thank you, Bill. Uh any other questions or comments from the council? I have one question and I just emailed it to Jed, but Bill, is there any chance that we can look into cost savings here? I know four street just kind of seems like it's narrow as is and it sounds like we're increasing it to 32 ft. I don't need an answer [snorts] tonight. It's just something can we look into it is, you know, I just don't think it gets a lot of traffic as is and cost savings. Okay. Um I'll just put a plug in for city staff. We we're always looking at ways to save costs and be efficient. So yes. Yeah. Thank you. So

any other questions, comments, concerns from the council? Hearing none, I would seek a motion to approve resolution 2843. I'll move second. Motion from Diane, second by Chad. All those in favor? I opposed.

Carries. That gets us on to tonight's consent agenda. Consent agenda items may be adopted under one motion as presented or may be removed for discussion and resolution as council business. Item A, just adjust and correct claims accounting period ending October 30th, 2025. Item B, meeting minutes October 9th, 2025. City Council work session. Item C, meeting minutes, October 21st, 2025, city council minutes. Item D, approve the 5K takedown trot. Item E, resolution 2844, joining the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. Item F, approve amendment to professional services agreement for the 2026 street and utility improvement project. And item G, introduction and first reading of ordinance 412, an ordinance of the city of Canon Falls, Minnesota to amend the Canon Falls zoning ordinance by amending a zoning district. Is there anything the council would like to pull down? Hearing none, I would take a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda.

Motion from Jeff, second. Second from Chris. All those in favor? I opposed. Carries. Gets us to tonight's council business. Uh item A, resolution 2836, the Canon Falls Technology Park conditional use permit for data centers and the data center substation overhead transmission lines and building height. Uh John, I believe you have a presentation tonight. Would you like to do that to lead things off for these two items of council business?

Yes, I do. Thank you. Yeah. I didn't see [cough] [clears throat] All right. Thank you, Mayor and Council, and uh everybody in attendance tonight. So, um the resolution before us is is a carryover from the previous meeting. So, to address some of the the questions about the previous meeting, we do believe that there was a legal quorum of that since five council members were in attendance. The uh city code and city charter do have different languages regarding the approval process. So the city charter which generally oversees all of the operations how the city functions in its in its government said states that uh a motion can carry with the attendance or the uh council members present at the meeting. So not of all of the council members but of those present so long as there is a quorum with five members in attendance there was a quorum. items in the code that need um approvals greater than a majority were cups, variances, uh ordinance amendments, those those types of items. So, this item uh does need a three-fifth vote of the council. At that meeting, there were three council members that voted for the item, two council members that voted against the item. The mayor in most

circumstances does not vote as the mayor. The charter does uh indicate that the mayor prom that was serving that night as a council member may vote on on items. So just as clarity for why are we readressing this tonight because the code states that um items of CPS do require three-fifths vote of the full council. So, in order to ensure that we have addressed this issue thoroughly, now that having all of the council members present for this meeting, we're asking for that vote to to take place for this resolution. With that, I'm going to move on to kind of discussion of everything that we've had to this will really lead into a lot of the conversation for the next item for the development agreement as well. So, starting back in October of 2024, uh the city council had its first work session related to um the public announcement of tract uh having a purchase agreement to um buy land adjacent to the city that would they intended to apply for annexation so that it could construct a data center. And that was the initial initial point at which the the project was announced and made public. uh starting in December uh in in between that time just for the record as well I started working for the city of Canon Falls in December actually applied uh shortly after that announcement uh had posted or applied before that but had the in-person interviews shortly after that was announced so was made pretty well aware um having accepted the the contract offer and then had confirmation of my um agreement in November. I was aware of this project actually sat in on some of the zoom calls very early on just to get more informed so that come um my starting that I would be uh not having to catch up on some of the discussions.

So in December the city track township we initiated conversations with about annexation. Um so that was really one of the first times that the we were engaged with the township. Uh we also approved the escrow agreement uh that is used now has been amended but has been used to cover a lot of the costs associated with this especially our our consultant staff time costs that we've had like with uh Shelley and Bill and their teams. Um so in January February that was when we approached the uh township and we agreed on an RGU agreement that would cover our AU study. So a do need one jur governmental jurisdiction that uh cover oversees that process and and ultimately proves in the end and we agreed mutually that the city would take on that responsibility. [clears throat] Starting in February March we start that the initial scoping period for the AER plan had that's when we were gathering the information about what needs to be studied and then um gathering the input uh in April for [clears throat] that public process. uh towards the end of and then we also held a joint um city [snorts] council planning commissions work session uh at that time too to discuss how that project would would move forward. In April there was the final order for the AUR. So after taking the public comment the order was conducted sent off to the EQB and put on notice. uh tracked then also hosted at the end of April community meeting right here in in the council chambers to discuss the the proposed project and had you know quite a few people in attendance at that meeting. Um between April and July the uh AU study was or we were conducting our own studies uh looking at our water our wastewater what we do have for capacity existing. Um also addressing the issue of as [clears throat] we grow naturally or project to grow naturally what would that increase of of water

needs be for our our systems? How do our systems operate currently? What improvements would need to be made? Um and what sort of excess you know from what we use today? what sort of access do we have moving on in the future. So there was uh that work was going on at that time. Additionally concurrently the AUR comment period opened um and we're receiving the comments on that. In May, we also did a third work session um with the council and the planning commission um initially discussing some of our original uh the original proposals for some of the land use discussions and the AUA farm process as well as the you know where we're kind of seeing some of the impacts coming from the water wastewater. uh that public comment period completed in June uh for the AU in uh May to August. We were working through the uh development application that was submitted uh originally and then later amended. Um the township uh also was working with us in June and July for the orderly annexation agreement. Uh June we held another work session with the planning commission. uh we're at that we're discussing the development application the annexation [clears throat] and the plat for the process the project uh in July we oversaw uh reviewed the comments on the NUR and submitted the final AUR to the EQB for for publication as well as then preparing that for approval in August in um again in July we uh received those studies and presented those forcept acceptance from the city council. Uh another July item was initiating the data center uh conditional use permit text amendment. So as we recall that that effort was

made so that we could um formally review the application from from track for data centers as our code prior to the amendment did not have data centers listed. So if we were to receive that application and try to review it, we had nothing in our code currently that would authorize it as a use. So the conditional use permit was was initiated. In July, we again had a fifth work session um discussing that amendment for the C. Uh we did the final order for the AU after the comment period and review period. uh in August again approved the initial text amendment for the data centers received the final orderly annexation agreement from the township and jointly adopted that through resolution uh submitted the uh development app then the development application was formally amended and submitted to the planning commission uh and called for the public hearing in September we hosted a sixth work session between the council and the planning commission about the development application and then I know very small print but in September Remember the planning commission meeting um was when we held the public hearings related to all of the items relate in the in that development agreement which are also coming to the final conclusion with that CU tonight. So we had the reasonzoning and uh the cup the PUB the variances plary plat. So all of those at that meeting [snorts] um that were either approved or continued on into the October meeting um as [clears throat] were ultimately re recommended from the planning commission as appro to to be approved to the city council in September and October. The final PUD plan was uh submitted with further amendments. Uh then there we did receive uh an application for a grant extension to the uh 1599 review period on a development application that's related to state law that says that we have to

address a land use application within um 120 days with with that's with our extension. So we we grant we were granted by the applicant an extension for that and again received a secondary application extension. uh Dakota County now that the land is annexed as a plat commission review. Uh we attended their preliminary plat review uh meeting for that. We held a seventh work session in October to discuss the um the final PUD plans, the land use for the site and then the initial terms of that development agreement that we we had at the time. Uh then again in October the planning commission approved the final PUD plan and the items that were carried over from the previous meeting. And then the council in October um at the last council meeting we addressed um those items that came from recommendations from [clears throat] commission um that needed to be approved. So that gets us to today. So today again as I cited uh [snorts] the current approvals and what that what that means from that meeting just as a measure of uh assurance that we follow the procedure uh we are asking that the resolution be voted on again while with all the members of the council present and then we will move on to discussion of the development agreement. Uh, additionally, it already approved in the um in the consent agenda because we had a resolution related to the resoning already approved. Uh, we are starting the initial first read first reading of the ordinance for the reszoning of the newly annexed acre uh uh land that's in the city from urban reserve as it comes in initially to it. And then uh upcoming um the next probably council action will be the final clap which is we're expecting would be uh around the first quarter of 2026. So there's been a lot of comments and

[snorts] questions and concerns related to this project that we've not only heard in these meetings, we've heard um in you know letters to the editor in the newspaper. We've heard them seen them on social media. We've received emails. We've seen phone calls. Um, and I've individually talked to a number of people. I have had numerous occasions in which I've answered those questions in this meeting and in those conversations through emails to uh the members of the community that I've engaged with. Um, so I just wanted to kind of address some of the core messages that have been here so that they are again um, stated and that we we've discussed what we have. Will the facility the these are I guess framed in in sort of uh cuatory tones but will the facility be loud and there's a lot of noise. This is what I've heard and read in other articles. Um, so within our CP, uh, that if approved, we do require that they meet the MPCA conditions. And the MPCA conditions state that, uh, sound traveling from one, uh, use to another has a limitation of 60 dB during a 30 minute review period or 65 def dB during a 5minute review period in the daytime and then 50 and 55 during the evening. Failure to meet this standard may cause the re replication of the CP. may also bring in uh MPCA fines and other um actions from that agency.

And John, those levels are from properties. That level is once you on your property line so long for residential residential. So if it's crossing over from industrial into residential, those are the standards. Industrial's standards are are a little higher, but it is for where the property line meets. So that's where the studies take place. So this would most affect the residents directly to the north.

Directly to the north. Yes. And potentially across the highway that might be within, you know, where sound could travel that would have that level of standard because they are residential properties. Doesn't matter what the zoning is that it's your use is what's governing that based on MPCA standards. Um I personally this week went down to Iowa to um witness um some data centers that have been up and running for a long [clears throat] period of time and some that are very recently built. I was on public uh right away within I would venture to guess 100 ft of the of a building uh that is operating as a data center um for multiple sites and in all of those instances I could not perceive from myself any sounds coming from those buildings. I could hear radiant noise from highways that were within a mile. I could hear, you know, wind noise uh from that. I could hear other other sounds, but I didn't perceive anything coming from the buildings. I have videos later to kind of show you what I was where I was. Um, so the water issues. So, will your wells go dry for this? So what this development agreement stipulates is the limitations for how much water can be um allocated for this project from the municipal services. So we get our water from the Jordan aquifer. Our wells are generally 300 to 400 ft deep. Um, we have an allocation of use for municipal water from the DNR that's in in a permit form and we have that renewed on a certain period of time, but currently we stand at 250 million gallons a year. So, back to those summer those studies, what we determined was that the city would have um is is currently using about 150 million gallons a year. If we had a natural growth pattern of 2,000 people over the next 20 years, we would want to reserve uh 57 million gallons a year to

serve that natural growth pattern. And the remaining balance is what we would have within that existing allocation. So the 43 million gallons that were requested or what we have been negotiated within this agreement fall within that that per our our total permitted allocation and that 43 million is at the final phase of development in 2035. So each phase has a different increasing amount. The first phase start um I believe is 20 year of start is 2029 and that is at 10 starting at 10 million gallons. So the um the site that uh primary location or the primary site of this there are actually two farms that are being acquired. One has an irrigation wall on that that currently has an allocated uh irrigation permit from the DNR for 42 million gallons a year in this in this development agreement in the in the um and in the um annexation agreements we have restrictions on the use of this. So within the development agreement, there is language that does state that they continue to use the irrigation permit so long as they have not started developing. That would be in an instance of, hey, we know a construction season might go on that's going to take longer to to get the equipment. I could foresee them wanting to rent out and you you know, another season of of farmland growth on there. You'd likely need to use the pivot irrigator to make that that a viable option. That's why it's there. That would give them that flexibility. Once that is done and it is moved away from agricultural that that well cannot be used for that without having receiving a uh an amendment from the DNR in our agreement we are not allowing them to use that unless there is an absolute emergency in which the city cannot provide them the water and they need the um permitted

the permission from DNR through through their permit. So they would need to get that amended. Um, as we've discussed, Bill and I have had conversations, many conversations with DNR. That amendment process does have requirements. They do need to do well testing and studies and pump testing, you know. So, if they are drawing from this, they do need to make sure that it is not going to create an impact that has a um negative effect on the surrounding users. So if you look at what we are ultimately approving related to the water, we are allocating 43 million gallons a year from our services. They are eliminating 41 million gallons a year from this irrigation well. The net effect of that is 2 million gallons per year and the equivalent of of that would be 34 single family homes. John, real quick, Laura, how many houses were built last year in hardwood states [clears throat] or how many lots have been purchased for new homes to be built?

Um the the 27 lots uh there's 18 houses up and um the others are under contract with builders. So when we say 34 single family homes, we're close to that growth. Pretty close to that states right now. And that's the difference that we're in totality of million gallons of water that we're talking about here. John, with the emergency use, um, how long does that last? Like say they get approval for an emergency use.

Once the city can reestablish our our water to them, then it and it stops. It's not it's on, oh, emergency use and you can use it forever. No, once once we can reestablish. So, it would be something in line of either a very major severe drought in which we have to prioritize our water allocations in which we would likely be prioritizing drinking water for residents as the highest use. um then in reducing that down and we would you know very severe extreme circumstances are likely going to be coming in place. Something happens to the water man or the tower or some something to the to the service that for that site to be delivering them water that would be a part of it. It would yeah in

but the residents would come first.

The residents would come first. Okay. So in terms uh next um property is ugly. We don't like the look of data centers. I I would say that's an aesthetic thing. It's a a subjective measure. I the ones that I saw are you they're big blocks boxes. However, in our agreements and what we were discussing, we established in the pe standards that there has to be some architectural improvements made to these higher level of uh commitment to design than what would typically see in an industrial zone. So, um, you're going to see things that are going to add, uh, to to make that better. So, it does uplift where where it's at. uh this question about property values. Um what we've seen, what I've researched in terms of the area in Iowa, uh we I looked at the adjacent properties, residential that are literally across the street from the data centers down there and watched their um tax value, land values change since the time that they were approved and those did increase um based on the tax assessed values. So those were not decreasing um in in that terms. In one instance, there was a home um you can see in the county GIS data for Poke County in the uh county to the south of them uh in Iowa that a home was started construction in 2021. Right across the street is now a Microsoft data center with um working on now the fourth building of that data center. The substation was completed in 2022. Uh knowing how long our process takes, it's pretty evident that that process was started at probably a similar or prior to the the process to get the home constructed. That newly [clears throat] constructed home across the street, existing homes were already there. Um your water and sewer rates will go

up. This is not true. Um this is not necessarily because of the data center or construction. Um but if this agreement were to pass and based on the the water use that we would be allocating and the demand for uh or the availability of what we have in terms of our services and the um share of revenue or share of costs that track is paying for in this improvement which is a lot. Um we do we're not going to have to increase rates to pay for the infrastructure to service track is paying for it. we're not going to we are going to receive a significant contribution if we have to um build a water tower or we'd like or want to to better serve that portion of town. Um and that would be greatly covered and [clears throat] in the meantime we would be easily able to plan for that improvement and build into our existing rate structure. They're not creating additional expenses in terms of our operations when we're falling within what we already have the capacity [clears throat] for. So in a common practice if our operational costs are not increasing but our revenues are because ultimately if we are selling more water that's generating more revenue then we can certainly take a look and at the revenues that we're expected plan to receive versus the expenses that we have which in that instance if revenues exceed expenses we can work on reducing those rates. So I do perceive an opportunity to have that discussion as this project develops if approved and um you know moving forward. Uh again back to property taxes they will go up. It's not you know like again most likely untrue the property taxes generated this will mostly be collected in jurisdictions of city cannon falls Dakota County and the Randolph school district. Um, as it was heard in the

presentation, the development agreement does have the contribution for the Canid Falls School um, which would not be in this taxing jurisdiction, but then they they would receive this benefit. Um, if you live in kind of all three of those territories, you would receive the greatest benefit. If you live in uh Rolph School District, you're likely going to see because they do have a levy for for tax value, um you're going to see your taxes for that contribution go down significantly because this is going to create a great increase to that tax base um for that district. In Dakota County, the impact may be less uh noticeable because Dakota County is a pretty high value taxable county because it covers a lot of um additional cities and metro areas that have a lot higher taxes. But within the city of Canon Falls, we'll also be receiving a pretty large benefit as those um as it gets built out and the valuations increase. Uh back to the school district. So the initial year if approved the contribution is determined that it is a payment in le of taxes because of the benefit that the state is providing for uh sales tax exemption for capital purchases. It is determined that a payment in le of taxes of $500,000 per year would go to the city which needs to be paid directly to the school and the school can use it for whatever purposes they deem appropriate. um that in would then annually increase and be paid on June 1st of every subsequent year by an increase by amount of $15,000. So the first payment would be at the time of final plat which is likely first quarter 26. Second payment would be June 1st 2027. Uh so then one other thing that was brought up as in terms of a question um because we have now annexed property within the uh Dakota County and Dakota County is subject to metropolitan

council uh regulations and contributions. It was asked if that will impact any of our rules. Will we now have be subject to some u met council oversight? Uh in this instance there was already laws passed in 2017 and 20 confirmed again in 2024 that candid falls is exempt from all metropolitan [clears throat] jurisdiction metropolitan council jurisdiction electricity rates. Um so again as I've said this many many times the power provider for this project is Dakota Electric. The city is not the municipal power provider. So we do not have the same controls over the the utility services that would be provided for this project as we do for the water and the sewer. Um like we heard from representatives in a in a work session in October from Dakota Electric that indeed track is paying for the infrastructure uh for this project in terms of the substation transmission to to bring there to serve that. Likewise what what I said earlier about our utility rates they have a similar practice. If the capital improvement costs are being paid that will have a benefit to them not having to raise rates to cover those costs amongst other users.

There are other projects certainly that um are served in this territory and that is something that is I I believe is well aware of that Dakota Electric is well aware of in terms of what they can provide in terms of that capacity. But there is also commitment from them to not offset other users rates to pay for this project to in their budget. Likewise, the developer is paying their way to this that should have an offsetting effect on rates. Additionally, the uh Minnesota legislature this last last year's legislative sess or this last legislative session passed a rate tariff. So, there's actually a new cost for some large electricity users that we'll have to pay and that will go into funds that will help towards the renewable energy um commitments in the state.

John, I got I got something there too. Um and I think I said this probably a month or two ago. I called up Dakota Electric just to see what was going on too because that was a concern that I heard and they told me this would be the only data center on their system at this time. So, and they also told us in that meeting that they weren't going to overcommit, you know, to your blackout point. They weren't going to overcommit. If they couldn't deliver it, they're not going to do it. They also told me that um track be paying their way and they'd pay for all the transmission and distribution of the power and they'd pay for all the upgrades. So, they told me that too on the record.

Um, additionally, I I've glossed over this point, but the city of Canal is actually served by two different power providers. So the northern end of our our city has Dakota Electric and um much of the rest of the city has Excel. So those that are on Excel aren't going to see an impact related to this this project. So those are two separate entities that have different rate structures and different requirements. John, I got two quick things. [laughter] You said before about the water that residents come first. That's still the the same policy with electricity from Dakota Electric as well. Resident if there were Don't know if I can answer that question then. Okay. I thought they said that.

I thought they had said they may have said that. I That's fine. I don't require I don't recall definitively enough to say yes or no. Yeah. Uh and then the u the location because of the industrial power lines that run ahead. Is that also I mean I understand the cost would be incrementally higher if there was a further distance. When we talk about when people say oh this is going to cost so much my rates are going to go up. This is going to minimize the cost because of its location

attracted the why these data centers are attracted to these sites is that the close proximity to the high high energy transmission lines that are like along a lot of it along Highway 52. So that would reduce a lot of that cost because those are very expensive to to install. Thank you. [clears throat] Um question about not knowing the end user. This is true. We do we do not know who the final end user is going to be. However, we do development agreements. We do uh land use authorizations. We've done housing developments where we work with the developer and then the properties get sold to an end user. This is not uncommon. This is something that cities do pretty regularly. This extent to a data center, yes, that's a that is different. It's a bigger bigger deal. But in the end, our authorities are addressing the land use and the infrastructure and utility services that we're providing. So long as those are met by tract,

an end user, whoever they're leasing it to, if those agreements are all met and satisfactory, the and the end user is capable of delivering upon those, you know, those terms. It isn't. It It seems to me that the the city should be willing to accept that if if they do feel that this agreement is satisfactory to approve and that that end user while unknown and uncertain creates, you know, certainly [clears throat] pause for wanting to think about what we're going to do. Um we do this this does happen. We do approve things that do not have any users when you're working with developers. that that is not not something that's unprecedented.

John, if I could just interrupt quick, I do have an answer on the priority for energy use and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission actually regulates that and high priority is residential use, single family homes, multif family homes. Uh next would be small commercial establishments. Uh following that would be human need facilities, hospital, schools, police, fire protection. lower priority um would be large commercial and industrial requirements um interruptible customers and electric power generation so residential use and that's like I said that's regulated by the PUC which they are also subject to based on the conditional use agreements

the project is moving too fast and why make the why are we making this decision now as I went through the timeline we've been working on this [clears throat] for over 12 months. Um I I respect uh Mr. Peterson's comments earlier from uh the person that when we're sick of talking about it, that's when everybody has started because it's certainly um apparent to me, to my staff, to you as the council that people are are just now under starting to learn this. And I'm appreciative that a lot more people are staying in this room during these statements than have when I've spoken about this in the past because I hope now they can they can hear and retain what I've said. We've tried to make them available online, but I also recognize that's not available for everybody as well. So, thank you for being here and thank you for listening. Um, we've put I I said hundreds of hours and it's possibly thousands of of hours of time into this project and again seven joint or work sessions that we we've had uh numerous meetings. These things have been evolving. They have been evolving right up until this time. Yes, this development agreement has been a work in progress and moving forward. But as I will I will commit to saying this and I I I [clears throat] hope others that have been working on this from the time that I have, every step of that and change in that agreement has been to serve a question and concern that we've heard in the community that we've received from a council member that we we've addressed ourselves and to better strengthen the city's position within this agreement. There's not been a trade-offs and back and forth of we [clears throat] give they take. This has been all coming to [snorts] benefit this community but benefit the city. Originally for very first terms of this development agreement did not incorporate uh school contributions and that has grown that has developed right up until this day. We have before you

tonight an amended final draft of this that incorporates an amended change this and I can speak more to that as we get closer to the approval the petition. Um so in my office and my staff I have not received anything that resembles a petition based on our charter in chapter 11. Uh I have not received anything in paper that has a list of names with addresses and signatures. um what has been referred to me and what I've been able to find is a change.org petition. That is an online petition. Um I don't have user rights to access that. So I in looking at it I have not been able to see or determine who the names of are on that petition. Um the what I have been able to see is they do have a box and a map that says how many percentage of these filers. I haven't looked at it in the last couple days. Um but at the time I did the last count was around over 600. Yes. And 67% of those as it states are within the zip codes of Canon Falls. Um and then two other surrounding zip codes. So it's a pretty large circle which is not which over [cough] certainly overlaps a lot of our jurisdiction. If we are to follow the petition project process for chapter 11, uh those signers need to be registered voters that live within the city of Canon Falls.

So, John, I just want to let you know cuz I pulled that up, too. Um currently up to 670 people, what you speak of, three zip codes in that red dot area is what it's saying. 65% of the supporters come from 55009 55065 55031. I followed it from the get-go, I guess, because I was on FA Facebook. I think I followed it up to 400 signatures and that that percentage never went above 70%. From the math that I have in front of me, and I'm just taking a guess that could be, you know, if you're talking from the zip code, and that was just zip code 55009, which encompasses greater than Canon Falls, your taxpayers in Canon Falls. I'm guessing somewhere between two to 300 of those could be Canon Falls residents. And again, we have no way to verify those at this time.

Correct. We Yeah, I I have no way that I was able to find and see who any of the ver they they they state verified signatures and there's probably a process. So, I'm not diminishing people's actions and using that to state their opposition to this project. However, there is a petition project that we have within our our charter in this that does not follow the this process that we would use. Um the EIS was mentioned earlier. Uh there is still the possibility that an EIS could be required for this project. That was stated by the the engineering firm for this. That's been stated by tracked. um if as the project further develops and we get to the site plan approvals and the if there are requirements from state agencies or others that would require an EIS to be completed that that will be done that is that it would be part of our agreements. So originally there's some questions about the [clears throat] November 6th deadline. So as I mentioned about the 1599 process um so originally we have a 60-day window. We can extend that unilaterally for another 60 days and which we did. Um and then after that the city is needs to make a decision that's so they're not left with uh cities not taking action on on land use applications and and leaving uh developers or those you know even trying to do a variance or something on their on their own home in in alerts and not able to do it. So if you exceed that 120day timeline the project would and take no action the project is automatically approved as applied for with no conditions no other actions and things that we are would be negotiating. So in that tract has offered and never resisted that if we are getting close to this timeline that they would extend it. They extended it to originally to November 6th. They've extended again to November 19th. [clears throat] So there is no threat of tracked trying to invoke a 1599 approval process and trying to get everything

approved. Um back to this and this is a very lengthy [clears throat] one and I am not going to read this word for word. Uh but these are some of my personal and professional comments. Um why haven't we done a town forum and why aren't you listening to us? It's [clears throat] I I will say I have I have been listening. I have person them and speak more to myself in this actions. I have been listening and I have had a number of conversations on the phone with people in person about this project and those generally go well because I get to ask questions, they ask questions of me, we provide answers, we we address the things that are concerning them and talk about the how we would how those are mitigated, how those are put into the agreement, what are the benefits that could be coming back to this community in terms of uh uh this project if it were to move forward. And usually that yields a meta result when we're just completely one off talking. I I'm not unfortunately not going to be chasing down every social media post and and thing there. We've tried to address these these pieces. I've heard from you all as council members when uh there was the series of questions and I provided the answer answers at the end of the meeting to to thank you for you know thanks for doing that. We've been we've been working on we've really been trying trying to to do that and incorporating that into this agreement.

I'd like to add to that from like pretty early on we were taking questions answers and we set up the website where you can go learn about canon Falls technology park and answered a lot of those basic questions

and those have been updated to throughout throughout the course of the project. Um the to me I think just simply googling data centers um you may find negative articles. I found them myself. I've I found a series of articles that address issues for data centers that exist in the in this country and other countries um that have problems that they do use a lot of water that they have caused issues. That is why we've been working so diligently on crafting these agreements to prevent those things from happening. That is why we've done this work. That is why and in the process of working with this this company and the and the people that we've been here, we've we've been working so hard to overcome that. There are positives. I've read plenty of other articles that are very positive about the tax benefits that come to community, about the workforce that happens during the construction phase. The workforce after they're built, yes, I I acknowledge like I don't think they're they're promising that thousands of people are coming here. 250 is is the highest number. Is it going to be that? [cough and clears throat] Maybe, maybe not. Is that going to be why we would say yes or no to this problem? That's up to you guys to decide. However, it's as part of the positives to this from my colleagues that I've spoken to about data centers in their community. They say they do provide a great deal of taxable value and benefit to the community without the creation of additional costs in terms of that development. If you do have an employer that all of a sudden brings 2,000 people into your community, well, that's great. Yes, 2,000 more people into the community is something that most communities are going to be very positive about. That happens immediately. That's a really fast growth. That's going to be painful to deal with for a while. You're going to have to, you know, do things to address that. You're going to have to hire more staff. You're going to have to hire more public bring bring in more public safety that may require more uh infrastructure outside of the development area that you may have to pay for. that those things

are going to be difficult, those things are going to be hard in those early stages to to to handle because those re, you know, that development, that type of development may not come with immediate resources. Those things take time. That's just a function of how [snorts] property taxes work in the state of Minnesota. Those things are are good, but in this instance, you're you're seeing that development without those added costs. And if that's something that is important to this community, we're we're getting this and this can have a very positive impact on in in lowering the people's the city residents taxes in this community and giving us opportunity to provide additional amenities and services that are in demand that the council would ultimately approve, then I think that is a you know consideration of of a win-win situation. And I would say equally that and we've said this and and I don't say it to be flippant or just that data centers are going to get built. It it it's part of the function of the technology that we use, our phones, our computers, everything that that happens in this world. Yes, AI is a is a booming uh industry right now. Is there concerns about it, you know, going away? Yeah. those and I'm not an economist so I'm not going to speak to my opinion on that but one of the things that gave me some real reassurances in talking to tract about this and they said this in the work session in October is that their their development strategy did not start with AI. It was on the cloud-based services that the of the providers that they have. A few weeks ago, AWS had a a a shutdown of one of their data centers that caused an outage that that is led to because of the need for more data centers to provide that redundancy so those services don't go away that they don't ultimately suffer because of one facility being shut down so that those

services can be redundant and covered in multiple aspects. the the concerns around AI as is you know that [clears throat] that is something that I again I've used this analogy we get to regulate the building we get to regulate its land use we get to say hey a restaurant can be built in this commercial district we don't get to tell it what it get puts on its menu then that you know ultimately is something that's going to have to happen you know for for level of you fall for the decision that you're going to ask but ultimately I conclude for for the questions and concerns that I think that we've done everything that we can to mitigate them. I'll try to move a little more quick. Uh so [clears throat] opportunities uh again development agreement 100% of the infrastructure for the water and sewer main extensions going to the project. Projected costs over $5 million. Developers agreed to fund 100% of the rightway exition for the property. Fund 100% of any sewer lift stations that are needed to serve the project. developers agreed for $5 million towards capital cost of a new water storage tank, water tower, and dedicated a excuse me, a section of land within their uh property for the construction of that tower. That tower will serve more than just this development. That tower will serve a very important section of the community and provide some very much needed redundancy and and improvements on the uh fire flows and protections for that north part of the town. Developers agreed to $1.6 6 million of capital improvements towards our wastewater treatment facility. As you know, that facility is over 20 years old [clears throat] and is already planned. We learned in the studies of things that are are improvements that are going to need to be made. This is their investment into that that facility. They're not paying for it as they go from today moving forward. They're paying for they're buying in for the capacity that they're asking for in that allocation. That's the justification for that payment. These payments would happen at the time when um so the site development is going

to have the horizontal infrastructure this substation but once they go to the point of a build filing for a building permit at the time of that building permit they would be sending us uh submitting us a check for at least $5 million for the tower and then $1.2 million for those water and source. That would be the times that we would get them because that would be the times in which they're going to be needed a shortly after that. Hey John. Yeah, just real quick. Sorry. I have we stated I mean there's no tax abatement tax. There is no tax abatement. There's never been a request for tax abatement for TIFF district for anything from this city to finance this project.

Just want to stamp that one out cuz I have a letter here saying that we better not do any tax deferment or anything like that. And I've seen that on Facebook and I don't know where that's coming from.

We have we have not that has not been asked for, offered or approved into this agreement. The only thing that is mentioned in this agreement that would be construed as such is that we do have water access charges and sewer access charges and we do state in lie of those charges these capital improvement fees are covering that those standard charges for this project would be in the thousands of dollars. These are millions of dollars. I think we net a lot more [clears throat] for having these as part of that versus um just leaving them alone and only going after the access charge and trying to recoup all of that investment over time. Can you can you go back one slide if you could and go to the top point? Um, sure. And just talk to why that's attractive to a city like us and in our industrial park and

how big that actually is cuz if we wanted to grow that park, we'd have to basically put $5 million cost ourselves out there. Yes. And it also provides additional redundancy to that area because right now that that is a vulnerable area of our community. And I'll let Bill kind of and and Jed potentially speak to that because the mains that serve the industrial parks have a lot of water flow in them relative to the users and they're served in one point. So if that if there's an issue with that one point that's they're they're out until that issue is resolved. And Bill can

actually John you sum it up pretty well. So we have one water man. So if there's a break, our whole north area of town is out of water. Uh one of the things that when we met with tract and their engineers was that was not acceptable. They wanted redundancy. Well that redundancy then provides redundancy to all our other businesses which is a great benefit to the city.

Yeah. Additional uh one other piece not in my slides but I'll talk to the I said the fire fire protection. So the fire protection that's up there is is not served by you know parts of that not served by a tower. would be served by a booster station. So those booster stations are right off our wells. That's what charges the system, keeps it keeps the distribution system, um, you know, with the water it needs. If there was ever a fire and we need to, you know, get water to that area, we're t turning on this massive pump that's going to push water out out of that system. And if we're not ready for it that you blow every and available would blow all the the water manes that or services that exist out there. it blow them out of the water because of the water pressure that's going to flow. You need it because you're going to put out the fire and you fix everything else after the fact, but if this is there, those booster station needs go away. And our fire protection and the this kit that we have is served off of that tower much like the rest of our communities are served off those towers. Um the within our ordinances we do have a park dedication fee and the calculation for that fee is $494,000 [clears throat] that now we paid at the time of final. Again I mentioned the payment of Luna taxes um an increase of of $15,000 a year. Yes. And while it was mentioned there are terms that have um are in there that would lead to that sales tax going away, this is something that is pretty unique um [clears throat] and I do feel is defensible, but it's justified based on the sales tax exemption provided by the state. And if that were to go away, there was there's likely the um justification for the payment lax go away. However, there is one uh a clause in there that provides the school district with an off-ramping. So if the if that payment were ever to be deemed um that it would go away that they would be paid for two more years.

Say I got one more thing. Sorry to keep interrupting. Um Superintendent Samson, I think Clinton's gone, but you guys are acceptable to those terms or is Clinton still? Yeah, you guys are acceptable those terms or you're comfortable with them. You've reviewed it. You guys agree with them? Yeah, we feel comfortable. Um especially with the offramping piece in there. We understand that the state can do whatever they want whenever they want and that would be the only concern that at least I have and I don't know if Clinton speaks differently on that but I think we're all in agreement on it. Two years, right? Two years. It's a two-year off ramp,

but the deal would go on as long as the tax deal stands as long as that that exemption is there. The exemption as it currently stands in state statute can, I believe, be offered for up to 35 years for those that um meet the eligibility for it today. And I, as I understand it, this is beneficial to our community and our school system because we get it quarter one, right? Yeah. These are Yeah. These are not like our taxes where that comes as the improvements of the land happen. Yep. These happen right away. So, Randolph school system's going to get it. They won't see that until full buildout happens. This is going to happen years before.

They're going to see their money 3, four years before the other taxing jurisdictions are going to see the benefit from this project. So, on to that. um there is a pretty significant increase to the taxable market value and the net tax capacity of this area. So the owner of that property will be subject to those tax paid payments in those jurisdictions. As I said, Dakota County, Randolph School District, and the city of Can Falls, plus the other special tax districts and the state, there's a state sales tax as well or state uh property tax, excuse me, not sales tax. Um the uh [snorts] estim what we've had there's a range uh on the estimated net tax capacity. You know, this is again something that is is very hard to pin down and be exact, but um I've met with the uh firm that did the uh study for this information from that track provided. Um I reviewed their uh assumptions and the things that I um seen in that and I also looked at other examples of data center buildings and where they're marketed. So I I feel like we're we're all pretty close in terms of where those estimates could be. So, um, in terms of just a quick, I'd like to take advantage of this when I can and maybe I'll save a minute or two in the budget meetings. Um, so property taxes in Minnesota work based on uh net tax capacity and tax rate. So, cities set a tax rate by dividing their net tax capacity by the levies that they're going to set. So, what we pay uh for our taxes for this jurisdiction right now is about 53%. So we we levy for 53% of what our net tax capacity is. So we're going to increase that. So as that denominator increases and our numerator on top stays the same, that tax rate goes down. So as long as you know we're continuing to to lower that, that tax rate goes down. That tax rate is also impactful to everybody else because that is applied

against your your own net tax capacity, your own net tax capacity subject to the increase in your property values. So as long as our rate is decreasing higher than the percentage increase of your property value, you should be seeing tax decreases. So at the time of full buildout, um what what would that mean? So, if we just kept everything the same and the 53% just stayed flat from now until the full buildout or went back down to 53% at the time of full buildout, what would we get in taxes? It would probably be between 2.5 and $3.5 million more in in taxes from this development. Is that to the city or to all tax?

That's to the city. That one's just the city's calculation. That is not the other taxing jurisdictions. What do we normally bring in four? Uh right now our levy last year was like 3.7. So so they could be a significant payer of that by the time the that can be used too to property taxes level those things out so they're not as large of increase. There's lots of ways you can do this.

It it it'll come down to at the time you're setting your budgets determining what your operating costs are and needs. Those are going to they're going to keep going up. like if if that that isn't gonna they're not going to stay flat from now until the time that this development happens. They're going to increase too. So it's not going to be you know can't just take 2.5 million added deduct that from the 3.7 and everybody's charged a tax rate that's equivalent to 1.2 today. That's going to change but like just no it's it's significant. It's going to be a very significant proportion of our our tax value in our community job creation. Um, as we heard from Blair McNeel from Mortonson who's working on the um Rosemount project, they've been working on that for multitude of years. Um, I've watched the and and the you know the aerials and followed the progress of some of the data centers within Iowa and they are um you know they've been built over a 10-year period. Those you know so there's been construction workers on that site um working on those projects for from 2014 until this this year. um you know that's that's not insignificant. Yes, they're temporary, but they're they're here and uh we've heard from from people within that industry and that workforce that live here that go to other places in the country to build these these things and they would be very appreciative if they have one right in their backyard that they can they can drive to and go home every night to see their families. So there's there's a positive impact on that. um that will have a positive impact in terms of the I would say the the economy of our community. I think the the restaurants the uh service establishments are going to see impact to that. So that is that is good. And yes, while there is a small um per permanent jobs that would be servicing on this as I stated earlier that uh they're not going to that increase is not going to create high demand on our services. So not creating those operating costs. Um, and I would comment too, we do have available housing as we

[clears throat] mentioned. We have our Hardwood Estates housing development. We just did the apartment complex which is already full. [snorts] Um, but we also have Timber Ridge that is has lots available for for construction and development. Um, so hopefully that as those things happen, you you will see people moving in even for these temporary jobs, buying and and moving into homes in this community and they, you know, they're certainly wanting to live there. And if they really enjoy this community, like I've heard many other people that have um either lived here and came back or moved here for the uh transplant to raise their family that they like to stay here. So, you know, we really hope some of that happens too. No problem.

Um now, quick go through. So, this is a hopefully the sound works, but this is a let me this is in West De Mo and this is one of the uh first 2015 data centers. So, they they actually have two campuses kind of close to each other. There's five total campuses in West. So, this is right outside of that. My sound is cranked all the way up on my computer. I I don't know. I don't like the sound travel,

but I've sent it to council members, right? You've seen it. Like, there was no sound. I would perceive nothing from the building. I could hear some road sound from a loud m few miles away then um yeah I [clears throat] drove by the same one down in de mo uh but my understanding is those are data primarily data storage centers they're by Microsoft Microsoft I think is doing AI work as well as at many of the others they would make investments in that really have any definitive

I would guess that some of these other ones that um I was next to a center of apples that Apple is building that is uh started construction 2022 these other in uh west de mo uh one was started in 2017 one started in 2021 um stopped and got out to listen across from all of them um at no time did I ever hear or smell a generator running. Um, but as we've talked about, it's been presented, meaning the generators that do serve these buildings run at a very minimal amount. Um, Altuna, Iowa has a meta uh site that started. This is one that's been a 10-year build that's it's a pretty large campus, but you'll see kind of the the fencing, the building heights are are taller than the Microsoft ones um that they are sort of incorporating some land use things. because the sound piece isn't going to work. It's it's kind of I have it on but it's not connected into the the mic. So, I apologize, but this is, you know, what it kind of looks like as a video to kind of see a little bit more. Um, and then outside of that facility at night, uh, lighting was been a question that we've seen. So, I took a video uh going by that area through so you'll see the downcast lighting does not bleed over outside of the property. Um this is the Apple site. This is one of the newer ones in Wii. [clears throat] Um it started in 2022. Um grant not great but the substation you can see it from the highway. So this is a 2,000 acre development. So, these are pretty set back. Um, but they also incorporated a burn with with plantings. Um, you know, would probably be similar to what we're going to experience. And from

there, we're I'm in a vehicle on the side of the road. I can't see the building. That's it. All right.

Thank you all. No, it's all right. Um, we can start discussion here as a council. I just want to lead this off by saying thank you to everybody for coming here tonight. Um, I really appreciate Bill Peterson and the way he's written letters in the paper and the way that he's uh made his statements tonight. Uh, I feel that it's okay to disagree without being disagreeable and you can bring different points and different discussions. Uh, and I really appreciate that tone and that level of respect and um I kind of wish that we could have been able to maintain that on the Facebook open forum, but it is what it is. So, um, a couple of quick little things before we start discussion. One of the things that I think about with this data center, uh, as Terry had said, are are we chasing something? And I think back to project Tulip, which many of you probably don't remember or even know. Laura knows exactly what it is. Um, was there a non-disclosure agreement with that? Well, we were told to keep things quiet, but it was it was in this very chamber roughly two years ago. Uh, Neil Jensen was our city administrator at the time, and there was a group from the Minnesota Department of Economic Development that had come down here and led a European business to come and look at the exact same property that we're looking at here for track. that exact same

it was three farms

or yes uh they were looking at three different places in Minnesota to bring their business and they had a checklist and they talked about almost the exact same things that tract has talked about uh the location uh uh the labor pool can [clears throat] falls halfway between Rochester and the Twin Cities I've heard everybody since I've moved here 10 years ago talk about we're going to grow we're going to explode because we're halfway through every urban area has grown in concentric circles. It doesn't start from the outside in. It starts from the city and works out. Therefore, we're going to be the last one to grow. Uh that comprehensive plan that is 20ome years old thought that we were going to be 15,000 by 2008. The water treatment facility that they built then was to was meant to serve that many citizens. And I have heard so many people complain about their water bills. And here we are in a situation where a company wants to come and fill that capacity and use that water. Um, but going back to that that project tulip, our city administrator at the time, Neil Jensen, had said, "We got a big fish on the hook." He goes, "We might not bring this one in, but this shows that we're on people's radar, and if we don't get this one, we're going to get another one." And I know there's a lot of people here tonight that are are opponents. You probably would have been opponents to what that company would have been, too, because that would have used a lot of energy, water, utilities. Uh, but that that company sold to somebody else and they moved away. But as Neil had said, he goes, "We got a big fish. We might not take this one in, but we're going to get one. And it's probably going to happen soon." And now, less than two years later, we've got tracked here. And we talk about the the boxes that Cannon Falls checks off that attracts a business like this. And yes, we're going to come to a vote tonight, but no matter how it shakes out, either it's going to be tracked or that lot that has been annexed and is an industrial park is going to be back on the market. And we're gonna have somebody just like tracted within a year knocking on the door again. So, as Tim Demer had said before, don't let

perfect be the enemy of good. When I think about a data center, when I think about the industrial park, I think about what are our options here. I've heard the stories of the mayor that was here in 2007208 and speak to a very close friend of mine and say this land is going to get annexed. Your farm is going to cease to exist. you are going to have a Target and a Walmart right here. That has not happened. This is a farmer that wants to sell his land. He had an opportunity, as I said, in Project Tulip, there was interest. There's interest right now with track. We're in the uh later stages of development or coming to an agreement. Um my point is this, it's going to Canon Falls has been waiting to grow. People said it's going to explode. It won't explode. I promise you that. go talked about a study of our population and our growth in 20 years if we stay at this pace we'll be close to 6,000 correct I remember we had talked about that uh so when you look at the other things that could be in tracks place you think about another industrial place that uses utilities in a similar fashion uh we've talked about uh blue collar jobs assembly line what about an Amazon workshop does somebody want a big Amazon warehouse with trucks running 24/7 out of there which increases our uh cost of road work, the noise of 18 wheelers driving through town 24/7. Is that something that people want? Uh I think at the end of the day, a data center and working with people from tract who [clears throat] have been uh absolutely pleasant and come to this town and they are investing in this town and not to you know disagree with the statement before, we're not chasing anything. They're coming to us. Um, and I don't think that that property, we're not using that to try to chase anybody. It's just the fact that we are in between Rochester and the metro. That land, somebody had said that is a golden

nugget that you guys don't even know about the power, the water, the space. Uh, Highway 52 right there. U, I just see this as I'll admit I shared a lot of your concerns. The very first meeting we had, the topics that we brought up was water, energy, and noise. In Ferland, the noise was the because the racetrack, not to bring that one up, but we knew noise was going to be an issue. And as John has done tonight with that uh presentation, we've tried to answer these questions from the get-go. They are valid concerns. We shared them. They were the first questions we had. Water was the next one. I remember Bill sitting there and said, not to trying to quote you, but I remember you said, "There's no red flags here. If there was DNR would be tipping us and saying, "Uh, this doesn't look right." There was no concerns from the DNR. And I I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anybody, but as John had said, if you if you Google something and you say, "This data center is a bad deal." Um, it's irrelevant if it's something that happened in Virginia 20 years ago because things change. Originally, I was kind of opposed. And then I thought more about why is Minnesota trying to attract data centers? Why are we giving them incentives to try to come here? And there is still the green energy law is in effect by 2040. I would much rather and I I would consider myself an environmentalist. I would much rather have a data center come and call Minnesota home than to go to Nevada or to Arizona where they're running out of water and they still keep building new houses in the desert. We have the capacity to handle this here without it hurting our community. I know that is a concern. We have talked about that with the DNR. We've talked about that with our engineers, the the aquafers. At the end of the day, I think this checks a lot of boxes to say this is a win and not just a nice win. This is a decisive win. And uh Clinton and Superintendent Samson, I really appreciate you guys. With all the meetings that we went to, we shared the

same vision by saying this needs to be a win for the community. And I've lived here for 10 years and I know with that comprehensive plan, people thought that we were going to be something different 20 years ago and we're not. We need to look in the mirror and be real with ourselves. We're not chasing anything. We don't want to be a suburb. I'd be perfectly happy with class sizes going back to 100 to 120 kids per grade, but that's going to take moderate growth, and I think that this data center falls into that category. Uh the job creation, when people say, "Well, it's not going to create as many jobs." Any job is better than a field. When you look at the pros and cons of what we're dealing with right now, this is a farmer that's trying to sell his land and they want it to be developed and we check all the boxes for them and they are trying to make it beneficial for our community for them to come here. So again, I thank everybody for being here tonight. Thank you for feeling free to come up in public input and share your concerns. We hear you. Uh we shared those concerns, but we're at a point right now where we're voting tonight. Uh I know we voted on this before. We are open for discussion if anybody else in the council would like to add anything. I know you voted in our previous meeting. If you'd like to add more discussion, feel free. Other than that, I would take a motion to approve resolution 2836.

Um, [clears throat] and I and I again appreciate everybody's comments, the incredible number of emails, text messages, and phone calls I have received. Uh we have now heard for oh the last half hour 45 minutes from those who are very much in favor of us proceeding with this project and and and I respect all those people who think this is a good thing for our community. I also respect everyone who thinks that we could do better. I happen to be on the side of those who believe that we could do better. And uh as we look at the conditional use permit, as I have consistently throughout the process, I will be voting against it. Um and that's no disrespect to any of my fellow council members or those people in the community who would like to see it come, but um my my my opinion and my uh looking at everything, I think our town can definitely do better than this. That's where I'll have to stand.

Anything else from any council members?

I think it's good that a lot of us um especially on the council came into this uh with an open mind and speculative. Um I didn't come in wanting a data center or expecting a data center. Um I wanted to get more business. I wanted people to have more jobs. I wanted lower sewer prices. I wanted lower property taxes. I want to not have to pay for the fire trucks and ambulances so directly. So when we lose businesses like Canon Equipment and other business around town like that gap needs to be filled and I feel like this is just we're regulating it and we're doing the best we can and I I honestly with the school I think you know we're doing it right. This is like I've said before a template for other places to do it. So, [cough] I mean, if you don't like data centers, you don't like data centers. If you don't if you think they're noisy, well, some some can be. I've seen those videos, too. But we're not trying to do that. We're trying to do it better. So, I'm for it.

Any other discussion from the council? Uh, I guess if I may, um, John, if you could, I mean, I I just maybe put in perspective how hard we fought for what we got in this agreement. Um, where did we start and where have we? You showed where we ended, but where did we start? What did Track bring to the [clears throat] table from the get-go? Uh, yeah. Initial um, [snorts] you know, initially there was it was talk of, well, we'll just pay our our sack and whack charges as they're they're drafted in the agreements with some of the early early stages. Sack and whack.

That's the sewer access, water access charges. Um, as I said, the one [clears throat] in lie that we're we're offering is because you're paying the capital improvement fees. Um, that that's so they they opened with that and in knowing everything was going to be a negotiation. So, that's where it started. So, it was smaller. Yep.

Um, and then when we got into, you know, discussing and presenting our, uh, capital improvement charges, um, we got what we're asking for. These were the numbers that we originally um listed uh or very close to. I guess the the tower came down a bit, but that they're almost full to where we started. The school contribution wasn't wasn't in the very original development things, but that is added and that was initially offered at a lower rate and ultimately came up to the higher rate of what we've we discussed would be fair for this taxing jurisdiction based on the way that they were determining how to that what it was worth. Um, so everything has come up to essentially what we've we've asked asked for. Oh, so additionally, um I think it's it's very important to note in on this if other communities have uh data centers as permitted uses. They were existing in their code or were added to their code as a permitted use. That that means we prescribe what a data center could be as a as a use. You meet all those things. It's it's you you get it. You don't have to come to a public hearing. You don't have to do anything. You get to go and build one in a in a zone where that's permitted. We created this as a conditional use. by adding that as a conditional use and adding all of those elements in there. that ultimately has been some of the pieces of this whole process that has been taken the most conversations about and most understanding and and again I want to say appreciation to the team from track and my team for working on this because had it has been something that has been complicated and we've all tried to better understand this and and getting to to ultimately where where we are today and where we all feel um from this level uh appropriate that at least for the development agreement that we're

we're ready to you know receive a vote on that if the council is ready to do that too. So I know this is a tough question to answer but in your professional opinion you know we were talking project tulip and we got a big fish and all that stuff. Is this deal that's on the table what they're giving us or what we've negotiated does that happen every day or is it a lot more hey you come here we'll give you 10 years deferred tax we'll give you 20 years deferred tax yes we'll pay for the infrastructure to get out there knowing that it will spur future growth is it more that category or what we

in 15 so councman robach in 15 years of of doing this this is one of the I believe the first agreement that I have that there's is no incentives from the city coming into this project. No tiff, no tax abatement, no um development agreement for the city paying for the infrastructure up front and recouping that through tiff agreements or other things over the past. This is this is the first that I've had in 15 years where it is all 100% develop well nearly 100% developerled. We are paying for this infrastructure. We are going to pay for these capital improvement fees to help not only serve our project but the other parts of this community.

Thank you. [clears throat] Seeing no other discussion, I would accept a motion to approve resolution 2836, Canon Falls Technology Park conditional use permit for data centers, data center substation, overhead transmission lines, and building height. I'll make a motion. Uh did I hear one on this side? Uh, Jeep. Second by Chad. All those in favor say I. Can I have a roll call? Uh, opposed. Roll call, please. I I already started the vote. We can There was four. Yay. No. Those that you said Matt as a at a point of can just go through the roll call. We can do I recommend a roll call. We can do roll call. Jeepson. I.

Noach. I. Croninburgger. I. Diane Johnson. No Zimmerman. No Chad Johnson. Hi. Four to pass. All right. Moving on to item B, tracked development agreement. Uh, John, with all the presentation, everything. Is there anything else you'd like to add to development agreement? [clears throat]

Uh, so I do want to Yeah, I do want to address the the amended terms that you have before you. These will be posted for our packets later as as it was mentioned. And I want to be transparent. We have been discussing terms of this up till the last few hours. Um so the key term in this agreement that has changed from what anybody may have otherwise seen is in nine. Uh the clause E intentionally omitted is now out of there. So that that was a um the term was an option for an a request for allocation increase and that has been removed. There is another sentence I think later on that was also removed in 13 uh and the development. Yeah. So in 13 for development fees there was a line of and further provided that the city and developer may agree to a lesser development fee was also removed. So there's no implication that um we're renegotiating our development after the fact. Could you read John then in my copy that you gave us

on number 13 it says in the event the city reduces any of the development fees prior to the approval of any phase the lesser fee shall apply. Is that still in there?

That is yeah that is still included. So that was that was the leadup and then that struck the stricken statement happened after that. So if we do lower so where this would likely happen. So if you're if you're wanting context to this. So in this agreement we have our our fees those are established. If we have um our you know uh for the final plat or site plan building permits and other if if we change our rates to those and we lower them they're not subject to in this agreement saying hey if we had those rates that are in place today that they would have to pay them at the at the rate of 2025. if we lower them, they get the access to those lower rates. But in terms of what we specifically requiring for the capital improvement fees, those larger numbers, you know, those are are in place. And, you know, I I have no in reasoning why we would ever consider lowering them.

But but it does okay because one thing that Chris was saying was that, you know, these things are now set in stone. they're going to pay X, Y, and Z of the development fees. That sentence to me says there is a possibility in the future that the city could lower those fees. Um, am I misreading what development fees cover? I thought I that covered the 5 million water, 1.6 uh waste treatment.

Well, yeah, and that's not again, as I said, those aren't the be all end all development fees. There are building permit fees. there's there's going to be fees associated with other parts of this development as it as it exists. We were trying to encapsulate those that are very important, very large and that are needed for uh to make sure that the infrastructure to serve this site and surrounding areas are um memorialized in in those dollars. So, what that would I, as I interpret it, I guess my attorney is here and she can offer and might say it depends. Um, what those are implying is that there are future development fees that are going to going to be placed. And I I'm saying that anything that wasn't memorialized in this agreement, if we have it on the books today and it's lowered, they would pay it at the the lower rate. There's don't know how other

let let me ask just one more question on this uh being obviously the development agreement has undergone changes

over the last 24 hours um is it possible to give us another two weeks to look at this or is that bound by the same timeline or is this a different timeline and I was just wondering if it would be all right to postpone it so that we could actually study it further. So, one, we don't believe it's within the subject of same subjects of 1599. And two, we have the extension to November 19th for from the applicant. Yeah, I guess I would feel more comfortable if I had I mean I appreciate the fact that you've taken all my calls and my texts on this agreement, but um I also would feel more comfortable having an extra couple weeks to go through it one more time now that I've seen a finalized copy, which I didn't have very soon.

I'll leave it up to the council if we table this or if you'd rather take a vote tonight. If you want to discuss that, feel free. I'd like to vote on it tonight. All right. So, a lot of people came out and get over here about it. I don't think substantially. Okay. Can they wait? Sure. That'll be With that said, I would accept a motion. And Diane, if you would like a roll call, please ask before we get a motion in a second, but happy to. I would like to have a roll call. Okay. Do I have a motion and a second to take a roll call vote on the track development agreement? We'll make a motion. Motion from Chad. Second. Second from Jeepson. We'll do a roll call vote. Noach. I.

Croninburgger. I. Diane Johnson. No. Zimmerman. No. Chad Johnson. Hi. And Jeffson. Hi. 42. 42. Uh, gets us to reports. Maggie, you want to talk about Chamber of Commerce? I'll make this. Put a bowl. I'm here to spread cheer. There you go. [laughter]

Uh, Deck the Falls is November 29th, so the weekend of Thanksgiving, so make sure you keep it in your calendar. We got a full day of activities planned. Um, starts with pancakes from the Lions Club at the fire station and is also small business Saturday. And we love to support our small businesses. We want them to stay in Canop Falls. We want them to succeed. So, please, please, please shop local. Um, we also have a 5K that day hosted by Matt Rats. Um, we've got a live nativity. We got shirt decorating, Santa time and pictures, horse and wagons, ciders, alpacas, parade, tree lighting, fireworks. That's a lot of it through once thrown at you. But all of that is on our social media and on the chambers website. So, I encourage people to check it out. Save the date. I am looking for um people to sell 50/50 raffle tickets during the parade and those um funds raised from that goes towards the fireworks for next year. So,

is it true that that is the busiest day for downtown businesses, small business Saturday and that falls? Um, Laura, what are your thoughts on it? I mean, I've I've seen some reports, but I can't close at least close. Traffic wise, yes. Dollar, it definitely brings a lot of people from outside of Canada. Perfect. And there's a lot of, like you said, a lot of new fun things like the site ride. Yeah, we get a lot of out of town people for this event, too. I would argue it's the best day in Can Falls. But so yeah, that's all I have. Just want to keep it short and sweet. I also want to thank you all for the work you guys do for Canop Falls. You were all very appreciated. Thank you, M. Yep. Uh library board if anybody wants to

uh I got something from Nicole here. Um she said I won't be able to attend council meeting tomorrow. I didn't matter why, but I'd like to announce the library is a good spot for people to drop off or pick up food during this period of food insecurity insecurity. We have a free little food shelf out in front that people can access 24/7 to give or take some food. Um, we also have a book cart in the back hallways where people can give or take food while we're open. And of course, there's the hobbit harvest box in the vegetable. Um, there's flyers around town. Basically, food insecurities is a big thing. Could be a big thing right now. Take a look at the library. It's a good resource.

Yeah. Thank you, Chris. Uh, joint joint powers trail. Uh, no updates. Good. Uh, public works park board. Um, the the Well, you go ahead, Jed, but we'll start the around the horn with Jed. Go ahead.

Um, public works park board. We talked about uh uh sewer camera. Um, we're looking at sewer cameras to to replace the the ancient one that we we have that no longer works. They also [clears throat] uh approved the 5K for uh at the falls. Um just talk a little bit about we decided to not do the garland this year. That has uh been kind of a source of contention for a few people. Uh we just felt that it was better to rather invest that money into Garland which dies shortly after. And we've added new lights. We're adding new lights down Mil Street also in City Park and on the gazebo. Wonderful. All right. Thank you, John. Bill, anything? Nothing of this bill.

Izzy, thank you. Laura, no. Jeie, [laughter] well, you guys all settled in, so I have a short twoour video trigger trot and all of the adorable costume. Thank you. [laughter] We can save that for a work session or something like that. Yeah, there you go. That's all I ask. Thank you, Chief Sarah. Uh, just a quick, the city is going to be going to a new website soon. Yeah. Yeah, we learned about it today. It's coming soon. So there will be there will be probably ups and downs and things will be missing and whatever. If you do see something, let us know because we don't we might not catch it. So

yeah, we have about one more week of review period before that goes. So if they if I think somebody indicated some some links that may not work like make sure you send them our way so we can double check them because yeah, we want wanted to try to at a time where it's getting refreshed and we want it to work. Awesome. Yeah. Shelley, you good? Awesome. John, anything else?

Oh, you've heard enough from me, but [laughter] uh just want to again um well, I want to I want to acknowledge uh thank you for the opportunity to attend the ICMA conference, International City Managers Association conference. I attended that in Tampa last week. Um it's it's always something that it means a lot. Uh ICMA is why I'm in this profession. It gave me my first opportunity for full-time job doing a fellowship program in Sarasota County, Florida. So, it was especially um monumental for me to go back there um because it it Sarasota's about 45 minutes south of Tampa. So, I got to to see some of the places I used to live and work and uh engaged with a friend and colleague that that was down there. So, it brought back some really good memories. um the biggest takeaways that you know I mentioned them in my update but I really wanted to uh echo what uh Arthur Brooks talked about in his presentation uh and it's it was titled love your enemies but one of the important parts about that is that yes we we disagree and and while people um may have disagreements and they may be angry with one another, it comes from a place of love. The anger actually does come a place of love or care about your community and your uh and and what you want and what you see and perceive of other people doing that you may disagree with. You're mad about it because you love and you want them to understand and see things your way. That's why I've tried to echo so much about hearing the things that have been said. These these agreements, these things that we're putting in place are there because we've heard the concerns and things that that other people have said and doing our best to try to address them. is if this is going to improve that would as as I work in this profession that's how I want to work for this community or any community um but especially right now with this opportunity I really was proud to be able to put that into practice

thanks John Laura I am good Chris good Jeff good Diane um my uh thoughts are with the people of redeemer uh the Episcopal uh Episcopalian church in town as they had their decommissioning this evening. Uh would much rather quite frankly been with them to celebrate an incredible ministry uh that that congregation, those faithful people have given to our community all these years. So thoughts and prayers to them. Lisa, I'm good.

Uh okay. Yeah. So, trick-or- treat trot, that was awesome. Thank you guys at the chamber for hosting it. And um I just kind of want to give an update about the uh the tririccaster.

So, with our cable stuff, um so we bought equipment I think back in August. We got it in, it started working and now it's not working. And the problem with that is we have two guys that can troubleshoot it and they have called and been on the phone with tech support in between their day job when they come in here and they do their part-time work and they've gone back and forth and it sounds like finally we've tried exhausted all their if you've ever been on the line on help support it is not fun and they are done. It sounds like we're probably going to get a tech down here real soon so we can start streaming it live again. we can start getting the cameras working because what we're getting the quality of this meeting is terrible and we want to improve it and unfortunately it just hasn't worked out that way.

So yeah, no that does not go against our our guys [laughter] Sam and Dave are doing a fantastic job. The guys back there are awesome. Great appreciation for making do with the the [laughter] stuff that they're having to work with. We have better tools. We bought a Ferrari and we don't have gas, so we got to get it working. It looks nice compared though. Oh, it looks great. Super ruined. I'm sorry about that. Gives you guys something more to yell at me for. Go for it. Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to say something with with the library. Yep. Well, you can come up after we adjourn. Absolutely. Um I want to say it now for the for it's happening tomorrow at the library and I wish I would have said it after because I didn't want to be at the end saying it. Go ahead, Tim. What is it?

Helping kids cope. Tips for supporting good family mental health 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, library 6:00 to 7:00 helping kids cope. Yeah, she got announced when I was here last night for the adults, but this is the same. Nami, thank you, Tim. We we got it in there. Appreciate it.

Um, again, thank you everybody. I know that uh it's impossible to expect that we agree on everything. This has been an ongoing issue and it uh the discussion has been fantastic. I do want the citizens to know that we have heard them. Their questions were our questions. We have just come to uh different opinions of the direction of of how uh that's going to be utilized for that uh technology park. Uh I want to say thank you so much to Clinton and Superintendent Samson. Congratulations on uh the vote yesterday. Uh our community showing up in a non-election year. Uh it shows that people are supportive of the school and it's been 20 years coming and uh it's I'm thrilled to that vote was uh it warms my heart. Uh and also thank you for your time in helping uh our negotiations with tract as John said we started from pretty much nothing to 500,000 a year to the school and uh we said this needs to be a decisive win and you guys are champions of the school and uh I really appreciate that because um it's the core of our town and uh the kids they they deserve this. So that's a win. Um

and Luke yeah in there in his uh baseball chair. I love it. He brought his own. I'll add to that. Track track told me that Clint was a hard guy to deal with. Like, you made this happen. You did it for the kids. So, they said they wanted to see him smile and look at 30 plus presentations, too, to get this referendum passed. Like, good job, man. Keep it up. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Motion. Motion from Jeff. Do I have a second? Second from Diane. All those in favor? Close. We're Thank you.