Advisory Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

So I do want to allow Perry, our city attorney, Perry McCall, to kind of explain what we're here tonight to vote on.

Thank you. This is a public hearing required by statute in regard to this particular proposed development.

Is this thing on?

All right, here we go. So we are here tonight for a public hearing that's required by statute in regard to the proposed development. Like, is it clear? Clever, clever. As you may or may not know, pursuant to Ordinance 2022 of August 2022, the area in which this proposed development is is going to be built, if it is, is a PUD unit development That's an area that was created by our ordinance which allows a mix of different proposed properties, residential, commercial, and industrial. In this particular instance, the PUD ordinance that was passed included residential, commercial, and light industry. and so the application had been made of the petitions been filed is to allow uh... the data center which is proposed by clever uh... they filed a petition and it's necessary for us to have this public hearing in which the public are invited to participate uh also what's happened prior to today's date our building commissioner tony jackson did a comprehensive review of the proposal determined whether or not it met with the criteria of the ordinance which we had passed has found that it does meet that criteria and has met a recommendation to the advisory plan commission along with the presentation that will be made by the developer as well as the public, the advisory commission then will take the matter in submission and make a determination of whether or not to approve. There is going to be public comment. We're going to limit that public comment to two minutes per individual. Once the public hearing is closed, there will be no more public comments allowed once the public hearing is closed. That doesn't prevent the board or commission from asking questions of the developer after they make their presentation. Any questions about that? All right, I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you.

OK. So the developer, you all have something prepared to talk about? Can you explain it?

Is this on? Can you hear me?

Yeah.

yeah um yeah my name is kevin nordstrom council mayor i'm the president of clever we're a development company out of tampa florida we are the ones here proposing the 55 000 square foot single story networking data center that you guys are considering tonight we have already you know, given a ton of information and presented on this project about a month ago at the information session, which I think you guys have all seen and have a copy of that presentation. That presentation really goes into how much power we use, how much water we use, the proposed you know, tax incentives or not tax incentives that we're going for, but the projected tax income that we think this project will generate. So I'll just say that, you know, we bought this property and it was already zoned for data center use. And we're in the business of building low impact, small data centers across the country. And like I said, this one's only 55,000 square feet and a single story. And once it's construction, once it's construction constructed, there are no plans to expand outside of those four walls. Um, it is a closed loop systems, which means we will only pull 60 to 70,000 gallons at initial infill, which is about an Olympic sized swimming pool. And then after that, we will only use about 200 gallons per day, 200 to 300 gallons per day, which is, you know, a couple of single family homes. Um, this, uh, Our total construction budget is anticipated to be about $90 million, and we expect that to generate around 200 construction jobs over 12 to 18 months. And this facility, given its small size and nature, this is not an AI data center that I think most probably think it is. This is a networking data center. And once it's constructed, we do not anticipate much traffic And I also believe that I know that I provided the mayor and several other members a noise study on Wednesday that goes into the little amount of noise that this property will generate once constructed. So with that, I'll turn it back over to you. to you guys i i will say our our main architect his flight got delayed so he will be here in about 10 minutes so for further questions on that he will be here to answer those um very shortly okay thank you all right so uh i want to open this up for um for uh public comments um i think mr jackson you've you've got the list

People that live there are joining property owners first and people live in the city and then anybody that doesn't live in the city. I have them up a call but I'll call up the names if you come up step up to might give your name and address that we appreciate it. So the first name is Jordan clarity from Woodford drive.

Hello.

Is that loud enough? Okay.

So my name is Jordan Flaherty. You said I have to give my... Can you make it louder?

You said I need to give my address?

Yes, ma'am. 9027 Woodford Drive. And then was there another...

Just your name and address.

OK. Jordan. And I would like to make a comment on the two minutes. I feel like the community has a lot that they want to say, and I feel like they have been silenced a lot. And so to limit and not give us that information prior to where many of these people have already written what they want to say, and to not give them that opportunity is a little dissatisfying. But I digress.

Hold on just a second. The board has the opportunity to expand the time period if they so desire by vote. The two minutes was based upon the number of individuals that wanted to talk tonight, so we wouldn't be here till 11. But if the board would like to do that to make it three minutes or whatever seems more equitable, then that would be within your purview to do so. I set it at two minutes just based on, and I haven't started the clock on her with her introduction and everything. It's based on content alone. I'm keeping the time. It's not going to be that strict. I mean, if you're in the middle of a sentence, I'm not going to say, you're done. Stop talking. But it's up to the board. So if you want to take that matter up at this particular point.

They all need a motion to do that and I'm not opposed to doing that. So the most opposed to doing what and in the room and him adding an extra minutes, a total of 3 minutes.

I agree with that.

OK so I get a motion. OK motion made by Shane second second. Second the morning all in favor say aye. Any opposed. Okay. Three minutes.

Okay. Good evening, my name is Jordan and I'm a resident of Woodford Farms. My home is within 100 feet of the proposed Q lever data center. I want to begin by saying this is not an empty piece of land sitting far away from homes, this is a neighborhood. This is where families live, children play, and people have invested their life savings. The people who will experience the impact of this decision are not numbers on a report, they are the residents who will live next to it every single day. When Shadow Lake was originally proposed and rezoned, residents were given the understanding that this area would develop into a community with businesses, amenities, and a park. Residents were told that there would be businesses for the community to enjoy. Where are those businesses? Today, what residents see as a park is three benches and a sign. Now, instead of the type of development residents were told to expect, we're being asked to accept a small-scale data center. That raises an important question. Does this project truly fit the intent and requirements of the zoning designation? This area was described as light industrial. Light industrial traditionally means uses that have limited impacts on surrounding properties and are compatible with nearby areas. A data center is anything but. It requires significant electrical infrastructure, cooling systems, mechanical equipment, generators, and other systems that create impacts outside of the walls of the building. So I ask, does this proposed facility truly meet the intent of light industrial zoning, or are we stretching that definition of light industrial to accommodate a use that creates a much larger impact than what residents were originally led to expect? The first concern is noise. A data center is not simply a quiet building full of computers. Coaling equipment can create outdoor noise levels commonly ranging from approximately 55 to 85 decibels depending on the equipment. I know that you had sent something that said you guys are expecting 45. Backup generators can produce significantly higher levels when operating. The people who live here are the ones who will hear it, not the people who approve it. The second concern is energy usage. This project has been described as a three megawatt data center. Three megawatts may not sound like much until you translate it into real world impact. The average American household uses roughly 10 to 11,000 kilowatt hours annually. A three megawatt facility operating continuously uses approximately 26 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. That means this single facility could require electricity comparable to the annual usage of approximately 24 to 26,000 homes. According to recent census information of Charlestown, has about 3,200 homes. So we're building a facility that's going to use about the same amount of electricity as almost all of Charlestown combined. So I ask, what impact will this have on our electrical infrastructure? Will upgrades be required? And who pays for those? My third concern is water usage. We heard about the closed-loop cooling system, but closed-loop does not mean zero water usage. Cooling systems require water replacement because of evaporation, filtration, maintenance, and system losses. Depending on the design and size, data centers can use hundreds of thousands to millions of gallons of water annually. But there is also a very important local question. Residents have been told that this facility would not impact the same water system used by residents. However, many residents in this community, and probably in this room, are on Watson Water. And there are concerns that the information residents receive do not fully match the concerns being raised. So we need clear answers. What is the projected daily annual water demand, and will there be impacts on water availability, pressure, rates, and future capacity for existing residents? Water is not an unlimited resource, and residents deserve transparency before this facility is approved. My fourth concern is emergency response and fire safety. What happens if something goes wrong? A data center is not a typical commercial building. It contains large electrical system, backup generators, electronic equipment, and potentially battery systems. A fire involving these materials is different from a normal structure fire. Burning electronics and electrical components can create hazardous smoke and electrical fires require specialized response. So the question is, does our fire department have the equipment, training and resources necessary to respond to a large scale electrical facility fire? Because if there is an emergency, it will happen here next to our homes and our children. My last concern is the impact on homeowners. Many of us chose Charlestown because we believe we were investing in a community, a place to raise our families, build memories, and have a safe and peaceful place to live. We are already seeing increases in our property tax, and now we're being asked to accept a facility that could change the character of our neighborhood and potentially affect the value and desirability of the home surrounding it. The people who benefit financially from this project may not be the same people who live next to it. The developer will not live with the noise. The developer will not send their children to the nearby school. The developer will not wake up every night hearing the equipment. The residents will. So who carries the burden if homeowners see the quality of life or property values affected? Finally, I want to address you guys as our elected leaders. I understand that the mayor may not have the legal authority to personally change zoning or stop every project, but leadership is not about what you have the authority to do. Leadership is about using your voice. The mayor has the ability to stand with the community and say, I hear my residents, I understand their concerns, and I believe this deserves a thorough review. The community here, we're paying attention. Excuse me.

We are asking the questions. That's five minutes.

I'm almost finished. Can I just finish?

Well, we're not going to be, I'm letting you go, but we're going to have to keep it to the three minute minimum, okay? Gotcha. All right, thank you.

So we're paying attention and we're asking the questions. We will remember who listen. Public service comes with accountability. Elections come around and the names of the people making these decisions matter. The people who stand with their community will be remembered. The people who ignore their community will also be remembered. So this is not about being against progress, but this is about responsible progress. I'll stop there. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next person is Charles Deal. Charles Deal, here you go.

I don't know why we should even talk now because of her. Please bear with me. The first part I've got to say, you're not going to understand.

When I first addressed this matter- Charles, could you give us your name and address?

I'm sorry. Charles Deal, D-E-L, address is 8909 Woodford Drive. When I first addressed this matter a couple of months ago, I was asked the purpose of the apartments needed to be located directly behind my Woodford farms. At that time, I did not feel I got a real good, clear explanation. Now I have additional concerns about the process and the level of transparency provided to the residents. It appears that the part of the land originally intended for the apartments developed may instead have sold to the data center. If that is the case, residents deserve a full and straightforward explanation of how this change occurred and why it was not clearly communicated earlier. Last month, the representatives of the data center stated that they had other facilities located near subdivisions. However, when asked to identify those locations, they declined to provide their names. I'm concerned with that without the information residents cannot independently determine whether nearby property values were affected or whether the data center is a good neighbor or not. I respectfully ask our city attorney elected official to advocate on behalf of all the residents who pay taxes and rely on government to represent their interest, if there is a lawful way to place this issue on the November ballot. I believe every responsible effort to be made to do so. Residents deserve the transparency, accountability, and opportunity to have their voice heard.

Is that two minutes? Thank you.

David Hoffman, Jordan Brown.

David Hoffman, 8304 Jordan Drive. Good evening, members of the board and local representatives. I'll be direct and to the point. Regarding the proposed data center layout, our primary demands are clear. First of all, cooling units, backup generators, and heavy equipment must be restricted strictly to the south side of the lot, leaving the north side as permanent open green space never to be developed. Second, we demand the mandatory inclusion of an optimized berm to shield nearby homes. We cannot discuss new buffers without addressing unfinished business. Back in 2022, Chris Jackson, representing the Christianity Company, explicitly promised this board an earth berm along High Jackson Road to be good neighbors. Four years later, we're still waiting. They say good fences make good neighbors, but great structural berms make great neighbors. We expect our local government to enforce those 2022 promises, while requiring that all layout restrictions and berm requirements for this data center be put in writing as legally binding zoning covenants. The city must take full responsibility for the long-term endurance of both berms. Having worked in data centers my entire career, I know what kind of strain they can place on local infrastructures. Therefore, before any approvals are granted, the city must secure binding written conditions on these three critical points. Grid protection. Validation that power usage will not be impacted. Residential utility rates or grid reliability. Water infrastructure. Insurance that cooling systems will not compromise local water pressure or inflate rates. And then light pollution. strict mandates for downward-facing fixtures to prevent light pollution that we've already seen on High Jackson Road's power station. So I urge this committee to mandate these solutions according to the strict residential berm guidelines that I'm submitting to you all tonight. So if you truly want to be good neighbors, if you truly want to be good neighbors, put those words into binding enforceable actions today. Thank you for your time.

Debbie Smith, Saddle Ridge Drive.

Debbie Smith, 8824 Saddle Ridge Trail. I just have two questions for Clever. What involvement does Clever have with companies or other investors outside the United States? Well.

Ma'am? Ma'am, this isn't a question and answer. We have to give your, that comes at a later date or later time. We've already had that. Austin.

This is a public hearing to present your comments and not to question the developer.

Austin Flaherty, 9027 Woodford Drive. So I live in the neighborhood directly adjacent to the proposed data center. I want to begin by saying that I'm not opposed to growth or economic development. I understand that data centers are becoming an important part of our infrastructure. However, I do believe the location matters, and I respectfully ask the commission to carefully consider whether this is the right location for this project. I have a few questions that I hope will be answered at some point, since they're not answering questions today. First, why was this site selected when there is industrially zoned land nearby that appears better suited for this type of development? If the project requires extensive sound barriers, landscaping, and other mitigation measures simply because it is next to homes, doesn't that suggest it may be better suited for an industrial area? Were alternate sites evaluated? And if so, what criteria led to choosing this residential location? Has an independent study been conducted on potential impact to nearby property values? If not, why not? What legally enforceable protections will homeowners have if noise, lighting, generator testing, or other impacts exceed what is promised tonight? Who will monitor compliance, and what remedies will residents have? Finally, what restrictions will prevent future expansion of this facility? I know they said they won't, but what's gonna stop that? And my neighbors and I made one of the biggest investments of our lives when we purchased our homes. We did so believing this would remain a residential community, as my wife stated. I respectfully ask the commission to weigh not only the benefits of this project, but also the long-term impacts on the families who already live there. Thank you for your time and consideration, and thank you for coming. Thank you.

Cynthia Shepherd, Woodford Drive. Cynthia Sheppard.

Hi, Cynthia Sheppard, 9031 Woodford Drive. I just have a statement saying, how can you consider yourselves a good neighbor with the noise pollution, with the water pollution, with the energy conception? You're not a good neighbor.

Kevin Christman, Hijacks and Ropes.

Kevin Christman, 8103 High Jackson Road. I come as a member of the Charlestown community since 1976 and a resident of High Jackson Road since the early 1990s. Having lived on High Jackson Road, I have seen the RMC substation built with a nightlight that makes it seem like daylight all the time. I've seen a Watson water storage tank built that runs like a freight train every week to circulate the water that was needed for the sprinklers at the Christianian office complex. I have Chris Jackson advising the Charlestown Advisory Planning Commission June 13, 22, that they would be a good neighbor and would be installing a berm to restrict the views. I will say that Blue Lick Development has been mowing regularly since this project was announced. How long this will last after this project is approved, I don't know. So I come today asking for the only two things I think this board is realistically able to grant. First, I would ask that Chris Jackson, Dan Christiani, and Bill Sprigger make good on their promise to be good neighbors and build the berm along High Jackson Road in their property. Second, I would ask this board to put restrictions on this property that this is the only building allowed on this property ever. My fear is that Clear will build a building, find a tenant, sign a long-term lease, and sell the lease to a private equity firm. Then Clear will go back to Florida and California and we'll never see them again. Private equity, five years from now, will look and say, we have 12 acres. Let's build a second building or two more buildings. Think I'm crazy? Look at Texas and North Dakota. There are examples of this happening all over the country. Today, Indiana has 33 data centers up and running, 25 projects under construction, and 119 more centers proposed. Indiana has 17 counties who have put a moratorium on data centers to try and catch up with the regulation. I would only ask that you hold people accountable for what they say and have some vision about what could happen in the future.

Thank you.

Angie Akers, Jordan Drive.

Angie Akers, 8116 Jordan Drive. Today I want to talk about the negative impact that a data center can have on subdivisions and residential communities. While data centers play an important role in supporting internet, they are not always the right fit for a neighborhood where families live. One major concern is noise pollution. Data centers operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their large cooling systems and backup generators can create constant noise that affects nearby homes, apartments, schools, and reduces the residents' quality of life. Data centers consume enormous amounts of water and electricity. This can place additional pressure on local utilities and natural resources, especially during periods of drought and high demands. There are concerns about property value as a homeowner. We choose this. We choose this subdivision 34 years ago because of the quiet surroundings. We have helped to be part of this community schools and we've paid our taxes. We feel that data centers will reduce the appeal of prudential sales, potential sales of our homes in 2022. We were as the residents of Charlestown came before the board and asked the developer would put a berm in trees to help with the noise and the looks of the so-called industrial park. Well, we're at 2026, still no berm, still no trees on High Jackson side, just water tanks and electric substation. If you say yes to the data center, please, please, please put berms in trees. Finally, we as residents deserve to have a voice in this decision that affects our neighborhoods. Please vote no. In conclusion, technology is essential and data centers are important, just not next to schools and neighborhoods. Careful planning can help protect our homes, preserve our quality of life, and ensure growth to benefit everyone. Thank you for your time in this matter.

Thank you.

Deborah Potts.

Deborah Potts, can you hear me? 8005 High Jackson Road, I live directly across the street from the Shadow Lake development. On the June 2022 meeting, Chris Jackson assured the residents that this development would be a good neighbor. One of those promises made were berms that would be installed to screen the industrial development from nearby homes. Four years later, that promise has not been kept. The promises were commitments made to homeowners who have to live next to this development. As warehouses, a substation, and now a proposed data center comes to surround us, many of us worry about declining property values and the ever-increasing noise and light pollution around our neighborhood we chose to call home. Instead of the promises, I now have to look at an electric substation directly across from my home. Its lights are so bright, it makes it look like daylight throughout the night. Now we are being asked to accept even more development. If this council chooses to approve the data center, I respectfully ask that the approval include the following condition. Require an eight foot berm surrounding the whole data center. Require that the data center be built on the southern portion of the property closest to Highway 62, maximizing the distance from the existing homes. Place a binding restriction on the 12-acre parcel so that no additional industrial buildings or future expansion can ever be built on that tract. These are reasonable conditions that balance economic development with the rights of the families who have invested their lives and homes in this community. Being a good neighbor isn't something you just say during a public meeting. It's something you demonstrate by keeping your promises. I believe this council has a responsibility not only to welcome new development, but to also protect the residents who already call Charlestown home by holding developers accountable for the commitments they make. I'm not asking you to stop development. I'm asking you to require it to be done responsibly and in a way that protects the people who already live here. Please remember that once the buildings are here, these developers move on. We don't. We are the ones who will live with this decision every single day for the rest of our lives. I respectfully ask that you protect the people who already call Charlestown home. Thank you.

Lauren Nichols, Oak Valley Drive. Lauren Nichols, Oak Valley.

First, let me say Jordan, absolutely fantastic job. I ditto everything she said. My name is Lauren Nichols and I live at 8618 Oak Valley Drive in the Woodford Farms neighborhood. I was at the listening session. I was here participating and asking questions and all of the information given has been their word and using subjective terminology like small, low impact. Let me tell you that this isn't low impact to those who live around it. If you are determined to move forward with this, we ask the same thing as many others have iterated here tonight, that you restrict to what has been proposed and legally binding so that we do not allow a foot in the door policy where it starts small, and gets added and added and added to, and the impact grows larger. During the last session, something that was brought up by many of us, a direct question that was completely dodged several times, but who is paying if the construction directly or indirectly damages our homes? The builder has said to people that there are cracks in the foundation that were due to blasting nearby. And when we proposed that question, they dodged the question. So before this is approved, we as the residents need to know If something happens to our homes and our homes' value, especially structurally, who are we going to? Who's going to help us? Because many of the residents right now are just getting turned around in circles, and that's not fair to us. In addition, from a wildlife aspect, I want to address the severe ecological disruption that this could cause with artificial light, thermal heat, and nonstop noise. We haven't heard a single word about how this 24-7 disturbance will affect local pollinators like bees, and more importantly, the Indiana bat. The Indiana bat is a federally endangered species native to our area that requires quiet, dark forested corridors and clean water for foraging and echolocation. Blasting, clearing land, and installing continuous lighting degrades habitats for legally protected animals and species. Where is the environmental impact study on that? Between the unaddressed liability damages, the total disregard for local wildlife, and the impact to our properties, this project simply isn't ready to be approved without fully understanding it. This is my petition to deny it, but at the very least, hold off until we understand the real impacts of this study. As a final hope, we ask that you protect our town and cap the build strictly to what is proposed with zero future additions allowed. Put Charlestown residents first in our environment. Thank you.

Elizabeth Ward, Oak Valley Drive.

Good evening. Check, check.

Elizabeth Ward, 8607 Oak Valley Drive. I am going to agree with everything said before me, just to be cognizant of time. I wanted to mention, ask the question about post-construction testing. We've heard a lot about it's not going to use a lot of water, it's not going to cause a lot of light issues, electricity. I'd like to know if there's any post-construction testing. It seems it's kind of... I don't know, hearsay kind of data, probably based on other construction projects, but I'd like to see post-construction testing. And then additionally, on March 3rd, 2026, Charlestown had adopted their comprehensive plan by the Plan Commission Council. Within it, it mentions public spaces and placemaking, downtown construction, housing connectivity, and then lastly, economic development. So I'm going to quote from that. Create a sound economic base for the city and attract uses that support a high quality of life for residents. I would like to say that I believe this development goes against our city's values and goals for development based on that. Thank you.

Lacey Moore, Woodford Drive.

Okay, so Lacey Moore, 8847 Woodford Drive. So I'll start by saying that I watched the informational session live. I went back and re-reviewed their PowerPoint and I also read through, skimmed the hundred some odd pages of the auditory testing that was just posted I believe earlier or last week. So with all that, I don't believe that we have enough information to responsibly approve this project. So during the informational meeting, residents did ask about locations of the similar facilities that they had referenced, as well as long-term noise impacts and quality of life for the people living around them. Those locations were not provided, leaving us without the ability to verify those claims or understand the experiences of other communities. Too many questions have been met with assurances instead of verifiable data. Their own study, the auditory study evaluates overall sound levels and certain low frequency metrics, but it does not appear to include a tonal noise assessment. So y'all might be able to correct me if I'm wrong, but I've tried to do enough research on my own to make sure that the low humming noise that is constantly what is complained about is not just the DBA or the DBC that they had mentioned in this report. Those would be for the tonal noise assessment. So if we truly want it to be good neighbors, and we wanted to make sure that this was being done correctly, why was that not included in their auditory report? The study also, so yeah, so the DBC, so those conclusions that they also used to determine that they were gonna be in acceptable ranges were their own. Sorry, they had used them from somewhere else because Charlestown does not specify a DBA or a DBC for industrial noise. Um, but our own noise ordinance doesn't have to state that it's a DBC, but it does state that if it's a noise, that a noise disturbs or becomes a nuisance to neighboring residents, then it's a problem. So if we don't have a tonal noise study to be able to evaluate the humming that is the cause of other complaints and nuisances, then how do we know that while it was said it's supposed to meet the light industrial, that it's gonna meet the noise ordinance that is already set by Charlestown itself? So it does not state that and so the burden shouldn't have to be on the residents to discover after construction that all of their predictions might have been wrong or that now the residents are responsible for trying to figure out how to deal with those nuisances after the fact. Thank you.

Shannon Beatty, High Jackson Road. Shannon Beatty, High Jackson Road. Lisa Spears, Jordan Drive.

Lisa Spears on Jordan Drive. A lot of my original concerns about noise and its related effects on property values were finally addressed in the noise report that was provided at last by the developer last week. However, the noise report was incomplete and did not provide information about noise in emergency use situations when all generators are running in addition to the normal operation noise. We have at times had prolonged power outages in this area due to wind or ice storms. What is the prolonged noise impact for neighbors during emergency use? Some areas of the country have encouraged use of generator backup power to relieve grid stress. Would this facility be allowed to do that and create an extended noise nuisance for neighbors? I also have concerns about the landscape plan. Neighbors need a plan that provides good noise screening. We also need a complete visual block of an unsightly louvered mechanical yard. From what I was able to review, the plan was to use primarily deciduous trees. There should be more evergreen trees for better screening in the winter. All of the plants should be required to be larger sizes, do not require years of growth before they provide any benefit to neighbors. I would like for there to be more complete information and an optimal site plan before any approval of this project. If this is going to be approved, it makes sense to slow down and get it right before it's locked in. Thank you.

Aiden Hart, High Street.

Hello, my name is Aiden Hart. I live on 674 High Street. Most people probably don't know me. I've lived here for about 10 years, but I don't get out of my house much due to social issues. But this is a bigger issue than that. And I think that we should be speaking about it more. I think that everyone involved needs to give a little more transparency. I think that my kids go to the middle school that's going to be near this thing. They have provided reports, and I'll let you know, I didn't look at any of those. I think they're bogus. I think we need our own reports. I think we need third-party independent reporting done to show what's actually going to happen. I think none of those third-party reportings should come through anyone that has any business tied to anyone here. And I think that anyone that is on council or in, you know, this business here needs to provide if they are, you know, have signed any type of NDAs in regards to this business. And yeah, the sound is a big thing, but if people don't know infrasound is something that you can't hear, but does do a lot more damage over long periods. So I'd like to see more research for that as well. Thank you.

Steve Fowler, Woodford Drive.

My name is Steve Fowler. Address is 8829 Woodford Drive. Myself, like everybody here, probably tried to research the pros and cons of the data center, and I could not really find any pros, so I will highlight some of the cons. Noise pollution. Data centers require massive cooling fans and air conditioners. The constant whirling can sound like a busy highway or jet engine which lowers your quality of life. I've also heard the noise from inside your house can sound like your neighbors mowing their grass. Nobody in the neighborhood wants this constant sound. Plus, consider the new apartment complex that I thought was going to be built, but now I may be hearing otherwise, But if there is a new apartment being built, who wants to sit out on their balconies and hear this sound? Another con for power and utility bills. Data centers consume massive amounts of electricity. This can strain the local power grid and in some cases cause an increase in household utility bills. Because data centers will use massive amounts of electricity, new power grids are being built. The electric company more than likely will raise the price of electricity to pay for these new power grids. It won't be the data center paying for these new power grids. It will be us. Water usage. Many centers use millions of gallons of water for cooling, which can drain local reservoirs and aquifers. Data centers will claim that they will only use the water at night and during off times. It's being discovered more and more at other data centers that this isn't the case. Plus, as you look around at all the massive warehouses being built around here, They run first shift, second shift, third shift. The world is moving to a 24-hour work schedule and constant water pressure is needed for the city. Backup generators. When the main power fails, giant backup diesel generators kick on. These are extremely loud and produce exhaust, lowering air quality. So the noise of these backup generators is going to be just as bad as the constant sound during normal operations. and the exhaust and lower air quality is one more negative. Limited long-term economic gain to the city. During the whole construction process, there is economic gain because construction workers, utility workers, and everyone else involved in the building process is working, which boosts our economy. But once the building is complete, the building will be run by more of a skeleton crew. not offering many high-paying jobs. So short economic gain during the construction process and not any significant long-term gains. This entire project put forth by Christianity was slated for residential, commercial, light, industrial in this area. Given the fact that the data centers draw massive amounts of energy and water, Given the fact that it creates an excessive amount of noise, the data center is not and should not be considered light industrial. At a very minimum, this data center needs to go on the other side of Highway 62 or 10th Street, along with the dozens of other warehouses and away from residential areas. Thank you.

Shannon Browning, Jordan Drive. Shannon Browning, Jordan Drive.

I'm sorry, it was difficult to hear in the very back of the room. My name is Shannon Browning. I live at 8101 Jordan Drive in Charlestown. I just want to say good evening to the members of the board, to my Charlestown community. And I want to say, you know, I'm a ten-year resident of Charlestown. I haven't always lived in Charlestown. I lived in Louisville. Moved over to Indiana when I married my husband. Moved to Charlestown about ten years ago. When you move to Charlestown for that small town, country atmosphere where you get to know your neighbors and feel a part of a community. We've met great friends and people, and I felt we were in a trusted, safe place until about 60 days ago when that all changed. So what was once a peaceful, peaceful area has been replaced by the light of buildings, taillights of cars on the Route of 62, which used to completely be covered by trees, the lights of a substation, the noise of trains, all deafening out the sounds of tree frogs and clouding the stars in our night sky. And if this was not enough to be blindsided by the media, that's how I found out, that Charlestown is going to have a data center, it's inexcusable. Data centers, they take planning, they take proper resources of infrastructure that has to be set in place for development. In a small town, none of this happens without knowledge and support of influential members. And those few, I feel, made decisions based on all of us for gains of a few. And as you see today, this room is full because people don't agree that a data center should be here. So all of our boxes have been checked. I went to the presentation. There's nothing to worry about. The data centers are safe, right? But our fellow Americans in our state, our neighboring states, and our country are not in agreement as moratoriums are in full swing. Data centers are being challenged, and they are not wanted in communities, especially right across the street from residential areas and in close proximity to schools. Small towns like Charlestown, I feel, have become targets, an easy in, an easy out, Little pushback. You know, the deals are purposely made hush hush to avoid community protest. And I feel a little insulted as a citizen here. I feel betrayed and I've kind of lost trust. You know, who will ever buy property here? And I respectfully hope you listened to everyone that went before me. They had very, very valid points, wonderful things to say. They've done their due diligence. They've done their research. They really have, which to me tells me a lot about my community. So if you feel compelled to move forward, and as a citizen who lives right across the street from this center, I hope you vote no. I respectfully request that you listen to this community's demands that they've made today. You know, to build an eight-foot berm, to keep the building to the south side of the property, furthest away from residential areas in the street. Plant an abundance of tall trees, not deciduous, around the property to drown out all that noise and light pollution that is sure to come. and stipulate that this is the only building that can be placed on the land housed by the data center. Thank you so much for your time and your consideration.

Laura Leach.

Hello, Laura Leach, 8714 Black Oak Drive. I highly suggest that this is a no. From the people before me, very great information, very good questions. I was at the listening session, and it seems to me that Clever just purchased this property. without even knowing or looking at the location that it's right next to a neighborhood, right next to a school. Mr. Cristiani even said in that session they were tight on money. That says a lot to me. And for Clever, I wish you would have answered some questions at that time, especially with the businesses that you have already built. You wouldn't even answer that. Thank you.

Karen Wilson, Main Street. Karen Wilson, Main Street.

Can I take the spot? I'm on my street.

I'm on my street. That's a good one. Good one.

My heart aches because this is left up to, sorry, Freda Rhodes, R-H-O-D-E-S, 4492 High Street. My heart aches because there's no consideration about this project and where it's located. We are leaving it in the hands of five to seven people, but it's going to affect thousands. Think of, I don't know if you guys have kids in school. But the runoff from the pollution and you expect your child to go out and play in that mess. I wrote down questions and people before me have come up here and they have presented it before the committee. But my one question is, who is really going to benefit? benefit from this project it is not the citizens of charlestown because number one water bills going up electricity going up pollution in the area and i just saw all these things that are presented and we have Our youth, and if you see the two benches outside City Hall, it says Generation Pride. Where is the Generation Pride when you do not have children to come behind you? There's no legacy. No legacy because you're going to kill them out because of this project that has not been researched. I mean, it's a lack of research on hearing, and one of the main things I'm gonna say, and I'm gonna sit down, number one, fire. The fire department, the community, and air pollution, if it does backfire, cancer in the air that you are going to be breathing in when they're trying to put that fire out with this data center. Have you ever researched that? Things need to be researched. It takes time to build something good. for the community. This is not good for the community. It's not good for our legacy and the generations that is, we said generation pride on that bench. There's none with this. So why is the rush? Why are you rushing into this? The community don't know half the stuff that's going on. Has any, I'm a hard copy person. Did you give me a hard copy of the pros and cons of this? Did you give the community a hard copy of pros and cons? And first of all, whose ideal is this, to build a center next to a school? I am an educator. I worked 39 years in the school district. And pollution, air pollution, that I just, you guys need to think. Think about your legacy. Think about Charlestown. That's all I got to say.

Kathy Butter Weathersley, Hidden River Trace.

Hi, I'm Kathy Butler, Weathersby. I live at 8302 Hidden River Trace. I, too, moved here because I wanted quiet and peace. We lived in Louisville, we moved to Jeffersonville, those were both pretty noisy places, and we drove around Charlestown for years going, someday we wanna live here, it's beautiful here. And so we did, and we've been here for almost 20 years. So we could hear the bees buzz and the crickets chirp and all of that and see the stars at night. And instead what we become here is this whole river ridge thing. And then whatever in the world we're doing, building apartments everywhere and farmland going right and left. So I'm beyond distressed to learn that in addition to that behemoth over there that Meta is building, we're now gonna have one. on the other side of us, and we live within about three miles of both of those places, and they do say it's about a five mile radius at the very least when the wind's not blowing your way that you're gonna be affected by the data centers. They're being built at an astonishing rate around the country, and they're shrouded in secrecy with a spate of non-disclosure agreements, and it begs the question, if data centers are so great, why the secrecy? Why can't we answer the questions? A Harvard biostatistician, Michael Quirk, ran the numbers of just one data center in Loudoun County, Virginia. His analysis found that particulate matter and air emissions from that singular facility could cause up to $90 million in health damages annually, including premature deaths and increased hospitalizations. Chronic emissions and constant noise from cooling systems and generators caused sleep deprivation, chronic headaches, persistent stress, and elevated stress hormones, disruption of cardiovascular health, and impairment of cognitive development in children. Around the country, we see these models bear out as regular people are reporting all of the above and more happening to them. It sounds like a good time, doesn't it? The environmental impact is also being reported by our neighbors around the country. In various cities, including rural areas in Georgia, they're dealing with greatly reduced water pressure, a water supply tainted with sediment, dark discoloration, and sometimes frothing with chemicals. The water has ruined their appliances and the continuous noise is reported as being unbearable. The blasts that are used to build those centers have caused cracks in their houses, collapsed ceilings, and sinkholes in their yards. If all of this isn't enough, we have to ask ourselves why the sudden, absolute rush to slap these data centers up anywhere they can get away with it. It's not because we have too many photos on our clouds. Tristan Harris, an American technology ethicist has said that tech giants want to build AI that will replace 90% of labor so they don't have to pay humans to do the work. They want to aggregate all the wealth of the economy into their own hands. This is not like the automation of the past. It's not like we're losing one situation like an elevator operator or something like that. This would be 90% of jobs that people do. Elon Musk, now a trillionaire, stated that one robot, Optimus Prime, will be a $25 trillion market opportunity. They're in an arms race to get to this point. Now, you may not be a mega place like those people, but it's all part of the pattern. Will Hollingsworth of Ravenna, Ohio is a programmer and has spent years working with AI to train the very machine that he knew would eventually replace him. He said in a hearing in his own hometown that we've been asked to drain our reservoirs so a chat bot can write a poem or a man can generate a photo of himself standing next to Bigfoot. Hollingsworth said that data centers are not employers. They're here for extraction. They use the water of 50,000 people and only hired 10. Data centers take your water, your electricity, your land, your grid stability, your road capacity, your quiet, and your health, and they give us back 10 to 15 jobs. A drop of clean water for a child is worth more than a billion AI generated images. So let's choose the child. I think that we don't know what this data center is gonna be used for, you're not saying. And we are a small community and all these people turned out here tonight to tell you, we don't want this.

David Weatherby.

Good evening. David Weatherby, 8302 Hidden River Trace. You've had, what, 20 people now tonight. Everyone has spoken very clearly. Let me say a couple of things.

First, 55,000 square feet, that's not like industrial.

That meets the criteria for full industrial size data center. So information we're getting primarily is coming from Clever. So brings up lots of questions for me, but I won't ask the questions. My comments is, why can't we put a pause on this? Put a pause until you all can actually do the research and get independent information on this subject. Second. Mr. Jackson brought up the issue of the legal ramifications and the fact that we need to put a moratorium beyond that. Well, why don't we ask the legal questions now and find out what we would need to do to make this right? You've got a whole community that's telling you this is wrong, that this isn't right. And so what are you, our elected officials, going to do about that? This is a democracy. You're peoples. And if you went around this entire county, it would be a lot more than just this group right here. We're telling you this isn't right. You don't have the information. You're making decisions that are going to harm people, may even harm you. But we live three miles. We're really concerned about being harmed. But these people that live in the backyard, who live across the street from where this place is going to be, their kids go to the middle school. Luckily, my kids have graduated from school. They're not in school anymore. You've got this whole community telling you, take back up, take a step, think this over before you make a decision that's gonna harm this community. And that's what we're asking you to do right now.

Susie Isomcraft. Susie Isomcraft.

Hello board.

I would just, my name is Susie Eisencraft. I reside at 7624 High Jackson Road. My property is adjacent to Mr. Christiani in two areas. When he moved in, he did away with the wildlife sanctuary. So now we have all this misplaced wildlife coming through our yard, getting hit up on the road. Do you all live? Are you all going to live near this data center? Does anybody live in these places? I wasn't even important enough to be invited to the first meeting. But every day I can't even sit outside for the noise coming from him. Big trucks, our roads have big ruts in them from all the trucks and stuff coming in. I mean, wake up. I don't understand. I wish I could vote. But I do say that my property will be for sale. And I hope others will follow.

Sharon Zender, Pebble Creek Drive.

Hello, my name is Sarah Zender, and I'm not gonna spend any time expressing how much the people of Charlestown deeply do not want this. I think you know that. or that our officials failed us and a moratorium should have been initiated as soon as we gave the okay for the meta-complex at River Ridge, essentially putting a welcome map for a data center on our doorstep. The question today is, does this fit our current ordinance for light industrial? In Tony Jackson's letter, To this board, he stated he found one or more permitted uses similar to the proposed data center. My question is, what are those uses he's likening it to?

Not a question and answer.

OK. Well, it's not an animal daycare, it's not a plant nursery, definitely not a charitable institution. Now, when comparing, we need to do apples to apples and compare things of equal size. Maybe he's likening it to an engineering service company, which is a stretch. One that is 55,000 square feet would use about 1.5 megawatts of energy, so not that. How about an electrical manufacturer? One of similar size would typically use 1.5 megawatts. A general warehouse, 1.3. Light industrial park, again, a stretch, would typically use 0.5 megawatts. Not one thing on the list for light industrial has a similar low density requirement on our energy. The most similar thing I could find is two pages over under heavy industrial, an electric power plant. And while a data center is not a producer of energy, it is a taker. It is a highly engineered facility that orchestrates electrical power, cooling, and thermal transfer systems, much like an electrical power plant. Seems like less of a stretch to me. Line two under heavy industrial says it is characterized by objectionable factors. Based off the many fancy reports submitted to the city by Clever regarding noise, energy, and water use, you could say there are many known objectionable factors. Clever has likened its energy use in their Q&A MTR pack to a large-scale hospital, but hospitals are typically zoned heavy industrial or require special zoning related to their demand on community resources and objectionable factors. Looking again at his letter, he states there is a long-standing debate on if data centers devalue adjacent properties and that value is based solely on the desire of another to purchase property. Right here is a stack of over 500 people who do not want to live next door to a data center. With 362 more, 362 more people who have signed the online petition. At least 800 people don't want to live near one. That's roughly 10% of Charlestown, 10%. And this is with a month's worth of work. Sorry, I have a job. Do you think people in neighboring homes will fetch top dollar if they choose to sell once this has been built? If 10% of people already said nah. He states there is no legitimate proof either way. But shouldn't we be erring on caution? Equity in one's home is something people spend a lifetime pouring into. Shouldn't the burden of proving it won't affect property values be on clever? Where's that report? Do you feel comfortable gambling with people's property values? How can we grant permission to build without fully knowing the scope of impact it will have on such an important thing? This facility is unlike anything in our current ordinances. Ones of this size weren't typical when our ordinances were last updated. So why are we trying to fit a square peg in a round hole? Much of the tax revenue will go to the TIF district in which it sits for the Blue Lake Group to use for further development.

I hate to interrupt, but you're at four minutes.

Okay, I'm almost done. But what is it giving back to the people of Charlestown, and how does it align with the small-town charm that drew so many people to call this place home?

Zach Silverstein, Lena Bauer Rowe.

No, I simply asked what street she lived on because she didn't disclose it when she did her name. You said Pebble Brook? Okay, thank you.

my name is zach silverstein of lena bauer road in marysville i'm not a direct neighbor to this but my experience moving here three years ago i've seen the things and the way things operate and how things are done based off of who you are more than what you do and that's the cronyism and that's the nepotism that is entrenched within politics and so it makes me question christianity excavating did they give them some sort of sweetheart heart deal i'm curious of that that's i thought of today as i'm listening to these people i didn't really write much i'm actually kind of going in uh... speaking to somebody before today they had adverse effects from light pollution and blasting damage to homes where medic came in and they did a seismograph and said oh It didn't violate anything, we're not covering anything. And basically the attorneys told them there's no way that we're gonna win against them, they have too much money. So you pass this and you allow this to happen, don't go on back on it. You sit there as a board to protect we the people, the citizens of this community. And it is important that you do the due diligence. And if that's pushing this vote further so the citizens can figure out these questions. And the woman speaking earlier, she was going to ask a question. And she stated that they were from Saudi Arabia. I couldn't find any verifiable information of that. But when you understand the tax filings in Florida, his name, Christoph Hammerly owns it and he's has, I believe almost 20 years in data center building and development. And when you look at their company website, I find it comical that you look at it and look at the, at the end it says, clever AI. And so it's, you're using AI and that company was formed 2024. So it doesn't have the longevity of the long company. what I as a citizen have seen dealing with solar specifically, that these companies and these corporations will mislead and lie to the citizens to make sure they get these things pushed through. And when you allow that to happen, it needs to, you need to be transparent with the process and the way that the solar companies represented the they misled and gave this misleading information regarding appraisals and property values. And it was very obvious when you actually look into the data that they weren't proper comparisons as they were making in the first place. And so when you understand that, when they tell you the noise, that's not long term. They're gonna sell this most likely to somebody else or they're gonna lease it out and they're gonna be using it as they see fit. And so they're a company that's developing this and that's what the gentleman, and I didn't have enough time to do the research, but Hammerly is an investor in these things and he's been doing it for 20 years. And so if they're leasing it out or building this for somebody else, they can't say who or what's gonna go on in there. And that's scary in itself as well. And I just thank you all for your time and thank you for listening to all the citizens. Thank you.

Jill Duvall, Juniper Ridge.

Good evening, my name is Jill Duvall. I live at 5910 Juniper Ridge Drive. I don't question that Clever wants to be a good neighbor, but I'm sad to hear that previous commitments by other Christianity projects didn't live up to their berms, their tree, and other promises they gave. Some projects simply aren't the right fit no matter how many accommodations are made. I live less than two and a half miles from the proposed site. In addition, the Meta Data Center currently under development will be less than five miles from my home. My concern is not just this proposal in isolation, but the cumulative effect of multiple large-scale industrial developments in the same community. There are families who would be directly across the road from this facility, and Charlestown Middle School is less than a mile away. While I can only speak for myself, I am mindful of what this could mean for the families who will live close to it. My concern isn't based on fear of technology. We all use technology every day, and data centers are becoming an important part of our economy. My concern is location. These facilities operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Multiple people have told you I'm not gonna repeat it.

My biggest concern is this is a decision we cannot take back. If we discover five or 10 years from now that the impacts are greater than anticipated, the people making this decision today won't be the ones living with those consequences. The families nearby will. They will not. It will be me. This is my home and I have invested in it. Charlestown has worked hard to build a community where people want to raise their families. We have beautiful parks, growing neighborhoods, and schools that people are proud of. Those are assets worth protecting. Progress is important, economic development is important, but not every opportunity is the right opportunity and not every location is the right location. When a project causes this much concern among the people who actually live here, I believe we should slow down, ask more questions, and make absolutely certain we're making the best decision, not just for today, but for the next generation. I ask this board to think beyond this proposal and consider the cumulative impact of these developments. Before approving additional data centers, I respectfully ask you to consider a temporary moratorium of five to 10 years, giving our community the opportunity to understand the long-term impacts from the facilities already underway before deciding whether more are appropriate. Thank you for your time.

Kate Jones, Jeffersonville. Kate Jones, Jeffersonville. Utica-Charlestown Road. You signed up to speak? Maybe you'd have to come up here. It's not really a question and answer, but... can present to them no ma'am we can't it's it's not a question

Okay, I live out in Utica area and I'm just concerned about everything that's happening close to me. My main question to this committee, how much research have you guys actually done and why do we need another data center when we already have one over in River Ridge? Is this just all about money? Why? I don't understand the need. Is this just a company that's gonna come in like another lady said and just put this in and then leave everybody and all these people that have all these big fine homes in this area are gonna take a hit? Charlestown does not want this. And why do we need another one if we already have one on River Ridge? This is gonna affect everybody, not just Charlestown, it's gonna affect Utica, Jeff, everybody. I am a retired nurse and I am sick and saddened by what has happened to our healthcare and everything else. This will cause cancer. This is not a good thing. Why do we need it? That is my main question to you guys. Have you all researched this? Are you all educated on it? These people out here, I am very much impressed by, because they have done their research. What have you done?

Kent Glade.

Good evening. Thank you all for your help in this. I know this is not an easy issue. Tony, thanks for your work in planning. I've talked to you about this. My name is Kent Swampy Glade. I live at 5309 Betty Dunham Drive in the Hawthorne Glen neighborhood. And I just wanted to tell you all just a few bullets, heads up, as far as somebody who's been there and seen this type. I regulated the coal industry for almost 12 years in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. So you talk about major impacts, I've been there, done that. I was also an urban planner with the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, the first urban county government to have the urban service boundary in 1959. So when we regulated, we were always concerned about horse farms and acreage, so I know what you're talking about. I know the importance of the long-term plan. I've got a question as far as light industrial, and also you were talking about the mixed use. This is not a mixed use plan where you could have residential and development right next to it. It's too dangerous from what I can gather. So I really question that. But I wanted to share with you some of these different things. I don't know who owns the planet. Is this a Google thing? Is this a meta thing? OK. I didn't know if you guys had the Cumulative Impact Analysis Report. And again, I apologize if I hadn't seen it in the back. I'm kind of catching this minute. But I will tell you guys, I moved from Louisville, Kentucky, in an area that was very urbanized, very close to it. It's St. Matthews. And when I came to southern Indiana, let me just tell you, this place is beautiful. It's got lots of nature. It's got the Charlestown State Park. It's really not too far away from the Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge. So I'm surrounded all about by this great land. So I really wanted to ask you, I'll cut to the quick, OK, as far as that being said, who's going to own the property? Who's going to own the land? I want to make sure the gentleman said earlier as far as a conflict of interest, okay, as far as who's being evaluated, if this is done independently, because I can tell you first off, working with the coal industry, they had the attorneys, they had the lawyers. Working at Lexington and Fannery County, the developers, they had the engineers, they had the lawyers, okay. And the people in a lot of respects can't even consult this unless they have people that are educated, okay. So I would encourage you to make this a group event. I also want to ask you, why is it being developed in this area when you have the Jefferson Proving Grounds, all that area that has been already developed and is laying there like in a brownfield? And it's got lots of space. Why are you putting it next to a school and then to a residential development? I can tell you first thing is surface mining. First thing is they are involved with trucks, blasting. We have blasting over here from the quarries. But once it's done, and then the other thing is, I think as far as how many acres, was it nine acres with the potential to raise that to 18? I can tell you as far as doing that, what's that concern is going to be. And then the other thing I wanted to ask you is as far as our future generations, a lot of the kids can't speak. for themselves in this area. And if you've got schools right there and you've got residential, that's what we did at LFUCG, okay? They had a development and they had a zoning plan, then they had a development plan. I haven't seen a lot of that, okay? But there are things in the subregs, et cetera, that are set up to protect the people and incorporate transportation, energy, and water. And by the way, my background is in water and energy, so... I know that's something that's very important to me, and I haven't looked at the particulars on that. But I just want to thank you all very much. And one last thing. I wanted to comment about New Albany. They put a one-year moratorium over there, okay? And that's what I'm wanting to ask you, potentially, if you could just put a one-year moratorium on this right now until we get more information, because I'm kind of finding out the different intricacies, because there's lots of them, and I'll just ask it. as far as the cumulative impact analysis. So with that being said, yeah, let's just try to do a one year moratorium. Thank you all for your time.

Jay Ferguson, Hawthorne, Glenn. Jay Ferguson, Hawthorne, Glenn.

Good afternoon. My name is Jay Ferguson. I live at 5427 Hawthorne Glen. I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet here because I feel like most of the people here have covered most of the stuff that I'm talking about. But just to go back over, I will say I'm sure I speak for my fellow residents when I say it deeply concerns us when you propose that we build a data center near the middle school I attended and near the neighborhoods I grew up playing in with my friends after school. especially when there is an already approved 600-acre metadata center being built 10 minutes up the road in Jeffersonville. I'm coming from a perspective of cost of living and public health when displaying my cynicism to the promises made regarding the proposal. If it is true this hearing will have no effect on the overall outcome of the vote, then I urge you to consider the following points. In regard to electricity consumption, this clever data center says that it is a three megawatt power maximum per day usage, which is roughly the electricity consumption of an additional 1,500 homes. And that is 1,500 homes on top of our estimated 9,000 residents currently residing in our city. Charlestown's homes are powered by the Duke Energy electrical grid, which is also expected to power the metacampus being built in Jeffersonville. So I ask of you, how much strain can our grid take when there is already a drastically larger data center being powered by it? When citizens all over the country raise concerns over their near doubling utility rates, this is an effect of the massive power draw and consumption these data centers require to operate 24-7. I'm sure the residents don't want their rates to rise more than they are already projected to. In terms of the promise made regarding the $300,000 in property tax, how will we know if our government won't give these people tax breaks or incentives within a few years after construction? How will you also guarantee that the 200 construction jobs created will go to locals and not be outsourced? How will you guarantee that the 20 permanent positions are given to locals and not some guys from Florida? How will you dispose of the excess forever chemicals generated from the constant closed-loop system cooling? A closed-loop system will still generate runoff that needs to be disposed of properly. So will they be dumping it near our state park, a pinnacle of our recreation, or will it be treated through our water system? And I mean, I feel like I speak for all of us when I say our water's already brown enough. So... I withdraw my time. Thank you for hearing me, members of the committee.

Have a good evening.

Yes, is Ms. Sharon Beatty here from High Jackson Road? Has she returned? That concludes all the people that have signed up for public comment.

Okay. All right, so we'll open the floor up for board discussion.

No, you've got to close the public hearing first.

Okay, yes, that's right. All right, so if there's no one else signed up, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing.

The public hearing has been closed. We had a list. I'm not trying to cut you all for being rude. It's just the way it is. Okay. And there's no questions. There are no questions during the public hearing that are directed toward the commission. It's just a public hearing where information is received from the public.

In one of your pockets. When are we going to ask questions? There's been.

there was a previous well it was on the city's website the information has been made available for some time now that you would have access to it so the public hearing has been closed there is no more public discussion the list was the list as president of the board I'm gonna let this gentleman that did speak going come up your motion in order to reopen the public hearing

So I want to make a motion to let the gentleman that was speaking to me come up. So can I get a motion?

Motion order to reopen the public hearing.

OK. Motion order to reopen the public hearing.

So moved.

OK. So all in favor say aye.

Aye.

The board members. Hold on.

Let's go back. The president cannot make the motion to reopen the meeting. It needs to be by a board member and then be seconded. Okay, so can I get...

I'll make that motion to reopen.

All in favor?

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? It's open.

All right, let's get a count for how many people are going to talk at this particular, I know I see your hand. Anybody else that hasn't signed up on the list? It's up to the board how many you're going to do. We had a process. We had a procedure. We had a list for people to come and sign. The meeting started properly at 6 o'clock. And we had a list available for individuals to sign up. The fact that they may have come late And not been able to sign up the list. It's not our responsibility to get them here on time So it does I don't we have a procedure and point of order point of order, please We have a procedure which we've adopted it was put in place at the very beginning of this meeting I'm not trying to be adversarial to these people. It's just we put this in place for a particular reason and So there could be some orderly fashion to how it goes. If the next 10 or 15 people come in here late, we're going to open the meeting up again? No. No, we're not, because it started at 6 o'clock. That's when the meeting started. I don't work for you. I work for the city, and I'm telling you what the process was. The process was set before you got here.

Point of order, point of order. Okay, guys, let's bring down the temperature.

The process was set before you got here. The list was available. We took the list up at five minutes after six. The meeting started promptly at six. So it's not our responsibility to get you here on time.

I can't hear you.

It was out in the lobby.

The sign-up sheet was out in the lobby. Do what?

There was a sign-up sheet up until 6 o'clock. I don't want to tell you. I don't tell you. You've opened the public meeting up. If you're going to take these people, that's your decision. I will say this, for this part of it, we're gonna narrow our time down to two minutes, two minutes strict. I will tell you that your two minutes is up when you're completed, okay? All right, let's go.

Okay, my name is Vicki Scott. I live at 2110 Tunnel Mill Road and I want to know, why would you build it next to a school when you can build it down there at the industrial park? That makes no sense. The industrial park has all those businesses there. Can you answer my question? Any of you?

It's not to answer questions. It's for your participation to give the input. And it's not a question and answer service.

OK, that's fine. But that makes no sense. That's where you would build a data center, down there, with all those businesses, not next to a school. That makes no sense. Common sense.

Please state your name and your address, please.

Yes, Noah Ivy, 8723 Black Oak Drive. Apologize for personally calling you out earlier, but my son can throw a football from my house to your son. That's how far this data center is coming from my house. How many empty buildings are along this highway that we have sitting vacant? I mean, do the research. So if you do the research, these need to be the stuff inside the data centers every three to five years have to be refurbished. the buildings on average every 10 to 20 years.

What are we signing up for? This is right next to a damn school that my kids have to go to. The backyard that they're going to play in. The shit that this is going to put in the air, my kids have to breathe. And that's just not right. What's this going to do to my kids as kids? Or just my kids in general? We don't know. Do your kids live next to a data center? I would love to know that question. If I put my life savings on, you guys don't live next to a data center. That's my question. That's my concern.

I'm Josiah Schmidt, I live at 306 Highland Drive, so this is only like a mile, mile and a half from me and my kids. Again, spent life savings to buy my first home here in Charlestown from the noisy cities. We're getting, you know how much water it's gonna use in a day for your data center? I'm gonna put my thing actually up. I was like, you're gonna use about 4,500,000 bottles of water a day. that could roughly be used for kids at the school and whatnot. And let's not forget that a data center is really just an AI big structure. It's going to manufacture into that. That's what it is. Our land, it's getting too much of the noise. At 2 a.m. in the morning, I'm up late night owl. I could hear the humming inside my bedroom. It's a brand new house that just got built in 2020. Why should I still be hearing construction in a quiet town? That I chose to live here, not get a data center near the schools for kids or anything. That property can be used again for the parks, for something for the city. So again, no. Again, who's paying for it, tax dollars? Art hoc dollars. I don't want to pay for that. I don't want my money going towards that I want to go to the roads to fix like the stuff within the city that I've invested into this town now So, please please please reconsider or like again like mostly everybody else that says let's put a pause on it Let's get some more research third party third party not connected Thank you

My name is James Bruce V. I live at 1415 Tunnel Mill Road. I didn't sign up to speak. I don't recognize most of you nor recognize most of the people in this room. I'm 25. I graduated from Charlestown High School. I grew up with the projects. I grew up with the sweet shop. And I now live in an area that I don't recognize. And I think that's really interesting because A lot of people that I've heard time after time, as I moved here from Louisville, I moved here from Jeffersonville, all these people moved here for an escape, and I think just the sheer greed has put us in this position. So I'm not here to make claims about, oh, I should mention, I'm a student of electrical engineering, so I know a little bit. But I'm not here to do math or dispute any claims but three megawatts is a lot and we still run on coal and we're all scared of nuclear. So though data centers are needed and I'm not mad at Clever, I think it's gross mismanagement and gross negligence that got us to this point in general because up until two to three years ago we had an entire ammo factory and I'm not entirely sure if that property was owned by Charlestown, Indiana. But there are better places to put things. I don't know why you would put this in a neighborhood or near the middle school or anything like that doesn't make sense. It's not that I share the same beliefs that this is dangerous or this is a terrible idea because I do have to use AI, not for things like making photos but for analysis. and I mean, you can only do so much algebra on paper. So I understand the need for it, more than most, probably. I understand the automation, I understand the direction we are headed, but what I don't understand is why I still need to drive to Louisville to work. If you were gonna put anything in town, why not bring jobs to the community? And yeah, why put it next to a neighborhood nor a school?

Hi, I'm Rachel Hofflik. I live at 1281 High Street. And I have a lot of questions, but I don't expect any answers from anyone here today. And my first is why? Why pick our little town that does not deserve to have this happen? Why haven't you looked at anyone who's come up here to speak? I know. I know. I know. Why were there NDAs signed? Why are there lawyers before the town even knows about it? Why did Dan Christie feel it was okay to sell this and just screw the people of the town? Why are all of you left holding the bag because if you don't allow this private business to be conducted however they see fit and they will make promises like they already have. Like they already have. And they won't fulfill them because they already haven't. So why? Why can't you stop them? It's because we're a tiny little town and I don't know if any of you remember Mayor Treva's little the budget video where she broke down exactly how we have to pay for parks and roads and flood treatments and this beautiful building and moments like these where we come together and the state slashed those budgets and told her, no, you're going to get less and you're going to have to do more with it. And so it's not like we have the money to fight a huge data corporation that will not be here and won't supply any jobs and won't You know, won't care when we can't drink the water and when we can't pay our electric bills. Time. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Katherine Kruse. I live at 1130 Charlestown, Memphis Road with my three beautiful daughters. We stand before you today highly disappointed and a part of the small resistance that still believes in civil recourse. I have seen so many glazed eyes looking past people, rolling eyes, laughing, and it's disgusting. It's time to get on our side or get out. Look these kids in the eyes. They're three of very few. We want to be civil. Let us do it civilly. Thank you.

My name is Adam Carson. I live at 1040 Water Street right across the street. I know a couple things. I'm not going to go through all of the statistics and everything that these guys have already shown you. Here's the thing. There's two issues that come to the base of all of this. Number one, if you have a 240-volt stove in your house, you do not try to plug it up to a 120-volt outlet. It will not work. If we don't have the infrastructure, don't put in the massive system that requires so much power and resources. Number two, if somebody cannot be honest with you and straightforward, and give you all the information. Why do you want to have a business relationship with them? Who would do that? You're putting yourself in a bad position. That's a very easy thing to understand. Lying and omission is the basis for an abusive relationship. It doesn't get any simpler than that. That's all I've got to say. Thank you.

My name is Phoenix Jones. I live at 1127 High Street. I'm not going to give you all of the concrete information that all of these people here who have come up and spoken today have given to you. Nobody in this town wants a data center. You all know this. I know this. Every single fucking person in this room knows this. Not to mention, AI is going to be used, already has been used, to take jobs from real humans. The youth's future is at risk. Not to mention, people use generative AI to make disgusting, foul images of children, and that is not okay. Allowing a data center to be made, to be built in this town, oh my God, it is just absolutely fucking horrific. Children do not deserve this. This is going to ruin our drinking water. It's ruining the environment. You are killing us. And you're sitting on all of your billions and trillions of fucking dollars to justify it. This is not okay.

passionate about it, but there are young children in the room.

Thank you. But I believe this has to be handled. This has to be handled with extreme passion and my level of rage is not nearly enough for this. I just need to get through to everyone in here. If nobody has gotten through to you yet, let it be me. Let it be the youth. Let it be the children. Because we as a city do not deserve this. Again, I apologize for my foul language, but this is just disgusting. We don't deserve this as a town. This is not going to help our town. This is only going to hurt our town. This is not okay. We do not want a data center. You need to vote no. Vote no on this data center. Every single person in this room has told you no. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Hello, my name is Kayden Fullwood. I live at 103 Hillside Circle. Sorry, I'm very emotional. I'm not good in social situations at all. I don't think that my future should be put in jeopardy to line these people's pockets. It is not okay. I live right across the street from where this is being built. It is not okay. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Skylar Bruce. I live at 1415 Tunnamill Road. I am a student, especially a debate student of Mayor Treva. I have seen this town that I've grown up in all my life. I have not moved at least once, not for that long. I've been born here and I've been raised here. All of my neighbors, I've seen them change. I've seen my neighbors give birth to beautiful future students. But I know that this is not correct. And if the adults can't get through, maybe neither the younger generation can. But we're telling you now, please reconsider our waters. We have already been paid to reconstruct our pipes. But we know that has not been for us. That has been used to build this center. And if all of the people here who are not getting paid as they should, they're already being replaced.

Thank you.

My name is Alex White. I live at 8619 Oak Valley Drive. Couldn't sign up because I was running late due to work. The only thing that I ask is for the residents of Charlestown to remember this come the next election cycle and make sure to vote every single one of you guys off or the person who's responsible for putting you on the board. Thank you.

Roger Reap, 8317 Jordan Drive. I respectfully request that you guys veto this project. I get to throw out two things, climate and thermal pollution. So close to a school and other residents in the area. And when they asked why we picked this spot, they said, we checked all the boxes, but one box they didn't check, and that's the citizens. Thank you.

I'm Ronnie Blevins. I live at 603 County Road 160. I also sit on the Clark County Council at large. And I appreciate everybody coming out. I appreciate Mr. McCall and Mr. Jackson. I appreciate the board up here. You know, the board didn't get, it wasn't their decision to make a decision on this data center. You know, I've done a lot of research and things myself. on solar and solar farms and things of that sort. Industrial solar, there ain't no solar farm. But I appreciate everybody's passion. The young girl came up to me a while ago and said, we need to be civil. We do. We need to be civil. Whatever decision they make, we need to be civil. But I will tell you, I will tell you, I live in Charlestown. I lived here for quite some time. I built a church down here on Marcus Street and things, started a building and church and things. And, you know, I picked Charlestown to live here in a little small community. It's still got the community feel. I know we got a lot of other activities going, but I'm like you. I do not want a data center. You know... I don't know why in the world, after hearing all the people here, and we got 800 and some petitions, that why this company would even wanna put a data center in where they're not wanted. I wanna ask, I know there's legality things that y'all have to consider. So if they vote yes, it's more of a legality thing, then their hands are probably tied. But I want you to know, listen. Listen, I'm not saying they're going to vote for it. I don't know. I'm asking them not to, regardless of the legality stuff. You know, because we don't need a data center, especially right next to a school. I don't care if it's a small scale or a large scale. A data center is a data center, and we don't need it. And I'm probably going to get a little chastisement for speaking out like this, but again, I appreciate everybody. I appreciate Mr. McCall trying to keep order.

my vote no this will be the last

My name is Amber Hart. I live on High Street. I just want to remind everybody that Clever is not the enemy. It's the person that zoned the property for this data center, which I believe is Mr. Jackson. So Clever is not the enemy, y'all. It's our government. That's all.

Okay, thank you, everybody. It is the public comments session is now closed.

Motion to close the public hearing.

Can I get a motion to close the public hearing? I make the motion. Okay, who made that motion? Okay, motion made by Harold. Second? Can I get a second? Second by Shane. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, it is closed. So... Sorry. OK, it is now closed. So I guess now the board opened up for the board to have a discussion and to also ask questions to the developer. Clever.

You can ask questions to the developer, to Mr. Jackson, myself, if you desire to do so. But you've opened the meeting up for discussion by the advisory planning commission. I said that they have the ability to ask questions of the developer. They have...

It was just a vote to shut the public hearing down.

All right. You got it? OK. OK. All right. So do I need to make a motion? No, you just did. We're good now?

OK. You just did open it up to public discussion between the board members. All right.

So now discussion between the board. Any questions, comments?

I got several.

I do too.

I guess this is for the developer. Will you be able to put a berm? Sorry, guys. I'm not used to yelling. Can you put an eight-foot-high berm around the property with tall evergreens? Is that possible?

No.

Yes, we can.

Okay. Okay. Please, people, come on, give the guy a break. I mean, if he wants to stand up, stand up. He's answering the question.

Okay. Can I add to that, Harold? Can we make sure that that berm is irrigated so that the trees always stay, that trees don't die? Because I think we have that problem some other places.

Yes, we can make sure that's added. Okay. And then my next question is, any water that's discharged, not the sanitary part, restrooms, but any other water that's discharged, can it be tested before it is given to the city through the sanitation system and have their okay on it?

yes water can be tested prior to discharge okay and that can be treated to the level that the city needs it to be to make sure that it's compatible with their sanitary sewer system okay can i add to that harold well can we set that up to be a regular not just once but every week every other day that we make sure we test that water yes sir that'd be a regular occurrence okay

And then my next question is, can you have a yearly training for the police and fire, at least offer that to them so they can at least tour the facility, know exactly what they need to do in the case of an emergency? I know that you'll have your own fire suppression system, but when they're called, they need to handle different things too.

Yeah, we can coordinate that.

OK. OK.

Okay.

Okay, then my next question is, I know that we don't want any, I mean, you said that you're only gonna have one building there, but I'm sure you'll probably have to have a guard check that's considered a building if that could be done. And then the lighting, if that can be the dim type lighting where it doesn't affect other properties.

To the lighting question, all of our lighting is designed to have shields so that it won't be escaping the property line. Light poles will be at 25 foot, and so we are being very cautious of the lighting.

Okay, and then my next last question, I guess, would be before and after, I guess you're going to have to do some type of blasting. Is that correct? Okay.

Yeah, I believe there is, yes.

Okay. Can there be some before and after testing where adjacent property is looked at and make sure there's no damage?

Yeah, let us come back to you, but my inclination is yes, but I don't want to give up. We need to check with the GC on that one. Okay.

I'm probably saying it wrong, but like a survey. Okay. And that's all the questions I have.

Call to order, guys. Let's be respectful. I appreciate everybody's passion. This is a hot topic, I know. But while we're asking questions and they're answered, let's just please be respectful so we can hear the answers, okay? And if y'all would, using your microphone, if you would just speak in it, really, you know, speak in it. Okay.

Harold, are you done?

Yes, sir, I am.

I got a few questions too. You do have your own fire suppression system, correct?

That's correct.

Do we, is our fire department in Charlestown equipped to handle any extra, in case they needed help?

Yeah, it's a standard water suppression double interlock, so it won't initiate the response to the fire unless it has two confirmed reasons to do so, and so it's a dry pipe system that's filled with 100% water and then used to fight the fire at the source. But it's no system that's different than other commercial buildings around the region.

Okay, and next question. No expansion, correct?

No, that's correct.

So there will not be an expansion to your $55,000-ish building?

No.

And then there's no plans to add any other buildings onto the property?

No. Okay. And the only reason we have additional land is because Christianity required us to buy additional land. We probably could have done this on almost half of the parcel that we have, but they required us to purchase more land, and we obliged.

Correct. And I was curious, a lady brought up tonal vibration. Have you ever done a test? That was one of my questions I had written down. Do we have any concerns about vibration to the neighbors?

Right, so the tonal concern is usually the low frequency, so that systems at other data centers that have like the large fans that rotate with a larger diameter at a lower velocity create a low frequency hum that travels further. This particular facility just has air-cooled chillers, similar to what goes in at a school or a hospital, so it's a smaller diameter of fans, so they operate in a higher frequency, so it's not a tonal low frequency that will travel long distances like was asked about for this particular facility.

Okay, next question. It is stated that if there's any power infrastructure upgrades that are needed, that you all will take care of that, and it will not be passed on to the ratepayers.

That's correct. We're paying for all improvements.

Question for Tony. Guidelines for light industrial. Correct. Is there a guideline for that?

Where are they at?

What are the guidelines for our light industrial? Somebody made the statement that this should not meet light industrial.

It does. A lot of people don't understand that that particular area was zoned I-1 for over 30 years. A PUD was put in. I made the decision after the application that it was I-1. I actually went and had two professional planning and zoning reviews of it, and they agreed it is I-1 as it applies to our zoning code. It does meet that.

Okay. My last question. I've heard a lot of people say that they think this is AI. Is this AI?

No, this isn't AI.

I went for sure. ... I'm done.

All right.

Order. Call to order, please. Order. Okay. By the board, is there anybody got any questions?

I think I got one. I think there was a few people that had requested, is there an option on the location? Like some people were asking if it could be on the southern portion. I think they're wanting it as far away from possible as from High Jackson or from Woodford Farms. Is there an option to put it further away?

So as the building's located on the property, we are at the furthest extent from the residence, and so we've already shifted the building in that manner.

Okay, all right, perfect.

Yeah, and another thing, just with the building location orientation, we have put the equipment in the back of the building so that the building is serving as screening from the residence, and then, as we mentioned, we'll be berming on the perimeter of the property as well.

The question was, has there been an environmental impact study?

Yeah, we'd have to get back to you on an official environmental impact study, but yeah, we would have to get back to you on that one.

Okay, any other board member? Got a question for the developer or Tony?

Question for Perry. We're preparing. I had a question for Perry. Oh, go ahead. This decision that these guys that volunteer up here to make, this is not the decision if they want this or if they don't want this. This decision is purely based on if it meets the criteria of a light industrial. Am I correct on that? That's correct.

And one other thing that was brought up, which I thought maybe we should address here, was the moratorium. And a gentleman made reference to the city of New Albany put on a one-year moratorium. The difference is that the city of New Albany had no petitions or applications before them at the time when they put on the moratorium. So we are not in a position, once it's been petitioned, to put on a moratorium for that particular development. We have a duty as a town or city to act on that, and that's what this board is doing at this particular time. So the moratorium can happen at some point, but because it was already in front of us, we didn't have the ability. And it was looked at. We cannot put in a moratorium after the fact. This developer already filed their petition. They had already approached the board. They made an investment in the property and other items. They made investments. And therefore, it's my opinion that if if this is not allowed to run its course, run its process, that that opens the town up or the city up to exposure. and significant damages. That's my opinion. If there had been a moratorium placed in the... And the other thing is, let me speak. Let me speak.

Let me speak. And then you can stand up and let me...

Okay, so I'm not going to get to speak. Is that right? I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you something. I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you the situation that they filed the petition... The data center thing is a recent phenomenon. You all will agree because, oh, this new businesses that are coming into this area. A lot of the local municipalities, like Charlestown, other small communities, have not taken the opportunity to envision that was going to happen. So there was no specific zoning regarding data centers. And it fits under the category here as a light industry. And because it fits... Well, it does, and it can go along with the other electromechanical manufacturing, commercial facility. So it does fit under the definition that we have for light industry here. Light industry. So in regard to the moratorium at this particular juncture... a moratorium would not be in our best interest as a city. And that's my legal opinion.

Okay, so let me just, a moratorium may not be the best interest for this application. Correct. But it could be going forward.

Absolutely, absolutely. Once you get through this process, there's nothing to prohibit the city at this point because there's no new applications in front of you to say we're putting a one year, five year, 10 year, 20 year moratorium on this.

Okay.

I'll answer after this.

When do they file the petition?

We're done with that part of it, okay? We're done with the question and answer part of it. They're asking me questions, I'm addressing the board. I said and I'm answering questions from the board I've tried to answer some of your all's questions, but the board is the one that is asking me the questions. That's who I'm gonna be responsive to. You have the opportunity to public hearing.

Okay.

Sorry.

Any other questions by the board?

I do have a couple concerns about the answers. The pre and post-blasting evaluation, you say I should get back with that? I think that's very important and we need to know that. And the environmental study, I think that's very important too.

in regard to those two things, in regard to those two things or any other specific items that you've listed here today, which I hope you make in your running tab of what those are and your concerns, those can be utilized and condition the ultimate approval of this thing. You can condition that under the statute to condition this approval based on those things and the commitment from the developer to do those things that you've mentioned that you feel are very important, environmental study, The berms, everything that you've been talking about here. Okay.

So it's been stated that the peak draw, this is for the developers, it's been stated that the peak draw will be up to five megawatts?

Correct.

Okay.

That's a T load.

Okay. Okay. Do you have a signed legally binding commitment letter from the electric utility provider guaranteeing that this draw will not reduce grid reliability or cause voltage fluctuations for standard households in Charlestown?

We have a commitment with REMC, but they will not put into that document how it affects other users. But there is a new substation that is built that We are paying for upgrades.

Do you all have a non-disclosure with REMC?

No, not with REMC.

Because I've got an email stating that you guys do have a non-disclosure with REMC, that they cannot disclose certain information about the project.

I don't have any recollection on an NDA with REMC. I believe the only one we signed was with the seller of the land. Okay.

So to the... Has Clever conducted an independent third party acoustic engineering study modeled, I guess specifically, on the topography of the Shadow Lake site and the neighboring subdivisions?

Yeah, we provided the noise study on Wednesday.

The third party?

Yes, that was produced. Yeah, it's provided by our design team, Kimley Horn.

Okay. I was looking at the report from, let's see, I think it's Bedrock, Project Bedrock Data Center, the report they gave you from Bedrock. I think that's the name of them. Is that correct? Okay. And there are no binding noise standards. And this report, your report, as I was reading it, admits, it says in there, Charlestown has no established operational noise standards for this type of project. So instead, you were kind of going by EPA recommendation, Colorado oil and gas standards, occupational industrial standards, So, I mean, you demonstrated compliance with voluntary guidance, but not with mandatory local performance standards.

I don't believe there are any local noise standards, so we went and used three that we thought would be most comparable.

Okay. Um. It looked like the model they used in there was only for normal operations. Evaluated normal operations, like one generator, what that would do for noise impact, one generator during maintenance. But it did not evaluate extended power outages. Multiple generators that are running simultaneously utility failures, catastrophic cooling failures, emergency repair operations. Your report, I'm concerned your report kind of assumed like they'll almost never run.

I believe the report assumes normal operations. It also includes testing and maintenance, but we definitely can provide it under an emergency situation, and I do believe we still would fall within the threshold. But we will definitely provide that to you very shortly.

So, you analyzed only the noise, but again, back to the, I was talking about utility infrastructure as far as REMC, or whatever the Duke Energy, whoever the electric provider, It says nothing about, though, it's only a noise memorandum. It says nothing about the electrical demand, water demand, sewer capacity, the traffic, emergency services, property values, land use compatibility, visual impacts, or light pollution. So those are the biggest concerns from the residents that I'm hearing.

I would add that we did touch on a lot of that in the information session that we held, but that was a detailed deep dive into the project surrounding all of those areas that obviously weren't covered in detail today.

Okay.

another question real quick tax abatements currently there is and there will not be any tax abatements for this project correct no tax no tax abatements there's not been any applied for and there has to be a specific application for that okay

Any other questions by the board?

There's no tax abatement for this.

So when we look at the, I think the intention of the district under, Code 157.19, the code strictly mandates that the L1 district is restricted to operations that have no nuisance factors that result in emission outside the building. Are you telling me that a modern standalone three megawatt data center meets that standard?

So the emissions of the noise within the data center are not leaving the data center. The equipment that is associated with it, the air-cooled chillers and the generators are being attenuated. It would be common to any building that has external cooling capacity to it. So we believe we're meeting that standard and we're doing additional measures to attenuate any sound for our exterior equipment.

He asked about electricity. He didn't ask about noise. He said, would three kilowatts of usage from your plant not impact

I will say we were communicated that our load for this REMC substation that we'll be pulling for after we make our improvements is only 20 to 30% of that substation.

I have looked at the zoning. I have done my own research. So back to the question that was asked earlier about research. Yes, I know others on this board have done research as well. I spent a lot of time, a lot of nights up thinking about this. What's the best thing to do? I'm a resident. We're all residents of Charlestown. And we all care deeply about Charlestown community and the people. I've got children. I've got five kids. And they go to the Charlestown schools. So we all care about the community. And at the end of the day, the question comes down to, it's not, do you like the data center? Do we like data centers? That's what we can't go by legally. But what we do have to look at here is, does this data center meet the light industrial standard? And that is what we as the board have to determine. It is my opinion. It is my opinion. And I'm in no way an expert on this. But I've got common sense. I've done other research. I've talked to a lot of people, very, very knowledgeable people, heck of a lot knowledgable than me. It is my opinion that a modern standalone 3 megawatt data center cannot meet this standard. Here's why. Here's why. It requires massive external HVAC chillers, cooling towers, industrial emergency diesel generators that introduce continuous 24-7 low frequency noise and heat emissions outside the physical structure. And this is directly adjacent to our residential boundaries. When our code was drafted in 2003, it says data processing. And I believe in 2003, data centers wasn't even thought of like this, like we see today. Data processing meant an office suite or an internal server closet supporting a local business. Not in an industrial scale utility footprint consuming tens of thousands of gallons of water. Now, our code handles high intensity infrastructure driven placements, much more specifically under our code 157.60 under special uses, which explicitly includes utility installations, including but not limited to electric power or steam generating plants, radio, television, and or cellular or other similar type of transmission tower facility. The public comment is over, sir. Public comment is over. Please have a seat. Please have a seat. Are you, sir, are you their attorney?

Okay. Point of order. He made a point of order. Robert's on the orders. He made a point of order.

Yes. Correct. Let him speak, guys. Let him speak. Let him speak. I can't hear him if he's yelling.

Mr. Kraft, go to the microphone.

Microphone, yeah.

Mr. President, point of order is, as president of this board, you cannot participate in the discussion, nor can you make a motion based upon the fact that you are president. If you would have removed yourself as president, you could make every one of those comments you're making. But please understand, as president of the board, you cannot offer those items in discussion that you are offering. As a result of those, those have to be wiped from the record because you cannot do that as a matter of law. OK.

We ran into a similar situation where one of the previous presidents went out and did their own research without the participation of the other board members. That was not... allowed to do your own research. You're basing your decision based on the information presented at this particular hearing.

Well, to do my research, I have to.

But you're communicating your perceptions of the research that you conducted to the other board members. That's not permissible. It's based upon the information that was in front of you, presented during the public hearing, as well as the participation from the developer Mr. Jackson and really the only question is that you have at this particular point is do you adopt the recommendations made by your building commission or you do not that's the question before you and that's based on the information that's been provided to date now you can have it in your own head if you want to use it in your own head but to provide that information to the other members of this particular commission without them having access to that information is not appropriate I can't make it any simpler than that. I mean, it's self-explanatory is that you've conducted outside research, apparently, okay, based on what you're presenting. You're presenting information, you're preventing information in sources that the board is not privy to, during the hearing part of it. So you're providing additional information that is not before the board. And as much as I, I mean, we've kind of gone loosey-goosey on this for a while and let it go, but it's absolutely correct that what you have in front of you is the information that's been provided at the public hearing and then your commissioner's recommendation to consider based upon the input from the developer as well as what my input is and Tony Jackson's. So again, I reiterate, the question before you is, based on what you've heard here at this hearing and the participation from the developers, your question is, do you approve what your building commissioner has submitted, or you do not? That is the question.

Okay, so back to what I was saying about the memorandum for the noise. Everybody, all of you have information to that sent to us. Again, it says nothing about the electrical demand, water demand, sewer capacity, the traffic, the emergency services, property values, land use compatibility, the visual impacts, and the light pollution. It says nothing about that. And here's my question. If it is our ordinance, if it's our ordinance state, again, for light industrial is intended to provide for the type of industrial operation conducted within completely enclosed buildings that have no nuisance factors that result in emission outside the building. So nuisance, I mean, that would fall under as well as noise. Okay?

Speak into the microphone.

Please have a seat. I'm not finished. Please have a seat.

Please understand, point of order, you cannot participate in the discussion when you are president of that board. I've got questions. You generate the discussion. You do not have the opportunity to express your views. So point of order, anything you're directing them to do is outside the scope of what your capabilities are. Because you're president. I've got questions. It's that simple.

But I do have voting power on this board, okay? Under Indiana code. Now, what I was going to ask, though, if it's considered based on the light industrial standard, if it's considered light industrial, which there shouldn't be no nuisance, then why do... Why is there a need for a 23-foot acoustic wall?

So we are providing acoustic walls at the generator yards to make sure that we're within the sound criteria at the property line. So our study is showing that we are meeting that, and so that's why those sound attenuating walls are there.

Is there any other discussion, any other questions, comments by the board?

Make a motion. Do you need a motion? You need a motion. Okay. The motion is whether or not to consider the recommendations of your building commissioner submitted to you based upon the other information that you received during the public hearing and from the developer, myself, Tony Jackson. Questions are answered. Anything outside of that, any participation by the president is not appropriate for consideration.

Okay, so I need a motion.

If you make the motion, can we make the motion with stipulations?

Yes. Yes. Mr. President, I make the motion that we approve Mr. Jackson's recommendation along with the information about the one building, the water tested daily, your training for the fire department and police department, the lighting being dimmed, and the conditions of environmental study and the blast study. I think I've covered everything.

And also, any electrical expansions based on the substations or those expansions will be covered by Clever, not the taxpayers. Correct. Or the ratepayers, I'm sorry, the ratepayers. Did you say the berms?

Yes.

Irrigated, make sure they're irrigated berms with evergreen trees.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes, evergreen that is native to Indiana. And the pre and post blasting study, yes.

Yes.

You have a motion. We have a second. All right, so based on those stipulations, we need a motion. You have a motion. Okay, motion made by Harold. Is there a second? I'll second. Second made by Brian. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

What is the vote?

So that was the vote. So what was the vote? Aye. Aye. 4-3. 4-3.

Please announce the vote.

OK. So 4 was aye. 4 was aye. OK. So 4 was aye and 3 was no. So excuse me. Say show of hands of those who voted.

We're not voting.

I can't hear you.

The minutes of the meeting will show the vote.

Yeah, I'll just. Okay, so there was four aye and three that opposed. So the motion passes.

Mr. President, I also make a motion that we put a moratorium on future data centers inside the city of Charlestown.

Thank you for reminding me, Harold. But at the next council meeting, I am prepared to introduce a moratorium going forward.

All right. Mr. President.

Yes.

There was a motion on the floor for a one-year moratorium. Do you have a second?

I'll second. Okay. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Who made the motion? Harold made the motion.

No, Ronnie. Hey, Ronnie. Yes. You can't make the motion. Somebody else has to. Okay. Harold did it? Harold did it. Okay, good.

Harold made the motion. Yeah, Harold did it. Okay.

Harold made the motion.

So a recommendation. Seconded by Ryan.

All in favor. All in favor.

All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, aye has it. There will be a recommendation to the city council for a moratorium. Okay. All right, any other business?

Motion to adjourn.

All right, so we need a motion to adjourn.

I'll make that motion. Motion.

Motion made by Wayne. Second by Marty. All in favor say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you.