Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone and welcome to the uh February 3rd uh Chesterfield Township Planning Commission meeting. I'd like to uh recognize Robert Seabbert who's here tonight, township attorney. Jonathan uh Palin, the township planner, Ava Miller and Joe Bomb from Gles Webster. Uh if you would please silence your phones, we appreciate it. And uh I will call the meeting to order February 3rd at 7 o'clock. Uh let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, let's take roll. Um, Rick Leel here. Kathy Vosberg here. Richard Brokart here. Brian Carr here, Ralph Dwarski here, James Clonowski here, Mark Renault here, Eric Haidider here, and Carl Leonard is here. I' like to make a motion to approve the minutes from January 20th. Support. Motion to approve the minutes from January 20th. supported by Carl, supported by Rick Label. All in favor? I oppose. Motion carries.

I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda for tonight. Support. Motion to approve the agenda by Carl, supported by James. Any questions? If not, all in favor?

I opposed. Motion carries. Um, we have public uh comments. If anybody would like to come up and talk about anything that's on the agenda, uh, you can do it now. If not, then you're here for something else. We'll probably see you in a few minutes. Uh, seeing as there's no public comments, we'll move on. There's no public hearings and we have the regular agenda. And uh let's I'll go ahead and read it in Cotton Corners site plan number 2025-09. Uh RM2 2.45 four or five acres south of Cotton, south side of Cotton Road with Grasset Avenue to the west across from Verodi Drive. Parcel ID15- 09-20-153- 008. Um, with that, Eva's got something to talk.

All right. So, I'll be looking at our review dated January 8th. The applicant has submitted updated plans since this was written. So, as I'm going through the review, I'll address the items that have been updated. The applicant is proposing to construct three residential town home buildings and a maintenance garage totaling 14 two-bedroom units. Uh, each unit is proposed to be 1450 square ft, have a onecar garage, and a driveway. The planning commission is tasked with reviewing the plans and deciding as to whether the site meets all zoning ordinance standards and their intent. The plans are compliant with the RM2 development standards uh seen at the bottom of page two to the top of page three. In looking at the district standards, starting in the middle of page three, I will go down the list addressing the bolded items. So, for the for approved water and sewer systems, we defer to the township engineers to make sure those are adequate. Uh, as for recreation areas, the proposed recreation area for the site is now listed as 7,48 square ft. The areas are located by buildings 2 and three and include an asphalt walking path that connects the two areas and includes three benches and a picnic table. Uh the left elevation for the three and five unit buildings was provided and meets the standards. Uh the green belt uh for yards maintaining utilities appear to be met for unit landscaping. All required trees are now provided in the front yard green belts for each building which is compliant. For landscaped yards, the applicant updated the plans to revise the fire turnaround to allow for the required 20 foot landscaped yard around the site's perimeter. Looking at the site standards found in

the middle of page five, building materials. The buildings are proposed to have an asphalt roof, gray vinyl siding on the second floor, and gray tone brick on the first floor. Additionally, vinyl siding, vinyl shake siding, board and batton siding, and pre-finished aluminum gutters and drip edges are also proposed. More than half of all of the facades are brick on all buildings, and it is noted that no materials will be painted. Uh the screening requirements for the parking area and the buildings uh to the sites east and south uh is compliant. The corner clearance is provided. No replacement trees are required or provided. For landscaping, all lawn areas are noted to be sotted, maintained, and serviced by an irrigation system. For parking lot landscaping with a total of seven parking spaces as part of a surface parking lot, two trees are required to be planted. The applicant is proposing to plant two red maple trees that are two and a half inches in caliber within a curved planting space of the parking lot which is compliant for frontage landscaping. The applicant has provided 13 trees along the frontage a mix of red maple and little leaf lynen uh that meet the minimum requirements. Uh the applicant noted for site lighting that none is proposed. There will only be coach lights at the garages and front doors. Then the planning commission may wish to determine if this lighting is adequate for vehicle parking. With 14 two-bedroom units, 35 spaces are required. Each unit has one garage space and one 30 foot long driveway space totaling 28. The rest of the seven required spaces are provided in a parking lot at the entrance to the site with one that is ADA accessible. And then the applicant did provide that an acceptable unobstructed overhang is provided.

As for ingress and egress, uh there is one entrance leading into the site off of Cotton Road that is 30 ft wide, and there's a private drive throughout the site that is 28 ft wide. No circulation plans were submitted, but there is the fire app apparatus turnaround located near the rear lot line. Uh, a bike rack is proposed just southwest of building 2. The prov provided bike rack detail notes the rack will have an ingground anchor mount as well as a surface mount. The height of the rack is just under the requirement of 3 feet which should be updated and the bike rack shall be on a surface that is at least 6 feet in width and should be shown on the plans. The proposed maintenance garage appears to be consistent with the character and materials of the principal structures and is made up of brick pre-finished aluminum gutters and drip edges uh and has a deep concrete trench and it meets all required setbacks and is under the 16 ft in height. Uh for sidewalks, 5 foot wide sidewalks are proposed along Cotton Road and two 5 foot wide sidewalks connect from that road uh throughout the site. Uh, ordinance 194 also requires a bike lane along Cotton Road and the applicant stated they will work with the road commission to put a bike lane in. Uh, as for pedestrian circulation, the planning commission may wish to discuss the need for additional safety measures for pedestrian circulation, particularly connecting from the parking lot area to the buildings. And then lastly for trash, uh, the applicant noted that trash will be curbside pickup. and then we can answer any questions that you guys may have.

Thank you. Um, is the petitioner here, the applicant, and do you wish to add anything? You're all set. Okay. Yeah, she's hard to beat, you know. Um, so I'll bring it back up to the board. Kathy Fosberg, do you have anything? Eric Haidider,

I just one question. Is this the You missed one meeting and I forget. Uh, does this fall under the guideline of 75% for brick facade frontage? Cuz this looks like it it falls under a almost a 50% siding and 50% brick on the front. So, I was looking at the uh exterior materials. It looks like it's like 7 800 ft² for brick and then 600 square ft for sighting. That's almost 50%.

At this point, that ordinance has not gone to the board for approval yet, so it's not currently in effect. Got it. Okay. Is that it? That'll be it for for now. Thank you. Okay. Uh Ralph.

Sorry about that. Now, just looking at this, is there an you said there's going to be uh curbside pickup for trash? And then I noticed there is a turnaround spot for uh emergency vehicles. Is that going to be considered a parking area? Yeah. I mean, just just from my perspective, I mean, just being bringing in a big garbage truck into there, that's going to So, you're asking there's a button at the bottom right hand side here. Yep.

Can't hear me. So, you're asking if the the turnaround for the fire truck was going to be parking. That would be considered parking. No, that would that would just be used for the fire truck. The the the additional parking that was required that we're providing is up kind of towards the entrance. I see that with the handicap space and whatnot. Um but yeah, that turnaround would not be used for parking. We could put like no parking signs up and whatnot. I I'm I'm just I mean obviously you don't want fire trucks in your neighborhood all the time, but you're going to have big garbage trucks in the neighborhood once a week. So if they have to back out of there Yeah. I mean they could use that to turn around as well. They wouldn't be parking there.

Okay. You're saying that it just it just seems real tight. Yeah. I think as far as garbage trucks go, I mean, if a fire truck could turn around there, I think a garbage truck could as well. But if there's cars parked there, that's Yeah. No, it wouldn't be used for parking. Okay. We We could put up no parking signs and make sure it wouldn't, you know, be used for parking. That's all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, James, nothing for me. I think you've done a nice job addressing the uh the criteria that were established earlier. One quick question

on number 10. Um item number 10 from your fe uh January 23rd letter. You guys were asked to work with the road commission and township to provide a bike lane along Cotton Road. And your response is we will work with the road commission. Do you know where the bike lane is going to start, where it's going to stop? Have you talked to anyone yet?

Yeah, I mean that's ultimately up to the road commission. So, we've contacted I believe Robert Bush um just to get his input on it and we're kind of still in the preliminary phases for that. Um but as far as the exact plan on where the bike lane would go um we're kind of at the mercy of the road commission and what they want us to do. So ultimately it's pretty much up to them and you'll be compliant with that. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. That I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Everything has been covered for me. Thank you,

Brian. So, just back to the the garbage real quick. So, you you've confirmed with like the local service that their their intent is to drive into that and pick up garbage cans and all that stuff. Like that's been worked out. The only reason why cuz it seems kind of odd that uh that that's what they would be doing just because of the the the tightness and the um you know to me this would be a dumpster. But I just was wondering so you confirm that that's what the garbage pickup local priority I think is who we use right that they've confirmed that that's their intent. I haven't personally sent this to the garbage company to have them analyze it and determine how they're going to turn around on the site and whatnot. Um,

but it's indiv but I was just saying even the individual pickup and not a central like dumpster. You're you confirm like that's how it works. I have not I Frank might have um he's a little bit more familiar with it. I can verify with him. Um, but I Well, yeah, because it's a big deal like if if if because if a dumpster is required, we have a lot of requirements for a dumpster, where it's placed, how it's placed, the materials,

and I'm that's why I'm asking if you actually verified it because typically with these multi-ype unit buildings, every time I've seen it, it's via dumpster. Like we've I've never seen one that ever came in front of us that said that a garbage truck's going to pull up and people out of their town houses are going to throw garbage cans in their driveway for people to pick up because you don't really have a these don't have a front yard like a house where you pick up, you know, this this is a multi-unit complex which typically has dumpsters.

So, I'm I'm just saying that that's that's definitely a concern of mine. I think that that needs to be confirmed and validated that that's truly the, you know, actually how it works. I Yeah, I can reach out to one of the uh the companies and the trash collection companies, whoever is green waste or whatnot, and uh you know, get a letter from them stating that that's how they plan to do it. Yeah, I think we have to get confirmation because like I said, because the the dumpster triggers a lot of requirements from from a a planning perspective for us. Um because like we're not going to like you know we're not going to allow it in like the front of the building which means you're going to have to put it back.

I mean there is some room too here for for trash bins to be placed just individual ones for each for each unit. There's a little bit of a green space between the units um that they could be placed in front of. Yeah. So you know it's not like they'd be just sitting in the street the individual trash bins. Oh yeah. I mean, again, as long as the services are confirmed, I I don't I can't I don't care. I I was just I'm just saying that it's the first time

I've seen uh multi-unit complex uh have individual trash pickups. I've we we've only seen dumpsters. I mean, but that's just my for my experience. But so that's something that I had to be looked at. Uh the other thing is uh did you go through all the reviews like um the in particular the the Selfridge one on the detention pond um because this falls within their flight path zone you know so they uh did you see like those requ to to try to minimize

Yeah. I mean what's that? Unfortunately, we're kind of held by the county and then obviously the city to pro to provide detention. So, and then obviously Selfridge doesn't I saw the letter they don't they don't want the detention basin because of waterfall migration. Correct. And that it's in the flight path but you know we can't have both. Yeah. No, no, no. I but if you read further uh you know understanding that that is detention as a requirement then they had provided some recommendations of how you can kind of minimize the the follow like uh you know using like rip wrap on the side banks things of that so that geese and stuff don't like walk in there right

so there there was some mitigating things that you can do you know knowing that you you have to have detention but there are some things that can minimize um potential you know impacts for them and I just wondered if that was something that you had looked at to consider Um but but there was like mitigating things that you could do, you know, still leave an open detention pond, but just kind of mitigate, you know, to kind of deter keep the geese away.

Yeah. Like I I just remember reading it like uh you know, like I said, one thing they recommended was if you can use rip wrap on the side slopes because, you know, they tend they walk, right? They Yeah. you know, they migrate in there and then they, you know, um so I just um the reason I bring that up is obviously it it is a neighbor uh and Selfridge is only going to expand with their new missions, which means they're going to have a bigger presence here and I just think it needs to be taken into account because flight safety is pretty important. I mean, you know, air or bird strikes are a major concern and this is right at the uh, you know, right at where they they start doing their lands. I mean, I don't know. I just

we can we can, you know, put some rip wrap or we can work with Selfridge and and the county um because they're obviously going to be reviewing this detention pond. We have to kind of make it work work for both of them. So we can kind of work with them both and get a balance of both worlds because the county might not want the rip wrap but Selfridge does. So it'll be kind of a meeting between between both of them to get you know what they both want and that's something that we can do now or at the engineering stage. Um because obviously the the county is going to review it pretty uh pretty intensely once we get to the engineering stage.

Yeah. So, does the county maintain your detention pond or are you responsible for doing it? So, you're responsible for doing detention ponds because it's on private. They they they'll give you the requirements for the regulations of how but I I think uh um but either way, I mean it that's an engineering thing. I I my only thing was I I um would encourage you to to at least work to see what you can do to kind of mitigate uh because those are real requirements and real risks, right, for aviation and uh and because of the location of the site. Um you know, those are my two only two comments though. Gotcha. So, well, that's something that we'll we definitely won't overlook. So, yeah,

we'll make sure that we incorporate that. No, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Uh Rick, do you have anything? Thank you for coming in this evening. Thank you. My first question is the entrance into your development. Does it line up with Verodi Drive? My concern is, and I've brought this up in the past, is um when you've got people turning out of go for God drive, you've got people turning out of your development, if they're not lined up with each other, there's a stagger there, it potentially could cause some um some traffic issues. Yeah. How well does your your entrance line up with Verod Drive?

I mean, you can see it's offset with it a little bit. It's not perfect. Um, as far as it lining up un, you know, another thing too is you just with the sight constraints, it's kind of hard to get it to line up perfectly. So, we kind of did it the best that we can. Um, you know, given all the other requirements that were um having to follow. So, it it doesn't line up perfectly. You can see it, you know, with your own eyes, but it's the best that we could get it.

Okay, that's a concern that I have. Um, secondly, in the back of the property, back by the apparatus turnaround area, you've got a 120 foot wall. I'm just curious as to why you have the wall there, but the wall isn't elsewhere. I think it's just for screening. Um, let me look at this. It's a Yeah, screening wall. Screening wall. Why just there and not the rest of the site? Um or why? Why at all? We can remove it. Um if it's not required, just say I'm just curious. I'm just curious as to why it's there. Is it because of headlights? Is it um

which I think is a wonderful idea to keep the headlights from coming down the road. Yeah. Um shining into people's backyards. I think it's a wonderful idea. But um is that the reason why you're doing it or Yeah. And just to kind of screen because there's these two houses especially that line up so that they'd be looking if that wasn't there. Well, actually, there's three houses, I guess, that would be facing directly down the street. And, you know,

I don't know if you owned one of these houses if you'd want to wake up one morning and see a bunch of houses in your backyard. Um, so I guess a wall might not be the best scenario unless it's decorative, um, which it looks like it is. Um, but maybe we move the wall back and put some trees in there, um, just to have a little bit more decorative of a screen. No, no, no. But yeah, that's kind of the purpose of the wall was just so these houses aren't looking right down a road, you know, right out their back door. Now, is it a decorative wall? Some kind of a brick?

Yeah, I think there's a detail here. There should be one. Maybe we don't have one. Yeah, we don't have a detail on here, but yeah, it would be a decorative wall. Um, Okay, that's it, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Oh, yeah. I guess you can't really tell from the detail exactly, you know, what it's going to look like, but it it would be a masonry wall. Yeah. Trains going by.

All set. I'm all set. Thank you. Okay. Uh the chair has no additional questions. Um with uh that if nobody else has anything, I'll entertain a motion. Yes, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Um I had a couple follow-up questions. Um one the the c the entrance to the complex uh in relationship to Verodi Drive is that has is this already been approved by the department county department of roads where the ent but you will be yes

so they will be taking that into consider as well the the traffic pattern there all right and then um regarding the the not the trash the the um storm water the storm det you know the pond. Yep. That it's my understanding there been a little talk back and forth but it's my understanding that um that is the responsibility of the complex of the property owner to to maintain that storm drain. Yeah. So it'll be your understanding too or the pond.

Yeah. It'll be maintained by the complex, but the county still has to obviously review it and confirm that it's up to their code. Setting it up and how whatever you do. Yes. Exactly. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You're welcome. Uh, anybody else? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion. Unless somebody else wants to. Um, Mr. Chair, I move that the planning commission give a final approval for the agenda number 2025-09 subject to the staff administration administrative review and confirmation that all legally required signatures have been obtained. Um, the applicant agrees to comply with all federal, state, and township laws ordinances. They will also I'm sorry they also will not notify the planning commission's action and obtain all nec they will notify and obtain all necessary permits. The applicant agrees that the site design, building facade, and materials shall be consistent with the submitted drawings dated 12326. Propo the proposed location is zoned for this use and the size and the character is in harmony with the surrounding area. The development is located in an area that has sufficient um structure for pedestrian and vehicle traffic. The housing development doesn't cause possible nuisance lighting fumes and noise to the nearby area. The c the construction is within all the requirements of all township regulations. the proposed use is harmonious with the surrounding area that is being constructed constructed. Now, one caveat or one thing that I'd like to also add to my mo my motion. If in fact the dumpster I'm sorry, if the trash pickup isn't done individually

with their own garbage cans and a dumpster is required that the applicant is going to be required to come back in front of this board for a an additional site approval of the location of that dumpster. With that, I'll make a motion to approve. We have a motion and I need support. Support Okay, we have a motion by Rick Leel, supported by Mark Renault to approve Cotton Corners site plan 2025-09 as stated. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Congratulations.

You plan on starting those I assume as soon as possible. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We have uh

Thank you. Have another agenda item. GT scrap recycling site plan number 2025-13 M2 6.12 acres west side of Gratchet Avenue south of 22 Mile Road. Partial ID5-09-30-126-040. Address is 48655 Grashet. Um G&T has been here before and they came back with some additional items the way I understand it. And do Ava has some thing to add to that?

All right. So, I'll be looking at our review dated from January 15, 2026. Uh, the applicant has also submitted updated plans since this was written. So, I will address those as I go on throughout it. Uh, GT Scrap Recycling received special ladies approval for a recycling center in February 2025. A site plan for the first elements of the recycling center um included a 8 by20 container office and access drive and a truck scale and these were approved at the same time. This current application for site plan review is for uh the construction of a 10,288 ft warehouse building, a second truck scale in two areas with 10-ft high poured concrete storage base for scrap materials. The planning commission is tasked with reviewing the plans and deciding as to whether the site meets all zoning ordinance standards and their intent. Uh this site is currently used for outdoor storage and parking of trucks and is developed with two existing buildings, a paved concrete area and additional parking. The applicant is proposing to remove the existing concrete pavement and three associated storm catch basins and repave the area with 29 parking spaces. The applicant is also proposing to add a new driveway from Gracia Avenue at the north end of the site that will include a 28 foot by approximately 80 foot truck scale. of the existing two buildings and six parking spaces in the southeast corner of the site are to remain and the applicant plans to have hours of operation Monday through Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Looking at the bottom of page two, uh scrap metal recycling and outdoor storage is a special land use, but has already received approval in February 2025. Uh so they do not need to reapply for approval. Uh the approved site plan did not include the concrete bins for outdoor storage. So, the planning commission should address whether these

are acceptable. The plans are compliant with the M2 standards located at the top of page three. And looking further down at the industrial district standards under exterior facing materials, the materials of the building comprise mostly of brick, a 29 gauge prefinished steel sighting, and pre-stained CMU blocks. Um, the stained CMU blocks do not meet the building material standards. However, other durable decorative building materials may be approved by the planning commission when character and style of the proposed structure warrant special consideration. Uh, no parking is proposed in the required side or rear yards and no rooftop fixtures are proposed. The site will only have ground mountain fixtures. Um and then there's one ground sign proposed uh but that will go through a separate sign review process. And looking at the additional standards, the additional SIP standards have been met. Uh no outdoor storage is permitted unless it is part of an approved site plan. Uh so this is the outdoor storage the concrete um bins that I mentioned. So uh the planning commission should review this request. Uh addressing the fourth bullet point on page four, the standard states that fences shall not be less than 75 feet from the front property line and have a 22 foot wide green belt not less than 8 ft in height between the fence and property line. The existing fence meets the setback requirement. And as for the green belt, a 22 foot wide uh planting strip with a two-ft high BM uh planted with two six foot tall spruce trees is proposed between the fence and the front line uh at the south end of the site. And then an existing burm and lawn area is already existing and is installed further north of the site between the fence and roadway. Uh the planning

commission just confirmed that this meets the intent of the ordinance. Um, and then the planning commission may also wish to discuss any concerns related to nuisances with the applicant. And for the standards table at the top of page five, uh, the three standards are compliant. Uh, and the chain link, fencing, and gates were previously approved. Uh looking further down at the site standards uh for vehicular parking, there are six existing parking spaces located between the existing spaces at the southeast corner of the site that will serve the two existing buildings. Um additionally, 29 parking spaces are needed. Uh the site plan shows the 29 new parking spaces along the east and south side of the building, including two accessible spaces located near the entrance of the office area. Uh the parking spaces are 20 ft long and 10 feet wide with bumper blocks. Uh bumper blocks are discouraged except in cases where the planning commission determines that the site character characteristics warrant their use. Uh reinforced concrete curbs are preferred and should meet the standards of the township's engineer. Uh looking at the Ballards, Ballards with a subdued red sleeve are proposed around the east, south, and west sides of the building and are three and a half ft from the walls, which are all compliant. Uh for bicycle parking, two bicycle parking spaces are required. Um and bicycle parking is proposed on a raised 6 foot by 10 foot concrete pad located between the two existing buildings in the southeast corner of the site and will be bolted to the concrete pad. However, it is proposed to be approximately 160 ft from the proposed building which exceeds the maximum distance of 150 ft. Uh, it should be relocated to be closer to the building and along the principal building

approach line and I believe the applicant was going to comment on this tonight. Uh, as for pedestrian circulation, a 10- foot wide concrete side path is proposed along the front of the lot along Grashet Avenue. And the applicant is also proposing to add a 5- foot wide sidewalk on the north and east side of the existing building. Um, no crosswalks have been proposed to increase awareness of pedestrians moving between the sidewalk, parking areas, bicycle parking, storage bays, and the building. The planning commission may wish to discuss opportunities to increase the awareness of pedestrians on site. Uh, no screening is required. There are no regulated trees on the site. Um and general landscaping and plant materials are provided. Landscaped areas will be curbed and proposed plants are uh not on list of prohibited plants. Uh the landscaping notes on sheet three confirm that all plant beds will be irrigated. uh for parking lot landscaping with 29 parking spaces provided. Five parking lot trees are required of which one may be placed on the exterior edge of the parking lot within 10 ft of the lot. Uh three autumn gold ginko trees are located within a curbed area adjacent to the proposed lot. Uh three additional trees are located to the north of the lot across from the drive. These do not count towards the parking lot tree count as they are not adjacent to the parking lot. Uh so two additional 2-in calipiber trees are required within the parking lot area and only one tree can be placed on the exterior edge. The applicant noted in their response letter that they would like to discuss a variance for this. Uh the fronted landscaping is compliant and asked for accessory structures. Two areas for 10-ft high uncovered concrete block storage bays are proposed on the site. The first is 464 feet long and 42

feet deep located along the south uh side of the lot. Each bay is 40x 40 ft and a total of 11 bays. The second area is west of the proposed building uh measuring 41.2 ft wide and 98.1 ft long. Half of the bays are located on the concrete pavement and half um on the area surface with asphalt millings. The area on the pavement has six bays that are 20 feet by 15 ft long. And the three bays on the asphalt millings are 31.2 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Uh and then this is the storage that would be approved by the planning commission or be considered for approval. Uh and then the corner clearance is compliant. As for lighting, uh the applicant is proposing eight full cut off LED lights uh to be mounted at 18 feet high on the building walls, two on each side. Uh additionally, two 25 ft high LED light poles are proposed by the truck scales. Um the average illumination levels for a non-residential use are 3T candles and the uniformity ratio should not exceed 4:1. The average illumination levels are not listed for the entire site as a whole, but the phototric table shows an average illumination of 2.7 foot candles in the new paved area, 14.4 foot candles in the truck scale area, 12.9 foot candles for the chuck bed, and zero foot candles along the property line. Um, the applicant should provide the average illumination levels for the site as a whole. Uh, as for the trash recepticles, it is noted on the plans that a dumpster is not being proposed. Waste that cannot be recycled will be contained in a rolloff box that is disposed of in a landfill uh that will be located southwest of the truck scale and outdoor storage area. A concrete pad is not proposed for this uh nor is an an

enclosure. Uh the size of the rolloff box has not been provided. Uh the planning commission may wish to discuss this further with the applicant. Um the need for possibly a hard surfaced area underneath the dumpster, an enclosure, ballers, or other ways to designate the area. And if there are any questions, just let me know. Thank you. Thank you. Um Mr. Chair, yes. I'd like to make a statement. Uh I supplied the uh building drawings for this project. So, we have to make a motion for me to abstain from voting on this. You just You just don't want to just Yeah, I won't say it. Disapprove them instead. Sure. No. Um, you're probably a little mad at me. Appreciate that.

Okay. Thank you for the discuss. I had nothing to do with the site plan or any viewing of that because the AEW did that. I just applied the actual building itself. Well, hopefully uh your hands are clean after these guys get done. I hope so. You guys uh have anything you want to add? Thank you. Hit the button on the lower right. Thank you. Mr. Clinowski gave me a little briefing on the buttons here. So, I appreciate that. Um good evening everyone. Happy to be here. Mr. Chair, I'm sorry to interrupt, but uh you need a motion to for Eric to abstain from the vote on this. I'm sorry.

Okay. Uh like to make a motion uh to have Eric Haidider abstain from tonight's uh vote. Motion by Carl, supported by Mark to have Eric Haidider abstain from tonight's vote for this agenda item. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Go ahead.

Sorry about that. Um now good evening everyone very excited to be standing before you here. Uh I think it's only appropriate that we're almost one year to the day of our approval for the special land use. So I appreciate the opportunity um as stated in the detailed review process. There are a couple items that I wanted to address directly uh in regards to variances but certainly would like to do that at the appropriate time. We can do that now or just answer your questions as they come. Okay. Uh with that, Kathy, would you like to get us started?

Uh Ralph, no questions at this point. Uh James, nothing. Go on the other end. Rich, I'm okay. Mark, I did have just uh one quick question um with regards to because if I remember correctly, you're you're moving with basically like next door. Correct. Correct. It's it's uh two driveways I believe to the south. I'm curious what the because on in this submission you have these two I guess we'll call them storage pits as it were. Uh yeah, storage bins or bins. Is that do you currently have those on your existing site or is this something new

on the existing site uh that we're operating on, not the development here? We do have bin blocks. Okay. So, you have you already have that in existence. You're just looking to do the same thing. Correct. Okay. And that's more for inventory purposes, organization, segregation of excuse me, different commodities that we handle day-to-day. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, uh Brian. Um, so the public can come. It does the public come in at all to drop off like things they want to recycle? Yes, we are open to the public uh Monday through Friday. Yeah, correct.

Yeah. Okay. So, they come in and where do they go? So, the normal process would flow I'm assuming the site plan is in front of you here. So the normal process would go they would pull into the truck scales. We proposed two truck scales. At that point there's an intercom system. So that way you know we can contact them from the truck scale. They weigh in. They turn around to the segregated bin that we designate after instruction from our office attendant. They dump their material. They weigh out on the outbound scale. That's why we're we have two in there now.

And from that point, they would make the right turn into the parking area, park into one of those spaces. If they have additional materials that would go on a a small non-fair scale in our metal shop, which is why we're proposing this building, they would wheel a cart into there. Mhm. If not, they would go see the cashier for their settlement at the window inside the building. Those bins are the ones that are on the west side of the paved area.

Yes, those bins are on the west side of the or I'm sorry, there's the west side bins of the proposed building and also on the south property line. Those bins as well, the big ones. Yes. So, um, sorry, I'm about to sneeze. Went away. Um, okay. So, uh, the public comes in, weighs on the way in. You tell them which bin to go to. So, they're either going to drive on those millings or drive around the the asphalt parking lot area to get those. Uh, it'll be a concrete parking lot or concrete.

Yeah. Okay. Um, so yeah, because you know just you know I remember when you came here before we were talking about I mean I did see that some of the changes you made with that taking that booth out at the scale and now you're doing it remote and um and I do know we talked about the the pedestrian um traffic on the site itself. Um

so the parking spaces that you have there uh are they primarily for employees or you anticipate the public filling those spots? Uh, at no given time will all those spots be filled by the public. Um, traditional vehicle count for retail customers is at the most eight vehicles at any given moment. So, we're not getting inundated with 29 vehicles. Yeah. Filling the parking lot. Okay. And then that's in addition to the 12 vehicles for our 12 employees, including myself and my partner. Yeah, cuz I saw the employees at the southeast corner there by those other buildings.

Um, those are the main offices. So, that's kind of administrative employees. Um, spots there. What's that? Is a cashier in one of those buildings? No, the cashier would be in the the proposed building here. So, all operations would would be facilitated out of that building. All right. Got it. Um, okay. You understood. Uh I didn't really see a lot I mean I didn't really see a lot of issues. I mean the only thing that we try to avoid is you know when you got commercial traffic and uh pedestrian traffic you know all intermix because it's right

it could cause you know hazards or risks for the pedestrians more or less right because they don't pay attention as much you know but um well a quick comment on that note uh there is no commercial traffic uh going into this this parking lot so all the truck traffic inbound and outbound will be facilitated through a printing system that'll just print their tickets and then they're right out the gate. So, they go in and out of the north,

the commercial track, it would traffic rather would go um enter and exit through that north lot. Um so, that would uh eliminate that issue. Gotcha. Okay. So, um, the other question is, so that new building, um, and I remember talking about this last time you were there, too. Um, so I think our current ordinance, doesn't it, isn't it 90% brick or better on the front for commercial buildings? Correct. So, I noticed that your building doesn't meet that requirement, and I remember talking about that last year when you were here.

Yeah. Uh we we proposed something you know obviously much scaled down with u uh type shipping container type building which we scratched from the plans entirely and after further review looking to implement the site plan that was approved. We thought a more comprehensive approach and you know building a proper building here would would not only help our operations and streamline our operations but you know be a meaningful investment. So you're building. So I'm looking at the architectural plans and maybe I'm missing it. It was my understanding that the um the M2 designation was 75% um brick facing. Uh which I I could be wrong, right? I'm far from an engineer, but uh you know that's why we proposed I think we fall into the 76 percentile for the brick facing um on the grasset side of our building. Yeah, I'm used to looking at plans that have north arrows and then when you get the elevations, it'll say east, north, south, west, so I can figure out what elevation is actually facing the street. These are right, left

elevation that faces grass. That's the grasset one. Left elevation, right elevation.

It's up front. Damn, my thing keeps crashing out. I keep going into it. I think if if you scroll down when it refers to front elevation. Yeah. No, I'm looking at it. My my tablet keeps crashing. So that's why I can't doesn't come up. So, and that calculates out to you're saying 75%. Uh, I believe it's 76% technically, but

and then the other thing is horizontal steel siding, prefinished. What's that? Yeah. Yeah, I see his coke. Okay. And then let me just look at the other Look at yours. Might think he crashes. He doesn't come up. It's that old tablet.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah, that's uh that's all the questions I got. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Lavell. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, back to the circulation in the parking lot. Um, Mr. Carr was talking about how vehicles would trucks would move in and out of the parking lot. I'm an individual who has a trailer and I bring my washing machine. Where do I park my car in my trailer? I mean, you're not going to pull that into a parking spot in order to collect my money, right?

Where do I put that? Yeah, that's a very valid question. So, for trailers, traditionally, we would pull them in just like any other vehicle. They'd weigh in on the scale, um the truck scale that is, go to the designated bin, pull back out, and then we were planning on having them loop around to the uh that'd be the south side of the building where the actual drive-in bays are there and they would be serviced there because generally those trailers would need require extra service being that they're larger and they might need forklifts or just more labor. start to uh unload.

Okay. Um, as far as I'm concerned, the bike parking's been addressed. Um, as far as the rolloff dumpster, I really don't see an issue with having a concrete slab underneath it. I mean, knowing the process that you have here, it's we are pouring concrete. So, if we're going to commit to it, now is the time running around, you know, I I I'm fine with that. Um, storage of materials is going to be on the south side of the lot. Your bulk storage will be on the south side of the lot. That's just going to be those stackup concrete blocks. Correct. They will on the south side. Yes. Um, but the bins proposed to the west of the building. Mhm.

Those are actually going to be poured concrete walls. Okay. Yeah. But on the south side, yes, they'll be um stackable block. The last question I have is um and thank you for your patience is typically in the past with MDOT and Mcome County and this board and the township, we're only allowing one driveway in and out of the site. Is there two separate addresses here? Uh is there one address for your current building and is there another address for this new development?

There was uh upon acquisition of this property, we did a lot combination of the both sites uh and we're simply just requesting to um implement that driveway that was already there and resurface it. Miss Lostber, do you know if there will be an issue with Mcome County? I'm not an expert on on what they might have to say. This was um implementing that driveway is not new to this site plan that was proposed in the special land use and we do have that letter from Mcome County stating that there was no issue with with the traffic. So

that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Uh, anybody else? Kathy, just curious, are the people who purchase your materials, do they come on an appointed with a through an appointment or a designated time? How does that part work? I'm just considering lineup, waiting to get in. Certainly, that type of thing.

Uh, yes. So the way it works with all the outbound traffic, we'll call it um we schedule that ourselves through our own logistics coordinator. Uh so we have complete control over that. Typically it is done during working hours 6:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Uh we don't do much outbound traffic if any on weekends being Saturday hours. Um so yeah, we have complete control over that and it is during normal course of business. Um that's also why we implemented the two scales, the inbound and outbound to ensure that just a steady flow of traffic um there's no backups on Grash Avenue uh prevent some of those type of potential traffic snars.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Um anyone else? My right, my left. Anybody all set? Uh, with that I'll entertain a motion. Okay, I'll give this a shot because I can't find my notes, which is what I was looking for. Um, as for the uh site plan uh submit for GT scrap recycling uh site plan 2025-13, I believe all the comments from the um from the review have been addressed appropriately and as submitted, I'm going to suggest that we make that we approve it. Uh as submitted,

we have a motion by Mark Renault. Need support. Motion by Mark Renault, supported by James Clenowski to approve the GT scrap recycling site plan uh 2025-13 as submitted and as proposed. Uh all in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you very much. We appreciate the time of the commission and look forward to continuing to be a valued added member of the community. Thank you. Thank you.

Uh we have a presentation uh tonight on data centers. I'm not sure Jill. Oh, understand Joe Bomb from Gibles Webster will be discussing that with us. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. It's awfully weird being back here presenting to you. If maybe I'll Can you all see me? Okay. Yes. Or I could just come and stand in the middle.

She's afraid of you. Good for me to stand too. I think um Jonathan's pulling up the presentation here. So as you know planning commission has been asked to uh take a look at the ordinances zoning ordinance with respect to data centers understanding that this is a big huge topic of conversation uh locally regionally nationally around the world um this is what everybody is talking about right now. So um with with we're still working on it. Okay so I'll just get started while we're pulling up the slideshow. Um why are we having all these conversations about data centers? Um certainly we know that artificial intelligence is something that we're hearing more and more about on a daily basis. We need to have all of these data centers to keep up with the demand. But it's more than just that. We're also um needing these things to help support our smartphones, um the apps that we use, our banking, um email, social media, um businesses use that for operations, logistics, everything is connected. Um there we go. Everything is connected. Um, if you go to the next slide, so that's really just like the slide that tells you why we're talking about this because everything we do in an industry relies on the storage and the processing of data. Um, data centers have three main objectives and this presentation is just intended to be the a basic overview of data centers and some of the issues and then some of the ways in which our ordinance may address some of these cons

uh issues that come up and um up to the planning commission then to talk about um you know what other issues you'd like to have more information about and um where we might need to strengthen, add, amend our ordinance language to address any issues that you see. Um so again the objectives of data centers they're looking at for three things. They're looking for um reducing the amount of time it takes to store, transmit and process data. This is called latency. And so when we hear um about data centers, they want to reduce latency. That's what they're talking about. They want to reduce this time that time is money. And they're very um focused on who can provide things the most quick way. Um we're talking about redundancy. So we're making sure that um for our data that we have um that there is seamless uninterrupted service. So you may see energy electricity that's associated with running the facility, but then there's backups and backups and backups to make sure that all of the systems are thorough and complete. And then the third thing that they really are looking for is security. Um so not only are we talking about secure within um our systems and the servers that they are offering but also security outside the facilities to make sure that people don't have entry um when they are not supposed to be there. So we we talk about kind of three data center types. Um you'll hear maybe someone use the term an edge center. Um these are these tend to be smaller data centers. They're usually closer to the end user. They process the data locally. They're anywhere from 5,000 to maybe 50,000 square feet. They talk about their um their size as well as the capacity that they have, which is the amount of electrical power that they are um that they have available. So, this might be 50 or 5 to 20 megawatts of capacity.

An enterprise system is often then used by a company for its own internal operations. So this might be a large company that does a lot of data processing on on its own data server. Um they could be 50 to 100,000 square feet and maybe 20 to 50 megawatts of capacity. The hypers scale I think are the ones that really are becoming very um prominent in the news um because we they're just a phenomenally sized uh building or set of buildings. we're talking over 100,000 square feet can be up to a million square feet and 100 or more megawatts of capacity. Um so those are that's probably the one that you hear the most that people are the most concerned about just really because of their sheer size. Um you might also hear terms uh collocation or retail data centers. Those would be places where there's a bigger facility and maybe multiple users are sharing that space. Um or you'd see a cloud a cloud server um a cloud storage that might be like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, uh IBM cloud. They're they're serving as the infrastructure for multiple companies um to use as well. We go to the next one. Um we are thinking here about um where data centers are going to go. So electricity and the availability of it um not just having it there but being able to transmit it for current and future demand. That's obviously a very key factor in the location uh question. Um connectivity fiber routes making sure that they're available and that they're connected. Cooling sufficient water or coolant being available. Um natural hazards. Data centers are concerned about minimizing risk particularly from flooding and compatibility. Um many times they're looking for areas with similar uses that produce some of the noise, vibration and diesel fumes that are present and the diesel comes from the generators which

is part of that u making sure that there is a seamless uh production within the facility. So where are they? Um actually I think that one is really interesting. That's a data center in Grand Rapids that that pyramid structure. Um if we go to the next slide, there is a map that you can go to the datacentermap.com. Um this is a snip from that uh map and you can see the larger circles or the larger concentrations. Um on the east coast uh is is very big significant area particularly Virginia. Um there are about 4,000 data centers built and under development. A third of them are located in Virginia, Texas and California. um attracted there to the availability of power, the availability of land and the network access that they have there and those states want their construction jobs, the local tax revenue and future business opportunities. Um so those are the areas that have really um dialed in bought in early to this. Um if you do research, you'll see Lowden County, Virginia is one of like the superstars, if you will, of the data center world. um with I think 140 data centers with with many more under um consideration at different levels in the in the process. Um and there I think um having done these for a number of years we can learn from communities in that area. We go to the next slide. Um in Michigan there's an estimated 70 data centers in Michigan. There are varying sizes. Some of them may be of the small smaller end so that you might not know from the outside that that's what they are. This is a photo of one um in Van Beerren Township. It's 25,000 square feet. It's a little hard to see um but there's like a a building there that's hidden behind a burm and some some uh shrubs, trees, and then the bottom is an aerial view of it from the top looking pretty much like

an industrial building. Um Michigan does offer tax incentives. um tied to the size and the value that the larger data centers bring. Um so here we're looking at people that are investing uh $250 million in digital infrastructure and 30 jobs at 150% of the area median income. So good paying jobs um a lot of investment. The state is giving uh sales tax exemptions. Um the idea behind that is to keep the property tax values in the local communities. So that's that's where that's coming from. We do know and we hear a lot about energy usage. Um data centers use most of their energy for computer chips that perform trillions of calculations at every second and from the cooling systems that prevent servers from overheating. That's the next major draw of electricity. Um when we think about the amount of energy usage, it's really staggering. I have never even heard of a terowatt before. Um the US data centers consumed 183 terowatt hours of electricity in 2024 about 4% of the US total energy consumption um by 2030 is projected to grow to 426 terowatt hours. Um again geographic concentrations um in higher demand in specific areas. So Virginia 26% of their total electricity supply is currently being used for these data centers and North Dakota about 15%. Um interesting that the um most electricity came from natural gas at 40%. This is on across the country. Um followed by renewables then nuclear and then coal. Cooling systems the water usage. This is another area that we hear um raised as a significant concern. Um because these servers and the equipment generate so much heat um we have to try to figure out we don't have to the data centers

have to try to figure out how to get that heat away. Um water is one of the most efficient ways to remove heat. So you may hear of two different kinds of systems. Either a closed loop system or an openloop system. Um the closed loop system is just that. It takes in water and then it seals it off and the water recirculates and it's either water or water glycol mix that runs through. Um it's highest cost. There's a word missing there. Um and and to install and to maintain it. It takes a lot of energy to to run that system. The openloop water system water is exposed to air. U you see the cooling towers on it and then it evaporates to remove the heat. um requires a constant replenishment of fresh water water, but it does use less energy. So depending on the location of these data centers, they may use one or more of these techniques. Um you know, depending on the climate of the area in which they're they're building. Um we'll see a lot about technology advances because this is such a big concern. Um looking at reclaimed water sourcing, so using like gray water, waste water in some ways also requires more energy to clean that out. um to be able to use it through the cooling systems. But I think um you know that's one of the things that people realize need to be done. Um and then hy hybrid systems um you may even see um references to I don't know self-cooling chips but chips that that do that are able to regulate their own temperature um through water um or whatever liquids in those chips themselves. Um, if we think about site design, um, again, because I mentioned the security at the beginning, often these will be high security facilities. We may see fencing, we may see cameras, um, as part of those, um, campuses or or, um, facilities, those sites. Um, the building heights, usually they're taller. Um, they may be four stories in height. Um, they may, if they have the cooling towers, they're going to be even taller than that with equipment. um

lighting supporting their security without creating glare or spillover. Um parking isn't really a big issue for these because they don't have that many people working inside them. Um there could be some uh consideration for phasing. If uh someone came in and they were going to build maybe a campus of data centers and they wanted to start with one or two buildings, but they have enough uh space, they may say, "Well, we want to maybe do three or four or five. How do we account for that as part of the development process? Um, and also how do we handle construction? There's a lot of uh construction traffic, a lot of construction vehicles and construction jobs that are associated with the development of these and that can take some time as well. And there was one more thing I thought about as I was standing here looking at that list, but it'll come to me in a moment. Um oh it was about um generators and it was about the diesel the storage tanks um that typically we're hearing are above ground tanks as well which are better uh safer option for the environment. So just something to to be thinking about. All right. So we have all that. What do we have to say in our ordinance about these? Well, they're not currently listed use. So what do we do when we have an unlisted use? We're going to start thinking about well what does it do? How does it function? What does it look like? Is it similar to anything that we already regulate? Um, building type, traffic generation, circulation, parking demand, customer interaction. We might think that it's similar to a warehouse use like a large storage facility with minimal customer foot traffic. And if we thought about that, um, what else how else do we regulate? What other standards do we have in our in our ordinance? Um, if we go to the next slide, we look at, um, noise because that's one of the big things that people mention. um impacts from generators and cooling equipment. We have two sections. We have the township's general code that addresses noise. Um but then more specific to the zoning ordinance, section 5.38 has

performance standards that limits noise levels to 60 dB. Um that section also regulates odors, glare, vibration, smoke, gases, electrical radiation, airborne matter, and the storage of hazardous sub substances in that section. that might be a section that we want to look at that currently applies to all um all uses in the township. Um we look at them probably more frequently if we're looking at industrial uses, but it's something that uh is a good place to start. Parking, our industrial and warehouse standards are five spaces plus one per 500 square feet of floor area. So if we had a 50,000 square foot building, that would require 105 spaces. Might be excessive. that may be an area where um we can allow um for parking to be um considered by the planning commission and whether based on whatever um the applicant provides to you in terms of a parking study. Um thinking about building height 60 to 80 feet um accommodates two to three stories of data center equipment and clearance plus rooftop equipment. And then building design, we already have design standards. Um maybe we talk about those um design standards as well as landscape buffers and screening. Um and I think from a from an industrial perspective um what is appropriate for those things knowing that that's the kind of um sites and building design that we're thinking about. Um looking at uh where they should go in the township, probably not our office or commercial districts. Again, if we're looking at the industrial districts, those might be areas where we see something some kind of similar impacts. So, that may be a place to to begin thinking about this kind of use. And then the last slide would be our next steps. Um asking the planning commission to prepare some zoning standards, holding a public hearing, making a recommendation to township board, township board adopts new store, new

ordinance standards. So, that's kind of the a nutshell overview. um happy to answer any questions and help you figure out what to do next on that.

Um is there an impact to the community as far as the uh amount of electricity that's required? Where does that come from? Uh as far as the cost,

that's a great question. um that is going to be up to DTE because they're the energy provider here. Um and that is really that's the one hard one of the harder questions that I think a local community can face because it's an unknown. Um but again also rather out of your uh wheelhouse in terms of what you're able to control or provide at the local level with respect to energy. I think one of the concerns would be that the the community would pick up part of the cost to be able to allow that and I I'm assuming there's going to be some push back from the community if they get stuck paying any part of it. So, don't know if that's I I guess it's something that can be discussed if there's any

Yeah, I think it's a question. It is a valid question. Um but again from a land use perspective I think we need to focus in on what the township is able to control or have influence over. Um the DTE energy um rates and their ability to provide the energy for all of these uses that they know are coming um I think is a kind of a side parallel conversation but maybe not something that the planning commission wants to focus on. That makes sense.

That's a perfect lean in for my question. Um, so if we stick I mean I think from a common sense perspective if you keep it to an industrial area that makes sense. So if I'm looking at a map of Chesterfield Township the way it's set up today, how many possible sites do we have that actually hit the that would meet an industrial standard that where they might be able to go? I don't know the number of parcels and I don't know if Jonathan's had a chance to look at that at all either. No,

no, I haven't. I did put the map back up there, but you can see from that map that the lighter purple and darker purple areas are all our current M1 and M2 properties. Um, but as you know, Joel was going through the different um types of data centers, you could look be looking at a wide range of what they consider available property, whether it be a lot in an industrial sub versus 200 acres. So, that could vary,

right? because they'll need the proximity to the utility um and the transmission lines. So from a planning p perspective as we're looking for this what we really I think what we need to do first then is identify what what district or land use would be responsible for this and then it may or may not be say an opportunity or a threat for the township if uh we deem it's all industrial and there's a minimum size for it there may not be much if anything available. That'd be accurate. that maybe okay

but I think you're right focusing on um what you think would they would be similar where you think they belong and then some of the issues that you would see and how you might mitigate those through your current standards. I always like to start with how do we regulate that now and do those things need to be strengthened um or refined um and and not just in some case for this but then there might be other concerns that would apply to other industrial users as well. Was there anything learned from Louden as far as negative impact on the surrounding community? I think the biggest uproar is everybody doesn't know what they don't know. Right. Right.

Yes. And cell towers. Everyone was cautious with cell towers because thinking it was a cancer causer. Has there been any studies around, you know, around Lden who's got the highest concentration of data centers of the impact on humans or the surrounding community? I I wouldn't I don't I haven't seen any that have popped up in my search, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any. And I'm sure that there are people who are have that interest that are doing that kind of research as well. So, it's hard to say, but I don't I've not seen any that have come up.

So, where I'm going with it from an ordinance standpoint is we wouldn't want to put a nuclear waste facility in the in the township and we don't know what these facilities can produce. I mean, from a personal perspective, I don't think we have the electrical infrastructure or the water resources. And from an environmental impact, I mean, I know that's got nothing to do with with um zoning laws or anything of that nature, but as far as the community, if they're going to start, they're going to come and we better be really buttoned up about the impact that it has on the surrounding community. And I think personally that the the health and the resources is going to be a big thing. And then my last question is no matter what we do, I would really like to understand from a state level, do they have the final say on what we do

from a land use perspective? I will let uh I mean that that's just I mean what was that? There was another instance that I've read about. Um it was a transportation law where it didn't matter what the township said, the state basically could come in and say no, we're going to put that there. Well, you haven't been preempted. Okay.

Um but I think that that the general answer to that is when you have a land use, and this was just I'm going to quote you if I can. Um, based on what we we were saying earlier in the in our meeting, if we have a a land use that there's a demonstrated need for, the township can't exclude it outright. That's exclusionary zoning. Jill, can you put the slide up where we talk about uh there we go, the planning commission's next steps, what we're responsible for. Yes.

I I just have a message for my fellow commissioners here. We talked about actually four different types of data centers. They're very different. You know, some of these are local coffee shops basically with 50 megawatts. Others are absolutely gigantic. So when you talk about an edge data center, it's local, it's reliable. That's something maybe we could handle. I don't know that we could maybe. But if we're talking about a hypers scale or They use a million gallons of water. If they decide they're going to evaporate it, you're going to drain ponds and you're going to drain things. A million gallons of water is a lot of a lot of water. And the electrical draw is crazy. I've just started my research on this. Google pros and cons of data centers. You will see news reports. You will see people complaining about a lot of different things, noise being one of them. And these are low frequency noises. They travel a long, long way. The CDC has a position on low frequency noises. So even if it's below 60 dB, if it's a consistent low frequency noise, there are challenges there. We really need to understand this because we had a cannabis issue in front of us a couple years ago. People were lined up out the door to get and talk to us and and they were very concerned. this is going to be like that. We have to be very careful. Our master plan did not anticipate this back in 19 or in 2020 2021 and it doesn't make any plans for it. Now I know we're going to redo the master plan and we're going to probably have to attack this issue but we really need to understand what this is because it's big and they're coming whether we like it or not just like cannabis was coming

whether we liked it or not. The question is, do we want it in our backyard? Lake St. Clair is a huge water supply. We're right on Lake Slair. Is that what we want? We want Do we want And and maybe that's not even our call. Robert, you and I talked earlier. We really have to understand what our role is, but we need to be consistent with this. And right now, I see the, you know, we have five goals. residential, economic, environmental, public facilities and services and transportation. Those are that's what this document deals with the the people in Chesterfield Township. I see this subject potentially in conflict putting the residential benefit against the economic benefit against the environmental benefit. Those three things could actually oppose each other, not be in harmony here. I'm not saying I have the answers, but I will tell you this. It's a big issue. I'll be studying it, and I hope you guys do, too, just so we can be smarter. And Jill, I I appreciate your uh your update for this group. There's a lot of work going to need to be done here. Just so we can make smart decisions for the people in Chesterfield. I have a I have a question for the board. I haven't replied back yet, but Jonathan sent out a uh uh a memo, an email about a webinar that's coming up that's going to be dealing with this. I know a couple people um replied back. Uh just I was curious is if that's a real good thing to uh participate in that particular one. I mean, this this was pretty

educational. It's not overwhelming, but it's enough to wet your whistle. I'm not sure on this webinar is it is it is it over our head more advanced or is it just good for general information that we all try to participate in this thing? Uh there were two. There's the one that's Michigan Association of Planning and I think the Michigan Township Association has one also. The one I sent out was for Michigan Association of Planning. Yeah, we're going to listen in on it. I mean, listen in and if if you feel like, you know, hey, there's some stuff here. I don't get it. Just take notes and let us know and we can talk about it.

So, my question on that, do we just let you know and then you register us or do we still register? How does that work? Yeah, just let us know and we'll get you registered for it and then you'll give us the information how to tap into that on that. Yeah, it's a webinar. It's February 12th from noon to two and I'm not sure I don't think I have the info on the MTA one. I think it's after, but we're not we're not um we we're not members of MTA, so I couldn't get on that one, but I think we're I can look into it and find out. Yeah.

Okay. I'll be I'll be reaching out to you tomorrow and hopefully everybody else can uh make some time. Uh I was involved with the cannabis research. We had four of us that uh got together and we we did physical research. We actually went to growing facilities, processing facilities, retail, uh we just tried to get a feel for where they were located, just all kinds of stuff. And I I think we did a pretty good job overall when it was all said and done with uh the cannabis ordinance. This one's a little more in-depth, I think, and a lot to take in. So, at some point, I don't know if there'll be a group of four that might want to get together if it maybe it's not necessary, but um we'll see what happens as we go along and

yeah, get past this webinar and and go from there. So, thank you. That was a nice presentation. Enjoyed it. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I look forward to having us, you know, work on this, especially because of things that have already been said. We do need to have some there's political things that we need to be dealing with. Even though that political part doesn't become part of our ordinance, it's still there and that's that's what we have, you know, we deal with that.

Um, so I think it's there's no piece of information that we can't study or that we shouldn't know about. We might hear well that's not relating to the planning part that's not part of our zoning map but it is part of our discussions that we have and part of learning what we don't know that has already has been pointed out already. Um I have a question about uh couple some of it's kind of been brought up but the perception of the public about regard their water

and the electricity and do you know in those communities has there been that type of thing where like for example we have some neighborhoods here that still regularly not regularly but more often their power goes out than other parts of the township. Is there um any do you know of any things that did that help because they brought more power in that community?

That would be speculation and that's one of the things that the energy company would say. We get a bigger user paying into the system. We're able to do some upgrades. Um to the extent that that happens, it's hard to say. Um but certainly a possibility. Um when you look at some of the places where they've had a lot of this um you will see the residents there complaining about energy costs um but you're talking about a hund like in Virginia 140 of these things like there's got to be an impact right um we're not quite at that level um so it's hard to say like apples and apples it's not really the same here but I I think it's something to be cons to be questioning for sure.

Yeah. And what one of the things I thought of about the cost of electricity was is there a role that the Michigan Public Service Commission might take in that that let's say if this becomes a widespread um business in the state and they are using more electricity which causes prices to go up because of they need to improve their increase their infrastructure that the pricing could be build accordingly.

Yes. And it is part of their strategy. I think the um the incentives that Michigan offers uh that are tied to the higher value of investment and the higher paying jobs. Um they do have uh provisions in there that also um speak to the electricity usage. Um, so hopefully that would be something that we could maybe reinforce um at at a state level um that the locals don't have to worry about that aspect of it because it's really something that you don't have control over and yet your neighbors are coming to tell you that they're upset about something and you want to feel like you can answer them and say beyond like well take it up with DTE or you know um so I think hopefully this will catch up at at the state Right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You're welcome. If anybody asked me, I'm just going to give them your number. Sure.

To ask me questions. No, I'm just kidding. Um, as far as the uh power outages, the the area where I live over the last 20 years, actually longer because it was different parts of the same sub. Uh, our problem was old equipment. We've we've had so many power outages over the years that I think a lot of the transformers and a lot of the equipment are new because re more recently we haven't noticed as many. I was ready to get a generator and I'm like well it's been better. I mean we really don't notice unless there's something severe that's taking down lines because everything's overhead. But we we had many failures where things were just blowing up and everybody would lose their power. But I think a lot of it's and maybe the a lot of the township has older equipment.

Yeah. And maybe that's part of the power outages. Maybe it's the infrastructure. Could be all of it. But yeah, a lot of this is uh out of our wheelhouse. But I think as if we can understand as much as possible to give some kind of intelligent response, I think, you know, it's all we can we do. So um anyways, yep. Thank you. Sure.

One quick question, Joe. Um, is there any consideration for including the fire marshall in our in our discovery? The reason I ask is, um, as stated before, these these data centers, this computer equipment, they need clean power. They have to have consistent power, clean power. Um, there's a couple of ways of doing that. What Google does in their large facilities is they'll they'll bring power from one source, one trans or no, I'm sorry, one power plant source and power from another power plant source. They clean the power up. They may they can maintain clean power to keep their equipment running all the time. That's not always available. So what they do is they turn to something called UPS where you have a battery system or DC system where they convert the power to um a DC voltage that's cleaned up and then it converts it back to an AC voltage for the computer equipment. Now in order to do that to keep the bumps out the the the the highs and lows of the utility um they run it through a UPS which includes batteries. Um, there's currently other battery sources coming online, but the traditional battery source is either lead acid, lead acid batteries, which we're used to in our cars, or lithium ion batteries. Lithium ion batteries have become the forefront. They're a little bit more expensive, but they'll last longer. Um, in an inherent problem with lithium ion battery is fires,

right? Um the NFPA has um set aside a section just for those batteries. It's um 855 NFPA 855. Um there's very specific regulations for spacing and the amount or the size of the battery storage allowed in a building

without going to another two-hour rated section. Um, I think that our fire marshall would interject and um give thought as to if there's something that we can legally put in our ordinance to circumvent the issues as well as um aid them. And then um secondly is um and you touched on it is generation power generation. Um there's going to be diesel fuel stored on site as you said. um their um Eagle has limited the size of the generators allow the size of the engines because of environmental issues.

Um we we've all ran into that. Um and Mr. Burkhart can elaborate on this, but if we bring a generator online, it has a certain level of noise. You bring on a second one, even though it's at the same frequency, the same amount of noise, it does increase, not it doesn't necessarily double the amount of noise, but it increases it. So, we need to be aware and have something in our ordinance to make sure that, you know, depending upon what they're going to do and how they're going to do it, we have um in our ordinance is sufficient. And lastly, you had touched on also um security. And maybe I'm diving into the nuts and bolts too much right at this point, but um I think we need to look at our fence ordinance.

These these facilities have high fences. they have high security. Um, we need to look at our ordinance and make sure that it's sufficient to accommodate them. So, if in fact they do come in front of us, we can say that we have made provisions for you to have a a 10-ft fence, a 12oot fence when our ordinance doesn't allow it. Um, and lastly, and I don't I don't know if this will ease anybody's perception, we don't know what's going to happen in the future. has has stated there's currently a trunk a fiber trunk that runs across the United States. The northern one runs from Washington DC, goes through Columbus, goes through Indiana, and that's why you see the big the Virginiaas, the Indiana, that's why you see these mega structures on that trunk line. We don't have one that goes through Michigan. We've got to distribute the fiber from Michigan down to the trunk so that it can make it across the world. Um I don't know that we're going to have a mega system, but we have to be prepared for it,

right? Um water usage as touched. Um I think we all need to ease our minds in this as well. They have the open loop system which is a water tower. It's evaporation. The closed loop system you talked about glycol typically is poly. They don't use the ethylene glycol. They use the food grade out food grade coolant in those systems which then requires chillers to cool the water down to cool the systems which requires more electricity. I think that we have also should have something in our ordinance to um specify where these chillers are placed and how they're cooling while they're cooling those and of course there'll be more to come. Thank you. One last thing, when it comes to the noise, our ordinance allows up to 60 dB. The type of noise that these things generate is very low frequency and it's very consistent. It never goes away. Think of a a washing machine that's on 24/7 365. Now, it may be below 60 dB. So, we might say, "Hey, that's okay." But it's not like traffic where during peak hours, you know, you're just underneath 60, but during the night it it's much lower. And then there's noise harshness, right? You you know, fingernails on a on a chalkboard really irritating. It might be less than 60 dB, but no one wants fingers on a chalkboard 247. And the CDC has some data, and I'm not saying it's conclusive, but they're saying that this type of low frequency, constant, never stopping, always generating noise can be bad for you with stress, anxiety, and they tied it to heart disease. So, we need to look at our ordinance and say, we're going to have to distinguish the types of noise. Not all not all noise is

the same. So when we look at this ordinance, we need to take that into consideration. I'm not saying we can't do it. I'm saying we need to really understand it because you could be a mile away. Those low frequency sound waves could hit you and what is that going on? What do you hear that? We don't want to live like that. Something to think about.

Thank you, Mr. Sure. Um, another thing that I thought of related to if the water is used for cooling purposes, the discharge, the temperature of the discharge of that water or if it's in a loop, it just stays there. But is there any discharge and what that discharge the impact of that could be on our community as well? And that would probably also be something you we'd have to deal with that Mcome County um public works department andor Gleewa. that th that's information that we wouldn't necessarily u put in our ordinance because that the details of it but we might say complying with you know another agency

if if there's an issue with the water temperature going you know come up with a system where it goes back into the lake I don't know if that's going to bring in the DNR or the Army Corps of Engineers because you're changing you know you can't even put a a a big rock in the water without bunch bunch of permits. So, I'm not sure disturbing the water if if that's going to be an issue as well. It's not ours to solve, but it could be an issue that could have impact on our community. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Yeah, I questioning what is the what are how are we going to proceed from here? Have have um our consultant take the information and the questions we've brought up now and bring it back to us. Um, yeah, I think

right I plan to as many of us that can um listen in on that webinar would be good because we can have another discussion regarding that or some work groups maybe Thank

you. I did real good at remembering everybody's name tonight, so I'm not sure what happened. Um, was that half hour nap I took earlier. Um so uh with that at uh 8:41 I will make a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Motion by Carl, supported by Mark to adjourn the meeting. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries.