Planning Commission - Special Meeting

I'd like to call to order the uh January 29th, 2026 uh planning commission meeting. Uh please stand for the invocation by Russell Wilder. Pledge allegiance by Emry Holloway.

Y would bow with us now. Uh dear Lord, we want to thank you for this day. We want to thank you for this opportunity to meet to to practice our governance. Uh we ask that you look over this community this weekend is as is looks like we're going to be seeing some pretty ugly weather. We hope that everyone stays safe in all this and and that you you cover us with your your help if needed. Uh we ask you look over all the uh good folks that came here tonight. We ask you look over all the the law enforcement and the fire protection people that work for us, protect us, keep us safe in this community. Thank you for all the many blessings you bestow upon this community. In Jesus name we ask. Amen.

I pledge allegiance 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. [clears throat] We do have a quorum this evening with three present, two absent. Gentlemen, you've had a opportunity to appro to to uh look over the agenda. I need a um motion to approve the agenda this evening. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as written. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the agenda this evening, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Getting right into the debate agenda. New business, public hearing, foundations for the future, comprehensive plan.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh again, thank you for uh having um putting time in tonight. Uh notice a special [clears throat] called meeting of the planning commission. Uh it is for this one item. Tonight is a public hearing to take uh additional public comment and feedback on the plan itself. Um it is not a town hall. It is not a u a question and answer type session, but it is a public hearing uh similar to what we're used to in regular planning commission meetings. Um just kind of real briefly to talk about, you know, why we're here tonight. Uh this is a a public hearing uh for the foundations for the future, which is the draft comprehensive plan. Um, as you may recall from uh the previous planning commission public hearing on November 20th, uh this has been a a little over a year-long process. Um we've had a number of community events throughout the uh uh particularly the first half of the 2025 u to get community input and feedback on what they would like to see in this new plan. uh things that are are going well, things that maybe we the county needs to look for as we move forward over the next five years or so. Um this is a state required document that the county needs to have on file uh and in accordance with uh state requirements uh so that we can have zoning uh here in the county. Um it also does check another box in the uh a updated plan does uh make us qualified uh local government which does put us in line for opportunities for state funding and we do receive a fair amount of that. So this is important document from that aspect as well. Um just real briefly kind of go through u you know the timeline a little bit and you know touch on some of the the key points along the the process. Uh we kicked this meeting or this uh process off uh actually

before the beginning of 2025 um when we were looking at uh consultants to help us uh with this project. Um we had a little uh event here in the county known as hurricane Helen that kind of delayed us. Uh in fact our uh various um u um consultants were um coming in to do the interviews. a couple days after the hurricane. So, we had to postpone that um that timeline a little bit. So, we really got kicked off um back in March of 2025. Uh we had a kickoff meeting um a public event at the Evans Library. Um we had steering committee was appointed by the board of commissioners. uh that included members of the public uh that the commissioners uh selected as well as uh organizations that are typically uh involved in our planning process which include uh organizations such as the chamber of commerce um the development authority uh the school district um you know the fort if they were available to participate um some of some of those community uh participants uh so those were part of the steering committee so we had a number of steering committee meetings uh through the course of the process. Uh they our consultants How's Lavine and altogether were here uh on a number of times uh throughout the process participating obviously in the kickoff meeting in March. They were back in May when we did visioning workshops both in the afternoon and the evening at the exhibition center. um and all the while altogether was the community outreach um uh subconsultant for our project and uh we did uh pop-up events around the county at various locations both uh in March uh again in May uh when they were here in November

we did did another series of uh popup events and those were places like Chick-fil-A of Evans um Sunrise Grill, the Harlem Library. Um we were at the Grovetown High School graduation at Evanstown Center Park that happened to coincide with one of their uh trips. Uh we were there on in June at the Evans uh market on a Saturday uh to get as much public input as we could on the process. Um and in the meantime, we had a couple different surveys online. The project website is uh uh futurec columbiacount.com. And um so we had uh two different uh surveys uh throughout that early process to gauge u public and you know get some feedback on things that they're looking for things that you know we need to look at as we head towards the future. Um so there was another component called map.social social, which was a online mapping, um, where, you know, folks could go in there and put pins in certain locations throughout the county. Um, whether it was a, you know, a traffic related concern or this is a great place and they could attach a photo, things of that sort. So, we had a number of hits on that. Um, I got an update from our consultants this morning. Um, as of this morning, we had uh just over just a little over 3,800 uh unique viewers to the CL to the project website. Um, some of those were participants within the the surveys themselves. Some of those were just somebody, you know, that might just be interested in finding out more about the project. Um but then also um they could download the now draft plan and some of the um engagement uh strategies that were conducted throughout the process

and see some of the outcomes of those events. Um what we're here to talk about is you know the draft plan that you know is is now has been available online uh since October 31st. Um I would tell you that currently that is the latest draft although we just sent um last week a few scriers errors that we went through the plan and noticed a couple scriers errors. So there are a couple tweaks there and well if we can go to the um character area map. The one change that isn't reflected in that October 31st is the um the recent approval of the um quarry and so we've added that to uh the character area map with the technology and industrial. So that'll be u reflected in the final version. Uh and again all of this is to take in public comment tonight. Um if excuse me if there's any uh additional and new information that you know we can um add to the plan we will certainly try and do that. Uh the ultimate um outcome is that the board of commissioners will have this on their agenda for February 17th for adoption. Um, one of the things I'll talk about just kind of real briefly is, and I know this is the kind of the the meat of a lot of what the comprehensive plan typically is, the future land use map or you know, in this case, we call it the future development map. Um you know in the vision 2035 plan we had u a number of character areas and you see the um proposed character areas here on the uh screen uh are also obviously in the plan as well. Uh one of the things I will point out is uh vision 2035 had a character area called activity centers and we had a breakdown of a couple of different types of activity centers. uh one of them being um employment, one of

them being mixed use. And so what you see here is that in the proposed uh foundations for the future, there is no activity center character anymore. So those areas that previously in the vision 2035 plan would now have to have a new character area assigned to them. And you can see in that map there that uh particularly Appling Harlem uh exit has u more of a technology and industrial uh character area proposed uh with some regional commercial. Um the gateway was previously an activity center mixed use and commercial and that is primarily now um regional commercial as a character area. And within the plan um proposed there are um several pages that go through and describe what each of those character areas um generally are going to look like and feel and um what that um intended uses could be um as we move forward. So that's kind of in a nutshell um you know what the process has been um how we've arrived at this is we have you know gone through the um the public engagement process primarily on the front end gathered as much public input you know stakeholder interviews um talking with you know various folks in the community um but also you know through the surveys through the public engagement uh whether that be popup events and whatnot you kind of pulled all that together and then from that pulled into the the proposed plan um you know some goals and objectives that uh seem to be generally um kind of core to to what you know folks were saying not everything makes the cut and of course you know that is part of that process you know we have to make some decisions

as to you know what is achievable what is something that the county is is working you know towards wards. Um, and you know, some of those things just don't make the cut. So, uh, with that, I, you know, certainly answer any questions you might have, but again, this is a public, uh, chance for the public to, uh, provide any feedback on the draft plan that we can take back and, uh, and see if there's any additional changes that need to be made u prior to, uh, consideration by the board of commissioners for adoption. [clears throat]

Oh, and uh, I guess one last thing as more of a procedural element to tonight. So, this is a public hearing. Once the public hearing is closed, there's no action required by the board of commission or excuse me, by the planning commission tonight. Um, that recommendation that you previously have made on November 20th has already started the process for the adoption. It's already at the regional commission and the Department of Community Affairs for preliminary review pending any additional changes that may come out of tonight's meeting. So, no required action tonight.

Thank you, Scott. [clears throat] Uh now we have uh public comments or participation. And um if you would like to uh come forward if you have any comments concerning the foundations for the future comprehensive plan, you may uh approach the uh podium. You have five minutes and uh Okay.

Yeah. Hey, Chris, can we make sure the mic's on? Just tap the Just tap the um Is it Is it lit up right there? Is it supposed to be plugged up? Yeah, there you go. [laughter] I think you're I think you're going now. There you go. Okay, start again. Yep.

My name is Judy Bullard. I've lived in Apple, Georgia for 72 years. I love your opening statement here. It's about preserving what our community makes is made special by. I don't think you're doing that with this plan. And I'd like to know how you take someone's property that they've lived on all their life and y'all decide that it needs to be used for something else besides their home place. I just don't understand the process without ever speaking to them to say this is what's being considered for the property you live on that your father owned and your grandfather owned. That's all I've got to say. I don't agree with this plan. Thank you. Thank you, [applause]

Mr. Chairman. Before you start my time, I'd like to ask you a question. Has this body voted on reszonings recently while the vision 2035 plan is currently the guiding document? Yeah, but I thought it was getting adopted. [clears throat] You said it was going through the regional commission. So the the answer and I know we still done.

So the answer to the question is yes, of course. We've taken um applications with the vision 2035 as the current plan, but with also the you know kind of a parallel as to what the future may may hold and obviously hasn't been considered and adopted yet. So then currently this document that you have before you tonight is not the current binding guiding document.

Right. Right. So then basically you have violated what the citizens of this county voted for by conducting reszoning hearings and voting for resonings that had no document in place to support that. Would you agree to that? Um well we created a DC zone. You had no guiding document to support your resoning votes. Would you agree to that? As far as what 2020 2035 compared to this?

Exactly. Okay. What do you mean? So you had no legal document guiding document that is required by the state to support the reasonzonings that you have voted for. Mr. Sterling. Yes.

The vision plan is mandated by the state in 2025 that we have a 20-year outlook and and we update it every 5 years. It's not necessarily a legal binding like you if this if this color is on the map, you can't put that color in its place because the law doesn't allow. That's not exactly how that works. It's a guide and a and a wishful plan for how we hope things go. But things constantly evolve, which is why the state asks us to update this every five years. So it's not like we necessarily did something illegal. That's correct.

We we varied we deviated from what was hoped for in the first version or the most recent version which was 5 years ago when we all participated in that that update. So it's it's not necessarily like it's a legal binding document. It's a guide. It's a it's a hope and a wishful plan. But as the plans evolved since I moved into this county in 1988, it it you know, you've got to be able to adapt and and change. So, I don't know that that isn't this document required to be submitted to the state as a local body approved document? It is indeed. And that's the process we're in with this one right now. That's what we're doing right now.

Indeed. So then if it's not done, there are ramifications that the county deals with if it's not done. So my point that I am proving here is what citizens have participated in and developed over the last decade, you just arbitrarily chose to throw in the trash. I'll start with my remarks. [applause] Good evening, chair and members of the planning commission. My name is Lee Muns. I live at 6343 Harlem Grovetown Road, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. A lot has happened in Columbia County over the last several months and through all of it, one thing has remained constant. Citizens want a good place to live. And I have seen this firsthand. They want leaderships that make they want leadership that makes prudent, responsible decisions. They want their largest investment, their home protected. They want schools that are safe for their children and roads that are safe for those children coming and going to those schools every day. Tonight's vote to do away with the vision 2035 and replace it with the foundations of the future is not just a paperwork change. It is a decision that will unleash a chain of events that cannot be easily undone. And if confirmed by the commission, those events will fundamentally overwhelm a large part of this county. We are talking about massive simultaneous construction projects across multiple sites. By the way, I took the time to visit the Meta site today. Y'all should do the same. Three different locations, different land owners, and now a fourth site being discussed with essentially the same small group of developers. This is not a slow phased roll out. This is a race. I've heard it compared to a building a hotel, and I think that

analogy is very accurate. You can't rent the rooms until the rooms are built. That means every developer is in a hurry, a vicious hurry. Speed becomes the priority, not the community impact, not the traffic safety, not the long-term planning. What does that look like on the ground? It looks like dump trucks coming from a newly approved quarry, potentially hundreds per day. It looks like the constant interstate traffic bringing in steel, concrete, generators, and heavy equipment. And it looks like construction workers coming and going from multiple job sites at the same time. It looks like congestion that doesn't stop at 5:00 p.m. because these projects will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Got to get the hotel built. And once that starts, there are no breaks. What is most concerning to me and to many others is how we got here. Even members of the county's own planning staff have publicly asked developers to help them understand what a data center is. That should stop all of us in our tracks. Across the county, across the country, counties are holding seminars, convening experts, and bringing all stakeholders together to understand the logistics, the power demands, the water usage, the construction impacts, and the long-term consequences of a data center development. Here, we have taken a couple of trips, look at a few sites, but we haven't truly studied what's coming. Even the zoning conditions we put in place are not sufficient. The operators of the largest data center complex in the country have said to so themselves in an association of county commissioners webinars, which I haven't yet heard one county commissioner in Colombia County confirm that they participated in that webinar. Yet here we are moving forward

anyway. This feels like a train that has left the station with no breaks and that is entirely unnecessary. We could slow this down. We could cause fa call for phase development. We could require better studies, stronger conditions, and real mitigation plans. That's why planning exists. That's why vision 2035 existed. These processes are supposed to be checks and balances to make sure that when we reach the end of the track, we get there safely, thoughtfully, and with something we can all be proud of. Some people say, "Well, property owners should be able to do whatever they want." [snorts]

Well, if that's truly the philosophy, then let's be honest about it. Let's do away with the planning commission altogether. Let's do away with comprehensive plans, zoning, public input. Let's just let everyone do what they want whenever they want. But that's not the way we claim to be as a county. We have these processes because the collective good matters. Because the impacts don't stay neatly within district lines. Traffic doesn't stop at the edge of the map. I'll leave you with something personal. The other night, my wife and I were talking about what happens once construction starts. And y'all realize that's going to be about 10,000 people. 10,000 people, guys. That's the low number. I honestly don't know how I'll get to work. The two routes I take now are slammed with traffic and there aren't any good alternatives. That's not hypothetical, folks. That's real life. So tonight, I ask you to pause, to think beyond the vote, to think about the families, the schools, the roads, and the long-term livability of this county, which I realize tonight you won't be taking a vote, but this is not a all or nothing decision. And even today, I get an announcement that the upper Savannah River reservoirs are entering a drought level, too. And when I went to visit that job site today, one of the things I saw about a half a mile of cooling towers, but we have no building codes in place that are going to protect our water.

Will, I hope you get that education you need. Thank you. [applause] That's a hard one to follow. Can I ask two questions before my time starts? Uh, is this the last public hearing for the foundations for the future? Yeah. Yeah, this would be it. Um, yes. The Okay. Port of commissioners obviously have to take a vote, so it'll be on their agenda uh for the 17th. So, anyone who was isn't here tonight who wants to submit comments, they can still submit them to our office or uh they can go to through the project website.

Okay. And then my second question, Mr. Wilder, I know you were on the steering committee for the vision 2035 review that the cyclical every 5 years and you were assigned in December of 2024. Did your steering committee ever meet to talk about vision 2035 or did you go right to this project? No, we we we met in March as a kickoff and and that's when the process began, but we we met several times last year. Okay. Was it rebranded when you met as foundations for the future or was it still vision?

No, it was foundations for the future was was the concept for the new name for the the plan that it's like says mandated by the state. Okay. I I think that's my question is these these talks started with that steering committee assignment that the rebranding had already started with that steering committee. Correct. Correct. Okay. Because that that wasn't really clear that rebranding transition. Yeah. In 2024, all they did was was ask the people to serve and and submitted their names to be approved by the county commission, the full commission to serve. We didn't start the process until 2025. Right. Okay. And you went right to foundations of the future.

We met with the consultants and we we they gave us their concepts. We gave them our input. Every everybody on the committee, 20 something of us, however many it was, and it started there and at the March kickoff.

Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. So, let me start off by quoting Gerta who said, "Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." My name is Marlina Berseron. and I live at 2545 Willow Creek Court in Evans. I'm about 1.7 miles from the upper right corner of the purple blob. As a 12-year resident of Columbia County, a master gardener, a master naturalist, a mom, and a member of the Sierra Club Executive Committee, I thank you for this opportunity to give public comment and share my concerns on scope, syntax, and rollout. This comprehensive plan is not ready to go to the commissioners. There are some great parts, especially the bike path that I've been looking forward to for 10 years. If you look at the survey numbers, outdoor recreation is still the number one activity for tourism and fun in Columbia County. The outdoors are our golden goose and our bread and butter. This plan is a work in progress, but I don't think it's ready to be adopted or promoted in its current form. And I'd also like the planning commission to consider a moratorum on any new data center zoning until the local ordinances and state regulations can be strengthened. Let me also share a quote from last week's Wall Street Journal. Cole Murphy, who wrote an op-ed on Georgia's film industry, stating, "Millions of square feet of production facilities sit empty. It turns out that bribing studios with taxpayer dollars isn't a strategy to create a healthy industry. It's a way to be outbribed." It's worth noting that one of these empty studios in Athens is actually being repurposed into, you guessed it, a data center. All of us agree that being a good property owner means being a good steward and an informed citizen. It's a fact that people care when they have skin in the game and when they are stakeholders. Ownership isn't just about

what sits inside a fence, line, or appears on a balance sheet. It also carries a broader responsibility that extends beyond property limits. clean air and water, responsible noise and light levels, storm water management that protects neighbors downstream, selecting native plants instead of invasives, and shared access to nature and wildlife. Like Mr. Mun said, the collective good matters, and we need to reframe ownership. That collective stewardship is part of what makes this county valuable. It includes supporting our local farmers whose land adds economic value, character, integrity, and identity to our region. Many families threatened by data centers plan to stay on their land. Some even planning for their children to stay. We take pride in investing in a beautiful place and we strive to take care of it because the land takes care of us. That's why redrawing this new technology and infrastructure character area is so concerning. It effectively swallows up previously designated rural corridors from vision 2035 and displaces established residential and agriculture uses. Plans can and should evolve as community needs change, but this change happened quickly and it was clearly driven to accommodate data centers. Farmers can tell the difference between fax and fertilizer. The new quarry for is for data centers. The Kinder Morgan gas pipeline expansion running just south of us is for data centers. Yet at the end of these data centers, they are not the property owners. These end users are lessers, leasers. But when we are seeing is a boom, out of town speculators are purchasing land not to be good stewards of it, but to flip it to a data center developer. Developers then build facilities, sometimes before even securing an enduser and then sell the project to a limited liability company, often based out of state. And what everybody in here needs to understand is

that LLC does not sell the property. It leases it to major corporations like Microsoft, Meta or Google so these companies can avoid ownership responsibilities and keep the asset off their balance sheets. If something goes wrong, if the community needs accountability, it lands on an LLC from Delaware like Kinetic Infrastructure Solutions, not a neighbor who lives here, who owns property here. These facilities may last a decade or they may last five years or they may never come online at all because some analysts are already warning that global chip manufacturing capacity may not support the scale of projected data center growth without major expansion and I have or supporting articles on that for you. Yet our county ordinance does not include a meaningful endof life shity bond and neither does your comprehensive plan. There is no clear obligation for an LLC owner to repurpose, dismantle, or rewild these massive warehouses once they become obsolete. And they will. Buildings can be removed, but old trees and ecosystems and character of our neighborhoods take far longer to recover, if they recover at all. Financial stabil stability matters, but our natural resources are our greatest assets, and this plan quite literally puts them towards the back. I won't bel labor you with my specific edits. I'll go ahead and send those. But I want to make this point that I don't think this plan balances development and conservation. Mr. Wilder, you were on that panel and I didn't see you or anybody else try to defend conservation interests or protecting this as a bedroom community. You want to go fast and furious or do you want to do this right? You need to start playing hard to get when it comes to sharing and spreading our natural resources and recognize that human health is inseparable from environmental health and health in the long run is wealth. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Good evening, gentlemen. We know each other a little bit. My name is Dan Lanning, 825 Rolling Brook Lane. Uh live uh across the street from the proposed bird reszoning. Uh that's where we are. But um appreciate you three being here today. Um I think most of us here are probably again concerned about the Appling Harlem interchange in that area. I'm saddened and disappointed that Ryan couldn't be here to represent us being in District 4. I know this is just more general, but I I think it's important for I know this is probably a choice for you to be here, but for people who live in that area to be here and I'm I'm sad he's not tonight to hear these comments. Hopefully, he's watching at home online or something. Um I've been over this with with Scott before and with Scott Johnson and um Allison Couch and a number of people. And again to not reiterate the same things that um my neighbors back here have spoken about but um the difficulty for me and and I missed all the meetings. I wasn't aware that this was happening over the last nine months until about November when this draft came out. So I wasn't able to participate in the public community outreaches and things like that. But when I went back and dug and did some open uh forms of some of the things that were happening, appendix CD, all those things, the different events, um nowhere in public comment, nowhere in uh any of the information provided to me from the specific meetings that happened did I see really any neighbors, any any residents of Columbia County um turning this area into this kind of a district.

Um, if you read through the foundation, and I pray, I hope that you all have gone through it page by page, piece by piece, because there's a lot in there. Um, up until August, it didn't look like this when in the there's an August 11th email. Um, it's um it was to Scott Sterling from the House Lavine Associates, and it was kind of like, hey, we've got this information. We put this little packet together. and they sent pictures of the proposed um update and the draft update at that time. I'm sorry that I don't have copies for y'all for this, but um it did show a new purple technological area, right? But it was very small and it was relegated to the White Oak area, which we had already had the S1 for. It seemed like it fit within character of what was going to be there. The next time anything public happened um was when this new draft was released and then as you can see that purple area expanded probably close to two to three times as big. Um so obviously our concern is the growth management. We know that White Oak hasn't been purposed for this and and there's not a whole lot we can do to stop that. We know that Pumpkin Center and Bird Tract have not yet been approved uh for a reasonzoning. We can stop that. Um, we know that land to the west of Pumpkin Center doesn't have to be reszoned for this either. We have the ability to stop this growth to the west. Um, both below I20 and above I20, those purple areas that are past White Oak and Pumpkin Center, you know, this is bigger than what's out there right now. So, I think what we're asking as residents is is when is enough enough? When can we just say, you know what, we did it. Now, let's stop it. Let's pull back off bird. Let's pull up off

pumpkin. If we can't stop pumpkin, we'll at least pull it back from this way. If we can't stop white oak, let's at least pull it back from this way so that we've we've sectioned it off and said, you know what? We tried it. We did it. Public hated it. I don't know anybody who likes it except maybe four or five families who are going to have generational wealth. um let's let's pause. Let's put a five-year moratorum on it. Let's we have to redo this again. And in five years, if we are all sitting here saying, "Man, data centers were awesome. We loved it. Let's do more of them." Then let's do more. But I I think you guys have the ability. We We only have so much power. We can only send so many emails. But you have a little bit of pull with the county, with the commissioners to say, "You know what? I think guys, we could we could pull this back a little bit. we can maybe slow it down even if someday it does go to DC. Um we don't have to do all of this. You know, from the left edge right there to right here is about four and a half miles down four to four and a/4 miles down the interstate. That's a long ways. And to have that whole corridor be dedicated to data centers or potential data centers, um four miles is a good distance. I mean, if you take that and you go from Evans up to the lake right there, that's about the same distance. That's a long ways. Again, like Mr. Mun shared, we're talking huge volume of people right away. These if we were developing neighborhoods, they would I'll take 30 more seconds. They would take a lot less a lot more time to develop. But when we do these data centers, if they happen, it's thousands of people right away. It's not a progression of we can get ahead of it with traffic because we built 10 homes this year, 15 homes this year. We're talking thousands of people tomorrow if we said yes. So I I I just ask that you consider shrinking that back to the farthest places that you can. Thank you all for your time.

Appreciate it. Appreciate it. [applause]

Good evening. My name is Camry Wood. I live at 473 Cambridge Way in Martinez. Um, as we've all identified here, there is a significant change in the proposed land use between the 12 August 25 draft and the revised land use map that was proposed on October 31st. And we all know that the technology and industry sector has increased almost threefold in that time. But during that period, there were no popup events or hearings nor any information nor justification provided to the residents of the county to explain why this change took place. It just showed up in November. Surprise, surprise. So what I would like to request is that um some justification be provided of these significant changes including schedule of any events that happened during the time between 12 August and 31 October any information that's been provided to the public any correspondence meeting minutes revised planning documents that were prepared during that time I would like to see that provided to the public for our information and until approved In the final version, I would request that all presentations to the public if guided by the county's master planning document include baseline data maps that are part of the vision 2035 published in 2021 instead of the unapproved draft documents. I think this causes some lack of transparency or at least a perception of a lack of transparency for people who don't understand the difference between the approved final revised new plan and the old plan that was previously approved. I would also request that the 31 October 25 foundations for the future draft be revised after this evening's hearing and

published in a final draft form for public review and back check. That's a standard practice in construction designs and documents and master plans is that before you go final and approve the final document, you make sure that all the comments that have been made up to date have been addressed and closed. Um, to date, there hasn't been any list of comments with responses provided. Typically, that's shown in an annex to a master plan, and I would like to request that that be provided as as well. I would also request that until all comments are resolved, we preclude any future votes on the final approval of this document until those comments have be been resolved um successfully to the citizens of the county. [applause] So the next topic I'd like to talk about is the existing conditions memorandum and the actual foundations of the future. Page five of the existing conditions memorandum and page 12 of the foundations for the future uh indicate key takeaways from your community engagement that was conducted prior to May of 2025. The increase in size and scale of the techn technology and industry zone clearly um supports the planned white oak bird and pumpkin center data centers and is inconsistent with residents needs and values. For example, in the existing conditions memo traffic was highlighted as a major frustration. Slowdowns, poorly timed traffic grids, roads that have not kept up with new developments were mentioned repeatedly. Residents want road improvements to be more strategic, better coordinated with growth and reflective of long-term development patterns. Uh growth should support quality of life. There's a strong feeling that growth is happening too

fast and without enough planning. People want thoughtful development that focus on quality over quantity and has a better mix of use. In the foundations for the future, manage growth thoughtfully. Desire for slower, more balanced growth. housing opportunities and attainability, protecting natural resources, green spaces, and community character. Residents fear losing trees, natural areas, and the character of their neighborhoods. Having housing that works for everyone. Residents want more affordable housing options for seniors and families. Clear need for better communication and regular updates, an easier way to share feedback. And taxes are becoming a burden. Rising property taxes are putting pressure on households with no correlating improvements in roads, parks, or other public services. All those comments are directly from your own planning documents and are in direct violation to the changes that you've made in your land use map. Section three, past plans, studies, and reports does not indicate that this plan was coordinated with the cities of Grovetown or Harlem's master plans either. The increase in the size of this industrial zone most significantly impacts these cities due to proximity, projected utility and land use and community character. Takeaways from community engagement in these plans can be found on their city websites and like countywide feedback reflect that the needs and the desires of the cities of Harlem and Grovetown residents are not in line with what you've got planned here too. So again, I'll reiterate and I didn't get a chance to finish my comments, but I did submit them online um as well. So I recommend that all future votes of the planning commission and the board of commissioners regarding these developments and approval of the foundation of the future should be put on hold until all conflicts are resolved to the satisfaction of the residents of Columbia County. Thank you very much. [applause]

Good evening. I'm Lindsay Brantley. I live in Harlem and Pumpkin Center. [sighs] When I looked at the numbers of people that contributed to feedback over the last nine months for this draft, it adds up to less than 1% of the registered voters in Columbia County. Uh, I think I do recall I know I recall seeing the online survey. I completed both of those, but other than that, I had no idea of any of these other events that occurred over the last 10 months. So, Columbia County has a citizen engagement problem and a major communication problem. Just want to start off with that. [applause] In my correspondence with Chairman Duncan, um when I've asked about what will happen after tonight, when will they vote, which the answer is February 17th, what will happen between I've g I've been given a few conflicting statements. Uh one of his statements was that there will not be any additional drafts. Another statement was any new information at that public hearing will be evaluated for inclusion into the plan. And even here tonight, I'm not really sure if anyone's been able to bring any clarification to that to that concern, but we're begging you to go back and represent the people in that we need a new draft that actually makes sense with what we all have asked and said on surveys, in popups, like several people have said, when you look at the notes, the antidotes, uh, appendix C, appendix D that someone found in a foyer request, Uh, none no discussion reflects the purple expansion on this map. None. Okay. So, I'm going to read a little bit from an email that I sent to Chairman Duncan. Foundations for the future is a document which remains under amendment and is scheduled for a hearing on January 29th and has a commission vote for February 17th. It would seem it should not be factoring into the February 3rd decisions. In recent meetings, Mr.

Butler has used Foundations for the Future in resoning presentations to the public. As Miss Camry mentioned, relying on a document that has not been finalized or adopted while disregarding the framework that is currently in effect creates the appearance that policy is being adjusted to accommodate proposals rather than proposals being evaluated against adopted policy. Even if this is legally permissible, as Mr. Wilder has stated, "It undermines public confidence in transparency and process. It shows the voters that our commissioners are fine to keep their chins above the legal waterline, but totally stomp on citizens who are literally the last to know what's going on." And actually, that's actually not having the appearance. We now have seen that there were emails back in July uh between Mr. Butler and the EDACC and a few people representing developers uh where they were discussing I would call this a pre-application coordination in my opinion they were discussing uh the Prather property in Pumpkin Center and Mr. Butler's response on July 25th of this year. He says you could move forward with just Lionel's piece and bring in the Verary property later. It would just be a combo resoning plan revision. It would be nice to take it all down in one fell swoop, but it doesn't always work that way. So, these conversations are being had on email, while the the first public reading of the DC reszone was on November 19th to the public. And then, of course, the vote after that was on December 5th where it was made as a public finalized document, which we know now these developers and data center people were getting all their ducks in a row. And then a few days after December 5th, the reason application was polished up and ready to go. That's a problem. I want to read some information about some of the people on the steering

committee which is helping to guide. Maybe this explains the purple. In fact, it does explain the purple that we see up on the screen. Jim Cox, development authority board member, Southeastern Marketing. Bryce Malier, the son of Commissioner Connie Malier. Russell Ahadne, former chairman of the CC Chamber of Commerce. Cheney Eldridge, the executive director of the Economic Development Authority of Columbia County. Steven Flint, Columbia County School Superintendent, Jonathan Crawford of Southeastern Development, of which the CEO is Vic Mills, who sold the White Oak property to our development authority. Keith Lawrence, a Maybomb developer development manager who is coordinating the bird farm resoning application as we speak. This is a conflict of interest.

Where are the regular people who elected leaders to represent them? Where are they? [applause]

So, here's what I would like to respectfully ask of you guys to go back. I know our commissioners get the final say, but you all can have the conversation. I would like to request that the steering committee publicly release and post all documents and communications that led to the changes from the August 12th map to this October 31st map. And if you can't produce that, if there is nothing in the record to produce, then put the map back. Put it back to what it was on August the 12th. And I would like to request that the foundations for the future draft be revised after tonight's hearing and then published for public review before the commission hearing and final vote on February 17th. Where's all the comment box comments? There's a comment box on the Foundations for the Future website that tells people to write in what they think about the draft. Where's all that? There's no visioning document. There's no meeting where any of that was brought into the draft. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] [applause] Hello, I'm Sylvia Elum on Oak Road. Um, couple of questions. I'm looking at the purple at the Stevens Creek Road up here. There's the green that is the open space and conservative areas in there. Is it going to remain that amount of distance that has to border it? And the second question is when you look at the purple right by the burgundy which I guess is Martin is basically it's where our greenway walks when you walk that greenway over. If you look real deep under the purple you see the green but the purple's imposed over it. So to continue down our greenway from Patriots Park, we're going to have to walk through a data center or excuse me, the technology and industrial area. We're leaving that we're because we just have the big purple which we've all heard about, but then you sprinkle some purple along in this area that's real little and even the one off of Rightsboro Road.

Could you indicate on the map? Just touch on the Oh, I didn't know we had a touch screen. My apology. First one I'm talking about. Whoops. That's a thick pen. How do I undo that one? Go back. Can we thin that pen down or is my finger that fat? Okay, let me go back. Wait, go back here. Draw big circles.

Big circles. All right, that one. Sorry, I covered up. There we go. That one. You can see that little bit of green there. You can see the green there by the purple. And then up under here, right in that little section, if you look close, you can see the green going up under the purple. So, we're just sort of mushing it. And even we've got a little green here with some purple, but they're budding right up against it. And every time I've come to these planning commission meetings, they'll talk about, well, can we do the border? I know it's supposed to be 500 feet, but can we make 250? So, and you you're like, okay, yeah, we can live with 250. But the I mean we don't have a great border there, but the little bitty [clears throat] amount of open space that we have here, it's got all purple on it. So every bit of open space that we have, we're now smooshing some purple on those borders. So that's my concern is everybody's concentrating about that big area of purple, but you guys just splash some purple in there like cake sprinkles. So, if we could just kind of That's my concern is you really haven't looked at your green.

Now, some of the purple you indicated there's existing facilities there like the purple on Stevens Creek. I'm pretty sure that's a water treatment facility there, isn't it? And there's the the green beside it is it can only be green because it's wetlands or something to that effect. Same with that river. Same with that little green streak over there by by Grove Town and some of that purple there is was already existing. It didn't have that indication. And so that was why it was updated to the purple to reflect. What was already there? Kind of like the quaries over over Columbia Road. So what was what color would that have been? What I need to see. See, we've changed it to technology and industry. What was it?

I think I think the thing to keep in mind here is, you know, and kind of to your point, the areas over there to the east side of Grovetown along Riceboro Road where it's purple there, um, that is, uh, John Deere. Those are existing industrial areas within the county. Uh some of that along the interstate there um just north of or just west of um guess that's Lewon. Those are some of those already zoned or already industrial used areas. Uh I think uh Commissioner Wilder mentioned the two areas on Columbia Road um just west of William F. Those are the existing quaries that already are there. So those are industrial uses that already exist. The Martin Marietta site that you referenced at the county uh Richmond County line right there against the Savannah River. Those are industrial activities that already are existing uses in in so that fits within that technology and industrial.

We just took the industrial zoning and added technology to it to make the technology part DC partish. Well, it's it's potential similar, you know, data centers have an industrial component to use and feel to them. So, that technology and industrial is kind of that character area. Zoning is is a separate issue to what we look at here. So, that's where you get into whether that's M1 or M2 zoning, which some of those other properties may be zoned as such or are other zones. And then you have the DC district that's out there that may be applied to some of these other properties.

So we have technology and industrial and then we'd have DC. We'd have subcategories under these. These are the technology and industrial is the character area and the the future land use map of the comprehensive plan. what that translate into your property, somebody else's property is the zoning, which would be your R1's, your your C C2s, your DC district, your M1 categories up under it's it's they're separate, but they're they typically correlate to one another. So, your technology industrial will typically be your industrial zoning, your DC zoning, uh things like that. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Moody, for actually looking at me while I was speaking. I appreciate Thanks

Joanne Murdoch. Um, Swint Road, Harlem, Georgia. Do you have before Well, Scott, do you have the former the 2035 land use map available to view? Sorry. Uh, no, we did not bring that one. Yeah. Right. Well, I wanted it. Yeah. everybody here present to get the visual because

the former map which I just found out today that there was a map change from August to October. They said there was Yeah, I just found that out tonight. So, I'm glad I attended this meeting. Um, but the former map from 2035, the current land use map, the difference in the open space and conservation areas and the rural residential versus what's on this map is mind-blowing. If if you haven't if you haven't seen the current land use map versus this map, there is [clears throat] the only open space conservation really and truly on this map is around the lake. What happened to the rest of the county? Are is it just the whole county is going to be land use for development and we're not going to have any kind of conservation open space areas? Take a look at the vision 2035 map and compare it to the You can see how much green is on this map.

Yeah, I've got it on my I've got it on my phone. I just

I just want people to be aware of how much drastic change there has been done. I'm particularly concerned myself for personal reasons about the purple that's been expanded. suddenly in a month's time near Pumpkin Center because I live there that it's rural neighborhood currently. This this purple and the lack of open space and conservation area is just insane. It's insane. And I don't think anybody residents citizen-wise has asked for this expansion and asked for the comprehensive plan rewrite to do away with so much of rural open space area in Columbia County. That's what this county was has been we have prided ourselves on for the last 30 40 years that I've been here on beautiful land in Columbia County. and y'all are it's it's going to be destroyed if this land use map is is approved and accurate. It's it's it's a nightmare. Also, I thought it was really interesting and this is more of a rhetorical question. How do you get to be appointed on the steering committee? Because it seems like they don't really ask for regular citizens because everybody that I've seen and heard listed tonight was associated with somebody, especially somebody that could be or they had a vested interest in this technology and industrial stuff. Thank you. Thank [applause] you.

Gentlemen, thank you for being here tonight. I wish our representative could have been here because if you look at that node around I20, that's district 4. You see all the development of industrialization that's going to impact that community greatly in the surrounding land owners. I've got grandkids that go to Harlem Middle School. They're going to be inudated with all that mess that's coming. Now, my name is Dewey Kerry, 3118 Doure Road, Apple, Georgia. I was an educator here many years. I was a principal, teacher, coach at Greenbryer, assistant register at Greenbryer High School. I've been associated with the planning and Mr. Scott Sterling could tell you. I came to that meeting at Grovetown. We had a great meeting. We had a great time. We matter of fact, we had the circle areas with different pens, different [snorts] crayons. Well, let me tell you something. It wasn't like that. It was entirely different. Now, how it happened to change exponentially, it's either been manipulated or somebody used the wrong crayon. It's totally needs to be looked into, Mr. Sterling, because I do not know how we can come up with the purple on the other side of the road when you've been y'all have been sitting through commission me. I I want to tell you one thing. Thank you for your vote on the Corey. It was commendable.

Y'all did a great job. Y'all understood it. But then it goes to the commission. It gets voted 32. And I'm going 50 to 32. And I understand things happen like that, but I'm going,

this is something that's going to change this landscape for every the trajectory of people's lives that live around this place immensely. Y'all did the right thing. But then it gets to the commission and I'm going, you know, they put into paper, I told you this, they put into paper that we were troublemakers, that we didn't have the facts, that we didn't know what we're doing. They put it in the damn Augusta Chronicle. So my thinking is what's behind their decision-making? Was it their emotion? Because they're mad at us because we're asking logical questions. We're trying to protect our quality of life. We're not protecting the citizens that have lived here, that have sweated here by this. And I've been part of this process from the beginning, from the '9s through now. I have never seen such a sham. I'm embarrassed that I'm even having to say this now. I I apologize. I I get loud. I'm very loud. I'm not mad at y'all. I'm just emotional. Okay. This is on the foundations for the future. It centers on managing rapid growth through sustainable development. This is not sustainable. We don't have the water. We don't have the grid work. We don't have the runoff. We got runoff issues all over the county. We are not going to be able to have hold it. My friend Bovo Bar Martinovich, if you know, he lives on Kyoki Creek down down below it. Aundred-year flood plane that's gonna wipe his place off the map. The all down behind that area because we're putting in concrete. I spoken to Will. He told me we're going to have ordinances and

he's going to do what? I like Will. But you know what? 70 damn decibb when the listen to this. when the the biggest data center place in America, Lowden, Virginia, they know what they're doing now. They didn't at the beginning, but you know what their decibel level is? 55. Not no damn 70. It's ridiculous. Somebody needs to do their homework about these ordinances. Somebody needs to understand what happened here. It goes to the state. We need to report to the state. This thing has been manipulated. It is catering to those individuals that have money and want to make more money at the expense of their neighbors. [applause] The other thing is y'all approved a zoning across I was in Harlem. I go to a lot of meetings because I'm I I stay active because I want the best for Columbia County. Don't get me wrong. I was at the Harlem Cafe when they proposed Green Point. I c Let me finish for a minute. I commended the Prathers. I commended them. That was a great thing. That's what we wanted around that node. You know what that node is around? We got different nodes in Columbia County, right? That's a URBAN NODE. IT'S NOT AN INDUSTRIAL NODE IN OUR PLAN RIGHT NOW THAT THEY'RE GOING TO PRESENT. IT'S A URBAN NODE. And that means residential stores, cafes, shops, uh, delivery areas like Amazon, that kind of stuff. I was misled at that meeting in Grove Town at the Exposition Center. The But y'all were approved the zoning for Greenpoint for that. And you got

people that on Halls Creek that have built their forever home. You have I told you I was a son of a veteran. I've been all over the world. I've never seen such abuse by a county disrespecting the those veterans that bought those homes under the premise and guys that it was going to be a residential village with green space and all that. And now they're trying to put a damn data center in front of them after 17 homes that have been built for $850,000 to $750,000. That's wrong. It's immoral. It's unethical. We need to stop it. And y'all approve the zoning for uh whatever it was, Greenpoint. It ought to remain that way. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Rachel Dixon, 6160 Old Union Road in Harlem. Um, I am very disappointed with this map. It needs to be put back to the drawing board. This is appalling. Appling, I'm not even from here. I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. I came here and to see Abling being destroyed this way. You know what makes a good community? People. I want to see farm animals. I want to see chickens. I want to hear kids playing. I don't want to hear data centers. I don't want to see a community being destroyed before our very eyes with data centers. And to make this industrial is ridiculous. y'all need to go back to the map. This is shameful and dishonorable. So, I hope you'll reconsider this. And actually, if it would be great if we actually could all see the map the way it is right now, cuz this doesn't even make sense. But there are lots of people throwing a lot of money in our community. And we would like them to leave and take their money and just leave us alone because we just want to be a community of people with neighbors and homes and that's what's going to make a difference and not data centers. So data centers don't vote for y'all. Okay, we do. So goodbye.

Thank you.

Thank you. [applause] Okay, we have one more. Okay, come forward and state your name and address for the record, please. Well, I just want to say one thing before I forget it because it's not written down here, but the other night I was listening to um the uh nightly financial report on the radio and they were interviewing the people who have the largest uh realy company uh connecting people with data centers. And I found out something that was astounding to me. They don't charge rent by the square foot. They charge rent by the megawatts that are used. Does that put in perspective for you how much uh power is going to be used by these places?

Well, Georgia Power approves that usage. They approve all that usage. And if they can't handle it, they will not approve it. So, I understand. And I'm just saying that's that gives you some idea of what's coming to us. And uh this is the complete package. Oh, I'm Susan Warren. 5129 North Tubman Road. Thank you.

Apple. This is the complete package I got at the fall uh open house. And uh I went through it page by page when I went home and I made a lot of notes and when I was trying to come up with some uh information to speak about tonight, I went back to some of those notes and I pulled out about 15 pages because I can't type right now. You know, I'm having to look at my chicken scratching here. But on pages 10, 11, and 12 was where you recorded the contact with the uh citizens uh about the participation in this process. Uh, our county has 170,000 plus residents and there were so few people who attended any of these. Not the fault of the county, but other than the fact that you scheduled a lot of these at the time that people are out working, they can't attend these. They don't have that option. And then some many people when they get home from work, they have to feed children. They have to see about homework. They have to do all these things. So, they're not likely to go online to check out what you're doing. You need to have another way to reach people. I was at that open house and I bet there weren't 30 people. I was there 30 minutes and I'm sure there were not 30 people that came through there in that 30 minutes. But the next page I looked at was page 13 and this is uh a community management overview. It's got four different sections on it. One of them is managing

growth thoughtfully and what these are taken from what you learned from these outreach options. Uh it said desire for slower more balanced growth, housing opportunities, opportunities and attainability, protecting natural resources, green space and community character. Then under public communication and accessibility, they had said improved communication and feedback opportunities, balanced county services, strengthening voices. None of this is happening. And I won't well I said I wouldn't go into this but I will. Uh on the page 19 is your age uh distribution grid or chart, excuse me. On one of them it has ages 20 to 34 and 35 to 54. And the totals under those two sections add up 50 to 50% roughly of the whole. And then in the same section it has children ages five and under and ages 5 to 19. And those two sections add up to 30% of the total. So 50% of the adults who have 30% of the children are wanting quaries and data centers near their children. I don't think so. I mean that's just uh crazy. So that also uh I had forgotten when I made that remark here that [snorts] we're putting these data centers and quaries in the

underpopulated and underserved rural areas of the county. So that's what we said we want to preserve, but you're not doing it. Excuse me. That was five minutes. Yes, ma'am. Well, I'll come back next time. Thank you. [applause]

Sorry. Thank you. Okay, I see no more no more um participation. And um we have any comments like to make? Okay. Can I get a motion for adjournment, please? Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we adjourn. Second. Have a motion on the floor. Second. All those in favor of German, raise your right hand. We're journ. Thanks for coming.