made it thank you very much I'm I'm really sorry all right thank you everybody for your patience all right good evening it is Monday January 3rd what's today's Day January 6 so welcome to the Planning and Zoning commission meeting on Monday January 6 it is 6:08 p.m. Kirk clerk please call the role Becker here oity here P Graham here right McMahon here chair Maxwell quum present all right we have a quorum thank you very much at this point in the meeting I'm going to ask for an approval of the agenda can I get an approval for the agenda for the January 6 meeting so moved we have a move a motion on the floor to approve the agenda as submitted by oity second I second we have a second from pag Graham all in favor say I I I all oppose same sign the agenda is approved at this point of the meeting I'm going to ask for an approval of the minutes from the December 16th meeting can I get an approval of the minutes from the December 16th meeting so mooved we have a motion on the floor from Becker second I second second from o flarity all in favor say I I all oppose same sign the minutes are accepted this is the public participation portion of the meeting this is the part of the floor the meeting where I open the floor to anyone wishing to speak of something that is not on the record on the agenda for tonight so is there anybody in the audience that wishes to address something that is not on the agenda for tonight I'm seeing none I'm going to close the public participation portion of the meeting and it open up to the new business portion of the meeting tonight what we have on the agenda is a concept plan this is a request by Donado Donata solar for the review of a concept plan for a construction of a 4 megawatt

51:13 – 53:13•0

ground mounted solar energy system a solar field and a boutique data center on approximately 30 Acres along along the west side of Peace Road between Greenwood Acres Drive and Challengers Drive is there a presentation to be made from the floor if you can come on up to the podium and state your name and address for the record and give us your presentation good evening uh Nick Mahoney here tonight representing Donado solar thanks so much for being here um so yeah a couple slides so this is a overview of the proposed location uh it's about a 30 acre plot of land um if you wouldn't mind jumping to the next slide here uh this is the proposed solar array um kind of in the in the top hand corner there you go into bottom you can see kind of the solar panels they're facing due south um along piece Road there there's a vegetative barrier um and then there's two uh thank you um uh a joint adjacent to the solar array there you'll see kind of those two rectangular boxes it's about 200x 60 ft um that represents where the battery system will be um the battery system captures the energy that's being generated by the solar array uh during the hours where the Sun is up um and excess energy that is not being put into the grid is captured there um further kind of to the South uh uh westand corner there is where the data center is um and that consists of two buildings um they're about 20t tall 60 ft in length uh 20 ft in depth um and that is where the data center will be housed um the way that our business model works is we

53:10 – 55:08•0

are a developer of these systems um the solar system plus the battery system we've done about 50 megawatt or so of these facilities throughout Illinois um we're headquartered out of champagne um and we have locations in uh Urbana Bloomington um Lincoln kind of all over uh kind of central Illinois um typically within Amron territory this is our first project that's uh this far north here um so we're really excited about that and uh yeah I'm I'm here to answer any questions um at this point we're kind of in the concept stage planning this is thank you for flipping to this this is what uh more or less the proposed buildings would look like um there's very little foot traffic uh the data centers are remotely operated once they're stood up and kind of running there's there's very little uh people kind of moving in and out of the building to kind of uh maintain the equipment it's just routine maintenance in case one of the servers goes down um there will be potentially a bathroom on site and that was one of the aspects that we had talked about with Dan um initially there will be a water line that we'll connect into um for a bathroom um if there's any other kind of requirements as part of the Planning Commission um that that would be needed there for you know servicing water we would look to incorporate that as well um this is an example of one of our locations in uh Champagne County uh this is on Windsor Road um you can see there that's a fairly large project that's about 6 megaw uh um the project that we're proposed here is is 4 megawatt so you know a little bit smaller um this is Oaks Road um this is around a similar size uh to what we'd be proposing um and you can see kind of central to all of this is the data center as well as the PV what's missing from this is the

55:06 – 57:06•0

battery system and the battery system is something that we've kind of uh been building out as part of our our newest projects and um there's lots of benefits to that and in that there's no wasted energy that's any energy that is kind of during during very very sunny days our inverters will not be able to capture all of the energy that's being generated by the panels and a lot of times that energy just goes to waste it goes nowhere um so what the battery system allows us to be able to do is capture that excess energy uh and utilize it for putting it back into the grid during the day um and then eventually kind of throughout a 247 period we will uh you know utilize the majority of it via the data center um so I guess I'll pause there I I kind of gave a very brief overview I'm happy to talk a little bit more about concept plan um what we have proposed here um but again we're kind of at the very preliminary stages of the planning process so we're very open to you know working with the town and making sure that uh the city here and making sure that everything is um you know up to your standards uh currently it is not um it's within kind of the zoning jurisdiction from my understanding of the Cal but it's not within kind of uh currently zoned as part of the uh the master plan here so what we'd be looking for is an annexation and then a rezoning um most likely under industrial um and this concept plan as we have it adheres to you know the the setback requirements under industrial um as well as uh you know the the coverage acreage and stuff like that so um pause there all right thank you Nick is there a staff report to be had yeah we had a short staff report report in the packet um the applicant Nick went over very well what they're proposing so

57:02 – 59:01•0

uh 30 Acre Site at peace Road and um between Greenwood Acres Drive and Challenger Drive um it's not in the city would have if they proceed it will have to be annexed and rezoned um and plan approved for it but it is contiguous to the city uh we recommend the comp plan as um you see they're industrial for the site and you see the property there in red outline in the conceptual plan which Nick went over the solar rays The Battery area the two Data Center buildings uh it's going to generate to four megawatts as noted uh project be behind the meter uh meaning the solar energy Creator will be metered as it transforms out into the ComEd system then of course used for the data Center buildings um the applicant provide a good summ in the in the background materials pretty thorough um so if there's any questions on that we'll certainly take them we'll take after this questions or comments from the uh public too people that did come correct there's going to be bathrooms here so we asked him to hook up to sanitary and water so that would be extended to the Data Center buildings and the plans kind of hard to see does show the uh route of that they've already talked to their public works department and the kwrd regarding sanitary and and where those should be hooked up a lot of detail on that so that' be provided there is uh as noted 50ft setback from property lined for a solar uh Farm solar field um which they meet that and that's for the raise any building Etc except for the Transformer lines of course then 100 foot set back to any residential areas there is a of course residential areas to the uh basically the the west back here The Enclave uh so they do meet that uh setback um the raise will be was

58:59 – 1:00:56•0

incorrectly noted in the reporter in their summary it' be 20 feet high the raay that I understand will be 8 feet high at their highest point the max in the Udo is 15 feet so they'll be within the max height for the solar rays uh so if they choose to go forward they'll have the petition to Annex there'll be another public hearing where any Resident property owner within 250 ft like tonight would be notified of the hearing they have to submit a resoning ition with and then a more detailed plan uh with it uh likely to reson it to PDI plan development industrial district which we did the Route 38 solar farm we approved a few months back on the west side of town and also similar to the uh uh solar farm that exists down at gerer road on the far Southwest side of the city in industrial 2 which the solar farm as you probably know will be built on city property near the airport in Pleasant Street starting this year um so again the concept plan is just uh there's no official motion needed by the commission just your feedback to the U applicant uh regarding U any comments you know if think it's should proceed or makes changes to it uh that's what we're kind of looking for tonight so sounds good but uh you know certainly any chair if you want to have anybody from the public come up it's not a hearing but we'll take any if anybody has any questions or comments we I might have those all right thank you for that presentation Dan so this is not a public hearing but we're going to conduct it as if it is so if there's anybody from the public that wants to ask questions or speak about this I would invite you to come up to the podium state your name and address for the record please keep your public participation to three minutes and go from there so does anybody want to speak we have one right hi Eric Kristoff 1496 Cambria

1:00:55 – 1:02:54•0

number five um and Nick thank you for the that's okay good presentation thank you um my questions are about uh the data center uh dimension of it um any kind of it be interesting to know the details or whatever you're able to share in terms of um the type of workload and uh the tenants uh because data centers are often um loud and use a lot of water for cooling uh so that would be that would be one area that I would want to make sure is addressed rest um and then second would be if uh the 100 foot setback is good but if they're um any there could be like consideration of like as part of the development to make sure that there's uh increased F like like tree lines or something like that put in you know just to you know kind of both for sound abatement potentially as well as just make it a little prettier for the homes that are along there those are the two main things okay uh concerns thank you you want to respond Nick So yeah thank you for your comments um so regarding the data center aspect uh the will not be water cooled so um there won't be kind of a draw on the water supply uh the data centers that we have here are probably you know I think data centers is kind of a broad concept right there's lots of different data centers like the calp just had a massive one approved here right um that is a complete completely different animal compared to what we're talking about here um these are these are small they're modular uh they don't really make much noise at all they're air cooled um you know we don't really deal with the data center side of it our customers deal with that so we lease out the space to them um but that's kind of the the way that we design the buildings there's you know very minimal you know noise pollution um there's there's not

1:02:51 – 1:04:50•0

really like a any detriment really to the community in the surrounding areas is we did put a vegetation barrier kind of a long piece Road um one thing that I kind of had made note of to the engineer was to put one kind of along the residential side as well which I think would be really nice um and that's typical we do that for uh most you know communities when we build um you know solar arrays there um and then one other question that we do get sometimes is around the noise related to the solar aspect themselves um and we've done countless numbers of of noise analys studies where we have to hire these Professional Engineers to come in that specialize in in noise analysis and they you know they'll they'll go in and they'll document exactly what the expected impact and more often than not especially on a busy road like this the the noise of the cars is louder than the noise of the inverters and the data centers so that's that's pretty typical here um but yeah I appreciate your question um and uh yeah happy to talk more about it if you still have questions and you can pra see from the area there's a pretty good Tree Line uh between the site and the The Enclave back here but certainly any additional Landscaping to help keep the any type of noise down and two uh yeah you mentioned peace Road we'd probably be looking for uh since that's on peace Road similar did to Route 38 solar farm uh if they do proceed we probably require a little bit more we' have some minimum landscape standards required but probably ask for a little bit more along piece Road and they've agreed to that yep all right absolutely all right thank you Nick for responding thank you Eric for the question question someone else come to the podium state your name and address for the record please hi I'm Elizabeth Johnson CUNY and I'm at 1504 Cambria Drive Unit 6 um I just had some questions about well what kind of batteries would be present in this battery situation um because I know there's battery technologies evolving right now and we're sort of between what

1:04:48 – 1:06:48•0

the best batteries are out there so I'd want to know you know if you're going to go with lithium or you're going to go with uh an older model of battery um and I'm also wondering for the the um data center what sort of fire suppression system you would have I know sometimes those use uh chemical uh fire suppression or CO2 fire suppression so I'm just wondering about that um and then you already addressed my questions about uh the tree line so thank you thanks Elizabeth um so so the batteries are they're lfp batteries so lithium iron phosphate um that's like kind of the leading category although to your point that is an evolving field um there's lots of new battery technologies that are kind of constantly being released but these ones in particular are um the most stable and uh have fairly high energy density the reason why you don't see them in cars is cuz they're quite a bit heavier um so because they're not moving around we don't have to expend energy to move these batteries only in one time um which is a expensive process to do that but once we get them there they're there um but uh they're Al you know kind of on the fire suppression because it is important all of these batteries are actually individually uh rated to um I don't remember the exact term but it's all under kind of the international fire code standard um and these batteries the way that they're built is it's actually kind of a bunch of smaller batteries kind of coupled together and each one of those batteries when they when they run a test on it they they can they run a test so if one of those batteries were to have an issue so say it were to catch fire would it spread to the other batteries and all of the Battery Systems in order for them to be approved uh in order for us to even look at them they have to pass that code

1:06:46 – 1:08:44•0

um so they're all self-contained they're all you know fireproof in that sense um there's very little risk of that uh actually happening um on top of that we also have an a very very robust omm package so operations and maintenance that we come out and do so all of these batteries are under warranty for 10 years by the manufacturer they come out and they're constantly doing maintenance on them checking everything they they come out about three four times a year um same thing on the solar side um and then on the data center side yeah there are two different ways you could do it you could have a waterbased fire suppression you could have a chemical based fire supression I don't know if I don't know exactly if we've made the decision on that point yet um because we're going to have water here uh we probably will go waterbased fire suppression so like a sprinkler um but you know they're not very flame flamable in that sense it's it's mostly uh you know just computer parts so um but yeah uh did I answer your questions okay all right and the city uh of course Annex the city about to follow our latest building and fire codes which we just recently updated have the most recent International codes updated so okay with that too good anybody else from the public all right come on up to the podium state your name and address for the record please I am Don Gavin I live at 1480 Cambria on unit 6 and I just wondered how long a project like this would take uh was one of the questions and then the other they did some kind of clearing out over the summer and we've only lived there for four years but this is the first winter that we've had a problem a real problem with mice so we're just also kind of wondering how much more we can look forward to next winter if if and when or whatever when or if and when this takes place so those were uh my two main questions because the rest you've answered thank

1:08:46 – 1:10:45•0

you thank thank you Don um so yeah so on the construction timeline uh the the the beauty of kind of the solar system is it's very very quick installation process this site in particular is already you know is an agricultural site so it's relatively flat we don't really have much clearing or anything like that to do um you know we will basically come in within you know one month the site will be prepped we'll start staging our material um the actual post pounding process which is kind of the the racks that hold the panels themselves that process takes about two months something times less um it's pretty pretty cool they have a machine that goes around and it's able to do it relatively quickly um and then you know after that we have some concrete work we have to do to create the pads for the batteries as well as for the buildings um but the buildings themselves are tilt up buildings they're kind of pole barn type style so they're they're relatively minimal um so kind of Allin if we're if we're moving really really quickly it's you know 6 to n months um the slow part and we because this is our first project in in ComEd territory is usually on the Utility side they're the ones that drag their feet and I'm sure you guys can appreciate that um they you know they'll take a long time to come in and actually energize our system so sometimes we'll have our projects done for 8 to 12 months and they'll just be sitting there not generating any power no power going to the grid not powering any homes or anything like that um and they'll just sit there uh so um there's that aspect and then on the mice uh side that's that's uh I just had a mouse eat through one of my car wires and all of my lights went out on my car so I can can empathize with that yeah um but we actually we partner with fence forever

1:10:42 – 1:12:42•0

which is a uh kind of they're they're based like I think all throughout Central Illinois but they essentially generate a seed mix that um we plant underneath our solar fields and but what's special about the seed mix is it only grows to be about 12 to 18 inches high which means it sits right below kind of the panels which means we don't have to go in there and mow it which is what just agitates the mice and requires them they know they go running because you know their homes are Disturbed um so you know I can't promise the first year right it's going to be like fully you know up and but by like the second or third year we have really really nice and you can kind of yeah thank you Dan you can kind of see there like there's the vegetation that's kind of underneath the panels there is starting to grow and starting to fill in um and what's really nice about that too is a lot of times you know the Farmland that's there is every year it's getting tilled up and there's a lot of dust that's being created and and um you know there's there's that process of of uh you know cycling through the different crops once we put the solar panels in and we put the uh you know the vegetation layer down that doesn't change for a long time and it actually helps to rejuvenate the strength of the soil there's a lot of uh benefits for the Wildlife that's there um so you know it's kind of a net positive in some regards um for the soil because it's not constantly being disturbed and you're you're not losing a top soil layer every year so um I have a coule to come back up yeah come on up to the podium please broadcast away so people can hear you at home okay so um also you mentioned Lincoln is that right off of 55 there yes okay i' because I've seen that one my I'm originally from Springfield so I passed that one lot so I remember when it kind of popped up and you mentioned that so that is one of yours there Lincoln is that the one

1:12:38 – 1:14:36•0

that's it's off of 55 Interstate 55 right uh Lincoln is between Springfield and Bloomington closer to Springfield but about 30 miles outside of Springfield okay yeah no I I do know where link it is I'm wondering the intersection we have I think we have two projects there so okay the intersection 50th that we're just starting which is Nicholson not sure about that I'm not that familiar with Lincoln just the stretch between Springfield andt and could us could been us there's a lot of solar projects okay and then that is good to know about the uh the extra vegetation that that will be helpful for the we have deer and other things that roam around so it's kind of nice that they'll be taken care of all right we've even seen wild turkeys right no other questions there all right is there anybody else from the public that has questions comments would like to address okay well seeing none it's this is not a public hearing so I don't have to close the public hearing at this point seeing no more questions comments from the gallery how about the commission I'm going to open it up to the commission for questions for the city or for Nick about this project anybody go ahead no um um most of my questions were were answered um I guess the only other thing is I know in some of the other um solar farm project things that we've approved there was a like a a date like it was a 20year project or something like that it is this something like that where after 20 years you'll probably reassess or I guess you're asking if they're going to lease it or in how long is it leased or are you guys buying so so so we own

1:14:32 – 1:16:32•0

the land okay and we we will own the uh solar array okay um the panels are rated for about 25 years okay batter uh about half that um so at least 25 years um but one of the things that we typically do is we we generate like a decommissioning plan I guess that which is probably what you're thinking about yeah and so what that does is it basically gives you some assurances where you know if when the project is coming and approaching end of life there's some Financial guarantee and security around that we're going to not just leave a a 30 acre field of panels that don't work anymore you know we you know so that's kind of what that is for and it's very detailed we have kind of professionals pull that together and and and they'll generate that whole thing so yeah that's that's kind of what I think I was thinking of Y yeah okay so when you come back there'll be a decommissioning plan submitted with this yeah that's required in the Udo you they have that or be required to have that submitted prior to starting any work on this very good okay it's approved okay I had one question I think it might have already been addressed though because we talked about the 20 feet maximum so these these pill these panels are 90 in so about 7 1/2 ft wide or long and then they're going to be mounted up so how how high are they mounted off the ground yeah so kind of at the at the base of the slope um it's about 18 in and at the top of the slope it's about 9 ft so 9t that that angle whatever that I think that was with regard to the the out buildings to the to the Data Center buildings those could be up to 20 ft isn't that yeah I think I believe the data center buildings are right at 20 ft um wasn't the panels the panels are only

1:16:30 – 1:18:27•0

nine and that's at a 122% grade okay um that's kind of the angle that they're they're positioned at so what what was on here that you're going to have to ask for a variance for well that's uh yeah the report I I mentioned that it was incorrect in their summary up to 20 ft no higher than 20 a Max in a Udo is 15 but they did indicate another person with the the company noted the max height would be ft eight or 9 ft it sounds like so okay and then just in helping me understand this I'm looking at this picture here M so the the meshed areas those are all the arrays that are going to go back and forth and they're going to be at Max height of 9 8 9 ft mhm those two big things next to the arrays those are the batteries yeah it's it's not exactly how they look so you know it's not like it's a huge battery that's dropped in uh it's it's actually kind of a couple smaller uh containers of batteries more or less um and uh yeah the way that that works is you know the containers are shipped in batteries are shipped in separately and then the containers are filled with the batteries and hooked up to the the solar array and then and how how tall are those batteries how it's a good question I I they're not any taller than 8 ft that they're you know so Road or greenw Acres I'm going to see the panels but I'm not going to necessarily see so much those two P those two no I don't I mean maybe if you have the right angle you might see it but yeah from the if you're driving down P Road you would not see any sort of battery system the two buildings behind those are the data centers correct okay and then this looking through the plan that you submitted I mean it was it this this because this is just a concept plan it looks like the dimensions you have listed on that plan there like 60 by 100

1:18:25 – 1:20:22•0

ft buildings there yes and the buildings I see are different dimensions is am I looking at the right thing it's just that I yeah that was kind of like a concept plan so we don't have our final stamp so the final plan will be our final plan will and you know we're open to kind of uh you know adjusting those buildings and you know any way that we need to but you know one thing that I don't believe is in those plans that you were looking at either were the kind of the incorporation of the bathrooms as well so those things will be included in there so the bathrooms is that going to be inside one of the buildings or is that going to be a standalone building someplace else or uh we'll include it probably in one of the buildings I would imagine okay um and I think you've answered this from your like people generally these data centers it's not it's not like you know Facebook built these data centers and there's 50 100 people working there there's not going to be people working there is there no other than you know routine maintenance you know once maybe twice a month uh they're fairly standalone data centers um sometimes yeah you'll you'll need to check on one of the servers or something like that but okay yeah think you've answered my questions yeah the only thing I'd like to reinforce is that as you provide a buffer between that and the residents that it's a nice enough one that it doesn't you know impede the pleasure of living at their home not having to look at an industrial site absolutely um but I'm sure that'll be a part of your your final plan yeah and we have you know I I guess Dan would the vegetative buffer be able to put that inside kind of the setback area yeah yeah the setbacks for solar rays any building but Landscaping obviously could be within there within there okay perfect yeah how is Landscaping impacted by solar panels I know they do generate a little bit of heat but are

1:20:20 – 1:22:17•0

they are they diffic I mean is is vegetation difficult to maintain not not that I know of I've I've never they they really don't generate all that much heat um I mean yeah there's there's not really any negative there's actually a lot of companies out there now that are that are growing food under solar panels solar panel called Agri voltaics which you know they'll put the solar panels up kind of the pie and then they'll grow corn or whatever may be underneath um but we're not doing doing that here uh but I don't I don't believe there's really any impact on the vegetation if anything really it it it strengthens it kind of on my point earlier where you know every year you're kind of tearing up the top soil disturbing the land right this actually the the you know the grass that grows kind of has roots goes deep retains more moisture you know kind of in the soil um you know can help help the you know the surrounding wild wildlife landscape uh do better as well all right all right thank you anything else all right well this has uh been very informative I appreciate you coming this is just uh no official action is going to be taken tonight we we're going to do is we're going to you know look at this people have heard about it there people can now they know how to reach out to you and contact you with questions and you know how to find us is that all we have to do for this Dan yep there's no official sounds like a proceed So yeah thank you everyone and apprciate it they do there'll be a official public hearing notice sent to Residents within 250 ft the same ones you got them regarding a hearing date here in this room so all right all right then we'll move on to the next part of the meeting and that is reports do you have any staff reports for D yeah just uh next meeting uh 21st that's a Tuesday

1:22:15 – 1:23:01•0

because of the holiday so just one hearing scheduled this time uh 2050 East Lincoln Highway it's for an auto sales there so that's that's all we have on that agenda at this time and Happy New Year to everybody all right that's all I add thanks that's that's all you got okay anything from the Commissioners anything to report no all right well Happy New Year everybody at this point of the meeting I'm going to ask for a motion to adjourn so moved Becker has motion that we adjourn is there a second I second pagram seconds all in favor say I I I'll oppose same sign very nice thank you everybody it's now [Music]

This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.