Planning Commision - Regular Meeting

church. It is 6 pm. Uh February 2nd, 2026 session of the city of Okar Plan Commission is called to order. If anyone in our audience wants to speak tonight, please complete one of the hearing contact sheets in the back table and give it to one of our uh planners at the front table here. And I ask that everyone please turn your cell phone off or to silent vote. Um I'll call the role, attendance role. Um let's see. Commissioner Brewster

here. Commissioner Reed, Commissioner Lawson here, Commissioner Holman here, Commissioner Leonard here, Commissioner Zoy here,

and the vice chair, Commissioner Harrison is here. And we have a quorum. Um, six members makes a quarum. I'll read our standard introductory statement for how we conduct our meetings. Uh, During tonight's meeting, plan commission members will be participating in person to deliberate and take action on the agenda items that are before us. Uh the plan commission attempts to conduct its public hearings in a relatively informal manner. um without the con with within the constraint that we must conduct or deal with the issues before us in an orderly and business-like fashion. We give the applicant an opportunity to speak first and then others are each permitted to speak either for or against the proposal. We do request that everyone restrict their comments to the issues before us, avoid unnecessary repetition, and be prudent in the use of time. We want to be sure that we have time to deal as carefully with the last item on the agenda as we do the first. If you wish to view not comment at tonight's meeting, it can be viewed through the live event link on the city's homepage under public notices and meetings. This meeting is being recorded at the same location. Now, tonight um this is we will have an open uh public comment premier period for items three which which is an open public comment. Um, and any items that do not appear on tonight's agenda as a public hearing, that would include items four, five, and six, and seven. Um, if you if there's anyone here that wishes uh to speak or give a public

comment on end agenda items three, four, five, four, five, six, or seven. Uh, please come forward to the podium if you wish to speak. Anyone coming to the podium who wishes to speak on items four, five or six? Item seven is uh just uh uh for future agenda items and public and announcements. Um anyone else wishing to speak? Seeing no one wishing to speak, we'll move on to Item four, which is our consent agenda. Our consent agenda includes approval of the January 5th, 2026 plan commission minutes and approval of the Old Wells Road easement releases and and and easement. Um, I'll entertain a motion. I will move to approve.

I'll second. Commissioner Hollesman move to approve and Commissioner Leonard. Second. I will call the role. Commissioner Zoy. I. Commissioner Leonard. I. Commissioner Boltzman. I. Commissioner Lawson. I. Commissioner Brewster. Hi. And vice chair. Commission. votes I and the motion passes. Uh item number five is a comprehensive plan amendment major update initiation initiation.

Yes. Good evening plan commission. Appreciate your time. Um this is some background material that some of you have actually seen. I know council member Brewster before. We just had a work session with the city council. But to go through this with you, some of you are would be new to the comprehensive planning process or this large update that we we're going to undertake here this year into next year. So we our current comp plan, if you're not real familiar with it, if you're newer on the board, you can access that on the city planning website. Uh we've done some amendments related to the land development ordinance most most recently that I think all of you have been part of that small amendment. This large amendment is going to look at the whole document comprehensively. Um so again it this is defined by state law. It's a physical plan um looking at land use as the focus. It does delve into economics and social issues as well, cultural things. Uh but it's more of a highlevel plan. It's not a regulation. It's not a law, but it's policy that guides land use decisions. It's um something that is very important to the plan commission in terms of policy. you've known um how it interacts with resoning requests that it has to be con consistent with the comprehensive plan land use designation and really the main exhibit if you are trying to explain what this is is the future land use map terms of how the city wants to grow into its future whether it's redevelopment or outward development. So, we'll be updating this map, uh, basically the main exhibit of of the plan. And just some reminders if you're not familiar with that, this plan needs to be consistent with, um, our subdivision ordinances, our comprehensive plan, our um, zoning ordinances. It may suggest changes as well, and then usually dictates changes for the subdivision code or the zoning code in the future. Um, our plan doesn't actually have to be consistent with overlapping jurisdictions. We may have a

different future than say some what some of the towns and what they want to do. So that'll be to be to be determined in terms of how that gets played out with the update. Um, we can include areas outside of our plan jurisdiction, which we do currently. And then also it's a guide for official mapping where we want to maybe put a new road in a new community facility. Um, and it may cover the area as I mentioned the extr territory territorial review area outside of the city. It's developed by the city allocating a budget which was done a couple years ago. So, here we are now. We're going to go to uh request for proposals from our consultants and see what we can get uh follow a process that I'll go over more in this public participation plan next after these background slides. And then you guys will um once we get to that stage at the public hearing, you will recommend approval by a resolution than the council does adopts it by an ordinance. That's a little bit different process-wise, but that how that's how it uh gets completed and we're thinking probably about 20 month process here to go through the whole update. These are elements that typically are included. You're familiar with many of these. I will go into each one of these in the plan, public participation plan. The state law requires nine elements, land use, transportation, housing, parks, and such. We have additional chapters that key in on neighborhoods, downtown, historic preservation, health, and so on. So, we'll be looking at all of these chapters, elements. The nine, of course, are needed. some of these um other crossover type chapters might be more of a theme or kind of a a value set through some of the other ones uh to be determined. We have other plans that are supposed to be referenced and um aligned with and that would include like our renewable energy action plan, our waterways plan and things like that. Um neighborhood plans as well. The comprehensive plan really looks at the

physical growth of the city through zoning, subdivision, official mapping, capital improvement planning. And so that's how the city council sets aside budgets for road improvements or park facility and such. So again, really physically related to the the city's um outlay of capital. Our this is kind of interesting looking back at the history of our comprehensive planning. We started in 1953 with our first comp plan and then this will be our seventh fast forward to to this year. So we've you can see sort of the evolution of zoning as it relates also with the comprehensive plan. So a lot a rich history of of city planning here at the city. Um the recent zoning alignment was um dictated a lot through our existing comprehensive plan in terms of producing more um smaller lots, mixeduse development. Um and so that the policies that will be put forward in the new comprehensive plan um should work with the new LDO uh but also might have some new ideas too. So we'll see how all that plays out. Um the LDO also strengthens environmental protections which was called out in the comprehensive plan. So our current comprehensive plan strengths and this was I've been this is like this will be my third comprehensive plan here at the city. also working on uh plans like um the health chapter and the sustainability chapter and the renewable energy action plan. So I've been through this quite a bit but we have strong plans very comprehensive. We've we've had this um growth strategy of compact development for over three decades and that's served us well to try to use what we have leverage our existing infrastructure while we know that we still are going to grow out into that farmland out into the county. um great great decision- making through um the comprehensive plan in terms of laying out where roads should go, parks, utilities, and then public involvement's always been something important. So, one of the big just a flag for you guys as

you probably well know is how is the city going to grow the next 20 50 years in this plan looking outward um in and inward with our city. So, that will be a big question in terms of how we want to grow as a city. And then these other issues and many more will come as we work with the public in terms of what we need to look at for policies. But forecasting our growth and the land supply triggered to that. You're going to hear from Director White soon about industrial needs, land supply in your second presentation. Um again, one of the key things with our levy limits is how can we get really the most taxpayer benefit out of that land use? Um so it pays for itself, development pays for itself. refine the land use plan as I mentioned before. Another key area is our urban land supply for our sewer service and that is a plan that's being currently updated by our regional plan commission and that will help inform our outward growth as well. So those two plans will link up pretty well in terms of timing. Um I had mentioned the comp the capital improvement plan. um our neighborhoods, our corridors, our districts, looking at urban area sub plans um to bundle more neighborhood plans together is the concept uh for in the new growth areas too to look at those to try to make those complete neighborhoods going forward. Um neighborhood stabilization, aging buildings, infrastructure, diverse housing, affordability, economic development incentives, and more to come. Any questions before I get into the public participation plan? So, that was a quick overview. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. Um, so the public participation plan is required by state law and we have the plan commission approved this. So, tonight we're asking for your approval. The city council just saw this last Tuesday. Um, and they approved it. They gave a few little changes on that and I'll go over it. But basically the the

road map here to distill this down is that this is really written in four stages and each stage we have to have how the public will be at least minimally engaged in that. So that's the bullet points that are listed in each stage. So more engagement could occur. This is just kind of the bare minimum. One of the difficult things with this is that we don't have a consultant selected yet. So we want to also hear from the consultant what things that they might have or innovations different techniques but this is sort of the basics. So this will go as part of our or request for proposals so the consultant knows our expectations and what you approve tonight. So the stage one is really assess or getting organized um forming our advisory committee. Uh then stage two is assessing the existing conditions. How well did our land use map perform? We've got some great um analysis that will take place in stage two. Stage three is brainstorming, starting to put forward um the objectives and goals that outline the chapter content and then uh formulating the the each chapter content. So that's quite a robust stage. Stage three and then uh final drafting go back out for the public um input on that. Then hearings in stage four for adoption. So we're we're expecting probably fall of 27 for this thing to be adopted. Um comprehensive plan advisory committee. So we met with council. They like this idea to have maybe a 12 to 15 person um working committee that these representatives would be diverse. They would you might have a neighborhood representative. You might have a developer, environmentalist, um, educator, healthcare, you know, you can think of it just, but what they wanted was an application process. So, this would be utilized through our citizen uh, resource bank form. We we'd have a specific application so that

whoever wanted to apply could apply for it. And then staff would review the applications, recommend to what our board, our appointments committee, um, there's three council members. they would take those recommendations back to city council and then they would approve this list of 12 to 15. So in the past you guys actually approved this list but the city council wanted to change that and they wanted to approve the list. So the last comprehensive plan you guys actually approved the list and it was like 52 members and what we found with that was that there's just too many people not everybody was committed. Um but the other ways to engage I'll go through but this is the committee in terms of um what council wanted and uh we'll see what you guys think about this committee and to show how that committee and everything kind of works together with feedback loops is so you have the project team which would be basically staff the key staff including the city manager and then you've got yourselves and the council so you're the ultimate decision makers in the end um we'll we'll come to you on these meetings and give you updates and have probably some discussion items as well in terms of seeking some direction in particular areas that maybe the advisory committee says, "Well, we want to know what city council and plan commission think about this too." Um, I should mention too that on the committee we'd like to have two members of the plan commission and two members from the city council on it. So, you have that that connection liaison back to that group. So there'll be good feedback loops in terms of um being on um for two members on the advisory committee but also regular interface with you at these meetings uh based off of need. Then you see these other activities and these are all in the the plan. Um you know we'll have obviously a project website but we'll have a community survey. We may use AI in this regard to collect even more feedback with smartphones. um that might be a

possibility depending on the consultants uh ability to use that. Um otherwise we'll just do a standard kind of survey monkey sort of uh form uh interviews. So we'll have interviews with stakeholders. This could range from particular groups or a particular person depending on need. Office hours as well. Office hours will be throughout the whole process. Um focus groups you can imagine those might be with uh particular neighborhoods. uh developer groups, environmentalists, um you you name it. Those focus groups will really be keyed in on what that stakeholder group may want to see or their concerns. Um so those are those are um through each of the three processes or stages I should say uh focus groups, interviews with stakeholders and office hours. So a lot of lot of opportunity to interface. Then we have workshops and pop-up events, presentations by request, the advisory committee as well. So all of this information is being collected, funneled back into the decision-making bodies. Um the boards and committees too, those would be your other groups like transit commission, landmarks commission, housing commission, um parks and waterways, sustainability advisory committee. There's a few other ones, diversity, equity, inclusion committee. So those they will have three chances as well throughout each stage for input or assessment input and then recommendations depending on their specific chapter. So they'll be very involved as well. So a lot of public engagement all of this is articulated in the plan. Um any questions before I I have a couple minor amendments that were requested by the city manager to clarify some things from the what the city council gave us feedback on. Any questions about the process?

How do you select which lucky two of us are going to be on this?

Yeah, that would be for you guys to appoint yourselves. You don't have to do that tonight. Um so if someone's interested, you know, throwing their name in the ring and then um get the votes. And so keep that in mind if that's something you will have an opportunity. Again, we'll come back to you as a regular body and talk uh with you and get your input, but if you'd like to be we really like two plan commissioners to be a part of this. So, think about it. And there will be a you'll you'll um on that one, you don't have to actually sign the um application, sign up that way. You would actually be done through um the voting yourself here on there. And then we would just take those recommendations to council and they would understand that you guys voted yourself like you if you two were on it then you know the council would have that. Any other questions?

When you expect that the meetings would start. Yeah. So the the meetings would probably start in June and um we'll have an expectation agreement on the citizen advisory committee. Is that what you're asking about or just in general? I guess when does when would the commitment start that this whole process is gonna happen? Yeah. May or June?

It depends on the the consultant. We'd like to select the consultant to have city council approve the contract by like um the first meeting in April and then we can get organized, start building out the project website and then um in May have that advisory committee all set. That will take some time with the applications. So hopefully after school is out, we can we can run with it. And so that will go all over summer, that'll go into fall, too. So we capture people uh for about six months of of assessment and engagement on the front end. Other questions before these little amendments? Okay. So, the amendments here um and this was conversation with the council uh last Tuesday was uh trying to give the opportunity for possibly a local community partner or a subconsultant to help reach underserved voices and audiences. So, there's some language in there. Um just just to be more clear about that on page two I inserted um just the language. It says to achieve desired engagement results a subconsultant may be used or the city can work with community partners to reach wider audiences and groups hard to reach. So I added that. And then on page two the city manager and or deputy city manager as they see fit will be a part of the project team. So that was requested to be added. uh it was somewhat in there already but just clarified and then the other amendment was to detail this advisory committee a little bit more about the application process. So that language on the screen formal application applicants being recommended by staff and then the appointments committee which I think council member Brewster's on. So there's three council

members that then for their recommendations under the city council to approve this list of 12 to 15 members. um they'll sign a participation agreement much like that um zoning policy advisory committee, but it'll be different. But they'll sign an expectation agreement that they're expected to probably be at least 10 meetings uh two to two and a half hours per meeting outside homework to review the documents to come prepared to the meetings so that the people are really vested in the process the smaller group and I had mentioned the two members on council and plan commission and that the city council may be one of the two members was requested to put on there but that that's up to council. So, so those are the changes. Other than that, um, we seek your approval.

Any other questions? Thank you, chair. Um, so I had a a question. Oh, Lord, did I just forget it? Sorry. Is there right at the tip of my tongue? And it was a good one, too. Actually, can you go back to the previous slide? Maybe that'll here or

Oh, I remember. Sorry. Um because uh some people from plan commission uh that might be interested in being on it get get rotated through um during that process. Do you foresee it being one where like if if somebody from plan commission gets seated on that um they will retain that seat even if they rotate off of plan. Do you know what I mean? Um would we have to oh their term ends say for example? Yeah. I mean you might want to consider that if you if you don't want to renew your term don't probably don't apply for it.

Um but yeah if you if you I I would expect two years. So, if you're interested in doing it, then ideally we'd like to keep you on it. But if we for some reason, you know, uh we need to put somebody different on there, then we would just ask you to revote here for that that name. So, there [clears throat] could be chances of of change for that committee. Um and if it came to where council needed to reapprove a name on there, we can do that, too.

A thought Um it's established as a 12 to 15 member committee um to to take up Commissioner Brewster's um concern um if it were established as a 12 member committee with the possibility of expanding it to 15 if a plant commissioner were to leave, you know, his term would expire and wouldn't re-up

and perhaps that person could be appointed in addition to the existing members and and of course another plan commissioner would be appointed instead. But uh if it was a if you had some flexibility of say between 12 and 15 members and you initially started with 12 and you had say three spots that could be filled at some point because I I can I can just envision not just it's a long process and not just plan commission members but other members from the community that may be on the on the team also who may be uh wanting to continue but for business reasons or other reasons can't but maybe only be unable to do it for a couple of months and then maybe want to come back and you know it's their their knowledge and expertise and and their input for say half of the process would be valuable to have. Um could could something like that be organized? I mean

I know it would probably take an amendment. Uh

yeah, I mean we we the 12 to 15 is that flexibility. So depending on the applicants, you know, if we have if we're too heavy on let's say like say environmentalists, you know, then maybe it's a smaller number at 12 because we didn't have that many people apply. But what we'd really like is that the expectation is that you're going to serve on this committee the whole way through. But if some unforeseen circumstance comes up, we get that, you know, say say another plan commissioner had to take that that that spot, that's easy enough to change. So, it's flexible, but I would say a maximum 15. We'll just it kind of depends on We've never done it this way, so it just kind of depends on who applies, but we want we want them to understand that this is a commitment. Whereas when we had that bigger body of 50 plus, we had a lot of just variations. is not PE people didn't show, you know, we want people to understand and this participation agreement will lay all that out. It's like we expect you to be also a champion of this plan after the fact and also we want you to be that liaison to the your representatives so that you're letting them know about what's happening. you you can go to their meetings and explain what what what you're doing because you you're very involved in the process or potentially staff doesn't even have to be there because that representative is very knowledgeable about the process and can articulate that to that that group. So it's flexible.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for will a motion. I actually do have another quick question, chair, if that's all right. Um is if how do I want to word this?

Um once we once we have the RFPs back from different um different consultants and are we going to have a chance to reexamine what the public participation looks like once they have a chance to talk about, you know, strategies that they might use in addition? Yeah, I would say if if it's if it's too far a field from from this, then we'll we'll want to come back to have you guys amend this. Okay.

But I think what that what's challenging is that we we we have to put this down. We have to have you guys approve it to get it started, but we also want to be flexible enough that if there's something we missed, we could add that in. And if if it's it's a important enough thing to actually include in this, we can do that and have you amend it. So, time will tell. Right. Thank you. I move that we approve this. Second. I'll second. Commissioner Brewster, you're moved and second call the role. Commissioner Brewster I.

Commissioner Lawson. Iman. Hi. Commissioner Leonard. I commissioners I and vice chair commissioner Ericson votes I and motion carries six. Thank you. We will move on. Uh item number five, um excess land for parking.

Oops. Excuse me. I said that was already decided, but we can chat about it. [snorts] Excuse me. [laughter] Excuse me. May Arcade [snorts] item number six, industrial.

Thank you, commissioners. Pleasure to be here tonight. Um, per the January uh, meeting when you asked to hear a little bit about um, some land use questions and some land use presentation, we're coming forward with a this is a variation of a presentation I made at a work session to council here several weeks back. Um, so wanted to kind of go through what we're looking at in terms of industrial land um, and and needed growth. So starting out just addressing our current industrial parks. Um our parks are filling up quickly. The this is the Chipoa Valley Industrial Park. It's the only heavy industrial park that we have uh within the community. It's up by the airport. That red space is the only space that's formally available within that space and it's actually owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and they for the most part keep telling us they have no interest in selling it because they might need it someday. Don't know for what, don't know why, but it sits and remains undeveloped. Um, Gateway Northwest Industrial Park. This is the been the most aggressive and the most common park that we've been using. Um, most of our expansions have been occurring in this. Um, we are quickly filling that space up. Um, the red spaces on the northern, they're north of 10th Avenue. We are actually in the process. Border States bought one of those on the west side. Um there is a 5 acre parcel left in there. We are currently splitting that up to do um commercial spaces on the frontage road. There's been interest in those spaces. As you look to the other side, the east side, we have a 70acre parcel that's under contract. We have a 10acre parcel. That orange parcel of 10 acres is currently under negotiation. Um we expect all of those spaces to be filled. the um remaining space in the orange um part of that's already been sold off for residential um on the eastern side of that long orange space there. Um the rolling topography of that

area is actually not real suitable for industrial expansion because of cost and topography. So again, what is our currently most active industrial park is just about out of space as well. And again, this has been all light industrial. Um, some of the remaining lots that are left, there's one that's privately owned and they have zero they've they it was bought um prior to our policy of requiring groundbreaking within 12 months of purchasing a site within our Gateway Park and that lot has sat undeveloped for decades with nothing moving forward and that no recourse to move that project forward. So, um, we are continuing again to look at at what's available there. Gateway West. The remaining parcels are under private ownership. They have very specific ideas on which they want that land developed and we've not seen any projects come forward on either of those two available spaces either. Um the Sky Park Industrial Center is effectively bought out. Um the last few sites that are still available are privately owned for build a suit projects that are coming forward steadily. So um that's really the last of the industrial space that we had available within these spaces. Um reason we are concerned about lack of industrial space. Um we are getting requests regularly typically in the 20 to 40 acre sites that we are unable to provide responses to. These are requests coming through sources that we use. Um requests coming down from the state of Wisconsin, the the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, [cough] excuse [clears throat] me. Um folks that are looking at at spaces looking at Wisconsin. Um we've had to direct advanced manufacturing logistics companies and prospects to other communities. Uh it also affects existing businesses. We've had some businesses who who have expressed interest in expanding their space within the community who are unable to find space to grow. Um

existing businesses that can't grow in the community will start looking elsewhere. So having um the availability of doing things like this is important and and this in pattern is accelerating. Something that we've seen is a lot of interest in and rediscovered interest in the Great Lakes area in particular Wisconsin. Um, from a manufacturing standpoint, we are getting a lot of new requests in this whole area is getting a lot of new looks um, from different manufacturing types. Wisconsin is a known entity with a good labor force, adequate resources, um, good proximity to distribution networks. This is an ideal place to be and Oaklair is one of the fastest growing communities in the state of Wisconsin and the largest in the northwest or the western quadrant of of Wisconsin is getting a hard look from a lot of these companies as a place as a workforce. that would be attractive to uh an expansion if we can find the land. Um again talking about some of the economic and committee impacts and feel free if you have any questions as we're going through this presentation feel free to ask them out. Um we don't need to wait till the end if you see something you have a question about. Um feel free to ask and be happy to to answer questions on the fly. um economic and community impacts of industrial employers. They generate strong stable tax base. Uh high private investment per acre means long-term fiscal health. Um losing projects today limits future diversification and revenue. Regional competitors with land are capturing opportunities and Oaklair's workforce and location are strong, but land capacity limits our outcomes. So again um looking to be able to capitalize on what we can offer to employers or existing businesses looking to expand and continue to grow their business in this community. This becomes a very important issue. Uh growth opportunities here are the sectors that we are seeing a lot of strong potential right now. um biommanufacturing. Um one of the projects we're working on, we're wrapping up a three-year recruitment

project on an expansion project Aurora. Um that is um in that within that industry and brings a very unique product type to here that is growing in the area. Electronics manufacturing obviously TTM Technologies is the big one. They bought the former Hutchinson TDK building [snorts] and their prospects are to add job numbers and that facility at full buildout that hasn't been seen by that by Hutchinson Technologies in a decade or more. So the TTM Technologies is the largest wetboard uh chip manufacturer in the North America and the fourth largest in the world. So that type of uh entity coming in builds clusters. Um companies grow and follow these types of businesses wherever they go. Medical devices um heartworks is a growing project in the community that's looking at space and we'll be announcing some some closed needles on some space in the community. um their cutting edge technology looks to bring in other medical device supporters that will build off what they're the techniques that they're developing in research um to help potentially grow that um segment composits and plastics. We have a number of those manufacturers in here that are working with unique products and plastics and creating unique products within that area.

[snorts]

Uh the university also has with uh with their tech program um ideal space to research um materials as part of their their some of their advanced training. So a university partner in that area becomes a very attractive piece for folks who are testing materials for strength and product lines and having the university as potential partner there. food manufacturing. We have a number of food manufacturers in the community and they are looking to grow that element. And again, advanced light manufacturing. A lot of the manufacturing that we have here are um developing and improving automation. It is uh a little bit of a spin-off of not enough folks going into bluecollar trade type skills or manufacturing type skills. So, automation is growing. That does mean that the the workforce that fills these plants is more trained. they have a more advanced training and are paying much higher wages. So again, that type of advanced light manufacturing um is an attraction for a community. It helps grow the overall wage base for a community. So these are our strong potentials that we're looking at. Um light manufacturing parks are what we are focusing on. They are ideally for the types of businesses that we referenced. It's a good fit for the community. Um, you don't typically see university communities or or ones that also have big medical business with with a strong heavy industrial base. Uh, heavy industrial manufacturing tends to bring more noise, more odor, more issues that you can tell a a big heavy manufacturing community and when you walk into when you show up in that community, you step out the door and you can smell it no matter where you are. Um, rendering plants and things like that not attracted to this community would detract from what this community is trying to achieve. So we are focusing on light manufacturing spaces. It's compatible with community expectations in nearby commercial areas. Um low lower environmental impacts and flexible site designs. Uh suitable for emerging

industries requiring scalable space and data centers are a conditional use within um industrial light industrial parks. That was one of the things that was brought up at the meeting last week is to talk a little bit more about those. So we are going to dive into that one a little bit. Um, data centers are catching a lot of attention right now. The project in Monomony caught attention. There's Port of Washington. Um, the forest just turned down a project. There's a project looking at at Jainsville, Beaver Dam. There's a number of them um being looked at right now. There are 45 operating data centers in the state of Wisconsin at been operating for a number of years here. Um, a little basic information about data centers. These are uh often they're typically located in industrial parks. Uh data centers are secure facil facilities that store and process digital information. Uh AI is what's catching a lot of the attention now. A lot of the big centers are geared towards AI technology. But it's not AI that's only driving this industry. Anything that's stored in the cloud has a data center somewhere that's storing that data. Um some quick facts about data centers. Among the highest private investment per acre of any land use. uh very low traffic and employment intensity. So for an area that is um maybe tight unemployment base um you know not be able to fill huge jobs. These are not real high um job creators but they are very high wage creators and they pull in technology and folks that might also be going in other areas. So they they provide a different type of of technology base or employment options within the community. significant en energy and redundancy needs, strong national growth due to cloud computing and digital infrastructure demand. Um, want to hit a little bit about industry changes because what we hear in the media is a lot about why communities don't want them. They don't want to talk about them. And I would add now that we

don't have an active data center project looking at Oaklair, but Wisconsin as a whole and we as we know because of the Monomony project, Chipwa Valley is getting looked at by them. So we felt this is important to start introducing the conversation to the community. Um data center designs have changed over the last decade. The three most common things you hear about communities that are concerned about data centers are the water usage, the cost of energy and and potentially raising utilities and the noise. Um so we're just going to address some of those. Um, the high water use that everybody really gets concerned about was from a technology that was abandoned a decade ago. That was evaporative pad cooling where they would flood massive amounts of water across evaporative pads for outdoor evaporation to cool their systems. These are the facilities that used the million gallons a day type of thing or two million gallons a day. They haven't used those systems for a decade. They were extremely expensive. They were extremely hard to manage and they were very inefficient. Modern systems use closed loops. So, think the cooling system in your car. Water's pulled in and that's recirculated through the system over and over again, cooled down within closed systems. So, it's not constantly having to replenish that. Um, the newest technology, and that is one of the projects that's being looked on the east side of the state, they use zero water in their cooling. So, the technology is actually moving past using any water at all. the only water you'll see in those plants are tied with um sanitary that's used for your employee uses, bathrooms, restrooms, etc. So, that is a a change in the system um that is reflected that's not always reflected in some of the concerns we hear about these facilities. Um something I also want to point out too, a lot of these facilities that are still using the closed loop are using gray water. So, they're not pulling fresh drinking water. They're pulling gray water out of your treatment facilities. It doesn't need to be clean drinking water that goes through these

systems. This is a great use for water that's that's had some use already and can still provide some cooling capacity. Um the other next thing you hear oftentimes about energy rates and concerns that oh data center comes in they're going to drive up all utility rates. The state of Wisconsin law and the constitution does not prohibit that. Um they cannot um pardon not allowed. Yeah that's right. It's not allowed. [snorts] It is is did I say it does not prohibit?

Oh, they do prohibit that. So, um rates are set by a state organization that have to be petitioned and the state law says that a energy provider cannot take the cost to provide energy to a customer and spread that over all their other customers. It has to be built within their rate system. So, the customer that's coming on has to pay for those costs, has to cover their own expenses. So there are built-in securities within Wisconsin's process that don't see rampant um energy rate increases um based on data center usage. Other states do see that. So it is a it is a problem that does occur in other areas, but Wisconsin is not one of those areas that that that becomes an issue. Um and also the facilities, they're much bigger than they were, but in terms of energy efficiency, they're getting much more efficient than they were 10 years ago. So they're bigger in scale, but they're using energy more efficiently than they did in the past. Um, one of the last ones we always hear is noise concerns. And that has been an issue in communities. Um, particularly on the older technology, um, a lot of times that community that was self-inflicted. It's a it's an aspect of poor city planning. Um, the cities that I've seen that that oftentimes have residents complaining about noise issue is because the city went in and approved a zoning change from a commercial district to an industrial district specifically to allow a data center into that area. If you're changing commercial to industrial, that very likely places industrial centers near residential spaces, which they should never have planned and done properly in the first place. If these are built out in industrial areas that are industrial design, it's no different than any other manufacturing going on in these facilities and is not a noise concern. And new technology has a lot of these plants running quietly and you don't hear any noise. It was always kind of a hum vibration is what you hear people

talk about. And under new technology, most of that is going away as well. So, it's a changing industry. Um, that's what I want to hit as far as some basics on the the data centers and again our our need for industrial space would open it up for any questions. Thanks. Uh, I guess I got one right away. Uh, so because of the limited number of employees that would be at a data center, do we have any like numbers in terms of what like the tax benefit would be for a data center versus like a different industrial use for the same land? So communities look at it because it is um property tax that comes with data centers. They are highly taxed from a from a property tax standpoint. Industrial projects, there's a huge number of state tax breaks that are built into industrial expansions. So they pay a very limited industrial space compared to other comparable spaces. Um industri or data centers don't. They are highly taxable space. Um we're trying to get some we're doing some research trying to get some more data on what that might look like. But that's that's why communities love them. They come in, they pay a huge amount of property tax um across the life of the project.

Thank you, chair. Um you know, thinking about like the edges of of the city, I'm I'm struggling to come up with more than just a couple places that might be suitable for something like this. Do you do you have any any anything in mind where you're well I I guess without spilling the beans and whatever like where where do you see us you know potentially putting together another industrial park and and how might that work and how does that

yeah we are looking at a variety of areas um there are development groups that have space that are looking at that um this will actually part of the comp plan process when you talk about land use is defining where do we see industrial park growth? Where do we see commercial park or residential growth on the fringes of the community? Um the biggest piece they're noted for is is large parcels. The the request you're seeing when you look at projects in other that have occurred in other communities are coming and ignore Port Washington. Port Washington's kind of the exception at 1900 acres. Most of them are coming in at like 3 to five. So this is the space they're looking for. Um the Monomony project I believe was 300 acres. Uh we've seen most of the ones that have been coming out in the media have been in somewhere in that area. It's it's really up to the the project to define what their space is, what their space needs is, what they're willing to pay for land, what they're willing to what sort of topography they're willing to deal with, are they willing to deal with with um you know farmland that that maybe takes a little additional conditioning for uh site development. So we kind of leave that driven by the project should one come to us. But that would it's definitely something we take into account and it would have to be in line with what our comprehensive plan identifies as future land growth.

Thank you. So in in conversations with business owners and and indust there's always been a need for industrial in here. They've aren't able to find locations. I mean, you can look at Monomony and their north side of on exit 45, what they're doing up there, and that's almost done, honestly. Yep.

Uh the growth and I feel Oaklair is lacking on industrial. We're not getting those jobs we need in this community. We're accepting retail, which is minimum wage jobs in here, and not accepting larger companies who are going to hire, you know, 100 people at $30 plus an hour or $40 an hour. And I hopefully with this comprehensive plan, we can address this sooner than later before we are left in the dust, per se, and we're just a a retail hub instead of actually growing city to the next level we need. So hopefully hopefully those uh industrial lots are already seen because we do need them in this city. So um you know hopefully our comprehensive plan really addresses that.

That's our intent is to make sure that is part of the conversation as we move forward. um talking with with uh uh inspection manager or uh planning manager Noel and the team you know in the past the comp plan particular in the fringe area has really just kind of went along well what the over the township said that's fine with us we're going to take a much harder look at what the community needs are in our growth areas and what the community needs to continue to grow and provide jobs to the rest of the chip valley as we move forward so that will be part of the discussions from a a more uh standpoint based you know we are looking at industrial uh an industrial user space. We're not focusing on any particular user or industry. Um there are a few things that we looked at for that are kind of common criteria. Uh most manufacturers, particularly larger manufacturers, want uh a site within 3 to 5 miles of a four-lane highway for quick in-n-out egress of trucks and freight. um as part of their plan. They are looking for, you know, the communities they want to be within a certain distance of a regional airport or hub. Um most often we hear a reference of 90 minutes to an international airport or some sort of um transit space which we meet those criteria. Um again, maybe some that are looking for rail. We don't have any rail service sites right now. So rail service would be nice. The rail es and flows the industrial standpoint. I in a past life I brokered rail freight for a large international company and um fuel cost drove what shipped rail versus not shipping rail as much as anything. The every rail car replaces three semis on the road. So it's an efficiency um creator by being able to have rail access. Uh when the fuel gets higher, the distance that they're willing to shift over from rail gets shorter and shorter. Um when it comes to how far away from the home

operation do you ship from do you shift from trucking to rail service? Um higher the fuel is the closer that range gets. It gets more and more cost effective to do rail. The the only deciding factor that gets challenging for business is um lead times. Rail is a slower shipper. So if you're relying on moving stuff like instantly and daily, you know, rail's not for you. But for some folks that they can put something in and know it's going to sit in transit for 6 weeks uh going through the rail process because they can ship large volumes or bring in large volumes. It's a key point and being able to offer rail serve sites or access to sites. Um we just turned down two in the last four months or so both looking for rail service manufacturing sites and we're interested in this area. So that's another factor that we're looking at to see if that's an amenity we can potentially provide in a future industrial space.

Thank you chair. Uh are we seeing so businesses that leave are we seeing uh many of them have like leaving uh existing industrial sites and are we seeing those sites getting picked up by other businesses relatively quickly?

The ones that are transitioning are moving pretty quick. um the the TTM Technologies purchase of Hutchinson, you know, that that was concerning when they closed, when they were shutting down, we knew that that was a big space. That was over 800,000 square feet of space. Um if you looked at TTM site, uh as the fourth largest in the world and their field, their largest production site prior to this was 107,000 square feet of production space in New York. So they basically octupled their production space in one purchase over their over their next largest plant. Um so it it's positive to see that type of potential growth and planning. You know they're planning for lots of expansion down the road by buying something that large. Um we are seeing our local manufacturers also look how they can expand within site. Um how they can get efficient use of space. Um like I said the ones that do turn over tend to stay turned over fairly quickly. We try and keep up on those and we offer them out as available sites when we can. U we do see a lot of requests coming in from companies that are looking for an existing structure. They because they're trying to get to market quickly and I don't know what they expect. There's just not a lot of 100 200,000 foot buildings just hanging around waiting for somebody to to come in and take it. We rarely have an existing building that we can offer to some of these projects that are coming forward. So um we focus on green field sites and and how we can develop faster in these areas. Vice chair has a question. Um back to the data center um item are most of these data centers singlestory?

They are a tall single story. Um, you'll see them in the I'm trying to think of the number probably somewhere in the 45 ft range. You most of them though are single story within there and just tall ceilings. You may see some mezzanine or some second story, but you're not seeing a lot of of going vertical taller than that. Is is that a is that an issue with uh the the way the industry works or is that simply the preferred style or is there options for multi-story type structures?

That's a great question. That's something we're still in the process of trying to learn more about the industry. Uh we've heard reports of some of the big abandoned um multi-story you know skyscrapers for better term like in the Twin Cities and some of these areas that have been you know they've been abandoned from offices with the shift to work from home are starting to offer some of these things out as multi-tier data centers. Um don't know if it's a specific design reason that drives that. It it tends to just be the industry standard. Um but it's it's something that we're still educating ourselves on as well as what these designs look like. Um it could be that changing technology particularly on the cooling side might see changes in the design of the facilities as well particularly if you're getting away from from um water cooling systems.

Thank you. Any other questions?

Appreciate the time. Um there we don't have anything to vote on with this, right? Nope. This is this is just anformational piece. We are likely to see a lot more these discussions come out. We're we're probably looking to start, you know, getting some information out to the community just as a as a learning process and and learning about an industry that may have an interest in this area and then kind of see where that goes from there. But uh thank you for your interest in time and you have any additional questions they feel you know feel free to reach out to me happy to answer any other questions you might have. So this will be an important discussion in the comprehensive plan. So yes it will

I'm sure we will be discussing at length in the future. Thank you.

Future agenda items and announcements. We don't have much for you. Uh the next meeting is March 2nd. We'll have some minor cleanups with the LDO. Um other than that, we have one site plan coming your way. So, but uh yeah, that's what we know right now for your next meeting. Other than that, you have any other that's it. Thank you. We've completed all the items on our agenda and we are ajourned. Focus. That's it.