City Council - Regular Meeting

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.

Call the roll, please.

Councilmember Wilson here. Marilyn here. Councilmember Burnett here. Councilmember Winchell here.

Look for any changes to the agenda.

None.

You don't hear. All right. We'll look for a motion to approve the agenda.

Motion to approve.

Second motion by Holly. Second by Phil. All in favor say aye. Aye. I have an agenda. We have no announcements tonight. Item six is our consent agenda. Anyone like to make a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion by Holly. Second by Steve. All in favor say aye. Aye. Citizen comments. Wow. That's quite a quick agenda. all the way up comments are a time for anyone to address the city council on matters not on the agenda comments from speakers must be informational in nature and may not exceed five minutes the city council will not engage in discussion or debate in those five minutes but will take the information and issue a response to those requiring one by the next council meeting When you come up to the podium, state the city or township that you live in. As part of the protocol, it is unacceptable for any speaker to slander or engage in character assassination or discuss personnel complaints at a public council meeting. As such, speakers will not be allowed to identify city employees either by name or position or to identify any other person by name during the public comment period. If one does, their comments will be deemed done.

Excuse me.

Please address your comments to the council as a whole. If decorum cannot be maintained during a speaker's time, the council will recess to allow decorum to be restored. Upon return from recess, citizen comments will resume, provided order can be maintained. If order cannot be restored, the meeting may be adjourned. Is there anyone who would like to speak tonight?

David Pritzloff, 20255 Aiken Road, Farmington. At the last... Workshop with the planning commission before the meeting and after meeting, I asked Lynn for a list of all and. Any meetings that are on the agenda for. The city as a candidate for mayor, and for all these other candidates that are out here, I think we're afforded the any information that council has we should have. Case in point tonight, you guys had some paperwork on the budget. I sat through 2 hours over the budget and there's nothing on the podium back here for us to. To look at, I think we're afforded that as candidates. I'd like to have any and all events meetings, whatever. Given to all of the candidates.

Secondly, at that workshop.

Really took a lot for me to bite my tongue because I asked a particular question about when the city changed their policy about when roads are put in by developers. It was a workshop, but I was quickly cut off by Amy to figure out that, well, we're not asking about that development. It wasn't the development that I was asking for, it was about the road. 220th Street should have been paved by the developer of Lennar that has all those houses out there. Case in point, 225th Street and Executive Estates. That developer, with the same planning people that we have at this city now, he had to pay to pave 225th Street to the last entrance of the Executive Estates out of his pocket. was actually brought up a little bit at the workshop tonight about taxpayers paying for new roads and I was gonna get into it then, but I'm like, I wanna make it public. Why do we have 220th Street not paved at all? And we have a development out there. Certainly you wouldn't want them to do more development and not do a road. Especially when you're, you know, years ago, and that's why I asked, did the city change the policy of when roads are put in? Developers pay for that infrastructure, that roads. They turn it over to the city. Is the taxpayers gonna be on the hook for that road out there? They certainly weren't on executive estates. Again, that developer had to pay for it out of his pocket. where he had to pave to the last entrance of executives of states on 225th Street. I don't see that being fair at all, that you have double standards. And then to be cut off because I'm asking a question like that in a workshop, that's ridiculous. And so we just, You gotta see where your standards are. And you wonder why do some people get a huge benefit than others? And then you wanna know why developers don't come here or why it's so hard to get any kind of commercial development and what have you. Well, when you're picking and choosing what you're gonna do for one person versus the other, it's kinda hard for them to walk through the door and apply for something.

Thank you, Mr. Britzloff. So thank you.

Carolyn Kiefer, Castle Rock Township. Tract has some information on its website about the housing prices and how the data center doesn't really affect them. And if you look at their white pages, there's some studies that are on there, which they have referenced the housing prices in Northern Virginia. So by the way, they have a much smaller data centers than the one proposed in Farmington. The largest one operating there that I found was less than half of the size that's proposed in Farmington. So not really comparing apples to apples. They referenced the study, the George Mason University study. The only print, the part of that, that serves their purpose. I am interested in the housing prices that are near the data center, like less than 1.5 miles. The data from that study, it's there, but you have to look for it and they don't summarize it. The data does not highlight the houses that are near the data center, but that data is there. They do show a drop in the housing prices as you near the data center, especially in single family homes. If you look at the 2.5 miles towards the data center, the prices crash. That's not discussed. Tract intentionally left that out because it does not serve their purpose. There are many flaws with that study. And they use models, they don't use actual values, which is not the real issue. They leave out things that really affect housing prices, like swimming pools, outbuildings, and condition of homes. And the study goes 20 miles out. Does anybody really think that a house in Burnsville is gonna be affected by this data center? That's what they say, 20 miles out. It's really ludicrous. And they ignore the data, 2.5 miles out, down to the data center, and you see the drop. Then I always taught my students in school, look at the source. When you evaluate data, look at the source. Where does the source come from? George Mason University received a $37 million donation for AI and machine learning. Could the interpretation of the data be biased? Always follow the money trail. Always look at the data, not just the summaries, especially when they're not peer reviewed. There's a lot of information in the study that indicates homes near a small data center have loss. data center this was uh data was intentionally left off by the tract website what do you think the result would be if we had a data center nine times the size of the average one in the study you would need to find a operating data center the size of the one proposed in farmington with homes on the fence line i can't find one the mayor can't find one if there's one operating i'm open i'd like to hear about it So it's hard to find study because that means we're just guinea pigs because there's nothing like it out there. The other study that track looks like, they're looking at the entire zip code. Really do you think the other end of the zip code are affected by the data center? But if you look closely and you get the actual paper, you'll see 2 miles out. You'll see that it starts to have impact, but they don't get any closer than 2 miles. And many of the studies I looked at from real estate companies, you have to get a little bit closer to see the study. So they're not really addressing the issue at all. Um. Because I don't think that houses 5, 10, 15, 20 miles out, especially data centers are that are less than 10% of the 1 post in Farmington will be affected. What track fails to show you on the website is that the data went through that part residents living very near to a hyper data center will suffer a significant loss and their home value. I am told by the city that they will not be compensated. They may not be able to sell because they're underwater in their mortgage after a significant home drop. These homes will not show up in any studies because they didn't sell. The people who live near the proposed data center will be guinea pigs because we don't know what's going to happen. Nothing of this size exists near residential homes. So if tract is willing to twist this data on home values, what else are they manipulating? This is not what a good neighbor would do. How do they know even what the end user will do if we don't know who the end user is? And once the property is sold, tract is out, the city is out, and we're dealing with some unknown. What are they hiding by hiding the end user? Many environmental questions that I ask cannot be answered because we do not know who the end user is. The more permits that are given and the more that is done on the property, the harder it is to stop the process and to understand the process and to have any environmental regulations.

Mike Keefer, Albatross Circle, Castle Rock Township. Several years ago, most of the United States, cities, towns, were all caught up in the lure of hyperscale data centers. Still a lot of places all excited about it. AI is coming to town. We're going to have a hyperscale data center. cities, states, rolling out the red carpet, giving them tax breaks. Minnesota, one of them, 37-year tax breaks for purchase and use of data center equipment that had nothing to do with you folks, but it had to do with the state of Minnesota. So what happens? All the developers, all the data center folks, all flock to these states, scanning, searching for rural properties where they could use the water, they can use the electricity, they can find a plot of land that's semi-flat, maybe was agricultural, and come into the town and say, hey, we're going to bring you a lot of tax base. We're going to bring you a lot of money. It's all going to be a great thing. We're going to get money for your schools and your students. And everybody jumped on the bandwagon. They're like, yay, we're going to have a data center. We're going to get three data centers. We're going to get five data centers. We're going to get hyperscale data centers. Well, what's happened in the past six months? People are starting to look at these data centers, especially the hyperscalers. residents that live near it doing the research that the government didn't do, finding out that there's problems with this. There's toxic water being produced. What are we gonna do with the industrial wastewater? What are we gonna do when the wells are impaired by the people that live near there? How are we going to handle the diesel fumes from the generators that are so-called backup generators? But at most data centers, they're not used as backup generators running six minutes a month. They run half of the bank of the diesel generators for most of the month. So all of that that was sold to Bill of Goods, that this is going to be a wonderful thing, is now being looked at and they're saying, whoa, wait a minute, we better put the brakes on this. We might need to impose some moratoriums. We might need to look at this in a little more detail, have somebody look at the environmental impacts that this is gonna have, which nobody's done, nobody's gonna do, nobody is slated to do. And we're all just looking at it going, hey, rah, rah, look at it. We're gonna get some tax money. Who cares about polluting the Minnesota-Mississippi River? Who cares about polluting the groundwater? Who cares about everybody's wells? Well, the residents care about that. The people that live near them care a lot about that. And they've been making a lot of noise, not just here, but across the country, trying to wake up government officials and say, hey, do you guys actually know what you're doing? And when the city officials are asked pertinent questions like what's happening with the toxic industrial wastewater, everybody gets to run around. I don't know. I don't know what's happening with it. Somebody's going to take care of it. EPA will take care of it. Somebody will take care of it. No, nobody's taking care of it. And now they're looking at it and going, oh, yeah, you guys are right. We better do something about this. So who has looked at it a little bit more seriously and said we better put the brakes on hyperscale data centers? Minneapolis, one year moratorium. They're not having any hyperscales put in for at least a year because they want to look at the environmental impacts. St. Paul is looking at it, same thing, one year moratorium. Eagan, one year moratorium. Apple Valley, Lakeville, all of this has happened in the past few months. So now locally, cities are looking at this saying we need to put the brakes on this stuff because these things are having a great impact on the environment and we need to do some studies. So Farmington really doesn't have to do anything except impose a moratorium, put the brakes on the hyperscale data center and prevent an environmental catastrophe from happening and just wait and see what the studies are. See what Minneapolis comes up with, see what St. Paul comes up with, see what Rosemont comes up with, see what Apple Valley comes up with, see what Lakeville comes up with. If they come up with solutions to the environmental catastrophe, Well, let's look at that. You're not bound by rules that you implemented two or three years ago when you have new data that's coming in from other towns and other cities. So I would just ask, let's put the brakes on this hyperscale thing. Let's wait. Let's see what these other cities come up with for rules, regulations, and discoveries, and look at that and move forward in a smart fashion. Thank you.

Anybody else tonight? All right. Seeing none, we'll have a round table. Amy?

good evening mayor and members of the council um regardless of the public comments that were made earlier i was already going to address one point from the joint meeting between the planning commission and the city council and why i interjected when i did under the open meeting law when you have a special meeting which was what this the joint meeting was under the calendar it wasn't a regular meeting of the city council. It wasn't a regular meeting of the planning commission. It was a special meeting of the two bodies. Under the open meeting law, you cannot deviate from what the published agenda is. And so my concern, and that's why I interjected, was that the conversation might have been veering away from what the published agenda was. That was my only concern. And I just wanted to make that clear for all of you. And if you had any questions about it, I'm happy to answer them.

Well, then I got Dakota County Fair starts next week. Hopefully everybody gets out there and enjoy. That's it.

National Night Out is tomorrow evening. So if your neighborhood celebrates, I'm sure that our fire and PD will make a great time of being out and around. And hopefully we'll be able to see a lot of people out and say hi and bring neighborhoods together.

Thank you, Steve.

A couple things. A few of us had the honor to attend the fire department graduation, and that included a couple of returning firefighters, which is awesome. So I just wanted to congratulate Indigo, Ryan, Paul, Chandler, and Andrew, who are new graduates, so congratulations to them. It was fun to meet them and their families and kind of learn a little bit how they chose to go into the fire profession and why they chose Farmington. And then Tim Nielsen and Asa Just came back. And I was telling the chief beforehand, when we have returners to our department, I think that actually says a lot about the leadership and what we offer here in Farmington. So congratulations as much to them as to you and your team chief. I did want to make an additional comment too. And It is kind of ironic that Mr. Kiefer's comments are very similar to what I wanted to say tonight. I really would encourage council to be aware of what our neighboring cities are up to. I'm probably gonna comment more at a future meeting, but a good friend of mine serves on the Lakeville City Council and they are proposing what I think are really, really good amendments to their city ordinances to include banning hyperscale data centers, large hyperscale data centers, They are proposing setbacks off of County Road 70. I think they noted 500 feet. They have also proposed, I believe, having data centers only to be a single use type building within industrial parks only and so not a large campus type structure. But the one piece, and I know there's been a tremendous amount of talk about water, about electricity, about environmental hazards, which are all very relevant, and I think are concerns for all of us, but the one piece that doesn't get a lot of attention that is a concern of mine, and I think I've talked to others about as well, is what happens to these buildings after their useful life cycle is done? The building might be able to stay in the ground, be structurally sound, be able to handle harsh summers, tornadoes, what have you, but certainly you find this with malls. You look at Burnsville Mall, it's a big blighted area. I think City of Burnsville and other communities have been trying to figure out what to do with it for years. I still don't know that they've come up with a plan, but it's an eyesore for the community. And that's a really big concern of mine as it relates to our project that is forthcoming is what is, you know, if the end user chooses to leave 5, 10, 15, 20 years, there's going to be X amount of buildings, potentially up to 12 that are going to stay there. And so what Lakeville is doing in response to that is, and again, this is all theoretically being talked about right now, you know, just five miles west of us. is having a decommissioning fund to say okay here's what we're allowing here's what the ordinances are going to look like and we want some kind of a funder payment mechanism so that way if this is no longer a data center you know it can be repurposed into something different which i think is a phenomenal idea so You know, as the speaker alluded to, and I just want to separate, this is not a response to your comment because like the mayor said, we do not respond to comments. But, you know, I did, you know, I think it's noteworthy for all of us to be aware of the fact that Eagan, Rosemount, Apple Valley denied a project, and now Lakeville, all of our neighbors have all made really significant activities regarding data center things going on. And you know why do I bring this up, I think we as a Council and as a staff and as a planning Commission, we should welcome and engage a dialogue to say okay. We have this project we're not talking about the project that's been approved okay. My opinion on that project has been very well established. I was opposed to it, I'm still opposed to it. That's not gonna change. But I think going forward, the residents should expect that we have a good game plan. Do our ordinances match what we wanna do? Like anything else, we have ordinances for residential, for business, for everything else. And I think a really good discussion with our other governing groups makes a ton of sense. And that's why I do favor a moratorium. I think it would be reasonable to look at a moratorium. And it shouldn't be looked at as a negative like we're anti data center go away. A good moratorium in a city that implements an effective moratorium is saying look, this issue is coming at us. You know, We don't know everything that we think we should know we don't know how this is going to impact our groundwater we don't know what noise impacts are going to be the light impacts. We know electricity is out of our control that's governed by Dakota Dakota electric, but it would be useful to get more information. But I think you know the Council, the planning Commission staff, we should all welcome a robust dialogue to say okay. Let's put a pause in this. It's okay. We don't have a project in the pipeline. We're not shutting down the approved development. But what we are doing is giving ourselves more time to study the issue. And so I know when I maybe brought it up in the past, maybe there's been interpretation. Well, you know, there goes Wilson again. He's got his data center agenda. And I really don't. My agenda is the well being of the community and developing the community right and getting up every morning knowing, you know, I don't have to worry about a proposal coming to the city because we've already established a framework, a guideline for how we want this stuff to look. And again, I think there's more pressure coming to Farmington, to Cannon Falls, maybe to Hastings and nearby communities, because the other cities around us have said, hold on, we're slowing down, we're slowing down the terrain here. We got to study this. And I think it's, and so I would just encourage my peers to take a look at what Lakeville is up to and what their agenda looks like in terms of what's on their agenda. They may pass it tonight, they may defer it to another week or two, but I also think it's really noteworthy that Rosemount, and we know the metadata center is gonna be opening probably later this summer, fall, I don't know the exact timeframe, but for them to put a moratorium on there like they did in April, I think that's really, really big news, especially for industry folks who are like, well, gosh, we got this big meta data center and they're saying they want to pause it and halt expansion and further development. And I think what they're saying is, as far as I understand what Rosamond is up to, is they're saying, we want to get a good sense of what this first project looks like in order to better evaluate what future projects are going to look like. And I think that's really smart. We've got a really smart, talented staff. We have a smart group in front of us here, and we've got a great planning commission. I think we'd be doing ourselves a favor. I think we'd be doing our community a favor to slow down while we have the time, while there's nothing imminent, and say, let's look at all this. What does it look like? How's it going to impact our community? How's it going to impact our relationship with developers and any other constituency groups that we interact with? That's kind of my big comment for tonight. And hopefully it's taken in the right perspective. It's not to be a, you know, there goes Wilson with his anti-data center. It's a, I think we need to have more conversation. I've always felt that way. And I think now is a good opportunity to explore that. Thank you, Steve.

Lynn.

No comment tonight, thank you.

Melissa.

So actually, we are going to be open this Saturday from 9 to 3 for early voting. And then on Tuesday, August 11th, is the primary election. We'll be here from 7 to 8.

Mr. Chansky. I have nothing tonight.

Mr. Powell. Thank you, Mayor and Council Members. Just to let you know, our Mellon Overlay Project is out for bids. So we expect to receive those bids next week. So you'll see them at their next meeting. All right.

A resident should have received the fall currents in their mailbox this past Saturday on in here is a number of recreation programs from youth, all the way up to senior citizens on take a look at it. participate in one of our programs one program I want to highlight is the youth flag football program we still have openings for K. kindergarten through eighth grade. Our registration closes next Wednesday, which is August 12th. So you can register at farmington.org. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Just to piggyback, the fire department is really excited to go out on a national night out tomorrow, get involved in the community. That's our favorite time is when we get to talk to the community when it's not a emergency situation. So we are very, very excited to get out and have a lot of different food from a lot of different venues.

Hear, hear. Just a real quick update on the expansion remodel design progress that we've been making in the last couple of weeks. We've had a few design meetings to cover mechanicals, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and then also interior design. And we have another meeting tomorrow on that. So we're still progressing slowly through the process of getting to what our target is. We have interviews with construction managers on Wednesdays so we can hopefully get to a position where we have a construction manager on board, which will really help us dial in on the cost of the projects. We have something to present to you soon.

I have one comment that I wrote down tonight, and I probably would like to say something about that just a little bit. And I did have to write it down so I would get through it correctly here. But like so many in Farmington, I was heartbroken by the loss of Sasha and the incident recently at 50 and McDonald's. My thoughts are with his family, his friends, his classmates, and everyone who loved him as they navigate an unimaginable loss. The City of Farmington will look to Dakota County for updates as they study traffic operations along County Road 50. I would just stay tuned for updates there. What has stood out to me over these past couple weeks is the way our community has wrapped its arms around one another. I've seen neighbors supporting neighbors, local organizations stepping up, first responders and city staff serving with compassion, and countless acts of kindness that remind us what it means to be a part of this community. During one of our hardest moments, Farmington has shown heart. We continue to grieve together, and I want to sincerely thank everyone who has offered comfort and continues to support Sasha's family and friends. As far as your comments go, I hope I've never given the impression that I don't want to have constant conversation about this topic, moratorium or not. I think that's been the intent of the office hours and Miss Kiefer and I have exchanged many conversations over the last few months that are very in depth, very detail oriented. And I do absolutely want to, I have the same exact fears that you have and like the hesitations and all the questions that I want answered. And regardless of where we go with this, I do want to have those conversations. So let's have those work sessions. Let's get those things fleshed out. I think you're right on the money for asking for that kind of stuff. And we should be looking at our neighbors and not shying away from seeing how they're going about getting a good idea is a good idea, regardless of who said it and for what purpose. So I hear you. Look for a motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn.

Second. Motion by Holly, second by Steve. All in favor say aye. Aye. We're adjourned at 7.30.