Planning and Zoning - Regular Meeting

As long as the fire marshall is okay with it. I'm not the fire marshal. It'll be all right. Okay. We just want to lay out. We want to wait. But if we have some people that are comfortable some there's some places here that one can sit. Yours is for sale. Okay. Sure. Just try not to get in front of people that are good idea. Please pass the word if there's people that would like to come in and sit. There's room for 10 or 15 people.

All we need to do is come by accident to pull the fire alarm. It's probably

just as comfortable as those. Okay. Welcome everyone. The meeting is now called to order. There absolutely no talking. All phones must be put on silence. Okay, let's all get settled, please. No talking in the hallway because we can't hear those voices. Can you tell the people in the hallway to tone it down a little bit where we can hear you?

Me on. Okay. Thank you. Here you go. Okay. I'd like to I'm calling this meeting to order. It is a special call meeting October 22nd, 2025, the Franklin Planning and Zoning. I am the chairperson. Uh if you would like to introduce yourselves down the way, Justin Hinger, Barry Kipley, I'm Robert Blink. I'm the attorney for the board. I don't vote. George Weissinger, John Mayer.

Yes. And all these gentlemen served also on the prior planning and zoning board before that we um split with from the county. Um we've had many public hearings. Many of us went through together the uh cell tower. Were you any I was certainly on board with the here with the cell tower and we also had the solar farms hearings. So, we know we we've dealt with some new issues that have been brought into our community and we do try to do the best we can. We we like you all really care an awful lot about this community. So, uh having said that, the meeting is now called to order. No talking at all. And um Mr. Hinger, would you open us with a word of prayer?

Y'all pray with me, please. Dear heavenly father, thank you for all the wonderful blessings you have bestowed upon our community. Let us not forget that. Let us come together with wisdom and patience and humility to make good decisions and to learn together and to come together as a community. Thank you for everything you give us in your name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Do we have any other new business beside what is before us? Chair, we get uh the uh past minutes that need to be approved that we last month.

Gentlemen, did you get a chance to look at the minutes from our last meeting? I'll make a motion that we approve them. There's a motion on the floor to approve the last meeting's minutes. Is there a second? There's a second by Mr. Weisinger. The motion was Mr. Keley. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please raise your right hand and say I. I. Is there any opposition? Motion passes unanimously. Do we need to also the another set of minutes? Did we miss It's in your blue book there. Yes. September 16th. Yes. Thank you. Now we're going to approve or now we need to discuss the minutes before us from the October 16th meeting. Did you gentlemen get a chance to look at it?

I forgot about it. You can't. Okay. Then just don't vote. Okay. Um is there um motion on the floor to approve it? I'll make the motion that we approve them as submitted. Okay. Second. Okay. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Is there any opposition? That motion passes. Let the record state without Mr. Weissinger's vote. Thank you so much. Okay. Um we have two public hearings this evening. The first public hearing is a text amendment essentially that um I don't think a lot of you guys are as concerned about as possibly the second one. But having said that, could you pull up the text amendment? The proposed text amendment. Which one you doing?

I'm doing 11.15. But before we get into that, we need to exit the regular scheduled meeting and get into a public hearing. Second.

Okay, Mr. Keley. Motion. Second. Mr. Weisinger. Any discussion? We are now exiting the regular business meeting. We are now in a public hearing. During the public hearing, please turn no cell phones whatsoever. There's absolutely no talking amongst yourselves during these public hearings. We have to be able to hear each other and all board members must hear what if there is someone that testifies what they are saying. Somebody's got to find one.

During testimony, you will if you if you want to testify, you will be sworn in. You will need your name and your address, your location. Also um and keep in mind you cannot speak to each other during this hearing as we cannot either. Uh and this is we are pretty firm about this. This is Robert's we go by Robert's rules. We try to be kind and listen to everyone and treat this like a wonderful neighborhood meeting. But at the same time we have to be pretty firm on the rules. So and we expect you guys to do the same. And keep in mind as we go forward, please try I try not to take personal get my personal and feelings out of it and and try to look at information. Okay, if we can do that, I think that we probably will have a healthy and good discussion and that is what we are looking for. Okay, on we are now in this public hearing and um Mr. Monday, can you please speak loudly about what we are looking at in this text amendment?

Madam Chair, what we have here is the proposed text amendment uh due to the recent division of the county and and the city's zoning departments. Uh this takes our uh appeals from the inspector appeals board and uh reduces the number of personnel involved and also uh reestablishes the uh so to speak order and decorum uh from the Franklin City Commission exclusive and uh goes forward. Most of it remains the same. It's just a change in personnel. Okay. Is there anyone here that uh would like to speak in a positive way in regards to this text amendment? Is there anyone here that would like to speak with concerns in regards to this text amendment? In with concerns in regards to this text amendment. Let the record state that no one has raised a hand in order to speak in regards to this text amendment. Gentlemen, would you like to discuss these text amendments? If not, I am prepared to take a motion that we approve the proposed text amendment 11:15 uh and 151, 152, 1523, etc. down to the bottom of this particular text amendment. Carter, as it stands today, we don't have a building inspector appeal or electrical inspector appeal board as of today. Not until this passes.

I'll make a motion that we approve this text amendment. Okay. There's a motion on the floor by Mr. Keley that we approve the proposed text amendment for 11:15 ex at all. Is there a second? Second. There's a second by Mr. Henninger. Any discussion by the board members? With no discussion by the board members, um I we will do a roll call. Mr. Henninger, yes. Mr. Keley, yes. Thornon, yes. Weisinger, yes. Mayor,

that amendment passes unanimously. I'm looking for a motion to exit the public hearing. So, we're going to stay in the public hearing. We have to go and do a new one. I was told. If you want to, but I don't think you have to. Okay. But go ahead. Okay. Exit this. I was told to. Yeah. Okay. Uh, is there a second motion on the floor to exit the first public hearing? There is a second by Mr. I think Mr. Weisinger made the motion. Mr. Mayor seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I we're now out of the public hearing. We need a motion to enter the new public hearing. Okay.

Mr. Keley has moved that we enter the public hearing. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. We are now in the public hearing. And as we move forward, uh, this public hearing is for proposed text amendment, this particular language reads. Can you all hear me? You want me to read it, Debbie? Are these microphones hooked up? God. Oh, these are just for the Okay.

I'm sure some people can't read this tech. It's hard. The lang It's pretty small. Can you hear me now? system here. Can you hear me now?

Hello. Okay, I'm gonna speak really loudly. Thank you. Advanced technology centers including data centers used primary for the housing, operation and management of computer servers, communications, networking equipment and related technologies and including cooling system, power supply equipment, data storage systems and onsite power generation systems, modular energy systems, gas turbine arrays, fuel cells, and battery energy storage systems. integrated energy systems, including on-site energy generation and distribution infrastructure to support industrial operations utilizing technologies and fuel sources compliant with state regulations which may be operated independently as self-contained power solutions or connected to the TVA or other utility grid. Everybody hear it pretty good. Okay, thanks. Okay. Uh, now as we get into this, is there first I think we're going to talk to is there someone here that would like to speak in a positive manner in regards to the data centers.

M chairman, I'm Crocker.

Okay. I represent 10 key development and we have several witnesses here tonight and our goal will be to educate the chair, the board uh and the distinguished members of the audience tonight. Uh the first thing that I think that would be helpful is for Mr. Mundy to address the board. Uh if I could For the sake that everybody can hear me, I'm going to walk around the room as I speak

if that's okay. It's not on. It's on. It's just barely. As I said, I would walk around the room as I speak. Everybody here now? All right. Over here? Yes.

Very good. Very good. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Carter Mundy. I've administrated planning zoning for the last 30 plus years. Ladies and gentlemen, I have been this route several times before with just a text amendment. Text amendment, I feel like, is a definition that we're here for tonight. We need to understand what a text amendment means. So, I'm going to read some articles that that I kept in my book for years. A text amendment zoning is a change to the text of the local zoning ordinance to modify development standards, regulations or definition rather than changing the zoning of a specific piece of property or land. It can be initiated by various parties including de developers, citizens or government bodies. typically involves a formal process, application, public hearings, as we're here tonight, and approval by the planning commission and the legislative body. This process affects all properties within the affected zoning district. Key aspects of a text amendment. What it changes. It changes. A text amendment can alter the specific rules within the zoning ordinance. Examples include changing the maximum building height for a district, clarifying how non-conforming units are handled and added to the definitions. the scope. Unlike Unlike a zoning map amendment, what we normally call a reszoning, which changes the zoning classification of a single property, a text amendment

changes the rules for an entire zoning district impacting all properties within initiation. Anyone can propose amendment through developers of initiators. A citizen can even ask local legislative body to submit one on their behalf. developers that have a need that that is observed that potentially improves the community or the planning commission or the board of adjustments for that matter observes a need to alter the regulation to make it easier for to understand and for the use. The process consists of submitting an application with a fee, a review by the lo local zoning and planning staff. public hearing is held which we're here tonight and it can provide testimony thereof. A recommendation from the planning commission can generate one and it consists of a final approval or disapproval by the local legislative body such as the city commission in this case. And the purpose of the amendment is to keep the zoning code updated to reflect the changing community needs and the goals addressed and inconsistencies and or correct outdated provisions and engaged the process with the internal comprehensive plan for the community. We performed several text amendments over my 30 plus years plus years of involvement in zoning amendments and mentioned above also come with a motive as to why they were needed of which always explained in the public hearing we're here tonight. During open sessions and discussions out of the

amendments made during my 30 plus years, four special ones have come to mind. Sell tile location. We did this in the early 90s. We did this. This was mandated from the state that it get done. It's a form of communications and vital. I think everybody in the room got a cell phone. I've seen a lot of them tonight. They are set by state law. We do a public hearing and it's just to inform the public where it's going in. There are no development plans associated with this. However, there are three pages in my book worth of requirements that they have to maintain. Two, adult entertainment. This had to have come out in the mid 90s and it was a protection device. We didn't we understood it was coming here. We put a text amendment in, blockaded it. It wound up in Mars Cape, Kentucky. solar farm. That's another one. Local government generated it. We put it in as a protective device. Now we have a list of requirements that they have to go through. One of them being a conditional use permit. And the last one is medicinal cannabis which is the latest one which allocates a certain zone that each one of the five elements of medicinal cannabis can locate and puts requirements to each one of those zones. KRS100 207 isolates text amendment is a change of the regulations within the zoning district and applications for text amendments can only be submitted by local jurisdiction or the planning

commission. If you are a citizen you like legislative body to submit a text amendment on behalf please contact your legislative body. After a text amendment is done, it goes straight to the legislative body from this room to be voted on and an ordinance created. Once the ordinance is created, becomes a part of the zone regulation book. In that zone regulation book, set of regulations will be there to back it up. One of which will tell it to go through a development plan. These development plans right now are 39 steps that they have to go through. And there's 13 people that are involved in that 39 steps. So with that said, this is the tip of the iceberg. What we're here tonight to discuss a text amendment. I encourage everyone to listen carefully. The development plan is a midterm solution. It carries through a prelim steps and a final for the planning commission and then it goes to a preconstruction meeting where the partners involved utilities, streets, roads, everything else is involved and the civil site is improved and from that meeting an excavation permit is cut. So with that said, there are a lot of controls, but if we walk away from this tonight, we don't have any control and they're coming. Thank you,

Madam Chairman. If I could ask that Mr. Mundy be sworn, I have some questions to ask him. Sure. Mr. Monday, Mr. Crocker has requested that you be sworn in. Mr. Just a minute. Let me make sure. I don't think any of them are on. You're about to give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I do. Mr. Mundy, for the record, state your name and your position. Carter Mundy, an administrator of the planning and zoning for the city. And how long have you been involved in planning and zoning either as a board member or as the executive director?

30 plus years. in that capacity. Are you familiar generally with both our our brand new comprehensive plan that we've passed as well as the regulations for zoning in this community? Yes, I am. In particular, are you familiar with section 8162 under I2 for permitted uses in an I2 zone?

I am. And does that section authorize as permitted without needing a conditional use permit or any other input from planning and zoning? Is it permitted? Is is storage one of the items that is authorized? It is. In your opinion, does that include data storage?

Well, in my humble opinion, yes, it does. And in addition, does that uh regulation provide for uh service uh companies to be located in an I2 zone without a a conditional use permit or other authorization?

Yes, it does. Does it further authorize manufacturing to be uh uh placed in a uh I2 zone without a conditional use permit except for the items that are listed uh in uh section uh uh 32 where the conditional uses are listed. Is that true? That's true. So in in in one of the conditional uses is not energy or electrical manufacturing, is it? No, it is not.

And so in your opinion, would you also believe that energy or electrical manufacturing is a permitted use in an I2 zone? I would have to believe. True. Very true. hear back here. True. Yes.

So in the comprehensive plan on page 94, there's our plan. a comprehensive plan. But let me ask first, was that a plan that was developed with many community meetings seeking input throughout this community?

Yes, it was. And does it provide under the action steps to develop a plan to maintain and grow economic vitality of the I65 interchange business hubs including promoting further development and redevelopment in line with the plan while encouraging a master plan types of industrial parks? It does. And does it also provide that we should as part of our action steps that we should ensure adequate energy infrastructure both in type and scale to support projected industrial growth?

We should. And that uh comprehensive plan has been adopted by the city, hasn't it? Yes, it has. So data service centers or data storage and service centers I'm going call them DSS centers for simplicity they fall in your opinion under the I2 permitted uses.

Yes. So, if what we're asking to do tonight is is only clarifying what you already believe the law to be. Is that true? That's true. Now, are there any existing data operations in Franklin now? To your knowledge? Yes, there is. There are data centers of some sort here in Franklin now. Yes, sir. Franklin. and tell tell the board to the best of your knowledge what it is they do and have they ever come and been subject to your 39 point uh requirements?

Well, actually uh they're very small in nature. U I'm sure everybody in this room's heard of Bitcoin mining. They uh consume a lot of energy and uh they are concealed usually in a convex box, a shipping container. back here.

They're concealed in a shipping container, Bitcoin mining. This is a data processing center for Bitcoin. And they usually put them in a convex and run power to them. Uh they're good for the utilities. They like the revenue they get from charging electricity. Uh that's one example. We've got one that I'm aware of inside a factory vacant space that uh is good and uh the second one I believe is going in in a convex trailer. So that's where we're at. Is it true that neither of them

Excuse me, Mr. Excuse me. What is your question, ma'am? Could you clarify something, please? You said something about generating We're not taking questions and answers at this point. We can we can swear you in in a little bit. Would you some of you all could move up here if you cannot hear though? I was concerned you couldn't hear. That's why I stopped Mr. Crocker. Okay. Thank you. Have either of those existing data facilities, have either of them complied with the development plan requirements that you spoke of earlier? Well, they've complied with the zoning, right? But not with the the development plan. No. And is that because they are so small they don't have to?

That's correct. The proposed uh data storage and service center would have to comply with those obviously. So and that is one reason that you recommend the text. Is that true? That's correct. Without without those 39 points, you feel as if you can't adequately regulate an industry that's coming in. Is that true? It'd be impossible. Now, in terms of the scheduling of this meeting, there's been some talk that people were not given the opportunity to consider public comment. Is under the law. Is tonight the opportunity to do that?

It it is there's not another opportunity under the law. Is there other than before this board? Before this board in a development plan meeting, prelim or final. One final question I have for you. So, did did the proposal for the data storage service center have anything to do with the breakup of the city and the county zone? No. In fact, in fact, is it true that this proposal came up well after the the dissolution of the county city zone?

As far as I know, it did. Thank you.

No talking. Madam Chairman, a brief opening and then we'll get to the other remaining witnesses that are not that are pot for this yes text amendment.

And so the uh what we intend to establish through the hearing tonight is that that data storage and service centers are already permitted. And so the this point makes it clear. The reason that the evidence will be why we want this clear is so that investors know that it is absolutely clear what they can do because the investors in this are different than other investors because these facilities involve billions of dollars. I've been here many times and talked about million dollars and felt uncomfortable because I didn't understand the numbers. And tonight I'm here talking about billion dollars and and they are truly astronomical numbers. So as you've just heard, there are two currently two current data storage and service centers that are operating. They're not subject to the 39 point development plan regulations. the facility that's being proposed by my client will be subject to that as Mr. Mundy has just specified much of what has been raised uh by uh in in social media with regard to this proposal concerns antiquated technology and antiquated data centers. You will hear evidence tonight from qualified experts that will give you the information about water use. They'll give you the information about the electrical use from the grid. They'll give you the information about oil. They'll give you the the

information about the land use and the jobs. They'll give you information about the environmental runoffs and the new one is they will give you information that this data center will not harm the individual use of social media, cell phones or the like. We will present evidence through experts in each field. The the experts will establish that there is available water that there is not no available water or sewer for this facility. The if the if it was using large amounts of water, what is available is domestic water and domestic sewer which is very small amounts that will be used. The cooling system for this facility and the evidence will be clear will be a closed loop system like your refrigerator, like your air conditioner that will cool the chips that will operate this system. This system will not be cooled by your community's water, not by your city water, not by your county water. The the next thing that we will address will be the electric grid. We will produce an expert that will testify that your electric grid will be in no way impacted because your electricity is not going to be used to power the data storage and service center.

The evidence will be that in accordance with their comprehensive plan, energy will be produced by gas turbines which are going to be approximately 80% more efficient than TVA energy. Emissions from the gas turbines are going to be odorless and invisible. No one no one is going to be able to detect anything from those emissions and they will all be subject to the Clean Water Act and the Kentucky Clean Water Act. The interesting part of the power is this. This is located in what we call the Pedon Hill substation. There is adequate power for one project that has been presented and not built out. After that, no major projects can be built in the south of Franklin. But that's not all. There is also no available electricity for industrial use in the east section either. There is a small amount of available electricity only in the Wilky Park to the north of Franklin. Without the addition of this power plant, we will be unable to recruit industry for 6 to 8 years. And you will hear that evidence from the Warmer Electric representative tonight.

The evidence regarding uh noise has been raised. Expert witnesses will testify that they routinely remediate noise emitted by data storage and service centers that and they remediate the noise emitted by the gas turbines and they routinely are doing that. You will hear evidence that many hospitals and many universities are are powered now by gas turbines because of their efficiency that they are more efficient and cleaner than what the grid can provide. You will hear evidence that the adjacent I65, the grain dryers that we all hear at night, and the CSX railroad are much louder than what the uh proposed uh gas turbines and data storage service centers will produce. An industry expert will advise you on each of those issues. One on data centers and one on gas turbines. We also will produce, and I find this to be the most exciting thing for all of us, an economic development expert that will testify regarding the land use issues and the economic benefits of this proposal. The beauty of this industry is that the workers require technical training. They do not need college education. The other beauty is is that we have Sky

CTC out here east of town that will be able to provide the technical training that will will educate our high school seniors if they choose to or someone else that is older to to work in this facility. The jobs will pay between 80 and $100,000 average for someone with no college education.

May I ask a question? Yes. And I know that we're talking about a text amendment, but you're we're also discussing a particular situation. You are what tier is this? Is it level? What level is this data center that is being proposed? one, two, three or four. It the it it is going to be the the type of that is used for the top five users which are Microsoft Meta. Would it be like the one in Gallatin? The meta in Gallatin. I I saw that. Okay. Thank you. That is probably considered a tier four, right?

Language I've read. This will be I think they call it an AI. Yeah. Rated data state of the art. It is going to be cutting edge state the newest.

Now these facilities are very expensive to build. So we're the the the plan is is to build initially the uh energy manufacturing plant and to build a one 250,000 square foot facility which is about the size of the toy fountain and it won't be hardly as tall as that but it would be that's the correct number of square The from there there's a plan to build two more 250 square foot facilities. Together those the the data storage centers will employ between 120 and 150 people. They'll be situated on approximately 200 acres. And the in addition there will be approximately 35 jobs associated with they will also be high paying jobs associated with the energy manufacturing.

Will it be gated and security? It will. Yes, it will be highly secure.

Now this will allow for all tax to have a dramatic increase in the taxable property. One data center is going to equal the the tax assessments for the entire rest of Cal. Three data centers is going to be three times that. This is going to result in tremendous generation changing money for our schools, for our ambulance service, for our county, for our city, for our extension agent. Everyone that taxes is going to have a benefit that has never been seen before. I'm going to put on our expert on this shortly, but one thing you're going to hear that I found astounding, but because of the different taxing entities and the tremendous amount, we're going to be able to do some things that nobody dreamed we'd ever be able to do, and those would be to build new schools. Now, I have grandchildren, and right now they're scheduled to go to the same schools I went to. The high school's the same. Franklin Elementary is the same. Simpson and I didn't go to Lincoln I went to. So they're they're mostly the same schools that we've always had. This will change that. This will give the city and the county the opportunity to dramatically cut taxes.

Hear me out. This will give this will give the opportunity to build a community center and a recreation uh and a pool in this community to serve us all. Isn't that already? No talking.

Y'all will have your time right after they get done to speak all you like. This will give the opportunity to replace our leaking sewers. It will give us the opportunity to expand our park facilities. It will give us the opportunity to upgrade our fire protection. It will give us the opportunity to purchase municipal amenities such as sweeper trucks and other things to make our town nicer. It will give us the chance to upgrade water and sewer distribution centers. It will give us the chance to improve our water pressure in a infected areas. It will give us the chance to improve our library who is a separate taxing entity. It will give us the opportunity to fund our extension service who is a separate taxing entity. It'll give us the chance to replace our aging ambulances and to improve our ambulance services in this community. As I say, this is generation. This is a generational opportunity. When I read this list, if we could do any one of these things, I would think that would really be great for our community. We can do them all. We can do every one of these things and still cut taxes if they want to. What we would like to do at this time is we would like to call as our first witness Ford Graham. Ford. Ford Graham. Where is Ford?

He's coming back. Thank you. Ford, I need you to be sworn in, sir.

That the testimony you're about to give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but truth. I do. Thank you. Please state your name for the record. Sure. My name is Ford Graham. And Ford, tell the uh board and the chair and the audience a little bit about yourself. What do you do for a living and what's your background today?

Sure. And can can y'all hear me in the back or you can? Okay. If you can't raise your hand and I'll I'll talk louder. Even louder. Sure. Okay. My name is Ford Graham. I am uh I live in South Carolina and my job is a I'm a site selector. My job is to help companies figure out where they figure out where they're going to put their next factory or office or a data center or distribution center, whatever it may be, and I help them look across the country to find locations that may work out for them. Have you been employed by 10 key to assess the site here and the opportunities for a data service storage and service center here?

Yes, I'm not employed by them. I've been asked to come here to talk about what data centers are and how I think u they might benefit the community. And as part of your work, have you been involved in the sighting of data storage and service centers? Yes, I have worked on about 50 data center, excuse me, data storage and services centers in seven different states. And have you prepared a presentation with respect to that for the board tonight? I did and I'll try to keep it short to not bore you all. But I do have a presentation if that's okay. Slides. He asked what slides.

Jeez. And again, if you can't hear me, just raise your hand and I'll I'll talk louder. help us over here. I don't want to really look for them.

All right. Help me out here. There he is.

That's not my foul. Sir, sir, may I ask you to speak from behind us directly? And Mr. Crocker, may I ask you to No, go over there and ask questions from there mayor. So, I think if you speak in this direction, more people will hear. And Mr. Crocker, your voice carries quite well. Is that okay? Yes. This room historically has a bad habit of not projecting the sound. So if he's not miked up, it's a very good chance nobody in the Facebook.

Does this podium move or is it plugged in? John, do we have a set of mics back there?

Carter's desk. Okay, great. Thank you, sir, for being willing. And thank you. And do you So, where do you want me to stand? I just want you to get kind of behind Mr. Link in the center. You're not going to hear it. Oh, this is for I see. I see. But I need you to still project out. That's why I wanted you in the middle of the room so that I hope this will be helpful. Do you Do you need the podium for your presentation? No. No, I don't. You need your No, I don't. I'm good. Thank you. Thank you. Do you mind putting it in presentation mode though? Thank you, sir.

Top right corner. A little projector. Up a little higher to your right. Top right. This little thing looks like a projection screen with a plus on. Yeah. Keep going. Right there. You just You just went over. Yeah. Right there. There you go. All right. Let's go. Okay. All right. So, this is what I'm going to talk about. And again, I'm not going to make it too long because I know you all uh want to hear all the other.

Well, I'm going to talk about what is a data storage and services center. I'm going to talk about who uses these services, why they're looking in Kentucky and Tennessee. I'm going to talk a little about the project highlights, uh the job numbers, uh the impact of property tax revenue on the taxing jurisdictions here. um going to talk about water and sewer requirements, a little bit about open versus closed and again we have an expert who's going to talk more about that energy infrastructure uh constraints in the community uh by right versus conditional use which again we talked about so I won't do too much of that and then alternatives to data centers so if we go to the next slide so I just wanted to show you what it looks like from the outside it looks like essentially an industrial building, maybe a distribution center. Um, they're typically one or two stories and it it's kind of kind of a boxy thing. It's it's not really attractive, but but that's that's sort of what it looks like. Can we go to the next slide, please? Inside, as you can see, are racks and servers. I mean, it's just full of essentially racks and servers and people to take care of those racks and servers. So, uh, essentially what a, you remember when we were in school and younger, we had the the computer that sort of sat underneath the desk, the CPU unit. I mean, that's essentially what this is. It's just lots and lots and lots of those that are continuously processing storage devices, racks, backup power systems, networking infrastructure. That's it. Next slide, please. So, who uses data center services? So, I put the iPhone in the back because we we all do. All of our data, all of the videos that we see, all the stuff we download, all the videos we take, all of the streaming services, all of those things use data center services. First responders, entertainment, watching

football, uh watching um downloading movies, news, banking, and financial services. You know, you can you can do all your banking online. The defense industry uses it. There's so many different industries that are relying on data center services. And I'm not talking just about AI. I'm talking about just where your data is now. It is it is in the cloud and that cloud exists in buildings in data center uh and service buildings ac across the country and across the world. Next slide please. So why are they looking in Kentucky and Tennessee? And it's a trick question because they're not just looking in Kentucky and Tennessee. So essentially data center the the industry has transferred from Virginia to the rest of the country and the rest of the world and part of that is because it started in Virginia because that's where really the internet was born. That's where the defense uh had the connections with the government and it sort of built over time there because of redundancy and because of speed to be able to respond to clicks on a mouse. But but as technology has improved and now we're shifting to AI data centers, they don't necessarily need to be that close to to to Dallas to Dallas to excuse me to Dallas or DC or the Virginia area. And so they're moving out into other parts of the United States. So I just want to show you this. I don't know if you can see it. The blue at the bottom, excuse me, the blue at the top are non AI data centers. So they're just the ones that are out there uh recording data and saving data. And the ones at the bottom, those are AI enhanced. And you can see the growth that's expected. And this is from I can't remember what source, but uh well, I can't read the source.

Says Mackenzie. Thank you, Mackenzie. Okay, next slide, please. Thank you.

So, this is the other thing I wanted to show you, and I know it's small, and I apologize, but it starts basically in 2014, and it goes up to 2024. The blue at the bottom represents the growth in this industry in the United States. The growth in the industry in the United States. The pink slide, excuse me, the pink tab in the middle, that's Europe. The one on top is Asia, Asia Pacific, China. Everyone is trying to make sure that they can capture this industry. Everyone is working to do that across the world. Next slide, please. So, I just wanted to pop these up here. The White House is obviously very the White House and the administration is very interested in data center infrastructure and getting it moving as fast as possible so that we stay competitive. Uh the Biden administration was also very interested in ensuring that we have the AI technology, the AI infrastructure for the future. Next slide, please. Okay, the project itself, you've heard a lot of this. I don't want to belabor the point. Roughly 200 acres uh down near exit 2. You see the little sign there that says site. I'm sorry for y'all in the back. Uh but it's it's not too far away from the racetrack. Um so so three 250 to 300,000 foot facilities about $2.1 billion in investment per facility. And when I say that, I'm including the land, the building, and all of the data center infrastructure inside the the facility. And it's 40 to 50 full-time jobs. It's not none. It's not only a few, it's 40 to 50 full-time jobs. And you heard I've got a slide that's going to talk about the types of jobs. And on the next slide, the other not Sorry, back up, Lisa.

So, what I think is interesting about the way data centers develop and the way that they typically do and the way this one's going to work is it's a ramp up over a threeyear period. So it's not building all three buildings all at the same time hiring 40 to 50 in for each building all at the same time. It's over a period of time and that gives the community a chance to have the training they need to be able to supply those jobs. So it's not people coming from other places, it's people from from Franklin and and Simpson County. Um and of course the site includes to be built on site power. Next slide. So, I mentioned the 40 to 50 jobs. The salary range is anywhere from 80 to $100,000. Um, there are jobs that pay more than that. There are handful of jobs that pay slightly less, $70,000 a year. And you can see, and I, forgive me, I know some of you can't see from the back, but there are lots of different positions that are available in a data center. Excellent. And I I just grabbed Microsoft. We don't know who the end user is going to be, which data center company, but I I gave you an example here. Next slide, please. Okay, so we're doing analysis of the cost of the building, the types of upfit, the types of equipment that will be inside it, and then I compare that to what the county, school, library, ambulance, extension, and city tax rates are for that particular parcel. Okay? So, I'm talking about one facility, one $250 to $300,000 facility. That is the potential d tax revenue that it will generate for each of those taxing juris jurisdictions. So, I I'm going to read it out loud in case you can't see it. So, the county I'm it's about $2 million in year one. The school district, it's about 11 1.5 million. The library

slightly less than a million. Ambulance 840, extension 420. and the city about $2.2 million new revenue from one of these facilities. Real quick. Yes, sir. To make sure we're not we are clear. We're talking longterm about three facilities though. Are we not? We are. Is that triple that $17 million?

It it will triple the $17 million once they're in the ground and on the tax rolls. Next slide, please. So again, I'm just using the one facility, one facility. I'm doing I did a comparison from the budgets that I could find online. I found the 2020 23 to 2024 budgets for the county. That's a So adding one building would be a 15% increase to that budget. Uh I did same thing for the school district. Adding $11 million would be a 28% increase in the school district's budget. the library budget would go up by 75% and the city budget was for last year that I found it would go up 21%. Again, that was based on the budgets from two years ago. Again, one building year one. Next slide, please.

Real quick, would that also impact the extension service budget and the ambulance budget as well? Yeah, I just couldn't find I'm sorry, I couldn't find those, so I didn't I wasn't I didn't want to show comparison where I But that absolutely true. Okay. So, there are two types of systems and uh we talked a little bit about it earlier but we going to talk a lot more about it uh with one of the other experts. Are they systems for cooling?

Yes, sir. There are systems for cooling. Thank you. The open system that that's the one that you read about that's it's one of the older systems where it's taking water from it's it intakes water from a water source and that water source can be city water, it can be wells, it can be rivers, it lots of different things. And what happens is they bring it in, they they send it around the system inside a couple of times and then they send out maybe 75% of that water. So what's happening is it's evaporating. A lot of that water is evaporating. They're not using chemicals in it, but they're it's evaporation. Is it contaminated water?

No, it's talking. It's it's basically more concentrated version of what came in. So, if it came in from city wells or city, excuse me, if it came in from the city and it had x number of chemicals uh when it was 100 gallons, it goes out 75 gallons, but it has that same amount of You're saying we're going to be brief. No, no, I'm I'm I'm talking about open system. I'm talking about the open system.

So, and and I just want to explain it so y'all understand. So, it's sort of a bell curve as well. So, when it's really really hot, it uses more water. So, July and August. Um, and of course in the winter times it doesn't use as much because it's not as hot. So it cycles through the system and then it's non-cont again. It's evaporated. And then what happens is it's turned when that system turns the water out, it goes into the the regular sewer system. That's not the system we're using here. We're using what's called a closed system. And really, you want to hear it from the expert who's coming after me, but it's a newer approach. Basically injects chilled air into the specific areas. Um, the system is filled during construction. It's it's filled during construction and then it's it's on its own like we mentioned before. It's it's an internal system. So, there's nothing coming out of the system into the sewer. There's nothing coming out of the system into a waterway. It's internal. There will be requirements for water for sinks and toilets, but that's that's normal sinks and toilets and it won't be connected to this system. Again, there'll be somebody else who can answer more about the open and close systems. Next slide, please. Oh, it didn't work, man. Um, well, we've got somebody talking about infrastructure, so it's it's okay. But but what this slide was supposed to show, it's got the map of the city, and it shows where the industrial sectors are, right? It's at the very top, and it's called, if I remember correctly, Wilky Wilkkey Industrial Park.

Yes. There's one out at exit six and there's a obviously what we're talking about here is exit 2. and my conversations were with the the um warren wreck, but I think there's a representative here from that, but they're basically echoing what was you heard earlier is there's really not much power available down at exit 2 for for really any type of new development, right? Is this the map that you would have on there that was from our comprehensive plan? It is. And I apologize. I Yeah, it is. That is the map that I had up there. I'm gonna hold it up so at least the board.

Okay. So down at exit 2, you heard earlier and you're going to hear it reiterated again. There's not much power left there. Not much power at all. At exit six, industrial park, there is some power available um for industrial growth, but again, it's limited because of infrastructure. And up at the top, a real key is again there is some power left, but it's very very limited uh because of a lack of infrastructure. And the problem at the moment across the country, not just related to data centers, but but uh to industrial growth in general, is that it is taking so long to get new transformers. It is taking so long to get substations. We're talking four to five years to get one in place. And so this is going to be potential constraint for for the community to get more industrial users here. And that's one of the reasons why uh they would like to use the turbines on the site. And I I wanted to show you supposed to pop up like an afterthought. But

may I ask a question? Yeah, sure. Um and help me out here, but I saw where the state is going to put 64 million or no 64. Yeah, 64 million into Baron County uh where Governor Basher is. Is it to build transformers for these? I'm not I'm not familiar. It's new. Okay. A few I just wonder. I did see that in the news.

So I guess my point is here with the TVA slide is that I mean even TVA that's working across seven different states is looking for answers on how to address the need across the country for more power. And so they're seeking proposals from the private sector from other se sectors for projects that are anywhere from 50 megawws to a thousand megawatts. And again, that's just to provide power anywhere and not necessarily with the data services center industry, just in general. Next slide, please. And again, I I don't want to belabor the point. You've heard it, but you all have got a great comprehensive plan. I I did, to be honest, I did not study it uh hours and hours. It's about 105 pages long, but I know you've worked on it over a three-year period, and you've had a lot of community input. And we based on this map here, where where do you want your industrial sites to go is at the top out by Wilky, excuse me, at the top at Wilky East, excuse me, exit six and then exit 2. And we're working on trying to get the facility there at the exit 2 site, which is already zoned industrial I2. Next slide, please. Okay. So, let's say you don't want you don't want uh a data center to be there. Um these are some options, but I do want to share these with you. So, so let's say all right, we really want an automotive plant because you know it it has it could have 8,000 jobs. Um which which is true. Um that's what most automotive plants are. It would be an investment of about a billion dollars, which is about half the size of one of these facilities. Um, auto plants have an issue with air emissions and that they have paint shops and other production that require uh permits from from the state. I mean, those are those are doable, but there are emissions. Uh, supplier component deliveries, right? They're putting together all of these different 267 components to an automotive, I think it

is. That means you've got truck traffic coming in delivering this on a on a regular basis. And typically, the finished product goes out by rail. There are 3,144 counties and parishes across the country. There are 55 automotive plants, right? That's like 1.75%. Uh it could be a solar farm. Um you can get about $40 million of solar farm on a 200 acre parcel. There's right there's no noise. Uh no traffic. Uh and of course there's no burden on schools or roads or other public services because it just sits out there. But it it generates 150th the potential property tax revenue as something uh like a data services and storage center. Next slide please. And the last slide I'll leave leave you with um and it sort of speaks for itself and again I apologize that not everybody can see but it's showing alternatives to um to a data storage and services center and sort of how they impact traffic how they impact job growth power usage water usage viewshed noise property tax revenue and then finally community resource use again you've got this mega driver of property taxes is on a very small por par parcel of property and you are creating high-paying jobs, but you're not overwhelming the school or um building tons and tons of housing because it's it's it's only 120 to 150 jobs. That's really the end of my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Does would you expect the data center to ask for incentives from the community like an auto plant or other uses or would they are they typically uh not requesting it?

They they've sort of realized that uh that incentives are hard to come by and they would rather put the facility there uh and move forward because there's always a fight about the incentives. It it obviously also depends on the the actual data center end user as well. Is that your last slide?

Yeah, that's my last slide. So I have a question about So if if a commu if a uh a conditional use permit was required to locate a data center or a data facility, would that impact investors in terms of their ability to or their desire to invest in a project? Yeah, if it's if it's conditional use, I mean again, it has to go through a process. We understand that. Data centers understand that. But it's if it's conditional use on planning, they will not come and it's just too it's too much of an investment. It's too much of an investment for

in Simpson County are conditional uses expire when there's a change in ownership. Are there are there typically changes in ownership with respect to uh a data storage and service center? I I don't know. I' I've never been a part of one that's changed hands. And would that if that were true though, would that also impact investors ability or desire to invest? Oh, absolutely. Now, the computers that are in these facilities, are they regularly replaced? They are. They're replaced about every four to five years. Um, and when they're replaced, then you get all your uh taxable income back.

Yeah. So, so what he's talking about is depreciation. And essentially uh data center equipment depreciates about four to six years. So it has a lifespan just like a computer at your house. You know get slow after a couple of years. And that's the same thing with data centers. So as it'll again I'm just talking about the equipment. I'm not talking about the building. But the the equipment would appreciate slowly over a four-year period and then it will be refreshed. So it's a brand new investment into that equipment and the old equipment is removed.

So just one one last thing. So assuming that the three facilities, three 250 square foot facilities are built based on your numbers, there would be tax income in this community that would be received of approximately $52 million. 52 million. Is that correct? $52 million. There's a little bit of depreciation. Remember, I was mentioning equipment. So, a little bit of depreciation, but then it goes up after four years back to its original amount. Thank you. Did your slide show that the the $52 million?

I just I just did. Okay. That's across the three. Explain that. Now, I know that some of you guys would like to ask questions, but how it works, this operates different from a court of law. You have the right to speak. Some of you, we can't have everybody speaking tonight later, but we do not have crossexamination of the witnesses. But you will. So, at the end of our meeting, you can have time restraints. Can we put time restraints on them? Honey, if you're going to carry on like that, we might as well go on. I'm telling you how it works.

You can speak when we are through with their presentation. We are and we will make you leave if you act like a pro. Okay. Okay. All right. What we will you guys I think what we're going to do is we are going to call this in just a little bit about 810. So we'll give this about 30 more minutes and then you all will have two hours as well. So we are going to do the best we can to make it even. Is that fair? I'm trying. We're trying. Thank you. know and and in just a moment as soon as they finish we're going to take two minutes to stretch

up some of these sitters down here I know would love to stand up and then we will get right back to it and we will hear as many of you all as we can have to swear people in to go talk several people outside everybody cannot speak. Obviously, we'd be here till February.

Well, let's Okay, you guys, I have an idea that we will try to do is after you have spoken, if some of you all would be good enough to go out and tag someone to let them come in. We'll try to work it that way. Was that doable? We'll do what we can. Okay. Okay. Uh let's get moving. Thank you. Yeah, I I do want to speak. So, I'm just saying that because I do have a paper. So, when the time's ready, I will speak. Yes. Yes, we I will we will get a line. You'll have to be sworn in to be able to speak and Yes. speak at the podium. Okay. Thank you.

Okay, Mr. Coffee, let's get it going. We're going to try we're going to try to be very quick. Yes, we've got they've got until 8:10 and then we're done on this side of the bench. So, you slept,

do you work for the city of Franklin? I do. And what's your position? I'm the public works director. In that position, do you decide who gets water to stewart based on its availability? Yes. Is there water that is available in any form for cooling a data storage and service center? I can't talk about the water because that's county water. Okay. So, you don't have any water in this area at all? I do not. And is there sewer available to serve a data storage and service center? The stipulations they've got to get to my sewer line and they they would have to get to it in a different place than where it is there on 31W. Is that true? Correct. It's where this was located on Steel Road. my sewers on uh the McDonald's and Crackle Barrel sites.

And if somebody were to pollute the sewer with runoff of any kind, you're you can set up pre-treatment requirements where you're monitoring that count. Yes, sir. And if they don't meet those requirements, you can find them, can't you? Find them. Yes. And if they and if the fines don't get their attention, you can disconnect them, can't it? Get that way. No more questions. Thank you. Everybody hear that? Can everybody hear? Okay. I know we're pushing, but

Andrew, we're going to be try to be quick here. Tell the tell the teenager to be sworn. Sorry. Will you please raise your right hand? Do you affirm to the testimony you're about to be able to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, ma'am. Andrew, tell the board your name. Andrew Lindsay and tell them what you do. I'm the vice president of engineering and field services at Warren RCC. Is there currently any power for you to sell to a data storage and service center at through the Petenville substation that would serve Steel Road?

Yes. So just to take a brief moment just to clear up some things. So our system is set up to serve the needs of the community as it currently sits. So, you know, this talk of where we don't have enough power to serve, we go through adequate planning horizons to make sure we have the facilities to serve planned load growth. In this particular site, this is outside of the norm of our planned load growth. And so, that being said, this would be above and beyond what our planning horizons show for our need of facilities, if that makes sense. So, you have no electricity currently to sell. Is that true? W without some system upgrades. That that requires time and money and with those system upgrades take 6 to 8 years.

Yes. Yeah. And so today you don't have anything to sell. Correct. And so could anybody in this room expect that if they execute their plan they open a data storage and service center that it would in any way impact their electric field. So my understanding of what they're proposing to put in has on-site generation to serve the data center. So there's not going to be an impact to our system. No further questions. Thank you. Paul Brown,

sir, Mr. Brownie, please. You tell me affirm you're about to give the truth. I do. Thank you. Paul, tell the uh tell the board your full name. My name is Paul Browning. and tell them what you do. I work in the power generation industry. Uh I've had about a 35 year career working for uh the largest gas turbine uh manufacturers in the world, including General Electric uh Mitsubishi Power and solar turbines. And in that capacity, have you become aware of the project, the proposed project here in Simpson County?

Yes, sir. and tell the U. And have you in the capacity that you have served, have you seen communities develop uh gas turbines and d uh storage service centers. Yes, sir. And tell the tell the board what you see at the beginning of a project, what you see at the end, and what you see in the middle.

So, what I what I've seen many times at this stage in a process is a process just like this with a lot of very understandable concern from the community. Uh the way it generally turns out by the time the project is in execution, some of the community's fears have have not materialized and we generally have a very receptive community at the ribbon cutting when the project actually goes into operation and people see what its actual noise levels are, its actual impact on the community and and and they also see the some of the you know tax role impacts like the previous speaker uh discussed. Would having a gas turbine center which like that which is contemplated would that allow allow the data storage and service center the DSS to meet its own energy needs separate and apart from the electrical grid by TVA or

yeah so this this uh this um power plant will not be connected to the local grid it will it would be what we call behind the meter. So, it's it's just connected to the data center and uh and it'll provide power for the data center only. Um and and then at some point in the future, probably 5 to seven years from now, TVA will put the resources in place to connect this power this uh data service center to the local grid. And then at that point, this power plant would be connected into the TVA grid and would provide power to the TVA grid. Um so that it's basically in the beginning powering only this data service center and then after some period of time uh would would provide the power to TVA which TVA could then use for the community or this data center

and could it also be used for other industry in the area? Yeah. So in the beginning anything that's in this um in this industrial zone could also be powered by this uh this data center. Uh and then eventually when it's connected into the TVA grid, that power would be available for anybody connected to the grid, which would give a city like Franklin more opportunities for growth. Yeah, this this power plant is about it's it produces about the same amount of power that the city of Bowling Green uses today. And what is that amount?

Uh right now it's the the range is between 100 and 300 megawws. And the midpoint of that range is about what um the city of Bowling Green uses. And is that for one facility or all three that were mentioned earlier? That's for the first facility. So it would be three times that uh eventually there's only one energy manufacturing plant. There are three data storage and service. So which is he speaking to? He's he's speaking only as to the energy manufacturing. So somewhere between 100 and 300 would then power the DSSC's or you're saying

sorry it's my understanding. Uh, sorry to correct you, but it's my understanding that we we need this 100 to 300 megawatts for the first facility and then we would need the same amount of power for each subsequent facility.

Yeah. Three. So, have you been, you mentioned earlier these facilities, have you been when they first open? Have you been present? Yes, I have. and have tell tell the board about that process and what has happened when you've been there for those grand openings.

Yes. So, as I said earlier, it's generally a very positive um experience for the community and uh you know, one of the things I've observed several times is um you know, at the ribbon cuts cutting ceremony on the facility, someone will say to me, "Well, when do they plan to turn this power plant on?" And I say, "It's running right now." um you know the so that the noise level from the power plant if if you're you know if you're uh on site and and at a certain distance from the power plant it's really not even it's it's something you have to be told that it's running right now.

Oh the closest uh house to this facility is approximately 2500 ft. If proper remediation measures are used, tell the board how or if the noise would impact that resident or any other residents there further away.

Right. So, this facility is right next to the I65 freeway, which the freeway has about 70 to 75 dB of uh noise level. Um, this facility is is going to generate actually less than that. And so anybody who's like this person that's about a half mile away, uh what they're hearing today from the freeway is is what they're going to hear after this data center is in operation. It's not going to increase the noise burden on on that that home.

Now, there's been some discussion about this being a sound like a jet engine. Explain explain that. So if you're standing 100 meters from a jet engine when it takes off, it's about 130 dB, which is deafening. Yeah. Um this power plant, uh if you're standing the same distance away is about 55 dB. And the decibel system is a logarithmic system. So it, you know, it's not linear. Things, you know, get much louder. So that's 75 decel difference is about 180 times. So this is it's 180 times less loud than a jet engine that's taking off. And also um because of the way uh the the sound is attenuated, it's it's like a it's a lower uh uh frequency sound. And so it's not like a whiny, you know, like super irritating sound. It's it's something that's a little bit more of like a background uh type sound. Please speak to the emissions from from the gas turbines that will be here. First, I'd like to ask, are they going to be visible?

So, the the emissions are invisible from this type of power plant and they're also odorless. Okay. And so, will anybody ever be able to detect them?

No. So, uh it's really interesting. The the same kinds of emissions come out of the vehicles that are on I 65. They're released at the ground level. Um, and so that they're more impactful to humans. In a power plant, there's a stack that's 50 to 80 feet high where where the emissions come out. And so by the time they get to the fence line of the power plant, they've really sort of dispersed. Uh, and so the impact on people on the ground um is actually quite a bit less than the emissions from the freeway just because they're emitted, you know, higher up and have a time to disperse between before they'd reach somebody on the ground. tell the board about the efficiency or the cleanliness of the turbine gas turbine technology as compared to the other energy that is being generated by TVA that we use to power our lights in this room.

Yeah. So this uh this power plant it's called a combined heat and power uh power plant. And what that means is in addition to producing electricity there's a lot of heat that comes out of the gas turbine. That heat is generally released in the environment but in this case it's that heat is captured and it's used to actually refrigerate or chill the uh the data center because the data center requires a lot of cooling. So uh because of that the fuel efficiency is actually very high and it's on the order of 80 to 84%. Um and if you compare that to the Kentucky power grid uh the the the carbon emissions on a you know per unit of energy basis are less than half than the existing Kentucky power grid and also uh quite a bit less than what TVA currently uh the carbon emissions from TVA's power.

Will such a facility have to comply with the clean air act? Yes sir. Now if we talking you have experience with investors on such a property. Yes sir. And would requiring a conditional use permit would that restrict investors from from investing in a multi-billion dollar project?

Yeah. The problem with a power project and conditional use is uh it typically you have a a project developer who who develops it. it it it then gets sold to uh somebody with lower cost money who's the the the longer term owner of it and then it typically gets resold again uh as it starts to age. And so each time you resell if if it has a conditional use rep permit there's no assurance that the original investor is going to be able to sell and so it just makes it really unfinancable.

No further questions. Yes sir. I have a question. Thank you. Thank you.

John Henning.

Yep. Okay. H H N I N G. Yes. Please state your name. Uh my name is John Henning. And John, are you a professional engineer? Yes, I am. And do you work in the field of uh data storage and and service centers? Yes, I'm a civil engineer that works in the data storage and service center industry. Do you work in both the design and the construction phases? Yes.

And in that capacity, have you been able to to see the benefits and the detriments of a data center? Yes, I've seen construction and and the operation of those facilities. And do you have one in your hometown? I do. I live about six miles from it. Okay. And tell tell the board what they could expect from a data center data storage and service center. Sure. From a construction perspective, it's uh traditional earth moving uh initially and then it's really the building of the envelope uh from the outside. So it's your traditional construction uh that you would see from a manufacturing facility. It's very similar.

So how would you compare a facility like that is full of just operating computers versus a facility that's got people working, trucks coming and going. Uh that sort of a facility. So as you would look at a data center facility from a construction perspective, like I said, it's very similar to the manufacturing from equipment coming in, but then from an operational side, you don't really have that truck traffic that you would typically see from a manufacturing, but that's not giving them two hours like you said the audience could have. What benefits has your community received as a result of having that?

Sure. So, the town that's about six miles away uh from where I live in Nebraska is a rural community about 1500 people. Um they saw a development uh of multiple data centers come into their community and uh because of the burden not placed on the school district. So, you do have uh about 50 employees that come in, but typically they're not coming in from outside. they live within the community because they are jobs that can be serviced within the community. You don't see the influx of students coming into the school district. So, Springfield actually saw significant tax revenue come into the to the school district where they were able to build a new administration building, build a new elementary school, and build a new high school with that tax revenue from the data storage and service centers that came into their community. Have you been asked in the design of this facility to use the cuttingedge technology that is available?

Yes. Tell tell the board about the cooling components uh and what is being contemplated and for this are you okay for sure design for this this space? Yeah. So our our design within the data center space a lot of a lot of the and I'll keep talking. I can yeah

keep talking the light here is nice. Um so uh our our design um has evolved over time within the data centers uh or the data storage and service center space. Uh initially as uh Ford was talking about earlier there was water that was utilized. What our clients have seen is that the communities where they're building Phoenix is a perfect example they have no water. They cannot build these centers in Phoenix and utilize water because there's none available. So they've converted to cutting edge technology that does not utilize water. Is that what you would use in the proposed Simpson County facility?

In that in that facility, there would be an initial influx of water. It would be closed loop, but there would be no water flowing in or flowing out of that closed loop from a cooling perspective. No water coming in and no water going out into the sewer except for toilets and domestic water. That's correct. So, is the closed loop system is it something that will serve this type of facility? Well, yes. What types of users would you expect would ultimately be housed in this location?

As we look at the AI, we would probably look at the larger hyperscalers that are coming in. So the meta's Microsoft's AWS potential um in this facility

with respect to the data center itself are there any uh noise problems that cannot be remediated? No. We've we've built data centers within communities where there are commercial or residential in close proximity where the sound cannot increase beyond the property line. So there are acoustic surveys that are done prior to construction, prior to design to see what the sound is at the property line and there are uh local regulations and stipulations that say you may not increase that sound. So there are mitigation measures that can be taken.

One complaint that we have heard is with regard to the diesel generators that are periodically tested and come on the backup generators. Yes. Will this facility have any diesel generators at this point? Because we have the natural gas generation on site and and the on-site there will be redundancy. So it is anticipated that those diesel generators will not be necessary. Is there adequate gas on site for this for this operation? Yes, this site has three different interconnect uh gas interconnects possible uh that we're considering at this time. In addition, is there a adequate fiber optic line that serves this area?

That is not my specialty, but I do understand from talking with others within my uh company that yes, there is an adequate backbone from a fiber optic perspective. Would anybody expect that the use of the facility, the use of this facility would in any way impact other citizens of this community's access to the internet?

No. Quite the contrary. If you're going to develop a da a data center or a data storage and uh uh service center, you want accelerated uh fiber optic connectivity. Um, so even if it was inadequate, if it would slow it down, there would be investment to in improve that backbone to make it faster both for the facility and the surrounding community. In your community, have you experienced any downsides to having the data center there in your community?

We have seen none. There's been uh significant construction investment um and and significant growth. There's actually a community college that is um building right across the street to service the data centers and uh help um with the employees and and training to service these data centers. I don't have any further questions. Tim, the chairman needs a minute.

Okay, we've got you got about five more minutes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. If you want to go ahead and call someone and get them sworn in. Thank you, Steve. Excuse me. Thank you all for being so kind and quiet. We really appreciate it. I know it's not fun. Excuse me. Thank you. Excuse me. Here's if you want to come stand up there. If some of you guys want to get over there in the corner, there is some room. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you. Thank you. There. Hey, there is a little room up front in the corner if some people want to use it. Excuse me. I'm just trying to go to the ladies room. Where is it?

Oh, everybody can hear it. I shouldn't be there. Good call, Kelly.

She didn't take her mic. She did take her mic off. Too late now.

We got a little more, but we'll finish it up. We'll get through it. [Music] What?

I don't Yeah, I think we covered everything. Oh, yeah. There she is. Ready? Yep. All right. Stephen, please tell the board your name. Yes. Steven Vanderkeff. And are you a professional engineer? I am a professional engineer. Tell them what your experience. Everybody, please

bring the noise down where we can hear Rea. Yeah, I've been an engineer for about 27 years. Uh, more than half of that's been planning and design of data centers. And have you designed any large ones? Very large data centers. And tell tell the board about that. Uh, for the last 15 20 year or 15 12 years, I've been designing data centers for probably three of the top five hyperscale data center companies in the world. I've of designed data centers not only in the US coast to coast but also overseas in in Europe and Asia and South America.

You heard John testify and is it accurate that you've been asked to design a cutting edge cooling system that uses that is it accurate that you've been asked to use a cuttingedge cooling system that uses a waterless clos loop system? Correct. And is that workable on this particular project? Definitely not. Is there offtheshelf kits that can be purchased to do this in the industry?

Yes. Is if that is done, is it accurate that the only water and sewer that would be used in this facility is domestic water for toilets and sinks? Correct. Now, is it accurate that all of the sound issues related to a data storage and service center can be remediated?

Yes. Would one expect that this pro this proposed data center will fully uh provide electricity that it manufactures itself? Is that true? Correct. As a result of that, is it also true that Cobb's electric bill is going up as a result of this? That's correct. Okay. Do we expect that this would any way would in any way impact the uh uh connectivity of the citizens of our community in a negative way? Connectivity meaning the internet.

Yes. No. No further questions. All right. Thank you. Will it in any way speed up people's data server at home? Will it speed up data? Depending on how the data centers are used, it could. That's a qu I just thank you. Okay, you all set. I have used the time. You have a lot. You have used it. All right. Does everybody want to stand up and stretch for a minute or you want to muscle on? Yes, please.

Okay. Let's come back at 8.0. Let's come back in about four minutes. If anybody needs to go to the girls room, we're going to get started. Mine mine was out. Did you hear me? Did you I turned it on. I said everyone knows where I'm going. I did turn it on, but I flushed the toilet. Oh, definitely. Okay. as well. Turn your lights off. Okay, we're here to get a I'm going to get a line up here.

Okay, gang. Do you know if this group is organized, if they have speakers or I know. Okay, I will you can speak first. You ask just that everybody probably going to spend that profit. That's why they don't want to use, right? Exactly. And that means they can go anywhere they want to without it being a conditional use to do whatever they want to do.

I don't I have a mic. [Applause] Gary Swagger called me today and he said he saw him stay somewhere in there and he got loud and shame and everything else because some reason I mean he said I lost all out there. Boys like that is a positive And then they wanted to preach, but they were sitting up there on their boat.

I can't talk about it, but I'll try. Yeah,

I mean that's just [Applause]

Let's get moving. What was your get those speakers.

There is none in here. Oh, they've got parts ordered. They're just waiting for the guy to come in. [Applause] Slow from China. They've got them. It's just a resource issue.

They're trying to get a date next week. Brother John. I mean, brother Mads.

What? Why don't you want to wear? Oh, I I just think it's personal preference. Personal preference, I think. True.

How's it going, man? Hey gang. Okay, thank you all. You all have gotten in a line and I'm so glad you're behind Mr. Bush because all your

you were so helpful to us over on that side and thank you. We're glad we appreciate it. If you all want to speak right now, we do have a line that ends. Who are you in the are you're in the line to speak?

Okay, Marty's Mr. Chandler is the last at this time in the line. So, after we finish this line up, we'll start another one or uh so that we kind of go through this. And Mr. Bush just asked me if I was putting a time limit on any of you speakers. And my answer was I can't do that because I didn't put a time limit on Mr. Crocker speakers. What I can do is you've got we've got two hours 10:15. Is that fair? Okay, Mr. Bush, I need you to get sworn in.

My name is Kelly Bush. I am a city commissioner. Well, that's not on, right?

Yeah. I'm a city commissioner for the uh city of Franklin. For the past 25 years, I've been in IT. I've been in information technology. So, I do have some experience in this. I was the first person to do what I did for Apple. Uh I wrote a presentation for Microsoft. I've been to many data centers. I was actually part of the team that moved the data center from Gardina, California to Lexington, Kentucky for Nissan. We also moved their facility um to the the new facility in in Franklin, Tennessee. We airlifted that on a C130 from LAX to Lexington Airport. So, I kind of do have some kind of grasp. I know John, you do too. We're probably I don't know if Adam Walls or a couple other guys are in here, but there's a few of us that have have actually been in data centers. So, the data center. So, I'm going to go through the presentation. So, in the second slide, that's a canned photo of a data center, actual data center, a data center that I would actually work in. And by the way, I'm not the guy that goes to the data centers. Okay? So, the money they're talking about, the 80 to $100,000. The majority of the people are going to work in these data centers are going to be smart hands or they're going to be security. You're not sending me to a data center. I make too much money. I'm sorry. I'm not bragging. That's just the truth. Okay. So in the second slide, this is an actual picture of a data center with servers and racks and everything there. It's got fiber, it's got CAT 5 connections, CAT 6, whatever. These are not facilities they're talking about. They're talking about AI facilities. And the reason they're they're they're doing this is from my perspective again is that they're investors. I don't blame you. I get it. You're trying to make a dollar. Everybody's trying to make a dollar. But how many times in Franklin have we heard industries coming in, they say they're going to do one thing and then they do something different?

How many?

So they So the the third and the fourth slide, I believe, where why are we looking at at Kentucky and Tennessee? The reason they're looking at Kentucky and Tennessee is because they get tax advantages. I could care less which White House said the tax advantages are great. I don't whatever. I don't care if it was Biden. I don't care if it was Trump. There's nothing about this that makes sense for the city of Franklin or the residents of Simpson County. [Applause] So, we get to the part to where we talk about the the pro project highlights. I think that's slide number one, two, three, four, five, five or six. Uh project highlights 200 acre industrial zone property that's already in uh zoned I2. Unfortunately, we can't uh be provided the information on how this got zoned. IU. So, we can't find the records is my understanding.

In 200 I think it was in 2012. Yeah, it was a long time ago before any of us were before any of us. Nobody's fault. yada yada yada whatever. Just like all the problems we got in Franklin. None of our faults. I'm not I'm not blaming y'all. I'm not. But we've always got issues, right? We've always got issues. We've always got something to fix. There's always something going on. But we cannot provide proof that this was actually zoned industrial property back in 1905 or whenever it was 2010.

All right. So, it's going to be a 200 acre facility. It's going to be a 200 acre facility on this. What is it? Three or 500 acre track of land. I think you got an option for another 500 or a thousand. Okay. Whatever. So, on that farm is a big cave. It's a big hole in the ground. There's also a cemetery. You've not addressed those issues yet. So, I find it hard to believe that we're going to build a 200 300,000 square foot facility and we're not going to have some kind of environmental impact.

It doesn't make sense. So, [Applause] uh we get to the uh and so they're going to ramp it up over three to five years. Uh it's going to be on-site power. Look, that's great. That's going to be on-site power. That's great that you're gonna have a big smoke stack blowing whatever that's above us. That's great. Okay. Again, not something I'm looking forward to. Again, we'll go to the next slide talking about job numbers and types of trainings. 80,000 to $100,000. Again, I'm not that guy. I'm not walking into a data center. John, he's not walking into a data center. The only data centers we walk into are the data centers that are on site. We do not walk into these data centers. Okay? When I did the work for IBM or when I did the work for IBM, we were at collocation facilities, IBM Boulder, IBM Lexington, I've been there. I've done this. Even those facilities are loud. I I understand there's new technology. We're talking about zero water. Has anybody ever boiled a pot of water and left it? What happens to it?

Stone. Come back and it's not there, is it? It's magic. Somehow we're going to produce magic water impact property taxes and revenues. So that's great. We're gonna get a lot of money for this. Do you really want us spending your money like we spent for the past 10 years? I don't think so. So we're also talking about the property tax. The property tax they're basing it probably on the assumption that it's going to be 100% of the value of the property. Do you think Walmart gets taxed at the same rate we get taxed for our house?

No. They've got lawyers that come in and do this. The only people that's making money are the lawyers and the investors. And again, I hope you guys make lots of money, just not in Simpson County.

So, they're also we're also talking about a ton of equipment that's going to go in this facility. So, all this equipment has value. We're we're assuming that we're going to get tax revenue from this value because they're going to depreciate it out over a 4-year period. So, they're going to take their capex and they're going to depreciate it out over a four-year period. So, what happens when they section 179 at the first year and depreciate the whole thing out the first year? Are we going to get any tax money from the the equipment that's been depreciated out to zero for the next three years?

Probably not. I'm not saying that's what is going to happen. I'm not saying that's the plan. I'm not saying I'm an expert in that, but I mean, I have been through a lot of budgets and we do some funny stuff. Okay. If you're trying to pay more in taxes, go get a real job because the real job or the real value in making money is when you work for yourself. Everybody in here that's got a W2 is getting screwed. Okay? The people that are making the money are the investors. The people that are making the money are the business owners, but we're the ones taking the risk. That's just the nature of it. Okay? So, we get more tax breaks. So, what are they getting? They're I mean, they're getting quite a bit of tax breaks. I mean, my understanding is that we've been, you know, deemed this economic zone, but we're not getting the tax breaks. They keep saying this is going to come back to us in tax dollars. I mean, we're supposed to have a new fire truck because they built the mint out here.

Where's the new fire truck? That's never happened. They're they're now the mint is giving a lot of money to the to the parks and the or other organizations. I mean, I'm sure Lisa's here. I mean, I don't know how much, you know, money we're getting from them, but it's definitely not enough. But, but hey, this is a generational This is a once in a-lifetime opportunity, right? This is a once in a-lifetime opportunity. This is never going to happen again. How many times we heard that?

This is not a once in a-lifetime opportunity. The once in a-lifetime opportunity for these gentlemen up here, again, I wish you all the best. I just don't wish you the best in Simpson County. The reason The reason they don't want to do it with conditional use permits and they're trying to get it into an I2 zone is because of the cost. They've got to come back and fight it every time. That's great for them. That sucks for us.

This should be conditional use permits. This should not be in an I2 zone. [Applause] So, I mean, it it just, you know, we keep going. We keep going. We keep going. One gentleman said that there's going to be uh no water loss. The other gentleman said that there's it's going to be water, but it's going to be concentrated water. Which is it? How many? They have sat up here the entire time, none of this makes sense. The numbers don't The numbers don't number. It don't matter. The math don't math. I don't understand how we're getting up here and everybody has a different answer or everybody has an answer and it's just a

well I you know to to the best of my ability to the best of my knowledge well I think so well I don't know [Applause]

well well man I don't know what else to tell you you know there are alternatives and you know I hate it that you know maybe we won't have a power station that generates more power to bring in more industry But this is not the Franklin that me and you grew up in. We ain't got the stockyard anymore. I wish we did. I wish we were back there right now, but we can't be. And it's never going to be the same. Franklin's never going to be the Franklin I grew up in. That part is what it is. But if we're between the two fastest growing cities in East State, how about we be be a little bit more choosy about what we bring in here? [Applause] I may not be perfect, but I've done this for 25 years. I may not have done AI for 25 years,

but I can promise you there is nothing about this that does not scream conditional use permit. And there's a reason they don't get conditional use permits because it's easier on them if they don't. And it's harder on us to stop it in the future. Thank you for your time. your name. Jasmine, please turn your right hand. You tell affirm the testimony you're about to give to the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth.

Good evening, everyone. Um, my name is Jasmine, but for those of you who do not know me, I'm not here tonight to speak against anyone. not against our elected officials and not against progress for the heart, but for the heart of Kentucky and Franklin, Kentucky at that. I've been asked why I started this petition. I have 1,177 signatures from this petition that I started. That is the part of the Franklin right here. I have been asked personally time and time again why I started this petition. And this, like I said, wasn't political, but this is personal. This is about the people who live here, love here, and raise their families here. I am a mother to seven children. And like many of you, I want my children to grow up in the community that I grew up in. I want the community that values people over profit, neighbors over numbers, and heart over hardware.

Yeah. Before we talk about growth, we've considered not only the environmental costs, but of everything that they have said tonight for the proposed data center. They have made claims, but can they hold to that? Can they personally be held responsible if that's not what happened? Data centers have been known to consume vast amounts of electricity, often relying on nonrenewable energy sources, contributing to significant carbon emissions and to climate change. and there's nothing that can be done about that once it's already done. Additionally, they require so many quantities of water cooling that it would put a strain on our local water sources even though they have stated that it wouldn't. Can they again in writing say that this isn't just an environmental issue. This is a safety guard about our natural resources and the ones that sustain our communities and our future agricultural. In just a few short days, like I say said, this is over a thousand petitioners that do not want this. This is not anger. This is love. That's people that are standing up for the community that we all believe in. We understand that growth is inevitable, but not every kind of growth is right for Franklin. A data center may look good on paper and it may be ha have jobs. They've stated that there will be jobs, but there will not be a vast amount of jobs. And you will also have to have degrees for that. Said degrees takes money. Takes so much money that you are going into debt for. People in our community already have a hard enough time as is. Furthermore, large facilities like this could lead to higher property and income taxes as the city adjusts to infrastructures and services to support such operations. These tax increasements often trickle down, raising rents to our small local businesses, making it harder

for them to survive and to thrive. Our small businesses are the backbone of Franklin. You go down to our local square, it's all local businesses. Those property taxes get increased, their rent increases. They have that that's money that's taken away from their home and their family. I myself own a small business and that would affect me and my family and my seven children and it would affect y'all's family and y'all's children and y'all's grandchildren and great-grandchildren, not just what's going on right here, right now generational.

Amen. So tonight, I ask our city leaders, please listen to the voices of the people who represent. Listen to the families, to the parents, to the generations that want to preserve this town. I am 28 years old and I have lived here my whole life. I love this community and I love everything for it. And we elected you all to listen to us, not to be against us. We're not elected. We're not electing. I want to clarify something. We're not elected. We're just appointed in general. I appreciate y'all's job and what y'all do.

We're community members, too. Do we have families as well? Yes, sir. Can I get your name? Scott. Last name is A R. Is that Scott Ar. What's his name? Swear affirm that the testimony you're about to give be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Did you hear his name? Sir, what was your name? We can't hear you. Scott Art. Art. Last name? Art. A R N DT. Thank you.

You're welcome. Okay, so um my data here is a little skewed. That's I thought this was 832 acre data data center. It's not, but I'm going to use this data anyway because eventually I bet it will grow and it'll keep growing. So, good evening. I am a Simpson County resident. My name is Scott Art. I grew up in Colorado. I moved out here to get away from all that nasty mess out there. I love small town America, so this is the perfect place for my family. And I want it to remain that way. They promised us a lot of things in our small town like medical marijuana and make the t like they'd use the all that money to make better schools, better um infrastructure, fix our roads, all those things. They didn't use any of that. So, they're not going to use the data center to use any of that to fix anything with taxes. Sorry, they didn't do that for me. So, I'm against that. But anyway, let's just say this 832 acre data center, it will wipe out prime farmland, use power for up to 100,000 homes if this was the case, this is off my data, and raise our bills 30 to 45% by 2032 while creating just maybe 20 to 50 permanent jobs. It will spew fossil fuel CO2, they did change that with gas turbines and cooled whatever stuff. I'm a nobody. I'm just I just care about America. That's it. and indirectly consume seven to 14 billion gallons of water yearly through coal plants with only 19,000 of us here. There's only 19,000 of those. We can't subsidize big tech profits, but they'll we need to protect our farms, our wallets, our air, water, and future. These are the data centers I have that have already been affected. Lowden County, Virginia, over 100 data centers, operational noise levels comparable to aircraft. I know you said that it's going to be lower. I don't believe it. Frequent power outages, electricity rates increased over 30%. Community protests and block

expansions in 2023 2024. Prince William County, Virginia. More than 100 facilities uh grid strain leading to overloads, air pollution from coal plant backups, resident opposition to further development. Newton County, Georgia. Microsoft facility. Oh, you said Microsoft come. Okay. So, Microsoft facility uses millions of gallons of water daily for cooling. Contamination of local streams and wells. Groundwater depletion reported. Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas. High power demand contributes to their power grid. Instability in 2021 blackout second highest data center. CO2 emissions nationally. Diesel generator uh pollution affects low-income area. Chandler, Arizona. Google and other centers consume billions of gallons of water annually. Exacerbates aquifier depletion in desert region. Increased dust and uh particulate pollution. The Dales, Oregon, Amazon and Google facilities use Colombia River for cooling, raising water temperatures, impact salmon populations, alter scenic landscapes. Silicon Valley, California contributes to grid overload, increasing wildfire risk, electronic waste accumulation with toxic leeching, diesel generator emissions in nearby communities. Santa Clara Valley, Santa Clara Valley, California. Backup diesel generators release air pollutants. Disproportionate impacts on marginalized neighborhoods. Rural Georgia. This is just in general. Conversion of agriculture land to data centers increase traffic and infrastructure strain near Atlanta. Phoenix suburbs in Arizona. Water usage intensifies regional shortages. Community protests at planning meetings like we're here today. Creation of urban heat islands. Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. Heated cooling water discharge affects aquatic ecosystems. Ongoing lawsuits over environmental impact. Texas. Statewide data centers maintain operations during residential power cuts. Contributes to

unequal energy allocation. Virginia suburbs. This is just the suburbs in general. Large scale facilities reduce nearby property values due to noise and visual impacts. California in general. Electronic waste sites near educational facilities. potential long-term health risks. So, that's all I have on there, but there's a lot of data proving that this does impact our communities. And like I said, I'm a nobody, but I just care about this community. It's been good to me. And you could look out there on YouTube and find many articles about it. Just because they got shiny suits and everything doesn't mean they're always telling the truth. And that's my personal opinion. [Applause] You're just as important as everyone here. So, you are somebody. [Applause]

All right, sir. What's your name? Mason Barnes. B A R N E S. That's correct. Perfect. Will you please your right hand for me? You swear affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes, I do. Can I hand some information to pass down the line?

Absolutely. presenting commissioner here. Um, I'm probably going to talk about something a little different than most everybody else here is going to talk about. Um, I want to say to Mr. Art, wherever he went, you are absolutely incorrect about one thing. You aren't a nobody. In in the eyes of God, everyone is somebody and we respect you and we're glad to have you in this community. Another thing that I want to say is uh I heard I heard Mr. uh Crocker address social media issues. I've seen a few comments on social media that they didn't think elected officials should be here to speak tonight. I would I would differ with that because for those that don't know, I'm the county judge executive elected by people who live inside and outside the city limits of Franklin. I feel like I have an obligation to be here to speak and to share what the information that I'm going to share tonight. I'm not sharing any information tonight that I haven't spoke to these two men directly and they both know exactly where I stand and where I'm coming from on this. And I say I spoke to them because you guys called me just a week ago tonight. I think it was last Tuesday. There's been a lot of conversation here and we've heard a lot of testimony about a data center and whether it's good or whether it's bad and all of the great things about it. To be honest with everyone here, that's really not even the purpose of this meeting tonight. The purpose of this meeting tonight is a public hearing to address whether or not we would accept a text amendment change to the planning and zoning regulations 8.16 in the industrial uh heavy industrial zone. That's what this hearing is about tonight. Whether or not that text amendment should be changed. A few things I do want to clear up though before I get too far is we've heard a lot of testimony and I want to clear up

a couple of things that that were said that were absolutely not correct. Uh, one is about when planning and zoning split and when this land was purchased. The planning and zoning was not officially split until a meeting on July 1st of 2025 when in this room the county came with the county attorney to try to make the resolve that issue one last time to be told we could not speak. That was on July 1st of 2025. I wouldn't have brought this up except this information got shared tonight and it's not it wasn't correct. The uh that's when that happened. The land purchase for this property was recorded at the county clerk's office on 514 of 2025. By my math and calendar, that's almost two months prior to the planning and zoning officially splitting. Eight days later on 522, an annexation to the city of Franklin was recorded at the county clerk's office on that piece of property. Just wanted to clear some of that up. Another thing that I want to clear up, and I do I appreciate all the people coming to testified and and I'm you know, listen, that's why I'm not here to talk about a data center because everything that's been said about a Danner centers like this over my head. I don't I I operate a computer. That's all I I don't and I'm not real great at that. That's why I have ladies in the office that take care of most of that. But the one thing and I verified this with the representative from Warner Electric because I think it was a misrepresentation to say that we don't have enough energy to recruit industry here. When he said it is their planned load growth, I asked him exactly what does that mean? And he said we have a and he and I asked him could I share this and he said I could. He said they have a 15-year plan. And there's representative still here from Warren Electric. So if I get some of this wrong you can correct me. They have a 15-year plan where they look at what traditionally has happened in this

community over the last 15 years and they plan their load growth for that same type of growth over the next period of time. So, so to to imply that there cannot be any more growth or that you can't do anything at all industry-wise, that that is a complete misrepresentation of what Warner Electric is doing and what we have the ability to do here in this county. I just wanted to get that out of the way. I handed all of you guys uh and and would y'all all agree that on the very first page is the exact text amendment change that was presented to you guys by the Franklin City Commission. Is that correct? It looks correct to me.

Okay. And I and it is the very same thing that's on this board right here. Yeah. Right. Also handed to these folks for those that would like to know. I handed the 8.16 in I2 zone directly off the city of Franklin website of exactly what is permitted and conditionally used in an I2 zone in this would y'all agree I'm asking the planning and zoning commission members would y'all agree that under permitted uses there are essentially eight items listed correct yep that's correct

and we're being asked to increase that by 25%. We're being asked to add two more items to the permitted uses of the I2 zone. You flip over and you go to the conditional uses of I2 zone. Excuse me. Now, you've heard you uh Commissioner Bush addressed conditional uses. The Oh, they're pulling them up for me. Man, y'all are really good. That's good. I don't. Uh, so would y'all agree as you're looking at that that there are 53 different conditional uses under the I2 zone? Is that how many is listed there?

Yes. There's a reason that there are 53 conditional uses and only eight permitted uses. because there are things that make sense that are allowable that's doable without question that we we can allow and can happen. There are other things. Yes, ma'am. How often does a conditional use permit need to be renewed? Well, that's another good question because that's another thing that got said tonight that I I thought was true but apparently is not true. Uh yeah,

I know we have topic supposedly. I mean, I say supposedly because I've never been the planning and zoning administrator, but once a conditional use permit is issued, conditions are tied to that permit. Meaning, you have to abide by this, this, this, and this, whatever. And, and just so the people here know and understand,

when this planning and zoning commission approves something that has to have a conditional use permit, this commission does not address that. It goes to the planning and zoning board of adjustments. And the planning and zoning board of adjustments will then attach conditions that will be allowed for you to operate the way you want to the way that they seem they deem fit for you to operate.

Does that make sense with everyone? So once someone's issued a conditional use permit saying you can operate, but here's here's what you have to abide by. There's supposed to be an annual review of that business and are they still abiding by these things? Thank you. And while I did believe and I thought Mr. Crocker that you were correct, I would I would have laid money on you being correct that once the owner of I always do that.

Yeah. I I but the court system proved you wrong. And that is once a conditional use permit is issued and that property sells or transfers ownership. We always thought that that conditional use permit was null and void, but I can tell you the federal bankruptcy court told us that absolutely was not the case, which was unique to a specific property. Well, well, it may have been, but I think it could be held to any property. And so, uh, so you don't need to renew,

you know, because and for y'all that don't know, the rock quarry got sold and we we we thought the new owners would have to apply for a conditional use permit to to operate again. And the federal bankruptcy court said, "Sorry about your luck." they get to continue operating. So what I'm here to say and ask really I'm here to ask. I'm not really here to tell. I'm not here to say and ultimately whatever decision that this commission makes whether they make the decision to recommend these text amendments or whether they make the decision not to recommend these text amendments. Ultimately it will go back to the Franklin City Commission for them to decide one way or the other. Ultimately, what do we do?

Yeah, we are. Could you state that in a different way that we are a recommendation? I'm That's exactly what I am saying. It's not our decision. We just

Whatever decision you guys make tonight, if your decision tonight is we recommend these two text amendments to be implemented into the permitted uses of the I2 zone. That recommendation will then go to the city of Franklin for them to either either approve or deny. If you make the recommendation tonight not to inject or implement these two uh condition uh permitted uses into the I2 zone, the decision not to recommend it will also go to the city commission and they will take action on it of their choosing one way or the other. What I'm here to ask this commission tonight is to think about this. And I told these gentlemen as I talked to them on the phone and they told me how great their project was. And I think Adam, I told you directly as we were talking, your project may be the best in the world. It could be very great. But the bottom line is if it gets implemented into the permitted uses that means just that it's permitted. It's allowed. We don't really get a say. I think it should be implemented under the conditional uses if we do anything at all with it. Mr. Monday testified tonight under oath that he didn't even think we needed the text amendment for it to happen.

Okay.

I don't I don't agree or understand that, but I mean I think you would really have to stretch some of these eight permitted uses to get there. I highlighted number 27 under the conditional uses because I think under item 27 under conditional uses, it's a possibility that a conditional use permit could be issued without any a text amendment to the zoning regulations whatsoever. I don't necessarily agree that it could be done under a permitted use. I think it possibly could be done under a conditional use without any change. My my ask of you guys tonight is to give this serious consideration. And my ask honestly is that you deny this request to recommend implementing these two items into the permitted uses of an I2 zone because I think we I think we and there's a reason again I'll say this there is a reason there are eight permitted uses in an I2 and 53 conditional uses because we need to set the guidelines on what we want and expect to happen in our community. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

You tell me where the testimony you're about to give the truth, the whole truth of the truth. You've waited quite a while. Yeah. Speak to us. Hello. Hello. Um, I am just going to make a couple of points. Uhhuh. Kristen Bailey Wilson and I'm just going to make a couple of points and the first and they have nothing to do with data centers because like Mason, I don't know a lot about the technology, but I do know a lot about policy and so I'm going to direct your attention back at this language. Yeah, great.

So, they said closed loop cooling. Where on here does it say closed loop cooling? And the answer is nowhere. It says you can use any cooling. So this group can walk away, change the cooling system, and if we pass this, we're stuck with it. So my first point is that we you are looking at the text. So when someone comes up here and says, "Oh, there's water usage problems." Don't think, "Oh, that's not what they said." think are water usage problems pro possible given this text. Do you see what I'm saying? Because I think that's the question in front of you, not their proposal. You'll see that later. The second point I want to make about the legality of this is that we are the people and we haven't been represented by an attorney yet. Here's here's Amanda. Here's Tim. They're the attorneys for Adam and Felix. Where's ours? I'm looking.

You're doing a good job.

Okay. So, who where would that have happened? The commissioners gave this text amendment to Scott Crabtree, the city attorney, on a Friday. Then the meeting was on Monday. Scott at noon. at noon. Scott Crabtree had less time to look at this material than it will take for this meeting. And these people have had all kinds of prep time. So, here's what I noticed. I noticed in my looking that that data centers often bring lawsuits against municipalities and citizen groups. And those lawsuits often concern property valuation. And what do they want? They don't want it increased. They want it decreased.

So, I'm asking you not to vote for this amendment until the people get represented by a law firm that knows data center law.

Data center law. The body of work on data center law is so large that large law firms specialize in it. These two know that. They've brought our locals because that's supposed to reassure us. The people need representation before you vote this in. So that's that point. And then I'm going to talk just a minute about finance. And I'm going to say very little. People in this room have been trying to track down Adam and Felix for weeks, but they've been hiding between behind privacy screens and, you know, we can't tell non-disclosure agreements. Here they sit right right now. But don't be bamboozled. They've been hiding. So, I've got

I've got Well, I I don't see Adam. I've got that for everybody. So, I'm going to tell you about this form of financing that Adam's using. Maybe uh you've heard of it. So, it's a private equity fund that you set up through the IRS. And the name of the form is 8996 private equity form that you set up through the IRS, right? Adam has set it up. So it goes through Adam's taxes. If I want to give Adam $100,000, then you're you're not filling out the form 8996. Adam,

there's a problem with the website then. So So If I could give Adam $100,000 for his private equity fund and who would know about that? No one. Because I'm going to run it through my taxes. Now, you have a 401k for your retirement, but the equities in your 401k are public facing. There are securities exchange commission, lots of them, rules. The rules behind what Adam's doing. It's the wild wide. It's a wild wild west. We don't know who's investing with Adam. So, let's worry about that. Let's worry about that. So, when I was noodling around, I found a website called 10 key qualified opportunity zone. You see it there from the OTN group. and it listed a project and you do a click and it says are you an accredited investor and then you get information from Tim who wants your money right that website was sitting right there and it lists the power supply it so what you all really need to think about if you want to think about this project is does that match what they said

and it is us guys it is us what was there is us I sent it to a bunch of people in town and I won't even name who an hour later it was taken down. That website is gone. I've given them copies of the content. That investor website is gone.

So, let me tell you about a conversation I had with Jim Decessory. He's our industrial board director. I send this link to Jim. And I'm not saying that Jim did had anything to do with this because I don't really think it did. Um, I send it to Jim and I ask him, "Is this them?" And Jim says, "Not that I'm aware of." And I reply, "Oh, come on, Jim. This is the Steel Road property." And Jim says, "I've not clicked the link." I say, "Click the link." Then he does. And a minute later, he says, "Wow, period. I wasn't aware." Now, you got to really think about what that probably means. There is so much more associated with Adam and that I could tell you about, but I'm not going to take up so everybody else's time. There's equity funds, there's smoke and mirror, there's projects and lawsuits, there's a lot more. Oh, Abid Adam, there's restaurants in Pittsburgh and maybe we can all go there and eat at one once. This is the definition of dark money. Our local leaders, I'm sorry to say, have been bamboozled. So, I'm asking you all to stand with your fellow citizens. We deserve representation, real representation, and we deserve transparent investors.

Please vote no. [Music] [Applause] My name is Stephanie Hastels.

You only swear affirm that the testimony you're about to give to be the truth. I do.

My name is Stephanie Hastings. I think every bit of thunder was just stolen by the previous speaker in front of me. I had a lot of things I came here tonight to say. Most of the people that have gone before me have already spoken on those issues. But since I live on Steel Road and since 2008 when this change was made, which I was completely unaware of and so was every other person that was adjacent to that land in 2008. I think that's why Mr. Bush said, "Was this done right?" Maybe so. Doesn't matter. It's I can't do anything about it now. It's way past the statute of limitations. What I can do is reiterate what some of the other people here have said. If you read the Franklin Forward article about this proposed data center, it sounds great. I'm not going to lie. At one point in time, I was sitting there thinking, man, this sounds so good. I wouldn't mind having that in my front yard. Okay? But there's something that I know. Just because they tell you that doesn't mean that's what's gonna happen.

Okay?

I don't know how many of you have ever been out on a date. All right? You have somebody tell you, "Man, I want to take you out on a date. I want to take you and get you a great three course meal and take you to a theater production." You're like, "Wow, man, that sounds awesome. Let's do it." You show up, you're dressed up, and you wind up getting to go to McDonald's. You get a Big Mac, a fry, an apple pie, and you get to go to the latest theatrical production of your date's niece or nephew down at the Goodn Night Library and they're doing fine in England. I don't want that for us. I don't want us taken advantage of. I don't want us made fools of. If you guys can tell me that this data center, not just this one, the next one that comes, because once we get one, they're probably going to want to bring another one

and another one and another one. And I'm not just talking about this one, okay? I'm talking about completely different projects, okay? What they're talking about in Franklin Ford, what they're talking about here tonight, are we going to be guaranteed? Does our 39 point check off list, does it guarantee us that it's going to be closed cooling systems? Does it guarantee us that the turbines run by natural gas isn't going to pollute the air? Is it going to guarantee us our electric bills aren't going to go up? Or for that for that matter, what about natural gas? If you're on natural gas at that end of the county, are your natural gas costs going to go up? I don't know about y'all, I can't afford my utility bills quote much. If this data center was put in exactly the way it is portrayed, exactly the way it's portrayed in Franklin forward, exactly the way it's been discussed here tonight, I might even join the crowd and be for it. But so far, I have been disappointed too many times in the past by promises made by people that come in here offering jobs and offering employment. And let me say this should not even these people here. Some of y'all came in tonight mad at these people. These people can't do anything except vote on this. This was produced by the city commission before the city commission ever introduced this to the planning and zoning. They should have had an open public meeting with all of us with all the shareholders. Okay. I mean, these gentlemen and ladies right here, that should have been an open meeting where people could speak, maybe even a joint meeting between elected officials on both the city and county side.

Okay?

It should not have simply been voted on, as was said, the Monday at noon by the city commission and sent here for these people to have to deal with us. Okay? It's not fair to them. They didn't make this decision. All they can do is vote on it. I'm so happy to see this many people show up tonight. And I know there were still people standing outside when they closed the doors. Matter of fact, when I get through leaving, I'm going out there and letting them come in and speak. I'm just saying we need to be this involved on everything that affects our community, not just this. I'm not necessarily against this. I'm not for it. I want to be aware of what's going on and I want other people to be aware too. I want transparency when it comes to things that are going to affect my community. I don't want something to be passed, like I said, by the city commission. I don't want something to be passed by the fiscal court and it come up in front of planning and zoning and somebody go, "Wait a minute. We didn't know anything about this." People have said, "Well, you should have read the Franklin Forward." I didn't even know there was such a thing as Franklin Forward. Nobody talked to me about it. I never knew about it until we were talking about at the very first part of this year when they were talking about Steel Road. Somebody was like, "Well, this is in Franklin." Franklin what? We need transparency. We need our governments to speak out, not just bury it somewhere on their government page. Because I'm tell right now, our government page is not easy to use. This needs to be said. And if you find out about something, put it on Facebook, please. I'm not saying put your opinion about it. Just put it. Hey, Franklin has got a whole agenda of things they want to change. Become involved. Let other people around you know what's going on. Okay.

Now, for the rest of it, I've had my say. I'm going out and let someone else have their say, but I am asking the planning and zoning board before you make a decision, before you allow this to be user friendly for the corporations come in here, which is exactly how this is how this is done, maybe you need to consider going another way and use conditional use. I I think that many of us that sit on boards, I think that over the years, we have learned that we do have to put in more levers. We have to put in more places where like because when things will happen in a meeting and it's in the minutes when we will ask for something and we'll have developers say, "Oh, yeah, yeah, you'll get that." But then when it comes to the production of it and then they've sold it to someone else and then the minutes, you know, is not law.

So I'd like to see that put into action by all of our local government levers. Yeah. That's why we that's why we push forward in writing. [Applause] Okay. Wayne Dwayne Hoffman. Is it a D Wayne or Dwayne? Okay. D Wayne [Music] about the whole Madam Chair, lady, members of the council, the general public. Okay. If you don't mind, I'm going to walk around a little bit. That's kind of how I do these for my job.

Great. And then I think everybody can hear you better from moving. Thank you. You have My name is Dwayne Hoffman. A soft voice. I am the North American in Hold up a second. If you're going to do that, take the mic with you. That way the people online this one. The big one. The big one. This one? Oh, the big one. This one? Yeah. That way. That way they can hear you. Okay. Thank you, Derek.

So, my name is Dwayne Hoffman. I am the North American enduser architect for a multinational company. I am also the global subject matter expert for all virtualization efforts at my company and we support 65,000 users in four domains North America, the United Kingdom, the European Union and India. I have been in IT 27 years. I have been part of three separate entities that have either modified, built out, or renovated data centers. They all happen to be in Northern Virginia. I am here to articulate a reasoned but emphatic no to this amendment. Now, unlike the other speakers, I have the technical background So, my wife has already forewarned me. Don't say big technical words. I'm a new resident of Franklin.

The only reason why I came here is because a certain blonde said, "You know, you should get out of the city." And I did. And one of the great privileges that I have as a veteran is to exercise the right of free speech. I signed my name on in 1994. [Applause] I do not take that lightly. I'm a quiet guy. Ask my wife. The only time I get excited is when I stream on Twitch during iRacing. Otherwise, I'm pretty mom. But I am here to provide you some understanding that is accessible because quite candidly this has not been accessible nor has it been properly disclosed. The original solicitation and I happen to have it in front of me says as follows. A 551.6 6 megawatt turbine singular not plural andor resip array expandable to 1 gawatt and the design is 2 plus1 basically folks a 2 plus1 it is unless it is a significant catastrophe the data center can overcome and carry on that's all it means the issue however is we have heard tonight that there are multiple turbons, not just the one that will make a larger footprint. Yes, they have room. 200 acres. That's a nice piece of land.

And yes, we've been given assurances that the resip array will also run on natural gas and not diesel. But as I am asking the captain obvious question, where is the natural gas coming from? I think I have an answer.

About 20 miles from here, you have the Texas Eastern Pipeline. It connects to the Marcelus Shale 200 miles east. And we are very lucky in Kentucky. Lawrence and Floyd County is sitting on a gargantuan amount of natural gas. This pipeline uses 5 to 10 billion with a B cubic feet per day. That means there is no reason why your natural gas bill should ever go up on a natural gas. However, we also have not been told, are there storage tanks at this facility for said natural gas? Because certainly as part of disaster recovery, if that pipeline has an issue where you have reduced flow, you're going to want to make sure you have something on hand. Nowhere in the literature does it say tanks. We've heard pipes, but not tinks. That leads me to my next point. Another Captain Obvious question. While it's great that we're being promised over $17 million per facility, how much are we paying in subsidy to have this put in? [Applause] I don't know about you, but when I balance the checkbook, I can't go minus. What happens if this now goes minus? It's great to be promised the world, but are we willing to lose our souls for it? Yeah.

Now I'm now going to address some of the technical bits which is my wheelhouse.

So sweetheart, I will not need this. I'm going to do it from memory. We are blessed in Franklin in terms of internet. Insanely blessed. Mindblowingly blessed. If we were in Madisonville or Glasgow, we have one link to the world. Franklin has three. Lumen, Windstream and Cogent Communications. Windstream and Lumen are both 400 gigabit per second. Cogent is 100. That is significant. We embarrass cities a h 100 times larger than ours with our network capacity. But there's a big however. Who in this room has EPB as your internet provider? Raise your hand. Okay. Who in this room that has EPB knows who your DNS provider is? The answer is Cloudflare. Cloudflare is a worldclass company. They mitigate denial service attacks. They also provide content delivery. They also do DNS resolution. If you were to log into your modem and EPB, it's right there on the front page. You can't miss it. So, let me describe how your traffic gets to where it's going. Think the interstate system, you're pretty close to how the internet works.

From your computer, you get your way over to I65 and now your data has a choice of the three networks. It doesn't care which one it uses. It's not picky. and a simple trace route of a website. And for the record, at my house two days ago, I ran a script of a thousand websites around the world. 989 of the thousand go through Nashville. If you are on EPB, that's a staggering number. So, if you do a trace route, what happens is you get a bunch of gobblegook and you get more gobblelygook and then you end at your destination. I'm going to talk about the in between. Nashville has 60 gigabits per second at its internet exchange. That's its capacity. Six networks. In comparison, a few hours north of here, Indianapolis has 960 gigabits per second. And this year alone has put in more capacity than Nashville has in total. Matter of fact, Indianapolis has 51 networks in their backbone. Now, for your big cities, it's an astronomical number. Atlanta is 26,700 gigabits of capacity. They have over 280 networks. The issue is not capacity. The issue is capability because your internet traffic has to go

through Nashville nine times out of 10. And furthermore, more often than not, it's got to go through Atlanta about seven to eight times out of 10. So, picture your road trip on 65 to 24 to 75, and your traffic's pretty close to doing that. Now, here's a caveat. Nashville Metro has at least 32 data centers. My company happens to be in one in the other Franklin.

For the record, this is the better one. Just going to tell you that right now. Is yours on Kthers?

Yes. That is a 6 megawatt data center. It's 80,000 square foot. My company has nine employees that are there because if that site goes down, we're in trouble. I made a phone call. I said, "Hey, Jerome, how noisy is it there right now?" He goes, "Give me a second." Takes his aometer, goes out there. It's 64 dB. I went, "Cool. Thanks a lot. Have a good day." The noise that they're talking about, folks, is not high pitch. It's more of a drone

that can disturb wildlife. Okay. And as I remember it, Kentucky has a lot of horses.

I am not convinced in the slightest that noise levels will be at the 50 to 65 dB desired. Not convinced. Give you a second case in point. Recently I was in England for a work trip. I got to see our new data center they're building. It's near Heathrow. It's somewhat similar to what's being offered here. A statement. Oh, there's no water going in. That is a lie. [Applause] And frankly, it's an insult to your intelligence. Here's why. If you go to the website franklinkyforward.com which stood up one week ago hosted by Amazon the registered name is private which means they didn't want to disclose who had opened the website matter of fact it was registered by a company called Domains by proxy LLC. If you were to pull out your phone and go to that website right now, you would laugh at the amateur nature of the site. High school kids in graphic design could do a better website than this. It's embarrassing. On that website, it specifically states that the cooling method will be immersion to cycle. That's what it says. However, other representatives close to this project has said, "Oh, it's going to be direct to chip or close loop." Folks, they're three different things. They're not the same.

Immersion 2 cycle takes a nonwaterbased substance and they literally immerse it. Very good for heat transfer. Our new data center in the UK. We're going to use this method. It's the beans. But here's the catch. On that same website I alluded to, sweetheart. I'm going to need that again because I want to make sure I quote this right as part of the public record. It states, thank you, love. It states as follows,

quote, it states, thank you. It states as follows. Space Facebook is about a minute behind. I think on the website in question it says this statement. Take combined heat and power. Really that was alluded to earlier. He needs to go.

It's a very good system. I actually if I'm doing a DC I would that's the first thing I put in. That part's legit folks. For instance, and now this is this is why I'm about to lampoon it. It's a slick setup. Uses waste heat from power generation to create steam for cooling all in a closed loop. Then there is two-phase immersion cooling where computer chips are dunked in a safe nonconductive liquid that turns to vapor to cool the chips, then gets recycled back to liquid over and over. No water wasted, no fuss. There's a picture. Whoever wrote that has no understanding of how to write technically. If you were to present this in the commercial world, we'd laugh you out of building because there's a world of difference between steam and something of the nature of a complex evaporative and condensing mechanism. World of difference. Furthermore, in over my 25 plus years, I've never seen in a technical perspectus the word dunked. Instead, we've often seen the word immersed or bathed because dunking implicates you go in and then you take it out.

That's not the situation here with immersion to cycle cooling. It's in. Now I want to talk about the liquid that we're going to use. So on a team's call last week, I started asking questions. Hey, how are you going to cool this? And they're like, oh, we're going to use option. So option is opt. It's a nonwater liquid. The fancy word is dialectric fluid. That's the fancy word. The good news is you don't have to replace it very often. It's about 10 to 12 years, best case 15. So once it's in, it's in. Here's the bad news, folks. All it takes is one tornado to rupture a DC and you have a water contamination issue on your hands because this thing decomposes into an acid. That's not me saying it. That's the head of industrial engineering for my company based in London because that's not in my wheelhouse. I just know who to ask. Now,

oh my god. For me, the whole argument, and that is a pun intended, is where's the batteries going to go? There's no mention of batteries. Now, you have two different types of batteries these days. You have flow batteries which are based normally on venadium, sometimes lithium, but the new fancium ones are sodium ion. Now, data centers tend to be very conservative. They do not speculate on the new technology. They can't afford to be down. If they go down, they're losing their shirts in certain cases because certain companies have an expected uptime. and we call it the N standard. So 99 99.9 99 99.99 and so forth. There has been zero disclosure of batteries and as Mr. Bush alluded to, there is a cave system nearby. If you ever put lithium to air andor to water, it goes boom in a very violent way. Where are the batteries? Now, as a cyborg comet, we get told, "Oh, after five to seven years, we're going to interconnect with the TVA electrical grid, and we're going to happily send our excess electricity to our fellow neighbors. May I draw your attention to the proposed building just across the line in Portland called Garage 65? It's over 2 million square

feet and it is literally on the last mile of fiber. What a sweetheart deal that would be. Hey Amazon, do you want me to stop?

Hey UPS, we have this shiny new building right here. And oh, the DC is in sight. It's right over there. Why aren't they building it here? You mean to tell me that the residence of our county is not good enough to be worthy of a 2 million square foot day one start building. We have access to major freeways. We have good fiber. We have a trucking industry that would love to move freight. Why is that building not being done here in Simpson County? but instead we're losing all the tax revenue that will come from it because it will be in the state of Tennessee. That leads me into my next point. I'm going to quote from the website again. Economic impact. I've already alluded to the whole subsidy question. On the website, it states the following statement. It can also sponsor STEM programs at the high school and create new job programs at tech schools like Southern Kentucky Community and Technical College. Can not well. Can is a capability word. Will is an initiative word. Where does it say we will generate these mythical 100,000k jobs

where let me drop a couple pieces of knowledge on you when it comes to that. IT salaries in Bowling Green average 20 to 40% lower than Nashville. Your average data center technician, this your stock standard data center technician in Nashville is 72,000 a year. A system engineer in Bowling Green user experience is 82,000. Now thankfully I am a mathematician by training and I can tell you 82 is less than 100. I have the proof in the form of a degree. The hard truth of it is that this is not an immediate startup to 100,000. No, no. You need about five years of working with both the education system plus recruiting plus other factors to make people look at county as attractive for them to relocate here. Now thankfully we got plenty of houses but I assure you we don't have plenty of money. These jobs are not immediate. Now, if this data center was to go through, the short-term impact is significant. You would have hundreds of construction workers building these things out. But they're temporary. Once it's built, where are they going to go?

I think everyone in this room would agree we want sustainable jobs. not temporary ones. Furthermore, there's a glaring emission in this statement. Why are two of the most important universities in Kentucky not mentioned in this paragraph? I'm talking about Murray State and Western Kentucky University. Why are they not mentioned? Do you realize how lucrative industrial engineering is right now in the United States? There are students in Bowling Green that if this data center came to pass, they would be jumping at the bit at internships and apprenticeships, which will bring residual income into Simpson County because it'll be paying for services and things thereof. No mention, but instead we get the emotional ploy. Quote, "The world is changing." Despite manufacturing jobs still being desired, and by the way, it's in the past participle, not the present tense. Whoever put this together, closing of plants like Fritz Winter show the evolution of technology and jobs. They put job in the singular again for in Kentucky. What a blatant ploy. Here's what makes Simpson County unique. from a former city slicker.

Oh, very much a former city slicker. It's peace and quiet. The ability to walk down the street and people say hello. The fact that a handshake still means something. The fact that you can go over to your neighbor and say, "Hey, can I borrow a cup of sugar? You don't have that in most municipalities in the United States anymore. That ship was sailed decades ago. Did it ever register to us that if we build this data center that maybe, just maybe, we bring crime with it? Ah, crime. That's a that's a tough subject. because property values in many municipalities have gone down not up. I would like to offer two examples. One of them is actually very personal to me. First example is Chandler, Arizona. They built a bunch of data centers. The property values went down 5 to 7% within a mile of said center. The other one though is very close to Prince William County. You know it as Manasses, Virginia. Woodbridge. That's right. In my case, Manasses Park. I lived there for five years and I saw firsthand the pros and cons of data center growth because Virginia State Road 28 is the main north south highway for most of

your data centers in Northern Virginia. I'm at the south end. The data centers in Len County are at the north end. The claim that oh data centers increase property values in Lenon County is a false dawn for this reason. Lenon County is already more prosperous than Prince William and they hold a higher percentage of federal employees versus Prince William. The argument does not transfer. In 2023, Prince William County said no more. We will not allow any future data centers.

Sir, sir, could you have taken more than your share of time? We have other people waiting to talk and you've been you've abused us. Okay. With respect, Mr. We have about 10 seconds left. I'm about to close, Mr. Link, but I will not have my right of free speech in front of You're taking their right of free speech away from them. I'll leave you with this thought. It's nice to be noticed. It's nice to be solicited. But there are rules in this. You have a choice to make. I choose no. And so should you.

Okay. How many people do we have over here to speak? Are there six of you all? Yes. I am going to swear you all in at the same time. Less than a minute. No, it's okay. We're not in a hurry. I just think that'll cut down a little bit. Can you swear all six of them in together? And then Mr. Chandler and I want you to say, "I'm Marty Chandler and your name and where you live and all of you get here and get sworn in together." So that then that will cut down on a minute. Thank you.

Everybody be quiet. Thank you.

Okay. You tell me swear heard that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. And we'll start with Mr. Chandler. And you you've got the floor. So, thank you for waiting. See, put this back up here. I'm not going to walk around and give a big speech. You're not? No, we're not getting 45 minutes. So, we're good. First of all,

I want to thank you all for agreeing to serve as a board. I I I would almost um think that when you all agreed to serve as board members, this probably wouldn't what you had in mind to have to come to meetings like this, but thank you. We need people to do it. We have uh it takes people to do that. I'm East Magister here in the county. if anyone doesn't know that and this is in the south district. So, uh the reason I'm here addressing this tonight and I am encouraging you to not put this as a permitted use. Put it as a conditional use because we have two industrial parks. We have one in North. If you put this as a peritted use in this south industrial park, that's going to open it up for the other industrial parks. So that is my biggest concern is when you put it as a permitted use, then it opens up for the next one. And there may not be a next one, but it it certainly opens it up for the next one. And tonight, Mr. Crocker was under he had one of his expert witnesses. This would be what it how you say it would be nothing not detrimental to anybody in the community and it wouldn't cause any for the neighbors or anything. Correct. the witnesses testimony Stanford said.

Didn't the same witnesses say that about the rock? [Music] We we were all assured at the for the rock quary that it was not going to be detrimental to the community. Drive to the park and look across the creek and see that

look at our roads out there. So if you do it under conditional use, you can set conditions where if it has to I don't know all these technical terms they're talking about on the water and but you can put that as a condition and you can put uh how much it you know they say seven years from now the TVA would have the power there. You could put a condition they can never be on the power grid. So there's under conditional use, you have a lot more control of what happens on this propert oversight. You feel like that you have more oversight.

You have you have a lot more oversight and you review those conditions on a yearly basis and it anybody who will tell you that this project $2 billion. Is that correct? What you're talking about here? If they can't wait 30 to 60 days to get a conditional use permit, that project probably wasn't going to come here anyway. So there is no reason why this cannot be done under a conditional use permit. But like I say, my main concern too is if it's allowed in one, it's allowed everywhere.

So I don't know what the future holds. None of us do. But in 15 years, there may be something bigger that comes that does use a lot of water, does get on the power grid, doesn't provide their own electricity. So there's things that by not having it under conditional use, you would have no control over that. No oversight. I'll leave you all with that. But thank you. Thank you. My name is Jack Hayes. Hey Jack.

I moved here 10 years ago from Eastern Kentucky. I have several family members that serve this fine state of Kentucky, elected officials and people. I have an uncle that's a capital venturist that that is in the communications industry. So I know a little bit about this. All I want to say is this. Mr. Olsen, a guy from Olsen made a good point that his data center was built, like you said, six miles from 1500 people. This is Franklin. We're not Nebraska cornfield. And I'm going to say this. If you want to know what these data centers do, all I got to tell you is I have friends in New Albany, Ohio, and go and ask the people of New Albany, Ohio, how great these data centers are. And if you Google anything about these data centers, there's nothing positive about them. No one is in there saying, "Man, I couldn't wait for them to come to my town." because most of them are when they come in that if if you look if you go and Google New Albd Ohio or go to Virginia and look at Virginia the data centers in Virginia. It was a great sales pitch tonight but that's all it is.

I come from a small town in Eastern Kentucky that the people there are close-knit and I tell you this town right here is why I love this town. It's the same way and it's not for sale. [Applause] Good job. [Applause] Hi everybody. I'm Eric Vaughn and uh

somebody said something about the elected officials speaking. I just got off work, hadn't been home, so I'm not your jailer right now. You've heard from concerned mothers. You've heard from concerned citizens. I can't take my eye off you. You don't know our town. You don't. I'm not only a fifth generation Simpson County, I'm raising a six and a seventh any minute. I would like to talk to Mr. Is it Ford that you is representing y'all also as a key witness or testifying? Mr. Ford is Mr. Ford. Would you like him to come up here? Yes, sir.

I want to ask him a question. Question answer. Can you do that? He's got a question. You can stand right there. It's all right. Get by with it for now. So, did you say that you had this discussion? I just want everybody to hear what we got. I said I'm a sight selector. Okay. Right. I did not select the site. because he could tell about the the benefits of the location of the location the site the data storage and service center and energy production.

Okay. He can tell about advantages to each of those. So have you looked at that site? How much of that site have you looked at? There's 200 acres there. How much that You have not been on 200 acres. Have you been on 200 acres? All right. So, you're going to build and before I get into this, I'm not for you. I'm not against you.

I'm for Simpson County and the citizens here. Now, I told you about the seventh generation. You heard from the mamas. You heard from the citizens. Now you're hearing from the daddies. It's my job as a father to preserve and look out for our future generations. We're getting back to this land. How many times you've been on that land? Quite a few. Three times. Okay. Well, do you know the name Andrews? Mr. Andrews is a farmer. He is a farmer. Big farmer. Mr. Andrews. Okay.

I've been on that farm hauling grain off of that farm. Excuse me, sir. We can't do an inquiry. No, I'm I'm talking about I'm getting to this. I'm get I'm getting No, but Okay. So, there's there is cave system under there. It's not a question and answer. Okay. So, I'm going to state there's cave system under that land. Thank you, sir.

I'm concerned with the water. We talked about a tornado shaking whatever and the stuff getting in our water. I'm looking at from my generations. Can you guarantee us that it will not contaminate our water system? Can you guarantee us? That's what I'm asking. Can you guarantee us this community that it will not contaminate our natural resources?

Madam Chairman, what we can do, we will bring back our our specific [Applause] [Music] Hey, they're done. Fair. Fair. Can you guarantee us that? I'm asking you. You're You're the man. I'm I'm asking. Can you guarantee us that? M. You've already told him he can't direct. Yeah, we can't. This is about our county. He has not been sworn.

He's not sworn in and he's not a witness. You can't interrogate him. I mean, if he wants to if he wants to answer your question, he can. If he doesn't, he doesn't have to. We're not in the court of law. Okay. Okay. We're not in a court. Sorry. Go ahead. Sir, you have to be sworn in to answer. I'm sorry. That's fine. I I respect it. I I understand your point,

but but it it it's it's it's our job as fathers and mothers to take care of our future generations. I know you're making a dollar. Hey, that's what everybody's in business for. Kudos to you. I'm not going to say make your money somewhere else other than Simpson County like somebody else did. I'm not going to say that. But I'm going to tell you that I do not and will not support something that's sketchy. Okay. [Applause] And and PNZ, y'all got a tough decision to make, but I hope you take into consideration all of our families in our community. Cuz I'm going to tell you something here. Here's one other thing. Cher Von, you know him very well because you represent him. Crocker,

sit on the front porch. He would Huh. One of my favorite. He would he would still be rolling over right now if and he would be up here talking. But now I want to talk about I want to talk and reason I brought his name up. You're shaking your head. No, I'm saying we can have comment out here. Okay. All right. Shaking my head. Okay. In 2008, if you know my dad, any of y'all know Cheron, he did not get a letter from PNZ saying that this was going to be turned into was it I2?

I too. because he would still be raising Kane because he likes sitting on his porch looking out across that farm. I know my dad Mickey Steel, he's not with us anymore. That was Stephanie stepdad. He'd be the same caliber of person. I have questions on how this transitioned. I have questions on why you chose this site and I will be asking those questions down the road if I need to. I'm talking not as your jailer. I'm talking as a concerned citizen, a taxpayer in Simpson County and a father and I want to know what's going on. Okay? This is not a jab at you. It's not a jab at you. I don't know either one of you. Crocker, it's not a jab at your clients. But I do want some answers. And eventually, we're going to get to that point to where we're going to get those answers. I just don't want it to be too late. Thank you. [Applause]

Hi, I'm Brandy Bell. Much like most of you, um, we've been here generations and generations. Uh, my father-in-law is Leroy Brown, as most of you guys have known him. His grandson is standing in the back and it's part of our Franklin Simpson band. You guys came out here talking about money firsthand, about generational wealth. That's not what Franklin sees as generational wealth. What we see is generational wealth is canning with your grandmothers. What we see is generational wealth is our grandsons and our children's childrens marching down the same graduation that our grandparents march down. We have absolutely no care about your money. We don't want it because with it comes so much that we can't control. You want to put stipulations on it and you want to make it a conditional, by all means do that. Make it conditional. Make it conditional that it's going to protect our people. Make it conditional that it's going to protect our children where they can't sit here quietly and say or quietly and not say that it's not going to hurt our families, that it's not going to hurt our water. Make it conditional so that my son still has a place to go play at the park. So that his children still have a place to fly a kite. make it conditional so that he can walk down the streets where we don't have all this extra industry coming in for 120 to 150 jobs. I work at a place where I literally support the little man. I am the one who makes sure that all of your union workers gets their claims. I'm the one that deals with attorneys because I want to make sure that the little man is represented. That we no longer have to

sit here and take and take and take from people who will make a million dollars and not even donate 50 cents.

That's what I represent. Brawl in Simpson represents that. The people in Franklin Simpson represent that. the the people that have been here for generations and generations. And I implore you, please vote no. Okay? Just put put stipulations on it. Make sure they can't do anything they want to do. I understand there's already two data centers here in Franklin. I get that they're smart small scale. I have been to them. But we need to have some kind of stipulation, something to let them know that they can't run over Franklin Simpsons. People, we are people, sir. We are citizens of this great city, and we have been for centuries. And I will watch my son walk down the same high school graduation as his grandfather did in 1963. And I will watch him march at Souafhone every Friday night and every Saturday during football season. and I will not give that up and my voice will not be silenced. We need to be heard. It needs stipulations. Thank you. [Applause]

Hi there. Um I'm Kelly Stevenson, a lifelong Franklin resident. Um my family's from here. Um, sorry I'm a nervous public speaker, but I'm pretty much here out out of spite at this point. Please don't be nervous very

well. I'm here out of spite because that's how important this issue is. Um, so I actually did some research about this and I noticed listening to everything that's been said today. Um, that there were a lot of half talks about things um, like there was mention of emissions, but they didn't really go into that. Um and so I just wanted to share some things that I found when I was researching beforehand. Um so the first thing they say that um like a typical AI data center uses as much electricity as a 100,000 households. Um that was based on a 900,000 square foot data center. Um this research is from NPR. Um the they also disclosed uh from IEA that a climate pollution from power plants that run data centers could more than double by 2035. Um there was an interview with uh Dan Dioro, VP of state policy at the data center coalition. He stated that it's a balance between water and electricity. If you use more electricity to cool, you're going to use less water. If you use more water, you'll use less electricity. So, as far as the closed circuit issue goes, you know, we're going to see that offset with electricity if it uses less water. Um, also there's um been analyses by the Union of Concerned Scientists uh from 2024 that homes and businesses in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia uh face $4.3 billion in additional cost from transmission projects needed to deliver power to data centers. And this is just the electric side. Um now if we look at emissions um sorry I'm trying to find my numbers here. Uh they state that obviously data centers generate noise pollution. Um now

this mentions due to diesel generators and HVAC systems. I know that's kind of a question in the air right now. Um, but it does state that internal noise levels reach up to 96. A weighted decibb well above the 85 awaited decibel threshold considered harmful to hearing. Persistent noise adversely affects staff, nearby communities, and of course local wildlife, which we have a lot of here. Um, they mentioned that air pollution is the most acute concern. This is from the National Institute of Health, by the way, uh, is the most acute concern. fossil fuels, diesel, uh things that power data centers emit hazardous pollutants, increasing rates of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular conditions, and elevating cancer risk. Um recent model, a recent model indicates US data centers in 2030 could contribute to nearly 1300 deaths annually, resulting in a public health burden of more than 20 billion dollars. Obviously, if you know there's emissions into the air, this will affect residents. I know people don't want to say that. They want to say, you know, it'll just go into the air, but it doesn't disappear. It's going to go somewhere. So, there's also the whole ethical issue with data centers that links to AI, um, which I won't go into just because I could spend all night on that and everybody's tired. Um, so yeah, I just I really think this is a bad idea for everybody. Um, I think people need to research it and we just need to vote no on this issue. Um, thank you for your time. [Applause]

My name is Jerry Dugen. I'm a short time resident of Simpson County. have been here a little over four years, but I would like to help protect Simpson County for the future. Like so many here have already stated, I think, like so many have said before, we need to do this as a conditional use. We need specificity in what they're allowed to do because this is going to set a precedent. Whatever is done in this, if this data center is approved and is built, this will set the precedent for future data centers. Well, if you gave it to them, you're going to have to give it to us. So, we need to be very careful how this is approached. These amendments here are very vague and general.

I could shoot holes all in this. I'm not a lawyer, but I know words. Look at the first line here. Data centers used primarily for housing, operation and management of computer service, communications, networking equipment, radio technology, including the cooling systems that are also vague. We don't know if they're open system, closed system, whatever they are. Power supply equipment. Define that. What is it included in power supply equipment? We don't know. They haven't specified. This is too vague. This puts no limits. You know, data storage systems. I don't have a problem with that. Onsite power generation systems. They say gas turbine. What is a modular energy system? Define that for me. You know, there's been a lot of talk about AI data centers. The current administration has talked about that. They said they consume a lot of power. They are currently developing smallcale nuclear reactors just to power data centers. What in these statements prevents or precludes them from putting a smallcale nuclear reactor on that site? Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing that limits what they can do because it says power supply equipment, power generation systems, modular energy systems. It does say gas turbine arrays, but it doesn't say only gas turbine arrays. Big difference. Battery energy storage systems, like others have said, there's

could be problems with those, too. Lithium likes to burn, and when it does get started, it's almost impossible to put out. It puts out a lot of hazardous chemicals when it burns. I would be downwind to this. I'm on the east side of the interstate in Simpson County. What's the prevailing winds? West, southwest. It'll be blowing right at me. I don't want this there because lithium power is dangerous. These other statements here, same way. They're very vague and general. Set no limits. onsite energy generation and distribution infrastructure. What limits them on that property? How many gas turbines can they put there? They say they need one for each data center. Does it limit them to one?

What was just turned down in Chum County by TVA? They are trying to put gas turbine power generation facility in Chetm County and public outcry shut it down. What are they doing? They're breaking it up into smaller chunks, making it a distributed gas turbine power generation system. What have they already said? that in a few years they're going to have excess capacity that they would sell back to TVA or some other power grid. Well, how many power generation facilities are they going to have along with their primary use data center that connect to the grid? You know, the other thing too, they're starting out at 200 acres, I believe it was. Is that correct? 200 acres. If it gets if it gets put in, as other people have stated, the value of the surrounding properties is going to go down and people are not going to want to use it for various reasons. Property values go down. Well, we're going to buy another 200, 300, 400, 500 acres and build either more data centers or more power generation because it puts no limits on how many power generation facilities they can have. No limits whatsoever. And once they're once they're there, if they ever get there, nothing can stop them from expanding because if this if this terminology is

what's used, there's no limit. None whatsoever. Good point. Please, if you approve anything, please make it conditional use. be very specific as to what can be used, what can be done, and how much it can be expanded because if you don't, it's just a downhill slope. Thank you, sir. [Applause]

Thank you, sir. Anyone else here have any cons more concerns in regards to this? Okay. I think that Do you want to speak? Yes.

Okay. You need to be sworn in, ma'am. Thank you. Anyone else? Please. Got a few more minutes here and then we're going to call it. Please raise your right hand for me. You swear to affirm the testimony you're about to Um, my name is Kathy Klein. I tie here for many years. Lived here. My parents, my grandparents, my family through many years. I've got a daughter now, just bought a home here in Franklin. So, she plans on sticking around.

Would you speak up, please?

I'm sorry. Yeah, I've lost my voice pretty much for the last couple of days. Um, I'd like to first of all take a look at this. That has more room in it to wiggle around than a pair of baggy pants. Okay, there are no stipulations about what can and cannot be used in this particular um piece of work. We don't know if it's for sure closed, you know, closed. We don't know that. You're not telling us that. You're not telling us who you will be sourcing the data to. And I love how we've changed the name uh from what they are, data mining center to data centers. Sounds better. But if you look into what data mining actually is, I give you a, you know, if you don't know, if you want a real easy explanation, look at the 60 Minutes episode that described it. Look at what the people in those areas said about living there. In Virginia, it's now the alleyway for data centers. Those people are miserable. We haven't discussed the fact that we're talking millions, the possibility of millions of gallons of water a day to be used if it is enclosed. It's not being resourced back out. What what's going to happen to our water? What's going to happen to our bills? We know what's going to happen. You all know what's going to happen. There is nothing positive. If you speak to anyone that lives in these areas, they will not tell you one positive thing about bringing these businesses into their area. Not one.

They've already told you this is on a cave system. Now, I I'm not going to beat the dead horse, but we've all been around and watched um the quarry come in and it destroyed a lot of the natural habitat in that area. The creek system, I grew up on that creek, the springs, it's destroyed that, but we let it happen. How much have we benefited from that? How much will we benefit from this? Not enough. because we get one there'll be more and then we hopefully if they have their way we'll be the next alleyway. We don't want that. I'm just here to say I've been here a long time, left for a while and came back. And there is not one thing that these people can sit here and say that will convince me there's anything possible, sir, about bringing this business to Franklin. Y'all do the right thing. Think about one's after. Thank you.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak with concerns in regards to this text amendment? Okay. Okay.

I can't. Yes. He's got the right of rebuttal in regards to meeting a journ. topography and the allegations or suggestions. We need to be able to present that. That's something we did not come here prepared to address. It was new to us, but we have someone who can address it. I think that point of order. Are you all set up? Ma'am, I I know that I He's got a right of rebuttal. Okay. Now, I don't think we need to call any more witnesses. If you want to address anything that's been said, it's an important law.

We know. Yeah. I can address. So, just a few things. He's got about five minutes. So, so with respect to car topography, Yes. and the and the allegations about or suggestions about decay. We have an expert on that as Mr. Kenny standing over there. We know we know

and he is prepared to address that for for the 10 key development and they have developed in harsh areas all over Kentucky and other places. We have had previous hearings about harsh topography and they allegations that they're in a particular place. In fact, I've seen a map. They're everywhere in Kentucky. You can't put your You can't put your pin on a map where there is not a car.

They know how to deal with it. Engineers know how to deal with that. [Music]

Witness [Applause] just said just be done. Okay. Thank you. Hey, calm. Let's calm down a little bit. Now, he was asking a question. Mr. V, was that Yeah, buddy. I got you, buddy. [Music] And make Mr. Crocker. Thank you.

Okay. Okay, you guys, we're going to take a moment and um the board do we now the public hearing is closed at this point. Now board members can discuss amongst themselves if they have thoughts, theories, etc. Anyone here want to speak or Mr. Mayor, Mr. Weisinger, Mr. Tener, Mr. Keley?

Yeah, I'll speak first. Uh, I'm with the same I'm with all of y'all here. um even if we're going to allow a data center right uh this verbiage is not sufficient just like we said now I'm willing to argue about the conditional use yes maybe uh you know I have been doing like the Franklin Ford sounds good like the lady was saying uh I would think that if we're going to do that that we need to put and stipulations for every bit of that. Thank you very much.

And I have wrote up some things, you know, in that effect, but I think a lawyer would be better off to write that up. But thank you, Mr. Hanninger. I got a couple things. One is for Carter. As vague as this is, for us to say that this falls under a permitted use also tells us how vague the rules that we currently have is for this area, which I think we need to go back and re-up some of this. Thank you.

Secondly, my issue with this, so I'm wearing a hat says Franklin Simpson. You know, my kids go to school here.

Um, this may be a city board, but if we went forward and y'all didn't do a closed loop cooling system, this would come off of Simpson County water. Now I work at Fruit Loom. It's a business. When you up production, there's cost. Now it may not affect the customer that first line down, but when negotiation comes with the customer to renegotiate that cost, that cost will go up. So, for us not to have language in here that says it's got to be this type of system that guarantees that we won't be using Simpson County water, I have a moral issue with this board as a city board voting against that for Simpson County people that live in the county. I don't think that's a right thing. I think that's wrong. It's morally wrong for me. My faith tells me that's morally wrong. I think yes, we are a split board now, but this still affects people outside of this city and I think we really got to take that into consideration when we make this decision.

Good point. That's all I got. Okay. I will speak. I feel too that this language in this particular text amendment is too vague. There are not enough levers for government to be able to pull to more. We need far more oversight than this particular text amendment offers. Hence, I cannot recommend it personally.

Agree 100%. Mr. Weisinger, 100% I agree with that. And you know, you turn something loose like this, what's going to happen down the road? I've watched since I've been back here from Indianapolis. Carter knows it because I've asked him questions. People have come in here and had zone changes for this, that, and the other. And then the sites are not being developed for what they said they was going to be developed for. They end up reselling them. Um, well, I won't name any, but you know what talking about several of them, but no, I definitely oppose it. It just not enough.

I want to add one more thought, too. when we did um some work with the um the county, the city and the county when we were together and we did some work on the solar farms. If my if my memory is correct, we limited how many could be in the county. How many solar farms could be in Simpson County? Is that right, Mason, or am I wrong on that? I don't know that we put a stipulated number on, but we really were in there, you know, concerned about where they were. Yeah. So, okay, Mr. Mayor.

Yeah, sure. I'm going to take a little bit a different approach. I am for capitalism. I don't have any problem with anybody making money. I am for technology. There's probably not a person in this room that didn't use technology to do their research for this meeting tonight. So, I am not anti-tech or anti- capitalism, but there's things in here that we're not able to control, right? The the the text is way too vague. We we have no experience in power generation and we're being able asked to make a huge decision on that. There's no limits to the sizes. There's no guarantees on the tax revenue. Would you be agreeable to like an escrow fund where all these millions that you're committing that we could get you would put in escrow and then let us take them out?

Escrow fund some sort. Yeah.

So that's what I'm saying. There's no is there anything that's going to keep the state from stepping in and say, "Wow, that's a big project. We're going to take that and oh, by the way, we'll take some of that revenue as well." So there's nothing there's no protections in here. There is no binding element to make them use a closed loop system. Uh it doesn't limit for for the other I2 zones. There is uh oh the text in general is just way too vague and and I come from an IT infrastructure management uh career. I spent 30 years doing IT infrastructure management which included data centers. We owned and operated data centers globally but they're not of this scale. I have no experience and no business making decisions in a 4-hour meeting on, you know, what's going to happen in the next 10, 20 years. I mean, who knows what quantum computing or nuclear fusion is going to turn out to be. Who knows if AI is just going to be bust and you're on to something else and this becomes a a giant uh energy uh generation facility. We don't we don't have any controls in this text. I think the uh conditional use permit is the way to go with this. And I know that's not investor friendly, but are there any binding elements we can do with conditional use permits that would make it so they could transfer it from the current investment firm to another? They spoke if we do it CUP that they're they're going to be done. So if that's the case, I mean, I think I feel like we're in the driver's seat seat here. We have the resources and their eyes to ours to protect and then, you know, decide what the use is going to be. I don't think it has to be done tonight in one 4-hour meeting. So, if you have to have a a yes or no answer, it would be tonight. It would be a no for me. And then, I mean, I would be open to a change of venue someplace that could support hundreds of people and let everybody go back and do more research and get the limits that everybody says

are not here, including me, in some of the vague uh text amendment. Okay, great. So for we need to conclude the meeting. I'm sorry. We're already scolding somebody and tell them to be white. You have to have some organization at these meetings. What you don't realize, think about this. We don't want to be at the court of appeals for the next two years over anything. So we have to control the meeting. And we ran into the same thing the with the quarry.

Well, we had said three times, Mr. Crocker, what what could we do to end this? Okay. So, thank you. Okay. Okay. We have everybody saying no. Okay. So, we need a motion. Okay. I am prepared to take a motion that we do not accept the text amendment that is before us in regards to the advanced technology centers. I'll make that motion. There's a motion on the floor by Mr. Keley. Mr. Weissinger has seconded. I am going to take a a verbal count. Mr. Hinger. Yep. Mr. Keep

Yes. Yes. Mr. Weisinger. Yes. That motion passes. Hence, we did not recommend this particular texture.

We got it. Adjourn. Adjourn. I'm making a motion we adjourn. There's a motion on the floor that the meeting is ajour. Is there a second? Second. There's a second. Any opposition? Meeting is adjourned.