City Council - Special Meeting

If everyone would stand, we will call this city council meeting to order. Thank you. At this time, we have a word of silence. Thank you. I will ask Councilman Todd Stone if he will lead us in a pledge. Thank you. May be seated. We are here to conduct business for the city of Georgetown, uh, city council for Monday, July the 13th, 2000 and 26. Uh, we ask council to remind you that when you're speaking, please make sure your mics turned on and when you're not speaking, please turn your mics off. We will follow the agenda as written. We will make one adjustment. The adjustment on that under marriage comment, The proclamation for honoring Mr. Frank Chisley had a situational emergency, so we're going to actually have his recognition on July the 27th meeting. So that will be a change in the agenda for tonight. Otherwise, Madam Clerk, if you will call the roll.

Mrs. Wilkins-Brent? Mr. Crisp? Here. Mrs. Hamper? Here.

Oh, present.

Mr. Hampton.

Here.

Mr. Minky. Present. Mrs. Leslie Mitchell. Here. Mrs. Tingle-Sane. Here. Mr. Stone.

Here.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. At this time, I will accept a motion for approval of the minutes for June 22nd, 2026 City Council meeting. Motion made by Mr. Hampton. Do I have a second? Second.

Second.

Second made by Ms. Hamrick. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of this motion signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay. Let the record reflect that the motion passed. Item number four, receipt of the check register. If you have received those, counsel, please show by raise your hands. Let the record reflect that all has received item. Number five is public comments. Uh, public comments is you will, if you will not call your name, you come up to them, uh, podium, please, please state your name. and what your concern is or what you want to talk about. Madam Clerk will time you. You will have four minutes which to state your concern. And at that time, three minutes, she will let you know that three minutes has elapsed and that you will have one more minute. And at the end of four minutes, we ask that you have your seat and then we can continue on with the agenda as written. The public comments is Mr. Ken Butler, thank you, on data centers.

So my name is Ken Butler. I'm a resident here of Scott County and I wanted to talk about the data center. While technical conglomerates pitch hyper data centers as keystone, modern economic progress and multi-billion dollar developers operate as parasitic infrastructure, extracting immense local resources while returning negligible civil value. The primary deception lies in employment. As formalized by the landmark Brookings Institute study on data center employment, once the temporary frequency Once the temporary, frequently outsourced construction phase concludes, These massive complexes, as automated servo warehouses, require just 50 to 200 permanent personnel. The Brookings Institute data exposes the abysmal return, providing a naive estimate pushed by tech industry advocates, consistently overstating long-term job creation by a factor of three. This creates a shocking disparity in public investment. A food and water watch analyst highlighted that data centers generate a paltry one permanent job for every $13 million invested compared to just 137,000 required to generate a job in other sectors. To secure these meager numbers, municipal governments aggressively erode their own tax base by granting low-term property abatement and exclusions frequently from sales tax, which cost a state like Virginia an estimated $1.6 billion annually in lost public revenue, effectively subsidizing wealthy tech monopolies. Compounding this financial strain is a severe erosion of local democracy driven by an abusive use of nondisclosure agreements. Before a project is even formally proposed, tech giants routinely weaponize NDAs to muzzle public employees, city managers, and affected officials. The corporate gag filter keeps communities blind to the scale of the impeding infrastructure resources until the contracts are nearly finalized. An example is what's happening in Bergen, Kentucky right now. The tiny agricultural town erupted in chaos when the residents discovered a massive data center was secretly slated to span 10 historic farms stretching toward Shaker Village. Bergen City Council advanced an executive land annexation ordinance explicitly bypassing Mercer County's rigorous plan and zoning regulations. Because of the backroom negotiations were heavily obscured by the NDAs and hidden requests for information, local residents and even selected council members were barred from seeing who signed what or what tracking was used to give away the town's resource baseline. This resulted in public outrage and massive protest. The environmental and logistic tolls of these hidden projects... is severe, expanding beyond human infrastructure to devastate rural agricultural lifestyles. Data centers consume 40% of municipal water supplies, serving as cooling. And we all know about all the drought and water issues we already have in our county. Furthermore, unquenchable electric demands and regional power grids trigger severe displacement. Roughly 49,000 California residents are losing their electricity due to California's Liberty Utilities so that they can put in the AI data center. And the data center uses 59,000 megawatts in Tahoe. That's almost three times as much as the Hoover Dam. There's no bargaining. They're being forced into the open market. Lastly, we have to work as an agricultural community. There are research showing that in Texas and Virginia, local producers have sounded the alarm over sudden spikes in capital stillbirths, drop-off in herds, and ultimately data centers are not good for our county.

Thank you. All right. I see he was the only one on there. Was there anyone else? Yes.

And I mainly have questions that I hope you guys will address tonight you don't have to answer me now except the first one and I'd like to know going down from my left to right does anyone here today? Have you signed an NDA? with any company or anyone associated with the data center or has any member of your family signed an NDA or do you stand to profit? If it's no, just go on to the next one.

If it's yes, please elaborate. You get to comment on what you want to talk about.

Those are questions that I'd like to have answered.

Thank you.

I want to know if there is a proposed site already. I don't know. The first I heard of anything was Friday night when I saw the late notice for the special meeting tonight. If it's so, is this land or this site proposed to be in the city or the county? I'd like to know if there's anybody here tonight that is representing a data center in any way or the construction of one because I noticed on your meeting notice that you cite Central Time and Eastern Time. So I can't imagine why anybody here for city business would need it cited in Central Time. If there's already something that is in the process that's already been discussed or planned, is it a closed loop or evaporated discharge system? Who is going to power this, and are they equipped? Can you prove any of this to us? Can you give us a... Is it going to house federal information or data, such as the flock cameras here in town? If so, are you going to use Chinese components? Because I believe there's a federal law against that. What is the purpose of the data center? How is it supposed to benefit Georgetown? What kind of data are they managing and how are they doing it? How are they storing it? For how long? Is this gonna be transparent and open to the public? Or is this something that we don't have any hands on? Have you done land, power, air, and noise studies on this? How it's gonna affect the nearby landowners? How many employees will it hire, which I think was already addressed because we all have heard there are hardly any. What kind of tax breaks are you all prepared to give? And at what expense to the taxpayers? What benefit to the cities is it going to be? I guess that's mainly all of my questions. I hope that you all... can answer some of them. I've been looking on social media and I've really kind of heard crickets from most of you. Even when I've directly addressed a question, I haven't gotten a response. Matter of fact, I got ridiculed by one of you on social media for citing some data center information and they asked me if I heard it on the Georgetown Inquirer. So, or Insider, I think that's the name of that satire site. but I just hope that you can answer some of those questions. And if it is a site that you all have already started in the city or in the county, if it's going to be something in the county, then why are we even talking about it? Because Georgetown has a separate government from the county. It is an independent government, just like Bergen and Mercer County, two separate governments. So if you're looking at land in the county, we need to just stop this and start all over with the county. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Anyone else who failed to sign in? Thank you. Next item is the event application, Elizabeth Village for night market.

Hello, good evening. Thank you guys so much for having me. For those who don't know, my name is Tyler Brooker. I'm the executive director of Elizabeth's Village. We are the domestic violence shelter here in town. I'm going to throw in some quick numbers. We currently have 17 women and children in our care, and we have provided 4,000-plus safe nights to those in our community, so we're very proud of that. Also, thank you all for your approval of our agency funding request. It has been a tremendous help, so thank you. So I've come today, I would like to propose approval for Elizabeth's Village to use the downtown pavilion for our annual night market. So this will be our fifth annual night market. We will have live vendors, live music, food trucks. We will have a licensed alcohol vendor on site as well. We've also acquired liability insurance and presented it to the city.

All right. Motion, Mayor. Okay, motion made by... Ms. Mitchell, second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Miki. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of this motion, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay. Is that the record reflected? It passed. Thank you very much.

Thank you all.

As I mentioned, excuse me. Item 7A, the proclamation honoring Mr. Frank Chisley for his retirement and many, many years of service is going to be pushed back to the 27th of July meeting because, as he mentioned, he had an emergency, so he cannot be with us tonight. So first thing up, and I'm going to ask Devin to come up, and we're going to talk about the update on city hall damage mitigation.

Thank you, Mayor. As Mayor mentioned, and as you all are aware, we did have a situation two weeks ago today that we discovered some pretty significant damage in City Hall. Today, this afternoon, as of less than three hours ago, I received the, quote, drying report from ServPro. Need to digest and unpack that and determine next steps, but I've been told that the actual remediation, and when I say remediation, I mean ripping out any drywall that was impacted, trim work, painting and replacing all those things will begin tomorrow. They expect that to take approximately one week. Um, ultimately we're still assessing and making sure there's no other infrastructure such as our AV infrastructure that is damaged as part of this that we need to claim on. Um, but that's the, that's a 30,000 foot view update. Um, I think next time we're meeting, I'll have a lot more information and hopefully a little more certainty to provide a rescheduled date for the open house and kick off council meeting there. Um, obviously a very unfortunate situation, but drying 100-plus-year-old hardwood floors is a task. So today was the first day where they took all drying equipment off-site. So that is the status right now. Like I said, when we unpack that drying report and get certainty as to the condition and any work that remains for the hardwood floors, I'll report back to you all. Okay.

Can I ask a question? Sure. So given the source of the damage, what steps are they taking to ensure we don't have any other potential failure points in the sprinkler system?

The cracked pipe, it's like a hairline crack, obviously has been replaced. I don't want to make any affirmative statements in terms of liability or who's responsible, but that appeared to be a very kind of hairline fracture crack. But that piping, that fitting has been replaced already, and we'll do some hydraulic testing and other measures to make sure that's not an issue. Ultimately, not even a heavy enough flow to have kicked on the pump that would alert the alarm system. So kind of one of those scary things that is at such a low pressure that ultimately, of course, happened over a weekend when nobody's in the building for two and a half days. So all that hydraulic testing will happen. We've looped in KLC. We've looped in our risk manager. And we'll confirm that in addition to all mitigation to avoid mold or any issues like that, that we're comfortable with the level of testing that's been completed on the sprinkler system. Independently comfortable. versus just being assured. Thank you. Yep.

All right. Again, I want to thank the public and thank you all, Council, for patience on this ongoing. And thank you to the staff for continuing to work to try to get this taken care of. It's unfortunate, but we are working, and they are working to hopefully have something in place very soon. Item number 7B is the city hall regular meeting schedule. And you all will see this code there. I believe that meetings are set up to be at city hall. That's why. And if they're not at city hall, there are special meetings. So that's why that's in place. Can I add to that?

Yes, go ahead. The past couple of years, while it's been under renovation, you all have adopted a regular meeting schedule based on each fiscal year. be in resolution to that temporary nature. So just as we prepared for this transition, that schedule for the full fiscal year was not, we thought it might just be best to go back to what's on the books and then we can notice it as special meetings. If we have a situation where that's not the better option, we can always go back to adopting a different schedule as a temporary means. But tonight, just to try to get back on track, that's why.

All right, do we need a motion or anything on this? We're good? Just information only. All right. Item number 7C, which is the Royal Screen Cabin number 2, informational update. And Devin and I have been working with what Council asked us to look at to someone to actually come and look at that. So I'll let Devin talk more about that.

So council at the last meeting had expressed an interest in understanding from a professional in the industry with the qualifications to assess such an old historic structure. We had some recommendations from the Heritage Council, and I say recommendations because, or I say that loosely because it was really one person that was said to be kind of the person in the industry. So we were able to work with him. Kind of had to get over a couple of hurdles and get a local business license, have some contract reviews. So we've reached that point. He's been on the phone with me every day for the last week. He's an exciting guy with an interesting background and an interesting scope of experience. But ultimately, I wanted to provide a schedule update in terms of getting this moving forward. So he is going to be on site tomorrow to assess the condition. And what he will do, what his scope of work includes, is that he will generate a report to you all about the condition, his findings, opinions, not necessarily recommendations of telling you all what to do, but giving you the scope of information you need to make the decision. So he will complete that work tomorrow. hopes to have the report submitted to us by the end of the week, and I would then send it along to you all. And in the interest of continuing to move this forward and carving out the time before the next meeting, we're going to have a goal of holding a special call meeting on Tuesday, the 21st, at 6 p.m. There's an interlocal committee meeting right before that, so those of you on the interlocal committee can just hang out, and everybody else, if you're interested, can pop over for that meeting as well, but Um, that's, that's the goal in terms of keeping the ball rolling as opposed to waiting until the 27th and the next meeting. Um, but like I said, he will complete the assessment, submit the report, and then he will actually attend the council meeting on the 21st. Should you all have questions or want to understand his report better?

And, and the reason for trying to get this done, I know we've been talking about this and talking about this. So I'm trying to kind of give this, you know, push this forward and get it, get it somehow, get put to bed so we can move forward, whichever decision we want to make on this. All right. Okay. Next we have item number eight, which is council committee reports. I'll start with police and, um, Mr. Mickey.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, the, uh, due to the independence holiday schedule and travel schedules, um, we did delay the meeting one day, um, from Monday to Tuesday. So we held a special meeting on July the seventh. Um, Karen and I both submitted requested agenda items before the holiday, connected to some of the community questions that were out there around the Father's Day traffic stop and community meeting, report on the homeless sleeping in yards and neighborhood, and concerns over the flock camera use. Unfortunately, none of those were included in the agenda. Since it was a special meeting, we weren't able to raise those. So the items that were on the agenda that we did discuss, all the members of PD and 911 command staff and the city staff were present. The minutes were approved from the June 1st meeting. The regular scheduled meeting, just like we talked about for the city council, is gonna continue to be the first Monday at 8 a.m. at the police community room. The normal updates that we have for hiring, staffing, hiring, and recruiting, the police department, July 1st, if you recall, we added three additional headcount to the police department, so that brings their headcount to a total of 80. And so after the meeting, the mayor did swear in a new officer. And so that brought our total to 74 out of 80. They do have one certified officer in background check and five in the academy right now. So we're on good progress to get fully staffed. For the dispatch area, they are making progress as well. They're authorized for 27 full-time and three part-time dispatch and have seven vacancies currently. They have 14 in the interview and testing process. and they have some experienced dispatchers that are wanting to come to Georgetown. But as was mentioned in the budget requests and discussions, there are some pay scale, questions there because it is, we are paying lower than normal in the area. So just something for us to continue to look at there to help our dispatch folks. In terms of the facilities needs assessment, both PD and dispatch continue to work with Branstad or Carroll and they're expecting the report on that assessment, needs assessment by the end of September. under recruiting and community service activity. The police department is developing a Scouting America. That's the former Boy Scouts of America developing an explorer program for both males and females from the 14 to 20 year olds as a community service and outreach recruiting possibility. Our Junior Citizens Police Academy class number five begins next week. july thirteenth through the sixteenth from nine to two thirty in the afternoon the traffic unit is continuing to have their team driving classes in late july that have been going over very well and the investigations unit is continuing with their community classes which are the third thursday so the next one will be july sixteenth at six p m at the scott county library and given Fraud prevention has been one of the biggest areas of interest and information sharing for that. And so that was the extent of our meeting.

And to give an update, this morning I swore in number 75, police officer. And I think next week we got two more to swear in so they get us up to 77. So we are making progress. So that's where we are. Thank you, Councilman Minkey. Next on the air is fire.

Thank you, Mayor. We met on June 25th. Present, myself, Fire Chief Seth Johnson, Assistant Fire Chief Cam Johnson, Senior Code Enforcement Officer Sam Waite, Chief Administrative Officer Devin Golden, City Attorney Emily Buttram, Finance Director Stacey Clark, Grants Administrator Karen Leverins, and we had a guest, a junior mayor for the day.

That's right.

That was exciting for us. Minutes were approved under apparatus. Chief Johnson informed the committee of the department's goal to surplus the old truck one and refurbish truck two. When getting better estimates on the anticipated sale value and the cost of refurbishment, he'll let us know. as a city council and community. He also announced the RFQ for the apparatus maintenance closed with only one vendor submitting qualifications, but that pricing is being negotiated. Fire stations, we're gonna have a lot about that this evening. We have fire station one renovations, however, provided that all it works been completed, we should be moving by the end of July and the phase two will begin as funds are allocated in fiscal year 27. Chief Johnson informed the committee that the concrete work at Station 2 has been completed. Multiple meetings have been held with the consultant, Brandstetter Carol, that we've been made aware of, and we're working on finalizing the schematic design. We're excited to see that. Facility assessments for Station 2 and 3 are also being finalized. We have grant information, both the assistance to firefighters grant, the AFG and fire prevention safety grant have been submitted now. And the equipment sought for these programs are important. Federal funding requested and matching funds would be required from the city. Chief Johnson reported that we're still awaiting results on our application for the lowest community grants code enforcement officer Wade informed the committee. They're continuing to address tall grasses and other violations. Um, senior code enforcement officer also reported that, um, the code enforcement administrative assistant will soon be shifting from part-time to full-time. So that should be very helpful and general discussion. We talked about and saw, hopefully everybody saw some good advertisements about the fireworks ordinance and enforcement of it. Um, city attorney, Butram advised that all city ordinance are available on the city's website and that fireworks complaints should be considered non-emergency matters. Unless it is an emergency. Um, But that line is 502-863-7820. And we close the meeting at approximately 335.

I'm going to give you a little bit of update with the junior mayor. What that program is, it's one through Lemons Mill. They have what they call the... American Shake, uh, Amazing Shake, uh, program, which, uh, Councilwoman, uh, Little Hamburg and I took part in, where we do, they go through what they call the gauntlet, and they go through a series of interviews, and they talk to, uh, having conversation with everybody, and the winner of that, uh, Amazing Shake, uh, contest gets to spend a day or half a day with the mayor, so... And so they got a chance to do that, and she came up with some pretty good ideas. Who knows? I might even use them. So there you go.

There you go.

All right. I just want to give you an update how that program works, and we are also working with the schools on that. Item number nine, the presentation of breast and curl frostation design update. Chief Johnson, I'll let you come up and give us an introduction of what this is, and we'll move from there.

Yes, good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for this time this evening. Here with me tonight, I do have representatives from, just one second, from Branstad or Carroll. Before I introduce the project manager, I would like to kind of give a brief update on what we have done as a staff meeting with Branstad or Carroll. As you know, the last fire station Georgetown built, it's been 30 years. before I got on, right? So I thought it would be wise to do some homework myself. So my staff and I, we took a visit to some fire stations in Lexington. We reached out to Chief Jason Wells, and these are fire stations that Brand Sarah Carroll has designed themselves. And we just asked some questions, right? What worked for you all? What didn't work for you? Maybe what looked good on paper, but in reality is not working. So we did that, and then we looked at our own needs, right? Again, it's been 30 years since we built a fire station. And then we kind of met with Brandcenter Carroll for at least four meetings over the last few months. And so we're excited to be here tonight to share with you that design. So with that, I'll turn it over to the project manager, Jay Quillen.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. My name is Jay Quillen with Brandcenter Carroll. If we could get the next slide. So what we're presenting here tonight is a series of colored graphics and floor plans and site plans. Uh, feel free to interrupt me at any time. I don't expect everybody to understand all this at once. Uh, what we have on the screen right now is the overall site plan. So in the bottom left of the screen, you'll see the existing EMS station, uh, that was designed by us back in 22 and 21, uh, right after the COVID. And it was originally designed with the fire station attached to it. The fire station got pulled out, EMS continued. So the EMS has been built. We're now coming back looking to finish out the fire station. So the proposed fire station is a little over 11,000 square feet. It does attach to the existing EMS building. They will have a shared entry and exit drive aisles. The main road out there running kind of page east to west is Lexus Way. And the little parcel up there on the top left is the Toyota Child Development Center, if that gives everybody kind of their bearings. One thing to point out is the site does have a very large electrical distribution line running across kind of diagonal over the back drive aisle. And that's why it's kind of a circuitous route to get back around there. as we're restricted on how much we can grade around there. We are proposing dedicated parking just for the fire station. There will be a couple ADA spots there as well as a refuse container. Off the back of the building, excuse me, is a small covered patio that connects to the day room and kitchen. And then of course we'll have to have a generator, so we've located that on the side as well. Next slide please. This is our floor plan. So to the left, in white poche, is the existing EMS apparatus bays. Moving over to the fire side, we have three pull-through bays. So those could be double-stacked with smaller vehicles or pull-through, as we're showing in the middle, with one larger vehicle. Moving closer towards the building and the orange spaces is our decontamination gear lockers and fire storage. And then moving further east into the blue areas, we get into the bunk rooms, the shared locker rooms, individual restrooms, showers. The gray spaces are kind of your back of house, mechanical, electrical. And then further to the east, on the exterior side, we have the day room and kitchen. And at the bottom there is the outdoor patio. At the top of the plan in light tan is the entry lobby. And then off to the right is the fitness area. Next plan, please. This plan is just showing what we're proposing as a small storage mezzanine that would be accessed with a staircase off of the apparatus base. We find this very economical in a lot of our projects. You have a double-height apparatus base. Might as well get some storage space out of it, elevate that as much as we can. So that's all this slide is trying to show. And then the last slide is we've got together a schematic design rendering here. This is looking back at the existing EMS in the background and then tying in our new building into it. And again, playing off the same materialities of the EMS so it doesn't look like it's something scabbed onto something existing. And it's a little hard to differentiate, it almost looks like they're rendering the fire trucks coming right out on the lantern way, but the slope actually, the site actually grades down, and it's just a finicky angle for us to get to show it just right. But there is a drive aisle separated from the apparatus bays that comes around there.

All right. Anybody got any questions? Any questions on that?

I do. All right, go ahead. Just out of curiosity, and not that we're going to hold you to it, what would be the ballpark cost on this?

Right now we're estimating right around $5.9 million for construction costs.

$5.9 million. So had we done this a few years ago when the original building was built, it would have been $3 million. We were estimating around $4 million back then. $4 million. Okay. It's still $2 million. Exactly. That's all I got. Thank you, Mayor.

On your first slide, the overhead, existing EMS and new fire station, you've got a line between them. Are those bays separated from EMS?

Yes. Yeah, if you can see the white portion there, that's the two bays for the EMS. Then there's a dividing, demising wall that separates the fire apparatus bays from it.

Okay. Okay. Chief is that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.

Is that would that be. There's also double doors. There is a double door at the bottom of that wall. OK. You can kind of make that out. It does connect the two.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. So go ahead.

Quick question. So the, uh, district chief vehicle. So is that for the other space that's still in the, that's still open there?

Uh, so, uh, district chief vehicle vehicle, we're not showing any district chief. We're showing a district chief. We've got an office.

It's labeled. Yes. A district chief office. So this was just for future planning. Okay. Right. Years down the road here as we grow. We don't want to build for a station today, right? So that's what the district chief office is for potentially down the road. This here shows trailers that we have that I currently have sitting outside right now. This would give us the capability to have all resources under roof, conditioned, protected right from the weather, from the elements.

So only two vehicles actually.

So you'd have an engine, you'd have a ladder truck potentially in the future, and then you'd have the trailers as well. Right. Yes, sir.

Yes. Do you have an estimated completion time frame?

Completion of construction or completion of drawings to go out for construction?

Let's say everything is, you know.

Let's say we go out to bid early next year, get into construction in the spring. I would say a year for construction.

Okay.

Yeah. That would be 2028, wouldn't that be about right?

Early 2028. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

With the parking spaces, it looks like there might be 17 spaces.

Correct.

Is that right?

Yeah, 280A, and I believe, yes, 15 regular 280A.

And, of course, it doesn't have to be decided anytime soon, but will there be spaces available for the general public? Yes. It is on.

That's, that's calculated with that.

Great. Okay. Thanks. And then in very small print on that first, on one of the first pages, it says something like in the schematics, label the drawings as an artist representation in no way reflects the accuracy of any built conditions. Does that just mean that it's a fluid design and things can change where we are in the design process and,

Unfortunately, legalities, we have to put these kind of disclaimers. Long story short, we show images to councils. People get kind of enamored with an image. For instance, that last rendering may or may not look like that when we build it. That's what it's for. Okay. But where we're at right now is just schematic design. We've still got design development, construction documents to go through. So things will keep getting more and more fine-tuned, and we plan to come back and give you updates through the process.

Okay, great. Thank you.

All right.

Is that all?

Thank you all very much. Thank you. All right, next is item number 10, the Resolution Support for Scott County Fiscal Court Data Center Moratorium.

All right, good evening. So council, a few weeks ago, two of your peers brought up the topic of data centers here in Georgetown-Scott County based on discussion at the last meeting. The request was to draft a resolution to bring forward that expresses support of the efforts that the Scott County Fiscal Court, what they have done related to data centers specifically. They have imposed a moratorium. Originally, it was through, I believe, September that has been extended through the end of December. The purpose of the moratorium is within Scott County, not unincorporated Scott County. So the idea being the whole county, they have asked the Georgetown Scott County Planning Commission to pause the acceptance review of any applications relating to proposed sites for data centers. Copies of both of those resolutions are in your packet. So based on that, I'm gonna give you all an opportunity to talk as the requesters, but what you have before you is basically the resolution that says thank you to the fiscal court for doing this and thinking ahead. We support what you have done. Here are some additional policy considerations that we as the city council and city of Georgetown would like the planning commission to recommend. or to consider as they work on proposed regulations. It's my understanding that proposed regulations are in the work. While the Scott County Fiscal Court did request this, there is an opportunity down the road where the same regulations could also come to the city council, and at that point you could act to implement your own regulations that are consistent with what is being proposed in the county through the planning commission, or you could also have those vary. We can also read the resolution tonight if that would be helpful. But before we do that, I didn't know if you all had anything to say.

If I could, Mayor. This came to light when Lexington was surprised by their data center at IBM and somebody found the switch for the AC. Thank goodness. But anyway, uh, good job chief anyway. Um, so rather than somebody sneaking one in to the city limits of Georgetown or Scott County, you know, Scott County jumped ahead. We also discussed about bringing up the, uh, councilman Hampton and I discussed about bringing up a resolution to do a moratorium of our own. And in, in talking with, uh, uh, city attorney, but from that, we discussed that we could just do a resolution to go along in support of the county's resolution that with Georgetown being within Scott County, that, that, that, resolution would cover. Um and show that we support that as well. So um, I think we've covered it hadn't so I think we're good to go to read the resolution.

I think so, you know Um, I think the resolution says it all. Um, it was this is basically Going to be in place to to help support the scott county fiscal court as well as scott county georgetown planning and zoning so I think it's good on all of our parts.

Yeah mayor. Yes um I am glad that we're being proactive rather than reactive on this. Um, I'm glad that the county is, and I have not heard one person that has come up to me or contacted me saying they're excited about a data center. And, um, I am looking at number three, if we could, if, um, Of this resolution, the Georgetown city council hereby encourages the Georgetown Scott county planning commission to recommend if appropriate, zoning regulations relating to data centers that are consistent with our community's vision for responsible growth efficient use of infrastructure and preservation of community resources that's a bit open-ended because who's doing the community vision for responsible growth and who's deciding the efficient use of the infrastructure and who's deciding on how the community resources being preserved so i'm not negative about it i'm just wondering if that's enough

Well, the guiding plan for the community would be the comprehensive plan, and that's the guide that everyone uses. So if you have questions on the scope and would like to dive more into what that currently sets forth in the vision there, we'd be happy to talk to the Planning Commission to talk about how these issues are already addressed potentially. Your next update for your comprehensive plan and everything that goes with that will be in the somewhat – So if this is an area that you would like more clarity on or more specific details, great time to bring that up as well.

Okay. I mean, I just want to make sure it's enough of a stop gap.

Yeah. Well, any regulations that come up. So again, it all ties to your comprehensive plan, which should be under review. But you all, for the city of Georgetown as legislative body, you would ultimately be the body responsible for passing regulations on this issue. And so if there are things that come up in the conversation of these regulations for data centers, you would be the voice to help guide and dictate that. The Planning Commission will make their recommendations based on what's already in the comprehensive plan. If that makes sense. Yeah for to you. So it's a it's a bigger conversation It's a lot of pieces that connect together, right? I don't want to misspeak or speak on the Planning Commission's behalf But I hope that helps a little bit. So this is just a resolution You're welcome. If you want to change the language or work on the scope of this That's definitely something we can do if you're not comfortable with the scope of some of the wording but I think that is the intention is just saying you know, there's a vision and A lot of work's gone into that plan long term, and we just want to make sure there's nothing that's going to be inconsistent with that.

And you know, this is a moratorium, so I feel comfortable with that. I just wanted to make that statement that that is the piece to me that's a bit open-ended.

Mayor. Yes. And speaking of moratorium, I had several phone calls about this issue, and the people that called me were very concerned that we were voting yes or no for a data center. The word moratorium is not a word that's used a lot in everyday language. And so I spent some time talking to each of the people that called me and said, no, what this actually is is we are tabling any discussion whatsoever until the deadline. Emily, if you would give the legal definition of what a moratorium is, because I think when you saw that on the agenda, you got an idea that there was somebody in the wings ready to open a data center, and we were getting ready to vote on that. And so we can only talk to so many people and the people that call us. And so if we could clear that up publicly, I would appreciate that.

So the term moratorium, is used, and this is in light of the resolution passed by the fiscal court. They have that defined. The moratorium contemplated by the fiscal court is defined as temporary prohibition on an otherwise regulated activity for the legitimate public purpose by preserving the status quo while the governing authority studies the applicable issues and devises a permanent ordinance which addresses those issues for the protection of the general public and the prospective operators of the regulated activities. essentially translating that to not legalese they are saying timeout this is an issue we've been made aware of and we need time to study this and understand what this means for our community and if there is a need for us to or to regulate this particular use in our community, we need time to put that together, go through the public hearing process, the text amendment process essentially, have public hearings, get the feedback, find the facts essentially that would support why we need this change, package that all up in a text amendment to present to the legislative bodies for them to vote to say, yes, we want this here, no, we don't, or maybe want to look at another solution. Does that help? Yeah. Thank you.

So it's kind of like clarity to make sure that before we go deep dive in this, we're making sure that there's questions to be figured out and also get public input in also. Because we're not making a decision ourselves. This is something that's big. It affects the public as a whole. So you want to make sure your public is also geared into this too. So that's where we are. Yes, sir.

So thank you for doing this. I'm totally in support of this activity. I think as we are developing the requirements, I think one of the things that would be helpful even though you're doing that currently at the direction of the county, if the city council could also be included in the information sharing directly so that we know what's being done. And if there are any red flags for us, we can raise those, um, before so that we don't have something. And then if, if something, changes or there's some other way to look at it to be able to have that heads up and be ahead of the curve rather than get it finished and then just rely on the public notices and things like that so if there's a way for us to craft that not not controlling it by any stretch of the imagination, but just from an awareness standpoint and to keep up with what's going on. If we could add that into it, I think that would be helpful for us, and it's an education process as well, so that we understand what it is and why it is and how it is, so that we can figure out what's best for our community.

Okay. Mayor for good Holden. I hate to put you on the spot. Is there a chance you could come up and speak on along the lines of what, uh, councilman Minky was speaking about?

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so first let's go on the record. I have not signed any NDAs. Uh, I've had no applications that have been made aware of anybody that I know wants to do a data center right now. Um, My staff has currently drafted a, uh, a proposal of what a data center ordinance could look like. I believe that was forwarded to all of you. Um, yes, that right now is, is geared for Scott county. If there are tweaks or changes that you guys would like to see for Georgetown, I would happily accept any input on the front end past that. And beyond that, as we move forward, the next step will be to go to our planning commission. Uh, we'll likely brief them. and the August meeting, and then look to schedule that public hearing for September. That's a lot of time to make tweaks or edits to the document. If you guys want to be kept abreast as we move that forward for Scott County, I would be happy to do that. If you guys like the ordinance, as we bring it forward to planning commission, we'd like to consider it at the same time as the county, we'd be happy to do that. And you just adopt the same ordinance for both unincorporated or inside city limits. At this point, it's, it's up to you. with how much engagement you want to have in this process. And so just to be clear, yes, more communication is better in this setting. And to your point, as questions come up, as the community has questions, my office is always available to help answer those questions. And we'd be happy to do that as well.

Thank you, sir. I knew that would help clear some things up as well. So I greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

Can I ask you a question while you're up there, while you're up there, can you give a course? The community is against data centers. I'm against data centers and yeah, all the questions that Mary asked came up and asked, I don't think any, there's nothing going on that out there for Scott county as of yet, but can you give an overall sense of what the protections are going to be for our community?

Uh, yes. Okay. Yeah. So the kind of the, the guiding principle that we see right now is that number one, um, it's a heavy industrial use. It's impacts are heavy and should be regulated proportionally to the impacts that it could have.

Okay.

Number two, a lot of the concerns that we've heard from the community up to this point, um, or that it will be a net negative on the community, whether that's environmental or it raises the rates of electric or uses too much water. And so when we're looking to shape the regulations, those are the kinds of things that we're trying to prevent. So again, it's just a draft, it's been shared with you. There's things in that ordinance right now where we're looking to have a certain percentage of electricity produced onsite with a certain percentage of that coming from renewables. It shouldn't be the burden of everybody to come up with electricity to do this. When it comes time to cool the system, there's a big difference between that closed loop system and that evaporation system. We favor the closed loop system because then we feel that's a more efficient use. And so essentially what we've tried to do is anticipate all the ways that it can negatively impact our community. And we've tried to build regulations that protect the community in that regard. Uh, Rhett, you've spent a lot of time in that document. Is it 20 pages right now? Where we at approximately about 20 pages of text for one use. And so we're, we're trying to look at it from all angles, uh, noise, some other concern. So we've got, we've got language in there that addresses, uh, noise.

And so anyway, you can just say no data center within the city limits of Georgetown. Yeah.

Is there a way you could do that?

Or it can't be any larger than, because I know there may be some companies that have what would be considered their own data center. Cause what we're, what we're thinking in the community is thinking is a big data center that they're talking about in other areas. But is there any way to say, Nope, not in a, it's not in the city limits of Georgetown.

So right now, the way that your zoning ordinance is written is it says that no use can be approved except for these listed uses in these existing zones. And so the easiest way to say no to something is to simply not list it in your zoning ordinance.

And do we have anything listed now that allows a data center?

Up until this point. Staff's perspective from planning and zoning has always been that we don't define data centers nor list them as an allowed use in any of our zones. And so right now the answer is if somebody were to come forward and say I want to do a data center, staff would recommend denial based on that particular section. Now there are concerns by some council members that, and I believe are P, is it PB or just P? bp1 that there's a data processing zone inside the business park and then in one of our professional zones there's another term that's very close to data center and so there's some concern that somebody would try to go through that angle and either put it in the business park or put it in one of the p zones the good news is is that with your existing staff, the answer would still be no. That's not the intent of that use in the BP one zone. That's not the intent of that use in the P zone. And so right now you have staff on board who would say no to any proposal for a new data set.

Would that come in front of the planning commission after that? If you said no, would that still could come in front of the planning commission?

Well, everything can go in from the planning commission. That is the intent.

Because right now you all are building confidence with me, but I'm losing it with the planning commission because they're agreeing to things that you're denying. So if it was a flat no, then it can never come to you, come to the planning commission and clear up where he thinks there might be loopholes, probably is, clear those loopholes up, but say no to the data center so that you don't have to say no to it and then come to the commission and they say yes.

Yeah. Okay. With that perspective, I believe that the best pathway forward is the pathway we're currently on, is to create the ordinance that outlines all of the myriad of regulations and restrictions that you want to put on it. Because what we're calling a data center today, somebody could come in with an application for a hotel or a data hotel or something like, we're just housing all the data here. We're not processing it. and they would try to find that same workaround. Or they would say, again, back to BP-1, it's not a data center, it's data processing, and we need to get that in front of them. And so staff's perspective always is we review it with the regulations that we have on the book. And so, again, right now, we don't define a data center. None of our zones allow for data centers. So the answer would be no. With that said, if you're worried about loopholes and workarounds, be explicit in your language. And then figure out if there is a place for it. And again, staff right now believes a heavy industrial zone would make sense. Remember, any rezone goes in front of you guys. And that comes with a concept plan that would show it as that data center. The second half, though, is listen to your community. but we're not going to uh... we can't adopt a regulation that you guys don't ultimately vote for and so take a look at the regulations as a drafted make recommendations and we're more than willing to get into give you guys your own s you know separate relation for georgetown or if you like what's going on is doing we can put it all together yeah uh... on it did my opinion one out of eight that whatever you do it should be separate from georgetown versus scott county

different than what they are. And we are more residential and closer even to an industrial park. There's community right behind it. So definitely I think it should be different than whatever it's going to be. But what you're telling me is that the regulations that you're proposing that you all are developing is to put restrictions on this, but we could put even tighter restrictions on it. But you're defining the definition of what a data center is.

Yes, that's part of the regulations.

Okay, all right.

This is a big issue. Yes. Again, I appreciate that Scott County took the step forward to create the moratorium. I appreciate that you guys are joining in on that. I think the confidence that we can give the community is that between now and December, we're not even going to consider an application for data center. This is just the opportunity for the community to figure out where its values are. And if we want a regulation, what that regulation could look like. And that's the role that planning and zoning is playing right now.

And we have no restrictions that we can continue the moratorium. If you all are not happy with it, we're not happy with it. We can continue the moratorium, whether Scott County joins us or not, we can continue the moratorium.

Absolutely. Please, that's a legal question. I'm going to step out.

I had that same thought.

Thank you, Holden.

Okay. First comment is I would recommend that you consider hosting a work session or a workshop on this topic at some point just to allow planning commission staff to actually talk to you about what they have put together so far and to give that opportunity.

Okay.

So I'm gonna think about, um, this moratorium that's in place. It is the county's moratorium. They are the ones that, um, put the work in to have the findings and to justify why they have imposed the moratorium. So I don't wanna complicate things, but if the city council wants to have its own moratorium, you certainly can, but I don't think you would be able to just extend the counties, um, because you would have to have your own findings and that sort of thing. Okay.

Absolutely, you are correct. So what we're doing tonight, we're supporting third moratorium because it is inclusive of all of Scott County, including the city of Georgetown, right? If at the end of December, if the county proceeds to go elsewhere, we're not ready to go elsewhere or whatever that is, then the city of Georgetown can do a moratorium for the city of Georgetown.

Yes, if that time comes around and we still, as the city, have the need for further conversation, study, that sort of thing, the city council can... can look at imposing its own moratorium if it's not done so before then.

Okay, got it. Thank you.

All right. Well, now that everybody's in the loop, now everybody's going to know now about data centers and see where we are. Do you all need to be ready?

But you know, mayor, if I can say for Tracy, since there's a lot of, seems like there's a lot of people here in the audience that they're here for it.

We can read it.

And I would read it, and then later they can get a copy of it as well.

Okay.

Sorry, Tracy. Yep.

I want to confirm, we're going to leave the language as is? Yes.

Okay.

Okay. And before we proceed, I just want to read the definition of what a data center is according to the fiscal court. I've got a microphone. So I'm gonna read the definition of data center that the fiscal court has used for the foundation of their resolution. Um, data center is used in the county's resolution is any facility or group of facilities used primarily to house computer systems, servers, networking equipment or data storage systems, including associated infrastructure such as substations, cooling systems, backup generators, power distribution equipment and appurtenances. So that's what they're using as the foundation of what a data center means. Okay. The scope of that could be addressed through the zoning process. Okay. Sorry, I clicked up too far in the packet. Give me one second. A resolution of the Georgetown City Council expressing its support and endorsement of the efforts of the Scott County Fiscal Court related to the temporary moratorium on the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission's acceptance and review of applications for the establishment of data centers within Scott County. Whereas Georgetown, Kentucky has experienced significant residential and commercial growth and local officials have worked diligently to preserve a high quality of life while promoting responsible economic development. And whereas recent national state and local public discourse regarding the pace and scale of data center development suggests that these facilities typically require substantial electrical capacity, water resources, utility infrastructure, and land area, while often generating relatively limited long term employment opportunities compared to other forms of economic development. And whereas on March 13th, 2026, the Scott County Fiscal Court adopted Resolution 2603, a copy of which is attached to this resolution, establishing a six month moratorium on the Georgetown Scott County Planning Commission's except acceptance, processing and approval of applications for the establishment of data centers as defined in the county's resolution and whereas on june 25th 2026 the scott county fiscal court extended that moratorium through december 31st 2026 by virtue of resolution 2605 the copy is also attached with the resolution to allow additional time for the georgetown scott county planning commission to continue researching the impacts of data centers conducting public hearings evaluating regulatory alternatives and developing appropriate recommendations concerning land use regulations applicable to data centers. And whereas, as the ultimate authority to amend zoning maps, also known as zone changes, in the text of local zoning regulations, which we call text amendments, within a jurisdiction, the Georgetown City Council, like the Scott County Fiscal Court, is committed to ensuring that future development provides meaningful economic benefits while remaining compatible with the community's long term planning objectives and the protection of local public health and welfare. And whereas the Georgetown City Council desires to publicly affirm its commitment to land use regulations and growth policies that promote and protect the safety, health, welfare, and best interests of the community, And whereas the Georgetown City Council also wishes to express its support and endorsement of the efforts of the Scott County Fiscal Court related to the creation and extension of a temporary moratorium on the Georgetown Scott County Planning Commission's acceptance and review of applications for the establishment of data centers within Scott County. Now therefore, be it resolved by the city of Georgetown that one, The Georgetown city council hereby recognizes supports and affirms the actions of the Scott county fiscal court to temporarily prohibit the Georgetown Scott county planning commission's acceptance processing and approval of applications for the establishment of data centers within Scott county to allow local officials to review the need, if any, for land use regulations in this area. Two, it is the policy position of the Georgetown city council that the city of Georgetown's land resources, utility capacity, infrastructure investments, and public services should be directed towards development opportunities that provide long-term community benefits, quality employment opportunities, economic diversification, housing opportunities, and enhanced quality of life for members of the Georgetown community. The Georgetown City Council reaffirms its commitment to balance responsible growth that advances the goals and objectives of the Georgetown-Scott County Comprehensive Plan by A, supporting quality employment opportunities, B, strengthening the local tax base, C, preserving infrastructure and utility capacity for residents and businesses, D, protecting utility, reliability, and affordability, E, conserving community resources, and F, enhancing the current and future quality of life. Three, the Georgetown City Council hereby encourages the Georgetown Scott County Planning Commission to recommend if appropriate zoning regulations relating to data centers that are consistent with the community's vision for responsible growth, efficient use of infrastructure, and preservation of community resources. Four, the Georgetown City Council requests the Georgetown Mayor to provide copies of this resolution to the Georgetown Scott County Planning Commission, local utility providers, economic development organizations, the Scott County Fiscal Court, other interested governmental entities as a statement of the Georgetown City Council's position regarding data center development. five, if any section subsection sentence, clause or phrase of this resolution is held invalid, such infirmity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this resolution. Um, I guess we've not voted on it yet, but if approved, it will have been approved by the city council as of today, July 13th. So if you would like to vote on it, good luck.

Okay. So now I'm with that recommendation, um, At this time, I will take a motion to motion. Mr. Stone, do I have a second? Second. All right. Second made by Mr. Crisp. Other further questions and or comments? Yes. No, ma'am. Thank you.

I'm going to say it anyway. Your loophole is. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. We've already done that. Thank you. All right. Any other questions for Ms. Council? All right.

I do have a question, Mr. Mayor. Have we had any input directly from, say, Chase at the Water Company or Kentucky American about our infrastructure to where could the city even handle? No. Okay. Well, then I think that's another reassurance that we likely won't see a data center anytime soon. But, Chase, do you have anything to add or comment about that? Wait a minute.

Chase, you want to come on up, please? All right.

I'll second, um, Holden's first comment. I have not signed an NDA either. Um, we can only assess, uh, requests for, for new water demand that we've received. And those come with specific things. And I would say as of today, I've not received the first one. Um, I will say that as you mentioned, um, water service area in scott county is there's a general line of demarcation which is i-75 we serve georgetown municipal service scott georgetown scott county west of i-75 kentucky american east of i-75 and our service areas are often confused so i will say that while we have never received a a request for water capacity for a data center. I can't, I'm only speaking for Georgetown municipal, so let's make that clear. But I have not heard one, one, um, today. And, uh, I, I also think that should we hear that and what I've generally heard comes for, for requested water demand for data centers, what I'm reading, uh, in industry publications, what I'm hearing when I'm at, um, water conference, uh, things of that nature where this is a hot topic. Uh, the, the, increased demands from data centers, I'd be surprised if we could offer that to anything like that. It just wouldn't be possible with our current infrastructure and current source.

great thank you mayor chase when you gave us you gave us the long term or what we asked about the water supply in the long term just based on what you gave us then your presentation then it would take if we had a data center like what we've heard and and all it would take all that that you projected as 40 more years down it would take all that water to basically and then Georgetown would so I mean at least for that if it's on this side of town that's a good reason to turn it down even if we were to allow it it's a great reason to turn it down now what Holden's saying is that they can regenerate and clean their own water might end up being a difference but I don't think Georgetown Water can support it. Lexington American, like you said, I don't know whether they could or they couldn't on that side of town. But what you gave us earlier, we couldn't.

I'd have to see their demand. And I just, again, from what I've heard, I can't imagine that there would be enough water in Scott County to support what I've heard. But we'd have to see that specific request.

All right. Any other questions? All right. All those in favor? Oh, go ahead.

No.

Yeah, we haven't voted yet. All those in favor of this resolution signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Now, Devin.

I just had two really basic housekeeping things. We read the resolution aloud, which I think is really helpful in a case like this, but also just a reminder to the council, if you hear from constituents and the public, This resolution and the county's resolutions that are referenced in it are available in the packet that's on the city's website under the agenda center. So while it's not the signed copy, that full language is included in the packet and available to the public at any time moving forward. The only other housekeeping item, I know Ms. Howard mentioned the central time reference on the agenda. This is kind of a PSA. The general assembly actually in the last session adopted a change to the definition of time And so all public meeting notices now are required to include central time. So, um, feel silly, but that, that is, uh, that's the reason for that. So you'll all see that on all public notices moving forward.

Okay. All right. Next item, number 11, which is planning and zoning and zoning ordinance. We have item 12, a Zoda 20, 25 or two sponsors of Sonya Rickards, Brent, Tammy, lesbian Mitchell, and Kim Minky.

An ordinance amending Article 4, Section 4.3, Residential Districts, Article 4, Section 4.4, Commercial Districts, and the Schedule of Dimension and Area Regulations of the Georgetown-Scott County Zoning Ordinance, as recommended by the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission. Summary. One, amend Section 4.3, Residential Districts, to calculate density from net acreage to gross acreage, and for planned unit development with, without, commercial activity to be a permitted use, previously currently only as a conditional use. two amend section 4.4 commercial districts as follows section 4.41 to clarify the intent of the b1 neighborhood commercial zone and planned unit development with or without residential activity as a permitted use previously currently not permitted in the zone and section 4.44 for planned unit development with without residential activity to be a permitted use previously, currently, only as a conditional use, and for inpatient medical facilities and offices as a conditional use. Three, amends the schedule of dimension area regulations within Article IV to reflect the changes made to Section 4.3. 4 provides for repeal of inconsistent ordinances, servability of provisions, and an effective date upon passage and publication. The full text of this ordinance is available for examination in the City Clerk's Office, 629 North Broadway, Georgetown, Kentucky, 40324, or at www.georgetownky.gov. Introduced and publicly read for the first time, July 13, 2026.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Item B, ZOTA TA. 2025-04 sponsors Sonya Wilkins-Brent and Michael Chris and Kim Menke.

An ordinance amending Article 2, Section 2.32.I, Planned Development Project Regulations, Planned Unit Developments, Section 2.322, Condominium Regulations, and Section 2.515, Planned Development Projects of the Georgetown-Scott County Zoning Ordinance, as recommended by the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission. summary one amend section 2.3 specifically sections 2.32.1 and 2.5 related to planned development projects otherwise known as planned unit developments a changes the location of regulations for planned development projects planned unit developments in the georgetown scott county zoning ordinance from section 2.3 general development regulations to section 2.5 specific use standards and B, provides additional guidance and requirements for planned development projects, specifically in Section 2.5.15. Two, provides for repeal of inconsistent ordinances, severability of provisions, and an effective date upon passage of publication. The full text of this ordinance is available for examination in the City Clerk's Office, 629 North Broadway, Georgetown, Kentucky, 40324, or at www.georgetownky.gov. Introduced and publicly wrapped for the first time July 13th, 2026.

Thank you. Next, we have item 13, second reading of 13A, ZOTA 2025-05, sponsors Michael Crisp and Willow Hamburg.

An ordinance repealing and replacing Article 4 of the Georgetown-Scott County Zoning Ordinance relating to zoning district regulations as recommended by the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission. Summary. 1. Repeals and replaces Article 4 relating to zoning district regulations in the Georgetown-Scott County Zoning Ordinance. The text amendment establishes new sections 4.1 agricultural districts, 4.2 conservation districts, 4.3 residential districts, 4.4 commercial districts, 4.5 industrial districts, 4.6 professional and community services, and 4.7 historic district overlay. 2. A, change the zone descriptions to a consistent format. B, rename and recategorize the rural residential, A5, district from being an agricultural zone subtype, rural residential, A5, to a residential zone subtype, rural residential, RR. And C, provide character descriptions for each zoning district type. Two, provides for repeal of inconsistent ordinances, severability of provisions, and an effective date upon passage and publication. The full text of this ordinance is available for examination in the City Clerk's Office, 629 North Broadway, Georgetown, Kentucky, 40324, or at www.georgetownky.gov. Introduced and publicly read for the first time, June 22nd, 2026. Publicly read the second time, July 13th, 2026.

All right. Counsel, you have heard the ordinance. At this time, I entertain a motion. Motion made. Motion made by Mr. Chris. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second made by Ms. Hambrick. Other further questions and or comments? At this time, Madam Clerk, we have roll call.

Mr. Stone. Yes. Mrs. Tingle-Sames. Yes. Mrs. Lesby-Mitchell. Yes. Mr. Minkley. Yes. Mr. Hampton. Yes. Mrs. Hambrick. Yes. Mr. Crisp.

Yes. All right. Item 13B, ZOTA 2025-06, sponsors Michael Crisp and Willow Hamburg.

An ordinance amending the Georgetown-Scott County subdivision and development regulations to align with state law KRS 102.275, ministerial review, as recommended by the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission. Summary, one, amends the Georgetown-Scott County subdivision and development regulations to incorporate the outcome of a comprehensive review of the language and format of the document for compliance with House Bill 443, state legislature, passed in the 2024 regular session regarding the administration of land use regulations, now codified as KRS 100.275. In addition to the language review presented to KRS 100.275, the amendment also includes a changes to articles three through nine relating to the procedural and review changes for improved alignment with state regulations and b changes to articles 10 through 12 to consolidate requirements to one location and to correct any discrepancies within the regulations two provides for repeal inconsistent ordinances severability of provisions and an effective date upon passage and publication The full text of this ordinance is available for examination in the City Clerk's Office, 629 North Broadway, Georgetown, Kentucky, 40324, or at www.georgetownky.gov. Introduced and publicly read the first time June 22, 2026. Publicly read the second time July 13, 2026.

Council, you have heard the ordinance. At this time, I will entertain a motion. Motion made by Ms. Mitchell. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Second made by Mr. Hampton. Are there further questions and or comments? Madam clerk, if you will read roll call.

Mr. Crisp?

Yes.

Mrs. Hamburg? Yes. Mr. Hampton?

Yes.

Mr. Minky? Yes. Mrs. Lesby-Mitchell? Yes. Mrs. Singles-Signs? Yes. Mr. Schump?

Yes.

Thank you. Madam clerk, item number 14, city engineer, uh, resolution, local assistance, road, uh, program, uh, L A R P and 2026 grant award. Uh, thank you. Eddie Hightower.

Thank you, mayor and the council. Um, so I'm pleased to bring this resolution, um, which is to accept road funds for resurfacing, uh, of two roads, one is Della Plain out in the Toyota area, and then one is downtown off near Boston on Main Avenue for a grant that we received to resurface both those streets.

All right, Council, you've heard the request. At this time, I'll entertain a motion.

Motion. Second.

Okay, right at one time. All right, so Mr. Menke made the motion, second by Ms. Mitchell. Are there further questions and or comments? All those in favor of this motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Thank you. Thank you all. Next, item 50.

Sorry, I apologize. I just keep jumping in here. I do want to add one thing to that because we ultimately did just get a Senate appropriation for $3 million and apply some matching funds through the city and county budgets. I just want to be transparent that these funds cannot be applied on top of that. We have confirmed with the state that the best course of action is to accept the funds, knowing that we have three years to expend them. So if the project contemplated with the other funds were to fall through or not come to fruition, we still have that three-year period to resurface Delaplane. but you will not see that happening immediately, whereas the Main Avenue funds can be, once we're under the agreement, they're able to be utilized. So I just didn't want to create any expectations that this was in addition to those funds. Karen, our grants administrator, has been in great communication with the state, and we've gotten those assurances, but they did say best practice, accept the funds, wait and see, and if ultimately they're not going to be expended, they'll reallocate them. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. Next, item 15, file resolution statewide emergency management mutual aid and assistance agreement.

Yes, good evening again, Council. Thank you again for this opportunity. So in its simplest form, what this will allow me to do is to be proactive instead of reactive. We never know when a large-scale incident could strike Georgetown. And this will allow me to know beforehand, again, who I can call on for assistance should we need it. I kind of view it as like NATO for the fire service, right? If we get struck by a tornado or an earthquake attacks us, right? I'll know who I can call for that assistance. I think it's something that's been needed throughout the state for a long time. Instead of having a bunch of loosely monitored mutual aid agreements between departments throughout the state, this will allow us to administer it cleanly and simplify the whole process.

All right. You have heard the request. At this time for this resolution, I will entertain a motion. Motion, sir. Motion made by Ms. Hambrick. Do I have a second?

Second, Mr. Mayor.

Second made by Mr. Chris. Are there further questions and or comments? All in favor of this motion, signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Thank you. Thank you. Item 16, Police. Resolution Kentucky 911 Service Board 2026 Grant Award.

Hello. I asked Jennifer to come up just in case you had questions because I'm not a dispatcher. So Jennifer and I applied for some funding to help revamp or update your 911 system so that when the E911 goes live across the state, you'll be in the best possible position, correct?

So when NG911 goes live across the state, AT&T is next in line to go live. They've already implemented in... lots of places across the state, but AT&T is next in line. So it should be coming hopefully within the next six-ish months. We should be going live. But this is to revamp, redo our 911 system. We're past due to at the very least refresh it, but this is to do a new 911 phone system.

So we applied and were awarded $105,300 for this. So that's a great job for Jennifer. Okay. Good.

You have heard the request. At this time, I would entertain a motion. Motion. Motion made by Ms. Sainz. Do I have a second? Second by Ms. Mitchell. Are there further questions or comments? All those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Item 17 public works municipal order for a dump truck purchase. All right.

Uh, we went to, uh, this is, uh, for the dump truck that was in the budget, uh, to state contract price and, uh, it was $283,151.

Motion made by Mr. Stone. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Hampton. Are there any questions and or comments? All those in favor of this motion, municipal order for dump truck purchase is at $283,151. All those in favor of this motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed say nay. Let the request reflect that it is passed. Item 18, council discussions, old business. All right, council new business.

a couple of things i don't know if it's new or old we've mentioned it before but the damage i had another citizen call me about the damage that they feel like they're receiving from the blasting okay so what is it that we can do how do we help them find a solution for that what's the goal to do that when years ago years ago when they were building cave mart they were blasting Kmart into a hole, because that used to be higher than we were across the street, and they set up a monitor actually in front of the door of the shop for the blast, to register the blast all the time to see what damage it was doing, and one time it went off too much. And they did have to come over. Some damage was done. They had to take care of that. So what is what is going on with that currently? And how do we help our citizens? Because it seems like it's Mount Vernon. This lady lives in Dorchester, which I guess is kind of the back part of Mount Vernon across from where they're at. But there's I know Kim's had a couple of calls and maybe some of the you all have. So is there anything we can do? What do we do? What can we do? We need to do.

I know. Come on up here while we talk. But I know that our staff has been working on this, and I ask Eddie to come and give you where we are.

That's a good question. So all blasting activities goes through the state.

Okay.

So when we have a complaint, a local complaint, we call a – the state inspectors, they come out, they check all the seismographs that are put up in place to make sure the vibration is within the standards that are outlined in the law. And I have done that for the Mount Vernon person. He called me one day last week, late last week, and he said he's been out there, he checked the vibration, it was within limits, and that they would continue to monitor the situation at Georgetown Commons with the blasting and that would continue to keep an eye on the project. But from what he told me, they couldn't find anything that he had exceeded the allowable vibrations. so this particular this particular lady what she's saying is that the nail heads are popping out of her her uh drywall that they're coming out if she has a claim um i would send that to the construction company i mean to the developer of the mall that there's any damage that she Do you have the does the city have the address and we're sending to me and I would forward it over to just yeah, just send to me and I'll make sure we get to the mayor. I'm sorry. I sent it to mayor and then he can take a look at it and decide where it goes from there.

So hopefully the newspaper will write something for the newspaper to say where to make a story out of this so where these folks can actually try to get some kind of resolve of what their situation are. Because it kind of sounds like the city's not. I didn't figure we were because it's a big commercial project that it is. But because there seems to be several neighbors over there, it's not like they have the money to sit in and go back after it's all said and done and repair their house and i think it's going to be hard for them to prove and i also don't see a big development company saying you know okay i'm going to listen to you because you got some nail heads popping out but if enough people complain to them that's why i'd love for the newspaper to write an article on it enough people would go and do that and complain to them then maybe they would pull back their blasting maybe they would see they could have a a suit on their hands with all these people coming together or something, I don't know.

And one thing that this company didn't do when they were blasting for Kroger and blasting for the bypass, I lived in Parkside at the time. They sent inspectors around and photographed inside the house and outside the house. This bunch didn't do it. That's a big red flag that, you know, I think that... uh, seriously needs to be looked at and you know, they need to step up and, and bring forth their insurance company because I've had one lady that called that said that the, uh, paneling in her basement is pulling apart. I had another one that said that her front porch is cracked. And it wasn't that way until the blasting started. So, you know, Georgetown Commons needs to step up and bring forth their information because got a lot of mad residents in Mount Vernon that are they're feeling the brunt of it. And they got no recourse right now.

And Mayor, if I could add to that, these are also the kinds of things that can't be quantified. The pets are going crazy with all of the blasting noise, and the people who have sleeping patterns are going crazy. It's a large development, and people are upset.

Sure. Okay. I get it. I get it.

So if you could, you, Mayor, put the resource on the website on where these people can, what they can do and go, and if the newspaper would be kind enough to write an article about it and make it public and then get it on Facebook and shareable and stuff like that, that would be very helpful, I think, to the citizens that live over in that area.

Mr. Minkie?

yeah the just reiterating one of the comments that we made last meeting Georgetown municipal water to presentation I know there were some folks that had supply line breaks and whether or not there was any correlation potentially there with

okay water company i know that we'll take some research and things like that but you know given the the potential that's out there we've not been to my knowledge yet we've not been contacted about any uh service lateral issues in that area but i believe uh in my absence one thing that was presented to the council at the last meeting was just where the sanitary sewer line has to be extended through that neighborhood. And when we got out there and saw that rock was actually shallower than anticipated, we thought it was appropriate to ask for that change order that we weren't even going to allow them to ho ring we don't we're not allowing blasting but just that constant packing of the rock we didn't want to see that because we thought we were too close to proximity to houses so they're bringing in a trencher so hopefully uh if it is truly the blasting that we can we'll be made aware if there's service lateral issues because that would be another thing that um a homeowner would have to consider because that's not our infrastructure then also if mainline uh sewer sewer or water were to be um were to be impacted adversely impacted then we would have to we would have to follow up on that as well yeah so and i know we had issues at one point in time in construction uh where you know maybe things weren't put in this as well as they could have been in the past all right yes go ahead

I have a couple of things, too. We're new business.

I think, Devin, you should go.

Sorry, we're still.

Oh, sorry.

Tie up one loose end on the blasting one. I want to make sure I heard correctly. It would not be appropriate for the city to be the liaison submitting complaints for private parties. So I thought I heard that, and I just want to make sure to clear it up. The developer's information is publicly available, and ultimately, aside from working with the state when these complaints come in to complete the testing that Eddie talked about, it wouldn't be appropriate for us to submit those claims for private parties, but I just wanted to clear that up.

I'm asking for you to get the information out there as to where they can go, like especially to the state, where a local could go if they have a problem or they have a complaint so that they know where to go to.

Blasting jurisdiction, just notifying about.

To go to them to give their complaint to them so it can be looked into. Good. Just wanted to clarify. No, I understand that. Thank you.

Okay. Yes.

Okay. So is this new business? Okay. Thank you. Two new business items, please. In the past couple of years, we've emphasized and supported the need for a traffic unit within our police department. And we see the good work that this is doing in our community, making roads safer and reducing traffic. Stress went out on the road. I'm wondering if we could talk about adding a responsibility to our police traffic unit that would improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. All of us have experienced vehicles that are so loud that they shake the shingles of our houses. And could our traffic units address those noise violations when they are out in the field? Is it against the law to have non-compliant muffling on vehicles? Could officers cite violators who are pulled over for other reasons if they notice the noise violations? Could officers pull over vehicles and cite them for no other reason than the noise? And I'm just asking maybe if the police committee could look into those things and get back to us about that.

Is that it?

Okay.

All right.

Yeah, and the other one, could we talk for a minute about the topic of demolition by neglect? where a homeowner lets a property deteriorate over time to the point where the house is no longer salvageable. There are a couple of properties that many of us have been watching over the past few years that have probably reached the beyond salvaging point. And one of them in particular is a historic structure. And our code enforcement team has worked with the property owners and small steps have been agreed upon. and sometimes implemented. Meanwhile, some of the structures are open to the sky and at least an eyesore to the neighbors, if not dangerous. We can do better. And are there ordinances that need to be tightened? What recourse do we have if the property owners fail to rehabilitate? I know there are success stories out there. in Georgetown and in other cities. And what would you all think about putting together a committee to look at this issue and and the issue of abandoned property in general? Um, the committee could be a couple of council members that worked with the city attorney as well as people on code enforcement maybe. And then the committee could bring back to the council some information and maybe some recommendations.

Timmy, I thought, and I could be wrong, I thought several years ago that we actually, because we were addressing some abandoned property and dilapidated property, that there was an ordinance put in place that the city could go on, once the check marks were met, that the city could go on and claim that property. So I think there is an ordinance already in place to do that. Is there, I mean, maybe Emily probably needs to do some research, see if I'm right or wrong, but I thought there, I thought there was an ordinance for that.

We can look into all that.

I'm sure we do have things in place and we have implemented them and we get people that will come back and do as little as possible and then we start we have to start over once they've done that and meanwhile a time passes and it gets beyond repair

Like I said, I could be wrong. The memory's not as good as it used to be. But I think there's one that has some teeth to it that goes further than that.

Well, I could be wrong, or it could have been repealed since then.

But I'm pretty sure there's one in place, so we could bring that to the table and take a look at it and see if it's there. Yep.

But I do know there is a, and this is one thing you have to understand, and from what I know, and like I said, I could be, hopefully I'm not mistaking or giving information, that it is a long process. And it's a process where a person has to go, you know, the due process of if we do this, then they have so many days to correct, and then when they do this, you know, it is, like you said, it is constantly taught. If they're doing a little bit to this, that's something there. But that's something that we can look into.

Mayor, I'm sorry. Go ahead. This is directed to you, to Eddie, about paving. I had a couple of people mention that there's huge potholes on Myers Drive.

Um, I, I believe is that a private street? Hold up. Let's we're going to talk. Let's come to the mic and talk please. So we can, you know, okay. It's gotta be ordered. I need to be on orderly fashion here. All right, here we go. Kids in the classroom.

Um, this is the first I'm hearing about. They're saying it's private there. they're right they always know yeah if you could make sure it's been a private street

for years, way back when it was Creekside Apartments and long before then. Okay.

So if you have road issues like that, you can just send those streets, if it's a public road.

Well, that's what I didn't know.

Yeah. And even if you don't know, if you send it anyway, we can check, and I can get back to you to let you know if that's a public or private road. Okay. And I've done that when people have actually asked and talking with Eddie and we look it up to know this is a private and they'll respond for that time.

Okay?

Sorry. All right. Any other new business? All right. At this time, council comments. I'll start with Mr. Stone.

Devin doesn't yell at me. Turn the microphone on. Ms. Pribble dropped these off before council meeting tonight, requesting that the state look at McClellan Circle and Pleasant View. I've also been in contact with Mr. Baker with District 7 about Lusby. path and the bypass, especially where the doctor's offices, the New Goodwill and Ashton Grove come out. And it all looks the same that this form letter come out and that it doesn't warrant the need for a traffic light. One of the things that Mr. Baker even said is that it's a curb at Lesby Path. It's a curb and we couldn't put one there, but You go just a little bit west of town here, and there's a pretty sharp curve, and right there at 227 and Frankfort Pike, and they have a traffic light there. So I'm going to be putting these on at the next traffic committee, and one of their solutions is a right-in, right-out at Lusby Path. Their solution for... Pleasant View is nothing that it doesn't warrant it. You've got school traffic that comes out at Pleasant View. You've got an elderly center, a goodwill center, doctor's offices, and people that cross on foot at that intersection every day, and they say that it doesn't warrant it. What value are we putting on human life? So I have climbed the tree through Frankfurt and gotten, and this is the answer I got, that it's along the same lines as what Ms. Pribble got. Sorry, it doesn't fit. So something that we seriously need to look at, not only traffic committee, but as a city council as well, because, you know, there's people's lives at stake here and it's definitely needs something needs to be looked at.

All right. All good. Thank you.

Uh, yes. Uh, first thing, uh, chief Johnson, thank you. Fourth of July parade. Great success. Thank you for the fire trucks. I believe if I'm not mistaken, it's probably one of the largest attended parades in years. And I did the barriers on Main Street. Those worked great. So thank you to tourism for helping with that. Secondly, Emily, thank you for your assistance with the resolution. That's just step one. We've got a ways to go. uh we we got work to do so you know to uh councilwoman tingo same's point you know we probably will need to look at our own uh ordinance down the road but uh i think in the meantime we've got this resolution in place but we'll see what planning and zoning comes up with and we can we can go from there on the city's version so right thank you hambrick

Mayor, I want to congratulate you on your Hall of Fame, your National Award. That's very good. Congratulations on that.

Thank you.

Also, I saw that the no fishing signs were put up.

That means you don't go fishing.

I know I have a quick vision there, but I appreciate that. Whoever was in charge of doing that because it's a very dangerous place across from Arby's to be fishing on that bridge. And we can't be forward thinking enough about the data center topic. And I congratulate the county and all of us for taking this topic seriously and trying to be wise.

Mr. Mickey. Ms. Sames. All right.

And Mr. Chris, I'd like to echo, uh, council member Hampton's comments about the 4th of July parade. It was incredible, huge turnout, great job by public works, emergency services, chief, everybody. Wonderful. Uh, it's events like that that just really make you feel like you're in the best. city in the United States, which we are. So that's great. And then, uh, secondly, uh, to the person who earlier asked if, if we had signed any non-disclosure agreements, I have not signed any about, uh, any non-disclosure agreements. It'd be exciting and neat if anybody ever offered one to us, but I've never had one offered to me, but I have not signed one. All right.

All right. If there was other business to be brought for this council, this meeting is adjourned.