Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Good to go. Welcome everybody. Thank you for being here tonight. We will call the meeting to order. Kelly, will you call the role please? Tom Butler here. Sandy Conley here. John Duthy here. Althia here. Christine Hos here. Daniel Hotimini here. John Litra here. Freddy Villano here. And Dean Shay here.

So I'm going to uh briefly read here what to expect at our planning board meeting. It's a little different tonight because we only have three uh projects that we're going to be talking about and only one of them has a public hearing. So, that will be the only opportunity for the public to speak tonight. Please help the planning board and the public by coming prepared with written comments if possible and signing on the attendance sheet in the back uh due tonight to tonight's agenda items. We do not have a speaker sheet. Please only speak if you have the floor at the direction of the board during the public hearing. Identify yourself by name, the municipality where you reside, and who you represent. Please, everybody, silence your cell phone, turn off any alarms. Uh, please make the planning board aware right now, if you haven't already, of any disability that you have that may require accommodation for you to participate fully uh in the meeting. Um speakers, you may run up against a hard threeinut limit and are expected to stop even in mids sentence. You may always submit your written comments for the record and for the board to consider. Planning board members may ask for clarification of comments, but the board will not engage in a dialogue or a question and answer session. Your comments may address the proposal before the board, but not call out individuals, make personal attacks or accusations against the people involved. Speakers are to direct their comments to the board only. The audience is to remain silent. Cheering, clapping, and disruption will not be tolerated. If you're disruptive, you will be asked to leave. If you refuse or delay, you may may be removed. The planning board works within uh strictctures of state and local laws, but is not a policing or judicial body. We cannot address legal issues outside the purview our purview like code enforcement, trespassing, leases, etc. Please keep in mind that

site plan approval is not a guarantee that a building permit will be issued or that a project will be built. Like any public meeting, come prepared to hear comments and opinions that may conflict with your own and engage in civil discourse. Treat others with dignity and respect through your comments and actions whether listening or speaking. The planning board has multiple agenda items to work through. Keep that in mind. Uh when the planning board has finished [laughter] with items of interest to you, the audience must remain quiet to allow the meeting to continue. If you need to converse with parties about a particular item, respectfully and immediately take your conversation outside the room and you'll see that uh the doors are closed so that we can keep any noise uh out there. Please familiarize yourself with local laws and land use ordinances as they directly affect your property rights. Our goal is to gather facts and public comments as part of the decision-making process. While the planning board reviews and recommends changes to local land use laws, keep in mind the town board is the only legislative body with the authority to create or amend local laws. Our first action item tonight is a minor subdivision for 372 Holden Road.

You are you the applicant? Yes. Okay. Welcome. Please state your name. Uh Nolan Abium. Okay. Please uh just briefly tell us about your project. I'm just looking through C one acre lot just for future reference. I don't really have a plan right now, but just thought I'd get going on it sooner than later.

Okay. So tonight we need to go through uh the short environmental assessment for part two. Board, have you all looked at this? Anybody on the board have questions about this project? This is the second time we've seen it. Can I get somebody to go through and read the environmental impact? Tom, go ahead. Number one, will the proposed act? Yes. Uh,

yeah. Should we should we be doing our public hearing before? Okay. Do I hear a motion to open the public hearing? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. We'll leave the public hearing open. Is there anybody in the public who's here to speak on this tonight?

Just this just this project here. Yeah. 372 Holden Road. Okay. Well, we'll leave it open for a minute before we close. Can we double check, Kelly? This is 372, not 374. Okay. Do I hear a motion to close the hearing?

So moved. Second. All in favor? I Okay, the hearing is closed. Tom, don't you go ahead with the short environmental assessment? Number one, will the proposed action create a material conflict with an adopted land use plan or zoning regulations? No. No. Two, will the proposed action result in a change in the use or intensity of use of land? No. No. Three, will the proposed action impair the character or quality of the existing community? No. Four, will the proposed action have an impact on the environmental characteristics that cause the establishment of a critical environmental area? No.

Five, will the proposed action result in an adverse change in the existing level of traffic or affect existing infrastructure for mass transit, biking, or walkway? No. Six. Will the proposed action cause an increase in the use of energy and it fails to incorporate reasonably available energy conservation or renewable energy opportunities? No. Seven. Will the proposed action impact existing A public private water supplies? No. B. Public private wastewater treatment utilities? No. Eight. Will the proposed action impair the character or quality of important historic, archaeological, architectural, or aesthetic resources? No.

No. Nine. Will the proposed action result in an adverse change to natural resources? For example, wetlands, water bodies, groundwater, air quality, flora, and fauna? No. 10. Will the proposed action result in an increase in the potential for erosion, flooding, or drainage problems? No. 11. Will the proposed action create a hazard to environmental resources or human health? No.

Does anybody have any questions on the uh draft resolution? Okay, seeing none, do I have a motion for the resolution? So moved. Tom Butler, yes. Sandy Conlin, yes. Al Fiorly, yes. Christine Hos, yes. Danielle Hatanini, yes. John Litro, yes. And Dean Shay, yes. Are we not going to include John McDuthy? I thought you just do the board unless somebody's missing.

Okay. That's right. He's not. Yeah, we got a full board. Yep. Okay. We are set. Thank you very much. So, did you see the condition on here? Uh, [clears throat] ceiling and endorsement. So, have you talked to Kelly about what you need to do to follow up? Yeah. Okay. So, you're all set? Y. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Yep. Good luck with the project. All right. Our second agenda item is site plan review for 18- 8-18 Verizon Lane. John Ducey is the applicant.

Um, yes, as the applicant, I'll be uh recusing myself. I'll step out of the room so there's no perceived bias or influence on the board. Thanks, John. I'll be refusing myself as the applicant and also member of the planning board so there's no perceived bias or influence. Thanks, John. Good evening everybody. My name is Scott Gibson. I'm the drainage consultant, site plan preparer working for Timothy Bule PE and I represent the owner uh the duties and um I can present to you or you can fire questions off at me or whatever you would like.

So why don't you start with a summary of the project would be great.

So I've been in the duthies for about 5 years now. first plugged me into the uh rest of the site at A18 Horizon Lane. Anybody that's familiar with it knows it's a commercial development uh owned by the um by John Dookie. Um the larger the most recent construction project was a large cold storage building just to the northeast of this proposal uh in the same complex. Uh it involved uh disturbance over an acre and certainly that uh prompted the need for a full storm water pollution prevention plan or a SWIP. Um we designed and developed one for uh not only the larger cold storage building, but there was a proposal for a second smaller cold storage building about the size of the proposal that we're going to uh go over tonight. Um and what it resulted in, anybody that's familiar with uh Swift development, is there's um a whole host of state requirements, usually a pretty pretty thick report, uh that includes um existing uh site condition modeling. Um it looks at runoff management, um what type of land use currently exists. So for instance, it was a tree and brush lot. Um, a raindrop is going to some some some of that's going to uh, you know, uh, run across the surface, but a lot of it's going to infiltrate with a lot like that. Um, when you develop it and you put hard surfaces on top, uh, impervious cover, your rate of runoff is going to increase. So what the state wants you to do is they want to capture a certain percent of of that and treat it in a stormwater practice and then attenuate that flow to reduce the velocity so that it brings it to close uh and better than existing conditions. So that's the purpose of modeling. So uh all that boiled into was uh we had three storm water practices that came out of

that project. One was a large attenuation basin to control upland runoff to capture it and outlet it slowly so that it can trickle around the property rather than go through your construction site. Uh the second was water quality treatment in the form of a bio retention area that uh exists just below the the site parking lot and also captures the roof runoff from the larger building. Uh the last is a dry pond that uh captures the remaining quantity attenuation necessary for this study. And because we also designed to the proposal the second smaller building that was included in the stormwater pollution prevention plan, the Duthy family was pretty certain that was the last building they were going to build. And so they instructed us to file something called notice of termination which um notifies the state that you are done with construction and you're going to close your storm water plan. And so we did that in May of last year. And so now the site uh is has permanent storm water practices based on our design. Um I understand I wasn't involved in this but there was a previous phase where there was a larger building that was also uh subject to full storm water pollution prevention plan requirements and there's a there's a pond up there. And so the point is is that any of the development that the Duthies have done uh has been under state storm water guidelines and um they followed the letter to the tea. So, uh, why I'm telling you this is because once they close their storm water plan down, their larger common plan of development is technically as built. It's it's built out and uh they didn't anticipate to put anything else in the ground up until late last year where John approached me and said, "Hey, you know, we have a/4 acre parcel that's left on the lot and we'd like to put a 2,800 ft cold storage building in place." So that's the plan

that you have in front of you. Um and the proposal is to develop [snorts] 2 acres uh with a 2,800 square foot cold storage building and associated gravel parking. Um if you look at your plan, you'll notice that it is flanked by two grass storm water drainage swailes. One on the west side and one on the east side. The eastern swale handles the drainage from the development that I opened with. Um, all of that flow comes down the hill and goes through an existing storm water cap uh drainage swale runs to the south and out into the town of Lancing um swale down by the town highway barns. The western swale captures piped runoff from some of the northern buildings on the property and that also goes harmlessly around this lot. So the point is that there is no uh upland influences across this lot regarding drainage. So basically it's an island within its own subcatchment. So um we presented this development to Shawn and Shaun's concern uh was I think the concern that you have that normally uh a common plan of development if you're developing a full storm water pollution prevention plan should include any proposed buildout. It just should. But it's not always a perfect world. A lot of times you wake up the next year and you say, you know, I wish we could just have one more building. And that's kind of where

Who's Sean? I'm I'm sorry. Who's Sean? Uh Sean right here. Okay. Sorry. Thank you.

Um so that's where we are. Um so you'll notice at the very bottom of the the um the site plan, there's an attenuation basin there. And that was sort of put in um instructed by the owner to put that in as sort of a nod toward the fact that we could be doing some peak runoff shaving. Even though in my professional opinion, this is such a small construction site. I'm not sure it warrants a full storm water pollution prevention plan. It's less than an acre. Uh but it's up to this body to decide whether it should have been part of the common plan of development or not. And if it should have been, then it should have had all of the rights and privileges of of full swip afforded to it. But I just, you know, we've all seen quarter acre subdivisions and we've seen the small lots that a quarter acre subdivision has. And this is about the size of two of these rooms put together by the time it's all said and done. Um, it's it's a marketkedly small property. So if you go to the next page which is our watershed subcatchment analysis um that would be C10008 um and you'll see there that it's something we normally put together with these drainage studies that shows the subcatchment development before development and after. So on the left you see the erosion uh the existing subcatchment is about.22 22 acres. And then on the right is the proposed subcatchment with the building and the property in place. And you'll notice both of these drainage areas are exactly the same size. Uh because as I pointed out, it's sort of a drainage island unto its own. Uh the table up top shows the modeling um results um after attenuation. So at the very top you see the existing flow conditions are is a mere uh one

cubic foot per second for the 100red-year storm. And what is a 100red-year storm? It's a 1% chance of getting a 5.7 in rainfall in 100 years. That's that's the definition of what a 100redyear storm is. Excuse excuse me. 5.7 in rainfall within within 100 years at you have you're rolling that Dungeons and Dragons 100s sided dice right period for a 24-hour period. Yep. That's what I'm after.

So then the proposed flow conditions include attenuation. Uh you'll notice that the 100redyear just about meets the existing conditions. We we we got it down to 1.09 versus 1.05. So pretty much a wash. What I didn't show here is what does the runoff look like without attenuation. And if we were to run that, it would be 1.64. So the attenuation basin is shaving off half a cubic foot per second for the 100redyear storm. Is that uh warranted to have an attenuation basin there? I can't say. Uh we're only treating half the site with this basin. Um, you know, if this body wants us to do a full storm water pollution prevention plan, we're going to have to marketkedly change the the site plan and move the building more central and increase the size of the practice so that we have a treatment component, which is usually a for bay of sorts. It's usually 2 or 3 foot deep depression where you send all the runoff in first to sort of settle out any solids or sediments that get into it. It usually then lips over into an attenuation basin which would in this case have to be a little bit larger. So the point is um we would lose a lot of our parking space. Um we would have to kind of do some creative and strategic layout. Um and obviously that comes at a cost as well. So there would be my fee for developing a storm water plan. There would be a a fee for the contractor installers practice. Um and again for 0.2 acres of property. So um that's sort of where we're coming from. That's our argument at any rate. We'll do what the the board wants of course, but um I just in my professional opinion, I think it's overkill to do a full plan. Um one idea that Sean had was to reopen the original

storm water pollution prevention plan for the larger building. Um I'm not sure we can do that because we did file notice of termination. So, we would actually have to file a whole new plan with the state um just for this little parcel. So, um that's all we've got. Have you approached the town's engineer with this?

Sean, have the town engineers looked at this? The town engineer has reviewed this and recommended a full swip be uh created due to the terms of the 2017 resolution approving uh the site plan back then which uh read no further site development or disturbances other than routine maintenance and repair are or shall be permitted without a full swip sitewide storm water analysis capture attenuation and treatment as well as any additional site plan subdivision or plan development review as determined by the town. So they did review this and that is what they recommended. So they're following the book more or less.

Yes. And that that was also in 2017. So keep in mind that was before the 2023 building that came before us and was approved and they did a full swip for the entire um the the entire property at that time. Yes. And there have been two separate full swips each covering about half of the property since that 2017 resolution required that for all future developments. Wait a minute. I'm I'm sorry. I'm I missed this. So So when they came before us in 2023, right, to build the buildings back then, they did a full swip on the entire property. Okay. And then since then, has the town engineers looked at this? Yeah.

Yeah. The only I think the only reason that he's recommending they do a full swip again for the entire parcel is because of the 2017 resolution.

Huh. And I will just note the previous two full swips were not of the entire parcel. They both were full sweps but only covering about half of the parcel which is why as he mentioned it's like an island. specifically where this building is located is pretty much the only area in the entire parcel that is not currently under a SWIP. That's why the engineer mentioned that it may be possible to include it as an addendum to the other pre-existing SWIPS. That's why that was mentioned there. But the rest of the property is under historic SWIPS. It's just there are already two separate SWIPS, both covering totally different unrelated sections of the same parcel.

Yeah. And everything that's built so far is in compliance. Correct. And so Sean, is there a way we can soften that that all those requirements and still satisfy concerns? Well, as Nate pointed out, that one solution would have taken that uh prior 2023 SWIP and made an addendum to that SWIP, updating with the general permit requirements and so forth. Unfortunately, they closed down. They filed the notice of termination for that. Um, so we're kind of we're kind of in a rough spot here. Wondering.

So, so what would be the least costly approach and at the same time protect you know about storm walk.

Yeah. Would be to do their design proposal here without doing a full swip on the other the uh entire parcel. Yeah, that that's the least costly certainly. And you know, we could probably nudge the building forward, make the attenuation basin a little bit larger so that we can capture a little bit more runoff with it. Um, but certainly if we go into a full swip, we have to have a treatment component. We have to have a runoff reduction volume component. We have to be really strategic about where we're going to be placing things. that I can't see that he would be having the parking space that we he wants under this plan with it.

And and to remind the group, I believe it's a one acre qualifies to open a swip. So one does. This is a point to um Yes. That's that's the that's the minimum threshold. Yeah. So um I understand the possibility of potentially opening up the previous SWIP. I mean has as a concept, but has anybody actually asked? I mean that's the the state once you file NOT they consider it null and void it's done and so there's no precedent for there being an adapt we would have to file a new sweep

does the attenuation basin capture all of the runoff from that building

right now we just wanted to acknowledge that we could reduce it and um so it captures half of the roof. It captures the extra storage trailer parking and about the area that's shown with the 33 foot mark from the edge of the trailer parking up into the parking lot. So, you know, the the other half of the building, the remaining parking lot just run off to the west into the existing grass swell. So, if we were going to capture more of the site, we would have to do some more strategic planning. We'd have to most likely centralize the building on the on the lot and then probably push it forward toward the entrance drive, which would reduce our parking space. And I think we would likely lose the trailer parking cuz in order to bring all the site flow down, we're going to have to we're going to have to be creative with our grading and pitch the site toward the back end. And right now it runs from east to west. So we're going to have to pitch the whole site north to south. showing the trailer.

So, if I understand really the only reason we're seeing this is not because it triggers a SWIP on its own, but because there's the 2017 resolution from a prior town planning board saying nothing further. Correct. That's correct. And there have been two additional developments on the site with SWIPS done, but those SWIPS just didn't cover this.

Okay. And my understanding, if you if you've looked at the the summary for the project, is um that the intent is for this to be the last development on the site. That the remainder of the wooded and and open areas that are not currently being used for storm water or septic are reserved for future septic replacement, that kind of thing. and that uh uh what we're looking potentially for in terms of conditions would be no further development on the site. So really and truly closing the site out to development.

So today you're looking for the planning board to make a ruling or suggestion on I'm sorry. Yeah, we're going to set the public hearing for for next month. And um yeah, certainly for the board to consider. You know, normally this would not trigger a SWIP and whether we want to um push these these hard and soft costs of about $10,000 extra to develop this by demanding an additional strip for the entire parcel at this point. So that would be that would that decision would be after the public hearing. Is that correct? Okay.

Yes. How much would the uh how much of the building would you have to shorten if you enlarge the attenuation basin? Just looking at it, I'd probably move the building about 15 20 ft further up north. Um so you're going to likely [snorts] reduce your swing radius for people getting into the parking lot. Um it's really down to that. How do we creatively uh move the building so that we still have ample parking and usability of of the site? You know, we we've all been to cold storage buildings. You sort of need that, you know, at least two-sided entrance to the building depending on how the building's laid out uh to to gain access uh for for moving and trailers and things like that.

Is this a one tenant building or is it going to be multi-tenants? That's a John question. I don't know. So, you don't you don't know as far as like overhead doors or passage doors, how many setup? Something is in your packet about how it's laid out.

I didn't said I had notes on that. Um, yeah, that was a question that I had. Um, I think that his plan was to do one door on the end and a man door and that was it. But you may need to go out and ask him that specifically. Did everybody on the board see the note from Dundie, the town engineer?

So So Dundie had several concerns. One of which was potentially doing the full swip. one was um making sure that there is um an adequate fire department uh hammerhead turnaround, which obviously there is for the 2023 building that had to be verified. So that's really not a concern. Um, another concern was the uh there is at least one fire hydrant on the property and making sure that there's an easement for that by the town and um that's up to the town to follow up on. So, uh, my understanding is that the the applicants have done what they needed to do to show that easement and, uh, on the plan, but it's up to the town to make sure that they execute agreement for that easement. Um and then um 911 um got Donnie had called for potentially changing some addresses there. And it's kind of impractical for a business owner to change everything. And so the the idea would be for um the applicant to agree with 911 on potentially any address changes. and and I know that the applicant's working to get a um letter from 911 for us. Um basically they recognize the property as 8-18 Verizon Lane and um my understanding is that that 911 has said you can call it building blue, building red, building A, building B, whatever you want. So, we'll have to see what 911 says, but um a potential condition

could be that um as tenants turn over that building numbers or designations could change at that time. And I believe those were the only things that Dundie had in his report of concern. So, just to make everybody aware, um, Kelly, you want to make sure that or I have with me if you'd like. I was going to say if you can make sure that the board gets that electronically so that they can review it before the next meeting. And I will note the one other thing that was on there that you didn't mention is that a Sombra is needed for the site.

What is Yeah, the Somra the storm water agreement that's that's something else that I know the applicant is working through. Um, and I'm not sure, do we have a standard boilerplate SAR that we've been working through with all storm water um, uh, for for any development or I don't know if it's a standard template, but I know one already exists for this site given a SAMRA agreement, a storm water operations and maintenance agreement was required in 2017 and 2023 before a certificate of occupancy was issued. It was never created before either of those. So, it is still needed in this case because it was needed the last

two. And we have a draft. Yeah, we already have a draft that was created for the previous one. It just is getting that draft signed that was created. So, it'll need to be updated and then and then signed and guys already uh created an updated version. Okay, good. Um, yeah, obviously the applicant needs to review that with his attorney to make sure they're happy with the language. Hopefully that'll happen before the next meeting. All right, board. Any other questions about this? So, we you're just going to open it up for a public hearing, right? Uh we would schedule public hearing for next time we just obviously we're going to take public comment next month about it, right? It's always nice to give

the applicant or the applicants rep a little heads up about what our initial thoughts are. Um I guess the question is to the plane our planning staff you know what is the question do they open up a full swipboard or we accept their [snorts] smaller uh not required sp raise that right am I forgetting anything else that we're uh having limbo

I I think that's the major concern because the summer they're going to have to do the easement they're going to have to do they get a letter from 911 one um we've already gone through and made sure that the fire department has cleared it when we did the last building in 2023. So really it comes down to what's the board's opinion on on the swip doing the full swip or just doing a you know a little bit more in terms of the attenuation base in here. Yeah, I don't personally I don't think the full swip is necessary. I don't know how everybody else anybody else

I I would feel different if this was not so far developed and if this wasn't the last building that's going on here and I think that we can address that concern in our conditions. I I appreciate that there are already storm water um management practices on place on this site. Um, I think the only other question I have that I don't know has been answered yet is so if you put it's not just the presence of the impervious surface on the site, the storm water will be redirected around the structure itself. So has that been taken into account given the prevailing flow that you're seeing that'll run into the building like so is that so

is that going to be an issue? How will that be addressed? So point of clarification, the swailes that I mentioned on the west and the east exist. Okay. So the their flow path is already there. Okay. So we're not we're not touching those and this is just sheeting east east to west or uh if we need to go with the attenuation basin then half the site's going to go south and the other half's going to continue west. Okay. There's no indication that the existing storm water management um structures on site to the west have any issues? No. think they're they're falling.

No, actually the the the swale to the west is barely used. There's a single 6-in pipe that comes from a couple downspouts from the buildings just to the north, and that's its only purpose is to capture that and just continue to flow it south. So, it has additional capacity, right? Um, I think that the other questions um that we had on specifics of the building, you know, if you can touch base with John so you'd be prepared next time in terms of how many doors, what sizes, where are they going to be, um, exact locations for the lighting so that we can just know those details

and and also the landscaping plan a little bit and you know Yeah. Yep. I threw some arbory in there, but I don't think that's what you're looking for. Right on the south side. On the northeast side and and and a little bit on the Well, there used to be some on the south until we put the attenuation basin and took those away. So, okay. And then uh yeah, what's going on with impervious surfaces, so I'm assuming that the all the parking that's uh proposed for this is all gravel. It's all gravel. That's correct. Just like the rest of the site. Mhm. And then uh cold storage. So, it would have electric to the building, but that's it. That's my understanding. There's no plumbing, there's no sanitary facility, it's just electric.

Okay. So, we will set a public hearing for um our second meeting in March. 23rd. It's the 23rd of March. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Excuse me.

Okay. Our I guess this is going next agenda item is Terra Wolf. If you guys would come up to the table if you need to. I don't know how many representatives you have are going to speak tonight, but if you need to bring up more chairs, please do so. Can I stand? Sure. As long as you Yeah, they can hear you. Yeah, we need to use the microphone so everybody can hear at home. We realized that even though we've uh put in a couple formal applications, we owe a final. So, we wanted to have some poster boards for you to look at tonight. Nathaniel, do we have a um completed application?

We have not received any of that. We're still waiting on a completed application to formally send this before the board. Okay. Yeah, tonight's just informal. Okay. Can we have your name and relationship to the project, guys? I was just waiting for him to

So, my name is Jerry Goodno. I have been most of my career associated with the CGA operating site, the Milicanin station. Um, I have with me tonight Jim Spoon. He is from the Somerset site. He is the director of operations for the company. We have a functioning AI data center at the Somerset site. I wanted him to be able to explain a little bit about the company. I have with me Adam Milspa. Adam was a an employee at the KA operating company site and he is now back. He's going to be doing construction management duties. Matt Wood is here. Matt's uh an executive director at Lease. Lease is going to be the lead engineering firm. And then um soon to be an employee, Scott Kelsey is here tonight. Scott will start working with us.

I'm sorry, what was his name? Scott Kelsey. Okay. He'll start working with us next Monday. Colar was it? K. Thank you.

Good. I want to thank the planning board for putting us on the agenda tonight. Uh in it's an informal presentation. We did file three separate full applications and we'll be filing our final application hopefully in March for an April formal planning board meeting. Also appreciate the crowd being here tonight in support of the project. Thanks for coming out. My team is we're extremely excited about the strategy to convert this site from a retired power plant to an AI data center campus. Three objectives tonight and we're going to try to be brief but again we want to introduce the project. Objective number one is to go through the uh slides that we have high level conceptual layout of the site for cooling for lighting for the buildings. The second object uh second tonight is to talk about the positive impacts to the community that this site will offer revenue generation, job creation. the fact that this site has zero environmental issues associated with it, no emissions, we don't pull water from the lake, we don't discharge to the lake, we have very low noise motors, low noise blading uh for our fans. Fair objective is just to talk about development timeline and construction timeline. Okay, so I I'm going to stay on the side here. I know this first one is a little tough to read from far away. This is a picture of most of the site. 34B is right here. This is the road into the

site. Security down here. These buildings are the existing power plant buildings. Um we have scrapped most of this site. So I know there's been questions out there. Are we going to follow up this site again? It's incapable of doing that. Generator is bent, gutted, um fuel radiators. This we cannot repower with this service. Air signal is a substation here. Milican substation. So power is delivered by three 115 KV lines down to this site. We used to push power back. We're going to take off the grid. There is a substation here. I'm sorry, Steve. substation right here. We're going to build another 115 KV line between the buildings and the lake north. Lake is west. And we'll build a substation up here to feed power to these three buildings. These buildings, as complicated as they are because of the redundancy required by the tenants, these are really just buildings, 140,000 or so square foot buildings. Three uh major areas in the building, the data center proper, uh we call it the white room. That's where the servers are. There will be two halls, data halls in each one of these 50 underground buildings. There's a section for all the electrical switch gear and then the rest of the building is filled with the mechanical cooling equipment, pumps, valves, piping, um the chillers, and then the coolers. And Jim will go into more detail than that. So again, very very all you're going to see is a building. People are just going

to say, "Oh, it's a pole barn for storage." It's it's what it's going to look like. Okay. The second side of this, we are as concerned as anybody else. We talk a lot about storm water with the other projects. We have a full storm water management plan to capture any runoff from turning the imperous areas into pvious areas. Um we we'll have to go through a full swip a full EAF. Uh we've we the SWIP is complete. We're [snorts] going to update EAF. We've already submitted twice and we've um so you know we understand that we've been doing SWIPS most of our careers and we have an active construction SWIP at our other I forgot to say we're going to allow questions tonight but if you just hold them to the end so if you got one that you got to ask write it down one of us will answer it. Okay, Jimmy. All right. Thank you. My name is Jim. I've been with the company since 2014. Um, I want to talk about our closed loop cooling system. Um, there's two main components to it. Inside you have a chilled water loop, which is just filled with chilled water. Um, and then you have the condenser water loop, which is predominantly outside. That condenser water loop is with it has water and a propyline glycol mix. Propyline glycol is food grade glycol. Um and we use that so it doesn't freeze um you know when it's outside in cold temperatures. Um this is inside the building. This is outside. We have dry coolers on the roofs. Down here we have a chiller. The chiller is uh made into two parts.

Condenser and evaporator. We have an air handling unit. We have a CDU which is cooling distribution unit and then we have our server with a rear door heat exchanger. The server is what generates the heat. So this is the heat source. We capture that heat. It goes into the secondary loop to go out here and we have ultra low noise fans up here that help cool it down. Now that's how it runs almost all the time. Now, when you have extreme heat, [clears throat] you have this chilled water supply tank that is fed from town water, and that will use misters to help cool it down. Kind of like, you know, when you're at the fair on a real hot day and they have misters in the air to cool everything down. Um, so that's the overview of it. We've been operating um in Barker, New York since August, and we've used only a gallon of makeup water since August for our operation. So, with that, I'm going to hand it back to Jerry.

Thank you. I forgot to ask. I think a couple folks here went to the site. Is that true? Did anybody here go to the site? I think John didn't. Um, do you mean Lancing or Somerset? No, Somerset site. Go up and see that operation. John, didn't you go? John, why?

Good. Um, I know that there's open meeting rules, but if you want to go up in Tuesdays, we I don't know if it's seven on a board, is it three? I whatever the rule is, but we'd certainly allow people to welcome people to come to the site. Okay. So, um, Le Chase, I wanted to do some renderings tonight. These are pretty pretty close to the data centers as far as a a depiction of the sights of a sunset. So this is taken from 500 ft above lake level. So I don't know the exact height from the roads on the west side of the lake. I drive those a lot. I live in Senica Falls. Um this is much higher than those roads, but we wanted to show you a depiction. So the same three buildings substation is here. Here's the three power lines coming into the site. We're going to build a new new transmission line up to a substation up here. Then we'll feed these buildings. Now also notice that what we're doing is we're building we're going to dig down and set these buildings down in the ground. So we're going to go below elevation. Um and a lot of that is for site view. We're we're trying to recognize um we introduced this project several times in a couple public meetings. We've taken a lot of notes. We understand one of the concerns is visuals. So we've we're going to take the time to do some cut and fill and drop these down. This is a view from lake level. Um you can see that most of the buildings are going to be obscure from that level. You can see this

transmission line that'll be running along the lake edge up on the bank a little bit. And then you can see a couple of the tops of these buildings. We are going to enclose the growth with a uh sight barrier and we are going to plant some trees back in the front when we're done. Okay, so that covers conceptual and overview. um currently at the Somerset site. Let's go through the trades real quick that'll be there. So, the first thing that'll happen is we'll have the site guys there, cut and fill, dozers, b uh back holes, some hauling. Then we'll have carpenters there. They'll come in, they'll do the forms, concrete work. Once the concrete work is done, steel workers, siding, roof, sheathing, coolers might be on top of the building. We the the data center design is ever changing. It it's it's about every 6 months it flips to a different style of data center. We may put the coolers on top of skids, but the coolers will go on once the building is dried in. Then it will be filled with pipe fitters, mechanical guys hanging pipe, putting the valves up, electricians are lasting with conduit runs, cable tray, cable terminations. So quite a few trades. It's mostly union labor at the Somerset site. There are some local workers that aren't in a union, but we've got them on the site working under some of the other site leads. We want to do the same thing here. Want to use as much local labor as possible plus the unions currently at

the site. There's there's over 500 construction folks there. That's two shifts. Um so a lot of work has been done for parking at the site, lay down areas, feeding these folks. Um where the Cuba site is located, it's going to be tough for lunches for these guys. So, we're we've uh we we're going to bring in, you know, chuck wagons, trucks, uh so that we try to keep the guys on site as efficient as possible. Um that site at Somerset 2020, we closed that site in March. At the end of the year, two full-time employees. Currently, there's over 80. So from 2020 to right now in 2026 80 full-time employees at that site data center operators IT tax on ONM techs financial folks accountants leadership group maintenance group and we were going to continue to build that site out. We anticipate those same techniques at this site. That does not count the clients at the site bringing in their folks. So, we've announced before that Google is going to be at three of those buildings and they're going to have their employees come into the site. They want to hire local as much as possible. So, this is a a pretty good jobs um influx into the community. Uh, we've already talked about the revenue jobs. What am I missing? Okay, let's go into timeline. Um, we sat down with the planning group 3 weeks ago, four weeks ago, introduced the project, got a timeline for

development, how we're going to go through this when we get our application. And like I said, we've put three applications in to meet the March planning board meeting. The app's got to be in by Wednesday. We didn't think we'd be able to get a full app in by then for just the small changes we're making. So, we're going to shoot for the end of March for a April planning board formal introduction. Um the development will be as long as it's going to be. the long EAF is at least a 30-day requirement. Um, and you know, we've gone through that at the other site. Um the construction timeline once we have the permit in hand and we start the site work. We think from the site work to when we'll be able to energize that site is somewhere around 12 months maybe 11 maybe 14. These typically take 18 months to 2 years. We got the first building running at Somerset in 8 months. We we go at this pretty fast. Um but again, our safety and environmental are very important to us. We have regular safety meetings at the site, including trying to get 500 people. That's two shifts. So, it's maybe 250 to 300 people per shift at a full safety meeting. We do that once a month. Okay, last slide. Wanted to show you what everything was about. in that in that building. This is what we're building it for. This is the inside of the data hall at Sunnyet. You can see why we call it a white room. The walls are white. The walls are white. The floors are white. The server cabinets are white. So, the rear door heat exchanger that Jamie talked to you about

where the cold water comes into the door, picks up the heat from the servers, and then leaves. That's a picture of the rear door heat exchangers. Here's a picture of the servers. This is bus work. So, this is what's delivering the electricity to the servers. These are called whips. So, this is a very optimal way to power these servers. You add a server to the rack, you just add a whip. You take away the servers, you take away a whip. the the density. So, what's going on inside this server rack is getting higher and higher as the data center builders, yes, the server builders get smarter and smarter with how many chips they can put on a board, how hot the board gets, how many KW it needs. So our ratio right now is for a 50 megawatt building is around 42 megawws dedicated for this purpose for a load and then around 8 megawws dedicated for the closed loop cooling system. That'll change as the chips are put on the boards at a denser area. we may end up with 43 megawws to the site. Uh, another big factor is what are these servers looking for as far as the temperature of the water coming in to cool. Right now it's 62 64°. We are talking to folks who might put servers in at 70°. That's a benefit. They don't have to cool the water as much. It can it can come in at 70°. So our business plan is provide a

building, provide electricity, provide cooling, provide broadband, and then we lease to a tenant. No ten, no tenant announced for this site yet. Um, we'll probably start courting future users when we get closer to a building permit. Um, again, I want to I want to thank you guys tonight. I know that it's informal. That may not be one of your practices, but we got the suggestion from your planners and we jumped on it cuz, you know, we want to we want to keep you informed. I I forgot to mention we have the code enforcement officer from Somerset on the site weekly. We walk them through buildings. We're showing them what we're doing. We try to be as transparent as we can with them. The town board Tuesdays out of town has been on the site at least two times, maybe three. The town supervisors on the site almost monthly. Um, again, just trying to show what we're doing, what conduit we put on the ground that you can't see anymore, the lighting we're using, as transparent as possible with the uh with the leadership group at that time.

So, in in the future, can you can we do something like on the monitor so the public can follow along? I mean, you've done a good job here, but they can't follow along with that. So, we could probably set up another monitor on this site. I think Joe, is that correct? We got a second monitor. Yeah. So, in the future, if we can do stuff electronically so we can see it and the community can follow along. Formal presentation in April. Mhm. You want us to actually have like a PowerPoint on a monitor to follow along? I know. What do you guys think? Yeah, we can do that. Absolutely. Yep. Yep. We'll do that. Thank you. We I know slides in the folks in the back. It's probably hard to see, but

again, we didn't want to bring in nothing. Okay. Yeah. No, it's good. I'm just Yeah, it's it's informal today. Suggestion. Any other questions? Oh, I've got to hold this. Oh, yeah. [laughter] Go ahead, Tom. Um, first of all, so this is for 138 megawatt system, right? Well, okay. It's a good question. I'm going to put potentially 150 per I'm going to put I'm going to put this back up. Okay. So, there's a lot going on. You want to flip the other one over as well?

A lot going on with this buildout. So, these are three 50 megawatt buildings for a total of 150.

Okay. The reason for our odd megawatt buildout, I want to go into a little detail. When you connect to the grid, New York independent system operator runs a grid in New York. When you connect to the grid as a generator or a load, you've got to put an application in. Hey, Mr. Grid operator, we want to add 50 megawatts of load at this site. Can the grid handle that? Okay. So they go do a system impact study. They come back with yes, you're good to go or yes, you're good to go, but you are causing issues on the grid. The grid will need system upgrades. We have to cover that. Okay. So we knew we also use a modeling company. It's kind of like just don't go to the ISO without having some information. So, we used our own modeling company. Modeling company said 50 megawatts is not going to be an issue. The ISO agreed. So, we have a 50 megawatt in hand ready to go. No upgrades needed. 88 megawatt odd number. Our modeling company said 88 megawws you will cause issues around Oakdale. So, is anybody familiar with the Bingington area, Oakdale sub? It's a huge substation. Every road pretty much in the state that's asked to be on the grid, I know I'm taking a long time to answer your question, but this is good stuff. It's power. This is very good for us. Um, needs to put devices in that substation that will help with VARS. Okay. So three-phase power is not just power but you have to have the capacity to move the val the power as

far as generators used to produce fires. We helped the system a lot when we were generating at 88 megawatts. We knew it would only be equipment necessary at that sub. Sure enough the the report comes back and says you can put 88 megawatts in but not until you do these upgrades. Okay, we have a third ask into the ISO for 162 megawws making it a 300 megawatt total. We strongly believe that we'll have to do transmission upgrades for that piece. We don't know that as a fact, but we believe that'll happen. If you remember, right, when we retired that site, we couldn't retire until they did some transmission upgrades. Okay? The same is going to be true if we go to add some more load. That'll be longer than just putting equipment in at a substation. That's why it's an odd amount of ask. So, you're right. 50 megawws, 100 megawws, and then probably 38 out of the 50 in this third building. The next build will be a while because we do believe it'll be transmission upgrades. We will probably move to the east up to the hill up the hill. Maybe it's three more 50 megawatt buildings by that time. Maybe one building is more efficient than three. And that's another reason why the plan has asked to come with the full plan. That's hard to do with data center technology changing at least twice a year. So you're looking at two phases then.

Yes sir. So wouldn't we attorney wouldn't we look at the whole project? Are we charged with that? Worried about segmentation? Certainly segmentation is a question. I think once we receive the complete application for for what these three buildings are, we can get a better understanding of whether that second phase is actually part of the original process. Yeah, the second phase will be so far out and the technology will change so much it'll be very difficult to even make that. So when you say far out, you mean 5 years, 10 years? Well, it's it's four to five. So you're saying you're going to move east for the second age?

Yeah, that's what Isn't that where the coal uh ash piles are? No, that's that's way up here. That's way up here. It's So you're still below the You're still below the uh Oh, yeah. We're below that. We're below any rail monitoring that's involved with the with that site. So, Jerry, you mentioned upgrades. So, you've got the substation in Bingmpington. Yes, sir.

You got the substation that it currently exists at Huga and then you're going to be building uh an additional substation. Are you going to build out the entire new substation? Yes, the new substation may be built to accept 150 megawatts more. So, will you also have to do upgrades to the existing substation here and in Bingington and some power line upgrades in order to be able to bring this online? All we know for sure is the 88 that we asked for is equipment in Bingington. We feel that the 162 is probably going to be transmission upgrades. We don't know that. Okay.

And those would potentially be between Bingington and Lancing. Uh probably right avenues transmission line for sure. Probably what? So there's three lines that leave this site. One goes to White A. We think the right a one will probably need upgrading. It's a it's an educated guess. When when you say upgraded, are you going to tear down the the wooden poles that are there now and put up new concrete or metal structures? No. No. We won't do the upgrades anyways. That'll be a utility project. But would would that involve that? Would that change the look of those power lines that go through? I I think it's just a a second piece of transmission on the line, but I'm not a transmission expert, so I can't I can't answer that.

Well, I think we would want an answer for that sometime during the process here. Yeah, I think what we'll be presenting is just up to 138 um because we won't have that system impact study back yet. Well, we can talk about it later as we get into detail, but I think So, what what about um back backup power? There's this idea that do they have to does this data center have to run 247 all the time?

Yeah, it needs redundant source. So we have redundancy in that there's three separate 115 KV power lines coming into the site. One goes north, two goes south. The client understands that that's the builtin backup power for the site. That's what makes the site unique. Diesel generators, no gen sets required. No batteries. You got going to have battery backup. We will have UPS backup for 10 minutes of operation. Is that what you have at that site? So there's UPS backup for 10 minutes of operation for this data center just to get the equipment down. Where where would the batteries be located?

It will be in at part of this building or exterior to this building in containers. So it' be in it's going to be inside. They won't be outside.

That's correct. Yeah. And and I get that UPS people go someplace in their mind. The folks were using their batteries, they they've tested them, they've tried to set them on fire. Um the Somerset it took a couple of months. Um but now the even the firefighters there, the the uh firemen are backing the use of these UPS batteries. It's a whole different Sorry. UPS stands for What does UPS stand for? Uninterruptible power supply. Thank you. A battery.

And you have to test those so often though, don't you? Um I think once they're in Do we have a testing procedure? Yes, we do. We do PMS on them throughout the year. Okay, there you go. And does that create any more noise or any activity at all? No. No. That's putting a test set on them, right? Is that what you do? You just put a test set on them. Yeah. So, how many sites do you have? So, you got Somerset. Yes. You got CUGA. Yes. What other What other sites do you have? We announced I think two weeks ago a site in Kentucky, a site in Maryland, and a site in Texas. So, you don't have any other operating sites except Somerset. Is that correct?

That's correct. Have as far as the the cooling, have you looked at um uh a way to use that that heat for um processed water for some kind of industry rather than just having it as waste heat? Another excellent question and I'd love to do that. The problem with this site and the Somerset site is there's not a lot of ability to use that waste heat someplace. You know, you'd have to build a big pipe, send that heat maybe to the school or the town of Lancing.

No, that's not what I'm suggesting. What I'm suggesting is, you know, for instance, would there be space on the site for a distillery or some other type of operation that that could use that greenhouse greenhouse growing crops some something? Um, we could take a look at that. Have you talked with Cornell at all about working with them with like greenhouse and things? We've we've had several conversations with Cornell about both the use of the data center as a client and the use of waste

and then once so we've got one we've got one parcel and we've got the power plant and the fly ash we've got the data center and now you're also going to have a solar farm correct all in one parcel. the we are leasing to AES two smaller pieces of this site for part of their solar buildout.

So why don't we split this up into multiple parcels? So there's one parcel for the data, one parcel for the existing uh fly ash and plant and then another parcel for the solar. And that way the review process I think would be easier. The taxation and there's other got to be other avenues that would by splitting it up I think would facilitate it. I think that'd be a good idea and that's why we're only bringing you the data center as well. You're currently two part well three parcels right so you got the nice egg parcel is a substation the one that's starts at the lake shore that's a 35 acre parcel and then you have an upper parcel that is

443 acres in total but but that's it that's it's divided right now into three parcels well if you look at nice as well yes if you carve out nice in the middle yes sir it's three parcels but you're you're saying three parcels as use but not actually delineated on on the map is three parcels. No, the tax map right now currently shows two parcels. Two par two parcels for them plus the nice egg one. Yes. So this this lower portion here to the west is 35ish acres.

When NIC had to separate their generation assets, they had to figure out how to keep the substation as theirs. But the rest of the site was sold back then it was sold to AES. So, one of the big concerns is that that permit for the thousand gallons of water and that's what's that million I'm sorry million gallons that's strictly tied to the power plant parcel right not to the data center. Yeah, that that was a 245 million

right in the past. Um, and we the the DEEC approached us in 2021 to change that because we weren't using nearly the water and so they agreed that a million would be the first one that went down to that. That application sat dormant on their desk for a long long time. I don't know why it was brought out tiny for this project. It has nothing to do with this project. Do does the plant still take water? They do you use any water out of the lake right now? None at all.

No, we have So the cir pumps the circulating pumps that pulled water for the condenser are still there. The motors are still there. Those circ pumps haven't run since 2020. I doubt they'd grown up. They're probably seized up. We do have a smaller pump that has enough horsepower to pull that head and we use that at the end of the power plant's use for maintenance, cleaning, water ro to to keep the dust down on roads, stuff like that. So part of our resolution would say that you were the data center would not be taking water out of the lake. Absolutely. You're okay with that?

Oh, yeah. That'd be a great condition. We readily accept that. Jerry, Harry, can you talk a little bit about what the existing use is for the uh legacy buildings there and what uh you anticipate for use for those buildings going forward?

Um, another great question. So, most of anything of value in these three buildings have been scrapped. Steel, copper, anything. Um, we believe that we would probably move offices up near this data center. I know that in other discussions we have committed to lowering or taking down the stack to here. We do not have any other um plans right now for those buildings. So there's no offices in there. There's offices in there. Okay. But when grandpa built the place Okay. He had 1950s.

Yes. an operating boiler to heat them. Okay. We sat in there today for as long as we could. So, but but now you're gonna have nice hot processed water just up the hill. That's going to be What What kind of temps are you looking at the back? It's an option, too. What kind of temps are you looking at coming off the back of the servers? What do we see on exit temperatures? Yeah, time of year. It can be anywhere from from 70 to 100. So, so we're we're talking like heat pump range kind of stuff. Yep.

Yeah. I was just wondering what um what the plan is for those buildings. Are they basically just going to be shut down and abandoned then? And there's no real um thought about how to how to use those or to remove them? Sound guy in wants to see something happen to these. I mean, like you've seen I've been up on the old stacks and you feel like you're going to get sucked off. You're up pretty high. Um, and I'm just, you know, thinking that it'd be a nice place for a a rooftop cafe and probably had has a splendid uh view out over the lake.

Yeah, that decision was yet to come. Dean, uh, roofs on the new buildings. So, you said you potentially would have things on skids up there. So, what kind of roofs are we looking at for those buildings? Are they going to be a a builtup roof of some kind that's, you know, insulated and Yes, insulated um the uh the the insulated. So, I'm going to give you a picture and then you're going to go why you doing that? The only reason I'm going to give you this is so the steel roofs where the seam fits over each one. Mhm.

That's the types of roofs we're putting in. But but it's an insulated roof. Okay. And it has one full seam and the pitch is is it 12 to one? Do you Oh, so it's a low slope roof. Low slope roof. Okay. But it'll still accommodate having items stuck on the rooftop could potentially take off and replace. Okay. Excuse me, guys. Wonder if the other board members want to I think questions. Yeah, go for it. Sandy or Christine or you've talked about water usage and um you talked about misters. I don't think I've heard about how what kind of water usage you have related to having.

I visited the site that they a lot about the closed loop, but I don't remember hearing much about the And and you're you're right, the building that you saw doesn't do any misting. Okay. The final three buildings will. And so, like the gentleman before us that talked about a 100redyear flood, we have to plan for our client the hottest day out of the summer. Now, most of the time that hottest day out of the summer, energy pricing is going to be pretty high anyways and we'll probably be curtailed. But if we happen to be running on that hot day, we are going to just simply spray a mist onto these coolers. Again, a lot like you've seen when you're at an outdoor event and it's hot and they just mist in front of fans that blow out. It just enhances the evap the evaporation

and that's coming out of the tank here. Yeah, we'll have we'll have a storage tank on site. Okay. It will be sized to do a couple of days worth of misting so that when we replace the water in that storage tank, we have catch-up time. It's not one to one. That's why you have the tank there. It's a big golden point water you're going to be using for this. Yes, sir. Yep. and that you've already talked with them about uh flow and volume and some some preliminary conversations. We are lucky enough to have an employee that worked there worked for us at the end of his career. Okay.

So ultimately that keeps you from having to upgrade the size of the coolers because you get this extra oomph. Yes. In terms of heat. We're not building coolers. Very good deal. We're not building coolers to meet the hottest day of the year. We're building them to optimize for normal operations to meet the hottest day of the year. We enhance the cooling with spraying the mist. And you're right, they were not on the building you saw. So you're you're looking at glycol protected water that's inside the closed loop and you're talking about just regular water that's going to be sprayed for the

misting. Yep. [clears throat] And if you remember those cool that were on the north side of the plant. So just picture a a a checkerboard spraying system on top of that will just release water to enhance the cooling and then how is that being caught and then recycled or what's going to happen with that? It just evaporates evaporate. It's just going to evaporate. Looked like you had a second question. I do have another question, but I want to make sure everybody's No, go ahead. Sorry. I live less than a mile from this facility, so I'm curious. Um the the fans and the cooling apparus that we saw was on the ground the building. It was not on top of the building. Y

I'm curious about vibration related because I I I turned off the facility the Bitcoin facilities for us. We got to hear sort of the general sounds coming from the the updated fans. Um and you know how how loud or soft those were. Um, I'm curious with the fans being and the equipment being on top of a metal building, is there some sort of um um mitigating uh vibration? So, you're you're picturing the fan maybe doing this and making noise on the building. It's a it's a good cell aren't particularly loud. I'm imagining that the movement creates some

you know that that's engineered. It's going to have uh uh like a shock absorber on it. What's that?

Yes, sound dampening. Now, I'm not going to keep switching the boards. We believe by the time we get to this building, we will be able to put those coolers on top of the UPS skits. So, this battery skit, un uninterruptible bio. It's a shipping container. So, we'll put the coolers on top of that avoiding having to put them on the roof. But the same thing could still hold true, right? It could still just Yep. So, it's a good question, but we've taken that in consideration. Those remind questions others get an opportunity.

Are you are you looking at hollage with your cut and fill or do you think you're going to be and so how much do you think you're going to need to take out and where is it going to go? Well, we I'm I'm less worried. Worried is the wrong word. I'm We can take the fill on our own site. We have permitted use. It's the bringing in of the stone. I'm hoping to not have to bring in a whole lot. That's our plan. But if So, you think you have room on site to take it from the developed area and put it somewhere else on the site? Yes, sir. And uh have you done some deep holes up there? Do you know what you're dealing with?

Yes, we How many boards are we going to do? 80. I'm sorry. Did I get that right? Uh 64. 64. I was a little high. And we're we've done 20. So yeah, we're doing we're doing in Yep. And we've hit bedrock. How deep? It varies anywhere from anywhere from 10 to 30 ft. 10 to 30 feet before we hit bedrock at that spot. And how and how much are you planning to cut? How deep are you planning to cut?

Yeah, we we we may raise that up a bit from where I showed you depending on bedrock for the rest of these pores. And the building height is What's the final height without the coolers? 35 ft. 35 ft to the peak. 35 ft to the peak. When when they prop were considering the uh nuclear plant there, whatever it was, Bell or whatever it was called, didn't they excavate a lot on that site? Yes, sir. They did. Are you part of that? No. You're not near that where it was exc. Okay. Of the site.

So, you're not touching that area that's been filled back in again. Okay. Another good question. Two um two shifts. Yes. Um those shifts run from generally

Yep. Nope. It's a good question. Let's say 7 in the morning till 2 in the morning. Something like that. It's two 10-hour shifts with a half an hour of overlap. And so the next logical question, especially for folks who live next to the site, are you going to be running dozers and loud trucks and so forth on the second shift? No.

No, we will be taking advantage of of um getting folks inside the building where a majority of the work is. getting all the mechanical equipment set up, getting the there is there is thousands of hours of electricians work at this site. Cable poles, terminations because of the redundancy required, double switch gear, ATS's, automatic transfer switches to transfer power for the redundancy, a lot of electrical work. And it's it's what you do is you build enough to get them good work and then most of the second shift is electricians. either local housing.

Well, I do know that the city of Lockport, which is about 25 miles from the site of Somerset, is very their hotel folks are very happy. They're booked. Um, we have folks that try to get in Airbnbs. They'll probably do the local hotels. Um, we've had people rent houses. Um, I would say 50% 60% is truly local. And then the electricians, we've emptied their bench. We've emptied Niagara's bench. And we have travelers for electrical contractors. Got a lot of folks coming in saying y'all a lot. So, you're you're looking at construction um employees of you would you said about 400?

Yeah, I don't think we'll be quite the Somerset site because we won't be doing quite the multiple build build out, but I I could see us peaking around 400. Okay. So, you're saying potentially 250 150 something like that. 125 to 50% of that would potentially be local and then the rest is going to either commute or or they're going to be um having to find hotels or rentals.

Yeah, the the we are competing at the Somerset site with two other major buildouts. One being the Buffalo Bills project. Um and that that is a tug of war to get the talent to our site rather that site. Then there's a another data center being built up there. We probably compete at this site. I don't know where Micron will be by the time we start, but we could be competing for labor from that site, but I I've talked to the locals here and they are relishing having their halls empty because of this project. So, I'd hope that we could keep as much local as possible.

So, what's what's the footprint? How many acres for the disturbance? 22. Wrong again. 43. 43 acres. 43 acres. So this is not all in the the western part of the parcel. It's only 35 acres then. Oh, no, no, no. So I understand your question.

Yeah, let's try that one. Turn that one around. Okay. So, the smaller parcel is is done here. Okay. Okay. So, this is all on one tax ID map. It's the larger person. It's the larger person. Okay. Our So, this is I know the background is hard to see. This is Stark Road. And so, anything north of that was owned by Nice Egg. It's now either AES or the Nature Conservatory. And then when we get down into here, we do start coming this way a little bit. About station was right here.

So, how many acres are you going to clear cut? Wooded acres. You have a rough idea. 43 43. So, 43 acres is wooded right now. Yes. Okay. And that's phase one. Yes. Yeah. So, um just a conceptual question then some of the visuals you've shown. Um and then talking about the issues with cooling and the roofs. Is anybody doing these with green roofs or living roofs? Um just because it that's a big amount of service. I know you're talking about maybe putting some of the cooling fans on the on the roof, but that seems like that's not a a given necessarily. That's correct. Yeah. Green.

Talk to me more about what the concept you mean. So when you have a green roof, you have a roof that it's not the same sort of construction. So it's a per impermeable barrier where you have plants. Um and it helps okay lower the cooling. It um provides uh attenuation for for runoff. Something like that may help the visual impacts of the kind of these massive buildings. I mean I know these lakes well and you'll be you'll see that spot from the western side. Take a look. I I can't guarantee anything. I hadn't thought about that, but we'll take a look.

Yeah, this this is a good illustration of how big those buildings are because the existing buildings that are shown in the lower left are already massive. So the the summer this gives you an idea. This was size to size. So yes, this campus is going to be a little larger than our existing campus. Yeah, that's the moderately shocking view. Yeah, the other one is much more shocking. The the Somerset plan has two uses, right? One of the uses is very contribu to the large there. There's two data centers up there. [laughter] Bitcoin mining and AI.

So the Bitcoin mining, my understanding, is that correct? It it it creates a lot more noise. Yes, sir. Okay. So will we be able to limit Bitcoin line mining at this site at any time in the future? You should put as a condition of the permit. That's why I was asking you're okay with us putting that part of the resolution. Yes, sir. That the use has to stay according to X Y and Z. And we can't you're okay with that? Is that I just want to check with our attorney. Is that something we can do within our restrictions? Because that's the legislative power, the use restriction. As long as they volunteer to do it. [laughter] How long are they going to own it? Well, that's the thing, right?

I I can't answer that. Okay. Yeah. No, I just want to say I'm not We have plans to do Bitcoin there and we're phasing out Bitcoin at the other side. I know, but you know, the community is concerned about it. We're looking out for the welfare of the community. I would if I was sitting in your shoes, I'd be trying to make sure that we didn't do that either. Okay. Yeah. Okay. It's not that I don't want that restriction. I just don't think we have that power. I That's why he asked that. What's the difference in terms of the noise? Why does Bitcoin create more noise? Okay. So, Bitcoin has no redundancy and does not have any chilled water to cool it. So, Bitcoin is it just because it's older then?

No. Picture the same building. What we do to cool Bitcoin is we just bring air through the sides of the building. So there's no walls on this building. It's a big filter. Air comes through, goes through the miners and then goes up through the roof. It's a very very simple concept to build. So your chillers, you didn't really talk too much about that. They are only used when it's really warm. Yes. So there's a concept in the winter where you do not need the full cooling capability of what we built. Right.

So that we do free cooling. Free cooling. Free cooling. And we just circulate. Yes. We don't use the chillers. And so the chillers will come on at a certain temperature, water needed for the front of the servers. So you cool it down as far as you can and then if it's not cool enough, the chillers. Yes, sir. So basically heating the building in the winter time. Yeah. Yeah. In the coldest part.

I mean, it's a closed loop system, so Yeah, maybe that's another concept that we could look at down the road, but that water is just continually circulated and even in the winter, it will go up the top of the the uh coolers on the outside. So, Jerry, do um at some point with your formal application, we'll get a whole uh stakeholder map showing, you know, land owner and developer and uh a little confused to follow sometimes, but so why why no power generation? You said AES had I remember a few years ago with the press they had proposed a solar field and then didn't do that. Um is that that's not your question. There's no power generation with your proposal.

Yes, that's correct. Okay. So I thought you were going to suggest like a a a host power plant, a traditional power plant, but your suggestion is the solar piece. Yeah. I just wanted you're so AES not AES I guess understand

when we went to lease the site for solar we went out to bit AES won the bid you know uh coincidentally enough okay the different part of AES the uh process that they're going through to get their incentive agreement from NAERTA um may we're talking to them about this. Um, so we may be able to do something with AES on this, but right now it's not part of our plans. And they're proposing that on the same large parcel

they're proposing. So R3 buildings move east. Our three buildings move east. There's an open field they're proposing. There move east some more. There's an open field. Then there's a work area. and then the wells and then the closed ash site and and that's that solar is large enough that it it's not going to have local oversight. Is that correct? It's going to be through the state. Yes, sir. Is that correct? That's correct. So, we won't have any oversight on a local level on that solar. Um, again, we're not doing the solar, but I believe they're going to go through over [clears throat] us. All right.

And it's going to be on the same parcel as the data center. It's not going to be a separate parcel. same parcel the land owner some said or ka operating company is going to lease to AES just like the operating company is going to lease to the data center tenant but but again it'd be better if you split that off as a separate tax oh you're saying actually split the tax ID yes okay that would be much easier for us in assessment and everybody is to split it into multiple parcels I Think

I understand what you're saying when you said split conversation that we had a little bit earlier and to me that that would make the most sense is just sub that divide that off then then avoid segmentation and other factors. Right. There's a is there a battery proposal for battery storage on this site as well? Yes, sir. Uh a third lease of land and if that goes through that's going to be down in this area. That slide is up over here down in this area. So the battery storage will be part of the It won't be part of the data center then.

Nope. Separate proposal, but it'll be on the data center possibly parcel tax parcel. Yes. Yeah. These lease these leases were put in place. So when we closed the site, we're out there trying to figure out what kind of revenue can we generate. Solar and battery storage was being pushed pretty hard back then. Yeah. I just I'm just trying to figure the approval process. If that battery storage is on the same parcel as a data center, that could mingle or muddle the word things up. So I think you need to get together with planning and figure that out. Okay.

And so with all of this, again, this isn't in our purview. you are not seeking a pilot. Instead, you're going to go with straight assessment for evaluation. Uh we're not saying yes or no to a pilot. Okay. Okay. We would do Well, I I asked because you're what you're proposing is something that would be very hard to value and so I'd be worried about um frankly the assessment being challenged in upcoming years. Um, so yes, um, Tomkins County is extremely lucky to have the assessing department as part of the county. Um, I know Jay quite well. We arm wrestled over assessments for a long time at power plants. Um, yeah, they're hard to value.

I I don't want to speak for him, but I think a pilot is probably an easier way to go, but we, you know, you you tell us what you want. We'll try to make it work. Again, that's not our perview. I'm asking that because it does have some impact um or it's impacted by your decisions on the um whether the parcels stay the same or the whether they're split because then the valuation goes by parcel and individual uses are easier to value than combined uses. Yep. But we we still can provide some guidance on that. We are charged with the welfare of the community and taxation is part of that. So we we still can weigh in on that.

Yeah. And in when we say pilot, we're not looking for a reduced tax rate, right? It's a full fair assessment done through a pilot. Okay.

I mean, and I asked the question again, I stated it before, but I just want to state it again and say clearly. My concern is that if you go with if if we go without a pilot on this, if it's not a pilotbased project in terms of valuation, that in several years the owner will challenge the assessment and that gets costly and the host communities can lose can lose tax revenue that way because these are very hard to value and if you have multiple uses on a single parcel then that makes it even more challenging. So there are up you know there are positives and negatives to pilots but this is part of the discussion overall and related to whether these these are multiple uses on a single parcel or single parcels with single uses

there can I [snorts] at the school presentation there was some questions about the uh rate that you pay for electric costs and I think somebody commented that it was going to be the the same rate that Dean pays or I pay. Is that correct on the utilities or electric? No. No. Okay.

But it doesn't mean that you're paying more. Okay. The reason it's a no is because in New York State, the PSC forces utilities to each have their own rate case, their own set of rates. Okay. So, at Somerset, we're in national grid territory. We are paying SC-3 4C SC 4C grid I think it's S service classification 4C so the rate structure is set up for large users okay and national grid has a residential rate that's set up for residential customers has the same for NICG will be SC7 versus the residential rate so where two of the biggest adjustments on that are the systems benefits charge which has anybody ever explained to you from Ness said what that is because I don't want to talk for them. It's my opinion my opinion only is just a catchall for a lot of the costs that they have to incur that they put back to the rateayer residentials paid large loads paid. Okay, the rates are slightly different. They're based on kilowatt hour usage. Kilowatt hour usage from a large load is way more than a residential rate. So the loads are paying way more systems benefits charge. There's there I I I I I know it's easy to say that you're using all the energy, you're going to make my bill go up, but it's very difficult in New York to for that to happen because of the way the PSC is split out rates. We have we have a data site out there.

We have a paper that explains this. It's very accurate. It's it's a bit dense, but it it's from a lawyer who works with the PSC who understands rates. Do do you get like a rebate or credit because it's green energy and nicer? Do they give you any money back at [clears throat] all? Nope. Not at all. No. No. Bragging rights only. Bragging rights only.

And then what if I I'm sorry, Dominic. No, go ahead. Um the one other thing that's been very um talked about is the building up the infrastructure and that cost being passed on to the administrators. Just briefly, can you talk? That's why I was explaining earlier when we were talking about the chunks of energy that we're going to be allowed to use on the grid. At 50 megawatts, no issues. At 88 megawws, they need to do upgrades. We are paying for the full cost of those upgrades. That's not passed on. But don't you get tax credits for that? No,

you don't get any tax credits to build up the infrastructure. No, we get the ability to take 88 megawatts off the grid. And no money come No credits coming back at all in New York State. No. Oh. All right. Fiber optic buildown. Yes. So, so you're it's obviously it's data. You got to connect to other data.

Two separate broadband projects. One is there, right? The first light there. And um we we had a grant from six years ago. We were working with Etha Area Economic Development for a federal grant to build a second broadband line. But to answer your question, two separate broadband lines. They can't touch each other as they get to the site. And there's got to be two separate carriers. And each of these are a large dark fiber. You have You're saying that there's one in place now and you have to add a second one. We have to add a second one. So that's underground infrastructure.

That is some above ground and some underground. and we are working with the folks that are building it out to try to hit areas of Lancing that either don't have broadband or their broadband isn't very strong. So obviously the end and one end point is here. Where is the other end point currently? Dryen. So, you're saying there's a possible underground broadband being may be constructed between here and Dryen?

Yeah, I I don't know the path of where it's underground and where it's above ground. So, you can't quote me on that, but it's it's going to be new broadband from Dryen to the site and and of course the guys who want this want underground the whole way, right? It protects their broadband. Okay. But I do believe where there's polls available that folks are going to build out on the polls that are already there. Is that something we're going to get a map of down the road here? That okay high high vote or is it go on the more standard polls? Yeah, the distribution polls.

I think we I think we probably went in more in depth than we had. That's okay. I I don't mind. I know there's a lot. So Jerry, a couple things that we've been talking about as a board. One is um the obligation that we have as a board to continue to do the people's business without bogging down the people's business with this project. Um because we anticipate it's going to take a lot of time like it did tonight. Yep. Um so in the past our board has had two meetings per month. Planning board two. Okay. And so typically the second and the fourth um Monday of the month.

Um this building, this room is not always available the first or the second Monday because of town court or whatever is going on. So we do have a list of potential meeting dates and um we've talked as a board some. We need to talk some more tonight, but I think it would be our preference as a board um to have Terra Wolf committed to like our first meeting of the month so that we can keep our second meeting of the month available for everybody else in the town who's bringing their projects forward if that makes sense.

Yeah. So, I think we could easily do that. I think all we would want to know is what's the cadence, right? Okay. Right. You know, we put the application in, seeker starts, town takes lead agency, applications in, do you want a shot once a month to continue to ask questions? Shot was the wrong word because we'd come in here and answer every question that you had. you know is that the cadence or we were thinking about setting up topics for each meeting.

So meaning the first meeting might be employment traffic whatever three or four topics and then we would go in detail and that way if uh the public someone from the public was concerned about let's say uh noise and that that one meeting had to deal with items that they weren't concerned about they wouldn't have to attend or follow it. Plus, it would save the board members being I mean there's a lot of detail informationed. So, we would only study the topics at hand, so to speak. You follow me? Yeah. I I I mean, we're here to try to get this project permitted.

Um I can't speak for our leadership, but what I can say is it sounds like a reasonable plan to me. So, we'll take it back. between you guys and planning and Dean, I think you have to come up with a game plan that's workable for everybody that would help the board and the community understand the whole the whole project. Yep. Um and so we would just have Dean, what about you want to talk about um correspondence now or is that Yeah. Yeah. I think I think that we want to give the public the ability to really focus on three or four different topics and be able to [snorts]

um send their concerns either, you know, they come to the meeting and are going to have a chance to express their concerns on those topics or they're going to be able to send correspondence to the town. And that way um as board members we would be able to review correspondence for that meeting on you know um three or four topics instead of 12 or 15 topics and likeful for open public hearing the entire project review

type concept if I may there's some details around the open meetings law and when public comment will be allowed um we still need to work out I don't want to commit to anything at this point. Well, we're just Yeah, I'm just throwing that up as what we we're talking about and you guys all have to get together to come up with a formula or schedule or a plan that that would allow the public to provide written comments and then down the road uh verbal comments. Correct. Well, certainly there there are public hearing requirements that we're going to want to make sure that that we're aware of. Um and written comment can be a portion of that. um not to the exclusion of the public hearing.

So after discussion, how will that be um projected to the community? How will they know what the the the game plan so to speak is? What what will happen? Well, I think it'll be easier to tell once we have a complete application, too. Okay. Um, so certainly that's something that that I will work to help formulate in [clears throat] the next several weeks and then we can absolutely push that out um to the public so that they have ample time to to make any sort of public comment on whatever schedule we decide as possible. Great.

Yeah. So I think I could take the stance. Sorry to interrupt you that if you subject the meetings, we'll take that back to our leadership. We just don't want this to be a two-year process, right? I mean, you know, we'll answer every question once, maybe twice. That Well, that's what I I was thinking. If we we you're talking about employment, we deal with employment to detail and we put it to bed, so to speak, and then we go on to wetlands or storm water or whatever drainage. You follow what I mean? I think that would be the again, we'll most for you and for us. Yep. For the public, too. I think we'll put you in contact with who we're going to use internally.

Thank you. And you know, we'll we'll certainly listen. So, Kelly came up with dates that are available for the room. Okay. So, she can send you that information, you know. Um here's a printed copy. You want to grab that before you leave? Yep. Or do it by email. Okay. Mr. Chairman, if I may, I do have one question that I would like to have on the record. um this formal session, this um battery storage that might be added as an additional phase. How far out do you think that is? Um you're working with the group right now that's trying to buy that project. I I think it's a couple years out at least. And those are separate structures from what we're going to see in the application.

Yes. Yeah. It's all we're we're leasing to a company who wants to put a 200 megawatt battery system in that's going to be connected to the grid. We just well we're not even leasing this C the operating company the owner of the site is leasing land to a company who is going to be going forward with a 200 megawatt battery project. They'll be coming to you separately, I would think. And I think it's still going to be a while. The the renew

the applications being submitted by this one that we should see in a couple weeks that's being submitted by CUGA operating company too. It will be submitted by the um developer which will be Lake Hawkeye, a subsidiary of Terra Wolf. But again, it's because of a lease paid. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And it part of our application submitter will be our ownership work chart. That would be helpful. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you. Tonight I stayed because you had good questions. I didn't mean to keep you

board. Any other questions for tonight? So the alternates too is John. I'm sorry you don't have a chair up here. you have a question. It's all okay. Thank you. Thank you. Board is on report I think or something.

Well, one of the other things that we need to talk about as a board is what we want to see for our um our hours moving forward. Um, I don't think anything really good happens after about 9:00 because we all work all day. Um, so I I think the board needs to decide, you know, do we want to have meetings, 2-hour meetings from 6:30 to 8:30 and then, you know, if we're kind of finishing up a topic, maybe take it to 9. Um, do we want to go? Are there people here who really want to go to 10 or 11:00?

Pushing it to 9. All right. So, it sounds like the consensus is that 6:30 to 8:30 should be our normal meeting time. And depending on what's happening at 8:30, we might extend it to 9:00. And that should be our goal is 8:30 to 9:00 for our cut off. Okay. All right, Joe, come on up. What's the sound board doing?

I don't want to take too much time, so I want to cover some things the board wants to talk about. First point, the town board is discussing changing the communication between the Caes right now. We have leazison from the town board to you guys to bring stuff back into the town board. We're discussing a couple of possibilities. One can have staff serve that funding staff going back and forth between the boards. Another issue, something like that. And the town board want to get feedback from this board as to what they thought would be the most effective way of moving information back and forth. between the two boards.

I think part of that is maybe a discussion with the staff to see what their thoughts are as well. That's part of the classes right now. There's a real question. I recognize the staff's a little short right now. Trying not to put too much on exactly. This doesn't have to happen next month. Obviously, a longterm, you know, movement. We're just trying to figure out what direction. What are you What are you thinking about within the next six months or one year? Okay. I mean, it shouldn't

come. I understand. I agree with you on that. I think this is really effective. Um, it takes a lot of my time and the board feels like it's somewhat redundant because the planning department also gives a report from the town board from the planning board to the town board. there's some redundancy, but I think there's other elements in which I, you know, answer your questions and go back and forth, but it's really it's asking you guys what what works best for you because that's a really key element is what kind of information do you need passed back and forth and what's the most effective way to do it? Well, my personal opinion is um I'd like to see the uh chair and the vice chair more involved um interacting potentially with the the town board and the staff so that there's less kind of mystery of what's going on in the background.

You're vice chair of this board or Yeah. Yeah. I think it's it's kind of I mean vice chair is kind of a training position too, right? So, uh, trying to build up the next leader and have them prepared. So, I think it's important to have them in the loop whether it's the internal but I'm talking about between the two boards and that's what I really want to see what works best for all of you. Some other ideas.

I I also appreciate the reports here because I don't always have time to keep up with everything that's going on at the town board level as well too. So it helps me um kind of put some of the discussions we have here into context and also understand what some of the concerns of the town board are um and related to planning. So um could there be improvements? Certainly, but I I think this has been my experience as a planning board member has been this has been pretty effective and I I appreciate that it's a conversation is what it feels like between the boards. Well, we can also do hybrids. It's a beauty and you come to the town board, you know, every quarter or so and talk to us and give kind of a quarterly report, right?

The the goal is to create the best communication between the boards that we can and to not overwork staff obviously, but not not create a huge burden on the chair of this committee too. And so really the question is what would make it better because we probably can make it better. We're looking for ways to make it better. Yeah, I agree with um Sandy and Danielle. just think Joe hearing from you directly or if you had a rotation of board members come in just to get you know a little bit between the lines even if you follow YouTube of town board meetings it's not really knowing what you foresee the next year or two or so yeah I think we talked at one point about the solar power plans and you told us all the agreements are going on like we wouldn't know that at all it was just

different things come into play so it's really nice and and the staff is great but you know they have different prerogatives and you know dayto-day concerns that may see the direction the board is thinking. Yeah, I think one of the concerns um in the interaction between the boards um is similar to the you know the concerns of you know as a planning board member or planning board chair I don't want to be seen as unduly influencing like a um decision by the ZBA for instance and you know if ZBA and planning board are coming to the town board meetings then that gives a different vibe than if the town board's coming to the planning board meetings and the ZBA meetings.

Well, I mean, you know, we look to you for guidance. You know, certainly on Arizona, that's going to be a big example. We might even join meetings with the ZBA and the town board just to facilitate that discussion in a way that everyone's on the same page. So, we look for your guidance and if you came to us and talked to us, that certainly facilitate that. And I don't want to have the position of I'm influencing you. I try not to talk about your current cases because that's inappropriate when we try to push you on those. I'm trying to bring you general here with the town board working on so that you have that vision and you know answer any questions you know you asked a question earlier in the meeting. I believe what it was but you know that type of question I'm quite answering um but I don't want to influence you guys in terms of current projects. I want to help you understand where the town's leading in the future. It was about a TV and and by the way it's a small uh [laughter] the sound system has a little bit of reverberation but I don't know if that's possible.

We learned that at the time board meeting you have people I was hoping was fixed by today we noticed it last time you couldn't write if you write on a piece of paper you can hear the sounds and stuff. Um not for you guys as much but on there I mean nothing can't do anything on that board. Um so yeah we've heard that. Yeah, there's a second uh screen that we can pull out and set up over here and hook into the system. Uh we've done it, we used to have it sitting off to the side. I'm not sure where it's sitting at the moment, but yeah, there's definitely a second available. Yeah, I mean that's that's critical as we look at especially larger projects like this where there's a lot of public interest and they need to be able to see what's going on as well as us up here. So,

I also want to see us change the system so that when you're doing the YouTube, maybe you can flick a switch and it's they can see split screen. You can or just see the screen on Zoom. Um, my understanding is we're going to have to upgrade the system at some point soon because there's going to be requirements of ADA accessibility to all videos that the town keeps and the current YouTube things are not ADA accessible. I don't know what the criteria are. Um, my understanding, you can correct me, is they're not as clear as we'd like them to be. Um, there's some improvements that could be made, right? But the actual requirements are not it's not as Oh, the requirements themselves.

Yes. Are a little bit spongy. Additional guidance would be helpful.

Yes. Um, but I I think the Zoom system is better than the YouTube system. And I don't know the details of that, but I I think it's really important that when we have these discussions, like you said, you don't want charts here. You want things that are visible. Well, I'd like the folks on home and I don't know about you, but I come back to these meetings sometimes and say, I can't quite remember what happened. Let me review the meeting and like to be able to see the visuals. And I know Judy back there is looking at previous meetings. And it makes more sense if you can see what you guys are talking about. Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing the room, too, as opposed to just this part of the room in the back of my head or whatever, whoever's sitting out there in the in the g the front part of the gallery

or so another thing that's working on right now, and Sean might want to drill in on this, is we're talking about reworking some of the policies within the planning department itself. Um, and that's his first sketching up plans and we're going to be getting probably you and ZBA together to review those ideas [snorts] together just for efficiency sake and then it comes to the town board. So, expect that probably next month, right? Um, and another thing we're going to be doing at the same time is we're looking at revising this whole application system. you know, the occupation pricing

the schedule doing it differently. Um, it would be a change of how it's figured, not just the amounts. And that again would probably be at that same meeting. And I want you guys to realize that that's coming up. We would probably try to schedule you with ZBA together just to move it more quickly and make it more effectively. But we want your input and the importance of this is your experience of how long projects take in terms of time and staffing and stuff. We're trying to match the fees with the town's expenses. We're trying to set up a system that's more effective in getting stuff [snorts] from applicant through this process and forward and we're looking for places that are slowing it down or redundant or making things more difficult. And so that's the kind of thing we're going to be asking you guys to help look at the plan, give that feedback. Sean will take it back and finish it up. I don't know. Sean, do you want to add anything to that?

I think you did a good job.

Okay. Any questions? Well, I think one of the big concerns for the public is if all the work is done behind the scenes by planning staff and things are 95 to 99% done when it comes before the planning board then the um the opportunity for um the public to make comments early in the process. You know, I think I think that if we're looking at trying to potentially uh lower some of the costs earlier on, give a developer um a better feel for what the community impact is, um and give the community a potentially a say sooner in the process. I think those would all be good things as opposed to, you know, I I think that the public potentially gets the impression that well, this is all done already. and often times we're already almost there. It's not that we haven't necessarily considered the issues that are involved in the project um and done so adequately or more than adequately. But again, it still gives the impression potentially that, you know, this has already been preddecided before I've get get an opportunity to chime in as a member of the public. I agree 100%. And on the other end of the scale, I don't want you guys to be handed a pile of paperwork,

right? Yeah. We need that. We Yeah, we need to have a we need to have a balance there for sure. And I don't want to hold developers up either and make something that should be a a two-month process into a six-month process. But exactly. Um, one of the things I asked Sean to work on is a sheet for the public of here's how effective comments from the planning board are. It does no good for a bunch of people to come up and say, "I hate this project. You all need to know emotional arguments don't do a lot for us."

But if they know the kind of topics that you guys are looking for, the kind of discussion points and the point I keep um emphasizing to people's, tell me how it affects you. Tell me your story, how this project affect you. That makes the person's feelings more visible to you. And you guys can actually act on that. And so if the public has a sheet to say, here's how you can format your problems so that the planning board can actually do something with them. I think that will help the communication between the public and the planning board a lot. And I think people just need some guidance of what kind of things do you guys want to hear other than I don't like this project, which is what you mostly hear from public comment.

So Joe, also I think we need to to ask for them to put a topic at at the beginning of the page. So like the data center for example, are you concerned about noise? Your your your concern is noise related. So put that at the top. Or wetland related or whatever it is. So if you're going to write into the planning board, what is the topic that you're your concern is about. So then we can stack those in files. This is these are the concerns on the noise. Is it wetlands, water usage, etc.? That type of thing.

I think that's a great idea. And I saw Sean scribbling it down. Yeah, we did that with us to a certain degree. You know, we we had a spreadsheet and here are the 10 different concerns. Yeah. that people are concerned. It would be a lot easier for you and for staff to just sort it based on what people say it is. You don't have to read all the paragraphs and say, "All right, this is noise. This one's water. This one." Ideally, the EIS would cover that environmental impact statement. Right. Right. You want to take the public comment and make it easier for you guys to digest. And that's that's my goal is to be able to take their concerns and make them as visible to you as you think you can. Right.

And right now I don't think they're as visible because I hear a ton of people coming up and saying, "I hate this project. You guys need to turn it down. It's going to destroy my life." And those may all be true, but it doesn't help you guys in this process. And I want to turn that into this project is going to be really problematic because is going to shine lights into my windows all night long, you know, the driveway face of my house. And now you guys have something that you can work with and you know, the objection from this chair comes from instead of like I hate the project into these are the things that are going to be the most problematic for me and you guys can work with that. And that's what I'm trying to do is change that dynamic from I hate the project to here's how the project's going to negatively impact me. And again, you guys are going to get a chance to see what Sean puts together and, you know, comment on I love Al's idea of let's let's help have people help pre- sort it so that, you know, makes a little less work for everybody. Again, you know, my major concern is noise or my major concern is traffic or my major concern is runoff. You want to put those all together to see if everybody's telling the same story or if you get two separate stories depending on which side of the project you're looking at, you know, what have you. And these are lessons learned from the Dollar General and burn dairy or whatever [laughter] pizza and all these.

Yeah. And you know to a certain degree there's always the um as we work through a project looking for a viewpoint we haven't heard yet too. So yeah, hearing from people over and over that I hate the project doesn't really help us to sort out the the issues. But sometimes as we move through, you know, new things crop up and we want to hear new concerns, not just the same concerns.

I want to make that process as easy as possible. And since we're redoing some of the processes, I got to slip back in to try to help with this process because the idea is not to, like Dean suggested, we're not trying to streamline this so that it gets past the public. We're trying to make sure that everything is done as efficiently as possible, including getting information from the public work. So, that's what I have for you tonight. I don't want concerns lost in the noise.

I got one more thing that I want to point out. So, what the board decided in terms of that alternate seat is they're going to see Amy and John. Um, so they're going to be three alternates. Um, and we can't we couldn't do that at our last meeting because in order to have a third seat, we need to uh pass a local law and that requires uh more time than we need to do public notice and all that sort of stuff. So, we're going to do that at the next meeting. We're going to seat those two. So, we have three alternates on this board which given all the work you guys have to do will probably be helpful in that direction as well. And you're you're going to open up an additional seat for the ZBA as well. Yes, but we're not necessarily building it at this time.

Maybe just use one of the year add a seat to both of those. This seat will be filled by Amy and John. So, you'll have three alternates and then um the Z will have a seat and we'll decide when we're going to build that. Those seats will still be one year. Yes. And I assume you guys will do the same rotation. You know this person and this person and that person depending on what's going on and don't want to. Okay. Thanks.

So Sean, we're going to want to hear from um some different experts in these different areas. You know, some are required by law. So, um, you know, New York State DEEC, for instance, will have to chime in on some things. The county will have to chime in on some things. Um, I'm sure that we as a board are not going to want to take anybody's word for anything. So, when somebody, you know, for the applicant says this, we're going to want to verify that. So, we're going to want to be talking potentially to Bolton Point about water issues. we're going to potentially want to talk to somebody who can verify rate structures for the grid and the potential impact on uh the the residential rate payers in our area and what have you. So, um I think that we need to identify who some of those players are that we're going to be asking to bring in. And then some of that's going to be involving um some engineering as well, right? So, we're going to have to have a engineer consultant that they get to pay for that's going to review stuff for us because obviously our in-house staff can't do all of that.

Right. And to John's point, you know, it's kind of, you know, we are answering a lot of those questions that we will be eventually answering within the environmental impact u the the EAF. So this having these questions is going to help us down the road and answering some of those harder questions. So at what point do we bring an engineer in and have them potentially at our meeting for us to be able to bounce questions off of them?

I guess it, you know, really boils down to, you know, what the topic is and, you know, where we're at. um you know you know for example between TG Miller MRB and some of our their services our services we'll just have to determine on what that uh you know subject matter is so you may have a lot of it covered we may have a lot of covered but for example when it comes to decommissioning any of the buildings we may have to have a third party come in to provide an ESA um or a phase 1 A and phase 1 B. We may have to get a third party to do that as well.

So, do we have a third party in mind or do you have a bench of people that you normally go to as MRB group or Yes. Okay. Yeah. So, it's not like you have to start a search. You already have contacts. We have those. Okay. Um, so any other questions for tonight? Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? study. Second.