City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll move into item C, first reading, and public hearing of ordinances to adopt land use regulations for data centers through a conditional use process within the light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing zoning districts by amending chapter 12 planning and development exhibit A, zoning and ordinance as follows. One, amending article 3, use regulations section 313, use table. N2 amending article 4 specific use standards by creating a new section 430 data centers presentation made by planning and development services director Aaron Venoi. Thank you mayor, city council. Um good morning and glad everyone is here to um talk about these items that we are going to go over for regulations in the zoning ordinance for data centers. Um, before we get too deep into it, I just want to say that this is a an opportunity for our city to regulate data centers. Without moving forward with something in the zoning ordinance, then you have no way to regulate the land itself and the land use of it. So, that is what we're talking about today. Um, there are there was a previous version that we had added water restraints within the zoning ordinance. As we've talked through those items and looked back at our state laws and u it does not give really zoning ordinance the power to regulate water consumption uh water discharges. Those are best suited at the local level in our utilities ordinances and that's where those will be coming forward in the next uh few council meetings. they are working with making sure that it is what we need for our community uh what we need to protect ourselves and our water resources and how we move forward. So those will be coming forward. So I know that many of the citizens may be here or are watching. They did see a presentation uh in April on the 22nd that talked about some utility items. Those are not being presented today.

Those will come forward to the city council as a separate item in the future. So, I just want to make sure everybody's aware of that and understands that. Today, we're talking about the zoning ordinance and creating a special data center uh ordinance for how we regulate them when they come when they come and look for property. So, currently we have a interpret interpretation of our existing ordinance. Where do data centers fit in our existing ordinance? looking through the state, uh, most cities put them in light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing zoning districts. I have an interpretation out there that states that for our community. So again, I I say this again, this is why we need to take some action because we have heard from our community, we want some more say in where data centers can and cannot go. And so the options for that is come up with a a process that they would have to either reszone through a plan development which then that would go through planning commission city council twice do a conditional use that goes to planning commission or do something like a special use which is really again just a resoning um through that process. So what we have have talked with and gone through uh our ordinances and said we believe the the best thing is to pre move forward with a conditional use for data centers in light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. They would have to come to and apply. They would go to planning commission. We would see all the site items. We would see different studies those things to help make a decision of is this the right location? It's noticed to the public. So, the public has some opportunity to give input and say what they say about this specific location. And that's what I want to also emphasize

is that this ordinance is designed to protect our city completely, not specific sites. This is what it's for is to is to do those things. Today we also want to talk about the the definitions the design guidelines again noise site plan and those things you can see that we had on there water use regulations we have and I left that in there intentionally so that people on in the public know that no that is not going to be in the zoning ordinance. We are going to put that into our utility ordinance because that's the appropriate place. We're looking at adding section 430 which is for data centers amending section 313 which is our use table saying that in light manufacturing heavy manufacturing they have it will say show a symbol of C for conditional use and adopt appendix A for landscape species and recommendations and also today I want to make sure that within a motion there is to officially resend the director's interpretation of the existing ordinance that it pulls that off that council says no that's not the right interpretation we want to replace it with this ordinance. So data centers we believe that the controlling data centers uh through a conditional use and our light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing and if you think about the items the land uses that are allowed in those those areas. So you think about our steel works, you think about our um beef and animal processing. You think about any other um um heavy agricultural areas that those could be in light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing or warehousing areas that might be warehousing that are storing things which is what data data centers do. They store servers and they they generate information and house

information in the digital era. Um we have you know our our rail port that is a heavy manufacturing land use. Our landfill is a heavy manufacturing of landfill products. So, we feel like it does fit into these areas, which is the the highest you land use that we have in our zoning ordinance. To add the conditional use, we would follow the current conditional use process through our ordinance, which is in section 208. This again would go to planning commission for approval. There are notices that are sent to the surrounding communities of X piece of property. They want to add a primary use of a data center. It would be noticed that would go to planning commission. Then planning commission makes a decision of yes or no. At that time that could be appealed and then that decision comes to city council and then city council gets to make the decision on yes or no for that piece of property. So if you look at St. Angelo um I've got some maps here that have the light blue and the darker blue and you can just barely um see it. I'm not sure if you can see it, but right through here is the Texas Pacificico that goes up to the rail port and of course goes out this way. If you notice that line, industry has shaped St. Angelo. It has throughout the course of our history. Now, we all got here because we have this beautiful river that comes through our community. That's how civilization started in this part of the world is water. And so, that's that's a key component. But again, industry has helped shape. You can see Ethicon over here. We know that we have an industrial park over here. Our landfill is here, which is interest, interestingly enough, branching estate. So, uh, you could go build a house there, but I don't think anybody would. Um, but in our comprehensive plan, that's what we have.

But along the railroad, you see these areas that are manufacturing in nature and then areas out here on 67 as well on the north side of town. Again, transportation. You see the main corridor, North Bryant coming in, and that's where lands have been designated. And again, this uh spur of the railroad where industry has shaped St. Angelo that comes through and says, "All right, that's where our in our manufacturing light and heavy manufacturing areas are. That's where goods and services are produced to export out, import in, get them out to the to the world and to our community. Here south of downtown, again, the rail that comes in, you can see through there and along that rail over time, there's been manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, things that are that are sending out. And then again over by Goodfellow, which is also an industry that has shaped our community and and shaped it very well. and along Chadburn, which is a major corridor, getting back to 87 and sending goods and services and providing things. And then this is a far south part of town of Old Cristo Road, the connection of 87 277 uh there, which is a major intersection connection. Again, we have some oop, excuse me, we have some areas over here that are designated as light and um heavy manufacturing. So you can see within our community, we have lots of areas that are designated for these. Now, data centers, the ones that are currently looking at us as a community that they may want to expand into, usually take up hundreds of acres. Now, we have data centers of different sizes within our community. Um, all the way to uh you know, the the backup for the state of Texas is sitting over at Angelo State, and that is a that's a big

BA data center. Uh there's another one at Frontier that's o nearly three 300,000 uh square feet. So that's a good size. Uh that's a pretty good size data center over there. Um we have places like the the hospital that uses data. The city uses data. The school district, everybody uses data these days uh to store somewhere to protect it to continue to keep different businesses running and operating. what we're proposing in our definitions that we would not allow a cryptocurrency mining within the data center use. They would have to do something different. They would have to whether that's be a special use process to come through if they wanted to do cryptocurrency mining. But we have heard from our citizens that they would not like that because cryptocurrency mining does eat up a lot of energy um in certain different ways. Again, we would allow some accessory uses through hospitals, offices, and campuses. That really the school district is a school district. Their data center is accessory to what they do, but it's necessary for what they have. Uh same with hospitals, offices. Uh we want to make sure what generator yards and um outdoor equipment can go in certain places. And so, we make sure we have a definition for that as well as private utility. uh in some cases that some of these large complexes could create their own utility, not using a public infrastructure uh that supports and powers them. Um whether that is through natural gas, solar, wind, uh multiple options in the future of what that could mean that they're able to do that, but it's not governed by a political subdivision by the city or the state. data centers would have to submit a plan um for the conditional use stage that this would be before this goes to planning commission. They have to submit all of these things that for review. Um you know a a site plan that has all of

your setbacks and your building location. Where is all that ground mounted equipment? Where's your parking and driveways? Your sidewalks and pedestrian routes on the site. A traffic impact analysis both during construction and after operation. We know those are two different things. Um, fencing, landscaping, screening, lights and phototric measurements, a sound study, which is this is what we plan to do. And then we ask for a sound study afterwards saying all right, this is what it actually does and does that meet our standards, building elevations, materials, and signage. So here we have some examples um the best we could do um for what what we're trying to present or represent visually for for everyone. So if the structure is tall, we allow up to a 75 ft maximum height. So if the set if that's that tall then they have to have a setback that goes plus 10 feet past that 50 ft for every story up 75 ft. And so the standard is when you get to something that height, you want the collapse zone to be at least one 1.5 times that height so that if a structure collapses in the future, it doesn't fall over onto somebody else's property. Now, that's talking about height and bulk, uh, which is allowed in our zoning ordinance and the state to to regulate accessory structures. If they're between this main building and the property line, um, they couldn't be taller than 30 ft. If they're on the inside, they could be a little taller. Basically, there's some shielding. And that's most of the designs that we see across the country and actually across the world is, you know, if they have accessory structures

like a generator yard or a fuel storage yard that is in the middle of these complexes. Setbacks. How far back? This went to planning commission. Um they have recommended this 200 foot as a standard setback against any residentially zoned or land use inside the city limits or outside the city limits. So a 200 ft buffer that nothing can be built in. Um they have to have something there. We we're going to be proposing landscaping, maybe the natural landscaping, a buffer that they can't have anything in within 200 ft of their their property lines. So that's front, rear, and side yards. So for an example, this this location, we went and we put that 200 ft buffer around that property. Now, this is a very large property, so you got to think of scale. This is 350 acres. That's a lot of land. From this point to this point is over 7,000 linear feet. And this point is just right at 6,000 linear feet. And so we know how long that is. That's that's over a mile. So that's that's getting up there in distance. And so 200 ft again at this scale does not look very large, but that's a long distance 200 feet. And if you have that buffer all the way around, then you have the buildable space within that they can start doing things. So commercial or industrial, so different types of land uses. We would say that buffer would go down to 50 ft because they're very much more similar in nature than residential housing that you would be similar in nature for a data center to commercial or other industrial uh things. We also know that through the

regulations that we would propose to create buffers by streets, whether those are internal or external, driveways and parking, that those would have buffers that you would have to also set back and have landscaping within some of those buffers. So our standard setback for commercial or well let let me restate that our standard setback for data centers that are within a light manufacturing that do not abut residential on any side would be the 50 ft setback. Now if their building is taller they're going to have to scoot that building back also based on the height of the building. groundmounted equipment. Again, we want that 200 foot separation. Uh we made that a a conscious decision because that is where some noise is generated, some heat is generated, and if those can be located in the center of the property instead of on the periphery, then that helps protect the property around. And so we have a 200 foot setback for them. Again, if their height, if it's between their primary structure and the property line, their height can only be 30. If it's on the other side of the primary structures, there's a primary structures around and it's on the other side, it can be the same height as the primary structure. So then we have some of these setbacks from different size streets. And I'll show a an image in just a second. So, if you have a right-of-way pavement that's adjacent, you got to have at least a 25 ft setback before you start building in parking or something like that. If you have an arterial, you have to be at least 40t away from their arterial. And if you have pavement on the side or rear yards, then you have to be 15t away from that. Again, this is if it's publicly dedicated road. This is if it's just a

private internal road. We still want that a distance away from the property line. Here's just another example. This is on the edge of town. Uh this is a light manufacturing zoned piece of property. Uh it's vacant at this time. We also tried to apply those buffers here. And so we know this is also light manufacturing and this is light manufacturing. So you see that 40 foot buffer here. FM 380 is an arterial. So there's a 40ft buffer there. And then this piece of property is in the ETJ. What's not shown on this image because it just wouldn't fit is there's a house about right there. So we would would air on the side of all right that is going to be that's a residential use. They would need the 200 ft buffer there. And then that gives them what their buildable area would be. This is just a concept plan that we tried to put together. Um, again, scale is difficult when you're talking about these large things, but if everything around them was um commercial or industrial, they'd have the 50-foot setback, they'd have a roadway set back, you'd have this parking that you can see there's an additional setback, and then you have this other buffer setback, and then you have the building. Um now depending on sites and what um developers want to do, there could be multiple buildings and so they they could be sharing that site and if we have a a prospect that comes in and says we've bought this property, we want to go through the process, they would they would have to show the full site plan. Even if they're not looking to build those buildings today, we would ask for the full concept plan to come forward to planning commission so that everybody got a feel of what is the scale of this project. Landscaping um we feel is one of the

best ways and has historically been one of the best ways to help mitigate uh what's called the heat island effect. We've known this for decades. Uh in major urban areas, uh places that have large big buildings, they create heat, they absorb heat, and they create these microclimates around buildings. Well, the biggest way to mitigate that is through landscaping is to allow air flow, to allow shade areas to have certain types of landscaping that helps do that. So as we were creating these regulations, we wanted to really make sure that we were doing things that are proven by uh landscape architects through their science through their data that comes through and says this is what you really need to do for a structure as large as that. Uh we know landscaping can improve air quality, can again reduce heat around building, help water uh help manage storm water runoff. uh if you you know say you have a 400,000 square foot building that's a lot of roof for storm water runoff to run off onto the property. Well, you need to have something to mitigate that. Um and again, storm water runoff with landscaping is one of the ways to do that. Um trees and shrubs placed in the right spots can reduce heating and cooling cost by blocking wind and providing shade. Landscape species can perform can perform what is called phyto remediation and help remediate soil from toxins. Uh and trees function as sound barriers through sound absorption and sound deflection. So within the ordinance there's some different buffer areas. Again this is a 40ft buffer. And the idea you can kind of see here is that we have trees that are clustered. And again with a 40ft buffer you have the the option to cluster trees to have large trees clustered together. These are would be like at the mature stage that those canopies are showing there. You go to a 25- ft buffer. You can start

seeing that the larger trees start getting linear but you can still kind of b you can still kind of cluster them here and the medium trees cluster them here. And then if you go to the smallest buffer, you'll start seeing them kind of in a very linear process trying to spread those trees out and and trying to do things. What you what you see here on say a back property line is you're trying to mitigate some of the sound and the and the noise that's coming through. You are working through areas that are abudding other private property u not rightway areas and things like that. So, do we have any examples around town? Well, this is over in the Chaparel uh area over on 67 uh just by just north of uh Howard College. This was done 20 25 years ago. You can kind of see in through here that they've have some uh they have this what we would call maybe street trees, but they have a a species that's a nice dense species that works here that is an evergreen um that keeps which means it keeps its leaves all year round. But then you start seeing that there's these little clusters of other species too that help break up uh the the difference. And so we have had some standards for this in the past. We've had folks that have come through and know that these types of things work. Um, this is more of that linear. All right, it's along a street frontage and so they've spaced these out uh every little bit. Uh, these have a 50-ft spacing uh between them as we went and measured that over there in that industrial area. again, landscaping. Um, there when this first went through planning commission, they they thought the landscaping was a little over the top and so we wanted to make sure that we provided some options. Um, and so we do have different options

there based on their setbacks, based on if they're in front of a rideway, what's on either side of property. We also have added a natural buffer zone um that would be 40 foot instead of the standards for the front that they would have and 30 foot for the side and rear yards. So that they have a say a mosquite pasture that's welldeveloped. They would be able to keep that um for that 40ft buffer zone. They wouldn't have to shred that down, dig it up, and then start planting other species to try to to to come back. Now, if you're in a cotton field or a wheat field, that's a little different. we're going to ask you to start putting in landscaping and things like that. But if they wanted to use the natural buffer areas, they could. We would still ask them to plant some other species to come in and help support those areas and continue to have large larger size trees and larger species that would come in. We also allow the natural prairie style grasses, uh, stones and boulders to reduce water uses and maintenance. Um, and we did require droughtresistant species for plants and trees. Another concept concept that's been introduced, we have not put it into the ordinance is is there any way to do any storm water recapture? And we encourage that a lot. So whether they put a system on uh their buildings that they capture the storm water and they utilize that for their landscape irrigation or what other water use they choose, that would be that would be great. But we don't that's not in our ordinance today. We don't require that through our urban design reviews and so we tried to match something very similar to what we have today that would not force them to do that but we would encourage them to do that a lot to recapture water. Other items um that we've uh have within the ordinance is parking. Uh trying to make sure that we have adequate parking for the data center but not an overage of parking. They don't once they get operating um they don't need an

abundance of parking. They normally work shifts and sometimes three hours, three 24-hour shift type things. And so they're not going to have a high volume of folks all the time there. And so we don't want them to be overparked and just creating more storm water runoff. Um then we also have, you know, where does ground mounted equipment where can it be? It must be screened with a masonry wall. The rooftop equipment's got to be visually screened in some way. Uh fencing along the front would be masonry or rod iron. and then fencing um along the back that's not there could be up could be the black PVC uh coated chain link. Again, if you if they do need parking lots that are over 100 spaces, they'll have to have landscape islands to help reduce the heat that's coming off of that asphalt that's coming back into the air. Lights going will be shielded and downward facing. And we did put in there a specific color um threshold that is for the uh dark sky community that we would ask these facilities to comply with that dark sky community. Uh I think it's three 3,000 and it's got a very funky little number there, but it's that's that's what we'd be looking for in the plan review. And then the building lights that we would ask them to be lower, not higher. Um, so lowered down. So that's really putting light on walkways and doorways, not trying to shine light out into the large area that could be around these um data centers. Noise. We know that's a a a significant concern with our community. Um, and so we've proposed two different levels here. There's been some discussion of should it just be one level all the time. Um, I think talking with uh our consultants and other industries, this is fairly typical, but I think if they're able to meet the 55, then maybe that's that's the standard way that we

just ask them to meet the 55 decel all the time. Um, as we know in St. Angelo, our daytime noise levels are much higher than our nighttime noise levels. Um, but again, I think a data center operates how they operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They don't they don't ramp things up during the day necessarily. They don't ramp things up at night. It is what they do. Um all of these measurements are at the property lines. Uh and so we would be looking for that and they would be proving that up through studies that we would request them to do. If there are future studies that are needed because maybe there's complaints and things, then we would work through that with them. that that would be a shared cost with the city and the and the property owner to uh look at those things and and see what what's going on. And then we would ask them to mitigate them in a reasonable amount of time uh to mitigate whatever those noises are. Maybe just a piece of faulty equipment that they can go and fix. Um things like that. We also have the low frequency noise in there talking about low hums and vibrations. Um they cannot trespass uh beyond the property line. um our consultant uh Westwood Professional Services uh Eric Head will probably he has he's also here with us today. Um he worked with his group out of I believe Colorado that they've been working on this low frequency noise and this is what they have seen as the standards uh that have been coming forward. It's kind of the the very newest and the very front edge of noise regulation. Um, you could probably go through anybody's um, zoning ordinance in Virginia and other places that have these data centers. They haven't quite gotten to this level yet. So, this is pretty pretty robust for us here in St. Angelo. And I did mention water usage at the very beginning. We are in the zoning ordinance going to make a reference that

they must follow our utility ordinance um for water usage and coolant water discharge. So that at least it's in the zoning ordinance that says, "Hey, here's a flag. Here's a reminder. You need to make sure you're talking to our water utilities folks on how these things are going to work. What's your consumption? What's your discharge plan? How are you going to deal with leaks that happen on your property?" And that's for that expert team, John Kaufman and his team to come forward and say, "This is how we're going to protect St. Angelo." And he's well on his way of of getting those things. Y'all saw a lot of those on April the 22nd. And so he's making sure that that's going to meet everything that he believes it needs to meet for our city and bring that forward. But we will have in the zoning ordinance, we continue to propose that we put it here so that anyone that looks at our zoning ordinance and thinks that's the only rules, they'll at least have a flag that says, "Oh, there's some other rules that you need to follow." So today I have the recommendation of this resend the current director's interpretation that data centers are allowed by right in light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. adopt section 430 uh to article 4 specific land uses and that creates a data center as a land use. Amend section 313 to add data center as a land use under the industrial category and amend that table to add the letter C for conditional use in columns for light manufacturing and heavy man manufacturing and adopt appendix A as the approved landscape plan list. This was tabled the first time it went to planning commission. They wanted some tweaks and asked for some revisions. We provided those and it came back to planning commission on April the 20th. They heard through the the comments. They heard through the presentation. Uh and they did recommend this ordinance with approval with a couple of minor

changes being the residential setback going to 200 ft and fencing being resolved at the planning commission stage of where fencing needs to be. Um, and they did make that recommendation with an approval of a 60 vote uh in April. With that, I'll be happy to answer as many questions as you have. Aaron, we'll start off. We'll start on the dice and move from Mary's end over to the others. So, Mary, we'll start with you if you have any questions.

I do. I want to just see how how specific that we get in through this there. as you were going there were questions that I had that you answered and and through there is it am I correct that Mr. Uh, someone from Westwood is is here. Yes, that is that is correct. I'll uh I'll refrain from any question I might have till I hear everybody. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Karen. Good morning. Um, creating the change that refers to data centers, possible data centers to be governed as a conditional use is more restrictive, right? Yes.

Okay. Just making sure everybody understands that it's more restricted restrictive than it was. Um, I'm just going to go through my little list here. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends a limit of 55 dB for your general category and you chose 60. Can you help us understand why you chose 60 and should we consider meeting EPA standards for this? When we looked at noise levels in the other ordinances that had been created that are regulating data centers currently, whether it's in the state of Texas or out of the state of Texas, we looked at um quite a few different ordinances. The most common number was the 60 dB. I don't believe while there is a difference between 55 and 60, um I don't believe going down to the 55 as the standard is problematic for our community. Um, I think that is still, again, we're looking at the property lines and we are putting in significant buffers at the property lines to help mitigate that sound. We're putting in uh landscaping to help mitigate that sound. Plus, they have to mitigate it through the structures themselves and provide um sound studies for that. And so the difference between the 60 and the 55 I I think we could move forward with a 55 recommendation um as for the EPA. Now again that's at property lines. How do we you know when we measure that for different activities

notification zone? What is the definition of a notification zone for this particular use? How how big is it? Would be a 200 foot notification zone. That is standard by the state of Texas for any type of zoning action. Uh and so we do that buffer of 200 feet on the outside of the property line. Any property that touches that or or meets it, then we send the the uh mailed letter to them uh within 15 days of the hearing.

So most of these are large plots of land. A 200 foot notification zone. That seems like an amendment that we might want to discuss. Broaden that amendment, broaden that distance for notification. Um, can you take a look at that and and give us some come back to us with some advice based on surrounding properties that are large parcels because 200 feet, you already pointed out to us in your map that the property line along the highway is thousands of feet.

Yes. So who would actually get notified? One person, two people or two entities? So I think that's that's a reasonable question. Um you referenced testing of discharge materials and you also talked about how discharge would go into our sewer system. So clarify if you would please what kind of happens in that full process any discharge whether scheduled or otherwise is it f is it captured and tested before it's released into the sewer? Well let me let me answer that first is that that would be a utility ordinance item.

Okay. It would not be in the zoning ordinance and so that would not be part of this ordinance of what they discharged what the testing thresholds are. that will come forward. Uh and that would be best answered by the experts that see that day in and day out and those are the two ordinances that we are not discussing today but are coming back to us. That is correct. Next meeting. That is correct.

Um let's see. If you haven't driven out there, I recommend that you do so. Uh it it's amazing to see the density of the natural landscape at this point in time. The thicket, the mosquite thicket is so dense you you can't see into the property. All you see is the line of these these small trees. So you mentioned that it's an option for and I'm talking about that property specifically now, but it's an option to retain that landscaping element as is um and nest a future potential project inside there or to add landscaping. I presume they could even do both. they could have attractive landscaping around their their building in addition to the natural landscape. But just a personal recommendation after taking a drive and measuring the distances myself and looking at that that um existing landscape density that's that's a good thing that we have that and a useful thing.

Yes. And a money saver. And now you and I have talked about rainwater capture. Uh you you said you will encourage or we will encourage. I think I might like to do more than encourage but um uh there that's a lot of water. It's a lot of water that can be captured from runoff on pavement and rooftops. It can be captured even underground. We wouldn't necessarily see that. and it would help that entity uh abate the cost of water uh to to care for any landscaping that they do install. So those are my thoughts for the time being. Thank you.

I'll speak to the landscaping first is with this ordinance we're thinking of all locations and it's creating that conditional use process. through a conditional use process, planning commissioners can put conditions and and so say we're looking at a property that has a dense thicket already, that could be one of the conditions that come forward that they maintain that in some way for their landscape buffer. Patrick, good morning. Morning. Um, is 200 feet enough from a residential neighbor?

We did start out at 300. That's a good question. Um, because while 200 feet is a lot, but if the building takes up I mean, in your original picture, if the building takes up that much space, 200 feet all of a sudden seems minuscule.

And I would and I would say, well, this should be an industrial area. There shouldn't be residences around. uh we would we from where we have city jurisdiction to apply zoning we would be very hardressed to recommend any residential in that area. Uh 200 feet is a long way. Uh our first proposal was 300 ft and planning commission wanted that down lower and now they they moved to 200. Um we can put it back.

I think a a setback distance to residential um is important. I think 200 feet is adequate. If you look at other ordinances, we're we're right there with them. Um, you know, in in Hutto and in Round Rock, they don't have any separation distance. They're they're three-story apartment buildings right across the street from their data centers

and have been for years. And that's not new. Uh, down in Katy, that's the same place uh down in Katie that's doing that. And then Plano, they're having that. it's within a a commercial a general commercial area in in Plano and they have, you know, apartment complexes all over the place. Um, here out in West Texas, I think we value our residential neighbors. Uh, and so what is the appropriate distance? I don't know that you see a lot of difference between 200 and 300. Um, I think 200 is within line with other ordinances and that's what we would recommend to staff, but that is also again ultimately y'all's decision of all right, do we do we want a little more space? And I agree and I' I've seen some of those in those other big towns, but I think the key word is those big towns. It's it is already very heavily populated. Um, so this is is a it's not a big thing to them because it's they're they're packed in there like sardines as it is.

They don't have a choice. Yeah, we have a choice. Um I I don't know against residential and I'll let everybody else kind of chime in. I I want to make sure we set the standard for rural West Texas. I think we're a little different than the big town. So, let's make sure we set the standard. Um we've talked about it with other things that the town has done. Um this is our chance to make sure that's that's done done right. Um done to the best of our abilities. Um against residential, I would I preferred the 300 that we had originally. Um, I know planning won't even go even lower than 200, but uh, at least 200 is better than what it was. Um, we have other ordinances. I know we've talked about that. I mean, there's thousand feet setbacks on some against residential, and that's a that's a long ways.

Um, we've, you know, I've put pen to paper on that, and that's a long ways. Um, so I'm not necessarily agreeing with that. Um, but 200 is better. 300 would be best in my opinion. I agree. Um, on the Nordinances, uh, I did from a tom idea. I bought a dec well. I've been using a lot. Yep.

55 or 60 does not take much to get over that. Um, so I think, um, personally, either one are are are good numbers. That's a very low amount. Um, if if they can go to 55, then I say why not? Um, the question I did have though is on the low frequency. We have it higher than the other ones. I feel like the low frequencies should be lower, not higher. Agreed. Maybe what's the um do we have a thought process on that of why we went higher on those low frequencies?

This one I may defer to Eric Head because he's done more of the research on that than I have. Um I'm not really sure I can speak to that confidently. Eric, do you I know and I know he worked with his scientists up in Colorado to get to these numbers. So, I know it's a different sound, but Eric, any anything? Yeah. So, thank you for the question. Um, I'm not a sound expert. Yourself. Introduce yourself so they know.

Oh, sorry. A Head with Westwood Professional Services addresses 9800 uh Hillwood Parkway in Forward, Texas. Uh, for my office. Um, yeah. So the uh the original question uh but M Miss Smith the decibel levels uh so the the first set of numbers we have in the the proposed ordinance are for like the loud noises the bangs the motors that are running things like that and uh the 60 and 60 during the daytime is when you have more traffic on the highway you know or adjacent roadways people are working doing their thing businesses you know mechanic shop tire shops manufacturing whatever so typically the daytime ordinance is going to have a little more um leniency than the nighttime ordinance. And 60 and 55 are fairly low um DBA levels. I just looked up what uh the city of Fort Worth and the city of Berles were two ordinances that I pulled for those levels and they're at like uh 70 and and 60 for residential areas. Commercial areas are like 80 and 70. So we we took our noisy noise levels down. Uh low frequency that's your that that was one of the most difficult things we we we came up with with an ordinance because there was not a lot of examples out there in the marketplace. The the ordinance the data center ordinances that we pulled didn't didn't even address uh low frequency noise. And what low frequ where that noise comes from typically from my research was from fan noise cooling system noises from these data centers and typically now the newer technology you don't have fan cooled uh data centers it's water cooled so you don't even have that issue but we have it in there in case it is an issue right um so the 60 I believe we had 60 in there have to pull that

65 on the lowest

yeah 65 so the the way this noise works is different you have these different oct octave bands a 16 31 and a 63 and I think the way humans hear that uh is is just different. So this was what was recommended uh to mitigate that noise from our from our noise the research and the noise uh experts that we uh that we talked to. So it's just a different it's a different noise that the human ear hears than the loud banging noise. So I guess the loud banging noise you take those down to 60 or 55. This was a little more um I guess lenient, but it's not it's not the loud banging noise. It's low frequency noise. Um there was a really good uh example in one of the uh some of the research I did for a data center that was they had some complaints. It was a fan cool data center had some complaints and they put up a sound blanket try to mitigate that low frequency noise and it was just a humming noise that was bothering some of the neighbors. Um, and staff went out, they they put up a sound blanket, spent about $5 million, but didn't really fix the problem. What fixed the problem was somebody a sound expert going out identifying the problem, which was the speed of the fans, and they just turned those the speed of the fans down and that fixed the problem. So rather than a draconian sort of uh mitigation measure, it some sometimes you just have to go out identify the issue and work with the operator to fix the issue if it's if it's continues to be a problem. So, um I know it's not a really great answer for you on why is this 65 and 65 and 60, but I think it's the way that particular noise comes across to the human ear and and why those are recommended levels, maximum levels for that particular kind of noise, low frequency noise.

Are these going to be I assume at the property line just like the other ones were? Yes, sir. Yeah. Um how do you and Eric maybe you know a little better. Um, how do you distinguish between road noise and the noise coming from the facility?

I think that comes where your sampling spots are. Um, also what they're they're going to be doing with engaging with a sound specialist to produce that study of what's going on. It's kind of like the light studies of they have to do all the lights all the way around. I mean, it's not just in okay, this area that's focused a certain way. Um, they would go out and do different sampling sites. They would do it at different times of the day. And so it's more of a here's here's what we get for an overall sound from throughout the and that report would have all those dates, times, locations. All right, we see something that's way off the chart. We're like, what happened here? And work with them to see what's going on there.

I'm going to push back on that low frequency. I think we need to get it down to our others because that to me that's a constant noise. And as someone here, I hear low frequencies in different things. you can hear a TV running something, it annoys me. So, if it's going constant at 65 dB, that seems kind of high. Um, while loud banging at one time, that doesn't bother me. Now, that's me personally, but um I and maybe I'd have to hear them to see the difference of of how I hear it, but to me, I see no reason it should be higher than the other. Um, and the fact that they fixed it is great, but let's make sure we have an ordinance that says, "No, it's got to get here." So, you've got to go fix it, not just a if you feel like it, fix it. Um, so I think I personally I'm going to push back on that one as well. Um, that's the main ones I saw. Fencing is another one I know is somewhat of an issue. Um, I know we have it for I guess is it to planning commission to or who who's the one that approves that when it comes in? So,

I'm trying to see if I have where fencing's at, but planning commission wants the location to be determined at planning commission. Is it adjacent to residential? Is it adjacent to other places? And so, if you're thinking of a 50-ft tall building, a 8 foot, 6 foot privacy fence is not doing anything uh especially along a a 5,000 linear feet. That's what is it? What is it going to do? Now, we're again, we are concerned about the residential areas. Um, and we do have manufacturing areas within town and this is designed to cover all manufacturing areas of how do we mitigate those risks. Um, if this is on 67 where we would have to go through a resoning, we would not come forward with residential in those areas. But again, that's up for planning for planning commission, city council to make those decisions. Fencing in a case like this, they're probably going to do perimeter fencing for security. The question is, does an opaque fence in any way do anything else other than present a maintenance issue for them over time? And that's for us to decide. Um, I think the landscaping is a much better solution. um fencing is going if it's opaque that may not allow as much air flow to go through. Uh and so we do need air flow around these areas. But I know fencing is a is a is a concern because most of us in our homes, we sit in our homes and we have our privacy fence and we know that kind of protects us from what's around us in a residential situation. In an industrial situation, if you have residences backing up to that, the privacy fence is not going to be super effective. Doesn't mean they shouldn't have one, but and maybe it's on a smaller scale, but that's that's the

challenge that we have here is looking at mega sites being hundreds of acres compared to a 50 by 100 residential site. How do we how do we take care of both? Right. Well, and I and I agree to I mean, to me, manufacturing versus manufacturing, I have no issues. If if they want a fence, I can put it up for their own use, but I have no issues with that. Mine again is going to go back to the residents. And while it may not be while to the from the data center side, they're looking at an 8ft fence over here, they don't care. But from the person, if you're standing right there in your backyard and you have an 8ft fence here, that helps you actually have your little oasis of your backyard. I I would disagree because if we've already got those buffers of 200 feet, that's less than 100 feet. Yeah.

200 feet down, you're going to see that building. It's not going to do. But I'm gonna see the top like if I mean you'll see you'll see the top 40 feet of that building out of a 50 foot building. I mean if if we go up two feet above you I'm not gonna I I can barely see the rooftop if we go two feet above you from here and I'm up a foot off the ground. So if I'm sitting in my backyard 8ft fence actually does a lot in my opinion. And I think we could use sight lines to to verify that. Again at if if the fence is a 200 ft away, yeah, that's a whole different story, right? It doesn't hardly block anything. But this fence would be 20 ft away, 30 ft away. Um to me that blocks a lot requirements between residential and commercial there is. Now if it's ranch and estate there's not okay

um but then that's the question is for data centers that have these large sites are they required to put a privacy fence that could be four miles and what is it really going to mitigate again and I'm I'm fine with that. I think it's only in a residential situation. Yeah, that's all I'm worried about. But so I'll go back to this example. This is just an example. Does that linear line need a privacy fence right there? If there's one house on this side and they own that entire property, that's the question. And that's a struggle

because that privacy fence and they build here, that's a small dot. Let's let's make a bigger. And what is on the right hand side? What's that zoned? This is in the ETJ. So it's not city, right? So it's not city.

I while um every resident is important in general. To me, it's more about if it is a single family zoned home. Um because we've got a few of those properties in San Angelo. When we look at the overall picture, right? Not talking there's a couple like this. Um, but when we looked at the overall picture of where some data centers could go, um, to me it would be if it was zone A, single family, even low-rise multif family stuff like that. I I think you're not going to have 300 acre plots of those.

Correct. So like here where Mueller is, very large buildings, very similar. They're right next to RS districts. Since they've been there before our zoning ordinance, they don't have a requirement for fencing. Now, some of the houses have fences, but that that's is essentially this the a very similar type of industry that's coming to manufacturing zoning.

And does a 6 or 8 foot privacy fence required for the the builder to put in, does that help mitigate anything? And the challenge is is we're not sure that it does. Now, resident to resident, we believe it does. resident to uh convenience store. We believe it does to retail store to large manufacturing sites. There's not a lot of data that shows that a a small privacy fence does a lot of mitigation for sound sight line or things like that. doesn't mean we can't have it, but just be on the real be be understanding that when we go to if we decide and maybe that's the way you word it is it's for RS1 only but then you have duplexes and triplexes and all these others does a privacy fence here if this became residential which there is a house there what

right now it's ranch and estate I assume I believe it is ranch and estate Well, yeah, this actually is in in the county. That is correct because it's it was not annexed in.

Erin, I don't know. Did I interrupt you? I'm sorry. uh if this would fall into the landscaping area that you're talking about, but uh I was asking Karen, you know, those I call them cemetery trees, but the the big tall ones instead of I worry about the the wind and all and trying to keep a fence up is hard, but would that serve a dual purpose? not necessarily put it in the in the landscaping provisions inside that ordinance, but as a a better alternative to a a man-made fence to have those because those things are huge. I mean, they're tall, wide. I mean, that's a a green zone. I would much rather look at that than a fence and I think it might could serve additional purposes. And my second question, I'm sure you've already as answered this many times before, but as this thing keeps growing out with the zone u the buffers and the setbacks and all, how close are we to uh both the jail and animal services, which also is next door to pause. I don't mean to open up another can of worms, but while we're on this is maybe a good time. So this may be the if we're looking at this area off of 67 that sample that had the 200 was just there just to the north. Um this is the area where um obviously the the jail or that's the the 4H facility. There's the jail and then animal services is in this area here. When we measured that back to um this housing that's right here, it was just just right at three miles, but I'm going to say it's probably two to two and a half miles to those areas. Um and the Italian Cyprus is an option. And we

actually had first through one of our first um renditions of of what are our regulations of doing that type of fence and then we realize when you go to a site um and there was discussion about it when you go to a site that is multiple hundreds of acres and asking to do a landscaping and I'm just using that as an example landscaping along there

and then the water it takes to water that landscaping, whether that's rainwater capture or fresh water or whatever, you really start putting the numbers together. And that's a that's a challenge just as it would be and I'm not opposed to that, but I think that is a challenge for us in the West Texas climate to continually enforce them to make sure it's maintained. Um because as soon as it stops maintaining or you have one that dies there and one that dies down here and one that dies over there, when do they have to go back and replace? It becomes a an an enforcement challenge for us that is a a city that we don't have all day every day to go and monitor large places like this. But we do want to do that upfront in the ordinance. How do we help mitigate some of those issues? Well, or that could be a condition u in our agreement that the tenant maintains that

right and we through the conditional use there's planning commission can add conditions uh depending on site specific you go back and you're by um certainly some of these areas um you know this this is right along the river here there's I think some u that's where our wastewater water plant is. Well, say if a data center wanted to move in there, um what are we doing to protect that neighborhood through the conditional use process? Same thing if they came over to this this property here. Uh what are we doing to protect these neighborhoods, these businesses in here if they wanted to come in with the data center? And that's why the conditional use process is important because it gets to sight specific where this ordinance is saying, "All right, in these districts, you have to follow these rules. We may add some more rules to the conditional use process, but we we want you to follow these rules just to start out with.

I I really appreciate having the baseline agreements. I mean, that's that was necessary. Yes, ma'am.

And so, this this whole ordeal has kind of forced our hand to come up with these ordinances. And you did a great job. I'm glad that planning and everybody is is on on board with all that and setting those baseline standards and then but having that uh opportunity with the conditional use every little thing. And while that may sound nitpicking to to some and why can't we just plan this out and you've got these conditions period or these topics and then there's no wiggle room. This does allow for more control and looked at every everything in there one at a time. And while that may sound tedious to me, it shows both flexibility along with some baseline restrictions. So, this is a good move. There's just so many I'm sorry. No, there's just so much in play with that. There's a lot of there's a lot of details.

Very. Yes, ma'am. Sorry. Just a quick question before we move to the other end of the table. U on something Patrick said. Can you go to your slide about um it was the slide about not the boom sounds but the the vibration sounds. We didn't even discuss your little bullet point at the bottom of the page. Low homes and vibrations can't trespass beyond the property line. So, if you could just Eric, please tell us how how about a little bit about sound dissipation over distance. How does that work?

Right. Well, sound does dissipate over distance, right? So, um, again, the the the sound study, uh, the first thing they do is am like an ambient sound study, like what what is in the sound engineer will likely recommend if it's a rectangular property like the skybox property, you know, you're doing a having a sound monitor on the north, south, east, and west to get a pretty good reading of what's happening because the the area adjacent to 67 is going to be a little louder than the south end of the property, right? So, you know what's happening. You'll know baseline what's happening there. And when they design um the the the layout of the buildings, the the where the sound's going to be coming from, um how they might they plan on how they might mitigate any sort of sound that's coming from one of the buildings, for example. Um so you might have um additional sound mitigation measures within a building uh on one side of the other. Um, so you have the baseline and you know I if a uh uh the sound coming from a building, it may be lower than the baseline, right? So you're really not having to do a whole lot of mitigation in that particular area on the south side of the property where there's not the highway. Yeah, they there may be sound emanating from a building that they have to mitigate for with with some way sound buffers, additional insulation in the building, however that happens. Um, so yeah, that the the idea is to not let sound travel uh beyond the property line. So it it stays within a reasonable range of uh the what the human ear can detect. And so you're not, you know, during construction, that's a different that's a different deal. And that's not what this is meant to regulate. It's during the operation of the buildings.

Sorry, let me go back and finish. Good.

Um, no. and Aaron and I know we've talked about it anytime I've talked to you about anything planning zoning you have always come to me with both sides like you said here's the issue with that here's the issue with this and you know then it's kind of up to us to to make decisions so I applaud you on that I know you have looked at that we disagree on the sideline that's but that's you know that's a lot of that's going to be personal opinions either way um so on these here so that bottom bullet point um so are we saying if I'm outside the property line I wouldn't can hear those noises. Can we clarify that a little bit? Like would I hear the road noise more than I would hear the low hum coming from there?

So yeah, my answer to that is past the property line. You would not hear those types of noises at that level. You might hear them, but they're going to right. You may hear them, but they would not register on a meter at that level. Okay. At the property line. And then back to the fencing. Back to Joe's point. So you said we do have orchanges or we don't on Joe's point on the fencing earlier.

Yes. In our fencing section, section 509, there is a clause that says if it's next to commercial areas that are adjacent to residential, you must have a 6ft opaque privacy fence. Um it does give an exclusion exclusion to ranch and estate. And it doesn't talk about industrial sites. Uh we have required most industrial sites that are new to come in with fencing if they're adjacent to a residentially zoned property. So that ordinance would not apply to this to any of these data centers that would come in from a additional use.

It would today. Yes, it would because that is our fencing ordinance. While in here we're talking about where should fencing be located. No. So right now if if one of these other properties, right, I'm not talking about that property. If it came in, there's an RS1 property beside it, they would be required, the Addison would be required to put a 6ft opaque fence. Yes.

Okay, I'm good with that. So my um my recommendations and not making a motion or anything, let everyone finish. Low frequency noise the same as regular frequency. Um, and I'm still going to push for the 300 set back to any RS to RM1 properties in my opinion. Not R& um, not other industrial manufacturing, but any RS to RM1. Thanks. I know you've worked hard on this and worked a long time. So, thank you. Thank you both. Harry. Well, if we get the right side of the DA to continue to talk, I won't have any questions.

It's good. It's all good. So in this particular case, I know this is this is a ordinance and as Patrick said, we want to make this the standard for West Texas, but in this particular case, how close is that resident in ETJ to the property line?

I don't have an exact distance for you, but I'm going to say they're probably close to that thousand ft based on that buffer. Um, we can go back and look at that image, but I don't have an exact distance and I've not measured that. So, if you're looking at a structure there and if that's a 200 foot, you're probably getting close to that,000 foot. Now, again, that's ETJ. Now, there is, if you can just barely see it because our red line is pretty bold, there is a house right there. Right there on the property line on the east side. I took pictures there at one point. Um, but those are ETJ properties, so they're not technically zoned anything. Uh, but that was a concern for our planning commission was to protect inside and outside the city limits with that side with that setback of any residential use. But to Patrick's point earlier when we talked about uh this type of property next to uh RS1 RM1 uh then I have to kind of agree with him. I want to make sure that we we follow the present fencing ordinance on that side. And I know that puts a little more impact on the uh business owner, but in the same token uh we're moving this business in where there's people already living there. So from my perspective, that's

and you've already answered the DB levels. So again, that group over there has answered most of my questions we're here for. All right. You ready for the fun? Yes, sir. Do you have a map that shows 21105 on the north end of town?

The answer is no. Okay. So, anyways, up there where it says 50th on the top, what's the white part? That's the ETJ. Okay. That is not in the city limits. Now, as the further west you go, the closer to the coliseum, that kind of does creep up and there's a portion of that uh that is within. So, I live on the north end of town. I live three houses away from 21105. That's the city limits. There used to be a nice beautiful wheat field across the street and the oil field hit. Yeah.

Back in 2012. Now it's developed with commercial buildings. 900 yards down the road from my house in the ETJ outside the city limits is a pipeard. And from 5:00 in the morning till midnight, we hear pipe cleaning all the time and there is nothing we can do about it. It's outside the city limits. So, I think you've done a very good job of setting the stipulations if it's inside the city limits. But what I want to reiterate is if it's outside the city limits, let's pull that map up where the property we're looking at. Property to the left where the house is, that's outside city limits. If someone put a data center there, there's nothing we could do. There's no stipulations on sound. There's no stipulations on setback. Correct.

That is correct. What about to the right side of the property? That's in the ETJ as well. Is there any stipulations that we we can't force them to build anything properly? We can't tell them they got to put a fence up in between residential, can we? That's correct. We cannot. Okay. I'm just making sure I'm thinking about this correct. And and again, even those properties we're talking about that's outside the cinema, do we have the ability to vote as citizens, as people on what those people do on their property? No. If a private property owner wants to sell their property,

I just I'm I'm just curious. There's a lot of fuzz out there. We we should vote on this. Well, that they bought that property. Whether it's inside the property, I mean, city limits or not, they can do what they want. If they're inside the city limits, they have to follow our stipulations, which is what we're setting up here. Correct. That is correct.

Okay. I I thank you. I mean, I I agree with the decibel stuff. We need to try to mitigate that. But again, they can go right outside there and there ain't nothing anybody can do about it. They can go across the highway and there's nothing we can do about it. So, I I that's that's all I have. I think the planning commission did a good job of setting up good rules for something that's inside the city limits. um that that helps protect the citizens if it's inside the city limits. But I want to reiterate to people that if it's not inside the city limits, there's nothing we can do. Oh, yeah. Thanks. That's all I had.

Mr. Heert, don't let an opportunity pass you by.

What I'm going to do is just state my preferences based on what we've already heard. This is not going to be anything new, but these are just my preferences. Uh I do like storm water recapture. I like that to be in in the ordinance. Um and mandate that. I do like the 55 dB uh at for for all be that uh the banging noise, the the low hum uh at the property line. I do like the 55 ft. Now, I'm gonna I'm gonna go down a path here. When When we first started talking about our preferences for setbacks, I wasn't at 100 ft. I wasn't at 200 feet. I wasn't at 300 ft. I wasn't at 400 ft. I was at 500 ft for a setback. Um, well, that didn't that that went over like the proverbial lead balloon. It didn't go anywhere. So, uh, I'm still going to like 500 ft, but it doesn't sound like we're going there. So, for me, 300 ft on setbacks. Um, to Karen's point, uh, I have gone out there and I've tried to drive around the property. You cannot get all the way around. I've gone down as far as I could go down one of the dirt roads. Um but um the current landscape I would hope they could maintain some of that because especially from the highway I would hate for us to make them clear that out if they didn't want to. So uh current landscape on properties that works for the proponent as well as fits within our ordinance. Uh maintain that. I want to go back to your first landscape. I think

it was the very first one you showed us with the circles and the trees and other things. Okay. Run. Run. Okay. Go to the next one. Go to the next one. That's There's just three, right? Yes, sir.

Okay. I like number one. That That's my preference is is number one. That's my preference. Um, I like Patrick's um protection of RS and RM. I pre I prefer that. I prefer the fencing be decided at the planning commission. With the discussion we've had up here, I think they need to have that ability to make those decisions when they see the site plan, when they have the the the actual piece of property, wherever it may be. I like for them to be able to make those fencing decisions. Um, that's all I've got. Mayor,

any more questions down here? Mary, Carrie, Patrick, heard a lot of input from everybody here um from people outside of this in a very neutral way looking in. Planning has probably designed the most comprehensive, restrictive, protective set of guard rails that's ever been built for a data center. Uh, I I've I've seen that. I've heard that from people. I know people want to heckle that. But it's um from the people that look at this and go through, there are things here they've never seen before. You know, the one thing I don't want to see when we fly in at night is I don't want to see it, you know, from there. I said, make sure and in the light trespass noise, everything they've done through here has been uh very very comprehensive. Um people are going to try to poke holes in it here and there. Um, I like the idea of the setback when you're against an RS1. I don't think that applies much to this property here. I know the two land owners beside it. Um, the one who's right next door to it, I've seen three times in the past three days. Um, they're hoping this deal goes through. Um, they're on with another set and a go. So, they get that, but that doesn't negate the need for anybody within proximity this would affect. And I think those are minimal. Now clarify with me. For conditional use, we're talking about just this property here, correct?

It would be for any property that's zoned light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. They would have a requirement to go through a conditional use at planning commission. Right. So, if we wanted something specific to this property, how would that be addressed?

So, specific to properties, you either do it through the conditional use process through a condition based on what their site has presented to staff to work through. are we really need more protections because there is this neighborhood right here beside this or whatever the case is. There's this major roadway right here that allows additional conditions to be placed um through the initial property. That's also through the 380 agreement through the um agreement with the property owners if they choose to buy the property. Okay. So, let's look at what we flagged here this morning. We flagged the low frequency noise at 200 ft at the property line.

Yeah, we said 55 decel. Is that correct for that? Correct. That change. Michelle said 55 on that was good with that. 200 ft. Okay. Um the notification zone, I get that. But in reference of this, I don't know how far who that's going to hit and how far you'd have to take that. If you're making that just to go hit somebody, that could be mile away. Um,

yeah, in a different setting, that's that's very important in this one. As far as being practical, I I just don't know what you would have to do for that. And Karen, if you have a suggestion on that, I mean, if if you have an ask on a distance, you know, please, you know, move that one forward and talk with it. Um, the testing and discharge is going to go into the water. um the density of the habitat. Um Shane, correct me if I'm wrong. Previous lease owners that had this property wanted us to clear the brush. Would love for us to clear the mosques. Some of them have done it and not been compensated for it. But we get it that they don't have to clear it. And if that help maintains the natural habitat, I I understand. We shouldn't force that on them. And if it and it helps them, that's fine. Um Patrick's hits the um 200 set back the noise. I think you just go back and kick in the 55 dB um low frequency noise. Eric, you did a wonderful job of pointing out this is mostly an HVAC issue and how things are air cooled run by fans. I think they've talked about that a couple times before where they ran into low frequency noise and they just engineered it out and moved a fan. I mean, that's that's something everybody's cognitive about and nobody would want low frequency noise. Um, I I definitely want to follow up with the adjacency to an RS uh RM neighborhood. I think that applies. Um, we have to look at what we're doing here versus practical for certain areas, others, and that's why we went with a conditional use. Um, now my question is, we flagged those five items. the rest of this um has gone through and we've all done our due diligence and people in the audience have gone through hours and hours of research. That's what I ask. How many hours have y'all probably put into this? If you had the I mean because a lot of people say this is fast forward. We've been a year at this.

So I just want how many hours do you think planning has spent because I'm curious because I don't think you've gotten credit for the hours that you've spent. I I think the word is significant. Uh, it's hard to put a number to it because there's been I mean every night 400 hours is it 200 hours? Is it a thousand hours? I

I wouldn't say a thousand hours, but I would say it's probably around 100 to 150 hours because every night I sit and I try to research data centers. What's the real scientific research on data centers? Not what's on Facebook, not what's on some other news site. What's the scientific data for data centers that have been around for a very long time? um what what can be the the right thing. And so I've spent a lot of time I know Eric and his team has been a lot of uh there's been a whole team. It's not just us by any means. There's a whole team and then uh you know we've had others citizens have actually looked at this and said no this is what we think. We've worked with Chris Kinsey who's in the data center business and has been in West Texas New Mexico forever. and I say forever, but he's been here for 40 years doing data center stuff and says this is what works and what can't work. Uh

in addition to the 60 hours a week you're already putting in. Yes. Somewhere. So let's let's stick to the question here.

You put in a lot of time. Everybody's put in that time. I mean, when this whole thing started well over a year ago, you know, we all came to a learning process and we've all had a um I was say a baptism by fire, trying to learn what we can and there's a point of doing and looking at what's factual versus what has cognitive bias and opinion to it and that is the hardest thing to decipher. Now, the question is there's a lot of great work that's been done here. Do we move forward with what we have and pull the four or five items to come back and to move forward maybe with the other amendments that are going to come with water and go ahead and move this forward as is. Brandon,

so seemed to me that a lot of what y'all had suggested are numerical type changes where we're just changing a number except for the storm water recapture. And I I'm not sure that's addressed or if that would be addressed in the water utility type.

I think we would address it in the landscaping section because that's kind of what it would be for is that they would be required to have that system set up. I do think that's a very simple edit to the language um to add to that section. So, so with that in mind, the water that has to be used to treat on the inside of any data center is very specific and highly filtered. Water capture on this would we're looking at using that for landscaping. Correct.

Same thing with gray water. I mean, if there's any way that these people could come back and use and reclaim and do something of that, we we need to look at asking them to do that and move it forward. But when when I get to this point, that's the only one that we couldn't move forward on on an answer. Well, I mean, I think we can move forward on it. Um, it's just I if we're considering the water and utility sections anyways, I mean, maybe it's just we table it and and consider it all at once on first reading. um or uh with just those numerical changes. I mean, you can go ahead and pass that today and we can make those changes. So,

well, I don't think anybody here is arguing that we want some numerical that we don't want numerical changes. We do want some numerical changes. And Heather mentioned, I mean, we could bring the second reading back on regular agenda, too, so we can have the full-blown discussion with the corrections on the second reading. Yeah. Okay. Can I make a motion with it on there and see if it if everybody likes that? Well, hold on a sec. Is everybody through asking questions? Yes, sir. All right. Everybody done? Can I got one? Can I touch on notification? Sure. So, I sat on planning for a long time and that's always a challenge. We would send out notification 200 feet. It's standard

and people would be like, "Well, I didn't get notified." Well, they may get their mail somewhere else or it's under someone else's name. um we would only have one or two people show up. Now, I know this is different, but um we talked about expanding that. Well, then you also increase the cost for mailing it out and then you still only get one or two people show up. So, I I I understand what you're saying about it needs to be notified at 200 ft might be iffy on especially something like our example out there since it's so rural, but in town you would get a lot more actual notification and again it just increased the cost and you don't get

much more activity out of it. 100% correct. However, this has been so controversial. It was just a thought. Is it all all adjacent properties? I don't mean beyond layers and layers beyond, but just the ones that touch that property. Is it a bigger sign? Is it both? You know, a little sign, a little yard sign's not enough. It needs to be a big sign. Uh maybe we could invest in that. I don't know the answer. It was just a question. Could we also add

Yes, it was. I'm just trying to think of every possible way add more element of being able to accept it but put on our Facebook or website you know that these items are be seeking you know reszoning or

public information and I mean this whole thing's on YouTube and everything else there. Mayor, if I may, we're we're required to do that by the state anyway. And so we do that all the time. And our state requirement for a sign for reszonings is a 4 by8 sign. And that's that's a pretty good size sign now. So we do those things today. Um and it again it is how do you get public engagement to come and talk about things that may impact them until it's until it's too late. Say it's always after the fact that they show up. Oh, okay. No, thank you, Erin.

Okay. Um, as the mayor and with the political climate, um, this this bullet's on me, um, and Patrick, I know you will, I'm gonna make this motion, uh, to approve as presented that we also come back and address the changes brought up today. Yeah, but we'll have that after the motion. And so we'll go through and do that and certainly we'll take into consideration the items of public. But I'm going to go ahead and make the first motion with the adjustments on the I was fixing to say the decibb, the sound, and everything else. What else did we talk about specifically? And the setbacks.

So I have setbacks, decibel sounds. Yes, sir. um the uh storm water recapture, making sure that the fencing is applied and the to the separation between the RS districts and the RM1 districts. That's a key one. Okay. There anything I missed from anyone? I don't think so. That's motion number one. I'm looking for a second. Second. Okay, Heather, let's go to public comment. Michael Lee,

I don't know if Leak's here.

Shelby Sturm. Good morning. Almost good afternoon. My name is Shelby Sturm. I am a county resident and I am a property owner in Miss Mary Coffey's district. I encourage you to please look at the Greater Edwards Aquafer Alliance report that detailed the guard rail recommendations for local governments like the city of San Angelo. The citizens need you to be responsible stewards for our resources and not just do what you think is right for business, although that is very important to us as well. We do not oppose progress. I want to make that clear. I know I'm being a thorn in the side. I believe our zoning ordinances should heir on the side of caution. I did not hear any proposed limitation to lumens admitted. Privacy fence lines should be as important in rural areas as in city limits and butdding up to the residential areas. Please, we light travels, noise travels out there. I am a couple of miles away by roadway, but as the crow flies, we see dar I believe it's Darling Industries already. We're going to see this as well. The setback distance should be a standard depth regardless whether it is industrial or residential. Please, I'm reaching out to you. 500. I would support that wholeheartedly. I love it. I get that that might not be reasonable, but can we

please, for the love of God, do 200 f feet regardless across the board. I would encourage us to meet or exceed EPA recommendations on the noise pollutions at the data cent's property line, not the residential property line, and consider all situational impacts, including livestock and wildlife, including the low decibel vibrations. Just because the human ear cannot hear these frequencies does not mean that the body doesn't feel it and it doesn't impact other things like windows vibrating in houses. I would like zoning to reconsider or to consider the fire response readiness. National article 480 reggg for all battery systems. The batteries installed in the best systems are five 1500 volts and do not comply right out the gate. In article 501 is hazardous locations. The definitions of these that they may catch fire and emit co toxins is by very definition of class one location. Another safety of another level of safety compliance that is required. The way that the batteries are being constructed do not comply with article 110. The wiring standards in article 480, the series connected, does not comply with article 501 hazardous class.

Please consider those. No, you you've been heard. I'm I'm with you. There's several things that you said that great. I'm not supposed to respond, but thank you very much. Thank you.

You bet. No, thank you, Shelby. Richard Summers. Again, I'm Richard Summers. I speak to you as a resident of SMD5 and a passionate community volunteer such as when I help feed the homeless breakfast at First Presbyterian Church and carry forward that passion to protect my city from possible unforeseen major consequences due to a hastily approved hypers scale infrastructure. In your folders, you should have a list of items that have been recommended to be added. If you're going to call them just numeric, call them whatever you wish, but these have been uh designed as sensible and pragmatic proposed design regulation improvements. They've been submitted to you by an experienced planning professional and a resident who was unable to attend this meeting today. As an IT professional, I would add two things. First of all, I strongly urge you to add AI training computing to the cryptocurrency prohibitions. It is the second most powerful compute energy user and should not be allowed. Also, I'm astounded that there was no mention made today of the fact that the computers are major contributors to the humming at the low frequencies. That needs to be considered. It's not

just the fans on the roof. The building is full of vibrating computers and they do contribute to that. And there are records showing some people have claimed, and I know this is just a claim, but they don't know yet. It's just something new, that they go into these places and they spend significant time near the servers and they start feeling symptoms of sickness. That needs to be checked. I think that we need to remember we're not the only biologicals here. All of these things affect pets. They affect agricultural stock in the area and they affect the wild creatures that still don't understand what we're doing out there to their land. I think these need to be studied. And finally, in terms of getting citizen participation, stop chattering about the tokens. Do studies, do research, do your homework. go out there and stop looking at wasn't what doesn't work and start looking for what does result in participation from the community. It's not they don't want to. It's just a lot of the time, especially in regard to things like this and like the people that are doing the consideration for policy changes, they don't know what's going on until it's too late. Thank you.

Thank you, Richard. Liz Landers. Liz.

Hi, I'm Liz Landers. I am live on the now infamous Kenwood Drive. Um, I will say and I have to say that my experience with the planning commission has lately been okay, but to begin with was pretty awful. So, my skepticism is very honest about the things that they are proposing. Um, I know they've taken the water out of this, but water's the thing. Water is incre so incredibly important in Midland. They can take 15 minute showers. Who are we going to have as the shower police? And do they need a raincoat? Because I have one from Louisiana. It's really good. I can loan it to them. Um I agree that 200 yards is not enough. There are some things we had a really great meeting at our club last night that um if you want to look at some of the things that are being done, it is not true that the county can't do anything because there's a lot they can do. And there's a group out of Gillespie County that is making huge inroads and what should not be happening to their community like putting um battery the best battery centers near schools or any of this where it can harm a child. While you are talking about one data center right now, you are making the rules that will apply to any that want to come into this town. I happen to love St. age low and I probably have a background that go predates anybody here. So, I can tell you that I have spent my summers here growing up. I have lived here before in the '9s. Um, they almost killed Dove Creek and if we had not intervened, they would have and Dove Creek wouldn't exist. So, we were we worked really hard

with the water masters. We worked with all the farmers and ranchers and we were able to maintain it and preserve the two endangered species that live there, which I didn't even know until then because that was not really our priority. It was to not kill it and to support all the animals and wildlife there. So, um I will tell you that um I would like to know there's some things I'd like to know is what is the um if there is an emergency at this site, how far do you have to evacuate? I know with an in uh battery uh facility, it's 20 miles, which means that anything in the city that has those batteries, we will all have to leave. And then there are government entities that come in and take over and the police chief and the fire chief are no longer in charge. Um, do we have rescue and containment ability for this if it fails? And as far as I know they keep trying to um well, I've got more. If you want to know, ask me.

Thank you, Liz. Thank you. Next. Okay. So, we've heard public comment. We've got a first by me, a second by Joe. We've heard public comment. Now, we'll start through and go with a vote. We will take this individually. Brandon, does that suggest or take it all at once? Okay, let's go and do individual. We'll start down there. Mary, yay. Or an A. Yay. Carrie,

I'd like to say yay, but I Liz brought up some interesting things. I Is there a way to handle that in the next meeting? We're making a vote on what we've seen today. What we've seen today? Okay. Yes. So, what is it? What are you? Yes. Patrick? Yes. I'm a Yes. Yes. Joe? Yes. Tommy. Yes. Motion carry 70.