Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to board of supervisors joint meeting with planning commission Thursday January 15 2026 6 pm board meeting room 39 Bank Street Southeast Chattam Virginia 24531 Madame Clerk call the role please Mr. Bowman here Mr. Brown here Mr. Dalton here Mr. Dudley present Mr. Mr. Whittle here. Mr. Ingram here. Mr. Tucker here. Thank you so much. Uh Mr. Web, would you call your role please? If I have you clear,

please call the roles planning commission. Mr. S. Mr. Barts, Mr. Ferris here, Miss Me here. Mr. Oaks here. Mr. Shelton here. Miss Henderson here. Mr. Web here. Thank you so much. All right, we move to agenda item number three. Any items to be added to the agenda? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for the approval of the agenda. Mr. Chairman, I'll make that motion. Thank you, Mr. Ingram. I'll second it.

Thank you, Mr. Dalton. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. Cast your votes, please. Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. [clears throat] We move to item five, public hearings. Item 5A, other public hearings. Each person addressing the board under a public hearing shall step up, give his or her name and district and or his or her place of residency for non county citizens in an audible tone of voice for the record and unless further time is granted by the chairman shall limit his her address to three minutes. Speakers for a group shall be limited to 10 minutes. Speakers shall conclude their remarks at that time unless the consent of the board is affirmatively given to extend the speaker's allotted time. Absent chairman's approval, no person shall be able to speak who has not signed up.

All right. Point of order. Mr. Chairman, I believe that the planning commission has to approve their agenda as well. I apologize. Thank you. All right, Mr. Web. The chair is now open for a motion on the agenda. Thank you, Mr. Shelton. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Oaks. Is there any other motions, discussions, or comments? If not, please cast your vote. Mr. Ferris, yes. Miss Me, yes. Mr. Oaks, yes. Mr. Shelton, yes. Miss Henderson. Yes. And Mr. Web. Yes.

All right. Thank you so much. We just read the uh the notice there. So, let's see. Item 5A1, public hearing, Pennsylvania County Code, chapter 35, zoning ordinance, text amendments and zoning map amendments. Uh, Mr. Evans, please. Yes, Mr. Chairman. This is a matter that was initiated by the uh Pittsy County Board of Supervisors for a uh amendment to the zoning ordinance to create a specific zoning district that would encompass uh specific uh types of of projects and that would cover a specific area uh that was previously designated for um development and heavy industry in the county. Um the the uh actual text of those that amendment has been provided in your packet. The text um focuses on a a ease of access to the use of those prop of the properties that are affected and streamlines the process by which um a the property can be used for specific types of uses. Um this is not an action that is um not been in in

I guess has been discussed by boards over the years. This is this is an action that uh creates a special a special situation for a specific part of the county that has been uh as in comprehensive plans and and in development plans. um would it is anticipated that this prop this these properties that would be affected uh are to be used for these specific uses. And so it simply makes it easier for industries to look at those properties for potential economic development projects that impact the county. Um, so, uh, it's already been dis dis uh, I guess addressed by by the board in in a previous meeting and, uh, you should all have a copy of the the changes that are that are being proposed.

Thank you, Mr. Evans. Mr. Web, I'll defer to you. I consist just to open the public hearing. Yes. Yes. The public hearing is now open. Uh who is the first on the list? Jeff Love.

Jeff Love, Stanton River District. Per the county website, the agenda for tonight's meeting was only posted yesterday, Wednesday, January 14th, at 3:03 p.m. The objective to of tonight's meeting includes forcing the creation of a new zoning district and immediately changing 3,500 acres to the new zoning district. Through tonight's quickly developed joint meeting, the board of supervisors and the planning commission are intentionally bypassing proper procedures and are demonstrating to county citizens that they cannot be trusted. The proposed new zoning district called MSVMS allows nearly any industry with essentially no restrictions whatsoever. By permitted uses include data centers and on-site power generation. The list of byright permitted uses within this new zoning district shows that this board doesn't value our environment, doesn't value value our natural resources, doesn't value the preservation of the rural nature of our county, and demonstrates a clear disregard for the wishes of county citizens. It's clear that the board wants the ability to place projects such as Balico anywhere in the county without citizen involvement. Before making such a substantial change, the following is the proper procedure which the board is disregarding. One, the comprehensive plan revision must be completed first. Two, after the comprehensive plan is adopted, the zoning revision process can commence. New zoning districts may be considered during the zoning revision process as long as they are in line with the comprehensive plan and are in line with the wishes of the majority of county citizens. The board doesn't understand current

heavy industry since none have lived near or within a heavy industrial area. I have lived in such an area and understand the negative impacts of air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and light pollution. These pollutants negatively affect health, environment, properties, farms, livestock, crops, wildlife, and quality of life. Everything will be coated with and damaged by industrial pollutants. This heavily polluted environment will cause increased risk of cancer and other major health issues. 30 seconds remaining.

The board is quickly attempting to force substantial changes so that they can do whatever they want to do, wherever they want to do it, anywhere in the county. Quickly forcing the creation of a new zoning district and then immediately forcing a zoning change to the new zoning district is completely unethical and potentially illegal. If you have morals, ethics, and values, you will vote no. County citizens are watching. Three minutes is complete. Who's next? Katie Whitehead. [cough] And she is requesting 10 minutes to speak. Um, she's speaking on behalf of the Dan River Basin Association.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board of supervisors, planning commissioners, and the county administrator, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Katie Whitehead, and I am here as a representative of the Dan River Basin Association, or DARBA as the organization is nicknamed. For those of you who are not familiar with DARPA, we are a nonprofit organization that has been working in our region for almost a quarter of a century protecting and preserving the Dan River watershed which flows through 16 counties, Aiden Virginia and Aiden North Carolina. We work hand inand with most of our regional governments knowing that decisions made by any municipality throughout our watershed directly impact those downstream from it. DARBA is not a typical nonprofit. We were formed by citizens who believe that economic development and industry can go hand in hand with environmental protection when growth is approached thoughtfully with careful consideration of people, place and timing. I want to be clear that DARPA is not opposed to economic development. Rather, we support carefully considered growth that provides meaningful and lasting benefits while preserving the natural assets and contribute and that contribute to the quality of life and

long-term economic vitality of Pennsylvania county, ensuring it remains a healthy and desirable place to live, work, and visit. You are gathered tonight to consider a vote on a proposed zoning amendment at Barry Hill, and we respect the weight of that responsibility and the care you bring to decisions that will shape Pennsylvania county. as elected and appointed um leaders, you were entrusted by our community.

Excuse me, Miss Whitehead. Can you raise the mic so that they may hear you at home?

I hope you've been hearing me. Um as elected officials, you were entrusted by our community to help the county thrive both today and well into the future. The actions taken here this evening will have lasting consequences that extend beyond the present moment and will be felt by generations who call this county home. Thank you for your time and for your service to the county. And I will now read the comments we provided to the supervisors and the county administrator through email for public record. Dear members of and the Pittsy County Board of Supervisors and County Administrator, we are writing to respectfully request additional time for the public to fully review and consider the proposed zoning amendment at the Berry Hill mega site scheduled for a vote at the board of supervisors meeting on Thursday, January 15, 2026 at 6 p.m. We are concerned about the pace at which this amendment is moving forward and whether there has been sufficient opportunity and for public input and for constituents vo voices to be fully heard. Given the significant implications for public health, community well-being, and potential potential negative impact to the environment, zoning changes of this magnitude deserve careful,

transparent, and deliberate consideration. Residents need sufficient time to review the language, understand the implications, consult experts if necessary, and provide informed public input. Moving forward without allowing this process undermines public trust and risks unintended long-term consequences for the county. We respectfully urge the board to delay action on this amendment and allow additional time for thorough review, public engagement, and refinement of the proposed regulations to ensure that they truly safeguard public health, environmental quality, and the long-term interests of Pennsylvania Thank you for your consideration and for your service to the county. We appreciate your attention to these concerns and hope you will allow the time necessary to make a well-informed decision. Sincerely, Tiffany Hayworth, executive director, Dan River Basin Association. I am honored to represent this organization and read this letter and I thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you. Did this thing did it fall down all by itself? [laughter] Okay. All right. Yes. Thank you. [applause] Amy Walker and she's also requested 10 minutes. She's going to speak on behalf of the Coalition for the Protection of Pennsylvania County. Good evening. Yes, I am Amy Walker. I live in the Kalis Gretina district and yes I am speaking on behalf of the coalition for the birth in the county.

Okay. When we have blank checks we hold on to them tight because we know how we need that ability to control how they're used. But when we pass along a bank a blank check we relinquish our control. that authority is transferred which can result in great cost and harm and unintended consequences. I share that analogy because I see the correlation with the proposed by zoning in your request and specifically as it applies to data centers and power generation. Is the mega site a possible location for data centers and power generation? Absolutely. And we know, you know, we stated over and over during balico that they belong in industrial parks and we thank you for hearing us. However, what is the danger if you give them by right status? The argument for this change is to make development easier. But is that what we really want? I would argue it could be the equivalent of opening Pandora's box. So I want us to look at this in light of the county slogan slogan business savvy people friendly. Let's look at businesss savvy. When someone is business savvy and ensures smart decisions and growth a CEO must maintain oversight and decisionmaking ability in order to stay on mission and have a successful company. Yet if one is to relinquish that, that places that mission and the health of the organization in jeopardy. We know that data centers can be an

invasive industry and could overexpand at the mega site and ne negatively impact the development of other industries. Diversification is important and in fact it is critical. There's a danger, you know, when you place all your eggs in one basket. Technology is constantly changing. What happens if down the road those centers are no longer operating? We know that data centers can require excessive quantities of water and energy. Therefore, the type, the size, and the number should be kept in check to minimize the strain on these resources. Okay, let's look at the second half of that slogan. People friendly. We know that data centers and power plants produce pollution that impacts surrounding local locations. Once again, showing the importance of oversight on the type, the size, and the number. And finally, people friendly should mean a mega site that produces a wealth of job opportunities, something which data centers typically fail to do. They offer a minimum number of jobs in a very narrow skill set range. And then you look at micro pores who is looking at adding 2100 jobs that vary everything from from manufacturing to warehousing from HR to accounting and the list goes on and on. You know, data centers offer very attractive tax revenue. No one can deny that. However, tax revenue does not pay a mortgage, does not make a car payment, does not put food on the table. Jobs do.

Therefore, I urge you to exclude data centers and power generation from your list of byright uses in this request. Otherwise, you're handing over a blank check and potentially setting the groundwork for unintentional consequences and the county's mission to unintended consequences to the county's mission and to its residents. I say let's keep Pennsylvania County business savvy and people friendly. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you. [applause] Tracy Love. Good evening. Uh Tracy Love from the Ston River District and you've seen me up here before. This is not the first time that I've stood before you. Over the last few years, I've been excited about local government, especially in the last year with changes that I've seen actually happen that I've seen the board of supervisors listening to the people of the county speaking out. I I was excited when we were told that we were going to be looking at revisiting the comprehensive plan and that there's going to be a stakeholders uh group and people from the community were going to be invited to be part of that. people were going to be told about things in meetings, town hall meetings, that there was going to be transparency. That excited me. The comprehensive plan is the foundation for our county. To have a strong comprehensive plan shows where we should be going. How can we make these changes now without with jumping over those steps of our comprehensive plan and reviewing our

zoning? We need to do our comprehensive plan. Revisit the entire zoning for the county and address these things in the proper order. Not put big band-aids on and rewrite little sections just to suit us now for some reason that the people of the county don't know about. I feel like we have not been sharing the reasons behind all of this. I feel like the transparency that we were promised is gone. We've been asked to trust our board of supervisors. It's very hard to trust when promises aren't being kept up.

30 seconds remaining. So, please, please reconsider how we're going to step forward here. Please reconsider going back to basics, rebuild our foundation with the help of the citizens of Pennsylvania County instead of providing by right zoning for big corporations. Thank you. Three minutes is complete. [applause]

Ellen Atinson. Hi, I'm Ellen Atinson. I'm from uh I live in Danville, but I do work at Tunl and and go in and out of uh Pennsylvania County all the time. [clears throat] What I have to say is in line with what everybody has said so far. Please do not approve. I thank you for the opportunity of being able to speak with you guys to you guys. Please do not approve reszoning the Virginia mega site at Berry Hill with buy uses such as data centers or gas compressor stations, both of which have already been denied in the area. Alarmingly, there's no little or no restriction on facility sizes and no limits on water demands. At the very least, please delay your decision. The county website has not been working well the last couple of days and not able to provide the agenda or whatever other information should be available tonight. Please focus on allowing businesses producing items and services people need and want which are good for the environment. Don't be shills for whoever actually thinks data centers or fossil fuels anything. Remember climate change are what should be built here. I'm pretty sure whoever's pushing for these shenanigans are not local. We have a beautiful county. Let's keep it this way. [applause]

Gary Ferguson.

Good evening. Welcome. Good evening. How y'all doing? My name is Gary Ferguson. I live at 7-Eleven Massie Creek Road in Madison, North Carolina. In the late 80s, uh me and a group of fishermen from Danville got tired of sliding our boats down a muddy bank and we lobbyed the city of Danville to build us a boat ramp. That boat ramp now is Angller's Park. I'm sure y'all know about it. I've seen the Dan River be damaged, drained, coal spilled. Uh, and this past Monday, I went to a county commissioners meeting in Stokes County, and they reszoned 1,800 acres of land for a 5 to 6 million square feet data center. That's going to drain more water from the river. There's not enough water in it now to float your boat. Over the years, it's when I was younger, you could get over your head quick. Now, you can't even float a boat. So, I'm saying you need to protect your river. You can look up Project Delta is is a data center that's going to be built in Stokes County. And it's just it's these data centers, if you'll do your homework, they take a tremendous amount of water, which is everybody needs water. If you ain't got no clean water, you don't have life. Uh, so I'm asking y'all to rethink this. These these gas lines coming in here. They're for export. They're not nobody in

that hadn't got gas now needs any more gas. So, uh, just y'all need to slow down. Thank you for your time. [applause] Lexi Shellhorse and she's requesting 10 minutes. She's going to speak on behalf of the concerned citizens of Chalk Level and the Friends of Whittleles. Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening. I'm Lexi Shellhorse. Um the Kalen's Gretner District. Over the last year and a half, Pennsylvania County has experienced something very important, a real awakening among its citizens. People are more engaged in county business, more interested in how decisions are made, and more invested in understanding how major projects impact their quality of life. There is a growing thirst for knowledge about what's coming, how it's approved, and how citizens fit into that process. And that's exactly what we're doing tonight. It's what tonight represents, open discussion and citizen engagement. I want to begin by thanking the board for the openness and communication that many of you have shown to citizens, including those of us representing different groups throughout the county. Last year, we stood before the board publicly asking that economic development be directed towards existing industrial parks, including those that are underutilized or currently vacant, in an effort to protect our rural communities. It appears that the board has heard those concerns and is working to push development towards areas already intended for industrial use, and that effort is appreciated. We understand that there are times when county officials and economic development staff must operate within confidential circumstances. We recognize this is necessary to remain competitive to protect negotiations and attract investment. At the same time, we believe that trust is built when confidentiality and transparency are thoughtfully balanced so that citizens remain informed and confident in the

decisions being made on their behalf. That balance is essential for local government and the citizens to work together effectively. Citizens are paying close attention when public statements suggest there is no potential client behind the reasonzoning request while widespread discussion and reporting indicate other otherwise. It creates a perception of inconsistency. Citizens are not naive and when information feels incomplete or contradictory, trust is lost. We believe transparency within the bounds of what is legally possible is critical to maintaining public confidence. As development proposals evolve, it becomes increasingly important to focus on the details because it's often in the details that long-term consequences are created. Tonight, many citizens have heard the phrase by right use. Before going further, it is important to clearly define what that means because most people understandably don't know. By right use means that once land is zoned in a certain way, specific types of development are automatically permitted. These projects can move forward without additional public hearings or discretionary approval from this board as long as baseline requirements are met. By use can include things like power plants, large data centers, and other high impact industrial operations. Once allowed, these uses significantly limit the county's ability to influence scale, location, operating conditions, and long-term impacts. Our concern tonight is not opposition to progress. In fact, many citizens are excited by the potential for job creation and advanced manufacturing. Pennsylvania County has a strong history of skilled labor and manufacturing and many of us would

welcome a revival of those opportunities. The concern lies specifically in the language of the proposed zoning changes and the long-term implications by use can cultivate serious problems for the future. We don't have to speculate. We can look to other counties that adopted similar approaches and later had to reverse course when impacts escalated beyond expectations. In March of 2025, Lowden County amended their comprehensive plan to eliminate data centers as by use within their county altogether. In December, the Campbell County Board of Supervisors voted 52 to adopt an emergency ordinance requiring data center developers to apply for special use permit, effectively eliminating by approval for those projects. Prince William County officials are currently engaged in active debate over the same issue. Once by permissions are granted, it becomes difficult for elected officials to maintain meaningful oversight. That brings us to the heart of the problem. By rightight use risks shifting decisionmaking power away from the board, the very people citizens elect to represent them and away from public participation in shaping what our county becomes. We do not believe that loss of control is the healthiest outcome for Pennsylvania county or its residents. We respectfully ask the board to require a special use permit for any industrial projects that will have significant impacts on communities and citizens of the county. We also asked the board to be proactive, not reactive when it comes to light pollution, noise pollution, air quality, water protection, and environmental consequences. The information disclosed last week about a $2 million cleanup for a dump site in Herk is a powerful reminder of

what can happen when oversight falls short and responsibility becomes unclear. Today, we know far more about pollution and its effects than we did a decade ago. With that knowledge comes responsibility. Citizens need their board and county staff to be involved not just at the approval stage but throughout construction enforcement of profers and ongoing operations. And finally, I want to be very clear about our intent. The citizens of this county are asking the board to play chess, not checkers. The citizens are desirous of collaboration. We are here because we care deeply about this county. We want to be informed, heard, and involved. We believe when citizens and their elected leaders work together thoughtfully, and transparently, Pennsylvania can grow economically without sacrificing the rural character and quality of life that make it home. That is why we all came here tonight. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. [applause] Ben Davenport. Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening. Evening.

So, you're going to hear a different side to this. Uh, I'm a businessman, Ben Davenport, and I live in Chattam, 121 Reed Street. And uh one of the things I'm hearing more and more about our about our county is how effective and how nimble and how quickly we're able to operate our county and and deal with with going forward. We have in place the state agencies which are important to keep checks and balances on the quality of anything that deals with the environment and and they [clears throat] do a terrific job of doing that. So, you know, I I used to I talk about how things happen and how you have an opportunity. I kind of think about a train coming by and an express train and and you have an option to get on it or not. And uh and so you you a lot of times you have one opportunity to really do something. And you know, we've been dealing with this uh with this berry hill property for an extremely long period of time relative to the way I think uh it's over over the years and we've invested a lot of money. now we have the opportunity to develop it and uh and so I'm I say kudos to uh to the change in zoning and and that uh I I applaud moving forward with uh with with changing this so that in fact we can take advantage of every opportunity that that comes that fits with our county. and I'm and I'm satisfied that uh that our developers will make sure and you will make sure that that's exactly what happens. So, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dort. Julie, I don't want to pronounce your last name wrong. Well, I think that's okay. That's all. Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Julie Nenan. My name's not spelled the way it's pronounced. Um, I'm from Chattam, Virginia. I live in Seven Court Place and I grew up here and I've recently returned after several years. And in catching up with old friends, I've really been surprised at how often the issue of zoning has come up. Not your normal conversation when you're sitting around with your girlfriends. But also, I've been surprised at the level of frustration and the anger that comes up when we're talking about zoning. And almost universally, it comes from a point where people feel like they're not being heard. And so, there are many issues around zoning and businesses and so forth. And I think everyone here is looking for greater economic growth. But they're concerns about whether or not as constituents, as voters, that their concerns are being heard and that as publicly elected officials, that you're being respectful of their their concerns. And this sort of gets to a lack of trust that is emerging, which is sad. You know, we should be a tight-knit community. We're a small community. We're a cordial community. And we should have this trust and this give and take between elected officials and voters. And for that reason, I really ask that you engage in greater public discourse. You know, it doesn't mean that we can't be nimble. It doesn't mean that we can't be progrowth, but it does mean that we can set things up in a way that people feel like they're heard and their concerns are addressed. And so, I respectfully ask that you increase the amount of public debate. And thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you. [applause] Now I have Ben Davenport again. Is there another Ben Davenport or is that just Okay. Michael Kendrick.

Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening. My name is Michael Kendrick. Uh Tonto District U. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight. Uh the main reason I came is the quickness of how this all came together. It doesn't smell right to me. Doesn't look right to me. And it gives me the impression that something's already been decided before any of us talk tonight. I hope that's not the case. I hope you give the citizens an opportunity to speak to look into this. Accord the time we've been given, we don't have time to look into this. You know, this is rushed on. The way this meeting has come together leads us to believe that me believe that, hey, we're going to do this thing. We're going to let y'all talk, but we've already decided what we're going to do. So I ask that the board and everyone here tonight respectfully step back and give us citizens an opportunity to look at why you want to change all this. We want economic uh development. We want growth. Uh for years and years we've heard we're going to bring thousands of high-paying jobs to this mega park. It does not only uh affect Pennsylvania county, it affects Damville as well. It's a joint venture. So, as citizens, we'd like to know, hey, what's on the what's on y'all's mind? What what are we looking at? Is it something we can embrace and will bring a lot of jobs, or is it something that's going to take a more from the community community than it gives back? We got two major uh creeks that run through this area. We got several branches. They all dump into Dan River. So, that's a consideration. whatever we bring in there, is it going to, you know, how much is it going to consume from our uh area? What's it going to take from us? Uh some things aren't worth uh what the what what the cost is. So, as citizens,

we'd like to know a little bit more about this and as other people have covered all the different dimensions. Uh that's all I'm asking is a little bit more time for the citizens to look at what y'all are trying to do and and so we can uh have a feelood uh feeling about this. Thank you. Thank you, sir. [applause] That's all, Mr. Chairman. That's all.

All right. Is there any questions, comments from the commissioners? Chair is now open for a motion on the resoning amendment. Mr. Chairman, um there's a resolution that we've been passed around. I would make a motion that we recommend that the uh board of supervisors uh pass that resolution as it pertains to the 3499.99 acres [clears throat] compromise uh comprised of tax parcels 13567537 1356 80 4414 1356 82 6276 1366 54 59 96 6 1366 89 2116 1367056253 and and 1367301931 the me the mega site I I recommend or make a motion that we recommend uh approval to the board of supervisors at their next

Thank you Mr. Shelton is there a second Mr. We have point of order is can I clarify that that's for the approval of the amendment to the uh the uh the text that is correct to the as as it's as it's been proposed in the writing. That is correct Mr. Evans. I I'll clarify that uh that is I make a motion that we recommend approval to the amendment the amendment of the text of the zoning ordinance as it pertains to those parcels that I affirmentioned parcels. Thank you. Michelle again. Is there a second? A second. Thank you, Miss Me. Are there any other motions, questions, comments?

Mr. Web, I apologize. Can I get you to close that public hearing? Your hearing was closed. Thank you. Do we need to redo the motion? We're good. Thank you. Yes, sir. Any other motions, questions, comments? We have a first and a second. Now it's time to vote. Mr. Ferris, yes. Miss Me? Yes. Miss Mr. Oaks? Yes. Mr. Shelton? Yes. Miss Henderson? Yes. Mr. Web? Yes.

Motion passes. Six to zero. We're ready for the supervisors to act. Uh gentlemen, any discussion on what you've heard? I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I make the motion in case R26-008 to approve the reszoning of 3,500 acres from M2 Industrial District Heavy Industry.

Mr. Sheriff, sorry to interrupt, but I believe this we're on still on the um the zoning ordinance text amendment and map amendments. Yes. Motion should entertain the text.

So if you weren't called, I think you probably were signed up under the reszoning case, which we will handle next. This is for those zoning text amendments which was the light blue paper. That's what it is on. Okay. All right. The motion should contain the text the approval of the text that changing the language. All right. I'll make that motion. Is that my understanding? Yes. It would be a motion to approve the Pittsini County Code Chapter 35 zoning ordinance text amendment and the zoning map amendments. That is correct. Yes. I'll make that motion. Second.

Thank you, Mr. Bowman. Thank you, Mr. Ingram. Any discussion?

Hear no discussion. Cast your votes. Thank you so much. Motion passes unanimously. We move now to agenda item 5B, which is going to be resoning public hearings. Pursuant to article 5, division six of the Pennsylvania county zoning ordinance, board of supervisors have been empowered to hear and decide specific zoning issues and zoning map changes in support of said ordinance and accomplishing this important task. [clears throat] Uh the board is responsible for promoting the health, safety, and general public welfare of the citizens county. The board must ensure that all of its decisions and regulations be directed to these goals and that each be consistent with the environment comprehensive plan and in the best interest of Pennsylvania county, its citizens and its posterity. Uh, let's see. Case R-26-00008. All right, Mr. Arnold, please. Hearing for case R-26-00008 Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors reszoning from M2 Industrial He Industrial District Heavy Industrial to M-SVMS Southern Mega Southern Virginia Mega Site District West over Tuster District. Um public hearing is now open.

said the public hearing is now open. Mr. Arm.

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to provide an overview of KR-26-008. Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors has petitioned to reszone seven parcels totaling approximately 3,500 acres located at the southern Virginia mega site on route 311 Harville Saunders Parkway in the Tontol and Westover election districts from M2 heavy industrial district to MVMS Southern Virginia Megaite District to allow the properties to be used for heavy industry and power generation. Once the property is reszoned to MSBMS, all uses listed under section 35-534 are permitted. The staff summaries included in the board packet. Mr. Chairman, the county's economic development director, Mr. Matt Row, is here to represent the petition.

Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Row. Welcome. Good evening, members of the planning uh commission, board of supervisors. Um I've been tasked with representing this position uh petition on behalf of the county and in coordination uh with the Danville, Pennsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority, also known as RIFFA. RIFFA is comprised of three members from the county's board of supervisors and three members from the city of Danville's council. Based upon consistent feedback from companies and site consultants both past and present that have and are considering the site, the county is considering to reszone the entire Southern Virginia megaite property to a new standalone zoning designation that enables additional timely flexibility, the intermingling of various commercial and industrial uses and restricts the proposed new zoning district to just that land that is comprised of and immediately adjacent to the southern Virginia mega site. The mega site is a very unique asset to the county region and to the state as a whole as it is shovel ready and provides companies with an opportunity to access a large labor pool of over 715,000 individuals within a 60-minute drive radius and an opportunity to unmatch speed to market. Since the effort began in 2008, over $217 million has been invested into the site. Of this money, approximately 20 million has been invested by both the county and the city, resulting in leveraging over five dollars of outside monies for every $1 of local money spent. This investment has resulted in a site with tremendous infrastructure and infrastructure capacity in place to serve the park and future tenants. These include significant water capacity in place with the ability to expand further with no negative impacts to neighboring property wells. The property is served by a municipal system and not groundwater and the serving system has significant water volume capacity permitted due to the

loss of past industry. Significant sewer capacity in place with the ability to expand further. Any waste water produced from industry on the site is transported by a force man to an existing wastewater plant that has significant wastewater volume capacity due to the to the loss of past industry. Multiple existing and planned natural gas lines within the site can provide significant gas volumes to the site and its tenants. Redundant high voltage and capacity electric infrastructure via a new Appalachin Power Company transmission line and substation that only serves the park. Class one rail service provided by Norfk Southern that travels along the park's southern and western boundary. robust transportation infrastructure that has the ability to serve not only thousands of full-time employees and associated operations at the site, but also the critical construction traffic associated with large projects. In short, this is a very unique site and critical asset to the county and our regional and state partners. RIFA's f focus has been and continues to be on working with and attracting transformational projects to the site which is evident by the 2024 announcement of Micro Porus which will begin construction in earnest over the coming weeks on a 1.35 billion battery separator plant that will employ over 2,000 persons. Other projects that are actively considering the site would result in thousands of full-time jobs, thousands of construction jobs, and billions of dollars of direct taxable investment. RIFA has been very patient and deliberate in its pursuit of industry for the site and is solely focused on facilitating transformational development for the property. Regarding the zoning text language and resoning request before you this evening for consideration, the request is supported by the county's existing comprehensive plan and the development of the industrial park has occurred over a new nearly two decades with significant

public input. The request is not a spot zoning due to its size and the fact that multiple parcels are being resoned as part of a larger district. All infrastructure, both utilities and transportation are in in place to support such a resoning and subsequent future development. RIFFA has proactively purchased the Oakill Plantation property, which is not part of the zone reszoning request, so that its cultural and archaeological significance could be conserved and enhanced for the public, [laughter] which addresses any concerns regarding potential historic resources. A couple other items to note. The county board uh actively listened to the citizen comments and object and objections regarding a private developer's recent attempt to locate a large project outside of a designated industrial park. After that situation, the board has directed staff to focus development efforts to existing identified industrial parks and properties. There has been a focus by various newspaper articles regarding power generation being permitted on the property due to this proposed reasonzoning action. Currently, the property's current M2 heavy industrial district permits utility and private merchant power plants by right. The reasonzoning does not impact or change this item. The types of projects that we've seen over the past two years and are actively working on today contemplate more of a campus style development rather than a traditional monolithic structure such as a large car plant etc. This means that they want to have the flexibility to have employee supporting services including restaurants and breweries, hotels, dry cleaning, self storage, and we've even received feedback from a couple uh site consultants about having veterary services within the park. More and more projects are incorporating an AI element to them. This includes advanced manufacturing operations, supercomput campuses, and traditional clad cloud data centers. Again, the RIFFA board is only focused on these types of development opportunities that result in thousands of direct jobs on

site and significant taxable investment. Companies are focused on money, time, and risk. Anything that the locality can do to address these items, better positions itself and its site for these mega project companies. The proposed resoning action for consideration tonight does have the goal of helping to address all of these factors. Zoning actions by the local do not supersede any environmental regulations or programs mandated at the state or federal level. Any and all future projects will be subject to local and state erosion sediment control and stormwater regulations, state and federal wetland and stream channel impact regulations if applicable, state and federal air regulations if applicable, etc. And again, as of this evening, as I reported for the recent Southern Virginia multimmoal park planning commission resoning hearing on that property, there are no executed local performance agreements or property purchase and sale contracts in place for any projects at the megaite property other than micro pores. So, the planning commission and the board should consider this to be a speculative reasoning. There are numerous interested companies considering the site, but there is nothing publicly available to discuss at this time. RIFFla and the county IDA are supportive of this request. Micro porus is also aware of this resoning request and does not object as it will not impact their operations. Again, as the individual tasked with the role of as petitioner for this application, I will do my best to answer any questions that the board of planning commission may have at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Row. Planning Commission. Any questions from my fellow commissioners? I I I'm going to just reiterate and ask here. Um, you know, like I mentioned at the last meeting, you know, I have grandchildren at one of the parks in Pennsylvania County to attend school. So do some of these citizens also. But I I I just want to go back and clarify. Any industry coming in to any of these parks here are still got to abide by the environmental regulations, state and federal. Correct.

That's correct. If we the county were not to do that, the county would be in violation of the state programs in the state and the county would be frankly open to legal action and lawsuit. So yes. Okay. That's all I got. All right, Mr. Chair. Anyone else? Okay, no more questions. Uh, the board supervisors questions questions. Mr. Bowman, I'm sorry you can't see. Go ahead, M. I've been reassigned.

So, a couple things, Matt. Thank you for the presentation clarification. Um, couple things and help me here. Um, site selectors when they're looking for sites to bring their businesses, their prospective businesses, they're looking for shovel ready sites and Barry Hill, the mega site is shovel ready now. It's been certified uh and it's out there globally for everybody to look at. Right. Correct. So that means we've got the water, the sewer, the power. We've got everything in place and it's ready to go. We actually have a crossber uh agreement with North Carolina for for our wastewater disposal. Yes, sir.

Absolutely. Okay. Over 200 million invested in that piece of property out there over probably about at least 15 years I know of, maybe more. Uh we've had a number of large companies come and go. We've lost them to different states because of certain things that have happened. So, I think it's time that we step up to the plate in that. Uh, also Danville and you mentioned RIFFA is in agreement even though the property is not in Danville property. They're in agreement with this resoning. Is that correct? That's correct. They're 50% partners. That's been discussed at the RIFA meetings. It has. Yes, sir.

Okay, good. And the last thing, uh, environmental reports, these have already been done on that piece of property out there and they are available. Am I correct in that? They are not publicly available just due to again like that is deemed to be proprietary knowledge for RIFFA. Uh but they have been completed. Yes sir. Okay. So everything has been documented. Thank you Matt. That's all I've got Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Bowman. Any anything else from the board? Thank you Matt. All right. I take it we've got some folks signed up for this one. Yes sir. All right. Um, the first one is Melissa Haristen and she has submitted some comments and Miss Folks is going to read those into the minutes.

Thank you.

Good evening. I've given you guys a copy of this email provided from Melissa Sims Haristen as well as a map that shows her adjacency to the property that's being suggested to be reszoned. Dear Mr. Arnold. I am owner of property parcel 1356-31-0719 which was a very long which has a very long border with the mega site property. I received your letter in the mail on January 7th, 2026 regarding the reasonzoning application of R-26-8, which gives me very little time to consider the implications of the resoning and formulate a complete response. I also note that the Pennsylvania county's website indicates that the resoning application was last modified on January 5th. In addition to the limited lead time for the hearing, there appears to be only this one single opportunity for public input to the zoning commission for this important change. I respectfully request that a follow-up hearing be held with more lead time for public consideration and the decision on this important matter be delayed. While I understand the desiraability of having one zoning classification for a multi-use project, the M-SVMS zoning classification appears to provide insufficient review of potentially undesirable projects that could have a negative environmentally environmental impact or [clears throat] provide little job growth or little additional tax revenue. That is if a blanket zoning category is available, there is no or limited opportunity for zoning or planning commission review of the use or whether undesirable juaposizations could occur such as the sale of smoking products near business focused on teenagers.

I suggest and respectfully request that the MSBMS zoning classification be amended to include that any property use that use that falls under the current M2 requirement also be required to obtain a special use permit for the M-2 type use that will allow for appropriate public input for any such project. In addition, the zoning commission should ensure that no inappropriate juxapositions of unrelated activities occur. I submit that these suggestions or perhaps other modifications will support the primary goal. The zoning ordinance of Pennsylvania County, Virginia, is intended to promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the public. There is no way to determine if this goal will be met without clear knowledge of how the site will be used. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, Donald Merrick. [clears throat] Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening. I'm Donald Merrick. Live in the West Sto Ronald who lives in the Dan River District. I am Donald and I live on land that's been in my mama's family since 1773. I'm about 5 to seven miles as a crow flies from the mega park. So I'm I'm very familiar with that. And some of you remember during the discussion of the balico issue, I approached several of you individually with a simple message. Data centers and power plants belong in industrial areas not in the middle of farmland. I also said that any decision regarding growth like this should fit within our comprehensive plan. Tonight, you're demonstrating exactly that kind of strategic thinking. This is what planning looks like. You're not reacting to a developer proposal on agricultural land. You're proactively setting standards for an industrial site that's already designated for exactly this purpose in our comprehensive plan. Yes, you're in the midst of updating that plan, but this ordinance doesn't contradict that process. It enhances it by establishing clear rules for industrial development in the right location. We've invested heavily in the Berry Hill mega site to make it ready for transformational economic opportunity. Those investments only pay off if we can compete for the industries that are actually growing. The MSBMS ordinance does two critical things. It protects our community with enforcable standards and it makes the site marketable to the industries we want to attract. This is the difference between reactive and strategic governance. Balico was reactive. Someone showed up with a proposal and we had to scramble to respond. Tonight's decision is strategic. You're setting the rules before anyone shows up in a location

that's already industrial consistent with our planning goals. Some will say this is rushed. I respectively disagree. The mega site has been planned for years. I was on the tobacco commission back when we gave money for the mega site. It's been a long time. We've invested public dollars to prepare it. Waiting doesn't improve the site or add protections. It just delays our ability to compete while the site remains under generic M2 standards that provide less specific oversight for modern industrial uses. So I urge you to approve KR 2608. This is smart planning. This is industrial development. 30 seconds remaining in industrial areas. It's exactly what I asked for during the balico discussion and exactly what our community needs. I thank you for listening. Thank you for your time and thank you for your service.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, David Bennett. Mr. Chairman, we're at about one hour. One hour. We'll hear Mr. Bennett and then we will actually take a pause for the calls. Good evening. I'm David Bennett. I reside in the Blair's district

and uh I'm also a local business manager. Um I wanted to first thank the the uh chairman and uh the board members on both boards for your service and your leadership. I support this reasonzoning application because it ma it markets the southern Virginia mega site to a larger audience and it allows the community to benefit from our 200 I think uh $217 million investment and and we'll recoup that uh those returns sooner. It is a great thing that we have an initial investor in the park, but we're only using a small portion of the 3,500 acre site, less than 10%. There is no doubt that our local elected officials alongside county and city staff will continue to remain vigilant to find the right projects that are a good fit, that provide jobs and revenue for our region. Supporting this zoning change is smart and it clearly says the Southern Virginia mega site is focused on trans transformational economic development projects that bring jobs and revenue to our region. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. [applause] At this time, we're going to take a 10-minute break. We will be back at 7:19.

All right, let's find our seats.

Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't sit back. He got back. Come on. You good? Come on. you up on get some pizza, some supper to keep your food out. All right, Mr. Web, can you call for the next speaker, please? Mr. Plush, who is next? I believe it is John Daniel. Let me verify. Yes, sir. John Daniel. [clears throat]

Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the board of supervisors, planning commission members. My name is John Daniel and I'm from the Tonsl district, but I'm here tonight representing the Pennsylvania County Industrial Development Authority. And I believe you may have a copy of the resolution that we would like to present tonight. And this is a resolution recommending reszoning of the southern Virginia mega site and certain surrounding parcels. Whereas the Pennsylvania County Industrial Development Authority is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia established to promote industry and develop trade by inducing manufacturing, industrial, governmental, and commercial enterprises to locate or remain in the county of Pennsylvania, Virginia. They're hereby benefiting and promoting the public welfare. And whereas the southern Virginia mega site located in the Tonsl and Westover election districts containing of 3,499.99 acres is a critical regional economic development asset intended for advanced manufacturing and related industrial uses with supporting infrastructure, utilities, transportation access, and workforce development resources. ES and whereas to achieve the intended economic development objectives to ensure consistency with the county's comprehensive planning and land use framework and to facilitate timely site readiness. The authority finds that the mega site should be reszoned to the M-SVMS zoning district. And whereas the authority has considered the public health, safety and welfare, the orderly

growth and development of the county, the existing and planned availability of public facilities and services, transportation network considerations, environmental stewardship, and consistency with the county's adopted comprehensive plan as applicable to the proposed resonings. And whereas the authority desires to formally recommend that the Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors consider and act upon the resonings on specified dates to advance project timelines and align with statutory procedural and notice requirements. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Pennsylvania County Industrial Development Authority, that the authority hereby recommends that the board of supervisors reszone the Southern Virginia Megaite to the M-SVMS zoning district on January 15, 2026, subject to applicable procedure requirements, public hearings, and considerations or profers deemed appropriate by the board of supervisors. officers. The authority finds and recommends that the proposed resoning is consistent with the county's economic development objectives and land use planning goals, will promote capital investment and job creation, will enhance the tax base, and is in the best interest of the public health, safety, and welfare. The authority advises and directs its officers, agents, and staff to transmit this resolution and supporting materials to the county administrator, the county planning staff, and the board of supervisors to coordinate with the county staff to finalize partial descriptions, maps, legal exhibits for proposed resoning,

and to take all action reasonably necessary or desirable to carry out the intent of this resolution. If any provision of this resolution is determined to be invalid, illegal or uninforceable, such determination shall not affect the validity, legality or enforcability of the remaining provisions which shall remain in full force and effect. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption which it was adopted 15 uh 15th day of January 2026. Respectfully submitted by the Pennsylvania County Industrial Development Authority, John Daniel, vice chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Julie Brown.

Good evening. Welcome. Let's see how far that one's. Here we go. Okay. Chairman Tucker, members of the board of supervisors, members of the planning commission, and our dedicated county staff. My name is Julie Brown, and I live in the Cadam Blair's district. I am here tonight to voice my support uh for the reasonzoning for the Southern Virginia Megaite District. I am proud to live in the largest county in the Commonwealth of Virginia that has the largest mega site on the East Coast. I'd like to say I'm grateful to the planning commission and the board of supervisors who instead of considering a countywide byight resoning request is looking at a limited geographic scope that will maximize the potential of the southern Virginia mega site which will allow us to diversify our industrial base. I understand that this balances the speed that is required for economic development and a strategic plan for managed growth. I am also grateful that this plan considers setbacks, buffers, noise, grid capacity, water resources, security, and road access while also understanding that our county will need to abide by federal and state environmental laws and protections. But I am even more grateful for the opportunity that this is going to create for the current 8,000 Pennsylvania county school students and the over 2,500 emerging workers that are taking classes at our colleges. This is going to create good jobs with

family sustaining wages. This decision tonight is going to help us keep our young people in our communities because they need to see growth and they need to see the opportunity for them to stay here. You don't have to look far to the east to see some of this happening for students in Meckllinburgg County who now because of private investment have access to informal learning programs through the teals program, expanded opportunities for internships, apprenticeships, and now access to an innovation hub. I am confident that these things uh through your vote tonight um will be created for our students, our citizens, and our county. Thank you very much.

Thank you, [applause] Irvin Moss Jr.

Good evening. Welcome. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, I'd like to say this is my first time here. I'm sorry, but a cane. I've been here for the past four four years on various uh uh resolutions and zoning changes that you guys have brought before the county. To say I'm disappointed would be a vast understatement. You guys are totally out of touch with the people of Pennsylvania County. Oh, did I tell my name? My name is Urban Moss. I come from the Westover District of uh the county. Rest in peace, Ronald Scarce. But uh I've lived in that area all my life. I'm experiencing the rape, the destruction, the tearing up of property on the Bur Hill Road. I'm seeing solar panels put up everywhere. And they absolutely destroy the community. They destroy the land. Once there, the land is totally no more good. Moving on. But you guys just don't get it. You guys get the money part of it. You don't get the people part of it. I've got neighbors and friends that have been putting up for two years of smoke coming from land that's being cleared off up there that is continually being burnt day after day after day. Y'all don't know that cuz y'all on the other side of the county. It's just it just blows my mind. Another thing that gets to me, this looks like a snow job. It reminds me of the mega park. I mean, not

the mega park, but the RV park. You tried to throw in Vandola. You tried to slip it through without nobody's notice. Thank goodness Mr. Skiers brought it to our attention. And it seems like the same thing is going on here. You bringing us up right at Christmas when everybody is busy with everything else, hoping they will just let it slide. Well, they might let it slide, but I'm totally disappointed with each and every one of you because I I haven't heard any I've heard committee meetings from the housing development from from growth. I have not heard anything from the residents of that area. Have y'all gone out and canvas the area for their opinion?

30 seconds remaining. No, you haven't. All you've done, what you've done, you broke the trust. And the way you've done that, you've tried to do this in a secretive way. You've tried to rush it under the table. And just as we've seen now, you have no concern of the people out there. This right here, money, I can't fight money. I can't fight pro socal progress. Three minutes is complete.

[applause] Thank you,

Tim Reynolds. Good evening. Welcome.

I'm gonna try to keep the microphone working. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, uh, Chairman Webb, members of the board of supervisors, members of the planning commission, appreciate the opportunity to talk to you tonight. I do not consider this process being rushed, and I'm going to tell you why. The very first ideas for the mega park started in early 2000. I'm not sure exactly date the exact date, but I know it predated 2008 because the master planning began in 2008. Since then, as you've heard tonight, over $200 million has been invested in this property. The goal all along for 18 years, more than 18 years, has been to prepare a site that can attract users with heavy utility needs. The park now has very large water and sewer capacities. As you were told by Matt a few minutes ago, it has plenty of gas, power capacity, and rail access. The park is certified tier five status, the highest designation given to shovel ready sites by VEDP. Now, it's truly a remarkable accomplishment by this county and this city and all the people that have worked on it. It really is something that the citizens should and could be pr and will be proud of. It's one of the premier mega sites in the nation. Every state in the nation knows where this park is. The proposal tonight to create a new zoning district will add data centers and power generation as buy uses at the mega park. While it adds this use, it does add protections. We've heard about that, too. It will require larger setbacks and buffers for both uses. It requires that both uses comply with the county noise ordinance. It'll set limits on when on-site generators can be tested. None of this is currently required in the M2 zoning. So it adds protections as well as the uses.

In 2008, I dare say that many of the original players knew exactly what the end product would look like. The world has changed a lot since 2008. The iPhone came out in 2007. Can you believe that? [cough] YouTube went online in 2005 and Netflix came online in 2007. In 2015, the Pennsylvania County Board of Supervisors funded a study to study chicken processing plant in the county. Can you believe that? And one of the sites noted was the Barry Hill mega site. The Star Tribune article of the day quoted the opposition as saying, and I quote, "We need progressive industries, not regressive industries."

30 seconds remaining. To quote [clears throat] the Wall Street article, a Wall Street Journal article from January 13th, just two days ago, data centers aren't a luxury. They are factories of the 21st century economy, converting energy into processing capacity, the way that refineries convert oil into gasoline and chemical plants convert minerals into batteries. If these factories of the 21st century, then the servers inside are the modern-day assembly lines, just like the textile meals of our paste. These factories will provide the tax base necessary to fund our schools and and services needed by residents. Thank you. I urge both boards to approve this tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. [applause] Virginia Lawinger. Thank you.

Good evening. Welcome. My name is Jenny or Virginia Lawinger. I'm in the Tunl district and um I appreciate the chance to speak. I'm representing some people behind me who are my neighbors and friends and we all share the same concerns. Um, on January 7th in an article in the Star Tribune regarding a new zoning designation for the Berry Hill Industrial Park, Vic Ingram is quoted as saying, "With the mega site and the evolving of industry and possibilities, this just just gives us more options and it is specific to the Southern Virginia Mega Park, the citizens throughout the county don't really have to worry except for what we are doing here at the mega park." Well, Mr. Ingram, I hate to disagree with you. Your constituents are indeed worried.

Ma'am, respectfully address the zoning board or the planning commission and address the board of supervisors as a whole, not individually.

Okay. Excuse me, sir. I [clears throat] read in the Star Tribune, many of us are now living just a few miles from the mega site. We are downwind down river and some of us live next to the railroad tracks that will be servicing the mega site. If the zoning has changed as you all have described, let me explain to you why we are worried. I did some research, a heck of a lot of research since learning about this two day this meeting two days ago. Um, and I came up with pages of examples. I'll just give you a few. From 24 and 25, there were multiple incidences involving heavy industrial sites. In Sterling, Virginia, in July of 2024, a hazardous ammonia release at a food processing facility at a heavy industrial site injured dozens of employees, some seriously with 40 people requiring hospitalization. On I 95 in Chesterfield in November of 25. A tanker carrying lime from a mining operation in an industrial park overturned, caught fire, closed all lanes, impacting those who live nearby. A CSSX coal train derailment and of October of 25 near the Chikah River spilled diesel and coal into the wetlands. A July 2025 incident involved a large Hopewell wastewater plant release impacting the James River. Most recently, there have been published articles detailing that heavy industrial parks in Virginia are linked to respiratory issues, cardiovascular problems, cancers, neurological harm, reproductive issues stemming from air pollution, and contaminated water. Um, I realize that we do have rules and regulations that have already been pointed out. 30 seconds remaining.

We'll be under those guidelines, but accidents do happen. Um, we love our homes, our county, and the people here. We have over the years realized how lucky we are to live near the Dan River where we can canoe, kayak, and fish. We drink our wellwater with confidence. We eat plants from our garden, never fearing our groundwater is contaminated, and the food that we harvest is, too. We can go out at night and in the dark clear sky teach our children where to find the little dipper or Ryan. Three minutes is complete. I simply ask you to please understand those of us who live near this site are terribly concerned about the impact of these decisions for Clark. Thank you. Thank you [applause]

Gretchen Clark. Good evening. Welcome.

Hello. I'm Gretchen Clark from the Ken's Gretina District. I'm very familiar with the Southern Virginia mega site and I'm here to support this resoning. I've designed utility infrastructure to the site. I've also supported funding applications during my tenure as a member on the Virginia Tobacco Commission, who has provided over $36 million in funding to the site. These requests for funding have always been supported because of the belief that this mega site is incredibly unique and has the ability to be transformative to our region. Our region needs to be open to all types of investments that bring jobs and revenue and not be afraid of new technology, including data centers and power generation. Pennsylvania County has significant capital improvement projects that must be funded. Revenue generated through this transformative modern projects can pay for these capital improvements and not put that financial burden on taxpayers. I was part of a data center workshop yesterday where other counties shared the incredible benefits that data centers have in their regions. Not only have they brought significant revenue, but they've also brought direct jobs, indirect jobs, and funded career advancement programs in high schools and community colleges. Representatives from Meckllinmberg, Henri Reicho, Co Pepper and with counties all discussed what it takes to win. They all said clear communication through zoning ordinance just like this is the way to send signals that our region is ready for transformative modern projects. I support this resoning application because it is one step closer to a big win for Pennsylvania

County and the city of Danville. Thank you. Thank you, [applause] Sonia Smith.

And she is requesting 10 minutes. She is speaking on behalf of the Environmental and Climate Justice Committee. Good evening. Welcome.

Good evening. My name is Sonia Smith and I live in the Tontol region district and I'm speaking on behalf of the Pennsylvania County NAACP environmental and climate justice committee. We oppose the unique zoning district proposed by the board for the southern Virginia mega site at Berry Hill as currently written. You're proposing a major change in our zoning zoning ordinance and moving very quickly. Please delay this decision. We want to participate in decisions like this one, and we know we need to be better informed than we are now. We want to be sure our health and environment are protected. This public hearing is important, but not sufficient. We need opportunities to comment in the future when data centers and power plant projects are proposed anywhere in the county, including at the mega site. The proposed zoning change would allow power plants, including gas power plants, without a special use permit. As we learned from a research report that looked at the gas power plant that Balico proposed, a large gas plant could significantly affect the health of 17,000 Pennsylvania county residents as well as our neighbors and would and would result in millions of dollars in local health care costs. The pollution from gas power plants, fine particulate matter, can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream causing respiratory and cardiovascular disease. The pollution is linked to asthma attacks, strokes, dementia, and cancer. Black Americans have the highest death rates from such pollution in the United States.

Data center themselves add another layer of health risk. Facilities often rely on diesel backup generators and diesel exhaust contain the same fine particle pollution that gas power plants emit. Data center noise can also affect health. The proposed zoning amendment does not recognize the need to adopt noise standards that reflect new research findings and World Health Organization recommendations. Data centers also raise questions about water. The proposed the proposed zoning ordinance amendment contains only one sentence about water usage. It states and I quote to the extent applicable applicable municipal water systems can supply the demand data centers utilizing water-based cooling systems shall be connected to a municipal water system. Now, this sentence does not address our concerns about potential water usage by data centers or the potential impacts of using water from the Dan River or other municipal water sources. Your proposal allows uses uses at the mega site that could have negative environmental and health effects far beyond its borders. We want to ensure that environmental justice communities that have historically and disproportionately borne the burden of heavy industrial development are protected. Please do not vote to approve the mega site resoning tonight. Please allow meaningful informed public engagement on this and other major zoning decisions. Thank you.

Thank you. [applause]

Ben Davenport. So, I reidentify Ben Davenport Chadam and uh I I while we've been going through this, I I thought about uh something that we're all working on in from from Virginia Tech to uh to Danville and Pittsy County, and that's the Blue Ridge Innovation Quarter. And I can tell you now that this strip from Danville and Pennsylvania County over to Henry County up to Rono and then to Virginia Tech in Montgomery County is right now the second fastest growing economy in Virginia. And it is and we we feel like that is it has the potential of indeed being another research triangle. We're right on the cusp of making great things happen and this is this just falls right into the pocket of what needs to be done as part of that. There are a lot of things that are happening uh right now. I think you know that at the uh institute uh the department of defense has invested uh over $200 million in uh in in advanced training techniques on additive manufacturing which is the next generation of manufacturing. In fact, we're the leading advanced manufacturing uh area, this area here and over to Henry County and all of Virginia. It's it's an exciting time and I and I can tell you that uh I'm so pleased that that our county is right in the middle of it and is going to be able to uh to benefit from from these things that are

happening. So I very much want you to support and vote for these changes or for for the changes. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Tim Clark. Good evening and welcome, sir.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, and the planning commission. Thank you for your time this evening uh and for serving Pennsylvania County. My name is Tim Clark. I'm a longtime resident of the Greta Collins District and I operate my family's 115 year old construction business. I'm a member of several nonprofit boards and commissions in our region. I've spent my career building projects here, employing local people here and raising my family here and I care deeply about both our community and our economy. Last year, some folks in our community pushed back on the resoning of agricultural land for a data center. And I want to believe it wasn't because of opposition to growth. It was opposition to unplanned growth. The request was made that the county implement strategy and planning instead of surprise special use resoning request. And what you're considering tonight is exactly what was requested, a proactive zoning framework limited to the southern Virginia mega site. land that was specifically assembled and designated for large-scale transformational economic development projects. From a contractor's perspective, this kind of planning is how projects succeed without disrupting the surrounding areas. Independent studies make it clear that data centers bring real economic impact, including long-term tax revenue, jobs, increase local spending, especially during the construction periods. for the Virginia, for southern Virginia, the opportunity is significant, particularly as development expands beyond the northern beyond northern Virginia, the data centers in Northern Virginia and into areas that can offer large sites with adequate buffers and access to utilities. The Southern Virginia mega site was created for exactly this type of opportunity. Preparing it with clear zoning standards now positions the county to compete later. As someone who builds projects, I can tell you that

clear enforcable standards are better for everyone, the county, nearby residents, developers, and the the MBMS ordinance gets this right. Compared to how the southern Virginia mega site is currently zoned, the proposed zoning includes substantially increased setbacks, provides for larger, more meaningful buffers and screening. It adds a restrictive noise standard. It requires coordinated emergency response planning and allows for clear administrative oversight. These aren't optional guidelines. They are requirements set forth upfront to set the expectations. That's how we protect our way of life while still allowing responsible development.

30 seconds remaining. Our county needs jobs, a stronger tax base, a long-term and long-term economic resilience. At the same time, we need clear rules and respect for people who live and work here. The MSVMS ordinance provides a smart framework that balances both. I encourage you to approve case R-26-008 not as an open door to unchecked development but as logical wellplanned approach to rural economic growth. Thank you for your service and three minutes is complete. Thank you [applause]

Michael Kendrick. [snorts] Welcome again.

Uh good evening again. Uh pleasure to come before you again. Uh I'll just say that first part of the meeting went exactly as I thought it would go and I hope the second part doesn't go exactly as I think it's going to go. You wonder why the citizens are concerned and a little bit scared about all this? They're not. Educate us. Educate us. Is this I'm listening to the business part of this. It's such a great thing. Well, tell you know, educate. Matt gave a Matt gave a good talk over there. You know, if you had some uh forums and stuff where people could come and listen and get a little education on what you're trying to do here. But like I say, this all, you know, it's all kind of we're cautious. Yeah. and we have a lot of mistrust because we see something being rushed through. Now, my advice is to uh not vote on this tonight. Give the citizenship a little bit of a time to learn about what you're trying to do, what direction you're trying to go with this, and maybe we can get on board. Maybe we can trust the direction y'all are trying to go. But right now, I don't trust the direction you're you're trying to go because I don't we haven't been given enough time to learn what all this is about. Uh data centers, they scare people. They scare people. People research up north, Richmond, I mean, uh northern part of uh Virginia. You don't hear good things from the people that live there about data centers. Okay. educate us. If there's such a great thing, tell us tell us why there's such a great thing. Educate us on it. Uh that's all we're asking as citizens so we can trust the direction y'all are trying to go with this. Uh and I would uh respectfully ask that uh you vote no on

this tonight. Thank you. Thank you again. [applause] Hank Maxi.

Good evening. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and board and planning commission. My name is Hank Maxine. I'm from the Catalan's Gretner District. Um, over the last year, y'all had a lot of public hearings and and heard a lot from citizens that are in the agriculture field. My family's been full-time farm in Pennsylvania County for 60 years. We farm in multiple districts. And um, I may come at this a little bit different than than than both sides you've heard tonight. Um, we're not Clark County, we're not Frederick County, but we're also not Madison County. uh we need a balance of agriculture and industry. Without that balance, one one does not work without the other. It it takes both. Um, and we we have staff here that could could probably tell us, but a a family using the services that that we provide in Pennsylvania County, whether it's schools, sheriff's office, landfield, fire and rescue, that family has to have assets of somewhere in the neighborhood of $425,000 to be a net positive to our county. $425,000 to be a net positive. Otherwise, they're using more services than what they're paying for. And we we tout industry that that brings jobs, right? We all need jobs. We've got to have jobs. But but we promote industry coming in, thousands of jobs, and then we give away the tax base. And then the amount of jobs, the salary

with those jobs cannot afford to come up to the $425,000. So we stay in a hole. This reszoning to add this type of industry to our county, which is high revenue, low impact, low services, actually is a benefit to all citizens. We had one person say how it would help the school system. The biggest way is it would relieve the tax burden on the citizens on their personal property and their real estate which affects everybody and that's what I'm in support of. So I applaud you for reasonzoning. Um I think over the past year and some some some of the actions of our board their industry

30 seconds remaining or their social media post has empowered a no group that yells no no no and it's okay to yell no if you've got solutions to back that up. You can say no, but I'll provide you a solution to solve the problem. So it's up to you. You're elected. take the stand, stand firm, and do what's best for our county. And I appreciate what you do. Thank you. Thank you, SIR. [applause]

SO, I have three citizens that did not sign up, but they would like the opportunity to speak if that's okay with you. That's okay. Thank you, Joshua Vanna. [clears throat] Sure. You going to go? Okay. Katie Whitehead.

Katie Whitehead. Chadam Blair. Good evening. Welcome.

I am very grateful for a second chance to speak. I cannot name each of you individually or those who have spoken in favor of this project. Please know that I am speaking to each of you personally as well as to this board and commission. I am only speaking for myself. I am a member of many groups that have many of which have spoken tonight and I certainly hope I say nothing that will disappoint or concern them. Um I spoke first with confidence, calm. I am sorely disappointed, dare I say angry. Um, I want to speak. I'm grateful that I can speak after Matt Row and Tim Reynolds and Tim Clark. Matt, yes. Gave a good presentation. And it would have been good if we'd heard it earlier. He said that power stations are already M2. The reason they are M2 in the current zoning ordinance is because you did not adopt a new draft zoning ordinance one year ago. You told us that we needed a

comprehensive plan overhaul before adopting a new zoning ordinance. Tim Reynolds said that he cannot see how this is rushed. notices during the holidays. One special called joint meeting, one public hearing, a process that would typically take two or three months. This is the sort of nimble action you want to take, please.

30 seconds remaining. Uh Tim Clark said this is exactly what they were asking for. It is not. The the issue is not that the mega park is an industrial site or that industrial uses will go in it. And I I've probably three minutes is complete. Please delay whatever you can still delay.

Thank you. Laken Haristen.

Good evening. Welcome Thank you for allowing me to speak on short notice. Um my name is Lake and Harstston. I live in Cascade. Um I um this is first of all this is my first time speaking at any government event like this. I was I felt drawn to speak um because of I feel passionate about um the impacts this may have. Um so I appreciate that the county is working to keep uh industry in an industrial zone. That seems important. However, um I don't think in industrial zones should be a free-for-all. Um I believe data centers and other um similar like on power on-site power generation and um similar uh industry should require a special permit and oversight. Um I believe this specifically because of a number of concerns. Um um first the negative impacts on the environment. Um, as several people have mentioned here tonight, it will be a significant draw on on water um resulting in air uh there also be air pollution. Um, and I ask you, what is the cost of childhood asthma? What is the cost of cancer? What is the cost of not being able to look up at the stars with your kid? These are I think things that should be considered more even though they are small. Um Mr. Row said that um any businesses would have to abide by state and federal

environmental law, but I think that is a low bar to meet. Um and I'm concerned that that will not sufficiently protect the citizens of this county from um health concerns. such as cancer and asthma. Um, many people in that have spoken in favor for the reasonzoning have stated that they trust the county government will make will uh responsibly decide what businesses go come into the site. Um, I ask you how the county and government will have oversight um of the businesses that come in if uh no special permit or um other similar form of approval is required.

Um and I also have 30 seconds remaining. I also have economic concerns. Um the data centers um do not provide uh the fraction of jobs that traditional industry does. Um additionally data centers uh as I said before draw human huge amount of water, electricity and gas. I am concerned um that these centers will drive up the cost of utilities in an already lowincome county. Um so again, three minutes is complete. I ask you to vote no tonight. Thank you. Thank you, [applause]

Joshua Vanna. Good evening. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Joshua Vana. I'm a Montgomery County resident and um reason why I'm here is uh well I started coming to Chadam and Pennsylvania county back in 2017 when I got involved in the fight against the Mountain Valley pipeline then MVP Southgate then eventually the Balico facility that was proposed. Um, I had already known about Balico through a similar similarly bad idea that they proposed for a power plant in Charles City County several years ago, uh, with a pipeline that would go through multiple counties. Um, that the public also found quick distaste for. Um I'm here because uh many of the people who have spoken up against this resoning uh the language that has been changed uh for the resoning and um these data center projects for their power plants etc. Their their fight remains my fight. Um what I heard last year during the hearings surrounding the Balico controversy um was that environmental protections weren't just for hippies, that they were uh part of the rural uh identity and lifestyle of this county. Uh they were important to health and safety. Um, I heard that folks did not want Pennsylvania county and Chattam surrounding area to turn into um, you know, places in Northern Virginia that have been subject to lots of rug pulling um, on you know, uses of water. Um, the public having to pay for electricity that the tech industry uh, uses and wastes um, for the, you know, mass surveillance and a number of other terrible things. Um, and I heard

overwhelming calls for more transparency. I think Katie said it. Katie White had said it um when uh she offered her characterizations of the kind of transparency that's being offered like in this hearing tonight. I really don't think anything should have been voted on if if the boards were truly interested in gathering public input um on those environmental protections. I can say through my experience in um fighting numerous unneeded dangerous gas pipelines in this state in the region um that

per uh one member of the board's concerns about federal and state environmental regulations being applied to whatever goes 30 seconds remaining site. Um the days of federal enforcement of meaningful environmental regulations is over. That's over. It's been over. Okay. Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act. They're throwing that in the toilet. That's gone. And uh around the toilet paper roll is pretty much where DEEQ keeps its copy of the Virginia State Water Control Law and their responsibility to enforce those. So, you should be concerned. Um 3 minutes is complete.

Nothing should be voted on tonight. If you want more transparency, there's a whole lot more time needed, and I think the people of Pennsylvania County deserve it. [applause]

That's all, Mr. Chairman. [applause] Mr. Row, after hearing all the public comments for and against, is there anything you'd like to add? No, sir. Not request. The board of the planning commission have any specific questions?

Okay. Planning Commission. Are there any any questions for Matt? Then the public hearing for case R-26-008 is closed. Chair is now open for a motion. In case 26-8, make a motion to approve 3zona 3500 acres from men to end district heavy industry to M-SVMS southern Virginia mega site district to allow the property to be used for heavy industry and power generation. Chair has a first. Is there a second?

A second. Thank you, Miss Be. Are there any other motions, questions, or comments? Hearing and seeing none, please cast your vote. Mr. Ferris, yes. Miss Me, yes. Mr. Oaks, yes. Miss Henderson, yes. Mr. Whale, yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Thank you, Mr. Web. Uh to the board, any discussion? Mr. Stinger, you're the chairman of RIFFA. Any any comments quickly?

Uh yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, first of all, thank you guys for coming out both for and against and um and we do listen contrary to what's been said, but this uh the Bur Hill Mega Park is in my district and most of you know I worked for the county for 30 years. I retired in ' 09 and I was like many many skeptical citizens. I said it's swamp land. They're not going to do nothing with it. But as I got involved in politics and I really started paying attention to what this was really all about, I uh I learned and I learned that this is our future. This is um what many have worked tirelessly for. You've heard the the fact that it came in existence uh the mega park in '08 and over $217 million later um you know we do have a tenant and we we're looking at filling it up. Um, and we desperately need that. So, this resoning gives us options that we didn't have before. And this is exactly what we need. And I'm very grateful to my colleagues and to this planning commission that they are progressive in thought because when you look at where we were versus where we hope to go, we've lost quite a bit. Uh, I grew up on a tobacco farm. We lost tobacco. And even with tobacco, there was a lot of people that had things to say about that. particularly in the area of cancer. We lost Dan River in the 70s. I worked at Dan River, worked at number five finish in schoolfield and we look at what's happened to Goodyear and uh that's very sad. So as a board we have to look toward the future and to plan and hope that we land industry that will complement what we've lost. And so when I was politician in 2019,

I stood where the schoolfield meal once stood, where is now the casino of Caesars. And I made a promise and it's it was recorded and I promised to support public safety and I can proudly say I've done that. I voted for every anything dealing with public safety. I promised to support education and everything our school board has brought to us, I supported that and I promised economic development. And as I stood on the grounds of where Dan River Meals once stood and I thought about our past, I really thought about our future. And I made that promise that I would do whatever I could to help economic development. And I've kept that promise and I'm going to keep it tonight. And this is heartfelt. I I've listened to the words of everyone that spoke and and I listened to the passion in some of those words. I live closest to this than anybody sitting up here. And I think about my family, my wife Debbie and I, we have four children. We have eight grandchildren, one great grandchild and another grandbaby on the way. And that is our future. And I want them to have the best future possible. I want them to be able to to have options to work here, to live here, to stay here, to contribute here, and to love this county like I do. And the only way that we can make that happen is to look forward to the future and look at things that's going to make a difference in our community. And this resoning is one of those things. And so, Mr. Chairman, thank you for enduring that. But if I may read this motion, we good?

Yes, sir. In in case go right ahead. I can hang on. Point of order, Mr. Chairman. Point of order. It be appropriate to have the motion and then the then the commentary discussion. Thank you. That's all right, Mr. Ingram. Uh, thank you for enduring my introductory comments. But in case R26-00008, I make a motion to approve the reszoning of 3.500 acres, 3,500 from M2 Industrial District Heavy Industry to MSVMS Southern Virginia Megaite District to allow the property to be used for heavy industry and power generation. Mr. Chairman, that is my motion.

Thank you, Mr. Ingram. Support for second that motion, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Dudley. Uh, all right. Is there discussion now, Mr. Bowman?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, [clears throat] just for clarification, I wish I'd have gone before Mr. Ingram because this is more data driven and te and technical, but Matt, correct me if I'm wrong here, but [clears throat] the mega site itself, it lists almost 3,500 acres to be reszoned when in fact we will, if we vote on this, it'll be reszoned in totality. However, within that 3,500 acres, there's only about 1,700 that's developable when you take into consideration the gas line that runs through there. Uh, Judy Bird, excuse me, [clears throat] Judy Bird Mountain in there. You've got the rail lines. You've got flood planes. You've got a number of things that automatically are uh are not developable. They're just not factored into usable land when we look at that. Is that correct?

That's that's pretty accurate, Mr. Mr. Bowman. Um I would say it's probably closer to about 1,800 to,900 developable acreage uh acres, but to your point um you know the kind of the natural lay of the land itself creates natural buffers around the property. Okay, good. Now in the uh speaking of the buffer, Mrs. uh Haristen here has a concern about that and she does live close by. She's actually got property up against there. there is built into the zoning buffers in there and that would help protect her land from any possible uh project that takes care of or that goes in that property

more than is currently in the M2 uh district today if I'm not mistaken. You correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, but I think today it's a 25 foot buffer from another industrial property. Okay. And so again, that that has been increased because Miss uh uh Miss Harrison's property is zoned to light industrial already. Okay. All right. Good. Um, thank you, Matt. That's all I've got. And I want to thank the folks again for everybody coming out tonight speaking for and against this. It's what we need to hear. Uh, Mr. Chairman, I yield back to you. Thank you, sir. Any other discussion?

Mr. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Row, I have a question if you come back up, sir. Just want to clarify that this resoning, if it does pass, this just pertains to the mega park. Is that correct? That's correct. based upon the uh PAXM map parcel ids that uh you know Matt uh Evans read out as your council it is only the mega site which also includes the micro por lot as well. Right. Okay. I just want to make sure we said that publicly. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Mr. Chairman. I still want to make another comment. Yes sir. [clears throat]

Excuse me. I appreciate everybody coming out tonight. Um yes. A year or so ago, we we heard it loud and clear that anything we wanted to do, it needed to be into an industrial park. So, tonight we have that opportunity to to pass this. Um, really and truly, it should already been zoned this. We shouldn't even have to be here tonight doing it, but it's just a step that we need to take to make sure that we all right. Um, and I'm going to support it because we just keep moving everything away and and not I mean everything's going right by. So, we need to take this opportunity. We have our park. We spent millions there. Um, this thing started back early 2000. U, I mean, we ain't kept no secrets from nobody I know of. I mean, we know that this is what it is, a mega industrial park. So again, let's go ahead and put this zoning in place and then we ready when somebody comes and we don't have to listen to we don't want it in our backyard and we don't want it here. It's not zoned. We'll have everything set and ready to go. And again, thank everybody for coming out. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Dalton. Supervisors, any additional All right. Um, let me uh Mr. Ingram, Mr. Dalton, my colleagues serve with me uh on the riffer board also. [clears throat] And uh I'd like to make a couple of comments. Uh firstly, I thank everyone for coming out tonight. I really sincerely appreciate your passion. Uh we have listened to you. Um, but at the same time, let me say this. It's a lot of responsibility on the board to make these tough decisions. It's it's a lot of weight. And uh we are in the middle of revamping our comprehensive plan. I heard I heard that um the comprehensive plan comes before the zoning ordinance and I've told others we want to get the comp plan in place before we adopt that zoning ordinance because in all fairness we don't want to pigeon hole ourselves where we cannot be able to uh make the necessary decisions to catapult us into the future. That's one. What keeps me up at night is this. Someone mentioned 8,000 students and being on the finance committee as we look to balance our budget. I say to all of us and those that are

listening, we cannot tax our way into prosperity. That's a non-starter. It just can't happen. Um so we need something transformative to uh be able to create some additional revenue. You know, we heard from Mr. road. The amount of money that between the tobacco commission, city of Danville, Pennsylvania County has invested in that site. Anyone in this room, if you invest in the stock market or crypto, it doesn't matter real estate, you want some return on your investment. So here we have an opportunity to kind of get some return on the investment the dollars that we have uh invested there. I heard the young man talk about jobs. I I I don't I don't want to get into uh a lengthy discussion about jobs, but I say to you as a young person and all of the young people of Pennsylvania County, the nature of work has changed. The the jobs that your parents grew up with, those jobs are gone. This is why we have the ILR. This is why we have uh advanced manufacturing over there and we're trying to offer you cutting edge opportunities to uh prepare yourself for the jobs that are needed in the 21st century. Now, we all want our kids to grow up and we want to say, "Hey, listen. Uh we want

a community where our children can come back to." And I and I challenge anybody in here. My son can't find a job right now in Pennsylvania County that he can afford to build or buy the same quality house that he grew up in. So you ask yourself, why is that? Because these are all problems we need to solve. And part of what we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure that we are competitive. The question becomes, aren't you tired of seeing your opportunity go to the research triad down in North Carolina? How many times have I heard we get awfully close to this announcement and that's the real rug that gets pulled from underneath the entire county. So, I'm going to support the motion. We are not setting a precedence here. The board is nimble. the board will be able to make future decisions based on opportun opportunities presented to us as far as zoning, reszoning, that sort of thing. Most of the board has signed NDA non-disclosures. When you start talking about transparency, we have to be somewhat reserved in the information that we can share. And I share to everyone tonight publicly what I said to an individual that I was having a one-on-one conversation with and I heard it tonight. It's the trust element.

It's easy to play Monday morning quarterback. It really is. The could have, should have, and would. But at some point, the citizenry has to trust or have some faith in this board. You elected us. You asked us to make the hard decisions. Every decision we're we're going to make is not going to go your way. Every decision that we make is not going to go in the opposition's way. But we cannot afford to be acting like those people in DC and politics. This great country was founded upon one thing, compromise. So there is an opportunity here for balanced growth and that's my position. Any other discussion, gentlemen? All right, madam. Uh, gentlemen, cast your votes.

Call a roll, Miss McCcluster. You have to do a roll call. Mr. Bowman. Yes. Mr. Brown. Yes. Mr. Dalton? Yes. Mr. Dudley? Yes. Mr. Whittle? Yes. Mr. Ingram? Yes, Mr. Tucker. Yes. Thank you so much. Motion carries unanimously. Let's see. Anything else, Mr. Evans? No, Mr. Chairman. Thank you so much. And thank you to the planning commission.