Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good welcome to today's planning commission. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, with the visible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Kendall, may we have the role taken, please?

Good afternoon, chairman Coy and members of the commission. Commissioner Staudle?

Here.

Commissioner Tafoya?

Present.

Commissioner Watkins?

Here.

Commissioner Casey?

Here.

Chairman Coy?

Here. Alright. First thing, just a note, the Planning Commission meetings will be held every second Thursday once a month going forward. That gives staff more time to get prepared and with the decrease in the volume of agenda items, it gives the Planning Commission the opportunity to be prepared also. So just note that second Thursday of every month starting forward. Secondly, if you don't want to stand and you want to go down and sit in the atrium, they are live streaming the meeting in the atrium and they'll provide you an opportunity to come up and speak when those opportunities arise. So if you're they have a little overflow area set down there. With that, Ms. Kendall, may we have the first agenda item, please?

Agenda item number one, consideration of the minutes of the proceedings for 03/26/2026.

Alright. Is there a motion or comments regarding the minutes?

I move to approve the minutes from May 14, Planning Commission.

Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. We have the vote taken, please.

Commissioner Staudle? Yes. Commissioner Tafoyo? Yes. Commissioner Watkins?

Yes.

Commissioner Casey? Aye. Chairman Coy?

Yes. That that moves forward. Passes. Let's go to the second item.

Agenda item number two, a class c conditional use permit for the BT Campground Cabins.

Chair McCoy, commission members, Sunny Portiau, associate planner, Laramie County Planning and Development. Daroon Consulting LLC on behalf of landowner BT two LLC has submitted an application for approval of a C conditional use permit for the BT Campground Cabin location. They have also submitted applications for a modest plat lot line adjustment to acquire the land for the new cabin location, which will require BOCC approval, and a site plan amendment to include the cabin use, which will be done administratively. These additional applications are being combined for ease of reading and will be determined by the means listed above. The purpose of the project is to expand the campground to include the eight new cabins that will be situated on the newly acquired portion of land.

The subject property is located in the community business or CB zone district and consists of Point 0.43 acres with the remainder of the BT Campground being planned unit development or PUD zone district. The surrounding area is also zoned community business, CB zone district. The property is currently accessed from South Greeley Highway. Pertinent Laramie County land use racial regulations statutory provisions include section one dash three dash 100 governing public notice, section two dash three dash one zero two d romanette three governing the class c conditional use permitting process, section two dash four dash one zero five governing the CB Community Business Zone District, section three dash one dash one zero nine governing commercial projects, section four dash two dash one zero three governing modest plot line adjustments, And section three-one-109H, governing revised site plans. And with that, I'd like to invite up Deanne Roone with the Roone Consulting to answer any questions.

Good afternoon. Thank you for putting us first on the agenda.

Can you just move closer to the microphone and

Is that better?

That's better. Thank you.

Thank you for putting us first on the agenda. It sounds like you have a full agenda. I'm Deanne Roon. I'm a landscape architect for D. Roon Consulting. And with me is John Agnew, the owner of the property. We've been working with this property for quite a while. And this is the final step in in completing an RV campground with with cabins. We're really excited about the project and excited to be welcomed into Cheyenne.

Do you have any questions

for us?

Any questions for the applicant from the Board? No. Thank you. We'll continue with the staff report. And if any come up, we'll call you back up. You.

Chairman Coy, Commission members, Sunny Bourcheaux, Associate Planner for Laramie County Planning and Development. The Laramie County Comprehensive Plan designates this area as urban rural interface URI, which is intended to accommodate a mix of more intensive land uses than other areas. These areas may have public water and sewer services, a higher level of vehicular access, and a greater overall level of community services. Planned Cheyenne future land use designates this area as CB community business and MUC mixed use commercial. Both plans align with the intended use of these properties.

This property is part of the South Cheyenne Water Sewer District and pertaining to water and sewer services will be addressed in the site plan application. Public notice was published, and neighbor notice letters were sent I'm sorry. There should be a correction. They were not sent by their yeah. They were sent by first class mail. Sorry about that. Staff received no written comments from adjacent landowners. Agency comments were addressed. A conditional use is given to land use meant to be beneficial to the permitted uses or those similar within a zoning district with conditions. Or it requires conditions to mitigate impacts it may have on the surrounding area.

Every listed land use or land use proposed proposal similar in nature, intensity, and community impact, which requires a conditional use permit, has probable impacts and is required to meet all conditions within the Laramie County land use regulations. It was determined that a class c conditional use permit would be required along with a site plan. Class c conditional uses are generally those which are presumed intense in nature and might require conditions to mitigate impacts they may have on the surrounding area to uphold public health, safety, and general welfare. Any conditions placed by the governing bodies shall be met. Section two dash three dash one zero two of the Laramie County Plan Land Use Regulations requires that the Laramie County Planning Commission decide as to whether the proposed use is permitted and is in conformance with all applicable developmental standards.

Staff find this application is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County. Recommendations and findings based on evidence provided, staff finds that, a, this application meets the criteria for a class c conditional use permit pursuant to section two dash three dash one zero two d three of the twenty twenty five Laramie County land use regulations. B, this application meets the criteria for commercial projects pursuant to section three dash one dash one zero nine of the twenty twenty five Laramie County land use regulations. And c, this application is in conformance with section two dash four dash one zero five of the twenty twenty five Laramie County land use regulations governing the CB Community Business Zone District. And that the Planning Commission may recommend approval of the class c conditional use permit for the BT campground cabins located in a portion of Track 4 Allison Tracks situated in the west half of Section 8 Township 13 North, Range 66 West Laramie County, Wyoming to the Laramie County Board Of Commissioners with no conditions.

And with that, I stand for any questions.

Any questions for staff from the planning board? Thank you, Sunny. None. No questions. At this time, we'll open up the public hearing. This is a public hearing for this item in particular. If there's anyone in the audience who would like to address the commission on this proposal, we invite you to come forward and address the commission. We ask that you speak in the microphone and it's important to state your name and address. We also ask that you keep your comments at three minutes or less so that we have an opportunity to hear from everyone. If you're watching virtually and would like to make comments during the public hearing portion of this meeting, please comment online. IT, we'll start with comments online. Any comments online?

There are no comments online.

No comments online. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to address the commission for the public hearing on this particular item? Anybody in the room for this item any couple public comments for this item

Good evening. My name is Jay Fred Volk. I'm at 6106 Yellowstone Road. I'm a local real estate agent and a land developer. And in looking at this, I had several questions looking at the application.

It looked like the traffic study and the drainage studies were waived. And given the amount of how hard surface that's gonna be going in out there, I think a drainage study is really gonna be important because that water just sheds to the east and to, obviously, the south. I I just have great concerns about the water containment. I'm not sure if that retention pond is gonna be sufficient. So I just had questions why we didn't get another drainage study.

And then with that exhibit a above you, it looks like there's gonna be two in outbound lanes and one inbound lane. And I I guess I have concerns about someone pulling big fifth wheels and trying to make a left hand turn on South Greeley Highway with that. I think that's gonna snarl the traffic given the new coffee shop out there, the new car wash adjacent there, as well as across the street, the new community center that they're talking about. So I think that all needs to be reworked somehow, and I I just think it's gonna be dangerous the way I'm looking at it here. So I would ask that all to be concerned or considered and I think it's a big concern.

So thank you.

Thank you, Volk. We'll address any of those questions at the end. Any other questions or comments for this item? Alright. We'll close public comment for this item. Let's just ask a couple questions. Sunny or Mr. Arnold, did you want to address the traffic study? This is the conditional use permit versus the

Chairman Coy, yes. That is absolutely correct. This is the conditional use just for the use of the cabins. This is not the site plan process. All of those items are going to be addressed in a more detailed site plan, and that will go before YDOT as well.

So conditional use premise versus site plan. Site plan, this is a permanent site plan. It will go through you and also the YDOT will have their input on on the traffic review portion of it. Thank you, mister Volk, for pointing it out, And

these are also permanent structures. They are not going to be RVs coming in through that section. So just for the cabins alone, they are permanent. They're not mobile.

And the the other portion of the project was already reviewed and and completed prior to this this is just an additional part project now correct

yes sir

thank you any other questions from from the board to staff or the applicant with that I'd like for a motion or discussion

Mister commissioner, through you, I move

to recommend approval of the class c conditional use permit for the BT campground cabins located in the portion of Track 4, Allison Tracks, situated in the West half of Section 8 Township 13 North, Range 66 West, Laramie County, Wyoming. To Laramie County Board of Commissioners and adopt the findings of fact a, b, and c of the staff report with no conditions.

It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. Moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Miss Cundalini, we call for the vote.

Commissioner Staudle? Yes. Commissioner Tafoya?

Aye.

Commissioner Watkins?

Yes.

Commissioner Casey?

Aye.

Chairman Coy?

Aye. That item passes. Can we have the third agenda item, please?

Agenda item number three is a review and action on a minor subdivision permit in Platt for Captain Salterra subdivision located in a portion of Section 30 Township 15 North, Range 62 West of the 6 PM Laramie County, Wyoming.

Chairman Coy, commission members, Sunny Portiault, associate planner for Laramie County Planning and Development. Style Surveying Services LLC on behalf of landowner, Romero Dorado Rosales, has submitted a minor subdivision permit and plat application for Captain Sol Tierra subdivision located at State Highway 213 and Road 216. The application has been submitted for the purpose of subdividing the property into 16 lots with each lot averaging between five point two five and eight point eight four acres. The property consists of 90.01 acres and is designated LU Land Use Zone District and is current currently residential land. The surrounding area consists of residential and agricultural within the LU Land Use Zone District.

Pertinent Laramie County land use regulations or statutory provisions include section four dash five dash 102 governing the criteria for a minor subdivision permit and plat, section two dash four dash one zero four of the governing the land use zone district, section one dash three dash 100 governing public notice. And with that, I have Shane Hansen to answer any questions.

Mister Hansen. Good afternoon.

Shane Hansen, Style Surveying Services. Happy to answer any questions you may have regarding this project.

Planning Board have any questions for the applicant? Thank you, mister Hansen. Miss Portia, you want to continue with your staff

I'm sorry about that. Chairman Coy, Commission members Sunny Portiau, Laramie County Planning and Development. The Laramie County Comprehensive Plan designates this area as Ag And Rangeland AGR and are considered areas that are far removed from the providers of public services and have relatively lower levels of road access. Primary uses are agricultural crop and livestock production and associated with residential uses. A subdivision of more than five lots requires some middle of a chapter 23 study to the Department of Environmental Quality or DEQ, and a nonadverse letter from DEQ must be received prior to plat recordation.

Individual septic systems will provide sanitary services. According to the adopted amic memo dated 01/31/2014, the property lies within Zone 2 of the study area. The memo states that lots within this zone shall be a minimum of five acres in order to sufficiently recharge groundwater after withdrawal from a pumping well. Development design standards contained within section two dash four one one three of the land use regulations dictate that minimum acreage within zone two be 5.25 acres to accommodate for the impervious service of residential structures and driveways. The proposal outlines water being provided by individual wells.

Public notice was provided as required. No public comment was received. Based on evidence provided, staff finds that, a, this application meets the criteria for a subdivision permit and plat pursuant to section four dash five dash 102 of the Laramie County land use regulations. B, this application is in conformance with section two dash four dash one zero four governing the LU Land Use Zone District. And that the planning commission may recommend approval of Captain Sulciera Subdivision located in a portion of Section 30 Township 15 North, Range 62 West of the 6 PM Laramie County, Wyoming to the Laramie County Board of Commissioners with the following conditions.

One, a non adverse chapter 23 study recommendation from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality must be received prior to plat recordation. And with that, I stand for any questions.

Any questions for staff? With no questions, we'll open up the public hearing for this item. If there's anyone in the audience who would like to address the commission on this proposal, we invite you to come forward and address the commission. We ask that you speak in the microphone, state your name and address. We also ask that you keep your comments to three minutes or less so we have an opportunity to hear from everyone. If you're watching virtually and would like to make comments during the public hearing portion of this meeting, please comment online. And we'll begin with the IT. Is there anyone online for this agenda item?

There is nobody online for this item.

Alright. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to address this item? Please come up come forward and state your name and address. They played rock paper scissors to decide which one went.

My name is Charlie Brown, and I live at 1656 State Highway 213, exactly north of this property. My wife Jill is in the audience It with seems like I'm a day late and a dollar short. I don't know how I missed all of this, but I do have some concerns. One of them is water. There's gonna be sixteen, eighteen wells going in just south of me.

The second one is noise. I moved to that area for peace and quiet. Now if the if the county commissioners can guarantee that no noise will come across my southern fence, we're good. Can that be done?

I understand your concern.

Pretty simple question. The other is visual. I can see the Rocky Mountains a 140 miles away. I will not be able to. Has that been taken into consideration? Those are the kind of things that I think we sometimes need to look at. Our neighbors. I don't know why. I wasn't contacted. Just slide it in and build away.

Gentlemen, you have a tough job. I appreciate what you do. I really, really do. But I want you to take just what I have said into consideration. I have also heard there might be mobile homes there and not home homes.

Yeah. That's not for this portion of the meeting, but I understand your concern. Any other thing for that item?

No, sir.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Appreciate that, mister Brown. Next, please.

My name is Kenneth King. I live at 5151 County Road 222. I'm about six miles north of this proposed subdivision. I understand that I wanna divide 90 acres into 15 or sixteen five acre plots. I think the standard subdivision in this area is 30 acres. Now it looks to me like if if they would divide into three thirty acre pieces and the landowner could sell them, he'd more than get his money back from what he what he paid for the whole property. So I guess that's about all I have to say.

Alright. Thank you, mister Payne. We'll address the number of acres. So I know you'd be able to that's zone? Amex zone two. Zone two. And then what's the minimum what size for Amex zone 2?

5.25.

5.25 acres. So that area is addressed as 5.2 acres. Anyone else for this item? Yes, ma'am. Please come step forward.

Hi. My name is Shawn Perkins. I live at 1787 Road 147. We've been here twenty six years. When we moved in, we were considered so rural that it was hard to get a house built and stuff.

But the one thing that we did we're told, the water table could not afford anything smaller than 40 acres, and that has been the going policy out that way. And now we have realtors going, you own 40 acres, you can do whatever you want. This is Wyoming. And we have people subdividing 10 acre lots off of that 40, and now we got four wells, four septics, going into a water table that can't support it. And if you ask them about the engineers that have done the the the test on it and stuff, they'll tell you it's inconclusive.

They can't give you, yes, it can or no, it can't. It's inconclusive. So why put ourselves in a position of my my wealth is gonna go down. I live down around the corner. I live about seven miles away. I don't wanna lose my wealth or my land and my livelihood. So if it was 40 acres, why don't we because of the water table, I can't see it changing with and that was twenty six years ago. I can't see it changing with bringing in more and more homes. So I think that water table really needs to be looked at, especially when they're going five acres and everyone's gonna have their own well.

Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you for that. The the state engineer's office has to approve those walls based off of their hydrological studies and data and the AMAC report is the governing document that judges it. They have monitoring wells that the state is continually looking at annually. Am I correct, Sunny? So they're just to give you some information about that, we don't govern the water, unfortunately. Sometimes I wish we would because it would make it a lot cleaner, but the state engineers who issues that acreage size and the permit for the water wells.

Yeah. But they won't give you a straight answer. They won't say yes or no.

They're gonna reference the AMEC report right now based off the data that's present. That's how they determine if they're gonna approve that well or not. So thank you. Anyone else for this item, please? Come on forward, please.

My name is Laura Doan. I live at 1621 Swing in Cheyenne. Excuse me if any of my questions are ignorant. I've never done this

before. Sure.

But I probably will have the same exact question with every proposal that you have. What are your plans to do with the continuing growth? Like, know they've mentioned water, which is a big deal. But what about police and fire and EMS and the schools? Because they're busting out at the seams right now, and they're not even getting the proper education that they should be getting.

And that's been a continuous issue since COVID, really. So are there any plans for growth? Because I also know police, fire, and EMS are overworked and understaffed. The hospital is overworked and understaffed tremendously. So what are the plans to keep up with the growth?

Yeah, absolutely. And I would love to be able to answer it. But this is the planning. And all we are is a voluntary board that just interprets the land use regulations versus the project? That is a great question for your county commissioners and the political body that Okay. Has this

where would I go to?

The next meeting for these projects would be at the county commission level.

Okay. Thank you.

June 2.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other items? We have one virtual online, please.

Just as a quick aside, if you are able to please move the microphone down a little bit closer just so that way everybody online can hear and everyone in the room here can hear as well.

So if you're planning on approaching the podium throughout the evening, move the microphone closer to your mouth so that online can hear it. Thank you. That's all you had for Alright. Anybody else for this item? Any other public comment for this item? And finally, any other public comment for this item? With that, we'll close public hearing and, mister Porsche, would you have a question or comment?

Comment. Perfect. Chairman Coy, through you. I would like to answer the multiple questions that you, the residents, have given us. As far as the wells, those are 100% governed by the state engineer's office.

In that annex zone District 2, the minimum requirement of land required for a residence is 5.25 acres. Historically, I'm not sure where we got the idea of that 30 acres and the 40 acres. That might have been old regulation, but current regulation and the AMEC memo indicate the minimum requirement is 5.25 acres. In reference to the noise disturbance, we have our law enforcement that can handle any type of disturbing of the peace, and that's what that would be called in on. As far as the continuing growth for our community, Every single subdivision that comes into our department, they have to pay public safety fees and community facility fees that go forward to to build new schools and community parks and firehouses and expansion of sheriff's office.

So I hope that I answered all of that accurately and sufficiently.

And mister chairman, through you, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning and Development. Great answer, Sunny. Beyond that, we do put the local jurisdictional fire districts on these reviews, the sheriff's office, things like that. If it you know, it's anecdotal, but, you know, I used to work for the Department of Education, in good, better, indifferent, we don't see young families with school aged children that are able to afford these size of lots anyways, and they really have relatively minimal impact as it relates to school pupil membership and things like that. So in going back to the AMEC memo, that's directly from the state engineer's office and was based upon the soils compositions throughout Laramie County in which you pull out so much water from a residential well and based on the soils, it's able to recharge that aquifer and effectively get a homeostasis as far as that goes.

So that's where that regulation comes from. And we do put these pertinent agencies on the subdivision reviews, but feel free to, come back to the next meeting as well and and, bring that your concerns to the board of commissioners.

Mister chair, through you. Justin, is it I've heard some comments about maybe there being a new AMEC memo. Is that a true case that they're working on getting that done? Or is

that Mister chairman, through you, I think you're referencing what was called senate file 50, which was passed by legislature in the last legislative session. Now, historically, I've I've had, discussions with the AMEC team who did the bona fide study that we work off of a summarized version of as our regulatory document, and they have since become Wood plc. When I discussed this with them, I says, are we still good here? And I sat with the commissioners. Do you still stand by your document and your regulation?

And they say, yes. And people say, hey, why aren't we revisiting this five, ten years down the road? Well, the soils haven't changed. So unless our ability to reevaluate the soils or get better technology as it relates to that, then then really it's still viable, for the long term. What senate file 50 does is allow $250,000 from the state, to the state engineer's office every ten years to revisit our water regulations and update those, whether we actually go through and do, like, kind of a sonar and actually map the underground rivers and and get some even better data.

But again, it's based upon soils compositions and and recharge rates, currently as as it stands. So we'll see. I know I know that there are discussions about updating that and using those monies to to relook at that, and we will follow whatever the state engineer directs us to.

Thank you. Mister Arnold, just a follow-up on it. It's not only just the soils. The state engineer's office is also monitoring those monitoring the walls, and those that data is online as far as the depth or the Yep. Size of them.

Mister chairman, through you, I everybody is concerned about water. I'll be honest with you. The vast majority of the water that's used in Laramie County is from center pivots, and we all know that. 900 gallons a minute versus 300, you know, 153 gallons a day for a residential pumping wells. So what happened back in 2015 was that the state engineer's office saw our groundwater hydrographs kind of falling off a little bit, and they they actually did a moratorium on well digging until we figured out what was going on.

That's what precipitated the amnoc memo, but good I don't know if there's correlation there. We don't know the causation for sure, but since we adopted those in 2015, we've seen an uptick in those aquifer levels that are tend to be recovering consistently. So if that provides any those are on the state engineers website, groundwater hydrographs that you can certainly reference, but we're seeing a we're seeing a a recovery of the the aquifers over the last few years.

Thank you. And for the public, this board is absolutely aware of our concerns as a county resident, the water. And we really have to find value in what the State Engineer's Office is providing us for data off of those existing wells and the AMEC report is now twelve years old but they it's not technically twelve years old because they review it annually to make sure that it still fits the current data that they're receiving. So, I've been on this board for ten years and water is hugely important to me personally as a county resident. With that, any other discussion or comments?

Look for a motion.

Mister chair, through you, I move to recommend approval of the Captain Solterra Subdivision located in a portion in of Section 30 T 15 North R 62 W Of The 6th PM Laramie County, Wyoming to the Laramie County Board of Commissioners and adopt the findings of facts a and b of the staff report with the following conditions. A non adverse chapter 23 study recommendation from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality must be received prior to plat recordation.

It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. Moved second. Any discussion? Just want to be clear that the condition that's placed on this is the state engineer has to approve their wells. So that's that's what that says so that just so the public's aware. With that, any other discussion? Miss Cundill, if you'll call for the vote, please.

Commissioner Stottle? Yes. Commissioner Tafoya? Aye. Commissioner Watkins?

Yes.

Commissioner Casey?

Aye.

Chairman Coy?

Aye. Then item moves forward. Next item, please.

Agenda item number four is the review and action on a class b conditional use permit for the Horse Creek Rustic Tower located in a portion of Section 10, Township 15 North, Range 69 West Of Laramie County, Wyoming. Chairman Coy and members of the commission, Kate Cundell, associate planner. Bridger Tower Company, on behalf of Brian McChesney Trust and Verizon Wireless, has submitted a class b conditional use permit application for approval of a new wireless telecom telecommunications facility at 1942 Horse Creek Road in Cheyenne. The facility consists of a 199 foot self supporting tower and equipment in an enclosed area. The subject property is located in the land use zone district.

The parcel is currently assessed as residential improved land without buildings. The surrounding area is zoned at land use and consists of a mixture of residences and pasture. The tower is designed to accommodate several wireless carriers. This new facility will satisfy coverage objectives by the carrier for this area of Larabee County. The closest wireless facility is a shorter union telephone tower that does not provide sufficient height needed to provide coverage on the highway and the homes in the area.

A wireless tower permit will be required following approval of the Class B conditional use permit and will be approved administratively. A commercial building permit will be required for the construction. Fertinent Laramie County land use regulations or statutory provisions include section two dash three dash one zero two d two governing the conditional use type b permitting process, section two dash four dash one zero four, governing the LU Land Use Zone district, section one dash three dash 100, governing public notice, section three dash one dash one zero one nine, governing commercial projects, Section three dash one dash one one three c and d, governing wireless communication towers. The agent is joining us virtual, Jason Evans. If you have any questions, he'll be happy to answer.

Mister Evans, are you online and able to hear us?

We do not currently see him at the Zoom

meeting. Okay.

Alright. With that, let's continue with the staff report, please.

Okay. Chair Bencoy and members of the commission. The setback requirement to all property lines for towers shall be the height of the tower. The proposed 230 foot setback meets this requirement. No marking or lighting will be required at the site.

There will be no increase in traffic, and the tower will not emit any noise or odor. A phase one environmental site assessment that identifies potential contamination risk associated with the project will be completed along with the National Environmental Policy Act, a NEPA report, to ensure that federal agencies give proper consideration to the environment when reviewing projects that may significantly impact the environment. FAA and FCC approval is also required. The Laramie County comprehensive plan identifies the area as Egg And Range Land AGR district. Primary uses are agricultural and residential.

The parcel lies outside the planned Cheyenne area. Agency review comments have been addressed. Wyoming Game and Fish comments were received regarding their suggestions on mitigating disruptions to the wildlife, and the tower design was changed to a non guidewire tower and to meet those suggestions. Public notice was provided and one public comment was received and is attached to your report. A conditional use is given to land meant to be beneficial to the permitted uses or those similar within a zoning district with conditions, or it requires conditions to mitigate impacts it may have on the surrounding area.

Land use or land use proposals similar in nature, intensity, and community impact, which requires a conditional use permit, has probable impacts and is required to meet all LCLUR conditions. It was determined that a class b conditional use permit would be required along with a wireless tower permit. Class b conditional uses are those meant to be beneficial to an area and are permissible in their zoning district. Section two dash three dash one zero two a of the LCLUR requires that the Laramie County Planning Commission make a determination as to whether the proposed use is permitted and is in conformance with all applicable development standards. Staff finds this application is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County.

In accordance with the FCC US code three thirty two, title 47, when considering an application for a communication tower or other wireless facility service, the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions cannot be considered as a basis for denial to the extent that such facilities comply with the FCC regulations concerning such emissions. If the Planning Commission denies a wireless facility tower, it must be in writing and supported by substantial evidence contained in the written report. Based on evidence provided, staff finds that a, this application meets the criteria for a class b conditional use permit pursuant to section two dash three dash one zero two of the 2025 Laramie County land use regulations. B, this application is in conformance with section three dash one dash one one three c and d of the LCLUR governing wireless communication towers. And c, this application is in conformance with sections two dash four dash one zero four of the 2025 LCLUR governing the land use zone district, and that the planning commission may approve the class b conditional use permit for the Horse Creek Rustic Tower with no conditions.

And with that, I would stand for any questions you may have.

Any questions for miss Cundle? No questions. We'll open up the public hearing for this agenda item. If there's anyone in the audience who'd like to address the commission on the proposal, we invite you to come forward and address the commission. We ask that you speak into the microphone, state your name and address. We also have to keep your comments three minutes or less so that we have an opportunity to hear from everyone. If you are watching virtually, would like to make comments during the public hearing portion. Please comment so is there anyone online for this item one online person online okay

Hi. Can you hear me? You hear me?

Yes. Please go ahead with your name and address, please.

My name is Michelle Grutz. I live at 1911 Horse Creek Road. I

I'm

the one that provided the comments about the Union Wireless Tower that currently sits on the hill right before you go down to the railroad tracks. The proposed tower would sit lower in the valley. So I'm I'm a little confused as to how they believe the Union Tower will not provide the accurate coverage that they need as it sits up on top of the hill instead of down in the valley. And I also have confirmed with Union Wireless that they can handle Verizon's equipment. They actually already have AT and T equipment on that tower.

If there were adjustments that needed to be made, Verizon would just need to work with Union to make those adjustments. And I've confirmed also that they would be willing to work with Verizon to make it usable for Verizon to access the tower as well. That's all. Thank

you, miss Kurtz. Any other public comments for this item in the audience? Any other public comment? Any other public comment? With that, we'll close the public hearing. Let's talk first about any questions regarding miss Kurtz's comments as far as accessibility. Miss Cundell?

Chairman Coy and members of the commission. This is a private company that is putting this tower in. We don't require that they use an existing tower if they have sufficient evidence that this is required for providing providers their providers the service that they're requesting. I don't know that we've ever facilitated another use of another tower company.

Mister Evans isn't online, is he, the applicant?

We still do not see him online.

Alright. Thank you.

Mister chairman, through you, you have the discretion if those are questions that you deem that need to be answered to postpone this until the next hearing should you see fit.

Mister chair, through you. Miss Kundle, I have one question, and I think it could be answered. It looks on enlarged site plan c two, it shows a distance of 233 feet to what I would call the top left corner of that site. And with that tower being a 195 feet and showing on the other side of that, my concern is is does it meet the requirement of missing the roadway there with enough space.

Chairman Coy, through you. The requirements of the LCLUR require a one to one setback. The tower is a 195 feet, a 199 feet, and it's a 230. Where it's situated in that small leased area, it's should still meet the requirements.

Okay. Thank

you. And this is also just the class b conditional use permit too. Correct?

Correct.

Alright. With that, we'll look for motion or continued discussion.

I'll make a motion to approve the I move to approve the class b conditional use permit for the Horse Creek Rustic Tower and adopt the findings of fact a, b, and c of the staff report.

It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. Moved and second. Discussion.

No discussion. We'll call for the vote.

Commissioner Stottle? Yes. Commissioner Tafoya?

Aye.

Commissioner Watkins?

Yes.

Commissioner Casey? Aye. Chairman Coy?

Aye. That item moves forward. Next item, please.

Agenda item number five is the public hearing regarding a review and recommendation for a minor subdivision planning for Camp Stool Bluffs, Laramie County located on Lot 3, Reata Ranch, North 40, record of survey. Commissioner Coy and members of the Planning Commission. Kate Cundle, associate planner. Style Surveying Services LLC on behalf of Brian McKnight has submitted a minor plat application for Camps Tor Bluffs, a replat of Lot 3 Reata Ranch North 40 record of survey. The subject property is located at the intersection of Reata Loop and Arena Lane in Cheyenne.

The subdivision divides the existing 39.66 acre parcel into six tracks that average 6.1 acres each. The subject property is currently assessed as residential improved land located in the land use zone district. The subject parcel border subdivisions to the east, west, and south with vacant agricultural land to the north. The Reata Ranch North 40 is a record of survey, so no vacate is required for this minor plat to be approved. Pertinent statutes and twenty twenty five Laramie County land use regulations include Wyoming statutes eighteen five dash three dash three zero four and thirty four dash 12 dash one zero six, section two dash four dash one zero four governing the land use zone district, and section four dash five dash 102 governing minor sub divisions and plats.

With us today is the agent for the applicant, Shane Hanson with style surveying that can answer further questions.

Mister Hanson. Good

afternoon. Shane Hanson, style surveying services. Happy to answer any questions you may have regarding this plat.

Any questions from the Planning Commission? Thank you, Mr. Hansen. Ms. Condorf, do want to continue?

Chairman Coy and members, the Laramie County Comprehensive Plan identifies the area as rural ag interface, which is a residential use is primarily anticipated in these areas. The parcel lies outside the plan Cheyenne area. Individual wells and septic systems will provide water and sanitary services to the tracks. The subdivision lies in Amex Zone 2 and meets all size requirements. A subdivision of more than five lots require a submittal of a chapter 23 study to the Department of Environmental Quality, and a nonadverse recommendation letter from DEQ must be received prior to PLAT recordation.

The subdivision will be assessed from Marina Lane onto an 80 foot right away to be named Quarter Pony Drive. A road maintenance agreement has been prepared outlining snow plowing, cost sharing, parking, utility easement, road maintenance, and vehicle and pedestrian access requirements. Agency review comments have been addressed and plot corrections made. Public notice was provided per section one dash three dash 100 of the 2025 LCLUR. No comments were received.

Based on evidence provided, staff finds that a, this application meets the criteria for a minor subdivision and plat pursuant to section four dash five dash 102 of the 2025 LCLUR. B, this application is in conformance with section two dash four dash one zero four governing the land uses on district and that the planning commission may recommend approval of Camp Stool Bluffs subdivision located on Lot 3 Riata Ranch North 40 Record Of Survey, Laramie County, Wyoming to the Laramie County Board of Commissioners with the following condition. One, a nonadverse chapter 23 study recommendation from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality must be received prior to PLAT recordation. And with that, I would stand for any questions.

Any questions from? Any questions from the board? All right. With that, we'll open up the public hearing for this agenda item. If there's anyone in the audience who'd like to address the commission on this proposal, we invite you to come forward and address the commission. We ask that you speak into the microphone and state your name and address. We also ask that you keep your comments to three minutes or less so we have an opportunity to hear from everyone. If you're watching virtually, please comment online. IT, is there anyone online? Nobody online? No comments online. Thank you. Anybody in the audience for this agenda item, please step forward. Anyone in the audience for this item? It's almost like an auction.

If you start moving, I'm looking at you. Anybody in the audience for this item? With that, we'll close the public hearing and look for a motion discussion from the board.

I move to recommend the approval of the Campstool Bluff subdivision located at Lot 3, Reata Ranch North, 40 record of sir survey. Laramie County, Wyoming to the Laramie County Board of Commissioners and adopt the findings of fact a and b of the staff report with the following conditions. A nonadverse chapter 23 study recommendation from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality must be received prior to the plat recordations.

It's been moved. Is there a second? I second. Moved and second. Any discussion? No discussion. Miss Cundill, if you'll call for the vote.

Commissioner Staddle? Yes. Commissioner Tafoya?

Aye.

Commissioner Wat Watkins?

Yes.

Commissioner Casey? Aye. Chair McCoy?

Aye. That item moves forward. Can we have the sixth agenda item, please?

Agenda item number six is the review and action of a class b conditional use permit for the capital City storage tower located at Track 6, Wanande Acres, Laramie County, Wyoming. Chairman Coy and members of the commission, Kate Cundell, associate planner. Galt Enterprises on behalf of EIP Holdings two LLC and Bernard E. Thirks and Carrie L. King has submitted a class b conditional use permit application for approval of a wireless telecommunication facility at 3405 Hayes Avenue, Cheyenne.

The facility consists of a 95 foot monopole tower and equipment in an enclosed area with an adjacent nine foot by 20 foot parking area. The subject property is located in the Land Use Zone District. The parks was currently assessed as residential improved land. The surrounding area has land use, medium residential, mixed use, and agricultural rural zone districts and is primarily residential use. The tower is designed to accommodate up to four wireless carriers and the facility is intended to enhance wireless service coverage and reliability in the area while maintaining a low impact footprint.

A wireless tower permit will be required following approval of the Class B condition use permit and will be approved administratively. A commercial building permit will be required for the construction of the tower. Pergent Laramie County land use or statutory provisions include section two dash three dash one zero two d two governing the conditional use type b permitting process, section two dash four dash one zero four governing the land use zone district, section one dash three dash 100 governing public notice, section three dash one dash one zero nine governing commercial projects, section three dash one dash one one three c and d governing wireless communication towers. Joining us today is a representative for the applicant, Dana Manus, who would be happy to answer any questions and does have a slide presentation.

Hello. My name is Dina Manas, and I am here on behalf of Everest Infrastructure. I do have a slide presentation. However, I can make it fairly quickly as a lot of what is involved in the project has been spoken about. How do I change slides here?

This condo will advance them for you.

Okay. My slide show is cut off a little bit. But as addressed previously, this project is at 3405 Hayes Avenue in Cheyenne. The land use is LU. Surrounding parcels are also LU, AR, and MR, which are agricultural residential and medium density residential.

Why did we choose this location? This happens to be the exact location that's in the center of the search ring for the coverage objective. We are having capacity and coverage issues in this area. So we are hoping to enhance network bandwidth, improve indoor wireless coverage and relieve congestion off of adjacent sites and their sectors. We are hoping to provide additional coverage for the city of Cheyenne and provide improved indoor in vehicle and on street coverage for existing homes and businesses.

This is a map that shows you currently the anchor tenant for this project will be Verizon Wireless, and it does show you where their sites are and that demonstrates that the proposed location central to where the coverage is needed. This is the current propagation map provided by RF that shows where coverage is needed. You can't see it on there, I'm going grab my map here. The colors illustrated are green is for indoor service, yellow is in vehicle, and red is on street coverage. So this area lacks a lot of indoor service as well as in vehicle, and it does have some street service needs as well.

Once the site is completed, if it's approved, that will be the new propagation map to show the relief in the congested area of where the coverage is needed. This is also a map that shows in, proximity to the current site proposed, where the AT and T sites are as well. And this map shows the sites for, where T Mobile is located. We have designed the tower for additional carriers, there would be no need for additional towers in the area as they could all co locate on this existing tower. I have already talked about this.

Justification again is capacity and coverage issues that we are hoping to facilitate with approval of this tower. The project design is a 95 foot monopole tower. It does have a three foot appurtenance lightning rod. It is very hard to see and almost can't see at the top of the tower. The ground and equipment compound will be a 50 by 50.

There will be a chain link fence with privacy slats installed to ensure that none of the equipment is visible beyond the fence. And as I already said, this is designed to accommodate future colocation opportunities for additional carriers. I was just putting here the site plan. It is a little bit cut off as well, but I just wanted to notate that we do meet the setbacks from the one to one ratio from the north, south, east, and west. Here's the site plan detail.

If you can I don't know if you can see that, but it does allow, I believe it's a 12 by 20 area for additional equipment for all four carriers? And there was a request by the county to approve the curve, which is shown at the top. And that will be taking place in this project as well. We did have RF emissions study completed and we were we have hold on here a second, I can't read all that because that we will operate well below the safety standards to the general public, and the exposure lever was 17.45% of the FCC allowable limit, demonstrating that we comply with all applicable and federal safety guidelines. We get this question a lot, so we just wanted to mention that cell towers run on non ionizing energy radio waves, and those examples that we use every day are car radios, television, Bluetooth headsets, light bulbs, TV remotes, things like that.

So it's not an ionizing type of energy radio wave, which is examples would be gamma rays and x rays. To find the site that we did, we did a lot of things. We have to make sure that we fit the zoning constraints, access and utilities. We also need a willing landlord, and we felt that this location was the best, least intrusive option as we could find in the area that was in the center of the ring, and it meets the technical requirements for the network. This is just a few things that are important for essential wireless infrastructure.

First and foremost is first responders, emergency response, community reliability, local business support, online education and training, travel. We all use our GPS and so forth. I want to thank everybody for your time and consideration, and we are asking to get approval of conditional use permit B, our wireless towerless permit, and the floodplain development permit.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Any questions for the applicant?

Thank

you. I want to continue with the staff report, please.

Chairman Coy and Commission members, the setback requirement to all property lines for towers shall be the height of the tower. The proposed setbacks meet this requirement. No marking or lighting will be required at the site. There will be no increase in traffic, and the tower will not emit any noise or odor. There will be this will be an unattended facility.

Access will be off Charles Street, which has been annexed into the City Of Cheyenne and requires access permitting from that entity at the wireless tower site plan stage. This application to the city of Cheyenne has been submitted. A phase one environmental site assessment that identifies potential contamination risk associated with the project will be completed along with the n NEPA report to ensure the federal agencies give proper consideration to the environment when reviewing projects that may significantly impact the environment. FAA and FCC approval is also required. The Laramie County comprehensive plan identifies the areas as urban rural interface.

This is intended to accommodate a mix of more intensive land uses than other areas. This parcel lies in the planned Cheyenne mixed use residential area. Agency reviews have been completed and comments have been addressed. Public notice was provided in accordance with the LCLUR. One public comment was received and a copy is attached to this report.

A conditional use is given to land meant to be beneficial to the permitted uses or those similar within a zoning district with conditions, or it requires conditions to mitigate impacts it may have on the surrounding area. Section two dash three dash one zero two a of the Laramie County land use regulations require that Laramie County Planning Commission make a determination as to whether the proposed use is permitted and is in conformance with all applicable development standards. Staff finds this application is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County. Based on evidence provided, staff finds that, a, this application meets the criteria for a class b conditional use permit pursuant section two dash three dash one zero two of the 2025 Laramie County land use regulations. B, this application is a conformance with section three dash one dash one one three c and d of the LCLUR governing wireless communication towers, and c, this application is in conformance with section two dash four dash one zero four of the 2025 LCLUR governing the land use zone district, and that the Planning Commission may approve the conditional B conditional use permit for the Capital City storage tower with no conditions.

And also, I'd like to add that a grading permit has been issued for this site, and the tower site tower permit is ongoing and reviews at this time. And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions from the board? Thank you, Ms. Kundle. We'll open up the public hearing for this item, please. If you or anyone in the audience would like to address the commission on this proposal, we invite you to come forward and address the commission. We ask that you speak into the microphone, state your name and address. We also ask that you keep your comments to three minutes or less and so that I'll have an opportunity to hear everyone. If you are watching virtually and would like to make a comment, please do so. IT, is there anyone online?

There are no comments online at this time.

All right. Anybody in the audience for this item that would like to make public comment? Anyone in the audience for this item? Thank you. Come on forward, please.

I'm Brittany Meyer. I am about to move about like two lots away from this at 5320 Charles Street. And huge concern as far as the non ionizing radiation. I know it's kind of talked down about and it's not really a big deal, but there is a lot of studies showing that it's a huge problem. And I personally don't feel comfortable having a cell phone tower that close to my house.

I've got two toddlers that I seriously would probably finish building this house and move outside of town if this tower goes up because I just don't feel like it's it's just not a safe environment. I don't know how many people were actually notified about it because I think they were only having to notify people within like 500 feet. And There's a kid's playground on one side, there's not many houses specifically within that 500 feet to even be notified, I don't how many people know about this at all really. With having so many families with young kids so close to a cell phone tower, it just really scares me to have that going on. It looks like from the maps there are plenty of opportunities like south, little bit Southeast would be ideal for this, Closer to the railroad tracks, I don't know if there are plans right now for that.

You've got that park right across Pershing there. I don't know if there are any set plans going on for that right now, but maybe like the backside of that park even, you know, county property, something less residential. So obviously, it's gonna be an eyesore having six foot chain link fence. You can try to hide it, but six feet isn't gonna hide a 98 foot tower. So I I'm it's gonna be an eyesore. That's not even the biggest problem for me, but I just don't think it's meant for a residential neighborhood is my huge concern.

Thank you, Ms. Myers. Anyone else for this item? With that, we'll close public comment. Ms. Cundell, do you want to speak on the requirements that they have to go through for that for safety, health and safety?

Chairman Coy and Commission members, this isn't approved for the use. After this approval is done, they do have to go through FCC and other stringent studies and also obtain other permits from other agencies. This is for the use, and possibly, Dina could speak further on this, on what other reports or things, approvals you have to get that addresses the emission of these things. Yeah.

Yeah. Please.

Just state your name and address again, please. Thank you.

This is Dina Manas. As I previously stated, we did have an RF emissions report done, and we have fit within the federal safety guidelines where I think it was 17.47%, something like that. So that that's one of the things we do have to go through. We have to clear FCC. We have to clear environmental. There's a lot of processes that that the cell tower has to go through, including the county permits as well.

Thank you. Any other questions from the board? If not, motion.

I got it.

I

move to approve the class b condition use permit of the Capital C Storage Tower.

Nope. Nope. I already closed public comment, but yeah.

Oh.

Good to go. Yeah. Thank you. Sorry about that. I'm I closed public commentary.

I'll move to approve the class b condition use permit of the Capital C Storage Tower and adopt the findings of facts a b and c of the staff report.

Second. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? With that, we would call for the vote, Ms. Cundell.

Commissioner Stottle. Yes. Commissioner Defoya.

Aye.

Commissioner Watkins. Yes. Commissioner Casey. Aye. Chairman Coy.

Aye. That item moves forward we're gonna take a five minute break to allow you all an opportunity to stretch your legs before the final agenda item and planning commissioner to utilize the facility so we'll be back here at four What's Forty five. 04:45. We'll make it ten minutes. 04:45, we'll be back.

Alright. Miss Cundill, if you want to go forward with the next item, that'd be outstanding.

Chairman Coy, the item agenda item number six is a review and action on a wait. Excuse me. Get to the right page. Sorry. Review and recommendation on a class c conditional use permit for Ironguard workforce housing located in a portion of Section 24, Township 13 North, Range 67 West, Laramie County, Wyoming. And presenting on this project will be Justin Arnold, the planning manager, and myself.

Mister chairman, members of the commission, Justin Arnold, Laramie County Planning and Development. I I really wanna thank everybody for being here tonight. Every time we have contentious type item, which we all know that that's been what this has been. If everybody's been looking at the online chatter, the back and forth, I've been going on to, you know, whether it be the TV with Achilles or the newspapers and stuff, I've been trying to have some conversations with those folks to to kinda explain why why we're seeing this this application before us today. So this is a little bit out of the norm, but what I wanted to do for the sake of transparency in Laramie County is wanting to provide the public information as to what's going on in Laramie County, what we see coming down the pike, what's already here, and why why we're seeing this application before us today.

So the whole entire intent of the Laramie County Planning and Development Department is to facilitate the regulations that the Board of County Commissioners passed. And that needs to find a balance between private property rights, which is paramount in our society, as well as mitigating impacts to not only our neighbors, but the community at large. In this instance, it's very unique in that it is technically, at its heart, a mitigation measure related to some of the large scale projects that we've seen approved, not only in the city. Everybody's seen the articles about the the 70 different data centers. I don't know if that's an accurate number, to be honest with you.

But just to clarify the record as to what's going on, what I see coming down the pike, because I'm having conversations on a daily basis with some people that are wanting to come here, and and it all comes back to we are a prime opportunity, not only because of the tax incentives for data centers that are passed by legislature, which is part of the reason why they're coming here to begin with, but also the infrastructure because because we're we're at at the corridors of I 25 as well as I 80. So from a logistical standpoint, it's a prime location for these large types of development. I wanna give you guys information as to what I've seen come across my desk that we don't have bonafide applications yet, but I can see some writing on the wall, and maybe it'll make you think a little bit different about some of the costs, indirect costs that come along with not doing something like a man camp. So I just wanted to provide again, it's unique circumstance here because usually I let the governing bodies do their job. They're selected by the people, and then they vote on approval of these projects.

This project, in and of itself, is a mitigation measure, which is my job. So I would like to speak to that very quickly. An update regarding project Jade. So that's the huge data center. I would note that Laramie County currently only has one data center that's actually approved. That being said, I think it's the largest one in the country. Right? And the power hub Tallgrass is currently under construction. They've received a certificate of review, got good with YDOT, but at peak construction, I I believe in 2028, we're looking at about 25 workers. Project Jade, the data center portion of that, I do have some updates as it relates to that.

But we were transparent through that whole process. I want you guys to know that we had three public hearings related to that project, two being for the zone change to a planned unit development, which without getting into the weeds, provides zoning, which effectively allows them to forego what's the industrial siding division and the industrial siding council with the state of Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. They have a board of county commissioners effectively that oversee these large scale projects, and if the county feels that it can oversee and mitigate these impacts, we can approve a PUD. We're using that as a tool moving forward to help continue to mitigate impacts for some of these large projects. I'll get to that momentarily.

But we had two public hearings related to the zone change, and one public hearing related to the site plan on January 6, where the public came in and project Jade made their initial proposal. And just as a as a quick high level update, we will be getting a new site plan. The power hub itself, which is an amazing technology. They're actually using natural gas. That's a that's a natural gas pipeline about six miles to the West, tying into that.

The natural gas producers on the West End of the state are very happy right now because they're actually supplying supplying gas to areas that, for lack of a better word, when they were here speaking to it, they said, we're we're used to sending this to the West Coast, and they despise us. We would rather send it to people that will actually appreciate it and use it. So through those hearings, I wanna know if you guys recall, but the project Jade site, and it was crucial initially, and then we met with Google last week. We're gonna be getting a new application. But this has been pressed by the president of The United States on down.

So secretary Doug Bergam of the Department of Interior has expressed their approval of that. Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, has visited with the Laramie County commissioners came here. Every senator at a federal level, as well as the representatives, the governor on down, has expressed support for this because it's tied to national security, the project. So you can be you can speak to the project here here shortly, but this is why it was initially approved, and we're getting the new application. I just wanna know real quick, initially, they were gonna do four half million five half million square foot buildings, and now they're actually gonna parse that down.

They were gonna have full peak build out workforce at 4,500 people. And now the way I see that, they're gonna push that timeline out for full build out in 2031 and parse it down to about 2,000 workers. That's good for us. That's less impact on our community. So we look forward to that site plan application, but you'll have another opportunity to come speak to them, speak to the commissioners, and provide your feedback from a community standpoint.

That's one project. And I wanna give you guys some high level information as to some other things I've had discussions with that have come across my desk, and it's a litany. It's a long list. Right now, there is a a data center proposal, which is in queue, hasn't been submitted yet, but at the South East corner of the intersection of Terry Ranch Road in I 25, and that's about 500 acres. That's gonna be another large workforce.

We also have proposed, or at least in preliminary discussions, 600 acres in the vicinity of Carpenter, Wyoming, that that they're looking at a data center. I wanna go back to the natural gas because the the Crusoe project, at least the way it was presented in the way that it's it's it's super interesting because they're gonna use the natural gas to power large turbines like you would see on a seven forty seven, two of them. And then they have these fuel cells about the size of a refrigerator with, you know, technology in there that is well above my head, but what you do is you pump in natural gas and it pumps out electricity and water to the tune that these are gonna produce about 40,000 gallons of water a day. So we have that, and then we have generators. This is self sustaining power, but so so they're not affecting the grid.

That being said, the ones that are in the city are affecting the grid. That's why we have people like Black Hills Energy, Shine Light Fuel and Power that are looking at projects out in the vicinity of Horse Creek Road where they're they own acreage there, an essential service utility, do a similar type project that will go before the industrial siding division, and that will be a similar type setup with the turbines to supplement the grid first the projects that are in the city so that it doesn't affect the rates of local users from my understanding. Now that there might be some good caveats to that, but real high level, that's what we're looking at. Cowboy Solar project, you guys might have noticed that Chalk Bluff Road is under construction currently. That went through the industrial siding division.

That went through our processes. It was approved by the board of county commissioners, and that's six sections of solar panels. And we said, fine, but you're gonna give us about $12,000,000, and you're gonna rebuild the road before you start the project because we want it to be safe not only for your workers, but for the residents in the vicinity. So at the conclusion of Chalk Bluff Road being improved, then we'll allow them to trigger a major construction on that site, but they should be breaking down ground, excuse me, near the end of the year. The CK Gold Mine project, it's out west of town, South of Crystal Lake Road.

That's not as near larger scale of scope, but it's another industrial type project that's going on. Some we have about 16 wind turbines that may be applied for South Of Chalk Bluff Road. The vast majority of that project's gonna be down in Weld County, but that's 16 more turbines. I've also given to understand that the Laramie Range Wind project, which was disapproved by the Board of County Commissioners a few months ago, that they've decided to go to the Industrial siding division and get their approval. So we're likely gonna see another application there.

So there's another several 100 workers should it get approved, but like I say, we have to plan for worst case scenario. We've also had some other proposals, really interesting stuff from a from a technological standpoint, but I had this this business out of Massachusetts that called me and they have some projects over in Spain and Italy, But it it on about 80 acres, the concept of this business model is they have a huge membrane. It's like a big bubble that fits there, and it holds c o two. And what that c it holds the c o two, it goes through processing underground, and then it actually liquefies the c o two, heats it up, and then combusts to another turbine engine, which they use a transmission line to feed into the grid. So it's kind of, you know, technology I've never even quite heard of before that's being discussed in some of these things, but that's gonna be another couple 100 workers.

So why is man camps and workforce accommodation so important? You can see where I'm going with this. Right? Because I'm doing math here, and I think about this stuff all the time. And and so what we're doing from from what our standpoint is I'm working with the commissioners to if we're going to approve these large scale type projects, find incentives for these developers to come in and, one, put your operation outside of the future serviceable area of the public u board of public utilities so that we're not eating up large chunks of acreage that can be served for future commercial and residential dense development.

We are boxed in by ranchettes to the north, the five acre parcels. We can't go dense up north. We can't really go dense out west, so we're relegated to the south corridors in the Eastern Corridors of Cheyenne where we can have more dense affordable living. So we're trying to look at that. We're saying keep it outside of the future serviceable area in number two with these projects.

You're gonna put your man camp or your workforce accommodation services on-site. And if you agree to do that, we're looking at less impacts to the traffic. We're looking at less impacts to neighborhoods. Because what I fear is these are a lot these are really high paying jobs. These are 6 figure paying jobs, electricians, pipe fitters, you name it, that are gonna be coming here.

And what I fear for is the cashier on South Greeley Highway that's working at Safeway that's gonna get priced out as soon as their lease comes up on their rental. And that's what we need to look out for right now. If you own a home, is it has anybody gotten their assessment schedules in the last couple months? Because my house went up $30,000 and everybody I talked to, the fair market value is going up $30,000. And that's only gonna continue to rise because we only have so much supply versus demand.

So in so if you're gonna sell in the next couple years, it's good. You're gonna get a lot of equity coming in. But if you're paying property taxes, they're gonna continue to rise. And if you're renting, you are up a creek because why? Who where do those if where where do the property taxes, those additional burdens end up? It ends up in the in the hands of the renters. Right? So you're looking at those costs rising. So in this case, like I say, with with everything that's going on, if we're gonna do this, I see no other option at this point in time but to consolidate these workforce services now. I've met with the sheriff.

We have sheriff Kozak here, and I can tell you, and I've worked I've worked with, you know, the oil and gas companies historically, and if you have a good relationship with these entities, it's really good to keep tabs on these employees that might be coming in here because I can and the sheriff will allude to here shortly, he would much rather rather have two deputies or one deputy keeping an eye on 6,000 workers in one area than dispersing them throughout the community and see what happens. Right? I know that the city of Cheyenne disapproved the man camp over off Walterscheid a period of time ago, which probably wasn't a real ideal location for a man camp, but where are those folks now? We have no idea. Right?

They're in our housing markets, and then keeping oversight on them is very hard. So if we can consolidate them, we have fenced areas. This is not going to access from York Avenue. This is not that. It's not gonna be the primary access.

It's gonna be utilizing, hopefully, if we can get some agreements in place, which is gonna be a condition of approval, but through Metta's existing access. And I can tell you with the new site plan application, that Google's contractors are working with the state of Wyoming to put their access further west on Terry Ranch Road, and then it won't even impact the residential neighborhoods being Hynman Homesites or Bison Crossing, those type of subdivisions, and we'll keep everything to the West. We can mitigate impacts. That's what these processes are for, piggybacked with public comment. But we've had these discussions, and we're just trying to to really exacerbate the the the alternative to doing this where it's centrally located, which is the most important thing, and they're looking at shuttle services.

It's centrally located to the project Jade data center project. It's centrally located with Meta. It's it's close to the Cowboys Solar project. So we're looking at less impacts to the northern portions of South Greeley Highway, and we're keeping everything on the south end of town. So there's a lot of moving parts here, but we really look forward to getting that new application that's parsed down as it relates to workforce services and so that we can get the the public feedback.

But that's kinda where our stance is at this point in time. I don't like to insert myself. The board of county commissioners and the planning commission are the people chosen by the people to make decisions on their behalf that are elected. That being said, I see this as a planner, which they pay me to do in Laramie County as something that is necessary because the alternative could be devastating. And I'm hoping that we can work with other jurisdictions in cooperation to get this done sooner than later.

And so I think more or less oh, last thing. Here's what I'm going to do because I did it with the oil and gas companies, And they would put up their own speed limit signs, they would have monitors up. And I'm sorry, but they were you know, you're a tanker truck, and you're driving 40 miles an hour in what they said is a 35. Unfortunately, those people lost their job that day. So when I have a working relationship with the superintendent, I'm gonna request Excel spreadsheets of all contractors and subcontractors that are tied to the project, and I'm gonna be checking the blotter briefs every day.

And if you end up in the blotter briefs and you and you violate our laws, you disrespect our community, you need to lose your livelihood, and you need to be on your way as far as I'm concerned. And I think the governing bodies agree with that. So we're trying to mitigate the impacts while also facilitating the private property rights. It's a fine balancing act. It is very hard sometimes, but that's where we stand. So I hope you guys know kinda where what everything is, and I hope that everybody's kind of informed that we can continue substantive discussions. And with that, I'm gonna digress to the project planner to to facilitate the staff report.

You ready?

Yeah. Please go ahead with the project.

Okay. Chairman Coy and members of the commission, Kate Kendall, associate planner, Palmer Land Planning LLC on behalf of

That's your magnetic personality.

I guess. There. Palmer Land Planning LLC on behalf of let's see if they can get that. Myster's off. Okay.

Palma Land Planning, LLC, is that better? Yep. Okay. On behalf of Ironguard Workforce Housing has submitted a class c conditional use permit application for the purpose of establishing a temporary workforce housing campus serving contract workers supporting large scale projects in Laramie County. The campus will have 20 fourseven manned security and was restricted to workers under active employment contracts tied to specific large scale data center employees whose lodging arrangements are related to their employment.

The full workforce housing campus will include a cafeteria, linen service and laundromats, mandatory shuttle service, a gym recreation center with lounge, and an on-site medical clinic and administrative offices. The project will be completed in three phases. Initial phases address the most immediate workforce needs with higher intensity phases timed to coincide with water and sewer infrastructure improved installation. Currently, it is anticipated that phase one and two will be completed under the jurisdiction of Laramie County with phase three occurring following an outside user agreement or annexation into the city of Cheyenne. Phase one includes up to 200 dwelling units.

Phase two will be installing RV spaces with phase three installing additional modular housing units. The subject properties are located in the land use zone district. The parcels are currently assessed as agricultural. The proposed project is located north and west of the new meta data center, one and a half miles west of South Greeley Highway and two miles north of Terry Ranch Road. Pertinent land county land use regulations or statutory provisions include section two dash three one zero two governing conditional uses, section two dash four one zero four governing the land use zone district standards, section one dash three one hundred to section one dash three one zero five governing public notice procedures, section three dash one dash one zero one c governing development standards for conditional uses, and section three dash two dash one zero two a, governing lot and property standards.

With us today is Casey Palmer, who is the agent for the applicant, who is available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Kate. Thank you, Director Arnold. Good evening, Planning Commission Chair. So what you have before you this evening is pretty well covered, I think, by the discussion so far. And I know we're going to hear more in the staff report.

Going back to the the planner's comments and the project description, you know, we did have a neighborhood meeting back on May 1, talked about a lot of those issues, a lot of what's coming. And I'll keep it brief, but I just kinda wanted to mention, you know, I in looking at this project and talking to my client as we look around the county for places that would we would be able to build a project like this to basically put these employees somewhere where they're not spread out across the community, not raising rents and all of the things that sort of were alluded to by Mr. Arnold and that we've kind of put out in several different public statements and that we discussed at our neighborhood meeting. There's a great opportunity here sort of near the data centers, which is obviously somewhat paramount to where they want to have their employees, but also the opportunity to not have to connect through the neighborhood, to not use people's existing roads, not be putting traffic through quiet residential neighborhoods, but really to isolate it and have this campus separate from other neighborhoods. So that we thought this was a good opportunity for that.

As staff noted, so that there's that initial phase down in the southeast corner of the project that would be permitted in the county with hauling services for for water and septic. And we have submitted an application to the Board of Public Utilities for outside user agreement so we can get started on building some of that infrastructure. And we're we're really looking forward to working with the city. We've already started talking to the city about, you know, what what that might look like to move forward with that infrastructure extensions and and then annexation. So I'd be happy to address any questions you have now and maybe come back to if there's some questions that come up from the audience. So do have any questions for me or I can

Any questions from the Planning Board?

Yes, sir. Through you, commissioner, is there a gonna be a bond or something put up for a reclamation of this when it's all done? Or how many years do you have it? Or what's the what's the end look like?

So, yeah, the appreciate the comment through you, mister chair. The entire site is to be reclaimed. So we have a kind of a brief placeholder and additional use application, but we've we've talked to the county, we're working with actually a former oil and gas reclamation specialist on kinda what how they handled that with the oil wells. So there will be an expanded one. I we haven't talked about a bond per se yet, but there will be a reclamation plan tied to the application that basically will return this to a reasonably natural state.

It'll be a lot flatter than it is now, but it'll be all reseated. All of the infrastructure, all of the housing units and a lot of the internal sewer, water and power services will come out. There are sometimes opportunities to reuse some of that for permanent housing. That certainly is included in the reclamation plan as an option. But if that doesn't happen, then the the main sewer water and electrical transmission lines would stay for future use, and everything pretty much everything you see sort of in in that central area there would be removed and and just reseeded as as natural prairie.

Any other questions for mister Palmer?

Thank you.

We'll defer for now, Casey. Thank you. Ms. Condole, if you want to continue with your staff report.

Chairman Clay and members of the commission, workers will be required to use on-site shuttles to and from the job sites, direct connections to state highways or plans so that facility traffic does not use West Wallach Road or existing neighborhoods as primary. A traffic impact study will be completed during the commercial site plan process. No on-site well is proposed currently. Phase one and two will be you will use hauled water and tanks under environmental health oversight. Long term water and sewer is proposed to come from Bobo via new names that are not part of the South Cheyenne water and sewer district with improvement costs borne by the developer.

Water and sanitary services will be further addressed in the site plan application. The campus will be fully fenced with controlled access and twenty four hour staff security. Strict quiet hours and zero tolerance for illegal activity will be enforced. Individual lodging units will have sprinkler system commercial structures with multiple self contained rooms built to currently adopted fire and building codes. The facility is temporary in nature and is tied to active employment contracts.

When no longer needed, the structures will be removed. Section two dash three dash one zero two of the Laramie County Land Use Regulations requires that the Laramie County Planning Commission conduct a public hearing and make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners on the concept plan and any suggested conditions and decide as to whether the proposed use is permitted and is in conformance with all applicable development standards. Staff finds that this application is in conformance with the plans and policies of Laramie County. If the conditional use use permit is approved, a commercial site plan shall be prepared with a separate public hearing to be held by the county commissioners. Public notice procedures will be completed in accordance with the LCLUR when this application is received.

The Laramie County comprehensive plan identifies the area as urban rural interface intended to accommodate a mix of more intensive land uses than other areas. The parcel lies inside the Plan Cheyenne urban residential area. Public house was provided and neighbor letters sent via first class mail to all property owners within a one mile radius of the project. Numerous public comments were received and are attached to the report. The applicant held a neighborhood meeting on 05/01/2026 to explain the project and answer questions and concerns.

At the time of this report, the project is still going through agency reviews, but all pertinent agency comments must be addressed. Based on evidence provided, staff finds that, A, this application meets the criteria for a class c conditional use permit pursuant to section two dash three dash one zero two of the LCLUR regulations. And b, this application is in conformance with section three dash one dash one zero one c of the LCLUR governing development standards for conditional uses. And c, application is in conformance with section two dash four dash one zero four of the 2025 LCLUR governing the land use zone districts. And that the Planning Commission may recommend approval of the Class C conditional use permit for the Ironguard Workforce Housing Facility located in a portion of Section 24 Township 13 North Range 67 West, Laramie County, Wyoming to the Laramie County Board of Commissioners with five conditions and adopt the findings of facts a, b, and c of the staff report.

The conditions we're placing is number one, phase one and two shall be served by haul trucks for water service with above ground holding tanks for septic. Condition two, applicant must obtain an outside user agreement with the Board of Public Utilities or a public water supply permit from the Wyoming State Engineer's Office for phase three. Condition of three, applicant shall obtain appropriate access easements to the workforce housing campus in order to obtain approval by the Laramie County Board of Commissioners. Condition four, all agency comments shall be addressed. And condition five, improvements will be removed when work force accommodation facilities are no longer needed.

Infrastructure may remain for future development. And with that, I would stand for any questions you may have.

Any questions for staff? Alright. This is a public hearing. If there's anyone in the audience who would like to address the commission on this proposal, we invite you to come forward and address the commission. We ask that you speak into the microphone and state your name and address and hold your comments to three minutes or less so that we can hear from everyone. In addition, we also ask that you'll you'll see a tendency that we start to repeat the same issue or comments. If we can avoid that so that everybody can be heard and all issues can be addressed. If you're watching virtually, we'll address you first and you can comment online. So with that, we'll open up the public comment. Ms. Kondo, go ahead.

Chairman Coy, I just am asking that everyone would please sign the sign in sheet and so I can have your names if I don't correctly catch them when you are making a comment. And that's out on the podium. Thank you.

So if you haven't signed in, please do so, so she can get the minutes right. And then just remember to state your name and address clearly for us. We're gonna start virtually online. IT, is there any comments?

We currently have no comments online.

No comments online, so we'll close the virtual at this point. If you're coming to the microphone, just make sure you adjust the microphone, and we're gonna we're gonna try to keep you to that three minute mark if we can, please.

Sounds good. Alright. Hi. My name is Paige Russell. I were I live at 7027 Line Avenue, which is just off of Terry Ranch Road, about two miles from the proposed man camp. I just have a few comments to put forth to the committee about, the commercial CU's permit. I've broken it down into three great sections, and we'll just go through them really quickly. So the first one is I think that it harms public safety. In December 2025,

when we had

the wildfire out, near there in my, I live in Bison Crossing, Winchester Hills, and we had to evacuate. We saw the traffic leaving from the not yet completed medic data center and from Microsoft really overwhelm South Greeley Highway to the point that it took, like, thirty minutes to go the two miles from the start of, those exits to getting into town and being able to evacuate from that wildfire area. I agree that by adding in a man camp, think that this is only going to worsen the, traffic in this neighborhood, and we don't want it to happen for that reason. One of the second ways that I think it harms public safety is, we saw that when Meta was being built, that there were, shortcuts being used by Meta employees to cross into Bison Crossing in Winchester Hills. I believe that residents of that neighborhood came forth to this committee and helped to stop that from happening.

But with an increase in, area with a man camp as well as with a full, working part of Meta, I think that this will only cause even more issues not with because of how close it is to Winchester Hills and also because of how close it is to Orchard Valley. We think that this will, detrimentally impact us in these ways. The second thing that I think hurts it is that it's going to degrade property value. The temporary main camp will likely, cause a blight on the existing ground. We've already seen a lot of the natural habitat and animals that live in the area continue to evacuate from it with the building of Tallgrass Russo.

We I can see the fences being built for Tallgrass from my house, from my backyard. We used to see elk and antelope cross through there with the new chain link fences that I believe they're putting up and the gas pipelines that they're putting in right now. We've seen a decrease in that nature, and we'll likely see a decrease even more. Further, they've proposed that this man camp is going to be larger than, like, 84 Wyoming cities and towns. A high density, low value housing will negatively impact our property values due to noise pollution as a and a temporary workforce.

I know that, a lot of what has been talked about before with a lot of these, data centers is that the there's, like, a buffer in place so that people in these neighborhoods don't have to be detrimentally affected by what is happening around them. But we can see META being built from the people at the end of Bison Crossing. I can see Caruso being built. We're only going to then see the main camp being built and all of the traffic within it. So I think that all of these cause detrimental practices that we shouldn't be imposing on our neighbors in the South.

I understand why you had to move to the South because that is ultimately the area that was open to you. But as a person who lives there, it really sucks for all of this to be happening in that area. And I understand that to the comment coming from that this is coming from the federal level and that they've offered that this is what we should be doing as a country, to those people, I would say that they don't live here. Right? They are not existing here. They don't have to watch the they don't have to watch the fences being built. They don't have to watch the people coming in and out, and they don't have to fight with Meta and Microsoft when the wildfire happens again just to get out of their homes and to save their families. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, please. State your name and address, please.

Hello. My name is Steven Wilson. I live at 1804 Park Avenue, which is less than half a mile away from this man camp. I do have two small children in my house and everything, and this does pose a safety concern to me. Why was this particular location chosen? Everything. I feel like there could have been multiple other locations chosen, so the Swan Ranch or north of town on some ranch land, lease land from a rancher or something of that sort. That way, it pulls more money back into the community. But instead, they chose to put this in our backyard.

Thank you. Thank you. I won't be able to answer that question until that's that's something else, but we'll we'll I got it noted down for you. And just so you know, we all sit up here making notes of everything that you're addressing and the things that are in our purview, we will try to get answers for for you. So thank you. Miss Volk. Hi.

Hi. Wendy Volk. PO Box 2969 Cheyenne, Wyoming 82003. Mister chairman and members of the planning commission, I do want to see us have workforce accommodations that are safe for these workers that are coming to Cheyenne. So I'm not speaking in opposition to the program.

I just want to talk about this at a 30,000 level, a high level consideration. As a long term real estate professional and someone who has spent decades working throughout Southeastern Wyoming, communities and landscape, I would respectfully ask you to look beyond this application as a stand alone temporary housing proposal. It's my understanding this will be a ten to twelve year project in terms of what we need. We're going to need housing. Cheyenne has always needed housing.

So wherever this may be or other camps may be, let's look at this for senior housing or more affordable housing, and please keep that in the back of your mind. Southeastern Wyoming is entering a period of accelerating industrial expansion unlike anything many of the communities have previously experienced. We're now seeing major data center proposals, large workforce housing projects, transmission expansion, utility corridor construction, additional wind and solar development, and I'm glad to hear that the solar project is helping pay for the roads. I really think that WIDOT and the state and the county and the city could use all the help they can on roads, as well as we have the Sentinel missile modernization program centered at FE Warren Air Force Base. These are no longer isolated project specific issues.

They're becoming cumulative regional conditions. At the same time, I want to acknowledge the important reality in Southeastern Wyoming is entering a ten to twelve year period of major industrial construction activity, then we must have safe workforce housing, and that matters. The workers building this infrastructure deserve professionally managed housing with proper sanitation, transportation, planning, emergency access and public safety standards, but recognizing that, that does not need does not remove the responsibility to fully evaluate the long term impacts of a project like this. The project materials themselves acknowledge this facility is intended to support large scale industrial and data center related construction activity South Of Cheyenne, including phased expansion and future utility extensions. That raises important questions.

First, infrastructure. The proposal still relies on future annexation discussions, outside user agreements and phased utility assumptions. Who ultimately pays for the future water, sewer, road, drainage and emergency services upgrades? What happens if those agreements are delayed or failed? Second, cumulative impacts.

Road traffic, road wear, emergency response capacity, housing pressures and water demand cannot be evaluated in isolation anymore. These impacts are occurring simultaneously across Southeast Wyoming as multiple industrial projects move forward. Third, our long term land use. This project may be described as temporary, but the infrastructure being discussed becomes increasingly permanent when you look at roads, utilities, service systems, security operations and phased expansion planning. At what point does temporary workforce housing become permanent industrial land use?

And how many additional facilities of this type are anticipated if multiple industrial projects proceed simultaneously over the next decade? Finally, I would encourage the commission to consider whether the current conditional use process is adequate for evaluating projects tied to regional industrial expansion of this scale. We've seen nothing of this caliber. Many residents feel Southeastern Wyoming is being transformed incrementally project by project without a full cumulative landscape review of the impacts to infrastructure, water resources, public services, housing markets and community character. Responsible people or reasonable people can support economic development while still asking whether growth is occurring in a coordinated, transparent and sustainable manner.

I appreciate your time and respectfully ask that these broader cumulative impacts receive serious consideration before approval is granted. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Volk.

My name is Arthur Brayton.

I'm sorry. Can you repeat it? I missed it.

My name is Arthur Brayton. I'm at 311 Apricot Street. Thank you for letting me address you today. You'll have to bear with me. I forgot my reading glasses, so I'm borrowing my wife's.

Perfect.

One of my biggest concerns on this temporary housing you're proposing is gonna have 5,600 workers living in it. I understand that some of them are gonna be high paying jobs, but if you look at statistics that have been done in North Dakota and Montana from 2006 to 2012, they found that there was a 70% increase in violent crimes, sexual crimes, sexual traffic, and there's also been an an additional 30% in robberies, murder, and rape. I can understand that right now, this looks like the most ideal place to have it, but you also have to look at the ideal the the ideas that people are gonna commit crimes. Especially when it comes to sex trafficking, we're in the perfect area. There's two major interstates that intersect.

I know that I'm concerned about my family's safety, including my safety and all my neighbors. That's why I don't agree with where they're locating or the proposed location because it's only one to two miles from the residency that I live in. The other thing that I'm concerned about is with these man camps being implemented, is that gonna be in the future used as a tool to leverage to annex this section of the county into the city? Thank you for your time.

Thank you, miss. Thank you. I appreciate you all wanting to applause. If we can hold back that way, it speeds up their opportunity to speak. So thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, please.

I'm representative Clerk Stiffer, 580 Wilson Court. They're in the Hyman edition. I am House District 12 state representative. My constituents don't want this out here. It's in between schools. I grew up in Uinta County, late seventies, early eighties. I know what man camps can do to a community. I remember the shovel fights on Main Street, the murders that happened there. We need to consider where we need to put this. I understand we have a housing problem, but I think we need to take our time and really look at this hard.

I've got some more information from some people today with the AFL CIO. These guys are union workers. Well, the union's gonna have some stuff to say about that their the way they act. So I think the way I think we need to slow down on this and look at it. I believe the sheriff's department's gonna need more than one patrolman.

They're They're gonna need at least four more patrolmen. I talked with the undersheriff for you in the county. They're wanting to put a man camp in over there too. They're having serious considerations on how they're gonna police that. And again, on the annexation, we don't need to keep annexing the county into the city, and I will be running my annexation bill again. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Stiver. Next, please.

Hi. My name is Heather Madrid. I live at 1200 Melody Lane, in Harmony Meadows, and this is going in pretty close to my house. Just kind of in regards to what I'm sorry, don't remember the name, but what you shared earlier. Laramie County is not required to accommodate every industrial project that is proposed. There is precedent to support an emergency land use moratorium with the long list of projects that were just shared that sounds like an emergency to me. I appreciate the property rights argument, and I understand the difficult balance. However, this man camp is not allowed dirt bike. It's not a small workshop or a barn. It's not a minor annoyance.

The impact will be felt far beyond the property line. When do the residents of this county matter? Why are corporate billionaires who do not live here and will not stay here being allowed to dictate what our community looks like far after they're gone? The traffic is already horrific on South Greeley and just the entire South side of town. This man camp will not mitigate that. It's already it's already here, and it's already a problem. In fact, this man camp is going to make it worse. These workers will leave the man camp. They will utilize the resources. They will travel the roads.

And these companies are building infrastructure only to support their own projects, not to support the community as a whole. This area of town is already underserved and under resourced. Demographically, there are a lot of single parent households. They're working two jobs to keep the light on. There's less supervision out of necessity, not out of neglect. If the argument remains that there's nothing that can be done to stop this, and we absolutely must demand more from these billionaires who can certainly afford it, not tax breaks, not subsidies, they need to contribute in meaningful ways, by donating their scraps to the community that they are intentionally and knowingly destroying.

Thank you. Please come forward.

My name is Devin Sonorio, twelve seventeen Weatherby Drive over in Winchester Hills. Everyone else has brought up a lot of my really good points, so good job to them. I just wanna wanna reiterate that, yeah, the south end of town is getting getting terrible. Traffic is already bad. Gas stations are already full all the time. So it's gonna put a strain on, you know, our one grocery center over there. And in our end of town, we not everyone is in nice houses. We have a lot of, you know, poor families there. I know many of them that they can't drive. They have trouble getting transportation to go and get their groceries, to go get their gas.

And we're gonna sit here and have 5,000 other people. They're just gonna kinda and I I get it you say that they have a cafeteria. They have all these amenities. So I'm not gonna stay on campus. They're still gonna come out and around and about and all this other stuff. And, you know, it was mentioned earlier too, evacuating the fire. You know, our our emergency services did a great job, but it's so hard because you still got, every day, all this traffic pouring in everywhere. And I I get it. You know? It's we have all this opportunity, and I know we can't build, you know, west or north as as you said earlier. Well, I'm I'm sorry. I'm not I'm not buying it. It's it's not great. I live out Cherry Ranch Road, and every single plant you guys are saying, entrance, Cherry Ranch. Entrance, Cherry Ranch.

Well, that's cool, man. I just busted my butt to finally buy a house outside of town. Got what we want. Now I get to start a data center. Oh, and then over here, there's another data center. Oh, we're gonna start one over here. Then we'll put a casino here in the man camp here. Dudes, just please slow down. Listen to the people. I'm not saying that you're probably isn't a good way. I understand why we gotta look at a man camp, but enough. Just please slow down. Look what things are really doing here because my realtor told me when I finally bought this place, you're very lucky. No one ever moves out of here. You go up day shift drive. There's four new houses.

All the

way up the road, they're moving. You go to the other side of Winchester Hills, people are moving. People are tired of this. People are tired of looking out and seeing these data centers being built, all the bright lights, all the extra traffic. And not everyone in these man camps is gonna be a triple digit electrician. There's a lot of you know, not the best people to have around children. We have a safe neighborhood. Cheyenne generally is pretty safe. All we're asking is, man, just slow down and please just slow your roll, get some studies in before we say yes to everything that comes down the pipe.

Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Charles Hendricks. I live at 1500 Trailway, Cheyenne, Wyoming. It's kinda across the across the field there from this place. If you're not sure where that is, it's off partially off Sundance. So I could probably walk there closer than a lot of people or faster than a lot of people in this room. Not saying there's not people that don't live closer, but I'm a pretty fast walker. I'm I'm a 100% for the man camp. I'm a 100% for the workforce accommodations.

I have a dog in the

fight because I work in the data center industry. I've made my made my living for my family doing that. A lot of people I know have made a living doing that. And I'm not gonna stand up here and speculate on things I don't know about. Just gonna talk about what I do know about.

And my hometown, we didn't have a workforce accommodation. Where I came from, there wasn't a man camp, and I watched property values skyrocket. I watched rents explode. I was one of those people that was kinda early on displaced. I watched rents in the neighborhood that I was renting in because I wasn't a homeowner at that time.

I watched them double, triple, and quadruple. And as I'm a fairly new resident of Cheyenne, I do call this my home for the last two years, and I intend to keep it my home. There's not enough housing units as it is. And being in the industry and knowing what, as this gentleman already talked about, what the workforce needs for the projects that are already coming, that are already going to happen. There's no choice.

Like, it it has to happen. There's there's not enough units for these workers to come here. As far as location is, again, it's it's not directly next to me, but I would call this in my backyard. I've I've read through the plan. I've looked at it. You know, we're not oil workers. We're not roughnecks. We're we're carpenters. We're we're iron workers. We're electricians.

We're plumbers. We're skilled men and women craftsmen, and we're out here to make a living. You know, these are my brothers and sisters that when I hear people talk about the crime and some of the things that I've heard said, like, these men and women are up here to make a living and provide for their families. So I know I probably didn't make very many fans in this room, but I got to speak from my heart. I appreciate your time. Thanks.

Thank you. Come forward, please.

My

name is John Niles. I reside at 717 Dogwood Avenue here in Cheyenne. My first comment after hearing some other comments is that there's a lot of us lived here for a long, long time. And there's a reason we've lived here and moved here a long, long time ago and wanted to stay. I don't know that the progression, and I'm not ignorant of it, we need some progression, but I'm not sure it aligns totally with a lot of the thinking in this town or in this county for that matter.

More on to my point, you sort of spoke about the increase in property values and over the next several years, which I have no doubt would happen. However, I want to give you an antidote to that or an opposite of that. I own some property out at Cherry Hills. And if you're familiar with that, there's data centers just, I'll call it across, just south of there. And so a lot of the residents out there aren't happy, obviously.

However, I don't live there, but I've been out there and I've heard the noise. But what was interesting was I got a call a couple of weeks ago and which is not unusual. I get calls to find out if somebody's done some research, if I'm interested in selling property. And when I told this gentleman, he I don't know where he thought this was, but he he was wrong when he mentioned some place. I'm like, wait a minute. That's not where this is at. But I

told him he goes, well,

I'm still interested. It's it's acreage. I said, alright. Well, here's where it's where it's located. As soon as I told him where, he said, I'm not interested. I'm not interested. I said, why? And he said, because, he said, you know what's right, you know, just south of you there. I said, yeah, data centers. And he goes, I'm not going to do that.

So it isn't always good, you know. And I don't know what's going to happen in the future when we have these locations that are approved in the county. So you folks directly have a result, you know, a hand in that. But I can tell you firsthand, that was I never even thought about that, somebody not not really wanting to to do that. I don't know where else they're gonna go in the county for property except further, which they didn't wanna do.

And that was the one of the nice things about that property is, and it still is, it's close. But now I'm starting to think it may not be so good. So I'm not in favor of the Mann Camp. I'm also worried. I don't have to live around there. I feel for the people that do, that will be living there if this goes through. I really do. But I also am worried about my family, my wife, my they may be grown, but my grown children, I'm I'm worried about them at parking lots. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Hello. Truett Thompson, 810 Fremont no. Not that's the hall. 3141 Frontier Street over there on the East side of town. I am the president of IBW Local four fifteen here in Cheyenne. We represent 300 of your electricians that come to your house every day and do service work here. So to assume we're gonna increase crime is a little concerning. We do police ourselves when it comes to this. I do appreciate mister Arnold saying that he's gonna be looking at the blotter briefs. And if somebody does get their name in there that they're out, I wholeheartedly agree with him on that.

And I think we can help facilitate that with our referral procedures when these do go to our signatory shops that are coming in. On the other hand, I heard, what about the hotels? We've got guys staying in hotels right now in town. What's coming up in a couple months? Cheyenne Frontier Days. They've already been told either pay 400 a day or you're out. How can I keep a workforce in town if they gotta get out of town for ten days and get these jobs done? It's not fair for them. So this I'm all about this. Now location, can we do better?

Probably. But it has to be done. We we have to do this. Forty three years in this town, born and raised. And I tell you what, I am we're never gonna see Cheyenne the way it was ten years ago, twenty years ago. We are we are moving forward, and it's it's just the cost of doing business at the at the end of the day. And I wish we could have better infrastructure, but hindsight is twenty twenty with when it comes to that. So thanks. You guys have a difficult decision ahead of you, but I think I speak for my membership when I say that we're about this because we're gonna have travelers coming in, and I just don't know where we're gonna put them. So thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Mary Burkett, 2421 South 3rd Avenue, and this campus is actually right out my back door. I'm not opposed to the camp itself. I realize that it probably is a necessity for what's going on around here. I just don't want it in my backyard. I think further from residential neighborhoods is where it needs to be. I don't know where that is, but further away.

Thank you, Ms. Briquette.

My name is Sarah Brayton. I live at 311 Apricot Street. In response to your comment about it has to be done, okay. We do need a housing issue straightened out, but that is not a reason to cram a man camp down our throat in an area where it's not wanted.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else with public comment for this item? Thank you, come forward.

Hello. My name is Chad Abeyta. I live at 2207 South 5th Avenue in Orchard Valley. I've been here born and raised. Not opposed to the man camp, just the location. My mother's disabled and we're also fostering my two cousins, 13 and 10. It's a pretty quiet neighborhood. I think I speak for most people that live there that they like it the way it is, and they don't want it to change. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else for public comment for this item? Please step forward.

My name is Donna Wolfe, 4712 Griffith Avenue here in Cheyenne. One of the questions I really I I think, of course, we're probably gonna get the man camp. There's just so many, things that are in in its favor. But what I wanna know is what is the city going to be able to do to make sure this is really gonna work? Because we already have we already don't have enough police and and all of the all of the social infrastructure that we need.

And so I I wanna know how is the city gonna be prepared? Who do I get to talk to to find out what is the city going to do in relation to this? Yes, we found all of this information about what they're going to do to basically it sounds like an internment camp, but a luxury one. And are workers really going to stay there? Are they forced to live in this encampment? And who's going to be there? Do they have their families? Is it just a single contractor? And if they have 6 figure salaries, will they want to stay there? Or will they go and impact our real estate market? So that's I just want to make sure I want to know what the city is going to be able to do, how the city is going the city and the county are going to be prepared for this influx.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Andy O'Donnell.

If you could tilt that microphone up for me, please, Andy. Thank you.

My name is Andy O'Donnell. I live in Orchard Valley, 1911 South 3rd Ave. And my main concern aside from the fact that it is being jammed down our throat is the water supply. I'd like to make sure that the water from that we in Orchard Valley community have is not touched. You don't take any of our water.

It's bad enough. You're taking away peace and quiet with the traffic and the mess that's gonna be there. I mean, the traffic already between and coming up South Greeley and any construction project that's going on, especially North Of Orchard Valley between Orchard Valley and the school up in the hill. You got truck traffic all over the place. And adding to that, I don't know if the city or the county is able to handle it.

It doesn't look to me like they're equipped for it. As far as the sheriff department, I can see they're gonna need more people. Fire department, more people. And I don't know if you've got that figured out yet, but I think you need to take a breath and back a few steps off and figure it out before you shove this down somebody's throat. I don't think you got it figured out yet. Thank you.

Thank you. Just the phase one and phase two, this is hauled water not coming from that area. Correct? Mister chairman, through you,

yeah, it is hauled water and then above ground septic tanks. And sir, I certainly appreciate your concern related to the water supply. Now legally, they can get a a well permit from the state engineer's office. I would highly prefer that they tie into city services. So when that outside user agreement does become come before the city council, I would recommend that you go try to see if they would entertain that because getting an outside user agreement will allow us Okay.

To start the project earlier. I'm given to understand that if this were to get approved and they go through the city processes, they're looking at annexation, planning, preliminary planned unit development plan, post planned unit development plan, commercial site planning. We're gonna be a year down the road before we've grabbed a shovel, and it might be too late. So I appreciate your considerations. I've lived here my whole life too. All we can do is find the the best due to the best of our ability is mitigate the impacts and for the reason I mentioned earlier. I know it's not ideal, but it's the search circumstance we find ourselves in currently.

Ma'am, please go forward.

Heather Madrid again. Do I have to say my address? Please. Okay. 1200 Melody Lane. Excuse me. My other kind of thought, I guess, is that they're they're building a lot of housing in that area, and there is a lot more traffic. But what I'd noticed is that they're not building sidewalks with the housing. I know that my son can't leave my neighborhood and safely walk in either direction to school because there is no sidewalk. And so I feel like the influx of traffic, those things need to be required of developers to put those things in to keep our kids safe.

Also, on college, the speed limit is like 50 in what is now a residential area and right in front of Triumph High School. And Rossman is not far down the road. And so if we're going to keep just adding more and more people, can we please ask that they build sidewalks and do things to keep our kids safe and maybe lower the speed limit in a school zone? Thank you. That's all.

Thank you. Please come forward.

Thank you. Michael Larson, 4712 Griffith Avenue. Don't live anywhere near here, but just wondering what 5,000 guys with a lot of testosterone and a weekend comes, what are they going to do? What kind of impact it's going to have on the city when these guys are going to get on their motorcycles and go up North College as fast as they can or make as much noise as they can, which is a problem that we currently have right now and it doesn't go away despite the noise ordinances that don't seem to be enforced. So guys need to blow off steam, Okay, gambling, motorcycles.

How is that going to affect the quality of life in Cheyenne? Are these guys are they going to have their own entertainment center right here in this place? I don't know. So I'm really worried about the impact of noise and that kind of stuff. And not only that, but going to the supermarket, whatever. It's going to be crowded. And I'm just worried about that. Thank you.

Thank you. One moment. IT, go ahead.

We have a comment online if that's okay.

Already let's not do that right now. Let's finish these up. Thank you.

Lynn Cotney, 2211 I don't live by this project, but I did wanna make a comment about, and I know you don't have anything to do with this, but the tax incentives that are given to all of these companies that come You know, I've I I was born in Casper, and I grew up here. And I'm 73 years old now. And I've heard this over and over again about we can't raise the taxes on the oil industry. We can't raise the taxes on gas. We can't raise the taxes on wind. And certainly, it seems like we can't raise the taxes on on these things because they say, oh, we're gonna leave if you do that. So I don't understand why it is that we keep giving these tax incentives.

Right. We don't have any control over

the I know you are.

Yes. So For thank you

for billionaire companies that are coming in to our to this community. I guess that's all I had

to say. Thank you. Yeah. Mister chairman,

I would note that there are legislators here tonight. You can certainly discuss the taxes with them.

Thank you. Please come forward.

Good evening. I think we're now into evening. Yes. No longer afternoon. My name is Marcy Kindred. I'm the executive director for the Wyoming State AFL CIO. Do you need my personal address or my work address? Do we need addresses?

An address, please.

Okay. 500 Randall Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82001. I work with a lot of trades folks. You've heard from a couple of them today. And a lot of our trades folks are local hands, have been very excited about all of this economic development, contracts, and high paying jobs that have come because of it.

And with every announcement of every new project, I put on I was a real estate agent for seven years, and my question is, where are we going to put them all? We talk about all this workforce. We don't have the housing. Workforce housing has to happen or prices will go up. We already can't afford the rent.

There is growing opposition to these data centers in general. I think that's fueling a lot of the discussion here today against the man camp. I understand neighbors have concerns, but I do wanna speak to the opportunity that this has brought to our local workforce. Before COVID, our plumbers and pipe fitters apprenticeship program had 30 people in it. We now have over 200.

That is local workforce. That is young apprentices that would like to build careers and stay here. Many of our local workforce have had to travel until these projects have come into town, and now they are sleeping in their own beds at night and going to their kids' recitals and rehearsals and living here and spending their money here and investing in our communities. So I know the concern is for these traveling workers to come in, but one of our problems that we've had with local unions is that we haven't had the work, and we've had to send them out traveling. And often on these big projects, when they're gone for a few years, they find a new home, and they don't come back.

And one of the most often repeated phrases at the legislature, at the city council, everywhere, at every level, how do we

get our youth to stay?

It's not by saying no to new economic development. Now that is not saying we rubber stamp every single project that comes through. We need to be careful. We and I I do have faith that we can do this. Wyoming is good at this, at making sure that we are good stewards of our communities, of our resources. So making sure that we're asking the right questions. It's not no data centers, and it's not all data centers at any cost. It is if and then. So I appreciate the conversations that I've been having. These hearings are super important to that process, so thank you, and continue having them.

But I would hope we can avoid more of these absolutely no at no cost and absolutely at any cost that we gotta find some middle ground, and Wyoming's really good at that. We're gonna be level headed and ask the right questions and make sure we do it right. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public comment on this item? Any other public comment on this item? We'll close public comment at this point. Mr. Pummel, you want to address any of the questions to begin with?

Yeah. Thank you, Chair. I just didn't want to let that go by without just providing a little bit of answers to some of the folks' questions. So I I mean, I understand everybody's points. I I am also born and raised here, so I've seen the changes, and I see what's happening now. I picked up, I think, five five kinda main topics I just wanna touch on real quick. So one of the first things that was said and was brought up a couple times was location. There's a couple big factors to location. The first one is you cannot house this many people. I mean, you think about how many people live in the rural subdivisions at five acres.

If we were gonna try to house these people, even on city lots, right, you just have to have water and sewer. If you're gonna have this many people in the county, it would stretch for for tens of miles. So it has to be consolidated. It has to have access to water and sewer. And then you have to have a willing landowner.

So we we've approached mean, I there was a long, process to find people that were willing and a property that was big enough and a property that had access to water and sewer. So those criteria are kind of how we ended up here, is that all three of those things, right? Somebody who's willing and the right conditions. I would also say that, you know, that also helps to make sure it's consolidated. It's not that you can't do this on a community well or you can't do this on a huge septic lagoon, but nobody wants that either.

And so the other thing about having it be consolidated touches on a lot of those other points too, that that this is kind of the best way to do something like this. When you have these large influxes of workers, the best thing to do is to manage them in a a secured area with, you know, verifiable background checks and all of that. So if you if we fail to do workforce housing anywhere in the county, we and say, well, we aren't going to do it. People brought up the cost of living and the cost of housing through the roof, problems with the hotels and other temporary lodging. There's just not enough.

I mean, even for the stuff that's being built now. One last thing, I this isn't on my list, but really, this Class C, if if you read the conditions in the staff report, they require that the only thing we can do is those, you know, 200 units plus RVs without getting that connection to the city. So, you know, that's a a huge hinge point in this project. So even if if you guys approve this conditional use and it goes to the commissioners and they and they feel like it's appropriate to do the same, we're not talking about all of a sudden this thing happens a 100%. So it would just be that little bit in the corner for some of the the most immediate need that that has been identified.

And then this is a maximum number as well. So this is put together. Several of the data centers have said, here's our workforce curve. Here's how many people are coming as we anticipate building out these projects that are already approved. And so, you know, this initial phase gets some some people on the ground that that most urgently need houses and gets them out of those apartments and and stops inflating rents.

And then this would be phased in as that workforce, you know, ebbs and flows. So it wouldn't always be 2,000 or always be 5,000 or always be 200. So it's gonna ebb and flow, and this would be the absolute maximum that could be accommodated on the site. So I wanted to make that point clear too. In terms of long term benefits, I mean, I understand what everybody's saying, but there is a huge benefit to the neighborhood.

There's actually a lot of discussion about infrastructure and poor roads and access and traffic and sewer and water systems that aren't working right and and the and the emergency egress. So when these roads are put in and, yes, they are put in to serve the project, but then they become public assets. Assets. So that will increase all of the I mean, all those benefits will come when this leaves, which will happen at some point. And then the last thing I just wanted to touch on is public services.

We talked about this at the community meeting. I have already had outreach to the city of Cheyenne fire department, and I told the people at that meeting and all of you today, we will also reach out to the sheriff's department, police department, and the county fire and sanitation city and county city and private, I should say, to make sure that they're aware of what's coming and see what they need to do for staffing. So the city fire reached out to me and said, we wanna sit down and talk to you and figure out what who we need to hire and how many people we need to hire as this comes online. These are all sprinkled units. So when we get that outside user if if we get that outside user agreement, all the units will have fire sprinklers in them.

So that that's helpful. But in terms of police and and other public safety and public services stuff, that will be part of this formal process that we'll go through and make sure that we're connecting with those service providers and public agencies to make sure that they're they're getting what they need. And if they need something, you know, as part of this this project build out or the the road situation or the water and sewer that we're we're working with them to make sure that they're equipped to deal with what's coming on here. And the final thing I would say, because I think this also addresses a lot of the comments, is this you can't there's no sidewalk from here to the neighborhood. There's no road from here to these neighborhoods.

And I understand the proximity is an issue. I'm not discounting anybody's concerns, but that is another reason why I, you know, I actually did think this was a good site from a planning perspective because some of those infrastructure pieces, the roads, water, and sewer, can be then connected to these neighborhoods when there is not a workforce campus there. And so in the meantime, they're going in and out totally separately from the neighborhood. They're not integrated to the neighborhood. And then when they're gone, those roads, Wallach Road, Division, all of that road network can be expanded, and then then this can become, you know, usable land for for new housing, permanent housing in the future.

So I just just kinda wanted to check on some of those things I heard. Anybody that wants to reach out to me or has further questions, my information is on file with the county planning department. So if you wanna talk to me about mitigated measures, specific things that you think can be done if this is approved in and around your neighborhood, please reach out to miss Kandall and and email me, and we'll you know, we can talk about what we can do and what, you know, maybe we can't do, but let's at least have a conversation. So that's all I have. And I think mister Ross, Chad Ross is here with the Parangard Podging. And

mister chairman, just real quick, and I'm sorry, just just to clarify, this isn't the final public hearing we're gonna have regarding this project. We still have a commercial site plan that's gonna come forth, and we'll have Laramie County Fire District one, all the pertinent emergency response agencies. We'll get into the weeds on that front, and then have another public hearing, make sure that everybody knows what mitigation measures we're putting in place for the project before we even start breaking ground. So just know that's gonna be another opportunity. We want we want your input as always.

Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. My name is Chad Ross. I am the owner operator and Vice President this time of Ironguard Housing and my other company, Our Journey RV Resorts, and you might have seen me in the community.

So my two companies came into the Cheyenne region approximately seven years ago, so we are members of the community. I have purchased the Laramie KOA, the Cheyenne KOA, the RV Park in Pine Bluff, and I have housing opportunities that I handle in Kimball, Nebraska. But with the two companies, the two provide two separate things within a lodging facility, not only the lodging, but the RVs that come along with it. Our g our our journey, my company is one of the largest independently owned RV resort and campground companies in The United States, which brings us to, well, the experience myself and my first tier subcontractor worldwide solutions. We have over thirty years of lodging and RV in the RV industry and lodging.

So we we are excited about this project. We're excited that the workers need a place that is safe, comfortable, the environment is that has linen service, housekeeping. We have cafeteria. We also have twenty four hour security for them. They have controlled gate access.

They also have hotel style key cards for their rooms. I am excited about the rooms. Everybody has or is able to have a bathroom, shower, a TV, bed, desk, dressers, and a lounge chair. So we're very excited about that. And most of all, I wanted to have everybody know that these are brand new lodging units that would would actually be mobilized for this opportunity.

I also wanted to say that lodging facilities are no longer a campus. They are a lifestyle experience. These workers from all over the state and far away are watching the proceedings today and the future to see where these jobs they wanna go and work to. They want the they want the same thing that I'm talking about today. They want to be loved in the area they work in.

They want an experience, a lifestyle change. They want to be able to bring their families. They want to travel back further to their families on weekends, and they want to come back to work and work hard and have a nice place that can offer sports, cafeteria, a gym, a recreation center. These are things that were never discussed back fifteen years ago when I even entered the business. These facilities are now a life changing experience for them, and we want that.

We want low turnover for our large corporations, our large developers, our contractors that are hiring, the union halls that are bringing folks in, turnover costs money. If we could provide a great service, a great place to stay, and actually, the ability for them to actually find the opportunity within your area for their own residency at some point in time. That is exciting with all these folks coming to town. I I just wanted to end with a few notes of that I took listening. Remember, we are providing busing to and fro the project sites.

We're offering the three meals a day. Yes, we are. We are offering I have a proprietary software that we developed. It's AI compatible. We've had it for years.

So my clients have asked us to use it. I monitor the maintenance, the housekeeping, the doors, the facility, everything operational. This software picks up and actually tells us and talks to us back to a database every day, and that is required by our clients. I wanted you to know that we go through a vetted process to be prequalified by the data center folks. And I'm pleased to know that I know a few of them and I look forward, I'm hoping to work with the community on this project and provide the lodging for these folks that I know so well.

So I will leave that today with you. I appreciate your time today. I appreciate all the comments that came today. But please remember, this isn't fifteen, twenty, thirty, fifty years ago that we were dealing with workforce. These facilities are operated strongly, very secured, safety, a great environment, place to stay that they love.

They could come back for the weekends and enjoy themselves. And and make work not only for the pay, but for happiness and for for the ability to stay within an opportunity of living within a region that you have so well here. I really love Cheyenne, but thank you very much for having me.

Thank you. With that, questions, comments, discussion regarding this project?

Mr. Chair, through you, I would just kinda like to discuss a little bit of this stuff. I think I speaking from my personal experience, we've heard a lot of comments on the need for workforce housing In my profession, I'm a real estate agent in town. I know a lot about the market, and I've been doing it about twenty five years here in Cheyenne. It's not just workforce housing.

We need housing in general in Cheyenne. There is we're a town of just the city limits, 55, 60,000 right now. There is actively a 155 homes on the market for sale. That's from $0 to infinity. I just looked it up on our MLS.

That's for 55,000 people. So you can imagine the rental market is also the exact same way. So that's dealing with just the current population that we have. And now we're talking about these projects coming in, these developments that are happening. There is definitely a need for it.

A part about the location, I know some of those neighborhoods, probably not ideal, but from my point of view, this location, I don't know that you could pick a better location. It is right in the hub of where all of these things are taking place. If you're worried about traffic and you're worried about all of these other things or crime or anything like that, you build this 10 miles out of town, and now you have all these workers in one place traveling daily on that exact road into these areas. They have the ability to really police this in the area that it's at. It seems to be, although there are some neighbors neighborhoods around, the metadata center is closer to both of these neighborhoods, the actual center itself, than what this housing project would be.

And just the fact that they can shuttle people in and out, do those types of things, I don't and for future, have the access to water, sewer, those types of amenities. I don't know that you could have picked a better location. So those are my thoughts. That's that's what I think. So

Additional comments or discussion? Mister

chair, through you, I'll echo a little bit of my colleague's statements. I like the location. I think it's a good location for where the work is being done. I'm a tradesman. I've spent thirty three years in the trades.

I've had to travel because there wasn't work here. I'm not doing that now because the work is here. And with these data centers eaten up and utilizing a huge amount of our workforce, it's providing opportunities for some of the smaller tradesmen that are working outside of these industries. And it's something that's going to be a problem coming up is we don't have the workforce. We don't have the housing.

We put this housing in for this workforce and that opens up the housing in the town for the local workforce that's gonna be here taking care of the constituents in this county and the surrounding counties. So I know there's a lot of motion involved, and I know there's a lot of fear, But understand, the majority of tradesmen are good people, men, women. They're here trying to provide for their families, and they wanna support the community that they're working in. And this is gonna allow them to support this community while they're here and take some home to their communities if they live elsewhere. So I understand the emotion.

It's tough, but this isn't about emotion for us. This is about what rules and regulations we have in place in front of us, and that's how we have to approach this. Thank you.

Any other comments? I'll close out the comments. There's a challenge. The workforce needed for the existing projects take away whether we should be accepting more projects or how we accept those. The current projects that are on the line have to we have to build to support them with workforce and I agree with Commissioner Watkins comments versus real estate.

Our real estate market is continues to go up and we're feeling that as property tax owners because of those valuations, which is good and bad, necessary evil. I also understand the concerns of the citizens that it's in your backyard and and there's never a great location. There's never the perfect location. I recently had a project in my backyard that I fought very challenged and and and forcefully because it was important to make sure that all the rules and regulations were followed, and they were. And and so I understand not wanting to have something in your backyard because I personally just went through it with my neighbors.

With that said, we have a system in place called the Laramie County Land Use Regulations. Those regulations were recently readopted and when we went to make some more constraints through that process, commitment director Arnold went to add more constraints, more regulation, more restrictions. Our community citizens told us no. We don't want more constraints until it's in our backyard. I fell into that trap.

Not trap, but I fell into those conditions. We ask our citizens to voice their concerns through the land use regulations when those are open to be able to make sure that we are providing the best process to grow our communities. On top of this, Wyoming state law protects individual land user rights to be able to do certain things with their property as long as they meet the land use regulations for that area. Now, this double edged sword because the question that my wife, who I had to have conversations with, well, what about my user rights, my land rights with these projects coming in? That's where having your voice through your legislators, through your county commissioners to be able to make those changes that still fit our values in the Western lifestyle.

I don't know if data centers are good for our community. This isn't about data centers, it's about the projects that are currently approved and we need to be able to provide opportunities to support those so that we can control what we can control of that process, which is providing a safe environment for our community and providing workforce housing that fits the needs of that workforce. They're coming. They're already here, they're coming, and they're gonna continue to come. So, let's try to control that.

I do believe that conversations with county commissioners and planning on and along with the city need to occur on what avenue and what direction we want to go with this industry that apparently is very attracted to our community and how we manage that moving forward. I don't believe that spreading this type of industry all around the city is is valuable for our city, but I do think that that a planned approach to it is gonna be important. And then finally, the the need to support our local resources and responders, we have sheriff Kozak here, is important. And there is there is a there is a burden on that, but there is also a tax revenue that helps with that. There's an impact fee for the fire department.

So my profession is the fire service. Forty years in in fire service. There is there is a process to be able to help with those those services and in this case, Landmark County Fire District one will be intimate with working with these developers on making sure that they have the facilities and capability to be able to do that. And then, I think the final point is, Casey kind of alluded to it, is this is a phase one and phase two. You're not going see 5,000 workers there tomorrow.

You're going to see a flux of workers coming through. And once phase two hits, a whole new condition sets forward, which is that outside user agreement. For those that don't understand, outside users agreement is an agreement between the landowner and the Board of Public Utilities, Cheyenne Water. And that in itself is a very arduous process that has to go through three readings through the city council. Now, as a landowner, I can understand what's that future look like you if you're adjacent to it.

Let's face it. These are high revenue areas that we know the city of Cheyenne is going to be very interested in getting because it generates tax revenue for the city of Cheyenne. The county, unfortunately, doesn't fluctuate with that tax revenue very much like the city does. So, we have to work with our political bodies to make sure that we have planned approach to how we address the additional projects that aren't already approved. So, with that, I get the emotion.

I get I don't want it in my backyard. I get all of those concerns, but they're already approved. Now we have to figure out how we're going to manage it and then how we continue to not just blatantly approve them. Like Ms. Volk said, the combined pieces

of

all these need to be weighed in together, so that way we understand the full impact on our community. And I applaud our very small planning department in trying to facilitate that. And I applaud the applicant for trying to work through that process, but also trying to work with the city of Cheyenne to say the future of this area is probably going to be impacted by the city Of Cheyenne's annexation and growth. And that's a process. So, with that, I also would like to thank the public that did make public comment because many a times those can become very heated and emotional and we appreciate the professionalism that you all demonstrated to this afternoon and evening.

So that's my final comment. Any other final comment? With that, I look for motion and discussion.

I move to recommend the approval of class of the class c conditional use permit for the Iron Guard workforce housing facility located at the portion of Section 24 Township 13 North Range 67 West Laramie County, Wyoming to Laramie County Board of County Commissioners with five conditions to adopt the finding facts a, b, and c of the staff report.

It's been moved. Is there a second? I second. Moved, second. Any discussion? Just two pieces of discussion. This is just the special use permit. The next is a site plan which comes up for also review, and also the county commissioners have to review it and approve it. So there's going to be multiple more layers that you all have the opportunity to voice your concerns, particularly with the county commissioners. So just watch for those opportunities. With that, any other discussion? Ms. Kunlow, if you can call for the vote.

Chair McCoy, I would like to also state

that

the next hearing for this conditional use permit will be before the Board of County Commissioners on June 2. And as you inferred that the any site plan that will be the next stage, that'll also be public comments taken by the Board of County Commissioners and also the same notification process. There is might be some confusion with the petition circulation. We've heard that it's going to be something going on next week here, but that has nothing to do with our public hearing. That's going to be June 2, just for clarification.

Okay. So June 2 in front of the county commissioners for this special use permit? Yes. Then there'll be a site plan that will come before this body and then also county commissioners or just a

county It'll just be the

county commissioners for the site plan. But it'll be the same thirty day minimum notice, the mile radius for the circulation of the neighbor letters and things like that.

Alright. Thank you, Ms. Cundorff.

Okay. Now I'll take the roll call. Commissioner Staudle?

Yes.

Commissioner Tefurlium? Aye. Commissioner Watkins? Yes. Commissioner Casey? Aye. Chairman Coy?

Yes. With that, that's all the business for today. Correct?

That business is

today's County Planning Commission. Thank you.