Apc - Regular Meeting

whenever you're ready. Right, we're going to go ahead and get started. Uh, everybody out in the hallway, can you hear me?

They're getting started. So everybody that's out in the hallway, please try to keep it quiet out there because the sound echo echoes horribly and it it drowns us out in here. So everybody out in the hallway, please keep your conversations to a minimum. Okay, so we're go ahead and call the meeting to order. This is the December 10th, 2025 uh meeting of the board of zoning appeals. Can we start with roll call, please? Grant Cade here. Sofer here. BJ Hunt here. Jamie Hopper here. Brent Palmer here. I don't.

Okay. So, Corey said that he is going to give us a quick tutorial on our new toys here.

Yeah. So, um just to try to make things easier for you guys, I did buy you iPads this year. Uh so, if you look on your homepage there, um you'll see three or well by your Safari, which is your internet. Um, in the files right there are going to be all of your ordinances. They are in uh there's a comp plan um folder and then there's ordinances and so they're all in there by name so that you'll be able to see all the ordinances in real time and you can search them as well. Um and then beside the um when you're on here uh if you look there there's a gray B on your home screen. Um, that is your GIS. And if you click on that, it's automatically set to Miami County.

What did I do? Okay, it's set to Miami County. So, you can search any property and look at zoning, all the different GIS things that you would need. Um, that's that piece. And then if you go back to your home screen, the drive is where you're going to find all of your documents. Obviously, you're going to want to make sure you're in the BZA folder. Uh, and then they're in there by month of the meeting. So, you can find literally everything in there. Is that too close to the box or the back? This is completely different than what I was in here.

Yeah, you're in the I just want to go too pictures. I don't even know where you're at. Are you taking pictures? Are you in the drive? In the drive. It's just listed. It's an item. It's a list view instead of an icon view.

We're good now. I'll quit touching buttons. Okay. So, everybody good? Everything is in your binders until we get more familiar with this and up to date. Um, for those who are not as technology savvy. So, um, feel free to go at it. Okay. So, feel free to ask. Yeah. Turning it up loud enough that you're out in the hallway. Is that speaker loud enough out there all the way? It might be on the back of the speaker out there. Well, there's not because there is on this one, so I don't need them.

So, feel free to ask questions along the way, but uh we'll just go ahead and keep moving here. Um, has everybody had a chance to review the, uh, minutes from November? Make a motion to approve the minutes from November. Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. I second. Okay. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I oppose. The same. Motion carries. Okay. So, before we get started this evening, um obviously there's a lot of you really excited about something. Um I would like to remind everybody this is a public meeting, but it's also an official meeting. Um everybody is expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner. Um no profanity, no yelling, no arguing with your neighbors. Um if you are asked a question, your question gets answered to the board. We don't need people arguing amongst amongst each other out in the audience. Um so yeah, everybody will get be given plenty of time to talk. Um I would say with as many people as we have, uh if you did sign up to speak, try to keep your comments to 2 minutes or less. Um and then also, you know, let's say that somebody comes up here and says exactly what you were going to say. There is nothing wrong with standing there and saying, "Hey, I signed up to speak. I agree with everything they just said. Let's move on. Um, just in the in the interest of time." So, having said all that, we will go ahead and bring the first variance to the table. Uh, variance 124-25, Lane Blackwell, 6246 North Meridian Road, Peru, seeking a use variance to allow a residential dwelling on less than 10 acres of A1 zoned land in Jefferson Township. Can we get the staff report, please?

Um, Lane brought this request into the office on October 14th. He would like to construct a residential dwelling for his son. They intend to place a mobile home on the parcel um for a son to occupy while the home is being built and have it removed once the building is complete. They do not have a set timeline for when the project will be complete. Um permits for electrical service and a pool building were pulled towards the end of 2024, which is the only structure that currently sits on the property as far as we know. Uh, we don't really see any concern. Is that

uh Lane, are you here this evening? Yes. Want to tell us what you got going on? What's your

Well, the plan is want to build a pole barn house up. I've already had the trees cleared in that spot, but it's going to take a couple years. We're going to do it both of ourselves. my son living in my house right now. Put a mobile home up there and we'll build the pole barn home and we're done with mobile home out. So, I I I think it's going to take a couple years. So, I already got plans to start the pole barn this spring, but we got to finish it inside. It'll be a couple years for the mobile home to set up there when it's done. There is another variance in there for the mobile home too to place that. Um, so it's after this one.

So this one is just for the residential side of it, not this has nothing to do with mobile home so that everybody's clear. Uh so one thing that we do try to um tell everybody u basically you're asking to live in an agricultural zone. Um so essentially you're a guest in an a zoned area. You understand there's going to be farming you know sight sound smells people working late at night. I lived in the country for years. Well and that's that's a lot of people think country and they want you know

Yeah. My property there is all hills and woods and there there's like a 60 acre par that's part of motion farmland. Okay. Um is there any other questions from the board? Hey I hate to bring this up but is if I'm looking at the correct person is road frontage a problem with this one? Maybe I'm looking at the other person. No two drive. They're about a quarter mile long. Yeah. Road. I don't think so, French. Okay. Thank you. Is there any public comment for or against this variance?

Okay, seeing none, we will go ahead and vote. Um I will read these off. These are the finding effects. This is how we approve or deny variance based on these findings. Um, number one, the variance will not be injurious to the public health, safety, morals, and general well I don't know if I can move that and make that stop or not. There you go.

Welfare of the community. The use and area of the I'm sorry, the use and value of the area adjacent to the property, including the variance, will not be affected in a substantially adverse manner. that the need for the variance arises from some condition peculiar to the property involved. Strict application of the terms of the ordinance will constitute an unnecessary hardship if applied to the property for which the variance is sought. The variance will not interfere substantially with county's comprehensive plan. All five findings are five agree zero disagree. So the variance is

okay. So we'll go ahead and move on to the next uh variance 125-25 Wayne Blackwell 6246 North Meridian Road Peru. seeking a use variance to allow the placement of a mobile home on 8.49 acres of A1 zoned land in Jefferson Township. Staff report, please. Um, so this is along the same lines, but they're going to live in this mobile home lot like he said. Um, our ordinance only allows them to do that temporarily for 8 months and then they have to remove it. I know, weird. So, he's getting a variance to have placed there while they're constructing it.

That's all of the homes? No, this is if you're constructing. Oh, okay. Okay. And he's planning it. He thinks it'll take a couple years, so it's going to Yeah. Okay. Do you have any comment on that? And I guess we try to get it done as quick as we can, but I mean it runs past eight months, you just apply for a variance or something or No, that's why you're going from variance today. So you don't because you you're assuming it's going to take longer than eight months. 8 months. So we put a couple year stipulation on it.

If you you feel comfortable, you could get it done in three years. Oh yeah. So, if we put a cap on it that it within three years, I've already got I've already got quotes to put structure up this spring. It's just going to be a matter of finishing the inside. I'd leave it up to the board if they want to put any sort of a time stipulation on. I'd make a motion to put a three-year cap on the time frame. Second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I

oppose the same. Motion carries. So, just so that you understand, basically, you have a 36-month window to to have the mobile home removed. So, if you build the house, decide, hey, I'd like to keep the mobile home here. You're going to have to come in and reapply for another variance to keep it on the property. So, uh is there any public comment for or against?

Okay. Any other board comment? Seeing none, we will go ahead and vote. Uh, this ballot is the same as the last one, so I will not read these off again. All five findings are five agreed, zero disagree. So the variance is approved. Congratulations. Get with Cy and they'll get you your permits.

We'll process that tomorrow and you'll get a letter and all the approval paperwork and you'll be good. Okay, moving on. Variance 127-25 Kevin and Jordan Janowski Jimenez 940 North Betty Lane Peru seeking a use variance to allow the possession of fowl on 1.48 acres of R1 zone land and excuse me Peru Township can staff report please

thank you. Uh so this this variance came into the office on October 14th, 2025. Applicant Jordan Jani Gimenez Jimenez is seeking approval to allow the possession of foul on less than 10 acres of R1 residential zone land. This variance request originated after violation uh 566 was brought to our attention. A formal inspection was conducted on September 15, 2025, during which it was observed that chickens were being housed and allowed to roam freely on the property. As a result, the first violation notice was issued and mailed on September 19th, 2025 outlining the necessary steps to bring the property into compliance before the next inspection. The follow-up inspection took place on October 1st, 2025. At that time, several check-ins were still present and roaming freely on the property. Consequently, a second violation notice was issued and mailed on October 2nd, 2025, reiterating the required corrective actions and informing the property owners that a $100 fine had been assessed for failure to comply after the first notice. The second notice further stated that the fine was due by October 30th, 2025. And the second notice also provided a new compliance deadline of October 12th, 2025 by which the property owners were required to either remove all file from the property or apply for and obtain an approved variance prior to the final inspection. As of November 13th, um the $100 fine remained outstanding and a lean was placed against the property.

Okay. Uh Kevin or Jordan or either one of you here this evening? Yes. So I guess would you like to add anything to that or or I guess what do you I have these um handouts. Okay. Go ahead and bring them up please. Then I was going to see

Give us just a here. Please through Fish. Okay. the forers.

I guess I just I mean you guys have most of the information that I was going to mention. Um but I guess I know the paperwork only had and a half acres on it, but the total property is over three acres. All of the lots in the neighborhood are large rural areas. Um, my house is on a cult like dead end road is not one of the most visible houses. Um, there's wildlife everywhere in the neighborhood. typical day you can't drive through without having to stop for an animal. Xactor whitetails Honey Ranch Preserve is right behind um the neighborhood. Miami County for Fairgrounds are right nearby. There's ponds in the neighborhood supporting waterfell and other wildlife. Swans people have purchased um and In 2025, I feel like we should be moving towards modern practices. Um, my youngest son has threat syndrome. these chickens have been a way for him to help cope with some of his um things he has going on and they've acted kind of as like emotional support animals for him and all of us. We have neighbors that come by frequently often and we've brought them into cl into classrooms before. Um, I guess there's just a lot of different

benefits. And as far as there being a complaint, I feel like some of that was from prior issues as you can you can read about on the second page at the bottom. Um, and then there was just a bunch of some different pictures and stuff you guys couldn't see. I guess you guys have a question.

I just want to say I really appreciate this. I know the board does too. It's well thought out and put together. Thanks for this. So the the two parcels that you own, are they connecting parcels or they across the road?

Does Sen Hills have an HOA? They do not. Uh they have covenants though that do state that there's no type of foul livestock to be on the property. That actually I was going to address it. So I guess my question on that does that supersede the county's zoning as far as whether so if we allow it if the if they don't allow it I I don't know. I don't know if that's a mark question or that is a mark question. Yeah.

No, all we can vary is our zoning ordinance. So if their covenants still restrict it, any one of those land owners within that area that the covenants affect can enforce those covenants. So all we can do is say the zoning ordinance allows it doesn't mean somebody else won't try to challenge it.

That had that had actually been mentioned, but I brought in the copy. I almost printed 10 copies for you, guys. And then I was like, well, but the covenants are from 1992. They have not been updated since. I have asked board members about them and they said that they plan on working on basically basically on updating them in the future, but as of now, these are from 1992 and nothing is really enforced. Just one example in a little picture I took this this morning is that any building other than your home is not to be over 750 square ft in size. And this is my neighbor's new little barn which is clearly more than 750 square ft. So that's one example of literally hundreds that these are not followed or enforced. Basically the there's like a horde that kind of picks and chooses what they want to say is in the covenants and what should be

we don't we don't have any control over that. I was just I was just curious if there was already a um statute in place. So uh is there any questions from the board? Okay. Seeing none we will go ahead and open it to public comment. And again you guys are addressing the board. We're not addressing each other out in the audience. Keep everything civil, please. So, and if you did not uh sign the paper to speak, if you decide that you want to speak, please uh go ahead and do that.

Hi, I'm Melissa. I'm Melissa Hicks. I'm a resident um in the community. I also serve on the Hidden Hills nonprof um preservation nonprofit which is responsible for um overseeing the neighborhood um the care of the neighborhood and ensuring that um everyone's made aware of the covenants that are in our neighborhood. Um it is very clearly specified um that there is no poultry allowed in our neighborhood either as pets or as livestock and just as a concerned citizen we have um a lot of concerns with the chickens. they do around three free into the road into all adjacent properties of the other homeowners. Um, as well as the bacteria carried by the droppings of the birds and that chickens are actually more susceptible to be carriers of aven bird flu. So, there's several health concerns above and beyond what it does to our property values as well by having these chickens in our neighborhood. Just out of curiosity, how long have the chickens been on the property?

We received um as the nonprofit, we received the first complaint in the spring of the chickens and I believe the number exceeds 40 chickens on the property. I I didn't get an official count of chickens. I'd been out there multiple times. Um I would definitely think more than 10. I didn't see any chickens off of the property at all. They were all contained in her yard every time that I was out there. Not contained like there was no fence, you know, but you were out there how many times? I was out there at least five or six different times. Um but every time I didn't see a chicken in the road, they were close to the road, not in the road.

We do have video if anyone needs to see it of them being um on an adjacent property. Um but it's not just a one-time issue. It's something that is occurring every day. Is there anybody else that would like to speak for or against? Yes, sir. I'm David Arnold. I'm the neighbor. Um Hills is an R1. Is that correct? Yeah. And that no livestock. That's

And also our homeowner association. What a little of it is the same way. No livestock. But you have you all received emails that people have sent out. Everybody's read them. They have another binding. I just want to make sure that says it out there. So, uh, we appreciate it if you said no. Thank you. Anybody else would like to speak for or against?

Any board questions? Corey, what's your office's stance on?

Um, so looking at it just from our zoning ordinance perspective, um, that is does not fall in line with a residential district. Uh, residential districts if you're going to that for a residential district to allow livestock, it would have to be 10 acres or more in size. Um, and so it's inconsistent with our zoning ordinance at this point. Brooklyn, when you said that you were out there, she had mentioned that there's a building um that in they're enclosed in now. Was that building there when you were visiting as well?

Yeah, there's there's pictures. Um but yeah, there's that coop or it's like a little shed that she's turned into a chicken coop. It's been there every time since my first visit. Was there was there any intent for allowing them to free range? I mean, if we're going to like try to break the rules here, I would try to do it maybe on the sly. So, did did you think about maybe a fence at one point or trying to keep them contained somehow? Yeah, we

Okay. Well, I guess initially I didn't realize there was any county restrictions against it. So, and then we do plan on putting a run in, but we kind of put everything on hold when this happened. So,

okay, last call. Anybody else in the audience would like to speak for or against? Now's your last chance. Okay, any further board questions? Okay, seeing none, we will go ahead and vote. Um, I believe this is the same ballot as the last two, so I will not be reading these I'm sure that can work. Um so the variance does not pass. For finding one it was one agree four disagree. Finding two it was five disagree zero agree. Finding three it was three agree two disagree. Finding four it was one agree four disagree. And finding five it was one agree four

disagree. So the variance does not pass. Uh get with Corey in his office and they will set up a timeline to get the chickens removed. So, thank you. Okay, moving on. Uh, variance 129-25, Dennis Barbara and Zachary Seed, uh, 9693 North [clears throat] 100 West Macy, seeking a use variance to allow a residential dwelling to be built on 2.5 acres of A1 zone land in Union Township. We get the staff report, please.

Yep. Um, so on November 18th, Dennis submitted a request on behalf of his son, Zach, regarding the construction of a new residence. The Sea family currently owns both parcels associated with the project, a 2 and a half acre parcel where the home will be built in an adjacent one and a halfacre parcel south. Their long-term plan is to merge the two properties into a single 4acre parcel, which will serve as the full project site. Um they do intend to merge them and or combine them and put it into Zach's name only to the variance pass. Uh Zack, Dennis, or Barbara for any of you here this evening? Yes, sir. Uh would you like to add any comment to that or

No, build a house there. Okay. It looks like this is not currently in production farm land. I mean, it's hard to tell from a picture, but it looks like it's grass lot. Is that correct? Might start pond.

Was there a mobile home there at one point, too? Yeah. Yeah. It's not there now. No. And there's a there's a septic and a well as well. in there half hour there too. So something was there or Okay. Okay. Is there any board comment? So if they build on the one parcel but then combine the two, are there is that still just the only residences on the two parcels even if they're combined? Right. It's going to have a whole new legal whole new parcel number. So but it wouldn't be two addresses on one. It's going to be the address that's there.

Is there any public comment for or against? You guys are quiet. Okay. If there's Well, I guess what's your offic's stance on this? Um, it's not consistent with our comprehensive plan, which is trying to protect farm ground. Um, however, at this point, I don't think it rises to the level of prohibiting the variance. I think it would be warranted at this point. Approval should be warranted, I think.

Is there any further questions from the board? Seeing none, we will go ahead and vote. And this one again, I believe, is the same. So, I will not read this off. That's my shoe. Like a doggy up. Just Just my shoe, guys. [clears throat] Yeah. He said it sounded like a doll. Like

all five findings are five agreed, zero disagree. So the variance passes. Congratulations. get with planning commission office and they'll get you your permits. We'll finalize everything tomorrow and get all that out to you. Pardon? We'll finalize everything tomorrow and get you all the approval letters and everything like that. Do I need to stop in tomorrow? No. Uh, no. I'll mail it to you. Okay. Thank you. I mean, if you want to bring cookies, you can. Feel free. My wife is a pretty good speaker there. Great. Sure. Go ahead now. Share share with the whole class here. Right. Okay. Moving on. Variance 13-25. Curtis and Brandy Zar. I hope I said that correctly. Zir.

Wouldn't wouldn't have guessed that one. Uh 9827 East 1200 South Converse seeking a variance from the subdivision control ordinance to allow relief from road frontage requirements on three parcels to be split from building sites in Jackson Township. We have staff report, please.

Yep. Uh so I've been working with Kurt and Brandy on this one. They're looking to split up their 35 acre parcel. Um, and so you can see they've included a a rough sketch of the drawing of how they would like to cut the land up. Um, they would like to build a small cabin for themselves at the front of the eastern portion of the property. Additionally, they plan to give each of their kids roughly an acre and a half to build on in the southeast of the property. Um, each of those three parcels will be roughly an acre and a half in size. Um however those three parcels would not have access to road frontage as it sits the parcel is completely cut up and cut into by a creek but roughly 24 acres to the west they cash rent and they would like to keep that as tillable acres. The other 10 acres to the east of the creek is scrub ground that has never been farmed. Property only has one drive that accesses the east 10 acres. Recently the zeros put in two large culverts that allowed them driving access to that 10 acres. So the the location where this is going to be built is on the scrub ground then here in the corner.

Yeah. So if you're looking at um this piece is your tillable acres right here. They're talking about this L like backwards L shape that would be O. So there's a picture in there um in your documents. So the names that are listed on that bottom picture there. There's three names actually listed in yellow in there. Are those the like the ve? Is that the one that's to the left where it says converse? They're just showing in that those are adjacent neighbors. Okay, that's why I was confused. It was my elevate. Okay. Labeling weird. Makes sense. Thank you.

Um there is a map in there. So, I did draw in there uh roughly where that culvert went in. It's on in orange. So, you can see uh there's a little pink house on there where I think Brandy and Kurt would like to put theirs. And then at the bottom would be where the kids would be. draw. This isn't in any sort of a flood plane. No, it is not. And they're not looking to for a variance that put multiple h put houses on less than 10 acres of agg that's later. It'll have to be okay. They're just relief from uh road front. I don't think they wanted to get the put the cart

reading that right. Sorry J that is a that light green color. Yeah. So the parcel split isn't necessarily the issue. It's the road frontage. Is that correct? Yeah. So splitting the parcel three times that we're good there. Right. That's your max in that 10ear period. Okay. Okay. It's the it's just road furniture. There's not that 50 ft of road finish. Got it. So is everybody clear on that? And and I believe I know Brandon's here and she'll be able to explain the drive and all that stuff back there. Uh, Brandy, are you Yes.

Go ahead. No, I just if you got anything to add or um Okay. So, where the Yeah, you can come up there. They have all their your drawings, the ones that you turned in to me from her.

Our son wanted to build out there first. So, this section here is where we'd want to build. The driveway we have put in so far is along this um woods line here. The culbert is in this area here. So, my younger brother, he was going to build down here. Me and my wife and my three kids here. And then my sister, then Kurt and mom eventually up there. Our problem is is these houses here, there's a creek that runs through this wooded property all the way along there. So that culvert gave us access back there. We want to keep this till we're ridable. So to be able to access the road, we would just have this one lane from there with separate driveways from each house. Is there any comment from or questions from the board?

Okay. Is there any public comment for or against? Cory, what's your office stance?

Yeah. Um, I have hacked this one around and beat it to death. uh trying to find a way around this and I don't really see a great one. Um especially we did talk about potentially carving it across that to get the road frontage to go across uh and to touch but it would start to take or go across that tillable acres there um potentially taking that out of production and so I'd rather keep that in production uh at this point. So, I think that's a great reason to approve uh our variance here. How much were they even shy of the ordinance? Uh you have to have 50 ft of road frontage.

Those aren't going to touch them. Yeah. Because of that creek

and you can't use your easement as a as road frontage. Is there any other questions from the board? Okay, seeing none, we will go ahead and vote. This one is different, so I will read these off. Uh, granting of the variance will not be detrimental to the public safety, health, or general welfare of the community or injurous to the other nearby parcels. Granting of the variance would be based on conditions unique to the parial which conditions are not generally applicable to other property in the county. Due to the particular physical surrounding shape topography condition of the part parcel, a hardship to the applicant would result as distinguished from an inconvenience if the variance were not granted. Granting of the variance will not in any manner contravene the provisions of the zoning ordinance, the comprehensive plan or the zoning. Um so the variance passes. Findings one, two and three are five agree, zero disagree. Finding four is four agree, one disagree. So the variance passes.

Congratulations. Okay, I'll get you that stuff in the mail tomorrow. Yep. All right, moving on. Variance 131-25 Newman Heritage Farms LLC, 4650 West Old Stone Road, Peru, seeking a use variance to allow a data center to operate on A1 zone parcel in Peru Township. Staff report, please.

Uh, so this variance was submitted on November 20th. Uh, Newman Heritage Farms and Digital Egg Investments LLC would like to allow up to an acre and a half in the current A1 zoning to be utilized for a data center or slash computer system operations. Um the improvements needed shall consist of a pool building approximately 130 ft x 64 feet uh with fenced in metal courtyards on both sides of the structure each measuring approximately 120 ft in length by 30 uh feet in width and 12 ft in height. Um there are several different graphics in there for you and I know that they have uh talking points on these as well so I won't fumble through it. I'll let them do it. There are many many uh neighbor comments on this one. You'll see uh in your packets as well. Just wanted to draw your attention to that.

So, this the actual picture that we've got here, I think that's an actual picture. Yeah. Um is this the one that is out of the base? That's correct. That was built what roughly two years ago? Yep. It was just

that was zoned for that though in that area, right?

U Mr. Newman or I assume you're speaking on his behalf. Uh yeah, my name is Anthony Spar. I'm an attorney here in Indiana. Uh Mr. Newman is not here tonight. Uh he had a significant fall and is in a nursing home right now recovering. Um so uh I I'm here to uh say a few words and maybe answer some questions. I also have I represent Digital Egg Investments. This is Josh Gray. He's the CEO and um they have a signed option and lease agreement. Uh, do you have a copy of that in your packet already? Yep. Okay. If not, I could provide one. And then do you also have the killer photographs of of Man, you guys make my life easier.

I try.

Thank you. Um and so um uh I was just out there talking a little bit to some of the other um neighbors and they were concerned I think just because of the large size of the parcel and they're concerned that there's going to be this massive data center like Amazon or or Oracle or something like that. And u and so really this is just going to be something that they're trying to do is maybe one acre one and a half. Uh it's basically a steel pull barn and they're going to have uh computer units on each side. So you're gonna have kind of air blow through and cool them and um and uh it's going to have a at least they would like to have a 12oot security fence there. Um and that uh will keep everything secured. There's no uh septic. There's no running water. You're not going to have anybody that's actually going to be uh working in the premises. they're just going to be set up running the computers and then occasionally you might need a warm body to go and swap out a part or something like that. And so um it's it doesn't seem to me like it's going to be a super complex um submission is what they're trying for. But uh

Josh I'm Josh Graham from Pennsylvania but we've been operating these centers uh since 2018 in Indiana and Fulton and Peru. Um basically F I guess in Miami County sorry but uh basically we don't use any water so a lot of people get concerned we're all air cold. Um but basically what our business model is we find substations that are underutilized and then the community can benefit. we can benefit too because that substation might have an $18 million investment and no one's getting any benefit of it. But if we come in and we utilize it, we can hold the the power bills down. A lot of people think if we bring them up, we have ability to bring them down. So, um, to me, it's just wasted infrastructure that sits there that no one's benefiting from. You guys are paying higher electric bills. So what we do is we can pay we could pay a million bucks to haul it out to the commercial zone, but then it's not feasible because it's not worth it for us or you can't make it work. But if we park it right there next to the substation, we can keep our cost down, take all that power and help the community keep their power bills down as we maximize the value of that substation. So we like to think ourselves as accreative to the community. Most people think data centers are negative, but I will tell you in F County, you can talk to the CEO. We've held their power bills down for several years since we started. So the reality is is I look at that substation, I go and find them in rural America and I'm thinking like that's a wasted 18 million bucks that they're all paying for that if we could take some megawatts off of that substation and monetize it, we will lower the bills for people and everyone can win. But the minute we have to take that power from that agriculture land and put a line in and take it millions of dollars away, then it's not a creed event and it's not a win-win scenario. So that's kind of our business model. Um, and we're doing

that a little bit in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Indiana has been a really great place to work. We have nine employees and uh just really hardworking people. Jason Hudkins is my partner here. He's from Indiana. And uh I came into this business from a hunting buddy. I'm a big hunter. And basically he introduced to him. He had like 100,000 of GPU miners. Before we knew we had a real business and we've been mining since 2018 and it's just been growing. And uh if we add this even though we don't have employees dayto-day in there, we we will probably hire two PU people to there's a lot of stuff you got to do on dashboards and things of that nature from the computer to keep the firmware, the software all running. We have two uh PU employees right now that work for us and like I said alltogether there's nine employees and you know if we build this it'll probably add another two employees that have to manage the firmware and all that kind of stuff. And uh we're very mindful of pollution, noise pollution or or light pollution. That's why you'll see there's a a 12 foot steel, you know, uh barrier or courtyard. And that's really for uh security, but it's also to keep the sound down and to make sure no lights from the machines can be seen outside of the building. So that's pretty much it. Um and that's kind of what our business model. And if I could say something more as well, um, with the improvements uh, made to the property, of course, that'll increase the tax basis, which will generate more revenue uh, for the county, which is always a plus. And and I think maybe just to kind of latch on to what Josh has said about if you've got under underutilized infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, you've already had that large uh uh capital uh expenditure to put that in place to have all that extra ceiling, all that extra

capacity. And if it's not being used, uh all that is is just actually uh increasing the existing uh residents payments because they had that minimum uh payment that they have to pay for to pay the bonds or to pay the uh the debt the debt service on that. And so if um if they're able to build their their data center, this little crypto mining uh uh outfit here, what that does is that will create you've got another payer who's going to be paying Miami Cass me Miami RMC. And so they're going to have more re more revenue that they otherwise wouldn't be receiving. And so it's not it's not a situation here where um where the uh crypto mining business is going to push above over that ceiling or threshold of Miami Cass RMC. And so because of that, you're just you're using you're using that infrastructure to to its higher capacity, to its better use, and it's generating more money for Miami RMC. I don't Is it okay to bring Rob up because he he's the CEO of RMC? But one thing's for sure, we don't we never want the full substation in case there's growth in the community. So there's always like plenty of ahead of them left in case there's growth. And he would never give it to us. But we as a company would never want to come to the community and say, "Give us all the substation capacity." Because then if there's growth, you don't have any growth. So we always make sure there's ample capacity to grow in that substation as the community goes. And the thing about us versus AI centers, we can curtail and give it back. So we're very we're very friendly. So if there's a cold weather or whatever, we shut down, curtail, and give the power back to the grid. That's not AI's got to run 247 every day long. They got backup generators. They need water. That's not us. We're very like in Texas with all

their issues. We can give it back and we do. We curtail probably this month for example, uh we curtailed, you know, how cold it was. We gave power back uh I think five out of seven days so far of the first seven days we gave power back five days. We shut down from 4:30 to 9:30 at night. So it it we're not one of those guys that are just going to take the grid down to hurt the community. We're we're good stewards of you know making sure the grid is healthy. And I I think also uh when Josh was saying that they're going to give it back um not only not only by uh not using during high peak times, but um you know their intention here is is that in the event that they decide that they're not going to operate that anymore, they would just release that back to the property owner um Mr. Mr. Newman. And so

pretty excited to have that building. It's got a concrete floor. Yeah, it's it'd be great for agricultural use. And of course, it's a one zoned as such. And um and and again, uh some of the other uh individuals that were out here uh you know, their main concern was that that full acreage was going to be turned to into a data center. No, it's How long is that lease going to be? I didn't have multiple I think was it like 25 years, I think. Okay. And then it's an option. It's now a fiveyear lease. Am I wrong? With renewal. Five or 10 year lease with renewal. Sorry about that.

Okay. I'd love to hear RMC's on this.

Yeah. Thank I kind of go over this with everybody. And if you're a member of ours and you're in here, you should have contacted me first. and some of you have and I address this with you, but we we have x amount of power at that substation. So, what we're going to be giving them is 4 megawatts. That's going to leave us 3 megawatts of power for future growth. 3 megawatts is basically 1,700 homes. So, there's plenty of power that's going to be left. when we we we came into this with them at at on our Gryoms upstation and they have been great partners. We've had no issues whatsoever. They've been good stewards of what they've done. And if you are a member of my RNC, this will keep your power cost down. Power costs have gone up over the years just because of whole plants being shut down, other things being shut down. Cost power has gone on everywhere. But it's not because of these guys. These guys are going to help keep your power cost down.

I assume pay double. I mean, I I would love to take what you're worried. Yeah, we're not doing that about what you what you worried about. I mean, I I want to know what you're worried about on if it's on our side. I would like to know what you're worried about. I'm worried about No, we are not doing this, guys. No, no, I'm just sorry, but I would love to address it with you guys anytime you need it. But

we've had one outage at Eagles Point or not actually on Gryom Air Force Base the last seven years. Eagles Point a little more often maybe twice a year. So, it's not an issue of losing power because of these guys. these guys can shut down if we need them to shut down and if they will curtail but so I guess and it's it just would love to answer any of your questions if you need it on the power side of it. I mean then they told you there's no water, there's no sewer. It is just basically a pole building going out there just like any other pole building that's put out on a farm and it's not really close enough to make any noise to anybody. So if and you can talk to the people at Eagles Point who are a lot closer once they put the wall around that building out there the sound has gone down considerably. So that is you mean but yeah I mean I would

so what what kind of noise do they emit as far as like what's a decibel range? Um, basically probably they're probably like with the wall and stuff like that, you're probably like 45 outside the wall. If you if you didn't have those the walls there, it'd be a lot louder. It' probably be like 65. You know, the wall brings it down strong.

What's the closest residence from within a mile. I'm right next door. I'm on the other side of that fence.

Yeah. make it. I think it depends on if you're, you know, a few hundred feet away the deaths drop like precipitate, you know, like I'm talking like right on the wall as you're saying right at the wall is where I'm measuring at. But if you were 100 feet away, obviously that's when you're going to continue to drop as you get away from it. So I don't give you I can give you also not please we can't hear back. is asking if you guys can speak up.

I would [snorts] also just kind of note that the openings, if I recall correctly, going to be on the east and west side is it goes with the prevailing winds are called correctly. Does that sound about right, Josh? So, if someone is on the south side, right across the street, that noise is going to go out the sides and not cross the street right at his house. That was just the point I want. Hang on. Hang on. We've got some people back there that can't hear Mr. Spar's very soft spoken, so he needs Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I I'll try and speak up. There you go.

Okay. Before we open up to public comment, I want to remind everybody, keep yourselves under control. Act professionally. Okay. You are addressing the board. We aren't going to we're not going to have a back and forth with three these three gentlemen up here. You answer the board. If they would like to respond, they will answer to the board. Okay? We're not going to get a bunch of arguments going in the middle of the audience. Um, everybody keep your comments to two minutes or less. So, after saying that, I will go ahead and open it to public comment. And if you choose to speak, you need to sign up on the paper at the front of the room. names on that paper. We got to get through them sometime, guys. Somebody's got to go first.

Do they have future plans to expand your name? I'm sorry. What? Feel feel free to answer. Uh no that substation is done at that capacity. So four megawatt is all that's available. The three will be kept for the community for future growth. So four is it. That'll be the only expansion is the only project that can be done there. Any other public comment? Oh, I'm sorry.

Sorry. My name is um Karen Baker. I am one of the residents on Old Stone Road. Um and I would appreciate board um the first thing I'd like to ask for is that we delay the vote. Um just because of people being informed on this. We were only notified starting on Saturday is when received when we received the letter and not very many of us received it. If you just go a few hundred feet down the road, none of those residents even knew this vote was coming around. Um, in saying that, I got did get some all the people that were not informed on ostit. And then some community members that I was able to contact are also signed on there as well.

I'm going to cop you right there real quick. Um, India code states that we only have to notify adjacent neighbors that it touched the parcel. Yeah, that's what Cory had told me. So, I'm letting you know. Yeah. So, just

Yeah, I just I want everybody on an old stone. Okay. Um, so they said that we they'd be cooled by fans. As we know, fans don't move heat. They circulate in the air. Um, so there is loud noises still heard for many miles. Um, they did say I think you did you guys I'll get my letter. Okay. So, you're aware of what I was looking at. Um, the 45 I just contacted Pur University. Um, the 45 dB that they talked about are heard by the bald eagles and are they are very sensitive to sound. I know on my property I have at least three nests um and I'm 3992 and there are more nests along the river that would be affected. Um so I am very concerned about our ecological life that we have there. Um Harvard University actually did a study in 2025 and there are tons of fine particles um aerodynamic in nature. I don't know what the particle count is that they release into the air, but these um fine particles will affect our wildlife, our frame animals, our food because we have farmers around us and possibly us with the particles that small that are coming from those facilities that they've all documented throughout the United States. Um it is leading to cancer, heart disease, and dementia. So, I'm very concerned about particle matter and they did not discuss that how far that goes and how far it travels. what they projected from all these data centers that they looked at um that were cooled by fans is hundreds of miles aways these contaminants were coming into our community so will not only affect me it'll affect um into the Peru area um and then they kind of cracked me up for RMC um they talked about the outages and stuff I experience every time there's high wind or um excessive rain I lose power so I'm concerned concerned even just that aspect of it. I didn't think I'd ever have to document how many times I'm losing power every time we

have high wind and stuff out there. Um, but we do lose power at my home quite often. So, again, vote no, please. I'm concerned about our bald eagles that we've drastically tried to repopulate and all all the agriculture wildlife we have out there. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else like to speak for or against uh my property is right on just like this a farm fence here. I'm on the east side the property they want to put this pole barn on. What's your first question? Rick Fouch here. Exactly.

And there's RMC. Okay. I'm right there. Okay. They want all this in here. Okay. Well, it's not going along this line though either. It doesn't matter. I'm my property. Yeah. No, I understand. I just let you know we're on the same page. Yeah.

Um I don't have any trouble with RNC. They gave me good service last 25 years. Only thing I'm concerned about this, they said they're not using any water. Well, one Fort Wayne uses 450,000 gallons a day. for cooling the stuff down. They may not have to, but I want it noted that they cannot drill a well on that property to have any water to that building. That's what I'm concerned. The water table is my big concern. They said they weren't using any water.

I know, but I want it in the contract or whatever. They cannot well run water to that building. So, if they're using fans to cool the units off, so be it. That's fine. I do not want them to use water. If they said they're not using any water. They want water, bottles of water is fine. Drink what you want to drink. You know, bucket of water, whatever. That's my concern.

Okay. Any other public comment for or against? Yes, sir. Evening everyone. My name is Austin Mus. I live here in town. Uh much like this man here. U my big concern is ecological. Uh we have a drastic decrease in our local lightning bug populations. I'm worried that any security lights at night will further harm those populations. I miss the lightning bugs. I got to see the lightning bugs as a kid. It'd be nice to for our future kids to be able to see lightning bugs as well. That's all I got. Is that a good thing? Yeah. I'm happy divine. And I am actually Rick's girlfriend. But the thing I'm concerned about is if they buy that property, they're going to expand. Something is going to go out and ruin that farm community out there. They can't tell me they're going to use an acre and a half. and he even admitted it gives them more room to expand. So these farmers that have had houses for years and families, this is really disrupting the atmosphere, the birds, economics, everything. But that's all I got to say. I

I don't recall them saying I believe they said that they were already at the max power for that facility that they could so there wouldn't be any expansion. Is that correct? I don't think that's a guarantee. Okay. That's a guarantee from RMC. We We don't have the power to give it to them. So, are you buying the property? Okay. No. No. They are buying power, but we are the one we They have to get power from us. Well, I understand that. Okay, guys. We're not doing this.

Okay. I'm sorry, but I'm just saying that, you know. I mean, they can say that, but who knows what the future will bring. And most industries that build or take over a farmland or something like that always grows. And why not pick another place outside of Peru where it's not appealing? You know, I mean, they're affecting a lot of people here and that are upset. And I think if you lived out there, you know, and had your home and lived for years and years, I think you'd be a little upset, too. So, you got to understand why. And I apologize for getting, but I'm very passionate about this. So had to say my piece. Thank you.

First of all, I want to thank you all for letting us speak tonight and voice our opinions. Um, but as far as RMC, we should have contacted them. I've been a member with them for almost 50 years and I feel like they should have maybe contacted all these fine people who I'm sure are our EMC members and we've been very faithful for them. The other thing that's bothering me before I get into what I have to say you want to say your name first just for the record. Thanks.

I've been called a negative person and if anybody knows me, I'm probably one of the most positive people in Miami County. I believe in this county. I've been told that I just don't like Miami County. I do more for this county and for the people of this county than a lot of people. I believe in our youth and I believe in this county. So, I'm not coming in here on a grudge. Um, so with that said, they've answered some of the questions. They said it did not run all the time, but what is that usage? How much are they using? Um, is the water that they do use, will that be dumped back into the river somehow? Our river is so stressed right now. If anybody has been on the river, when we moved here 45 years ago, it was an actual river. You really couldn't walk across it. Now, maybe in May when it rains heavy, it's up and maybe in September, any other time you can walk across that river. So, consequently, we have lost a lot of environmental things out there. Our clams are gone. We're losing all kinds of fish. Um, I'm worried about that contamination. I love my farmers. Are we going to contaminate soil out there? And if it's only an acre and a half over, why do we have to reszone that whole section?

Because that to me opens the door. As I understand it, once something's reszoned, you can't go back to agriculture. Is that correct? Hang on just a second. I would like to address that because that is a major misconception. This is not a reszone. This this land will stay zoned agriculture. It's just they are applying for a variance to allow the data center to go on A1 zone land. There's there's no no reszoning. So how how much of a variance are they asking for? just the two miles or or the two acres or that whole strip?

It's it's just attached to the parcel that the building will be on. The board can set restrictions of how far they can That's my question. The variance goes with the land. Yeah, that's my question. Um, think of a varian some of my question. Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say a quick civics lesson. So, a variance, I like to think of that as like permission to break the rules legally. Um, it's it's just an exception. It's not a rule change. So, we're not changing the land zoning. It's just an exception to operate there. Okay. Does that make sense to all of you? Kind of.

All right. Um, they've answered some of these questions. They talked about how many jobs would be created long and short term. Uh, I had a woman in the hall that wanted me to talk about a woman in her family lives close to this and she knew of a woman in Cincinnati that because of that noise they had to sleep in the basement. So, I'm still concerned about the noise. Yes, you've got something around it. The noise doesn't disappear. Is it going up? Is it going out? Where does it go? Um, and also the wells out there and people that have lived there. I'm down far enough. It's not going to affect me,

but being a good neighbor, is this what's right for that area? Um, and um, RMC said our electric bill won't go up. Uh, some people are worried that it will. Um, so I think Mr. Spar, if you want to do a contract, I think maybe you should get with all these fine people and all their worries and concerns should also be stated in that contract that things will not be done differently than done what's been said. Thank you, board. That's all I have to say. Any questions for me?

Thank you. Thank you. So I guess I do have one question. Is there going to be any water run into the building or is there going to be any drainage away from the building?

Uh negative. My understanding is there will be a portaotty that will be brought in for any time that there are employees that have to come in switch out hardware. Um and so there wouldn't be any wells drilled. There wouldn't be any septic. Uh there wouldn't even be a bathroom there. That's why there would be a porta potty that would be inside of the uh inside of the fence. Um sound waves whenever they hit a hard object like the the metal fence, they're going to rebound back. So they're going to go back into the structure itself. Uh if you also look at the there are awnings as well that help direct any of that sound and air flow is going to hit the awnings angle down hit hit the fences and then rebound back into the building itself. My understand is there are filters also on each side and um I can't remember what the MV setting is Josh I know you told me that before but they have because these computers that are that are uh running hashes what they have to do is you can't have particulate matter getting in there and gumming them up and so there are filters on the inside coming in and also my understanding is filters on the outgoing as well. So, you know, your MV settings, um, you know, are the same designations on your air filters that are in your homes. And so, if you live near there, that's not going to be, you know, so much production or output that it's really going to affect you. Um, I know with my home, I've got a daughter that is, uh, 10 years old and she's asthmatic. And so, um, I've got a special air filter that checks my my, um, air quality in my house. And I notice that, um, the air filters I put in my air

handler for my AC unit furnace, um, it comes up as zero parts, uh, for out of 10 million. And so, uh, my home filters all that. And so, my daughter that has asthma, you know, wouldn't be affected by this because you've got your own filtration center. So, in your house, um, something I wanted to kind of point out here is is that, and maybe Josh Josh has done a couple of these and so I don't know if you guys have bird hits like they have in airplanes. So, I think there's a question about eagles or they fly. Well, what I was going to say is I think you you answered it properly. We don't use any water. We can commit to no well. I mean, we can commit to no well, no problem at all.

The 45 dB on the movement for you.

Sorry, guys. I'm just saying definitely no water usage and we can commit to the no well without a problem. We definitely use Merge 7 filters with our installations. So, Mer Merge 7 filters are part of what we do. Um, and then secondly, um, as far as the eagles and the decibb, if you're not, then the eagle nest would have to be right there to be at 45. Once you start getting 100t away or whatever, the decibb aren't going to be at that range. So, like if there happens to be an eagle's nest right there, yeah, potentially, but we've never had any wildlife issues in all the years we've operated. But um so 45 dB I don't think the Eagles NASA is a few hundred feet away. I I don't think they're going to be at 45 dB at that point in time. And I because it drops or simply and as far as that goes lightning bugs when I don't know we're going to have to have security, you know, I mean

but that's like but I think I answered the other concerns of how it would fall out and I'll keep answering if anyone else. So if you guys have any questions for me. So, I I guess I'm kind of kind of curious. I've never really been overly close to a substation. How many decibels is the substation put out or or are they I just got I was just got off or I had a text from my engineering company. We have fans that run on our subs right now. Our or sorry, excuse me, regulators in our transformer. They run around 35 d. There are going to be more in the summer and less in the winter because they don't run as much in the winter, but in the summer we're blowing those fans constant.

Give you an idea. A normal conversation at 3 to 5t away is about 60 dB. So that's that's the amount of you know we're we're lower than that. Yeah. I can put my decimal rate on right now because in my business I got to do it. I can tell you what we're doing right now. I mean I can throw it up on the phone right now and tell you we're probably in 45 50 right now. And the sheer capacity of the transformer generating electricity creates noise. If anybody's ever been around a substation, it creates noise. I'm not sure what that is. I mean, we know what our fans do because of the flow that they have to to do. So, that's where we're at. Is there any other public comment for or against? One question.

I was ask one more response. I wanted to ask him if he talked about your asthmatic child. Yeah. Did you get that before all that? You're around that station. Is that what you're talking about? No, I'm just saying that. So, we have to get that very 60. We're still Would you like me to talk to you outside about that? 60. Yeah.

Yeah. I I can The only thing I want to the point I want to make as to the river width and height. Um my recollection is that that's controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers, Mrs. Cena Reservoir. And so they do controlled releases and like for instance Miami County Bar Association, the attorneys and the judges, we like to go and do a a float down the Wabash River. And unfortunately, it's the first week of August. It's super dry. And we we kind of have to push our our our little canoes over the dry spots, but it's been that way for years. And and a lot of that is just due to the controlled releases of the Army Corps of Engineers. uh because a lot of the upstream uh is what they end up controlling. So

I just want to respond to that. Okay. Yes, that is true. But Mr. Spark, I'm listening. That has been out there since we've been there. The dam. So that's not all what's happening out there. Please say your name.

Hello, my name is Bob Johnson. I'm with Nectarflow Farms. We are adjacent neighbor to the Newman farm. We were awarded from the state of Indiana the 2024 river friendly farmer award for caring about our ecosystem. Says right here for outstanding best management practices on the farm that conserve and protect Indiana's soil and water resources. The Indiana Department of Director of the Department of Agriculture read this bio wrote and read this at a awards ceremony when they presented us with our river friendly farmer. I wish I had thought I had I didn't know about this till like less than 24 hours ago. But I wish what I thought I had to make copies of this scroll like the other person did. But it says located in the Cass County up we're direct neighbors in Cass County. Cass County upper water wash wershed. Nectarflow farms uses seasonal high tunnels produces specialty crops, fruits, vegetables and herbs including 500 pawpaw trees. They are able to eliminate herbicide pesticide use by integrating pest management with companion planting minimal tillage targeted organic nutrient application. maintaining a woodland and actively removing invasive species has provided a natural habitat for wildlife such as deer, bald eagles, blue heron, otter, owls, and foxes. Committed to sharing their sustainable practices with others. Bob speaks at the annual Ohio Pawpaw Festival. And and since that was written, I've also given a presentation at the uh fifth annual international pawpaw conference at Kentucky State University. And we, you know, blood, sweat, and tears, my friends. Blood, sweat, and tears. It all goes into that land and I love it. Please vote no.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Please, please state please state your name for the record.

My name is Jeff Sims. I'm a resident about half a mile down from Mr. Newman. I've known the Newman for over 65 years because we have one of the largest farms right close to it. When this this was brought up to me and I seen a lot of it from the Facebook post, a lot of post that was being put out that this was a magnet. I mean a buildings people were saying, "Oh, we can't have this." I had to clarify things. I went online. I found out the parcel number because everybody thought this was 278 acres going to be become a big data center. I got on the parcel and I found this parcel and it showed that one half acres showed this building right here. I started asking questions of the owner of the property because we have been friends for that long. I've known his mom and dad. I know his grandfather. what he said. He's told me this this what it is. And I've talked to certain people about, you know, is this going to take water? Is this going to affect the TA River? A lot of you people don't even know the Taz River underneath of you, but it's the largest river across Indiana. And yes, I have a whole barn down the other end of the farm that we had the same questions on. Are you going to be pumping millions of gallons of water and affecting my my home? That is some of my questions today that I've asked. Is this electrical going to take the substation that supplies me power? Did I have to hand it to RMC? I've never had I've

never been out of power for over three hours. They're on the spot. I have to hand on that. And if we're putting this in, I ask the same question with RFC. Are if it's going to be used to power, are you going to be able to supply that power and keep all of us happy in our homes? That is the question I have to them. And another thing, just to final it, you know, I'm not against it. I mean, it's it's something that if it helps do things for us, I'm I'm for it. But I got to make sure that my neighbors, myself, that it isn't affecting the environment. That's that is our concern. And just uh you know, I've always put it this way. If RMC doesn't do their job, you have a right to go out there on election time and vote the man out. Simple as that. They don't do the job. That's all I had to say.

So, I guess just just to clarify, are you for or against Huh? Are you for or against the

Okay. My name my name is John Dson and I'm Bob's wife and we've been out there for uh we're neighbor direct neighbors and we've been out there for 14 years and it was just a dry crusty uh 27 acres. We now have 40 acres. We love our neighbors. They're awesome. John and and his dad are awesome. But we really want you to vote no because I want you guys to see how it transfor people all over the world now and we like to keep it that way. We really like that. Is there anybody else? Yes. I'm Tim Simpkins uh here in Peru. Um I came here thinking that it might be something totally different. Actually, I was uh I I've had I I had a totally different conception of what this was going to be. I was never against it in principle, but uh as far as what I I was bringing up earlier, the the decel 4 45 dB, but we're having he was showing his phone around here reading the dec between 60 and 90 dB in here. And a normal conversation for PE two people having to talk, you know, if you're 3 to 5t away from them is about 45 or is about 60 dB. um at 45 dB. So sound follows the inverse square rule like uh radio waves and a lot of other things do. As you get farther away, it gets precipitously more

difficult to hear it. And so around uh I I was, you know, just doing some rough calculations in my head and I'm just making some guesstimates because I don't have any measurements or anything like that to know how know exactly what's going on. But I would say you're probably looking around 200 yards would be the maximum that you'd be really able to pick it out over ambient sound. Ambient sound in the in the country is about 25 dB. You just I mean 20 decel difference is not that much when you consider it. So as far as sound goes, I think that's not a big deal. the light. I I mean computers themselves don't make a lot of light unless they got light lights blurring in the place. I don't know that that's I mean nobody's really there been one person really concerned a lot about that. But really this looks like just a regular pole barn like you'd have on any other property. It it doesn't it doesn't really mess with the aesthetics I would imagine. I mean, I haven't been out there, but I mean, this isn't a huge, you know, huge type of a thing like I was imagining. And I was actually hoping or truthfully, if we got a nice big data center in this town, it'll bring so many different jobs in here. This is uh this is one company doing it. It's it's not so much going to bring in jobs, but you know, it's I don't think I think that a lot of this is just people are fearful of a little change and it's not I don't think it's near as big of a deal as as long as the power's taken care of, the sound's not really an issue. Uh I don't know about the light.

We have ordinances against light when it comes to set commercial restrictions if that's something that wants to do. But as far as it goes, I I think you should vote for it. I think it's a good idea. I figured out that somebody had to come up here and be on the other side. So, thank you. Okay. Is there anybody else? I just wanted to make one quick statement. My name's Rebecca Bratton, business owner here. Um, I just don't think we should risk our land, our wildlife, and our neighbors just to make a couple rich guys. Okay.

Uh, Bill, you know, I'd like to just say I think there's more that we need to know. Um, we don't know fully. All we know is what these gentlemen are telling us as far as the noise and the pollution. Yes, they're saying pollution goes that way and then comes back in.

Eventually goes up. Their bands, I believe, blow up. Those particulates are going to go up. We don't know at what level or what kind of damage it can do to crops in Miami County or crops and agriculture. We don't know exactly what the sound going to do. I know the low hum of a train mile plus away. I still hear that. Am I going to I live what half a mile from this place? I'm going to hear that low hum day in and day out. Another gentleman over there said there's a data center rather large one in Texas. all the property values around went down because of the the infection. People just didn't know when it was built. I believe the first gal that was up here said, "Let's wait to vote and look into some more details." I would recommend we at least do a little more research before voting either way.

Thank you. Okay. Is there anybody else that would like to speak for or against? Yes, sir. I just had one question. Can you can you state your state your name? Jacob Klingman. Um the substation you're pulling off of what all areas does that feed? Is it the same one at the base? No, it's separate. It's separate. It's totally um we can back feed every sub. So I guess my question was why there if there's empty buildings at the base, can you feed that there? We don't have enough power left at the house now.

So we try to keep three at least three megawatts at every substation. for growth. We have excess capacity at that substation. That's why we're putting that's why it's going there. There's some not where they're we're like loaded too high. Um but you know with a study going with Josh that was one substation that we could utilize. Okay. Well you say you can back feed it. I didn't know if you could back feed those steps to utilize those buildings. We don't have we would have to in the distance electricity loses you know I understand distance but no it doesn't run into the gum area we can help feed parts of that Gryom substation from there but we can't feed the whole thing

that makes sense yes the only thing I wanted to address was the light pollution won't be able to clean any lights from any equipment the only thing lights are flood lights around the building is in case someone is trying fertilize the place or something, but there'll be no lights that you can see from any equipment. So, there'll be nothing that leaves the building, just the flood lights around to help the security cameras pick up on anything. So, they they turn on and off like um I don't active. Are they are they on full They're just right when it turns dark. Yeah, it turns dark.

And it's going to set right next to our substit. No, it's for emergencies and All right, let's keep moving. Yes, I want to be clear about what they're using for it. They said in the beginning, is that what this is for? It's just cryptocurrency. What are you What are you doing? It's 95% Bitcoin mining right now, but I mean um you know there's some altcoins in there too, but it's mostly Bitcoin mining.

Yeah, the computer equipment that's operating is hashing and helping run the the Bitcoin network. Um and right now it's 95% Bitcoin. The other 5% are like Dogecoin miners, like the altcoins. Um that's what's that's what they're operating right now or in the system. Okay. How about one more question then? You said right now that's what it is. Will it change from Bitcoin to something else?

Uh if it does, it'll be like another coin, but the computers are all similar, all the exact same profile. Um there's no there's no other coin to mine more profitable than Bitcoin right now. So I can't see that. Um there's nothing in the near future that I can even see because Bitcoin miners are kind of the most profitable. So that's probably where our investors would want to stay. Thank you.

You mentioned and I'm very concerned about that. We didn't know about that meeting probably yesterday and that is a concern because we're right on the Wash. There are so many migrating birds that use the Wash and they travel at night. We I just saw a trler swamp. There's all kinds of skulls right now, but travel. They need dark. They travel by the stars. So that's really scary. Okay. I don't want the light pollution at night. That might not concern you, but it definitely does. So if you guys are right next to a substation, how much more light do you think you'd put off?

Well, to be honest, like in your guest, the building is I I don't know much. I can't I don't want to say something I don't know knowledgeable on because I don't know lumens or all that kind of stuff. All as I know the building itself is 120 feet by you know you know if we take around 120 by what about 80 feet around so 120 by 80 and you have flood lights there's probably how many flood lights are on that there's one on each there's one on each side and they're no different than any other light you would have on a barn how many flood lights are together I think there's four there's one on each side there's one on each side that each each end there's one on each side so there's four flood lights Yeah.

Yes. You if you want to, you can state your name and you can sign in after we're done, but please sign before you leave.

I was not going to speak here tonight, but um I keep hearing like there's a lot of confusion about crypto, bitcoins, what is that? And most people in this room do not even understand how you generate a coin, what it takes to mine a coin. It takes all of these computer servers and data out there to sol solve mathematical equations, algorithms in order to generate a coin. And that's if they can even generate a coin. To my understanding, Bitcoin is mentioned as the primary form of this cryptocurrency. Bitcoin haps every so many years. There's going to be a limited number of coins that can ever be generated. So with that being said, I just would like for people to before you vote on something to really if you don't truly understand it, just please keep that in mind because these servers do take lots of power to generate and mine this stuff. There's also a reason why China has kicked out crypto mining facilities out of China. All I have to say.

Yes, Elaine.

My name is Elaine Anderson. I've been sitting here quietly listening to everything. It's most unusual for me. As you know, you know, I I have something I want to say. And I do have something to say right now. I'm sitting here listening to these gentlemen saying, "No, we're not going to do this. No, we're not going to do that." And my question is, where is this written? where is this in a contract that we have with them with the county? And second of all, who is going to be monitoring this progress out there? Whose responsibility in our county are we going to be watching what's going on? They say, "No, we're not going to use any water." That's today. What about six weeks from now or six years from now, whatever? Who's gonna say anything? Who's going to be responsible? Is Corey gonna go out there and be checking on this? Is that his job? If not, whose job is it?

I think that comes that falls on the public to become the public. Okay. They turn in unsafe buildings. They turn in code violations. How is it any different? Do you know about this project, Jenny? How you doing? Can you explain the variance? What the variance is actually for? Again, I don't quite understand.

So, it's to allow a data center to operate in day one. Basically, it's not allowed in agricultural zoned land to run a data center. So, they have to get a variance. You would have to I think out at the base that was commercial. Yeah, it's commercial, right? So, it's specifically about data centers. So, like it's not it's not uh because they're using so much power or because the building's so big or it's on the wrong side of the lot or anything like that. It's just because it's a data center.

Yes. And unfortunately, Claire, correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't really have a lot in our ordinance about data centers, right? They're they're limited to commercial, so B2 and B3 districts. So, and then industrial one districts.

We are we just formed the committee last month to start drafting a data center ordinance for the county, but we're in infancy stages at that point. Right now, our zoning ordinance uh restricts them to just those two districts I mentioned. Am I hearing that we really don't have an ordinance for that yet? That this is we're kind of flying out in the wind. It sounds like it's not just says Dana Senator restricted, right? Is that what the deal? I I didn't understand.

He's saying that basically we don't have an ordinance about data centers and I I don't think that's exactly what was said. I think it was just said that the data centers are restrictive, but there's no there's no nuance to it. And that's what he was. Is that what you were talking about? Say it again, Corey.

So, our zoning ordinance uh restricts uh centers like these to commercial and industrial districts. Um that's really the the depth of it right now. We don't have any other provisions in there about like water control like Elaine's missioning or I know other environmental factors or power usage. We don't have those like we have for wind or solar. Um we have a committee that is formed just last month to address those uh lacking pieces in our ordinance right now. So we're trying to come up with uh the restrictions going forward. That is something that at the state level they're also looking as well.

Would it be prudent to delay this until after the committee is done? I have some rules and in fact rules and need to that's that's up to the board. Yeah, that's my decision. So because they filed their application now and we don't have any specific data center ordinance, those rules wouldn't apply to this building. Even if we adopted something, we couldn't retro essentially apply them to this because they file already. If it's denied and then rules are made and then they reapply, then then yes, the rules could apply to them. I've got a few comments. Yes.

Marcos, Lifelong County resident. Uh there's just too much we don't know here in my opinion. I can't believe they're going to invest in a building like that and not have any water to it or any other utilities besides electricity and what's to keep them from, you know. Yeah, I'm I'm hearing this on an acre and a half, two acres, but the paper that I read shows it's 287 or eight acres. So, which is it? But 200 and some acres is the the size of the park. Yeah.

They're only wanting to use an acre, acre and a half to house the data center. Now, is there going to be any future expansion? No, they can't. There's no they they don't have enough power there on that parcel for that substation. And the board can set those restrictions and say, "Hey, you can't go outside of this acre." Well, and the other thing is maybe they came here because we don't have any ordinances against the center. Is that possible? I think it is. Well, he just he just built one not too long ago and there wasn't an issue. So, yeah. Well, on land. Yeah, he's on the Air Force base. I would think that's industrial or commercial you see. Yeah. Good point.

So, I think there's too many unknowns. Okay. We need to wrap this up here soon, guys. So, yes. I just want they've been talked about uh what happens when we say something today and then something happens tomorrow that I've heard that called as is moving the goalpost and one thing like an example of that was Miami Correctional Facility when it was originally planned with like a thousand medium security beds and 200 minimum security beds. There's 3,200 beds out there almost now and it's Indiana's most dangerous prison. But it was never going to house maximum security prisoners. They proposed it to us. Okay, last call, guys. Anybody else like to speak for or against? Yes, ma'am.

What's the company name that's leasing through Mr. Newman? Uh, it's a Digital Ed Investment. Okay. Is it an actual LLC or is it like a mining? It's an LLC. Okay. Can we get your name for the record? Amanda Stewart. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Okay, we're going to close public comment. [clears throat] Does the board have any questions that they would like to ask? I just for curiosity sake, how many computers are you putting in there?

Uh, that would be anywhere from 1,400 to a,000. 1400 to a,000 depending on the wattage of the equipment, right? Because it's 4 megawatt. So if they're all 3,000, you could go, you know, it just depends. If it's 4,000, it' be a lower number. So I just wanted to

Cory, what is your office's stance on this? Um, I think he's answered a lot of my um questions that I had hanging out there. Um, I don't have a great direction for you guys on this one. appreciate that. Sorry.

So, can I can I kind of like summarize clarify what I think I'm hearing just to make sure that like we are all on the same page. So, the board of zoning appeals is voting on the variance to let the data center operate on A1 land because that is not currently approved with our ordinance. And if this business were to go out of business or whatnot then it cannot like it doesn't continue the variance doesn't continue with that or they could or another data center could come in that hard. Can you answer that? It's only with the O. So, Digit. So, Newman potentially. Yes. Another one could come in, but

stay with because it'll stay with Newman Heritage, not Dig Egg because they're just leasing, right? And then as the the board, we can put restrictions on like no use of water and the acreage limits and those things. You can hold on the commercial standards, no water, parcel limitation. Prior zoning prior zoning ordinance a use varian shall not follow the land or the person. So if so Newman Heritage is applying for it. So if Newman Heritage doesn't own the land anymore then if somebody else purchases the land they'd have to come back in and get a variance to continue the use.

But if he signs a lease with somebody else and still owns that land and that go in there another one to go in there. Yes. Okay. then it would still follow those specifications at this moment. Well, it's owned by an LLC and so his ownership interest in the LLC can pass as somebody else, but the LLC entity still owns the property. Yes, sir. What was your question? Yes, we can put restrictions.

Yes. So we can put restrictions you know say that they can only operate for 20 years or um you know once the contract is void with and I forget what your your company's name is but that company we could put a restriction on there that once that agreement is terminated then the variance is is nullv void correct yes yes so but what we can do is we can put what's called reasonable restrictions Mhm. I can say that sounds reasonable. That's way over.

It is. That's what the statute that's what Indiana law says. So, it's not that we can put any restriction. I mean, we can put any restriction, but a judge basically can strike it down if the judge says it's not reasonable. So, it's essentially a judge's wiggle room. It sounds reasonable to me. I'd say we can go ahead and then we see if it's challenged. Well, having heard that, is there any restrictions anybody would like to put on? So, they can't use no water, no well. Hey, that question was for the board. Oh, I thought it I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So, would you want this held to like a commercial standard also? If that's what you guys want,

just from your standpoint is monitoring it. They would you guys could also say that you only want one of these on this parcel, you know what I mean? Not multiple and and you could also this has to go through state approval and all that too. So I was getting they're going to have to meet commercial requirements. So yes, you guys could put commercial restrictions on that. So this has to go through state design and then get approved by economic development and not well or not economic development um DPR committee. So, it's like when we've done the grocery stores in the past and we put it on the commercial, then they have to follow like the signage and the lighting and all that stuff. Yeah. Kind of like the ones you the one you did last month. Yeah.

Yeah. Industrial does more, I think, with light and stuff like that. Um, you could hold it to both. Yeah. Commercial is going to be more like your signs, banners, things like that. Um, standards. I would I wouldn't hold it to two different districts standards. Yeah. Just could create a lot of confusion. Could you set like you have to follow light restrictions here and then specifically you can put a handle limit if if that's the measurement you use but yes you could put a light limit

I don't know what the light levels Well, easy when we say it's always here because it's more than nothing. We have a section that industrial for glare and heat, uh, toxic materials, odor, vibration and smoke, uh, fire hazards and noise and detonation. Light is a tricky one. I think toilet and commercial for light.

No, I think it's an industrial What are you guys thinking? I know there are other

all discussion has to be held openly though. Correct. Yes. So Grant Grant's suggestion was to possibly table it until January and more discussion in January. More discussion in January. So there is a glare and heat under it's under 2-14-4. Um bless you. It says no light, heavy industrial or commercial use may cause heat at the lot line. So intense that has to do with Yeah. And then it goes no such use may cause elimination at or beyond any residential district boundary in excess of 0.1 foot handle.

That was it. Whatever that means. Is that your I don't know. Industrial. Industrial. They're talking about the foot candle after that. Oh, as used in this section, the term foot candle means a unit of illumination at all points that are one foot from a uniform point source of one candle power. Yeah. Like one power. Yeah. Is that like one still clear as I know what? All right. Come on, guys. What we want to do here? Get together. Okay. I'm not asking for public suggestion. Not charging you anything. That's free, buddy. Thank you.

How long do you think the process is going to be? I mean, I've gotten Brad's opinion on it, but how long do you think the process will be to at least define what a data center is? Because right now, we're classifying this as a computer computer. Are you meeting as the committee to look at and define it, right? and then have the plan commission recommend something to the would would the would commission then have to recommend an ordinance to commissioners? Correct. And there'd be hearing public hearings that we have to go through for that. Mark, wouldn't they still be grandfathered in though because they Yeah. So that wouldn't even apply to the only reason I'm asking is he's suggesting tableabling this. I'm curious what that time frame looks like.

Tabling wouldn't get them under. It's the date they file the application. Sorry. It have to be denied and reapplied. Yes. So we're tableabling which if it gets denied they can only reapply if something has significantly changed. Correct. Sure. But there's would be at least a time limit. I think I can't what our I thought there was something in the ordinance where you couldn't reapply unless the conditions have changed. It's not a permit. Can't ever reapply but there is a waiting limit. And there I think there's a shorter waiting limit if there have been conditions that have changed.

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. If there's a change in the in the standard. Yeah. Yeah. That would merit a time period.

Guys, I can't make a motion. If we table it to look over the different um like the industrial, commercial, all of that stuff. So if we table it for a month, when we come back in the month, does that require that the discussion is opened again? to the public or just to you guys either think

it requires the whole not necessarily start over because we don't ignore the testimony that's been given tonight but you can reopen public comment if you want but we don't necessarily have to my the one thing that I want to avoid if we do table it we we took everything that everybody said this evening and and listen, but we don't need to go through that whole process again, right? Unless something a lot of information to process and yes,

I know I don't think we've ever really done that. Um I know other planning commissions that have or PCAs that have done things like that have all have usually opened it back up for further comment from the applicant or other members based on what the applicant will add. Um, I would strongly suggest we do that. Yeah.

Think in general's kind of gave everybody more of an aspect of what's actually going on here. I have a comment. We're we've got public comment. I I'll do a motion and we table for a month. I second. So to the January meeting more motion now. We've got a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I oppose the same. Motion carries. All right. You guys get

Hey guys, as you're leaving, please be quiet out in the hallway. The sound echoes and it gets very disruptive in here. So the second Wednesday of every month. Yep. Okay. Last order. Thank you all for your time. I appreciate that. Last order of business for this evening,

guys. We still have a meeting going on. There's one over here. It's in here. You want it? Jamie, you want it? There's one in there.

Something public comment. What happens if the company throws out to somebody else changes their name, but so many companies do. How do the ordinances fall there? Well, that's something that we'll need to look at because we discussed putting a stipulation on where it would just be beholden to the current contract with that business owner. So, this is stuff we're all going to discuss in between now and next meeting. And we couldn't hear back there in the corner. Everybody's on their mic. I can address that if you have that question at the next meeting. If if you have that question at the next meeting, I can address it. We really can't be discussing now that that matters.

Yeah. [clears throat] And we have another Yeah, we we still have a meeting going on, guys.

Okay, everybody, please be quiet. Okay. A variance 132-25 Peru Mobile Home Company LLC 257 and 261 North Walnut Street, 260 North Duke Street, Peru, Indiana, seeking a variance from developmental standards to allow a mobile home park to forgo the 2500 square foot requirement. Uh, sorry, minimum lot size requirement and permit smaller lot sizes on 2.94 acres parcel in Puru Township. Sorry, I butchered that. Uh staff report, please.

Mark Crawford uh submitted this request on November 19th. He is working to clean up this mobile home park, which was previously known as High and Dry. Uh they have removed several dilapidated mobile homes and plan to bring new homes in, but do not have the space to bring the number of mobile homes in and allow 2500 square feet per lot. They did not remove one lot that was closest to West 10th Street, which allows the mobile home park to meet the required setbacks for side property own. They did. Oh, did I read it wrong? Yeah, they did.

Oh, they did remove one lot that was closest to West 10th Street, which allows the mobile home park to meet the required setbacks for side property lines. Um, Mr. Crawford did submit in his application, he said, "We purchased the old distressed high and dry mobile home court with the intention to update the existing units and to install additional new units to fill the vacant park spaces in order to provide safe, affordable housing in Miami County and the surrounding city of Peru. The park is currently zoned as a mobile home park and licensed as a 36 space park by the state department uh state of Indiana department of health. After evicting the non-paying tenants on the property, it was determined that eight eight of the vacant uh mobile homes in the park were not safe for housing and the decision was made to de demolish and clear those eight homes from the park so that we could start fresh with new manufactured homes. There are currently four remaining mobile homes on the property. One rented, one occupied by our site, our on-site property manager, and two units needing repairs. We are requesting a variance waiver for section 35A subsection 3 that requires a minimum of 2500 ft lot for each new home. Based on the pre-existing and current state approved 36 lot park map, the previous existence of homes on these smaller lots and the need for additional quality affordable housing in Peru community. We kindly ask to wave the minimum lot size requirement. We are not building or creating a new park. We are merely infilling pre-existing vacant lots with new homes that meet all state and county building code requirements. We're are also aware of multiple other parks in the county that have brought in new homes over the last several years to fill vacant spaces that have not been required to meet this minimum lot size requirement. So, we feel that our request is not outside our of normal practice with existing mobile home parks in the county and state. Based on meeting the minimum lot setbacks, we

expect to bring in between 20 to 25 new manufactured homes to infill the vacant spaces. uh we that would bring our total number of units to roughly 30 max still under the number of spaces allowed by the state permit. So we do not feel the minimum lot size should be required or warranted in this instance that would allow the parcels to be used as uh its highest and best use for the land and for the community in which it serves. We are working with uh Jason Burton with Clayton Homes of Indiana who has been installing homes in communities all over Midwestern United States and has not seen this minimum lot size requirement enforced. He can design a full plan of placement of homes if we can give him the minimum setbacks that you will require within the existing park. Uh what we understand currently for setbacks is 25 ft off the main roads and 10 ft between structures. Uh it is not clear what the setback off the internal court drive within the park where the homes can be placed. We are just looking to make this park functional and beautiful again which would be a positive thing for the community and the neighbor that neighborhood that has had to deal with this rundown park for far too long. We appreciate your assistance and guidance in allowing us to bring additional affordable housing back to the community. Uh, is there a representative here from Peru Mobile Home Community? Yes,

I am. South. Okay. Uh, would you like to add anything to that?

Um, I would like to um, you probably all aware of Wsh Flats, which I realized is in the city. They have 10 feet between each mobile home. sizes. This lot size that we're proposing would give 15 feet, which would be half again as much yard as what they have. Um, that is more than what they have at Woodland Hills. It's more than what they have at Maple Lawn. I have been out and measured distance between some of those homes and some of them are 10 to 12 feet apart. Um, We can go a little bit wider than that. We just don't want to only be able to put 12 homes in. That's not financially feasible. It's not going to have the number of available affordable housing that we're looking for. And so I I would ask that that you move the 2500 square foot down to possibly 2,000 square foot, which is still going to give a lot of room in the lot. You know, more room than the normal lots and other does the board have any questions? What is your current um square footage of a lot right now?

Well, there are no marked lots at this point. We have not only taken out um all of the non-paying residents and all the homes, we have also taken out all of the cement pads. So, there are no specific lots at this time. Um as soon as we are able to map out, we're also going to run all new water lines in there, all new electricity. So everything's going to be a lot better than it ever has been. So the 2,000 square feet that you're suggesting, that gives you 15 ft between each home is what you're saying. Yes.

Right. But again, just to clarify, we're not looking at setbacks here. We're looking at lot size, right? And that's that's why I worded that the way that I did at 2000. So, is there any public comment for or against? Yes, we're totally against it. My wife and me spel and Jennifer Spelle

because we live directly across from Park. The only thing that separates us is the road. You're trying to put 25 trailers in there, you might as well put them elbow to elbow because they will not fit. They didn't have that many in there to begin with and it was chaos. There's no parking for all those trailers. So, they come over and park on our property, throw their trash out, empty trash ash trays. We've had the cops up there 20, 30 times in the last five, six years because we can't deal with it no more. You get gun threats and drug activity and everything. When they put them all together, Mr. Conval that owned it before again tried that. I was I thought Christmas was coming early when they took all them trailers out. I was under the impression they were going to put three or four mobile homes, double wides or whatever. But 25, there's no chance. If you go out and look at the lot, there's no way you get 25 in there and have a parking space or two. Company comes over, they all pour over to our side and they leave their trash. And we have deals with this for 15 years. and we are solely against it.

Can I comment to that, please? Yes.

Prior to us taking down the homes and I can solely relate to what you're saying about the drug usage, we had a lot of methheads in there. They are now all gone. You see, they park on our side. Excuse me. Okay. No. Um down there there's a horseshoe drive and we only had units down one side of one drive. Plus there is a lower level that's um down on 10th Street or down on Duke Street that butts up against the railroad and up against 260 which is a house on the property that we also own. So there are lots down there. This also includes um 257 and 261 in that mobile home count. Um

which are two separate lots, right? Or parcels that Yeah, two separate parcels.

There were no requirements on anybody. Nobody had to work. Nobody even had to pay. We kicked out people who hadn't paid rent in well over a year. We paid for their water. We paid for their sewage and had no income from that. Um we're going to have very strict guidelines on tenants that come in. They're not going to be allowed to have felonies. They're going to have to meet income requirements up and above what their rent is. And we want to have a clean court. They're not not going to be allowed to have animals. They're not going to be allowed to grill on the property. We're going to have a separate area for that, a community area, which is an amenity that no other court in the county. Um, we want to make a positive change to what was there. and we know we can do that.

Um, our main concern is parking. Can you can you please My name is Jennifer Stoman. Our main concern is parking. If they can put in a parking lot of some sort to solve that problem, you know, we we we used to tell people they could park on the other side of the street, but if there's not enough parking for 25 homes, then, you know, there's a problem. is over with low parking. There is um between the lower section and the upper section of the court, there is a large parking area and then at the center we're not sorry there's no large parking area there. Yes, there is. You can pull it up on the map and like show it to

Well, it's it's you've got your property card that upper right where you can go. Yeah, that top Yeah. Up there right here. Yep. Right here is a park large parking area. Also, there there is paved area down here for over parking. And all those mobile homes have been removed. They're they're all gone. Um this one is still here and it's it's going to be removed. And then there is one right here and it's going to be removed as well.

So, no new homes will be there as well. Cory, there's a map in our package. It says 2017 routing. It looks like it's pretty neatly drawn. It's got some flow arrows. I guess traffic maybe that's the old lots. That's the old lots. Okay. Yeah. So, so they're I mean in relation to what you got here on this old map, is that about what you're trying to do again?

No, they will be further further spaced apart. where there at one on the one main row where you see all the homes, there were 12 lots. We're thinking there's probably only going to be nine lots down that road on that side. Um to the west of that, we're talking a couple double wides. Um some smaller units on the lower portion. And then that that number that was that Corey gave you is also going to include um my home in the lot on 257 walnut.

Yes, I see the lot up there. I can show you something right here. If you count all these spaces, you still can't get 25 trailers in there and have all this room. This woman says now they're not all, excuse me, I'm talking now.

Where are you going to put 25 to 50 cars in there, too? One home has at least one car, if not two. And then you're talked about a play area. Where are you going to put all this stuff up there? I live right across the street and we have parking spaces right here. were taking them out. That was for the beauty shop that was right next door. My wife's aunt died. So, they turned this into a home and we're going to saving the money up to get these out of here. But they all think they own this parking space and we got to clean up the mess. We got to deal with the drunks. We got to deal with it all. And there's just no way in the world. Even down here, they only had three trailers and it was full. You can't get 25 trailers in there. I swear I'll challenge anybody and pay them 50 bucks if they can get You can't do it. There's no room.

Okay. Is there any other public comment for or against? Yes, sir. Please state your name and address.

I'm Tom Lennon. I live in I'm a neighbor up there and uh I've been up here 27 years and I can tell you this trailer court has been a bad neighbor to our neighborhood. It's been a burden on the police departments. I mean uh used to be the city police monitor. Now the counties took it over this county. Uh they uh they tore down some trailers and they didn't clean up the mess and tear down the trailer. Just tore down. There's still trash, broken glass everywhere. There's still cement slabs from the trailers. They're not all gone there. They haven't removed all the cement slabs. So I presume they want to put trailers back in where they used to be. Uh there was a tree that fell down across Duke Street. The county had to come cut up the big limb. This tree the tree is unsafe to this point. They've never even took care of the unsafe tree laying over the street. They railroad fights with them all the time because they put their trash over the railroad tracks. Uh the the residents, they trash the railroad tracks, railroad places there all the time, picking up their trash and coming to talk to city. I don't know if they talk to you guys, but they go they used to go to city hall and want to try to see if they can get some help with monitoring that. But this place, I'm I'm not forgiving them any any leniency or least any restriction on them because it's a blur. It's an eyesore for our neighborhood and it appreciates our value of our homes. And if they're going to pile want to pile trailers in there, like any like it just going to be an eyes source for us all. And it's like I said, like Dale said, there's no room for any parking when they were there before. And if they're going to put more in there, there's no room for parking. And the people that come go there, they come down to my neighborhood on down block down. And I catch them. I had to put cameras in because they're walking around my yard want to pick up scrap metal or pull my trash can down to the trailer court. there. It's it's it's a burden for our neighborhood to kind of people hang out in there and and there's still some people like that in there now. Even though they tore down some trailers, they come and go at night. They're

around our neighborhood. They're a bad neighbor. I don't want to go any ju just so that we're all on the same page. Whether this is approved or denied, it has nothing to do with whether or not the trailer court can operate. It's just how many trailers can go in the property. They can't handle what was even in there before. Yeah. Then they got to allow parking because they all park on our and then we left with a mess. And you can go down there on any Friday, Saturday night when the trailers were in there and you could watch the show. Police coming going, people getting arrested, fights, guns. The one the one trailer was left has I don't know how many rooms like eight by eight rooms of people would ran out.

Holy. I don't know how many doors there is, but I'm guessing I heard there were eight by eight rooms and they ran it out to people for who knows what kind of activity just recently. The air conditioners ripped out of the back of the thing. The skirting blowing around the neighborhood. They haven't been a good neighbor playing this place up. And then now we got windows open, air conditioners ripped out of the back probably, who knows what happened, scrapped or whatever, but the place is an eyesore. Always has been. It still has weed weed problems growing along 10th Street. You can't hardly see the stop sign. It's a It's an overgrowth area and I don't know how many times the county has mowed it this year, but prior to county taking over, the city was mowing it all summer long before the county took over. Yeah, I would see the red truck. Okay. No. Yeah.

The red truck is our private contract. No. Is there any other public comment for this? One question. She mentioned that it's to bring affordable housing back. this affordable hous actually takes tax credits or is this just something that the property owner is labeling as affordable? That is something I can't really answer too. Okay. They pay taxes on those mobile homes also on top of property taxes. So that would be a question to the assessor's office on how they assess those. Okay.

Yes, we're going to end up paying a lot more taxes with homes. The the question is specifically is is it an affordable property that takes tax credit from the federal government if it was actually listed? Somebody up there wouldn't know. So it tells me it's not necessarily affordable housing as a government. You're saying HUD or something? Correct. We're not a HUD. Okay. Any any other public comment for Yes, sir. Wait a minute. Oh, you're all right. If you want to stay sitting, you can. Right there.

Uh I live over on street behind all this. I got the only house on this the lot.

I'm not totally against the mobile home. My and I fought this with the other owners had it. move in some good decent trailers like maybe double whites or something where a family can move in and maybe stay a while. Now it's my understanding there are going to have all rentals which that doesn't you know I don't know but the lot size is what I'm concerned about. Um, I don't have the parking problems they do because nobody wants to come around on my side. But I just think that smaller lots maybe and you go you can have some home effect. That's what they call it, mobile home. Well, I call them highway trailers, but it's the same thing. And uh I I think that should be taken into effect and and what they're saying is right. The lady is doing a good job of getting things cleaned up. Um I don't think she has an open checklist. So she probably the owner probably dictates some of what is done too. I don't know. But anyway, that's my thing.

Um good luck. Yes. Okay. So, there there's been um comment of the final cleanup has not happened yet. That's because there's no reason for us to go in there and grade it out and go down and take out some dirt and bring in new field dirt. Until we know where the homes are going to be placed and we're able to run the new water loans through there, what's the point of fixing the entire property twice? That's not that's not financially feasible.

Yes. I just want to reiterate if you count those lot spaces and you can see them on there, there's not 25 of them there. Okay. We we've we I'm just concerned with the park because No, I I get it. We We've got your point on that. So, you want me to show you where all the trailers? How many How many parking spots per lot are you anticipating having? Well, we're required to fly two per lot, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be right in front of their home, if I understand it. Correct. It has to be on the lot, right? Yeah. You can go inside of the lot, but

but if it's a parking space designated over here, that's two parking. Does it necessarily say in front of Is there any other public comment? Hang on, let's Yes,

I have one comment. After the cleanup, they have a perfect opportunity to make that into a nice mobile home park and get away from the garbage that's been there. put in nicer trailers, have the bigger lots, get people in there who don't necessarily want to make meth, you know, and and take drugs. Upgraded a little bit. It's It's been like Mr. Lennon said, it's been an isore for years. And with all of them gone, they've got the opportunity to go in there and really make it a nice place that people want to get into and they'll pay more to get into.

Yes, commented again. I just the trailer that was left with all the all the 8 by8 rooms that were rented out for whatever use. I I don't know why that could allow to stay and that could bring nothing but bad in as far as I'm concerned. you go in rent an 8 by8 room for a house can live out that you know that concerns me and also I I'd hate to see it stay a trailer court it's a nice location for a couple nice houses would be a real asset to our neighborhood and tax rate for the you know the city and county and uh trailer courts the people that come and go from it it's just not a positive for our neighborhood

building that he's talking about um is a quad and they are not 8 by8 rooms We have been told that the well when the city still had their two mile around it, the owner was told that he had to take out the quad portion of it and make it into duplex. So that is the plan for that is to become a duplex. Yes,

it is on um it has a solid cam block foundation. It is not just blocked up and under let's keep the conversation about the lot size guys. We're we're getting way off topic here. So if if you have a comment about the lot size be happy to hear they brought in efficiency a big just a basically a big trailer with like four or five rooms in it. No. Okay. What does that have to do with the lot size? Well, there's no parking. Okay. Noted in triplicate. Is there anybody else that would like to speak for or against about the law size?

Yeah. Okay. Not to ask a dumb question here. I'm pretty good at it. Um, what I'm just failing to see how you can't meet the requirements. Is there I'm not great at math, but how how many I don't get why you can't just meet this because it seems like you have enough acreage here to meet it.

You said 30 lots is what you plan to put back is We're approveing for 36 by the state. Um, we would like to put in 25 plus the four that are there. So that on top of the 36. No, no, no. The 29 total is what what it was licensed for back when the trailers were smaller. Did you just roll in your eyes, Sydney?

No, I'm thinking he [clears throat] does that a lot. Rolling my eyes or thinking. So, you're saying you're saying at max 30, but probably 29. Yes. Okay. Last call. One more for me and I'm done. I promise. About the lot size. Yes, it is. Okay. Could we ever could we get a map done up showing how these homes are going to be placed? The lot sizes of this thing other than thinking taking somebody's word for it. They got room for 30 trailers or whatever. A finished map architect map. They'll have to submit it to the assessor's office so the assessor can go out and everybody can look at see where the parking lots at, parks at, and all this stuff. Well, they haven't done yet.

Yeah. So, they haven't done that yet because they don't know if they can even put in. Right. So, do you hear that answer? Yeah. So, they'll have to submit it to the assessor's office and it can be viewed at the assessor's office, but they haven't done it yet because this has to be approved first. I think I'm going to be backwards. You ought to be able to see it how it's going to fit first before you approve. Well, I don't make the rules. 1.3 acres that we put stipulations on it, reasonable stipulations. Have to meet that requirement like let all our tenants know that our house is not a parking lot. Well, that's a completely separate matter, unfortunately.

But I talked with the local police. I've talked to the sheriff's department and they tell me just call the record and have me. Well, that's your only course of action. We can't we can say don't park there all you want. They're not going to So, okay. We're closing public comment. Is there any other questions from the board? I had one more. No, you may not, sir. a good one too. I have no doubt.

Okay, if there's no other questions from the board, is there any stipulations that uh the board would like to add? Lory, what's your office's good enough? I mean, I think it's I think we all pretty well. Yeah. I mean, again, it goes against the intent of the zoning ordinance here of what we outlined as uniform development for a mobile home court. So, at this point, I'd be in favor of enforcing the zoning ordinance.

Okay, I will go ahead and read these off. This one is slightly different. The variance will not be injurous to the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the community. The use and area of the I'm sorry, the use and value of the area adjacent to the property included in the variance will not be be affected in a substantially adverse manner. The strict application of the terms of the zoning ordinance will result in practical difficulties with the use of the property. The variance will not interfere substantially with the county's comprehensive claim. Varian does not pass. For finding one, it was one agree, four disagree. For findings two and three, it was zero agree, five disagree. And finding four, it was one agree, four disagree. Variance does not pass.

Okay. So you've got to work with the 2500 square foot requirement. So if there is no other business for the evening, I would look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to second. Motion in a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. Most the same. Good night everybody. Stop. Do you want us to power the iPad down? Yeah.