City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, here we go. So, we're going to go ahead and get started. This is city council regular business meeting for Thursday, March 5th. Sure. De I You gotta turn my speakers off. There we go. Sorry. Uh, Thursday, March 5th, 2026. It's 6:02 p.m. Lindsay, would you please call the role? Council member Ojan, here. Brown School, here. Mine here. Porter here. Mayor Phillips,

I am here. Have a quum. So, we'll move on. Item number two is the pledge of allegiance. Would you please rise and uh say the pledge of allegiance? algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Next item is approval of the agenda. Would anybody like to move any of the consent agenda items to the regular agenda? Hearing none, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? Motion. We got a motion and a second from Cool and Micki. Uh all those in favor say I. I.

All those post same. That motion carries. Item number four is welcome of guests of public comment. Thank you for being here tonight. Not yet. Call on you Stacy. Uh so we'll open up the dis for anybody who wants to make any comments on on an item that is not in the agenda. So, not about the data center yet. Uh, realize we can't take action on those items tonight because they're not on the agenda. That would be a violation of the open meetings law. But we'd like to hear what you have to say. Also, if you'd like to comment on any item in the consent agenda, now would be the time. Do we have any takers? Seeing none, we will go ahead and move on. Item number five is our consent agenda. Can I get a motion? Motion.

Thanks. Motion by Bourjon, seconded by Mine. Lindsay, would you call a roll? Council member K. Yes. Mine. Yes. Porter. Yes. Borjon. Yes.

All right. That motion carries. Item number six is old business old and new business for consideration, discussion, and possible action. Item A, why most of you are here tonight, is a public hearing on a proposed development agreement with a private developer. So, we'll open up the public hearing at 6:04 p.m. So, today we're holding a public hearing to get input on a development agreement with AI LCO Warren County 2 LLC. That development agreement will allow the developer to prepare an area within the city limits that they will then eventually sell to a company to construct a data center or multiple data centers. that data center company, whoever it is, because as far as I know, there isn't one yet, uh, will need to submit plans to the city about their site plan, and they will need to follow all local, state, and federal laws and regulations in building and operating their facility. I would like to remind you that even though this is a public hearing, this is not a public meeting. This is a meeting of the Norwok City Council that is being held in public. That is a very different thing. uh we meet in public to provide transparency to our residents. Public hearing during our meeting is an opportunity for residents to provide information to the city council. A public hearing is not a time for debate. All information that you wish to share needs to be directed to the council uh not to staff or others within the audience. I wish uh you were all here in some of our many other meetings over the past two years where we discussed this. You could have asked staff, council, myself uh questions and we would have answered to the best of our ability and we might not have had all the confusion caused by a few people on Facebook. The idea of a data center coming to Norwok is not a secret. The city has been discussing this for several years. Uh I expect anyone in the council chambers to be

respectful of those who are speaking. Uh we're going to respectfully hear your input. So you would should respectfully hear others input. Uh, I hate using the gavl during a meeting, but I will, and I don't want to feel uh the need to remove you from council chambers. So, let's please keep things respectful. Also, remember that if someone doesn't agree with you, it doesn't mean they're they're against you or they didn't hear you. Just means they don't agree with you. I think the Hawkeyes are terrible. And I think the Cyclones are great. Okay. And and Jim thinks Jim thinks the Hawkeyes are great. And while I know I'm right and he's wrong,

Jim probably thinks he's right and that I'm an idiot. But we can we we can disagree and or Yeah, we can disagree and still be civil with each other, right, Jim? Yeah. Okay. Uh finally, one day,

finally, you may have information that you believe are facts that are pertinent to this issue. We may have counter information that we believe are facts that are pertinent to the issue as well. Both can actually be true. We may just interpret them differently uh based on what the data says or one person's data may be newer than another person's or one common thing with this situation is that the data from other states doesn't match what has been seen in Iowa. So locality of the data may also play into a difference. and some of the facts that have been posted on Facebook are just wrong. Uh I appreciate that you were here voicing your opinion and giving us information that we may or may not have already heard uh and that we may or may not agree with. Uh this is an important part of the process and I thank you for your input and your participation. There are two very specific topics that are of concern to us and the public. Health impacts and environmental impacts. Iowa is home to many industries and land uses that can cause negative health impacts. Unfortunately, local government is not the source of their regulatory control. We rely heavily upon the DNR, the EPA, and other state and federal agencies to regulate these things. You are welcome to to discuss these topics, but I believe you are better served taking those comments to your state and federal delegation. Uh council, I'm talking to you guys. Uh, please feel free to ask questions of the speakers during this public hearing. I would like you to hold any statements or opinions until we get into the next item of the meeting where we'll talk about the development agreement and you'll vote on whether to approve it. You need to remain objective and hear what the public has to say about this issue. Uh, if someone asks you a question, I would ask you to not to just make a note of it and not answer. If you so choose, uh, answer that question during our next

item when we discuss the actual development agreement. Uh, for those of you in the audience, uh, that means you can ask us questions, but we may not answer your question until we start discussing the development agreement. Okay? Uh, so here's how the public hearing is going to go. I have several statements that I want to make, and it might take a while. uh the misinformation that I've seen on Facebook, the accusations, the assumption, at least one person I feel betrayed by have really discombobulated me over this whole thing. As mayor, I get to have this privilege to speak. Uh after I'm done, Holly Zichek, our economic development director, will present additional information about the development agreement. Uh I think she's also going to present some background to the process that we've gone through to get to this point. I'm going to then ask uh some experts up to address the council with facts and experiences that pertain to the development of data centers within central Iowa. We'll then open up the DAS for residents uh from within the city limits, including any Norok business owners, anyone who owns land within the city limits. Once they have finished, I'll ask for input from anyone that owns land within the annexation area that we've been annex annexing. Uh, everybody will have the opportunity to speak and oh, lastly, I'll ask for input from anyone that lives outside the current city limits or outside the annexation area. Everyone will have the opportunity to speak and give their respective message regardless of what that message will be. Because of the number of people we hope to receive input from, uh, this order of presentation uh, will aid the council in evaluating input. Uh because a large portion of the issues uh to be discussed tonight uniquely affect Norwok citizens and will not affect non-citizens, it's important for the council's evaluation to of the issues to hear directly from its affected citizens uh regarding those issues. For the public input of the

public hearing, each person is going to have a three-minute time limit. Uh I'm usually pretty relaxed on that three minutes, but due to the number of people we have here tonight, uh I'm going to make everyone stick to the three-minute limit. Uh we are always taxed with being efficient in government operations. In that light, if I believe the input becomes too repetitive, I may stop a speaker and simply ask them to state whether they agree or disagree with the previous speakers and ask to find out if there are others that have something new to share. If they're not, we're going to move on to the next step. So, do we have any questions from staff or council? Nope. Okay, here goes. Uh, on Facebook, I've seen a lot of concern about water issues, health fears, the economics of a data center, uh, and other infrastructure concerns. So, I'm going to address some of those. Holly is going to correct me during her presentation if I go a bit astray. Uh we've heard significant concern regarding the signing of a non-disclos non-disclosure agreement or an NDA with the development company. You need to understand that this is common practice regardless of the business we're negotiating with and are signed within our e economic development department. This is for a business to ensure that they are able to acquire property uh with the least amount of risk possible. We've had NDAs with many many businesses, none of which were data centers. the city follows all open meetings laws. Uh when the council is notified, that's when everybody else is not that's everybody else's notification as well. Being upset about an NDA is simply a red herring and has no relevance. So let's talk about water. Older data centers use a ton of water and we recognize that. Some of those older data centers data centers can use four or five million gallons of water a day. Uh our current allowance within Central Iowa Waterworks is 4.1 million gallons a day. Our average daily usage is around 2 million. Uh so we knew with

that allocation, we couldn't do a project with that type of data center. Uh as the city looked at our water usage and joined the Central Iowa Waterworks, uh we planned on setting aside 650,000 gallons per day uh for industrial use. The company that we're working with has asked for 400,000 gallons per day, which is well within that boundary. Uh all of this was planned as part of our financial strategy. The amount of water being requested is not extraordinary and it's not outrageous. It's well within the expectations of a light industrial development. When and if a data center starts consuming water, it will pay water rates based on what it consumes. Just like all our other users, the developers have been informed that they will bear the burden of the cost of any increase in capacity that's needed. Let me say that again. The developers are going to bear the cost of any capacity increases that are required by this development. Uh not Norwok rateayers. To add a little perspective, uh did you know that Norwok residences and businesses use around 1 million gallons per day on uh to water their lawns? Okay. It's almost half of a typical day of water use across all of Norwok. Central Iowa Waterworks is finishing up an increase in overall capacity of 10 million gallons per day at a cost of $165 million. All of that increases due to irrigation and it costs all of us. If the data center whenever it's built uses a closed loop cooling system, their water usage will probably be lower than requested. We're going to look at our local ordinance to see if we can make this a requirement of any data center that is built in Norwok. Let's talk about nitrates. A data center will add zero nitrates to our water supply. those residents and businesses that fertilize their grass

then water it will add more nitrates to our water supply than any data center would. An argument could be made that since we're taking egg land out of production, there will be a reduction in nit nitrates flowing into the North River. I've seen data that the I have seen data that the evaporators at a data center will concentrate nitrates in the water and when drained downstream takes more water to dilute that. I'll grant you this is a very valid concern. Uh but we should be directing our state and federal legislators to do something about that about the origins of those nitrates that are already in the water. Those nitrates come from way upstream and our state absolutely needs to address this. Please contact your state legislators to let them know you believe this is a problem. Okay. In regards to water pollution, data centers using a closed loop system for cooling. There won't be any more pollution added to our water system as any other business that comes into our community. As far as wellwater or aquafer contamination is concerned that I've heard about, any sanitary water will flow to and be treated by the released into the De Moines River. At no time will untreated water be dumped into the environment. But let's talk about some of the health fears that I've I've seen expressed. Uh first off, let's talk about air pollution. Yes, the current method of providing un uninterrupted power is using diesel generators and in the past those do throw out quite a bit of particulate matter into the air and nitrous oxides uh uh when they are running. However, due to federal regulations, the exhaust is now highly filtered. So, there is little to no particulate matter being output uh from those generators. If a warehouse were go to go into that area, the semi-truck servicing the warehouse would produce much more particulates than the backup generators of a data center.

Let's talk about EMF or electromagnetic frequency. They that does get produced by data center, but it is a nonionizing EMF and according to the CDC, it's not a concern. Also, I'm act and I'm asking you to think critically about this using the inverse square law. If you're getting bad EMF from a data center, say a quarter mile away, it would be so high inside the data center that anyone walking inside the building would probably be microwaved. Okay, that's a bit of hyperbole, but you get the idea. Sound could be an issue. I've walked by the two Microsoft data centers that are just north of Norwok. I really don't hear much noise from either one. However, I do think there is an issue with low frequency noise that I think needs to be addressed. Uh the low frequency noises come from the generators and from the cooling towers and cause a variety of a ailments. I believe that there are lowcost solutions to this. Newer data centers uh may have already addressed the problem. I've talked with the uh developer and indeed they do uh they do mitigate all this low frequency noise already. So, but I I think it's still something we need to do a deep dive with and change our ordinance to require noise reductions uh noise abatements to resolve the low frequency noise issue. And if the cooling towers are a cause, maybe this is something that we need to require for all buildings with cooling towers within the city limits. I believe we have a few years to put this into place before we see a data center uh company company's proposal to build in Norwok. So, there's time to do thorough research and get a really good ordinance in place. Finally, there's light pollution. I agree that there will be some light spillage from the data center. There will be light spillage from any development that goes into that area. How much depends on the usage. We have an ordinance that indicates that a facility needs to have downward-f facing lights that will

reduce the amount of light pollution created. The company needs to provide plans showing light pollution and it has to fall within a certain range before we give them their occupancy permit. Uh I believe it is zero candle rating at the property line. Again, anything that can goes into that location will create light pollution. We just need to make sure our developers follow our local ordinances. Had you been at some of our previous meetings where we've talked about this, water has been a big concern for a long time. As stated above, we believe the usage is reasonable and we've indicated that any increase in capacity will need to be uh added at the expense of the developer. Also, there's a $6 million pipe that will be installed to deliver to the deliver water to the site and the surrounding areas and is going to be entirely paid for by the developer. So, our taxpayers and rateayers won't be burdened by the cost of this. Please understand that the large infrastructure contained in the development agreement is all public infrastructure uh that norm that is normally funded by the city. It's it's no different than the water tower being built on Chadam. This scale of infrastructure service large areas both water, sewer, and streets to handle construction traffic. Delaware Street is going to be uh need to be redesigned and paved. The developer is going to pay for half of that cost and the and the city's going to apply for a rise grant to pay for the other half. Again, we're getting this infrastructure at no cost to our tax our property taxpayers. The site development, no matter what goes in, is going to create wastewater. And we've we've been working on a project to install a sanitary sewer pipe along the North River. Uh that pipe is not being installed for this development. is being stalled to help with development that is already being planned within the current city limits and for future development along the

north along the north edge of the north river. Uh the data center site development wasn't even in our dreams when we started uh began planning this sewer pipe. The planning and construction of the sewer pipe is actually what brought this project to us. Uh the development group is asking the city to wave around $500,000 in sewer connection fees and this is part of the development agreement. uh the return on that investment is huge and we'll easily recover that amount within a few years. There's been questions about electricity. I'll let the experts that we have here uh and and with Holly's presentation uh deal with those issues when it comes time for that uh time for that uh because it's not an issue that the Norwok city government can address. I can tell you that electricity rates in Iowa are 44% below the national average and have been that way for a long time. Also, Mid-Americ's data center agreements are designed to protect their existing customers. So, I I don't want my electric rates to go up. I don't think yours will either. Now, let's talk about the economics of the project. Developer has not asked for any tax incentives to develop the site. None. In fact, the developer is helping the city pay for some critical public infrastructure. There is no burden to Norok's top property taxpayers for this project. None. This particular project is going to bring a couple of hundred temporary jobs to our community. Generally, those workers uh move from location to location. So, they're going to be living in our hotels and apartments in the area. Hopefully, quite a few will reside in our two new hotels uh which will help the hotels during their initial startup period. Those workers are going to eat in our restaurants, shop at our stores, fill up their cars at our gas stations, and in general, help out our local businesses while they're here. This will help our community thrive, even after they're finished with their work and move on to

their next location. When an actual data center gets built, we'll see another wave of a couple hundred temporary jobs come to our community. Again, this will be great for our local businesses. And when the actual data center is up and running, we'll only see around 100 high-quality jobs, high-paying jobs uh at the site, which is perfect for Norwok. If you think about it, we don't need a whole bunch of new rooftops skewing our t tax base back towards residential. Our schools don't need a huge influx of of new students. We're not providing any incentives for this project, so we don't need the jobs to offset those incentives. uh what we do need is commercial and industrial valuation uh with as few people as possible and this project actually gives us that. There have been a lot of people who live outside of Norwok that have been very vocal about this data center. I'd like I'd actually like to thank them for bringing this up so we can show that we've done our homework on this uh that we've evaluated the issues and that we believe we've mitigated the major issues and we're going to be addressing the minor issues. City staff, council, and myself are not going to increase risk to our residents. We live here, too, and we're not going to do anything that's going to jeopardize our families or yours. So, Holly, I'm going to turn it over to you.

Thank you, Mayor. Try to speak up so people can hear me, but I'm addressing the council. And I hope that my information is more supplemental to what you just said and not too repetitive. I'll try to skip through it if it is. That mic's not working. Can Can you turn the other mics up? I know. Like any of the table mics are on. The table mics aren't on. How do we turn them on? I don't know how to turn Do you know how to turn them on? It should just be an unmute thing up there. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead and come on up. Sorry. That's okay. Luke,

you're probably gonna have to come up, too. Stand up here. That's on. Yep. That was I'm gonna read from my laptop since I'm old and can't see.

So, we presented this to you a couple of weeks ago at the last public hearing that we held. I lost my remote. I could hear that though. I know. You got it. Perfect start. Okay. All right. This is great.

So, we presented this in a form a couple of weeks ago at our last public hearing. The public hearing was to amend our urban renewal area, which is what we have to do anytime a new project comes into our urban renewal area. We have to amend the the entire plan for the community. So, a lot of you have heard a lot of this information. And so I'll just recap kind of the basics of the overall scope of the project and then I'm going to talk about data center information in general since we don't have an actual data center project yet. But with all of the research that we put into this industry um we've talked to our neighborhood cities that have several data centers. So we have a lot of really good information from them that we will cover kind of as a general uh perspective and then touch on a few of the subjects that the mayor mentioned as well that we know are concerns of the public. So we call this project west and the reason why is because it is in the southwest development corridor. Um as many people in the development industries know these types of projects start out with kind of code names because we don't know much about them yet. There's a lot of due diligence that goes into large projects from the the land buyer, the developer, the business city. So in the beginning we just aren't able to release a lot because we don't know a lot. there's just a lot of work that goes into it um preparing to find out if the project can actually happen. So, the scope of the project that we're looking at here is approximately 282 acres of land for future proposed data center development. Um but again, just to reiterate what the mayor said, tonight's agenda item is only for an infrastructure agreement with the land development company, not with an actual data center. When a future data center is identified, they'll go through all of the required public procedures and approvals as as mayor mentioned. We anticipate a multi-phasey year buildout with data facilities, substations and supporting infrastructure once that actual data center is identified and brought forward and there will be public processes then.

The location is south of Delaware and west of Madison Street and west of Highway 28. So full buildout and this again is is some speculation because again we don't have the actual data center project yet but just estimated based on experience with the development group and other developments in the area in the de mo metro area. Um the total investment estimated is looking at 12 billion and that's private. So this would be the largest private investment in Warren County's history and again no tax incentives are being requested. The taxable valuation would be between four and 500 million upon full buildout. And then the employment and job creation is estimated about 80 highquality full-time jobs or 80 to 100 as mayor mentioned. These are full-time positions in engineering, IT, management, HVAC, and others to support the data center um procedures. 600 construction jobs over the multi-year buildout. the estimated impact for our area 14 to 16 million per year in annual tax revenues. So that is a monster number. We'll tell everybody. Um the reason why that's so impactful is because as you all know uh we do not get all of the taxes that come in from property taxes. We get a split of that. A portion goes to the county, portion goes to school, some goes to DMAC, and there's a couple of other taxing entities that receive um revenues. So between this 14 and 16 million annually that would be coming in the city share would be between five and 6 million per year. The schools would be closer to um 6 to 7 million county 2.8 to 3.3 and DMAC between four and 500,000 per year. So that's quite a bit. So that helps schools do all sorts of things. that help cities build infrastructure, improve our services, and um just a just

a wonderful opportunity for the community. Local option sales tax, there is also something there that comes in from data centers. There are a couple of exemptions, but they're being re reduced a little bit in the state of Iowa, but it is still does still contribute to the overall revenues that come into the community. So, we're anticipating between 30,000 to 100,000 per year in that. And then the infrastructure investment just out of the gate. So we're looking at we're looking at the big number of the 12 billion that's private investment overall once the entire campus is built out. But in the beginning the um the development company will start out with about $8.2 million in infrastructure that they will fund and will be constructed to next one here. So, incentives. Again, as the mayor said, there are no TIFF rebates or grants being requested for this project. The developers paying for all of their infrastructure and even some of our uh pieces of projects. Um the only incentive that I guess would we could consider to be is a fee waiver of sewer district connection fees. And right now, our our city engineer um did a lot of work to to map out and plan out what this entire new future sewer district could look like. It's enormous. the entire um area that this new sewer will serve. So, he had to do a lot of work and a lot of math to figure out how that share actually gets split out to these different acres and he's anticipating about 2,000 um dollars per acre for those connection fees. So, with the 282 acres, the waiver would be around 564,000. So, um very minute dollar amount there all things considered. So operational phase impact the direct economic activity is between 8 and 10 million for annual payroll again the 80 full-time jobs which are highquality jobs and I'd like to reiterate what the mayor said on the jobs. So we hear that

a lot that that's a very common statement that gets made is whether or not somebody's bringing lots of jobs or not and if it's a good thing that they bring a lot or they don't. But for our community and I would say even for Iowa, it's very important that we have the high quality jobs at the lower numbers where we have the population because we don't have a highly populated state and we have low unemployment. So it's this is really perfect for our community and again not stressing the school system with a lot of new students and then you don't have a lot of um traffic on the infrastructure. So that's really just the perfect scenario for us in Norwok. uh 1 to three million per year in vendor spending, indirect economic impact, and we use a regional ripple effect, which is 160 to 320 additional jobs that get created from this overall process. 4 to7 million annual and local spending, and then just ongoing investments. This is a lot. I apologize, a lot of text, but I'm going to read through it because it's good to know. So, what do data centers actually do? And I know we all know it, but we kind of don't maybe know every single thing that comes from data centers. So they're specialized facilities that house computer servers to process, store, and deliver data quickly and efficiently. They power the technologies that drive our modern world and keep pace with its growing demands. enable many of the services that we rely on every day, including phone, text messaging, email, video calls, virtual meetings, streaming, photo and file storage, remote work, e-commerce, online shopping, payroll, accounting, business software, travel, emergency response services, disaster recovery and backup systems, mapping, apps and services, online banking and digital payments, fraud detection and digital security, online learning and research, school systems, all public databases, libraries, property tax searches, health care services, artificial intelligence and machine learning, retail checkout systems, common AI platforms that all of us use every day, which I think most

everybody here came to us through one of these tools. So, chat, GPT, GR, Google, Gemini, Microsoft C-Pilot, online browsing, all websites, military, national defense, public safety, and all government systems, and all social media sites, which again, I think we all came together through a social media site. So, I'm actually really happy that everybody is here tonight and that we had that social media tool because we love to have our public here to learn and ask questions and have some input. So, that's just a quick recap on what they actually do for us every single day. And then what do they add to communities other than what I've already mentioned? So, just that long-term economic value. So as they create those highquality jobs and the private investment, they are long-term partners in communities and they support public schools, infrastructure, public safety, parks, libraries, and city services. Uh infrastructure and community investments are in addition to all of that. They fund new roads, utilities, deliver infrastructure upgrades with low use and low stress on roads and school systems. They also invest in community partnerships. So for example, the Microsoft and Meta data centers in West De Mo and Altuna have supported 70 more than 70 nonprofit organizations, 132 community projects ranging from public art, parks, education, public safety, water towers and aquifer and even a skilled trades program through DMAC that they paid for.

Oh yes. Do you want a different slide? Oh yeah. Shoot. So sorry. I have to read from here. There you go.

Apologize if you guys need longer to read that. Um they also employ more than 600 full-time um employees at highquality jobs at those couple of different data centers and they have had no public complaints about light, noise, traffic or pollution once the data centers were built. So we talk directly to these cities and they have just glowing reviews about what types of partners these these data centers are and according to the neighbors um they're efficient and responsible in their operations. They use advanced cooling systems and renewable energy partnerships. They're designed to be highly efficient. And then one of the most one of the most regulated industries in the US, President Trump recently introduced a pledge system for data centers to increase efficiencies and continue tech advances to protect resources and residential property owners and they um operate under very strict environmental standards. And importantly, they're innovative they're innovation leaders. So this is really important not just to us locally but to our our nation. They're constantly developing new ways to supply public need and demand including military and national defense. So now I'm going to give you a break from hearing me and turn it over to my partner in crime here. This is our community development director Luda Paris and he is going to walk through a really good timeline so you all know how we got here.

Yeah. So I'm going to talk more just industrial in general rather than uh data center because I think the uh story of Norwok pursuing industrial growth is really what has brought us here today to talk about a data center. So I think it's important to have that context. Um so we're going to jump all the way back to 1997. Um the city hadn't done a whole lot of like large planning projects prior to that date. Uh but in 1997 we did a comprehensive plan. Um and that's the first time that we identified some future industrial on the south side of the community, primarily south of Wright Road along Highway 28. Um at that time it was primarily on the east side of Highway 28, though the kind of 40 acre uh frontage on the west side of Highway 28 was identified as industrial as well. And you know, we got right to work right away. I wasn't with the city at that time. Um but in the 2000s, we built out a lot of industrial at that area. uh primarily the Norwok Business Center. If you're not familiar with that, it's the area southwest of Wright Road and Highway 28 and also the Hakes Drive area. Um originally all of Minich uh Sports Park was intended to be industrial, but in 2003 we had the opportunity to build that amenity for the community and we did. Um so then in 2005 uh the city went back and looked at their comp plan again um and in addition to other changes identified expanded industrial on the south side of town. Um so we continued to look to that area as the potential location for growth of industrial within the community. Um oh I got to do both of them. There we go. Uh so 2013 comes along uh most notable for me starting to work at the city. Um, but I I say that partly because partly as a joke, but also I've worked with a lot of councils. I've worked with a lot of different bosses, one mayor. Um, but uh a a common theme

in what the directive towards community development has been is uh right sizing the commercial industrial tax base share. So we've spent a lot of time over my tenure here and I believe prior to that as well uh by the history you can see uh looking for ways to expand that commercial industrial tax base. Uh so in 2013 we did another comprehensive plan. Cities are always doing comprehensive plans because we want to know what's going to happen in the future. Um and we identified even more industrial on the south side particularly on the west side of Iowa 28. Uh this was a pretty large addition to what had previously been shown on the southside and crucially does include 40 acres of the land that is being looked at today as this potential data center site. So all the way back then we were kind of starting to push that west. Um in 2013 through 15 we continued to kind of work towards bringing things here. uh we obtained a cert certified industrial site designation and very quickly turned around and got projects into those uh Windsor windows and Michael Foods. So again, success with this industrial uh projects that we wanted to do and that success kind of led us to wanting to continue planning for industrial in the future. So, um, on the planning side of things, where we're at today really goes back to 2018 and seeing the quick success we had with that certified industrial site. Um, we started looking at what does it mean to have a second one? What does it mean to really go after additional industrial in that area and analysis of that identified sewer needs that we uh would need to include along the North River. Um once we kind of initially identified that North River need, we took a big step back and realized that this was a bigger thing than just providing Norwok service to a small industrial area on Highway 28. We're dealing with a sewer that serves all the way out into Madison County. Um did a lot of leg work working

with other communities uh the our partner agencies in understanding that need. So, as we did that, we thought if we're looking at this big industrial uh area, we're looking at this sewer need, we need to go back again and do another comprehensive plan and take a look at what it means to have city growth to the west uh out to the interstate. Um, and so we did that starting in 2020, right right the week after everything shut down from COVID. So, a great time to do a public process, but we worked through it. Um we did a lot of uh public input, public comments, uh mapping. Um even prior to this, we had a series of meetings with folks from the south side of the community, an area that we knew we were going to be looking at in this planning process. Um and had around 150 residents of that area, not necessarily residents of Norwok, but uh residents of the area south of Norwok uh come into the city hall and chat with us about that. Um, and so we had other public open houses, public meetings, finally a formal public hearing like we've done here to adopt that comprehensive plan. Um, and it did expand industrial even farther west along Highway uh west of Highway 28. Uh, which includes all the land proposed in this data center development. Um, and it also included uh our plans for highways going out to the interstate, interstate interchanges, things that we're starting to work with our federal delegation on for uh very long-term next stage of Norwalk Road. Um, so that's what really brings us here today. Prior to any of this, I don't know that we'd really mention the word data center other than I can't believe they're doing one up in West De Mo again. And now, oh wait, now they're doing another one in West De Mo. Um, so with that, I'll turn it back over to Holly and she can talk through the project West Street.

Yep.

We wanted to include that even though it is a lot of information, we wanted to include um the public process, the history, how we got here, plus the history of this project because we do also hear in the public that, you know, nobody knew about anything or nobody has heard of of any of this happening. But we've really been working on this in the public realm for 10 years, almost 10 years. And so it is um encouraging to us when we do see people come to meetings because we know they are going to want to know these things and we want them to be um involved in the process. So this is definitely not new and we've um absolutely had it in the public um sphere for for many years. So, like Luke said, due to the city's long-term planning, infrastructure investment, and the project successes, like the first certified site in the state to reach capacity with Michael Foods and Windsor Windows, um we were able to begin marketing and recruitment efforts to attract additional high-quality industrial tech data and manufacturing businesses to the southwest development corridor. Um where several land owners had reached out to us. They came to us and they had interest in selling their land for future development. So um with that we felt it was the time to start moving forward with things if we had interested land owners and we had the plan in place in infrastructure. So in 2023 we began to see an uptick in interest from data centers and land development groups uh mostly due to the really quick surge in AI. Um so we worked with several prospects that we identified through either our efforts um or through the state would send us some leads and prospects and then um the greater de mo partnership who we have some representatives some leadership here tonight from the greater de mo partnership who've been wonderful and what's great about all of these prospects that come to us and these bigger projects that we work on in any of our communities we don't do this alone we do a lot of work through the state a lot of work through the partnership they vet things for us um so it it's definitely a group effort. So, one particular company called Tracked,

who is um the company that we're doing this development agreement with, their second name is IELCO. I think you spelled that out earlier, but um they stuck it out and they made it through more than two years of site due diligence, annexation hurdles, city and public procedures, private negotiations with land owners. I'd like to point out city doesn't own the land. We didn't own the land. We didn't negotiate with the private land owners. That's between private companies and private land owners. Um, but this brings us to tonight's agenda item for the agreement with the site development company called Tracked and the Project West Development. So, I'm just going to touch quickly on these because I know the mayor's already touched on them. Um, we we've talked about them a few different times, but it is important because people care about it. Um, again, in um the the water concern. So in Iowa, you know, data centers do not use up water that is intended for residential or existing properties. They pay in advance for new water infrastructure to be built, the reservation of allocation, and the actual use. So I think that's important to note is that this group will be paying for the reservation of future water, whether they're using it or not. That's a pretty big deal. Um, Norwok's a member of Central Iowa Waterworks and we perform long range planning methods to determine future community growth and potential need. So, this is not just something that gets slapped together and we're not thinking of this. I can't tell you the number of hours I've seen Luke and Tony and all of our different uh leaders just pouring over data models and uh spreadsheets and in meetings with everybody around the metro trying to figure this out because everybody's growing at the same time and it all has to be worked out together at the same time. So, a lot of thought has gone into that. And then Norah previous previously planned for the future large water users within the southwest development corridor. And again as mayor mentioned we had reserved for uh 650,000 gallons per day in anticipation of a large commercial or techindustrial type

company. So this land development company is requesting to reserve 400,000 gallons per day of that 650. So it's well within our plan on exactly what we reserved it for is this type of a project. electricity. Um, I will touch just quickly on that because like the mayor said, Mid-American Energy is a provider in our area. But a couple of facts that have come um directly from Mid-American and they've put out some some really good um FAQs and different information to the public. You know, Iowa is a rate controlled state and so providers have to go in front of the Iowa Utilities Commission to request any increases and Mid-Americ has not requested an increase since 2014 of their base rate. So, we have not seen that um that conversation that happens in the public a lot that our utility rates are going to go up or that they've gone up because of data centers because at least in this area that's just simply not the case. Um data centers have been in Iowa since 2007. So, roads and sewers, um I probably won't touch much on that because the mayor covered that really well. Uh but the city Yeah, you touched on the Delaware and the RISE grant as well. So, I will over that other community concerns. This I'll touch just very lightly on as well because we are not experts in um you know air pollution and water pollution and you know cancer rates and causes of that but to note that we have done a lot of research in this and we do rely heavily on the state and federal resources that do the work. They have the requirements um and they they put the companies through the paces. So we it's not something that the city uh manages. We we make sure that they're following through with all of those requirements and that's that's where that those particular situations sit. So um we understand their concerns for the public, but it's definitely something we're concerned about as well and we

stay in touch with our state and federal leaders on those subjects. But it is a fact as the mayor said that they do not um dump containers into our water supply. And then there's been talk about cancer data centers causing this. Again, we're not experts in the medical field, but a couple of the state reports um that we pulled showed that the the top industries that are causing cancer in the state of Iowa and their data centers didn't even make the list. And at the end of this presentation, I have a a slide with all of the the reports and the the links to the different government sites that uh produce that type of information if anybody would like to see that. So, light and noise, we've touched on that just a little bit, but this continues to get better. Um, in the last probably five years, it's it's really um excelled in the areas of light and noise pollution and the technology has come a long way to where there's almost none. Um, when I talked to our counterparts in the other cities around the De Moines metro that have data centers, that's what they said. They said, "We we recommend all of your council, all of your residents to come out to our Microsoft facilities, our meta facilities, be there at night, be there during the day, listen, look at it, and you'll see for yourself that it's just not an issue in their areas." Um, but we have listed out here just generally speaking what data centers are using today for light um to make sure that that spillover isn't happening. So, they have full cutoff, fully shielded um LED fixtures, low Kelvin, uh motion activated perimeter lighting. So the lighting is not all of the time. No up lighting, flood lighting, decorative lighting, which causes a lot of spill. Um, so they are better neighbors sometimes than other types of industrial developments that you could have or large residential neighborhoods. They follow dark sky principles more rigorously than most land uses. They use shielded downward directed LEDs that eliminate glare. And as the mayor mentioned, we have our own um codes here

that require a certain type of lighting as well. And um will data centers produce a lot of sound after construction? So this is another just emphatic no that we got from our neighboring communities that have data centers. They're very very quiet in terms of any type of a larger industrial type use. Um and again we just ask everybody to go out to our our neighboring cities and kind of check for yourself on that. So, this is just the um information that we some of the mayor's information that he talked about and everything in this uh PowerPoint. These are the sources and citations. So, again, happy to send this out to anybody if you're just interested in looking into some of these things like through cancer.gov and some of the other um sources that are out there. Of course, things change all the time and we're not um the sole experts in that, but we want to make sure that we're also doing our due diligence and researching as much as we possibly can. So with that I think unless you guys have any questions.

Okay. Thanks Holly. All right. Uh Stacy Lovan from the Greater De Mo Partnerships here to give us some information on what the metro communities have experienced with their data center sites. Stacy, thanks for being here.

Absolutely. Thank you. Good evening. Uh mayor and city council. Um, as mayor said, I'm Stacy Levine, senior vice president of economic development um, at the Greater De Moine Partnership. Our organization works with communities such as Norwalk across the region to attract in investment, support job creation, and provide context around projects like this one. Um, I have worked with data centers for the past 20 years. Um, when they first started looking at our area, I was I have been involved and I've been involved with various data center projects across our region. They are a relatively new type of development for many communities and it's completely understandable that there are questions around how they work and what they mean for the future of a city across the greater De Moines region. Several communities have hosted data centers for many years including West De Moine, Altuna and Walke and those experiences provide helpful insight into how these projects can operate and how they fit into long-term community planning. What I hope to do tonight is to provide some context about how data centers function in today's economy, what communities across our region have experienced um over the past 20 years, and how projects like this typically impact infrastructure, jobs, and community investment. Um so I I appreciate the opportunity to share that perspective. First of all, we know data centers are now part of modern infrastructure. Holly laid out what they do and how you use a data center. So, I won't go into that, but just it's important to understand that every time we um are doing anything online, we are working um with a data center and we rely on it every single day. Um and communities across the US, many here in Iowa are becoming home to that infrastructure that powers the digital economy. The greater De Moine region has been working with data centers, as I said, for the past two uh two decades. Cities like West De Moine, Altuna, and Walke have hosted large facilities for

years. And here's the experience that we have learned through them. Companies that have have data centers in our area work closely with local governments, and they follow the regulations and planning requirements. They invest heavily in infrastructure, and they can open additional land for future development. They often become long-term community partners and many of those communities will tell you in fact all that I've mentioned will tell you they have been positive and collaborative and good corporate citizens in their community. They also in make a significant investment in the region data centers in greater de mo. The investment is now over 11 billion within our region. That includes the land and building construction and the infrastructure improvements. You can probably double that if you want to count the equipment that is going into those data centers. Large-scale projects like this expand the local tax base, which has already been outlined here tonight, which help support public services and community priorities. There are also job and workforce opportunities that data centers provide. While the buildings themselves are highly automated, the economic impact around them is substantial. Data centers in our region support highquality technology and operations jobs, well-paid jobs, higher than many jobs that you will see in our communities. Hundreds of these additional jobs are provided through contractors. So we're talking about you have direct employees and you also have contractors who are on sites at data centers daily as and they um there are then the construction employment that happens in the initial construction phase as well as the construction for the re um vamping of data centers that happen consistently for and to give an example Microsoft has over 600 direct employees in our region in addition to that on their sites they have contract workers who provide thirdarty support. Meta has over 400 people employed

locally as well as contractors on site. And I mentioned the construction is a major component. Hundreds of skilled workers are on site during the construction phases and often and most the time um following even construction. We also have to look at workforce development and future careers. Data centers companies frequently support technical training programs, partnerships with community partner or community colleges and workforce programs. These efforts help prepare students and workers for careers in technology, construction, and engineering fields that are growing rapidly in today's economy. Across the region, data centers companies have also invested directly in communities where they operate. This includes support for STEM education in our schools, nonprofit organization support, giving funds, and helping with parks and community development projects, and local workforce initiatives. These partnerships strengthen the communities where their employees live and work every day. So, in closing, I just want to say data centers are part of the infrastructure of the modern economy, and many communities across Iowa have successfully integrated them into their development strategies. Projects like this go through multiple layers of review, planning, and regulatory oversight. And that process ensures communities can address the questions about infrastructure, environmental standards, and long-term development plans. I have sat through many of those meetings. And most of the time, the community is seeking information, but so is the data center so that they can directly respond to what the community's needs are. So, thank you for providing that opportunity.

All right. Very good. Thanks, Stacy. Uh, Chief Staples, can you provide us with your perspectives on impacts of a data center on law enforcement? Yes, sir. Uh, I'll use my outside voice. You have my for the people that are online. It might be easier.

Hi, thank you. Um, yes. Uh, I had an opportunity to have conversations with police chiefs in Altuna and Walke about their experiences with data centers. Um, I did not speak with the West De Mo police chief because he's brand new and he probably doesn't know how West De Moine experienced the data centers. Um, they told me that as far as a law enforcement perspective as an industry, it's about as perfect as it can be. Uh the only trouble that they have ever had specifically in Altuna is when they have a call inside the data center. Getting inside is very difficult because the security is so tight. As a law enforcement professional in an industrial user in an industrial park that has its own security to the point where it's hard for the police to get in tells me that there's um not a lot of police needs uh at the site itself. There's not a retail environment. There's not a cash environment. Um, there's not a lot of product environment, meaning there's not a lot of truck traffic coming down the road causing crashes and causing the road to be broken up. Um, they have their security lighting, which Holly has talked about. Um, so as far as the police perspective goes, I don't know if there's a better industrial user that could be built in our future industrial park on the south side of town.

All right. Thank you. Questions. Right. Chief Porter, same question. Can you provide us some perspective on the impacts of data center on fire department and emergency services?

Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor Council. Um I also spoke to the fire chiefs in Alto and additionally to the fire marshall in West De Mo um to talk about their experiences with data centers. They said something very similar. the draw on services once they're complete uh is very minimal as far as um response for fire and EMS. There would be a significant draw on resources within our organization when it comes to plan review and inspections like through the construction phases. Um one of the things that they also noted is that there was um a increase in traffic with construction of construction vehicles through the build. Um but other than that they saw a very minimal impact to services after they're complete. I have a question. Yes.

Will you need to have any additional training to be able to handle the fire suppression systems that are within a data center?

We will not have to have additional training when it comes to that. Um again, I think there will be a significant workload that will come along with our fire marshall to oversee that plan review um inspections during the construction phases to ensure that it is built according to code. Um and we've kind of addressed that already internally of how we would look to kind of bolster our services during that time. Um, but again, they're very secure. They're very safe. Um, and they build those specifically to meet the demands of what could be inside. Um, so again, I the fire chief in Altuna specifically said that he thinks in the past eight years they've had two fire calls related out there. Um, if they do see MS calls, it's primarily during the construction phase. Um, but again, minimal impact to services. Yeah. Cool.

Do you know on the reviews on the other communities, have they insourced and done it themselves or outsourced that? because there is some highly technical nature to these data centers, right? Where maybe you need specific knowledge. Did do they have did you have that conversation? We did. Um so West Deoy does their plan reviews internally. Um uh Altuna does theirs internally, but these were built before the current fire marshall is there and fire chief as well. Um but um we would be outsourcing those to our third party plan reviewer. But we've also had ver we've visited the the Microsoft center with West De Moine when it was in its construction phase to talk about some of the nuances that would come along with that plan review and what we'd be looking for. Um and they have offered to assist us through the process as we kind of get started on that as well.

Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Thank you. Thanks.

Okay. We are going to get into the public comment portion of the game uh of the me the public hearing. Sorry. Uh if you're on Zoom and want to comment uh when your group is called, please raise your hand and we'll call on you when we're ready. Uh also, when you come up or get unmuted on the on Zoom, uh please state your name and address and then we'll start the clock. U so are there any uh comments from Norwok residents, Norwok taxpayers, land owners within Norwok or Norwok business owners? go here first.

So, I guess before I address it, uh Blake Hoover, I think I've emailed all of you. Yeah, I got response from two of you. Didn't know if you guys wanted other copies of my letter, um just in case you didn't make it through it since I didn't get that confirmation. State your address. Sorry. Uh 1418 Rolling Hills Drive, Norwalk, Iowa. Thank you. We will ensure everybody has copies of those. Yeah. Yeah.

Good evening, mayor, council, and fellow citizens. My name is Blake Hoover, and I'm a Norwok native with concern on this proposal. I'll keep my intro short, but I'll frame all that I have here to say with my background containing management of a budget larger than that of Norwoks designed specifically around economics, agriculture, and sustainability. I'm very familiar with the industry side negotiations of uh utility projects of similar scale as well in the nature of my business. I'll avoid appeals to emotion and speak to why I find furthering this pursuit of a data center unwise, unbefitting of Norwok ordinances and improper in regards to other practices. Inciting re revisiting most of what's in the letter that I brought here tonight. This location is in congruent with current Norwok noise ordinances even though this has been properly addressed already. If you go to these local data centers, while it is not loud by normal means, most of them do fall outside of what Norwok current is for noise regulations. That being 65 dB uh at commercial sites going off the Washington code uh 160 I think is what it was. Uh 60 at residential. Uh the average data center from the uh proposal I showed from the work of John Liar uh in Virginia if I remember correctly in 2024. So pertinent to uh recent time scale because I know there was talk of data centers be getting better with this noise problem. Uh being 75 to 85 uh on average for decel readings at site location does put it 10 dB above what nordance is today regardless of how you view whe whether it's too loud or not. Uh that is just a statement of fact. The problem with that is going off that noise is that within 02 miles of this there's housing which would again be in violation of that decel reading. Uh and also within that there's8 miles from Orchard Hills Elementary. I think you probably are all aware of where this sits uh in relation to that. But I do want to make that note um because within

both of those distances decel readings would standardly uh if you were to extrapolate it out only drop between 8 and 10 dB. This would put it still above noise ordinances allowed by the city currently. Uh, and this doesn't even reference the low frequency noise that you already mentioned that does affect about 5% of the population on a standard. Uh, and putting it in that close proximity to current housing developments, but also continued medium and high density housing developments as part of the plan uh, I view as extremely irresponsible for having that detrimental effect to that large of a population. Uh, in my letter, I also referenced that the distance that you're framing up barely covers sighting standards provided for other utility practices. Uh, depending on where you look, uh, whether that's, uh, the most common one I would refer to was, uh, Boone County, uh, and specifically in relation to wind turbines. Um,

finish up your

Yeah. Um, so I guess in comparison to really all of this, I know this project's being justified as maximum increase to tax revenue. Now, if we don't approve this, somebody else will. Uh, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Quoting a prisoner's dilemma as a means of approving something that doesn't serve the utility of the community, as shown in my Iowa State reference to what quality of life brings. Uh, I view that as a moral failure and a governmental failure when you're not providing that utility at that level. I want to thank you all for listening to me tonight and for reading my letter and for the rest of the community for hearing it out as well. But I would ask to not support this. Thank you. I will ask that you don't there's no response to the people who are talking. We're just trying to get information and we don't need the delay as far as clapping stuff goes. Anybody else? Go ahead. Want to My name is Tony Nation. I've lived in Norwok since 1970. in the 1970s. Have always loved Norwok. My address is 405 Brabburn Drive.

Thank you.

Um I agree with everything he said. This is being considered near a large neighborhood where I live, but also I've spent many hours at Machnut Sports part sports complex. There's an elementary school there and I think doing something for taxes that is not good for the health of the people that live in this town is not a good idea. Um, I know that you said that there's that we shouldn't pay attention to studies in our in other states, but these data centers have been there much longer. Um, the carcin the carcinog genetic in the um ep the EPA has said the carcogenic in the uh diesel exhaust can cause cancer. And so, and also there's many studies that show that it causes asthma. And we're talking about putting this right by Minich where kids are going to play sports. And in other studies, it has shown that this causes asthma. And I uh I think it is something that should not be considered near a large neighborhood, elementary school, Minich Sports Complex. Um the noise, the uh lighting, it's all bad for these neighborhoods. And I've always loved Norwok, but I think if this happens, I do not want to live here.

M we can ask questions too. So the the question about the diesel generators, I want to make sure people realize and I think it was said, right, these are backup generators, right, that wouldn't normally be running, correct?

They would be tested on a monthly basis. I would assume that's typical practice. I work in technology myself. So I think the intention of diesel generators at these facilities is that they're not normally running. And so while I think you have valid concerns about diesel generators and what they give off, lots of industrials have semis that are also diesel vehicles that come into these facilities and out of these facilities. This facility after built I don't think would have many uh diesel semis that would be you know bringing and and taking from those facilities.

It's the backup generator. That's the problem is the I don't thinks being a cancer survivor watching many people young people come in and out of chemo and watching many children with asthma I don't think this is something we want sitting at Mcnich where we're taking our children and grandchildren to play sports and going out into your yard knowing what is this causing? Iowa's the second leading canc uh state with cancer. So, are we are we going to take taxes and think that a tax break is more important than these could happen, could not happen. We don't know. We don't even know what kind of generator they're going to have. We don't know whether the we don't know anything this company can put in any data center there.

Uh thank you. Thank you. Could I enter one point of clarification on uh no sir? Go ahead. Okay. Sorry.

Hello. Uh Ryan Jensen. Uh my business addresses in town are uh 2100 Hughes Drive in Norwok and 3000 Sunset. Um for those who don't know, I did grow up in Warren County. I'm a kid from Minionola. Um spent a lot of time uh used to know all the back roads to get here at Minola back then back in the uh booze cruise days. But um um I've invested my myself or my company's invested about $15 million in Norwalk in the last three years. Um with the goal of purpose- driven development to develop real estate that enhances the communities that we develop in. Um the key project has been our uh Fairfield in uh 79 unit, the first hotel that's in the city. Uh over the last decade, the city's invested in countless communities uh enhancing projects. A lot of them talked about today. uh the Norwalk Fieldhouse, the Norwok Central, the North River sewer project, the Southwest Extensions, Northshore development, um Highway 28, Beardy Improvements, uh grant programs to rehab old commercial buildings. Um all those um have sparked uh major residential, commercial, and retail growth. Um the opportunity for potential data center further demonstrates the city's leaders commitment to adding infrastructure that will fuel jobs, fuel jobs and housing growth uh for the future of Narwok. Um around the country, data centers are used um as a development tool by local governments as a catalyst to scale regional tech hubs, further enhancing the community's highquality uh jobs and housing growth. Um some numbers to consider beyond the you know real estate tax revenue. Um the average uh worker that get that comes to Norwok to to build or help construct these facilities spends about between 65 and $160 a day um in this community which equates if you have 600 workers over the

course of 10 years however long it takes to build this out um you know your $39,000 to $100,000 a day that's being poured back into the local businesses. the infrastructure the city spent the last 10 years building needs this type of support to survive, thrive and grow. Um, love it or hate it, our digital the digital world runs on data centers. Every song, movie, podcast you stream and every smart device uh that we all have touches a data center. Um, and in closing, I believe this opportunity is a purpose-driven and I thank the community leaders for spearheading a project that supports retail development. um and the infrastructure that they've spent the last decade uh orchestrating. So, thank you.

Thanks. Let's get the uh Army vet up here. More important, he's a good Cyclone fan. Hi, I'm Rory Taylor, 1728 Holly Drive. I've been a Norwok resident for over 34 years. I sent five questions in and you've already answered three, mayor, so that takes care of those. Uh the questions that I would like answered um has there been any kind of ecological uh or yeah ecological impact statement done on building it on the North River watershed and is it considered in the flood plane? Does anybody know that? So this isn't a time for debate. If they want to answer that question later they can.

Does anybody know that? That's the question I would have if any any impact statements have been filed or done on this project. Um, second, and this will be come when the project comes fruition if they do it. Um, we need to know as citizens what they're going to do with the solid minerals waste that comes out of these cooling stations. Um, I worked for Greybar Electric. I supplied help supply material for all these data centers in central Iowa. So, I know how they function. I know how they work. And some of the numbers were being given on staffing. Do we know how many coloss if they're talking about a data data center how many coloss they're going to build per for that site in particular and a colo is a building up at um Microsoft I think they have six coloss on site now so I don't know how many coloss they're plan on putting in that 280 acres

again this isn't a question answer

okay all right so my question is my statement would be that I think the numbers are inflated on the staffing uh a lot of those positions aren't full-time positions the pay rates we've been talking about aren't what they're saying. They're lower. Um, and if this ever happens, the city council, I beg for you to talk with these developers and say, "We want you to hire local contractors." Because in the state, in central Iowa, we're seeing so many out of state contractors coming in and under bidding our companies. Um, Baker Group, Baker Electric, Waldinger, they're all getting under bid by companies from Minnesota and Wisconsin. We need to have it so our local electricians and data comm data guys are getting those jobs and not out of state contractors because you know sure these out of stator are staying our hotels but that's not what important important is keeping these jobs in Iowa with with Iowa companies. So I need that I think that needs to be a focus of the city council to assure that we keep these jobs local for these hardworking union members and not these out ofstate non-UN companies. Thanks.

All right. Thank you. Anybody else?

Good afternoon. Uh, I'm Eric Severs. I am at 9171 Ponderosa Drive. Um, I did post some stuff on Facebook. It was all for information for both you guys and for everybody here, too. Um, I'm hoping that helped. Didn't stir up anything. So, uh, first and foremost, kind of my background. I am in IT, IT security. I work for a very large company in the IT security space. So, we use a lot of data centers. So, I do see the benefits of data centers. I also see the negatives. It's kind of a double-edged sword in a sense. Um, depending on where we're putting these things. So, another thing that I do is I've coached at Matt with our kids. I've got kids in school and everything and you know, I just want to make sure that we are making sure this location is the correct location. So some of the things doing research you know I've invested in AI uh into data centers stuff like that for stocks I do research. So the one thing and and thank you for the information that you provided in the beginning too about the noise that we're looking at those types of things because those are concerns especially at that distance. We have about 200 houses or more uh in that area. We got the school system and then also just, you know, bad timing. WHO having the thing about air pollution coming from these data centers. You know, part of that was stating 6 miles away can affect people or more. If you measure it out, the school is about a mile away from this this particular area. Um, and then Macin and those houses are even closer. So, do want you to keep that in mind. Um, other things to also keep in mind, I don't think that have been really mentioned. A lot of these data centers, they're a shell company. So, uh, looking at Business Insider, uh, a lot of these companies, they will set these data centers up. Microsoft and Google will come in. Now, Microsoft and Google, they're not going

to go broke anytime soon. These data centers though could. So if technology changes rapidly as it has been

all of a sudden Microsoft, Google, whoever it is evacuates out of these, we might have big open building and then all of a sudden this company goes out of business. Our tax dollars will also go down. Overall, I think the tax dollars coming in great solution. I know that's what you guys are trying to do here. Really trying to help Norwok. Our infrastructure is degrading. We really need that information, you know, that in here. Um trying to think here any other points that I wanted to make. Um one thing I would say is uh similar to kind of like we had the the vote um many years back on the casino. I think having that maybe vote down the road for data centers. I don't know if that is a possibility uh for our community to vote on but also to have everything open and transparent too to make sure that we do have all the numbers out there. this is what this is going to pay for. This is how this is working and then any regulations that we have out there coming forward too. And that

Thank you. Thank you.

Oh, we got to change batteries. Sorry about that. Wasn't expecting that. Right. Uh, any other comments from Norwok land owners, residents, business owners?

Ryan Husman, 1401 Chadam. Um, I'm glad you brought up that that last point there actually because that was going to be my next question. Um I believe last city council member um Luke you touched on um Norwok getting covered or paid back first. Am I correct in that um if they were to fall through or in the future or something like that. I didn't quite understand all of it but I don't think it was uh touched on tonight and so um if anyone could elaborate a little bit more on that. Is that true or am I wrong? Can you answer that when when we get to the next section?

Oh, okay. Okay. So, um but um in general uh since I'm up here, I guess um I am in support of the data center and the economic impact that it will have on the community. I know you guys have been working on this for a very long time. Um I think I first uh heard about it back in fall of 23 even. Um, as you know, I've been coming to city council here for quite some time and have followed this and I appreciate all your hard work. I really do. Um, but, uh, yeah, I said, um, like I said, the jobs it it's great. Like you said, it fits all the needs. Um, and, uh, I know it's hotels have been brought up obviously, but like I said, all local businesses and I mean, even restaurants and stuff, we've had a lot of influx of restaurants um, the last few years because of that sports. Um but you know the daytime um we uh get at the hotels um you know Monday through Thursday and like Monday nights for instance like there's no restaurants open on Monday nights bullets etc you know Coopers and we're like where do we send residents on Monday nights and having restaurants have this additional business maybe they'll open on a Monday night and so there's a lot of indirect things I think that can happen from this project and to consider and so just wanted to throw that out there. So,

all right. Thank you. Thank you. Got one online here. Uh Brian Baker. Oh, try to You need to unmute. There you go.

Okay. Brian Baker, 3628 Prairie Sage. Uh I am very much in favor of this. I worked on it as a city council member for uh a year and a half or so. Um it was exciting to see Holly's address with uh more solid numbers. Everything was in the abstract uh for a long time. And uh the $15 million for the school and the county and the city is just astounding. And I was even more surprised when I saw that the company was not asking for a tiff. uh request uh the schools that is just going to be fundamentally huge for the schools. Very excited for them. Um I think what everyone is talking about is like a perfect world. Everything has a drawback. You know, if we got a a Chevy dealer or a Chevy manufacturer, GM plant down there, anything they everything that produces something produces some sort of waste. uh farms farms create nitrate and nitrates are are bad for us. We know that. Oh, the cancer and everything, but at the same time, do we really want to outlaw farms? Uh we talked about diesel trucks and semiis. Uh everyone knows exhaust is bad. Do we want to outlaw those two? What kind of business could we put down there? What kind of industry could we put down there that doesn't have some sort of waste of some sort? And I mean, we're talking parts per million at 08 miles away. I was kind of shocked at 08 miles away there was only a decrease of 10 dB um in sound. And boy, I guess it depends on the direction of the wind, but that's kind of hard to believe. But what I

really want to say is I trust the staff and the council members. I know them very well. They they all live here in town. And if there was any red flag, they would blow this project up themselves. if there was any kind of indication that there was something unhealthy and would would threaten us in any way financially or healthy, it's it's just not going to happen. And I want to commend the great information that uh the city has put out on this. Thank you. I am very much in favor of this. All right.

And I'm in the middle of a thunderstorm, so uh it's hard to hear. I'll uh let you go. All right. Thanks. Anybody else from City of Norwok? You have people at the library. Okay. I'll get I'll get those going here. Go ahead, Erin.

Thank you all. Erin Dook, 3129 Prairie Rose Drive, Norwok, Iowa. Um, I didn't I didn't prepare remarks tonight. I just kind of wanted to take it in a little bit. I followed along on social media, which is coincidentally also involved with data centers. Um, but I' I've I've read the concerns. Um, so I wanted to first just start by saying I appreciate the staff here at Norwok U and the information because a lot of the concerns are probably addressed with it. I I think there might be something with noise. I think you might have to look at a noise ordinance. I think you might have to look at some light ordinances. Um, but my my big theme, I suppose, is just disconnect. So, it's budget season right now, and I'm not sure if Norwalk's finalized theirs or not, but the school's working on it, the countyy's working on it, and there's just such a disconnect. And it's it's sad to me in that like if you asked our our fire chief like, "What does a new fire truck cost?"

You know, and we're not making interactive, but it's hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you asked our our police chief, "What does a new Tahoe cost?" um when one breaks it it's you know 70 or $80,000 when it's fully upfitted. So um the services that the school provides, the county provides, the city provides, all these things cost real resources. And so you have to if you don't want to to do it all on the backs of residential property taxpayers, then you have to have commercial and industrial development. And if you're going to have an commercial and industrial development, I don't know where else you'd want to put it other than what you've already zoned, an industrial park. So, I think that it it hits very hard. I was very pleased to see that it wasn't tiff. Um, I think I don't think a lot of people understand this, but the county historically hasn't had a lot of debt. And so, as Norwok grew, as Indianola grew 20 years ago and the county had no debt, all those tipped properties, they did no good. like we could we could have built some real infrastructure with it. We could have done more bridges. We could have um helped with a lot of things. So ti tiff, I understand it, but it's uh it's better when it's not tiff. So I like that. I like that it's a small ass from the city and I think that it just hits really hard. So I would just encourage people to keep doing the the diligence and the the work on it. Um do do look at the noise and the lights and anything that's a concern. That won't mean that you'll win the day and 99% of the p the public will be supportive of it, but I I think you can massage a lot of the fears and the concerns by by taking your time and doing that. So, I I was pleased to see that was the direction it was going. But those are my thoughts. I am very supportive of it because I understand how it will impact the schools, the city, and the county. So, hopefully in time it gets there.

Thank you. Anybody at the uh library? Oh, do we need to ask I've asked her to unmute.

Three minutes started yet? Okay. I don't You might want to scoot back a little bit or or just or just sit down. Is that okay? I'm gonna Is it cool if I grab a chair really fast? Yes, that'd be great. Don't start the timer. I'm gonna just grab the chair that I was sitting on right here. This is good. Sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble with that introduction. Um, hello. Name and address.

Uh, I live at 1141 Pinehurst Circle. I was raised here my whole life. Um, I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I'm gonna be a Debbie Downer in a second because I have some stuff written out. There's a lot of this that's written as questions that of course you don't have to answer immediately. Uh the first is how many full-time jobs including benefits and job security are included in the reported 80 or 100 or 400 jobs that this data center is suggesting. I don't know what the exact number is because we've said a lot of different numbers for the jobs that are coming from this and I don't know what the source on those jobs is. But I do know from looking up impact of data centers on communities. Uh study by the University of Michigan Ford School of Science, Tech, and Public Policy says that the jobs that data centers do create locally are typically low-wage term limited non-technical positions such as security, maintenance, and janitorial work. These roles are often filled by contractors rather than full-time employees, meaning they lack union protection, benefits, and job security. As a result, these positions do not contribute to sustained economic growth or long-term career opportunities for local residents. So, that's just the information that's publicly available. That's the first search result that comes up when you look that up. Uh, as far as the water use, how big will this data center end up being? How did we arrive at 400,000 gallons per day? Uh, what will you do if they ask for more? And what's the plan to accomplish the goal of preventing impacted water rates like you mentioned that public address um you talked about at the very bottom of uh touching on the water point you said uh large users may threaten uh increased water bills and our goal is to prevent that. I wanted to know how you were planning on that. Um, this 282 acres comes out to a little over 12 million square feet, which is double the amount of space at all five data centers in West De Mo take up combined. So, I'm not really sure how any uh parallel can

be drawn to any of those data centers. I don't know if you talked to just city officials from those cities who are really happy with the impact on them personally, but if you look at any like interview of a person who's lived next to these data centers, no one has been happy with that. Um, as far as the environmental impacts, uh, what are our county's environmental standard requirements? Those aren't really very publicly uh, accessible right now. I know that Ling County just the other day passed a really comprehensive thing specifically on data centers and it would be nice if we had any movement on that that sound did like it was happening. Um as far as uh the tax incentive thing and this is a point on its own. Iowa 5 has run two three stories on this uh channel 5 we are Iowa whatever it is. Um, the first one mentioned that the developers for this project rushed the project through even though one of the land owners declined selling their property, which kind of goes against this whole point. You guys are trying to argue that we are spending as long as possible to consider all of the options on this. And then you could have corrected them on saying that on a day about a month ago when they said they invited members of our city council to talk about this and had been talking to the city council day and then by the end of the day they were told that no one was available over scheduled conflict.

Um your time's up now. So uh

thank you thank you for your thank you for your input. Anybody else in the library? 5208 45th Avenue. Good evening, mayor, council, and all of Norwalkians. U I'm not real sure where I do stand on this. I'm certainly studying the issue. Uh the only comments that I can see now would be that uh there are some closed loop systems and there are aircooled systems and if we entered into an agreement with them, it'd be nice if we could, you know, be sure there's never any uh discharge on the ground like the old ones. I think uh you know all the stories about pollution of the water or older systems where they discharged onto the ground and as long as it goes down the sewer and it's monitored the states in charge. Uh I don't know if I have an issue with the generators and the noise. Uh I can see that as being an issue. the city. I've seen two different maps you had for my property and if it ended up being housing and if they decided to put generators in the far southwest corner of their property there, you're right across the line from me. So then that's really going to ruin the property value that I would have and I'd like to see some kind of a way to make them have, you know, control the noise with their generators. But other than that, I don't think that there's any legal reason they can't be built and any issues would have to be handy to state level. So, thank you. All right. Thank you. Any other residents, property owners within Norwok or uh business owners that are down at the library?

Hi there everyone at city hall. My name is Ian Pope, 2714 Blooming Heights Drive here in Norwok. Um, I just wanted to point out we've had three people speak in favor of this so far. The first two are have received heavy tax incentives from the city of Norwok and are essentially in business with the city of Norwok. So, it makes sense that they would speak in line with you guys. Um, the third one is a former council member who has worked heavily on this project and is also heavily invested in this project and made a great point about us. um why would we want to farm if farming is dangerous and uh no one if it causes nitrates. The point there that I would like to make is that nobody would like us to stop farming. They would just like us to work on the mitigation that would prevent the nitrates from reaching the water. The point there is is that we're following the EPA regulations, the guidelines of the city and state, the very same guidelines that allow those to reach into our waterways as it is. So the fact that we're going to follow the regulations of our city, state, and federal government that have led us astray, that have led us to be the second highest cancer rate state in the nation. If we're going to continue down that path, and you guys are going to willingly enable that to continue, that's a major problem. Okay? I consider this to be a personal attack on my children who attend the school right next door to the data center. Okay? A lot of us have children there. This is a personal issue. This is not just money in the bank. Hey, a quick thing. We've just hit the lottery with this lucky deal that's shown up on our doorsteps. Okay, this is not just a bang for our buck deal. Hey, we got a free sewer and a free road. Look at us. We really got lucky here. Okay, this is the issue that we don't know the ramifications that these data centers lay out. We just simply don't know. We're taking what we just heard here in the initial portion of this meeting was a nicely polished sales pitch that was given from the city. A

sales pitch. It sounds pretty good when the curvy vacuum guy shows up at your door and he's speaking to you and he says, "Hey, buy a $1,000 vacuum." Well, shoot. After that guy finishes talking, it sounds pretty gosh darn good, does too, doesn't it? You know, you reach you. Let me go get my checkbook for that. I do think my current vacuum sucks. No, it turns out your current vacuum is just fine. Okay. The point is is that this is the robbery of our people and it's a being something pushed through by our council people right here today. And I hope that you guys listen to the people. The only three people that have spoken in favor of this are essentially on your payroll. The citizens that have shown up here today are concerned for right reasons and for valid reasons. And we should be heard on this. Okay. If this needs to get moved to a referendum, let the people vote. Let the people decide.

Thank you very much for your time. All right. Anybody else in the library from the city of Norwok?

I'll be really quick. I promise. I know everyone's tired. Um I'm still a little bit hung up on the water. Um just simply because the water supply doesn't seem infinite. I'm recalling last summer when we all had to um limit the use of our water. At least I did. I'm sorry. I'm Echo 8030 Echo Drive in Norwok, Iowa. um we all had to limit our water usage. So, I kind of really want a little bit more consideration to be taken into that because I think like I we can all cut back on irrigation if need be, but like if it comes down to us or the data center, who's it going to be? So, that's kind of a question. Um then like I haven't really heard a lot of talk and this isn't really you guys. I appreciate the presentation and explanation that has helped a ton. But I'm concerned that as kind of like a state, a nation, we don't talk a lot about eliminating e-waste, digital waste. Um, we are, we've talked on this call about environmental pollution and noise pollution that, but we need to talk about everybody has a responsibility to take down the levels that we're um consuming. And also I'm concerned about the prolifer proliferation of data centers. Um the data that I found online was that Iowa has 95 data centers in it. There's 69 in the metro area. Of course, these are all different sizes, but as the gentleman alluded to earlier, um you know, maybe some of these are um shell companies and it's going to be kind of like the dot bubble where we've got all these data centers and not enough use for them. Um, and lastly along that line, sorry, I I do have copies of this if anybody wants it, along with links for where I got all of my information, but another consideration that I haven't heard

anybody really talk about is data centers are kind of a target. um probably not in Norwok or Iowa, but much like our um electric companies and other areas, potential target for bad actors like domestic terrorists and international terrorists alike. So, it is a consideration. We're near an airport. We're near another data center. Just something to think about. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Anybody else at the library from that's a resident land owner or business owner within the city?

Hi Rocky Perkins 706 Kerman Circle. All right. So starting off, I wanted to talk about some of the economic things that seems like what you guys are really hamming in on that this is going to be beneficial for economics. But most data centers, especially the larger scale ones like the ones that's being posed here in Norwok, um MIT last July showed a study that 95% of these businesses that are invested in AI, like a lot of these data centers are, have failed to even generate a single dollar of profit. example you talked about open AAI uh chat GPT they have lost billions and billions of dollars and on top of that going back to the point about it being a shell company tract is a shell company they do buy the land develop it for the data centers and then come in this giant AI bubble that we are experiencing is going to pop it like they've com bubble and we will have a gigantic warehouse that is completely empty basically unfunctionable that's polluted and pretty much tarnished this community. Like my family has lived in this community for 60 years. I've lived here my whole life. I've seen this community grow and I like a lot of the things that we've been doing as a community. You know, Nor Rock Central, the whole uh like farmhouse and all that. Like I think it's good. I think we are building towards a great future, but this is not a this is not a a a good investment. It's a shortterm boom triple of cash and then nothing because every single study that shows with these data centers that it goes up about 22% for every business in the area that's you know retail hotels etc. And then once it's done it's done. That's just it's just a temporary influx of

cash and that's it. and 12 billion for projected 80 to 160 jobs. That's doesn't sound like a very good investment to me to the community because that would take hundreds of years to pay back just out of their pockets. Like let's think about the revenue that they would generate give to the city as tax revenue. And on top of that, I just think our city council needs to be more clear on what we are building and what we are bringing to community, especially close to me. This is like in my backyard like that could harm me, harm my family, harm my neighbors, you know, potentially because there's a lot of may you guys are throwing out and you guys are the ones planning. It might make our electric bills go up. It might there's a lot of may. And it feels like just offiscation or maybe they have sold you guys the river, sold you guys sunshine and rainbows because this is not going to pervert. I think it'll actively harm and assist. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Anyone else from the library? Okay. Anyone else from city uh city limits on Zoom or here in the room? Yeah. I will be quick. Uh Carolyn Gay, 7983 Abid Trail. I'm out on County Line Road. We're across from the mic.

Okay. Yep. Yep. So, I'm don't know if any of the neighbors are here or not, but I thought I would come and and give you my information. So, anyway, u Microsoft has been wonderful. Um we have a pond that's out there. At one point in time, we thought we had um they were moving dirt and it was coming into our pond. they immediately came out and they graph the the whole entire pond and um you know there wasn't and then they're going to also do it after um they're done with their work. So you know they wanted to work with us. Um we had one point um we had some concerns with the neighborhood. We got together and they we asked um if they would send a representative to come and talk to us about some things. And so sure enough, we set up a meeting and they were out there right away. Um, as far as the lights concerned, I must say, um, when they were first building, um, the lights were bright, shining in the bedroom, so we didn't need any nightlights, you know, but a little heavier curtain took care of the problem. It's now the downward lighting, so we don't have that issue anymore. Um they also um we had concerns about what kind of fence they were going to put up. And so I think there's a reason why the the fence is two different styles. You know, on one side it's up and down and you go around the corner and it's a different kind of

fencing. I don't understand what that's all about. But they've immediately put in um the landscaping.

They put a thousand trees in to cover up. Now they are little but we have time you know they will grow. So um that's been you know I see that as a positive. Um, probably the biggest issue I have with all this is that it's created a lot more traffic on County Line Road and so, you know, get off the Veterans Parkway and everybody zips through and it's, you know, but then that's the residents in Norwok that are cutting through, you know. So, um, we do now have street lights, which we asked for the city of Norwok when you annexed us, and you promised me we would get street lights, but we didn't get them, but Microsoft has put them in now for us, so you don't have to worry about it. But um no, if anybody has the concern as far as living next to it um oh another thing um that they've done since you know we've got what five buildings out there now it's cut down the noise from Highway 5. Oh, it

used to be very very quiet and then highway five got built and when it was built um the the noise and the truck shifting gears and you know and sure there was pollution from the vehicles going up and down five but it it has cut down the noise. I don't notice that as much, but when we first moved there back in um I've lived there since 1990, um I could hear railroad tracks. I mean railroad cars, trains. Yeah. And I thought, well, where is the train coming from? The closest train track I can think of is 63rd and Grand.

So, I mean, sound does travel, you know. So, um as far as a neighbor, they're they're great ne they're a great neighbor. They seem to if we have any concerns, they take care of it. And you know, we have John Blizzy that goes over and talks to him from time to time. We all know John.

So, I really I really appreciate your feedback as a person that lives close to one, right? Can you maybe just give us a little bit more? I think much concern has been talked about the ambient noise or low low noise and you talked about the the highway five, but would you just maybe talk a little about about your ability to hear the data center as it is with trees been burns and and like your real input on this matters as you're a resident and next door, right?

I hear nothing, especially inside and I go out and work in my yard, you know, all summer long and I don't hear anything from Microsoft. Every once in a while there might be a some, you know, um, piece of equipment dumps something in a pickup in a a hauler truck. I don't know. They're still building.

Yeah. And so you might hear something like that. Um right now I will admit and there's a couple neighbors that also say that um they've got these barriers up that line up along the parking lot and they're uh white and uh orange and they got the holes where you pick them up and you move them and all that. It's ugly. You know, it's really not pleasant to look over there and and see this. But you know, that's all going to go away when they get it finished. Um, it's all going to go away. We're not going to see that. The lights, like I say, they now shine down and, you know, I don't know what else to say, but we're The sound is not a problem.

Okay. And also, we've had um two houses and a lot come up for sale and they um Oh, I'm done. you can say two houses have sold in the last six months and a lot has sold in the last month in the area and you know they've gotten a great price for okay what they've got so it hasn't increase decreased our that so sorry thank you thank you

anybody else from Norwok Norwok business owners land owners oh here we Tim Cox, 532 Pine Avenue. Uh, my biggest concern would be from this data center would be the traffic from the construction company coming through there on Highway 28. They can't sustain that. The traffic now with those kids trying to cross the highway on Ash Drive and 28 is ridiculous. Those poor kids are dodging traffic with those flashing lights. It needs to have a stoplight there. It should have a stoplight down on right road, too. 5:00 in the morning. Those guys are rushing down that highway trying to get to work for some reason. I don't know why, but they're passing each other.

So, please your your concern around traffic. Is it related to the data center itself or any construction project that would happen there? It would be for the data center. You're talking three or 4 hundred people working there, they've got to come down Highway 28 to get there. So, that would be my concern. But if it was like uh another member brought up, if it was a large auto plant or a large other facility, there's going to be lots of construction workers. If it was a large campus build, not not if it was just a data center. So, your your concern is really traffic in general. It is okay. Please take that in consideration. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Others.

Okay. We will move next to are there any comments for who owns land in the annexation area

on Zoom or at the library as well? Okay, moving on. Are there any comments for anyone who lives outside of the city limits? We got two breaks. Come on. Sorry. And I'm not an expert on data centers, but I uh could you could you uh give us your name and address? Um, Roger Jacob, 28044620th Avenue, Nevada. Nevada. Nevada. Okay.

And, uh, I do have a forestry degree from Iowa State. And while I'm sure we need data centers, I don't think this area is the place to put one. Um, we do have a restored wetland there, Serenity Woods, 177 acres, which the city bought for $300,000, I believe. That you can correct me if that's not right. Um, it does probably have an endangered species on it, um, the Topeka Shriner. And from all the data that's collected, these are pretty well conclusive to destroying restored wetlands. So, you know, move the data center and they're also too close to the schools as someone mentioned before, but I don't believe this is the place to put a a data center.

Can you draw the correlation for me of this destroying of the wetland? Just so I understand the tie. What was the question? You said it it destroys the wetland, right? Yes. Can you draw the correlation for me? the uh emissions that they put from the water. And even though it's a closed loop, it uh the heat that's generated uh disposed into that wetland is going to kill the the uh wildlife that's there, including the endangered species. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. over here. Yeah.

Uh my name is Carrie Carney. I'm at 5912 25th Avenue in Norwalk. Um the we're just outside of the larger annexation area which borders our property on the west and the east river or the north river is just to the east across the gravel road from us. Um, I wanted to just I mean I'm concerned about what types of development that's coming around here and I am concerned about data centers. Um, and I wanted to address a couple of different things. One that I haven't heard yet is the cumulative impact of all the data data centers that are building in the area across the country. Cities and states are passing temporary moratoriums and bans until they can take a look at that impact of the number of data centers and the resource intensiveness that they um that they pose. The water usage I know on the slide you talked about 400,000 gallons. I it appears based on what you said that that's during the construction phase and we won't know the actual water usage until we know which company company it is that's doing the data center and what type of data center it is. So there is a huge difference between a regular data center and an AI data center. And AI data centers have a tendency to use anywhere from 500 or 5 million gallons to 100 million gallons of water a day. And that's a big difference from 400,000 gallons. Um, and being on wellwater, that that worries me, especially considering over the last decade, we've

been in drought more often than not. And between 2020 and 2024, this area was in a four-year drought. And if you look at Iowa drought map today, you'll see that we're moving towards drought again. And so, water shortages are real. And that's something we really have to consider. and the impact on our aquifers with all the data centers, so many kind of concentrated in like about a 10 mile radius here. We really need to take a look at that um energy usage and energy rates. I do want to just point out that February 2025, De Mo Register article talked about um Mid-Americ Energy said that they are feeling a crunch from the increased demand of data centers and that they are going to have to build more generation. And who pays for that generation but the rateayers. Allian Energy already has, they just raised in October 13% rates on residential rates for customers and they're talking about raising rates again because they're also having to build new generation. Um, if you look at what's been going on in Cedar Rapids around that data center and Lynn County, you'll see that that's a big concern. Um, the energy usage is pretty significant. And also if you look at how much energy they use, they use more energy than a community of 50,000 people. One data center.

Um just one more really quick thing. NDA non-disclosure agreements should only be there if it's around very specific propri proprietary information but are um environmental information such as water usage, energy usage, etc. should not be included in that and I urge you to adopt an ordinance like Lynn County did before you move forward on this. Thank you. Thank you. Hi,

Mel Gonzy, executive director, Norok Area Chamber of Commerce, 1043 Sunset Drive. I would like to share the following statement with the council and city staff. Um, data centers represent a significant long-term investment in the community's um, economic stability, generating millions of dollars dollars for property tax revenue that supports schools, infrastructure, and public services. Projects like this expand the local tax base, which can help stabilize or reduce the tax levy for residents and businesses while supporting responsible community growth, especially under legislative constraints, which I've been attending city council meetings since November, and I know that the budget cuts have been a huge um undertaking um by the city, and um it's been a real a real constraint. So this project would provide a lot of relief. Our elected officials, city staff live in our community and want nothing but the absolute best outcome for the future of Norwok because they live, work, and play here. um they would never jeopardize the quality of life of their residents because they are residents and I know all of you and I know and I trust that you'll make the best decision and I appreciate all the residents that have come and shared valuable information. I know you'll take that information and you'll research because I've I've been in these meetings and I see how you take all of the information and you really use discernment to come up with um the best outcome. So, I just wanted to share that with you.

All right. Thank you. Anybody else? Have a couple of the library. Okay. Yeah, we'll go library. Can't hear you yet. Oh,

there we go. Here we go. Hey guys, we all good? Doing good. Awesome. Uh, hi Eric. Hi Eric Zver. SL is here. Um, I'm gonna try to cut some of the fat out of here because I got a long one. I'm you guys are Wait, wait, wait. Hang on. Hang on. What's your name and address? Oh, my name's Gage Kaser. Uh, uh, 4421 Wanda Drive. Thank you.

So, I think these data centers are really bad news, and I want you guys I think you're aware, but these guys are sharks. I mean, they This is a company that's going to invest $12 billion. They have the money to pay the best people to lie to you, to make it look the best as possible, and to manipulate you. It's pretty obvious that there is blood in the water and these sharks are here and I feel like you're pushing our entire town in and no one wants to deal with any of these sharks. That's why a lot of people are here tonight. Um I assume that they might be paying you guys behind closed doors. I don't know. There's an NDA, so I don't know what's going on here. Um but uh you know I I think you guys are selling out our talent. I really do. I I think a lot of people don't want this just because it it's it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good to have a a big old data center in your town and a lot of people just don't want it for that alone. And then there are the concerns of all this health stuff that I don't even know all about. So I won't try to, you know, give you guys much facts about that. But I think there's going to be oversightes just like how we lost the skyline from Glade Cochester after you built that big stadium and we had the lights on all day. I think there's going to be oversightes and I don't know if I can trust you guys to map out all of these oversightes. So, please reconsider the NDA stuff so everyone can put their input in and point out where they are trying to screw you guys over because I I don't trust that you guys can just do it yourself. I I think you have to have a pretty big ego to think that our small town can go up against these billiondoll companies who just want to make money off of us. They don't care if we get sick or not. I'm not saying they're trying to make us sick, but they don't care if they make us sick. Uh I I just want to remind you these guys aren't

your friends. They just want to make money off of you. And and please consider that moving forward when you're dealing with them. I guess that's it. Okay, thank you. Anybody else from the library?

Good evening. My name is Patty Starmer. I live at 4422th Avenue and my concerns are uh probably for the energy usage as well as the environ environmental impact it could have. And I'd like to hitch on to what the lady that spoke previously about the energy usage. I just recently heard a report from the current administration regarding all of the data centers that were being built and that there was possible legislation asking them to even build their own substations. So I'd like that to just be put into the thought and consideration that goes into that if there would in addition to that would need to be a substation put in what impact that could have on this partnership or this project going forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Town Library.

We'll go to Zoom. Oh, we've got one more. Oh, got one more. Go for it.

We're past the Norwalk questions. Yeah. Okay. Um I'm Sophia Suarez, 3532 uh 28th Street. Um and I wanted to clarify a couple of things. Um it's been mentioned that the data centers keep popping up to suit growing demands. Um, according to Hank Green, who has a bachelor's in uh, let's see, I have it here somewhere. Uh, biological uh, sorry, biochemistry and a master's in environmental studies. The demand for data centers has already been satisfied and then some. there's some projected need that hasn't been explained by any of the AI companies um that are building all these data centers. So, I'm curious about what growing demands are actually productively being satisfied here. Uh and I'm wondering if it wouldn't be more uh sustainable for the town to keep their minds on some local industry instead. It's also seems to be on the map taking up a lot of waterfront and that waterfront uh like the gentleman said before with the wetlands I would like to reiterate heat from these data centers whether the water is released or not does affect the surrounding environment and it does mess with the uh microecology and then eventually the macroecology and with that much riverfront being so close to the data center a lot of that river ecology is going to be affected by the heat released. Uh, that's all I have to say. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Anybody else at the library? Resume. Yep.

Jackson Walsh, 2500 Logan Avenue. Um, I would just like to reiterate some of the points. Um, the proposed 400,000 gallons per day that you guys are using indicates that you will be using a closed loop cooling system. Um, and I just want asurances that the blow down water can actually be absorbed by the wastewater facility. And um I really don't think you guys can make any assurances that you can handle that. Um my other main point is the NDAs surrounding this. Um we don't know even what company is going to come in here. Like multiple people have said this is a shell company that is going to allow a giant like Google or Microsoft to come in and continue to raise the price of their stock at the cost of every citizen within anywhere within the watershed that you guys plan to dump that water because I guarantee you you cannot make assurances that your wastewater facility can handle the blow. low back water and particulate buildup that those closed loop cooling systems build up. So

sir, can I interrupt just a sec? Go ahead. Let me let me interrupt you for just a sec and we'll we'll you can reclaim your time at at that we didn't quite get your address. Could you give us your address again? 2500 Logan Avenue, De Mo, Iowa. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. I'd like to do that. I'd like to reclaim my time. Um,

you bet. the proposed plan as it is with the NDA surrounding it and the potential environmental risk and lack of um preparation in in case of many uh report purported risks is is dangerous and everyone in the state should be worried about an oversaturation of data centers. Um, this is frankly abhorentt. You guys should be ashamed and um that'll be it.

Thank you. Anybody else from the library?

Hi, Glen Dwey, 503 West Pine Avenue. I wasn't going to come up here and talk, but after having listened to the gentleman that just spoke out of de mo was Dwine De Moine, I live here. I want to back up everything that he just said and I want that going on record of concerns as a resident. You may disregard his not living here, but as a resident here, I'm putting this for Thank you. All right. Thank you. And thank you for keeping it brief.

Uh, anybody else at the library? Here comes someone.

Hi. Uh, my name is M. Bower. I live at 1320 Guy Lab, so kind of close to Norwok, I would say. Um, my biggest thing was this is why would we think a billion dollar company would care about our local economy and our community? What makes Norwok great as a community? Every single person I met from Norwok is just so kind and so interesting and so loving to their community. Everyone here cares about Norwok and we all know that. Why are we suggesting that a company that is just here to make a giant AI data center is here for us? When has big corporations ever been here for the people of our community? When have we ever benefited from that in any community? I I grew up in Indianola. Having a Walmart in our community crushed our local economy. When we invite big corporations to make easy money for a short-term investment with big risk, we are inviting our community to suffer not only ecologically but just on a general like basis. Everyone here is concerned about the children, the schools. I know you're saying we're going to get money back to the schools or sorry, Norwok is going to give tons of money from this for our schools. How do you know that's true based on something Dave told you? And earlier I would also like to maybe have this question answered. I emailed earlier because I was just curious. Um when um Miss Holly I I wasn't I didn't quite catch her last name. Um while she was giving her presentation, she was mentioning um what AI data centers or data centers sorry what they are used for and that she mentioned different AI tools and resources and on there I I might have misheard. So I would love to get some um feedback from this so I understand clearly that she said she used some kind of AI to get this data for her presentation. I might have misheard also. So I would just like some clarity on that. Um and if we are using AI for a presentation about why we should like AI, how does that not how to cancel each other out? Um, I guess just

my biggest concern is if we're really here for the people, you need to make it about the people and make it clear and concise on how this affects people because saying it might. You might see some extra charges on your energy bill, it might make our water a little unsafe. We don't think so, though. We don't think so. Or we don't. We know. We know it's not going to hurt us. That's the most important part. You should be thinking of everyone in this room, everyone in that room, everyone in your community before you think of how much money that you're going to revenue. Like get anything off this. It makes no sense to not consider that first. So yeah, that's a fair job. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else?

Anybody else in the room? I think we're good.

Good evening, elected city officials. My name is Bridget Bot. Um, we live on 53rd Avenue rights outside of the annexation. I'm here tonight to urge all of you to reconsider the approval of the data center development agreement and the use of the tax increment financing for the project. While data centers are often marketed as an economic win for communities, the research on these data centers provides a contrary and chilling story of how they decimate local communities. Um, we've heard several people come up here and talk. They were allowed to give big long presentations and what I can tell you is that there's just as much evidence out there that is contrary to the benefits of them and the negative impacts that they have on communities. Academic and peer-reviewed reports and studies show they cause air pollution, noise pollution, um excessive light pollution, water shortages, increased utility expenses, and um Serenity Woods was brought up. These are protected wetlands that the city purchased without understanding and realizing that they had conservation easements on them. The city has the responsibility responsibility to manage and protect those wetlands along with potential legal liability if that data center impacts those wetlands. You don't get to just say, "Oh, I guess they're dried up." that makes the taxpayers responsible for the damage done to those studies with these data centers also show health risks including increased rates of asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and you're talking about putting this data center near our schools, um residential homes, protected wetlands. You really can't find a better place for this in the community. These data centers also create strains on the water supplies and grid congestion. Those have been talked about by a lot of people. Um

the alleged purpose of this development agreement in your guys's agenda says to create commercial development which provides additional tax revenues, goods and services to this community. This mega data center will not provide goods and services to this community long term. It's a storage station for a billion-dollar tech company who has no investment in the people in this town. The agreement also repeatedly cites two tax increment financing and incremental property tax payments which generally divert funds from our schools and city services and probably are going to be to the benefit of the data center. City council members, this place and the library are not filled tonight because people are happy with this choice that you guys are making. They are showing up because they're not happy and they're concerned. I urge you to remember that you are elected officials and you are hired to represent what your community wants, not what Tract wants and not what you want. I'm going to ask you to stand with the people in your community. There have been almost 500 people who signed a petition who couldn't be here tonight. Many of them who do not want this to happen.

Thank you. Anybody else?

Hi. Uh, Robert Ryan. I live at 153 Ashton Drive and thank you for the opportunity to speak. Wasn't planning on speaking. Um, I just moved to Iowa. Never been to Iowa before. Love it. Love the rolling hills, all the waterways and stuff. Anyway, I took a job. We looked at not a hundred, but at least 60 homes and settled on Norwalk because I come from the country also, and anyway, it was a very attractive uh location. Anyway, my house that I just bought uh a year and a half ago basically. Um anyway, backs up to not the baseball fields and I don't know the name of that road behind my house because I never go on it, but um with a granite whatever pole barns and a granite business or whatever back there.

So, it's not that I'm opposed to uh businesses being back there or whatever, but I am very concerned about noise levels. Um, I have a 100acre woods uh farm up in over in Indiana that I still own. And they built similar type situation. They built a uh ethylene uh process ethanol processing plant in the home from that thing. I can hear it all summer long, all winter long, blah blah blah. It's definitely a concern for how close that is. I never would have bought where I did had I even had any inkling that this was being said. Um, now I'm I'm new. The company's bought me here, blah blah blah. And now after hearing about this, and that's why I'm here tonight, I'm considering having to put my house up for sale because I'm not going to listen to the home of something, let alone the water and the heat and all the other pollutants and stuff that everybody keeps bringing up, but the home, the sound alone, would just drive me insane. So, I would be moving out of New Rock and that was the only reason I wanted to come up and let you know. Okay.

Thank you. others.

My name is Brad Hoy. I live at 5099 Delaware. I'm one of the the the county bumpkins that have caused this stir. I've had numerous conversations with the city. I live within about an eighth of a mile of where this data center will be. will have a huge impact on me, my family, my grandkids, the city. I want to make sure that the emails that I sent to everybody. Um, is part of the public record. Um, I appreciate some of the back and forth emails that I've got. I think we have a lot of I agree to disagree comments in those emails, but I want to make sure um I just wanted to stand up and say that there's a lot of people here that are here for for the same reason I am. We just think this is a stupid idea for Norwok,

right? Um, yeah, the tax money is great. There's other ways to get it. I can hear in my backyard from down the street most evenings. It really, really messes up the solitude of my hot tub. The noise from down the street at winds, not winds or windows, whatever the name of the food plant is. I can hear their cooling towers going. Every once in a while we can get some smells and other noises. And so, um, I just want to make sure that that you I feel like this is a done deal. Yeah.

But what I really would like to say is please slow down. Right? You have the opportunity to slow down. There's four choices that that you can make tonight. And I want you to slow down, think about some of the ordinances, uh, as somebody said earlier, think about the different approaches and really take a look and say, is this the right thing? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else?

Hello, my name is Zayn Henley. I live at 5220 Delaware Street. Uh the data center would be approximately 150 yards from my house. So I have some skin in the game. Um I'm an engineer by trade, so I know the value of a good system versus a bad one. I know how much difference it can make. I probably have a little bit of a different um view of this than a lot of the other people. A lot of the other people have been saying yes or no. I actually don't think it should be a yes or no question. I think it should be what can we do to mitigate all the risks that everybody else has said. So, I think that we should try to get ordinances that account for all these issues. Because of that, I think you should um not vote yes at least on this until you have something in there that pushes for more meaningful community input in the master planning phase. And um I think you should have a community advisory process or a public review period before the site plan is finalized at a minimum. I also think you should um look at ordinances for all these things. So uh another thing people haven't discussed much is uh controls during construction. So everybody's looking at the data center, but we are actually going to be kicking off infrastructure projects way before the data center. So, we need to look at um probably our ordinances on light, sound, uh runoff from construction, traffic, and the hours that they work. Um lights, especially at night, they need to be pointed away from residences. Uh the sound, we can hear the sewer construction right now. So, we just need to make sure that I would say those hours are limited. Um I think everything else is. I also think you should think about a remediation procedure if any of the um stipulations that you impose are

violated because any rule without enforcement is nothing. Uh also, um there was also just a uh a similar project in Altuna and they had um a comprehensive agreement where they actually listed some stipulations uh and they were able to get some changes made. So I think we should model the Altuna agreement and because of that I think you should um pick one of the options where you don't approve the agreement tonight and you say that we you know we need to go back and look at it. We need to put some of these things in effect before we approve it. Thank you.

Thank you. Any others?

Good evening.

My name is Candy Henley. I live at 5120 Delaware. Once again, I'm in that area. My land backs up to this mess. I first off want to say that y'all can talk about how you're going to turn this around so that we don't have light, don't have the noise and all of that. How well did that work with Michaels and Windsor? Because I can tell you there is a lot of light pollution from them. There was a lot of noise pollution from them. I've lived at that between my grandparents and I. We've been out there since the 60s. I have seen the changes and this is not going. I was here for the annexation discussion. I was told by you guys that there would be several things that were taken care of in that that weren't. So now all of a sudden we're supposed to just believe that all of this that you're telling us is the way it's going to happen. I'm sorry. I'm not believing you. I have plenty of proof. I mean plenty of real life experience with you guys telling us what we want to hear and not following through on it. I am very concerned about what you have planned for Delaware Street with what all of the traffic from Michaels and those and people now that understand that they can come up Delaware to go around Norwok because they don't want to sit at the obnoxious stoplights. I live on a highway now and it's still gravel. If you make it pavement, it's going to be 10 times worse. On top of that, when we were here for the annexation meeting, I brought up the fact that we're having speed problems. We're having

totally inconsiderate drivers and not a thing has been done. We're talking cars. I live from a corner to my house there. You can hear the cars to see how fast they can get going to go up and down that gravel road. Now, tomorrow, if any of you want a lot of fun, if we get the rain we're supposed to, come drive down Delaware. You're not going to be able to get through to it or through it because of the increased traffic that all of your other projects have made. So telling me that it's going to be great to go ahead and pave this because that's going to get rid of that. You're taking my quality of life and trashing it. The other point is I keep hearing over and over about all of the money this is going to bring in. Since when is Norwok more concerned about money than quality of life? You're talking about people that have moved to this area because they want the experience of living in Norwok and now all of a sudden you're going to build this close to Minich to the schools. You've got residents that live there and you're telling us that none of us matter that the money is more important. Y right. Thank you. Any others?

Okay, anybody online? Yeah, come on up. Bot 5670 53rd Avenue. Sorry, can you repeat that? Brentbot, 5670 53rd Avenue. Thank you. Uh, just wanted three things for you to consider. one with the runoff and with the wetlands. I don't know if anybody here has ever built a house, but just the water coming off your roof and the gutters, it changes everything. So, what whatever you build, data center, factory, whatever, it's going to change the watershed and that is going to affect the wetlands. And if I'm not mistaken, if you destroy wetlands in Iowa, you have to rebuild them somewhere else.

So, that cost is going to come on the city. So, think about that. And the last point is with the cost benefit or the the taxation benefits. I didn't see one example from Altuna or West De Moines. And as far as I know, those taxes are public. So why weren't real examples put into that? That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? I should point out too that you didn't do a full three minutes. So, I'm going to give him a little bit. Okay. Restoring a wetland is not cheap.

There's a 17 acre wetland that was restored for 700 million. Okay. Thank you. You took your full three minutes. So, yes. Did you? Okay, just a little bit. It's just a real quick question. Don't even have to answer it. State your name and address. My name is Eric Severs, 9171 Ponderosa Drive. So, from some of the other conversations, one thing I did forget to ask, is this an AI data center or is this a storage data center? There's a huge difference there, especially on heat, water usage, things of that sort. That would be something good to know before reading this and for the public to know. So, I just wanted to throw that out.

Thank you. Anybody else? We're gonna go once. Can I twine? Can I ask a general question? Quickly. Does the NDA prevent you guys from knowing what kind of data center it is? Okay, thank you for the question. Uh, going twice. All right, we're done with all the public input. Uh, Lindsay, have we received any oral or written comments on this?

We have um mostly in email form. All of the emails I received have been forwarded to all of you. They are available to the public if requested. I will state in the public record that I have received emails from the following. Levi Wright on February 26th, Jackson Walsh, February 27th, Zayn Henley, February 27th, Eric Severs, February 28th, Blake Hoover, February 28th. Uh, Randy Nation, March 1st. Henry Mesa, March 1st. Caitlyn Hobin or Hoben, March 1st. Brad and Sherry Hoy, March 2nd. Glenn and Jana Bowen, March 2nd. Jim Starkweather, March 2nd. Tommy Nation, March 2nd. Harry Fletcher, March 3rd. Candy Henley, March 3rd. Katie McIntyre, March 4th. Bridget Bot, March 4th. Rory Taylor, March 4th. Sean Holloway with the Norwok schools, March 5th. Alan Coyle, March 5th. Laura Kelner, March 5th. Tim Hortzson, March 5th. Uh, as of today, you have in front of you two other uh, packets of information letters I received in person today. I also emailed you to them. They were from Eli or Ellie Geesler. No address given and I could not find that on the Warren County Assessor site. And from Larry Sherk at 6061 Delaware Street.

Okay. Thank you. So with that, we're going to close the public hearing at what is it 8:30 p.m.? Moving on. Item 6B is a resolution approving a development agreement with ALCO. uh Warren County 2 LLC authorizing annual appropriation tax increment payments and pledging certain tax increment revenues to the payment of the agreement. Now that we received public comment on the development agreement, this will be a discussion between staff, council, and myself. Uh during our discussion, I still expect members of the public to be respectful and civil. Uh as I said earlier, we may disagree, but we've respectfully heard your information. uh you can respectfully hear our discussion. Uh Holly, do you have anything to add?

Um I wanted to make one quick clarification. I meant to earlier in the presentation with the um diesel generators as backups that the data centers are powered, they connect into the grid. They're not powered by the diesel generators. Those are just backups. But I think Andy kind of clarified that as well. Okay. So just to reiterate, so it's in the microphone, the diesel generators that are used are they the the data centers will be hooked up into the power grid. The the diesel generators are used as backup only. Correct. So if the power fails, they're going to run for a while. Correct. Okay. Uh anything else? I don't think so.

Okay. Uh I would like to remind council that our purpose statement as on the back wall says preserve and improve why people want to live work and work in Norwalk. That's where we that's what we want to do. That's our purpose here and I think we all take that very uh seriously. Uh Jason Brown who did they win lost tonight which is too bad. Jason Brown was at the at the at the game tonight. uh because his daughter is playing uh he wanted me to read a statement for him. Says, "Dear mayor, f fellow council members and members of the community. Uh I regret that I am unable to attend tonight's meeting and participate in the discussion regarding the proposed data center project. I don't however regret the reason for my absence. Our daughter is a member of the Nors basketball team and they are as we speak playing in the semi-finals of the state tournament. Go Warriors." Uh, serving on the city council carries a responsibility that I take seriously to act as a steward of our community's future. Stewardship means protecting the qualities that make our community a good place to live today while also carefully considering decisions that will shape it for decades to come. That responsibility becomes especially important when evaluating projects that generate significant public interest and thoughtful practical questions from residents. Many residents have raised concerns about potential environmental impacts such as noise, lighting, air quality, and the overall footprint of this project. Those concerns are understandable and deserve careful consideration. While I respect these concerns, it is important to recognize that a modern data center does not involve chemical manufacturing, combustion processes, or the types of emissions associated with many traditional industrial facilities. In many respects, a data center operates more cleanly than other types of manufacturing or warehouse facilities that communities routinely approve. As I have carefully considered the many

concerns raised, three seem to be uh rep three seem to represent what feels genuinely new and different. Water usage, electrical demand, and the broader association of data centers with large technology companies and the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Water has understandably been a central topic in this discussion. In Iowa, conversations about water often involve two related but distinct concerns. Water availability and water quality. Water quality is one of the most important environmental challenges facing our state and deserve serious attention from policy makers and communities alike. However, the presence or absence of a data center does not address the underlying causes of Iowa's water quality challenges. Those issues are complex and statewide in nature. data centers are, for lack of better word, water quality neutral. While I too am concerned about water quality in Iowa, I don't believe it is relevant in the case of this project. Water consumption is relevant. Data centers generally consume more water than other industrial users. As part of this discussion, however, it is important to understand how water is currently used in our community. Across the De Moines metro, residential irrigation accounts for significantly more water use than data centers. That does not mean water use by a data center should be ignored, but it does provide important perspective. Denying this uh particular project would not mean meaningfully reduce overall water consumption in our community. If our community members sincerely want to reduce water use, that conversation will ultimately need to include the everyday activities, especially irrigation, that account for the largest share of our water demand. I'm ready for this conversation if it's one of the citizens if it's one the citizens of Norwok want to have. Electricity usage is also relevant. Data centers require significant electrical capacity. However, utilities such as Mid-American Energy cannot simply raise rates based on increased demand. Any change in electric rates must go through a

regulatory review and receive approval from the Iowa Utilities Commission, which exists specifically to ensure that rate changes are justified and fair to consumers. It is worth noting that the last time Mid-Americ applied for and received a rate change in Iowa was 2014. In other words, these changes happen rarely. If history is any indication, I don't believe a data center will significantly impact the cost of our electricity. I also believe part of the discussion surrounding this project may reflect a broader uneasiness people feel about the growing influence of large technology companies and the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Those concerns are understandable and communities across the country are grappling with similar questions. While these issues have not always been stated directly in our local discussions, I suspect they are influencing how many people think about the idea of data center being built in our community. people who people are understandably asking larger questions about where technology is heading and what role it will play in our future lives. I ask these questions myself. At the same time, the presence of a data center in our community does not determine how those technologies evolve or how they are governed. The those larger questions will ultimately be addressed through national policy, global markets, and broader societal decisions. The decision before us locally is more specific whether this particular facility can operate responsibly within the environmental standards, infrastructure systems, and regulatory framework that already govern development in our community. I believe it can. As your elected representative, it is also important to consider the benefits of this project will bring. It represents significant long-term investment on our community and will bring uh will generate substantial property tax revenue to support services such as schools, infrastructure, and public safety. And not all tax revenue is created equal. The tax revenue generated by data centers places relatively modest demand on public

services such as schools, roads, and emergency services compared with many other forms of development. The project will also create construction jobs during the building phase and highly skilled technical jobs once the facility is operational. In many community communities across the country, data center operators have proven to be strong community partners, supporting local nonprofits, contributing to civic initiatives, and investing in the places where their employees live and work. I believe this will be the case in Norwok as well. As I consider this proposal, one that I believe is ultimately beneficial to our community, my focus remains on ensuring that growth in our city happens responsibly, protecting natural resources, maintaining reliable and affordable infrastructure for residents, and ensuring that development respects the character of our community. Equally important is the expectation that any company seeking to build here must be a responsible long-term partner. One that operates transparent transparently, follows environmental standards, and remains engaged with the community over time. In many ways, the conversation we are having tonight reflects a broader question about how communities evolve. Nearly every home, farm, barn, and business in our city was once built on land that had previously been open or undeveloped. The neighborhoods we live in today exist because earlier generations chose to build, invest, and create a community here. Many of the residents who care deeply about protecting the character of this area are themselves part of that story. Like many communities across Iowa, our landscape reflects decades of decisions by people who chose to build homes, farms, and businesses on land that was once open. Because of that shared history, the question before us is not whether change and growth will occur. Change and growth has always been a part of our our story, but how we guide that change and grow and growth responsibly so that the community we pass on to future generations remain

strong, livable, and resilient. Public input plays an essential role in helping the council understand both the opportunities and the responsibilities associated with projects like this. I sincerely appreciate everyone who has taken time to participate and share their perspective. Although I cannot be present this evening, I look forward to reviewing the discussion and continuing to carefully consider all feedback as we turn as we determine what is best for our community, not only today, but for the years and generations ahead. Thank you for your time and for your continued commitment to our city. Respectfully, Jason Brown. Uh last So, what comments, discussion, questions does council have? It seemed like we've got really two different topic areas that were presented tonight.

Can you get closer to your mic, please? Sorry. Sorry. Can you hear me now? Yes.

Okay. I think we've got two different topic areas that were discussed tonight. What's what's really in front of us to consider is is a uh authorization for development agreement. Right? That's really what we're talking about. Most of the concerns uh are really how we design site plans and how we uh set up our uh code requirements and what's appropriate, what isn't appropriate and that sort of thing. So they're actually two different things. And so I see it that way. I see it as what we should consider is the the agreement for the use the development of the property and then a separate issue is how we deal with all these concerns about the plant. The third topic that kind of came up tonight is a growing community and how that changes things where you live. I uh owned an acreage and in earlier in my life very nice out in the country. Really liked it and they built this nuclear power plant right down the road. I didn't like it. No, I'm a pretty small fish in a big pond. I had a lot more hair before they built that nuclear power plant. I want you to know that. But um the point is I guess I was talking with the county because it was under a county jurisdiction and the chairman of the board mentioned to me he said you know captain I was a captain then and he said uh unless you own that land you don't really get to say what's on it. Now, there's some truth to that because in zoning, we can determine the type of thing that might go on it, but we can't say what's going to be on that land,

just the person that owns the land. Okay? We can write rules about how they can build it. We can do that as long as they're reasonable. So, those are kind of the things that are in front of us, I think, tonight. And when I go into the coffee shops, because I like the coffee shop a little bit, what I hear from people is, "You're going to build that, aren't you? We want that tax money." Part part of our job is to represent not only those people that are here in the room that are part of Norwalk, but the 15,000 people that aren't in this room. and what do those 15,000 people want and what's best for the community overall. Right? So those are things in my mind and just for the record I haven't gotten a single dollar from this company.

Don't anybody know that? Yeah. But anyway, those are things that are in my mind as to how to kind of look at else have any thoughts? Yeah, I'll get some of that. I'm trying to repeat it everything else said already, but can you hear me?

Um, I'm going to touch on what Mrs. Abbott was saying. Uh, I live with within 3/4 of mile of the data center on uh on County Line Road and uh I go by there and quite honestly I don't hear anything uh except construction which is normal. Uh and and another thing with that uh uh as you mentioned there were some home sales out there. We're talking about value and depreciation. I know one of the people sold their homes and they had bought it, it's public record. I won't mention names. You can look it up if you want to. Uh they bought the property in 2018 for 392,000. They walked away selling it in December for 565,000. So I don't think it affected the property values.

Remember that. Maybe they could have got 600 and some. I don't know, but can't really say that. But it certainly didn't go down from 2018. They did a little work to it. I'm sure that. But they didn't really expand it. They just just put it to their style, I guess. But anyway, so that that's my own research. Uh my other research is I just trying to figure out how much rain we get. I I was a little high. They used uh to 36 in of rain on 282 acres. And if you could capture all that rain that falls on this site, it would be 574 days of peak water usage by at 400,000. Okay.

Yeah. Now, I know we're not going to capture that water, but you never know. And so, they know that maybe they will. They can clean it themselves and use that water. But uh that was uh yeah that's be on 36 inches might be a little high but 30 inches is still a huge amount of water. Just a point of showing how much water is actually being used. It could literally be captured on that property during the year. That's it. That's respectable. Great. Thanks.

I just want to reiterate with the comments that Ed made. I think that we're so good, right? That separating the the development agreement for moving forward versus the actual construction phase and it being there and what ordinances we need to put in place to feel good to preserve and improve and protect the people that live in Norwok. Those are two very different things. And I think Ed spoke about it really really well about if if we are to approve this there are things that we need to make sure that we're doing right around always noise ordinances light pollution and make sure that we feel good about that as we go forward. Great. And I think the construction traffic is an issue that has to be dealt with once it gets once it gets

which again would be the case no matter what goes there. True. Correct. True.

Yeah. And and maybe another question or comment, Kelsey, I are new to the council and someone spoke earlier that lived out there and talked about the speed at which people are coming through there. Um, as Norwok continues to grow, a big thing for me is being able to navigate Norwok and get around. I don't want us to be Anankeny. I think the traffic and other communities in our in our metro are terrible. I feel like we can get about anywhere in 30 minutes in the metro and when you're in Anchen, you can't get across Ankeny in 30 minutes. And so I think continuing to understand traffic, where roads need to be, how we navigate this city, like that's important. And I think that the city is doing a good job there. And as we continue to grow, we're going to need to think about east, west, northhouse traffic, and how we get around this town. And while it might be a challenge as a road is gravel or partially paved and people are trying to get by stoplights, this that's an important factor in this, too. Yeah. My three biggest takeaways and action items are mitigation like have already been said with light with sound and serving on the parks and recreation commission as a resident for years before this. Um protecting our parks is a huge priority to me. So that's also at the forefront of my priorities with this. I think that it lies very differently um than what we're voting on tonight though again um and also just to be on record the there are volunteer positions like what I served on and learned more about our community and how the parks and recreation department works and those decisions and where that money comes from to add values across our community. And I highly encourage everybody that was here tonight that's clearly passionate about our community to apply and interview for a lot of those positions whenever they come up. They're on couple year cycles. Um,

thank you for saying that. Yeah, that's good job. I Yeah, so those are my three biggest takeaways. Those are my action items and my priorities moving forward on this. Um, and I do what I say I'm going to do. That's how I ended up here. All right. Anything else?

I I have one more uh comment or question. Um, I think everybody on the council has done a lot of research. They've talked to a lot of people. We've I think we've done a fair amount of due diligence. I think one aspect that I hadn't thought about and we've it's been talked about a little bit is the environmental wetlands that are close to there. Um, and I think understanding liability if of impact in the future, whose liability is that? Is that does the city have any play in there because we're allowing it to get built? Is it tracked? um that then developes or is it then whoever they sell to to have a data center there if something were to happen? Yeah, that's good question.

Okay. Uh before we take this up before I ask for a vote, I would like to thank everybody for being here. Uh I really really appreciate the input. Again, we may disagree, but I there are there are things that were said tonight that I think you're hearing from everybody here that there are we still have some work to do as far as mitigating some of the risks that are associated with with this development and we're going to do that work. Uh with that said, does anybody want to make a motion? I got a lot of notes.

Yeah, go for I took notes while we were hearing everything and I just want to make sure that we addressed uh the question I didn't fully understand it. My note literally has four question marks after it. Um but about Norwok getting paid back if something falls through or something. That was a question that we said we would address and I am not really sure that we

Yeah. And that's something that I can answer. Um, generally in our development agreements for anything, anytime the city has any type of debt that we've incurred or we anticipate using TIFF as the financing mechanism to pay back that debt, we ensure that the city gets paid first. So the first revenues to flow in is assurance that the taxpayers aren't saddled with any debt, that it comes from that business being created. And to answer the question, yes, that is the case in this agreement. In fact, uh the developer specifically requested that we put together some of uh debt repayment schedule and Jean, our finance director, she put together six different possible scenarios to give them an idea of what that timeline would look look like for PayPal. So to answer the question, yes, that is within this development agreement and we consistently do that. And the purpose is to prevent risk for our other taxpayers in the community.

Thank you. Before you vote on this, sorry, we have anybody. I'll make a motion. I got a motion to approve. And okay, so I got a motion by Cool is seconded by Miki. Do we have any further discussion from council? I I just had one other point and I I don't know if we can bring it like the the school tax levy. I know we've been talking about that. Is that public record? Yes. It's going to go down at a little over a dollar.

So, and and I think understanding that tax levies and how they're h how that works, right? Holly brought up and showed in the slide that part of the data center tax in the future would go to to schools. I want you to also remember we have other data centers not in our city but in our Norwok school district where we're already getting monies from those data centers and I'm not on the school board and I can't maybe exactly comment on dollars but I know some of that tax money was used to do upgrades or improvements to our schools the impact our new our new sports complex at the school which was in my opinion sorely need needed as a large school in the gym that we played in before couldn't hold our our teams, our events, other things. And so there is one bright example of some dollars that the data centers, not in our city, but in our school district, have helped out our community. And I think that's improved many quality. Many of you have talked about you have children, they go to school here, maybe they're not in high school yet, but that's an that's an important p facet to many people's lives is playing sports, being able to work out and do that. And so that's a great example of it,

right? They were able to build Orchard Hills Elementary and the impact without changing the letter because of data center. So all right motion by Cole sec seconded by Mike. Any other any other discussion from council Lindsay would you please call roll? Council member Mine yes. Porter yes. Bourjon yes. K. Yes. All right that motion carries. Okay, we're going to take a 15minute recess. Uh, it is 8:54 and we'll be back. Let's just say 16 minute recess. We'll be back at 9:10.

Everybody ready? All right. We're still going. We made a motion. All right. Uh we are back in session. It is 9:11 p.m. Item 6 C is a public hearing regarding the city of Norwok's capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2027. We'll open up the public hearing at 9:11 p.m. So these are the big projects the city is going to undertake and fund between July 1, 2026 and Jul and June 30th, 2027. This public hearing is meant to get input from residents on the proposed CIP. Jean, I'll turn it over to you.

So long evening. Um, I put the presentation that I would have probably done at 6:30 or 7:30 in front of you. Um, so I'm going to maybe summarize it a little bit. Um, also I don't know if my ears work anymore. Um, on the slides I incorporated the elected officials who champion these plans and projects. I mean, and I based it on Norwok's Envision 2035 strategic plan and the big projects list. um that was prioritized by elected officials. Some of the projects fit fit under multiple categories and that and have been listed as such. And so you'll notice in those some of the uh projects are championed by multiple elected uh people. The total budget is uh for fiscal year 27 capital improvements plan is 25.1 million. 10.5 million of this is from grants or other sources and reserves. 4.3 million is from road use tax and enterprise funds. Enterprise funds are water, sewer, and storm water. 2.1 is from lost revenues. And then 8 million will be from our debt service or tip taxes. Our rate is not going to change from 14.88. Our debt service rate will be $3.50 per,000. And then that's the 8 million um that will fund those principal and interest payments plus any other payments we have fire with that you have the reports. Uh in the slides I did put um I just highlighted some of the larger projects and then I have maps for those. Um, with that, uh, if you have any questions, um, I will add that we will have another budget meeting, the formal budget meeting, uh, April 16th. If we want to dig into these a little bit more, we

can. This is a public hearing if anyone else wants to speak, which I think a lot of people, uh, were here for another reason. Um, but I have nothing further unless you have questions. No, I don't have a question for you, but I have a question for us. the the traffic studies at Orchard Hills, the high school intersection, are are those not big enough to be in here or and are those traffic studies part of 27 CIP? Does that make sense?

We had in the council packet tonight a traffic study at Orchard Hills Drive and Orchard Hills Elementary School to start a study there. Lakewood Drive or Lakewood School. We're funding design. So, we'll just start design July one for the improvements. But the Orchard Hills is three years out probably before we'll see improvements. We want to do a study to see if there's anything we could do in the interim. The high school then is um the priority for the high schools after Orchard Hills and after Lakewood Drive. So, it's not currently budgeted.

Yes. I a couple of us talked about like the Orchard Hills school. I think there's a good solution in mind, but I get why we want to do a study um to kind of ratify that or have experts tell us that. But that would be my like is that one we would want to do sooner than later because I think we know what we want to do. But that that's my opinion, I guess. Right.

There's So you're right that Well, Orchard Hills Drive and Lakewood School, Orchard Hills Elementary and Lakewood School Elementary are both a high priority and according to the school, they're both equal priority. They wouldn't put put one above the other. We talked internally as staff that the issues at Orchard Hills are probably seem more they're newer to people and they're just not youth used to it. So it seems like a more of a burden. Lakewood school has been a burden for a long time. People are used to it but it's probably worse there. So internally we prioritize Lakewood school for design right away and we'll do a study on Orchard Hill to see if we need to do anything in in the meantime.

Yeah. I think the main thing with Orchard Hills might be to be mindful that if we do a traffic circle there to make sure that we don't conflict with ourselves authorizing anything out in those corner areas that we'll need to consume. Yeah. just does that does that rate look pretty consistent with the prior prior one? It's up a little bit. Our our overall rates going to stay the same. The only difference is in the debt service rate and it's going up about 8 cents.

Eight cents, but it's coming down in another. So, the overall rate staying the same. Well, okay. For one thing, the 22 cents comes off the federal fund. That's statemandated data. And then we have a little bit of expense that goes up in the FICA based on wages because that's a percentage of wages. And then we have a little bit of an increase in the insurance levy about I might have misspoke. I think it's like 12 cents to the service, but the overall levy is same. Good. Thank you. you know, kind of a a real big picture view of what Jean just said is that the main budget that we use to pay for operations like government activities, uh,

that is going down. The the portion of our budget that we use to pay for putting things in the ground, on the ground, like those kind of investments, that's where the dollars are being shifted to. So if you're somebody of the mindset that you want to see government be less just as an example, the numbers are working out that way. We can build stuff we just can't afford to take care of, right? Thank you. It's good that we have growth. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Lindsay, have we received any oral rent comments on this? We have not.

Okay. Any public comment? Okay. Hearing none, we'll go ahead and close public hearing at 9:17 p.m. Item 6D is resolution adopting the city of Norwok capital improvement plan budget for fiscal year 2027. So, we just had a public hearing on this. Jean, anything else? All right. Uh, what comments, discussion, questions does council?

Loving the Beardsley 50th tie in just the other day. Yes. Just the other day again, I saw an older gentleman. I I about stopped, but he's getting a workout in to give him a ride, but up that hill on 50. I mean, it is so dangerous. Yeah. And I I've seen pedestrians, too, runners get into the bike trail to go up and um but it's an issue. So, I'm excited for that. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Right. Anybody want to make a motion to approve the resolution presented? Motion. Second. Okay. So I got a motion by John, seconded by Porter. Any further discussion? Lindsay, would you call the role? Council member Porter, yes.

Borjan, yes. Uh, cool. Yes. Mine. Yes.

All right. That motion carries. Item 6E is a public hearing regarding a zoning amendment to change all R1 zone lots in plats David Gordon Heights, Westwood Estates plat 1 and two uh and Norwok Nullles plats 1, two, and three from R1 single family residential to RF founders residential. So we'll open up public hearing at 9:19 p.m. So Luke, correct me when I'm wrong. Uh we have some situations in these areas where some things were built to what was code at the time but that now don't meet code. Uh some of these are in condition in a condition that they need to be replaced. But new code means that they would need to move due to setbacks which is a burden to the homeowners. So this public hearing is meant to get input from residents on the resoning. I'll turn it over to you.

Yep. That's the basic gist of it. Um the area that you read off of various plats. Apologize for the clunkiness of that and the weird shape, but uh you see on the map there all of the R1 zoned areas. Um we had a gentleman come to council last fall asking for the city to uh look at something to be able to let him rebuild his garage uh in its current location. Um we did some look at other areas that had similar type issues. um and just our general knowledge of folks we'd had to deny in the past. And uh this is kind of the area we came up with. So it'll change it to our founders district uh residential zoning which is the same zoning kind of the south area south of uh North Avenue. Um mainly letting there be shorter side setbacks and it shortens up front setbacks and rear setbacks a little bit for principal structures. So if somebody wanted to do like a porch extension or something, it it lets them do that as well. Luke, I'm sorry I didn't ask this question before. Uh, east side of Holly Drive, south of Null, east side of Lynen Drive. Are those not included in this?

Correct. Those are actually R2 lots. Okay. Yep. All right. Fair enough. Okay. Uh, Lindsay, we received any oral written comments? We have not. Any public comment, Lucas? Any other area like on the other side of Highway 28 zoned the same way? Like I think about like the residential kind of over by the post office and maybe farther south on Cherry.

Yeah. Um it it mixes a little bit over there. Probably if if we were to look at saying we wanted to do this again, it would probably be that area from like east west of Cherry and kind of north of of North Avenue, right? Kind of behind the library and stuff, but it's not as cut and dry. Like it's more peace meal there where there are some that aren't. Um that's probably the area when you start transitioning a little bit to more uh houses that were built under the modern zoning. So yeah, or at least fit that standard. A matter of time then before potentially. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Any any other any comments? I'm glad that uh this came up actually because had a lady at my house got a letter and she wanted to know what the deal was, you know, and how come was she going to have to change the setback and move things and all that? And I said, you know, it usually doesn't work that way. Usually things are grandfathered if you have to replace it, right? When you replace it, then you might have to meet new code, right? And so anyway, so I appreciate this and now I could go back and tell her and she can take a nice deep breath that what you're trying to do is help the people that live there now. Yep. Right. And so we're going to take a look and see the way things really

correct and and not bother. Thank you. All right. So, we will go ahead and close public hearing at 9:22 p.m. Item 6F is first reading of an ordinance amending the official zoning map for the city of Norwok, Iowa by reszoning all R1 zone lots in plats David Gordon Heights, Westwood Estates Plats 1 and two, Norwok plats one, two, and three from one single family residential to RF founders residential. We just had a public hearing on this. Luke, anything else? Nothing new. Comments, discussion, questions from council. Can I get a motion to approve the first reading? Second.

Okay. Motion by Porter, seconded by Cool. Any further discussion? Lindsay, would you please call RO? Council member Bourjon. Yes. Cool. Yeah. Mine? Yes. Porter? Yes. All right. Motion carries. Item 6G. This public hearing regarding a zoning amendment related to the bulk regulations and for accessory structures in RE1 single family single family rural estates R1 single family residential and RF founders residential zoning districts and an amendment to zoning ordinance chapter 175A.29.2 accessory buildings and residential zoning districts. So we'll open up the public hearing at 9:24 p.m. Luke, I'm just going to let you take

Yeah. So the first one uh 175A.29.2 is just a cleanup of uh in that section we call the founders district RTC. History of that is originally we were going to call it the the residential town center district and a former council member liked the name founders district. That's kind of what we've called that area. So we changed it for 10 years. We've just had that in there and it's been applicable and so we're just cleaning it up in this situation. What we're really focused on here is that same gentleman that kind of uh came to council and initiated the last item you all talked about. Um also wanted to to explore the idea of building a bigger garage than what he currently had. Our code currently says that um for accessory structures like garages uh it says in no instance shall an accessory structure exceed the principal structure in building area or gross floor area. So, what that means is if you've got a small house, small footprint, you're limited in the size of garage you can do. Um, there are a good number of garages specifically in that neighborhood we just talked about that are a good amount bigger than their homes. Uh, I, you know, maybe built before this. We don't always get building permits for things sometimes, too. It's hard to say exactly what's going on in those scenarios, but they do exist. So, uh, we kind of talked through it as staff. um really just came down to the the change that we felt would would allow people to do a little bit more large accessory structures would be striking that sentence I just read you. Um there's also a sentence that talked about the cumulative floor area of all permitted detached accessory structures not exceeding 10% of the lot area. We're recommending increasing that to 20 because once you kind of pull that sentence I just talked about out about not being bigger than the house. Then there were some weird instances when we

ran numbers in certain scenarios where the 10% became pretty limiting. So if we increase it up to 20% for the most part people should be able to do pretty standard stuff and have them be larger than their homes. Um, I don't really have an issue with like we're kind of agnostic, I guess, on it from a staff perspective. It's not going to be harder for us to administer. Um, we're talking about structures that are in rear yards for the most part. So, it doesn't really change the uh appearance of the community from a kind of street view area. So, um, we don't have a whole lot of uh concern about approving it. So, we've prepared it and recommend it.

Lindsay, have we received any oral or written comments on this? Well, there was a lady on Zoom, but she has since gone away. Uh, Connie Garrison, I don't know what she wanted to talk about, but she just told me she wanted to speak on this item, but she Okay,

I can just She was at our P&Z. Um, and we did hold a neighborhood meeting. Um well, she was likely talking about the item that you guys already approved because that's what the meeting was for. Um but uh she just had some concerns about what that would have done as far as uh reducing those garage setbacks and then you'd have two garages that would be 6 feet away from each other instead of 10t and then what does that do with firewalls and fire code things and just some general concerns about that. So, I do know that she was not in favor of uh making that change. So, um we can try and get some more information for you from her uh going into the next reading if you'd like. We'll see soon as she shows up.

Okay. Okay. Any other public comments? hearing. None. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing at 9:28 p.m. Item 6H is the first reading of an ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of Norwok, Iowa by changing the bulk regulations for accessory structures in RE1 single family re rural estates R1 single family residential and RF founders residential zoning districts and amending zoning ordinance chapter 175A 90.29.2 accessory buildings in residential zoning districts. So, we just had a public hearing on this. Anything else, Luke? Nope.

All right. Discussion, comments, questions from council. I didn't realize you was agnostic. Just to that to I'll make a motion. My question is just for fire. Is that of concern? We would have to have the um fire marshall review that I haven't reviewed it to this point.

Yeah, we I have talked with Okay. Jeremy about basically when the garages are closer than 10 ft together there'll be a firewall requirement. We review garages as a building permit. So I mean our our code inspectors will catch it but um we will involve fire when we feel like we need to get their input as well. So yep. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. So motion by cool seconded by Bourjon. Any further discussion? Lindsay, would you please call roll? Council member Koul, yes. Miniki, yes. Porter, yes. Or John,

yes. All right. Motion carries. Item six, I final reading of an ordinance amending the master plan and rules, regulations, and guidelines for the Orchard Hills plan unit development as contained in ordinance 04-05. So, this zoning request uh for the ground over by the water tower on North Avenue, uh this will allow apartments to be built on much of the property and it preserves commercial lot at the corner of Orchard Hills Drive and North Avenue. The second reading was passed at our last meeting. Luke, anything to add? Nothing new. Any disc reading? Second.

Motion by Micki, seconded by Bourjon. Any further discussion? Lindsay, would you please call the role? Council member Mine, yes. Porter, yes. Gorge, yes. Who will?

Good. All right. Motion carries. Item seven, future agenda items. So, the purpose of this is for council to give direction to staff by way of motion to have items placed on future agendas. Uh, this is not for discussion of the merits of the subject matter. It's just to get it on to an agenda so that we can discuss it. Any future agenda items for tonight? Hearing none, we'll move on. Item eight, council inquiries and staff updates. Like to remind everybody that uh this portion of the meeting is much less formal. You may hear some back and forth banner and general joke around. We believe this can build camaraderie and cohesiveness between staff and council. Brian Banker sent me a text message and wanted me to pass along a thanks to all of the council members and mayor for your service and thank you for supporting that development agreement.

Um, I have to say I was very impressed overall with the demeanor and the way that people conducted themselves. I've been a part of some public hearings that are very unprofessional, poorly managed, and I don't get the sense that that was the case. Give everybody a chance to speak. I feel like people were heard. So, thank you, mayor, and thanks, council, for uh the way you handled that. That's George. Uh Wild Waterworks, you need a domain authorization or Okay, we're trying to get the property

agreement. So, all right, go down that route just All right, Andy. Uh, I just like I I thought tonight went really good. I appreciate all the work that Holl's done on this. Um, I was getting text message from a friend of mine, Doug Loot, who's a city council member in West De Mo, and he was listening, and he's like, "The entire team did a great job." You know, he's like, "I've been through this with West De Mo. And I thought you guys handled it excellently like right course of action. You know, it's not a data center, but we're we're moving down that development agreement path to Ed's comment. I thought Ed, you're like separating the two concerns I thought was really good. So, I I think everybody involved, I think, just did a great job here. Yeah.

The other thing I'd bring up, uh Kelsey and I have been working on some, uh, community golf cart neighborhood stuff. We've been doing a bunch of research, putting documents together. Um, Kelsey can talk about it too, but someone will want to talk later, but we continue to research and have conversations, talk to other cities, other city members. So, trying to do a bunch of homework there so we can get it in front of you guys. Uh, just that there's no meeting March 19th, so have a good spring break and April 2nd is our next meeting. All right. Paul,

yeah, I just want to thank you all as well. There was some people in the audience that did not speak that were in support and they gave messages later, came up to me later and just said they were really impressed with the city council, your knowledge, how you handled things, the community, their input. Um, so I think it went really well, too. And I think Ed had a good point when you said that, you know, there's a handful of people here tonight, but we have a big community to consider and we've been hearing from this big community for a long time. And I do wish the supporters, you know, would would also have their voices people that oppose things because you want to hear from both of them. But um that's just kind of the way nature nature flows. But we do we are thinking of everybody and we've been researching all of this for a very long time. So it's not just a snap decision as you know. Thank you.

Well, great job tonight and thanks for all your hard work on this over the years. It's been it's been a long time coming. Yeah. So now do something else. that now. Yeah. So, what's next? Enjoy your time in Florida next week. Thank you. Yeah. All right, Marissa. Nothing. Thank you. All right. Jeep. I'll pass. Okay, Tony. Nothing else. I've been thinking about same thing. What am I going to do with all my time? Don't worry. We'll fill it up. I think it was gonna be hopefully it'll be five. Yeah. Thanks. All right. Jeep. Nothing tonight. Thank you.

Nothing. Carrie Luke. No, Ed. Hey, I just want to commend you, mayor, and the staff for the way you guys put that together and handled it and I thought it was uh thankful. Really was. There's the reason you're the man. No, seriously, I I really appreciate it and I think it helped the community taking that approach. So, that was good. Thank you.

Thank you, Kelsey. Just thank you to chief and city staff for creating a safe environment tonight. I felt like everyone here was protected and respectful, but everything else was uh couple things. At the public hearing, Mrs. Henley got up and mentioned speeding up and down her road. I remember her talking about that at the uh at one of community chat that she was at and I think we specifically told her that that was the sheriff's domain, not our domain. So, it's the sheriff that needs to do that, not us.

So, we didn't we didn't promise well we didn't promise her anything. We told her to go to the sheriff. So, I just want to get that out front. Uh next 34 on March 14th community chat. We're going to be in here at 9:00. Uh my article for Norwok living indicates that you know if you want to talk about the anata center the annexation budget whatever to come in here. So I hope we have a crowd but we'll see. Is that a bad weekend with it like looming on spring break?

I don't know. Yep. And uh just as as a comment that I passed on to some of these guys is that you know I appreciate all the hard work that's everybody that everybody has done uh especially with the uh data center project and we have a great staff and I just feel really blessed to be able to serve with you guys. So thank you. With that, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion. Second. Okay. Motion by Cool, seconded by Borjon to adjourn. Uh, all those in favor say I. I. I. We are ajourned.