Remarks by Mike Wilson
313 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 6 of 13
OK. With that, we're going to go back into the regular order of things. And we're going to start with H1, adoption of an interim urgency ordinance establishing a 45-day moratorium on the acceptance of applications to permit data centers in unincorporated Humboldt County and with that we're back with director Ford welcome back sorry thanks to present
Okay. Is there any questions from the board on this before we move to public comment? Supervisor Bushnell and then Supervisor Arroyo.
All right, anyone on this side? Seeing none, we're gonna go to public comment.
Okay, is there public comment in the room on this item?
All right then, bringing it back to the board, I know Supervisor Bushnell has some questions, but I wanna jump in just for a second, if I can. I just wanted to emphasize that this is a interim moratorium, and that for the development of an ordinance. So we've already given instruction I think, for the development of an ordinance. So that's already on there. So this is one part of a two part direction from this board to do that. And so this is the first part. And with that, Supervisor Bush, no.
I have a, let me take a shot at this. From my perspective, and especially a temporary moratorium is to relieve or reduce anxiety in the community about whether or not they want to engage in one of these processes. I think that's part of the issue is like, sure, we could have a big process about it, but if we have very strong feelings about whether or not to even start engaging in that, which I think we received, I received very robust comments from the community that this is more or less something they want to be extremely cautious about, do not want to engage in anytime soon unless…
We're going to bring him back around to Supervisor Bushnell and then to Supervisor Royal.
And can can we take turns here? Just can I and so the chair?
All right, so I'm going to thank for that. I just want to, as a reminder, as a forfeits vote, I feel that we may not have that. I think we have three votes more or less. I haven't heard from Supervisor Madron, but he did vote for this to move this forward before, so I'm going to assume that's the same position he's got today. So with that, unless there's more conversation that is going to modify or change someone's mind about this, I would hope that we can move forward with a vote to either do this or not do this with an understanding that if this moves forward with a moratorium, You're still…
Okay, great. I am going to second staff recommendation. And so like I'm saying, if there is more discussion that we feel like it's gonna move us one way or the other, then let's have that discussion. Supervisor Bushnell.
Well, the seconder is in favor of that amendment, but supervisor Boehm.
I know you just jumped in on what we were doing, but I think Supervisor Madrone was kind of next in line for talking, and so I wanted to make sure he got his time in. Supervisor Madrone.
Just a little bit of research. And what I'm seeing is basically 1,000 to 2,000 square feet per megawatt. So in general, which is the range. So 25 megawatts. I'm not sure where that goes. That's for high density. And for low density uses, it's 10,000 to 20,000 square feet per megawatt. So we don't really know necessarily what that impact is. There's orders of magnitude different between those two things. And if Arcata's system is half a megawatt, I can tell you, if someone who lives near it, it is a fairly large building, and when it kicks in on its self-powered system, you know it. You can…
Okay, Supervisor Bone, and see if we can get to a vote.
I think we throw out as many horrible things as we can and hope to say we stopped it but it's got to start first okay so all we're really working on at the moment is trying to see if there is an amendment that will get us a fourth vote or not and we'll move on from there at this point I want to propose an amendment to that amendment to limit it to five megawatts because And if that doesn't get it, then we got nowhere to go. Because to be frank, that is a small center. And I will also say that we have many land use restrictions that restrict what people can do with their land. It's called…
Okay. The only other thing I can think of is I don't know how someone generates 15 megawatts on site of renewable energy and That seems almost impossible to me, so I'm fine with that. They would have to do 15 megawatts of solar, as far as I can tell, or something else, which would just be a huge burden and lift. So if that is the... I'm happy to go to 15, and let's see if we can get this going.
Yes, one moment, Supervisor Bone. I want to get a clarification from the director that he understands the motion as amended, and will that get us over the hump?
Okay, Supervisor Bone, one question, and then let's try to get to a vote.
Okay, are we ready to vote? Let's have a roll call, please.
Okay, great. We have a few more items to get to today before we, yep, I was just gonna say we're gonna take, how long of a break, five or 10? All right, we're gonna take a five minute break and we're gonna come back to, hold on a second, that one's been pulled. We're gonna come back to the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, speaking of energy, MOU when we get back at noon-ish.
All right, we are back. We are going to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding with Redwood Coast Energy Authority to establish a regional climate committee. And so I'm gonna give this to Director Ford. Thank you, Chair Wilson.
Thank you. We'll start with supervisor Bush. Now again, we'll do questions, then we'll hit the public comment and then we'll come back for discussion and a vote.
All right. Moving down the line. Anybody here? Okay. We'll go to public comment online.
Great. Thank you very much. In the room?
All right, anyone else? If there's more, please line up.