Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

of the Olive Branch Planning Commission to order. And we'll have the roll call, please. Pat Do here. Deion Jones here. Janice Lewis here. Mark Wong here. Diane Singer here. Donnie Sting. Steve Stratton here. and you've received uh prior to this meeting the the minutes of the April 14th, 2026 meeting. Are there any corrections or additions that need need to the minutes? If not, do we have a motion to approve the minutes? Motion to approve. All right. I have a motion by Mr. Stratton to approve the minutes. Do we have a second? Second.

Uh second by Mr. Long. Uh any other discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I.

And it's it's approved. The minutes have been approved. So, okay. Under new business. Here we go. Consideration of an application for the final plat Center Hill Farms phase 2 submitted by Alex Gagny M&R Builders on behalf of property owned owner Johnny McBride. The request is to create 62 single family residential lots and six common open spaces from 23.78 plus or minus acres. The subject property is on PUD Plan unit development district and is located on the west side of Center Hill Road beginning at the north end of Lucy Drive. And the applicant has a request to table this until the June 9th, 2026 meeting. So, uh, if you uh so desire, I'll need a a motion to table this till June the 9th. I make a motion to table.

All right, we have a motion by Miss Singer to table this. Do we have a second? Second. Yeah, we have a second by Miss Lewis. All in favor say I.

Any opposed? This has been tabled to the June 9th meeting. Item number two is consideration of an application for the preliminary pled of the villages of South Branch phase 4A submitted by William Kessle WH Porter on behalf of property owner Michael Turhune South Branch Development LLC. The request is to create 49 single family residential lots and one common open space from 14.24 plus or minus acres. The subject property is on R3 Plan Residential District and is located at the east end of Cypy Way and east of Bankhead Drive. We'll now have staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, first off, I'd like to familiarize you. Uh, I think everybody here is familiar with this subdivision. Uh this is FA uh over here is Pleasant Hill Road North on the west side. It's a bit off of the map, but uh also boarded on the east side is Davidson Road. Uh here is Cipsy Way. It comes across right here and then enters phase 4 A which will be constructed right here. uh previous phases 1 A, 1 B, two, three uh are the previous phases. There's also small phase 1C that was approved that I didn't list here, but it was only uh like six lots. Uh here is the pool and the amenity for the development as a whole. Uh so anyway, I'll move along. Here is the preliminary plat. As you can

see, there are uh this is the extension of Thompson Creek right here. Here is Cipsy Way right here. Uh the garden home uh lots are right here. And then these are some larger lots here. I'm going to get to the land use plan that was approved back in 2022 on my next slide. So, this will be clarified right here. Okay. Uh the land use plan, the original project tax was approved on January 18th of 2022. Uh there are uh several lot types in this phase right here. This is the preliminary plat subject area as you can see which is defined by this red dashed line right here. Uh there are four 15 village lots which is right here and you can see right here. I've circled them in uh purple. Uh those lots are the the village lots are a minimum of 1,800 square foot heated onetory. That's the the h the homes themselves. Uh and uh for a one and a half or twotory, that's 2,000 square feet. The minimum lot for a village lot size for a village lot is 6,250 square feet as you can see by my laser pointer here. The cottage lots which are denoted here in orange right here are a minimum of 8,750 square ft lot size. and the homes upon them are 1,800 square feet uh one story and if they're 1.5 or twotory they're

also 1,800 square ft. So there are 49 lots total with one private alley. The infrastructure regarding the infrastructure for this uh sec uh phase 4 A is that public utilities will be extended by the developer to all the proposed lots. Uh the streets will be two-lane local streets with curb and gutter. Uh there are no new private recreational amenities. uh remembering that uh pool and and clubhouse in previous phases. Uh and at final plaque consideration, the developer shall provide a guarantee for all uncompleted public improvements and the city engineer will determine the items that may be covered by the letter of credit. So the staff recommendation is that the staff recommends that the planning commission approve the preliminary plat for the villages at South Branch subdivision phase 4A and recommend same to the mayor and board of alderman subject to the following. And as you can see, I have six uh uh six conditions here. Uh that all approvements will be the responsibility of the developer and not the responsibility of the city of Olive Branch. Utilities shall be installed underground. Uh letter of credit as previously mentioned, uh civil construction plans, which is pretty standard. Uh, all provisions of the project text shall apply and V-shaped alley construction is prohibited. That concludes staff presentation.

Any questions of staff? Just one. The Could you clarify um in the analysis under lots 2.2 says that there's going to be 36 cottage lots. Uh, yes. I I believe that that's I believe that's a misprint. Okay. So, it's 34. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? If not, do we have someone here that wishes to represent the application?

William Kle with WH Porter. And I'm just here if there's any further questions. Okay. Any any questions? No questions. Thank you. All right. Uh since this is a preliminary plat, we do not have to have a public hearing. So I will open it to the commissioners for any discussion, any questions, or any motions they wish to make at this time. I make a motion to approve the preliminary plat for the villages south branch subdivision phase 4 A along with the six recommendations.

Okay, we have a motion by Mr. Jones to approve the preliminary plat of the villages at South Branch. Um, do we have a second? Second. All right, we have a second by Mr. Long. Any other discussion? If there's no further discussion, all in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? And the motions carry and the preliminary plan is approved. Okay. Item three is consideration to amend the bylaws and rules of procedure of the planning commission. So, Mr. Chairman, planning commissioners, the next item on your agenda concerns amendment to the bylaws and rules of procedure of the planning commission. The proposed amendments address four main issues. First, that the planning commission repeal the provision in the current bylaws and rules of procedure that you will conduct your business in accordance with Robert rules of order. Repeat that and in its state provide that the business of the planning commission shall be conducted in accordance with rules adopted by the planning commission and by city ordinance. This is basically the same way that the board of man operates. The board of man does not rely on Robert's rules of order. There are multiple versions of Robert's rules of order and sometimes it can be very confusing on which one is particularly applicable at a point in time but the planning commission should have the latitude to adopt particular rules when you know that may deviate from Robert's rules and adopt those rules in your rules of order or if the board of adamant feels that uh particular stipulations are necessary the board of adaman can adopts that can adopt those rules for the planning commission. So this provision

essentially will you know free up the planning commission to be able to operate according to rules that you decide or that city ordinances decide instead of robers rules of order that are kind of from outside. Put it that way. I can put it that way. The second amendment will eliminate the administration of oaths and the compelling of witnesses to attend meetings of the planning commission. So currently your regulations require or provide that you can compel witnesses to attend your meetings and the chairman can or the planning commission as a whole can administer oats. Now the planning commission in Mississippi is not a legislative body. It's not Congress. so to speak. Uh you really you're not making laws. You're not a final entity making laws rather you make recommendations to the board of adamant to make those final decisions. You're also the quiza judicial body of the sort that the board of zoning adjustment is. So uh third to codify the order of public hearings that had been considered by the planning commission in the past. So when we have a public hearing, let's say resoning, planning chairman opens it up to for public hearing. What is the process? How many minutes does each applicant have to speak? Those are provided currently. Currently the bylaws of the planning commission do not outline does not outline that procedure. We've had a standard practice. We know how it it goes, but it's not outlined in the bylaws. This will simply codify it, put it in the bylaws very very clearly and there's a provision there that if the chairman for any reason based on the circumstances want to deviate from those you know from those standards he can but always ensuring

that there is a balance of time on both sides. So if for any reason it becomes necessary to allow uh let's say proponents of an application in a public hearing to increase their time from 5 minutes to seven minutes if that ever becomes necessary then opponents also need to be given seven minutes. So there's a there's that balance that fairness provision. Lastly to subordinate to the bylaws and rules of procedure to local ordinances and to state law. State law always overrides you know under the law's rules. State law will always override. And as I did mention earlier, if the board of aran determines by ordinance, for example, in the zoning ordinance, the board of arman could in the in the zoning ordinance decide that a planning commission should follow a very specific uh procedure in attending to particular application type and adopt that in the zoning ordinance. If that particular pro provision contradicts what you have in the bylaws of the planning commission, then that local ordinance will be the ruling law. Those are essentially the four areas that the recommendation before you is intended to adopt. Planning staff therefore recommends that you repeal all the language that is struck out in the text before you and you adopt all the language that is underlined. That concludes that presentation. Thank you.

Any questions of state? Um, no, not a question, more of a statement. I was just getting to understand Robert's rules board. Anybody else have any any questions? Any thoughts? So I I guess we need to approve them all. Yes sir. All all four except if you want to make if there is any particular change you want to make on any particular provision subsection or so you can do so. But the motion will apply to the entire amendment to the entire text.

Okay. I guess do we have a any more discussion or a motion to approve the amendment proposed? I make a motion to approve. Okay. We have a we have a mo motion to uh by Miss Lewis to to approve the amendment as proposed. Do we have a second? Okay, we have a second um by Mr. Stratton. Any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? And the amendment has been approved. And I guess that goes to the board of alderman for final approval. No, sir. This is final. It's done. Okay. Tomorrow you can put your signature on it then. Okay. It's it's a law. So now you can throw Roberts out the window. Yeah.

All right. Item one is to discuss draft amendments to the zoning ordinance regarding various definitions restricting indoor and outdoor smoking and public place establishments within 500 ft of public parks, specifying criteria for data centers as conditional uses in the M1 light industrial and M2 heavy industrial districts only, and limiting the height of freestanding monument signs in the office neighborhood. hood commercial, highway commercial, general commercial, and planned commercial districts.

Mr. Chairman, planning commissioners, the I did send out a memo to you as part of this packet and attached to it was a 25 pages document. Um the amendments that are proposed concerning these items you have listed in the zoning ordinance they only concern the issues that are either stroke through or underlined. So though you have 25 pages not everything in that in those 25 pages are under discussion tonight. Secondly this is for discussion. The standard best practice is if you're dealing with regulations that are, you know, that go beyond like five pages, it's always best to first have a discussion, get a feel of it, take your input, and then put it into the text itself and then bring it back to you next month. And your input, we also have to send it to the city attorney to kind of look at it. If there are any legal issues, then he can reframe them, rephrase them before we bring them to you for the vote next month. So what you have before you is a draft for discussion tonight to get your feedback and then we will bring the final product to you. Not the final product or the product for your affirmative action at your meeting in June. These regulations or these amendments concern adding various definitions in the zoning ordinance for clarification purposes. Those definitions have to do with what's a cigar launch, what is hooker, hooker, data center, data center accessory use and structure, uh data center energy systems, what is smoking, what is a smoking establishment and what is waste heat as will apply to the substantive elements of the regulations

that are before you. So that's the first part. All those definition would be added to the definition section of the zoning ordinance. The second change on page four of the draft text before you will be to amend article 4 by adding of the zoning ordinance by adding section 7. So currently article 4 ends um in section six. We'll be adding section 7. That section 7 will basically prohibit smoking and vaping within 500 ft indoor outdoor public establishments within 500 ft of a city public park. Basically look at a lot of regulations that have to do with smoking. I take let's take the current regulation on you really don't even have active outdoor smoking but just selling uh cannabis for example I think you dealt with that not too long ago last month or so last two months protected uses under state law were daycare facilities churches and schools. The common element about those three uses, something that is common about those three uses from a land use perspective is the presence of children. Presence of minors schools, you've got minors in the AK care facilities, you've got minors in churches, Sunday schools, you've got minors. So the common threat running across all of them and exposure to the

very presence of these substances is what the state is trying to prevent. At the attender age they cannot yet distinguish between what is recreational and what is medicinal. And once these particular uses become very prominent present in front of them, they just grow up believing it's okay to protect public health especially for those minors. It's important to take into consideration one element that was not included in the state law are public parks. If you look at most of our public parks, city parks in the city, take the ball fields on church road for example. If you go there on Saturdays, who are those playing there? Minor children. So it is important for public health purposes to protect public parks in the city. Now this doesn't mean if you have your single family home, you cannot sit on your porch if your porch is within 500 ft on a park and and and smoke for example. No, that does not apply. And that's why we have those definitions in terms of what constitutes a smoking establishment. That will not include people's homes. It does not include homes. Those are places that are open like restaurants, uh, public places, uh, retail establishments where the general public can come in and and and smoke or even we did include the definition for cigar bars, you know, cigar lounges and hoca lounges. And that's that's intended to protect public parks. Public parks are open for everybody to use. That's why they are public. They're open for everybody to use. Every president, every single taxpayer of the city of taxpayer in the city of Holy Branch should be able to go there, walk in the park, enjoy the public park without dealing with questions of cigarette smoking in their immediate vicinity. That can have detrimental

effects on their health. Yeah. You have folks with heart problems that have to stay away from cigarette smoking from from from smoking. Uh vaping, smoke, all of this. Once we allow those uses around public parks, what we have eventually done is inadvertently said people who have this health problems should not come to public parks. So this particular regulation is there to provide a buffer around public parks and make it more inviting and open for everybody to be able to use. The third section of this particular regulations proposed to amend article 5 section 12.

M got a question about about section seven. Yes sir. Or do I have to do I have to wait? No, no, no. I think we can discuss this. This is for for your comments. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So number seven is it um so maybe if if you don't mind Yeah. Maybe I should step back. I know I I left from the first and went straight to the smoking element and we didn't discuss the definitions. Was there anything in the definition section that any planning commissioner has any comments?

Something that you think should be clarified, should be added, should be changed, anything in the definition section. Um, you're talking about smoking and the smoke mainly. When you when you talk about health and the issues from that, you also are you getting into tobacco use at all with chewing tobacco? Hey, calm down. It's It's part of the No, no, sir. As defined, it will not include chewing tobacco as defined. Nobody died from secondhand spit. So we're talking about inhaling very it's very burning not chewing.

Yeah. It's very commonly used in the ballparks is so we're not talking and as planning commission Jones mentioned really what you're trying to prevent here is secondhand smoking. That's I think if somebody's chewing their tobacco I've never heard of secondhand chewing of tobacco. I don't know

what that would look like but So um question on um number section seven is it possible to and I only because I don't know um if we laid this over all the city all the parks right now what what it would extend to but I know that some so can we change section seven that says no commercial establishment and because um some buildings businesses etc. have to def define a smoking area for their employees. So if they've created a a you know a shelter you know at one of these industrial facilities a shelter for their employees to go out and smoke and that we overlay this upon them. we may be put making them because if you have to, you know, if you're thinking about access control and redesign redefining where people can go in order to have a cigarette, they've already put a lot of thought into this. And so I don't want to overlay something that immediately puts a non-commercial entity, you know, into a position where they have to extend or expend dollars in order to have their people go smoke someplace else. I don't again Just but if we identify it as commercial establishment that's a selling you know where where it won't be confused with no establishment and an accessory building because that would fall right into you know a a business building a shelter that their people can go smoke under. I think we can resolve that because then you have to add a definition of what you mean by a commercial establishment to kind of clarify that.

Based on the intent, we can add a a sentence that basically says this buffer prohibition does not apply to designated smoking areas in Yeah. for for for example I mean I think here in city hall smoking area I think here in city hall there is a designated smoking area no city hall may not have it but you city hall doesn't have that um there are businesses that have those those particular areas yeah

and they may fall within the 500 ft one of the thing I'm going one of the things I'm going to do in your next meeting will be to kind of provide a almost 45. We're getting ready to push push some more parks by the soccer by the soccer complex. We're about to push that park right up against that industrial complex. Yes. And if we push that right up against the industrial complex and now and I don't know where the the smoking areas are, but I did for that particular one is this one. I did do some measurement. Oh yeah. Yeah. So um these are the ball fields and then you have the nature trail area which is kind of incorporated into the park right

and if you from here I did some measurement into into where you may have you know I don't know where Smoky may be going on in the FedEx because I think that's FedEx property they might I mean and that's just that's the exact the exact example that you know I want to inadvertently tell truckers when they're dropping off they've got to they can't smoke wherever FedEx told them they could smoke. So, as long as you understand Yeah.

We'll take that into consideration. That's why we have these discussions. And as far as the prohibition on on distances from churches and liquor stores, it wasn't for secondhand.

But I understand.

Yes, ma'am.

Excuse me. Are we When we talking about all these when I was reading it, I thought these were facilities, not just outdoor everything that you have under the cigar lounge, the hookah bars data centers, those are we're talking about the facilities, not if someone is in a better It's walking by

the current smoking ordinance if you look at the last sentence in that provision says except otherwise provided in this zoning ordinance all other regulations regarding smoking as stipulated in the code of ordinances of the city of bankang shall apply to all s uses involving smoking or vaping. So the city's code of ordinances has a section in it on we call it a smoking ordinance. So there is an existing sumoking ordinance in the city's code of ordinances and I think that ordinance generally based on the police power of local government not not zoning strictly uh I think it prohibits smoking within the city pack and I think within 100 within within city parks. So if somebody were to go down to the office for example and you're walking on the fields and you're smoking where the police will come for you

or if I'm sitting in my car in the parking lot smoking if you are within If you're within the city park, there is the general police power of of of local government. Okay. Yeah. That regulates that. Yeah. Buildings.

Now, zoning can address issues of smoking if you attach that to land use. If it doesn't concern land use, then it has nothing to do with zoning. For example, somebody sitting in their car and smoking that doesn't want to do land use. So that is will fall under the general police power of of local government. But if you if you associate that with land use, for example, cigar lounge that that's a land use, you know, a hookab that's a land use, a particular land use. So if you associate that with specific land uses, then um it can be addressed under zoning. Okay. So we're talking about land

about land uses. Yes, specific land uses. got confused.

So, one more question. I hate playing devil's advocate. Um, would this restrict us from, let's say, somebody wanted to gift the city property for a park that was next to a cigar bar, just hypothetically, would that restrict us from allowing that to occur? No, there is the concept of coming to nuisance. Coming to nuisance, it's about who got there first. So if you had a cigaba that was outside of 500 ft of the park and then somebody decided to donate land and the city park expanded because of that donation of land to the city, it is the city park that has come to that nuisance. Sorry, it's we we face this all the time when you're dealing with, you know, industrial uses. I want to build my house beside this restaurant. Should we go back and tell the restaurant now to put a fence up when at the time they were constructed, there was no need for any buffer.

So, it's who came to the news, who was there first. So the the cigar bar will not be required to do any changes or to shut down operations simply because the city park has not extended into the 500 ft buffer. That's it on smoking. All right. Thank you.

All right. The next section has to do with data centers and this this is where we have the bulk of the regulations being proposed before you for consideration or for discussion tonight that will fall under article 5 schedule of district regulations to amend article 5 section 12 that is with light industrial district and section 13 that is with heavy industrial district in a nutshell data centers would only be permitted as a conditional use in the light industrial and in the heavy industrial districts. So in terms of districts in the city if anybody came to the city any developer came to the city of O branch and wanted to establish a data center it would not be a use permitted by right anywhere it would be a conditional use. So you have to go before the board of zoning adjustment and make a case meet all the general conditional use criteria. There's generally there are six of them and then meet the specific criteria that are before you today for for consideration. Uh if the board of zoning adjustment standard procedure is if the board of zoning zoning adjustment approves the conditional use permit then any agrieved party has up to 10 days to appeal that to the board of adamant. If it is not appealed or denies it if it is not appealed then the decision becomes final. If it's appealed to the board of adam then the board of adamant will hold a public hearing and make a decision on the particular appeal. So it will be a conditional use permit. There's a lot of misconception out there on what is a data center you know and also facts about data centers you know what is correct what what what really are they

am I able am I able to put a video give me a second let me see if I can put this on That's not a data center.

Oh, it's a beautiful spot for a data center. Look at all that water could use. Can they see my screen? No. Would have to be on the other screen. Let me just go back here because it will not when I take slideshow and then I activate a link it doesn't

email you send every video you stream. Can you see? No. There you go. Okay. See, that's why we need a data center IT folks around. That's interesting because at the beginning of this particular video by ME Academy, the the speaker makes a distinction between just normal IT, you know, services, IT rooms, and a data center. was really a data center that we're focusing on tonight.

Every email you send, every video you stream, and every file stored in the cloud exists somewhere physically. Behind the internet is a network of buildings filled with servers, electrical infrastructure, and cooling systems working continuously to keep data moving. These buildings are called data centers. In this video series, we are going to explain how data centers actually work from a mechanical and electrical perspective, focusing on the systems that keep servers powered, cooled, and operating without interruption. This first video provides the big picture overview. We will explain what a data center does, why these facilities consume so much energy, and why mechanical and electrical systems are the most critical part of the building. In the following videos, we will begin breaking down each system in greater detail. At its simplest level, a data center is a facility designed to store, process, and distribute digital information. Inside the building are rows of servers, which are specialized computers responsible for storage, computing, and network traffic. Unlike office computers that operate intermittently, servers operate continuously. They run 24 hours a day, every day of the year. This creates an important reality. Servers consume large amounts of electricity. And nearly all of that electrical energy eventually becomes heat. While most people think of data centers as IT facilities, from an engineering perspective, they are really energy conversion buildings. Electricity goes in, computing work is performed and heat comes out. The entire facility exists to manage that process safely and reliably. Every data center, regardless of size, must solve three fundamental problems. The first is continuous power. Servers cannot simply shut down when power is

lost. Even brief interruptions can cause data loss or service outages affecting thousands or even millions of users. As a result, power systems must remain available even when equipment fails or utility power is interrupted. The second problem is continuous cooling. Because servers generate heat constantly, cooling systems must also operate continuously. If cooling stops, temperatures can rise quickly, forcing equipment to reduce performance or shut down to protect itself. Cooling in a data center is not about comfort. It is about equipment survival. The third problem is continuous operation. Data centers are designed for uptime. Maintenance, equipment failures, and repairs must occur without interrupting operation. This requirement is what drives the heavy use of redundancy throughout both mechanical and electrical systems. There are various levels of redundancy and industry tier classifications used to describe reliability and uptime expectations, and those concepts will be covered in a later video in this series. Although data centers appear complex, most of the infrastructure falls into three major system groups. The first group is electrical systems. Electrical infrastructure brings power into the building and distributes it safely to server equipment. This includes utility connections, switch gear, backup power systems, and power distribution equipment. The goal is simple. Power must always be available. The second group is mechanical cooling systems. Mechanical systems remove the heat generated by servers. Depending on the facility, this may include chillers, cooling towers, pumps, air handling units, or specialized cooling equipment located directly at the server racks. The objective is to keep equipment operating within safe temperature ranges at all times. The third group is controls and monitoring systems.

Controls tie electrical and mechanical systems together into one operating environment. These systems monitor temperatures, power usage, equipment status, and alarms, allowing the facility to automatically respond to changing conditions or equipment failures. In modern data centers, controls and monitoring are just as important as the physical equipment itself. Data centers are often misunderstood because they look similar to commercial buildings from the outside, but operationally they are very different. In an office building, occupancy changes throughout the day. Cooling loads rise and fall and equipment cycles on and off. In a data center, electrical loads are constant. Cooling demand is continuous and systems rarely shut down. Failure tolerance is also very different. A comfort cooling failure in an office building creates discomfort. A cooling or power failure in a data center can create immediate operational risk. Because of this, data centers typically include redundant equipment, multiple power paths, and system designs that allow maintenance without shutting the facility down. Now that the big picture has been established, the next step is understanding how energy actually moves through a data center. In the next video, we will walk step by step through the electrical side of the facility, following power from the utility connection all the way to the server rack. After that, we will cover how heat is removed, how air flow is managed, and why redundancy drives nearly every design decision in modern data centers. Understanding this foundation makes the rest of the systems much easier to follow and provides the context needed to understand why data centers are designed and constructed the way they are. If you

Where is my son? I need to show you slideshow. Slideshow technology. All right. So, this video hopefully gives us a better idea of what is a data center. uh what are the needs of a data center because sometimes in in attempting to regulate data centers there is a risk you can overregulate it to the point where it can no longer function so it's important to understand what are the critical needs that must be there for example in working on these regulations I came across a a model that almost kind of provided that data centers cannot have generators that's then how does it function in the event of an emergency based on the video that we just watched. So there are certain things that must be there to enable the data center to function to even exist and to control continue operations. The question before us is how do we control the externalities, the impacts that those particular infrastructures that enable data centers to function can have on the surrounding areas. You have the the generators and all the heat that is generated from these

buildings, the fan system, the turbines and all of this, they generate significant sound. For example, if you look at the one that is in South Heaven when I was writing these regulations, I went down there from a distance, you could get the constant huming noise through at some point. You're going to have that. The question is, how can we write regulations in a way that controls that those negative externalities such as noise? This is really what this conditional use permit regulations are focused on. It's on controlling the negative impact that we can have from data centers. It is not about shutting down data centers and saying they can no longer they cannot operate in the city or saying they cannot have generators or they cannot use water. No, they they need water to cool down. But if we're going to allow them in the city as conditional use permits, we also have to make sure that their water use does not significantly impact residents of Olive Branch when it comes to the use of water. So that is really what these regulations are all about. The first has to do with location, location setbacks and prohibitions. The draft regulations before you provide a minimum separation distance. When initially wrote this, we had them at 500 ft and 1,000 ft and then you have proposed 2,000 ft for residential development. Um that controls noise, that controls health related externalities. You take all the generators sometimes and you put all of them in one place. Some of them can really can have data center especially when they glumerate many of them together you have fumes coming out from there from those generators and so on. How do you how far do you want the houses set back you know from those particular facilities from those particular uh energy systems. So the regulations before you identify that for big data centers of the sort like the

one shown here in this image, you have them at 2,000 ft from residential development, city parks, religious institutions, um nursing homes, child care facilities, hospitals, those are protected institutions, you know, where you have like hospitals and nursing homes, vulnerable populations in those facilities. That's what this is intended to do. And then the smaller ones that are just about 10,000 square ft I have made an update and the one that I have before me will be to allow smaller facilities that really don't use you know the large turbines and have significant effects in the environment. You may be able to have them within a th00and ft but they all still have to go through a conditional use permit to the board of zoning adjustment and prove that those externalities will be you know significantly managed. They would be prohibited in certain areas for example wetlands within 50 ft. Uh in the video that we just watched, it talked about heat generated from from there are some studies that have shown the the ambient temperature around them, you know, sometimes rising to over 11° higher and they affect water. We want to protect our wellheads in the city. So they will not be allowed to locate in areas within wellhead areas that exist or are planned within the city of Olio branch. So I did mention there will only be conditional uses in the M1 and the M2 zoning districts. Key element therefore has to do with their utility and infrastructure plan. They need power. They need water, maybe even gas. They need all of these other infrastructure that can negatively affect and cause bills for other residents in the city to go up just based on on the demand and supply. So the plans before you or the regulations before you require that to go before the board of zoning adjustment, the

applicant would have to provide a site plan. How is this structure going to look like? What will be the location? Where will all these you know the water towers and all these other infrastru they be from the protected uses that we just mentioned. So the site plan is supposed to show all of that landscaping buffering all of that will have to be provided. You know uh one of the things that residents are often concerned about is light lighting. The design review ordinance provides that no development especially commercial or industrial developments in the city of Olive Branch can have lights spilling into the sky or they all have to be zero foot candles at property lines especially when it comes to residential. So they'll have plans that justify and show that they're going to meet those design standards. When it comes to power, you can have a situation where the power demand to run data centers as you just saw on that video is so high that the power stations that we have in the city cannot provide cannot just cannot sustain them. So sometimes they may have to build their own substations. They have to have a plan. We don't want a data center being established that ends up with, you know, refrigerators shutting down in people's houses. So, what is a plan to provide power? You may need a substation. Uh, generators lines out here. Take this building for example. All of these, these are all generators out there. Boo. You have to run them. You have to test them uh what particular times of the day. These regulations will provide that you can only test them between 12 and 5:00 p.m. very active hours of the day. Water, you need water for cooling as you saw in that video to cool the system. Well, does the city of O branch have the water capacity that the facility is going to

demand? They will have to do the studies and provide a plan that shows how the water needs will be met without negatively impacting residents of the city of Olive Branch. That's why it's a conditional use permit. You have to meet those conditions. Uh there are there are cities that have sometimes allow them and you have some of them using over 5 million gallons of water a day. If you have that kind of a facility in only branch to have that amount of water to allow one facility to use that and what would that do to the water bills of other residents and businesses in the city. So all of that is codified in the regulations before you they have to provide a plan that shows that addresses the water demand and supply gas community digital ecosystem footprint. This is an area that most regulations have missed. uh data centers can be an asset too when it comes to fiber optics provision of fiber optics in the system network in the city you know today we're all using phones we are dealing with small cells and all of this you need fiber optics for schools for hospitals and so on how do those data centers fit into that network you know that digital ecosystem footprint in the city that can be an asset in terms of public need let them address that ground and roof mounted equipment You look at the ones in front of you, a lot of roof mounted equipment and some of them are far worse than this and especially within our corridors. We just talked about the gateway corridors in our last meeting uh when the planning commission was discussing regulations for the zoning code update. We don't want to be seeing all of this. Our current design ordinance requires that the parapet walls must be high enough to fully screen all rooftop units

from public view in the city of Olive Ranch. That is basically codified brought into these regulations in the same way. If you have them ground mounted, how do you screen them? Do we want to be driving on church road for example and all you see is this junk generators and this tall building and this utility infrastructure that the whole place begins to look junky. What is the aesthetics of the site in terms of screening? These regulations address that. So you have screening of accessory structures, your cooling system, the energy systems. In the view substations for example, put a substation down there from the road with respect. Okay, you fancy it to put a landscape buffer, some evergreens are planted around it to kind of screen those substations. All of that is covered in these regulations. That includes also perimeter fencing and security. most of them because it's fascinating sometimes a data center is proposing a municipality and I said they're going to particular business is coming in to build a 15 billion dollar data center that was a lot of money 15 billion that sounds like they're going to create 5,000 jobs not happening not with data centers that 15 billion is really about computers is the value of the stuff they've got in there is the computers of course the building has value. The real estate on the ground has value but not worth 15 billion. A lot of that money is and they don't really employ very many people. They don't. It's really just a computer infrastructure, the chips and so on that the hardware that's in there and their generators and cooling system. That's all that money is going into. So because of that they're dealing with computers. They need security to secure the building. So how is that security going to be provided? What are the provisions for that? These regulations cover that. And then what are the performance standards? Especially in terms of noise. Current city regulations provide that during the day for most uses you're

allowed to have uh sound right up to 75 dibbs and then in the night hours around 9 in the morning it drops to 70 dibels. We have lower regulations. We have called for these regulations called for lower decibels during the day for data centers 60 decibels at most and in the evening hours 65 decibels during the day in the evening hours 60 dibels. The reason for this is as you see in the picture in front of you, data centers tend to colllocate in the same area. And so when you have the noise from one, you know, they all sum from multiple sources, these multiple data centers, they all kind of their property lines sum up. The sound waves all sum up. So you may have one that is producing you 75 dibels. 70 60 dibels is the sound of is comparable to the sound of a dish dishwasher in the house.

So if on the property line what you get is the sound of a dishwasher. That's really not a problem. We live in our homes with dishwasher washing and it's not a problem. 75 decibels is comparable to the sound of a vacuum cleaner. So if you start having five vacuum cleaners on a property line that's a summation effect changes the equation totally. So that's what we are trying to avoid by requiring lower decibels. When you have that, if you have five of those collocated and and you got you get five, you know, vacuum cleaners sounding that that begins to sound like a chainsaw. You get up to 100 decibels and above and that's what creates that humming sound across the entire city. You start because of that. That's what we're trying to avoid. They would have to the applicant would have to adopt various mechanisms and provide a study model studies which shows to the board of zoning adjustment that the data center has proposed will not produce any noise that will go above those DC limits at the property line. The generator and testing already mentioned that they have they need generators for emergency purposes and they have to test those generators. But what out of the day? The current regulations provide that those can only be tested between 12:00 and 5:00 p.m. Not just randomly. And at night, you really Monday to Friday at night. You want to avoid that when folks are sleeping. The cooling systems, you know, are they going to be protected the water they have to do the studies that show that as I did mention, they will have the water for it. As we heard in the video, one of the effects of a data center is heat. They generate heat. This system generate heat. I mean it's fire as much as what you see in front of you.

That's what it takes for for these computers to operate. This you can have this ambient heat from the side you know air is carrying this heat and the side temperature can rise significantly outside of the building. So they have to design it in a way that at the property line 4 ft from the ground there is no change basically no change in temperature. There are ways to do it. You just need to have your regulations in place to achieve that. If you don't have the regulations, the developer has no reason to spend the money to meet those standards. If a business person doesn't have to spend the money, he will not spend it, make the profit. But we have the regulations in place then and meet those standards per the studies then they can be approved. That concludes Tab's presentation as far as this particular regulations on data centers are concerned. any input,

any comments?

Yes. Um, thank you. Thank you for that. Um, couple of quick comments. Um, just on the we in in the ordinance we there's we specify solar arrays may be incorporated to offset new demand. Um the problem with solar arrays with one megawatt of of generation takes about 20 to 40 acres of solar arrays to offset that power. So uh that power usage. So it it's and there are other ways but I don't I just want to make sure that we're not specifying solar arrays that sort of gets them to not look for other

alternatives. Yeah. So, um, and on what page are we on? Oh, I'm sorry. That's uh page 10. Page 10. Okay. I want to make sure that I follow um E, incorporate best available energy efficiency uh solar arrays maybe. So, that that's a may,

right? But but but that's one thing that we talk about is but there's other alternatives. I don't want to I don't want to lead somebody to believe well solar arrays that's I'm going to have to buy 40 more acres or if it's three megawatts I've got to buy 120 acres to um and I and I haven't looked at you know what our what our regulation is on solar arrays. So if I bought 40 acres of solar arrays thinking I could put 40 acres of solar arrays on it but the offsets I don't know what that ordinance looks like because we have to look at power or heat generation from solar array from solar arrays as well. So um don't know if that's best left in or if we just

we can just take out because the first sentence says incorporate best available energy efficiency. Yeah. So that leaves it wide open. So they cannot incorporate best available alternative energy efficiency measures something like that.

And um and in the wa in the water and the wastewater um I think H says the ability and remaining capacity of of the concerned water sources to serve other parts of the city of Olive Branch. Can we maybe put in their current and future use because just because they we can meet the needs now. Um but also in their plan they should look at they should understand our growth u growth plans as the city and ensure that whatever they're submitting doesn't impact our stated growth growth plans as well.

Maybe that's a conversation with the engineer, you know. I have to do lot of projection analysis population growth. Correct. Which

and it's and and it's you know it says the ability and remaining capacity of the concerned water sources to serve other parts of the city of olive branch and a is existing water supply infrastructure and conditions to the site. Somewhere in there the white water whitewater water and wastewater studies should should there should be should say in there somewhere current and future needs of the city and then noise as you discussed um

um well there's they've actually come up with active noise cancelling. So, and I don't know if we want to put it in there, but if we, you know, if you want to make a suggestion that active noise cancelling can be a part of their plan as well. Um, because they can, it's sort of like noise cancelling headphones, but they can do that on an external basis as well. Um, and that's all I have, but thank you for doing this on data centers. Much appreciated. 200 propert systems generate all the heat that is going to definitely raise residential and commercial utility bills for cooling especially in the summer.

Is there some way we can make it a little page 17? Okay. Yep. Is it 17? Just put something in there that requires them to do a study of how much their system would cost or increase the need for residential and commercial HVAC systems to make it pleasant for people to live. Where where was that? Where where did you

on page on page 17 page 17 on that waste heat? the in the ordinance it yeah in the ordinance the ordinance says that it cannot raise it cannot raise the ambient temperature outside of its property at 4 feet okay which is don't put a black top you know road along the fence line because a black top road will so there the ordinance restricts the heat to an upward direction

but it can't come outward of I think that's where it says it. But any other comments, please on data centers. Uh let me go back to the section on because when we initially wrote this I think the the the the version that you have on location setbacks 200 ft

page six you had a th00and ft from residential I think um the mayor came out and proposed that we have 2,000 ft Now, there's some jurisdiction that I found that have used 2,000 ft, but they give room for that to be reduced to no less than 1,000 ft if owners of property within that area can wave, you know, if if they wave those those uh those rights. And the thing about thing about it is if they comply with all the other ordinances, you know, a thousand feet,

it's okay. they they're not going to hear anything. I mean 1,000 feet you're checking the decel rating at the property line. So 1,000 feet even even a vacuum cleaner at 1,000 ft would sound like tonitis which I hear all the time. Um but yeah I think and I agree with you if if they comply with the other regulations all the other performance standards that we have put in place then at the property line there will be little or no effect. Yeah. Really? So a thousand feet in my opinion. Okay.

I'm good with I'm good with thousand feet. I mean um I mean they can always they can always push back but you know I ideally it's you know ideally it's it's it's in light industrial surrounded by other light industrial you know ideally but you know how developers are I think we can fit it in right here. I do know from the uh I guess the negative impact from press on data centers and other areas uh you will have a room full of people if you had a data center

coming to all branch so which I think is a reason why we want to have the regulations in place. So it's not a moratorum we we we're just saying get the right spot. Yep. And have the right operational standards. Yeah. problems are that people have approved them without, you know, having closed loop cooling systems or any type of buffering requirements, stuff like that, or bringing in temporary generators.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, Elon can move m uh, you know, mountains if you haven't noticed, but you know, the the thing is, and not getting political, but the cloud is not in the cloud, you know, it's on the ground. So, wherever you're sending your photos to in the cloud, they're they're in somebody's backyard.

The last section of the regulations tonight proposed before you for discussion has to do with signs, the height of signs in those are all monument signs, freestanding monument signs in the office and neighborhood commercial districts reducing that from 15 ft to 8 ft so that it's more in tune with the character of those areas. Mhm. And in the C2 highway commercial, C3 general commercial commission and C4 plant commercial districts reducing that from 25 ft to 12 ft. We've generally been applying these restricted height standards 8 ft and 12 ft, but we've never really codified. Mhm.

You know, we've we've relied more on our negotiation skills, can put it that way. So, this will codify what we already have in place from a practical perspective. That concludes this big book of 25 pages. Again, thank you. Thank you for putting that together.

Welcome, sir. Um, Mr. Chairman, that ends this. I think the only other item we have received um an indication from your chairman that he may be taking some rest from the planning commission beginning July. So next meeting will be his, you know, he says he wants the next meeting to be his last meeting. I'm not so sure about that. Please put gas stations on it, some some liquor stores, a pawn shop.

No, no three-hour meetings next month. But yes, and uh gosh, next month is also the month where you will be electing your new officials. So your election takes place in June and then the new board or the new chairman vice chair it's going to take effect in begin serving in July. So let's come prepared to serve the city and also to make sure that chairman Padau doesn't go anywhere.

Yeah, that's right. Well, part of my decision was uh for July was I knew it was the end of the city calendar year and you you would elect a new chair and vice chair. So that that played in my decision. So uh gosh, I've been on on the commission now 10 years. Steve, how many years you've been here? You were here before I got here. So

18 or so. So, uh, and it's been it's been a a you know, sometimes you have challenging meetings, but it's also been, uh, good to be on the commission. I just, uh, look at what we do and I look at my children and my grandchildren and the decisions we make will affect our grandchildren 20 years from now. So, uh, and I think we've we've done a good job on on on what has been presented. One thing I learned is that uh sometimes there's not a yes or and and sometimes there's not a no. Sometimes you got that gray area that you have to make a decision on and you can see both sides and but you do make a decision based on what you think is best for the citizens of Olive Branch and and I think everybody on this committee has done this. So I've enjoyed my 10 years. So, I I'll with that I'll I'll be quiet, I guess. Is that everything that we

That is everything we have. All right. I guess I need a motion for us to adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. All right. Mr. Jones made a motion. Do we have a second? All right. We got a second by Miss Singer. All in favor say I. I. And we are now adjourned. So, thank you'all.