Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

okay if i could have your attention please it's six o'clock so i'd like to call the meeting of the olive branch planning commission to order and before we go to the roll call and the uh approval of the minutes i'd like to just welcome everybody here tonight gosh we we have a good crowd here we normally don't have this many people here every month so anyway it's good to have you here i i do ask uh uh your cooperation on a few things number one is As we go through the the the applications please remain silent as we go through this, you know just have respect for one another and when we get up. I'm assuming most of you are here for item number 2 number 3 when we get to both items. We will have time for public discussion and will allow if you wish to come forward will give you 3 minutes and when you when you do. Discuss, please do not repeat anything else that has been said previously just on the essence of time. You know, if you have 10 people speak three minutes, we're we're in 30 minutes already. So I'll just give you an idea of what we're talking about. Also, you only have one trip to the podium per application. So don't try to come up here twice. So we'll catch you and send you back. But once again, thank you all for being here. I wasn't going to say this, but six months ago, I decided I would retire from the planning commission on this meeting night. I didn't know all y'all would show up to see me retire. So anyway, but it's good to have you all here. I just wanted to tell you that. And we're all here for one reason, to make Olive Branch the best place in the world to live. So we may agree and we may disagree, but when we leave, we know we're all here for one reason, to make Olive Branch a good place to live. So thank y'all. All right, at this time, I'll have the roll call.

Pat Doerr.

Here.

Dion Jones. Here. Janice Lewis. Here. Mark Walms.

Here.

Diane Singer. Here. Donnie Singh.

Here.

Steve Stratton.

Here.

OK, you received in your you've received the minutes of the May 12th 2026 meeting or the any corrections or additions needed to the minutes. If not, is there a motion to approve the minutes?

I make a motion to approve.

All right. We have a motion by Mr. Jones to approve the minister. We have a second second. We have a second by Mr. Stratton. Any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposed? Then the minutes of the May 12th meeting have been approved and approved. All right. The first order of business is from Old Business. We have a consideration of an application for the final plat, Center Hill Farms, Phase 2, submitted by Alex Goggin, M&R Builders, on behalf of property 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 owned 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 requested to table this until this meeting, June the 9th, 2026. And we'll have the staff presentation.

Thank you Mister chairman. In this is for consideration for a final play at center Hill farms phase 2. Incidentally enough we were here last year. One day before rain had hit the week before and it was rainy. Mister Jones was presiding and we did phase one so one year ago we did phase one and this is phase 2 again we're here to talk about a 62 buildable lights. where we are exactly in is that 302 people follow the pointer is running east to west center he'll road is going to be here Marshall County line. The new dollar generals this way other branch would be towards the corner at the top of the screen to the left center Hill Road we can come down to our new dedicated road Wesley banks Boulevard which is completed with some medians that was phase one. Again we're talking about phase 2 which Lucy driveway interface to John Hamilton interface to Molly Madeline interface to Jack Thomas will interface to and we do have a new road here in phase two called bow road that will be finished a few of these roads to include jack thomas has medians as you can see we'll get some pictures of what those medians look like just to refresh your memory but smallest lot which is which is part of the project text the smallest lot within this area so we've got area 9 and area 10 smallest lot within this phase is eight thousand seven hundred and sixty seven square feet we do have some stormwater we are installing curb and gutter that will have to do with moving the water down to these retention ponds As we talked about, there's three of them. We spoke about that last time. The medians along Jack Thomas, as we just spoke about, those are in production at this time. I do have a memo on the file from the city engineer. As last year, we're dealing with the rain, so MR Builders is asking for us to have reviewed what they have installed so far. From engineering, all water mains have been installed. They're awaiting testing. No gas lines have been installed yet. All sewer line mains have been installed. Testing underway. Curb and gutters are approximately 85% complete. Soil, cement, and paving are not complete. so we will move forward with our approval recommendation to the planning commission it does align with engineering's recommendation and those that approval is based on the final plat not being recorded until the first lift of asphalt is completed So here's some pictures again I was out there today we've dealt with rain over the past couple weeks as you can see here these are pictures of just in completed streets. We see that going out into the area here. These are areas in which the new phase 2 is moving into and curb and gutters being installed. So here is a picture of the final plat. Center Hill Farms again is zoned PUD. The preliminary plat for all 11 phases were approved in August of 2024 by the Board of Aldermen. Again, as you know, when developed, it'll have 604 single-family homes with 24 common open spaces. And this application, again, is only for this second phase. The proposed final plan does not violate any of the required project text or conditions of approval of the preliminary plan regarding density, permitted uses, or bulk regulations. This is the bottom half. As we talked about, those medians are here to be finished. Those going up, this right here is Bow Road. And this right here is the other set of medians. So I had told you I'd let you know what those medians look like if you have not been able to see. But these are the typical street medians that are being installed. And it appears that they're working their way. Here's some more pictures. This is around this big retention bond here at the bottom. This is some stuff around that. So our next steps upon approval and recommendation Right upon approval by the Board of Aldermen the property owner needs to record the subdivision plan so we do require financial guarantee that still on here as questioned last time it's still on here city engineer said it's still applicable to this application again at the time of completion is report all streets are still under construction and the minimum utilities to provide infrastructure has not been completed yet. the city engineer recommends as we do that the plant move forward but the first lift of asphalt be completed before Board of Aldermen approves the final plan so here is a recommendation we've got eight 8 conditions here just again want to highlight number 5 and then any edits that could be deemed necessary by the city engineer may be applicable so there are 8 conditions a recommendation is that we approve the final plan for phase 2 move that on the board of aldermen subject to the following that's the end of my presentation happy to take any questions.

Any questions to stay. No questions to staff to we have someone here that wishes to represent the application.

So have Mississippi with him in our builders. I have nothing else to add staff report cover though.

No questions tonight.

Thank you also.

All right, since this is a final plat, it does not require a public hearing. So I will now entertain any comments, discussion, or motions from the commissioners.

I make a motion to approve the final plat subject to recommendations one through eight.

Okay, we've got a motion by Mister Jones to that we approve the final play out of phase 2 center Hill farms plan residential development subject to the staff conditions do we have a second second that we have a second by Mister saying any other discussion. All in favor say aye. Any opposed and the motion carries and application is approved. Now under new business. Before we go any further, I would advise everyone to please silence your cell phones. That's something else that if you do that for your neighbors. In fact, I need to silence mine, by the way. Also, no clapping or shouting during the public hearing input as we go forward so that those are the 2 of 2 items to to remind you as we as we go forward there are a few seats up here towards towards the front of the anyone wants to come forward to those seats up from. Now to the new business, we have a consideration of an application for the final plat of the Williams subdivision submitted by Greg and Tammy Williams, property owners. The request is to create a single family residential lot of 3.02 plus or minus acres. The subject property is on AR, Agricultural Residential District, and is located on the east side of Pleasant Hill Road North, approximately 1,175 feet north of College Road, known as 4204 Pleasant Hill Road. We'll now have the staff presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I begin my presentation. I'd like to bring your attention to on your staff report section 2.2 to the transportation section. It's on page 5. I did get a little fat-fingered there, and I accidentally typed 52 feet from center line. That should read 53 feet from center line in the second sentence of that subsection. Section 2.22, transportation. So let the record reflect that that should say 53 feet from the center line. Anyway, moving quite along. So this site is located on Pleasant Hill Road North. As you can see from the location slide, Margaret Manor is toward the north, up Pleasant Hill Road North, and it's 1,175 feet to College Road intersection, Pleasant Hill Road North, and College Road to the south. The subject property right here is on the east side of Pleasant Hill Road North. There is an existing driveway access you can see from this inset right here. It's along on the east side of Pleasant Hill Road North. Moving along, this will be fairly quick. This is the submitted final plot. It does comply with all of the bulk regulations. It is in the air residential zoning district. I'm cultural residential zoning district as previously been stated it's plus or minus 3.2 acres. The land use character is rural state does comply with the bulk regulations. There are gas water and Fire hydrants present the lot is presently being serviced by private septic system. The app applicable regulations of the zoning ordinance, the subdivision regulations and other land use regulations of the city is to be noted that Pleasant Hill Road North is a section line road which does require 106 foot right away as per article. 6 section, the one of the subdivision regulations which does require the subdivided to get dedicate the full with from center line to align with the classification of the concern Street and of course the concern Street is. Pleasant Hill Road North. I'll be very brief. Here's the staff recommendation. We do have 7 conditions and most importantly number 5 which would be to add 50 foot 53 feet of road right away for pleasant Hill Road from the existing center line of the roadway which would be one of set one of 6 in time in time to tire T. So the staff does recommend that the planning Commission approved the final plot for the Williams subdivision and the same to the board of Alderman subject to those conditions that concludes staff presentation.

Thank you any any questions to stay. If there are no questions do we have someone here that wishes to represent the application.

Yes, sir. I'm Greg Williams and I wouldn't might aware until Friday of the change in the there's a nice and I'm playing here of North being a section line road and so I talked to Kevin and we just found out so I'm what I want to propose is actually we're pretty much in agreement everything is set for that item 5 on 53 if you went back to the where it showed the 3.2 acres your site may have That if you look at the soda map or that's what you would see and that's only a 60 foot right away with the 10 for these men. That's what we were understanding the whole time that that would be the maximum amount of the 60 put in a 10 foot right away and in and Friday we got a call that is going to increase to 106. If and I have checked in the past I with it at the planning meeting when I do agree on the north side of church row pleasant Hill from church row to state line that is follows a section line and it is straight so I would agree with that designation of a section line. I do have a proposal I would like to meet with the city engineer make with the war to more for Board of Aldermen and work with the Planning Commission, I have a proposed route to continue straight for any future planning, say 20 to 50 years out. There's no structures if you go straight south of Church Road all the way down to almost Lauder Road. So there is an alternative to make that your section road. If you look at the drawing right now, all that, like I said, there's farmland, no structures. And if you come through a five-lane road through that part of Pleasant Hill, you would impact the Pleasant Hill Cemetery. There's not enough room now. It's only a 50-foot total right-of-way, a 30-foot road right-of-way, and a 10-foot easement that appears on the SOTA map, or when you just right down from our house on College Road South, you would impact the cemetery, Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church would be in that right away, and then both of the only remaining historical stores in Pleasant Hill are only 10 feet off of that road, so both of those would have to be relocated or torn down, and that's back from the 1900s, and there's multiple family homes that would not meet those setbacks. So I guess my thing is I want to be... And we were trying to communicate with planning. We really want to make sure we get everything right. We have our surveyor. We can handle that amount of right away for our building. So we're okay there. But we would lose a half acre of our valuable road frontage, and it would impact so much for our towns. And what we want to do is be consistent with a section on road being straight. And also, like you're hearing that you mentioned this beautiful city of olive branch. We didn't take Goodman Road and go through Old Town, Ollie Branch. We went around it. So that's where I grew up there. I was born and raised in Pleasant Hill, and I'll die in that cemetery. And I would like to make Pleasant Hill stay Pleasant Hill and not go to Unpleasant Hill. So I appreciate the time. I appreciate the work they're doing. And I definitely want to meet with the city engineers, meet with the Board of Aldermen, and give a proposed plan that would give us a long-range planning. Thank you.

A staff want to reply to that or anything.

Thank you, Mister chairman. I think we depend on whether the applicant in terms that this item be tabled for him to have this discussion with staff and then be brought back to you at the next month meeting. Is that intent?

Yeah, I have difficulty.

He was he was saying it probably best to table this application at this time. Yes, if you have a chance to meet with staff and and all of them and bring it bring it back to the to the next to the next meeting that's OK. So I guess we need a a motion from the.

It will be the second Tuesday in July.

You got the date. July 14.

I make a motion to table this to July 14.

We have a motion by Mister Jones to table this application until July 14 to give more time to straighten the matters at hand. Do we have a second second? Oh gosh, look at Miss Singer. I think I heard her first, so Miss Singer made the second. Any other discussion? If not all in favor say aye and any opposed, then we will table this till till the next meeting. Thank you so much for your comments. While we're waiting for item number two to be put on the screen, I will say, some of you, this may be your first meeting to a planning commission meeting, is what we'll be doing tonight is voting whether we vote in favor or against the application. It's a recommendation to the mayor and board of Alderman. The final decision is made by them. So regardless of what our decision is tonight, the mayor and board will make the final decision. So I just want, if you've never been to a planning commission meeting before, but we will have a public discussion and we'll go on public record. So I just want y'all to be aware of the process. All right, we have a consideration of an application for a zoning map amendment submitted by Bob Barber, Oregon Planning Design on behalf of property owner R.R. Bridgeforth Ayers, Betty B. Funderburg et al. and Dudley B. Bridgeforth Jr. et al. The request is to rezone 561.8 plus or minus acres from A Agriculture District to A.R. Agricultural Residential District to M3 Plan Industrial District For the purpose of creating the DeSoto Innovation District, the subject property is located within the northwest corner of Church Road and Craft Road. And we'll now have the staff presentation.

Mr. Chairman, planning commissioners, before you is a request to consider the rezoning of over 562 acres piece of property That is located at the northwest quadrant of the intersection of Craft Road and Church Road East, to give you an idea of where we are precisely in the city. If you come out of City Hall, you get on Highway 305, you go down to Church Road, this is the city park. You make a left on Church Road, you have a gas station that is currently under construction at this intersection of Craft Road and Church. The piece of property we are looking at is right at that northwest quadrant. This is where you have the current clean field or dump site in the city. The area that constitutes this rezoning does not include that clean field site. the boundaries of the subject property. To the south, essentially, you have the northern edge of the right-of-way line of Church Road. To the east of that piece of property, or the subject property, is the Camp Creek and Nolly Hook. The property does not extend up to Craft Road. So the subject property does not extend up to Craft Road itself. It ends in Camp Creek, in the ditch there, and Denali Hall Creek. And then to the west, that encompasses, this is Sandwich Road extension. Anybody who was driven inside that particular area, Sandwich Road would basically cut off the property into two, a northern section and a southern section. That is over 562 acres that is proposed for specific action. The intent of the rezoning is for the development of this property in the two main uses. As I did indicate, this is the existing site of the landfill clean field site. The applicant proposes to use over 141 acres of the subject property for a new clean field area. This is full and the state has basically required the county to decommission that particular site. And as such, the city of Olive Branch has to get a new site where all this rubbish has to be put in. The county has to get a new site. The county is therefore proposing to use this area, so about 141 to 150 acres, as a new clean fuel site. The second element of the reason in terms of potential uses will be to create these 14 lots that will be used for light manufacturing and technology related uses. I'll get down to the specifics on what those uses really are, but broadly speaking, the fall within the context of light manufacturing and technology uses. Surrounding the site to the north will be a natural 150 feet buffer, so that will remain undisturbed To the east of the property, that natural buffer will flow along the creek, Noliho Creek, along Camp Creek, down to Church Road. The applicant proposes that along Church Road, you will have a natural buffer 75 to 150 feet. Surrounding the clean field side will also be the natural buffer 150 feet wide. This area has historically been used as gravel pits. As such, it has water bodies. If you look at this, there are multiple water bodies in that particular area. To create these 14 developable lots and build these new streets, those gravel pits, of course, will have to be filled, some of them. The developer will therefore have to manage any stormwater on the site. Two areas are proposed, two main areas are proposed for stormwater management. Under the city regulations, development regulations of the city of Olive Branch, the post conditions of stormwater flow from any piece of property That is, after you've developed the site, you cannot discharge from that particular site more water or at a rate that is higher than what was on the site pre-development. So your post-development and your pre-development conditions have to basically be the same. To do that, sites are generally engineered using pipes and stormwater management facilities. The applicant proposes therefore to have a 5.9 acre common open space in this particular area, this location, that will be used for stormwater management on the site. And another 14.5 acre common open space area for stormwater management at this location. A new street, there will be new streets on the property. This is a . This is the old Sandwich Road that is basically shown here as a dead road. That will be opened up, paved, constructed. You have other new streets that will be constructed on the side to provide access to those lots. And you will have a narrowed connection onto Craft Road. I will speak more on this connection down the line. The applicant also proposes to construct and provide for the general use of the public a 1.78 miles greenway trail. So if you go to the ball fields area, currently this is Ross Road. If you go to this Ross Road, Church Road intersection, The city is currently building a natural trail inside the woods. It's about 10 feet wide. That trail is intended to extend westward through these lots, behind this gas station under construction, northward along Craft Road, cross Craft Road at this point, extend into the property under consideration down on Camp Creek, and then along Church Road onto Sandwich Road intersection. From this narrowed connection right up to Sandwich Road, that will be the 1.78 miles Greenway Trail that the applicant proposes as part of this development. There will also be a connection from this side onto Church Road, through this road. This will be a new road, construction onto Church Road. That road will not, trucks will not be allowed to use that road because Church Road is not a truck route. So any trucks, 18 wheelers coming out of this side would only be allowed to go through near road which will be constructed as four lane onto Craft and then cross Craft to the new narrowed extension onto Highway 305. I will expand on that down the line. The applicant likewise proposes that these will be developed in four phases. Phase one will be the clean fuel area. So that these were approved, that is the emergency that is there right now. Because as I did mention, the existing land fee is basically being required by the state to be decommissioned. So that will be phase one. Phase two of the development would then begin from the southeast corner of the property, closer to Kraft, and then extend towards Sandwich. And the last phase will be on the south side, on the north side of the property that is closer to Autumn Point subdivision to the north. The current zoning of the property, the property is actually split zoned. There are two zoning districts. You have a 4.1 acre area that is zoned A, agricultural district. And then the rest of the property is zoned A, agricultural residential. So there is a 4.1 acre piece that is zoned agricultural, and the rest of the property is zoned agricultural residential. The entire over 562 acres is surrounded to the north By residential development that is also zoned agricultural residential, this is autumn points subdivision. To the east, by another area, also zoned agricultural residential, as one move closer to Craft Road. This agricultural residential zone piece right here, that is the property you recommended, I think, two months ago, and the Board of Aldermen recently rezoned ARL for the DeSoto CareerTech East Campus. So that will be the site. And if you extend further to the east, that is the area where you have FedEx. This is FedEx and all the other large industrial warehouses further to the east. Along Craft, you also have this PUD, that is to call the Funderburg PUD, from which was extracted area for the career tech. So I did mention you have a gas station currently under construction at this location, which is part of that PUD. To the south of the site, large rural estate, single family residential lots, detached, that are all zoned agricultural residential. They are at least about two to three acres in size. To the west of the property, you have this large piece that is zone A, our agricultural residential. And then south of Letham Drive and west of Sandwich is the, this is a large piece that was also not too long ago, rezoned for planned commercial district C4. So that is the zoning of the property and its general surrounding in terms of zoning classification. The request before you is to rezone these over 561.8 acre piece of property from A agricultural residential, from A agricultural district and A agricultural residential to M3 plant industrial district. What is a plant district? I've had a lot of calls, a lot of misconception, and I think it's important that I provide some clarification on what these districts are. The City of Olive Branch has a zoning code. In that zoning ordinance, there are certain districts that are established. Those districts that are established in the zoning ordinance fall into two main broad categories in zoning. They are those that are called conventional zoning districts and those that are planned development districts. In conventional zoning districts, the use lease is clearly outlined in the zoning ordinance. For example, those who live in ARR districts. The zoning ordinance clearly identifies what particular use is permitted in that district, what are the conditional uses, what are the setbacks that are permitted in that district. That is clearly outlined. The same applies to other districts like Arrow 2, the A district. The C2, a lot of the developments you have along Goodman Road that fall under the commercial corridors. Those ones, the Arrow district, the Arrow 2 district, Those ones, they fall under the conventional zoning districts. Plant development districts, which in the zoning code are classified as R3, plant residential, the C4, such as this piece, that is a plant commercial, the M3, which is a plant industrial district, which is what the applicant is requesting that this be rezoned to, and the PUD, plant unit development, for example, this is a PUD, those are plant development districts. In those districts, No specific use is outlined in the zoning code. Plan development districts are intended to be developed in a flexible manner. To provide for that flexibility, the applicant is required to provide to the city, at the time the application is submitted, a project text outlining the proposed uses. The Planning Commission reviews those proposed uses and makes its recommendation to the Board of Admin. The Board of Admin reviews the proposed uses and makes a final decision. So contrary to conventional zoning districts, where the uses are already outlined in the zoning code, in the plan development district, districts, the applicant proposes those uses and the city decides to approve them, to amend them, or to deny all of them and basically deny the application. So that is a difference. The M3 zoning district before you for consideration tonight is a planned development district. As such, there is a project text which the applicant has submitted, and that project text includes a proposed use lease. That project text also includes what are called bulk standards. In the conventional zoning districts, the bulk standards are already established. Those are things like setbacks. How far your house has to be from your property line, that is a setback. That is established in the zoning code. In the planned development district, the applicant gets to propose what setbacks, what are those bog regulations, the building heights, building setbacks, maximum impervious area. Those are all proposed in the project that you have before you. In the conventional zoning districts, Usually, if you take this piece, for example, it is zone AR. Take this piece, it's zone AR, agricultural residential. There is no layout for that particular development. How the roads are going to be, there is no layout for it. That is zone AR. In order for that piece, if that piece were proposed to be zone R3, the applicant will have to provide a layout plan. as part of the application process. So in the conventional zoning districts, the layout is usually approved at the subdivision planning stage. In the planned development districts, the layout is considered first in the zoning stage of the application, which you have before you today. So you have included in the project text a preliminary development plan. which is what I showed you this, has to be included in the application. The Planning Commission therefore also has to review this plan and make its recommendation to the Board of Adamant regarding the specifics of this particular plan. The facing and all other elements are included. The conventional zoning districts often do not include any architectural provisions. The planned development districts have to have language addressing the architecture of buildings. So if you take this area where you have FedEx, for example, that is zone M1. It's a conventional zoning district. There are no architectural requirements on how those warehouses have to be built. Strictly speaking, very, very strictly. Of course, we have the design review ordinance, but you don't have very strict architectural requirements with the kind of detail that the applicant has provided inside this project text. So you also have building design consideration in front of you for consideration. Lastly, in the conventional zoning districts, infrastructural elements are generally handled when we are dealing with subdivision plan approver. In the planned development districts, you have to look at those infrastructural elements such as streets, utilities, water, and sewer when you are reviewing the subdivision rezoning, the proposed rezoning today. The request before you, therefore, is twofold. The two main actions that the Planning Commission will have to take today. First is to rezone the 561.8 acres subject property from agricultural district A and A agricultural residential to M3 plant industrial district. That's the first action you have to take. The second action is to approve or consider the approval of the project tax and the associated preliminary development plan for the DeSoto Innovation District. So every plan development district, the applicant gets to propose a name for that particular district. That name, which the applicant has proposed for this development, is DeSoto Innovation District. So you get to also consider and make your recommendation to the Board of Adamant for that district. Two things that I wish to address in terms of a lot of misinformation that has been on social media, I've received from calls, and I wish to address at this particular point, has to do with the useless, the useless. When the application was submitted, staff report written, and the packet staff report sent out to the planning commissioners, One use that was included as a conditional use in the list of proposed uses was data centers, telecommunication infrastructure, and air stations subject to all applicable criteria as stipulated in the zoning ordinance of the city, or if in future the city adopts a unified land development code, then as those regulations will be specified inside. Zoning has two main categories of uses. You have the uses that are indicated here by this full or tick. square, those are permitted uses by right. What that means is, if in future an applicant came in to do any of these uses, you will not have this hearing. They will not go in front of any board. That will be permitted by right. You can do that on that side. You have the ones that are called conditional uses. For you to do a conditional use, you have to go in front of another board, the Board of Zoning Adjustment, to get that approved. So data centers were initially proposed as a conditional use. Since the staff report was sent to you, and specifically yesterday, that data center, that particular use line, has been eliminated completely from the proposed list. What that means is if this particular development were approved, there were not and there cannot be a data center on that particular 561 acres, whether as a permitted use or as a conditional use. It has been completely eliminated from the use list. If at any point in future somebody showed up in the city and said they wanted to do a data center on that piece of property, they will have to go back through the same process to amend the project X. They will have to go back through this process, notices will be sent to the neighborhood, signs will be posted on the property. Everything that is happening now will start afresh and happen again. The city cannot stop anybody from submitting an application to the city. By law, that is called due process. Everybody has the right to have their day in court. They can apply. But whether it will be approved is a different thing altogether. So today, data centers are not a use by right, no, a conditional use proposed in the application before you. The second element is on the staff's report and on the agenda that was put out for this particular meeting, you had data center regulations that are intended for the amendment of the zoning ordinance as a whole. And there was a lot of misconception. There was a thought that those particular regulations were intended to regulate data centers that would be permitted on this particular piece of property. No. The two are not connected in any way, shape, or form. There is no connection between the two. And I will address that when we're dealing with the third item on the agenda. So data center has been eliminated completely from the proposed use list. I want to emphasize that over and over. To rezone property, the law requires Rezoning is a legal issue. The law requires that the Planning Commission recommends and the Board of Admin makes one of two findings. One, whether the existing zoning of the property is a mistake. That mistake is generally clerical in nature. The applicant does not claim that the existing agricultural or agricultural residential district zoning of the property is a mistake. The applicant makes no such claim. Staff found or finds that a 4.1 acre piece was rezoned by the Board of Aldermen on November 17 in 1998 from agricultural residential to agricultural district basically for gravel mining. It was there at the time. The rest of the property has remained zone ARO since its annexation in 1996. It can therefore be concluded that the existing zoning of the property is not a mistake. So that criteria, or that particular criterion, is addressed as such. The second The Planning Commission is required to find and recommend to the Board of Admin whether there has been a change in the character of the area and, not all, and a public need to justify the requested rezoning. So there has to be a change in the character of the area that aligns with the requested rezoning and a public need for the rezoning. Those two things have to go together. The applicant submits that from 1996 to today, there has been progressive change in that particular area from agricultural landscape to mining activities that are essentially, in planning a mining activity, it is classified as industrial in nature. And a clean fee, which is utilities by land use type. So if you look at these images, that has basically been the progression you have had on the site. This is the piece of property. In 1966, it was basically agricultural forest land. Forest is generally classified agricultural wooded area. And from about 1974, mining activity began. that mining activity progressed right up to about 2016, you had a landfill that was established there, and then to there in 2026, you have the landfill. And you don't have active mining, but you have a history of industrial use on the piece of property. So that is essentially the applicant's submission. Staff finds that the character of the area, there are two ways you can look at the character of the area as far as this particular piece of property is concerned. There are two ways you can look at it. When the law talks about an area, it doesn't define any particular limits to how you look at it. But generally, the practice in the city has been to use natural features or hard buffers such as arterial roads to kind of define the limits of what we consider an area when looking at a rezoning request. If you look at the character of the area strictly west of Craft Road, 25 years ago from 1996, that was predominantly industrial. You had a mining field in character. That's what you really had there. East of Craft Road was predominantly agricultural, was just those trees, and residential. You had all these houses. and some that are still there today in this particular area. That's what you had in 1996. Today, you have an area west of craft that has become predominantly agricultural and utilities in character. That, however, recognizes the fact that over time, from 1960 to today, you've had this mining activity that have created these gravel pits in that particular area. East of Craft, the character of the area has changed. It has become predominantly light industrial and institutional in character, the institutional being the Desiree East Career Tech, which will be constructed at this particular location. So if you look at the area strictly west of Craft, you may say its change has been from agricultural through industrial, and then to industrial and agricultural and utilities today. If you look at the area from Sandwich right down to Highway 305, which will be a larger area, it has changed to agricultural and utilities and industrial in character with respect to the public need factor the applicant submits that there is need for more industrial land in desoto county that has been a point that has been The Chamber of Commons has been hammering that particular issue in the city, in the county as a whole, for a while now. The applicant also submits the other studies that were included in your packet and in the project text. If the landfill element, for example, if these rezoning were not approved, with regard to the landfill element, city residents would have to haul and dispose the waste in Marshall County. This will trigger a severe 436.4% increase in annual disposal fees at a cost of over 6.2 million from local governments and residents each. That will be the increased cost with regard to managing the disposal of these waste in Marshall County. That will be the burden to the public. Staff fines. Policy number 4.1.4 in the city's comprehensive plan that articulates the future needs of the city provides or stipulates that the city will request that DeSoto County develop a long range plan to close and repurpose its construction land fee for recreational purposes. That is a policy that is articulated in the city's comprehensive plan. It appears that the county has decided that as part of that long range plan, part of that long range plan will be to close the existing landfill and open a new one in this particular area. The future land use map in the city's comprehensive plan designates that subject property as two designations for that subject property. The western half is designated for industrial and distribution. The eastern half is designated mainly, which is a larger section of it, for rural estate development. With regard to the preliminary development plan criteria, there are four main stipulations in the zoning ordinance that a planning commission is required to review the application base of. concerns the character of the community considering the quality of construction that is proposed and the architectural compatibility of the proposed development. In the project text, and I think I saw this on social media too, these buildings here are purely conceptual. These are simply conceptual. This development, its industrial character would align with what you have to the east of Craft Road. However, there is an architectural distinction to it. There are these three policies that are stipulated in the project text when it comes to the architectural design of buildings. Meta buildings such as these will not be permitted. In the existing industrial park where you have FedEx, you can have those meta buildings. These will not be permitted. The buildings will look more like this and this. This is more of technology park kind of uses. still treated buildings like the ones you have in the FedEx area to the east. Most of the industrial warehouses you have in the city, this is the way they are constructed. That will not be permitted on this particular piece of property. So you have this articulated in the project text. The second has to do with traffic conditions. Church Road and Craft Road are not truck routes. And this particular application does not propose that they become truck routes. It does not propose that they become truck routes. As such, you will not have trucks on Church Road, you will not have trucks on Craft Road because of this particular development. All streets will be constructed with curb, gutter, and sidewalks. Nair Road, I did indicate this is Nair Road as it currently exists today. It will be extended, this red line, that is basically a Nair Road extension, southward of the new Carriatec campus and be connected to the site. So any trucks exiting the site will have to get to the stoplight which will have to be installed in future at this particular location and then you cross there onto Ney Road and exit the site to Highway 305. What this means or what this implies is there can be no development of an industrial lot on this piece of property until Ney Road extension is completed. So whether it takes 50 years to do that, you cannot have any of this industrial lot developed until that main road extension to the east of Crave Road is completed. The Church Road connection is proposed. I did indicate at this particular location, there will be no truck access. That is generally just for employees that may want to access the site instead of going down to Craft, Auburn, Nair Road, going down to the Craft Church Road intersection and making a left turn there. They will be able to enter the site from this particular location. Davidson Road was envisioned in the comprehensive plan to be extended down straight onto Church Road. That will require the construction of a bridge on Noloho Creek. And also at this particular location, you're going down here, there is a significant side distance problem at that particular location. So extending Davidson Road the way it was envisioned will not be safe when it comes to connecting it to Church Road at this particular location. As such, that extension is not proposed. With regard to public utilities, there are TVA power lines and gas lines readily available. However, there are no water lines and there are no sewer lines to this particular piece of property. These blue or these red dots you find on this map, those Fire hydrants. And they generally show you where you have water lines in the city. So you have water lines in this along Church Road. There is no water line available on this particular piece of property. These are sewer manholes. There is a sewer line here. There's a sewer line that has been extended to that gas station. You don't have sewer on this particular piece of property. So for the development of this particular site, the developer will have to extend those water and sewer lines to the site. With regard to public health, safety, and general welfare, there's been a concern that along Church Road, with the existing landfill or clean field you have out there, you have litter, you have debris, folks driving up the hill, you know, that sometimes fall along Church Road. And if this were approved, there has to be improvement at the level of the county with respect to picking up that debris along that particular road. Noise impact of trucks docking onto industrial lots as proposed, that is a concern that has been raised. You've got a 150 feet buffer, I did indicate, that has been proposed. The rail yard setbacks proposed for the buildings there, it's additional 20 feet. And the building orientation will be significant. If all the buildings, for example, if the docks are constructed such that they are not at the rear of the building, Therefore, facing the residential area to the north, but I'd rather turn inward into the subdivision itself. Then the buildings serve as additional hard phase buffer against the noise. There was a concern that somebody raised to me regarding light. The city's design review ordinance requires that at the property line of any multi-family development, any commercial development, and any industrial development, the light intensity has to be zero. So there cannot be any light spewed from this property to any adjoining development. When the plans are submitted, the applicant has to submit a photometric plan showing that the illuminance at the property lines will be zero. Lastly, as I did indicate, data centers have been eliminated from this particular use. So there will not be any concern with regard to noise from data centers affecting residential area in the surrounding. Staff makes two recommendations to the Planning Commission. Recommendation option one. The Planning Commission may recommend approval of this rezoning upon finding that there has been a change in the character of the area that aligns with the requested rezoning, as I did indicate in the presentation, from agricultural And rezone the property from agricultural district and agricultural residential district to the M3 plant industrial district. And recommend approval of the preliminary development plan subject to these conditions one to seven. The rezoning itself cannot be conditional. The rezoning itself has to be straight. Either you rezone or you don't rezone. But the project text approver can be conditional. So you can have one motion with a rezoning and maybe advisable to have two separate motions where you just do straight rezoning from A and AR to the M3 and then another motion that addresses the preliminary development plan subject to these conditions one through seven. Improvements, condition number one, improvements, unless the Board of Adamant approves otherwise, will be the responsibility of the developer. That means construction of the trail, all utilities, all streets, that will be the responsibility of the developer of the property. While the sequencing of the subdivision phases may change, each phase of the subdivision shall be plated from preliminary to final plat in its entirety. That means you will not have single lot subdivision, not plating one lot at a time. That defeats the whole planning purpose. The entire phase needs to be plated as a whole. No lot in the Desoto Innovation District may be developed for industrial use in area A until such time that any road is connected into the district, as I did indicate. There shall be no heavy duty 18 wheeler truck access from the district onto Church Road. A uniform 150 feet wide natural buffer shall be maintained around the entire subject property on all sides. That includes along Church Road. The trail in the district shall be completed in each phase of the subdivision such that there are no gaps in its length and it shall be dedicated for public use. Lastly, the maximum height of the clean field shall be provided and approved by the Board of Adamant at the preliminary plot approver of the potential lots for the clean field area. This height should minimize visibility of the clean field from all turn point and wedgewood subdivisions. So if you're in those subdivisions, you shouldn't be seen into the clean field. So you have the 150 feet natural buffer, and then you have the height limitation. Option two is a denier motion. Considering that a character of the area west of Craft Road, if you just focus, limit your focus to only the area west of Craft Road. This road being a hard transition buffer separating the eastern and western lands lying around it, north of Church and south of Autumn Point and Westwood subdivision, has changed from industrial to predominantly agricultural in the last 25 years, which your proposed rezoning may be considered not to align with, and that a future land use map in the comprehensive plan designates most of the property as rural estate for residential use, The Planning Commission may recommend denial of the rezoning of the subject property as proposed and recommend the same to the Board of Admin. So those are the two options before the Planning Commission for consideration. Thank you. That concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you so much any any questions to stay.

Just one one clarifying question. In the 2040 report it stated both that the landfill would be uses recreational but the planned use was industrial for that same area is that correct.

Yes, sir.

Any other questions. There are no other questions. I do see Mr. Barber here. You're here to represent the application. Please come forward. We do not take any questions from the public. We'll have the public hearing, and you can come forward and ask your questions at the time.

Commissioners, thank you. The presentation was exceedingly thorough, and I certainly don't want to repeat any of the information that you have been given. However, I would like to present to you important facts related to the proposed innovation district And how do you advance? OK, you will see the points that I will make here on the screen. I want to just look at the goals. And then, as you have seen in the presentation, there are two main components. I want to hit the factors related to the employment section and the factors related to the clean fill site. And then I'll touch just briefly on the overall district design because Dr. Song has covered that thoroughly and then conclude with supporting justifications how the area has indeed changed, not just the site, but in the surrounding area as well. So without plowing the ground that's already been plowed, you know where the site is located, the size of the site as indicated here. And then as you advance, this slide was referenced earlier as the evolution of the site. And I do want to point out that the mining of the site, yes, the mining of the site began occurring over 50 years ago. when there was no one there. And then the neighborhoods have grown up around this particular site over time, over the last 50 years, as the site was being actively mined and as the clean fill site has been in use by the county over this time. So the original use of the site was for the mining operations, 50 years plus, and then also the county's clean fill operation, which was established in 1972. So that's the age of the site. Now the site's been mined out, processes of reclamation have occurred, and suburban growth has occurred while the site was being actively mined and while the Clingfield site has been active as well. So as you advance there, let me just speak to the employment component of the site. The goal here is to create an environment for advanced employment opportunity, advanced manufacturing and technology. And the reason for this is, it's already been mentioned, there is a, well, first of all, now we've got a state of the art training facility, as you advance the slide, that is on its way. The Career Tech Center will be just across Craft Road, which is a very good compatible neighbor with this site. It will be training persons for employment. There is also interest in other educational institutions for this area going forward. And so those components support the employment nature of the area. And then with regard to advanced manufacturing itself, and advanced employment opportunities, manufacturing and technology, the wage premium for our county and for this city and for this region is substantial. And I put an article on the screen from the St. Louis Fed. describing advanced manufacturing, how important it is in the economy. And in consultation with the DeSoto Council, this is an opportunity to diversify local economy. It's a component that we don't have much, if any, employment in this sector within DeSoto County. So there's that aspect of what is being proposed here. And then as you go to the next slide this indicates some of the deficit of the depletion of opportunities for this type of employment opportunity. uh... that there's just not much of this land available left uh... in this part of our county is was mentioned by a song earlier and apparently the chamber of commerce is disgusting and so forth so we have a natural ready site to supply a need for this kind of uh... employing opportunity. And then when you advance the slide again, you will note has already been discussed a portion of the site is designated industrial on the future land use map. A substantial portion of the site is designated industrial. And so we are simply asking that rather than create this gulf between Craft Road and where the the site is designated as industrial, let us master plan the area in the M3 planned employment district, high quality development so that it is compatible with the area and rather than kind of have that sort of gap in the way the land uses work in this particular area. So that's the one more item there, economic impact. This is was produced by TVA. just describing the economic impact of industrial, advanced industrial buildings and employers versus single-family homes. As you scan this slide, you will note that there is a substantial premium on economic advantage, a positive economic impact in this component of the economy. and this particular location is exceedingly well-suited for it. So that's on the employment side of it. Let's speak to the clean fill site. This is non-polluting inert material. It's Class II that we're speaking of here. In DeSoto County, there were essentially two sites that were used in this area. One has been closed. That's over at the corner of Hacks and 078 in that area, which was closed, is no longer available for use. uh now this site is uh filling or nearing capacity and the only other site that's available in this county is over on star landing road over towards the delta and it's privately owned there's no county control of it you can't control pricing you're subject to whatever happens there now if the if the site cannot be expanded or provided for here The next closest option is over in Marshall County, some 20, 25 miles away. We'll have some cost difference. Some of the costs have already been mentioned just a few minutes ago. But before we get into the cost, let's just talk about the service of what's being provided here. So as you advance the slide, you will see that this is critical public infrastructure. It's vital public infrastructure. The site provides service to municipalities, to residents, and to contractors who need to dispose of their debris, just the way you see in the pictures here. And actually on this slide, the 1,500 to 2,250 pickup loads monthly from residents, those numbers are conservative. As we recalculated, they would actually be a little higher than that going forward. So this is a vital service being provided to the municipalities, to the county, and to small business and other contractors as well. And as you advance the slide, that's just making the point that it services our building industry. And if the facilities are unavailable, this is going to impact costs. It impacts housing costs. It's more costs of doing business. It's more inconvenient. So it supports local business in that manner. The next slide you will see is very important as well. In terms of emergency service preparedness, the site is crucial. When we have storm events, tornadoes, ice storm just recently, though we didn't get it like Oxford did, or further south, the areas further south did. And when you're recovering from those storms, emergency services have to dispose of that debris so neighborhoods can come back online, power can be restored, and life can resume normality. And so storm recovery services are a crucially important part of the public infrastructure in this. And there's a whole host of things. I don't know if Mr. Olson is here or not, the director of emergency services. He was going to be here. I will summarize to say that FEMA, they reimburse for storm cleanup operations. But in order to do so, there has to be areas to sort out debris and meet a host of federal regulations. And if it's not available, those reimbursements are slow to come and may possibly not come. And we have some work going on down in Oxford. I was just speaking with my colleague there the other day. They're having a challenge on there, and they have massive reimbursements because they did not have the place to recover from a storm as we're proposing here in the Innovation District. Finally on here is cost. Mr. Medlin is here, Supervisor Medlin will speak a moment to it. I just wanna emphasize in the red there, we get to the bottom line on the red. This is the increase in costs, 266% cost increase for the municipalities alone. if they were unable to utilize the site. That's not including contractors. It's not including others who would pay for the service. And then that's that's just the tipping fees. If you go to the next slide, you will see outlined in red there after you factor in gas time. vehicle wear and tear for the services to be provided. That's where we arrive at the at the over 400% increase. So my point is, and Mr. Medlin, if you will want to address it, my point here is that it is vital and critical public infrastructure. So we have the opportunity for advanced employment in a site that is well suited for it, well planned, with quality development, with training facilities nearby, and also providing for vital and critical public infrastructure. Mr. Medlin, did you want to say something? Then I'll come back and I'll wrap it up, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Bob.

Mr. Chairman and Board,

One thing I'd like to start with, if I may, so everybody I guess in this room will know, I didn't know it until I got in office 34 years ago, but you see your garbage at the road and you pay your bill through the city. a lot of branch in the can you pay you be a week actually have the contract a bill in the for you garbage, but all the cities in the in the can in the can it it's all the same week the can actually puts a tax on. I'm really John for disposal of the rubbish and the garbage. What we're looking at here. We don't have, we did have three actually rubbish pits, as Mr. Barber said. Our rubbish pit at Sanders Road on this site here, it was actually active 40 years ago, and it was... small rubbish pit, I guess you'd say 20 some odd acres. And we were, they were putting in it when I got in office. It just started back in 1992. So what I've always felt, and I've been on a committee to try to take care of garbage and rubbish since I've been in office, so I'm real familiar with it. So people need to understand that we actually, as Bob hit on a minute ago, A lot of people don't know this, but I'd like for everybody to know it. We allow, since we own that rubbish pit, it's not private, it's your rubbish pit, then you allowed four loads a month to go to that free of charge if a resident wants to take anything on it. And a lot of people utilize that. you know and i wish more would because we wouldn't be picking up as much on the streets but uh people close and they utilize it on it's open half five days a week from like seven to five and then it's open half a day on saturdays except for in the winter months But it's real convenient for everybody. So they've closed the rubbish pit down. We called it Railroad Avenue at 78 and Hacks Crossroad. They've been there for years. And most of these rubbish pits end up where you've got gravel pits and you fill them. And this is kind of similar to what's going on on this site. But what they do, you know, you get the gravel pit filled up. Of course, the EQ is real restricted with these rubbish pits also. They have on-site visits. You know, if we actually get this plan approved, we're probably still looking at a year before we get our permits. And the one at Sanders that the county owns and the taxpayers own is at capacity today. Since Railroad Avenue at 78 and Hacks closed down, we have been only letting the City of Olive Branch take their limbs to Sanders Road. The county has been even from the side can we're how I was all the way over to starland which is private landfill. And what I've always felt like what says I've been office course we had to give condition uses for the other 2 landfills so we got kind of leverage on a little bit. But then If ours closes down, what I've always been afraid of, if ours closes down, the one that the county owns and the taxpayers own, then we don't have any leverage. And so if we go over to Marshall County with it, where actually the people own Railroad Avenue Waste Connections, they're the same people that pick up your garbage. They have a landfill and a rubbish pit over in Marshall County. Transportation over there is going to be tremendous, you know, and and the actually I think the figure showed that we 300 something 387,000 dollars this year and versus going over there just a difference in the tip in phase, not the transportation, you know what fuel is today. So you're looking at 1.3 million is what we estimate. Of course, those are just estimates, and we know the county's gonna grow the building houses every day in the city, all the cities in the county. We still got a lot of raw area in the county for be developed, and that's gonna continue. But we actually have, in the rubbish pit though, everybody needs to understand, the only thing going there is limbs and building materials. no garbage garbage your garbage now it used to go to bfi up on the long road and that goes over to marshall county to quad landfill so that's where it goes but the county puts that tax on every residence in a resident in the county pays the tax to dispose of that garbage so my job is to try to save taxpayers money i pride myself in 34 years of trying to do that And I want to continue to do it. And I'm afraid if we don't have this pit here to control, we used to operate the pit ourselves. Now we contract it out. But the contractor, you know, is we get a discounted rate because, you know, it's our pit. So everything goes in as discounted. Now, when people build homes and they go in, they pay a commercial rate. So we do have some money coming in, an offset. But when these rubbish pits are full, everybody needs to understand, we set aside a million, $2 million. We set aside a million, but it's probably not enough to close what rubbish pit we got now. And there were a lot of restrictions, DEQ, to close that rubbish pit and plant grass. And what I want to stand here today and tell you, I won't be around, but if we get this expansion in which it makes sense to expand where you are instead of trying to get a new site somewhere, is we just keep on where we are and go back north with expansion. So if we can do that, hopefully one day none of us in this room will be here when it's full. But maybe it be a park or something because we have enough property that we can restrict the heights and the city is going to restrict that and the key is going to restrict that. But these these rubbish pits aren't just something you can go in and you know, they're monitoring. We have people that they have people to gate and they check everything that goes in there. And I'll say this. I know one time we were written up because a Coke can was laying on the ground. So that's how strict it is. So there's no garbage or anything like that. But that landfill has been there for, or Rose Pit has been there about 40 years, and it is at capacity. In fact, if we don't do something pretty soon, we're gonna close it down for probably all of Ranch 2 because we don't have any choice. But there's no toxics in that landfill. There's only debris and building materials. and again we at capacity so we we don't we got to do something you know and i really don't want and something else we need to consider not only the cost of taking the rubbish at another facility where the tipping fees and the yardage, they go by yardage, not tonnage, it's gonna be a lot more, but we gotta think about the fact too that the cities, Isle of Man, South Haven, everybody use it, and the county, they're probably gonna, if we transported another 20 miles, you're probably gonna cut two loads of limbs out a day for a truck driver. So you're either gonna cut your service back, are you going to have more people. Both of them cost more money. I take a lot of pride in the county. That limb pick up and service in the county and I'm sure the city is the same way. I take a lot of pride in that because it's came a long ways. We have routes and they pick it up and you just put it out on the road. and they pick it up and it's disposed of and it's just like your garbage. As long as it's gone, you don't see it. You don't worry about it. So, but MDEQ does have a lot of strict regulations and we have a long ways to go before we can get anything done. I would think a year or year and a half before we gave permits. And we have some people here tonight to speak that are consultants. Mr. Jim McNaughton, he's going to speak too, I think, in a minute. But I just wanted to speak and let you all know, and a lot of people in this room probably know me. I call myself conservative. And I'm here on the part of the rubbish pit. And there is a need for them. You know, jobs too, I've always fought for jobs in the county. So if y'all have any questions, thank you for your time.

Mr. Chairman, just a couple more comments. Thank you, Mr. Medlin. In terms of design, Dr. Song has already described the nature of the design, the various buffers on the site, the trail component that's associated with it extending the greenway, the direction of traffic over to Nail Road alignment and not onto to Church Road and then a host of architectural standards and guidelines to ensure the quality of it. Mr. Medlin just spoke to some of that as well. So now, in terms of justification, the site is find where I am. I've already mentioned, I think, hopefully you can conclude from this description, the essential public need of what we have, the essential services provided, the What happens if there's a loss of access to it, the detriment of that central public need, not only for the clean field site, but for the employment aspect as well. On the economic side, the depletion of the land, the need for the land, the alignment with the comprehensive plan is very clear. um and the um as we're we're moving on the advancement of the parks and greenways and open space strategic management of the the traffic and as you scroll on down a song the changes in the area we we listed we enumerated 12. And there are a couple of more that are not on the list. And as you see the map and the various dots, you have access to the master plan. There are multiple rezonings in the area. The clean field site itself is built out and the subsequent reclamation of it. Completion of the surface mining is a change. By the way, there's no agriculture on this site. It is an old mining site. Its nature is a former industrial use. It's not agriculture. And no agriculture is occurring there. The designation of the future industrial on the future land use map. The commercial rezoning is in the area of number four on the map. Imminent construction of the DeSoto East Tech Prep Center. The ongoing construction and build out of the employment center to the east. And then we have other commercial rezonings, eight through 12, the construction of the TVA power line. And now we see that craft road itself is being improved and not far away. Pleasant Hill Road, those are occurring. So all of these things lend themselves to change in the character of the area. And then the rest of the comments addressing the public need for the plan. We do have others. We don't have to speak now. We can answer questions. Mr. Bob Jarman is here, the county road manager. Mr. Jim McNaughton is here, who is a consultant on the site. WE HAVE MR. CROWER HERE, THE DESOTO COUNCIL NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. AND I DON'T KNOW IF CHRIS MADE IT IN OR NOT, EMA DIRECTOR. BUT WE HAVE MULTIPLE PEOPLE HERE ASSOCIATED WITH ASSOCIATIVE QUESTIONS, IF YOU HAVE THAT. I HOPE I DIDN'T TAKE TOO MUCH TIME. THANK YOU.

ANY QUESTIONS FROM THE COMMISSIONERS? So if you want to start.

I do have a couple of questions. Just remind me when does this claim feel our present landfill area when do we absolutely have to have that shut down.

I'm going to refer that to Mister McNaughton over here. And you might need to come you might have come up.

Good evening for the record, I'm Jim mcnaughton so the question was one does the landfill. Yes, when does according to the permit it's that has to be shut down when it's full there's not necessarily a date certain.

Do you have an idea of any kind of time. I mean that is it like that. By the end of the year war.

Yeah, it's yes, it's this is about a year. We're we're currently doing surveys right now thank you. I think as you can see the spreadsheet of the on the cost. If Since the railroad Avenue site has closed I think just the city of olive branch volume has tripled so it's being used its utilization has increased a great deal.

So it's fairly imminent. Yes. OK.

Yes.

And then I did want to just ask, and maybe it's premature, but would the developers consider pulling the clean fill portion out of this application and submit it for rezoning separately from this application?

I'm going to refer that question to Mr. Bob Jarman, I believe.

so

So no we we're trying to get it all done at one time so that we can have the the landfill expansion.

So if we know at least look at the police have silence while we go to the president of the applicant is is not going to pull that out.

It's all one.

He all or none. Any of any other questions from the mission. We we will after we get through the public hearing process we will go back and answer any questions and clarify that but he he basically said the landfill part is part of the complete application. It's just because there's a whole this is all you want one package right.

And then I did have one more question. I'm sorry. And I think it's important to ask before we have the public discussion, has there been an employment study done with regard to unemployment rates in the existing industrial developments, FedEx and the other ones that have been here a long time? I used to work at the Chamber of Commerce and we had job fairs and we always had the warehouses were having a difficult time finding employees. Is that still the case? Have y'all done any sort of employment study?

We've not studied the logistics or the warehouse in terms of that. All we know is that at this point, the need for or the Lack of advanced employment manufacturing and technology in our County is a missed largely missing component and so it's intended to feel that and that labor force would have to be attracted.

Anyone else.

Mr. Barber, thank you. OK, we will now open the public hearing. And let me kind of go through a few ground rules here. First of all, limit your comments to three minutes or less. We'll have a timer. So when three minutes hits, we will let you know that. Try not to repeat what has been previously stated. in essence of time, and also only one trip to the podium. And the data center has been eliminated from the proposed list. So if you had an opposition to the data center, we ask that you use any other opposition because that is no longer part of the application. When you come forward, state your name and address. If you have a question, you can ask the question. We will try to answer them at the end of the public hearing. And once again, in essence of time, it will be three minutes or less. We ask that you please remain silent during the process. No clapping or shouting. I know that's hard to do sometimes. But please, out of respect for everyone, do that. Now, I do have some sign-in cards that I received prior to the meeting and I will start that I'm just going by the power was given to me so Mister Ted Roman did you the first so yes go ahead.

The the just the county does not own the land that's asking to be rezone so that's it's not the county's laying the applicant is are the other airs of the family, yes, okay, all right, Mister Roman please come forward.

Thank you. My name is Ted Roman 1147 11 West and Detroit. Thank you for giving me opportunity to speak. I don't see this making a lot of sense as far as the criteria required for rezoning. Looking at the packet and everything there's a item 3, 1, 2, which is a change of character in the neighborhood. There was talk of Different areas like the East side where it had all the manufacturing and then there was just the site itself, but then there was talk of everywhere around it from and we're talking from 1966 to 2026 we I mean I haven't lived here that long live here for 23 years. So I mean been here for a while, but the whole area has changed and it hasn't changed industrial in fact if you look at the comprehensive plan that think there's only about 10%. of the land designated for industrial use. The major change has been residential and commercial. If you go, if you just take a one-mile radius around the site, if you go north, it's residential agriculture. We've got golf courses. South is residential and commercial. East is agriculture and residential. And then you do get, again, going just the one mile, you get one warehouse. And then West is agriculture and residential. So the change has been residential, agricultural, commercial, all supporting neighborhoods. So I don't see this being a huge change to flip this from agriculture residential, which is zoned appropriately to industrialist as a huge huge change. I think it would be a heavy impact and affect homes and residential areas. I'm just popping that right down the middle of it. The as far as the public need. You know that goes to seems to go the rubbish pit mainly. the i mean we've seen that rubbish pit grow this is not a new issue this is this has been going on for a while in the comprehensive plan that was amended i think in 2022 it was mentioned to make that a park or green space um so i'm not sure why the county can't find another spot there's know it's like this is the only one that they can use they've had years to plan for this I think it should be moved somewhere else the close closure of the one that they mentioned on railroad avenue that's bringing all that to the middle of the city I mean that anything east it's got to travel all the way through and I don't know if you've been up church road pleasant hill road the road I live on Tons of trash in the city been doing a great job and note that's the city not the county doing all the pickup. They've been doing a great job and have increased that a lot here recently, but they cleaned up a week later. there's trash everywhere and you know one thing mentioning turning it into a green space and there was the mention of the greenway and the walking trail which i think is fantastic it's in the middle of neighborhoods if you develop this agriculture residential get neighborhoods lots of people lots of families you get green space and you get to walk along the green trail connect around do a lot of activities I don't know about y'all. I don't would prefer to walk around and not not walk around warehouses and walk around residential so. You know I don't see how this fits in the comprehensive plan. In the very beginning of the guiding principles says all branches first and foremost residential community with single family neighborhoods as its central unit of growth and this is flipping that on its head. So I don't think it meets the comprehensive plan. I don't think it meets the criteria for rezoning. We've lived here for a while my wife and I have raised our kids and we love all branch and I don't you know what them to come want to come back and I don't think putting industrial in residential. It is a good idea. I think there are currently industrial sites available that can be used. Excuse me for landfill or even in the county for the landfill and even this park. There are designated industrial sites and our branch. I can't use us but thank you thank you.

All right, Scott Dahlberger, did I pronounce your name right? And once again, limit it to three minutes if you can.

Yeah, my name's Scott Dahlberger. I live at 4825 Cherry Tree. And I guess my thing's a little different than most, because I live downstream from this area, and my house is actually in the flood zone. And I know they talked about water retention ponds. that creek gets full now it's not with all the other construction upstream they build so-called retention ponds it doesn't help and it doesn't get better so my question is how much of this land i'm guessing THE BLUE AREA IS FLOOD ZONE. ARE THEY GOING TO BE ALLOWED TO PUT DIRT IN THERE WHEN THEY BUILD? AND THEN IF IT DOES FLOOD, WHERE'S THE WATER GOING TO GO? HOPEFULLY NOT IN MY HOUSE. I PAY A FORTUNE FOR FLOOD INSURANCE. AND THE FLOOD ISSUE IS MY BIGGEST CONCERN. THE RETENTION PONDS THAT HAVE BEEN BUILT NORTH OF ME, UPSTREAM, DON'T APPEAR TO BE WORKING. IF YOU WANT TO COME TO MY HOUSE WHEN IT RAINS HARD, I'LL WALK YOU OUT THERE TO THE CREEK. I MEAN, WHEN IT'S NOT RAINING, THERE'S TWO INCHES OF WATER. WHEN IT RAINS, IT'S FULL, AND THAT IS A HUGE DITCH OUT THERE. AND THE LANDFILL THING, TO ME, IF IT'S EMINENT, IF THE ALL OR NOTHING THING DOESN'T SIT WELL WITH ME, WHY CAN'T THEY USE EMINENT DOMAIN? IF IT'S GOING TO BENEFIT EVERYBODY IN THE COUNTY, THAT'S WHAT EMINENT DOMAIN IS FOR. TAKE THE AREA, GIVE THEM REASONABLE PAYMENT, AND MAKE THE LANDFILL.

That's how they built the interstates.

That's all.

Thank you for your comments. All right, Ramiro Gonzalez.

Good evening.

He's Romero Gonzales of the 4535 plantation garden drive. Literally a 3 minute walk from the site. So we're very invested in this. I THINK MY MAIN CONCERNS WERE ADDRESSED EARLIER SO THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION IT WAS VERY WELL DEVELOPED AND COMMUNICATED THE MAIN THING IS ADDRESSED ALREADY THE DATA CENTER THAT'S MY MAIN CALL THAT I WANT TO SEE SO THANK YOU FOR THAT THE OPTIONS THAT WERE RECOMMENDED THOUGH ITEM ONE QUITE FRANKLY THAT ONE SITS A LITTLE BIT UNEASY WHEN WE SAY THAT THE IMPROVEMENTS ANY IMPROVEMENTS ON THIS PROPERTY WOULD BE AT THE CONDITION OF THE DEVELOPER AND NOT THE CITY AND I THINK THAT requires a lot of trust um and nothing to say anything about the the organization or the families that are trying to get this approved but i think anything that is that close to that many houses has to come back through the board at some point so for that reason i would recommend that option two be selected, that the rural estate be selected unless they could come back in and separate the landfill from the rest of the program. And I know that they're not willing to do that at this point, but a no would probably give them a little bit more incentive to do that. Those are two distinct issues. The rubbish pit does need to be replaced. And I don't mind growth. We all know growth is coming. Smart growth is required, though. But at that point, though, we don't want to leave it up to somebody else. That needs to be this board that makes those decisions. So other than that, thank you for that. I appreciate all the work. And good luck in your retirement, Mr. Dorff.

All right. Ricky Denton. Is Ricky here?

Hello I'm Ricky didn't know live at 6280 North would drive which backs up to church row right in the middle of this proposed development. My back doors about a 150 feet from the road. We've already been you know traumatized years ago when you extended church will not you but when church road was extended You know it destroyed our out I deal it quiet. Life that we had and we just don't need another issue like that you know to affect not only us but my neighbors in the whole neighborhood. And the whole area. I will agree with the couple of these other folks, you know if the landfill issue. is a primary issue why hasn't that already been addressed by the county wise are we us up against such a deadline. Why can't like I believe someone else said okay, there's plenty of land here was just building you went up to the North there. I believe the The developers would be more than happy to help out with that. As far as the development itself have concerns with the buffer that's proposed. I have several questions I'd like to submit written. Document to whoever to get some responses to it. Some of this is all been already been resolved that or addressed. but this buffer along church road you know i have questions like will the proposed buffer include the current large mature trees and vegetation that now exist along there if if it will how far does it go does this buffer go into that existing tree line. You know a buffer that just goes up to the edge of the trees is no good to buffer that goes 10 feet into the trees is no good. You know where does the buffer start in relationship to the to church road in or side of church road. You know as church road comes from from the East from craft road, it's flat then it rises up as it approaches sandwich. What is the elevation of the development going to be like is it going to are the low line areas going to be raised are the higher areas going to be bulldozed down or is it going to follow the lay of the land. WHAT EFFECT IS THAT GOING TO HAVE ON THIS EXISTING TREE LINE? BASICALLY, WE DON'T WANT TO SEE IT. WE DON'T WANT TO SMELL IT. I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT. AND I DON'T WANT TRAFFIC ON CHURCH ROAD TO INCREASE DRAMATICALLY BECAUSE OF IT, IF IT'S APPROVED.

ALL RIGHT, SIR. THAT'S YOUR THREE MINUTES IS UP, IF YOU'LL CONCLUDE REAL QUICK.

ALL RIGHT.

Well, they got more than three minutes. Just one. So if you'll finish up, please.

I'll I'll just conclude by saying you know that we as we are citizens as well and landowners and taxpayers and although we don't have the resources and the pool the contacts that you know these developers do we are citizens and and we deserve to be. We deserve to have be given the utmost consideration that regarding all of this.

Thank you. All right, Chris Turnbow. Is Chris here?

Good evening. My name is Chris Turnbow. I live at 9552 Miranda Drive. A lot of what I wanted to say was already covered. One thing, though, in the DeSoto Innovation District website that I looked at earlier, today they're showing us 14 lots for concept A. I saw concept B that was one or two large lots. Did that go away? um they say that data center has been taken off the table that that won't be part of this proposal does that mean it will never be part of the of a proposal in the future we have no control over that and that makes me wonder have the owners done any kind of representation to potential data owner data center construction constructors in the future that this is a place that might be available for that purpose Have they done power usage studies? I don't know how much power they're gonna draw. And finally, the the bit where they're going to make it all or nothing they won't pull out the landfill extension it must be uh the whole deal or nothing that sounds an awful lot like an attempt to wield leverage to me and i don't much care for it thank you i am definitely opposed to this rezoning thank you gentlemen thank you all right uh y'all please remain silent we've got uh donna and gary mcbride

Hi, I'm Donna McBride, 64-1 Spring Creek Drive in Pleasant Hill Estates. First of all, thank you for the presentation. It was very thorough. We've lived in Pleasant Hill Estates since 2002, and it's a wonderful place to be. The main concern that I have now that they've eliminated the data center is I noticed that one of the classifications that's being proposed is a zone in 3. And if I'm not mistaken that allows for heavy manufacturing which I think includes manufacturing of hazardous materials is that correct.

We will answer the questions at the end so they will the staff will answer your questions when it's finished sorry so continue on your time. I'm sorry we will answer the question at the end of the okay, so public here.

My question is does the classification in 3 include heavy manufacturing which I believe includes the manufacturing of hazardous materials. okay we will and if that's the case i'm sure that the residents of pleasant hill estates would have a concern with that okay so that's my question okay thank you pamela bean

Quail Road olive branch. And the presentation was very thorough, but I'm a proponent to reserve as much agricultural land as we have in olive branch, which according to when the town plan was given it was less than 10% and I know there's been spot zoning of that cheap agricultural land for development since then. I've had the benefit of working for an electric utility, Burlington Electric, which also has a biomass facility where they take the wood, the fallen wood and scrap wood from the municipal residents and they turn that into energy. energy for the city energy for the hospital it's a wonderful program it's called the mcneil generating station along with that there is a gardener supply store right next door in garden plots this is a wonderful opportunity for our branch to reserve what little agricultural land we have left and olive branch and use that for recycling, mulching, composting, teaching, and additional, keeping the landfill free from stuff that could be repurposed and reused in a smart way, in a teachable way for students and children so that they know not to throw trash out on the side of the road, that there's a different way to deal with these things that may be interesting to them, but also keep our community clean. I really urge you to look at the McNeil station McNeil generating facility Burlington electric and how that has helped the community has helped the residents has offset electrical bills when I see what was proposed I originally came here to discuss something else And infrasound, which has a significant health impact and an environmental impact. We can't afford to lose any more agricultural land. We have to be smarter in how to use it, how to recycle, how to teach kids Throwing trash out the window is not a good plan. The infrasound impact that's big in generating stations and it's caused all kinds of health hazards, decreasing the quality of life, It's been termed to be Behaving like an acoustic weapon and I truly ask you to look more into the infrasound impact from industrial use and generations and Look more towards if trash is really the problem Don't look for another landfill look how to utilize the landfill to keep the trash out of it. Thank you. I

Thanks for your comments. Keith is in room run. 4822 stone cross.

Thank you for letting me speak. I was going to speak about the data centers, but I'm not. What I am concerned about, what is innovative manufacturing? And what is, what are they going to put, what can they actually build up there, up here? I'm concerned for my children, my grandchildren, and the future of olive branch and the pollution that a manufacturing center can put in. How are they going to power these plants and what are they going to do to our electric bills as well? And the water, what are they going to use for water and how is that going to affect where are they going to get it, how are they going to use it, and where is the waste going to go? Those are my questions. Thanks.

All right. Gregory Bean, you had down data centers. That's been taken off. Do you wish? It's been taken off, but there's also another topic of that, right? Data centers. But I'm not going to get over this. OK. All right. Greg Williams? Is Mr. Williams here? I think that was . Okay, the plant. Okay, that's Ashley Bishop. It had data centers. Is there anything else you wish to add to? Okay.

How are y'all good evening. This is my first time being in a board meeting. I live on Stewart Street and all the branch. I'm a little confused on the whole situation being my first time, but I realized that you have a problem with the landfill and like a woman spoke earlier. I think utilizing some of those resources that go into the landfill and using it for good energy or clean energy instead of just dumping it into the land itself. a little confusion on how many warehouses y'all keep allowing in here that create more of that trash and then not planning that ahead of time and wait until the last minute to say we need a bigger land field but my biggest concern was the data center but this had brought my attention that I think your resources should be a little bit better, should be more up to date. And the traffic that it will cause around all the branch in such a small town is becoming a little ridiculous and unsafe for us people who actually live here. And then I think that's about it that I thought about so far. But thank you all for your time.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Joe Crawford, Mr. Crawford here.

Joe Crawford, 4693 East Dublin Circle. Yes, Dion Jones not too long ago accused me of bloviating because I said 10 to 20 words about Mayor Adams not letting me get on the agenda, right? These men were bloviating. Dion, you know what that word means, right?

Please stick to what's on the agenda.

You know what that word means. I'm going to stick to what's on the agenda, but I'm going to say why I'm against it. You got three minutes. We're in this predicament because I don't trust you.

That has nothing to do with the agenda tonight.

This problem we're in is because we're losing trust in government. Trust is the number one economic causal force. When you look at these desolate towns, They're desolate, but not because they ran out of money, but because they ran out of trust.

Sir, please make your comments to the president.

I'm against this. We're in this predicament because we didn't have no teleological principle. Do you know what teleology is?

That's police. What is the ideology the agenda item.

Yeah we're in this predicament because when they started this landfill there was there was no teleological principle beyond you know what that word means.

Mister chairman maybe Mister chairman may I step in please. This is a public meeting in its order.

Please the ruling public addresses you address yourself to each is not my time, I can get my time is the service your time is almost a so I was just if you cannot stick to the I have the application to tell you that we will ask you this only with the okay, the road to perdition is a with good intentions right that's philosophical you said I cannot come down here, I don't stop a cool. Sir.

Sir, we're going to cut your time off.

Being impractical without wisdom leads to perdition, and that's where we're heading.

God bless. Thank you. All right. Okay. We've gone through a good many concerns tonight. Let me do this. All of you that are opposed to this application, raise your hand, please. So that's gonna be about 90% of the people that are here today. If you have an issue that we have not discussed, You can come forward now on that one issue, but if not, then for essence of time, we've got you on record as being opposed to this. So I'm going to take, I see two people, one person coming forward. We'll take two more, and then we'll close it.

My name is I say miss Barkley coming forward.

So okay. Go ahead. You've got a name is Brenda.

I live at 7268 Old South Drive. If this does pass, is there going to be a requirement for ground groundwater study because we just don't know how you know this development is going to affect our water. So I didn't see any any of that in the presentation as far as in the safety. So I just wanted to ask that question.

Thank you. All right. We've got three people here. Ms. Barkley, you come forward. Thank you, thank you.

I'm Sunny Barkley. I live in Pleasant Hill Estates at 6460 Northwood Cove. We built our forever home here in 1980, 46 years ago, while the property was deep in the county, not in the olive branch city limits. We lived in paradise surrounded by woods. However, it was decided that Church Road must come through with our property line. We were told it would be two line, and it became four. We are bombarded in Pleasant Hill Estates night and day with excessively loud and speedy traffic just feet from our home, greatly disrupting any kind of enjoyment in our yard. Patrol cars, of course, with sirens and blue lights. Of course, ambulances with sirens day and night. drag racing type cars with excessive music blaring, motorcycles and crotch rockets screaming, often on one wheel. We can't even carry on a conversation in our backyard. Then it was decided that we needed to get sewer services and our subdivision has had demolition of our streets in our yards. The patching that's been done sinks nightly. They come back and repatch. It sinks nightly. So now we have a system of ruts and holes that we are afraid will burst our tires. Now that we're informed that the landowners behind us want the large piece of property to be the innovation district. We think that we citizens should be considered in this. I've cut out a lot of this because it's already been said. Who polices these developments once they're put in? But on the maps and pictures on pages four, nine, and 10 of this plan, there exists a road from area C between lots four and seven to Church Road, which they've stated will be for employees. One employee, 500 employees. Can you imagine the volume of cars daily? Now this road appears to exit into Church Road right where our houses are. So we will be totally disrupted by light shining into our windows and homes. This will be a horrific intrusion into our home lives. We will be invaded by this ghastly repeated attack. I can't imagine what it's going to do to our property values. Now they say they need this exit. There are already exits. First of all, we would like you to eliminate the exit that goes into Church Road. There are currently three roads in place that would suffice to meet their needs. Sandage Road that's currently in use. This would be an excellent spot for a traffic light. This location also has clear vision left and right of oncoming traffic. This new road would probably not. Two, Latham Road that currently exists that opens onto Pleasant Hill Road would be an excellent drive and also the Nail Road extension. In closing, one sentence, Pat, thank you. We would request two changes be made if this subdivision, so our subdivision isn't endured. First of all, we would like the plan to go forth shoot I lost that page anyway we would like for it not to go forth and if it does we would like a berm extended along Pleasant Hill Estates to shield us from this horrific interruption and we would also like that it go to the board no not approved thank you okay I think we'll take two more and you have three minutes anything that has not been presented

Thanks for letting me talk. My first time ever here. Just a couple things that I thought about as everybody was talking. Number one is where this is at, it's right in the middle of Olive Branch. There's going to be industrial. May not right now, but eventually it'll be warehouses, it'll be manufacturing, which is going to be big trucks coming in and out. Okay, we don't do have... They're not on Church Road yet. This is going to force us eventually within, I'm just guessing, 10 years, can force us to have more trucks on Church Road and wherever else. It's just inevitable. Second thing is, it seems like the way the talking is, is that this is a prime property. Surely there's got to be other developers.

Okay.

Hi, good evening. My name is Michael Scheid. I'm at 6303 Darin Drive. You can almost see my house in the top of this picture here. There are two points I don't think were made yet why I am against this proposal. The last gentleman was talking about traffic on Church Road. There are currently heavy trucks going up and down Craft Road. I see them all the time. They're turning around in my neighborhood. You put this big industrial area at the bottom of Craft Road, there are going to be a lot more trucks on there. They're not allowed on Craft Road today. They still come down. That's point one. Point two is the walking trail, the Greenway. I think that's a great idea. I think that's lovely. I think the first gentleman said nobody wants to walk around, you know, an area full of warehouses and manufacturing buildings. But also, secondly, I don't see a plan for connecting this walking trail to the walking trail on the other side of Craft Road, the one that is coming from the soccer facilities. I didn't see a pedestrian bridge in that plan. and me personally i would not take my family across five lanes of heavy truck traffic on church road to use that walkway so i'm also a big no for this one thank you all right thank you all right we're we're now going to close the public hearing uh

everybody is most of the I'm not saying all the concerns have been addressed but we've gotten a lot of the concern so the public hearing is now closed I will ask the developer if he wishes to respond to any of the questions that were asked and also staff you want to go first me

uh... thank you mister chairman commissioners thank you for the the questions and the concerns uh... i tried to jot names down i didn't quite catch them all but i'll refer to the speakers out uh... as i go down the list The first speaker said that the area has not changed to an industrial character. The area is already industrial in character. In fact, the site has been industrial in character for a long time. many decades when it was a mining site, when it was actively mined, it was essentially an industrial site. So the character of the site is established. It's not an agricultural site. It is a former mining site, and that's the nature of the site.

Please, if you will refrain from speaking or making any noise. Thank you.

There's reference made to a comprehensive plan statement with regard to the site. And we also made reference to a policy statement in a comprehensive plan that states that the City of Olive Branch will, I'm paraphrasing, it's in the document, but will essentially seek to have a diversified economy and a flourishing economy. And in order to do those things, the sites have to be created. One of the speakers mentioned that they wanted a place for their children to come back to. Well, that requires good jobs, good employment opportunities, and it requires that kind of development so that they will they will indeed come back and have a place to come back to. With regard to the flooding, the City of Olive Branch has a flood ordinance, as you well know, and that would have to be observed. And those permits would have to be issued by the city. Doctor song mentioned in his earlier presentation that the requirement is to not increase the flow of water off the site from its pre development state so that is the the requirement that would have to be adhered to. There were some questions on the buffers with regard to the trees. The 150-foot buffer would not disturb the tree. The tree line is a beautiful line of trees down Church Road. Those would not be disturbed. That would be preserved. And while I'm on the buffer and skipping to one of the latter speakers with regard to the walking trail, The trail does connect. There is a pedestrian bridge that goes over Camp Creek and connects out to Craft Road and then the connection would go on around as Dr. Assong mentioned earlier. So the intention is indeed to connect the trail. i'll ask a song if he would put the uses up on the screen if you can access them there was a question about hazardous materials and no hazardous materials proposed in the in the uses on the site and so that addresses that question with regard to the planning of the kind of the urgency of the clean fill. The the urgency results from a closing of another site. Suddenly the volumes increased to this site. And so the matter became urgent because of actions on other sites that the county couldn't control. It was out of their control to do so. So that's addressing that. There was also made mention of utilizing bio facilities, mulching and so forth. The county has used, reclaimed the debris from tornadoes and other storms and used for mulching and used for covering in the site. So recycling has and does occur with the materials on the site, but not all of it is able to be recycled, of course. With regard to water systems, MDEQ keeps a close eye, a very close eye, as Mr. Medlin stated, on the requirements for water and all the resources associated with that site. And then I ask Mr. Billy Clouser if he would speak just briefly to the advanced employment in manufacturing and technology, speak to that particular issue with the DeSoto Council. There is a need because there is no targeted park for this sector of the economy. There is no targeted site in our county specifically for what is being requested. So if you might make just a brief comment to emphasize that need.

Thank you. There is a need for advanced manufacturing in high-tech jobs and opportunities in the state. I've been with the state economic development organization for 10 years in my prior career. And DeSoto County had a lot of manufacturing, more warehouse and distribution. But related to advanced manufacturing, one of those things that we sort of lump it as advanced manufacturing could be robotics. Manufacturing, high tech manufacturing, 3D printing related opportunities, research and development, healthcare manufacturing and research, aerospace manufacturing, we've seen a lot of opportunities there. And that's what we sort of really consider what we say advanced manufacturing. And then also highly advanced, any kind of manufacturing facility has highly advanced automation. So that's sort of the recap of what we looked at advanced automation and advanced manufacturing.

Sir, please remain silent during the presentation. Please remain silent.

So Mr. Chairman, if you have if there are other questions, I believe I covered the items. If there's one I miss, I would be happy to address it, but that's that's where we are. I don't know if any of the other applicants has a comment, but.

Thank you this this staff have any. Think they wish to comment.

Mr. Chairman, I think Mr. Bobaba has addressed a lot of the issues that were raised. There was a question with regard to whether there can still be a data center on this property in future. As I did indicate during my presentation, anybody can always apply to the city for anything. The law allows you to do so. it will be incumbent on the decision makers at that time to make an informed decision whether to approve it or not to approve it. For example, in the current application, initially you had a data center there and then it was removed at some point. So let's assume you were still there today. It will be incumbent on the planning commission and the Board of Admin to decide whether to leave it in there or to remove it. If anybody came up in future and applied to have a data center on this piece of property, this will be the process. So if anybody came up in future and asked to have a data center on this piece of property, they will submit an application to the city to amend this project text and include data centers. Once the city receives that application, they will have to post a sign, red signs on the property just as you have it currently. Letters will be sent out to owners of property within 500 feet. Everything that you have that has gone on to this point will begin again. The city will schedule a hearing before the Planning Commission just as you have this hearing today. The public will have the opportunity to speak and the Planning Commission will act on that particular amendment request. It will go before the Board of Aldermen. The Board of Aldermen will hold another public hearing and listen to the public and then make an informed decision as to whether to allow it to approve the amendment or to deny it. The bar to making an amendment in an approved project tax in olive branch is even higher than when you are setting the tax upfront. The requirements, one of the requirements that you are required to meet when you request a change to an approved project text in the books is to show very, very clearly what has changed What has changed significantly or substantially from the time that application was approved to now to warrant that particular change? And how would that particular change align with what has happened in that neighborhood? So let's say you've never had a data center in that neighborhood, and then you show up and you want a data center. What has changed in that neighborhood to now warrant a data center? How would that data center advance the character and the values of that particular neighborhood? If it is not something that is moving that area forward, the tendency on the board has always been to deny the application. So if you have that in the future, that would be the way the board will review the application. I think that was the only thing that was left out that I needed. And then secondly, there was the question with regard to improvements responsibility of the developer. Every subdivision, this will be a subdivision, to create those lots will be an act of subdivision. And every subdivision that anybody proposes to the city, you have to come back to the planning commission. So if this were approved, this would not be the end. You know, the developer will still have to come up with a preliminary subdivision plot, come to the planning commission for approval, and at that time, again, more deeply address the subdivision infrastructure construction elements. The standard practice in the City of Olio branch is to put those responsibilities on the developer and not on the taxpayers. That is the standard practice in the city. It's very, very rare that you have a situation where except there is, let's take the example of the trade. If there is a grant, some public grant out there that a developer can tap into to help in the construction of the trade, then yes, that is something the city can approve and say, We give you the support to apply for that public grant to get the money and build a tree. But as written in this project text and as recommended by staff, if this gets approved, the responsibility will be on the developer to make all those improvements. Thank you.

Thanks. All right, I will now direct the commissioners if you have any comments, discussions, or even motions.

So just to clarify that question in regards to who's responsible for the improvements, I believe that the cost is the responsibility of the developer. The compliance and the engine, it's still our engineer, the city's engineer that goes out and inspects those items, correct?

Yes, sir. Just as with any development in the city, if anybody applies, Let us say we get an application to put up any structure on this lot number six. It will go through the review process administratively with planning staff, engineering staff, fire department staff to make sure that it meets all our city ordinances. And when it's constructed, those staff will go out and inspect if there are any code violations. Board engineering inspectors and code enforcement staff in the city will decide the person to have those code violations addressed, those code issues addressed.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Anyone else? I will state that our first motion to approve or deny will be on the rezoning. And then we will make a motion on the development plan. So the rezoning is the first motion that we will be looking at. Anyone have any other comments they wish to make?

I would like to make a comment, just for the record. I do feel, sadly, that we're sort of being held hostage by the developers over this clean fill, landfill, that we can't, we're faced with imminent closure of our current landfill, and yet we, this seems to be the only option we have and Yet we're tied to a complete package that we may or may not agree Should be going forward. I just want to make that Comment that I do feel like we're being held hostage here.

Well, I think you've got the opportunity to If the zoning remained the same if it was if I it stays industrial what what what they're asking for is does I mean because we can still does it comply with the comprehensive plan if it if you feel that it doesn't comply with the comprehensive plan it doesn't comply with the comprehensive plan yeah but that's with no um with an imminent closure but that's that's really not what we we're the planning commission If you don't feel that the area's changed or it doesn't meet the comprehensive plan, those are reasons that you can deny.

Okay, thank you. Then I would like to make a motion that we deny the application based on...

Y'all please remain silent while we go through this process. We've got a motion by Miss Lewis to deny the rezoning is what we're denying first. Exactly, yes.

Denying the rezoning based on option two. I don't feel like it conforms to the comprehensive plan of 2024.

So we have a motion on the table. Do we have a second?

I'll second.

We have a second by Mr. Stratten. Please remain silent. We have a second by Mr. Stratten. Any other discussion? All of those in favor for the motion to deny signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say no. So it was unanimously carried. The motion was denied. Okay. Once again, this recommendation will be presented to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen.

The chairman just to mention the meeting of the board of the mayor and Adam and I will concede that is a recommendation will be on July 21st. July 21st. Tuesday, July 21st.

So this will be forward to the mayor and Board of Aldermen at their meeting. Okay, our next item. You are leaving. They asked you to do so quietly, please, because there's another item on the agenda. We'll take about a five minute break while we're waiting. Everybody, please be silent. Item number three is consideration to amend the zoning ordinance by adding various definitions restricting indoor and outdoor smoking in public place establishments within 500 feet of public parks, specifying criteria for data centers as conditional use in the M1 light industrial and M2 heavy industrial districts only, and limiting the height of freestanding monument signs in the office and neighborhood commercial C one districts to 8 feet and in the sea to highway commercial see 3 general commercial and see 4 plan commercial districts to 12 feet and and what what we're doing now is for direction to staff is as we proceed with this application. When I have staff report.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you did mention, the purpose of this particular discussion, similar to the one you had last month, I made this presentation to you last month, received comments from you which the text you have incorporated the feedback I received or staff received from you at your meeting in May. I did provide to you at the beginning of this meeting a letter from the mayor in which he requested that you hold another hearing on this or take public comments as far as these particular regulations are concerned, discuss them among yourselves, and provide staff any additional directions that you may have, which I will then incorporate into the text that will be brought back before you at your meeting in July for recommendation to the Board of Mayor and Admin. So usually you have just you go through these regulations in one round, but we're doing it in two rounds put it this way. And so a lot of the presentation that I would have today would basically kind of be a repetition of what you had last month for the benefit of the public that wasn't here at last meeting. As you did indicate, There are four main things happening in this particular regulations, particular proposal. One, to add various definitions in the zoning ordinance for clarification purposes. Words have meanings. And sometimes in the zoning text, if you don't define what those meanings, those words really mean, and people can misconstrue them. We are not saying define every single word, A, to, and, if. There are certain key terms that we want to add into the code as we move forward with issues. Today we're talking about data centers, for example. Data centers were not common anywhere 10 years ago, 20 years ago. So at the time the current zoning code was written, you didn't have data centers as any specified use in a district. And as such, the zoning ordinance did not have a definition for data centers. We want to make sure that those particular uses are covered inside the zoning ordinance. Hooker Lounge, for example, that's another one. It was not covered in the data inside the zoning ordinance. When you use those words, different people understand them differently. We want to make sure that we have a very good clarify. The second element would be to address smoking and vaping around public parks. Our public parks are supposed to be inviting areas for use by everybody. they are folks that have various health needs. And certain activities that happen around public parks can, you know, despair your presence, can be a disincentive for those individuals with those various health needs to be around those public parks. And so this regulation, creating this 500 feet buffer is intended to ensure that public parks in the city remain inclusive areas for everybody. And then third, to specify criteria for data centers as conditional use in the M1 light industrial and M2 heavy industrial districts only. I will speak to this in detail when I come to this particular point. And lastly, to reduce the maximum height of freestanding signs in the office district, the neighborhood commercial district, from 15 feet to eight feet. We think, looking at our city, that 15 feet high sign is too high. in office districts. Office districts are generally used as transitional districts between residential areas and commercial areas. To introduce a 15 feet sign in such a 15 feet high sign, sometimes 150 to 100 square feet large, in an area that is too close to residential use really mars the character of those residential areas. It makes them look more commercial. So we want to reduce those signs, the height of those signs. And then secondly, neighborhood commercial districts that are intended to provide convenient services to residential areas, allowing them to have signs that are 15 feet high. If you look at the Old Town Car Wash, I think it has a new name now. No, not that way. On 305. Shine. Shine time, shine time. Thank you. That sign is 12 feet high. Now add three feet to that sign. That's 15 feet high sign. Those are signs that are currently permitted very close to a residential neighborhood. What we wanna do is bring it down to eight feet. So we can better make those areas not to look very commercial, but to be a kind of a blend between the residential and the commercial. And then also the highway commercial districts, their signs are currently permitted to be 25 feet high. So double the height of that sign, you know, the shine time, that's what is currently permitted in the zoning ordinance. For about the past three to five years, what the city has been doing is we are kind of an unwritten policy that we enforce through the design review ordinance to make developers reduce their sign to 12 feet high. That's why this shine, what was it?

Shine time.

Shine time, that's why that sign is only 12 feet high. It's not up to 25 feet. But really, he was allowed to go up to 25 feet. We're able to use those other policies to bring them down to 12. We want to make sure that it's clear in the code for everybody. There is no argument with any business owner that submits an application in this district that your sign has to be maximum 12 feet high. I've never really understood the concept of putting those signs 25 feet high. I wonder who, when driving, is looking, how high is this sign? So most folks, when you're driving, you look at a sign. Side level. All right. So talking about public parks, these, for example, is just Harrison Public Park in the city. You know, you have these let's take this. Gas stations, strip center, different units proposed at this particular location, you could Right now, really, I think one of the units is being used as a vape shop. There's a vape shop that is going in there. You could have a hookah lounge, you could have a cigar bar, you could have all these other uses that really, and I don't want to say, when you look at a city park just across the street, most of those who use those city parks are family residents, they are kids. What do we want to expose the children in the city of Olive Branch to? That's why you're having this regulation in place, to ensure that we do not have uses around the city park that do not present an appropriate identity for our city, especially for vulnerable populations. Now, talking about data centers. I know this is a hot button, so. If a developer came to the city of Olive Branch today and submitted an application for data center, I want to address this particular point because of misinformation. And that is misinformation out there is that the city is trying to pass data center regulations in order to permit data centers. So that's what I've gotten on social media and elsewhere. That the city is trying to amend the zoning ordinance to create these regulations in order to permit data centers. That is factually inaccurate. Absolutely inaccurate. The current zoning ordinance of the City of Olive Branch in the M1 district, the light manufacturing district, and in the M2, the heavy manufacturing district, has this particular provision, and it is just one of another, that says in the M1 district, There is a permitted by right use, by right. That means that if somebody shows up today and you want to do that in the M1, if you fall within this particular language, you are permitted by right. Go out there, pull a permit, only bring us construction plans. We approve it administratively. You go out and you build it. Wholesale, merchandising, or storage warehouses with or without accessory retail sales and offices. If you're doing any of this, you are permitted by right in the M1 or in the M2 district. This is the sort of language that got Memphis and South Heaven to where they are today. This language that says you have storage, you are permitted to have a storage warehouse. A data center is essentially a data storage warehouse. That's what it is. It's a data storage warehouse. You are permitted to have a storage warehouse without accessory retail sales. A data center doesn't have any accessory retail sale. As such, if somebody came to the city today and proposed to have a data center in the light manufacturing district, M1, that person would be permitted by right because of this language. So what the city is doing is to prevent that from happening. That's what we are doing by adopting these regulations. We have studied our zoning regulations. We have seen what is happening around us, what happened in Memphis. We have seen what is happening around us, what happened in South Haven. We have seen why those facilities went in and the hands of the city were tight. You know, they couldn't control because of the way their zoning code read. They did not have other regulations in place to control and the city of Olive Branch has decided we need to be proactive and adopt regulations that can stop this from happening. That is why you are having these regulations. So in the M1 district, that's the first. The second element is we cannot, the city cannot just pass a moratorium and say the particular use is forever not allowed in Olive Branch. You go to court, the judge will strike that down. That is targeting, that is against the free market. What we can do is to control location, we can control manner. We can say if you're gonna come to Olive Branch, these are the standards you will have to meet. If you don't meet these standards, then you are not approved. We cannot say forever, this particular use is never allowed, you cannot show up in the city. That will not be a legal approach to take. So that's why we are putting these regulations in place. The first thing we are doing is instead of having this kind of loophole language, we are specifying, the intent of the city is to specify very clearly. If you read through the zoning code, as I did mention at the beginning, the word data center is not mentioned anywhere. However, because a data center is a storage warehouse, it will fall under this particular provision. So we are in the zoning ordinance proposing that we clearly define what a data center is. That's the first thing. That's why we're adding those definitions. Secondly, we clearly specify in what zoning districts they can go. Certainly nobody wants to see them in a residential area. So if it is proposed, in what particular zoning district would we restrict them to? And if and within that zoning district, what criteria would you have to meet before you can go in? If you don't meet that criteria, then the city can deny it. So those are the key three things that these regulations are intended to achieve. right now they can go in as a permitted use in the m1 and m2 the first thing that the city is doing these regulations is to move data center possibility from being a permitted use to a conditional use what that means is instead of an applicant coming in and just providing us construction plans that will review and approve administratively and you put a permit and go and build you will have to come before the Board of Zoning Adjustment inside this room and have a public hearing. That's what a conditional use permit does. The other cities did not have that. That's why people said, we just saw it happening. We just knew after the fact because it fell under what was a permitted use. So we are trying to move this away from having a loophole of permitted use and making it a conditional use so as to give the public the opportunity to speak on it and give anybody that this may be close to them in any way, shape, or form to have an opportunity before the city decision-making bodies as far as that use is concerned. Now, that does not mean, I should clarify, that does not mean that it's a day in court. Everybody go have your opportunity. That's due process. That's due process under the law. Have your opportunity. Let a case be made. Those for it, make their case. Those against it, make their case. Just as the re-zoning, it happened with the re-zoning today, and let the Board of Zoning Adjustment, which is another public board with seven members, ordinary citizens as the Planning Commission members are, and let a decision be made. And where conditional use permits operate in Olive Branch, if the Board of Zoning Adjustment were to approve it, for example, and Any aggrieved individual doesn't like that decision. You have 10 days to appeal it to the Board of Adamant. The Board of Adamant is basically the city council. So you have another opportunity to go before the Board of Adamant and have another public hearing for the final decision to be made. Right now, those opportunities do not exist. So we are trying to make sure that citizens are more involved in this particular process, as far as this use is concerned. Ma'am. Getting down into the weeds, as far as the regulations are concerned, they require that any applicant for the data center in the city must submit a utility and infrastructure plan. These provisions in this plan are in addition to the six general criteria for a conditional use permit. So every use in the City of Olive Branch that goes through a conditional use permit is required to meet certain six general conditions. addressing such issues as traffic, character of the area, impact to the environment and public health, general welfare of the city, crime and other, all of those you have, those are six general criteria. But data centers have got certain things that are very specific to them, as opposed to other uses. Why do we have that specificity? And sometimes, it was a comment also on social media, I wondered what that person was talking about was a data center. I would like to play this video. What did we do last time?

Control.

Control. No, I think I exited.

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, switchgear, 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 airflow 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 found this video helpful,

So as we did indicate, the first thing we want to do is to remove these data centers as used by RIDE and make them conditional uses in the M1 light industrial and M2 heavy industrial zoning districts. And as part of, because that is a conditional use, we can actually apply certain conditions to that particular use. One of the conditions has to do with location setbacks and various prohibitions. So location setbacks, where can you put them? How far can you put them from certain uses, which the code looks at them as sensitive uses. Residential developments, any piece of property that is zoned for residential use, hospitals, daycare, schools, public parks, nursing homes, the data center will be required to be a minimum 1,000 feet from property line or any of the accessory uses from any of these sensitive uses. And I will come down to why you have that 1,000 feet requirement. The data center will not be permitted to be located anywhere that it exists or there is planned to be a city water wellhead. We don't want them around our water infrastructure systems. You cannot also have them within floodplains because studies have shown they have waste heat. They generate waste heat that sometimes have been shown to increase the temperature of water bodies around them. And as such, they will not be permitted within a number of feet from floodplains where you have water bodies. Any application for a data center in the city will have to be accompanied by a site plan. That site plan will detail elements such as buffers, location of the building, landscaping, photometric, any lighting that is going to come out from there, the distance of the closest generators, accessory buildings, or the principal structures themselves to the property line of those sensitive uses. Do you meet that minimum requirement? So the site plan will have to show all of that. The video we just watched indicated that these data centers have a significant need for power Sometimes they may have to construct power stations. They often have generators, 20, 30, 40, 50, who knows how many, to ensure operation continues. The humming sound that we get is often coming from this cooling system, the fans and the generators that turn the whole city into a beehive. These regulations are intended, when we receive an application, the applicant will have to submit a plan addressing the demand and supply needs as far as power is concerned. How much power do you have going on that side today? That is supply. What is your demand need for that power and how are you going to meet that power need without negatively impacting power supply in the city of Olive Branch? It's important that we don't have rates going up in the city because of a data center. Utility plan will have to address those power needs. If generators are proposed, there is a limitation on when you can operate. You have to often test those generators to make sure they're functioning. You can only test them between 12 and 5 p.m. When people are sleeping in the night, areas need to remain quiet so there can be comfort in the city. With respect to water, these data centers use a lot of water for cooling purposes, and water bills can go up. One of the requirement is that they have to use, you have to recycle your water. So we don't have excess consumption of water in the city that ends up with utility bills, water bills going up for residents. All of those water needs have to be provided in the plan. If we don't have enough water, water pressure and so on for other residents in the city of Olo Branch already, then that data center will not be permitted, basically under these regulations. Gas, if you're going to need gas, you have to address the demand and supply elements inside that plan. How are you going to provide it? Sometimes data centers can have their own value to a community. They are part of the community digital ecosystem footprint. They can help with fiber optics and so on. That's a positive element addressed within the infrastructure plan how that is going to benefit the city from that optical fiber perspective. Ground and roof mounted equipment. Just from this image, you have a lot of roof mounted equipment here. It can significantly affect the aesthetics of any city. Especially olive branch is generally flat, but then you have, take the I-22, you have roads that are set in elevations. It's important that any rooftop equipment be fully screened from view from the public. on public right-of-ways. So screening of associated structures, your cooling system, energy systems, all of those are clearly detailed and required in the regulations. They have to be fully screened. We don't want to have generators all around. You take this particular neighborhood. You have houses here. You have a very thin, little to no buffer. During winter, all of these trees basically shed their leaves. And from this house, this is all you see. These regulations are intended to ensure we don't have this kind of a scenario when it comes to the buffer requirements. And so you have provisions for perimeter fencing, requirements for perimeter fencing and security systems that are required in there. With respect to performance standards, significant concern that residents have raised in writing these regulations We went to South Haven, for example, you could hear the noise. Our city regulations currently permit any use in the city of Olive Branch to generate up to 75 decibels of noise during the day and 70 decibels of noise at night. That is basically the sound of most of the vacuum cleaners that people use today, those decibel level. The current regulations will require that for data centers at the property line, you cannot generate more than 60 decibels noise at night and 65 decibels during the day. That is the sound of a dishwasher inside the house. So if at your property line you cannot generate that amount of noise, inside the house, we are comfortable having a dishwasher. You're comfortable having that amount of noise inside the house. So outside, we are regulating it, bringing down the noise level to that at the property line. Generator and testing, we have addressed that particular issue already. Cooling systems, you're permitted to have all of them, but those cooling systems have to be such that they do not generate more noise in the city than is permitted in any of our ordinances. And any water needs are clearly identified and addressed inside the infrastructure plan. Waste heat, as we heard from the video, these facilities, the generator of heat, At a property line, these regulations require that at a property line up to four feet high, you cannot have more heat there post-development than what you had ambient heat pre-construction. So those are particular requirements that are specified inside the regulations that are proposed for consideration by the Planning Commission. Eventually, they'll be recommended to the Board of Admin for approval. If approved, they will become part of the zoning ordinance. And if we receive any application, they will go before the Board of Zoning Adjustment. And all these issues will have to be addressed. The burden of proof is on the applicant. that their studies meet all these regulations. And if post-construction any of these regulations is violated, for example, if we start getting noise that exceeds the noise level, we have the odometer. We will measure the noise level at the property line. If it exceeds, you will get a citation from the city. It's a code enforcement violation. If that is not cured, you will be brought before the city court. But because it's a conditional use permit, the Board of Zoning Adjustment will have the authority to pull that permit. And we have had that with other uses in the city. Border Zone Adjustment has the authority to pull your permit, your conditional use permit, and require that it be shut down. It's as simple as that. So that is why we are having these regulations in place.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes staff's presentation.

OK. Any questions of staff? This is a public hearing, so what we'll be doing Just like we did in the previous application, you will have three minutes to come forward and state any of your concerns or what you like or what you don't like about this. And once again, only one trip to the podium.

if it's been previous stated do not restate it again I do not have the cards on this one so if you wish yes I actually had a question for staff before we before the public I know the bulk of this is about the data centers and stuff but I had a question on the signage portion of the amendments I know we're bringing down the heights and everything like that for the signage stuff. Can we also put something in there to regulate the types of signs, like box signs versus channel letters? Because I think right now, currently in our code, we have no regulations that ban box signs. Those are just the huge boxes that you stick on the wall instead of having to put actual channel letters. and whatnot. So I just think a lot of municipalities around us are regulating that as well, the type of signs that they can put as far as the height as well.

If I understood that clearly, the direction is for staff to draft war signs

yeah in addition to the regulation in addition to the regulations that we're updating to so uh it's late i'm sorry i'm having trouble with worse about a cup of coffee short so um but since we're regulating the height and we're um reducing the size i also wanted to touch on the the types of signs as well uh in that because if we're doing it we might as well do it now so

And this would be specifically for wall signs?

Yes, for wall signs that go either on the front of a building, side of a building, or anything like that. Illuminated channel letters would be better than just illuminated box signs.

So the preference should be for channel letters as opposed to box signs?

Yeah. Yeah, correct.

So take care.

Once again the public hearing is a little question.

If we made if we made an ordinance on the type of signs for the city would old town still have their would exclude old town.

Yes, these the regulations in front of your consideration today did not include the old town district at a C 5. So these regulations only apply to the office, you want to dance see to see to see for that you're going to town.

Any other questions of the commissioners? OK. Now we're doing the public hearing. Three minutes. If you wish to come forward, please come forward now. Start you.

search on the data center impacts. The infrasound impact has a significant detrimental impact on environmental and people. The 1,000 feet that you propose is not enough. Infrasound impact is below human hearing, 20 hertz, audible sound, but wildlife and other pets are known to react to these spikes, these infrasound impacts. They're known for spikes in cortisol, hypertension, abnormal vestibular interaction, vertigo and nausea, abnormal fibroacoustics affecting growth cellular integrity, blood vessels to the brain, even after exposure has ended, high frequency Hearing loss short of breath anxiety depression heart works harder to pump the blood seizures and animals infrasound is a health hazard in a measurable way they've studied it in Memphis the Memphis area for their data center It's that measurable study that has low oscillation exposure at industrial sites. That needs to be considered if you are considering a data center or any industrial site to measure that prior to their startup and after their startup. And across the street from the Grok-Memphis Center, 550K They were doing a watchdog group over there. They saw three million sexualized videos of people without their consent. 23,000 were children. It's bad. Then they offset their generation because Memphis generates 3,500 megawatts. They're currently using 13% of grid capacity that they're allotted, but they're only drawing 5% and offsetting it with burning gas turbines. Methane turbines emit sulfur oxide, carbon dioxide, Methogen oxide associated with respiratory and cardiac diseases volatile organic compounds into the air from the smokestacks that we're breathing kids breathe and It travels rainwater pollution is also another instance Many already have banned it in developing countries VW was fined 71 million because of it in India Reports are a half a mile away. It's difficult to breathe bad chemical smell Use a million gallons of water a day from Mississippi River and not much of its returned But turned to steam and where does the steam go it goes into the air? so it has impacts beyond the thousand feet and A mile away from schools parks residences having rumbling from infrasound frequencies impacting their lives detrimentally.

Her man here 3 minutes is up if you'll conclude with you come back.

The body has 125 to 150 milliliters of cerebral spinal fluids surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Sound travels four to five times faster through fluid, through water, than it does through the air. So when you're dealing with these infrared sound impacts, your body's feeling it even though you're not audibly hearing it. A thousand feet is not enough to protect the prop the public. EMF have not been discussed and that's a measurable problem that can result from 2 employees and they need a bond for decommissioning. The assurance of the commission.

Thank you thank you. If you come forward. State your name and address.

Hi, my name is Ashley Scheid. My address is 6303 Darin Drive. So specific to data centers, there are many well-known downsides that impact those living in the areas around these facilities where they're being built. To reiterate a lot of what Mr. Assange said in his presentation, increased water usage, greater energy consumption, increased electric bills, noise from the constant humming and droning of generators and substations, reduced air quality, decreased home values and resale potential, unknown long-term health effects, waste heat production. The potential financial boost that the city could see from a data center does not justify the decreased quality of life for people, pets, and pets that live nearby. Additionally, data centers do not create lasting jobs for local residents. Construction work on data centers is predominantly done by out-of-town contractors, and once a data center is operational, they only require a few dozen employees at most to operate. Considering these known downsides, I'm asking you to recommend the strictest measures possible on data centers within this city. As the mayor has indicated, there are very few areas of land within this city that could even meet the conditions needed for a data center to be built responsibly. I strongly encourage you to change the distance back to 2,000 feet as it was originally proposed. I saw the minutes from your previous meeting where you guys discussed that. and decided, I think it was Mr. Jones, suggested that it be reduced down to 1,000 feet from 2,000, and I know the mayor had encouraged it to stay at 2,000 during that conversation, and I would like to strongly encourage you to change it back. I think 1,000 feet is not enough for this particular situation. Our city... just shared the news that all of branch is one of the safest and most peaceful places to live in Mississippi. I'd like to keep it that way by proceeding with caution and responsibility. Thank you.

Thank you. I think we see someone else coming forward please.

Daniel Carter, 8, 7, 1, 4, Oak Grove Boulevard and I just had a question so you spoke of the conditional in one in 2, excuse me data centers. With the change that vacations when do you anticipate these changes to be made to the zoning. Code.

Okay, we'll answer all the questions at the end. Thank you.

My name is Sheila Duke and I live off of Eagleston. Part of my issue is with some of the things that you talk about with water usage. You say that it has to be returned, but we know that that doesn't happen. She specified, I know I'm not supposed to reiterate, so I won't too much. A lot of the water goes into the vapor, it's gone. And what I want to know is when it comes down to, you said that the citizens would come first, that we would have water first, but once they're here, those data centers need that water, right? They need it. Am I correct in this? I already know the answer. They need it. So, if it comes down to my water and your water and the data center's water, the data center is going to take precedence Okay, I'm reading how these data centers are already catching fire and that they're having to go out and put these things out. And what I want to know from all the branches, why are we even contemplating the fact that a data center go anywhere in this city? We do not need a data center anywhere near us. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jason Haley and I'm actually a resident of South Haven. As you are aware, we have data centers there. Holly, do not recommend them whatsoever. So first, the video you played of a data center There's a difference between an AI data center and the data centers that we have all over the place right now. Just find you a video on that. So also, to compare the decimal readings or the noise to a dishwasher is ridiculous. So I could take every household appliance I own, stick it out in my backyard, run it 24-7. You're not hearing that a half mile away inside my house. You're not hearing that three miles away in the neighborhoods. There's no comparison to that. There's more to a noise than a decimal reading. There's tonality, there's frequency. Like someone else said, infrasound, low frequencies. I promise they have an effect on people. I live a half mile away from this site. I'm tortured. I've been tortured since August. No one wants to hear from it. The mayor says I'm politically charged and that I've got an agenda. Far from the truth. You know, I don't want to be here talking about this stuff. I don't want to be at my house anymore because I have to live with this damn noise. It's ridiculous. So you say 1,000 feet? I'm a half mile away. I hear it every day. Go to my house right now. I could pull my cameras. You can hear that noise. It's never stopping. All right. Also, I would say five miles away is start there. All right, the jobs promised. Our mayor in South Haven stopped talking about that because enough people called him out on it, all right? In the initiative they have for data centers here in Mississippi, it's a donation plus 20 high-paying jobs. That's all they have to guarantee to get in here, all right?

So now we're talking decimal levels.

This is 45 decimal level, decimal DBA, a half mile from the site. I've got many that are worse than this. I picked a lower one. I come home from work, that's what I get to hear. I strongly recommend, do not allow a data center anywhere in Olive Branch. This is not worth the money. Their lawyers, their consultants are going to tell you, it's great, look at all the benefits you're going to get. Don't do that to your citizens.

Good evening. My name is Shannon Samsa. I'm also from South Haven, like Jason. I did have one question. I believe the Olive Branch Mayor said that data centers are not currently allowed under the current ordinance. So I'm not sure if that was misinformation or what that was. But I was under the impression that because of what he said that this would allow, I understand there would be like conditional use permits, but under the current ordinance, it was the impression that they're not allowed whatsoever. I have a lot of concerns with the proposed ordinance, one of which is kind of what Jason said, AI data centers and data centers are very different things. I believe Bitcoin mining was also listed and those can all vary significantly from each other on scale and size. I also was concerned that it doesn't specify like the studies must be independent or they must be made publicly. There also was no criteria I really saw except for the decibels that need to be met. So like it didn't say anything along the lines of if over X amount of gallons of water are used, then that wouldn't be allowed. It just said they had to say how many they'd be using. Sound is, I won't reiterate a whole lot more on that, but 24-7, like the video said, these places don't ever shut down. They run 24-7, which means 24-7 noise. I don't know where the 65 and 55 DBA recommendations came from in the proposed ordinance. I imagine they probably came from the EPA's recommendation. Just for some context on that, that was from the EPA's Office of Noise Abatement and Control. That was defunded in the 1980s. Those guidelines are from the 70s and they have never been updated since. I also was concerned that there are two different decibels because it doesn't account for people, so I think it said 55 at night and 65 dBA during the day would be acceptable, but that doesn't account for people who work nights and may be sleeping during the day. It doesn't account for people who stay at home or work from home, et cetera. And I think that, oh, also the water. I think that was also touched on a little bit, but water evaporates. As it was stated, these facilities get very, very hot. They produce a lot of heat. So if they're using water, there's no way for them to not use any water whatsoever. I'VE HEARD THAT MENTIONED BY IN A MILLION DIFFERENT VIDEOS I'VE HEARD IT MENTIONED AND I WENT TO THE JACKSON CITY COUNCIL MEETING RECENTLY I THINK LAST MONTH AND THERE WAS A LAWYER FOR A DATA CENTER WHO SPOKE WHO SAID THEY WOULDN'T USE ANY WATER BECAUSE THEY'D USE CLOSED LOOP AND THAT'S NOT A THING XAI IN SOUTH HEAVEN USES CLOSED LOOP AND WE HAVE THEIR WATER RECORDS THEY'RE USING A LOT OF WATER SO I ALSO WOULD JUST RECOMMEND, YOU KNOW, AS IT'S BEEN SAID, 1,000 OR 2,000 FEET IS NOT ENOUGH. I WOULD SAY THREE MILES MINIMUM OR EVEN FIVE MILES, LIKE JASON SAID. AND THAT'S ALL I HAD. SO THANK YOU.

ANYONE ELSE WISH TO COME FORWARD? RACE TO THE PODIUM HERE.

I'm Lynn Hart, 4270 Rebecca Drive. On the proposal here, I'm not sure why this is limited to M1, M2. I don't know the connection of that. I don't think anybody's for data centers. We have quite a few guidelines already in effect for if they come. As far as noise, you know, 60 decibels dishwasher Again, it depends on frequency on how disturbing that actually is and if you have I mean dishwashers don't run 24 hours and you don't have 40 of them sit in your living room. So again against all. Thank you.

again michael scheid 6303 and darren drive um i i just wanted to ask or maybe raise the concern about the um what the city has in its power to do if a data center were to come here and then violate the noise ordinance or the water ordinance i understand we could could find them we could take them to court but these are enormous companies that operate these data centers. OpenAI, they're not public yet. Their valuation is $1 trillion, $1 trillion. Huge, huge. They have high-priced lawyers and they consider these fines as part of their operating costs. Oh, we're gonna raise the noise, we'll just pay the fine and then, you know. It's just what you have to do to operate it. So I just want to make sure this committee here is aware of that and that those factors are taken into consideration for any criteria that we put together on data centers. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Keith Rubrum, 4822 Stonecross Drive. The only thing I didn't hear about is about the power stations and how they supply, you know, like in South Haven they got the turbines and those are, so is there any restrictions on their power stations and the pollution? We didn't talk about, because it says nothing about the air pollution that these turbines are. Somebody brought them up about the methane turbines and all the pollutants that they put in the air. So any regulation, I think, needs to be regulated with the power and whatever power source they're going to be using on there. That's right.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

Hi, Loretta Stronsky, 6046 Spring Hill Drive in Olive Branch. Cities all around the country are banning data centers because of the effect on the environment and on the effect of people. What are we doing to our children? We want them to be outside. We want them playing. I don't want my grandchild growing up hearing a humming sound every time he walks outside. Think about what we're doing for our kids and grandkids.

Greg being quail wrote all branch I do want to commend you getting ahead of this and making it a conditional use and putting the restrictions on I only have one question here is has all of branch actually revoked a conditional use permit for any business. That's my question.

Good evening, it's me again. I thought we weren't talking about the data centers, but since we are.

If you'll state your name and address.

Oh, it's Ashley, and I live off of Stewart Street in Olive Ranch. I really want to hopefully, I'll probably, get old here. I've lived here so far for 30 years. I really don't want to see another warehouse, another data center on top of that. I have children. I have Grinch. Well, I will soon have grandchildren here and they all enjoy the parks. They enjoy the soccer fields. But to have I don't know where you would put these things at. I don't think it's right. The town is too small. I enjoy the hometown small feel of it. i don't think they're safe for anyone to be around i just hopefully i can trust y'all and to take those things into consideration because i think olive branch is growing but it's just not growing into potential for the residents or people or families who live here now or soon to live here i think it's just more for like you said on your sign out on state line is to live work and worship AND I DON'T SEE THAT BEING PRACTICAL WHEN YOU WANT TO START BUILDING DATA CENTERS IN SUCH A SMALL TOWN AREA THANKS THANK YOU ANYONE ELSE IF NOT THEN I WILL CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING AND I WILL ASK STAFF DO YOU WISH TO ANSWER ANY OF THE QUESTIONS THAT WERE PRESENTED THANK YOU MR. CHAIRMAN JUST A FEW CLARIFICATIONS OF COURSE THIS

It's based on getting your directives on what to do with this. So with regard to the question whether Olive Branch has actually revoked a conditioner use permit for any business. Yes, two months ago. Maybe just last month. Directly across from City Hall there is an auto repair shop. The Board of Zoning Adjustment revoked their conditioner use permit I think last month. And required them to shut down no later than December 31st of this year. So yes, Olive Branch Board of Zoning Adjustment is that serious when it comes to enforcing the conditions of its conditional use permit. A particular auto repair shop violated the conditions three times and the board decided it was time to shut you down and shut down the business. So yes, the city will act. With respect to enforcement mechanism, uses that are not conditional use permits If they violate any of their conditions of approval, they don't have to go before the Board of Zoning Adjustment. You have to take them to city court, and then they start dealing with all those fines, little, little fines. But when a use is a conditional use permit and it violates its conditions of approval, The first stop is before the Board of Zoning Adjustment. And that's where the real power is. Because before the Board of Zoning Adjustment, you also have the opportunity for a public hearing. So the revocation of a conditional use permit is also a public hearing. There is an opportunity for members of the public to come up and say, for example, if you violate the noise levels, This is what we've been hearing. This is what we've been seeing. They have the opportunity to present that before the Board of Zoning Adjustment with all the evidence. And the Board will act just as it acted with regard to the use of auto repair shop across the street, as I just mentioned. So yes, there is enforcement mechanism and Conditional Use Permit is one of the strongest that we have had here in the city. There are other uses in the city that have violated the Conditional Use Permit requirements. And the Board of Zoning Adjustment has put them on notice. You've got two months to either comply or staff bring them back in front of us and they will be revoked. And within two months, they have sat up. So the city is that serious when it comes to that. There's been a lot of talk with regard to noise. I will refer you to page 16 of the proposed ordinance before you. That actually goes into details as far as tone and low frequency noise is concerned. All of that is addressed in details. The acoustic study, acoustical study that is supposed to be presented to the Board of Zoning Adjustment, must address expected daytime and nighttime sound levels, including generator noise and other equipment noise, indoors and outdoors, at multiple distances and at external perimeter property lines. It must provide A-weighted DBA measurements. and C-weighted DBC measurements, that is your low frequency, with full frequency spectra to identify low frequency and toner components. So all of that is those details are provided in the fine prints of the regulations. Sound level projections and modeling for multiple distances from the facility with measurements taken both outdoors and indoors of nearby dwellings. You have to provide all of that. It's not just a single directional measurement that we are looking at. And if there are violations and we go out to test, we are testing in those multiple directions too. We are taking all of those into account. Testing during daytime. and night time. Testing during night time and early morning hours when cooler air and atmospheric conditions may increase sound propagation. Somebody talk about atmospheric changes. Yes, atmospheric conditions, they change. And because they change, sound travels differently under those different conditions. The modeling must take that into consideration. So the fine print of the regulations address those particular issues that we're talking about. I get a pain inside of me. It's because you didn't have these regulations in place. That's why there's that problem. And the city is trying to enforce what doesn't exist. That is a problem in South Haven. What we're doing here in Olive Branch is to prevent that from happening. That's what we're doing. Why we limit to M1 and M2 district? The zoning ordinance is divided into different zoning districts. About four or five of them are purely residential, totally residential. You cannot allow this in a residential district because it's not a residential land use. There are also commercial zoning districts. We cannot allow this in a commercial district because it's not a commercial land use. Our M1 and M2 are the only industrial districts. Of course, M3, plant industrial district, which the previous item concerned. And as I did mention, when it comes to those plant industrial districts, the applicant gets to propose the use list. We don't impose a use list on the applicant. And then the board gets to decide just as we decided today. So the only other conventional zoning districts that you can address this particular industrial storage, data storage use in is the M1 and the M2 districts. With regard to separation distance, increasing that from 2,000 feet to 1,000 feet, that is for the Planning Commission to decide what it wants to recommend. I am not paid enough for that level. With regard to studies, whether they are private or they are public, all studies are public. Every study that is submitted to City Hall with regard to any application, that comes before any city board. The moment it gets into our office becomes public information. Anybody can request it. You can take it to any expat. You have to shred it apart. You can bring your own professional to testify before. Everything is public. None of this is private by any share of the imagination. With regard to water needs, Something about precedence and heat from water. Yes, the fine prints in the regulations address the need for water and the waste heat. The studies have to address thermal discharge venting or exhaust from any equipment, machinery, or operation shall not raise the ambient temperature at any external perimeter property line above natural occurring conditions when measured at a height of four feet above ground level. Outdoor equipment and energy systems should be equipped with shielding, insulation, or dispersion devices to minimize radiant heat impact. Rooftop or wall-mounted heat exhaust systems shall be equipped with low-vas dispersal devices. There are all sorts of details in these regulations to protect the city when it comes to heat and these cooling needs. The devil, they say, is often in the details. I didn't go into these details. That will keep us here for the next two hours. But the regulations are there. All of those are addressed in what we have. One thing I want to say is we planners who address these things, we are just residents like any other resident. We hear this noise like you hear. The mayor who directed us to work on these regulations, he drove to South Haven multiple times, a resident like any other resident. Everybody wants to protect their families just as much as you want to. And as such, when these regulations are written, we ensure that they will truly protect the city of Olive Branch. Can they be an oversight? That's why we have these open hearings, so that we can take directives from you. Decommissioning, that is one area that was not addressed in these regulations. And I think with the permission of the Planning Commission, I would like to address decommissioning when I bring this back before you for consideration next month. Because decommissioning is an important element. When they decommission these things, they break down everything, the computers. How do you dispose of them? In the landfill, in the clean field, where do they go? So we have to address decommissioning. That's an important element. When I bring the regulations back in front of you, I will include a section on decommissioning. I think those were the key issues that I took note of. I hope I've addressed them. Thank you.

First of all, I just want to tell the audience, thank you so much. I mean, it's late at night, and you're here discussing this. And it's a very important topic. And I just want to thank you all for being here tonight. And thank you for your comments. I believe this is just a direction to staff and not a vote. Am I correct on that? Yes, sir. OK. And the vote will be .

So, we intend to bring this back before the 2nd Tuesday of July meeting for consideration. If the Planning Commission at that time feels that you are comfortable with what you have, you may make any changes even at the meeting, if you are comfortable with what you have, then we will recommend them to the Board of Admin. The Board of Admin will hold a public hearing on it, on the amendment, on the third Tuesday in August.

21st.

That has been heated. The mayor can decide, hold off on it, change it, bring it back. For now, that's been heated. Any comments from the Commission? Yes.

All right. So I've got 10 amendments I'd like to propose. 10 amendments? Yes. The first one, and they fall in line, but the amendment covers data centers. And I think a couple of people have discussed data centers as being different than they were a long time ago. So tier one, tier two, tier three, tier three, the hyperscale, the AI. I think that we should have a tier one, tier two, tier three. And I'll send these to you. But if we can set criteria based on square footage, um peak electrical demand gallons used and backup generation we can set up regular data centers regional data centers and then the high tense high intensity data centers um in making those three different classifications a a small data center if the the school wanted to create a data center If FedEx wanted to put a data center in just to handle logistics and it's 20,000 square feet, this would fall, all of these other requirements would fall to them if we just had a blanket standard for data centers. But if we can establish three tiers, we'd also adjust the setback rules based on the different tiers. And taking tier 3 up to 2,000 feet. But the other ones coming down a little bit. Then we could also, it would change the reporting requirements. A little less stringent to the for the tier tier one, but tier 2 and 3. And then 1 of the things a lot of a lot of people want to set a standard for electrical use or water use. And if you set 1 standard for electrical use. If you keep electrical use low, then the water usage increases. If you lower water usage, electricity increases. So there's not a fine line. So what the ordinance suggests is that if you're proposing it, bring to the Board of Zoning Adjustments what you want. That can be denied. but it sets the standard on the data center or the developer bringing those requests to us, not us pretending to be data center experts. Also enforcement of violations and setting the setting the criteria for those. Enforcements and or the violations and the enforcement. A couple of things that were discussed for energy. Generator usage. Generator usage. Generator usage, even in the ordinance, states that the minimum of Tier 4 or the highest EPA association standard available at the time of the application for backup diesel generation. You talked about, and you've already addressed the sound levels, but a lot of thought has gone into creating the criteria in which we can evaluate the proposal submitted by the the the developer not in setting criteria of what we allow but a lot of thought all of the mistakes that other municipalities have made city staff has done a great job at taking all of those concerns and and you know really fears and putting it into a tell us all of that stuff so that when we have that public hearing all of those concerns are addressed in front of the public. I don't want to talk about all of these because we'd be here for a while. But just so you know, I don't think we can set a blanket data center because they cover so many different things. And I think the real concern is the AI and those hyperscale data centers. But we can be a little bit more stringent on those. That's all I got.

Anyone else.

And one comment that would make I think a couple months ago we had a we had an application for a cannabis dispensary across the street from City Park. And I think we all looked at that application and you know we all process and we all had our thoughts on and we at least for me I said you know if the regulation in the regulation said a 1000 feet away from a church. that church was 1,010 feet away or whatever, 1,002 feet away or something like that. So with that in mind, I think we should definitely pay a lot more attention to the distance requirement instead of being in a situation where we say, well, if this was 2,001 feet away, this would have a totally different effect on a person's quality of life. is that that's a big decision to make there. To me personally, I mean, I think 5000 and some change feet and a foot in a mile. I mean, if we went 2500 feet, that's half a mile. You know, and I mean, we're we have a real world example, somebody that does live half a mile away or I'm sorry, I forgot the distance that you said. Yeah, that he does live half a mile away and he has a real world example of what what the outcome could be. And I mean, not taking that into consideration, I think would be would be a little short sighted. But yeah, just the number on that distance would definitely help out. Also, to Dion's points, you know, the tiered system like We do it with gas stations. You know, we regulate a truck stop differently than we regulate a gas station, you know, and the difference is size and scale and products that they sell and things like that and how things are marketed. But yeah, I mean, a tiered system would work. I mean, if the only thing that scares me there is that if you tell somebody with a lot of money that they can't build a 2 million square foot data center. And they'll say, well, what if I build 2,100,000 square foot data centers within the same complex? And I mean, obviously, I don't know if that would work logistically. If you've got it covered in there, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. But that was the first thing that came to mind when we were splitting everything up. I was like, well, you know, portioning these things out might be an avenue that they could take. But yeah, it's a delicate topic, especially with something that has such an impact on people's quality of life. and everything like that. So I think it is definitely our responsibility to pay as much attention to these as we can, because 50 years from today, it's gonna have a big impact on our city and the people that live here.

And I just have one quick, I'm sorry. Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

Just one quick clarification from me to make sure I heard you right. You said that we cannot legally outright ban Is that correct, Dr. Song? Okay, thank you.

And so just, Donnie and I disagree all the time. And this is how I look at the setbacks. The setbacks is if they're meeting all of the other requirements, If the sound if the tonal if the heat if the light if the if the all those other things if they're meeting those other things it doesn't matter how close they are, and I'm being facetious, but a 2,000 or 1,000 foot setback still at the property line is where you're going to measure whatever heat, sound, tonal vibrations, acoustics, that's where you're going to measure it. And so just a different distance between if it's 2,000 feet and the sound at the fence, it's actually louder than it would be if it was 1,000 feet. And we measured it at the fence line, or the property line. So if it meets those standards, if it meets all the other standards, that's why I just, you know, I know that there's worst case scenarios out there, but if it meets all of the other requirements, it's hard for me to go five miles or two miles or 1,000 feet, because 1,000 feet is pretty much the limit that we restrict anything else. So where do we come up with the, what's the basis for 2,000 feet? But I don't make all the decisions.

Anyone else have any questions? We'll move on. Other business? Do we have any other business tonight?

Mr. Chairman, if you'll permit me to touch on two things that have been raised. The first dealing with the tier system. These regulations as written already indirectly include a tier system. That goes beyond just three tiers. The very fact that each applicant gets to provide or submit its own infrastructure plan that is aligned to the specificities or the specifics of that particular data center implies already that there is a tier system involved. A data center that is 20,000 square feet, its water needs will not be the same as a data center that is 20 million square feet, just an example. And so when the 20,000 square feet data center provides its infrastructure plan, it will be It will just address the issues that are applicable to it. The risk with creating tier systems when you're dealing with a use that is kind of developing in the industry, is that you set regulations within particular boundaries. And in little or no time, you will find yourself doing too many amendments to those regulations to take care of new occurrences. So the best approach in public policy is to allow each of the uses, as they show up, to submit what is applicable to that particular use, to their own needs. An XI data center that is 50,000 square feet may need far more, certainly need far more water than one that is, let's just say, we'd use a FedEx example. If you look at a definition of data centers, it will exclude some of the things that just store data, but they are not data centers. In City Hall, we have a room where computers are stored inside, but that's not a data center. By definition, that is excluded. By definition, that is excluded. So those that will qualify as data centers, by definition, if their water need is smaller, they will provide you the infrastructure plan that clearly identifies what their water needs is going to be, what their demand and supply is going to be that meets that particular tier. So you already somehow have that built in the system. And it creates, when you leave that open, that is more adjustable. That is more adaptable. as you enforce the regulations along the line. And I think the element of the 2,000 feet is important. In South Haven, yes. You didn't have these regulations in place. And that's why you've got noise two miles down the road. But if you really have all these regulations, if the applicant is meeting all these other regulations, and you are measuring those negative externalities at the property line, then the impact A HALF A MILE DOWN THE ROAD REALLY BECOMES INSIGNIFICANT. THE KEY THING IS WHAT IS HAPPENING AT THE PROPERTY LINE. THAT'S REALLY WHERE ALL THESE MEASUREMENTS ARE TAKING PLACE. NOT WHAT IS HAPPENING, YOU KNOW, 5,000 FEET DOWN THE ROAD. THAT'S NOT WHERE THE MEASUREMENTS ARE TAKING PLACE AT THE PROPERTY LINE. AND SO THE DISTANCES REALLY DOESN'T MAKE ANY MUCH DIFFERENCE.

THE REASON I LIKE THE TIERED IS nobody was concerned no there was very little concern with data centers until AI and when those came out and those big strong the big strong ones but if there's a if there's a criteria or category that publicly residents knew This is a data center. This is a small data center. It's not going to use all this water. It's not going to use all this electricity. It's not going to create all this sound. Versus this is a tier three. I think from a public perspective, it's almost like you're giving them notice on not what to be concerned about, The public perception as a data center is an AI, XAI. There's sort of a negative connotation about it, and that's when they're going to, that's what their fear is. Any data center is going to be a million square foot, nine million megawatts, or nine million gallons of water. And so that's why, from a public perspective, I know from an ordinance perspective, and I'm probably being a little political here, but I think from a public perspective, being able to present it as what it is

There is a provision there that says small data centers, kind of recognizing this difference. On page six, small data centers with principal and accessory buildings not exceeding 10,000 square feet, for example, and which do not or will not use diesel generators or gas turbines, are only required to be set back a minimum 500 feet from these uses. So in the code, you have already some recognition of that difference. And we'll look closely into those different tiers.

I'll share it so everybody can see it.

That was a really good point. What's going on at the property line is the most important situation, and not the feet, not the distance. But I will say the distance. I would think would come into play during site selection. If site selectors, they know that, hey, Olive Branch has this 2,500-foot rule, 2,000, whatever the rule is, they're going to look at sites and say, well, this one doesn't qualify, that one doesn't qualify, that one doesn't qualify. And that's going to wipe the table off of a lot of different sites that could have worked if the distance was 1,000 feet or 2,000 feet. And I mean, that'll really narrow it down. I feel that that would give us the ability to really narrow it down to, hey, this site is a little bit more specific for the data center, whether it's a tier one, two, or three, whatever it is that you would want to put there.

So there's a direction from the planning commission to staff to maintain the 2,000 feet you had before. Last month you had 2,000 feet, and then it was reduced to 1,000 feet. Is there direction for staff to write it as 2,000 feet? SHARE THE AMENDMENT. SO WHICH AMENDMENTS? THE ONE HE'S PROPOSED. YES, THEY COULD BE SHARED.

I MEAN, IT'S... YEAH, I THINK ONCE YOU SUBMIT IT, IT BECOMES PUBLIC A RECORD, AND THEN WE'LL GO FROM THERE. SO ANYWAY, IT'S GETTING LATE, SO I THINK WE NEED TO GO TO THE OTHER BUSINESS. ANYTHING WE NEED TO DISCUSS? No, Sir, I don't want me to and we need a motion to adjourn. All right, Mister Jones to have a second a second message to send second all in favor say aye. I think we set a record for the length of the meeting tonight. Thank you.