Board - Regular Meeting

Call to order Charter Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees regular meeting Tuesday, June 23rd, 6.30 p.m. Call to order. Call to order. Roll call.

Roll call. Jen Buckley. Here. Mark Clinton. Here. Charles Kermey. Here. Bob Dorshevitz. Here. Sandy Grove.

Here.

John Stewart.

Here.

Kim Gatica. We have a quorum.

All right. Pledge of Allegiance. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Any second?

Second.

Okay.

Okay, go ahead.

Roll call vote. Mark Clinton?

Here.

Chuck Cramie?

Yes.

Bob Dorchevitz?

Yes.

Sandy Grove? Yes. John Stewart?

Yes.

Kim Ginnica? Yes. Jen Buckley? Yes. We have all ayes, motion passes.

Okay, approval of the consent agenda. We have the May 12th minutes, June 2nd and June 9th, and the township bills.

Kim, how did you want to handle that? Yeah, so I think for the May 12th board minutes, which I just handed out, An updated copy. There's one more edit that needs to be made. Sandy, do you want to state what that change is? And then if the board is okay with it, we can adopt it with Sandy's amended change. And then also, I think you have a change. Was it June 2nd or June 9th? One of those. June 2nd. You have one minor change, correct? Actually, it's June 9th. Well, it's both of them actually. All right. So do we want to just start with May 12th and let us know what that change needs to be, the phrase that needs to be added to it?

Sure. On page four of the packet, it refers to April 21st, 2026 regular board of trustees meeting. It says moved by trustee growth and supported by trustee Buckley to approve the proposed for April 21st, 26, it should say to remove the proposed minutes for March 10th, 2026 to make a motion clarification and name spelling corrections.

That's page four of the minutes or page four of the packet?

Page four of the packet.

Okay. Yeah. All right, but there's May 12th, these were some other revised.

Yes, I made, I painted you the revised version right there.

It would be on page... Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, that's my... Actually, it would be on page two. Page two, yeah.

Page two are the ones that was handed out just now.

So just that modification. And then...

So any more for May 12th?

No, not May 12th.

Do we have to vote on these separately by May 12th, June 9th, June 2nd, because we're making changes?

I would just suggest that the motion could be to approve the May 12th, June 2nd special meeting and June 9th regular meeting minutes as amended and proposed by Trustee Groth, if everybody's agreeable to that.

Do you have a second? Second. Second. So, Ashley, if we're moving too fast, or it doesn't make sense, ask a question.

You want to mention your other changes, or are we good? We're okay. Okay. All right. And then, so I'll say I moved, and then seconded by Sandy. Roll call vote. Is everybody good with this approach? Okay, great.

Yeah.

Okay. So, Carmi?

Yes.

Bob Dershowitz? Yes. Sandy Grove? Yes. John Stewart?

Yes.

Kim Gadeka, yes. Jen Buckley?

Yes.

And Mark Clinton? Yes. Great. We have all ayes, and the motion passes.

I did have one question. We've already approved it, but I just wanted to ask the Chief. It has to do with the bills. It says Humane Society of Huron Valley, and I noted that we paid $749, and that was for the vicious animal, and euthanasia. I'm just curious to know, will the owner of the animal be reimbursing the township for those costs?

As the criminal case proceeds, we would be asking for restitution. I already spoke with the prosecutor about that, and that is the intention. And we will make sure that that happens. Okay, perfect. Thank you.

All right. Public comment. These are preferred non-agenda items, but our State Senator Rosemary Behr was going to be here. She was going to talk about data centers, but I don't see her yet. So anybody else that wants to go first, you're in. Nothing? Okay. All right. All right. So, new business. We're going to award a contract tonight with money provided by the Community Block Grant Program, which is a federal program, to repair some issues at Friendship Station Center on Schoolcraft Road. A long-time problem that was inherited when we bought the building in 1981 or something like that. And Jeremy Schroet from Spalding to Decker will tee it up.

Yeah, thanks, Chuck. So we received bids. We got four qualified bidders. We reviewed their qualifications and background that came in under engineer's estimate and As Chuck mentioned, all of the funds for the construction and for the soft costs are covered by the Wayne County CDBG grant. There's gonna be some improvements to the parking lot, including pavement, but also drainage, new dumpster enclosure, and new dumpster locations so that it doesn't need to be in the middle of the parking lot, and then a couple tree removals other than that.

We've traditionally had flooding here because we are using dry wells instead of a drainage line to the ditch. So this will be much improved and keep the need for the DPW to come out with the vector every time it rains to suck the water out of the dry wells and the parking lot.

Okay, Mr. Supervisor. I move to adopt resolution number 2026-6-23-42, authorizing the Board of Trustees to approve the award of the Friendship Station Storm and Parking Lot Improvements Project to Best Asphalt Inc. in the amount of $146,457.50. In adopting the resolution, the Board of Trustees recognizes the revenue of $200,000 from the CDBG federal grant in account 101-261-522.000. Appropriates the expenditures of $200,000 and authorizes the finance director to amend the fiscal year 2026 budget. The expenditure account is 101-673-970.000. How did they come up with 50 cents?

Means they studied it, I guess. I'll pay you not more than 45.

Second.

Okay. Moved by Jen, seconded by Mark, we'll call vote. Dr. Shevitz? Yeah. Sandy Grove? Yes. John Stewart? Yes. Kim Gatica? Yes. Jen Buckley? Yes. Mark Clinton?

Yes.

Chuck Cramie?

Yes.

All ayes and motion passes.

Good job, Jeremy. Mr. Supervisor? Yes. Brief comment. We're in a growth industry with senior citizens. Over one-third of Michigan's population is over 55 years old. That's the macro picture. The micro picture has the eagle in front of the Friendship Station been rehabilitated, or that would be a good scout project.

It was rehabilitated once a few years ago by a scout or... and their parent. Okay. So we keep an eye on that because it is wood and it has to be taken care of.

Well, and whatever we can do to facilitate programs for seniors.

Yeah, this will make it a little better for walking in the parking lot.

Thank you.

All right, next item is a police expenditure for a one-year maintenance agreement. for our consoles in the dispatch.

Yeah, good evening, Board. I come before you to seek approval to enter into a one-year service agreement with Entrato, the Viper. Entrato provides the services for our 911 call-taking consoles, and we have three of those in our dispatch center. So a little bit of history. In 2018, we purchased two consoles, and then later added a third one to improve the efficiency of our dispatch center. So what does this service agreement provide? Provides the software license that we need to be able to operate the system, provides 24 hours, seven day a week technical assistance, along with any hardware repairs that we need. I had asked a salesperson if they offer a pay-as-you-go option, and unfortunately, they do not offer that.

You mean a time and materials? I'm sorry? You mean a time and materials? Time and materials, meaning? Pay-as-you-go, when you have it.

Yeah, so if we had an issue, we could contact them, and they could come out and do service. Yeah, that's known as a time and materials. Yeah, they don't offer that. It's the service agreement. which is essential. This is a budgeted item that we had planned for. It came in a little bit under budget. We had budgeted $29,000 and it came out at $28,323 in some sense on that one.

Did they offer a multi-year contract at a discount?

They do not. So the initial purchase in 2018 included a five-year service agreement. And then after that, I found out that it's year by year. So about six months prior to the service agreement expiring, the salesperson will submit a request to have another service agreement developed. But that's six months from expiring, so what, October-ish? November, September-ish of this year is when they would submit a request to continue on for 2027.

This is pretty expensive, and we will look for maybe some alternatives next year. We have some time to plan. It's a lot of money for equipment that if you read in here, it says that they don't cover certain items that are out of, what is it, out of warranty?

Yeah, out of warranty. So I did clarify, Supervisor, that our systems are under warranty. So it is going to cover, initially I thought it's not going to cover hardware repairs, but it is. It will cover hardware repairs, software updates, antivirus updates, any response that we need here. And I can say earlier this year we did have several issues with the councils and they were prompt with having a technician come to our dispatch center to get those issues resolved.

So we have a little priority versus time and materials. Exactly.

Yeah, so with the service agreement, you know, they give us high priority and they're responsive with with coming on site to make these those repairs and as mentioned in here the equipment in there is aging and SO AT SOME POINT WE NEED TO PROBABLY GET OTHER QUOTES, ESTIMATES FROM OTHER PROVIDERS, JUST TO MAKE SURE WE'RE GETTING THE BEST PRODUCT FOR OUR DOLLARS.

IS THERE AN SLA SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT THAT TELLS HOW QUICKLY THEY WILL RESPOND? I DON'T KNOW IF I SAW THIS IN HERE.

I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THE TIME, BUT FROM MY EXPERIENCE IT'S BEEN PROMPT. We call, we make the requests, and they generally have a technician come here to location fairly quickly.

The repair people are a distributor, correct?

Yes, the repair company that Entrada uses is a contractor. I don't remember the name off the top of my head right now, but they are contracted services, yes.

Can I ask just one question?

Sure.

I noted there were a few years that kind of got lost in the system, like maybe year six and seven?

Yeah, so initially when I was preparing, well, initially when I got the invoice for it, I did a little bit of research to make the determination of whether or not we had entered into a multi-year agreement before I signed off on it and pushed it through, and I couldn't find any records. So I sought the assistance of a clerk's office to see if there was any records that I didn't have access to, and they weren't able to find either. So that's why I'm here today. asking for approval to move ahead with this service agreement.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions? Anything from the audience, questions? All right, I think.

Mr. Supervisor, I move to approve resolution 2026-06-23-43 authorizing the Plymouth Township Police Department to purchase a one-year maintenance agreement with Entrato from account 101-325-831.00, to which the total cost shall not exceed 29,000. Second.

Okay, roll call vote. Sandy Grove? Yes. John Stewart?

Yes.

Kim Gatica, yes. Jen Buckley?

Yes.

Mark Clinton? Yes. Chuck Kermie? Yes. Bob Dershowitz? Yes. All ayes, and motion passes. Who seconded that? Was that Jen? Jen. Yep.

Next item is the final approval request for a new subdivision called Plymouth Farms. It previously had a couple of other temporary names. It has a cluster housing option, and there's 19 houses. The developer and the builder, which I think is Pulte, are here, and Liz Hart, representing the township through McKenna, is here to explain why we should approve this today and the covenants, which many of you, when you purchase your home, you have these covenants, which are really a site condo, I think. Almost every subdivision built in Plymouth Township in at least 25 to 30 years are site condos, even though they look like a traditional platted subdivision. All right, Liz, go ahead.

Thank you, Supervisor Kermy. Liz Hart with McKenna. As Supervisor Kermy mentioned, this is a cluster housing option for the subdivision called Plymouth Farms. It consists of 19 detached single-family homes across 6.3 acres. This neighborhood is directly south of the Margate subdivision. The first step for the applicant was to receive cluster housing option approval. This was done in late 2024. The next step for the applicant was to receive approval for the final development site plan. This was done with the Planning Commission last year in June of 2025. And now the applicant is at the next step to secure final approval from the Board of Trustees for the cluster housing agreement, which is within your packet tonight. Then the next step with approval, the applicant can start working with the building department for permits. The township attorney has reviewed the associate legal documents and has no further changes, neither does the planning department. So the action before you today is to either approve, deny, or table the request, but staff is recommending approval of the final cluster housing development agreement for application 2550 Plymouth Farms. I'm happy to take any questions about the agreement, or the township attorney can answer any as well. And as Chuck said, the applicant is here. Thank you.

So we will also have the applicant give us a little pitch on what they're doing or if they have some elevations, things like that. So any questions? Well, let's wait till they give a little pitch and tell us what they're doing. This is the former Farmer J's Pumpkin Farm on Canton Center, east of, excuse me, west of Isbister School and a little south. I think it backs up to your neighborhood. It's our new equipment.

Hold on.

Push the button and then turn it back on. The button at the base.

All right.

It's not like the ones here.

Originally submit it. REQUESTS FOR ELEVATION. THERE WERE REQUESTS FOR CONDITIONS, A MASONRY BRICK. AND THEN WE WENT AND LOOKED AT PROJECTS THAT COLTY HAD BUILT as much brick as we are required and agreed to with the cluster housing option. But I felt the picture really gives you a much better feel of what this development is all going to be about. In addition to the product type, there is going to be a ranch product there. We recognize that there's a number of people in the community that would like to move out of their existing larger homes, move into a smaller home, master bedroom on the first floor, and still be part of the community. This is great, because then that gives the opportunity for a new family to move in, to move into that larger home, and what we hope is it's almost a domino effect of additional people. heard and read, you know, there's a shortage of housing opportunities. In addition, this will provide a nice colonial product. and gives a welcoming effect where we're creating a neighborhood setting, walkable, and so it would be a combination of both of these products. Now, the Colonial comes with a couple sets of different elevations, and to some extent, the Ranch probably could have a couple sets of different brick options. And then we have also gone on record that no two homes, I'm going to defer to Pulte on this, but no two homes can have the same elevation side by side.

I think there's also across the street you can have.

This gives you a sense of the duplicity. It also gives you a sense of having a nice development that... Some of the other things worth pointing out. There's going to be a very large, meaningful pocket park that's going to be right off of the entrance as you come in. This will serve as a gathering spot for the neighborhood. And it will be accented with brick pavers from both the Planning Commission and from the Board on what those plantings should be like. There will be interconnectivity between this project and the project to the north, which is Margate. With the idea in mind that the children could walk from one subdivision to another subdivision and on out to Pioneer School and potentially the neighborhoods from Margate could walk down into because they're connected as such. So we had a lot of input from the neighborhood because it does abut to the streets to the west. We met with them many times, passed out site plans, got their input. Many of them have landscaping already. We wanted to add to landscaping. We want to make sure the landscaping we added complemented what they had. So it was a combination of what they had and what we wanted to add, which adds as a great buffer to this development. and a great lifestyle for people to be a part of for years to come.

All right, go ahead.

I sit on the planning commission, so I'm certainly becoming very familiar with cluster housing actions and the responsibility that that puts the developer when you're putting one of these things together. So what I'm curious to know, because we've talked about it, is who's going to be responsible to maintain the park and the plantings? Is that part of the bylaws?

Great question, yes. So developer holds on to it until 80% of the homes are sold?

Yeah, so Pulte manages the HOA, and so for a park like that, they would manage it for typically the first It was 19 homes, much shorter timeline. And so they manage it until we reach about 80% occupancy with the homes sold and the HOA. Once we reach that point, then members of the community and the HOA take over that and are responsible for the management of that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. How many ranches are in the program?

We're looking at probably six to seven.

Hmm.

What's the square footage of these expected to be the range?

For the ranch or forage?

All of the, any of them.

So the range is about 2,500 to 3,200 square feet and the ranch being around 1,600 square feet.

Did any of them have walkouts or... No, just basements. No, this is a very flat piece of property. Yeah, it's a farm. We want a flat farm.

I love basements, but no walk-ins.

And what do you expect the price points to be? Do you have any idea at this point?

We expect the base point to be fives with delivered homes probably coming in around sixes.

Sixes, okay. And what's going to happen is, last I was in tune with this project, there was talk about extending the paving of Canton Center because it's, isn't it dirt, right? At the south. Is it dirt to the north? No, it's just there.

Is it still going to be dirt? They're going to take off from this dirt, isn't it?

That's a good point. So under our development agreement, Pavement ends right about south of the driveway that services this bister. We're gonna pave all the way from that driveway all the way down south. There's a home that was built there, I'm gonna say 10, 12 years ago, and we're gonna bring the pavement, no, too far on the cursor. We're gonna bring the pavement right to about that driveway, right past that driveway. It's going to be paved and that's been part of the plans that we submit to Wayne County. Wayne County has issued this permit. Soil erosion so and this will be built at the same time while the development is taking place of the roads within the.

So how many feet of unpaved? Canton Center will remain till you reach Joy Rd painted 660 feet. That's how much you're paving, but how much remains? 750. Say about 700 feet. All right, so about an equal amount has to be eventually, you hope, paved. Maybe not. It'll slow traffic and reduce the amount of traffic if you have that stretch.

The three high schools to the south. The three high schools to the south.

And is it, it'll tie into Balsam?

It will, yes. See that stub there? That'll, we'll extend the, I'll call it the west aisleway of the development. We'll hook up with that. So these projects, now I call these because you got Margate and Plymouth Farms, they'll actually have two access points.

Yeah.

Just so you know, on Spruce, a house just sold for 875 in there.

Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow, wow. Wow, wow, wow is right.

All right. Any questions from the public?

You have to come to the podium. It would be nice if you could just pay the rest of the cement. That would be really nice. There's 700 feet. You got a lot of money. You can do it. Pulte can do it, too. He could.

Nobody thinks that's funny.

Is Pulte getting any tax evasion for this?

No. The tax abatements are not allowed in Plymouth Township for residential, only for industrial.

And then is the adjoining subdivision going to incur any expense when they're connecting to their subdivision, like streets, walkways, like sewer, like out in rural areas, as soon as more people move into the neighborhood and stuff, and they get sewer services, they jack up everybody around and stuff. So are the adjoining subdivision going to incur any...

They will not, adjoining people will not be incurring incremental expenses. This development will pay what's called a benefit fee. I don't know how much your benefit fees are for connecting to sewer and water. It's probably several hundred thousand, but I don't know the number.

We have to pay tap fees.

Well, it's benefit fees plus tap fees.

So, we'll hook up to their because that's a public right-of-way. So this row will dedicate this back to the county.

All right, any more questions from the board? No? Well, we're ready for a vote if that's the case.

Actually, I'm sorry, I have a question. So Farmer J's nephew, I believe, He owns the property that faces Canton Center. Is he still going to be living there, or did you guys buy that property? It's going to be torn down?

This house? No, not that house. The two houses to the Delbo both be razed. Raised? That means torn down.

Okay, so has he moved on? Is it abandoned already?

Yes, he's moved on.

There was a bunch of trees being cut down over there, and I thought it was kind of strange if...

There's a new, there'll be, both those homes will be, we haven't done any demo on the structures. We waited till this approval here, so we'll go ahead and do the demo on the structures, and someone will build on those two lots a large single home.

Oh, okay.

The trees that were removed were, weed trees, box elder is probably the most prevalent.

Mr. Supervisor, I move to adopt resolution 2026-06-23-44 authorizing approval of the Plymouth Farms residential cluster housing development and agreement as recommended by the Planning Commission.

Second.

Okay, roll call vote.

John Stewart.

Yes.

Kim Gadica, yes. Jen Buckley. Yes. Mark Clinton.

Yes.

Chuck Kermie.

Yes.

Bob Droshevitz. Yes. Sandy Grove. Yes. All ayes. Motion passes.

Thank you all.

For all your input over the last couple years on this project, we're excited to bring another community like this to the Plymouth Township, and it's going to be a well-needed product for families that want to be part of our community.

What year do you expect construction to begin?

We're going to get right to the end of the roads down this fall and start selling beginning of 2027.

So you're going to be building during the winter?

Yes.

I appreciate that 40% masonry requirement.

They're gonna be great. Look forward to seeing you. Thank you all.

Thank you very much.

All right, this section is public comment. Our State Senator Rosemary Behr is here, and she wanted to talk to us a little bit about what is going on in the state legislature concerning data centers.

I think he had magnets in his pockets or something.

No magnets. Thank you. Thank you for including me today or giving me the opportunity to talk for a few minutes. I wanted to come by just because we have had so many people in our communities that are concerned about the data centers, concerned about whether we have to worry about them showing up in our backyards or what are the things people are nervous about. And it's understandable because it is kind of a big new thing and doesn't really fit in the models that we're accustomed to.

So we are worried about it.

When one does show up, you can literally change the nature of your community because they are so big, or they can be. And we're just worried about the changes of how our community feels. We worry about whether they really will make us deaf. We worry about amount of energy that they use and the amount of water that they can use and whether or not that will impact their homes or the cost of electricity and water. All those things are impacted when you make a big change inside your community. So just one brief bit about data. What these hyperscale data centers is what we're talking about. We have literally thousands of regular data centers, old school data centers. My first job was in a data center. Many, many of my jobs were in data centers. Most of them are normal buildings. You would never even notice. You could put them in a shopping center and you wouldn't notice. These are many thousands of acres hundreds of football field size in one building or one small complex, first one level floor building, so they're very large, and they're used to connect thousands of computers together closely with lots and lots of storage so they can work to solve complicated things like AI and cryptocurrency, things where there are many, many, many calculations going on at the same time, so they interconnect the CPUs, the computers, in a very close range.

That's why they're in one big building, one big flat building.

So they're large geographically is one of the concerns as they take up a lot of green space or whatever space is available with concrete. So we worry about that, but that's the knowledge of what we call them as hyperscale. And really they can be used for any kind of processing. They just to do those big complicated ones, they have to be close together to be able to do those kinds of computing. So the Saline Data Center, maybe you guys have seen that in the papers, that's kind of the first really big one that's under construction. And that data center alone will use as much energy as 25% of the homes in Michigan. One building, one spot. So if you think about that, 25% of the electricity of all of our homes together, That's not a wire that you see outside on the poles.

These are really big transmission lines running right into Saline.

It's a big difference for communities. If you've got a farming community, all of a sudden you have these big transmission lines. It takes a lot of planning, it takes a lot of careful work to try to build these and place these in ways that are not gonna negatively impact us. The water issue with these have to do with how much heat is generated by the computers. I'm sure you all know that your laptop can get hot if you let it work for a while on something complicated. When you have thousands of CPUs working nonstop, it gets really hot. And so the cost of cooling them is high. In a traditional way, if you use water to evaporate, to cool that, that's the least expensive way to build a data center fast. It also can burn off millions of gallons a day. Even hundreds, tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of gallons. So it's a little outrageous. So we have to be careful about what we allow them to do and how we make sure. So we have a couple of things. Because realistically, if you can cite one of those data centers, it could be very profitable for your community. You can bring in a lot of taxes for local communities. And you can bring in pretty significant community benefit agreements, which can impact the entire community with things that These are the biggest companies in the world, these are the wealthiest companies in the world, and they can afford really good community benefit agreements, just saying. So there's ways to make them useful if you have the space. So we wanna make sure that what we don't do is end up having our people pay the bill for the cost of electricity. So when they come in and they've got to build all this new infrastructure for a data center, or they have to build a new infrastructure for water systems, We want to make sure that we don't pay for that, that the company does. Our bills over time should not go up because they should be paying their own bills. We should not be spreading that around the community. This is kind of the natural way that our power systems have been working in Michigan. When you get a new building, the cost of that gets spread out and everybody gets a raise in their rates, right? We get another raise in our rates. These are so big that a raise in our rates would be very noticeable right away. We don't want that to happen.

So we gotta make sure that there is no noise issue.

We do have a concern is 95 decibels at the door outside of the building. You will hear 95 decibels at some of these big places, which is enough to make you deaf in about 30 seconds. But it can be fixed. All these things can be fixed with technology. So the trick is to do the things that need to be done. If you are interested in doing this, like I said, it can be very profitable for the community if you have the space. If you have a place to put them, if you have maybe a tech center where there's space to put them, you can do things that will really be beneficial to you But you have to make sure your zoning ordinances are in place. And that's the number one thing that our communities need to understand is the difference between these kind of locations and industrial sites. They are different than what we've had before. So we do have information about that through the Michigan Townships Association and U of M have put together some information for townships to kind of help guide making sure that your zoning ordinances are effective enough. One of the problems you've heard in the papers is lawsuits, right? Somebody will show up to build a big data center and the town will try to push back or the township will try to push back, but they will have already be in an alliance and in compliance with your ordinances and you're out of luck. They file suits and they have lots of money. So the right answer is, because so far we have not won those suits. They've won those suits. They got lawyers. They got money. Better to be prepared. Get your ordinance in the order that you need them to be. And this is true for everyone. If there's a place to put one, they might be showing up in here. That's the number one piece. The number two piece is on us at the state to make sure we have regulatory stuff. We need to get the work done to make sure that we are protecting the parts that we can protect. We can't change your zoning ordinances. We're not going to step on that, of course. So what we can do is put in some regulations. So we have the first set of real bills we introduced last week, and they regulate water use, and they regulate energy use, and they regulate, they literally go through and say where we will not put the cost of build out, construction, maintenance, and any ongoing costs for energy or water. Not on the people, always on the company. It's a huge piece to put that right into law. We've never done that before. The other things that we're working on will be more transparency. So it has requirements for public hearings. It has non-disclosures not allowed. There's various ways throughout the process to make sure reporting is done consistently on water, on energy, and all the things that impact our communities. So we are working pretty hard to get those through. They're already in the process, and then we have some other things that we've started working on for the second round. So we recognize that there is value in this to communities, and we understand why people are actually trying to pull them into their community because of the possibilities for revenue. That's okay as long as it fits, as long as it's what you expect, and you are prepared for that. So part of why I came today was to make sure that you think about that if it's on your agenda at all. Many townships around the state are being approached. You guys might be too. It's that simple. So I don't know if you want to ask questions. What I have brought is a little one-pager thing. I will send some of these around to you all, and I'll leave some outside on the back if people want to take one of those. And if you have questions now or later, I'm always happy to help.

What is the current status? Is the Michigan Public Service Commission the final decision maker on data centers?

No. Well, they are in the sense that they regulate electrical things. What they have to do is follow the laws to make the regulations. So it's up to us. So right now, like I said, when a big industrial complex comes up, the cost of that for energy build out will end up getting spread out to all of the community in that space. You won't know that necessarily, but that does happen. This is the first time we would have a law that says the build out of these companies will not have cost that's spread out onto the community in the surrounding areas. It will all be on the company. So that's because the law will say that and then MPSC has to follow our laws. Does that make sense?

Yes. So it's not like the solar arrays where the Michigan Public Service Commission has the final say today.

Correct. There are some places where they have the final say and some that they don't. It's up to, it's in the legislature to override at any time. That changes the regulation for MPSC.

Any questions from the board? And then Liz Hart may give us a little update on what the planning commission is doing because we have an 18 month moratorium. We're probably six months into it.

I would one thing be careful of the moratoriums they tend to only survive for a limited time? Yeah, go ahead, you talk.

But what you're saying is key because we know that we really have to look at our zoning ordinances, that this is the time for us to make the impactful changes so that that doesn't happen. I just, it's kind of ironic, but I find it interesting that the state is working so hard to protect the citizens when it comes to the data centers and the cost. yet they involve themselves in all those pieces of legislation that eliminate zoning choices from the local communities. That set of eight or nine house bills where they would take away the local control on zoning and different issues, a lot of different issues, I just wish that the state would show the same regard for local communities as they're showing regarding this because the state legislators really, in my mind, have no business enacting and bringing about laws that become burdensome and problematic for local communities. It changes the whole makeup of the community. I'm very against them. And I just want to applaud you for what you're doing, but ask you if you could spread that around a little bit to come back and benefit the local communities as well. Thank you for coming tonight.

Well, I appreciate that. And let me comment on it really quick. So those bills are the House, the Michigan Senate's House of Representatives, not the Senate. The Senate side, we have not done any plan. We don't have any current plan to take up those bills. We don't have any expectation that they would go forward the way they are. I would say there's a lot of people that don't agree with what they've proposed. I think maybe they consider it an opening salvo to talk more about housing, which is also a good idea, but sometimes you're trying to hit a home run and you're lucky if you got a pop up, right?

So it's not something you're dealing with at this point at all?

No, we have not taken up those bills in the Senate at all.

Will it eventually come to the Senate if it passes the House in any form?

Yeah, occasionally we will get bills from them over to our House, but we don't have to take them up. It's really all on us whether or not, and it's usually not very productive to spend your time sending things to us that they know we're not going to take off.

Because if you don't take it up, then that kind of kills the whole process. Is that correct?

Yeah, you have to have both sides. Yeah, and then it has to go to the governor, who also might not like that idea, right?

Well, I appreciate your input and your involvement in this as well. Thank you. Great, thanks.

Liz, can you give us a short update on what the status is and the timing of where we are for our ordinance evaluation

Yeah, we just had our first work session with Planning Commission at the beginning of June, going over data centers specifically, and they requested a second work session, so we'll either have that in early July or we'll wait till August to go through it. McKenna has put together a draft ordinance specifically for our clients. That is the draft we will be presenting to the township with some of the changes that Planning Commission has addressed and comments to us. So that's where we're at right now. We're looking probably August for another work session, and then hopefully going to a public hearing after that with Planning Commission, then providing a recommendation to the Board of Trustees, and then you guys with the final decision. That's where we're at right now. We'll hopefully get it done before the end of fall.

Is there any conflict with us having a planner that we hire? Does the planning, I know that the planners have been very involved in the bills that I've just discussed with Senator Beyer. Is McKenna or any of the planners involved in, you said you put something together about the data centers. What is your position on the data centers? Because I want to make sure that whatever it is you've put together is going to be beneficial and protective of your clients, which would be us and all the other communities.

So what we've put together is pretty general, covers everything most communities should cover in this regarding data centers. In terms of are we involved with anything with the state, we're not involved in anything with the state. But we've done, we had a committee internally review what other places in the state have done and reviewed what in the country and just how this will impact some of our clients. Not all of our clients are like Plymouth Township specifically. So they put that together. They actually presented internally to our staff And from there, they presented that draft ordinance, which is, as I said, we'll present that to you guys as well. But I do think it's a very good draft ordinance. It does create it as a permissive use, and so it would be considered a special land use, still go before the Planning Commission, have to meet all those standards in that ordinance. But I do think it's very good, and I think it's the path forward for data centers, yes. Great, thank you. Mm-hmm.

You might wanna look at the U of M work that they've done. Yes. The Michigan Townships Association, that would be probably helpful.

Yeah.

I sent something out from University of Michigan a couple of weeks ago. I think that's it.

Yeah.

I sent it out to everybody on the board.

Yeah, I think we got an early draft of that, McKenna did, and we did look at that and put that into our review as well.

All right.

Any other questions? All right. Oh, you have a question on this topic or another topic? A comment.

Pardon? A comment. Okay. If my hearing is correct, you, the supervisor, have said we don't have land anymore in Plymouth Township for a sizable data center.

At least a super size.

So that's off the table.

You could at least repurpose. Yeah.

Okay.

You could repurpose, for example, you could repurpose the Shelton Road plant. Yeah. So there's enough land there.

Okay, let's not go into hypotheticals. Right now you said we don't have the land, and we're, because this is my understanding, and I have the greatest respect for this state senator and her education and knowledge and science background, but the volatility... And the bipartisan anti-data centers is enormous. I mean, there was a huge rally on the front steps of the state Capitol at five o'clock today. And then your colleague, Jim Runstead organized, organized 45 rallies around the state of Michigan, anti-data center. Now the political reality, and with all kindness, and you know I like you and appreciate you legislatively, Matt Hall and the Republicans in the House aren't gonna pass these things this year. And I have a little personal, and I have a friendship with Darren Camilleri, but when he starts talking community benefits, I really back away. because we were sold community benefits a few years ago on another project. I'm intimately acquainted with Celine. Clients, the pastor of the pre-Civil War Lutheran Church out there in Bridgewater, they sold the farmland for millions, and then the farmer moved to Alabama. And there's also a massive data center coming, because this is where Supervisor McNamara's gotta deal with it, and where Mike Duggan resides in a condo, right down here on Township. There's gonna be a massive data center down there. So this has to be handled delicately. And with all sincerity and kindness, I think the next governor in six months ought to appoint you as a liaison because there needs to be so much education and proper planning. But I get emails from the west side of the state every day from my friends over there. And Allegan County, door township. They... they recalled the entire board and the supervisor over data townships, DOR, D-O-R-R township in Elegant County. I mean, they weren't messing around. So Rosemary, calling you by your first name, it's a volatile issue. And we need, this issue needs your help. And I admire you for even coming here to talking about it tonight.

I'm worried about our communities, right? Most of my district is townships, and most have been approached by some company or other, and nobody's ready. If your ordinances aren't up to par, you can be taken advantage of, and it's as simple as that. And you may want to establish ordinances that will never let them anywhere near you. And that's your call, right? You should be able to make that decision when you're trying to give people enough warning to do that, right? And even if you do want to bring them in, you still want your ordinances to be up to par so that you benefit from whatever it is that you hope to get from them. Ultimately, we will get taxes from them. There's a bill that passed, some of us voted no on, to keep them from giving them tax breaks. They are the richest companies in the world. I would never give them a tax break ever. But aside from that, it's up to you all to decide if you want this big thing in your community, if you can benefit by it. And so the first thing is to be able to protect yourself, to be able to say no if that's the answer for you. And maybe it's not even a question for you if you don't have a place to do it. By the way, if you can use old pavement, rock on, you know.

Well, but the only thing, it's old debate practice. Establish the case for need. Identify the optimum locations. And we're sitting here tonight and those things have not been done. Well, thank you. So you acknowledge that. I appreciate you. I love your intellectual honesty. I appreciate your intellectual knowledge. But the case for need and the optimum locations, they're not on the table.

Well, so what we're not doing, you might have noticed, you know, we ran into challenges with siting in clean energy, right? And people did not like the idea that we were telling them where windmills and big solar farms were going to go, right? In this circumstance, no one is telling you you need to have a data center because we decided that. What we're saying is get ready, decide what you want to do, make sure you include all the information you can get your hands on to make the right decision for your community. And we will set regulation on them to make sure they don't do anything really terrible like burn up all your aquifers. I mean, that's one of the things that's happening in other states. We're going to do that part. to do the protection pieces. And if you see more things that we also need to do, y'all can call anytime, but we're trying to, right now we're just trying to inform, really trying to inform.

I'd like to correct the record. I misspoke. It's Van Buren Township. So if you'd be kind enough to, Van Buren Township and Saline are getting very large, data centers. And Van Buren Township is just about seven miles south of here.

And they're really excited.

Yeah, Van Buren is inviting them in.

I think that people that are Studying and the commentators on the issue, including yourself, have done a very good job identifying what the problems and the challenges are, but we need solutions because everybody wants the applications that run in these data centers, and it's gonna come. I use AI tools every day, and they gotta go somewhere.

Well, what we're gonna do, what we're trying to do is, you know, so Van Buren's really excited They see benefits, they have a strong community benefit agreement. They are excited to invite them in. In Benton Harbor, they really want to have one. I mean, it makes a lot of sense for some communities. We just now at this point trying to help everybody make their own decision. What we don't want is for you to be surprised, that's all. So we'll do the best we can at getting the word out. We're gonna do the best we can about regulating the parts that we should be regulating. You do your part. We do our part. Everybody's happy in the end, something like that. That's the goal. Every community is different. If you've got space, maybe this is the right thing to do. Celine is not happy. Van Buren is thrilled. Perfect examples right there.

All right. We'll get the road map.

Click on. So yeah, we can talk any time. We'll keep you posted. And you can see the bills. It's here in that paper I sent you. But we'll have more. We're going to keep at this because it's important. And right now, I think the data showed that over 90% of the people in the world are using AI. You don't always know it, but every time you search, every time you shop, almost anything you do online now, There's AI behind there. And people are using it at work all the time. Companies are making decisions based on AI. I mean, it's a ton of things that we don't know is happening around us. So we do have to get used to it, learn how to use these tools effectively, do the best we can to protect our people.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Any other comments from the audience? Come up to the podium.

One mic usually, and then we have three, so that's kind of fun.

Stacey Wormine.

I think I never come to these meetings expecting to talk, and once in a while I do. But I appreciate, Senator, the information, appreciate the discussion. My question, I guess, comes back to the Board. It wasn't terribly clear and maybe a missed conversation about where Plymouth Township might be positioning itself relative to data centers in the community. And if you guys haven't shared that with the residents, it'd be great to kind of understand the position.

The input from McKenna, it wasn't,

terribly clear as to whether or not you were gonna give us a, hey, here's how I would do it if you want to, here's how to avoid it if you don't want to. I do realize that we have a master plan review tomorrow for the community to look at. You were talking, Senator, about ordinances, local ordinances and zoning. How does that fit into the master plan draft that we're gonna be looking at tomorrow Is it going to be evident to the community where potential data centers might be thrust upon us or invited in? Really think that's important to our community. We've had a lot of discussion over the years about keeping our community and the character of our community. Data centers certainly will influence that and I would hate to be Celine and have one shoved on us if we don't want it. Community benefits to me are nice wrapping paper and I don't necessarily believe that it should be the full selling point for a project to our community. So anyway, I'd appreciate hearing any comments that you guys might have as to where you think from the township is going related to data centers here. Thank you.

We have an 18 month moratorium on them. to give us an opportunity and the Planning Commission and the Township Board to work on revisions in ordinances and zoning ordinance as well to protect the community from the type of thing that you discussed, having somebody just come in and say, and we really do not have any large land parcels that would equate to a Saline or one of those other communities, but that's where we are right now.

Am I to interpret that as a, we prefer not to have them, or we absolutely don't want them, or the Sheldon Road plant could be a place, and if we don't protect that with a certain zoning, that we could be in a difficult position?

The plan with the changes in the ordinance is to protect us from having to deal with those issues.

Okay, I'm hoping, and this is all new. I'm a never say never kind of person, but at this point in time, there's been, difficulties in other states with water tables being depleted and people having to dig new wells, noise issues, those kinds of things, it's new. I'd love to protect some township for a period of time like you're talking about with the moratorium, but then at some point as these things scale whatever, maybe we learn enough that it makes sense, but at this point in time, I'd love to be protected enough that we could at some point change our mind if we wanted to.

Treasurer Doris Shevitz pointed out at one of our meetings that we're all using data centers. Reality is that we are, but there's a difference between the hyperscale, like we just discussed, and a data center in a business. So the purpose behind the moratorium and our work on the planning commission with the planners is to prevent the hyperscales because we don't have adequate land, but also to make sure that our ordinances will protect whatever position the Board ultimately takes.

I appreciate the conversation on it and the feedback. Thank you. I think the newest news about the noise nearby is just stunning. I think that would be, I think it could be suicidal to some people, honestly, if you're living nearby. I just hate to see new surprises as these these come online that we can't even conceive of today. And I'd love to be kind of a late adopter if we want to be an adopter is all I guess. So thank you very much for your time.

So Liz, tomorrow for the open house, I recommend that we have, or want to have something, maybe we have a, DATA CENTER DISCUSSION OR SOMETHING, THINK OF SOMETHING CREATIVE SO WE CAN EXTRACT SOME INFORMATION OR MAYBE IMPART SOME DATA. ANYONE ELSE HAVE ANY PUBLIC COMMENTS? NO? ALL RIGHT. BOB DOROSHAVIC, ANY BOARD COMMENTS? CAN I GO LAST? YOU WANT TO GO LAST, OKAY. JEN BUGLEY.

NO COMMENT.

Sandy Grove.

Nothing, thank you.

Kim Gatica.

Just a few things related to the upcoming election. So last Wednesday, we received a letter from Risen Christ Lutheran Church requesting that the township remove all the equipment in the storage room and the absentee ballot drop box located at the church by this Wednesday, June 24th. And so I just wanted to give a shout out and special thanks to our Department of Public Services and Public Works for helping us to relocate the absentee ballot drop box so swiftly and efficiently. It is still located on the west side of the township at the Department of Public Works Recycling Center, located on 4655 Port Street here in Plymouth. And then the other item I wanted to just let our voters know is that by this Thursday, June 25th, we have to mail out roughly around 9,000 absentee ballots And so we've had a lot of people coming and going in and out of the township hall to help prepare that mailing. But you should be receiving, for those that have requested or are on the permanent absentee ballot list, your absentee ballot sometime in the next several days here. And then lastly, households should be receiving, hopefully this week, a notice that was sent out about the new early voting location, which will take place here. in this room starting July 25th through August 1st. And if you want more information about the early voting, feel free to check out our website under the Clerk's Department, the Elections tab.

That's it. Mark? I'm good. All set.

John? Three things, please. I'm asking and demanding full disclosure that when it comes to issues that I vote on. Full disclosure. Today's business, Detroit Cranes Magazine. Betting on everything. Gambling facilities and data centers. Secondly, on a little lighter note, but just as serious, I got an email just before I came here from St. Mary's and Henry Ford Hospital. Emergencies galore. Injuries from e-bikes, joggers, and walkers. It's that time of year. Concussions, broken bones. Can we be proactive, Chief Nytel, and issue something out there encouraging to be safe, to be cautious, to be healthy in their activities outdoors. Be proactive. E-bikes, joggers, and walkers are having emergencies galore. According to St. Mary's Hospital and Henry Ford Hospital, the emergency rooms are open. Not everyone is as wise. as the gentleman sitting in the back of the room whose wife exercises in a swimming pool with my wife at PARC and this past week doing water aerobics and working up their cardio, she turned to my wife and said, well, you know, my son is Jimmy Nytel. So that's smart, wise exercise and safe in a swimming pool. So it's summertime and we need to be smart. So I want to encourage you to enjoy our 4th of July celebrations, our patriotic celebration. concerts in Kellogg Park. One is Thursday night and one is Saturday night. And there will be, you know, there'll be over 800 people there, honestly speaking. So, but let's do it safely and wisely in the way we exercise and the way we enjoy our outdoors. Thank you very much.

All right, the sidewalk repair program begins this upcoming Monday. It's delayed a little bit. They're going to start with saw cutting. And we think it's going to take six weeks. A.G., A.N.G. Construction is the contractor. We've never worked with them, but they appear to be well-equipped. And we expect that the project will be done by mid-August, the late August, and mid-September, that all of the open items will be handled. And then we want to invoice in plenty of time for people to make a decision on their payment so it doesn't have to go on their tax roll or tax bill if they don't want it. So the next item is the you probably noticed that and of a road westbound the right lane is closed. Unfortunately, we are building a sidewalk under the railroad. It is part of the Plymouth walk project And that will take probably 12 weeks of closure, hopefully no more. And then the township offices will be closed for Friday, July 3rd, but trash pickup will be unchanged. So if you have a Friday pickup, it will be Friday, July 3rd. Reminder that tomorrow is the open house for master plan, and yes, your comments are still being taken. I know it said the 22nd. It says the 25th now. Yeah, we changed it. Yeah. So it's much more logical. We never intended to cut it off before the open house, and we added the open house kind of after we set, definitely after we set that date. So the 4th of July parade, is there anybody on the board that plans to walk in that parade? I will. Anybody else? Okay, so we have two. Three?

I don't know.

You're a maybe? All right. Just show up. You can show up at the last minute. It doesn't matter. Anybody can show up at the last minute. So hopefully you will. 250 years. Okay. We have a motion.

Oh, yeah. You got to go. Sorry. So I wanted to let the board know that I am making plans. I am to intend to retire at the end of the year, either end of December, early January in that timeframe. I wanted to let the board know early and now the public will know because I want to, that'll give us six months to really search for the right replacement and we ought to do that and I really want to make this transition right. There's a lot of good ways we can do that and we can find a candidate that the board can get behind and not have a rough situation on our hands. So that's it.

All right. I hope the process for your successor is 100% different than it was for our clerk. And I, you know, I didn't put on record that, and she didn't put it in her resume. And I, we've had a talk about that. Uh, Kim Gaidicke worked with Congressman Fred Upton. She worked with state Senator Tanya Shoemaker, and she worked with judge Charles Lasada. And Rosemary will tell you, those are all very respectable Republicans who can think independently and aren't afraid of the words, intellectual honesty. when you start talking about Congressman Upton. Well, Kim has a track record of working with them. And I didn't take her to breakfast. And don't plan to. But let's, you know, Sandy went through H-E double.

I'd like to encourage no one on this board to apply for the position unless you want to go through what I did.

You have something you want to say. If you do, you got to come. I'm making an exception. You get to go up there.

Not common.

Mary Tabarazzi, could Clerk Gaidica please repeat the address of the new location? It happened so fast I couldn't get my pen going.

It's 46555 Port Street.

Port.

P-O-R-T. It's right off of Beck Road, just before USA Hockey, and I think Child Time is right there.

It's east of Beck Road and north of the railroad.

There's an announcement or publication that'll go out about that?

Yeah, we're working on updating the website as well as the e-newsletter. Thank you, clerk.

And you'll get a notice in your mailbox, hopefully this week.

About the early voting change.

About early voting, but not where the new boxes.

Because that just moved. That just moved as of Friday. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, we have a motion for adjournment.

I make a motion we adjourn. Second.

We have a second. Second.

We just do voice vote, right?

Yeah.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Motion passes. Meeting adjourned at 8.

No, 7.

Yeah, 7.47.