City Council - Regular Meeting

Let's begin. Almighty God, as we celebrate the resurrection season, may we share with each other the joy the risen Christ has won for us. Clothe us with the weapon of light and unite us under the banners of love and understanding. Help us, oh Lord, to to love what is perfect, so that way we mean we may we may neither speak what is evil nor do what is wrong. Let us stand in your sight and celebrate the Father's love and his justice. Allow us now to follow you with our whole hearts. Grant us, oh Lord, the wisdom to do what is right and just for the citizens of our city. Help us to never stray from the power that you have put before us. continue to guide us down the path to eternal life and to be righteous men and women of faith. And we ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, your son. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. All right, we've got five proclamations to read this morning. If I could have everyone that is with SISD, the differencemaker day, please come forward. Y'all, y'all can get a little closer. The shot's not that close. Y'all need to be in the center. Perfect. St. Angelo Independent School District educators and staff impact the future of St. Angelo daily through their care for dedication and commitment to the children of our city. Their impact begins the moment a child steps on a bus, walks through the school door, is fed a nourishing breakfast and lunch, and continues throughout the day until the last bell and beyond. Educators and the entire St. Angela ISD team make a difference in each child's life and with over 12,000 students this is incredible impact on our community. Today we acknowledge the special commitment of our San Angel ISD educators and the staff have on the well-being of our children. They provide a relevant and

inspiring education that prepares future ready graduates. These graduates may one day care for your loved ones as a nurse or a doctor at a local hospital. They'll address cyber security threats that impact our community. They'll create beautiful artwork and music for others to enjoy or go on to teach the next generation of St. Angeloans. At St. Angelo ISD, they often say, "Our people make the difference." And today, we honor the St. Angelo difference makers, those who inspire and prepare our students and support their hopes and dreams. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of San Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, and together with the San Angelo Independent School District, do hereby recognize May 8, 2026 as SISD difference maker day. and thank all SISD educators and staff for their dedicated service to our students and families and urge all citizens to acknowledge the occasion of the day. [applause] A moment for word. Thank you, Mayor Thompson and council members. And uh thank you uh public for being here. It's our joy to serve our community and we know that uh when those students come through our doors, we love to care for them. We see them as a person of value and we see each student as gifted. Every kid is gifted in our district. We just have to find out what their gift is and help them pursue that. So, thank you for supporting our community. We know that the 5.4 4 million students in Texas who are publicly educated uh are important for us to educate and do well. And so we're working very diligently in the district to do just that. So, thank you, mayor. Thank you, council members, for the opportunity to be here today. And thank you

Anybody with motorcycle awareness, please come We're not doing the photo yet. I'm just going to read the proclamation and then we'll have chance to do the photo.

Absolutely. Awesome. I'm glad you're right here. I'm glad you're right here. I want to make sure they know why.

I'm with you. Okay. Ponder Rosa's MC as a member of the Texas Council of Clubs and Independent Writers with support from the National Safety Council, Tex DOT, and local motorcycle enthusiasts throughout the area would like to remind all local road and highway travelers that the month of May is nationally recognized and designated as motorcycle awareness month. During this time, motorists are reminded of all the seasonal return and greater frequency of motorcycle enthusiast Texas roadways. Due to the smaller size of motorcycles in comparison to other vehicles, motorcycles are often easily ignored and overlooked in regular traffic flow. This is why all motorists are encouraged to look twice for motorcycles at intersections, when performing lane changes, whenever passing other vehicles, including other motorcycles, or just when generally traveling near motorcycles. Also, motorcyclists are encouraged to operate their motorcycles in a defensive manner that is within the laws and regulations of the respective roads being traveled, respectively. all motors to motorcyclists are equally encouraged to look twice as they drive or ride both during motorcycle awareness month and throughout the year so that we can all promote safety in the end and in the streak of accidents, injuries, and deaths on our Texas roads. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim May as motorcycle awareness month in St. Angelo, Texas, and encourage everyone to share the road safety while remembering to look twice for motorcycles. Absolutely. Set that on.

Ladies and gentlemen, council members, Mr. Mayor, good morning. My name is Gypsy Sedna. On behalf of motorcyclists in our community and all across the country, I want to thank you for the opportunity this morning to share with you one of the most important days I look forward to each year by receiving this proclamation recognizing that May is National Motorcycle Awareness Month. For the last several years, I've had the great honor and privilege to stand here and remind our local community that those of us who choose to ride motorcycles are just like everyone else. We all want to return home safely from any destination we set out upon. Whether it be to work, school, appointments, errands, trips, or for wherever we set out, we always want to return home safely. We are all daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, friends to others. And we all want what everyone wants, to make it safely back to our families and homes at the end of our rides. This is a this is a consideration that so many who choose to drive in a four-w wheeled vehicle often forget. So we ask you when you're doing when you're doing your driving, when you're out on those roads, please look twice for us and share the road with all vehicles.

anyone with the historic preservation month just your first debut. You'll have several historic preservation month was first recognized as an annual week-long celebration in 1973 commemorating preservation preserving progress and the benefits associated with such efforts. The National Trust for Historic Preservation late extend later extended the celebration to a full month in 2005 to provide an even greater opportunity to honor the diverse and unique heritage of our country, cities, and states. As the United States marks its 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, this year's Preservation Month invites us to reflect on the places that bring its enduring promise to life. A promise that all people are created equal. It is time to celebrate our historic sites, neighborhoods, and landmarks that tell the full American story and to recognize the ongoing work of preservationists to ensure these places endure for future generations. In our city, downtown San Angelo Incorporated works to revitalize and preserve our historic downtown while keeping people at the heart of every effort. Through the Main Street four-point approach, including design, economic restructuring, organization, and promotion, the organization supports local businesses, celebrates community traditions, and protects the character that makes downtown unique. With over 20 years invested in San Angelo's rich history, Downtown St. Angelo Incorporated has helped guide thoughtful growth and transformation while ensuring the story, space, and sense of place that define our community continue to thrive. Safeguarding historic parts of our city like Fort Koncho, the Roosevelt Lofts, and historic Block One in ways that continue to grow with our community's need is exactly what this month is about. Recognizing the beauty of living life and laughing on the same streets as our ancestors while learning from their lessons allow us for progress that continues to shape St. Angelo today and the stories that define us.

Preservation connects our past and future in a way that benefits every citizen and local business both culturally and economically by strengthening community identity and supporting continued growth. It is through these places and people that fill them that we find connection, inspiration, and a shared sense of belonging. A promise that our past will present that our past and present will guide us together hand in hand toward a better future for all. Therefore, I Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of St. Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council to hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as historic preservation month in St. Angelo, Texas and urged the community to celebrate and recognize the importance of preserving and revitalizing the places that tell our story and shape our legacy for generations to come. Monica

Hi, good morning. I'm Monica Ramos, the director of downtown St. Angelo. Uh this time of year is all about remembering the buildings and all the stories and the streets all around us that are a part of our past, but they're also a part of us today. Preservation isn't just about a bunch of old buildings. It's about strengthening our sense of pride in our community. It's about supporting our local businesses and it's about having something for future generations to enjoy and look back and reminisce on. So whether you're out shopping or you're attending an event or you're just appreciating history, you're doing your part in helping St. Angelo stay alive and stay thriving. So um thank you for being a part of that story and thank you for celebrating Historic Preservation Month with us. for those with the mental health awareness month. Want to come forward center stage again. That's a good thing. Mental health awareness month observed each May provides an important opportunity to increase public understanding of mental health conditions, reduce stigma and discrimination, and highlight the value of prevention, treatment, and recovery supports. Mental health is an essential component of overall health and well-being. It supports an individual's ability to think clearly, maintain

relationships, remain productive, adapt to change, and manage life's challenges. Mental illness affects people of all ages, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Each year approximately one in five adults experiences a mental health condition and one in 20 adults experiences serious mental health illness illness. Mental health conditions like physical health conditions can significantly impact an individual's quality of life, employment, family relationships and community involvement. They should be addressed with the same care, compassion, and importance as physical illness. Yet, despite the availability of effective treatments, nearly 60% of adults nationwide do not receive the mental health care they need. Open dialogue, education, and understanding are critical to reducing stigma and ensuring that individuals feel supported and empowered to seek help. Organizations such as MH, excuse [clears throat] me, organizations such as MHMR Contra Valley along with community partners play a vital role in providing services, education, and advocacy for individual and families living with mental health illness in the city of San Angelo. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of San Angelo, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proudly proclaim the month of May 2026 as mental health awareness month. Mental wellness is a shared responsibility, and every resident has a role in supporting prevention efforts, strengthening access to care, and creating a passionate community where no one feels alone. Thank you, mayor, and thank you, city council. And just thank you to the city of our partnership and friendship uh with supporting MHMR and our mission uh to f to assist folks with u mental health issues. um either that through clinical issues, uh clinical supports, excuse me, case management, um crisis supports and things maybe like at um it's like social rehab in the clubhouse. You know, for 60 years, MHMR has been

trying to support our community and I've been an honor to be part of that. Um so, thank you very much and I'm gonna let Amy say a few words.

Thank you, Greg. Um just I just wanted to say the mental health community in St. Angelo is a powerful network of people who um we're not we're all busy with St. Angelo Gibbs today which is why there's not more of us here but um but the the people of in St. Angelo who support mental health do amazing things in making sure that nobody thinks nobody's alone in their struggle. And if you feel like you're alone in your struggle, please reach out to if you you can either call 988, the suicide awareness hotline, or you can call MHMR's crisis hotline. Um, St. Angelo Clubhouse is a community of people who understand mental illness, and there are many other amazing organizations in our community that also support. So, please don't struggle alone. Community Action Month. If anybody's with that cause, come on down. Brought your contingent. It's a whole team. Well, who missed? No, some of y'all stay up front. Some of y'all stay up front. Sandy, please.

That's why I don't want you in the back. All right. I want you up front. Francis, can I go? [laughter]

All right. Establishes a part of Linda B. Johnson's war on poverty through the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act, community action agencies have provided essential services to addresses and alleviate the causes and conditions of poverty for our community's most vulnerable neighbors. Founded in 1966, Concho Valley Community Action Agency has a six decade history of providing assistance and promoting self-sufficiency for citizens of limited income across 11 counties in the Concho Valley. Contra Valley Community Action Agency has been serving communities through impactful services such as access to safe housing, financial empowerment and education, reducing energy burden with energy savings and utility payment programs, advocacy, and contributing to the economic vitality of the Concho Valley. With a mission of helping people and changing lives, Concho Valley Community Action Agency has helped to make our region a better place to live, work, and play. Community Action changes people's lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community and our and are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other. The month is recognized nationally as community action month to raise awareness of the importance work of the important work being done to empower individuals, strengthen families, and build resilient communities. Community Action Agencies plays a role vital in helping communities respond to economic challenges, natural and human-made disasters, and public health crisis while fostering long-term stability and opportunity. Therefore, I, Tom Thompson, mayor of the city of San Angela, Texas, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim mayor, excuse me, May 2026 as community action month in St. Angelo, Texas, and encourage all residents to recognize and support the importance work of Control Valley Community Action Agency. I I want to add a brief comment here. I got a call not long ago on a Friday night at 4:30. A lady in a family in need. This group picked up the phone on a Friday night at 4:30.

Others didn't. So, I just want to say when it comes time to ask for the people to do what you need them to do, y'all's group is one of the best. With that, Mike, I'll turn it over to you,

mayor, council members. Thank you. This proclamation matters because community action isn't a slogan or a theory, a theory. It's work. And it's work that's been happening in this community for 60 years. And community action, we live by a simple promise. Community action changes people's lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other. That's not poetry or slogan. That's our job description. Community Action Month gives us a chance to pause and recognize the work and to remind ourselves why it exists in the first place. CVCIA is part of the Texas Association of Community Action Agencies and the National Community Action Partnership. With over a thousand community action agencies nationwide, we cover every county of Texas and the United States. And I couldn't be prouder of our CVCAA team here. Every day they show up to do the work, ready to help those in crisis move towards stability. They are true rock stars. They do the work by offering services, walking alongside people in need, and helping neighbors move towards stability. And when crisis turns into disaster, this same team shows up. We were there on July 4th when the flooding hit, and we're still there working with families and individuals as recovery continues. That's who we are. Last June, CVCAA brought the Contro Valley Rock Community Campus Conversation into the open. Rock Rose represents the belief that people are not the problem. Systems are. And when we fix systems, people do the rest. The Rockrose campus is not an idea. It's not a report on a shelf. It's a place. A place where someone who is sleeping outside can have a door that locks. A place where having a mailing address means that you can apply for a job. A place where not just our homeless, but our low-income and Alice population can find help. A place where housing, healthcare, job training, and case management finally work together instead of sending people from office to office just to survive. Here in the Concho Valley, we know the need. We see

neighbors one flat tire away from crisis, one medical bill away from homelessness. We see people doing everything right and still falling through the cracks. Rockrose exists to close those cracks. And it's important to say that Rockse is local. It's not just CBCAA. It is built by partner or organizations and local agencies supported by local partners. And it will succeed only if the community continues to show up. That's what community action month is really about. Not just recognition, but responsibility. It's a reminder that solving poverty and homelessness is not the work of one agency or one city department. It takes all of us. If we can come together after floods and fires, if we can coordinate disaster response across multiple counties, then we can come together for the slow disaster of poverty and homelessness that's been with us all along. Rockse is the long game, and we're ready for it. So today, we accept this proclamation with gratitude and with commitment to keep doing the work, to keep building systems that work better, and to keep the promise of community action right here, right now. Thank you. [clears throat]

Yeah. Hold this. Rose, you want to hold that? or Sandy can hold it since you're home.

Got your wide angle in At this point in time, we'll move into public comment. Members of the public may raise issues or concerns not listed on the regular agenda during this time. To participate, please sign in with the city clerk prior to the beginning of the meeting. Speakers will be called in the order they signed in. When speaking, citizens must speak from the podium. Address all comments to the dis. Begin by stating your name and address or single member district number and limit the remarks to three minutes or less. Heather, let's begin public comment.

Roger Jackson. Well, my name is Mark Jackson um or Roger Marcus Jackson. I live in single M member district 5. Mayor and city council members, I come before you today to ask you to clarify for the citizens of St. Angelo the amount of electricity emerging its AI data center campus will consume. In the past, information released by the city identified it as a 650 megawatt facility. However, right now, the homepage of America emergent data centers at emergent datacenters.com and a linked brochure regarding the St. Angelo campus identify it as a 1.2 gawatt facility. Assuming the average annual household consumption of 10,000 kilwatt hours, 1.2 gawatt is enough to power over 1 million homes. To generate that kind of power would require, according to the US Department of Energy, over 300 wind turbines, over 2 million solar panels, or a larger than average nuclear power plant. This project was initially described as being no different from a Home Depot or no bigger than a Home Depot. Similarly, some citizens have argued that we already have data centers like this one in town. But old-fashioned data centers or server rooms, if we want to call them that, at ASU, Shannon, or the Frontier Building are not the same as the new hypers scale facilities like that provided by proposed by emergent. The new AI data center campus would consume as much power as over 1 million homes and dwarf 20 home depots. This council owes it to the citizens to level with them. What kind of energy consumption has our city agreed to or

just what is the truth? Is it what the city has told us in the past or is it what the website of emergent data centers tells us now? Thank you for your time. Thank you, Roger. Ann Joseph. Ann Joseph.

Good morning. My name is Anne Joseph. I reside in SMD number two. I wish to speak to you today on a matter that is not on today's agenda, but it is a matter that was looked at at the last city council meeting, but then it was tabled. It was a request for a reasonzoning from single family home to low-rise multif family units, and it was tabled pending the presentation of solid plans by the owner of the six lots with the address of 620 East 43rd. This was identified as PD 26-01. In anticipation of this matter possibly being reviewed by the city council at some point in the future, I would like to underscore several aspects relevant to the concerns of individuals in the neighborhood who are against resoning to low-rise multif family units, but who are four affordable single family homes built on the six lots in question. Number one, when planning the location of a multif family housing development, it is repeatedly recommended for such a development to be within walking distance of stores, as was done with the choosing of the location for the Kirby Park Villas, which are across the street from the north Walmart. The preeminent strategy of having multif family units within walking distance of stores cannot be applied to the location of the six lots at 620 East 43rd because there are no stores within reasonable walking distance of the six lots in question. Number two, if you were to approve a resoning of the six lots to a zoning for low-rise multif family units, it would ultimately bring down the future value of single family homes already established in the neighborhood. Number three, if you want families with children to take advantage of the proximity of this location to schools in the neighborhood, then you will make sure that the neighborhood remains zoned for single family homes and you will support the ongoing development of a single family homes in the area because statistics compiled by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies show that a much higher

percentage of families with children choose to live in new single family home rentals as opposed to new multif family units. Number four, and then there's the matter of the proponents of this resoning request, as presented on paper at the last city council meeting, choosing to include plans to have short-term rentals. Short-term rentals definitely do not fall in alignment with the vision for the area, which is neighborhood. My grandfather, who served in Europe during World War I, used to say, "There are some people who, if you give them an inch, they will take a mile." Please do not budge a single inch on this matter. Please keep our neighborhood zoned for single family homes. Keep in mind that we are supportive of affordable single family homes being built on the six lots in question. Thank you very much, Ali Deo. Alli Deo. Um, while I do not reside in the city limits, I do business in the city, have property in the city. I do live about a mile from the proposed skybox site. Um, we all know the air has been cleared regarding the council having signed NDAs or not having signed NDAs. However, this does not close the case on the concerns in the community about public officials signing non-disclosure agreements. The use of NDAs and economic development deals violate a fundamental principle of local democracy, which is that a community should be able to provide input concerning the use of public resources and receive information that allows for the evaluation of the work of

elected officials and public servants. By hiding the details of economic development deals, NDAs prevent this flow of information and democratic feedback. Moreover, NDAs strategically prevent public push back from gaining momentum prior to critical votes by elected officials regarding projects like hypers scale data centers. The problem we have here is that while no one elected to city council has signed an NDA, I do believe the vice president of economic development for the Chamber of Commerce has. and y'all are depending on him as one of your main adviserss for the project. I've also heard that the county judge has signed an NDA and possibly one of the assistant city managers. These are all primary adviserss on economic development that you obtain the bulk of your information from and their role is to give clear data driven recommendations that help this council make informed decisions grounded in real operational constraints and community needs and their legitimacy comes from their transparency. So you up there on the dis are supposed to be the interface between the public and the city management ensuring that your constituents are being represented in the business of the city. So to say we have not signed NDAs while relying on information from people who have and then taking that limited information to be sufficient enough to promote and defend and move a massive hyperscale data center project forward is negligent to your duties as public servants. Nowhere in this country do we have a greater lack of guardrails than we do in the state of Texas. And we all know this is why we are being targeted to build out this infrastructure all over the

state. And we need you as elected officials to not just take your advisors at face value, especially if they have signed non-disclosure agreements. We need you to be asking the tough questions and doing the deep digging that will protect the people of this community and not simply dismiss the citizens who are doing that. Thank you so much. ANTONIO MARTINEZ. MORNING, Mayor and Council. I am Antonio Martinez, resident of SMD4. Uh, I'm here this morning to once again state my opposition to the Skybox emergent data center project and any future data centers down the line. Uh I think it's important that uh the rest of you take this on as well. Um now is not the time to force through something with little to no regulation or enforcement mechanisms and brings no real long-term benefit to our working people in the city we live in. It seems to me that the position of the majority of this council is to be nothing more than stenographers for an opportunistic corporate entity. And I find that absolutely unacceptable. Up to this point, working people of this city and our neighbors have made this case to this council from many perspectives ad nauseium. All of the ne negative factors are stated to be underrepresented in current research around data centers. That's from the world resources institute. And yet we have heard about the intense consumption of water. Supposed closed loop systems aren't a magic fix. Health risks, pollution of the air and water, energy grid strain, cost increases, noise, light pollution, e-waste, and the list goes on. But still, our working people have been ignored and even ridiculed. The best our city's people can get to address our concerns is a prefab prefabricated Q&A that amounts to nothing more than a shameless attempt to gaslight us. If the case for this being good for the city of St. Angelo was that

strong, it would stand on its own legs without the smoke and mirrors. I saw that evening as a disservice to the very people you are supposed to represent, even if they didn't vote for you. So, I ask you simply, who is this for? Because it's not for our neighbors on the farms and ranches and their crops and livestock with which those working neighbors make their livelihoods possible. It isn't for the elderly that live on fixed incomes and are facing a possible future where they can no longer afford to live out their later years. It isn't for our queer community that is seeing more and more violence and hate every day as they live out their lives peacefully or try to in hostile environments. It isn't for our black, Latino, and immigrant neighbors who keep the food and culture of our city new and vibrant even though their communities are underserved. And it isn't for the working people that will have to work the stores, restaurants, hotels, and bars that may get busier while the owners pocket the profits and those workers see no guarantees that they'll be better taken care of in the process. It only seems like a concern when workers are used as props the moment it is convenient for the ownership class of this town. In fact, they might even lose money because of their wages can outpace rising costs that this would bring. So once again, I ask you, who's this for? Because it's not for us. Richard Summers. Morning. I am Richard Summers and I speak to you as a resident of SMD5. I posed five questions to the city last week and as usual I got no response. Uh and complaints abound about not getting responses from the city and yet the responses still don't come. So I'm going

to make two assumptions because people who are constituents have to make assumptions when they don't get information or clarification. The first is that the city attorney does not understand the TPIA. Let the record clearly show that the city's AG request on January 29th did not legally prohibit the flow of exempt documents for 3 months. However, and for the record, the January 29th AG request did not by itself require a pause of such nature. Secondly, I asked who ordered that pause and got no answer. So, I have to assume based on the organization, the city of St. Angelo, that it was the city attorney because it was a legal matter with the approval of the city manager. Now, if you don't believe that that's true, I think you should have answered and clarified my question. The questions were very clear. There are missing documents. Based on an ongoing review, we will provide the city clerk soon with a detailed list of additional responsive materials that appear to be missing. As soon as this assessment is complete and based on language in the response notification to me from the city, I will also forward the response email and identified missing material materials to the attorney general because the attorney general was the one said release them and for three months they weren't under somebody's order. then the record will more clearly reflect the extent to which the prior production was complete or not complete. I respectfully request that all such further responsive materials that have been identified be released, including any documents that define, support, or

relate to the zoning action in full context going all the way back to January of 2025. Since in a an environment like this, a partial record is not sufficient to understand decisions that are being made at this scale. This data center is big and we need to treat it like a monster. Maybe a benign one. I don't believe that yet, but we need to treat it as big as it is. Separately, I note that an email communication associated with the response transfer raised questions regarding tone and professional standards. I am reviewing the communication with appropriate professional oversight and I will be forwarding it to them.

And number six, council member Thomas has a comment as well.

Harry Harry Thomas, counselor for single member district 3. As senior council member both in age and tenure, I'd like to address some of the issues brought before this council over the last few months. For every hour I spend up here in the DAS, I spend about two hours reviewing background information, traveling to location, and asking questions of senior staff at the city so I can make the best decisions for the citizens of St. Angel, I know my fellow counselors do as much or more. The mayor spends more time than I do in preparation for the city council meetings. The passion displayed by some citizens these last few months on this one subject is amazing. If that same passion were displayed for the whole city of St. Angelo, there would be no shortage of volunteers or funding for all the nonprofits in town. There would also be a waiting list to fill openings on our city boards and commission. There's a process in attracting new businesses to Sanolo that may not be completely understood. When a business shows interest, then the senior leadership at the chamber will interact with those particular individuals. If any of those process prospects decides to take the next step, it will normally be discussed in the executive session for the city council. Those meetings are closed for a reason and the members attending are required to not discuss what is talked about outside of that session. If any information leaves that session, the individual relaying that information can be censured. Once a business is ready to announce they're locatedating to St. Angelo, the city will need to ensure that all things are in place before land is sold or leases are signed. In the case of data centers, we knew we did not know all we needed to know. So, we contracted with

the company to help with a master plan for the northeast area of St. Angelo. They helped make recommendations to the city on setbacks, landscaping, noise, and other items in the corridor. Those recommendations were tweaked before going to the planning commission. The planning commission made some recommendations before sending it to the city council for review and we will look at that today and possibly make some additional recommendations before we vote on it. There are some citizens that believe that the public information session held on April 22nd was the first. The Chamber of Commerce held a session on this very subject some months ago and it was attended by numerous citizens. I'm sorry if you weren't able to take advantage of that information center. I have much more to talk about, but I don't want to run out of time. So, at some future council meeting, I may address any. This is my first time in my session as a counselor that I've taken the opportunity to talk about public comment about subjects. So, you know, I'm pretty passionate about it myself. With no more public comment, we'll move into the consent agenda.

Heather, check your number. You're on the when we bring up that item on the agenda, you'll come up and do public comment on that particular item you're talking about. This was just general public comment. We had left you out. So, you've got those two. Go. All right. Now, we're going to move into the consent agenda. And as we go down this and look at the items, I will start with you, Mary, and work across the dice. Are there any items on the consent that you would like to pull? Number A. Say it again. A. Excuse me. A. Karen? No, sir. Patrick, none. Harry. B. B. Joseph?

No. Tommy? So we'll look to get a motion on all items C D E and F. Do I have a motion? So moved. I have a first from Joe. Second. Second from Tommy Heber. Is there any public comment on CD E or F? Heather.

With no public comment, we'll take a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? With no opposed. CDNF pass 70. We'll move into consent agenda item A. Consider awarding task order number 12 under Idiq contract PW123 engineering services for architectural and engineering design work [clears throat] to construct four large dog kennels buildings to freeze and nickels incorporated in an amount of $498,953 for architectural, civil, mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineering design documents and authorizing city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents. Al, you're on.

Good morning. Al Torres, construction manager, city of St. Angela, I'd be glad to answer any questions.

I don't have a question, but I just want to [clears throat] say thank you and thank God that this is finally the animal services department. There's been so much change uh change in direction, change in staff and everything. And it seems like this has been on or about to we're about to for for the last three to four years. And so, thank God. Uh, you know, we made a a a an an unpopular decision it seemed to some at the beginning when we didn't renew our contract with with pause and we had our reasons and anytime you start out on something, nothing goes according to plan. I don't care what it is. Pouring a glass of water, if you put plans to that, it's going to go wrong. Something is that. Uh, it's been a long road and people have been patient, tolerant. They've done everything that the and I'm one of them. And so being on this side, I now have an appreciation for what that process takes, but I am just so tickled to death because this has been the cornerstone that we've needed so that we can go forward with extending basic care is what you know based on someone's definition of that. There's just so many elements that have been waiting for this cornerstone. And so for you and Angela and Amanda, thank y'all for hanging in there with us because this is the first step to being to being better and being the service that St. Angelo needs and our little fur fur babies need. So I appreciate it very much and I'm excited to do this and thank you ladies. Appreciate y'all.

Thank you. I I I agree 100% and I'm I'm amazed at what Amanda and Angela and their staff are doing with what they have, but I think this is the first step to to getting them on the right track. So, and we've asked the public, you know, to hang with us and nothing goes when you get government involved in anything, it tends to take 10 times longer than it should. And that's been so so frustrating for for everyone. And so I I feel all the comments and stuff and the phone calls and I'm just I'm so grateful that we're finally getting this going in in the direction that we've been promising for many years.

We are very excited about this. Um, as you know, through conversations I've been pushing for this to process and with what Al's been doing, he's been making sure that it's done the right way and fiscally responsible for the city.

Yes. I know. And I I mean, Karen and I, you know, we've all we've all met and poured our hearts into this and it's just it's been a a thankless job I know for for you and you've been through the ringer. I know. And it's just part of it. You know, anything with animals, passionate voices rise both for and against. And being able to mitigate those and still keep get the job done is is not for the faint of heart. But I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you stuck it out. And I'm glad that we are finally Yes. And and that we are going to finally do what the citizens have been asking us to do for many years. So, we're going to get it. We're going to get it done.

All right. It may take a while, but this is the first big step. Correct. And we are right behind you. We have been from the beginning. Thank you. Thank you, Patrick. How or Amanda, do you all know a time frame when we'll actually be able to go live? According to their contract, the five months for design, seven months for construction. So, I'm looking at April next year for opening date. Okay. Thank you. Any questions down here? With that, I'll look for a motion. I have a first from Karen and a second from Mary. Any public comment on this item?

With no public comment, we'll look for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? None opposed. Consent item consent agenda item A passes 70. All right. Thank you. We'll move into B. Consider authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an amendment to the memorandum of understanding for a joint curatorial lab in storage space between the city of St. Angelo and the St. Angelo Museum of Fine Arts regarding termination provisions. Bob, you're on.

Morning, mayor, council. A we bit of background. Back in 2023, the council approved anou between the fort/ city and the art museum to finish out um unused space in the Chase State office building as a joint venture for collections, storage and work area. Uh it has been noted uh last year that there is an issue with theou that makes um it difficult for the art museum to raise long-term capital to finish this out. I'm talking about a termination clause. It is a 40-year uhou is long the longest time period that a city I'm told by the legal department can uh encumber a city property. The ter l the termination clause is making it difficult for the art museum to raise capital to get this project done. And uh I have with us today uh the director of the art museum who can more basically explain that. But it's our recommendation at the fort that this amendment be passed to thus modify theou so that the art museum can forge ahead with their plans.

Bob, does this put us put the city at any new type of risk than other what we've had before? There's no harm, no risk in moving, making this change.

Uh harm and risk are relative terms, but financially the art museum is agreeable and theou states this to pay the entire cost of the renovations in which the fort will have a share of that space. Uh in terms of utilities, they will be prrated. the fort will pay its share depending upon the percentage of the square footage that we use. I have to admit from my perspective while I'm not getting the majority of the space I am not paying a nickel for its fetish out and the space that's being discussed is right adjacent to space I already have storage. So it's a very convenient activity. I understand there are concerns uh about the 40-year commitment in any precedents, but um I'm agreeable that this is in the best interest of the fort, and I'm sure it's in the best interest of the art museum, but I would like to let Seth at the appropriate time address that and answer any of your additional questions or concerns.

Paula, thank Harry's got a comment. Yeah. Well, both of these areas are in district three. uh the museum and the fort uh state buildings. Um my only concern with this is in the tenure that I have is sitting up here in the dis which has been 10 years now. I don't recall anyou or lease agreement that has ever gone out where we didn't have uh a clause of 90 or 180 days. Rand didn't just say

so I'm not going to sit here and say there there's no MOU that doesn't have that provision but it is a pretty standard provision where especially when property is encumbered for such a long period and it's for nominal consideration um that the city would have an out to get its property back to use for public purposes. Um, in this one, it is a uh 90-day out. And what I've proposed I if if you're going to remove that, I think we can propose a couple things. One is still have a termination for default. So, um, if the museum doesn't live up to something, we're able to give them notice, give them an opportunity to cure that default, and if they don't, then we'd be able to terminate. Um, I also understand Bob's argument that, um, they want some assurance that they're not going to renovate this place and then we're just going to kick them out immediately. So, um, another suggestion might be that we have a period where within that period, they have to start the renovation, complete the renovation, however we want to word it, but it's not just open-ended for 40 years, um, where they may be able to do that. That's not in there now. So, those would be my suggestions. Bob U is a representative from the museum here that would like to

Yes. Mr. Seth Hopkins, the director of the St. Angela Museum of Fine Arts is in the front row and with your permission, may he come to the podium. Let's bring him up.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh for those of you I haven't met, um been very pleased with the welcome to here to St. Angelo and u are honored to be the new director at the uh St. Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. Uh one of the projects that I inherited is this uh storage space and work area uh that we'd be sharing with the fort. And our concern is that if we put uh a considerable amount of money relative to the museum's budget into this project and then don't have enough time to amvertise that over the life of the project that it'll be difficult to secure the funding to do the project. That's really the bottom line. Well, I I still have the concern about the the 90 180 day and I I'm going to default to Brandon and his suggestion on this and see if we can't make this work between the two parties. So, I don't want to set a precedent for a nonprofit in here and and automatically say, "Hey, you did this for the museum, but you're not doing it for us." So, let's see if we can make this work. Uh so from my perspective, I just assume we table this until uh we can uh rectify that language and get it back and bring it back to the council the next next meeting.

That certainly makes sense from our standpoint. Council, Seth, hold on a minute. Let's make sure everybody think Patrick's got some questions. Let's keep going. Seth, do you have a nice to meet you? Welcome. Do you have a approximate scope of how much y'all going to be looking to spend? Uh the quotes that I have seen uh from previous u administrations were a little over a million dollars.

Um I I think we all understand your um issue with the 9 days cuz absolutely and I don't think that's anybody's intention. But removing it completely on a 40-year lease at a dollar a year, there's not going to be much default happen on a dollar a year. They can I'm sure they can come up with that. So I I think I'm with Harry as well. I think we need to table it and try to come up with a um a better outcome for both of us so that there we do have something in the next 40 years where if there is an issue we can take it back if need be. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you have direction, I mean, I'm

either way, I'm happy to bring back the exact language for you to prove the exact agreement or if you have direction, I mean, I feel pretty confident I can um go with that direction and and draft that language and proceed uh with the city manager's oversight, of course. But, however, however you'd like to do it. I mean, if we want to do a term whereby they have to start the re renovation and then or complete it or both and so long as they meet that then they have um like a no uh termination for convenience clause after that happens um we could do that or I mean we can get creative with it. So

So Brandon, I think what I've heard here is request a table um and and basically look at a term for a default Mhm. or basically a renovation period time clause in there. So Tommy input

just take that one step further in my opinion. Why don't we have uh if you're going to bring it back, I I would say under with oversight of of city manager um and then with negotiation with Seth and his folks, something to the effect of what you just stated, Brandon, that that would be my preference rather than um harming them and their ability to raise funds, but also protecting the city as well. Right. Absolutely. We'll do that. Okay. So, at this point, Seth, thank you very much for your questions. Anybody else have any other questions? So, at this point, um, I'll make a motion to table this item. Can I get a second?

Second. First and a second. Any public comment? Thank you. No public comment. All those in favor of table deciding item with the direction given to Brandon for look at term for default renovation periods is oversight from the city manager say I. I.

Any opposed? Item B is tabled 70. Minute to line up notes. Now we'll move into the regular agenda. Comments regarding items on the regular agenda may be made by the public when each item is discussed as outlined above. To participate, please sign in with the city clerk prior to the beginning of the meeting. Speakers will be called in the order they are signed in. Comments are limited to less than three minutes. Applicants, proponents, and appellants are exempt from the time limit above and instead must limit their remarks to less than five minutes. Start with agenda item A, presentation of the downtown St. Angelo Incorporated by annual report. Presentation made by DSA Executive Director Monica Ramos.

Monica, you're on.

Okay, I'm starting off this presentation with this photo here, these two photos. Take a close look at them. Um, the one on the right is a photo from 2007 and the photo on the left is a present- day photo. And so this just shows all of our community revitalization efforts just coming together with each project, with each event programming, and with all the new businesses. Um, you see the difference of the street poles, the difference that they make, the vibrancy in the banners and the buildings themselves. Um it's a much different look today than it was back then in 2007. So we really see our downtown coming to life and our reinvestment dollars show us that impact with new construction um rehabilitation. And so in 2025 to close the year because I haven't seen y'all since last year with my report. Um there were 30 private properties sold with nine projects with rehabilitation or new construction and two public projects. And so we see those numbers there. um they go up and they go down. Um but I think we're already off to a good start for 2026. Along with reinvestment data reports that we report to you to the city of St. Angelo as well as to the Main Street program, we also collect data on sales and mixed beverage tax. And what this report gives us is the economic overlook of St. Angelo, our central business district, which is basically our downtown area, and then our main street, which expands a little bit further, and that was what was in this map here. This is our main street district. So, it's a little bit bigger than the shaded blue area in the center, which is the central business district. Um, beverage tax and sales tax is important to our city because that's the local spending that goes on the retail and the dining and of course the entertainment. and that funding goes in to help grow and improve our city. So these numbers

are very important to track and to pay close attention to. And so as you see on the graph on the left, you see that St. Angelo overall is doing much better for 2025 over 2024. So that was a great plus for us last year to have that 4% increase. And then the chart on the right is a breakdown of that Main Street and Central Business District because I understand it's a little bit hard to see on that left side. So, we zoomed up on the right side and what that breakdown shows us is that with mixed beverage, St. Angelo's best performing months were in April and December and then Main Street's best performing months were in April and December as well last year. And the central business district did well in September and December. For sales tax dollars, St. Angelo's top months were in February and in May. And Main Street had its best months in February and May as well. and then central business district in January and February. So, we're able to see um which months perform better, which are lower, and we can maybe make assumptions about what's bringing that revenue into our city during those time frames. And so, from 2026's numbers, I don't quite have those um all collected for the sales tax data because I don't have February and March. That's why I didn't present those to you on the screen today. Um, but for mixed beverage, I can already see across the board that that's an increase as compared to last year. So that's already doing well. With the TEI program, this is a city of St. Angelo's tax increment reinvestment program where property owners within this zone can apply for funding to go towards improvement projects. And so it's greatly benefited not just downtown, but even the northern part of St. Angel's Commercial Business District. And so the chart on the left shows that we've had an increase in applicants and awarded projects in the

north and in the south through the TEI program over time. And we'll continue to do our part in raising awareness about the TEI program. We've set out yard signage and put out um window signage for properties that have received TEI funding and were approved. Um we'll continue more marketing efforts especially in the north zone because there is a large amount of funding that's available to property owners in the north to utilize. Um and these photos here on the right depict before and after. And so what you see is that even the smallest thing like the first photo of 112 West 2 the awning and then just updating the door and the window space has made a big difference in the overall look and appeal of this property. but it also impacts the look and the appeal of the neighborhoods, the surrounding neighborhood. And so we're hoping to see more investment through this TEI program, especially because the policy had the update where applicants can now apply for $100,000, whereas before it was $75,000. Properties with three stories or taller could apply per floor. And there's many other um updates to that policy as well. And our office downtown St. Angelo is open at any time to help assist with the application process or go through the updated policy with anyone that may may have any questions about the TEI program. As far as our business report for downtown, since I last saw y'all in October, we had two more businesses sprout within our downtown, which was Signature Stag and Vivid Sky. And I'll say that Signature Stag actually came with two extra locations in one. Signature Stag is a men's retail store in the front. Towards the back we have the Alibi Speak Easy, which is a bar, entertainment lounge area. And then the back patio is the Stag Social um for um hanging out and having drinks and enjoying live music.

And Vivid Sky is a specialty shop selling retail products. We had Tipsy Pink that opened up their doors where the old um Dead Horse location was. Um we had G have Garrett Insurance Agency um which popped up at 16 North Chadburn. 16 North Chadburn was on this tears photo here on the far right. Um this was a dilapidated building um that became renovated and now serves as office space for the insurance agency. So, that's a big win for downtown, filling that empty space and being able to improve the property at the same time. And so, these new businesses um do more than just fill these empty storefronts. They're a part of our community. They strengthen our community by creating jobs and making downtown more lively and attractive. Of last year, we hosted our Imagine the Possibilities Tour, which went really great. We toured four properties. It was really nice being able to visit with people who are interested in u these properties. The realators did a really great job of helping out and giving the tours. Um it really opened attendees minds of what could be inside of these vacant spaces. And it was interesting to tour the historic spaces as well and feel the history inside of them. And we're also proud to mention that in 2023 when we hosted our Imagine the Possibilities tour, that actually spurred conversation to the sale of today's 7311 North Chadburn, which is the old household furniture building. So, we're very proud of that. We're really glad um to see that some new life will be coming into that space. And just for those that aren't familiar, the household furniture building is the building next to Blaine's Pub. And so, that one has stood vacant for some time, too. So, we'll see some new things transpiring there. Downtown St. Angelo created a downtown development coalition. Um, this is to create a thriving and sustain

sustainable downtown by connecting property owners and investors, financial institutions, community leaders, bringing everyone together into this coalition to try to advance uh, properties in downtown and be able to bring to life um, just new business and foster economic growth. And so, one of our um, initiative efforts was hosting a historic tax credit workshop not too long ago. um we partnered with the Texas Historical Commission. So, this was really great because this allowed us to be able to cover um topics over the state and the federal historic tax credits eligibility and the three-part application process as well. For our marketing and promotion of downtown, we have our historic downtown magazine that continues to share um some really interesting stories about St. evangelist history and our past and we're really excited about the next version that's coming out, the next issue that's coming out, excuse me. It's going to be about celebrating 100 years of Elmer Kelton. So, um, find that magazine anywhere in downtown or the surrounding area. Um, our bruise and barbecue. Last year we had 28 teams. It was a little windy. This year we ran into the issue with rain, but we still met our goal of 40 teams. We still withtood all the elements. Um it's not easy hosting an event of this size with things that happen like that like the weather that um cause issues but we pushed through it and we were really happy to be able to bring those 40 teams from all across the state to come to St. Angelo to enjoy our cookoff to experience our downtown. We had a few that stayed off site as well and nearby hotels. Um so this was a really great opportunity for us to bring visitors. Um I met with um the DMO and we were able to get some estimated

numbers of our turnout from for downtown from Breeze and Barbecue and we could say that we have about 300 to 400 people at various downtown shops. Um there about 500 out of town visitors and confirmed 350 people who stopped by the visitors center that weekend. Um and so events like this bring exposure to our downtown, to our city. They bring people in from other cities to St. Angelo and it just creates an inclusive space for everyone to enjoy. Um upcoming what we have upcoming for our next event is our Star Spangled Banner concert and fireworks um which we host in partnership with St. Angelo Live and this will be on July 3rd. Every year we host this and it's the largest fireworks display in St. Angelo. We're really happy to bring this free uh event to the community. Thousands of people come and spectate whether they're inside the river stage or outside. My preference is to be inside the river stage because you get the best view of all the local entertainment and the fireworks display as well. And we'll do our usual of having seating with cabanas and VIP tables with food and drinks. Um but we're just happy to keep this tradition going and be able to have um a celebration of Independence Day each and every year for our community. our downtown strolls. Um these have been going on since 2007. Um they've kind of it started out with the art walk and they've transformed slowly um from being every third Thursday of the month to quarterly to now we do it around holidays. And um we've started to track our visitor participation in the strolls and add some fun elements to our strolls as well um to make it a little more inviting, a little more inclusive for everyone. And so our recent stroll in February, our XOXO stroll shows an

impact of $790 spent. Our Saddle Up downtown stroll back in April had a $586 sales impact. And we're looking forward to our next stroll this Thursday, May 7th. This one's all about the mom's Mother's Day mosy. Um, still stroll guests play along with the bingo card. We have four excellent prizes up for grabs of a value of $400. Um, our community is so gracious and so giving um that we have some really high retail um prizes up for grabs from this Mother's Day mosy. And any and all events that I'm talking about or any other events outside of the events that we host that the Museum of Fine Arts or the Performing Arts Center host, any of the businesses, if they're hosting their own events, we have these listed on our website at downtownangelo.com. So that's also part of our marketing efforts. our social media insights. I have two versions here. The left is from last year and the right is from this year. I want to say thank you to Jeremy Barts and the destination marketing organization for bringing social media influencer that English man in Texas. Um that English man in Texas um his real name is Ali Pedigrew and he's known for sharing his perspective on life in Texas from a British point of view. So he had some humor about culture and the community and his everyday experiences and his following is 166,000 plus. So that was great for him to come and share his experience at Bruise and Barbecue and in downtown with his following and that really helped boost our outreach. So, if you take a look and compare these here, in 2025, it took us the entire year to get 128,000 views on our Instagram page, but just within the few months that he was here in 2026, we are

already at 126,000 views. So, he really helped magnify that boost and get people's eyes on St. Angelo. So, I'll say um DMO, keep doing what they're doing and that social media influencers are definitely a plus for us. And of course, I'm not going to get through this without mentioning St. Angelo Gives. We are a nonprofit organization and we're a part of St. Angelo Gives today. And so, we're raising funds for a second um historic welcome gateway. The our first project was between the YMCA and First Financial Bank. We fundraised for those contributions to help build this archway. That was done solely by our organization with the help of donors and our partners. And so we are going to erect a second one um on the corner of Fourth Street and Chadburn. So this is the northern entrance between Habitat for Humanity and the Angelo Catholic Outreach Center. Um we plan to incorporate some western etchings or mosaic to go handinhand with St. Angelo's tagline, Cowboys and creatives. Um, so you don't see that here, but we'll work through that. Um, we're uh have our goal today at $10,000 and we are reaching out through u various grant agencies also to help us um get the funding for this archway. Um, but we're really looking forward to it. I think it's really going to enhance our downtown and it's this welcome entryway into our downtown adds a cohesive appeal with the Chadburn streetscape. It's really going to align with with that streetscape that will go through this part of town and it's really going to establish a clear entry point and strengthen visibility for our downtown businesses. So, please consider us in your giving today. Um, our sheep spectacular project um continues to fare very well for our

community. Um, it shows our pride. It shows our history. We get to tell the story about the sheep spectacular and how it started off with the original Miss Wool pageant. And so it's made a lasting impact on St. Angelo and people can learn more about our city's culture. Um, so far we have a total of 186 sheep that have been been sponsored over time and what you can see on display is 152. And it just keeps going and growing. And so we're very proud to have this project in place and be able to share the sheep unveilings with the community and and share our story. And our outreach goes beyond our visual our usual marketing campaigns. We connect with a variety of organizations big and small and we share our purpose and we keep everyone informed about what's happening in downtown when we speak to different organizations or we partner with other organizations. Um, Concho Christmas was an event that we were so excited to take on and care for and we had big plans for it. We're going to bring new scenes and some great activities. Um but our you know and our involvement made a significant made a significant um impact but we just wish Konto Christmas all the best moving forward and um look forward to downtown continuing to have the lively events and we'll continue to do our part for revitalization of downtown. So at this time I'll entertain any questions or comments. Monica, I'll start it off before we release it to the ice. Um, one of the most important things to the city of St. Angelo is the river. It's downtown. It's where people go to experience it. The revitalization that has gone taken place over the past nine years has been outstanding. Um, you have led an effort, you've championed an effort with you and your group. Um, I think sometimes you don't pat yourself on your back

enough. I know you you mentioned the fireworks is free. It's It's not free. I don't know how many it's $50 $60,000 that you have to go out and campaign and do that. The Englishman had a fee. But long story short, y'all do that without asking for a pat on the back. You go you go forward with promoting the city of St. Angelo and you do it, I would say, impeccably and we're very gracious for what you've done. Um we'll look at things to improve downtown. We've got some private public partnerships that are going. Um, we're looking at some things to do with the river and some river bank stabilization. I say we're just getting started and and our whole intent and purpose is to reconnect with our river and downtown San Angelo. And I'll finish my statement by saying I can't thank you and your team enough for starting that. And it's going to be it's going to be a job we're going to get done. It's going to be one of the most inviting things for the city of St. Angelo to do. And with that, I'll turn it over to Harry.

I know you've got something to say, man. This is this is home for you. Well, thank you. Well, you know, most of the downtown is in district three. So, I do appreciate what Monica's done. Uh, you know, downtown association has really taken uh a major step in the last 18 months, two years. Uh, and so promoting of downtown uh is is essential to the growth of the whole city. Um, mayor's really said most of what I was going to say, so I'm not going to the only thing I'm going to I'm going to ask is we still got opportunities. We still have some empty buildings. Is that correct? Oh, yes. Absolutely. Yes.

Okay. So, the job will probably never end uh long beyond the time that I'm, you know, I'm gone from here. Uh but anyway, the opportunities are there. We're doing a great thing. Uh I will have to say this, it was a little chilly for judging uh on the It was Thank you for coming out. Thank you for sure. But we had some great teams and there was a lot of good brisket and ribs. So, thank you, Tom. Anybody this side? Patrick.

Hey, Monica. Um, echo all they say. The And don't take this the wrong way. I want to see more always. And it's not just from y'all. Challenge accepted. There you go. It's not just from y'all. I want to get all the different um groups together and make sure that there's always an event going on downtown. Our parks close to that area down on the river. We've got a lot of cool usable spaces. Um so whatever you can do to help them, you know, kind of guide them and be like, "Hey, this worked great for us. Why don't you try this and and help them along um you know, just add another thing to your plate. No big deal." All right. Yeah, we can do that. Great [laughter] job. Thank you,

Karen. America action item. We don't have a vote to take, but Monica, thank you so much for your time and effort and thank your crew for your support and your time as well. You bet. Thank you.

Now, will Lou move into regular agenda item B? Consider approving the purchase and replacement of 17 HVAC roof units at the Chase and Texas workforce buildings under TIPS contract 255010501 for 204,920.32 sourced from the state office building fund balance by Duncan Mechanical Services of St. Angelo, Texas and authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute all related documents. Presentation made by Fort Concho senior manager Bob Bluthart. Bob, you're on again.

Good morning again. Monica's deaf notation of St. Angelo Gives reminds me that Fort Koncho is in St. Angelo Gives. And I'll leave it at that. Um, this is good news. This is a year's early achievement of a five-year plan to replace all of the roof units at both the Chase and the Workforce buildings. Uh, we set out a five-year plan and we knocked it off in four. Um the roof units are the most expensive capital issues at these two buildings next to the carpets. So if we knock these things off, we will be set for the next two decades with relatively few issues because most of these units that are being replaced are 25 or more years old. And that's pretty old for an HVAC unit. Um we believe this is a good deal. We trust the contractor. the units are good and we recommend approval and we have the money.

So with that one, I I think Harry's already made a motion that he wants to have some open words here. So we'll let Harry take kick this one off. Well, this has been a process, Bob. Uh I will say this, I'm glad we got to this particular spot while I'm still a councilman. So I can say with one more thing crossed off my list. Thank you. Any questions from this side? Comments? Any comments down here? With that, I'll look for a motion. So, move. I have a first from Harry Thomas. I got a second from Joseph. He just beat you, Karen. I'm sorry. Is there any public comment on this item, Heather? With no public comment, we'll take a vote. All those in favor of item B say I. I. Any opposed? Item passes 70. Thank you.

Thank you.

Excellent job. We'll move into item C, first reading, public hearing of ordinances to adopt land use regulations for data centers through a conditional use process within the light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing zoning districts by amending chapter 12, planning and development exhibit A, zoning and ordinance as follows. One, amending article 3, use regulations section 313 use table. into amending article 4 specific use standards by creating a new section 430 data centers presentation made by planning and development services director Aaron Benoi. Thank you mayor, city council. Um good morning and glad everyone is here to um talk about these items that we are going to go over for regulations in the zoning ordinance for data centers. Um, before we get too deep into it, I just want to say that this is an opportunity for our city to regulate data centers. Without moving forward with something in the zoning ordinance, then you have no way to regulate the land itself and the land use of it. So, that is what we're talking about today. Um, there are there was a previous version that we had added water restraints within the zoning ordinance. As we've talked through those items and looked back at our state laws and u it does not give really zoning ordinance the power to regulate water consumption uh water discharges. Those are best suited at the local level in our utilities ordinances and that's where those will be coming forward in the next uh few council meetings. they are working with making sure that it is what we need for our community uh what we need to protect ourselves and our water resources and how we move forward. So those will be coming forward. So I know that many of the citizens may be here or are watching. They did see a presentation uh in April on the 22nd

that talked about some utility items. Those are not being presented today. Those will come forward to the city council as a separate item in the future. So, I just want to make sure everybody's aware of that and understands that. Today, we're talking about the zoning ordinance and creating a special data center uh ordinance for how we regulate them when they come when they come and look for property. So, currently we have a interpret interpretation of our existing ordinance. Where did data centers fit in our existing ordinance? looking through the state, uh, most cities put them in light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing zoning districts. I have an interpretation out there that states that for our community. So again, I I say this again, this is why we need to take some action because we have heard from our community, we want some more say in where data centers can and cannot go. And so the options for that is come up with a a process that they would have to either reszone through a plan development which then that would go through planning commission city council twice do a conditional use that goes to planning commission or do something like a special use which is really again just a resoning um through that process. So what we have talked with and gone through uh our ordinances and said we believe the the best thing is to pre move forward with a conditional use for data centers in light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. They would have to come to and apply. They would go to planning commission. We would see all the site items. We would see different studies those things to help make a decision of is this the right location? it's notice to the public. So, the public has some opportunity to give input and say what they say about this specific location.

And that's what I want to also emphasize is that this ordinance is designed to protect our city completely, not specific sites. This is what it's for is to is to do those things. Today we also want to talk about the the definitions, the design guidelines again, noise site plan and those things. You can see that we had on there water use regulations we have and I left that in there intentionally so that people on in the public know that no that is not going to be in the zoning ordinance. We are going to put that into our utility ordinance because that's the appropriate place. We're looking at adding section 430 which is for data centers. amending section 313 which is our use table saying that in light manufacturing heavy manufacturing they have it will say show a symbol of C for conditional use and adopt appendix A for landscape species and recommendations and also today I want to make sure that within a motion there is to officially resend the director's interpretation of the existing ordinance that it pulls that off that council says no that's not the right interpretation we want to replace it with this ordinance So data centers we believe that the controlling data centers uh through a conditional use and our light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing and if you think about the items the land uses that are allowed in those those areas. So you think about our steel works, you think about our um beef and animal processing, you think about any other um um heavy agricultural areas that those could be in light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing or warehousing areas that might be warehousing that are storing things which is what data data centers do. They store servers and they they

generate information and house information in the digital era. Um we have you know our our rail port that is a heavy manufacturing land use. Our landfill is a heavy manufacturing of landfill products. So, we feel like it does fit into these areas, which is the the highest you land use that we have in our zoning ordinance. To add the conditional use, we would follow the current conditional use process through our ordinance, which is in section 208. This again would go to planning commission for approval. There are notices that are sent to the surrounding communities of X piece of property. They want to add a primary use of a data center. It would be noticed that would go to planning commission. Then planning commission makes a decision of yes or no. At that time that could be appealed and then that decision comes to city council and then city council gets to make the decision on yes or no for that piece of property. So if you look at St. Angelo um I've got some maps here that have the light blue and the darker blue and you can just barely um see it. I'm not sure if you can see it, but right through here is the Texas Pacificico that goes up to the rail port and of course goes out this way. If you notice that line, industry has shaped St. Angelo. It has throughout the course of our history. Now, we all got here because we have this beautiful river that comes through our community. That's how civilization started in this part of the world is water. And so, that's that's a key component. But again, industry has helped shape. You can see Ethicon over here. We know that we have an industrial park over here. Our landfill is here, which is interestingly enough branching estate. So, uh you could go build a house there, but I don't think anybody would. Um but then our comprehensive

plan, that's what we have. But along the railroad, you see these areas that are manufacturing in nature and then areas out here on 67 as well on the north side of town. Again, transportation. You see the main corridor, North Bryant coming in, and that's where lands have been designated. And again, this uh spur of the railroad where industry has shaped St. Angelo that comes through and says, "All right, that's where our in our manufacturing light and heavy manufacturing areas are. That's where goods and services are produced to export out, import in, get them out to the to the world and to our community here south of downtown. Again, the rail that comes in, you can see through there and along that rail over time there's been manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, things that are that are sending out. And then again over by Goodfellow, which is also an industry that has shaped our community and and shaped it very well. and along Chadurn, which is a major corridor, getting back to 87 and sending goods and services and providing things. And then this is the far south part of town of Old Cristo Road, the connection of 87 277 uh there, which is a major intersection connection. Again, we have some oop, excuse me, we have some areas over here that are designated as light and um heavy manufacturing. So you can see within our community, we have lots of areas that are designated for these. Now, data centers, the ones that are currently looking at us as a community that they may want to expand into, usually take up hundreds of acres. Now, we have data centers of different sizes within our community. Um, all the way to uh, you know, the the backup for the state of Texas is sitting over at Angelo State, and that is a that's a big

B data center. Uh there's another one at Frontier that's o nearly three 300,000 uh square feet. So that's a good size. Uh that's a pretty good size data center over there. Um we have places like the the hospital that uses data. The city uses data. The school district, everybody uses data these days uh to store somewhere to protect it to continue to keep different businesses running and operating. what we're proposing in our definitions that we would not allow a cryptocurrency mining within the data center use. They would have to do something different. They would have to whether that's be a special use process to come through if they wanted to do cryptocurrency mining. But we have heard from our citizens that they would not like that because cryptocurrency mining does eat up a lot of energy um in certain different ways. Again, we would allow some accessory uses through hospitals, offices, and campuses. That really the school district is a school district. Their data center is accessory to what they do, but it's necessary for what they have. Uh same with hospitals, offices. Uh we want to make sure what generator yards and um outdoor equipment can go in certain places. And so we make sure we have a definition for that as well as private utility. uh in some cases that some of these large complexes could create their own utility, not using a public infrastructure uh that supports and powers them. Um whether that is through natural gas, solar, wind, uh multiple options in the future of what that could mean that they're able to do that, but it's not governed by a political subdivision by the city or the state. data centers would have to submit a plan um for the conditional use stage that this would be before this goes to planning commission. They have to submit all of these things that for review. Um you know a a site plan that has all of

your setbacks and your building location. Where is all that ground mounted equipment? Where's your parking and driveways? Your sidewalks and pedestrian routes on the site. A traffic impact analysis both during construction and after operation. We know those are two different things. Um, fencing, landscaping, screening, lights and phototric measurements, a sound study, which is this is what we plan to do. And then we ask for a sound study afterwards saying all right, this is what it actually does and does that meet our standards, building elevations, materials, and signage. So here we have some examples um the best we could do um for what what we're trying to present or represent visually for for everyone. So if the structure is tall, we allow up to a 75 ft maximum height. So if the set if it's that tall, then they have to have a setback that goes plus 10 feet past that 50 feet for every story up 75 ft. And so the standard is when you get to something that height, you want the collapse zone to be at least one 1.5 times that height so that if a structure collapses in the future, it doesn't fall over onto somebody else's property. Now, that's talking about height and bulk, uh, which is allowed in our zoning ordinance and the state to to regulate accessory structures. If they're between this main building and the property line, um, they couldn't be taller than 30 ft. If they're on the inside, they could be a little taller. Basically, there's some shielding. And that's most of the designs that we see across the country and actually across the world is, you know, if they have accessory structures

like a generator yard or a fuel storage yard that is in the middle of these complexes. Setbacks. How far back? This went to planning commission. Um they have recommended this 200 foot as a standard setback against any residentially zoned or land use inside the city limits or outside the city limits. So a 200 foot buffer that nothing can be built in. Um they have to have something there. We we're going to be proposing landscaping, maybe the natural landscaping, a buffer that they can't have anything in within 200 ft of their their property lines. [snorts] So that's front, rear, and side yards. So for an example, this this location, we went and we put that 200 ft buffer around that property. Now, this is a very large property, so you got to think of scale. This is 350 acres. That's a lot of land. From this point to this point is over 7,000 linear feet. And this point is just right at 6,000 linear feet. And so we know how long that is. That's that's over a mile. So that's that's getting up there in distance. And so 200 ft again at this scale does not look very large, but that's a long distance 200 feet. And if you have that buffer all the way around, then you have the buildable space within that they can start doing things. So commercial or industrial, so different types of land uses. We would say that buffer would go down to 50 ft because they're very much more similar in nature than residential housing that you would be similar in nature for a data center to commercial or other industrial uh things. We also know that through the

regulations that we would propose to create buffers by streets, whether those are internal or external, driveways and parking, that those would have buffers that you would have to also set back and have landscaping within some of those buffers. So our standard setback for commercial or well let me restate that our standard setback for data centers that are within a light manufacturing that do not abut residential on any side would be the 50 ft setback. Now if their building is taller they're going to have to scoot that building back also based on the height of the building. ground mounted equipment. Again, we want that 200 foot separation. Uh we made that a a conscious decision because that is where some noise is generated, some heat is generated, and if those can be located in the center of the property instead of on the periphery, then that helps protect the property around. And so we have a 200 foot setback for them. Again, if their height, if it's between their primary structure and the property line, their height can only be 30. If it's on the other side of the primary structures, there's a primary structures around and it's on the other side, it can be the same height as the primary structure. So then we have some of these setbacks from different size streets. And I'll show a an image in just a second. So, if you have a right-of-way pavement that's adjacent, you got to have at least a 25 ft setback before you start building in parking or something like that. If you have an arterial, you have to be at least 40t away from their arterial. And if you have pavement on the side or rear yards, then you have to be 15t away from that. Again, this is if it's publicly dedicated road, this is if it's just a

private internal road. We still want that a distance away from the property line. Here's just another example. This is on the edge of town. Uh this is a light manufacturing zoned piece of property. Uh it's vacant at this time. We also tried to apply those buffers here. And so we know this is also light manufacturing and this is light manufacturing. So you see that 40 foot buffer here. FM 380 is an arterial. So there's a 40ft buffer there. And then this piece of property is in the ETJ. What's not shown on this image because it just wouldn't fit is there's a house about right there. So we would would heir on the side of all right that is going to be that's a residential use. They would need the 200 ft buffer there. And then that gives them what their buildable area would be. This is just a concept plan that we tried to put together. Um, again, scale is difficult when you're talking about these large things, but if everything around them was um commercial or industrial, they'd have the 50-ft setback, they'd have a roadway set back, you'd have this parking that you can see there's an additional setback, and then you have this other buffer setback, and then you have the building. Um, now depending on sites and what um developers want to do, there could be multiple buildings and so they they could be sharing that site. And if we have a a prospect that comes in and says, "We've bought this property. We want to go through the process," they would they would have to show the full site plan. Even if they're not looking to build those buildings today, we would ask for the full concept plan to come forward to planning commission so that everybody got a feel of what is the scale of this project. Landscaping um we feel is one of the

best ways and has historically been one of the best ways to help mitigate uh what's called the heat island effect. We've known this for decades. Uh in major urban areas, uh places that have large big buildings, they create heat, they absorb heat, and they create these microclimates around buildings. Well, the biggest way to mitigate that is through landscaping is to allow air flow to allow shade areas to have certain types of landscaping that helps do that. So as we were creating these regulations, we wanted to really make sure that we were doing things that are proven by uh landscape architects through their science through their data that comes through and says this is what you really need to do for a structure as large as that. Uh we know landscaping can improve air quality, can again reduce heat around building, help water uh help manage storm water runoff. uh if you you know say you have a 400,000 ft building that's a lot of roof for storm water runoff to run off onto the property. Well, you need to have something to mitigate that. Um and again, storm water runoff with landscaping is one of the ways to do that. Um trees and shrubs placed in the right spots can reduce heating and cooling cost by blocking wind and providing shade. Landscape species can perform can perform what is called phyto remediation and help remediate soil from toxins. Uh and trees function as sound barriers through sound absorption and sound deflection. So within the ordinance there's some different buffer areas. Again this is a 40ft buffer. And the idea you can kind of see here is that we have trees that are clustered. And again with a 40-foot buffer you have the the option to cluster trees to have large trees clustered together. These are would be like at the mature stage that those canopies are showing there. You go to a 25- ft buffer, you can start

seeing that the larger trees start getting linear, but you can still kind of b you can still kind of cluster them here and the medium trees cluster them here. And then if you go to the smallest buffer, you'll start seeing them kind of in a very linear process trying to spread those trees out and and trying to do things. What you what you see here on say a back property line is you're trying to mitigate some of the sound and the and the noise that's coming through. You are working through areas that are abuing other private property um not rideway areas and things like that. So, do we have any examples around town? Well, this is over in the Chapperel uh area over on 67 uh just by just north of uh Howard College. This was done 20 25 years ago. You can kind of see in through here that they've have some uh they have this what we would call maybe street trees, but they have a a species that's a nice dense species that works here that is an evergreen um that keeps which means it keeps its leaves all year round. But then you start seeing that there's these little clusters of other species too that help break up uh the the difference. And so we have had some standards for this in the past. We've had folks that have come through and know that these types of things work. Um, this is more of that linear. All right, it's along a street frontage and so they've spaced these out uh every little bit. Uh, these have a 50-ft spacing uh between them as we went and measured that over there in that industrial area. So again, landscaping um there when this first went through planning commission, they they thought the landscaping was a little over the top and so we wanted to make sure that we provided some options. Um and so we do have different options

there based on their setbacks, based on if they're in front of a rideway, what's on either side of property. We also have added a natural buffer zone [snorts] um that would be 40 foot instead of the standards for the front that they would have and 30 foot for the side and rear yards so that they have a say a mosquite pasture that's welldeveloped. They would be able to keep that um for that 40ft buffer zone. They wouldn't have to shred that down, dig it up, and then start planting other species to try to to to come back. Now, if you're in a cotton field or a wheat field, that's a little different. we're going to ask you to start putting in landscaping and things like that. But if they wanted to use the natural buffer areas, they could. We would still ask them to plant some other species to come in and help support those areas and continue to have large larger sized trees and larger species that would come in. We also allow the natural prairie style grasses, uh, stones and boulders to reduce water uses and maintenance. Um, and we did require droughtresistant species for plants and trees. Another concept concept that's been introduced. We have not put it into the ordinance is is there any way to do any storm water recapture? And we encourage that a lot. So whether they put a system on uh their buildings that they capture the storm water and they utilize that for their landscape irrigation or what other water use they choose, that would be that would be great. But we don't that's not in our ordinance today. We don't require that through our urban design reviews and so we tried to match something very similar to what we have today that would not force them to do that but we would encourage them to do that a lot to recapture water. Other items um that we've uh have within the ordinance is parking. Uh trying to make sure that we have adequate parking for the data center but not an overage of parking. They don't once they get operating um they don't need an

abundance of parking. They normally work shifts and sometimes three hours, three 24-hour shift type things. And so they're not going to have a high volume of folks all the time there. And so we don't want them to be overparked and just creating more storm water runoff. Um then we also have, you know, where does ground mounted equipment where can it be? It must be screened with a masonry wall. The rooftop equipment's got to be visually screened in some way. Uh fencing along the front would be masonry or rod iron. and then fencing um along the back that's not there could be up could be the black PVC uh coated chain link. Again, if you if they do need parking lots that are over 100 spaces, they'll have to have landscape islands to help reduce the heat that's coming off of that asphalt that's coming back into the air. Lights going will be shielded and downward facing. And we did put in there a specific color um threshold that is for the uh dark sky community that we would ask these facilities to comply with that dark sky community. Uh I think it's three 3,000 and it's got a very funky little number there, but it's that's that's what we'd be looking for in the plan review. And then the building lights that we would ask them to be lower, not higher. Um, so lower down. So that's really putting light on walkways and doorways, not trying to shine light out into the large area that could be around these um data centers. Noise. We know that's a a a significant concern with our community. Um, and so we've proposed two different levels here. There's been some discussion of should it just be one level all the time. Um, I think talking with uh our consultants and other industries, this is fairly typical, but I think if they're able to meet the 55, then maybe that's that's the standard way that we

just ask them to meet the 55 decel all the time. Um, as we know in St. Angelo, our daytime noise levels are much higher than our nighttime noise levels. Um, but again, I think a data center operates how they operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They don't they don't ramp things up during the day necessarily. They don't ramp things up at night. It is what they do. Um all of these measurements are at the property lines. Uh and so we would be looking for that and they would be proving that up through studies that we would request them to do. If there are future studies that are needed because maybe there's complaints and things, then we would work through that with them. that that would be a shared cost with the city and the and the property owner to uh look at those things and and see what what's going on. And then we would ask them to mitigate them in a reasonable amount of time uh to mitigate whatever those noises are. Maybe just a piece of faulty equipment that they can go and fix um things like that. We also have the low frequency noise in there talking about low hums and vibrations. Um they cannot trespass uh beyond the property line. um our consultant uh Westwood Professional Services uh Eric Head will probably he has he's also here with us today. Um he worked with his group out of I believe Colorado that they've been working on this low frequency noise and this is what they have seen as the standards uh that have been coming forward. It's kind of the the very newest and the very front edge of noise regulation. Um, you could probably go through anybody's um, zoning ordinance in Virginia and other places that have these data centers. They haven't quite gotten to this level yet. So, this is pretty pretty robust for us here in St. Angelo. And I did mention water usage at the very beginning. We are in the zoning ordinance going to make a reference that

they must follow our utility ordinance um for water usage and coolant water discharge. So that at least it's in the zoning ordinance that says, "Hey, here's a flag. Here's a reminder. You need to make sure you're talking to our water utilities folks on how these things are going to work. What's your consumption? What's your discharge plan? How are you going to deal with leaks that happen on your property?" And that's for that expert team, John Kaufman and his team to come forward and say, "This is how we're going to protect St. Angelo." And he's well on his way of of getting those things. Y'all saw a lot of those on April the 22nd. And so he's making sure that that's going to meet everything that he believes it needs to meet for our city and bring that forward. But we will have in the zoning ordinance, we continue to propose that we put it here so that anyone that looks at our zoning ordinance and thinks that's the only rules, they'll at least have a flag that says, "Oh, there's some other rules that you need to follow." So today, I have the recommendation of this. Rescend the current director's interpretation that data centers are allowed by right in light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. adopt section 430 uh to article 4 specific land uses and that creates a data center as a land use. Amend section 313 to add data center as a land use under the industrial category and amend that table to add the letter C for conditional use in columns for light manufacturing and heavy man manufacturing and adopt appendix A as the approved landscape plan list. This was tabled the first time it went to planning commission. They wanted some tweaks and asked for some revisions. We provided those and it came back to planning commission on April the 20th. They heard through the the comments. They heard through the presentation. Uh and they did recommend this ordinance with approval with a couple of minor

changes being the residential setback going to 200 ft and fencing being resolved at the planning commission stage of where fencing needs to be. Um, and they did make that recommendation with an approval of a 60 vote uh in April. With that, I'll be happy to answer as many questions as you have. Aaron, we'll start off. We'll start on the DAS and move from Mary's end over to the others. So, Mary, we'll start with you if you have any questions.

I do, but um I want to just see how how specific that we get in through this there. as you were going there were questions that I had that you answered and and through there is it am I correct that Mr. Uh, someone from Westwood is is here. Yes, that is that is correct. I'll uh I'll refrain from any question I might have till I hear everybody. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Karen. Good morning. Um, creating the change that refers to data centers, possible data centers to be governed as a conditional use is more restrictive, right? Yes.

Okay. Just making sure everybody understands that it's more restricted restrictive than it was. Um, I'm just going to go through my little list here. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends a limit of 55 dB for your general category and you chose 60. Can you help us understand why you chose 60 and should we consider meeting EPA standards for this? When we looked at noise levels in the other ordinances that had been created that are regulating data centers currently, whether it's in the state of Texas or out of the state of Texas, we looked at um quite a few different ordinances. The most common number was the 60 dB. I don't believe while there is a difference between 55 and 60, um I don't believe going down to the 55 as the standard is problematic for our community. Um, I think that is still, again, we're looking at the property lines and we are putting in significant buffers at the property lines to help mitigate that sound. We're putting in uh landscaping to help mitigate that sound. Plus, they have to mitigate it through the structures themselves and provide um sound studies for that. And so the difference between the 60 and the 55 I I think we could move forward with a 55 recommendation um as for the EPA. Now again that's at property lines. How do we you know when we measure that for different activities

notification zone what is the definition of a notification zone for this particular use? How how big is it would be a 200 foot notification zone that is standard by the state of Texas for any type of zoning action. Uh and so we do that buffer of 200 feet on the outside of the property line. Any property that it touches that or or meets it, then we send the the uh mailed letter to them uh within 15 days of the hearing.

So most of these are large plots of land. A 200 foot notification zone. That seems like an amendment that we might want to discuss. Broaden that amendment, broaden that distance for notification. Um, can you take a look at that and and give us some come back to us with some advice based on surrounding properties that are large parcels because 200 feet, you already pointed out to us in your map that the property line along the highway is thousands of feet.

Yes. So who would actually get notified? One person, two people or two entities? So I think that's that's a reasonable question. Um you referenced testing of discharge materials and you also talked about how discharge would go into our sewer system. So clarify if you would please what kind of happens in that full process any discharge whether scheduled or otherwise is it f is it captured and tested before it's released into the sewer? Well let me let me answer that first is that that would be a utility ordinance item.

Okay. It would not be in the zoning ordinance and so that would not be part of this ordinance of what they discharged what the testing thresholds are. that will come forward. Uh and that would be best answered by the experts that see that day in and day out and those are the two ordinances that we are not discussing today but are coming back to us. That is correct. Next meeting. That is correct.

Um let's see. If you haven't driven out there, I recommend that you do so. Uh it it's amazing to see the density of the natural landscape at this point in time. The thicket, the mosquite thicket is so dense you you can't see into the property. All you see is the line of these these small trees. So you mentioned that it's an option for and I'm talking about that property specifically now, but it's an option to retain that landscaping element as is um and nest a future potential project inside there or to add landscaping. I presume they could even do both. they could have attractive landscaping around their their building in addition to the natural landscape. But just a personal recommendation after taking a drive and measuring the distances myself and looking at that that um existing landscape density that's that's a good thing that we have that and a useful thing.

Yes. And a moneysaver. And now you and I have talked about rainwater capture. Uh you you said you will encourage or we will encourage. I think I might like to do more than encourage but um uh there that's a lot of water. It's a lot of water that can be captured from runoff on pavement and rooftops. It can be captured even underground. We wouldn't necessarily see that. and it would help that entity uh abate the cost of water uh to to care for any landscaping that they do install. So those are my thoughts for the time being. Thank you.

I'll speak to the landscaping first is with this ordinance we're thinking of all locations and it's creating that conditional use process. through a conditional use process, planning commissioners can put conditions and and so say we're looking at a property that has a dense thicket already, that could be one of the conditions that come forward that they maintain that in some way for their landscape buffer. Patrick, good morning. Morning. Um, is 200 feet enough from a residential neighbor?

We did start out at 300. That's a good question. Um, because while 200 feet is a lot, but if the building takes up I mean, in your original picture, if the building takes up that much space, 200 feet all of a sudden seems minuscule. And I would and I would say, well, this should be an industrial area. There shouldn't be residences around. uh we would we from where we have city jurisdiction to apply zoning we would be very hardressed to recommend any residential in that area. Uh 200 feet is a long way. Uh our first proposal was 300 feet and planning commission wanted that down lower and now they they moved to 200. Um

we can put it back. I think a a setback distance to residential um is important. I think 200 feet is adequate. If you look at other ordinances, we're we're right there with them. Um, you know, in in Huau and in Round Rock, they don't have any separation distance. They're they're three-story apartment buildings right across the street from their data centers

and have been for years. And that's not new. Uh, down in Katy, that's the same place uh down in Katie that's doing that. And then Plano, they're having that. it's within a a commercial a general commercial area in in Plano and they have, you know, apartment complexes all over the place. Um, here out in West Texas, I think we value our residential neighbors. Uh, and so what is the appropriate distance? I don't know that you see a lot of difference between 200 and 300. Um, I think 200 is within line with other ordinances and that's what we would recommend as staff, but that is also again ultimately y'all's decision of all right, do we do we want a little more space?

And I agree and I' I've seen some of those in those other big towns, but I think the key word is those big towns. It's it is already very heavily populated. Um, so this is is a it's not a big thing to them because it's they're they're packed in there like sardines as it is. They don't have a choice. Yeah, we have a choice.

Um I I don't know against residential and I'll let everybody else kind of chime in. I I want to make sure we set the standard for rural West Texas. I think we're a little different than the big towns. So, let's make sure we set the standard. Um we've talked about it with other things that the town has done. Um this is our chance to make sure that's that's done done right. Um done to the best of our abilities. Um against residential, I would I preferred the 300 that we had originally. Um, I know planning won't even go even lower than 200, but uh, at least 200 is better than what it was. Um, we have other ordinances I know we've talked about that I mean there's thousand feet setbacks on some against residential and that's a that's a long ways.

Um, we've, you know, I've put pen to paper on that and that's a long ways. Um, so I'm not necessarily agreeing with that. Um, but 200 is better. 300 would be best in my opinion. I agree. Um on the Nordinances uh I did from a Tom idea I bought a decim well I've been using a lot. Yep.

55 or 60 does not take much to get over that. Um so I think um personally either one are are are good numbers. That's a very low amount. Um if if they can go to 55 then I say why not? Um the question I did have though is on the low frequency. We have it higher than the other ones. I feel like the low frequency should be lower, not higher. Agreed. Maybe what's the um Do we have a thought process on that and why we went higher on those low frequencies?

This one I may defer to Eric Head because he's done more of the research on that than I have. Um I'm not really sure I can speak to that confidently. Eric, do you I know and I know he worked with his scientists up in Colorado to get to these numbers. So, I know it's a different sound, but Eric, any Yeah. So, thank you for [clears throat] the question. Um, I'm not a sound expert. Introduce yourself. Introduce yourself so they don't

Oh, sorry. A Head with the Westwood Professional Services addresses 9800 uh Hill Hillwood Parkway in Fort, Texas uh for my office. Um, yeah. So, the uh the original question uh but Miss M. Smith the decibel levels. Uh so the the first set of numbers we have in the the proposed ordinance are for like the loud noises, the bangs, the motors that are running, things like that. And uh the 60 and 60 during the daytime is when you have more traffic on the highway, you know, or adjacent roadways, people are working, doing their thing, businesses, you know, mechanic shop, tire shops, manufacturing, whatever. So typically the daytime ordinance is going to be have a little more um leniency than the nighttime ordinance and 60 and 55 are fairly low um DBA levels. I just looked up what uh city of Fort Worth and the city of Berles were two ordinances that I pulled for those levels and they're at like uh 70 and and 60 for residential areas. Commercial areas are like 80 and 70. So we we took our noisy noise levels down. Uh low frequency that's your that that was one of the most difficult things we we we came up with with an ordinance because there was not a lot of examples out there in the marketplace. the the ordinance the data center ordinances that we pulled didn't didn't even address uh low frequency noise and what low frequ where that noise comes from typically from my research was from fan noise cooling system noises from these data centers and typically now the newer technology you don't have fan cooled uh data centers it's water cooled so you don't even have that issue but we have it in there in case it is an issue right um so the 60 I believe we had 60 in there have to pull that 65 on the lowest.

Yeah, 65. So the the way this noise works is different. You have these different octave bands, a 16, 31, and a 63. And I think the way humans hear that uh is is just different. So this was what was recommended uh to mitigate that noise from our from our research and the noise uh experts that we uh that we talked to. So it's just a different it's a different noise that the human ear hears than the loud banging noise. So, I guess the loud banging noise, you take those down to 60 or 55. This was a little more um I guess lenient, but it's not it's not the loud banging noise. It's low frequency noise. Um there was a really good uh example in one of the uh some of the research I did for a data center that was they had some complaints. It was a fan cool data center had some complaints and they put up a sound blanket try to mitigate that low frequency noise and it was just a humming noise that was bothering some of the neighbors. Um, and staff went out, they they put up a sound blanket, spent about $5 million, but didn't really fix the problem. What fixed the problem was somebody, a sound expert, going out identifying the problem, which was the speed of the fans, and they just turned those the speed of the fans down, and that fixed the problem. So rather than a draconian sort of uh mitigation measure, it some sometimes you just have to go out identify the issue and work with the operator to fix the issue if it's if it's continues to be a problem. So, um, I know it's not a really great answer for you on why is this 65 and 65 and 60, but I think it's the way that particular noise comes across to the human ear and and why those are recommended levels, maximum levels for that particular kind of noise, low frequency noise.

Are these going to be I assume at the property line just like the other ones were? Yes, sir. Yeah. Um, how do you and Eric maybe you know a little better. um how you distinguish between road noise and the noise coming from the facility.

I think that comes where your sampling spots are. Um also what they're they're going to be doing with engaging with a sound specialist to produce that study of what's going on. It's kind of like the light studies of they have to do all the lights all the way around. I mean it's not just in okay this area that's focused a certain way. Um they would go out and do different sampling sites. They would do it at different times of the day and so it's more of a here's here's what we get for an overall sound from throughout the and that report would have all those dates, times, locations. All right, we see something that's way off the chart. We're like what happened here and work with them to see what's going on there.

I'm going to push back on that low frequency. I think we need to get it down to our others because that to me that's a constant noise and as someone here who I hear low frequencies and different things you can hear a TV running something it annoys me. So if it's going constant at 65 dB that seems kind of high um while live banging at one time that doesn't bother me. Now that's me personally but um I and maybe I'd have to hear them to see the difference of of how I hear it but to me I see no reason it should be higher than the other. Um, and the fact that they fixed it is great, but let's make sure we have an ordinance that says no, it's got to get here. So, you've got to go fix it, not just a if you feel like it, fix it. Um, so I think I personally I'm going to push back on that one as well. Um, that's the main ones I saw. Fencing is another one I know is somewhat of an issue. Um, I know we have it for I guess is it to planning commission to or who who's the one that approves that when it comes in?

So, can be available. I'm trying to see if I have where fencing's at, but

planning commission wants the location to be determined at planning commission. Is it adjacent to residential? Is it adjacent to other places? And so if you're thinking of a 50- foot tall building, a 8ft, 6 foot privacy fence is not doing anything uh especially along a a 5,000 linear feet. That's what is it what is it going to do now? We're again we are concerned about the residential areas. Um and we do have manufacturing areas within town and this is designed to cover all manufacturing areas of how do we mitigate those risks. Um if this is on 67 where we would have to go through a reasonzoning, we would not come forward with residential in those areas. But again, that's up for planning for planning commission and city council to make those decisions. Fencing in a case like this, they're probably going to do perimeter fencing for security. The question is, does an opaque fence in any way do anything else other than present a maintenance issue for them over time? And that's for us to decide. Um, I think the landscaping is a much better solution. um fencing is going if it's opaque that may not allow as much air flow to go through. Uh and so we do need air flow around these areas but I know fencing is a is a is a concern because most of us in our homes we sit in our homes and we have our privacy fence and we know that kind of protects us from what's around us in a residential situation. In an industrial situation, if you have residences backing up to that, the privacy fence is not going to be super effective. Doesn't mean they shouldn't have one, but and maybe it's on a smaller scale, but that's that's the challenge that we have here is looking

at mega sites being hundreds of acres compared to a 50 by 100 residential site. How do we how do we take care of both? Right. Well, and I and I agree. I mean to me manufacturing versus manufacturing I have no issues if if they want a fence I can put it up for their own use but I have no issues with that. Mine again is going to go back to the residents and while it may not be while to from the data center side they're looking at an 8ft fence over here they don't care but from the person if you're standing right there in your backyard and you have an 8ft fence here that helps you actually have your little oasis of your backyard. I I would disagree because if we've already got those buffers of 200 feet that's less than 100 ft.

Yeah. 200 feet down, you're going to see that building. It's not going to do But I'm gonna see the top like if I mean you'll see you'll see the top 40 feet of that building out of a 50 foot building. I mean, if if we go up two feet above you, I'm not going to I I can barely see the rooftop if we go two feet above you from here and I'm up a foot off the ground. So, if I'm sitting in my backyard, an 8 foot fence actually does a lot in my opinion. And I think we could use sightelines to to verify that. Again, if if the fence is 200 feet away, yeah, that's a whole different story, right? It doesn't hardly block anything. But this fence would be 20 feet away, 30 feet away. Um to me that blocks a lot. Fencing requirements between residential and commercial. There is. Now if it's ranch in the state, there's not. Okay.

Um but then that's the question is for data centers that have these large sites. Are they required to put a privacy fence that could be four miles and what is it really going to mitigate? Again, and I'm I'm fine with that. I think it's only in a residential situation. Yeah, that's all I'm worried about. So, I'll go back to this example and this is just an example. Does that linear line need a privacy fence right there? If there's one house on this side and they own that entire property, that's the question. And that's a struggle

because that privacy fence and they build here. That's a small dot. Let's let's make a bigger and what is the right hand side? What's that zoned? This is in the ETJ. So it's not city, right? So it's not city.

While um every resident is important in general, to me it's more about if it is a single family zoned home. um because we've got a few of those properties in San Angelo. When we look at the overall picture, right, not talking there's a couple like this. Um but when we look at the overall picture of of where some data centers could go, um to me it would be if it was zone A single family, even low-rise multif family stuff like that. I I think you're not going to have 300 acre plots of those.

Correct. So like here where Mueller is, very large buildings, very similar. They're right next to RS districts since they've been there before our zoning ordinance. They don't have a requirement for fencing. Now, some of the houses have fences, but that's that's essentially this the a very similar type of industry that's coming to manufacturing zoning.

And does a 6 or 8 foot privacy fence required for the the builder to put in, does that help mitigate anything? And the challenge is is we're not sure that it does. Now, resident to resident, we believe it does. resident to uh convenience store. We believe it does to retail store to large manufacturing sites. There's not a lot of data that shows that a a small privacy fence does a lot of mitigation for sound sight line or things like that. doesn't mean we can't have it, but just be on the real be be understanding that when we go to if we decide and maybe that's the way you word it is it's for RS1 only but then you have duplexes and triplexes and all these others does a privacy fence here if this became residential which there is a house there what

right now it's ranch and estate I assume I believe it is ranch and estate Well, yeah, this actually is in in the county. That is correct because it's it was not annexed in.

Erin, I don't know. Did I interrupt you? I'm sorry. uh if this would fall under the landscaping area that you're talking about, but uh I was asking Karen, you know, those I call them cemetery trees, but the the big tall ones instead of I worry about the wind and all and trying to keep a fence up is hard, but would that serve a dual purpose? not necessarily put it in the in the landscaping provisions inside that ordinance, but as a a better alternative to a a man-made fence to have those because those things are huge. I mean, they're tall, wide. I mean, that's a a green zone. I would much rather look at that than a fence and I think it might could serve additional purposes. And my second question, I'm sure you've already as answered this many times before, but as this thing keeps growing out with the Z u the buffers and the setbacks and all, how close are we to uh both the jail and animal services, which also is next door to pause. I don't mean to open up another can of worms, but while we're on this is maybe a good time. So this may be the if we're looking at this area off of 67 that sample that had the 200 was just there just to the north. Um this is the area where um obviously the the jail or that's the the 4H facility. There's the jail and then animal services is in this area here. When we measured that back to um this housing that's right here, it was just just right at 3 miles, but I'm going to say it's probably two to two and a half miles to those areas. Um and the Italian Cyprus is [snorts] an option. We

actually had first through one of our first um renditions of of what are our regulations of doing that type of fence and then we realized when you go to a site um and there was discussion about it when you go to a site that is multiple hundreds of acres and asking to do a landscaping and I'm just using that as an example landscaping along there

and then the water it takes to water that landscaping, whether that's rainwater capture or fresh water or whatever, you really start putting the numbers together. And that's a that's a challenge, just as it would be, and I'm not opposed to that, but I think that is a challenge for us in a West Texas climate to continually enforce them to make sure it's maintained. Um because as soon as it stops maintaining or you have one that dies there and one that dies down here and one that dies over there, when do they have to go back and replace? It becomes a an an enforcement challenge for us that is a a city that we don't have all day every day to go and monitor large places like this. But we do want to do that upfront in the ordinance. How do we help mitigate some of those issues? Well, that could be a condition u in our agreement that the tenant maintains that

right and we through the conditional use there's planning commission can add conditions uh depending on site specific you go back and you're by um certainly some of these areas um you know this this is right along the river here there's I think some um that's where our wastewater plant is. Well, say if a data center wanted to move in there, um what are we doing to protect that neighborhood through the conditional use process? Same thing if they came over to this this property here. Uh what are we doing to protect these neighborhoods, these businesses in here if they wanted to come in with the data center? And that's why the conditional use process is important because it gets to sight specific where this ordinance is saying, all right, in these districts, you have to follow these rules. We may add some more rules to the conditional use process, but we we want you to follow these rules just to start out with.

I I really appreciate having the baseline agreements. I mean, that's that was necessary. Yes, ma'am.

And so, this this whole ordeal is kind of forced our hand to come up with these ordinances. And you did a great job. I'm glad that planning and everybody is is on on board with all that and setting those baseline standards and then but having that uh opportunity with the conditional use every little thing. And while that may sound nitpicking to to some and why can't we just plan this out and you've got these conditions period or these topics and then there's no wiggle room. This does allow for more control and looked at every everything in there one at a time. And while that may sound tedious to me, it shows both flexibility along with some baseline restrictions. So, this is a good move. There's just so many I'm sorry. No, there's just so much in play with that. There's a lot of there's a lot of details.

Very. Yes, ma'am. Sorry. Just a [clears throat] quick question before we move to the other end of the table. U on something Patrick said. Can you go to your slide about um it was the slide about not the boom sounds but the the sounds. [laughter] We didn't even discuss your little bullet point at the bottom of the page. Low homes and vibrations can't trespass beyond the property line. So, if you could just Eric, please tell us how how about a little bit about sound dissipation over distance. How does that work?

Right. Well, sound does dissipate over distance, right? So, um, again, the the the sound study, uh, the first thing they do is am like an ambient sound study, like what what is in the sound engineer will likely recommend if it's a rectangular property like the skybox property, you know, you're doing a having a sound monitor on the north, south, east, and west to get a pretty good reading of what's happening because the the area [clears throat] adjacent to 67 is going to be a little louder than the south end of the property, right? So, you know what's happening. You'll know baseline what's happening there. And when they design um the the the layout of the buildings, the the where the sound's going to be coming from, um how they might they they plan on how they might mitigate any sort of sound that's coming from one of the buildings, for example. Um so you might have um additional sound mitigation measures within a building uh on one side of the other. Um, so you have the baseline and you know I if a uh uh the sound coming from a building, it may be lower than the baseline, right? So you're really not having to do a whole lot of mitigation in that particular area on the south side of the property where there's not the highway. Yeah, they there may be sound emanating from a building that they have to mitigate for with with some way sound buffers, additional insulation in the building, however that happens. Um, so yeah, that the the idea is to not let sound travel uh beyond the property line. So it it stays within a reasonable range of uh the what the human ear can detect. And so you're not, you know, during construction, that's a different that's a different deal. And that's not what this is meant to regulate. It's during the operation of the buildings.

Sorry, let me go back and finish. Good. Um, no. and Aaron and I know we've talked about it anytime I've talked to you about anything planning zoning you have always come to me with both sides like you said here's the issue with that here's the issue with this and you know then it's kind of up to us to to make decisions so I applaud you on that I know you have looked at that we disagree on the sideline that's but that's you know that's a lot of that's going to be personal opinions either way um so on these here so that bottom bullet point um so are we saying if I'm outside the property line I wouldn't and hear those noises. Can we clarify that a little bit? Like would I hear the road noise more than I would hear the low hum from there?

So yeah, my answer to that is past the property line. You would not hear those types of noises at that level. You might hear them, but they're going to Right. You may hear them, but they would not register on a meter at that level. Okay. At the property line. And then back to the fencing. Back to Joe's point. So you said we do have ordinances or we don't. On Joe's point on the fencing earlier,

yes, in our fencing section, section 509, there is a clause that says if it's next to commercial areas that are adjacent to residential, you must have a 6ft opaque privacy fence. Um, it does give an exclusion exclusion to ranch and estate. And it doesn't talk about industrial sites. Uh we have required most industrial sites that are new to come in with fencing if they're adjacent to a residentially zoned property. So that ordinance would not apply to this to any of these data centers that would come in from a additional use.

It would today. Yes, it would. It because that is our fencing ordinance. While in here we're talking about where should fencing be located. No. So right now if if one of these other properties, right, I'm not talking about that property. If it came in, there's an RS1 property beside it, they would be required, the Addison would be required to put a 6ft opaque fence. Yes.

Okay. I'm good with that. So my um my recommendations and not making a motion or anything, let everyone finish. Low frequency noise the same as regular frequency. Um, and I'm still going to push for the 300 set back to any RS to RM1 properties in my opinion. Not R& um, not other industrial manufacturing, but any RS to RM1. Thanks. I know you've worked hard on this and worked a long time. So, thank you. Thank you both. Harry, if we get the right side of the DAS to continue to talk, I won't have any questions. [laughter]

It's good. It's all good. So in this particular case, I know this is this is a ordinance and as Patrick said, we want to make this the standard for West Texas, but in this particular case, how close is that resident in ETJ to the property line?

I don't have an exact distance for you, but I'm going to say they're probably close to that thousand ft based on that buffer. Um, we can go back and look at that image, but I don't have an exact distance and I've not measured that. So, if you're looking at a structure there and if that's a 200 foot, you're probably getting close to that, thousand foot. Now, again, that's ETJ. Now, there is, if you can just barely see it because our red line is pretty bold, there is a house right there. Right there on the property line on the east side. I took pictures there at one point. Um, but those are ETJ properties, so they're not technically zoned anything. Uh, but that was a concern for our planning commission was to protect

inside and outside the city limits with that side with that setback of any residential use. But to Patrick's point earlier when we talked about uh this type of property next to uh RS1 RM1 uh then I have to kind of agree with him. I want to make sure that we we follow the present fencing ordinance on that side. And I know that puts a little more impact on the uh business owner. But in the same token uh we're moving this business in where there's people already living there. So

from my perspective that's and you've already answered the DB levels. So again that group over there has answered most of my questions we're here for. [laughter] All right. You ready for the fun? Yes, sir. Do you have a map that shows 21105 on the north end of town?

The answer is no. Okay. So, anyways, up there where it says 50th on the top, what's the white part? That's the ETJ. Okay. That is not in the city limits. Now, as the further west you go, the closer to the coliseum that kind of does creep up and there's a portion of that uh that is within. So, I live on the north end of town. I live three houses away from 21105. That's the city limits. There used to be a nice beautiful wheat field across the street in the oil field head. Yeah.

Back in 2012. Now it's developed with commercial buildings. [sighs] 900 yards down the road from my house in the ETJ outside the city limits is a pipeard. And from 5:00 in the morning till midnight, we hear pipe cleaning all the time. And there is nothing we can do about it. It's outside the city limits. So, I think you've done a very good job of setting the stipulations if it's inside the city limits. But what I want to reiterate is if it's outside the city limits, let's pull that map up where it the property we're looking at, property to the left where the house is, that's outside city limits. If someone put a data center there, there's nothing we could do. There's no stipulations on sound. There's no stipulations on setback. Correct.

That is correct. What about to the right side of the property? That's in the ETJ as well. Is there any stipulations that we we can't force them to build anything properly? We can't tell them they got to put a fence up in between residential, can we? That's correct. We cannot. Okay. I'm just making sure I'm thinking about this correct. A and and again even those properties we're talking about that's outside the cinema. Do we have the ability to vote as citizens as people on what those people do on their property? No. If a private property owner wants to sell their property

I just I'm I'm just curious. There's a lot of fuzz out there. We we should vote on this. Well, they bought that property whether it's inside the property I mean the city limits or not. They can do what they want. If they're inside the city limits, they have to follow our stipulations, which is what we're setting up here. Correct. That is correct.

Okay. I I thank you. I mean, I I agree with the decibel stuff. We need to try to mitigate that. But again, they can go right outside there and there ain't nothing anybody can do about it. They can go across the highway and there's nothing we can do about it. So, I I that's that's all I have. I think the planning commission did a good job of setting up good rules for something that's inside the city limits. um that that helps protect the citizens if it's inside the city limits. But I want to reiterate to people that if it's not inside the city limits, there's nothing we can do. Oh, yeah. Thanks. That's all I have. [laughter]

Mr. Heert, don't let an opportunity pass you by. [laughter]

What I'm going to do is just state my preferences based on what we've already heard. This is not going to be anything new to you, but these are just my preferences. Uh I do like storm water recapture. I like that to be in in the ordinance. Um and mandate that I do like the 55 dB uh at for for all be that uh the banging noise, the the low hum uh at the property line. I do like the 55 ft. Now, I'm gonna I'm gonna go down a path here. When When we first started talking about our preferences for setbacks, I wasn't at [clears throat] 100 ft. I wasn't at 200 feet. I wasn't at 300 ft. I wasn't at 400 ft. I was at 500 ft for a setback. Um, well, that didn't that that went over like the proverbial lead balloon. It didn't go anywhere. So, uh, I'm still going to like 500 ft, but it doesn't sound like we're going there. So, for me, 300 ft on setbacks. Um, to Karen's point, uh, I have gone out there and I've tried to drive around the property. You cannot get all the way around. I've gone down as far as I could go down one of the dirt roads. Um but um the current landscape I would hope they could maintain some of that because especially from the highway I would hate for us to make them clear that out if they didn't want to. So uh current landscape on properties that works for the proponent as well as fits within our ordinance. Uh maintain that. I want to go back to your first landscape. I think

it was the very first one you showed us with the circles and the trees and other things. Okay. Run. Run. Okay. Go to the next one. Go to the next one. That's There's just three, right? Yes, sir.

Okay. I like number one. That That's my preference is is number one. That's my preference. Um, I like Patrick's um protection of RS and RM. I pre I prefer that. I prefer the fencing be decided at the planning commission. With the discussion we've had up here, I think they need to have that ability to make those decisions when they see the site plan, when they have the the the actual piece of property, wherever it may be. I like for them to be able to make those fencing decisions. Um, that's all I've got. Mayor,

any more questions down here? Mary, Karen, Patrick, heard a lot of input from everybody here. Um, from people outside of this on a very neutral way looking in, planning has probably designed the most comprehensive, restrictive, protective set of guardrails that's ever been built for a data center. I I've seen that. I've heard that from people. I know people want to heckle that, but it's um from the people that look at this and go through, there are things here they've never seen before. You know, the one thing I don't want to see when we fly in at night is I don't want to see it, you know, from there. I said, make sure and in the light trespass noise, everything they've done through here has been uh very very comprehensive. Um people are going to try to poke holes in it here and there. Um I like the idea of the setback when you're against an RS1. I don't think that applies much to this property here. I know the two land owners beside it, um the one who's right next door to it, I've seen three times in the past three days. Um they're hoping this deal goes through. Um they're on with another setting a go. So, they get that, but that doesn't negate the need for anybody within proximity this would affect. And I think those are minimal. Now, clarify with me. For conditional use, we're talking about just this property here, correct? It would be for any property that's zoned light manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. They would have a requirement to go through a conditional use at planning commission.

Right. So if we wanted something specific to this property, how would that be addressed? So specific to properties, you either do it through the conditional use process through a condition based on what their site has presented to staff to work through. All right, we really need more protections because there is this neighborhood right here beside this or whatever the case is. There's this major roadway right here that allows additional conditions to be placed um through the initial property. That's also through the 380 agreement through the um agreement with the property owners if they choose to buy the property. Okay. So, let's look at what we flagged here this morning. We flagged the low frequency noise at 200 ft at the property line.

Yeah, we said 55 dB. Is that correct for that? Correct. That change said 55 on that. Yes, sir. Was good with that 200 feet. Okay. Um, the notification zone, I get that, but in reference of this, I don't know how far who that's going to hit and how far you'd have to take that. If you're making that just to go hit somebody, that could be mile away. Um,

yeah, in a different setting, that's that's very important in this one. As far as being practical, I I just don't know what you would have to do for that. And Karen, if you have a suggestion on that, I mean, if if you have an ask on a distance, you know, please, you know, move that one forward and talk with it. Um, the testing and discharge is going to go into the water. Um, the density of the habitat, um, Shane, correct me if I'm wrong, previous lease owners that had this property wanted us to clear the brush, would love for us to clear the mosques. Some of them have done it and not been compensated for it. But we get it that they don't have to clear it. And if that help maintains the natural habitat, I I understand that we should enforce that on them. And if it and it helps them, that's fine. Um Patrick's hits the um 200 set back the noise. I think you just go back and kick in the 55 dB. Um low frequency noise. Eric, you did a wonderful job of pointing out this is mostly an HVAC issue and how things are air cooled run by fans. I think they've talked about that a couple times before where they ran into low frequency noise and they just engineered it out and moved a fan. I mean, that's that's something everybody's cognitive about and nobody would want low frequency noise. Um, I I definitely want to follow up with the adjacency to an RS uh RM neighborhood. I think that applies. um we have to look at what we're doing here versus practical for certain areas, others and that's why we went with a conditional use. Um now my question is we flagged those five items. The rest of this um has gone through and we've all done our due diligence and people in the audience have gone through hours and hours of research. That's what I ask. How many hours have y'all probably put into this if you had the I mean because a lot of people say it's a fast forward. We've been a year at this.

So, I just want how many hours you think planning has spent cuz I'm curious cuz I don't think you've gotten credit for the hours that you've spent. I I think the word is significant. It's hard to put a number to it because there's been I mean every night is it 200 hours? Is it a,000 hours?

I wouldn't say 1,000 hours, but I would say it's probably around 100 to 150 hours because every night I sit and I try to research data centers. What's the real scientific research on data centers? Not what's on Facebook, not what's on some other news site. What's the scientific data for data centers that have been around for a very long time? Um, what what can be the the right thing? And so, I've spent a lot of time I know Eric and his team has been a lot of uh there's been a whole team. It's not just us by any means. There's a whole team and then uh you know, we've had others citizens have actually looked at this and said, "No, this is what we think." We've worked with uh Chris Kinsey who's in the data center business and has been in West Texas, New Mexico forever. And I say forever, but he's been here for 40 years doing data center stuff and says this is what works and what can't work. Uh

in addition to the 60 hours a week you're already putting in. Yes. Somewhere in there. So let's let's stick to the question here.

You put in a lot of time. Everybody's put in that time. I mean, when this whole thing started well over a year ago, you know, we all came to a learning process and we've all had a um I was say a baptism by fire, trying to learn what we can and there's a point of doing and looking at what's factual versus what has cognitive bias and opinion to it and that is the hardest thing to decipher. Now, the question is there's a lot of great work that's been done here. Do we move forward with what we have and pull the four or five items to come back and to move forward maybe with the other amendments that are going to come with water and go ahead and move this forward as is. Brandon,

so seemed to me that a lot of what y'all had suggested are numerical type changes where we're just changing a number except for the storm water recapture. And I'm not sure that's addressed or if that would be addressed in the water utility type.

I think we would address it in the landscaping section because that's kind of what it would be for is that they would be required to have that system set up. I do think that's a very simple edit to the language um to add to that section. So, so with that in mind, the water that has to be used to treat on the inside of any data center is very specific and highly filtered. Water capture on this would we're looking at using that for landscaping. Correct.

Same thing with gray water. I mean, if there's any way that these people could come back and use and reclaim and do something of that, we we need to look at asking them to do that and move it forward. But when when I get to this point, that's the only one that we couldn't move forward on on an answer. Well, I mean, I think we can move forward on it. Um, it's just I if we're considering the water and utility sections anyways, I mean, maybe it's just we table it and and consider it all at once on first reading. um or uh with just those numerical changes. I mean, you can go ahead and pass that today and we can make those changes. So,

well, I don't think anybody here is arguing that we want some numerical that we don't want numerical changes. We do want some numerical changes. And Heather mentioned, I mean, we could bring the second reading back on regular agenda, too, so we can have the full-blown discussion with the corrections on the second reading. Yeah. Okay. Can I make a motion with it on there and see if it if everybody likes that? Well, hold on a sec. Is everybody through asking questions? Yes, sir. All right. Everybody done? Can I got one? Can I touch on notification? Sure. So, I sat on planning for a long time and that's always a challenge. We would send out notification 200 feet. It's standard

and people would be like, "Well, I didn't get notified." Well, they may get their mail somewhere else or it's under someone else's name. um we would only have one or two people show up. Now, I know this is different, but um we talked about expanding that. Well, then you also increase the cost for mailing it out and then you still only get one or two people show up. So, I I I understand what you're saying about it needs to be notified at 200 ft might be iffy on especially something like our example out there since it's so rural, but in town you would get a lot more actual notification and again it just increased the cost and you don't get

much more activity out of it. 100% correct. However, this has been so controversial. It's just a thought. Is it all all adjacent properties? I don't mean beyond layers and layers beyond, but just the ones that touch that property. Is it a bigger sign? Is it both? You know, a little sign, a little yard sign's not enough. It needs to be a big sign. Uh maybe we could invest in that. I don't know the answer. It was just a question. Could we also add

Yes, it was. I'm just trying to think of every possible way add more element of being able to accept it but put on our Facebook or website you know that these items are be seeking you know reszoning or public information I mean this whole thing's on YouTube and everything else there

mayor if I may we're required to do that by the state anyway and so we do that all the time and our state requirement for a sign for reasonzonings is a 4 by8 sign and that's that's a pretty good size sign now. So we do those things today. Um and it again it is how do you get public engagement to come and talk about things that may impact them until it's until it's too late. It's always after the fact that they show up. Oh, okay. No, thank you Erin.

Okay. Um as the mayor with the political climate um this this bullet's on me. Um, and Patrick, I know you want I I'm going to make this motion uh to approve as presented that we also come back and address the changes brought up today. Yeah. But we'll have that after the motion. And so we'll go through and do that and certainly we'll take into consideration the items of public. But I'm going to go ahead and make the first motion with the adjustments on the I was fixing to say the decibb, the sound, and everything else. What else did we talk about specifically? And the setbacks.

So I have setbacks, decibel sounds. Yes, sir. um the uh storm water recapture, making sure that the fencing is applied and the to the separation between the RS districts and the RM1 districts. That's a key one. Okay. Is there anything I missed from anyone? I don't think so. That's motion number one. I'm looking for a second. Second. Okay, Heather, let's go to public comment. Michael Lee,

I don't know if Leak's here.

Shelby Sturm. Good morning. Almost good afternoon. My name is Shelby Sturm. I am a county resident and I am a property owner in Miss Mary Coffey's district. I encourage you to please look at the Greater Edwards Aquafer Alliance report that detailed the guardrail recommendations for local governments like the city of San Angelo. The citizens need you to be responsible stewards for our resources and not just do what you think is right for business. Although that is very important to us as well. We do not oppose progress. I want to make that clear. I know I'm being a thorn in the side. I believe our zoning ordinances should heir on the side of caution. I did not hear any proposed limitation to lumens admitted. Privacy fence lines should be as important in rural areas as in city limits and butdding up to the residential areas. Please, we light travels, noise travels out there. I am a couple of miles away by roadway, but as the crow flies, we see dar I believe it's Darling Industries already. We're going to see this as well. The setback distance should be a standard depth regardless whether it is industrial or residential. Please, I'm reaching out to you. 500, I would support that wholeheartedly. I love it. I get that that might not be reasonable, but can we

please, for the love of God, do 200 f feet regardless across the board. I would encourage us to meet or exceed EPA recommendations on the noise pollutions at the data cent's property line, not the residential property line, and consider all situational impacts, including livestock and wildlife, including the low decibel vibrations. Just because the human ear cannot hear these frequencies does not mean that the body doesn't feel it and it doesn't impact other things like windows vibrating in houses. I would like zoning to reconsider or to consider the fire response readiness. National article 480 reggg for all battery systems. The batteries installed in the best systems are five 1500 volts and do not comply right out the gate. In article 501 is hazardous locations. The definitions of these that they may catch fire and emit co toxins is by very definition of class one location. Another safety of another level of safety compliance that is required. The way that the batteries are being constructed do not comply with article 110. The wiring standards in article 480, the series connected does not comply with article 501 hazardous class.

Thank you. Please consider those. No, you you've been heard. I'm I'm with you. There's several things that you said there. Great. I'm not supposed to respond, but thank you very much. Thank you.

You bet. No, thank you, Shel. Richard Summers. Again, I'm Richard Summers. I speak to you as a resident of SMD5 and a passionate community volunteer such as when I help feed the homeless breakfast at First Presbyterian Church and carry forward that passion to protect my city from possible unforeseen major consequences due to a hastily approved hyperscale infrastructure. In your folders, you should have a list of items that have been recommended to be added. If you're going to call them just numeric, call them whatever you wish, but these have been uh designed as sensible and pragmatic proposed design regulation improvements. They've been submitted to you by an experienced planning professional and a resident who was unable to attend this meeting today. As an IT professional, I would add two things. First of all, I strongly urge you to add AI training computing to the cryptocurrency prohibitions. It is the second most powerful compute energy user and should not be allowed. Also, I'm astounded that there was no mention made today of the fact that the computers are major contributors to the humming at the low frequencies. That needs to be considered. It's not

just the fans on the roof. The building is full of vibrating computers and they do contribute to that. And there are records showing some people have claimed, and I know this is just a claim, but they don't know yet. It's just something new, that they go into these places and they spend significant time near the servers and they start feeling symptoms of sickness. That needs to be checked. I think that we need to remember we're not the only biologicals here. All of these things affect pets. They affect agricultural stock in the area and they affect the wild creatures that still don't understand what we're doing out there to their land. I think these need to be studied. And finally, in terms of getting citizen participation, stop chattering about the tokens. Do studies, do research, do your homework. go out there and stop looking at wasn't what doesn't work and start looking for what does result in participation from the community. It's not they don't want to. It's just a lot of the time, especially in regard to things like this and like the people that are doing the consideration for policy changes, they don't know what's going on until it's too late. Thank you.

Thank you, Richard. Liz Landers. Liz.

Hi, I'm Liz Landers. I am live on the now infamous Kenwood Drive. Um, I will say and I have to say that my experience with the planning commission has lately been okay, but to begin with was pretty awful. So, my skepticism is very honest about the things that they are proposing. Um, I know they've taken the water out of this, but water's the thing. Water is incre so incredibly important in Midland. They can take 15 minute showers. Who are we going to have as the shower police? And do they need a raincoat? Because I have one from Louisiana. It's really good. I can loan it to them. Um I agree that 200 yards is not enough. There are some things. We had a really great meeting at our club last night that um if you want to look at some of the things that are being done, it is not true that the county can't do anything because there's a lot they can do. And there's a group out of Gillespie County that is making huge inroads in what should not be happening to their community like putting um battery the best battery centers near schools or any of this where it can harm a child. While you are talking about one data center right now, you are making the rules that will apply to any that want to come into this town. I happen to love St. age low and I probably have a background that go predates anybody here. So, I can tell you that I have spent my summers here growing up. I have lived here before in the '9s. Um, they almost killed Dove Creek and if we had not intervened, they would have and Dove Creek wouldn't exist. So, we were we worked really hard

with the water masters. We worked with all the farmers and ranchers and we were able to maintain it and preserve the two endangered species that live there, which I didn't even know until then because that was not really our priority. It was to not kill it and to support all the animals and wildlife there. So, um I will tell you that um I would like to know there's some things I'd like to know is what is the um if there is an emergency at this site, how far do you have to evacuate? I know with an in uh battery uh facility, it's 20 miles, which means that anything in the city that has those batteries, we will all have to leave. And then there are government entities that come in and take over and the police chief and the fire chief are no longer in charge. Um, do we have rescue and containment ability for this if it fails? And as far as I know they keep trying to um h Well, I've got more. If you want to know, ask me.

Thank you, Liz. Thank you. Next. Okay. So, we've heard public comment. We've got a first by me, a second by Joe. We've heard public comment. Now, we'll start through and go with the vote. We will take this individually. Brandon, does that suggest or take it all at once? Okay, let's go and do individual. We'll start down there. Mary, yay. Or an A. Yay. Karen,

I'd like to say yay, but I Liz brought up some interesting things. I Is there a way to handle that in the next meeting? We're making a vote on what we've seen today. What we've seen today? Okay. Yes. So, what is it? What are you? Yes. Patrick? Yes. I'm a Yes. Yes. Joe? Yes. Tommy. Yes.

Motion carries 70. Thank you. Now we're going to move into close session. Executive session under the provision of government code title 5 open government ethics subtitle A open government chapter 551 open meetings sub chapter D. Exceptions to requirements that meetings be opened under the following conditions. A. Section 551074 personal matters to be deliberate to deliberate the appointment employment and duties of the city manager. B 551071 consultation with attorney regarding city water projects. C. Section 551 071 consultation with the attorney about pending or contemplating litigation in the possibility of a claim settlement with claimants Nicholas Phipus and Haley Padet. Section D 551071 consultation with the attorney regarding the open meetings act public information act and council code of conduct. We will move into close session and I expect this not to last less than one hour. So it may be an hour to an hour and a half. We're now in close session.

on your porch. As soon as I take my granddaughter Okay, it is 2:50. We're going to reconvene after close session. Uh we're going to do follow-up and administrative issues, consider items discussed in executive session. Brandon, will you tee that up, please, sir? Yes, sir. So, regarding uh the personnel matters of the city manager, um as we've been going through the s city manager search process, I realized that um when Mr. Valenzuela tendered his resignation, there was sort of a informal acceptance of that, but council did not actually vote to accept his resignation. And I think it's or it's my recommendation that council does that. So, I'd ask that you take a motion. uh accepting that resignation.

We'll look for a motion. I'll I'll make that motion. Will you read that? Uh that we uh formally accept the resignation of city manager Don Daniel Valenuela tendered on October 7th, 2025 to be effective October 31st, 2026. Second. Got a first and a second. All uh any public comment? Wouldn't think so. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed. Motion carries to accept Daniel's resignation effective October 31st, 2026. And we'll move into announcements and consideration of future agenda items. Mary, do you have anything? No, sir. Harrying? No.

Mr. S? No, sir. Mr. Heert, no sir. I make a motion we move make a motion we adjourn. Second. I have a first for a meeting at a second. All those in favor say I. All right.