Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, let's call this meeting to order. Can I get a declaration of a quorum, please?

Matthew.

Here. Shuler.

Here.

Daniel.

Here.

Simmons. Here. Victor. Seaborn. Here.

Rickson. Here. And we have a quorum.

Thank you, ma'am. I'm going to get you all to rise, and I'm going to ask Brother David Henry to lead us in prayer. Let us pray.

Gracious God and Heavenly Father, we come before you today. God, we're so grateful that you have blessed us to be part of this assembly. Father, we pray for the men and women who we have entrusted with the business of community. We pray that you will give them wisdom to make the right decision, the courage and the strength that they need to stand by those decisions. And Father, we pray for all of our citizens. God, we pray that we would all work together to make this community a better place. Father, we pray your blessings on those that are here. We pray your blessings on so many who cannot be here because of obligation and responsibilities. And we especially want to remember whenever we pray men and women who serve in the armed forces all over the world. Some of them we know where they are, many we do not know where they are, but you do, Father, and we pray that you will watch over them, keep them safe. Be with the men and women, the leadership of this country that are making tough decisions. And Father, we pray not only for those that are in high places, but we remember the men and women who walk the streets of our community. Some of them have lost hope, lost faith. God, we pray that you would bless them and help us as a community to make it a better place for us all. Father, we thank you for not only our commission, but our staff of this city that worked tirelessly in so many ways. And sometimes we're not always grateful, but Father, we want to say thank you. for giving us all those servants who serve in this community. Watch over us, we pray, night and day. In Christ's name, amen. Amen.

And join me in the pledge of allegiance. Attention, salute, pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty All right, good to see everybody here tonight. Got a nice crowd here. Item number one, citizen participation, same rules as always, three minute limit per person, 12 minute limit per topic. First up, we have Mr. Rob Morris.

Good evening. Tonight, go backwards a little bit. Number 15 first. I know there's some gray area on not having to say the address of this piece of property, but coincidentally, tomorrow morning on the Park County agenda is... the exact same executive session for a piece of property that we apparently own. And when you look up the township range and all that for directions because there's no actual address, it shows up as 160 acres in the southeast side of Shawnee that we've owned since like 2012. So I'm curious if that's what this executive session is about tonight and what's going to be done with the 160 acres that Pop County needs. Next, It's a little bit of a shame that a commissioner's not here tonight, again, because we don't need to be sending in letters to be read. If you're not here, you don't get a say that month. It should be that simple. Y'all volunteered to be here. No one voluntold you to sit in these seats. So if you're not here, I guess zip it up to the next month. Last thing, data centers. I know that we are not getting a data center right now. We're having a moratorium to kill all that for a year and three months. The problem is, in that year and three months, we need to have a vote of the people. Because this isn't up for the seven of y'all. It's like the sales tax. If it would have been that simple, y'all could have just raised a water bill and been done with it. Wouldn't have required a voter on ours at all. But we did make a vote to raise the sales tax to, what, $146 million, something like that is what we're going to get total. I can't remember for sure. But we voted for that. A data center that's directly going to affect everybody's lives in Shawnee. This is not a big city. Once again, we're a rural city. Well, the people should have a say. And the cool thing about having a say is if five years down the road we all learn that the technology is on and we don't have to worry about pollution, water, or anything, all we have to do is vote again. And poof, we could have them if we wanted them. But right now, we need a vote of the people or we don't need to be building regulations or this is a possibility, this is a possibility. The possibility right now is whether the people back here say we want it or we don't. Because if they say we don't and we spend time and resources to build regs for it, we're just wasting money because right now the people don't want it. And the chances of them changing their mind in a year or two is probably pretty slim. Because a lot of people, it's going to take a lot of convincing them, along with myself, and I'm not totally against that as soon as all together. And the city limits of Shawnee for various reasons, anything from water, Oh, where's it going to be? I mean, are the neighbors going to have to wake up every night because there's some giant hum out their window for the rest of their life? Are they going to get compensated for that? Considering it's like a what a billion dollar data center each something like that. I mean, I'm sure I'm off on the number, but are you going to compensate everybody? So I would ask and I would ask that this be the actual question that goes up for the people to decide. I think it's a pretty good one. I'm willing to fudge a little bit. Discussion and consideration of having a vote of the people to decide whether Shawnee will allow large-scale data centers inside city limits and whether any large-scale data center should have access directly or indirectly to any city of Shawnee water or infrastructure of.

Three minutes.

Thank you.

Sir, next we have Mr. Joey Ward.

Hi there. I'm Joey Ward. What I want to talk about tonight, the last couple of weeks I've been meeting with a lot of business owners, contractors, people that are trying to open businesses. in Shawnee and struggling because our code enforcement is inadequate. They don't have enough inspectors. One person told me that they had to have their inspection done after they had everything finished. They didn't want to look at any of their rough end, nothing. They had to have all their walls closed and everything before they inspected it and I'm thinking I've never ever heard of that in my life. And so I hope that part of the thing that we're looking at to be prepared for when this interstate expands out here is to be able to handle the massive growth we're going to have. And I think our code enforcement is seriously lacking right now. And we need people in there that are the people that are in there figuring out what it's going to take to make it something that's going to succeed in the future. So I need to say thank you.

Thank you, Joy. Next up, we have Miss Edwina Butler-Wolf.

good evening mayor and commissioners thank you for allowing me to speak it's been a while since i've been here but i'm getting calls from my fellow neighbors and stuff about what has been on the agenda about the data center so i'm here to talk about the data center and so maybe um that our commission commissioners and commissioners could maybe go a little bit further and educate some of our citizens about a data center this is something that's up there and some of the things that is concerning is that if we had a data center here in Shawnee you know that would raise a lot of people's electric bills looking at the water usage and right now our citizens are struggling now of paying their water bill so they're a little concerned about what might happen down the pipeline so I want to encourage the commissioners to meet with those people that voted for you sitting in that seat tonight let them know what is going on up here and be transparency Most of you, that's what a lot of you say on your campaign speech, transparency. Then people sees what's on the agenda and they want to know what's going on. Let us know what's going on. Because we all don't take up every day to look and see what is. So I get questions in my neighborhood about what is really going on. So that means that your electric, they're worried about their electric bill. If not too long ago, you all should remember that we had a bad winter. We had that Arctic air that came in and some of the grids was not supplying enough electricity. So some of the residents had to go without electric for a couple of hours to get the grids back up to par there. And look at the... Make sure that you let them know about the environment. Our trees, you're dealing with nature. Our trees need water. And with this computer, this center that's coming up, that's what's gonna happen. We as citizens here in the Shawnee town, We're concerned. I'm concerned. So mayor and city commissioners, do what you are elected to do. Lead us. Lead us in the right direction. And don't put this data center up in our community. You're sitting up there for a reason, and don't just carry your title around in your pocket. Do something. I drove down here to the meeting tonight, and every street that I came on, it was a mess. My front end of my car is probably all whacked out now because of the holes in the potholes in there. And there's construction all over. And you need to look at the police force.

Thank you, ma'am. Next up, we have Ms. Cindy Berger.

Hey, everyone. So I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I did want to say something about the data center issue on here is because to me, it kind of sounds like a good thing that we're putting a moratorium on it. And I think there's a lot of confusion as to what that means. And so if we can have questions answered as to maybe why it's on as a resolution instead of a vote for the people and why that's better. But I also kind of like Rob's idea. If it is something that's good, maybe then bring it to a vote of the people. But I think more information would be helpful. The other thing I wanted to say is about panhandlers across Shawnee. I would be really excited if we could get somebody on board with you know getting a new ordinance to either ban outright ban to the panhandling i'm tired of seeing it and i'm tired of seeing the trash left over where they can sit every single day or if we're going to allow panhandling at least make them buy a permit for it so we can make some money off of it too so that's my suggestion thank you thank you ma'am next up we have john bob simple

Mayor, commissioners, my name is John Bob Simple. I live here in Shawnee. I also work with Potawatomi GO. Today's a big day, an exciting day. As you all know, we have a lot of challenges in our community. There are a lot of problems we're putting our arms around. but today i get to share about the kickoff of something called look for the good pot county look for the good pot county is a response from our community needs assessment that was done in 2024 that identified the fact that there was a distance between the community pride we want and the connection that we feel here in our county. That includes here throughout Shawnee. Look for the Good is an opportunity for us to build a platform together to uplift those things that are great. Stories like the police officer on Broadway who, as many folks know, school got kicked off recently. These kids were at a busy intersection. Broadway folks drive 60 miles an hour all the time down the road. And the thing that was exciting is this officer was waiting with students until their bus showed up. Now, I don't know if it was a sign that day or if he drew a short straw. That's just part of what should be. But as someone who's a new parent, I thought it was really awesome that those kids didn't have to worry about whether or not they're safe that day. This story and a million stories like this are part of things we can celebrate both here in Shawnee and throughout our county. This is an opportunity for us to collect great stories of things that are happening for us to be able to promote the good and promote the things that are exciting here in our community. For those who might be interested in participating, I'd encourage you to go to potcountygood.com. That's potcountygood.com. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll share these flyers with the commission for you to be able to keep track of this project.

Thank you. Next up, we have Kaya Robinson.

Hello, my name is Kyah Robinson. I know a lot of you guys. I am from Legacy Parenting Center. I get to talk about babies and diapers. I'm really excited about September, but more than anything with Diaper Need Awareness this year, our goal is to reach 100 locations to be diaper drop off sites. So far, we are at 88. So we are going to crush 100 locations and that is because of our amazing community and what you guys do. It's not just babies and it's not just butts, okay? This really is about families and making a difference in our community. What this sign says is one in two babies are in need of diapers. That's 50% of babies, not just in our county, but nationwide. And what Legacy gets to do is be the difference, be the change to help our families. At Legacy, we are reaching around 800 babies. And just today, looking at data, we have given out 382,000 diapers from January to now. That is incredible, and we're still growing. But this, our goal is to reach 60,000 diapers in one month. I know we're going to hit it with all these locations. I want to thank you guys and a lot of you in our community that get to be a part of that. But like I said, we are here to impact generations to come. It's not just babies, but I really believe when we have stronger families, we have a stronger community. And that's what we get to do. So thank you guys. Babies, woo!

All right. That goes away. On to item number two, consider approval of consent agenda.

Move to approve.

I'll second.

We have a motion and a second. Item carry 6-0 on to item number 3, presentation of the Pet of the Month by Animal Control.

I think I saw, yeah, there he comes.

Oh my goodness.

So excited.

Mr. Mayor, fellow commissioners, thanks for having us tonight. This is our dog of the month. This is LL Grace. And I picked LL Grace up at Living, Loved, So I called her LL Grace. So coming up with names is one of the hardest parts of my job, believe it or not. Come on, Rob.

Rob, you're done.

She's a terrier mix. She's between one and two years old. And she likes Rob. Oh, my gosh. Are there any questions, comments? I make a motion that Rob gets the dog.

Yes, sir.

I will say when I picked this girl up, we've had her for six weeks. She was in very difficult shape. She has really excelled and she's ready to go to somebody's house and make somebody a really good dog. If somebody's interested, she's very loyal. She's on my side and every morning when I feed her, she wants to be petted before she eats. She's really a very good dog. So if anybody's interested.

All right. Thank you, sir.

On the item number four, consideration of an interlocal agreement with Pioneer Library System for the library improvements. Calling Joe Vondran for staff report, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Commissioners, I'm excited to discuss this item with you today. It's a companion to the normal annual contract that we approve with the library each year that you just approved on the consent agenda for utilization of our facility. But this agreement, the Pioneer Library System is bringing A LITTLE OVER THREE-QUARTERS OF A MILLION DOLLARS OF IMPROVEMENTS THROUGH CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT AND OTHER NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS TO THAT FACILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. WE WORKED DILIGENTLY WITH THEIR STAFF TO COME TO TERMS THAT ARE AGREEABLE TO ALL, AND THAT CONSTRUCTION HAS BEEN APPROVED AND WILL BEGIN SHORTLY IF THE COMMISSION APPROVES THIS AGREEMENT. WITH THAT, I'D BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE.

ANY QUESTIONS FOR JOE ON THIS ONE? No. OK. Can I get a motion, please? I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Item 6-0 on item number 5, consideration of a resolution Establishing a temporary moratorium until December 31, 2027 on the acceptance of new applications for processing of and issuance of rezoning requests and permits, including building permits that would allow construction on, expansion of, or use of a property for a data center located in the city of Shawnee, Oklahoma, and setting an effective date. Once again, I'm calling Joe for a staff report.

Something tells me I may not get off as easy with questions. Mr. Mayor, commissioners, this item comes before you for consideration of a moratorium. I'm going to please ask you to bear with me and give a little longer presentation than I normally would. I know you've all read it and the materials that have been provided to you, but given Attention is received from the public and some of the comments tonight. I want to shed a little bit more light on that and hopefully alleviate some of those questions. So just to kind of walk through where we are today, the city of Shawnee has received no formal inquiries, rezone requests or permit applications for a data center project. I want to lead with that just so that there's clarity in this room and for those that may be watching at home. We don't have a pending project. We don't have anyone who has approached us about a pending project. This is just something that is occurring. There have been record numbers of investments announced in this arena. and certainly something that the city felt like we needed to be prepared for. Commissioner O'Neill brought it to our attention and we did quite a bit of research and reviewed how other municipalities have handled this unique issue. We've heard a lot of concerns, whether it be environmental, electric grid, water usage, all of those things are items that other municipalities have dealt with. Um, and so we wanted to make sure that here in the city of Shawnee, we took a very intentional approach to this opportunity. So the purpose of the item is to consider the moratorium on a new data center approval. So the city can study potential impacts, clarify definitions and develop appropriate regulations before projects are initiated. The proposed resolution would establish a temporary moratorium effective immediately and lasting no longer than through December 31st, 2027. the commission would not be able to request a new zoning permit. What that means is that acceptance and processing of new zoning, rezoning requests and permits, including building permits would be ceased during that time period. Now, there's nothing that would prevent the commission from. modifying that sunset date here tonight before approval of a moratorium if if that vote were to be taken that date was what staff believed was the furthest out we could place it so that was kind of our outward bound we can work inside of that but it would not be our recommendation to go beyond that just the scope and the timing um There are exceptions historically small ancillary data rooms are distinguished from large standalone facilities here. So your server room at your local business, things like that that already exist and we have prevalence of those are not those are not incorporated into this moratorium. All right, to address a couple of the questions that were raised specifically, because I do have those items prepared. Again, we have no pending projects. This would be to have regulatory structure in place when new projects were brought to us. And specifically where the city is primarily concerned is proper zoning location, which we heard about. And so this would allow us the opportunity within our comprehensive plan to identify which zoning classifications we would allow data centers. Currently, we don't specify within our code where data centers would be located, what zoning classifications would be appropriate. So this would give us the opportunity to identify appropriate zoning classifications where data centers could be located. Number two, electric. This has been a consistent source of issues for other municipalities who have gone down this road with data centers. But I want to be clear, not with all. This is not always an issue. It's very much fact-specific and dependent on your location. But this will give us the opportunity to get with our service providers, specifically OG&E, to have those discussions and also talk about how we make sure anyone developing a data center would be responsible for the cost of any increase in infrastructure to support the grid, which is the common approach for those municipalities who have taken this proactive approach is to offload that expense to the developer of the data center rather than to have it spread amongst the rate payers. The third thing would be water. We're incredibly fortunate in Shawnee, and it was alluded to, that we have passed an additional sales tax to help supplement the expense of our newly renovated and upgraded water treatment facilities. Those upgrades have given us capacity beyond what we currently use, which would enable us to provide what is likely to be the demand of a large-scale data center, which is good news. Whether or not we do that will ultimately be up to this commission. but it is something that we want to look at and build regulations around. With that, our other primary concerns, again, the location piece is important because we want to make sure, and I think it was Mr. Morris who alluded to it, most of these data centers use backup power or even supplemental power or both. And typically those are, at this time, although technology is developing pretty rapidly, but at this time those are typically, that is typically done with diesel generators. And so we would want to ensure that any noise pollution based upon the plans would be an appropriate zoning. Classification, so it wouldn't be surrounded by homes where noise pollution become an issue. So those are our primary considerations. The things that we'll be delving into staff is recommending approval of this. Staff is not married to the year and three months. In fact, our plan, if this is approved, would be to bring back to you our findings and proposed code amendments within 90 days. From there, what you guys do with them is certainly up to you, and it may bear more study. But that would be our plan if this were to pass. And with that, I would be happy to answer any questions.

All right. Wait, guys.

You said that this is not going to affect current businesses, but if anyone expands, let's say a school, or they need to add on to, or I don't know, I mean, I don't believe that's going to happen in 90 days, but let's just say it does, that a school wants to add on a tech program, and it's going to, would that fall under this moratorium where they cannot do that?

It would have to be considered a standalone large-scale facility.

What are we defining that as?

A large-scale is not going to be for on-site service. So if it is servicing the school in your hypothetical, that would not qualify, even if they did build a separate building for it.

You said this, but I think it's just Responsible those are there any current applications pending with the city?

No, we did a check actually again today. We received 1 email last week. Inquiring about data centers, not even a specific project. That's but we have no formal inquiries, no applications.

We've taken no meetings. That leads to my next question. Are there any current ongoing discussions with companies that have previously. Been in that sector of large scale data centers. Mark, not to my knowledge. No. Can you talk about, or I'm generally supportive of this. I have one question. You mentioned it, not like you picked December 31st, 2027, because you thought it was an outer boundary. Maybe you can explain a little bit of that, because Commissioner O'Donnell and I talked about, I actually talked, I asked him if he was okay with extending it to June 30th of 2028 to align fiscal years. So if you have some

why you why you like that as an outer boundary sure yeah it's i'm gonna nerd out on the lawyer stuff a little bit but essentially any time the city is is implementing a moratorium we're exercising our broad police powers under oklahoma statute specifically title 11 with regard to usage of land within city limits however we can't arbitrarily determine that we want this type of business and not that type of business. It's still America, and we still have property rights. And so we have to tie that to a legitimate interest whether that's noise pollution or our utility grids or whatever it may be. So a moratorium is an opportunity for further information and discovery, studies and investigation. It is not an opportunity to ban something permanently. And so since this is just stepping out into those waters if it were approved, we don't feel like it should take longer than that year and three months to conduct those initial studies that we're compelled to do under the law. If the results of those studies bring back something that justifies a longer or more permanent ban, then we can do that at that point in time. But at this point, we don't have sufficient information. And so we based our time frame on what we think is reasonable to obtain the information, get it back to you guys, and allow the process and public discourse to play out.

My last one. Can you talk a little bit about Someone might say, why, why do we need this? Like, you talked a little about where we're undefined in our code and this is a. Quickly emerging market and industry. But even our updated code, as I've looked at it, and are looking at our comp plan doesn't directly address. But if something or someone were determined, it was to me, this is likely industrial probably doesn't fall under. high-sensitivity commercial, but probably industrial. If they buy a property that's zoned correctly, it really limits the city's options in regulating further how it proceeds. Can you talk about, like, so if we don't do the moratorium and say, we're not going to do a moratorium, but it's going to work to figure it out, we have exposure in the process. If I'm understanding, not exposure as far as... We can't stop them from doing it.

Right.

Our options are much more limited in... Regulating then, should we get our ducks in a row?

1st, I think generally yes, there are 2 paths that have been taken by municipalities to regulate. This industry path 1. Is cleaner and safer from a pro and con standpoint, which is the moratorium. But it is less flexible. It is much more rigid, and that is the con. Because until we've implemented that structure and pulled down the moratorium, there's not a lot of area for discretion. The other path, which other municipalities have taken, is to regulate through its existing processes. in situations where there may not be a specific designation within a comp plan or a zoning code as to where the data center would go. And so a city, through its planning commission and council or board of commissioners, then make a determination it doesn't go here. Well, that leaves open area for dispute. It's a question of fact. Litigation has occurred. Additionally, if it goes through in a planning commission, let's say the example that you used where it's a clear industrial, a heavy industrial in the middle of an industrial park where there's no expectation of quiet, there's no expectation of any of these other concerns and there's ample utilities to service the facility. Someone in that situation who owns the land that's already zoned correctly Would be coming in for a business permit, and at that point we would be. Putting conditions upon a business permit without any sort of regulatory backing or foundation for those. And those could very easily be challenged in court and have been in other municipalities. And so, while there is a degree of flexibility there, and a lot more discretion, there is risk. And so that's kind of the balance of the pro and con. Now, certainly, if you guys don't choose to go forward with the moratorium. we will continue to develop our knowledge base and continue to look for ways to improve and clarify that process. But as we go through it, there will be a great deal of discretion and unknown.

And I think that's why, I mean, I'm in favor of the moratorium because we have some land, to me, that meets a lot of those criteria. Of heavy industrial, good power sources that is not where we would want. We're not where I would want that as far as looking at future growth of our community. Just because of how our communities grown over the last 30 years. So. Anyway, I support it and I appreciate the explanation on the date.

I have another question. So it was asked about a vote of the people. I know the answers to these things, but I'm going to ask them so that you can clarify for the audience. What is the process for us to put it to a vote of the people? Can you tell me the length of time, how that would look, that we would have to go about that process, and what that process to put forward a vote that is not on an existing ballot?

Sure. The process is relatively simple. The problem we have is there are certain There are certain questions that can't be answered by the vote of the people, which is an interesting thing to say. in a democracy. But because the moratorium is, as I previously discussed, an opportunity to conduct further investigation and develop regulatory scheme around people's existing property rights and the fact that, as I mentioned, it's still America, it's still capitalism, we still get to go out and do what we want to do. And the city of Shawnee wants to be a place that welcomes businesses and as long as we can do that safely for the public. And so we're constantly balancing those issues. If there was an initiative petition generated, even without you guys putting it to a vote of the people, to outright ban data centers, it would be ripe for challenge. Because it would have to be based on very sound rationale with regard to that. As far as the process itself, though, and we would, if that's the will of the commission, we'll work carefully to craft that question to be able to meet all of the legal standards. I want to be clear there.

But timing, I mean, but to craft that timing.

I mean, timing-wise.

And if it's not on an existing ballot.

Lisa, do you know off the top of your head, I mean, the quickest we could be on would probably be April, February, April.

have to check with the election board we would have to i think 75 or 90 days prior to that adopt a resolution and present that to the board and that is if the february one that that one may be limited to the school board i'm not sure on that if that is the case then it's april

And from a cost standpoint, we can't answer definitively because it depends on how many ballots are on or how many questions are on the ballot or races there are. They divide the cost. But in those smaller elections, it's more expensive to the city.

So using that as a regulatory method would be a very long, arduous process that would not get us results at all. This moratorium is a much quicker result to help us do what we need to do as a municipality.

Yeah, it's a much quicker result, but it's also a temporary result. And so what you're talking about with the vote of the people, assuming we could craft it correctly and it would survive challenge. is something much more permanent. And so the two things are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they play very well together. I mean, if the ultimate goal is to create a scenario where data centers could not come to Shawnee, then you would start with a moratorium and then you would take it to a vote of the people.

And then to even lift that vote of the people if they passed to never let data centers in, if it ever wanted to be lifted, it would be the same process to get it. Again, it would not be a quick process, and it would be getting it on a ballot.

No, it is not a nimble process.

I just wanted to clarify that for the audience.

So after speaking with staff on this, I was assured that you guys can get this done in a maximum of 90 days. Yeah, I mean approximately.

Our position would be to move as long as quickly as possible for a lot of reasons. Obviously, we've had some public comment tonight. We know that this is a topic that is front of mind for a lot of people. It's new. It has gone really well in some communities, and it has gone really poorly in other communities. We want to make sure that if we ever end up with an opportunity for a data center, it goes really well here. We also don't want to miss the window of billions of dollars of investment that are occurring right now. If someone wanted to come to us, and if the opportunity met this commission's approval. And so, again, we talk about being nimble and flexible. That's really where we want to be. What we don't want. Is to get caught in someone that we don't know about shows up next month and we have no regulation and. They want to bring 1 in in a place that doesn't work. for this commission and for this town without us having any way to kind of direct or redirect that opportunity. So yeah, again, I would encourage you guys to put reasonable deadlines on us. We think we can have something within 90 days. I would ask you not ask us to do it quicker than that. But if you do, we'll figure it out. But yeah, we think we can do it within 90 days. I THINK HAVING THOSE REASONABLE DEADLINES TO KEEP CHECKING IN ON THIS ISSUE WILL BE IMPORTANT AS WE WORK THROUGH THIS PROCESS.

ONE OF OUR MAIN GOALS IS TO PLUG THE CAPS IN THE BUILDING CODE. WOULD THAT BE A FAIR STATEMENT?

WELL, I MEAN, THE UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT CODE DOES NOT SPECIFICALLY DESIGNATE WHAT ZONING CLASSIFICATIONS A DATA CENTER CAN GO TO. You know, my review, which is subjective and someone else might have a different one is it could fit in 2 different ones. 1 of which I don't think anyone up here would have a huge problem with the other of which I think we would have lots of problems. So, you know, seeking some clarity on that, I think is probably the 1st step. But also, you know, we know what we can do from a water standpoint, but we need to get with our partners on the other utilities to make sure that. whether it's natural gas feeding a generator or the electric grid, just making sure that it's not going to create additional infrastructure needs and build out that's going to get passed on to our rate payers for the benefit of someone else. And if that is the case, then we need to negotiate that on the front end so that that cost is borne by the development.

So if somebody were to build a data center outside of city limits, someplace where our water is accessible. What would be our options there if somebody wanted to purchase water from us for a data center outside our city limits?

Our public works authority is in the business of making money and right now we have plenty of water. So assuming we could reach adequate terms with regard to that that satisfy both sides, that would be something that the city would love to do. Okay.

Well, I think since staff has said they can make it 90 days, just leave this as is if you get it done in 90 days. If we've decided to take the year and 3 months, 4 months off after 90 days after you bring back your findings, we could do that. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, you guys have absolute flexibility with regard to that.

You know, I think. I will speak for anyone else, but my thought process is that we would, again, because this is an important issue, because there is a lot of attention to it, make sure and bring you guys our proposal, do a slide deck, instruct you guys, give you And then give you that next month to kind of study and review that. And then we can we can vote at that point to implement the new structure and eliminate the moratorium. Or we perhaps will have findings that it needs to extend for an additional period. Perhaps it will be a moratorium on a specific type of data center, but not others. So we want to take this time to be very thorough and intentional with regard to that and bring you guys a full report. Yes, short answer. You can, you can take it down as you see fit.

I don't have, I really don't care either which way on the moratorium, but I just don't want this hanging over our head all the way till Christmas of next year and still waiting on staff. So I'm, I'm sure you guys know what you're talking about as far as timeline and get it back to us. So that's all I want to kind of make sure.

Yeah, I had it written down, but. I think one of the most important things that we do is keep check-ins and timelines on these things. And so 100%. And if at 90 we've got 80% of what we want done, that's still a great check-in. A nice kick in the butt to get the other 20%. But I don't anticipate an issue having a full report ready at that time. Now, whether or not you guys all agree on what the report says, that's a different deal.

We can cross that bridge when we get to it. I want to know Mark's opinion after 90 days. Yeah, we'll have a whole other opinion. One more, or I guess two more for me. Is it possible, or maybe it's what our studies are going to tell us, that And the entities of this type have their own zoning code? Like, would that be something we would look at? Like, data centers fall under their own category in our code?

It's certainly something that other municipalities are looking at or have done. Yeah, I don't know if we would. We're going to look at everything.

That may not be a question that's right for answering. My other question is, and again, we can answer the process maybe. Do you know what federal statutes regulate data centers? IT'S NOT UNDER TELECOMMUNICATION, IS IT?

THERE ARE A LOT OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS THAT REGULATE DATA CENTERS.

THE IDEA THAT TELECOMMUNICATIONS, LIKE WHEN I WAS ON THE PLANNING COMMISSION, I LEARNED A LOT ABOUT HOW LITTLE, SAY, COMMUNITIES HAVE, LIKE WE HAVE THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND HOW BASICALLY CELL PHONE TOWERS, IF IT'S UNDER TELECOMMUNICATION, THEY CAN BASICALLY DO WHATEVER THEY WANT AND WE HAVE VERY, VERY LIMITED OPTIONS AND IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE THIS IS REALLY THE GOVERNING STATUTE. that it's falling under that, but it may have bits and pieces. I was just curious.

Well, based on size, Senate Bill 259 addresses water consumption, and that's for manufacturing as well as data centers. So that's state level. And then House Bill 2992 is the behind the meter, which is protecting ratepayers, and that is the electric side of it so but those are those are hyper scale data centers the city of shawnee does not have the land mass to accommodate currently unless we annex something we don't have the land mass to accommodate the size that i'm aware for what that encompasses so that's why we're doing the moratorium i mean to help you guys to help address that gap

Any other questions for Joe on item 5? I'll get a motion on item 5, please. Move to approve. Second. I guess I'll make the motion instead of asking for the second. And we'll call on the city attorney to read the resolution title, please.

Mr. Mayor, the resolution establishing a temporary moratorium until December 31st, 2027 on the acceptance of new applications for processing and issuing of rezoning requests and permits, including building permits, that would allow construction on expansion of or use of property for a data center located in the city of Shawnee, Oklahoma, and setting an effective date.

Motion carries 7-0 on item number 6, public hearing for a request to rezone the property addressed as 1510 North Beard Avenue from C1, local commercial district, to R1, low density residential district. Case number RZ03-26, applicant Christopher Duncan. Patch is already ready. Staff report, please.

Mayor and commissioners, the mentioned property with applicant Christopher Duncan is used as a dwelling unit. It's a residence. and they want to rezone it back to a residential zoning district because currently it is in nonconformity with the Shawnee Unified Development Code being zoned as a commercial. So, upon studying the case, we didn't find anything that will object their rezoning intentions and it will be right thing to do to bring the structure back to conformity and be in alliance with the current use. So staff didn't receive any protests, any objections. So based on the Planning Commission recommendations, staff also recommend approval of the rezoning. And I'll address questions if you have any.

Any questions for Petya? Thank you, ma'am. This time we'll open the public hearing and I'll ask if there's anyone here to speak for this agenda item. Someone tell us your name please, sir. Christopher Duncan. Okay. So you're the applicant.

So this is my application for it. And I will say this, that last week I received an invoice for $7,000 to rezone my property. I lived out for 18 years.

Yeah, sir, unfortunately, that's a scam. That's not. I wish I could say the first person to see 1 of these fake invoices, but they use your application data out of public record request. So that is not from us and that is not a bill you need to pay. That would be nice to know last week you pay it. Okay. Stick around after I'll help you with that. Thank you. That's it.

Thank you, sir. Anybody here to speak for this item agenda? Anybody here to speak against it? At this time, we'll close the public hearing. On to item number seven, consideration of an ordinance to rezone the property addressed as 1510 North Beard Avenue from C1 Local Commercial District to R1 Low Density Residential District, case number RZ03-26, applicant Christopher Duncan. Are there any other questions to Pat you on this?

No?

OK. Can we get a motion on item seven, please? Move to approve.

I'll second.

Motion to second. Call on the City Attorney to read the ordinance title, please.

An ordinance concerning the zoning classification of the fallen described property located within the corporate limits of the City of Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma to wit. AP Block 6, Broadway Heights and Block 4, pins Block 1, Block 6 to the City of Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. According to the recorded plot thereof, From zoning classification, see 1 local commercial district to our low density residential district, amending the official zoning map of the city of Shawnee accordingly.

I have 7 carries 7 0. I remember I consider bids. Demolition and Clearing of 302 South Beard, the Old Mill. Hey, there's Mr. Kevin Moore, Director of Building and Engineering Services for Staff Report.

Mayor, Commissioners, the item for the award of the Demolition and Site Clearing Contract for 302 South Beard, commonly known as the Old Mill. The city competitively bid the project, and after reviewing the bids for responsiveness and contractor qualifications, Midrest Rec and Company submitted the lowest responsible bid in the amount of $93,210. Funding is available through the CIP program budget. Staff recommends awarding the contract to Midwest Reckon for 93,210 and authorizing the city manager to execute the contract and relay the documents. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Sorry? I said I was shocked there wasn't any asbestos.

We were, too, when we did the test.

100% good news there.

That's why I helped us out, being that low.

Right, right. Good deal. Any other questions for Kevin on the old red building? Thanks, sir. Thank you. Can we get a motion on item eight, please? I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second. Item carry 7-0. So we'll get her knocked down for a good price. Item number nine. Acknowledge a monthly sales tax report calling Kimberly Hoover, finance director.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. The sales tax for August totaled $2,750,725.63, which includes $5,129.42 in interest. This revenue is distributed across eight funds. The receipts in August are from estimated July sales and final sale figures in June. August 26 collections had a 1.73% increase over August of last year. When comparing collections to the conservative budget projections for August, we are 3.01 above projections for the month and 1.05 above collections year to date. Use tax for August totaled $583,462, which is 40.17% above projected collections for the month. When you combine the use tax and the general fund portion of the sales tax, the general fund is currently $221,201 above budget projections. On the third to the last page of the report is the sales tax collections comparison chart by month for the last 12 months. This includes Shawnee's Pier cities of Yukon, Ardmore, Muskogee, Barksville, Stillwater, and Eaton. These cities were selected with three factors in mind. Population, city tax rate revenue, revenue per 1% sales tax. Some of these cities saw an increase in the sales tax and some saw a decrease in their sales tax from August 25 to August 26. On the second to the last page is the use tax collection comparison chart by month for the last 12 months. This comparison includes Shawnee's St. Pierce cities. Most of those cities did see an increase in their use tax from August 25 to August 26. On the last page of the report is the graph that shows the year-over-year sales tax growth by month. It also captures the South region consumer price index as well as the average year-over-year change from Shawnee sales tax receipts over the last 12 months. Five of the last five months have seen an upward trend when you look at year-over-year by month. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any growth is good. Good trend. Yep. out of six and six out of seven looks like. Good deal.

I forgot the use tax.

Yeah. Everything's on sale, isn't it?

Everybody's sitting at home, buy now, buy now, buy now. Free shipping. Yeah. All right.

Thank you, Kim.

Item number 10, new business. Any new business not known or which could have not reasonably foreseen prior to the posting of the agenda. Any new business, Mr. City Manager? Yes, sir. All right. Now it's time for commissioner comments. Let's start on this side this time.

All right. Happy new school year, everybody. Yikes. Hope everyone's settling into that okay. Hope everyone made it out to the rodeo last month. It's always great whenever those families that have come for decades, I think one of those families that I go and visit has been at every rodeo ever except for maybe like the first two or three. And so I know they're invested in our time when they come in. It's great to see everybody come out and enjoy themselves in the heat of the summer. Happy to see sales tax up. I think we've already passed our tax-free weekend, so that's good. Shop local always.

I guess my last hurrah is the sales tax report trending well the last five months. So that looks good. There's a ton of positives going on in town. Hopefully everybody looks at all the positive stuff. You know, we have Home Depot out there that's coming right along, and there'll be stuff coming in right behind that that's following it in. So looking up. So hopefully everybody's looking at the positives. Sure, there's negative stuff out there, but I'm a glass-half-full guy, not a glass-half-empty. But I appreciate the staff over the last eight years putting this stuff together. They do a really good job, and the city's in good hands. That's all I got.

Hope everybody's staying cool. The heat is ridiculous currently. The balloon fest was amazing. That's about all I have to say.

So tomorrow morning we're doing the groundbreaking. I won't be there unfortunately, but we're doing a ribbon cutting on the National Guard Readiness Center. That's the new construction going on the west side of the airport. They're going to have a really nice big compound out there and I'm looking forward to it. I'm very excited to have them there. The data center stuff, I know sooner or later we got to deal with it. I didn't get any any contacts from any constituents about this email, phone calls, text or anything. What I mostly get is bad trash pickup, limbs and yards, potholes. So I still want to make sure that we deal with our everyday stuff. I think somebody mentioned about some of the streets being kind of rough. We've got construction going all over town. It's going to be going for another couple years when one project is done they'll start other ones we're working on that pretty hard um anytime anybody has a question about anything dealing with uh permitting or licenses or anything like that please come talk to us if you have a question about crazy stuff the the open records request is a double-edged sword other unscrupulous people can look at those just like everybody else can I'd also like to say happy birthday to my dad. Today is his 79th birthday, and he's hanging strong. So that's all I got.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to say that I have had some people talk to me about data centers, and that's one of the reasons I wanted to put up the moratorium to protect our citizens and to protect our resources here and our prices that we pay. Hopefully those don't go up. Also, the balloon fest was pretty amazing, so that was also going to be on my talk. So I drove down Main Street last week, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and it was just all the parking spots were taken. And so that was great. It was good to see in our downtown. And that's all I have.

Everybody's starting to get back to school. That's exciting. It was... mentioned to me a while back about behind my coffee shop, the plant life had grown back up. It had been cleaned out. It was beautiful. And I got so many compliments on it. And I had a couple of people say, hey, can they cut that down again? Because it had been raining. And so I went to this magic little thing called the portal. If you don't know about it, please allow me to show you at some point. But I went in there, put a request in. And because it was wet outside, it took... week and a half maybe for them to get it, but they came and cut all that down. Anytime there is a pothole, I go on there. It's got a little map. I put exactly where the pothole is. A couple days later, they come and fill the pothole. So I am more than pleased with how our roads crew is doing if they know about a problem. And it's very easy for citizens to submit those problems in this portal, and it It's serious. It's magic. It prints out a little ticket and they go out and they fill this pothole. So if you have issues, it's a really easy fix. So if you need to know where that portal is, happy to show you.

Three things. This weekend, several talked about back to school. We'll be welcoming a new freshman class to Oklahoma Baptist University. What an amazing thing to have OBU here in our community. Keeps us young, keeps us vibrant. And we'll have people from all over America that are going to call Shawnee home for the next four to five years. And we get to audition for it to be their permanent home. So let's welcome them as they come in. Always appreciate OBU. Two separate occasions in the last week. I've had the opportunity to interact with, on separate occasions, our police department, our fire department. And I just want to commend them for their professionality, the way they care for the citizens that they're interacting with. And I saw one interaction happening today and I could tell what it was and just the kindness of our officers at the time. And I know they all go into very difficult situations and the two opportunities I've had to interact with them this week. And they've made our city proud. And so we're thankful for them. And then just finally, I'm just I'm so thankful for Commissioner Seahorn in your service. And I've gotten to sit up here with you for a few years. And our city is better off for your service. So thank you for your service, friend.

Appreciate you guys.

Okay.

This time we're going to recess from the city commission meeting by the power of the chair. And we're going to convene the Shawnee Airport Authority.

So if you do not get an option to vote, just look at me and I'll call your name. Cool.

All right. Item number one, consider approval consent agenda. Can I get a motion, please? Move to approve.

Second.

I have a motion and a second.

Yes.

Yes.

Item carry 7-0 on item number 2. Consideration of a resolution approving and adopting amendments to the minimum standards and requirements for capital development on airport property, commercial aeronautical services, commercial non-aeronautical services, and non-commercial aeronautical activities at the Shawnee Regional Airport. We call on Bonnie Wilson for staff report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for reading that entire title out. With your permission, I'll just refer to them as the minimum standards from here on in. This is by way of an administrative change. Several months ago, this body approved a new lease policy statement that allowed us to use a market basket analysis for determining rental rates. The minimum standards had similar language in it from the old policy, so this is a correction to make sure that the language of the new policy is encoded in the minimum standards accurately to reflect the change. I'll be happy to answer any questions about it or refer you to my attorney.

Questions for Bonnie on item two.

And I get a motion, please. So moved.

I'll second.

Motion second. I'm calling Joe to read the resolution title, please.

Resolution approving and adopting amendments to the minimum standards and requirements for capital development on airport property, commercial aeronautical services, commercial non-aeronautical services, and non-commercial aeronautical activities at the Shawnee Regional Airport.

Yes.

Item carry 7-0. On item number 3, consider bids replacement of the automated weather observation system, AWOS, at the Shawnee Regional Airport. Once again, Ms. Bonney.

Thank you very much. The staff solicited sealed competitive bids to replace the system that was installed in the year 2000 and has recently been costing us more to keep operating, and it's necessarily worth expanding. So we went out and looked for a new system more from this century's technology, et cetera. It is a limited population of available vendors because all the systems do have to be certified by the FAA. We did receive two bids from which we expected from the two companies that are primary in the market. As part of our solicitation package, we did ask about future use and future replacement parts. We specifically requested that any proposal that was submitted include information related to the availability of parts on the open market as opposed to a closed loop type of closed architecture system. We also asked for information related to people who are certified by the FAA and also approved by the vendors to provide continuing service repairs and maintenance. Unfortunately, the lower of the two bidders was unable to meet that standard. Their system is completely closed loop. They do not offer any parts or services on the open market. In requesting information related to people who can provide services, repairs, and maintenance, they gave us a list of a total of three people. The slightly higher bid has a completely open system. Parts, components, services are all available on the open market and they gave us a list of 26 service providers who we can choose to contract with for continuing maintenance, repairs and other services. The Shawnee Airport Advisory Board reviewed this information that we provided them And contingent on having confirmation that the higher bidder was in fact able to meet the standards and the lower bidder was not, they and staff are making a recommendation that this body go ahead and award the contract to the slightly higher bidder who met the standards of the bid package.

Sometimes it's cheaper to replace it than fix it.

At this stage, Chair, I'm not sure we can actually continue to fix it. I will tell you that I have a network now of AWASH repair people across the nation who have tool sheds with bits and pieces that we have done horse trading to get the ones we need for ours.

MR. Antiques? MS. Antiques is correct.

MS. Duct tape and bubble gum, right? MS. Duct tape is unfortunately not FA approved.

MS. What? What?

Didn't NASA provide that?

MR. Any questions for Bonnie? Can I get a motion on item three, please? I move to approve staff's recommendation.

I'll second.

All right.

And item carry 7-0. Any new business, Mr. City Manager, on this report? All right. I'm going to adjourn from the Airport authority, you can go to the municipal authority. I don't know if I'm in here or not. Item number one, consent or approval. Consent agenda. Can I get a motion on item one, please? TODD BANDUCCIA- We'll do approval.

I'll second.

And we have a second.

Aye.

Aye.

Item carries 7-0. Item number 2, new business. Any new business, Mr. City Manager? All right. With that, we're going to adjourn and reconvene in City Commission meeting item number 12. Consideration to enter into an executive session for discussion in accordance with 25 OS 307B-4, confidential communications between a public body and its attorney concerning a pending investigation, claim, or action if the public body, with the advice of its attorney, determines that disclosure will seriously impact impair the ability of the public body to process the claim or conduct a pending investigation, litigation, or proceeding in the public interest relating to the Santa Fe Depot. Can I get a motion on item 12, please?

Move to approve.

I'll second.

Got all those? One minute. Won't let me back in. I will say aye. Item carries 7-0. Item 13, consideration to enter into an executive session for discussion in accordance with 250S307B3, discussing the sale, purchase, lease, acquisition, or appraisal of real property by the public body. Can I get a motion on 13, please?

Move to approve.

I'll second.

It just does it when it wants to. Yes.

All right. I-13 carries 7-0. With that, we'll recess and go into executive session. Okay. We're going to reconvene back on Item Number 14, Consideration of Matters Discussed in Executive Session for Discussion in Accordance with 25 OS 307 . Confidential communications between a public body and its attorney concerning a pending investigation, claim, or action if the public body, with the advice of its attorney, determines that disclosure will seriously impair the ability of the public body to process the claim or conduct a pending investigation, litigation, or proceeding in the public interest relating to Santa Fe Depot. Really no need to call on city attorney at this time, is there?

Okay.

Can I get a motion on item number 14? Okay. No motion on 14. Let's go on to item number 15. Consideration of matters discussed in executive session for discussion in accordance with 250S307B3, discussing the sale, purchase, lease, acquisition, or appraisal of real property by the public body. I get a motion on number 15, please. Okay, we have no motion on 15. We are adjourned.