Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the city of Statesville Planning Board meeting. We have a pretty packed agenda tonight. We're going to first start out with our normal approval of the minutes from our last meeting from July 22nd. be accepted as uh presented. Second. All right, we have a motion, a second. All in favor? I. All right, motion carries. The next item on our agenda is going to be the introduction of our new planning board members. To my right, we have Darren Rucker. And is our other planning board member here this evening?

Uh, yeah, we have Corey Sloan. Is he in the audience? Cory Sloan may be in the other room, but um I think all of you know Corey. And then we have Darren Rucker sitting beside of you. Roger Bay and Mark Tart were also reappointed to their terms

and then we can move on to the election of officers next. All right. I nominate Alicia for president. Chairman second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. We also need to elect our vice chair. Nominate Bernard Robertson. Second. All right. We have a nomination and a second. All in favor? Bernard Robertson for vice chair. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Congratulations, Bernard. you to you as well.

All right, the next item on our agenda is going to be ZC25-13 for the Compass Data Center. This is a courtesy hearing for reszoning application filed by Mr. Brett Collard for properties located on Stammy Farm Road between I40 and US7 Hickory Highway. This is to reszone it from county residential agriculture district and county highway business district to city of statesville light industrial conditional zoning. Thank you chairwoman. Planning board members. This is a courtesy hearing for the reszoning. As the uh chairman stated, this is our is currently zoned county residential agricultural district and some uh highway businessell county highway business located at that interchange. They want to reszone to the city of Statesville LICZ. And what that means is it's our light industrial conditional zoning district. And I'll explain that a little more in my presentation. So, one of the clarifications we did want to make um is that Compass Data Centers is not the same company that um applied and withdrew their request from the town of Morrisville. Some of that um was actually out in some information. Just want to clarify for the record that that is not the same company. Um this request basically is to reszone uh 350 acres. It includes the Stamy farm and altogether there's about eight parcels. The property that's not included would be the triangle shown with the red X right here. That'll actually be subdivided out. It's across um US70. They're proposing uh five warehouse buildings about 275,000 square feet each. They'll have backup generators and fans for cooling. As part of their conditional request, um our LI district allows numerous um industrial uses which they um are offering a condition to limit it to um warehouses, mini

warehouses, public utilities, a temporary batch plant that's for construction if it's approved. Um also outdoor storage as an accessory use that does have to be screened if allowed. general office parking and parks and playgrounds. So, if it's not one of these uses, it would not be permitted with the reszoning. These are just some pictures showing you what the view from US70 Hickory Highway is on the left hand side. And then you see the view from Stamy Farm. This is across from Origin Foods on Stamy Farm Road. When we also look at a reasonzoning, we look at the surrounding land uses. And so if you're familiar with this area, north of the site, of course, you have Interstate 40. You do have some Iredell County um residential agricultural. There's some large tracks of land to the north. You also have some Iddardell County GB General Business, which includes uh Premier Portable Buildings that includes U-Haul rentals. You have Ellenburgg Wicker Furniture at that interchange. Ired County also has some heavy manufacturing. They call it their M2 district and that's the Pinsky truck rental. Ardell County also has some R20 single family residential um in this area and that's the Gilbert Road neighborhood. If you look up on the map where Gilbert Road is kind of up to the north of the site as we're coming around east of the site is Arredell County residential agricultural. Again, that's single family homes and some vacant tracks. Um, also you have the Ashbrook Park neighborhood and you see the main road up on the map, Ashbrook Road. Um, they're also Arredell County General Business at the intersection of Stamy Farm and US70 and that's the Hunt Lumber Company. As you travel further south around this site, you do have residential agricultural. Again, that's the county. There's again a lot of single family homes and large tracks of homes. You

also have some city estates full um RA that has single family homes and large tracks. There's also some B5 kind of located in that intersection of Stamy Farm Road and US70. It's currently vacant, but it is zoned for commercial. And then a little further south, you do have the city of Statesville airport. As we go west to the site, it is Arredell County again, residential agricultural. There's large tracks of land um on this particular parcel. See if I can get the mouse to get up there to it. This parcel here, the Ardale County back in 2017 approved a special use permit for off-road riding park. Then I county issued another special use permit in 2023 for land clearing and an inner debris landfill at this location. So just looking at those uh surrounding land uses and zoning districts. We first started out looking at this area back um in 20 probably 2017 2018 before we adopted our 2019 mobility and development plan. We looked at this Stamy Farm Road area at I40 and uh adopted two concepts. Concept A at the top of your screen basically has retail and single family to the north of the interchange and then it has mixed use which would include residential um and commercial and manufacturing and some single family south of that interchange. This request kind of goes more with concept B which changes and allows retail and single family again to the north that's about the same but allows a lot more manufacturing and some single family to the south. So we adopted our land development plan after our mobility plan and we just coordinated and followed through with what the mobility plan projected for this area and we was given two options with the retail and the industrial that I talked about with the mobility plan. So our land development plan does call

for this property to be employment center, industrial flex space or an activity center. And both of these include manufacturing, logistics, retail, and some residential as further back you come from the interchange. It is in our tier 2 growth area. That's our next area besides tier one being inner city that we expect to grow. And that's typically because there's utilities out here. Um you do have energy united water, access to city water. City Sewer is in the planning stages and uh Duke Energy also planning stages for the substation. One of the things I want to note is it's not only the city's land use plan and mobility plan that we look at. We also looked at Arredell County. So currently um whether the city approves this or annexes the property, it's currently in Iredell County's plan to also be employment center industrial flex. So they're basically calling for the same thing that the city is at this location. So what your staff does is we take these requests and we look at the city's adopted plans and basically give you an overview of the case to let you know if it's in compliance with the city's adopted plans. So that's what you'll see through this presentation. Um one of the things I mentioned earlier is that it's a conditional resoning. And that means that this board and city council can place um additional reasonable conditions to this request if so desired. Now the applicant has to agree to those conditions, but the applicant has already offered up three conditions as part of their application. They have limited the uses and I said those earlier. So you see those up there. the data center, warehouse, mini warehouse, public utilities, the temporary batch plant, outdoor storage as an accessory use, general office, parking, and parks and playgrounds. They also are not required to do a traffic impact analysis

based on their average daily trips, but they did agree to perform a TIA. So, that is a condition. Also, we require 30-foot buffers adjacent to residential properties and they have agreed to increase that buffer from 30 to 50 feet for um those three those four parcels shown and I'll show those on a map a little bit later because those are existing residences that above the the site. What you have up on the screen is the site plan and I'll try to zoom in a little bit in the next couple of slides, but did want to point out the orange structures are basically the five warehouse buildings. There are approximately 270,000 square feet each. They do have 40 backup generators per building. That's in case of a power outage. They do have fans for cooling. They did mention that at their neighborhood meeting that they do plan to use fans as their primary cooling method. They will also have to install a minimum two storm water ponds to detain and filter their runoff. They do propose a new substation that Duke Energy um will provide the power and that's up this little gray box adjacent to the interstate. And then they do have a primary access is off Stamy Farm Road close to the interchange and I've indicated that in a circle. So you see I40 and Stamy Farm Road. That's where the majority um employees and supplies will access the site. They do have a secondary entrance down here on Hickory Highway, but that's supposed to be um emergency entrance. So, I zoom in a little bit to tell you that um on this concept plan, they do show their 30-foot buffers. It's shown in the green here along the sides of the property. I did circle one of the existing residents. It's the Monday property. This is where they increase the buffer from 30 to 50 ft. But I wanted to put up on their site plan. If you measure from the nearest building or the nearest uh backup generator, you'll see these arrows at that location of the Monday's property.

Even though they have to 50 foot buffer, the nearest uh equipment is over 500 ft from the property line. And then you'll see as you go south, it's 350 ft from this property line, over 650 on the uh west side, 850 uh going up a little bit further north. wanted to go down a little further. The other two circles would be the Jordan Nash property and hair property. This is again where they increased the buffer from 30 to 50. And you'll see the nearest building or generator um at this location is over 1,500 ft. At this location, it's over 2500 ft. And staff feels like that that does help mitigate any light or noise concerns for the abuing property owners. And they also also are leaving this areas undeveloped except for the storm water pond stormwater ponds that you see up in the uh secondary access. And just to reference the unified development code that if this is recommended for approval by planning board or approved by council, you know, a landscaping plan, you saw the buffers, um street trees, there's parking lot trees, all that has to be shown on the final site plan, all the species, the types of plantings that they're going to install. Um the 30-foot buffer is the city's largest buffer required. It's supposed to provide a high density screening um substantially to block visual contact between zoning districts if there are existing trees and there are some out um along this site. Those can be kept and we will count those as part of their landscaping. A lighting plan is also required at that final site plan approval. Um, lighting has to be located to not directly reflect on adjacent property or public streets in such a manner to adversely affect the enjoyment of adjacent property or endanger motorists traversing the public streets. And we do have this point to foot candles at the property lines in

our code. Also, the use must meet our noise ordinance. We do have from 7:00 a.m. to 900 pm a 70 dba at the property line and from 900 p p.m. to 7 a.m. a 65 dba at the property line. They did have their required community meeting with a conditional zoning. We require them to have that um extra meeting. So you have the neighborhood meeting which they have to notify their abuing property owners which they did that on August 14th. It was held at the civic center. They had over uh 60 attendees. Um mostly the abutter property owners but they had other people show up too. Um and then we have of course the courtesy hearing tonight at the planning board. And then the third chance to have public input is September 15th at city council required public hearing. Um you can you have the report in your packet that they were required to submit. It had concerns including storm water smell noiseand preservation district lighting burning cooling water usage power usage fuel for generators employment um youth youth engagement. uh whales security, traffic and property value. So all those were questions that were uh brought up at that meeting. So we look at does the request comply with our uh 2045 land development plan and our 2019 mobility plus development plan. And our mobility plan, as I showed you earlier, does project two different land use options for this area. This area is um called our airport I40 focus area. And um I talked about concept A and concept B. This was more with concept B with more manufacturing and logistics south of that interchange. Um and we certainly feel feel like a data center meets that. I I won't read all of that, but you know that was the mobility plan. And then when we started the 2045 land development plan, we just followed through and took the mobility plan into

consideration and projected this with those two options as activity center or employment center. the county followed suit with updating their 2045 horizon plan. So all three of these plans uh for years have projected this area to be um this these two scenarios. Um in addition um the adopted plans referenced above um with the concept plan and the conditions offered by the applicant uh they provide large buffers. They provide an expanse of undeveloped land between the proposed structures and the adjoining properties. the primary entrance is in close proximity to I40 um and the interchange and a data center is a less intensive use regarding traffic than a distribution center or retail development. So staff's recommendation based on our adopted plans, we do recommend approval of this request with um upon contingent upon annexation and with the conditions offered by the applicant with the exception we'd like to change the language in condition number two. would rather have it say that driveway and road improvements agreed to by the city and DOT per the TIA will be required by the developer at time of site plan repro approval. And I'll be happy to answer any questions for you in your packet. You also have your uh drafted uh consistency statement if you um want to recommend approval. You also have your draft consistency statement if you want to recommend an unfavorable recommendation. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. Sherry, do the building setbacks and buffering apply to the substation? How is that handled?

Um, yeah. Well, the substation, they will have to meet our setbacks. Now, buffering is a little different when you're buffering utilities. Um, we definitely want to do our due diligence to see if we can get that. I drove along I40 and there is a there is some stands of trees in the ride ofway for I40 that will act as a buffer for that substation. So, but um we we don't require that, but we will ask them to to provide that if it's possible because it is a public utility. Anybody else have any questions for planning staff? No. Well, if no one has any more questions, we will open up the public hearing. Um, what we're going to do this evening is we had the sign up sheet. So, we're just going to go down in the order that you signed up in. We're limited to three minutes. You'll be able to see that on the clock over there. Once your three minutes is up, we ask that you let the next person speak. Also, if you have something you need to say that's been repeated multiple times, you can yield your time to the next person. We do ask when you come up to speak, you'll come up to the microphone, say your name and your address if you're a city resident and if you are an adjoining property owner. So, we will get started. Can we have Pam Ford come up?

Hi everybody. Thanks for having me. Uh, my name is Pam Ford and I live at 361 Duck Creek Road in Troutman. Um, I am not a city resident nor um an ab budding neighbor. Uh, I'm here as an Iredell County resident. Um, and I would like to read a letter to you that I wrote um some words down. Uh, dear planning board members, please deny the request for annexation of the Stammy Farm property aimed to be used for construction of a data center. I do not believe that Statesville nor Ayardell County are prepared to host such an entity. There are many reasons related to the data center to deny this annexation. Um additional noise and light pollution. Uh current limit of public services such as fire and rescue. Heightened amount of water and air contamination. Negative impact on property value added dangers to air traffic at the airport due to heat rise from the buildings. um construction disruptions, very few community benefits, uh aesthetic concerns as well as astronomical water and energy consumption. Um and explaining that last statement, uh 500 megawatts is a measure of power representing five 500 million watts. It's a rate of energy. It sorry, this is a rate at which energy is produced or consumed at a given moment uh rather than the total amount of energy. This capacity can power an average of 316,85 homes for a year. For a year. Of course, this is dependent upon their usage, but it's still a huge number. 500 megawws could power all of the homes in our neighboring city of Charlotte or uh another city of similar size in Minneapolis, Minnesota. To figure that a different way, 500 megawws can potentially power uh 1.2 million

homes for one hour. 500 megawws could power LA, New York City, or Chicago for one hour, all of the homes. Um, so with that being said, I ask you, are we ready for that? Is Ired County ready for that? Uh, is Stammy Farm Road property ready for that? My question is can our power uh current power grid survive that? I'm not sure it could uh even begin to provide that based on the recent asks from Duke power raised uh to raise our air conditioning temperatures, limit our time using devices or other items that need power to operate. Um I have several of these requests printed and would like to give them to you. Uh they date back to 2022. Um, and please, I implore each of you on the board, do some research, visit currently operational data centers, and wisely turn down the annexation of the Stam Farm property for this type of use.

Thank you. Can I give these to Yes. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. To who? You can you can hand them right down here and we'll pass them down. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next up, we're going to have the developer speak on behalf of the project. Hi, thank you for having us. Uh, my name is Katie Hancock. I'm with Compass Data Centers. I have the privilege of leading community relations, so I work closely with all of our campus communities. Um, and get to represent this company, which I've grown to to love. I came to know Compass in 2020 as a contractor. I had my own communications consultancy, which I loved and didn't plan to leave. But when Compass came along, I knew this was the right move. Um, I've admired and been impressed by Compass for years for the sustainability initiatives, the innovation, and the and the efforts that we as a private company are uniquely able to pioneer with respect to sustainability and quality operations. Um, before I get going much further, um, I was here on August 14th for the meeting with our neighbors and I wanted to just quickly hit on a couple of points that came up. consistently and repeatedly. One was water. And I just want to make it very clear that we don't use water. Um, since the founding of our company in 2011 by Chris Crosby, who's still our CEO today, he knew that evaporative cooling wasn't for us. That that volume of water was just not a responsible way to operate a data center. So, since our founding,

we've used airside cooling, no water. Uh, second is power. Power is a big concern and I understand that. Um, it is a lot of power. Duke has assured us that there is enough power to power the 200 megawatts of IT load, 330 megawatts of total power capacity over time. That will be a gradually growing uh requirement. Sound we have always and will always comply with city and county ordinances. Um so at night that's we we have scoped for 55 dBA which is comparable to a dishwasher running in another room. During the day uh the sound profile is 65 dBA which is comparable to an air conditioner at approximately 100 ft away. Another question that came up a lot during our meeting on August 14th was light. Um, interestingly, I had never been challenged on that in my five years working with Compass. Um, so I got the chance to look into that and understand that we will be using downcast light. I think it's important to understand that um, there isn't work activity happening outside at night. So, we don't have a need for stadium style lighting. It's downcast light um, that sits on the secure perimeter. Um, and then EMFs was another question that came up on the 14th. Electromagnetic frequencies. That was another comment I had not previously heard and I got to go research and learn something new, which I always love. And um, lo and behold, the computer equipment would suffer if there were EMFs. So, we do a lot of studies during our due diligence phase to make sure that our employees and the equipment housed within the data center is safe. So, I just wanted to make that known and also let you know that generators are are rarely required to run for backup

power and our generators are fueled with HVO fuel uh hydrogenated vegetable oil with which is a renewable fuel um that burns about 70% cleaner than traditional diesel. So, I just wanted to call those couple of key points out because they had been um matters of concern for the community and I and I just wanted to really reiterate that. Um I'll share a little bit about our company and then let my colleague Brett talk about the project. Um what is a data center and why do we need it? Um a data center is a secure facility that houses computer systems, servers and equipments used to store, process and um distribute digital information. So, it's the internet, it's the apps that you use, it's your social media, um it's it's our our business applications, our banking. Um all day long virtually, for better or worse, we're we're sort of connected to our smartphones and um using the internet. Why is it important to support digital infrastructure? It's important to support digital infrastructure done right. We want to do this responsibly and considerately. Um, data centers are needed for our country to stay ahead in national security, to stay ahead in the AI race, to set the standards for artificial intelligence so that our adversaries aren't calling the shots on that. A little bit about Compass. Um, we are a proven developer with operations around the globe. Um, most of our assets are in the US. Um, you can see them on the map here. But the point I want to make is that we are not um we're not new to this. We've been around for 15 years. Um we do what we say we're going to do and we do it with great care. Um a little bit more about our company because we're not necessarily a household name. Um we are backed by two of the world's largest investors, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. Between them, they have approximately 1 trillion and as in assets under management. So strong company um sustainability has been at the forefront of what we do um for as long as we've existed. Our CEO really believes in our company believes in building 100-year assets. And what that means is we're not building something that's here for the short term that we're going to turn around and tear down. We want this to be a longlived largecale high value asset to the community. Um so we build formidably and we make forward-looking decisions. We are not bidding out to the lowest cost bidder to build a cheap building. We're building a quality building to last and of growth. Because of our successful strategy, we have grown tremendously in the past few years. Uh we just uh couple weeks ago we're named Inc. Magazine's fastest growing uh list. We we broke that 1,00 uh seal that we've been under for over for a while and we're at I think 982. So we consistently win awards for our fast growth and for being a best place to work and for sustainability initiatives that we pioneer. Um our buildings, Sherry covered it, I won't belabor it. Um they're large modular buildings. We use modular designs because it helps us build a better building faster, more formidably, and safer. Um, outside the buildings, we have created large equipment yards so that our buildings can change with the times. Um, as newer, better power centers, cooling systems come along, we're able to plug and play and do what's right for the community, do what's right for our customer. Um, cooling, as I said earlier, we have always used water-free cooling systems. Uh we will soon launch um with our our partner Verdive we've created a hybrid cooling system so that we can be

responsive to AI that is a closed loop chiller with a water-based uh liquid a water water as the liquid and then within each of the data halls is the heart of the data center and that's where all the servers live. So each data hall is is lined with rows and racks of servers. a little bit about our kit of parts. And really what I want you to understand here is that we have worked with these same four companies since our founding. Again, we don't we don't have a procurement function. We have an innovation function. As a company, we're committed to staying in relationships with these companies and innovating with them to better serve our customers, build a better data center, and be a better community member. So, Schneider Electric provides our power centers. They have since our founding. Verdive I mentioned earlier, we are constantly innovating with them, doing what's right, making a better cooling system. Cummins has provided our backup generators again since our inception. Seammens is the exception. We added them as a partner two years ago to advance uh medium voltage switch gear. So coming from the substation into the data center. Um a little bit about how we build. We really focus on site improvement. We're a bit unique in the industry for maximizing open space. So what is being proposed here essentially leaves 40% of the property as open space. Um we think that that's that's very important for the aesthetic and for the comfort of our neighbors. Uh water efficiency um as I I've said now for the third time we are purely air cooled to this point we're working we're introducing a hybrid system. Um we also um with respect to water the storm water drainage systems that we will build into the system are um natural irrigation systems lined with carefully selected plants that act as a natural filtration s system for storm water. So moving from an agricultural to an industrial purpose

in this case actually returns more cleaner water to the aquafer. um with respect to energy in the atmosphere, we've focused very acutely on um cement. It's a it's a massive the production of cement is a massive greenhouse gas source of greenhouse gas emissions. So we start there and one of my first projects in 2020 was working with the innovation team as they adopted and made a consistent use of carbon cure technology across all of our campuses which is really cool. So in the process of manufacturing cement, they capture that greenhouse gas, mineralize it, and sequester it in the concrete. So all of our campuses are built with carboncure concrete. Uh we also use concrete AI so that we can source local aggregate um so that we're not creating more concrete, more cement. I mix those up a lot than we have to and we're using local source to to have less shipping uh harm. As Sherry mentioned, we're will be proposing to use an on-site batch plant. The purpose of that is to keep trucks off the road, create safer roadways, minimize wear and tear to the road. Sarnophil roofing um it's a more expensive product, but it lasts for 40 years. So again, we're not um having to create that roofing material. We really focus on avoiding emissions. Um and that's one really cool way that we can do it. Similarly, with polymer fiber in place of steel rebar, we avoid emissions. I talked about the HVO fuels. I'm almost done. I know I'm talking fast. Forgive me, but I I want to make sure we have Brett, you get to hear from Brett. Um, something that's interesting about the modular way that we build. So, 75% of our building is manufactured off-site. That means the pieces and parts come together on site. that off-site manufacturing environment has been a boon to bringing diversity into construction. So, um, with that in that

off-site manufacturing environment, you've got predictable commutes, predictable work hours, climate control, good supervision, machine aided technology. Um, and so more women are coming into construction through that off-site manufacturing dynamic. And we've been able to to bring more women to our site. So, all of our construction managers today are females and that's something that we're really proud of. Last slide. Um, Compass in the community. Again, in my introduction, I said, you know, I'm I'm fortunate to be uh the the lead for community relations. And so, we like to get to know our get to know our neighbors, get to know what they value and how that aligns with our values as we start to invest in communities. Another thing that's really cool about our largecale campuses is that we don't have a million of them all over the US. We have a few of them. So, we really get to know our neighbors. I plucked off one community here because there are some really fresh things that we've just completed. Um, in May, we launched the larger picture there is the launch of our program with Texas State Technical College. We've worked with them over the past year to develop a data center operator curriculum. We call it the my data center pathway program, mechanical, electrical and information technology. So we spent about a year putting the program together. We launched it in May. The first cohort cohort of students started in August. We scholarshiped all of them. Um and we're just excited to see where that goes because this this industry is dying for workforce. There is so many opportunities for good paying jobs and we're excited to see our neighbors get get involved. So, that's something we're super excited about and that's off and running. Um, for back to school, we got to sponsor the back to school teacher convocation at Red Oak ISD. That was a lot of fun. I wish I could start every Monday like that. Big pep rally for teachers. Um, we we helped with project graduation. We gave out 12 laptops. We sponsor golf tournaments. So, those are just some of the ways that we are involved in one community. And I

would love to talk about more, but I've taken up too much of your time. Thank you for having us. Thank you for listening. Could I could I ask a quick question before you finish? Um, how much tax revenue will this um center bring to states? I would be inclined to ask the city what numbers they have run. Um, this project will represent between our investment in the buildings and the equipment to operate them and the customer's investment in IT equipment will be in excess of a billion dollars with a B.

Say B. Wow.

Good evening. Thank you for your time this evening. My name is Brett Kard. I'm the senior vice president of land development for Compass Data Centers. Um I lead the team based out of our headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Uh we're very excited about this opportunity. Uh this gives us a an opportunity to develop in one of the burgeoning tier one markets for hypers scale data center development. The proximity between uh Northern Virginia, which is the the epicenter of data centers, as well as Atlanta, another growing tier one market, provides a a gateway for network latency that supports continued hypers scale growth in the region. the diverse workforce with many prestigious universities and community colleges in the area really provide uh a a real strong labor force for our company to come in and establish our our our first or our first hypers scale campus in North Carolina. Uh this site is 340 acres. It's right along the I40 frontage road, which is also a critical infrastructure point for our company because it does have that longhaul fiber connectivity that we as a data center seek for our customers. Uh there's a large uh Duke power Duke energy uh transmission substation just across I40 which will support our campus and that has upwards to 500 megawatts of total capacity on that substation which is why it was so attractive to us. The proximity to that as well as the um the adjacent high voltage power lines make this an ideal data center campus for hypers scale developers. uh this this site will have um the site will have approximately 200 acres of of developable land. You know, we're going to get we're going to make sure that there's over 130 acres of open space throughout the campus. Um notably with uh a significant

buffer and continued landscape along the Highway 70 to the south of the campus. Uh, you know, again, I I don't want to go too far into what Sher has already discussed, but we are very excited for this opportunity and we look forward to a a very uh wholesome opportunity with the city of Statesville and Ireddale County. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, we'll be continuing. Something I do want to put out point out is there is quite a few people downstairs and some of them are signed up to speak. So if you speak and want to let them come and take your place so that they're able to talk, you can watch from downstairs. Next we have Gordon Moore. Can you please come up to the front? State your address if you're a city resident and if you're an adjoining property owner. Good evening. My name is Gordon Moore. I live at 322 Gilbert Road, Statesville. Um, and just want to point out for the planning director, Gilbert Roads to the east of Stammy Farm, not to the north. Um, ironically enough, I'm from Northern Virginia. Nice little presentation y'all put down. And uh having been a native of that area until 22 years ago when we left the urban sprawl of that area, um I've heard quite a bit about these data centers. Uh the 65 to 75 dBA is a pipe dream. Um they run at about 75 dBA at all times. If the backup generators run, they can go to as much as 110 dB as measured. That is possible. There's been numerous fires with these centers across the country. I believe there's one in Texas that's burning now as we speak. There are lithium batteries in these centers. Not sure what many of you may know or not know about lithium batteries. Lithium batteries can explode. They're dangerous if left unattended. So, we're going to put 275,000t buildings, five of them with 200 generators, lithium batteries, 500 ft away, 500 ft away from residential areas. I'm a half a mile east of there.

Think about what the impact would be of a fire at this place. We don't have a fire department that's trained for this. and Duke Power. We couldn't even get them to shut the power off to the Tesla charger that burned in the Walmart parking lot. Took an hour and a half to do that. So, I mean, these are not invalid concerns. And uh the one thing I also would like to state is that I find the local re ordinance of the next door neighbors to said properties being notified and not the neighbors of the area, especially on a project like this within 2 to 5 miles away to not be notified. That law needs to be addressed immediately. And I realize that's beyond your your commission here, but I do want to go on record at this meeting for that. Um, I look around, you know, one year ago we were here with you. And now we're going to have 525 homes of Brierwood in our backyard thanks to the Stamies. And now they want to leave this legacy for their father and their family where their father died on this farm as a data center. As a data center all to get the water and sewer out from the city. We don't even have an ETJ sitting here. That's who's supposed to represent us on this board. We don't even have an ETJ. Is that not a valid position? That's who's supposed to represent us. These are things that you should really take in consideration. This is not going to be a local job creator. This is going to be a temporary job creator and these jobs are going to go back to Texas and the people that are brought in to run this are not going to be from here. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Moore. Tony Henderson. Uh Tony Henderson, 104 Comanche Court, Statesville, North Carolina. I am not within the city limits. I'm not an immediate neighbor, but I'm about two and a half miles away. I'm a 1979 graduate of West Ireland High School. So, I'm from the area. Upon graduation, I went to Georgia Tech, got a degree in engineering uh on an Air Force uh ROC scholarship. Uh I also got a masters in engineering from St. Mary's and a master's in strategic policy from the Air War College. Um in my in my 27 years of air force service, I retired as a full colonel. Uh I had assignments all over this country and in Europe. I was a squadron commander three times, a group commander one time, at three major air commands, and twice at the Pentagon, including 9/11. I say this to kind of set my background and that I'm going to try to talk logically from both a local and a nation and a world perspective. Uh, when I retired from the Air Force, I came home and I bought River Oaks Golf Course and it was a goat track at the time. And my goal was to make that an anchor for West Ireol, the most beautiful 168 acres in the western part of the county. And after 15 years, I've done that. I'm two and a half miles away from the from the proposed data center, and I wholeheartedly support it. What they're doing is is important for us as individuals, for this county, for the nation, and indeed for the world. Every one of us have a cell phone in our back pocket, a computer on our desk. Uh Netflix, Hulu, every app you can imagine. They all take

AI. They all take data. From a from a commercial standpoint, um every business relies on it for growth, for development. Our country's economy counts on it. From a safety standpoint, air traffic control, ship control, and the soon to come autonomous vehicle control all require this. It has to go someplace. But what I want to speak on is national security. Now, I'm speaking as an individual. I'm not speaking as a former Air Force colonel, but that's where my background comes from. I have no affiliation with the government. But just just this week, the air the air force and navy did combined operations using AIdriven air battle management with F-16s, F-35s, and F-18s. Precision. It cut pilot error down to next to nothing. Took decision time down from minutes to seconds. Every every N every Navy weapon system uses AI. Every Army advance system uses AI. We are currently developing the sixth generation fighter that's going to use AI. We have to have this ability. To me, the most the the most important thing, our main adversaries, China and Russia, hypersonic weapons. We've all heard of them. We have no answer for those right now. AI gives us an answer. Intercepting a hypersonic weapon is like driving down the interstate at 70 mph, bending out your car window, and trying to pick up a dime. We don't have the ability for that. AI gives us that ability. Thank you.

You [Applause]

Thank you, sir. Tim and Sheila Shuford. Good evening. Um, my name is Sheila Schuford. My husband is Tim. We live at 128 Mount Herman Road, Statesville, North Carolina. I'm not in the city. I have never ever spoken at anything to this manner in my life, but I'm a nurse of 37 years and um I do know that data centers are inevitable. But what concerns me most is the placement of this data center. in the middle of our small community where we're within um two to three schools where children will be outside playing. We have West Ardell Middle School, we have West Ireel High School, we also have Celeste Elementary. Um I have spent my life educating people on health problems. We live in an area where we have a large population of COPD, asthma. These generators that Compass talks about, they are still diesel powered. They do still put off soot into our air. They do still amplify respiratory illness, cancer. There's all kinds. We've already touched on noise pollution. I'm not going to go over what other people have already said. But my big concern is that my grandchildren get to grow up in an environment where they can run outside and play and not have to worry about the air that they breathe. They have to be consciously morally responsible. And and they can sit up here for at least 13 minutes. I don't get the opportunity to talk for 13 minutes, but I do get to say how important it is that they are responsible and they can say what they're going to do, but the data shows differently, y'all. I have statistics. Um, just one that I'd like to mention that by the year um, 2030, y'all, that's 5 years away, that we will have data

centers contributing to over 600,000 additional cases of asthma related to the these increase in the symptoms from what they breathe from these centers that we're around. We already know that we're a hot spot for thyroid cancer. We've been studied in this area and I have data that I can share with the board if you'd like to see it that they have been looking at cancers. We know that all of the the electrical equipment, the data station or the substation that they call, all those things are going to be very near people living that have grown up in this community. There's got to be a better place for it than in the middle of communities with three schools surrounding this area. So, I ask you, and you don't have to answer it out loud, but ponder if this was coming in your backyard or in your neighborhood, and you had to decide what noise you had to listen to or the lights or the air that you breathe, whether it was going to be safe enough for you or not, or your family or your loved ones. So, consider that when you vote on this, whether or not you would want what we're being asked to come into our community. Thank you for your consideration, and I ask that you really, really dig deep and think about it. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. [Applause] Uh, Bill Mcomes.

Bill, if you could state your address, if you're a city resident and if you're an adjoining property owner.

Yes. Uh, Bill Mcomes. Um I live in Morsville but uh our Mcome Steel Company is located at 117 Slingshot Road which is approximately 2 and 1/2 miles from here uh from your site facility. Um you know I fully support the annexation and the reason being there's you got to understand what they're going to bring tax revenue to this community to change schools, roads, infrastructure, maybe lower the tax base. Um, something's going in this community, right? Do we want 500 homes? Do we want an Amazon with trucks coming in out of it all the time? Or do you want one of the most low impactful facilities that doesn't have that much impact on the community? And um, just got to think about the tax revenue that that's bringing in for the city. That's it. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you,

Jeff Tucker. Good afternoon. Uh my name is Jeff Tucker. Uh lifetime lifetime resident uh of West Ardle. Uh I live 211 Ashbrook. Uh my grandma's farm it was Cook Road when we grew up. I went to work for Stamies when I was 12 years old and worked for them through high school. Uh Statesville, still live right there on Ashbrook. You take the city of Statesville and you take come out west and you come to Stammy Farm, you come to Sharon Old Mountain Road and Sharon School, that's the nucleus of the county once you get away from Morrisville. Take Morrisville out of the equation. That's a nucleus of the whole county. Always has been. It's quite rural setting. Uh she just touched on uh this proposed site's within a mile of Celeste, West Middle, West High that uh uh the system that the electrical system sits right there at West Idle. Uh so what's proposed here, I grew up thinking this is going to be agriculture and what's proposed here is massive. This is uh just a a steroid beast to what we thought we was going to get. So y'all are pushing this through and I've talked to some county commission. I mean some not county commission but talked to some people and this is going through just like a regular resoning. But what I want y'all to understand this ain't a regular resoning. Y'all are going to change the complexity and the way the county looks with this coming in. It's going to change it forever. Now I just I so so with that said the concern has been brought up here tonight. I would like to

see a full report from the other data centers that's in the corner and that's already in the country so we can see what we're going to get. We don't want a pig in a sack right here and we don't know. They don't even know who the tenants going to be. They couldn't tell us nothing other than everything's going to be good. We want to see some reports on the data centers that's out there. Uh we deserve full disclosure. Uh before any approval, before y'all done, y'all need to look at that and y'all need to make us aware. Me personally, most people in here, I don't pay city tax. I don't get to vote for for for city council. And yet y'all are coming out and making decisions that's going to affect all of us for the rest of our lives. So I want to request right here on record [Applause] I want to request on record that this be moved to a joint planning session with the county board, with the county planning, along with the city planning, with the county commission, with the city commission because this ain't your normal stuff. This is going to change the complexity of this county forever. And it needs to be the county decision from we the people, not county politics as usual. So, I would like for just for y'all to have an open heart and and to pay close attention and listen to to to the truth of what's getting ready to come cuz we're going to have to live with it forever. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Next up, we have Jonathan Griffin.

I'm Jonathan Griffin. I uh uh live at 178 Black Road in Statesville. That's off of Celestial Fol, off Old Mountain Road. Um not in the not in the city. Um, and I uh uh uh have been a lifelong resident of Ardale County. Uh, I have a law practice here in Statesville. I've been here about 24 years. Um, I do do want to make it clear I do not represent the stamies in any way or compass. I know I'm I'm here as a citizen uh and a resident of Westiredale. Um, I do support the uh proposal uh to reszone it. I think um um in my research when when I first heard about this a few weeks ago, I took an interest in it because it uh affects the area that I live in. I'll be driving by I I drive down 70 to work every day. Um and um I got to looking at it. Um it is a big facility but from what I understand and I would encourage everyone to continue to do their research um on this but don't necessarily get your get your information from just particular groups that have a particular agenda. You need to dig into it and look for yourself and do your do the research. Um I believe Compass Data Centers to be a kind of a world-class organization. They've got international facilities. They've got facilities here in the uh in the United States. And I think one of the things that appeals to me is we know what we're getting. Um it's not they're not just going to it's not going to some developer who can just sell it to anybody. We know what we're getting and we can research that. We're getting a data center. They store they store data. So

um um I don't normally get involved in Iredale County politics and in the local politics. Um, I kind of have stayed out of that, but um, as I understand it, um, this is going to be potentially the biggest investment in our county in our county's history. Um, and that's significant and needs to be looked into. I believe there's a significant opportunity for tax revenues that are going to help our roads, our schools, our parks, other services. Um and so it's not to be taken lightly, but as I look into it, I believe this is a significant opportunity for Ideal County uh from a tax revenue basis. That's not to ignore the impacts. Anytime something like this is coming in, people need to take a look a look a strong look at it. Um but I believe that uh the benefits far outweigh uh any potential um problems. I don't believe I've not seen any real evidence of of the pollution and things that you hear from others. Uh it stores data. It's got a um it's not going to tax the water system the way they do their cooling. Um uh we can support it. I believe Duke Energy says we can support it. And I believe that it's it's already been projected to be industry by the um the county's Horizon 2045 plan and the city's land development plan. So I believe our leaders have already projected this um and I believe it

so you need to terminate your remarks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next up we have Thomas Hamill. Has he been able to get upstairs? Is that

okay? We're going to go to the next person while we wait on Mr. Hamill. Next up, we have John Galina. First of all, thank you all uh for being here and for patiently hearing uh certainly everybody's opinions and I know that they're vast. I had a prepared statement and I I want to uh first uh think a little bit about the history of our community and certainly as a lifelong resident I live at 104 Gayax Drive in Statesville, North Carolina. And I'm while I'm not in the city limits, I do have a vested interest in the city as I do have a charity here in the community. And my kids go to school here in the community. And you know, one of the things that I often times think about is the importance of having job opportunities for our children to stay here. And I would beg to say that none of you want to see your children or grandchildren have to get a decent paying job by going to Charlotte or Morsville or some other surrounding city. And so what Compass offers is the opportunity to start creating higherp paying jobs. As a as a general contractor, we often hear about affordable housing, but we fail to think about the other side of the equation. It's not just about driving prices down. It's about increasing wages to make affordable housing available. And the other side of the equation for the stamies that I hear constantly and it just it it makes me so angry to hear this and this idea that a landowner is wrong to sell their property. That is a part of their bundle of rights that they get to choose within the law what they can do with that property. And this plan is in alignment with what our elected officials put on the table for our horizon plan and for the planned future use of this property. I'm fully

supportive of this opportunity and believe that economically it's good for our community. It's going to offer the potential for job creation, not just in the tech industry, but it's also going to offer the opportunity for higher education through Mitchell Community College. It's going to offer construction jobs, and it's going to be the lowest impact for our community from a traffic standpoint and so many other issues. I can completely understand. I live within the airport's radius of their takeoff and landing. So, I I understand the sense of jets taking off and the sound and the noise disruption. We're already hearing that. We're not going to take that away. We're not going to create affordable housing in that property right in the takeoff path at Estatesville airport. This is a great potential use. That's why it was designated for the zoning that it was in the future plan as we made the extension of the airport runway. Statesville has already made significant investment into this community for this purpose. And I urge you to continue down the course and follow that plan. It's good for our community, good for our tax base, and it's going to be good for the future of our kids. We're called the city of progress. It's time that we start making those forward steps and making progress to create jobs and opportunity for our future. I thank you so much for your time, what you do. I know it's not easy to be sitting behind this this podium and be able to hear both sides of the equation, but thank you for doing that and doing your civic duty to help our city grow. I hope you all have a blessed day.

Thank you, Mr. Galina. And I believe uh Thomas Hamill was able to come up from downstairs.

Hello, my name is Thomas Hamill. I live on Kentwood Road. I'm just within a couple miles of this. My son goes to West Middle. Uh so, you know, there's all the things they've talked about air quality, but I think what a lot of people are missing here is the security aspect. You have the uh the batteries of course with the smoke and the fire and all that problem. But uh you know we got a lot of people in this country right now. We don't know who they are and they've already told us we have terrorists here. And you want to build a big bomb right by a bunch of schools and by a bunch of residential areas. Well, if somebody hits this place, what's the security on it? I've heard all the talk about, you know, all the good stuff, but who's securing this place? What's that going to be like? We going to have troops setting up here? We're going to have police, FBI. What's What's going to go on with that? Because it has to be secure. You can't just set something like this out by a community and not secure it. And I don't mean some little guy in a security car riding around with a flashlight. I mean, this is serious business here. I mean, you know, it may sound funny, but it's really not. I live down here. That thing catches fire. Where am I going to go? I just got my house paid for, and y'all going to put this down here, and if a fire breaks out, what are you going to do about it? I mean, really, what? Somebody answer that. What are you going to do if this place catches on fire? Nobody has an answer for that. The West Ardale Fire Department ain't going to be able to put it out. They're not going to be able to put it out. So, who's going to put it out? You guys going to come up here to pass this stuff? You going to go up there and dump buckets of water on it? What are you going to do? What are you going to do about all the traffic it's going to cause? Already, if there's a wreck on 40, I can't hardly get out of my road because all that traffic comes down 70 down 70 Hickory Highway and y'all going to create more

traffic. And it's the same old problem in county. Y'all build up stuff and you don't fix the roads. That's the last thing you think about. And you got a bunch of traffic jam going on. And who's getting these jobs? I guarantee it's not any blue collar workers around here. I doubt anybody from around here gets hired to work there. So, answer some real questions, some hard questions. Who's going to put out the fire? Who's going to secure this place? And who's going to guarantee me that my air is not going air quality is not going to go down? I already have problems breathing as it is. So, you know, this seems really irresponsible to me. And then we're here in the city council. This is a county thing. This is county land, not city. Why am I even standing here? You know, and I've heard from a little bird that there's already been money paid to Duke Power for the uh substation. $21 million. Does that sound familiar to to any of y'all? Why is that money done been paid? Somebody's getting their pockets lined here and uh it don't feel right to me. This is going over like a farting church. We ain't having it. Do not pass this. Do not do this or you're going to have to hear my mouth more because I'm not having This is It's just It's really But I've heard a lot of people get up here and say a lot of pretty nice things, but none of it meant anything. None of it. So you guys have a wonderful day. Please think with some common sense and don't pass this. At least send it back to the county.

Yes, sir. [Applause] Dedra Pickkins. Miss Pickkins, if you could state your address. if you're a city resident and if you're an adjoining property owner.

Yes, my name is Dedra Pickkins. Um I'm not a city resident, but I do own a business. I've uh had a small business in Statesville for 19 years come November. So I I um have a lot to do in the community. It means a lot to me. Uh my address is 118 Parker Grove Lane. So I am in the country. I am within a two-mile radius of Sammy Farm. We have heard a lot. We've heard a lot of promises about jobs and give back to community and schools and a beautiful presentation about how you get people involved. That's all great. Give back on your end, but what you're leaving us with is a whole lot of issues when it comes to power supply. Thank you. Noise and light pollution, air pollution, health concerns, and security. Once this land is turned over for this, when it's developed for a data center, it's irrevocably altered. There is no going back. And I hope that you guys really think long and hard about that. Any jobs that they propose, well, we heard from Gordon earlier, they're not going to be from here. What are they going to train our people to do? This is a a housing station that houses computer systems, related equipment for storing, processing, distributing large amounts of data. What is that going to do for us? AI, it's not a matter of of wanting AI or not wanting AI. It's a

matter of placement and where you're putting this. from my house, the beautiful sunsets that I have, the amount of light pollution that a data center creates, a sky glow, and look up these things. If you guys haven't heard about this, I feel like I am playing catch-up. I learned about this a week ago, and the amount of data that is out there that you can go and look at for yourself. Please do that. I want my sunsets at night. I don't want to be outside and all I see is a glow from the upward emissions of the data center. My stepdad is down the road. I don't want him having any other health conditions as far as breathing goes. The schools, what about our schools and our kids? Just really stop and think about that because once this once this change is over, guys, there's no going back. And these centers, they operate 247. There's no turnoff.

Thank you. It's up to us to take care of future generations. Thank you for your time,

John Michaels. Hello, my name is John Michaels. I'm a Morsville resident, but I just purchased property uh near this catastrophe as I'm thinking of it. But anyway, um before I say anything, I'd like you both, all of you to turn around and look at that mural on the wall behind you. Just please do that. Take a good look at it. That is what we are representing. I don't see a data center there anywhere. This is not why people moved out here. It's just not. And I understand that there has to be growth. And why does it have to be here? He mentioned it. We've already put in all their infrastructure so they can build and they can reap the benefits. I've looked up on AI all of the all of the uh data centers that have been uh installed and not one of them has done anything to benefit the community at all. Maybe it brought in tax revenue and a lot of people made a lot of money at the top but nothing for the residents. There's nothing there. You're going to put a playground in. Who's going to go to a playground next to a data center?

It's just not going to happen. I mean, talk about this. you know, you make this when when you first started, I was listening to all of this very carefully because I just found out about it after I purchased my property. Um, but all I could think of is the old saying, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig no matter what you do. And it's just, this is you just make everything seem like it's just so nice. It's going to be a fairy tale land. We've got to have all this data. Well, put it somewhere where you have to do the infrastructure to get the roads a 100 miles away from where we need to be. Don't come because we put in all the roads, all of our taxes, all of our in infrastructure is here and then you say, "Oh, there's a nice place right there. It's right next to 40. We can get the airport real quick. We can bring our trucks in. We can get our all of our supplies in here." It's just this is just it's just crazy. I mean, please don't do this. And another thing I I I know you're volunteers and I tried to look on the internet and I couldn't find anything about the background of the people that are planning this or moving it up the next line. I don't know that you guys are qualified to do make a decision that is this huge. You're talking about affecting possibly hundreds of thousands of people. We don't know what the pollution is. We know. I mean, yeah, it's not going to be a water sucker and all of that, but we don't know what the pollution's going to be. We have no idea. The diesel generators do have to run. They have to test themselves all the time. Uh, I think there's going to be a lot more to this than meets the eye. And the only people that are going to gain are these people that are making the money at the top. And they don't even know who their customer is. They, you know, you say we have transparency and we know all about this. Well, the gentleman that said that we know all about this, we don't know one thing about this. This is not trans. This is

as opaque as you can be and you have to you have to stop. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. [Applause]

Next up, we have Erica Hernandez. And Erica, um, please state your address if you're a city resident and an adjoining property owner. Hello, my name is Erica Hernandez. No, I'm not um in the city limits. I live in Charlotte um specifically 7705 Paradol Circle Drive. Um and I do want to say that I work for Clean Water for North Carolina and there are a lot of concerns regarding this proposed data center campus. Firstly, the sudden popularity surge of data centers across the world has led to many concerns in reports stating their negative impacts on our water usage, utility bills, and our climate goals. AI infrastructure dramatically raises water demand due to these centers running 24/7. They need to keep cool and powered. And according to researchers, it's projected that worldwide AI related water withdrawals will reach between 4.2 to 6.6 6 billion cubic meters by 2027. This amount is more than half of the UK's annual water use. Although Compass Data Centers has stated that they plan on using airbased cooling cooling to reduce water usage, but without enforcable conditions, it is difficult to know if this commitment will hold as operations expand. The energy demand for data centers could also lead to an increased reliance on fossil fuels and higher costs for utility rateayers. The New York Times and WUNC recently reported on the fact that all of our electricity rates are already going up to pay for the infrastructure needed to power data centers. This new data center would only make it worse. Additionally, there are more proposed unwanted infrastructure in and near Ayarddale County. For example, the expansion of compressor station 150 which is in Morrisville as a part of Transco's dangerous proposed southeast supply enhancement project and the new proposed

gas plant in Katava County which is also full of data centers. Compass Data Centers is proposing approximately 340 acres owned by Stamy um family to be resoned for this data center. I kindly ask for this board to request Compass to present more detailed plans on water sourcing, energy uses, environmental considerations, and traffic modeling, especially considering the fact that there are several schools within a 2.5 mile radius, such as West Aridell High School, West Aridell Middle School, and Celeste Hankle Elementary School. Clean Water for North Carolina along with many other residents strongly oppose this proposed data center due to the high risks it will pose in the community such as straining local water supplies, adding more stress to an already fragile power grid along with noise, air, and light pollution. Growth should never come at the expense of clean water, public health, and negative environmental impacts. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. [Applause]

Thank you. Um, Cody Blizzard. Hi, my name is uh Cody Blizzard and uh I live in Statesville out of city limits. Uh about five miles away from where this data center is about to be put in. Um basically I'm going to start off by saying that wasn't really planning on coming and speaking because I'm a busy man who is work is I've been working all day. I have a pregnant wife and a two-year-old at home that I decided to spend time away from this evening just so I could come down here and voice my opinion on this matter. I'm going to start off by saying I'm a proud North Carolina native born and raised in Morsville and I enjoyed growing up in Morsville, but by the time I got into my 20s, Morsville had become way too overdeveloped and commercialized to the point where the town was overcrowded and you couldn't get anywhere without sitting in constant traffic. So in 2021, I decided to buy a house up here in Statesville out in the country where I felt like it was a lot like Morsville before it was ruined by overdevelopment. So when I talk to people, I tend to use Morsville as the example of what not to do when it comes to running a town. But I will say one thing that they did get right was by stopping a data center from being built in their town. That might I say would have undoubtedly drained a lot of precious resources. Data centers consume vast amounts of power and other resources just to keep them running. And unfortunately, the taxpayers will foot the bill in the long run due to rising utility costs because

the data center will put such a strain on the town's infrastructure that it will constantly need upgrades to handle the resource draw of the data center. Now, let's get to the v environmental impact these data centers have, which is just as bad. One of the main reasons I love living out here in the country of Statesville is constantly being able to experience wildlife right outside my front door. And I don't see how a data center is going to benefit the envir the environment and the quality of life of the people and the wildlife that live around the 300 acres they plan to steamroll. Why are they wanting to take 300 acres of prime agricultural land way out here when there's already an industrial side of Statesville? the town only has so much farmland and forest remaining and once it's gone it'll never come back and I know some people will say well it's just one industrial center but that's where it starts and once that ball gets rolling there's no stopping it I mean Morsville is the prime example and before you know it all of westville will become an basically industrial land and we won't have anything left yet to find a single person in statesville that's excited about the possibility of a data center besides the few people that have spoke that aren't going to live near it. And the thing is is if majority of the population is against it, why are we even here discussing this? And so what I'm trying to get at is that I can tell you personally as a father of or soon to be father of two boys, I don't want to wake up someday and have to explain to them why once the beautiful countryside of Statesville got demolished and why they won't be able to experience amazing wildlife and beauty in this town.

All right, sir. Thank you. Can I Can I just finish? I'm almost No. Okay, so they're allowed to speak for 13 minutes, but we're not made their presentation. Thank you. I just would like to know how many people that actually are putting this data center in are going to live. Sir, you need to [Applause] Rusty Lee Rusty Lee.

And if you could state your address and name your city resident and adjoining property. Hi, Rusty Lee here. Um, lifelong Statesville resident, 737 St. Cloud Drive. I don't live adjacent to the property, but longtime Statesville resident. Um, have kids that go to grandkids that go to Celeste Henle. U, a little bit about me. I'm a a Telkom engineer. I have um I'm a graduate of UNCC. I've been doing Telkom engineering for approximately 20 years. Um, I've had the u the responsibility for taking care and working inside data centers in the Carolinas and all across the country in Northern Virginia, in Dallas, in pretty much anywhere in Atlanta. I've been in data centers uh for for years and years. I don't know how many other people have been in data centers to really have an idea of what this is. uh th this particular one, the proposal that's being brought forth is a little different. Uh Compass does data centers differently. The data centers that I've been in for the most part are colllocation facilities. Basically, what you call carrier hotels. They have a number of people that are in them or a number of business entities are in them. This particular facility is going to be so much bigger and offers a unique opportunity for the residents of Statesville in Ardo County because it is different. Um, it's going to enhance, if I didn't say it already, I'm for this. I'm I'm enthusiastic about this. It's even hard to even put in words how enthusiastic I am. When I first heard of this particular project coming here, I was thinking like, well, how is it that

Compass decided upon us to do a project like this? There are a number of technical reasons why they did it that I won't bore you with, but I'd be happy to get into it with other folks. It has to do with den data latency, where this needs to be. I've heard a number of people that have talked about the AC power, about lithium batteries. Uh, a lot of those points are are well taken, but that's not the way the data centers work. Not the modern data centers. Anyway, um, a quick story to help you kind of understand my point of view. Uh, early in my Telkom career, I worked closely with an engineer, Jerry knows him, uh, that, uh, had the vision to start an internet service provider. He was an internet the first internet service provider in Ireland County. Um, one thing that I learned from him uh in in working closely with him is that not only did you need to dream big, but you needed to plan big. That's not really my big uh point of the story, but one of the things that I did learn from him is that uh early in his career, he had the opportunity and was asked to join a little company that some people now know as Microsoft. He turned that opportunity down um because he didn't really think they had a future. I can't say that how deeply he regretted that over the years, but he did. He had an opportunity that came knocking. He had the opportunity to join with uh would have been a worldass company. He let that go. Now, that's not to say he had wasted time. He certainly didn't because he

All right. I Okay, I believe your time is up. Thank you. Oh, okay. Well, thank you. Thank you,

Leanne Hules. and if you could start with your name and address and if you're a city resident or joining property owner. My name is Leanne Huddleston. My address is 124 Mil Mills Forest Lane, Morrisville, North Carolina. I am here representing my which is outside of the city limits as most of the people here will be outside of the city limits since this property is outside of the city limits. I'm here today to represent my family. Um, more specifically my mother who is unable to come. Um, and she resides at 310 Ashbrook Road, which is um, uh, not directly across the street from Stammy Farm, but it's like at the corner of Ashbrook and Stamy, so it's relatively close. So, good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to be here. Um, I am a county resident, a county land owner, and a county taxpayer. I am here today again on behalf of behalf of my family, Mo, more importantly, my mother. Um, she, um, owns her home. We live not far down the road from Mr. Tucker, who you've heard from earlier. Um, her property, um, is paid for. So, she's not going anywhere. Okay. Um, in

the spirit of collective and deliberate planning and considering the scope and scale of this proposal, the citizens deserve a full understanding of the potential benefits, risks, and financial tradeoffs. So, on record, I would oppose this at this time. We need more due diligence. Okay, we need some research as it relates to um the operation, the byproduct, the environmental impacts such as the water, the air, the soil, the light, the noise, and health impacts to all of Ardell County residents, whether you live inside or outside any city limit, be it Statesville, Morsville, Troutman, any of the cities within Iredell County. Um, I've recently had a crash course in how these processes work and um, what the Horizon 2045 plan is, that there's one at the county level, that there's one in the city level, and that how they are supposed to align and mesh and check boxes off as we approve things to come to our area. Uh currently there are plus or minus 2800 Aredell Statesville students across five schools within less than a 10 mile radius of this location. Three of which are less than a fivem radius with those those three being Celeste West Ardell Middle West Ardell High School all of which I have attended.

Thank you.

So thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Hutson. Next up, uh Paula Huffman. Make sure I've got this right. Uh my name is Paula Huffman. I live at 157 Stamy Farm Road and I am an adjacent land owner. My husband Ed and I have lived in our home for 28 years. Um and before that, the land belonged to my grandparents. So, our farm has been in the family for a long time. We have been fortunate to be neighbors of the Stamies. They have been wonderful neighbors to us. They have been good to our community. Um, good to us as land owners and neighbors. Um, they have been great contributors to Statesville and to Ardell County and we appreciate so much their stewardship of the land all these years. Folks, I would like more than anyone in this room for everything to stay the same. My property backs up to this data center and I would prefer that nothing change on Stami Farm Road. The Stamy's farm is gorgeous. They've taken wonderful care of it. It's beautiful. It's a great backdrop to my property. But guys, it's not going to stay the same. The Stamies are no longer in the business of raising cattle. Instead, they broker cattle internationally. They no longer need to farm that farm. when in fact it's probably a drain on their productivity keeping up with it. They have the right to sell their property and based on the land use proposal that's already in place, nothing to do with resoning or changing. Based on what's already in place, a lot of things can go in on that land. A lot of things. Do I really want a data center in literally my backyard? Not particularly. But what else would I want there instead? And something is going on that land. It's not going to be a farm anymore. All those vistas are going to be gone. And in fact, I imagine that

where most of us live was at one point beautiful farmland or undeveloped woods. All these things change in time. I would love for nothing to change. I've raised my child there. I've played in those woods as a child. I rode my horses all over that farm when I was 10 years old. I rode all over the Stamy's farm, too, because they allowed us to, which was great. But guys, it's going to change. And I just ask you to think of this. We know there are some concerns about data centers. I personally had never thought about the lithium fires before. And I would love to see our county address that so that we don't end up being another story like Los Angeles or Maui, Hawaii that wasn't prepared. We need to prepare for those inevit or those possibilities, not inevitabilities. I would like to see that prepared for. But guys, I want you to think what else could go in there. We've already got an airport. We've had a dirt track. We've had a chipper mill. We've had all kinds of industry that might not be nearly as responsible as this one. So before you say no to the data center, I want you to think about the alternatives. Thank you so much.

Thank you,

Mark Cash. Madame Chair, board, my name is Mark Cash. I live at 232 Low Ray Lane here in Statesville about 2 miles from this uh proposed data center. Um I'd like to say that there's been a lot of feelings expressed here tonight. Um and some facts need to be brought up about things. Some things that were discussed were uh who's going to fight fire? Well, this property is being asked to be annexed into the city of Statesville. City of Statesville just won some serious awards for their fire department for handling issues. So, I'm pretty sure the Statesville fire department can handle anything that you put in front of them. Got a great staff there. They also talk about the the substation, the power substation. Well, currently right behind West Ireland Middle School is one of the hugest Duke power substations you've ever seen. It's been there for years. It's not new. That's where this power is coming from. It's been sitting there idle with a lot of CA uh extra uh area there to expand on. It's been there. Um the medical benefits people people talk about medical AI is one of the greatest things ever for helping medical. I've talked to doctors. I've got good friends. doctors and and the technology coming with doctors being able to reach others and through the AI technology is great. We all use data centers every time we pick up a phone, turn on the computer, we need data centers currently. The way this property is zoned, there could be

600 homes there. That's a lot of traffic, a lot more schools to build. Uh someone mentioned data centers do nothing. Well, Apple Data Center in Maiden has built a new city hall, has built a new fire department. There's a lot of things come out of the tax revenue that that this creates. Um, they've been a good good steward to their community in Maiden, North Carolina. Um, Kataba County actually cut their rate tax rate to a revenue neutral tax rate when all of our taxes went up during the last revaluations. The tax rate didn't, but we paid a whole lot more because the reval. So, there's just there's a lot of benefits to this. Um, a lot of discussion about health issues. Well, there's so many federal um regulators, uh EPA, ASHA, they're they're not going to let anything go be dangerous out there. It's never going to happen. And and here, see the rudeness. There's been a lot of people in here rude talking over people when they're talking and it's very rude. and and I really encourage you the the state the county 2045 plan the city future use plan have all

Thank you this thank you Pamela Lock Pamela Lock were you able to make it upstairs okay

all right Jeff Ires Dale Warren Josh King maybe 231 Gordon. How you doing? I'm Josh King. I live in Stony Point. Um I've been lucky enough to start a business in Statesville. work with the town with the city of Statesville building to building. Um, I learned some of the process we went through for that. I am I've been able to learn about EVs. We have EV chargers at my work. There's a lot with lithium batteries that we don't understand as fire departments. Sorry. Um, but this state has had hurricanes, floods, fires like Aridell County. They have a lot of money. Some of these low-lying counties that don't have a lot of money. If a data center can do all this stuff with all this money with low impact, why wouldn't you go to these counties that need money? Why wouldn't you go to the counties that need schools, the counties that need fire departments? Like, think of that stuff. Think about the poor people. Don't think about Statesville getting rich and county getting rich. We can build stores, hotels, parks, recreation, fun stuff. Give all the big money to the the counties that really really need it. It's low impact. There's more jobs. Everything's being built off site. If it's being built off site and trucked in, that's going to be a lot easier for those counties, right? So, why can't we think of that stuff? And thank you. Somebody else can have my time.

Thank you. See, Renee Morren Renee, what about Samuel Estes? Anybody else down there? Okay, Samuel, you go ahead. Um, state your name, your name and address for the record.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Samuel Estus. I live and reside at 1759 Old Mountain Road, Statesville, North Carolina. Um, I'm sure the stamies and everyone in here are very, very familiar where Old Mountain Road is. It's the backside of Stamium Farm. Growing up as a child, I'd have bad days. I would cut through the cornfield. Go ahead be mad at me for trespassing as a child, but I'd watch the cows out there. That's what called me as a child. The country setting is what calmed me as a child. Now, with that being said, I have served this community for 17 years on the fire department here. If you want to do a data center, by all means, do it. But you're picking the wrong place to do it. And here's the reason why. You have prime prime location over here just off east west front street over there off Highway 90 by Kowani. You go out Highway 70 there Stville Business Park. There is prime location out there as well. There's not that many houses out there. So why should I be affected? Why should my house in market my house value be affected? Stamies is going to make money off this. Y'all are going to make money off of this. It's going to cause my house to go down. Who's going to want to buy a house next to that? Not to mention that I'm also raising 11-year-old child there. I want him to experience the things that I experienced growing up. And by God, if he blessed me with grandchildren, I'd want him to be able to him or her to experience that as well in the country setting. I shouldn't have to move. I didn't move away from this city. I didn't. I stayed home because of this country setting. I've traveled all over this country. I've even done it by motorcycle. I've seen all this beautiful land that we've had. But nothing is like home. And that's the way that it should stay. That's the way that it needs to be. If you want to sell your property, by God, do it. But a dat is not the way to do it. It's going to have negative impacts. If you've ever been on a construction site like I have, I've been in construction before. I've worked six years in construction. The dust, the noise, the pollution. Guess what? A EPA ain't there. When they're not there, who follows the rules? It wasn't followed. I can tell

you that right now. But also with that being said, my lovely wife here four years moved down here from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Actually, Rapids, a suburbs outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She specifically chose this area. And guess where her house is? The light loop next to the airport. It's a country setting with the airplanes. Now, with the airplanes being said, Old Mountain Road, we are right there in the flight pattern. Planes, country setting cows, not buildings, not big buildings. It's just uncalled for. But I heard u I've got so much to say and obviously that's like an uneducated hiccup here and I'm not going to apologize for that cuz I'm speaking from emotion cuz I had no intentions of speaking tonight. If you're going to build it, don't build it there. Expand back this way or use the properties you have in the city that are vacant now.

You have the infrastructure here, the sewer, the power. Do it in the city limits where you already have all those resources. Don't mess up my front yard. Don't make my house be a cheap piece of crap. And don't rip my child's children, my children, and my child's childhood away. It's not right. Thank you for your time. You're going to make your own decision. I'm sorry. Again, this is from a motion. Put it somewhere where you have the resources. Thank you. Did we have Pamela Lock?

Okay. Um Jeff Buyers. All right, come on up, Jeff. And um just make sure you state your name, address, if you're a city resident, and if you're an adjoining property owner. My name is Jeff Buyers. I'm 64. I'm been a lifelong residence of uh West Irdale. And no, I chose never to live in the city limits. I live on Bethlehem Road, which is across from Stamy Farm. And I'm old enough to remember twothirds of my life that it wasn't Stamy Farm Road, it was Fry Gilbert Road until donations and political parties got the name changed. I digress. I've moved seven times in my life, seven times. And never have left Westdale. This is very upsetting to me. The day the first meeting is when the signs went up. I I just I can't fathom that. But I'm going to address I'm going to step on some toes and I want the crowd to know this. Number one, I don't trust anything a developer tells me. I don't trust what politicians tell me. And I'm going to tell you why. The airport expanded and we were given this pie in the sky. Our road connected from uh Hickory Highway over to uh Beth I mean uh Old Mountain Road. And we were told we're going to we're going to open it back up. We're going to do that. How many years ago was that? The city council come out and said this is what we're going to do. City council still hasn't done anything. The last meeting I attended, I was told how great the airport's doing, how much revenue is coming in. Oh, by the way, don't we don't have money to expand the road. So, don't hand me this pie in the sky crap. And I guarantee you, I've already heard it said earlier, not a single one of y'all live in the vicinity where this is going to happen or you wouldn't want it. I promise you that. I know that I don't

even have to ask that question. But the thing about it is, like I said, I've moved seven times in West Irondale. Yes, I live right there at the airport. But you know what? I chose that. I'm not choosing this. I think it's a crying shame. Number one, I've heard it's already been approved for 500 homes to go in over on Gilbert Road that used not to be Gilbert Road. And now this I'm not buying it for one minute. This is this is corrupt from day one. I know how the stamies did with the political parties. I know the fundraisers they had. So that tells me all I need to know that money was under the table. This is probably a done deal. And the council is probably laughing at every resident that's coming up here. That's okay. Where's my Bethlehem road? Why is it not completed? You can't trust anything a politician says. Have a good night. [Applause]

Thank you, Mr. Buyers. Dale Warren.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um uh my name is Dale Warren. I live at 144 Greenwich. I own the farm that's uh along with my brother at 453 Bethlehem. We have a prominently a mile of back creek that runs through our farm that we solely rely on for water for our cows. Just a few weeks ago, run off from the steamy farm, poisoned the creek, killed all the fish, cows wouldn't drink, had a lot of problems. I ended up having to notify wild parks and wildlife. They didn't respond. Finally got them out. Two days later, we got North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality out there. First thing they said came from Stamy. It did. It came from Stamy Farms. I am not adjacent to the farm, but my creek runs through it. Now, you can say it's not my creek. It's state of North Carolina's, but it is my creek. We maintain it. We clean it up. I've taken multiple trash out of it. It is It is my creek. The other thing that I kind of enjoyed not going first because I didn't get to repeat what everybody else said multiple times, but I did listen to the presentation. Appreciate it. It's nice and sweet. One thing that does never does happen. Oh, by the way, I'm an uh not only am I a small cattle farmer, I'm an engineering and man maintenance manager at a refinery. Just spent 45 years in Texas. My goal was to move back to North Carolina, come back to Statesville. I don't call Statesville my home no more. Maybe, but not right now. I'm in the Shiloh. Um, spent my life savings. My farm wasn't handed down to me. I earned every bit of it. I paid for every bit of it. I paid for every cow that's on that place. I paid for all the feed. I pay for the water. Everything else that goes in that place. I have spent my life savings. So, I'm not going to go down without a fight. the data center. I just

need some questions answered. One, you said it's a hybrid, but you said no water. So, we know that's a lie. Can't have hybrid, not have water. The other thing that was failed to mention was um if we have a spill into Back Creek, how are we going to control it? Back Creek runs down, goes past through the city of Statesville's property at the airport, goes down to Rammer Lake, and then ends up in Third Creek. Long ways. We had dead fish, thousands of dead fish using environmentally safe disinfectant milk byproducts, just milk byproducts, which is also a hazmat material uh spilled into the creek. The developer mentioned that we're going to use a environmental friendly uh vegetation. Sammy was fertilizing 300 acres of uh soybeans. How much more vegetation can you get as a filter? How much more can you do it? Also heard. So the other thing about we build the best. Hey, I'm in the business. We go out for bids. We get what we want at the lowest price. If we want a Cadillac and a Volkswagen will get us there. That's what's going to be bought. So don't don't believe that. I appreciate your time. But the the other thing is

Thank you, sir. We have to go to the next person. I'm sorry. Previous suits used the word we. I'm sorry, sir. We have to go to the next person. Okay. Renee Morren. Renee. All right. If you'll come up and uh state your name and address and if you're a city resident and adjoining property owner.

My name is Renee Moran. I don't really want to state my address, but I'm within a five mile radius before security reasons and I'm not adjacent to the property and I um do not live in the city. I didn't want to be up here today to talk because I wasn't prepared. But I was waiting for somebody to mention what my concern is and nobody mentioned it. My concern is I recycle and my research is these facilities last 30 years. Y'all said the roof lasts 40 years. So what happens when it's obsolete or it's not functional anymore? What happens to the waste? Are we going to fill our landfills in here in outer county? So, that was my one of my concerns, but I was supporting it. I mean, I was not supporting it. And right now, I'm on the fence because I've had some good uh ideas and I think we need to go forward with a lot of this technology. My son is an AI. He created AI company, but I need more research too for me to get off the fence. So, that's what I would appreciate maybe to find out what they plan on doing it after it's obsolete. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And that was the last person we had signed up to speak at the public hearing. So with that being said, our public hearing is going to close.

Do y'all have any? We're good. Yeah. Any discussion amongst us? Anything we need clarified?

A lot's been said. lot's been said, but looking at it, looking at the plan, looking at things, uh, knowing where the property is, when when Interstate 40 went by the property in the 50s, I think it was, you know, it changed it from from a farm to potential industrial expansion. The uh I I do know this that the property will be sold somewhere sometime. We've said that more than once tonight. And as far as a neighbor, a good neighbor, here you have something that in 1.3 million square ft of land, that's a lot of closer. Okay. Sorry. Uh that's that's a lot of land and I'm not sure why they picked it, but I do know that that that farm has been for sale on the open market uh for at least three years, maybe longer. And we've we've been through a lot of things here with with development. Development is tough. Development is tough. There's no two ways about it. And I I sat on the Ardo County Planning Board for eight years back when I was a contractor and realtor in Statesville. I stayed in Statesville to to be a realtor and have uh had several several different careers in town, but this in in in looking at it, we're talking a billion dollar potential asset. And people I saw my tax I just got my tax bill and

the impact to the community. It does use closed loop water system. As an engineer, I worked on on a closed loop system in in Rubbermaid 50 years ago where you bring the water in and you close it up and you have some kind of heat exchanger which they're using air as opposed to water to for the heat exchange. Just like your air conditioner outside your house, the the condensing coil, it's got a fan blowing the air through it, and that's what makes makes it all work. And instead of a a housing project or a factory, we have we have lots of land that's being built with warehouse space. It's going to take trucks. The city has put off using trucks. I remember consolidated freight. This this was 30 years ago or more wanted to do it and they wouldn't do it because because of truck traffic and stuff like that. But this this has low impact. No matter what you do, if you put 600 houses out there, where's the fire department for that? I don't know. Where's the schools for 600 houses? Here we're talking 200 people. 200 people is a lot of people, but yet it's high, you know, relatively high high technical people that are going to work there. So, they're going to get paid better. To me, this checks all the boxes. It's low impact as

Excuse me. Can you

uh it, you know, and it's it to me it checks all the boxes. It's low impact on what it's going to use. We we Duke Power is going to pro provide the power. Shoreline shoreline is out there. That's that's been been pretty much worked out in the past. And here you got 200 people and that's it on a on a on a community truck trucks coming in and out those people coming to work. So, uh you know I and I understand that. I've I've seen it when when I was on the Harold County planning board, too. It's it's tough. T change is tough, but I think it checks most of the boxes of what the community and what the plans that we have here that we identify, the long long range plans, mobility plan, etc., etc., that it meets that With that, I would I would move that uh we move this forward. [Music]

If anyone had something to say, they were able to sign up during the public comments. Yeah. For three minutes. Yes. For three minutes. Ma'am, would you like to continue making your motion? This is a volunteer committee.

Um, because it checks so many boxes off of what the city. Okay. Ma'am, can you please exit, please? Can you Thank you.

Okay, Madam Chairman. All right. If you would like to exit, please exit. We're going to continue. Go ahead, Joel. I I believe uh I'm don't talking to the chairman. I believe that we were in the process of making a motion. Yes. And uh let's hold it. This can this can clear up. I would like to see any one of you move within five miles of there and still vote for this. Look up. You're all wrong. Look up King Bird in Rocky Point. Please exit. Great project.

Thank you. Thank you to the city of Statesville Police Department. I I believe we were in a process of making a motion. Um and um I do appreciate all the input we've had and I will have to say personally that um at the beginning it was a difficult decision even for me to make and I know that uh my motion will not be the popular one will not be a popular one with most of the people here u but I feel that Um it the the this use I want to give a quick example. I I can remember when cell towers first started and in my the responsibilities I had at the time when they were getting to be very popular. We had a lot of opposition to a cell tower being anywhere near anybody else until most people ended up with cell phones and then it was no longer a major issue because it was something that was needed and was beneficial to the future and and I believe that that's what this is. I don't understand all of it, but I believe that it is part of what our future is going to be. And if it's going to be part of what our future is going to be, I really don't think that we should turn down an opportunity for that future to be in our in Statesville and Ardell County. So, I'll be glad to second your motion or

I'll be glad to make it. Whichever one you want. Let me make it. Okay. Go ahead.

I move we approve the ZC25-13 Compass Data Center. The zoning amendment is approved and is consistent with the city's comprehensive land use plan is response reasonable and in the public interest because the 2019 mobility development plan projects two land use plan options for the airport I40 focus area regarding these properties. Concept A projects half of the properties for mixeduse neighborhood and half for mult manufacturing logistics. Concept B projects all of these properties for manufacturing/logistics. A data center is neither strictly manufacturing or strictly logistics. It is both because it produces information or data and manages the flow of equipment, power, cooling and data within the facility. When a 2045 land development plan when the 2045 land development plan was adopted afterwards the mobility plan was taken into consideration and this area was projected as activity center or employment center/industrial flex employment center flex in industrial includes business parks corporate campuses flex space manufacturing distribution and and other industrial uses. Secondary uses include retail. In addition, these properties are located in the tier 2 growth area. Utilities are currently available or are in the planning stages. In addition to the adopted plans referenced above, the concept plan and conditions offered by the applicant provide large buffers and

an expanse of undeveloped land between the proposed structures and adjoining properties. The primary entrance is in close proximity to I40 and the interchange in a data center is a less intensive use regarding traffic than a distribution center or retail development. I'll second that. All right, we have a motion and we have a second. All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. None. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Next up on our agenda, item number five is going to be ZC25-04. We're going to stop for a minute and let anyone who wants to leave leave.

Did they recommend it? They did. I know you are. It's good to see you, brother. You doing all right? Making it. Making it. How's your shop now? Well, my house is

Yeah. I don't know what you're referring to there. He said it. get money. Okay, moving on to that la that second to last agenda item which was ZC25-04 Hill Haven subdivision. Matt, can I help you? Did you get your question answered? Throw that behind. Is Sherry out there? Ma'am, the planning director's out there. She may be able to assist you if it was a something and I wanted to I wanted to understand

when he said that they didn't have enough schooling for 500 houses but they could afford this why they was able to approve 500 houses on our road less than a year ago. That was a question they did for this but not

that. Okay. I was seeing if it was something I could help with. Okay. Thank you ma'am. Um this was the next one is the Hill Haven subdivision. This is a courtesy hearing for a reasonzoning application filed by Mr. Robert Williamson located at the intersection of Shelton Avenue and Hill Haven Road. This is to reszone it from Iredell County R20 Single Family Residential District, Ardell County HBud Highway Conditional Use District and Arredell County Neighborhood Business District to City of Statesville R8CZ medium density single family residential condoning conditional district. If you want to go ahead, Herman.

Thank you, Madam Chair and board members. Black TV.

As stated, this is a reasonzoning and uh the applicant tonight is uh Mr. Robert Williamson. And as you can see on the screen tonight, this is our location map that shows um we're what we're considering tonight is a reszoning of 147.2 2 acres of land and it's at the intersection of Shelton Avenue and Hill Haven Road. This is a conditional reasonzoning request. So remember that uh the project is tied to the concept plan and conditions. Uh for this specific case, the water will be provided by would be provided by the city of Statesville. Sewer could be provided by City of Statesville and electricity could also be provided by City of Statesville. This is a site photo of what part of the property looks like right now. And as with any reasonzoning, we'd like to look at uh the area around the site and see what kind of zoning it has and what kind of uses. So, what we have here is an aerial map of the site. And uh you'll see as you look uh north of the site, there is a a Statesville city of Statesville R15M residential district. And there you will find some farmland, including some some existing homes. You also have a city of Statesville B5 highway business district with parcels that are currently vacant. If you look east of the site, you'll find Arredell County Neighborhood Business. Uh there's a business there called uh Air and Hydraulic Service. There's also an Ardell County general business district with a business called

uh 21 South Mobile Homes. Then you have Statesville B5. There's a lot of different zoning in this area, which is uh highway business. And there you have Arredell wholesale car sales, Ardell County RA, which is residential agricultural uh district, Shalet Estates and other single family homes. And then finally, you have Statesville R20, which is also residential district with existing single family homes. This is our zoning map. Shows some of the things we're talking about. South of the site is in Iredell County RA residential district. You have Arredell memorial park there which cemetery. Uh you have farmland. You have single family homes and a VFW post. You also have the Arredell County M1 light manufacturing district in this uh south of the site. And there you'll find Troutman Share Company. Arredell County neighborhood businesses in this area uh running along Highway 21. And then finally, west of the site, you have an Ardell County R20 residential district, which has existing single family homes and an R10 Statesville house uh residential district that has the Hidden Lakes subdivision, which is rather new. The developer has provided us with some renderings. This is what the proposed housing would look like in this development. You can see what we usually ask for is a mixture of building material. Uh on the front uh you have the the dormers, the the little porches and things like that

so that nothing is just a a straight cookie cutter design. The 2045 land development plan calls for this area to be a a mixture. Most of the time the cases we deal with it just designates one intent area. This one has two. You can see um along the highway here you see the pink area. That's called the activity corridor. Up top you have the yellow which is the complete neighborhood 2. Now what that means is the complete neighborhood 2 intent area is intended for things like this a housing development. The corridor the activity corridor is usually intended for things like retail commercial and so forth. However, it is staff's opinion that some of the area along this highway dealing with the terrain, the gullies and the drainage basins and so forth that you're dealing with there, it would be acceptable to amend the 2045 development plan and make it complete neighborhood 2. Additional information is this is in a tier 2 growth area which means that you do have all the utilities either there or close by for uh providing this development. As we stated this is a conditional resoning. These are this is a list of the nine conditions that the staff and the developer have agreed on. Uh number one, you can see that um we've held them to a range of housing like we do with all all the other developments and their range would be anywhere

between 350 to 405 units, although they are projecting a 385 unit count. Number two, um we're asking that they dedicate a 45 ft from center right away on Shelton Avenue. dedicate 45 feet from center line along Hill Haven as well. In addition, there will be a TIA traffic impact analysis done on this site. Number five, you can see what I talked about earlier that we're uh asking for a mixture of at least two building materials on the front of the homes. Number six is an installation of something we call verata cameras. This is something the police department asked for at the entrances by um this serves two purposes. One, during construction, we've had a lot of these construction sites that have been experiencing high theft of building materials and this has helped solve a lot of those crimes. And then after the building, the development's built, it serves the second purpose, which is for um neighborhood, you know, just neighborhood policing. Number seven, provide enhanced landscaped entrances into the subdivision. And then eight is shield. We want this is something the council has been adamant about and they feel it and it does make the communities look better. as you drive down the road, nobody wants to see the back of a house. So, we're asking that they provide an enhanced tree landscaping buffer in addition to what's already requested along those roads to uh shield the backs of houses from the view as you drive down the road. And then finally, uh, we're just asking that they provide the larger lots along the outside perimeter of the development.

Uh, with this development, we do have a few corrections that we wanted to ask uh, be done before it comes back to city council. We didn't get a chance to work with them to do this before tonight's meeting. So like any other contract, you have to put that in writing so that it's held up. Uh the first one here is uh we would like for them to add uh some walking trails on the site. Now I know we've discussed it with them. The topo is limiting in that development, but we feel like it could be incorporated at least in a small variety. Number two, construct an entrance off of Wallace Springs Road instead of a cult uh instead of a culde-sac. That's a northern quadrant of the development. Reason we ask for this is it's it's in our uniform code. It's in our ordinance and uh that we ask for this. Number three, replace Hammerhead in with a culde-sac below the first entrance off of Fuel Haven Road on the east side of the development. And I'll show you what that looks like here in just a second with the uh concept plan. Number four, need to provide a set of renderings for the homes. You can see they've already done that. The storm water ponds need to be dry instead of wet because they are within 5 miles of the airport. We do that so that we don't attract birds that could come into contact with the planes, bust windshields. Number six, provide a chart with lot sizes. And they have done that. We use that to verify the open space, make sure they provided what we've asked for. And let me back up here. When I was talking about the the hammer, well, the entrance uh to W Springs Road, I was talking about this right here. And I know, you

know, a lot of people in the neighborhood probably won't like that, but like I said, our reasoning is that the ordinance does ask for it. Also, right here, you see this hammerhead. Um, our engineering department has asked that that be changed to a culde-sac. That was the two corrections I wanted to point out. As far as the uh 2045 land development plan goes, um the property meets the definition of the complete neighborhood too. And as I explained, there's a little ambiguity with the uh activity corridor. However, since the this proposed subdivision does match the surrounding area, which is m mainly residential and the topography of the area near the highway is very challenging, an amendment to the 2045 land development plan is acceptable in our opinion. Therefore, staff recommendation says that we looked at this property being in a tier 2 growth area. it meets the definition of the complete neighborhood too. Um, again, we feel like the amendment for the uh activity corridor is warranted if you choose to do so. Um, we also looked at the fact that utility services are available at the site. As we said, it's in tier 2 growth area and it is also within a 4-minute response time for the fire department. Those are some of the important factors that we like to check the box on. Therefore, staff does recommend approval of the zoning request contingent upon annexation, the conditions that I went over and the corrections that we listed in the staff report and on the on this presentation.

Be happy to answer any questions. Yeah, I got one. Where does the city of states or city limit start? Is it at the red light there at that uh this area there? No, it's it's on down. It's it's on up um it's on up closer to the city city center if you go the other direction on 21. If you go north on 21, no,

it's it's it's actually quite a ways up there. Okay. However, we do have if you look here, you know, the way annexations work and and you got to look at the total area around you. For example, Hidden Lakes subdivision, which is off of Wallace Springs Road, that's one of the new uh subdivisions that was approved within, I guess, the last 3 years, maybe a little longer, I don't know. But this is Hidden Lakes. It's it's it's in the city limits by way of satellite annexation, voluntary annexation.

So we've although the contiguous city limits is quite a ways up the road there, you do have satellite annexations at different spots around this area. Even these three little spots here and these are I know this one here was a house that uh volunteered into the city because they needed water. They're well run dry and that happens a lot. That's probably what these three were.

Sure. Put the the plat back up. Yeah. What's that? This takes encompasses all those those kind of sketchy properties there on on Yeah, there's a few little parcels that are not included. You can see right here's a few, you know, there's little parcels in here and then along the road, you know, 21 that that one that old building with the glass block end on it, right? Is that going away? No, that's that's not

But but the property does include everything on that that sheet there in

everything you see highlighted there in blue or orange. Yes. It just seems like those buildings that we're talking about would sort of be out of just not fit in. Well, they sort of don't fit in now, but um I think that's something that over time, usually in in planning and zoning and development of a city, you know, you're going to have um uses and buildings and structures that don't they look like they don't fit in. And it might be that they're outdated or in this case abandoned and sort of run down, but over time someone usually ends up buying it and redeveloping it. I know if you just look what's going on right now, um you know, Statesville is having having a lot of growth. Well, Troutman's seeing a lot of growth, too. They just approved this uh what is it? The um Wakefield development. I think it's huge. Uh that's on the other end of 21. I think you've got growth on both ends of 21. And I think one day you're going to see it come together and it's going to look a lot better through there. Yeah. the property owner developer like to speak on the project. See, see it for you.

name and phone number and I'll try and connect with you. There we go. Thank you, Herman. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the planning board. Nolan Gross with Urban Design Partners representing the petitioner, Hill Haven Land Holdings LLC. Okay, sorry about that. All right, so here is that map showing the primary corporate limits compared to our site, uh, which is south on US 21 to the east of the Hidden Lakes development and north of Wall Springs. Additional aerial imagery showing the site mostly wooded. However, there are a few homes on site today. Sites located north and south of Hill Haven Road to the west of US 21 and east of Wall Springs Road. Herman's touched on our existing zoning, so I won't reiterate this too much. We are requesting to annex and reszone into the city of Statesville R8 conditional zoning with a cluster development. Similar with the land use and future character map. Herman's already identified or discussed this being an activity corner as well as a complete neighborhood too. So a little bit of background on this project and how we got here this evening to present this petition before you. So, Urban Design Partners, we were brought on to work on this over a year and a half ago. We we had our first bubble map diagrams around February of 2024. March 14th of 24, we had our internal kickoff meeting and started putting pen to paper laying the community out. Our initial site plan proposed 517 lots. We were also exploring a mixture of single

family homes and town homes in this development. October 31st, we had our initial meeting with planning staff here in this building. Our our site plan at that time proposed 450 lots, mixture of single family and town homes. We had 364 single family homes and 86 town homes. Moving forward, at our March 26th community meeting, which was held at the VFW near the site, our development proposed 410 to 440 lots. That was our proposed lot range. Our site plan showed 421 lots. We had several neighbors attend that meeting. Common concerns Herman already mentioned the Wallis Springs access road, the Hill Haven connection, traffic, proximity to adjacent properties, density, and lot sizes. Items which we we feel like we're working to address coming before the board this evening. And here we are this evening, August 26, 2025. We're now proposing 350 to 405 lots and our site is showing 385. So, we've continued to reduce density uh as we bring this project and refine our site plan.

DUA density units per acre. Dwelling units per acre. Dwelling units per Yes, sir.

So, you can see that started at 3.51 and we're down almost an entire 1D way at 2.6 currently. So, here's that initial bubble layout. A great way to start our site planning journey. Now, this proposed 740 dwelling units with a mixture of single family, town homes, and apartments. This was our initial stab at, you know, what might be viable on site, but of course, as we continued working with planning staff, uh, and receiving community feedback, we refined this plan. So, here's where we we began putting pen to paper. This is the 517 dwelling unit site plan, providing a mixture of single family homes and town homes at just over three and a half dwelling units per acre. You can see some similarities between our existing site plan uh that we're presenting this evening and what we had initially sketched out. Of course, there have been refinements through the process. Here was our community meeting site plan proposing 421 lots. Each lot was a at a 50 foot width. At this meeting at the meeting this evening or at our community meeting, excuse me, we were proposing the roadway connection to Wallis Springs Road, something neighbors were concerned about. So we went back and revised the site plan to provide a culde-sac. We also relocated our Hill Haven Hill Haven access point. in this area on the southern side. All right. So, here is our current site plan proposing 385 lots. That range of 350 to 405 lots at a just over 2.6 dwelling units per acre. Jump ahead to our rendered site plan. So, as Herman mentioned, we are committing to additional buffers. 30 a 30-foot buffer would be provided along

Hill Haven Road and US21 around the ex the remainder periph periphery of the site. We will be providing a 15 ft buffer. We did remove that Wall Springs Road connection uh to help appease the neighbors and reduce traffic on Wall Springs Road as well as relocating the existing Hill Haven access, providing a hammerhead turnaround which in coordination with staff we will continue to look at uh a culde-sac in that area. I also want to point out the existing home at 152 Schaefer Hollow Drive is proposed to be repurposed and incorporated into part of our amenity which is along the eastern part of the site in this area. Okay, so here's our lot diagram. So currently we're proposing a variety of lots be it a 50, a 50, a 50, a 56 and 60 feet or larger. Uh so we are providing larger lots at the at the site's periphery. Uh 102 of the lots will be at least 60 ft wide. 116 56 foot wide lots and 167 proposed 50 foot wide lots. We've been trying to find a better blend and balance of our lot sizes throughout the community. Here's our open space diagram. uh by code with our calculations we're required to provide 21.41 acres. Uh that is the base 10% as well as the additional requirements of the cluster development uh as part of the zoning process. We are providing 24.67 acres and I want to point out that is exclusive of our proposed storm water control measures, existing ponds and wetlands. We are not using those to calculate our open space.

traffic calming diagram uh proposing raised pedestrian tables throughout the development as well as a central roundabout. We are cognizant of traffic wanting to slow internal traffic volumes. Uh and this is a commitment we have made as part of the reasonzoning. Those those raised in those those are raised up and in level with the sidewalk, right? Pedestrians to go across the street if they wanted to. I guess

correct it's more preferable as opposed to a traditional speed hump which just there's no u alleviate alleviation for pedestrian foot traffic. Correct. So it's it will slow down vehicles and also provide a safe midblock crossing for pedestrians. Will there be a place for anyone in that community to get out to the Wallace Springs route? I don't see a not as currently designed. Uh if we were looking at extending that roadway where the culdesac is shown, we would extend sidewalk to the front edge.

Wasn't that one of the requests was to put that take that out and put it put it back to Wallace Springs Road? It was a request from staff, I believe engineering staff, Herman, uh to put that back into the plan. We had taken it out at the request of neighbors at our community meeting. Oh, okay. That's something we're happy to continue coordinating. I'm I'm not clear on that because I was under the impression that you had been asked to take it take the culde-sac out and um to Wallis Springs, but that's not what you're proposing here.

So, we're proposing the culde-sac instead of the connection to Wallis Springs. engineering staff would like to see that connection. So if that becomes a hot pressing item with staff and with the boards, we can explore reinstalling that connection. We modified this at the request of the neighbors to reduce traffic on Wallis Springs Road and prevent headlights from shining in abuing properties. Okay. So that came from your meeting.

This came from our community meeting. Yes, sir. Okay, here's our block length exhibit. Uh, so there's a snippet of the of the land development code in the bottom right hand corner. Uh, and in essence, this states any block greater than,500 linear feet or less than 300 linear feet must be approved by the planning board. Uh, so we have reviewed this with staff. We do have several blocks that are less than that 300 ft threshold and that's because our typical lot dimensions when you're putting lots uh back to back it does not exceed the 300 ft threshold. Uh so you can see there are several the the culde-sac which we have been discussing as well as areas where we're showing the backtoback lots. So, we would request that the planning board consider allowing us to provide blocks less than 300 ft as shown. Herman touched on each of these during his staff presentation. I so I will not reiterate each of them. I will point out we are also committing to a maximum building height of two stories in this development. And the story runs to the eve line, not the top of the roof.

Well, there's a 35 foot restriction on it. Can't go over 35 ft.

Okay. And our corrections, of course, we'll continue working with staff. Uh I do want to point out the the walking trails we're happy to look into. We would love to be able to to provide walking trails on site. We would need to look at things like do these need to be ADA accessible trails because there are topographic constraints. Uh but we are providing approximately 5 miles of internal sidewalk on both sides of our proposed public road network. Constructing that entrance of course will continue that conversation as well as replacing the hammerhead which Herman pointed out. Uh and we're happy to commit to dry ponds within five miles of the airport. Here's that lot size chart which Herman had requested. So you can see our minimum lot area is 6,000 square feet. Our maximum lot area is just over 12,000 square ft. And our average lot comes in at 7,218 square ft. Herman showed our sample elevations showing a variety of building materials and articulation features.

What kind of solding is that? So, this could be a mixture of vinyl, cementous fiber, hardy board in a vertical and horizontal fashion. Those renderings look nice. I think y'all done a good job with that. But I I want to interject here. I think what it does not imply or show is the and so to me is not really truthful in a way is the 8-foot setbacks, you know, so these houses are really jammed against one another. They're not in a nice wooded setting like that.

Sure. We we can work to provide additional elevations showing a hyperrealistic image of what it would look like driving down one of the public streets within the proposed development. But yeah, somebody's going to ask what's what's the price points you're looking at on these?

Yeah. So, based on today's market, we're looking starting price low 300s to mid300s. jump ahead to our additional sample elevations showing a mixture of one and two story product line and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. I don't know this is a question but you know I didn't think that I would be voting for I tend to be in favor of your subdivision. I didn't think I would be voting for another um subdivision that didn't utilize perimeter BMS to kind of separate the neighborhood from the street views, but you guys have done a nice job with you with your presentation and how you've aligned your houses with the street variation, the cluster aspect of it. Uh very there are very few linear feet of areas that to look like would need a uh a burm to isolate it. So, uh, from that, you know, I think it's a good layout.

Thank you. Appreciate your feedback. I think I I'm sorry. I think I'd like to hear maybe a little bit more about the cult on Wallace again if we're going to be asked to vote to forward this on. And that's something that our engineering department here and feels that it should have and that the planning staff feels that it should have. How are we going to vote to send it forward if we're not getting what we are asking for?

Well, it's it's not that you're not getting what we're asking for. It's just that um by the time we got the comments back to them, they didn't have enough time to make that correction on this rendering before the meeting. So, um I'm sure it's something they're willing to consider, but what they're pointing out is that they originally had the connection there, but in all honesty, you know, um the community meeting, the neighbors wanted them to do away with that. Uh and they done what the neighbors asked. Um it's a mixed bag where I can see the argument that the neighbors make. However, the engineering department's saying, but it says here in our ordinance that we should ask for this whenever you know possible. Um, it is a

well I think you may have it is a it is an item that you can choose which direction you want to go on as a board. Um, you know, if you would want to side with the neighbors on that, you could. Or if you wanted to decide with the engineering department, you could. It's just that the engineer is going to ask for it because it makes the flow better. It and it can it gives you another entrance as well as the fact that it's our ordinance. You know, we work for the city and the ordinance dictates what we ask for. Yeah. So, here's our community meeting site plan which showed that connection to Wallis Springs Road. I think personally I like the culde-sac version myself. You end up getting more separation from the adjacent neighborhood with the culde-sac. You there are pl you basically up in that corner you've got three routes out of there. So from the fire perspective, life safety perspective, you're not going to end up with a cut off trap position, which is one of the things they have to take in consideration. So I I don't know why the city's insisting on or requesting uh the co the uh the opening. I realize there are numerous exits from this uh subdivision. So I actually I think I prefer prefer the the culde-sac version myself. But I if it's indeed an option, then I don't disagree with you, but I was under the impression that there was some requirement in our ordinance or something that would have required that. If it's not, you know, I'm not saying I disagree with you.

You do you do have the ability to go either way. Okay. It's just um like I said, I'm I'm carrying through the wishes from the engineering department and and letting you know what their wishes are. So, some I'm, you know, I've been out in the neighborhood, but I'm not as familiar with it. I'm sure some of y'all are. So, the traffic that would exit on the Wallace Springs Road uh drive exit, would they say coming into Statesville or getting back to 21, would they not still tend to come over to Hill Haven and come across as opposed to following Wallace Springs around into 21? So, in other words, that traffic's not going to come back to Hill Haven.

Hill Haven is so uh curvy, particularly at night. So I guess they would come back 221. Will they come? Will they come back on Hill Haven or Wall Springs to get the They'll come back on Hill Haven. So that traffic's coming back to Hill Haven one way or the other. Hill Haven is so small. I mean, it's a really small unless they plan to uh do something with the uh the roads, improve those. Other words, what you're saying, if they if they come out of Twin or Twin Lakes, they're going to come down Hill Haven to go to 21. Either one. That's what I'm asking. Either way, are they not going to come back to Hillaven in either way? Yeah, they aren't going to go through Waller Springs to get to 21.

But the Waller Springs in my in my mind was for fire safety. I mean, fire emergency. Any other questions? All right. Well, if there's no more questions, we're going to open up our public hearing. Um, for everyone who signed up to speak, when I call your name, just make sure you come up, state your address for the record, and we'll have the threeminut timer um over there so you'll be able to look at it while you speak. So, Angela coming up. Angela Matthews,

before we start my time, Madam Chair, can I just request when I looked up online, it said five minutes, and so rather than me be reader and try to rush through this and not be able to give you guys a lot of information. Would you allow me five minutes? We're a smaller group, so we only have a few speakers. Would you consider that? I'm fine with that since you already have it prepared. Is that fine with everyone? Okay. Can I may I

as we're creating an exception for you, we'll be creating exception for those on the other side of the issue as well. Yes. Hopefully I won't have to come back up here your own. But which I I understand. I appreciate it. I'll be I'll be quick.

My name is Angela Matthews and I live at 210 South View Drive. I'm here tonight to voice concerns regarding the Hill Haven annexation projects. Annexations can have a positive impact on a city or county when done properly. These cluster home projects do not fall under what I and most residents would consider productive. First, I want to talk about safety and services. In your packet, you will see an article regarding the arrest of three individuals who are selling narcotics out of a home located at 222 Hidden Lakes Road. This home is literally through the woods behind my house and across the street. You will notice that the Iredell County Sheriff's Department completed the search warrants and made the arrest. Hidden Lakes is a development diagonal from this proposed development and was annexed into the city of Statesville. Why is the city of Statesville not policing these annex developments? Annexation law requires that the annexing city be prepared to provide the areas to be annexed with all the facilities and services that are provided within the existing city limits. I have a list with me tonight and you can review online. The city currently has nine job openings listed. Seven of those positions are for services such as firefighters, police officers, and public works. It's not fair to the county residents that the city receives the tax revenue from these annexed areas. Yet, the county resources are being used to provide the required services. Next, I'd like to call you to review the cost of community services and county survey that was prepared by NC State University. You have it in your packet. In the essence of time, please flip to the flagged tab and you will see that for every dollar generated in tax revenue, it costs the county $1.35 to provide services. We are in the red before the developers even finish the project. These developers are the ones who make all the money and leave us the

taxpayers to cover the infrastructure and related costs. It makes more sense for these areas touching Highway 21 to remain commercial tax dollars, help fund our local government, and relieve the tax burden on the residents. We can say no to developers when it hurts our city and county financially. For example, this development would be located in the Troutman Elementary, Middle, and South Ardo High School districts. Troutman Elementary is at 119% capacity, the middle school at 89% and South at 106%. You may say, "Oh, the new high school and elementary schools will take some of that overflow." But how will that help when you add a development like this one, Hillaven, for a potential of an additional 700 students? We are right back to where we started again. Lastly, I asked you to consider sewer capacity. Fourth Creek has reached critical levels already and Third Creek will be nearing those levels once the buildout occurs from developments that this board and the council have approved. Additional populations from Larkin 351, Neighbors Road, 1378, and Stamy Ridge. The taxpayers are going to end up paying the $280 million for the sewer expansion. And I'll stop. Thank you so much.

Was that three minutes? Yeah, you can. Oh, sorry. Did you cheat me my two minutes? Okay. Well, and just for some clarification, um I where where did you find that it said five minutes? Yeah, there is a rule of procedure. Okay. For the planning board, it says five minutes. That's what I was thinking. and city council is 3 minutes. Uh public hearing procedures and rules to all boards and it says three. Okay.

But it's fine. I got most of it out. Just just think about the sewer capacities and how we're going to pay for that. Thank you. And um thank you for let us know that cuz I just wanted to clarify so that everyone had the same information. Thank you though through this. All right. Um James Tarman back to three minutes everybody. Mr. Tarman, if you could state your name and your address.

I'm Jim Tarman. I live at 548 Wallis Springs Road. I'm not a city resident. I'm not adjacent. But I do live a quarter mile from Hill Haven Road and have for the majority of my 76 years on this planet. And I know you guys have had a long night, so I'll be brief. Uh I live on a farm that u has been in my family since 1751. Originally, it was 900 acres. I've got a small piece of that, but uh we're trying to maintain that as a farm. Uh I spent 38 years driving to either Winston or Charlotte to come home to the country. And now the city's come to me. Uh the uh there's an old song that says change was needed across the board, but it made a lot of different ox got goured. And on Wall Springs Road, we've kind of been gored. We have 400 houses for uh Hidden Lakes, 200 coming right behind it for Beaver Creek. We have 500 down the road for Wall Springs. There's another couple hundred being planned between Hill Haven and and uh and uh my house and uh I can tell you that the quality of life has already been affected. Uh traffic is is tremendous. Uh emergency vehicle uh are coming through at all times of the day and night. Uh Angela mentioned the the cocaine bus. Nine people arrested for I'm sorry, meth uh where the vehicle broke down the the door of the house, took all these people out. Next day, squatters were in there and the police, Stacil police came and ran them out, ran them down to Julie's place and they were arrested down there. So, so things are changing and if you take into account what's happening now with traffic and you look, there's 250 more houses approved already for the second phase of Wall Springs. the 200 houses haven't been built yet for Beaver Creek. And so now we're saying 390 houses or thereabouts uh are going to be built and

and when you look at at developments individually, they meet the criteria. But when you look at the some of the parts, it gets to the point where the infrastructure is just not there either from emergency vehicle standpoint, a school system standpoint, the road standpoint. And uh you know I I think you're going to approve this tonight because it checks all your boxes on your plan. But what I would ask you to do is consider this and I've talked to Nolan about this. Make it R10 instead of R8. Hidden Lakes is a lot of houses but at least it's R10. And uh so I think there there can be some things done. Also the the trees as a burm I won't live to see them block block the houses. So, I'd love to see a burm as a condition as well around the around there like Hidden Lakes did on the front of their place. Um, I'm not against change and there's always a natural tension between the biners and the cameras, right? And I'm one of the biners and I don't oppose the cameras, but there's a point of diminishing returns on how many came here we can accommodate and still have a quality of life that that we enjoy today.

Thank you. Thank you. Uh Mike Edelbrook.

Good evening. Thank you. Uh my name is Mike Edel Brock. I live at 217 South View Drive, just right up the street from this development proposal. Um, one thing that is a concern of mine was the last housing development you guys just um, passed on and the planning commission put down was on Airy Road and some of the problems were infrastructure. 22 minutes for emergency response to people on Airy Road. We don't have school capacity for the children that you're talking about bringing. We don't have jobs for the people that are coming in these houses. We don't have grocery stores that can support the community right now. So, I'm I'm really concerned with not having the proper amenities for all the people you guys are trying to bring in. We have almost 1,000 homes coming and Bryham Springs is bringing in 2500 homes. So, I would really be concerned with um infrastructure and bringing in jobs and bringing in support for the people that already live here instead of trying to bring more people. I don't know how many doctors and lawyers and um trade people that you're bringing in with these developments that can improve our life and our quality that are here. But I mean, if we could bring in some jobs and and the infrastructure to support more people. I I'm not opposed to change. I actually am not horribly opposed to the data center. Um it's going to happen and I know that we need the taxes to keep the city going. I understand how all that works. I've owned a business for 30 years. But at some point you have to be responsible and you have to bring in the infrastructure to support the growth and I don't see where that's coming yet. Thank you for your time.

Thank you Becky Brock.

Hi, my name is Becky Edelbrook. I also live at 217 South View. Um, we are not adjacent, so we were not able to be at any of the prior meetings, otherwise we would have voiced our opinions as well. Um, I'm not opposed to growth. The last development that was trying to come in our backyard that we came to the city council meetings for, we just bought our house a year ago. So, um, we moved from the city to the country. We owned 21 acres and we intentionally purchased that to have space. Um, you had said, and I'm sorry, I'm gonna mutilate your last name, so I'm not even gonna try. But you had said during the last um thing that where are the schools for the 600 houses, if that's what they were trying to put in instead of a data center. This is the same instance. We have all of these housing developments that are around us that are coming in and there is no school system for them. We are at capacity. Obviously, you've already heard that at the last um meeting that we attended for the previous development. Our big thing, my big thing personally is density. I think there's a little bit of like a confusion almost or I don't even know how to describe it because it's misleading. The county, which is what we live in and that's where we purchased, R8 is considered high density according to the city standards. R8 is medium density. That's mis that misrepresents. It's all the same criteria, all the same lot sizes, everything. We proposed that they changed the last development to be at least R15 for the city because conditional because with the topography obviously you have to do the cluster homes. We get that. If you do R15, then you're looking at a minimum of 11,000 square foot lot. And that would be in

line with the county medium density. The surrounding areas when you look at them, R10 is the lowest, R15, R20, that's what you see there. So, if you guys reconsider um denying the R8 and they change to at least R15, that's something that is a little bit more feasible for the residents and the city, I think, because growth is going to happen. Not opposed to it, but responsibly. Thank you, Kathy. Everly

I messed that up. Sorry, Miss Udy. if you'll come up front and uh state your name and address for the record.

Kathy Udy, I live at 422 Wallis Springs Road, directly across the street from that proposed uh road coming out. In fact, it would be a a uh cross intersection there with my driveway. We already have enough trouble getting out of our driveway now because of the increased traffic. And we're not just talking about like in the morning when schools school people are going, but we're talking all day long and even into 12 1:00 in the morning. And it starts back up again at 6:00 when people start going to work and going to school and whatever. And it's not just cars, it's tractor trailers, it's dump trucks, it's concrete trucks. They're tearing up the road. It was just paved within the last five years. that the DOT or whoever maintains the road out there is has already had to come out and rebuild the shoulders because people routinely run off the road. In fact, it's gotten so bad that I don't take the dog across the street anymore to walk up the road. I try to stay at least 15, 20 feet back from the road because I'm not sure that these people flying around that curve down there aren't going to run off the road, which they do all the time, and come into my front yard and run over me and the dog. Also, there's a ditch in front of our house, and if they come off the road that way, they're going to flip and run into my whalehouse, too. But my concern with this density, I don't know why we cannot have a a new neighborhood that comes in and is not like the hidden lakes and not like Wall Springs up there that is cookie cutter houses by Dr. Horton. They look the same and they're if you ride down Wall Springs Road, you

can see all of the backs of those houses. They look identical. It's just one vinyl box on top of concrete after another one. There's no architectural features. There's no hardy plank siding. There's no brick. There's the lot sizes are teenytiny. I mean, what is wrong with having a neighborhood that's 100 by 200? That's a half acre. That's that's nothing. And even 100 by 100 is better than 50 feet. And of course, we live in our house that was built in 1965. And the woods across the street are personal for us. We played in those woods. They cool the road. They cool surrounding areas. And interesting enough, I found out when you cut down a tree, it releases all of its CO2. So, we're talking about air quality concerns, too. When you start clear cutting all of those trees, if they left a decent buffer around it, like 100, 200 feet, maybe the wildlife wouldn't have to go shrinking off too. Said that was the last speaker we have signed up. So with that, we're going to close the public hearing. And is there any questions, any conversation amongst us? You know, we've been we've had a lot of these hearings with these R5, R8 neighborhoods, and I' I've listened to these neighbors, these folks, and you know, I think they voiced a lot of what my thoughts are too for these neighborhoods. I think in my my thoughts is we kind of have enough R5 or a 8 foot setback neighborhoods. I think these guys did a great job with what they're dealing with.

But somewhere enough's enough of this stuff. There's a so many houses out. I ride my motorcycle and just kind of cruise around and I go through here and I see all these super dense neighborhoods and I just I think it's time we moved on from that and where it's R15 or I I'm not sure we don't need to redefine speaking to you guys some of our setbacks because that's really what it's about is your sideyard setbacks is what controls this thing. is what gives this thing a view of density. I get it. It's also the lot size, but I think those are critical aspect of it, too. So, I appreciate your comments and I think you you've kind of persuaded me there.

Yeah, kind of agree with you. Uh because when I look at this at 350 and I I'm going, wow, where's where are they putting that many homes in that spot? Uh but it comes back. Can I ask a question of Herman when when and uh the the lady where where she that you brought up about the schools? Thank you for calling me out on that. Uh when when they bring these to you, where where is that part of the process in a techn is that in a technical review committee? Does are they looking at fire departments? Are they looking at schools? Uh, and and if they are, how do we educate the public? How do you educate us that they're doing that? Because I I like like

Yeah, I look at these, you know, I live on I I never thought I'd live on an 80 foot lot in the middle of town, 80 by 180, but I do and and I love it because I can cut the grass in an hour walking. But so where where's where is that piece of looking at the school systems and the sewer line and and so forth? Grocery stores come based on population. So they're going they're going to find their way here.

We do we do take all that in consideration. I mean Staceville's got at least six grocery stores just within Statesville. Um, we we recently had a uh a uh company that uh does analysis for grocery stores to see if we could maybe uh present uh to some more grocery stores to have another one come. And their comments were that we didn't have enough rooftops. We already had six grocery stores and chances of getting a seventh one would be very low. So the grocery stores are not a problem according to the market. Um wastewater uh that wastewater treatment plant that serves that area is only at 30 or 35% capacity.

That third creek or Fourth Creek?

Third creek. um that this development will not even put a wrinkle in that. Um water capacity, we have tremendous amount of water capacity. We're nowhere near looking at limits on that. um schools, we do look at that and um we also look at the the financial aspect as to whether it's a costbenefit analysis and we have a development data sheet that we prepare for city council that's got all of that in there. It usually uh it doesn't it doesn't get completed until it goes to city council for public hearing. Uh, we could possibly look at trying to get that completed beforehand to give to you guys, but staff already knows the answers to all of that before we pres present it to you.

So, in other words, what what you're saying that all of that has been considered when you brought this forward to us. Yeah, the uh now she did bring up a good uh I don't have the school numbers, but I do think um you know I wouldn't refute the school numbers that she presented tonight unless I had them in front of me. Um that is a a major concern, but as the city I I wish there was something we could do to help with that, but that's a county uh responsibility. Uh you can laugh if you want to, but that's state statute. we can't contribute money toward the schools.

So,

then you then you have the problem of um due process. You know, if you have a person that wants to sell land and you have a developer that brings a project to you, you have to give them due process to ask the board, will you approve my project? So, we make sure they um abide by all the rules and present that to you and it's up to the board to make the decision. There was an item that's been brought up tonight though about the size of the lots. Uh and we're looking at an average of what was it 7,000 and something on that. you know, um what what is the big problem of going to 10 or 12 a larger size lot? Is that does that make it a project that's no longer viable to that's something I would you know uh that only the applicant could answer for you. That's, you know, um it's not I don't it's it's more than likely it's going to be a financial question or answer is my opinion.

Sure. Sure. It's okay with me if it's okay with the chair. Yes.

Uh first of all, thanks again very much for the opportunity tonight and we appreciate all the people that showed up as well. Uh my name is Bob Williamson. I'm one of the developers uh for the project. We've been doing this around Charlotte and at the coast for many, many years. Uh my partners developed about 3,000 homes over the years. The objective is always to create a community that you'd be proud of and that you'd feel good living in. Um so there were a lot of comments raised. Density was one of the key questions of course. And when we started looking at the site, when we met with Pam and her sister who were the sellers, um we drove through Hidden Lakes, we drove through Wall Springs, we drove through all the other communities. And in talking with uh the sellers, too. We knew we wanted to develop bigger lots, uh a nicer community. We didn't want vinyl boxes. That was something that's been brought up here tonight several times that look like Wallis Springs, for example, that are, you know, with no trees around them. And you can see the vinyl all sides of the house. So that's why we put the renderings in that we've put in with multiple different products on the sides, different elevations on the sides of the home so it doesn't look like just like a vinyl box. We don't want to use vinyl at all. We want to use the hardy plank, the brick, the stone, that sort of thing. Um, and it ultimately it boils down to a question of what can we afford, what makes sense? And at the end of the day it always boils down to economics. So, if you look at what the market can pay, what people will pay for homes, um, at our community meeting, somebody had asked the question, why don't you build five or $600,000 homes on big lots? And while we would love to do that, the market doesn't support that, right? Um, so we would love halfacre lots, by the way. Uh, we like the idea of bigger lots, but the economics don't make any sense. And if the economics don't work, then the development can't work ultimately. So what you saw in what we presented

tonight hopefully effectively was that when we first started to lay this out, we tried to figure out what can be done and then what should be done and then we took feedback and Kathy I appreciate you coming in tonight. Uh Kathy was at the comm there were handful of people as Nolan mentioned at our community meeting in March and one of the very first things you said is if people come through to Wallis Springs Road the headlights are going to shine right in your front windows right

and our bedroom. and your bedrooms. And so we listened to that and and you were concerned also about the curve at Wall of Springs, right? And the traffic. And so we listened to that as well. And so the other plan that you you see, the plan that we showed tonight that put the cult there, we did that on purpose to try and meet the needs of of the neighbors who had expressed some concern about that. There's a house on Hill Haven. Uh and I forget the gentleman's name. He actually we exchanged some voicemails, but he also had some concerns that on Hill Haven if we had an entrance coming out, it would be too close to his driveway and we create traffic concerns. So, we eliminated that. That's where the hammerhead became, but we probably need to do a cult as recommended by staff. So, what I hope you will hear from us tonight sincerely is that our objective is always to build a community that looks great, is safe, feels good, uh, and that the whole city is proud of, and at the same time where the economics can work. If the economics can't work, then the project can't go forward. We looked at R10, by the way. We looked at larger site, lots, there is a tremendous amount of topography on this site. If you've ever driven up Hill Haven Road, there's about 100 ft in elevation change at least from the lower to the upper portion. Well, then trying to create homes and and and build in that topography is really challenging and becomes very expensive and ultimately gets to a point where you can't make it work. So, while we looked at lower density, if we could do 300 homes and make the economics work, we would absolutely do. We're fine with that. But right now we can't make that pencil out. Um so we reduced from 500 to 421 which we presented to you all in March to 385 and that's a range of 350 to 400. Chances are it's going to probably be

closer to the 350 than the 385 when we finish engineering it because we still have to account for hills and topography. Until you get in the actual engineering of the plants, which is what Nolan and his team do, we can't say for sure. But we're leaving the outer perimeter. We want to leave trees there. We have a 30-foot buffer on Hill Haven on 21. We want to leave all the trees that we can leave there, of course, right? We're going to plant more trees. We've talked about a pathway. We've talked to the seller about a foot pathway. We have that in our agreement with them. We want as much walking trails, natural trails in the property as we can as long as it ultimately works within the hills and the topography. So, we're we're kind of limited by what God gave us, but we do our best, right, with what we can do. So, I hope you hear that those things are important to us. The other thing that was brought up at the community meeting was crime at Hidden Lakes. These are much bigger lots than Hidden Lakes. 7,200 plus feet is actually bigger than the standard that you see in almost every community in Charlotte or anywhere around these larger urban areas. That's that's true. Um the standard size lot is between 5 and 6,000 ft in most of these larger communities. We've tried to go bigger than that. As I said, if we could do eight or 10,000 square foot lots, we would. But we can't make the economics work as plainly as I can share with you. I'm glad uh that you you like the layout. More than anything, I hope you'll understand that we want the project to work. We want it to be safe. Um being close to that community, by the way, on 21, from what we've heard from a few council members, too, is that's going to make it better on 21. And by the way, one of the questions was brought up, why don't we do more commercial on Highway 21? We've studied that, too. We've met with several of the city council members there. There's so much topography that comes down to 21 and there's a river that runs there and a watershed there. It you can't do commercial there. If we could, we would, but it doesn't lend itself to that as

well. So, I'm only sharing that because these were some of the comments brought up. But I do want you to know that uh we looked at all those things and tried to get as much feedback as we could. Appreciate James, you reaching out to Nolan and appreciate you guys coming in tonight. Um, we try to do the absolute best layout we can that'll work, that will look good, and that will be substantially better and a much improvement from Hidden Lakes and Waller Springs around the corner. By the way, we're not having any conversations with those builders either. We don't intend to go down that pathway um, for what that's worth, too. But I I hope that helps. Thank you.

Thank you. With that, with all that discussion, then I would like to make a motion that we approve the ZC25-04 Hill Haven zoning amendment. In addition to approving this zoning amendment, this approval is also deemed an amendment to the city's comprehensive land use plan. The changes in the conditions the planning board has taken into accounting the zoning ordinance to meet the development needs of the community. And I need my glasses. are as follows. The property is in a tier 2 growth area and meets the definition of complete neighborhood 2 but does not meet definition of activity corridor in the 2045 development plan. However, since the proposals proposed subdivision does match the surrounding area which is mainly residential and the topography near the highway is very challenging. Amendment to the 2045 land development plan is acceptable. Utility services are available to the site and in it is within a 4minute response time from the fire department.

We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and we have a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. I.

And I voted for this one, but I would like to ask the planning staff to bring back something that Mark said. It's is it not up to us also to take our concerns and discuss them somehow? I don't want I'm like Mark as far as continuing to see these same types of developments all the time when maybe we could come up with something or the staff could come up with something that Let's get for the record who who were the nos on that one. Mark and Joel. No. No,

I said I voted for this one, but I think that there's a there's a need for Okay, so Mark and and Go ahead, Joel. I'm sorry. I just want to make sure you got I think there's a need for us to have an opportunity to discuss what we're talking about without having been presented with something that we have to act on at that time. Herman, do you have any thoughts on that? what what our thinking is. So before we're actually having to vote on something

like the the long are we talking about the long-term plans with these sort of developments. I think one of the things we can do is and is uh look at our ordinance and maybe modify our ordinance that uh to make it more conducive or to what our yeah what our thoughts are instead of trying I think that does the same thing you're talking about Joel instead of we kind of make a preemptive strike at it kind of

yeah what you can do see the planning board is is supposed to be a recommending board to city council and they've put you in place to to look at things like exactly what you're talking out. If you see things like this that you think needs to be changed, um you can make recommendations to city council that we um for example look at changing our densities or our setbacks or something like that. And it's simple to do. We just do it through a text amendment. The hard part is getting to the point where you can, you know, figuring out the wording and uh everybody agreeing on it. But it would just start with the board deciding, hey, we want to make a recommendation to city council that we look into some text amendments uh addressing uh densities in our zoning districts.

You know, this big question of affordability, you know, maybe this doesn't develop right now. maybe, you know, five years down the road then it's affordable to develop that and we you could develop it to a a standard that meets what we're after as opposed to saying, "Oh, we got to we got to do it now. We got to do it now. We got to do it now." I don't know that we have to do it now. If it's not affordable to do it now, we'll it can wait. Good discussion.

Yes. Well, we need to carry that forward if we really feel strongly that there's a need for uh a review of our text amendment uh or our our um if you would like um if you're all in agreement um you know we could put it on the agenda for the next meeting to discuss it and just have a discussion about it because we have to discuss it in public form. You have Yeah. due to open you know open meetings law says that you know you have to conduct business in a public in an open meeting where the public can attend. Yes. So um

that we should have it at a time that we had two major issues coming before us at that we need to Yeah. You want to you know put it on the agenda at a at a strategic time. Another thing you could do is you could um you could have a work session. um a work session will just be a meeting a special called meeting that's not at the normal time. So uh we just have to allow enough time to meet this the statute requirements for publicizing that meeting because we have to invite the public but would not be a public hearing at that one.

Not a public hearing. uh you could just have a a work session and we could you can have it uh doesn't have to happen here. It can happen um you know in the in the conference room. It can happen in the civic center. It can happen here. Uh but we have to publicize and you know let the public know when and where uh it's going to be so they can come and you you can just have open discussion amongst yourselves and uh and talk about it about what you would like to recommend. And now's a perfect time to do it because we're we're um we're redoing our unified development code. So I would say the sooner the better. if you have recommendations.

Everyone in agreement with that for the next So I I would suggest a work session. Yeah. Have a I agree with a work session. Yeah. Um when would you I think that's great. When would you how soon would you like to do that? Not tomorrow. I think go ahead and schedule it. I mean let's I mean I know you're going to take some coordination months to get it scheduled but go ahead and work toward that from my perspective. you want to maybe plan to do it uh sometime uh in October before the October meeting. So between the September and October meeting. I think that's good. Yeah. Well, cuz that's September. It depends what's on brought it up. Do what

I said since I'm the one who brought this up, I have to tell you that I'm going to be gone for three weeks. I'll be back in time for the planning board meeting. Okay. Well, October, September in October. So, well, we can, you know, we can look at November. Uh, how's November for everybody? Just got to get in front of the holiday season, but other than that, you're good.

So, in the meantime, what we need to do is everybody look at your ordinances and study your your your districts. each district especially well the residential districts name namely and and see you know make some notes about what you like and what you don't like whether it's the setbacks or the the lot size which you know the lot size is going to dictate your density um make notes about all that stuff and get it to me and then I can also provide you some some uh research as well.

So Mr. Rucker is teaching. So got to take in his count his schedule, too. Yeah. Well, it would be a night. We could do it, you know, in the in the afternoon. We could do it 6:00 like a regular meeting or or 7:00. It doesn't have to be 6. We can pick the time, but I I'll send out an email to everybody and sort of coordinate it. Make a motion we adjourn. Have a motion. Do we have a second? Second now. Second. All done.