[Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right it's 4 o' so we're going to call the the official start time I like that uh we're going to go ahead and call the Farmington City Council special work session to order for Tuesday June 4th 2024 uh Dirk we have a quorum so we'll call the commission uh work session order also all right and again this is an informational work session uh it is open to the public this is being recorded um that way you have it for future reference as needed um at during this informational work session though we will not be taking public comment um as always any questions can be directed to either uh the Planning Commission the city council and or our team at any time and uh unless there's a change of the agenda we look for a motion to approve motion motion by Steve second by Hol all in favor say I I I we're fine with the agenda you're good all right our sole item on the agenda is to well de you just take it from there thank you 31 you're good yes okay so um first of all thank you to the city council mayor Planning Commission for getting together to have this conversation and I know we're set up in this room and so it appears less conversational but again today is really about having a dialogue and getting introduced to the track development team who is potentially proposing a project on some land um following the Planning Commission hearing that was held on the 14th staff along with tract decided and recognized that it would be very beneficial to to get together have this conversation and really start talking about who track is who their team is um a data center overview kind of building off of what was presented last night why Farmington what are the infrastructure that is needed to support this type of development we're going to talk about and hear about you know some of the common concerns especially trying to address the concerns that were voiced at the plan Planning Commission meeting and then talk about those benefits just sustainability in general from this type of development and then also the next steps so with that I'm going to turn it over to Kristen Dean who is with the track team and I'll let her introduce the rest of the team and then we'll be walking through the presentation this presentation will be available on the website after today the only reason we printed it is because of the way we're sitting in this room to allow the Planning Commission and City Council not to have their backs to the audience they cannot see the screens and so they needed to be able to see as well the presentation but we will make this available um on the website after toight so with that thank thank you Deanna um I'm Kristen Dean I'm the director of entitlements with trat and thank you all for being here tonight we think that this is a great opportunity to introduce ourselves what our business model is what we do um and why we are in Farmington and really start to hear from you the questions that you have about our plans for the site um so I want to also thank Deanna and John and Tony for their guidance in shepherding us through this process here in Farmington so they've been really great to work with um very responsive and helping us really learn more about your community and um what um what your community visions and and goals are and how we can help facilitate those while also bringing a thoughtful plann um uh development project here it's not on slideshow so we'll just let's do that okay thank you okay so tract is led by an experienced group of data center and digital infrastructure experts and we're determined to be a catalyst in sustainable land use with an intentional focus on data center planning and integration into local communities so we consider ourselves to be a trusted partner in bringing um responsible technology infrastructure to your community and believe that Master Plan development projects must be strategically coordinated with long-term vision and commitments to ensure speed and certainty in the DEA Center Market we're bringing a new approach to Data Center campus development that puts communities first by optimizing local economic benefits and minimizing resource impacts our leadership team brings together curated operational capabilities from industry veterans and essential expertise in Planning Development energy digital infrastructure and real estate um backgrounds and we achiev the in to-end coordination with our partners so our company was founded by people that are deeply rooted in the data center industry both nationally and globally um so we come from um a multitude of sectors related to Data Center Technology and development practices we really were founded on the recognition that the early generation data center development was being done in a very ad hoc manner so if you look at lden County Virginia uh they are just placed in areas that weren't sensitive to the existing uh local communities and Residences that were nearby um it was a pretty rapid accelerated growth period for lden County and in reviewing and analyzing and understanding what those impacts were this company was founded upon doing it better so our goal is to acquire larger tracks of land where we can master plan and identify the framework for the development so that the data centers will come to one location and we've already worked very closely with all of you to understand and mitigate any potential impacts on nearby properties and be sensitive to the communities while bringing significant economic and tax um Revenue to your community so we do feel that we are a steward in bringing data center development to a community um our model is to um well I'm going to get to our model in just a second I'm gonna come back to that because I want to introduce my team um I have Kevin Arrow Philip sandino key Ambrose and Jess Walker here um these are all tracked team members and um also we're working very closely with Alan catull and Ashley pay from kimley horn so Ashley is managing our AU process and Alan is managing all of our civil engineering and design what we do so um we work to acquire the large tracks of land so site acquisition is very important um we are active in many markets across the country and we look for sites that are near power and also in markets where data center development is um ideally suited for the various um conditions that are are appropriate um Power procurement we work very closely with the local power companies to ensure that there is adequate power for our sites it's really step one so Step One is looking at property in an area and then Philip and his team talk with the local power companies to start to really engage them and understand what the um Power resources are and what their planned growth and infrastructure um improvements are for the future to ensure that we really can be a good match and then we work through the entitlements process so that's why we're here tonight we're in the entitlements for rezoning um we'll ultimately move into a plat phase as well um platting certainly establishes the boundaries of the property but that's where we get into the Civil design and infrastructure design for the plan so we can work through all of the horizontal development that's necessary for this master plan campus and then our company does oversee and facilitate the construction of the horizontal improvements so we'll work closely with staff to understand all of the improvements that are necessary the timing of improvements bring those to the site and then essentially we then sell shovel ready sites to the hyperscalers so to the data center developers when a data center developer decides that they want to purchase one of the pad sites then they'll go through their own site plan development review process with staff with the city and go through all of the city codes so look at all local state and federal laws that apply to them and follow that process so that's where you really get into the detail a lot of people want to know you know when we're at the table what is it going to look like well we're we have a good idea of how the buildings could lay out because we're doing fit tests and we want to understand what the potential is of the site we need to understand how much infrastructure is needed where the access points would be where the water lines should be but we don't necessarily know what the buildings will look like and exactly where they'll be placed but what we're doing is we're building that framework of development so all of your development standards so your setbacks your height um buffers landscaping again Road alignment so that's what we're doing is essentially is building this framework we are in 10 markets across the country right now um we've had entitlements success on several of our properties in the very um recent past including the one that I'm showing here this is in Hanover County Virginia uh this is a 1,200 Acre Site that we worked through a master plan process with Hanover County um you can see this is essentially where we end up it's it's like it's a framework plan so we have our development areas we have our areas that um will not be disturbed or impacted due to environmental conditions we have setbacks established this is kind of a high level bubble plan we have about 36 pages of civil design that goes behind all this um this is the pretty picture um we're under construction on a site in Nevada so um and we're about to start the um the final civil design plans for the Handover site and then plan to be in the ground probably um q1 next year for the Handover site so we're very active um in multiple markets so why are we in Farmington Minnesota is a very attractive area for data centers um a big reason is your um the cooler temperatures here so the cooler temperatures allow for more air cooling Technologies which then reduces the overall um water demand and the power demand as well and so because of that um Minnesota is is a a great emerging Data Center Market uh the first thing that we look for is the power so we like to bring our data centers to the power lines so that we don't have to bring power lines to our data centers and so um you'll see you know and I know that you're familiar with this site but that's one of the reasons that this site is very attractive to us is because of the existing transmission line that runs just to the South so um while we're here tonight Dianna really set the stage for that we were listening at the Planning Commission hearing we were watching the Planning Commission hearing and um the the process that we were going through was just the standard established City resoning process that really um that process doesn't open the door for the level of detail that you guys want and that this community is asking for and so because of that we first of all wanted to be able to introduce ourselves tell you more about what our vision is and start to address those questions that we heard at that hearing um we've also been talking very closely with staff and recognize that we'd like to add in the Pud overlay process to our resoning application and that will then allow us to truly start to build out that framework to where it's more customized and so where your muci setbacks uh are are fairly minimal for industrial zoning we need greater setbacks we know that we're planning on that what are those through the process we were going through we couldn't EST actually even establish those the PUD will allow us to establish those the Pud will allow us to establish these development um areas in the framework plan um otherwise it was just going to be too vague for this community's vested interest and so that's why we're here tonight and we're we're here to kick that off um so we're we're not able to talk about the details of that yet because we're we're just starting that um but we will be back with um applications a Community meetings so we'll stay actively involved and be able to um really start to refine our application so this is the site um so it's on the Eastern Edge East Southeastern edge of the city this is an attractive site again because of the power transmission line and we have two willing land owners that allow us to have a larger assemblage of land to facilitate this master plan campus concept so we're looking at 348 Acres about 200 Acres of that is developable with the flood plane that you see on this plan um so we are working around the flood plane and even in this plan we've already identified a greater buffer area than would be under the muci uh zoning designation we are looking we you know kind of have envisioned where we think our access points are going to be so this is just our our first phase a bubble plan to give you a little bit more of a visual of what we're thinking um so we have a lot of process to go through and each process really serves a valuable purpose so the rezoning and the Pud overlay again it establishes your development standards your framework the location of buildings the preliminary and final plat that gets into our civil design we'll be doing Water and Sewer infrastructure Road design establishing the the road standards um understanding what road improvements are necessary external to our project um we're also going through the AAR process and I I thought that the work session last night was very informative and helpful and really establishing the background on that Ashley is here we are actively in the city process with the auar so that is moving forward but that's really where you're looking at the um environmental impacts and just from a regional perspective how does this fit into you know what does the region have planned and how does this project fit into um uh the infr structure existing planned and any other impacts so in listening to the resoning hearing and working with staff we are hearing questions about you know why this location concerns about noise traffic water use power also you know what are the tax benefits that will be realized here what are the sustainability initiatives what else could go here if the data center doesn't go here and and I and I I'm sure you're aware but for the general public the Pud process will establish um a de essentially a development plan that's very specific to this site and so if anything comes in if someone's like I want to do a hotel they have to go back through this whole process so this has to essentially be what we are establishing through this process um there are broader Community benefits that you all will realize and I'll touch on some of those um and people just wanted more information so um we as track our business model and Ethos is to be front-facing in our development applications we are the contact person um we have business cards we will have a website we want people to engage with us directly and we're happy to engage with people directly to help answer questions and so um it's really important to us as we start to integrate ourselves into the community and really get further along in the process that you know that we're the point of contact so I've mentioned power several times here's the slide on it um we are already engaged with uh Great River Energy and Dakota Electric so we are proceeding with um the um studies with them so the power studies are just they have their own processes just like the city has its own processes for development review and so we're going through the process with Dakota energy and gr we're um currently in the system impact study phase we're in the very very early stages and then that will inform all of the next stages as well so we're working in concert with um those two utility companies to make sure that everything is going to align well um let's see uh with I wanted to point out a couple of things um one is that we do Envision that there will be a substation associated with this development project to provide power to the data centers um this energy the energy that will be utilized by the data centers will not impact the Grid in the broader community so we're not sucking energy Off the Grid and people are going to lose power we're we're ensuring that there's enough power and and this is a a commitment that Dakota and G energy have and um you know they have commitments to always be reliable in their power supplies and so as they come on board with our project they're analyzing and making sure that they can still provide that reliability to all of their existing customers and for all of their planned growth um the state I believe you probably are all aware passed legislation in 2023 that requires Minnesota to be carbon free by 2040 and and it is our understanding and in our conversations with the utility companies that they have every intention to continue to meet the standard so these they're in they're factoring that in as they look at the power demands um for this data center development and all future development residential Hospital industrial everything everything needs power and so they're always looking at um what is the overall big picture we have completed a traffic study that will be submitted to the city um with our PUD application we've already had meetings with the city we've talked to them about what we are um what we've identified where the improvements will need to be and so we'll continue to work with them to identify those improvements any traffic improvements outside of our site are the cost B the cost is born by tract so we pay for the road improvements anybody that lives along those roads already are not assessed uh additional fees um or taxes for those Road improvements the developer will bore bear those costs so we are looking at um about 273 employees at full buildout and based off of the the traffic patterns in data centers with that number of employees would be about 2500 average daily trips so that sounds like a lot but we wanted to compare that to if the site was built as um residential low density or medium density or even commercial development so we kind of did some highlevel analysis we haven't planned for what that would actually be but we did some high level pretty realistic analyses and you can see that the data center traffic would would be far less than any other of those uses that could be uh potentially accommodated on this site so we do see a few areas where Road improvements will be needed its turn lanes and signalized um optimizing signals so it does not seem um substantive but um but necessary to ensure that traffic flows well um again and I think um Tom did a great job last night really explaining water use in data centers and again why um Minnesota is a a great great market for data centers because of the temperate and cooler climate we are assuming that the end users will utilize direct evaporative cooling to take advantage of this we don't dictate that it's not something that um the city dictates but the industry is always looking for the the ways to design buildings to minimize the need for the resources it costs them money for the resources um and so they want to be also mindful around how much they are using as well um what is the capacity and so we are we're working with staff to understand um you know what the city current uh water capacity is what the upgrades are planned to be they know what our range we provided them a range of what we can anticipate water demand to be a lowend range and a high-end range um and making sure that even that high-end range while highly unlikely will still fit in with the city's plan infrastructure um upgrades and it's our understanding you know we've been working with the city that you are going through the CIP process um and John is here to answer those questions but um just we are we are working very closely with them and so again we also wanted to look at well how does our how do our projected water demands compared to other uses that you could see on the property and so even you know we're a little bit higher than say the lowest residential that could be developed on the property but almost half the amount of water that you would see with medium density residential development noise is a concern that comes up in every Community um I recommend if you have any opportunity to visit a newer data center um go stand there you the noise isn't perceptible the traffic is louder one car driving down the road is louder as um as uh Tom explained last night you know the noise from the servers is well inside very thick walled concrete you know building structure um I think the noise that people are mostly concerned about is are the noise that would be um from the generators and the generators are there for backup power it's a essential power it's not a primary power source it's only if the grid goes down um and then we need to make sure we have that backup power supply because then all of a sudden you know your whole all of your backup data can go down all of your your use of Netflix everything could go down um that is dependent upon the data center um and so the there I'm going to get into a little bit about how generator noise can be mitigated but I also just want to emphasize that the industry is hugely incentivized to design the buildings to ensure that noise is attenuated and mitigated because it is very costly to retrofit a building if they exceed the noise standards there's this there's a story um I believe it was in the Virginia area where the data center exceeded the uh noise levels and it was a $30 million retrofit and so they know that noise is the biggest thing that could really cause a lot of problems because really you know data centers are nonintrusive it's a non-intrusive development but if the noise isn't dealt with appropriately up front then it becomes a nuisance and then it becomes a problem and a very expensive problem so they're all designing using the latest technologies that continue to evolve to ensure that noise is not heard from the surrounding Community the noise levels as you guys know it's it's um regulated by the Minnesota Pollution Control Act and while industrial noise standards and and the Bas the the maximums I guess can be higher than a residential noise level once you hit that property line once you get to the residential just because there's an industrial use adjacent the noise generated from the industrial use cannot exceed that established maximum noise level level on the residential property so I only put the residential decb on here because that that's really what has to be adhered to at the property line and at as we go across the property lines um we are in the process of conducting a noise study that noise study is going to measure the ambient noise levels around our project site and then the experts look at our where how we think the buildings will fit on the site and utilizing current Technologies and noise attenuation mitigation they will then determine and make sure that we're not going to those data centers will not exceed these noise levels and if if they are there's there's you know then we need to work to mitigate that because we don't want to go through this whole process only to find the data centers can't ever not exceed the the noise standards and so that's part of our due diligence upfront and how we make sure that this is um this is a use that is going to fit into the surrounding Community um one thing that you guys can can considered through the Pud process and then what we can offer on the table as well is that the end user when they come in for their site plan that they have to submit a no their own noise study and so that that noise study will then be based off of that building design those specific attenuation measures and so before that building permit is ever issued it has to be confirmed that as that building is designed it will not exceed the noise standards so that's something that um is a it's an industry standard the industry is using used to having to do that and so we would like to you know present that as an option here and and that will be a part of our PUD application um this is a graphic showing about eight different ways that the inside of a generator um is designed and constructed to attenuate noise um and so there's Mufflers Bellows deading materials louvers you know in inside of a shell and so the generator industry knows that these generators can't be loud when they're running and so they're designing them to mitigate the noise I do have some air permitting bullet points on here because I know that comes up whenever we start talking about generators um air permitting and Emissions is um it all has to be compliant with all of your your state and federal regulations and so there is a lot of oversight there um in the very early stages and the ongoing stages and so this is not something that um is is taken lightly air permitting is a a very serious permitting piece of generators and there's a lot of oversight um from multiple levels of of of regulations sustainability is certainly a key piece of um a key question that really comes up in this industry and because the industry does utilize water and does utilize power and so how how can something like this that we're all riant upon um you know you saw last night like just about everything we do including streaming live this meeting right here is now associated with the data center and so how can this thing that we're all growing even more dependent upon be sustainable and so the hyperscalers so Amazon um AWS Microsoft Apple Google they all have ESG goals that have to be met as a part of their commitments to their investors and also just in general they work to be stewards of the environment and so in 2021 Amazon and Microsoft were the two largest corporate buyers of renewable energy in the world um meta their operations for uh data centers have already reached net zero emissions and are supported by 100% renewable energy Google has a goal to run on 247 carbon free energy uh where they operate by 2030 and uh Google Microsoft meta all have a goal to replenish more water than they consume by 2030 so these are goals that are published in their annual reporting um if their public reports um and so this is motivation and incentive you know these um ESG policies help big companies like this remain um committed to their promises and act responsibly tract also has an ESG policy so we have investors and so as a part of this whole industry we have an ESG policy um and in terms of sustainability we have a first ofit kind collaboration agreement with silicon Ranch this is uh in Nevada to advance renewable projects for future data center development in Nevada and Utah um so we are looking um always looking for more opportunities and more programs to essentially set the end users up for uh being better able to capitalize on sustainable initiatives and so while we're not the end user and we're not the actual power user we want to do what we can on the front end to help them be successful in meeting their ESG goals jobs are um a very important pie P of this industry um 277 permanent jobs may not sound like a lot but there's a lot of benefits associated with these jobs and these are also very well-paying jobs that can be filled by members of your community and the nearby surrounding Community the average uh median wage for these types of jobs that are filled by the data center industry is a it's at least $100,000 now um and they go and they go up so we've got the um information research scientists at 137,000 and so this was uh a 2022 number so these are well-paying jobs um you know this is a good thing about this this use in this location is that um this isn't a use that necessarily generates a ton of jobs but a lot of jobs also generates a lot of traffic and a need for a lot more housing and more demands on your schools and so this is a great way to balance bringing in um a a use that brings a lot of economic potential but has a very low impact um there's also the construction jobs and the construction jobs are also you know opportunities to be filled by your local community your local contractors um and these are ongoing too and so it's not just you know constructing the building but it's maintaining the buildings going forward as well there's the indirect jobs that your community um will benefit from so your local businesses will see more people at coffee shops um the restaurants at the local stores um there's a study and I did quote it down here and so this um was just published in 2024 for every job inside a Virginia data center there are three and a half additional jobs that are supported by the rest of the Virginia economy not counting construction jobs and so there's broader jobs that are created um other than just the direct jobs that come from the data centers so data centers require a lot of capital investment this these this is very you know billions of dollars that uh are needed to build the servers and then the servers have a lifespan of about on average five years and then they have to be replaced and so um the depreciation on servers you know basically caps out at around five years it can fluctuate some and then you've got a new investment of infrastructure coming in and so that continues to essentially fuel your tax base and so we are estimating that on average at full buildout uh the um this campus would generate $16 million annually for your budget and then over a 20-year lifespan it would be about $325 million coming into the city of Farmington budget and um you guys know your budget better than anyone else and where that money can be allocated to go towards improvements to your schools to your Parks um to better wages for emergency um Services First Responders teachers um employees it's great for um employee retention there's a myriad of needs that can be met um new fire stations can be built um you know new technologies can be brought into to your emergency response um um uh buildings and U Services as they are and then also there's opportunities to upgrade your roads your water and your sewer infrastructure and just to clarify that is just the city portion of the taxes that doesn't account for the school district's portion of the taxes or the state taxes that is only city thank you we heard that people wanted to know well what else besides the tax dollars how how else do data centers benefit the broader community and I think there's some things that I you know wo into this presentation where you can see you know how it all kind of starts to play out but um the hyperscalers are recognized as providing significant contributions towards communities um wherever they are investing and so um they really invest dollars in Steam and programs uh technology educational programs bringing uh new technology to schools um also small business trainings um skilled trades programs and so they you can you know do some research and see where there's some some great stories about how Amazon has um invested in the community to really um help bring up uh students and um and other members of the community and and help provide more assistance to them in in training in last year Microsoft uh donated $1.9 billion uh to organizations last year so that's across the world um but it's not insignificant and then as track we're also looking for opportunities to be partners in the communities and so um in Story County Nevada we're exploring opportunities to work with the uh middle and high school robotics team um we're looking for other opportunities there as well so we're we're interested in in hearing what kind of opportunities may be uh available for us to help partner in Farmington um as an aside what some of the other communities have done with their tax dollars in henrio County they established a 60 million do Housing Trust uh just from their data center taxes and in Lowden County along with many other things that they've done they also um reduce their property taxes they in 2020 lden County receive $333 million in data center taxes lden county is essentially the the data center capital of the world um but um so that that's a very significant number there it's a very high concentration of data centers but that's one thing that they're able to do with their tax dollars so just in summary um again this is an opportunity to bring a uh a development here to Farmington a master plan data center campus that would have a high fiscal impact uh low infrastructure impact and low traffic impact so we feel like it's an a Very balanced uh way to grow um in this section of the city um we have a lot of this is our our timeline so we have we have processes ahead of us and more meetings with you all and with the community coming up and so um we will be uh submitting our preliminary PUD and preliminary plat application in about the next month we are looking at some dates I believe towards the end of August to host a community meeting and so not sure what exactly what that format will look like but it will be an opportunity to really take the questions from the community continue to engage with them um we're available at any point in time to ask questions and engage as well but um we will be back in August for that and then we'll be moving through the hearing process for the preliminary and final plat um and then the a is is moving through the process as well and then we'll be back with the uh final PUD and final plat so um we look to have this all wrapped up ideally um through by the end of the year and um we are working on a project website I was hoping that it would be launched by today so I could give you the URL it should be out in the next couple of weeks um this is an example of another project website that we have it will have our project information our contact information um our FAQs so this will be a good way to to interface with us and get the most recent information we'll provide the URL to staff and staff can get that out to the community once it is launched and thank you and we are all here to answer questions anything you want to add there well first um thank you very much uh that was far more detailed than I expected uh extremely informative and for those who might not have caught it when she said it um will you please explain a little bit I want you to go into a little bit more detail about why you're choosing to put the appe D overlay application in at this time as opposed to a typical process where it would be a little bit further down the lines can you just add a little bit more to that for me please sure um the process that we were in was just the standard rezoning process so it was a going to the straight zoning of muci and that means that we would just look at the code for all of the development standards and so um that we realized immediately with the um May Planning Commission meeting that that was not the level of detail that you guys wanted nor that we wanted because we wanted to have the opportunity to really look more closely at those development standards and make sure that as we're building this framework out that we're applying the development standards that are appropriate for this use in this location relative to the surrounding Community um and so it is far more detailed um um it will not be a site plan level application but it will be essentially that horizontal plan with the road alignment the water and sewer alignment development areas areas that we need to avoid um we have some small areas of wetlands at the flood plane along the South you know establishing that boundary very clearly um and so we wanted to we we also felt a little weird like not being front and center in that resoning process we we wanted to engage with you all and we want to engage with the community and we want to be able to answer your questions and the process that we were in the questions that you had couldn't be answered through that process um and so we we wanted to pull back and and be sure that we could come forward and and just be a lot more engaged with you all um and work through the development standards together I sincerely appreciate that um that is a significant component of this process um especially for both of the bodies to take all the information and be able to make an educated decision with what we have in front of us and often we can be asked to make decisions where we have not enough detail and so just your recognition of that U and bringing that to us before we ask for it um is a significant part of being a collaborative partner in doing this so so to the entire team thank you um Dirk do you want to go ahead and lead with any questions that you guys have you know I can I don't know how detailed we want to get into first of all I want to compliment you did an excellent job thank you and to the residents and to the other people that are out here they've been active they're active at our meeting they're active here I've seen some of you at meetings the last two nights in a row so I know you're active um and with the commission's permission can I go first on questions all right um and you hit something right away the sensitivity to the community MH um and and to me that was par amount um it helps a little to a degree on a PUD because then and as Tony knows and staff knows the setbacks are so minimal I mean they they are they're nothing and that that has real issues with our residents out here because you go from uh what could be an industrial use to our R1 largest lot residential mhm with no buffer and so my my question would be is as we start thinking about this is you know PUD there's a little more there but what we wouldn't as a land use and this is a land use question for the commission little different for the council maybe but still land use to some degree but going through different zoning and and comp plan exercises we don't usually put very distinct zoning districts right next to each other with so without some kind of buffer in between and that's what I would look for here because we got residents out there that have that were there first and that are used to the 13th hole the 13th Fairway in their backyard or the second depending on which side you're on and you know I think as a as a city we have to do something to minimize any impact of what this development could do to them you know they there first we have to acknowledge that and that's coming in but I'm I'm not afraid of data centers I mean I in my previous life and my work um we worked with them and you're right you know these companies go to utilities first because if the power is not there they're not going to go through the city process you know I know that um and I I my questions were how do these two Parcels work together are they independent of each other or do you need both of them and all of both both of them you know you said you had you know I don't know 348 acres and 200 of them you know with with taking flood plane out do they work together they do work together in terms of infrastructure um so all the infrastructure will be planned in a coordinated way and that is a part of your your um plat process and the Pud process they could be two independent campuses um so it might be an enduser buys the North parcel and a different enduser buys the South parcel but they all are subject to the same development standards right and also the planned infrastructure there can be some modifications once they come in and there there's you know once we get internal to the site um there may be some modifications there that happen with their site plan um but the like the framework will be set but yes I mean the intention is that um you know it's a it's a master planned campus but um there might be two you know there are two separate development areas and just to interject a little bit with that um I know people have asked about I mean there's two parcels and there's a road in between the road won't go away no so that road will stay and the other thing and I think people um when they say data center they think of a building and so people think well how is a 2 million sare foot building going to fit on this and it's going to our Road's going to go away and stuff like that and Kristen has said it multiple times it's a campus so we called it you know a technology park there's multiple buildings and so you can and when you talked about your fit plans and those are things that um were early in the process and those are the things that you work through you look at how those buildings can buildings plural can fit on there respecting the um enhanced setbacks that come out from a contextual perspective and respecting the natural features that are on the site you talked about um platting M and and I who does the plating is it the hypers scale the actual owners or will you you mentioned or alluded to that you would do some preliminary we're doing preliminary and final plat so we're identifying all of the infrastructure uh upgrades and needs that are you know offsite and offsite and we're we're ensuring that the you know the water and wastewater lines are sized appropriately that the road network is sized appropriately again when in the in the platting um that is your you know you think about it as your your infrastructure plan when the end user comes in and say I if this smells okay so say we have you know the road comes like this and then the water and sewer is coming like this well say the end user decides well we actually want to build build our buildings you know perpendicular then they may need to reroute a few things internal to the site that doesn't affect all of the planning that we've done external to the site so they will and they can do any kind of modifications to the Civil design plans through the site plan process they don't have to repat the property um but we we we're doing that now because we that's that's what we we want to identify what all those improvements are um and understand how that works with the city's plans and you use the term both preliminary and final so you and you mentioned earlier at some point you thought you'd have some of that done within a shorter period of time yes with our preliminary PUD will bring the preliminary plaid remember the preliminary allows us to look at everything high level right right not all the detail and then get your feedback that's the public process does it seem like it's in the in the right location does everything seem you know according to to code um and then we go in and further refine all of the you know 900 pages of civil design plans I understand um you know just having that preliminary concept would be helpful and as much for the commission as it would be for our residents that are so interested you know I mean right now there's some concern about how close or looks or size or whatever if we had that M this process could possibly be smoother there if I can interject really quick um just as kind of a process moving forward um as you all know the uh rezoning got continued at the last meeting right essentially what will happen at the the June meeting um next week um that resoning application will essentially be tabled okay um and then as Kristen had mentioned they will come back in July with a full application for PUD so dealing with the resoning um kind of that preliminary layout um as you had mentioned um so at that point we will have a lot more of that information that you are looking for as part of that application process our friends out there that's great news okay what you what Tony just said you you know there's going to be some actual design preliminary as it may be but it's going to be out there for you to look at so we're not going to have to sit there and say you know we don't like the setbacks of a industrial mixed use cuz that is zero M you know right now it's a PUD and I thought that was great news Josh you brought up that was that to me that was the biggest thing that I heard so far today along with what Tony just said so I'm getting more comfortable with this you know I I am not concerned on a data center with electricity use you know I work for utility for 40 years I understand that I'm not concerned with the noise um yeah there's going to be backup generators I've been around them um that that won't be an issue for you traffic I think it's going to be if if this does go through you know the traffic of a large development you'd see a whole lot more traffic the roads would have to be modified somewhat accordingly um and I'm not even concerned about the appearance of the building I I think whoever is going to build is is going to if they do go this far we'll have an attractive building um but we're not there yet and what Tony mentioned is um I think it's going to be good news for the commission and for the residents and eventually the city council I think we're going to have a better picture to look at and we would be going into this with with no PUD and just you rezone this and and we'll see what happens so those are my comments I apologize for the length of it commissioner tesy um no I appreciate everything youve pulled together here thank you for listening to the residents of the community um I appreciate the fact that there's a master plan behind this we need the infrastructure to support an effort like this um thinking about our neighbors adjacent to the properties um so I like all of this thank you very much commissioner winshuttle yeah just a couple simple questions uh regarding the jobs 273 employees how many of those come from the outside from other states any idea or those are those are IT jobs mostly and they are your hbac jobs and your plumbing jobs you know they're maintaining the buildings and so if you you know ideally most of those jobs are coming from Farmington and Dakota County um so they're you know well-paying technical jobs and I can address that a little bit as well just like with any um business recruitment efforts that we do no employer will look at coming to a place if they're not able to actually hire those jobs so in a data center yes the insides the guts of a data center are super expensive but um typically a industry or a business's largest expense is their payroll their Workforce and if they can't have the people to produce whatever it is or to run whatever it is it doesn't make sense for a business to come and so um we are Nationwide in a situation where there's a Workforce shortage Nationwide and so to have a development that is only I mean when you think about it only looking at 2 to30 jobs on a site that's 300 acres that's attainable and those skill sets exist um in addition I think it's Dakota County or hennipin one of the two technical colleges because Minnesota is now this emerging Data Center Market is putting in specific training programs to build the workforce of the future to fill these jobs um throughout the state of Minnesota because they're in such demand and so even our training institutions nearby are putting in programs to build that Workforce and so this number um I know some people like to say oh it's not going to create that many jobs if they were to come to us and say we need 2,000 jobs they wouldn't be coming to us because 2,000 jobs are not available when they can come to us and say we're going to create 200 to 300 high quality jobs and your training institutions are building programming specific to build that Workforce of the future that's when you have two things come together and they make start making a lot of sense for a community if if I can just add one piece to that um the last time that we had deed do their report for Farmington specifically farmington's Workforce uh 2019 there were 293 identified Information Technology um workers within Farmington and only 14 jobs available so it's another key driver as to why this location continues to come up there's you know the workforce is a huge piece of it because the people are already here you going F good now are are these uh buildings I assume secured gated like for entrances the the campuses are secured and and fenced and gated um and yes security is important and so we will work through fence standards um with with City staff and those will be a part of the Pud as well but yes they're secured campuses secure just sorry another question secured as a far like security guards like gated or is it just a a lot of them are I think most of them do have security cards depends on depends sure thanks that's it looks good thanks commissioner leato yeah this looks aming thank you so much for giving all this really helping to um clarify everything in my mind I was just wondering how the market is for selling these to people that want to come in and do this is it pretty easy to sell them once you have everything in place or how does that work yes so we um we have relationships with all of the hypers scalers we don't actively Market anything to anyone in particular um until um later later on but we also know where the data centers want to grow and where they want to build and so um we're actually getting ahead of them um because they're putting you know you think about Amazon and they're everything that they need to do and then when they're spending a lot of money time and effort going through this exact process over and over and over that's a very long lead time whereas what we're doing is we're shortening their lead time and so by the time you know we we of our model yes we we know that data centers want to come here this is not speculative this is known um and we know that once we get through all of the processes and and we're at the the right phase that we will have multiple a lot of interest um in this site and so you already identified like for example Rosemont is having a medic in so I would assume that you have relationship with whomever it is and would have it would be an easy transition to have them come in and do the purchase is what I'm asking yes and we don't know who the user will be we don't know who the buyer will be you know meta's campus is meta's campus um so we are um but yes it will be an a an easy transition and you know one of the things that we feel is an important role for us is to is to build this relationship with you all and build you know um set the stage so that we're essentially a bridge to the relationship with the end user and so um that's really important to us because we we will then be telling them you know showing them this property and here's all the things that we committed to and that you are committed to as well and they say great so Yes sounds good thank you that's all I have M NOC yeah I was just wonder it's kind of a big picture question um are D stunners strategically plac placed uh geographically like my my question goes to the point of if it's not bu built here where it would be someplace else in a community close to to us or or were to go to another state do you understand where I'm going yes exactly um yes we look at core markets and Emerging Markets um kind of call it an amoeba so um we are looking very closely at understanding where the market wants to grow and like I said and and get ahead of it and so um the um I'm sorry can you reframe your question cuz I got off the point is is is is it going to be built in Minnesota City Coast of Farmington um if it's not built here yes absolutely um Minnesota is a very desirable market for data centers this is a great site because of all the reasons that I've listed but if it you know and then Farmington can benefit from the tax dollars if it doesn't go here for some reason the another community that is more open to them they will go there um and so that that will be this project going somewhere else or a project like this and so and we're not the only ones in Minnesota obviously so um yes uh other um it this could go to other communities but one thing just to add on to that I'm sorry to keep interjecting is that these projects and you talked about this earlier the lead to the where these projects go is the access to power and so one of the questions that came up during the public hearing is why not downtown why not on some other site and again the number one reason that this site was identified had to do with the power line that's there and so you can't just say they'll go anywhere because they won't there's very limited locations where these data centers will go and it has to do with where is the power or where can you easily get that power and then it gets into the city infrastructure and other things but it's not just if it's not this site please go 2 miles down the road and go into downtown or to go into that site on the other side of whatever because it is definitely like it's where that power exists anything else Mitch yeah well and I just think about the water usage if if this is built someplace else it's going to come from the same water source the same aquifers type of deal um you understand what I'm asking is is whatever Community is built in we're all in similar aquafers so the water usage isn't going to change Statewide if it's not built in Farmington would that be a correct assumption I mean do you know where I'm going with that uh yes Commissioners mayor council members uh guest the water use unless you're talking about the core Cities Minneapolis St Paul Minneapolis primarily river water uh Burnsville uses a significant surface water source Minnesota River um it's coming from the aquifers uh the aquifers don't recognize obviously City boundaries and whatnot there's still going to be Wells put down there's still going to be water supply to to deliver to the site so in that case yes it's the water's going to come whether it's here whether it's you know two cities over it's going to come out of our Minnesota aquifers I know that was a concern that was voiced by the community and it's a valid concern um so I just want to hear that that that would be the case if it wasn't built here it's going to come from the same place I thank you so much for your time appreciate of course thank you for the opportunity for us to ask questions thank you sir uh with council's permission can I lead cool uh first I I wanted especially recognize the due diligence of our Planning Commission um recognizing that there were questions to take pause gather information direct staff to involve um the developer the AAR study information um again shows the commitment that we have to our community and and our residents that we do hear you we understand there's concerns there's reservations before we can make an educated decision we have to become informed so again I I want to say sincere thank you for um allowing this to go through the process that that we're in now uh on top of um Mitch's question regarding the water uh if you're at libert to Liberty to answer this uh in Prior sites to the east of here that we had talked about it was brought up that um that site for example had for irrigation usage um was was using approximately 20 million gallons of water per day and for the proposal of that site they were going to cap that well and not use it and the water was going to be pulled from the Empire Wastewater facility essentially preserving the water that was being used for irrigation and then redirecting what was bound for the river are you able to comment at all about where the water source are we are we talking groundwater usage or are we talking some level of redirect from Empire I'm GNA let you answer that John yeah I don't know if TR wants to comment on that but uh the Metropolitan Council for years has evaluated Wastewater reuse uh that's no different for the Empire uh treatment plant it's not a case where you can just treat it and then route it uh to user based on the user technology campus there may be further further treatment that needs to be done uh so we'll be looking at a combination uh track has given us great information to put into the context of our overall comprehensive planning uh initial and then phasing as well as kind of a low medium high because we understand it's a um you know a balance do you pay more for energy for maybe air cooling or water for water cooling but um it's a combination of groundwater uh there may be Wastewater reuse we don't control that that's the Metropolitan Council uh but we would not be I think one of the concerns was that there'd be Wells put in close proximity that it would draw down Wells nearby we're not proposing anything like that uh we've got existing wells in different areas as part of our growth we will need additional Wells but it's unlikely that it would be right near this site it's more likely that there would be water storage somewhere over in this area of the City versus Wells and then just from me thank you for that I I appreciate that trying to add more clarity to our residents and those that have expressed concern um the statistic that you showed on page 15 about the gallons per year puts there approx approximately 60 to 70 million gallons now that's combined between both both sites correct the whole campus just is a baseline I did a quick little Google search and used USGA so United States Golf Association um for the Upper Midwest and the amount of water that an average Upper Midwest Golf Course uses and it's anywhere between 30 and 50 million gallons a year so I I just I think it was imperative to share that that even just the one site when compared against what you've proposed in total usage if it all comes out of the same ground um you're talking about numbers that are almost Net Zero and so any any way that we can through the environmental review and the infrastructure needs help look at some of that um there is a distinct possibility that this site at buildout could use less water than the golf course that's there right now I mean very yeah mayor just to provide some context so the city currently delivers about 830 million gallons per year uh to our customers um almost a bill a billion is what our appropriation permit is right now but whether it's this type of growth similar to the transportation analogy uh if you had 250 houses that would likely generate more traffic than you know what's being proposed here um similar to water uh if somebody's irrigation irrigation for their lawns aside from a golf course there's a huge water demand related to residential development on that scale so it's when we look at the overall comprehensive plan and what we need to deliver to the system it might be an offset or certainly if we assume mid-range demand uh of what we've seen uh it would probably be an offset from some other type of development thank you sir and one of the things that I don't pretend to speak engineer language ever I have to put that out there um so I like to try to keep things down I make them dumb it down and put it at my level um and one of the things that we've talked about and it gets lost when we talk about any type of big project is that when we talk about water um there's water being used on the site so when we talk about a new development it's not going from zero to whatever there's a starting point that's above zero and that is often lost in the conversation because the numbers look big and so I think when John just talked about what our Appropriations are he uses the technical terms which I appreciate but to bring it down to my level you know just let's remember we're not starting at zero when we talk about usage thank you I only have one more question uh do you mind going to slide 20 for me please sure will you will you please explain for the viewers for those in attendance uh why when you look at your graph there is a peak and it tails off over that 20e period of time yes and so what's happening to get to that Peak is the buildout of the data centers is happening and so that investment in all of the capital infrastructure is incurring during this time so this will be um you know the not all the buildings will be developed uh at the same time and so um the the buildings will will come in there'll be um the infrastructure will be brought in they'll be serviced um they'll be running and so when you get to that Peak that's essentially where we we've reached buildout and then we start to have you know your highest tax value and then as the equipment depreciates and then it is replaced you still receive a high tax benefit but it's not of that initial it's not that initial load um as the build as the construction was occurring and so this is essentially the decline is the depreciation and replacement of the equipment over time thank you I appreciate that I don't have any other questions thank you very much very well detailed very appreciative thank you Steve yeah I appreciate it um thank you Kristen and I do want to thank the residents that are here too and I I I really want to thank you as has been noted that you watched the Planning Commission that the team didn't took note of that um um you know I think that is I think a little bit unique and in a favorable way that you're really wanting to from the GetGo be a good neighbor and a good partner and collaborative partner as a mayor noted with the community I think that's really important so I believe you're going to be there of course at the July meeting um it would encourage you to keep doing that as well so thank you for that part of it um let's talk a little bit about the noise so I'm guessing that if you're a resident at a cal Court what you're experiencing today is far below the standard so 50 to 60 DB you know on an average day or evening out there is probably going to be quite a bit higher so while track is looking to um of course not exceed the standards you know per the state guidance it is certainly possible that the noise level could even be lower than than that I mean that's obviously the threshold um but do you expect it to be in that 50 to 60 range any any thought on that for your expectations um I mean once once you're on the residential property yes um you know we've we've Kevin's uh worked in the data center industry directly um we've visited data centers you there's you're standing outside and and really don't hear anything um what you hear is the traffic driving by the road noise is louder than anything that you would hear from the data center and so I we do anticipate that that threshold um not be exceeded and probably much lower okay now it's been commented about the generators how often or what percentage of the time would you say the generators are operating because while we are a cool climate this year was not a good example example um you know there is going to be periods in July August where there's going to be 90s maybe even 100 and you know that's going to maybe go on for a week or two um so that would probably stretch demand obviously even though you're going to have your own substation so in terms of the generator usage how frequently or what percentage of the time would you say in an average site you might see that well generators are tested do you want to answer that pH Philip came all the way here from Virginia if you wouldn't mind yeah just that way because we are recording it thank you sir sure I'll reintroduce myself I'm Philip sandin on the SVP of utility development for tract um so the the backup generators are their specifically for backup and they're meant for utility loss and they're not run for financial gain or anything like that so um there's a testing which why end up being the primary Mission because they they're really insurance policies to L in the grid um so at a time of a grid loss system of emergency um whether it's instantaneous it doesn't have to be prolonged I mean it's it's like if it was um you know kind of what we would consider a blip that may cause generators to come on in certain in certain parts whatever is affected by the grid uh but but other than that you know it's typically routine because we are connected to the most reliable part of electric grid we're not on the on the wooden pole distribution uh we will be on transmission and substation so we we enjoy the highest reliability uh on the grid at the transmission level which which you all probably know you don't lose transmission uh except for very unique events um but we typically data centers will follow NFPA guidance on testing for the generators and so they would cycle through they wouldn't all run at the same time they would run for typically an hour and in stages and you know on times that are agreeable we'd have no desire to disturb the community um so they would be run at times when it would be acceptable to run those so one of the things to interject last night we had um uh the president of the local chapter of the Minnesota chapter of afcom here to talk about data centers and he mentioned that data centers are that um critical infrastructure just like a hospital and so like a hospital they would test the generators monthly um and then only use the generators in a legitimate emergency backup situation and I think if to kind of reframe the question is that what you're asking Steve is is that accurate that's what was presented last night is that accurate with what you propose or what you believe will happen with this particular site yeah that's my after 10 years of operating data CS myself yes that's the the the expectation because the the expect ation is to run the equipment periodically because equipment that doesn't run like to run when it doesn't like to run when you need it however fuel has a cost and you don't want to overdo it so you just you don't want to under overdo it or underdo it you just want to do it right and and and have reliable equipment sure and remember it's Dakota Electric the most reliable you that's right that's where I my there you go thank you um mayor I would add that just like the city we exercise our general generators also because when you when you need them we have to make sure they're working so we try to be uh careful when we do that and how long we run them but we do need to exercise them make sure they're ready to go when we need it for water system sewer system right and to confirm I'm fully aware that generator usage is going to occur I'm just trying to get a sense of you know again thinking about the neighbors you know are we talking a very small percentage of the time it sounds like it yeah I I'm sorry I'm not prepared with the I mean I know you can't give me percentages but it's a it's a very low amount of time and and you know each generator would run maybe one hour per month on testing sure um in all the reading I have done about data centers around the country and and including Ireland where I guess there's it's a hot bet of data centers out there across the pond as well the the need to generate power versus the available power out there is kind of the challenge in the industry because these are so you know electricity Hungary you know I it it seems kind of almost surprising maybe astounding to me that you know some of these large providers like Amazon could actually be operating on essentially green energy non-carbon energy um I guess I didn't think there was that much production available in those Technologies but maybe I'm mistaken well in the in the grid you you it's it's like a pond you you put Power in and somebody across the pond pulls power out so the electrons are all mixed together I think it's more of a a contract imperative that you you contract for power where it's available um but yes there's there's um you know if you if you read enough information on what's coming from the data center and some of it hyperbolic but it is still a big need the the United States doesn't generate enough power for what the data centers contemplate that we will plus electrification of vehicles and everything else Plus on Shoring of of manufacturing or reshoring of manufacturing um but you know we've been actually been working on this for years so I think that the practitioners have been studying this for quite some time but it takes a long time to develop um generation projects that people will agree to and it takes much shorter time to develop a data center uh and and that's a challenge we we can and now that the data centers are starting to consume in in one monolithic block much more power at a time um it it it it makes the planning piece which is again this is why tract was founded you need a much longer Runway to master plan than you used to right so yeah there's there's a challenge but but we are working on it you know I talk to equipment suppliers we are working with uh Dakota Electric and Great River Energy which I put in the top 1% of all uh of the of the electricity suppliers that I talk to uh around the country um and and it's just great teamwork right but that's one of the reasons why we solidified and confirmed our belief in in this project in this community because of those you know those partners and then they work with myo which is also Minnesota institution uh the Midcontinent independent system operator to make sure that you get you know safe reliable and uh reasonably priced electricity right so that's and that's our goal as well because we don't want to affect the community negatively when we're we're done we we expect the grid to be more reliable after we come in we expect it to be just as affordable as when as when we came in right and the last item is really more of a comment when I've talked to Residents you know the and I would Echo um what the mayor and what what our Planning Commission has said I mean the fact that you're coming in with a you know a preliminary plat and kind of an idea what it's going to look like is is really a big deal and I think it's a really big deal for the residents because the question or the comment I've had is well we going to see what this is going to look like I mean this is going to be right in our front yard this is going to be right just down the road is this going to go right up to the fence line what is this going to look like and it's a very reasonable comment and to durk's point I mean the residents were here first and they want to know who the potential new neighbor is going to be um so I do appreciate that and you know it sounds like there's going to be an opportunity for for the public to weigh in and say you know we like this what do you you know is there a way to burn this a little bit different for example is there a way to do things you know to kind of tweak it a little bit so it sounds like that's the the way the track team operates and I appreciate that so thank you yeah ktie sure I had two questions but Phil asked one of them regarding security and understanding that it depends on what kind of data is housed in it would Elevate the security threat different ways but uh my other question would be around um the lifespan of these data centers and I'm going to lead you a little bit with my question of you know the city could do all sorts of development on this land and Commercial could be one of them um and the volatility in the commercial market right now can you speak a little bit to the lifespan of a Data Center and what we could anticipate that looking like over the next however many decades I can answer it I think that so um you know I think you just look to mature markets right where data centers are and and data centers really have their um origin in in Telecom centers right like the old mobel small buildings that was like the the origin of them but as the internet came um whether it was federal government or or um companies would develop their own data data clauset and then and buildings and really there is you know not to my knowledge and in Virginia where I'm from um um I'm not from there but I where I live and work now um that's kind of you know back in 2010 it was already mature when I was in my utility role developing data centers and I don't know of any but that decommissioned and and then kind of the federal government famously said hey we're going to we're going to um reduce the number of data centers this was probably in in 2014 or 15 but really what that meant was they're going to start pulling servers out of closets and things like that and moving them to legitimate data centers there there's no data centers that I know of that have been decommissioned because it's so hard to pull that mission away it's not fungible it's not movable and and a lot of things a lot of applications that are run were built for the equipment that they're on and and it's hard to replace that so I just think um you know it seems to be very durable it's has got to be as durable as you know the power stations that I ran for the utility as well uh these are the modern utility this is this is you know if you think it's not like take away all the it devices and everything and you'll see it's it is a modern utility so the buildings that we design and build um they're not short-term these aren't a short-term Investments because the building itself is worth hundreds of millions of dollars the it is worth billions and so it's secured and and you know the eight walls the roof and this floor you know and the walls it's meant to protect billions of dollars of investment and that reinvestment that's happening in these buildings is on a fiveyear life cycle typically or five to seven I mean these are these are averages right but depending on the the the you know the mission of the data center and the client of the Because by the way the customers that we want to sell to the Microsoft Amazon they have customers too and and they build applications on equipment and if they come up with new applications and need new equipment you know if it's the end of the life cycle or not that stuff's coming out and new stuff's coming in so it is a very active when you have a data center it it's not static it's it's very active as far as moving equipment around or moving out putting new things in thank you hi all right um thank you uh again without saying all the same things over and over again it was uh immensely helpful um to be able to be here and and hear uh so much of what we already had questions on I I would say the benefit of being in my spot is so many of my questions are already answered so I only have a couple left I swear um if we can go uh back to slide seven this is you know this is one thing that I saw right away and I think it would be potentially easy for us to not pay attention to these words but as a resident I I feel like they would be one of the first ones that I would maybe get stuck on and it has to do with proper planning and at the end it says we're best located away from residential centers and we know that we've got residents that are very close um to this area and so with that in mind I guess I would like or it's sorry for me it's page seven so I'm not sure where that okay y I know where we're trying to get to right here right after leadership actually oh one more this that one there we go one so it says with master plan growth and then it it ends with away from residential centers and I rather than skirting that I know that this is going to be something that residents look at and say but this isn't away from residential centers and so you you've talked about why this site is an important site and it's proximity to the things that it needs to be but along the lines of your good neighbor commitment how do you pair those two realities that we're close to residential centers here we've got two pockets of residential and we also have open land um can you speak a little bit more to that or can you explain how those two things coexist yes um this is yes there is res residential adjacent to the property we recognize that when we say away from residential centers that statement is really more leaning towards denser residential populations and so where you've got um more a lot more homes on smaller Lots um just more dense development kind of moving things away when you I have a I'll bring it next time but I have a slide that shows the Lowden County Data Center development and how close it is those data centers are to homes and that's what we're avoiding and so even though there is residential nearby our setbacks will be greater right and so that's one way to mitigate um we can look at additional Landscaping we can look at bming we also recognize and and I don't ever intend to undermine the value and specialness of the properties that are adjacent to this site when I talk about the things that we can do to mitigate I understand the concerns we understand the concerns and that's one of the first things that we look at and but we do see that these are larger lots that many of the homes are even set further away from the properties and so when you do that distance measurement there could be some homes that while the property line backs up the homes are you know um 500 feet maybe even a th000 feet from where a building could go and so we are closely looking at that so the center piece of it is more about the denser residential development um but looking at this site too most of the um southern area there is literally you know very little uh very little residential adjacent to it um and we even have that more industrial more towards the north too and so that's that was one of the attractive pieces of this site um along with the larger assemblage the power proximity but that this wasn't a denser residential neighborhood I appreciate you clarifying that um two more questions the first and I realize you don't you don't know your end user and so I I'm not asking you to speculate but I am asking more along the lines of can we be reasonably reasonably assured of and it talks about assuming assuming that the end user would use DEC cooling assuming that um they're going to take advantage of uh I think it was goals you were talking about goals when it was coming sorry I'm looking in here zero goals net zero goals um the likelihood of those things actually yeah goals for ESG right the likelihood of that actually coming to fruition when when you're looking at people that are end users today as compared to those that may have been 5 years ago I don't know I mean five months ago 15 years ago right what what really when we're saying okay well we assume that they'll use DEC cooling we assume that they're going to take these goals into consideration and that we're encouraging companies to do to do the next good thing when it comes to environmental impact what's that likelihood is it a 50/50 is it a most companies are doing this is it we don't really know but we hope they will um that's that's a very interesting question um when you look at the hypers scalers you know sustainability isn't just the water and the power it's the materials that are used in the buildings it's the lighting it's how the buildings are designed to um you know not take on too much heat to to reduce the demand just take the servers out of the the equation but you know I'm sure you all know about lead certified buildings and those are high building sustainability measures and so we don't really touch on that you know at at at this stage in in the process or we as a company but we know that these um data center developers are employing those high level of environmental factors so I would say the likelihood is very high because they you know those ESG policies aren't just for their data center development like if we take Amazon if we take Google it's across their whole business plan and so as massive as they are they have to make sure that they're implementing every measure that they can possible and sustainability with every footprint that they take on because that all factors into all of their metrics and so the more sustainable they are the better the metrics are the better that they have the ability to achieve their goals and so I think that they the likelihood is very high thank you uh last question um I too along with I think most of my peers watch the Planning Commission um meeting and one of the things that I I heard residents say is well you won't know until you see one um and I realize that there are so many steps that you are taking that go above and beyond what the Baseline requirements are and I'm grateful for that but what or where are reasonable data centers that are near to us that we can visit that would actually be an example example of a finished and working design that would be similar to what you might project this looking like um is is it as simple as heading up to Rosemount or is it something a little bit further away where we have the ability if we are so inclin to go and actually see one of these um I'm going to let Kevin answer okay it's going to be a little bit of a non- answer but um hi everybody Kevin Arrow VP of Land Development um to answer your question I think it's a great one I there's not a hyperscale data center in the state of Minnesota that we're aware of now Rosemont is planned to be it's under construction currently or maybe starting construction currently so it's that would probably not be a great example um but I think if you let us get back to you I think there are some what we call wholesale data centers available that of the same scale that would give you a good sense of what we're trying to plan for I'd appreciate that so yeah more to come how about that all right thank you I'm good they asked all the questions so I just have a few comments I mean this has got to be the first time that I've ever had a slide that is this is what I saw in your Planning Commission and then a whole presentation of here's how we address them so I can't thank you enough for that um the one thing that's not listed on here that I think you kind of accidentally did is the scenario one of the scenarios that's been keeping me up at night is what happens if we design this thing assuming what it's going to be and then we flipped it industrial and then you guys don't build and we're stuck with industrial and then we get you know radioactive waste getting disposed there something like that right um I think the act of you guys coming with this PUD and shortening that time frame between the Zone flip and kind of hard locking it into saying this is what it will be and to change this would require significant effort goes a long way in removing that risk for me personally at least um so I can't thank you enough for that kind of subtle part of that is not only getting answers to Residents but reducing that that scenario right that that's huge to me um you know I also really really appreciate um de's commented John's comment about how you expressed things in a relative way a lot of times you know when you see that water number you assume that what's out there right now is a desert not using anything right um the traffic is the same way and John's key word there was the scale we got to remember the scale of this right that's that's 640 acres and you don't realize how many houses fit in 640 acres and what that looks like when it's developed we just don't see it now because it's a corn field right um but it won't stay that forever and so I love how you've expressed everything in scenarios and how last night we had a scenarios right we're going to see things in comparative terms instead of just this big scary number that's showing up on on a doorstep and you know the noise thing I worked in a data center for 15 years it was always the traffic I could shout all the way across that building um on the outside it wasn't an issue um I I don't lose too much sleep over that I mean we got a train that goes by dozen times an hour and you don't even notice it right um so that part is is is kosher to me um I guess one other question about the Pud I mean on some of these that you've seen you you'll have like a storm water runoff Pond usually in these kind of things right somewhere on the grounds do you have a lot of leeway in where you can place those or is that kind of more defined by geography rules on the site itself um so on storm specifically is that your question on where the pawns could be yeah I mean geography does play a big piece of that um I do think that the natural slope of this site heads from North to South heading down and so there are some well defined areas that would make sense um to flip that around on the other side though quite a bit of the hyperscalers are looking into using the storm water as irrigation and reusing that as another asset as part of their development so that's another great op option as well but you have a space allocated as P right point is yeah if a lot of our concern in this is that you have this one kind of residential area that's getting unfortunately jammed right up to it and it's really in that southwest corner of the North Plat right is can you strategically locate say your storm water runoffs to give them a pond right you know the backyard kind of thing right I mean that those kind of options are there right with these things and you may end up with you know something that looks halfway nice right when you're looking out at a lake as opposed to you know a giant building wall or something so I want to make sure that option is on the table or that you're not already saying that the storm water has to go right no yeah it's not and another along those same lines too you know our team has been out there and along that northern border there you know there's a very nice tree line right and it's our intent to leave that in place keep that natural buffer in place and no no need to take down the extra trees if if it w effective overall development someone who lives a half mile from a distribution center that is blocked off by trees like I said it goes a long way and kind of I guess I want say tricking your perception but right it does a lot right just having the the visual barrier yeah visual buffer correct appreciate that thanks thank you for everyone for asking the questions before me so I didn't anything else to addre I can I follow up with that because I I I heard this from several council members have you ever dedicated any land on your sites what I'm getting at is exactly what Nick is saying you know we have a a designation of Park and open space I mean I think it might go a lot if there's some dedicated land of Park and open space whatever maybe it's a pond maybe it's trees maybe it's something but that way it doesn't I mean again these residents were there and they're right up to the 13th Fairway and so you know we don't want I think what everybody was saying is we don't want a building coming close or something you know if the if the view was obscured that'd be good I mean that's what I was concerned about when I talked about sensitivity of the the residents and stuff and I think that some of the council members mentioned the same thing so I don't know if you've ever done that I was going to mention it to Tony so I I would mention that I I don't know that we will be asking for land dedication as part of the plat um but there are certain ways that you can site the the property to um you know meet some of those Natural Area objectives um and that's something that certainly we will work with track and those end users to long as you got the message they they made it much clearer than than we alluded to but that that's exactly what we were talking about earlier so thank you yeah if I might follow up with a comment and one of the things that a development approach the tracks taking the campus setting we can master plan all these elements so a lot of times water gets siloed waste water portable water storm water we have the opportunity to really break down those silos and look at it more ballistically big picture can we re reuse storm water Pond you know there's there's um constraints to that you know dry weather wet weather and things like that but when we look at sites of this size we can look at things more on a bit a larger scale we're not ending up with little ponds you know based on subdivisions we can use a maybe a larger Pond more for for irrigation storm water reuse maybe we use that as a buffer you know at the south end it kind of naturally goes that way so planning a site of this size allows more flexibility in what you can achieve uh from a a site development standpoint and particularly from a water use standpoint D were you gon to add anything okay uh that was just going to be the last thing that I wanted to add really was that there's two perspectives here right I mean I think you'd have to be living under a rock to look at a development of this opportunity and say there's not massive benefits to it but at the end of the day as we all know and you've done this many of times over there are still real people with real Investments That call it home and they value that first and above all right we've been very used to I mean I I played Fountain Valley as a kid like I remember dragging my bag there at age 10 right we look at this at this golf course and we and we look at this land and we yeah we can't see see the clubhouse from their front steps um or from their backyards they they might see the driving range or hole number two sometimes we lose concept of the size and scale of the parcel even those that live next to it that it is substantial in size what we're all asking for is well the benefits may be drastically outweighing the you know the negative side of this or any perceived negative side effect please put consideration into the site plan the layout to ensure that they can coexist and as many people as possible feel good about a proposed development in this location is ultimately what we're asking for we don't know what that looks like but there is a process that is drawn over drawn out over the next four to five months that will involve public hearings public comment um some Concepts some you know preliminary plat the Pud application all the things just continue to be uh forthright and please do it in good faith we do not want to find ourselves in a situation where yeah we thought but and we have to do this hard pivot and there's an amended plat and then it's changing and now we're going nope the building went from 30 to Now 60 feet tall or the setback that was going to be 300 or 400 is now going to be 150 we're all going to have major problems at that point and that's I think generally speaking what we're all asking for um and if this is indic If today is any indication of um everything that is going to come before us I feel confident that we are going to reach that solution all right yes ma'am can I add something now absolutely thank you um so building off of what you just said mayor and what everybody has voiced tonight the one thing that I think maybe tracked um skimmed over was what differentiates them from others out there and this idea of a master planned concept without a designated end user in the moment is what separates them because they are coming in to look at the context of which in which they want they're wanting to invest and so as the developers they're putting a significant investment in here ultimately for an end user but what is that differenti F differential factor that factor different you know what I'm trying to say right I don't know I don't speak yes I love it maybe we won um is the fact that this is what they're trying to do and they're trying to be respectful and they want larger setbacks and they were following a city process um and after listening to that Planning Commission meeting collectively we're like okay this isn't the process that's going to work here what process will and so that puts us into this new this on this new path and so to summarize is um the Planning Commission will be asked to table the existing resoning request we anticipate getting a full package for the Pud preliminary PUD and and plat um in July which likely then would move into an August time frame August September for the for the public hearings there'll be public hearing or um public meetings engagement meetings with track um before that um yet this month they'll be launching the website so that this information as well as a lot of other information will be available specific to what it is that they intend to do and opening up those lines of communication as well with the public um and we'll see them back and we'll be able to work on this together respecting the site and also respecting the fact that um there are a lot of steps associated with this um a lot of on the environmental side and we've already mentioned that the electric companies are doing their own thing to work through this we're and we'll have the city process to work through as well but it will be that that is what we anticipate moving forward yeah Tony anything anything to add she said it all all right need a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second motion second all in favor I motion Kista and pill [Music]