Good morning, Birmingham.

Today is June 9, 2026.

The time is now nine forty AM.

I call to order the regular meeting of the Birmingham City Council.

Today's invocation will be led by Reverend Gwendolyn C.

Webb, Pastor God's people united for a better world in Birmingham.

The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Councillor Sonia Smith.

If you're willing and able, please stand and join us.

Morning, Pastor Webb.

Good morning, Madam President.

Oh, goodness.

Oh, great.

Good morning, Madam President and Madam Vice President.

Oh, God, I love saying ma'am, madam, madam.

To this outstanding council.

Where's the mayor?

Oh.

Good morning, Mr.

Mayor.

With all of that said, if we could bow ahead for uh prayer, please.

Dear and Father, the most gracious father, Lord God, we come to you right now in the only way that we know how.

With the umber hearts and bowed heads and just plenty of Thanksgiving.

Dear Father, we've come this far by faith, leaning on none other but you, Lord.

We still trusting in your holy name.

You never failed us, not yet.

Now, dearly father, I'm asking a special blessing, please, upon the mayor of this outstanding city, upon the president and the vice and uh the president pro ten for this city and all of these outstanding council members.

Bless the entire staff, dearly father of the city of Birmingham.

For earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

Whatever the situation is, we know you'll take care of it and heal it.

Whatever, dear Father, that we need this and that, we put it all in your hands for you to handle it, and we know that's a fact.

Now, dearly Father, continue to bless now, bless now.

Give every individual of us here exactly what they need and want and desire.

Now, Father, as we're about to close this prayer, continue to bless our children for a summertime now.

Bless them and keep them safe from all hurt, harm, and danger.

Now, dear father, bless our first responders in a special way.

Bless our chief of police and our chief of the fire department.

Now, God, as we're about to close this prayer, never calling closing from your presence, continue to keep us, rock us, love us, and Lord God, let us be attentive to your word, for it's in your name we pray, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.

Salute the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much, Reverend Webb, for that inspirational prayer, and thank you, Councillor Smith, for leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Good morning, Madam Clerk.

If you'll please call the roll, thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Councilmember Gunn.

Good morning.

Good morning, Councilmember O'Quen.

Good morning, Councilmember Smith.

Good morning.

Good morning, Councilmember Smithman.

Good morning.

Good morning, Councilmember Vasa.

Good morning, Councilmember Williams.

Good morning.

Councilmember Woods.

Good morning.

Council President Proteil Tate.

Good morning and Council President Alexander.

Good morning.

Thank you very much.

At this time, Councilors, the minutes are not ready from the meetings of March 3, 2026 through June 2nd, 2026.

I've been informed that we do not have any communications from the mayor.

Good morning, Mayor Woodson.

At this time, Councillors will uh begin our consideration of the consent agenda.

Before those items are read, I'd like to read this statement.

All items designated as consent are considered to be routine and non-controversial and will be approved by one motion.

No separate discussion of these items will be permitted unless a council member, the mayor, or citizen interested in a public hearing so request.

If so, such items will revert to its normal place on the agenda ordered business.

All matters of permanent operation, and they're indicated with a capital P on the agenda, will be read.

All other matters will be announced by reading the item numbers only.

All public hearings will be announced.

At this time, Madam Clerk, if you will give us the items that are being considered for consent.

Yes, ma'am.

The consent agenda begins on page two with item number three.

Page four, I'm sorry, page three with items four, five, six, and seven, page four, items eight, nine, and ten, page five, items 11, 12, 13, and 14, page 6, items 15, and 16.

On item number 16, please note the following.

On page 6, the very first property that ends with 01, 714, it has been requested to be withdrawn.

And also if you go over to page 12 of item number 16, you're gonna go uh down almost towards the bottom.

The last five numbers is 01, 867.

That's going to be uh 116 roadbook drive.

That item has also requested to be withdrawn.

Then we'll go over to page 22.

That's item 17.

Page 23.

We have items 18, 19, and 20.

On item number 18.

There's a correction made.

Uh it says in parentheses, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and it should be BBS instead.

So both places that you see Birmingham Botanical Gardens, it should be BBS.

Okay, on page 24, we have items 21, 22, and 23.

On item 23, that amount has been amended.

It is going to be an amount not to exceed $56,000.

And the amount designated from the funding on the amount designated from District 4 has been changed to $36,000.

On page 25, we have items 24, 25, 26, and 27.

On item number 25.

That amount also has been changed.

It's been amended.

It should be an amount not to exceed 14,500 with the addition of funds from District 3 of $3,500.

On item 27.

That amount has also been amended.

It'll be an amount not to exceed $15,000 with the addition of discretionary funds from District 3 and District 4, both for $5,000.

Page 26, we have items 28, 29, and 30.

Page 27, we have items 31, 32, and 34.

Page 28, we have items 35, 36, 37, 38, and 39.

Page 29, we have items 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44.

Page 30, we have items 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49.

Page 31, we have items 50, 51, 52, 53, and 54.

Page 32, we have items 55, 56, 57, 58, and 59.

Page 33, we have item 60, 61, 62, 63, and 64.

Page 34, we have items 65, 66, 67.

Page 35, items 68, 69, 70, page 36, items 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, and 76.

And that completes the consent agenda.

And we do have an addendum item.

Thank you, madam clerk.

And we do note that we have addendum item number 77.

Counselors, are there any items that you'd like to have add or removed from the consent agenda?

Council O'Quinn.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um on page 24.

Uh I'd like to remove item 23 from the consent agenda, please.

And I um would if they're without objection, I'd like to add item 77 to the consent agenda.

Okay, thank you.

That request is to remove item number 23 on page 24 from consent.

The request is also to add item 77 to the consent agenda.

Any other items, counselors?

We did have a request.

Is there someone that has a question about item 62?

Sir, did you have a question about item 62?

Yes, sir.

It's with regards to 444, 1st Street North.

Okay, we'll bring that up when the item comes up.

We'll have um the counselor wants to remove that from request.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

So there's a request to remove item 62 from consent, and that is on page 33.

All right, counselors.

Can we entertain a motion and a second for the consent agenda?

So move.

Okay.

The vote has started.

All right, thank you.

The consent agenda is approved.

Any items that we remove from consent that will be added back to the agenda, and those items will be called up by their agenda item number.

Madam Clerk, I'd like to ask if we go in this order as we consider items.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

I would like to start with the first item that we removed from consent.

Let me get back to my notes.

Okay, we have item 23.

You can call that one up first.

Let's remove from consent.

Item 23.

Yes, on page 24.

Yes, ma'am.

Item 23.

Item 23 is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with Jones Valley Teaching Farm, JVTF, under which JVTF shall provide community-based educational workshops and exhibits and presentations to families.

That is children, parents, etc.

Using food as a foundation, so young people lead, create, and grow a healthy future for themselves and their community for a term ending on June 30th, 2026, and an amount not to exceed, and it has been changed to $56,000.

Said funds will come from districts three and four discretionary forms.

Second.

All right, thank you.

Councilor Queen, you ask this item be removed from consent.

All right, thank you.

There are no questions at this time.

We're ready to vote.

Okay, the voting has started.

All right, thank you.

Item 23 passes.

Next item, Madam Clerk.

If we could go to leave the next one.

Yes, is it 62?

Yes, thank you.

Item 62 on page 33.

Excuse me, 30.

Wait a minute.

We do have the um we have an appointment.

Yes, ma'am.

That item, please.

33.

Item 33 is on page 27.

A resolution appointing one member to the Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board will say a term expiring October 8th, 2026.

All right, thank you.

But this time we'll have our arts and culture chair.

Councillor Smith.

Yes.

So this is a recommendation to appoint Demetri Carpenter to the Park and Recreation Board for term expiring October 8th, 2026.

All right, thank you.

Councillors, any questions?

All right, we're ready for the vote.

All right, the vote has started.

All right, thank you very much.

That item passes.

Thank you, Councilor Smith, you and your committee for bringing this candidate to us, and we look forward for her service.

Thank you.

All right, counselors.

Next item, I believe, is item 62 on page 33.

Is that correct, madam clerk?

Okay, item 62 again on page 33.

It's a resolution fixing a special assessment in the amount of $6,685.60 against the property located at 444st Street North Birmingham, Alabama, 35204 for the cost incurred for the demolition of an unsafe building or structure.

All right, this is not a public hearing, but there is a request for this item.

Administration, do you have any excuse me?

Can I have a motion?

Sorry.

All right, thank you.

Mayor Wilson.

Yes, ma'am, Madam President.

We we would like to withdraw the item.

All right, thank you.

At this time, sir, that item has been withdrawn.

Thank you very much.

Any other items other than the first two items, madam clerk?

No, ma'am, that's it.

All right, thank you.

At this time, I would like to ask councils if we uh draw our attention to item number two.

Item number two.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Item number two on page two.

An ordinance to amend the zoning district map of the city of Birmingham, case number ZAC 2026 000 two to change zone district boundaries from I4, landfill mining and timbering district to QI1, qualified light manufacturing district, in order to construct a convenience store with a drive-thru filed by SEA.

I apologize.

Uh Saraton L C the property owner, and Mike and Ahmed Bahadi Gia.

I'll get our apologize.

The applicant for the property generally located at 101 Saraton Drive North and situated in section 15 one quarter, section one, township 17 range 3 West Birmingham, Alabama, 35207, and this is the hearing of all instructed parties.

Second.

All right, thank you.

Councillors, this is an ordinance to amend the zoning district map of the city of Birmingham to change the zone district boundaries, and in order to construct a convenience store with the drive-through.

This is a public hearing, so I'll turn this over to Councillor Josh Vasa, co-chair of planning and zoning.

Councilor Vasa.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh staff on hand to comment on this.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Kim Spurl.

I serve as the City Zoning Administrator in the Department of Planning, Engineering, and Permits.

Um, the item before you today is a rezoning request to change the zoning from I4, which is our landfill mining and timbering district, to QI1, which is qualified light manufacturing.

The property is located at 101 Saraton Drive in the Hooper City Neighborhood Association.

The applicant is requesting this rezoning so they can construct a new convenience store that will have a quick service restaurant with the drive-through.

There will also be four fuel islands that will provide gas with a total of eight pumps with one pump on each side.

Their proposed hours of operation will be 5 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

seven days a week.

And they plan to have approximately two to three employees at the location during business hours.

The property to the north of this location is zone D3, single family residential.

Property to the south and east is zoned QI1, which is qualified light manufacturing, and to the west is property zoned I-4, which is landfill mining and timbering.

The city's adopted long-range land use plan does identify this site as light industrial.

The I1 district does allow for a convenience store subject to two conditions that all pumps shall not be closer than 150 feet to any dwelling district and not closer than 15 feet to a right-of-way line, and any building shall be set back 25 feet from a dwelling district.

The applicant does show parking over what the maximum is allowed, and they do plan on using low impact development to offset the parking overage.

All permits and ordinances will apply for the city stormwater division.

The Department of Transportation reviewed the site plan, and their only comment was to request a left turn lane into the site and to provide an eight-foot wide concrete side path along the extent of the property.

This property is located in the North Birmingham Framework Plan area.

The applicant attended the Hooper City Neighborhood Association meeting on March 12th of this year.

The neighborhood did vote 15 to 0 to approve this rezoning request.

The zoning advisory committee met on March 17th of this year to review this request, and they voted 4 to 0 to recommend approval to the council with one Q condition, and that Q condition is that the project engineer must notify the city engineer at least 48 hours prior to the start of construction to allow for city inspection, issuance of an adverse effects impact letter, and confirmation of the concrete class.

In addition, assigned maintenance agreement between the developer and the city is required to ensure proper maintenance and upkeep of the LID, including annual inspections.

On March 24th, 2026, the planning and zoning committee reviewed this item, and they voted four to zero to also recommend approval with the same Q condition.

This concludes the staff report for this case.

The applicant's representative is present if you have any questions for him.

Thank you, Kim.

Any questions from the council for the staff on this zoning case?

All right, seeing none, uh the applicant is here.

Um feel free to uh give us just a very uh brief uh sort of mention of your interest here today and uh what's before us is very brief.

Uh my name's Brian Prestnell.

I'm a civil engineer working with the developer on this project.

Um Spurl did a wonderful job of uh just detailing what we plan to do.

So I'll just have happy to answer any questions you may have.

Appreciate it.

Any questions from the council?

All right, seeing none, uh, thank you very much.

Um this is a public hearing.

Are there any comments uh from the public related to this zoning case?

All right, seeing none, uh hand it back over to you, Madam President.

Thank you, Council of Vasa.

At this time, council is if there are no questions, we're ready for the vote.

The vote has started.

Okay, there you go.

All right, thank you.

This time the item passes.

Next item, Madam Clerk.

The it the next item is item number one, an ordinance amended the city of Birmingham zoning ordinance, Title I General Provisions, ordinance number 15-133 as amended, filed by the Department of Planning Engineering and Permits.

This is case number ZAC 2026-0001, and this is the hearing of our instituted parties.

And this is the hearing of our instituted parties.

All right, thank you.

At this time, um we will hold a public hearing and we'll hear from staff regarding this item.

I do think it's important that we know we have a lot of people that are interested and want to discuss this item today.

I do want to set the tone and be sure that we are clear on what this particular item that is before us.

So, madam city attorney.

As a reminder, in this public meeting, we will not comment on matters which are not on the agenda or for which litigation litigation is pending.

Public comments or the city council's discussion should be limited to items properly before the council as noted on the official meeting agenda to preserve the city's legal position and to protect the integrity of the legal process.

Please limit comments to the items before us.

Thank you, Madam Attorney.

At this time, I'll turn the meeting over to Council of Vasa.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh we will start uh mayor with an update uh from the staff.

Uh yes, sir.

Um good morning, madam president.

Good morning, Mr.

Chairman.

Um, as well as co-chairman um Dr.

McQuinn and good morning to all the counselors.

Good to see everybody.

Morning to the general public as well.

Um Mr.

Chairman and co-chairman.

My comments are actually brief this morning.

One, we want to make sure that you actually have a printed copy of the presentation today.

The the public will be able to see it here on the screen in the minute when professional staff begins.

But I just wanted to make a note.

My remaining comments are actually about the team.

I want to thank the PEP team and staff.

I want to think the sustainability team and staff as well as the office of the city attorney um team and staff.

They are they are best in class.

Um I think they've done a tremendous amount of work on this emerging trend, and we believe our staff has produced one of the nation's strongest data center ordinances.

Um, so with that, um, I'll turn it over to them and allow them to begin the presentation that we think is thoughtful and thorough and may take some time, but we think it's important to um communicate what's in this actual ordinance to make sure from an informational and educational standpoint the public is aware.

Good morning, council.

My name is Hunter Gerson.

I serve as the Deputy Director of the Mayor's Office of Resilience and Sustainability.

And good morning again.

My name is Kim Spurl.

I serve as the City Zoning Administrator in the Department of Planning, Engineering, and Permits.

All right, thank you, Council.

So a lot of you uh all of you here have heard various versions of this presentation, so forgive us as we repeat some things that you're very knowledgeable with, but for the public and for everyone else here, we just want to go over everything and take a deep dive into the proposed ordinance.

So, background, the impetus behind developing this ordinance is due to the explosive growth and concern around data centers nationally in the United States.

We recognize that we share many of those concerns.

The city adopted a six-month temporary suspension on new data center development on March 3rd while this ordinance is being developed.

So again, why are we doing this now?

Because data center development has evolved rapidly in scale and intensity.

Data centers have existed in the city of Birmingham for decades.

However, with the advent of AI computing, those data centers at a national scale have rapidly grown in intensity and impact on the surrounding community.

So we have recognized the need to create new definitions around all types of data centers and develop those regulations.

Birmingham is an attractive destination for this type of development, so we need to be forward thinking and create these regulations.

So again, you can see this is an example from a meta AI data center in Newton County, Georgia.

This is a large industrial scale land use.

We want to regulate this because it is very different from existing examples of data centers that have existed in the city of Birmingham and the United States.

So just as a quick recap to let you understand how we got here today.

Um the city staff began working on draft regulations in February.

We held a planning commission workshop with the city's planning commission on March 11th to discuss the draft ordinance, and then on March 18th, the planning commission voted on that ordinance to send it to this council with their recommendation.

On March 24th, the ordinance went to the Planning and Zoning Committee where they also voted to send the draft to the city council for consideration.

On March 31st, we set the first of two public hearings.

So, real quick, we would just like to hit on some of the items that are included in the draft.

As Hunter mentioned, we know the majority of concerns surround the hyperscale data centers, but we want to make sure that you understand all of the language that is included in the ordinance, not related to hyperscale.

So this draft includes definitions for all of the data center related uses.

Some of those definitions include defining the different types of data centers.

We also have some definitions that we have included that are just related to the protections and conditions that are contained for each type of data center, including a definition for aggregate electrical demand, ancillary infrastructure, a backup generator, a closed loop cooling system, fuel cells, illicit connection, illicit discharge, switching station, and ultimate build-out.

So those will be new terms that will be added to the city zoning ordinance as it relates to these different levels of data centers.

So as we deep dive a little bit deeper into the types of data centers that will be used.

We'll start with the fiber hut.

And so we have added this as a use in the zoning ordinance, and we have defined the locations where they will be allowed.

They just provide additional connectivity to some areas and neighborhoods that don't have connectivity.

So you probably won't see these in our downtown core, but you might see some of them popping up in some of our more suburban areas of town.

A lot of our banking and financial institutions have accessory data centers located inside their buildings now.

I imagine that UAB and some of our other larger institutions also have accessory data centers located within their primary buildings as well.

We did not have this defined.

So these are going to be your smaller scale data center facilities.

Then we move up to what we are calling our medium scale data center.

This is what currently exists in the Tittysville neighborhood, the DC blocks facility would be considered a medium data center as it exists today.

Okay.

So I want to speak at a high level before we jump into the very detailed 20 conditions that we have proposed for hyperscale data centers, which will take up the remainder of the presentation.

So it's important to consider, remember that none of these conditions would be sufficient if they stood alone.

We've looked at data center ordinances across the country, and we have taken the very best elements of many of those as well as creating some of our own based on our concerns around our community to create layers of protection that insulate and put guardrails on data centers to protect our residents.

These protections include category restrictions, setbacks, minimum lot size, buffering requirements, water requirements, energy generation.

For example, if we were only concerned about water, we wouldn't be protecting our residents from harmful emissions of on-site power generations like you see at Colossus X in Memphis.

But we have looked at all of these major concerns and created an ordinance that we genuinely believe when combined produces it one that is unmatched in the Southeast and stands among the nation's strongest ordinances regulating data centers in the country.

Now I'm going to talk a little bit on restrictions around our regulatory authority.

Sometimes people would ask to just ban data centers outright.

We do not have the authority to do that.

Municipalities in the United States cannot prohibit any legal land use from developing outright.

We can't add extra rules on top of what the state already regulates as well.

ADEM handles most water and environmental regulations, and the Alabama Public Service Commission oversees power usage.

So again, if it's a legal land use in the United States, we have to allow it somewhere in the city of Birmingham.

In the last two months in Michigan, a rural community tried to shut down an open AI data center.

The court ruled against them for exclusionary zoning because they had no industrial zone property in the city.

So we cannot ban data centers.

We can only put meaningful guardrails on them to protect our residents.

Here's a real world example.

So Colossus X in Memphis, Tennessee, or the ex-Twitter data center that's gathered lots of national media attention.

It uses three millions of gallons of water daily for open loop cooling.

It has a supplemental closed loop cooling system.

However, that would not be permitted under this ordinance in the city of Birmingham.

We require a closed loop explicitly.

Memphis turbines are generating between 150 to 400 megawatts to supplement the power for this facility.

That's putting harmful pollutants, increasing urban heat island, and having a detrimental effect on Memphis residents.

That would not be permitted in the city of Birmingham.

That site would also fail to meet many of our other regulations related to screening, landscaping standards, and general location.

So, real quick, we would like to discuss the key revisions from the draft that you reviewed in April in the draft that's before you today.

So, first was the removal of the special exception for hyperscale data centers in our I-1 and MXD use group C3 properties.

That is only if they comply with all 20 of the protections that are outlined in the regulations.

The second addition was adding fuel sales as an energy generation system to the one of the protections that we have in the conditions.

And the third change was mandatory written notification to property owners within 500 feet of all new and expanded hyperscale data centers.

So now we're going to dive into some of those protections that we've been referring to for the hyperscale data centers.

In your packet, there are 20 protections that we have for hyperscale data centers in the city of Birmingham.

The first, I'd kind of like to start at the bottom, a five-acre minimum lot size.

This means that no hyperscale data center could go on any property that is less than five acres.

City planning staff did a deep dive into the entire city by community to determine how many properties a new hyperscale data center adjacent to residential property could go to if this was if someone applied for a permit today.

There are only five properties across the entire city that are adjacent to residential that would allow a hyperscale data center, and they would meet a 500-foot or 1,000-foot setback requirement because the properties are so large.

I would add three of those properties are all owned by the same landowner.

So that would only leave two additional properties for hyperscale data center development adjacent to residential, which is why the city included the 500-foot setback from residentially zoned or urban neighborhood zoning in the city of Birmingham.

So this would be for any hyperscale data facilities that would locate an I-1, which is our light manufacturing district, and I three, which is our plans manufacturing district, and MXD use group C3, which applies to our Oxmore community, and that is our light industrial zoning classification for our MXD, which is planned mixed use.

I would also like to add, and I think it's important to note that our I-3 districts, the planned manufacturing requires site development plan and review in addition to the 20 protections, also by the zoning advisory committee and the neighborhood association.

So I-3 as it exists today already requires that site development plan review process because it is our planned manufacturing district.

And any development in our MXD properties also requires review by the Oxmore Steering Committee.

So there is additional oversight for properties that are located in our Oxmoor community.

We also have the 1,000-foot separation from any fixed guideway transit station, BRT station, or any future facility designated by the city as a high capacity transit facility.

And the reason that we included that is because we would like to see our BRT corridor as more a dense development.

There are not a lot of larger vacant sites adjacent to our BRT corridor.

Actually, there are none right now.

So we wanted to make sure that we encourage transit-oriented development in those corridors.

Thank you, Kim.

So in terms of electrical demand requirements, again, much of energy policy is regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission.

However, we require them to demonstrate their estimated peak electrical demand in megawatts.

They must identify their anticipated development phases if they're expanding.

They must show their estimated aggregate electrical demand.

They have to identify the utility providers.

They must give us a description of all on and off-site utility and structure.

They have to identify any new or expanded substations, transmission lines, distribution lines, switching stations, or similar facilities, and they have to show from the utility provider that they have the capacity to provide the power they are requesting.

Water use and cooling systems, again, we're requiring closed loop cooling systems, details on their total annual water use and reporting, water source identified along with a water conservation and efficiency plan.

The capacity must exist for their water demand pre-development.

They may make no illicit discharge permitted in the CIC's MS4 system, which is in chapter 4 of the city code, and then ADEM reviews and monitors that.

You want to go on the side development line.

So while we're going through these protections, I'd like to make sure that you guys understand all of these protections, as Hunter mentioned, work together.

They are all required as part of the pre-permit process.

So any new hyperscale data center cannot just come in to our permitting office and apply for a building permit unless they have provided documentation that we are requiring in these 20 protections, and they have to they will be reviewed by a team of technical staff to ensure compliance with all of those 20 protections.

So we will require a detailed site development plan as part of this pre-application process.

We want to see all of their utility connections and their infrastructure improvements for the entire site.

We also want to see what we typically will ask for in a site plan, the location of any structures, the dimensions, including setbacks from property lines and any residential properties.

We want to see on that site plan any ancillary infrastructure.

We want to see where your backup generators are located and any outdoor electrical or mechanical equipment.

We would like to see your access circulation and service areas.

We want to see your parking area and how your ingress and egress to and from the site is going to work.

And then one of our most important things that we want to see as part of this plan is your screening and buffering in your landscaping.

So we are requiring that all of these facilities have a landscape C buffer, which is one of our strictest buffering standards.

So we want to see your detailed landscaping plan that's going to provide the size and number of all of your trees and your shrubs.

We also want to see their location, how many you're going to have on site, and we want to see how you're going to incorporate them around the perimeter and interior of your site to help with buffering and screening from adjacent properties.

So noise mitigation.

One thing I want to state is that noise is regulated through the city's noise ordinance.

We've discussed with OCA with PEP that we could look at updating that noise ordinance.

However, that is where that's regulated.

That's outside the zoning ordinance.

However, we still require acoustic walls surrounding backup generators.

That landscape buffer C also mitigates a level of noise.

They must submit a pre- and post-construction noise study demonstrating compliance with city regulation.

There's other elements of this ordinance that more indirectly impact noise, which is the zoning classification where they can locate, which is those I-1, I2, MXE use group threes.

And then the minimum lot size also assists with that.

So on-site power generation.

Again, on-site power generation is one of the most concerning elements of data center development today.

It's where we it's where we see some of the greatest concerns with data centers like proposed one in Utah or Colossus X in Memphis.

So we address that very directly.

We only allow on-site power generation by either solar, which would be rooftop or parking lot solar or somewhere on that site, or through fuel cells.

Any other method of power generation that would be a dirtier fuel source or create local emissions would be prohibited.

I'll speak briefly to fuel cells since that was an addition from the path from the initial drafts, but a fuel cell is essentially a device that converts chemical energy into electricity.

So unlike a battery, which stores power, fuel cells have a continuously generated electricity as long as the fuel, which is typically hydrogen oxygen, are supplied.

They're extremely efficient and extremely clean.

However, they're very expensive, which is why you don't see a proliferation of those for data centers today.

However, that technology is continuing to evolve and progress, and we could see fuel cells emerge in data centers across the country.

With the on-site battery storage, what they would generally do is charge it off peak demand hours, so in the night, and then supplement their power during the busiest time of the day, so it's not putting as much strain on the grid.

Again, I I just want to emphasize the fact that these regulations would prohibit controversial data centers which use on-site gas turbines or 24-7 diesel generators to provide on-site power.

This is thermal imaging of Colossus X in Memphis.

You can see these are natural gas turbines and generators.

You can see the thermal footprint is where those emissions are coming from.

This would not be allowed in Birmingham if this ordinance is passed.

Lighting requirements again, subject to all federal, state, and local requirements.

We took uh policy recommendation from Dark Sky International that was provided to us by a UAB astrology professor or astronomy professor, rather, uh, and that's widely regarded as a best practice.

It's something we'd like to transfer to other uses in the city, however, we feel like it's important to get this into the data center regulations so that they're not lit up 24-7 and causing light pollution and intrusion on the surrounding community.

I'll take this one.

So, one of our protections that we think is very strong and is important to note is that any existing facility that is approved by this ordinance that increases their gross floor area, electrical demand, water consumption, cooling capacity, backup power generation, meeting the addition of generators or fuel storage capacity beyond what was initially approved by that permit, will be deemed a material change or expansion and will require the applicant to resubmit for compliance with all 20 of these requirements.

So we wanted to make sure that that was very clear that once you obtain your permit and you meet the 20 conditions and you build your facility, you cannot keep expanding your facility just because you would like to or without any regulatory actions.

You will be required to resubmit and meet all 20 protections for any expansion or new use.

Well, I'd also like to talk very briefly about our notification requirements.

This is one of the additions that was made to the ordinance.

We are requiring that the developer provide written notification to all property owners within 500 feet of the subject's property, and this would include any new or expanded hyperscale data centers.

You may ask why did we pick 500?

We thought that adjacent was not enough.

Adjacent is just if you share or cross the street from the subject's property, and our rezoning committee uses 500 feet for their notification requirements.

So we felt like 500 feet would provide enough distance and spacing to include for this notification requirement.

We are suggesting that the applicant get the list of adjacent property owners from the tax assessor's office, and our team does this regularly as we fulfill our duties for our regulatory committees.

So we will be happy to assist applicants in this step, and they must send notice by certified mail.

The reason we want certified mail is because it can be tracked.

If you guys have ever gone to the post office and sent a letter via certified mail, it has stickers all over it with tracking numbers so that we can track that piece of mail and know when it was sent, when it was delivered, and if it was received by the property owner.

So as part of the pre-application process, the developer would have to submit his proof that they did send those letters to all property owners within 500 feet.

So we would require a copy of the letter.

We would also require the tracking numbers and the list of the property owners that confirmed delivery of those letters.

And although it's not explicitly stated in this ordinance, our staff is happy to provide a template so that the developers will have a model to use for a letter.

There's a lot of conversation around 500 feet versus a thousand.

We know that was one of the requests that we received from the last meeting.

Could you go back and explain in detail and in plain language why the 500 feet, but in totality of everything else, so that's understood why that why professional staff's making this recommendation for 500 feet versus a thousand?

Sure.

So again, the 500 feet does not stand alone.

It exists with all of our other requirements, the landscape screening, the buffering, the zoning categories where it can exist.

Once this is passed, it would be easier to build a new steel manufacturing plant in the city than it would be a data center.

So this is one of our most robust buffers, and we genuinely believe that combined with all the conditions we have, especially around water usage, screening, and on-site power generation.

Genuinely believe that 500 feet adequately protects the community.

So the second um topic around taking out the special exception, and if attorney Bernard wants to add anything that you too may want to speak to, could you explain why that special exception, which wasn't was not originally put in by staff, but wasn't a recommendations from a partner, but after careful consideration, um, why that's not in and what we're doing in exchange as it relates to community members being allowed to have a public meeting beyond it being an awards.

So with the 20 conditions that we have, you know, you have to look at it as if you're a landowner.

You meet all 20 of these conditions.

You're you're completely following the law and the regulations we've set forth.

And then you go before a voting body and they simply tell you no, because they don't like it, which is which is fair.

It sets us up for arbitrary and capricious zoning cases and to get that overturned.

It is it is very hard to legally defend that.

If you take the data center out of it and you make it any other land use, think of the repercussions.

If I I'll make a silly analogy, if people hated soccer, they're like this is this is football only, and I wanted to open a store that sold soccer equipment, and I met all of our legal requirements, but then I had to go before this special body, and community turned out they hated it, turned it down, you would get sued and you would lose.

Do you want to add anything?

Yeah, so I I would also add um a lot of you have attended our zoning board of adjustment meetings in the past.

Our zoning board of adjustment, although special exceptions are permitted in the zoning ordinance, there are very few special exception uses, and I would add that they are used um they're not used often because the zoning board is primarily to hear variances if you would like to vary in your the height of your fence, if you would like a 20-foot setback versus a 25-foot setback.

So when you introduce such a polarized issue, such a political issue before our board, it it turns it into a political meeting, and it does not serve the purpose of our zoning board of adjustment.

We do feel uh, Madam President, Mr.

Chairman, Mr.

Co-Chairman, and other counselors and speaking with you and speaking with the legal department, speaking with PEP sustainability team, but equally importantly speaking with the economic development team from a policy standpoint, we do believe that we from a policy standpoint, any of these organizations in any city will either go to that city's economic development department and act for incentives, or we definitely know this will go to what's equivalent to any other community for our IDBA board or IDBA.

I think I'm getting my acronyms, my letters in the right order.

Either way, go an automatic trigger, Madam President and co-chairs and counselors from a policy standpoint.

We will require, in addition to the certified letter, an automatic trigger before you can even get a permit that you have to have a public meeting to share in person what you're actually doing, what you're bringing to that community.

So from a policy standpoint, we feel that is sufficient to make sure that public voice in person is given.

Those are uses that the council has already said are allowed.

Um but you've asked the ZBA to just do an additional review, and that standard's pretty general as to it tends not to impair the public health safety and welfare.

It's kind of a broad standard.

The difference with the variance where somebody, so if someone come came in and wanted to develop, but they didn't meet one of the conditions, because it is part of the zoning ordinance, and because the ZBA is created to prevent the council's decision about that overall zoning ordinance from being found unconstitutional.

Um it allows people the opportunity to vary from the strict requirements of the ordinance.

So if someone didn't meet, say one or two of those conditions, they could request a variance from the zoning board of adjustment.

That would again be a hearing, but the standards are very different.

There's six standards.

I'm not going to name them all here because I'm gonna forget them, but they are things like financial gain is not the only reason for seeking the variance.

You've got to show it's it's basically you've got to show a hardship.

Something about the configuration, the shape, the location of that particular property within the area is so different and so unique that you're not going to be able to use that property without having some you know relief from what the zoning ordinance requires, and that means you'd have to show you couldn't use it at all.

So that's one you know, one issue to understand, and another is if a facility became a legal nonconforming use, they would have to go through the zoning board of a dejection.

Well, they would either have to come to the they would usually have to come to the council, sorry, not zoning board, they would come to the council for a rezoning if they became a legal nonconforming because of some change that had happened in regulations over time.

One last note from the mayor's office.

Would you share with this council related to I guess the current um moratorium that we're under if a if the ordinance is not passed, those not subject to the ordinance, what can or cannot happen?

As far as the moratorium, um, there were certain um exemptions placed in that moratorium for the for projects that vested rights in in their property and their project uh before the moratorium was put in place, which was not until I believe it was March 3rd.

Um and so allowing that some you know building permits were requested, issued, you know, that kind of thing.

So the um they would be able to continue if they're exempt from the moratorium, they would be able to continue on with construction.

Um the council would have maybe perhaps have to make a decision at some time whether or not to extend the moratorium.

Could they expand under the existing moratorium?

Potentially, yes, if they're if they're you know currently cited legally and um can you know make those changes, yes, if they're exempt and I'll just I'll wrap up.

I've got two more slides, so if you go back to those, so again I'm just gonna kind of reiterate what the mayor and and attorney Bernard said, but in terms of economic development incentives for any data center, like we're committed to this as a city administration for any data center to receive incentives from the city or a support letter from the city to the industrial development board or IDB, a public meeting must be held with the public of the community.

And then again, to reiterate what attorney Bernard just said in a hypothetical scenario where an ex where a data center is under development that has gone through the permitting process until this regulatory ordinance is passed, that underway project could amend its permit to expand without having to comply with any of these proposed regulations.

So thank you.

Council, do you have any questions for staff, Mayor?

Counselor O'Quinn.

Um section one, Article 3 definitions.

Um there are a couple of references to specifically two data centers.

Um first is number seven aggregate electrical demand, and uh the second one is number two thirty three ultimate build out.

Both of those definitions specifically refer to data center.

Um it would be my recommendation that those definitions be modified to strike data centers specifically, um, and so that those definitions would apply to any uh applicable situation.

Umly the um section seven, the hyperscale data center number eight.

Um this is the section of the code that refers to the noise issues.

Um can you describe to me what a pre and post noise study what requirements are in uh noise study?

Is there a technical definition uh specifications for what a noise study entails?

Is there a you know um accrediting organization engineering standards, so on so forth.

So generally when we receive these uh noise studies, they have to go through an independent accredited organization or company that specializes in conducting noise studies.

They couldn't just go out there, do it themselves and have one of their employees submit the noise study.

We would not recognize that as being compliant with the ordinance, um, and then third uh issue is section 7D hyperscale data center number 20.

Um this is the section that refers to uh written notification you guys suggested that there's a a template uh that you could provide the applicant um, but I'm curious as to why we wouldn't specify what information would have to be included in that written notification.

Could you share from the other city you kind of got this from and why that exists like that?

Yes, sir, absolutely.

Um, so we will provide a template for the developer to use and have references to the information we want included in the letter.

The reason we did not include a draft of the letter in the ordinance is because we did not feel that was the appropriate place for the letter.

Um, you know, we require notice requirements for a lot of issues throughout our zoning ordinance, and this is not necessarily the location for that.

We do have policies that our planning team adheres to, and one of those policies will be to provide sample templates of the letter that will include information such as the property address, the parcel ID number, the size of the site, and then general details as far as the size of the proposed data center, the electrical demand and the address.

And then, real quick, I'd like to address your definition comments, Counselor O'Quinn.

Um these definitions are just specific to data centers, but you brought up a very good point.

We do have some terminology that we need to add to the ordinance as it relates to other uses.

That's one thing that we have discovered as part of this process.

So I would like to let you know that you guys need to be ready because we will have some zoning changes coming your way as we modify some of our existing definitions and other uses in the ordinance.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Counselor Quinn.

Madam President.

Thank you, Councillor Vasa.

Thank you all for the presentation.

I do have a couple of questions, maybe just one.

I know that during the presentation, you did offer that there are only so many areas that would support some of the definitions of the type of data centers that we are defining in this ordinance.

I know we talked about the ZBA and there was also discussion about the Oxmore Steering Committee.

I've had questions related to a covenant, an Oxmore covenant that exists.

Could you just um help me clarify and help me understand what that role would be as far as if this ordinance went into place between ZBA and the Oxmore Steering Committee?

Yes, ma'am.

So I believe some of the covenants you're referring to are those that are part of the Oxmore corporate park.

We do have covenants attached to developments throughout the city.

The city does not participate in the creation or regulation of those covenants.

We can only regulate our city code and our ordinances, but individual properties can be part of covenants that are regulated separate from the city.

And they do have their own boards and they have their own processes for approvals for new projects and for amending those regulations.

But that is not something that the city participates in.

We're not legally authorized to enforce those covenants.

Thank you.

And Dr.

O'Quinn has already asked the question, had the same questions about the regulations that are being put forth as far as noise and protecting and ensuring that the noise levels and those requirements are met.

And so thank you, Dr.

O'Quinn, for asking that question.

I did have a question regarding that as well.

I think what we meet the council and will meet the public on that is that we do believe the regulation around noise is required.

I know there's a request for uh more quantitative, and I don't think there's an objection to that.

I think from a process standpoint, we we want to be like just overly direct with you in one and state that I mean it's already been stated, but I think it should be restated that it doesn't necessarily belong in this ordinance.

Staff, PP, long sustainability and legal recommends that noise regulation should be in the our noise ordinance, which we all agree needs to be amended, not just for this, but a sincere overhaul related to putting decimal the decimal point back in.

I think there's another question around how long does that take.

Um they've shared with us.

It's gonna take well beyond four weeks to do.

Um, but that doesn't mean they're not gonna do it.

And then the third thing is around enforcement.

So I don't want anybody to think we are ignoring the quantitative requests.

Um I just I trust the professional staff and the team legal when they say it belongs somewhere else.

It's going to take time and we got to make sure we can enforce it.

Is there anything else you want to add from the legal department?

Or the office of city attorney.

Thank you, Mayor.

I will add, I mean, it's been you know a long hope to add a table for decibel limits back into the ordinance.

We've got to consider equipment, training and staff for how we do that and doing it citywide.

Those when you get into some detail, we get into very minute detail of regulation.

Umled in the city code.

They're easier for this council to change.

If something, yeah, if we put some very minute detail, we have to go back through a four-week hearing process, you know, lengthy process through multiple layers of committees and a hearing process with a four-week notice, you know, publication.

We're changing this from you know, point two to point one.

We would have to you know go through that whole process to make that change, whereas if we get those types of things into the general city code, then it's easier for this council to review and make changes in a faster amount of time without a lot of expenditure of resources on it to consider.

So that's one thing I'd like you to consider.

And the zoning ordinances also enforced by the zoning enforcement staff.

We would have other enforcement mechanism with having it in a general code.

Thank you.

Those are my questions, Counselor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Any other counselors?

Counselor Quinn.

Yeah, um, just following up on that last question.

Following the same logic, wouldn't it make sense then to remove the quantitative standards that are required for lighting trespass.

I believe staff stated that there are already some lighting standards within the zoning ordinance, and those are deal more definitely with property.

Noise is something that's more mobile, it's different.

Um I'll let staff stack you know speak to more how you know we would regulate the lighting, but there's some differences in dealing with lighting and dealing with noise.

So I'll just briefly speak on lighting.

Like we had a policy, which is international dark sky uh organization where we uh we could adapt their best practice policy recommendation and put that into the zoning ordinance.

So, like for lighting, you know, like if there's a bulb, you know its temperature, you know its wattage, you have downlighting requirements, you can very easily measure that lighting output.

Sound has hundreds of different environmental factors that affect how that travel, whether that's ambient temperature, humidity, the time of year, sounds going to travel farther in the winter because there's less vegetation.

Uh if you're in a bowl or valley, it's going to travel differently from if you're on top of a mountain or on a flat plane.

Lighting is just much more complex for us to regulate than sound.

Thank you, Dr.

O'Quinn.

Uh seeing no other questions from counselors.

I think we will begin the public hearing process.

Thank you, Steph.

Thank you, Mayor, for your updates.

Um, so folks, let me talk through some logistics.

Uh, thanks for your patience.

We have a packed house today.

Uh, it's good to see civic engagement.

Um, we appreciate you being here.

Um, before we begin, I just kind of wanted to review a few procedural rules to make sure that we kind of get through this quickly.

So the way that uh is sort of best suited to this, so there are a lot of voices that want to be heard today.

Our goal, our goal today is to make sure every speaker is treated fairly and that every comment is heard.

So the best way to do this is to keep comments focused on this date data ordinance before us.

Uh today's hearing concerns the proposed data or here center, excuse me, data center ordinance.

Um I know many residents have uh strong opinions about the project that is off of Lakeshore Parkway.

Those perspectives are important.

Uh that said, that project is not the matter before us today.

So we are here to discuss this data center ordinance specifically.

So if comments move beyond the topic of the ordinance before us, I may redirect uh or cut time short so we can stay focused on the issue since we have so many folks ready to speak and already lining up.

Uh y'all may know we have folks in this chamber, we're full house.

I believe we have the second floor and first floor also filled up for spillover.

So I do want to make sure that we accommodate uh everybody who is who is interested in speaking.

All right.

So each speaker will have up to three minutes.

You'll y'all will see there are two TVs on the left side and on the right side, they have the countdown.

It starts at three minutes, goes down to zero at 30 seconds, you'll see red.

Um after you speak, uh please just from a logistics standpoint, exit the chambers to accommodate those in spillover who are interested in speaking.

Does that make sense?

Um so at this time for those in the chamber right now.

Please raise your hand if you plan on speaking so we have a general idea.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

So we'll um we'll invite you to speak.

If you're interested in speaking, you can stand in the line or you can wait until the line dwindles down.

Um and then I believe staff is on hand to uh sort of bring remaining folks from spillover up for their comments as well.

All right.

So uh we will shortly begin with the first person and just to review the rules again.

We have uh three minutes uh that will start the clock, and I'll ask that once called up, please come to the podium, state your name and your full address, and you may begin your comments.

We'll start with the first person again.

Please state your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is David Butler, and I am at 268, Kingston Circle, Birmingham 35211.

And I live in the Oxmore Valley project.

Why I'm able to stand here matters as much as what I say.

Right now, this council still holds a public hearing on data centers.

The ordinance in front of you would take that away, and we are already watching what happens when it's gone.

Let's start with noise because the company tells on itself.

On its own website, Nebia says it will use noise reduction technology to keep noise low.

Mr.

Butler, just as a reminder, we're here to talk about the data.

It will be relevant.

Okay, thank you.

Um use noise reduction technology and will keep noise low.

Representatives from these AI data centers and data factories say the design will minimize sound with sound walls, fans, and acoustic canopies.

The sound studies paid for by these companies, promises the noise noises will stay within today's ambient levels.

All of these words are not eliminated because the noise can't be eliminated.

A 300 megawatt facility running around the clock with cooling systems and emergency generators make noise.

The most their designs can do is mitigate it.

Here is what mitigated sounds like.

These are recordings of operating data centers.

Some of these recordings are taken from half a mile away through a quarter mile of wooded areas.

Can we hear that in the state?

I see you.

That hum never stops.

It's what families here with the windows open, what children at Oxmore Valley Intermittent and Spring Valley School will hear at recess within ambient on the applicant's own one-time study.

Is not the same as living beside it.

Now connect that to this audience.

Its single biggest change is removing the special exception requirement, the very set that triggers a public hearing.

Under this version, the next hyperscaler simply files a permit, no hearing, no room like this one.

It still keeps the setback at 500 feet when residents and counselor Quinn, among others, explicitly ask for a thousand feet.

What we're asking for, since the noise can't be eliminated, is that this ordinance include specific numbers about noise.

And at the very least, we should keep our right to be heard.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Butler.

All right, we'll have the next speaker, and as a reminder, because of litigation, uh, we'll ask to refrain from using the name of any specific data center, but feel free to broadly uh speak to that.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please say your name and your full address, please.

Good afternoon.

Good morning.

My name is Olivia Thompson.

I live at 824 11th Street Southwest Birmingham, Alabama.

I'm here to speak on what I just heard this presentation.

See, there are more, there are two more data stones.

I know for a fact that they're gonna put one in Mason City off Spiley Spuller Road in District Six.

We already got one in district six.

Y'all, this this thing is they said five hundred feet.

That's a disgrace because if you put in the 500 feet, the rail to this neighbor they cross the street from it.

And all you're gonna have is problems in that neighborhood.

You already have problems, but you don't try to clean that up, but you're gonna put more problems on us.

When you said that there will not be any downtown Birmingham, I want to know why you won't put them downtown Birmingham, but you'll put them in on the residents.

That's a disgrace right there.

You don't yell y'all care from the residents.

It's our vote.

But when when it comes to what we want, y'all don't care.

Y'all don't care what none of the residents want.

And only somebody don't get a wee win out of this, but they're doing.

When they said it, you tilt the commission.

You took the commission, don't care about the people neither.

Oh, somebody gonna be a win win.

It's Alabama Powell who putting the money in the pets for the people.

Thank you, Ms.

Thompson.

Uh we'll have the next book come up.

Mr.

Chair, I would like to correct something.

There is not a data center coming to Mason City.

We saw a map, and there's nowhere in District 6 where a data center can exist.

Nowhere.

Not under this, it's not.

We haven't heard about it.

All right, we have the next speaker, and I'll remind folks that once you speak, please uh if you can exit the chamber to allow for other folks from spillover to come up.

Next speaker, please state your name and full address, please.

Thank you.

My name is Lauren Gibson, and I live at 436 Sunbelt Drive, Birmingham, Alabama.

And I'm asking the council to restore the special exception requirement for all hyperscale data centers in every district.

Because what we heard here today tells us that you're not writing an ordinance to get it right.

You're writing an ordinance that's just good enough.

And quite frankly, that's not good enough for us.

The amended draft lists hyperscale facilities as permitted with conditions in most industrial districts, requiring a special exception and only two.

The original draft required it everywhere.

That change matters more than it sounds.

The special exception process is how ordinary citizens like us get real rights, notice that a project is coming, the right to appear, the right to present evidence, and the right to question what they are told.

A permitted use skips most of that.

A 300 megawatt industrial complex situated near a hospital, an animal shelter, a transit station, or a neighborhood should never be approved as routine permitted use, no matter what district it lands in.

We have already seen what happens when the process is bypassed.

With the current project underway, a legal determination concluded that the substation and switch yard did not need city council approval at all, wiping out months of zoning board hearings.

Residents who showed up, organized and testified, found their decision, had moved somewhere they couldn't follow.

Special exception keeps these decisions in the open in front of you on the record, and we want it restored across the board.

There are a myriad of lives impacted by these data centers, and I want you to understand that they're not just damn animals, they're not just damn kids, they're not just damn residents.

We are your constituents, and we are yelling from our yards, from our rooftops, and from the mountaintops that we do not like what we're hearing, and you seem to be deaf to our words.

But let me tell you something.

You will hear us in the one place that it matters, and that's the voting booth.

Thank you, Ms.

Taylor.

Next speaker, please state your full name and your full address.

Thank you.

My name is John Hilly, and my wife Legina and I reside at 3963 Sydney Trail in the grand neighborhood.

We are here today because these proposed ordinances will affect not only our community, but every neighborhood that may face industrial scale hyper facilities in the future.

While these draft ordinances are a step forward, there are still significant concerns.

The removal of special exceptions and public input reduces the voice of the citizens most affected, as can be seen by the bipartisan crowd here today.

This is not a political, but a community of voting citizens coming together with one concern.

The proposed 500-foot residential setback is inadequate when people live in these homes for 24 hours a day when bus stops and transit stations receive a thousand feet.

That makes no sense.

Solid fuels or hydrogen.

And the heat impacts these facilities can have on surrounding neighborhoods and facilities.

With only three minutes to speak, I want to focus on one issue is the noise.

I'm asking the council to adapt real enforceable numerical noise limits.

The draft orders requires noise studies before and after construction, but it sets no baseline standards for those studies must meet.

A noise study without a limit is simply paperwork.

It tells you how loud a facility is.

It does not require the facility to facility to reduce the noise.

We will study it.

It is not protection.

A number you can is it to enforce is.

In fact, your Mr.

Philip Foster of the ZBA added wanted added enforceable numbers during the special exception vote, quote, non-vote that for the lake shore factory, which became moot after the fact.

These limits should also remain in effect during utility outages when every backup generator on site may be over operating at nearby residents need protection the most.

Cooling systems, transformers, and generators can operate around the clock and are hazardous to humans and animals as indicated by the CDC and the WHO.

Once this equipment is installed and running, it becomes far more difficult to address impacts.

Low frequency noise is one of the most common complaints associated with large industrial factories, and residents deserve meanable protection before construction begins.

If this facility is proposed in your district, or if you had one built in your neighborhood, would you would you and your residents strongly opposed it?

Would you still vote in favor of it?

I say over 80% do not want these facilities in their neighborhoods, and the people you represent deserve the same consideration and protection you would want for your own neighborhoods.

Thank you, Mr.

Anderson.

The next speaker, please.

Please state your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Walter Body.

I live at 1813 Calgary Drive in the Oklahoma Valley community.

To the mayor, city council, and other representatives.

I come before you this morning with the expectation of accountability.

You're charged with delivering to the members of our Birmingham City the ability to have improved roles, better schools, better playgrounds, cleaned up communities and addressing overgrown weeds and abandoned homes, property values that don't decrease, and resale and marketability of our community.

When you talk about data centers too for or against, I ask that you take that into consideration as it relates to what decisions you make here this morning.

I can't tell you that I'm against it or for it, but what I can tell you is that I'm for better Birmingham.

When I retired in 2018, the members of the city council at that point in time asked me to stay involved in the city and in my community.

I've done so.

So I ask you to now stay involved and make the decisions that are best for the city of Burnham and the citizens of Burma as you go through the deliberations.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Brown.

Next speaker, please please state your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Hello.

Cherie Bishop, 3944 Sydney Trail.

I'm asking the council to require independent baseline environmental testing before construction and independent monitoring afterward.

The draft covers water feasibility and storm water, but it requires no baseline data on air, soil, surface water, or groundwater before a facility is built.

Without a baseline, no one can prove what the facility changed.

If a neighbor's well drops, a stream shows contamination or the air shifts, the operator can simply say, prove it was us.

And the record to do that would not exist.

That silence benefits the operator and no one else.

Please require at the applicant's expense, independent baseline testing of air, surface water, soil, every private well within one mile, performed by a qualified third party that the city selects, not the developer.

PFOS, heavy metals, and pH in both the baseline and ongoing panels, quarterly independent monitoring of water withdrawals, cooling tower discharge, and property line noise.

Posted that should be posted publicly, and the right of adjacent owners to bring in their own expert at the applicant's cost when impacts are reasonably suspected.

For the 300 megawatt facility already moving forward in Oxmore, beside neighborhoods and future animal shelter campus, the window to capture a true baseline is closing fast.

For every project after it, build this protection into the ordinance so accountability does not depend on data that nobody bothered to collect.

So this is a count a question for each of you counselors.

If this data center were proposed in your district, and the residents in your district strongly opposed it, would you still vote in favor of it?

Thank you, Miss Bishop.

Next speaker, please.

State your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Stroud Williams.

I reside at 332 Holland Park Drive.

Highland Lakes, yes, an unincorporated Shelby County, but I appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak to Calcus Morning.

I'm a 30-plus year veteran of financial technology.

Yes, I have built data centers, small operations for the purpose of banks and financial institutions such as credit units.

Yes, I'm 70 years old and I'll be 71 in September.

I maintain a very high level of awareness of financial technology as well as technology in general.

I'm very versed in AI technology.

I have individuals in my startup companies that are using AI right now to address fraud and other issues.

Yes, I live outside of the city of Birmingham, but there are suburbs in this in this area that are also being affected, and there are individuals that I happen to meet outside or from other areas such as Claire, Wilsonville, Westover, let's just go on to own and on.

And my charge to you guys and ladies, gentlemen and ladies, is that you make sure that you are aware of what what's going on here, okay?

Because there's a lot of things that are involved in this that number one expose the residents to a lot of things as these individuals have all done their homework, and I've done it at 2:30 in the morning talking to an AI agent for over an hour last night that told me exactly where this meeting was and what time it would be and where I needed to be.

Okay.

AI is here.

It's not going to go away.

It's artificial intelligence that was created by individuals and computers like me.

I'm not a computer, but an individual that built computers and programmed.

Okay.

Yes, it's all bits and bytes.

But the awareness is that you guys have a vulnerability, okay?

And the vulnerability is that there have already been instances, and you can go out and Google or search or whatever you use, where certain city councils and city commissions have been observed with injunctions because they uh they allowed certain things to go outside of air and orits, which is what you guys are looking at today, and that they also um were um well, I hate to use the term, but somewhat duped by the land development companies that are coming into these councils specifically in areas like the Wilson Bay area, and they are specifically going in and getting a non-disclosure agreement signed prior to buying the properties and then contracting with the vendors that are going to be occupying those data centers.

And so I'm available any time for your resource if you'd like to.

My company is Fittigatech.com.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Williams.

Next speaker, please.

Your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Um, my name is Rachel Leader, and I live um in Rossbridge, so I'm not a constituent, but I'm here to remind you that your decisions will impact others in other municipalities as I live three miles from a um currently permitted data center that you guys have already approved.

So I um as attending to read a whole bunch, but I have some questions actually that I would love to that I think need to be addressed in the proposed ordinances.

Um, it's stated that um changes um, whether it be in capacity, backup generation, fuel storage, um, would require a new review, but I don't I believe the new ordinances where the ordinances never say who's going to specifically review it, um, what process applies, um, and it's not specifically written, and so therefore it leaves room for change, and it's up to whoever's interpretation is.

So I feel like that needs to be specifically written in.

Um, a couple of other questions or other things I have.

Um, are there any heat index studies?

Um, it's proven that data centers increase temperatures anywhere between 3.6 to as much as I believe 16 degrees for up to six miles surrounding those data centers.

Um, requiring, I understand about the buffering, but have you guys take into account the city lines?

So, for example, um Nebigas is very close to Hoover City, right?

That property line.

So if there's any changes that are done within Hoover City that takes down trees, um changes the landscape, it's going to change the noise and the light studies because those all impact um those noise the noise, I guess, ultimately.

So, and that contributes to the buffering, right?

Um, not just what you guys have in the ordinance, but everything surrounding it.

Um, and then also I want you to help me understand how a neighborhood association has input on a convenience store, but they don't have any input regarding a data center, which is gonna have way more impact than a convenience store.

So those are my questions, and I hope you guys take those into account.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ms.

Lady.

Next speaker, please.

Your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Um, good morning.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Terry Michael.

I live at 629 Ridget Circle.

Um, before any discussion of the substance, I want to uh raise a procedural matter for the record.

The city published its notice for today's hearing under section 1152 77 of the Alabama Code.

You failed to do it correctly because the notice is improper, any ordinance adopted is void.

I'm stating this objection so that it is preserved on the record.

I would also like to point out the following.

We were told lies about the moratorium.

There's no state law that forbids permitted projects from being placed in a moratorium.

Up until this morning, the Birmingham City website had today's meeting listed at 9 o'clock in the only two places you could even find the time.

However, it was finally added to the city's own event calendar just today with the correct time.

The city has made it almost impossible to find even the incorrect time on their website.

The news last night even reported today's meeting as being 9 o'clock.

The city didn't even post the actual ordinance online until two weeks ago.

It has been stated by counselor and mayor that the public hearings need to be discontinued for these hyperscale data factories because they're too political.

You all are the politicians, we are the citizens.

We are the citizens.

It is pretty obvious that a particular data center is writing, or at least it's had serious input into the creation of this ordinance.

They made a deal with Bloom for fuel cells, and then you added fuel cell language to the ordinance.

A counselor has also said that Birmingham has always been open for business, but sometimes it's to the detriment of the people.

And that this council is different, and that's great that you all are open for business now and doing right by the people.

That you all are better than 50 years ago.

But are you really?

You released this amended ordinance with the absolute nothing that the people wanted.

And you actually took out the trigger for a public hearing, refused to change the setback back to 1,000, and you added what that particular data center wanted.

How is any of this about the citizens?

If you're a different from the past, prove it.

Make these changes that we are asking you to make.

The most important that we've not talked about is a decommissioning bond.

Let's not create more brown fields.

Remember our history.

You guys have an opportunity to put in a decommissioning bond to make sure that no other company ever comes into Birmingham and leaves the land as bad as these other companies have.

That is your legacy.

Vote no, or you gotta go.

Thank you, Miss Michael.

Next speaker, please.

Yes, you can come up.

Just say your name and remember your full address, including zip code and one uh mention uh if you have already spoken, please remember to exit chambers so that we can have other speakers come up from spillover.

Thank you.

Hello, good morning.

My name is Libby Hudson, and I live at 1605 Linda Vista Lane, Birmingham, Alabama, 3526.

While I am not a resident of Birmingham City, there is currently a project going on that would affect me.

I am four and a half miles away from a currently approved data center.

I am asking the council to clean up the size category definitions in the ordinance.

The medium data center definition uses an and or test, square footage and or megawatts.

That can put one facility in two categories at once.

A building under two 10,000 square feet, but drawing five megawatts could read us both micro by size and medium by power.

Whichever is more convenient for the developer becomes the rule.

Please state plainly that the more restrictive category always governs.

This sounds technical, but it is exactly where protections quietly disappear.

If a facility can claim the smaller, lighter regulated category, it sidesteps the conditions meant for its real impact.

Definitions are the foundation.

If they are ambiguous, everything built on top of them is too.

We have already watched a single legal determination reclassify part of the Oxmore project out of a process it should have gone through.

Loose definitions are an open invitation to do that again and again.

Tighten this language now, while it is just words on a page, so the next applicant cannot argue its way into a lighter category than its footprint and power demand deserve.

Please make the more restrictive category control.

This question is for each of you, counselors.

Thank you, Ms.

Hudson.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you, sir.

Please state your name and your full address, including zip.

Yes, my name is Courtney Beaman.

I go by SARC.

Um this cut into my three minutes, or how did I work?

Do I get three?

I'm sorry, what's your question?

I just cut into my three minutes or yes.

Well, okay, well, I'm gonna skip the address and all that type of stuff.

With that being said, um my name is Courtney Beaman.

I go by SARD as an acronym, salute and respect generally everyone.

Um, first and foremost, I want to talk to the people right quick.

Don't take this as an opportunity to just speak up, but also talk about the little body.

You know, sorry, you have to need to speak into the microphone, please as part of the public hearing.

Better go.

You have to speak into the mark microphone as well.

For record.

Don't take this as a term to just speak up on problems, try to offer solutions.

You know, because y'all don't know what it's like sometimes to lead a community, and it it's a lot of pressure on these people.

With that being said, I haven't been here that long, but I got all my brahes here.

You know what I'm saying?

So with that being um Eleton.

Why not turn it into some type of homeless shelter or some type of community center for the public?

Mr.

Sarge, uh, sorry to interrupt, but this this is uh public comments have to be about the data center ordinance that we're here for the public hearing.

So if you have something to comment related to the data.

Are you on the speaker's list?

Huh?

Are you on the speaker's list?

Oh, no, no, no.

This isn't for that.

This is for about the ordinance.

Right.

We'll get to the public speaking uh component after the data center hearing.

My apologies.

It's okay, thank you, sir.

Next speaker, please.

Your name and your full address, including zip code.

Thank you.

Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Jordan Sissel.

Sorry.

And my address is 819 30th Street South, Apartment R, Birmingham, Alabama, 35205.

I'm gravely concerned by the threat that data centers pose to our community and our resources, especially our drinking water.

I appreciate the city and the council taking this matter seriously, and I appreciate the foundation that y'all have built with the proposed zoning zoning ordinance.

However, I think that tighter restrictions need to be added to the ordinance to more fully protect people, environments, and resources in our city.

I respectfully ask the city and the council to make the following two changes to the ordinance.

First, please reinstate the special exception clause for hyper hyperscale data centers and expand it to include all size categories of data centers.

I don't think that permitting by condition is an effective way to handle data center construction.

The technology and best practices around data centers change so often and so quickly that legislation may not always be able to keep up.

The City Council must maintain its authority to review each proposed data center individually.

Otherwise, we run the risk of just destructive projects slipping through the cracks using unforeseen loopholes.

Also, the citizens of Birmingham deserve the right to voice our concerns at a public hearing about each and every proposed data center.

City representatives earlier said that the public hearings would be tied to incentives.

It should just be to exist, period.

If data center companies truly want to be good neighbors, then they should embrace public input and transparency.

If not, we don't want them here.

Second, please add explicit monitoring and enforcement clauses to the ordinance for all size categories of data centers.

I appreciate that the current draft of the ordinance requires companies to submit written plans for closed loop cooling, water usage, and more.

However, we need systematic and rigorous monitoring and enforcement to make sure that data centers follow through on their promises.

For the lifetime of each data center, the city should conduct annual environmental and safety inspections at the company's expense, and companies should pay heavy fines for non-compliance.

Empty promises from tech companies are worthless when our air and water are at stake.

We need codified monitoring and enforcement protocols.

This moment presents an opportunity and an obligation to define Birmingham's relationship with data centers for many years to come.

It's easier to draw a hard line now than to try to walk things back later.

Please protect our drinking water and other precious resources against corporate greed.

I thank you, and our children and grandchildren will thank you too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Sissel.

Next speaker, please.

Your name and your full address, including zip code, thank you.

My name is Avon Chaplin.

I live in 1802 Lancaster Road and home 135209.

Um I'm a retired physician, and I was an allergist.

I took care of people with asthma, and I'm very concerned about the air quality impact of uh high uh capacity data centers.

Um I appreciate the hard work that's gone into the ordinance as it's written, but to me, uh the fact that people provide information about what they anticipate their center is going to cause and produce without very clear language in the ordinances about what limits are acceptable for the health of the community, related to the um protection of the ordinances.

Um I think it's crucial that we have clear language in the ordinance that make it clear that the health of the community is uh one of our highest principles.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chaplin.

Next speaker, please.

Your name and your full address.

All right, my name is Daria Malone.

I live at 413 Valley Lake Drive in Roebuck Springs, Birmingham, Alabama.

And I just come to you today just as not only a fellow constituent here, but also as a human being with ethical and environmental concerns about data centers here in our beloved city.

And I just want everyone to consider what happens when we as a society fly too close to the sun for convenience's sake.

And we're just in a place in our society where we are not even opting in on a so-called technocratic society.

And these ethical concerns, these environmental concerns like our air, our water, and the noise that are happening in communities that are already suffering historically from markers of income and racial inequality and environmental neglect.

And I ask you, Birmingham City Council to not choose AI, but to choose human for when you choose humans, you choose me, you choose them, and you choose yourself.

For there is no council without the people.

So please I ask you if Birmingham can be a part of a future that chooses human, that chooses the capabilities of the human mind, and where we can still uphold Alabama, the beautiful.

So choose your constituents, not shareholders.

Please choose human for if you choose human, you are choosing a brighter and clearer and more proudly human future for all of us.

And that includes you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Malone.

Speaker, please.

Your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Katie Holmes, and I live at 605, Lisa Lane, Birmingham, Alabama, zip code 35206.

I'm a resident of Robux Springs, and also the program coordinator for Black Warrior River Keeper, a citizen based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public health, recreation, and wildlife habitat in the Black Warrior River and its tributaries.

I would like to address the proposed changes to the city zoning ordinance pertaining to new data center developments.

As a city resident and a representative of my organization, I urge the Birmingham City Council to keep the special exception requirement for high-scale data centers.

During the April 28th City Council meeting, Mayor Woodfin and Councillor Williams expressed opposition to the special exception requirement with, as I understand it, concerns about the politic politicization of the process and the perception of being anti-growth.

In my opinion, growth and development require due diligence during the planning process.

Due diligence in this case requires transparency.

Transparency cannot exist without having public hearings for zoning changes and variances in order to allow public participations in these major decisions, which carry significant long-term impacts for residents.

To put it plainly, the special exception requirement will reduce Birmingham residents' ability to legally challenge future data center projects by limiting our role to simply receiving notice rather than participating in hearings and being heard by our elected officials.

Additionally, special uses are considered to have a potentially greater impact on the public than use is permitted by right.

With that in mind, I have to ask, how can we possibly be considering cutting out such a critical part of the review process?

Public hearings aren't frivolous.

They're integral to city planning and a cornerstone of healthy governance.

Residents want to participate in the process, as indicated by the turnout here today.

I have lived in Birmingham for almost seven years.

My love for the city and trust in our local leaders are two big reasons why I have continued to live in Birmingham.

The members of this council aren't just anonymous faces in gray suits.

You are our neighbors and fellow community members.

I have been fortunate enough to work with some of you personally.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper has regularly partnered with the City of Birmingham on community cleanups since the creation of our volunteer cleanups program in 2021.

But data centers can harm our health and damage our local environment.

The significant negative environmental impacts include noise pollution and air pollution from backup generators, the large volumes of water needed for cooling, and the amount of land being cleared to build these facilities.

Please keep the special exception requirement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Holmes.

Next speaker, please.

Your name and your full address.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Valerie Paul.

I live at 1979, Russet Hill Lane, which is technically in Hoover.

Um, but Metro Birmingham, the City Lines blur, and what one city council does in PAX us all.

This is way out of my comfort zone, and I am terrified.

But that shows you how concerned that I am.

I've lived and worked in this community across city lines since I got out of college.

My family works here and lives here and spends music here and goes to wonderful concerts here.

There are so many things that other people have said.

The special session, I agree to everything she just said.

I want the city council to think about their own slogans of future Birmingham.

Are we really?

Are we thinking to the second and third generation?

Are we thinking about the budget for next year?

Because this has impact about who's going to want to live here and who's going to want to move here, and who is a data center, not a data center that's going to want to bring their industry here.

We have no regulations.

Oh, backup fuel cells.

What are the regulations on those?

And who's inspecting those in five years, in 10 years?

Who's inspecting when the data center decides to move elsewhere and their stuff is just there to let to rot and go you know vacant because technology has moved on, which it does so quickly.

500 feet, a thousand feet.

As you have pointed out, noise ordinances depend on the environment and the location and the berms and the volley and whatever.

Okay, so what are we doing about that?

Because 500 feet clear cut is a very big difference of buffer or those little tiny spindly trees that they put up that are going to grow full for another 10 years.

Who's monitoring that?

If you mean that it's easier to enforce in a zoning commission for a noise ordinance, then go ahead and put that noise ordinance update on your agenda with a publicized date.

Show everybody that it's not going to go to the bottom of the administrative pile.

Oops, six years from now.

I encourage the council to work with other city councils in the area, because data centers in Pac 10 and 12 and 15 and 20 mile ranges.

Nashville, yeah, what about Birmingham too?

And finally, if this data center was opening within 500 feet of your child's school, or your grandchild's house, would you leave it as is?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Paul.

Next speaker, please.

Your name and your full address, thank you.

Good morning, members of the council.

Um my name is Jenna Jerry Bishop, and I live at 728 9th Avenue West in Birmingham, uh 35204.

That's District 8.

Um, Miss Sonia Smith's uh representative district.

Um this project is being presented as a limited control development, but our current ordinances contain broad, vague language that leaves the public exposed to future expansion far beyond what is being described today.

Terms like ancillary equipment, operational necessity, and infrastructure adjustments create loopholes that allow a data center to grow in size in noise output, water consumption, electrical demand without returning to the public for a meaningful review.

That is not theoretical.

It has happened in multiple U.S.

cities where initial approvals quietly ballooned into multi-building industrial complexes.

Here in Birmingham, that kind of expansion would directly threaten water availability in a region already facing stress, uh diesel generator emissions during mandatory testing, constant industrial noise and vibration, wildlife distribution, and habitat loss, the well-being of vulnerable animals at the new Humane Society campus, many of whom are anxious, recovering, or medically fragile.

These impacts are not borne by the corporations.

They're born by residents, taxpayers, animals, and our lovely environment.

Or ordinances should protect the public interest, not create a pathway for industrial escalation.

If a project can expand in ways that increase noise, heat, water use, pollution, then the ordinance must contain clear and enforceable limits that prevent the expansion unless the public explicitly approves it.

Right now, these protections are not in place.

We deserve development that strengthens Birmingham, not the development that extracts from it.

We deserve ordinances that safeguard our environment, not ones that can be bent to accommodate corporate demands.

The Humane Society or any other facility built to protect life should never be placed at risk for an industrial project that offers so little benefit to Birmingham in return.

I urge the council to reject this proposal, or at a minimum, pause it until ordinances governing data centers are rewritten with strict transparent limits that prioritize the well-being of the people, animals, and this delicate environment.

I ask you to consider uh something more personal.

If this project were placed next to your home, your children, next to your aging parents, next to the animals you love, would you feel confident that ordinances can um be stretched or bent?

Um, or thank you.

Reinterpret it after the fact.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Bishop.

Hello, City Council.

My name is Aston Kennedy, and due to my status as a U.S.

congressional candidate for Alabama House District 6, I will not be publicly stating my address.

I will be happy to give it to you later, though, if requested.

First things first, my district is district six, so when they say that as data center cannot fit in our zone, I want to remind y'all we are the richest district.

Secondly, look outside to your right, Jefferson Court Courthouse, 500 feet away.

That's not enough.

Downstairs, you have a sign titled City of Birmingham Strategic Plan, highly effective people first, smart government.

People first means listening to your constituents.

And if I, as only a candidate, have people in my inbox, I know they're in yours.

Secondly, people first means not taking away their right to a public hearing at any point in time.

Any company that wants to come into our neighborhoods should be approved by the people.

Your hands may be tied, but federally, ours are not.

I am begging you to stall the data centers.

There is a moratorium act being made by Senator Sanders by AOC.

And when I win, I fully plan to vote that in.

A nationwide federal moratorium is coming, and you can stop the current progress now because the legal definition of a moratorium is to suspend all.

Right now, today, America has 4,184 data centers.

In second place is the United Kingdom with 515.

When you look at the CEOs and who they come from and the money that runs them, we are under attack from a foreign nation, making us into a surveillance state.

They are poisoning us and poisoning the South for a profit.

I am asking you as a federal candidate to do what you can to stall and save the people here until we can federally take our country back and get democracy away from the tech oligarchs.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Kennedy.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name and full address, including zip code.

Thank you.

Uh good morning.

My name is Dr.

Russell Johnson.

Um my address is 4112 Riverwalk Lane, Hoover, Alabama 35216.

I'm the chief medical officer of the Greater Birmingham Humanity Society, and I'm responsible for the medical care of the thousands of animals that come through our door every year.

I'm not here to speak to you today about any one particular project.

I'm here to speak to you about the science and what this draft ordinance as a city to take on faith.

The draft treats large-scale data facilities as their own category.

It gives them their own definitions, their own requirements, their own standards.

That tells me facilities at this scale carry impacts in ordinary development does not.

As a veterinarian, the impact I'm trained to see is the impact most people can, and that's the impact on animals.

The noise studies these facilities rely on are measured in A-weighted decibels, a scale built around the average human ear.

By design, it discounts the very high frequencies and vibrations we can't hear and underweights the low frequency hums these facilities are known to produce.

A dog here is more than twice as high as we do, a cat higher, both at distances further than we do.

A study can report a number that looks perfectly safe to everyone in this room while telling us almost nothing about an animal living nearby.

What he actually experiences day, night with no ability to leave.

That is not a small gap.

In animals already under stress, chronic noise and vibration affect healing behavior, immune function, and recovery.

Those are measurable medical outcomes, and nothing in this draft requires anyone to study them before approval.

Here's my concern as a clinician.

An earlier version of this ordinance gave the public and people like me a formal chance to raise exactly these questions in front of an independent body before a decision was made.

That review has been narrowed.

Excuse me, that view review has been narrowed.

The very expertise that could catch a problem like this has been written out of the process.

At the same moment, the ordinance and mid facilities deserve special handling.

I'm not asking you to oppose anything.

I'm asking you to put the science back in.

Require studies that measure what animals and children and patients and anyone sensitive can actually hear.

Give qualified qualified people a real venue to be heard and approval and approval not after.

Heard before approval, not after.

Good ordinance aren't afraid of expert review.

They invited.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Jackson.

Thanks, Speaker.

Thank you.

My name is Alison Black Quarnelius.

I serve as CEO of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society.

I live at 5846 Wall Creek Drive 35022.

And last night I realized my life has come full circle.

I was born in Ingle Nook, and as a child, I was sexually assaulted by a trusted member of this community.

More than 20 years later, I learned I was more one of 60 people.

But under the laws that existed then, I was the only one that could legally stop him because I was a special exception.

But that exception only mattered because I was willing to stand on it and somebody was willing to fight for my rights to that special exception.

Judge Teresa Poyam did.

It was highly politicized.

I told that story for one reason.

When people feel threatened by something larger than themselves, they are often told the decision has already been made, that it's over, that there's nothing they can do, and their voices do not matter.

And sometimes those things are simply not true.

Sometimes there is somebody that can and will fight for you.

Today's draft ordinance matters.

Birmingham told the public it would reflect the best practices of communities like Loudon County and others that spent years learning how to regulate hyperscale data centers.

Instead, this draft removed the special exception, the very step that gave the public the right to be heard before projects of this scale move forward.

Loudon strengthened it, tightened it.

And I know something about how important special exceptions are because it was one.

An exception is only worth something if someone's willing to stand up for it.

Long before any of us sat in this room, the people who planned Oxmore created master plans, adopted standards, and recorded covenants.

Through all of those documents runs the same idea that the community is more than land, it's livability.

As the city, the county, USX, and the Metropolitan Development Board gave their word to make Oxmore livable for families, children, schools, businesses, churches, parks, and neighbors.

Each of these people matter, and that is why removing the special exception matters.

It was not a prohibition, it was not anti-business.

I'm not here to ask you to stop technology.

I'm asking you to restore the special exception and the public review that comes with it.

And to remember the principles that built this community, transparency, compatibility, honesty, social justice, stewardship, and accountability.

To the people of the Oxmore Valley, I want to say this to you.

Do not give up.

Do not assume the outcome is inevitable.

Do not assume your voice no longer matters.

As long as GBHS is a member of the Oxmore corporate parking can enact.

We will continue to stand on the promises, the principles, and the rule of law that shape this valley.

And I hope it is not so, but we may be the only ones that can enforce the covenants and ensure you get some form of special exception because the day citizens can no longer rely on the promises made to them and their right to be heard before these promises are changed is the day every community in Birmingham becomes vulnerable.

And if that day comes, Oxmore will not be the last community to lose its rights.

It will just be the first.

Thank you, Mr.

Amelia.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name and your full address, including zip code.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jesse Bunsen.

I am a homeowner at 637 Lisa Lane in Robux Springs.

Zip code 35206.

I'm gonna admit I didn't have a lot of knowledge about data centers and the impact when I came to this meeting.

I've heard a lot of bad things, hadn't heard a lot of good.

I'm honestly blown away that there's so few protections from the residents here for the residents here here in my town, where I'm from, where I own a home.

And we're gonna limit public impact.

We're gonna impact, we're gonna limit what people can say when they'll be notified.

That seems really like a bad idea.

And I mean, just people being notified in a reasonable area around a data center if something were to change, or that what is coming to where they're from.

500 feet is nothing.

It's nothing.

From the from the front door here to the front door of the Jefferson County Courthouse is 0.9 miles.

That's less than a I think it's a hundred feet or a thousand feet.

I mean, I apologize.

I was Googling just a moment ago.

It five hundred feet.

I can see it with the naked eye.

When you're looking through a neighborhood, that's like two blocks.

That's nothing.

And we're only gonna let that many people even know.

This is the chance we have to set these policies in effect that are going to affect our entire community, our entire city, for years and years and years to come.

We have the chance right now to make those precautions to put those policies in place to keep things tight, to make sure that we're not leaving loopholes for people to exploit us with, which anyone from Birmingham knows there's always a loophole, there's always a way to get something in to get something done if it's gonna make a buck down the road.

And we've dealt with the repercussions from it for years, for decades.

How many super fun sites do we have in this city?

I just wanted to give my thoughts on the matter.

I hope y'all have a wonderful day.

Thank you, Ms.

Pleasant.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name and your full address, including zip code.

Thank you.

Melody McGuire.

I live at 4533 Guilford Circle, Birmingham 35242.

So I've come today to ask you to reject the current draft and take into effect of what you've seen, you've heard, and you've learned from today.

And make it an opportunity just to do better.

And give our community a little additional time for these studies to be done.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss McGuire.

Next speaker, please.

Name and your full address.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Lisa Brennan.

I live at 1833 Lake Ridge Road, Homewood, Alabama.

I had not planned on being here today.

I'm dressed for work.

I was headed to work, but I felt like this was important enough to me, so I don't have anything eloquently planned.

Um, and I want to thank you guys for letting me be here because that's the number one thing I want to make sure and plea with you today is that moving forward, you continue to allow us to have this voice.

I didn't know about this meeting until two days ago, and I know there would be hundreds, maybe thousands more here to voice their um opinions about this and how they're against things that you're that we're trying to do with the data centers.

But unfortunately, people have to work.

So I have the ability to kind of sneak away and and stress my concerns over what's happening in our communities.

And so my biggest plea is that moving forward you continue to allow us to have this right with these data centers.

Um, but also want to ask you because the presentation they did was wonderful.

I'm thinking, oh, that sounds great, right?

But where are the examples of specifically the water usage?

Um they mentioned that the um of course I forget the word, but it was the continuous loop, water usage that was similar to other buildings that size.

What other data centers have been placed in other cities that have that example?

Um, also our energy.

We just we want to ask to have oversight into this.

Is there someone already planned to manage this from the city's perspective and and say, hey, this is what you promised, this is what you committed, and make sure that those commitments are being met.

And just to stress what my peers have said before me, the concerns about the noise ordinance.

I grew up in a small town off the Tennessee River in North Alabama, and we had plants all along the Tennessee River, so I know what noise pollution does 10 five to ten miles from there.

You lay in bed at night and you hear humming.

And I live close enough to the lakeshore facility that we will be affected by that, especially in the winter months when the trees are down.

So I just beg, I plea to you, and I thank you for this opportunity, but I plea that you take all these things into consideration.

Make sure there's someone checking on these projects and not allowing it.

And then I also plea that we don't allow any other of these data centers in our communities.

We have one, let's make sure we do it right, and then let's make sure we follow through with our communities because I didn't know about all this until someone shared it with me.

So make sure we're sharing this, put it on your social media platform, put it on the news and make sure we're doing checks and balances moving forward.

That we are telling the people, hey, this is what we committed, and here's where we are.

I love the person earlier that said, let's take air quality before and after.

Let's look at the soil, let's look at the noise, so that we have a baseline.

Give us that, please.

That's what we're begging.

Thank you very much.

All right, next speaker, please.

Hi, I'm Stephen Collins.

I live at 4415 Claremont Avenue South, uh, which is actually in a historic designation.

So I don't guess AI or a uh data center supporting that would necessarily make its way into my neighborhood.

Um that kind of makes me think what an arbitrary value to codify.

Uh I'm here thinking about also residents, um, human beings that live in other districts and neighborhoods and just kind of want to speak on our whole city's behalf.

I've been a part in this city of so many educational initiatives, um, developed workforce um initiatives in this city and part of music, uh, arts and culture, nonprofits uh and development.

Um, and those have all been really successful and amazing because in every step of the way we've listened to the residents, um, have worked intimately to understand uh different narratives, um, know well the livelihoods of um those residents and all these different neighborhoods, and that's what's brought that work into fruition.

Um, when I look at a process, I always remember the medium is the message.

It's not what we do, it's how we do it.

If we want to remove human voice or residents' opinions from something, I'll just say it this way.

When we listen to each other and we build processes based on each other's experiences, something beautiful happens.

That's what makes this city worth living in.

So I would recommend that public hearings um not be truncated in any way, but that we are allowed to be more involved in the process.

And in fact, right now, this process, I would recommend that we just completely strike any development of data centers from the books because this level of change, this scale of industry.

We don't have a process right now that's sufficient to actually understand it and consider all the implications, much less listen to the residents whom it will most intimately affect.

So my suggestion is that we suspend anything until we design a process or make the medium the message.

We're listening to each other, we're building something together.

And maybe we're making this a little too complicated because I think that if we had more of a vote uh in where these or if these were built, um it'd be much more simple and just raise your hand if you want to live next to a data center.

Raise your hand.

I I think we all know what the right thing to do is.

Thank you, Mr.

Collins.

Next speaker, please.

Your name, your full address, zip code.

Thank you.

Um Paul Guid 8920 24th Street South 35205.

I'm president of the South Side Neighborhood Association.

Um technical note, I'll say sound travels farther at night because of the cold temperature also in the winter.

So it's not just trees and foliage that uh causes sound transmission.

Um I'll have to um speak since last time.

There's been a couple of developments.

One is um the data centers have been shown to produce high heat uh output, and all of a sudden, all of the climate change people are silent on this.

So the data centers are contributing to the climate change, and everybody all of a sudden seems to forget oh, it's the automobile or the cows eating too much grass or something like that.

So this is a very odd thing.

Um the um second thing is residents in other states that live nearby, they've been having their property uh seized through inment domain in order to make room for the data centers.

And in some states, uh water has been cut off to residents so it could be supplied to data centers and out west.

I forget which day of Washington, Oregon.

Residents out there are being tow to find your own sources of electricity because electricity from the power company is going to go to the data center.

So I see several bigger issues that need to be solved in here.

Uh I would suggest first off, not passing this today to give more time to go over this um uh ordinance and look at more safeguards.

And I would also like to point out that there's a lot of civilities that go along with this here in China, they use data centers to use a social credit system.

And people, there's a whole class of people now that have lost out on that and they're homeless in the streets because an algorithm said that they didn't match up on some numbers and things.

Which, if you're familiar with the science fiction franchise Terminator movies, that's a very ominous warning to me right there.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Godby.

Next speaker, please.

Your name, address, zip code, thank you.

Hi, my name is Elizabeth Castro, and my address is 2622, Kemp Court, Birmingham, Alabama.

35.

I don't know.

I I'm forgetting.

I don't know.

But I was concerned, I've had concerns.

I've been at the other meetings, um, and when I was at the zoning meeting, and you could talk to everyone.

I did pose the questions, hey, like what if the noise is too loud for residents?

What do we do?

And um the lady was saying, well, you can call 311, you can report it, and I said, report to who?

And she was saying, Well, I don't know the local noise audience.

And I was saying, I don't know who my noise audience is.

I'm a resident, like I'm not a business, and how do I know if they're too loud?

She was saying, Well, you just call that, and the local person will tell you you have to file a complaint.

Who is the oversight in this?

So I said, Do I would this go to a non-emergency homewood police there?

And she said, possibly.

Now, can the police, you know, can they come out and say whether this is too loud for residents?

And she was saying, I don't know.

So, what everybody here is saying, we have questions.

The same I had questions about water and pollution runoff from these, say, machines that break.

And I was saying, who do if I have a concern, who do I address these to?

Well, the city, so in 311, so the operator is going to have to decide for the data center complaints, which city person is gonna handle this.

Do you have time?

I mean, really, do each of you and all the government workers have time to do this on your current job.

Like it looks good with whatever windfall of money you think you're gonna get, but really if it's gonna tax the systems, who's going to police all this stuff?

And then residents not having a voice.

That's my American right.

And I don't like that.

I have never been here except for the data centers.

I'm a neurodivergent.

I work from home.

I am not around people a lot.

I this is forcing me to come out.

So if you want to get my attention, just tell me that I can't speak.

Thank you, Miss Kestra.

Next speaker, please.

Name address zip code.

Good afternoon, councilman and women, Mr.

Mayor.

My name is Andrew Parker.

Um, I live at 415 Cherry Street, 35213.

Um this is my first time here today, but um I'm here to uh say to you that I think it's pretty widely agreed upon, at least amongst all of us back here, that there's almost no gain to data centers coming to our city.

I mean, they only provide maybe 10 permanent jobs and security roles, um, very little financial development, and technology is gonna, it's estimated to pass them in 15 to 20 years anyway.

So these buildings will be obsolete, you know, in two decades.

Um so it's my belief that you know, while we can't uh directly prevent these centers from coming to Birmingham, we should be as unwelcome unwelcoming as possible.

I think we should start out as on welping unwelcoming as possible, and then if we have to concede, I mean, I guess we have to.

Um But yes, um I've spent my entire life in Birmingham.

I'd like to raise my kids here, I'd like them to raise my grandkids here, and that's not looking like an option if it's gonna be a data center alley.

Um so please consider um harsher regulations on incoming data centers because there's almost no gain and nobody wants them here.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Parker.

Next speaker, please.

Name, address, and zip code, thank you.

All right.

Uh good afternoon now.

I'm uh Jonathan Landham.

I live in District 3, uh 1120 Beacon Parkway East, 3529.

Um I want to applaud and thank the council for being proactive and laying uh foundation and regulating a destructive industry bubble.

However, I feel this version of the legislation does not go quite far enough.

While there are other issues that others have spoken to and no doubt will speak to, in my mind, there are three key things that need to be addressed: transparency, specificity, and accountability.

First and foremost, transparency and public participation.

So many people who have to work for a living, myself included, took off today to be here to participate in democracy, as Councillor Vassa said.

It's a beautiful thing, but it doesn't need to end here.

These industrial developments need to include input from the community, including well publicized, not just to people within 500 feet of it, which, as others have said, is not a long way, less than a tenth of a mile, public comment, public hearings, and crucially maintaining the special exception standard for zoning.

To eliminate public input from projects like this is nothing short of anti-democratic.

Second, we need more specific regulations regarding sound levels, water usage, and heat emission if we're gonna bring these extractive eyesores to our city.

Weeks ago, I sat in this room and watched executives of an unnamed company lie to the zoning board, stating that the noise study they had presented, which was an inappropriate study, one that did not weight the relevant frequencies, meant their center would not produce excessive infrasound.

Only through Philip Foster's personal knowledge was that lie even challenged.

This is exactly why we need specific expert-derived and reviewed tests and benchmark requirements for sound water use and heat generation, among other impacts the surrounding community.

We cannot rely on industry to regulate itself.

The gentleman who presented hand-waved about noise being hard to measure, the seasons and weather affected.

But the fact is it's complicated, but in no way too complicated to accomplish.

Turns out there's people whose job is to do just that.

And finally, on that note, accountability.

We need mandated compulsory enforcement.

It should not be at the discretion of the executive branch whether or not to enforce the council's ordinances.

We as a community should not have to wait for large out-of-state corporations to harm us, then commission studies on our own dime to prove it, then beg the city to help us.

We need and expect regular monitoring of all these parameters, unannounced compulsory audits, and mandatory expensive shutdowns until resolved if these industries fail to comply with the laws of our community.

Thank you, Mr.

Lenham.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Next speaker, please.

Name address zip code, thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dana Ulrich.

My zip code is 35213.

Um I live, I was born in Birmingham, I work in Birmingham, my boss, my husband owns a business in Birmingham, and our son attends school in Birmingham.

Mayor Woodfin, I've had the pleasure of voting for you three times.

Counselors Williams and O'Quinn, I've also voted for you in the past.

I'm speaking today to express concern over the financial burden that my family will face due to increased power and utility bills that we know come with these large-scale data centers.

What concrete tangible steps is the city taking to offset the inevitable hike in power and utility costs that will impact your constituents?

What impact studies have been done and made available to the public that assess the economic effect these data centers will have on your residents and constituents.

The current ordinance draft only asks that centers make note of rate changes.

This does nothing to protect your citizens.

Please clearly address this issue before finalizing the ordinance.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Hilwick.

I'm gonna hand uh the hearing over to my co-chair, Councillor O'Quinn to take a quick break.

Um next speaker, you're welcome to come up.

I'll be right back.

Thank you.

Uh next speaker, you can you can come up.

Yes.

And please remember to state your name and address.

Yeah, three minutes.

Hi, I'm uh Lauren Brokaw, and I'm uh socially anxious shed in who cannot drive, and I am not a gifted skip speaker.

I have a small lesion on my right temporal lobe that makes my speech patterns choppy.

But I'm here because I am so terrified that I'm gonna have to sell my home as soon as possible before it's too late, because as someone else pointed out, nobody wants to live next to a data center.

And I I also wanted to mention, considering the fact that 69 jurisdictions across the US have blocked new construction on like really large data centers, and four have made it permanent.

And Erin Brakovich, she's a real person.

My brother-in-law didn't know she was a real person, but she's a real person, and she uh she's been uh collecting a database on these data centers, and considering all of that, it it seems extremely important to take an extreme amount of caution when approaching this technology and understanding the impacts that it can have on people.

And I just I don't know, I'm really hoping that I I can trust those in charge to offer you know the right amount of transparency and honesty, and really consider what's best for their constituents and prioritize people over profit because yeah, I really would prefer for y'all not to be the villains in the lifetime movie that's made about this nonsense in 20 years.

But um, I also I I really would like to know if it's possible for us to make information about what exactly is the benefit that these AI dentists and I are providing that we're willing to risk the possible harmful effects to health over because it doesn't really seem worth it given what we've seen data centers have been doing.

They like AAI has been like miscalculating uh inventory at Starbucks and locking engineers out of Microsoft Cloud Code, and I I would I would like to know exactly what what benefits does this um technology offer?

What what benefits do people stand to gain in the vicinity of these centers that they're being asked to risk their own health for potentially?

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Um my name is Ryan Anderson, and I'm a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Our address is 2829 2nd Avenue South 35233.

And first of all, I want to give a shout out to all of the residents and citizens that showed up here today.

Hundreds of people standing outside in the heat waiting to get in and make their voice heard and sitting down in the cafeteria together, comparing notes, watching you all uh through this deliberative process has been really uh a joy because this is what democracy looks like, and it looks pretty good to me.

Um so what you are doing now has become a model for cities across the Southeast.

Um by putting a pause on data center applications, engaging residents and other stakeholders in the process, and then putting meaningful guardrails on future development.

That is a step forward, but it is time to stick the landing.

This iterative process has led to a draft ordinance that contains numeral numerous meaningful protections.

For example, by prohibiting data centers from operating dirty power plants in our backyards, Birmingham residents will be able to breathe a bit easier when future developers come to town.

But we're back here today because of one important requirement, the special exception requirement.

This is critical because it gives residents a voice in data center development, and it also prevents the city from unintentionally hamstringing itself to a one-size-fits-all approach to data centers.

Municipalities across the Southeast have not hesitated to include data centers as a use that requires a special exception.

Locally, Columbiana, Athens, and Hoover have all decided to require a special exception for data centers.

A process with built-in mechanisms for public involvement.

As one Hoover city counselor put it, that's front and center.

What does the public feel about it?

How do they feel about it coming to their city?

Birmingham residents deserve the same.

We deserve to have a voice in data center development in our city, and we deserve to have a seat at the same table that big tech does, because these decisions influence the places where we live, work, and play.

Please add the special exception requirement back into this ordinance before you pass it.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

Your name, address, and zip code.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jessica Stott.

I live at 925 Shades Glenn Drive, 3526.

Um, I am just here because I want to take a second to address the presentation we were given this morning regarding the 20 requirements of the ordinance.

Did we not hear them say during that presentation that they're still realizing all of the errors and things that edits that need to be made in this ordinance for things like the noise level?

Um my question is when do these revisions get made, and then when do those revisions get enforced?

I think it sounds really good to have the rule that all centers have to meet all 20 of these requirements.

But the requirements in the ordinance are still undefined or still under draft.

So as several people before me have mentioned who's gonna enforce those 20 rules, what are those repercussions going to be for when these corporations break those rules?

Because that's what corporations do, um, and who is going to sort of like I don't know, make sure that doesn't happen.

Um the ethics regarding the data center that is being built in my backyard are already being litigated, so I'm gonna leave that alone.

But I want to take this opportunity to remind all of you in front of me.

Historically speaking, both the Birmingham mayor and city council have a terrible reputation for corruption.

I want um to just remind you all that this ordinance is a great opportunity to show everyone here, everyone at home that couldn't be here today, that you do stand on the side of the people and the residents in this city and not just on the side of foreign corporations.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Doug.

Speaker, thank you.

Hi, yes, uh, my name is Stephanie Salvago.

I'm getting a spam call.

I uh live at 2704 Hanover Circle, Birmingham, Alabama, 35205.

Um, and I want to walk through what the community is being asked to accept as protection.

The setbacks protect certain homes at 500 feet and certain transit facilities at a thousand feet.

They do not clearly protect institutional neighbors like daycare centers, um, daycare for sp adults and children with special needs, um, medical uh facilities, schools, nonprofits, facilities that keep animals overnight, and the notification requirement again is only 500 feet.

That means this ordinance could notify one property owner and leave everyone else that is affected completely in the dark.

Um, the cooling is described as closed loop, but closed loop cooling is a water answer to a noise question.

The heat from a 300 megawatt facility still has to go somewhere.

It leaves through mechanical cooling equipment and fan arrays that can run day and night that is not a mitigation of our concern.

That is the source of it.

And the noise plan appears to wall off generators and run occasionally while leaving the cooling fans that may run continuously without a clear enforceable standard for the low frequency or tonal noise that children, adults with special needs, and animals may be especially sensitive to.

But here's the common thread.

Every one of these protections depends too heavily on the developer, the developer's consultants, the developer study, the developer's definition of compliance.

There's no required independent review, no required third-party monitoring, uh, no required independent entity checking the applicant's homework before the public is asked to trust the result.

That is exactly why special exception review matters, and that is exactly why removing or limiting project specific public review leaves this community with promises and no way to verify them.

Please strengthen this ordinance before you adopt it.

Leah McEroy, I reside at 1600 13th Street South, Birmingham, Alabama.

South Fulton Dale, Bessemer, Memphis.

What do all of these communities have in common?

They are minority lower income communities that are being targeted by these data centers.

This is not just a whole, you know, about noise and all this.

This is about systematic oppression that is coming from corporate greed that this city is trying to get past hearing the people's voice, suppressing these voices.

Which is unacceptable.

Birmingham, as a com as a city, has had a long history of suppressing voices, but it's also had a long history of building people up.

Which chapter do you want to find yourself in the books of?

Do you want to find yourself in the books of a chapter that is talked down upon, or do you want to find yourself in the books or in the chapter of the books that is talked about in liked?

We need the special exemption back, added to this bill, so that the communities can have their engagement with this so that they can have their voice be heard.

We do not need another sloss furnace.

Sloss furnace sounds, oh, it's real cool.

It's that slow, it's it took advantage of so many people for decades.

Anyone that knows the real history of that place knows that place was a horrid nightmare.

We do not need another one of those.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Name, address, zip code.

Thank you.

My name is Charles Miller.

I'm a resident of Highland Park, and I'm the policy director for the Alabama Rivers Alliance.

Our address is 4439 Fifth Avenue South Birmingham.

And we're statewide nonprofit dedicated to protecting Alabama's 132,000 miles of rivers and streams through building partnerships, empowering citizens, and advocating for sound water policy and its enforcement.

First, I want to commend the council for considering this ordinance.

These provisions relating to water are incredibly important because we as a state are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to properly citing data centers.

Our state's water law is trapped in the 18th century with no way to resolve disputes among different water users and no way to effectively allocate water or conserve water during times of drought.

The required provisions for disclosure of water use, closed loop systems, water conservation and efficiency planning for hyperscale data centers are all admirable steps towards ensuring that data center water use does not impact our neighbors, including those that may not live in the city.

The requirements to abide by stormwater regulations and ordinary pre-treatment regulations are also an important step.

But we do agree with the majority of the people who have spoken here today that the special exception requirement that gives citizens a voice in this process is incredibly, incredibly important.

I know that this council and the planning department has worked diligently on this ordinance, and I know that we're kind of running up against the clock when it comes to the moratorium.

But I believe that if we want to see a durable ordinance, it has to include some element of public participation, and I believe that our city can do that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Merlin.

Next speaker, please.

Name addresses up code.

Please.

Hello, my name is David Marshall.

I'm a resident of 1316 Larry Lane, Birmingham, Alabama.

I have a few comments with respect to the proposed ordinance as it relates to data centers, specifically the provisions of section five dealing with the proposed amendments of section seven related to hyperscale data center at pages.

I have a few comments with respect to the proposed ordinance as it relates to data centers, specifically the provisions of Section 5 dealing with the proposed amendments to Section 7 related to hyperscale data center at pages 42 through 45.

The ordinance appears to recognize the potential environmental hazards the data centers present, especially with regard to water.

A single data center consumes up to 5 million gallons of water each day.

The wastewater contains toxic harmful, harmful to drinking water and aquatic life.

The ordinance appears to require detailed plans for water usage and waste treatment.

Hopefully, the city's engineers will be extremely diligent and strict in imposing the appropriate safeguards once they have received the detailed plans anticipated by the ordinance.

However, I am here to suggest strongly that the proposed 500 foot separation from a residential zone is far too close to protect the residents.

Data centers utilize lithium ion batteries, which are classified a hazmat risk.

In 2025, a data center fire involving lithium ion batteries in Hillsboro, Oregon burned for five hours, emitting dangerous toxic smoke that resisted every fire suppression utilized.

Also in 2025, a data center fire in Moss Landing, California required the evacuation of 1,500 residents.

An EPA administrator following a two-week battery fire in San Diego commented that he was alarmed by the impacts on first responders exposed to horrible toxic conditions.

Documented lithium iron batteries fires have increased from 359 in 2023 to 543 in 2024.

Most local fire departments, including ours in Birmingham are not trained for the toxic conditions of lithium battery fire.

Accordingly, I believe 500 feet is not acceptable for this type of facility in a civilized community anywhere in this nation in the event of a battery fire at the data center.

Now you are wanting to allow these data centers and companies to build and destroy our towns and our cities because they don't want it next to them.

What are we doing to put up these fires?

We are prone to tornadoes, which a lot of times when they hit a gas line or power wires cause fires.

Finally, I would like to see the special use exception to stay in the data ordinance, data center ordinance.

Also, I wrote an article that was published by AL Politics.com, and I would like to hand that out to y'all for y'all to read later.

Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you, Mr.

Marshall.

Can I hand Mr.

Sanger?

Next speaker, please.

Name address CIP code.

Thank you.

Afternoon, I'm Keith Williams of I am the co-founder of Voters Legal Justice Watch Group, which is located at 1601 Fifth Avenue North, Suite 26, Birmingham 35203.

And I am an independent candidate for Alabama House District 55, which is nestled in a hotbed for data centers in the state of Alabama.

I support responsible economic development.

I support Birmingham being competitive and attractive new industries and investment opportunities.

However, economic development and public protection must move forward together.

Over the past several weeks, residents, community organizations, environmental advocates, neighborhood leaders, and other stakeholders have submitted recommendations regarding this proposed data center ordinance.

Many of these recommendations were not intended to stop development.

They were intended to ensure that development occurs responsibly, transparently, and with the adequate protections for the people who live there.

One concern I heard repeatedly is whether the public recommendations will actually be considered as part of the FIDO ordinance.

Enhanced noise mitigation requirements, stronger communication, community notification procedures, and opportunities for residents to voice their concerns before a new data centers approve or for the existing facility significantly expands its operations.

These are not unreasonable requests.

Residents deserve to know what is being built near their homes.

They deserve to understand potential impacts on noise, traffic, infrastructure, water resources, and energy demands.

They deserve an opportunity to participate in the decision making process before major developments move forward.

I also continue to encourage the council to consider stronger transparency and accountability measures, including public reporting, community impact assessments, and your compliance reviews, public complaints procedures, environmental monitoring, and meaningful enforcement mechanisms when violations occurs.

The question before us is not whether Birmingham should welcome innovation.

The question is whether Birmingham will establish the safeguards necessary to ensure that innovation serves both industry and residents.

I respectfully ask the council to carefully review the recommendations submitted by residents and organizations and to ensure that transparency, accountability, public participation, and neighborhood protections remain central to this ordinance.

Thank you, Mr.

Williams.

Oh, one more thing.

If it's not being done here, I advocate on the state level.

What this council would not do.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name, address, and zip code.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Elisha Williams, and I currently live at 4308 Fifth Avenue South.

Um, Birmingham, Alabama 352.

Um, I am here today just to impact the hearts of our leaders.

I just now am getting back on my feet after a seven-month hospitalization at UAB.

During this time of healing, I have taken it upon myself to get to know my community in a better way by participating in programs like the AIDS program and joining junior councils and making entertaining yet tasteful videos about our local community.

I'm saying that to say I have had the pleasure of working in intergenerational program and for a radical take justice organization and could talk about everything that my fellow citizens have covered today, but I stand before you today as someone who was born in Birmingham and born into a city that already carried the fingerprints of those who came before me.

I believe that the progress should never come at the expense of the people who call this city our home and our loved ones who have paved the way for us before today.

When I drive through our neighborhoods, I don't see roads and buildings, I see stories.

I see my friends and neighbors enjoying fishing at our local parks, picking fresh fruit at our farmers markets, and just us coming together to lab, dance, and share food at local mom and pop shops that are now known globally.

We didn't need artificial intelligence to make that happen.

It's just the heart of Birmingham, and a city that endured hardship loss, change, and still found a way to keep it sold.

And some places they are valuable because they can build because of what they can build.

But Birmingham, we never needed that.

Birmingham is valuable because of what has already been built here.

Our community, our culture, history, and its people.

Progress should not require us to forget who we are.

When future generations ask what we did with this city, I hope our answer is not that we traded away pieces of its character in pursuit of becoming what's next the next big thing.

I hope we can say that we were thoughtful that we listen, that we protected the stories that are sorry, Tony, okay, that we are already being muted for and protected the city that Birmingham is.

This is special.

This is our home.

It's not a testing ground, it's not a bargaining chip, it's not a blank space on a map waiting to be transformed by the biggest builder.

The burden of uncertainty should never fall on the people.

This is our home, and our home is worth protecting.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Williams.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name, address, and zip code.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Cheryl Lewis.

I live at 3369 Chandler Way in Hoover.

I live at 3369 Chandler Way in Hoover, Zip Code 35226, and I'm less than three miles from the location of this proposed data center.

And ma'am, you know the public hearing today is about the data center ordinance, not specifically one.

Okay.

Yes.

I'm a realtor with REMAX Advantage, and as a realtor, you know the health and safety is paramount.

We have to take CEU courses on it.

We have to every transaction, health and safety is a preeminent.

And so realtors have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients for health and safety.

How much more so do y'all as elected officials carry that burden every day with the decisions that you have to make?

And I respect you and thank you for allowing us to have this public comment.

We heard this morning that a noise study will be conducted.

There were no definitions provided for that regarding, like they said there would be an independent tester.

They didn't say OSHA standards.

We have government noise standards, so we have local noise standards.

They should have said a definition.

So I'm I'm encouraging y'all to make sure whatever final thing is produced has some kind of decibel, an actual noise number, a figure, because it's very well known with neuroscience and human body what noise levels affect.

So if there are people like I have a stepson that has special needs, and is he going to be affected by this constant 24-7?

They could be at a high frequency, which it may affect birds and animals and not necessarily humans, but we really don't know with special needs how that is going to affect it, and how many special needs people live within a three mile or six mile or ten mile radius of this.

So it's just things to be considered when a major decision like this is being made.

So this is also going to affect the home values, the value of my home, which is our major investment.

My husband's retired, and people who are retired, things that on a fixed income, if their water bill goes up, their uh electric bill goes up, these things are fixed, and it's going to affect the people on fixed income more than it affects other people.

So we have to think about the total effect of this project, not just what it's bringing in.

And so it made me ask myself in my mind if I were going to build something that might be potentially dangerous to animals or to people, why not you know build it way out in the middle of nowhere, right?

You could just build it out there, and then nobody's affected, right?

You can be electronically sent.

You know, that would be easy.

But I think could it be for cost shifting?

Oh, I'm sorry, my time is up.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Please state your name, address, zip code.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Mayor Woodfin, City Council, and everyone.

I'm Julianne Tharp, the Fields and Advocacy Fellow of GASP, the Greater Birmingham Alliance to stop pollution at 2320 Highland Avenue, suite 270 in Birmingham 35205.

On March 3rd, you approved a 180-day temporary suspension on data center proposals so that you, the planning, engineering, and permitting department could ensure proper research and community input was gathered before establishing a data center ordinance.

Thank you again for taking that step.

But it's only June, halfway through the allotted six-month suspension, and there is still more work to do on this ordinance to truly incorporate best practices and not make the same mistakes other cities have made at the expense of its citizens.

We cannot rush this process and the temporary suspension yet.

The purpose of a public hearing such as this one is to hear directly from the citizens you serve, and I thank you for this opportunity.

We're all watching and hoping for you to make the right decision, which is to listen to your constituents and work with them to truly build a better Birmingham so all families and neighborhoods and businesses can thrive.

I am so proud of the Birmingham I have seen today that shows up for each other.

As an environmental justice organization that focuses on clean air and healthy communities, GASP is particularly concerned about the lack of air pollution protections in the ordinance.

First, we should be increasing the setback distance between data centers and neighborhood properties, not decreasing them and maintaining a distance of at least a thousand feet, even if the residential or urban neighborhood district requires less than that.

Next, we should be limiting air pollution potential by promoting the use of solar or propane generators and limiting the regular generator testing to no more than two generators at a time.

This is crucial to protect public health because we should strive to improve our air quality, not make it worse by adding particulate matter and nitrogen oxides from diesel backup generators.

And lastly, we should be keeping the special exception requirement that allows public input before a hyperscale data center could be approved in mixed use in light industrial areas.

Now that would really mean putting people first, not profit.

As someone who chooses to call Birmingham home and as a mother trying to teach her 18-month-old daughter that her voice matters and that she should grow up in Birmingham because we trust our democratic government.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker, thank you.

Mayor, good to see you today.

Counselors, good to see you.

I live in Josh's district, 33809, 12th Court South, 352.

I want to make some suggestions here.

It was good to see the presentation of what you are saying.

Oh, sorry.

State your name, please, sir.

Oh, I'm sorry, Tony Patellas.

Um I'm here today to uh to ask some the presentation that you had today to make some recommendations on it.

First and foremost on the uh special use.

These facilities are so big and they're so different all over the country, there's so many different ones.

The public needs to be aware of what they're planning to put in their area.

And I think it's very important that you keep the special use exception in your proposal.

Also on the uh uh the 500 feet, in order to have a ABC uh retail store, liquor store, uh, you need a thousand-foot separation from residents.

And on ABC store, some of those stores are less than three thousand square feet.

And but they require a thousand feet from any resident.

On the noise, uh the closed loop system is a good system.

I think it's a it's a good system, but there's a trade-off.

You have noise.

In order to coup that water, you have to have these giant fans that coo the water.

And so there needs to be in the in your proposal uh what is allowable on the noise from these giant fans to coup the water.

Uh also on these generators.

Some of these facilities have 30, 40 generators on site.

If the EPA requires a hundred hours of testing on those generators, you're talking about thousands of hours for those generators to run in that neighborhood, and that whatever they have as far as the uh generators needs to be the best that there is.

And then lastly is the uh this is this is a very complex issue, and the public needs to be aware of it, and the neighborhoods need to be aware of it.

Thank you for allowing me to visit with you today.

Thank you, Mr.

Patellas.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name, address, and zip code.

Good afternoon, Councillor Mayor, Jason Freeman, 1613 2nd Street South, Birmingham 35205, South Titusville Neighborhood Association President.

I came here today because I'm gonna be quite honest.

I'm not 100% against data centers.

Uh I'd be disingenuous if I said that DC Block was a poor neighbor.

Anyone knows about DC Block, they're a wonderful company in the Titansville neighborhood.

However, this is a little bit different.

I'm a little bit of concern because I've grown to love Oxmore Valley as a resident as well as an employee as an employee at Evonic Industries.

And I think that this data center, I want to say thank you for the moratorium, but we need to go a little bit further as far as studies because Oxmore Valley is a beautiful area with natural lakes, natural land, and um to be honest.

I am totally invested in this city as a neighborhood officer as well as a citizen.

And I believe that Oxmore Valley is a fertile area for not only residential development but other developmental as well.

And as the real estate agent before me went ahead and said that it if we put that data center in there in there, I feel like it will be a divestment from that area.

So I looked at Monterey Park, California recently, and I see where, like Birmingham, they had a moratorium, but a little bit differently is they put uh basically on the ballot um an approval for to vote on it.

So I think that putting it before the citizens, allowing them to make a decision would be great.

So if you could take a chance to look at Monterey Parts ordinance, I think that would be a great model to follow for this city.

So um I know y'all have heard everything so far, so I'll be real brief.

I just want to thank y'all again for that moratorium and to consider what I think about as far as District 7, Oxmore Valley, and what it could be if we don't do this data center.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Freeman.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name, address, and zip code.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Rob.

My name is Robert DeBuys, live at 3467, Mossbrook Lane, 35243.

Um, I read the ordinance that's uh proposed and being voted on today, and in general, I think it's a it's a very, very good step.

And I'd like to take just a second to commend you for your patience and celebrate what we're seeing here today, which is democracy at work.

But there is some red letters in this ordinance that I've learned that have been added and some things removed, and what those particular things have been added and removed for is to specifically reduce transparency and the public's involvement in data centers specifically, but in general, I think that everybody in this room would agree that it's a terrible idea to reduce the public's involvement in what happens in public, as they say, and I wish it was always true.

Democracy dies in darkness.

Thank you, Mr.

Define.

Oh, uh I'm so sorry, before the next speaker, uh Pro Tam Tate uh has a quick announcement.

Thank you, um Mr.

Chairman Coachman.

Um today's public safety meeting will still be held uh today at one o'clock.

We're just gonna meet in conference room D and E.

So public safety will still convene at one today.

We'll just be in conference room D and E.

Thank you, Pro Tim.

All right, next speaker.

Thank you.

My name is Judy Morton.

I live at 2329 Hawkesbury Lane.

That's in the 3526 zip code of Birmingham.

Um we have enjoyed 45 years of our life in that home and raised our daughter.

We plan to retire and remain in that home in our beloved Bluff Park community.

But what happens in Oxmore Valley comes up that hill into Bluff Park?

It affects us tremendously.

I have a very personal concern about how that AI factory is going to affect my home in Bluff Park.

You see, we're both my husband and I are 69 years old.

We're in that stage of life where we are making plans for retirement, and he retires in less than a year, and we're making plans for end of life and our estate and what we will leave to our daughter.

Our plan was that our home and property would be her inheritance.

And I wonder at this point, do we need to make a new plan?

Do I need to put a for sale sign up in front of my house and cut my losses now?

Or are y'all going to step in and protect the people?

So that I don't have to do that.

I would really prefer to end my retirement and in our remaining years in our home in Bluff Park.

I don't want to have to leave.

And I'm counting on y'all to do what needs to be done.

Please include that special exception requirement and the protections that need to be in place for the people.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Morton.

Please state your name, address, and zip code.

Thank you.

Peggy Gargus, 3931 South River Circle 35243.

And I had some comments written on the fire situation with lithium batteries, but some gentlemen ahead of me addressed that quite nicely.

I will get to that, but in the meantime, I wanted to reiterate my request for real-time monitoring of the closed loop systems and anything that you all include.

And I'm glad for closed loop, but it does pose problems.

It releases forever chemicals when it has to have bleed out or blow down.

So at any rate, I would like that real-time closed loop monitoring of the closed, I mean real-time monitoring of the closed loop system at the data center operators' expense, not the cities.

Regarding batteries and fires, I know you're not sequestered.

You have seen the footage.

So I would like you also to require an independent applicant applicant funded assessment of thermal runaway, runaway risk, large diesel fire scenarios, suppression water demand, on shift staffing, and mutual aid limits.

And please require the developer to fund the specialized training, protective equipment and apparatus that the Birmingham Fire and Rescue and Mutual Aid Departments will need before day one with biennial refresher training for the life of the project.

Also, I want to let you know that I have been to the Oxmore site to see the one in progress.

Ma'am, just a reminder, we hear about the data center ordinances.

I know, I know, but this this one is in progress and it applies to your moratorium and your your um your ordinances because I want to make sure that the ordinance for the lithium batteries, the that uh situation will also be uh it also applies in Oxmore.

So I would hope that you all will keep that in mind.

I'd like to have the 1,000 foot or half a mile buffer.

Uh I'd like to have the um I forgot take well, I've forgotten that one, but my last question for you is please, please, please.

You said you wanted to get it right, let's do.

And if the any of the data centers that you would propose or that are coming or what would apply, would you want any of them in your district?

Thank you very much.

All right, next speaker, and just as a reminder, uh, we are here uh regarding the public hearing related to this data center ordinance in general, not any specific property.

Thank you.

Uh please say your name, address, and zip code, thanks.

Hi, my name is Maureen Bright.

I live at 149 Cornerstone Court 3502.

Um I had prepared remarks.

I'm not going to say them because I think they've been more than adequately addressed in previous speakers.

So I'm just going to speak from the heart and tell you that I'm not, I'm not opposed to artificial intelligence or any of these data center projects.

Um I uh work for over 25 years for IBM, so technology is very familiar to me, and I think anyone that believes that artificial intelligence or any of these projects is a passing thing, I'm telling you the ship has sailed.

All right, the train has left the station on it.

So we need to do the best that we can with what is ahead of us.

Um I will say uh it appears to me that AI hyperscalers, they're looking for and targeting cities and communities where they think they have epathetic or uneducated voters and perhaps leadership that can be duped or what I think they made a mistake with Birmingham.

I don't believe that about Birmingham voters or leaders, and I want you to prove it to us.

Um, mayor and counselors, it's not too late.

It's really not too late to fix what's about to happen to our city, uh, our projects that are currently underway and any in the future.

Okay, if they're done right, this can be a huge boom for us.

But I think you will all agree that there's a project that is currently underway that just came in like a house of fire, and no one even realized what was going on, no notice, no anything, no public input, public input and meetings with the developers and the businesses is essential to make this thing work for us.

And I believe that all of you have a unique opportunity here before you, and that is to before things go any farther, put guidelines and strict measurements with dollar penalties into place for anyone that's going to do business with us.

We have a lot to offer, and we can expect and demand from them what we need.

All right.

Thank you, Miss Maureen.

Three minutes is up.

Thank you.

Appreciate your comments.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Please state your name, address, and zip code.

You have three minutes.

Good afternoon.

My name is Cindy Cortez, that's with the S, and I live at 166 Cornerstone Court and Cornerstones of Oxmoor Valley.

That's Birmingham 3502.

The draft ordinance restricts the generator testing to daytime hours, but never defines that term, and it sets no emissions floor.

Hyperscale facilities can run dozens of large diesel generators, how often they test, and how dirty they burn directly affects the air quality of the homes nearby, not just those within 500 feet, which we've heard a lot that that is not very far.

As a public health professional and registered nurse, just need to emphasize the effect, the health effects that these generator emissions can cause, ranging from sudden fatal carbon monoxide poisoning to long-term respiratory and cardiovascular damage from the diesel exhaust and from the nitrogen oxides.

Inhaling these fumes can trigger asthma attacks, worsen existing lung and heart disease, and increase cancer risk over prolonged periods of exposure.

And I would recommend, in addition to the limited ordinance specifications that have been suggested, that they also include vastly extending the closeness to health care facilities, schools, and places where people with disabilities congregate, which that was not considered in a recent example.

So we ask that you please define what daytime testing means is that nine to five, with no weekends or gaps, and that they must meet EPA tier four final emission standards.

Please use precise enforceable limits to protect residents, it's us, and give honest operators clear rules.

And this question is for each of you counselors.

If a data center were proposed in your neighborhood, and the residents of your district strongly opposed it, would you still vote in favor of it?

Thank you, Miss Without.

Next speaker, please state your name address.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Um, my name is uh Kelly Hall, and I reside at 112 Cornerstone Court, Birmingham 3521.

And I echo what a lot of the other speakers have said about the 500 feet not being adequate, and to retain the public comment on a pro on something this important that affects the community as much as these uh centers do.

And I know that uh they uh we've been speaking about data center, data center, data center, but I think a more important appropriate term is AI factory, because I think this is a big manufacturing thing, and that's why I question in your in your ordinance commercial use group three, commercial limited manufacturing use.

So at least hyperscale data centers, along with places like auto repair, auto sales, and that just doesn't seem to fit.

It seems like it's such a big project and has so many consequences for the community.

It should be a standalone uh consideration.

And if you do that, you strip that out and put it and judge it in its own, then what happened to the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, it would prevent that from happening because they purchased that land in good faith that that would be a safe place to build, and now this has happened.

So that's that's the one thing I question about the ordinance is for the data center to be in all of these things that you see riding down the street.

Uh thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Hall.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

Your name, address, zip code.

Appreciate it.

Good afternoon.

My name is Denise Boyce.

My address is 412 Camden Cove Circle in Calera, Alabama.

No, I am not a constituent of this going in right now, but I have friends close to the area.

The Humane Society has territory close to that that will affect these animals.

Low frequency sounds under 100 Hz, like thunderstorms, heavy engines, and HVAC systems often cause dogs to feel uneasy.

While dogs hear high frequencies both in humans, they experience low frequencies through physical vibrations in their paws and whiskers, which can trigger anxiety, pacing, and hiding.

Behavioral changes, unlike high-pitched intermittent sounds, which often cause trembling, low frequency rumbles generally provoke a desire to escape, causing dogs to pace, pant, hide, and retreat.

That needs to be considered in the noise ordinances.

Now that's just the dogs, the animals.

Those need to be considered with the noise ordinances that this place will cause, let alone the air pollution, the water, and all the other things.

I'm speaking for the voiceless.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

State your name, address zip code.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Pam Murray.

I live at 4220, Overlook Drive South.

Um, District 3.

I'm also affected by District 5.

I'm in the South Avondale Forest Park community.

I'd like to add my voice to that of everyone else who's come before you today.

Um, and I'd like to emphasize the importance of the protective measures that are part of the current ordinance.

I'd like to see stronger protections.

Given the scale, the scope of hyperscale data centers, I think it's essential to include or to restore the original requirement within the ordinance within the original ordinance to include the special exception requirement.

I do think we need to let the public have a say, people who will be affected by any hyperscale data factory or AI factory.

The consequences of these data centers are too great to not have public input.

There need to be baseline criteria, baseline standards or metrics that can be followed up on, measured by an independent third party expert.

We cannot take the developers' words for granted or just assume they'll do the right thing.

It's our job as a city to make sure that the developer protects the public here in Birmingham.

Larger setbacks are vital.

The 500 foot setback is inadequate.

At least 1,000 feet.

And finally, I'd like to end on this note.

I think enforcement, which is a theme that's already been expressed here by several people, is critical.

We have to have an enforcement mechanism.

Again, we can't just trust the developer or the end user of the data center, especially a hyperscale data center.

We need to have supervision, true oversight, uh, and enforcement.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Before the next speaker, I just want to uh remind that if you are inside the council chambers and want to speak, please go ahead as you're able to stand in the line to wait.

Thank you.

That way we know how many speakers are coming.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Cliff Welch.

I reside at 4073 Ashley Drive, 35094.

Um, for two years, I previously resided at the apartment complex, Oxmore Complex across the street from the New Nebus site.

Um I know we're not going to talk about that today, but I am a business owner here in Birmingham.

I love the city, and I believe that we can do better than this.

Um, three of the main concerns talked about today, and that I want to talk about as well are power, water, and noise.

Uh, first I want to talk about power and water.

I don't think it's a shock at all to the council and everyone else here today to say that our people in this state have had enough concerns about corruption surrounding our power, namely Alabama power and with our Birmingham Waterworks.

The presence of data centers and the uncertainty around them is just begging for more trouble and more corruption.

I'm thankful for every regulation that is proposed, but I have to voice that it is not enough.

This community is overwhelmingly against data centers, period.

We do not want them.

And I'm so disappointed.

I'm so disappointed in the notion that our words are somehow too political, the uh as if that makes our thoughts, feelings, and concerns able to be dismissed or irrelevant.

Now, finally, I want to talk about the noise, but not the noise of the data center, because just like their constant hum, we will not stop.

Our sound cannot be mitigated, it cannot be muffled, and it cannot be suppressed.

You will keep hearing from us about this until it's no longer a problem for us.

To wrap this up, I appreciate the push-in requirement for transparency, but once again, I rebuke the idea of missing dismissing the public voice moving forward to put it into a metaphor, transparency is just a window.

And no matter how clean and clear you make it, we do not want to be standing on the outside with our eyes cupped with our hands cupped around our eyes peering in.

We want to be in the room.

And to be extremely clear, I do oppose all data centers, including Nebus.

We never needed them, and we never will.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, next speaker, please.

Please state your name, address, zip code.

Thank you.

Uh my name is Caroline Stewart.

I live at 4977 Meadowbrook Road, Birmingham, Alabama, 35242.

Um, I want to start by saying that I grew up here in Birmingham.

I was born and raised here, and I hope to live here for the rest of my life, raise a family here, and I'm also a public school teacher.

So because of those things, I hold great concern for the quality of life that future generations of Birmingham citizens will have in the Greater Birmingham area.

I believe that it's our responsibility to protect Birmingham for our children and future generations that cannot currently advocate for themselves and are depending on us and the decisions that we make to protect their home and their future.

It would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that the decisions we make today about data centers will affect future generations of Birmingham citizens.

Now I made this sign in concern about water and how data centers will affect water in Birmingham.

I don't want brown water.

The draft defines aggregate electrical demand to count total power, quote, regardless of phasing, ownership structure, or timing of construction.

That language is exactly right.

And it is the most important anti-gaming sentence in the whole ordinance.

Please make sure that it is referenced anywhere a megawatt threshold is used.

Here's why it matters.

Without it, a developer can split one giant facility into smaller phases or into separate legal entities on paper, so each piece stays under the threshold that triggers the strongest conditions, even though the real combined facility is enormous.

It is the difference between regulating one 300 megawatt campus and pretending it's three smaller projects that each escape the rules.

This is not hypothetical in Birmingham.

The Oxmore project was assembled across multiple parcels through affiliated entities, and residents have gone to court over how that structure was put together.

An ordinance that does not aggregate by total demand across phases and entities can be defeated by a clever org chart.

Tie the megawatt thresholds firmly to aggregate demand everywhere they appear.

Please do not leave that door open.

This question is for each of you counselors.

If this data center were proposed in your district or in your neighborhood with your family and your future kids, and the residents in your district strongly opposed it, would you still vote in favor of it?

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Stewart.

Next speaker, please.

And please state your name, address, zip code.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Laura Kramer.

I live in one Lake Heather Reserve, Birmingham, Alabama, 35242.

And I just want to say good afternoon to mayor, council, staff, everyone here.

Special shout out to media for shining that light so that dark uh democracy does not uh die in darkness.

Um I came here today not exactly planning on making remarks.

I mostly wanted to show support with my presence as other more well-suited people do the speaking.

But the issue of data centers in Birmingham and the surrounded communities, how they're regulated and how they are subject to oversight and compliance is too important for me to not also raise my voice.

So there's a been a lot of data presented, but there are still so many questions about data centers' impact on our environment, impact on humans, animals, and all life, their impact on our power grid and our power costs, their impact impact on the climate, our beautiful, beautiful area, uh, especially our neighborhoods, but also beyond us, and the impact on our health in ways we probably haven't even thought of yet.

I just want to ask you, our leaders, are you doing your very best for Birmingham?

Are you doing your very best for us?

Such impactful decisions can't be about keeping with trends or about financial opportunities, although those are important.

But I want to stay here.

I was born in Birmingham, I've worked in Birmingham and lived here in the area for most of my life, and I want to continue to stay here and be proud of where I'm from.

This matter needs an exceptional foundation for a safe, successful future for all of us.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Ms.

Cranan.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, good afternoon, Council.

My name is Callie.

And I feel like it's a clear resounding answer from our hundreds of community members that showed up today and waited hours in the heat to express their concern that we are strongly against the development of this data center.

I stand with my community today against the data center development.

But if we absolutely have to go forward with one, please consider an alternate approach.

In other countries like China, data centers are built out in the ocean, kind of like on a dock where they're lifted and they're naturally cooled by the winds, and the benefits of that approach include a significant reduction of fresh water and energy consumption.

There is always a less harmful way.

Did you know that?

I'm not even a professional environmentalist, and it took very minimal research for me to find a less harmful route myself.

You have the access to the tools to bring construction reform to Alabama.

Imagine the progressive routes that could manifest if more consideration, public participation, and community consent were considered in this decision.

Why are we in such a rush to develop this data center?

A paycheck, whatever amount of pay is being offered.

As a reminder, we're here to speak about the data uh ordinance as a whole to hear.

Of course.

Not the specific property.

I understand.

I guarantee that whatever amount of pay being offered, we will lose 10 times in that in irreparable environmental damages.

Alabama the Beautiful gained her nickname from our incredible environment, and it is worth protecting.

I would also like to emphasize the lack of AI laws and regulations and the dangers of moving forward without proper regulations.

Please hear our cries today and stop the development of this data center and use your pred your positions of power to do the right thing.

Please do the right thing and protect our home and protect our futures.

Thank you so much for hearing me today.

All right.

Next speaker, please.

And as a reminder, folks, we are here to talk about the data center ordinance that is before us, not a specific uh data center.

Next speaker, thank you.

Please state your name, address the zip code.

Hi, my hi.

My name is Hannah Guy Wadby, and I'm here as a citizen of Birmingham to public uh to ask you as publicly appointed city counselors to protect.

Excuse me, I'm a little nervous to be here right now, but I am here because it is so important.

Um that you listen to the concerns of your constituents.

If everything you've heard today is not enough to sway your minds, consider your own self-interest.

These data centers not only damage the quality of your children and your grandchildren's futures, but yours.

The clean air and water that you enjoy daily are already at risk because of global temperature rises.

Do not throw away our future for short-term profit and corporate greed.

The story being forced upon us that these data centers are inevitable is just that.

A well-funded story.

Nothing is set in stone yet.

Don't sell away our communities to the highest bidder.

The citizens of Birmingham aren't going to give up protecting our lands and communities.

I implore that as our leaders, you don't either.

No new data centers are necessary.

Thank you.

Before our next speaker, I just want to count.

Looks like we have one, two, three more speakers.

Uh, if you're not currently in line, or is that four?

Mr.

Richard.

Four.

Do I see a fifth?

Okay, we have five.

There we go.

Yes, ma'am, you can.

Um but uh I will say that will be our last speaker today.

Um, go ahead.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jake.

Um I live a few miles away from the uh development of this project.

And I just want to say how and again we're speaking uh today public hearing is about the data center ordinance as a whole, not an expensive.

Um I just have to say that this project um is basically such a perfect representation of how modern life is going right now beyond the excessive resource consumption, the horrific environmental impacts and the uh unprecedented economic stress on our people.

I feel like there lies a more existential issue that many people are not voicing about.

Think about how AI affects us psychologically to the point where we don't even want to think for ourselves.

There are many instances of people relying on it to generate ideas for them, create fake art, uh, solve their issues for them, uh, diminishing their practice in analytical reasoning.

When the populace becomes so desensitized to these practices, critical thinking goes out the window.

This level of usage will eventually encourage citizens to be consumed by an algorithm that repetitively influences itself, regurgitating the mundane for everyday life.

The impact of generative AI has gone so far as to completely compromise our younger generation way of learning that many students rely more on Chad GPT for answers to instead of thinking for themselves.

And I mean we're already like one of the lowest poorly educated states in our country.

And intuition and creativity and free thinking becomes lost at this point.

And this is what exactly what the higher-ups of our country want.

A populace who will not think for themselves, Mr.

Justin.

I appreciate your comments about AI in general.

Is there something specific to this ordinance you'd like to do?

I think everything that I'm stating kind of represents everything that's going on right now.

Is there something specific to the ordinance that you'd like to bring up?

Well, if you let me continue.

Um I believe that this the populace is accepting of what is promised as an inevitable change to how we live in places like what we are discussing right now are feeling that narrative.

And I implore all of you to act vigilant in rejecting these corporations, infesting our ways of life, to promote change by denouncing the encouragement of a bleak future that is fueled on false narratives, over surveillance, and indoctrination of our youth.

Teach them the ways of natural learning and depart from this reliance on AI that attempts to replicate what it means to be human.

Thank you, Jay.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Next speaker, please.

And for our last few speakers, just a reminder that uh comments are to be about this ordinance specifically.

Good afternoon.

My name is Faiza Mulani, and I live at 267 Kingston Circle, Birmingham 3521.

I am here to speak on behalf of myself and my parents, Asif and Naveen.

We live in our first house in the United States that took 23 years for my parents to save up and finally purchase.

This ordinance threatens their hard work.

We love Oxmore Valley, and it is our right by our Ismaili Jamakana, which is our place of worship.

And it is the people and surrounding beauty that is what attracted us to Oxmore Valley.

I understand the city attorneys and you all are doing your best to construct an ordinance that supports and protects us.

However, this is not enough.

We want what's right.

More importantly, we every single person you have heard from today and that is still sitting in the audience, knows that you can provide more data, actually listen and act upon our concerns, and truly make Birmingham better.

So this is what I'm here to ask you to do.

Do better.

Protect us, protect our water, our power, our property, because I know you all chose to be in this position for a reason.

And I hope this is not what you are protecting.

From my understanding, you all took an oath of office, sworn in as city council men and women.

This oath entails you to perform your duties to the best of your ability and knowledge.

If the research and data is unavailable about noise, water, power, common things that affect every single person in this room, then you are not abiding by your oath.

And that is something I would like to remind you of today.

I am primarily advocating for you all to expand this provision's 500 feet notification radius.

That is not enough.

Not even a thousand feet.

I know Mayor Woodfin brought it up this morning, but even a thousand is reckless.

To truly mitigate this provision, as you are supposedly intending, you must expand the 500 feet limit.

Additionally, permitting me to advocate today is something I will cherish, but this right must continue to be permitted.

It should not be revoked by this council.

Data centers are not rhetorical.

They deserve to be heard about.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Fizer.

Thank you.

Please state your name, address, zip code.

Lacey Danley, three 301 19th Street North, Birmingham 35203.

I know you guys are exhausted from hearing a lot of this.

Um I appreciate you.

A former judge and colleague of mine, she said about cases that every case deserves its own review and its individual attention, no matter how much time it takes, no matter how busy you are, no matter how tired I am, she'd say, no matter how tired I am, I'm gonna put that robe on and I'm gonna listen because it's the job and it's the right thing to do.

So thank you.

I have three concerns.

Um, the ordinance must keep a hearing process in place.

I know you guys have heard a lot about from the residents, but it's also important to listen to those that work in this city because they pay an occupational tax that contributes roughly what, 100 million dollars to the city's general fund.

So the ability for those people to determine how they how they feel about their money being spent matters, um, not just to those that pay property tax and live here.

Um it's important to keep the public's right to do process because without that we're basically no better than what's going on in the circus, that's Washington.

I'm concerned by something I heard from what I believe was the city attorney that any property currently in process is exempt under the ordinance, and under this ordinance, they would be allowed to expand beyond the current plan and still be exempt.

That ordinance cannot have it has to have some clear language that is directly in line with Alabama law that would state that an expansion on a non-conforming use requires a variance.

You shouldn't be able to just get a blank pass in perpetuity.

My third request is that we slow down.

Our previous speaker said that you guys are only three months into a moratorium.

Why are we in such a hurry?

Who is setting our time clock?

I think based on the lightning speed of AI world, it's clear, but I am begging you don't let them drive your clock.

And don't let them drive the city of Birmingham's clock.

You know, you the old saying goes, you can do something fast or you can do something right, but you can't have both.

I understand that we want to attract growth, but passing it as it exists leaves to deceptive loopholes that could hurt the Birmingham community, such as using the definition of special exception or appropriate noise parameters.

One of the previous speakers said that Birmingham has a lot to offer.

I know we want to attract growth.

Birmingham has a lot to offer, and we need to act like it.

That we don't have to take whatever anybody gives us.

We can set our own rules.

Thank you.

All right, our last two speakers.

Uh please say your name, address, zip code.

Hi there, my name is Joseph Wilson.

I live at 2657 Tally Avenue, Birmingham, Alabama, 3521.

Uh it's good to see y'all today, counselors and mayor.

Hey, wording.

All right, so I honestly think the ordinance as it is, is is just not ready for the to go.

Um, there's several things I see in it that you know shouldn't that need more clarification.

Um things that I would like to see is make sure the special exceptions in there.

We need to be able to talk.

It doesn't matter how big the you know data center is, the community should be able to talk.

Yeah, that's what that's what we vote for y'all for.

And this is our way of telling y'all that we want to talk.

There's been a lot of people here today.

I started outside on the sidewalk in the sun, then I went to the basement, then I went to another lobby, then I went to a hallway just to get here.

So I mean, it's been a it's been a little bit of a ride.

Other things that I think need to be taken to account is technology changes fast.

I'm a computer technician.

I've been messing with computers since the big old floppy disk.

It changes, and if we're gonna have lithium batteries and fuel cells, we need to make sure our fire departments are ready to handle this kind of stuff.

You know, we got firefighters that don't get all the equipment they need.

I remember when we were fighting to get them a mower when I was in the Oxmore neighborhood.

It's crazy.

Um we just need to listen, listen to the people that voted for you, because if not, you're not gonna be here much longer.

And make sure that we're protecting stuff.

Noise, water, that stuff all affects us.

That affects everybody.

So take it into account.

Take it as something that the people need you to hear.

I know in Oxmore myself, I worry about everything because every time they come and test the fire hydrant in front of my house, they tell me it should be marked red because this the pressure is not there, but it's marked green because nobody wants to touch it, nobody wants to deal with it.

My neighbor's house gets ruined from rain.

We can't get ditches done.

Y'all need to listen to us.

311, that's kind of a joke.

We put in tickets and nothing happens.

But we're here today to talk to y'all, and we need y'all to hear us.

Keep the special exception in there so that people can come and voice their opinions.

That's kind of what we're here for.

That's what y'all are here for.

You know, protect us.

Do what we need y'all to do.

Because, you know, at the end of the day, if you can't do what we want or what we need you to do, there's no need to hurry you to be there anymore.

Y'all have a great day.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Wilson.

All right, we have one last speaker today.

Please state your name, address, and zip code, and we have three minutes.

Thank you.

Madeline Green, Osmoor Neighborhood President.

I live in Oxmore.

Counselors and mirror, really.

I mean, really.

You learned when you were growing up right from wrong.

I hope.

You have heard people here, your citizens who have told you how they feel, they've given you uh stuff that they've read and everything and provided what you needed.

But y'all are smart.

You already know all that.

Whatever the male wants, he wants.

So, city counselors, y'all need to think for yourselves.

Put your heart in this.

This is nothing that that's funny, game.

I tore everything up that I had to say, because this is more important.

There is a God.

Whether people want to announce there's a God, there's a God, and He's over all of us, and I go with that God.

That's why I can forgive people when they do me wrong.

And I'm saying to you all, and I'm not here to preach Hannah Williams.

You're looking like you want me to get on down out of here.

But that's okay.

That's okay.

You all need to think with your hearts, they've told you you know already what should be in those ordinances.

You have not done all the work that you need to do, and you constantly saying, Oh, we got it from here.

Kim spell.

So when it comes to all that, listen to these people.

Listen to them.

If it was next to you all, you wouldn't be standing here.

I mean, you'll be standing right here.

If you were not up there, but since you're up there, you're gonna go alone.

Each one of y'all gonna go along with each other to get along.

So don't do that to us.

Don't do that to any people.

These ordinances need to this ordinance needs to be so tight that other cities will want to use what Birmingham has put out.

So that's why I'm talking.

I'm talking to you from the heart because I love everyone that God loves us all, even the ones that don't love themselves.

So all I'm asking is that for this ordinance, it is garbage right now for lack of better words.

You want to go back, revamping it just like the citizens said before.

Go ahead and take your time with this.

Y'all want to vote so fast so that you can this does wrong, folks.

I believe in God, we even have a counselor up here whose elderly parents live in Oxmoor.

About I live 1200 feet from the uh that data center.

Her parents lives about a good 2,000 feet.

That's close.

And they're old.

Thank you.

They're old.

So all I'm saying is, let me make the late statement.

All I'm saying is think with your heart, not with what people are getting you want you to do.

Thank you, Ms.

Green.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, friends, this uh this completes the public hearing component of uh this ordinance.

I'm gonna hand it back to Madam President.

Thank you, Mr.

Vasa.

Appreciate you um managing this public hearing.

I want to thank those residents, those citizens who participated in the public hearing today.

Also want to thank the uh mayor, the administrative team who presented us with the information and counselors uh for the questions that you have.

I'll ask one more time.

Are there any additional questions or statements you'd like to make?

Counselor Smith.

Um it was just a thought, honestly.

Um I know that they are zoned for certain areas right now, but have we looked into um I'm sorry, I literally just thought this question, like a complete ban of them.

Is that possible?

Is that legal?

Mayor Wood.

Yes, I'm gonna have um Madam President, if it's okay as it relates to um Councilor Smithman's question.

I'm gonna have the PEP team, sustainability team, and Julie Bernard and Attorney Julie Bernard come back in.

Um it should be in proximity to answer that question.

And while they're while they're coming in, I need to um approach the city attorney and answer a question right quick.

All right, thank you.

We'll wait for a minute for them staff to come in.

Uh thank you, Hunter Garrison.

I serve as the deputy director of the mayor's office of resilience and sustainability.

Uh Councilor Smithman, or there was the question if we could outright ban data centers.

Yes.

We cannot.

It is a in US like zoning law, there's been Supreme Court cases about it.

If it is a legal land use in the United States, we must allow it somewhere.

Two months ago in Michigan, a rural community attempted to outright ban communities.

They were sued by OpenAI, they've lost, and now that data center is going to be built.

All right, it was just the question.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor Whitman, did you have the comment?

Madam President and Council.

Um I think there is, I think there's ample concern and questions related to frustration from the community, by the way, as it relates to the um exceptions to the moratorium.

Um we have a an ordinance before us that you um you have options to exercise on, but we do, I think legal department or the city attorney's office needs to express to this council kind of what happens if the ordinance um does not move forward, but the moratorium still exists.

Um, what leeway does that give those who are under the exception?

All right, thank you, madam city attorney.

So there's two things.

So to clarify for the record, anything exempt from the moratorium can continue until this ordinance is passed.

However, after this passes, they will be required to comply with it for future expansions.

Thank you.

I believe we do have a question from Councillor Smith, and then I'll come to you, Councillor.

I just had a comment.

Um to our speakers since my parents were brought into this.

I just want to acknowledge that I just want my elderly parents who've been brought into this acknowledge that um they have said that they have no problems with data centers, and they live very close to the area.

So just wanted to make that statement.

Thank you.

Counselor Williams.

It's my understanding, so we fully understand the vote based on what the city attorney's office and the mayor have conveyed to us that if something does not pass today, that those projects that have been exempt to to date can expand without consent, without our permission.

They can change the scope of in which what they are building.

Um while we were talking about this ordinance, it was very clear that many folks were speaking to a specific project.

But it's my understanding, and I'm actually asking for clarification, really.

If we do not pass this today, will exempt projects that are currently underway be able to change their scope, expand or change the way in which they are configured.

Yes.

That is correct, but for further clarification that for existing data projects that involve an expansion or any other efforts will not be subject not only to what you just said, but to the conditions that were stated today and to zoning.

Okay.

So I just want to make that clear because everyone has had a really tough time understanding and in the amount of emails I've gotten about voting no on a specific project, even though this is about something that limits what that project could do.

I want to make sure that folks understand that should we choose to delay this vote today, then the project that everyone has managed to bring up, even though we're talking about a specific ordinance, will have free reign to do whatever they want without any environmental.

Yes.

Yes.

And so I just want to clarify that that is correct.

Council Williams has the floor.

If you all would please and so is that correct, madam attorney?

Yes, that is correct, considering permitting and regulations.

That is correct.

Thank you.

Any if anyone else has another outburst, I will ask the officer to please allow you to exit so that we can continue with the conduct of the of the meeting.

At this time, counselors, do we have any other comments?

Council O'Quinn.

Yeah, in regard to the last issue, um I would like to have all the records of litigation uh case law that establishes what you're telling us.

Um because you know, I'm just not gonna take somebody's word for it.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Counselor Smith.

I guess adding to what counselor um Williams had to say.

Um passing this ordinance today also is not written in stone, correct?

We can revise it as needed, correct?

That is correct.

Okay, thank you.

All right, any other questions?

Comments?

Counselor Woods and Counselor Gone, and then we'll thank you, Madam President.

Uh, one want to commend everybody who came out today to speak.

I know it's been a long day, and uh it sounds like y'all started outside and work your way all the way in.

Uh, do want to say, like I said, there's been a long road of really gaining knowledge associated with data centers.

I think what we have done is look at uh worst-case scenarios around the country, kind of what the horror stories are and ensure that our ordinance uh mitigated.

Uh some of the worst case scenarios that we've heard from you know drastic drain on water resources, and so I think that's where you see uh things like closed loop systems to ensure that we mitigate uh that concern.

You know, we work to mitigate noise concerns, we work to uh mitigate how chemicals are uh removed from the site, you know, light pollution, and so I think um you know we we've had a lot of conversation.

I've spoken to everyone that has reached out to me.

Um so I I think we've heard a lot of things today.

I think there are some uh things that that we can actually take away uh from this.

I think that you know, internally we should look at uh a process for baseline metrics.

I think that we can do that uh internally to whether we work with a third party or or not, I think we can do uh some work just to get an understanding of where things stand on the front end, but you know, looking around and researching what's going on around the country, you know, we do have one of the the stronger proposals uh in front of us, and you know, is with anything else, I think we continue to adapt um if things change.

And so I think we you know there is a need to get to the ordinance on the books.

Um, you know, that's what we've been working towards uh pretty much this entire year, and and doing that work, and so you know, one, like I said, definitely I'm really grateful for just the amount of participation and people uh engaging and sharing information, like I said, we we've heard some uh you know good things.

I think there is definitely some confusion around what action we're taking versus uh you know, so there is some confusion there, but I definitely think that there needs to be as much engagement as possible.

And you know, but I think you know we've done a lot of work just to be aware and and knowledgeable about what the downsides are.

And so we everything that we put in here works to mitigate that, you know.

And I think as we see additional things, but possibly in the future, we can continue to work on that.

But you know, I think we need to have an ordinance in place, and um, you know, but that's that's what we do.

We're always looking for things we can do here in the city to improve and increase protections, and this is no different.

And so we are just want to reiterate, like I said, this is not a not a vote on a certain project.

We are voting on you know, a ordinance that sets ground rules for how we engage with data centers here in Birmingham uh going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Gunn.

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you to everyone that showed up today to provide uh input in regards to the ordinance.

I have a quick question, uh, and this may be for our staff.

Uh, given the 20 protections that we have in this ordinance for our hyperscale uh data centers, um, let's just say hypothetically that a data center approached us in a few years or whatever, um, and they wanted to, and they passed all the 20 uh protections.

What does public input look like?

Is there any opportunities for public input uh given uh this process?

Yes, sir.

Um it's twofold one, it's um automatic notice via certified mail, so communicating.

So they could email you.

Uh Albert, I I think that's the same audience member.

So yes, it is.

And I would like to ask you, show the same respect that we've shown you all.

We've listened to you, we've listened to you intently, and so allow us to conduct the rest of the business, please.

Mayor Whitman.

Yes, ma'am.

I think one again the automatic trigger.

There's an automatic trigger that says even before a permit is given, that notice has to be given to residents within that area.

I think too, for us from a policy standpoint, we're very clear on making sure that there's um a public engagement process by way of that organization, whoever they are, has to engage those community members prior to being able to move forward, um, whether it's um whether it's incentives or anything else of that nature, they have to engage the public going forward, and we'll make sure we put that in policy, uh, particularly as it relates to the economic development team, as well as external partners who they all will go to an actual tax abatements.

And so we are not willing to engage and or give without that public engagement.

Okay.

So I I guess my question was more so along.

So let's say uh they meet all the zoning requirements and then they have uh met the 20 protections in place.

Is there anything I guess when they come before planning commission or they come before ZBA, would they have would there be a public input process or involvement process for something that had to come before planning commission or ZBA?

I think you mentioned those exceptions, sheet three, I believe, and anything else you want to speak to?

Um once again, my name is Kim Sperl, I service the zoning administrator in the Department of Planning Engineering and Permits.

And Councillor Good to answer your question, um, if there is a lot consolidation, if the property has to be resurveyed, or if there's a vacation of right of way or a dedication of new right of way, that would trigger our regulatory process through the subdivision committee, which does include a public hearing for that process.

In addition, any properties located in an I3 zone district, that would also trigger a public hearing through the city's uh zoning advisory committee.

And then, as we mentioned earlier, any deviation from those 20 conditions that could an applicant could apply for a variant would also trigger a meeting through the city zoning board of adjustment, which would also provide a public hearing.

And Lakeshore quarter, could you share with the council what is that zone for?

Yes, sir.

So the Oxmore area, as most of you guys know, is zoned MXD, which is our planned mixed use, and any property that has had a conceptual plan and a use group assigned by this council would have to go through a public process with the Oxmore Steering Committee.

They not only have to meet the guidelines identified in the zoning ordinance, they would also have to meet those guidelines in the Oxmore Steering Committee, and it would also trigger review by the Oxmore Steering Committee.

And as on a note, Council Gunn, because I know you're still going, but it just made me realize and listen to Ms.

World, Madam President, to Dr.

O'Quinn's um I guess concern around seeing case law conferred upon legal and PEP, sir, there is no case law.

What there is is existing land use and our existing ordinance, which are the only two standards people have to comply by unless there's an actual ordinance um if and when it's passed that point with this council deem.

And so anything prior to that, then they can move forward under existing our existing ordinance and other under our existing land use.

And because they were not a part of the moratorium, then no, we could not say no.

Permitting could not say no to um hypothetically if somebody wanted to expand or deviate or increase megawatts, etc.

Change to scope all of the things you said earlier.

So I'm going to answer that.

There is no case law, sir.

It's just our existing land use and our existing ordinance.

That's the only two things that uh they have to comply by.

All right.

Hold on one second.

I think Councillor Smith, did you have something else you wanted to say?

Are you a good okay, Councillor Williams?

Is there currently a plan to expand an existing exempt from what we what we've been presented?

Can we do we know that?

Um I think there may have been questions from existing organizations to professional staff about what that process looks like.

Okay.

Also, um, and I have another correction, Madam President, to Dr.

O'Quinn's question.

There's case law around vested rights.

So there was a reason why certain organizations were excluded because they had vested rights because of the process they started before a moratorium.

And so when you add the combination of vested rights, existing land use, as well as um our existing ordinance, but for changing the ordinance, passing the ordinance, anything new in the ordinance, you don't have to comply with you don't have to comply with anything that does not exist.

And you only have to comply with what exists, which is our existing ordinance.

Thank you.

All right, at this time we're ready for the vote.

Did you have a comment?

Did you hear that answers to your question?

Okay.

Madam President, all right, yes, just one last comment, and you know, uh, I think we're all you know, thinking about this and the information that was presented today.

I want to thank those who came to to speak um and and just know your voices, you know, were heard.

Um I'm thinking about the 20-step permit application process.

Um and understandably so and some of those personal conversations that I've had have been with people who have vetted this twenty-step permit application to people in other states.

And um and I've heard I've heard good things about that.

That's just me sharing that in a spirit of honesty.

Um I do know that there is some teeth in this ordinance uh as it is currently written written.

Um what concerns me most is we've spent a lot of time today talking about if this passes today, then what and I want us to also consider if we don't pass this today, then what happens.

And what I have heard legal department, city staff, mayor, uh on record say that if there's a entity that is currently permitted that they could apply for an expansion of their existing permit.

That the moratorium does not apply to it.

You all hear that like I did?

So the concern there is that if we do not act today that there is room for growth from those that are currently permitted.

So uh I just wanted to state that concern out loud.

It is a it is a legitimate one.

It is hard for me to see beyond that.

So again, um I just wanted to offer offer those thoughts that you know again, we have thought a lot about what happens if we if we uh if we don't pass uh if we do pass this today, but I think we also need to think about what happens if we don't.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, we're ready for the vote.

So we're being held positive by the warm again today.

Show him out, please.

We're ready for the vote.

The vote has started talking and then you don't listen at all.

Oh the vote has started.

Council President.

Yes, my iPad isn't registered and I vote no.

Okay, that vote should be.

All right, item number one passes.

Thank you very much.

At this time we'll continue with the rest of our agenda.

We do have uh one community voices.

I think that you're you know what?

Let's do we have one more.

Do we have anyone for community voices if you call that name?

Mayor, we have we do have this one.

His name is Courtney Beaman.

Okay, and I believe the gentleman is gone.

Counselors, does anyone have any updates to take a motion to adjourn?

All those in favor, please say aye.

Thank you, meeting adjourned.

Thank you all very much.