Good afternoon.

Today is Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026, 3 PM.

We are here for a workshop with uh regard to data centers.

And sitting in front of us, we have uh members of our planning and zoning commission, at least three of them here.

Um are we going to read

or

just roll right into it?

I'll commission council members are present.

Okay, okay.

We will uh my intention here is we have roughly about two hours to go through everything.

If we could maybe keep it to 90 minutes in all the discussion and get through it as quickly as possible, we'll go through each key point, and then my goal is to leave the last 30 minutes for any public input.

So if you have any questions, please write them down.

Also, uh, if I could ask everybody to mute their cell phones, um, we have a little issue with disturbances of cell phones being on speaker, and it interferes with us being able to hear properly up here.

So appreciate that.

And Johnny, you want to go ahead and start with our account uh applicability, excuse me.

Yes, madam mayor.

So Madam Mayor, council members.

So what we did is we took the zoning ordinance for Mesa, Arizona, which I think was one of the most comprehensive ordinances that we found in Arizona for data centers.

So use that as a base, and then we looked at probably a dozen or more other cities throughout the state, throughout the entire country, to see what other jurisdictions are doing to address all the issues that we're aware of with with sound and water and lighting and all these other things that people are concerned with.

So if we start with that very first section, applicability.

Not leasing space to any other businesses, serving only that owner, it's not considered it's it doesn't fall under the the code requirements as uh an actual large data center would.

So that's number one.

Number two there, principal use, which I think is what what we're really concerned with, is defining a data center and then uh defining which zoning districts it can actually be built in.

So most cities have you know, commercial or industrial zones.

I think we are defining it as only being allowed within or C3, M1, M2, if it were allowed.

So the C3 is commercial, minor, industrial, M1 is industrial general limited, M2 is industrial heavy.

I think a common requirement is that they only be allowed within planned developments.

So many of these cities don't allow them within just any zoning district by right, they're only allowed as part of a large planned area development where it's identified up front as part of this large development that there is a data center being proposed.

Notes I made there in the different colors, color coded yellow is always bullhead, and then the other colors correspond to different cities.

So that's the actual industrial zones without a PAD.

That's one of the questions we had.

And then uh you'll see their city of Chandler allows them only within the PAD overlay districts.

City of Phoenix, allowed in commercial and industrial districts, but only with the special use permit that is considered by the planning and zoning commission first for a recommendation, and then decided on by city council, and then this new Bromfels in Texas uh requires a special use permit that is approved by the city council.

Okay.

Uh that being said, uh, first I'm going to turn to our city manager for a little bit of input.

My apologies, Mr.

Crowder, I didn't uh go to you first.

No, no problem.

I uh know you had a couple things you wanted to say before we really got started.

Well, sure.

I I think the purpose of today's meeting is to talk about the data center ordinance.

Uh many cities across the United States are dealing with this issue, not just for big buildings but for small buildings, and um, you know, we've looked at many, many dozens of ordinances, and many cities don't have ordinances, and so by right, certain things can happen in buildings when you don't have ordinances, and we do have concerns, and so we I think in front of you have uh proposed what might be the most restrictive data center ordinance in the United States of America.

We're not perfect in this instruction, and so what we wanted to do today was to take the input of council and also the planning and zoning commission, um, and work through this, it would have to go back to P and Z and City Council.

So today is in fact just a workshop.

I also wanted to note that in addition to the planning commission and zoning members that are here, council member elect Miller is here, she would be voting on this.

Council uh mayor elect head is here, he would be voting on this.

So it's a team effort, it's um a project that we could just ignore and put our heads in the sand, and we could have a data center in the new building that's on Lawful Ranch Boulevard right across from the airport.

Um we know of at least a proposal, a thought off of Silver Creek Road, and so we know that to be true.

So, with that being true, we should be working on this.

And I appreciate council coming here at three and spending a couple hours on this, and clearly we want public input, not just today, but at PNZ and the city council.

So, as we work through this, we're happy to answer any questions.

But the idea here was to take other cities' ordinances, put them into mesas and talk about it.

So I think the mayor is going to guide us through that process, and so if something that the P and Z Commission feels strong about, whether that's with electricity or water and those other important issues, that's why we're here.

Bring it up, tell the council what your thoughts are, and uh the council will tell us what their thoughts are, and so we'll work through that together over the next two hours.

So thank you, Mayor, for that.

And I think the first issue uh, you know, to hear about from the council is you know how to do these things, right?

The regular regulatory environment that's in the applicability code, which is number one of this ordinance.

Agreed.

Um, that being said, uh, I did want to make a comment with regard to that.

Um, you know, the importance of having planning and zoning and council working together to put together an ordinance that gives us the opportunity to control the narrative of what's gonna happen in the future.