We're gonna go ahead and get going.

First up, we have Chris and team to present to city council.

So about 60 days ago, it was a request from uh council member button and the rest of the council to look at what other communities are doing in terms of data center.

Um we asked for 90 days.

Uh Chris and team was able to get that completed 30 days ahead of schedule.

So they've been hard at work getting all of that information together, and Chris is here to present.

Thank you.

Um Mayor and Council, so happy to report back to you within 60 days from the data adoption of resolution on our data center research.

Uh myself and the planning team comprised of Moisis Monroy, Nahaji Kebe, and also a summer intern, um, Atticus Walker, all contributed the research, and essentially what we did is we looked at all of the communities in Iowa and Nebraska who have data centers and adopted ordinances, and then we looked at uh some of the other communities throughout the nation that have a high concentration data centers, which would be like Loudoun County, uh Fairfax, Virginia, which is almost known as the nation's capital for data centers.

And so in the resolution that was passed by council, there's several things that you asked for us to look at.

One being what is the definition of a data center, um, the approval process for a data center, are these uses allowed by right?

Are they require any special board or council approvals?

Uh, are there any specific zoning designations or overlays required for data centers?

Um, are there setback regulations, separation distances from churches, school, playgrounds, residential uses, um, and then are there any sort of special studies required for noise, environmental impacts, water usage, sanitary sewer, or others.

Uh, and then also part of it was a request from mayor to make sure that we looked into a decommissioning plan, as uh that seems becoming fairly common uh with data centers and communities.

And so I'll get you started here first, just kind of give you an overview of how the city currently regulates data centers, and then I'm gonna turn it over to Moises and let him kind of walk through the research, and then I'll take it back and go with the recommendations.

So, right now, the way your zoning ordinance is set up, is it defines a data center as a facility or facilities that house digital electronic equipment for internet hosting, electronic data storage and transfer, credit card financial transaction processing, telecommunications, and other activities that support electronic information based economy.

So that's a fairly broad definition that we have in our ordinance as it pertains to data centers today.

Uh and then as far as where they're allowed in our community, right now we allow them in the I2 district, uh which is your general industrial district, and in the PI, which is your planned industrial district, and that is subject to the underlying zoning requirements of each one of those specific districts.

So the PI being a planned industrial that allows for uses to go at a specific location with the adoption of a development plan.

And that development plan would cover uh civil stormwater, utility installation, grading, building architecture, landscaping, heights.

It really is a very kind of broad base approach looking at a particular use and allows for the city and a developer to kind of negotiate a master plan for how that site gets laid out and developed.

And that's only allowed right now in the PI district for data centers.

And then for the I2 district, we allow them uh with a conditional use permit from the zoning board of adjustment.

So it's not a use that's just allowed there by right.

You'd have to get a conditional use permit uh from the zoning board of adjustment.

And so um with that being said, there would be a conditional use permit required for the I2 district.

So I'm gonna turn over to Moises, let him kind of walk through the different communities that we looked at, and then I'll take it back over.

Um talk about maybe some proposed recommendations uh if council wants to move forward with the zoning text amendment.

So thank you.

Uh yeah, for those who don't know me, I'm Moisas Monroy.

I'm a planner with the community development department, and I'll provide a summary of of the research that we conducted.

So just to start off with, we looked at just provide some um background on the methodology methodology that we use.

So typically we when we conduct uh research on um in regards to zoning uh uh in other communities, we look typically we look at other major cities in Iowa, and we also look at uh kind of the metro area, so Omaha, Papale and Bellevue, and those other communities in that area.

But uh kind of this table uh summarizes uh many of those communities that are in a similar position, ask Council Bluffs in which they don't have um they haven't adopted any specific regulations in regards to data centers just like council bluffs.

So we as Chris alluded to, we looked at other communities in which uh data centers are prominent.

So again, those three uh Virginia communities, as well as some uh communities uh here in Iowa.

We looked at Link County, which is where uh Cedar Rapids is located, the county where Cedar Rapids is located, uh Payload, which is a city that's uh nearby Cedar Rapids, uh Alamacie County is a county that's all the way on the northeast of the state, and then Clinton County, which is uh nearby Davenport.

So we looked at these different communities because they have been able to, they have adopted uh uh again regulations that are specific to data centers, and that's kind of what the summary of these research is.

So we started looking at the definition, and uh the definition kind of varies slightly throughout communities, but but in uh in general, it's uh it refers to a facility that you that's used for the storage uh management, processing, and transmission of digital data.

So it's a pretty standard uh uh summarizes well what a data center is.

Uh but what we found, what we found uh more uh particularly interesting is that some of these communities uh also have distinctions on data centers based on the scale of the facility of the facility itself.

Um in Des Moines uh that distinction is based on the uh on the size, the actual size of the facilities based on the floor area.

And Lynn County and in Alamaki County, that extension is based on um power capacity.

So uh the scale of the data center does have implications on in regards to the regulatory processes that it has to go through, which zoning districts allow it, as well as separation distances that apply to those data centers.

So uh there is a actual real life implication on having that distinction.

Uh in regards to zoning approval processes, for the most part, data centers are allowed or limited to industrial zoning districts.

Uh some communities may allow it in commercial areas, but there is under certain special circumstances.

So it is primarily limited to industrial.

In other uh major Iowa cities, they're primarily allowed by right.

Uh in other communities, they may require the issuance of a conditional use permit or some type of special use permit.

Uh three other communities, which would be Paylo, uh, Lane County, and then Indianapolis, Indiana, uh, those uh communities have created uh brand new zoning districts that are dedicated exclusively to data centers.

And then one community, which would be Prince William County has implemented uh something slightly different, would which would be an overlay district uh that is again intended uh to address data centers.

So there's different approaches, and there is not a one-way uh that we found uh through our research.

Uh for setback and separation distance requirements.

Uh, what we found is that the most common uh minimum setback requirement for data centers is 200 feet, and that's measured from the building up to the property.

Then so uh again, your standard building setbacks, usually for data centers, we found that it was common to have a 200-foot setback.

Uh, and then in regards to separation requirements, uh, some communities implemented uh uh a certain distance that's required that a debtor center data center has to meet from a what we would call a sensitive area, and that includes residential properties, public parks, uh houses of worship, uh schools, um, historic uh historian landmarks.

So we found that again, these communities implemented those separation requirements, but it kind of ranged, there was there was a wide range of of uh separation requirements throughout community, kind of going from all from down from 500 feet all the way to half a mile.

So there was again implemented some separation requirements, but it varied by community.