Call to order the government operations committee meeting for November sixth, two thousand twenty-five.

Let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Potential tax and revenue opportunities from data centers and critical and digital infrastructure.

That initial conversation focused on the tax amendment process, land use zoning.

So in the most unbiased way that I can, we have to have a conversation about the benefits and the trade-offs and the negatives with respect to critical infrastructure or data centers.

Community benefits of data centers can include local economy tax revenues and job creation, especially through the trades, fostering technological development, and enhancing digital infrastructure.

They can also include education research opportunities that contribute to community projects.

However, we've heard, and there's no dispute that there are concerns related to increased energy consumption, environmental impact, noise pollution, the physical the physical footprint, water usage, and the potential strain on existing infrastructure.

So those are all of the things that we should be considering, and this is our way of opening up that dialogue in a proactive way.

So in front of you today, as backup.

We have a summary of what Frederick County has done thus far that was compiled by our own city staff.

It's a long summary, it's about 25 pages.

And it includes as as best as we can a total that has links, it has the meeting minutes, it has everything that we have, everything that we have we've compiled for what the county has done thus far.

You also have in your backup.

Sorry, too many things open here.

We also have the data center final work group report for easy reference.

We have a determination letter regarding Highland Street.

So the reason we included this is we have currently, and I'm gonna read from this because I think this is really important because there's been a lot of talk about data centers and there's been a lot of discussion, but the current letter is from March 22nd.

So it's on the record, so everybody can see this is a zoning determination letter that the city issued.

Okay.

And then we also have finally some early analysis from uh budget director Katie Barkdal to weigh in on uh tax implications related to data centers.

The purpose of this meeting really is to let the world know that we are trying to collect information and put it in one central repository to get ready for the next council and make sure that they have the information that they need.

It's an opportunity to again have public comment, have public dialogue, and to let everybody know that if they would like to participate, if they would like to add additional information, this is the place to do it.

That really is the context of today's meeting.

That really is the purpose of having us all come together, open to questions, but it's also an opportunity for the council to provide feedback about specific things that you think we should be researching or adding to the discussion as we move forward.

That's really it.

Thank you.

Questions for council president.

I guess the what I'm wondering is we're we're we're we're giving off a vibe basically that we're interested in a text amendment to create opportunities for data centers in some sort of limited way.

Um I haven't been engaged in that decision-making process, so I don't know where that position has come from.

I think it would be valuable before we start moving in that direction to understand basically sort of a cost-benefit analysis and an environmental analysis of impacts before we even consider having these kinds of um development in our in the city.

So I'm I'm feeling like there's a lot of data that we don't have.

And there's been a presumption made that there will be data centers in some sort of limited way.

So that sort of policy question I'd like to have that discussion on.

And I appreciate that feedback.

I do have the notes from last our last meeting, the land use committee meeting, of course, which you chair.

I do have those notes, so those are not lost points about looking for a comprehensive economic study of economic costs and benefits.

That's from Mobilize Frederick specifically, and we are looking to make way for a presentation for them specific to the data center conversation regarding the origin of the text amendment.

Uh, very clearly, I am the origin of that text amendment.

I want to be very clear about that.

I would like to pursue heavy regulation and limitations with respect to where these things can go in the future.

I'm not interested in an all-out ban, but we're gonna have a lot of conversation about that.

That's this is like the beginning of the beginning of the beginning of the conversation.

I don't think this will even come before the next council for months from now because it has to make its way through the planning commission, and we haven't even submitted the application for the text amendment to the planning commission.

So we're we're we're very preliminary.

The alternative, of course, is because of our our process.

We don't have an inherent process where when we're going to do a text amendment submission, we have a public meeting ahead of time.

So that's what these meetings are, is to let to let the public know that that is moving forward, that the conversation has started, and any feedback should be coming in as much as it can be now before that text amendment is submitted.

I appreciate all of that.

I just I guess I would I would prefer then when we talk about it, because you say our and we, which to me implies that there have been discussions with people about this threshold question.

And if there have been, I'd be interested in you know with whom we've had those discussions and what those positions are.

So no, there have not been.

I think to the extent that we have asked staff to present information, the information that is in front of you is presented as backup to these meetings, if that makes sense.

So that's kind of the purpose of having the meetings.

We didn't want the public to not know that we were asking for this information to be gathered and not be transparent that we were asking for the information to be gathered.

And so that's why we wanted to have a public meeting and disclose all of the information that we've asked so far as terms of research.

It's it's a cart before the horse situation, like either either we move forward with the text amendment and we don't provide the research that we're doing in a public manner.

There's no real mechanism to do that unless maybe we create a website that says this is the information that we're gathering, but then we wouldn't afford the opportunity for groups to come in and the public to come in and tell us ahead of time what they think.

No, and I I get that, and I appreciate that.

I I'm all about transparency and having people understand what we're doing.