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.

I guess my my question is if there's if there's going to be an application for a text amendment, is that just you applying for it or are other of my colleagues on board with it or uh are just trying to do that.

We haven't even yes, so we haven't even gotten to that point yet where I've asked for anybody to support it.

We are we are still in the drafting phase, which is why we wanted to come to the public as soon as possible any other questions for council president just on we offer the opportunity for public comment.

Is there a public comment on this item?

Can you please take your name and general address for the record and our public comment time will be three minutes?

Thank you.

Okay, my name is Ms.

Betty, can you turn the uh mic microphone on?

Thank you.

Can you hear me now?

Thank you.

Uh Betty Law, 1748, Wayfield Drive, Frederick City, Maryland.

Thank you for this opportunity.

You're already aware of my credentials as an electric power engineer.

My experience includes transmission planning at Con Edison of New York and overseeing the U.S.

Electric Grid while at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of Electric Reliability.

PJM, our regional grid operator, is proposing BYOG.

Bring your own generation for data centers.

And data centers are currently chasing power in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

These are facts.

And for Maryland, data centers mean transmission lines.

That's a fact.

And we all know about the MPRP.

But even so, the industry has moved on to generation-rich states.

The enormous power, water and safety demands of data centers cannot be met by this city.

Each Rowan building will have 20,000 gallon tank of diesel fuel and 100 diesel generators, each carrying 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

Could the fire department handle that catastrophe?

The county has unanswered questions of how to deal with such an explosion.

And the city probably does as well.

Rather than pushing this text amendment now, why not wait until the new administration begins in early December and let them work this out to communicate with the public?

Why not have town hall meetings in each district?

Look at the size of this crowd.

This is not getting the message out that there are people on the new council who want to explore data centers for the city.

And it's only fair given the enormous, the enormous changes a data center will make, even a small one, to this to any part of the city.

It's only fair to have a town hall meeting in every district that the paper cover it, that people can come and ask a QA, just like the county just did recently with Adams Town.

I'm diverging from this because I feel very strongly about this town hall business.

It took four years to get the county council to have a real town hall meeting, not just we do our three minutes and then we go.

And we don't get oh, sorry.

I'm still here.

They and we don't get a response.

But the town hall meeting, there's a give and take.

It's done politely, and I see only have 23 minutes left.

And let me leave you with the people in Adamstown are going through tremendous tragedy.

We don't need to bring that tragedy to Frederick.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Steve, can you press the button, please?

The red button.

Thank you.

Nothing blew up.

Nothing.

Uh Steve, you could work to uh North Market Street.

Steve, do me a phone favorite, just back the microphone up a little bit.

Just a little bit.

There you go.

Thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

I got one general comment following the opening comment by um Councilmember Nash.

And I reserve future comments for after after Richard gives his his his part.

But the one comment I got, if you want to spur conversation and have the deep dive and collect information from different people as to the pluses and the numerous minuses of a data center in the city.

Why do you need a text amendment to initiate that process?

And also, why do you need a text amendment that says how can we allow data centers in the city?

If you tell me that the process, which we're all big on, um, especially when it works for us, is you need a text amendment to initiate that, then let's then I'm all in on that.

Let's make the text amendment a moratorium on data centers.

If it's only purpose that it's serving is to kick, you know, is they get the process started.

I think you'll get a lot less pushback and a lot more cooperation if you take it from that point of view rather than we're trying to find a way to get data centers into the city.

Okay.

That that's and I agree with everything that that uh almost at all the men, other person, other women on the council member uh Russell said that that the implications, the negativity, though the the appearance of lack of transparency, and frankly, you know, the concerns that several members in the community have expressed to me, you know, you know, an appearance of of impropriety is not something that you want to start this process off with.

Um people are questioning left and right.

Why are we talking about this now?

Um, you know, I mentioned this at the last time that that we spoke, it never came up during the campaign.

And if it did, it probably may have changed an election or two.

Okay, for people who were on the you know, you know, pro or con side of this.

Personally, I think residents will vote it down very, very strongly if it ever came to that.

So there's so many so people are asking the wrong questions because the text amendment to promote data centers is the starting point.

So I think as we go forward, maybe we can relook at that, remove that that from the process, and just say we're gonna talk about this for for for you know, you know, for a while, just so when we eventually get to a point that we actually gonna consider it that that we have some some some dialogue and some information, and not and not from the starting point that we are right now.

Thank you.

Any uh other public comment, please.

Name and general address for the record, please.

Afternoon, everyone.

My name is Rob Thompson.

I live at 806 Bond Street, and I'm a member of the Ren Quarter community.

Um thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

I did just find out this information about the the conversation today just a couple of days ago, so I'm still trying to get wrap my head around all of the detail.

Um but I I represent myself and other residents that directly will be affected by any proposed data center at Highland Street.

It's just steps away, literally steps less than a half a mile away from the Ren Quarter neighborhood.

There really is one small stand of trees that don't have any branches at the level of eyesight between that where that will be and where Ren Quarter is.

I just need to be clear to you the the risks of placing a data center here for myself and my community far outweigh any potential benefits that the city could get.

Would be severe.

Data centers, of course, um have very intensive use of water and electricity, and this proposed facility would draw vast quantities, uh, likely from Carroll Creek.

Maybe it would have to be some other method for the water to come, but if it does come from Carroll Creek, that would be really frightening.

Um it's a very fragile corridor that's really vital to tourism for the city, very vital for recreation and the local ecosystem as well.

Um industrial scale consumption of water, if that were to take place and be using water from Carroll Creek, it would um really cause significant impact, especially in contitions of drought.

When there's a drought, there's no water that's really flowing.

If you've been to Carroll Creek and onto the east side of Carroll Creek, you know that the water flow is really slow in the summertime.

Algae blooms take place, and uh the smell isn't really necessarily the greatest.

So if you're removing water from that side and causing an even lower creek bed, and the creek maybe even drying up at that end of um it would certainly affect tourism as well.

Um the creek flows into a floodplain, um, which empties into the Minocasi River.

That site has been carefully studied for the last 10 years, preparing for a remediation so that that floodplain will drain drain properly into the Minocasi River.

They've studied the fish.

They've studied all of the organisms that live in this floodplain for the last 10 years, and now we've got the funding, everything is set up, we're ready for the plan to be um put into place, and now you're going to drain water, you're going to change the entire area with um heat, with smoke, with generators, with it's uh I think we we get the the point.

Noise pollution, air pollution.

Um the rain quarter community is filled with families, young families that you all have have asked to come.

And I think it would be a real shame to expose families to the extra environmental impact.

Um I'll leave it there, but there are many other concerns that I I have, and as my neighbors become more aware, I think they'll share those concerns.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Are there any other public comments at this time?

Well, Kevin, do me a favor, Kevin.

Um, Gavin.

It's not about you.

It's not about you.

Yes.

Just for say just for safety measures, Kevin.

We thank you.

Okay, I'm Kevin Sellner.

Uh so far still standing before the shocking comes uh anyway.

Uh I live on East uh Fifth Street.

Uh what I've done is uh I've presented a couple slides to you.

Uh what we did, what I did was, and I'd like you to ask Katie Nash, she kept saying we, even after you asked her who we is.

I'd like to have that answer.

Um these three slides just take hypothetical uh places, Highland Street and 600 Minoxie Boulevard as potential data center sites.

You will see in both of those slides, there's a radius uh of one mile.

AI has said in its uh wisdom that in fact noise contamination, hazards that Benny Law spoke about, et cetera, are easily impacting uh communities, businesses, residences within one mile.

So this shows you if you look carefully at the first one on Highland Street, it impacts, as the last gentleman said, Ren Quarter.

We might as well just build Ren Quarter next to the uh data center, if it was to occur there.

It also covers a large portion of the historic district.

So if you total up the total value of those homes in those two areas, you're probably well over 30 million, 40 million dollars of uh value.

So you're gonna jeopardize not only the values of those homes, because all residents, residents, developments near data centers have their properties values go down.

So you're gonna jeopardize not only the values of those homes, because all residents, residents, developments near data centers have their properties values go down, and that's documented everywhere that they've gone in, Loudoun County particularly.

So if you flip to the next page, what we've done is now we went to 600 Minoxie Boulevard.

That's the one that had got the press uh coverage for 4.3 million sale, and then it was purchased for 19.1.

Notice that in fact you still are within the that one mile radius, poor Ren quarter is still there.

East Church is still there.

Those developments are some of the most highly valued and cost uh leave properties in the city.

Well why would we jeopardize those?

Now use your minds and put it anywhere in the city.

It's gonna impact the residential communities all in the same way.

So noise, uh emissions, uh particulate matter, um hazards that Betty Law talked about.

All of those things are gonna come into play.

Where do you put them?

The final one is from today's presentation by Jen Millieby.

Look at the upper part of this slide.

That black line, the only one where emissions are going up is from data centers.

So we have a commitment in the city and the county, but a city to reduce our emissions, and yet we're gonna allow data centers to come into the city.

So please be very, very careful what we move forward.

A moratorium for cost benefit analysis would be a better answer than we're moving an amendment forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kevin.

Are there any other public comments on this item?

Council President, you want to have any closing remarks?

Um questions, comments from our colleagues.

Councilmember.

So I have a question of legal staff.

Um, first of all, I I I don't think I saw this as many people saw this.

Um I certainly didn't expect this group is not going to be voting on on this.

This is just information coming forward again, the earlier the better, as everybody knows, the earlier you get information, the better you can write something.

Is um is there a requirement planning wise to permit uh data center or any any other type of development in the city?

Can something like this be banned?

Legally speaking.

Can you repeat the question here?

Repeat the last.

Legally speaking, I just want to know that you know, should uh should an elected group get together.

I I came into office when um Sheets was built on Rosemont Boulevard, and um the fact is the planning commission denied it.

The it ended up in court, it ended up being built because they did something they couldn't do.

I just want to know the legalities.

That's something to make sure that I get you a a complete and accurate answer.

I'd want to research that a little bit before answering you.

Uh uh.

So you don't know whether whether types of development can be banned in a city.

Are you asking if it's currently a permitted use in our land management?

It's not.

It's not, right.

It's uh no, that's not the question I'm asking.

I'm asking whether any type of development, certainly data centers is what's front and center before us today, can be banned in the city.

And so when you say banned, if you mean that we would just that our answer would be it's not a permitted, it's not a use allowed.

Not a use permitted in the city.

Um it's not something I've researched till recently.

I think the answer likely is that we are allowed to do that if we have a rational basis for it, and there's not a constitutional issue, but again, it's it sounds like maybe a simple question, but I would want to make sure that I'm getting it correctly.

I understand it's not a simple question.

I just feel like I've heard this question before, and the answer that I've heard before has been well, you you have to find a way.

And so it's great to hear no, we don't necessarily have to find a way again.

I don't have to find a any of this.

So again, I don't know that for certain, but that's my thought.

Understood.

From it could go either way at this point.

I think that that's information that's really, really important for a group of elected officials to have.

Okay.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilman, for the question.

Councilmember Russell.

So just to sort of bring that around and clarify it.

As long as it remains a an as long as it is not a permitted use.

It's essentially a moratorium.

Unless the future legislators would change the land management code and the table to allow it, essentially they're not allowed.

Unless a developer takes it to court, and there that's the question I'm asking.

Okay.

It could happen.

I I mean, I'm not saying I again our attorney has said that she doesn't know the answer to the question.

I just want to be sure that the question gets answered.

That's all.

Thank you.

Is any other public comment on this idle?

All right, this information this has been for information and purposes only.

There's no action need to be taken by this body.

Uh any closing comments, Councilmember Gonzimchek?

I appreciate the information.

Councilmember Russell.

No other business before this committee, we are adjourned.