I'd like to open this meeting of the planning committee.

It's 4 20 on the afternoon of uh 6th July 2026.

The apologize for being late, but we had some folks that we were trying to gather together to make sure we had a critical mass of council members and city um folks, city attorney folks and planning folks to make this a worthwhile meeting.

Um expected order of discussions is to start with Mr.

Drew Martin with the uh legal department to review the draft ordinance which he has passed out.

Um I don't know if the is Ms.

Clay and Kevin Parkinson, have they got a draft?

Do you know if they've got a draft?

They do not have somebody of councilman Parkinson's right now.

Okay.

And Councilman McLay's copies that are but unfortunately she must have left and gone somewhere.

She's on the fair enough.

So we'll have the Mr.

Martin will review the the draft ordinance, and then we'll hear from Miss Angela Brown, the head of planning about the process and talk about the process um and then uh through the zoning and all, and then um and site plan review.

And then lastly, hopefully at 445, we'll hear from Mr.

Hunter Gardner, who's with the Hines County Economic Development Authority and uh his experience with the data center that recently um got you know kicked off in Clinton.

So um I've got appreciate the work you've done on this, Mr.

Martin.

You've had a you've been a one-armed paper hanger lately with all the balls, legal balls in the air.

The uh, but I appreciate your the work you've done on this, and I look forward to you uh going going through it so that we are um properly informed.

Sure.

A Drew Martin City Attorney.

Um let me before I start talking about the ordinance itself.

Let me take one step back.

Uh just and and Director Brown may address this better than I can, but I'm gonna mention it anyway.

The the the process of how a data center would even end up uh putting a shovel in the ground in Jackson is not just uh this what's in this ordinance and what regulations the city passes.

And so, for example, I know there's one potential business that is uh separately seeking rezoning in the city right now.

So that I'm gonna use them as an example only because they're the only one I know of.

Um before you even get to any of the things that are in this ordinance, you have to first have a developer who finds a piece of property who uh that which is zoned in such a way and is sp has enough space uh that they could try to entice a data center builder to come to the city.

And and what I mean by that is um, well, just that.

So the developers uh Amazon is not knocking down Jackson's door, right?

Google's not knocking down Jackson's door.

But you have developers in in Jackson and in other places, Clinton and Ridgeland, obviously being two recent examples, who were trying to make money.

And they are wanting to entice Google's and Amazons and whoever uh to build data centers.

And so that process happened first.

They have to find property, they have to acquire rights to the property.

It has to be zoned properly, which this ordinance does address.

Uh then they have to convince uh one of these other companies to come and you say, well, why would they even do the first part if they didn't have the second?

Uh the the better answer is to look at that in reverse.

Google doesn't say uh we'll come to Jackson for you if you do X, Y, and Z.

That's just not how business is working on that scale.

So the developers have to go do that.

Well so before they even get to site plan, which is what a lot of this deals with, they then have to find that, they got to bring in their developer, and they're gonna need to come and talk to this city.

Uh it's what they did in Ridgeland, I think you'll find it's what they did in Clinton.

Whoever that you know, if they entice, if the developer entices Google or Amazon or whoever, I'm just gonna use those as my examples, uh, to come to the city.

Uh they say, look, we've got this great property, we've got this great place, and we've got a a uh a community that wants you here.

Uh if the community doesn't want them here, they don't want to be here either, right?

It's too much of a fight for them.

But if they if the community wants them, under whatever conditions those might be, they're gonna come and they're gonna talk to the governing authorities of the city and they're gonna ask what do we need to do to get here?

And I think I don't know if the gentleman that's talking later can address this or not, but he may can, and then I would ask him if he could address those issues because I what I have what I understand is that uh a good bit of time and money was spent uh by that data center finding out what Ridgelin wanted and spending uh significant sums of money to get to that point.

Um so that all happens outside of this process, more or less.

The only part of this process that I've that that is even touched on by the ordinance then is the zoning itself.

Obviously, you don't want to let a data center uh come in and build in a residential uh neighborhood, for example, right?

Just use an obvious example.

Um and that's where the zoning matters.

Um Clinton and Ridgeland, by the way, had not gotten to this process, and I believe South Haven, which is sort of the nightmare scenario that we all want to make sure we avoid, had not gotten to this process.

And so with because of that, they could come in and they could get started and they could do things without the city really having a say in it, because once they have the property and they've started, it's a different issue.

We are in a good position as a city to set some ground rules and beyond those ground rules to make sure that any developer and any data center builder does it the way the city wants it to be done, and that's of course the point of all of this.

Uh having said that, uh the first page of this ordinance goes through several whereas provisions, but essentially says uh that we're gonna allow that you would allow a use permit for data centers in general commercial and light under and light industrial zones, which is C3 and I1, and also a permitted use uh uh in heavy industrial, which is I2, and then we want to adopt regulations in the ordinance.

And Councilman Clay, uh, let me back up because I heard you.

I have a question for you.

Okay, very good.

What we doing and the reason I came back how are we talking about an ordinance when we were going to talk about a moratorium and work toward creating an ordinance and work through an ordinance over the weeks and months.

Now we get into the point where we have an ordinance, we're gonna talk about economic development.

Well, let me that's why what that's what I wanted to say to you.

This is not an ordinance to introduce.

It is an it is a work in progress, and it's something that we were asked to start working on uh weeks ago, if not months ago.

And so it's gone through several versions.

This is version I think uh Ms.

Jordan said it was version three so far.

Internally, it's more like version 27 seven or something.

I don't know, but it's something we're continuing to work on.

The council does not have to adopt this ordinance ever, doesn't have to introduce this count this ordinance ever.

Uh these are one of the things the moratorium says is uh, and again, the council doesn't have to introduce that, doesn't have to vote on that, but certainly can on any of these.

The moratorium also says something to the effect of I don't have it in front of me, that the moratorium would be a time period certain uh to give the city time to develop regulations and so forth that would govern data centers coming to the city.

This is a draft in in progress of that second part.

If the city wants to adopt ordinances, if the city wants these developments, then it needs to have regulations and it needs to say to these people.

I agree we need regulations, and we got 180 days, and we were gonna tonight we're supposed to be having a public hearing to talk about a moratorium, but yet we're talking today about an ordinance, and we haven't somebody come and explain economic development.

So it seems like me put we are putting things forward in in state in in a different order than we should be putting.

Councilman Clay, all I can say is I was asked to come after this uh meeting was set by the council, and so I've come to answer questions and and and speak to the progress we're making so far.

Um we can do you've heard me say something like this for we can do more than one thing at a time.

I don't know what the governing authorities will ultimately determine to do.

Uh y'all are elected to do that, not me.

And so uh tonight there'll be a public hearing on tonight there'll be a tonight there'll be a public hearing about the uh uh uh about the merits of a moratorium, and at the end of that, there'll be a special council meeting to introduce that moratorium.

Uh it's not a vote tonight, it's just an introduction, as I understand, and then there'll be a vote on that, assuming that the council wants that vote will happen in a couple of weeks.

This is not an introduction, this is not a vote.

This is not me endorsing something or telling you you should or should not do something.

It is simply me answering the questions the council has asked of me.

I understand, but I just think it's very unique that this council would go ahead and go forward with an ordinance and try and come up with an ordinance like we are beating down a door to see how we can get a data center or what the importance is of a data center, and to knowing tonight we're gonna have people come and speak about a moratorium and let the people decide, and then we work toward that.

But it just seems very rushed and inappropriate to me to even be having this meeting today.

Mr.

Food.

Arlene, yes, uh, I have two questions.

One is um last meeting, public hearing we had, we we got a lot of input.

Is the input do we have thus far?

Is this included in this particular I can't promise that all of it is, but we're trying, and the answer is yes.

So this isn't ready then.

This is not ready.

I I don't I I don't I don't represent that this is ready.

Then the other question is doing the meeting tonight, uh, where you're going to present or do anything to give an update on where we're at.

I had not planned on it.

Frankly, uh, councilman, I'm not going to be able to be present for the public hearing uh and I won't be able to be back in time for the special meeting.

I will have an attorney present.

Um, but no, because of the because, as councilman Clay said, tonight's public hearing is on the proposed moratorium, and that uh uh that that measure was published, and so the the language of that is out there for everybody.

And then at the end of that, as I understand it, that moratorium ordinance will officially be introduced so that it can be voted on in the future.

I will tell you that I'm a little bit of a loss here because this isn't my ordinance and it's not my decision.

What what well all I have gotten input from Councilman Partley, Councilman Grizzell, Councilman Parkinson have all sent me individually things that they would like to see in an ultimate ordinance if there is one, and I have tried to incorporate those concerns into here.

We have also uh taken notes and listened to the public hearing comments from the previous public hearing and tried to reflect those as best we can in here.

I expect that after tonight there will be additional comments and thoughts, and we will then try to incorporate those as asked, assuming that we are asked to do so.

So I I'm not this in my train and I'm not the conductor.

Uh I I I'm a passenger and I'm here doing the best I can to help.

If if the council doesn't want to talk about this, I'm happy to go somewhere else.

One other question.

Yes, ma'am.

This was posted at 8 o'clock at night, Wednesday night, right?

Well, this meeting, this uh planning meeting.

This is a meeting set by the council, not by me.

I understand.

I understand is set by whomever, but that's when it was uh posted.

The answer is I don't know.

Okay, well, you don't know, but I know, okay.

So and I'm not being argumentative or anything else.

I just want to make sure that what we do looks clean and transparent, because we are the people that always holler clean, transparent.

If that was done that night that late, and then the day after the holiday to have a meeting, something as important as a data center, that you're talking about an ordinance that we don't even know if we're gonna need an ordinance for 180 days.

I think this meeting is a waste of time.

Well, let me just offer some uh comments on that, and I'm sorry you feel that way.

The um I'm the head of the planning committee.

That's my one committee chairmanship.

And I've reached out to the city clerk's office about back in June about the desire to have a um planning committee meeting to go over the data center issues and the and the potential for a data center ordinance.

The fact it was posted on the 8th, that's sort of secondary to the fact that I've been trying to working on this issue for about two weeks.

So the I think it's it's useful.

It educates not only us as to the particulars of what where the legal department is, but it educates the people that who have come here to listen to the comments from the different uh parties.

So uh if we could move forward, can Councilman Gersell, do you have something you want to say?

Uh no.

Okay.

Is that all you had?

Is you that is all I have right now, and I think it's very, very inappropriate still that the city of Jackson, the four of us sitting here and the two on on online to go forward with something this serious.

It's not in your ward, it's in my ward, and I know it doesn't matter, it's in the city of Jackson, but at the same time, a data center is nothing to play with, and we realize the economic impact, et cetera.

But this is something that Drew is saying that well, attorney uh Drew is saying that uh that this is in input that he's drawn up from whatever sources, and it's not necessarily uh um the ordinance that would be passed, et cetera.

So I say, why don't we wait and see if the moratorium comes up, give us the 180 days.

We can work on it the 180 days, but at least let the people that come tonight know that they're not wasting their time to come, that we hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, and to have this meeting, I agree.

If you've been planning it for X number of days, so be it.

Why did it just come up the day after the holiday?

Well, it's because that's when when the uh clerk of the council posted it.

The um let me but uh I don't want to get wrapped around the axle on this particular issue.

The I think the the sooner we get informed, the more educated we are and the better prepared we are to make good decisions for the city of Jackson.

I think that's really what we need to focus on is making well thought out um prepared decisions for the city of Jackson.

So if you could go back to the ordinance, um Mr.

Martin, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Uh yes, sir.

So again, first page is primarily background, and the only substantive provision really is the first one that speaks to which zoned portions of the city a data center could be built in.

Uh the rest of this tries to reflect in general some of the concerns uh that have been voiced without addressing any particular that it doesn't this doesn't govern you on page one.

It's whereas is just like the orders that the council passes regularly.

I will say that the ultimate goal here from my perspective, if an ordinance is passed, and really there's if you want to oversimplify it, there's two two potential options here.

The city is either going to allow data centers or not.

If it doesn't allow them, you do not need this.

If you do allow them, then you need to have a regulatory framework that makes sure to avoid the nightmares that you saw in South Haven, and that protects the interests of all of our residents as best as is possible.

And so that's what we're trying to do here.

So each of these, starting on page two, would be amendments to the city's current zoning ordinances.

There is no definition currently in the city's ordinances for a data center or a data center related facility.

And so we want to start by defining what is a data center, what is a data center related facility, and what is the power uh what are the power restrictions that go along with that.

And so that's that's what section one does here.

Um and the first few sections of that do.

It's essentially definitions to add to the city's current ordinances to make sure that we clarify what are these things and what is impacted uh by these new definitions.

If you skip over to uh really page three, section seven is where you start to get into the stuff that most people want to talk about.

And I'm just gonna read some of this, but I'll also try to explain it.

So what you see here is that the new zoning ordinances starting with section seven here in the middle of page three, uh, that the new sections apply to the site plan review process and requirements and standards applicable applicable to the various things that we define data centers, data center related facilities, uh, and data centers with permanent power facilities.

And the first two sections here, subsection one and two of 12A, are specifically intended to address the kind of issues that are so the part B.

Specifically say you can't start this until you have shown that there is permanent electrical service that's adequate to support the facility, that it's there, that it's installed, that it works, and that the only temporary or backup uh power equipment you have can only be used under a specific and temporary circumstances, and even then must meet all of the emission standards that would go along with permanent power.

So, what you know I hate to keep referring to South Avon, and I'm certainly not an expert on their situation, but it seems to me the worst of the offenses that's occurred there is that data center uh claim that they were gonna have some temporary generators that are uh loud and that are smelly and that are nuisances to the people around them.

Uh they started that out as temporary and just keep adding to them because that city has apparently no way to stop them.

So if we have a regulation that disallows that, and let's say that for some reason we had a uh uh an unfavorable developer, unfavorable data center owner who tried to do that anyway.

This gives us the ability to go to a local courthouse and say we have laws that require them to do certain things, and you should shut them down if they don't.

And I don't see any reason why a court would not follow that.

That's a too many negatives.

I believe that our local courts would absolutely help us enforce the law.

They have consistently.

Um section three refers to sort of the water systems and talks about uh what needs to be done there.

Um rather than go through all this, because I see that in about five minutes, uh Councilman Foote's uh uh person is gonna be ready to speak.

Let me say it this way.

You you can write the most specific, lengthy, detailed ordinance you want.

We have talked to some lawyers who have tried to help do that.

But you have to remember that at the end of the day, the city has to have the ability to interpret and enforce the ordinance, or it's useless.

Ninety pages of regulations put a burden on the city and the departments who are responsible for enforcing this.

What what this ordinance right now, the framework that we're trying to work with is every interest and every concern that's been expressed by a council member or a resident says in this ordinance in one way or another, or intends to, and the ones we left out, let us know and we'll add them.

It says you can't build a data center until you establish the following things to the satisfaction of the site plan committee, the planning department, and this city council.

Every city that you will notice in particular that there's a provision towards the end that essentially says every one of these site plan determinations can be reviewed and determined by this city council.

If this city council votes, no, the data center won't get built.

The only caveat I would say to that is a legal principle is we've got to be consistent.

You can't be arbitrary with what we do.

So if you require, but but you need to give yourself enough flexibility that a data center of, and I'm gonna these are exaggerated, but a data center that's this big has you're gonna have some different requirements of how you want it to look, how what you want the setbacks to be, uh where you even where you want it to be to some extent than one that's this big.

And they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes of and we can control that.

We can we can control it right down to what we want the facade to look like.

We can control it to setbacks, we can control it to buffer zones.

And what we've tried to create here, rather than legislating every possible scenario, which we can't do because we don't know every scenario that we'll be faced with.

We've tried to establish the concerns and the things that need to be addressed by all of them.

They then have to prove those things to the satisfaction of this city council, and you don't have to take their word for it.

I'll give you an example.

Uh, there's things in here about the data center would have to establish what the traffic impact would be, right?

That's one concern I think that everybody has stated.

They're gonna go in and they're gonna they're gonna bring you a traffic study.

We can't tell them who they have to hire or how they have to do their study.

But we also don't have to accept it as right.

You can see their study, and we can have our own experts and our own department, our own council members who can question them and say, I'm looking at your traffic impact study, and this doesn't make any sense at all.

County line road can't support X, Y, and Z.

And you just tell them that, and they're gonna either fix it or they're not.

Uh and if they don't, they're not gonna build a data center here.

Yes, ma'am.

Just like the water issue, we could tell them who to appoint and who not to appoint.

We could reject them as many times as we want.

What do we have right now?

We can't tell nobody nothing, right?

Just like the annexation situation.

We were told we would get uh taxes from those businesses that went out there.

You know, when anybody annex anything, we don't get the taxes from that.

So just like you're saying right now, we I agree there are some options, okay?

And I'm not hard fest saying that we don't need this or whatever, but what I am saying is we do not have control over those studies.

If those studies come back and we don't agree with it, there's so much that we can do in in summary.

We can't just go say, hey, we don't agree with this study and this study is out.

Well, you can't just say we just don't agree with it, but you can provide your own evidence as to why it's wrong.

Uh speaking to your examples, uh certain sure, right now, we don't get to say who's on our water board, because we don't have a water board because the water system is in the hands of a third-party administrator, and we're working hard to bring that back, and we are not backing down until we get to a situation where legally we can put who we want on that board.

Uh to your annexation issue, uh, I just respectfully disagree.

Every piece of property that we own that gets developed, we will get taxes on it, or we will get the lease on it.

The other, if it's incorporated in Pearl, Pearl will get the taxes.

If it's incorporated in Jackson, Jackson will get the taxes.

And we have both in that annexation case.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

President.

I mean, I I have a couple of things, but Drew, please be careful whenever you present a document like this.

Yes, make sure it's adequately stamped draft.

Okay.

Good point.

Because we do not, we want to make sure enough.

Look, and and this is about trust.

A lot of this is about trust.

Uh, I believe that we need to we need to gather the trust of the people in Jackson for whatever enterprise we're looking into.

Agreed.

So please post that.

Another thing, and I don't want to get into the weeds of this because it's so many weeds, we could be here for days.

Right.

Uh, but one thing that um, you know, I that I think going through a process, uh, I know we have some contracts with Butler Snow.

If they have an environmental engineer or someone, we need uh to me, my opinion.

We need more than lawyers and zoning folks looking at this.

We need folks of a scientific nature that could possibly uh evaluate this also.

I I agree with one, let me say two things.

One, the only digital copy of this right now that's been disseminated was sent to Ms.

Jordan.

Uh Shaniki, if you'll wait, we'll get it watermarked uh with a draft on it before we distribute it to anybody else.

That's a very good point.

We will we should have done that already.

Yeah.

To the second point, uh I I agree.

Uh look, I'm not an expert on data centers.

I'm not an expert on how you build them, how you cool them, how you how you power them.

Um people that are should be consulted.

I agree.

More importantly, I would just say for the process later, is we need somebody like that available to us that we trust, or to the city that the city trusts who can help review the applications when they come in.

If if we adopt a framework, then every one of those is gonna, every one of those data centers is gonna have to say, here's how our power works, and we get the energy to confirm it.

Here's how our water works, we can get Jackson Water, or hopefully one day our board to uh uh help confirm.

But when you get to traffic, when you get to impact, when you get to uh uh pollution and all that, we should have engineers that we can consult with who can help review that process, they can answer to this council and to these governing authorities.

100% that needs to happen.

Yeah, and I think it needs to happen.

Uh sure, nothing absolutely already.

I agree.

I agree.

Because uh you know, the information I sent you, I think I'd sent you about 20 different ideas and uh look um from an environmental standpoint, they need to be evaluated by environmentalists, right?

Scientists, engineers that know the difference before we before we pin anything into writing.

I agree.

And that's with a data center or a power plant or or anything of a major concern.

Right, and some of these data centers essentially have a power plant attached to them.

I mean, so that's probably not technically right, but but they do, so you're absolutely correct.

That needs to be reviewed by experts, and and I don't know any lawyers that are experts in engineering, not that kind of expert.

Did you want to say something, Mr.

Grisel?

Light was on.

Well, uh colleagues, I did ask uh attorney Martin for a color-coded uh document draft so that we can see which council members added what input.

And we're gonna work on that and get it to you.

Yes, I I do see some areas where some of my input was not considered might be.

Well, I want to have those conversations.

All this is is this is where we are right now.

I understand.

Yeah, and I want more, we want more input.

I also agree with Councilwoman Clay that this is not the time to get into the wheeze of this.

Um today, well, this evening, we will hear more from the people.

Absolutely.

Even though that meeting will be specifically for the moratorium, uh, I think it'll give us more to go on.

But I would like to sit down with legal to talk about the items that I ask for specifically to be in this draft.

As you know, I've I've been less available than I would like over the last few weeks, but we I've made that offer to most of you and and mean it and want to do that with each of you.

Yes, sir.

Okay, so um have you got uh anything after page three?

I I would just leave well, I do, but I would leave it there for now given the given the uh the read the room uh um uh factor of this.

So so what I would say is this take this for what it is.

It is a draft and it's an effort to help the governing authorities decide what needs to be considered for every data center that comes in, if any are allowed to come in.

Again, I don't want it to sound like I'm trying to put my finger on the scale in one direction or another.

The governing authorities will decide are we gonna allow data centers into Jackson or are we not?

And if we are under what circumstances, so this is part of a continuing process.

I I do think that if we all put our heads together and we want an ordinance for the city, that something could be in a final, I don't put final in quotes here, but a pretty close to final version in 30 days or so.

Uh, I just don't think it would take that much to then to go through with each one.

I think uh to councilman Hartley's point, getting uh an environmental and an engineer in here to help us look through some of that at a at a meeting like this would probably be helpful.

Um but I don't think there's uh again, we don't want a hundred page ordinance.

You can't enforce it.

Yeah, it's it's there'll be too many holes.

Um so with that said, I'm gonna stop there unless somebody else has any questions.

Okay, the um well uh I'm still waiting for my uh gentleman from the Heinz County Economic Development Authority, but in the meantime, Angela Brown, if you could come up and and talk to us about just the process that that uh the planning goes through to ensure that an ordinance is followed and the different um checks and balances that are available there to uh satisfy the desires of the the citizens and the council members.

So Angela Brown, planning development director.

I'll just speak in general about our process.

So any new business that comes through the city of Jackson has to go through a the zoning process first, then uh basically it's the review to identify, make sure that the uh business the how they're gonna operate and they're open up in a place um that is zoned appropriately.

So uh one of the things that we've been talking about is any zoning changes that may need to take place, whether now you're trying to open a commercial business and a residential residential zone, or and uh in this instance, you want an industrial zone that you need to open up to.

Uh, we do have a planning board in place that is representatives from every each of the wards that are represented here.

I think each board has two representatives on their board, some are open.

I was gonna say that.

Well, yes, because we have not done appointments for the uh some seats, but there are spaces for two representatives from each ward for on the planning committee.

Right.

I would have to the mayor last week and have to correct that deficiency, and I copied all my neighborhood leaders.

Gotcha.

Um, so that is another uh, I think a level of accountability that we have of community representatives to make to review every zoning request that comes through uh for efficiency to make sure it meets the neighborhood requirements.

Uh, in certain cases, uh where developers, if they are doing a zoning change, they are required to meet with the impacted residents in the area.

They have to publicly do a public notice of the changes and what they're looking to do and also hold a public hearing with the residents and get their feedback on the process at the zoning meetings.

If you haven't attended one, they're definitely open across the street.

Any residents are able to come and speak in favor or against uh any zoning changes that are uh requested.

And then we have a uh planning committee that does a vote uh based on the request as well as the feedback and our ordinance.

Um that's kind of how our process works in general.

Again, each step is make sure to have that open feedback period.

Uh, once we get a recommendation from the planning board, it comes to the council for final approval.

Um, and from there they move on to the next level.

Um, if it's a new business, it does go through site plan generally, which is a member uh I think our representatives across uh planning as well as public works is there.

We do have Jackson Water represented, and uh there is a piece for fire as part of that site review plan to make sure it meets all of the ordinances for the city uh before we allow them to move to the permitting process.

Mr.

Harley.

Uh Ms.

Brown, um in recent past, what's the largest scale development opportunity that the city of Jackson has had to permit or zone?

In recent past my look over here to Eric, you know.

It's the largest, largest entity, largest company, largest business.

It's gonna have to be your I don't know, the district and your those mixed use developments, I would assume those are pretty older.

So nothing on the level of a power loss that are coming down.

Yeah, nothing on this level.

Okay.

So, you know, in your position as head of planning, what other additional tools do you think we need?

Do you think like I mentioned to uh the attorney, the need for specialists that can come in here and look through our process and make sure the process is is shaped well.

Yeah, I think in this specific instance, um, it's not I don't think it's any surprise anybody.

Our zoning ordinance is a little outdated, so we didn't have definitions related to these type of topics.

And so one of the things is actually having definitions so we know what we're approving or not approving is very important to how we implement and and kind of uh enforce some of the ordinance.

Also, I think we you know, we were just talking about some of the noise and environmental concerns and having um a part, you know, a third party or somebody on staff to help evaluate those concerns because again, that expertise is not in-house currently.

Um, and so that is something we would need to hire for at least uh contract out for.

I've been here 22 months on this council, and I have yet to see a developer other than the loft come through here for anything.

Okay.

So the lofts are residents.

We have no industry coming to the city of Jackson.

We have no manufacturing, no nothing.

Okay.

So I suggest that the planning department go out and get actively involved and recruiting something so that this council can learn how planning works.

And the people that have been here before me may already know, but the new people, so we can learn what planning really is instead of just coming every month and having a mixed use change or uh a list that we approve for a one-year thing.

So I think the data center may be something that's gonna bring money, but right now I don't think that's the answer to the city of Jackson.

If I've been here 22 months and I've seen zero in your answer for developments or manufacturing, you had to answer somebody else.

I think we need to start working in another area and figure out what we can do to draw money, find taxes, find developers, and work with people and know we don't have to have bribery or anything else to do that.

We can do it in this city and get some things done so we can develop and not be a third world country.

Thank you, Ms.

Clay.

Make some good points.

Did you have any response?

Uh yeah, I don't disagree with her.

I think we need to focus on economic development, but in terms of recently, um, we have not had any major insists.

Six months I've been here.

So the um, I think one of the things that makes data centers compelling and um to me anyway, is that the they're basically a warehouse, and we've got you know, if you get you can go down to Jack right off a highway um uh off the interstate to the JSU um uh site there where they have it used to me, oh it was an all-state call center, I believe.

And it was basically a huge facility, about two or three stories tall, and they they had was filled with call centers, and then they changed it to some things else, and it ended up being a data center, but it was a much smaller data center because back in that day, uh the computers were much less powerful.

And so it's about probably got a footprint, not unlike a lot of the data centers that like the one in Clinton probably has.

But what one of the things that makes these data centers so um that gives them some upside for cities is the fact that the stuff that goes into the data centers is extremely expensive.

So all these NVIDIA GPU chips that cost $30,000 a piece hundreds of them thousands of them in some cases all the controllers and everything else that goes into it they're becoming very expensive projects and that ends up being what the taxes are the fees in lieu of taxes how they're computed.

And so the result is it's extremely valuable building facility it may not look it may make may look like it's smaller than probably the Metro Center or whatever but uh the the value of it is about you know 10 times or 50 times what the value of a a similar shopping center would be.

And if you look at the what the value of the taxes comes in is dramatically increased value of tax revenues you get from these data centers even though they may have a lower profile because of the way they're built.

But it's because of the value of of all the this the innards that go into it.

And so the um I think they're a lot less dangerous than some people perceive when they're properly permitted and properly um located to to um provide the security and less noise and other things that are people interested in but the economic opportunity like you mentioned how are we gonna do what we're gonna do for uh uh to get an economic rent renaissance going I think this is this is far and away the fastest growing part of the US economy I mean it's not even close this is the biggest capital investment boom that the US economy has ever had right now they're spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year to build these things Mr.

Foote okay uh but here's here's my next speaker if you got anything else you wanted to mention Mrs.

Brown no well thank you for being here and thank you for your comments and um Mr.

Gardner Mr.

Hunter Gardner has just walked in if you want to come forward I appreciate you coming to visit with us today.

If you could give us a little bit about your background what what you do okay and then um the uh and sort of give us the the thumbnail sketch on the Clinton um project and and uh what what you know might be a potential for the city of Jackson.

Sure um thanks so much for for letting me be here today um uh Ms.

Foote and and I'm sorry for my timely delay um as uh Mr.

Foote said I I'm the Heinz County Economic Development Director Authority excuse me executive director of Heinz County Economic Development Authority um what we do at um Hans County Economic Development is really the the first hunch point to recruit industry to our county um we are created by state legislature uh and and funded by the county and so we have worked um most big projects that that have come through um uh our county in the last year I I landed in that role uh about a year ago prior to that I worked at the Mississippi Development Authority I oversaw all of our international business recruitment um prior to that I worked on the local level uh at the city of Clarksdale and in the city of Arkansas and so I spent a considerable amount of my time in my my career really working to recruit industry to cities and communities um over the last year one of the biggest projects that we've worked is the uh Amazon data center that has come to Clinton um and I just to be here today is to kind of give you some understanding of what that particular project looks like and the impact it's having uh both to the county and the local community um a lot of times these these projects I know data center right now is a is is almost a dirty word uh there's so much happening in that field I think yes there's some questions but I can tell you uh that this process that we did uh in a short amount of time truly with this process was only allowed to really move at that speed because of the six years of of work that had been done prior to them coming to us.

Um I I think the originally the interest in the state of Mississippi from Amazon started in 2018 and they didn't make it a decision until about 2023 or 2024.

And one of the things that happened over the last 12 to 16 months has been that Amazon found a place in Hines County that they they wanted to locate a data center in.

So what that looks like for us is we have an industrial park in the Clinton Industrial Park.

We had a building that was really not able to be utilized really for the purpose that it was built.

It was built to do manufacturing.

Modern day manufacturing companies really were not looking for a building of that particular build out.

The ceilings were a little too low.

And Amazon came in and said, you know what, it actually fits our model very well.

And we're gonna try to, this will be a first of its kind.

They're gonna retrofit that building.

And they have stated publicly that they expect to put about a billion dollars into that building and into that data center.

And that's a big number.

You hear that, and I know that that you know everybody kind of gets stars in their eyes, but but realistically, let me just tell you what that impacts to the local community.

Three million dollars will go to the city of Clinton, uh, is the estimated tax revenue, three million to the county, and six million to the schools.

Um, and that will be about year over year.

Um, and so uh it's essentially what that is is is on all of these data center projects, a typical incentive, which is not we're not giving away something that they don't have access to anywhere else.

Um, but you get about a you pay about a third, uh, in between a third and a half of what your taxes would be for the first 10 years, and then you're full on board for the rest.

So after 10 years, that number will probably triple.

Um, and so you'll see anywhere from six to eighteen million go to the schools, three to nine go to the city, three to nine go to the county.

Um when we think about data centers, I think one thing really is important.

Um I know we we talk about sound and we talk about water and we talk about uh power.

What we have seen with Amazon is is Amazon's one of the companies that is actually looking to be as efficient as possible and as engineering sound as possible.

And they've actually done that in a lot of instances.

Um they're not even using water to cool their servers in our area.

The power that they're utilizing falls within the original agreement that they had with uh uh entergy.

Um and and sound wise, they're an industrial um uh uh zoning, and sound is not even gonna be an issue for any resident or homeowner.

So, you know, what we're seeing with my direct uh work with them is really the top of board uh consideration of how they're building out and and um and how they're they're implementing their execution in our community and the impacts it's having.

Uh it looks like you have a question.

Yes.

Go right ahead.

You don't have is there not a building in the city of Jackson that's not being used that was industrial that you could do the same thing and not build a data center in um in the city of Jackson?

So that's a longer I'll I'll give you the short conversation, but really it's a longer conversation.

I'm gonna tell you why.

Um it's not just about finding a building, it's about finding about eight different things that all merge.

Okay.

Power is going to be most critical.

So one of the challenges that that we have is really finding a location that has got all the utilities, you know.

If you're doing engineering, it's all your phase ones and phase twos.

You've got to know that all of your engineering is done.

You've got to know that your power is sufficient.

You've got to know that that your zoning is sufficient.

You've got to, you know, there's just a litany of things.

And I would just say right now, I have not seen within the city limits of Jackson yet.

I mean, we haven't, I work on the county side.

We haven't done our full due diligence within the city, but haven't seen within the in the city yet a power study from someone like energy that says we have sufficient power for this.

So what would it take to get a building in the city of Jackson?

Because we have a lot of vacant buildings in the industrial area.

I to get that study done before we go forward with building a data center and trying to see what this is.

I think there's a I I would love to come back and have a further conversation with you.

Uh, I mean, economic development really falls within our purview within the county, and and you guys fall within the county.

Um, working directly with you, I think there are opportunities for sure.

Um, and and really it's identifying property and making sure that we, on behalf of y'all go and do the due diligence and and get everything.

Because I I sit at the intersection of both government and business.

My organization does.

We're our job is to sit across the table from you know, companies and executives and and engineers and let them know why our county is the best.

And our job is to sit in front of you as politicians and say, here's what we're doing on the business front to grow.

Um, so what I think the next step would be is really kind of work with you on a strategy standpoint of identifying these properties and then begin the process of of seeing what because if we find a property, there's still gonna be upgrades.

So we need to have funding to be able to go to the upgrades.

Um it's a you know finding it is one thing, but we're what we're trying to do, and and a lot of what we try to do, I call it the on ramp.

It's like you're getting on the interstate.

We have to build the on ramp.

You know, the biggest thing that companies are looking for, and the thing they have access to is the speed risk and money.

And if you'll talk to anybody at the Mississippi Development Authority, these are the things companies care about.

How fast can we get up and running?

How risky is it, you know?

Um, and how quickly can I go from spending my own money to making money?

Because any business.

And I heard you speak at Rotary, and so I know exactly what you do and how you do it.

Yes, ma'am.

So yeah.

Yeah, well, and and and I'll just quickly, I know you got a question, sorry, but but just real quick.

What a lot of the work, you know, we've seen over the last five or six years uh phenomenal investment in the state of Mississippi.

We probably have five or six years of our best economic growth.

And the reason for that is that a lot of organizations like mine are doing the front end work, which could be anywhere from you know, five to fifty to sixty million dollars of work on the front end before you even land a company.

Um, you know, and what you do is you make that you make that money back on the back end of it, you know, and that's that's any good business model.

You're you're gonna spend money at the first to get your customers.

We need to have a strategy for the city of Jackson for that, how we're gonna do it, who's gonna fund it, how we're gonna build this out.

Um I think Jackson's a gold mine.

It's really just putting together our our strategy and and putting all of our partners together to work on that thing together.

So when do you want to work with us and not just on this data center that we're proposing as being from the ground?

I got I got time next week.

Okay, well, maybe you can come back and we we we we work with you next week on seeing what kind of economic development we can get in a city that's not a data center, and also look at other opportunities since our planning department hadn't had any economic development in the last two, three, four, five years.

Well, we've got I I think the biggest thing is again when you're looking at a metro like Jackson.

Um, you know, we've had a lot of success in Madison, they've had success in ranking.

I can tell you, when people look at the state of Mississippi, they look at Jackson.

And it's critical that we have positive economic development uh happening in the city of Jackson.

Um and in order for us to do that, we need to have a collaboration, collaborative effort.

Um, because it is a it's it's it's a team sport.

We want to play it again, so you just come next week and help us.

You know, I have to advise.

Mr.

Harling.

Yeah, uh and please.

Mr.

Gardner, Hunter Gardner.

Mr.

Gardner, I'm not sorry.

Please understand before I ask the question, I'm not trying to be Kurt or anything.

But why haven't we been here before?

Why haven't we had this discussion before?

Why haven't Heinz County today, Jackson?

Big part of our tax base.

You pay a lot of our bills.

Here's something that's helpful.

I just just quickly.

No, really, I all I've got to do.

And then I have another follow-up question.

Yeah, the only thing that I can speak of is the fact that I've only been in the job for about a year.

I mean, I started in June of last year, so we're we're right at the one year mark.

And almost immediately when I got started uh on any job of this scale, you need you need some time to just get your you know your your feet in the water.

Uh not only did I kind of have to do that, I had the biggest project in county history show up.

So my hands were full.

Hopefully in the future um we can have a better relationship.

Absolutely.

And again, a large chunk of Hines County money.

Absolutely comes from the city of Jackson.

Well, so uh, and but I do have another question.

Um, and that is this.

We have about over 300 and something acres out there and it's owned by uh Mr.

Sam.

Okay.

Do you normally look at those properties that size and consider things or address it to uh folks?

And that's the first part of the question.

The second part is if it wasn't a data center, could it be something like a power plant, which I assume would have some of those same requirements that we have here.

So uh us going through this process is not in vain if we just struck away the data center because there may be other opportunities out there that I think we need to examine for a large track of land that large.

And this isn't a message to Sam or anything, but uh you know, there has to this is somewhat risky, I would say, because of the amount of time that it's been in development because of the ever-changing market, because a lot of money's been thrown at it, because all it is is the storage unit for my cloud files, my this files, that files for for Chat GPT and other AMI uh AI, all it's doing is a warehouse all this critical information.

And as we as we continue to go down that road with AI, we're gonna need these warehouses all over.

But but my my uh biggest portion is this or or um point is this.

There has to be other options.

When someone has a big track of land like this, Hines County can step in and say, hey, here's some options that's gonna benefit the city of Jackson and Hines County and the owner.

Not something that's controversial, not something that uh we're gonna divide the city on, we're gonna invite the council on, we're gonna divide everybody and their brother on.

That's right.

Something this risky.

So let me let me you're you're talking in the area that I I we could talk for an hour about this.

I love this.

But let me let me let me throw some stats out to you real quick.

Over the last five years, 2020 to 2025, 600 billion dollars of capital investment in the in uh not the whole United States.

That's the Southeastern United States.

The Southeastern United States has been the most invested in the last five years.

600 billion.

We've got 600.

Uh, you're talking about from industry wise.

Um it's across the board.

I I can get you those numbers.

Um what I'm saying is we talk about we throw this language around about being an investment.

We know that when they build these things, there are a lot of concessions that are made from the cities, like, say for instance, Birmingham.

Birmingham conceded over three billion dollars for something that they may or may not see.

And then we hear at this conference that we were at last week that the state may be still planning something else to pull some of this money back from these promises that were made with these municipalities.

And then we had the lawyer come in here, he said, you know, JPS would get um what, 26 million over 10 years.

That's 2.6 million dollars.

That's not gonna even build a new school.

And so we need to really put into perspective what this money really looks like is not on the surface what peep what it really is.

And you know, one we want to put this carrot in front of the horse, but we have to be really diligent about the decisions that are before us.

Well, I I think to your question on on kind of the breakout, I understand what you're talking about.

The numbers 600 billion is capital investment, 600,000 new jobs.

Anytime you create one job, you're probably gonna spawn off another two more.

So the number of jobs that we see created, uh, you build a new plant, you gotta have somebody help mow the grass.

You've got there, there's a litany of other jobs that are created.

But we know those are not Jackson jobs, right?

Well, I can tell you this right now the data that I have seen.

Uh, most of the workers that that work in the Jackson metro area live within the city of Jackson.

We are that's the data that I've seen.

Um live repeat.

Most of the workers, the the when we look at the workforce and we do workforce pools as we are recruiting, most of the workforce that is going to companies all throughout the metro region, they call Jackson.

Okay, and what what kind of salary level and what kind of work is?

I don't I don't have that number.

Professionals or what?

Uh I think they're everyday jobs.

I I can get that breakdown.

Howly jobs or what?

We really need to know that.

I I can get that for you.

I don't have that.

I've I've I've seen the the top line data, I can dig down for it as well.

But and let me say this too, this is not my desire to we're not trying to beat up on you.

No, it's fine.

But we we want to be as transparent as possible, and even to Mr.

Foote's point, he talked about data centers of the past.

Those are data entry centers.

You had hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of people working in these centers.

The banks have them, they're a couple of downtown.

Trustmark and reason, they got folks actually in there entering check numbers.

So we need to be clear about that.

It's not like we're they're storing big computers that need turbines and all that stuff.

That these are this is not the same thing.

But but two of the questions, and I'm I want to make sure I'm clear on this.

What we're seeing across the state of Mississippi is recruitment and advanced manufacturing.

There's a lot of advanced manufacturing that's happening.

Um, because we're central, we're not pulling the blue economy, which is happening on the coast.

One of the logistical challenges is we don't have the Memphis Airport necessarily.

That's a that's an advantage.

So you're seeing investment on the two coast.

You're also seeing investment at the golden triangle area, which I would argue we have a whole lot more assets than the golden triangle.

Um, as we look forward and we go forward, we're gonna be looking at advanced manufacturing.

We're gonna be looking at food and beverages, we're gonna be looking at logistics.

What I think we we really have to do is we have to have a 20-year plan and a 50-year outlook.

Because the question is not where are we today, but where is the business industry and where's the city gonna be in 10 years and 20 years?

Because it's gonna take us time to develop what needs.

And we need to make sure that once we develop, we're ready to take that next step.

Because if we start building today what today needs, we're gonna be in yesterday by the time tomorrow gets here.

So are you saying there'll be half hazard to jump on this right now?

No, not necessarily.

Because we don't have a plan.

We don't have to be your plan.

If you're talking about interest, I think you need to entertain interest.

You need to consistently entertain interest.

Um, because if you don't, you're signaling to the business community at large that you know, hey, we need to we're gonna pause.

Um, what happens with these deals, that that gets seen.

So if you want an industrial center with, you know, the last big investment up in the golden triangle was 2500 jobs and 2.5 billion invested.

That was aluminum dynamics.

I mean, they're probably got four to eight hundred acres up there.

I'm not even sure.

But I mean, that's the size and scale.

It takes time uh to do that.

If you have a company that's interested today, I absolutely think we should we should engage them and have those conversations because they may find that this works out.

The last thing I'd say is this um on the data center side, uh, most of the companies, any time that I'm talking to a company, we're not the only place they're talking to.

You're competing with a tremendous amount in other uh other communities across the state, across the region, um, across the country.

So, you know, if you want to land a company and you want to want to do that, you need to you need to continue to communicate that we want that, uh, that they are desired because if they don't feel desired, they've got other people that that want them.

Right.

Mr.

Garner, let me just to provide some additional context for the Heinz County Economic Development Authority.

Uh you have trustees or board members.

Can you name some of those that people we might?

Yeah.

Before you do that, can you let make sure we understand that you don't work for the county for real?

You're a private entity, right?

Not fully a private entity.

We are created by the state, the county funds us, and the county, all the all of my board members are appointed by the by the county.

Okay.

So you work for the county, your check is kept by the county.

Well, my our uh once our funding comes in, essentially, yes, the county does pay us.

Can you put provide us tell us about who some of your board members are?

Uh sure.

Uh Mr.

Bo Cole is is uh my board president.

Um I've got uh Dr.

Vanden Brumfield, Mr.

Leero Walker, uh uh Dr.

John Gillian, um uh Mr.

Philip Gunn, former Speaker of the House, um, uh Mr.

Mr.

Bird, um uh Mr.

Mark Wise, um Miss Willie Jones, uh Dr.

Yolanda Mackelroy.

Um I I think that's most of them.

Okay.

Um Mr.

Hartley, do you have a question?

Yes looking at this scenario, and and I keep bringing up a power plant being put there.

What could be some of the other options if uh if an owner agreed?

You got 350 something acres round about.

If an owner agreed, what could be some of the other options perhaps he could entertain uh using that property, knowing that we have the advantage, power city waters we get as it is, uh, but it's uh a key location.

What could be perhaps uh some of the other ideas?

Just as an example, I've already had two projects this year.

We call them projects.

So if I get a call of sales lead, it's a it's essentially a project.

We've had two this year.

Uh one was for in between five and eight hundred jobs, and they were in the advanced manufacturing.

Uh they they manufactured um uh stuff for transformers and powers uh uh sector.

Uh and then one was uh in the food and beverage.

Uh it was actually a German company.

They flew over from Germany to meet with us.

Um they were looking for property here.

We didn't we didn't make the short list, but we we got a site visit.

So whenever a company is looking at a site, what they're gonna do is they're gonna look at however many sites, make sure that they have the minimum requirement.

And then if you're lucky enough to get a visit, you're probably within 10 10 sites that they're looking at.

Um we got we got to there, but but to your point, what could they do?

Those are two most recent within the last 12 months that have showed up on my doorstep.

And all of them are gonna require issues uh or or uh mediation on issues or such as water, air, electric, sanitation, the whole gamut of employment.

It needs to be ready to go.

It needs to be what we call shovel ready.

Okay.

Thank you.

My last question.

What day and what time can we be your guinea pig?

And we don't care about the land that we've already identified or anything.

We want you to come in and be i consultant and take us from A to Z and help us develop something for the city of Jackson.

So can when can we schedule this meeting?

We will I I will follow up with your office after after the meeting.

Well, that's what we appreciate.

We are not worried about no land, nothing else.

We just want you to come in as the expert and help us start developing something for the city of Jackson that's gonna bring jobs and revenue and taxes.

I'm happy to.

And since you're here, um Northwest Jackson needs a grocery store.

Really bad.

And and when when I when we were out of town, kept saying these neighborhood, these Walmart neighborhood markets everywhere.

Can you help us get one in Northwest?

I I think it let me say this first off.

Right now I have a staff of three people.

Uh organizations of my size and other communities have a bigger staff.

There's a ton that needs to be done.

And we've got a list.

Um I think is as collaboration goes, you know, and and we're able to kind of put the manpower to everything that we need, it's it's obviously incredibly possible.

Um I had a meeting with um uh I actually got an email today.

I I I won't disclose you may know them, but I'm just in a public setting.

When we're working projects, we keep confidentiality uh pretty tight.

But I have somebody that is looking at potentially doing grocery stores here.

Um and I so far I I have nothing negative to say about them.

They seem reputable.

We're gonna have further conversations with them.

We're currently writing a letter of support for what they want to do.

Um it seems like that is in their wheelhouse, and I would love to kind of just connect you with them.

And and I I think right now they've looked on the south side of Jackson, but I don't know they've looked on the north, but I'm happy to make that connection and see what's uh what's it?

Okay, let me Mr.

Parkinson has a question, I believe.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Um and I appreciate you being Mr.

I I'm trying to understand as we bring it back to a potential data center moratorium.

I'm hearing conflicting things, and I would love some clarity on it.

I'm hearing some people say that if a moratorium gets passed, that's essentially a ban, that it will be a signal to the industry that we're not welcome to them.

But I'm also hearing you say that the need for data centers is so drastically high that these companies are so desperate to find places to be.

How can both of those things be true?

How can it be true that if we were to put a moratorium in today, that would essentially kill all projects?

But at the same time, um there's such a huge, huge need that these companies are looking anywhere to uh to to build.

Uh thank you so much for the question.

Um both can live realistically at the same time, but but let me kind of speak to this.

Uh yes, companies are looking to land wherever they can land.

Power is the number one issue.

Um they are, you know, anywhere these data centers are landing.

The first question is do you have enough sufficient power for me to be able to operate for the next 10 30 years, whatever it is.

Um and so that's the first question.

Now, obviously the city of the case.

So if I can interrupt you real quick, I'm so sorry.

Let me just ask this question then.

Say we put a moratorium in today, but then we have entergy verify that we have the and the power that they can supply.

If that's truly what they need, then is it true that I mean I I can't see a company needing it that bad, but saying, well, they put a moratorium in place, so you know, we're not even gonna consider them.

If what they truly want is the power source, if we can give them the power source, but they might have to wait six months.

Um wouldn't that make sense?

Look, I I I'll tell you this again, as I said before, companies are looking at speed risk and money.

If if if putting a moratorium, I I think putting a moratorium out there, I mean, this is just my personal belief.

If you put a moratorium out there, uh, that is one statement that says doing business.

I'm not saying this is exactly gonna happen.

I'm just giving you my opinion.

Doing business is really uh that's one step of a lot of layers that we're gonna have to overcome.

Uh I think right now Micron up in New Jersey is dealing with the situation where they've they've they've had all of their approvals processed for the last three to four years, about a hundred billion dollars they're planning to invest.

They've they've done due diligence on top of due diligence, and yet uh they've recently had another situation that's gonna delay them any longer.

Companies are not are looking to land and go.

Um, and I think any signal that shows that there's gonna be um uh I'm I'm not suggesting or recommending an ending capacity, not for uh due diligence to happen and for oversight to be in place.

That's not at all what I'm saying.

But I think uh a public indicator of of saying we're putting a moratorium on this um would indicate to uh data centers that want to land within the city limits of Jackson that there's gonna be extra hurdles to to overcome uh not just now but in the future.

You're more and I appreciate that, but let me just put you real quick, and and I I mean it just because I'm trying to build my own knowledge, you know, we've got this really important decision to make, but that New Jersey example that you've provided, is that project killed, or is that project still moving forward?

Maybe the industry is sort of uh upset about it.

They they wish it had gone a different way, but is it still moving forward, or is that project as you described it killed?

Well, I I that I I don't know.

I mean, right now, um, you know, I think with every business they change over and over, you know, strategy.

If something's not gonna work, they're gonna they're gonna come up with something else.

There have been a number of companies right now, and I'll just use New Jersey as an example.

Um, that, you know, there was one Japanese company, and forgive me, um, I'm I don't have the name of it.

I can get this for you.

They announced eight months ago that they're gonna make New Jersey their home, their head headquarters eight months later, they they packed up and decided that the regulatory environment there is not uh really business friendly and is gonna delay their future investment.

So they're moving everything to Texas.

Um, you know, I I say that just to emphasize regulation is important to companies because it impacts speed to get stuff done as it relates to the micron uh investment.

Uh I think they're still trying to make that happen because they've already invested a number of of uh a lot of capital for infrastructure for that particular uh development.

So I think they're kind of tied, but at the same time, they're having to come up with an answer because uh one of the one of the the reasons, you know, we personally landed a data center is because not only was there demand for you know Amazon to grow, Amazon has customers that are coming on board and are needing space.

And so for them to, you know, their their issue with us is are you gonna be a good partner?

Can we move quickly?

And you know, uh they they had a number of other questions, but those are two of the big ones because we've got to be up and running to meet customer demand.

Um, so I think companies across the board, this is not just data centers, this is everything.

They want to look and find a good partner, local partner that's going to make sure that that's a that's a concern for the local partner as well.

Again, I'm not against oversight.

I'm not against um regulation.

All I'm saying is I think it's smart to um uh again, personal opinion, to have a show that that we're very business friendly, we want to work with you.

We're not gonna give you a handout, you're gonna pay your own boat, but still, um, you know, we we want to we want you to win.

And Jack, thank you.

At least for war two, all money is not good money.

We want you to create some jobs, we want you to help us with some things that are gonna stay.

We want a grocery store, but a grocery store is not necessary for us.

We can spend our money anywhere there's a grocery store.

We can travel.

If you create the jobs in South Jackson, those people can go to whatever stores necessary and the stores gonna come.

So we're talking in circles.

So for what I want you to do for war two, I don't care what you do for the rest of this council, is come talk to us, help us find a project and develop some jobs, get us some revenue, get us some houses, get us some things that mean something.

Don't talk about temporary income or one-time income or one-time money.

That is not good money for the city of Jackson.

And right now we got 30% property, so we don't need money that's flying in and out.

If if it keeps doing that, we're gonna be at 40, 50 percent.

That's exactly and then we're gonna be out the door.

It's gonna be a closed city of bankruptcy.

Well, and and and just to just to emphasize what you just said, one of the most two two two points real quick.

Um I work very closely with MDA.

We don't incentivize a company unless they pay at minimum the the the uh average county salary um or city salary or or state, whichever one's the the lowest.

I think the state's 44.

I think maybe Jackson's 47.

Any case in point medium income in 47,000.

Do what now?

Our medium income in 47,000.

It's 37.

Our property rate is 30.

Well, the the jobs that we're recruiting when we do incentives, we look for if you pay above the county wage, whatever that is.

I think most of the county wages that I've seen are or excuse me, not county, the average wages that I have seen on companies that we have incentivized is somewhere in the area of 51 to 57.

So we you the companies that we're working with, when we try to incentivize them, we're not incentivizing low-paying jobs.

We are pursuing high-paying jobs.

Let's have a conversation after this about the education and everything else in the city of Jackson, because you aren't bringing $57,000 jobs to the city of Jackson to South Jackson.

If you are, we had a grocery store opened in tomorrow.

Well, I I I've only been here a year.

So well, just get familiar with this city and come back to visit us.

And I just want to say this.

Um, you know, I've heard this argument before about you know, you don't want to block opportunity, but I'm not gonna be fear-mongered.

That's how that's how I receive it.

There's a bunch of fear mongering going on.

And if this council did fold and just let this come into our city with, you know, this blank check, I think we will all pay for it a lot later.

Um, and for the record, I'm not against data centers, but I am against them being placed in our neighborhoods.

Jackson is pretty large, but it seems like they're only targeting certain communities to put these things in.

I see here in this in this draft of ordinance that only talks about 30, I mean uh a thousand feet.

I say it five miles, door to door, because again, we we've we've seen even in South Haven, a mile or two is not enough away from these data centers.

And so we have a responsibility to protect the public, but also do what's best for this city.

And so to say that you know you don't want to miss out on this opportunity, that's just a bunch of hucklepuck, and I don't think anything different is gonna change over six months.

Well, let me let me say this.

If I might just real quick, I I have not been had any conversations with the project in Jackson.

Um I've not been approached.

Um at here at the request of Mr.

Foote just to talk about what happened at our project and Clinton.

Um so just to give perspective, that's all.

And and one more thing here.

The project in Clinton did need to be rezoned, correct?

Uh it was rezoned.

Um, I think it was rezoned mostly for uh emergency cases of power outage.

When was it rezoned?

Recently, uh last eight months, nine months.

Okay, but it didn't need to be rezoned for the data center, correct?

Um, not completely.

I think the only reason that it was rezoned was in case of a I think it was out of an abundance of caution, is is what it was rezoned for.

It wasn't it didn't necessarily need to be rezoned.

And if you don't know the answer to this question, just say you don't know, the project in Vicksburg, it did not have to be rezoned.

I I don't know.

I know that it did not.

So we don't need to take residential property and put these big machines, these polluting machines into these communities where people have to go to work and go to school and live.

We have elderly people, Jackson is an older city, sure.

And we again we want to do what's best, but you know, there are other options than to just try to put them in certain communities.

Thank you.

Any other questions from Mr.

Gardner?

The Mr.

Thanks for being here.

Yeah, hopefully you'll be back so we can talk about how we can get our citizenship jobs.

Sure, absolutely.

I appreciate it.

Look, sometimes it seems though uh I hear the governor you know have a ribbon cutting here, but it seems like a lot of times that's outside the city limits.

I don't know why it's outside the city limits, but we need help and making sure we get uh viable companies within the city limit that could that could actually help us.

Sure.

And hey, Mr.

Gardner's offices and capital towers right across the street.

Yeah, and uh, can you send us a list of the uh board members as well?

Sure, sure.

I'll see if I can write a letter to see if you can get more time to pay attention to Jackson.

Yeah, yeah, happily.

And and I'm happy to say if anybody wants to sit down and have a deeper dive conversation, I'm more than happy to come sit in your office and walk you through, or you can come to mine and I'll show you some of the presentations, some of the pull up some maps and kind of talk through the process.

I think understanding the process, it was really helpful because you you need to know what the ROI is.

I mean, at the end of the day, that's what we're doing.

We want to have a positive experience for Jackson.

We want to have a positive experience for the county.

We want we want to be the shining star of the state of Mississippi, and um, and so the decisions you do make uh really do lead to that that reality.

So thank you.

Thank you so much for coming.

It's been very informative and and I look forward to expanding our relationship with you and your team.

Um with the uh development authority.

Any other questions, Mr.

Tavison?

You got any exit questions?

No, sir.

Thank you.

Well, I appreciate everybody's attendance and thank you, Ms.

Brown.

I appreciate that.

And Mr.

Martin, thank you so much.

This meeting is adjourned.

Public hearing in 26 minutes.