Hope everybody's had a beginning of a great new year.

Can't believe it's 2026 already, uh, a few days into it.

So uh I'm sure grateful for the cloud cover and rain that we're having in our community and and state of Arizona.

And I guess we're assembled to tackle some differ difficult issues maybe this coming year.

I hope they're not difficult, but uh it's uh what we do as council.

So with that, uh all members of our council are present.

Item one is to review the agenda we have for Monday, January 12th council meeting.

And let's go through that agenda.

Council, are there any questions regarding any of the agended items?

And not everybody speak at once.

Mayor.

Yes, Ms.

Duff.

I would like to discuss 8A on the best system.

It hasn't gone away over the holiday, it's still here.

It hasn't.

Mr.

Butler, Mary, okay.

I know there's been some uh changes on that.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

I'm not sure if there's a specific question, but since the uh meeting in December, um we've been working with the applicant um related to the next era site, which is the one off of Ellsworth.

And right now we're still introducing and recommending the 1,000 foot separation for the residential uses uh for the best systems.

The um applicant has been working with a property that is zoned residential that would have precluded them from meeting that thousand foot setback to look at a rezoning for that site.

So we've actually been um we've we've received a pre-submittal for a rezoning of that site to in an industrial use so they can meet that thousand foot setback.

So the two where we have the two pre-submittals, the one up on signal view, the one um down off of Ellsworth, both would be able to meet that requirement.

So so Mayor, Councilmember, um so the good news is uh both the IPA site that we previously um have worked on and this particular site um next era will be able to move forward with their best systems under under our proposed ordinance.

Now I think we've heard loud and clear though that council has an interest in continuing to examine that distance requirement as technology and safety uh advances around the best industry continue.

Um we're going to be you know working with the utility providers and others to um try to understand the needs moving forward, but um for this situation right now um this will allow those uh facilities to to move forward and meet the energy demands that uh Salt River Project needed for that site sites, excuse me.

Um concern is a rezone, you know that is costly and and time consuming.

It'll take quite a few months before it comes back to council.

Um they are under construction at this time, so is construction stopped.

Uh uh Mayor, Councilmember Dove.

The one that's under construction actually was approved prior to the interpretation that didn't that then did not allow the best in the city.

So the one that's currently under construction and it on signal view is moving forward.

They we've gone through that process.

They've got everything in place to be able to move forward.

They have a second site that is a little bit further inland off of Signal View that they that is the second site that they're looking at.

So that one on signal view will move forward, no issues.

We've got the the other one IPA has um proposed off a signal beauty, and then this one from next era off of Ellsworth.

So so Next ERA is the only one that is caught in this quandary of the thousand foot and requiring the um them to purchase the multifamily land and go through a rezone process.

That's correct.

The the second the second site meets the requirement of the thousand foot separation.

That's correct.

What would it take to uh put a 400 feet back on for our consideration so that a thousand feet there's a lot of energy that or some kind of land use in that thousand feet?

There's costs uh this is costing us energy, is costing us economic development.

Mayor and council member, um that would that would certainly be a legislative act of the council uh to to revisit that.

Um the direction we received from the majority of the council was to move forward with the thousand foot, and so that's why the ordinance reflects that that could be something that um now or in the future that council could could adjust if um if the thinking around this um technology changes or or different safeguards in in place, which is what we were um staff heard from the majority of council that wanted to keep this at the thousand foot.

Um, I've done I spent a lot of time reading, attending webinars, doing some office hours.

I spoke to five experts on energy storage, and this thousand feet does not have any merit or support or evidence that it's necessary.

I can go into a lot of the detail on why the hundred foot has uh met, you know, the toxins in the air for public.

I can go all into that.

I have documents and and I can talk about it.

I just think a thousand feet is overkill and it's kind of out of the air.

It's not accomplishing anything.

And you think in that thousand feet, three foot built ball fields, if we could fill that with energy storage or housing or whatever, it would have an economic return to our community.

Land just sitting there with no purpose at all, other than some arbitrary number that we created is a waste for our city.

So I have a question to uh uh in correlation with Ms.

Duff.

Uh Jim, can we make an amendment uh council meeting about the 400 foot, see where that goes on a vote, and then make a motion again on the a thousand feet because I don't know where council's really at as far as the uh linear feet of separation.

So whether it's 400 or 1,000 or somewhere in between, can council weigh in and do a vote on that.