Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the regular meeting of business housing and zoning committee for June 16, 2026.

My name is Jamal Osman, and I'm the chair of this committee.

I will call order for this meeting.

Before we begin, I want to remind all folks this meeting are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

They include real-time captioning to increase the accessibility of our proceeding to the community.

Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of their speech so that our captioners can fully transcribe all comments for the broadcast.

We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

We'll be using the speaker management, so please sign up.

At this time, I'll ask clerk to call the roll so we can have with my um we can verify the quorum.

Thank you.

Councilmember Rainville.

Present.

Warren is absent.

Schaefer, present.

Chavez.

Present.

Chiptag, present.

Vice Chair Chowdry.

Present.

And Chair Osman.

Present.

There are six members present.

Let the record reflect.

We have a quorum.

Our agenda is before us.

We will begin with a consent agenda.

If you want to speak any of these items, uh public hearing for today, please sign up with the clerk.

All right.

Uh consent is item 8 through 29.

Item A, approves uh two liquor license.

Item 9 approves 24 liquid license renewals.

Item 10 approves for gambling license renewals.

Item 11 approves the business license operating condition for wonder cycle located in ward five.

Item 12 approves the business license operating condition for urban ease located in ward seven.

Item set 13 approves uh 13 appointments to Minneapolis Workforce Developments.

Item 14 approves an appointment for Minneapolis Advisory Committee on Housing.

Item 15 approves 16 appointments to Minneapolis Art Commission.

Item 16 approves an appointment to the Minnesota Ballpark Authority.

Item 17 accepts an authorized workforce innovation opportunity act grant agreement.

Item 18 authorized amendment to the moratorium of understanding for the new Nicolette redevelopment.

Item 19 approves additional project financing for the affordable housing trust fund for 2116 Avenue.

Item 20 approves an appropriation of CBED from the U.S.

Department of Housing.

Item 21 approves a rezoning for David K at 2007 Stephen Avenue.

Item 22 accepts the grant from CBED staff to attend National Alliance of Preservation Commission Forum Conference.

Item 23 approves a partial debt forgiveness for rental reclaim one housing portfolio.

Item 24 approves the legislative directive related to the business regulatory environment in the city.

Item 25 authorize Minneapolis Housing Authority safety contracts.

Item 26 authorized submission of preferred census track ranking to the state of Minnesota for Federal Opportunity Zone Program.

Item 27 authorize 20-year contract expansion with Gathier Theater.

Item 28 sets a public hearing for July 7, 2026 to consider housing bond for grain exchange conversion project.

And lastly, item 29 refers to staff an ordinance related to the data center use regulations.

With that, any of my colleagues have any questions or would like to put items.

I see Councilmember Rainville.

16 and 29.

Please.

Okay.

All right.

Um, I see no one else.

I'll move all items except item 16 and 19.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

Uh, Councilmember Rainville.

Uh, thank you.

I'm wondering if uh someone from staff could explain uh the process for approving a uh a Minnesota ballpark authority appointment.

How is that done?

Or a clerk or someone on so someone just tell me what this is.

Okay, I'm gonna move to forward then this without recommendation.

Sure.

Was that 16?

Please, all right.

Uh I'll move that item.

Uh council member Rain.

We'll move the item without recommendation.

All those in favor say I.

I'm on cue, Mr.

Chair.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I just want to, Mr.

Chair, if I may speak.

I'm on cue.

Um this is number the Minnesota Ballpark Authority appointment.

So just for the public to know for public awareness what this item is, it's approving Jim Davney, former state representative at the state of Minnesota for appointment to seat one beginning January first, 2026, and ending December 31st, 2029.

So it's a former elected official who has a proven track record and supporting our city, the taxpayers of this city, who I believe would be a strong addition to the Minnesota Ballpark Authority.

So I don't think we need to move this without recommendation.

I'll support the motion today, but I'll be supporting this coming full council because it's an important position and it's something that needs to happen.

Thank you.

So I just want to make sure that folks knew what this item was because if we're gonna move something without recommendation, I think we should talk about what the item is, and the public did not know what was being moved without recommendation.

So I'll support the motion to move without recommendation, but I'm excited to support this appointment.

Former representative Jim Dabney has a strong track record of protecting taxpayer dollars and the residents of the city and deserves to be appointed.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you, Councilmember Shavis.

I'll recognize City Attorney.

Thank you, Chair.

Through the chair, Councilmember Rainville, apologies for the delay in response to your question.

Uh the Minnesota statutes do prescribe the process for appointing members of the Minnesota Ballpark Authority, and um pursuant to statute one member of that authority is appointed by the governing body of the city of Minneapolis.

So you are proceeding pursuant to that statutory requirement.

Thank you, City Attorney.

I understand that my my question which we can resolve before next week is who put this name forward and uh why is it at the expense where someone is going to be removed?

And that's uh that's a question I have that we can talk about outside the cameras.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rainville.

Uh, with that, the motion to move this item without recommendation.

All those in favor say aye, aye, and those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

All right, uh, would you like to talk about item 29?

Councilmember Rainville.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh, so again, uh my I'm curious here.

I I know we voted on this moratorium.

What does this do?

Is this enhance it or codify it?

What someone could explain it to me, please.

Uh Vice Chair Chowder.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Rainville.

And I also see um councilmember Schaefer in Q2, so I'm sure she'll have some great additions as well.

So the moratorium uh is a separate item that's in effect, and today we're carrying out in the public hearing portion that item, um, which will have a separate vote on.

This is the ordinances that me, councilmember Schaefer, I think you're a part of it as well.

We all um authored with several other colleagues to just start the regulation process and go through the committee process.

And the first step of that is going to be going to the committee of the whole of the planning commission on July 16th, and then having an open comment period, um, a voted planning commission, and then it will come to the business housing and zoning committee.

So it's starting that staff process.

Thank you for making that clear for those in the audience who are here for data centers.

This is the start of the process to uh really uh drill down on what those proposed changes would be.

Thank you.

I'll recognize Councilmember Shaver.

Yes, and just to add to what Councilmember Chowdhury stated, this will be about a five-month process that we're working closely with uh CPED staff to kind of set the regulations around.

What are the topics that we really want to dive into, both with the staff and with the legislative directive team, doing some returns at research as well?

60 days of public comment, and we should have this wrapped up by mid-November.

So we're really excited about this process that's before us and really excited to work together around many stakeholders who have a voice in this and to make sure that we um take advantage of the opportunity that's before us, but also make sure we have safeguards that are in place for our city and for our residents.

So more uh work and dialogue to come.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

I will also recognize in attendance as well.

Councilmember Warren.

Thank you.

Um, Council Vice President Asman.

So I'm excited to be a co-author on this um data center use regulations ordinance, but I'm also asking, so is this going to report back to our BIS committee, or is it going to report back to the committee of the whole?

Like where will this where will the the end results of this information ultimately live?

I'm not sure.

I believe uh BIS committee, if I'm not wrong.

Um, director.

Yeah, sorry, please come on in.

Please turn on your mic.

Thank you.

Got it, thank you.

Chair Osman, Councilmember Warren.

I'm Meg McMahon, I'm the planning director in CPED.

Um so the ordinance that's being introduced is for an amendment to the zoning code.

Zoning code amendments are statutorily required to go through the planning commission first before they go to council.

So the process will be an introduction at planning commission.

Planning commission will hold the official public hearing for that ordinance amendment when it's time.

Um then it will go through the Biz Committee for review and recommendation, and then ultimately to the full council because it ultimately is a legislative action.

So the full council will take action on it at a city council meeting.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Appreciate it.

I'll recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Council.

Um Vice President Osman and Chair Adsman.

I just have a few questions regarding this ordinance.

I'm not an author on it, but I do think that we need to have a moratorium in place in order for us to get um these regulations in top shape.

Um so that's why I'll be supporting the moratorium later today.

But as we speak on the regulations of data centers, I know there's a lot of authors here, if maybe one of the authors of the many can answer what their goal will be on where these data centers will go.

Um is that a part of that conversation, what the plan is for that?

I guess my concern is that like these data centers, the plan are to put them in northeast Minneapolis and industrial zones to put them in Phillips in High Wap, the Highwaffe corridor in our communities of color, and that is a very um scary situation for many of the community members that I represent proudly.

And I guess if any of the authors of the nine authors maybe could answer that question, where are these gonna go and what are the plan is with this ordinance for that?

And can you ease the concerns that you commit to not putting these in already polluted neighborhoods, already underinvested communities, already severely impacted neighborhoods, I guess is my question.

And I see three authors on queue.

Yeah, I'll recognize councilmember Schaefer.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Thank you, Councilmember Chavez for that question, and I absolutely hear your concerns, and we will absolutely address those.

And your voice will be in very important in this process.

Every single one of our voices are, and that's why there are so many co-authors on this, is that we really want to work together and make sure that every representative on this board on this council is has their voice and their concerns brought to the table and and legitimately and fairly and accurately represented.

And so, yes, zoning will be part of this.

Yes, generators will be part of this.

Um, some of it won't be um what we think it might be.

It might not be as interesting as we think it might be, but very, very important.

And so the other thing I will add is that monthly, councilmember Chowdhury and I, as um leads on this, we'll be meeting with CPED and with the LRO team, and we'll also be communicating back to our colleagues the information from those monthly meetings.

So please know, Councilmember Chavez, that as we work forward, you should anticipate um updates from both Councilmember Chowdhury and myself.

And those would be the forum for other co-authors to bring things forward in a timely and really quick way so that we can pivot so that we can take that all into consideration and really move this forward in a timely way that supports all of us.

So thank you for that question.

Alright.

Uh I just want to remind the folks that this is just a referral to the staff.

We still have an item on public heating on Moritonium Data Center.

So I see a list of people here.

Members, I will recognize Vice Chair Coweri.

Thank you so much, Chair Osmond.

And I I just want to start off by saying I think like there is a very big spectrum of opinions among the authors that are on the data center regulations ordinances, and I think that is going to be really key in us moving forward a really strong regulatory framework.

I'll share like where I'm at as it comes to data centers and data center development in our city.

One, I I feel really, really worried about all of the negative impacts that we are seeing across the country, and I'll lay some of that out in the moratorium conversation.

And while there have been claims made that the conditions in Minneapolis are different than other cities, it is still the same corporations that are seeking out opportunities here, and I think it's really important that in this process we keep that front and center and put the public interest right squarely here, and this is a transparent process.

I think even if a council member is not an author on this, you should take time to talk to your community members to field the concerns to work with us as leads of this, but also our city staff and really weigh in your voice on what you want to see because once we get into the zoning place, like that's an opportunity to say what your community needs and your community wants.

We have a robust opportunity planning commission with the public hearing, and then it will come to business housing and zoning in this fall and give us a lot of time for members to talk to each other.

Also, we have amendments happen.

I think we're trying to get to a place where it's like we can get it as baked as possible with every council member's voice.

I think for me, I remain really, really skeptical.

I had a really hard time with a lot of the exemptions that we put in place with the moratorium, but I understand that's what was needed in order to place a moratorium.

Um I think that we should have stronger restrictions on data centers, especially in areas that are green zones.

I think that we should um make the industry prove things to us before we go ahead.

And I think even if our policy tools aren't there on every single issue, that is something that the city of Minneapolis does have a duty to is explore the the harms, the way that we mitigate it and kind of fact-check this industry to make sure that we're all eyes wide open on this.

Um, and I won't go any further because I think there's a lot that gets covered in the data center moratorium presentation, but I will just say clearly to the public, and I think all my colleagues see this on this city council, there is not going to be a ban on data center development.

Right?

There has already been development happening, and there's development that's happening downtown.

Um, there was not a willingness to move forward a total moratorium, and that is why we've moved forward with a moratorium with exemptions for downtown, and I think that's really important for the public to be aware of.

Um, and those decisions were made with a lot of people with varying opinions on the spectrum on how they feel about data centers, me on the side of being much more restrictive and skeptical, and then others who are wanting to open the city to business, and I think again, going back to you, the public that's listening, your voice matters in this so much, and we are excited to create a lot of opportunities for you to be a part of the public presentations on research and information, and then also weigh in on public testimony or connect with your council members.

I'll recognize Councilmember Rainbow.

Uh thank you.

So uh Councilmember Chavez, uh rest assured that uh our staff is going to come back with some great suggestions which will alleviate all these fears and that we'll be able to uh do regulations based on facts and uh put all the fears aside as we go forward I am particularly interested in uh creating these good union jobs and ongoing uh operational jobs that these data centers provide as well as the tax dollars we are in a tax crisis our our revenue for taxes has evaporated from downtown and is that burden has been placed on every renter and every homeowner in the city of Minneapolis and we have to address that this is one of the many ways that it'll be addressed thank you all right uh lastly I'll recognize Councilmember Warner.

Thank you Council Vice President um and I just wanted to address my colleague um Councilmember Chavez um I too have concerns about development standards and where the data centers will be placed and what that means for black and brown communities as we have seen the layout and the build of these things happen in in other spaces but I'm also you know very interested in learning more about the revenue aspects that it does um alleviate on the tax side for our residents here because right now we do have residents that are you know taxing out of their homes that you know our foreclosure rates are up you know businesses are not able to develop and open up because of the expense of property taxes and things like that so you know really digging into how we um look at the definitions how we need to repurpose definitions and maybe other definitions that need to be added to a lot of the um ordinances around data centers and the use regulations all of those things are equally as important and I want to make sure that we have a lot of information but that they that that information also probes some more difficult questions that need to be asked as we dig deep into this work and and research so I'm excited for for the opportunity I'm here with you.

Thank you council members I will move item uh 29 refer to the staff all those in favor say aye aye and those opposed say nay the ayes have it and the motion carries all right next we will take up our public hearing which is which are item one through seven on the agenda anybody who signed up for this items will be given two minutes each to testify if you have any questions please see the clerk for registration for anyone in attendance and especially those who might participate in our hearings or comment period let me offer this notice this hearing are being recorded and broadcasted both the recording and broadcast are classified as a public data under the Minnesota Government Data Practice Act by attending and participating in this proceeding your image and any testimony or information that you provide will be subject to disclosure under the law that includes but not limited to your attendance your name and other personal details you provide as well as any testimony or comments you provide which includes any written submission you make which are included in the record of this meeting.

With that our first public hearing is to consider mayor's nomination of Eric Hansen to the appointment position as Director of Economic Director of planning and community planning community planning and economic development I will invite mayor Fry to speak on behalf of the nomination welcome thank you Chair Osman and Vice Chair I believe Chowdery members of the city council.

I'm proud uh to be here today to nominate Eric Hanson to serve as the Director of community Planning and Economic development.

Eric has uh over the series of many years, demonstrated steady, effective leadership in one of the city's most complex departments uh during a period of significant growth uh economic change as well as housing challenges.

His reappointment would provide the necessary continuity, institutional knowledge, and proven management at a very critical time for Minneapolis.

Before becoming CPED director, he served as the director of economic policy and development and previously worked for many years as a principal policy coordinator within the department.

He stepped into this leadership role during significant transition and maintained uh stability while advancing major city priorities.

I want to talk just briefly about a few of them.

First, in economic development and recovery.

In his tenure at the city, Eric has led Minneapolis economic recovery efforts through multiple major crises, including a global pandemic, the aftermath of the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd, and most recently Operation Metro Surge.

He played a leading role in Minneapolis's economic recovery efforts following COVID 19, including helping to implement the ownership and opportunity fund, which has now dispersed over $15 million to approximately 30 organizations, enabling business owners, oftentimes of color, purchase not just the business but also the underlying real estate.

And in recent months, Eric has led CPED's metro surge response.

He's enabled the mobilization of business support, community recovery resources, and cross department coordination to address economic impacts across countless um Minneapolis neighborhoods.

Also in the housing space, it's well recognized that Minneapolis is a national leader in our housing work.

We're pr presently producing about five times the amount of deeply affordable housing than we were before.

Stable Home Stable Schools has successfully housed over 7,500 children through MPS.

And we've also led the nation in eliminating exclusionary zoning and continuing that march towards desegregation and economic inclusion within our city.

Also, under his leadership, Minneapolis has continued a fairly remarkable streak of over a billion dollars in annual construction for now, I believe it's 15 consecutive years.

What that tells us is people want to live here, they want to invest here, they want to grow businesses here.

Uh, and Eric has also provided a thoughtful um and inclusive vision uh for how we both grow business and also look out for workers.

Um, uh there's real specific work that he's done in a number of different areas of this city, uh, whether that's in Uptown or the new Nicholit site down where the Kmart used to exist.

Um, Upper Harbor Terminal is a project that I often say Eric cut his teeth on.

Um these are projects that would not have happened uh without his leadership, and perhaps more importantly, his ability to work with a number of different community stakeholders from a ton of different backgrounds and perspectives.

Um, bringing together a coalition like that, especially when you're talking about a 40-acre parcel, a mile stretch on the Mississippi River, as one example, is not an easy thing to do.

Uh it means that you're gonna catch it a few times, sometimes in the face, sometimes in the media.

Uh it means that uh whatever decision you make at times will be criticized, uh, but it also means that he's found ways to lead through some really challenging projects and challenging times, and also bring people together, even in this room.

Uh, and so I'm I'm really grateful for your consideration of uh director Eric Hansen and his renomination.

Uh, Mr.

Chair, I uh deeply appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor, for those remarks.

Uh, first we will proceed to up in the public hearing and have Eric Hermark's letter after the hearing.

And I see I will open the public hearing and I see uh a few people sign up here.

I will recognize first James Trice.

Speak.

Welcome, sir.

Hello, um Chair Osman, distinguished council members.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to allow me to uh make comments on behalf of uh Eric Hanson's appointment to CPAD Director.

My name is James Trice.

I'm the founder and CEO of the Public Policy Project.

My organization, my group, we uh make sure that community is heard on issues that impact their lives.

I've been a registered lobbyist on behalf of black and brown communities throughout the state.

And um, and so I want to thank you.

I live in the Phillips neighborhood.

Um, and I just wanna say to you this that um I moved here uh from the south side of Chicago in 1990.

Upon moving here, I uh was hired in the Whittier neighborhood to actually create and write the first Whittier plan for the NRP Neighborhood Revitalization Program, which is now a community uh Minneapolis uh you all know I'm talking about this.

Yes, community relations department of Minneapolis Community Relations.

Um in that work, I had the opportunity to work with then uh Minneapolis Community uh development uh MCDA, which is now CPED.

Uh in my work with uh the MCDA, I had an opportunity to work with individuals by the name of Bob Cooper and John Heft and other directors, doing that work and writing that plan.

It was wonderful.

Um, still continue to engage uh black and brown communities throughout the city of Minneapolis.

Um now, move forward, 2020, I think it was when the Upper Harbor Terminal Development began to take place.

I began to work with uh CPED.

And I wanna say to you that in my work, particularly Southside Chicago, and then moving here in 1990, working on the NRP plan, which is matter of fact, the first plan submitted and approved by the city of Minneapolis.

Um there's never been, in my opinion, uh an individual from the city of Minneapolis that has been engaging with communities, make sure that black and brown communities, particularly unheard communities are, am I time up?

Please, you can drive it up.

I can continue, okay.

Well, I just want to say this.

I want to urge you and I beseech you to reappoint Eric Hansen as CPED director.

Finally, I want to say to you, I've never seen or never engaged with a director of the city of Minneapolis who has who is as accommodating and as uh concerned about black and brown communities and other communities to make sure their voices are heard on every issue that uh impact their lives.

Um so thank you so much, and again, please I'm gonna urge you to reappoint Eric Hansen as CPAD director.

Thanks so much.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Uh next person I would like to recognize is Bill English.

Mr.

Bill, welcome.

Good afternoon, Chair Osman.

Um, particularly, new councilmember Warren, a friend, fellow church member, councilmember Rainville.

We we we wear a few scars together.

It is unusual for me to come and speak good about people.

I mean, truthfully, as you all know me, and I'm first of all, Councilman, I'm gonna ask for a little grace.

I don't think as fast as I used to.

I don't speak as fast as I used to.

I don't need to speak to you today in two minute sound bites.

I have something important to say.

I hope you'd be graceful enough to allow me to say those few things.

I won't take up much of your time.

Yes, go ahead.

I've been up there, I've lived in this city now since 1959.

I came here from East St.

Louis to go to grad school, end up staying.

I've been the first in so many jobs I cannot remember.

First black salesman ever hired by 3M, first guy ever to be a life underwriter for a group, what is now health partners, the first executive at control data.

During that time, and back in those days when it was called MC MPD, I can't remember.

There were all acronyms for them, but they weren't called CPED.

But we put in a plant in North Minneapolis, control data, hired over 200 some people for more than 20 years.

We brought economic development to North Minneapolis like no one else.

No other company in the country.

And wasn't recognized nationally for that.

That's why I learned to be to create jobs.

I put plants in Minneapolis, St.

Paul, Hawthorne, California, Oklahoma City, and even a rural place called Campton, Kentucky, where I first time I realized all poverty was an urban and black.

I saw poor white people who tremble when you turn on a machine.

That's that Grace I'm asking about.

Think slow.

I'm 92.

You'll go there, keep breathing.

Anyway, I want to make this point.

I've seen many city CPED directors or MCDA directors.

I've seen them all.

I've seen none, and I mean that none, that has thought more about North Minneapolis than Eric Hansen.

Going back to Sir Christensen under RT, I could name them all.

Even Greg Taylor, who was a brother and one I respect very well.

He was hampered by the big developers who didn't like him there.

So I'm gonna spend just my last few minutes talking about my recent experience with Eric.

And it was around the Upper Terminal.

The mayor mentioned it.

We've got 46 acres of land laying fallow, where the city purchased, re-tore down all of the buildings, and then put together a plan that took over 45 people, four years to pull together.

Four years we worked without eating no meals.

We were sworn in by the council.

We met on Saturdays for hours.

We went through that process, and we came up with a plan that this council that previous members approved in fully.

And guess what?

The big developers went to the state.

MFHA has not given us a single unit for the Up Harbor Terminal.

They said 700 units was too large for the city that's got the largest amount of homelessness, that's got the largest number of encampments, that's had that sends more money to the state than any other city, and 700 units is too much, and you send 10 million dollars to more head for homeless people.

They got a problem finding 50 homeless people in Mohead.

You all know that, and I know that.

So I'm I came here today to say to Eric Hansen deserves your reappointment.

If he has done something, look, we all know Heritage Park is a mess.

And I stand with council member Warren that Heritage Park has to be fixed.

I think Eric knows that.

They're going to demand more out of him, but we got to demand more of the council.

Thank you, sir.

Can you please wrap it up?

I will try and finalize this by saying this.

I know most of you.

I respect all of you for the work that you do as elected officials.

Being an elected official is not easy.

But you have an obligation, and that obligation is to make sure that this city improves this lot.

I just guess you to compare one thing.

Compare Lake Street today and compare with Broadway today.

There's a difference, and there's a reason those differences exist, and that's to do with racism.

Thank you.

Appreciate you, sir, for your testimony.

I see a point of order from Councilmember Shabbos.

And maybe this is out of order, but I just want to make sure that we follow the two-minute mark.

If people go over 10 seconds, that's usually fine.

But we have seven public hearings today, and I want to make sure that we can get through the city business.

I usually, when I'm chair, let people go over 10 seconds, but after that, I just I'm afraid we're not gonna get through business if we let everybody go over two minutes today.

Thank you.

Um I appreciate you um saying that.

We will stick to the timing.

Uh next, I will recognize uh David Wellington.

Welcome, David.

Thank you, Chair and Council members.

My name is David Wellington.

I'm a Minneapolis resident and president of Wellington Management.

It's a family-owned commercial real estate company based in St.

Paul since 1984.

We own and manage approximately five million square feet of commercial real estate across the Twin Cities and about 800 affordable units in Minneapolis.

We have been a frequent partner in the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund program, and we've worked closely with Minneapolis staff for decades.

I'm here today to express my strong support for Eric Hansen and to encourage you to retain him as director of CPED.

I interact regularly with city staff and public agencies.

Effective leadership and government is not easy to find.

Minneapolis faces significant challenges.

We need more housing at all income levels.

We need economic development to strengthen our tax base and to support essential city services for our vulnerable neighbors.

We need to attract and retain businesses while creating a predictable environment for investment and job creation.

Achieving these goals requires a capable leadership and strong execution.

We had three buildings destroyed during the unrest following George Floyd's murder.

We were among the first property owners to uh begin rebuilding and amid tremendous uncertainty involving tenants, insurers, code compliance, the pandemic and economic pressures.

City staff had never experienced a calamity even close to this magnitude.

Eric helped lead this team and ours through the rebuilding of the High Lake Shopping Center, the Everlake Apartments and the Wendy's restaurant.

He demonstrated a remarkable capacity for hard work, problem solving, and results.

The development community should not seek special treatment.

We need consistency, transparency, and competent administration.

Those qualities create the confidence necessary for people and companies to invest in Minneapolis, and Eric helps provide that confidence.

I encourage you to support Eric and allow him to continue leading CPED.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

And I will also recognize Abbe Demeth.

Welcome.

Thank you so much.

Good afternoon, Chair Osman and member of the committee.

My name is Abe DeMaj.

I'm a small business owner, a developer, and also honor operated in the South Minneapolis and Lake Street.

I'm here to support with Eric Hansen, appointment for director of CPED.

Our team has been working with the Unity Project and committee focused development for small businesses, immigrant-owned and small uh minorities business entrepreneur.

Earlier this year, our corridor experienced a significant uh disruption following the immigration enforcement as the mayor mentioned.

Um that activity has made our business, our development almost entirely to just give it up.

It's almost eight to ten million dollar project.

Uh pretty much what we have all the uh you know become the uh the prospective tenants and lease people pretty much built out on us.

It was a very time of uh 2026, and uh unfortunately we were able to come back and bounce back, and during this time, Eric Hansen's, you know, um remained accessible, responsive.

What we need in anything that we need helps and supportive.

And his team helped us connect with the uh uh resources and guidance, you know, whatever we needed from the city of Minneapolis.

Having the level of support to CPED made a really difference, as my colleague early on, he said.

If you guys see right now, Lake Street and Broadway is a whole different town.

So I really support that.

Also having 700, we still have incumbent and homelessness in South Minneapolis.

And I also want to support to Jason Shavit that he mentioned about the data center.

We don't deserve that.

We deserve recognize.

So I appreciate it for that.

If you need my help, you could have my support.

Today I'm happy to uh project is recovering.

We are previously have 50.

We lost all the tenants now.

I'm having 50 to 60 percent leased up.

Our door is gonna open up for the Unity project in July 1st, 2026.

And as someone who was worked directly with Eric Hansen and his team, I can say, you know, understanding challenging small business and community developer.

Minnesota needs a leaders like him, and I'm here to support them anything he needs.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Um, that's the list that I have.

Are there anyone who would like to speak on this item?

See, none.

Uh close the public hearing and recognize uh Eric Hansen.

Good afternoon, Chair Osman, Vice Chair Chaudry, Mayor Fry, members of the committee.

Uh, my name is Eric Hansen, and I am honored to stand before you once again as Mayor Fry's nominee to run the Department of Community Planning and Economic Development.

Three years ago, when I took this role and stood before you, I spoke about optimism.

The optimism I felt when I first walked through the doors at the Crown Roller Mill, more than two decades ago as a young, very young project coordinator, eager to learn this profession.

Today, I stand before you with a different optimism, an optimism grounded experience, strengthened by challenge, and inspired by extraordinary resilience of the city of Minneapolis.

Minneapolis is my hometown.

It is the city that shaped me, is a city that educated me, and it's the city where I built my career.

It is an opportunity to leave our community better than we found it and build a city where everyone and every resident has the opportunity to thrive.

Over the past three years, I have had the privilege of leading one of the most talented teams in local government.

The 238 professionals of CPED come to work every day with a shared purpose to grow a vibrant, livable, equitable, sustainable, and safely built city for everyone.

They are planners, housing experts, permit specialists, economic development professionals, project managers, analysts, inspectors, and innovators.

Their experience and dedication are the foundation of every success we achieve.

Together, we have continued to support affordable housing production, investments in small businesses and entrepreneurs, advanced workforce, advanced workforce development opportunities, modernized our development processes, and guided major planning initiatives and real estate projects that will shape Minneapolis for generations.

More than 70% of CPED's program investments continue to reach BIPOC residents, entrepreneurs, or developers.

Our employment and training program served over 15,000 people last year, helping 1,800 adults and young people find jobs and paid internships.

Thousands of residents have found support through our housing and business development programs as we process a billion dollars worth of applications for development again last year.

These accomplishments matter, but they're not enough.

The true measure of community development is how many is not how many programs that we offer or how many permits we process or the dollars we invest.

The true measure is whether people's lives improve because our because of our work.

Despite decades of investment, we still see disparities that persist in across our neighborhoods.

Too many families continue to struggle with housing instability.

Too many residents lack opportunities for wealth building.

Too many entrepreneurs encounter barriers and encounter barriers when trying to start or expand a business.

And too many of our areas of our city have not yet shared equally in Minneapolis's prosperity.

If we want different outcomes, we must be willing to change our approach.

That is why I've centered CPED's work around a simple but ambitious vision.

Building the city of 2050 with a people centered CPED.

We are entered entering an important planning moment in Minneapolis with the update of the city's comprehensive plan.

The update is a once in a decade opportunity to ask ourselves what kind of city do we want Minneapolis to become over the next 20 years?

The Minneapolis 2050 plan is not simply a planning process, it is an opportunity to build a city where housing is safe, affordable, and accessible, a city where economic opportunities exist in every neighborhood, a city where growth is inclusive, a city that is carbon-neutral, a city that is safe, sustainable, and resilient, a city where every resident can fully participate in the economy.

To advance that vision, I asked CPED to focus on six strategic priorities.

First, we will continue continue to foster inclusive culture of belonging within our department and strengthen the system that supports our work.

Great outcomes begin when with empowered employees who feel valued and supported and connected to our mission.

Second, we continue to modernize and simplify our permitting and development processes.

Residents, entrepreneurs, developers all deserve a system that's clear, predictable, and customer centered.

Third, we will evaluate our programs through the lens of consequential outcomes, not simply participation outputs.

We must identify what truly removes barriers and creates substantial change in neighborhoods and lasting improvements in people's lives.

Fourth, we will maximize the impacts of the 2050 plan by creating comprehensive plan that sets goals to reflect the future needs and aspirations of our community.

Fifth, we will continue to pursue safe and affordable housing for all.

Housing stability remains the foundational to every opportunity we seek to create.

And sixth, we will establish a more equitable and resilient real estate strategy that puts CPED land to work, supports neighborhood vitality, and responds to the changing market realities throughout the city.

These priorities are interconnected because the challenges facing Minneapolis are interconnected.

We are living through a period of profound change.

The way people use cities is evolving.

Downtowns are transforming, retail patterns are shifting, economic gaps are growing, development economics are becoming increasingly difficult, and communities can continue to seek greater inclusion, greater opportunity, and a greater voice.

Yet within these challenges lie tremendous opportunities.

We can convert vacant buildings into new housing and new uses.

We can strengthen neighborhoods, neighborhood business districts while supporting downtown revitalization.

We can make it easier to start businesses, build housing, and invest in Minneapolis.

We can align public resources more effectively to support long-term prosperity.

Most importantly, we can continue to build trust.

Throughout my career, I've learned meaningful community development begins with relationships.

It begins with listening.

It requires honesty, accountability, and partnership.

Some of the most important lessons I have learned have not come from a classroom or a training program.

They have come from community leaders, from residents, from business owners and colleagues who have challenged me to think differently and to do better.

Those lessons continue to guide my leadership.

I believe leadership is fundamentally about service.

It is about removing barriers so talented people can do their best work.

It's about creating cultures with diverse perspectives where diverse perspectives are welcomed, where innovation is encouraged, and where mistakes become opportunities to learn and improve.

It is about building trust through transparency and consistent action.

I also recognize that none of this work happens alone.

I'm grateful, Mayor Frye for your confidence and partnership.

I am grateful to you at the City Council for your encouragement and guidance, partnership and commitment to serving Minneapolis residents together.

I'm grateful to our community partners, some of which you've heard today, nonprofit organizations, business leaders, neighborhood organizations, and the people of Minneapolis who continue to help shape our work.

And importantly, I'm grateful to the CPED team.

Their dedication, expertise, and commitment to public service inspire me each and every day.

Finally, I want to thank my family.

Public service is very rewarding work, but it also requires sacrifice.

My wife Shannon and our kids, Adam and Julia have supported me throughout this journey, and their love, patience, especially listen to listening to me about my stories about work and encouragement make it possible for me to serve this city.

Twenty-three years ago, I walked into CPED hoping to learn a profession.

Instead, I found a calling.

Today I remain remain optimistic about Minneapolis as that first day.

Not because the challenges are small, not because I've but because I've seen what this city can accomplish when we work together.

I've seen the creativity of our residents, the resilience of our neighborhoods, the dedication of our public service servants, and the willingness of community to confront challenges and to fight for Minneapolis, because Minneapolis is worth fighting for.

Minneapolis is not a perfect city, but it's a remarkable city.

And I would be honored to continue serving alongside all of you as we build the city of the city of 2050, one that is more equitable, more prosperous, more inclusive, and full of opportunity for everyone.

Thank you for your consideration.

I respectfully ask for your support, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you so much for your uh remarks and testimony.

Um if you would like to have any question, please uh log in.

Uh the public hearing is closed.

I do I will myself here.

I do want to, you know, really thank you for your service for 23 years.

That is remarkable.

That's amazing.

Um for that commitment from you.

Um, City of Minneapolis has been through uh many challenges, and um for me last six years working with you, your leadership is amazing.

And as you as you also mentioned, CBET team, the expertise, the knowledge they have.

It's it's really remarkable.

Uh CBED has uh done reports to this committee and done a lot of work with me and and with the community members here with the members here and the also community members.

So um thank you all, and thank you for yourself and your leadership.

And also I uh I do want to say that you know I 100% support you.

I will like to make the motion uh for this item uh for approval.

Uh second, thank you.

And finally, uh, I think as we move forward, uh city is changing.

Um, and every issue uh requires a different uh way of looking at it.

Each neighborhood is different.

There's different cultural, different way of of doing businesses, and what's unique uh that we should focus on is uh definitely uh looking at that community and saying that how do they do things?

How can we, the policies and procedures we have, how do how do we not just stick to that but all how do we be bending and be flexible, what works best for that community.

Uh for me and you have money conversations, we have done um uh money check-ins, and um obviously I I represent the community that have a lot of challenges uh economically uh safety, everything, opportunity for minority and uh people of color.

I and and you know, I look forward uh in your leadership next four years to really partner with you and uh you know solve the issues together and and and not just uh we can't do it, but how do we how do you know what we need to do to get there to make it happen is what I look forward to uh working with you.

I don't have any question.

I do will recognize uh council members who are here who like to speak.

Uh recognize Councilmember Rainville first.

Uh thank you, Chair.

I know we're on a time crunch here, so I'll be very brief.

Uh thank you, Mayor, for the nomination.

I think you've made a very wise choice.

Uh director, I will be voting today to move this forward, and I'll be voting uh to appoint you.

And uh my expectation is that as council uh chair Osman had said the city has changed.

This is a different city, and we have a different set of headwinds that we have to face.

So I'm I'm I glad to see your staff that are so great and fabulous, and I have contact with uh sometimes more than I should.

Uh but we have to do things different for the betterment of this community, and I'm counting on you to lead that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Council Vice President.

Um Eric, you and I have had our conversations, and I'm really struggling at this time because I'm newly elected.

I just took position and seat in November here, and as a new council member coming in and being a constituent first, I'm seeing the disparities that exist within my community while you're talking about, you know, we sat down, my first introduction into your office.

Um, we talked about us going to, you know, the same high school and and all of those fun facts about ourselves.

But we looked at the area of concentrated poverty map.

And one of the things that you neglected to tell me is why that map still is so concentrated.

And the information on that map still holds true today.

And that map was out in 2019, you know.

Um, you know that I'm extremely frustrated about the conditions that are happening in Heritage Park.

We saw the video.

My greater question then becomes what have you done in implementation to the changes and oversight of those type of things continuing to perpetuate themselves within my community, specifically in Ward 4 and Ward 5.

Because that's a real place.

Heritage Park is just the tip of the iceberg.

We got Park View, City View, River Plaza, like I mean, it just the list goes on and on.

So I understand that we want to celebrate and be excited about new developments, but if the the old house is still dirty, we can't move somewhere new until we have learned from the failures of the things that have happened in their current condition and ensure that we got a proper plan going forward because it doesn't make any sense otherwise.

Yeah.

The investment doesn't make any sense because we just end up with more of the same.

If the changes are not being made and the requirements are not strenuous around these developments and these opportunities, then we we just end up with more in the same.

Elder English talks about the 700 units that he wants to see at Upper Harbor Terminal.

Well, that model looks very similar to what's happening at Heritage Park.

How do we not end up with more of the same?

Because North Minneapolis does not need more of the same.

I've been waiting for communication effective.

There's a lot of things as a new council member that you had in your tenure of knowledge about what was happening that should have been at the precipice of conversation about the things that were going on in Ward 5 that was not talked about in forums and all kinds of things during the course of the election.

Now you're on the inside of the glass.

When I sat down, those things should have been briefed and they should have been discussed, and we should have been talking about plans of action.

I was extremely heartbroken, and I don't like to talk about feelings, I really like to talk about facts, but I was extremely heartbroken in the meeting that we had when we called all of the department leaders together, and you made the comment that you made to me about how we'll be back here again in 20 years, and I said, not if it's done right.

But ensuring that it's a fair and equal value for all.

But so that the community as a whole gets to benefit from these opportunities.

That's social stratification, right?

Where we all get to move forward together, and right now, I don't see that.

So I'm I'm really having a hard time with this, and I'm sorry that I can't support your appointment at this time, but it looks like you got some support from my other colleagues.

Maybe we'll have time to shape our relationship differently, but I can't support it at this time.

Thank you.

Yes, uh, please go ahead.

Um, Chair Osman, uh, Councilmember Warren.

Yes, I don't know if we we have not gotten off on the on the right foot, I will admit through that.

Um I will drill right down to it.

Um I am horrified about the conditions that are at Heritage Park.

And the comment that I made is we better we have to do something different, or we're gonna be back in the same situation in 20 years.

That is is a failure of the property owner to not keep the um the property conditions in inhabitable condition.

It is that is too new of a development to be in that rough of a shape.

And then when we talked about the areas of concentrated poverty, that is exactly the consequential impact that we as a city need to start to make.

I can go through a lineage of of tactical um investments we have made as a city in areas of concentrated poverty, and it hasn't changed.

The reason I have that map up in my um in my office, and I haven't updated it, is because the map doesn't change.

And I could go back 15 years when I first started, is the same map.

And so, what are we as a city doing to look at the root drivers of why certain areas of Minneapolis are areas of concentrated poverty and others aren't.

We're not sharing prosperity across all of the neighborhoods, and that's the change that CPED has to make.

We have to start to look at why our investments aren't making it, and one of the reasons one of the things we have to do is to articulate what the true problem is.

I can tell you, and I said it in some of my remarks, that you know, 80% of our 70 to 80% of our um our investments are going to people that are most marginalized.

But it tells me that if we're not making consequential impacts to areas of poverty, that tells me that we're not putting enough money into it or or putting it in the right spot.

And so we have to make some changes to how we move um through our investment decisions, our programs.

We have to look at everything because I agree with you.

We are making investments in neighborhoods that are needed, but we are not changing the conditions on the street, and we have to be um less eager for the same thing over and over again.

So I'm hopeful that we can build a productive relationship.

I'm gonna try and earn your trust um as best as I can and show you that uh I do care about all the people because that's what we were here for.

Community CPED's first name is community.

At the center of that is people.

That's what we think about every day.

So um I don't want you to get the impression that I don't care about people in ward four or or people in ward five.

Thank you so much.

I will recognize Vice Chair Chowry.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

I'll keep my remarks really brief because I know we got a lot of work ahead of us today.

Thank you so much, Director Hansen, for accepting the nomination and coming before us today.

I just want to first start off by saying I don't think as council members are allowed to have favorite departments, so I won't say anything.

We can you can have a favorite department.

Um but I've just really appreciated being a part of the work of the business housing and zoning committee, um, getting really down into the weeds of the work that happens within the department, whether it's business licensing or planning or development, um, or making events happen or responding to crisis in our city.

Um it has been one of the most rewarding things that I have been able to do in my job, and I have loved working with every single staff member in CPED that I've had the chance to do that in.

And I think that's a real testament to the environment that you've created within the CPED department uh that asks me local nine questionnaire from members shows that that you're a very thoughtful leader that cares a lot about the team that you have to lead and also empower in leadership, and I think that's a type of leadership CPED needs right now, and it needs that type of stability and vision, and so for that reason I am supporting you.

And I think there are places where we need to continue to build the muscle of like working on issues that come from council members and CPED, and I think council member Warren um lays that out really clearly.

I know all of us care a lot about the future of Heritage Park, and then there's several projects throughout our community and several issues, um, but I think that's a really great opportunity where I look forward to seeing you address and improve and us coming out in a place where we're helping out people in need.

So thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Warren, what are you is that a will you sign off to speak?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Uh Council Vice President.

15 years you've been looking at this same map and the conditions, and you're talking about marginalized and disenfranchised communities and areas of concentrated poverty.

So what efforts have you put forth now in implementation to change the oversight that's happened for the community?

I'm waiting for that question to be answered.

And then how well is the affordable housing that you are championing it?

How is it going to be maintained differently going forward?

Because I've been hearing a lot about what people have not been able to do.

So now that individuals have the ability to do and have had the ability to do for the last two years, what is going to be your role in ensuring that the urgency and efficiency around sustaining and maintaining affordable housing specifically in North Minneapolis, public dollars are going to be put to good use.

We're seeing a lot of that investment.

I can I've participated in redeveloping of uh number of buildings on Broadway.

I uh the city has put in um tens of millions of dollars into into affordable housing, and I'll get to the affordable housing in areas of concentrated poverty.

We have um community-based organizations to help people find new employment.

We have, and to help start and and maintain businesses in those same areas.

What I'm saying is it hasn't had a consequential impact.

So we have put most of our funding in or to traction funding into those areas of most need, and it still hasn't changed.

And I think that's worth a conversation about why has not it has not changed.

What is the totality of the issue that we need to address and are we doing it wrong?

And I'm open to that conversation about what we need to do.

On the affordable housing, we, you know, I've talked to you about uh the relationship that uh I was expecting you're having with some other people within within the city and and and we'll continue just to have the relationship between the two of us.

CPED is a funder of um affordable housing developments.

We're not the property maintenance and uh rental license group.

We will work very closely with our partners in Reg Services, Office of Public Service, the police department, and all the other entities with public works, but we're gonna we're gonna need to take a more uh active role in what the conditions are.

We cannot let something like Heritage Park happen again.

So I don't know what that means.

I'm looking for I'm listening to other experts on what that what that role should be.

Um that is you know my area of expertise that came up through the economic development side of CPED, not the housing side.

So I'm relying on the housing team to help me with some um strategies, but we need to clear plan for heritage park.

We need a clear understanding of how much it's gonna cost.

We need to know what what the role is of every partner, including the city, um, and we need to know what the ownership's requirements are, and then we need to look at other properties that the city has invested in.

And as far as um cleaning up your own house before you move to the new house, is that's that's a conversation I'd like to have with you because if we are seeing we we are seeing that some strain in the housing market right now, operational costs are are um uh growing, the um which are causing some housing developers, both nonprofit and for-profit to be strained, and we can't see those housing units go dark.

So we've we've focused more on preservation in the last in the last few years, but I think that's worth a conversation about where is it the right spot to put housing funding into?

Is it more of a preservation approach to it or is it a production approach or a mix?

Um, and that's uh open for conversation, but that's that's what I think CPED's role should be.

Uh thank you so much.

I'll recognize Councilmember Shaffer.

Yeah, I just want to publicly say thank you to all the 230 CPET employees that work hard and help residents day in and day out with small problems, large problems, uh problems you didn't even know existed.

Um but so I just want to say thank you and thank you to Eric for your leadership with the team and how important it is to have a leader who understands the team, can motivate the team, and can redirect the team when needed or whatever the whatever the tool and toolkit is needed at that moment in time.

I really appreciated your answer around growth opportunities for Minneapolis being one part resources and one part confidence, and just wondering what you see as needed at this point in time to restore greater confidence in investing in the city of Minneapolis.

Chair Osmond, Councilmember Schaefer, thank you for the question.

Um, yeah, referring to economic growth opportunities.

Um, and I simplified it as the economic growth is one part resources, one part confidence.

Minneapolis is rich with resources, um, and unless you have the confidence, you're not gonna you're not gonna invest in Minneapolis.

The first perfect way to get confidence into Minneapolis is to have very predictable processes.

To know that you when you come to the city, you know how you're gonna when you enter the city's process, you know how you're gonna get out, and you know how you know how long it's gonna take you to get out.

That um that's the first thing we can do.

The second thing that we need to do as a city is to make sure that when we're making investments that we're leveraging the investments in the right areas, so that our funding are going in the places where other people want to uh invest as well.

So we need to make sure that we're being smart about where leveraging and then and then third, we have to tell our story better.

Uh Minneapolis has had a series of crisis over the last few uh six years for many outside of the region, I mean, and not that far outside the region in the exurbs, they think the city burned down, and we know that is not the truth, and so we have to continue to uplift the positive stories about the remarkable people of Minneapolis and all the remarkable things that we do here so that people feel like this is the place to be because it sure sure is.

No, I I really I really appreciate that, and this idea about predictable process and engagement is really I take to heart as a challenge personally, as we look forward to pivoting on George Floyd Square, as we look forward to a lot of the thorny problems around Heritage Park, etc.

Um, giving us a process and predictability um gains confidence for me as well as staff as well as residents, so really I really appreciate that.

And secondly, if you were to pick a growth sector, you know what what is it?

Is it you know, just for the fun of it, um, within Minneapolis, what is that growth sector?

Is it housing continuing to be housing?

Is it medical, is it retail, is it industrial, and maybe maybe what it is, and then if maybe what you wish it was, I don't know.

It's kind of an open-ended question about what sectors do you see as you know driving growth?

Yeah.

Uh Chair Osman, Councilmember Schaefer, that's a great question that requires a lot of detailed analysis.

So I'm just gonna wing it.

Um so what I would say is uh we need the next generation of the Greycos and the Pillsbury's and the Medtronics, and those come from the kids that are in our community, they're coming up with some things.

I'm starting to feel feel my age when my kids show me something and I can't I can't figure out what they're doing.

And that's where we're gonna see the ingenuity, and that's we're gonna see the new ideas, and that's where where the growth sector is.

And so we need to make sure that we're fostering a uh an entrepreneurial spirit, no matter what corner of the city you're in, because those great ideas.

I mean, Greyco, I've talked about this before, it's they were mechanics in Northeast and they couldn't get oil into a in out of their can in February because it was so cold, and therefore they started a company that did applicators.

Like that ingenuity about what what they needed to do, um, is gonna come from the next generation, and we need to make sure we're fostering it so that that when they are putting that business in place, they decide this is the place they want to do it.

This is where they want to invest their capital and they want to uh employ the people.

So that's what I'd say.

And then the other things we can look at with the healthcare sector and the fintech sector and all those other fun things and our location quotients, we can give you a whole report on that, but I think it's the kids that we have to think about.

No, thank you, Director Hanson.

I'm proud to support your nomination.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh lastly, I'll recognize Councilmember Shavis.

Uh thank you.

Uh Council Vice President Osman, Chair Osman.

Just wanted to uplift the words of my colleague Councilmember Warren.

I did see the video she posted yesterday about Heritage Park, and it was very alarming, and just don't know why.

I don't know why that the buildings are even in that condition.

I mean, I know why they're in that condition.

I just don't know why anybody would ever have to witness that kind of um conditions in a building.

It was very alarming.

So I guess I would just like to hear, and not today, but ahead of full council next week.

Like what is the city's plan to address the concerns in that in those buildings because it is atrocious.

Um I can address it as well in terms of like what else I'm hearing in the community that I represent when it comes to unsheltered homelessness and the work that we are doing in a city uh to address homelessness and um how we are being more creative than what we are doing right now.

I'm a big supporting, big supporter of building housing of all income levels, but I think there needs to be a focus and more of a priority on a focus on addressing unshortered homelessness and building housing that is deeply deeply deeply deeply affordable with the focus on innovative solutions to address unshortered homelessness.

Would love to see more tiny homes across our city of Minneapolis, a place for people to be able to sleep at night because what is happening right now, at least in the community that I represent, there's a lot of fences going up and folks are being scattered across our neighborhoods, and uh it's not addressing the actual issue of unsheltered homelessness.

So I would just like to hear a more robust plan for a CPED on how we are going to address unshortered homelessness and the challenges that come with it.

It doesn't have to be today.

I know we've had a conversation about it already, but I would like that to at least be noted.

Um I'll support the motion today to move it to full council and would just appreciate another meeting uh ahead of the final vote on Thursday.

Sure.

Alright, uh, thank you so much, members.

I would that motion to approve this item.

I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilmember Rainville.

Aye Warren, no schaffer.

Aye, Chavez.

Aye.

Chick Tai.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chowdery, aye.

And Chair Osman.

Aye.

There are six ayes and one name.

That motion carries.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh, we're gonna go to the next item, which is uh public hearing for entertainment upgrade.

Uh indeed for brewing comp indeed brewing company located at ward one.

I'll have lead inspector business license, uh Phil Cottel, uh, to come and speak on this item.

I just come in.

Okay, we're gonna wait the staff to walk here.

Oh, thank you.

That's the number of people here.

We also have over 35 people saying that.

Which is I just wanted to let me know if it's in the chapter.

Uh, sir.

Welcome.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair Osman and committee members.

My name is Phil Cottrell, and I'm a lead inspector with licenses and consumer services.

I'm presenting an application from Indeed Brewing Company LLC, in business as Indeed Brewing Company.

Located at 7-11, 15th Avenue Northeast, suite 102 in ward one.

The applicant is requesting an upgrade of entertainment level for the existing on-sale chat room with no entertainment and Sunday sales license.

If approved, they plan to upgrade to an on-sale chat room with limited entertainment and a Sunday sales license.

Also, if approved, types of entertainment include community gatherings, comedy, and small musical and three-piece band performances.

On May the 22nd, 2026, notices were sent to residents, property owners, and posted on all residential buildings with four or more units within 600 feet of the premises.

Notices were also sent to the Logan Park Neighborhood Association, the Northeast Minneapolis Business Alliance, and Council Member Payne.

We have received one comment from the community regarding concerns about an increase in noise from the location.

There have been no significant 311 or police calls that can be attributed to the business.

The licenses and consumer services division recommends approval of an on-sale chat room with limited entertainment and Sunday sales license for indeed brewing company.

This concludes my presentation.

At this time I will stand for any comments or questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for that presentation.

I will now proceed to open the public hearing and see if there's anyone who would like to speak on this item.

Seeing none, I'll close this uh item and uh I'm sorry, I'll close the public hearing and move this item for approval.

So all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

All right, our next public hearing is extended hours operation for rental hall license for Millennium Event Center.

Um I will have uh you just talk about this item again.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair Osman and committee members.

Again, my name is Phil Cotterall, and I'm a lead licensed inspector with licenses and consumer services.

I'm presenting an application from Millennium Building LLC, doing business as Millennium Event Center, located at 223 Central Avenue Northeast in Ward 1.

The applicant is requesting a rental license to hold weddings, baptisms, community events, and religious ceremonies not open to the public or ticketed events.

The applicant is also requesting an extended hours of operation license to extend the current permitted hours of operation to Sunday to Thursday, 5 p.m.

to 12 a.m.

to Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m.

to 2 a.m.

On May 22nd, 2026, notices were sent to residents, property owners, and posts on an all-residential building with four or more units within 300 feet of the premises.

Notices were also sent to the Wyndham Park Neighborhood Association, the Northeast Minneapolis Business Alliance, and Council Member Payne.

We have received no responses from the community.

The Italian American Club of Minneapolis held a rental hall license at this location since 2023, and there have been no significant 301 or police calls that can be attributable to the location.

The licenses and consumer services division recommends approval of a rental hall license and an extended hours of operation license for Millennium Event Center.

This concludes my presentation.

At this time I will stand for any comments or questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir, for your presentation.

I will proceed to open the public hearing and recognize uh Maria Alvarado.

Welcome.

Sorry.

Good afternoon, Chair Osman and members of the committee.

My name is Maria Alvarado, and I am here on behalf of Eugenio Rivera, the owner of Millennium Event Center, who unfortunately cannot be present here because he is out of the country with on a family trip that was planned, planned several months ago before the week he knew about this meeting.

With the committee's permission, I would like to read a brief statement on his behalf.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

Although I recently became the owner of Millennium Event Center, I have been managing and operating this venue for more than 15 years.

During that time I have been responsible for the contracts, event coordination, customer service, facility maintenance, cleaning, and the day-to-day operations of the business.

I know this business inside and out because I have dedicated a significant part of my life to ensure its operation responsibility professionally and respectfully.

Over the years, I have worked hard to maintain positive relationships with our customers, neighbors, and the community.

The venue has served as a gathering place for weddings, baptisms, graduations, family celebrations, community events, and other important occasions that bring people together.

I will also like to mention that I'm not only the owner of this building.

I operate another business within the same property and have invested many years of hard work, resources, and commitment into the neighborhood.

Because of that, maintaining open communication with neighbors and contributing positively to the community is extremely important to me.

I understand that the success of my business depends on being a good neighbor and operating responsibly.

My goal is not to create something new or unfamiliar to the community.

My goal is to continue operating a business that I have successfully managed for more than 15 years now as now as its owner.

I am committed to complying with the city of Minneapolis regulations and requirements, maintaining open communication with neighbors and ensuring that this venue continues to be safe, respectfully, and positive part a positive part of the community.

For all these reasons, I respectfully ask for your approval of the licenses necessary to continue to operate this business.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and trust.

I look forward to continuing to serve the community and contributing positively to the growth and well-being of the neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Are there anyone who would like to speak on this item?

See none.

Close this uh public hearing and move this item for approval.

No, on that motion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

Next item is a land sale located at 3726 Logan.

I'll have um.

Uh good afternoon, Chair Osman.

Members of the committee.

Sherry Schoquist, residential real estate manager, before you today.

Uh, regarding the land sale of thirty-seven twenty-six Logan Avenue North, which is part of the emergency stabilization pilot program, which provides an option for the tenants to purchase their homes.

This tenant, now home buyer, has executed an offer to purchase and is ready to close.

Uh, before you today, for your consideration, is the passage of the resolution and the uh authorizing the land sale of the property at 3726 Logan Avenue North, and also authorizing the land sale and related financial agreements.

Thank you.

All right, great.

Thank you so much.

Uh, this is a public hearing, so I will open the public hearing and see if there's anyone who would like to speak on this item.

See, nana, close the public hearing and I will move this item for approval.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

All right, our next meeting is um uh public hearing related to ordinance related to tailgating.

I'll have uh business manager Emilingo to come and speak on this item.

Welcome.

One moment, the computer time, I'm not sure what I'm doing.

Ready?

Thank you, Chair Osman and Committee members.

I am Anne Manager Amy Linga with licenses and consumer services, and I am presenting an ordinance amendment for Title 13, Chapter 319, also known as the Tailgate Zone Ordinance.

A tailgate zone was first established in 1982 for Class A parking lots surrounding the Metrodome and was updated in 2016 with the construction of the U.S.

Bank Stadium to allow typical activities associated with tailgating.

Class A parking lots with the current tailgame zone, tailgating zone pictured, um, are allowed to permit alcohol consumption but not the sale of on licensed parking lots beginning six hours before and ending three hours after a U.S.

bank stadium event.

Food preparation by patrons for their own consumption is also permitted.

Tailgators are required to clean up litter and debris generated by their activities.

The ordinance changes are actually quite simple.

So this amendment to the ordinance is a simple change to the geographical tailgate zone area with no changes to time or operation.

This is an area change, not an operational change.

The proposed change would expand the current tailgate zone one block to the southeast along South 7th Street to Fourth Avenue South to 13th Avenue South, as pictured by the yellow.

This change would allow for three additional tailgate lots within two blocks of the U.S.

Bank Stadium on June 3rd.

Public hearing notices were sent to all neighborhood associations, all business associations, all council members, and the class A parking lot license holders.

We have received no comments or feedback from the community.

This concludes my presentation.

At this time, I'll stand for any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh first of all, we're gonna go uh on the public hearing, so I will open uh the public hearing and see anyone who will like to speak.

I see Will Buzek to who sign up to speak.

Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Will Poozak.

I am a third-generation parking lot manager in the Elliott Park Farm neighborhood.

I'm speaking on behalf of my family who has owned and operated a class A parking lot for 60 years in the Elliott Park neighborhood.

I'd like to thank Councilmember Osman, Chair Osman, for your leadership on this amendment and your attention and care uh for the businesses and constituents in Ward 6.

I'd also like to thank your staff and the broader city council staff for guiding this amendment through the process.

Your work is what makes this possible.

After a few rocky years in the LA Park neighborhood, downtown is especially turning a corner.

The Vikings Game Day experience is vibrant, people are coming downtown and staying downtown and supporting many local businesses.

We see them parking at our parking lot.

Most recently, the city, as you are aware, was awarded the 2028 NFL draft.

There are many green shoots on the horizon.

In closing, I do appreciate Chair Osman and his team, along with the broader City City Council, for your support of downtown and the small businesses who operate there.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

I is there anyone who would like to speak on this item.

Seeing none, uh close the public hearing and move this item for approval.

So with that motion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those uh both say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

All right.

Uh next item is ordinance related to uh license and business regulation for adult bathhouse and adult entertainment venue.

I will turn this in over Council Member Shavis to kick us off presentation.

Yes, sir.

Awesome, thank you.

Uh, thank you, Chair Osman.

And I'll just wait for the presentation to go up while today is a technical amendment.

It is the first step we are hoping to take on to address the ban on bathhouses, which is being authored by myself, Council President Paine, Councilmember Chugtai, Vice Chair Charlie, Councilmember Wandsley, and Councilmember Stevenson.

It is important to start off by acknowledging that bathhouse restrictions have a history that is intertwined with anti-2S LGBTQIA plus bigotry, in particular the history of homophobia in Minneapolis.

And this is a step to help rectify past harms.

Before the ban, bathhouses were gathering spaces mostly for two S LGBTQI plus people.

We also know that several raids at these establishments occurred unprompted, making many in our community feel very unsafe.

In December 1979, the largest raid on adult bathhouse in US history occurred here in Minneapolis, where two undercover MPD officers in towels began grabbing men and arrested them.

125 people were ticketed and nine were charged with failing crime of sodomy.

In 2001, same-sex sexual activity became cons between consenting men was illegal until 2001.

Same-sex sexual activity between consenting men was illegal in Minnesota.

These raids that were carried out with the explicit goal of criminalizing residents for being gay or a part of the 2S LGBTQI plus community.

In 1987, a ban was made on quote high-risk sexual behavior, despite research indicating that closing bathhouses had no effect on slowing HIV transmission.

At the time, the health commissioner researched the effectiveness of closing the bathhouse in other cities and told city council that it resulted in no change in HIV transmission.

People would continue to engage in sexual activity elsewhere.

In 1988, bathhouses were formally banned in Minneapolis.

Other cities have revisited their bans and reversed them with strong public health protections like San Francisco.

We also know that peer-reviewed research and clinic trials have found that bathhouse closures would likely lead to a small increase in HIV transmission.

Next up.

So next we'll get into the legislative background.

Here at the city of Minneapolis, the changes that we're bringing forward for the committee's consideration today are a product of policy making work for uh several years that has been ongoing.

In 2023, former council president Jenkins and Councilmember Payne authored amendments removing stigmat stigmatizing language from the high-risk sexual conduct ordinance.

This legislation removed language specific to AIDS and sexual activity specific to men who have sex with men and sex workers.

In 2024, the city council received a policy and research report from the uh legislative research and uh from the LRO uh staff and presentation on the regulations of adult bathhouses and sex venues.

This report first delineated codes um in the city's code of ordinances that needed to be amended or created and to be created in order to regulate and legalize adult bathhouses and sex venues, and it too um outlined a landscape analysis of other US cities that have a regulatory framework to regulate adult bathhouses and sex venues, including um those in in Chicago, San Francisco, Duluth, um, Dallas, and more.

The major takeaway here is that this has been an iterative legislative process that has over three years in the making.

Um, and we are advancing these uh these amendments before you today that are in alignment with the recommendations provided to us in the 2024 report.

We'll continue to the next slide.

Um, these amendments before you today are a part of a package of code changes that are set to come before several committees this cycle.

They're a product of collaboration and partnership with the city's community planning and economic development department and the city's health department.

As authors, we want to make sure you understand them clearly.

So these amendments do three things.

Um the first is moving building standards and related definitions developed for health and developed for adult entertainment venues from the high-risk sexual conduct ordinance where they live right now to the places of adult or adult entertainment code.

So we're just moving them from one section of our local laws to a different one.

It's important to note that the content of this section was developed by Councilmember Palmasano to protect employees of adult entertainment venues.

And so this content here isn't being deleted, it's just moving to a more applicable section of the code.

Secondly, these amendments maintain protections for adult entertainment venue employees.

And then third, it uh these changes create a pathway to a regulatory framework centered in a data-driven and public health approach, addressing the history that was covered by Councilmember Chavez in a previous slide.

Finally, I'll note that these amendments do not automatically legalize these venues or leave them in a gray area.

We're moving the development of the business license and zoning next in the future.

And for that work, uh we have not set a timeline, but we're aiming to model them after San Francisco's regulations, right sizing them for Minneapolis wherever that is applicable.

Um the maintenance of the hazardous site definition within the high-risk sexual conduct ordinance still allows for health department staff to enforce all existing health code until it is amended in the future to add an exemption for all venues that meet the minimum standard of the adult sex venue and bathhouse business licensing code that is to be developed.

We'll continue to the next slide.

His administration before we take a final vote in the future.

As I said earlier, we are taking these steps to acknowledge that bathhouse restrictions have had a history that is intertwined with anti-2S LGBTQI post-bigotry, in particular the history of homophobia in Minneapolis, in an attempt to rectify past harms.

All right.

Yep.

First person I see is Dee.

If you can come and speak, please state your name.

My name is Dee, and I live in Ward 9.

Uh, thank you, Chair Osman and Council members for opening up a public hearing.

I'm a volunteer advocate and organizer with a collective for people engaged in the sex trades.

I have devoted the last seven years of my life to the rights and safety of sex workers and survivors of exploitation.

I will be here again tomorrow, so I appreciate your willingness to hear some of this twice.

I want to use my time to clear up any confusion to the council and to the public about bathhouses being synonymous with brothels.

Prostitution remains illegal in the state of Minnesota, and it will remain illegal with the presence of bathhouses.

This has nothing to do with expanding access or safety to sex work.

We would never advocate for brothels, and it's important that people know that bathhouses are not brothels.

I want to also respond to some of the public comments posted for this meeting.

I want to ensure that I speak to the devastating impacts that arise from horophobia.

I'm not surprised at the discrimination in the room with us, but it breaks my heart.

Sex workers deserve dignity, they deserve respect.

Sex workers are our neighbors living under extreme surveillance and threats of violence under criminalization and stigmatization.

Speaking of them, speaking of them in the ways that some comments have is unacceptable.

This all speaks to a larger concern I have when people conflate sex work with trafficking and exploitation.

They are not the same.

Efforts that deprive people of rights, safety, and resources is what leads to increased vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation.

There is extensive research across the globe from human rights and health organizations that recommend decriminalization as of consensual sex work is one of the best tools available to us to decrease violence.

Our unchecked discomfort, homophobia, and horophobia are what keep people in danger, not bathhouses.

I want to thank the staff from the offices of council members Payne, Chavez, and Chowdhury for taking the time to meet with workers impacted by the changes to the adult entertainment ordinance as this work unfolds.

It means a lot to impacted community members and to take our voices seriously.

So thank you.

And I hope that listening to marginalized worker voices remains a priority for this body.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next I will recognize Erica.

Is Erica here?

All right, well, give it a minute.

All right, next person uh is Josh K.

My V overflow room.

Josh K and Erica.

If you can hear me, we'll have your spots.

Next person is um Ebitany.

Bethany here.

All right.

Um, somebody's coming.

All right.

Welcome.

Please state your name.

I'm Josh.

Hi, Josh, welcome.

You all, he him.

Uh this ordinance is not about vice, it is about self-expression.

People are flocking to Minneapolis from all across the country because they can't express themselves where they live without being persecuted.

I'm asking the council to pass this so people in Minneapolis can have a sanctuary where they can express their full being in a safe setting.

This ordinance plays an important role in public health by creating safe spaces for this expression.

Opposing this type of safety is a Reagan era mindset where a puritanical morality prevailed in government.

But it is 2026.

Please be proactive in supporting public health and safety, and let people express their full beings.

Thank you.

Um you speak.

Please come on in, stay to your name.

My name is Miss Epiphany, and I do a lot of my work, which is adult work in Minneapolis.

Now I'm here to talk about this bathhouse ban repeal, this zoning and this licensing.

Not because I'm a sex worker, and not because I'm an advocate for sex workers' rights.

There being bathhouses has nothing to do with my hustle.

I gotta say, I don't spend all the money I do on work spaces and work equipment to go and try and do adult work at bathhouses.

That's not why I, as a sex worker support the repeal of the ban.

That's not why I, as a member of Swim, sex workers in Minneapolis, support the repeal of the ban.

We support the repeal of this ban for two reasons.

One reason is the freedom of sexual autonomy for all consenting adults is tantamount to human rights for everybody.

We want everybody to have the same sexual freedom and autonomy that other people in other cities have access to.

Because we got bathhouses all over the nation, but not in Minneapolis.

Second of all, as a businesswoman, I see a revenue stream.

We're talking about revitalizing downtown.

We're talking about business opportunities for all sorts of different walks of life.

Do you know what brings in money?

Adult venues, and I can speak from experience that uh when you build the attractions, when you advertise the attractions, and they are appealing enough, then the people will come and they will spend their money.

And they'll spend their money here in your city.

Not only that, but that city will then have tax revenue from a huge business that will draw in tourism and all sorts of other different kinds of money spending activities, really.

I think it's in favor for everybody's human rights and economic interests to support this repeal.

Thanks, y'all.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Um please come on in and state your name.

Hi, I'm Amy.

Um thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

Um I have lived in Minneapolis until recently and still work in Minneapolis.

I'm also a member of SWIM.

We've heard a lot today about hopes for Minneapolis' future and goals for a more diverse, inclusive city.

Repealing the bathhouse ban is aligned with those goals.

The bathhouse ban was enacted during the AIDS epidemic, and while it may have been an attempt to protect the LGBT community at that time, it is now out of touch.

Our understanding and treatment of AIDS has progressed, and it's time for legislation to follow suit.

I'm here as a queer person and an ally, and I'm also here as a woman and spa enjoyer who would like to go to a Korean day spa with my girlfriends without going to Chicago.

In addition to queer spaces, the current legislation around bathhouses has prevented Minneapolis from developing a multicultural spa culture comparable to other metropolitan areas.

Repealing the bathhouse ban is aligned with the council's expressed goals of making Minneapolis a more diverse and inclusive city for all.

Thank you for your time today.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Excuse me.

Um we didn't have you listed, so if you are able to sign in with the clerks, that would be fantastic.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um is SJ here.

Oh, that was you.

Oh, that was you, okay.

All right.

Uh last call for uh Dee and Erica.

All right.

Um, is there anyone who would like to speak on this item who have not signed up yet?

See none, I will close the public hearing and recognize Councilmember Warren.

Thank you, Council Vice President Payne.

Um, it's kind of saddened me to hear that um people are saying that the closing or the banning of um the ordinance around bathhouses had to do with the detest for the two S LGBTQIA Plus community, because that is not the case.

The in 1988, the ordinance banning um bathhouses was championed by Brian Cole, who was the first openly gay council member in the city of Minneapolis.

I want to give him some acknowledgement and respect on his name because he was looking out for the best interests of the two S LGBTQIA plus community, and knowing the laws that exist around HIPAA, and knowing the privacy act, that even if we are testing individuals in these spaces, that information about their health and what's going on does not have to be disclosed.

And someone then can't say to them, hey, you can't go and participate.

Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should.

I gotta give respect to Brian Cole because Brian Cole walked this walk.

He knows and understood exactly what was going on within his community and was looking out for the best interest of his constituents.

The first proudly openly gay council member was looking out for the two S LGBTQIA plus community members, and so I will give respect to that.

I support my two S LGBTQIA plus community members, but I like Brian Co.

also want to keep them safe.

So I cannot support this at this time.

Thank you.

Um, thank you.

Mr.

Uh Mr.

Chairs, is it okay to address the comment that was just made?

I will wait.

With the quote, I'll wait uh on on your name when it comes up.

I recognize uh Councilmember uh Schaefer.

Yeah, thank you.

Um, I had a question around the ordinance that's coming forward in public health.

Is that okay, Chair Osbund, if I ask a question around that?

I'm pretty clear on what's coming forward today in Biz that they're moving language from one to the other.

But may I ask a question about the ordinance technical question or is it a technical question about some wording?

I can also follow up online afterwards since we're not voting on that.

So I can do that.

That's fine.

Okay, uh councilmember um Vice Chair Chowley.

You're next.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

I just wanted to take a second to um say uh a bit of thanks to Council President Payne, Councilmember Chavez, Councilmember Chugtai, and all the other council members that have been a part of um working on this ordinance.

I want to also thank the several staff that have been a part of the work group and uh also have appreciated the several conversations that have happened with the mayor's office.

Um I think first and foremost.

Um the bathhouse ban has been clearly stated by many, many members of the LGBTQIA two spirit community, that it is no longer necessary, and to keep them banned and closed does not reduce HIV, especially in a city where there are bathhouses that are happening, but they're happening underground, and we're missing out on opportunities to give information, give community members resources, which is really really sad because we are a fast-track city where we see a large growth of HIV and hepatitis, and we can prevent it.

I also think it's important to state that um the ban itself is rooted in homophobia.

It doesn't matter who brought the ban forward.

That is that is something that the community feels and sees, and it systemically stigma stigmatizes them.

Now, with the ordinance that's before us, it's purely a technical change that I think uh makes a lot of sense whether we were considering um bathhouses and this type of uh adult entertainment venue.

So I think for that reason, I think members should vote for it because I think it's a smart change of language of moving this language from the high risk um sexual activity section into adult entertainment.

It just makes a lot of policy sense to me.

I'm looking forward to the conversations we're gonna have about the ordinances that are gonna come before our various committees.

And I um I am just I'm just hoping people could spend a little bit more time considering what this could mean for our city, and I was appreciative that the mayor's office, the thing that they really cared about is that this is something that generates revenue and activity for the city, and that's what we should aim towards it being and being an attraction.

I mean, we have areas within the city where adult entertainment venues already exist.

Um this is an opportunity to create a use type and not have a ban in the in similar parts of the city.

Uh, thank you.

I'll recognize Councilmember uh Shaves.

I don't know if there was also a motion um made here yet.

Go on.

Uh yeah, I was moving this forward with recommendation.

With recommendation, yeah.

Okay.

And then I just wanted to address some of the stuff.

There was an NPR article that talked about Brian Cole.

It said Brian Cole was instrumental in the bathhouse ban passing, but what I discovered from his collection was a complicated story, Bart said.

I wonder at the time if he wasn't thinking so much about the ramifications of closing the bathhouse and was more thinking along lines of well, this couldn't make the HIV epidemic worse, right?

So I just wanted to make sure that folks know that it was not an easy vote for Brian Cole years ago.

And I will be very clear, I am the only openly LGBTQ person of this body, so I have the right to speak about my community.

I have the right to speak about what my community is saying, and I have the right to be able to experience to talk about my own personal experience in this body as the only one left in this council.

The only one.

So I just want to acknowledge that that when I'm talking about my community, it isn't just me saying this is what my community wants.

It is talking about lived experience.

It is talking about what my community members have been talking to me about for many years.

And it is that this ordinance was passed with homophobia.

I have deep respect for Brian Coyle.

And I know that when he did this vote, it was because of an epidemic that was impacting my community.

But at the same time, there were folks that supported the efforts to ban this because of homophobia, because they did not exit believe in the existence of LGBTQ plus people.

And that cannot be removed from history.

Yes, there is public health issues that were brought up, but there were many supporters of the ban that literally just did not believe in the existence of LGBTQ plus people, and that is also a driving factor of why it was so successful in getting banned.

And I want that to be recognized as the only one in this body.

So I want to at least mention that.

Because I think it is important to acknowledge that this was not an easy vote for Brian Coyle himself either.

And you know, I've been very trying to be very calm in this conversation on how we're talking about it, and I will remain calm, but I I will continue to talk about the reason that this passed was because there was so much hatred for LGBTQ people in Minneapolis and in this country, and there still is, and there still is, and that is something that we need to address 1000%.

Um again, as I said earlier, this is one ordinance out of many that will need to happen by passing this ordinance today and the one in PHC tomorrow.

These are not going to be allowed to be legalized just yet.

It is just a step in the right process to allow us to be able to build a regulatory framework to make these happen in our city.

Um I want to focus on the human element part, the LGBTQ plus people matter, but even if people don't believe in that, it's an economic uh development component too.

Where if we want to address the tax issues that our city is facing, this is one way to do so.

Thank you.

Alright.

Uh, thank you so much.

Uh, seeing no one else, I will ask Clerk to call the role uh on that motion.

I thought he said, Councilmember Rainville.

No, Warren.

No, Schaefer, no.

Chavez.

Aye.

Chick Tai.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chowdry.

Aye.

And Chair Osman.

Abstain.

There are three ayes, three nays, and one abstention.

Um that motion fails.

Our anybody would like to make a motion.

I'm on Q and I'll move forward without recommendation.

Councilmember Chavez.

Uh, move it forward without recommendation.

To the full council to make a final decision.

I'll ask the clerk to call the roll.

Councilmember Rainville.

No.

Warren.

No.

Schaefer.

No.

Chavez.

Aye.

Chick Tai.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chowdry.

Aye.

And Chair Osman.

Aye.

There are four ayes and three nays.

That motion carries.

Next item we will focus on is.

And thank you for being patient.

Um, our last public hearing is uh for the moratorium on used data centers in the city of Minneapolis.

Feister Chowry is the lead author on this item, so I will turn the meeting over to her.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

I'm gonna just have Amy from my team get the presentation queued up and we can go from there.

Okay.

Great.

You're all set.

Excellent.

All right.

So across Minneapolis, residents are closely watching the rapid expansion of data centers nationwide and raising legitimate questions about what similar development could mean for their own neighborhoods.

Communities elsewhere have reported concerns about high energy and water consumption, environmental impacts, rising utility costs, unequal development patterns, and concentration of burdens on communities that have historically borne disproportionate share of industrial impacts.

That's our black and brown working poor communities, essentially creating sacrifice zones in some states.

While Minneapolis may face different circumstances and conditions, many of the same big tech companies are driving national data center expansions, and they will seek opportunities here or have already.

A temporary moratorium provides the city with an opportunity to listen to community concerns, study potential impacts, develop safeguards, and establish a modern and strong regulatory framework before major decisions are made.

This approach is about ensuring that future development, if it does occur, it occurs responsibly, transparently, and it's restricted to meet our city's needs and our community's needs and in a manner that protects the public interest first.

If claims are made that no harm will come to our community, it is on us to ensure that they are proven first.

We can't just take the big tech corporations by their word.

If there are claims of economic benefit and revenue, that must also be proven first.

At the end of the day, large tech companies are accountable to their shareholders while local government is accountable to the people it serves.

I'm clear on the fact that this council will not pass a full ban on data centers.

It's not an outcome that's going to occur.

And while the exemptions that we have made in the moratorium, which I'll cover, I don't fully agree with, but I do believe that this is moving us forward in a direction where we can get the strong regulatory framework we need.

I believe it's our responsibility to ensure that Minneapolis has the information policies and the strongest protections necessary before data center growth.

And this temporary moratorium complements the policy work that we're going to undergo in the next five months.

Next slide, please.

So in our current PAS a moratorium that's in effect, and it's been in effect since our introduction.

It's a different process when it comes to moratorium under state law.

If you make an introduction, it is in fact.

It's in effect for six months, and it will end upon completion and or by the end of November and completion of a regulatory framework.

Under state law, we're only allowed to have a moratorium up to a year.

The exemptions that council member Osman brought forward and was passed by this body are exemptions for a data center moratorium in the downtown core for projects that are 350,000 square feet or less by CPED's estimations that accounts for about 50 megawatts and some of the projects that are potentially coming to the downtown core for infill data centers.

Next slide, please.

So the proposal of a temporary moratorium is not a ban, and I think that's important for everyone to be aware of.

I think everyone, whether you support a ban on data centers or oppose a ban of data centers, I want to just ground you in the reality of what a moratorium is.

The goal is to give Minneapolis time to establish clear regulations, update zoning, and ensure future development, if it occurs, aligns with their community priorities and long-term city planning.

Again, a moratorium can only last up into a year, and this is one of the tools that we have to build out the policy that we need that can create restrictions, regulations, and other opportunities for community members to weigh in.

And then the reason why several cities use moratoriums is for when existing regulations are outdated or when new industry emerges faster than a policy can keep up.

Similar approaches have been used for cannabis regulation, for example, and other evolving industries, and I will just say the data center industry is one that is rapidly changing and it has rapidly changed just in the last five years, and there's constantly new research coming out about the data center industry.

You can go to the next slide.

I'll be brief on this one.

You can take a look at it.

This is the historical context of data centers.

It's important to be grounded in the fact that data centers do exist in the city of Minneapolis.

A lot of them are smaller scale.

You can think about data centers as a place for servers, computational powers for banks, hospitals, universities.

The first data center in the city of Minneapolis opened in 1988 and originally served a national financial institution and later involved involved into co-location center, which it serves multiple companies and now is being redeveloped to support the growing demand for AI computing.

This is the sleep number building.

So the sleep number building is an evolved version of that first original data center used for by several companies for AI computing.

We can go to the next slide.

So today's data centers are very different from the smaller facilities that people are familiar with.

I like I said in our in the introduction on the 21st, this is not your grandmother's data centers.

They support cloud computing AI technologies and require much more substantial infrastructure and resource needs, which has driven a lot of the concerns that we're seeing by community members.

As it comes to the scale of these facilities, it could be enormous, both in footprint, it could also be very large in energy and water demands that can affect long-term planning for residents, businesses, emergency services, and future development.

One thing that's different about these large data centers compared to other uses of energy in our city is that they are 24-7, they're always going, right?

We turn off office buildings, we turn off homes, and that is something that we should consider in our regulation, and we haven't taken the time to fully consider.

And the last thing that I'll just quick touch on is this thing known as a clustering and network effect that researchers have found that once one data center project is approved, more oftentimes follow.

This means decisions that we make today can have long-term consequences and impacts for land use utilities and infrastructure capacity into the future, and then we can go to the next slide.

So I will not go through this slide in much detail for you.

I just wanted to offer this to the members of the committee and the public.

What we have found is that there are broad and varied definitions of all of these within the industry, and there's contradictions that we have found, and that's going to be a major task as the city of Minneapolis in just right sizing what our definitions are and how we are defining hyperscale versus an enterprise data center.

I think hyperscale in particular, everyone has different definitions of hyperscale, and I think it's important to note that a lot of definitions aren't just based in the footprint of a site in Acreage.

It's also looking at high usage of power and water.

We can go to the next slide.

Existing zoning categories were designed for older telecommunications infrastructure and do not adequately address today's facilities.

Today, if you wanted to build a data center, you would apply for a conditional use permit, and it would be defined under a term called a communication exchange.

So there's just a lot of work that we need to do in our code that we are going to embark on, and I touch on a little bit here in our slide in our slides.

We can go to the next slide.

So why is action needed?

The city's current regulatory authority again doesn't fully account for the breadth of this industry, and it doesn't fully account for energy and water consumption.

This creates challenges when evaluating projects and understanding their true impacts.

One of the things that we are going to have to continue to reckon with as the city of Minneapolis is under state law.

We are only able to regulate by square footage, and we are not able to regulate by megawatts because we are prohibited to regulate building components, which can have some really difficult impacts on us as a city, and we need to figure out how we can be resilient as a data center industry changes, and they are able to build more megawatt usage in less square footage.

And currently, we are being asked to make decisions again without definitions, policies, standards, and we're handing it off to our planning commission, which is a set of appointed community members, city council member, county staff or county commissioner, school board, and we need to build something out that can support the decisions that they make.

We can go to the next slide.

People across the city of Minneapolis have expressed concerns about how new generation data centers and their cumulative impacts could affect local resources and communities, and it's our responsibility to understand these impacts and understand how we can ensure that residents are protected across the board.

These are a number of areas where I think we should line up consideration for our study as we build up to the policy and understand where the city of Minneapolis can regulate, where we are unable to, and how we can think creatively to address these needs.

But I had a town hall on data centers, and these were all the different topics that community members have talked about at that town hall or have written us as council members.

We can go to the next slide.

So I'll keep this part really brief.

These are the next steps and why I think it's important for us to do this temporary moratorium.

We have noticed several ordinances that we are going to embark on for the next six months.

And as we do that work, I think it's really important that we do take a pause for the reasons that I've laid out in this slide.

The pause is also six months, so it runs parallel to the ordinance work that we will be doing.

We also have done a staff direction to our legislative research and oversight department to conduct a landscape analysis of regulations governing data centers, both by region and nationwide, as well as their economic and environmental impacts, and that will come back to us as a council for a presentation no longer than August 18th, which provides a place for broad-based education for all stakeholders, especially our residents and community members who work in our city.

Go to the next slide.

This is just a quick overview of the timeline on what we're gonna embark on as it comes to the data center policy work.

Some key dates to shout out is the first meeting is gonna be on July 16 in the planning commission of the whole.

We'll have a 60-day public comment period.

Then we'll move into a planning commission meeting in October where there's an opportunity for community members to give a public testimony on the policy that's going to be proposed, and then it will come to us as a business housing zoning committee on November 5th, and then we are set to take our final vote in November 12th again, running parallel to the six-month moratorium timeline.

Next slide, please.

And then here are just some sources that we used in preparing this presentation, really encourage my colleagues and the public to take a look at them.

What we uncovered through our research is anytime you look into more about this industry, there's even more information that just continues to come out.

So looking forward to getting this pause so we can continue to do that important work.

All right, uh, thank you so much, uh, Councilmember Chowder for that presentation.

First, we're gonna open the public hearing, and there are many people that sign up, so just a reminder you do have two minutes.

And uh please state your name and um your neighborhood or your organization you're involved with, and we'll hopefully we can go through this uh quick.

All right.

Uh first person I like to I would like to open the public hearing, and the first person I would like to recognize to speak is Alejandro Richardson.

Sorry if I get your name, Richard.

Yep.

Welcome.

Uh thank you, uh Council members and Chairman Osman.

Um good afternoon, Chairman and City Council members.

My name is Alejandro Richardson.

I live in the Powderhorn neighborhood of ward nine.

Good to see you, Jason.

Uh I am here today as a proud lifelong citizen of Minneapolis and also a proud union carpenter.

I would like to speak and stunt support of a moratorium on data center construction as aggressively as it may be implemented.

In the seven years that I've been working as a union carpenter, I've had the honor to help build schools, hospitals, apartments, and countless other crucial public infrastructure projects, but I would be ashamed to drive past a data center on Hiawatha and have to admit to my neighbors that I contributed to a construction.

This city is in need of investment, and union members need work hours.

However, data centers will not lead to continued economic growth for our city.

These centers are a drain on public resources and a bite on our communities that will drive away business minded individuals and entrepreneurs who understand that the public outcry around these data centers will lead to a further exodus of our entertainment and hospitality industry, where I spent many years as a restaurant employee, which has suffered greatly in recent years.

In short, the tax base increase and wages of construction workers like myself will not outweigh the cost to our city's resource infrastructure and economic growth in other excuse me, other sectors.

In closing, you will hear from a number of my union brothers who do not want a moratorium, and I understand why.

They have all my respect for the hard work that they put in day in and day out to advance the rights of workers like myself, but I believe it is my duty as a rank and file member to hold my leadership accountable when they do not act in my best interest, and this is one of those times.

Work hours towards our pensions and dues to our respective unions are not worth the compromising of the well-being of my neighbors, your constituents, and they do not want these data centers in their backyards.

So I look forward to working with all of you and all of you and the building trades to keep the citizens of Minneapolis the priority in this process and to discover other ways to rebuild our city economy for the good of all.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

Uh next person is Kai.

Welcome.

Hello, council members.

My name's Kayuhara, and I'm here today to talk about my opposition to the AI data centers in Minneapolis.

So we've heard a lot, we saw that presentation about the concerns that people are having with AI data centers across the country.

We're seeing the harms it has on the environment, on people's health.

And today I want to talk about something a little different.

I want to talk about concerns about municipal governments and NDAs.

We've been seeing across the country that a lot of municipal governments have been signing NDAs, which are a business standard with the AI data centers.

And although this is meant to protect proprietary information of the data center companies, this is also leaving a lot of residents across the country unaware of what is being planned in their neighborhoods.

And we've talked so much about the positives of AI data centers, maybe not today, but like in general.

And the idea that these AI data centers are meant to increase the prosperity of our communities while we're hiding them away from people until it is too late for them to put their input in on what they think of should be in their communities.

Seems very contradicting.

I think it's important that as a city council, you all make sure that data centers or AI data centers that are proposed in any of the wards in Minneapolis have a strict and clear process of making sure that people who live in these areas know what is coming.

I would like you all to discuss or agree upon making sure that there is regulation about AI data centers having the rights or having the responsibility to inform people of each specific ward where prospective AI data center is proposed, that they're going to be informed of what exactly will be coming to their neighborhoods, and also that public feedback, like uh you were saying that you did your town hall.

I would like also all the wards if something is proposed that they have their own respective town hall so that you all can be properly informed about what your constituents want in their neighborhoods.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh next person is Kyle O'Neill.

Welcome.

Chair, Council members, my name's Kyle O'Neill.

I am the political director for IBW Local 292, representing 4,700 members in Minneapolis and the Western suburbs, including many that work for the city of Minneapolis and over 300 that are currently out of work.

I'm here today to urge you to reject the proposed data center moratorium.

Data centers are critical infrastructure for our modern economy.

Every business, hospital, school, public safety agency, and resident relies on the digital services these facilities support.

The demand for data processing and storage is not slowing down, and neither should the city's ability to compete for that investment.

A moratorium sends the wrong message to investors and employers, creates uncertainty, drives development to neighboring communities, costs the city jobs, tax revenue, and economic growth.

Once those projects leave, they rarely come back.

If there are legitimate concerns about energy use, land use, infrastructure impacts, those issues can be addressed through thoughtful planning, permitting standards, shakehold shareholder and stakeholder engagement.

Um a moratorium is a blunt instrument that sacrifices economic opportunity without solving underlying challenges.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next person is uh Jake Petit.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Jake Pettett.

I am here representing the Minneapolis Pipe Fitters Local 539.

Our local represents more than 2100 highly trained men and women working in the pipe fitting, steam fitting, and HVAC service industries throughout our region.

For more than 120 years, our local union and its members have helped build and maintain the infrastructure that keeps our communities and businesses operating.

I am here today in opposition of the proposed data center moratorium.

Data centers provide thousands of work hours for our members and family sustaining careers that offer industry-leading wages, health care, retirement benefits, and apprenticeship training opportunities.

Beyond the initial construction, data centers require ongoing maintenance upgrades and retrofits, creating long-term employment opportunities for skilled workers in our communities.

These projects also provide significant economic benefits to Minneapolis.

They create jobs, they generate tax revenue, they support local businesses and offer opportunities to redevelop and occupy vacant commercial properties.

At a time when cities across the country are competing for investments and development, Minneapolis should be positioning itself as a place that welcomes responsible growth.

Moratorium sends the opposite message.

It signals to investors and businesses that Minneapolis is uncertain about future development opportunities.

Data centers will continue to be built because demand for digital infrastructure continues to grow.

The question is whether those projects will be built here, creating jobs and generating revenue for Minneapolis, or whether they will be built in neighboring communities that are willing to embrace those opportunities.

Rather than imposing a moratorium, I encourage the council to work collaboratively with developers, labor organizations, and community stakeholders to address concerns while still allowing allowing projects to move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh, next person is Lucas Franco.

Good enough.

Um, good afternoon.

My name is Lucas Franco, and I'm the research manager for Leuna, Minnesota, North Dakota, and a Ward 12 resident.

I'm here to speak in opposition to the data center moratorium and for sensible rules that encourage beneficial development while holding companies accountable.

There's a right way and a wrong way to build data center projects, and I think we've all seen uh heard concerning stories of projects straining poorly managed grids or open loop cooling systems in hot climates using unnecessary amounts of water.

At the same time, there are examples of responsibly built projects like the Sleep Number facility that provides valuable economic development and revenue for core city services with minimal environmental impacts.

A recent resolution passed at the AFL CIO National Convention called on union members to demand responsible data center development.

And Minnesota is a model of this kind of development.

State law requires utilities serving data centers to meet the 100% clean energy standard, ensures very large customers pay 100% of the cost of infrastructure upgrades, and it requires each new large data center project to contribute to low-income weatherization, which is a first-in-the-nation model.

For Minneapolis, data center projects like the Sleep Number Facility can provide good jobs and needed investment.

A 40 megawatt data center occupying two to three story, two to three floors of vacant office space can generate nearly five million annually in local taxes and fees, including franchise fees and support efforts to meet the city's climate goals.

There is also a climate cost to not building data centers responsibly here in Minnesota.

Locating a 40 megawatt data center in Minneapolis instead of North Dakota reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent today and 90 percent in 2032.

And I have fact sheets that I'll leave behind as any good researcher would uh for council and staff.

In conclusion, we have the tools we need uh in the in place in the state to ensure responsibly built data centers.

I urge you to build a model of responsible data center development and not pursue prohibition.

And thank you so much for work on this issue.

Thank you so much.

Uh next person is uh Margaret Sevilla.

Sullivan.

Welcome.

Thank you.

I am Margaret Sullivan, Ward 4, North Minneapolis, Camden neighborhood.

I'm a member of Indivisible Twin Cities Climate Action Group, and we've studied AI data centers for almost a year now.

At Indivisible, we support freedom, representative government, and democracy.

We resist authoritarianism and we encourage everyday residents to use their voices.

So of course, that's our thinking around data centers too.

In authoritarian decision making, the voices of everyday residents are irrelevant at best.

And we find in our study that in general, decision making around American AI data centers tends to treat the voices and lives of everyday residents as well irrelevant.

So I really appreciate the proposal we're talking about.

And I don't feel it's long enough.

I hope, but it's not totally clear to me whether we'll end up with regulation of the smaller and resource-draining downtown type AI data centers that do and will need it.

And no one wants our downtown neighbors to be guinea pigs in questions about life amidst a cluster of AI data centers.

A choice residents didn't get to make for themselves.

So again, I do appreciate what's in front of us, though for me, this moratorium in itself isn't blazing trails.

There we have a real chance to lead and set an example for the state and the country.

Every Minnesota data center moratorium so far has proposed a study group, and not one yet has included everyday residents, aside from planning commissioners, to participate as if the voices of everyday citizens really mattered.

So those moratoria don't solve the problem of authoritarian style, might makes right AI data center decision making that they pretend to.

Let's show the country how to fix that by giving everyday Minneapolis residents real representation in the study group.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

L.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Chair Osman, committee members.

Hello, I'm Ross Lux Fold, and I'm the Minnesota Community Relations Director for Excel Energy.

We have long partnered with the city of Minneapolis on opportunities to bring responsible economic growth and job creation to the area while ensuring the residents and businesses already here have access to safe, reliable, and affordable energy.

We know people are wondering if there's enough energy to go around and whether data centers will drive up costs for everyone else.

Along with state regulators, we have worked hard to ensure data centers pay for all of the power lines, substations, and other upgrades needed to serve them.

Adding large customers to the grid often allows us to spread fixed maintenance costs across a larger number of customers, potentially lowering customers' bills.

Data centers in Minneapolis would likely be 20 to 50 megawatts in size, smaller than the projects you've heard about recently in the state.

We have both the capacity and the experience needed to bring customers of that size onto the grid without disrupting service for others.

Please consider us a resource for any questions going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next, I would like to recognize Dan McCall.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair and committee members Dan McConnell.

Everyday Minnesota or Minneapolis resident Ward 12.

You got my letter, I'm assuming, and my email, and I probably saw the op-ed that I did in the Star Tribune.

I also shared the resolution that passed at the AFL CIO, coincidentally last week.

Delegates from around the country were here talking about this issue and unanimously approved a framework that I think addresses many of the concerns that have been raised and notably did not uh endorse moratorium as part of that framework.

Also, as I mentioned, the uh legislative framework was passed with the day legislature uh addresses the environmental rate pair impacts as uh XL also testified to.

Also took time to check in with public works around uh water usage and how that works, similar to what XL said, uh, if we build if we run the system at capacity, the more water that's used, the less everybody pays for the infrastructure of those those upgrades, those capital costs.

So uh I understand that the concern around water usage, but I don't think uh the existing water, the existing data centers we have in the city, sleep number we've talked about.

I don't have not heard anybody complain about any impacts from that data center.

I don't think that we're gonna see a hyperscale data center in the city.

We just simply don't have the open space or the land to do that.

And I think some of the arguments that I've heard are either worst case or at best or alarmist at worst.

Uh so in some, we would oppose the moratorium, uh, would look forward to working with you guys to develop a framework that addresses all the concerns that everyone has raised and are identified in the FLCIO resolution and hope that we can serve as resource as well.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

Uh, next is Leslie M.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

My name is Leslie Mint, and I am the policy and research director for the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table and a professor of statistics and data science at McAllister College.

I'm here to support the data center moratorium because contrary to the main arguments for data center development, data centers represent a considerable financial risk to Minneapolis as well as an issue of environmental justice.

AI technologies and thus the data centers that support them are a financial bubble waiting to burst.

One key part of that bubble is uncertainty in AI's long-term business model.

An MIT study found that 95% of firms that adopted generative AI made zero profit from the technology.

This is not the mark of an industry that we should be confidently investing in.

The increasing use of private credit markets to finance data center projects also jeopardizes the stability of key safety nets.

Retirement plans, pensions, and insurance policies.

A moratorium gives the city a chance to look at a more complete financial picture to more fully understand risks.

Data centers have caused dirty fuel sources to remain operational, and this threatens our clean energy goals.

By continuing our dependence on coal, oil, gas, waste incineration, and woody biomass.

All of these energy sources include surrounding communities and tend to be located in marginalized communities already facing substantial harms and stressors.

If the intent of data center development is to revitalize downtown, why not make shore bets instead of risky ones?

Why not build green infrastructure in the foundations of a climate resilient city that creates a bounty of stable green union jobs?

A moratorium creates the boundary that could invite a just future like this into being.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Yeah, Chair Osman, members of the committee.

I watched your May 21st discussion, and this sounds like a pragmatic compromise to me, and it gives us time to consider thoughtful zoning.

And it is a smart thing to consider some implications before we say yes.

And uh it's a catch 22.

If more franchise fee climate equity dollars would come at the expense of our water resources and carbon reduction, so I will bring up Beyonce to data center developers, which stands for bring your own clean energy.

And uh it's not just for Minnesota's 100% by 2040 law.

The Minneapolis Clean Energy Partnership has a goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030, and we were only at 39% in 2024 and behind on five of seven goals.

So the the partnership which Mayor Fry chairs owes us a thorough public discussion on this, and that includes sending waste heat from data centers into thermal energy networks so that other buildings could use it and to stop new urban heat island effect and uh also how do we manage peak load events when the grid is at capacity.

I know the PUC has set protections to prevent the new grid infrastructure needs from becoming just another way for monopoly utilities to overcharge captive customers to increase shareholder profits, and but with uh some data centers included in the 22 100% megawatt range, and we also need robust metal recycling so that replacing the CPU components cannot be used as a justification for mining in the boundary waters.

So overall, um uh because tech monopolies have parallels with investor-owned utilities in terms of getting public handouts and receiving special deals that sidestep public oversight and throughout many municipalities, this looks like a a wise step to me.

Uh thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

I'm gonna mention the next five people that are next to speak is Erica Crazy Hawk, Ma Maria Hart, Jay Liberman, Hannah, and Joe Fowler.

So those are the next.

Now I would like to recognize Erica Hawk.

I believe they are walking from the overflow room, they are almost crazy hawk.

You know, that's not a hundred percent.

Oh, that was one word.

Okay.

All right.

Um Erica Crazy Hawk, Maria Hart, and Joey J.

Liberman.

If you are in the building, please come speak.

Hello?

Is it number fall on?

Sorry.

Your name.

Please state your name.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Maria Hart.

Um, I live in the Marcy Holmes neighborhood.

And I want to thank you all for the chance to speak here and for your service to the people of Minneapolis.

I'm here representing the Sierra Club North Star chapter where I'm a volunteer.

The Sierra Club is America's oldest and largest grassroots environmental group.

I'm standing here on behalf of our 10,000 supporters in Minneapolis and 50,000 Minnesotans to ask you to support regulations to protect us from data centers, both in Minneapolis and at the state level.

As you know, tech billionaires are trying to build giant data centers which, if poorly regulated, could pollute our water, drain aquifers, increase climate emissions, raise electric bills, subject neighbors to air, noise, and light pollution, strain the state budget, and force cuts to services people rely on.

Sierra Club and Allies are working to pass the needed statewide legislation regulating these behemoths.

We made progress last legislative session, and public pressure is mounting for change next session.

We know pushing back locally helps pave the way for essential statewide safeguards.

But meanwhile, the tech bros are closing in.

Councilmember Chowdery has proposed a six-month pause on data centers in Minneapolis, exempting some downtown data centers.

This will allow the city time to create the rules to protect Minneapolis residents from the risks of data centers.

Without regulations, Minneapolis residents are at risk.

Please feel free to contact the Sierra Club with any questions, and thank you for your time.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Okay, none of them.

Please walk towards the chamber so you can have your um, so I'm also hearing council member that for my staff that the testifiers out there are having a hard time hearing the audio.

So my staff is playing it for them with her phone.

So they're not able to hear their names, some of them.

Just FYI.

But I do see Jay Lieberman is here, and I know that please come on in first.

If you're if your name are called, please just come this way.

We have a place for you to stand.

Thanks.

Welcome.

Uh thank you, Chairman Osman and committee members for this opportunity to speak in favor of creating regulations for large data centers.

My name is Jay Lieberman.

I live in Ward 12, and I'm a member of UNEDOS.

I want to talk about the need for regulation based on my years of experience working in software development.

At my last job at a large software company in the suburbs, I led a configuration management team that worked closely with the hardware teams in our data centers.

We watched from a distance, they wouldn't let us into the data centers.

As hardware and software systems went through major changes that caused the growth from one to three data centers on the property.

I see two reasons that large data centers must be regulated.

First, software and hardware technology is always changing.

The space, power, and cooling requirements of a new data center laid out in a press release will definitely change over the course of a few years as companies upgrade to more powerful software and replace systems that are obsolete.

This is particularly true for companies doing AI at any scale and hyperscalers who are now spending billions on Nvidia Blackwell chipsets that'll need to be replaced with more powerful chipsets for competitive reasons in just a few years, changing their data center requirements and potentially causing them even to abandon data centers because of the cost of the upgrade.

Second, in the current climate in tech, a local company that builds a reasonably sized data center may be acquired by a larger company that has no relationship with the city and no restraints on what they want to build if there's no regulation.

Please take the time to create regulations that protect our community.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Again, I'm gonna.

Oh, did I call your name, sir?

I'm one of the five.

I was just the last of the five, but I don't want to wear the other three of them.

What's your name?

Joe Fowler.

Joe Fowler.

Yeah, please come on.

Anybody who comes well speak.

Come on.

Chair Osman, thank you.

Chair Osman, thank you.

Uh committee members.

My name is Joel Fowler.

I'm the business manager of labor's local 563, and we are headquartered right here off of 6th Street, right in between 6th and 7th Street on the southeast side of the stadium.

Um, in my previous role, I also was a project manager and estimator for uh fairly large general industrial and heavy mechanical contractor.

Uh and I'm very aware uh with our affiliates and the skilled tradesmen and women of the construction trades that we have the ability to either build new or retrofit existing, uh sleep number being a case, uh industrial buildings to make sure that they are efficient, productive, and built safe.

Uh we have existing regulations at a state level that were achieved during the last session that take care of a lot of the concerns, or I would say address a lot of the concerns that were brought forward with this moratorium that I'm in opposition of.

Uh, and that includes the water usage uh of uh the appropriate type of data center water usage here.

If it is a closed loop system utilizing the outside air and the cold weather temperatures that we have here, should arguably you use less than a golf course does, and we aren't out here putting moratoriums on golf courses.

The city of Minneapolis doesn't generally have the large acreage needed for a hyperscale uh data center, and what we're talking about isn't just AI data centers.

Everybody in here has a phone that uses cloud computation storage or data storage or uh hardware software programs that need storage.

We're all using data centers.

They aren't all towards uh hyperscale and they aren't all towards HI.

So from our side of it, I know we can build it safe.

I know we can build it where it's not going to increase the power uh cost for your residents here in the city, as in the regulations that were put there through the legislation requires it be clean energy, they pay for their own infrastructure, and they pay for their power upgrades that should not and would not have an increase in the cost for power purchasing for our residents.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

If I call your name, please come.

Just point of order really quick, Chair.

Um, there are just several seats that are open here, and if it is possible for some of the testifiers to fill the open seats, if we can pass that on security to see if we can fill it over there, thank you.

Can you stay in the done?

Yes, please state your name.

Hi, my name's Hannah.

I live downtown.

I'm a resident of Ward 7.

We are going.

Um I've worked in the tech industry for almost a decade, building four different types of artificial intelligence.

In recent years, as the industry has shifted to focus on generative AI, I have developed a deep understanding of what LLMs are, what how they work, and what they demand of physical infrastructure.

Several counselor members, several council members have now framed the opposition to unregulated data center development as misinformation, baseless fears, and a failure to understand facts.

But my concerns about data center growth are not rooted in misunderstanding.

I hear the arguments for revenue growth, and I hear the arguments for temporary construction jobs, but I want my neighborhood to grow in ways that benefit my community and not just wealthy investors.

I'm not willing to risk our water, air quality, and noise levels to rush into projects we haven't researched yet in the age of generative AI.

I also share Councilmember Chavez's concerns about surveillance.

Expanding data center capacity feeds AI-driven tools that are used by corporations and federal agencies like ICE to monitor, profile, deport, and harm our neighbors.

When I contacted Councilmember Schaefer, who represents me to ask that she consider supporting the moratorium, the reply I received spent seven paragraphs explaining what data centers are.

The two sources cited were a Bloomberg.com, feature about finished infrastructure, and a Min Post newsletter column.

No peer reviewed research.

Right now, the fact that Minneapolis only regulates by square footage and not megawatts is an indicator that we are unprepared to safely support the growth being demanded by generative AI.

I reject the notion that supporting the data center moratorium means being anti-growth or anti-facts.

We don't have the tools yet, and now is the time to define them.

Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Next five people are Walt.

Hansen, Joe.

Hesla, Bonnie Beckhole.

On dogge.

Um, G.

Welcome.

Please state your name.

Good afternoon, members of the council and members of the public.

My name is Walt Hanshin.

I'm a resident of Southeast Seward neighborhood and a member of the Sierra Club.

And I'm speaking in support very much of the moratorium, but also to address its inadequacies.

And therefore, I would like to alert the council and the public to the magnitude of the risks of this modest proposal.

Data centers and AI.

AI is an artificial inflation of the stock market to deflect attention and capital from our ongoing economic and social failures.

And to facilitate vast speculative gains to a few.

Right away, a lot of action from this proposal.

And yes, further concentration of wealth, perhaps massive job loss, environmental destruction, health concerns, infrastructure overbuild, power and water, scarcity and disruption, delaying sustainable energy use, and indeed increased data collection and surveillance of citizens leading directly to an increased threat to further dismantling of our democratic institutions.

Yes.

In this proposal, what are the unspoken and undemonstrated benefits and costs?

Yes, I promise you, pie in the sky, or maybe just in the clouds.

Who assumes the costs and who assumes the risks?

At any given moment, any corporation may have declared bankruptcy five minutes ago and has already walked away.

In a properly functioning democracy, the this major policy decision would be thoroughly described to everyone and only proceed with massive public support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

You can.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Uh wonderful.

Uh is Joe Hasla here.

Joe Hesla.

Joe.

Yeah, come on in.

Okay, Chair Osman, Council members.

My name is Joe Hesla.

I live in the ninth ward.

I'm here to speak in favor of the five-year moratorium.

I don't know why we don't make this a 100-year moratorium.

I don't know what there is to study.

I hope we're not back here in five years because somebody found a pathway for data centers to invent invade our city.

The perils of this, I think, parallel the wreckage left behind by the HERC currently.

The Herc incinerator uses 200 million gallons of water a year, and one data center can use up to 1.8 billion gallons of water.

And like the HERC, most data centers are cited in areas with disproportionately black, indigenous, and communities of color that are already being burdened.

To meet the demands, they have to keep the coal plants open or do a nuclear energy to make these plants work.

And that drives up utility bills.

And I think besides the predatory grabbing of our precious water and our power, if you live near a data center, you live with a constant humming and a rumbling.

The data centers are a monster casting a long shadow across our country.

We're not having them here.

We fought off Operation Metro Surge, and we're gonna beat this now or later.

Thank you so much.

Yes, welcome, please.

Hello, my name is Bonnie Beckle, and I live in Ward 9.

Um, so and I'm a volunteer with Unidos, Minnesota.

So data centers are the opposite of responding rationally to the climate crisis.

Instead of scaling up clean energy, uh data centers consume energy at extremely high levels.

The result will be radically increased demands for energy, which will lead to increased utility costs for families and greatly increased carbon pollution.

So Excel tells us that that is not the case, but the information I have is that XL does not have the capacity to meet these the needs of these expanding data centers.

Um power plants, which is the opposite of the clean energy transition that we need.

So the recent Minnesota Pollution Control Agency study said that a delayed response to the climate crisis will lead to a cost of 20 billion dollars a year for Minnesotans to address the impacts that um are the result of our damaged climate.

That's if we don't address it in a in a in the urgent way that the crisis we're facing demands.

So if we do uh step up to the moment we're facing, it would still cost Minnesotans two to three billion dollars a year, but that's a fraction of not responding in this moment.

So data centers consumption of energy is the opposite of a fiscal and climate aware response to the existential crisis that we're facing.

So setting boundaries on the construction of data centers is essential, including environmental impact studies of everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh next name uh person is Dog.

Dog G.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you.

Um I'm a member of the Zero Burn Coalition and uh a resident of Ward 9, and I'm supporting the moratorium, although I do wish it went further.

Um, as a former regulatory scientist with US EPA, having studied and looked at many new technologies, and without reiterating the many environmental impacts on water and energy that others have brought up and which I definitely support.

Um, the idea that these new technologies are going to come in without substantial environmental and public health impacts on the community is ridiculous.

A moratorium just gives us time to study this rationally instead of rushing into it when we are unprepared.

I'd like to just make a couple points beyond the environmental points, because I think they've been well discussed.

Um Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize uh economists characterizes the AI data center boom as a Ponzi scheme.

Consider that.

Who's going to be holding the bag when these heavily overvalued technologies that others have pointed out are not making a profit if they collapse?

Are you going to?

Are we going to?

The people that run, the oligarchs that run these technologies are not backers of unions.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and others heavily oppose unionization.

We'll get a few jobs, well-paying jobs, that's great, but at the expense of the longer term economic progress of our community.

I also like to point out that the way these companies operate, it's part of their business plan, is based on externalities.

Their whole purpose is to limit costs and maximize profits.

They do that by limiting labor.

They do that by uh dumping in our environment wherever they can to cut costs.

Think of 3M.

They assured us that PFAS were harmless.

They knew for 20 years they weren't.

Thank you, sir.

So, yes, let's study this and let's make sure that if any of these centers ever go in, they actually benefit the community.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh next person is Elizabeth Harry.

I have no idea so it takes.

I gotta go to a parade.

So, hello, Chairman Osman and members of the committee.

You've been here for a really long time, and we all have been listening to some very important commentary on lots of important things.

I would say that this commentary is um sort of beyond important, sort of meta-important.

And I'm speaking as a resident of Southeast Minneapolis and um uh council member Chowdery's district.

Thank you for doing this.

Uh I'm speaking as a uh homeowner.

My husband and I have owned a home there for over 25 years.

I'm speaking as um a um former president or uh former professor of history.

So it's my it's been my job to look at things in the long term in the big picture my whole life.

I'm also speaking as a huge supporter of unions, huge supporter of unions, and I'm not anti-business.

But I I'll say this.

One of these gentlemen who came up in support of union jobs and and so on, talked about uh that we shouldn't try to get rid of responsible business uh development.

I agree.

This is not responsible business development.

Um I think uh viewing uh oh what could happen or what may happen.

You know, Minneapolis doesn't have the room for a hyperscale, so we shouldn't worry, and we have all the stuff in place that we need to regulate, is naive in the extreme, in the extreme.

And I really really hope going forward.

I wish this moratorium maybe not a hundred years, but I sure wish it had been a year at least.

Okay, because tell you what, if you really want a data center, why not build it across from your house?

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much for letting me speak.

Uh thank you so much.

Uh next five people are um Kevin Promise, Josh K.

Andreas, Andreas A.

Um.

Yeah, I'm gonna leave you there.

Yeah, go ahead, please.

Uh thanks.

Uh my name's Kevin Prennis.

Uh, I represent Leona Labor's International Union of North America.

Uh I have a pleasure to be here.

Uh, appreciate counsel taking the time.

I'm glad we're having this conversation, which I think is an important one.

I want to appreciate uh Councilwoman Chowdhury, other council members who are authors of this resolution for bringing up what I think is an important discussion and a great chance to educate all of ourselves about uh what this means for our community, what it could mean.

Uh it's also really great uh to see UNIDOS here.

I will say that Lyona has worked with UNIDOS uh in many occasions, and I think we share a lot of the same values and objectives, including workforce development, creating high-quality union jobs that folks from all communities can enter, and in working to advance climate progress.

We think that as you know, as the council does this investigation, what we're gonna find is that the kind of data center development that is proposed and happening in Minneapolis is entirely consistent with those goals and the goals of the city.

So that's why we don't have a different kind of permitting process for every possible business use that you could put a building to.

Instead, we have a permitting process based on impacts.

So whether that's electricity use, water use, land use, noise, light, traffic, and air pollution, those are the important questions, right?

Those are the things that are actual impacts that we need to regulate, right?

And so whether it's called a data center matters less than what are its impacts going to be in each of these metrics.

Even the impacts of large data centers compared to other kinds of land uses like a distribution center, are pretty modest, right?

Like a warehouse without trucks for the most part, with the exception of a significant amount of electricity.

With a small infill data centers, you're really talking in many cases about the exact same impact that that commercial office building had when it was full and operating as a commercial office building.

So basically zero net impacts, a continuation of what we were doing before, and I think that that's what the record's gonna show as we investigate this.

I know there are concerns with the long-term financing.

I want to say that one thing that's happened in Minnesota because of our law is utilities are requiring take or pay contracts, long-term contracts for any new infrastructure, guaranteeing that we get paid back regardless.

And I would last, I would say that this is a fulfillment of the 100% commitment that we would bring new businesses to the state for our clean energy.

That's what we promised the people, and that's what this represents.

And if you didn't finish your comments and if you have them written, you can submit it to the public record for us to view.

Next person is Josh Kay.

Hey Josh, he him word three.

One moment, please.

Sure.

All right.

I've never heard someone who wasn't profiting off of data centers say, gosh, now that the city has a data center, it will be the perfect place to raise a family.

Data centers are extractive, they hog cities' utilities and raise the cost of living to cost of living for people.

They're anti-human.

In many other cities, the tax revenue has not offset the impact to quality of life, and people are fleeing from the noise, light, and pollution and raised prices.

Opposition to data centers won't stop.

Members of this community will organize to make sure this city is human-focused.

I don't know if there's a community out there that wants data centers, but I can say with extreme certainty that this isn't the one.

Thank you so much.

Uh next person is Andreas A.

Welcome.

Hi, um, my name is Andreas Alvarez.

I am a climate organizer with Unidos, Minnesota.

Over the past few years, we've worked closely with you all to uphold the city's promise to decarbonize and the clean energy transition for Minneapolis.

We are facing another threat to the public to public resources and goods, and we have the opportunity to set a standard for development for the future.

I urge you to hear the voices of your constituents who uh who will have to deal with the effects of data centers.

Data centers have proven to devastate communities and have failed to bring forth the benefits they promise without input from the communities.

We have we have a more uh we have a moratorium to further, we need a moratorium to further investigate the environmental, social, and economic impacts these data centers bring um to our residents, to your residents, and improve the progress for future development if we ever want to have more data centers.

Your constituents are not fooled by the empty promises these developers are making, using words like if may could, can data centers alone do not benefit the communities.

The only successful implementation of data centers is in communities where it's combined with investment for the community.

We need a moratorium on data centers, and we need to plan for how we allow them to exist in our city through the voices of the public impacting impacted by them.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to um state the next few people.

Christine from Zero Burn Coalition.

Adam Donick, Arisela Casa Sola, and Natasha Villa Villa Villava.

I'm sorry, but that's the name.

Natasha V.

So if you are here, I'll Christina.

Zero.

Please.

I already go.

Welcome.

My name is My name is Christine Popowski.

I'm with the Zero Burn Coalition.

Here are some facts about data centers.

One data center uses between 300,000 and 5 million gallons of water.

As much water as a city of 50,000.

We need that water for ourselves.

A typical data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 homes.

We need that electricity for ourselves.

The intersection of water consumption, energy demand, noise, and light pollution amounts to substantial community community.

And those communities are disproportionately black, indigenous, and people of color.

I read somewhere that the noise from these data centers can be equivalent to a lawnmower in your home 24 hours a day.

Imagine living with that.

For this reason, I propose a one year moratorium on these data centers.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

Adam, welcome.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Council members.

Great to see you.

I'm Adam Dunnock, the president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

We're in our 70th year as a downtown business association.

And we are opposed to the moratorium on data centers as you have as we have consistently communicated with you in recent weeks.

We are grateful that so many of you took the time to tour a data center, and while we appreciate the exemption for downtown data centers, we remain concerned about the chilling effect that even a partial or temporary moratorium would have on hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in the city and the tax-based growth for the city of Minneapolis.

We remain committed to supporting the economic ecosystem of Minneapolis, and we see data centers as an integral part of the city's growth and evolution.

We support a thoughtful and innovative data center framework, and we believe they offer an opportunity for Minneapolis to leverage its existing assets.

From an infrastructure standpoint, Minneapolis has a unique advantage.

We have the electrical capacity, established water systems, dense fiber, and cold weather.

Locating data centers here will allow us to efficiently utilize these systems.

This approach supports our shared commitment to sustainability by maximizing existing resources and minimizing environmental impacts.

Data centers have demonstrated that they will also increase our tax base.

These facilities are capital-intensive and generate significant property tax revenue with minimal demand on city services.

This creates a good net fiscal benefit, supports essential services, and helps to stabilize the long-term municipal finances.

In addition, the economic development upside extends beyond the facilities themselves.

Data centers are critical infrastructure for modern industries.

They promote innovation in healthcare, finance, AI, and advanced manufacturing.

Their presence alone signals that the city is remains ready to compete in the international digital economy while attracting complementary investment, professional talent, and the business growth that would come across our entire region.

Urban data centers can also coexist with and enrich enrich broader development goals with clear standards and thoughtful design.

They can also provide an opportunity for property owners to pursue adaptive reuse strategies supported by the reliable revenue of a growing industry.

They are not the solution to our downtown commercial vacancy and distressed property, but they are an incredibly important tool.

Thank you for your consideration.

All right, thank you, Adam.

I just have to stop just we are almost done with our public hearing.

We just have a few more left, and the chair will call that out.

I just ask everyone here to please be respectful during our proceedings.

Everyone has an opportunity to speak and state their opinions that we need to be respectful as you would want to be respected too when you are speaking.

So be mindful of that.

If there is any disrespect of testifiers while they're speaking as per council rules, we'll have to ask you to leave.

Thank you, Feistur.

That's correct.

All right.

Uh next person is Ariseli Casasola.

Hi.

Hi.

I wanted to thank the committee for their time this afternoon.

My name is Areseli Casasola.

I use sheher pronouns, and I live in Ward 10.

I am a teacher and volunteer advocate, and I wanted to echo some of the concerns of other folks, especially those that say that uh that highlight the concerns on the impact of our utilities and the environment.

I believe city government should make an active decision on what we want our city's valuable resources, uh permitting power and urban space to be used for.

I strongly agree with the moratorium on the permitting of data centers for a few facts.

First, Minneapolis is facing a housing crisis that would only be worsened if we hand over our dense urban land to development of data centers.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis on May 8th, 2026, for the first time since housing affordability goals were established in 2022.

The twin cities region failed in all three measures of new housing production, affordable affordable housing production, and black home ownership.

With such a crisis of home affordability, shouldn't we make every effort to ensure that our metro builds houses, schools, parks, and hospitals, not unregulated data centers?

Secondly, data centers generate minimal jobs and foot traffic.

Our most beloved neighborhoods are strongest when people live and work near small businesses, cafes, restaurants, parks, libraries, senior living facilities, and creative spaces by allowing these facilities by allowing these power-hungry, polluting, massive buildings that would exclusively generate profit for corporations.

We zone out destinations that would actually employ metropolitans and effectively kill the vibrancy of our creative and commercial corridors.

Finally, the myth that data centers are a boost to the tax base, build jobs, and promote growth is just that a myth.

Loudoun County and Virginia was cited as a data center success story in these very chambers.

But in reality, the National Association of Counties reports that the county's 200 data centers occupy 90 million square feet, and county leadership now admits their failure to regulate early.

Finally, residents are facing energy shortages, rate hikes, and the sale of our parks.

Data centers aren't for Minneapolis as it stands.

I fully support the moratorium as we continue to see the impacts of data centers on our communities.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much.

Uh next person is Natasha Villanova.

Good afternoon.

My name is Natasha Villanueva.

I live in the Jordan neighborhood on the north side.

It's located in Ward 5.

And I'm here today to speak in favor of a data center moratorium, given that one data center alone uses between 300,000 and 5 million gallons of water daily.

Downtown Minneapolis cannot be exempt given the fact that wasteful decision making that happens here in the city center negatively affects our surrounding BIPOC and working class communities such as mine on the north side and Phillips on the south side.

For example, I spent 12 days in April 2026 on hunger strike to shut down the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center or HERC, which consumes 500,000 gallons of water per day, much like a data center.

It also pollutes our air and our land, given the toxic ash byproducts that are deposited in landfills and surrounding communities.

The cumulative impacts of additional polluters, such as data centers being permitted is untenable.

I advocate for a permanent ban on data centers in our city because the irreversible cost to people and planet outweigh any financial gain from temporary tax revenue.

Thank you.

All right, uh thank you so much.

Uh next person, next three people are Stephanie Booker, Eric Bostad, and Michael Walker.

Hello, my name is Stephanie Marie Booker, and I live what a mile away from the trash burner, you famously called Hemp Energy Resource Center.

I'm I'm in um council member Coral Warren's district.

Minneapolis residents like me bought to stop the trash burner from being built back in the 1980s.

But against the will of the people, it was built anyway.

Now the trash burner has three decades of documented harm to our communities.

And the movement to end trash incineration has gone nationwide.

The trash burner was proposed as a solution to waste management crisis.

Now AI data centers are being proposed as a solution to the economic downturn in downtown Minneapolis.

Environmental harms are responsible for, including the pollution of light pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, uh disrespect uh, and also being placed in BIPOC rural and poor communities.

Instead of an economic boom, a uh AI data centers being allowed to be unrestricted and run amok with join the trash burner and sucking up our precious resources and harming our communities with pollution.

It's time to stop these false solutions that are based on centralized industrialized capitalist um uh institutions to environmental and economic crises.

It's time to invest our into community-based zero waste systems and green infrastructures that can both clean our communities, improve our economy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Eric Bustad.

Welcome.

Hello, committee members.

Uh my name is Eric Bosead.

I am a resident of Ward 2.

Um, I want to echo the concerns of for local environmental justice uh considerations and also how um data centers and AI are short uh short thinking um economically.

Um I also think it's important to bring in broader context and think about the entire supply chain for this topic and the entire tech stack.

Uh I have a chart that I will submit to the record.

Um but you have to consider that uh for data centers to exist, you need raw materials.

And these raw materials come from mining uh from mines, and we know uh what goes into that all around the globe, um, in the Sparrens Mountains of Ireland, um, in the Limpopo province in South Africa, and of course, uh up in the so-called boundary waters, um, people are resisting uh these mines for the minerals that go into data centers.

Um, in Ireland, people are getting death threats for defending their land in South Africa.

Uh land defenders have been shot and injured.

Um, at least one has been killed.

Um so that's what's happening at the front end of the supply chain.

And then we have to ask uh what is this AI for?

Um, it's already been mentioned that it's powering ice, it's powering targeting, surveillance, um, and then also beyond that, um, it's powering uh new forms of weaponry, uh, AI weapons, drones, uh, that is uh perpetuating genocide.

So the question is uh to everyone in the room.

Uh what do we want our labor going towards?

Do we want to keep perpetuating this economy of death or uh do we want to work together to build uh an economy that supports life?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, um, Michael Walker.

Welcome.

Chair Osman and Council members.

My name is Michael Walker.

I'm uh lived in Lindhurst neighborhood of Ward 13 for the last 36 years, and I'm a retired educator and former union member.

Um during the 2025 campaign, my council members said she's committed to advocating for policies that mitigate climate change, including promoting sustainable development in our city.

By enacting this temporary moratorium, we can do just that.

We have an opportunity to work together to develop policies and regulations that ensure that any data center approved within our city will not negatively impact our 2023 climate and equity plan goals of decarbonizing Minneapolis by 2050.

The recent um Minnesota Pollution Control Agency climate adaptation resilience cost study that Bonnie mentioned earlier, it's gonna cost the state 20 billion.

That means our take for Minneapolis is gonna be at least a billion dollars a year starting in 2040 if we do nothing.

This moratorium is a thoughtful, measured, pragmatic approach to ensure that data centers don't make the problem worse for our children and grandchildren, and it gives us the chance to enact policies and regulations that could potentially be leveraged to assist us in meeting our climate goals, as was mentioned earlier.

Um it's also gonna provide better predictability of our outcomes as a mentioned with uh director Hansen earlier during his uh session.

I urge you all to support this and I urge my fellow union members to consider uh looking at the network geothermal as a way to get more union jobs that will last a lot longer.

Thank you.

All right, thank thank you so much.

Uh all right, next three people are I'm sorry, come on.

What's your name?

Hi, my name is Marie Franchette.

I'm a resident of Ward 11.

I live there for 33 years, and I'm also uh volunteer with UNIDOS, and I am supportive of the moratorium on the data centers.

I'm a little concerned it might take more than six months because it's such a complex issue, and we need to make sure regulations are in place.

Um I'm also concerned about potential data centers moving forward downtown.

There's a proposal that I've heard of uh where they're gonna where a developer was considering uh commercial residential reuse of a building, and now they're thinking they'll they'll put a data center in because it's easier for them and they'll make more money off of it, and there's the risks of uh the data center and the environmental impacts, you know, are we gonna experience that if they go ahead?

Um, so three uh centers of 350,000 square feet are now um gonna be allowed to go ahead.

And as I think one of the Chowdhury's report showed that they're gonna be using 50 megawatts of power, that's as much power that could power 40 um to 55,000 residences.

And we know there's not enough renewable energy to supply this power.

So they're gonna be using fossil fuels, and that means more CO2 emissions, and that's gonna move us further away from our 2050 net zero um goal.

Um and so I I'm concerned that folks are looking at short-term property tax gains while they're gonna be taking valuable downtown property and essentially using it as a warehouse for computers.

One of the other speakers referred to them as a warehouse that doesn't have trucks.

So do we wanna take our valuable downtown property and use it as a warehouse that's not gonna create jobs, it's not creating residence for our for folks, and it's gonna have horrible environmental impacts in terms of energy, water, and noise.

So I support the moratorium, and I continue to be concerned about what's gonna happen in downtown.

Thank you.

Alright.

Wonderful, thank you so much.

Uh next few people are Heather Thinker, Kent, Fritz Smith, Julie Julia Stolson.

Dave.

H.

And yeah, if I call your name, please come up.

Hi, my name is Heather Hinkle, and I'm a resident of the Willard Hay neighborhood in North Minneapolis.

I'm here in support of the moratorium, and I also want to be critical of it just due to the 350,000 square feet cap for those exceptions.

350,000 square feet is actually really big, and that just can't fit downtown Minneapolis.

I put together some comparisons to help conceptualize how large that is.

350,000 square feet is equal to like three Walmarts, six football fields, three baseball fields, 26 Olympic-sized pools, 777 semi-trailers, a hundred or one thousand seven hundred and fifty Toyota Priuses, and 77 culvers.

I failed to see how an exception cap on 350,000 square feet fails to stop any existing development downtown.

So while I appreciate the council's recommendation to enact a moratorium, I do think that we need to adjust the criteria that falls into that exception category because total square footage, you know, of 77 culvers is quite large.

And I think that that should be reduced to something like 15,000 square feet of continue to contiguous or non-contiguous data centers facilities downtown if you know you want to develop.

I definitely am a fan of malicious compliance in this manner because if we are limited to square footage to regulate these industries, I think we have a lot of opportunities there to actually take control more of that situation.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next person is Kent.

Hi, Kent Fritz Smead, he him.

I'm from Ward 2.

Lived there for over 40 years.

Clearly, there's a thank you very much, Council members, for hanging around through all this testimony.

It's I appreciate it.

I'm sure everybody else does too.

There's clearly a new gold rush afoot, one which has real costs and most likely hidden costs.

It's a matter of record that data count um centers consume enormous amounts of water.

Where does that water come from and for how long?

Data centers also consume enormous amounts of energy.

In the past few months, opinion pieces from the industry have argued that we need to open new power plants, nuclear, natural gas, and even God forbid, coal power plants, all at a time when the earth and its inhabitants are suffering a rising temperature and a dying dying oceans and a barren natural world on land.

Data centers create huge amounts of heat that need to be shunted somewhere.

The atmosphere, our rivers, underground water.

We are being asked to support increased energy consumption and development in the downtown area at the same time that the county says the Herc, the downtown incinerator, is needed because how else will the downtown have enough heat uh for its heating district?

There's a contradiction here.

Better to look to the development of geothermal heating and cooling districts using the inherent heat and cooling capacities of the below ground earth and water.

There are many more jobs in construction and others in the incipient geothermal industry.

Hope my uh friends from the construction industry are hearing this message.

Thank you very much, Council members.

Thank you, Julia.

Hello, my name is Julia, and I am here as a resident of Ward 3.

I also work at Food and Water Watch, which is an environmental nonprofit that has been actively campaigning against data centers for the past year.

And since it's a national organization, I've become very familiar with how data centers have been affecting communities across the country.

I'm a full supporter of the moratorium and believe it is a crucial step in our fight against data centers in Minneapolis.

This rapid growth of data centers is an environmental justice crisis.

It is no coincidence where data centers are being placed in this country.

AI infrastructure is being disproportionately built in and around communities of color who already face the worst effects of climate uh the climate crisis.

And Minneapolis also has a long history and long-lasting effects of structural racism.

And putting in resources and time and money towards these data centers will only deepen the inequity that exists here.

Big tech corporations have a very rapid agenda.

They are moving as quick as possible to build what they can before policymakers and community members have a chance to catch up and even understand what's going on.

And this is because data center developers are using NDAs like others have mentioned and very vague, unthreatening language to describe AI infrastructure to make it seem less harmless and in some cases even environmentally friendly.

And this is all intentional.

There is no transparency.

They hide behind promises of using renewable energy and water conservation, but there is a cost once these data centers are built, and big tech corporations will not be paying for it, and Minneapolis residents will be.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much.

Next person is Dave Holzer.

We left.

Okay, thank you.

And the last person that's sign up.

Uh can't read the name, but is.

Henos.

Ward four.

Hi.

Welcome.

Hello.

My name is Henos Ionas.

I am from Ward 4, and I am a volunteer with Unidos.

I'm a constituent within the city of Minneapolis.

And I do not like the idea of my city housing job stealing machines that also take our electricity and water from my communities.

Minneapolis has seen enough targeted harm towards marginalized communities and the environments those communities inhabit to know exactly what will happen if this moratorium does not pass.

More health detriments, more inequity, and more injustice.

I'm not comfortable with large corporations deciding what's best for me when that means being neighbors with a hallucinating plagiarism machine.

I'm not comfortable with large corporations making decisions for me, period.

Please implement more checks on greedy tech CEOs so that I do not have to be living in the same neighborhood as noise making, polluting, infiltrating, technology.

And do whatever you can to prevent further harm from enveloping our city.

Please pass the moratorium.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

All right.

See no one else.

Thank you all for coming and testimony testifying.

We still have a vote that we're waiting for.

So I'm going to close the public hearing and recognize Councilmember uh Vice Chair Chowry to make a comment.

Thank you so much.

Yes, uh Chair Osman, I would like to move this forward with recommendation.

Just want to give some quick remarks.

I know Councilmember Chavez also wants to, and a couple others, and we're really hanging in there.

Might be, might be wise to take up impervious surfaces another day.

It's in our discussion as a receive and file.

So that's a suggestion, Chair.

So, first of all, thank you so much to every single person that testified that came here to our chambers today.

I know many of you are working people yourselves, and you took time out of your day to be here.

And you also came to represent people that could not be here.

And that is just very valuable, especially in a conversation like this, to hear from young people, to hear from people who are part of our environmental justice movement, to hear from union workers, to hear from parents, to hear from people from the north side to the south side, with varying perspectives.

And I just want to say that it is really important to support union jobs, and I have long supported union jobs, and at the same time, it is really important to make sure that we protect people from risks and risks that are well documented across the country.

And as a council member, when I have community members calling, emailing me, reaching out to me consistently about a worry as it comes to data centers.

I have to weigh all of the constituents that we have to represent.

And I think the constituents here in this room gave us a lot of places to ask questions, they ask questions, and the ones that we have to answer.

I think we got a taste of the baseline of where our community is and where what they know, and the task before us is here to share with them to educate ourselves, to do our due diligence as it comes to regulating data centers and all of the factors that come into play from water, energy, community benefits, the revenue that we're getting, noise pollution, air pollution, future land use, the way that we're shaping our city.

And I just want to say that as a council member, I am uncertain about data centers.

And big tech has given us every single reason to be because communities have quite literally been destroyed.

If they did not want cities to slow down the process on this and to be uncertain, they shouldn't have so royally messed up so many communities, and that's why we have 77 other jurisdictions in the nation that currently have a version of a moratorium in place, which is 20 more than the last time we discussed this on May 21st.

And I think that sends a signal to this industry to big tech that local government is not gonna bend over backwards, is not gonna bend over backwards to the highest bidder and short-term revenue without actually answering questions, without actually protecting our constituents.

We are a regulatory body, our charge is to reflect the needs of people, not the shareholders of big tech.

And I'm gonna I wish council member Warren was here because I was gonna say uh a metaphor assimile similar to what she oftentimes gives up on the dais that kept on coming to mind to ask us not to do a moratorium and take a pause to build out the regulations is like asking us to walk around in a dark, uncertain place without a flashlight, while we're hearing people call out in worry and concern.

That's not responsible governance, and we have an opportunity before us to do so.

And I'm excited to hear about the opportunities for reducing greenhouse gases, reducing the rates on ratepayers, district heating, um, no impacts to our water system, but we have to know how we're gonna get there, and it has to be proven to us, and we don't have that before us, and that's something that we have to be certain about before development happens.

And lastly, I'll just close on this.

We're we're we got a compromise right in front of us, one that I had a really hard time with.

We made a major carve out to downtown.

So these infill data centers can be built out so a moratorium can pass.

Those projects are happening, and at the same time, we are saying we have to protect our city, and we are gonna have a moratorium, especially to protect the areas that have industrial sites where black and brown community members have lived for generations and have been impacted by environmental justice, and so this is something that should have broad-based support across every single stakeholder because it says we're taking a step together, and it's on all of us to do the work to inform the policy that's before us in the next six months.

And I look forward to seeing you at the Planning Commission, meetings, seeing you testify in the future and come back to City Hall on this topic.

Thank you.

Uh Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair Osman.

I want to thank Vice Chair Chaudry for all her work on this ordinance uh to establish this temporary um data center moratorium.

I'm proud to join her as a co-author on this as well.

And wanna thank everybody that showed up to testify, in particular my ward nine neighbors who continue to show up to many better from our city enterprise.

Uh, whether it's in urban cores, as I mentioned last time, the suburbs or rural communities, we know that the build out of these particular data centers, not only in the city but across this nation are meant to largely power AI and is a result of corporate strategy.

We know that these institutions are bullying municipalities like Minneapolis into accepting these data centers with the speed and lack of accountability.

I also want to highlight that these data centers steal jobs from our neighbors.

And I want to be clear that temporary jobs to build data centers is not worth the long-term implications of permanent union loss jobs due to automation and this industry that will take away from our community members.

And we have to be very honest about that.

And if not, I will be very clear that temporary jobs are not worth those long-term jobs.

Earlier this year, the EPA issued guidance actively directing big tech to contaminate sites near municipal water site supplies.

The EPA explicitly noted these sites are viable even if cleanup is still ongoing.

We know that Trump signed an executive order last year directing the EPA to identify Superfund and Brownfield sites for data center development, while weakening requirements for environmental review.

It's home to East Phillips, home to a former federal superfund site where arsenic contamination hasn't been fully cleaned up yet.

I also think about the north side and south side green zones, areas down Highwath Avenue, and locations with high concentrations of poverty that could be threatened with data centers.

And I personally will not make it easier for the Trump administration to pollute our communities more easily.

Something that gets lost in the conversations in the build out of these data centers themselves is why they are even being built out in the first place.

And it's important to point out that this moratorium already has a carve out for downtown Minneapolis.

So I am struggling to understand the concerns now with the exemptions for downtown.

That means that residents in downtown Minneapolis will not be protected from the harm of data centers.

And it makes me sad for downtown residents who deserve a safe and welcoming downtown and whose land should be used for housing in a people centered downtown, not environmental harm.

But here we are today.

And by opposing this moratorium, it also makes me wonder where do people want these data centers to be built out then?

You got the carve up for downtown.

Where do you want them?

I have concerns, and I have not heard a single person opposing this moratorium say where do you want these centers built outside of downtown?

You're probably looking in neighborhoods like mine.

Whether it was Smith Foundry or Pet Simonis Roadways in a ward that I represent or the HERC history shows us that polluting producing facilities are often placed in historically disenfranchised communities like mine.

That's a fact.

And I also want us to think about this.

Let's ask our kids, the people of this future, the young people, what they prefer.

Do they prefer a data center or a playground?

Do they prefer data centers or a soccer field?

Do they prefer data centers or preserving water that is literally life?

Do they prefer data centers or housing?

Do they prefer data centers or solutions to addressing uncheltered homelessness?

Or do they prefer data centers or protecting your own health and well-being?

I think the answer is very simple.

They prefer the things I mentioned, not a data center.

I'm voting for this because I think it's important to protect the communities that I represent, who no one has been able to answer whether they're gonna build out a data center in my ward or not.

And it's important to put a moratorium in place to protect my neighbors, my constituents, people who have dis been disenfranchised from environmental racism in the city, period.

I also want to call roll call on this vote.

All right, I'll recognize Councilmember Schaefer.

Yeah, I will save my I will save my primary comments for next Thursday when we take a full vote.

Um but I just want to remind us all that we have two resolutions coming forward here.

One, we were all unanimously speaking to the fact that we do need data center regulation and discussion.

Zoning will come forward.

These will be a important topics that will happen between now and the next six months.

Basically, the duration of this moratorium.

So what we will look forward to is basically practically, this moratorium is not slowing anything down.

And you know, as far as going into other areas of the city, we have the power around conditional use permits that if something does come forward, we will be made aware of that um in this process of the next six months to be able to really look at that and make a determination with the leadership from that ward or an area that maybe was unexpected to be able to deal with that.

Yes, this is primarily an issue being looked at for downtown in the vacant office buildings, not soccer fields, not parks, not hyperscale footprints.

These are footprints that are vacant in our actual downtown area that are not driving tax revenue for us.

Um I'll just make one other comment, and we asked the question if we approved this moratorium, what will be the impact?

Not a lot practically, but Minneapolis will make headlines once again that communicates that Minneapolis is wary of investment.

Capital looking for opportunities to drive growth will notice.

Leaders trying to sell our city for new business or tech relocation will need to answer questions like, do you really have stability in your regulatory environment?

We heard about a moratorium.

One of the questions we heard from Director Hansen today in his reappointment process around this question is what will drive additional growth opportunities in Minneapolis.

One of his responses was resources, we all know that, and the other one was growing confidence in our city.

I believe, as a comment, when I asked what does that mean to grow confidence in our city?

What's an example of that?

He said people are more likely to take a chance when policy and process environments are clear and predictable.

A moratorium is not a clear and predictable policy.

It's a lessatorium.

Less investment, less building valuations, less jobs.

So as a council member for the central business district, for whom this moratorium would affect the most, I respectfully request my colleagues to join me in voting against the moratorium.

We have unanimously moved forward with a plan to address regulation, and I look forward to doing this together.

Let's send a message, loud and clear, that we value business investment in our city.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember.

I would myself in Q.

I just want to really thank the union, you know, trade uh trade and Layuna and all other ones that came and stopped by today, and money money community members who are concerned about the unknown that we're diving into.

And I also want to thank my our staff for hanging out with us for this long-term, long uh day with us.

Let's just be honest.

Was one year no exception, right?

I met the business owners, I visited the data centers and sleep numbers.

I uh met the downtown council, I met most of the businesses, and listen, their concerns.

It's like, okay, um, moratorium might be a bad word for investors.

I get that part, but we still are responsible for our residents and make a reasonable um balance it decisions, right?

We can't only think about uh the businesses.

Businesses are good to think about, but we can't just have that idea now, right?

We also have to have the responsibility of environment, health, wellness of the individuals.

So those are also come in in uh you know, same level as that as that.

So once I met with them, I we I made the exception to carve out first of all this uh for the uh one year to six months, right?

For our for our staff to catch up to really do the resource that's necessary to create the zoning that we need uh for this facility.

Like we do everything, you know, in your house, uh your place that you sleep at night, you don't have a machine in next to you, right?

It's a zoning thing.

So we do uh residential the same way we're zoning.

We're trying to zone this, give us a time, is the six months give the city a time is a six month.

Um and also the the downtown is the conversation.

I saw those buildings, we look at the data.

My staff and I worked hard to come up with a number that they actually gave us thumbs up with the folks that I talked to in downtown and the business owners.

They say 350 square feet, um, exception.

So you're getting everything and you're still pushing somehow.

Um it's kind of really, in my opinion, dishonest work that me as a council member who's trying to be reasonable to work with the business community and also work with the environment folks.

Uh I'm sorry, the residents.

Um, it's just it's just a little bit difficult for me to understand that part.

Um, I think this was something that we should all united, give exceptional for residents, people that um, you know, in our community, larger communities uh outside the downtown and give the downtown business opportunity to have attract all those um data center uh investors.

Um hope I mean the policies we might come on might even be harsher than this.

It might be more uh really straightforward that you can't do a data center type of thing here.

It might be.

So we don't know.

We gotta give the professional staff an opportunity to to do that.

So this was a reasonable working together, coming up with a plan and having the business and the community side by side and creating um something that we can all unite.

That was the vision or my exception.

Um, and I'm so glad uh the author, um Vice Chair Chowry was able to agree with that because she was not.

We had to get her where we wanted to be to move forward.

So I expect all my colleagues actually to vote for this because we're meeting the need of of uh of downtown.

We are meeting the need of downtown.

350 square feet, it's a huge, it's a huge space where I don't remember the number of the staff share with me, but there's huge amount of um megawatts that can go in that place.

Sleeve numbers almost um what is it 180, and this is three fifty 350.

So it's it's a lot.

And I visited City Room.

I saw the data center.

So I expect all of us to come together as leaders to look out for our city.

At the same time.

Look out for so many different angles, creating businesses, making sure the downtown um uh buildings are are you know are generating wealth and and tax and are not empty, and they are we're attracting businesses to come here, but at the same time be responsible of the well-being of our residents.

That is what leadership is, and that's why we are voting this forward.

So that's my comment, and I will definitely say this same thing in next uh couple Thursday from now, a couple of Thursday from now.

So I will recognize Councilmember Pearl, uh Warren on the Thank you, Vice President.

Um I appreciate all of the comments that everyone made.

I think my favorite one was my girl over there talking about the amount of culvers that fit into that space.

My goodness.

Um, like what in the Sam Smith Adele?

Who counts culvers?

But I guess in that space, we would, right?

Um, but but those visual aids and things like that are really, really, really important.

This is why I'm so excited about the research opportunity that is coming along with that for us to really um reimagine to answer some of these more challenging questions about where, when, how, how does it, and what does it look like, right?

Where is it at, in which community, you know?

Because we have seen black and brown communities um most greatly impacted by a lot of these things that are thrown into our community because why it's easy, it's cheap, it's less expensive.

Who's gonna manage it?

No one's gonna think about it.

And then it just gets buried in the sea of forgotten stuff with with the rest of the people over there, and we end up dealing with more of the same and the frustrations that I have about you know areas of of economic poverty and die investment when it comes to these different things.

Um, I am not a fan of more the word moratorium.

I'm just not a fan of moratorium, but what I am a big fan of is going to people and asking the questions and doing the research and digging in deep because there are a lot of questions that I have, and I know that data centers have been here, they're here now.

You know, I know people are farming cryptocurrency in their basements, they've been doing it, you know.

Um, and and people are running data centers out of their home, you know, all kinds of things that people are doing underground and above ground and and all through the ground, right?

Um, and so I want the opportunity for us to ask these questions, and I want to work very diligently with um with my colleagues, and I am, you know, one who is gravely concerned about what we don't know and what we haven't researched and dug into questions about water and what that means and and sustainability for our communities and all of these different things, and and so I want the opportunity to be able to ask those questions and bring those things to the forefront.

Um I just I like I said, and I've said this before, and my colleagues know this.

I'm hard, I have a hard time with that word moratorium.

Temporary.

Yeah, I'm cool with the temporary pause.

I'm cool with the temporary pause.

It's just that word moratorium just makes me think uh federal government and people in control who we don't want in control.

Like, so I'm I'm really I struggle with that word, um, but I am I am for in support of the pause and the research and everything that needs to be done.

I appreciate everyone who came and testified and taking the time um so that we can see your viewpoints and understand it.

And I want to urge you.

If you didn't already submit your comments, please submit them because those help us to build in the questions in the research work that we will do because we want to uplift those narratives.

So, yeah, that's my that's my point.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, members, council members, I just want to remind you that we have about eight minutes for until we are um, so go ahead.

Yeah, could be quick.

I just want to remind the public that this ordinance already has an exemption for downtown Minneapolis.

And if the issue is about wanting to build data centers in downtown, then I don't understand why there's opposition to this ordinance that already exempts downtown.

There is a whole car route for downtown Minneapolis.

So, yes, without this ordinance, a data center can be built instead of a soccer field instead of playgrounds instead and and in our empty parcels of land in the south side green zone and north side green zone.

So I just want to at least point that out.

Yes, go ahead.

Thanks, Charlie.

Thank you.

Um just to address some of Councilmember Warren's concerns.

Um and since you like the culverse visual, this pause will be done before anyone cooks any Thanksgiving turkeys.

And by the time we have the twenty first of June, there'll just be five months left because we'll already have been one month into it.

For your consideration.

Beautiful.

Councilmember Rainville is absent.

Warren.

Aye.

Schaefer.

No.

Chavez.

Aye.

Chuktai.

Aye.

Vice Chair Chowdhury.

Aye.

And Chair Osman.

I.

There are five ayes, one nay and one absent.

All right, uh, thanks.

That motion um moves forward.

All right.

Our last item, I would like us to we run out of time.

I would like to ask to uh forward this with um next cycle.

And um all right, with that motion.

Is a motion, right?

I think we can just do it.

You can just do it without objection.

Without objection?

Yep, without objection.

All right.

Uh all right, the item staff, thank you for your patience for coming to present this.

We'll take it next cycle.

All right.

Um see no further discussion before us.

Uh with no objection, I'll declare this meeting adjourned.

Thanks everyone.