Good morning.

It is Monday, March 9th.

Hope everybody's clocks woke them up at the appropriate time.

This is a joint committee of the Transportation and Environment and Economic Development Committees.

We have one item as a joint committee today, and then the TE committee will take up a second item immediately after.

But that first item is Bill 426 task force on data centers established.

This is a bill that I introduced because Montgomery County deserves to have a transparent and structured process for evaluating data center proposals.

There are a lot of conversations in the community across the entire county, and residents have questions.

And we need to be able to answer those questions.

And I think the best way to do that is by having that transparent process that brings residents, experts, environmental advocates, business leaders, utilities and others to the table to talk about the data center proposals, to talk about how we want to structure this and to talk about what the future Montgomery County, quite frankly, looks like.

Data centers raise serious questions about land and water use and about energy consumption, about noise, about environmental impacts, and long-term economic outcomes as well.

All of those things are true.

And this task force will allow our own community, Montgomery County stakeholders, to evaluate and examine these issues in a very comprehensive way.

By bringing together experts and community leaders, I believe that we can put together a policy that is guided by facts, by science, by lived experience, by uh economic expectations because it is essential to think of this holistically, not as a piecemeal approach, not as a uh piecemeal proposal.

Um and that means taking the time to ask very hard questions and to do the same thing that other jurisdictions have done.

We've seen what is happening across the river in Loudoun County, and there is near universal, if not total universal agreement that we don't want that here.

At the same time, we see other neighboring jurisdictions that have undertaken their own task forces, recognizing that Frederick County and Prince George's County are unique communities, all unto themselves, as is Montgomery County.

So I think we should have that same process here.

Um and let me just be very clear that this task force is about doing our due diligence and establishing a well-understood data-driven approach and framework for the path forward.

Um so I look forward to this conversation.

It's gonna be a very substantive conversation, and I'll turn it over to uh our co-chair, Council President Fonigonzales.

Thank you so much to Chair Evan Glass and to everybody who came to here today.

Data centers is a really hot topic and a very important one.

I am glad in a feel very honored to have worked with the county executive steen and I see Ms.

Sarah Culger's hunter.

There you go.

Two there you go.

Uh joining us today.

And at some point I would love for you to come forward.

Um we have been working, and when I say we I specifically talk about Council Vice President, Marilyn Balcon and Councilmember Laurie and Sales uh with the county executive team analyzing and examining different jurisdictions uh in the Washington DC, especially in the Washington DC region, how they have handle uh data centers and what lessons to take out of that.

Um that's why we have another proposal that is gonna be reviewed in the PHP committees, a ZTA on data centers about restricting the locations of where they're located.

Um so we'll take that later on, most likely after the budget.

We have time.

Um I have maybe for I even come forward and say my views on this particular bill.

I think it's better if we can ask staff to go over the bill and at some point ask the county executives um staff to come forward and explain all the work that they have done on this particular issue already to give us data.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Madam Co-Chair for that.

Uh Ms.

Kogel Smucker, if you want to come up or prepare yourself, uh clearly your input will be uh welcomed in a few moments.

Uh short of any other comments that colleagues might have, Ms.

McCartney Green, uh I'll turn it over to you to walk us through the packet.

Thank you, and good morning.

Um as mentioned, uh the purpose of the bill is to explore um the benefits and potential economic and environmental impacts of data center development in the county.

Just to frame this conversation, um, included a little bit of background explaining the current process right now.

Uh a developer or applicant who is required to um would like a permit issued for a data center.

Uh there's no specific definition right now in our zoning code or in our county code.

Um and so right now it's classified as a cable communication system.

That's the use.

Not going to go too far into zoning, but I just want to point that out there.

Um and so that process um has a framework, but it's not as very um detailed or um by tune.

As mentioned by uh Council President Fanny Gonzalez, there is a pending ZTA before the district council.

That is separate from the discussion today.

We had a public hearing, and I know there was a little bit of dabble on on both topics, but today we're talking about the task force, just to make sure that was uh clear.

Um council staff on page three just went through comparing one top three local jurisdictions that have looked at um studying data centers and looked at Loudon County that has uh uh predominant use um of of data centers in that area and looking at the regulatory framework, uh looked at Frederick County as well and Prince George's County.

There's also a chart in the back, just summarizing and putting it together because it was a lot of information and a lot of specific different details depending on what you were um specifically looking for.

As for the impact statements from the Office of Legislative Oversight, um they were considered in insignificant or um still waiting for the task force to determine some of those, racial equity, social impact, looking at the climate assessment, and so uh those impact statements um deferred or did not have enough information to make those determinations here today.

Uh public hearing, as mentioned, there were at least over 20 individuals that testified, but council also received many uh written testimony as well.

Uh discussing a lot about whether the need for a careful um expert-driven study to be done um to amend or make recommendations to legislation or the zoning text amendment.

Um in addition, there was a lot of testimony about putting a pause on data center applications or um a moratorium.