No written agenda or minutes were provided with the transcript. The council held a study session covering data center zoning, two resolutions scheduled for the April 20 meeting, a municipal court staffing request, and proposed temporary moratoriums. The regular council meeting was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
And uh the first item we have today is a presentation on data setter information. So Mr. Cron. Good evening. I will do my best to tell you what I know about data centers tonight and how they could affect us. Um getting a killer report. So I guess what we're gonna talk about is kind of what they are or what at least what we think they are. Um maybe then some potential concerns or issues there could be with those. Um talk about what some other places are doing with data centers, um, what's going on at the state level, and then some proposals maybe for our zoning code to address those things. So to start out, just um what our data centers um they're growing all over the place. There's over 200 of them now, I think in the state. It's a huge investment. Um most of the data centers are located around the center of the state, around the Columbus area. New Albany is known for having uh a huge data center presence there. Um, but they're they're coming around everywhere. We know there's some locally here proposed. There's one proposed in Sydney. They're talking about one up in near the PICWA area. I think there's one going up in Lima. Um Wilmington is having some challenges, you know, with them down there. So we'll look at some of those areas and what they're doing. Um so what is a data center? Um the ones you hear about mostly are the big ones, the hyperscale data centers. Um they can um host thousands of high capacity servers and other network kind of infrastructure. Um they they typically focus on AI applications, um cryptocurrency, web services, things like that. Um the thing about the hyperscale data centers, um, they can exceed you know million square feet or larger, even like that. And so there's potential, you know, the taking up a lot of land. You know, we know there's not typically a lot of employees at these data centers. So um looking at ways to address some of those concerns with them. Um going to the next slide. Um so some of the the concerns that you hear about are electric usage, the power needed for a hyperscale data center can range from 10 10 megawatts and up and and and way more than that in some instances. Um additional infrastructure that's needed, substations, um, battery backups, there's usually generators on site in case of power outages for those. Um the residents are typically concerned that the the increased use of power from the data centers um will have will cause their rates to go up or or their usage rates to go up for their power. Um I've had some very preliminary and elementary, I'll say, discussions with uh members from AES about this, and and some of that can be true, but there is also ways to combat that, and a lot of that depends on potential development agreements that the cities or jurisdictions get with um the data centers or the agreements that AES or the power um companies, depending on where they are, may get with the data centers, and that is on the agreements they get and the capital outlay that the companies building the data centers will put into the the infrastructure. You know, if they can get them to pay for all of the upgrades up front, then AES doesn't have to recoup any costs for building their infrastructure. So there's just a lot of different ways it can be done to address those issues, uh, but there still is that potential that they're not all addressed, and at some time it could increase costs to to residents and other businesses as well. But AES has been working hard to try to not foot the bill for as much of this as they can so that the companies that are building these data centers um pay their fair share. Um one of the other issues or major issues you hear about them is the water usage. Um they're the hyperscale data centers, the large ones, they're water cooled, meaning they've the facility uses a lot of water to cool for cooling in this. Um sometimes you hear you know, a million gallons a day of water just to for the cooling they needed. Um closed loop systems can help with that, you know, where they recirculate the water. It doesn't always work for them, and it can't um complete you know ever all of the cooling they need, but that does help in some ways. And again, I think some of the technology is getting better. Um, you know, obviously they're gonna need more water in the summer to cool than they do in the winter if they can utilize some of the outside temperatures and that kind of thing. And there's different ways to do that with HVAC systems opening up of the facility some to use the the outside temperatures for cooling as well. So a lot of those things you know, I think they're getting better at, but but still there's a long way to go, I think. Um so those are some of the you know those are the biggest concerns, I think what what you hear from people. Um we we checked around a little bit to see what some other um government agencies have done as far as regulating them with zoning. Um probably one of the best examples um we found, and there's a copy of their ordinance in in the packet as well. I won't go through it on the screen screen tonight, but just some of the highlights.