[0:37] . Good afternoon. Good afternoon. This is the county county work session of September 20,

[0:43] 20, 20, 22, 20, 26, and I'm calling this meeting to order.

[0:47] Can I have approval of the minutes of the September 15th, 20, 26 work session, please?

[0:51] Semif.

[0:52] Second.

[0:53] All in favor say aye.

[0:54] Aye.

[0:55] Opposed?

[0:56] Minutes are approved.

[0:58] Our first presentation this morning, this afternoon, is presentation of proclamations, economic

[1:04] development week and manufacturing day.

[1:07] Can we meet down at the podium, please?

[1:10] Is there

[1:13] something down there?

[1:14] I'm hungry.

[1:23] Yes, ma'am.

[1:40] Good evening, everyone.

[1:42] Tonight, I'm going to read the proclamation

[1:45] for Economic Development Week in Maryland,

[1:48] September 28th through October 2nd, 2026.

[1:53] Whereas Economic Development plays a vital role in strengthening communities

[1:57] by creating jobs, attracting and retaining businesses,

[2:01] encouraging investment, supporting entrepreneurship

[2:04] ownership and building a strong and sustainable local economy, and whereas economic development

[2:09] week in Maryland provides an opportunity to recognize the important work of economic

[2:14] development professionals and organizations throughout the state who connect businesses

[2:19] with resources, foster partnerships, and create opportunities for continued economic growth.

[2:26] And Cecil County is committed to fostering a business-friendly environment that supports

[2:32] support existing employers, welcomes new investment, encourages innovation and entrepreneurship

[2:38] and creates opportunities for residents to live, work, and build their futures within

[2:43] our community.

[2:45] The Cecil County Office of Economic Development works diligently to promote the county as

[2:50] a premier location for business and investment while supporting our diverse economic sectors,

[2:57] including agriculture, manufacturing, small businesses,

[3:01] tourism, technology, and other industries that contribute to Cecil County's prosperity.

[3:07] Strong partnerships among government, businesses,

[3:10] educational institutions, workforce organizations, and community leaders

[3:15] are essential to developing a skilled workplace, expanding economic opportunities,

[3:22] and ensuring Cecil County remains competitive for generations to come.

[3:26] Cecil County joins the Maryland Economic Development Association and communities throughout the state in recognizing economic development week and celebrating the professionals, businesses, entrepreneurs, and community partners whose efforts strengthen Maryland's economy and improve the quality of life for its citizens.

[3:46] Now, therefore, let that, now, therefore, that we, the County Executive and County Council

[3:53] of Cecil County, do hereby proclaim September 28th through October 2nd, 2026, as Economic

[4:01] Development Week in Cecil County, and recognize the Cecil County Office of Economic Development,

[4:06] our local business community, and our many partners for their continued commitment to creating

[4:11] opportunities, encouraging investment and building a stronger and more prosperous

[4:16] Cecil County presented by the Cecil County Executive and the Council of Cecil County

[4:21] on this 20th, 8th day of September, 2026.

[4:35] I wasn't prepared to say words, but thank you so much.

[4:40] which we have an action-packed week scheduled for this economic development week, as you know,

[4:48] economic development is key to success of the county.

[4:54] We need to drive capital investment, create new jobs, grow the tax base.

[5:00] And so that's what we're here to do, and we appreciate the administrations and the county

[5:05] Council support for what we do. Most recently you approved the expansion of the enterprise

[5:12] zone for innovation hub and we're really excited about that. We expect we'll be back for

[5:21] another expansion in the spring for a different project but again very important to the future

[5:27] of Cecil County. So thank you so much. I know we have another

[5:30] the documentation. It's a big week for us separate

[5:40] photos so

[6:01] thankfully

[6:27] they got

[6:28] they let me read this one since I've been in manufacturing for the last 20 years

[6:32] so National Manufacturing Day October 2nd 2026 whereas each year the first

[6:40] Friday of October is designated as National Manufacturing Day across the United States.

[6:46] And whereas manufacturing makes a significant contribution to the national, state, and local

[6:51] economy, and whereas Cecil County is a major contributor to the manufacturing industry in

[6:57] the region and is fortunate to be home of many world-class and diverse manufacturing companies.

[7:03] And whereas manufacturing accounts for over 5,000 jobs within the county and represents

[7:09] approximately 12% of Cecil County's workforce.

[7:13] And whereas the manufacturing companies located in Cecil County add to the vitality and

[7:18] prosperity of our community providing high paying quality jobs.

[7:23] Now therefore, be it hereby resolved that we, the county executive and

[7:28] county council of Cecil County, hereby recognize the efforts of our local manufacturers.

[7:33] And reaffirm the positive impact they make on the economy in Cecil County.

[7:37] by proclaiming October 2nd, 2026, as manufacturing day in Cecil County.

[7:43] I'll

[7:51] say a couple of things.

[7:53] Thank you.

[7:55] Thank you.

[7:56] Thank you.

[7:58] Thank you.

[7:58] All right, so manufacturing day is extra special.

[8:04] We'll be doing a press release for this as well.

[8:07] But we have some great manufacturers here, large, global ones like Northrop Brumman, just

[8:14] had their ribbon cutting on their new building, their Propulsion Innovation Center, 57,000 square feet,

[8:21] going to house their engineers. So, increasing their job count. So, that's very exciting. They've got additional growth

[8:30] going to be happening next year. They're getting enterprise-owned certification application ready. They're already in the zone, but they're getting prepared for that new development.

[8:39] We have WL Gore, employees over 3,000 people in the county, it's our largest employer.

[8:47] And we have Taroumo Medical and Cardiovascular collectively, they employ 1,600 people in the county.

[8:55] So we've got those major ones and then we have all types of little ones from aquifin, timely products, colonial metals,

[9:02] goals, tim plastics but there's all kinds of innovation and manufacturing here so we're

[9:09] a lot more than what people see riding down the roads and we're lucky to have a very

[9:16] diversified economy and so thanks so much and we just want everybody to celebrate with

[9:22] us next week. All this good stuff that's happening in our county and across the state.

[9:27] Thank you.

[10:01] Okay,

[10:23] we're ready now for presentations. Our first presentation this afternoon to Cecil County Public Library, Executive Director Rachel Wright. Rachel, come on up. Thank you for being here.

[10:41] What I was here last, which I guess was for the budget presentation, I was told keep

[10:48] it brief, six minutes, come back another time to do the updates.

[10:53] I may or may not be looking at Chick when I say this.

[10:58] So hopefully you have pronounced, I guess, of the presentation in front of you so it's not

[11:02] too many slides.

[11:03] You should all be able to keep up even if you're not seeing it on the screen.

[11:07] So good afternoon, Council President Miller, Vice President Mephli and the Tire Council.

[11:13] Thank you again for the opportunity to share exciting updates from CISO County Public

[11:18] Library.

[11:20] We really have had such a wonderful summer.

[11:23] We're looking forward to a lot of things happening this fall and so really pleased to be here

[11:28] to share these updates with you.

[11:30] Wonderful, magically appeared.

[11:31] Thank you, Christine.

[11:33] So I want to start with the summer.

[11:35] Today is the first day of fall and so we are celebrating summer success at the library.

[11:43] This is our infographic which details all of the ways back one.

[11:49] We engage with the community this summer.

[11:53] We engage children, teen and adults and we have lots of stories of success to share.

[12:00] Those summer reading is often seen as a youth program.

[12:05] This year, as you can see, our adults were out in full force,

[12:09] and so we had more than 1,000 adults registered

[12:13] for summer reading with us this year.

[12:16] This is critical and really important to literacy in our community

[12:20] because engaging adult readers allows them to serve

[12:25] as really important role models for our youth

[12:28] as we want to continue to engage youth in reading and learning throughout the summer.

[12:33] So we're excited for that development and looking forward to building on that success,

[12:39] as we move into winter reading, which is just a few months away.

[12:44] Something else we're celebrating in terms of our summer reading is the number of youth readers

[12:49] who are registered with our program this year.

[12:51] As you can see here, we had 3677 kids and teens who all told red for 1.7 million minutes

[13:01] this summer.

[13:03] This is critical for ensuring that kids, youth, teens are engaged in summer reading and

[13:09] learning, research shows and evidence proves that when they do engage in reading and learning

[13:14] throughout the summer, they're better prepared to return to school when the school year returns

[13:20] to be in session. So, with increases over the past several years, and in 16 percent increase

[13:29] this year, we are past our previous pre-COVID numbers. So, we're really excited to be building back

[13:38] and seeing that with all of our summer readers. And finally, we are proud to say that our youth

[13:46] stay engaged in the program throughout the summer.

[13:50] That's one of our goals is to develop sustained reading habits.

[13:53] We don't want them to do all of their reading

[13:55] in the first couple of weeks of summer

[13:57] and to say that they're finished.

[13:59] So we build the program.

[14:01] And so at the 50-day mark,

[14:04] we had 35% increase in all age groups

[14:07] who were still engaged in reading and learning at the library.

[14:11] So we know this is going to make a difference in their lives

[14:15] and as they return to school.

[14:17] And there are lots of other ways and exciting things

[14:19] to celebrate on there as well,

[14:22] including our partnership with Cecil County Public Schools,

[14:25] which makes it possible for us to serve 879 lunches

[14:29] to youth this summer in Elkton and Northeast.

[14:33] And of course, more than 7,000 people

[14:36] attended our programs this summer.

[14:39] So pictured on the next slide then,

[14:41] is just a sample of, oops, maybe they're out of order,

[14:44] my apologies. So pictures of our programming, including start-up CISOL, which is our teen

[14:51] entrepreneurship program. We are very appreciative of the support, certainly of the Office of

[14:58] economic development with

[15:00] Sandra Edwards. I didn't even plan that. And Rebecca Clark who served as judges for our program and our annual showcase this year.

[15:09] Something else we were busy with this summer was opening our sixth story trail. This one is at the Northeast Community Park. And so as you can see here on our map, we have pretty good coverage around the county of our story trails. As a reminder, our story trails bring stories and literacy

[15:29] to our parks, so families can engage with stories while they're spending time outdoors.

[15:38] So families are invited to hop skip or jump or run their way through a story.

[15:43] And we've received really wonderful feedback from our families.

[15:47] This is just a couple examples of that who really appreciate the opportunity to be creative,

[15:54] to practice their reading, and to get exercise all at the same time.

[15:58] One of our families here expressed how fun the story trails are for the whole family

[16:03] and that they were going to find all the story trails and visit them.

[16:09] So we were one step ahead of them.

[16:12] And so on the next slide, this brings me to our newest literacy initiative,

[16:16] which is our story trailblazers.

[16:19] This is kicking off this week.

[16:21] You do have a copy of what is our story trailblazer passport in your packet.

[16:26] And so this program is really designed to encourage families to visit all of the story trails in our county.

[16:34] They take their passports.

[16:36] They bring them into our branches on the bookmobile as they visit.

[16:40] They get a customized stamp.

[16:42] And then if they visit all six, they can earn a wooden story trail blazer keychain.

[16:49] And so passports will be available for pickup at all of our branches on the bookmobile.

[16:53] and thanks to Sandy Turner, can also be picked up at Cecil County's Tourism Office in Northeast.

[17:01] So again, just a really exciting way for families to engage in literacy and learning

[17:06] and stories even when they're out at our parks in Cecil County.

[17:13] In recent weeks, our adults, of course, have been engaged in a number of specially planned programs,

[17:19] including several that were centered on honoring the 25th anniversary of 9-11.

[17:26] We brought the community together in remembrance of this day with a 9-11 rolling memorial,

[17:33] a film screening of We Remember Voices of 9-11, and a powerful panel discussion

[17:39] where local leaders recounted their memories of that day.

[17:43] These are all events. I know some of you and the county executive attended as well.

[17:48] also thank you for your support for those programs.

[17:52] In June of this year, we were the only Maryland institution awarded a national endowment

[17:58] for the arts big read grant.

[18:01] So in support of that, our team has been planning and hosting a series of programs for the

[18:06] community to explore, appreciate, and learn more about Appalachian culture.

[18:11] This past Saturday, we welcomed more than 300 people in the morning to Northeast for the

[18:18] Taste of Appalachia event, where they were treated to delicious food, artisan demonstrations,

[18:25] music, dance, and even a sighting or two of Bigfoot.

[18:30] Also on display currently, in Northeast is the Mountain Traditions Photography Project,

[18:36] which incorporates more than 50 photos that are centered on Appalachian people,

[18:41] culture and landscapes. So certainly invite you to come in and take a look at that.

[18:47] And then to, of course, attend any of our programs that we'll be planning throughout the rest of the year,

[18:53] and into the spring in support and using funds provided by that grant.

[18:59] And then, finally, there's Elkton.

[19:03] So, these photos show a side of Elkden that few have seen before. On the left, we closed

[19:13] the branch at the end of August in preparation for its full renovation and expansion. And

[19:21] though this definitely signals an end of an era, we are really excited about the future

[19:28] of Elkden and this branch, and so on the right with our goal of continuing to serve

[19:35] the Elkden community, we have opened our pop-up library location on Bridge Street.

[19:41] We opened last Tuesday, so as you can see here, it is a welcoming space.

[19:48] It feels very much like a bookstore or a library, and so the community is invited to come

[19:55] in to browse, to check out bestsellers, new releases,

[19:59] popular titles for kids, teens and adults.

[20:02] So in our first week, we welcomed 380 visitors

[20:06] to our pop-up location.

[20:09] And in addition to this, we are also continuing

[20:12] to program in the community.

[20:14] We're hosting an after-school library lounge

[20:16] for teens at the community center in Elkton.

[20:20] And in our first six days, we've seen 62 teens there

[20:24] in the after-school hours, so our teen librarians are very excited to see them and to continue

[20:31] to connect with and provide services to our teens.

[20:35] And plans are underway to get our mobile, our tech mobile setup to provide internet and

[20:41] computer access on Fridays in October from the parking lot at the where the pop-up location

[20:49] is.

[20:49] As for construction, we went out to bid this summer and we have selected the Mullen Contracting

[20:55] Company for the project.

[20:58] We issued a notice to proceed this past Friday and are excited that they will be on site

[21:04] soon to get started on the work that they will be doing there.

[21:08] So thank you again for your support for the library and all that we do and certainly for

[21:13] the opportunity to come here today and to provide some updates.

[21:32] Great question, yes. So on your infographic, when it says total visits, that includes visits

[21:40] to our branches and on to our bookmobiles and also programming where we do programs

[21:46] with our outreach vehicles, that's also included there.

[21:49] Okay, good, thank you very much.

[21:50] They're just an extension of the library,

[21:52] so we can count them in all that we do.

[21:54] Thank you.

[21:56] Any other questions or comments from Rachel?

[22:01] I appreciate the informational update,

[22:03] and I will forward to the renovation and output.

[22:06] Thank you.

[22:07] Yes, I wish we could just skip to the good part, yes.

[22:11] You done a great job,

[22:13] and you've got a lot of public input.

[22:16] I wish you all the best in the world.

[22:17] I think everything's going in the right direction.

[22:20] So, congratulations on all you do.

[22:22] Thank you very much.

[22:23] Thank you.

[22:24] Thank you.

[22:25] Any questions from the administration or?

[22:28] I'll just add, I think everything you're doing right now,

[22:32] you've been what the head of the library system

[22:34] for a little over what a year and a half.

[22:37] A year and a half.

[22:38] Something like you're doing a great job.

[22:39] Thank you.

[22:40] These are great projects that you pivoted to open up

[22:45] why the Elkton branch is going to be renovated.

[22:49] So we're looking for a good capital project

[22:52] and get that branch updated.

[22:55] That's great.

[22:57] All right.

[22:58] Any other questions or comments?

[23:00] If not, Rachel.

[23:02] No, I just appreciate what you're doing

[23:04] and thank you for giving us all this information.

[23:07] Thank you.

[23:09] I'll have a great day.

[23:10] Thanks for hearing.

[23:10] All right, you too.

[23:11] Thank you.

[23:14] Next up we'll move on to the digital infrastructure in Cecil County with the land use development director Steve O'Connor and Sandra.

[23:27] Good evening.

[23:28] Good evening.

[23:30] I will provide some opening remarks, County Council.

[23:34] This has been a work in progress over the last three to four months within the administration.

[23:42] We obviously wanted to look at where our current zoning was for digital infrastructure and data centers and come back to a presentation to county council to offer this as an introduction to get your input and both Sandra and Steve have led the efforts on this week.

[24:04] I think it's very appropriate that we're looking at this as as we're coming up on economic development week, these are projects that we look at as economic development and revenue producers for the county.

[24:18] We have no open applications for data centers in the county, so it's very appropriate that we set it up and say this is where we will allow them and what are the conditions that come with that.

[24:30] So I'll turn it over to both of them.

[24:32] Thank you, Dan.

[24:34] Thank you.

[24:37] Waiting for the presentation to load.

[24:39] Got it.

[24:40] I know many of us in this room were at the Maryland Association of Counties, Conference

[24:46] and Ocean City, and it was all above with data centers, and we've been to subsequent the

[24:55] Director of Administration, and my colleague, Steve O'Connor, we've been to subsequent

[25:01] conferences on our summits on data centers and you know what we really learned at the most recent

[25:09] summit was that data centers are really digital infrastructure. You can think of it as broadband,

[25:19] your utilities, your water and sewer because I left it there on the chair, which is odd,

[25:25] But it's a cell phone.

[25:26] We all have them.

[25:27] We're not getting rid of them.

[25:31] So it's part of our way of life

[25:33] and we need to move on with it.

[25:37] So my job here is to talk a little bit

[25:42] about the critical, being critical infrastructure

[25:46] and basically, like I said, the backbone

[25:49] of the digital economy.

[25:51] We've seen IT and cybersecurity

[25:53] security and around the defense industry and everything.

[26:00] It's so important and critical these data centers and digital infrastructure.

[26:07] Again, essential for national security supports local business and innovation, reliable digital

[26:16] infrastructure helps to track technology, company startups, remote work, and all of those

[26:23] things that, you know, we need to drive us forward, enhances public services, it provides

[26:30] opportunities for, you know, IT providers and all types of things around that. And it

[26:39] optimizes the grid and energy investments. You'll hear a little bit later from Director

[26:46] We're talking about here is going to be required on site power generation for our digital infrastructure.

[26:56] But again, all key points.

[27:02] So the economic impact of digital infrastructure is tax based diversification.

[27:13] They invest tens of millions to a billion dollars depending on the size and scale of a project and through the construction phase and then your personal property tax.

[27:29] There's so many jobs created by these through those phases.

[27:33] And then the, but the ongoing annual taxes that we collect from their capital investment and their personal property taxes is significant.

[27:45] So it helps with our fiscal stability, unlike housing projects that use more in services than they typically pay in taxes, we're not putting any kids to school for this.

[28:00] so it's good for our pocketbook. Construction long-term jobs. Again, there's

[28:09] temporary for construction jobs and there's significant on projects

[28:14] again depending upon the scale of a project but it is a boost for our skilled

[28:19] trades and contractors but once the site is operational, you know, they're not

[28:27] Not large job producers, and I think that's some of the negative things that we've heard

[28:36] about, but the jobs that they do create are highly technical, well-paying jobs.

[28:43] And then there's also the other, extraneous things like landscaping and building maintenance

[28:49] and all of those other types of things that go along with it in perpetuity.

[28:52] So, you have that ripple effect, like I said, local vendor service providers, your IT folks

[29:02] and maintenance contracts.

[29:04] So, it creates a steady indirect economy also and then let's see.

[29:12] So, data centers can show

[29:19] that we or a jurisdiction is, you know, poised and ready for what's next in the digital infrastructure.

[29:30] Their presence strengthens our competitiveness, accelerates innovation and position would position Cecil County as a strategic mid-Atlantic hub for technology-driven growth.

[29:44] both. It's really what's next in infrastructure and so what we're just trying to do is put some

[30:00] Those more touriums and things like that, we're just trying to get ahead of the curve, but have the foresight to know that these things are going to go somewhere they have to. And they make money for places like Loudon County, and believe me, we don't want to be Loudon County, but 40% of their budget is covered, their operational budget by the taxes generated from data centers in their county.

[30:29] So of course, nothing of that scalar magnitude is wanted here or can happen here, but there

[30:40] is something out there that I think that we can all work together to develop these guard

[30:53] rails that will potentially allow us to have a data center situated in Cecil County

[30:59] that will drive economic growth and development for the county, and that's all I have at this

[31:04] point. Turn it over to Director O'Connor.

[31:08] Thank you, Director Edwards. What I want to do now is take that discussion and bring it

[31:12] into the land use context. My role is obviously different, and my responsibility here is to ask

[31:22] if this use comes to Cecil County, where is it appropriate under what conditions could

[31:28] to occur, and what scale do we require additional public review?

[31:33] What I'm going to walk you through is a framework.

[31:38] We've been developing to answer those questions, and then at the end there are a few areas

[31:42] that I'd specifically like to ask County Council for your feedback before we move into a formal

[31:49] zoning text amendment.

[31:53] So as Dan mentioned, before I get into the framework, I want to establish something that's

[31:58] very important. There are no applications pending for data centers here in

[32:05] Cecil County. No developer has asked us. We don't have any inquiries and I think

[32:12] that actually puts us in a great position because it gives us something we

[32:16] don't normally have time. We have time to establish the rules before we're being

[32:22] to apply them. If an application eventually comes, I'd rather much rather would know what the

[32:31] county's policy is to develop rather than trying to do a policy on the fly. So just because we

[32:39] don't have an application doesn't mean we don't have the opportunity to plan.

[32:45] Data centers in general

[32:46] aren't new. They have been around. What is changing is the scale of the infrastructure intensity.

[32:54] Between cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital services, increasing demand for digital infrastructure, as well as these facilities that are becoming larger and denser.

[33:06] Issues confronting local governments like ours have changed as well, where no longer just talking about a accessory building containing servers.

[33:15] We can talk about facilities for power, water, land area, transportation, noise, and compatibility.

[33:21] What surrounding properties can all become significant land use considerations.

[33:27] As you've seen or heard, Maryland as neighboring jurisdictions are also confronting these questions.

[33:36] So from a planning standpoint, this is an emerging land use that these counties need to understand.

[33:42] And I want to be careful about what I'm not saying.

[33:47] I'm not saying that there will be a data center development in Seas County.

[33:53] I don't know that, we don't know that.

[33:55] There are a lot of market infrastructure, electrical, regulatory, and economic factors

[34:00] that ultimately decide where these go.

[34:03] But we don't want to have to predict whether an application is coming in order to be prepared

[34:08] for one.

[34:10] The land use is no longer hypothetical.

[34:12] It's what we need to prepare for.

[34:15] So why do we want to prepare now?

[34:19] Again, this kind of illustrates our entire philosophy behind this effort.

[34:23] Today we're having a policy discussion without an applicant or a particular site driving the outcome.

[34:29] If or when an application is filed, that discussion changes.

[34:34] If there's an applicant or there's a property owner or an investment, now we're talking about deadlines.

[34:40] And then every policy question begins to look like a decision about a particular project.

[34:46] If we wait longer, again, we could be going, finding ourselves trying to develop regulations simultaneously with an application.

[34:53] And again, I want to have this conversation today before there's an application on our desk.

[35:00] So now that we've decided to prepare, we've come really came down to three questions.

[35:06] where could these appropriately occur? Under what conditions could these occur? And because

[35:12] data centers can vary in size in what scale should additional public review be required?

[35:18] These are the questions that are the foundation for our framework. And our logic is pretty

[35:25] straightforward. First, as we talked about, we recognize that this is an emerging land use

[35:30] and that our current ordinance wasn't written to address today's scale.

[35:36] Second, we try to identify an appropriate setting.

[35:40] Our recommendation is that principal data centers belong only in the county's M2 heavy

[35:45] industrial district.

[35:48] Third, we recognize that scale matters.

[35:52] A small accessory facility doesn't necessarily need to be regulated the same way as a hyperscale

[35:57] campus.

[35:58] this, then we establish meaningful guard rails addressing the impacts that we can regulate,

[36:05] and finally require a grade review as a scale and potential impacts increase, which

[36:11] led us to this structure here, where we have four tiers.

[36:20] First tier is essentially an accessory use, think of a computing infrastructure serving an

[36:27] In addition, establish principal use, accessory building for the hospital, for example.

[36:34] Our second tier, we are looking to do a what we're calling a minor data center.

[36:39] That is up to 50,000 square feet of aggregate gross floor area that would be in the M2 and

[36:47] would be permitted subject to conditions and site plan review.

[36:51] And I want to make an important point here.

[36:53] When we talk about square footage, we're talking about square footage across the entire

[36:58] data center campus.

[37:00] So you couldn't necessarily try to avoid it here by dividing the same development among

[37:05] the same building, several buildings.

[37:08] Tier 3 is the major data center, where we're beginning at 50,001 square feet and up, and

[37:16] M2 to require site plan review, and then tier 4, at that level, were proposing an additional layer for public review through the Board of Appeals special exception process, followed by the site plan review.

[37:31] You'll notice on the slides, tier 4 threshold isn't established yet, that's intentional.

[37:39] As we were working through this framework, we originally had set 250,000 square feet.

[37:48] And as the discussion continued, we weren't coming to see if that was the right number,

[37:53] did it need to be larger, did it need to be smaller.

[37:56] So rather than pick that number, we were purposely asking for your feedback on where would that

[38:04] come from.

[38:05] And don't need to answer tonight, don't need to answer now, but we are asking for

[38:10] council's feedback.

[38:10] Where is that breaking point between say a tier 3 and tier 4 where, at what scale would

[38:17] you like to see additional public review?

[38:22] But even on the scale, we've added some guardrails again for what we can control in zoning.

[38:28] So again, as we move through each tier, our minimum acreage increases with the scale of

[38:33] facility, whether it's a minor at 20 acres, major at 50 acres or 100 acres for a hyper

[38:39] scale.

[38:40] For posing a 300 foot setback from a public road 100 feet from rear and side property

[38:46] boundaries and a 1500 foot separation from an existing dwelling on an adjoining property,

[38:53] that would be the highest of that kind of setback we have from adjoining dwellings on properties

[39:00] that in our zoning ordinance.

[39:02] We are requiring substantial buffering with firms.

[39:07] We are going to require that it be connected

[39:09] to public water and public sewer,

[39:11] that access be from a collector or a curial roadway.

[39:15] And then we look to address height, lighting,

[39:19] mechanical equipment screening, emergency access security.

[39:22] Our objective here is to create harmonious development.

[39:26] So simply because a property is zoned M2

[39:29] it does not mean a data center is automatically going to fit on that property.

[39:37] All right, so I wanted to stop here a minute because we realized that our internal discussions

[39:43] talking about tier 1, 2, 3, 4 could be pretty abstract.

[39:50] So we developed these illustrations to just simply show scale.

[39:54] There are contextual examples, there are not actual projects, nothing's proposed for

[39:59] Cecil County. Across the top here,

[40:08] you can see the same basic use growing from an accessory

[40:13] facility to minor, to major, to hyperscale. At the bottom, you can even see that we're

[40:22] talking about scale, not technology. So we're really just talking about the physical scale and

[40:27] and potential land use.

[40:30] If you look at their Tier 1, you have a view from the road, again looks pretty straightforward.

[40:39] You've got a bird's eye view and then if you'll notice you have, and it might be a little

[40:45] hard to see on this screen here, but you have the green around the principal use and then

[40:50] the yellow around an accessory use when we talk about an accessory use data center.

[40:56] And again, we'll do the same thing here for minor, and I won't walk through all of them,

[41:01] but again, I will look down on the bottom here when you talk about minor.

[41:07] We're looking at something outlined in blue there.

[41:13] Major again outlined in yellow at this time, and again, this might be something you might

[41:21] be comfortable with or seeing or used to seeing say in a principio or a

[41:26] bay bridge situation where we already have a large industrial facility. And then

[41:32] for the hyper scale there isn't any outline there because at a hyper scale we're

[41:40] talking about the data center being the campus being the industrial park. So again

[41:46] and that's what we're looking at when we talk about hyper scale.

[41:50] So, I'm gonna get up here.

[41:53] We talked about what these could look like.

[42:25] So, when we put this framework together,

[42:29] we wanted to make sure that we wanted it to be in the places we wanted it,

[42:35] to be restrictive but not prohibitive.

[42:39] And again, from a zoning background,

[42:41] You make something prohibitive it could open you up to some litigation.

[42:47] So independently, as you know, my friend and colleague and, you know, with Mr. David

[42:56] Black, I sent to my framework and said, David, this is what we're thinking, can you put

[43:00] together a map?

[43:02] So he did not necessarily have any context of what we're thinking, just read through and

[43:07] created this map here.

[43:08] So, this is a planning level application.

[43:14] This is just taking, okay, acreage of the parcels, where there could be public water and

[43:21] sewer, where there's access to an arterial or collector road, which you see here in

[43:26] this pink are the locations of the municipalities inside of Cecil County, and then what you see

[43:35] here and yellow are, and again, a planning level exercise of potential locations of where

[43:44] this could occur. And again, we didn't go through and take a look at anything in particular.

[43:52] If you take a look on this side here, you can, we, same map, we underlaid the aerial here,

[43:59] but just to kind of give you a sense of what the existing development is in these areas.

[44:05] So, if you'll notice up here, currently this is being used for mining purposes.

[44:11] This is the Elk Mills Quarry, again, that is an area that could qualify, but I don't believe

[44:19] they are going to finish doing those resources anytime soon.

[44:24] And then some of them are more major areas you're looking at potentially Triumph Industrial

[44:28] Park, Principio, and again, some of this area where there is some surface mining.

[44:34] We are not marketing this, we are not prohibiting it, we are just looking to show that this could pass the zoning test.

[44:46] Couldn't this happen?

[44:52] Just real quick, so the yellow is where you're saying would pass the zoning test.

[44:58] Correct.

[44:58] And

[45:00] And again, this doesn't necessarily go down to site specifics. So that would be on an individual application when we start getting into things about setbacks and buffers and berms and items to that nature. I noticed that there's one very large area where I think people would assume something like this would go, does not list it on this map. Being Maynbridge.

[45:31] Well, and I will state for that because again, the town of Port deposit handles that are

[45:37] own zoning inside of Ambrish, so yeah, so and again, so they the town would have their

[45:48] own set of zoning parameters there.

[45:57] So I want to move on to two infrastructure issues that receive a lot of attention during

[46:05] our research water and power.

[46:14] Water is one of the largest items that you hear about. Data

[46:18] centers consume a ton of water and as we did our research, frankly, we learned a lot that helped

[46:26] me understand this issue. You've probably heard very large numbers of water usage with data center.

[46:33] They can be real, but the question of how much water does a data center use just doesn't have one answer.

[46:42] It really depends on the cooling system, the computing load, the climate, and how the facility operates.

[46:49] Traditional evaporative cooling can consume substantial amounts of water.

[46:54] You also have dry or air cooling that can use very little water but increases electrical demand.

[47:02] again. And then we have closed loop liquid cooling. And this is a portion I particularly

[47:11] want counsel to notice. Closed loop is increasingly prevalent and new high density facilities.

[47:19] Instead of continuously bringing water into the cooling process and consuming it through

[47:24] evaporation, the cooling fluid is recirculated through the system. Now it's increasingly important

[47:30] that computing equipment becomes denser,

[47:32] particularly with AI applications.

[47:35] And I want to be precise about this.

[47:37] Close loop doesn't mean no water usage.

[47:41] The way the system ultimately rejects heat still matters

[47:44] and obviously the facility can have other water demands,

[47:48] you know, restrooms, kitchen facilities, things like that.

[47:51] But we should be careful assuming that every future

[47:54] to ask our consumes millions of gallons of water a day.

[48:00] So this is an example of why I don't think

[48:02] our zoning ordinance should prescribe a particular cooling technology.

[48:07] The technology is changing very quickly.

[48:10] If we write something today that our preferred engineering solution is to do closed loop,

[48:15] we may be actually preventing somebody from a better technology four to five years from now.

[48:20] So rather than our approach is to regulate the impact, again, we'll still require the public

[48:27] water allocation, the public sewer allocation, adequate infrastructure, and it can evaluate

[48:33] demand with the system as it's being proposed.

[48:38] Can I ask you a question while we're on this?

[48:41] So I've done research on this about the open versus the closed, and the closed, as you

[48:46] said, uses less water.

[48:48] My concern is, after they're done with the water, whether it's open or closed or a hybrid,

[48:53] where does the water get disposed of, because at that point I've read that it contains lots

[48:57] of lead and you can't just, you can't dump it in the river, you can't dump it in a landfill,

[49:03] so the more water it uses, the more that has to be dumped, I guess, lack of a better word.

[49:12] So that is my question. Is there a plan and you may get to that later on, but is there a plan

[49:17] to where we put the water with all the contaminants?

[49:24] That, I think you've asked the question exactly

[49:29] why we wanted to come to Council tonight to find out these kind of questions to get ahead

[49:35] of it. So we will have to get back to you with any answer.

[49:39] Okay, and for the record, I do really appreciate the discussion before being the proactive

[49:44] discussion versus a reactive that is always a better place to be. So I do appreciate everyone's

[49:49] time. So I don't know this.

[49:51] What, director, the research I've done so far, basically they said a standard golf course

[49:57] we use more water than a data center.

[50:00] And that could be true, but just like I said, consuming lots of water could also be true.

[50:06] It really is dependent on the technology and how they're designed.

[50:12] Again, I will defer to Councilman Miller and yourself, and I haven't worked in private

[50:20] business, but I do understand that private business always wants to find things to be the most

[50:25] efficient to keep things going.

[50:26] So I would think that can try to would continue and also I think they have to fill they have to filter that water before they they just can't dump it in the river

[50:36] Right and part of this is the closed loop piece has been evolving so quickly even in the last few months

[50:43] We don't know what other ingredients they have to do with closed loop can we can we treat it in our sewer plan?

[50:51] can we not treat it as it had to be set aside to a certain level.

[50:56] These are questions we would have for any kind of applicant if they said,

[51:00] hey, we're going to do close loop, we're going to do very low water.

[51:04] Well, what else will you do from a standpoint of cooling this down?

[51:09] So, yeah, it's an open question that we still have to resolve.

[51:14] Okay. Thank you for the questions.

[51:22] Power is also one of the larger infrastructure issues

[51:26] with data centers. Electrical demand can be comparable to other major infrastructure.

[51:33] This isn't your conventional commercial building load. Once you reach that scale, how the facility

[51:39] really is powered, becomes integral to the site planning where we're going to put it.

[51:45] But there's also an important regulatory line here.

[51:47] We handle land use.

[51:50] We don't operate the regional electric grid.

[51:54] We spent some considerable time separating what appropriately belongs to zoning and

[51:59] from what belongs to the state, utilities, PGM, federal regulators.

[52:07] So then the direction of our framework becomes pretty straightforward.

[52:10] principle data centers would be required to incorporate co-located power generation.

[52:16] In other words, the development's got to be designed to bring its own power.

[52:23] And I want to distinguish that from emergency generators or putting backup generators

[52:27] behind a data center that does not meet the requirement.

[52:32] We're talking about the facility's primary power source.

[52:37] The underlying land use premises that if the facility's bringing extra

[52:41] or an electrical demand to the site, the primary generation needs to support that demand

[52:46] and should be incorporated in the site development.

[52:49] Of course, generation interconnection components would still have to be complied with whatever

[52:54] state and federal approvals may be applied, which brings me to the regulatory line here.

[53:05] On the CSC county side, we regulate land use, we regulate the site plans, location of facilities,

[53:10] the setbacks, buffering on-site requirements, compatibility with land uses, whereas on the

[53:17] energy regulators, they're talking about the generation, grid reliability, electric

[53:22] rates, system capacity, other applicable state and energy approvals, which all of these

[53:29] are legitimate questions, but we just need to be disciplined about what we can handle

[53:34] in the zoning ordinance, and our framework remains on the left side of this slide.

[53:42] I'm going to pause here, Dan. Do you want to talk a little bit more about onsite

[53:46] generation to have a drink?

[53:49] Council, this scenario down, I believe the administration is not going to give to any data

[53:56] center developer. We've been very clear that we do not want to hook these up for the grid

[54:03] for power generation.

[54:07] You guys may have known that the large data center complex are building in Frederick County.

[54:12] We'll hook directly up to the grid.

[54:14] We think this is irresponsible.

[54:16] Could affect residential electrical rates last year.

[54:22] There was a proposal through Allegheny County that we partnered for permission from the General Assembly to generate one site power generation.

[54:33] It got some talk, it didn't quite get to a vote, but we do need General Assembly approval to be able to do this to allow somebody to create a generating station for a data center.

[54:50] So if we do not get a bill passed in this General Assembly session, we will not have a data center.

[55:00] I just want to make that very clear.

[55:02] This is very much aligned.

[55:03] We brought it up before at Bainbridge and they will follow the same direction as the

[55:08] counties going to do as well.

[55:10] So it's not like, oh, well, poor deposit can just jump on the grid and they can do whatever

[55:15] they want.

[55:16] That still affects the grid reliability and affects electrical rates on our county.

[55:23] This is an area that we feel is the most responsible.

[55:27] We can be to Cecil County residents, Maryland residents.

[55:32] We are going to require them to generate their own power that they need to run and data center.

[55:40] Thank you.

[55:42] So question about that.

[55:44] So one, I guess my question is about the state legislation.

[55:46] Is that a Cecil County bill or is that a statewide bill?

[55:50] Well, it probably will start, I can't say I know exactly on the format on that, it could,

[55:58] it's probably going to start out as a CISO County bill.

[56:01] We know there's a few other counties that are interested in partnering with that.

[56:08] I can't believe the General Assembly will just make it a statewide bill.

[56:13] There's too many, you know, one of our advantages here is all the M2 zoning we have.

[56:19] of a lot of counties don't have this industrial zoning

[56:22] or they've already used it up.

[56:25] Okay, so that's one of our advantages that we have

[56:28] in Cecil County.

[56:30] So ultimately, we're gonna go down and say,

[56:32] hey, we would like this ability to move forward

[56:37] with these if other counties or the General Assembly

[56:42] says, well, we're gonna expand it to a few other counties

[56:46] These that have similar needs or similar wants, will they run it as a pilot and allow

[56:52] Cecil County to show the rest of the state how this can work?

[56:56] That would be permissible for us because that allows us to be able to move forward.

[57:02] But a lot of this is going to probably have to get sorted out in the general assembly session

[57:08] coming up.

[57:09] And so regarding power, onsite power to RUMO has one, we were speaking of manufacturing

[57:16] earlier.

[57:17] They have their own SMR that powers their facility.

[57:22] So most likely a data center would be establishing an SMR as well.

[57:27] What's the state regulation versus county regulation and permitting process for a reactor?

[57:37] because I would assume that's going to also, I mean, that impact, but it impacts the time it takes because I know a full, like, if we were to build a Calvert Cliffs, it's 10 years down the road versus you can get an SMR in my understanding up in like five years.

[57:52] If I may, Dan, I will, the power generation, again, that is handled by the state.

[58:02] And if you remember from the presentation last week about where power generation facilities

[58:07] go, the state has a very, very, very large role in saying where is an appropriate site.

[58:15] So it would be a PSC approval to go through that process, and then?

[58:23] Will they still end up having to go through our same permitting and stuff like that, like the solar?

[58:29] We certainly believe that DNR and MD will weigh in on this.

[58:34] This is not a bill that the General Assembly says, okay, Caesar can't go ahead and build.

[58:39] You know once a power generation there's going to be emissions requirements of MDE's going to require

[58:45] We have to meet those

[58:48] DNR right now has power plant jurisdiction on on on virtually anything that gets built in

[58:56] in the state

[58:58] We're really not looking at SMR as an option. It's just right now. It looks like a number of

[59:09] We don't see that as a viable technology at this point.

[59:14] But for a data center, it would be.

[59:17] I would assume.

[59:18] I mean, potentially, but again, a lot of that would have...

[59:22] I don't know if the state has permitted any of those on a smaller scale.

[59:27] Okay.

[59:27] So there's a lot of regulatory stuff that would have to drop from that.

[59:31] And one of the technologies that we've seen that could be feasible is fuel cells that would

[59:38] either use natural gas or hydrogen as a fuel source because they basically have zero emissions.

[59:46] But they generate high rates of electricity.

[59:50] These technologies have grown tremendously in the last few years.

[59:55] There's a good possibility that these could be a good fit.

[59:59] Meet the emission.

[1:00:00] It's requirements and still be cost effective for an applicant. You know, some of these things, we can put everything up here. But if a data center says, hey, I can't afford all that and they walk anyway, right? We're just trying to put a framework together. It says, this is how we were permitties and we're going to protect our citizens, you know, from high electrical rates or excessive water use or anything else that may result of, you know,

[1:00:29] you know, from this type of infrastructure.

[1:00:31] So in terms of whatever power source they choose,

[1:00:36] I understand not connecting to the grid to pull power

[1:00:40] from the grid, but what about excess,

[1:00:43] like excess energy that's produced,

[1:00:45] putting it onto the grid, potentially.

[1:00:47] I think it's, like, I would agree with connecting

[1:00:50] to that.

[1:00:51] I mean, I mean, a lot of this could be,

[1:00:54] you know, part of the discussion,

[1:00:57] I think some of the things we've learned

[1:00:59] from the public service commission and you heard it a week ago about solar is when you start

[1:01:07] hooking up to the grid and you need their permission, you layer a whole another group of regulatory

[1:01:13] approvals and oversight on our project. Our initial premise has been we want to be able to generate

[1:01:21] onside for the use of those people in that industrial park.

[1:01:28] And frankly, Sandra will tell you,

[1:01:32] just normal electric that we need for, say, a high-end manufacturer,

[1:01:37] or something like that, whether it be a Bainbridge or Principia or anywhere else,

[1:01:42] Del Marford does not have the electric.

[1:01:46] And they're telling us that, hey, we don't have the power to be able to generate that.

[1:01:51] And I mean, it could be, you know, a chip manufacturer that we get to say,

[1:01:56] hey, they want to build a state of the art manufacturing facility principale.

[1:02:00] Right now we have to tell them, hey, we don't have enough electricity for you.

[1:02:05] This is the problem the state of Maryland has put all of us into.

[1:02:09] And so we're thinking out of the box saying, all right, give us the ability

[1:02:13] to generate our own electricity so we can grow our own local economy or even the state economy.

[1:02:20] I mean, and it really just comes in a common sense.

[1:02:23] This is, you guys can't do it for us,

[1:02:25] so we're coming up with a plan and a solution to do this.

[1:02:29] And we still will meet all the regulatory issues

[1:02:32] that they want to throw at us,

[1:02:34] whether it be air emissions or site selection

[1:02:39] or type of technology,

[1:02:40] or any of these other things that may come from this state.

[1:02:48] Well, I guess the concern I have is that if we have these regulations in place as we did with the solar and then the state says it doesn't matter what you have, you know, you're going to put it over here, you're going to put it over there.

[1:03:01] Will we be able to say no, we're not.

[1:03:04] Yes. I believe so, Bob. I think the whole thing is this M2 zoning used to key. They're not going to be able to say, well, you can do all this but we want you to put one over here because then we'll say, hey, you're too close to a residence.

[1:03:20] We have a 1,500-foot setback, if it's 1,000 feet.

[1:03:25] I mean, they already can override a lot of things that we've done, but that doesn't

[1:03:30] mean if somebody, I just can't imagine the state's going to come in and go, we want you

[1:03:35] to build one right here and we're just going to overrule all of this stuff.

[1:03:40] They could do that right now, I mean, so all we're telling the state and county council and

[1:03:47] the public, we're putting some guidelines on these things and we're putting some pretty

[1:03:52] good restrictions if you want to build one. This is what you have to do. In the argument

[1:03:59] even with the Frederick Data Center, they made up paying more for electricity off the

[1:04:04] grid than they ever would do if they put their own little power plan on there to generate

[1:04:09] their own. But that's a choice Frederick County made. But they're in the same PGM grid

[1:04:15] we are. So whatever electricity they do, we're all going to have a piece of that. Let's put it

[1:04:22] that way. We don't want to be part of that premise. We want to say if you're going to come here,

[1:04:28] you're going to generate your own power. And if the general assembly allows it to do it, then we'll

[1:04:33] go to the next steps. Can we get them to dredge the dam for us to put that and just slide that little

[1:04:39] I don't know, caveat, if you can't, you have to contribute to dredging.

[1:04:44] Maybe.

[1:04:45] Yes.

[1:04:45] And Councilman Mephli, I would like to say that, you know, I would love to be down at

[1:04:53] Mekko next August, you know, where everyone is asking Cecil County, how did you guys do

[1:04:58] it?

[1:04:58] How did you make it work?

[1:05:00] So I would love to be in that position and I'm hoping that we, Cecil County, can be a leader

[1:05:06] in this discussion to see how other Maryland counties can follow us.

[1:05:12] And one of the things you hear about, this is all new to us, wasn't until this thing really

[1:05:22] hit the news last year, so it really kind of smacked us, it was never on our radar.

[1:05:28] So this is our attempt on trying to get ahead of the game before the state dictates to us

[1:05:36] what it's going to be like they did with these solar fields, and then we have to come back and be reactive with the ordinance that we did to kind of slow that down.

[1:05:46] We do not believe I know when people think of data center, they think the AI tier four paper, paper data center.

[1:05:57] There is no place really in Cecil County for a campus style like that, there just isn't.

[1:06:05] We don't have the infrastructure, we don't have the land.

[1:06:08] So I think just getting that out there will probably alleviate a lot of fears that we are

[1:06:16] not going to be turned into London County, Virginia, where it is not.

[1:06:22] So just trying to have these things before anybody ever comes to us and said, these are our

[1:06:31] guidelines.

[1:06:32] I think that's what we're trying to get ahead of.

[1:06:35] And this is really a starting point to present to you what Steve and Sandra have put together

[1:06:42] asking for counsel's input, asking for the public's input to make sure that what we do come

[1:06:47] with, we get it right, and that it makes sense.

[1:06:52] Like I said, this is new to all of us, so we want to have these restrictive roles that

[1:06:57] protects the community and to do so in complete transparency.

[1:07:04] As Dan said, no electricity, no air generation, it's not going to happen, and so that would

[1:07:14] take an act from the General Assembly, so a lot of that, a lot of this discussion is

[1:07:19] not going to make any way for, you know, technology improves, you know, what if, what if,

[1:07:25] what if, well, here we have it in place. I would also be remiss to say that even at

[1:07:30] tier three, which would be the maximum that we can even conceive of, of, of, of, of, of

[1:07:38] of Cecil County's supporting would bring in significant tax revenue to the county to help us pay for the things that we need to be paying for.

[1:07:50] Like our infrastructure, like our schools, like our public safety, like a lot of these things and we don't have to, we not only don't have to raise the tax burden on our citizens to do it, but 18, $20 million a year would help us actually lower it.

[1:08:05] I've made no secret that my goal is to get us at the very least below or below the pre McCarthy tax rates and something like this would go, and I still think that it's doable.

[1:08:20] But if we can continue to have nice things and continue to have the community that we love and to improve our quality of life,

[1:08:29] while significantly reducing the tax burden in the tax rates on our citizens,

[1:08:35] we'd be very foolish to throw the baby out of the bathwater and say,

[1:08:39] no, without at least exploring what this is, defining it and having a framework

[1:08:45] before somebody else tells us what to do.

[1:08:48] And you had that, you know, obviously we, you hear these terms, bands and moratoriums.

[1:08:54] What we've learned from other counties, so once it have banned them, they're either they may be the political decision or they're going to

[1:09:05] rethinking go well, geez a ban is a ban. Maybe they could get sued. Just like Steve said a moratorium. What we're finding out is a lot of them are not in the position we are. Okay.

[1:09:17] so they've had an application and they didn't have regulations set up and they

[1:09:22] want to put it in an area that they don't want so they said all right let's do

[1:09:25] a moratorium let's do our work and then when we're ready to lift the moratorium

[1:09:30] this is where we potentially cut a lot on so a lot of people get those two terms

[1:09:35] confused but I mean our premise all along is we probably should do our

[1:09:43] homework and never been anything. Let's just say where we want these and if they

[1:09:48] come and they work out and they follow our restrictions great. We've done good

[1:09:53] land use planning and we've done good for the county. Well I think what you're

[1:10:00] doing with this basically is you're taking a mask off the public. Right now the

[1:10:04] public has a perception of what this is and oh my god how's it going to affect my

[1:10:09] electric bill right what is it going to cost me as a constituent how much do I and and what you're doing now

[1:10:15] You're saying okay fine. You're not going to be charged anymore. You're not going to be paying for anything

[1:10:19] So yeah, I think these facts need to get out. So I you know, I commend you with what you're doing. You're you're getting you know

[1:10:27] The horse isn't on the track, but you're winning the race so keep it up

[1:10:33] Thank you

[1:10:34] Yeah, and for again just to go over

[1:10:39] I think it's been said, but I'll say it again.

[1:10:41] We do not have a pending application.

[1:10:43] We're not rezoning anything.

[1:10:44] There's no bill being introduced tonight.

[1:10:47] We're not resuming any.

[1:10:50] You know, and I think what you've just heard from the last bit

[1:10:54] of Q&A here, you know, when we developed this framework,

[1:11:00] you know, we identified what is the issue, you know, talking

[1:11:04] about really, we're talking about where and how

[1:11:07] and what's the scrutiny of public review.

[1:11:10] You know, learning from others, you know,

[1:11:12] we went to the make-o session.

[1:11:13] We've learned from PGM.

[1:11:16] We've learned from the summit.

[1:11:21] We've learned through planning practice literature.

[1:11:27] We've looked at what other counties have done.

[1:11:30] And we've tried to listen to the experts

[1:11:32] and we're following the policy environment.

[1:11:35] But what we really want to do is

[1:11:36] because we don't want to copy anybody.

[1:11:38] We want to make sure that we're developing one that's going to be right for Cecil County.

[1:11:43] So this kind of gets to what I think are three very broad questions that the Planning and

[1:11:50] Zoning Office actually have for County Council.

[1:11:54] And you already seen the one about what gross floor area do you feel is sufficient where we're

[1:12:02] We're talking about doing a T or 4 facility, you know, I think you've hit a few others,

[1:12:08] you know, what other impacts your community concerns have not been reflected of what we've

[1:12:12] talked about.

[1:12:13] I know I've already taken a note here from Councilwoman Branch about the water disposal and details

[1:12:19] about setting and permitting on onsite generation and onsite power, you know, could that access

[1:12:25] go to the greater?

[1:12:25] There are other questions like that to come back.

[1:12:28] And again, number three is kind of similar, but again, are there other areas that we're

[1:12:34] looking to develop or research before we make a formal zoning text amendment?

[1:12:41] Again.

[1:12:41] Go back to number two, the other impacts that you hear a lot about with data centers is

[1:12:46] the noise and to the neighborhood because of the fans and the generators.

[1:12:51] And if we're generating our own power grid, that's substantially potentially I guess more

[1:12:57] noise. So I think we also need to address the noise impact even with the buffers and everything built

[1:13:03] in but also when I mentioned the dumping of the water that's used there's the electronic waste

[1:13:09] too because they go through the parts they have to be specifically dumped in certain areas as well

[1:13:14] they can't go to the landfill. So we need to make sure while we're having the conversation that we have

[1:13:20] all of the all of that information if we can't handle dumping anything from the water to the

[1:13:26] electronic waste in Cecil County, where does he get dumped, who pays for it, what is

[1:13:32] the substantial damage to the land? Because I think, basically, once you build a data

[1:13:37] center, it's kind of like a solar field. That land is not usable for a lot of other things

[1:13:42] again. Like, you can't return to farm land, you can't retire, you can't return to certain

[1:13:47] things. So it's the same issues we've faced with solar, but I just think on a broader scale.

[1:13:53] Well, well, it is a good point, but remember, this is M2 zoning.

[1:13:56] It was never going to get in terms of culture.

[1:13:59] The other piece, one thing we've seen in other jurisdictions is they see an abandoned

[1:14:04] warehouse.

[1:14:05] They go, hey, that's perfect.

[1:14:06] I want to build a data center.

[1:14:08] Boom.

[1:14:08] They want to roll in.

[1:14:09] We don't have any other counties that don't have regulations where they can stop that.

[1:14:14] Okay.

[1:14:15] This is where we're ahead of the game with all those.

[1:14:18] They could plump, you know, hey, there's a vacant warehouse a mile from from an Elkton residence

[1:14:24] We can build a data center there and some counties had to go to a more dorm because they couldn't stop it legally

[1:14:30] I would say that's one of the things that I learned from my colleague Deb Carpenter over in Fredra County

[1:14:35] You know, they had two data centers before

[1:14:39] You know, they became a large issue one was actually developed in 2003 just and the method that Dan was saying was a

[1:14:46] the warehouse facility and they came in and did a change use permit and it was just a

[1:14:54] server farm. I believe was the term that was used on their permit and then, you know, now

[1:14:59] how they have...

[1:15:00] That I can't remember there. It's a 2,100 acre campus. That's currently being developed at this point. So, you know, there are just goes back to my opening point that, you know, digital infrastructure has been around. What has changed is the scale. So, Steve, I have a couple comments. Number one comment is you're not going to put on agriculture land anywhere. So, yay. Number two, that agriculture lands in solar better go back to agriculture.

[1:15:28] culture. We got a lot of problems. And number three, what I learned from

[1:15:33] Mako was the most important thing that multiple people told me, you're

[1:15:38] better have a fire company close by. And a pretty good one. It's all

[1:15:42] electrical. And there's plenty of fires.

[1:15:47] And so I keep thinking back to

[1:15:50] the development out at Prairieville and create both logs and all this.

[1:15:54] And you know, next thing, you know, the ambulance is there. The fire

[1:15:57] our country's always got to be at the data center, that type thing.

[1:16:01] Just interesting things that, you know, we're learning as we go.

[1:16:05] I know that.

[1:16:06] But kudos to you guys for all the work you're doing, because you're certainly going

[1:16:09] to write direction, in my opinion.

[1:16:12] Well, thank you.

[1:16:13] And speaking of direction, let's talk about what we think are our tentative next steps here.

[1:16:22] Again, we're here today, we're talking about policy discussion, feedback.

[1:16:25] back. But today is not going to be Council's only opportunity. I know it happens to me.

[1:16:31] You have a presentation, you have a meeting, driving home, something pops in your head.

[1:16:36] So we're trying to give a couple of weeks to, you know, if you have more thoughts, more

[1:16:41] feedback, you know, and I'll defer to Michelle how, you know, she would like it delivered

[1:16:47] whether through her and then to me. But, you know, if we could have your feedback by October

[1:16:52] number 9 if there's other things that you want us to go on those questions or anything

[1:16:57] else that's popped up, we'll be glad to do it and take a look at it.

[1:17:01] And then we look, we're looking to potentially bring this submit it for the planning commission

[1:17:07] because of our internal deadlines.

[1:17:09] We would submit it for the planning commission on October 15th, but actually hear it in November.

[1:17:16] And again, that would be a public hearing so there would be plenty of opportunity for

[1:17:19] for the public to give their feedback as well.

[1:17:23] And then after the planning commission meeting, which they would only make a recommendation,

[1:17:31] we would transmit and create the final bill that I would actually be introduced through

[1:17:37] the process that obviously Council is very familiar with, including the planning commission

[1:17:42] recommendation.

[1:17:42] And looking at the calendar, it does appear the first meeting of the new term doesn't happen until December 15th, so

[1:17:51] thus the bit of the extended process through the normal introduction bill and consideration.

[1:18:00] But again, still plenty of time and another between December and January 30 days before public hearing.

[1:18:08] So that is the idea that we're looking at as far as trying to bring this forward, while still trying not to get caught, you know, if there's not a, you know, we want to make sure we have these regulations in before there's an application.

[1:18:25] Director, take you back on what Council President Miller said is about the fire companies,

[1:18:31] some of the people that have the data centers now basically require the data center to donate

[1:18:36] to the fire company within their region. That way the county, it's not something that the county's

[1:18:42] going to have to pick up. It's a good point. A lot of these data centers, they have fire protection

[1:18:51] requirements, they use halogen as a way to not destroy the electrical servers, you know,

[1:18:58] from that standpoint. But we realize there's some additional requirements that one of our

[1:19:05] volunteer fire companies may have to do. That would be absolutely right on the table of something

[1:19:11] that there is specialized equipment that they need. And I don't know of any, but if they do,

[1:19:16] that that that applicant's going to pay for?

[1:19:20] Well, shouldn't we bring them into the conversation as well here, the department of emergency services?

[1:19:26] Sure, I mean, I, I, I know, I know director Campbell knows about these.

[1:19:31] He's not raised any red flags on, oh my gosh, we can't do this, we can't, we're, we're, we're not building a battery storage facility where you,

[1:19:39] right potentially then how do you how do you put out a lithium battery fire or

[1:19:45] something like that they they've dealt with you know buildings that have you

[1:19:51] know every I mean we have servers in here okay so if we had a fire in here they

[1:19:56] would know how to work with that as well but you know ultimately until we get an

[1:20:02] applicant and and the one thing we'll commit to council if if we get an

[1:20:07] applicant here in the next six months or year or whatever, and they meet a lot of

[1:20:14] requirements.

[1:20:14] We're going to ask them to come to county council and talk to you guys.

[1:20:19] And then you can get really specific on what are you going to do for the community?

[1:20:23] What are you going to do for this?

[1:20:24] How are you handling this situation?

[1:20:26] How are you going to deal with this?

[1:20:28] Yeah, I just know that with the situations that occur at Great Wolf Lodge, what I hear

[1:20:36] and what I've heard from day one is that the emergency services team volunteer rescue

[1:20:44] paramedics, all of that are there constantly. It's like a revolving door, so it's a strain on them.

[1:20:53] Sure it is. We've talked to Perryville, one of the things we had to work out with great

[1:20:58] with lodges, they were calling 911 for anything,

[1:21:02] whether you know, a visitor there, one in 911,

[1:21:06] they were protecting themselves,

[1:21:07] but when they were a few service,

[1:21:09] I meant they couldn't be reimbursed, couldn't build them.

[1:21:12] And we've gotten that work down.

[1:21:14] Like you're not gonna just use our 911 system

[1:21:18] to, you know, protect your liability insurance.

[1:21:22] This is gonna be, you know, you call us, you're gonna pay.

[1:21:25] I think I'll say that the original agreement

[1:21:27] It was great with lodge.

[1:21:31] It's a good learning experience for us.

[1:21:35] To make sure that.

[1:21:38] We don't give away the farm again.

[1:21:42] So certainly the lessons.

[1:21:44] And we did.

[1:21:44] We talked with Perry, though.

[1:21:46] We're aware of all that.

[1:21:47] Councilwoman.

[1:21:48] You hit the nail in the head.

[1:21:49] Those are all.

[1:21:50] All very true.

[1:21:52] So, you know, my administration.

[1:21:55] Going forward with with really anything that we're doing.

[1:21:57] is to try to learn from mistakes of the past and try to improve on them to make sure that we get the best deal or anything that we do for Cecil County and for our folks here, so.

[1:22:12] Okay, and I guess I will just finish where I started.

[1:22:19] The best time to establish the rules is before a project is asking us to apply them.

[1:22:26] Objective is neither to promote nor prohibit them.

[1:22:30] Our job here is to make sure Cecil County is prepared.

[1:22:34] So we've already started with some questions, but I'll be happy to take any more questions.

[1:22:41] I have one follow-ups.

[1:22:43] Director Edwards said about the employment, the jobs, and it's in the construction phase.

[1:22:48] and then the upkeep of landscaping, things like that.

[1:22:51] It is my understanding that an actual data center

[1:22:54] after it's built does not employ many people.

[1:22:59] So, I mean, after the fact,

[1:23:00] I feel like it would be this compared to,

[1:23:03] let's say, the construction of an Amazon facility.

[1:23:05] There's a lot of people involved, contractors, subcontractors,

[1:23:08] and then there's the upkeep of the outside and the inside.

[1:23:11] They employ a lot of people,

[1:23:13] but the data center would not.

[1:23:16] That's correct.

[1:23:16] But the jobs that are created are going to be more technology forward, higher paying jobs.

[1:23:32] So, to add to Councilwoman Branch's comment, I would say I would like to see that, specifically, that contractors in county contractors, or at least within the maybe tri-county area, so that we are keeping

[1:23:49] that local, but I also want to talk about the revenue stream of this. So I know

[1:23:59] that the there's a large opportunity from these from an increase in tax

[1:24:04] dollars and the idea is that they don't have a large burden then on us outside of

[1:24:09] potentially the fire services. So to that though, I'd get concerned that if we

[1:24:18] start because I am all for lowering taxes, right, but I get concerned about if we start

[1:24:26] using that as a replacement, rather than using it, like, I know we need to get our roads

[1:24:34] caught up, you know, infrastructure. I mean, there's an opportunity that we're saying,

[1:24:38] hey, if you want to come in, you're going to build us a school because we have so many

[1:24:41] of our elementary school, specifically, that really need improvements and replaced.

[1:24:48] I think there's, I would rather see that revenue, I think, spent on more of the capital

[1:24:54] aspect that gets us maybe caught up to where we want to be, that then helps us grow economically

[1:25:02] in other avenues, rather than just supplementing it from a, like, the regular tax base, because

[1:25:08] Because my concern is that we start relying on that.

[1:25:11] One of those data center leaves that revenue drops, and now it's to continue providing those,

[1:25:20] you either have to continue providing for the citizens, you're either going to have to cut expenses or race taxes.

[1:25:28] And that's what I, I don't want us to get into that, you know, avenue down the road.

[1:25:32] I agree with you 100% and I think the key word I've used before is balance.

[1:25:41] What is the balance?

[1:25:42] What's the holistic approach that's the best deal for us?

[1:25:48] So I'm with you 100% on that councilwoman, I don't think that we're looking at revenue

[1:25:55] just to any one thing whether it's lowering taxes, whether it's infrastructure, whether

[1:26:00] its economic development, is this revenue going to help us get closer to the place that

[1:26:07] we need to be, that is going to benefit all of us, and each of those things are important,

[1:26:15] but none of those things are the end all to be all, so with, you know, again, it becomes

[1:26:20] a balanced, a holistic approach, and, you know, between my administration and the council,

[1:26:27] So whoever counts a member sits there, you know, what's the best way going forward?

[1:26:34] Because none of us are going to, I mean, none of us are going to be here forever.

[1:26:38] Everything that we do, we're doing for the betterment of our kids, our grain kids, our grain

[1:26:44] kids.

[1:26:45] The people are going behind us and the one thing I don't want, I don't think any of us

[1:26:49] wants, is for people in the future to look back and say, man, that was pretty short-sighted

[1:26:56] We're paying the price for it now.

[1:26:58] So that's always in the back of our mind.

[1:27:00] I know it's in the back of your mind.

[1:27:01] So I'm with the 100% on that.

[1:27:03] And the other thing that I think all of us would agree on

[1:27:07] is you do know that the state is looking,

[1:27:11] they have a task force.

[1:27:13] And the task force is to educate counties

[1:27:17] on how we can raise revenue, okay?

[1:27:21] To pay for their spending, all right?

[1:27:23] That's where we're at today, and we're coming up to a budget season that they're going to, it's not going to be $1.7 million of pension benefits and some Estat money, it's probably going to be a big, big hit.

[1:27:42] And it probably is not going to end this year, okay.

[1:27:46] So, you know, as a responsible county government, we have to look at revenue sources to not only pay those bills, but, you know, pay our own bills, you know, moving forward.

[1:27:57] So, you know, if we had a robust economy in the state of Maryland and we had plenty of power and it, you know, it'll be a lot easier to say, we really don't need these things.

[1:28:07] We're in a good shape here, but we just have to be sure that, okay, we're going to plan effectively.

[1:28:15] We're going to put ourselves in a good position to say if we get one of these data center down the road,

[1:28:23] we know where we're going to place it, it's going to fit well, and potentially be the kind of

[1:28:28] income-producing economic development project that we want, that we all want.

[1:28:33] Right, I agree, but two points there is we, first of all, constituents.

[1:28:44] We need to also consider our constituents.

[1:28:47] And secondly, just because we bring in a data center or any other big company that's

[1:28:55] going to generate a lot of revenue, it doesn't mean they're going to be here forever.

[1:29:01] So we have to also take that into consideration and not place all of our eggs in one basket so to speak and say, OK, now we're going to rely on this, this company to pay the expenses of getting our roads up to speed or this one can pay their taxes are going to help us pay for building a new school or whatever the case.

[1:29:30] is. So I think we have to be, try to be optimistic, but also cautious. So that we don't mind

[1:29:40] yourself in an unwanted thick of it. Sandra in her team has done a fantastic job of looking

[1:29:49] at a diverse system of economic development, revenue generating. That doesn't increase

[1:29:59] I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[1:30:00] The, the, the burden, whether tax or otherwise on our citizens, so 100% you should never, you should never do that because as, as we saw, the housing bubble, we saw with the dot com bubble. These bubbles burst. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Just like your retirement fund, your whatever, you, you're always protected when you have a diverse portfolio. So that's, this is just, it's just one thing that we're looking at. We want to be prepared for it.

[1:30:29] But Sandra certainly gets that in and she's not any wonderful job of helping us with this road map of getting the where we need to be so

[1:30:40] Just to confirm so the timeline presented the

[1:30:45] Introduction to council is after the new council

[1:30:50] Starts is that correct so the new council because we know there's gonna be at least two new members

[1:30:57] the new council will have an opportunity to weigh in on this as well during the process.

[1:31:07] Yes.

[1:31:07] Okay.

[1:31:08] But again, I would also add, we have current members, all current members have a chance to weigh in as well.

[1:31:17] I appreciate it.

[1:31:18] Even though I don't get to vote on it.

[1:31:19] so they go, hey, they covered everything. Exactly. We just started this a few months ago.

[1:31:26] We're certainly instead of rushing something through. I just wanted to make sure because I think

[1:31:31] when I came on four years ago, there were things on like to actually vote on that evening and it was

[1:31:39] like you didn't really have an opportunity to actually really like ask questions and dig into it and

[1:31:45] you know, provide any feedback because it was, yeah, you're

[1:31:48] nay that night.

[1:31:49] Yeah, we have December 15th is the introduction of first council

[1:31:54] meeting with the new council at the end of trucks.

[1:31:57] We still have a public hearing and then a vote later in February.

[1:32:01] Okay.

[1:32:02] I think there's ample time, particularly if there's something

[1:32:05] somebody coming in new says, wow, I guys totally forgot this.

[1:32:12] And we're very, I'm very thankful to see a potential member of our new council here

[1:32:19] sitting through this in certainly Mr. Kong or any questions that you have for us, we're,

[1:32:29] you know, we're open in any input that you would have as a sitting council member when

[1:32:37] And that happens or that happens on December 7th, we're going to be into consideration along

[1:32:45] with the other councilman.

[1:32:47] We want the whole purpose of this is to get everybody involved, be transparent and make

[1:32:52] sure that the process we have going forward is the right one.

[1:32:57] So.

[1:32:59] And who knows?

[1:33:00] By December, January, February, things could be different.

[1:33:04] As far as the whole process, you know, as far as data centers go, so new people coming

[1:33:12] in could have brand new questions related to new systems or new requirements or anything.

[1:33:20] So also with that legislative session doesn't start until January, if this is voted on

[1:33:28] in February. Nothing can actually really happen until we see what happens with that session

[1:33:35] and that bill anyway, correct? Okay.

[1:33:40] That'll be interesting.

[1:33:42] Any other questions or comments? No. Thank you very much. Thank you for having us.

[1:33:47] Thank you. I do want to take the liberty to say that I got sent the resolution 39, 20,

[1:33:53] 26 that's going to be on the ballot. So thank you very much. So remember we all need to push

[1:34:00] that to keep our administration going. So we're thinking you and I yeah middle of we'll come

[1:34:09] up with something I'll get with myself but we're thinking metal of October or something just to

[1:34:16] get out what this is and what it's not and then the information for the citizens to make

[1:34:28] That is exactly what I'm telling people who ask me.

[1:34:35] So council manager report.

[1:34:37] The report is in your packet as well as I wanted to let you know at a previous meeting council

[1:34:45] woman Colberton had asked for an update on family violence services from community services

[1:34:50] and they've scheduled that for the October 13th work session.

[1:34:54] Okay.

[1:34:55] And then also just as kind of a housekeeping.

[1:34:59] Cecil County School of Technology, National Honor Society inductees ceremonies on October 29th.

[1:35:05] And that's going to involve 67 inductees.

[1:35:08] So we're going to, we need to get in front of that and print out all of those certificates and so forth.

[1:35:14] Do any of you have an issue with signing them physically?

[1:35:16] Will you have an issue with us, e-signing, what is your thought process?

[1:35:24] We're good to go.

[1:35:25] Okay.

[1:35:26] All righty.

[1:35:26] And I did find out from Jessica Whirley at the September 30th candidate forum.

[1:35:33] They're also going to bring the ballot question up and let everybody at present know about the ballot question and so forth.

[1:35:41] And I think that she's going to try to put it in the program as well.

[1:35:44] That's great.

[1:35:45] Okay. Thank you. Very good. Council member items. I have one and Sandra left. But I want

[1:35:55] to tell our congratulations on our new employee Rachel coffee to the ag coordinator position

[1:35:59] in Cecil County. I was at Farm Bureau meeting last night and they didn't all stand up

[1:36:04] but they all clapped. And that's a big plus. So kudos to the committee for what they did

[1:36:10] then could look to Rachel. She's going to do great things in Cecil County. So with

[1:36:16] that, I'll ask for a motion to adjourn. So vote second. All in favor say aye. Opposed,

[1:36:23] meetings adjourned. The next work session will be scheduled for Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at

[1:36:29] 430 to County Administration Building. Everybody have a good evening. Thanks for coming out.

[1:36:33] any adjourned. Yeah, right come around. So you can

County Council Work Session

Transcript