[0:00] Thank you for your attention.

[5:30] Even today's Wednesday, December 17th, we want to welcome you to the Legislative Day

[5:47] Continuation of the Critical Digital Infrastructure Overlay Zone, public hearing.

[5:53] If you have materials you wish to submit to the Council, please hand them to the Recording

[5:56] Secretary seated on the lectern and see if we'll distribute them to the Council.

[6:01] For those who are in the queue last night to utilize a phone line, option to give comment,

[6:06] you'll need to call again 855-925-2801, Intermeeting Code 8365 and press star 3 to be put

[6:14] into a virtual line, or press star 2 you'll be asked to leave a recorded message which will

[6:19] be transcribed and emailed to the entire Council.

[6:22] Where you're mind the public, please state your name and address for the record, unmute any electronic

[6:27] devices before your comment.

[6:29] As a reminder, our meetings are televised on federal county government channel 19, on

[6:33] Frederick County Government's website, Frederick County md.gov, forward slash FCGTV and on

[6:39] our website, Frederick County md.gov, forward slash Council meetings.

[6:43] You may also listen to the meeting by doing the same number 855-9252-801 and Intermeeting Code 8365.

[6:52] Before we get started for those of you joining us by phone and can't see a screen, we'll take

[6:57] roll at the Council.

[6:59] Council Member Carter.

[7:00] Here.

[7:01] Council Member Donald.

[7:02] Here.

[7:03] Council Member Keenair.

[7:04] Here.

[7:05] Council Member Nath.

[7:06] Here.

[7:07] Council Member McKay.

[7:08] Here all members of the Council are present.

[7:11] So what we're going to do just as a for kind of the game rules tonight, anybody that had

[7:17] signed up on the sheet and I've got the list of the names who did not speak last night,

[7:21] will be entitled to speak for six minutes as were anybody that was on the phone lines that

[7:27] did not have that opportunity.

[7:29] After that, we will go to general public comment at that point, anybody that wishes to speak will

[7:35] have three minutes at that point.

[7:37] So I know a number of you have set up in the front sections that were reserved for those.

[7:44] So if you can come up and state your name, we'll confirm you were on the list and we can go

[7:48] ahead and get started.

[7:49] Whoever would like to start things off.

[8:05] Hi.

[8:06] I'm Sharon Cheney.

[8:07] I live at 275 Washington Street in Adam Stown.

[8:10] I'm a lifelong Frederick County resident and I've been at Adam Stown for 23 years.

[8:14] I'm currently the president of the Adam Stown Village Community Association.

[8:19] I represent the one block we have in town that is it.

[8:24] We have a block.

[8:27] I read with so many of the people who presented last night and I'm here to voice my opinion about

[8:32] the overlay and that it's just way too much way too fast.

[8:36] There's not enough information to justify more overlay.

[8:42] But before I get in any of that, I'd first like to give a little history of my experience

[8:47] with Adam's town.

[8:48] Adam's had a number of curveballs tossed our way since I've been there and we've been fighting

[8:53] with the county for a very long time regarding development of many forms, but specifically

[8:58] the on-clavic Carol Manor.

[9:00] This used to be a 10-acre carnival ground that was owned by the fire department.

[9:04] Fire department had to sell it so they could build a new fire hall, which they still don't

[9:07] have.

[9:08] But the houses are going up.

[9:11] We have had to fight for about 15 years to reduce the number of houses from 60 on 10 acres,

[9:18] the 39, which is still a ridiculous amount of housing for a house for a community that has 28

[9:25] houses.

[9:26] Before you get in, can I ask you to pin that mic down just a little bit so that they can hear you

[9:29] a little better thing?

[9:30] Yes.

[9:31] Sorry about that.

[9:33] So it's still a crazy crazy number of houses for a little tiny community like ours.

[9:38] I mean, you can almost reach out the window of one house and touch the next.

[9:43] It is not fit with the character of the rest of the community.

[9:46] We have to put up with blasting because they didn't think they'd have to get through bedrock.

[9:50] Guess what?

[9:51] There's bedrock in front of the county.

[9:53] Construction noise, speeding vehicles and dirt.

[9:56] Then there's transect, which is like the only business, the big business that we had forever

[10:00] in Adam's town.

[10:02] The next insect was the business, they were on septic, like the rest of the town.

[10:07] They're septic-filled.

[10:08] So the county is running a new sewer system from dowels to their facility, blasting through

[10:13] backyards and demolishing out buildings to village residents.

[10:17] This has been going on for at least three years due to inadequate engineering studies by the

[10:21] county.

[10:22] As a result of this sewer project, homes on the north side of Washington Street will have the

[10:26] opportunity to hook up to the sewer once it's there, but not the south side of the street,

[10:31] or the rest of the town.

[10:34] At the last meeting I had with county reps regarding this, I was told that the rest of the town

[10:38] will be on a five to ten year plan for us to have the opportunity to hook up to sewer at best.

[10:44] In the meantime, we're going to be a town of halves and have knots.

[10:47] If our septic's fail, we'll have to pay to repair a repairer, replace them.

[10:50] We'll sewer does finally come through.

[10:52] We'll have to swallow the money that we've been spending, repairing, and we're replacing

[10:56] our systems and then pay to have them condemned and then pay again to hook up to the sewer.

[11:01] We're talking tens of thousands of dollars in a town that's getting sucked dry of money

[11:08] and our property values are going to be shrinking because of the overlay.

[11:13] So we're just going to be going in debt just to live an out of town.

[11:18] Now the overlay in the additional data centers are going to cause our electricity costs to

[11:23] sewer.

[11:24] We'll have even more noise, dirt, air pollution, and light pollution, and still we are getting

[11:28] nothing.

[11:30] We are expected to sit back and suffer and pay for the benefit of preserving farmland in

[11:35] the county.

[11:36] But you know, I'm not really sorry to say this, saving town, farmland, and thermot.

[11:40] I really don't care about.

[11:41] I care about my town where I live.

[11:45] Thermot can spend for itself or the rest of the county.

[11:47] I'm concerned about my area.

[11:50] I have yet to see any evidence of how the data centers and or the overlay will give any benefit

[11:55] at all to the residents of Adam's town.

[11:58] But, you're saying, from my point of view, that this is kind of a done deal because it's

[12:05] been working for so long in the shadows, you guys are trying to make yourself feel superior.

[12:10] So here's an idea, do something for Adam's town, create a special tax district, reduce our taxes

[12:16] by the 40% you think you're going to get from the new data centers.

[12:21] This would be something meaningful and it would everything else is just smoke and mirrors.

[12:26] If you really want to help local farmers, you want to sell their property for industrial

[12:30] development, do something good for them.

[12:32] Buy the land from the farmers at a reasonable cost.

[12:35] Turn it into a nature reserve for the county.

[12:38] Give the wildlife a home and the pollinators, preserve our views, protect, at least make part of

[12:46] this disaster, something that will remind future generations of what Frederick County always

[12:50] used to be, because we're not anymore, we're destroying it.

[12:54] Thank you.

[12:55] Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the council, I am Sam Fadoul, I manage the trust

[13:09] that owns 20404, Balansha Creek Pike and 20518 Balansha Creek Pike attached to the

[13:14] dog substation.

[13:16] I'm very glad I let that lady go ahead of me because she brought up something very fascinating that

[13:23] definitely has had me thinking.

[13:25] When we look at a lot of the concerns we've heard from the community and from members of this

[13:30] very council and the planning commission, a lot of them center around things like cost-to-power,

[13:36] water usage, things like that that have a real tangible quantitative impact on people's lives.

[13:43] And she brought up something else, benefits, begs the question, what are the defined benefits

[13:52] that the certain developers are offering?

[13:54] The reason I bring that up, when we look at how this process is unfolded and we look at the legislation

[14:01] that's in front of us, it hasn't addressed items that are governable by technology, such as

[14:07] water usage, requiring things like immersion cooling as opposed to water chillers, requiring

[14:13] that a data center developer bring their own power with them on site, mandating green power

[14:18] and that's your own mission for that matter.

[14:21] This rather restricts the data centers to certain locations and as an observer, it seems odd

[14:29] that when the concerns are around those quality of life issues, then it's fixated on where these

[14:35] go rather than how they operate, when it's how they operate that really affects people.

[14:41] And when you look at what benefits are offered, it struck me a few times I've come here and

[14:47] heard, bragging about a sponsoring, a county fund run from someone and a $10,000 donation

[14:56] to a computer lab.

[14:58] I know for a fact that we offered us.

[15:00] 30 million dollar cash donation to the County Public School System. And that was only one of the incentives we offered.

[15:09] And when I look at it from the standpoint of who's going to have the least amount of infrastructure impact, us having all the infrastructure on site, rather than requiring new easements and things like that,

[15:22] it starts to make me wonder, how is it justified if you have a scenario where all of the rights are concentrated in the hands of one developer who doesn't want to express definitively what added benefit they're going to give to the community besides general tax benefits that all of these would.

[15:49] It starts to almost appear monopolized in the sense of it would be similar to if you have a decision that only one chain of grocery stores can operate in the county.

[16:00] You can only have wagons. Meanwhile, you have giant, you have Harris, Teter, all these guys there saying, hey, we're here, we're ready, we're going to offer you this and this, but wagons is it and there's no option and there has to be a justification for that.

[16:18] Otherwise, it's a monopoly which creates an interesting question in of itself because you do have government sanction monopolies, which are utilities, which is a really interesting perspective on this.

[16:30] I would think, because in essence, data centers are utility. I know there's people who are starting to slowly maybe come to grips with that and there's still some time for it's fully understood, but these aren't new.

[16:41] These have been around for more than 20 years, more than that. And they are integral to this very meeting functioning being able to be broadcast and sort on the cloud and how people organize and all of that.

[16:56] But there is no reason why there can't be restrictions governing these things, mandates of clear technology, mandates of efficient use of space and power and making sure that there's no impact.

[17:12] There are absolutely no reason why any taxpayer should be subsidizing any amount of rate increase. It's unnecessary. I can tell you that someone who has built and operated data centers, the profit margins are enormous. That's why we build them, especially if you're doing federal government sector.

[17:30] There's no reason why anybody shouldn't be bringing their own power. It's actually I find it ludicrous in the current environment. There's a lot of problems with energy policy in general with these are basic things.

[17:41] There's no reason why, especially at this juncture, this process hasn't been fast. There's been a lot of opportunity I saw for the state that in a way that might have been a blessing disguised past by, but that gives you the opportunity to take your time.

[17:58] It makes sure that this is all done correctly and that all those concerns are addressed because this is something of serious importance that is a legacy piece.

[18:07] It will greatly impact the county for many years to come and it can be a beautiful outcome or it can be a horrible outcome.

[18:17] The path is still open to define that. It takes many people, many months, if not a year or two, to build a house.

[18:27] It takes one reckless kid with a match and somebody leaving the gas on and that thing is gone.

[18:32] This is the time to use caution to really exercise thorough due diligence and be certain in any decision.

[18:44] That's all I have to say and I wish everyone the best of luck. Thank you.

[18:48] Thank you.

[18:50] Anyone else that signed up last night has not used their six minutes.

[18:55] We could ask anybody else in the room that's in that to be lined up over here, please.

[19:03] Hello, my name is Robert Clemson. I live at Churchill Raid, Marsville, Maryland, but also in property park property owner of a 4719 voucher Creek Pike, which is one of the properties that we want to be added to the overlay.

[19:18] So I got some comments for both sides.

[19:22] I'll go through this list. I also sent an email today about some of my points also.

[19:27] I've been a lifelong resident of Frederick County, Maryland.

[19:32] I worked on a family farm, grew up there, new design road.

[19:36] We also had this farm, a one-bounded Creek Pike that we use as secondary farm in the burying materials to the dairy farm, one new design road.

[19:45] I also worked at East Alka for 22 years.

[19:49] It's a smelter. It's a dirty place to work. We took dirt and made it into aluminum.

[19:55] We used 330 megawatts of power.

[19:59] Each one of these buildings that are getting build used 100 megawatts of power.

[20:05] I know how much heat that makes because you can't get rid of heat. You move it or you disperse it with water.

[20:15] The new technology to get rid of heat would be a good thing.

[20:19] We need to look at that. I haven't researched any of that.

[20:24] I'm in favor of including our farm with it, with the overlay.

[20:30] But we're at a crossroads in Frederick County.

[20:33] We can stay a farm community raised property taxes because it's understand 80% of our revenue comes from properties, real property that people live in, not businesses.

[20:45] East Alka made a lot of money for the county.

[20:48] It's gone. Our production went to Iceland.

[20:53] Iceland gave Alka the deal where we give you very cheap.

[20:57] It's very cheap power because it was a hydro dam.

[21:02] It was such a deal that they didn't even come to you.

[21:05] I'm a union member. I was a sewer.

[21:08] They didn't even come to us about reducing your wages so we could stay open.

[21:12] It was like a no brainer because the power was so much different over there.

[21:18] A data center, though, has issues.

[21:22] Energy, water use. We've been talking about a lot. Emissions and noise.

[21:26] Some can be reduced, but we need more computing power.

[21:32] We all use computers. We all use cell phones.

[21:36] Pretty much all of us use AS some now. It shows up on our browsers.

[21:42] Artificial intelligence is coming out of these data centers.

[21:47] And one thing nobody really knows about a whole lot yet is people surveillance will be coming also with AR.

[21:55] Some websites look at the dollar vigilante, the Crow House, Brighton.

[22:01] We'll give you some information about what's coming along.

[22:05] We all need to learn what's coming so we can be aware of it.

[22:10] The lady talked before about there's nothing for our items down.

[22:16] I went on our church disaster trip to the Midwest.

[22:20] Never stood close to a windmill.

[22:23] I don't know if you guys have either. They're humongous.

[22:26] They turned 33 RPMs, which doesn't seem much.

[22:29] And you're below and they do a lot.

[22:32] How they did it out there is they compensated the people that the properties touched when they did these developments.

[22:41] One of your big concerns of the public is the, my properties go down in value.

[22:48] That's true. We're going to do foreign preservation somewhere else in the county.

[22:52] That doesn't help the people that's staring at a building and their property values changing.

[22:58] A completely different concept would be compensated some of these people in this area somehow.

[23:04] I don't know how that would work. It might just be a new idea.

[23:10] So I just realized that the neighbors are not wanting their property values go down.

[23:17] But the overlay owners would want the most value when they go to seller farmer or develop it.

[23:25] So there's two competing forces there either.

[23:28] I have somebody has a piece of property that could be developed.

[23:32] Somebody ends up living beside a data center.

[23:36] I drove down through Northern Virginia and right now.

[23:39] If you paint your searches, all our searches go to Northern Virginia right now.

[23:46] But then following up with that, I would like to the council to vote for the inclusion of the property owners.

[23:53] I want to be in the overlay because this would be a hard package to open back up in the future to change that.

[24:00] I do understand you got to change into a general industrial.

[24:03] Then you got to change to be a data center thing.

[24:06] Setters, even though if you're in the overlay, they're still quite a few steps to put a data center anywhere but East Alco.

[24:14] So that's all I'd like to say to you guys today.

[24:18] Anybody would any have any questions about East Alco or the property or the history?

[24:23] I know a good bit because I was at HVAC guy.

[24:27] I was a maintenance guy.

[24:29] I've seen a lot out there.

[24:31] Very fascinating place to work.

[24:33] I love industry.

[24:35] That's where the money's made.

[24:37] Just the electricians in nobody like coming up here.

[24:40] They are making a living.

[24:43] Most of those guys are probably working scale or close to scale, which is a really good living.

[24:47] They've got a hustle.

[24:49] They've got a hustle.

[24:50] And those jobs will be gone.

[24:52] Everybody's got to understand that.

[24:54] There's 500 jobs out there right now.

[24:56] I've seen the buses moving back.

[24:57] People back and forth now because you can't park everybody out there.

[25:00] I actually park them somewhere else in the county.

[25:02] Anyway, thank you.

[25:04] My name is Robert Klinson.

[25:05] Have a good night.

[25:06] Thanks for opening up the meeting again.

[25:09] Yes.

[25:18] Anything?

[25:20] I'm Jack Lay.

[25:21] I live on East Bath for Road with my wife Kelly and our identical twin boys who are.

[25:27] First graders at Carol Manor Elementary School.

[25:31] Our home directly backs up to the Suzanne properties that are asking to be considered

[25:38] for inclusion in the CDI overlay zone.

[25:41] I want to speak specifically about the Suzanne properties.

[25:45] The two properties.

[25:46] One at twenty five eighteen.

[25:48] Other at twenty four.

[25:49] Four.

[25:50] Bountry Creek Pike are located in a rural legacy area.

[25:54] In addition to being in a priority preservation area.

[25:58] These destinations have been so since before I purchased our property in 2011.

[26:04] Previous county members have since rejected every proposal to change its agricultural

[26:10] designation to industrial because the land has long been recognized as incompatible for industrial

[26:17] use.

[26:18] It was only as recent as 2023.

[26:21] When the Suzanne properties was last denied rezoning.

[26:25] Since the last denial.

[26:28] And since we lived on East Bath of Road.

[26:30] And since before we lived there, the characters land has been the same.

[26:36] Royal historic beautiful agricultural clean and pristine.

[26:44] It should stay that way.

[26:49] The Suzanne farms in surround areas are two beautiful and two historic two destroy with

[26:54] industrial growth.

[26:56] When the properties was last changed hands.

[26:59] It was sold in purchase as agricultural zone land.

[27:03] The real estate sales listing made it clear that it uses a limited to farming due to

[27:09] its preservation designations.

[27:11] It is very fair to the current trustee of the land.

[27:17] For the county to keep its own as agricultural.

[27:20] It is also fair to all the homeowners in the area that have laid deep roots down.

[27:25] Who have chosen to live in a rural community bordered by beautiful and historic farmland.

[27:32] Additionally, the Suzanne properties lie partly within FEMA flood plains.

[27:38] With two creeks running through it.

[27:40] Both creeks eventually making the way to a particular river.

[27:43] One of the creeks is protected under Maryland Conservation Reserve and Handsome program.

[27:48] There are a few historic significance to these farms.

[27:51] The Johnson family wants own and cultivating these farms.

[27:54] There are burrow sites of various Johnson family members on site at this location with

[27:59] some of the farmland.

[28:00] They are getting back to a time when our country is not established yet.

[28:05] These gravestones are for those who were fortunate enough to be buried with a gravestone.

[28:09] You can just imagine all the other people who were buried in this land that did not get a gravestone.

[28:14] In addition to the historic gravestone, the Johnson family home still stands on this property.

[28:21] From one of the two Suzanne farms, you can walk across the street.

[28:24] Across Boucher Street, across Boucher Street Pike, and end up on 24-55 Boucher Creek, which is Cooling Springs Farm.

[28:32] Cooling Springs Farm is a stored, multi-generational farm, famous for a significant role as an underground railroad stop.

[28:38] Where the Michael family used their spring house as a safe house to hide and shelter and slave African Americans

[28:44] on the long and treachery journey from the south to freedom of north.

[28:50] The preservation of Cooling Springs Farm in the safe house is credited to Mr. Pete and Mrs. Vicky Michael.

[28:56] Cooling Springs Farm is now protected historical landmark with conservation easement.

[29:01] It is known for its beautiful landscape, Gothic revival home built in 1879, and continue agriculture use.

[29:07] Any industrial use permitted by this county, near or around Cooling Springs Farm, would be historic travesty to the history of our country,

[29:14] and especially to history of our African Americans.

[29:19] You simply cannot make more land like this. It cannot be replaced, and once you ruin it, it's ruined.

[29:25] Access to Suzanne Farm is limited to East Boucher Road and Boucher Creek Pike.

[29:30] East Boucher Road where a live was constructed as a narrow, tar and ship road in order to preserve the historic and rural character of the surrounding farmlands and not meant for industrial use.

[29:40] Water. Water for the surrounding residents, all of the residents in the area, is solely dependent on private wells.

[29:55] Any industrial development in this area would put our water source at risk contamination.

[30:00] Health. Additionally, any industrial development in our area would risk our well to dry

[30:06] out. And we all know industry, especially data centers, use a ton of water. We fear that

[30:12] rezoning, the Suzanne farmers, anything other than agriculture would cause a domino effect.

[30:17] One industrial approval leading to the next, and then one day, we have to kiss goodbye to this

[30:21] clean, pristine world treasure of Frederick County. I'm here to ask the county council to

[30:25] please uphold Frederick County's planning principles and preservation

[30:28] designations. Please vote to help us. Not harm us. Please vote no to the city

[30:34] eye overlay. Please vote no to rezoning. And overly request of the Suzanne

[30:38] irrevocable trust. Please keep industry out of priority preservation areas and

[30:43] out of rural legacy areas. Please keep our community rural, beautiful, historic, clean,

[30:49] and pristine. Thank you for your time.

[30:52] Thank you.

[30:55] Good evening, council. Eric Soder with Rogers Consulting. There's been a lot of testimony

[31:06] about the sanctity of rural legacy areas and private preservation areas, passionate statements

[31:12] about broken promises and legal contracts. And although it has been stated before, during

[31:17] these proceedings, it needs to be stated again. These are grants, management programs, not growth,

[31:24] management programs. These are state programs about prioritizing funding. And it's great

[31:30] that perhaps even some of the speakers have benefited from these taxpayer funding to purchase from

[31:38] maintain a farm or maintain that farm activity. But again, these subsidies are available as voluntary

[31:44] programs that are not mandatory. This is perhaps best evidenced in the 21 installment purchase

[31:50] program applications that the Plano Commission just reviewed last week. Not a single one of

[31:56] those requests are in the Carleton Manor rural legacy area. And two thirds are not even within a priority

[32:02] preservation area. But I imagine those applications will move through in a number one will get funded.

[32:10] But is the sanctity of funding those outside of those areas, somehow ruining the rural legacy

[32:15] or priority preservation areas? No. We have a number of farms outside of those areas that we have funded.

[32:21] So this is the result of a voluntary and not mandatory flexible grants management program. And I agree

[32:27] if someone enters into an agreement, they are bound by those agreements and whatever remedies they have.

[32:34] The Catel's Holdings in East Alco have no such agreements, no such contracts,

[32:40] and no broken promises. And in fact, the lands of East Alco have been flowed inside and outside

[32:47] of the growth area prior to 2010 and then during the 2010 down zoning's, none of the properties

[32:53] that got put into the grants eligible preservation areas. But then in 2012, when it was restored,

[32:59] those lines removed. This is the same process that you were undertaking now. As an amendment to the

[33:04] livable Frederick Master plan, and was anticipated and expected when the administration set forth

[33:10] this process earlier this year. So lastly, in the spirit of Christmas, a poignant question many years ago was asked

[33:20] and the answer was, yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. And at your workshop two weeks ago,

[33:28] the council asked an equally appropriate question. Is there zoning in our preservation areas?

[33:36] Yes council members, there is zoning in your preservation areas. In fact, nearly the entire town

[33:42] of Myersville is within the rural legacy area. You have a residential, mixed use, commercial,

[33:49] you have industrial and commercial lands both north and south of I-270 along Myersville Road.

[33:55] That does not ruin the sanctity of those programs. Again, it is a grants management program.

[34:03] It's not a growth management program. It is not why it was created or how it has been regulated

[34:08] over the years. In closing, the update to the land use plan and zoning requests submitted by Michael

[34:15] Kirkendoll is wholly appropriate and reflects how to balance priorities so you can fund these voluntary

[34:22] programs and other public benefits for implementing a master plan consistent with the CDI regulations

[34:27] and a comprehensive and not peace-fail manner. Thank you very much. Thank you.

[34:32] Good evening, council president, young members of the Frederick County Council. I think you all

[34:53] know me, but for the record, my name is Bruce Dean, and I'm an attorney with a law firm,

[34:57] a McCurdy Dean and Gratitor representing to tell us Maryland, quantum Maryland and a number of

[35:03] other landowners involved in this process. My office address is 31 West Patrick Street here in Frederick

[35:10] and my resident is also within the city of Frederick if you want that address. Last night, I did not

[35:17] speak even though I was signed up as I did not want to unnecessarily prolong your process. I was kind of

[35:22] hoping we might be done last night not to come back, but since we are back here again and since I

[35:28] signed up to speak, I would like to offer some remorse. I want to address some of the public comments

[35:34] that we heard last night. I have worked with and now all of you. Some for longer periods of time than

[35:41] others, but I know that each and every one of you take your council representation incredibly seriously

[35:48] and with the utmost care for the county and for your constituents. While opinions differ,

[35:54] particularly on land use issues, I've never known any of you to take your duties lightly,

[36:00] or without listening carefully to all sides. I found it frankly painful last night to hear some of

[36:07] the disparaging comments directed your way, which indicated otherwise. As someone who has spent his entire

[36:14] professional career involved in land use decisions in Frederick County, I found it disheartening

[36:20] to hear your motives questioned and your decision-making abilities mocked and derided.

[36:27] Frederick County has been a rapidly growing jurisdiction since well before I came here in 1987.

[36:33] Because of this land use and growth issues have been at the forefront of political

[36:36] decision-making at all times. And if I've learned nothing else, I understand that changes hard,

[36:44] particularly when it affects you personally, but I've also learned that in a rapidly growing county

[36:50] changes constant and unavoidable. My own children have been redistricted into new schools due to

[36:57] residential growth. My own neighborhood here in the city of Frederick has had it with stand in the

[37:03] last few years, the burden of hundreds of new houses being constructed on land that my neighbors thought

[37:09] was always going to be open space. US-15 has changed from being a quick way to get from one

[37:15] into the city to the other, to basically being a virtual parking lot clogged through at the day,

[37:22] often with cars with absolute license plates traveling to and from Frederick without paying any of our

[37:27] local taxes. When I came to Frederick, the villages of Urbana, Wittier and Spring Ridge didn't even

[37:34] exist. East Alco is a thriving aluminum smelter, employing significant numbers of Frederick Tonyans.

[37:41] There was no AstraZeneca, there was no Harry Grove Stadium, there were no Tuscura, Urbana or Oakdale

[37:48] high schools. And voices about growth and change were often angry, scared, and in opposition to one another.

[37:56] But I've rarely heard such comments as I heard last night. Interestingly, I think it was

[38:01] kayhain with whom I rarely agree about growth issues, who once said to me that while he often questioned

[38:09] and disagreed with his opponent's positions, he never questioned their motives, choosing to

[38:15] believe that each of us want the best for Frederick County and for our neighbors. I have strive to keep

[38:20] that thought in mind ever since and I would hope that everyone here tonight or here last night

[38:26] were at future meetings. We'll also try to keep that in mind. Now I have submitted letters into

[38:32] the record and supported my clients' properties and requests, so I will not burden you with reiterating

[38:38] my clients' requests to be included in the overlay zone or for industrial zoning. I know from knowing

[38:46] each of you, that each of you will make your decisions about these requests with the utmost care

[38:51] and attention. The seven of you all ran for public office with the best of intentions, and I'd personally

[38:58] don't believe that any of those intentions have changed. So I just wanted to thank you personally for

[39:03] running for public office and being willing to make the hard decisions that affect our community. Thank you.

[39:10] Is there anybody else that was signed up last night that has not spoke? It's entitled

[39:20] to the six minutes. Sheriff, you can come on up. Yeah. I know, I said, out of the her, I didn't get that.

[39:29] If I'm sure. Hi. My name is Kat Kozer. I'm in Frederick, Maryland. I did sign up yesterday as well.

[39:38] There's a saying I've found to be true as time goes on more and more, and it's pretty simple.

[39:46] People may not always remember what you say, and all the details, but they will remember how you make them feel.

[39:56] I appreciate you all listening to people tonight and yesterday, and I would ask this. How are you making them feel?

[40:04] It's pretty clear that the vast majority of people are against this plan. So how will they feel if you ignore them?

[40:14] I'm also a member of Frederick DSA, the Democratic Socialist of America, and I support the organizational

[40:20] statement made on behalf of them yesterday. That statement shared many of the logical arguments,

[40:26] which many people have shared over and over from this podium, but I'd like to emphasize the political

[40:31] arguments. I feel for the electricians and those wishing to join the overlay. They have interests to

[40:38] do so, and I respect their right to have that voice that interest. But the vast majority of opinions are clear,

[40:46] and I've spent much of this year organizing and they're saying volunteering my time to help others in

[40:52] build community, particularly in defense of democracy. And I can tell you that people are suffering

[40:58] and people are paying attention. We know there is no special knowledge that distinguishes you and us,

[41:06] who have been speaking, representatives derive their legitimacy not by overruling the wishes of those

[41:13] they represent, but by listening and serving. And I have the utmost respect for public service.

[41:22] But I have the deepest disgust for when corporate interests overrule the will of the people.

[41:28] People understand these data centers are being built to power AI corporations and mass surveillance on us,

[41:35] no amount of small charity from corporations or small taxes to the county will change the massive

[41:42] profits that these companies make off of us in our people. So the main question is, will you be legitimate

[41:50] representatives? Are you listening to the people? Are you listening to a few personal or corporate

[41:57] interests over the people? And how are you making us feel? How will we remember this and how you made us feel

[42:06] in November? I know how I feel. No expansion of the overlay is a start, but we need a whole lot more.

[42:14] We need accountability and support for all those negatively affected by this parasitic industry

[42:20] including those with operating nearby. I'll just conclude very simply because I think I've made my

[42:26] point solidarity forever and stop this now. Thanks.

[42:38] Good evening council, President Young, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins. I'm here tonight just to present to you some

[42:43] information as to what we've been dealing with as far as the impact to the residents and the

[42:47] items down. So I can tell you that since probably February this year we've been dealing with a

[42:54] lot of complaints in regard to the traffic, the noise, generally the truck traffic heavy trucks in

[42:59] and out through that area. So to a lesser extent right now most of the employees I understand are being

[43:05] bussed in from Agro Drive down to the sites which it gets the commuter traffic off the table for the

[43:10] most part but the the trucking the heavy truck traffic has really been a problem with us. The road

[43:17] impact to most of your bounds are creed pike of horse, bucky's town pike, Mountville Road, Manorwood Road,

[43:23] Capstein Road, New Design and now English Muffin Way because a lot of the trucking used to come down through

[43:28] bucky's town we were able to get to the quarry and convince them to please route the trucks and said

[43:33] coming through bucky's town up in English Muffin and now New Design. So that's going pretty well for us.

[43:40] But so you all know their country roads are two lane country roads heavily impacted by the truck

[43:47] traffic and they were never intended for the volume of the truck traffic or the speeds of the trucks.

[43:54] We found during our business down there that the truck trips to and from the site's number into the

[43:59] hundreds every day sometimes upper of a thousand which is a lot of truck traffic awful lot down there.

[44:04] So it has a great impact on that community. You can also expect that those roads are going to deteriorate pretty quickly

[44:11] over a period of time and I think what I've heard is this project is probably as long as ten years maybe.

[44:17] You build out. So if that's accurate, again you have to think ahead about the damage to the roads down there.

[44:22] So I can tell you initially we were doing as much as we could to enforce the speed,

[44:26] the traffic laws with the complaints of the trucks.

[44:30] It got beyond what we could do through our routine patrol operations.

[44:34] So eventually got to the point became so overwhelming we had to go to Rowan and say listen we're having this problem here.

[44:40] You have to work with us. So they have work honestly Rowan has worked pretty well with us.

[44:45] Trying to contact the haulers, the truckers, get them to comply with the traffic laws in regard to the speed.

[44:51] They purchase speed signs to help us put around to again control some of the speed in and around the sites.

[44:56] And actually I like most of them.

[45:00] So if I spend a lot of time reaching out for the truckers, the haulers are trying to get compliance

[45:04] as did runs. I have to get run credit, they work with us. Also, since November 1st, I will

[45:10] tell you that rowing digital has been funding over time hours for deputies. Right now, we

[45:15] are working four-hour shifts every day. Adaptives going down there, different times a day, different

[45:21] rows, try to control the truck traffic going through there. Catella says ask us to increase the

[45:26] hours to full days, but right now, don't think we had the man power to do it. So, again, we're

[45:30] doing what we can do with the resources we have. Noise complaints are another problem for us,

[45:35] again, going back through February, large number of noise complaints coming from the site. We've

[45:41] been down there 20 times. We've taken 14 complaints. We've been down there 20 times to take measurements.

[45:47] We've never found the measurements to receive the legal limits. However, what that tells me is,

[45:52] even if they don't violate, the noise ordinance annoying is held to people. It really is.

[45:58] And I can understand that. And that's not taken into consideration. Again, the diesel generators

[46:03] are going to be on site here. And I don't know what the numbers are, but obviously, it's going to

[46:07] be a complaint driven going forward. I expect the noise complaints probably will never end for us.

[46:17] I do want to give you some stats, pull together some stats. So, again, we had 14

[46:22] official noise complaints. We've been down there more than 20 times. Traffic complaints

[46:27] relate to the truck traffic, 15 since November 1st. We've been down there 30 times for over time

[46:34] assignments. We've written 247 citations, 188 warnings, 18 equipment repair orders are made 24 arrests.

[46:43] That's pretty significant there. The number of large trucks stopped between 80 and 100 out of all

[46:51] those traffic stops. So, we feel we're having an impact. We're feeling we're doing some good

[46:55] down there. Crashes on the roads surrounding the construction sites are 7, 1 in borrowing a large truck.

[47:04] And also, there was a crash of a passenger car driven by an employee off of one of the, I think,

[47:09] bosset went up there that ran off, found a creek into the butlers yard there, did some damage to

[47:14] some of their property. So, again, you're talking 7 crashes over a period of time, which is not a lot.

[47:21] What else? I guess as far as stats, that's really a whole have to offer. I just want to emphasize

[47:29] over the impact that's having to the people down there. You guys have to make some tough decisions. You

[47:33] really do. I don't want them to be in up there, because I understand that two sides of the story,

[47:39] it's going to impact the people that live there, currently in Bucky's town, Adam's town,

[47:43] bounds area. However, how can you deny people who want to sell their property, the opportunity to do

[47:48] this, I understand all that. I wouldn't want to make that decision. I will tell you what was

[47:52] really interesting is that about two years ago, in November 20th, I had a visit to my office by

[48:00] high-level security people for Amazon, Edwin West Coast. And I thought it was interesting. They came to me

[48:06] wanting to know about traffic, wanting to know about access to art being arteries, I mean,

[48:12] highways, they wanted to know about crime, trends, crime data, wanted to know what they could expect

[48:18] as far as pushback from the community when this all started. They didn't really talk about data centers

[48:24] for say. But you knew where it was going, you kind of visited where it was going to go. So I thought

[48:29] it was very interesting that Amazon comes to my office two years ago. And beyond that, you've never heard

[48:35] the word Amazon mentioned in this whole project. You heard quantum, you heard what could tell us,

[48:40] you heard Rowan. So again, I thought it was odd that they would come to me two years ago. Now here,

[48:46] we are with all these all the pushback here. So again, I just want to make you aware of what we're dealing

[48:51] with down there. And it's pretty much been a drain on our resources. And any questions?

[48:57] Unfortunately, in this format, we can't do questions, but if you do, I'll have an email to ask you to

[49:02] come back to us. Sure, sure. I've been attending all these meetings. I understand what the issues are

[49:07] Thank you, sure. Okay, yes. Anyone else that was signed up for six minutes last night that is here?

[49:15] It did not speak. All right. Then we will close the public hearing portion of it. We are going to

[49:24] keep the record open on the public hearing until Friday for written communications. If you want to send

[49:31] in any additional emails with it. Well, sorry, we got a phone. Do we have any on the phone

[49:39] for phone calls or forgot the phones up there? Got you. Then we will close the hearing as a Friday

[49:48] for any additional public comment. That does conclude the hearing. So at this point, we will move back

[49:56] to general public comment. Anybody that wishes to give general public comment can approach the

[50:03] lectern? In general public comment, yeah. Good evening, Steve Black, new design road, Adam Stown.

[50:22] One of the things that came up repeatedly the other night through this whole thing is the lack of

[50:26] a comprehensive financial study of the impacts of this. So rather than dive into that, let me just pick one

[50:33] example. I don't have time to walk you through the basis of the electricity price market and how supply and

[50:41] demand determines price and that sort of thing. To be blunt, you should all understand that already if you're

[50:47] making decisions on data centers in the county. It is inarguable that electric rates are going

[50:55] up in the PJM region. It is inarguable that the principal driver of that rate increase is the data

[51:03] center industry. Something like 94% of projected new demand is due to the data center industry. So

[51:11] how will that affect Frederick County? This is the thing that you should be considering, right? We

[51:17] keep talking about what is the overall plan? What is best for the whole county? Set aside the concerns

[51:23] of Southern Frederick County and let's look at people in district five, people in district three.

[51:29] How is this going to affect them? The rate increase is essentially a new tax on everybody that pays an

[51:38] electric bill so that the money can be funneled through the electric utilities through the data

[51:45] center industry and return to the government as tax money. It's a mechanism for laundering a hidden

[51:54] tax that you will be contributing to if you allow an increased footprint of data centers in Frederick County.

[52:02] So how does that, how is that perceived by your constituents? First of all, it's a new

[52:08] tax that you signed off on and some of your constituents are more triggered by new taxes than others.

[52:17] Right, Mr. Carter? Your crowd is not going to like the idea that you approved a new tax on them.

[52:26] How about the other end of the county? Let's say in the middle of the county.

[52:33] Rate increases on utility bills are the most regressive form of taxation that you can possibly have.

[52:42] It is more regressive than a sales tax. Everyone has to pay for electricity if they want to

[52:50] survive the winter. Everyone. It's not subject to choice. So you are imposing the most regressive

[53:00] tax possible on your constituents. Something that you would never, ever, approve if it came to you in a

[53:08] straightforward way. But that is exactly what's happening. That dollar bill is being taken from one of

[53:14] your constituents. It goes to the electric utility. The data centers pay them and then it comes back

[53:21] to you as tax money. Please consider that and consider the views of your constituents on this as this

[53:28] matures. Thank you. Anyone else for general public comment? Hello council members. I really

[53:36] do appreciate you guys all staying with up with us till 12 last night. It

[53:41] realizes it helps us realize that you are in this with us. These comments aren't as well prepared

[53:49] as my comments last night but I wanted to offer a few thoughts on solutions for the landowners you want

[53:56] to sell and our rising energy prices. Solar energy is the largest growing industry in the United States.

[54:02] Solar installers have a career growth of 4%. Solar installers also include pipe fitters and

[54:09] electricians union members. If some of that land that wants to be sold could be sold to solar

[54:16] development, that would potentially decrease the energy cost in Frederick County. When it be wild,

[54:21] if we were the only county in Maryland that had cheaper electricity than everywhere around us.

[54:27] Solar panels have a 120% to 200% return on their investment. I don't think there's any reason

[54:37] why we can't put at least a few solar panels somewhere in Frederick County. Thank you.

[54:45] I'm sorry. What was your name, sir? I'm sorry. Sam Newhouse, Newmarket. Thank you, sir.

[54:53] I was in planning on speaking. My name's Katherine Brown and I have a beautiful house on

[55:00] Mountville Road in Adams Town. The Stonehouse we rescued it. We saved it and really love being in that

[55:07] community. I was actually hoping to have another house in Adams Town because my family's growing. My

[55:14] daughter has babies and it's wonderful. I sent you a picture of my grandson walking in front of

[55:22] our old beautiful house with the big red mountain in the distance and the data centers that you can see

[55:30] from the railroad track. Our home is right on the railroad track. We understand progress and things change.

[55:37] But we bought that house. We did understand that rural legacy and the row in gentlemen who said

[55:43] those properties aren't in rural legacy. I will bring it to the state's attention. Their maps have

[55:50] the Carolton Man or rural legacy program outlined. When we bought there that's what we understood

[55:57] it is. It was part of those programs. So let's state note that there are documents around.

[56:04] Also the scale of these data centers are dramatic and the exponential change to Frederick County.

[56:16] It's not just Adams Town that's going to be impacted because the woman with the cotton balls last night

[56:22] you take a spray gun and you spray everything because the air goes everywhere. We are actually

[56:30] already impacted by the data centers in Virginia. It's not just that little one cotton ball out of

[56:40] a hundred. All the cotton balls would be touched by that. We know that the overlays zone provides

[56:48] certainty in investment. One of the investments, I'm not pro development but the carnival ground

[56:56] was developed 213 days. Some of those homes have been on the market not sold. In a county where

[57:04] most houses are sold in five seven days. There's several there for 146 days. The prices in the market

[57:13] and this is from Redfin down $65,000 on those homes and they're still just sitting there waiting.

[57:23] The developer now is slowed down their development because they were going to do it really fast and

[57:28] get things out. So the economic diversity also in, you look at the history of America where you do just

[57:37] one kind of business at a time when that business goes bust. You have nothing. So diversity of our business

[57:47] of our economic support structure is vital. Those are just things that came to mind as I've been

[57:52] sitting here over the last two days and I appreciate that. Thank you.

[58:07] Hope Green Adams town. I want to reiterate my comments from last night about air quality because I

[58:15] think it's going to be your biggest hurdle. Particular matter, especially PM 2.5 is so small,

[58:23] less than the width of a human hair that when it goes into the lungs can filter out to the bloodstream

[58:31] and go everywhere on the body. Fine particular matter is even more fine particular matter is even

[58:38] more microscopic and studies have shown it linked to dementia. Particulate matter comes from smoke,

[58:48] brownfield dust, combustion of diesel generators, contributes to asthma especially in children when

[58:56] their lungs are still developing, COPD, heart and lung disease and premature mortality.

[59:03] And then the wind can blow at hundreds of miles. So it's not just Adams town, it's all a

[59:10] Frederick County. We're also celebrating the General Assembly's quashing of Morse Vito of Senator

[59:16] Young's Data Center Study Bill but it won't be finished until September. I don't know how much of

[59:22] the bill covers impacts to human health. I'm emailing her tomorrow and so should all of you.

[59:33] By September, hundreds, if not the 1,000 diesel generators will have been installed and up and running

[59:40] unless we can convince MDE to not approve the permits, there are options, regardless, 168

[59:48] have already been approved. September is just in time for local elections.

[59:56] I was thinking about what my-

[1:00:00] Taxes pay for the other day other than Frederick County Public Schools. There's fire and EMS if they're not servicing the data center and the sheriff's department in case of assault or robbery.

[1:00:13] Well, I've been assaulted by the data centers with light pollution, noise, heavy traffic overrun by wildlife, which I don't really mind.

[1:00:23] I've been robbed of viewshed, peace and quiet, night skies, property value, my well, and soon to be clean air.

[1:00:33] I've been robbed of my life, my well-being, and liberty, liberty to live without fear and property value.

[1:00:42] There's something about that in the 14th amendment. I live in fear of what's to come 24-7, noise above that of a dishwasher, diesel spill, vibration, fire, explosion.

[1:01:01] I'm afraid to live in my own home. Just 500 feet from Amazon.

[1:01:09] Thank you. Anyone else?

[1:01:15] Seeing none, we'll go to the phone, didn't he on the phone lines?

[1:01:20] Then we will close public comment. At this point we will move to county council comments, council member McKay.

[1:01:27] I'll just say that thank you all so much for spending so much time with us these last two evenings and all at all the other meetings that preceded it.

[1:01:43] Your voice, your time, your effort does matter.

[1:01:46] I hope you like the decisions that are made up here. I'm saying what about that.

[1:01:57] That doesn't mean that your time was not well spent. This is the process. This is how we're supposed to make these decisions.

[1:02:09] I've been on the other side of the day as many times. That's the path that led me here.

[1:02:17] It always feels like you're up against both the government and the money interests and it's hard and it's draining and it's frustrating and it's angering and yet you keep coming back because you have to.

[1:02:34] Thank you for that.

[1:02:39] Thank you, Mr. President. I'd also like to thank everybody who came here tonight and last night for so long. Many people.

[1:02:47] Public speaking for the first time. It's not easy, but everybody's been passionate, rightfully so about what they believe in.

[1:02:55] We have, as the sheriff said, difficult choices ahead of us. We have competing and conflicting interests.

[1:03:03] And we've referenced before how we're sort of flying the plane while we're building it. We're also trying to come up with the flight plan at the same time.

[1:03:11] We're starting out with data centers as an approved use and we have to figure out how we're going to navigate that.

[1:03:17] We've had temporary pauses on applications for that use. We can't continue to do that. We have to come up with a framework of how we're going to move forward with this industry that was approved.

[1:03:29] We've had many other factors that are we've got these timelines that are not even.

[1:03:35] We have the governor, the override of the governor's veto for a data center, a comprehensive data center study, as was just mentioned.

[1:03:44] That is coming as was mentioned in September, hopefully.

[1:03:48] We have timeline changes in the technologies that we've talked about when we in the data centers workgroup.

[1:03:55] The big concern was cryptocurrency. That has changed over into artificial intelligence. Who knows what's coming after that?

[1:04:03] So we're trying to capture good regulations when we have different timelines.

[1:04:12] We have timeline changes in power supply possibilities. Right now we're using diesel generators. That could change.

[1:04:20] We read about new technologies every day. Battery storage on the horizon didn't talk about it in the data centers workgroup.

[1:04:26] We have changes in the supply to the data center that data centers themselves in the during the data center workgroup.

[1:04:35] We didn't talk about onsite nuclear was another thing like AI.

[1:04:40] Oh, no. That's crazy. That's not as crazy.

[1:04:45] We read stories about data centers and how the technology is progressing every day.

[1:04:50] And finally, we have to measure and balance landowners rights versus impacted residents.

[1:04:59] That's not something that we can escape. And we have to try and strike the best balance that we can.

[1:05:04] And as has been said by others, I believe everybody up here is working towards trying to find the best balance for the community for everybody to move forward with this industry.

[1:05:16] So again, sincere thanks to everybody who has been with us all throughout this process, this years long process at this point.

[1:05:27] Thank you for your time. And I will agree with council member.

[1:05:32] I hope you can understand and accept and hopefully live with and understand the choices that we have to make better before us. Thank you.

[1:05:43] Thank you, council member.

[1:05:47] Thank you. I wasn't originally going to talk about data centers because I like to get my remarks together.

[1:05:54] I'll mention a few things since that's what we seem to be interested in at the moment.

[1:05:59] I know that seems odd, but I'm not a great ex-temporaneous speaker on things like this. I never heard of a data center until like five years ago.

[1:06:07] I didn't. We were in the middle of COVID and that's when I first heard of them when somebody came to us and what's a data center.

[1:06:13] It's a technology of later adapters of technology than you have me. Okay.

[1:06:18] My car in the parking lots, it's got a clutch in it. Okay. I mean, my truck is 20 years old. I, you know.

[1:06:26] Yeah, other than online banking, I can't think of a single great thing that technology has brought me in my life.

[1:06:36] I can't call my kids anymore that texting my head at time. I mean, God, it's awful. I teaching school, I like kids to me were the same but good grief.

[1:06:47] You know, they got attached to their phones and it just kind of messed them up socially and COVID made it just kind of accelerate.

[1:06:54] So we're bouncing out of that now.

[1:06:57] Yeah, I was really concerned about cryptocurrency. I'm still concerned about cryptocurrency.

[1:07:03] It seems like a big shell game to me, but, you know, someone is going to get rich off of it before, but it's broke.

[1:07:10] AI.

[1:07:13] Well, you have one planet. I don't know why we're rushing to blow it up. I mean, why?

[1:07:18] It's a nice place. We have here. You're looking around.

[1:07:21] It's a nice place. And it's a nice county.

[1:07:23] So we have a little richer every time. So what? I just completely baffles me.

[1:07:33] I would be the worst head of the tech council ever, right? I mean, there's our tech council president. I would be the worst, right?

[1:07:43] So I'm going to prepare for next week. I would personally like to limit this as much as possible.

[1:07:50] But I'll prepare better remarks for next week. I represent the people of Adam's town. That's my district.

[1:07:57] We can't seem to ever get away from doing things in district one.

[1:08:01] It's like a magnet metal kind of effect.

[1:08:04] Last time we were all gathered here, I think it was for the sugar loaf plan.

[1:08:09] And there was a monoxy river plan, at least half of it's in district one. I don't know what's coming next. I'm really hoping it's something nice in district five.

[1:08:19] But in any place, I'd like to just make a few other remarks that I did prepared. It was kind of important to us.

[1:08:26] We were at Wintermaco and as was mentioned last night, MC was sworn in as president. That is a very big deal.

[1:08:33] Kudos to her that she's the headperson of all the counties. This is a big deal.

[1:08:38] I can't emphasize that enough and she'll be quite busy in the next year.

[1:08:46] Especially planning the biggest political convention in the state of Maryland next summer where everybody goes.

[1:08:53] U.S. Senators go congressmen go state people go and county people go and city people go.

[1:08:59] I never went to a couple years ago. It was kind of amazing.

[1:09:03] I went to a lot of meetings down there because I do go to try to learn and I went to meetings on blueprint and I went to meetings on considering school construction.

[1:09:14] And I got to meet with Mr. Alex Donahue and he is the head of the Interagency Commission, what people refer to as the IAC.

[1:09:20] And he was very praiseworthy of how Frederick County government and FCPS work together with the state on school construction issues.

[1:09:32] So I want to salute the people in administration. Previously, Janet speaking a lot of that.

[1:09:37] So I have to have to mention her. She was on the blueprint committee that spoke.

[1:09:42] He thought that Frederick County was really a model for school construction in the state of Maryland.

[1:09:48] So I like to pass along compliments when they're due to people. I have to pass that along to the administration, the leadership at FCPS for what they did to make that happen.

[1:09:58] That's something I'm very interested in. I did the the impact fee bill.

[1:10:04] And Steve was co-sponsored with that and then I co-sponsored his bill on mitigation fees because I really want to get schools built.

[1:10:11] But in the end, it's what problem you want to solve. Then every time you add a fee, people complain that all you've added fees. Now the cost of housing is going up. So where's affordable housing? I just decide to pick a problem.

[1:10:25] Because you can't solve them all once. It's just not doable.

[1:10:28] So anyway, again, congratulations to MC. Congratulations to the staff here and thank you. And I'll have more to say next week about that centers.

[1:10:37] I know how much Madam President loves to hear about it. So I'll congratulate MC as well. It just further solidifies the federal county leads in the state of Maryland.

[1:10:51] I also want to congratulate the new Frederick City Council members. I look forward to working with them and with that I go back.

[1:11:00] Council member, can you get air? President, Madam Council, can you get air?

[1:11:05] Thank you. I appreciate this kind of words. I really do. Yes, I was honored to be sworn in as the President of Maryland Association of Counties.

[1:11:16] It is something that I've been working towards not necessarily towards that, but I've been working with the folks at Makeo for 11 years now.

[1:11:25] And yeah, they put on a outstanding conference, both in the winter and the summer, like Council member McDonald, I went to numerous panel discussions.

[1:11:40] I'm including on energy. I know that was the prize of you. We had a discussion on energy battery storage just FYI. We're not quite where we need to be for battery storage, even though I do know that many of the folks who are interested in

[1:11:55] in data centers are looking at that as an alternative to diesel generators. We're just not there yet.

[1:12:03] There has been discussions about small modular nuclear reactors, but we're even further away from those than we are for battery storage.

[1:12:13] We had discussions about data centers. I know that's surprising, but that was a very well attended panel discussion because the entire state of Maryland.

[1:12:26] I believe just about every county is looking at something to do with data centers and they're all watching what we're doing. So that's what pressure on you guys, but they're all watching what we're doing.

[1:12:36] We had a discussion on APFO, highway user revenue. I had a meeting with the governor and we did talk about data centers and I in our conversation encouraged him to go ahead and let the data center study move forward because I've never been afraid of studies because there's always something that can come out of a study that you can use later on.

[1:13:02] So thank you very much for making that, making, you know, being part of my celebration down there for 11 years of work.

[1:13:12] I just wanted to highlight a couple of things. Again, thanks to all the people that came out both yesterday and hung with us.

[1:13:18] Whether you hung with us to the end or you hung with us as long as you could, like Councilmember McKay, I have been on that side of the day.

[1:13:26] When Mr. Dean said he knows many of us, he and Mr. Natelli and Mr. Soter and I haven't always agreed on growth issues in Frederick County.

[1:13:40] So, but we do actually listen to everything you're saying and we do try and find some kind of a compromise or a way to meet part way in the middle and so we appreciate you coming out here and having that time with us so that we can hear the concerns that you that you're facing.

[1:14:04] Yes, change is very hard. I have lived in this county for many, many, many, many years more than I would like to think about.

[1:14:16] We moved here in 88. I raised all my children here. My children have gone through the Frederick County Public Schools and so I've seen a lot of change.

[1:14:27] I remember when Mr. Natelli was building Urbana and the folks from Urbana that were coming out and it was pitchforks and you know, torture is time and I remember when we were being built and I remember when the Tuskora area was being built and Ballinger Creek was being built and so I've seen a lot.

[1:14:46] But what I do have to say is it concerns me greatly when I hear people in the public embrace misinformation as if it's fact.

[1:15:00] So like we can all have opinions, but there's only one set of facts. And when I hear that people are

[1:15:09] likening the emergency generators to a local motive, I have a problem with that. Because

[1:15:18] a local motive is huge. These generators, while they're big, they are not the size of a

[1:15:24] local motive. A local motive is between 50 and 70 feet long. These generators are about 20 to 25 feet long.

[1:15:34] A local motive is 10 to 15 feet wide. These generators are about 7.5 to 8.5 feet wide.

[1:15:43] A local motive is 12 to 17 feet high. These generators are 8 to 11 feet high.

[1:15:51] Although my ceilings in my living room are not, they're only 8 feet high. If I got a couple

[1:15:56] of more feet up there, I could fit two of these things in my living room. And my house is not a large house.

[1:16:02] So I'm saying, while I understand the concern about the generators, they're not the size of a local motive.

[1:16:09] Also, I happen to notice that there has been a lot of talk about the fact that they're only tier two generators.

[1:16:17] That is not correct. This council put in place in our legislation that these generators have to meet the standards of tier four,

[1:16:26] which means a much more restrictive amount of emissions standards that they have to meet.

[1:16:35] Every generator that is down there that has been installed thus far or will be installed must meet tier four or tier four standards.

[1:16:45] EPA allows tier two in Frederick County we require you to meet those tier four standards.

[1:16:51] So I get it. It's a concern to you and I understand that and we're going to try and address some of those concerns again on next week.

[1:16:59] As we discuss whether or not to expand this overlay and the growth area.

[1:17:04] But I really have to insist that we all deal with the same set of facts and that people sitting on this day is

[1:17:11] are not sharing incorrect or erroneous information with the public because I know it's scary.

[1:17:17] It's scary when growth is coming and it is not what you expected.

[1:17:21] But for people up here to share information as if it's fact when it's not really as my grandfather used to say,

[1:17:27] I'm just going to ask that we all keep facts in our conversation.

[1:17:35] I want to just put that out there.

[1:17:38] I do appreciate people coming in here because we are trying to try and meet you guys halfway.

[1:17:44] But at the same time we got to deal with facts.

[1:17:47] So with that, I'm just going to say I have a couple of things to put out but I can wait until next week to do it about what's going on in the community

[1:17:54] as we move forward with celebrating the holidays and so I yield back.

[1:17:58] Thank you.

[1:17:59] Thank you, Vice President.

[1:18:00] Thank you, Mr. President.

[1:18:01] And thank you to everyone for showing up sharing your voice and your perspective.

[1:18:05] It does really matter and it's important to the decisions that we make.

[1:18:09] Let no mistake that no one up here here I believe everybody is up here because they care deeply about this county and about the place that we are so lucky and blessed to call our home.

[1:18:20] And so we are doing everything to the best of our ability to make sure that this place is as beautiful as it can be for future generations.

[1:18:27] And that means we're going to make difficult decisions from this dies and we're going to have tough conversations at this dies.

[1:18:34] But an important piece of the puzzle is that no matter what decision happens up here that you all continue to show up,

[1:18:40] you continue to ask the tough questions and we continue to have these difficult conversations because that's very important and that's a part of our democracy.

[1:18:47] And what I will say to our council president and leadership we didn't think about this but the fact that sheriff Jenkins is in the room tonight I think speaks volumes.

[1:18:56] And while I don't always agree with the sheriff I think his presence here tonight should have happened during a workshop and so that we could have had their dialogue back and forth and so sheriff thank you.

[1:19:06] And we'll take ownership of not inviting but we appreciate you for being here because I think that really adds substance to the conversation and I apologize to the public that it's so late in the game.

[1:19:16] Also this process has been one up in my opinion as long as I have been on this dies has been one of the most.

[1:19:28] We have had the most public participation in this process not just last night and tonight but throughout I think the two years or four years I wasn't here four years ago but the two years that I have three two and a half years that I've been sitting up here the most public participation.

[1:19:43] And so to the members of the public who feel like they weren't invited to the table soon enough again I'm not sure where the ball was dropped but we will take ownership of that and we appreciate you coming in even at this point in the game to have those conversations.

[1:20:00] Earlier today I sat and I started making a list of folks who worked at East Alco so I can reach out folks in the community that I know and so I think of names and a lot of them were now going on bill hall who worked there.

[1:20:14] I think of League Wars a number of folks who that I can reach out to and say hey look Earl Robbins who is still around one of my mentors.

[1:20:24] And so Mr. Robert I will be reaching out to have a conversation so I'm glad that you were here and that you shared your comments on tonight and again to everybody.

[1:20:31] Thank you for showing up continuing to show up and as the sheriff said we got a tough decision.

[1:20:38] Thank you.

[1:20:39] Thank you Mr. Vice President.

[1:20:40] I know I'm going to share a lot of events there to I'm not going to share one there because I think it is very special.

[1:20:46] Recently was over at the Mental Health Association where they recristened the mental health crisis vehicle.

[1:20:54] This was a program that was run through a private vendor and they ended that contract and we put it back out in our mental health association of Frederick County has taken that over and I know they work well.

[1:21:06] With our law enforcement partners with our emergency management partners to provide a service that when somebody's in crisis they have the help that they need there to get through it.

[1:21:18] I do want to make a few comments about the process and about yesterday and today.

[1:21:24] I do thank everyone that came out and I do thank Mr. Dean for your comments about.

[1:21:30] And I want to talk a little bit about some of the comments and I want to talk about from the perspective of I was I've been on a board in listening to the public for actually longer than two of the kelto members up here have been alive and I won't pick which two but for a long time and so.

[1:21:48] I've been in lots of opportunities and lots of heated meetings and I understand people's passions.

[1:21:56] It's unfortunate we have many meetings where there might be one or two people in the whole audience and early on what we said at the school boards if you want to fill the seats cut a program do something that impacts somebody.

[1:22:07] I don't want to say that that's the right reason to do that but most people don't get engaged in any process until something impacts them and that's understandable.

[1:22:16] There are a lot of folks here that have been engaged for a long time. There are a lot of folks like the guys in Brazil. This is the first time something has come up and they've got an extremely involved and they've been at more meetings than I'm sure they would have liked to have been at.

[1:22:29] And there's other younger speakers that we've heard from for the first time and the point that I would like the public to understand is that again all seven of us up here are different people.

[1:22:42] We're different political parties but all seven of us ran because we care about federal county.

[1:22:48] We may do it in different ways some of us have been here longer than the others some of us have different political beliefs but nobody up here ran to sit through all this because they don't care and I certainly am in that category.

[1:23:03] So I just I know there's a lot of negativity about politicians.

[1:23:10] I think that again, just showing some respect that you may disagree with a person's position.

[1:23:18] It doesn't mean that you don't have to be you can't be respectful of that.

[1:23:23] I pride myself that everybody that I work with when we leave here I can have a good conversation with.

[1:23:29] Definitely we move on to the next thing and so stay engaged argue your points.

[1:23:36] Try to present the facts and again I know it's so easy today and it was a little bit ironic or hearing all the folks that were against it that we're talking about that they got their facts from Google.

[1:23:47] Where the young lady that said that she said in the whole meeting and she looked up our histories and that would be another suggestion that please don't share.

[1:23:56] Again, I was very uncomfortable hearing about the vice president's child and where they went to school.

[1:24:02] It's a different society that we live in today and people's privacy needs to be respected and I don't think there was anything the far east about how it was done.

[1:24:13] I think it was an innocent mistake that was there so I asked that but again hearing the comments about the cards that went out from the industry using stock photos.

[1:24:22] The other side use the stock photos of an industry of a power plant that I've never seen in Frederick County that's a stock photo.

[1:24:30] Both sides use their arguments to do their be respectful make your argument use the facts whatever decision we come to next Tuesday assuming that we do.

[1:24:40] We're going to still be here we're still here to listen we still care about Frederick County stay engaged stay involved and we'll be here to listen to you.

[1:24:50] We do have our meeting next Tuesday night we will be here at 5 30 p.m.

[1:24:55] Again, if you have any comments that you like to send to the council, you can do that at council members of Frederick County MD dot gov.

[1:25:02] Or you can call 301-61135 and leave a message to be transcribed to the entire council.

[1:25:11] In my final comment that I did want to add our community walkers all lost an icon last week in coach Dave Miller Dave was so active at walkers all high school coaching.

[1:25:22] But if actually started to pause though he has wife was my wife was my wife's third grade teacher.

[1:25:29] Paul was all elementary they moved up the walkers.

[1:25:31] He got active coach at walkers on many years retired coach did FCC for many years coached council member.

[1:25:40] Frederick City council went on to there the last number of years he's been coaching at shipingsburg up until just two weeks ago and so my thoughts and prayers are with the Miller family and thank you coach Miller you will be forever remember.

[1:25:55] Thank you and with that we are adjourned.

Council Meeting

Agenda

Transcript