[21:00] [music]
[21:04] Are we sure? Can you hear me?
[21:11] » Hello?
>> Yes, I can hear you. Melissa,
[21:17] » can you hear me?
Yes. Okay.
[21:24] » Can you see the agenda on the screen?
[21:30] » No, I can't.
>> What do you see?
[21:44] » I see that webcams are hidden. I think
it's because I don't have the Wi-Fi on
[21:49] for all the webcams to be on. So, I
think that's on my end. But, let me try
[21:52] to get that on.
>> Okay.
[22:12] » Alicia, I see council chambers, but no.
camera and then the podium. So, it's me,
[22:18] council chambers, and podium.
[22:25] » Okay, we're working on it.
>> Thank you.
[22:41] » Wow. Okay. All
[22:47] right. Well, we should still [laughter]
[23:26] I went home.
[23:43] Hey, how's it going?
[24:06] » [laughter]
>> I was thinking
[24:10] » jazz
[24:23] think I just ignored it.
[24:53] something and I have this conversation.
[25:07] Yeah. Yeah.
[25:19] Yeah.
[25:33] I was a little
[25:43] » weekend.
[25:54] My best friend always texts me. She'll
be like,
[25:59] "Thanks for
[27:02] Are all you guys?
[27:18] Alicia, can you ask her if she can see
the screen?
[27:23] » Melissa, can you see something different
on the screen now?
[27:28] No, it still just has the CC for council
chambers and the
[27:34] you know like the P for the podium.
[27:45] » Can you click on the podium one and make
that your view?
[28:15] taxpayers.
>> Yes, they are.
[28:30] Yeah.
[28:50] It says camera camera is off for the
podium and the council chambers, Alicia.
[28:56] So,
[29:00] » okay. I don't think we're going to be
able to change the view. So, you will
[29:05] have to pull up the YouTube feed if you
want to see what's being viewed.
[29:11] » Okay.
[29:49] I don't think so.
[30:02] I call this meeting to order of the
Marshalltown City Council Chambers. We
[30:06] are in City Hall at 10 West State
Street. It's August 24th, 2026 at 5:30
[30:13] p.m. Would you please all join me for
the pledge of
[30:15] » allegiance
[30:21] to the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it
[30:26] stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice
[30:32] for all.
>> Amen.
[30:35] » Thank you. Can we have roll call,
please? Cahill
[30:40] » here. Bonka
>> here. Mitchell
[30:45] » here.
>> Nicholls
[30:46] » here.
>> Schneider
[30:47] » here.
>> Thompson
[30:48] » here.
>> Yep. Gomez
[30:50] » here.
>> Okay, moving on to public comments.
[30:55] Members of the public may make comments
on any item that is not on the agenda at
[31:00] this time. The speaker shall approach
the microphone and state their name and
[31:04] address. Comment shall be limited to
three minutes unless a longer comment is
[31:09] authorized by the mayor. [clears throat]
The speaker shall direct comments to the
[31:14] mayor and council as a whole. The mayor
and council may not provide a response
[31:19] to a public comment, but shall shall not
engage in discussion or debate items
[31:26] raised by members of the public. No
action may be taken on items raised in
[31:30] public comments to comply with Iowa's
open meeting laws. With that, the
[31:35] microphone is open.
[31:46] Hello, Lane period 20 East State Street.
Uh, believe it or not, I did not set out
[31:50] to wage a holy war on data centers. I
just wanted to make sure the community I
[31:53] live in was protected and considered
before a major development took place.
[31:57] That's all. But the amount of push back
I have received from council members and
[32:00] from organizations invested in these
projects has been disheartening and
[32:04] unexpected. I'm not the type to walk
away though. I care about this town and
[32:08] I hope we can work together to make
Marshalltown the best it can be for
[32:10] everyone who calls it home. The public
asked for a moratorum because we needed
[32:15] time to understand what data centers
meant for Marshalltown. Since then,
[32:18] public pressure has only grown. And now,
before the moratorium is finished,
[32:22] before planning and zoning presents a
final draft, before the public gets to
[32:26] attend the city hosted round table,
we're having a data center developer
[32:29] present a project. This is happening
before the rules are written, before the
[32:33] public process is complete, and before
the moratorium is active. That does not
[32:37] look right. It does not feel right, and
it does not build trust. Edgewood is
[32:42] inside city limits. The land being
discussed is city-owned. when a
[32:45] developer presents a project and
>> public comment is for things that are
[32:50] not on the agenda.
>> Okay.
[32:52] » And these are on the agenda. So if you
have something other than something
[32:56] that's on the agenda. [snorts]
>> Yes.
[33:01] Right now the public is seeing a lot of
things that look like decisions are
[33:04] being made behind the scenes. The only
expert the city has had speak at council
[33:07] meetings so far has been Align Energy's
lead community engagement consultant for
[33:11] data centers, Kylie Miller. He has
spoken at length at both council and
[33:15] planning and zoning. He is not a neutral
party. His job is to promote data center
[33:19] development. The public has not yet
heard from independent experts,
[33:22] environmental experts, infrastructure
experts, or anyone who is not directly
[33:26] tied to the industry. Our Marshalltown
Area Chamber of Commerce, which is also
[33:30] the city's contracted head of economic
development, has their branding and
[33:34] contact info on a data center
development packet that was found on
[33:36] their website. This was at the same time
that we were told there were no real
[33:40] proposals or plans. He has also helped
launch a new organization growing Iowa's
[33:44] economy to publicly advocate for data
centers both online and in printed
[33:48] media. Councilman Snyder spent almost
$3,000 on a full page color ad in the
[33:53] Times Republican insisting that those of
us with concerns are making mountains
[33:57] out of mole hills. And yet I can count
on one hand how many residents have told
[34:01] me they have no concerns. The local
government works for the residents. All
[34:04] of us. Not just the people who want this
project. Not just the people who are
[34:08] excited about data centers. not just the
people who have already made up their
[34:11] minds. We need a process we can trust.
We need transparency and we need
[34:15] honesty. And we need to slow down enough
to make sure that Marshalltown's future
[34:19] is shaped by the people who live here,
not by outside pressure. Thank you.
[34:23] » Thank you, Lane.
[34:28] Anyone else?
[34:33] » Maggie Valentine, 2345 Whispering Oaks
Road. Um, I [clears throat] just want to
[34:38] just last time, um, I think some people
were a little bit confused about what
[34:41] items we'd be allowed to speak on and
which ones we wouldn't be allowed to
[34:44] speak on. Um, so I just wanted to ask
right now so that I'm not confused and
[34:48] don't miss the chance. Um, are the
discussion like Jay, the discussion
[34:51] items, are we going to be allowed to
comment on those tonight?
[34:55] » We will be.
>> Yes. That's why the public comment is
[34:58] held for things that are not
>> just there was just confusion about
[35:01] whether or not we would need a motion to
be allowed to speak on those items or
[35:05] not. So just
>> I will ask for public comment.
[35:07] » Thank you.
[35:10] » Anyone else?
[35:15] » Okay, we have
mayor, councel, and administrator
[35:20] comments. Does anyone have anything?
>> Sue,
[35:26] » thank you, your honor. I I this slipped
my mind the last meeting that we were
[35:31] here, but a friend of mine who had
commented several times on um the fact
[35:36] that we were spending some, you know,
spending some money on the bridge on the
[35:40] other items, but she said during RagBry,
her adult children who live in larger
[35:47] cities outside of Iowa came back and
that they were floored at how well
[35:55] Marshall Town presented itself.
between the um aquatic center, the water
[36:00] plaza, the the biking bridge, the um
Franklin Field, the downtown plaza. She
[36:07] said she had to she said, "I have to
apologize to you because I was
[36:11] complaining to you that we're we're just
doing things wrong." But but she said
[36:15] they really were amazed at how well
Marshall Town looked and the support of
[36:21] the people in it. So, I wanted to pass
that on. Thanks to all of our people who
[36:25] have been involved in all of these
projects that we're working on. Thank
[36:28] you.
>> Okay. Anyone else?
[36:32] Um I'm going to follow up on something
that uh Sue said. Does anyone remember
[36:36] Denise Long?
>> Great great basketball player for uh
[36:41] Union Whitten. Uh I believe it was in
the late 60s, early 70s, something like
[36:46] that. Well, Denise has moved on and and
she ended up being a uh uh
[36:53] pharmacist down in Arizona, but she
still has uh family up here that she
[36:59] comes up and visits every 6 months to a
year. And the last time she came up just
[37:07] recently and walked downtown, she
commented about what an upgrade
[37:11] Marshalltown is, how much it's changed
and looking so much better than what she
[37:15] always remembered Marshall Town what it
was. So I I do agree with Sue. Uh we're
[37:22] getting there.
Okay, moving on to years of service. The
[37:28] police department
[37:34] » [clears throat]
[37:42] » Now he's
>> look so nice.
[37:46] » Hey, thanks.
>> Uh Chris Jones, chief of police. Um
[37:51] tonight we have two opportunities to
celebrate two of our staff members um
[37:55] with some ma major milestones. Um the
first one uh is our five-year milestone
[38:00] for uh Adon. Adon um was our 2023
employee of the year, right? Even with a
[38:08] a little almost two years on the
department, um has really uh kind of
[38:13] turned a tide on on the culture of our
agency. And if you can kind of tell
[38:17] between I know he's not smiling now, but
he has a very infectious smile and a
[38:21] very positive attitude uh that kind of
carries over to to all of our staff. So,
[38:27] part of Adon's duties, uh, he's
currently works night shift, a field
[38:31] training officer for all of our young
people and and specifically picked
[38:34] because of his patience and his ability
to not only uh train others and and has
[38:40] had a background in training defensive
tactics and boxing to to youth. Um, one
[38:45] of the things I'm particularly proud of
is you grew up here in Marshalltown. So,
[38:49] he's a Marshalltown uh native uh that we
were able to to hire. Um he is part of
[38:55] our child seat safety team and can and
and able to use uh bilingual skills to
[39:00] be able to to help families uh better
suit their children in child seats plus
[39:05] uh do help us do outreach throughout the
community. Um, Adon's been a tremendous
[39:11] asset for us and um and throughout his
career has always been a positive um
[39:18] motivator especially working nights at
bringing a positive light to to some of
[39:22] those officers that work overnight. But
um he's a tremendous uh has a tremendous
[39:29] career ahead of him and I want to thank
you for your five years of service.
[39:32] » INDEED. [applause]
[39:38] SPEECH.
[applause]
[39:45] SPEECH. SPEECH.
[39:49] [laughter]
[40:00] OKAY, PERFECT.
>> DAVE.
[40:05] [clears throat]
[40:08] » OKAY, so Dave Dave and I started on the
police department in the 1900s. Yeah.
[40:15] [laughter]
>> Um we are officially um the last 20th
[40:20] century law enforcement officers on the
department. And um one of the um aspects
[40:26] of of Dave is we uh when he moved to
Marshalltown uh from the Iowa City area,
[40:32] » uh we lived in the same apartment
complex uh and same apartment building I
[40:36] guess actually uh and became uh very
close friends in the in the last uh 30
[40:42] years for sure.
>> Um Dave has been on a variety of
[40:46] different areas within our uh agency.
Has been a field training officer much
[40:50] like Adon. um carries an aspect of
investigations and and traffic that we
[40:55] had um had helped pass on to many of the
officers that are sitting in the back
[41:00] here helping to recognize both Adon and
and Dave. Um we were on the SWAT team uh
[41:06] together for for a number of years have
a a number of of stories back and forth
[41:11] which will you you can tell them
privately that's perfectly fine. But um
[41:17] one of the things that uh that he did
and I hope it's a pinnacle of your
[41:20] career is he helped us with our mid Iowa
drug task force for a number of years as
[41:23] an undercover drug investigator. And um
one of the things that I've always
[41:28] valued uh about Dave for sure is he's
always uh been open uh with me and
[41:35] department leadership about changes that
need to be done in the department. when
[41:39] he hears those from staff, uh Dave's an
excellent listener, uh and then he
[41:44] passes that information. So, a lot of
the times employees would be reluctant
[41:48] to maybe come forward to leadership to
to make those changes and Dave's been
[41:51] the spokesperson
um in a very respectful way uh to be
[41:57] able to get some of those changes. And
uh when you take and look back on a
[42:01] 30-year career, it's um there's
countless amounts of things that I can
[42:04] think of uh versus technology and
scheduling uh that we have developed
[42:10] that Dave has um been the front runner
in in making sure that those things
[42:15] happen and and standing behind his
decisions. And one of the things that
[42:18] Dave has always done is if you came up
with a problem, you always had a
[42:22] solution for us to do. And I'm I'm um
very proud of you and your 30 years of
[42:27] service. And um I'm glad you're here.
Thank you.
[42:29] » Thank you.
[applause]
[42:39] [applause]
[42:52] Hey. Uh
Chief Cross.
[43:04] Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor and Council.
I'd like to introduce you to the real
[43:08] fire chief.
[laughter]
[43:11] » This This is, uh, Maria Ramirez, and
she's my and she's my office manager,
[43:15] and she's indispensable to me,
>> and she's, uh, celebrating a 5-year, uh,
[43:22] milestone in service tonight. And I just
I just can't thank you enough. It seems
[43:26] like only yesterday you you uh you came
to the department, but yet it feels like
[43:31] forever because you do such a good job.
So congratulations on 5 years. Um
[43:39] love to have you for as long as you'll
have us. So thank you. [applause]
[43:46] » Yeah.
So we're going to ambush uh we're going
[43:50] to ambush Maria um just a little bit.
Um, I got minding my own business. Your
[43:56] honor, if you permit me, just a little
latitude here.
[43:58] » Um, sitting in my office, minding my own
business, and I get an email from
[44:02] Sergeant Roush from the police
department, and I'm like, "Oh, boy." And
[44:06] it's about one of my employees,
and I'm like, "Okay, uh, who got pulled
[44:10] over or who crashed into something or,
you know, somebody got in trouble off
[44:15] duty and we got to do something crazy."
Uh, but it was none of those things. And
[44:20] the email focused around um a law
enforcement
[44:25] uh interaction um that Sergeant Roush
had to do his business at a local
[44:31] business at a local uh a merkantile
establishment
[44:35] and the people that were involved uh in
Sergeant Rous's business uh the the male
[44:42] part of the uh of the duo, the husband
and wife um had to go clear up some
[44:48] loose ends with um Sergeant Rous's
people and the wife of the the duo was
[44:56] left stranded um with a language barrier
um at at uh out of business.
[45:05] And so Sergeant Rash wrote me an email
and I'm going to give you some excerpts
[45:09] from this if that's cool and then you
can offer some commentary afterwards.
[45:12] Um, so you kind of know the premise of
the setup and we'll call the person that
[45:17] Maria helped Mrs. G. Cool. Uh, I was
unable to clearly communicate with her
[45:23] using the language line to find out why
she was so scared. Um, I was able to get
[45:27] her to agree to come to the PD PD to
talk to Impact through an interpreter.
[45:37] Um, I found out on the way to the PD
that Impact was out of town. they were
[45:41] they were busy doing other things for
other people in other places and that
[45:45] the only Spanish speaking officer on
duty was uh out of service or tied up on
[45:50] something else. So, Sergeant Rash is
dealing with a problem trying to
[45:54] communicate um and trying to help
somebody who's not involved with law
[45:57] enforcement get them stable, get them
home. Um and he had no way to do that.
[46:03] So, he's like, "Well, I'm just going to
come to the PD and we're going to see if
[46:05] Impact can come and talk." So then she
he saw Maria and asked Maria to come out
[46:10] and talk with Mrs. G. And not only did
Maria save the day for Sergeant Roush in
[46:20] getting the the Mrs. G from where she
was to where she needed to be in a safe
[46:25] and stable manner. She helped Mrs. G
figure it all out and become at peace,
[46:33] so to speak, with what was happened. Um,
one of the things that um that was most
[46:39] striking to me about Sergeant Roush's
email,
[46:42] uh, he he says, "In reality, Maria
stepped up and helped Mrs. G in a time
[46:49] where her where her world felt like it
was coming apart. Not only was she
[46:53] willing, but she was incredibly
effective and empathetic on somebody's
[46:57] worst day. Her actions bring credit to
her, the Marshalltown Fire Department,
[47:03] and the city of Marshalltown. So,
because of that email, we I I talked
[47:07] with my command staff and we have a a
policy that we can award um
[47:13] accommodations to our staff based on
performance. So, that's what we're going
[47:17] to do tonight.
>> [snorts]
[47:18] » Um, so we are we're going to award Maria
the certificate of meritorious conduct
[47:28] and and what it what it says is for
exceptional performance in a
[47:31] non-emergency situation providing
exceptional and compassionate service to
[47:35] those in need. And I put the quote from
Sergeant Rous's email underneath the
[47:40] description that she was not only
willing but incredibly effective and
[47:43] empathetic on somebody's worst day. Her
actions bring credit to her, the
[47:48] Marshalltown Fire Department, and the
city of Marshalltown. And that signed by
[47:52] me. And congratulations. We're very,
very proud of you. [applause]
[48:00] You'd like to offer some commentary.
[applause]
[48:05] All right. So,
as a police officer, one of the hardest
[48:09] things you can do is is realize that you
can't handle a situation by yourself.
[48:14] and the other is actually asking for
help. And as I was driving back from
[48:18] this establishment to to uh the PD, it
took me 25 minutes to get this lady to
[48:23] actually get into the car with me. And
as I'm going to the PD, they tell me
[48:27] that Impact's not in town and that our
only Spanish speaking officer is in
[48:31] court. And I'm think I don't I don't I
have no idea what I'm going to do. And I
[48:35] walked into the PD and I saw Maria and I
was like, I don't even know if she
[48:39] speaks Spanish, but I sure hope she
does. [laughter]
[48:42] So, I go in and I I kind of fill her in
as to what's going on. And I explain
[48:46] that I don't have any rapport with this
lady. We had just arrested her husband
[48:50] and she was, if I had to explain the
fear that she was in, it was like a like
[48:56] a four-year-old missing their parents in
a in a uh in a store. Um, and so I I
[49:03] told her that and I said, I I didn't ask
her to interpret for me. I asked her to
[49:07] intervene. So, she actually went out by
herself and talked to this lady and she
[49:10] came back in like two minutes. I'm like,
that was quick. And she's like, "I'm not
[49:14] done yet." She grabbed some some tissues
and then brought them out and continued
[49:17] to talk with her. And she was able to
figure out what the problem was. And
[49:21] that was the that was the biggest issue
that I had, especially using language
[49:24] line is I didn't know what the problem
was. Why was she so emotional? Why was
[49:28] she so distraught? And so, she was able
to figure that out. And at about that
[49:32] time, Impact was able to, you know, show
back up and she was able to interpret
[49:35] for them and they were able to to come
to a a resolution to this this problem,
[49:40] at least for the day. Um, so I I
appreciate that, Maria. It was it was uh
[49:45] um you really you really helped me out
that day. I'd like to say that she
[49:48] helped me out, but she really did. She
helped she helped her out. So, I
[49:51] appreciate that. Thank you.
[applause]
[49:59] » Thank you, Y. I appreciate it. I
appreciate it.
[50:04] » Okay, moving on to the consent agenda.
Number nine,
[50:08] » I have a motion to make before the
consent agenda.
[50:11] » Excuse me.
>> Oh, I have uh I have a motion to make. I
[50:14] let Alicia know that I would like to do
a order of business motion.
[50:20] » Let's Let's do that right after the
consent agenda.
[50:22] » I think it has to be before. No,
>> you do it before.
[50:27] » Okay, go ahead and make a motion.
>> Okay. Yeah. Um, so since I'm guessing
[50:30] most of the people here are for the data
center stuff, um, I would like to make a
[50:36] motion to change items I, J, and K right
after the consent agenda.
[50:45] » I hear a second.
>> I'll second that.
[50:48] » Any questions or comments?
[50:52] » Roll call, please.
[51:00] Mitchell,
>> yes.
[51:03] » Nicholls,
>> yes.
[51:05] » Schneider,
>> yes.
[51:06] » Thompson,
>> yes.
[51:09] » Yep. Gomez,
>> yes.
[51:11] » KL,
>> yes.
[51:14] » Bonka.
[51:19] Pone
[51:26] » one more time.
>> Ponea.
[51:33] » The motion did pass.
>> And our microphones. Now if you just
[51:38] push the button and it'll leave it on.
[51:45] Okay,
that will be moved. So, let's move on to
[51:50] the consent agenda. Item number nine has
been requested to be pulled from the
[51:55] consent agenda.
Can I get a motion to approve? Uh,
[52:02] » move to approve, your honor.
[52:09] It was after the consent agenda.
[52:15] » Second.
>> Any other questions or comments?
[52:19] » Roll call, please.
>> Nicholls,
[52:21] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[52:22] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[52:24] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[52:25] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[52:26] » yes. Bonka.
[52:30] » Mitchell,
>> yes.
[52:34] Okay.
[52:37] Now Steve, do we move to item number
nine then?
[53:00] » No.
Resolution to approve the code building
[53:03] upgrade grant application for St. Mary's
Catholic Church at 11 Westland Street,
[53:07] Marshalltown, Iowa.
>> I hear a motion for approval.
[53:15] » So move.
[53:19] » Second.
>> Okay, let's open it up for discussion.
[53:24] » Thank you, your honor. The reason I
pulled this is I think we need
[53:29] clarification
on just what we're doing with the grants
[53:34] for buildings downtown. Um I'm not
opposed to this, but this brings up a
[53:41] golden opportunity to clarify what
buildings, what businesses, what
[53:48] structures qualify for the grants that
we give out. Um,
[53:54] last year we gave a grant to the Elks
Lodge and they own that building and
[54:00] that was a nonprofit. I apologize for
not catching it then because
[54:06] there are some people that believe these
grants are for taxpaying businesses and
[54:11] that these grants would be recouped in
higher assessments and uh therefore they
[54:18] were the only ones that qualified. Well,
we gave the one to the Elks last year.
[54:22] Now, we're probably gonna give this one
to the church. But in talking to
[54:27] Danielle, and Danielle will correct me
if I put words in her mouth, but the way
[54:33] the grant criteria is written, we say a
commercial building.
[54:39] So, and the the the
[54:45] re the I don't know how to say this, the
determining factor that it's a
[54:49] commercial building is the county's
assessor's office. So, in this case, you
[54:55] know, Elks Lodge and St. Mary's Church,
they're both commercial buildings. Now,
[55:01] where it gets ugly is, and I'm going to
use the Benford House as an example, the
[55:08] Benford House, which is a nonprofit,
it according to the county's assessor
[55:15] site, it is not a commercial building.
It is a residential building.
[55:21] So, so now we're we're we're splitting
some hairs again that some nonprofits
[55:28] qualify for the grants and some
nonprofits do. So I guess I'm using this
[55:34] opportunity that we need to have a
discussion
[55:39] probably not here but later that
we need input from the public
[55:46] um and obviously the MCBD
that are these grants for everybody that
[55:52] has a structure inside the central
business district boundaries because the
[55:58] intent is to make the central business
district look nice or is this truly just
[56:05] for commercial buildings based on the
Marshall County Assessor's website?
[56:11] So, I'm just planting a seed for the
public how they feel about this because
[56:16] these grants obviously are repaid down
the road through, you know, if these are
[56:22] facade grants that later the buildings
would be assessed at a higher value
[56:26] obviously and we would get we would
recoup the money comes out of the tiff
[56:31] zone. So, that's my spiel. Um,
did you want to correct anything or add
[56:38] to that?
[56:45] The only correction I have is I don't
Oh, I'm sorry. Danielle Leakan,
[56:49] executive director of the Marshalltown
Central Business District. Uh, the only
[56:52] correction I have is I didn't know what
definition to utilize for commercial
[56:57] when processing this grant. So
commercial, does that mean for profofit?
[57:03] Well, I was aware of the precedent of a
nonprofit previously getting a grant. So
[57:07] that obviously does not mean that. So
then it's well does city code define
[57:12] commercial? No, there is no definition
in city code of what commercial is. And
[57:16] so there was just a lot of conversation
around bringing this grant application
[57:20] forward and I could not find any reason
not to. It felt like it complied with
[57:24] everything that was stipulated. Um but
councelor Thompson did raise a good
[57:28] point that Benford House operates
commercially as a nonprofit, but they
[57:34] are they are classed as residential by
the county assessor site. And so it's
[57:38] really just seeking some clarification
about who's eligible and who isn't. Um,
[57:47] does anyone else have anything on this?
[57:52] » I do agree at a later date we probably
need to uh clarify that.
[57:59] » Yes.
[58:07] Mark Eaton, 107 South 10th Avenue.
As Gary has as Mr. Thompson has uh
[58:14] pointed out, this is tax increment
finance money which comes out of the
[58:18] general fund which has a hole in it. And
in my opinion, we shouldn't be doing any
[58:24] facade grants. But um that's just my
opinion. The other side of it is a
[58:30] nonprofit. We've stopped we we are we
are working hard to stop giving taxpayer
[58:38] money to nonprofits.
[cough and laughter]
[58:42] You are basically forcing the taxpayer
to give a donation to a nonprofit
[58:48] because they don't pay property taxes.
And I think there should be enough
[58:53] investors in the community to support
the nonprofits.
[58:59] We have stopped giving money to the MAC
building. Um, yes, we give money to the
[59:03] art alliance, but that's because they're
under contract to do work. Yes, we give
[59:08] money to the chamber because they're
under contract to do work,
[59:13] but we shouldn't be giving non taxpayer
money to nonprofits. Thank you.
[59:22] I I would just chime in that, you know,
whether a property qualifies as
[59:27] commercial or not is going to be a legal
question. And I'd be happy to weigh in
[59:31] on that um in a more private setting
without waving confidentiality if
[59:36] someone uh sees fit to pose that
question to me.
[59:40] » I think that would be wise.
Um, your honor,
[59:45] if we were to have these discussions to
get a better definition for the
[59:50] boundaries of the m the central business
district, how long do you think that
[59:55] would take? I mean, would it be worth
postponing this one until we finish that
[1:00:02] conversation? Because I'm assuming that
we would set that policy by resolution.
[1:00:07] Here we go. I would think a month
anyway. I don't see a lot of changes in
[1:00:15] it.
>> Okay. So, since these grants are
[1:00:18] reimbursements,
there [clears throat] really is
[1:00:22] no reason to
pass this through tonight. They can wait
[1:00:26] a month. They can still do their work. I
don't think they're going to Oh, they're
[1:00:31] not. Oh, come on.
[1:00:36] Danielle Leak, executive director of the
Marshon Central Business District. They
[1:00:39] cannot start work until the grant has
been approved. So it would delay their
[1:00:43] project. [snorts]
[1:00:47] » That's one of the criteria we do agree
on. Yeah.
[1:00:52] » Okay. Is there any other questions or
comments?
[1:00:59] » Just what one more comment.
>> Okay.
[1:01:01] » If I may.
>> Yes.
[1:01:04] Um
what makes this really interesting the
[1:01:08] way the central business district is
is uh defined
[1:01:14] my house is in the boundaries of the
central business district where I rent.
[1:01:20] So under the current rules
my landlord
[1:01:27] could possibly get a grant to fix his
rental property.
[1:01:31] I think you had to fix your van first,
actually.
[1:01:36] » And I want to thank uh Officer Powell
and the chief for not reminiscing about
[1:01:43] their time together in my van.
[1:01:48] Okay,
>> Mr. Mayor, I have a question for Steve.
[1:01:50] So, Steve, would you recommend us to
vote no on this and then just get
[1:01:55] clarification on commercial
[1:01:59] » postpone it or
>> I guess it depends on if folks think
[1:02:04] they need
[1:02:07] » would one month be you know for for one
month to get clarity on what commercial
[1:02:13] is would that affect the church.
[1:02:20] » Given that this is an outdoor
construction project and it's already
[1:02:24] August, I would say yes, that would
negatively impact their project.
[1:02:28] » I mean, I feel like they applied under
good faith as the rules currently exist.
[1:02:33] Okay.
>> And I think if you want to change the
[1:02:35] rules, I think that's
>> that's a conversation we can have, but I
[1:02:38] don't think we should change the rules.
>> Okay. now for this application
[1:02:44] » and I think I can weigh in just on a
pretty shallow level without reviewing
[1:02:49] any of the other grant applications or
materials. Generally a property whether
[1:02:54] it's residential, commercial, etc. is
determined by use and zoning as opposed
[1:02:59] to owner. Um, so if a propertyy's
commercial in nature and zoned
[1:03:05] commercial, uh, whether it's
a for-profit or a nonprofit doesn't
[1:03:11] really factor into that equation
generally. Again, I haven't looked at
[1:03:16] the specific grant applications or
anything that might shift that.
[1:03:20] » And this property is zoned urban core.
[1:03:26] I guess my my own opinion is to move
forward forward with this one, but then
[1:03:31] uh take a good look at uh how how the
wording is and if we should change it
[1:03:38] and bring it back to council.
So
[1:03:42] with that, anyone else?
[1:03:47] Roll call, please.
>> Schneider,
[1:03:49] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[1:03:50] » yes. Yep.
>> Gomez,
[1:03:52] » yes.
>> Kahill,
[1:03:53] » yes. phone. Um, Melissa asked that I uh
vote yes for her. Mitchell,
[1:04:00] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[1:04:01] » yes.
>> Okay, now we're going. Your honor, point
[1:04:06] of order. Do we have Melissa still on?
>> She's listening but can't speak.
[1:04:14] » So, she's going through uh Carol's
phone.
[1:04:18] Okay. Uh moving on to uh item number I,
ordinances.
[1:04:30] » Ordinance 15123 on the amendment to
chapter 156 of the code of ordinances of
[1:04:36] the city of Marshtown, Iowa,
establishing a temporary data center
[1:04:39] moratorium. Second reading.
>> Okay.
[1:04:42] » Move for approval.
>> Second.
[1:04:45] » I have a motion and a second. Would
you like to give us just a quick update,
[1:04:50] Clayton?
[1:04:54] » Good evening, Clayton Ender, assistant
director housing community development.
[1:04:57] This is your second reading on this
item. Uh there have been no changes
[1:05:01] proposed to it since your first reading,
but a quick little synopsis of the
[1:05:05] ordinance is it would establish a
moratorum uh a four-month mortorium
[1:05:10] based on your July 13th meeting date
when you made the original motion. Uh so
[1:05:15] that would go to November I didn't write
it down here 23rd
[1:05:20] of this year. Uh it is there is a
provision included within the ordinance
[1:05:25] to grant the city council the authority
to do a one-time 60-day extension if
[1:05:31] it's found additional time is needed to
study uh study the topic or to process
[1:05:37] any amendments through the legal
process. Um any additional extensions
[1:05:41] beyond that one one time 60 days would
be subsequent ordinance uh review and
[1:05:46] approval. Um happy to go into further
detail or answer questions if needed on
[1:05:50] this. Uh planning and zoning commission
has recommended approval of the
[1:05:54] temporary moratorum.
>> Any questions or comments up here?
[1:05:59] » Mr. Mayor, I I have a clarification. So
I want to make a motion to wave the
[1:06:04] third reading. Is that do I have to do
that right now or after the roll call?
[1:06:09] You can um he can do that now.
>> Okay.
[1:06:14] » After.
>> Okay.
[1:06:16] » Okay. Anything from the crowd?
[1:06:26] » Lane Perry, 20 East State Street.
Hang on.
[1:06:31] Okay. Uh thank you for moving this item
to the start of the meeting. This helps
[1:06:34] make sure the public can speak before
any development talk happens. I support
[1:06:38] approving the second reading of the
moratorium and waving the third reading
[1:06:41] tonight. The reason is simple. We need
the moratorium in place as soon as
[1:06:44] possible. Right now, the moratorium is
not active. Even after a vote, it does
[1:06:48] not become real until it is printed in
the newspaper. Waving the third reading
[1:06:52] shortens that gap. It reduces the time
where a developer could try to have
[1:06:55] something say start something and later
say that they should be grandfathered
[1:06:59] in. Passing the second reading and
waving the third reading tonight gives
[1:07:02] the city the strongest protection. It
keeps the rules fair, prevents loopholes
[1:07:06] and makes sure no development gets ahead
of the process. I ask the council to
[1:07:10] approve the second reading and wave the
third reading so the moratorium can move
[1:07:13] forward without further delay. Thank
you.
[1:07:15] » Thank you.
>> Anyone else?
[1:07:24] » I mean I guess I just want to Oh yeah,
sorry. Maggie Valentine 2345 Whispering
[1:07:28] Oaks Road. Um I guess I just want to
reiterate that. Um, I think I'm assuming
[1:07:34] a lot of people want to just move
forward with the moratorum. Um, I've
[1:07:38] talked to [clears throat] quite a few
people that have absolutely no clue that
[1:07:42] it's not actually in effect until after
the third reading. So, I would ask that
[1:07:45] you guys go ahead and pass the mortorium
and wave the third reading, please.
[1:07:55] Aaron Carpenter, 802 North Fourth
Street. Um, I know last time that the
[1:07:59] waving the third reading did not pass.
Um, but I would like to urge the council
[1:08:04] to use the provision in Iowa code that
allows for this
[1:08:11] exact thing
uh and and put it into use in the way
[1:08:17] that it's intended to be used. Thank
you.
[1:08:24] Doris Kick, 2020, Catalina Place,
Marshalltown, Iowa. I want the extension
[1:08:30] of 60 days. We need that.
>> Second.
[1:08:36] » Anyone else?
[1:08:43] » 31405th Street. My name is Roberto
Gonzalez. Uh, I think passing the
[1:08:47] moratorum is showing the community that
we take care that we care about the
[1:08:50] community. We care about the community
input and what we're trying to do. and
[1:08:54] also showing transparency to the
community. I think that's really good to
[1:08:57] just pass that second reading and pass a
moratorum too and wait the third.
[1:09:01] » Thank you.
[1:09:07] » April long 911 May Street. I would ask
that the council
[1:09:14] uh vote for the second and waving the
third. There's no rush for this thing to
[1:09:20] for a data center to be built. The
people of Marshalltown need to become
[1:09:26] more educated on the risk benefit and
benefits of um a data center.
[1:09:34] So pass the resolution, wave the third
reading, and give the community time to
[1:09:41] find out fully what is in store for
them. Personally, I don't want to see a
[1:09:47] data center in our community. I think
it's a mistake. I [snorts] think
[1:09:53] people are being blinded by the
possibility of quick bucks coming into
[1:09:58] our community. The long-term effects are
not going to be what we hope they are.
[1:10:04] So, please vote no on any data centers
and vote yes on a moratorum. And I would
[1:10:10] also like to see the moratorum expanded
even longer so that there's more time to
[1:10:16] get accurate true information out there.
Thank you.
[1:10:22] Okay,
[1:10:31] » Sarah Neurroth, 20 East State Street. I
honestly, this is the first time I've
[1:10:37] ever come to city council meeting and
this is the welcome. [laughter]
[1:10:41] » Thank you. This is the main reason. I
think that I personally don't see a lot
[1:10:48] of the benefits, but I would like us to
explore it. I would like the public to
[1:10:53] actually get to see both sides of it
because I'm not infallible. you know, my
[1:11:00] what I understand from the research I've
done, I do not think it would be a good
[1:11:06] thing for our community, but I think we
really need to
[1:11:10] take that 4 months to figure it out and
not rush into anything.
[1:11:16] And honestly,
Lane had a really good point cuz I
[1:11:21] didn't realize until last week that the
moratorum was not in effect. So I think
[1:11:28] a lot of the public think that it is
already. So I would really like to see
[1:11:33] you guys just you know approve the
moratorum and wave the third reading.
[1:11:40] Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[1:11:44] Do we have anybody else?
[1:11:49] » Okay,
[1:11:53] » Mr. Mayor.
>> Why is Sorry about that standing back
[1:11:56] there. a little behind the post.
>> Uh, okay. So, Mark Eaton, 107 South
[1:12:01] Avenue. Um, I I I'm in listening to the
community, I'm going to get burned
[1:12:06] either way, but here we go. Um,
the moratorum is not in effect
[1:12:14] until this ordinance passes,
but the clock on the moratorum
[1:12:20] is counting from the 13th of July.
How is that possible? What is the legal
[1:12:30] ruling on this? How are you not
getting yourself in hot water in either
[1:12:36] direction?
[1:12:44] » Um, Clayton, can you answer that?
[1:12:58] uh Clayton, assistant director, housing
community development. Again, uh I was
[1:13:02] the one that drafted this ordinance for
your review. Uh it was my understanding
[1:13:06] from your motion on July 13th that uh
you all thought that was sufficient to
[1:13:12] enact a moratorum and uh so I just based
that uh date off of that four that four
[1:13:19] months off of there uh because the
assumption at the time was that's when
[1:13:23] it went into effect. Legally it hasn't.
But I did put a date certain in there of
[1:13:28] November 23rd, 2026. Uh that certainly
can be that date could certainly be
[1:13:34] modified at the discretion of the city
council with an amendment to the
[1:13:36] ordinance
>> question.
[1:13:41] » So Clayton for the planning and zoning
the big question is is that time is it
[1:13:45] you've been working on this since before
any official passing of the moratorum.
[1:13:50] So is this sufficient time the end of
November for you to get the planning and
[1:13:54] zoning in place?
>> I I absolutely believe it is. I
[1:13:57] presented a schedule at earlier uh
agendas. Um [clears throat] planning and
[1:14:02] zoning commission has already been at
work on this specific topic. They've
[1:14:06] held two work sessions. Uh we have a
community roundt event scheduled for
[1:14:10] this Thursday. I'm going to do a little
plug here for a moment. Uh Thursday
[1:14:15] doors open 5:00 p.m. at the coliseum
second floor. Event starts 5:30. Every
[1:14:20] person's welcome and invited to attend.
Um so planning commission has already
[1:14:25] been at work on this. uh we put together
a schedule that would have a third uh
[1:14:29] have an ordinance in front of the
council and uh ready for third and final
[1:14:34] reading on your November 23rd date. So
that's how we arrived at that date. Um
[1:14:40] but we put in that 60-day addition
recognizing that life can happen.
[1:14:46] » Thank you.
>> Any other questions?
[1:14:59] Sherry Larson, Shady Oaks Road. I am in
the eye of the storm of where the city
[1:15:05] wants to expand and offer has been made
price for my home already. So I Yes, I
[1:15:12] want a moratorum to begin. I agree. I
like the three readings, but I want the
[1:15:17] moratorum more.
>> Thank you.
[1:15:20] » And an extension.
Thank you.
[1:15:30] » Annie Grecip 2125 290th Street
Melbourne, Iowa. I have come to call
[1:15:37] this moratorium Schroinger's moratorum.
It's a lot like Schrodinger's cat. It's
[1:15:42] alive or it's dead.
The mortorium has started. The mortorium
[1:15:47] has not started at this point. If you go
with the November date,
[1:15:53] even if you wave the third reading now,
by the time the ordinance is printed, it
[1:15:59] will be a 10-week moratorum. So, either
change the name
[1:16:04] or live up to the name. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
[1:16:15] » Good evening, Mayor and Council. John
Hall, Marshalltown Area Chamber of
[1:16:18] Commerce, 34 West Main Street. Uh it's
uh my recommendation as well to uh have
[1:16:24] you all um not only pass the the
moratorium tonight, but also wave the
[1:16:28] third reading. Uh if nothing else than
uh preservation of people's time. you
[1:16:33] know, we we are asking uh the same
community members that are are showing
[1:16:37] up here to show up for planning and
zoning to uh provide their feedback into
[1:16:41] that process uh as the uh uh um [snorts]
ordinances and and zoning code are uh
[1:16:48] amended and and made changes. And uh I
personally would rather see uh folks
[1:16:53] have the you know there there's a
limited amount of time that that folks
[1:16:57] have uh spend that time and energy uh at
those efforts recognizing that uh I
[1:17:04] think there's desire to move the
moratorium forward and put it in place.
[1:17:08] uh in addition uh and and maybe this is
a bit a bit selfishly uh get past this
[1:17:14] point of uh a lot of the um concerns and
conspiracies that uh that I continue to
[1:17:20] see particularly on social media. Um you
know, we've got a project that will will
[1:17:25] be in front of you all later tonight. As
Clayton has described at the the last
[1:17:28] city council meeting, there are certain
actions that uh the moratorum uh will
[1:17:33] will prohibit and certain actions that
it would allow to continue. Uh and the
[1:17:38] the major component of that being the
due diligence necessary on on-site
[1:17:43] development uh and planning uh uh
recognizing that any project that would
[1:17:48] come forward would have to meet uh the
new zoning code, whatever that would be
[1:17:53] at the time of of uh it being adopted.
But um yeah, it it would be my hope to
[1:17:59] see the uh second reading passed and the
third reading waved to move this forward
[1:18:04] expeditiously. Thank you. Thank you,
John.
[1:18:08] » Your honor, can I ask for a
clarification?
[1:18:10] » Yes.
>> Um, I know one of our speakers mentioned
[1:18:14] the Shady Oaks area. That is not in city
um limits, is it? The area of Shady
[1:18:21] Oaks. It is county property.
>> Okay. I just wanted to clarify that that
[1:18:26] the city is really not involved with
that at this point.
[1:18:29] » Correct.
>> Thank you.
[1:18:30] » The majority of that land is in
unincorporated county.
[1:18:34] » Thank you.
[1:18:38] Uh Zachary Hamilton, 2250 Shady Oaks
Road. Um to that point, it is listed in
[1:18:43] the reimagined Marshtown project for
future industrial use via annexation. So
[1:18:48] just something to consider. Um actually
what I would like to do tonight is just
[1:18:52] encourage the city as a whole to be
productive during the moratorum. Uh my
[1:18:58] impression of the city council is the
votes would currently be in favor of a
[1:19:02] data center eventually being in
Marshalltown.
[1:19:05] And speaking as someone who could be
affected by one next door, I think the
[1:19:09] worst thing that could happen would be
to bicker and argue and get through the
[1:19:14] whole moratorum and not have any
progress made on our zoning ordinances.
[1:19:18] That would be potentially worst case
situation for individuals that would be
[1:19:22] living next to one. And so I would
encourage the community as a whole to be
[1:19:26] proactive and involved in these
conversations as a moratorum goes into
[1:19:30] effect. Be involved Thursday night. help
make some progress on this so that when
[1:19:35] all is said and done, individuals like
myself, uh, those on the north edge of
[1:19:40] town can be more comfortable potentially
with what the outcome of the situation
[1:19:44] might be as the ordinances are updated,
hopefully in our favor to some degree.
[1:19:49] And so that is my that's my
encouragement tonight. Thank you.
[1:19:53] » Thank you,
[1:19:57] » Lee B, Marshalltown, Iowa. Um, I want to
echo what he just said. Um when Thursday
[1:20:03] arrives, we need to be informed as
citizens and come informed. So with um I
[1:20:09] did make a phone call to Annie to see if
I could print something off. Um we do
[1:20:13] have a data center planning a Hubble
informed roundt handout. It's a
[1:20:17] one-pager with some information on here.
If you want to see us after the meeting,
[1:20:21] please do. It gives us a a basis for
educated comments looking at is this the
[1:20:29] right thing for Marshall 10? Is it not
the right thing for Marshall Town? I'm
[1:20:32] not going to say one way or the other,
but I'm saying let's gain the education.
[1:20:38] Let's gain the knowledge so we make wise
decisions for our future. You guys have
[1:20:42] heard me say this is a legacy decision
we're making. And I'll use um Aaron,
[1:20:47] I'll do the tree thing tonight. Um when
we plant the tree, we plant it for the
[1:20:52] generations, the future generations. I
may not sit under that tree and get the
[1:20:57] shade. I may not pick the fruit, but I
want my children I want my grandchildren
[1:21:02] and great-grandchildren to do that.
That's what this is going to be for our
[1:21:06] community. So, let's be wise. Let's come
ready to go. And I guess I have one
[1:21:12] question for Clayton. Um I'm not sure.
I've been to all the PNC meetings. Are
[1:21:17] we having another round table or just
one round table? Thank [snorts] you.
[1:21:27] The schedule as I presented it to the
council and commission included the
[1:21:30] single community roundt. Uh then we
would have uh first draft of ordinances
[1:21:35] on September 17th and then at the start
of October we would like to do a a
[1:21:39] public open house. Uh that'll be more of
a informal come and go rather than
[1:21:44] everyone stick around for the entire
time. You're welcome to stick around the
[1:21:47] whole time if you want uh but you
wouldn't need to. So I do intend to host
[1:21:52] at least two public open house events.
One being the round table, one being
[1:21:56] more traditional open house.
>> Okay. Thank you, Clayton.
[1:22:02] Anyone else?
[1:22:08] » Thank you.
[1:22:12] » Yeah, my name is Jimmy Lant. I live down
at 610 North 4th Avenue.
[1:22:18] uh this meeting you're going to have
July 27th, August 27th at the coliseum.
[1:22:25] Is that going to explain this whole
thing all about it? All the pluses about
[1:22:30] it, all the negative things about it, or
what's it going to do? Are we just going
[1:22:35] to argue on it? Well, my my concern is
these things get pretty loud and you
[1:22:43] don't have to live next to it. I do.
And I got brother-in-laws that live next
[1:22:49] to wind turbles and they get they get
kickbacks from the wind turbal people on
[1:22:55] the loudness of the m of the of the
noise through moneywise. Am I going to
[1:23:00] get any kickback through this or the
city going to get it?
[1:23:05] I just want to know the positive stuff,
the negative stuff. And I think I'm
[1:23:10] entitled to that as a citizen in
Larstown.
[1:23:14] I've been here 78 years. I'm sick of how
things are being run here. I've been
[1:23:19] trying to get help from this guy, all
these people up here. And they're all
[1:23:25] putting their heads down right now, some
of them. But you know what? Stuff's
[1:23:29] never got done. But I pay my taxes once
a year in September for a whole year.
[1:23:35] But starting this September, it's going
to be six months at a time because I'm
[1:23:40] tired of this. I'm tired of this. you.
I'd like to take all you guys for a ride
[1:23:45] around this town and rent a bus and me
be the talker on the bus and I'd hire
[1:23:52] the driver and show you what a all the
negative stuff is in this town. But you
[1:23:57] guys will not take me up on it cuz I I
offered that once before. One thing I'll
[1:24:03] say about Mayor Thompson and Bobby
Schubert, they come down to Maya area
[1:24:08] and they walked that whole alley all the
way down to the park and they took care
[1:24:12] of things, but then the things got back
just like they are today.
[1:24:18] And I know and Mike knows what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about a
[1:24:21] dumpster that been down there since 2020
and it hasn't been emptied. There been a
[1:24:28] fire in it. The fire department had to
come down and put the fire out. Now it's
[1:24:32] full garbage skin. I'm just sick of how
things are run and people on this data
[1:24:37] center. I want to know the pluses and
the negatives about it. Is that going to
[1:24:42] be taken care of in this meeting, Mike?
Um
[1:24:47] I there's no data center. We're going to
have a presentation tonight on a data
[1:24:52] center. So you'll learn a lot of the
positives probably.
[1:24:56] » Yeah.
>> On it. Um, and what the meeting at the
[1:25:01] coliseum is for is to say, okay, if
we're going to have something in this
[1:25:06] community, it has to have these certain,
we have to set the bar high so that if
[1:25:12] you're coming in, because there is no
doubt in my mind, the data centers went
[1:25:16] into communities that didn't care. And
so the data centers, they just they did
[1:25:23] bad stuff. And it's because the city
didn't hold them to high standards as
[1:25:28] far as even beginning because if you
can't clear our bar, we don't want you
[1:25:33] here and we won't be a you won't be able
to come here.
[1:25:37] » And that's what a lot of the the roundt
discussions are is what's really
[1:25:42] important here.
>> This is such a big topic that to free up
[1:25:47] all you guys, why don't you have a
public election on this if you want it
[1:25:52] or not? Let the people that pay the
taxes make the determination. I know the
[1:25:56] people that pay the taxes elected you
in, but let the people out there. You
[1:26:01] guys can give it up for one time. It's a
big deal. Back when I was a kid, this
[1:26:06] tall, I remember uh John Deere wanting
to come into this town. Want to come
[1:26:12] into this town and they got shot down
from a deal like this. It got shot down
[1:26:18] cuz you know what it's money talks and
the other stuff walks.
[1:26:23] » Okay. Thank you, Jimmy. You're out of
time.
[1:26:26] » Well, you know what I'm saying.
>> I know what you're saying.
[1:26:29] » Why Why can't you let the people of
Martown vote on it?
[1:26:31] » Because
>> because you live in a representative
[1:26:35] government.
[1:26:39] » So, and that's why you elected these
people to represent you is why.
[1:26:44] » Well, they know what I want. I'll be
there at that meeting.
[1:26:48] » Yeah.
>> Okay. Uh
[1:26:52] » I think there's another.
>> Is there anyone else?
[1:26:54] » Yeah.
>> Let's have a roll call, please.
[1:26:59] » Oh,
[1:27:02] » my name is Renee Nodland. I live at 305
North Fourth Street. Um I have my
[1:27:08] reasons. I oppose the data center. Um I
don't know a lot about it. I myself
[1:27:13] would like to be a little more educated
but for reasons of pollution um produces
[1:27:18] heat um for several reasons um I am
against the data centers.
[1:27:25] That's all I have to say.
>> Thank you.
[1:27:27] » Thank you.
[1:27:32] » Anyone that wants to come up and speak,
we're talking about the moratorum only.
[1:27:38] So other side issues do not apply right
now. I just had like a quick question
[1:27:43] about something that was said. Uh you
said something about a presentation
[1:27:46] tonight. Is that something
>> open to the public or
[1:27:50] » when and where is that?
>> It's part of the agenda.
[1:27:53] » Okay. I'm sorry.
>> All right. Thank you. Sorry.
[1:27:59] » Anyone else?
[1:28:03] » Roll call, please.
>> Kahill.
[1:28:07] » Yes. Consea
Mitchell,
[1:28:12] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[1:28:13] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[1:28:14] » no.
>> Thompson,
[1:28:17] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[1:28:18] » yes.
>> Okay. Motion passed.
[1:28:23] » And then I would like to make a motion
to wave the third reading.
[1:28:26] » Second.
>> Okay. [snorts] I have a motion and a
[1:28:29] second to wave the sec the third
reading. Questions or comments?
[1:28:34] Roll call, please. Mitchell.
[1:28:42] Oh, sorry. I need to make her absent.
I'm sorry.
[1:28:45] » She She is no longer able to vote.
[1:28:51] » Does that change the numbers required? I
>> think so.
[1:28:56] » So, point of order. So, 75% of who's
present to pass it.
[1:29:02] » Yes.
>> No, the whole council.
[1:29:04] of the whole.
>> Well, she's not here.
[1:29:15] » Okay.
[1:29:19] » Can we get a clarification on that?
>> He's got it right here.
[1:29:35] It takes six.
[1:29:42] » Everyone clear on that?
>> Yes.
[1:29:48] » Clarify. Was that for the previous vote
or for the upcoming?
[1:29:53] » The wave. The third reading.
>> The wave. Okay. Thank you.
[1:29:59] Roll call, please.
>> Mitchell,
[1:30:03] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[1:30:05] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[1:30:06] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[1:30:08] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[1:30:09] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[1:30:10] » yes.
>> Okay, we waved the third reading.
[1:30:16] Now, we're just going to keep moving
down the ordinances. Correct. Okay.
[1:30:20] Ordinance number two. Ordinance 15124
amending the code of ordinances of the
[1:30:24] city of Marshalltown, Iowa by repealing
section 73.050
[1:30:28] weapons. Second reading.
>> So move.
[1:30:32] » Second.
>> Have a motion and a second.
[1:30:36] » There any questions or comments on this?
[1:30:41] » Roll call, please.
>> Schneider,
[1:30:44] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[1:30:45] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[1:30:46] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[1:30:48] » no.
>> Mitchell,
[1:30:50] » yes. Nicholls.
>> Yes.
[1:30:54] » Okay. Your honor, I make a motion to
wave the third reading.
[1:30:59] » Second
>> comment.
[1:31:02] » Yes.
>> So,
[1:31:05] this is just to comply with Iowa law.
So, this is just following the police
[1:31:10] have offered this to basically get in
compliance with state code.
[1:31:22] Uh Chris Jones, chief of police. Uh yes,
this would put us in line with the the
[1:31:26] state code. Um there would be some um
legal concerns with having an ordinance
[1:31:32] that would be in contrary to the state
code with in relation to we possession
[1:31:36] of weapons on snowmobiles and ATVs.
[1:31:42] » Thank you,
>> your honor.
[1:31:44] » Yes. And I I just want to state that my
no vote on that is just because I don't
[1:31:50] think we should have weapons on there
and I I don't think the state should
[1:31:53] have approved it. So I it's not that I
don't want our police department to
[1:31:57] comply with the state. I I disagree with
the law to begin with. Thank you.
[1:32:02] » Thank [snorts] you.
>> Any other questions or comments?
[1:32:07] » So Chris, that means pull over Sue when
you see her on a snowmobile.
[1:32:14] Any [laughter]
[1:32:17] any public comment? [clears throat]
[1:32:20] » Roll call, please.
>> Gomez,
[1:32:22] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[1:32:25] » this is to wave the third reading.
>> Thank you. Um, yes.
[1:32:29] » Mitchell,
>> yes.
[1:32:31] » Nicholls,
>> yes.
[1:32:32] » Schneider,
>> yes.
[1:32:33] » Thompson,
>> yes.
[1:32:36] » Okay, moving on to ordinance number
three.
[1:32:39] » Ordinance 15125 amending the code of
ordinance of the city of Marshtown, Iowa
[1:32:43] 70.0. 009 vehicle condition equipment
and load by adjusting the percentage of
[1:32:48] window tint allowed. Second reading.
>> Move to approve.
[1:32:51] » Second.
>> Okay.
[1:32:52] » I have a motion in a second.
>> Any questions or comments up here?
[1:32:58] » Comment. Uh, Officer Jones, this is the
same type of thing where we have to
[1:33:02] comply with state law. Correct.
>> Officer Jones.
[1:33:08] » Sir,
>> sir. Sir,
[1:33:11] somebody else is getting pulled over
now.
[1:33:14] » Uh, yes. July 1st, the state had changed
the the tint regulation to be a little
[1:33:20] bit um to allow more people to have more
or darker tint on their windows.
[1:33:27] It's just consistent with the state law.
>> Thank you.
[1:33:35] » Any other questions or comments up here?
Anything from the public?
[1:33:42] » Roll call, please.
>> Mitchell,
[1:33:44] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[1:33:45] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[1:33:46] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[1:33:47] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[1:33:48] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[1:33:49] » yes.
>> I move that we wave the third reading.
[1:33:53] » Second.
>> Okay. Any questions or comments up here?
[1:34:00] Roll call, please.
>> Nicholls,
[1:34:02] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[1:34:03] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[1:34:04] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[1:34:05] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[1:34:06] » yes. Mitchell.
>> Yes.
[1:34:10] » Okay. Number four,
>> ordinance 15126, amending the code of
[1:34:15] ordinances of city Marshalltown, Iowa
130.018
[1:34:19] fireworks to add the permitted time
frames for usage. Second reading.
[1:34:22] » Move to approve.
>> Second.
[1:34:25] » Have a motion and a second.
Any questions or comments?
[1:34:31] Anything from the crowd?
Roll call, please. Thompson,
[1:34:36] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[1:34:38] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[1:34:39] » yes.
>> Mitchell,
[1:34:40] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[1:34:41] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[1:34:42] » yes.
>> Your honor, when Alicia is ready,
[1:34:46] » I'll go slower this time.
>> I move that we wave the third reading.
[1:34:51] » Second.
>> Okay, I've got a motion and a second to
[1:34:54] wave the third reading. Any questions or
comments?
[1:34:59] Anything from the public?
>> Roll call, please.
[1:35:03] » Kahill. Yes.
>> Mitchell.
[1:35:06] » Yes.
>> Nicholls.
[1:35:07] » Yes.
>> Schneider.
[1:35:08] » Yes.
>> Thompson.
[1:35:09] » Yes.
>> Yep. Gomez.
[1:35:10] » Yes.
>> Okay. Ordinance number five, please.
[1:35:15] » Ordinance 15127 to amend the official
zoning map for 707 East Lind Street and
[1:35:20] 205 South 8th Avenue. First reading.
>> Move to approve.
[1:35:26] » Second.
>> Okay. I have a motion and a second.
[1:35:29] Clayton,
enlighten us. Clayton Ender, assistant
[1:35:33] director, housing Canadian development.
Uh, this is a resoning application from
[1:35:37] Marshalltown Company. Uh, they are
seeking to reszone the the two noted
[1:35:41] parcels for the purpose of constructing
off- streetet parking facilities, a
[1:35:45] parking lot um to support their facility
expansions on the east side of South 8th
[1:35:50] Avenue. Uh, the council's previously
seen several other resonings over the
[1:35:54] past but year, year and a half
associated with this. This just a
[1:35:57] continuation of their project. Um the
property is shown on the current adopted
[1:36:02] comprehensive plan as low density
residential. However, the draft plan
[1:36:06] which is up for discussion later on the
agenda does identify it as industrial.
[1:36:11] So should the revised comprehensive plan
be be adopted, it would be consistent
[1:36:16] with our long-term plan for growth in
the area. Um I uh the ordinance does
[1:36:22] include conditions on restricting
certain uses from the parcels. Uh those
[1:36:27] are the heavier industrial type uses um
because we wanted to separate those
[1:36:32] further from residential uses. Uh the
owner has uh agreed to those conditions
[1:36:37] in writing already. Um and that's
consistent with your past approvals as
[1:36:41] well. Uh planning and zoning commission
has reviewed this and has recommended
[1:36:45] approval. Happy to go into further
detail or answer questions if needed.
[1:36:50] » We have any questions up here?
>> Your honor, I have a question for
[1:36:53] Clayton. Clayton, is the um construction
of the parking lot at the cost of the
[1:36:58] business?
>> Yes, there's uh no public money. Okay.
[1:37:02] » Or at least no city money, I should say.
>> Okay. And I know that in the past they
[1:37:06] have had I think on the west side of the
building some um drainage problems. So,
[1:37:12] I assume they'll take care of that too
so it doesn't happen on the east side of
[1:37:15] the building.
>> Yeah, that would that's certainly being
[1:37:18] addressed already. They're doing uh
roadway improvements and drainage
[1:37:20] improvements on on the site.
>> Very good. Thank you.
[1:37:25] » Any other questions?
>> Thank you, Clayton. Any questions or
[1:37:31] comments from the public?
[1:37:35] [clears throat]
>> Seeing none, roll call, please.
[1:37:39] » Thompson,
>> yes.
[1:37:40] » Yep. Gomez,
>> yes.
[1:37:41] » Cahill,
>> yes. Mitchell,
[1:37:43] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[1:37:44] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[1:37:45] » yes.
>> Okay, that passed. And now we're going
[1:37:51] to ordinance number six.
>> Ordinance 15128 amending the code of
[1:37:55] ordinances of the city of Marshtown,
Iowa by repealing and replacing section
[1:37:58] 50.027B
collection vehicles. First reading.
[1:38:03] » Move for approval.
>> Second.
[1:38:06] » I have a motion and a second.
>> Uh yes, your honor. So, this amendment
[1:38:12] would allow licensed garbage and refuge
haulers to use pickup trucks or other
[1:38:16] non-compacting vehicles for scheduled
routine collection while requiring that
[1:38:20] each lency um use at least one packer
truck um and comply with the city's
[1:38:26] existing vehicle sanitation and
containment requirements.
[1:38:33] » Any questions or comments up here,
[1:38:38] » your honor? Yes,
>> I feel that this is a we've talked a lot
[1:38:45] about garbage in the last couple of
years, but I do feel that this is a way
[1:38:49] to um even the plane for our garbage
collection folks. It's something that
[1:38:55] has been done for years and I don't see
any reason to prohibit it now. So, I am
[1:39:02] in favor of this ordinance. Thank you.
>> Anyone else up here? Anything
[1:39:11] from the public?
[1:39:14] » Roll call, please.
>> Schneider,
[1:39:17] » no.
>> Thompson,
[1:39:19] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[1:39:20] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[1:39:22] » yes. Mitchell,
>> yes.
[1:39:23] » Nicholls,
>> yes.
[1:39:26] » Okay, that completes I ordinances. Let's
move to J discussing and the first one
[1:39:34] is finance department review of capital
improvement plan and fiscal year budget
[1:39:39] process changes.
>> Thank you Mr. Mayor. Uh council members
[1:39:44] uh Cole O'Donnell finance director. I
got to get my presentation loaded up
[1:39:48] here.
[1:39:51] Find the There we go.
[1:39:59] [cough] Here
we go.
[1:40:04] » So, again, thank you. Tonight, uh what I
wanted to be able to do is is walk you
[1:40:08] through some of the um proposed changes
uh that we have for both the capital uh
[1:40:13] improvement plan process and the budget
process. Uh what I want to do is be able
[1:40:18] to present it to you before we get into
the um uh processes so that you have any
[1:40:23] questions or uh concerns, we can uh take
care of those ahead of time. Uh so um
[1:40:29] what we did is is we started a review uh
we went through a lean process uh which
[1:40:35] identified some needed changes. Uh what
we found was that data entry was too
[1:40:40] cumbersome. Uh that we also found some
other issues with the CIP as far as um
[1:40:46] how it's set up. Uh so we needed to do
some changes in format and uh data entry
[1:40:52] uh that um are needed. Um we found that
uh uh our uh project budgeting was a
[1:40:59] little too confusing and the way that we
were budgeting with um debt service and
[1:41:05] um donations and grants and other
things. So we wanted to simplify that uh
[1:41:09] so that we could have allocate the
resources and expenses for projects and
[1:41:13] be able to um better have um team
members be able to um enter in and track
[1:41:20] uh those expenditures and those
revenues. And then um because of some of
[1:41:25] the changes that uh we're looking at um
we have a revised budget calendar um for
[1:41:30] you to look at tonight as well.
So again we started with a lean process.
[1:41:36] Uh this involved the finance uh
department public works uh park and
[1:41:40] wreck and administration. It was led by
human resources in response to concerns
[1:41:46] from departments regarding a burdome
entry of data. uh when um our CIP
[1:41:52] software planet moved from access
database uh which is a Microsoft Excel
[1:41:56] database um platform to a web-based
platform. Uh Tyler budgeting codes were
[1:42:02] added to the Marshalltown Planet portal.
Uh I believe the plan was to have Planet
[1:42:07] to import information directly from
Tyler and then Tyler speaking to to
[1:42:11] Planet as well. um this did not occur
and did not occur and as such
[1:42:16] departments were being asked to enter
budget numbers twice. So once we entered
[1:42:21] it into um Tyler they were um and the
project was approved they then had to
[1:42:26] re-enter it into planet
um with multiple departments and
[1:42:30] multiple projects team members became
overwhelmed. Uh the lean process
[1:42:34] identified all the steps in the current
process and looked at ways to improve
[1:42:38] communication between team members and
finance and to modify steps so that some
[1:42:43] were eliminated or modified in such a
way that it became easier for for um uh
[1:42:48] staff to um enter in their numbers. Uh
one condition
[1:42:54] adding pressure to team members is the
development and approval of the CIP in
[1:42:58] this um same time as the annual budget.
So, as you're going through the the
[1:43:03] annual budget, you're they're also
completing the the CIP. Um,
[1:43:09] [clears throat] finance has moved the
CIP development and approval to the fall
[1:43:13] before the annual process begins. Um,
there's some advantages to that um that
[1:43:18] I'll get into um later in the
presentation. As part of the CIP
[1:43:23] development, finance team members will
take a larger uh role in that
[1:43:26] development. Revenues will be entered by
finance unless departments have specific
[1:43:31] revenue sources already identified such
as grants. Projects will be re be
[1:43:35] reviewed by finance and changes
suggested as needed uh based upon
[1:43:40] available resources and funding uh to
keep their balances uh in the positive.
[1:43:45] Um team members uh had concerns about
Planet software and questions its value.
[1:43:50] Uh what we found was the software was
not the problem but the utilization of
[1:43:54] the software was the problem.
[1:43:59] So what you had with planet was a lot of
CI a lot of capital improvements
[1:44:05] uh and that planet was being used to
track projects uh more than to plan
[1:44:09] projects. So in reviewing the current
CIP appeared that there was a list of
[1:44:13] projects but not really a plan as to how
those projects would be funded in the uh
[1:44:17] other than the current fiscal year. the
extra data from uh Tyler to Planet was
[1:44:23] being used more as a uh way to track the
project's expenses again rather than to
[1:44:29] plan for the expenses. Planet does allow
for additional information to be entered
[1:44:34] into the accounts for fund balances. You
can put in all the uh revenues and all
[1:44:39] non-c capital expenditures. A beginning
balance is entered for the first fiscal
[1:44:43] year of the plan. Revenues and
operational expenses expenses are
[1:44:47] projected for five years based upon the
current fiscal year, historical trends,
[1:44:51] economic conditions and some other um uh
economic factors. As projects are
[1:44:57] entered uh the balances uh in future
years change, we can then predict
[1:45:02] predict where for shortfalls will occur.
Um with this information projects can be
[1:45:07] moved to other years, modified in scope
and or additional revenue resources
[1:45:11] identified. Um and the CIA becomes now
has a plan. So as an example,
[1:45:18] where are we here?
There we go.
[1:45:23] It's hard trying to find the cursor
here. There we go. So, as an example,
[1:45:29] um what I have here is the um uh sources
and use and fund detail for um uh
[1:45:39] modified road use tax. And again, I've
entered the beginning balance for um uh
[1:45:45] fiscal year 27, but then I put in uh the
projected revenues for road use tax for
[1:45:52] those five years. So, one of the ways I
looked at it was the state always
[1:45:56] predicts an extra one uh $1 per capita
per year. Um, what I found over the
[1:46:02] years is that $1 is very very
conservative. So, in this case, I put it
[1:46:08] at a$150. Um, it might change to where
maybe I need it at a dollar and a
[1:46:12] quarter instead of a a$150, but I put it
at a$150 per capita. Not a lot. Um but
[1:46:19] what else is also received into
um uh the road use tax fund is uh we
[1:46:26] have sale of fixed assets. So at times
where we have um uh materials or um
[1:46:32] equipment that has served its lif uh
useful lifespan um we get rid of it. So
[1:46:37] we have um that uh there as well. And
then we have a state um road maintenance
[1:46:43] contract. So, um certain state roads
that run through the city limits, we
[1:46:48] have a contract where the DOT pays us um
to do general maintenance, which
[1:46:53] basically is um you know uh snow removal
and cleaning. Uh but we have other
[1:47:01] sources that might be transferred in. So
we uh transfer some in to from uh uh uh
[1:47:08] our employee benefits fund to take care
of the little bit of salaries that are
[1:47:11] within the road use tax. Then further
down you see we start in with all the
[1:47:17] different projects going through the
different years.
[1:47:20] And when we get down to the end we have
other uses. So we do pay out some
[1:47:28] employee benefits. We pay out some
salaries. We pay out um different
[1:47:32] operating expenditures and then um
transfers out for salaries to the
[1:47:37] general fund and transfers to the
insurance reserves. Now you have all the
[1:47:41] expenditures and all the revenues and
including the projects included in the
[1:47:46] sheet. And you see that you have an
ending balance and that ending balance
[1:47:50] carries through to the next year.
So on and so forth all the way down. And
[1:47:55] what you see is that um we start having
a declining balance in the road use tax
[1:48:00] fund. Um so at some point what we have
to do is we have to look at and we have
[1:48:04] to say okay um what are we going to do
to make some changes to maintain a
[1:48:09] certain balance? We're going to have to
change some different uh different
[1:48:12] things in operations or we going to have
to same change some things with capital
[1:48:15] improvements. But again we start
planning so that we always maintain a
[1:48:19] certain level of a um balance in that
fund. We'll be doing that with all the
[1:48:26] other different um funds that are
included in the funding sources that are
[1:48:29] included in the capital improvement
plan. So that there
[1:48:34] is the changes for um this the capital
improvement plan so that we actually
[1:48:39] have a lot more of the plan and not just
CI.
[1:48:44] Okay. [clears throat] So project
budgeting
[1:48:48] um the practice has been to fund uh
projects uh uh for revenue sources. So
[1:48:53] you have a home fund usually debt issues
and then specific grants. When bonds are
[1:48:58] issued the practice has been to create a
fund for the proceeds. In some cases
[1:49:03] large grants awards are also given their
own fund. This is what we call the home
[1:49:07] fund. Other revenues uh could be
allocated to the home fund such as
[1:49:12] grants, donations or capital funds. If
balances in another fund became
[1:49:16] available, projects were shifted from
the original home fund to a new home
[1:49:19] fund. This has led to some confusion and
difficulty in tracking project balances.
[1:49:24] Finances will be creating uh general
project funds. Street projects will be
[1:49:30] grouped into one fund as will bridges,
sidewalks, parks, recreation, uh
[1:49:35] facilities, capital equipment. Uh so
what it is is for example the street um
[1:49:41] projects will begin uh fund 301 when we
create it. Um bridges would might be in
[1:49:47] 302. sidewalks and other things might be
in fund 303.
[1:49:51] Um, if the project is be uh all
allocated revenues will be deposited
[1:49:56] within the funds and will remain in that
funds until completed. If the project is
[1:50:01] to be funded with 1 million uh in bond
proceeds, for example, and $500,000 in
[1:50:05] grants, those amounts will be budgeted
and received into the fund. Project
[1:50:10] numbers will be used to provide separate
accounting of project revenues and
[1:50:14] expenses so that um we can uh again keep
track of those a in a different way
[1:50:20] which leads to the next slide which is
our better tracking uh um uh example. We
[1:50:27] want to be sure that we have accurate
accounting of projects especially uh if
[1:50:31] the project is funded with debts and
grants. Finances
[1:50:35] finance has created a workbook that will
allow for an easy data entry of revenues
[1:50:39] and expenditures. Working with the
reports and tylers, the team was able to
[1:50:43] design budget reports uh that subtotal
by revenue source and expenditure
[1:50:47] categories. So um revenue sources of
course you have um uh use of money and
[1:50:55] property. So it's interest or something
like that, property taxes or tax other
[1:50:59] city taxes. you have um grants and aid
and um so on. Um so we can subtotal by
[1:51:06] those things within those funds and be
able to um enter them within the um uh
[1:51:11] the spreadsheet. You'll see in a minute.
And on the expenditure side, you have um
[1:51:17] uh your wages and salaries, your
employee benefits, um your commodities,
[1:51:21] your um contractual services. Um the
summary page of the workbook will
[1:51:26] provide uh budget to actual figures as
the project progresses and expenses can
[1:51:31] be tracked against the allocated
revenues to ensure compliance with debt
[1:51:35] and grant reporting. So again um I
provided uh this as a uh example within
[1:51:42] your workbook but this is the start page
and here you can anything in the gray
[1:51:47] can be entered uh as far as the project
title the fund the project number fiscal
[1:51:52] year started and the current fiscal year
in which the project is being tracked.
[1:51:57] So, if you have a project that starts in
fiscal year 28 but is going to be
[1:52:01] completed in fiscal year 29, um you
would put in the budget for fiscal year
[1:52:06] 28. Uh and um uh and then when it comes
to fiscal year 29, you put the
[1:52:12] information in for fiscal year 29. Um
the green areas can be is where we enter
[1:52:19] the budget. But then when you go to a
certain month
[1:52:23] then here is where um the project title,
fund and project number are carried
[1:52:28] forward from the summary. So is the
fiscal year and current fiscal year but
[1:52:32] here is where um uh the departments uh
and finance can enter um uh the
[1:52:42] revenues received in the month of July
and the expenditures expended in the
[1:52:46] month of July. And again, those then
would then carry back to the year to
[1:52:51] date and then give you a balance based
upon what is budgeted versus um what has
[1:52:56] been expended or received. So, we're
able to track those projects um working
[1:53:01] with um those uh team members that have
the most projects. Um they've looked at
[1:53:07] this and they think this is a fairly
good idea. So,
[1:53:12] and we'll close out.
Um so the next sheet is becomes the
[1:53:18] budget calendar. So uh the CIP is is
completed in the in the fall as I as I
[1:53:25] said before. uh by completing uh uh my
experience has always been to complete
[1:53:31] the CIP before the annual budget as a an
advantage is completing the CIP is that
[1:53:37] the is that team members know what
projects are are approved and again
[1:53:42] enter those allocations into Tyler
appropriately rather than trying to
[1:53:45] figure out what's going to be approved
during the budget process and then
[1:53:48] entering in Tyler then putting it back
into Planet. We will have Planet. It'll
[1:53:52] be approved uh uh separately through a
public hearing and a resolution with the
[1:53:58] city council. Then um the departments
can then put their uh those capital
[1:54:03] projects into the operating budget
knowing that where the revenues are
[1:54:08] coming from, where the expenditures are
going to. Um, again, it does require a
[1:54:13] separate um uh uh public hearing and a
uh separate approval uh versus having it
[1:54:22] all done at once. Um, I think it's
worthwhile um in that you get to have
[1:54:27] that review um separately. Uh so I did
again put in the budget calendar for
[1:54:33] you. Um hopefully you've had a chance to
take a look at it. I have highlighted
[1:54:38] certain things uh within that. Um you
know a yellow is going to be a council
[1:54:44] work session. Um a um green highlighted
is a public hearing notice and
[1:54:50] publication requirement. Um so if you
have any input on that um I'll gladly
[1:54:56] take it here at the end of the
presentation. Um hopefully again you've
[1:54:59] all had a chance to take a look at it.
So what are u some of the takeaways?
[1:55:05] Well, we have a better process for team
members. Um,
[1:55:09] [clears throat]
we can budget our capital and operations
[1:55:12] without duplication of entry. So, it
becomes easier for them. Uh, we're able
[1:55:16] to track projects through dedicated
funds and, uh, the workbook. Uh, it
[1:55:21] becomes a plan. Uh, so it's better
planning for capital improvements. It's
[1:55:24] a plan rather than a list. Shortfalls
can be predicted and avoided while still
[1:55:28] meeting capital needs and operational
needs. And by separating the um CIP from
[1:55:34] the annual budget, transparency is
increased. The new funds and projects uh
[1:55:39] project tech provide information that is
easier to disseminate and to understand.
[1:55:44] And so with that, I'll take any
questions and comments um constructive
[1:55:49] um uh criticism that the council has for
me.
[1:55:55] I do like all of this, especially the
transparency because after doing I think
[1:56:00] I've been through 12 budgets, it can get
confusing and a more streamlined uh open
[1:56:08] system of doing it helps a lot,
especially on this side of the table.
[1:56:14] » Yeah. And and that's that's another goal
is not only so that team members have
[1:56:18] the ability to um uh have more accurate
and better information to you. It's to
[1:56:24] have that information so that you can
discuss it. You can give feedback to
[1:56:28] team members. The public has an
opportunity to take a look at and
[1:56:31] provide feedback as well.
>> Anyone have any questions?
[1:56:37] » Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you.
>> Okay. Thank you.
[1:56:43] Anyone have any comments from the
public?
[1:56:48] » Okay, moving on to the next discussion
item. Number two is discussion regarding
[1:56:55] potential annexation of 2342
Odessa Drive.
[1:57:01] Clayton
[1:57:04] » Clayton Ender, assistant director
housing, community development. Uh
[1:57:07] Douglas and Michelle Beals purchased
2342 Odessa Drive uh in July of this
[1:57:12] year. Uh this is a property currently
located outside city limits but abuing
[1:57:16] our city limits. They are currently
serviced by Marshalltown Waterworks. Uh
[1:57:21] they have been advised by Marshalltown
Waterworks for them to continue uh
[1:57:25] receiving service from the that utility.
they would either need to annex into the
[1:57:30] city or have city council refuse
annexation of their property for so they
[1:57:35] can continue uh receiving water. Uh
earlier this year uh you did consider a
[1:57:39] request of a larger property along
Odessa at the south end. Uh at that time
[1:57:44] you did refuse annexation. Based on that
past action a few months ago, staff is
[1:57:49] recommending uh that you refuse this
annexation as it is only a single home
[1:57:55] on with really no development potential.
>> Okay.
[1:57:59] » So, we're just seeking direction from
council tonight.
[1:58:01] » Okay.
From the
[1:58:10] » You wanted a motion in the affirmative
to approve and then we'll just vote it
[1:58:14] down. I believe that I believe that's
what we did this the previous time.
[1:58:18] » There she is.
[1:58:25] » Your honor, I move to uh proceed with
annexation.
[1:58:30] » Second.
>> Okay. I have a motion and a second.
[1:58:34] Anything from the public?
[1:58:44] Doug Beals's 2342 Odessa.
I'm I'm I don't know what to say. This
[1:58:53] seems like a ridiculous
>> I agree
[1:58:56] » thing. All I want is water. Don't want
to be annexed into the city. Had to
[1:59:01] apply to be annexed into the city. I'm
asking you to deny that application even
[1:59:06] though I applied.
I'm sure this has something to do with
[1:59:10] rural water. Uh, don't know that for
sure. Guessing that. I'd encourage
[1:59:16] whoever's in charge of this to look at a
different procedure to get water to a
[1:59:22] house that's had water from the city of
Marshalltown for over 30 years. Thank
[1:59:26] you.
>> Thank you,
[1:59:27] » I have a question for Mr. Beals.
>> Yes.
[1:59:34] Um, since you just moved into the
neighborhood, would you prefer we annex
[1:59:39] the whole sit straight into the
>> the uh
[1:59:43] » I would that make you have would that
make you wellreceived with your
[1:59:46] neighbors?
>> I would probably get some push back from
[1:59:48] my neighbors. [laughter]
>> Ed wins.
[1:59:51] » I guarantee the city will get push back
for me if I am annexed in because I want
[1:59:55] my section of the street to receive all
the city services. So,
[2:00:00] » thank you. I believe this is one of
those catch 22s where the water
[2:00:04] department is making sure that um
the city has denied you
[2:00:11] so that they can go ahead and put it in.
So,
[2:00:14] » your honor,
>> yes,
[2:00:16] » this is a a strange situation. A lawyer
that has a loss for words.
[2:00:25] » We better make a note of that.
>> You shall do that, counselor.
[2:00:30] Okay, let's have roll call.
>> Thompson,
[2:00:34] » no.
>> Yas Gomez,
[2:00:35] » no.
>> Cahill,
[2:00:36] » no.
>> Mitchell,
[2:00:37] » no.
>> Nicholls,
[2:00:39] » no.
>> Schneider,
[2:00:40] » no.
>> There you go.
[2:00:42] » No.
>> Been denied.
[2:00:48] » Melissa's back.
>> Melissa's back. [laughter]
[2:00:54] » Where'd you go for lunch? Okay, moving
on. Uh, number three is the Edgewood
[2:01:01] Edgewood Industrial Park proposal. I
believe we have someone here.
[2:01:11] » Your honor, may I say something before
we start?
[2:01:16] » Okay.
[2:01:19] [laughter]
I'm going to go on the record and say
[2:01:23] that
this proposal is about a data center
[2:01:29] and in the intent and the spirit of the
moratorum
[2:01:35] that we should not be having this
presentation tonight.
[2:01:40] » Okay. And I disagree that uh this should
not have been on the agenda.
[2:01:47] Um, I know that legal is going to say
this is about land, but it's about land
[2:01:54] for a data center. So, I just want to go
on the record and say until the
[2:01:59] moratorium's over, this we should not be
having this conversation. Thank you,
[2:02:03] your honor.
>> Yes, I believe you were in the room when
[2:02:07] planning and zoning explained what the
moratorum was and was not.
[2:02:12] [applause]
[2:02:14] » Haven't even spoke yet. You guys were
clapping for me already?
[2:02:17] » All right.
>> In defense of that, your honor, I know
[2:02:21] we could have handled this through a
resolution and it would have been in
[2:02:23] effect, but the city administrator chose
to reach out to legal legal advised a
[2:02:31] [clears throat] ordinance.
So, yes, I know what planning and zoning
[2:02:35] says. I know it's not a 4-month
mortorium. It has an end date. So,
[2:02:40] whenever it goes into effect, I'm well
aware of that. I said the spirit and the
[2:02:44] intent of what was voted on back in
July, the 52 motion, I thought sent a
[2:02:51] message to city staff that the council
did not want to have any conversations
[2:02:56] about data centers.
>> I don't believe it had any wording like
[2:03:00] that in it. But that being said,
>> thank you. Good afternoon. My name is
[2:03:07] Jared Olry. I'm the CEO of UR Energy of
Marshalltown, Iowa at 3001 Cory Road.
[2:03:13] I've been in the utility business for
more than 30 years and more importantly,
[2:03:17] I'm a Marshalltown guy. I was born and
raised in this community and I've had
[2:03:20] the opportunity to build several
successful businesses right here in
[2:03:24] Marshall County. When the Datio hit
Marshalltown 6 years ago, I think you
[2:03:28] can all remember that Oolie Electric, my
business, was uh in front and center. Uh
[2:03:33] we help rebuild homes, businesses, and
communities alongside our friends and
[2:03:37] neighbors. This isn't just a place where
I do business. It's my home. I have
[2:03:42] family, lifelong friends, including
grandchildren growing up here. So, when
[2:03:46] I when I look at the future of
Marshalltown, I take it personally. I
[2:03:50] want to see this community grow, create
good opportunities, and move forward.
[2:03:54] But I also want us to do it the right
way. That's why I'm excited to introduce
[2:03:59] Amir with Swarm Systems. Amir's approach
is different. They are focused on a
[2:04:04] smaller, more manageable AI inference
data center that can fit into our
[2:04:08] community like Marshalltown while being
thoughtful about our resources,
[2:04:12] including water, power, infrastructure,
jobs, and the long-term impact on our
[2:04:17] community. I believe Marshalltown has
the opportunity to be part of the next
[2:04:21] generation of technology and energy
development. But I also believe we need
[2:04:25] to do it responsibly with the community
at the table and with people who
[2:04:30] understand that this is our home. I'm
proud to introduce air with Storm
[2:04:34] Systems and looking forward to seeing
what we can accomplish together for
[2:04:37] Marshalltown and the future of our
community. Thank you.
[2:04:40] » Thank you, Jared.
[2:04:57] » I can bring your presentation up if you
want me to.
[2:05:00] » Uh, yeah. have a clicker
>> and then you can you can just use the
[2:05:04] mouse there on the podium.
[2:05:08] » Oh, okay.
[2:05:13] » This one right here.
[2:05:18] » Heather, can he unplug that HDMI?
[2:05:25] » You want to unplug it from the Duke and
then plug it in.
[2:05:36] This is
[2:05:53] » good evening.
>> Evening.
[2:05:55] » Uh my name is Amir. I'm here from Swarm
Systems and we have put an offer in to
[2:06:00] buy 21 acres of city- owned land out in
Edgewood um industrial park.
[2:06:08] So, this is as uh Gary mentioned our our
intent is to build a data center on that
[2:06:16] property. Um our approach is different
and I'm going to walk you through our
[2:06:22] approach kind of the overall approach of
the industry as of late. why we believe
[2:06:27] it's a differentiated one and why we
think it makes sense for Marshall Town.
[2:06:31] We're going to cover power, electricity
rates, noise, a lot of water, uh
[2:06:37] discussions, not a lot of water use. Uh
we'll go through all of it. We have
[2:06:41] numbers, we have figures. I'm sure
you're curious what it's going to look
[2:06:45] like, where it's going to sit, and we'll
go through all of it today.
[2:07:01] Yikes. All right.
So, we are not here asking for approval
[2:07:06] to build a data center. We are here
asking for approval of a land purchase
[2:07:12] contract to enter into an option to
advance due diligence um and on power on
[2:07:19] land on environmental and on civil so we
can understand what the project actually
[2:07:23] could look like and should look like for
Marshalltown. We are not asking for any
[2:07:28] exemptions to the moratorium. In fact,
we support it. I believe the way
[2:07:32] Marshalltown has gone about the
moratorum is one of the more responsible
[2:07:35] ways I've seen in the country with a
proactive approach to pass an ordinance
[2:07:39] specific to data centers that makes
sense for the areas that apply for its
[2:07:45] zoning. We are not going to request any
property tax abatements now or in the
[2:07:49] future and we have not asked nor will we
ask anyone to sign any NDAs uh as part
[2:07:55] of our process. If any were signed or
were asked to be signed, they were not
[2:07:59] part of our project. It may be for a
different one within Marshalltown or
[2:08:03] Marshall County.
Once the time comes, this project will
[2:08:08] have to go through the zoning process,
the planning and approval process, just
[2:08:13] like any other project would. Regardless
of the moratorum, once it's lifted,
[2:08:17] there's still going to be planning and
zoning in place. we'll have to apply and
[2:08:20] we'll have to go and the project will
stand on its own two feet regardless of
[2:08:23] the purchase option whether it's entered
into or not today.
[2:08:28] So swarm focuses on a different kind of
data center. We focus on about 25 to 75
[2:08:33] megawatts is our sweet spot. The reason
why is we focus on places where power
[2:08:37] infrastructure already exists today.
We're not looking to tap high voltage
[2:08:41] lines and build a gigawatt campus. We're
not looking to plow up a thousand acres
[2:08:45] of farmland. We're usually looking for
under 50 acres of land largely as
[2:08:49] setbacks and buffer areas so we can take
advantage of power and headroom that
[2:08:54] exists today to bring economic benefit
to more communities that either can't or
[2:08:58] don't want to have a hypers scale campus
in their backyard. Our team has
[2:09:02] experienced across 3 gawatt of power
infrastructure and a long history of
[2:09:06] real estate development.
So a little bit about the project before
[2:09:12] we get into it. You may have some
questions of what is a data center. At
[2:09:16] the end of the day, it is a concrete
building with computers in it. It also
[2:09:21] has a lot of power going in because it
it powers the IT systems within the data
[2:09:26] center as well as the cooling systems
both inside and out.
[2:09:31] There's several uses of computing, many
of which we all use today. Could be
[2:09:36] Google Maps, it could be YouTube, could
be Facebook talking about the data
[2:09:40] center in town. It could be um storing
your family's pictures. It could be
[2:09:45] using AI. It could be storing medical
records or anything else. Instead of
[2:09:49] having to carry around a large server
yourself everywhere you go, you can
[2:09:53] carry around one chip on your phone and
the rest of it lives in the cloud or on
[2:09:57] the internet and all those things live
in a data center somewhere. They've
[2:10:01] existed since the 60s. They've been
around for dozens of years. Um and they
[2:10:07] serve our daily lives in and out.
So, it doesn't create physical objects.
[2:10:13] There's not a lot of freight. There
aren't goods being shipped in and out.
[2:10:17] All the signals come in through fiber
optic cables. They go into the servers
[2:10:21] and they leave as basically blinking
lights on um on the fiber without
[2:10:28] many components being shipped in and
out. So, you're not going to see trucks
[2:10:31] at night time. You're not going to see
lots of really any traffic beyond the
[2:10:35] initial construction period. There's no
industrial waste. There's no exhaust and
[2:10:40] there's hardly any emissions outside of
an emergency.
[2:10:46] Now, data centers have been getting a
bad rap recently because of water,
[2:10:50] power, noise, and a few other things.
And it's not without reason. Data
[2:10:54] centers haven't always been built the
correct way. Data centers have used a
[2:10:58] lot of water in the past. In fact, up to
recently, not all the hyperscalers had
[2:11:03] committed to closed loop systems.
Evaporative technologies have
[2:11:07] historically been used for whether it's
steel mills, coal plants, nuclear
[2:11:11] facilities, or anything else. It's an
efficient way to cool things down. But
[2:11:16] it doesn't make sense. It might make
sense to use water to create power. It
[2:11:20] doesn't make sense to use it to use
power. And so the industry has since
[2:11:24] shifted, including our company, as a
commitment to closed loop systems. It
[2:11:29] basically operates like a radiator in
your car. You fill it up once. It's a
[2:11:33] combination of u propyline glycol and
water about 80% water 20% propyline
[2:11:39] glycol and it circulates for about 10
years in a closed system that doesn't
[2:11:43] have exposure to ambient air. It doesn't
leak and it doesn't evaporate. You fill
[2:11:50] it up one time and it just recirculates
inside the chips back out to a fan.
[2:11:57] Basically, a fan blows ambient room, you
know, uh air onto it. It cools back down
[2:12:03] to about 100 degrees and goes back into
the chips. As a result, we will end up
[2:12:08] using, as you'll see on a further slide,
about as much water as a handful of
[2:12:12] homes.
We do not we will not be using any
[2:12:16] on-site generation at this location.
That is the noise that you hear at a lot
[2:12:20] of these data centers. There's a case in
point of someone who might have built a
[2:12:26] power plant without permits in the city
of Memphis. And that is when you
[2:12:30] basically have jet engine turbines
running 24/7. It's incredibly loud,
[2:12:35] incredibly disruptive. And that's what
happens when you basically build a power
[2:12:39] plant to run a data center. Doesn't make
sense in a place like this, nor will it
[2:12:42] happen. A grid tie data center, those
components are relatively quiet. The
[2:12:47] only noise comes from the fans that blow
onto the closed loop systems as well as
[2:12:53] from the generators in the event of
testing or backup generation.
[2:12:58] There's been a lot of discussion about
electricity bills going up and we'll get
[2:13:03] to that in a little bit more detail
later, but largely that happens when the
[2:13:08] data centers are built and the power is
brought to the data centers. A lot of
[2:13:12] capex is spent to bring that
infrastructure out and utilities have
[2:13:17] been somewhat in the past reckless to
create that burden for the rateayers.
[2:13:22] Since the utilities have completely
changed their tune and Alliant is case
[2:13:26] in point of the best way to do it, they
will be the utility provider for this
[2:13:31] project just like at many of your homes
and businesses.
[2:13:35] When the P data center is brought to the
power on infrastructure that exists
[2:13:39] today as it does currently at this
location, there isn't a need to build
[2:13:44] all the infrastructure. Those costs
aren't advertised by the rate payers and
[2:13:48] any costs that are needed to build out
the infrastructure beyond what exists
[2:13:51] today are borne solely by the data
center developer. we'd be posting a
[2:13:55] financial security for anything that
needs to be built to guarantee that even
[2:13:58] if the project doesn't exist only we
could stand to lose any money versus the
[2:14:04] utility or if it rateayers. So what you
may end up seeing in time with the data
[2:14:08] centers paying for all the
infrastructure and maintenance is that
[2:14:11] the costs end up may end up coming down
in time but I understand you're going to
[2:14:15] want to see it before you believe it.
That said, Alliant has frozen utility
[2:14:20] rates through 2029 uh in this particular
instance.
[2:14:24] So,
what not to do, evaporative cooling,
[2:14:29] building power plants in your backyard,
or building data centers far from the
[2:14:33] grid where it takes a lot of dollars and
and effort to bring the power to the
[2:14:37] system. We intend to do none of these
things in the Edgewood property uh in
[2:14:42] the Edgewood industrial park. We're
going to have a closed loop system.
[2:14:47] We're going to be purely grid tied and
we're going to tap into existing
[2:14:50] headroom where the power has been built
and is currently unused.
[2:14:55] We also intend to build a much smaller
product than we've been seeing in the
[2:14:58] news. A hybrid scale campus can range
from anywhere from 7 to 15 buildings
[2:15:03] often in millions measured in millions
of square feet covering hundreds if not
[2:15:08] more recently thousands of acres.
We're proposing what we hope to build is
[2:15:13] 125,000t single building on 21 acres of
land, relatively low density compared to
[2:15:19] a comparable industrial project on a
similar size acreage. Uh it's smaller
[2:15:24] than your neighborhood Walmart. It's
about the size of a Home Depot,
[2:15:28] singlestory, about 35 ft tall, um and
about not too much bigger than a couple
[2:15:34] of football fields. You can fit about 20
of these buildings into or developments
[2:15:40] into the size of one hypers scale
project. They're simply not the same
[2:15:44] product.
Um what we are within city limits. We're
[2:15:49] targeting between 15
>> 15 and 40 megawws served directly by
[2:15:55] Alliant uh infrastructure.
As of now, we have no plans of any
[2:16:00] additional buildings of the land and
we'd be very happy with this in this
[2:16:04] single project as we're going to show it
to you today which provides substantial
[2:16:07] buffers for adjacent uses.
[2:16:13] » I'll show it to you on the a few slides.
Yeah. Um we'll go all the way down from
[2:16:18] a high level to a specific one. This is
not the hypers scale proposal that you
[2:16:22] may have seen on the news or in uh other
reporting in the last few weeks. This is
[2:16:28] simply a 21 acre proposed project for a
single building. The parties are not
[2:16:32] related and not affiliated at this time.
So let's talk water. Water is largely
[2:16:41] the most controversial issue with data
centers. If you look at the top on the
[2:16:47] top right, a steel mill uses a
tremendous amount of water about 10
[2:16:51] million gallons a day. That is not
uncommon for things you see in the last
[2:16:56] century for major industrial heavy
industrial uses. Now data centers when
[2:17:01] they first came around a big data center
was maybe 10 megawatts 15 megawatt not
[2:17:07] too different than what we're proposing
today. It didn't use too much water to
[2:17:11] use an evaporate technology to have a
much more efficient
[2:17:16] power to it conversion. You get more
compute for every megawatt that you draw
[2:17:21] from the grid.
It made sense until the data centers got
[2:17:25] so big. If you extrapolate the same
evaporative technologies over a 1 gawatt
[2:17:31] campus,
it will use about 2.8 billion gallons a
[2:17:35] year. That's
unreasonable. And as a reason, the
[2:17:40] industry has has moved away from it.
Those will never get done in Iowa and
[2:17:44] it's not a technology we even consider.
Um, we also show an ethanol plant for
[2:17:50] comparison. And then that last bar, that
7.6 million gallons, that's the entire
[2:17:54] green down below combined. And so we
kind of break that out because we had to
[2:17:59] show it in scale, otherwise it wouldn't
quite even show up compared to the
[2:18:03] evaporative technologies.
But we show about 5 million gallons for
[2:18:08] 100 homes, one sitown restaurant being
about 2 million gallons. This is an
[2:18:13] annual number.
And us at under half a million gallons a
[2:18:18] year. So, for comparison, it's about 10
homes, if not less, including our annual
[2:18:26] fill, which is really one time. And
it'll recirculate in that radiator for
[2:18:30] 10 years straight.
So, we'll be actually a little bit
[2:18:33] closer to 250,000
gallons per year once we build it on
[2:18:38] year 1. It'll be one of the, if not the
least water consuming uses on the same
[2:18:45] acreage of land that that you could
possibly build. If you build an office
[2:18:49] building, a retail center, a residential
facility, or even single family homes on
[2:18:54] the same acreage, you will likely build
more than 5 to 10 homes on 21 acres, and
[2:19:01] you will likely use more water.
So, if there is a hard cap set in the
[2:19:08] ordinance of the amount of gallons we're
able to use each year, we're happy to
[2:19:11] comply with it. We'll likely have an
easier time complying with a water cap
[2:19:15] than just about any use in all of
Marshall Town.
[2:19:20] Let's talk noise.
Data centers can be very loud if you
[2:19:25] build a power plant. the on-site gas
turbines. And let's be clear, decibb
[2:19:31] effectively double every time you add 10
dB to the dumper. So an 80 to 120 decel
[2:19:38] onsite gas turbine plant, that is
basically a rock concert. So again, not
[2:19:46] something we're proposing here, but
often when you hear these
[2:19:50] uh horror stories or you see things on
social media, a lot of times it is a gas
[2:19:54] plant that is being built. Turbines have
that hum noise that is notorious. Um
[2:20:00] that's not usually coming from the
actual components used to cool a high
[2:20:05] efficiency
AI oriented data center. We show a
[2:20:09] vacuum cleaner in normal conversation.
My voice right now through these
[2:20:12] speakers is probably closer to 80. My
voice without the microphone is probably
[2:20:15] closer to 60. [snorts] And we're going
to be in the 40 to 50 range. So, we took
[2:20:21] a decibel meter, a calibrated one, and
we went out to the edges, the western
[2:20:25] edges of this property that we're
proposing, and we'll get into the
[2:20:28] details later, and we measured all along
the property line, and it's right around
[2:20:33] 50 today, um, coming from JBS and
adjacent uses. So, we don't anticipate
[2:20:38] being any louder than what's already out
there today. We'll also with these
[2:20:41] numbers be able to comply with the
existing general industrial zoning
[2:20:44] limits. you will not need to make the
audio the the acoustical um limits any
[2:20:51] more permissive for a data center than
they already are for industrial use. Uh
[2:20:56] the and and the generators that are on
site only operate during daytime for
[2:21:03] testing about half an hour per month. So
about 6 hours out of the year they're
[2:21:08] operating and they never operate at
night. And the only time they all come
[2:21:11] on is in the event of an actual grid
outage where I imagine many of you would
[2:21:15] also turn on your uh generators to to
get through the night.
[2:21:20] A light wind through the trees is 40 dB.
That's literally the wind the leaves
[2:21:25] rustling in the wind. So it's hard to
understand these numbers, but I
[2:21:29] recommend all of you get a decibel
meter, download one on your phone, hold
[2:21:32] it up to your refrigerator, hold up your
dishwasher, hold it up to your barking
[2:21:35] dog, and you'll get a good
understanding. or go over to the
[2:21:38] property and see how loud it is today
and recognize that we don't intend to
[2:21:42] raise a noise from what it is today. And
in fact, we can't because the ordinance
[2:21:46] would not let us. We would not be able
to get our permits without acoustical
[2:21:50] modeling that independently verifies
that we will not break those acoustical
[2:21:55] limits. And if we do, the city will have
police powers to enforce it. If we
[2:21:59] cannot
adhere to those limits, we won't get a
[2:22:03] permit. Also not something we're
applying for today, but once the
[2:22:07] ordinance is in place, that's what we're
looking to do. Data centers are very
[2:22:12] expensive. As a result, they're worth a
lot of money. That creates an
[2:22:17] opportunity for property taxes. For a
long time, data centers would come in
[2:22:22] and ask for property tax abatements,
incentives, and cuts. We are coming on
[2:22:27] the record and saying we will not ask
for any property tax abatements, any
[2:22:31] property tax cuts, no pilots, no side
deals for the full freight of what will
[2:22:37] be assessed on our real property that
will be paid to the city, the county,
[2:22:42] and the schools. We estimate that'll be
about $3 million a year broken down as
[2:22:47] you see on the right. And that is an
annual figure.
[2:22:52] The data centers do bring high-paying
quality jobs. We estimate this facility
[2:22:58] with one building bring 50 to 60
permanent positions to Marshall Town.
[2:23:04] Now, what's really important here is
that those actually become Marshall Town
[2:23:09] jobs. It doesn't make any sense for me
to tell you the new jobs and then ship
[2:23:14] people in to fill them. So, we're going
to make sure to create training programs
[2:23:19] and dedicated data center technician um
routes with local community colleges um
[2:23:26] Iowa Valley Community College and
Marshtown Community College to make sure
[2:23:30] that a number of those positions on this
building and hopefully future projects
[2:23:36] as well by others or ourselves
are being taken by those who live here,
[2:23:43] work here and pay taxes here, creating
more economic becoming an economic
[2:23:48] engine for Marshalltown.
About 300 to 400 job years in the way of
[2:23:53] construction jobs. Where that can be
useful is if the developer makes a point
[2:23:59] to use local labor, local equipment
rentals, local vendors, local dirt
[2:24:04] haulers, local everybody. all the way
down to the coffee beans and the
[2:24:09] trailers and the facility to local
restaurants catering meals every month
[2:24:13] for the crew. The more we're able to
tailor to the city and to its needs, the
[2:24:19] more that will mean for everyone who's
involved.
[2:24:25] Let's talk about where the project's
going to be, where we intend to build
[2:24:28] the project and where we have placed an
offer to purchase.
[2:24:32] This is on the northern side of town off
of Edgewood Street near 8th Avenue um in
[2:24:41] what is known as the Edgewood Industrial
Park extension.
[2:24:45] So, our offer is for four parcels
comprising about 21 acres of land
[2:24:50] currently zoned general industrial
intended and built by the city, graded,
[2:24:57] serviced with utilities brought in for
an industrial user to come in and build
[2:25:01] an industrial project. That's what we
intend to do.
[2:25:06] Our adjacent uses to the southeast is
the JBS plant. To the northeast is the
[2:25:12] compost facility. To the north is
Riverview Park and to the west and to
[2:25:16] the south to an extent is residential.
Now that's the critical component. We
[2:25:23] have to be careful in designing this
project to make sure that it does not
[2:25:27] impact our neighbors so we can be a good
neighbor into the community. Otherwise,
[2:25:34] we'll never be welcome back to build
another project and nor will another
[2:25:38] community let us in. And this is how we
think we've designed a project that
[2:25:42] makes sense for this location. We're
looking to purchase 21 acres despite
[2:25:46] only looking to build a building that is
uh just about less than three because
[2:25:51] this is how we want to do it in a very
minimally if not no impact way.
[2:26:00] This is our proposed concept plan. And
of course, we have not yet secured site
[2:26:05] control and therefore we have not
released all of our due diligence
[2:26:09] efforts to get our geotechnical
analysis, phase one environmental surve
[2:26:13] um assessments and uh surveys and
everything else. But we have come up
[2:26:18] with this concept plan. The intent is to
create as m much of a buffer as
[2:26:22] maximally possible from the western side
of the property to what is the
[2:26:27] residential uses on that side and also
to the residential uses on the
[2:26:33] um southeast side. So I'll use this
screen if you guys can point here.
[2:26:41] So this setback, it's not quite a
setback, but we've actually pushed the
[2:26:45] building back about 700 ft from the
western edge.
[2:26:49] We're looking to line the northern,
western, and southern limits with a tree
[2:26:56] line as well as a full campus perimeter
fence for security, but also for as a
[2:27:01] visual barrier, an aesthetically
pleasing one. We'll have an entrance to
[2:27:05] the north, a secure one with 24/7
security and a kiosk. This is our campus
[2:27:10] entrance with parking and two to three
dock high doors on the south side.
[2:27:17] all of the components that make any
noise at all. The building itself is
[2:27:20] silent. It's a concrete building and the
components inside the building because
[2:27:24] they're liquid cooled again from that
radiator,
[2:27:28] they it's very it's it's nearly silent
on the inside of the building and so no
[2:27:31] noise comes from the building out. All
the components that make noise are
[2:27:36] placed on the opposite side of the
building on the east side. So, the
[2:27:39] building itself, which is 175x 714 ft,
serves as a full length buffer for any
[2:27:45] noise before it can hit the west side of
the property or any of our neighbors to
[2:27:50] the south. These are the backup
generation systems. They're going to be
[2:27:54] diesel doublewalled
um containerized solutions with quiet
[2:27:58] kits within them. And then we have our
free cooling farm on the right side.
[2:28:05] Those are free cooling systems basically
blowing ambient air. And those will also
[2:28:08] be equipped with quiet kits that allow
for a lower decel limit from um from the
[2:28:15] source. We intend to build a screen
wall, a wing wall coming off of the
[2:28:20] building, extending to a point to where
it will catch any line of sight from the
[2:28:27] chiller farm to the southern side of the
buildings, allowing us to maintain the
[2:28:32] required ordinance limits for noise at
any residential property.
[2:28:38] We are going to be able to comply with
the industrial limits on the north and
[2:28:42] to the east. Um, and we will screen all
mechanical components as is currently
[2:28:47] required by the ordinance. And we'd love
to get the city's input on how to do
[2:28:51] that. We could put more trees. We can
put some sort of wall with some
[2:28:55] decorative artistic solutions that the
community can vote on maybe from a local
[2:28:59] artist. We can put other components. And
there there's different ways where we
[2:29:04] can use some of this filler space here
to beautify the public right away.
[2:29:09] There's numerous ways to use this extra
land and to find a way to bring the
[2:29:13] community into this project.
[2:29:22] kind of touched this. But the reason
this is the layout is we've made sure
[2:29:27] that
any noise leaving those systems which
[2:29:31] are kind of the loudest component are
going to be blocked by either the will
[2:29:36] the building or the wing wall to the
south before they travel an additional
[2:29:40] 500 to 700 ft um before any residential
property lines. Anything that isn't
[2:29:45] going to be buffered by those points
will have to travel well over a thousand
[2:29:48] feet um before it gets to any
residential property being again well
[2:29:52] below the required limits. It basically
won't be any louder than it is today.
[2:29:58] Uh
and I mentioned the quiet kits eliminate
[2:30:02] that hum noise that some people just
don't want to spend the money to do. It
[2:30:06] does cost substantially more, but it is
the only option as we see it in a
[2:30:12] location like this.
[2:30:16] some 3D views just showing kind of the
the scale and um bulk of the building.
[2:30:21] You can kind of see the shadows hiding
the generators into the rear and showing
[2:30:27] the uh parking along the building and
the docks and the substantial kind of
[2:30:32] green space and setbacks on the far
side. So, anything that resembles an
[2:30:36] industrial use will be on the east.
Anything that is effectively a buffer
[2:30:40] will be on the west.
[2:30:44] This is another view from the opposite
angle.
[2:30:50] Some profiles that we put together um
showing the secure fencing. This is
[2:30:55] obviously a concept. What we would need
to do is get city and community feedback
[2:30:59] on what they would want a building like
this to look like. What colors do you
[2:31:03] want to see? What designs do you want to
see? How do you want this to look and
[2:31:08] feel in your in the neighborhood? Do you
want it to be invisible? Do you want it
[2:31:11] to stand out? And and we have presented
something that we think is the best way
[2:31:17] to kind of have it blend in, which is
use native colors, patterns, textures,
[2:31:22] um to
essentially try to kind of hide the
[2:31:25] building within the existing landscape,
which has some browns and and greens to
[2:31:31] to blend into.
[2:31:35] This is effectively what the view would
be from the east uh on 8th Avenue
[2:31:40] looking looking west uh over a what
would be 8ft kind of mechanical screen
[2:31:45] wall that's kind of designed to
camouflage it the building kind of
[2:31:48] peeking out to the north again it's a 35
ft tall building. It is not twotory. It
[2:31:53] is not going to tower over anything.
It'll be much less impactful than a lot
[2:31:57] of the industrial uses that are already
out there in the way that it kind of
[2:32:00] looks and feels.
This is a simulation of what the view
[2:32:04] would be from Riverview Park to the
north. It's about thousand feet across
[2:32:08] the pond. Um, and this is a view looking
south. Um, with the kind of yard to the
[2:32:16] right, the building headon with the
jewel box uh, and the equipment yard to
[2:32:21] the west. They' be effectively silent
from this distance.
[2:32:27] This is the view from the west looking
east. So from the adjacent properties
[2:32:33] across the storm water parcel, uh it's
about 135 ft to where we can plant our
[2:32:38] trees. This is what it would probably
look like on day one when we can plant
[2:32:41] the trees in. And of course, with some
time, they will grow and the project
[2:32:46] will effectively be hidden from view. So
it won't sound any different than it
[2:32:49] does today. It'll effectively look the
same because instead of corn, you'll
[2:32:54] have some beautiful trees there. And we
believe it'll have essentially no impact
[2:32:58] to to the neighbors. But you may not
like that concrete building. You may not
[2:33:03] think it it looks that good in those in
those visuals. But what if I told you a
[2:33:08] data center could be beautiful?
We intend to build something that you
[2:33:14] would be proud to have here. Something
that has a glass jewel box with some
[2:33:19] details,
drought tolerant landscaping again to
[2:33:23] minimize our water usage. Downward-f
facing lights that do not light up this
[2:33:29] guy. Those examples that you've seen are
people running construction crews 247
[2:33:35] with flood lamps. That will not happen
here. Construction will only happen
[2:33:38] during daytime hours. Um and any lights
will have to have a cut off to make sure
[2:33:43] that there's no spillover into any
neighboring uses or properties.
[2:33:49] This prop this property will have 247
security. It'll have man traps. It'll
[2:33:53] have um
biometric scanning. uh it'll have all
[2:33:59] the kind of a requirements that you
would want as an enterprise
[2:34:04] um trusting this property and this
project and this location with um your
[2:34:10] prize data. It'll it'll effectively be
um
[2:34:16] it'll have kind of all the security
components that a hyperscope project
[2:34:18] would but without the same kind of
scope, scale or impact.
[2:34:23] So,
the only way this project gets built is
[2:34:27] if you believe we're going to be a good
neighbor,
[2:34:31] we've heard a few things. We did some
research on our own. Um, but we think
[2:34:36] there's a few things that we could do to
help [snorts] um be a good neighbor. Uh,
[2:34:41] the Riverview Park to the north seems
like a good inspiration. It'd be a great
[2:34:46] place for us to contribute to parks and
wreck. um whether it's through some sort
[2:34:50] of annual contribution uh or an ongoing
sponsorship program, whether it's that
[2:34:55] park or different park to help give
Marshall Town's children a place to play
[2:35:01] and um
other places that can beautify the city.
[2:35:07] I've been watching enough of these
meetings to know that this uh this darn
[2:35:11] bridge has been a a thing of discussion
for some time. would love to help get it
[2:35:16] off the agenda.
And uh there's other things we've been
[2:35:20] in the community for the last week or
so. You might have seen us at Grounded
[2:35:24] or other places having lots of meetings
and trying to understand what makes
[2:35:27] Marshalltown tick and what can Marshall
Town use as a partner to go into this
[2:35:35] era should you choose to do so. We've
heard about these training programs at
[2:35:39] Iowa Valley Community College, including
Marshalltown Community College, where we
[2:35:43] might be able to create a dedicated
career track much like Fiser, Lennox,
[2:35:47] and the others do. That could be
something that could provide jobs within
[2:35:52] Marshalltown if you don't want to leave
the county. Or if you want to go
[2:35:55] somewhere else and work in a data center
where this is one of the most in demand
[2:35:59] jobs in the world with an incredibly
small supply,
[2:36:04] there's a Junior Achievement [snorts]
Society. There's House of Compassion,
[2:36:10] Martown Youth Foundation, Trails, Inc.
County, Marshtown County Convers Convers
[2:36:17] Conservation, and many others that we've
been discussing with those in the
[2:36:22] community. And as we spend more time the
next several months with with all of
[2:36:26] you, we'd like to understand what's
important, how we can help, and how we
[2:36:30] can be not just a neighbor and not just
a developer, but a real partner and a
[2:36:35] real member of the community to
integrate ourselves much like the
[2:36:39] pillars of this community have done,
albeit in a smaller way up at first. But
[2:36:44] we genuinely want to find a way to
better the lives of those who help this
[2:36:50] project come to reality.
[2:36:55] We're making these commitments right now
with no project.
[2:36:58] We don't have land control.
We can't secure power without it.
[2:37:03] Although we've done substantial
diligence on all of these fronts,
[2:37:07] we're asking for an opportunity to go
forth to advance our efforts to further
[2:37:13] our diligence, advance the prospects of
securing power, fiber, talent, and
[2:37:20] everything else we've discussed today.
So, we're coming out. Everyone in this
[2:37:25] room and everyone watching now has more
information than anyone else effectively
[2:37:29] as much as me on this project.
We're coming out and we're not asking
[2:37:34] for any property tax abatements. We
talked to you about our water
[2:37:37] commitments to using closed loop systems
which will be hopefully enforced through
[2:37:42] the ordinance. It's a grid tide pro
project where we're going to pay our own
[2:37:45] way. We're not going to put anything
we're not going to move forward anything
[2:37:49] on the power front that could risk rates
going up. And by the way, on that I
[2:37:56] encourage everybody here to go home and
Google the difference between MYSO, MISO
[2:38:02] and PJM. Those are effectively the
regional operators that handle your grid
[2:38:07] versus those of 13 states on the
Northeast and parts of the Midwest.
[2:38:12] The way they buy power has made a
massive difference in whose rates have
[2:38:18] gone up as a result of the increasing
demand. Not just because of data
[2:38:21] centers, because electrification of our
society and those who haven't. In fact,
[2:38:26] parts of the Myso territory, which
covers Minnesota, Iowa, and others have
[2:38:30] seen some rates come down as a result of
that demand. The way the power is
[2:38:34] purchased, the way the power is used,
and the way the power usage is secured
[2:38:38] makes a massive difference in how it
ultimately trickles down to the average
[2:38:43] rateayer.
Almost all of the stories you hear of
[2:38:47] rates going up, go back and find those
stories and look it up and almost always
[2:38:51] you'll find that it's in PJM which does
not serve this territory.
[2:38:56] We're obviously going to adhere to the
ordinance standards. We cannot pull
[2:38:59] permits. We cannot get approval for a
project without doing so. All we're
[2:39:03] asking for today is the opportunity to
be able to go to bat and adhere to
[2:39:07] whatever standards you set when you do
so. Again, we support the moratorum. We
[2:39:12] think it's being done responsibly. We
think it's proactive and we think it's
[2:39:16] the right way forward for Marshalltown.
We'll never ask you to sign an NDA and
[2:39:22] we'll keep the public apprised
effectively building a public like we've
[2:39:25] already done to this point. So you can
ask us questions. We can share data with
[2:39:30] those who are putting together planning
and zoning. We can effectively do this
[2:39:35] together.
[2:39:39] All we have put forth of you today is a
request to approve our purchase contract
[2:39:46] for the four acres comprising 21 acres.
Does not affect the moratorum.
[2:39:51] Does not affect our requirement to
comply with the moratorum. Does not
[2:39:55] affect our requirement to comply with
zoning once it is put in place. If the
[2:39:59] moratorum continues, we can't do
anything. If the zoning ultimately uh
[2:40:05] prohibits the project because of owner
requirements, the project will not get
[2:40:09] built.
All we would like to do is spend our own
[2:40:13] money at our own risk to advance the
prospect as a project and put it out in
[2:40:18] front of all of you for public comment
display and effect and effectively
[2:40:24] kind of co-building it so we can try to
build a project that works for
[2:40:26] everybody.
[2:40:30] Being able to secure the contract on the
land allows us to do everything else
[2:40:34] that we haven't done yet. These things
in combination cost substantial amounts
[2:40:39] of money which we simply can't release
on a project that we cannot control.
[2:40:45] This project will not get built now in a
month or even anytime this year. Our
[2:40:51] prospects at best case scenario is a
break ground in Q2 and hopes for end of
[2:40:56] 2028 in service.
[2:41:02] Marshalltown has all the right
ingredients to take advantage of the
[2:41:06] fourth industrial revolution which is
coming in the form of
[2:41:10] digital infrastructure. It has power.
It's getting a lot more of it. It's got
[2:41:15] great fiber and most importantly, it's
got incredible people.
[2:41:20] Marshall Town has been the backbone of
companies that build things for a long
[2:41:24] time.
We think it is poised if it is strategic
[2:41:30] to become a pillar and eventually a
juggernaut within the AI infrastructure
[2:41:34] era which is only just beginning. But it
should do it the way it sees
[2:41:39] appropriate.
[2:41:44] So,
I'd like to make a few comments,
[2:41:49] not specific to this project, but
really just for all of you.
[2:41:59] I know people aren't
a big fan of these projects. I know
[2:42:04] everyone's kind of tired of hearing of
them. I know we have inflation and
[2:42:09] everything costs more than it did 3
years ago. Everyone's working as hard as
[2:42:13] they can with less room to breathe at
the end of the month. And every headline
[2:42:17] says AI is going to change the world and
no one is going to ask your permission
[2:42:22] for that to happen.
So it starts to feel like the future
[2:42:26] isn't a choice you get to make, but that
it's something that happens to you. And
[2:42:31] when something that big happens that
fast and it's so far out of your
[2:42:35] control, there's really only one lever
left to pull and it's the word no.
[2:42:42] It's not fear and it's not backwardness.
When you can't tell who's telling the
[2:42:46] truth, no is the only safe answer. And I
get it.
[2:42:51] There's plenty of towns who have been
right to use it. And if everything I
[2:42:55] knew about this industry was what I
heard on the internet this summer, I'd
[2:43:00] reach for the same lever. It can be
frightening at times.
[2:43:06] But you know your history far more than
I do. And I really enjoyed learning
[2:43:09] about it. And it tells a different
story.
[2:43:13] In 1880, William Fischer stood at the
waterworks during a fire, holding his
[2:43:17] city's water pressure steady with his
own hands. Then he built a machine so no
[2:43:21] one ever has to do that again.
10 years later, this town makes a trial
[2:43:25] so good they ask when masons and
archaeologists want a trial. They don't
[2:43:30] ask for a trial, they ask for a Marshall
town.
[2:43:34] 5 years after that, Dave Lennox builds a
better furnace a few blocks from here.
[2:43:38] So, three times over, the future didn't
arrive here finished. Someone in this
[2:43:41] town built it, and the world came asking
for it by name.
[2:43:47] The most recent chapter isn't history at
all. 23 minutes of tornado came through
[2:43:51] downtown in 2018 and this town chose to
rebuild.
[2:43:56] A lot of the people who did that are
sitting in this room.
[2:44:01] There's a fourth industrial revolution
upon us. And this one it's concrete,
[2:44:05] copper, and megawws.
It's going to be built somewhere. The
[2:44:10] very large campuses that are in the
headlines are a real shape of this
[2:44:14] revolution, but they're not the only
shape.
[2:44:18] The choice isn't a thousand acres or
nothing at all. That's the part I don't
[2:44:23] think anyone has been telling you
because something quieter is emerging.
[2:44:27] And tonight it's on your doorstep.
American companies like manufacturers,
[2:44:31] hospitals, insurance companies, banks,
and others. They want their own data to
[2:44:36] use AI on their own hardware in a
building that they can drive to in a
[2:44:40] town they can name. That work has to be
built somewhere. And it needs three
[2:44:45] things. Power, fiber, and people who can
run complicated machinery. The third of
[2:44:51] which Marshalltown has had for the last
140 years in spades.
[2:44:57] We also have a 21 acres that has been
graded and serviced after the storm for
[2:45:01] exactly this purpose. So this is what
tonight actually is. Nothing gets built
[2:45:06] tonight, this month, or this year. Your
moratorium stands and we support it and
[2:45:11] we'll come through the front door like
anybody else. Tonight is a vote to sell
[2:45:16] 21 acres you already set aside for
industry. Tonight isn't the end of us
[2:45:20] proving it's just the beginning. Months
of open meetings will follow our plans
[2:45:26] built alongside yours.
And if it works, we'd like to be the
[2:45:31] reason the next one comes here, too.
The reason that kid graduating from
[2:45:35] Marshalltown High can work on our
generation's most critical
[2:45:39] infrastructure without leaving the
county to do it.
[2:45:44] You can say no to this version of the
future. You can say no to the ver to the
[2:45:48] version of the future that you don't
want to see, but still say yes to your
[2:45:53] share of it. Those are not the same
question.
[2:45:57] The future is coming at all of us very
fast. But there is another way to build
[2:46:03] it. A smaller, more organic way. A way
where the values stay closer to the
[2:46:08] ground and more towns and more people
get to win. Not just the same people
[2:46:12] who've been willing all along. We
believe in that version and we like to
[2:46:17] help prove that to Marshall Town.
Marshalltown made the pump governor. It
[2:46:23] made the trow. It made the furnace.
Every single time the world came here to
[2:46:29] buy it. The next age will be built
somewhere by somebody on somebody's
[2:46:34] terms. We say let it be built here on
your terms.
[2:46:39] The town that makes things chooses what
it makes next. And it would be an honor
[2:46:44] for us to help you make it. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Amir.
[2:46:50] [applause]
[2:46:53] » Okay, we can't have clapping.
That's bad.
[2:46:59] Um, air,
>> I I have a question for you. When you're
[2:47:03] talking 55 to 60 jobs, something in
there. The average wage, what are you
[2:47:09] talking?
>> Uh, we estimate about $113,000 on
[2:47:13] average. Some will be lower for like
janitorial and security, but the highest
[2:47:17] end will be much closer to 200,000 if
that's for like a network engineer.
[2:47:21] » Over $100,000.
>> That's the average. The high end is
[2:47:25] closer to the 170 to 200 range,
>> right? So you could your kid might be
[2:47:30] able to go through a college out here,
get trained up and get hired there.
[2:47:35] » In fact, we'll pay him to do it. It's
these jobs are in such incredible
[2:47:39] demand shortage or supply shortage
rather that you can take the same
[2:47:44] baseline vocational training you've
gotten at construction, in a factory for
[2:47:50] mechanical, electrical, plumbing. You
can layer on a very specific training
[2:47:54] regimen of if this then that, if this
goes out or preventative maintenance and
[2:47:59] service this new generation of specialty
technology. And yeah, the pay is
[2:48:05] fantastic. And the job training programs
will be paid for by us, by the
[2:48:09] hyperscalers, by others who would like
to see these be local jobs. It's the
[2:48:15] only way it makes sense.
>> Okay.
[2:48:17] » I know that uh I saw some figures. it
wasn't on here tonight about the uh
[2:48:23] taxes that you'll pay and the effect on
the uh local schools and you had a
[2:48:29] number
of per student
[2:48:34] it was uh sorry
>> um about $250 per student per year. So
[2:48:39] this project alone we anticipate
providing $1.35 million a year to the
[2:48:45] Marshalltown school district uh to
schools. um that is an annual figure.
[2:48:50] And so what that will help avoid is if
the schools want to build a new
[2:48:54] building, if they want to create a new
program, they want to refurbish the
[2:48:59] athletic programs, they're not going to
have to come to all of you and raise
[2:49:03] property taxes. You're going to have a
new source of property tax from a
[2:49:08] project like ours.
>> Okay. Thank you.
[2:49:13] You are.
>> Yes.
[2:49:19] There we go. Technology.
Uh, can you give us some examples of
[2:49:25] centers that you've already built and
their success rate?
[2:49:28] » Sure. So, you may be able to speak to
this, but um worked on a project um in
[2:49:36] northern Illinois in a city called
Elgrove Village um that is a uh 270
[2:49:41] megawatt project. Now, my background
comes from the hypers scale world, which
[2:49:45] is why I'm able to navigate kind of the
same level of institutional quality for
[2:49:51] these types of buildings at the smaller
scale. These aren't Bitcoin. These
[2:49:54] aren't little containerized things. You
kind of saw what we're we're going
[2:49:57] after. Um, that project is now up on
buildings kind of two and three coming
[2:50:02] out of the ground. And, uh, I spent a
lot of time kind of getting the campus
[2:50:07] laid out. And, um, for building one,
which is, you can kind of Google it.
[2:50:12] it's it's uh on the north side of town.
So what it does is granted in the
[2:50:17] earlier wave of data centers, a lot of
these properties asked for abatements
[2:50:22] and a lot of the kind of meccas of data
centers which is like Northern Virginia,
[2:50:27] um Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, they uh
kind of had that trade-off. But here, if
[2:50:35] you're coming and saying, "Well, we
don't want you here." This is actually
[2:50:38] an amazing time
to have a data center show up because
[2:50:43] the industry has evolved and matured to
where we're not using these harmful
[2:50:46] evaporative technologies. So you have
these basically quieter almost zero
[2:50:53] water systems, but the demand supply is
so out of whack that we're coming here
[2:50:58] saying the rents basically have gone up
and we can afford to ask for zero
[2:51:02] property tax which is the right way to
do it because otherwise we have to then
[2:51:06] come and say now we want a tax break and
so that is our kind of MMO is we only
[2:51:12] try to find projects where that can be
our baseline. Well, I have a lot of
[2:51:17] questions, but some of them can't be
answered tonight. Uh, but another one
[2:51:22] is, uh, can you elaborate on give us
some details on what happened in
[2:51:27] Marshall Marshfield, uh, Missouri?
>> Oh, yeah. I'd be happy to. So, I was
[2:51:32] working on a project there specifically
where we were looking to advance a
[2:51:38] second project. We had it under
basically LOI exclusivity and the seller
[2:51:42] chose to close the land to somebody
else. Now you see what we're doing here
[2:51:47] today without even site control. We
uh are basically putting our entire
[2:51:52] project almost open source for everybody
to see. So you can trust us as a partner
[2:51:57] in your community. Now this is the same
process we intended to pursue in
[2:52:02] Marshfield previously and it's the same
one we still intend to pursue. But
[2:52:06] they're going through their own
moratorium at the time and for good
[2:52:09] reason. So the other party who ended up
purchasing that land in place of us um
[2:52:15] despite our legal contract uh just went
ahead and graded the site. They didn't
[2:52:21] ask for permits. They didn't do anything
like this. They just rolled dozers and
[2:52:25] graded the site. So and I've gone on
record in saying this, that community
[2:52:29] was wronged. They of course were upset.
There's a big outcry. There's more
[2:52:34] tournaments put in place and and for
good reason. That kind of behavior is
[2:52:38] what makes this industry look bad. And
so we wanted to pause to let the cities
[2:52:44] and counties out there work through
their moratoriums, establish ordinances
[2:52:48] that made sense. The project that we
still site control out there for is a
[2:52:53] heavy it's a intensive industrial type
of zone project and we think it's going
[2:52:58] to be um similar to this where it's it's
a much smaller project. So, it's uh less
[2:53:04] than half the power uh and therefore
kind of size and and and um jobs and
[2:53:10] everything else. So, it doesn't quite
compare to this one. This is a much
[2:53:12] larger opportunity for for Marshall
Town. Um but that's the honest truth is
[2:53:18] we didn't get a chance to do this and
because of their behavior, the other
[2:53:22] party, we didn't feel it was an
appropriate time to do so. So, we're
[2:53:25] waiting for the right moment. Uh why
does your uh proposal statement say that
[2:53:31] you don't have any NDAs or any closed
door policies?
[2:53:36] » Why does proposal when in fact that uh
you and John Hall had sent out uh
[2:53:42] private invitations for one-on-one Yeah.
question and answering, which is in my
[2:53:49] book totally wrong because it gives
either side, me or you, the opportunity
[2:53:55] to ask the question and then we get in
public, we uh say, "No, we never said
[2:54:01] that." So, how can we trust you now
saying what you did with what's happened
[2:54:06] here in the last few days?
>> Well, those emails are obviously all
[2:54:10] foyable, and I'm sure they already are.
You can look at those emails when we put
[2:54:14] on the record in the emails and every
meeting that we requested was after we
[2:54:19] already planned on being here and having
this presentation. The information in
[2:54:22] this presentation is much more robust
than anything we're able to kind of
[2:54:27] verbally explain to anyone who was
willing to hear and not answer any
[2:54:30] questions. The intent is to have those
who are willing to be an audience for it
[2:54:36] ask questions like you'd asked that you
may not have time to to answer to ask
[2:54:39] today. um and maybe questions you just
don't want to ask today. Maybe it's a I
[2:54:44] don't know what a server does, right?
And so it's to give that opportunity.
[2:54:48] It's not to cut a back room deal. It's
not to do anything like that. It's just
[2:54:52] to create an opportunity to be an
audience knowing that we were already
[2:54:56] coming out here to speak to the people.
>> Mark, we need to let somebody else have
[2:55:03] a question. Does anyone
[2:55:08] question
>> later? Yeah,
[2:55:11] » I've just got two questions for air. So,
good to see you again.
[2:55:15] » You as well.
>> Um,
[2:55:17] so what's your background is my first
question.
[2:55:21] » I started in my career in commercial
real estate finance. Um, I worked on
[2:55:26] construction and bridge loans originally
on REITs and private equity portfolio uh
[2:55:32] deals. So, I worked on a 28
23.8 an $8 billion acquisition of the GE
[2:55:40] Capital portfolio with Blackstone and
Wells Fargo. Um, and then I transitioned
[2:55:45] to infrastructure construction where I
worked on bridges, highways, and roads
[2:55:51] in California, which is where I'm
originally from. and then transition to
[2:55:55] real estate development doing
residential and commercial development
[2:55:58] and then transition then to data center
development on the hypers scale side
[2:56:02] largely because of the complexities of
the intersection of power finance and um
[2:56:07] development.
And then my other question is uh while
[2:56:12] you're here um have you found a
residential site that you're going to
[2:56:17] build your home on and you're going to
move here because I'm obsessed.
[2:56:20] » This speech you made it sounds like uh
I'm obsessed.
[2:56:23] » You're moving here and so I'd love to
your family you have already
[2:56:26] communicated with them that you're
moving here.
[2:56:29] » I'm canceling my flight back.
>> It's uh No, truly I do I do this for a
[2:56:35] living. I fly around all over the
country. Um there's almost no data
[2:56:39] centers being built on the coast because
it's very hard to do business in those
[2:56:42] states and there's not much power left.
Um and so I go to I think I've been to
[2:56:49] 15 states. Uh I have this would be my
first uh Iowa project though there's now
[2:56:56] several that we're discussing. I did not
ever imagine I would like fall in love
[2:57:00] the states so quickly. It's very it's
been very fun. I brought my dog out
[2:57:04] here. We have like a like a 10acre ranch
that we're staying on. It's just like
[2:57:09] incredible and we're usually cooked up
in an apartment. So, no, it's uh it's
[2:57:13] been fantastic. The people are
incredible, too.
[2:57:18] » Anyone else have any questions or are we
going back to Mark?
[2:57:22] » I just have a general comment.
>> Okay, go ahead.
[2:57:25] » Yeah. So, air um it's nothing to against
you or anything like that, but I was
[2:57:31] against you presenting. Um,
>> understood.
[2:57:33] » Part of the reason was because you talk
about a land contract and
[2:57:38] » the city's position has been that we
don't share that because it's
[2:57:43] financially harmful for us,
>> but yet you get to share your
[2:57:47] perspective on it. And I see your
presentation and there's some things
[2:57:52] that I feel like is are inaccurate
>> with the land contract, but I can't say
[2:57:56] anything.
>> I'm happy to answer those today,
[2:57:57] » but I can't I legally can't challenge
them. So that's
[2:58:01] » Can I can I anticipate a few of them and
discuss them? Go for it. Great.
[2:58:04] » We have uh a very kind of like call it
boilerplate
[2:58:08] Iowa um like land contract.
I I would imagine that you would within
[2:58:15] that portion of it there's not much of
controversy. We also tacked on an
[2:58:19] addendum to it to specify unique kind of
components of this project because well
[2:58:25] we can't go ahead and just close because
we have to advance our diligence and
[2:58:29] then we have to wait for the mortorium
to take its time do its thing and then
[2:58:33] once it is lifted or not if it doesn't
get lifted well then you know too bad so
[2:58:40] sad right but if if it is and then an
ordinance emerges out of it well we have
[2:58:45] the opportunity to review that ordinance
and decide at our discretion, well, can
[2:58:51] we build a project we intend to build
here? Is this investment worth it? Not
[2:58:55] only the land purchase, but one thing I
didn't cover here and I this project if
[2:59:00] we are able to deliver is a $345 million
investment. And so for us to go ahead
[2:59:06] and and and follow through with that
largely that is almost all like the
[2:59:09] mechanical components and everything
else. Uh we have to understand that it
[2:59:14] makes sense. So we are able to look at
the ordinance and decide either yes
[2:59:18] we're going to go ahead and close or
we're going to pull out the setbacks are
[2:59:22] too ownorous we aren't able to adhere to
the the the acoustics like let's say you
[2:59:27] tighten the requirements much more than
existing industrial that would hurt the
[2:59:31] project outside of those two things I
think we'll comply just fine but we have
[2:59:34] to protect ourselves in that sense um
the it also tolls the moratorum so if
[2:59:40] you extend the moratorum another year
from the several months that like the
[2:59:44] few months that is intended
Well, then the the contract tolls as
[2:59:47] well for us to kind of be in the seat
again working alongside you, sharing
[2:59:50] data and being an opportunity to step
into the role uh and close should it all
[2:59:56] work out later. Uh those are kind of the
main components. It gives us absolutely
[3:00:00] no say so on the ordinance you write. It
gives us no say so on the moratorium
[3:00:03] which again we support. and it gives us
no special treatment aside from anyone
[3:00:08] else who might have gone and secured
private land from adhering to the
[3:00:12] moratorum whatever ordinance you guys
come up with when that happens. The only
[3:00:16] difference here is you own the land
versus maybe someone in this room or
[3:00:19] someone else in the county to where we
can kind of sit by a little bit more
[3:00:22] quietly instead. I think it's a it's a
blessing and to be honest is maybe a
[3:00:26] great way to go about these projects is
just show our intent from day one and
[3:00:29] decide if it makes sense or not.
>> Sure. And I appreciate that. I feel like
[3:00:33] you want to be transparent. So, you
don't really have an issue discussing
[3:00:36] the land contract in public, right?
>> Not at all. I'm happy to do it in open
[3:00:39] session.
>> Okay.
[3:00:42] » Okay. Anybody else have questions or are
we back tomorrow?
[3:00:47] » I think I'll let the public uh ask the
questions.
[3:00:50] » Okay.
>> Is there a website
[3:00:53] forgot to ask you a question?
>> We're going to be launching website.
[3:00:58] It'll probably be later this week and
I'm happy to put something maybe out to
[3:01:03] I don't know if someone has a Facebook
account, but uh it it will be uh
[3:01:08] marshalltown.com.
Um but it is not live yet. Um but if you
[3:01:14] have any specific questions you'd like
addressed on that that weren't addressed
[3:01:17] here, happy to take your questions and
make sure that's incorporated in there.
[3:01:21] It'll be like an FAQ.
>> We need we need to have people come up
[3:01:26] to the mic.
>> Oh, I'm sorry.
[3:01:28] Yeah.
[3:01:33] » Say my name again.
>> Sher Larson, Marshall County. Um, who
[3:01:39] will be
>> Please back. Speak into the mic.
[3:01:41] » Who will be um buying the product that
this data center is selling
[3:01:47] » and how far away?
>> Question is who's our end user? Right.
[3:01:51] So, we do not have an end user for this
this project and of course, how could we
[3:01:55] don't even have site control? But
ultimately our end users are not the big
[3:01:58] hypers scale clouds. We are kind of too
small for them. They only want a
[3:02:02] gigawatt or something like that. And so
we focus on if you will you heard the
[3:02:06] mag 7. We focus on the S&P 493. Everyone
else who's not a giant cloud. So think
[3:02:16] um principal as insurance, think US
bank, think uh JP Morgan Chase, think uh
[3:02:21] Fizer, think any large company that is,
you know, that has a lot of employees,
[3:02:27] for example, they're now going to have a
lot of compute needs, whether it's
[3:02:31] storage, data, CPUs, and more recently
GPUs. They don't want necessarily to
[3:02:37] give all of their data to Enthropic and
OpenAI. They don't necessarily want to
[3:02:41] give all of their data to Amazon. They
want to control their own destiny in a
[3:02:45] lot of ways and they want to do it on
Nvidia reference architecture systems
[3:02:49] which is what we build on and they want
to do it on their own hardware that they
[3:02:54] own. So they're not being metered on
like a pay as you go system. You might
[3:02:58] have heard of paying for tokens on an
API key like the cost. If you go to uh
[3:03:03] swarmsystems.com,
you'll kind of have a little like a
[3:03:07] animated intro and it kind of shows this
exponential chart going up of if you're
[3:03:11] if you're paying as you go on those
systems. And so really any of those
[3:03:15] companies, they've kind of are knocking
down the door to land there because they
[3:03:19] they can go buy the chips from Nvidia,
but they have nowhere to plug them in.
[3:03:22] You need liquid cooling systems. You
need redundant backup generation. You
[3:03:27] need power that's on today at the
density they're required to plug into
[3:03:31] those systems. And the only place those
exist is a data center. And all the data
[3:03:35] centers for the most part a lot of them
that are being built today are being
[3:03:37] built by or for kind of the big
hyperscalers which is like Google,
[3:03:42] Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Anthropic,
OpenAI and Oracle and we service
[3:03:47] everybody else.
Um so some of those companies could be
[3:03:52] Emerson Lennox absolutely m Maron
company because there is a thing about
[3:03:57] um even though it's fiber optics that
even the robotics that these places are
[3:04:02] using and the machine operations that
they have they have to have quick
[3:04:07] uh use of centers like you're talking
>> in order for some of that to work
[3:04:13] efficiently be able to go which then
helps our companies grow. That's right.
[3:04:18] And and also we'll be building in fiber
redundancy systems. So like we have to
[3:04:23] build into the site at two different
locations and likely we'll need higher
[3:04:26] speeds than what exists today. Those
upgrades happen at our cost. What you
[3:04:31] have when you if you kind of track it
where you have the higher speed fibers
[3:04:35] going from 100 gigs to 400 eventually
like 1.6 terabytes. Those fiber
[3:04:40] connections service the highest kind of
technology type companies. You might
[3:04:44] have a robotics company move here
because they can get that ultra high
[3:04:51] speed fiber even separate from our data
center just because we overbuilt right
[3:04:56] for redundancy for our our customers and
for everybody else. Someone think they
[3:04:59] might move into the Edgewood Industrial
Park.
[3:05:01] » I didn't realize that till today. Yeah.
that, you know, if you're using a data
[3:05:05] center in South Dakota, a lot of your
stuff won't work. But if you're parked
[3:05:09] right next to it, um all the newer
advanced manufacturing really it really
[3:05:14] upgrades what you can do.
>> Yeah. This is why, you know, if you
[3:05:18] build it in the middle of nowhere, it's
uh a lot of a lot of [snorts] places a a
[3:05:23] lot of companies are asking, well, what
happens in 20 years when I need ultra
[3:05:27] high lat, you know, low latency systems?
And that's why they'll come somewhere
[3:05:30] like Marshalltown. They'll put their
servers in a data center in Marshalltown
[3:05:33] because they'll know that building will
have value, you know, call it
[3:05:39] 15 to 40 megawatts, plug into a, you
know, rectangular building that can be
[3:05:44] repurposed and that can really always be
a data center for an enterprise. Whether
[3:05:48] you're bearish on AI and you think the
big data centers will the efficiencies
[3:05:53] will not keep up with will outpace the
demand then maybe the big ones will come
[3:05:57] down to this space and then maybe the
demand will keep going which is what I
[3:06:02] believe then companies that either don't
exist today or are very small today will
[3:06:06] end up being potential tenants for this
type of data center.
[3:06:09] » Okay.
Okay. We have another question or a
[3:06:13] comment.
[3:06:16] Tim Bradbury, 12 [clears throat] North
10th Avenue. Two questions. Um, will the
[3:06:23] saying it's going to be close to the
neighborhood and you're going to have
[3:06:26] blowers or or fans, whatever. And we
have good winters at times. Will that
[3:06:32] affect the neighborhood with the winter
conditions? Will it cause more snow
[3:06:37] effects, more uh [clears throat]
problems with winterizing and neighbors
[3:06:42] getting more drenched with snow? And
then the other question is I just got to
[3:06:46] get it answered whether it's true or
not. Was this area already known about
[3:06:52] in advance of you wanting an area like
that to build upon that that's why the
[3:06:57] road and the area was built like it is
that the money that was spent over there
[3:07:03] was that with you guys in mind?
Um the second question first, no. Uh I I
[3:07:10] learned about this area in the last few
months. So I I unless you guys can read
[3:07:14] minds, I don't I don't think so. Um the
to answer the first question, which is a
[3:07:19] very good one, the Iowa weather is
actually rather perfect for a data
[3:07:24] center because it you don't get that
Texas super humid 114 degree kind of
[3:07:29] summer. And so we never actually have to
crank on the uh com or am I wrong? Okay.
[3:07:36] Oh, okay. Okay.
>> Is it Is it as humid though? I guess the
[3:07:41] corn. [laughter]
>> We don't get it quite as long, but it
[3:07:44] still comes.
>> Fair enough.
[3:07:46] » It's not as bad as Texas, though, right?
>> It is.
[3:07:49] » No,
>> it's a dry.
[3:07:50] » No, it's not as bad as Texas.
>> Texas is brutal, guys. Anyways, well,
[3:07:54] it's not it's it's considered in in for
data center climates a little bit more
[3:07:58] mild. And so, we don't need to use kind
of the compressor systems that like when
[3:08:03] you turn on your condenser in your
backyard and you hear that boing when it
[3:08:06] turns on, that's the compressor. And the
actual fan is just it's just a fan. And
[3:08:11] when when we use the quiet kits, they
have these serrated blades that are kind
[3:08:15] of like owl wings and they don't make
the same kind of like humming noises. Um
[3:08:19] and so we're able to use those um in in
lie of those compressor systems because
[3:08:24] of the relatively milder uh summers.
Regarding the winter question, what all
[3:08:29] that does is because the temperature is
simply colder, we don't need to blow as
[3:08:34] much air like blowing 20° air on a hot
pipe versus blowing 95° air on a hot
[3:08:40] pipe. You don't need to blow as much of
it cuz just ambiently it's cooling. And
[3:08:43] so our fans go from like call it 85%
speed to like 25%. Cuz the pipe just
[3:08:48] being exposed going outside the system
then coming back in. It does a lot of
[3:08:52] the work for us. And so the fans will
just simply be quieter and they'll be
[3:08:56] less active. They'll be using less
energy. The system is just much more
[3:08:59] efficient.
>> Will it create a more snow effect for
[3:09:01] that neighbor?
>> So we will study all of that in in
[3:09:04] what's called a CFD analysis. Um and
it's kind of like a fluid dynamic system
[3:09:09] that they use for air. And so we'll
study that to see how our generators,
[3:09:15] maybe I'll go back to the site. You'll
see those kind of horizontal gray marks.
[3:09:20] The gray, those are our generators. The
the wind here, the prevailing wind is
[3:09:24] largely from in this case the south and
in some cases the north. But we need to
[3:09:29] make sure it's not going to blow from
from the generators to the fans. We'll
[3:09:33] also study what the fans do relative to
the environment. So all of that is
[3:09:38] studied for both hot and cold
conditions. and they'll be studied and
[3:09:40] we're happy to um kind of open source it
for everyone to review.
[3:09:53] » Uh Aaron Carpenter, 82 North Fourth
Street. I have several comments and many
[3:09:58] questions. Um is there a time dang it?
Okay, hold on. So, um you said that you
[3:10:06] support the moratorum. That sounds like
a paradox when you were asking to
[3:10:10] squeeze in here under the line because
uh people if you don't know the uh the
[3:10:16] waving of the third reading that they
did like an hour ago that doesn't go
[3:10:20] into effect until it's printed in the
paper. It's not in effect yet and it
[3:10:26] will not be in effect until it is in the
Times record or Times Republican.
[3:10:30] » Can I address this one really quick? Uh
we're happy to receive a counter from
[3:10:34] the city saying that that we cannot
close on the property until the
[3:10:38] moratorum is in effect which obviously
we won't do because then we can't build
[3:10:41] what we intend but we're happy to take
that counter. We're not we're not trying
[3:10:44] to get in under any sort of line.
>> Okay. If that is the case then I wonder
[3:10:49] why you're here tonight and not in two
months when the moratorum is over.
[3:10:54] question.
[3:10:58] » We can't advance the project any further
without site control. Um, the utility
[3:11:03] will not advance effectively our
engineering studies. We can't advance
[3:11:07] our civil studies. I kind of brought up
a list of everything we'd like to do
[3:11:12] that costs quite literally hundreds of
thousands to millions of dollars. And it
[3:11:16] would be irresponsible for us to do so
um without the prospect of being able to
[3:11:20] pursue the project should things work
out.
[3:11:26] That makes sense because uh uh Lane, I
think you brought up uh like a month ago
[3:11:32] uh if uh an entity has vested rights in
property, uh they have all sorts of
[3:11:39] legal protections um and if the
community or the council tried to stop
[3:11:46] someone from uh [gasps]
sorry um if if if the committees tried
[3:11:54] to uh tell a developer to not
um
[3:12:04] » you could be grandfathered in.
>> You would be you
[3:12:08] would be grandfathered in with vested
rights. Um, and even if planning and
[3:12:12] zoning or the board of adjustment did
not want that project here, they could
[3:12:17] not legally, I believe, uh, say that
that can or cannot happen. If it meets
[3:12:24] the city code under the law, they have
to allow it to happen. Uh, that was the
[3:12:30] case in Cedar Falls.
>> Steve, correct me if I'm wrong. Um, they
[3:12:34] are not asking for any of that. They're
not trying to get in under the limit so
[3:12:38] they could use the old We're happy to
>> not yet.
[3:12:42] » Well,
>> there's nothing about this presentation
[3:12:44] that's legally binding. It's not in city
code. It's PowerPoint promises.
[3:12:49] » It doesn't mean anything legally.
>> We're we're happy to be counter to where
[3:12:55] we can't close until the moratorium is
is in effect and in which case we can't
[3:12:59] pull a permit for a data center because
a moratorum is in place. City simply
[3:13:03] won't give us a permit for it and
without a permit we can't build and we
[3:13:08] therefore can't vest right. So, we're
happy to to legally on a contract kind
[3:13:13] of tie that together. So, that's that's
our promise.
[3:13:17] » I'll I'll just chime in briefly just on
the concept of vested rights where where
[3:13:22] I've seen this uh in another industry
that's come to to Iowa pretty heavily is
[3:13:26] uh wind turbines. Uh where and where
vested rights really come into effect is
[3:13:32] where you have the governmental
approval. Uh, and where I've seen it,
[3:13:36] you know, a a government approves a
project for a bunch of wind turbines. A
[3:13:40] company goes out and spends hundreds of
millions of dollars to get those in
[3:13:44] production. Production starts and then a
new council comes in and they're like,
[3:13:48] "No, we're going to kill this." Well,
that's where the vested rights really
[3:13:54] come in. What's what what's being
proposed here is basically
[3:14:00] a a purchase with a lot of
contingencies.
[3:14:05] um porno voter you can't we can't talk
about that can we the purchase order or
[3:14:11] the purchase agreement
>> the public no we cannot
[3:14:15] » I I I don't think the fact that he he's
stated already
[3:14:19] » okay
>> that it's would be contingent upon
[3:14:22] approval of regulations that work for
them
[3:14:27] » so I'm not stating anything he hasn't
>> yeah that that we can't be compelled to
[3:14:31] close if you pass an ordinance that
requires like 20 dB which is like
[3:14:37] quieter than a cricket, right? Like we
have to be able to review what gets
[3:14:41] passed and see if a project could be
developed. That's that's all it is is
[3:14:44] that we we have a right to look at what
you what you do and then decide for only
[3:14:50] for us. Uh do we still want to go
forward this investment or or not? But
[3:14:54] if if it's anything like the general
industrial, we already have a project
[3:14:58] that works for it. And basically, you
know, and
[3:15:04] without vested rights, and I've I've
never met Amir before. I I have no dog
[3:15:08] in this fight. um without any type of
vested rights and with the kind of
[3:15:14] contingencies that he's explained, uh
there's still a pretty big risk that
[3:15:18] they spend all this money and then the
city just listening to you going through
[3:15:23] this whole process
u adopts very stringent uh regulations
[3:15:29] that they might not be able to comply
with and they would just have to walk.
[3:15:32] » Yeah, we lose a lot of money.
>> I think we need to wrap up things.
[3:15:39] Uh, Mr. City Attorney, I'm sorry I don't
know your name.
[3:15:43] » Steve, um, are you referring to Gisler v
Cedar Falls
[3:15:50] uh, in in Cedar Falls several years ago,
maybe 20 years ago now, um, a developer
[3:15:56] wanted to put in a small multif family
housing unit um, that complied with city
[3:16:01] code. city changed their code um after
they had those plans and then um when
[3:16:09] the city said they could no longer build
then the developers sued the city.
[3:16:16] » I wasn't referring to that in
particular. I'm aware of several uh I
[3:16:20] don't want to state locations of several
uh wind turbine projects where
[3:16:27] governments have gotten themselves in
trouble by preliminarily approving it.
[3:16:31] Uh the developer goes out, spends
significant amount of money in reliance
[3:16:36] upon those approvals and then they try
to retract the approval. That's where
[3:16:39] vested rights will will get governments
in trouble and potentially large
[3:16:44] settlements. In this case, we'd be
selling a property for a data center.
[3:16:51] [laughter]
>> If if we later say that we that code,
[3:16:56] » it won't be sold
until the planning and zoning is done
[3:17:03] is the way I understand it because of
the contingency. So, he won't own it,
[3:17:08] » right?
>> Okay.
[3:17:09] » Until the planning and zoning is done.
and then he looks at the planning and
[3:17:14] zoning and says, "Okay, we can comply
with this or no, we can't comply with
[3:17:20] this."
>> Okay. Um, in that case, I would like to
[3:17:23] urge council to not go into close
session later if there is not a real
[3:17:27] estate deal to be made. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Let's take one or two more
[3:17:31] questions, then we do have more on the
agenda. So,
[3:17:35] » hi Lee B, Marshalltown, Iowa. Um,
I'm going to step forward and say, okay,
[3:17:41] let's say hypothetically speaking, land
contract goes through. My question, I
[3:17:46] have three questions. The first one is,
who are your investors? $345 million, at
[3:17:51] least in my neck of the woods, is a lot
of money. Okay. Who are your investors?
[3:17:57] Are we talking local investors? Are we
talking overseas? I mean, specific
[3:18:01] names. Can you give those
[3:18:05] » without So the best place I'd point you
to is so we build an innovative
[3:18:10] reference architecture. Uh Jen Sen
Huang, the CEO invid recently on CNBC
[3:18:15] with six CEOs of several large
investment banks and private equity
[3:18:20] firms that effectively underwrite to
leases on the Nvidia architecture
[3:18:24] because that's an investable asset
class. And so you can kind of look up
[3:18:29] the largest infrastructure and data
center investors kind of in the country
[3:18:32] and it's kind of the largest private
equity firms who back it on a project
[3:18:36] finance level. So it's tied to the
customer's credit because we underwrite
[3:18:42] to investment grade and highquality
credit firms like these large
[3:18:46] enterprises. their credit is signed
through between anywhere between like a
[3:18:52] 7 to 15 year lease and that underwrites
the the financing for the asset. Also,
[3:18:57] that allows revenue to be effectively
guaranteed by someone who's a real
[3:19:01] company and not uh like Bitcoin for many
many years and therefore you can rest
[3:19:06] assured that once a project is built for
quite a long time, there's going to be
[3:19:10] revenue coming in guaranteed because of
that that credit is on the hook.
[3:19:14] » Okay. Speaking of speaking of revenue,
you taught your end users, etc. What
[3:19:19] would you anticipate on the annual net
income for a data center here in
[3:19:24] Marshalltown? What would you anticipate?
>> I would have to kind of go back and and
[3:19:28] do some additional analysis on on the
rents and see if that's something we can
[3:19:33] uh follow up on maybe on the website.
>> Okay. Um let's see. Um if a land
[3:19:39] purchase were approved and a center was
built, what are your future plans? Would
[3:19:43] it be selling to another company? Would
you want to go further east on that
[3:19:47] land? Um, just trying to see what would
you anticipate a future looking like say
[3:19:53] 15 20 years down the road. We don't need
another hospital. So, of course,
[3:19:57] decommissioning would have to be in
there, but we're I'm just curious as to
[3:20:01] what are what's your vision?
>> Sure.
[3:20:04] » Currently, it's the one building on the
one lot. uh we would be basically uh
[3:20:10] have to come up with a new power
solution to do anything beyond that. So
[3:20:13] we're effectively capped by the power
because again we focus on these existing
[3:20:17] infrastructure components. Any new
project would basically require new high
[3:20:21] voltage to be brought in and those are
kind of more of like the sprawling
[3:20:24] campus type of projects which doesn't
quite fit. Huh.
[3:20:28] » More of your hypers.
>> Yes. Exactly. And so um there may be
[3:20:32] other opportunities for some smaller
ones but uh as far as you you kind of
[3:20:35] mentioned decommissioning. So this is
where again I think it'd be helpful for
[3:20:39] us to be working alongside in parallel
planning and zoning. The current
[3:20:43] ordinance reads for kind of larger
buildings, a lot of deviations and
[3:20:47] setbacks and things that really read to
more of a retail center. But if you
[3:20:51] build a very bespoke like kind
[clears throat] of jogging data center
[3:20:55] now you're actually reducing the like
kind of the alternative uses because if
[3:20:58] you have a rectangular building with
power hooked up to it, that can be heavy
[3:21:02] manufacturing. That could be something
else later if you're if you're kind of
[3:21:06] bearish on AI. But if you look at like
historically built data centers, the
[3:21:11] vacancy rate in data centers across the
US is around 1%. And it's because
[3:21:15] there's just so much demand compared to
supply that it even makes sense to go
[3:21:19] buy older data centers now and take rip
out all the old gear and put in all the
[3:21:22] new gear because compared to China, the
US is very power constrained. And so we
[3:21:27] have to get the most out of our
megawatts with the latest chips. And so
[3:21:31] unless you think the internet's going to
go away, you know, even if you even if
[3:21:34] you take AI out of the equation, if you
look at the growth of just cloud and
[3:21:39] data centers strictly due to internet
use, it's it's truly exponential. In the
[3:21:44] last exclusive of AI between 20,
I think 2 and 20 or sorry 2020 and 2022,
[3:21:55] I believe somewhere in the two-year
range. I think like 90% of the world's
[3:22:00] data was like in the year 2022 was
created in the last two years. So it's
[3:22:06] truly an exponential growth that I think
if you believe the internet will
[3:22:09] continue, there's always going to be a
use for it because the hardest thing to
[3:22:13] bring is the power.
>> Okay, Lee.
[3:22:16] » No, this is this super simple. Oh, I
know. Thank you. Simple. Can you provide
[3:22:20] the updated
um I guess your presentation? Can you
[3:22:26] give that to the city so we can have
that put out on the city? That's all I
[3:22:29] wanted to know as an updated
presentation.
[3:22:32] » Yes.
>> Thank you.
[3:22:34] » Okay.
>> I just have one.
[3:22:36] » Okay. One question.
>> Um Sarah Neurroth, 20 East State Street.
[3:22:40] So I just did like a little bit of uh
like research just when you were talking
[3:22:45] and stuff. And so it's kind of going
back to what Councilman Mitchell asked.
[3:22:50] So, does your company actually have any
working
[3:22:58] like do they have any that are built
right now? From what I came up with that
[3:23:02] they did not. So, this is basically
theoretical. Is that correct?
[3:23:08] » Um,
it's not theoretical. We've uh our our
[3:23:12] team has built about 3 gawatt of data
center projects and power
[3:23:16] infrastructure. Swarm is a relatively
newer company compared to a lot of the
[3:23:19] larger hypers scale. So none are
operating today. There's a few in
[3:23:23] various levels of pre-construction and
pre-development across the country.
[3:23:28] » Okay. So I guess I'm not sure where your
numbers are coming from then if you
[3:23:33] don't actually have uh
>> well
[3:23:37] » it's uh it's data centers are not new to
us. small ones are um the projects that
[3:23:43] I've personally worked on is a 270
megawatt project in Illinois, a 600
[3:23:48] megawatt going a gigawatt project in
Texas and a 370 megawatt project in
[3:23:52] Phoenix as well as a couple smaller ones
uh in various parts of the coast
[3:23:56] including California. So we've done a
lot of data center projects, but this
[3:24:00] approach and doing these smaller ones
focused on these specifically kind of
[3:24:05] like highdensity
zero water like enterprise solutions is
[3:24:11] is what we left to go do. And and uh
it's a relatively newer phenomenon
[3:24:17] because everyone was pretty happy with
the cloud until their bills started
[3:24:20] catching on fire the last couple of
years. But we have all the connections
[3:24:24] to all the contractors, operators,
co-developers, investors and financeers.
[3:24:30] We ultimately are real estate
developers. And so the operations is
[3:24:33] kind of its own layer within that. The
commissioning of the actual components
[3:24:38] and and everything else is different a
different group. And so we have
[3:24:42] contractors, vendors, and everyone kind
of down the chain.
[3:24:47] » Okay. I think we probably discussed
this.
[3:24:52] Do you have a short question?
>> I do. Maggie Valentine, [clears throat]
[3:24:56] 2345, Whispering Oaks Road. Um, just
your proposal sounds as good as we could
[3:25:04] hope for, I think, if we believe
everything that's been said.
[3:25:08] » Let us prove it. [clears throat]
>> Well, I think the best way to prove it
[3:25:12] would be to stop until the moratorum is
finished and we have our regulations in
[3:25:18] place. I understand wanting to move
forward with the due diligence. It's
[3:25:23] perfectly reasonable. However, I feel
like part of supporting the moratorum
[3:25:28] is adhering to not bringing a proposal
to the council. I mean, the tone of this
[3:25:33] the everyone is so upset. And so, I just
think if you want to prove it, start
[3:25:40] right now and maybe we'll get the
information we need to believe it and to
[3:25:46] welcome you. if we're given the
opportunity to do that under the
[3:25:50] conditions that we all believed we were
going to have moving forward. So, thank
[3:25:55] you.
>> I think I think just to to to answer
[3:25:59] that if the if the city responds to our
our offer with a counter that says we'll
[3:26:05] accept your offer, but you simply cannot
close until we a enter the moratorum and
[3:26:10] then b choose to lift it and only then
legally can we close on your pro on this
[3:26:15] transaction. We're happy to accept that
and that will like legally bind us to
[3:26:19] being solely at risk on due diligence
and being un legally unable to close
[3:26:24] prior to that. We're happy to to proceed
that way and all it lets us do is
[3:26:28] proceed cuz otherwise we're waiting
several months and and
[3:26:33] just frankly we have to identify where
to pour our our time and resources and
[3:26:38] we think this is a fantastic
opportunity. We'd love to to make
[3:26:41] Marshalltown home and to drive this
forward. And again, in support of the
[3:26:45] mortorium, we're happy to to le like
this is as binding as it can be is a
[3:26:51] contract with the city that we cannot
close until the moratorium is entered
[3:26:55] and then exited.
>> I think the problem is that we don't
[3:26:57] want there to be a contract at all until
we get to the end of our process. And if
[3:27:02] Marshall Town is so fabulous, it's worth
waiting until November in my opinion.
[3:27:07] » I agree.
>> I agree.
[3:27:08] » Okay. I I think that we're done taking
questions and comments. Uh we've had
[3:27:15] this is a presentation.
>> Mine's not long. I I April long 911 May.
[3:27:21] I would just urge everyone on the city
council and everyone listening to check
[3:27:26] out the Marshfield, Missouri newspaper
and see what they have had to say about
[3:27:31] their experiences um with this
particular company and data center. A
[3:27:37] quote from their newspaper, "Staffing is
limited and the facility is largely
[3:27:42] automated with on-site operation teams
performing performing
[3:27:47] periodic preventative maintenance. Uh
60,000 square foot building subject to
[3:27:53] change during design
and uh estimated at 15 employees. It's
[3:28:01] » peak shift that is in the quote there,
>> right? But 15 employees that's
[3:28:06] » that's so it's three shifts and that's
about half if not smaller than this
[3:28:09] project. So 15 * 3 is like 45 and that's
like half the size of this project.
[3:28:15] » I don't think we're going to get the
unemployees that they're talking but
[3:28:18] please check out their previous
experience in the Marshfield Missouri.
[3:28:25] Thank you.
>> Okay.
[3:28:27] I have a quick question for you.
Um,
[3:28:33] » since Amir has said that he's okay with
everything being open, yeah,
[3:28:39] is the information that this council has
confidentially, can can I disclose any
[3:28:46] of it right now to counter something
that was asked and said,
[3:28:50] » Steve, I'll leave that up to you.
[3:29:03] I can't read your mind. So I don't
dangerous
[3:29:13] » whisper in his ear.
[3:29:18] » Either I can or I can't, I guess.
[3:29:28] the chips.
>> So, you're saying I'm out there on my
[3:29:31] own? Get I get my
>> I'm going to get my hands slapped again
[3:29:34] if I get out of line here.
[3:29:39] » I'm going to tell the public. You guys
keep asking um why you're asking a very
[3:29:45] valid question. Why can't
this individual wait till the moratorum
[3:29:51] is over?
um be three months be September,
[3:29:55] October, November on a two-year build.
>> It's already the end of September.
[3:30:03] » It's the end of August.
>> So, I guess what I'm going to say is
[3:30:07] since the mayor has said he's okay with
everything being out in the open,
[3:30:11] correct?
>> Sure.
[3:30:12] » And I'm sure I'm going to get in trouble
for this.
[3:30:17] Amir made an offer to buy land from the
city. That's been leaked. Everybody
[3:30:22] knows that. Okay.
Obviously, we're here today because the
[3:30:28] city didn't accept that offer.
The city made a counter offer
[3:30:35] that pushed the date back beyond the
moratorum.
[3:30:42] So you guys are exactly right that we're
willing to sell the land. We're just
[3:30:49] wanting to wait till the moratorium's
over and we're back here tonight because
[3:30:55] air did not agree to our counter offer.
>> He made a counter offer, Gary.
[3:31:02] » Huh?
>> He made a counter offer.
[3:31:03] » He made a counter offer that brought the
date forward
[3:31:06] » right from the end of the mortorium. And
we're not looking to close before. I
[3:31:10] understand that. I get that.
>> But so I guess if we if we proceed and
[3:31:13] we wait until December,
what do what we have absolutely zero
[3:31:19] assurance that we're going to be the
ones developing on this land versus
[3:31:22] somebody else. So sure, we could sit
around and wait, but we're not going to
[3:31:27] be able to advance a project, spend
dollars, and
[3:31:30] » So you're saying trust you, but you
don't trust us that we have an offer. We
[3:31:35] have an interested party that wants that
land. You're saying you don't trust the
[3:31:40] seven of us that we would sell that land
out from under an interested party.
[3:31:45] » No, that's not what I'm saying.
>> That's exactly what you're saying, Amir.
[3:31:48] It's exactly what you're saying.
>> Uh Gary,
[3:31:52] » we're a little beyond.
>> Yeah, we're beyond the presentation
[3:31:55] right now. I I will say that Alliant
will work with developers to a certain
[3:32:02] point and then they have to have the
land located
[3:32:09] on that they want to do because there's
hundreds of thousands of dollars
[3:32:13] involved with this.
>> So
[3:32:17] » you have to have a location
that Alliant can then work with you to
[3:32:22] work through all the other details. So,
um, [snorts]
[3:32:27] » but that doesn't invalidate the
question, which is would it
[3:32:32] » not viable?
>> All right, I think we're done talking
[3:32:37] about this on the presentation.
Um, let's move on to the next. Thank
[3:32:42] you, Amir.
>> Thank you.
[3:32:45] » Let's move on to the next. We're
>> going to go into close session possibly.
[3:32:54] um on this.
>> Don't leave yet.
[3:33:04] » Okay, so we did that
>> back together.
[3:33:10] » Oh, we got to go through our motions.
>> That's the order of business. We have to
[3:33:14] go to close session.
>> Yeah, that's right.
[3:33:17] » Okay.
[3:33:21] Your honor, I do have a question.
>> Yes.
[3:33:24] » Who all will be present during close
session if we are to agree to it?
[3:33:30] » The council.
[3:33:35] » What about
>> the litigation?
[3:33:38] » Yeah, the litigation I've been asked to
set out.
[3:33:40] » Yes.
>> Okay. Uh first thing that we are going
[3:33:45] to do
>> um
[3:33:48] Do I hear a motion to go into close
session?
[3:33:50] » So moved.
>> Second.
[3:33:53] » And then I have a quick comment. Um I'll
be abstaining um uh due to being the
[3:33:58] adverse party of it.
>> Okay.
[3:34:01] » And I would just like to say,
[3:34:05] » your honor,
>> hold on.
[3:34:09] » You need to push your mic.
>> Sorry about that. Uh just want to chime
[3:34:13] in before a vote to go into
>> your honor. Can you hear me? Yes, I can.
[3:34:17] Hold on.
>> Hold on a second, Melissa. Steve's
[3:34:21] talking.
>> You got to get close.
[3:34:25] » All right. I just want to chime in
before there's a vote on the close
[3:34:27] session.
Uh to let it be known that I am familiar
[3:34:32] with the facts and circumstances, and
it's my opinion that the council has a
[3:34:36] legal right to go into close session uh
under uh Iowa code section 21.5
[3:34:42] subsection 1, paragraph C.
>> Okay. Melissa, did you have something?
[3:34:48] » Yes. I wanted to know who all was
present.
[3:34:53] » Who all is present?
>> It will be the city council and the city
[3:34:57] attorney
>> and Kristen.
[3:35:00] » Not yet.
>> Not yet.
[3:35:01] » No.
>> Okay.
[3:35:04] » First one is legal.
>> Yes. And our legal council. Okay.
[3:35:10] Let's have roll call, please.
[3:35:15] Sorry. Clarification please. Which of
the closed sessions?
[3:35:20] » Number one.
>> Okay.
[3:35:24] » Gotcha. Thank you. And so we are doing
those in order or we're at least going
[3:35:28] through there. Thank you very much.
>> Okay. So this is a motion to go into
[3:35:34] close session. Cahill.
>> Yes. Gonea.
[3:35:39] » Yes.
>> Mitchell.
[3:35:40] » No. Nicholls,
>> yes.
[3:35:43] » Schneider,
>> yes.
[3:35:45] » Thompson,
>> no.
[3:35:47] » Yep. Gomez,
>> obstain
[3:35:53] failed
>> because he obtained.
[3:35:55] » Yes,
[3:35:58] » we won't be able to enterain
any type of
[3:36:04] » Okay. So then we will move on to
close session number two.
[3:36:12] » Close session pursuant to section 21.5
subsection 1 paragraph J of the code of
[3:36:16] Iowa to discuss the purchase and sale of
particular real estate only where
[3:36:19] premature disclosure could be reasonably
expected to increase the price that the
[3:36:23] government body would have to pay for
the property or reduce the price that
[3:36:25] the government body would receive for
the property. The city of Marshalltown
[3:36:29] has an attorney client relationship with
Lynch Dallas PC by council resolution
[3:36:32] 2022 161 approved June 13, 2022. There
may be council action by motion to
[3:36:37] follow the close session if directed by
the city's attorney. And
[3:36:42] » okay,
>> and as with the last one, um I am
[3:36:45] familiar with the the facts and
circumstances and it is my opinion that
[3:36:49] the council has the legal right to enter
into closed session for the stated
[3:36:54] purpose pursuant to section 21.5
subsection 1 paragraph J of the Iowa
[3:37:00] code.
>> Move to go into close session.
[3:37:04] » Second.
>> Your honor, can I have a clarification
[3:37:08] prior to going in just going
not going into close session for this.
[3:37:13] Would it then I'll I'll restate. Several
people have asked that this stay in open
[3:37:19] session. Would we not discuss it at all
if it doesn't go to close session or
[3:37:25] would we discuss it in open session?
>> Uh that remains to be seen. There'd have
[3:37:30] to be an open there would have to be a a
motion and a vote to discuss it uh in
[3:37:34] open session since there could be
negative repercussions uh from that. Uh
[3:37:39] typically uh you know the reason for
going into close session is similar to
[3:37:44] why you don't uh when you purchase a
home for yourself, you don't sit down
[3:37:48] with your spouse along with the other
party across from a table and talk to
[3:37:52] each other about it. You
>> get that private so you can negotiate
[3:37:57] fairly
>> by going by not going into close
[3:38:00] session. Would that have any um
precedent setting for future real estate
[3:38:06] activities?
No, you you never have to uh go into uh
[3:38:12] close session and I I don't think it
would set a uh precedent. Uh but it
[3:38:18] would arguably harm your negotiating
position.
[3:38:22] » Thank you.
>> Okay, I have a motion and a second to go
[3:38:26] into close session.
>> Can I have a roll call, please?
[3:38:29] » Mitchell,
>> no.
[3:38:32] » Nicholls,
>> Schneider,
[3:38:34] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[3:38:35] » no.
>> Yep. Gomez.
[3:38:36] » No.
>> Cahill.
[3:38:40] » Um,
yes. Seca,
[3:38:46] » yes.
>> Okay, that motion failed
[3:38:50] uh because we have three no votes. So, I
would entertain a motion to discuss this
[3:38:55] item uh in open session.
>> So, I will make that motion.
[3:38:59] » Okay.
>> Second.
[3:39:01] » Okay. Any questions or comments,
>> your honor?
[3:39:06] » Yes.
>> I think it it would not be in our best
[3:39:11] interest to go in open session with this
primarily because
[3:39:16] again what our what Steve just said and
also because um just listening to
[3:39:24] everything and
yeah, it it it just wouldn't be good.
[3:39:28] And also, um, I wanted to talk to you
guys about getting I know I know Steve,
[3:39:33] you know, you're a city attorney and
everything, but having an actual real
[3:39:36] estate attorney look at all these
documents. Um, just with everything
[3:39:41] being said um by the other party, I
think that we really do need an actual
[3:39:45] real estate commercial attorney. this.
Now, thank you, Gary, for asking what
[3:39:50] his background was cuz now we know that
he was a commercial real estate agent
[3:39:54] and um has his license in whatever state
he's in, California or whatever. So, he
[3:40:00] he knows more about um how to write up a
purchase agreement cuz like whenever
[3:40:06] obviously whenever we write up our own
purchase agreements, it's going to look
[3:40:10] a lot better for, you know, because
we're licensed and things like that. So,
[3:40:14] I I think we should really look into
getting a real estate attorney, a
[3:40:19] specific one.
>> I would just point out that I am a real
[3:40:21] attorney and a real real estate
attorney, [laughter]
[3:40:24] » uh, and that I handle all of the city's
real estate transactions personally. So,
[3:40:30] » thanks.
>> Yeah. Also, Kristen Paulie is our
[3:40:34] listing agent and did turn in the offer.
>> Okay.
[3:40:41] I know, but like what I'm saying is
um
[3:40:47] » Okay. I mean,
I still think that we should have
[3:40:51] somebody else look it over.
>> Okay. Your honor, if I may.
[3:40:56] » Okay. We have a
>> Your honor, if I may.
[3:40:58] » Yes. Um,
[snorts]
[3:41:01] I have a different reason for not
wanting to go into this open session to
[3:41:06] discuss this because I don't believe
that just saying possible open session
[3:41:12] open session to discuss the sale of real
estate with possible action to follow. I
[3:41:16] think it's in violation in my opinion.
I'm not a real person or a real lawyer.
[3:41:23] » So, real person. Um, so I'm just saying
we did not tell the public what the
[3:41:29] address was or anything about this. So I
feel we failed to meet the open meeting
[3:41:35] laws requirement and let you know what
piece of property we're talking about
[3:41:41] and there may have been other people
that would have come to this meeting
[3:41:44] tonight if they would have known what
that property was.
[3:41:49] So therefore I like councelor Fana do
not believe we should go into this uh
[3:41:57] discussion.
>> Thank you.
[3:42:00] » Yes.
>> So uh it was clearly in the uh packet
[3:42:06] what the presentation and the address
was regarding this. Yes.
[3:42:10] » So that is not a surprise. That is was
public information beforehand
[3:42:15] uh
>> because that's in the packet.
[3:42:18] The packet was air's presentation.
There's nothing that says this closed
[3:42:22] session and this open session were about
his presentation.
[3:42:26] » You know it because we have other
information. They didn't know it before
[3:42:30] they got the packet on Thursday.
>> I I would say that was public
[3:42:34] information because everybody know we
got the audience here because of this
[3:42:38] issue.
>> Um it it could be more descriptive. I
[3:42:43] think it's I think it's sufficient uh
how it was described. Uh and I'd like
[3:42:49] you to all keep in mind that nothing
that you can't make a final decision on
[3:42:56] this because you haven't yet complied
with 3647 and made a resolution
[3:43:02] proposing the sale and setting a public
hearing. So that would still have to go
[3:43:05] forward.
>> Um and and that's the public hearing
[3:43:12] aspect of it there. There's no
city of Marshalltown is very generous uh
[3:43:18] with its public input having basically
public comment on every single agenda
[3:43:21] item. Um that's not the cases the case
most places. Um and there there's that's
[3:43:30] why you have to have an actual public
hearing to solicit public input uh with
[3:43:34] a sale. You're kind of getting bonus
input at this point would be would be my
[3:43:39] uh take on that. and you would list it
more specifically uh moving forward with
[3:43:45] that formal resolution.
>> Okay,
[3:43:50] let's have a roll call, please.
>> Thompson,
[3:43:55] » no.
>> Um, no.
[3:43:56] » Yep. Gomez,
>> no.
[3:43:58] » Cahill,
>> no.
[3:44:01] » Bonka,
>> no.
[3:44:03] » Mitchells,
>> no.
[3:44:05] » Nicholls,
>> yes.
[3:44:07] » Schneider,
>> yes.
[3:44:09] What was the final vote on that?
>> 52.
[3:44:14] » 52. No.
>> Okay.
[3:44:19] » Well,
>> let's go ahead and move on to
[3:44:25] motions.
[3:44:29] » G.
[3:44:33] Number one,
>> motion to appoint Marty Wymore to the
[3:44:37] plan and zoning commission term ending
March 31, 2028, replacing Matt
[3:44:41] Broadding.
>> Move to approve.
[3:44:43] » Second.
>> I have a motion and a second.
[3:44:47] » I have a brief description of Marty's
application. Marty has applied to serve
[3:44:51] on the planning and zoning commission.
He Marty is an American Institute of
[3:44:56] Certified Planners member and has more
than 35 years of professional experience
[3:45:00] in community planning, infrastructure,
[snorts] housing, transportation,
[3:45:03] economic development, and grant
administration. He holds a bachelor's
[3:45:07] degree in geography and a master's of
public administration. And he has served
[3:45:11] as the executive director of region 6
resource partners since 1991. His
[3:45:16] professional qualifications, knowledge
of Marshall Town, and his interest in
[3:45:19] quality growth and redevelopment would
bring substantial experience and
[3:45:23] expertise to the commission.
>> Anyone have any questions or comments?
[3:45:30] » Roll call, please.
>> Cahill,
[3:45:33] » yes. Bonka,
>> yes. Mitchell,
[3:45:37] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[3:45:38] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[3:45:39] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[3:45:40] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[3:45:41] » yes.
>> Okay. Okay. Motion number two,
[3:45:46] » motion to appoint Robert Thomas to the
Waterworks Board of Trustees, term
[3:45:49] ending May 1 of 28, replacing Benjamin
Fletcher.
[3:45:53] » To approve.
>> Second.
[3:45:55] » A. I have a motion and a second.
>> Okay. Mr. Thomas is the retired
[3:45:59] president and CEO of United Bank and
Trust and brings 44 years of experience
[3:46:03] in management, finance, budgeting, bond
issuance, and strategic planning. He has
[3:46:08] an extensive history of service to
organizations throughout the
[3:46:11] Marshalltown area. His financial
background and a stated interest in
[3:46:15] water quality, infrastructure, and
future water capacity will provide
[3:46:18] valuable experience to the board.
>> Do we have any questions or comments
[3:46:22] from anyone?
>> Roll call, please.
[3:46:25] » Schneider,
>> yes.
[3:46:26] » Thompson,
>> yes.
[3:46:27] » Yep. Gomez,
>> yes.
[3:46:29] » Cahill,
>> yes.
[3:46:30] » Bonka,
>> yes.
[3:46:32] » Mitchell,
>> yes.
[3:46:33] » Nichols,
>> yes.
[3:46:36] » Okay. Number four.
>> Number three.
[3:46:38] » Motion. Motion to approve a 5-day class
C retail alcohol license for Midnight
[3:46:42] Ballroom LLC for the rodeo on October
17th at the Central Fairgrounds.
[3:46:46] » Move for approval.
>> Second.
[3:46:48] » Have a motion and a second. Any
questions or comments?
[3:46:53] » Roll call, please.
>> Mitchell,
[3:46:55] » yes.
>> Nicholls,
[3:46:56] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[3:46:56] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[3:46:57] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[3:46:58] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[3:47:00] » yes.
>> Seca, [clears throat]
[3:47:02] » yes.
>> Okay. Number four.
[3:47:06] Motion to approve a 5-day special class
C retail alcohol license for Lucky Wife
[3:47:11] wine flushies for October 5th, September
24th to September 27th.
[3:47:15] » Move for approval.
>> Second.
[3:47:17] » Okay, I have a motion and a second.
Questions, comments?
[3:47:22] » Roll call, please.
>> Yep. Miss Gomez,
[3:47:24] » yes.
>> Cahill,
[3:47:25] » yes. Jona,
>> yes. Mitchell,
[3:47:28] » yes.
>> Nichols,
[3:47:29] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[3:47:30] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[3:47:31] » yes.
>> Okay, number five. Motion to approve a
[3:47:36] 5-day class C special class C retail
alcohol license for Thirsty Pigs LLC for
[3:47:41] October 1st, September 24th to 27th.
>> Move for approval.
[3:47:45] » Second.
>> Okay. Any questions or comments?
[3:47:51] » Roll call, please.
[3:47:55] » Yes. Mitchell,
>> yes.
[3:47:56] » Nichols,
>> yes.
[3:47:57] » Schneider, yes.
>> Thompson,
[3:47:58] » yes.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[3:47:59] » yes.
>> Cahill, yes.
[3:48:02] » Okay. Resolution number one,
>> resolution approving an amended
[3:48:07] agreement between the city of Marshtown
and the Marshall County Arts and Culture
[3:48:10] Alliance, Inc. for a permanent art
installation on city property at 101
[3:48:13] West M West Main Street.
>> Or a motion for approval.
[3:48:20] » Move to approve.
>> I have a motion and a second. [snorts]
[3:48:24] Kelsey,
>> good evening. Kelsey Stafford, park and
[3:48:28] recreation director. One more moment.
I'm just pulling up the final rendering
[3:48:33] here for you all.
[3:48:43] The Arts and Culture Alliance and the
Parks and Recreation Department present
[3:48:46] for your consideration an amended
agreement to transition the temporary
[3:48:50] activation of the lot located at 101
West Main Street to a permanent pocket
[3:48:55] park. This project is born from
overwhelming positive feedback from the
[3:48:59] ACA's creative placemaking committee,
conversations with community members and
[3:49:04] local businesses, and support from both
the Marshalltown Central Business
[3:49:07] District and the Marshalltown Area
Chamber of Commerce.
[3:49:11] The city will be saving $800 to $1,000
per year in contract mowing costs, but
[3:49:16] will incur about $50 per year in cost to
maintain vegetation.
[3:49:21] The park will require watering and
minimal weed control in the first one
[3:49:24] and a half to two years, but will
continue to be low maintenance in the
[3:49:28] future as carefully selected perennials,
trees, and bushes establish.
[3:49:33] The current landscaping plan in front of
you includes no grass areas and has been
[3:49:37] thoughtfully designed by Kristen Titus,
park supervisor, to be as maintenance
[3:49:42] friendly as possible while still
remaining welcoming and beautiful.
[3:49:46] As stewards of the city of
Marshalltown's recreational spaces and
[3:49:49] opportunities and fiscal resources, we
believe that this space will have a
[3:49:53] large impact addressing council's
strategic goals and comprehensive plan
[3:49:57] priorities with minimal financial and
time investment. Staff is recommending
[3:50:01] council's approval of the amended
agreement. I have pulled up the
[3:50:05] renderings for your review your review,
excuse me, and Kristen is here to answer
[3:50:10] any landscaping questions. With that, we
will be happy to answer any questions
[3:50:13] that you may have.
Anyone have any questions?
[3:50:17] » Yeah, quick question. So, what is the
turf? I mean, that looks to me by the
[3:50:22] rendering that we have, you have grass
to mow and things to mow around.
[3:50:26] » Yes. So, this is the um proposal that
the artist gave. So, this is what the
[3:50:32] the creative placemaking committee used
to determine that we wanted to move
[3:50:35] forward with this concept for the art.
Um in front of you uh that I handed out
[3:50:40] to you prior to the meeting is the
landscaping plan. I will draw bring that
[3:50:44] up. Now,
[3:50:49] this is the landscaping plan that
Kristen developed here.
[3:50:54] Um, this will be a concrete path. I
don't know if you can see my cursor.
[3:50:58] Okay. And then pebble surrounding. Some
things might need to change. We may need
[3:51:03] to go with mulch instead of pebble or
what have you. Um, we're hoping to do
[3:51:07] turf, artificial turf in the back so
that there will be noing no mowing on
[3:51:11] this lot.
Um, and Kristen can definitely explain
[3:51:16] more about the landscaping if you have
further questions, but we're looking at
[3:51:19] raised seating um, walls right here
and some tall colum columner trees in
[3:51:26] the back.
Further questions on the landscaping
[3:51:32] plan?
>> Your honor, if I may.
[3:51:35] » Yeah.
>> Well, this sounds great. If there's no
[3:51:38] cost, would you say $50 a year? $50 a
year in spring costs in minimal time.
[3:51:44] » I think then that I think the Arts and
Cultural Alliance should be able to buy
[3:51:49] this lot for a dollar from us and take
it over then if it's that little of uh
[3:51:54] impact for them.
>> One thing I will add, um [clears throat]
[3:52:01] for the installation time, we're
estimating 160 hours for the hardscapes
[3:52:05] and 48 hours for the plantings. And then
an annual maintenance for the first one
[3:52:09] and a half years. 54 hours to water.
That's annual. And then two hours to cut
[3:52:14] back the perennials at the end of the
year. And I'll let uh Amber address that
[3:52:18] if she'd like.
>> So
[3:52:20] » I think it's pretty straightforward.
>> All that for $50 a year.
[3:52:24] » So um Amber can speak to the budget if
she would like, but it is all going to
[3:52:29] be paid for through um ACA. some city
dollars that were already allocated in
[3:52:34] the existing agreement and then grant
funding as well.
[3:52:39] Cost for labor of course in the hours
that I explained.
[3:52:44] » Okay. Any other questions?
>> I do have one. The hours that you
[3:52:49] mentioned are those um employee hours?
>> Yes. Okay. So that is not included in
[3:52:55] the $50 a month.
>> Correct.
[3:52:58] » Correct. So it is substantially more
than that in a year.
[3:53:02] » So yes, in in our general fund line
items, it'd be $50, but there is
[3:53:08] personnel cost for any any labor that we
would have. Again, the installation
[3:53:13] upfront is going to be some substantial
hours there about one and a half to two
[3:53:18] weeks of time um for about four
employees to do the work.
[3:53:24] » Okay. And then annual maintenance, 54
hours to water for the first one and a
[3:53:28] half years once those plants establish.
Similar to the welcome signs, we don't
[3:53:33] go out there and water those anymore
because the plants are established.
[3:53:37] » And I must say, your planters out in
front of here are beautiful.
[3:53:40] » Our staff does amazing work. Absolutely.
Thank you.
[3:53:44] Yes.
[3:53:49] Uh, you know, Gary. Oh, excuse me. Amber
Danielson. I I should should I say good
[3:53:54] night or good evening? I'm not sure. Um
126 West Main Street with the Arts and
[3:53:58] Culture Alliance.
>> Gary, you previously asked, "Are we
[3:54:01] prohibited to purchase land?" I said no.
The question I think really is, are we
[3:54:07] positioned to maintain this facility or
this asset? The answer is also no. Uh
[3:54:14] the ACA is a partner to the city and our
role is to bring the community's ideas
[3:54:19] through life through the arts and
culture master plan. That is our
[3:54:22] contract with the city. Bringing artists
to the table, engaging the community,
[3:54:27] identifying resources, fundraising,
managing the project, and turn those
[3:54:31] plans into action alongside the
community. And that's exactly what we've
[3:54:36] done with this space. Uh, but we are not
a parks and wreck organization. This is
[3:54:40] a pocket park and we are not equipped to
own and maintain this. Um, this pocket
[3:54:47] park is, and I talked a little bit about
this last time when I was here, this
[3:54:50] pocket park has been in the plans for
quite some time. It has been stagnant.
[3:54:55] Uh, essentially what we did was bring
the community together to tell us that
[3:55:01] this is what the community wants. And so
in alignment with the downtown master
[3:55:04] plan, with the comprehensive plan that
we might get to before midnight, uh it
[3:55:09] is in these plans that the city has laid
out to do these pocket plan or as pocket
[3:55:14] parks. And our contract is to do that
alongside of you, not to take the um
[3:55:20] role of parks and wreck, but to be a
partner with the city and Kelsey and her
[3:55:24] team.
>> Amber, how much was the grant that you
[3:55:28] do you remember?
>> I do. Um, so actually I had an
[3:55:33] opportunity to meet with the um leader
of AARP Iowa last week. They are using
[3:55:40] our project, the pocket park project as
a guinea pig for how they can do a
[3:55:46] better job of engaging their AARP
members in the communities with the
[3:55:50] projects they are funding. They're very
excited about this. So they've already
[3:55:54] taken what was a $30,000 project and of
given 15,000. we actively have another
[3:56:01] 20,000 on the table pending turning it
permanent um along with other grants
[3:56:06] that we're already starting to pursue.
There's a lot of opportunity to take
[3:56:09] even more of what the community has
offered to us and implement it into this
[3:56:14] design. So, what you're seeing is really
kind of what I would call, and I'm
[3:56:17] pointing to this screen, but what I am
pointing to is the renderings that you
[3:56:21] got in the packet, what I would call
phase one. There are going to be
[3:56:24] multiple phases to this project pending
it being permanent because we're taking
[3:56:28] all the feedback from the community and
parks and wreck and implementing that as
[3:56:33] we get more funding uh to implement this
and funding
[3:56:38] for this similar I will say to the Lin
Creek District projects has been
[3:56:42] relatively easy because when we build
projects alongside the community uh and
[3:56:47] do it in a unique way people want to
invest in that. So, I anticipate these
[3:56:52] projects um getting more fundraising and
uh more funds in place so that we can do
[3:56:57] more than what you see before you.
>> Okay. Um just to point out it uh the
[3:57:02] resolution does say a permanent art
installation.
[3:57:07] » Correct.
>> So, what we will be voting on is a
[3:57:09] permanent art installation.
>> Well, it's the agreement
[3:57:18] for permanent
Yeah.
[3:57:22] » Yeah.
>> Okay. Just so everybody knows. Okay.
[3:57:26] Does anyone else have any questions?
Anything from the public?
[3:57:33] » I
l peri 20 East State Street. I just had
[3:57:37] a quick question after reviewing the
contract. Uh the agreement says the ACA
[3:57:41] will complete the project as funds
allow. Can staff clarify what that
[3:57:45] means? And if the fundraising falls
short, does the city become responsible
[3:57:48] for finishing the project?
[3:57:53] » The city will not be obligated to bridge
the gap in any funding. Um, so the the
[3:58:00] design may change to accommodate the the
funds that we would have in place.
[3:58:06] » Anything from anyone else?
>> Roll call, please.
[3:58:13] » Yep. Gomez.
>> Yes. Cahill.
[3:58:15] » Yes. Conka,
>> yes. Mitchell,
[3:58:18] » yes.
>> Nichols,
[3:58:19] » yes.
>> Schneider,
[3:58:20] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[3:58:22] » yes.
>> Okay,
[3:58:24] moving on to resolution number two.
[snorts]
[3:58:28] » Resolution approving a chapter 28E
agreement with the Marshtown Community
[3:58:32] School District for shot and discus
facilities at West End Park.
[3:58:36] » Move to approve.
>> Second.
[3:58:38] » Okay, I have a motion and a second.
Kelsey Stafford, park and recreation
[3:58:43] director. Presented for council's
consideration is a 28e agreement between
[3:58:48] the city and the Marshalltown Community
School District for shared use of a
[3:58:51] section of green space between the
Weston Park ball diamond and Brady
[3:58:55] Creek. The purpose of the agreement is
to allow for the reconfiguration of this
[3:58:59] space for discus and shotput activities
between March 1 and May 31 each year.
[3:59:04] The usage of this area will include the
installation of necessary pads and back
[3:59:08] stop fencing as well as the removal of
the outfield ball diamond fence to the
[3:59:12] ballfield dugouts. Maintenance during
the track season time frame will be
[3:59:16] completed by MCSD while the city will
continue to maintain the area for the
[3:59:20] remainder of the year. The parks and
recreation department values its ongoing
[3:59:24] partnership with MCSD and is
recommending approval of this 28e
[3:59:27] agreement. With that, I will be happy to
answer any questions that you may have
[3:59:31] and I see Dr. Shy is here as well if you
have questions specific to him. Thank
[3:59:36] you.
>> Does anyone have any questions?
[3:59:40] » John, if I may.
>> Yes.
[3:59:41] » Why does the fence have to be removed
from the softball diamond?
[3:59:45] » The fence needs to be removed from the
softball diamond because of the distance
[3:59:49] required for the shot hood and discus
activities
[3:59:53] for the throwing.
[3:59:58] I believe there was a diagram in the
packet too. I might be able to
[4:00:03] » um
>> pull that up.
[4:00:04] » That fence isn't in terribly good shape,
is it?
[4:00:07] » It is not. And we we do not anticipate
that it will impact the use of any
[4:00:13] softball or baseball activity that would
be happening there as of now.
[4:00:19] [clears throat]
>> Okay. Then, do you have something?
[4:00:31] there in Shy 507 Craig Circle School
District Superintendent. Um I thought
[4:00:36] Kelsey did a great job describing the
answer to Gary's question is um we
[4:00:41] wouldn't want the existing fencing to
inhibit um the throws whether it be shot
[4:00:47] put or discus. Um, I had shared with
Kelsey that based on the limited use but
[4:00:54] continued use of softball recreation
there if we found that there was an
[4:01:00] issue with balls going um towards or
into the creek that we'd be happy to put
[4:01:06] a temporary snow fence up uh for the
outfield fences. The uh left field fence
[4:01:12] is already removed and has been removed
for some time. Opening up the space to
[4:01:18] the park. Uh we're just looking at doing
the same with the right field fence and
[4:01:24] outfield fence.
>> Thank you. Anything else?
[4:01:31] » Let's have roll call.
>> Yeah. Gomez.
[4:01:35] » Yes.
>> Kill.
[4:01:38] » Yes. Seca,
>> yes.
[4:01:41] » Mitchell,
>> yes.
[4:01:42] » Nicholls,
>> yes.
[4:01:43] » Schneider,
>> yes.
[4:01:44] » Thompson,
>> yes.
[4:01:47] » Okay.
To the last item, number three. I
[4:01:52] declare a public hearing open
[clears throat]
[4:01:57] for uh item number three
at 9:02 p.m.
[4:02:11] And this is for the open hearing public
hearing on the resolution on adoption of
[4:02:15] the Marshalltown
2045 comprehensive plan. Um,
[4:02:22] do we have any? Yeah, go ahead.
Getting late.
[4:02:28] » Good evening, Clayton Ender, assistant
director of housing, community
[4:02:30] development. Uh, this is your public
hearing on adoption of our newest
[4:02:36] comprehensive plan. Uh, I do want to
acknowledge a couple people in the room
[4:02:40] uh that have helped us along the way. We
do have representative of our consultant
[4:02:43] team, RDG, here. Um then uh certain
several members of our steering
[4:02:48] committee uh which I'll acknowledge and
then city staff as well and all of you.
[4:02:52] So thank every thank you everyone. It's
been a long process. Um but we've been
[4:02:57] working on this comprehensive plan since
about summer 2025. Uh this is an update
[4:03:02] to our current plan that dated back to
the early 2010s. Um and so now this plan
[4:03:07] accounts for some major events that have
happened in town since our last plan.
[4:03:11] We've had a tornado, a trade show, uh
pandemic, changing uh the economy has
[4:03:18] happened. So, a lot has transpired since
our last plan. So, this brings us back
[4:03:22] into perspective for our next 20 years.
What will happen for 2045?
[4:03:28] Um so, throughout this process, uh we've
had various means of public engagement.
[4:03:34] Uh we had our plan advisory committee I
miss mentioned to you. Uh we hosted uh
[4:03:40] more than 10 stakeholder listening
events around the community. Uh we went
[4:03:45] to our major employers and we held
community roundt event, community open
[4:03:51] house, interactive public website. So
really put the message out there as much
[4:03:55] as we can for the community to be
involved and and we did get great
[4:03:59] involvement from our community. Um so
I'm very pleased with that.
[4:04:03] Uh I'm not going to go through the plan
in excruciating detail. We can go dive
[4:04:07] into it if needed. But just as a highle
overview for you, uh the plan covers
[4:04:11] land use and design, mobility, housing
and neighborhoods, parks, trails, and
[4:04:16] the environment, economic development,
and sub areas, facilities, and
[4:04:21] infrastructure, and and uh rounds out
with an implementation chapter on how we
[4:04:26] should go about uh achieving the goals
we we have set for ourselves over the
[4:04:31] next 20 years. Uh this has been reviewed
by our planning and zoning commission
[4:04:35] and uh they have recommended approval of
the plan to you. Um I'll keep my
[4:04:41] comments short since we are late this
evening but uh certainly can go into
[4:04:45] detail if needed.
>> Does anyone have any questions?
[4:04:50] » Anything from the public?
[4:04:57] » Lane Perry 20 State Street. Um, I just
wanted to be absolutely sure that
[4:05:02] because I know there's been people with
concerns about the annexation part of
[4:05:05] this. um that I just want to clarify and
make sure that that being in there, that
[4:05:12] area being labeled for reasonzoning and
labeled for like future annexation, that
[4:05:18] doesn't count as anything towards a
vested interest for the proposed
[4:05:24] or un not proposed, but the speculated
data center build. I just want to make
[4:05:29] sure.
>> No, not unless something's in writing
[4:05:32] and there's nothing in writing.
the packets in writing. That's the only
[4:05:36] reason I was concerned. Okay.
>> Uh and to add on to that, we did review
[4:05:40] all property within two miles of our
city limits for future land uses. Um the
[4:05:45] vast majority of that and well the
reason we did two miles, that's our extr
[4:05:48] territorial review authority by Iowa
code. Um so that's why we did two miles.
[4:05:53] The vast majority of that is proposed to
essentially just remain as is. Uh we're
[4:05:58] not going to touch it. uh where we did
start to paint future land uses outside
[4:06:02] of our city limits, uh we took into
consideration where were existing
[4:06:07] utilities and where was some of that
development pressure occurring. Um just
[4:06:12] because we show something outside city
limits as a future land use doesn't mean
[4:06:16] we have to annex it. We need to review
those independently upon those requests.
[4:06:21] Um but this gives us a guide of where we
think development could happen. Um we
[4:06:26] did a lot of land use uh calculations.
How much land do we need for various
[4:06:31] uses? The vast majority of it can be
accommodated within existing city
[4:06:36] limits. Uh but that does uh it matters
whether or not does the existing
[4:06:41] property owner want to develop their
property or not. Um we can't we're not
[4:06:46] compelling anyone to develop anything.
That's still an owner driven
[4:06:49] opportunity. So, we really show more
land than we actually need um to meet
[4:06:55] the various needs because to account for
some of those uh economic forces that
[4:06:59] could come into play of I just would
rather my property stay a farm field or
[4:07:03] I'm ready to go now. Um so,
>> okay. Is there any other public comment?
[4:07:11] I
>> had a question for Clan. Uh
[4:07:15] » wait, wait. Okay.
[4:07:23] I can just take a couple seconds.
Charlie C with RDG plane design 31 Grand
[4:07:28] Avenue De Mo Iowa. Just wanted to say
thank you. Uh it's been we work across
[4:07:33] the Midwest on these types of plans all
over different states. And I would say a
[4:07:40] lot of times we don't have involvement
all the way till the end. uh even with
[4:07:44] our committee and we have a lot of our
committee members here through the wee
[4:07:48] hours uh tonight even. So uh thank you
for everyone being very involved
[4:07:53] throughout the process as Clayton
mentioned great uh community involvement
[4:07:57] at our events we held as well and uh I
we had edits all the way up to the end
[4:08:02] with everyone reading it and providing
really good good feedback. So um that's
[4:08:08] all I got.
>> We were the best community, right?
[4:08:10] » Yeah. Yeah,
>> you are. [laughter]
[4:08:12] Thank you.
>> Okay. Any other question? Okay. I'm
[4:08:16] going to close the public hearing. Uh
did we have any written comments?
[4:08:20] » No, your honor.
>> Okay. I'm going to close the public
[4:08:23] hearing at 9:08 p.m. and I'll accept uh
motion to approve.
[4:08:29] » I so move.
>> Second.
[4:08:31] » Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any
questions or comments by the council?
[4:08:35] » Yeah, I just had a quick question. So in
that annexation um I know there's been
[4:08:39] concerns like with houses and
residential homes that are more like a
[4:08:43] homes
>> um will planning and zoning be
[4:08:47] considering zoning those appropriately
or are they staying industrial if an
[4:08:51] annexation would happen?
>> Uh so upon annexation all property is
[4:08:55] automatically zoned lowdensity
residential um and then they would
[4:09:00] subsequently have to go through a
reszoning process planning and zoning
[4:09:03] commission city council. So uh any
zoning in addition to lowdensity
[4:09:10] residential would be subsequent uh
approval. So does that hopefully that
[4:09:15] answers your question?
>> Your honor, if I may.
[4:09:17] » Yeah.
>> So Clayton, please tell Marco that what
[4:09:21] you're really saying is the people that
want to stay there next to a data center
[4:09:24] on Shady Oaks Road, they will be legal
non-conforming
[4:09:29] after you reszone it in heavy
industrial. Correct.
[4:09:33] Uh well, it depends on if their specific
property is reszoned or not.
[4:09:37] » But I mean, if it's an acreage, you
would reszone that whole area, correct?
[4:09:42] » We don't have to. We can we can limit
the reszoning to just development
[4:09:46] parcels themselves and leave other areas
alone.
[4:09:49] » So, you'd spot zone.
>> Well, it wouldn't be spot zoning because
[4:09:53] you
>> it would be out the edge of those.
[4:09:54] » It'd be at the edge and it's, you know,
allow it's following the comprehensive
[4:09:57] plan. Those properties could potentially
reszone themselves in the future. They
[4:10:00] could petition themselves. They could
see an opportunity and say, "I have a
[4:10:05] couple acres here in an industrial area.
Maybe I'm ready to sell industrial." So,
[4:10:11] someone could come in after the fact and
want to reszone those as well.
[4:10:15] Or we could as a city say, "Nope, we
think it's in the best interest that we
[4:10:20] clean up all the zoning at this time and
and make that decision." So,
[4:10:25] it it's hypothetical. I could take you
down many different scenarios there. Um,
[4:10:31] but I'd be speculating.
>> Okay, any other questions?
[4:10:40] » Roll call, please.
>> Schneider,
[4:10:42] » yes.
>> Thompson,
[4:10:43] » no.
>> Yep. Gomez,
[4:10:47] » no.
>> Cahill,
[4:10:49] » yes. Fea,
>> yes. Mitchell
[4:10:55] » Nicholls.
>> Yes.
[4:10:59] » Yes.
>> Okay.
[4:11:00] » 43.
>> Okay.
[4:11:04] » With that, that is the end of the
meeting and thank you for everybody for
[4:11:07] sticking by and everybody being well
behaved. Meeting adjourned at 911.
[4:11:20] » You are on.
He was good.
[4:11:24] » He didn't go over. That was impressive.
That was impressive.