Agenda
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[12:00]
Good evening and welcome to the study session of the
[12:02]
city council of the city of Moreno Valley. Since Senate
[12:06]
Bill 707 became effective on July 1st, 2026. We are
[12:10]
pleased to offer expanded public access to our meetings. This
[12:15]
means the public may participate in person by phone or
[12:19]
virtually. For assistance with virtual or phone participation during public
[12:24]
comment. Please see the teleconferencing and public participation notice that
[12:29]
is posted on our city website and is made available
[12:32]
to you at the back table here in the council
[12:35]
chamber. The city council receives a separate stipend for CSD
[12:41]
meetings and I now call this meeting to order on
[12:44]
September 8th, 2026 at 602 p. m. Would any of
[12:48]
my colleagues like to lead us in the pledge today.
[12:52]
Mayor Protem Gonzalez will lead us in the pledge this
[12:55]
evening. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
[13:02]
States of America and to the Republic for which it
[13:06]
stands. One nation under God and divisible with liberty and
[13:10]
justice for all.
[13:22]
Thank you Mayor Protein. Next up we will go to
[13:28]
item C, roll call please. Thank you Mayor. Councilmember Bernard.
[13:34]
Here. Councilmember Delgado. Here ma'am. Council member Bakasani cruz. Here.
[13:38]
Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez. Here. And Mayor Cabrera. Here. Thank
[13:43]
you. Thank you. Next up staff introductions, please. How do
[13:47]
you Rodriguez City clerk. Paul Bradwicke management analyst. Sonia Gomez
[13:52]
and your deputy city clerk. Stephen Cantonia City Attorney. Brian
[13:56]
Mullihan City Manager. Injo Galace, Deputy City Manager. Alicia London,
[14:02]
chief financial officer, city treasurer. Sean Kelleher, Assistant City Manager
[14:06]
Development. Angelica Frouse to Lippo Community Development Director. Natalie Potter,
[14:11]
Humane Resources Director. Jeremy Bobnick, Director of Parks and Community
[14:15]
Services. Alyssa Walker, Director of Public Works. Kyle Wurszynski, Economic
[14:20]
Development Director. Theramack, Chief of Police. Thank you very much.
[14:29]
Next item E, public comments on matters. Excuse me, actually,
[14:32]
we're going to take this out of order a little
[14:33]
bit. Usually what we do is we will open up
[14:37]
an item. We will follow that up. By a staff
[14:41]
presentation, followed by any council questions, followed by public comment,
[14:45]
and then we will have deliberation and comments from the
[14:49]
council. Um, so that's, that's what we'll be doing. But
[14:52]
just as a friendly reminder that the city now offers
[14:55]
language translation services through a free app called Wordly. The
[14:59]
app automatically translates a variety of languages into English and
[15:02]
vice versa. To use this service, please scan the QR
[15:06]
code at the speakers sign up table. For the visually
[15:10]
impaired, please use your earphones or earbuds to listen to
[15:12]
the verbal translation. If you do not have any such
[15:15]
listening devices, please let the city clerk know and we
[15:19]
will gladly let you borrow some for this meeting. La
[15:22]
ciudad ahora ofrece servicios de traducción de idiomas a través
[15:25]
de una aplicación gratuita llamada Worldly. Si gustan usar este
[15:29]
servicio, por favor avísele a la secretaria y entregue una
[15:33]
tarjeta para hablar. Para usar la traducción escanee el código
[15:37]
QR que está en la mesa junto a las puertas.
[15:42]
Before we move on to public comments, I'd like to
[15:44]
remind everyone to direct our comments to the city council.
[15:48]
And for comments on items that are on tonight's agenda,
[15:52]
each speaker will have a total of three minutes to
[15:54]
comment. Public comments will be taken in the order that
[15:57]
they are received. It respective of the platform used whether
[16:02]
in person, by phone or virtual. And just another friendly
[16:07]
reminder that these study sessions are different from our regular
[16:12]
council meetings, these study sessions are really too study in
[16:16]
detail a particular topic in today's case. We have one
[16:19]
item on the agenda related to data centers. And so
[16:23]
we'll be studying that topic and public comments should be
[16:27]
limited to this particular topic. Um, so just as a
[16:31]
refresher in case it might be your first time bless
[16:33]
you, in case it might be your first time joining
[16:36]
us here in the council chamber, um, just wanted to
[16:39]
give a brief refresher there for you. Item F business,
[16:46]
we will have a presentation given this evening by public
[16:49]
works director, Melissa Walker, and that's for item F1 data
[16:53]
centers, public input and discussion. And at this time we'll
[16:57]
go ahead and turn it over to public works director,
[17:00]
Melissa Walker. Good evening honorable mayor pro - Tem and
[17:05]
council. Uh, Jason Nikolai are the division manager for the
[17:09]
electric utility will be giving the presentation. Thank you. Good
[17:19]
evening, good evening. Try that again. Good evening council and
[17:24]
everyone attending. Our presentation today is called Before the Megawatts
[17:28]
arrive. What communities should know about data centers. And I
[17:32]
want to start out by making this clear. This is
[17:33]
not a presentation about whether data centers are good or
[17:35]
bad. It is really about understanding what makes this type
[17:38]
of development different, what communities around the country have experienced
[17:41]
and what local governments, utilities, public agencies can do before
[17:45]
a major project is sitting at the development counter. We
[17:49]
do not have a data center project currently under development
[17:51]
in marinal valley. But the time to talk about it
[17:54]
is now. Because by the time a 200, 300 or
[17:57]
500 megawatt project is formerly submitted, a community may already
[18:01]
be under pressure to answer some very complicated questions very
[18:04]
quickly. So today I want to focus less on individual
[18:07]
projects and more on the questions communities should ask. Before
[18:11]
ahead of time.
[18:25]
Thank you. Before we go further, I think it's important
[18:30]
to define what we mean by a data center. That
[18:35]
matters because in many communities, including ours, traditional warehouses and
[18:39]
logistics facilities are becoming more automated. They may use robotics,
[18:43]
sensors, and software systems, and significant computing power. Uh, to
[18:47]
coordinate operations. But that does not automatically make them data
[18:50]
centers. In an automated warehouse, the primary use is still
[18:55]
logistics fulfillment or distribution. The computing supports the movement of
[18:59]
goods. In a data center, the computing is the primary
[19:02]
use. The facility exists to house the servers, storage systems,
[19:06]
networking equipment, cooling systems, backup power, and security infrastructure that
[19:10]
support digital services. That distinction is important for policy. If
[19:15]
a city adopts data center policies without defining use carefully,
[19:19]
it could unintentionally capture ordinary industrial warehouse projects that simply
[19:23]
use more automation. You could also fail to distinguish between
[19:27]
very different kinds of data centers. A smaller enterprise or
[19:31]
cloud storage facility may have very different impacts than a
[19:34]
hyperscale facility or an AI - focused campus. So the
[19:38]
policy question is not simply, is there computing equipment inside
[19:42]
the building. The better question is, is the primary purpose
[19:45]
of the facility computing. Data storage, processing, or digital service
[19:50]
delivery. And does that scale of that activity create infrastructure
[19:55]
or community impacts that require specialized review. First question
[20:04]
is, where are we even having this conversation. The answer
[20:09]
is that the nature of data centers is changing. We
[20:12]
started with cloud computing, which drastically expanded the amount of
[20:15]
computing that was being centralized in large facilities. Then artificial
[20:20]
intelligence accelerated the trend. AI workloads continue, uh, continue to
[20:25]
retrw tremendous amounts of data processing and rely heavily on
[20:28]
graphics processing units. Which are powerful chips, designed to handle
[20:32]
mini tasks simultaneously. And other advanced chips that can consume
[20:37]
substantially more power than traditional computing equipment. That leads to
[20:42]
higher computing density. Higher computing density creates more heat. More
[20:47]
heat requires more cooling. And all of that ultimately leads
[20:49]
to larger facilities and much larger infrastructure requirements. So the
[20:54]
regression on this slide is really the story cloud, AI
[20:59]
higher computing density. Larger facilities, and then much greater requirements
[21:03]
for electricity, cooling, land, telecommunications and other infrastructure. The industry
[21:08]
is not just growing. The scale of individual facilities is
[21:12]
changing. This slide is probably the best way to understand
[21:20]
just how much the scale has changed. A traditional enterprise
[21:23]
data center might historically have required something in the range
[21:26]
of 5 to 20 megawatts and about 100, 000 square
[21:28]
feet. A modern hyperscale building can be in the range
[21:32]
of 50 to 150 megawatts or 250 megawatts and about
[21:36]
800, 000 square feet. And now we're seeing AI focused
[21:39]
campuses discussed in terms of hundreds of megawatts. And in
[21:42]
some cases, more than a gigawatt. In terms of size,
[21:44]
we talk about these projects in the millions of square
[21:46]
feet. When we start talking about hundreds of megawatts, this
[21:51]
stops being just another land use application. It becomes energy
[21:54]
planning issue. It becomes an infrastructure issue. It becomes a
[21:57]
financial planning issue. And ultimately it becomes a community planning
[22:01]
issue. For perspective, a single large AI data center building
[22:05]
can represent an electrical demand that is comparable to or
[22:08]
even several times larger than the peak demand of some
[22:10]
municipal utilities. In view, for example, has a current peak
[22:14]
of about 70 megawatts. The entire city of marinal valley
[22:18]
only uses about 200 megawatts. That is really the first
[22:22]
key takeaway. Scale matters. And when the scale changes, the
[22:25]
questions a community has to answer also change. Of course,
[22:34]
there is a reason communities are interested in these projects.
[22:37]
The potential benefits can be significant. Data centers may bring
[22:40]
more private investment, additional property tax revenue, electric utility revenue.
[22:45]
Construction employment and investment in infrastructure. Those are real benefits.
[22:51]
But at the same time, communities also have to consider
[22:53]
electric capacity, water, land consumption, noise, infrastructure costs, and their
[22:58]
relatively limited number of permanent employees associated with many of
[23:01]
these facilities. And that's an important point. The conversation should
[23:05]
not be framed as benefits versus impacts. Both exist at
[23:10]
the same time. The real question is, how does a
[23:12]
particular community weigh those benefits and those trade - offs
[23:15]
based on its own priorities? What is the attractive. What
[23:19]
does attractive to one community may not be attractive to
[23:21]
another. And the answer may be different from one site
[23:24]
to another within the same community. For utilities, this is
[23:33]
where the conversation becomes very different. A data center connection
[23:36]
is more than a meter. To serve a large load,
[23:39]
we have to think about through electric delivery supply chain.
[23:44]
And at the, at the customer level, power has to
[23:47]
be delivered through the distribution system that may require a
[23:50]
new feeders. It may require new substations. But demanding the
[23:53]
size of the load, but depending on the size of
[23:55]
the load, the impacts can extend upstream to the transmission
[23:58]
system. And beyond transmission, we have to think about generation
[24:01]
or power procurement. Resource adequacy, capacity, reliability in resilience. So
[24:06]
the utility has to answer a series of questions. How
[24:08]
much load is actually being requested. When does it arrive?
[24:12]
How quickly does the load ramp up? What infrastructure is
[24:15]
required? Who pays for that infrastructure? What level of reliability
[24:18]
is being requested? And what happens if the project does
[24:21]
not materialize? That last question is critical. Probably the most
[24:25]
important one. The challenge is not only capacity. The challenge
[24:28]
is certainty. A developer may request several hundred megawatts. In
[24:33]
response, a utility may begin engineering work, transmission planning. Power
[24:36]
supply procurement. Capital planning or substation development. Those are not
[24:40]
small activities. They may require years of work and substantial
[24:44]
financial commitments. But then the project could change. It could
[24:46]
shrink. It could be delayed. It could be, it could
[24:49]
disappear all together. It's one of the biggest utility challenges
[24:54]
is figuring out how to plan responsibility for very large
[24:57]
loads without making premature commitments that ultimately create stranded costs.
[25:01]
And that is why very large developments is not simply
[25:06]
a technical connection issue. It's also a risk management issue.
[25:13]
The second major lesson is that resource impacts depend heavily
[25:16]
on facility design. Two data centers that look almost identical
[25:20]
from the outside can have very different impacts on the
[25:22]
community. Cooling is a good example. Air - cooled systems
[25:26]
generally have relatively low water demand, but they can use
[25:28]
more electricity for mechanical cooling depending on the conditions. Evaporative
[25:33]
systems may reduce some energy requirements, but can significantly increase
[25:36]
water consumption. Hybrid systems attempt to balance those considerations. And
[25:42]
cool liquid cooling is becoming increasingly important as computers. Competing
[25:46]
density increases, particularly for AI applications. So when someone asks
[25:50]
how much water does a data center use, the correct
[25:53]
answer is it depends on design. The same is true
[25:57]
for backup power. Historically mini facilities have relied on diesel
[26:00]
generators. Other projects may consider natural gas, battery energy storage
[26:04]
systems, or hybrid systems. Each technology comes with a different
[26:07]
combination of reliability, emissions, operational issues, noise, safety and regulatory
[26:14]
considerations. So rather than making assumptions based simply on the
[26:17]
words data center, communities need enough information about the actual
[26:21]
technology being proposed. Water use, energy use, air quality impacts,
[26:26]
and noise are interconnected. And in many cases, reducing one
[26:29]
impact may affect another. A third lesson is that location
[26:38]
matters. The same facility may be appropriate in one location
[26:41]
and very difficult to accommodate in another. On the left
[26:44]
side of this diagram, we have a residential edge. As
[26:48]
we move toward the more intensive industrial and an infrastructure
[26:51]
areas, the character of the surrounding land changes. And with
[26:54]
that change, the community may be better able to accommodate
[26:56]
things like high electrical demand, substation, transmission infrastructure. Large building
[27:01]
footprints. A mechanical equipment. And redundancy requirements. For communities, that
[27:09]
means citing decisions should look at more than just whether
[27:12]
the zoning technically allows the use. We also need to
[27:15]
think about setbacks, noise, building mass, mechanical equipment, backup generators,
[27:20]
visual impacts, access to utility infrastructure and proximity to residential
[27:24]
or other sensitive land uses. In many cases, good siding
[27:28]
decisions can eliminate or greatly reduce problems before mitigation is
[27:32]
ever needed. So location is not just a planning issue.
[27:35]
It can be one of the most effective forms of
[27:37]
risk reduction. Another important issue is how we define economic
[27:45]
value. Data centers can represent extraordinary capital investment. The buildings,
[27:50]
electrical systems, computing equipment, cooling equipment, and supporting infrastructure can
[27:54]
involve very large expenditures. But those facilities are also highly
[27:57]
automated. So they typically do not generate the same level
[28:00]
of permanent employment that some other uses might generate on
[28:04]
a comparable amount of land. That does not mean the
[28:07]
project lacks economic value. It means the value looks different.
[28:11]
So each community has to decide what matters most. Is
[28:14]
economic value primarily jobs. Is it assessed valuation, property tax
[28:20]
revenue, utility revenue, construction activity, infrastructure, investment. Technology investment, or
[28:27]
some combination of those things. That is really a policy
[28:31]
question in different communities may answer it differently. The key
[28:34]
is to understand the economic model before making assumptions based
[28:36]
on the size of the investment alone. This may be
[28:44]
one of the most important issues for public agencies. Someone
[28:47]
ultimately bears the risk of infrastructure built for a project
[28:49]
that does not materialize. That risk can fall in several
[28:52]
places. The developer may invest up front and lose those
[28:55]
costs if the project is canceled. The utility may incur
[28:58]
cost for system upgrades or capacity that is no longer
[29:00]
needed. Existing rate payers may ultimately bear some of those
[29:04]
stranded costs through the utility cost recovery. And the local
[29:07]
government may face fiscal impacts, delayed economic benefits, or public
[29:10]
expectations that were based on project that never gets completed.
[29:15]
So the question is not where the risk exists. The
[29:18]
question is where that risk is allocated. Communities and utilities
[29:21]
have a number of tools available to address that. Those
[29:24]
can include deposits, reservation fees, financial security, letters of credit,
[29:28]
infrastructure agreements, and milestone - based construction. The purpose of
[29:32]
those tools is not to discourage development. The purpose is
[29:36]
to align infrastructure investment with actual project readiness. If a
[29:41]
developer is asking a utility or public agency to make
[29:43]
a major commitment based on a future project, there should
[29:46]
be a reasonable evidence that the project is ready to
[29:48]
advance. Good agreements can protect the utility. Protecting existing customers
[29:54]
and also provide the developer with clarity about what is
[29:57]
required. Other.
[30:08]
So what can communities do? The biggest recommendation is very
[30:11]
simple. Don't wait for an application. The time to decide
[30:15]
how you're going to evaluate a 500 megawatt project is
[30:17]
probably not the day somebody submits one. Communities can begin
[30:20]
by establishing expectations in several areas. Where should these projects
[30:24]
be located? What information should reutilities require before they begin
[30:27]
major planning work. How should water demand be evaluated? What
[30:32]
noise standards should apply. How should backup power systems be
[30:36]
reviewed? And how will infrastructure planning be coordinated among utilities,
[30:40]
planning departments, public works, water agencies, fire departments, and other
[30:44]
affected organizations. Even if a community ultimately decides to rely
[30:48]
heavily on its existing rules. Thinking these issues through in
[30:51]
advance has value. It improves consistency. It improves transparency. And
[30:56]
it gives both the community and the development industry a
[30:58]
clearer understanding of the process. And that leads to the
[31:04]
question of policy. There's not one universally correct way to
[31:08]
regulate data centers. Communities really operate along a continuum. On
[31:16]
one end, a flexible approach may rely primarily on existing
[31:19]
roles and project - specific review. In the middle, an
[31:22]
enhanced approach may add additional studies, review requirements, financial projections.
[31:26]
Or project conditions. And on the other end, a more
[31:30]
comprehensive approach might include specialized standards dedicated agreements or more
[31:34]
detailed requirements tailored specifically to very large data center developments.
[31:39]
The important point is that a community does not need
[31:43]
to pick the same position as another city. The appropriate
[31:46]
level of review depends on local circumstances. What infrastructure is
[31:50]
available? How much industrial land does the community have? And
[31:54]
what are its economic development goals. What are the communities
[31:58]
quality of life priorities? And what authority already exists within
[32:02]
the local and state regulatory framework. The goal should be
[32:05]
to find the right level of review and protection for
[32:07]
local circumstances. More regulation is not automatically better. Less regulation
[32:12]
is not automatically better. The important thing is that we
[32:14]
approach the, and reflect the risks, opportunities, and priorities of
[32:19]
that particular community. Okay, bringing it all together. I think
[32:27]
there are seven fairly simple questions that any community can
[32:30]
ask before approving a major data center project. First where,
[32:34]
is this actually the right location? Second, how big? What
[32:36]
is the real phase development plan and what is the
[32:38]
actual load being requested? Third, can we serve it? Not
[32:42]
just electricity, but water, roads, telecommunications, emergency services, and other
[32:46]
public infrastructure. Fourth, who pays. Are the infrastructure costs and
[32:52]
financial risk clearly understood inappropriately allocated? Fifth, what are the
[32:56]
community impacts? Noise, water, air quality, visual impacts, and surrounding
[33:00]
land uses. Sixth, what does the community receive? Jobs, investment,
[33:05]
tax revenues, utility revenues, or some other benefits. And finally,
[33:10]
what happens over the next 20 to 30 years? Does
[33:13]
the project align with the long - term infrastructure and
[33:15]
land use vision for the community? If those seven questions
[33:18]
can be answered clearly, decision makers are in a much
[33:20]
better position to evaluate the project as a whole rather
[33:23]
than looking at each issue in isolation. So I want
[33:30]
to leave you with these three takeaways. First, scale matters.
[33:33]
Hyperscale data center can influence infrastructure far beyond its property
[33:36]
line. The electric grid, water resources, transportation systems, emergency services,
[33:41]
and surrounding community can all be affected. Second, preparation matters.
[33:46]
Clear expectations create better partnerships. They reduce uncertainty. They reduce
[33:50]
risk, and ultimately they can lead to better outcomes for
[33:53]
both the community and the developer. And third, local priorities
[33:56]
matter. Every community will balance investment, resources, infrastructure, employment, and
[34:01]
quality of life differently. There's no single model that every
[34:04]
community should adopt. For us in renal valley, this issue
[34:08]
is particularly interesting because the city is both the land
[34:10]
use authority and the owner of the electrocutility. That gives
[34:14]
us an opportunity to think about these issues from both
[34:15]
perspectives. But the larger lesson applies everywhere. Hyperscale data centers
[34:21]
are more than buildings full of servers. At the scale,
[34:25]
we're seeing now, they are long - term decisions about
[34:26]
energy, infrastructure, land, financial risk, and community resources. And the
[34:31]
communities that are best positioned to evaluate them will be
[34:34]
the communities that have answered the questions before the megawatts
[34:37]
arrive. Thank you. Hope you, I hope this gives you
[34:42]
a framework for thinking about some of these issues that
[34:44]
may arise and these projects as they continue to grow
[34:46]
in scale. I'd be very interested in hearing what other
[34:48]
communities and agencies in the room are seeing as well,
[34:52]
or people in the room are seeing as well. Thank
[34:56]
you very much for the presentation there. A lot of
[34:59]
information. And at this time, we will go ahead and
[35:03]
bring it back up to the Deus for council questions
[35:06]
of staff. Uh, either for Jason or the rest of
[35:09]
our staff. Are there any requests, any questions? Council Member
[35:14]
Delgado. Thank you for that. That was an excellent presentation
[35:18]
and kind of broke it down. Um, I did have
[35:19]
a lot of questions and you were answering them as
[35:22]
your presentation went along. So thank you for that. Um,
[35:24]
one thing I just want to clarify with you is
[35:27]
we're not voting on a data center tonight, right? I
[35:29]
just want to make it absolutely clear. This is not
[35:32]
a project that we're even talking about. That's correct. There's
[35:35]
no current projects proposed to the city. And this is
[35:38]
really a discussion so that we can be prepared in
[35:40]
case one is proposed. Thank you. And does anybody in
[35:44]
here know where the closest data center is to us
[35:47]
if we wanted to get eyes on it. I believe
[35:50]
the one in Riverside. Riverside. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
[35:57]
Any other questions from the council. I don't see any
[36:06]
other questions at this time. Uh, I do have a
[36:09]
couple. When we talk about land use and development and
[36:14]
approvals. One of the things that comes up is the
[36:18]
topic of permitted uses in our permitted use table. Can
[36:21]
you, uh, elaborate on data centers. And if that is
[36:26]
a permitted use according to our code, um, and any
[36:30]
other information on that. I think I can refer to,
[36:33]
uh, city manager. Yeah. As permitted uses, um, go, uh,
[36:41]
Title IX of our municipal code, uh, discusses permitted use
[36:46]
tables, uh, currently, uh, there is no data center on
[36:51]
our permitted use table. Um, outside of obviously the MVU
[36:57]
operations. And that's why Jason is deferring to me. But
[37:01]
Title IX specifies what uses are allowed in the city.
[37:07]
And then that table, uh, links it to various zones
[37:11]
from a zoning map. Okay. So yes. So section 9.
[37:19]
01. 030 of our municipal code provides that no use
[37:24]
of land and no use construction, maintenance operation, reconstruction or
[37:29]
enlargement of any building or structure shall be allowed unless
[37:33]
permitted under the express provisions of Title IX. And I
[37:40]
don't, I don't recognize the definition of data centers here.
[37:45]
I can't cross reference it to any permitted use that
[37:48]
we currently have in Title IX. Gotta thank you. And
[37:54]
then in terms of you went over infrastructure, for example,
[37:59]
things like water electricity and we know the conversation's happening
[38:02]
nationwide and how those various factors are affecting other communities
[38:06]
that have some data centers come into their, their communities.
[38:11]
If you mentioned there's no data center currently, you know,
[38:14]
proposed the application that the city has received, uh, but
[38:18]
in a hypothetical world where a developer did want to
[38:21]
build something here. Does the city even have the capacity
[38:26]
when we talk about electricity, the grid or water? You
[38:31]
mentioned megawatts and things of that nature. That's what could
[38:34]
you speak to that. So I can't really speak to
[38:36]
the water capacity issue. Um, but I can speak to
[38:39]
the electricity, uh, in terms of electricity, it really depends
[38:42]
on the size and how quickly that project is trying
[38:45]
to move into the city. Give it enough time, I
[38:47]
can bring in the capacity for any size data center
[38:49]
or any size project. Um, you know, these, these, uh,
[38:53]
these projects typically are proposed very short scale. And in
[38:57]
that short scale, it really depends on how big the
[38:58]
data center is planning to be. So hard to say
[39:01]
without getting a project mayor on the on the water,
[39:05]
just so you know, we did have a discussion with
[39:07]
EMWD about it to see if they had, uh, experience
[39:11]
with any data centers. And if they had any information
[39:13]
on the amount of water that was used and they
[39:17]
had not, uh, been approached by anyone yet, uh, their
[39:21]
concept was that it was probably going to be along
[39:23]
the lines of what a bottling center would be, uh,
[39:27]
which tends to have a much higher rate, but they
[39:29]
had not experienced it. So there was very little information
[39:33]
they could give us. Understood. Thank you. And then second
[39:38]
to last question about location. So another one that just
[39:42]
hoping we can clarify here. Um, and this is not
[39:46]
just data centers. This is really any application that comes
[39:49]
to the city, a developer that wants to build something
[39:51]
in our city. It could be a data center or
[39:54]
shopping center or a restaurant, uh, you name it. Uh,
[39:59]
can staff just speak to. Who ultimately decides where these
[40:04]
projects get built. Because, um, sometimes we hear that the
[40:08]
city decides where to build it. Um, other times the
[40:12]
developer is the one building it. So could staff just
[40:14]
clarify who ultimately makes a decision on where a project
[40:18]
is going to be built. I refer back to the
[40:20]
city manager for that. Yeah. Thank you, Jason. Um, mayor
[40:24]
pro Tim, council members. So the council approves the general
[40:30]
plan in zoning for the city. Um, so from that
[40:35]
perspective, um, council from a policy perspective goes through a
[40:40]
process, uh, which we just recently did, um, the land
[40:48]
owners ultimately then work with, um, either themselves as developers
[40:55]
or developers to develop, um, on their land. The city
[41:00]
owns very little land actually, um, the land that we
[41:04]
own, uh, currently is from the redevelopment years, which with
[41:09]
a dissolution of redevelopment in 2012, uh, those particular parcels
[41:14]
had to be earmarked for, uh, future affordable housing, uh,
[41:19]
development. And so that's what we're doing now with those.
[41:22]
Um, there is no very large, uh, scale development that,
[41:27]
uh, or land that we own where we get to
[41:30]
say, this is what we want to build, um, and
[41:34]
so from that perspective, it's the landowners that are working
[41:38]
with the developers that are referencing the general plan and
[41:44]
the zoning map to ensure that their development is within
[41:49]
those criterion, or they then will be seeking a general
[41:54]
plan amendment, uh, and a zoning amendment. Did that answer
[42:00]
your question? Yes. And let me maybe just summarize in
[42:03]
a little bit a simpler terms there. Um, just, if
[42:06]
I'm understanding what you're saying correctly, um, anytime a developer
[42:10]
comes into the city and wants to build say fast
[42:12]
food restaurant or housing tract or a data center, whatever
[42:15]
it may be, they have to go through the process,
[42:19]
some made applications, meet with staff, everything. Um, and ultimately
[42:23]
in terms of approving or denying city does have that
[42:26]
authority, of course planning commission, city council, but as far
[42:30]
as where a developer wants to open their new restaurant
[42:34]
or build a new housing track, they're the ones that
[42:37]
decide this is the property. This is the lot. This
[42:41]
is the intersection where I want to build my project,
[42:43]
city of Marino Valley. Will you approve it or deny
[42:46]
it? Yes. Sorry. Yes. Um, that is that depiction is
[42:51]
accurate. The only thing I would also, um, add is
[42:54]
that the city looks at each development, each project based
[42:59]
on the merits of the project. Thank you. That'll conclude
[43:04]
my questions. Are there any further questions? Mayor pro tip.
[43:08]
And Brian just to clarify. So if today a data
[43:12]
center developer wanted it to submit an application, the entitlement,
[43:17]
they would have to obtain is a change of zone.
[43:21]
Today. Or would be a gentle plant amendment and CUP
[43:24]
or just to change zone. Well, yeah, it's not even
[43:27]
a permitted use on the permitted use table per Title
[43:31]
IX chapter 9. 02. So, um, that's why, um, it's
[43:37]
here before you, like Jason said, um, from a policy
[43:41]
perspective, have some discussion around scalability, um, mainstream media typically
[43:49]
talks about hyper, uh, data centers, which is anywhere between
[43:54]
100 megawatts more or 250 megawatts more depending on what
[43:59]
criterion and what, uh, study your reading and mainstream media.
[44:05]
And for any of those, uh, megawatt, for those of
[44:08]
you in the room and at home, and we're talking
[44:13]
a lot of megawatts and I think even a gigawatt
[44:16]
was discussed. Uh, Jason from a megawatt perspective for reference.
[44:20]
How many homes does that power. For say a hundred
[44:24]
megawatts. 100 megawatts. 100 megawatts. So that's half the community.
[44:29]
So you're looking at 50 to 100, 000 residents. Yeah.
[44:32]
Okay. So that gives you some reference. Quite frankly, if
[44:37]
we had, um, an application dropped, uh, on someone's desk,
[44:41]
we would be stating at this point, how would envy
[44:45]
you be able to even service? Because we don't have
[44:49]
the infrastructure nor, um, because we're, an infant utility. We
[44:54]
don't have the contractual arrangement for, um, power service agreements.
[45:00]
So, um, yeah, that's why, uh, when it was suggested,
[45:06]
uh, to have a conversation about data centers, it was
[45:09]
a timely, um, as, you know, others are talking about
[45:13]
it. County's talking about LA counties done a few things
[45:16]
as well. Seems more and more, um, frequently you're hearing
[45:21]
about data centers. And, you know, when we talk about
[45:24]
scalability and so forth, I think it's really what we've
[45:30]
heard in mainstream meter media is the hyper, um, data
[45:34]
centers. And trying to identify if we were to receive,
[45:39]
you know, an application on that, we wouldn't even be
[45:40]
able to service it. But there are other, um, scales
[45:47]
of a data center that Jason went over. But again,
[45:51]
it's not on our permitted use table. So what do
[45:54]
we potentially do here. Mr. Mayor. So if someone were
[46:01]
to inquire about how you would go about getting a
[46:04]
data center approved in merino valley, they would have to
[46:08]
submit an application for a general plan amendment. Because we
[46:12]
don't address data centers in our general plan. They would
[46:16]
have to submit an application for zone change. So you
[46:19]
can determine where a data center would be located. They
[46:24]
would have to submit an application for, uh, change in
[46:28]
our text to zoning text amendment. To identify, to describe,
[46:34]
include a definition of a data center and to determine
[46:37]
what sort of permit would be required. That's what they
[46:41]
would have to do. They would have to get through
[46:44]
all those jumps through all those hoops and get all
[46:46]
those approved by your planning commission and city council. But
[46:50]
right now data centers are not permitted. So if somebody
[46:54]
submitted an application or data center, we would just reject
[46:57]
it because it's not permitted. But if we wait until
[47:00]
somebody submits an application, it'll be too late. Just like
[47:03]
right now we have a lot of discussion about banning
[47:06]
certain businesses and we can't do that. Well, we have
[47:07]
active applications. So right now is the good time to
[47:10]
be talking about this. Because if we wait until somebody
[47:13]
applies, it will be too late. Is that correct? Yes.
[47:18]
If somebody applies and they submit an application for a
[47:21]
general plan amendment, we have to process it to the
[47:23]
point of getting to the point. We could talk about
[47:27]
moratorium or abandonny on that particular because it would be
[47:30]
too late at that point. So now is the time
[47:32]
when we need to speak with initiate the requirement to
[47:35]
provide due process. Thank you. Thank you, answers my questions.
[47:44]
Are there any further questions from the council. Seeing no
[47:49]
further questions at this time? Thank you again, Jason. Appreciate
[47:52]
the presentation there. And we will go ahead and move
[47:55]
into public comment for this item. Again, just a friendly
[47:58]
reminder that, uh, since it's a study session, the public
[48:02]
comments are limited to the topic of discussion. In this
[48:05]
case, we have F1. It's about data centers. Um, and
[48:08]
then everyone does have three minutes to speak. And we
[48:11]
won't have a list of your names up on the
[48:12]
screen city clerk will call up your name one by
[48:15]
one, uh, in the order that we receive those requests.
[48:19]
And, um, and then also, just again, if it's your
[48:22]
first time, uh, I know some folks may have been
[48:24]
here before, but if it's your first time, um, sometimes
[48:27]
we do get questions from public comment, um, it's our
[48:31]
practice here that we do not go back and forth
[48:34]
during public comment just so we can make sure everybody
[48:37]
has their chance to speak. And then we follow up
[48:39]
after the meeting, uh, if there's any questions like that
[48:42]
come up. So, um, just in case if you ask
[48:44]
a question and we don't respond on the spot, it's
[48:47]
not because we don't want to. It's just, that's our
[48:49]
standard practice here. Um, so with that, Madam Cleric, I'll
[48:52]
turn it over to you. Thank you, Mayor. The first
[48:55]
three speakers are Bob Palomara's followed by Ismael Gonzalez, followed
[48:58]
by Catherine. Good evening, council. Uh, I'm glad they said
[49:05]
you can't build one here. If you could, where would
[49:07]
you put it? Either put it on the northeast or
[49:12]
where the WLC is. That's about it. The thing is
[49:16]
that on the presentation was great, but I didn't hear
[49:19]
anything about how they, uh, dispose of the pollution that
[49:24]
comes out of that center, whether it may be water.
[49:29]
And then we all know that right now Lake Paul
[49:34]
is at record low levels for water. They've been the
[49:38]
low end since 1957. And, uh, they're cutting California's allotment
[49:45]
by interior. Last month in August. That's what they came
[49:52]
up with. I don't know about Arizona, Nevada. That doesn't
[49:56]
concern us. But California is 15 percent. Every city's going
[50:03]
to be saying, you know what, we have to cut
[50:05]
back. Happened before. It'll happen again. And, uh. Let's see
[50:13]
here. You know, they say that it takes extreme 24
[50:18]
seven cooling. What does that mean? That means that the
[50:21]
water is constantly rotating in and out. Massive power demand.
[50:29]
So what are they going to get all the juice
[50:31]
if they could build one here. The utility company we
[50:36]
have could never do it. So Edison, I've heard where
[50:41]
some data centers. They've, uh, sold. Some cities have sold
[50:48]
it to the data center leaving the people that buy
[50:51]
it from the utility hanging. Or they have to even
[50:54]
pay more to get theirs because the highest bitter one.
[51:00]
And then the water infrastructure, you know, what are the
[51:05]
benefits. There aren't any. The environment is what's going to
[51:12]
pay for it. So, you know, there's just too many
[51:15]
red flags. I'm glad, you know, we're having this session
[51:19]
here and just discussing it, but just batting it. Like,
[51:25]
is Baco was saying, you know, stop it right now
[51:29]
before, you know, somebody puts in an application because it's
[51:32]
never going to work for the people of Moreno Valley.
[51:36]
Thank you. The next three speakers are Ismael Gonzalez followed
[51:41]
by Catherine, followed by Scott Habaran. Good evening city council,
[51:51]
city staff. Uh, audience of Marina Valley. My name is
[51:55]
Lismo Gonzalez. I'm a resident of district two. I want
[51:58]
to say that, uh, it is regrettable that this conversation
[52:02]
is today, um, considering that I've been warning this council
[52:07]
for months, uh, since the beginning of the year, even
[52:11]
the, uh, environmental and historical preservation board. I've been telling
[52:14]
them data centers will come up. It's going to happen.
[52:18]
It's a breaking point for our society. And here we
[52:20]
are, but it's been, you know, I'm glad that we're
[52:22]
still having this discussion. I hope that this recording will
[52:26]
be published online for anyone to, uh, rewatch later as
[52:30]
well as the presentation that the city developed. Um, on
[52:35]
that note, I do feel like I have to maybe
[52:39]
point out the elephant in the room. With all due
[52:41]
respect to city staff. That presentation, it's images were generated
[52:46]
by AI. Uh, it's really sad that the city staff
[52:50]
gets paid considerably. They go to school for these jobs
[52:55]
and then rely on computer generated content to present a
[52:58]
discussion about data centers. You guys, I've repeatedly warned you
[53:04]
do not use computers to generate your reports, your presentations,
[53:09]
because they are noticeable. I am of the generation that
[53:12]
grew up with technology. I grew up with the emergence
[53:16]
of Instagram, Facebook, all these data technology companies that are
[53:20]
now pushing data centers upon the society. To the people
[53:25]
like me, my AIDS, we can see that. We can
[53:29]
understand what is generated by computers and what is not.
[53:33]
It is real, it's a real shame that you guys
[53:36]
are college educated people paid considerably relying on computers to
[53:41]
produce the content that the city needs. Let me remind
[53:45]
you that, uh, the data centers across the country right
[53:49]
now are known to gazel five million gallons of water
[53:54]
per day. They are also known to increase energy costs
[54:01]
for the local grid and nearby residents by 267 percent.
[54:07]
You've heard your city attorney, your city manager say that
[54:11]
the process for an applicant to come through and, and
[54:15]
request a data center here in the city is pretty,
[54:18]
uh, hard to get through. Why not just ban it
[54:22]
right now? Why not just prohibit it right now like
[54:25]
other cities are doing, uh, the city of Coachella just
[54:29]
a few weeks ago prohibited data centers completely. The first
[54:33]
city in Riverside County to do so, uh, Palm Springs
[54:37]
has put a moratorium. Monterey Park was the first city
[54:40]
to ever prohibit data centers completely with the voter record
[54:43]
of 88 percent. This is bipartisan. This is very popular.
[54:48]
The only people that want this are the billionaires. Thank
[54:50]
you so much. Next three speakers are Catherine followed by
[54:55]
Scott Havran followed by Deanna Lakava. Hi, my name is
[55:04]
Catherine. I'm a nine year resident, Umrino Valley living in
[55:06]
the rancho blogo area. I believe Erlen, you're my represent,
[55:10]
representative over there. Um, so a little bit about my
[55:13]
family and I, um, my husband and I chose Movel
[55:16]
as a city to start and raise our family, uh,
[55:18]
when we began looking at homes here, we quickly took
[55:20]
notice of the multiple parks, schools, trails, and the open
[55:24]
fields utilized by motorspars enthusiasts around the city. And of
[55:27]
course we love to see that donkey's room free almost
[55:30]
as if they were the first ones to really welcome
[55:32]
us here to the city. Over the years, we've been
[55:35]
lucky to see the various wildlife that Sherland in the
[55:37]
city, uh, from the hawk that stocked our doxon in
[55:41]
the backyard when we would let her out as a
[55:43]
puppy to the falcon's owls, bats, turkey vultures, raccoons, snakes
[55:47]
and coyotes, uh, we've encountered on our many walks over
[55:50]
the past that I knew years. A data center, excuse
[55:54]
me, anywhere in Moreno Valley will be detrimental to the
[55:57]
quality of life for all residents, human and animal alike.
[56:02]
I implore you all as our elective representatives to move
[56:06]
forward with a ban on data centers in Moreno Valley.
[56:10]
There are currently 88 data centers in the state of
[56:12]
California. 53 in operation and 35 in development. Those are
[56:17]
88 examples of failed leadership to the constituents in those
[56:22]
cities. Again, as a resident and voter of the city,
[56:26]
do not fill your constituents like we were failed with
[56:28]
flock cameras. I moved forward with a ban on data
[56:31]
centersuinovelley. Thank you. The next three speakers are Scott Havran
[56:41]
followed by Deanna Lakava, followed by Carolyn Brodoer. Uh, good
[56:49]
evening, council mayor. Uh, it's been a minute. I love
[56:53]
what you've done with the place. It's real nice. AI
[56:59]
data centers do not appear to be compatible with Reno
[57:03]
Valley's climate. It's a hot, dry area. You'd think that
[57:07]
a data center would be someplace in Minnesota where they
[57:09]
have lots of water, cool air, just not hearing Rino
[57:13]
Valley. Um, the thing that I wanted to know is
[57:17]
where would these data centers go. Talking to million square
[57:21]
feet, I think the only place it can go is
[57:24]
Highland Fairview's area. They're the only people that have the.
[57:29]
And we were told when we approved the world logistics
[57:32]
center that it was bringing these jobs. And now if
[57:35]
we're going to put these data centers on there, those
[57:38]
jobs aren't there. It feels like we've been one hand
[57:43]
gives and one hand takes. Now a positive thing about
[57:47]
the data centers is we wouldn't have these huge mega
[57:50]
warehouses with all this truck traffic. That's the only bright
[57:53]
side I can see. I'm more concerned about these warehouses
[57:59]
going up. You look at boil heights. I'm sure that
[58:04]
they love that warehouse until it burned to the ground.
[58:09]
And are we ready for, do we have the infrastructure
[58:11]
for data centers? We have, uh, I realized when we
[58:16]
were changing to, when we proved to world logistics center,
[58:20]
they always talk about, uh, different types of fire stations.
[58:24]
What kind of fire station would a status center require?
[58:27]
What kind of emergency services above and beyond what we
[58:29]
have right now. And then the noise, that's the first
[58:33]
time I heard about noise coming from these things. What's
[58:36]
that about? Uh, there's a lot more questions, but I
[58:39]
really appreciate having the study session because that's what we
[58:41]
need. We need more community outreach. We need more transparency.
[58:52]
And again, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. The
[58:56]
next three speakers are Deanna Lakavo followed by Carolyn Brodor,
[58:59]
followed by David Roberson. Alright, my
[59:09]
name is Deanna LaCava. I've born here and lived here
[59:13]
my whole life. We here in Marino Valley. Don't mean
[59:17]
to catch on. Do you mind speaking just into the
[59:19]
month so we can hear you? And let's go ahead
[59:20]
and give her three minutes, please. Thank you. I've been
[59:23]
here a long time. I was born here. Um, in
[59:27]
merino valley, we have the advantage of being a little
[59:29]
late coming to the table on data centers. We do
[59:32]
see what other communities neres have decided to do. Coachella
[59:35]
voted unanimously to permanently prohibit the hyperscale data centers following
[59:41]
intense public pushback. Parasite council voted unanimously to direct planning
[59:48]
staff to draft a citywide ban. Um, facing local pressure
[59:52]
city leaders and council members in Riversider establishing perimeters for
[59:56]
the potential citywide bandied has imposed a temporary moratorium. Desert
[1:00:02]
Hot Springs has a temporary pause where they evaluate future
[1:00:05]
restrictions. These cities are taking these actions because they're citizens
[1:00:09]
feel so strongly. We and Marino Valley, we feel strongly
[1:00:12]
too. Um. Because we don't currently have data centers. We
[1:00:17]
can learn from places like New Jersey, Mississippian, Florida. In
[1:00:21]
these places, people are reporting that data centers are affecting
[1:00:23]
all their natural resources. The waters and creeks and rivers
[1:00:27]
is being polluted. The sinners are using thousands of gallons
[1:00:30]
of water per day. And merino valley doesn't have abundant
[1:00:33]
water available for data centers. The August 22nd desert sun
[1:00:38]
reported that California is facing reduced Colorado River allocation, which
[1:00:43]
was mentioned by a previous speaker. So I don't need
[1:00:45]
to repeat that, um, but with river water unavailable, that
[1:00:49]
means that any data center here is likely to start
[1:00:51]
pulling water from our aquifers. Um, people in other states
[1:00:57]
with data centers pulling water from the aquifers are reporting
[1:01:00]
water disruptions, low water pressure and no water at all.
[1:01:03]
Their oils are pulling up nasty brown, undrinkable sludge. Instead
[1:01:07]
of the water, they had before the data centers. We
[1:01:10]
have families living on whales in eastern Marino Valley and
[1:01:14]
we need to protect the water in our aquifers for
[1:01:16]
use for people who are here, who live here. And
[1:01:19]
the noise, um, so many places with data centers are
[1:01:23]
reporting that constant 24 seven humming and buzzing has been
[1:01:26]
described as feeling like you're being hit in the stomach
[1:01:29]
when you go outside. A rancher near Abilene, Texas reported
[1:01:33]
that cattle on his property have had consecutive stillbirths after
[1:01:37]
a data center. And it's heavy power equipment began operating
[1:01:41]
nearby. And property values. If you can't take the noise
[1:01:45]
and decide to move, who's going to buy a house
[1:01:47]
with a noisy data center nearby. These data centers will
[1:01:50]
affect nearby property values. Um, air quality is being will
[1:01:55]
be compromised and temperatures are being affected by data centers.
[1:02:00]
Drones fitted with thermal cameras are finding data centers brazenly
[1:02:04]
defying environmental laws. While some centers promise to operate using
[1:02:07]
renewable sources, um, of energy, they are in fact burning
[1:02:12]
fossil fuels to power their operations. Many are burning diesel
[1:02:16]
and gas to power their data centers. Poisoning the air
[1:02:19]
and raising temperatures by up to 16 degrees. Thank you
[1:02:22]
very much. Next three speakers are Carolyn Brodor followed by
[1:02:26]
David Roberson followed by Alan Calderon.
[1:02:38]
Good evening. Um, I think the truth is that you
[1:02:41]
are planning for these developers to build data centers. I
[1:02:45]
can, I think that's the truth. And here's how we
[1:02:47]
know. Reno valleys utilities. Renoval utilities 2025 integrated resource plan
[1:02:55]
tells us. It says that after 2025, unnamed so -
[1:02:59]
called spot loads will account for more than half of
[1:03:03]
the total system electricity's consumption. Okay. What is a spot
[1:03:07]
load? A spot load is a massive, highly concentrated demand
[1:03:11]
for electricity at a single specific location on the power
[1:03:15]
grid. If the merino valley utility is showing that unnamed
[1:03:20]
spot loads will account for over 50 percent of the
[1:03:23]
entire city's power consumption after 2025, they did not make
[1:03:27]
up those numbers in a vacuum. Okay. Grid planners only
[1:03:32]
build those mouses of spikes into official city forecasts when
[1:03:36]
large developers like who? Highland pair view. Highland Fairview or
[1:03:41]
Majestic have submitted preliminary grid capacity inquiries to Marino Valley
[1:03:47]
utility to see if the local grid can support data
[1:03:50]
centers. You're already planning it. Okay. We already know. That's
[1:03:54]
why we're having this meeting because you just want to
[1:03:56]
run it through. That's what's going on. You're sneaky. Okay.
[1:04:01]
Sneaky. It's terrible. Say it again. You can get a
[1:04:04]
time. To stay up. Next three speakers are David Roberson
[1:04:09]
followed by Alan Calderon followed by Manuel Topetti.
[1:04:22]
Council members. And staff. I'm here tonight. To urge the
[1:04:29]
council to, uh, immediately pause. Consider what the community is
[1:04:34]
saying to you today. And follow the reasonable sense of
[1:04:38]
leads from cities like the city of commerce like Coachella
[1:04:42]
who have taken their communities, concerns into account and acted
[1:04:47]
on their behalf. Data centers are fundamentally different from any
[1:04:53]
standard logistical, uh, warehouse. They operate 24 hours a day,
[1:04:58]
draining the resources while offering virtually no permanent, meaningful local
[1:05:03]
jobs. Relying on traditional, outdated zoning safeguards as we've just
[1:05:10]
discovered our zoning doesn't even accommodate what is being asked
[1:05:14]
of us. Uh, we're talking about the standard zoning that
[1:05:19]
we have, uh, can't, uh, account for, contain the low
[1:05:22]
frequency acoustic homes that penetrate, uh, the residential walls. And
[1:05:29]
will it impact the community. We have to look hard
[1:05:33]
to data center. Uh, and for what it's going to
[1:05:36]
provide a region. Our water, our local water, uh, the
[1:05:43]
Eastern water municipal water district can sustain the millions of
[1:05:47]
gallons of water for the daily evaporating and cooling systems,
[1:05:53]
the chemical waste discharge, uh, having as a former director,
[1:05:58]
uh, research and special programs with the Department of Transportation.
[1:06:02]
Uh, that's all ways to regulatory aspect is always a
[1:06:05]
deep concern. And we always have to go in and
[1:06:08]
far it out the wrongdoing that inevitably happens every single
[1:06:12]
time these type of things put themselves out there in
[1:06:15]
the front of the public. And we're looking to have
[1:06:18]
you all be our safety mechanism to protect us and
[1:06:24]
understand that this is something that I know you guys
[1:06:27]
are already like the young lady just said you're planning,
[1:06:30]
you're looking to go forward with it. We're opposed. We
[1:06:33]
didn't even know my community, my neighbors in Sonnymed Ranch
[1:06:37]
knew nothing about this at all. This is something that
[1:06:41]
should be put out there blasted for us to come
[1:06:43]
in and let you know on mask how we feel
[1:06:46]
about it. And I will say here today that I'm
[1:06:49]
going to make it my job to make sure that
[1:06:51]
I get the word out in my community. Thank you.
[1:07:00]
Next three speakers are Alan Calderone followed by Manuel Tepeti
[1:07:04]
followed by Terrence Joel Darby. Evening mayor state of council.
[1:07:12]
My name is Alin Caledon. I am father and I
[1:07:16]
live right off of Reylands Boulevard across the street from
[1:07:20]
Highlands Fairview. Um, I have young kids and I like
[1:07:29]
Marne Valley, but there are a lot of issues that
[1:07:33]
need to be addressed with, uh, warehouses. Yeah. Car washes
[1:07:41]
story centers. It's insane. I think there's, the can be
[1:07:44]
improved right away. Or at least do some more planning
[1:07:49]
as far as entertainment instead of focusing on data centers.
[1:07:58]
I'm asking that you guys followed, uh, Coachella Valley Palm
[1:08:02]
Springs. Uh, Fresno, then put moratorium. On data centers in
[1:08:08]
Morne Valley. Um, like the other speakers before me, the
[1:08:14]
strain on the grid. Is, it's going to be immense.
[1:08:20]
Does water supply that's going to be necessary. To keep
[1:08:24]
these facilities cooled down. It's going to be even worse.
[1:08:28]
Um, I wasn't aware of the cut that Californians are
[1:08:32]
going to be facing from the Colorado River. So that
[1:08:35]
makes even more sense. Why not to have data centers
[1:08:39]
here. It doesn't make any sense. Why, why.
[1:08:49]
I understand that we're having this meeting to kind of.
[1:08:53]
Go through the procedures, but how the council woman mentioned,
[1:08:56]
I think we do this meeting and just put them
[1:08:59]
oratorium on it or ban it. Um, it doesn't, it
[1:09:03]
doesn't help the community. The residents at all. There's. They
[1:09:08]
may say my supply jobs, but the construction is going
[1:09:13]
to be over with and then it's just going to
[1:09:14]
be a handful of employees working at these data centers.
[1:09:22]
It doesn't make sense. Why. We need data centers in
[1:09:26]
Morne Valley. I like the gentleman before me that area,
[1:09:31]
all of East, Murnevalley. That empty area. That's where it
[1:09:37]
would go. And it's, it's unacceptable. Can we, we just
[1:09:42]
need to put a moratorium. Have them go somewhere else.
[1:09:47]
How old is it at Coachella? Now these other cities
[1:09:50]
have the, maybe it was a pressure that they were
[1:09:54]
forced into it. But we just need to put a
[1:09:57]
more term and stop. Thank you. The next three speakers
[1:10:05]
are Manuelto Petty followed by Terrence Starby followed by Seth
[1:10:08]
Cox. Good evening, everybody. First of all, there's three elephants
[1:10:13]
in this room. And I'm going to address the first
[1:10:15]
one. And Jason did a real good job, but I
[1:10:17]
watch where he stuttered. And I watched where he hesitated
[1:10:21]
on his answers. Why are we asking the hard questions?
[1:10:25]
A city manager should not give easy questions to Jason.
[1:10:28]
This is where you put it to Jason. Ask him
[1:10:31]
why he didn't iron his suit before he got here.
[1:10:33]
Ask him why he came here and is not prepared.
[1:10:36]
I want to see my check. Same place he catches
[1:10:41]
his check. Cause I want to know who pays him
[1:10:42]
to come up here and speak to us on something
[1:10:45]
like this. Now the city manager, should we change the
[1:10:48]
name? Are you our city manager? Are you the developer
[1:10:52]
city manager? The manager. The city attorney. Can we pay
[1:10:56]
you to protect us or to protect Highland Fairview? Because
[1:10:59]
we already know who's planning this. Now District 5 County
[1:11:03]
supervisor has been supporting a bridge behind Lake Paris. Why
[1:11:09]
Sanderson O'River? Have you ever heard? I've been here 50
[1:11:11]
years. What sentence in O River? They're preparing to take
[1:11:14]
water from leak parish and take it out of the
[1:11:17]
lake. And that's where the water's coming from. That's the
[1:11:20]
second elephant in the room. Let's not be idiots about
[1:11:22]
this. You get paid too much for you to sit
[1:11:25]
there. And not listen to the people, not just me.
[1:11:30]
I'm not the only one mad. The people have had
[1:11:32]
enough and you're cornering everybody into a corner. I don't
[1:11:35]
like the fact that when we get here, the security
[1:11:38]
guards are out there and the guns on them. There
[1:11:42]
needs to be officers with weapons to protect us. Because
[1:11:46]
Highland Fairview tried to kill me once. Alright? Now nobody
[1:11:50]
talks about that. But we all know that if we
[1:11:53]
don't ask the questions, nobody up there, the puppets, except
[1:11:56]
for one. The puppets. The puppets of Highland Fairview. Now
[1:12:02]
here's the deal. You guys that are working for us,
[1:12:05]
we pay you. Thank us for your paycheck, not them.
[1:12:08]
Yes, yes. The staff. Last week, the mayor didn't even
[1:12:12]
show up. He needs to start showing up. Today should
[1:12:15]
have brought doctor's notice. But it starts at District 5
[1:12:19]
County Supervisor who was illegally appointed. And this is how
[1:12:22]
they're doing all this. He is the one promoting that
[1:12:25]
bridge that we don't need. You didn't care when people
[1:12:27]
were getting killed on Gilman Springs. But what's the closest
[1:12:30]
property owner to Gilbert Springs and the lake. It's highland
[1:12:33]
fair of you. Let's cut it out. We've already paid
[1:12:36]
for his copy of Beverly Hills signs. Then why did
[1:12:40]
we pay for that? Why are we paying for that?
[1:12:43]
Come on. Tell me. Now, the manager, the attorney, one
[1:12:47]
of the two men I kind of lost my eyesight's
[1:12:49]
not real good, but you mentioned the only property you
[1:12:51]
own is property that you guys have switched over to
[1:12:54]
low income housing. Guess what? I own that property. That's
[1:12:57]
my shopping center. And now a business commercial property center
[1:13:01]
is residential. How much money did I lose right there?
[1:13:05]
More than the one million you paid for those signs.
[1:13:09]
Think about what you guys are doing it. We run
[1:13:11]
this city. Not them! The next three speakers are Terrence
[1:13:19]
Darby, followed by Seth Cox, followed by Franco Pacheco. And
[1:13:25]
just briefly, um, just want to remind folks, we want
[1:13:31]
to make sure that you say, well, you need to
[1:13:32]
say, but also if you could please just address the
[1:13:35]
council and, um, just a friendly reminder to try to
[1:13:38]
stay on the topic of AI data centers, um, just
[1:13:41]
wanted to give a friendly reminder once again, go right
[1:13:44]
ahead. Let's, let's keep it respectful, please, folks. Go right
[1:13:48]
ahead. Okay. Um, I don't know how to outshine that
[1:13:51]
last speaker, but, um, I'll try my best here. My
[1:13:55]
name is Terrence Darby. I'm 14 years old and I'm
[1:13:58]
a resident of Mirna Valley and I have been for
[1:14:00]
living here for nearly 10 years. I've never done this
[1:14:03]
before, but I've decided to be here today because I
[1:14:05]
finally get to make change. My preference here today is
[1:14:08]
to speak out against AI data centers being built here
[1:14:10]
in Moreno Valley. I do not have much time today
[1:14:13]
to explain, but I can list the negative effects of
[1:14:15]
data centers. Most obvious and well - known problem is
[1:14:20]
that data centers wastes many gallons of water per day
[1:14:23]
about one to five million gallons of water are used
[1:14:26]
daily, but just one data center. We're just going to
[1:14:29]
rise up to 30 billion gallons of water annually. Another
[1:14:32]
problem is that they cause no dissolution, which can cause
[1:14:34]
hearing glass problems with problems with animal reproduction and raises
[1:14:38]
our energy bills, which we don't need at all. Residents
[1:14:41]
that live around data centers report that they literally cannot
[1:14:44]
get any sleep at night due to these loud noises
[1:14:46]
that come from these data centers. Another massive problem is
[1:14:50]
that they cause beasts not be able to pollinate and
[1:14:52]
they eventually die due to the eight due to the
[1:14:55]
AI data centers artificial electromagnetic field, which bees rely on
[1:14:59]
the Earth's own electromagnetic field. And us humans Ryan B
[1:15:04]
is for our own food. So if bees die, we
[1:15:07]
die. They also cause temperatures to rise, which is definitely
[1:15:10]
not what the world needs right now or California. He's
[1:15:14]
at the moment. They even caused worse air pollution, which
[1:15:17]
really they released carbon methade and many other harmful chemicals.
[1:15:23]
And another problem is light pollution, which is another problem
[1:15:26]
that I think the city should fix. But anyways, many
[1:15:29]
citizens that live in the US that live around data
[1:15:31]
centers report that the light that comes from these data
[1:15:35]
centers, literally light up their entire house at night. And
[1:15:38]
the point is these data centers cause more harm than
[1:15:41]
good. And when I say this, I speak for every
[1:15:44]
citizen Marino Valley. We do not need an AI data
[1:15:47]
center in our city at all. What good can come
[1:15:50]
from these buildings at all money? These, these buildings are
[1:15:54]
literally hell on earth. And if you, any of you
[1:15:57]
approve of a data set or in our city, a
[1:15:59]
question I may ask is who's this for is this
[1:16:02]
for the community that you sort of protect? Or is
[1:16:04]
this for your own benefit? If even one data center
[1:16:08]
is reproved, then you people are doing the exact opposite
[1:16:10]
of your job. Thank you. Thank you. Next three speakers
[1:16:16]
are Seth Cox followed by Franco Pacheco followed by Tayana
[1:16:20]
Flores. Good evening council staff audience. Anyone else is listening.
[1:16:29]
Um, I probably won't get as big as applause when
[1:16:33]
I finish my speech here. I am not for or
[1:16:35]
against. Okay. I'm factual man. I furnished the council with
[1:16:40]
a packet of paperwork. The utility guy gave a good
[1:16:46]
briefing. He has a bigger budget than mine. So mine's
[1:16:49]
not a big PowerPoint presentation built by AI. But I
[1:16:54]
will say, um, I'll give you a few definitions of
[1:16:58]
data centers. Okay. Data centers have been under your nose
[1:17:04]
for over 25 years. Okay. Our Air Force base had
[1:17:09]
one way back in the 70s. It was a date
[1:17:12]
or operation center. Okay. But anyway, the definitions are edge
[1:17:16]
and local service. You can pretty much determine what that
[1:17:19]
one is. Small data centers that i. e. Marino Valley
[1:17:24]
can use for their data center in the recovery sites
[1:17:27]
in case what up and crashes. Enterprise own premise systems
[1:17:32]
are data centers. Uh, they're owned by an operated by
[1:17:36]
a single organization, i. e. hospitals. Other large companies that
[1:17:41]
need their own data centers. And they also have a
[1:17:43]
redundant one somewhere. Colocation. All right. Those were profitable for
[1:17:51]
many, many years. That's where people built buildings. And they
[1:17:55]
let people that needed their servers and all protected. By
[1:17:59]
space. Okay. A 10 by 20 cage area to protect
[1:18:05]
their servers. Uh, I've been to many of those three
[1:18:10]
in my 30 plus years of being a technology risk
[1:18:14]
advisor for many large organizations. And I still do it
[1:18:18]
today for health hair organization. The two that's coming up
[1:18:22]
right now are, of course, the hyperscale cloud environment. Cloud
[1:18:30]
just came in at the word cloud came into what,
[1:18:33]
less than 15 years ago. But there were still data
[1:18:35]
centers way before them. There are some in downtown Irvine
[1:18:38]
just to let you know if you know where to
[1:18:40]
look. Cause I've been in them. Super clusters. Those are
[1:18:49]
the ones have it proven this stuff to be beneficial
[1:18:52]
for anybody except. Billionaires. Okay. Um. A lot of numbers
[1:18:58]
have been thrown out there. A lot of it is
[1:19:02]
accurate. Okay. Uh, the largest data centers out there. The
[1:19:06]
super clusters will use five million to 12 million gallons
[1:19:10]
of water a day. Okay. Um, they will also use
[1:19:16]
500 to a thousand megawatts. Of power per day. And
[1:19:21]
to bring it down to the dumb people like me.
[1:19:26]
Uh, a single. Thank you, sir. The next
[1:19:36]
three speakers are Franco Pacheco followed by Tatiana Flores followed
[1:19:40]
by Nathan. Uh, good evening council. My name is Franco
[1:19:49]
Pacheco with an invalid alliance for environmental justice. Uh, I'm
[1:19:54]
here to support a band on AI data centers. And
[1:19:58]
it's a very dangerous big danger to the community. Um,
[1:20:01]
a lot of things can go wrong with them. We've
[1:20:02]
been seeing it across the country higher electric bills, higher
[1:20:05]
gas bills, a whole host of problems that come with
[1:20:08]
them. And also, uh, automation. So we're probably some of
[1:20:13]
the biggest warehouse clusters in the nation. So AI data
[1:20:17]
centers will help the automation and kick workers off the,
[1:20:21]
out of the warehouses, right? And then also I want
[1:20:24]
to ask if anybody knows what the 46 agricultural district
[1:20:29]
is. It's the body that represents the Paris fairgrounds and
[1:20:34]
at August 26th, they approved a study for an AI
[1:20:39]
data center at the fairgrounds. So there's one in the
[1:20:42]
pipeline already. And I would like to ask the council
[1:20:45]
if you guys got noticed of this project. We didn't
[1:20:48]
get noticed. Nobody knew about it. So, um, right next
[1:20:51]
to the lake, you know, they'll probably use the water
[1:20:53]
from the lake on that one. Yeah. I mean, I
[1:20:56]
don't know what else I can say that hasn't already
[1:20:58]
been said. Please ban AIDA centers from your city. Just
[1:21:02]
like City of Paris is in progress of doing right
[1:21:05]
now. Thank you. Next three speakers are Tatiana Flores followed
[1:21:11]
by Nathan Urina, followed by Mr. Fred Banuelos. Good evening
[1:21:16]
Mayor and Council members. My name is Tatiana Flores and
[1:21:19]
I am here to call for the prohibition and urban
[1:21:22]
of AI data centers in renovaly and the general surrounding
[1:21:26]
area. And to urge the city to follow Monterey Park,
[1:21:29]
Coachella and our neighbors in Paris who have all either
[1:21:32]
banned or are working towards banning data centers in their
[1:21:35]
cities. First of all, I'd like to thank the council
[1:21:38]
for bringing this up for discussing. This is a topic
[1:21:40]
that community members and I have mentioned several times throughout
[1:21:43]
the months as Ishmael mentioned, especially when the warehouse moratorium
[1:21:48]
was being proposed earlier this year, um, I remain extremely
[1:21:52]
concerned with the various proposals to introduce data centers and
[1:21:55]
underserved communities across the state and region, such as those
[1:21:59]
that we saw in imperial county and the Coachella Valley
[1:22:02]
due to the various studies and community testimonies that highlight
[1:22:06]
the significant amount of water and energy that they utilize
[1:22:10]
according to the international energy agency, a single modern AI
[1:22:14]
data center can use as much power as a hundred
[1:22:17]
thousand homes, which we heard in the presentation. And many
[1:22:20]
of the larger ones being built are expected to consume
[1:22:23]
up to 20 times that amount. If a data center
[1:22:26]
were to be built in Reno Valley, this could result
[1:22:29]
in rising power bills for residents. Additionally, the Lawrence Berkeley
[1:22:33]
National Laboratory estimates that a mid - sized data center
[1:22:37]
consumes around 300, 000 gallons of water a day, which
[1:22:40]
poses concerns for Southern California regions as we often face
[1:22:44]
drought and dry conditions. On top of water and energy
[1:22:48]
usage, data centers have been documented to also contribute to
[1:22:51]
air pollution and warming temperatures. And how many fires have
[1:22:55]
we had recently, y'all? These types of wildfires will continue
[1:22:58]
to happen with worsening air pollution and drier conditions. And
[1:23:02]
I also believe that Lake Paris is at threat. We
[1:23:06]
recently just went to a meeting where they had their
[1:23:09]
general plan updates being discussed for Lake Paris. So it
[1:23:13]
would be sad to see all that progress that community
[1:23:15]
members are, you know, contributing. Just be gone if this
[1:23:19]
were to happen. And like Franco just mentioned, um, on
[1:23:23]
August 26, the southern California fair and events board meeting
[1:23:27]
signed a non - binding agreement with global stack to
[1:23:30]
study the feasibility of a small data center, um, and
[1:23:34]
many of us were not aware of that, but this
[1:23:36]
is something that the city of Moval and Paris should
[1:23:40]
be alert on. It's right there in the border. And
[1:23:43]
you should also join us in investigating this and fighting
[1:23:46]
against it. So like the presentation calls for, let's say
[1:23:50]
expectations, let's be clear, you know, data centers are not
[1:23:54]
wanted in Moreno Valley or the inland empire as a
[1:23:56]
whole. And yeah, thank you. Three speakers are Nathan Yerina.
[1:24:04]
Followed by Fred Bonuelos, followed by Eddie Torres.
[1:24:14]
Honorable counsel, Mr. Mayor, staff, residents of Murder Valley. Your
[1:24:21]
contemporaries, Mr. Mayor, honorable counsel in Coachella, Paris, Riverside, Fresno,
[1:24:27]
and other cities throughout California are facing the similar question
[1:24:31]
on the issue of data centers. They have the, uh,
[1:24:35]
foresight to understand that this is an issue facing their
[1:24:38]
communities. In speaking with members of the city council in
[1:24:42]
Paris, Fresno and in Riverside, the issues are of quality
[1:24:46]
of life and of utility usage. Members of the Riverside
[1:24:53]
City Council and proposal of an AI data center ban
[1:24:59]
state, clearly, that they do not have the infrastructure to
[1:25:02]
place a data center within the city limits of Riverside.
[1:25:07]
The remaining lands in Rynivalley should be and must be.
[1:25:12]
For the benefit of additional housing, of economic growth and
[1:25:16]
job creation. When the issue of a warehouse moratorium came
[1:25:21]
before this council, an argument was made that the city
[1:25:24]
of Marnivelli is built out, or that the moratorium should
[1:25:27]
have begun at an earlier process when the warehouses were
[1:25:31]
being constructed. This is your opportunity now to get ahead
[1:25:36]
of the issue of data centers. I ask that the
[1:25:39]
city council, in accordance to title nine, codify that data
[1:25:44]
centers are not and shall not be used in the
[1:25:48]
permitted use guidelines within the city ordinances. You have the
[1:25:52]
authority to codify that to ensure that future councils do
[1:25:56]
not. Bring data centers to the city of Rinivalley. To
[1:26:01]
give you some rough numbers, you have heard members of
[1:26:05]
the public saying that some data centers use up to
[1:26:08]
five million gallons of water. To put that in perspective,
[1:26:11]
one acre feet of water is roughly 325, 000 gallons.
[1:26:17]
That's 15 acre feet of water. For 5 million going
[1:26:22]
in daily. Per year, that's over 5, 400 acre feet
[1:26:28]
of water. If you're going to go into this, think
[1:26:32]
of the about the issues. We have the potential to
[1:26:35]
lose 1. 7 billion gallons of water to data centers
[1:26:39]
in our region. Local municipal water districts from Metropolitan Water
[1:26:44]
Disher. From the Coachella Valley water authority, from the San
[1:26:47]
Diego water authority have clearly stated they do not have
[1:26:50]
the infrastructure to build or even to supply data centers,
[1:26:56]
which is why they are urging their constituents and they
[1:26:59]
are urging their contemporaries on city councils to be mindful
[1:27:03]
of this issue. I think you for your time. And
[1:27:07]
I again urge that in accordance to Title IX. You
[1:27:11]
codify this ban of data centers in the conditional uses
[1:27:15]
for the city of Mary Valley. Thank you. The next
[1:27:20]
three speakers are Mr. Fred Bunuelos, followed by Eddie Torres,
[1:27:24]
followed by Nacey Antoine. Hello everyone, I'm here like Seth.
[1:27:30]
I don't really have an opinion. I came here to
[1:27:32]
listen to the presentation to get educated. Wanted to hear
[1:27:36]
what the public had to say. Um, but I do
[1:27:40]
have a concerned. Are they able to handle any type
[1:27:45]
of emergency if these things blow up, if these things
[1:27:47]
catch on fire, you had somebody mentioned it earlier. That's
[1:27:51]
one of my concerns. You know, is there going to
[1:27:53]
be some, we have to get evacuated. I want to
[1:27:56]
get learned more about these data centers. Um.
[1:28:07]
Let's see what else you guys have here. I'm sorry.
[1:28:11]
Oh, I see people, I mean, we need data centers.
[1:28:15]
I see people here with, uh, their phones, computers. What
[1:28:19]
happens if you don't have that data center and your
[1:28:21]
phone doesn't work anymore. What are you going to do
[1:28:23]
then. Can you guys, I'm trying to talk here. Yeah.
[1:28:30]
But let's pause the time. Yeah. Just, I know you
[1:28:34]
may not agree with what's being said, but everybody gets
[1:28:36]
a fair shot. I'm just asking that everybody keeps it
[1:28:38]
respectful. Everybody has three minutes, equal amount of time to
[1:28:41]
speak. Right now, Mr. Benuelos is at the podium. If
[1:28:44]
we could please just keep it respectful, uh, to allow
[1:28:46]
Mr. Benuellis to give his public comment. Thank you. So
[1:28:53]
going back to that, I mean, you don't want to
[1:28:56]
in our neighborhood. It's going to have to go somewhere.
[1:28:58]
And that's why I'm trying to get educated. Listen to
[1:29:01]
these people when they're up here at the mic and
[1:29:02]
not behind me. I want to hear what they have
[1:29:04]
to say. So again, I don't have an opinion on
[1:29:09]
it. I'm trying to get educated. That's why I came
[1:29:11]
here. And then, uh. Just a safety thing for me,
[1:29:16]
you know, what happens? I wish our chief would have
[1:29:19]
been here to maybe answer some questions on how we
[1:29:22]
would, uh, deal with a fire, you know, or the
[1:29:24]
things going to blow up batteries, that type of deal.
[1:29:29]
Uh, I'm doing some searches and I'm hearing that the,
[1:29:31]
uh, almonds take more water to, uh, produce than it
[1:29:35]
is on these data centers. So I'm still in the
[1:29:38]
learning process trying to figure out what's going on. And
[1:29:41]
I'll end on, uh, the three meetings tonight guys. Valverde,
[1:29:47]
renal valley unified, and this one. We got to do
[1:29:49]
something to fix that so I can be at those
[1:29:52]
other meetings if I need to be. Thank you. The
[1:29:56]
next three speakers are eddi Torres followed by Nacey Antoine,
[1:29:59]
followed by Krista Hawkins. Hello grievening. My name is Eddi
[1:30:08]
Torres. On the policy director for the Illin Coalition from
[1:30:11]
Brick and Justice, but I'm here as a resident of
[1:30:13]
Mernivalley long time since I've moved here back in 2003
[1:30:17]
with my family. None raised on my own family here
[1:30:19]
with my little one, my wife. And we're really happy
[1:30:22]
to be here alongside our families and our neighbors. Um,
[1:30:25]
depending that we ban data centers and Marni Valley, this
[1:30:28]
is for the future. This is for generations to come
[1:30:32]
for the kids for the youth to enjoy this city
[1:30:35]
as it is today as much as we can to
[1:30:36]
preserve it. Uh, a couple of months ago. I'm sure
[1:30:39]
you all know there was a big fire by the
[1:30:41]
Kaiser Permanente on iris. Around there. Several neighborhoods had to
[1:30:46]
get evacuated, including my mother - in - law's house,
[1:30:49]
right? All those pets. My sister's - in - laws,
[1:30:52]
mother - in - law had to evacuate. It's really
[1:30:54]
scary to think about climate change and what's happening all
[1:30:57]
over the globe now. This is more humid today than
[1:31:00]
it was in Miami. That's pretty crazy to think about
[1:31:02]
just to put into perspective that we're going through these
[1:31:05]
changes. And it's not stopping anytime soon. With that, there's
[1:31:09]
urgency to protect what we do have and make sure
[1:31:11]
that generations to come have the ability to enjoy and
[1:31:14]
baskin in, right? Whether that's Lake Paris, whether that's the
[1:31:17]
water that we currently have to enjoy for ourselves, we
[1:31:20]
need to do what we can to protect what we
[1:31:22]
have and preserve it. And that starts with banning data
[1:31:24]
centers. And adelanto, they're currently going through something really similar
[1:31:28]
right now. The planning commission voted to not support data
[1:31:32]
centers, but the fight ongoing. I can tell you that
[1:31:35]
once it's being built, it's extremely hard to get rid
[1:31:38]
of it. It's better to get rid of it right
[1:31:40]
now before it even has a chance to sprout. Because
[1:31:44]
once something is built, whether it's detention centers or whether
[1:31:46]
it's warehousing, it's extremely difficult to get it out of
[1:31:49]
your community. So you guys have an opportunity right now
[1:31:52]
to stand by your community and do the right thing
[1:31:54]
and ban data centers forever. Thank you. The next three
[1:32:00]
speakers are Nacey Antoine, followed by Krista Hawkins, followed by
[1:32:04]
Shadem Odom. Hi. Once again, long time resident, 36, 37
[1:32:09]
years here. We find ourself here often. And me, truly,
[1:32:17]
I feel like you guys don't sit here and represent
[1:32:20]
us at all. Last night was the first time I
[1:32:23]
seen one of y'all say no to a project. And
[1:32:28]
it's getting ridiculous here. We don't need a data center.
[1:32:32]
We don't want a data center. And I keep asking
[1:32:35]
you guys, how many of y'all truly live in this
[1:32:37]
area. Cause I don't believe it. I don't believe it
[1:32:41]
because of the way it look. Everybody sit here. When
[1:32:44]
they get out, they get on the 60 and go
[1:32:46]
the other way. This is our home. This is our
[1:32:49]
home. We asking you guys to represent us and protect
[1:32:52]
it. This is our home. This is my third house
[1:32:55]
I purchased in merino valley. And I know it's going
[1:32:59]
to be my last. But this, we asking you guys
[1:33:02]
to represent us, stop, stop selling us out. I'm not
[1:33:06]
going to, I'm not going to give you no numbers
[1:33:07]
and all that cause y'all already know that. Just like
[1:33:10]
the young lady said y'all already had your mind made
[1:33:12]
up. This is a show. But we here to stop
[1:33:15]
the show. Now you guys sell us out all the
[1:33:18]
time. For, for a dollar. We don't have nothing in
[1:33:23]
here, bold. Warehouses, dispensaries and car washes. And they all
[1:33:28]
drug front. And I hate to say it. But we
[1:33:31]
got too many of them. It's too many of them.
[1:33:34]
It's time for y'all to start doing something and represent
[1:33:36]
us. And I got to keep it straight with y'all.
[1:33:40]
I'm not going to sit up here and try to
[1:33:41]
sugarcoat it. It's too many of them. When you drive
[1:33:44]
down the street and the two car washes next door
[1:33:46]
to each other, that's a problem. And you know what
[1:33:49]
I tell y'all every time I come up here. They
[1:33:51]
say, Oh, just put it in merino valley. They, they
[1:33:55]
settle for anything. Throw it over there with them. And
[1:33:59]
you guys sit there and go, yeah, yeah. And then
[1:34:02]
I wonder, once it goes, and once it go, and
[1:34:06]
it comes on the board, like you said, you guys
[1:34:09]
all say, Oh, you have to, we have to approve
[1:34:10]
it because they did everything they was supposed to do.
[1:34:14]
What are y'all sitting here for? Y'all might as well
[1:34:17]
just put our money back in our city and go
[1:34:19]
home. Go to work like we do. Cause y'all not
[1:34:22]
working for us. We don't want the data center. Stop.
[1:34:27]
I don't even know what to say. Workforce. The next
[1:34:34]
three speakers are Krista Hawkins followed by Shaydim Odom, followed
[1:34:37]
by Morgan Valley. Hi, I'm Krista Hawkins. Longtime resident. I'm
[1:34:43]
Reno Valley. I've been here all my life. I was
[1:34:45]
raised here. I remember when I went to Vesta de
[1:34:48]
lago, we had some organization come when I was in
[1:34:50]
ASB and they and this was, I'm not going to
[1:34:53]
tell my age, but this was a while ago. And
[1:34:55]
they were telling us about how we were the future
[1:34:57]
leaders of Marino Valley and how the leadership in Reno
[1:35:00]
Valley. There's no jobs in Reno Valley. And that always
[1:35:03]
stuck with me. Why do we have to go outside
[1:35:06]
of Renovalley to get nice things? Why are there so
[1:35:09]
many commuters. That's why the freeway is always full all
[1:35:12]
the time because people have to go outside and renovate
[1:35:14]
to work. And we're against the data center. We do
[1:35:17]
not need it. And I don't know if you guys
[1:35:19]
know what environmental injustices, but it's the unequal distribution of
[1:35:24]
environmental hazards and benefits, which places a disproportionate burden on
[1:35:30]
pollution, toxic waste, climate risk on low income minority and
[1:35:34]
marginalized communities. Why aren't they proposing to put data centers
[1:35:38]
in Beverly Hills or in Calabasas with the Kardashians or
[1:35:42]
in Sherman Oaks? Why is it always a marginalized communities?
[1:35:46]
Have you guys thought about that? Why is it always
[1:35:48]
marginalized communities? Places like merino valley. I would love to
[1:35:54]
know that. I would love to know have you guys
[1:35:55]
even thought about that. And then also I appreciate everyone
[1:35:58]
coming up here with numbers and being prepared. You guys
[1:36:01]
also need to be prepared. You can't leave it on
[1:36:03]
us to do the work. A lot of us are
[1:36:05]
getting off of work, dropping kids off, all types of
[1:36:07]
things just to come up here and educate you guys
[1:36:09]
for what we pay you for. So you guys should
[1:36:11]
be reading seeing what's on the news, seeing what's on
[1:36:14]
a more perfect union, a different centers. And then I
[1:36:17]
also want to know why can Coachella band something. Something
[1:36:21]
comes up to you guys. You're like, well, they did
[1:36:23]
everything they're supposed to do. We can't, we can't go
[1:36:24]
against it. Maybe you guys need to bump elbows with
[1:36:27]
them and talk with them and see what's going on
[1:36:29]
in their bylaws, their rules or whatever it is and
[1:36:31]
see why they can ban something and you guys have
[1:36:34]
to approve everything somebody comes up here with, especially a
[1:36:37]
doubted center. And I'm really disappointed to hear that, um,
[1:36:41]
some of the residents come up here saying that it's
[1:36:44]
already kind of in the works and things are happening.
[1:36:45]
And you guys are being sneaky. Like I don't, I
[1:36:47]
don't like that. And I think it's, it's really bad.
[1:36:50]
It really is when you sit on a desk and
[1:36:52]
you're getting paid from us. I pay my taxes. I
[1:36:55]
pay my taxes. I'm not Reno Valley Mall. You guys
[1:36:58]
don't pay your taxes for me. I pay my taxes.
[1:37:01]
So I just feel like you guys need to work
[1:37:02]
for us and do what you're supposed to do the
[1:37:04]
same way the mayor you went out and you want
[1:37:06]
it that boxing gym and you were talking to them.
[1:37:08]
You want them to come here. You need to come
[1:37:09]
out and talk to us and see what we want.
[1:37:12]
It needs to be a more persistent thing. Just like
[1:37:13]
you did that, you need to come talk to us.
[1:37:16]
Thank you. Next three speakers are shade em Odom followed
[1:37:22]
by Morgan Vallev followed by Lindsay Robinson.
[1:37:35]
Good evening Mayor and Council. My name is Shatam Odom
[1:37:39]
and I'm a mother and an educator here in Marino
[1:37:42]
Valley. And I deeply care about our city in the
[1:37:44]
future of our city. This weekend, uh, I went to
[1:37:47]
farmer's market in Temecula. I then went to Irvine and
[1:37:52]
watched families walking children playing eating shopping and simply enjoying
[1:37:56]
the community. I found myself asking again, why do so
[1:38:01]
many of us have to leave Marino Valley to experience
[1:38:03]
these things? I'm not asking Merino Valley to become Temecula
[1:38:07]
or Irvine. I'm asking Marino Valley to become the Marino
[1:38:12]
Valley. We said we wanted to be. Our own general
[1:38:15]
plan that 2040 plan talks about vibrant gathering places, recreation,
[1:38:22]
culture, economic opportunity and becoming a complete live work play
[1:38:27]
community. As we discuss data centers tonight, my question is
[1:38:31]
bigger. Are our development decisions actually moving us towards that
[1:38:36]
vision? Because we already half warehouses. We have trust truck
[1:38:41]
traffic storage facilities, industrial development and much more development that
[1:38:45]
has been approved, but not even built yet. Uh, and
[1:38:50]
we have history in 2024, a riverside county superior court
[1:38:54]
found deficiencies and portions of merino valley's general plan, environmental
[1:38:59]
analysis, involved me air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use,
[1:39:04]
and the environmental baseline. That should matter as we consider
[1:39:09]
data centers because projects may become, may come before you
[1:39:13]
one at a time, a warehouse, a storage facility, a
[1:39:17]
data center. And last week that, um, the other facility.
[1:39:23]
But residents live and all of them together. We breathe
[1:39:26]
the air together. We dry the rose together. Our children
[1:39:30]
inherit the decisions we make today. And we have choices
[1:39:34]
in June, the parasity council voted 50 to move forward
[1:39:38]
with a citywide prohibition on data centers. I'm not saying
[1:39:42]
we have to copy Paris. I'm saying Marino Valley has
[1:39:45]
choices too. So before we open the door to another
[1:39:49]
major land use, tell us. What is cumulative impact. How
[1:39:55]
much water and electricity? How many permanent jobs and what
[1:39:59]
opportunities do we, uh, do we give up when we
[1:40:02]
commit to that land for decades? Those aren't anti -
[1:40:06]
business questions. They are responsible government questions. I believe merino
[1:40:10]
valley can be a place where our families don't have
[1:40:12]
to leave town to have a great experience. Our children
[1:40:15]
deserve gathering spaces, restaurants, entertainment, recreation, culture, and great jobs
[1:40:21]
right here. I haven't given up on Reno Valley. I
[1:40:27]
expect more because I believe we can be more. The
[1:40:30]
vision is already written 2040. Let's now let's have the
[1:40:34]
courage to build it. Thank you. The next three speakers
[1:40:39]
are Morgan Valley followed by Lindsay Robinson, followed by Nivea.
[1:40:43]
Go ahead, Morgan. Hello. Uh, I don't want to repeat
[1:40:49]
everything that everybody has said. I also am against the
[1:40:53]
large AI data centers. Uh, but really we need to
[1:40:57]
look at it from, you know, if we are going
[1:40:59]
to look at smaller data centers or things like that,
[1:41:02]
we need to look at, is this a community benefit?
[1:41:05]
What benefit are we getting from having these data centers?
[1:41:08]
Because the developers are going to come in, they're going
[1:41:10]
to promise us the world. And then they're not going
[1:41:13]
to follow through. We've seen that happen over and over
[1:41:14]
and over again, where the developers go, we're going to
[1:41:16]
give you this. We're going to give you money. That
[1:41:19]
money's going to run out and we're not going to
[1:41:21]
have anything substantial. They're not going to follow through on
[1:41:23]
their agreement or they're going to get halfway through the
[1:41:25]
project and then leave us stuck in the mud again.
[1:41:28]
So I, you know, we need to really look at
[1:41:30]
these developers if they're saying that they're going to give
[1:41:33]
us the world. Are they actually going to. Um, the
[1:41:35]
other thing that was mentioned during the presentation was the,
[1:41:39]
um, utility, uh, he said something along the line said
[1:41:42]
like, Oh yeah, you know, for whatever the project is,
[1:41:43]
I can get enough power for it. Why don't we
[1:41:46]
put that energy into expanding MDU for our residents? I
[1:41:50]
have Edison and their rates are insane. I would much
[1:41:54]
rather have MBU. Let's give that benefit to the community
[1:41:57]
and expand it for the residence, not for a data
[1:42:00]
center. Um, and I agree with what Mr. Benwell said
[1:42:04]
about reducing usage. We all use cell phones. We all
[1:42:07]
use this information. If we really truly care about the
[1:42:10]
environment, we shouldn't be using AI. We shouldn't be saying,
[1:42:13]
well, not here, but somewhere else. You know, I need
[1:42:16]
my AI. I got to do my, I got to
[1:42:18]
make myself look like a cat. Send it to all
[1:42:20]
my friends. No, we shouldn't be using it. We should
[1:42:22]
all be trying to reduce our usage. So the demand
[1:42:24]
for these massive centers goes down. That would help alleviate
[1:42:27]
this issue for all of our neighbors across the country,
[1:42:30]
not just here. Um, sorry. This is much easier in
[1:42:34]
person. I don't like doing it on Zoom. I do
[1:42:36]
appreciate that it's available though. Uh, the other concern I
[1:42:39]
had was the water usage. We have been asking residents
[1:42:41]
for years to reduce our water usage, get rid of
[1:42:43]
your grasp, put in native plants. But then we had
[1:42:46]
these developers who want to come in with these projects
[1:42:48]
that use massive amounts of water. It just seems counterintuitive
[1:42:54]
to put something like that in a desert where we
[1:42:56]
already don't have enough water. So again, I don't want
[1:42:59]
to reiterate the things that everyone said. I am a
[1:43:00]
very much against these larger data centers, but it's a
[1:43:02]
much bigger issue. And it is a lot of things
[1:43:04]
that we need to consider. But I would support banning
[1:43:07]
those large AI datas that are data centers in the
[1:43:10]
city. Thank you so much. The next three speakers are
[1:43:13]
Lindsay Robinson, followed by Navea, followed by Louise Palomares. Good
[1:43:21]
evening, everyone. I have a few questions that I know
[1:43:25]
you can't answer, but will the PowerPoint be available for
[1:43:28]
the public or can we just type in chat GPT,
[1:43:33]
you know, create a presentation for me on data centers?
[1:43:36]
Um, when you give a presentation and say stuff about
[1:43:40]
megawatts is that per hour, per day, per week, per
[1:43:45]
year, um, someone else in the audience brought it up
[1:43:48]
that it's per year, but again, it's confusing if we
[1:43:51]
hear 500 megawatts and not know what the timeframe is.
[1:43:58]
Um, out of all of you here, up on that
[1:44:01]
side, not out there, except for Elena, none of you
[1:44:04]
were involved in the world that just sticks, um, fight
[1:44:07]
or whatever. Um, but what you need to know, because
[1:44:11]
data centers look like clusters of warehouses. The city does
[1:44:16]
not get to dictate what Ito puts in any of
[1:44:19]
the warehouses. One of the dissenting council members say, so
[1:44:23]
you can put hazardous materials, batteries, whatever out there. And
[1:44:27]
we can't say no. And in the agreement, go back
[1:44:29]
and look, unless somehow or other he's changed it, which
[1:44:32]
I doubt, you have no say in what he puts
[1:44:36]
out there. Therefore, many people are suspecting a data center
[1:44:40]
is something that he wants to bring forward. And you
[1:44:43]
will not be able to stop it because they're his
[1:44:46]
warehouses. He's already looking for energy and water. So look
[1:44:50]
into the agreement because the city gave up the right
[1:44:53]
to say what goes into his warehouses. Thank you. The
[1:45:01]
next three speakers are Naveo followed by Luis Palomares. Followed
[1:45:04]
by an online caller with the last four or five
[1:45:07]
one, one, five. Hello counsel. I love to hear that
[1:45:14]
the community is against data centers and we want to
[1:45:17]
keep our green spaces green in our wild spaces wild.
[1:45:22]
But I don't believe that the conversation about data center
[1:45:24]
starts with the typical buildings that consume more water and
[1:45:27]
energy than the communities they sit in. The conversation starts
[1:45:30]
with acknowledging and educating ourselves about the AI systems that
[1:45:33]
are already in place in our communities. A relevant example
[1:45:37]
our flock cameras. Slocke is a company that I've spoke
[1:45:39]
about plenty of times before and they use AI technology
[1:45:42]
to recognize color makes and models of vehicles along with
[1:45:46]
identifying characteristics of not only cars, but people. They have
[1:45:49]
been misused by RCSD in recent months and misused by
[1:45:53]
many more. AI is not a reliable tool when it
[1:45:56]
comes to solving crimes. It's an expensive shortcut that makes
[1:45:59]
more mistakes than none. The conversation about banning data center
[1:46:03]
starts by banning AI surveillance technology. The same technology that
[1:46:07]
Merri Cabrera allowed to infiltrate our streets, the same technology
[1:46:10]
that he refuses to acknowledge even as public out car
[1:46:13]
it grows. And even as our neighboring communities of Coachella
[1:46:16]
Valley and Lake Elsiednor fight off data center proposals. Of
[1:46:19]
course the community wants none other to ban data centers.
[1:46:23]
We love the natural spaces that surround us and we
[1:46:25]
want to protect the health of our lands and our
[1:46:28]
bodies. And of course we should all be educated on
[1:46:30]
these issues. But what good does this do if you
[1:46:33]
won't cancel Moreno Valley's contract with flock AI? What good
[1:46:37]
does this do if you will not denounce AI altogether?
[1:46:41]
What good does this do if Mirna Valley tax dollars
[1:46:43]
are still funding a company that contributes to the problem
[1:46:46]
in other city or county will eventually have. But this
[1:46:49]
study session does look good on tabloids and it does
[1:46:52]
look great for photo ops. And hey, it is campaign
[1:46:55]
season after all. I want you to know that all
[1:46:58]
of this is disingenuous if you are not addressing every
[1:47:01]
corner of the problem, but only addressing the trending parts
[1:47:04]
of it. What better way can we spend 2. 86
[1:47:08]
billion tax dollars to prevent crime and make our city
[1:47:11]
safer and more enjoyable? How much more money can get
[1:47:14]
funneled back into the citizens'lives rather than your lawsuit, Cabrera,
[1:47:19]
Mo Val citizens deserve more than your photo ops and
[1:47:22]
Dutch bros. We deserve transparency. We would deserve to be
[1:47:25]
listened to. We deserve better roads, green spaces, clean streets.
[1:47:32]
And we deserve our tax dollars to go towards our
[1:47:34]
children and our future. We do not deserve to be
[1:47:37]
surveillanced. So go ahead and ban data centers and get
[1:47:40]
your pictures. But remember that this is not the beginning
[1:47:43]
or the end of the conversation. Thank you. The next
[1:47:51]
three speakers are Luis Palomares followed by collar by the
[1:47:54]
last four of five 115 followed by Andrea Delgado. We
[1:47:59]
call them ours community activists. Wow. Action pack meeting today.
[1:48:02]
I'm glad you're here today. Showed up Cabrera. Maybe this
[1:48:05]
might be a feather in your hat because I'm pretty
[1:48:07]
sure you're going to say no we don't want them.
[1:48:10]
You know, let's take it to another meeting. Let's do
[1:48:12]
this. Let's do that. You know, it's campaign season. So
[1:48:15]
that we're looking good on your campaign. Like the Northgate
[1:48:18]
goodie over there. It's not even at the planning or
[1:48:21]
even at the console and you're already taking photo ops.
[1:48:25]
For your agenda. Really, really, really. Okay. Saying all that,
[1:48:29]
you know, data, mega data centers. That's how we need
[1:48:31]
here. Right. We already have enough going on. We got
[1:48:34]
the meridian, all the buildings over there. We got some
[1:48:36]
buildings over here on the AS10. Now data centers, you
[1:48:40]
shouldn't even be entertaining the thought. I know you set
[1:48:43]
the, you wanted to do a study session so you
[1:48:45]
can see how it all plays out here. You know,
[1:48:48]
whoever don't live here don't have no business making decisions
[1:48:52]
about us. We the people, for the people, by the
[1:48:55]
people. You know, so many people don't even live here.
[1:48:58]
You get in your cars and you drive home every,
[1:49:00]
every direction. But you don't stay here and you don't
[1:49:02]
live here. So, you know, this data centers, AI, how
[1:49:06]
many jobs it's going to bring. I mean, it's hard
[1:49:09]
to even find a damn job now. I mean, I
[1:49:12]
mean, come on. We're in a mess right now. And
[1:49:15]
this is going to take more of our jobs and
[1:49:17]
make things more easy and fire some of the people
[1:49:20]
even here. Cause we're not going to need you. We'll
[1:49:22]
have data centers. We have AI. Really, really, right? And
[1:49:27]
if the fire, what the hell's going to happen? Remember
[1:49:29]
what happened over there in LA? The food that burned
[1:49:33]
and it was rats and everything was coming out of
[1:49:35]
that building. It smelled like how and those people are
[1:49:37]
still putting up with that drama. What if we have
[1:49:40]
a mega data center somewhere close? What the hell's that
[1:49:44]
going to do if it starts on fire batteries, all
[1:49:46]
kinds of nonsense. That's a danger to our environment. You
[1:49:50]
know, two million dollars. Wow. Two million dollars. You know,
[1:49:54]
how much could we do with that Cabrera? The two
[1:49:56]
million dollars you cost us and a previous lawsuit. We
[1:49:58]
don't want data centers here. You know, it's all about
[1:50:02]
corporate wealth. How are we going to bring a fit
[1:50:04]
by it? That's what I want. How are we going
[1:50:06]
to benefit her? It's for corporate wealth for the greedy.
[1:50:09]
They take from, they need to give to the greedy.
[1:50:11]
They're going to take our water. They're going to take
[1:50:12]
our nutrity. Really, really. We don't need them. We don't
[1:50:16]
want them. So, you know, they can go jump in
[1:50:18]
the lake for all I care because this is, this
[1:50:22]
is out of the question here. This is either the
[1:50:24]
question. So I hope all of you's man up. Especially
[1:50:29]
you, Gonzalez. Man up and vote the right way for
[1:50:32]
the people. Not for what you want or not what
[1:50:35]
your mayor cabrera wants. You're not with your boy Cabrera
[1:50:37]
wants. What you want. You know, and maybe you might
[1:50:40]
vote no against it. Well, it's a good campaign ploy.
[1:50:45]
So Hey, I think so. I think I'll go that
[1:50:47]
way. But no, send them packing. We don't need it
[1:50:50]
here. They put a moratorium Paris little Paris all kinds
[1:50:54]
of other communities. They're saying hell no, we don't want
[1:50:56]
to hear. Don't even bring it. Thank you. That's three
[1:51:01]
speakers are collar with the last four numbers of five
[1:51:05]
one one five followed by another collar name of Andred
[1:51:10]
Delgado and then followed by another caller with the last
[1:51:12]
four five zero seven four. So will the speaker in
[1:51:18]
the queue with the last four numbers of five one,
[1:51:22]
one, five. Go ahead and speak. This is Jacob once
[1:51:27]
again. And I want to keep the short and free
[1:51:30]
so that I'm not being repetitive. This meeting has been
[1:51:33]
very, very unanimous aside from one individual who's uneducated on
[1:51:37]
them. On the idea that we need a ban on
[1:51:41]
these immediately, this is not an idea of cost benefit
[1:51:45]
where we have to weigh the differences because there's no
[1:51:48]
substantial benefit and there are endless, as have been documented
[1:51:51]
throughout this meeting. And this case is of risks and
[1:51:56]
harm. And people, um, getting asthma, having worsening of their
[1:52:00]
asthma, the endless humming that is dangerous. To unbelievably dangerous
[1:52:05]
wildlife. Very dangerous to the people as well. It's causing
[1:52:08]
a multitude of health issues within individuals. The horrible, uh,
[1:52:12]
drinking water conditions, the water that's being dumped. There's just
[1:52:16]
been a multitude of risks that have been attributed to
[1:52:19]
this. And this meeting has demonstrated that. So I don't
[1:52:22]
believe that this is a risk benefit thing that needs
[1:52:24]
to be weighed. Um, we definitely don't need data centers
[1:52:28]
as the one speaker set. He himself said that he
[1:52:31]
is not educated fully on the youth and has made
[1:52:34]
former false claims about AI such as flat cameras solving
[1:52:38]
a murder case here. That was false. I looked into
[1:52:40]
it. And I would just urge a counsel that you
[1:52:43]
make this decision today. Don't try to pass this off.
[1:52:46]
Or look more into it. You represent us. And we
[1:52:49]
have made it very clear with our stances. Thank you.
[1:52:54]
The next three speakers are on Drail Delgado who's joining
[1:52:57]
via Zoom followed by the last four numbers ending in
[1:53:01]
5074 and then followed by Jason Revellis. So go ahead,
[1:53:05]
Andrea. Hi everyone. My name is Andreda Delgado. I'm coming
[1:53:09]
into the space as a resident of district three in
[1:53:12]
myrnovalley for over 16 years. This is my first public
[1:53:15]
comment to city council. So I hope that does say
[1:53:17]
a lot similar to the previous speakers. This does feel
[1:53:20]
also deeply personal for me. Um, it's data center proposals
[1:53:24]
do come to the city. I demand that the city
[1:53:27]
council do not prioritize profit over the well - being
[1:53:29]
of its constituents. The obvious reality is that we're in
[1:53:33]
a climate crisis. California is in a water crisis. So
[1:53:36]
this topic feels very backwards. Data centers have clear negative
[1:53:40]
impacts on public health and that of the environment to
[1:53:42]
reemphasize a few any welcoming of data centers would drain
[1:53:46]
are already strained water resources, contribute to the heat island
[1:53:50]
effect and put a strain on our already vulnerable power
[1:53:53]
grid. Contributing to carbon emissions and wildfire risk in doing
[1:53:57]
so. The fossil fuel backup generators commonly powered by diesel
[1:54:01]
that are used in modern data centers would also exacerbate
[1:54:04]
our already poor air quality. Day of centers also contribute
[1:54:07]
to extreme noise and light pollution. That would impact local
[1:54:11]
communities and negatively impact the local wildlife that we have
[1:54:14]
left. Many data center projects are shown to be commonly
[1:54:18]
cited in underinvested marginalized areas similar to the warehousing industry
[1:54:23]
inland empire that would only be exacerbated. Um, by, oh,
[1:54:29]
sorry. That would only exacerbate the environments and justices were
[1:54:32]
already facing. So I'd really recommend looking at this issue
[1:54:35]
from an equity lens who is primarily using and benefiting
[1:54:38]
from AI and what neighborhoods in our community would be
[1:54:41]
subject to the impacts from a data center entering our
[1:54:43]
city. While data setters are proven to bring some economic
[1:54:47]
benefits, they really have serious local costs. So I do
[1:54:51]
want to reemphasize a key point set earlier, um, that
[1:54:54]
AI is threatening the jobs are city prides itself and
[1:54:56]
providing that being warehouse jobs. So for me, the benefits
[1:55:00]
do not weigh heavier than the trade - offs of
[1:55:02]
a residence quality of life. I'd recommend that the city
[1:55:05]
prohibit data centers from being able to enter our neighborhoods
[1:55:08]
and actually request that the city should condone any use
[1:55:11]
of AI, including AI surveillance technology for very obvious reasons
[1:55:15]
and those that folks have already stated previously. So thank
[1:55:18]
you so much for your time. The next three speakers
[1:55:23]
are a collar on the line. With the last four
[1:55:26]
numbers ending M5074. Followed by Jason Ravellis, followed by It
[1:55:31]
Solana Garibaldi. So go ahead, call her. Anding in 5074.
[1:55:38]
Hello council. My name is Camilla Fowler and I've lived
[1:55:41]
in Reno Valley for about 12 years. This is also
[1:55:43]
my first public comment at a city council meeting. We
[1:55:47]
do not need data centers. Our community deserves development that
[1:55:51]
is compatible with the health, safety and quality of life
[1:55:54]
of its residence. Economic development should not come at the
[1:55:58]
expense of clean air, water resources, open space wildlife habitat
[1:56:03]
and peaceful neighborhood. I'm therefore asking the marina valley CZ
[1:56:08]
Council to listen to the residents who will be directly
[1:56:11]
affected by this project and to oppose approval of the
[1:56:15]
proposed data center. Thank you. The next three speakers are
[1:56:20]
Jason Rivalis followed by Itsalana Garibaldi followed by Mr. Roy
[1:56:24]
Blecker. Hello. My name is Jason
[1:56:34]
and uh, my first question would be, I would want
[1:56:36]
to know who on the board here supports the data
[1:56:39]
centers. Um as well I wanted to speak on the
[1:56:42]
behalf of Marni Valley citizens to say that the community
[1:56:45]
does not want or need data centers. Um, I would
[1:56:48]
like to put it in simple terms for people that
[1:56:50]
are coming to the meeting and are not familiar with
[1:56:53]
data centers. Data centers are buildings that house computerized systems
[1:56:57]
that generate heat. As computer systems need a method of
[1:57:00]
cooling wood would be required to expend a large amount
[1:57:04]
of water. An average, an average data center weighs 300,
[1:57:09]
000 to 500, 000 gallons of water per day. But
[1:57:12]
large scale facilities would consume two. One to five million
[1:57:17]
gallons of water per day. We live in California and
[1:57:21]
I think that's really like no offense for like that's
[1:57:23]
really fucking dumb. Like, um, we live in California. We're
[1:57:29]
prone to droughts. How is this even a question right
[1:57:31]
now. And our moron of valley citizens do not need
[1:57:36]
our water supply being utilized to cool any skill size
[1:57:39]
data center. Data centers also indirectly create acid rain due
[1:57:44]
to onsite power generation many data centers rely on natural
[1:57:48]
gases or burning fossil fuels. As false fuse are burned,
[1:57:52]
the combustion's released sulfur dioxide and nitrogen nitrogen oxide. As
[1:57:57]
these chemicals are released into the atmosphere, it becomes a
[1:58:00]
precursor that causes acid ring. This pollution would be detrimental
[1:58:04]
to our community as it would contaminate our water, air
[1:58:07]
and create noise pollution from the systems being used on
[1:58:10]
site, which may be heard from half a mile to
[1:58:12]
a mile, emitting a constant humming noise. The effects of
[1:58:16]
the constant frequency to humans and animals are hearing loss,
[1:58:19]
stress, and insomnia. So to conclude data centers would contaminate
[1:58:23]
water, pollute our atmosphere. And emit noise and light pollution
[1:58:28]
to residents who may reside within close proximity. I'd also
[1:58:32]
like to say that I would really appreciate for the
[1:58:34]
people that are on the board to make eye contact
[1:58:37]
with the people that are here. Because the screens are
[1:58:41]
for the people that are watching online, right? We're here.
[1:58:44]
We're in person. We're in here to have this conversation.
[1:58:46]
And when we're having a conversation, we're here to make
[1:58:48]
eye contact and look at each other. Right. And you,
[1:58:52]
the one in the middle, I don't know your name,
[1:58:54]
but when people are making comments about you, right? You
[1:58:57]
shouldn't be smiling. You really shouldn't. What's it called? We
[1:59:02]
could laugh because it's true. This is what we live
[1:59:04]
through. This is what you're doing to us. But I
[1:59:06]
don't know why you smiling. And yeah, that's it. Thank
[1:59:11]
you. The next two speakers are Itsalana, Garibaldi,
[1:59:21]
followed by Roy Blackard. Hello. Um, my name is
[1:59:30]
Itsyana, the double L makes a Y noise. And my
[1:59:34]
comments are mainly concerning the health of our community and
[1:59:37]
the harm that can be caused by the noise pollution
[1:59:39]
produced by data centers. Um, I had to check my
[1:59:42]
numbers very quickly. So please excuse me if they are
[1:59:45]
exact, but I've been reading that a deny setter could
[1:59:47]
produce between 45 to 96 decibels of noise. If you
[1:59:51]
go down to any pharmacy, I've seen, um, that most,
[1:59:55]
the best of the earplugs there, um, only protect around
[1:59:58]
like 32 decibels of noise. We can't expect our neighbors
[2:00:01]
to keep earbuds in all the time. Um, prolonged exposure
[2:00:05]
to these levels of pollution. Most obviously will cause tinitus.
[2:00:09]
When the exposure isn't constant, the cinitis will go away
[2:00:11]
with time. But with the construction of a data center,
[2:00:15]
those levels wouldn't be going away anytime soon. This leads
[2:00:18]
to permanent hearing damage within two of the people within
[2:00:20]
our community. Um, while this issue affects everyone within our
[2:00:24]
community, I especially concerned about the health of our kids.
[2:00:29]
Um, I will always breach that the, I will always
[2:00:31]
preach the idea that the children of our, that the
[2:00:33]
children are our future. Excuse me. Um, it's been said
[2:00:36]
over and over again because it's the truth. And when
[2:00:38]
we foster an environment that disables them when they're young,
[2:00:42]
we are setting the future of our community up for
[2:00:44]
failure. And that's it. Final speaker is Roy Blacker.
[2:01:02]
I'll tell you how this is going to go. It's
[2:01:06]
going to go how you list this surveillance state, Cabrera
[2:01:11]
says it's going to go. You little history. Nine years
[2:01:16]
ago, 2017. What was it? 200 grand from Highland Fairview
[2:01:20]
put them in that seat that he's got today. Let's
[2:01:25]
go back to 2021 in the October surprise. Were the
[2:01:29]
city attorney and the city clerk told him you cannot
[2:01:32]
appoint Ladon or Jebson. He said, you know what? Screw
[2:01:35]
you the people, the law and everything else. I'm doing
[2:01:38]
it. Let's go to 2023. You don't think Ulysses surveillance
[2:01:44]
state Cabrera. Oh, we got a perfectly good camera system
[2:01:49]
that we paid for. In 2010. No, we got to
[2:01:53]
spend three million dollars more and who benefited. Personally. Ulysses
[2:02:00]
surveillance state Cabrera. You can look at this stuff each
[2:02:08]
and every day. And again, past history best indication of
[2:02:17]
future behavior. Doesn't matter what it is or who it
[2:02:22]
is, look at the history. When it benefits me, that's
[2:02:27]
where I'm going. So he may tell you today, Oh,
[2:02:30]
I'm against data centers. But what's going to happen tomorrow.
[2:02:37]
Let's look at the record. I can tell you just
[2:02:45]
from the broken promises nine years ago. Nine years ago.
[2:02:53]
Said, Hey, first got elected. Come on in studio. So
[2:02:57]
have a discussion. Tell the people. Give you the opportunity.
[2:02:59]
Oh yeah, I'm going to do it nine years later.
[2:03:02]
Never. Ducked it. Well, not. He will not address the
[2:03:08]
people when he doesn't have control of the microphone. What
[2:03:16]
do you think he's doing to you. You look at
[2:03:22]
this. I couldn't talk to the crime syndicate. You've heard
[2:03:24]
the people you heard Fred and the others. Oh, you
[2:03:28]
run this. Look, Elena practically had to stand on her
[2:03:34]
head because she. Endured the torture like the rest of
[2:03:38]
us. You three meetings going on today. We can't speak.
[2:03:42]
I couldn't speak down there because you're scheduling meetings at
[2:03:45]
the same time. This is, this is the marina valley.
[2:03:53]
Is brought to you. And if you don't get rid
[2:03:55]
of it, it's a marina valley. You will see in
[2:03:59]
the future. Marina Valley, it's your choice. Get off the
[2:04:02]
stick and get it done. The next two speakers are
[2:04:10]
Zoom speakers. The first one is going to be Joshua
[2:04:12]
Wilson followed by Camille. Go ahead Joshua. Hello. Can you
[2:04:18]
hear me? Yes. We can hear you, sir. Okay. So
[2:04:23]
I just, um, thank you for allowing me to speak,
[2:04:27]
but I just wanted to say I don't even know
[2:04:28]
why this is even being entertained just because we've seen
[2:04:32]
what these data centers has done. I mean, you yourself,
[2:04:35]
you lit sees your, you're, you know, you got screwed
[2:04:37]
up by yourself. With the flat cameras and allowing them
[2:04:41]
to come in with the city. So I don't even
[2:04:43]
know even after your own experiences while we even entertain
[2:04:46]
having this company that we know, but bad things for
[2:04:51]
our community. Like we see, I had like, okay, on
[2:04:55]
my street alone on the corner, I live off of
[2:04:58]
JFK and real beach. I have three fly cameras on
[2:05:03]
the intersection alone. Like I'm being surveilled every time I
[2:05:07]
can leave my house. And not only that, you're going
[2:05:11]
to, we, we've all seen the environmental impact. When we've
[2:05:15]
seen environment impact dues to all these warehouses, a bunch
[2:05:18]
of warehouses where I live. And this will all be
[2:05:21]
add to it. Like my, my fiance now currently expecting.
[2:05:26]
I do not want to bring a child into this
[2:05:28]
area. We're currently looking for places to buy. Another house.
[2:05:34]
And we've seen a lot of housing renovaling. We love
[2:05:36]
our area. We love our area. We love where we
[2:05:38]
live. We live in here now for five years. And
[2:05:41]
so we love to do that. We want to stand
[2:05:42]
this area. But if you build a AI data center
[2:05:46]
here and we're leaving. And a lot of other people
[2:05:49]
are going to leave. You're trying to expand the city
[2:05:51]
at the same time with all these projects and all
[2:05:53]
the different builds. And it's great. But this would be
[2:05:56]
nothing but a black eye. This will not help the
[2:05:59]
city. This would do nothing. But this do nothing but
[2:06:01]
damage to it. Like we recently had these fires a
[2:06:05]
few, uh, a few months ago. No, we were scared.
[2:06:07]
And we've seen how with these AI data companies, how
[2:06:10]
they redirect water. So what, what happens if we have
[2:06:13]
another kind of breast fire. And we're not allowed enough
[2:06:17]
water to get to another fire. This does nothing but
[2:06:21]
horn. And so I hope that you guys are listening
[2:06:26]
to your constituents. Cause I promise you if this goes
[2:06:29]
through, we're already upset about all the warehouses. Rory said
[2:06:33]
about auto car washes. We're all is said by everything
[2:06:37]
that's going on. So if you want to keep the
[2:06:40]
progress that you guys have made with the city, then
[2:06:43]
we, I urge you to not even entertain whatever kind
[2:06:46]
of kickback you may be getting or whatever may be
[2:06:49]
going on behind the scenes that seems that we're not
[2:06:51]
aware of. I promise you it's not worth it. I
[2:06:55]
promise you it's not worth your elected to do what's
[2:06:58]
best for constituents. So please go ahead and do that.
[2:07:00]
Thank you very much for your, on your time. The
[2:07:04]
next speaker is Camille Gobiyan. Go ahead, Camille. Unmute yourself
[2:07:11]
by pressing star six. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes,
[2:07:18]
we can. All right. Perfect. Um, I'm going to try
[2:07:22]
to keep this as short as I can. Um, I've
[2:07:25]
been a Moreno Valley resident for my entire life. I
[2:07:27]
also, um, started an intern position here at the city
[2:07:31]
Mary No Valley. And honestly, I'm really ashamed that this
[2:07:35]
is, you know, a conversation that we do need to
[2:07:37]
be having. Um, I have been, you know, for a
[2:07:43]
dinner, just anywhere in the world. I just don't think
[2:07:46]
they need exist at all anyone. And the idea of,
[2:07:53]
of creating one here, even, you know, through, um, this
[2:07:57]
sort of meeting that is supposed to look like, you
[2:08:01]
know, democracy, I feel like is, it's, it's really just,
[2:08:06]
it's, it's, it's not right. And I think you truly
[2:08:08]
just need to listen to your constituents. Um, and it's,
[2:08:12]
you know, it's not just the people sitting in the
[2:08:15]
crowd, which thank you for all your words. And thank
[2:08:17]
you for your passion. Um, and dedication against this cause,
[2:08:21]
um, but it's coming from internally as well. Um, and
[2:08:26]
I implore any other, you know, employees of the city
[2:08:31]
to, you know, speak up if this is an issue
[2:08:34]
that bothers you. And it should bother you. Because you
[2:08:37]
are supposed to be serving the public. You're supposed to
[2:08:39]
be serving the city. And what is the city going
[2:08:42]
to be when it's destroyed. When the environment is, is
[2:08:46]
being drained. The, the motto of the city is where
[2:08:50]
dream sore. How are those dreams supposed to soar. If
[2:08:53]
we are proposing these data centers? We're already building so
[2:08:56]
many warehouses and so many unnecessary things. So please listen
[2:09:01]
to your constituents. People. Thank you. Mayor that concludes
[2:09:11]
all of public comments. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And thank
[2:09:16]
you to all of our public speakers as well to
[2:09:19]
everybody that came out this evening. At this time, we
[2:09:22]
will go ahead and bring it back up to the
[2:09:24]
dais for council discussion or any follow - up questions.
[2:09:29]
So we'll go ahead and open it up to the
[2:09:31]
rest of the council. Yeah, definitely. Oh, sorry. Okay. Let's,
[2:09:35]
uh, let's just make a list here. Nope. So we'll
[2:09:37]
go to district one first followed by a district four
[2:09:40]
followed by district two first thing I want to say
[2:09:43]
is definitely that, um, I don't know if everyone is
[2:09:47]
here at the beginning of the meeting, but we did
[2:09:49]
discuss that the only reason we can have this conversation
[2:09:52]
is because they're currently is no data center coming. So
[2:09:56]
that's number one. We're not, it would be legal for
[2:09:59]
us to have this discussion if there was one in
[2:10:01]
the works or in planning. That's why we're having the
[2:10:04]
discussion today. We hear you. It is a democracy. We
[2:10:08]
are here to represent you. I for sure, um, you
[2:10:12]
know, in the same mindset. I don't think that we
[2:10:16]
have the resources here, um, from what we've heard, but
[2:10:20]
we do need more information. So I think that what
[2:10:22]
we should do is it's a study session as well.
[2:10:25]
We don't take action tonight. We're just here to discuss.
[2:10:28]
So I would like to direct staff to bring back
[2:10:31]
a moratorium for as long as we can, um, so
[2:10:34]
while the moratorium is in place, we can have more
[2:10:37]
discussion and study about banning this type of, um, uh,
[2:10:43]
company that you, us, the residents, all of us who
[2:10:46]
do live here. Because we do live here. All of
[2:10:48]
us up in this dais, uh, that was another comment
[2:10:50]
that, you know, we get on the 60 and drive
[2:10:52]
away. We get on the 60 and go to work
[2:10:54]
every day like you. This isn't a full time job.
[2:10:57]
I come from work. I've worked eight hours this morning.
[2:11:00]
And then come here. But we could have cut the
[2:11:04]
comments. You know, we're all in the same mind and
[2:11:07]
said, you know, let's just hear 30 seconds or a
[2:11:09]
minute, but we all came here to work and to
[2:11:10]
listen to you. And everybody had a chance to either
[2:11:14]
call in, get on Zoom, come here in person. Um,
[2:11:18]
send us comments. We have comments that were emailed to
[2:11:21]
us. We have those up here. So we sat and
[2:11:23]
listened to everything. I certainly heard what you said and
[2:11:27]
I see, you know, the writing on the wall and
[2:11:29]
what my constituents want and what I think the direction
[2:11:32]
we need to do is. Staff to bring back a
[2:11:35]
moratorium so that we pause, have time to look at
[2:11:38]
it and consider the ban. But right now that's where
[2:11:43]
I'm thinking. That's where I'm at. Thank you. Next up
[2:11:47]
we'll go to council member Bernard. Um, first I want
[2:11:51]
to address something to, um, before I give my comments,
[2:11:53]
I want to redirect. There was, um, a comment that
[2:11:56]
was mentioned about, um, merino value utilities and the spot
[2:12:02]
load that was happening. Um, can I get city manager
[2:12:06]
to address that. Or Jason? Yeah, I'm sorry. Jason. Jason,
[2:12:12]
if you want, I'll take it. I don't mind. Okay.
[2:12:15]
Um, so the reason why the reason why that report
[2:12:19]
had, uh, conversations about spot load is, um, in the
[2:12:24]
industry, it's used, uh, a multitude of different reasons and
[2:12:29]
so forth, especially when you're looking at financing and so
[2:12:32]
forth infrastructure, uh, going forward. But, uh, spot load had
[2:12:36]
to do with, uh, a few things. Um, it had
[2:12:39]
to do with the mall redevelopment. It had to do
[2:12:43]
with Aquabella. It had to do with, uh, the other
[2:12:47]
logistic centers that have been approved and so forth. So,
[2:12:51]
um, even with the sketchers, um, expansion. Every time a
[2:12:58]
new building comes on, that's a spot load. Um, we
[2:13:01]
have to figure out how many, um, what's the load?
[2:13:05]
How many megawatts is needed. And so that's why, um,
[2:13:13]
uh, spot loads as that development came in. We know
[2:13:17]
what those specific plans are. We know, uh, what GP
[2:13:21]
2040 says, but we do not procure, uh, energy until
[2:13:25]
it's actually needed. And so that's what a spot load
[2:13:28]
is. Um, also, um, if you don't mind, since we're
[2:13:32]
talking about electricity, I think it was, um, that said
[2:13:36]
something about SEE and potentially could MVU build the utility
[2:13:43]
to a point where we could take over SE customers.
[2:13:47]
Um, that is not plausible. SEE would not give up
[2:13:52]
their customers. We'd have to buy the entire infrastructure. The
[2:13:56]
infrastructure is very old. Um, all of the, uh, infrastructure
[2:14:01]
for MVU is below grade or underground. Um, so as
[2:14:06]
we build out, um, all new development will be MVU
[2:14:11]
customers, but there is at this point no way that,
[2:14:15]
uh, the utility would, um, go forward and purchase SE
[2:14:20]
to get all of those customers because we would have
[2:14:23]
hundreds of millions of dollars of reinvestment to bring that
[2:14:26]
infrastructure up to par. Actually at utility commission this month,
[2:14:31]
the utility commissioners who are public, um, representatives who sit
[2:14:34]
on the utility commissions, they ask Jason just this month
[2:14:38]
to look at buying SCE customers because we do have
[2:14:42]
to pay so much for the infrastructure. But I mean,
[2:14:45]
MBU would like to take over all of the city.
[2:14:48]
They actually lowered the rates this year while we pay
[2:14:50]
higher rates this year. So we're actually looking into that.
[2:14:55]
But just as like how much would it cost? And
[2:14:58]
when we talked our commissioners asked Jason, you know, well,
[2:15:01]
how does SEE feel about that? He said, they don't
[2:15:02]
care. They don't care. Their customer service is horrible. Um,
[2:15:06]
they don't see us as valuable. If we want to
[2:15:09]
buy them out and buy the equipment and take over,
[2:15:11]
they're happy to give it to us. But it is
[2:15:13]
costly. So we're looking at like who would pay the
[2:15:15]
costs. All MVU. So these, you know, when we burden
[2:15:19]
the people who are mutant current MVUs with that, would
[2:15:22]
we put all the costs on the SE because they
[2:15:24]
have to move over. But, um, it is something that
[2:15:28]
your utility commission is looking at and Jason's working on
[2:15:31]
that as well. But, um, those are also some things
[2:15:33]
that utility commission looks at. In anticipation of what if
[2:15:38]
we were. So not just because there's reports or we're
[2:15:41]
looking into things means that we're going to do it.
[2:15:44]
We're looking at like what would be best for everybody.
[2:15:52]
I'm sorry council member. You guys still did that answer
[2:15:56]
your initial question. And do you have any additional questions?
[2:15:59]
I don't have any other right. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
[2:16:00]
Thank you. Um, so I guess, um, this is either
[2:16:05]
a good thing that I called for it or a
[2:16:07]
bad thing. Uh, I was the one that called for
[2:16:09]
the study session and let me kind of give a
[2:16:11]
little background why I called for the study session. So
[2:16:13]
as council member Bakasante Kuru said, um, we, I do
[2:16:19]
have a job outside of this job. I do have
[2:16:22]
a job outside of this job. Um, I work at
[2:16:24]
the labor center. I'm the director there at UC Riverside.
[2:16:28]
And I have been looking and studying data centers now
[2:16:33]
for a little close to a year and seeing what
[2:16:35]
had been happening in the city of Memphis, Virginia, Ohio,
[2:16:40]
um, places like that and thinking like, okay, so what
[2:16:44]
is it that needs to be done? Because I like
[2:16:47]
a lot of you understand that, um, it requires a
[2:16:50]
lot of resources. And the one resource that we've learned
[2:16:54]
that we could replicate, um, I shouldn't say the one.
[2:16:57]
We can replicate a lot, right? We can, we can
[2:16:59]
refract your energy back. Cause you can take care of
[2:17:02]
that. Um, using solar power. We can figure out when
[2:17:06]
we can fix. So you can figure out all these
[2:17:08]
things. The one natural resource that everyone seems to figure
[2:17:11]
out that we can't replicate is water. And so, um,
[2:17:15]
I, we hosted a webinar last year and we, we
[2:17:18]
had folks from all over the world, um, and one
[2:17:21]
of the most formentioned folks at UC Riverside, Shalo Ryn
[2:17:27]
come and basically talk to us about data centers. And
[2:17:30]
when I tell you the things that I learned that
[2:17:31]
you can do with data centers, it was like, okay.
[2:17:34]
So that was the first one. Um, and I do
[2:17:35]
want to give a special shout out to Jason. Because
[2:17:38]
about three weeks ago, I, um, had Jason come to
[2:17:43]
the middle of Palm Desert. It was 117 degrees. And
[2:17:47]
I know somebody asked about his suit. I'm telling you
[2:17:50]
he was fully dressed in a suit 117 degrees along
[2:17:54]
with, um, folks from the no data centers, which is
[2:17:58]
Monterey Park. We had, um, we had people that talked
[2:18:01]
about, um, not just infrastructure for them, but what exactly
[2:18:07]
is a data center? Where exactly do you do these
[2:18:10]
things physically lie? Because while we're all on our phones,
[2:18:13]
we all know phones and things like that streaming services.
[2:18:17]
It still has to be physically housed somewhere. We used
[2:18:19]
to think like the cloud is this mysterious like mixed,
[2:18:22]
like we just didn't know, right? And so we sat
[2:18:24]
down and had a conversation about that. And, um, and
[2:18:28]
I say all that to say. I didn't just pull
[2:18:32]
this out the sky. Someone said one time when I
[2:18:35]
first really started mentioning it, because if I could, if
[2:18:37]
I would have went for this a long time ago.
[2:18:39]
It's the new popular thing. And I'm like, ah, it's
[2:18:41]
not new and popular. I don't think it's new unpopular.
[2:18:44]
I'm seeing it happen in more and more brown and
[2:18:46]
black communities. They're pushing back. These notices are being signed.
[2:18:51]
And then I hear everyone, um, I hear you guys
[2:18:53]
when you guys are saying the city of Coachella. So
[2:18:56]
I hear that. Let's talk about what really happened in
[2:18:58]
Coachella. They signed an agreement. It was going down for
[2:19:03]
a vote. And then the residents got a hold of
[2:19:05]
it and other community members. And then Coachella was like,
[2:19:07]
Oh damn, we messed up. So they didn't do it
[2:19:10]
because it was the right thing to do and they
[2:19:12]
didn't even have public input beforehand. I wanted full public
[2:19:15]
input on this. I wanted full transparency and full public
[2:19:18]
input. There are no data centers coming down the line.
[2:19:22]
There isn't a project that's coming forward. I've never been
[2:19:25]
supportive of them. But as council member Baka Santa Cruz
[2:19:28]
said the time to have the discussion was not when
[2:19:32]
one is actually placed in front of us for a
[2:19:35]
decision or when it was happening going down the pipeline
[2:19:38]
when it's submitted because by then it's too late. And
[2:19:41]
so what I was trying to figure out was, well,
[2:19:43]
how can we get one. See, Baka Santa Cruz is
[2:19:47]
requesting a moratorium. I want to fall out ban. I
[2:19:50]
want to fool out ban and let me explain why.
[2:19:53]
We are in this weird little, I don't know. This
[2:19:56]
is worse than Florida. I'm begging you Florida. Please take
[2:20:00]
your weather back. I don't want it at all. I
[2:20:03]
want my dry heat. But one of the main reasons
[2:20:06]
I had that event in Palm Desert was because that's
[2:20:09]
where they were being imposed proposed that 114 degrees. It
[2:20:13]
was 107 degrees that night even at nine o'clock at
[2:20:15]
night. And the truth is it's too damn hot and
[2:20:19]
there just is no water. But this is also a
[2:20:21]
conversation that needed to be had. I also think it
[2:20:24]
should not just rely upon the cities and the counties.
[2:20:28]
This is something that states should be looking at. And
[2:20:30]
the federal government should be addressing. And we need to
[2:20:32]
figure it out state by state because yes, we can
[2:20:36]
ban them out here in Riverside. We can in Riverside
[2:20:39]
County, we can ban them in the entire state of
[2:20:41]
California. The question now becomes, what is Arizona going to
[2:20:45]
do? Cause they pull from the same water. Nevada pulls
[2:20:48]
from the same water. So we banned them, but they
[2:20:50]
go forward. So that's why I think this is a
[2:20:52]
bigger discussion. So I hear you. Um, I can, I
[2:20:59]
can finally give my opinion because I haven't really given
[2:21:01]
an opinion on it. And I'm telling you, I don't
[2:21:04]
believe a moratorium is good enough. I believe you should
[2:21:08]
have a full ban on them. But I also will
[2:21:11]
say this. That while we can still do a full
[2:21:14]
ban on them, at some point, just like everyone was
[2:21:17]
complaining about AI today, if you are sitting on, if
[2:21:22]
you're sitting on any of your social media, if you
[2:21:24]
are doing any of those things, those things are all
[2:21:26]
still involved in it. And so we, we really should
[2:21:28]
look at it. I know, um, I believe it was
[2:21:31]
Ms. Hopkins who was like, I don't want to say
[2:21:33]
how old I don't want to put an age on
[2:21:34]
it. I don't care. I'm an 80s baby paid in
[2:21:37]
full all 44 years of my life. I remember of
[2:21:39]
time before we didn't have phones, I still, I longed
[2:21:42]
for it every day. Trust me. When I just left
[2:21:44]
the house and you didn't know where I was till
[2:21:46]
I got back. Right. And if you were lucky enough
[2:21:48]
and your parents supplied you would have beeper, you have
[2:21:50]
to find a payphone. I know. I think we might
[2:21:52]
still have one out front. But, um, I think we
[2:21:55]
need to really look at how we use technology and
[2:21:59]
what it's used for. We see the things that are
[2:22:01]
happening technology is advancing way quicker than anyone ever thought.
[2:22:05]
And so we need to really, we can, we can
[2:22:09]
ban this. I do believe I would prefer that city,
[2:22:12]
if they would like to, uh, look at a moratorium
[2:22:15]
as well as a full on band, I would prefer
[2:22:18]
the band, but I would like to see both of
[2:22:20]
them side by side and go from there. Um, but
[2:22:24]
I think just in general as a society, we do
[2:22:26]
need to really consider and think about because I always
[2:22:28]
tell people, I don't think about it in terms of
[2:22:30]
my future. I think about, um, my children's future. And
[2:22:35]
every decision that I make, I try to think about,
[2:22:38]
um, the same way my ancestors fought for freedom. They
[2:22:42]
fought for freedom knowing one day they may never see
[2:22:45]
it, but I would be able to see it in
[2:22:47]
habit. And so even if the decisions I make today,
[2:22:49]
someone may say it's silly that I would ban a
[2:22:52]
data center. Well, you know what? It's not, it might
[2:22:54]
not be something that I can fully see comfort fruition,
[2:22:56]
but I do my, my kids and my, my kids
[2:22:59]
and their kids will be better off than I was.
[2:23:01]
And sometimes that's the way decisions have to be made.
[2:23:03]
And so that's kind of where I stand on it.
[2:23:09]
Thank you. Next up we will go to council member
[2:23:12]
Delgado. Yeah. I won't be as long. Um, but I,
[2:23:15]
I do agree with my, my, my peers up here
[2:23:18]
as far as, um, either placing a ban or a
[2:23:22]
moratorium because we do not, in Marina Valley, do not
[2:23:25]
have the infrastructure for this. It might work in other
[2:23:28]
cities. It might be something that they want. Um, but
[2:23:31]
I would tell you I learned a lot. Thank you
[2:23:33]
for that presentation. And thank you for a lot of
[2:23:36]
the, um, the residents that came up with their information
[2:23:39]
and their stats, uh, I didn't know a lot about
[2:23:43]
data centers. We heard a lot about them, but we
[2:23:45]
don't know, you know, getting down into the weeds. So
[2:23:47]
thank you for that. Um, and I do hear my
[2:23:51]
constituents and district two, they do not want anything like
[2:23:54]
this. And I don't, I just, I took notes and
[2:23:57]
I wrote lose lose because up in district two, there's
[2:24:00]
no, I mean, it doesn't even make sense for one.
[2:24:03]
Um, but again, I think that, um, we don't have
[2:24:08]
the infrastructure. We don't have the desire. We don't have
[2:24:10]
the need. Um, so I mean, again, I'm not going
[2:24:15]
to reiterate reiterate everything these guys said, but, um, and
[2:24:18]
I'm sure, you know, my other peers that haven't spoken
[2:24:22]
have something to say about it too. So. Thank you.
[2:24:26]
Thank you. Mayor pro Tim Gonzalez. Uh, thank you, Councillor.
[2:24:32]
Um, uh, so I just want to say that, um,
[2:24:35]
I, I also heard, uh, the residents speak, especially my,
[2:24:39]
uh, the constituents that are in district three, the place
[2:24:44]
for data centers in Renovalley or in District 3. We
[2:24:47]
don't have the infrastructure requirements. Uh, we don't have the,
[2:24:51]
or, or the power water to provide this type of,
[2:24:54]
of, um, of development in Murnavalley. Uh, it reminds me
[2:24:59]
of, you know, the comments that we're being made about,
[2:25:02]
you know, being ahead of, of these uses, which we
[2:25:07]
have an opportunity now to, to ban or have a
[2:25:09]
moratorium, no different in the warehouses, right? Um, there's, there
[2:25:15]
were the explosion at warehouses happen so fast. And it
[2:25:19]
just took, um, it took everyone by, by surprise. And
[2:25:23]
it took, um, to get there. So I definitely, um,
[2:25:28]
pull support a ban or moratorium on, on, um, data
[2:25:33]
centers. And also, uh, it just kind of, it reminds,
[2:25:38]
it reminds us all that we, we definitely have to
[2:25:40]
have a conversation on, on, on the future of AI,
[2:25:45]
the benefits of social media, even though we, we all
[2:25:48]
use it for our, for our own specific purposes. Um,
[2:25:52]
we've definitely, um, need to have that conversation in society.
[2:25:57]
It's, it's, it's gotten out of control. So definitely I
[2:26:01]
am not in favor of, um, data centers here in
[2:26:05]
our city. So with that, I'll turn over to the
[2:26:08]
mayor. Thank you mayor pro time. And thank you to
[2:26:14]
my colleagues as well for their input. And again, thank
[2:26:18]
you to the residents as well for coming out and
[2:26:22]
sharing your concerns, asking your questions. And I mean, this
[2:26:25]
is what it's about, you know, really, uh, hope that
[2:26:29]
we see rooms filled with more people moving forward. You
[2:26:34]
know, one of the things that we've tried to do
[2:26:36]
is to make city hall more accessible. It's not always
[2:26:39]
easy. And we're not always, uh, able to solve every
[2:26:42]
piece of it. Um, cause we're just one organization, one
[2:26:46]
government entity. And the others, um, have their own schedules
[2:26:50]
and all that. But, uh, hopefully we do see more
[2:26:52]
participation, more engagement now that we have the virtual options
[2:26:55]
as well. We're seeing more of that. So that's always
[2:26:57]
a good thing that our residents can come out and,
[2:27:01]
um, have their voices heard, uh, on topics like this.
[2:27:04]
And so, uh, not to repeat everything that's been said.
[2:27:07]
Cause I agree with pretty much everything that's been said
[2:27:09]
already. But to share a couple of other things as
[2:27:13]
well that, uh, for example, um, you know, for anybody
[2:27:17]
that watches the economy very closely and the various economic,
[2:27:20]
uh, variables factors, we can throw out things like inflation,
[2:27:24]
treasury yields, uh, interest rates, uh, federal reserve making different
[2:27:29]
decisions. Terrif wars. The war in the Middle East. And
[2:27:32]
what that does to oil prices. And right now things
[2:27:35]
are, uh, definitely obviously not headed in the right direction.
[2:27:40]
And, um, I bring that up because there's a lot
[2:27:42]
of discussion growing every day about what it's being, uh,
[2:27:48]
nicknamed the AI bubble. And comparing that to the dot
[2:27:52]
com bubble in 2000, comparing it to the Great Depression
[2:27:56]
and industrial revolutions where technologies. Came about, they were created.
[2:28:03]
They caused massive disruptions in society and the economy. And,
[2:28:09]
uh, that's a major concern right now that so much
[2:28:11]
money is going into these AI companies and so many
[2:28:16]
different question marks that are coming up there. So, uh,
[2:28:19]
I think those are serious concerns that we need to
[2:28:21]
look at. I'll mention another one. If you want to
[2:28:23]
look into this is, um, uh, SpaceX when they went
[2:28:26]
public, um, how that affected a lot of people in
[2:28:29]
this country is 401ks and retirement accounts and things like
[2:28:32]
that. These billionaires and corporations are playing games with the
[2:28:36]
American people's retirements and equity and all of these things.
[2:28:40]
And it's not okay. And that segues into AI regulations.
[2:28:44]
And what we've seen this federal administration, when they got
[2:28:48]
back into the White House, uh, in 24, almost two
[2:28:52]
years ago, they're using every tool and policy and legalese
[2:28:58]
and even ignoring court orders to allow their donors and
[2:29:02]
their corporate, uh, puppet masters to sell off public lands,
[2:29:08]
federal lens, uh, prevent or hold back AI regulation just
[2:29:14]
in, I think it was Wisconsin, uh, Elon Musk was
[2:29:17]
fighting. I don't even want to say it because I
[2:29:19]
have two young children at home, but it's those type
[2:29:21]
of people that we're fighting against. And they're all trying
[2:29:26]
to protect themselves trying to fill their pockets more trying
[2:29:30]
to increase the value of their stocks and their companies.
[2:29:34]
And those are things that need to change. But we
[2:29:37]
can control whatever's within our authority. Everything else we can
[2:29:41]
advocate for it. We can, um, try to work with
[2:29:45]
our state and federal legislators. But, um, you know, it's
[2:29:49]
really tough, uh, to get anything done at the federal
[2:29:53]
level. So we need to do what we can here.
[2:29:56]
I also want to mention, cause it was part of
[2:29:57]
the presentation that any AI data center is really are
[2:30:01]
moving into industrial buildings across the country for the most
[2:30:04]
part. And back in 2017, you know, cause one of
[2:30:11]
the speakers brought it up at the beginning, I was,
[2:30:14]
you know, very new to politics, all that. I was
[2:30:16]
learning a lot. Uh, 21, 22 years old and very
[2:30:19]
quickly learned that the picture that was being painted about
[2:30:23]
industrial and warehousing and how it's going to create all
[2:30:27]
these permanent long - term jobs. And it's going to
[2:30:29]
be so good for, uh, the community quickly learned that
[2:30:33]
that was not the case. And when I finally realized
[2:30:37]
that these people are not in it for the right
[2:30:40]
reasons. They're in it to buy the votes on the
[2:30:43]
council and get their projects approved. Um, I decided to
[2:30:48]
vote against a world logistics center. And ever since then,
[2:30:52]
I've had warehouse developers, uh, basically. Coming for me. And
[2:30:58]
it hasn't been easy. But it's because I wanted us
[2:31:02]
to diversify our local economy, move away from just industrial.
[2:31:05]
We've had too much of that going on. And so
[2:31:08]
I think little by little, we're seeing progress in that
[2:31:11]
direction. But, uh, we need to keep going. So, um,
[2:31:16]
I won't talk about infrastructure or electricity or water because
[2:31:19]
that's been covered already. But, uh, in conclusion, I will
[2:31:22]
say that, you know, our societies at a major crossroads
[2:31:26]
because we, in many ways, can't live without many of
[2:31:33]
these technologies. Our society is just so interconnected and intertwined,
[2:31:37]
uh, whether it's our, our screens here and our agendas,
[2:31:42]
our cell phones or computers, the internet, um, you know,
[2:31:45]
all, all those things, um, we have to figure out
[2:31:50]
what the future is going to look like because we
[2:31:52]
can't, on one hand, say we don't like AI and
[2:31:55]
we don't want data centers, but then on the other
[2:31:57]
hand, um, you know, folks are on TikTok and making
[2:32:00]
Instagram reels and someone mentioned making cat, you know, pictures
[2:32:05]
of yourself. We have to really figure out what that's
[2:32:10]
going to look like and what do we want? Cause
[2:32:12]
we can't really have both. So, uh, in conclusion, uh,
[2:32:16]
just want to say that I look forward to these
[2:32:18]
conversations. It looks like there's clear consensus on this dais
[2:32:23]
on bringing an item back to the council, having a
[2:32:25]
discussion and taking formal action. We cannot do that tonight.
[2:32:29]
This is a study session, uh, our processes are bylaws.
[2:32:33]
We don't take action and study sessions. But, um, sure.
[2:32:37]
But we can give direction. That is correct. So now
[2:32:39]
that the council has clear consensus, um, this is typically
[2:32:43]
what we do. Staff will ask or see if there's
[2:32:46]
consensus and then move forward with bringing back an agenda
[2:32:50]
item in the future. So, um, staff, I'll turn it
[2:32:53]
over to you as far as any additional questions you
[2:32:55]
may have, any clarification that you need on how to
[2:32:58]
move forward. Mayor, um, mayor, uh, just so, um, it's
[2:33:04]
codified for the official record, uh, policy 1. 01, section
[2:33:10]
1. 4. 3. Although this is a study session and
[2:33:14]
there's absolutely no vote. The council members may individually express
[2:33:19]
their opinions and ask questions concerning the study session item.
[2:33:23]
Um, and may by majority consent give general direction to
[2:33:27]
staff concerning further actions to be taken prior to formal
[2:33:31]
city council consideration of the item. Um, but any final
[2:33:35]
action or formal motions or vote required to affect council
[2:33:39]
approval or denial shall take place at a regularly scheduled
[2:33:43]
council meeting. So based on, uh, this, definitely consensus for
[2:33:48]
staff to come back. Um, and, uh, we will do
[2:33:52]
so. Um, ample time. Keep in mind, uh, we're going
[2:33:59]
to have to discuss internally what meeting would be the
[2:34:04]
proper meeting to come to and whether or not public
[2:34:06]
notice is needing to be, um, done through the newspapers
[2:34:10]
and so forth. So, um, and we also are dark,
[2:34:17]
September 15th. So, uh, sometime in October, uh, we'll be
[2:34:21]
coming back. Perfect. Sounds good. Thank you so much. Perfect.
[2:34:24]
Thank you. And then I did have just before we
[2:34:26]
adjourn the meeting, uh, receive notice that we had one
[2:34:30]
more request to speak that came in at the end
[2:34:32]
here. Uh, so just wanted to ask, um, my colleagues,
[2:34:35]
if that's okay with you, we can take one more
[2:34:36]
public comment. Okay. Let's hear them all. Christopher Baka.
[2:34:48]
I highly appreciate you allowing me to speak. And I
[2:34:51]
don't want to ruffle any feathers, but, um, I'm not
[2:34:55]
four data centers, but I think you, I think, uh,
[2:34:59]
cover I did make a point, you know, we need
[2:35:02]
to look into the future and they are some fallacies
[2:35:05]
involving, uh, going around about data centers. For instance, some
[2:35:08]
of them, uh, what they're talking about the water and
[2:35:11]
the electrical uses are these antiquated and old technology. And
[2:35:16]
we're talking about data centers that use 2000 gallons of
[2:35:21]
water that is completely always recycled. Also, um, it's insanity
[2:35:26]
that our city does not allow warehouses to have solar
[2:35:31]
panels. Whereas in the new technology, some of the windows,
[2:35:35]
some of the other stuff can be used as solar
[2:35:38]
power that can power these, uh, data centers. You know,
[2:35:42]
when I was a kid, the year 2000, we're going
[2:35:47]
to have flying cars. We were going to have robots.
[2:35:51]
We were going to be living halfway up the sky.
[2:35:55]
You know, we really, you know, we can't jump into
[2:35:57]
these conclusions. I agree with, uh, council member, uh, Santa
[2:36:01]
Cruz at a moratorium would be what satisfied until there's
[2:36:05]
more information given out. I didn't see the study session,
[2:36:08]
but did it mention anything about some of the, uh,
[2:36:13]
water. Consumption. That is not, you know, what they, you
[2:36:17]
know, yes, we're in the desert. I don't think a
[2:36:21]
couple, um, milling gallons of water that is recycled for
[2:36:25]
indefinitely is, you know, the benefits for the future, you
[2:36:29]
know, like I said, I'm not for data centers, but,
[2:36:33]
you know, I think it's, it's, it's unresponsible to complete
[2:36:42]
information for. I don't think our, I didn't see the
[2:36:46]
study session. I didn't see the presentation, but you know,
[2:36:49]
there are future developments in solar panel and recycled water.
[2:36:55]
And in case you didn't know, data centers around. Did
[2:36:59]
you know the Paris. It's state. You know, it's here.
[2:37:06]
They need it. You know, this, we may have one
[2:37:09]
here in city hall. Who knows. You know, so my
[2:37:14]
conclusion is a ban is excessive at this point. Although
[2:37:20]
it could be rescinded down the line, but we need
[2:37:23]
more information and we need to stop, you know, going
[2:37:27]
with the political activity of like, I band - aid
[2:37:32]
a center's vote for me. That concludes public comment mayor.
[2:37:40]
Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. So that will conclude
[2:37:44]
our meeting for this evening and we will officially adjourn
[2:37:47]
at 827 p. m. Have a good night, everyone.