[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.