##VIDEO ID:d6cN2-0tywk## Mike's on all right welcome to the January 15th meeting of the brard Planning Commission can we have a roll call please Duval present Norwood present Peterson present gorum present grula president there we go looking for a somebody to lead the pledge Dave all right with that we are up to the item number four the election of officers um I think the ground rules are pretty simple anybody can nominate anybody on the commission you can't nominate yourself I think that's uh the basic not um if we get two candidates we can either do what do you think are we are are we going to do a paper ballot if we get two candidates or want to just do we just do a roll call a roll call I'm comfortable with that very good I'm going to open the form to uh open the floor to uh nominations for president and then or chair and then Vice chair I commissioner Norwood nominate commissioner Duval for chair there we go I'll second that and this is of course pending on Mike being reappointed which you will be yeah there's an there's an element of uncertainty there I've not been formally appointed I'd be happy to serve in that role um but just understanding that if I'm not reappointed you'll be doing this in February very good all right we're looking for um um yeah let's do let's do do we have any other nominations for chair hearing none let's take a roll call on chair Duval yes Norwood yes Peterson yes Goram yes Gula yes all right that was so much fun let's do it again now we're looking for a vice chair opening the floor to nominations for a vice chair i' I'd like to make a nomination of Mr Gorman for vice chair all right there we go we've done that before uh do we have any other nominations for a vice chair hearing none let's do a roll call on that please Duval yes Norwood yes Peterson yes gorum yes grula yes very good all right with that we're going to take about a 20 second break here I'm going to change spots with Mike there you want to do it from there take the Hammer Hammer baby all right there we go thank you you touch it you gotta you got to do it uhuh so all right so with that um we are now um uh Planning Commission bylaws uh director kiic do you want to step us through that so this would be a time for the Planning Commission to review anything you certainly it could um come up in the next uh at the very end review of the Planning Commission itinerary is there anything that the commission would like to talk about with the bylaws um or anything that uh have an idea that you might like to work on or review so any uh comments on the bylaws uh items of Interest or um things that need to be clarified or any other recommendations Mr chair yes I'll make the same observation I make every single time is that the bylaws actually give us more power than we exercise and they actually suggest that we can have an active role in budgetary processes and things like this just kind of interesting to think about because the bylaws really see this as a group that is actively influencing other parts of city government it's not a role we traditionally have taken but it's always interesting and if we ever are going to do that I think with the lesson we've learned is that you want to move early in a year because before you know it uh the budget process will be on and uh the money will all be gone and uh by money of course because things for comp plans a lot of different things a lot of different things we may want to pursue as a goal so that's my yearly uh observation thank you Mr G any other comments or questions Justin you okay all right well with that um you know I would Echo um the the tangible piece of what you're talking about um commissioner Goram is is the relating to the comp plan and the priorities and budget requests that would help Implement that comp plan that's on our agenda later on this evening and so we'll have a chance to to think about as we sort through the priorities for this coming or this uh this current year that we're in um how we want to guide staff on developing things and one of those is the comp plan so um with that um I guess no changes at this point so and I'm handicapped by not having brought my laptop or my tablet so I'm gonna need to you want my notes Mike I just need I just need to follow the agenda so approval of the minutes Norwood so moved second we have a motion in a second any discussion on the uh uh approval of the minutes otherwise uh uh I would like to go to direct comic yeah before that it' be the approval of the agenda yeah yeah yeah I noticed that is it on it is on here you're new yeah give me my I'll amend my motion for the approval of the agenda there look at that I'll amend my second there you go okay any uh any discussion on that otherwise all those in favor signify by saying I I I all oppose same sign we have an approved agenda now we're moving to minutes so moved okay second second okay and we have H commissioner grula has that and uh so any discussion on that none um all those in favor signify by saying I I I all oppose same sign when that is approved and we're now on to new business and we have a a consideration for an amendment to a planned unit development by um Country Manor so uh director kvi can you set that up for us please thank you Mr chair uh so Country Manor is proposing to amend the Pud by expanding the Southwest Memory Care building to accommodate additional memory care units removing a portion of the main parking lot reducing the size of the Northwest building and removing a detached garage the amended areas are included in the revised site plans that are in the packet uh staff did included the original plans for reference for the Planning Commission uh the child care center has remained unchanged uh staff has been working with Country Manor um they've been great to work with on adding additional cross connections and valves to the main water line we've been working with brainer Public Utilities as well as our public works department on that uh so this will be a part of the develop ment agreement um that the city council will review at the February 3rd meeting uh the original site plan did contain approximately 197 parking stalls um and the additional parking uh garages the proposed amendment U from what I reviewed uh would be approximately 43 off street parking spaces to be removed in the one detach garage supporting approximately 16 spaces uh Country Manor is here um to to represent and discuss uh their thoughts behind this they don't have any concerns about REM moving that additional parking and these are areas that uh storm water would already be set up um the area for that garage would already be set up so it can be added at a later date um especially if some of the building expansions happen so there's still an opportunity in the future to to add these into the to the plan so with this as of the writing the Community Development Department has not received any calls regarding any concerns about this uh request and with that staff recommends approval of the Pud Amendment subject to the findings of fact with the following conditions approval of the development agreement and I can answer any questions and again country maners here as well and the reason this is before us um is because we've already approved a final PUD is that correct and so now there's a change to that there's a change to it yeah so we're amending and you know a few small amendments but but it does have to go through this this formal process okay thank you uh any questions of Staff before we move to public hearing all right seeing none we'll open the public hearing at 608 and ask the applicant or the applicant's representative to please come forward and uh U maybe speak to their um their proposed change here or anything in the findings of fact that was presented that uh uh you'd like to elaborate on or further address and if who you would please state your name and address certainly uh my name is Anthony fad I'm the CEO for Country Manor and greetings Commissioners um uh just as as a summary I think as we've progressed through uh the process um we have been um we've seen an increase in construction costs uh and an increase in lending costs and so as a a team uh we worked with our Architects our directors and um looked at uh the the community as a whole and it was important to us that any modifications would not impact uh quality uh of care uh throughout uh all of our service lines and so quite frankly the areas that were modified were areas that we can uh effectively uh open uh effectively as well as ADD uh again parking down the road as needed and then uh a couple of the uh Gathering spaces were reduced in square footage um that can be uh again increased um as needed down the road so um it was an exercise um of budgetary necessity uh to bring this project uh to fruition as it's been uh you know uh a desire for us for for several years and and uh we are very close um to uh finishing uh Crossing that finish line and so this is one of those steps that uh wanted to be here tonight uh to answer any questions you may have and obviously uh as James pointed out uh go through the the necessary process thank you and a lot has happened since you came to us with a concept proposal correct a lot of a lot of things have turned upside down and sideways so uh any questions for the uh applicant here seeing none thank you very much and uh um we'll go on now and and receive if there's any input that others would like to provide on this uh this is the time to speak would anyone else care to speak on this um amendment to AO D anyone online Sean no okay last call anyone else care to speak on this all right at this point we'll bring this back thank you very much we'll close public hearing at 611 discussion otherwise looking for a motion to approve the amended PUD with the conditions the single condition that's outlined by staff so move okay we have a motion by grula and second by Norwood any discussion on that I thought Jeff had the who I did oh you did y it's it's not too late to change your mind I think on I'm right here the place is ready to go okay second with Peterson thank you Dave um any discussion on that hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I all oppose same sign that motion car G's next steps uh director kvic yes so this will be heard at the February 3rd city council meeting and I know they're aware we're also working through a tax abatement request and a potential deferment of sack and whack those will also be heard at that February 3rd city council meeting at uh 7:30 very good thank you all right with that we're moving on to item 7B that's the Planning Commission calendar uh of meetings and we're looking to approve that um so First Column is of interest to us the other three look like they're technical for staff I they can make a motion to approve the calendar as presented motion to approve gorm second Norwood second Norwood any discussion on that calendar hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I all oppos same sign there you go we have a calendar and then we're moving on to um item 8A which is uh taking a look at the proposed data center ordinance um director kvi can you set that up for us please yes thank you Mr chair so this was reviewed at the last um Planning Commission meeting certainly there's a lot of discussion on on some of the items that are included in this ordinance uh staff did bring a pro another revised or proposed ordinance back to the Planning Commission for review um I figured we'd go to this ordinance if you want to pull this up Sean and I did try to highlight some of the changes in yellow so as you can see here within the um allowed use table it went from potentially an interm use permit to a conditional use permit as discussed in the last meeting um which also affected um section A there below it uh one of the things that we talked about location wise there's a lot of discussion you know about this part uh staff staff's recommendation would be potentially to remove this location piece to it because there are so many there's so many sound mitigating rules within this um you know certainly some of the other businesses that that potentially have sound aren't held to kind of the same distance standards um uh the Planning Commission as well as City council's already removed probably the most um the most dangerous sound levels from a data center perspective of not having outdoor use with the with data centers um so these are all internal and then typically what you're going to have is either fans then um or the air coolers uh so what staff did potentially add in set or is recommending adding is that data center shall be designed and built to incorporate sound mitigation methods to reduce sound levels emanating from the data center to adjacent structures within 1,000 ft of the facility so um this could be something as you know if the sound levels aren't uh even near mpca levels potentially moving air coolers to the other side of the building so they're not um so the sound isn't emanating on maybe the side that a residential you know property would um certainly it's a conditional use permit additional conditions can be placed or um conditional use permits can be declined if it is too close to a residential structure um so there are a lot of built and contingencies in here to just simply restrict it within 500 ft um so that's something that staff is looking at um as potential I know the one that uh block metrics is working through um right now they're you're proposing the air coolers to be completely within a building which is certainly um something that would be a sound mitigation method and and would be part of that section that staff is recommending so something to think through there um this is I think a big discussion topic uh from the commission still of what the commission is going to recommend from city council from this perspective uh if you go down to the next part um we talked about the city May order an additional sound study once per year during Peak operation of the data center mechanical equipment the data center operator must provide the results of the noise study conducted by a thirdparty engineer to the city within 30 days of the request by the city uh we talked about getting rid of that requirement that you had to do it if there's issues with it that allows the city to request it essentially that you know once per year if we are getting complaints about the data center um otherwise again if uh it's indoors and really is is not generating any sound or concerns to have that requirement that they must conduct it um might be a bit extreme so that was kind of staff's recommendation within this one um you know I'm not sure if the 30 days is is quite appropriate that's something I was you know is it 60 days is it 30 help you know fast can a sound engineer um conduct the study and have the report back to the city so that's something I was still working through certainly uh if there are issues the city would want you know this information as soon as possible but uh that's something that you know could potentially be discussed on what that time frame looks like uh other information that we talked about is contact information of the person that um is is CH essentially in charge of the facility would be posted on the city of Brainard website and then upon operation of the data center the City shall notify and provide contact information to the facility liaison to Property Owners within 500 ft uh that was talked about at the last meeting is providing some of that some of that information to nearby Property Owners um and then the uh another part that we looked at from a potential uh ordinance would be verification must be Pro provided that all electronic waste generated from the operation will be hauled by a licensed electronic waste recycling firm uh that was I think a request from the public to just make sure that things are properly being disposed of and recycled of and then the last part is still fairly open-ended uh cryptocurrency mining operation shall be required to develop or purchase sufficient new renewable energy to offset percent of the electricity consumed by the operation um unfortunately the um uh Public Utilities director was unable to be here tonight um for for some extenuating circumstances but did provide an email that kind of broke down what uh the the state of Minnesota requirements are and then what bpu's plan is to implement those requirements from the state of Minnesota uh so certainly the energy standards could be tied to you know what's already going to be required to to get to 100% renewable uh so with that I'll open up to any questions that the Planning Commission may have questions of Staff yes Mr Norwood So within uh section four item f um it's specifi crypto cryptocurrency mining operations it are we excluding all other uses of this ordinance within that portion you know that that's a good point it probably should be data centers on that one if it's part of the data center ordinance so I kind of copied that word for word from the cryptocurrency ordinance that was from the U Billings County ordinance but it should probably read data centers y good attention Mr chair y uh suggestion on the number four for the 30 days for a sound engineer that can get tough in today's environment but but I think if they would show proof that they're contacted or working with someone maybe the engineer reaches out I think that's got to fall back to staff would be my suggest you can tell if they're doing due diligence or not I think Mr G um disappointed that the uh utilities director wasn't here we definitely had some questions for him um I think part of this that we haven't talked about yet is water usage and uh anything if you start to dig into Data Centers at all you start to see a lot of numbers thrown around 5 million gallons a day 300,000 gallons a day I'm not quite sure what the number is um I guess the question I don't expect you to be able to answer this but do we feel do besides the power um element of it does BPU um feel like they're ready for the water element and what and what do they look at I mean do they have is is the added consumption from data centers is this something that's factored into the demand that BPU is looking at any idea so the water usage is specific to certain types of of data centers or or mining operations um like so for instance uh immersion mining doesn't use the the water compared to certain other types of cooling methods um I know originally when uh some of the other proposals were coming through um from vcv there was a potential for that water usage and um because of of the high volume and not maybe being able to meet the demands in that industrial park it ended up essentially removing that idea from from that type of usage for data mining so it was kind of worked out before it got to the Eda level because BPU wasn't able wasn't going to be able to support um that type of water usage or or disposal of water right the the other side of it there um I guess this question would be made for the uh for the fellow commission members here do we feel like we should have at least something in place uh because of water should you know should we at least have make that a concern a criteria for uh for looking at granting um the a use permit on it because even though we've you know maybe dodged the bull a couple times it might come back again or you just feel like that BPU will manage it and say if there's if if they want too much water we just won't give them the water I'm just trying to kind of get a grasp on whether should we should be doing about that great question maybe run down the line here maybe commissioner would your thoughts on that question it what uh staff was referring to as far as for my from my research and my perspective on it is that we are dramatically moving away from the water usage type of um of cooling Within These uh Within These organizations they they don't use free flowing water nearly as much as what they were before and as as the technology keeps on advancing it's getting much more efficient as ways to and um less harmful as um uh for the the type of cooling that we're doing it's more efficient for one two not using water like we were before um and as far as for um creating a ordinance or restriction on water usage I don't I think that would be more of a public works situation as to work through with them rather than a Planning Commission issue to work through with them thank you Mr Norwood Mr goula I think it may be helpful to have something in here just as a guideline um but again it's going to come back to BPU and what they can provide and really how much how much the disposal is going to cost because I don't think treating the water is that big a cost but the disposal training it to go back into the river is the higher cost thank you Mr Peterson I I think they're both on to something a little bit and and maybe we can just mention the water but that it actually goes back in references to BPU that it has to be approved by them also because they're going to be the authorities on it I would say so that would be the you know just a little stipulation has to be approved by so that gives you an out right there if it doesn't work I guess thank you you know the fact that it's a conditional use permit would allow us to tag a condition on as well for water consumption or that coordination piece with BPU on on that um not having it in the ordinance um makes it risk introduces the risk that you may pass by that opportunity in the staff report change of Staff we've all talked about it we're all on the same page change of commission change of Staff do we lose sight of the fact that water is an issue we would want to talk about so you know maybe we could cleverly think about that it I think we'll probably want to um either hear from director Evans or or maybe James you're you're talking with Mr Evans to follow up on some of the discussion here and we can maybe bring some ideas forward in the next iteration of this can I yeah I you know it could be something as simple as a water and wastewater disposal plan is required to be approved by brainer public utilities and the public utilities department that way they can weigh in on the conditional use permit on that condition you know if if there's no water usage that would be a line item within the conditional use permit for the Planning Commission to review I think that would be a pretty easy thing to to add to the potential ordinance like it is that does that address you want some follow-up comment on that and that's what I'm looking at that that because since we're taking such care on the energy aspect that they present a plan and how they do that I think it just makes sense that we we go with the water as well so it'd be I'm not sure how we want to come about the language but it would be um requiring um a plan and uh and have it approved so what I heard staff suggest is a water Wastewater plan as part of their applications submitt for a conditional use permit and then we can then have discussion around that plan as to whether you know whatever comments BPU has um in for the Planning Commission as we're U considering a conditional use permit before us make sense um any other uh comments on this yes Mr Norwood um I believe staff's recommendation as to the elimination of Item B is wise giving the all the other sound mitigation items that are involved within it there is um within the ordinance there is a number of other portions that are um attempting and trying to m the the larger issue of the sound and so complicating it that much more with the 500 ft ends up just making it one more smaller hole to try to line up all the Swiss cheese slic for do do you have a reflection on that um and that and that was my thoughts um you know certainly there's already a lot of mitigation one of the big ones is just requiring it to be indoors and then uh you know if there are residents within you know a closer proximity say say it was even 200 ft there's still an opportunity to deny a conditional use permit if it's you know not really appropriate in that location so there there's can things that can be done you know that in that aspect if it's too close to a neighborhood or a house um so I think that's already kind of built into the conditional use permit process and then you know talking about that you know incorporating some sound mitigation methods and I talked about earlier it could be as simple as moving the dry coolers to the other side of the building you know it might still be within mpca standards as it reaches um that nearest residential place but you know if you were to put the dry coolers on the other side of the building it could even cut the numbers in half so being thoughtful or putting walls around it um I know the last one that block metrics has uh provided her the Eda actually had a building over the dry coolers so you know being mindful of that design explaining what you've done um for those mitigations to you know not maybe even add some extra extend circumstances not to affect that neighboring residential property I think would be appropriate rather than just having that blank at 500 ft thank you other thoughts or feedback um James 6B um what what's the outcome of how does how does that work or what does the um the facility lays on do when they get a a contact so my I guess idea behind this is that uh that mailer would include the contact information for that liaison as well as information to the city um you know if there's a dry cooler that's malfunctioning you know that's really that's really noisy something like that that they may be able to address um you know certainly just standard operation would probably be more something that they'd contact the city for um if they think there's issues with that um but if there's you know specific something that's malfunctioning at the facility that'd be an opportunity for them to reach out to the liaison it's similar to what we have um with our interm use permit short-term rentals okay and the um notifying the property owners um does that 500 ft is just is that just within the city of Brainard that would be within the county as well Circle and you notify all residences that fall within that circle is that kind of the intent yep that's the intent of it and that's how it would operate okay all right other questions comments Mr G uh well we really haven't flushed out uh 6f the energy standards we have the offset XX perc and it's kind of sitting right there it seems like that's kind of the next challenge is to get some details there um I almost like the idea of having a the same thing as water where you have a water plan you have your power plan your electricity plan and uh again this would be a great would been great to uh talk to uh uh director Evans there about I I just want to get a an idea of how much power are we using in the city of brainer how much is this you know how much are we going to add what's our capacity I would just like to uh get a sense of what the whole picture is and I don't think we really have that yet so that'd be my thing I think we have to FL we have to add to uh add to the sixf and and director evans's um memo that he provided uh kind of outlines the sort of the implementation plan for BPU to hit some of the targets there the the Renewables Target and then there's the carbon free targets and this these statistics here it it might behoove us to maybe just refer to that or touch base because they've got they've got their plan where they want to be at a certain time and and it may not be reasonable to have um a a an applicant for a condition use permit come to the table with 100% when the goal right now is is is at uh 25% um so you could you could have this ramp up like this plan does to achieve the Target by um 2040 I think is the is the or 2036 excuse me is the the magic date for hitting hitting their their goals you know you got to worry when when we have these these high energy projects come in and with one action that this this this Commission bench here that suddenly you can you can dilute the plan here by a significant amount you know one project maybe 25% 20% increase in the amount of demand that's being um provided and suddenly these numbers start to now you're you're you're trying to keep up with a moving Target it's not static um but but maybe attaching them to this plan as as you're you know suggesting have a plan of sorts Maybe This Is The Benchmark that we try and connect them to other thoughts the other thought I would have is I would like to I'm just curiosity I'd like to know how what's the how how will we get to 60 how will we get hit these marks I'd love to know it I I guess I'm just kind of in the dark on what the plans are is it to purchase more alternative is it to I don't even know what the plan is to get to these points but again we can only do so much without uh without without uh the director here Y and uh but but I agree with what you were saying Mike I think we have to look at what the impact of one plan could be one big project could could upset the whole thing and so maybe if we phrase it to the fact if it has to work the plan submitted has to work in harmony with the long-term goals of BPU that's what we're looking at right is that what we're shooting for I think that's that's good good proposed language other comments different approaches all right director Ki you I'll just add with you know with with the power um certainly if uh it becomes something that uh would negatively impact the you know the rate users or the rate payers or the city of brainer these contracts aren't signed in perpetuity um so there are options to either renegotiate contracts or obviously not enter into future contracts um so that that's a potential well as you know if there if there are negative impacts at Brin your public utility sees um at this point they have um signed contracts with with two different parties Mr norward if I may ask do you know of any the of those numbers that those current contracts are for those two organizations I don't know the current numbers but certainly um there are contingencies in there if their rates go up rates are going to go up for users that type of thing um it doesn't lock from from my knowledge doesn't lock rer public utilities into a set number if their rates are going up any other comments this is not a public hearing um but if there are members of the audience that would like to um suggest or give share some thoughts we're welcome to come up and speak to those and give us a chance to think about this as broadly as we can your name and address sir hi Mike Higgins 1801 M Avenue and 1511 Northern Pacific Center Road and 11:23 um Lake View Lane just bought a house first time bought a house since I've been here so thank you for uh letting some public confence happen um I am pretty concerned about performance standards in a cup and in Planning and Zoning especially when it comes to energy um I have been in Brainard for about 11 years um I own the Northern Pacific Center and the former Potlatch Paper Mill and I've been working awful hard for 11 years to bring Development I've invested $35 million of my own money in this community and I I think that as as a city and a community if we keep putting onerous um things like this on business people and people wanting to come to our community that we're going to just stay stuck like we have been for the last 30 or 40 years you know I watched Barrett Pet Foods I worked my butt off to get them in my building and they were there and things were coming along nicely they started out with 20,000 square foot ended up in 50,000 square foot roughly and then Little Falls came along they built a manufacturing facility down there Little Falls rolled out the red carpet for them their their planners and their Economic Development people down there corded them and their Planning and Zoning walked them through and helped them get get through all the planning and zoning ordinances and now they're down there with a second manufacturing facility a warehouse and probably going on 400 employees and they left because of this kind of stuff and I'm tired of it and I wanted to let you guys know that this 2030 and 2050 energy standards that the governor is trying to Thro slam down our throats is unattainable if you do any research at all on energy and I have been doing research for the last few months because I am going to put a data center at bck and if I got to make my own power I'm gonna but I mean come on we got to help these people get here this data mining and this cryptocurrency mining you can't stop it artificial intelligence we can't stop it let's get ahead of it let's let's welcome it here and invite it here we have an anomaly with our power we have an amazing BR public utility division that is studying this and all over it and it just when I see stuff like this I had two emails late this afternoon I had no idea you guys were talking about putting this kind of stuff into our our zoning so I it just I I'm wondering why I'm here why am I here investing this money if if you if we keep doing this at planning and zoning and I'm I'll fight this all the way to city council you know you guys have to run this to city council and then they have to okay I'm I'm telling you right now I'll fight it all the way so um I just wanted to voice my opinion um I still love this community I'm still going to keep invest in but I'm just wondering why I'm here if we're going to keep doing this you know the paper mill left the railroad left you know I've worked my butt off I have 70 employees between my two properties now and it's growing and it's like I need more you know we need housing we don't need jobs cuz cuz we can't nobody can find a place to live I just moved my son here from West Virginia to Run Northern Pacific Center and we we can't even get into a you know a mediumsized house in the city of reard and if you want to rent one it's 2500 bucks a month you know that's the problem we need to be fixing not you know these are great Investments for our community because of the tax revenue you know we have capacity in our sewer and water we have capacity in our power I know we don't want to talk about it want to say it but we do and we don't need people and it creates tax revenue so this is is something we should be welcoming not making honorous and difficult things to jump through like the water the the water stuff you're talking about that's standard BPU is always going to going to check on that and if they don't have the capacity they're going to talk about it we don't need to put that in our zoning I don't think cuz it's already there the the language about electronic waste that's federally regulated why they have to do that when I went through my cup process with Bick they they had 47 items on there and 20 of them were fed federally regulated and it didn't even matter because I have to follow the Federal Regulations so some of the stuff I just don't understand it it there's not a lot of common sense or logic to it in my opinion and I just wanted to voice my opinion so thank you for allowing me to speak thank you Mr Higgins and and specifically um you've spoken to the energy standards um um in the water so those are places that you feel don't belong or we don't no I other places here in in the ordinance that that you would advise us to take a look at no and and the the following the energy standards if you look at some other communities that did that there ended up being lawsuits and it was found unconstitutional so so you're you're opening yourself up for a lawsuit as well and you're going to stop any data centers and I don't I don't necessarily agree with Bitcoin mining but you can't Ai and what the the computers that they're going to take to run AI in the next two years is it's mind-boggling and then even like with the water you know James is done his homework CU they've all they don't want to use water so what they've done is they've switched to systems that yes they need 3 four million gallons of water to get started but then they lose 2% a day so it's not yes it's a big number to get the system filled and online but then they're cooling it they're recouping it they're doing all kinds of things to save water so that's all stuff everybody it's just it's just logic everybody's trying to do that and BPU can control that I don't think we need to control that at planning and zoning let BPU do their jobs that's why we have them thank you thank you any other discussion on this item all right hearing none James uh you imagine next steps here are we going to have a product to to consider in February or uh for public hearing or or are we going to be looking at another draft seems like there's maybe a few things that have to get ironed out still so and and maybe some potential comments from the public uh I would probably recommend at this point delaying a public hearing for the next meeting but that's up to the commission I I'll certainly take Direction I think we want a durable product um so Mr gorm are we going to have the um if we can I'll reach out to BPU again to have see if the director can be here for the next meeting that'd be great that sounds good yeah I can do that thank you and question for um City administrator is would it be um in your opinion is the council looking for uh the immediacy of this to be completed before May so so yeah so the the the current ones that are operating would not be upholding to this um this ordinance so it was not something in you know from the city council that this ordinance need to get in front of the any type of current development that's going on uh there's a lot that would have to go on you know before there' be any type of expansion so I don't believe delaying at one month would be a a huge issue okay other questions or comments okay hearing none I think we've got a an action plan for that agenda item um and we are going to now move on to public forum um this is an opportunity for individuals to address the commission on items that were not on tonight's agenda and those uh that uh feedback would be timed and I see that I may have jumped over something so I'm gonna vote yeah we have one more item direct the cop the commission itinerary the most the most discussion is going to be on that one I suppose thank you for reeling me back in this is your notes weren't robust enough Don so with that James can you can you set us up for that please yes thank you Mr chair uh so as you can see here staff has uh listed crossed out the ones that have been completed uh listed the ones that are in progress which at the uh next city council meeting they will be reviewing the design standards and then potentially allowing mixed use in the commercial cidor District like we do in downtown uh we're working on the crypto mining data center AI Center ordinance uh currently uh staff uh did list comprehensive Plan update on here is something that the commission discussed uh last year kind of where where we're at on some of our steps um what might have to be updated some other things that could be included in here it has been in our Capital plan for a number of years here that uh this year would be the year that we look at uh doing an update uh to see again cross out kind of things that have been accomplished and then maybe add new action items so staff will be um uh drafting an RFP at some point in the next uh month or two here so that's something for the Planning Commission to to stay tuned for I think that's something that that needs to get started on fairly soon and then as we're working through that RFP process and uh choosing a a consultant to take a look at that comprehensive plan certainly we can be working on other ordinances uh one that uh staff discussed a couple months ago as part of the design standards was industrial a street parking requirements uh this has come up a number of times in some of our industrial lots that uh you know somebody wants to add a turnaround to a certain area there's one uh business that we tour as part of uh part of the Eda that talked about adding onto their existing turn area well right now they have a class five um driveway area so adding on to that technically without a variance you'd have to um pave it because that's according to our ordinance so I think instances like that turnaround areas things are that are behind some of our industrial properties um certainly could be um potentially class five and would uh would maybe limit the burden on some of those expansions uh so I think that's something the planning commissioner staff's recommending we should disc discussed this winter I know some council members have been interested as well uh next one is the allowed use table uh so this is something uh our planning our our uh new zoning code was passed in 2022 and again like the design standards staff's been working now with it for a couple of years and certainly there's been some cases that staff's looked at where maybe there should have been something permitted in a certain zoning District maybe something that uh should be a conditional use rather than permitted or vice versa something that's conditional use maybe should be permitted so I think this is something that's you know probably a little larger project um you something that we maybe look at uh summertime certainly there's could be some more pressing matters like the a street parking requirements to look at uh but something that that uh from a staff perspective recommending that we look at in the next year uh solar arrays has been coming up there's been interested parties in within the city limits of Brainard right now our two solar arrays um that brainer Public Utilities has at the airport which is not in city limits um that would have been County permitted and then the other ones in Baxter which I helped uh um guide brainer Public Utilities um through creating ordinance for Baxter on that one so there are interested parties in creating um solar arrays within the city of Brainard so to get out in front of it I think could be beneficial as well and then still on the list it hasn't been a huge issue there are certain things that probably need to be changed in the manufactured home overlay District but it does seem like there's probably more pressing matters with that one and then and one that was added was sound requirements from the planning Comm Mission as well um so with that I'll maybe add one more thing that uh it's not going to be on here yet but staff is working as part with the Eda um we're going to be going and touring I know Justin is going to be part of that tour um and then Paul Sandy from the Eda as well touring some of our our local dayc carees centers just to kind of see what some of their needs are um is there anything the city can can kind of help you know zoning wise or you know potential grant funding from the Eda so I think there might be a component coming in this next year that staff will have a recommendation for daycare facilities um so with that uh I'll open it up to Planning Commission I think what I'm looking for in in this discussion we're still working on ordinances if there's anything that the commission would like to see added I think that'd be a good idea now and then at the next meeting um seeking a recommendation from the Planning Commission on what to work on next thank you James so um for the allowable use table is is that something that an intern could be tasked to just kind of go through and put that together and where I'm heading as is possibly a budget request um for the department so that we could we could get that one knocked out that doesn't seem like it's really a big time thing but if you're balancing other other items we do have we do have a temporary employee um that could do kind of an exhaustive search on that um so that's already there we wouldn't have to hire an intern to do that uh that that kind of temporary employee within our department kind of handles special projects like that um certainly I'd be a big part of that re you know kind of final review to make sure that you know I've been the one working with it for the last couple years so I kind of know where maybe our holes are on that um but yeah certainly something that I would have our could have our temporary employee work on as well so yes Mr Peterson well that's when I'd like to start going on to be tell you the truth the allowable table I think there's many things that should be opened up or changed um so I I think that is a process it's going to take a little while and I would like to see that one going um you use the word changed uh this sound like a housekeeping piece of you thinking about revisiting the uses well possibly or just expanding them so is that consistent with the scope that you're proposing for this one here it is I think it'd be a there might not be a ton of changes in there um but certainly I want to clean up anything I think it would be a fairly exhaustive review but I'm not sure how many changes would actually come from there there'll be a handful of them but uh you know again I think the review period is going to take longer than than the actual changes that that are brought forward Mr chair so would that also coincide with the comp comp plan update or is that it could potentially yeah that might be a good good idea to have those two kind of inside so it you know our uses kind of align with what we're looking at for the future for Brainard so how we how we prioritize and nest and sequence I think is is maybe the discussion for next meeting is what what I'm anticipating when we have a city council liaison on board would be my expectation so so maybe for this moment in time unless there are questions of clarity maybe we're looking for for potential additions um first of all if we might just if folks have on their on their R radar places where we need some work done and so Mr Peterson there's possibly an expanded scope on on uses um if you have specific areas that that we should think about um or other members have have suggestions on places to examine one area that um you know Mr Higgins today um or present here this evening you know if we think about um I I I always imagine um I always imagine your your big site I I think of what it can be and what it is and and how do we continue to feed and and care for that in a way that's um beneficial to you and also the community um you know so if we think about the concept of um this renewable energy the conversation we had just earlier uh there's also a com component to renewable energy that is storing energy right energy storage and do we have do we have the ability within our ordinance to um to handle energy storage that we so if a venture wants to come here and say I'm going to connect up to a nearby solar array and I'm going to capture energy and I'm going to hang on to it I'm going to feed it out during Peak demand or those sorts of things can we do that right now under our existing Ordinance do we need to make a parking spot for that and a as a future future amendment to our ordinance so director kber you get some thoughts on that yeah so in May uh could in industrial could if it's indoors it could be you know storage and warehousing it could fall under that um I'd probably need more information uh from you know it how might it affect you know the outside that's typically where you look at it you know adding you know existing adding more conditions to it making any conditional use permit so I need probably more information but you know potentially if it's in our ordinance potentially not so it's kind of an IND one one second Mike thank you it's so it's basically an industrial use so you know you got a lot in the industrial park you have other or other industrial areas around um you know being able to to be clear whether whether that's an option that we can welcome into the into the city or not and certainly I don't know you know what impacts in you know neighboring areas might be but you know we certainly have certain things that are permitted in industrial conditional use in General commercial so thinking of where solar arrays might be located you know there you might need more options than simply industrial um so you know that'd be an option to do as well then you can expand to additional zoning districts especially if there's no there's not really really an issue from a neighborhood perspective on them right so basically just you know if if there's interest in that as a placeholder on this list and so when we start sorting the deck here next next meeting um seeing where that where that particularly pops out Mr gor I only thought us maybe we just expanded from solar arrays to just a bigger title Alternative Energy a bigger put a bigger title on it and then we can put more things into that category nested into yeah if that make any sense with the folks cool Mr Higgins did you have this is not where we're going to flesh these ideas out but to get get them I just have an example of an issue I ran into recently that I would like to share come come on up to the podium please so we're talking about how can we make it easier for businesses and things to happen in our community and so a couple weeks ago I had a a prospect reach out that wants to um put a trailer like little trailers you pull behind your pickup sales they want to move it they're out in the country right now and they want to move it into town so he wants to lease a half an acre from me and an office so he can get his license through the state and and I didn't think it would be an issue but I called James just to see hey what do I got to do and he's like he looks it up in his code book and he's like NOP you got to go through a cup process that's kind of crazy if you ask me it's a half an acre it's selling trailers I I'm the heaviest Zone Industrial in town I'm trying to create jobs I'm trying to save the building I'm trying to to create tax dollars and I have to go through a two to three month process for $1,000 a month lease and the guy's going to go away I lost him so that's we need to think about stuff like that when we're creating ordinances and we're and we're changing zoning you know if we want if we want to build if we want to if we want to be a better brainer and a bigger brainer and we want to bring more tax dollars in and we want to have budgets in order to do more stuff we it it's D driven from business it's driven from tax dollars you know that that trailer sales would have to pay a half a percent of sales tax directly to the city of Brainard when I go down to Ziggler cat and I go down there a lot and I spend a lot of money H every single receipt half a percent goes right to brainer you know which is awesome I make it a percent as far as I'm concerned it's going back into my community but why do we have things in our ordinances that that make it make me have to jump through hoops spend two or three months when it it's unneeded so I I think that's part of what we're looking at trying to get done I I and I asked James about it and he he agreed with me and and said he would start putting some stuff on the agenda and talking to you so that's an example of an issue that I ran into all right thanks in in the F recently thank you Mr thank you so uh James is it beneficial um at this time to to dive into any of these um really just you've got a you've got couple of couple potential additions to the list yeah so this is something that really a discussion if commission members want to add anything tonight not really an an order to to operations that we're looking at for the next year um I think that would be you know probably appropriate at the next meeting and then certainly um if commission members are thinking of things you know after the meeting here they can reach out to me and it's something that I can you know add to to next uh to the next Planning Commission meeting and we can certainly add to this at any at any time as well as a group in addition so any other discussion on the this topic all right hearing none you got got what you need for now that's correct very good thank you um you know I'm thinking we might want to go to public forum next to good I got the nod this is the time for individuals to bring issues to the uh commission uh that weren't on tonight's agenda and uh so I'm going to open up the public forum at 659 is there anyone that would care to speak to the commission at this time and I'm going to ask a second time anyone care to speak to the commission at this time any issues and a last time anyone here to come forward all right hearing none we will close the public hearing at 6:59 and we're going to move on to staff reports um James and yes so I already touched a little bit about what we're going to be working on with child care centers uh I think all also touch base on what the city council will be reviewing at the next council meeting for Country manner certainly a number of items uh it'll be the Pud request it'll be the tax abatement request that was reviewed by the uh Eda and then a request for deferral of sack and whack fees that were that were reviewed by the Public Utilities Commission uh so that'll be at the February 3rd city council meeting uh staff is still you know currently working with DW Jones on the thy White Project I'm I'm sure you guys are well aware that the wall uh dir white uh did come down uh in this last week here uh that was a couple week process to remove the abatement and then they were finally able to demolish the building after the holidays here uh so that uh certainly is an investment uh on their part to you know continue on on with potentially doing that project uh they're still very interested in it there's a funding Gap that they do need to to close on that one uh and they've been they did do a presentation at uh playx meeting before the holidays here on on uh what potential options are out there from the state of Minnesota for funding so hopefully that one um comes to fruition here over the next uh few months here and we get some more information but uh there's some progress being made on on that project thank you uh administrator Royal you have any uh nothing to add other than uh congratulations on the new position for old position for the yeah for the day potentially for the day thank you okay with that uh any questions on that staff report otherwise we'll move on to um commission member reports Mr gorm super quick question so they not to building down but they still don't have all the funds together I'm just trying to kind of put the two things they don't yeah so they're still they're still working on some funding on that one some of the demolition was tied to to some of the grants that they had received from from the the Main Street Foundation so just looking for clarification thank you I I suspect that's a significant commitment F knocking a building down and and filling a hole so um so with that um Mr Peterson uh comments reports I don't really have any comments or reports all right thank you Mr gorm um I just want to you know I respect uh Mr Higgins I definitely respect your your your perspective but I do think we've done a lot of work on housing and I'm really proud of the work we've done on housing the last few years it's a huge priority I agree with you it's nuts we've done things like the Thrifty White Project we greenlighted that we've made changes to the zoning law to allow more density we've taken on some of the Sacred cows like R1 that you can't have multif family housing in R1 big secret of course is that brainard's always had multi um you know family housing in R1 so we've made changes there to allow more density we've done some work on the building design standards Mr Peterson helped us out with uh the idea of maybe you don't always have to have a garages for every single duplex you make and things like this we made some changes so I think we've shown some flexibility and we're with you housing is absolutely uh a job one for us it's a priority so yeah I appreciate perspective but I also um uh you know appreciate the work that we have been able to get done that's all thank you Mr gorm Mr goua no comments all right Mr Norwood no further okay um well all I have to say is that I I'm going to issue isue a gold star to mind for the condition of their sidewalks across Washington Street Bridge today and and I and I think that's a terrible indictment for the rest of the businesses along and Residences along Washington Street because that was the only place that had a clear sidewalk walking over here so we might need to to visit visit our sidewalks along Washington Street to make them walkable I spent a lot of time walking in parking lots to get over here as opposed to the sidewalk but uh I'm I'm just amazed that mot was on top of it for a change so so I'll give them a gold star and they're good to go so with that uh I'm looking for a motion to adjourn adjourn yeah got one second one all right all those in favor signify by saying I I all oppose same sign we are adjourned at 703 thank you everybody