I'm sure you would not I'm ready for you to take the next position up but then I'm going to move over to that chair all right we're going to call a meeting to order uh this is the January 15th Planning Commission welcome it's nice to see good turnout in the audience uh if you haven't done so and you want to request to speak or file comment even if you don't want to speak please make sure you fill out an orange comment card uh we'll begin this evening with the Pledge of Allegiance led by commissioner velto aoll yeah all right we'll begin with attendance Callie roll call Manny Basera present Christina delvar present JD dulich present Alex VTO present Sylvia Villa here Carrie R here we have a quorum excellent thank you next item is public comment um public comment may be on any item on the agenda or any other general public comment um you're welcome to come up and speak three minutes and you do have to fill out a public comment core card also if you're here for a specific agenda item there is opportunity to speak under public during that time do we have any uh general public comments I'm going to read and then I'll bring these up members of the public may call into the meeting to provide public comment by using the zoom link provided on the agenda specifically https colon links. reno.gov capital P Capital C 01-1 15-25 it should be noted for those in the audience that comments are to be addressed to the Planning Commission as a whole comments heard under this item will be limited to 3 minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the Planning Commission agenda please note that the Planning Commission may not take action upon any matter not agendized for possible action on today's agenda when you are called on for public comment please state your name for the record and begin speaking the timer will begin when you say your name and you will be afforded 3 minutes if you are an attendee in the zoom meeting and would like to make public comment at this time please raise your hand lastly while in this room please be respectful warnings will be issued by the presiding officer if there's disruptive behavior and you will be asked to leave Chambers if the behavior continues um we did receive correspondence for this item for a future um agenda item those have been forwarded to the commission and entered into the record and I do have some um request to speak forms for you thank you all right we'll begin with Olivia taninger good evening my name is Olivia Tanager I'm the executive director of the crer club's toy Obi chapter uh we work on issues pertaining to Urban Development Transit uh land waterer Wildlife Conservation as well as climate and energy issues and we are the state's largest environmental organization um I'd like to not that I appealed the decision this body made to approve the cup for the web data center in December and talk briefly about uh my decision to do that first I'd like to mention the egregious error that I believe was made in classifying that project as a warehouse through administrative interpretation I don't know if you're aware but that same project came before this body in March under the guise of a warehouse uh it was not noted at that time that it was a data center uh because of an administrative interpretation that was issued about a year ago there are many things that distinguish data centers home warehouses that I don't have the time to go into tonight I did note them in my appeal uh two of the biggest factors are the intense Demand on the uh energy grid and the water component namely consumptive use of water and the sewage discharge associated with these projects data centers require an extreme amount of both energy and Water by several times more than a standard warehouse there were some other factors that went into our appeal uh that I'll lay out before Council next week including concerns over adherence to Nevada revised statutes outlines of roles of Administrators versus appointed and elected officials and AD to open meeting law I'm around if anybody has questions about that so that brings me to the two data center projects being considered tonight it's my understanding that the opid uh data center requires 635 gallons of water a day in discharge which is a substantial amount of water in that Basin this Swan Lake Basin as you might know already has a very limited sewage capacity and uh the staff report outlines that the possibility of this additional sewage coming to Swan Lake Basin should raise a lot of flags I would encourage this body not to permit the development of either of the data centers before you tonight while the City of Reno grapples with this topic at large council members are discussing moratoriums on data centers you uh will hear from several concerned Reno whites and this issue is too big not to get right data data centers are contributing to the huge load growth we're seeing in Nevada an extraordinary amount of energy and an extraordinary amount of water and sewage capacity that we just don't have I know you all are sensitive to sewage issues as you should be and I am urging you to be cautious and judicious in your approval of these facilities we uh will be asking for public reporting on the amount of water and energy these data centers consume going forward I trust you all all here because you care about the City of Reno and as such I must insist and my organization insists that you refrain from making a determination about these data centers or any additional centers that may come before this body until we can all digest exactly what is being asked of our city and what the impacts to residents will be both in the short and the long term thank you thank you next Kathy Fulkerson hello I'm Kathy Fulkerson I'm co- facilitator of third act Nevada we're an organization of individuals ages 60 and older who are interested in climate change as well as social justice issues I'm here to comment on the conditional use permit requests for agenda items 6.3 opon Data Center and 6.4 the Keystone data center as discussed at the January 8th 2025 Reno city council meeting under agenda item F1 data centers present unique short-term and long-term environmental impacts that need to be evaluated and approved under a comprehensive city ordinance only then can the development of data centers be tied to the city's master plan and overarching sustainability goals data centers are our future and AI is quickly becoming mainstream in nearly every area of our lives however data centers are typically very noisy and require huge amounts of energy for both computational purposes and cooling needs a New York Times article in July 2024 estimated a 20% increase in US energy usage in the next five years by 2030 that's huge much of it due to AI in addition data centers often require great volumes of water and many are surrounded with 8ot high security fencing they return few direct inputs benefits to the communities were they're located Beyond employing people for initial construction and contributing to the city's tax base but only if they're not given any tax breaks because of these huge resource demands and po potential for very low returns to communities I urge you to delay any approvals of conditional use permits for data centers until a comprehensive city ordinance is finalized Reno residents as well as all nevadans will have to take on higher utility rates to pay for the in increasing energy infrastructure and will likely face water shortages without receiving any direct benefits all data centers should be governed by the same comprehensive city ordinance that addresses these issues headon I'm reading out a time but we also need to be prepared for the inevitable Urban wildfires that will come our way will we have enough water on hand to fight them thank you thank you Barry levenson hi good evening uh my name is Barry levenson I am a retired engineer and physician and I'm currently a volunteer with Sierra Club and I'm working toward policies that help with climate and environmental justice so like the last two people you heard I'm going to kind of reiterate some of the comments so my comments tonight re uh relate to items 6.3 and 6.4 the oiden and Keystone data centers conditional use permits my first concern is that the City of Reno is still grappling with finalizing a comprehensive ordinance for data centers how can you approve new data centers if we don't yet have this ordinance finalized I urge the commission to delay any approvals of the new data centers until the Reno city council finalizes an ordinance that is tied to Reno's master plan and sustainability goals my second concern is the huge energy and water demands of data centers EnV energy rate payers should not be on the hook paying pay for the infrastructure required to supply these data centers with electricity the data centers should be required to be yoe bring your own energy ideally this energy is renewable solar with battery storage to supply a significant portion of their daytime and nighttime demand the opid and data center is a 61,000 ft facility the cup requires only 5500 Square ft of solar to be installed utilizing less than 10% of its roof space there is no mention of battery storage the Keystone data center is 91,000 Square ft the cup has no requirement for installed solar much less battery storage given these poultry energy generation and storage requirements Envy energy customers will be on the hook to pay for the generation capacity required to power these data centers this is simply unacceptable regarding water usage in contrast to solar energy which is almost infinite in Nevada water is a limited resource we need to ensure that this limited resource is judiciously allocated and conserved using our limited water supply for this for data centers may not be in the best interest of our community so in summary I encourage the commission to delay the approval of any new data centers until the city has finalized an ordinance governing data centers and all new data centers should be required to maximize their own solar um energy including battery storage to offload their grid demand lastly water conservation needs to be taken into strong consideration prior to any approvals thank you very much for the opportunity to speak tonight thank you Chris Bell uh good evening Commissioners uh my name is Chris Bell um I'm here to address uh agenda items 6.3 and 6.4 regarding permits for new data centers I'm a resident of Reno who is concerned about climate change and it's very bad imp implications for Reno I'm here to implore this commission to make safeguards where new electrical customers are not rubber stamped as regular warehouses data centers operate 247365 days per year their load is a liability on our grid and they really must generate their own power why are they flocking to Nevada it is obvious to me that we are being exploited for our ridiculously cheap industrial electricity rate and uh negligible state tax this might be tolerated when a factory or business offering substantial long-term jobs relocates to our region but providing valuable city land for banks of humming machines I would call a losing deal and exploitation and maybe even an embarrassment to Reno please have some foresight and decline these applications and all subsequent applications until there is a specialized ordinance for data centers with appropriate requirements and standards for this type of development their location water consumption and electrical source should be stringently determined yesterday the President issued an executive order to facilitate Data Center buildout I am a lot less alarmed at this because they will be fast-tracked only if they run them on their own renewable energy generation why can't we make the same stipulation thank you very much for this opportunity to comment thank you did we receive any more comment request to speaks I don't have any more request to speak forms for this item we do have someone with their hand raised in Zoom um Lisa when you're ready if you can unmute your yourself you'll have three minutes please state your name for the record can you hear me yes okay uh my name is Lisa Hill I am a Community member I'm not associated with any organization I'm speaking for myself and I'm commenting on agenda items 6.3 and 6.4 and I agree with the previous speakers that data centers pose a unique development impact on our community that needs careful consider ation given the fact that we have limited water resources and also we are the fastest warming City in the nation I myself am concerned about um EnV energy continually asking for fee increases to deal with climate mitigation impacts as well as um increases in my homeowners insurance related to climate change I'm requesting that the commission deny the permits tonight on these items and also I'm requesting a moratorium of all data center hearings again until the city council and Development Department can properly assess climate water fire risk and noise impacts and then create distinct zoning categories and standards for data centers in our community and this again is in line with Reno master plan sections 2.5 g j k d and e for example perhaps requiring the use of effluent water rather than potable water for cooling I like the idea that was mentioned of bring your own energy requiring self- sustaining renewable energy sources be provided by the developer also um getting the fire department involved and looking at the special fire risk mitigation and planning that would be needed for these high heat Generation Um development uh types and then uh I would also like to see which hasn't already been mentioned is just a one-owner permitting limit to avoid these rollover permitting situations where we see zombie or sleeper developments that go unnoticed in the community that many of us sometimes forget about when they have been approved in times past finally I'd like to see the increase in the noticing radius for public alerts and comments due to all of the aformentioned concerns as well as the noise impacts thank you very much for listening to my comments and I look forward to the discussion tonight thank you thank you we received one more um Rose Walter be yeah good evening Commissioners and thank you for the opportunity to be here today my name is Rose witer I'm a 22-year resident of reeno and like all of you here and members of the audience and members of a zoom this is such a special place for us to live with our beautiful trucky River and really very unique from our pristine water flowing from Lake Tahoe all the way down to our tribal areas into Pyramid Lake um people come here for recreation and the Beautiful Mount mountains to ski and to make homes and raise families of which I did as well I'm a transplant from California um I oppose the application for 6.3 and 6.4 for many reasons that were stated tonight I have deep concerns about data centers um again I am very new to finding out about this item and data centers in general but they're working 247 they are consuming an incredible amount of water and even when the electricity to cool the centers aren't available there's backup systems so we're going to be talking about acid battery above ground diesel tanks the one application is on Keystone and second that is a Stones throw away from our pristine trucky River and that's all of our drinking water so I really urge you to put the brakes on this I am an active hiker I'm actually just started a trucky River walking series I'm calling myself the bridge Walker I invite you to come with me but we're going over all the bridges 120 miles and that would be a Stones throw away that location on Keystone and second unbelievable that that would even be considered for our drinking water fire suppression Etc in today's environment so I strongly urge you to hit pause do some more research I strongly oppose and I hope I am representative of some common sense in the City of Reno and really what we're doing with all the efforts we're making to get folks out to to restaurants to go to the McKinley artart Center to walk dogs along the trucky river that this application is even being considered um the Keystone one so thank you so much respectfully for your time and come walk with me thank you thank you Helen Colin hi I'm Helena cogin and I've lived in this area my entire life going back a few generations and I'm kind of learning all about these data centers just recently and I'm very concerned the more that I learn the more concerned I am and um when I started learning about how much they're going to impact our water resources which we already know that how important those are in this environment that we live in in the desert hearing about sewage capacity all the things other people have talked about I am as a resident of this area concerned about the energy uses of these data centers and how if they may impact the the people that live here with our own Energy prices if um if they aren't producing enough getting enough energy from the solar and what they're talking about putting a little bit of that on then you know that those costs of energy are going to get tacked on to us the people that live here so I really hope that you will uh really think about what uh this proposal here for 6.3 and 6.4 also the one that Rosie mentioned a bit ago the one that was already been talked about I'm very very concerned about that um hearing about the noise concerns I think about neighborhoods or people that you know like myself I spend a lot of time in the outdoors in this whole area I take hundreds of people that live in this area maybe even a couple thousand a year on outings in all around the trucky Meadows so I've been a trip leader for about 37 years I really really hope that you will consider holding putting the brakes on this for now learning a lot more about what these data centers mean to the people who live here the people who love this area and thank you so much for letting me speak thank you do you have any more public comment for under agenda item number three okay close that public comment period and we'll move to item four approval of the minutes uh 4.1 the minutes from April 17th 2024 direct the J wasn't at that meeting so I'll obain from the vote um commissioner Vena I uh vote to approve I just want to make sure that we also incorporate um by reference any uh context um and the recording of the the meeting into the to be sure that all of it's included but yes um I'd like to motion to approve the minutes commissioner Basera second we have a motion and second all in favor I I I the meet uh the meeting minutes from December 5th 2024 commissioner V I have to abstain commissioner VTO move to approved commissioner w i second motion second all in favor hi hi and the minutes from December 18th 2024 commissioner VTO move to approve commissioner villain we have a second all right Motion in second all in favor I I right moving to or closing item four moving to item five election of officers I believe tonight we are filling the position of the vice chair of the Planning Commission um sure uh Madam chair if I may I would love to throw my support by unequivocal support for commissioner Sylvia villanua as our next Vice chair uh her thoughtful approach to decision-making dedication to the community and commitment to upholding the principles of integrity and fairness make her an excellent candidate for this leadership role alongside you of course so I second that just a just for clarification Mike if you can help me out um since we obviously as a vacant team we made some move we have a regular time when we bring in a new chair and vice chair so will there'll be another Vote or election of officers in four or five months or so or what's the regular schedule on that for the record Mike really planning manager yes that's correct so this is to fill uh the vacancy from Harris Armstrong so since Carrie rer was the vice chair she moves into the chair role and then we need to reappoint a vice chair okay and will there be an election of officers in six months or this starting now I believe our next election of officers is in June okay and and my only I support commissioner v w movement and vice chair if she's open to it I think my only um concern is if we have any Commissioners that are new or have their terms still going um like me and myself I would throw my hat in all my term ends in June um so I'd want to give someone a shot who's going to be there for a year so yeah missioner vill W is going to stay committed to the commission then I support it and it's good for me all right we have a motion and a second I believe yeah commissioner w i second now we have a second all in favor I I I right congratulations all right closing item number number five moving to item number six the public hearings any person any person who has chosen to provide his or her public comment when a public com a public hearing is heard we'll need to do so by indicating on the re request to speak form um and you may also uh provide public comment either at the beginning of the meeting or at the end of the meeting but we will move to item 6.1 um L and hcup do we have a presentation from staff all right thank you madam chair Commissioners for the record Nathan Gilbert principal planner with the City of Reno development services department presenting this evening LDC 2523 lnhh concrete cup so this is a request for a conditional use permit to allow for outdoor storage in the mixed use Suburban Zone and also uh to allow for uh non-residential development within 300 ft of residentially zoned property the subject site is 6.69 acre uh parcel it's uh on the south side of Virginia Street about4 miles north of Golden Valley Virginia intersection key issues with this request are area compatibility and building and site design again this is in the mixed use Suburban zoning District uh maintenance repair and renovation use which is a long way of saying a contractor's office is allowed by wri what does require a conditional use permit is the Outdoor Storage component and again that residential uh zoning proximity uh the site is zoned or excuse me master planed industrial and it's also identified in the structure plan as an employment area and uh industrial Logistics along that portion of the North Virginia Corridor some supporting policies or policy one regarding the overall mix and types of industrial uses within that Corridor overall residential compatibility which we are evaluating this evening and uh overall very building design so the existing site is generally undeveloped uh there has been some grading work done from previous entitlements that were in uh not completed the site has a history of unlicensed outdoor storage operations is long as I have aerial images of the site there's been vehicles and equipment on it in 200 16 uh a special use permit was approved to solidify that make bring that up to code uh for a mini warehouse and Outdoor Storage use on the site that did expire and in 2018 a very similar proposal again for mini warehouse and Outdoor Storage expired with the building permits being effectuated but expired around 2022 so overall site design the building fronts North Virginia Street with service Bays facing the interior there's about a 35t landscape buffer between proposed building and excuse me the proposed sidewalk and building with the rear area allocated for the outdoor storage use mixed use Suburban Zone requires a minimum of 20% Landscaping the project is compliant um provides full perimeter landscaping and will require to have a solid fence and wall screening required around the outdoor storage area building design the the project proposes demolition of the existing structures kind of a hodgepodge of of two um out buildings that are currently there on the site they propos a construction of a new 8300 foot office and shop for L&H con for concrete Contracting operation and maintenance I just want to want to make clear that there's no concrete pouring or mixing or outdoor fabrication proposed with this request those types of uses would require an amendment or or a new conditional use permit if that was ever contemplated uh s compatibility again the site is within the master planned industrial Corridor the nearest residentially zone property is 330 ft to the South across that railroad parcel uh to address further compatibility cons condition number six is recommended to limit hours of operation from 6:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. uh restrict operations to the office and indoor vehicle maintenance use and outdoor vehicle and Equipment storage also condition number seven would uh restrict Construction hours uh during the construction process I did want to bring it uh to attention a memo was provided to the Planning Commission this afternoon regarding modifications to condition number six the original application included 11 freestanding outdoor lights um for some reason this wasn't Incorporated in the initial analysis and condition number six just precluded precluded them even though that was part of the request so the outdoor lighting as recommended is needed for on site security while we didn't receive any specific comments from RPD on this specific application a consistent comment for all outdoor storage is the need for some out 24-hour lighting to provide security uh for outdoor storage operations so as proposed the proposed lighting meets or exceeds all RMC lighting standards and residential adjacency requirements these include code standards adopted with the 2021 update uh dark skylighting 25t maximum height there's no foot candle so no luminesence at the property line um appropriate light temperature maximum lumens and Etc so the proposed uh modification to uh subsection four of condition six would be instead of precluding outdoor lighting would be to ensure that uh that red that lighting is reduced to security levels by 6m security level lighting shall be a minimum of 30% reduction from photometric plan standards basically uh codee already has a pretty aggressive maximum Lumin standard based on uh dark sky standards of 100,000 lumens that's your total light area on the site they're already below that with what they're proposing and after 6 p.m. 6 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. they be operate the lighting on on site would be about almost half of of uh what would otherwise be allowed under Dark Skies uh findings are are here for your consideration it's consistent with code allowed with a conditional use permit generally surrounded by other industrial and storage uses condition 6 through 7 limit hours of of business activity and construction activity meets outdoor storage use standards and Ms zoning development standards the surrounding areas built out public services and utilities are in place it's a low traffic generating use incompatible with other industrial uses as conditioned and uh impacts such as smoke glare dust Noise by lition fumes pollutions or orders as conditioned or adequately addressed that concludes my presentation available for any questions thank you do we have a presentation from the applicant good evening Commissioners um Veronica Bon for the record honored to be here tonight representing L&H concrete and tectonics Design Group uh thank you for the opportunity to share our vision for this project and to discuss how it fits into our community's goals and values Nathan did a fantastic job uh of going over all the project details so this will be quick and brief age concrete is more than just a business it's Northern Nevada success story founded by Matt Long's father Matt long is the applicant in the late 1990s it has grown into a family-owned company deeply rooted in the fabric of her community today Matt continues his father's Legacy with a strong commitment to Quality integrity and giving back to the place they've always called home this project is a reflection of those values and I'm excited to walk you through it the site for our project is an underutilized uh 6.7 acre parcel along North Virginia Street West of Golden Valley Road um we see this property as a tremendous opportunity to bring new life and purpose to this um dilip site um through thoughtful development our proposal is to construct an 8,300 squ foot facility that will serve as Len's concrete shop and office with outdoor storage um located at the back of the property it's carefully designed planned and aligns with the mixed use Suburban zoning and the industrial designation in the master plan ensuring it's both compatible and uh compatible with surrounding uses we're here tonight to request your approval for the conditional use permit to allow outdoor storage um and also to allow non-residential development within 300 ft of a residentially e Zone property we've designed the site to prioritize compatibility with its surroundings by incorporating strategic buffering thoughtful sight planning and minimizing any potential impact on nearby properties and while being a good neighbor while fulfilling a critical business need a little background about um lnhh this isn't just another business lnhh concrete is a Cornerstone of the North the Nevada Community their commitment to giving back is extraordinary uh they actively support organizations like Nevada Big Horns unlimited the trucker foundations in wamaka and Mrs long is part of the Early Head Start program at UNR L&H they sponsor three youth soccer programs local little leagues and they regularly donate to our local high schools and most importantly why you ask this particular site 60 out of their 65 five employees live in the North Valleys meaning this project directly supports local families this is a project that uplet the community keeps jobs local and strengthens the the tie that binds us here's the site plan um we have storage in the back the shop at the front the main the entry point to the shop is faced away from from North Virginia Street few more additional grading points while I bring up my notes so as you can see um on the right hand side there is a naturally existing naturally existing BM so the proposed storage area sits below below grade from um the graded BM and does acts as a natural screening as well as there's Landscaping proposed near that um near the fence if you look closely again um the southern the back of the Southern property line and the fence there's a significant distance between those so we're keeping it as is and letting uh the natural vegetation and there exist um this is the Landscaping plan here are the elevations we meet Ms zoning standards five out of nine um architectural standards are shown here and we also meet the 40% ground level interest that's um that's required along North Virginia traffic study trip generation calculations based on the projected number of employees as the it trip generation manual does not have specific rates for maintenance shops uh the project is expected to generate minimal traffic with five employees arriving during the am peak hour and departing during the PM peak hour um the trip generation was compared to it rates for warehouse demonstrating comparable and minimal impacts on traffic the proposed project is anticipated to generate approximately 26 daily trip uh trips 8 A.M peak hour trips at 8 p.m. peak hour trips and this is a project that works within the existing capacity and respects the flow of the neighborhood noise generation we've taken significant steps to ensure this project is as quiet and low impact as possible um starting with no on-side concrete production operations are strictly limited to office use vehicle parking and Concrete Construction Equipment storage we are only asking for regular business hours so there are no 247 operations um and noise thresholds are consistent with standard daytime activity outdoor storage with minimal impact uh again just RVs materials at the back of the property these are minimal noise generating activities and we have the chewes uh distribution center next to us uh we're very different from chewes well we have a high-intensity 24hour 7 industrial um use next store however our project is a low intensity use with significantly lower noise levels we are compliant with the daytime and nighttime noise um ordinance ordinances as set forward as as set forth in the Reno Municipal Code the trucks are equipped with kill switches to prevent idling noise um yeah so we've gone above and beyond to design a project that blends seamlessly with its surroundings uh there's also condition number six might be wrong um Nathan that limits um noise generation from the trucks that have the backup uh beeping noises sustainability of the project at its core this project is a perfect fit for the site and the community it complies fully with the CD of Reno's zoning and reimagine master plan it's thought y designed to minimize impacts and maximize compatibility with neighboring uses most importantly it supports a long-standing family-owned business that has been an integral part of Northern Nevada for decades um this just this isn't just about land use it's supporting a legacy and investing in our local economy well thank you so much for your time and for considering this proposal I do have the applicant here with me as well as the project engineer to answer any follow-up questions that you might have thank you right thank you so we'll close uh we will open this to public comment on items specifically identified for item 6.1 did we have any public comment cards or anyone on Zoom I do not have any correspondents for this item or public comment cards and no one has their hands raised on Zoom okay terrific we'll close the public comment and open it to the C commission to ask questions of staff and the applicants any questions oh disclosures correction we will start there with disclosures from the Commissioners starting with commissioner velto commissioner VTO familiar with the site commissioner delr familiar with the site and uh met with some of the applicants at the recent Nab in December commissioner RoR Meers no disclosures commissioner Vena no disclosures commissioner Basera familiar with the site commissioner dra familiar with the site all right thank you now we'll take questions from the commission uh yeah I have a few questions uh commissioner delr I believe this is probably more for the applicant but I'm I'm trying to understand the outdoor storage usage um there's a couple of sort of conflicting things that I'm hearing one is storing of the uh truck that you have and then the other one is actually it would be used for an RV and Boat Storage so I'm just trying to understand what this actual outdoor storage is for I'll let the applicant kind of touch SP on that thank you Matt long owner of elen AG concrete uh so the proposed is the property is kind of split in half where the front half of our office is is where we're going to have our trailer storage equipment storage trucks that that need to stay there overnight and then uh we want to rent out the back half for future RV storage boat storage is needed okay that's uh what the property was when we bought it so trying to help back out what was there okay cuz the you know you talk about the the trucks in that it wouldn't be 24hour access which is which is great but if it does turn into RV storage are those people who are have their RV Bo will they have access 24 hours we have locking gate we have a security gate right there that will be there'll be operational hours the same as as regular six to six and and this I I think might be more for the city but I'm not sure who so thank you um yeah uh if if this if this uh conditional use permit is approved and then L&H at some point decides that it would Mix Concrete there sorry forgive the terminology uh what What's the is that a potential or what's the impact of that Nathan Gilbert for the record no that's not not an option we wouldn't be able to approve any business license for that operation that's a very it's a separate conditional use permit got it any operation like that would come to the Planning Commission first great thank you that that's all I have for now thank you Nathan if you can come up thank you um can you explain the difference between an outdoor storage and a salvage yard and and how these this differs from a salvage yard sure Nathan Gilbert U for the record a salvage yard a great example right up the street is Copart right that that's where vehicle U wrecked vehicles and tow trucks come um off the top of my head I I don't I don't know the semantics of the definition but basically it's a it's a wreck yard a junkyard this is not a junkyard this is a outdoor storage any vehicles that are stored have to be operable they can't be junk Vehicles okay and then if this were to if they if over time decades go by and this were to be used that way would they be um I guess in breach of this yes that would be inconsistent with the condition use permit okay and then one more question so I saw condition scks I think there were some confusion but it says here the rear of the property will be used for outdoor storage um the applicant has proposed that Gra will be provided as a foundation so will it will be gravel and not pavement is that right I don't know if m Michelle can can help me with the uh engineering aspect of that what I would say is it's kind of a bridge between a full Asal Paving um but I'll let Mike address that Mike Michelle engineering manager for the record uh yeah it'll it'll be gravel do h and then it goes on to say um although not a formal condition city of Rena engineering stuff will require any Drive aisle connection be treated with an oil I don't know what this means but uh will be treated with an oil Emulsion the drive ISS will be paved but the storage component will be gravel okay and if there's oil or what's is there like a prevention for oil spillage and things like that from the car sitting do we is there anything uh yes there is so can you explain that I just don't understand what it's saying here yeah that that that that's a standard uh condition that we have uh that there be um that there be U uh pre-treatment devices um in the for like sitting standing Vehicles just what is that is it just uh some kind of I don't know what that is what does that look like or I don't know cars very well so what's the prevention tactic well it it it would be if if there are any um if there are any drains in the in the um um in the uh surface there would be pre-treatment devices uh installed like sand oil separators to absorb yeah okay okay thank you nothing further commissioner dracul on line do you have any questions no I'm doing good thank you okay any other questions from the commission are we ready to move to discussion oh I'm sorry commissioner Basera all right let's move to discussion any comments or entertain a motion commissioner vua motion to actually let me commissioner villanua um based upon compliance with the applicable findings I move to approve the conditional use permit subject to conditions listed in the staff report we need to add the memo in the motion change to condition six yeah so if we could just add if the commission uh is willing to just add the modifications provided in the memo to the Planning Commission and presented uh during my presentation um okay so based upon compliance with the applicable findings I move to approve the conditional use permit subject to conditions listed in staff report and uh subject to the conditions set forth in the memo provided to staff commissioner Basera second all right we have a motion in a second all in favor I I I I motion passes unanimous unanimously good luck with your project we will move to um 6.2 Western Road from to us we'll start with a presentation from staff good evening planning Commissioners Jeff Foster associate planner for the record you might be sick of me by the end of the night tonight but hopefully not all right um so the first case of three that I'm bringing you is the zoning map Amendment for the Western uh 900 Western Road and that's LDC 25- 24 this project is about 83 Acres located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Omaha Street and Western Road uh the parcel is developed with a single family home uh that was built in approximately 1940 the request before you tonight is a zone change from sf3 to sf8 and no uses or buildings are currently proposed as we zoom in here you can see that the surrounding land uses are single family homes to the north east and west and to the South you have vacant Parcels as well as a single family home the key issues that staff analyzed are zoning compatibility and master plan conformance the zoning district is single family residential three units per acre that zone is compatible with the underlying master plan uh land use designation the proposed change is to single family residential 8 units breaker many properties within the vicinity of the site are also zoned sf8 most notably the Panther Valley Estates uh subdivision located immediately to the north both zoning districts are primarily intended to accommodate single family detached residential uses however the proposed change to the sf8 Zone would allow for the same developable area shared by many of the surrounding properties without compromising master plan conformance um I will also note that at the war for NAB meeting on December 19th public comments centered around the preservation of e preservation efforts for the existing mature trees the potential subdivision and development of up to six residential lots and the future neighborhood Outreach efforts that uh they would request to happen from the developer the master plan land use is single family neighborhood and here are two policies in support of the zone change request this is a a comparison of the development standards between the existing sf3 and the proposed sf8 I would call your attention to the first line for the setbacks and the last line for the minimum lot size those are the two primary areas where sf3 and sf8 differ um and you can see those here here are the recommended findings for the zoning map Amendment staff can make all recommended findings and here is the recommended motion and I'm available for questions thank you do we have any presentation from the appli tonight that was efficient uh good evening for the record Ryan Sims with ax on engineering here on behalf of the applicant um I'm not going to make another presentation I don't have a lot to add being that we don't have a project or a layout or anything at this point to show so I'll be available for questions thank you right thank you um we will go to public comment we received one request to speak form from Heidi Shank thank you I've got a PowerPoint that I would like someone to pull up please um we I'm part of the Panther Valley um development um I see other neighbors here I'm very concerned about this becoming six rental units um we have a very small and quiet subdivision and and the rental unit can you pull up that that yeah second okay we're hoping that oh there we go so I want to be a good neighbor and I'm very concerned there's a clicker right in front of you click the mouse this thing yes just click that forward y okay the proposal had been to have up to four houses in the right hand side the right hand half of the property and to have two up to two houses if they have to take down the house there at Western Road my concern is the width of the spaghetti Lots is um I have it calculated uh the house is going to be torn down I mean it's a 25-year roof uh the concrete is faulty uh the steps are a hazard um it is twostory we had a grandfather lot as you see that is the sf3 now there are many other sf3s and that does um include a easement area both for the utilities and for the water we have a ditch behind my house um and that does fill up whenever there's rain so there is going to be a drainage problem on the right hand side of this lot this is my Panther Valley karna neighborhood the Lots in general and I'm using my own specific one as an example it's it's very similar to all the others UH 60 ft wide and up to 129 ft deep the other lots that are sf3 are longer or mostly longer than the 290 and that's why I didn't present them here I'm going for identical to 900 Western in this calculation and presentation of area involved if six houses are put in and if the driveways are going out to Western that's only 48 ft wide Lots so that's why I say spaghetti if there's five and the other house is torn down it would be 58 ft and again we're leaving out this easement that is going to have to be in there for the uh water ditch drainage the right hand side oh okay thank you thank you did we have any other public comment for this item I do not have any more request to speak forms I don't believe anyone in Zoom as their hand raised uh we did receive additional correspondence that was forwarded to the commission and entered into the public record all right thank you we will do disclosures from the commission starting with commissioner Basera sure commissioner Basera I am familiar with the site commissioner Vala no disclosures commissioner rer familiar with the site commissioner dear familiar with the site and heard the presentation at the NAB back in December commissioner VTO familiar with the site no disc all right does anyone on the commission have questions for staff or the applicant Madam chair um commissioner Basera I think one for Jeff sir you're doing great Jeff um just the night is still young it is yeah uh We're In It Together for sure um uh this seems pretty um standard it seems like a good thing for housing options a little bit of infill but I do want to empathize with Miss Heidi uh s and I don't want to try to pronouncing your last name because I'll mess it up there uh just wanted she she had shared some concerns and were those were those concerns things that you all had considered and maybe conditioned with the uh proposal before us or so Jeff Foster associate planner for the record what you have before you tonight is a zone change and we un fortunately don't have the mechanism where we can condition a zone change so and in fact zone changes often come forward without any kind of specific Associated development proposal you might recall a couple months ago I brought you the AER Leaf uh uh zone change there was also an Associated conditional use permit for that project that was the 168 multif family units right at that point in time we had we knew what was going on okay and conditions of approval were um included on the conditional use permit the zone change itself though is not a a an entitlement where we can condition anything so and again often we don't know what's actually going to be proposed in this case uh the cat was let out of the bag that potentially it would be developed as a you know a residential subdivision in theory it could be built up to six units based on this parcel size the reality is that's not likely to happen it's more probably more likely four or five units and Ryan Sims could speak to that too but again because this is a zone change we're not really diving into the particulars of the potential development of the site and also recognize that if this was developed with anything more than four units I.E a tenative map that that would be an application that would come forward before this body at some point down the road um and of course whether or not it goes forward with a tenative map or just straight to building permits um all of the uh kinds of infrastructure type of issues the roadway width uh you know front AG drainage all of those things would be addressed at that point in time that helps a lot thank you Jeff I have don't don't go I have a question for Jeff um so I I was over there and I noticed that the property there's like a burm kind of at the back of it would are there potentially um any height restrictions for either sp3 or sp8 in terms of like how how tall they can actually so the the zone sf8 does have its own inherent lot and use uh lot and building standards okay um including lot widths uh lot uh Heights of structures Etc so yes anything that would come forward in terms of a residential use um would be required to comply with the associated sf8 lot and building standard do you know what that is I'm just trying to like picture it in my head so for sf8 the maximum Building height is 35 ft perfect thank you that's all I have for you thank you okay so the the housing the residential housing just to I think it's can't tell if it's north or south of it but where the units are where I suspect the public speaker um was resides somewhere in that neighborhood what is that zoned um that is also SFA and that was the primary point of comparison okay that the you have sf8 um and can I get the presentation up if you would please um to show commissioner Villa um so what you'll see here momentarily is that um the the uses to the right here so on the right you see the proposed zoning on the left you see the current zoning you can distinguish the color of yellow on that leand side the current sf3 is kind of a darker yellow to the north and to the South you see a lighter yellow those are all sf8 and so the proposed Zone would be match exactly what you see to the north and to the South so it would arguably make sense I mean it would essentially align this with the zoning code adjacent just adjacent to adjacent to the North and the South correct uhhuh okay all right thank you you bet sorry commissioner delar I'm not sure if it's a question for you or the applicants representative but um there's a lot of trees out there now and I know it will depend on what actually goes in there um but is there is there a way to like and again it's not necessarily conditioned but just to consider um preserving as many of those trees as possible because they are some of them are kind of cool sure and I would be happy to have the applicants representative address that awesome thank you all right for the record again and Ryan Sims at actually on the engineering um yeah some discussion has been had about the preservation of those trees uh there's some concern that they haven't been watered for years now because of the the house being vacant but um in speaking to the the applicant the owner today as a matter of fact that was discussed and uh whatever development plan we come up with that's going to be a focal point is to try to preserve that vegetation as much as possible there was also a conversation that the owner had with the councilman from that Ward so um so yes there will be an effort made to preserve as many of those trees as possible awesome thank you very much it's all do we have any questions from commissioner draulic online no I'm good thank you for checking in thank you any additional questions any discussion I'm sorry I I was going to add to discussion I'm good for questions okay all right moving into to discussion why don't you kick us off uh for discussion I think uh as we heard from staff the application is just a text or it's just an amendment to The Zone uh there will be an opportunity to I believe and correct me if I'm wrong there will be an opportunity for Neighbors to come in um down the road once the development and some more um information is available regarding what's going to be um the type of development that's going to be put in so if if um if this goes through this won't be the last um opportunity for public comment so I just wanted to add that thank you motion Madam chair happy to make a motion uh Echo uh Vice chair Vin noa's sentiment there um Mr Jeff or or Cali or crew mind helping me out with theemotion thank you sir in the matter of case LDC 25- 0024 based upon compliance with the applicable findings I move to recommend that city council approve the zoning map amendment by ordinance this is commissioner W I second the motion all right we have a motion and second all in favor I I I motion passes unanimously congratulations uh we're going to take a quick five minute recess before we dive into Data cters good time to stretch y'all Pur e e m went e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're gonna come back to our meeting hate to break the party uh everyone can you guys could you find your seats please thank you all right thank you now we're going to move to item 6.3 the opin data center starting with a presentation from staff all right good evening Commissioners Jeff Foster associate planner for the record bringing you the first of two data center projects tonight uh this one is called the opan 5 megawatt Data Center and it's LDC 25-22 so this project is about a 7 acre site on the north side of North Virginia uh East sorry yeah east of stead Boulevard um it is a vacant parcel uh the parcel historically contained residential uses dating back to the 1950s from the early 2000s through at least 2021 the Western portion of the site was was used for outdoor storage namely primarily uh vehicles and trailers and by 2023 the last private residences were established I did also want to point out that this uh site is near the recently approved web Data Center and that's shown there the request before you tonight is a conditional use permit to allow the development of a data center as well as business operations between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. zooming in um the surrounding land uses you can see uh warehouse and distribution uh uses to the North and the South South to the West you have a non-conforming mobile home park and to the east you have an uh undeveloped parcel that is utilized for outdoor storage the key issues that staff analyzed are compatibility with surrounding land uses as well as site design the zoning district is industrial commercial and the master plan land use is industrial and here are seven uh goals and policies that support the prop proposed request um you're already familiar with this um from the web data center but I'm going to run you through it again uh in January of last year the definition of a data center was incorporated into the Reno Municipal Code through an administrative interpretation that ADM was incorporated into uh the title 18 or RMC last week uh at Council a data center is now a recognized use permitted in the IC Zone with the approval of a conditional use permit and as you know conditional use or sorry data centers have significantly less truck traffic loading and unloading needs as well as the requirement for dock doors um in comparison with a wareh warehouse or Distribution Center moving on to compatibility with surrounding land uses um the proposed project involves uh 24-hour indoor operations this area is generally characterized by industrial uses and Zoning that allows 24-hour operations by right the nearest residentially zon property is about 1,400 ft away separated from the site by the freeway and Industrial uses I'll call your attention to it there um the site also has that non-conforming residential use the mobile home park to the West there is a truck dock proposed at the northwest corner of the building as a result staff is including condition number five that limits the hours for truck arrivals and departures idling and on-site movement for the Western Property Line adjacent to that mobile home park the Project's acoustical study showed that the project should not exceed maximum allowable noise levels namely the 49 DB for the nighttime noise level between 10: p.m. and 7:00 a.m. during the typical operational scenario however the typical condition 48 DB is close to that maximum allowable noise level therefore the acoustical consultant recommended mitigations be added to account for reasonable error by either the manufacturer's noise data the model or field conditions staff is therefore recommending conditions six and seven to ensure compliance with the noise standards in RMC staff is also recommend recommending the standard construction hours restriction and that's condition number eight as proposed and as conditioned staff believes that the use is generally compati able with the existing land uses in the area moving on to site design the site plan includes a backup generator yard on the North side with approximately seven generators and these generators would only be used during a power failure or during necessary periodic testing or maintenance per condition number nine the site plan also includes water tanks parking landscaping and security and screening fencing as well as a storm water detention Basin the truck dock is proposed at the northwest corner of the building and it is not visible from North Virginia Street there are two Drive-In doors on the Eastern side of the building that will only be used during buildout of the data Halls the proposed sight lighting meets code requirements and no lighting is directed onto adjacent properties I would also point out that the at the ward for NAB there was a request to redesign the security fence which the applicant agreed to and that's condition number 10 the generators that along that Northern side are screened from the mobile home park by a perfor at metal screen panel and the security fence the applicant also proposed a row of 6ft evergreen trees along that Western perimeter to improve the screening and we included that recommendation as condition number 11 moving on to the Landscaping IC Zone requires 100% of the front yard to be landscaped which you can see they have accomplished that in addition to the required front yard landscape and Street trees nine additional trees primarily evergreens are proposed between North Virginia and the building to help obscure the fencing the water tank screening panels and the building itself and that's uh included in condition number 12 to further sustainability initiatives the applicant has proposed conditions 13 to 18 these address uh roof design that is ready to support the photo photovoltaic solar arrays installation of approximately 5,500 ft of solar arrays on the rooftop installation of conduit to support future EV charging installation of low flow domestic water fixtures utilization of low vocc materials and best practices in Source separation and diversion from the landfill here are the recommended cup findings um diving in uh bit on each of these is the project consistent with RMC yes it is allowed with a conditional use permit um and with compliance with uh the standards of the zone and the conditional use permit um so yes it is allowed and consistent with RMC is the project uh um or sorry are land use and project design compatible with surrounding development yes the project uh area is General the project site is generally surrounded by other industrial uses and conditions 5 to8 mitigate potential noise impacts is the project consistent with development standards yes it's a Data Center and it meets the data center use standards and the IC standards as well as things such as parking and lighting our public services and utilities available yes the surrounding area is built out public services and utilities are in place and the applicant has secured a commitment from NB energy to supply the power are the characteristics of the project compatible yes uh it is involves indoor operations it's a low traffic generating use and it is compatible with other industrial uses in the area would the project be detrimental to public health safety or welfare no it would not it involves no or minimal smoke glare dust vibration fumes pollution and or odors and again condition n limits the generator use I would also point out that with the zoning that this project site is located under um another use could come along and be built by right I.E a warehouse or Distribution Center That Could Have Much Greater impacts on the surrounding area the surrounding land uses the surrounding Road Network um so this project by comparison has a much lower potential impact um than other uses that could be developed by right on this site um therefore staff recommends approval of the proposed conditional use permit here's a recommended findings and I'm available for questions thank you Jeff we'll have a presentation from the applicant please hi my name is Dylan Rusk for the record I'm with opan Investment Company um we are at 400 Water Street in exceler Minnesota um just wanted to start start off by saying thanks to Jeff um it's been you know a long it's been a lot of work over the last couple months um and he has really done a tremendous job at vying for the community um and making sure that we're putting the best foot forward um in terms of incorporating um uh conditions of approval to to meet both planning commissions comments from the web data center as well as um comments received at the NAB meeting um I'm going to try not to um double up on any information that that Jeff just went over um but I think I'm going to start by um kind of I guess educating what an edge data center is in the in the landscape of um data center infrastructure so um you know I think most folks are probably familiar with some of the large hyperscale data centers out in trick um those are again you know the 200 300 megawatt data centers plus um that you know can be half a million square feet or you know a million square foot buildings and those are typically again High compute uh needs where where data processing is part of the Core Business to to the tenants who occupy them so you know this is where you can think of your cloud service providers like a Google Microsoft um and Amazon and again those are owned by those those companies um and operated by those companies um then just below that you'll have um you know a collocation facility similar to the one that was previously proposed um and and as the name suggests you know it's a you know smaller building um to to a hyperscale facility and it comes with um you know multiple tenants um and it's a it's more of a business model suited to to smaller users that you know have their have at least the scale to have their own servers but may not have the economies of scale to build their own uh facilities is that's you know very costly um and then just below that brings us to what we're proposing which is an edge data center you know in this case it's a it's a 60,000 ft building it's um 5 megaw of server power which is you know there's nuances to it but it's 5 megawatts is what's required to power all of the server racks and then there is some additional um power requirements for you know just back of house mechanical cooling Etc and we'll we can get into the specifics of that later when we're talking about power um but you know there were a lot of comments from you know that we received just um over um email or through through the U portal um regarding this use you us targeting Reno for either cheap power cheap land access to water and you know at least with our use that's specifically not the intention you know the intention of an edge data center is to in additional server uh capacity closer to the users um and closer to the data that they're actually holding on these servers um that's you know a little background on our project outs aside from what Jeff already went over um with regards to the site plan um one thing I want to point out is that yes it's a 60,000 sqt uh data center but this we are taking a phased approach to how we're building out um building out each of the data Halls so there you know we have 8,000 ft of office space and then the remaining you 52,000 or 53,000 Square ft will be split into five data centers or data Halls excuse me each again with that in one megawatt tranches of uh server capacity um and with you know our initial development plan you know assuming we were to get approval tonight and proceed with um permitting we would break ground um you know later this year early 26 and deliver just you know the first 10,000 ft data Hall um and and the admin spaces along with the whole shell and um you know important to note because that means yes we're submitting to Envy energy for you know the 8 and a half megawatt requirement and our you know total water usage but that will be ramped up over the next 5 years um as we expand uh the the build out of our of our building um you know I don't think there's much to note on the traffic side uh or on the traffic front I just you know did want to point out that currently on the site there is an approved 140,000 ft industrial building um you know which comes with significant number of dock doors and um significantly more um truck traffic you know truck traffic is not uh part of the day-to-day operations um aside from during construction which would you know happen with with with any project we you know we do not foresee significant um significant numbers of trucks coming daily as there's just nothing for them to deliver and it's not a part of the the operations again this is you know just an overview to show you um our site in relation to the the surrounding uses you know it's a very industrial Zone um for regarding landscape I have Barb so Tech uh helped us out on both our civil engineering and Landscape engineering Barb's local so and the landscape engineer so all right thank you so for the record my name is Barb sner I'm a landscape architect with stantech here in Reno been practicing here for over 30 years um and Jeff really hit on most of the highlights with regards to landscape but I'll just make a few other points so the front yard landscape requirements are fulfilled um you know one tree and six shrubs per 300 Square ft of the front yard so we've got uh that met um half Evergreen half deciduous um and then the street along the street there's a requirement along um arterials and collectors to have one shade tree and six shrubs for every 30 feet of Street Frontage along North Virginia Street so that is also provided it's the long row of trees that you see kind of at the bottom of the the plan that would be provided in a Parkway strip um and then the parking lot is on the left side of the building um one tree for every 10 parking spaces uh two are required we've got five and then as was mentioned as Jeff mentioned um we're adding six trees on the west on the left side of the property to provide a little additional buffering to the mobile home park uh on that side um just a couple other points everything the plants would be real drought tolerant and suitable for this climate everything would be on drip irrigation um and then another Point uh to bring up would be that uh we do know that the RTC plants to widen North Virginia Street in the future and this uh site plan actually shows what is currently the tentative plan for that it has a 10-ft wide multi-purpose path and a Parkway strip so that we can make sure that any of that landscaping that's proposed would would uh dub tail with the future RTC plans it could be that it made it may make more sense to hold off on actually installing that landscape till just after the RTC does their work because they're currently scheduled to uh complete that widening um not too long after this project would uh can be completed in that area and I'd be happy to answer questions later if you have any regarding screening Jeff already touched on this but you know we did receive comment at the the nav meeting um where they did not like the the curved feature so we've went ahead and changed to another spec um and then along that Western Property uh line we've added um there will be um I don't want to say barricades but uh solid screening to to cover um just to add a screening from the the mobile home park to the west and then this shows you know all all of our pretty much any me outdoor mechanical equipment generators or or water storage tanks um will have um full screening from uh the west and North Virginia as well as any rooftop equipment we'll have parapet screening um so we're just this here is just to provide um I guess a timeline of of um all of the conversations and everything we've accomplished with nvy energy to date as well as um you know describing where we're going to be getting this power um it's coming from the peine bank one that's under construction I believe currently um and then all all conduit is going to be underground um coming down North Virginia um you know we do have a will serve letter from um Envy energy as well as a signed design initiation agreement you know know we had the we've had the planning memo for months um anyway it's been a very good um Cooperative working process with them having bi-weekly calls um so yeah we can answer any questions there after the presentation and then regarding um sustainability measures um you know we do Jeff kind of touched on most of this we have a solar ready rooftop we've uh we're going to install 55 00 ft of um solar panels on the the roof um and I guess the rationale for the 5500 squ feet is that's you know all of the rooftop space that we have that's built solar ready um as part of this first phase of our development um and then you know in addition we have um conduit in place for for future EV charging stalls um it's Eevee ready at this point um and then we have um you know there are other conditions with regards to building materials and other sustainability measures and then you know we did add the the six evergreen trees along the western uh property line um just to add additional screening and the and then the remaining slides here are are renderings I'll flip through them so on the left is the entrance and then we have here on the right is the view from North Virginia Street thank you all right thank you so we'll do disclosures from the commission how about we start with commissioner dracul online commissioner dracul I am familiar with site and R received thank you commissioner elto uh commissioner VTO um communicate spoke to the applicants representative or no did not speak the on this uh received and reviewed emails as well as familiar with the site commissioner delvar I'm familiar with the site and spoke to the applicant at the NAB and had a meeting with Representatives as well commissioner rorer familiar with the site read many emails and spoke to the applicants representative commissioner villanua read a lot of emails regarding this matter I've also kind of done my own just research reading articles and things like that um out external research regarding um data centers in general thank you commissioner Basera got a longer one uh spoke to the applicants representative reviewed materials uh for this particular project uh the following will be applicable to this project before us and the one that follows this evening uh as everyone everyone knows Reno being Reno It's a small world so we're all a degree or two of separation from some organization or a person um since data centers are the topic of the year i' would like to disclose that two or three years ago I was on the board of the Seer Club however I have not been involved with the organization I'm not involved with their current Appeal on a separate project which is not before us this evening equally on the other side of the same coin I had a memorable one-on-one walk with the late Tom Dolan earlier this summer in which I got to hear about both his legacy his story and his personal vision for Reno which was anchored on taking care of people I say both of these because both the Sierra Club and some of late Tom Dolan's family are here in Chambers which I believe are also representing one of the data center projects before us tonight like I said the biggest little city in the world for a reason with that I believe I can be impartial and fair this evening with the data center projects before us all right thank you we will move into public comment uh do we have requests to speak forms I don't have any for this specific item um some of the folks here for general public comment might like to speak under this item as well so if that's the case go ahead you'll have three minutes please state your name for the record good evening again Rose Walter I just would officially like my testimony read into these two specific items I guess they went a little early but they still would be appropriate for 6 .3 and 6.4 um and again my concerns are many with air pollution water use energy use uh close to parks close to restaurants schools uh areas where people are trying to get out in nature specifically for Keystone data center so thank you so much okay I believe you'll also need to fill out a comment card just okay for each of the items for which you want that to apply thank you any other public comment good evening Commissioners you guys are doing the Lord's work as far as I'm concerned my name is Jack Hawkins for the record I'm an architect I've been in Reno for 35 years um it's my home I love it raise my kids here um my concern would have to be with um uh high water usage and mainly energy usage I don't have any problem with the building fitting into the neighborhood it complies with everything I think the developers done a nice job of of uh complying to the current codes my issue is Just Energy and if they could make this thing energy neutral they have my full support but to supply you know these these and this my comments are for both of the data centers to have these data centers suck all of our energy for very little uh employment opportunities and then uh not looking towards the future of how we can supply our energy seems very shortsighted so again if uh you know there's a lot of rooftops out there for solar voltex there's geothermal to keep these things cool I just did a geothermal project for a res residential project and so it's Energy new you know so we have to start thinking for the future as opposed to just shortterm yeah get them in there get these things built and then uh way down the road we're going gosh why did we let all those things come in suck our energy suck our water we just don't have a lot of resources so again if they can be sustainable I'm all for them that's my comment thank you very much thank you any additional public comment Mr could you please fill out a request speak card thank you we do have a couple of Zoom attendees who have their hands raised um Lisa if you'd like to speak please unmute yourself you'll have three minutes can you hear me yes okay so I did already make comments at the general it does apply to these items and I just want to say that staff and the applicant have done their job presenting their findings to you and I just think that this is premature the city needs to sort out where it stands on these particular use application before going forward I think we need to just take a break on all this um let the city do its work let the planning department do its work and then rehear these applicants after we get more guidance from the council and from the planning department about some of the climate impacts for these types of developments I think it's going to be harder to go back in time if you approve something like this now and then the council and the planning department um change some of the findings it's going to be real hard for the Planning Commission to go back in time and try to redo something we're just in the midst of a discussion right now with the council they're in the midst of relooking at some of the um planning department um zoning requirements for these applications and so I think a lot of us would just like to see a pause button hit while all this gets sorted out and then come back to the applications after we have more information about what we want to do in this community thank you thank you we have another Zoom attendee who registered to speak Anna would you like to speak speak under this item thank you for the offer I submitted my public comment not at this time thank you thank you I believe that is all the correspondents we have um we did we did receive additional correspondence that was forwarded to the commission and entered into the public record but I do not have any more request to spe forms or any hands raised on Zoom all right thank you we'll close the public comment and open this to Commissioners questions for staff and the applicant have some questions start with Mr VTO uh I want to ask first start with uh staff Jeff got some questions for you yes sir so I want to talk to you about the allowed uses by right that are currently permitted in this zoning uh you said manufacturing generally is an allowed use is that ACC or industrial is generally allowed use right right all types of industrial uses yes so if hypothetically uh tomorrow a uh semiconductor manufacturer or microchip manufacturer were decide were to decide they would like to build a semiconductor Factory using this site would they be able to do that without seeking discretion or review from the the commission or the city council so assuming that they didn't trigger any of the other um potential types of of Permitting requirements um the answer is yes and and in all likelihood um as I mentioned during my initial presentation any type of traditional big box Warehouse is building whether it's a true warehouse distribution or whether it's just a shell that also or that has kind of some kind of indoor manufacturing industrial manufacturing those uses would be allowed by right in this Zone and could go straight to building permit so you qualified that a bit with saying that it depends if it would trigger something else what um I I want to use this example of like a a microchip manufacturer and I want to understand would that trigger something in your mind no no when I say trigger something else um what I'm trying to distinguish is an a use that's allowed by a right on a parcel such as this that um versus uh if there was another uh consideration I.E cuts and fills over 10 and 20 ft or a stream running through the par or something else if there was some other trigger for an entitlement even if the use was allowed by a right that other trigger could then be brought to bear to require an entitlement to come in before this body right in this case on this site none of that would be triggered for either the proposed data center or for a manufacturing use that you're uh asking about understood okay well and I guess what I I asked that question because there's talk about water use and I guess when I look at finding six for the cup analysis you know it tells us to look at things that are materially detrimental to the public safety Health and Welfare of the community um when I look at that finding I kind of look at what are allowed uses and weigh the risk of the Cup being granted having a greater effect than what is already Allowed by right do you think I'm looking at that the right way I would say if I understand the question correctly I would say yes because for example some type of manufacturing that may use a great deal more water then this data center could be allowed by right and it you would never have the opportunity to deliberate it on on it it would just go straight to building permit so um we do have the advantage of looking at this particular use and I think the applicant uh may be able to address the water usage I think there's um if if I may uh uh speak just in generalities I think there's a lot of of of um consideration for what is presented in the media in terms of water usage Andor historically in terms of water usage for data centers my understanding is that for this data center and the data center that's going to be before you next that they are tradition that they are much lower than traditional much lower in terms of water usage than traditional data center so the uh I I would invite this body to deliberate and consider the water usage specific to this project and uh as a part of your considerations and not just kind of water usage is a you know that data centers are are these uh Mass users of water I would cons invite you to consider this specific use but again back to what you're asking a another type of use that could use a lot more water would be required or sorry wouldn't uh be able to go direct to building permit um and would have to provide evidence that Tumo would serve them at that time um but it would not be required to to go into that at this point let me also offer an additional commentary on that the um the requirement in code to to be able to show that a Tuma can serve or that NV Energy and actually MV energy is not part of the uh requirement but that Tuma can serve for example that is not triggered during entitlement that's that's triggered at the uh uh concurrency it's done at the time of building permit so um it's not even something that staff would traditionally look at during this review process that the the burden on that is shifted to the to the latter end of the process during the building permit stage when they actually have to be able to demonstrate the ability to be served so anyway and I I appreciate that I I have one more question for um Mr Foster and I have a question for the couple questions for the applicant is that okay um do you have any knowledge about the type of the amount of water usage for a semiconductor or microchip manufacturer because you asked the question I wish I did but IOD just checking uh is the applicant available I ALS I also wish I had the answer Fair okay you have another question uh I was going to ask you that same question I really yeah I wish I had it and I I think the nuances in the answer would be the size of a manufacturing facility and having it of the the same scale um so I I unfortunately do not understood well I'll move on to a separate topic with you then while you're up here so um what type of why does your project differentiate from the other types of data centers as it relates to water usage yes um good question so you know the main difference here is in the cool systems When comparing I mean I guess is feels weird to compare it to the previous uh company that just uh came for approval but the web data center was using the rack cooled um rack cooled HVAC um system which is essentially you know it is more efficient from a water standpoint they use less water than our evaporative cooling system however you know the the reason that we're using evaporative is where um we're a climate uh permits it is it's the most efficient cooling system meaning that most efficient from a power standpoint so if we were to go mechanical which we have other projects in um you know other climates where it's more humid and and a hotter climate um the you know for the same prototypical building where we're asking for 8 and a half megawatts here it's upwards of you know 16 17 18 megaw just to cool the same 5 megaw of it server um Power requirement understood uh okay it's just more it's just mainly more equipment um and requires significantly more power but that equipment is also more water efficient so it's I appreciate that I'm generally familiar with the differences between evaporative cooling for data centers versus the rack cooling that you've explained so I I appreciate that and I'll pass it to whichever commissioner has questions go ahead uh yes uh commissioner baser I guess we'll stick with the cooling systems um I think you just confirmed it is evaporative cooling correct yeah yeah and uh my understanding is that um that method in particular is is not only not frowned upon but it's not necessarily allowed for new commercial building in Southern Southern Nevada particularly Las Vegas is that correct I I believe so is is it I that's my understanding so I just wanted to get confirmation and maybe Jeff might know I'm sorry I don't have okay it's okay so so uh my understanding it is and someone else can correct me if it's not but if it is I guess I was just wondering uh why would um a cooling method or approach be okay in Northern Nevada and not necessarily in southern Nevada and and this is kind of to help have a conversation around some of the concerns that different folks have brought up and just uh what what we try to consider and if there's no answer there I'll just kind of yield yeah I don't know the Southern Nevada water situation okay in terms of Supply so I don't know why I yeah okay don't know why they have a moratorium okay no no problem I'm gonna yield for now and hand it off to another fellow commissioner commissioner you don't mind go ahead that's interesting information where did you get that from or or how do you know that uh from Publications that are published about Las Vegas and water um I can provide the published resources if you like after this meeting sure personal research that that's understandable I was just curious okay I wanted to clarify we're talking about 7 acre feet of water per year correct and have you considered a mechanical system as an alternative to make this project possible uh we have not in this area just due to the fact that we haven't considered the power requirement of 18 megawatts with EnV energy are you aware that in Nevada we can't create water but perhaps we could create energy I hadn't considered that all right um any questions from my fellow Commissioners I have I have a few questions please um one is for you and this is sort of a continuation on the the water cooling and water usage um mine's mine goes more to uh the disposal and and again part of this I just don't understand you know some of the nomenclature and the process itself but um I know that there's talk about affluent water going to Swan Lake is that is that correct or like oop sorry um again I'm just trying to sort of understand the whole flow of water how it comes in and where it goes yeah so water it's recycled um over the evaporative fans and then once the water reaches a certain saturation point it would be disposed of through the sanitary City sanitary lines I got you okay and that's why I think there was some and I think this question is for Jeff um about the and maybe if you could just sort of again sort of help me understand um there was some this sewer conditions that were in there um uh I'm not again I'm not sure exactly what uh what it was but there was there was a specific uh condition um you're you're talking about the extension of the time frame for the conditional use permit to 36 months in order to be able to make sure that there's enough time for them to apply for the service that is correct yes yes I'm just trying to understand sort of what what the implications of that are and sort of what that potentially means again if the affluent water apparently is going into this sewer or sewer system drainage system right so Mike and Mike Michelle the engineering manager is here he might be able to speak more more particularly with regard to the situation out there but the general understanding as conveyed in my staff report is that due to the capacity of the treatment plant out there right that um there's more in the process of being brought online but due to that capacity it's kind of a first come first serve basis and so as a result um we have extended the uh recommended extending the condition of approval time frame to 36 months from the standard 18 months to to give the developer a chance to have a better a better chance to get the uh permission to uh use that Wastewater facility do the residents get first come first serve too or just kidding sorry Mike come on up U Mike Michelle engineering manager for the record um the short answer to your question is yes he who pays first gets first service I'll keep that in mind okay so all right I guess that's uh let's see I think that's all for now um thank you I don't have any questions I'm ready for discussion whatever any additional questions from the commission commissioner B uh commissioner baser maybe Jeff just kind of te us up for discussion I suppose those how you feeling good to go man good man um you know this is new to us we're all trying to figure this out right um so I just kind of curious for this project that we're discussing right now how does it compare to the one that we're going to discuss next you know like I'm my my challenge here is trying to figure out you know where where where is there comparability where's uniqueness and uh where is there um you know benefit to obviously the applicant but benefit to the community at large um how would you compare these two that are before us tonight um great question yeah I wish I had a little chart that where I would have compared the two directly in that way um other than the obvious the one being up in the North Valleys and and Keystone being uh you know here close by um and therefore kind of the the mixture of surrounding land uses and things like that um they're pretty comparable in terms of uh well the Keystone one is about 30,000 square F feet larger but it's also two stories so it's actually not a bigger footprint but it's a taller building um they're proposing similar uh sustainability initiative or sustainability measures um in terms of you know the solar and the lowb and all of those things so they're pretty comparable as far as that I don't have a uh a direct uh comparison in terms of one is 5 megawatts and the other is X or the one uses s acre feet of water and the other is X so I don't have that uh kind of direct comparison um so yeah I feel you commissioner B if I can just interject briefly we need to consider each request individually on other own mirors and on the project of what they're proposing and I think when we start drawing comparisons between two we could be getting out of our realm OFW you're right thank you sir uh and thank you Jeff um yeah I'm ready for uh deliberation or discussion if folks are I can um you know let me ask the applicant um if he's available sure hello um so you guys have a think the NB energy issued a letter saying that they can serve the the area um are you do we know was it indicated in the letter whether there would be um potential increase to rate payers as a result of the enhanced use energy did not make any mention of that no okay the infrastructure I mean are you guys is there any kind of assistance being made through the with the application we do the infra infrastructure improvements before we move on can I have Suzanne gramman um answer the exact question that you just asked okay y Suzanne grman for the record I'm the sustainability and utility relations manager for the city Arena um anytime the utility issues a will serve letter and says we can use an existing resource it's already part of their IRP so it's already part of Rights so it does not have a rate impact if it's an existing resource if they have to build a new resource there could potentially be a rate impact will this require it will not it will not okay will it impact the the point thres or I guess the threshold by which um the so for example if we have new housing new schools new other energy uses will it impact a thresh will we reach that threshold sooner as a result of this project so there's no way to forecast that um the integrated planning process happens every 3 years and it's a long range planning process process so they say this is our plan for the long term but they do it every 3 years so they're always updating and looking at if they need new resources to serve um the load of their customers and they do that at a threee so they don't it's not triggered by anything any one specific project unless it's so large that they're like we can't serve that maximum Peak load and it does require new resource there's a completely different process but when they go through that every three-year process of their IRP their integrated resource plan they're looking at those changes in load over time how does this relate to maybe like a a development fit 50 houses something like that I mean like I said as far as reaching that threshold sooner because of this one applications and I I I don't work in energy so I you you'll have to bear with me but I'm just trying to kind of wrap my head around this um I guess hitting that threshold with this one application because of the usage um and and I understand that Envy energy is able to provide um right now but do we get I mean we've made so many efforts to be your the sustainability manager all the efforts we've made to be sustainable and then we have this big project come up and it almost like I feel like it kind of like it's it's diservice to the community in the sense that it's like we've made all these strides and then now kind of takes us back because of one application so so one thing to consider in parallel with long-range planning is there's also in the state a requirement for a minimum um minimum percentage of their load be covered by Renewables and that is happening sort of in parallel so in parallel to their longrange planning and their ability to serve a customer they're also looking at Statewide policy that requires a certain percentage of their generation that they procure be renewable and so it's not really looked at like on a project by project Case by case unless it's so large like it's like a switch or it's it's some some very large user um and and what's come up also is sort of that on-site solar question and one consideration um that or one thing that needs to be considered is if you look at on-site solar um large facilities cannot net meter any more than one megawatt of generation it's a completely different relationship with the utility and so that's why you often see system sizes that are smaller um but it's it's not like a One-Shot deal one project if the if the utility can serve it it means in that long range planning they have the resource to serve that load okay I have other questions but I'm going to yield right now okay yeah I have questions for you um isn't the IRP threshold 10 megawatts no IRP is 50% 50% by 2030 so 50% of no right now we're serving Renewables at roughly 37% of our B state budget but I'm saying that the IRP plans for projects do they not NV Energy 10 megawatts and under so a lot of these projects then would be on a case-by Case basis and I just to go further with that you mentioned that there would be no impact to customer rate pricing but if large scale transmission lines are needed something like green link North or green link West that cost is often bore by the cost of the customer base upfront so we that is an issue but it's not it's not part of the the the long range planning for that for that resource planning and those are all Case by case we can't predict the future right but we're looking at projects are we not that are crossing this threshold for example this one is listed as 5 megawatts but it's actually 9.7 and I don't know the 10 megawatt threshold that you're referring to that's what NV Energy said was the point at which it's not included in their IRP planning process so I think there is some clarification that is needed when it comes to these projects this one may not be at 10 megaw it might be slightly under but the one we saw in theb project was at 30 now if this project were to not be a water intensive evaporative cooling project it sounds like it would be 18 megawatts and that's the kind of clarification I think would be helpful for our organiz for our commission where it was in the application that it was nine and it was referenced so it's 8 8.2 megawatts and then that's 9.2 KVA which is just another metric I it's labeled in the title as five megawatts do you think that's perhaps deceiving and yes I agree and we're not trying to be dece that's just how it's referenced in the you know for our marketing with every it's a 5 megawatt critical power requirement so there's critical power and then there's total power request we're not trying understood we're not trying to see and I think when we spoke offline um I mentioned it was 8.2 and it's a phased you know 1.8 megaw year 1 and then we ramp by 1.6 megawatts each year until we reach 8.2 and if you were to not do evaporative cooling what would your energy draw be it'd be that the 18 megawatt number so that's realistically the power draw of this project except that it's being offset by depends I mean you were concerned with a evaporative for the or with the power requirement for web correct but you were just concerned with the power and you didn't bring up any of the water concerns well they did recirculate yes I agree there are trade-offs here trade-offs that's all I'm pointing out and so we were you know it was just my intention and my understanding that the main concern for the commission was power and I understand that yeah there there is a trade-off here with regards to water no I appreciate it yeah our natural resources are limited other Commissioners may I may I jump in real quick just it it we're talking about the NV Energy usage right the usage from NV Energy I think it's critical to remember and it this was brought up extensively at the previous hearing that the peine substation has already been approved for the area that will serve this project so we're not talking about needing to identify a new energy source or build another plant that hasn't already gone through an approvals process the people Divine substation went all the way through the process it came before this body went by the council and also went to Regional and has made it all the way through the approvals process and is literally I believe we were told on December 18th under construction remember the uh a portion of the the leftover power from that data center or sorry from that uh substation the portion that's not going to the approved web data center project a portion of that would be utilized by this project so I just think it's important to remember that we're not talking about some other energy source that needs to be uh brought online or or developed to to cater to this specific project uh question for I'll I'll do staff since staff is more familiar kind of a question um for you Jeff um so you live here you've been here in the summer have you ever received a text message from Envy energy saying that there may be impacts to you know um there may be short blackouts quick blackouts things like that or a fluctuation in um energy access in the summer when we're experiencing extreme heat waves I probably have or maybe an email but yeah I believe I have received those types of communications okay yeah me too um so I'm just looking here at conditional use permit um the conditional use permit um findings and it says here um material materially detrimental to the public health safety and Welfare um I mean arguably and actually I'm not even going to give my opinion this produces energy I think everyone's clear here that this produces a lot of energy usage is would you agree with that um and that typically increases um pollution heating effects um potentially indirectly elevates global warming to some degree um the warming effect here in Reno would you agree with that I would say that anything that adds heat is a potential Source a contribution to that yes okay um and given some of the factors extra uh indirectly like fire is we're seeing um in La um and like we very much experienc here locally um we had one last year uh in Colin Ranch area um peine area so would you say that this indirectly could contribute to those health risks whether it be um and again indirectly but whether it be the smoke from fires that result from global warming heat enhanced heat and enhanced warming in the area indirectly anything that adds Heat can potentially yes add to that overall burden just as any other use on the site that also adds heat could add to that burden yes okay um so I mean would you all I mean would you agree that that impacts health safety and Welfare of those within the community so the if you read the specific um uh portion of that finding it it typically involves things like pollution light noise dust vibrations things like that smoke smoke yeah so I don't see I don't see a data center that's a building that you know highly energy I mean it uses a lot of energy yeah but I yeah I I guess I would disagree that that that those are things that are you know that are being analyzed in those criteria okay thank you if I can jump in I think we're maybe getting kind of out of the realm of planning expertise making broad speculations that I don't sure I agree I only asked him because he kept moving the applicant aside and so I figured he I moved the applicant aside to confirm that the NV Energy plant the peine substation one is going to support the current project okay I didn't know so I figured maybe you preferred me to ask you otherwise I agree with you I think it would have been more suitable for me to ask the applicant so I I that's reason I have I have a followup this is uh commissioner Del VR uh when we were talking about the peine I I live in North Valley so I'm very familiar with the energy outages that happened there um we talked about the peine substation being built and 50% of it or whatever I can't remember exactly was going to go towards the web data center uh my understanding was that the rest of was going to help our community but again I guess this is a first come first serve thing as well so so the the the the uh language that was uh discussed at that point in time is that the remnant or the remaining portion and it was nominally half of the energy generated by uh for that substation nominally half of it would be left over for other users including data Cent including the the current data center as well as just other users in the North Valleys I guess I better get a solar battery for my house all right are questions commissioner Basera hey Jeff uh two quick ones for you um first one uh pretty straight uh what are the long-term economic benefits of this data center for the local Reno Workforce you know post CFO what is this tied to in the findings we are supposed to make the um the community compatibility how is that tied to compatibility now of these questions are tied to findings that we're required to make well uh my questions were very tied to condition four Public Utilities some questions may have been but the future job growth is not tied to any finding we are required to make we need to stay on track because the more we get off track the more uh precarious of a position we put the city in as we go down the road of considering these projects I I'm obviously this is my input here I think we need to be really cautious though to not deviate from what is in front of us and what the findings are we're also advisory so I mean ultimately city council we're an Advisory Board we are a board that makes factual findings based on evidence that has presented to us and makes findings set by Statute and by the code that's what our job is I agree as an Advisory Board to city council I don't think that changes my analysis this is not tied to a topic or a finding we be really careful about this I also would like to clarify pending no appeals the decision of this board is final would you like to answer or pass the Baton I can ask you a different one too I I would simply say that you heard what was presented to you on December 18th from another Data Center and it was a large number I would imagine this would be a large number as well thanks Jee appreciate it um just to kind of close the loop on the um I I because you made it made a point right and I think the applicant did too and anytime there's a point made like a a selling point I think it's fair game to kind of dig into it a little bit uh you mentioned that there was a sustainability component uh for both both projects before us tonight but for this one tonight I was curious is that sustainability component something that the applicant offered or is that something that is required by by us as a city like a minimum threshold that they need to meet no there are no there are no specific um thresholds or or and this would s this would similarly tie into your question about a rubric last time no there are no specific thresholds for you know a number of sustainability criteria or a certain amount of square footage of solar arrays or anything like that okay um the applicant proposed those um and uh they are similar to what was uh proposed for web and similar to what is proposed for for uh Keystone um but no there there's not a uh uh a check box that they needed to fulfill or a certain number we were looking for or anything along those lines I would say though that uh everything that they proposed in those conditions of approval line up with the sustainability uh uh uh policies and goals in the master plan and and uh as any uh due diligence uh developer would do they would want to uh line up with things in the master plan great thank you Jeff commissioner dracul did you have any questions with us no thanks for chiming me in I I very much want to Echo commissioner bel's sentiments just like our last meeting we're going outside of our purview um ultimately I'd love to see us get into a general discussion and anybody looking to deny this application I'd love to hear what findings they can't make if we can kind of hammer that down so I can give some clarity couple of the questions have been solid to this point and several we have just veered off into a land where we just shouldn't be so that's my thoughts I'm ready for a discussion um that's it no questions for the applicant of Staff how how we get started with discussion I have a question oh clarifying question I have a clarifying question um this is about just the us getting to the findings I think it's appropriate for staff but if you want to defer the applicant I'm happy to give this question to whomever would like to answer it I'll give it a shot uh it's just a clarifying question so this application came in earlier this year with the administrative finding is that right uh excuse me October November yes under the ADM okay before the um ordinance was Dev ordinance development code changes were adopted last week that's correct okay so we're we're we're not looking at it under the new Adoption right of the ordinance which was passed last week by city council that is correct you are not looking at it under that yes it's the interpretation administrative interpretation um at which point you're telling us that you guys consider not you but the administrator considered a number of things as as laid out in the development code so the administrative interpretation uh was put forth as being uh a vehicle by which data centers could be analyzed requiring uh data data centers to undergo a conditional use permit process in any of the zones that they're allowed in including the obviously the subject Zone here um the administrative interpretation includes a requirement to limit the number of dock doors to three uh dock or drive- IND doors to a maximum of three and to require one parking space per 3300 Square ft those are what are we call what we call use specific standards this project meets both use specific standards those same standards were incorporated into Title 18 uh via the adoption last week at Council um so the even if this had come in under the the you know post uh last Wednesday uh the standards by that we look at them would be very very similar okay and I hate to do this I just have to do for the record the um can you just pull up that administrative interpretation I can pull it up here do you do you know what the development code um section is and I can pull it up here I think it's 18 the admin interpretation the administrative interpretation is a separate document it's not I know but the the permission The Authority within the devel 183 205 205 okay I have it here I just need to take a look at that just um and I'll try and go as quickly as I can so we can get to discussion I know we had it read during another application in the past but I'd like to do it again here 1805 180 3 03 okay 205 03 205 okay big code so got to scroll control F 1803 205 subsection a subsection a yes okay okay uh the following procedure shall apply if an application submitted for a use category or use type that is not specifically listed in table 3:1 table of allowed uses submission and approval of such an application shall be required prior to approval of any other permit or development approval associated with the use uh administrator determination of appropriate use category and use type the administrator shall determine the appropriate use category and use type for the proposed use in making such determination the administrator shall consider the potential impacts for the proposed use including nature of the use and whether it includes dwelling sales processing storage typical operations employment characteristics new nuisances requirement for public utilities and transportation so nature of the use and requirements for public utilities so one of the factors that and I know you mentioned this earlier but one of the factors that the administrator had to consider were these things again I know that there was an opportunity for an appeal I'm not sure how anyone would not to appeal but um but it was it it should have been considered public use should should have been considered at one point so I just want to make that clear um I don't know whether it was unless we see the administrative interpretation and I don't know that that's part of this application and maybe it is I didn't see it but um I just want to make it clear that that that was supposed to be considered and then I don't know if there was an opportunity for anyone to appeal or if notices went out but I did want to just put that on the record so thank you are we ready for discussion yeah commissioner B I do have one last question by VTO if you'd like to go first I'm ready for discussion whenever we're just one question for Jeff I'm looking at the findings and looking at part finding 1B for instance um and I guess I need some clarification there I'm just curious how does staff evaluate when a project is contrary to some of the goals policies or strategies in the Reno master plan how do you guys evaluate is that the exact language of the finance more or less like it's it's saying that we can approve you know even a project even if it's uh contrary to some of those things and so okay yeah yeah fair question so the the this is going to uh actually hearken back to something I believe I said on December 18th it might have been on December 5th but the the projects uh we look at projects and um of course not every project is going to be 100% compliant with every goal policy proced or not procedure but goal or policy in the master plan right so we look at it on balance uh do project and we don't have a specific number of of criteria or policies or goals that we're looking for but we come through literally the entire master plan and say okay how does this project Stack Up um and you'll see that in the staff reports we put in a list of goals and policies that uh that the project lines up with but we're also looking at okay where does it fall short but it's it's kind of a it's a subjective thing at the end of the day commissioner berera it's a subjective thing and uh on balance staff has has determined that uh this project is lines up with the master plan I I appreciate your candidness there too because I think uh the only thing we're asking for here and goes Toto's Point as well is that same level of Grace that we we extend to staff just naturally of yeah we we take your word for it right that it's on balance I think that's what we're seeking here as well on balance we're trying to do the same thing end of the day we're one team and we're trying to get to the Finish Line you know together thank you now are we ready for discussion okay commissioner velto don't don't you kick us off happy to get it started we just approved a data center a th000 feet from this project so we as a commission determined that this type of project is compatible when there were no other data centers around so now that there is appr approval of a data center I think the compatibility finding is very easy to make I mean the building looks like a warehouse uh it talks like a warehouse It's a warehouse and it has all the same features that you would expect of a warehouse the only distinction I'm hearing between this proposal and the proposal we had for the web data center is the method of cooling evaporative cooling versus the rack cooling that they're using I'm a little concerned that this Planning Commission is like playing whack with what it wants to consider because I heard from a lot of Commissioners at the last meeting that there were concerns about the energy usage and now this applicant is coming forward with a project that does not use as much energy by way of using a different method of cooling and now we're concerned about water now I understand we should think about water conservation but unless that there is evidence before us that speaks to how it would affect Public Welfare I don't think that invalidates the finding that we have to make under finding six of the cup and I'm not hearing anything that we can't serve it with water So based on that I can make the finding under cup6 uh and find that we have enough public resources in order to provide for the project and that there's not any harm done part of my questioning though for um this for staff was based on what allowed uses are available given that there can already be intensive industrial uses I really think we have to consider kind of what is being proposed and giving a cup compared to what's in allowed use the reason why I brought up the example of uh semiconductor manufacturing or chip manufacturing is because that's more water intensive than a data center on on magnitudes greater and someone could come in tomorrow and by right build that exact same manufacturing site there and we wouldn't be able to consider it so long as they were in the confines of city code and didn't trigger another type of cup cup because of that we have to weigh what can happen versus what's being proposed and there's nothing unique about this cup in terms of water usage that would make it so we're harming the environment further than what is already allowed so I really think that you all should consider that when you're evaluating this proposal because that's how we should be looking at this is what could be happening and what is unique to the cup and I'm not hearing anything unique that would invalid any of these findings or trigger any of the harms that have been asked about by the commission um kind of on the last part I want to address is this administrative uh interpretation I appreciate that um commissioner vill Anda looked to the portion of code that outlines the Authority for administrative interpretation it's quite clear from that portion of code that the administrator had an obligation to do an interpretation because a use was not expressly identified in the table that portion of code says they shall do it and then it provides an appeal process for anyone that's grieved including the council and the public the appeal process does not include this commission so this commission cannot second guess that administrative interpretation because that's the law until it isn't and it's never been appealed so I I think when we're looking at you know what are we supposed to be applying this is an allowed use under that administrative interpretation and that's the law we have to apply um one other portion I think was interesting tonight is commissioner viser bringing up the fact that evaporative cooling was banned in southern Nevada that decision was made by the Las Vegas Valley Water District as well as the Southern Nevada water district it was made by the policy boards to place a moratorium on this type of development we are not a policy board we're supposed to make findings and apply the policy that has been adopted by the city so for us to impute or apply some sort of moratorium I think would fall outside the scope of our role and we have to be really cautious about trying to create policy here as opposed to letting the city council direct us and give us Direction so I think that's a distinguishing fact we should consider when we're trying to evaluate this being prohibited in other parts of the state um you know with that I I can make all the findings I wanted to hit some of the key points that I'm hearing um just I'm concerned we're continually trying to create roadblocks for development that I think is clearly compatible and permissible under the findings so thank you and I'll yield to another commissioner commissioner direct if I may um I'll be Qui thank you commissioner belto appreciate that um I would like to ask Mr Hall to either compliment what commissioner melto said or contradict because these were my concerns and commissioner Bel was way more eloquent than I um but can you chime in Please Mr yes Carl Hall City attorney yes I agree with um commissioner vos's observations we have strayed from the findings I mean this is a hearing on a conditional use permit and we haven't really discussed any of the findings or the facts would which would support uh your ability or inability to make any of the findings so if we can focus on the findings and make a record uh a factual record as to what your observations are with respect to the presentation that you've heard and we can move on with this in um the proper fashion thank you that's it for me now I suppose I'll make my comments next um I think that there is being a discussion held at the city council level as we speak or just at this past city council hearing so that is added context we might not be a policy board but that policy discussion is taking place and direction is coming from above that perhaps a moratorium is appropriate now I don't make that decision and you're right neither do you but I will say there's a difference between finite resources and resources that can be created from the Sun for example um and for that reason I can't make finding number four because the water intensity is equivalent to about two golf courses um and it's only a 60,000 ft building that employs eight people I'm sorry I think there's an opportunity cost there that uh our city shouldn't make sure uh commissioner rera just uh some quick thoughts there uh same position as uh chair rer on inability to make those findings but I do want to add um that uh we are playing wacka all and and I've been pretty clear about it since day one since 125 that I don't want to do that and um I'm glad that city council has uh recently taken up the the conversation to actually explore some policies at that level but it's literally been one year right and this is why we're here and so um can't do anything about that now but it is promising what's before us hopefully um and I do just want to remind folks of what our staff memb said that uh their review on this is unbalance it's also subjective right and uh we are public officials we are here on behalf of The public's interest as well to weigh out their concerns and the long-term benefits um so you know I'm not able to make that same finding as commissioner rme uh on this particular one I think it's interesting that we say that now that there's a data center down the street that there's a comparable but yet at the same time we say in this very hearing we said for this project every project will be reviewed on its own merits seems like we're trying to have it both ways um says commissioner DVR and I also cannot make the findings um I also can't make the findings on just the general master plan based on sustainability around Green Building and sustainability energy and water conservation and renewable energy um I can again my my thoughts and opinions have not changed I feel like this is a larger discussion is needed and policies and guidelines again from above not us making these policies um again like data centers are here to say I get that AI like you know I I use AI every day in my life I use chat GPT to do my job um I get the need for it but I think that um you know and if Reno is the place where we need to have data center Corridor so be it but I still think that there need to be um guidelines and criteria put in place so that we don't have to play as much whacka as we've been playing and they're going to be different sizes and different uses and and everything and I get that um but I think it would be helpful to have guidelines to help us make better decisions commissioner Valena I'm gonna Echo a lot of what my colleagues just mentioned regarding the application um and then here it does it says the request in front of us um to allow develop velopment of a data center so I mean it is the request is to allow the development of a data center that's what's in front of us and so when we consider the findings um in front of us and let me go to those we have [Music] um General review criteria which uh consistency with the master plan I know um commissioner belto mentioned this is not a policy board this may not be a policy board but we are subject to uh review you know we are um here to consider consider the policies set forth in the master plan which is made up of policies um and so those are factors that we do need to consider we don't make them and and ultimately if this gets appealed to the city council this it it may it may ultimately be mve but at the end of the day those are factors to be considered it says it right here under General review criteria um compliance with Title 18 um mitigates traffic impacts not really applicable here Prov Prov safe environment that you know uh project provides a safe environment for pedestrians and people on bicycles that I mean again depending on how you interpret that as it indicates here not a huge deal but when we get down to um the conditional use permit health safety welfare I am concerned about the heating effect especially on one of um the nation's fastest warming cities and health safety and Welfare that plays a role here um and I'm not going to reiterate why I already had that discussion with uh Jeff and so we can just pull from that um as far as public services and Facilities it's clear sewage water utility uh infrastructure energy um so as far as making the findings you unfortunately I cannot make the findings um however not to say that I I don't want to see data centers here but I do think we need to have a deeper conversation of about what that looks like I'm not opposed to Data Centers necessarily but we really have to understand what it looks like and set some strict criteria um as far as um as what what the community would like to see for data centers here and I'm not a member of the council but it does appear that there's um an interest in having a moratorium on on um uh data centers so if the application fails here it's not you know it's not the there's still another opportunity um and you guys can have that conversation with city council those are elected officials and uh they're more um apt to have that conversation so I will leave it there and then I guess we can decide um who would whomever's ready to make the motion can I ask question commissioner draulic uh I can make all the findings and support this uh project notably thank you for the Commissioners who expressed their concerns and the findings they can't make personally I believe the findings you can't make is putting an undue burden on this applicant um that's my opinion um I don't like what position I put this in but I will be supporting the application we'll see how thank you uh I guess I'm ready to make a motion I'll give one moment to see if there's a question proceed okay okay all right go ahead uh I'll note with this motion I think that as far as finding four goes the finding is public services and facilities are available to serve the project there are will serve letters for the relevant facilities that language for public services and Facilities does not say that there are public resources available it is specific to services and Facilities which means there must be infrastructure available not resources so I think that is a strange to read it any differently when you're talking about finding four um that so I just learned that that's actually tied to the building permit and not so that will serve as is not really pertinent at our stage was I think what I learned from staff today and also tmrp or the regional Water Authority T Tom Toma yes now they're starting to evaluate the applications and prioritizing different types of uses that are you know beneficial over these large users so that process is changing as well I think that supports making the finding that the fact that it comes at the building stage because if there is not the ability to serve the project will not proceed and not receive uh approval to go at that point it won't be licensed so there being services like what that what that means that there are services and Facilities means that there's a school nearby that can take students if you build a Housing Development or there's a you know a power plant nearby that can potentially provide Power and that there's an infrastructure that could be there it doesn't mean like anything beyond that and if it meant that it would say that but what's the impact on others long term and what does that look like for rate payers long term and I think those are things we need to consider just because they can serve today how does that which finding does that fall under health safety what we just discussed so your interpretation of that is criteria or excuse me conditional use permit excuse me number four I apologize public services and Facilities no I I would agree with you if there had been evidence presented tonight that said if we serve this project with energy if we approve this project and it receives energy then a Housing Development will not receive power if there were evidence of that in the record I would absolutely agree with you I think the problem with your question is that it assumes there is evidence to reach the conclusions there's nothing to the contrary presented what do you mean to the contrary so my if there's evidence to the contrary of my assumption presented and there wasn't it you want the prove a negative that let's get someone from pu Let's get someone from Envy energy but again the applications of the application in front of us does not allow for that because there's there hasn't been enough conversation regarding this matter there's not enough in the development code for us to make a a proper Dev uh decision today there is there's an administrative interpretation and you want to place the burden on the applicant anytime there's an increase in the use of power or water to bring someone in from the Pu that is a ridiculous standard for development I we're not going to persuade each other we're not when it impacts the community to this degree I think so I'd like to call for the vote yeah or at least a motion I'll move a make a motion uh in the matter of case number where is it at LDC 25-22 uh based upon compliance with the applicable findings I move to approve the conditional use permit subject to the conditions listed in the staff report and I can make all the findings commissioner regul I second all right I think we should do a roll call vote commissioner Basera no commissioner delvar no based on findings one and four commissioner rer no on condition number four commissioner villan NOA no I cannot make the findings based on uh conditional use permit findings 4 65 I believe the motion fails correct um any action not including recommendations or failure to take action by the Planning Commission may be appealed to the city Areno city council by the applicant um the mayor or the city council member or any person who is aggrieved by the action or inaction the appeal together with the fees may be filed with the city clerk within 10 business days starting on the day after written notice of this action is filed with the city clerk so um yes this was denied and Madam CH just like to for the record I can make findings one and four commissioner Basera all right we'll close item 6.3 and move to item 6.4 the Keystone data center starting with a presentation from staff I'm good keep going all righty Jeff Foster associate planner for the record uh the second data center project that I'm bringing you tonight is the Keystone data center LDC 25-26 this project is on a parcel that is about 3.26 Acres located on the west side of Keystone about 335 ft north of the intersection with West Second Street this is an underutilized mostly vacant parcel the request before you is a conditional use permit for the development of a Data Center and business operations between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. I would also point out that the Planning Commission approved LDC 22- 51 in April of 2022 that project was for a conditional use permit to allow for outside Recreation uh sorry outside amusement or Recreation live entertainment and a bar lounge or Tavern to be operated in conjunction with an indoor outdoor Flex space including General retail art exhibits and out and outdoor event space and that project was known as Stone and key ultimately the applicant opted not to move forward and the entitlement expired however it is worth noting that the application materials indicate that seasonal events such as weddings birthday parties art shows theater shows Etc were to be limited to a maximum indoor and outdoor occupancy of 300 people and be held up to five times a month or 60 events annually without a conditional use permit those types of activities would normally be addressed through a special event or activity permit which would restrict the sound to a maximum of 75 DB the reason that that is important is to demonstrate that this body approved a project on this site um coming up on three years ago um and that project would have potentially much greater impacts on the surrounding Community um in terms of noise parking traffic Etc so um just as a point of comparison this project may be deemed uh less potentially impactful on the surrounding Community Road Network Etc okay zooming in here uh land uses immediately surrounding the site you have uh commercial and undeveloped uh to the north across the Union Pacific railroad tracks you have uh an industrial building to the east across Keystone you have an industrial building to the west and various commercial and Industrial uses to the South key issues that staff analyzed are compatibility with surrounding land uses and site design the parcel is split zoned it's General commercial and Industrial it's about 55% General commercial and 45% industrial uh similarly the ma underlying master plan uh land use designations are uh mixed you have Suburban mixed use and mixed employment and here are seven uh goals and policies from the master plan that do support the proposed project uh at the risk of um repeating myself well I won't repeat myself let's just go to Bullet number three the data center is now recognized as a permitted use in the GC and I zones the other one said IC I believe on the previous one but everything else is the same so I'm not going to repeat it uh compatibility with surrounding land uses um again this is a proposed 24-hour indoor operation this area is generally characterized by Industrial and Commercial uses and Zoning that allows 24-hour operations for certain industrial and indoor us uses by right uh there are um sorry the nearest residentially zoned property is about 350 ft away to the west and is separated from the site by industrial uses there are several closer residential and non-conforming residential uses to the South Southeast and Southwest there's also a planned 10 unit intergenerational housing complex for which building permits were recently issued to the north across the uprr tracks shown here this project has a loading dock on the North side staff has included the same uh condition condition five limiting the hours of truck arrivals departures and on-site movement uh let's see here the acoustical study uh for this project shows that the ambient noise level measured on the site exceeds the maximum allowable nighttime limit again that 49 DB between 10: p.m. and 7: am per code where existing ambient noise levels already exceed the standard the subject Source may not increase existing levels in this case the lowest measured nighttime ambient noise level is approximately 53 DB and noise levels from the data center would need to achieve approximately 43 DB in order to not increase those levels uh the applicants uh noise consultant did recommend some conditions of approval that would therefore that would would reduce or keep the noise level to the allowable limit uh and those are conditions six and seven uh shown on the screen staff is also recommending the standard restricted construction hours condition number eight and again this proposed use as conditioned and designed is considered to be generally compatible with the existing land uses in the area moving on to site design this site plan includes a backup generator yard on the west and another one on the east side with a total of approximately five emergency generators and again these would only be used during a power failure or during necessary periodic testing or maintenance per condition number nine um this site plan also includes vehicle and bicycle parking landscaping and security fencing the loading dock that is proposed on the North side is not visible from Keystone and the proposed sight lighting meets code requirements and no lighting is directed onto adjacent properties the generators on the west side are screened from view from the adjacent Properties by 15t equipment screening wall the generators on the east side are screened from Keystone by an 8 and 1/2t Equipment screening wall on top of a retaining wall keep in mind that these screening walls are are interior to the site not on the perimeter near the surrounding uses or passers by the site in fact sits below Keystone so the elevation difference AIDS in screening moving on with site design The General commercial Zone requires a minimum of 15% Landscaping whereas industrial requires 100% of the front yard to be landscaped the project includes approximately 11,800 ft of landscaping to meet those requirements this applicant has also proposed sustainability initiatives uh conditions 10 through conditions 10 through 14 the roof design is ready to support p uh photovoltaic arrays solar arrays uh includes installation of two on-site level two EV chargers installation of lowf flow domestic water fixtures utilization of low vocc materials and best practice in Source separation and diversion I would also point out that a memo was circulated to you earlier this afternoon uh where uh the applicant is now proposing another condition of approval um for actual installation of solar on the rooftop or somewhere on the building um and not just making the roof uh ready for a future photovoltaic but they're actually proposing to install it as a part of the project and that's condition number 15 here are the recommended conditional use permit findings again staff can make all the recommended findings I would be repeating myself if I went through everything it's the same the same uh things as before so I'll save you the the time um here's the recommended motion and I'm available for questions thanks Jee all right how about a presentation from the applicant okay thank you madam chair RoR Meier and other planning Commissioners my name is Chris wiler and I'm the CEO of Sentra we appreciate this opportunity to discuss our project that allows us to expand our business in Reno that will future proof the availability and the quality of the internet for individuals businesses and educational institutions in Reno over the next few minutes Josh hindo from kimley Horn's Reno office and I will present more uh details about our plans for this property by covering how Sentra is invested in Reno how our land use and project design is compatible with the neighborhood around 265 Keystone how our modest power requirements can be met by NV Energy how our company values around sustainability translate directly to to this project and finally how our project will contribute to the local economy first a bit about who we are in sentra's role within the broader Data Center and digital infrastructure space as an interconnection data center Centra strategy is to be that neutral multi-stakeholder location in a market where carriers Cloud providers and content players can interconnect this interconnection or exchange of data has a number of benefits including in the form of Telecom transmission cost savings that is your internet or data packets don't need to travel as far for example to San Jose or to Salt Lake City in order to get to a user and internet services perform better for both individual consumers and businesses because the data traffic is served closer to end users and interconnection data centers like ours tend to be smaller in size and require less power than most data centers that serve other purposes so Reno continues to be an important market for us where we've supported some interconnection out of 200 South Virginia since 2021 and recently recommitted to that location by expanding our space through a multi-year [Applause] lease in addition to 200 South Virginia Centra has spent nearly 2 years looking for a site in Reno that could serve as a modern purpose-built neutral interconnection Hub in Reno 265 Keystone meets our needs and we've been able to confirm key elements of our project including power availability on day one we expect to use up to 3 megawatts of power but get comfort knowing that NV Energy can serve more than double that amount secondly we're able to apply our sustainab AB ility values and design principles in this location allowing us to operate a data center requiring almost no water and number three we're able to contribute to the positive development of a neighborhood and site that has struggled over the past 10 years to attract a long-term developmental plan with that as an intro I'll now turn it over to our local partner Josh hindo from Kim Le horn to share more about our project details thank you Chris and thank you commission for your time this evening so starting with the site location as you guys saw before uh located on keyone Avenue south of 4th Street north of Second Street uh just south of the railroad tracks uh the site history so as we mentioned the site's been vacant for over 10 years um a very outof code out ofd building boarded window asbest graffiti as you can see in the photos and a history of unhoused activity a little bit on the surrounding zoning specifically uh surrounded by some mixed use um mixed employment and General commercial industrial type uses very similar uses and a similar story on the land use our proposed use is a 91,000 foot twostory interconnection data center uh again intended to expand Cent's capacity um to serve local customers there'll be seven data Halls uh a total capacity uh Power capacity of 6.67 megawatts um that's all in nothing more um and again only using three day one air-based cooling Technologies so we don't use any water to cool the building the only water used is for uh domestic fixtures toilets sinks Etc so again vacant site um surrounding uses are very very compatible we've got a data center actually located just south of the proposed data center uh Century Link data center two-story building uh as well as other Telecom Communications uh pops uh a stone throwaway uh around the rest of the site so north of the site is the railroad tracks and the Maverick uh East and West are very similar industrial and mixed employment type uses and there are some residential uses to the South as Jeff mentioned uh but they are separated by a buffer of Industrial and Commercial uses so our site uh includes the building of course and then the generator yards on either side of the building with the truck dock located to to the north uh which should be essentially screened from the public right away by the train tracks and the um the gas station site security fencing surrounding the entire site um ample parking including two EV charging spaces here are some of the renderings so showing the design of the building uh the pictures you're show you're seeing are facing Keystone uh so we've did a Seline study to show that the mechanical equipment cooling equipment both on the in the yards and on the ground and on the rooftop are screen from the public view from Keystone and from Arleta we did an acoustical study so as Jeff mentioned the existing noise from you know everyday noise generating activities on site does exceed the maximum uh and so we are investing $500,000 in uh acoustical barriers for the rooftop equipment and silencers uh to keep our noise levels 10 DB below the existing condition and not further increase any sound generated from the site um our landscape plan shows that we have 200% of the minimum landscape requiring requirement uh with minimum minimally irrigated J tolerant plantings for the desert that we live in um the there is an existing easement on the north side of the property uh that if exercise would be used by the city for a uh public bike path our Landscaping with the excess Landscaping that we're providing allows us to incorporate a bike path and in fact Centra is aware and supportive of the bike path uh for residents and for employees we have had many conversations with EnV energy um we have received a will serve letter for 6.67 megawatt of power in total day one we will be using 3 megawatts and Central will be applying for the green energy Rider program to off to purchase 60% of their power from renewable sources uh I do want to note that the power that we are using is within existing capacity there's no substations there's no additional power needed uh there's simply the only offsite improvements are to Simply reroute and redistribute the power so just as a comparison here for a sense of scale uh the power profile of our 6.67 megawatt data center is equivalent to a 300,000 ft² Casino a 500,000 ft manufacturing warehouse and and uh one qu of the Mall of America uh we've worked together with Envy energy to determine a project schedule and uh as you can see just kind of want to highlight the infrastructure that they do need to install uh to serve the site will be completed before any of our construction of our on-site uh data center would be completed so that's Q4 of 2025 is when we're in anticipating the off-site EnV energy improvements to be completed to serve the 6.67 megaw with our site being completed around Q2 2026 so as Jeff mentioned we Sentra is offering some sustainability conditions of approval the first one to highlight uh that we did we did add recently was the uh photo voltaic system uh to be installed likely on the building uh or on the roof to incorporate on site solar energy generation we have uh waterless cooling system so we're not using any water and the water that we are using for domestic fixtures uh inside the building will be lowf flow domestic fixtures we're incorporating two EV Chargers low volatile organic compound materials for the building uh and finishes and a construction Waste Management program during construction to separate uh materials a little bit more on the sustainability and and as Chris mentioned it's very important to Sentra uh the cooling system that we're using it's not evaporative cooling as um was previously discussed it's air based cooling um and again does not use any water um in fact the water that we're using is less than another similar project I've worked on which was a gas station restaurant type use that had uh more water usage than our proposed project more on the water the fire suppressant system that we're using uh is the very early uh warning smoke detection system that allows us to spot fires within the building before they become giant fires and um put them out sooner rather than later there for using less water um and that does not include any chemicals or any sort of um uh P type material for the fire suppressant uh simply just water cental will also be including an end of life equipment uh recycling program so for both Sentra to use for their equipment as well as their customers uh the they will have make it easy for them to recycle their materials uh to go on to Future other sources So within the the master plan there are sustainability policies these are some of the ones that we're meet meeting uh with our site design uh including the uh Energy Efficiency renewable energy the EV charging stations among the rest of those listed here it back to Chris thanks um I touched on Redevelopment earlier but wanted to just make a couple more points on this the first is our project will generate over $100 million in tax revenue over the next 30 Years uh from a job standpoint um this project will generate jobs in Reno over 100 local construction jobs during the construction phase and 15 to 20 permanent operations jobs over the life of the project and finally the last point I'll make is about the economic ripple effect that our business will have on Reno this interconnection facility will improve the overall quality of the internet in Reno over time and give local businesses an opportunity to reap the benefits of the services we offer including interconnection and collocation to sum up a a couple final uh key points number one we think the land use and project design is compatible with the surrounding development and consistent with the Reno master plan and local zoning um we've offered up uh sustainable development conditions of approval uh of our project which minimizes our use of water maximizes our use of green energy from Envy energy operationalizes our e recycle program for equipment at end of life and we also positively contribute to the local economy generating tax revenue jobs and making Reno more active market for businesses thanks for your time and we look forward to the discussion and happy to answer any questions you might have and we've got a broader team of folks from our our company who uh who may jump in right thank you right we'll uh go to Commissioners for disclosures starting with commissioner Basera sure uh commissioner Basera same disclosure as the former and I swung by on my bike to check it out before this meeting y commissioner UA I read emails and um the project that was initially approved I was uh I was on that um board commissioner rier familiar with the site read and received emails met with the applicants representative commissioner delvar same as commissioner rer commissioner VTO same disclosures Comm directl same disclosures all right thank you now we'll go into public comment I have some request to speak forms um do we also have folks on Zoom we do have at least um one person with their hands raised on Zoom why don't we do Zoom first all right Lisa please unmute yourself uh you'll have three minutes I'm not going to repeat all the other stuff that's been said earlier in the meeting I'll just make an additive comment here staff uh in the last discussion said that there currently are no thresholds regarding sustainability requirements that the city has at this point it's been inferred by both of the applicants including this recent one with many specific agreements to add sustainability features to their project no doubt to address some of the concerns that we are all vocalizing today but as far as I know there is no accountability in terms of holding these developers to task and so I'm hoping again that we can put these developments on hold and turn to city council and other uh resource governing bodies to provide more guidance on specific sustainability accountability measures that we need to hold developers to times are changing folks development needs are changing and we need to respond accordingly this is not business as usual anymore thank you all right thank you um now we'll move to public comments we have one more on Zoom if you'd like to do that participant first uh Miss Baron please unmute yourself state your name for the record you'll have three minutes hello my name is Lily Baron um I have been watching this meeting and have grave concerns I I can't believe that as as we are watching a place 8 hours away literally on fire um in a place that we've experienced multiple fires this year that we would think that that was out of the scope of Health and Welfare I know a lot of us have children and have had children have to stay home from school because smoke inhalation is so dangerous for them and I don't really think that that's out of the realm of Health and Welfare for the people um in the City of Reno and I'm really curious as to why we would be gambling that as parents and as people who are supposedly trying to redevelop um or at least Revitalize this area specifically which is basically now just empty lots um which is also a factor contributing to us being the number one fastest warming city in the country which is very very much a problem and I don't see any of these uh data centers mitigating that risk and in comparison with also all of the other work that we do which is basically the antithesis of this around the river and working with tribal members where this river goes directly into um Pyramid Lake which is essential to the indigenous community in our city and in we are on their land to not even consider or hear their um any representation from tribes any representation from the fire department any representation from any of the experts Health experts um except for some in public comment when we're considering these kinds of drastic measures that cannot be taken back once we do it and um I heard an applicant earlier said they didn't know what Las Vegas's water situation is well um we do and I'm pretty sure everyone on that board knows what Las Vegas's water situation is and it's not good it has the highest amount of data centers of anywhere else Nevada is leading in in climate crisis and we are looking at what our future looks like right now 8 hours away so please make these decisions with your children in mind and with the people that have tended this land in mind and with the future of all of us in mind thank you thank you any other online public comments uh we do not have anyone else in Zoom with their hand raised at this time all right we will move to the public comment forms that I have here uh starting with Daniel Weiss I don't know if I'll need these or not we'll see hi I'm Danielle Weiss I was born and raised in Reno I left after high school to attend architecture school in Seattle and then Stanford Business School before returning here four years ago with my architecture practice that I started in my young family I had a dream to make this place my home again and as such I am distinctly interested in protecting this community and threats to its success thus naturally as an architect and Community member I'm inclined to hope for development and growth that is intended to enhance our city when I was first introduced to the idea of a plot of downtown Reno becoming a data center I was instinctually opposed I began to do my homework prepared to defend my distaste for the new entity being potentially bearing down on us I have surprised myself as I learned more and more about data processing I began to understand its potential data centers are not just about technology they are not the foundation they are the foundation for a future where our community can Thrive the data processed in these facilities provides the backbone for a way of life we cannot even begin to imagine yet we are standing literally on the tip of the iceberg of life that is going to change in ways so fanciful even AI cannot predict it I decided to dig more deeply into what the future of AI and data access means to a community like ours it means more ways to access education medicine finances jobs Transportation entertainment communication weather prediction Disaster Response it provides resources for firefighters policemen entrepreneurs scientists Physicians professionals students teachers politicians artists elderly the disabled and on and on with more access to faster data we are not just enabled but we are exponentially enhanced I now believe that data is an is as essential as water and power it is a utility that will Empower us Reno stands at a Crossroads we can either resist the inevitable datadriven future or embrace it by choosing to lead we can position Reno as a model for how vibrant Grand communities can thrive in this digital age there are valid concerns about energy use and Community impact but other communities have faced similar challenges and found Creative Solutions for example Aspen Colorado implemented permit fees for energy intensive snowmelt systems to fund solar power on public facilities the TR RPA faced land owners who wanted to build more than they allowed land coverage and created land swap opportunities to Pro to prevent water uh infiltration into the Tahoe Basin I propose that the City of Reno creates a fund from fees collected at the permitting phase and allows stakeholders to decide at a later date how to use those funds to enhance our community let's not put the breaks on progress Here and Now BR Dolan hello I'm bre Dolan I was born here raised here and uh wow my heart's beating really fast right now and it's not because I'm nervous at all it's because of the passion and the hard work and the dedication and the soul that went in to 265 Keystone Property I stood here on Zoom uh 3 years ago to get our Stone and key approved and now I'm one of the owners of the 265 Keystone Property we've run into multiple challenges with this property and now today we have a unbelievable vetted uh establishment that is here to make this city better and some of the some of the challenges that we ran into one was the interest rates Rising the the month after we bought our property now we have a dream to create an immersive experience in Reno Nevada and we will achieve that dream it may not being on 265 Keystone Property however if we're willing to work with the city perhaps you guys might want to lease one of your properties to us and work with us uh but my point here today is that so much goes into developing a property so much heart so much soul and this property specifically is on the outskirts of the uh opportunity Zone by one street it's across the street it so everything negative has been pushed over to us we've been broken into we've had someone light try to light our bar on fire because we're on on Second Street in Keystone that's Shanny Dolan I'm one of the owners of that places and it is very challenging very challenging and so today I'm asking for you guys to vote Yes on this property because it's going to make Reno better it's going to clean up Keystone it's going to help my bar it's going to help the community over in that area it's going to help the growth of downtown Reno why is downtown Reno blight is because things aren't getting ped like this let's pass this let's move forward with development and let's win as Reno thank you very much thank you Nate Dolan hello I'm Nate born and raised here also uh received my master's degree from the University of Nevada have strong roots here as you guys can see granting a conditional use permit for a data center in this location presents a strategic opportunity to revitalize a long vacant space addressing growing concerns in the surrounding area and support Technologic uh development that will benefit the community here are a few reasons that the cup should be granted the space in question has been vacant for as long as I can remember and that's kind of sad to me knowing that Keystone is one of the biggest on and off exits in all of Reno allowing a data center to occupy this site will help Revitalize the area bring the building back to a prod productive use and potentially enhance the overall attract activeness of the surrounding neighborhood including but not limited to the increased property values Community engagement and economic development I'm also one of the owners of Shanny Dolan and I'd like to address the Safety and Security concerns because the opportunity Zone ends across the street it has led to increased social issues including a lot of homelessness and dis uh disturbances in the area by allowing a data center to occupy the space the city can help curb the negative Trends data centers tend to be secure staff's locations that operate on a heightened security measures the presence of such a business can help deter um undesirable activity reduce loitering and bring a safer environment to the immediate vicinity moreover the users of the data center are likely to invest on the upkeep and safety of their property which will have a positive ripple effect on the neighborhood and businesses I'd like to end by saying everyone in this room relies on technology and data and I think it's safe to say we all know it's only getting more advanced stronger and isn't going anywhere we have the option to vote Yes today and to keep our city and community on Pace with the rapid speed of the world is moving let's not let Reno be held back and keep a property vacantly longer than it needs to be thank you thank you um Jack Hawkins submitted a uh public comment for wishing not to speak but in opposition um Tyler Hansen ay Tyler Hansen so I'm one of the partners on this project and I'm also uh I work in City Planning I work in placemaking I work in AI I work in metaverse I work in data centers I've worked in all of these aspects and obviously we've learned that all not not all data Sinners are equal right and there's this whole idea about what's happened here it's gotten a very hot button issue and as somebody who's been working and I'm from here by the way and I love this town and as someone who goes to other cities to try and help other cities figure out their City problems one of the biggest problems is blight but also one of the other problems is actually having a good place to work and having good information access is going to be so crucial so I think that the considerations that you're all taking inline with what your job is here today to consider this this ours 265 Keystone put into consider consideration that all of these lives are behind it Reno people who are up here trying to make this town better and we tried so hard I'm from the here I know that place that place has been abandoned for almost 20 years 20 years people and we have looked at endless amounts of things to put in there because we are on the fritz of being able to try to develop it we can't develop it we're in debt we don't know what to do but find a buyer nobody will buy it because it's the same broken Promised Land right there that can't fit you can't get in and out of it for traffic you can't really do anything our impact on what we would have done there if we were successful would have made headaches all over you guys would have put more rules on us to be able to figure out how to get in and out of Keystone because it is the busiest Street in there so I'm telling you right now that that land if you don't allow for this to go forward is probably going to sit for another 10 years empty that makes no sense right and I know that we care about the environment but all data centers are not the same okay and these guys I've looked hard with what they were doing and I was opposed to it in the beginning to Data Center I don't want a data center I want art but we have to have a find a balance here and it's your job to make these decisions but you can't blend all of this over and I understand the people's concern about the environment and everything but we are going to get better at this technology data centers are not going to Forever cost this much energy and take this much water it's happening real time everybody knows that we need to solve this problem so I hope that you can take that in consideration when you're talking about 265 Keystone which you the city used to own and now we need to do something with or otherwise we sit on the sidelines again thank you for your time thank you and then rose water beak oh I okay thank you thank you all right are there any other public comments wishing to speak um why don't we start with Olivia and then in the back and then you have to fill out another Form before I can do that uh Olivia Tanager again for the record on behalf of the crer club toy Obi chapter I just wanted to address some of the questions about energy planning uh because that's something that my organization has also been very deeply involved in over the last few months um there was mention of the IRP and energies IRP that they filed with the Public Utilities Commission in 2024 which is legislatively required uh of them to do every 3 years that was just approved at the end of 2024 by the Pu um but data centers was a huge topic of conversation throughout the IRP that uh the Pu considered um my organization intervened in that IRP because of the huge load growth that was projected uh because of the rise of AI and data centers which of course will uh bring with it a huge amount ount of infrastructure including two new gas peaking power plants that are producing or will produce once they are built a huge amount of fossil fuels totally blowing us past our climate goals if we continue to rely on um on AI and data centers uh in the state of Nevada so I I know that that's not maybe encompassing of what you have to make your decision off of but I did want to say that that the rise of AI and data centers will have impacts to Nevada rate payers uh who are already struggling to pay their utility bills so that's a concern that my organization has again understanding that maybe that's not a policy that you can make your decision off of but it does have a material impact to the people of Reno uh and will continue to have long-term impacts to the people of Reno um the other thing that I wanted to note was again about the administrative interpretation Mr velto uh you know that was issued about a year ago and it was not noticed or agendized and so we did not have an opportunity to appeal that administrative interpretation it was never brought before the public uh until so far as I know it was applied very recently um so we're I I would ask that going forward all interpretations that affect people of Reno I just want to put on the record will be properly noticed and agendized so folks can have an opportunity to engage in uh what's essentially legislating on behalf of the administrators of the City of Reno um because that that is a material decision that impacts Reno whites and people should have the opportunity to be able to engage in and comment on decisions like that so thank you thank you if you don't mind the comment for hi my name is Lauren I am part of Reno Sunrise movement Hub um this is not something I normally do I don't really speak out unless I feel the need to speak out about things and this is something I need to speak out on um I live less than a mile from this area um I'm very familiar with Keystone I'm very familiar with living in this area I've lived here over 2 years now um and this is an area that is not compatible this project is not compatible for this area this is an area of developing local artists this is an area where there are uh Hub plant stores Hub um Pottery projects this is an industrial area that's affordable so there are a lot of local artists and people that find it to be really important local thrift shops local places that people might age people that like to get out into the community and do things and put our money back into the community go to and go towards um I also since I live in this area I experience multiple power shortages often um TW once twice a month um and this is an area that holds outdoor markets for locals that sell handmade Goods EV charging is not something that we need and is not applicable to this area we don't need a data center that scures the tons and tons of homeless people that live in this area that this is where they go when they get kicked out of downtown and when they get denied um into any sort thank you Dolan Brothers this is an area um that where PE people get denied shelter and they go to Keystone this is an area that doesn't need some glamorous huge ugly brick building blocked by drought resistant trees causing more drought in our city um this is not a project with the community in mind and this is something that I want to make known on the record um Reno movement does not stand with this movement um we're also concerned about the ejection of air as a pollutant also something to be considered as opposed to water um and I don't think Keystone needs to be cleaned up I think that's a horrible terminology um I think Keystone is a great area that is rent controlled and allows local artists and people to be and go and feel welcomed and to put back into the community thank you excuse me could you state your full name for the record just for uh my full name is Lauren Kar okay thank you and fill out a comment card thank you all right thank you I didn't have any other forms I do not have any other forms and please come up hello my name is Jordan Dil for the record I am a senior at UNR I also don't do a lot of public speaking I'm pretty sure I'm the youngest person in this room so forgive me if my voice is shaking um I'm a senior at unarm I'm going to graduate in May with an environmental engineering degree I will also be joining the order of the engineer um so like environmental stuff is really important to me and if there ever was a data center that you were going to approve I think it's this one like this one has all the sustainability features that I was looking for when I came to this meeting um but that being said I don't know if this close to downtown Reno is the place to put a data center it's so much bigger than any of the buildings in that area and like Laurence said there's a lot of like growing artists and things in that area and I'm really sorry to the Tolan family for like how impactful this property has been on their lives but I don't think that the people of Reno should have to shoulder that burden thank you thank you any additional comments from the public all right we will close the public comment and open it up to planning commissioner questions are we all worn out yes I can okay I can go if you want okay uh commissioner Del VR I have a question for Jeff it's been a while since you've gotten some exercise so pop on up um you mentioned that right now the site is two different zones it's industrial and multi-use I think or is that I understand uh the zones are General commercial and Industrial okay and is there is there anything that needs to be done to it doesn't matter that they're sort of too different okay nope just just curious and then it's not a normal thing but it's not unprecedented and nope nothing special awesome just I just wanted to check um and then uh somebody brought up the distance of the concerns about whatever contamination or or flow Etc to the river I'm just kind of curious how far is the River from the data CER I know it's across the street and um pull up my presentation I don't have a like a a linear feed distance but let's take let's take let's take a look at the uh can iBall it I'm just I was just curious because I hadn't I hadn't thought about it so sure sure yeah so the project site is to the north while we're waiting for this to come up yeah um and I recognize I did not Benchmark the location in an Out Burger is close to that's what I meant to to show you kind where this was in relation to In-N-Out Burger I see cuz it's got the okay yeah so you can see the river to the thank you I appreciate that and then I had one more question for you where' it go um oh uh can you we've talked about this a couple of times and it's come up a couple of times can you explain non-conforming again just so it's all sort of fresh in our minds sure yeah so let me uh go to the slide that shows that um just to be able to illustrate a little bit more clearly so there are residential uses that I'm showing you here that are in uh that are on Parcels that are zoned in such a way that would allow residential uses to be proposed okay there are a couple of closer uses here that are also residential however their underlying zoning is industrial so those would not be allowed to be proposed um under the industrial Zone if it was a new application and that's what makes them non-conforming they're existing but their underlying zoning would not allow the use understood thank you that's all I had for Jee I have more questions for the applicant but I can if I can just chime in to clarify one question the river is approximately 1,800 feet South sure thank you madam chair uh I I'll start pretty soft and I'll actually preface this with um what I'll say later on on which is I'm actually open to dat data centers you know I'm just kind of iffy about what we have to work with and evaluated them currently um and that's what we're striving to get but for the sake of this presentation or this project um there used to be for my understanding a community benefit agreement with this parcel or property is that correct and and if and maybe I I already see my My Guy Gordon over there ready to jump in so yeah yeah he he's definitely more qualified to speak on that than I awesome yeah tag team like usual hey Gordon um and I was just wondering if that community community benefit agreement is still in play if it's not just just so I align my questioning you know properly sure thank you commissioner for the record Garrett Gordon on behalf of the applicant so this property was owned by the City of Reno it was a Remnant parcel from retrack City of Reno including your downtown action plan has policies which you've heard a lot about what the people of Reno wanted people of Reno created a downtown action plan part of the downtown action plan was Revitalize and revelop downtown r you know but specifically these Remnant Parcels along the railroad because you can't put any use along the railroad the city held this vacant parcel for a long time nothing happened to it so the city solicited developers to come in and develop something that was compatible next to a railroad track or railroad line and so there was an agreement between the city and buyer to in fact develop something that agreement has expired now you have that proper property owner sold it to the current owners the Dolan family they are not subject to any Community benefit or any other requirements if so that would have come up when they came forward with their use permit okay for their outdoor Festival space that's kind of before now they own it now they're transferring it to my client and we're here today to focus on certainly you know the findings moving forward but that in the chain of title was kind of two or three steps ago that dealt with those Community benefits okay perfect that that helps a lot Gordon thanks a lot um I think Mr Tyler somewhere back there already sold it as a community benefit to some extent I think he was pretty enthusiastic um I think um I guess my my follow-up question or comment is I do appreciate how these data centers are different uh and that's that's the the the challenge before us right it's like this one has a lot of sustainability components other ones may or may not so I appreciate what this one is doing um since I track there on a bike uh what can you tell me about the bike path 247 yeah I appreciate that one of the findings and I think the commissioner mentioned this bicycle path so when the city sold the property they reserved an easement along the railroad tracks M um about 20 foot easement now they did that for a couple reasons one the Union Pacific reserved or has an easement along both sides of the railroad track for 20 ft going both ways so that also limits what you can develop here because you have an area where you can't build build anything vertical but two the city was smart and said also Reserve an easement to the city in order that for connectivity which is in the master plan connectivity Trails um um downtown accessibility to to folks so there is a reservation for in easement for the city to come in and connect their bike trail if and when they decide to do so great thank you and one followup if I may chair thank you um the renos Sparks uning colony had reached out asking for a construction schedule and all that would that be readily available um to them so they can monitor if needed for the record gck Gordon so I did the deal with the city on the north side of the tracks for the Maverick and there is a tribal monitoring agreement recorded on all this area in order to um allow the tribe to be there and monitor to make sure there's no artifacts or be remains found so 100% yes we'll comply with that agreement two my client's been proactive already talked to michan at the tribe given her the agreement provided her with a timeline and making sure that they're part of the process from day one it was uh provided today because it wasn't provided yesterday when she called it's it was provided over the phone today either um verbally and also will'll follow up with the schedule um ASAP Mr Ben he's raising his hand sorry Gordon and I'm sorry chair hi commission if I may um just to add some more light to to your question uh commissioner so I I I've been in constant contact with with the Indian colony and mishan and I talked on the phone today um we don't have a final schedule because we're waiting for the conditional use permit to put that together to go out for an RFP for to bring a full schedule to the Indian colony they have been with us hand and glove every step of the way um and we're in constant contact great thanks Jo I'm going to take a step back for a moment uh hopefully everyone got a nap and can may I respond one more Madam chair so you had you asked a good question about how does the master plan findings yes sir you know how do you comply with them so the legal requirement is substantial conformance so you can't conform with every project doesn't conform with every single master plan policy right right it has to be in substantial conformance and I would argue at the the project you heard earlier right you had your master plan lenson of the North Valleys which I think has a different context and a different analysis than you have downtown right downtown you have not only your not only your master plan policies for for blight for underutilized properties for for redevelopment but you have that sub document of the downtown action plan that includes safety no vandalism Right cleaning up blighted properties that have been there for 10 plus years so I think when you're looking at the master plan you can look at this a little differently than you looked at the item before because this is downtown and there's a lot more there's a lot there there's additional plans and requirements that appli I think why staff could make all the findings and one of your um public commenters said well what about health or fire or police just for the records clear I know the commission knows this but the application goes to the health department the fire department the police department your sustainability manager and all of them support the recommendation of approval to move this project forward thanks thank you um my question was just answered actually so um I got to remember what it was uh question oh question for the applicant or actually the I mean whomever the or parcel the rep or it doesn't matter someone who can answer with respect to how the land is the current state of the land and potential for development staff let me give it a shot Commissioner I can pull on the bullpen if I need so we um I I've heard once twice maybe three times tonight that this land is hard to develop do we really know that I mean I don't nothing's really been presented hold ony calm down a good question calm down calm down do nothing's been presented today and not that it has to be I just we got to be careful with the verbiage that we use on the record when we say you know this land is limited in how it can be developed um and so I just there's nothing been presented today that suggested that and maybe that is the case but as far as the record is concerned I don't know that and maybe you know that could be presented at a later date but I mean so appreciate the record and appreciate right we deal here with substantial evidence right we don't deal with hypotheticals about load counts that the puc might come up with or other things right what are the facts on the record tonight and the facts are you're down Town action plan that was approved by the Reno city council says that Remnant Parcels along the railroad tracks are difficult to develop why because the way they're shaped right they're all different kinds of shapes two because you have the noise that sits there right on the railroad tracks three you have these weird access points off Keystone and Mill and as you head down the tracks it's difficult to access so you have substantial evidence on the record that says these are difficult to develop now look what's happened the last three times the city sold the land for a development that development expired they couldn't put it together number two the Dolan family bought the land came and got an entitlement from this body which I can tell you and you know cost a lot of time and money and expense to go through an entitlement it's not free they did that in anticipation of developing it right that development didn't come to fruition so they lost all that money on the entitlement so now you have a data center coming in which is a great use for this particular parcel 2, 200% over landscaped which is part of the downtown action plan as well is downtown's kind of a a pavement nightmare we're trying to get more trees and and and urban growth down there and have someone coming in and say we can finally develop this piece of property given the challenges of railroad track topography Keystone access Etc so I think all that combined puts on the record the difficulty that the city's acknowledged and the history of the property and where we are today and and I won't get into it with you you make your record obviously your applicant um but I mean off the top of my head um and I'll just let the statement um and then I'll yield but storage facility U-Haul Storage site um I can think of a couple different ones that would work with this site but i w we won't go we won't bicker back and forth about that but I was just I just and just so the record's clear again talking about the project that was just denied versus this one and the public health I'll make sure to put this on the record this is 1.8 acre feet versus 7 acre feet of water that you just denied and the 1 Point acre feet of water is has nothing to do with the data center it's just the office it's the sinks and the toilets and everything that's used in the office so I just want to make that clear for the record that we're absolutely different as far as water usage and how the water is being used in this project versus the last one can I make one com I do um I have questions for I'm not sure if it's um the CEO or or who but basically I'm I'm um and this kind of goes to uh Mr Gordon's point about the different data centers and different usages of energy um so you you know we've talked about Edge we've talked about Colo we've talked about hyperscale to an extent and now this is an interconnection uh data center I'm just hoping somebody can kind of explain sort of the differences um and yeah if you can if you wouldn't mind and then also can you also expand a little bit because I know you have a footprint here in Reno and this is sort of to extend um some of the services you're offering so I'd love for you to kind of talk a little bit about that about how it's going to help local businesses and connectivity and res and also the difference between these different types of data centers that would be great thank you I I'll give it a shot um so yeah we would describe our data center as an interconnection data center um there are a couple things about interconnection data centers they're not real common um they tend to be a little bit smaller in size than other data centers um they're neutral facilities so they're not used for like our business purposes but it's it's used for a bunch of players that are in the Internet space to come together and essentially interconnect or to cross connect and share traffic with each other it's kind of where content and eyeballs come together so content players Cloud players that serve Enterprises and then carriers which could be local ISP big National Carriers they could be long haul providers or Metro fiber providers uh mobile operators it's a spot where they can come together and exchange that traffic to generate some of the benefits that I talked about so by doing that in more places if you zoom out and think about the country as a whole like that's happening right now and I'll call them like the NFL cities um and it's starting to roll out a little bit more to the next wave of cities um and Reno is really ripe for this kind of a facility because in part because there's a lot of development out in the TR um there are a ton of uh there's a ton of fiber that runs through this city both Long Haul routes um and metrof fiber routes there are more uh fiber routes being built through Reno and those providers need a place to land their fiber the best place for them to do that would be in a neutral facility like ours where they can cross connect with other players so we don't need a massive amount of power because what we're doing is just facilitating this connection sure there there will be equipment there will be servers um but that's primarily in the service of standing up this interconnection site now I think one of the bigger benefits to the community is um because the site is a modern site and it's a neutral site it does become a candidate location for Enterprises local businesses to come in if they want to and and put their servers in our facility and we're fully prepared to do that in our planning and power requirements contemplate all of that um and you know to the extent that I don't want to get too wonky here but with the focus on enabling Ai and a lot there many massive facilities that are training language models and I think what you're going to see over time is that more compute is going to shift to the inference side of AI so as businesses and individuals try to tap into those models and use them um you're going to want to have be able to support inference in more places closer to end users our facility will be a candidate facility for that which will deliver better internet services to businesses educational institutions and individ um uh individuals who live here in Reno got it and well that uh that won't exceed the 6.67 megaw that's right thank you bet that was all I had any other questions commissioner dulich did you have questions no thank you all right are we ready for discussion I had a question oh please thank you chair just one quick question it was a followup to perhaps Gordon you could probably knock it out um back to the Reno Sparks indan Colony I think there was a uh you and I had connected uh prior to this before just to kind of explore what was going on with this project and I think we talked about who was paying or covering the monitoring of the ground disturbance by the renos Sparks and colony and I couldn't remember was that Rao or the developer or I guess your your client um that's in the monitoring agreement that's recorded on the property I'd have to go back and and and and take a look it's not part of this application I'm happy to work offline with you and and the um tribe to get that flushed out okay perfect thank you sir problem thanks discussion you want to start us off commissioner bah or how about I was going to ask a question but actually um no I'll just I'll I'll do discussion okay let's do it sure sure um gosh uh like I said earlier I'm open to Data Centers I'm just really disappointed with what tools or lack thereof we currently have to actually evaluate them in a way that isn't just a like a yay go build them but we don't know what the benefits are to the community long term economically not just you know Feelgood stuff um you know and and I appreciate commissioner VTO always uh putting on his you know uh uh kind of thorough witty thoughtful uh take and I really do appreciate it my question for VTO could be rhetorical or not was going to be in what world would you possibly not agree to move forward with such a project or or is the default like a yes it Ju Just to help me better understand like how you're evaluating these to find that alignment this is probably a better conversation for us to have offline it's tough for me to think of hypotheticals when there are so many instances where I could see myself voting no on a project and I have voted no before I do think this project I can make all the findings based on what I've seen in the record and what's been presented by the applicant as well as staff great thanks fellow commissioner do appreciate you I'm going to yield for now commissioner Dracula just to kind of duvail with you commissioner baser yeah I man I guess when I see something 106 million in sales tax revenue I I do see that as a massive positive impact and helping our resources for fire and police and infrastructure so when we see a business like this that really is not that impactful on traffic and other you know what I see is important immediate safety factor to seeing a sales tax do like that that that isn't appealing to me and they describ that in one slide and you know maybe we need to understand that more um I take that at face value and respect that and see it as positive I guess I'll follow that particular comment um a lot is said about the revenue that comes from data centers and the sales tax particularly strikes me as an interesting one because a lot of the equipment is not actually sourced in Reno or the trucky Meadows so that sales tax may not actually come to our community um so that is something that I think when we have a presentation you know as as been recommended on data centers and what they mean as sort of a workshop to this Planning Commission those are things we should get answers on um I will say for this particular project you know I find it in stark contrast to the one that we just reviewed this one uses no water this one provides solar on top of its facility this one provides provides a bike lane um it does Leaps and Bounds more to meet the intentions of our master plan and use less resources so in this case I can support the data center commissioner dra again thank commissioner you're right thank you the sales tax I don't want to act like I know for sure that everybody's coming this way the 12 million in property tax that seems be apparent probably a lot more than what the current building is but but fair point I wouldn't mind some more moving forward on really what that means for our community fiscally so thank you commissioner vinoa may I um so I you know I can go on and on as a bunch of questions just like I did in the other application um but I'm exhausted we've been seen and we have we've been seen these we have more coming um and and a lot of my concerns are the same I do I appreciate some of the um ch that this application has that the other application didn't um yes but at the end of the day I am concerned about the energy usage um and I just think that I view myself as an Advisory Board and in some cases I think it's appropriate that city council make the decision um and and this is something that they um they've been talking about doing and um they want to dive into so I in my mind um I have concerns and I I think I'm just going to make the recommendation I'm going to make the recommendation that um it'd be a no but predominantly because um I can't make the findings but also because I'd like this to be presented in front of city council and have them make the decision um so so commissioner D I don't have too much more to add um I I definitely appreciated the UNR student who so articulately uh talked about again that if you're going to do a data center this might be a good um uh a good way to do it um but I also understand uh what she was talking about and some of the other folks about it not necessarily being compatible um with the area as it currently is and also to uh commissioner villain NOA villin but where you know I still am concerned about um just making sure that the City of Reno is taking into consideration um all of our resources and um and and again I I'm I'm not opposed to Data Centers I like I said I use them every day I use chat gbt like seconds before I got here because I was running out a time um and so I appreciate them uh but I do feel that the City of Reno needs to and and specifically the uh city council needs to come up with some more guidelines on on how we can better approach um these data centers as a whole and as they are individually um coming to us as well I'm sorry commissioner belto you want to take a swing I've already gone but I'll go after you uh yeah I think um we've talked about data centers now three different meetings I don't know what new I can add to my understanding of compatibility and the other factors that we're supposed to evaluate uh I guess I will incorporate by reference what I've said before and hope that you know you all heard at least some of what I said in my views on this um with this particular uh project I think that one thing that really stands out to me is some of the efforts they've made to ensure compatibility I especially appreciate them pointing out that the project would have uh some sort of noise problems were it not for modifications they were making to address those problems so I think they're kind of going out of their way to really make this project make sense for the area um you know I live relatively close to Keystone and find myself driving by that area and it this area it makes sense to have this type of use that is uh you know somewhat industrial and would kind of fit with what's happening in that area so um you know I don't want to belor the point on some of the other things we've talked about tonight uh but I can definitely make the findings and I think they've done a good job of uh kind of characterizing what it is that we're supposed to be looking at thank you chair um thanks fell Commissioners boy howdy um tough one huh um I think you know I I'm true to my word uh that each one will be evaluated on its merits Case by case um this one is far different than the one in the North Valleys about an hour ago as uh chair roer mentioned and I think that this particular applicant has gone gone above and beyond and I'll fall back to what I've said that uh we do need a bit more tools and guidance and so forth but that's you know stuff that we're working through uh unfortun you get to kind of see some of that laundry uh but it's democracy right it's messy um and for this particular project uh I will be able to support it make the findings however it's very split so don't go off you know to the calneva celebrating just yet it's uh you know I don't want my endorsement tonight to just uh be taken as something that's going to be an endorsement moving forward for all projects um and I do hope that uh city council does take action addresses these gaps uh because I will stand in solidarity with uh my fellow Commissioners here as all of you probably know by now and that's all I have to [Music] say I'm ready to make a motion okay uh in the matter of case number LDC 25-26 uh based upon compliance the applicable findings I move to approve the conditional use permit subject to the conditions listed in the staff report and the one additional condition and the one additional condition and I can make all the findings commissioner braul I second all right we have a motion in a second and we'll still do a roll call vote sure um commissioner Basera uh yes uh commissioner delvar no based on the compatibility and I'm not sure which finding number that is but five commissioner rer yes commissioner Villa commissioner Villa I'm just looking for the um findings so I can site them okay uh commissioner villanua um no um and I cannot make findings four six five and compatibility uh mainly because of the size and I I just think it interferes with the walkability but again um I ultimately think that this just needs a deeper dive I'm not necessarily oppos to Data Centers and um and I I just think that the city council they're reviewing these they should do them all at once rather than having um a bunch of different decisions on them but I'm a no thank you commissioner Dracula did you vote no but I am a yes he seconded so oh okay motion passes thank you I'll read the appeal into the record any final action not including recommendations or failure to take action by the Planning Commission may be appealed to the Reno city council by the applicant the mayor or a city council member or any person who is grieved by the action or in action an appeal together with fees must be filed with the city clerk within 10 business days starting on the day after the written notice of the action is filed with the city clerk all right closing that congratulations your project is approved um we will be move we will be closing the the agenda items the public hearing agenda items and moving on to item number seven trucky Meadows Regional planning update I'm happy to do this update okay uh we have not had a meeting however there is some extremely good news and that is the chair of our renal Planning Commission will now become the next chair of the trucky Meadows Regional planning agency so I just wanted to share that news get a night at home again yes thank you all right moving on to staff announcements Mike good evening for the record Mike reallyy I do have several announcements um I'll start with Council updates at the January 8th meeting uh the council did uphold your recommendation for approval on the security Circle and Orest zoning map amendments um they also adopted the code cleanup um with direction that staff is to prepare a staff report on data centers and bring that back either in February or March and then based on council's appetite or Direction um if they want to initiate any sort of text amendments moratoriums Etc they would provide direction to staff at that meeting but as as of right now they adopted the the code update kind of as is so to speak um at the reest and then actually kind of moving on to the January 22nd um city council meeting next week they will consider consider the Carville master plan amendment in zone change for the Ral housing Housing Authority that this body recommended approval on um we also have three appeals of Planning Commission decisions on the agenda on the 22nd that would be the plumis Redevelopment or the Lakeridge project that was appealed the web data center appeal that was appealed by the Sierra Club and then the applicate for the sth street tenative map has appealed that that will go on the same night as well so it will be a full agenda of appeals on the 22nd um following up on some direction to staff from the board um I did reach out to De Jeff brigger With Envy energy um he's going to work with their government Affairs team to come back to this board with a presentation on data centers and how MV energy approaches that so that'll be he's working with his team and once we get a definitive date I will get that but I would expect that probably in February or March that they'll be coming back forward um also uh in speaking with Scott KY at the city of Sparks he's on the board of the Nevada chapter of the American Planning Association they are working on putting together a presentation on data centers as well because this is affects kind of the region you know Reno is not unique Sparks is dealing with some of these issues as well um so when that is scheduled I will provide the planning Commissioners with um an invite to that it's anticipated that will be held if it's here local maybe potentially in person but there will be a zoom link so I will provide that to all the members um we are also following up on other requests we've had for trainings um Angela and her team are putting together some additional training um sessions just based we obviously didn't want to have one tonight knowing a long agenda but we do anticipate that in our February meetings there will be additional trainings for the commission um last but not least on on our next agenda we will have a agenda item to appoint um a new Regional planning commissioner to Phil Harris's vacancy um that will then have to be confirmed by the city council but we will this board will vote um at the next meeting as to who they wish to appoint and there's a very likely chance that person could be the chair but so and that's all I have all right thank you um commissioner suggestions for future agenda items throw out I think sorry I just interrupted commissioner D I would say thanks Mike for mentioning that you guys are going to give us a little more Direction out I mean maybe we need to understand the fiscal impacts from Edon you know not only what sales tax revenue comes this way but also what that means to their organization how they attract biger corporations which is more Revenue XYZ um maybe we need more understanding from MB energy and Tuma what a giant you know uh project like the one we said no to tonight you know can they handle it what does that all really mean because there were some reasonable questions in there so I don't know how we'd would integrate that either to the agenda or what Mike was saying with any level of you know maybe get a presentation of some kind so just thought any other suggestions yes yes commissioner berer for the record uh kind of build upon that momentum uh I I do appreciate that uh Mike you mentioned that City council's kind of entertaining a text Amendment and all that Jaz uh I'm a little bit more impatient this is from my private sector side so I would like to propose that a um a possible adoption of a resolution from this body to city council to kind of nudge them to actually explore those text amendments and those modifications uh to do further studies on data centers and maybe it runs parallel with all these presentations and all that jazz um and if that's possible I would love to have it agendized for the next meeting on February 5th I have a draft resolution that I can send to uh our secretary of record for the evening and that could be distributed and folks can chime in on it uh and build upon that it's just a template if you will um but I think it will actually help keep this good momentum going and uh get us to where we want to get to excellent I'm going to actually ask for legal's opinion on how we how we go about that just is haven't done it in my experience so you know I think we can uh talk to the city manager and she can talk to city council and um I think there was some discussion at our last meeting regarding addressing that issue so we'll follow up on that cool we'll figure it out right and and if and if it can't be agendized I'll work with you Mike and I think this body is uh allowed to also uh hold a special meeting by a majority vote if it can't fit into a regular scheduled meeting okay excellent um good all right now moving to item number 10 public comment this is for public comment on any item or action or general public comment do we have anybody uh oh sorry oh I'm sorry I gonna can I sorry scratch that we will not go to public comment can we get our comment and then the public our comment like don't we get an opportunity to do ending comments let me look at the we are on commissioner suggestion question for future agenda items I guess that could be a pretty open for I just want to clarify I'll use this opportunity if I may um there was one thing I forgot to mention on the uh application for the it was the uh application in the North Valleys today let me I just forgot I forgot to mention for the record um one of the other findings uh had an issue with the sewage as well and I just want to make that clear for the record because that may be useful moving forward um and if I need to I can get the application uh reference number or is that something I think figure it out pull it out of the okay hang on actually it's I have it here it is um regarding LDC 250022 I um meant to include as part of my um inability to make the findings the issue with the sewage capacity in the North Valley so thank you okay going back to public comment did we have any public comment anybody on Zoom still with us we do not no okay and nobody's left in chamber so I'm going to close the public comment period and go to item number 11 adjournment any seconds motion second second third all right yay ah good night that's a rep