P&Z Commission recommends approval of comprehensive plan, hears from Alliant on data centers
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The city of Marshalltown's Planning and Zoning Commission met for the second time in August on Thursday evening and unanimously recommended council approval of the new MarshALLtown Comprehensive Plan before returning to the topic of data center regulations during a work session that ran about an hour and included remarks from a representative of Alliant Energy.
Assistant Housing and Community Development Director/Zoning Administrator Clayton Ender did not read the entire 163-page plan as he stepped forward to the microphone Thursday but provided a brief synopsis leading up to the public hearing. The process has included public events, a community advisory committee and outreach efforts with schools and major employers, to name a few. Some of the key focus areas are land use and design, mobility, housing and neighborhoods, parks and trails and economic development -- specifically, redevelopment of the former hospital property -- facilities and infrastructure and implementation.
"This is intended to be a living document. I think that's important to keep in mind. It is OK if we need to change this in the future. We can't anticipate every possibility now. We're looking out 20 years in the future," Ender said. "As opportunities arise or there are new emerging technologies we need to explore, we have opportunities to do that, and there's guidance within our plan to direct us to continue to monitor and develop regulations when and if necessary."
During the public hearing period, Shady Oaks Road resident Zach Hamilton noted that the area where he resides, which is currently just outside of city limits, has been identified for near-term industrial development and annexation, and he wondered how the city would accommodate people like him who could potentially be annexed and lose freedoms they now have.
He raised concerns about sound from industrial facilities along with possibly losing the right to own livestock and shoot a gun, not to mention higher taxes and stricter regulations on building.
"Depending on how this all played out, not only would our lives be impacted but also our property values because, in a lot of ways, our property values are directly tied to those privileges," he said. "My concern is that I don't see any explicit language that says the city intends to consider, in their ordinances, the specific context of that area. So I'm hopeful that if this does get approved tonight, that at least that will be something that will be addressed in the relatively near future considering that we know that that area is currently being actively prospected by developers. And that's a very near term reality for us."
P&Z Chairman Jon Boston said the city typically pursues voluntary annexation as opposed to involuntary, but Hamilton reiterated his concerns despite saying he would choose to remain optimistic. Boston also noted that buffer requirements are "very stringent" from an industrial property in regards to neighboring residences.
Erin Carpenter, who served on the steering committee, endorsed the plan -- with the caveat that public participation dropped off a bit as the process went on -- and stressed the importance of tree cover for the community especially after so many were lost in the tornado and derecho.
"I'm excited about this plan because it takes a step toward treating our trees and our parks and our green spaces not just as visual amenities but as functional infrastructure," she said. "The street tree framework can help actively manage stormwater runoff, protect pavement and cut down on neighborhood heat, which directly lowers heating and cooling costs for families."
She felt the plan hit a "great balance" between smart growth, public health and long-term community resilience. Layne Pieri highlighted some concerns and recommended amendments regarding trail access on the east side of town, public transit for shift workers and seniors, affordable housing and outreach and engagement with Marshalltown's Hispanic and immigrant communities.
With no further public comments, the Commission, which was down two members with the absence of Deirdre Gruendler and the resignation of Matt Brodin, voted 5-0 to recommend the approval of the plan, and it will now go to the city council on Aug. 24.
More data center discussion
As the focus shifted to the data center regulation workshop, Commissioner Patrick Streit, an attorney with Moore, McKibben, Goodman and Lorenz, announced that he would be recusing himself due to a potential conflict of interest.
With a four-member quorum still intact, Ender picked up where they left off last week and asked the commission about goals related to size and scale of facilities, noise, water usage and other measurable impacts, and he also laid out a tentative agenda for the upcoming community roundtable at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 27 beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Kiley Miller, the lead community engagement consultant for data centers with Alliant Energy who previously attended a city council meeting, then came to the podium to explain how the company handles large load users like data centers and took questions from the commissioners.
Boston started with a seemingly simple question: When a potential data center shows up, what happens? According to Miller, one of the first things the company explores is the availability of energy in the area they're interested in and, of course, land acquisition. From there, they must clear regulatory hurdles at the state and local level before eventually breaking ground.
Miller stated in no uncertain terms that new data centers and other large load customers are responsible for paying 100 percent of their own costs, and he touted the possibility for growth that benefits everyone. Ender then presented some questions he had heard from the community, including how rate increases are reviewed and approved (primarily through the Iowa Utilities Commission) as Alliant is currently in a five-year rate freeze through 2029.
In response to a question from Commissioner Ben Harris-Medina, Miller noted that rate calculations were not handled on a community-by-community basis but across the larger grid for all of the areas Alliant serves.
Once the questions for Miller had concluded, Ender turned his focus to classifying the various types of data centers, but he warned that the terminology could quickly become outdated and encouraged the commission to worry about the physical characteristics. He showed examples of data centers across the state ranging from a few thousand square feet to over 2 million.
Commissioner Steve Valbracht warned of passing regulations that could impact existing large industrial facilities in Marshalltown such as Emerson and Lennox, not just data centers.
"We're setting the bar for further industrial development, so we've got to be really careful. We have some critical users that are expanding, and I'd hate to tie their hands," he said. "I think we've gotta be mindful that anything we do getting carried away with architectural standards when we're talking about an industrial area out by a power plant is gonna hurt all of the landowners out there that want to develop their industrial land and makes us much less attractive to industries that may come in and want to buy that land."
He suggested soliciting feedback on where in town an industrial impact would be the largest and reiterated his concern that overregulating data centers or defining them too specifically could have unintended negative consequences, citing the example of how the downtown Emerson facility could be affected.
Ender hoped that whatever regulations were adopted would fit Marshalltown specifically and not necessarily mirror other communities, and he then moved on to the draft agenda for the upcoming community roundtable, which was published on the city website and Facebook page Friday. Before adjournment, he reminded the crowd that the commission is currently accepting applications for the vacancy until Aug. 19.
The next P&Z meeting is scheduled for Sept. 17 with no current agenda items other than another data center workshop, and Ender intends to have a first draft of regulations prepared by then.
In other business, the commission:
Recommended the approval of a special use permit application for an in-ground solar installation at 1776 Governor Rd.
Recommended the approval of a rezoning application for 707 E. Linn St. and 205 S. 8th Ave. as part of the MARSHALLTOWN Company expansion project.
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.