Council votes down emergency response, community benefit amendments for data centers
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(Editor's note: This is the third and final story in a series about Monday night's Marshalltown city council meeting and the ongoing debate over data centers in the community.)
After a 10-minute recess about 2 ½ hours into Monday night's meeting, the Marshalltown city council reconvened for approximately another hour to discuss more proposed amendments to the data center zoning ordinance and, finally, set a decision on extending the current moratorium for the next meeting scheduled for Monday, Nov. 23.
Assistant Housing and Community Development Director Clayton Ender provided a brief summary of the amendment proposed by Councilor Mark Mitchell before deferring to Fire Chief Christopher Cross, who asked for context on the amendment and the purpose behind it.
Mitchell said he brought the amendment up so the community would know that the Marshalltown Fire Department (MFD) has the proper protocols in place within fire code and could hear directly from the chief. Cross broke down some of the finer details and components of the International Fire Code, which is already incorporated into the city fire code.
"It's all kind of right there already, so I don't know that there's any need to enumerate any of these things in the zoning ordinance, because it already exists," he said.
He added that Fire Marshal Josh Warnell is the president of the Iowa Fire Marshals Association, and the MFD has extensive relationships with other departments in the state if they need another opinion on a code question.
During the public comment period, Tim Bradbury asked if the MFD would need more equipment to handle a fire at a data center, and Cross joked that they would need another station, 24 more personnel and another ladder truck. Realistically, however, he said no additional equipment was needed.
Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Jon Boston, who has worked extensively on drafting the ordinance the council is considering, said they have tried to avoid including language already found in other codes, hence the lack of an emergency response clause.
"I'm kind of of the opinion that we don't need this," Boston said.
Mitchell initially offered to pull the motion, but Mayor Mike Ladehoff explained that it would be easier to simply vote it down. Thus, the motion failed by a unanimous vote. The next of Mitchell's proposed amendments was a community betterment fund requirement for a data center developer.
"The community needs to have something coming back, not just in taxes. It might be something we have to negotiate at closing of the property or something," he said.
Ladehoff asked City Attorney Steve Leidinger if the agreement would be legally dubious by creating a "second tax" on the developer, and he cited a similar situation where the Iowa Supreme Court has found such an agreement to constitute an excise tax. The mayor commented that West Des Moines and Cedar Rapids have such agreements in place, but they also have Tax Increment Financing (TIF) deals in place.
"And I don't think anybody up here has the appetite for tax cuts to any data center," Ladehoff said. "My own opinion is that I think you attract more with sugar than with a stick."
His preference, he added, was to inform the developer of the community betterment fund and encourage a contribution without requiring it with conversations about establishing such a fund already underway. Ladehoff also credited other major employers like Emerson, JBS and Lennox for the amount of money they privately give back to the community of their own accord.
Councilor Marco Yepez-Gomez wondered if the optional fund would create a quid pro quo situation, and Ladehoff replied that the contribution would likely be made after the project is already approved.
"It's the optional that makes it OK," Leidinger said.
The motion failed by a unanimous vote. The next amendment, proposed by Councilor Jeff Schneider, would establish an allowance for supplemental cooling of up to one million gallons of drinking or potable water annually -- afterward, they would have to come up with a plan to use reclaimed water. He explained that it could turn the 4 million gallons of treated wastewater released into the Iowa River daily into a resource for commercial and industrial users.
When asked by Councilor Gary Thompson about why he chose a million gallons a year as a threshold, Schneider said it was somewhat arbitrary but based on research into other rules and regulations. His goal, he added, was to be more specific in outlining the regulations defining adiabatic cooling as a "secondary" use, since the council has established that data centers would have to use closed loop cooling as their primary option.
Schneider then proposed an amendment to his own amendment, requiring the developer to bear the costs of its reclaimed water plan and separating the potable water while submitting readings to water works each month. During the public comment period, Wendy Reisinger asked who would cover the cost of lawsuits from communities downstream of Marshalltown regarding contaminated wastewater.
Ladehoff told her the Water Pollution Control Plant handles the water coming in before it goes out into the river, and when Reisinger asked what would happen in the event of a breach, the mayor replied that he didn't know.
John Hall of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce suggested exploring an overall daily cap on water usage, and Layne Pieri expressed confusion on why the conversation had shifted from messaging that data centers would have to use closed-loop cooling because of a lack of available water to allowing up to a million gallons a year.
"I'm just trying to figure out how we got here when, Jeff Schneider, you wrote that Marshalltown would never accept a high water user center and that none would ever be proposed here because we do not have the water resources," Pieri said. "I don't know why your mind changed. You spent a lot on that ad, so I thought that would've been your true beliefs of what you wanted to happen here. We've just really got to go back to closed loop if we're gonna do this thing. We shouldn't have any supplementary, non-closed loop additions."
Ladehoff replied that it was unrealistic to expect a data center to use no water, but they were discussing reclaimed water that could be available. The mayor also opined that data centers should be allowed to have sinks and bathrooms for their employees, and Pieri responded that any supplementary cooling systems should not be allowed.
"What I'm doing is willing to being pragmatic about this. If it gives them more efficiency and it's very little amount of water, I'm fine with it," Schneider said.
Jim Palmer asked if the proposed regulations would apply to all businesses in town, and Ender explained that it's solely an opt-in proposition, not a requirement. Councilor Melisa Fonseca also clarified that there is no set cap on reclaimed water, with Ender noting that it would depend on feasibility and availability.
Schneider's amendment to his original motion passed by a 6-1 vote with only Yepez-Gomez opposed, and the amended motion passed by the same tally. From there, it was finally time to vote on the larger zoning ordinance, which, due to substantial changes, will come back for a first reading again on Nov. 23, and it passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote.
The next item was the public hearing and second reading on the amendment to the zoning map establishing the data center overlay zoning district, which would allow administrative approval for data centers under certain conditions set by the council. The district would primarily be made up of the Edgewood Industrial Park and areas of 18th Avenue between the water tower and Iowa Avenue.
City Clerk Alicia Hunter read a written comment from Jeff Harris, who argued that an "objective" third party evaluation should be on the table before the land is developed and that administrative approval should be removed from the overlay district. Pieri also expressed his opposition to finalizing the overlay map before the rules are finalized, and Bradbury asked if there were any conflicts of interest with the realtors selling the land in the industrial park, to which Ladehoff replied that it was set by the city council.
Thompson then motioned for an amendment to expand the overlay district to the entire general industrial area, and it failed by a 5-2 vote with only Thompson and Schneider in favor. From there, Fonseca motioned to remove the area within Ward 4, which she represents, from the overlay district, and her amendment also failed by a 5-2 tally with Fonseca and Yepez-Gomez in favor.
The original motion to pass the second reading of the amendment establishing the overlay district passed 4-3 with Fonseca, Thompson and Yepez-Gomez opposed. The final discussion item of the night pertained to extending the moratorium, which is currently set to expire on Nov. 23.
The ordinance allows one extension by resolution of up to 60 days. As things stand now, the third and final reading of the new ordinance would likely be adopted on Dec. 21, and the council ultimately opted to defer a decision on extending the ordinance until the next meeting on Nov. 23. Before the meeting adjourned, Hunter read a written comment from Amber Lawthers supporting an extension of the moratorium.
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.