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[00:00:14]
Yes. Okay. Welcome everyone. It is August 11th, 2026. This is our two o'clock commissioners agenda meeting. Uh let the record reflect. Is amber online? Just we have four commissioners that are present in the hearing room. Um and commissioner waldruff is online so she is joining us virtually. Um before we get started I just want to say we have thank you all for coming down. We have lots of people. Our rules are 15 minutes. I am going to I have the privilege of extending. I'm going to extend it for 30 minutes. I'm gonna allow we have way more than that have signed up. So, we are randomly going to be selecting I'm going to have my vice chairs randomly pick the people. So, we'll have 30 people speak a minute each. I'm going to have commissioner karns call three names in that order. If you would just come over by the microphone so we can be as efficient as possible so we can hear as many people as we can. Um, that's how we're going to do it. And then I will call up the next person uh to speak and you'll have one minute. Um so we will get started. Um there was no written comments that were for items on today's agenda. So I'm going to have us all stand for the pledge.
[00:01:43]
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, um, and I will State our rules are on this the wall there. So, um, no, there is no alipers, there's no clapping, um, any of that. If there is any of that happens, I will ask people to leave. Um, so I just ask you all to be respectful. I'm trying to be respectful to have as many people speak as possible. So with that, I will okay. So, can you hear me now?
[00:02:38]
Okay. And then we'll make sure Mr. Uh, commissioner karns uh, when he identifies the people says it loudly as well. So again, I'm no outbursts. Um if if anyone has any outbursts, we'll they'll be asked to leave. Um I'm trying to get through this as quickly as possible so as many people can speak during that 30 minutes. Uh with the fires, I'm going to say we do have other things that are happening. Um there's a press conference that at the health district at 4:00 we're trying to get to. So I just ask everyone to please understand. So, with that, um, I will open up the public floor forum and I will have commissioner karns say the three names and that way again hopefully you can then get yourself here so we can be um, as timely as possible getting people through. First three, julia mchugh, terry Horn, and jb freeman in that order.
[00:03:41]
Good afternoon. I'm julia mchugh. I live in the palisades neighborhood on the west plains on a contaminated well. I am here to talk about the failure of last week's uh ballot initiative. The defeat of last week's vote for the west plains aquifer protection rests squarely on your shoulders. Each board member was aware that the restricted eligible voting area included two federal census tracks. Mr. French knows this very well. We were in the same meeting. The outcome of last week's second aquifer vote in a second consecutive year of aquafer voting in a year of extraordinary inflation and economic disruption to taxpayers was expressed to this board by the public numerous times last year. This is a failure by design and an incalculable fail for constituents. Last year, this board joined by the City fostered the 20-year renewal of the aquifer protection area for the Spokane valley aratham prairie aquifer with rare voter approval at 73% ensuring the City County owned property above the west plains aquifer is now protected. The majority of the west plains was excluded from this vote and defeated last week.
[00:04:48]
The unique west plains aquifer system remains unprotected. The groundwater is unsafe to drink with reported water scarcity. Filtration systems will not do it. What is your plan b? That's all I want to know. What is your plan b for the west plains? We'd like to hear from the you're going to be held with for answers. Answers. Um, next I have terry Horn. All right. My name is terry Horn. I'm a west plains resident. And um so what it looks like is there's an nda and uh if spoken County commissioners vote or finalize an intram ordinance in an unannounced or improper closing setting, an official action taken in violation of Washington's open public meetings act is legally null and void.
[00:05:47]
Participating members face personal financial penalties of 500 for the first known violation. So legal liabilities, the sunshine laws, violation, void actions, rcw423060, any ordinance, adoption or final decision made outside an open uh meeting is invalid. You're about to put that ai data center if it does go on medical lake road in an area of high susceptibility to our aquifer in a high-risisk drainage area which is neither in the comprehensive plan nor the cao the critical area ordinance chapter 11.2 what is the plan to poison us? Is that the plan for this commission? Because that's what it sounds like, guys. And you know what? Ultrasound is a big deal. And it kills. Thank you.
[00:06:40]
Please, please, no clapping. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Um, so be before you start, we're gonna call the next group. So they're ready to go. Go. So the next three are ready. I think this is arena bha, Linda green, and jim lady. Okay. So, Mr. Freeman. Okay. I am a retired quality assurance, quality control manager for a data complex in Washington State. So, I know what I'm talking about with these things. And what I have seen the small amount so far on information for this data center. I can sit down with any of you for hours to go over the technical problems that you're looking at here. But to get to the meat of what has already been said, I would request on behalf of every citizen of this County that every commissioner disclose every communication be text, email, phone, private meetings, and any minutes thereof. And that they disclose any meetings between themselves regarding the same with any private entity. Ndas are morally and ethically irresponsible and reprehensible.
[00:08:10]
Thank you. Okay, please. Um, so arena bha good afternoon. My name is aruna bha. I'm a longtime resident of Spokane and I am here for not only putting moratorium but halting the data center process considering the impact noise pollution the drain on the energy uh infrastructure as well as water especially after the fires that we have faced. So I and also too in short run we may have more jobs but in long run it is going to take away the jobs from people. So we want to look for long-term well-being of our community and also keeping in mind less workers that means less social security contribution and then long-term outcomes for the community at large is not good for data center. Please hold the data center and keep the process transparent like the previous speaker mentioned so that public knows about the decisions you're making with aista or any other organization. Thank you for your time.
[00:09:26]
Thank you. Next is Linda green. I'm here to ask you to impose a moratorum of at least one year on the construction of data centers in Spokane County. I would like it to actually not have any data centers ever, but one year at least. I believe that one of the commissioners has said that the moratorum would be bad for business. These centers are said to be job creators, but the construction jobs are short-term, gone as soon as it's built, and it doesn't take many employees to run a data center once it's in operation. So, just what business is it good for? It's good for mega companies with billionaire ceos. We don't want or need those at the expense of our residents who have a right to a place without air and noise pollution. Most importantly, we are in a drought condition too often to allow data centers to steal our water from us for cooling their highdensity computing systems. This is new technology and is moving way too fast. We can slow it down and learn the ins and outs of data centers by our own research and by looking at other communities who are dealing with them on a firsthand basis.
[00:10:40]
Let's slow it down. Thank you. And then I'm going to have the next uh three people as jim if you'll just hold on just one second. Next three are melody wyn, robert richard jr. And robert ordin I think is what that is. Okay. So, gym lady Spokane. Uh I wouldn't wanted to talk about item h about the Spokane County sheriff's office left turn lane. I wasn't able to find out where that was going to be at because I didn't see an address or the reason for it. Also, while I'm up here, I'm a united states army veteran and I am against data centers. Commissioner french said that anybody against data setters are unpatriotic. I have Nine and a half s years of military service. Commissioner french, would you like to tell me I'm unpatriotic?
[00:11:37]
Would you like to tell me about your military service? Okay, please. We can wait. Um, um, well, he did say that people who are against data centers are unpatriotic. Tell me about your patriotism, commissioner french. Right. Right. Tell me if I am unpatriotic. I am a military veteran. So, Mr. Lee, I have got public speaking and I'm allowed to speak. Yes. Yes. And I can address the commission and I am addressing the commission. And I am calling out commissioner french who said that anybody against data centers is unpatriotic. Unpatriotic. And I'm giving him a chance to explain himself. Himself. Thank you. Please. Okay. Please do not clap, otherwise I will ask people to leave the room. Melody wyn, a resident, longtime resident of Spokane, also a veteran. Uh I um look at you decision makers to solve problems. It's not looking too good. The um I've devoted my life to tradition or tra tradition tribal food sovereignty and the traditional ecological knowledge that I'm saying is like 500 plus years old maybe now you can listen therefore here uh we are the people we're not the only people the plants and animals are people too we don't need mass surveillance we don't need cryptocurrency we don't need knowledge as a tool of power. We the people need water, air, earth, soil,
[00:13:17]
Home, quiet, and healing. And we the people, we are the people. So are you. Please remember that. Thank you. So next is robert. Okay, I'm going to say one more time, if there is any more clapping, I will stop the public hearing because we have extended beyond our 15 minutes. So, I'd ask you to please be respectful so we can extend it to let other people speak. Um, thank you. So, robert richard jr. Good afternoon. Uh, I am robert richard. I am a vietnam era, libya, lebanon, libya, persian gulf, navy war veteran, technically retired. I took the separation bonus after the persian gulf war. I am a lifetime member of veterans of foreign wars and I'm the acting secretary of veterans for peace, chapter 35 in Spokane. Uh the us is in a situation I think where the jump to ai is similar to the early people's republic of china's great leap in the late 1950s where mao was encouraging the people to eat less and work harder during a famine that they couldn't talk about in public or as similar to the 2008 home mortgage debt collapse where taxpayers bailed out private corporations and big banks that couldn't service their own debt which is where the federal government is at now with its $39 trillion debt. And big tech wants to lean on us taxpayers in a corrupt fashion to finance a ai that's not making any money and already started bankrupting banks in silicon valley.
[00:14:55]
Thank you, Mr. Richards. Um I will have be before I have you speak, uh Mr. But I'll we'll announce the other three pe just a just a moment. We'll announce the other three people to come down. Melanie perry, margaret o'connell, and Craig volising. Hello. My name is Robert Orner. And uh given the quick time, I'm going to kind of move right along here. First off, I'd like to say there's an upside to this issue. It has united a fractured political landscape. Republicans, independents, democrats, both rural and urban, overwhelmingly do not want data centers in their communities. Notably across the nation, communities are collectively saying no to data centers and winning. Even texas under greg abbott reluctantly put a stop to potential data centers as the power grid was set to collapse with huge energy demands that data centers require. If the Spokane data center project was put on for uh ballot for consideration by our community, my perception is it would be overwhelmingly defeated. As well, the concept of providing substantial tax breaks to private entities using Spokane funded infrastructure, water, and energy is quite frankly maddening.
[00:16:12]
It's an act of lunacy in my humble opinion to move forward with the data center until specific questions over utilization of our shared resources have been explored, vetted, confirmed, and shared with our community in open and transparent manners. The one-year meritorium. Thank you. Your minute is over. I'm sorry. Sorry. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Uh melanie perry. Hello. I had a speech written, but I'm just going to keep it brief and just people of the count commissioner Council look out into this very small chamber and realize that this is a group of people who love their County, their community, the people around them, the nature and the water that we all rely on and share. And we just want what is best for everyone here. And we just really would like a stop to all this craziness with the ai data centers that are just going to make it worse for us all.
[00:17:12]
That's all. Thank you. Next is margaret okonnell. Good afternoon. I am margaret okonnell. I'm a long-term resident of the west plains and I fully support at least a one-year moratorum on the proposed hypers scale data center. My reasons are based on economics. As has been mentioned, there is a potential economic downturn in hyper data centers. I base my support on the human and environmental health. I was thinking I was going to go after most people who would have already raised a lot of questions or a lot of the points but I will point out two things. One data scale data centers like this are energy hungry and in many places around the country even though they start with hydroelect electric power they are now looking into such as in quincy using methane gas to power. Secondly they're water hungry. It has been suggested that these data centers will be using waste water from medical lake and from Airway Heights. The combined wastewater treated from those two communities is about 20% of what the potential needs of that data center would be. So, please, thank you, support a moratorum.
[00:18:39]
Um, I'm gonna have commissioner Craig go ahead and come up and then I'm gonna have commissioner karns read the next ones. Just a second. The next three up. Casia soler, hank bicker, and joseph godsy. Okay, go ahead. Craig volosing, west plains. Um, as to data centers, please put the brakes on. Adopt a moratorum on permitting construction of these kinds of facilities for at least one year. There are many reasons why. You will no doubt be hearing them all. Here's just one. The greater Spokane community is facing daunting time of rebuilding, especially of homes lost to wildfires. On national public radio just this morning came a featured report on how data centers are having a major negative impact on the building of housing across this country. They are exerting huge pressure with demands for both labor and materials. Shall we allow a data center rush to make rebuilding our citizens homes even more expensive and prolonged?
[00:19:56]
And then I'd like to do one thing very silently. Silently. Would you raise your hand if you are in favor of at least a one-year moratorum on this? Thank you. So, next I have uh kashia silera. I'll let you say your name correctly. My name is casia. Casia cer. Um, I've grown up in Washington my whole life and I'm in support of a moratorum as well as um just not allowing data centers in our City any bigger than the ones that are already here. People and planet over profit. My biggest concern is the heart of all of you and of our government and our boards. Prioritizing profit over the well-being of the people who live here and the land and the resources that we all share. So I would ask you to really consider the long-term effects of this because if we pass one data center then what comes in two more years and then three and then five and then how far is it going to go?
[00:21:10]
So unless we have regulations intact to preserve the environment and require these data centers to have very high um or look for alternative solutions to using water for their um business. Yeah, definitely moratorium for one year longer really. Thank you. Next I have hank baker and then joseph. Madame chair and commissioners, we the people want a seat at the table. We want no approval before full transparency. If the public is unaware of the facts of the project, then the project is not ready for approval. A project of this kind pursued without transparency should not be rewarded with speed. We need a moratorum that will give us pause which is already a mainstream regional response as evidenced by the room until the public has complete and full disclosure. We need independent review and enforcable protections. We're the ones that voted for all of you and put you in those seats of authority and please keep that in mind moving forward.
[00:22:21]
We'd appreciate that. Thank you very much. Much. Thank you. Um, and joseph, before you start, I'm gonna have commissioner karns read the next three names, but you can stand up and be ready to go. Hayden ramirez, carolyn boils, and audrey joy. Go ahead. I'm joseph godsy, and I was elected water commissioner by the people of the valley, the City, and the County to protect our water. As soon as we lower our district's existential threat, pos, by eight times, going from 16 parts per trillion down to two, I'm informed of a new threat. A threat that raises our electricity price, pollutes our water and air, and is poised to destroy our future generations in Spokane. These externalities will raise my constituents water pumping costs, make our water toxic to drink, and destroy our community's futures while we are still dealing from with these fires. So unless you can pass laws internalizing every single externality of this business, I say externalize ai data centers from our community. Thank you.
[00:23:33]
Thank you. So next I have hayden ramirez. Hi, good afternoon uh commission. My name is hayden ramirez. I am a Spokane County resident. Uh I'm also a youth organizer with the Washington bus. We're the largest youth organization in the State. I'm also a social studies teacher, uh, secondary, middle, and high school. Um, so I talk to young people a lot, pretty much all day, every day, even past the 9 to5 work hour. Um, and I just want to share, I have a lot of opinions myself on this, but I want to share what I'm hearing from my young uh, people in my life. I'm hearing fear about the future of the planet. I'm seeing um folks who live up in north Spokane in the meat area, including my family, who see the effects of this wildfire and see the fact that um every summer's getting hotter and the utility costs are going up, right? We're going to have to expend more energy um because the summers are getting hotter and uh what is a data center going to do but increase those costs, right? Increase that energy usage. I'm just seeing general fear. Um, every generation should be, you know, have that promise of that american dream that they're going to do better than their parents' generation. And I'm not hearing that with my young people. I'm hearing fear, anxiety, depression, um, and a general, uh, consensus that data centers are just going to worsen that.
[00:24:51]
So, thank you. I asked you to consider a one-year pause. Thank you. Okay, carolyn boils or boils? Boils. Hi, I'm carolyn boils and I live in Spokane up in me and um as a geologist I have extreme who worked in the environmental field I have extreme reservations about um all aspects of these huge ai data centers. Um, as far as the water issue, when you draw down water from the aquifer more than what is being recharged, you lose that recharge capability and that cannot be mitigated. That is a forever problem. And if you don't if you use less water for these data centers, that means increased energy usage for cooling. And that cooling energy usage pollutes the planet. It pollutes the air.
[00:25:51]
It pollutes the environment. And the noise is like the unless the noise is totally mit mitigated, then all the animals, everybody that lives miles around is affected by this. It's a terrible, terrible thing. These data centers are a blight. Thank you. Next three speakers, richard simple, Linda ball, and katium natarrison. Okay. Audrey joy. My name is audrey joy. I was born and raised in Spokane County. I'm representing 350 Spokane, a local climate advocacy organization. I'm 24 years old. Currently, our community is facing devastation from extreme wildfires. Our beautiful Spokane river is running dry again for the second year in a row. We need a countywide moratorum to ensure thoughtful and transparent planning for large load data centers in our County.
[00:26:54]
It is now absolutely more important than ever that you give us thoughtful consideration for everyone in this room who's sharing about this issue. This is my future that you're making decisions about. So I encourage you to consider that thoughtfully. Thank you. Thank you. So richard simple. Yes. A resident north Indian Trail road. My family moved to Spokane and I moved to Spokane in 1980. North Indian Trail road neighborhood have lived there off and on the entire time my parents um and you the last item you've got is reviewing conot drive in the lar development at the top of the woodridge neighborhood and they're they're extending those roads and making space for more houses up there. Currently that particular lar development only has ingress and egress through shaune or if they come down seol and then hit a spaghetti of other roads.
[00:27:48]
It is extremely tight to get in and out of just that little neighborhood, let alone the north Indian Trail corridor. And so by allowing more housing up there, you're putting uh the rest of us at risk or at great inconvenience on a normal day when nothing bad happens, but on a day when something bad does happen. So, if we could consider punching an egress down west barnes or punching an egress across hawthorne at the middle school up there. There's an alalfa field with a dirt road with a gravel road across it. We need more ingress egress. Thank you. Um, next is Linda ball. Good afternoon, commission. Um, full disclosure, I'm speaking for myself, not for the City of liberty lake, because some of you know I'm on the Council there. Um, this last week and a half should be a wakeup call to everyone that climate change is the biggest threat to humanity. Um, we need water. We don't need gigantic data centers for life.
[00:28:53]
We've lived without them for most of our existence. I'm very concerned about the natural resources, most importantly, water, that it takes to keep one of these facilities running. Um big business should not take precedence over life. U 50 years from now uh no one will be better off because we had data centers. Um everything does not have to be about money. We need to think about people before profit. Insurance companies warned after katrina in 2005 that natural disasters would become more prevalent due to climate change. That was 21 years ago. Let that sink in. Um, uh, let's see. Gosh, I had so much air, but I did want to mention the colorado river is low. The new a new federal proposal could require arizona, california, and nevada to reduce their water use by as much as 3 million acre feet through 2036. Right.
[00:29:48]
Right. Thank you. And lake me and lake powell are at their lower lowest uh levels ever. And I have um an article I'd like each of you to take a look. If you could hand it to the clerk. Thank you. You. Um, uh, yes. Next three, ne next three are caitlyn scott, bob leel, and Elizabeth Willard. And so then, you don't have to pronounce it. [laughter] [laughter] will you pronounce it for us? It's kotayam bispoth and natarajin jr. And I'm an elected commissioner for the liber stewart and water district. Um, we've tried to reach out to the County at a staff level as constituents and elected to elected and we haven't had any success. So, I'm here in person to try to talk to you. Um, we're very small. We're not like the big County. We only do three things. We provide fresh drinking water. We protect liberty lake and we provide sewer services. That's all we do. And, um, we've been doing it for 50 years. Liberty lake was a toxic dump 50 years ago. You couldn't swim in it. It was toxic algae. We've cleaned it all up. And right now, all of a sudden, Spokane County building and planning department has decided to try to prevent us from providing sewer services. We don't understand this. We don't know why. We've been doing it for 50 years.
[00:30:57]
There's over 500 houses outside the ug that have sewer service. You have worked with us in the last since 2001 since the growth management act um to provide sewer services to over 50 new houses. And suddenly the building department has said, "nope, we're going to prevent you from providing sewer services." we can't go back. We can't have people. They're going to build houses. It's not about growth. The houses are going to be there. They're going to happen. We just want them to be on the sewer system to have the sewage treated in a state-of-the-art facility rather than septic systems that are going to leech into our aquifer and liberty lake. We just can't go back. So, I really want to work with you guys. Thank you. Appreciate that. Caitlyn scott. Hello. My name is caitlyn scott and I'm here on behalf of Spokane rivereper. Thank you for having us here today. We're here in support of a moratorum and I am grateful to be organizing around this issue with our partners at the lands Council 350 Spokane and many other organizations at the Spokane environmental policy coalition. We're here asking you to support this moratorum because now more importantly than ever there's so many other issues that we need to be focused on at a County level. The fires are a perfect example of that. We don't need to be trying to develop fast develop regulations at our own pace here in Spokane County. We need to take the time to do it right. As audrey said, the river is running dry. It's already dry in Spokane valley right now. It's been dry for two days. Um, until we take action and really address it and start planning for change, start planning for our future, we're going to see more of that. We're going to see more fire. We're going to see more dry.
[00:32:28]
We're going to see more devastation in our community. And we need this moratorium as a first step in addressing this and really taking action against these data centers. Thank you. Thank you. Um, bob. Um, hi, I'm bob le. I live up north Indian Trail with my wife and three sons. Uh, thank you for the hearing. Um, I also came here to ask that you, uh, halt construction of data centers and not allow them in Spokane, um, Spokane County. Uh, I'm worried about the beauty of eastern Washington. I love eastern Washington. I think it's beautiful. I don't want to trade that for u enormous windowless boxes that are shrill. Um, I'm worried about the water and the heat. They consume a lot of energy and emit a lot of heat and um, my neighborhood was just burned. Um, and so I don't want to see more heat in our environment and less water in our environment. But, um, th those before me have said a lot of things extremely well that I would plus one. I'll focus on one they haven't been saying, which is if the data center is for ai, what the frontier and the labs need it for is training the next model, the successor to fable and soul. And um it's the model that they are hoping will be recursively self-improving, the model they're calling agi, a model they're saying they can't control, and they've gone on record asking the government to help them slow down. Um my perspective is this isn't worth it.
[00:33:52]
Thank you. The next three are liam argon, jennifer kelly, and antoine voluone. Bologna. So, el elizabeth uh willard is yes. Yes. Yes. We're just trying to get the next three up in line. So, yes, Elizabeth Willard, born and raised in Spokane, Washington. Um, you need to slow this down. And one thing I wanted to come here today hoping that Al French would apologize to us because he was on the news saying that anyone that's not on board with the data center is not patriotic. Patriotic. I think you should apologize to everyone in this room, especially our veterans for that.
[00:34:45]
I'm waiting who's paying you, al? Who have you been talking to in the last year secretly? Why does this have to be so secret if this is such a good idea? Anybody? So, this is public hearing and so we don't interact with the questions at this point. Let's just keep it hanging in the air. Thank you. Okay, liam argon. Argon. Yes. Yes. Uh, hello. My name is liam arga. I am a student at gonzaga university. I've lived in Spokane County my entire life. I'm here to talk about the one-year moratorum proposition uh for uh the data center that's going to be put in medical lake. That has a 512 acre data center.
[00:35:43]
It's going to take up 500 megawatts of power, which is roughly 50% of the power we use in Spokane already. We are in the extreme drought conditions. We're at level two right now. We are going to continue to be in that drought. Even if they use hydroelectric power or hydrogen power, that still requires water for the hydrogen power. So, it's actually a double negative because you have to use it for the cooling systems and you also have to use it for the power, which is not a very good look uh for our aquafer or for the rest of our community. Uh I look at you guys and I see leaders, I see people that would like to help uh or maybe everyone but Al French. Um but if you guys would like to help, please vote on this. Please say no. Will please propose a moratorum and please help our community. Community. Thank you. Jennifer kelly. Hello. My name is jennifer kelly. I'm a resident of district 5 for oh, excuse me, 25 years now. And I am here simply as a citizen for myself, my community, my children, and my grandchildren to support a moratorium on data centers.
[00:36:41]
Many of my community members have spoke very eloquently about the drawbacks of a data center. Um, I might add, just myself this morning, I read about a nevada utility company has a firstofits-kind lawsuit suing the data center developer track accusing the company of trying to pass infrastructure costs on to consumers. This is a business model that I think that makes sense to you guys. So, also we would like not to have billionaires passing their costs on to us as citizens. And I'd also like to use uh the last of my time to share the secrecy of this is really disheartening. I was here on July 16th. There were two members who spoke about data centers and you district on record shared that there were no proposed or planned data centers for the County. And I think that we're here because there is one. So that was not being honest to myself and the community when you said that.
[00:37:39]
That. Thank you. Um okay so just a second Mr. Anton before you start. Um so we have three more and these will be the final three speakers. Carla mckini, Mary benham, and devin kamacho. So Mr. Anton, my name is anton. I'm a Spokane resident. Okay, this the data center, there's nothing wrong with it other than it's an investment company. I mean, it's it's it's uh why do they want to uh build a something so huge, but at the same time, they're going to want the State to pay for part of it. It's nothing but an investment scam is what it looks like to me. You know, we can do the State can do that. The same thing without somebody getting rich outside of Spokane.
[00:38:41]
Spokane. That's my point. You know, it should be a no period because the State alone can do it. Thank you. Thank you. So, next I have carla mckini. Hi, carla mckini, Spokane valley. I am here in favor of a moratorum for at least a year on data centers. Um I'm not understanding. It feels like this is all being rushed and it's like yeah put the brakes on, slow down. Our water system is taxed. Our uh power grid is taxed and all this is going to do is suck more out. So I'm questioning why is there a rush on this and why is there a need? It all goes back to money. It's time to put people over profits. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Mary benham, Mary benham, west plains. There are good alternatives to data centers. The west plains has commercial and industrial development.
[00:39:48]
There are viable projects that include aviation and manufacturing support, a focus on logistics hubs, expanded manufacturing, flex warehouses, trade and freight infrastructure. These projects won't deplete groundwater or demand enormous amounts of power. Spokane has a severe long-term housing and affordability crisis. Now worse with more than 800 homes destroyed. Governor ferguson will seek fundal money to rebuild. There is land in the west plains ready for housing development. Consider the new east west 12th street corridor off hayford in Airway Heights. Hopefully you have driven out there. Hopefully you're familiar with it.
[00:40:41]
Thank you. Okay. And devin, you'll be our last speaker. I'm devon kamacho um from district five. Um I just want to say that I am in favor of the moratorum just because we rely on that aquifer. I'm scared that by building the data center and having the cooling systems with their evaporation mixing with the pas or forever chemicals will lead to air pollution as well as the rain will contaminate our aquifer. I am very concerned that this has all been secret just because let's be honest, the trump administration has gutted the epa and this is all just to chase the fad as well as taking advantage of that. So I think that we the people should be at least the right to vote on this instead of just allowing everybody else to vote on it on our behalfs. We should have a word in all of this. So that is my biggest concern and that is why I am afraid of the future, afraid for the future generations. Um especially since I work at sish school Spokane and we're supposed to move our new school closer to the river. So how's that going to affect us? Thank you. Thank you.
[00:42:04]
Extend the time. Allow more of us to see. See. I am not going to extend the time. I've already extended beyond what uh we normally do. So, I will thank you all for being here. Um but I'm not going to extend the time because there are other things that we need to do as commissioners after this meeting and we have a lot more to do. Whole County to speak. Okay. Would you I'm not sure who's saying that, but I will ask you to leave. Leave. Okay. So, with that, I have closed the public hearing. Um, you need to ask any french dog.
[00:44:18]
So, madam chair, I'd like to uh ask for a point of personal privilege if you don't mind. Okay. Okay. Mr. French, I will give you a point of personal privilege. So, um, there have been a lot of, uh, comments made here. Excuse me. We're we're continuing our meeting, so if everyone would be quiet. If we could take any discussions out into the hallway. Nope, you're good. Commissioner french has asked for a point of personal privilege and I am granting that. So um a lot of this uh created uh and started when uh the board was uh on its summer break. So, this is the first opportunity I had to uh actually respond to some of the uh rumors, fear-mongering, conspiracy theories, and a bunch of other uh nonsense that quite frankly uh we heard today. Um, and so I'm going to set the record straight about my involvement in this uh project. And uh then I'll also post my comments to my web page so that those that didn't see fit to stay uh can at least be enlightened by it.
[00:45:49]
About three years ago, I attended a conference for the american public transportation association. And at that conference, one of the sessions was hydrogen fuel of the future. And uh two of the speakers at that conference, one was from a transit agency in florida and the other one from transit agency in southern california. And uh they were talking about how they'd converted their entire fleet over to electric only to have their fleet isolated when there was a hurricane in florida and when there were wind storms or firestorms in southern california. So they started the process of finding an alternative fuel that was reliable. Uh so they ended up um coalesing around hydrogen as the fuel of the future. It's green fuel.
[00:46:43]
It only pits out puts out a mist out of the exhaust pipe, not fumes or any other kind of air pollutants. So I was intrigued and started the process of learning more about that. Then uh discovered that the State of Washington, the legislature uh has set a goal uh to eliminate diesel fuel by the year 2030. Diesel fuel is what uh keeps our semi-truckss on the road to deliver goods. It also keeps our farm industry going. Going. And uh one of the State boards that I sit on, freight mobility strategic investment board, the trucking industry was in arms because if they had to convert their semis to electric, it's half of the payload. And so they'd have to cut the payload by half to be able to accommodate for the batteries.
[00:47:40]
Batteries. Farmers are also impacted. And in fact, the State of Washington from what I am being told is losing a farm a day because the cost of farming and the generational aspects of farming uh are just not what they used to be. Kids are not deciding to uh to farm anymore. They want to go to uh pursue other careers. So, why am I involved? It's because by State law, rcw 36.01.085, County commissioners are responsible for the economic development programs that happen within their counties. That's what I do. That's what I focus on is bringing new jobs and new industries to Spokane County. And in fact, the growth management act 36.70a.2020 also establishes economic development as a goal. So about two and a half years ago, I got in contact with a hydrogen developer and we started to see if a manufacturing facility in Spokane was even feasible.
[00:48:56]
Um, I had some very specific concerns right out of the gate. One, protecting this region to include its water and electricity rates. I just was not interested in bringing new industry to Spokane that would either one negatively impact our water or two negatively impact electrical rates for rateayers because I am one of those rateayers. So what the developer was talking about doing was using waste water, water that already was consumed and sent down the toilet, toilet, using waste water as the water source and solar panel farm to provide the energy. Energy. The other byproduct of uh developing hydrogen is also ammonia and ammonia can go then back into the fields and help our a industry uh increase their production rate per acre.
[00:49:55]
Deva data center was never even part of the conversation when we started down this road. It was only a year ago that developers said,"well, we can lower the cost of production on the hydrogen if we preheat the water through a data center." so, that is how that conversation started. Prior to that point, I'd already been contacted by three other developers that wanted to do data centers. And because my threshold was one, protecting our water, two protecting the rates for rateayers, all three of those projects fell by the wayside, didn't move forward. So as the project continued to mature and find out whether um the elements necessary to protect this region could be put into place, the conversation nationally started to really ramp up. And in fact, just two weeks ago, the national association of counties had their annual meeting. And at that meeting, they presented a standard for data centers that counties could go to and adopt.
[00:51:24]
Well, commissioner karns and I actually prior to finding that the um the recommendation from niko had already started the process of saying, "how can we protect our County? How can we protect our region and do it in a way to where you know we don't have to wait for a year uh to provide asurances to the public. Let's see if we could do something more uh timely. So we did present a possible interim zoning ordinance that would put some controls around data centers. It would also put some controls off the around use of the water and electric so that it would not impact our rateayers and that no public money, not a single nickel of public money would be used to support the construction of a data center.
[00:52:23]
Center. There's no reason for using public money to build out private industry like this. They can pay for their own cost. So, so, as the project continued to develop, uh, as it turns out, they're actually going to buy their energy from another State and transfer that energy into the State into Spokane. So, it won't affect our rates. They're using waste water, water that otherwise would uh go down the toilet and through the u treatment facilities. Uh used a closed loop system so that there'd be no water out of the aquifer. And I don't care whether it's the aquifer on the west plains or the Spokane rather prairie aquifer, there'd be no potable water used in the facility.
[00:53:20]
Facility. It's interesting because the largest water consumer on the west plains is actually collins aerospace. They use significantly more water than a data center ever could consume. And they're served out of the Spokane writer by the City of Spokane. The other negative around data centers is the noise created and the pollution created by the diesel powered generators. Well, what they're talking about doing is uh providing uh backup generation through hydrogen. And again, hydrogen doesn't produce either air pollution or the noise that um that diesels uh provide. The data center conversation is unfortunate.
[00:54:27]
Unfortunate. From my standpoint, I've not been a proponent of data centers. I've already had three other developers try and do one on the west plains and uh they could never get out of the starting gate. Uh my goal here is hydrogen. If the farming community has to go to battery powered harvesters, combines, plows, that's new equipment they've got to build, but that's also an electric grid that has to be expanded to provide the power to fuel those batteries. Farming community doesn't have that kind of money. The trucking industry doesn't have the kind of money to go to battery driven um semis. So that's why the hydrogen fuel, a clean fuel, fuel, was so attractive from my standpoint.
[00:55:25]
I'm trying to figure out how do we get to continue to thrive as a community in when diesel fuels uh if the legislature has their way will no longer be viable. Tim orsby, a democrat, floated a bill in this last legislative session to allow Spokane County to be competitive with other counties in the State that already enjoy a tax exemption for data centers that we do not have. We are excluded from that. And so, uh, I did testify at that hearing in support of, uh, uh, economic tools for Spokane County to make us competitive with other counties in the State.
[00:56:21]
Richelli, senator richelli also championed that in the State senate. So here you have a republican and a democrats working together to try and find a path forward for this community. So let me just address some of the conspiracy theories that are out there. Fires were set to clear land for a data center. Center. No, the land underneath where the fires occurred are residential zoned land. You can't build a data center there even if you wanted to. Imminent domain to acquire the land for economic development. That's against the State constitution. That can't happen in the State of Washington. I have no zero financial interest in any property on the west plains or any project proposed for the west plains.
[00:57:23]
Secret meetings. There were no secret meetings. Every all the meetings were listed in my calendar. You discovered them with the public records requests. They're right out there. I've been a an opponent a proponent of this uh hydrogen project for two and a half years. There's no secrets uh about this. I've been out in the public. I've been before boards. I've been through um even meetings here at the County. So, there's no secrets, nothing that's done under uh enclosed doors. The attacks about the data center have now become personal. Personal. Personal.
[00:58:15]
Not about the issue, not about the topic, but personal. Doing a moratorum doesn't guarantee an outcome, an outcome. And if you want to see evidence of that, the City of Spokane has passed three moratoriums for leah valley. And they haven't solved a single problem. All they've done is created false hope. With regard to the statement about patriotism, I did not insinuate that anybody that opposed a data center was unpatriotic. No, what I said was and we have the tape. We have we don't have it here, but I can play the tape for you. I'd be happy to do that. What I said is that it's been suggested that some think they're being opposed to it. That wasn't my comment.
[00:59:13]
That was what that was part of the public uh conversation. I'm a proud marine veteran, sir. And I I didn't accuse anybody of not being unpatriotic if you didn't support. What I said is that's part of the conversation that's out there. The fbi is doing investigations with regard to that. That's a whole separate topic. Anyway, I have my comments here. I'm going to publish them to my website. So everybody in this everybody can see them and hopefully we can get back to talking about the issue talking about how and if we are going to do data centers and how do we protect the environment. I've lived here in Spokane County since 1977.
[01:00:13]
Uh I plan on dying here. Uh this is my home. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize it. I'm a rateayer with a vista. I'm not anxious to pay and subsidize any private business and I drink the water out of the aquifer. So, this is my home as much as it is yours and I'm going to do what I can to protect it. So, thank you, madam chair. Okay. So, I'm going to look to my fellow commission. Commission. Can I have a short personal privilege issue? Issue? As long as it is short because I'm going to start to limit the personal privileges in the future. Very short. I just want to thank everybody who came down to testify today. I do wish personally that we could have had time to hear from everybody. I do appreciate the extension beyond what is typical. Uh I do think the community concern is clear. I'm hopeful in the coming days that we can move to consideration of a pause on these facilities and take the time to get this issue right. So I know we'll continue to be in conversation about that.
[01:01:16]
Thank you. Okay. I will now look to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve item 3a and item 4 a through q with the exception of item 4 h and n. Second. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second for items 3a uh 4 a through q with the exception of striking hn as in nancy. Um any further discussion on those items? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That is then going to take us to we have several items. Um we have two um items 5a and 5b that are considered plan final action and the initiation of comination proceedings.
[01:02:13]
Proceedings. So I will open up 5a and say this meeting is regarding a proposed condemnation action that is held pursuant to chapter 8.08 rcw and rcw8.25290. The purpose of this hearing today is to inform the public hear comments and ensure transparency before the board considers any final action toward condemnation. This is not the formal legal hearing that will occur later in superior court should the board authorize condemnation proceeding today. The County engineer will now present the engineer's report. Good afternoon, madam chair. Matt zerakor, Spokane County public works. Just one second. We'll get the presentation up for what's that?
[01:03:27]
Thank you, ron. So, next slide, please. So, the harvard road project, I believe the board's familiar with. It's out in the Spokane valley, and we're widening the current two-lane road into the cross-section you can see on the overhead. It's a federally funded project, and we're widening from south of uklid to the railroad crossing and then north again to the railroad tracks at the very north end at trent. Next slide. So, just to dive into the necessity portion of the conversation a little bit, this project's consistent with our comprehensive plan and our goals and policies, both the bicycle portion and the six-year transportation improvement plan. There's a significant crash history associated with this portion of harvard. There's been 26 collisions in the last five years alone, uh 12 with reported injuries and including a fatality, unfortunately.
[01:04:26]
The roadway itself is an urban principal arterial, which means it's the highest category of roadway in the County. It's an nhs route. The average daily traffic on it varies along it, but you can see from 3,200 to 13,600. It's a t3 freight corridor, which means it moves a lot of freight. Unfortunately, it's currently restricted due to road condition. That's part of the rationale for the project. Next slide. Slide. You can see here's where the project is geographically. It's out at the City of liberty lake to the south and goes up to trent avenue. It's the far east valley and the arrows in red point out the limits of the project. And then the inset portion is just a blow up of harvard road itself. Next slide. There were originally 58 parcels that we needed to acquire property rights from and those include border easements, drainage easements, temporary construction easements, and of course, rightway. To date, 55 of those parcels have been acquired. We're down to just three parcels. And you can see there, map 24 is brook m. Kelly. Um, negotiations came to an impass after over a year of negotiations.
[01:05:42]
And you know they were friendly negotiations just couldn't come to agreement on that. Then map 43 bonav vista manufactured home community again just the negotiations impass unfortunately we were very close on that one but it just was out what they were asking for was outside of the bounds of what we could legally offer. So that one we would request to move forward. And finally, union pacific railroad. And obviously, they're not subject to the same condemnation law, but productive negotiations and construction maintenance agreement are ongoing, and we hope to settle those out soon. Next slide. So, this is map one of two on the rightway plan. You can see map 24. This is brook kelly, um, outlined in green at the far right of the map. Next slide. And this is the mobile home park map 43 outlined in green there. It's right at the intersection of welssley and harford road.
[01:06:41]
Road. Next slide. This is a blowup of miss brook kelly's property. You can see the portion that we're attempting to acquire highlighted in green. And then on the right you can see an aerial and the green line is the proposed rideway limits if we're able to acquire the property rights that we need. Need. Next slide. This one is bonav vista mobile home park community. You can see this is a fairly long strip acquisition and the corner on the left you can see the highlighted in green and then the yellow is a border easement and the small area purple is just a temporary construction easement. And then on the right you can see the same lines shown on an aerial just to get a better sense of what the impacts are. Are. Um that's my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Zarakor?
[01:07:38]
Thank you. Okay. So, give me grace as this is a new process of I haven't had to do this before. So, um so then the next steps if the board authorizes condemnation, the prosecuting attorney will file a petition in superior court. So now I will open up for any public comment that anyone has and we follow the same rules that if you have a public comment please State your name. Um and uh we will have three minutes as what we have for this public comment. I'm seeing no one in the audience. No one online. Second call. See no one in the audience and no one online. Third and final call. Then I will close the public comment for this u 5a.
[01:08:33]
Um, this meeting is not the formal legal hearing. This occurs later in superior court. Court. So I think I'm going to look to my fellow commissioners for a motion. Madame chair, I move to approve agenda item 5a and to determine that it is necessary for County purposes to acquire Spokane County parcel number 56334.961 and authorize the initiation of condemnation proceedings. Second. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Are there any further questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 5b and this is a um this meeting again is regarding a proposed condemnation action and is held pursuant to chapter 8.08 rcw and rcw8.25.290.
[01:09:41]
The purpose of this hearing today is to inform the public, hear comments, and ensure transparency before the board considers any final action toward condemnation. This is not the formal legal hearing that will occur later in superior court should the board authorize condemnation to proceed today. The County engineer will now present the engineer's report. Madame chair, we covered this parcel also during the presentation, but I'm available to answer any questions if they come up. Thank you. I just have to make sure I'm doing them both separately, not together. So, um, so as you, as you heard, he did, uh, speak to the other, um, issues. So, is there any questions? Okay. Um again this is a separate public hearing for this item. So is there anyone that would like to speak to item 5b?
[01:10:39]
See no one in the audience. No one online. Online. Second call. Third call for anyone wishing to speak on item 5b. Seeing none I will close the public hearing. Um, this meeting is not, again, I just want to make sure that this meeting is not the formal legal hearing that occurs later in superior court. So, I'll now look to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve agenda item 5b and to determine that it is necessary for County purposes to acquire Spokane County parcel number 55041.9035 and authorize the initiation of condemnation proceedings. Second. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I I motion passes unanimously.
[01:11:36]
Okay. Thank you. That's then going to take us to item six on today's agenda, which is several public hearings. Um so we will start with public hearing 6a to consider granting a franchise to coupney electric cooperative incorporated to construct, operate, and maintain an electric system in, over, along, and under County roads, highways, and rideway in Spokane County. Thank you again, madam chair. So on the overhead, you can see the proposed franchise locations. They're all along the eastern boundary of Spokane County where we meet kney County. Um kney County, it's more expeditious to serve certain customers along the eastern margin and those are the franchise locations. Locations. We've reviewed the franchise and worked through it with kney County electric and staff is supportive of this franchise and I'm happy to answer any questions. Are there any questions for Mr. Zerakor?
[01:12:32]
Seeing none, thank you. This is a public hearing item, so I will open up to public testimony for anyone wishing to testify on item number 6a as just presented. Presented. Seeing no one in the audience, no one online. Second call for anyone wishing to testify on item number 6a. See no one. Third and final call. Okay, seeing no one, I will close the public hearing. I will look to my fellow commissioners. Commissioners. Madam chair, I move to approve public hearing item number 6a as presented by staff. Second. Have a motion and second. Any further discussion? Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Very good. All five of us. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6b, which is to consider establishing a County road, chatham avenue County engineers road number 2083 for this Spokane County public works department, Mr. Zerakor.
[01:13:32]
All right. Thank you again, madam chair. The first of six establishment hearings today. The first one is cadam avenue. Thank you, ron. And you can see this one's in northeast Spokane. It's just out of the hillyard area there. And you can see it's between a lot of existing roads. This road itself has existed for a very long time. Frankly, the establishment we believe was an oversight at the time, many years ago, and we're cleaning up our records. This roads appeared to be a public road for a very long time. I believe our staff's been maintaining it, but we would like to formally acknowledge the establishment and maintenance of this roadway. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, this is a public hearing. So, I open up to public hearing for anyone wishing to testify on item number 6b as just presented. Presented. Seeing no one, second call for anyone wishing to testify. No one online. No one in the audience.
[01:14:26]
Third and final call. Seeing no one in the audience or no one online, I will close the public testimony and look to my fellow commissioners. Commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6b as presented by staff. Staff. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item number 6 c which is to consider cons consider establishing County roads fairmont estates drive, summit estates drive and wind rose court in the plats fairmont estates phase 2 and four County engineers road file number 25507 for the Spokane public works department County. Sorry. Thank you again, madam chair. So you can see this establishment is located in the south Spokane valley, the morningside area. And you can see the roads proposed for establishment with the green center line there. And it represents two phases of a plat, the fairmont plat. And these roads have been constructed, certified, and are ready for establishment. They've been built in accordance with County standards, and we support the recommendation for establishing these roadways. Happy to answer any questions.
[01:15:44]
Thank you. And most of those homes have already been built. Is that correct? Correct? Yes, they're built. They're built and certified. We've and most of these have had at least one if not two years on a warranty period. Okay. As sometimes we see it and it looks like they're not built yet. So the aerial they are built. Yes, they that's correct. The aerials often lag behind and are older. So it doesn't always represent current imagery. Imagery. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Um so this is a is there any other comments for Mr. Zerakor? Okay. Um, this is a public hearing item, so I will open up to public testimony on item number 6c as just presented. Seeing no one in the audience and no one online. Second call. Seeing no one, third and final call. I will now close the public testimony for 6c and look to my fellow commissioners. Madame chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6c as presented by staff.
[01:16:41]
Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6d, which is to consider establishing County roads molly street, jody street, heath avenue, and stonewall avenue in the plat 5Mile estates County engineers road file number 2690 for the Spokane County public works department. Uh, thank you once again, madam chair. This establishment takes place up on fivem prairie. You can see on the aerial on the right that strong road is the northern boundary of this plant. And the roads shown in red are the ones proposed for establishment. This has already been inspected and approved. As we discussed previously, by the time they come to the board, they've been fully certified. And oftentimes, we've had a year or two to make sure that there's no deficiencies.
[01:17:36]
And just for the boards, we have a two-year warranty period on all private development. And that's good. Gives us a chance to look at the road. A lot of the construction traffic has always already happened in the process of building the homes. And that loading often kind of proof tests everything and we see any deficiency, settlement in the roadways or anything that we might need to have fixed. So that two-year warranty is really valuable to the County. We oftentimes end up using it to correct small deficiencies and these roads um have been built and certified. So that's the recommendation of our office. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions for b? Seeing none, um I will open this up for public testimony for anyone that would like to speak to item 6d as just presented. I'm seeing no one on in the audience and no one online. Second call.
[01:18:30]
Third and final call. Seeing no one online and no one in the audience, I will close the public testimony on item 6d and look to my collection or um call. Is there any further dis no, there needs to be a motion. Sorry. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6d as presented by staff. Second. Okay, I have a motion second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6e which is consider establishing County roads wellingham road orster way and red avenue and the plat I'm sorry I'm probably butchering all those names in the plat midway road first edition County engineers road file number 2652 um for the Spokane County public works department.
[01:19:25]
Department. Thank you once again madam chair. Um, as you point out, these road names are getting more interesting with time as we try not to duplicate road names in Spokane County. So, this project is up north. Hatch is just west off of the aerial and midway is bordering it on the south just for orientation. And the roads proposed for um establishment are shown in red. This road again, all these roads have been built, certified, and approved in accordance with County standards. It is the recommendation of our office to go ahead and establish them for perpetual maintenance and I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions. There any questions? Seeing none, although um this is a public you can tell I'm getting tired of this [laughter] making us roomy with my repetition here. I'm sorry. This is a public hearing item and so I'll open it up to public testimony for anyone wishing to talk testify on item 6e.
[01:20:19]
6e. See no one online. No one in the audience. Second call. See no one. Third and final call. Seeing no one online and no one in the audience, I will close the public testimony for item 6e and look to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6e as presented by staff. Staff. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6f, which is to consider establishing County roads 20th avenue, maragold road, and 30th avenue in the plat County engineers road file number 2100 for the Spokane County public works department. Thank you once again, madam chair. And you can see on the overhead, this is in the south valley. You can see 32nd avenue on the aerial to the south and its fronts on adams road and the roads proposed for establishment are shown in red once more. And you can see this development's a little different. Um I think we're going to see a lot more of this moving forward as infill is encouraged to be denser than it has been historically.
[01:21:38]
Historically. And it's interesting. It's a hybrid of private and public roads. The public roads border it and then the internal roads are all private and I think we're going to see more of this. But again, these roads proposed for establishment were built and certified in accordance with County standards and I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm not seeing anyone jumping for any questions. So, I will open up this I will open this for public testimony. Um 6f has just presented. I'm not seeing anyone online. No one in the audience. Second call. Third and final call for item 6f as just presented. Presented. Seeing no one in the audience and no one online. I will close the public testimony and look to my fellow commissioners. Commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6f as presented by staff. Second.
[01:22:30]
Okay. My motion is second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6g, which is to consider establishing County roads. Okay, [laughter] I'm gonna let you say all the names of the roads. [laughter] all right. Um, last but not least, thank you, madame chair. You can see this is representing three phases of woodidge fourth edition plat and one phase out of falcon ridge north. The different colors represent the different phases of the plat. The roads proposed for establishment are again shown in red. Um the gentleman that spoke earlier, this is the development he was referring to.
[01:23:22]
Um still present here and may want to testify. Testify. And it is something that we're paying more attention to obviously especially in light of the recent fires is evacuation routes and especially developments that their only evacuation routes face the prevailing winds. It's a concern. It's a real concern. That being said, we do not control development. We do not have the ability to condemn to help development get more excess routes very reasonably. But reasonably so development if it continues up onto five Mile will likely have other connections out. But currently it this we're not wild about this situation either. This feels like ponderosa 30 years ago if you're familiar with it. For a long time it didn't have a lot of ways out and all the ways faced prevailing winds. So it's a challenge. We do pay attention to it. We try and address it where we can, but we are somewhat limited in terms of land development because we do not control the property to provide additional access oftentimes.
[01:24:24]
So again, these roads were built, certified, and constructed in accordance with County standards. Our office does recommend establishing these roads for perpetual maintenance. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, commissioner jordan. Do we have in our current standards any thought given to the question raised? I think a lot of people are thinking about how to get out in a situation like we just had. So what do we currently have if anything to say on that topic? You know really all the access requirements in our road standards are driven by fire code. Um the two ways out after a certain number of units that we go, it varies with what type of development. Apartments have more units available before they need a second access. Once you get to 30 in residential type development, you have to have a second access. And that's a full open second access. We've gone through a lot of iterations over the decades, but currently it's two. Um the fire department will oftentimes comment in appropriately so when there are concerns about evacuation routes. That being said, they like us are very limited. Um you can deny a development if you wanted to, but then where does that development go? You know, we are trying to densify and keep it within the ug and that sometimes works against us.
[01:25:49]
This is really historically more of a concern in rural development more than urban development. But after this recent fire that obviously raced into residential developments that were have fire hydrants, that's giving us pause and making us pay even more attention than we have historically. So, does this one have two out? It does, but they both go to the southwest. They go towards prevailing winds. So, that's the unsettling piece as your evacuation routes would arguably in typical wind patterns be moving you towards fire. And the roads have already been built. Yeah, this one probably mostly occupied by that this point. Their neighborhoods are in all likelihood 80% existing. That's pretty typical, but it is a consideration when we look at the ug and what we want to bring in when we're analyzing areas for inclusion. This is something that we should be thinking and talking about and I believe we do to some extent now, but after the recent events, probably even more so.
[01:26:54]
Yeah, I'm just hopeful that we can continue to really talk these issues through, you know, get fire district 9's input on it. But um yeah, much more to talk about in terms of evacuation off a five Mile and how we try to make these developments as safe as possible going forward is something I'm very interested in. In. And am I? Okay. Any other comments for matt? Just with the conversation that we're having. So these roads are built and the decision today is just whether to accept them into the road network and take over maintenance correct of the roads. Roads. Yeah, these are not proposed roads. These are all existing roads with existing homes. And yes, this is just the formal taking over the roadway system. That's the decision in front of the board today. Okay.
[01:27:49]
Okay. Um so this is a public hearing item. Um so it is public hearing item 6g. I do have someone signed up and I think we have I'm not sure if you're one and the same or if I've got okay. So give me just a second. So I will open up for public testimony. I do have Brian bogey. No, he's not here. Okay. Um so he was signed up um for item 6g. So um he was since he's not here then I will then open it up to anyone else who would like to testify. So just please State your name and you'll have three minutes. Richard simple resident north Indian Trail road. These access points are Indian Trail road access points even though physically they exist on top of five Mile prairie. Um could you please move that timer somewhere else? Thank you. So um south of Assembly. Yeah, please just don't yeah, just don't don't touch the right here. South of Assembly, there's a gravel easement. Not easement, there's a gravel strip across a guy's alalfa field that connects to highland middle school. It connects to hawthorne road and it's blocked by a metal gate that's locked by private land owner. Uh we need to consider figuring out cooperation with that landowner or something. It was privately opened during the fires and people were getting out or sneaking in and out. Um, but we need to consider that there is no
[01:29:28]
Topside ax exit out there. Um, way out at the bottom off of sundance's barnes road, we need to consider a barnes road tie in to Nine Mile road, which would have not helped in this current situation because Nine Mile was also affected because it was a near global event. But if you have a local event in the woodridge area, having a Nine Mile tie-in would very much help. The woodridge neighborhood has only barns as a topside access. And I live off of navajo and I have no way to get out topside except if I use a bicycle be and that gravel strip that's private land would give us an out. And then on top of this, I want to add that bottom of the which is south below Assembly. They have stripped that of all vegetation, are currently installing uh sewer and water and such. There is at least construction anticipating that you will add nearly equal that many homes to the south into the Brown field south of Assembly. So you're uncomfortable with this. I'm uncomfortable with this. I don't want to deprive people their homes. Certify the roads because they live there. Okay. I'm I'm not that bad an activist. But south of Assembly is not yet built. You have infrastructure that a developer might lose money on. I would be sad if I was the developer and really upset because he's invested a lot of money. But nothing has gone on other than dirt work south of Assembly and we're already nervous with what we see today. Why would we voluntarily make ourselves more
[01:31:05]
Nervous south of Assembly? Um, you know, I anyways, you guys need to I would really like it if you would look at this with more detail, with more experts than I. This makes me nervous. It's built. Fine. Let's go with what's built. The dirt work maybe should be reversed. Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else that would like to testify? Well, I just have a question. I mean, I'm not I just how my name's elizabeth melville and I'm from Spokane. I don't see two ways out. I only see you have to go to Assembly and Assembly doesn't go through both directions. How is you go? So, excuse me. Um [clears throat] yeah. Okay. I just seem like there's but the public testimony is for establishing the roads into our system. And it's not discussing the fire access. So, thank you. Um, is there anyone else who would like to testify on item 6g?
[01:32:16]
Seeing no one, a third and final call. Item 6g, I'm going to close the public testimony to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6g as presented by staff. Second. Okay. Any I have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Thank you, madam chair. I appreciate that the item is simply to acknowledge what's there and treat it as a County road and that folks who live there should be in, you know, getting it plowed and entitled to the services that they deserve. But I really appreciate the feedback on the larger concern. I hope we can get to that conversation. Thank you. Yes. And I will just comment that I agree. I mean this what we're doing today is for one purpose. I think after what just happened um we're going to be looking at other you know for what we can do we have to look at it as developments come forward and what those regulations are and looking at what we can do as commissioners for the future. I can say I'm was part of the valley be fire in '08 and we still only have one access road out. So, um, it happens and I don't know, I still choose to live where I'm at, but, um, I know what the risks are. Um, so all we can do is hopefully help make it better for future developments and some of these developments that are there that is things happen um that we can be looking forward um and not, you know, backwards. And I'm glad to hear that the gate was opened up to allow people. But
[01:33:58]
Yeah, um I know that happened in the '08 fire as well. So, so anyway, any further comments? Comments? Seeing none, all those in favor of item 6g as presented by staff? I I thank you. It passes unanimously. Okay, it has been a long agenda and I do know that some people are trying to get to a press conference uh with the health district um with Dr. Velasquez um regarding the fires. Is there any other miscellaneous items? Nothing for me, chair. Okay, so no miscellaneous items and no executive sessions. So then we are adjourned for the day. Thank you all.
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[00:00:14]
Yes. Okay. Welcome everyone. It is August 11th, 2026. This is our two o'clock commissioners agenda meeting. Uh let the record reflect. Is amber online? Just we have four commissioners that are present in the hearing room. Um and commissioner waldruff is online so she is joining us virtually. Um before we get started I just want to say we have thank you all for coming down. We have lots of people. Our rules are 15 minutes. I am going to I have the privilege of extending. I'm going to extend it for 30 minutes. I'm gonna allow we have way more than that have signed up. So, we are randomly going to be selecting I'm going to have my vice chairs randomly pick the people. So, we'll have 30 people speak a minute each. I'm going to have commissioner karns call three names in that order. If you would just come over by the microphone so we can be as efficient as possible so we can hear as many people as we can. Um, that's how we're going to do it. And then I will call up the next person uh to speak and you'll have one minute. Um so we will get started. Um there was no written comments that were for items on today's agenda. So I'm going to have us all stand for the pledge.
[00:01:43]
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, um, and I will State our rules are on this the wall there. So, um, no, there is no alipers, there's no clapping, um, any of that. If there is any of that happens, I will ask people to leave. Um, so I just ask you all to be respectful. I'm trying to be respectful to have as many people speak as possible. So with that, I will okay. So, can you hear me now?
[00:02:38]
Okay. And then we'll make sure Mr. Uh, commissioner karns uh, when he identifies the people says it loudly as well. So again, I'm no outbursts. Um if if anyone has any outbursts, we'll they'll be asked to leave. Um I'm trying to get through this as quickly as possible so as many people can speak during that 30 minutes. Uh with the fires, I'm going to say we do have other things that are happening. Um there's a press conference that at the health district at 4:00 we're trying to get to. So I just ask everyone to please understand. So, with that, um, I will open up the public floor forum and I will have commissioner karns say the three names and that way again hopefully you can then get yourself here so we can be um, as timely as possible getting people through. First three, julia mchugh, terry Horn, and jb freeman in that order.
[00:03:41]
Good afternoon. I'm julia mchugh. I live in the palisades neighborhood on the west plains on a contaminated well. I am here to talk about the failure of last week's uh ballot initiative. The defeat of last week's vote for the west plains aquifer protection rests squarely on your shoulders. Each board member was aware that the restricted eligible voting area included two federal census tracks. Mr. French knows this very well. We were in the same meeting. The outcome of last week's second aquifer vote in a second consecutive year of aquafer voting in a year of extraordinary inflation and economic disruption to taxpayers was expressed to this board by the public numerous times last year. This is a failure by design and an incalculable fail for constituents. Last year, this board joined by the City fostered the 20-year renewal of the aquifer protection area for the Spokane valley aratham prairie aquifer with rare voter approval at 73% ensuring the City County owned property above the west plains aquifer is now protected. The majority of the west plains was excluded from this vote and defeated last week.
[00:04:48]
The unique west plains aquifer system remains unprotected. The groundwater is unsafe to drink with reported water scarcity. Filtration systems will not do it. What is your plan b? That's all I want to know. What is your plan b for the west plains? We'd like to hear from the you're going to be held with for answers. Answers. Um, next I have terry Horn. All right. My name is terry Horn. I'm a west plains resident. And um so what it looks like is there's an nda and uh if spoken County commissioners vote or finalize an intram ordinance in an unannounced or improper closing setting, an official action taken in violation of Washington's open public meetings act is legally null and void.
[00:05:47]
Participating members face personal financial penalties of 500 for the first known violation. So legal liabilities, the sunshine laws, violation, void actions, rcw423060, any ordinance, adoption or final decision made outside an open uh meeting is invalid. You're about to put that ai data center if it does go on medical lake road in an area of high susceptibility to our aquifer in a high-risisk drainage area which is neither in the comprehensive plan nor the cao the critical area ordinance chapter 11.2 what is the plan to poison us? Is that the plan for this commission? Because that's what it sounds like, guys. And you know what? Ultrasound is a big deal. And it kills. Thank you.
[00:06:40]
Please, please, no clapping. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Um, so be before you start, we're gonna call the next group. So they're ready to go. Go. So the next three are ready. I think this is arena bha, Linda green, and jim lady. Okay. So, Mr. Freeman. Okay. I am a retired quality assurance, quality control manager for a data complex in Washington State. So, I know what I'm talking about with these things. And what I have seen the small amount so far on information for this data center. I can sit down with any of you for hours to go over the technical problems that you're looking at here. But to get to the meat of what has already been said, I would request on behalf of every citizen of this County that every commissioner disclose every communication be text, email, phone, private meetings, and any minutes thereof. And that they disclose any meetings between themselves regarding the same with any private entity. Ndas are morally and ethically irresponsible and reprehensible.
[00:08:10]
Thank you. Okay, please. Um, so arena bha good afternoon. My name is aruna bha. I'm a longtime resident of Spokane and I am here for not only putting moratorium but halting the data center process considering the impact noise pollution the drain on the energy uh infrastructure as well as water especially after the fires that we have faced. So I and also too in short run we may have more jobs but in long run it is going to take away the jobs from people. So we want to look for long-term well-being of our community and also keeping in mind less workers that means less social security contribution and then long-term outcomes for the community at large is not good for data center. Please hold the data center and keep the process transparent like the previous speaker mentioned so that public knows about the decisions you're making with aista or any other organization. Thank you for your time.
[00:09:26]
Thank you. Next is Linda green. I'm here to ask you to impose a moratorum of at least one year on the construction of data centers in Spokane County. I would like it to actually not have any data centers ever, but one year at least. I believe that one of the commissioners has said that the moratorum would be bad for business. These centers are said to be job creators, but the construction jobs are short-term, gone as soon as it's built, and it doesn't take many employees to run a data center once it's in operation. So, just what business is it good for? It's good for mega companies with billionaire ceos. We don't want or need those at the expense of our residents who have a right to a place without air and noise pollution. Most importantly, we are in a drought condition too often to allow data centers to steal our water from us for cooling their highdensity computing systems. This is new technology and is moving way too fast. We can slow it down and learn the ins and outs of data centers by our own research and by looking at other communities who are dealing with them on a firsthand basis.
[00:10:40]
Let's slow it down. Thank you. And then I'm going to have the next uh three people as jim if you'll just hold on just one second. Next three are melody wyn, robert richard jr. And robert ordin I think is what that is. Okay. So, gym lady Spokane. Uh I wouldn't wanted to talk about item h about the Spokane County sheriff's office left turn lane. I wasn't able to find out where that was going to be at because I didn't see an address or the reason for it. Also, while I'm up here, I'm a united states army veteran and I am against data centers. Commissioner french said that anybody against data setters are unpatriotic. I have Nine and a half s years of military service. Commissioner french, would you like to tell me I'm unpatriotic?
[00:11:37]
Would you like to tell me about your military service? Okay, please. We can wait. Um, um, well, he did say that people who are against data centers are unpatriotic. Tell me about your patriotism, commissioner french. Right. Right. Tell me if I am unpatriotic. I am a military veteran. So, Mr. Lee, I have got public speaking and I'm allowed to speak. Yes. Yes. And I can address the commission and I am addressing the commission. And I am calling out commissioner french who said that anybody against data centers is unpatriotic. Unpatriotic. And I'm giving him a chance to explain himself. Himself. Thank you. Please. Okay. Please do not clap, otherwise I will ask people to leave the room. Melody wyn, a resident, longtime resident of Spokane, also a veteran. Uh I um look at you decision makers to solve problems. It's not looking too good. The um I've devoted my life to tradition or tra tradition tribal food sovereignty and the traditional ecological knowledge that I'm saying is like 500 plus years old maybe now you can listen therefore here uh we are the people we're not the only people the plants and animals are people too we don't need mass surveillance we don't need cryptocurrency we don't need knowledge as a tool of power. We the people need water, air, earth, soil,
[00:13:17]
Home, quiet, and healing. And we the people, we are the people. So are you. Please remember that. Thank you. So next is robert. Okay, I'm going to say one more time, if there is any more clapping, I will stop the public hearing because we have extended beyond our 15 minutes. So, I'd ask you to please be respectful so we can extend it to let other people speak. Um, thank you. So, robert richard jr. Good afternoon. Uh, I am robert richard. I am a vietnam era, libya, lebanon, libya, persian gulf, navy war veteran, technically retired. I took the separation bonus after the persian gulf war. I am a lifetime member of veterans of foreign wars and I'm the acting secretary of veterans for peace, chapter 35 in Spokane. Uh the us is in a situation I think where the jump to ai is similar to the early people's republic of china's great leap in the late 1950s where mao was encouraging the people to eat less and work harder during a famine that they couldn't talk about in public or as similar to the 2008 home mortgage debt collapse where taxpayers bailed out private corporations and big banks that couldn't service their own debt which is where the federal government is at now with its $39 trillion debt. And big tech wants to lean on us taxpayers in a corrupt fashion to finance a ai that's not making any money and already started bankrupting banks in silicon valley.
[00:14:55]
Thank you, Mr. Richards. Um I will have be before I have you speak, uh Mr. But I'll we'll announce the other three pe just a just a moment. We'll announce the other three people to come down. Melanie perry, margaret o'connell, and Craig volising. Hello. My name is Robert Orner. And uh given the quick time, I'm going to kind of move right along here. First off, I'd like to say there's an upside to this issue. It has united a fractured political landscape. Republicans, independents, democrats, both rural and urban, overwhelmingly do not want data centers in their communities. Notably across the nation, communities are collectively saying no to data centers and winning. Even texas under greg abbott reluctantly put a stop to potential data centers as the power grid was set to collapse with huge energy demands that data centers require. If the Spokane data center project was put on for uh ballot for consideration by our community, my perception is it would be overwhelmingly defeated. As well, the concept of providing substantial tax breaks to private entities using Spokane funded infrastructure, water, and energy is quite frankly maddening.
[00:16:12]
It's an act of lunacy in my humble opinion to move forward with the data center until specific questions over utilization of our shared resources have been explored, vetted, confirmed, and shared with our community in open and transparent manners. The one-year meritorium. Thank you. Your minute is over. I'm sorry. Sorry. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Uh melanie perry. Hello. I had a speech written, but I'm just going to keep it brief and just people of the count commissioner Council look out into this very small chamber and realize that this is a group of people who love their County, their community, the people around them, the nature and the water that we all rely on and share. And we just want what is best for everyone here. And we just really would like a stop to all this craziness with the ai data centers that are just going to make it worse for us all.
[00:17:12]
That's all. Thank you. Next is margaret okonnell. Good afternoon. I am margaret okonnell. I'm a long-term resident of the west plains and I fully support at least a one-year moratorum on the proposed hypers scale data center. My reasons are based on economics. As has been mentioned, there is a potential economic downturn in hyper data centers. I base my support on the human and environmental health. I was thinking I was going to go after most people who would have already raised a lot of questions or a lot of the points but I will point out two things. One data scale data centers like this are energy hungry and in many places around the country even though they start with hydroelect electric power they are now looking into such as in quincy using methane gas to power. Secondly they're water hungry. It has been suggested that these data centers will be using waste water from medical lake and from Airway Heights. The combined wastewater treated from those two communities is about 20% of what the potential needs of that data center would be. So, please, thank you, support a moratorum.
[00:18:39]
Um, I'm gonna have commissioner Craig go ahead and come up and then I'm gonna have commissioner karns read the next ones. Just a second. The next three up. Casia soler, hank bicker, and joseph godsy. Okay, go ahead. Craig volosing, west plains. Um, as to data centers, please put the brakes on. Adopt a moratorum on permitting construction of these kinds of facilities for at least one year. There are many reasons why. You will no doubt be hearing them all. Here's just one. The greater Spokane community is facing daunting time of rebuilding, especially of homes lost to wildfires. On national public radio just this morning came a featured report on how data centers are having a major negative impact on the building of housing across this country. They are exerting huge pressure with demands for both labor and materials. Shall we allow a data center rush to make rebuilding our citizens homes even more expensive and prolonged?
[00:19:56]
And then I'd like to do one thing very silently. Silently. Would you raise your hand if you are in favor of at least a one-year moratorum on this? Thank you. So, next I have uh kashia silera. I'll let you say your name correctly. My name is casia. Casia cer. Um, I've grown up in Washington my whole life and I'm in support of a moratorum as well as um just not allowing data centers in our City any bigger than the ones that are already here. People and planet over profit. My biggest concern is the heart of all of you and of our government and our boards. Prioritizing profit over the well-being of the people who live here and the land and the resources that we all share. So I would ask you to really consider the long-term effects of this because if we pass one data center then what comes in two more years and then three and then five and then how far is it going to go?
[00:21:10]
So unless we have regulations intact to preserve the environment and require these data centers to have very high um or look for alternative solutions to using water for their um business. Yeah, definitely moratorium for one year longer really. Thank you. Next I have hank baker and then joseph. Madame chair and commissioners, we the people want a seat at the table. We want no approval before full transparency. If the public is unaware of the facts of the project, then the project is not ready for approval. A project of this kind pursued without transparency should not be rewarded with speed. We need a moratorum that will give us pause which is already a mainstream regional response as evidenced by the room until the public has complete and full disclosure. We need independent review and enforcable protections. We're the ones that voted for all of you and put you in those seats of authority and please keep that in mind moving forward.
[00:22:21]
We'd appreciate that. Thank you very much. Much. Thank you. Um, and joseph, before you start, I'm gonna have commissioner karns read the next three names, but you can stand up and be ready to go. Hayden ramirez, carolyn boils, and audrey joy. Go ahead. I'm joseph godsy, and I was elected water commissioner by the people of the valley, the City, and the County to protect our water. As soon as we lower our district's existential threat, pos, by eight times, going from 16 parts per trillion down to two, I'm informed of a new threat. A threat that raises our electricity price, pollutes our water and air, and is poised to destroy our future generations in Spokane. These externalities will raise my constituents water pumping costs, make our water toxic to drink, and destroy our community's futures while we are still dealing from with these fires. So unless you can pass laws internalizing every single externality of this business, I say externalize ai data centers from our community. Thank you.
[00:23:33]
Thank you. So next I have hayden ramirez. Hi, good afternoon uh commission. My name is hayden ramirez. I am a Spokane County resident. Uh I'm also a youth organizer with the Washington bus. We're the largest youth organization in the State. I'm also a social studies teacher, uh, secondary, middle, and high school. Um, so I talk to young people a lot, pretty much all day, every day, even past the 9 to5 work hour. Um, and I just want to share, I have a lot of opinions myself on this, but I want to share what I'm hearing from my young uh, people in my life. I'm hearing fear about the future of the planet. I'm seeing um folks who live up in north Spokane in the meat area, including my family, who see the effects of this wildfire and see the fact that um every summer's getting hotter and the utility costs are going up, right? We're going to have to expend more energy um because the summers are getting hotter and uh what is a data center going to do but increase those costs, right? Increase that energy usage. I'm just seeing general fear. Um, every generation should be, you know, have that promise of that american dream that they're going to do better than their parents' generation. And I'm not hearing that with my young people. I'm hearing fear, anxiety, depression, um, and a general, uh, consensus that data centers are just going to worsen that.
[00:24:51]
So, thank you. I asked you to consider a one-year pause. Thank you. Okay, carolyn boils or boils? Boils. Hi, I'm carolyn boils and I live in Spokane up in me and um as a geologist I have extreme who worked in the environmental field I have extreme reservations about um all aspects of these huge ai data centers. Um, as far as the water issue, when you draw down water from the aquifer more than what is being recharged, you lose that recharge capability and that cannot be mitigated. That is a forever problem. And if you don't if you use less water for these data centers, that means increased energy usage for cooling. And that cooling energy usage pollutes the planet. It pollutes the air.
[00:25:51]
It pollutes the environment. And the noise is like the unless the noise is totally mit mitigated, then all the animals, everybody that lives miles around is affected by this. It's a terrible, terrible thing. These data centers are a blight. Thank you. Next three speakers, richard simple, Linda ball, and katium natarrison. Okay. Audrey joy. My name is audrey joy. I was born and raised in Spokane County. I'm representing 350 Spokane, a local climate advocacy organization. I'm 24 years old. Currently, our community is facing devastation from extreme wildfires. Our beautiful Spokane river is running dry again for the second year in a row. We need a countywide moratorum to ensure thoughtful and transparent planning for large load data centers in our County.
[00:26:54]
It is now absolutely more important than ever that you give us thoughtful consideration for everyone in this room who's sharing about this issue. This is my future that you're making decisions about. So I encourage you to consider that thoughtfully. Thank you. Thank you. So richard simple. Yes. A resident north Indian Trail road. My family moved to Spokane and I moved to Spokane in 1980. North Indian Trail road neighborhood have lived there off and on the entire time my parents um and you the last item you've got is reviewing conot drive in the lar development at the top of the woodridge neighborhood and they're they're extending those roads and making space for more houses up there. Currently that particular lar development only has ingress and egress through shaune or if they come down seol and then hit a spaghetti of other roads.
[00:27:48]
It is extremely tight to get in and out of just that little neighborhood, let alone the north Indian Trail corridor. And so by allowing more housing up there, you're putting uh the rest of us at risk or at great inconvenience on a normal day when nothing bad happens, but on a day when something bad does happen. So, if we could consider punching an egress down west barnes or punching an egress across hawthorne at the middle school up there. There's an alalfa field with a dirt road with a gravel road across it. We need more ingress egress. Thank you. Um, next is Linda ball. Good afternoon, commission. Um, full disclosure, I'm speaking for myself, not for the City of liberty lake, because some of you know I'm on the Council there. Um, this last week and a half should be a wakeup call to everyone that climate change is the biggest threat to humanity. Um, we need water. We don't need gigantic data centers for life.
[00:28:53]
We've lived without them for most of our existence. I'm very concerned about the natural resources, most importantly, water, that it takes to keep one of these facilities running. Um big business should not take precedence over life. U 50 years from now uh no one will be better off because we had data centers. Um everything does not have to be about money. We need to think about people before profit. Insurance companies warned after katrina in 2005 that natural disasters would become more prevalent due to climate change. That was 21 years ago. Let that sink in. Um, uh, let's see. Gosh, I had so much air, but I did want to mention the colorado river is low. The new a new federal proposal could require arizona, california, and nevada to reduce their water use by as much as 3 million acre feet through 2036. Right.
[00:29:48]
Right. Thank you. And lake me and lake powell are at their lower lowest uh levels ever. And I have um an article I'd like each of you to take a look. If you could hand it to the clerk. Thank you. You. Um, uh, yes. Next three, ne next three are caitlyn scott, bob leel, and Elizabeth Willard. And so then, you don't have to pronounce it. [laughter] [laughter] will you pronounce it for us? It's kotayam bispoth and natarajin jr. And I'm an elected commissioner for the liber stewart and water district. Um, we've tried to reach out to the County at a staff level as constituents and elected to elected and we haven't had any success. So, I'm here in person to try to talk to you. Um, we're very small. We're not like the big County. We only do three things. We provide fresh drinking water. We protect liberty lake and we provide sewer services. That's all we do. And, um, we've been doing it for 50 years. Liberty lake was a toxic dump 50 years ago. You couldn't swim in it. It was toxic algae. We've cleaned it all up. And right now, all of a sudden, Spokane County building and planning department has decided to try to prevent us from providing sewer services. We don't understand this. We don't know why. We've been doing it for 50 years.
[00:30:57]
There's over 500 houses outside the ug that have sewer service. You have worked with us in the last since 2001 since the growth management act um to provide sewer services to over 50 new houses. And suddenly the building department has said, "nope, we're going to prevent you from providing sewer services." we can't go back. We can't have people. They're going to build houses. It's not about growth. The houses are going to be there. They're going to happen. We just want them to be on the sewer system to have the sewage treated in a state-of-the-art facility rather than septic systems that are going to leech into our aquifer and liberty lake. We just can't go back. So, I really want to work with you guys. Thank you. Appreciate that. Caitlyn scott. Hello. My name is caitlyn scott and I'm here on behalf of Spokane rivereper. Thank you for having us here today. We're here in support of a moratorum and I am grateful to be organizing around this issue with our partners at the lands Council 350 Spokane and many other organizations at the Spokane environmental policy coalition. We're here asking you to support this moratorum because now more importantly than ever there's so many other issues that we need to be focused on at a County level. The fires are a perfect example of that. We don't need to be trying to develop fast develop regulations at our own pace here in Spokane County. We need to take the time to do it right. As audrey said, the river is running dry. It's already dry in Spokane valley right now. It's been dry for two days. Um, until we take action and really address it and start planning for change, start planning for our future, we're going to see more of that. We're going to see more fire. We're going to see more dry.
[00:32:28]
We're going to see more devastation in our community. And we need this moratorium as a first step in addressing this and really taking action against these data centers. Thank you. Thank you. Um, bob. Um, hi, I'm bob le. I live up north Indian Trail with my wife and three sons. Uh, thank you for the hearing. Um, I also came here to ask that you, uh, halt construction of data centers and not allow them in Spokane, um, Spokane County. Uh, I'm worried about the beauty of eastern Washington. I love eastern Washington. I think it's beautiful. I don't want to trade that for u enormous windowless boxes that are shrill. Um, I'm worried about the water and the heat. They consume a lot of energy and emit a lot of heat and um, my neighborhood was just burned. Um, and so I don't want to see more heat in our environment and less water in our environment. But, um, th those before me have said a lot of things extremely well that I would plus one. I'll focus on one they haven't been saying, which is if the data center is for ai, what the frontier and the labs need it for is training the next model, the successor to fable and soul. And um it's the model that they are hoping will be recursively self-improving, the model they're calling agi, a model they're saying they can't control, and they've gone on record asking the government to help them slow down. Um my perspective is this isn't worth it.
[00:33:52]
Thank you. The next three are liam argon, jennifer kelly, and antoine voluone. Bologna. So, el elizabeth uh willard is yes. Yes. Yes. We're just trying to get the next three up in line. So, yes, Elizabeth Willard, born and raised in Spokane, Washington. Um, you need to slow this down. And one thing I wanted to come here today hoping that Al French would apologize to us because he was on the news saying that anyone that's not on board with the data center is not patriotic. Patriotic. I think you should apologize to everyone in this room, especially our veterans for that.
[00:34:45]
I'm waiting who's paying you, al? Who have you been talking to in the last year secretly? Why does this have to be so secret if this is such a good idea? Anybody? So, this is public hearing and so we don't interact with the questions at this point. Let's just keep it hanging in the air. Thank you. Okay, liam argon. Argon. Yes. Yes. Uh, hello. My name is liam arga. I am a student at gonzaga university. I've lived in Spokane County my entire life. I'm here to talk about the one-year moratorum proposition uh for uh the data center that's going to be put in medical lake. That has a 512 acre data center.
[00:35:43]
It's going to take up 500 megawatts of power, which is roughly 50% of the power we use in Spokane already. We are in the extreme drought conditions. We're at level two right now. We are going to continue to be in that drought. Even if they use hydroelectric power or hydrogen power, that still requires water for the hydrogen power. So, it's actually a double negative because you have to use it for the cooling systems and you also have to use it for the power, which is not a very good look uh for our aquafer or for the rest of our community. Uh I look at you guys and I see leaders, I see people that would like to help uh or maybe everyone but Al French. Um but if you guys would like to help, please vote on this. Please say no. Will please propose a moratorum and please help our community. Community. Thank you. Jennifer kelly. Hello. My name is jennifer kelly. I'm a resident of district 5 for oh, excuse me, 25 years now. And I am here simply as a citizen for myself, my community, my children, and my grandchildren to support a moratorium on data centers.
[00:36:41]
Many of my community members have spoke very eloquently about the drawbacks of a data center. Um, I might add, just myself this morning, I read about a nevada utility company has a firstofits-kind lawsuit suing the data center developer track accusing the company of trying to pass infrastructure costs on to consumers. This is a business model that I think that makes sense to you guys. So, also we would like not to have billionaires passing their costs on to us as citizens. And I'd also like to use uh the last of my time to share the secrecy of this is really disheartening. I was here on July 16th. There were two members who spoke about data centers and you district on record shared that there were no proposed or planned data centers for the County. And I think that we're here because there is one. So that was not being honest to myself and the community when you said that.
[00:37:39]
That. Thank you. Um okay so just a second Mr. Anton before you start. Um so we have three more and these will be the final three speakers. Carla mckini, Mary benham, and devin kamacho. So Mr. Anton, my name is anton. I'm a Spokane resident. Okay, this the data center, there's nothing wrong with it other than it's an investment company. I mean, it's it's it's uh why do they want to uh build a something so huge, but at the same time, they're going to want the State to pay for part of it. It's nothing but an investment scam is what it looks like to me. You know, we can do the State can do that. The same thing without somebody getting rich outside of Spokane.
[00:38:41]
Spokane. That's my point. You know, it should be a no period because the State alone can do it. Thank you. Thank you. So, next I have carla mckini. Hi, carla mckini, Spokane valley. I am here in favor of a moratorum for at least a year on data centers. Um I'm not understanding. It feels like this is all being rushed and it's like yeah put the brakes on, slow down. Our water system is taxed. Our uh power grid is taxed and all this is going to do is suck more out. So I'm questioning why is there a rush on this and why is there a need? It all goes back to money. It's time to put people over profits. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Mary benham, Mary benham, west plains. There are good alternatives to data centers. The west plains has commercial and industrial development.
[00:39:48]
There are viable projects that include aviation and manufacturing support, a focus on logistics hubs, expanded manufacturing, flex warehouses, trade and freight infrastructure. These projects won't deplete groundwater or demand enormous amounts of power. Spokane has a severe long-term housing and affordability crisis. Now worse with more than 800 homes destroyed. Governor ferguson will seek fundal money to rebuild. There is land in the west plains ready for housing development. Consider the new east west 12th street corridor off hayford in Airway Heights. Hopefully you have driven out there. Hopefully you're familiar with it.
[00:40:41]
Thank you. Okay. And devin, you'll be our last speaker. I'm devon kamacho um from district five. Um I just want to say that I am in favor of the moratorum just because we rely on that aquifer. I'm scared that by building the data center and having the cooling systems with their evaporation mixing with the pas or forever chemicals will lead to air pollution as well as the rain will contaminate our aquifer. I am very concerned that this has all been secret just because let's be honest, the trump administration has gutted the epa and this is all just to chase the fad as well as taking advantage of that. So I think that we the people should be at least the right to vote on this instead of just allowing everybody else to vote on it on our behalfs. We should have a word in all of this. So that is my biggest concern and that is why I am afraid of the future, afraid for the future generations. Um especially since I work at sish school Spokane and we're supposed to move our new school closer to the river. So how's that going to affect us? Thank you. Thank you.
[00:42:04]
Extend the time. Allow more of us to see. See. I am not going to extend the time. I've already extended beyond what uh we normally do. So, I will thank you all for being here. Um but I'm not going to extend the time because there are other things that we need to do as commissioners after this meeting and we have a lot more to do. Whole County to speak. Okay. Would you I'm not sure who's saying that, but I will ask you to leave. Leave. Okay. So, with that, I have closed the public hearing. Um, you need to ask any french dog.
[00:44:18]
So, madam chair, I'd like to uh ask for a point of personal privilege if you don't mind. Okay. Okay. Mr. French, I will give you a point of personal privilege. So, um, there have been a lot of, uh, comments made here. Excuse me. We're we're continuing our meeting, so if everyone would be quiet. If we could take any discussions out into the hallway. Nope, you're good. Commissioner french has asked for a point of personal privilege and I am granting that. So um a lot of this uh created uh and started when uh the board was uh on its summer break. So, this is the first opportunity I had to uh actually respond to some of the uh rumors, fear-mongering, conspiracy theories, and a bunch of other uh nonsense that quite frankly uh we heard today. Um, and so I'm going to set the record straight about my involvement in this uh project. And uh then I'll also post my comments to my web page so that those that didn't see fit to stay uh can at least be enlightened by it.
[00:45:49]
About three years ago, I attended a conference for the american public transportation association. And at that conference, one of the sessions was hydrogen fuel of the future. And uh two of the speakers at that conference, one was from a transit agency in florida and the other one from transit agency in southern california. And uh they were talking about how they'd converted their entire fleet over to electric only to have their fleet isolated when there was a hurricane in florida and when there were wind storms or firestorms in southern california. So they started the process of finding an alternative fuel that was reliable. Uh so they ended up um coalesing around hydrogen as the fuel of the future. It's green fuel.
[00:46:43]
It only pits out puts out a mist out of the exhaust pipe, not fumes or any other kind of air pollutants. So I was intrigued and started the process of learning more about that. Then uh discovered that the State of Washington, the legislature uh has set a goal uh to eliminate diesel fuel by the year 2030. Diesel fuel is what uh keeps our semi-truckss on the road to deliver goods. It also keeps our farm industry going. Going. And uh one of the State boards that I sit on, freight mobility strategic investment board, the trucking industry was in arms because if they had to convert their semis to electric, it's half of the payload. And so they'd have to cut the payload by half to be able to accommodate for the batteries.
[00:47:40]
Batteries. Farmers are also impacted. And in fact, the State of Washington from what I am being told is losing a farm a day because the cost of farming and the generational aspects of farming uh are just not what they used to be. Kids are not deciding to uh to farm anymore. They want to go to uh pursue other careers. So, why am I involved? It's because by State law, rcw 36.01.085, County commissioners are responsible for the economic development programs that happen within their counties. That's what I do. That's what I focus on is bringing new jobs and new industries to Spokane County. And in fact, the growth management act 36.70a.2020 also establishes economic development as a goal. So about two and a half years ago, I got in contact with a hydrogen developer and we started to see if a manufacturing facility in Spokane was even feasible.
[00:48:56]
Um, I had some very specific concerns right out of the gate. One, protecting this region to include its water and electricity rates. I just was not interested in bringing new industry to Spokane that would either one negatively impact our water or two negatively impact electrical rates for rateayers because I am one of those rateayers. So what the developer was talking about doing was using waste water, water that already was consumed and sent down the toilet, toilet, using waste water as the water source and solar panel farm to provide the energy. Energy. The other byproduct of uh developing hydrogen is also ammonia and ammonia can go then back into the fields and help our a industry uh increase their production rate per acre.
[00:49:55]
Deva data center was never even part of the conversation when we started down this road. It was only a year ago that developers said,"well, we can lower the cost of production on the hydrogen if we preheat the water through a data center." so, that is how that conversation started. Prior to that point, I'd already been contacted by three other developers that wanted to do data centers. And because my threshold was one, protecting our water, two protecting the rates for rateayers, all three of those projects fell by the wayside, didn't move forward. So as the project continued to mature and find out whether um the elements necessary to protect this region could be put into place, the conversation nationally started to really ramp up. And in fact, just two weeks ago, the national association of counties had their annual meeting. And at that meeting, they presented a standard for data centers that counties could go to and adopt.
[00:51:24]
Well, commissioner karns and I actually prior to finding that the um the recommendation from niko had already started the process of saying, "how can we protect our County? How can we protect our region and do it in a way to where you know we don't have to wait for a year uh to provide asurances to the public. Let's see if we could do something more uh timely. So we did present a possible interim zoning ordinance that would put some controls around data centers. It would also put some controls off the around use of the water and electric so that it would not impact our rateayers and that no public money, not a single nickel of public money would be used to support the construction of a data center.
[00:52:23]
Center. There's no reason for using public money to build out private industry like this. They can pay for their own cost. So, so, as the project continued to develop, uh, as it turns out, they're actually going to buy their energy from another State and transfer that energy into the State into Spokane. So, it won't affect our rates. They're using waste water, water that otherwise would uh go down the toilet and through the u treatment facilities. Uh used a closed loop system so that there'd be no water out of the aquifer. And I don't care whether it's the aquifer on the west plains or the Spokane rather prairie aquifer, there'd be no potable water used in the facility.
[00:53:20]
Facility. It's interesting because the largest water consumer on the west plains is actually collins aerospace. They use significantly more water than a data center ever could consume. And they're served out of the Spokane writer by the City of Spokane. The other negative around data centers is the noise created and the pollution created by the diesel powered generators. Well, what they're talking about doing is uh providing uh backup generation through hydrogen. And again, hydrogen doesn't produce either air pollution or the noise that um that diesels uh provide. The data center conversation is unfortunate.
[00:54:27]
Unfortunate. From my standpoint, I've not been a proponent of data centers. I've already had three other developers try and do one on the west plains and uh they could never get out of the starting gate. Uh my goal here is hydrogen. If the farming community has to go to battery powered harvesters, combines, plows, that's new equipment they've got to build, but that's also an electric grid that has to be expanded to provide the power to fuel those batteries. Farming community doesn't have that kind of money. The trucking industry doesn't have the kind of money to go to battery driven um semis. So that's why the hydrogen fuel, a clean fuel, fuel, was so attractive from my standpoint.
[00:55:25]
I'm trying to figure out how do we get to continue to thrive as a community in when diesel fuels uh if the legislature has their way will no longer be viable. Tim orsby, a democrat, floated a bill in this last legislative session to allow Spokane County to be competitive with other counties in the State that already enjoy a tax exemption for data centers that we do not have. We are excluded from that. And so, uh, I did testify at that hearing in support of, uh, uh, economic tools for Spokane County to make us competitive with other counties in the State.
[00:56:21]
Richelli, senator richelli also championed that in the State senate. So here you have a republican and a democrats working together to try and find a path forward for this community. So let me just address some of the conspiracy theories that are out there. Fires were set to clear land for a data center. Center. No, the land underneath where the fires occurred are residential zoned land. You can't build a data center there even if you wanted to. Imminent domain to acquire the land for economic development. That's against the State constitution. That can't happen in the State of Washington. I have no zero financial interest in any property on the west plains or any project proposed for the west plains.
[00:57:23]
Secret meetings. There were no secret meetings. Every all the meetings were listed in my calendar. You discovered them with the public records requests. They're right out there. I've been a an opponent a proponent of this uh hydrogen project for two and a half years. There's no secrets uh about this. I've been out in the public. I've been before boards. I've been through um even meetings here at the County. So, there's no secrets, nothing that's done under uh enclosed doors. The attacks about the data center have now become personal. Personal. Personal.
[00:58:15]
Not about the issue, not about the topic, but personal. Doing a moratorum doesn't guarantee an outcome, an outcome. And if you want to see evidence of that, the City of Spokane has passed three moratoriums for leah valley. And they haven't solved a single problem. All they've done is created false hope. With regard to the statement about patriotism, I did not insinuate that anybody that opposed a data center was unpatriotic. No, what I said was and we have the tape. We have we don't have it here, but I can play the tape for you. I'd be happy to do that. What I said is that it's been suggested that some think they're being opposed to it. That wasn't my comment.
[00:59:13]
That was what that was part of the public uh conversation. I'm a proud marine veteran, sir. And I I didn't accuse anybody of not being unpatriotic if you didn't support. What I said is that's part of the conversation that's out there. The fbi is doing investigations with regard to that. That's a whole separate topic. Anyway, I have my comments here. I'm going to publish them to my website. So everybody in this everybody can see them and hopefully we can get back to talking about the issue talking about how and if we are going to do data centers and how do we protect the environment. I've lived here in Spokane County since 1977.
[01:00:13]
Uh I plan on dying here. Uh this is my home. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize it. I'm a rateayer with a vista. I'm not anxious to pay and subsidize any private business and I drink the water out of the aquifer. So, this is my home as much as it is yours and I'm going to do what I can to protect it. So, thank you, madam chair. Okay. So, I'm going to look to my fellow commission. Commission. Can I have a short personal privilege issue? Issue? As long as it is short because I'm going to start to limit the personal privileges in the future. Very short. I just want to thank everybody who came down to testify today. I do wish personally that we could have had time to hear from everybody. I do appreciate the extension beyond what is typical. Uh I do think the community concern is clear. I'm hopeful in the coming days that we can move to consideration of a pause on these facilities and take the time to get this issue right. So I know we'll continue to be in conversation about that.
[01:01:16]
Thank you. Okay. I will now look to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve item 3a and item 4 a through q with the exception of item 4 h and n. Second. Second. Okay. I have a motion and a second for items 3a uh 4 a through q with the exception of striking hn as in nancy. Um any further discussion on those items? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That is then going to take us to we have several items. Um we have two um items 5a and 5b that are considered plan final action and the initiation of comination proceedings.
[01:02:13]
Proceedings. So I will open up 5a and say this meeting is regarding a proposed condemnation action that is held pursuant to chapter 8.08 rcw and rcw8.25290. The purpose of this hearing today is to inform the public hear comments and ensure transparency before the board considers any final action toward condemnation. This is not the formal legal hearing that will occur later in superior court should the board authorize condemnation proceeding today. The County engineer will now present the engineer's report. Good afternoon, madam chair. Matt zerakor, Spokane County public works. Just one second. We'll get the presentation up for what's that?
[01:03:27]
Thank you, ron. So, next slide, please. So, the harvard road project, I believe the board's familiar with. It's out in the Spokane valley, and we're widening the current two-lane road into the cross-section you can see on the overhead. It's a federally funded project, and we're widening from south of uklid to the railroad crossing and then north again to the railroad tracks at the very north end at trent. Next slide. So, just to dive into the necessity portion of the conversation a little bit, this project's consistent with our comprehensive plan and our goals and policies, both the bicycle portion and the six-year transportation improvement plan. There's a significant crash history associated with this portion of harvard. There's been 26 collisions in the last five years alone, uh 12 with reported injuries and including a fatality, unfortunately.
[01:04:26]
The roadway itself is an urban principal arterial, which means it's the highest category of roadway in the County. It's an nhs route. The average daily traffic on it varies along it, but you can see from 3,200 to 13,600. It's a t3 freight corridor, which means it moves a lot of freight. Unfortunately, it's currently restricted due to road condition. That's part of the rationale for the project. Next slide. Slide. You can see here's where the project is geographically. It's out at the City of liberty lake to the south and goes up to trent avenue. It's the far east valley and the arrows in red point out the limits of the project. And then the inset portion is just a blow up of harvard road itself. Next slide. There were originally 58 parcels that we needed to acquire property rights from and those include border easements, drainage easements, temporary construction easements, and of course, rightway. To date, 55 of those parcels have been acquired. We're down to just three parcels. And you can see there, map 24 is brook m. Kelly. Um, negotiations came to an impass after over a year of negotiations.
[01:05:42]
And you know they were friendly negotiations just couldn't come to agreement on that. Then map 43 bonav vista manufactured home community again just the negotiations impass unfortunately we were very close on that one but it just was out what they were asking for was outside of the bounds of what we could legally offer. So that one we would request to move forward. And finally, union pacific railroad. And obviously, they're not subject to the same condemnation law, but productive negotiations and construction maintenance agreement are ongoing, and we hope to settle those out soon. Next slide. So, this is map one of two on the rightway plan. You can see map 24. This is brook kelly, um, outlined in green at the far right of the map. Next slide. And this is the mobile home park map 43 outlined in green there. It's right at the intersection of welssley and harford road.
[01:06:41]
Road. Next slide. This is a blowup of miss brook kelly's property. You can see the portion that we're attempting to acquire highlighted in green. And then on the right you can see an aerial and the green line is the proposed rideway limits if we're able to acquire the property rights that we need. Need. Next slide. This one is bonav vista mobile home park community. You can see this is a fairly long strip acquisition and the corner on the left you can see the highlighted in green and then the yellow is a border easement and the small area purple is just a temporary construction easement. And then on the right you can see the same lines shown on an aerial just to get a better sense of what the impacts are. Are. Um that's my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions for Mr. Zarakor?
[01:07:38]
Thank you. Okay. So, give me grace as this is a new process of I haven't had to do this before. So, um so then the next steps if the board authorizes condemnation, the prosecuting attorney will file a petition in superior court. So now I will open up for any public comment that anyone has and we follow the same rules that if you have a public comment please State your name. Um and uh we will have three minutes as what we have for this public comment. I'm seeing no one in the audience. No one online. Second call. See no one in the audience and no one online. Third and final call. Then I will close the public comment for this u 5a.
[01:08:33]
Um, this meeting is not the formal legal hearing. This occurs later in superior court. Court. So I think I'm going to look to my fellow commissioners for a motion. Madame chair, I move to approve agenda item 5a and to determine that it is necessary for County purposes to acquire Spokane County parcel number 56334.961 and authorize the initiation of condemnation proceedings. Second. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second. Are there any further questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 5b and this is a um this meeting again is regarding a proposed condemnation action and is held pursuant to chapter 8.08 rcw and rcw8.25.290.
[01:09:41]
The purpose of this hearing today is to inform the public, hear comments, and ensure transparency before the board considers any final action toward condemnation. This is not the formal legal hearing that will occur later in superior court should the board authorize condemnation to proceed today. The County engineer will now present the engineer's report. Madame chair, we covered this parcel also during the presentation, but I'm available to answer any questions if they come up. Thank you. I just have to make sure I'm doing them both separately, not together. So, um, so as you, as you heard, he did, uh, speak to the other, um, issues. So, is there any questions? Okay. Um again this is a separate public hearing for this item. So is there anyone that would like to speak to item 5b?
[01:10:39]
See no one in the audience. No one online. Online. Second call. Third call for anyone wishing to speak on item 5b. Seeing none I will close the public hearing. Um, this meeting is not, again, I just want to make sure that this meeting is not the formal legal hearing that occurs later in superior court. So, I'll now look to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve agenda item 5b and to determine that it is necessary for County purposes to acquire Spokane County parcel number 55041.9035 and authorize the initiation of condemnation proceedings. Second. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I I motion passes unanimously.
[01:11:36]
Okay. Thank you. That's then going to take us to item six on today's agenda, which is several public hearings. Um so we will start with public hearing 6a to consider granting a franchise to coupney electric cooperative incorporated to construct, operate, and maintain an electric system in, over, along, and under County roads, highways, and rideway in Spokane County. Thank you again, madam chair. So on the overhead, you can see the proposed franchise locations. They're all along the eastern boundary of Spokane County where we meet kney County. Um kney County, it's more expeditious to serve certain customers along the eastern margin and those are the franchise locations. Locations. We've reviewed the franchise and worked through it with kney County electric and staff is supportive of this franchise and I'm happy to answer any questions. Are there any questions for Mr. Zerakor?
[01:12:32]
Seeing none, thank you. This is a public hearing item, so I will open up to public testimony for anyone wishing to testify on item number 6a as just presented. Presented. Seeing no one in the audience, no one online. Second call for anyone wishing to testify on item number 6a. See no one. Third and final call. Okay, seeing no one, I will close the public hearing. I will look to my fellow commissioners. Commissioners. Madam chair, I move to approve public hearing item number 6a as presented by staff. Second. Have a motion and second. Any further discussion? Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Very good. All five of us. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6b, which is to consider establishing a County road, chatham avenue County engineers road number 2083 for this Spokane County public works department, Mr. Zerakor.
[01:13:32]
All right. Thank you again, madam chair. The first of six establishment hearings today. The first one is cadam avenue. Thank you, ron. And you can see this one's in northeast Spokane. It's just out of the hillyard area there. And you can see it's between a lot of existing roads. This road itself has existed for a very long time. Frankly, the establishment we believe was an oversight at the time, many years ago, and we're cleaning up our records. This roads appeared to be a public road for a very long time. I believe our staff's been maintaining it, but we would like to formally acknowledge the establishment and maintenance of this roadway. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions? Seeing none, this is a public hearing. So, I open up to public hearing for anyone wishing to testify on item number 6b as just presented. Presented. Seeing no one, second call for anyone wishing to testify. No one online. No one in the audience.
[01:14:26]
Third and final call. Seeing no one in the audience or no one online, I will close the public testimony and look to my fellow commissioners. Commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6b as presented by staff. Staff. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item number 6 c which is to consider cons consider establishing County roads fairmont estates drive, summit estates drive and wind rose court in the plats fairmont estates phase 2 and four County engineers road file number 25507 for the Spokane public works department County. Sorry. Thank you again, madam chair. So you can see this establishment is located in the south Spokane valley, the morningside area. And you can see the roads proposed for establishment with the green center line there. And it represents two phases of a plat, the fairmont plat. And these roads have been constructed, certified, and are ready for establishment. They've been built in accordance with County standards, and we support the recommendation for establishing these roadways. Happy to answer any questions.
[01:15:44]
Thank you. And most of those homes have already been built. Is that correct? Correct? Yes, they're built. They're built and certified. We've and most of these have had at least one if not two years on a warranty period. Okay. As sometimes we see it and it looks like they're not built yet. So the aerial they are built. Yes, they that's correct. The aerials often lag behind and are older. So it doesn't always represent current imagery. Imagery. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Um so this is a is there any other comments for Mr. Zerakor? Okay. Um, this is a public hearing item, so I will open up to public testimony on item number 6c as just presented. Seeing no one in the audience and no one online. Second call. Seeing no one, third and final call. I will now close the public testimony for 6c and look to my fellow commissioners. Madame chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6c as presented by staff.
[01:16:41]
Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6d, which is to consider establishing County roads molly street, jody street, heath avenue, and stonewall avenue in the plat 5Mile estates County engineers road file number 2690 for the Spokane County public works department. Uh, thank you once again, madam chair. This establishment takes place up on fivem prairie. You can see on the aerial on the right that strong road is the northern boundary of this plant. And the roads shown in red are the ones proposed for establishment. This has already been inspected and approved. As we discussed previously, by the time they come to the board, they've been fully certified. And oftentimes, we've had a year or two to make sure that there's no deficiencies.
[01:17:36]
And just for the boards, we have a two-year warranty period on all private development. And that's good. Gives us a chance to look at the road. A lot of the construction traffic has always already happened in the process of building the homes. And that loading often kind of proof tests everything and we see any deficiency, settlement in the roadways or anything that we might need to have fixed. So that two-year warranty is really valuable to the County. We oftentimes end up using it to correct small deficiencies and these roads um have been built and certified. So that's the recommendation of our office. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Any questions for b? Seeing none, um I will open this up for public testimony for anyone that would like to speak to item 6d as just presented. I'm seeing no one on in the audience and no one online. Second call.
[01:18:30]
Third and final call. Seeing no one online and no one in the audience, I will close the public testimony on item 6d and look to my collection or um call. Is there any further dis no, there needs to be a motion. Sorry. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6d as presented by staff. Second. Okay, I have a motion second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6e which is consider establishing County roads wellingham road orster way and red avenue and the plat I'm sorry I'm probably butchering all those names in the plat midway road first edition County engineers road file number 2652 um for the Spokane County public works department.
[01:19:25]
Department. Thank you once again madam chair. Um, as you point out, these road names are getting more interesting with time as we try not to duplicate road names in Spokane County. So, this project is up north. Hatch is just west off of the aerial and midway is bordering it on the south just for orientation. And the roads proposed for um establishment are shown in red. This road again, all these roads have been built, certified, and approved in accordance with County standards. It is the recommendation of our office to go ahead and establish them for perpetual maintenance and I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions. There any questions? Seeing none, although um this is a public you can tell I'm getting tired of this [laughter] making us roomy with my repetition here. I'm sorry. This is a public hearing item and so I'll open it up to public testimony for anyone wishing to talk testify on item 6e.
[01:20:19]
6e. See no one online. No one in the audience. Second call. See no one. Third and final call. Seeing no one online and no one in the audience, I will close the public testimony for item 6e and look to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6e as presented by staff. Staff. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. I. Motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6f, which is to consider establishing County roads 20th avenue, maragold road, and 30th avenue in the plat County engineers road file number 2100 for the Spokane County public works department. Thank you once again, madam chair. And you can see on the overhead, this is in the south valley. You can see 32nd avenue on the aerial to the south and its fronts on adams road and the roads proposed for establishment are shown in red once more. And you can see this development's a little different. Um I think we're going to see a lot more of this moving forward as infill is encouraged to be denser than it has been historically.
[01:21:38]
Historically. And it's interesting. It's a hybrid of private and public roads. The public roads border it and then the internal roads are all private and I think we're going to see more of this. But again, these roads proposed for establishment were built and certified in accordance with County standards and I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm not seeing anyone jumping for any questions. So, I will open up this I will open this for public testimony. Um 6f has just presented. I'm not seeing anyone online. No one in the audience. Second call. Third and final call for item 6f as just presented. Presented. Seeing no one in the audience and no one online. I will close the public testimony and look to my fellow commissioners. Commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6f as presented by staff. Second.
[01:22:30]
Okay. My motion is second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. I. I motion passes unanimously. That will then take us to item 6g, which is to consider establishing County roads. Okay, [laughter] I'm gonna let you say all the names of the roads. [laughter] all right. Um, last but not least, thank you, madame chair. You can see this is representing three phases of woodidge fourth edition plat and one phase out of falcon ridge north. The different colors represent the different phases of the plat. The roads proposed for establishment are again shown in red. Um the gentleman that spoke earlier, this is the development he was referring to.
[01:23:22]
Um still present here and may want to testify. Testify. And it is something that we're paying more attention to obviously especially in light of the recent fires is evacuation routes and especially developments that their only evacuation routes face the prevailing winds. It's a concern. It's a real concern. That being said, we do not control development. We do not have the ability to condemn to help development get more excess routes very reasonably. But reasonably so development if it continues up onto five Mile will likely have other connections out. But currently it this we're not wild about this situation either. This feels like ponderosa 30 years ago if you're familiar with it. For a long time it didn't have a lot of ways out and all the ways faced prevailing winds. So it's a challenge. We do pay attention to it. We try and address it where we can, but we are somewhat limited in terms of land development because we do not control the property to provide additional access oftentimes.
[01:24:24]
So again, these roads were built, certified, and constructed in accordance with County standards. Our office does recommend establishing these roads for perpetual maintenance. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you, commissioner jordan. Do we have in our current standards any thought given to the question raised? I think a lot of people are thinking about how to get out in a situation like we just had. So what do we currently have if anything to say on that topic? You know really all the access requirements in our road standards are driven by fire code. Um the two ways out after a certain number of units that we go, it varies with what type of development. Apartments have more units available before they need a second access. Once you get to 30 in residential type development, you have to have a second access. And that's a full open second access. We've gone through a lot of iterations over the decades, but currently it's two. Um the fire department will oftentimes comment in appropriately so when there are concerns about evacuation routes. That being said, they like us are very limited. Um you can deny a development if you wanted to, but then where does that development go? You know, we are trying to densify and keep it within the ug and that sometimes works against us.
[01:25:49]
This is really historically more of a concern in rural development more than urban development. But after this recent fire that obviously raced into residential developments that were have fire hydrants, that's giving us pause and making us pay even more attention than we have historically. So, does this one have two out? It does, but they both go to the southwest. They go towards prevailing winds. So, that's the unsettling piece as your evacuation routes would arguably in typical wind patterns be moving you towards fire. And the roads have already been built. Yeah, this one probably mostly occupied by that this point. Their neighborhoods are in all likelihood 80% existing. That's pretty typical, but it is a consideration when we look at the ug and what we want to bring in when we're analyzing areas for inclusion. This is something that we should be thinking and talking about and I believe we do to some extent now, but after the recent events, probably even more so.
[01:26:54]
Yeah, I'm just hopeful that we can continue to really talk these issues through, you know, get fire district 9's input on it. But um yeah, much more to talk about in terms of evacuation off a five Mile and how we try to make these developments as safe as possible going forward is something I'm very interested in. In. And am I? Okay. Any other comments for matt? Just with the conversation that we're having. So these roads are built and the decision today is just whether to accept them into the road network and take over maintenance correct of the roads. Roads. Yeah, these are not proposed roads. These are all existing roads with existing homes. And yes, this is just the formal taking over the roadway system. That's the decision in front of the board today. Okay.
[01:27:49]
Okay. Um so this is a public hearing item. Um so it is public hearing item 6g. I do have someone signed up and I think we have I'm not sure if you're one and the same or if I've got okay. So give me just a second. So I will open up for public testimony. I do have Brian bogey. No, he's not here. Okay. Um so he was signed up um for item 6g. So um he was since he's not here then I will then open it up to anyone else who would like to testify. So just please State your name and you'll have three minutes. Richard simple resident north Indian Trail road. These access points are Indian Trail road access points even though physically they exist on top of five Mile prairie. Um could you please move that timer somewhere else? Thank you. So um south of Assembly. Yeah, please just don't yeah, just don't don't touch the right here. South of Assembly, there's a gravel easement. Not easement, there's a gravel strip across a guy's alalfa field that connects to highland middle school. It connects to hawthorne road and it's blocked by a metal gate that's locked by private land owner. Uh we need to consider figuring out cooperation with that landowner or something. It was privately opened during the fires and people were getting out or sneaking in and out. Um, but we need to consider that there is no
[01:29:28]
Topside ax exit out there. Um, way out at the bottom off of sundance's barnes road, we need to consider a barnes road tie in to Nine Mile road, which would have not helped in this current situation because Nine Mile was also affected because it was a near global event. But if you have a local event in the woodridge area, having a Nine Mile tie-in would very much help. The woodridge neighborhood has only barns as a topside access. And I live off of navajo and I have no way to get out topside except if I use a bicycle be and that gravel strip that's private land would give us an out. And then on top of this, I want to add that bottom of the which is south below Assembly. They have stripped that of all vegetation, are currently installing uh sewer and water and such. There is at least construction anticipating that you will add nearly equal that many homes to the south into the Brown field south of Assembly. So you're uncomfortable with this. I'm uncomfortable with this. I don't want to deprive people their homes. Certify the roads because they live there. Okay. I'm I'm not that bad an activist. But south of Assembly is not yet built. You have infrastructure that a developer might lose money on. I would be sad if I was the developer and really upset because he's invested a lot of money. But nothing has gone on other than dirt work south of Assembly and we're already nervous with what we see today. Why would we voluntarily make ourselves more
[01:31:05]
Nervous south of Assembly? Um, you know, I anyways, you guys need to I would really like it if you would look at this with more detail, with more experts than I. This makes me nervous. It's built. Fine. Let's go with what's built. The dirt work maybe should be reversed. Thank you. Okay. Is there anyone else that would like to testify? Well, I just have a question. I mean, I'm not I just how my name's elizabeth melville and I'm from Spokane. I don't see two ways out. I only see you have to go to Assembly and Assembly doesn't go through both directions. How is you go? So, excuse me. Um [clears throat] yeah. Okay. I just seem like there's but the public testimony is for establishing the roads into our system. And it's not discussing the fire access. So, thank you. Um, is there anyone else who would like to testify on item 6g?
[01:32:16]
Seeing no one, a third and final call. Item 6g, I'm going to close the public testimony to my fellow commissioners. Madam chair, move to approve public hearing item number 6g as presented by staff. Second. Okay. Any I have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Thank you, madam chair. I appreciate that the item is simply to acknowledge what's there and treat it as a County road and that folks who live there should be in, you know, getting it plowed and entitled to the services that they deserve. But I really appreciate the feedback on the larger concern. I hope we can get to that conversation. Thank you. Yes. And I will just comment that I agree. I mean this what we're doing today is for one purpose. I think after what just happened um we're going to be looking at other you know for what we can do we have to look at it as developments come forward and what those regulations are and looking at what we can do as commissioners for the future. I can say I'm was part of the valley be fire in '08 and we still only have one access road out. So, um, it happens and I don't know, I still choose to live where I'm at, but, um, I know what the risks are. Um, so all we can do is hopefully help make it better for future developments and some of these developments that are there that is things happen um that we can be looking forward um and not, you know, backwards. And I'm glad to hear that the gate was opened up to allow people. But
[01:33:58]
Yeah, um I know that happened in the '08 fire as well. So, so anyway, any further comments? Comments? Seeing none, all those in favor of item 6g as presented by staff? I I thank you. It passes unanimously. Okay, it has been a long agenda and I do know that some people are trying to get to a press conference uh with the health district um with Dr. Velasquez um regarding the fires. Is there any other miscellaneous items? Nothing for me, chair. Okay, so no miscellaneous items and no executive sessions. So then we are adjourned for the day. Thank you all.