“We can poll the people to find out how they feel about it ... what are their concerns about a data center or if they even know about a data center, because we’re still finding out in our community right here where I’m at, (the) majority of people still don’t know anything about it,” Blankenship told the Journal-News.
Mayor Ryan Perry referred the Journal-News to the city’s attorney, Nick Ziepfel, for comment on whether the city could put the data center to a public vote.
Ziepfel told Journal-News it was “highly unlikely” that an administrative decision, such as the data center coming to the city, could be put to a vote.
Butler County Board of Elections Director Nicole Unzicker said the BOE advises anyone in the public or working for a local government to contact a city’s legal counsel and refer to the local charter regarding a possible petition.
Section 8.03 of Trenton’s charter says “ordinances and resolutions may be proposed by initiative petition and adopted by election, and ordinances and resolutions adopted by the council shall be subject to referendum.”
One part of the charter is unusual, though, according to Unzicker.
The charter says “petitions for initiative and referendum shall be provided by the election authorities pursuant to general law; but if the election authorities shall fail or refuse to provide for the petitions, the City’s Director of Law shall provide for the petitions.”
“We’re not ‘failing’ or ‘refusing’ to, but for these type of petitions, we would highly advise (citizens) to seek their own legal counsel and (refer) to the charter,” Unzicker said. “For them to submit a correct petition, they would want to seek their own legal counsel.”
What are citizens’ concerns?
Some attendees of a public round table Monday said they were in support of the data center if all applicable studies were done and the data center followed all regulations put forward by the city.
Other attendees voiced concerns of public safety, possible noise and light pollution, higher water bills and higher energy costs.
Perry said in the Nov. 20 council work session that “regardless” of where the data center went within the Duke Energy network, energy bills would go up.
“Even if they would have put it in Northern Kentucky ... your bill will go up 12%,” he said. “They spread the bill out amongst everyone.”
He added that having a high water user like the data center could help stabilize citizens’ water bills and make the city less reliant on citizens’ bills.
Studies on possible noise and light pollution have not yet been completed.
What are the plans for the data center?
Also at the Nov. 20 session, City Manager Marcos Nichols said the city had received preliminary site plans for the data center.
The materials submitted are early, and city staff will continue to review the plans as part of the standard development review process prior to any materials being sent to planning commission review, according to city spokesman Stas Beresford.
The plans, reviewed by Journal-News, are for a data center called “Project Mila.”
Included in the plan are four 218,122-square-foot buildings, one 19,110-square-foot utility building and one 1,436-square-foot security building — totaling 893,034 square foot on 141 acres.
The four buildings are each proposed to be 30 feet — about the height of a three-story building — though each building is planned to only be one floor.
Each of the 218,1220-square-foot buildings, the utility building and security building are estimated to have 60 employees with 360 employees total.
Plans were submitted by Bowman Consulting Group out of Leesburg, Va.
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