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Residents press commission on housing enforcement, proposed data center and long-standing "welcoming city" resolution
Summary
During public comment residents criticized housing enforcement and sought rescission of a 2014 welcoming-city resolution; staff clarified the resolution's legal effect and answered questions about a proposed large data center's water and power use.
Several residents spoke during the public-comment period about housing conditions, a proposed data center and the city's 2014 "welcoming city" resolution.
Gary Armstrong criticized city housing enforcement and landlord practices, saying the city allowed LLCs to purchase rental housing and create substandard tenements. "The commission has created an untenable housing crisis by purposely, purposefully abandoning prior practices for the consents consistent code enforcement," Armstrong said.
Melissa Rexroth asked the commission to rescind Resolution 5844 (adopted July 22, 2014) and questioned whether city staff had performed independent research on agenda items. She also raised concerns about a proposed data center's impact on water and electricity costs and tax abatements.
City staff and commissioners clarified that the city had not joined the Welcome America network and that a city resolution differs from an ordinance: "a resolution is temporary in nature as opposed to an ordinance, which is permanent in nature," a city attorney said. Staff said rescinding the 2014 resolution would not, by itself, change the city's membership in any external network because the city was never a member.
On the data center, city utilities staff (Chris Moore) said the proposal is estimated to use roughly 300,000 gallons of water per day, about 3% of what the city pumps on a typical day, and that the water treatment plant currently has capacity to serve the project. Moore said most cooling water would evaporate and that the project planned to treat and retain remaining water on site rather than discharge it to the sewer system. He also noted the state is reviewing utility-rate treatment for large data centers.
Commissioners noted the difference between making an aspirational resolution and taking legal steps to join a third-party network and asked staff to provide any additional records requested by residents.
