6.16.26 Pasco County Board of County Commissioner Meeting (Afternoon Session)

How are you?

Looks like a lot of

No, you're okay.

A lot of stuff.

Yeah, absolutely. Sign your life away there. Oh, Sorry.

Oh, nice.

Gotcha. Hello. That was Um got.

Oh, okay. Got you. I just wanted to make sure Let me see two that did not general look like what number again here. I'll give you these. Take a look. Oh, wait. Thank you. Don't do that.

So what happens is they know what item. So when the item comes up I told them I told them how they for 8 10 12,3. Okay, very good. My friend of mine was I know it.

Just need to start assembling that.

Yeah. I'll Yeah.

I owe you. I2 subject. Hello. At least so. Get a tie.

Okay. I'll knock you from you. Sorry.

I don't think you really need it, but Good afternoon. We're going to continue the 1:30 public hearings. First item up is P47.

Just a moment. Sorry. Um, I'll do publication for item P47. Was published in the Tempe Times on April 22nd, 2026. Thank you. Good afternoon. Amy Tol with Planning, Development, and Economic Growth. Item P47. I'll read it into record. It is a long title, so fair warning. An ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners amending the Pasco County Land Development Code. Section 304, Public Notice Requirements. Section 402.3, Conditional Uses. Section 407.2, zoning variances. Section 407.4, alternative relief. Section 407.5, Alternative Standards. Section 503, AC, Agricultural District. Section 504, AC1, Agricultural District. Section 505, AR, Agricultural Residential District. Section 506, AR1, Agricultural Residential District. Section 507, AR5, Agricultural Residential District. Section 508, AR5, uh, MH, Agricultural Multi Mobile Home District. Section 509, ER, estate residential district. Section 510, ER2, Estate Residential District. Section 511, RMH, mobile home district. Section 512, R1MH, single family mobile home district. I'm about 3/4 of the way done, just saying. Uh, section 3 513 R2MH, rural density mobile home district. Uh, section 514, R1, rural district mobile home district. Section 515, R2, low density residential district. Section 516, R3, medium density residential district. Section 517, R4, high density residential district. Section 518, uh, MF1, Multifamily, medium density district. Section 519 MF2 multiple family re multiple family high density district section 520 MF3 multiple family highdensity district creating section 408 reasonable accommodations section 530.26 26 standards for community residential homes large appendix A definitions and other sections as necessary for internal consistency providing for applicability repealer providing for severability inclusion into the land development code and an effective date. This comes to you with a continuence request to August 11th 2026 at 1:30 p.m. in Dade City.

Have a motion to continue.

Move.

Second.

All in favor say I.

I. Any opposed?

Continued.

Chair, we had someone signed up for that.

Uh, but we've continued it.

Yes.

Advertises a continuous.

Okay. Thank you.

Uh, item P48. Do we approve?

Yes. Item P48 was published in the Tampa Bay Times on May 27th, 2026. Item P48 is an ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners establishing a temporary moratorum on the submission and acceptance of applications for building permits, site plans, development orders, development agreements, special exception uses, conditional uses, resonings, and comprehensive plan amendments related to data centers, largecale data centers, and other large load customers within unincorporated Pasco County, providing for authority, legislative findings of fact, temporary moratorum imposed, duration of temporary moratorum, severability, and an effective date. Uh there's no action required on this and staff is available with the presentation.

All right. I think it's important to do the presentation. Um absolutely. I want everyone in the audience to know that this is the first of two meetings. We're going to have the presentation. Uh we'll have a board discussion and then we'll take public comment. This is something that we feel strongly about. I think we've anticipated it well. Uh we we've listened to a lot of feedback from citizens. We've also got a lot of other emails from other sources as well. We are stopping or putting this we're going to be looking at putting this moratory in place. Still got to be voted on for the following week or following meeting. But it's something that we're looking at. We're putting all the provisions in. If you're going to do public comment today, I'm going to ask you if you hear someone that's already said something that you want to say, please don't belabor it. We still got a lot of agenda to do. We're making sure we take care take care of this up front, but we will be bringing to the next meeting anyway after we have discussion. You may hear us even make some extra changes to it that we might add. But again, if we're going to do public com when we do the public comment, if you would, if someone's already spoken to say the same, please don't repeat it. You're just going to drag out the meeting. We we've heard loud and clear uh to bring this forward to try to take care of your concerns because there are concerns, too.

All right. Please do. Amanda Hill will be presenting this item.

All right. Thank you.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Amanda Hill, Planet, Development, Economic Growth. I just wanted to state for the record that additional public comments were received by the Planet Development Economic Growth Department after this item was published and these comments were submitted to the clerk's office for the file of record. So the purpose of this ordinance is to enact a temporary moratorium on data centers, large-scale data centers, and large load customers as defined by Florida's statutes. This moratorium would be a temporary pause to preserve the status quo while allowing the county to consider the implications and impacts of data centers within Pasco County. The moratorium is not a permanent ban on such uses at this time. The board has directed this temporary moratorium to allow staff to research land use compatibility of data centers with surrounding land uses. Consider impacts on electricity demand, water consumption, wastewater treatment capacity, and environmental concerns such as noise and light pollution. Research the efficacy of best practices from jurisdictions nationwide. And consider the appropriateness of data centers in Pasco County. and if necessary develop appropriate definitions and performance standards to regulate or prohibit data centers for consideration by the board. A growing number of local governments across the nation have enacted or are in the process of enacting moratoria to allow for careful consideration of this emerging land use issue. In Florida, the following counties and municipalities have adopted or are in the process of adopting a moratorum. And this list is a little outdated. Um, we tried to get as current information as possible, but I um actually needed to include Wakulla County and Calhoun counties. We actually found that out this morning. So, it's an evolving list. The proposed moratorium would likely result in a number of potential revisions to the land development code to regulate data centers within Pasco County. Existing conditions within our code do not specify data centers as a use within any zoning district. Nor are there any standards that would regulate such a use. Additionally, with the signing of Senate Bill 484, the state recognized under Florida statutes 373.262 that data centers and other large load customers present unique considerations that local jurisdictions should address. So for the proposed 12-month moratorum, the county would not accept any applications for data centers and other large load customers including building permits, site plans, development orders and agreements, special exception uses, conditional uses, resonings, and comprehensive plan amendments. This moratorium would not apply to server rooms and other computer rooms that typically house IT and network equipment that are incidental to the primary use on site. On June 11, 2026, the LPA found a proposed ordinance consistent with the

comprehensive plan and included a recommendation to revise the exception that was proposed regarding equipment located internally to a building. This stemmed from a concern that entities such as a school board might be impacted if their server rooms or computer rooms are proposed to be located in a separate building but related to the primary use. The revision in the ordinance text is reflected in the walk-on edits provided to the board at the beginning of the meeting and are visible on screen. Other items discussed include interpretations on what could qualify as an incidental use for the purpose of applicability in the moratorum. Planning, development, and economic growth indicated to the LPA that potential abuse of this exemption could be resolved through site permitting reviews and inspections for certificates of occupancy. Another item that was discussed was the establishment of a maximum power consumption for data centers which would not be subject to the moratorum. Planning development and economic growth indicated to the LPA that the potential I'm sorry um indicated to the LPA that insufficient research had been completed to establish an appropriate maximum power consumption to facilitate the submission of data center applications during the moratorium. Additionally, preliminary research by staff indicates that a lower power consumption is not strictly proportionate to the amount of water utilized by data centers and the grid. Finally, there are also other considerations regarding potential nuisances and land use compatibility that would need to be studied during the period of the moratorum. Planning, development, economic growth recommends that the board accepts public comment on this item. No other action is required by the board of county commissioners as this is the first of two public hearings. The second hearing, adoption hearing, will be heard on July 14th, 2026 at 1:30 p.m. or as soon thereafter as they may be heard in date city and I'm available for any questions that you may have.

Okay, Commissioner W. Thank you. Uh thanks for the presentation. to supplement this. Um, I'd like Ralph Lair to come up and give give us all a lesson on the state law or whoever whichever appropriate staff person who we can flush those details out as well.

Where is Ralph? We can track him down, but is there any particular I mean we have the attorneys that can talk about state law too or any any particular aspect of law I guess would be my question.

I'll just make a comment on it. as far as the from what I can see as the states made a decision that we need to go look at these um I think we're going to do it anyway but as we're pretty much instructed to do so we're taking that step that the state wants us to take to to study these and make decisions there's Ralph

I'm glad the state's allowing us to do so

yeah beautiful thing

hey Ralph

I I walk you in question be good to give a brief synopsis on on uh the the some of the key details in the state law related to uh data centers, AI centers uh while we discuss

with the uh law that passed. Yes,

sure. So, uh, Senate Bill 484, I'll just give you a basic summary of, uh, of that bill, specifies that agencies may not enter into non-disclosure agreements or other contracts, restricting the agency from disclosing information about potential data center development to members of the public. maintains the authority of local governments to exercise the power of responsibility for comprehensive planning and land development regulations granted by law with respect to large load customers. The bill also establishes large load customers may not be considered an electric substation for the purpose of the statutes. provides definitions of the terms controlled by foreign country or concerns, foreign entity, large load customers, public utility, data centers, and largecale data centers. Requires the public service commission to develop minimum large load tariff requirements for public electricity uh electric utilities. The tariff require requirements must be reasonably ensure the large load customers such as large data centers pay for their own costs of service. Minimize the risk of non-payment of such costs to the maximum extent practical and include provisions to prevent public utility from providing electric services to a foreign entity large load customer. Prohibits public almost done here. um prohibits public uh electric utilities from knowingly provide services to large load facilities owned or controlled by foreign customers and establishes a distinct largecale data center consumptive use permit. So basically it focused mainly on the on the um it left you all with a discretion how you uh you uh do that. They did give definitions for um provide definitions for large use data centers uh in the in the statute. Um but it it gives you all the power to do what you need to do uh and make your own decision locally. It really focus on on foreign control at the state level.

Thank uh for the county attorney. It was mentioned during public comment this morning uh that there were some counties that had uh permanent moratoriums on data centers. I think it'd be good to explain the the federal case law and and share with folks why the moratorum is temporary and and is only allowable up up to 12 months. Um, in that way folks understand as folks advocate one way or another against the moratoriums from around the state that they understand uh the local government restraints and why moratorium of any type is is limited to 12 months. I'd be happy to, Commissioner. Um, you know, moratoria are designed to allow local governments in the land use context to um take a pause and review their regulations for something that was unexpected or has become a problem in the community. problem for health, public health, safety and welfare. Um, the US Supreme Court in 2002 uh took up the question of whether or not a moratoria was a temporary taking of property rights uh in tier in in Tahoe Sierra Preservation Council versus the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. They found that it was not a temporary taking if it was if the moratorum was designed to have a reasonable duration. So basically by implication they have said if it's too long it would be a temporary taking but it and so the that based and the other

what a taking

it is that if you have if the government has taken a private property owner's rights uh to their piece property that they are entitled to con compensation under both the Florida and federal constitutions. Um, in in the subsequent case law that has come out, the general the general cases have indicated that a year is a reasonable time period. Um a in my opinion a permanent moratorum would subject the board to a temporary or permanent taking case uh based on federal case based on the federal constitution and state constitution. In addition, in Florida, we have something called the uh Burchchie Harris Private Property Rights Act. That would also kick in because that the argument would be made that you've inordinately burdened the property um by permanently disallowing the use. Um the purpose of the moratorum is to evaluate the use and see what restrictions need to be made to protect the public health, safety and welfare. Um and if those concerns can be addressed by regulation. So there might be a case where you would adopt regulations and a project wouldn't be able to comply with them. But the in my opinion the taking the position that it can just be prohibited in your land development code without analysis is a concern that you will likely be sued.

Interesting. Thank you. Okay, any thoughts or comments? Okay, so with that presentation, um, as you can see, we have the flexibility to go through it. Um, we even got granting powers from the state, which is kind of unique this time of this time of the year, uh, to actually do what we think we need to go do. So, with that said, we are going to be looking at it. Uh, we're going to take public comment now. again if you would just don't repeat something else someone has said so we can get to everybody and then get on the with the rest of our business. First person signed up is

Mr. Chair. I have someone who signed up and they have um for the agenda item they put general and our general topics were this morning. So I just wanted to double check um to make sure that the individual didn't want to talk on something for this afternoon. Um Logan Olirri you have general written down. Do you um is it on anything this afternoon? Hold on a second. Is it anything for this afternoon?

Yeah.

Okay. Do you know which item you're talking on?

C745.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. So 54 will be coming up later on. 55 as well.

Thank you. Okay. So I'm going to start at the top of my list and work my way through. For item P48, we have Ann Fabber Faber, sorry. Uh, followed by Annie Deio, followed by Donna Bradley. If

we could we have like two people line up behind this person and keep that going.

Okay. If you could state your name and address for the record and then you may begin.

Sure. Ann Fber, one22 Garta Drive, Trinity, Florida 34655.

Thank you. Our natural resources are something to treasure. One of those resources, our land, is far too valuable for data centers. We need to use our resources carefully and thoughtfully. When planning for commercial and industrial spaces, we need to plan for businesses that will support our community by employing people locally and with the intent of it being long-term employment. Creating a job that lasts for a year as a data center would do does nothing for Pasco County residents long term. While the negative effects would remain with us long far longer than any job there would. If Pasco residents aren't driving to Tampa or St. Pete, that helps local businesses from picking up lunch to errands running. The spending stays local. That sales tax helps the county. Shorter commutes translates to less gas, which is better for our residents bank accounts. and it's less drain on our roadways and more importantly our time. We need businesses that plan to continually employ people in order for it to be a viable venture, making it worthwhile for Pasco County residents. When comparing pros and cons, I don't know of any pros. I don't see a job that expires within a year as a pro. But the con list is lengthy. They're obnoxiously loud, number one. Number two, they consume an astonishing amount of energy. Number three, they consume a vast amount of water. We have been in drought conditions here in Pasco County and the state for years. I can only water my lawn once a week, which does not make me happy. Why data centers would even be considered is disturbing on one hand and just plain silly on the other. Agricultural irrigation already sucks out enough. Number four, data centers will increase the potential for sink holes by drawing up so much water. Number five, the amount of water used will increase drought conditions and dry out vegetation already fighting for it with climate change. We do have wildfires in our area and we've had a wildfire on this side of the county within the last 6 months. Data centers do not draw tourists to our area. Data centers number seven do not promote my or my community's general welfare or the pursuit of happiness. In fact, they will suck on our resources like leeches and parasites, neither of which is good. I've listed my cons. I would like to know what the commission considers to be pros that could outweigh these cons. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any deo

folks? Please do not clap.

Folks, please do not clap. It'll just delay everything down. Um, hi, my name is Annie Deio. I'm um, my address is 3102 Lanto Street and Holiday. Um, I am a past president and vice president of the TAT Civic Association and Katherine knows me. Now, I don't have a long speech. I I have been doing a lot of investigating and research on data centers. And my question to you is a couple of questions and I'd like to have you either maybe maybe eventually put it on record or something to this effect. What are what is your checklist? What are you going to be looking at when each application comes through? I mean it could be it could be an enormous center. It could be taking a lot of acreage that will be um affecting our wildlife, impacting our communities. It could go it could impact our communities miles of you know throughout miles of what the center will be. My my question is hypothetically what is the benefit? What is what do you see as a benefit? Is it just financial to affect and impact a huge community? Is that all it's about? That's what I like to know. So my question is is will you have a checklist for us to know how you're going to be looking at each application if it does come through you know after the moratorum of the 12 months is has been um has been um finished and and and you know if you decide that you don't want to make it permanent I think we should make it permanent. I don't think a a temporary is good enough, but I do understand your position and you do need to review and you need to discuss it and you have to give at least the year to do that and I respect that and I and I'm just going to finish with that and let everybody else think about it and and and also in in this room we all came for the same reason because we know it's going to impact our community one way or another. And I just want you all to just think about that in that year's time. Thank you so much.

As the next speaker comes up, I just like to say that as we do these two public hearings, when we do come back after a year, we're going to be bringing another public hearing back to everybody. So, you're going to be able to see checklist, details, etc. You'll be able to comment again about what we're looking at doing before we actually do it. So, it'll be it will be another public hearing process just like this one here.

And would that go to the planning commission as well? So, you got four

the planning commission as well.

Following our next our next speaker, um I I didn't see the name written down, but you live on Kilmer Way in Hudson.

No,

no, no. Uh Miss Bradley, you're next.

You're next.

Miss Bradley, you're next. But after you. I just wanted to make sure that they were lined up behind you. You're you're good. And then followed by Rebecca. Um and I I'm sorry, but I don't know how to pronounce your last name. Is it Teft?

Teft.

Okay, great. and then followed by um Daisy Carol. I appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Bradley.

Okay. My name is Donna Bradley and I live at 3818 Dog Trot Street in Trinity, Florida.

Thank you.

Um first of all, I wanted to say thank you for allowing us this opportunity to speak because I know that that's not done in every place across the country. So, we appreciate that. And I also wanted to say that I was so proud of our county for making the decision recently to buy 1,800 acres of land because that is why we moved to this county because it has beautiful uh pockets of nature. Starky, the Starky Park. We live I walk through that park every day when I go on my walk in the morning. And my husband and I are nature lovers. We're into sailing, not motorists. We're sailing. Um, and we sell out of this area and we're I'm into birding recently which we have incredible birds in Pasco County. And my understanding and the research that I've done is that there these data centers are very loud that it's like a plane. It's like being in an airport with planes that take off that aren't taking off. Like the planes are getting ready to take off, but they never take off. is constant noise and that's not good for wildlife, for the birds that I've come to love, you know, in the last couple years and getting into birding. And so I just feel like if we make this decision and we destroy what's our most valuable resource in Pasco County is is our natural wildlife and our I mean our nature, then you can't get back again. Like once you make that decision, it's done. You can't go back and and undo it. So if you've destroyed our natural habitat, you've made a decision that you can't go back on. And so I hope you'll carefully think about that because you're taking away from the citizens, you know, what we moved here for. And the reason why we don't have to pay taxes in Florida is because we're attracting tourists and the tourists help to offset us being us playing t taxes. And so it'll affect us not only economically by possibly having to pay taxes in the future and everything that it does to our water resources, our electricity, but also the way that we live.

Okay. Thank you.

Good job. Good afternoon. My name is Marilyn Hollerin and I'm sorry I didn't write it down on my piece of paper. I live at 8852 Kilmer Way in Hudson, Florida 34667. I am the president of the Pasco County chapter of the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida and I speak for our chapter today. We're here because Pasco County is one of the most flood vulnerable counties in Florida and approving hyperscale data centers here without a flood impact study puts residents infrastructure and public emergency resources at serious risk. Data center developers are already scouting Pasco County now. Adjacent counties are already approving projects. Once a proposal is filed with a construction timeline, this board's options narrow fast. We are not asking you to stop development. We're asking for a moratorium long enough to study diff various questions. And the one I'm talking about is what happens to Pasco County neighborhoods when a building the size of 75 football fields sitting on imperous pavement is placed into a watershed that already floods. Pasco County is the second most flood damaged county in Florida. According to FEMA, portions of the county sit within FEMA designated special flood hazard areas. Our storm water systems were not designed to handle the runoff generated by facilities of this scale. The hypers scale data center campus can cover 3 to 5 million feet of imperous surface. The building's foundation, roof, rooftops, access roads, and parking. Every inch of rain that falls on that surface becomes immediate storm water runoff. discharged into the wershed at a rate that could take hours or days to absorb. In a county that floods in a thunderstorm, this is not a minor engineering footnote. And these facilities cannot be quickly evacuated. A data center contains billions of dollars of equipment, hazardous cooling chemicals, backup diesel fuel tanks that in a flood event become environmental contamination sources. There is a data center approved by Poke County where the residents were really not part of the decision-making or had no opportunity to um be heard. They felt like they were misled by the time they understood what was going to happen. So anyway, we are downstream in more than one ways. Um what this what the board approves can still be shaped now, but only before the permit is filed. So please impose the moratorum. um pending a cumulative flood and storm water impact study require independent hydraological model modeling of any proposed data center site and make these studies public and subject to resident comment. Thank you very much for your time for hearing our opinions. Thanks.

Good afternoon. Thank you for providing me this opportunity. I'm Rebecca Tet, 6155 Missouri Avenue, Newport Richie, Florida. Um, one thing was already mentioned, so I'm going to mention just other parts of it. Uh, sound was mentioned, the audible sound was mentioned. I want to talk about the inaudible sound, the infrastructure sound. It is 20 hertz, which is below anything that you know that you're even sensing. It is known Dr. Paul Haru confirmed that in infrastructure sound at high volumes directly affects the central nervous system and heart function. So this affects local communities as well as the employees. It has a significant impact on children given that they're in their throws of brain development. This sound creates constant stress that creates permanent learning disabilities. I think that that's very very important when we think I'm stuttering. When we think about the future of our people, the other thing that is very concerning to me is the waste. In 2022, we made 62 million tons of tech waste. laptops, phones, whatever. These data centers beginning at three years have to begin changing out their computers and all this technological equipment because it has become outdated. As fast as we are moving in technology, this equipment has got to be replaced. So that is going to be added to this tons tons of waste that we are already producing. 22% in 2022 was recycled. The balance went into dumps and landfills. This is full of lead, mercury, cadmium, hazardous waste material. It's going to affect whatever grows out of the ground, affect a cow eating the grass, will affect a human being that comes into contact with it. So it has a broader effect than than just being this dump and leeching to like a negative landfill because it gets into the soil and the water and affects our farms. It affects the cow that you may eat tomorrow. Um there is actually a pretty short life to a lot of the infrastructure. your IT coming at three to five years, your mechanical systems at 10 and then 15 years for even a larger portion of the infrastructure that begins to need to be repaired. That is a really short life for a facility that can destroy thousands of acres of land because it expands at least 20 miles around it to to employ 450 people. a a a 200 bed hospital would employ 800 plus people and only take 10 acres as opposed to 700,000 acres of my time. Thank you very much.

Thank you. So Deis Carroll followed by Paxton Paige Gray followed by I think it's uh Lita Leley sorry Lady Gonzalez. Thank you. Hi, I'm Doris Carroll. I live at 5244 Hawk Drive in Holiday, 34690. I'm going to be speaking today about public health. I'm a registered nurse, so that's really important to me. We are here because hypers scale data centers bring chronic, measurable public health harms to the communities where they operate. And Pasco County has no health impact baseline, no health monitoring requirement, and no community health protection standard in place before a single permit is issued. Okay. We are asking for one thing before any permit is approved. Establish a community health baseline, require a health impact assessment, and make both public. So this board and these residents know what they're voting on. Let me be specific. These are not theoretical risks. They are documented impacts of operating data centers on surrounding communities. First, diesel particulate matter. Data centers maintain banks of large diesel backup generators tested monthly under full load, producing fine particulate exhaust in residential airs for hours at a time on a schedule that never ends as long as the facility operates. Fine particulate matter is linked to asthma, cardiovascular disease, and premature death. Pasco County already has elevated rates of both. The second is chronic noise. Cooling equipment runs 24 hours a day. Low frequency noise from large HVAC arrays and cooling towers has documented associations with sleep disruption, hypertension, and stress related illnesses with children and the elderly mostly acutely affected. And third, heat. Data centers exhaust enormous quantities of heat, waste heat into the surrounding environment. In a Florida county county already experiencing worsening heat events, adding industrial heat load into residential neighborhoods is a direct public health intervention and not a beneficial one. None of these harms require an accident. They are routine continuous permitted operation of the facility every day for decades. And right now, Pasco County has no requirement to measure any of them before or after a permit is issued. We ask for three things. First, require a community health impact assessment uh before any data center permit vote, establishing a baseline and projecting health effects on surrounding residents. Second, mandate continuous air quality and noise monitoring as an operating permit condition with public reporting. Third, make health monitoring data publicly accessible in real time, not locked behind a records request. Pasco County residents breathe the air next to what this board permits. They sleep next to the noise it allows. They live with the heat it accepts. They deserve to know the health cost before you vote, not after. And they've been living with it for a decade. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh move to receive and file.

Second.

All in favor say I.

I.

I sorry. You can state your name and address for the record again. Thank you.

I'm I'm Paxton Gray. I reside at 10346 Bob White Way um on Newport Richie, border Hudson. I am a student at the Florida School of Professional Psychology working on my doctorate in clinical psychology. And my hope is that one day I will be able to return and make my services here in Pasco County, the county where I grew up. But the issue is that if we end up taking data centers here, that could devastate our local water source. My family uses wellwater and I've seen the videos of other residents from other places around the country that have had uh data centers put next to their houses and how that then ch changes their water quality. So, their water pressure, they'll be getting brown water out of their faucets if they have any water at all. They may even have to buy new uh well equipment to extend their wells. We are here because Pasco County sits directly above the Fidian aquifer. This is a drinking water source for millions of Flidians. Hypers scale data centers are among the largest industrial water consumers on Earth. Approving here one here without a a cumitive aquifer study is a decision this county cannot undo. Once it is done, that water is gone. The Florida aquafer does not replenish within months. Even if this drought ends, there will still be a water shortage in the aquafer. It takes more than months to restore the aquafer water. The issue is that you can't refill it. It recharges over decades. So, if we were to take one of these projects locally, um, for example, a single hypers scale data center uses evaporative cooling and draws between 1 and 5 million gallons per day. Those are gallons that we cannot put back. That water evaporates into the atmosphere. It does not return to the aquafer. It does not return to the watershed. It is permanently removed from the local water cycle. This water then will not go back into our wellwater. It will not go back into our county water. Which means that, you know, the added residents we keep adding to this county will not have access to the water they need to do their daily uh living activities. In April, Pulk County approved a $2.6 billion 4.4 4 million square foot hypers scale campus in Fort me drawing from the same aquifer that we use. So other counties drawing from the same aquafer also impacts Pasco County's water system. So that water is already happening upstream. Pasco County cannot control what Pulk County approved but we can control what happens here. So our request is that we do a water study and we see how much our aquifer can actually handle that the citizens actually have access to this and that we have a say in what happens to our land so that we can make decisions for the better health of our family and our county. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

No clapping. So following our our next speaker um I have Christy Zimmer followed by Christina uh Letera.

Oh um Mr. Could you tell me your name?

James Sherk further down.

I'm sorry.

James Sher. Okay. I've got

I have four people ahead of you.

Okay.

Okay. All right.

You may proceed. Thank you.

My name is Lady Gonzalez and the address is 10346 Bob Whiteway, Newport Richie, Florida 34654. Um, my name is Lady Gonzalez and I'm a doctorate student of psychology. I introduce myself this way because it's pretty much established that the social sciences, including psychology, should make decisions that better our communities. And it has long been proven that while therapy and psychological services help individuals, we can't ignore the systemic challenges that communities face and their effects on their mental health. So in the efforts to uphold my ethical duties duties, I'm violently against AI and data centers. The Booker 2025 article shows that living near AI data centers is abhorentt to the health of individuals. Data centers increase the risk for respiratory and heart diseases. They increase air pollution which directly affects the local temperatures often raising them enough to impact climate in the area. Data centers consistently contribute to water shortages using clean water to cool down the intricate systems which also affects local water purity and water pressure. Alongside water use, data centers have an increased need for energy, a cost that many locals tend to bear. And data centers have followed our country's history of environmental racism as they're often placed in areas with marginalized communities which are the most impacted. Though most citizens disagree with data centers, government systems often ignore or please to invest instead in programs that buildings will that will aid in building up the community. The Booker article finds that data centers proposed job market is more fallacy than truth as many of those buildings reduce community budgets, engage in wealth extraction from the community, and use underpaid labor while causing economic displacement. The lie of a booming job market is one that often comes with more lax regulations, easy zoning privileges, and a tax break from the local government that further moves funds away from our local community. While the data center may require labor to build, it often requires few people to run. So, the allure of a booming job market is temporary at best and unstable at worst. While many local government bodies have decided to ignore the valid public outcry towards data centers, you all here have an opportunity to represent your citizens concerns and be our collective voice in this public matter. So I hope you take this opportunity to represent us and place public concerns over private financial growth. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Christy Zimmer, 3615 Pine Court, Land of Lakes. I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for taking this into consideration and um if you could consider having the next meeting in the evening so that more people could show up. A 5:00 meeting on this issue I think would be incredibly important. I am very concerned about the fact that this moratorum is only for the mega centers. This is not okay for the micro, small, medium or large data centers. That's exactly how they're going to get around this moratorum. Just like the gentleman that spoke at the planning commission meeting about how we uh how he doesn't need a zoning change, he's already received uh approval from the power company with Lakuchi uh River Electric for the 19.9 meg megawws in order to stay below the trigger points. He thought his water would be reclaimed until he found out that we don't have enough for the people that who already need it. So he would be using potable water. 350 million gallons I believe was the number that was used of potable water that will be contaminated because they do have a coolant that's into it. And where does that discharge go? This is flying below the radar. This isn't okay. I call Mhm. Uh to pro we we need to protect the people. I'm begging you to please amend this moratorum to include micro, small, and medium and large as well as mega until we have more research and better information and understand the long-term effects on our people, homesteads, communities, livestock, and nature. Please amend this before you sign it. Thank you very much.

Please, please be quiet, otherwise we'll have to have you removed. Okay. So, following our next speaker, I have Veronia Lassera, uh, followed by Sean Gregory.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the board. Thank you all for taking your time today and allowing us to speak. My name is Christina Lerta at 9510 Delray Drive in Newport Richie. Um, I'm here today because I want to speak to you all just like everyone else here has uh so far about the we're asking you to protect our lands in Pasco County, the expansion of these data centers. And as the lady previously just said, we'd like for you to consider u putting a moratorium on all data centers until we can do more research, not just these large ones, but these smaller ones, too, because many small ones will deplete our resources just as much as one large one. Uh Pasco County residents are already asking to conserve our water during these drought conditions. We face watering restrictions and increasing concerns about the long-term sil sustainability of our water supply. And I know people have already addressed that, so I'm not going to get into all that. But we do deserve some answers as the public, as your constituents. You know, we talked about where this water is going to come from, possibly these aquifers. But, you know, as this gentleman pointed out earlier, there's only so much water and we draw off of it a lot. um you know ho how much water is going to be consumed annually and that's going to depend on how many data centers you all allow and hopefully you'll allow none you know what chemicals are being used and do they have to use those chemicals or alternatives are there alternatives to where we can build these things if you need those things so badly can you not put it offshore somewhere we don't have to hear it and see it I don't know have you considered any of that anyways how it's a treated how how residents can be assured that our groundwater our wetlands our rivers and our drinking water supplies are going to remain protected and beyond Beyond water concerns, these facilities require hundreds of acres of land that are often currently used for agriculture, open space, wildlife habitats. Once these lands are converted to industrial use, they're lost forever. Never going to get it back. You can't break, you can't bring it back. Pasco County is home to diverse wildlife, including protected species that depend on increasingly fragmented habitats. I personally have five gopher tortoises on my property right now and they're driven from the the building there on Little Road, all that Newport Corners. You've driven all of the deer into my backyard and I love it, but uh it's really sad to see them kill themselves in traffic. It's really sad to see these gopher tortoises who will kill themselves if you pick them up and you move them. Sometimes they get really disturbed and they'll go kill themselves. I just would like for you all to protect our habitats and our environment a little bit more. We should not be replacing farms, fields, forests, and wildlife corridors with massive industrial complexes that provide relatively few permanent jobs while placing additional demands on our water, power, and our infrastructure systems. I

understand the state law limits development moratoriums to 12 months or federal law actually. Now, therefore, I respectfully ask you all to enact the maximum allowable moratorum on new data center development while conducting a comprehensive study of the impacts of water resources, wildlife habitats, agricultural, land, infrastructure, and surrounding communities. At the conclusion of the study, I urge you to adopt zoning and land use regulations that prohibit large-scale data centers in Pasco County. The decisions you make today will shape Pasco County for generations. Thank you.

Thank you. Is this the last speaker? No.

Hi, my name is Veronica Lerta. I live in Newport Richie, 9510 Delray Drive. I'm here in opposition to building the data centers and respectfully to permanently ban data centers. I have engine I've been an engineer for over 30 years. Being an engineer, I am all for technology, but not for these data centers. And I'll explain why. One of my jobs I have worked was at the Crystal River power plant that provides power north and south of Crystal River from close to Orlando all the way to St. Pete. I work with the coal units four and five and in one day the power plant will go through a huge amount of coal. I'm talking the size of a foot football field to at least 20 ft high. The data center alone would use all of the coal and power in one day. Not to mention the power has to be refined and scrubbed with lime injection for pollution control emissions. We do not have the infrastructure to support a data center. We have already under tremendous growth with all these new homes and buildings being built. I heard someone talk about components being outdated and the need to be replaced. I work with semiconductors and the components have material declaration sheets. A lot of these parts have hazardous materials including lead even those that claim to be ros which is lead free sometimes from the solder or already in the part. Components also contain barerium, silicone, guranium and the list goes on. For example, that will go into the landfill. As for the water consumption, the amount of water data centers will take and the chemicals that will be dumped into the landfills unrefined. Our drinking water, wells, rivers and lands will be contaminated. How will those chemicals be controlled so that we won't be poisoning the community? Where will the water come from? We are in a drought now with water centers. The data centers will also radiate harmful RF at frequencies which also cause harm to humans and animals. They will also create noise. How will that be controlled? had data centers are taking over people's land in other states. People are losing everything they have worked for their whole life to be taken by these data centers causing irreversible harms. These data centers are not giving anything back to the community. It will not create substantial jobs for the county. It will take away everything from our forefathers have fought for. Data centers are not for we the people and we the people are not for the data centers. Thank you.

Thank you.

I had called Sean Gregory but you're here for another item. I apologize. I will when that item comes up I will give you your name a call. Um right now we have um signed up for item P48 we have Michael Pterak and um James Sherk followed by Jonathan Decker.

Thank you.

I was a few minutes late and did not take the uh

legislative item. You don't have to

All right. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. So, hello everybody again. My name is Michael Ptoic. Uh, address is actually protected. So, um, couple of things to add here. They're hitting on the water pretty good. My issue is the threshold that you're starting with. There's a 1300 acre complex being worked on right now in Arcadia. It's the biggest one in the state. This should scare you. There's a gentleman in this room who's trying to put forward a 19.7 megawatt location in our county that will take I wrote down at the last meeting 300,000 gallons of water every day to run it because reclaimed is not available. It's underneath your threshold. You won't be able to do anything about it with this moratorum. The threshold is part of what we need to talk about. I may be the only one in here who's actually worked inside masscom data centers in many natural disasters. Okay, I have a little bit of experience with this. Florida is prone to droughts, wildfires, flooding, and hurricanes. We are a natural disaster magnet. I am telling you data centers of any size do not belong in the state. Micro centers that are a direct support function of existing physical businesses. I have no issue with if it's attached to a hospital, attached to a university, attached to a school, I have no issue with it. And we need data centers. We do. They just don't belong in Florida. They belong in a mountain in other states where it's cooler. They don't have the issues we do. We're competing for drinking water, etc. But let's get on to the bigger issue here. I'm going to connect some dots for everybody. There's a reason that the power companies aren't showing up and fighting this whole thing. Okay? There's a reason power generation is not part of this discussion. It takes six to nine years to build out a new grid to get enough power to these data centers. The reason they're not talking about it, and I have plenty of documentation here to prove it to you, is because these data centers before they're built out are going to be using portable nuclear energy. Mr. Engel, these are not micro reactors. These are SMRs. I'll give you all the intel you want on it. These have been underway since 2019 and funded by the Department of Energy. They've already re rewritten three of the CFR chapters to include licensing, regulation, safety, preparedness, and response to these nuclear reactors. I'm pro- nuclear at secure sites like Tiko, Lake Crystal River. Homeland Security actually pays for the law enforcement presence for those to keep them secure. Any data center that says mega in front of it, we don't need it here. Okay, I mean this portable nuclear in our neighborhoods, we don't need it. That needs to be the real discussion here to not allow that in Pasco County. We need voices that are going to represent all of your people and give you all of the information. And for that reason, I'm sharing with you that I'm officially running for the

state seat to be a voice for our people for district 54. Thank you.

No clapping. We have bailis in the back that will escort you out. Don't clap.

You can step up to the podium. Thank you.

Uh good afternoon, commissioners, and thank you for uh taking the time to listen. My name is James Shur. I reside at 1420 East Hannah Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33604. I'm here to speak on behalf of Kimberly Overman. She is running for US House of Representatives District 12, which includes Pasco County, west of Interstate 75. We're here because a hyperscale data center plugs into the Duca Energy, Florida grid. Every family in Pasco County helps pay for the infrastructure it requires whether we were asked or not whether they were asked or not and whether this board knows it or not. Developers are scouting Pasco County right now. Duke Energy is already expanding its transmission infrastructure northward through Central Florida to serve industrial demand, which means we're on the map. Once a proposal arrives on this day, the rate impact on Capasco County families is already baked in. We're not asking you to stop development. We're asking the board to answer one question before any permit is issued. What does this data center add to the Duke energy bill of every Pasco County household? And does this board know what that number is before it votes? How the cost shift works and who pays? Here's the mechanism. A hyperscale data center draws approximately 100 megawatts of continuous power, equivalent to more than 80,000 Florida homes. To serve that load, Duke Energy must build or up upgrade substations, transmission lines, and generation capacity. These infrastructure costs are infrastructure costs are not charged to the data center. Under public service commission rate setting rules, they're classified as system cost and recovered across all rate payers. Every household, small business, school, farm, household, including every household family, every Pasco County family. Florida residential electricity rates have risen more than 30% since 2020. Duke Energy has filed repeated rate increases for the PSC citing industrial load as a driver. The board is the only place where this gets a vote. The Ford me warn Fort me warning as the previous gentleman said in April P County approved a $2.6 6 billion dollar hyperscale campus in Fort me drawing roughly 100 megawatts from the same Duke Energy Florida that serves Pasco County. No rate no rate impact analysis. No independent modeling of load impacts. The load is already on the grid shared by Pasco County. What this board approves next compounds it. The only question is whether Pasco County families found out find out before or after the permit is signed. We ask three things. Require an independent grid cost shift analysis and projected per household rate impact study before any data permit vote. Second, mandate a community benefit agreement with rateayer relief fund contribution as a condition of approval. And third, not put that rate impact analysis on the public record before this before this board votes, not after. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay, we have Jonathan uh Decker followed by Emerson Martin followed by Matthew Grimes.

Chair move to receive and file.

Second.

All in favor say I.

I.

Jonathan Decker. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Emerson Martin followed by Matthew Grimes. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Um, Emerson Martin, 9330 Creedmore Lane, Newport Richie, Florida. One of the greatest parts of being in the United States is the fact that we are just one of 50 states. 50 very diverse states and within them their own individual local communities and governments. Because of this, we can look to them and learn from their accomplishments and their mistakes. I recommend everyone here, especially our commissioners, to do their research into these communities where data centers have already been put and listen to the stories of these regular everyday people who live by these facilities. They are unhappy and their mental and physical health and well-being are being disa disastrously impacted by this. I recommend that you and everyone here simply start by listening to the video I live 400 yards from Mark Zuckerberg's massive data center. on YouTube by a more perfect union. And also, we saw what AI data centers don't want you to see from PBS Terra. And please protect those who cannot speak. The plants and the animals may not be able to pay taxes, but they do matter and are significant to maintaining our ecosystems. And if their well-being is not a concern, please remember that if their home is disrupted, they will find our way. They will find their way into our homes. As for the noise that others have mentioned, as someone whose background is in mental health, I have to tell you I cannot imagine what that will do to the mental health of our people in an area like Pasco where the mental health and substance abuse is already an issue. Please put in this moratorum and really listen to those who have already been living by these centers, not just those who benefit monetarily from them. I will tell you as a proud resident of Pasco, I do not want any centers here at all. I hope that this goes through and throughout the year this moratorum you will listen to us and our desire to not see any of these data centers put here. You represent us and we are your people. Please, please, please do not do this. Please do not allow data centers to be here. Please do not do this to us. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you. Following our our next speaker, we have David, is it Miltonberger? Followed by Kimberly Cox. Thank you. You may proceed.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Thank you. Uh Matt Grimes, 6510 Bradford Hill Court, Wesley Chapel. I'm here in support of the data center moratorium. I'm a longtime tech worker and I'm also uh not anti-tech or anti-data center per se. However, um I am kind of against this the whole speculation driving the data center boom that's going on right now. Uh we've heard a lot about the direct environmental and economic impact. So, I'm not going to beat on that drum. What what I what I'd like to examine a little bit is um about the indirect short order consequences. um letting this genie out of the bottle right now uh in the current state without thoughtful and deliberate consideration in the regulation will be a burden on the citizens of Pisco County uh big time. Um my question would be do we have enough skilled workers to even support a data center boom and data center development in this county? If not, those skilled workers will be have to be moved in to support projects uh on a transient basis which will drive up housing costs rapidly in short order. Uh already taxed roads will have to contend with uh increased commercial traffic. Uh if it's not repaired by us, the taxpayers, then it will be taxes on broken windshields, punctured tires, damaged suspension, and even uh more lost economic activity due to residents sitting in traffic. Um people are afraid and rightfully so. Uh there's also like a big there's also a big significant gap in education in the types of data centers and their uh use cases. We should take this time to clearly define, evaluate and regulate these use cases. For example, is the facility used for leasing rack space to local or colllocated companies and organizations or are they they're just there to lease power um uh compute power to Silicon Valley tech firms who are going to be extracting Pasco resources for their profit. The cost of the res residents of Pasco County economically, health-wise, and environmentally is too high to allow any data center projects to go forward at this time. Let's take a step back and ensure that we do not burden Pasco's citizens with further impactful development. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. You may step up to the podium. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Kimberly Cox. I live in um 7322 Dog Leg Court in Port Richie and I am a representative of Voices of Florida. Um I just wanted to say that when I heard about this meeting um my initial thoughts were absolutely not because that's my initial thoughts since I was a child. Sarah Connor was an icon of my generation after all. Um but also as an artist I think it steals art and creativity and I'm an artist. I'm already starving. Um, then I thought about the misinformation and the disinformation and all of the problems that we faced as a direct result of that. Then I thought about water conservation in Florida and how that was a huge issue and the ever rising cost of electricity and how much I already pay to stay cool for 9 months a year. Then I thought about how marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by centers like this and how this will not create much needed jobs that will replace them. Then I thought about how corporations lie to and steal from hardworking people. They make backdoor deals and they get us on board by swearing they have done their due diligence, but then they use their billions of dollars to buy their way out after the damage is over. Uh look at the opioid crisis, look at the housing crisis. Uh but I only have 3 minutes or less um because you know your time is valuable just like mine is. But I think that every voice in this room and every voice that votes for you, every constituent and everybody that doesn't vote for you, their voice matters. And to rush us through these things, I've been to a million meetings like this. I already know that that's going to happen. So, I don't really have time to delve into the statistics of any of those things. So, I'll leave this with you instead. Oh, sorry. The only experts that you need to listen to are the members of communities that already have data centers like this. They will tell you firsthand what their lives are like, what their consequences of these data centers are. They are the experts in the headaches, the disruptions of sleep, the overall decline in their health. They are the ones that see what is happening to the wildlife and the infrastructure in their hometowns. Just like my 3 days or my 3 minutes isn't long enough right now. One year is not long enough for you to fully grasp what all of this entails. You all have other jobs. You have families. You have commitments. You have things that you're going to focus on. You're not going to spend 40 hours a week for the next year focusing on this. It's not possible. I understand that. So, what I'm telling you is just get it off the table completely. Earn your money for the county. other center, other things can come in and buy your property and generate revenue for you. That is not going to end up being the end of us all. I mean, by the end of all of this, we're going to have two computers that are talking to each other as they drink the last of the water because we're all dead. I mean, it's a reality.

Thank you, David Miltonberger.

Thank you, commissioners. I do have documents for the uh

move to receive and file. Second,

sorry.

All in favor say I.

I.

That's right.

Was gentleman here was first thing this morning. Get back from appreciate that.

Hi. Oh, of course. Course board. Thank you very much, commissioners. My name is David Miltonberger. Address is 12065 Northwest 78th Place, Parkland, Florida. Thank you very much, commissioners. Again, my name is David Miltonberger with Stellaris Data Centers. I am here to ask the county to allow one small data center, a 19.9 megawatt facility, approximately 200,000 square ft that you you'll like this part. We actually use I got more information since the last meeting from my construction group. We actually use no water for cooling. None. 200,000 square foot facility that would use about 19.9 megawatts that uses less than approximately 200,000 gallons a year and that's just for the restrooms. That's about equal to what a coffee shop uses. Our facility would provide about $3 million in tax revenues for this beautiful county. We currently have a 30acre site under contract next to a brand new substation inside the 600 acre double double branch industrial development uh fronting Interstate 75 already zoned industrial with no residential neighbors anywhere around. I want you to know I listened to the community. I heard their concerns last week and there are many and they are reasonable. No one wants a giant utility hungry facility draining the county's water. I don't either. And I'll be honest, last week I spoke before I had all of my facts. I have them now. As I mentioned, my general contractor, one of the country's leading data center builders, confirmed in writing just yesterday, our facility could use a fully closed loop cooling system that uses zero water for cooling. None. Not 1 million gallons a year, not 10 million gallons a year, not 100 million gallons a year. There's all new technology in the data center industry to help solve the issues that they've caused. All these giant facilities that use millions of gallons, they were built years ago, that is not currently what we're talking about. My facility again would use less water than a typical coffee shop. It's it's it's current technology, folks. And our power is a direct utility contract with the local co-op. So no resident rates would go up because of us. My company actually supports a moratorum on large data center facilities. We support the moratorum. We're humbly asking the county to consider keeping a path open for small low impact facilities like ours that carry none of those costs. Two ways that you all could do that. Option one, pass the moratorium with a carveout, allowing a data center facility only if it's under 50 megawatts if it's within 1,000 ft of a substation and uses less than 1 million gallons of water per year. Period. That's option one. Option two, pass the mortorium as written, but allow one pilot facility like ours to truly be a partner with the county where the county can set all the limits of our water, of our power, of all our utilities. you get direct access to all of the inter information and you can be you can be a beacon for Florida and tell

all show all the other counties uh what responsible data centers can do. Again, that's $3 million in tax revenue per year from our $200 million facility that is asking for nothing in return. We respectfully ask for no incentives, no subsidies, no special treatment.

You live away from here.

You cannot

Why does that matter?

You cannot do that.

Why does that matter? It's a $200.

I believe a time zone.

Thank you.

Thank you. Quiet, please.

Is there any else?

Mr. Chair, that is all that I have signed up for item P48 and we have no one um virtually for this item. Okay, I'm going to have

anyone else who not signed up that would like to address this issue.

I see.

If you do, if you want to speak, please line up one behind each other.

So, just state your name and address first and then you can proceed. Thank you.

My name is Gabrielle Clemens. I'm I live pal uh 571 Bay Street, Palm Harbor, Florida. Um I just I want to say that I think a lot of people are talking about the impacts on like the environment and things, but I don't think enough people are talking about the community and how the community is impacted from this. People are losing their creativity and lo they're losing their their brain. I am probably the youngest person in here. I just finished my first year college. I'm I'm going into environmental science. I know the impact is grand and great on how people live and how the environment is affected from this, but it affects me. I'm going to grow up here. I've grown up here. I've seen the rise in AI data centers. I've seen what it does. And it makes people lose their minds. I've have friends who don't even know what how to write an essay anymore because all they can do is ask a chat box. And it's so it's making people dumber. It's making people slower and it's hurting it's hurting people and their creativity and how they can process things. I know that a lot of people use um AI for sources and stuff which is not it's not a good source. It can barely get the right information for you. I I know a lot of the animals are also and I know people have already talked about this, but a lot of the animals are are very affected by this. I I'm mainly focused on animals. I grew up around animals. I grew up on a little farm. Um, and we need this water. We need this protection against the environment. I'm probably I'm probably going to be here for another 50 years. And I'm probably going to be here along before a lot of the people in this room. And it's me who has to take it's me and people like me and people in my age group who are going to have to live through this and live as it takes our water. Not within the next year, not within the next five, but within the next decade, in the next century, we're going to have to live through this and live with the consequences of what would happen if we put this large data center and open this open open this Pandora's box of letting more data centers into Florida and into the United States, which is not okay. And it's going to take up a bunch of I think we're we're shooting out a bunch of environmental or a bunch of data centers and we're not thinking about how that this is going to be so normalized and so we we don't even know the effects fully on the environment. Data centers haven't been around long enough for us to study and know the full effects of this on our environment. So, I think we should do a little more research and I think we should wait maybe 10 to 15 years to see how much these affect our environment and affect our people. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mic down.

My name is uh Cody Chuckle. I live on the Pasco side of Spring Hill. My address is 16751 Lashua Drive. Um, I haven't heard anybody discussing what these data centers are actually being used for. And I have knowledge of that because I've worked as a data analyst in u big tech for about 15 years now. I've worked with AI for longer than a lot of people have known what AI is. I've worked with big data um on a global scale. I've worked with metadata also on a global scale. I work for one of the largest data companies in the world here in Florida. Um the facility where they store all that data um for people globally, many many many millions of people um is 1/100th the size of these data centers that we're seeing spring up. So these things aren't for meta. They're not for your phone company. They're not like people don't know what they're for. They're for mass surveillance. Um, they're for all those spot cameras that are going up without our permission. They're for every text message we send, everything we do on social media. The government wants to store that and they need a lot um they need a lot uh to be able to do that. Takes a lot to store that data and then to use that data. And they're also being used to automate jobs and so eliminate jobs from us. people in my um industry are being wiped out effectively by AI and H-1B um foreign workers um every day on social media and local forums. I'm seeing people in Pasco County and surrounding counties who can't find a job. They can't find a job um because of foreign labor probably um much of that illegal and AI. Um, this is something that is very disturbing and it's all it's all actually unconstitutional and illegal. Nobody's talking about that. Nobody's waking up to that and realizing that. I think eventually we're going to um AI is also a bubble that's going to pop. It's going to be like the.com bubble because it is not all that people think it is. It is not as effective as people think it is. It's not accurate. Um, and it's being it's being pushed right now at the federal level by foreign special interests. They want to store this data and then they want to use it to work against us. They're already using it to work against civilians on a military level in countries abroad. Um the these are the things that we can expect to see come out of these data centers. Uh we need to understand what are they being used for. Nobody's asking those questions. You guys need to ask those questions. And it's also being um opined by many nationwide that their local officials got bribed to say yes to these data centers when the communities overwhelmingly said no. So, um, if that's the case, I think we can look forward to an investigation, uh, into corruption here. So, thank you.

Hello.

Uh, my name is Jose Frees and I live on 1822 Cypress Bay Parkway, Lando Lakes.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jose Frees. I'm a native Pasco of Pasco County. I've been living here all 20 years of my life. And when I heard that there was a moratorum on AI data centers, well, quite frankly, I was shocked but not surprised. I grew up in Pasco County and I what I can tell you is as the time has gone by, overdevelopment has crept into our community as it has across the state. My mom and I have a running joke that every new construction construction site is a new car wash. Near 70% of the time, we're right. Now, Pasco County is discussing about whether or not we need a data center here. The sheer thought of it alone is enraging. AI is to many the jump start of the third industrial revolution. To others, it means utter catastrophe. AI data centers take up large amounts of water in order to cool down its machinery. Think about the impact that it has on our nature's ecosystem. The plants and wildlife that thrive here will disappear. AI data centers have shown to shock and overwhelm electricity system. electricity companies will can turn around and take advantage of the situation and raise everyone's light bill all because we needed the AI data data center. Think about the impact that has on your constituents in a time where basic commodities are already at an all-time high. Insurance, gas, groceries. We are in an affordability crisis and we're here sitting uh thinking and talking about whether or not we need a data center with zero safety nets. That's ridiculous. As a young person, as so many others have, I am often misrepresented when it comes to AI. Since it's a new useful technology, I should be the most enthusiastic out of anyone here. But I am not. I am not the only one who feels the sentiment. Students both high school and college have seen a drop in cognitive retention in class. Think about that. With literacy rates already dropping prior to the AI problem, we are barreling towards uh barreling towards the path of anti-intellectualism. I argue a society who cannot think for themselves is no society at all. My name is Jose Alejandra Fretes. I am 20 years old and I am running for state representative here in Pasco County. I think about the working class here. I devote my time to fighting for the people. County commissioners, I ask, will you think about your constituents when it comes down time to vote? Thank you.

Thank you. You may proceed.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Amanda Swanson. I live at 2541 Gilwood Drive in Trinity. Um, thank you so much for taking the time today. Um, I was uh very pleased to see the moratorium even be an option for us. Um, I genuinely feel by vibes alone that you guys will possibly really put this moratorum into place and I do fully appreciate why it would be for 12 months. I hope that in 12 months we'll be here again to set up another 12-month mortorium. Um there's only been one gentleman who came up here today that I disagreed with in any capacity. I'm sure you can figure out which one it was. Um I everything I feel has been expressed today except for one thing that seems very small but it is uh I just wanted to put it on the public record. um we are already seeing what happens in the short term around the data centers that already exist, but we certainly just cannot at this time know what this looks like five years from now. We're still learning about long COVID and potential uh ramifications from, you know, fast vaccines. Like there are things that take years to unpack. Um there has already been an uh some reports in Texas um some far from farms in Texas around data centers that are already currently active where their livestock have not provided a single live calf. They are having stillborn births across the board. Their cattle are procreating. They are misarrying or giving birth to stillborn calves. Now I know Pasco County is not a bastion for the dairy or beef market. However, data centers don't target cows. This have ramifications for other livestock and eggs, but it also has ramifications for the farmer's wife and daughters. There is there are things that we simply cannot know right now. And if this level of contamination to our groundwater and our drinking sources and our air can potentially cause long-term infertility, I think that is something that should be ser seriously looked at. And I find it very ironic that the party that is putting these data centers through across rural and suburban America is the same party that just spent five decades doing all of they all they can to overturn Roie Wade. Thank you for their time.

There's only one reason data centers are eyeing our county is is

name for the

Oh, sorry. Don Henrik's uh 34259 Whittington Lane, Dade City.

Thank you. There is only reason data centers are eyeing our county because they consider it an untapped resource. That's all they want is our resources. The only reason that we would have a data center here because there's absolutely zero benefits other than any financial gain for the county. And that's just basically saying we are willing to sell our resources for money. And that makes zero sense because in the long run what needs to be considered is what is the long term? We get the money right now. You get a little bit of money every year, but what is the long-term cost that that we're going to be having to deal with? You don't even know. It's it it could be so astronomical that any reward that we get for money would not even pay off. So that that that seriously needs to be considered. I I agree with everything else. I've already stated that at the last meeting about the environmental and all that and people have already said that. I would want to say one thing. if the people aren't considered, if the land isn't considered, if the nature isn't considered, the one thing that is going to be impacted is property values are going to plummet. And here we are growing this county already. And what about the potential growth that is going to be stunted when there's not enough resources for other new developments, homes or incoming things because there will be no water, there will be no resources for that, for growth. And one thing I would like to reply about Mr. Miltonberger. The one thing he did not state was as he wanted to build his less than 20 megawatt data center, but he admitted at that meeting that he wanted to add on. He wanted to get in under the 20, but then he wanted to add on. And that is the problem with people like him is they want to come in and he stated, I would like to buy more land and add on more. So, it doesn't end. And he never stated one thing. No water use. Well, where does all where where is all the the chemicals that he's using? Where are they going? He never mentioned that either. So, maybe he's not using water, but he's using something and it's got to go somewhere. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, commissioners. Thank you for for giving me the opportunity to come up and talk. My name is Kelly Dodson. I'm a Hernando County resident um and involved in Hernando County uh data center uh no data centers. Um this data center violates the National Security Act of 2024 HR2670 the uh annual defense policy bill that authorizes funding levels and sets priorities for the US Department of Defense military personnel weapons programs and national security initiatives. It restricts certain Chinese semiconductors sourcing and technology. It promotes secure US and and allied supply chains for the critical component software and infrastructure. All data centers are made of these Chinese parts and infrastructure and are risk to national security of Florida. Just as May 8th, 2026, Governor DeSantis signed HB905, the Foreign Interference Restriction, and Enforcement Act, strengthening Florida's protections against hostile foreign adver ad adversaries seeking to infiltrate government critical infrastructure uh public in in institutions and states economy. In 2023, Florida enacted SB264 to prevent hostile foreign governments and entities affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party from purchasing farmland or lands near military bases and critical infrastructure. Florida also restricted certain government contracts involving foreign countries of concern, blocked foreign controlled companies from accessing sensitive personal information and banned uh Tik Tok and other foreign controlled applications from state and devices and networks. Governor DeSantis al also signed executive order 22-216. The order prohibits state and local governments from procuring or utilizing technology services that has been determined by DMS to pose a risk to safety and security of Florida due to the company's connections to or use by China among other countries. Doing so, Desantis said, will help prevent exposure of government information and technology services and systems and services in Florida to other state and non-state actors affiliated with China. D Santis also proposed legislation action to pre prohibit government entities from contracting with companies owned and controlled by or doiciled in China as if the contract would provide access to Fidian's personal information. They are banned. This data center will be surveillance centers collecting all of our data. So if the local government approves a data center, is Pasco County in violation of the governor's act? Thank you. Hello, my name is James Cook. I don't have a prepared statement. I'm from the west side of the county. Um, one thing I wanted to say is the gentleman who came by earlier and spoke about the cooling system within data centers. He didn't clarify what that system is because it doesn't exist. You know, there's no type of cooling system that exists at that scale. Just doesn't happen. U with that. Um, also you've just heard from the last

25 people that we are all very much anti-data center. Everyone here is pretty much against it. I think it's going to be on all of you to vote going forward showing that. Um, that's all I wanted to say. I hope you guys have a good day.

Again, I don't have a prepared statement. This is just off the whim. Angela King, 11210 F Street, Port Richie. Um, back about what he was saying. The gentleman that was here before talking about a closed loop system, he ran out of here like a scared puppy after he finished what he was saying because he didn't want any questions. My question is he's got a closed loop system. That closed loop loop system has to be cleaned out at some point. It's got to have chemicals in it. It's got to be released someplace. There was nothing telling us what kind of chemicals that were used, where it was going to go, how much it was going to be, or how to even do that. Who can answer those questions? That was just a quick point that I just wanted to make because there was nothing said about how to do that closed loop system. He just said it and that was it and cut it off. I just wanted to make that point. Thank you.

I'm also unprepared, but uh I just want to say a couple of things.

I just need your name.

Born about 40 miles from an address for the record.

Oh, sorry. Eugene Alfano, 8224 Palencia Drive. I live in Timber Oaks.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. I was born less than 40 miles from here and starting in 1970 I worked for an architect and I don't know if you all are familiar with Lake Padet Estates but we subdivided 714 I think the number was lots off of 41 Lake Padio states their second edition when we were doing that we were designing homes and many of the lots that were in that complex had so much water on them we had to make provisions for that. That being the case, that was 1970 and I I won't talk about that. Anyhow, my my thought is that any of the people with the resources to develop this stuff, they're not going to live in here. They're not going to live here with us. They'll be someplace else. Also, they have the resources to insulate themselves from the problems that are going to uh culminate with the development of these projects. Okay? I'm 81 years old. I don't give a damn what you folks do because it ain't going to affect me. But if you're less than 50 years old, you better get concerned. I'm concerned with the science denying I'll keep it clean folks who think that they're going to leave it to chance what's going to happen with our environment. But I am seriously doubtful that in 15 or 20 years you're going to be able to breathe here. And uh if the younger folks don't get their act together and get involved with our political system and uh do something, we all won't be able to breathe in 20 years. I'm hoping to live that long. I got great grandmothers that lived more than that, but I don't really anticipate it now. So that's what I wanted to make. That's the point I wanted to make. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Mendy Martin. Um, I live at 3117 Huntington Road. I didn't plan on speaking today, but you know, I think we can all agree these data centers are are more about data. They're also about surveillance of us. Um, I can't control what they're putting in our food. I can't control what they're spraying in our air, but we still can control our boat. And we're telling you how we feel about these data centers. And I want you to think about that. We can still control our vote. Thank you.

Okay. Was anyone else want to address the board?

Was there anyone else online?

No one's online.

Okay. Well, close public comment. Uh back to the board for any further comments or staff.

I have a question for staff.

Mr. Whitman. So can you clarify the in the well first point e to the lady who talked about electronic

I can't hear you

how about now is it working now can you hear me now

you

all right thank you everybody for for coming today and to the planning commission uh e e-waste will probably We were we're currently probably on the cusp of being um one of the largest uh solid waste challenges that our planet faces. And the e-waste challenges from electric car batteries to disposing of those to everything that's in our phones, devices, computers will be a compounding challenge for years to come. And uh so I hear you on on e on e-waste and electronics waste. Does the language um include all sizes, scope and scope of these data centers like the gentleman that was here and the smaller ones and the medium and the large. Does it incorporate uh the moratorum incorporate language to halt the data center of any of those sizes aside from what planning commission like what the school board has and in in those type purposes?

Amanda Hill plan development and economic growth. Uh, Commissioner, my understanding of how this was drafted was that essentially the definition that the state has for a data center which is all-encompassing that definition has been baked into the language that's in the moratorium ordinance language. So, as such, it would encompass everything except what we've clarified that are not applicable to the moratorium. So those would be specifically uh server rooms and computer rooms typically used to house IT and related network equipment that are incidental to the primary use on site. So the schoolboard item that you were just discussing. And then there is also language in here that after a determination of public necessity by the board, an existing development agreement may be amended or a new one adopted by the board to allow for the construction of a data center that is not a large load customer providing that the agreement imposes specific conditions addressing including but not limited to all of the following location, size, light, glare, height, water use, electrical power consumption, noise, and compatibility. So if it doesn't fall into the category of the server rooms or the category of public necessity, the moratorium as currently drafted would prohibit that. Sounds a little loose.

Quiet, please.

I'm not I'm not so sure for the 12 months that that's the that's catchall language. I need county attorney or legal mind to weigh in or other board members.

Thank you, chair.

So, you've advertised largecale data centers and other large load customers within the unincorporated county as being affected by this moratorum except for those exceptions that Amandela has given to you. So something that is does not meet the definition of a large scale data center is smaller than that would not be covered by this moratorium.

Uh hold on for hold on for a second quiet please. It says whereas comma data centers comma large scale data centers that would mean any kind of data center

large there.

Hang on please. related to related okay

this is data centers and comma large scale data centers

and then it goes on to large scale load usually

yes the def the the definition is related to data centers comma large scale data centers so whatever comes in under data centers would be covered as well as large largescale data centers and large load customers within the unincorporated area that's that's what the that's what the advertised definition is it and so you can't broaden it now but that's that's what was advertised for this moratory.

Can I share the definition for data center per the state statute

please?

Please.

Okay. So it says here, a facility that primarily contains electronic equipment used to process, store, and transmit digital information, which may be a freestanding structure or a facility within a larger structure, which uses environmental control equipment to maintain the proper conditions for the operation of electric electronic equipment.

Do we have to use the state's definition or can the county evolve the definition into Pasco County's definition of a data center? county.

If you have a if you create a definition of data center that is different from the states, you can I mean if you can back it up, you can you can use that definition.

Can you back it up?

I you haven't developed a definition yet, have you? Or had staff?

I mean,

because we want to include micro all of it.

But can I just add something? That is a very broad definition.

It includes literally everything. That's the reason why staff had to exempt computer closets because it's such a broad definition.

It It includes It includes

our IT department.

It includes our IT department. It includes the computer. It includes the computer room for this building. It's that broad of a definition. That's why they had to include an exemption for server rooms for buildings because it's that broad of a definition.

So for the sake of comfort that language is sufficient on the record as a catchall.

I think it is a very broad definition. Yeah, I think it includes every mandal. Do you want to read it again very slowly? data centers,

it when I read it, it was extremely broad to me.

Okay. So this is uh a facility that primarily contains electronic equipment used to process, store and transmit digital information which may be a freestanding structure or a facility within a larger structure which uses environmental control equipment to maintain the proper conditions for the operation of electronic equipment. So that concludes everything that can be considered a data center, the micro, the medium, the whatever.

And do you

I agree with David that that's a that portion of the state definition is very broad.

So that it is a catchall legal legal language.

It depends on Yes. Yes. You've you've advertised the world. Now it's what you actually apply it to in the adoption of the ordinance.

Are you saying we can change it a little bit?

Yes. I mean, you can you can What I'm saying is you've got you've got lang you've got a proposed ordinance that's before you. If you believe it covers everything that you want it to cover, you adopt it as is. If you're con if you've got any concerns, you still can be more detailed about what is and what isn't. So chairman, so what are so if there was a hypothetical exception, somebody would to come in to try to propose such a project here, what hypothetical exception would would that outfit potentially try to use? I know you it's on the fly, but

yeah, I have a question, too. If somebody came in and said, "Well, I have a project and it here's an exception to your language."

You know, they're, you know, they're trying to find a loophole, right? I'm trying to understand what the potential loopholes, if if there are any with the legal minds in the room. Um,

well, I can tell you what was discussed at Planning Commission. Um, and it's really under one of the two exceptions that Amandeler just read. And one of the arguments that was made was that somebody might try to argue that under the incidental use exception that somehow their their data center was you know that it was a warehouse and that their data center was an incidental use to a large warehouse. That that was the argument. So, planning commission wanted staff to identify some cap on the megawatts even for an incidental use because they were worried that that might be subject to abuse, the incidental use exception. That was that was the argument some of the planning commission members were making that that was potentially subject to abuse. But the 12 months allows us to come up with with rules and regulations and etc on how to prevent that from happening.

I think you're worried that during the 12 months that somebody might come in and argue incidental use and that they're really a data center. Mr. Dingle can get up and and explain why he doesn't think that's a concern just like he did to planning commission. But that that was one of the concerns that was raised by the planning commission.

Is he here?

She has questions about

No, I I was going to ask the same thing, but you brought it up about closing the loophole, but also the language. Like I was looking up other names for data centers. There's one the cloud. It could be called the cloud. It could be a data hub. It could be a collocation facility like does like in that just because it says data center if it's called something else I just want to make sure it's it's included like that they cannot get it through the county there's no loopholes there's no way to get it through

if it meets the definition that you put in your ordinance they can't get it through

no matter what the name

no even if they try and call it something else

like but that gentleman saying it you know the no water or something like that if he called it something else I just Just want to make sure like something like that couldn't slip through.

Well, he proposed an exemption to your moratorium so that he could build it.

Mr. Starky,

um I have uh two questions and I guess this is going to come up during your um year of research. Um but the nuclear waste, you know, really got my attention. And so I want to make sure that we're looking at what that means. And I don't know if that that gentleman is here, if he has any or not. I don't know enough about these. I'm glad we're doing the moratorum. Um, but I did I I thought I heard that the Spiros campus needed a data center. And so, um, where are they in that process? And is it like an IT department versus a data center or what what's happening with

spir? Well, David Engel, planning, development, and economic growth. Thank you for inviting me up to the podium. Um to answer your question, Commissioner, we do not have a specific proposal for spuros to employ a data center, but we've had some general discussions over the last year or two years that at some point of time a smallcale data center would be necessary for the Spiro's campus to support the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and patient treatment facilities on that property. We have nothing specific, nothing proposed and in fact all the phasing of development in front of us now had does not include a data center.

Okay. So we can get our rules in place and what we what we right

that that's correct. Um we also crafted a statement of necessity. Let's say Spiros has a a large international pharmaceutical concern and they want to come in and build a a massive facility or something that's pertinent to the Spiros philosophy and project then the board could consider that as part of an economic development pertinence to the you know that type of development. But other than that um we don't allow data centers in this moratorum and we have a complete blanket prohibition.

Okay. Hey. Um, and lastly, I I I know that Niko, that's our National Association of Counties, that's our organization. I'm on on the board of directors. Um, you know, we've been talking about this. Uh, I I remember at one of my last board of directors meetings, there was a gentleman from, I think, North Dakota that said they had a data center that was two miles long.

Crazy. Um, and then you've got Lowden County, Virginia that has 400 data centers. So, um, I've been texting here, but I don't have an answer yet if they will be holding, and I I know there's other commissioners around the country that are asking this because a lot of communities are having these discussions um to have a a a special session for us on the data centers and we'll hear from commissioners who are living through it. So, when I get that answer, I want to be sure we send staff and I would recommend you guys come up. Jack and I will be there. Um, it's in New Orleans. Um but if they're doing something on data centers, I I want to be sure we get to go and um pay attention to what's happening around the country so that we can learn from what's you know what others have been through

and ju just

when you were talking the one uh woman said about the public health and the health impact you know assessment on these data centers I think that's important too because we did hear a lot of concerns about that. Yeah. I have two pages of notes. Um, so I just want to make sure that, you know, we're on top of that piece as well.

So, Commissioner, I I've taken notes throughout the public um, statements and I've I've documented everything that's relevant and important for us to review. I can just tell you that it is a significant undertaking and we are urban planners. We realize there's science, there's specialization that we have to consult with and our intention is to hire an expert consultant act as our adviser during the preparation of this data center. We don't have one in mind yet. We are um we've drafted some scope and we are putting out our feelers to see who's out there, who has the expertise and the experience to backs stop us technically.

Okay. I'd like to say Dave um I I feel comfortable as far as the way the sentence goes with data centers then large scale that is fully encompassing. We're also have the control if we choose to from Muffet if they came up to something they could look at it but meanwhile we've got everything blocked so we're in control.

That's correct sir.

Okay. So I feel good with that. Uh Commissioner Wman when you brought up as far as the the e-waste that we got to have to deal with. I don't see that in the resolution. It probably should be in like the next paragraph down. I think that should be added in there. And Commissioner Gagger, as you bring out as far as like health concerns for people, animals, etc., however you want to phrase that, I think that should be incorporated into this as you bring it back to us.

Well, would that be in the ordinance or the more the mortorium ordinance or the final ordinance?

I I to me to me it's we if we can add it,

we could bring it back at the second reading and the adoption

for the second reading to add add in the changes. Yes, that's great. It's a purpose of the I think the first

Amanda may have some questions because she's the uh the expert scribe. Trying to make sure I got all my notes right

if I can. Sure.

Before you go have this dialogue.

So if you stop future data centers from being built, there's no e-waste generated because they're not being constructed. If you're concerned about the e-waste in the eventuality that data centers are permitted sometime in the future, that would be a regulation under your land code. Okay.

To to deal with that issue, but

but

they don't need to put in this now.

But this I this is going to stop them from being constructed. So, you wouldn't need to deal with that right now.

Okay. Yeah. And I and I noted the e-waste comment that Commissioner Wayman made in our uh you know, all the issues that we're going to look into. Thank you.

And as we adopt this, we're going to be able to make this retroactive so it goes back to the date of the hearing. So, so there's a case in Florida, Smith versus the city of Clearwater, that says that while a moratorum is only effective upon adoption, the moratorum can be made effective retroactively to the first day it was noticed.

Well, we should have done that on the billboards.

You weren't that years ago.

That isn't what they did.

Stay focused. So, so we can work on the effective date before your second hearing if if that's the board's desire.

I would think the earliest date we can do would be the appropriate one.

Yes.

Um

Okay.

Any further discuss?

We don't we don't vote on it. Right.

Yeah. We're not going to vote on this. This will be heard at the next next county commission meeting at 1:30 thereafter and we'll be discussing again. Second hearing for adoption is to be held on July 14th, 2026 at 1:30 as soon thereafter as saying may be heard in Tate City.

Okay.

But we did hear you and thank you for all coming.

Yeah. Thank you all for your input and stay with us on it. We'll be going through the process. Thank you. Let's take a fivem minute break as the room clears up.

Oh yeah.

Um Mr. Chair, can I just ask one question?

Yes. Um there is that exception the um the public necessity exception and it has a list of factors that have to be addressed if we do that.

Did you want us to add e-waste in that list?

Yes.

As far as to consideration want added to the list.

Well e-waste I would go to to health.

So that that is a change to the actual ordinance.

Then health and safety. Can you put that in there as well? Well, because it has a list of things that need to be addressed if we enter into such an agreement.

Okay,

that that's a change to this ordinance, not the future land development code. And so

if you want that to be addressed in that agreement, that's something that we'd have to address in this ordinance.

I would put that in there and health and safety as well.

So, so if you want e-waste in there, we'd have to add that to this ordinance.

Everybody agree? Health and safety and e-waste. Well, health and safety is pretty broad,

but um

let's put it in there. Address it.

Safety.

So,

okay.

So, the answer is yes. We should add that.

Everyone agree.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Three. You get three and a half out of four.

Well, it it already says in the best interest of public health, safety, and welfare in the warehouse clause. But I mean, so you can

Yeah, Jeff. Do you understand the list I'm talking about with the following? It says

the exception

the list of things that need to be addressed in the agreement.

Okay.

And it says size, light, glare, height, water use, electrical power consumption, noise, and compatibility.

So, I would I think that e-waste would be appropriate to be in that list if that's something the board is concerned.

Right. That's what I'm asking. Did you want that to be added? Because that we need to change the ordinance to add that. Do we have to vote on that or is that

We just We just gave

We're just I just want to make sure staff has the direction to add that.

Thank you.

All right. Back in three. There's a line on the ladies. There's a line.

Very effective, sir. while I

were busy with I want to make sure they know I'm really dressed for all this. options are on airplanes. My husband works on airplanes. Some of those

until they're open,

right? Because we still understand.

Yeah. Well, I husband

and you know, one of the hydraulic system radiator in her car, right,

ran out of water. I wonder how that happened,

right? And like one of the hydraulic systems on an airplane, which according to the guy that sells it,

you can drink it. It'll melt your skin right off your body.

A lot of local they're being extremely pree sorry preemptive on this. This was not, you know,

well, he's looking at

things,

but he's not the one that's

Yeah, I was going to say they're looking

very broad. Right.

I I knew people were snooping around, but I didn't know that. That was the most detail.

Uhhuh. in July.

Right.

Yes. Thank you for coming out.

That exercise will like So, you call us sit down. I asked Paula's question that

same question to say that legal Oh, that looks like fun.

Is that what you're doing this weekend? How you did

that? No, that was five minutes before the meeting. Five minutes.com.

Very cool.

Are you gonna like you just appreciate

I did years ago not very well clarinet and then I'll That's awesome.

She's good.

She's dressed. I would think she'd be doing like hard rock.

Um, she started out in contemporary jazz,

which is great.

Fantastic.

And worked with was the second player for Harrison and Dan Durant. Uh she filled in once for lemons after he passed but most of her and then she toured for two years a bone shakers bone shakers are separate balloons. She did a combined thing with them for hard hard rock stuff

and now she's back to work again.

Very talented traveled the world

and her husband does adventures.

So they do This is like right.

Yeah. So, I've been traveling with him since,

you know, she goes, "Shit. Yeah, I thought I thought we switch the kill switch away. Sharp sir very well put together. So, I showed him like Gavl down.

You got three.

But you know, he was the one at that meeting. Do I date it?

It was the one that was approved. They were just finalized today by property.

Do I date today's date?

Can't hear you.

We're going to continue back to item P49.

Approve.

Yes.

Madam clerk, you're a little late.

Oh, thank you. Okay, I got it now.

Item P49 was published in the Tampa Bay Times on April 29th, 2026.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Denise Fernandez, code compliance department. Before you is an ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, providing for the amendment of chapter 18, article 9, foreclosure registry, real property registration system, section 18-152, definitions, and 18-154, maintenance requirements, Pasco County Code of Ordinances, providing for modification, repealer, severability, inclusion into Pasco County of ordinances, and an effective date. So basically the problem statement that we're looking at right now is that the currently the registration for foreclosure registry is only can only be completed by local agents and local agents are defined as being within the boundaries of Pasco County. So what we're do we're proposing is to expand the list of counties that are considered local for the purposes of local agent registration. And that would include the counties that border Pasco County, Penllis County, Hernando County, Hillsboro County, Pole County, and Sumpter County. And uh we're asking that you please accept public comment on the amendment to chapter 18 article 9 and adopt the ordinance by roll call vote. And I'm here for any questions that you may have.

Okay. Any questions for staff? None.

Okay. Then we'll go to public comment. Anyone need to speak to item P49?

I have no one signed up and no one virtually.

Okay, we'll bring it back to the board.

Move approval.

Second.

And roll call vote.

District one, Commissioner Oakley. Oh, sorry, he's not here. District two, Commissioner Waitman. Hi.

District three, Commissioner Starky.

I.

District four, Commissioner Joerger.

Hi.

District five, Chairman Mariano.

And he's so quick.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Item P50 approve.

Yes. Item P50 was published in the Tempe Times on June 7th, 2026.

Good afternoon, commissioners. Paula Baraldo, support services. Uh before you is an ordinance by the board of county commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, providing for the amendment of chapter 94, article 4, Pasco County Local Provider Participation Fund providing for modification repealer severability inclusion into the Pasco County Code of Ordinances and an effective date. And this item comes to you with a recommendation of approval. We do have here uh Colleen Erns from Atlanta Healthcare Ventures if you'd like to uh know more about this item. Otherwise, uh we're just asking for your approval. Thank you.

Anyone need a presentation?

Good. Okay.

Move. Hang on.

Public hearing.

We have We do have

Anyone Anyone here from the public that would like to address this item P50?

I have um about four people signed up. We have

If you'd like to address it,

they they're here mostly in support. It's our hospital assistance. Yes.

If I was in Tallahassee, I'd say wave in support, but

or not,

right?

Okay.

All right. to the board. Move

second.

Roll call vote.

District one, Commissioner Oakley. District two, Commissioner Weightman.

Hi.

District three, Commissioner Starky.

Hi.

District four, Commissioner Joerger.

Hi.

District 5, Chairman Mariano.

I motion passes.

Thank you.

P51. Do we have approve?

Yes. Item P-51 was published in Tampa Times on March 25th, 2026.

Good afternoon. planning and development or Amy Tol with planning development economic growth. Item P-51 is an ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners amending the Pasco County Land Development Code section uh 1,14 flood damage prevention appendix A definition and other sections as necessary for internal consistency uh providing for applicability repealer providing for severability inclusion in the land development code and an effective date. This comes before you with a recommendation to approve and staff's here if you would like a presentation.

Do we need a presentation? Okay. This is to the public. Did anyone in the public like to comment?

I just like to say I'm very happy with this change. I think it's a beneficial thing for the citizens.

Mr. Chair, no one is signed up and no one is on WebEx.

Okay, we'll close public comment to the board.

Move approve.

Second.

Follow roll call vote.

District one, Commissioner Oakley. District two, Commissioner Weman. Hi.

District three, Commissioner Starky.

Hi.

District four, Commissioner Joerger. Hi.

District five, Chairman Mariano.

Hi.

Item P52 approved.

Yes. Item P-52 was published in the Tampa Times on May 26. Sorry, May 6, 2026. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, item P-52 is the companion item to item P-51. U, an ordinance by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners amending the Pasco County Code of Ordinances, Chapter 18, Buildings and Building Regulations. Article 5, uh, article six, section 18-122, Florida building code, uh, local administrative amendments, local technical amendments, flood damage prevention standards, and other sections as necessary for internal consistency, providing for applicability repealer, providing for severability, inclusion in the code of ordinances, and an effective date. This comes with before you with a recommendation to approve, staff's available for a presentation as well. Okay. Put the board like a presentation.

Okay. Anyone here from the audience like to speak to item P52?

Mr. Chair, no one is signed up and no one is on um on virtual.

Okay. Close public comment back to the board.

Move.

Second.

Roll call.

Roll call vote.

District one, Commissioner Oakley. District two, Commissioner Weightman. Hi.

District three, Commissioner Starky. Hi.

District four, Commissioner Joerger. Hi. District five, Chairman Mariano. Hi.

Motion passes. Item P53. Do we have approve? Yes. Item P-53 was published on in the Tampa Bay Times on March 4th, 2026.

Item P53 is an ordinance amending the Pasco County Comprehensive Plan providing for a text amendment to chapter 2 future land use element appendix section A6 and providing for additional text amendments as necessary for internal consistency providing for repealer severability and effective date. This is the adoption hearing for this item and it comes with you uh comes before you with a recommendation to approve. There is also an uh presentation for this as well.

Okay. The board like a presentation. I'll just uh maybe ask David Engel if this is the one we talked about. We're we're good.

Yes, sir. If if that's what we spoke about when I was at Publix on Sunday. There we go.

Um you are good. Uh this is to allow redevelopment opportunities in our residential office and retail future land use uh going up to a higher net gross density and we also have three times FR in the west market area which will support a 15 to 18 story building. We are considering additional measures to stimulate redevelopment in the west side and that'll be part of the Pasco 2050 plan which the board should be adopting this October.

Okay. And when you were at the store, did you find everything you needed?

Excuse me, sir.

When you were at the store, did you find everything you needed?

Yes. Uh I had some lactade milk. It was delicious. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Anyone here? Anyone here from the public speakers from almonds? Mr. Chair lactate milk from almonds.

So, Mr. Chair, I have no one signed up and no one virtually for this item.

We'll close public comment to the board. Approval.

Second.

Roll call vote.

District one, Commissioner Oakley. District two, Commissioner Waitman

for the almonds. Approve or I

District three, Commissioner Starky.

I.

District four, Commissioner Joerger.

Hi.

District five, Chairman Mariano. I motion passes and now go to the public hearings. County attorney.

Really?

Why don't you do the continuance? You don't need the procedures for that. All right. Okay.

Do the continuence on P54. Um, go ahead. I'll I'm going to reproof this. Uh, item P-54 was published in the Tampa Bay Times on April 1st, 2026 and by affidavit of certified mailings and site posting. The item was continued from the May 19th, 2026 BCC meeting to today. Item P-54 is a zoning amendment in the name of Denton A MPD, Denton A Project LLC. It's a resoning request from AC agricultural district to MPD master plan unit development district to allow for the development of 832 single family detached units, 75,000 square ft of support commercial and 440,000 ft of light industrial and associated infrastructure on approximately 331.6 acres located in northeast Pasco County, approximately uh 1.5 miles east of the intersection of Denton Aban Little Road. This is a continuence request to August 25th, 2026 at 1:30 PM in Newport Richie.

Motion.

Um, yeah, northwest Pasco County, not Northeast for the record. Uh, but move to continue.

Second.

And just discussion with staff. I have met with the applicants and all the discussions we've had. I've just relayed them all to them. So, everything we've talked about there, they understand my concerns. All in favor say I.

I.

I. I have someone signed up for this item.

It's advised continuence. This is advertising continuence. So, we're just continuing it.

Okay.

Uh Mr. Chairman, there your procedures are there are two reasoning agendas, regular consent. Staff will present each application to the board of county commissioners. If staff or planning commission has recommended approval and there is no opposition, the application will be considered by the board without further presentation. If staff or planning commission has recommended denial or if there is opposition to the application, the applicant will be given five minutes for presentation. The opposition will be given three minutes for each individual or five minutes for a group representative and the applicant will be given three minutes for rebuttal. Any individual disagreeing with staff for planning commission recommendation or anyone wishing to object to any condition of the resoning may at this time request the decision be pulled from the consent agenda in which case that application will be heard under the regular agenda later on during meeting. Otherwise, all resoning applications on the consent agenda will be approved by a single motion and vote. If you wish to speak to any petition, please give your name and address and whether or not you've been sworn for the record. These are quasi judicial public hearings. The law in Florida is that mere public support or opposition of a of an application is insufficient for this board to take action. Please limit your comments to those criteria found within the board's land development code. Madame clerk, would you like to swear the public in?

Thank you, Mr. County Attorney. If you're here to speak to the remaining items on the agenda, please write please stand, raise your right hands. Okay. Do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth? So help you, God.

Thank you.

Okay. Item P55. You have proof?

Yes. Item P-55 was published in the Tampa Bay Times on May 6, 2026, and by affidavit of certified mailings and site postings.

Item P-55 is a zoning amendment in the name of RNR Property Investments LLC, RNR Property Shady Hills. It's a change in zoning from an AR agricultural residential district to a C2 general commercial district located in northwest Pasco County on the east side of Shady Hills Road approximately 784 ft north of the intersection of Shady Hills Road and Florine Floralton, excuse me, Drive containing approximately 1 acre. This comes before you with the recommendation to approve.

Okay. Is there anyone here to speak in opposition to this project? Mr. Chair, I have someone signed up for this item, but I don't see them in the audience. Logan Olyri Logan Olyri.

Okay,

I do have a question.

You want us to pull it from consent?

I know just go ahead. Ask your question.

All right. Can you just show me on the map where it is? because when I look

um when I look on my map here, it's all houses. So, I'm just trying to understand where it is.

So, uh if you see the aerial imagery here, this is the full parcel, but the little corner that's right there is what's being proposed. The rest is is essentially part of um an easement. So, that easement is going to remain as is. We've already

Who owns that easement?

Um it is the gas easement. Uh Florida Gas, I think it is. Oh, because I see bike trail. Yeah, and I see that.

Yeah, right now it's a gas easement. Um, a natural gas easement. So, we did coordinate with them. They went out to the site to ensure that the proposed resoning and what they're planning to do on this site would not impact the easement itself. Um, and they confirmed that it will not.

And you said C2.

C2, correct?

But, um, I'm just curious. It's all residential um across Well, it's kind of messed up.

It's Yeah, it's all actually code enforcement action.

Yeah, it's RO and C2. So,

you can see the C2 to the north. So, it's already ab budding C2 and then this entire area is RO and the actual easement that we were discussing is calm flu.

So, it's generally the bottom end of that commercial node that's in that area

and it looks like it goes right to L from Lancer Road is probably where the connection point's going to be. So, it's actually a good fit.

Yeah, it just uh whatever's there on COM needs code enforcement action on it. I don't think that's legal stuff going on. Okay, I feel better.

Sure.

Mr. W guess my favorite question.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

There's not room.

Welcome.

No, it's the it's the contiguous parcels that always concern me whenever we have these smaller add-ons to it that they could connect them together and then get get to where you know, live local becomes vulnerable. So if you condition a piece of it, maybe it discourages any opportunity. That's my thought process.

Voluntary dediction has been assessed.

All right. So we'll leave that on the consent agenda. Uh anyone here from the audience to speak against item P5?

Anyone online?

No one's online.

All right. To the board.

Move approval of consent agenda.

Wow.

Second.

All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Okay. Item P56. Item P-56. Item P-56 was published in Tampa Times on May 6, 2026 and by affidavit of certified mailings and site postings. Item P-56 is a zoning amendment, a substantial modification to the Mitchell 54 West MPUD Eminem route 54 West LLC. a substantial amendment to the Mitchell 54 West MPD master plan unit development district to remove the transitoriented design and mixeduse trip reduction measures requirements and to reduce the non-residential entitlements to 460,000 square ft of commercial and add 240 hotel rooms and associated infrastructure on approximately 330 acres located in southwest Pasco County on the southwest quadrant of the intersection of State Road 54 and Little Road. This comes before you with a recommendation to approve with conditions and staff's here with a presentation.

Okay. Anyone like a presentation?

No.

I would like to say that I don't need a presentation, but I think it's going to be a great project.

Me, too. There'll be a time for public comment. Then we have the from the public to speak to item P56. Anyone online? There's no one on line for this item

to the board.

Move approval of P-56.

Second.

All in favor say I.

I. I.

Any opposed?

And item P57.

Gentleman standing.

Thank you. Chuck Lane, director of the Office of Disaster Recovery Resources. Um got a brief PowerPoint to present uh an amendment to our to our action plan. So, this is the first substantial amendment

to um our action plan for CDBGDR funds.

Jeff, hang on just for a second.

Sorry.

I apologize. I did not say the proof.

Oh,

so item P57, thank you, Mr. Chair, was published in the Tampa Times. Um

Oh, I'm sorry. It says proof of publication is not required for this item. So,

you right along.

There we go. I interrupted you for nothing.

We're required to post on our website, which we've done.

Oh, here's the doc. Thank you. Um, a substantial amendment uh with HUD requires three public meetings where the public has the opportunity to provide comments. Our first two public meetings were held on May 28th and June 8th where we are currently within a HUD required 30-day public comment period which ends on June 18th. We have two main objectives with the three public meetings and that one is to help the board and the public understand the changes to our action plan uh why we're proposing them and how they will impact our program. Secondly, uh to provide an opportunity for the public to provide comment on the changes we're proposing and changes we're not propo and propo changes that they would want us to propose. So there's very little in terms of programmatic changes that we're proposing. Uh this amendment is mostly to provide clarity and flexibility in managing our better future program. uh when HUD comes to to audit us and and they will several times throughout the the the grant life, they not only audit us against HUD regulations, they audit us against the rules that we set for ourselves. So added flexibility and clarity is is very helpful to us. So these are the changes to our individual housing program. The first change you see on the screen is to provide clarity. We've been able to use these funds for this type of match under our mitigation program. Uh this language change clarifies that we can do it within the individual housing program. The second change is also a clarification. Since the program opened, our maximum award for for reconstruction has been $330,000 and we could add $100,000 if code requires that the home is elevated. Um we we just felt that this language needed to be tightened up for when HUD comes to pull down the covers on us. Uh the third one is the only financial change we're proposing with this amendment. It's an increase to our maximum award for a single wide manufactured home unit from 145,000 to 163,000. This is simply in response to market pricing we're seeing for these types of units. And lastly, we're adding the ability to provide down payment assistance loans for home buyers. For non-ousing programs, we're clarifying that we can use these funds for federal uh required matches. We're clarifying that we can assist microenterprise business under our economic recovery program. And we're establishing the county leadership can directly allocate funds to projects under our infrastructure mitigation and public facilities programs. If you want to submit a comment, uh people wishing to submit a public comment can do so by commenting uh after my presentation today. If folks are uncomfortable speaking at the podium, Jessica Plasters with IM is here today with me. Um we can take comments in a one-on-one setting if that's what you prefer. We'll be in the back of the room following the meeting. Um, people can also submit

their comments online by going to going to mypasco.net and tapping on the better future icon. There's a form on that page that people can use to submit a comment online. People can also email us at betterfuture@mypasco.com uh.net, I'm sorry, better future@mypasco.net or they can call us at 727-2284936 and they can uh submit a comment verbally. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to take questions.

Great job.

Any questions? No, just great job.

I just want to say I think you're doing a phenomenal job.

Appreciate all the great work.

Thank you.

And anyone here from the public would like to address this item.

Okay.

Move approved.

Second.

And no one is online for this item.

Okay. All right. Close public comment. We have a motion to second. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed?

Okay. All right. We go to committee reports. And if the board doesn't mind, I'm going to go to commission. Do we want to finish the R?

I was going to ask if the board wanted to finish the R item from this morning with utilities. I think we had two slides remaining plus some conversation. Y

thank you.

Thank you, commissioners. I'll be brief. Uh Adolf Gonzalez, utilities engineering and contract management director. Uh I'm going to go to just the last couple of slides in our presentation. Okay. What you heard today was that we take these master plans to plan out for the short-term as well as the long-term 20 plus years as to what our uh water, sewer, and reclaimed water infrastructure needs to look like and how we can fund it. We've taken that and essentially concluded that based on the continued rate of growth, we're still going to need more uh capacity in terms of water supply, capacity in terms of transmitting water and sewer to uh facilities, and capacity our wastewater treatment plants to handle all the growth plus our existing customers. We plan to do that by implementing a series of capital projects over the next five years to handle the growth related uh part of the business in addition to the improvements we need to continue making to our uh existing infrastructure for renewal replacement of existing facilities. Just the growth related aspects of it equals about $1.8 billion over the next 10 years. In the short term over the next 5 years, it's about a $1 billion capital plan. Uh for comparison, our total five-year capital improvement program that we're presenting to you this summer for the fiscal year 27 through31 period, I believe, is $1.4 billion. So 900 million of that or almost a billion of that is related to growth. The other 400 million is related to renewal replacement of existing infrastructure. and we'll most likely need some type of going out to the bond market in the next couple of years to fund some of this work where before we were able to do pay as you go in terms of the revenue received from connection fees and our rateayers as well. But we definitely think that it will be uh we'll need to go out to get additional bonds to uh secure this financing for all of the entire capital improvement.

Well, I'm not even sure if we'll able to do bonds if we have a

they will they have their own revenue. So they stop taxes.

Let's talk.

On your on your previous slide that you're missing an L on the word reclaimed.

Excuse me.

On the previous slide, you're missing an L on the reclaimed.

On the reclaimed water, we're looking at two things.

You're missing an L. The letter L

spell wrong.

Oh, I apologize. We'll correct that in the official record.

And you have reclaimed instead of reclaimed.

We'll correct it. Thank you. Um last thing is want to tell you what we're working on. The first thing is this year we're starting uh an update to the connection fee study to determine what the connection fee should be so that growth pays for growth. The other couple of things we're doing is we are just starting this summer an alternative water supply study. We're looking at alternative water supply sources, surface water, uh storm water harvesting, groundwater, anything we can add to the reclaimed water uh supply network to provide that future uh supply for our customers. And the third thing is we're going to try to balance the need to expand possibly three wastewater treatment plants over the next five to seven years by moving flows from one wastewater plant to the other with the existing infrastructure and possibly some new transmission pipelines in the area. That should the intent there is to try to u maximize the permitted capacity we have across all five plants so that we're not stuck in one particular plant with a a constraint that could uh uh limit growth in that area as well. With that, uh, your team is here if you have any other questions for us.

No, I just hope that we, uh, take all the input you had from us to kind of like go into it. I know you had that study from Newport Richie and you were right as far as it it dealt with the heavy flows or the heavy storms coming in, but if there's some provisions to actually help that situation, good. And if it is somehow beneficial to look at the small plants, the bigger plants as we go down the road to keep them in play so we keep the asset if we have it, if we don't need to get rid of it, but at the same time just keep studying everything.

Yes, sir. We'll take that into consideration and report back to you sometime later this year.

Okay, that's all.

All right. Sorry, we should give you two extra minutes.

Thank you.

Got to sit through the whole afternoon for that.

All right, Commissioner Jagger. Okay. So, this was Habitat for Humanity. This was Mr. Paul Cuba. He was an interesting story. He had started 10 years ago with Habitat and never gave up. And he volunteered over 500 hours. So, he was only supposed to have 350, but he helped other people build their home. So, that was really cool. Okay. Next is my public safety update. Um, so fire rescue had a total of 8,826 calls. The MVA. Is that the medevac? What is that? What does MVA stand for?

What does it stand for?

Motor vehicles.

Oh, motor veh boxes. I know that. 321 structure fires 37 special ops calls 153. And then um there is a story. Joanna, would you like to tell the story since I can't find it about the ebike? Yeah, I believe that was the the call that we responded to at like I think it was like 1 in the morning, but um there was a structure fire in this home, two-story home, and um we found the fires in the garage um with this ebike. So, there's a picture of this bike.

Wow. Really?

How did they catch fire?

All right. All right. And let's see. Oh, and then do you want to go back to the other slide? So, um this was the um This was the corrections honor guard. The members served at last week's Rays baseball game. So that was really really an honor for them.

I would just like to say those guys are sharp.

Really

very sharp.

And then um we just have a shout out for the corrections. Lieutenant Joseph Allen with the corrections department was recently recognized by inmates family and corrections leadership for his professional and compassionate care following an inmate incident. The inmate's family wrote, "We appreciate the prompt response and reassurance that he is receiving appropriate care. His mother and I feel much better knowing that he is safe, that his medical needs were addressed." And this just highlights the team's commitment to their um excellence and attentive care. So, shout out to corrections. And then just for the sheriff's office, their update is all right. So, since their last update on 519, they have received more than 21,500 calls for service and have conducted more than 3,500 traffic stops, including that total of a,000 welfare checks where some calls in to report they're concerned about a person they have not heard or seen. Recently, more than 20 missing people, investigations, and substantial response needed calls for service such as human remains being found in a construction site and stopping multiple teen takeovers, including a highly publicized event at the crate at Wesley Chapel. So, just um my monthly update for them. Shout out to them because we have an amazing public service team and not not to mention our 911 workers. We love you, too. Um I wanted to just bring attention to something that um the team and David Engel and I have been working on and it is a small business initiative and we've we've uh nicknamed it work local and it's basically making a path for small businesses in Pasco County to move through the process more efficiently with a boutique type of service like a concier service and also to help get them going quicker and to try and navigate some of the fees.

Nice.

So, and we're also working on some of the blighted areas to where we can incentivize that and and try and get people to um look at those spaces. So, David, if you don't mind, I'll bring you up. But um this was this was born because um I'm a small business owner and I was going through the process and felt all the pains and aches that all the small business owners felt and uh I said how can we streamline this? So this is something we've been working on for few months.

Hi David Engel planning development and economic growth. Our board of county commissioners for the years I've been here have been very committed to the local small business community. And in fact, if you look at US Department of Labor data, small businesses are the most resilient hirer uh in the country. They hire more much more people than large Fortune 500 companies. They respond very quickly coming out of a trough from a recession and they're the last to lay off and they're very resilient. And in our community, the last time we did a uh a business survey in Pasco County, approximately 80% of all the businesses in Pasco are locallyowned style small businesses. In fact, um 80% had less than 25 or less employees and 47% of them were people that lived in Pasco and own businesses in Pasco. And some of the biggest problems with um small business is the front-end capital load that's required for them to expand and situate here in the county. And we have some great stories and I just want to tell you what the potential is of any incentive program. We have local homegrown businesses that are absolutely outstanding in in class A facilities. We have farmer works. Peter Bazinski, the interim CEO of Amskills, started a business in his home and now he's one of the largest employers here in Pasco County. We have Lane Mendelson, uh another homegrown resident who lives out in Wesley Chapel and he is um expanding Vantage AI and we have uh we're creating jobs where the average pay is about $100,000, high paying wages. And uh we also have um NVGTN on uh Trinity Boulevard in Commissioner Starky's district. These folks started a um a high-end uh women's athletic uh clothingy in the in basically in their house and now they have a 100,000 foot facility. They're generating about $25 million a year in revenue and they have a lot of jobs there that they've created in

under 30. So, I mean, that is our potential here. That's the type of incubator program that we'd like to evolve. So, I had just some antidotes and what I'm looking for today is just to get some board direction. If you like what you hear, uh, just give me the authorization to go do some work and come back with a proposal. Um, so number one, um, we have a big problem finding leasable space in the county for small business. Most of our warehouse construction is large demised areas of 15,000 20,000 square foot minimum, but the small business footprint is much lower. Those are just too large for small business. So Barbara Willilhight approached me with a client. They own property near Bellamy Brothers um and say road 52. it's in the IIL zone and he he's a Pasco resident and he said you know I've always dreamed for 101 15 years about producing a small business spec facility. So I've come up with this concept small building um overhead doors but they're at grade. We don't need to have um semis pulling in and they're de it's demisable down to 1,700 square ft. So he said, 'Well, you know, we got some FOT required potential improvements on the highway or could you produce some incentives? And I'll I said, 'I'll tell you what. Would you be open to getting an incentivization package where we're buying down your rent for locallyowned small Pesco businesses where we can give them a rent break for five years or so to get them up and running. Very interested. And and I see so much potential here because what we can do through our empowerment mechanism is even do an RFP asking for people to come in and we'll be willing to incentivize a project if you build the space necessary for our small business. The board did this back in 2017 and 18 with pads and pores. We've gotten spec offices and large warehouses and industrial buildings up, but it doesn't accommodate the small business. So on a smaller scale, we don't need the same level of penny for Pasco funding. We could do it for the small business. Secondly, the capital stack up front, small business does not have access to commercial capital right now. The banks are risk adverse. They're requiring enormous amounts of project equity in by the project and they're they're they're lending very little and it's a very high interest rate. So I believe that it's timely for us to consider some incentivization for locallyowned small business either redeveloping an existing property or building a new especially in the West Market area which is key to creating jobs and creating redevelopment and taxbased contribution. So that's kind of the gamut and you know the board of county commissioners are very empathetic and I really admire everybody commissioner you know Joerger you know you've been out there helping the needy and the the disadvantaged community. Commissioner Starky, she's very sensitive about people's lives and their interaction with the built environment and all of you do that kind of thing. But we've always been a county of empowerment. Uh we we believe in helping

people that are disadvantaged, but the best way we can do is empower. We have a tremendous job skills training program. We've introduced massive amount of industrial development. We're not we're not really a bedroom community anymore. We're tilting over to being more balanced. And this will really, I think, get us over the finish line because your small business, these are the guys that come in here, individuals, they they bring their families in, they stake their future in Pasco, they invest in Pasco, then they hire and pay taxes here. And I I'd like to be able to go do some work and support these people and come back to the board. So that's my ask today. Live lo.

What do you think, guys? Commission. Go ahead.

I thought we had embarked on something like this years ago. and making it easier for for small business with fees and something similar. I guess we weren't doing anything till

Well, we no sir, we we have done things. We we first of all in the West Market area we have reductions or elimination of mobility impact fees. In 2022, January of that year, the board um the board um effectuated a break in locally owned small business mobility fees, so they pay a lesser rate. We've been doing things and in fact, we're still doing things and with Commissioner Joerger's sponsorship because of her unique business experience here in the county. We've established a development services conciierge group uh and we have a individual who is trained and skilled who will be helping these small business projects because these people are lay people they don't know what a sella is they don't know anything about this stuff so we're we are actually providing a a very personal concier service and every small business application that comes into PTE is value engineered in fact I'll give you an example Sunost recovery was in recently and I I know Commissioner Marian has been following them because they provide great benefit to the local community and um they're they were on a fixed fixed amount of income and financing and we were able to actually cut over $80,000 in capital cost by value engineering their site plan and showing them ways that they can meet the code but also save money and we're going to provide that every every opportunity we can. So um also building and construction services under uh David Allen's leadership because he's part of this conciier's um system. Uh we're going to establish that also for the building permitting. So we will be giving uh the small business and the citizen um very very personal care and make sure we save them money and save them time. And lastly this conciier's group in planning development economic growth they will also be handling minor rural subdivisions. people should be able to split their property and and without a lot of havoc and also expense. So, we'll be helping them uh save money and uh get get legal with their with their lot splits. So, basically that's that's what we're doing.

Yeah, we need to especially with minor rules. This county's made it too damn difficult, but good work, Commissioner Jagger.

Thank you.

Yeah. Well, sir, we are we are working on streamlining it now. Thank you. Look forward to seeing your report.

All right. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you guys.

Thank you, David. Doing a great job. Thanks.

Even on Sundays,

we're going this way.

Wait.

All right. Cool. Can we one second? You might want to wait on this.

Oh,

if you have a minute.

All right.

Thank you, chair. So, uh, with the we voted on the DR funds and the and the, uh, projects moving forward. Um, I want to make sure that as we embark on the the housing component side of of the DR funds, I I personally and hopefully the board agrees want to take any of the county's green space or park space off the table that that those sites that we own, the green space, the park space, not the lots that are that are repoed on the the taxes or leaned or whatever that uh uh will not be open for discussion to put affordable housing, apartments, whatever on it. Uh I will be adamantly opposed um to any proposal that encompasses the county's parks and green space and uh in fact it concerns me so much that I'm hoping to get uh some level of support for a policy that is just not not not what we're going to do here in this county. Um question I don't think any of us want to see that happening but I thought maybe the legislature legislature did they take that ability

live it's in the live local it's in the live local there's a live local component however way I understood it as we could just set our own internal policy is a guiding principle to staff that this board says uh park space and our green spaces uh are off limits. Um and and just make it more concrete.

Did you see that they're asking I think it's for the school district. The state's asking for an inventory of surplus.

Are they asking county or just

they could No, we've we've given Pasco County has given a list of its parks, right? Its parks, its green spaces. And this is kind of planting our flag to anybody that comes in for DR or live local or any of the above kind of uh you know taxpayer funded subsidized programs which the taxpayers already own our park space right and our green spaces that those are off limits.

Yeah. Um, it's a slippery slope and I just want to be on the record and I'm hopeful that this board aligns and says, "Hey, we'll we're willing to talk to you, but those

those properties are not on the table."

I agree 100%. I hadn't even given it a thought. Hadn't been approached by it. So,

yeah,

I'm glad you brought it up. Yeah, if you need Do we need to bring a policy back to us?

I mean, we we we can formalize it if the board would like. I don't have a problem doing

I got a good name

Village. I'm not getting between you two. Jeff's in the middle of y'all over that. Uh but looking at there, you know, there there's a res there's the residential component is coming online pretty quick. Met with the applicants on it and uh just like VOP uh are the market has changed drastically. Uh in Pasco and I want to make sure that that's that the central Pasco employment village is being laid out.

Great village.

I'm not I'm not getting the middle of that.

Name hasn't been changed. you're out of order

in between. Yeah. That that we take a closer look at the at the land that's there and the uses um uh that the the if if we need to evolve uh the jobs component to attract, you know, the jobs that we want based on today's market. Uh is the residential component formula uh balanced and is it the right is it is it fitting for what's going on today? Um, and I only bring this up because there's there's there's a lot of action on 52. It's going to be widened. Um, Aaron cut off. There's projects across the street for to the north. And I just want to make sure that these legacy plans uh are appropriate for today's market uh with everything that's encompassed um in in in that into that plan. I want to make sure that we we get it right.

They

Mr. Starky. Well, I mean, we have to have the land owners or the property owners permission to change it, right?

I mean, just layout, design, the road network, the substation is currently going in. Just take a look. Just take a look under the hood is is what I'm saying.

I'd be all for that because

we'd love to see quality walkable.

Yeah, you have the you know, the trail cypress, the well fields are back there. Just take a look under the hood.

Okay. um to make sure that that that project what's left there uh reaches its full

Yeah.

um potential.

Well, if I could have just

Yes, sir. So, you know, I I talked probably the same folks about their project and I do think there's an opportunity for some retail. Uh I do think that, you know, we we set the employment village there to create jobs, though. So, I don't want to just see that thing get loaded with apartments or just straight residential either. I want to see a lot of job opportunities. If it takes time for it to come in, so be it.

I'm not looking.

And right now, you've got you've got a couple of major things going on. You got Bellamy Brothers Road that eventually will need to get expanded. You got 52 that's not committed to, not even after the intersection of 41 and even to the north of 41. So there's still some big infrastructure situations that need to be addressed before I think some changes made to be made or just in accounting for that before they can actually do other things that's just going to increase that traffic because it is still very heavy out there. It's dangerous frankly with a two-lane road with all that traffic, big trucks going back and forth. It's not a safe place. Yeah, I bring this up because the residential seemingly in the employment district is is starting to get a lot of attention and I want to make sure it's not eaten up with the residential component and that it's a good quality residential component within the project

right

and um and that we don't

good luck

we don't uh get bamboozled especially on the employment piece right

and that we just put our eyes on it because the market's there today. Um and lastly with our thank you staff and team for the discussion on the future of our water utility. um with the landscaping and how much water is being used, especially as more communities come online being it and and the future of reclaim is uncertain, right? There's always going to be 2.2. Is that what it was? 2.2 two homes now make it to enough reclaim for one if if there's a way you know we have our landscape ordinances and everything that we require but if it's if it's the right time to make a shift towards you know more Florida friendly landscaping within the communities we we hear them at least I do when reclaim is is down and folks can't water and you have hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars worth of landscaping in communities that aren't able to be watered and it's dying and it has to be replaced and the CDDs are responsible for it. If there's a a way that that I don't I don't know who decides the type of landscaping and how much water they use go into the communities, but if we're looking to, you know, try to uh manage the portable water supply that we have, uh I hate to see that wasted on landscaping. So, I don't know

more more uh

see it on St. Augustine grass because you don't can't do drip irrigation on, you know, the trees and the bushes. That's drip irrigation. That's very minimal.

I figure it's more in your wheelhouse with with Starky, but

something yards of St. Augustine. That's that's that water and that's what's more wasteful.

I mean, we're we're working against ourselves, right? And I think that needs to change.

Yeah, I'm I'm fairly certain we've got some things on the books, but let me to use your phrase, look under the hood. let me see what it is that we're doing. Uh if things can be tightened up and and what sort of enforcement provisions and how do we how do we go about that?

And you know, I looked at the land the watering requirements in our code with with Patrick, I think a while ago, and it's pretty vague. I think it should be limited to drip because that's the most environmentally friendly uh landscaping type. It shouldn't be the the heads that half the time spraying the street or something. The drip ation very effective.

So anyway, those are white men's thoughts of the day.

Good job.

Thank you, Mr. Stark.

Um yeah, so I I um no one mentioned here the Tri County workshop, but I I enjoyed that. And um

Oh, who was there? Oh, Jack was there.

Jack was there. You were there? No, Lisa was there. And Lisa was there, correct?

Yeah.

Okay. Um great job on that. And um I I love the way we come together and for the most part

you guys took your first vote and we were so proud.

Yeah. Very good. Um

the attorneys had a discussion about that on the side.

Oh, we know. But

we'll have to speak.

Um okay. I uh I am sponsoring two resolutions at Mako and you guys know of the one um I think you got a copy of it which is the um public housing authorities someone on the vouchers. So um uh anyone who wants to help support me on these uh at the no conference I I'd appreciate it. Um, that's where we're going to say that um um the housing vouchers need to go to local residents first and then they can put some uh out of county people on our list, but it's got to be local residents first. And um I don't have it highlighted here. So, oh, and to be considered local, it's one continuous year, not one day. That's ridiculous. So um so we want 80% of the vouchers to go for local residents and the remaining 20 can be prioritized for applicants who have immediate family residing within the jurisdiction or who possess a documented employment offer within the jurisdiction. So those would all be first in line. Um the next one came to me from William Croer. If you remember our friend from the White House and the first Trump administration, he asked me to sponsor this resolution that just passed with this the League of Cities. Um it's um modernizing the capital gains tax exclusion. So I I I won't read the whole thing, but I sent it out to all of you to look at. Um but they said that this should help uh unlock some of the housing market. So I think this is very good. Um, I if you've noticed the landscaping going up Little Road, which is on the irrigation, uh, I thought, you know, I thought that we should put a sign. You know how you see have a sign when we're building a county building, whatever this this was approved by or this project is, I thought we should let our people know that's being the trees come from the tree mitigation trust fund paid through from development. They will. I think that people are really happy when they know the developers are having to put trees back in. So, I don't know the right wording, but let's put a project sign up.

Right.

I mean,

kind of like

penny sign.

Kind of like a penny sign.

Like the penny sign.

I mean, I I've anecdotally heard other things through even our AC is having discussions with individual citizens and when they find out that that's tree mitigation money or by developers,

oh,

they're very happy.

There's a there's there's a moment of of clarity there. Yeah. And and they're happy that they're that that that that's where the money's coming from and that that they took the trees out. We're putting some back in. So, um lastly, I got this really interesting email over here from the Council on Foreign Relations about an Ebola update. So, God, I hope they're not like starting to say it's coming to all of us like um but I wanted to send that to you and um I'm sure our health department is on it, but I think I forwarded it to you.

You did. I forwarded it to our emergency management, public safety, and public health.

I'm not I don't think I I can't I think it's the 26th. I I may or may not jump on there, but I want to make sure someone from the county did so we know what the heck's going on. That's it for me.

Mr. Three quick hitters. First is just a reminder that on Thursday, June 18th at 9:00 a.m. here, we will have your budget workshop. Um we've we've briefed you all individually on on the various states of affairs with with the budget. Um we won't be covering capital at this particular budget hearing but we will be covering the operational sides. Uh as well as the constitutional officers will be here too to present their budgets and and talk about their particular challenges. That is on this Thursday. Uh second and really just second and third are really just some good news items. our our budget office again, it's been been working really really hard, but they were named the government finance uh officer association's um they they they won what they call the triple crown here for fiscal year 25 for 24, excuse me. Um uh certificate of achievement for excellence in in finance, uh popular annual financial uh reporting award and the distinguished budget presentation award. So again, they continue their commitment to excellence as well as transparency through the budgeting process and we know that that is that work is never done, but we'll continue to do so as as we we endeavor um down the budgeting process. Um and then also our fleet management department was also ranked in the top 20 of leading fleets in the in the country for 2026 by the government fleet and American public works association. Again, that's a national award that evaluates efficiency, effectiveness, uh, as well as other metrics in in relation to keeping what is what is a large government expense for us? Uh, but, uh, our fleet guys do it do it well and do it efficiently and effectively. That's all, sir.

Thank you. Does it do copies of those go to the governor's office?

I'm sorry, sir.

Do copies of those go to the governor's office?

I I I hope somebody's listening, but yes.

Thank you, Mr. Sun. Um based on a conversation with the administrator, we are putting together well let me rephrase this. So, um, Florida Association of County Attorneys, uh, as sitting on still sitting on that board, um, has been putting together a list of things that you can do or not do for the property tax amendment discussion. Uh, League of Cities has also put out a document. Um, Mike and I had talked about providing you sort of a synopsis of those two documents um to let you know what you can legally do under the election communication electioning communication law in Florida with regard to the uh upcoming ballot initiative on property taxes. So, we'll be getting that out to you in the next week or so.

Question for you. Does that apply to, let's say, if you're getting a call from a news source that wants to interview you, will that be applicable to what you're talking about? So, not us doing something, but just being interviewed. We will I'll be glad to cover things like that in in the memo, but um that would not be considered electioneering communication in my in my um and you as elected officials have more discretion uh or ability to say things than the administrator and his staff do.

Okay.

But we're working on that.

Thank you. Anything else?

That's it.

Okay.

I don't have anything.

I just want to give one item. By the way, that the Tri County workshop I thought was great.

Yeah.

And uh I just want to say as far as if you guys remember, there was a gentleman that was coming from uh meeting with us and he was asking for people to try to help out um that were like hit by the storm but didn't get help. Uh, well, I had a veteran that had first in mind for it and the group showed up. They finally got it approved, went through colors and everything else. He's going to get an ADA bathroom, uh, which instead of having to walk over a tub with low setic low toilet, uh, there was cabinetry that was all damaged by the school that didn't have the money to replace it. In one day's time, they this crew went in there and cleaned up the whole kitchen,

all the flooring and the bathroom, and they're ready ready to get started. Uh, it's called rebuilding together. And I just want to tell you, if you see them coming around to help somebody, their budget's about 25 grand. And what they're doing for this gentleman right here is going to be amazing. He's a World War II veteran.

So, it's like really going to make a good quality of life for him to live out his final years in a place where he can move around instead of having to worry about what's going on around the place. So, uh anyway, doing a great job.

That's all we got.

One more thing, chair. Uh, Nick, uh, anybody else from the road department here? Brford, Carbala, thank y'all for Aaron cut off and 52. Good job. Thank y'all very, very much. Improvements coming. Temporary turn lane and coming out line and appreciate DOT being a good partner with the temporary fix. Jason Mickel over there. Thank you guys. and um that folks are are really going to appreciate that work. So, thank you and and DOT.

All right. Thank you all. We're

all right. See you in a month.

Oh, it'll be

Oh, yeah. Perfect.

It's Jeff's last meeting. We're going to

We have a plan. public comments after

he'll be there in August.