CONNEAUT – As the City of Conneaut’s administration formed an ad hoc committee to discuss the possibility of allowing data centers and to consider the appropriate zoning changes to accompany those decisions, it had asked the Conneaut Area City Schools Board of Education to have a member to serve.
Before the CACS board members committed to joining the committee, it wanted to discuss the issue with city council at a joint meeting on Monday, Aug. 24.
The school board will discuss participating in the committee and notify council of its decision later.
City Council President Terry Moisio explained the ad hoc committee is an advanced manufacturing zoning review committee.
“They have several duties here, but they’re going to make evaluations, recommendations, looking at amendments to our zoning chapters, looking at land use, industrial buffering performance standards, transportation, utilities, so on and so forth,” Moisio said.
The committee will have nine members, and it will review existing zoning regulations using a fact-based approach, review technical information provided by public agencies and utilities. It will recommend and evaluate developmental standards, buffering, infrastructure, transportation and utility standards.
It will also evaluate physical, environmental and economic effects to ensure economic competitiveness and prepare draft ordinances, where appropriate, to be reviewed by the law director, then potentially passed by city council.
“Basically, it’s for advanced manufacturing,” Moisio said. “What do they want to see? Are we doing our due diligence to place these conditional uses in our zoning plan. It also kind of falls in with our comprehensive plan that was done in 2017.”
The committee is a way to ensure the city is prepared if it is approached with a proposal to place an advanced manufacturing facility in the community.
The committee could meet as much as once a week and as seldom as once a month depending on what else is going on in the city.
At-Large Councilman Nick Perkoski said the committee is working add meat to the city’s zoning regulations so unwanted industry can be restricted.
“It is there to help protect our city, but also it’s kind of a double thing to also to encourage industry in the area so that we can economically grow here,” Perkoski said. “Those are important tax dollars that the city needs with whatever manufacturer is interested in our city, but we don’t want to have predatory industry.”
At-Large Councilwoman Mariana Branch said the committee will also undertake other discussions.
“I think they’re also talking about putting protections in there for the city and residents as far as anything from safety, sound barriers, remediation if something should come in and then leave an empty building and also repairing roads. In a lot of these situations with advanced manufacturing, especially with large data centers, they’ve written things in to benefit the schools, as well. I think that’s why it was an important piece for someone on the school board to also be a part of that committee.”
School Board Member Chris Brecht told council he doesn’t see how appointing a school board member to the committee is necessary.
“From a zoning standpoint, I guess I don’t see the correlation between the schools (and the city),” Brecht said.
Moisio asked if the school board wanted to have input on any of the recommendations that might be made.
Brecht noted that the school board would be made aware of any proposals that are made regarding the financial aspects whether a school board member is on the committee or not.
Branch said that some of the sites being discussed for an advanced manufacturing facility are near school buildings.
“One of my concerns with some of the advanced manufacturing that could come in is noise pollution,” Branch said. “Because some of the sites that are being discussed are very close to the school, they’re way less than three miles, to me, I don’t know, is that something that the school board wants to research better and understand?”
Brecht said there were some topics of discussion that it makes sense for the school board to be brought in on including setback, utility usage and resource sharing.
“There are certain things there that could make sense from our standpoint, but, ultimately, our job as a district is to make sure we’re in place to educate students,” Brecht said.
Brecht said the school board was simply looking for clarification on its role on the committee before it committed to participating.
“We’d make it very clear that if you’re representing the school district, that’s the position and the views that you would be (supporting),” Brecht said. “Check our personal feelings at the door and look at it from the school district standpoint. How does this have a positive or negative impact in any decision that’s made?”
Perkoski said that was the reason city council wanted to include the school board.
