Faribault Daily News reports...
Two city planning commissioners were in agreement. They would not accept the environmental commission’s recommendation to prevent a data center from shining light on any adjoining property. Instead, commissioners suggested the wording revert to only residential properties.
More about the meeting…
When the Faribault City Council directed the environmental and planning commissions to work together to create standards for any data center developments coming into the city, the two bodies sat down in a work session Aug. 17.
It was the only meeting where both bodies worked together.
Two months later, the environmental commission voted to send its recommendations to the planning commission, where it will approve or reject the suggestions made by Lamb and her fellow members.
But Lamb went into the planning commission’s Oct. 5 work session thinking she and other members of the environmental commission would get a chance to explain their recommendations. She left feeling frustrated and worried about the timeline to approve these standards.
“Now that we essentially signed something that says this is our recommendation, we have not been invited to come back and continue the process. So basically, this was our last opportunity. I was told I cannot speak and we no longer can be involved in the process. We’re done,” she said. “We literally had one month to put all our presentation together. But we worked hard and we did what we needed to do. I wish we would have had more time. I’m thinking the public hearing will happen whether they’re ready or not, and that to me is so disheartening, because Faribault citizens deserve better.”
During the two hour meeting, some members of the planning commission were red-faced, others rubbed their temples as King and Planning Manager Harry Davis explained the different recommendations made by the environmental commission. No final decisions were made on Monday and commissioners will continue to deliberate on the environmental commission’s recommendations at its next meeting on Oct. 19.