Agenda - Economic Development Authority - 05/16/2013

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EMAIL: 04 TO: City of Ramsey As a 27 year Ramsey resident, I am appalled to hear that the City is contemplating putting an industrial "data center" in a neighborhood of residential property and in my backyard. I cannot believe that one of you would be happy with this type of development in your backyards!!!! We have lived with the City Hall being behind us for as long as we have lived there. However, after discussing this matter with an appraiser, we have been told that a data center will have a much stronger negative impact on our property. A public building like the Ramsey City Hall that only operates 8:00 to 4:30 every day (and basically not at all now) and other than an occasional fire truck or police car, is generally quiet at night is much different than an industrial data center (or whatever other industrial use it would be in the event o f the data center becoming "obsolete"). He compared it to 1 train track by your property and now they want to slap 3 train tracks in with more traffic, more noise pollution, etc. Obviously, he said, it will have an impact on the values of the property and lifestyles of the people in the affected neighborhood. This is a building that the City admits will have "noise pollution" issues. See City Council Work Session on February 26, 2013. "Council member Backous (thank you Randy for bringing that up) noted the buildings will require a lot of cooling, which can include fan noise, and asked how sound will be dampened. Management Analyst Brama agreed that noise pollution will be a major component that needs to be addressed through the planning process." That certainly does not sound like any guarantee that noise would not be a factor. Values would be impacted significantly not only by the noise pollution, the eyesore of the building, but there would also be an increase of traffic on County Road 5 and an entrance next to my property of 30-80 employees, delivery trucks, etc. on a road that is already probably running at capacity. The appraiser, who is familiar with the area, also stated that there are plenty of opportunities in the City of Ramsey for industrial type buildings. He also stated if this was a private developer asking to do this, the City would laugh them out of the meeting, but because the City owns it and wants to make a ton of money off of the sale of it so they can pay for their fire department, this seems to be okay. This is a dramatic change in use versus the residential area that surrounds the property. There is no other industrial use like that along the entire corridor of County Road 5 other than the school (which is more public than industrial, as was the City Hall), which has been there for 30 years. There is especially no industrial in the middle of a residential area. We have plenty of industrial sites in the City of Ramsey that I can see!! He said to show him one published article that states that high intensity property next to a low density property (residential) will not have an impact on the residential. My own research also indicates that data centers should be located in non-residential areas. "Locations should be away from residential neighborhoods or other individuals that may be sensitive to noise." Noise for these climate controlled buildings includes exhaust fan noise, diesel engines running generators in the occasion of a power outage, increased traffic, especially with a road around the perimeter of the building that would bring the traffic next to the residential areas. My visit to the Elk River facility portrayed in the letter sent to us, shows a much different scenario there. This building is primarily in an industrial area. Everything to the east of the building is industrial (i.e. the Sherburne County Courthouse, Metal Craft business warehouse, Allina Medical Facility, and another warehouse next to this building that has gated access. Houses nearest to it are on a small golf course (Pinewood) and are across a County Road from the building. It is certainly not surrounded by residential property. Not to mention that it is one very huge building, with small pine trees that are about 20 feet apart from each other which could hardly be considered a buffer by any means. And I don't believe that there would be any amount of trees that would buffer your property from the eyesore and the noise pollution of this building.