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Peter Rickman's avatar

This is my favorite new Substack and it’s great.

Chali Pittman's avatar

You're too kind! Thank you!

prescott's avatar

The software efficiency improvements that are inevitable, and likely reasonably near term, are going to abruptly and substantively reduce the tech industry's appetite for electricity. I hope all the deals being made with these large consumers of electricity are ironclad or the ratepayers are going to get stuck with some expensive infrastructure.

Chali Pittman's avatar

One of the things I am researching for a future edition is community benefit agreements. Pre-development agreements, I'm told, aren't legal in Wisconsin. But discussion of CBAs is definitely coming up!

Peter Rickman's avatar

I can speak to community benefits agreements — I’ve negotiated a few; they are not unlawful in WI.

Chali Pittman's avatar

I'd be curious to hear how that goes!

prescott's avatar

What do you mean by pre-development agreement? I've seen some that are simple agreements to cover costs a municipality incurs while the project is being negotiated.

Chali Pittman's avatar

Sorry, @prescott . I deleted the whole comment when I meant to edit it. Aye.

If I can remember what I said: You’re right, I’m mixing up terms. Communities have used predevelopment agreements. DeForest with QTS, for example.

Pre-annexation agreements may be legal or illegal depending on how they’re written. I guess this week I will need to read this case: https://www.wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=19157

Brian Ohm, who wrote the book on land use and planning law, gave a presentation before a Dane County advisory committee a month ago. The last page of his slides is what I’m drawing from: https://dane.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=15299286&GUID=0A447127-0B20-4CC2-BB4D-FA55463E4790

I managed to snag his book on land use and planning law, so let me check that too. I’m curious what you’ve turned up on these contracts. This is definitely a whole newsletter-length thing!

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Apr 18
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Chali Pittman's avatar

Sorry, I'm mixing up terms (again, good fodder for a future newsletter to sort out all the contract law).

You're right that communities have used pre-development agreements. Deforest, for example: https://hdp-us-prod-app-deforest-engage-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/5717/6798/3333/DeForest_Pre-Annexation_Agreement_Draft.pdf

EDIT: Pre-annexation agreements might be legal but have the potential to be illegal if they’re written improperly. I guess this week I will need to read this case! http://wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.pdf?content=pdf&seqNo=19157

Brian Ohm, who wrote the book on land use and planning law, gave a presentation before a Dane County advisory committee a month ago. The last page of his slides is what I'm drawing from: https://dane.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=15299286&GUID=0A447127-0B20-4CC2-BB4D-FA55463E4790

I managed to snag his book on land use and planning, so let me check that too.

I'm curious what you've turned up on these contracts.