# Conway Internal Staff Teams Chats on Project Stratus Internal City of Conway Planning Department Microsoft Teams chat exports and accompanying internal-email PDFs documenting staff handling of the Project Stratus rezone and the data-center ordinance drafting work, April through August 2025. The Teams chats are a window into city-staff internal deliberation that the council minutes do not capture. The records include staff sequencing of the April PC items, [[Lauren Hoffman]]'s draft data-center ordinance preparation, and the staff knowledge state on the annexation purpose. ## What's inside - `Teams Chat_2025 04 21.pdf` — Lauren Hoffman's April 21, 2025 10:33 AM message previewing draft data-center notice-and-operation regulations for the PC meeting later that day. Image-only PDF, OCR'd. - `Teams Chat_Planning Group_9April2025_April 2025 PC Items.pdf` — the Planning Department Teams channel's April 9 list of all PC items for the April 21 meeting, with case-owner assignments. Image-only PDF, OCR'd. - `Teams Screenshot 1_RR.png` — Lauren Hoffman/Ryan Robeson exchange on April 2, 2025 about whether the annexation could include data-center-by-right zoning ("We technically don't know what the annexation is for though so I don't want to overstep"). - `Teams Screenshot 2_RR.png` — additional Ryan Robeson chat. - `Teams Screenshot 3_RR.png` — additional Ryan Robeson chat. - `Teams Screenshot 4_PD.png` — Planning Department group chat. - `Teams Screenshot 5_PD.png` — Planning Department group April PC items list (same content as the chat PDF above). - `Teams Screenshot 6_RA.png` — Rebecca Alexander chat from April 4, 2025 referencing the case list. - Email PDFs (PDF portfolios, inner emails extracted to `_portfolio_inner/`): - `Email_2April2025_Council Question.pdf` — internal email re: annexation. - `Email_4April2025_Deed and 200ft List Questions.pdf` — internal email re: deed and 200-foot mailing list. Inner: `Re_ Rezoning packet.pdf` (5,072 char). - `Email_14April2025_Authorization.pdf` — Rezone application signed letter of authorization from Adams. - `Email_14April2025_Public Comment Sent to Applicant.pdf` — staff forwarding public comment to applicant. - `Email_14April2025_Public Comment Sent to Commissioners.pdf` — staff forwarding public comment to PC commissioners. - `Email_14April2-25_Response to Public Comment J Rice.pdf` — staff response to Jeremy Rice's public comment. - `Emails_14 to 16April2025_AoP Discussion.pdf` — "AoP" = Annexation of Property discussion thread. - `Email_15May2025_April 2025 PC Minutes Sendout.pdf` — circulation of finalized April PC minutes. - `Email_16Apr2025_City Council Drafts.pdf` — drafts of council action items. - `Email_17Apr2025_April PC Report to Commissioners.pdf` — distribution of the April PC report. - `Email_5Aug2025_To City Clerk Recent Rezone Contacts.pdf` — "RE: O-25-32 - O-25-53 Rezone Contact Info" — list of rezone-case contacts compiled for the City Clerk. - `Mattingly.pdf` — short Teams-attribution PDF on a different rezone case (the "Hal Rezone of Crafton-Dayer property" mentioned in the PC items). ## Key takeaways - **Planning Department case owners.** Per the April 9 PC items list (Teams Chat & Screenshot 5): - **Lauren Hoffman** owned: SUB-0425-0053, VAR-0225-0024, REZ-0325-0037, REZ-0325-0038, REZ-0325-0041. - **Ryan Robeson** owned: VAR-0225-0030, PUD-0325-0032, VAR-0325-0043, VAR-0325-0044, **ANN-0325-0046 (39.50 ac annexation)**, **ANN-0325-0047 (81.47 ac annexation)**, **REZ-0425-0052 (the Project Stratus rezone)**. The Project Stratus annexation and rezone cases were assigned to Ryan Robeson, not the Planning lead Lauren Hoffman. - **Rebecca Alexander** also appears in the chat thread (Teams Screenshot 6, April 4) referencing the same case list. - **Staff understood the rezone as "CDC's."** The April 9 case list labels REZ-0425-0052 as "**CDC rezone +160 acres on Lollie Rd**" — the Planning Department's internal naming. The actual rezone applicant per the cover letter is **John William Adams** (the landowner); staff internally treated the rezone as [[Conway Development Corporation]]'s. This is consistent with CDC's adjacent land-banking (the two CDC parcels in DB 2003 P 20243 that bracket the Adams Property — see [[Rezone Ordinance O-25-39 and REZ-0425-0052]]). Staff perception: CDC drove the rezone, Adams was the title-holder of record. - **Staff did not know on April 2 what the annexation was for.** Ryan Robeson, April 2 2025 10:14 AM: "**We technically don't know what the annexation is for though so I don't want to overstep**" (`Teams Screenshot 1_RR.png`). Lauren Hoffman responding: "I would, because what I saw (pre-application submission) was a request for I-3, where it is allowed by right. They can't zone up at PC so that would be a mess." This is informative on the question of *when staff knew Project Stratus was the underlying project*. The MOU was approved April 1; the staff on April 2 (the next day) still didn't know what the annexation was for — confirming the Chamber/CDC's containment of project information away from city staff during the early pre-application period. - **A data-center ordinance was in active drafting by April 21.** Lauren Hoffman, April 21 2025 10:33 AM (`Teams Chat_2025 04 21.pdf`): "Just an FYI for the future / Before a Data Center has commenced construction or operating within this jurisdiction, the property owner and operator proposing to build a Data Center shall comply with the following: 1. Notice Requirements / a. The property owner and operator must notify all residents within a half-mile radius of the parcel, including any affiliated homeowners' association operating within the half-mile radius, that the property owner and operator intends to build and operate a Data Center on the property. … Proof of notification shall be filed with the city clerk's office within 30 days of providing notice. The property owner and operator must notify the mayor or his designee that the property owner and operator intends to build and operate a Data Center. The notification must include the location for the proposed data center." Hoffman's comment: "**The Data Center ordinance probably will get drug up tonight if they are reading the ZC** [zoning code]." She adds: "**I know this is all after the fact, but as Lori stated, they will be 45 steps ahead tonight**" — referring to the April 21 PC meeting and apparently anticipating opposition would read the draft data-center notice ordinance against the Stratus rezone. - **The August 5, 2025 City Clerk rezone contacts compilation.** The "RE: O-25-32 - O-25-53 Rezone Contact Info" email (`Email_5Aug2025_To City Clerk Recent Rezone Contacts.pdf`) provides the City Clerk with rezone applicant contacts for the entire April-July 2025 rezone slate. Useful for tracing patterns across multiple rezones in the same period. ## People and orgs mentioned City Planning Department staff (newly anchored here): - [[Lauren Hoffman]] — Planning Department; draft data-center ordinance author; primary Stratus public-engagement staff per the Teams chat. - [[Ryan Robeson]] — Planning Department; case owner on the three Project Stratus cases (ANN-0325-0046, ANN-0325-0047, REZ-0425-0052). - [[Rebecca Alexander]] — Planning Department; referenced in the case list. - Lori Quinn (mentioned as "Lori" in Hoffman's April 21 message) — Conway Planning Commission Chair. City Clerk staff: - [[Denise Hurd]] — City Clerk/Treasurer (recipient of the August 5 contacts compilation). Other parties mentioned in the email PDFs: - Jeremy Rice — adjacent landowner whose April 14 public comment was forwarded to PC commissioners and to the applicant; see [[Project Stratus Public-Comment Correspondence Record]]. - The "Mattingly" PDF references the "Crafton-Dayer" rezone (REZ-0325-0037) — a separate rezone unrelated to Project Stratus. ## Concepts invoked - The draft Conway Data Center Notice Ordinance (Lauren Hoffman's April 21 draft) — a half-mile notice radius for data-center-of-intent, distinct from the 200-foot rezone notice radius. **Not yet adopted as of this production**; the production does not include the final ordinance text. - "By right" zoning — I-3 industrial allows data centers without a Conditional Use Permit; if the annexation had instead been I-1 (light industrial), the data center would require a CUP, hence Hoffman's April 2 observation that "They can't zone up at PC so that would be a mess." - 200-foot notification radius — rezone-case notice (per the [[Rezone Ordinance O-25-39 and REZ-0425-0052|REZ-0425-0052]] certificate of mailing). - Half-mile notification radius — proposed under Hoffman's draft data-center ordinance. ## Events documented - [[2025-04 Conway Planning Commission Recommends Project Stratus Annexation and Rezone]] — the April 21 PC meeting that Hoffman's April 21 Teams comment foreshadows. - The internal staff drafting of a stand-alone Conway data-center ordinance is itself a corpus-relevant event but does not have a clean event-page anchor (no public adoption yet). ## Cross-references - [[Rezone Ordinance O-25-39 and REZ-0425-0052]] — the rezone case the chats coordinate. - [[Conway Planning Commission Reports April and May 2025]] — the April 21 PC meeting that the chats prepare. - [[April 2026 FAQ Project Stratus]] — references "the 2023 Data Center Noise Ordinance (O-23-55)"; the FAQ does NOT mention the in-drafting Hoffman ordinance. - [[Project Stratus Public-Comment Correspondence Record]] — the public-comment volume the chats anticipated. ## Open questions / follow-ups - The final text of Lauren Hoffman's draft data-center ordinance (or whether it was adopted) is not in this production. A follow-on FOIA to the City Clerk asking for any subsequently-adopted Conway data-center notification ordinance is warranted. - The Microsoft Teams chats are produced as image-only PDFs / PNG screenshots. The native Teams export (.json / .csv with timestamps) would be more complete; the City may have produced screenshots in lieu of the native export. The reply could ask for the native Teams export if available. - The "Mattingly.pdf" referencing the Crafton-Dayer rezone is on a different case (REZ-0325-0037, "Hal Rezone of Crafton-Dayer property from R-1 to R-2"). Not Project Stratus; included in this production presumably because it appeared on the same April 21 PC agenda. Not separately anchored. - The full staff/staff Teams chat history on Project Stratus is presumably much larger than the few screenshots produced. The production includes ~10 chat/screenshot artifacts; a typical Teams channel for a 6-month project would have hundreds of messages.