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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council - 03/16/2021 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP & OPEN PODIUM TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2021 CITY CENTER 5:00 – 6:25 PM, HERITAGE ROOMS 6:30 – 7:00 PM, COUNCIL CHAMBER CITY COUNCIL: Mayor Ron Case, Council Members Kathy Nelson, Mark Freiberg, PG Narayanan, and Lisa Toomey CITY STAFF: City Manager Rick Getschow, Police Chief Greg Weber, Fire Chief Scott Gerber, Public Works Director Robert Ellis, Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, Parks and Recreation Director Jay Lotthammer, Administrative Services/HR Director Alecia Rose, Communications Manager Joyce Lorenz, City Attorney Maggie Neuville, and Recorder Katie O’Connor Workshop - Heritage Rooms I and II (5:30) I. SUSTAINABLE EDEN PRAIRIE UPDATE Mayor Case stated sustainability is a strong interest and priority of the Council. Getschow noted this is an annual update provided to the Council. Jennifer Hassebroek, Sustainability Coordinator, presented a Sustainable Eden Prairie overview. The sustainability action areas included in this program are energy, waste, water, and landscape. In regards to energy, the largest initiative is the Climate Action Plan. The first update of the Climate Action Plan metrics was received since its adoption last March. Data has now been included for 2018 and 2019. The first graphic shows the actual emissions versus our expected business as usual emissions. There is not a lot of change in the data over the course of a year, but it is trending in the right direction. Emissions are overall slightly lower. 2019 did have the lowest emissions since 2007, a 20 percent reduction overall. Generally the decrease can be attributed to reduced electricity use and reduced emissions from electricity. The next graphic illustrates the same total emissions but now compared to the planned emissions reductions actions in the Climate Action Plan. It shows the percentage of each action to get the City to its goal of net zero by 2050. Commercial and industrial electricity and natural gas emissions have continued to decrease over time. The decrease in electricity emissions is partially due to the increased efficiency in equipment, and the electricity Xcel Energy is providing is cleaner than it was in the past. There are more renewables and less coal. Narayanan inquired if when Xcel Energy becomes carbon neutral the amount of electricity used is no longer significant. Hassebroek stated this is correct only for electricity. Hassebroek stated commercial and industrial electricity use has decreased by 18 percent since 2007. Emissions have decreased by 48 percent since 2007. The natural gas emissions have slightly increased over time. Overall there has been a 15 percent increase in emissions City Council Workshop Minutes March 16, 2020 Page 2 from natural gas since 2007. This can be impacted by cold weather. This trend will continue without improvements to building electrification. Freiberg inquired if this is coal-fired. Hassebroek stated right now 30 percent of what Xcel Energy is putting out is renewable. Hassebroek stated residential electricity and natural gas emissions are much like commercial. Xcel Energy’s electric grid mix emissions is a little better than they anticipated being at this time. By 2022 they anticipate 75 percent of their electricity will come from renewables. In regards to travel, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita has stayed relatively flat for the last five years. Emissions per mile VMT has increased slightly about 1.4 percent since 2014. This is due to increased fuel standards in vehicles and the amount of hybrid and electric vehicles circulating. In regards to waste per capita, emissions have stayed relatively flat. Emissions decreased slightly in 2019 due to the shift from waste to energy to landfilling as Great River Energy closed the plant. Narayanan inquired where the data comes from. Hassebroek stated LHB puts together the data from a variety of sources such as the utilities and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Hassebroek stated the Climate Action Plan (CAP) implementation actions were broken down into four categories: Encouragement, Regulatory, Incentive, and Leadership. Highlights from projects completed last year include the Home Energy Squad (HES) Intercity Challenge. Between the 16 cities who participated there were a total of 1,200 HES visits. St. Louis Park won for the most visits per capita and Eden Prairie came in third at 136 residential visits. There are plans to continue participating in this challenge. The City also participated in regulatory actions. The City participated in a coalition of local government agencies across Minnesota and provided comment on Xcel Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan process. They supported Xcel Energy’s decisions to retire all of their coal plants by 2050 and two natural gas plants. Xcel Energy’s plan also includes increasing solar, wind use, and energy efficiency. They encouraged Xcel Energy to consider equity in their decision making processes. They asked Xcel Energy to consider retiring their coal plants sooner than 2050 and to explore an alternative to the new natural gas plant planned for Becker. Also to increase planning and improve the distribution system. The plan should include more building electrification and better communicate how they plan to be carbon neutral by 2050. Case noted with today’s technology they cannot meet that goal, but they are assuming there will be some technological advances. There are conversations about whether or not these goals will be possible without using nuclear energy. Hassebroek stated Eden Prairie is leading on supporting a bill at the legislature to implement a more aggressive commercial and large multifamily building energy code called Better Buildings Minnesota. The bill is based on a study on how to improve efficiency in larger commercial and multifamily buildings. This speeds up the building energy code to reach net- zero energy standards by 2036 instead of 2048. This is still pending in the legislature. Hassebroek stated in regards to leadership actions, the City has done a number of fleet upgrades to reduce or eliminate the amount of fuel used by the City. There are two hybrid City Council Workshop Minutes March 16, 2020 Page 3 Ford Interceptors in Fire fleet now and one additional scheduled for 2021. One police Interceptor is scheduled for 2022. Facilities is ordering an all-electric Ford e-transit for use in 2022. The police Tesla should be in service next month after being fitted and painted. Toomey inquired how well the Tesla will run during the winter months. Ellis responded there will be a longer battery life during the warmer months. With the current type of usage Staff do not foresee any issues. The idea is to use the Tesla for a full year to determine if the performance delivers before purchasing additional vehicles. Freiberg inquired if they run off an alternator concept with steady drain. Ellis responded it would be steady drain on an all- electric vehicle. The hybrid vehicles are running on the internal combustion engine and dynamic braking to recharge their batteries. Hybrid vehicles are the stepping stone to all- electric. Case stated a discussion a few years ago pointed out the patrol vehicles run 23 of the 24 hours a day. Additional vehicles would need to be purchased in order to keep vehicles in service. In the meantime, if needed, they could bridge the gap by purchasing hybrid vehicles. The goal is to have an all-electric fleet by 2030. Hassebroek stated other leadership actions in the CAP are to install public charging stations at high use facilities. Eden Prairie had the fourth most registered electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in Minnesota, 418 total. There are plans to add public charging stations to Staring, Round, and Riley Lake parks. Case inquired if these charging stations would require payment. Hassebroek responded they would utilize the same payment system as used at the Community Center. The level 2 charging stations would be installed. Nelson inquired when stations will be added to the southwest quadrant. Ellis stated based on funding in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), they have the ability to expand. Discussions were had with parks, facilities, and public works staff about which places would make sense and generate the most traffic. The goal would be to geographically spread these out, but currently the park facility generators are needed. Case noted we need to be careful when expanding the amount of EV charging stations to match the changing technologies. Narayanan inquired if there are portable charging stations. Ellis responded it could be possible if wired into a generator, but that is not desirable. Case stated he would prefer to only invest to incentivize electric vehicles but not to expand the initiative before there is updated technologies. He would not invest for the long term use of an EV charging station as it may not be needed at a park in the future. Nelson inquired if the school district will be adding them to their parking lots. Hassebroek stated she is unaware. Case stated there is an equity issue with providing EV stations at parks. Freiberg stated the grid is not large enough to handle everyone switching to an EV. Case added the market will drive the expansion of the grid. It is necessary to grow EV users. Ellis noted Xcel will have battery stations to back up daytime use. Narayanan added adding more solar would benefit capacity issue. Hassebroek stated aside from the City-owned public charging stations, there are also 14 other public charging stations and 28 private multi-family charging stations. Narayanan inquired if there are statistics on the usage of the EV charging stations. Hassebroek replied we should be City Council Workshop Minutes March 16, 2020 Page 4 able to get statistics from the Eden Prairie Community Center. Lotthammer added there was a steady increase in usage prior to COVID-19. Hassebroek stated Staff has also been preparing City facilities for additional fleet electric vehicles. Level two chargers will be installed for facilities and police. The Maintenance Facility has electrical infrastructure to support 32 EV charging stations. The City continues to implement energy efficiency improvements to City facilities. LED lighting upgrades are happening at Miller Park and the Community Center. In 2021 there are plans to replace the boilers at the City Center. Getschow added the Community Center upgrades are a six year payback. Not many years ago those paybacks would not occur for ten years. Hassebroek stated another leadership action in the CAP is to facilitate a landfill solar project. The legislature appropriated funds to complete a study to identify properties in the closed landfill program with the highest potential for solar development. One of the biggest barriers with a closed landfill site is many used general obligations state bonds and cannot allow solar while they are being repaid. From the study, the Flying Cloud landfill was the top ranked site to install solar in the State. The ranking is based on the size of cap and buffer area, generation capacity, and proximity to the nearest substation. Case inquired if the airport has any negative impact on the site. Hassebroek replied there was nothing in the report about the airport proximity. The report estimated 207 buildable acres, 43 megawatts worth of solar capacity. Hassebroek stated the City is supporting a bill for to the Closed Landfill Program. Staff are engaging with Xcel Energy about this potential project and planning staff is working on finalizing the Eco Innovation Zoning District standards. Toomey inquired if there is a timeline for the project. Hassebroek responded the legislature would have to give authority for redevelopment. There isn’t a timeline for the pilot project. Staff will know more at the end of the legislative session. Case inquired if the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) would have control of the site. The Closed Landfill Program is through the MPCA. Hassebroek stated, in regards to waste, they did outreach in the fall with the haulers about organics. Right now they are working on Ordinance changes. These changes would come before Council on April 20 for a first reading. The Sustainability Commission is working on education and communication materials. Case inquired if part of the education can be about the items recycled to help make it obvious. It could be helpful to start with only composting food to make the program successful. Hassebroek stated Hennepin County’s education slogan has been “when in doubt, keep it out”. Narayanan agreed with starting with food for organics recycling. Hassebroek stated in response to resident feedback on recycling and waste events, Staff split them into a number of events for 2021. There will be five total events including curbside pickup available to all residents for a charge. It is one charge to go to an address even if there are multiple items. Freiberg mentioned a similar curbside pickup in Bloomington. Hassebroek stated their program is very costly and will be changing. Hassebroek stated the Yard Waste Site (YWS) will be opening up again for the season on April 30. Case inquired the dates the YWS is open and if it is composted on site. Ellis responded Fridays thru Sundays until October. All of the material not used is shipped to the City Council Workshop Minutes March 16, 2020 Page 5 Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) site at cost. Nelson asked if these events can be on the City calendar. Ellis replied as of today they are on the website. Hassebroek provided recycling rates for 2019, around 635 pounds per household. Water usage continues to decrease. Water usage rates were at 73 gallons per capita per day in 2020. In support of water conservation, the City has an irrigation rebate program, and there are typically an average of 100 participants each year. There is a commercial and residential rebate. Last year the City ranked 13th in the National Mayor’s Water Challenge. In regards to landscape there is a landscape rebate program. Last year there was an increase in projects including buckthorn removal, shoreline restoration, and pollinator gardens. There are 20 City-owned pollinator project locations. The City does a lot of education and outreach around sustainability through the website. There are also a number of print materials delivered to each residence. The City also sends out an annual recycling guide as part of the Hennepin County grant. Nelson inquired if the City is planting more milkweed. Lotthammer replied over the last few years milkweed has been donated to the City and it is added to seed mixes. Open Podium - Council Chamber (6:30) II. OPEN PODIUM III. ADJOURNMENT