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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 01/16/2007 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JANUARY 16, 2007 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER 8080 Mitchell Road, Eden Prairie, MN Prairie Room COMMISSION MEMBERS: Eapen Chacko (Chair), Jan Mosman (Vice Chair), Ray Daniels, Rita Krocak, Geneva MacMillan, David Seymour STUDENT COMMISSIONERS: Alesia Casanova, Lauren Mosman, Mark Muston CITY STAFF: Leslie A. Stovring, Staff Liaison Janice Curielli, Recording Secretary VISITOR: Richard Akerlund I. ROLL CALL Chair Chacko called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. David Seymour was absent. Student Commissioner Alesia Casanova was absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Stovring added Item IV.F. Commission Open House. Daniels added Item VIILC. State Legislation on Hydroun Fuels. MOTION: Jan Mosman moved, seconded by MacMillan, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 5-0. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES December 12, 2006 Several Commissioners were unable to download copies of the December minutes. Stovring stated she will work with the IT Department to try and determine what the problem is. MOTION: Chacko moved, seconded by Jan Mosman, to table approval of the December 12, 2006, minutes to the February meeting. Motion carried 5-0. IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF Stovring distributed copies of the 2006 Attendance Record. A. STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE INTRODUCTION Stovring introduced Mark Muston. She noted that Alesia Casanova's term is also starting this month but was not present. Alesia was at the meeting in December. B. RECORDING SECRETARY INTRODUCTION Stovring introduced Janice Curielli who is temporarily assuming the duties of Recording Secretary for the Commission. Eden Prairie Conservation Commission January 16, 2007 Minutes Page 2 C. PROSPECT ROAD ALTERNATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT WORKSHEET (EAW) —PROJECT STATUS Stovring said the notice for this project has not been published. It will be published on January 29 th and the comment period will extend through February 28"'. The plan is that the project will be reviewed by the Planning Commission on March 121h Stovring stated that the Commission should plan on providing any comments on the EAW to Chacko before the next meeting so that he can prepare a draft comment letter to discuss at that time. The Commission could then come to a consensus on what comments should come from the Commission as a whole and which ones should be sent as individual comments (if wanted). Chacko noted there is a lot of information within the EAW and to allow plenty of time to review it. Daniels thought there is information missing from Alternative 6, especially regarding historical sites, Indian burial sites and wooded areas. Stovring replied there was not as much discussion as there are few of these present since the area was formerly a golf course. Chacko said he thought Alternatives 3, 4 and 5 were more negative, and he can feel Alternative 6 coming out in the flow of the narrative. Chacko said he built a matrix for some of the factors in the project. He said he found the water quality discussion a little confusing, especially the table showing water quality and surface runoff on page 9. That table shows Alternative 6 as an unattractive alternative as far as stormwater impacts. Stovring said that Alternative 6 includes a shorter and narrower construction corridor and this does skew the percentages. She thought the table should have included acreage for each alternative in order to clarify the information. Commissioners also asked why there was more information on stormwater treatment alternatives for Alternative 6. Stovring stated that construction plans have already been provided for Alternative 6 while Alternatives 1-5 are currently conceptual. More detailed stormwater management ideas would be incorporated into the other Alternatives if one of those is selected. Chacko asked for clarification on the discussion of Miller Spring and if Alternative 6 would have an impact. Stovring stated that the hydrologist looked at how the springs entered Riley Creek and where the potential springshed for Miller Spring. The conclusion was and that Alternative 6 would likely not impact the spring while the other alternatives did appear to be within the springshed. However, this work only provided an estimate of the local hydrology and springshed area and the exact nature of where the water for Miller Spring comes from is unknown. Daniels thought the carp dam might be moved and then it could be developed as a trout stream. Stovring said the DNR was quite clear that Riley Creek would not be able to support trout due to the characteristics of the water flowing from developed areas to the north. Water flushing out of Riley Lake is too warm to consistently provide trout habitat within downstream areas. Daniels thought the quality of the springs could furnish cooler water to the southerly areas of the creek. Jan Mosman asked why Prospect Road was chosen and why it is seen as important. Stovring replied that it began when Hennepin Village was proposed. The crossing Eden Prairie Conservation Commission January 16, 2007 Minutes Page 3 was chosen for a number of reasons, including being outside of the airport right of way, located through an existing golf course, connected two phases of Hennepin Village and provided a connection between Spring Road and Eden Prairie Road. Portions of the development was planned around this crossing, Jan Mosman said the City chose the alternatives, selected the consulting firm, and directed the study and she was worried it could appear biased. Stovring noted the developer is responsible for reimbursing the consulting firm, not the City. In addition, the EAW is provided to a variety of agencies as well as the public to review and comment on the accuracy and completeness of the data collected. Jan Mosman asked who chose the consulting firm to evaluate the locations of the alternatives. Stovring said HTPO was hired by the City to evaluate the area around Hennepin Village to determine where roadways could go. They chose the best ones available based on the limitations of the area. Jan Mosman was worried that the public was assuming that if Prospect Road goes in they would not have to worry about future extension of Turnbull Road. Mosman indicated that a future road extension may be required as the area develops, especially along Dell Road and south of Turnbull Road. Discussion followed regarding a possible connection between Turnbull Road and Beverly Drive and how this might be incorporated as the area develops. Daniels asked about plans for a second road for Ridge at Riley Creek west of Eden Prairie Road. Stovring replied the second road alignment, currently being used as a construction road, is within airport right-of-way. The intent is that this could be used as a roadway in the future if allowed by the airport. Daniels thought the roadway south on Dell Road is valuable because that could be used as a route to the hospital in Shakopee. Stovring noted that if a Hennepin County ambulance responds they may not go to another county, she was unsure. In addition, Spring Road could also be used to go south to Flying Cloud Drive and Shakopee. D. Round Lake— Status Report Stovring reported that Steve McComas of Blue Water Science planned to go to the January Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District meeting to give a presentation on Round Lake, but the District Chair, Michael Casanova, asked Steve to delay his presentation to March 7"'. If Commissioners would like to attend, the meeting would be at 7:00 PM in the City Council Chambers. Chacko asked if Steve will have his comments available before the meeting. Stovring responded that he may have slides but he tends to talk beyond the content of the slides so much of the information would only be available by coming to the meeting. Stovring said there is a letter from the DNR that approves the Round Lake plan with caveats regarding requiring individual permits for application of alum and construction of a fishing pier. Stovring said the Watershed District has changed how projects are funded. Because of this, the Watershed District has put a hold on many of their projects such as Eden Prairie Conservation Commission January 16, 2007 Minutes Page 4 Round or Mitchell Lake and the construction phases may not progress until 2008. E. Conservation Ideas Web Site Stovring said that the Commission can develop a unique clipart or artwork for use on the web site but it can't be a logo. For example, the artwork David developed could be used but the Commission name would need to be taken off. F. Commission Open House Stovring said the City will host an Open House for prospective members of the Boards and Commissions on January 23 from 6:30 — 8:30 PM. She said the Chair or the Vice Chair are invited to the dinner before the open house. Chacko said he would be able to attend. Stovring said we have six members now,but we could have seven. Mosman asked if the six current members all have the same timetable. Krocak said she has a two-year term, and she thought there was another person with a two-year term. MacMillan asked who set the number of commission members at seven. Stovring replied the City Council set it up for 5 to 7 members. Stovring suggested that the draft work plan be available at the Open House. V. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEMBERS A. Cities for Climate Protection—Eapen Chacko Chacko said the website for Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) is www.iclei.org. He noted the only two cities in Minnesota are members, Duluth and Minneapolis. Chacko said Duluth completed a greenhouse gas inventory and forecast report and hired a consultant to look at areas of greenhouse gas and project figures forward based on the comprehensive plan. He said the biggest source of emissions in Duluth is the power plant. They identified residential and commercial segments that could produce the lowest cost reductions. Chacko noted he doubted much would be done with the power plant. Chacko thought the greenhouse gas inventory is a good place to start. He thought this might be interesting for the 20-40-15 initiative, and we might be able to apply some of the lessons from the study. He asked if 2005 is our baseline. Stovring said the City has a benchmark from 2005 that is being used to measure energy efficiency, not greenhouse emissions. Lulu Mosman noted that increasing energy efficiency would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Stovring stated that Hennepin County is signed on as a member of CCP, they joined in 1992, prior to when they started charging membership fees, and have stayed on as a member. She wondered if the Commission may want to send a letter to the County Commissioner encouraging active participation in these goals. Jan Mosman liked the idea of sending a short letter because it lets the County know we are interested. Chacko asked Stovring to send him the information for the letter. The meeting recessed at 8:05 PM. Chacko reconvened the meeting at 8:10 PM. Eden Prairie Conservation Commission January 16, 2007 Minutes Page 5 B. Pax Christi Environmental Ministry—Eapen Chacko and Geneva MacMillan MacMillan said the Environmental Challenge Commission at Pax Christi plans to identify what they could do as a church and as church members. They need a mission statement and will then decide what kinds of activities they want to start out with. Krocak thought it is great to see they are doing that. MacMillan said the first meeting at St. Andrews is next Sunday, January 21, at 4:45 PM. Pastor Rod Anderson thought they should form something to use for the maintenance of the church and the grounds. They want to get teens and parents involved and are looking for something to help involve high school students. Jan Mosman said there was a similar presentation at St. Andrews last spring and they are also starting an environmental-action group. Daniels said St. Andrews is joining a larger group of churches. Jan Mosman said it sounds like it is really snowballing and a lot of people are getting interested. Chacko said one of the kickoff activities for Pax Christi was encouraging use of compact fluorescent bulbs. He thought since we have a similar campaign we could coordinate efforts. Chacko said Pax Christi also has a naturalist and a master gardener so we might cosponsor an event with them. He thought we should establish connections to their events. Akerlund noted several churches also have projects for Boy Scouts. Jan Mosman asked if there are events planned for somewhere other than churches. Stovring said we could try to partner with the Watershed Districts as they have provided funding for many city projects such as the Purgatory Creek Recreation Area. They may be interested in helping to promote usage of these areas. Chacko thought the main idea is to get people engaged and using the City's trail systems. VI. OLD BUSINESS A. Environmental Champion Award Nomination Form—Jan Mosman Jan Mosman said she had hoped to have different forms for students, residents and businesses in the future but for the first year agreed that a single form would be a good idea. Discussion followed regarding the nomination form and process. Chacko asked if we have a target for the total number of awards. Stovring replied there will be one for each category, depending on how many nominations are received. Stovring stated that the Commission should work with the local newspapers to promote the award and that Chacko should open conversations with the Chamber of Commerce. Their Yard & Garden Expo is coming up, and the Commission could potentially have materials available there also. Jan Mosman asked if there is a contact at the Chamber other than Pat Mulqueeny that we could use to promote the award. Stovring said she has only dealt with Pat. Jan Mosman suggested talking to the City Manager's office to see who the current Chair was and how to contact him. Akerlund suggested getting the information to the Boy Scout or Girl Scout leaders. Eden Prairie Conservation Commission January 16, 2007 Minutes Page 6 B. Campaisn Idea—Replace an Incandescent Bulb—Eapen Chacko Chacko said Stovring put him in touch with Anthony Hainault at the County and he plans to talk on Thursday or Friday of this week with the County about their proposed "Change a Light Bulb" campaign. The idea is to potentially piggyback on their campaign idea. He said the utilities are the driving force for the campaign. Chacko said according to Xcel Energy, 29 area retailers participated last year. Their goal was to distribute 51,000 bulbs and they met the goal. That resulted in 2.6 million kilowatt hours saved. Chacko said Xcel would work with the retailers, provide the advertising, and notify their consumers and the Commission would support this process. He said our goal would be to start this fall. Lulu Mosman said the high school group had developed a display that they used at their school conferences that compared compact fluorescent to incandescent bulb usage. They also handed out flyers and talked to people. Jan Mosman noted the flyers used at the conferences could be used at Saturday's Science Fair. Akerlund suggested that they hook up a meter and thermometer on the display to show the actual usage and the temperature differences between the two types of bulbs. VII. NEW BUSINESS/DISCUSSION ITEMS A. Conservation Commission Work Plan for 2007—Eapen Chacko Stovring said Chacko had recommended that we follow a template similar to the work plan being used for the City of Plymouth for their environmental commission, so she got a copy of that and used it as a format. The draft combines the 2006 Annual Report and 2007 Work Plan. The back page is a tentative schedule with events and items the Commission would work on or participate in each month. She noted the intent is to send the Plan to the City Council for approval, or potentially just approve it internally. Stovring said the Commission is the advisory authority for the Storm Water Permit Program. The Non-Degradation Plan is a big part of the City's stormwater plan, and the June meeting will be primarily on that subject and the consultant will likely be brought in to discuss their findings. Part of what may be needed is retrofitting neighborhoods to improve water quality treatment to meet state requirements. Jan Mosman noted we need to add the Science Fair for this Saturday. Chacko said we can't look at a prior model for our commission as it is new. He thought Plymouth looks busy, but it is built around responses to items required by the City. The Conservation Commission does have more flexibility right now, although there are some required items. This Work Plan is intended to change as the year goes on and the needs of the Commission are better understood. Krocak thought it was very easy to read. Jan Mosman thought the plan looked good and well organized. Jan Mosman noted she did some research on green building codes and energy conservation for residents and businesses but never had time to present it. She Eden Prairie Conservation Commission January 16, 2007 Minutes Page 7 offered to bring that information to a future meeting. Jan Mosman said she was hoping to have education on Best Management practices and suggested we have a joint workshop with the City Council on the subject. She suggested Fred Rozulmalski as a speaker for the cooperative workshop. Stovring said she knows a consultant who provides workshops on rainwater garden construction and shoreland restoration for homeowners for a reasonable price, the Commission could also explore opportunities for a workshop on that, perhaps with a lake management association such as Mitchell Lake. Chacko said we didn't do much on the subject of water and objectives regarding health and well-being. He thought the plan and schedule force us to think about things. Chacko said one area we could improve is the web site. He was not sure we use it very well. Jan Mosman suggested that might be a good student assignment. VIII. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS/COMMUNICATIONS A. The U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement Stovring noted that former Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Commissioners were encouraged to review the agreement and see if any of the items should be added to the Work Plan for 2007. Stovring also handed out information on the 20-40-15 plan. The last page has ideas generated by staff on what could be done to meet the goals of this project. She suggested commissioners also refer to this as they look at their work plan. B. Draft Work Plan from 2006 A copy of the Draft Work Plan that Chacko worked on earlier in 2006 was distributed for review also. C. State Legislation on Hydrogen Fuels Daniels said he has been reading the book, The Little Ice Age, to get an idea of what can happen as the climate changes. He said there are types of catastrophic changes that occur with just small degrees of temperature change, especially regarding food production. Daniels said the state has developed the Minnesota Renewable Hydrogen Development Act for 2007, noting that this is the second time Minnesota has become involved in renewable hydrogen fuel development as a possible alternative for fossil fuels. Daniels said the state wants to set aside $10 million for the next two years to develop a model station to dispense hydrogen. He thought we could lobby with our state legislators about our interest in this. He will get more information including the bill number. Eden Prairie Conservation Commission January 16, 2007 Minutes Page 8 IX. UPCOMING EVENT PLANNING A. Environmental Fair—January 20, 2007 Stovring said she will be there between 7:30 and 8:00 AM. Help would be needed to put up the banner and set up tables. She noted that Steven Wilson has cancelled and would not be able to speak as scheduled. She may try to find someone to fill in. Lulu Mosman said the High School's NRG group is promoting paper recycling at the high school. Jan Mosman noted the students are making covers to make it more obvious where the different types of recycling materials should go. Stovring asked who would be able to attend on Saturday. Chacko said he will be a judge. Daniels said he could help set up. Muston, Krocak and MacMillan said they will be there. Jan Mosman said she will be out of town this weekend and will not be able to attend. X. NEXT MEETING A. February 13, 2007 XI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Jan Mosman, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Chacko adjourned the meeting at 9:10 PM.