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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 12/08/2009 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Dan Trebil (Vice-Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Ravi Jaiswal, Geneva MacMillan, Greg Olson STAFF: Regina Herron, Staff Liaison Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Gretchen Askew, Julia Wang, Michele Wu I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. Jaiswal, Brown and Wu were absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Daniels added Item V.A. MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Trebil, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 4-0. III. MINUTES A. Minutes for October 13, 2009 MOTION: Daniels moved, seconded by Olson, to approve the minutes of the October 13, 2009 meeting as published. Motion carried 4-0-1, with Trebil abstaining. B. Minutes for November 10, 2009 Daniels said the first paragraph of Item II. should be changed to "...postings on the Eden Prairie News blog...." The approval of the November 10, 2009 minutes was continued to the January 12, 2010 meeting. IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Commercial Recyclins! Initiative Code Amendment - Update Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 2 Herron said she and Leslie Stovring were going to give a presentation on the proposed recycling code amendment at the last Planning Commission meeting, but the commission did not have a quorum so it was postponed to their December 14 meeting. Jester said she plans to be at that meeting and asked if the section regarding public spaces was taken out of the proposed amendment. Herron said it is not included for the public zoning district as well as residential zoning. She said churches and parks are in public zoning, and the Parks Department staff said they weren't ready for that at this point Trebil asked how it would affect the Parks Department and if it would be asking them to change the parks immediately. Herron said the amendment would deal with development from this point forward. Trebil then asked what the reluctance is to change the code. Herron said she could check on that. Jester thought we can keep moving forward with what we have,but we are still interested in recycling in the parks and would like to keep working on that with staff and the Parks Commission. Trebil noted new buildings being built have to accommodate recycling bins but there is nothing that says the building has to recycle. Herron said it is not mandated for commercial businesses, it just needs to be provided in the building or within a structure. Trebil noted the tenant has to take responsibility as the landlord can't mandate that tenants recycle unless it is put in the lease. Herron said as it is for single family homes, it is a service that the garbage haulers are required to provide but we can't make residents recycle. Jester said it is the same with multi-family housing. Herron said the code amendment gives businesses the opportunity to recycle, requires them to provide the location and requires the haulers to provide the service. Trebil said we have to make sure it makes sense to the business by somehow educating the property owners. Herron said if the ordinance is approved the commission might want to work on brochures or update the website to push the idea of recycling as part of the 2010 or 2011 Work Plan. Jester asked if anyone else was planning to attend the meeting of the Planning Commission next week. Olson asked if those commission members who are not able to attend could get copies of the minutes prior to our January meeting. Herron said they would most likely be unapproved minutes. Jester asked if Ms Herron anticipates the item being approved once it goes through the Planning Commission. Herron said she didn't see anything unusual about the proposal, and it is something we already require in our development agreements. Jester asked if it goes to the City Council right away. Herron said it is just a presentation to the Planning Commission, and they would then have Public Hearing and make a formal recommendation to City Council. That couldn't happen until at least January, depending on meeting schedules. B. Riverview Road Erosion - Update Jester said she noted there was some discussion about this at the November meeting. She said she knows about the subject because she attends the Watershed District Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 3 meetings for her job and has also talked to staff about it. Olson said in reviewing the erosion stabilization study he noted there is a new Riverview Road along the top of the bluff,but portions of the old road have eroded away because of the nature of the soils in the area and the ground water running through it. He noted the river has greatly changed its course. If flooding occurs it erodes the base and all the sand and silt seeping through it causes large chunks of earth to come down. He wondered at what point it becomes a concern from a public safety standpoint. SRF Consulting laid out two or three options for a long-term solution, and also laid out which jurisdictions are involved in this in order for some kind of a plan to be developed. He noted there are still some studies going on, and he thought it would be good for this commission to have a sense of the scope of the studies,how long the studies will take, and when a recommendation will come out. He would like to see us be updated on a periodic basis and also have someone speak to the issue of public safety. Jester said Wenck Consulting and another firm are both studying this. They have been hired by the Watershed District to study it further, and they will measure the amount of erosion. The plan from staff's perspective is that we need to wait until the studies are done. A portion will be done in mid-winter but data recording takes some time. Olson asked if Wenck is under the authority of the Watershed District. Jester said the Watershed District hired Wenck,but it is a very complicated situation so the solution will be very complicated. Staff is waiting to hear back once more is known. At that time Wenck will give a presentation to the City Council and staff. Herron said this was brought up to the City Council a couple of months back. She said Ms Jester came to her and said this was something the commission should potentially look at. She was not sure if there was clear direction from the City Council that the commission should study it. Gene Dietz said the Watershed District is the point person at this time, and they are leading the study. The City is providing any information we have but we are not the lead agency. She said there will be a Lower Minnesota Watershed District meeting on December 16, and this will be an item on the agenda. Jester noted it has been on their agenda for months and asked if there will be anything new at the upcoming meeting. Herron said she believes they are going to discuss different options. One of the recommendations from our Public Works staff is that one or two commission members attend the meeting, ask questions, and bring information back. She said Ms Stovring would be happy to sit down with commission members about this. Jester said they have been trying to get the Army Corps involved. It is hard to say whose responsibility it is to fix it. They applied for a grant recently to help pay for this. She will be at the Watershed District meeting,but she thought we need to get more information. She wondered how the possible leaching from the landfill works into this. The MPCA has been monitoring the ground water in that area. She asked if Mr. Olson would want to take the lead in getting as much information on this as Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 4 possible to report back to the commission. Olson asked who he would go to for that information and what the course of his inquiry would be. Herron said Ms Stovring would be the point of contact. Jester thought he may want to get information on what has happened up to this point so we can try to understand what the outcome is going to be from the study. Olson said he will try to dig into it. Olson asked how it was decided that this is the Watershed District's issue. Jeremiah said we allow the Watershed District to administer some things within our boundaries such as wetland issues. Olson asked if that is an informal arrangement. Jeremiah said she was not sure. Jester thought it is more formal because the Watershed District is a special taxing district, and their plans trump the City's plans in their areas of the City. MacMillan asked where the City's boundary is in the river. Jester said line is in the center of the river. MacMillan asked how that is affected by the movement of the river. Herron said from the standpoint of the City we will know a lot more after the December 16 meeting and will have better information about what will happen. Daniels said it was pointed out to him that the City is receiving over$600,000 for energy conservation. Herron said there was grant money available from the federal government, and our facility manager, Paul Sticha,had a list of items that the City was looking at. Jeremiah said she understands it will be used to implement the 20- 40-15 plan because we had to use the grant money for projects that were ready to go. Daniels said he has someone who is very interested in this because the recovery.gov website reported the City has received $628,000 which has created 14 new jobs. Jeremiah said the jobs were not created for the City per se because we have lost about 12 jobs this year. Daniels said it was reported that this happened in the 2nd District, and our representative has been complaining about the stimulus money. Jester thought we should get an update on 20-40-15 in the next few months. V. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEMBERS 1. EcoFair - Daniels Daniels reviewed a list of EcoFair seminars held in Minnetonka. He noted anything dealing with trees seems to attract a lot of people. A discussion followed regarding which seminars would be good to have here in Eden Prairie. VI. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS This item was taken out of sequence following Item X. Wang said the Tree Huggers Club at the High School is planning to do tree planting in the spring. This is something new for them and they were wondering where it would be possible to plant them and who they could talk to about it. Herron said City Forester Stu Fox and Jeff Cortes with Parks and Recreation would be great resources. Jester said an organization called Great River Greening has a good volunteer base, and they might work with a student Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 5 group. Wang said they are also planning to show the documentary film, "Tapped," at Dunn Brothers Coffee. MacMillan asked if they plan to show other documentaries. Wang said that is the only one at this point. Askew said they have been looking at prices of recycling bins but didn't know how they would fit those into the budget. She said in the classrooms the trash cans are full of cans even though the recycling bins are right by the trash cans. She thought they need a way to tell students to recycle. Olson suggested they do a research project on the recycling and then publish the results in the school newspaper. Askew said they have a Wednesday morning news program, and they might be able to talk to students in that. Jester thought that would be a great idea, and one interesting angle might be how much energy is saved by recycling. MacMillan asked if the news program is at the High School. Askew said there is a class that produces the program. She thought they might get the Tree Huggers to do a commercial, and she will meet with Ms Wang about that. VII. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Eden Prairie Home, Landscape and Garden Expo Jester asked how many suggestions for speakers we need to provide. Herron said we will have two booths and are looking for two suggestions for speakers. We need to give the suggestions to Ms Stovring by December 11 or 13. Trebil asked if the expo is geared toward renovation. Herron said it is about home, garden and landscaping and could have a conservation twist to it. Jester said she liked the building greener and smarter idea that Mr. Daniels read from his list, and they could speak to the various products available. Daniels noted it was presented by Peter Lytle and was entitled "Live Green, Live Smart." Trebil asked if the home energy rebates continue this year because that might be a subject that would be interesting. Daniels said Xcel Energy just released a new list of things there will be rebates on. Jeremiah said she did not know if it had been extended by Congress. MacMillan asked if there will be 50 minutes for each speaker. Herron said she didn't know the time frame. Olson said he recently had a couple of tree services talk to him about their services, and that might be a good topic. Jester noted there are several different topics about tree care. She thought our City Forester might suggest a name. Trebil said composting might be a topic since we are going to have to start that this year. Daniels thought we might want to do that at our booth. Jester said we could also do that in a workshop. Jester suggested we may want to do a speaker about trees and one about energy savings. She thought we have some suggestions and Ms Stovring might have ideas Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 6 for energy savings or yard and garden topics. We have the two booths and can have recycling in one of the booths. Daniels said his theme will be "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle." Trebil asked if we need to identify the two booths. Jester suggested Mr. Daniels do one with a "reduce and reuse" theme, and she could do the other on recycling. B. Rain Barrels and Compost Bins Herron said Ms Stovring had some funds available if the commission would be interested in selling rain barrels and compost bins at an event; however, after doing more research she found the price was not a good deal. If that is something the commission would want to deal with in the future, Ms Stovring can do more research. Jester thought Hennepin County sold them online and then picked them up at their big cleanup day in June. Daniels thought we should look at some kind of container that stores the compost at the sink. Jester said she saw a booth selling those at the Living Green Expo, and she thought we need to sell the compost bucket for inside if we sell the compost bins for outside. Olson asked if the County has good information available on compost barrels because he didn't know much about that. Jester said there is some literature on composting and rain barrels. Olson asked if there was a way we could have a link on the website for people who are interested in rain barrels or composting. Daniels said in the past we have been limited as to the type of links we can have. Herron said she didn't think it would be an issue to add information, and we could go through our Communications Division. Daniels thought it would be good to have someone come in and talk to us about the website so we know what resources are available to us. Herron said they have offered to have the Conservation Commission work on Life in the Prairie items. Olson asked how that would appear on the website. Jeremiah suggested having something like Going Green with a list of different items to link to. Trebil suggested tying it together with 20-40-15. Herron said she could talk with the Communications staff and see what the capabilities are and if they could attend a future commission meeting. Jester suggested we hold off on the rain barrels and compost bins for now and put together a workshop in the spring. C. 2010 Work Plan Jester said she asked that this be tabled at the last meeting because she was out of town. In October we looked at six different areas and decided to refine our focus to one or two in 2010 and set some actual attainable goals and strategies. She met with Ms Stovring, Ms Herron and Mr. Franzen in early November to discuss topics. She said there was no real consensus from staff about what area we should focus on,but there was a general agreement that this group could be of more use to staff and some Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 7 things should come to the commission that haven't in the past. Their suggestions included reporting on solid waste and the annual lake sampling. Jester said we don't have to pick a focus as long as we have some definite stated goals and strategies. It may be better to be more refined and concentrate on a topic of choice, but she would like to see some progress towards goals. Olson asked if there are matters that fall under the general heading of conservation that will be taken up by other commissions in the coming year or if there are policies or ordinances that will have to be looked at that involve conservations issues. He thought having the commission weigh in on every single situation would be overwhelming,but we could find a significant question that is coming in the next three or four months and try to add some value to the process. Jester said she tried to reiterate that with City staff, and she thought staff needs to come to this commission when there are conservation-related items coming before another commission. Olson said we need to have some foreknowledge of upcoming City business that is related to conservation. Jester said she agreed, and it is staff that takes things through the commissions. She thought another way to look at this is to not focus on one area but to focus on education and communication and hope staff brings us issues through the year. Jeremiah said each commission is doing work plans for the coming year, and those will be available to look at. Also, each department and division does work planning for the budget cycle, and we have that through 2011 now. She said this is a new commission so it is understandable it is not as much in the loop. Olson thought it would be great if we could get a copy of the other commission's work plans. It might be worthwhile to come up with something for the website along the lines of education. Jester asked if the links would run the gamut of all the topics. Olson said it would be difficult for anyone to research all those links. MacMillan said Ms Stovring puts things out there but she didn't know how frequently it is updated. Herron said at the October meeting there were a lot of ideas put on the board, and the intent was to come back to the November meeting to refine that. She said she could put together a draft work plan for the commission to look at. Jester said she was thinking Ms Herron and she could sit down and hammer something out. She thought our work plan for 2010 would involve refining and figuring out where we fit with the other commission and with staff. Ms Stovring suggested several things such as the lake monitoring report and the solid waste annual report, and there may be other things she could come up with. Herron said Jay Lotthammer told her one of the things the Parks Commission enjoyed in 2009 was the joint meeting with the Conservation Commission. Olson proposed we do the joint meeting earlier in the year rather than later because that would have an impact on how we would do our work. If we are able to hook up with them early and have a good discussion that could affect what we could concentrate on. Herron said one of Mr. Lotthammer's suggestions for a joint meeting was lake Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 8 monitoring. She said the green ordinance is on the Planning Division's work plan, and that could be another joint meeting. Olson asked if those things would end up in the minutes of the various other commissions. Herron said it would if it were discussed. Olson asked if the minutes are available on the website. Jester said she believes they are available once they are approved. Olson thought we might get a rundown of minutes from the other commissions when we get the email of our meeting packet. Herron asked if the commission wanted to sit down and come up with a work plan. Jester thought it might be easier for the commission to react to something. She thought Ms Herron, Ms Stovring and she could sit down for an hour or so and hammer out some meetings and goals for the next commission meeting. She asked if the commission members were okay with that suggestion, and the commission members agreed. MacMillan asked if they could get it out to the commission members before the next meeting. Jester said that would be their plan. VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Herron said once again there were no new projects so she didn't include this in the packet. IX. UPCOMING EVENTS A. December 16, 2009—Lower Minnesota River Watershed District Board Meeting Olson asked where they meet. Jester said they meet on the 2nd floor of the Chaska City Hall at 7:00 PM. She said she will be there, will take notes, and will send copies to Mr. Olson. B. March 20, 2010—Eden Prairie Home, Landscape and Garden Expo Jester said she is planning to do the recycling booth and anybody else is welcome to join her. Mr. Daniels will do the other booth. She said it mostly involves setting up and taking down the booth. MacMillan asked where it is held and what the hours are. Jester said it is at Grace Church and it is usually from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM or so. We have always set up the night before. Jester asked if our two booths will be next to each other. Herron said she will check on that. X. NEXT MEETING A. Tuesday,January 12, 2010 MacMillan said she was concerned about dry cleaning establishments because they cause a lot of contamination. She thought it might be interesting to have someone Conservation Commission Minutes December 8, 2009 Page 9 come and speak to us about the air contaminants from dry cleaning. There is an environmentally friendly dry cleaning establishment in Chanhassen that is willing to speak to us or give us a tour of their facility. Olson asked if the City has an ordinance to control that sort of thing. Jester said they have to get a permit from the MPCA. Olson said it would be interesting to see what the zoning laws are and how that matches up with health concerns. Trebil thought the vast majority send the cleaning somewhere else. Herron said we don't require business licenses so we don't dictate from a license perspective. Dry cleaners would be allowed in a commercial district. There may be some reporting requirements for the state and federal governments. Olson thought we might have someone speak about the issue and how the City might address the impact. Jester said the MPCA has a new interactive website that is map based and shows permitted facilities and any permit violations. Trebil said businesses can voluntarily go into a program with the MPCA to clean up the soils, and the map would show a lot of that. XI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by MacMillan, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 8:50 PM.