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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 11/10/2009 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 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 Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Gretchen Askew, Julia Wang, Michele Wu I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Vice Chair Trebil called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM. Jester, Jaiswal and MacMillan were absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Trebil changed Item III.A. to Item VII.B. Daniels said he would like to respond to some postings on the City blog and asked if there are rules or restrictions regarding Commission members doing that. Herron said she will ask the City Attorney. MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Brown, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 4-0. III. MINUTES See Item VII.B. IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Riverview Road Erosion--FYI Herron said the email sent to Commission members had an article attached about a study of erosion problems in southeast Eden Prairie. She said there is additional information about the study on the City's website under the Public Works Department. The Watershed District is currently reviewing this as is the Army Corps of Engineers. Olson noted there was quite a bit of background information on the website, and it included an estimate of the cost to repair the erosion. Herron said at this point the City is providing information to the Watershed District and is leaving it up to the Watershed District to work with the Army Corps to resolve the issue. Trebil asked if part of the cost will be kicked back to the City. Herron Conservation Commission Minutes November 10, 2009 Page 2 thought it would be kicked back to the Watershed District because it is part of a bigger issue with the Minnesota River. We are providing information, but as far as doing the study and resolving the issue, it is too big an issue for the City. Olson asked if we have time tonight to discuss the topic. Herron said she wanted to bring it to the attention of the Commission as an FYI item because it has received attention from the City Council and the local newspaper. Olson said he has a lot of questions about the topic. Herron said she would refer questions to the Public Works Department. Olson asked who decides that. Herron said at this point we are providing information to the Watershed District. Olson said that leaves open the issue that the Minnesota DNR has jurisdiction along with the Watershed District and the City, and it is not clear who is taking the lead and whose budget it is coming from. He thought it would be worthwhile for the Commission to understand the process as to how problems like this are dealt with in cases where there are multiple jurisdictions. It would be possible to pass the problem around the various jurisdictions, and meanwhile there is a potential for a major landslide and some talk about seepage from the landfill. He thought the issue seems to be fairly clear,but he wanted to know who is going to resolve it. Trebil thought the most relevant piece from our Commission standpoint would be the landfill. Brown thought it is two different issues because we are talking about the process and also about what role we would take in being able to weigh in. Olson thought both issues are good ones. Herron said right now the Public Works Department is serving as liaison to the Watershed District and is providing them with background information. The Watershed District is trying to get the Army Corps to be involved,but at this point this item is just background information. Olson asked if the City has made a ruling that this is not a City government decision. Herron said this is something that is in the Watershed District's hands,per the decision of the Director of Public Works. Olson said it might be useful to understand in a little more depth what the position of the City is, as expressed by the Public Works Director, and also what comes next from the City's standpoint. Daniels asked if it would be possible to request that either the Director of Public Works or a spokesperson come and discuss the situation with us. He said he didn't realize there was a problem with leakage from the landfill, so he thought there are a couple of areas where we need to be informed. Herron said she will have someone from Public Works talk about the two issues at a future meeting. Olson thought that was a good idea because we need to get some more information if we are going to give advice on these matters. Conservation Commission Minutes November 10, 2009 Page 3 B. Rain Barrel and Compost Bins Herron said Ms Stovring informed her she has money in her budget to purchase rain barrels and compost bins if the Commission wishes to sell those at future events. Trebil asked if the Commission has done that in the past. Daniels said we have done workshops for rain barrels but we haven't sold them. Brown asked what would be done with the money we receive if we sell them for a profit. Herron said she didn't discuss that with Ms Stovring. Trebil thought the main idea is to get them out so people use them. Olson asked who is knowledgeable about the use of rain barrels if we were to put them out for sale. Daniels said he is familiar with them. Daniels said he would like to know more about the compost bins. Brown said she would vote for selling the compost bins. She noted we are supposed to move to compost recycling next year, and she would like to know when the program will be in place. Trebil said it didn't sound like it would be available to everybody right away. Brown said it sounded like it would be publicly organized,but people might want to use compost for their gardens. She thought we should learn more about the compost recycling program as there are a lot of questions about the program. Trebil asked if the money is available to use for the Expo next March. Herron said that would be one place as well as future events like the July 4th event. She said Ms Stovring has a vendor available so we need to decide whether to sell these at future events or not. She said she will find out more details and email the Commission members for their feedback. C. Request for Topics for Speakers at Eden Prairie Home, Landscape and Garden Expo Herron said we have secured two booths at the Home and Garden Expo. She said Ms Stovring asked if the Commission could brainstorm about specific speakers for the event in order to help generate ideas Trebil suggested we do something that is consistent with our mission for 2010. Daniels said Minnetonka has been holding a fairly successful Expo, and they have had some topics that have attracted people to attend their event. He thought it might be worth our time to visit with them to see who they had as speakers. Trebil asked when we need to give her the feedback. Herron said she needs it by mid-December, so the Commission can think about it and come back with ideas at the next meeting. Brown asked who the audience is at this event. She thought we could possibly tie it into the topic of water. Herron said one of the topics Ms Stovring came up with was spring lawn care. The target is people who are remodeling or landscaping. Daniels thought anything that would be primarily informative probably would not go over well. Conservation Commission Minutes November 10, 2009 Page 4 Trebil suggested Mr. Daniels do some research with Minnetonka and then we can hone in on a couple of ideas. Brown noted one of the leading companies for green construction is based here in Eden Prairie, and there is a wind energy company here as well. She thought the whole subject of green remodeling might be one of our topics. The Commission should provide four different options for speakers for the Chamber to select. V. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION MEMBERS Daniels said he read an article about local cities getting together and trying to write regulations for wind turbines, and he asked if Eden Prairie is involved in this in any way. Herron said she was not aware of the article or study. Herron said the Planning Division has wind turbines on their work plan but have not begun to work on it yet. She said right now wind turbines are reviewed accessory structures. Trebil noted we talked about having Best Buy come in and asked if we have tried to set a time for that. Herron said she will request a presentation from Best Buy for a future meeting. Olson asked what would cause the topic of wind turbines to rise in terms of priorities. Herron said this is something we treat as a permitted use, so we don't prohibit wind turbines. She said staff has had this on the division work plan and the commission could assist in coming up with a proposal to strengthen the ordinance. VI. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS The students had nothing to report. Brown said she would appreciate it if the students would come to the Commission with issues or things that should be done. Askew asked if the Commission would be able to help with issues such as the lack of recycling bins at the high school. Olson thought it would be more along the lines that initiatives within the School District to conserve more or make schools greener could be shared with the Commission, and we could then underscore the initiative and present it to the community. Brown said we could be supportive of their efforts. Olson thought the City might want to replicate a good initiative from the students. Brown said we could help the students with information for a presentation. VII. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Commercial Recyclins! Initiative Code Amendment Herron distributed copies of the proposed code put together by vice chair Trebil and draft copies of the code sections with changes inserted in the code. She said she routed the code changes to staff and was informed that Chapter 9 of the code would also need to be changed. She reviewed the proposed changes to the three chapters of the code, noting that Chapter 5 deals with licensing of haulers and adds commercial Conservation Commission Minutes November 10, 2009 Page 5 establishments to the code. She said there is a new section for recyclable waste collection in office and commercial zones in Chapter 9 that deals with the location and types of material that can be considered compost or waste. She said the Planning Commission has to make a recommendation to the City Council for the changes to Chapter 11, which is where we talk about the physical location and the zoning restrictions. Brown asked what we would do to get public properties included. Herron said public zoned properties include parks and churches. Feedback from the Parks Department was that they aren't in support of the change to public zoned properties yet. Trebil asked if this was for new buildings only. Herron said it is applicable to building permits for new construction after the date the code is adopted. Olson asked what our role is in this process if the changes have to be adopted by the City Council. Herron said the Commission can make further modification at this point, or she could go ahead and give it to the City Attorney. She could then bring his comments back to the Commission. The changes to Chapter 11 would have to go to the Planning Commission and then everything would go to the City Council. She noted we don't have a deadline so the Commission could take more time to look at it. Trebil said it appears that it includes what we are trying to accomplish except for the issue of public classification, and it sounds like Ms Herron has had that discussion. He thought it appears to be what we were asking for. Daniels thought we could wait to review it again when we get it back from the City Attorney. Daniels asked if the Planning Commission has seen this. Herron they have not,but Ms Stovring and she are planning to give an FYI presentation to the Planning Commission at their November 23 meeting. There will have to be a Public Hearing at the Planning Commission before they make a recommendation to the City Council. Daniels thought the changes should not get objections from anybody. Herron said she didn't foresee that, especially since we don't require current business owners to make changes. Trebil asked if we have any specifics about size. Herron said the changes in Chapter 11 do not specify size. Daniels noted it states both trash and recycling, so it would need to fit both. Herron thought it could vary based on the size of the building, so she didn't know if we would specify a limit. Trebil asked if we require containers for recyclable waste. Herron said recycling for buildings is a building code requirement now, and these changes firm up our code. MOTION: Daniels moved, seconded by Brown, to submit the Commercial Recycling Initiative Code Amendments to the City Attorney for review. Motion carried 4-0. Conservation Commission Minutes November 10, 2009 Page 6 B. Approval of the Minutes for the October 13, 2009 Meeting The minutes of the October 13, 2009 meeting will be approved at the December 8, 2009 meeting. VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Herron said she did not send out the Project Profile because there were no new items on it. Olson said he recalled an email from Ms Jester regarding what should be the Commission's work next year. He had the impression we were going to discuss that. Herron said Ms Jester asked that we postpone any 2010 work plan discussion until the December meeting. IX. UPCOMING EVENTS A. November 19, 2009—Anderson Lakes Public Meeting-7 pm, Heritage Rooms I and II Herron said this will be a discussion of the status of the work being done on Anderson Lakes. B. December 1, 2009—Night with the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed-7 Pm, Chanhassen Legion Herron said Leslie Stovring is attending this event. C. March 20, 2010—Eden Prairie Home, Landscape and Garden Expo Trebil asked when we need to figure out the booths for this. Herron said we need to brainstorm about the speakers and come back with ideas for the Chamber of Commerce so they can select two by mid-December. X. NEXT MEETING A. Tuesday, December 8, 2009 XI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Brown, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 4-0. Vice Chair Trebil adjourned the meeting at 8:15 PM.