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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 11/09/2010 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2010 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Ravi Jaiswal, Geneva MacMillan, Prashant Shrikhande STAFF: Regina Herron, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Joshua Auerbach and Rachel Wood I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Jalswal was absent. Daniels and Shrikhande arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Brown added Item IX.A. Plastic Bat Tax Discussion. MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Brown, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 4-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the October 12, 2010 Meeting Brown made the following changes: Page 1, Paragraph 2, Sentence 1 under Item IV.B. Driveway Material Ordinance—Update, change the word "recycling" to "recycled"; Page 2, Paragraph 4, Sentence 1, add "for 2011 planning and revisit the wording of the code" to the end of the sentence; Page 8, Paragraph 1, Sentence 3, replace the sentence with "Brown stated that based on her numerous years of marketing experience, people attending trade shows and expos generally adopt a "trick or treat" mentality; that they will browse all of the booths looking for free items and that just because they take the free items doesn't mean they will be used. Often these types of"freebies" are immediately tossed into the trash. Brown expressed her belief that we should not put more plastic into the world simply based on the hope that people who take them will indeed use them. She stated that if the commission wishes to distribute reusable water bottles at events like this, we should acquire good quality ones and sell them at a nominal cost. This way only people who are truly interested in using a reusable water bottle will realize the value and take advantage of the offer thereby eliminating those that just want something for nothing. The proceeds could be given to a local charity." Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 2 Daniels arrived at 7:07 PM. MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Brown, to approve the minutes of the October 12, 2010 meeting as amended. Motion carried 5-0. IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Driveway Material Ordinance—Update Herron distributed copies of the revised ordinance. She said the proposed changes to Sections 1-3 include adding a statement to allow '/a" of gravel between pavers, to allow turf block or grasscrete, and adding a sentence prohibiting the use of gravel crushed rock, sand or dirt. Jester thought the proposed wording sounds like you can't use gravel in the gaps because gravel is included in the list of prohibited items. Extensive discussion followed on how the ordinance could be rewritten or enhanced to be clearer about what is prohibited and what is allowed. Shrikhande arrived at 7:15 PM. She said Council Member Nelson brought up some concerns at a City Council meeting, and staff was directed to revise the sentence structure, take a closer look at the permitted materials and address concerns about the use of gravel and crushed rock. Jester said she had two primary concerns: one, it is too prescriptive to specify '/a" gaps; and two,how someone would know they could use gravel within the gaps. Shrikhande thought the words "pavers of materials such as" should be added before the list of materials permitted for pavers in order to make that sentence clearer. Jester suggested changing the sentence prohibiting the use of gravel and other material to "Parking areas, loading areas and driveways of gravel, crushed rock, sand or dirt are prohibited." B. Nine Mile Creek Water Resource Center—Project Status Herron said this project is still on the Council agenda for November 16 but it might get moved to a later date because they are still working on the Development Agreement. Jester asked if they are working with the Watershed District. Herron said the development agreement is being worked out between the City Planner, the Watershed District, the attorneys and Barbara Kaerwar. V. REPORTS FROM CHAIR VI. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Discussion on Water Conservation--Shrikhande Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 3 Shrikhande said he was on vacation in India recently in a city where they are offering cash to individuals who pledge to wear helmets when riding motorcycles. He said they find corporate sponsors to provide the money and then list the sponsors on the web site they use for the pledges. He wondered if we might be able to use something like that to provide an incentive for water or energy conservation. Shrikhande said he would like feedback on the material he emailed on water conservation. Brown said she also sent material to Ms Herron and Ms Jester about what Chanhassen is doing about water conservation. She believes we can borrow things like this from other cities. Shrikhande said the website where residents can pay their utility bills is very useful. You can compare your utility bill to your street, your neighborhood and the City in general. He thought it would be good to include the comparisons in the billing statements for those who don't pay online. It would provide a sense of how much you are conserving when compared to your neighbors. Jester said she would be interested to know the percentage of residents who pay online. Shrikhande said he learned that some areas in India are considering a weekly water cutoff, and he thought we might consider having a drill, similar to a fire drill, where there would be no water available. Herron thought it might be a personal challenge, but for safety reasons she didn't think we would put it in place for the whole City. Shrikhande said it would be like load sharing for electricity usage during peak hours. Jester said the information needs to get into the meeting materials for the next meeting so we can discuss it and also include it in the 2011 planning. VII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS VIII. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. 2011 Work Plan Herron said she included a draft in the meeting packets she emailed to everyone. Jester thought it looks good. She said she knows we have photos from the 2010 Expo that could be used to update the one in the document. She noted the last bullet under Community Outreach states we presented at local scout troop meetings,but she thought there was only one such meeting. The correct abbreviation for the Storm Water Permit Program is SWPPP and that should be made consistent throughout the document. She said she would like to go through the minutes from the 2010 meetings to see if there might be other items to include in the 2010 Accomplishments. Herron said she did that but it would be good for someone to double check. Brown said we handed out native plant seeds at the Chamber of Commerce Expo at Grace Church. Shrikhande asked if we could include the talk on water conservation Ms Stovring gave on our behalf as a point under Community Outreach. Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 4 Daniels said we encouraged recycling in the parks. Shrikhande noted some recycling bins are very confusing about how to recycle, and it is difficult to know what kind of paper goes into the recycling bin. Brown said neither paper contaminated by food and other substances nor Post-It® notes may be recycled. Olson thought we might want to consider this under our Work Plan. Jester noted the word "Recycling"in the last bullet point on Commission Development should not be capitalized. Shrikhande said the Communication Efforts could include a bullet point about Commission members who have been highlighted in City publications. Jester asked if the newsletter goes to other local papers. Herron said it is in the Eden Prairie News and on the website. Jester asked about the percentage of residents who get the Eden Prairie News. Daniels thought the percentage would be quite high because it is mailed out. Jester thought many of the items under"Other" could be categorized. She thought the second, third and possibly the fifth bullet points could go under the Water Quality heading. Brown said the sixth bullet point should be revised to be more actionable because she thought we did more than just draft a letter of support. She suggested it be changed to "Recommended support of the Nine Mile Creek water resource center to the City Council." Herron said she copied the 2010 Goals and Work Plan to the 2011 work plan without any revisions but did list some new ideas at the beginning of the work plan. She said the Council gave direction to do "pond scum" research. The consensus was to re- label it"pond management." Herron said the GreenStep Cities evaluation came up from City Directors and the intern who is reviewing programs and doing research. The Commission will receive a presentation early next year on the GreenStep Cities program. Jester said we will need a resolution from the City Council to be involved in that program and will also need to develop an educational strategy. Shrikhande thought it should include policy as well as education. Jester asked if we could set up a workshop on this in January. Herron said she has not seen a draft workshop schedule yet. Olson said according to the 2010 schedule we were to create a strategy to begin a best practices review. He asked if we could link that to the Storm Water Plan that includes a lot of best management practices. He asked if it would make sense for us to see how our best management practices align with those of other entities such as the MPCA. Jester thought best management practices in that context means water conservation but it also includes energy and green building codes. She noted there are three Watershed Districts in the City, and two of them are developing their water management plans. Eden Prairie will have to update our plan to correspond to those plans. Daniels asked if we are the advisory board for that. Jester said we are the advisor for the SWPPP plan, and that has meant Ms Stovring gives us an update once a year. Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 5 Jester said last year at this time we tried narrowing our focus and found that, as individuals, we have different areas we are interested in. She thought we did a lot of work this year. Brown said most of the items on the list of accomplishments talk about receiving things, and she was not sure what good that does the City. We need to set some definable goals when we put together a plan for 2011 and then work towards those goals with the intention of being a more active commission. She was frustrated by the fact that we are not really getting anything done in the better interests of the City. Daniels thought there will be a strong majority on the new Council that we can influence in many ways. It will be much more approachable on conservation matters. We need to think in terms of making positive suggestions for the City although we may run up against the budget crunch. He would like to get a budget for this group and have money for programmable thermostats and recycling. He thought we need to be a strong voice in the next two years. Olson said he thought it would be a mistake to say we don't have much to show for our efforts, especially when we got the language on permeable surfaces into the ordinance. We have been at this together for a couple of years, and we get smarter and learn how to work with other commissions in the City. He thought we are doing okay overall. He thought we should celebrate our victories and keep moving forward. Daniels thought we have had to move at a certain pace, and there is nothing we could have done to move things quicker. We now have an opportunity to have a bigger voice. Brown said we probably have a more open minded City Council to present ideas to,but we continue to flounder to come up with actionable items. The fact we didn't have a receptive City Council shouldn't have kept us from creating actionable items. Jester noted we are all volunteers and she was very happy with the accomplishments, especially when compared to 2009. She thought there is room for improvement and we should probably hone in on a couple of things. The Work Plan for 2010 was really ambitious and almost overwhelming. She thought the GreenStep Cities may be a way to work through this. She noted Ms Herron sent a link to get materials on the GreenStep Cities program. MacMillan said she has looked over that material a couple of times, and it outlines steps to take to begin the process. She thought this is a really good time for the GreenStep Cities program. Daniels said the 20-40-15 program is a real accomplishment when compared to other cities. He thought the opportunity to use stimulus money to continue with the 20-40- 15 program is something we need to bring forth to the community. It would be good to find another project like that one. Jester asked if we could get a presentation on the GreenStep Cities program in January. Herron said Karen Kurt, the Human Resources Manager, is going for a Masters degree in Urban Policy, and she would be the one to do a presentation. Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 6 Olson said Jerry Pitzrick has solar panels on his roof and seems to know a lot about solar energy. We have built bridges to other commissions to make us more effective, and Mr. Pitzrick serves on the Planning Commission. The Conservation Commission has an opportunity to get input on solar energy from him. Jester thought we might sponsor him as a speaker for another group such as at the Chamber Expo. Brown noted Page 5 of last month's minutes refers to a statement by Leslie Stovring that we have money left for the year for water conservation and water quality education. She asked what happens if we don't use it all this year as she doesn't want to lose the money. Herron said she was not sure how Ms Stovring's budget works, but if we have ideas regarding water conservation we should give them to Ms Stovring. Jester asked if we need to stick with last year's format for the Work Plan where we listed the key topics/issues month by month. Herron said it does not have to be that way. Jester thought it might be better to put it in a quarterly format rather than month by month. MacMillan thought that would get us away from the boxes in the document. Brown suggested we should move away from having a wide range of different topics by taking something on and making steps each month. That way we can chart our progress and use the goals and Work Plan as a roadmap. We might have a first priority as we also do other things. We do need to be flexible,but that way we can at least start to have some accountability and check our progress. MacMillan said we have to make some decisions about what we are really going to go for because some of the topics can't be done piecemeal. Herron said it is important to keep pond management and GreenStep Cities on the list. Jester said getting involved with GreenStep Cities will guide us to other topics. She was not sure we can finish the Work Plan without knowing about the GreenStep Cities program. MacMillan said the online information she printed out lists the steps we would have to go through to develop a plan and also lists 28 best practices for GreenStep Cities. She thought we could look at this and figure out what we want to do. The pilot cities were Bloomington, Edina and others, so we could find out what they are doing in their processes. Jester said the GreenStep Cities starts with a resolution by the City Council, and she saw this as being similar to the Mayor's signing of the Climate Agreement that led to 20-40-15. Daniels asked who would get the resolution started. Jester thought the Commission would. MacMillan suggested each of the Commissioners print out the material on the GreenStep Cities for the next meeting. Jester said we need to have Ms Herron,herself and anyone else who is interested put together the Work Plan. Herron said Ms Kurt is evaluating where we are deficient in best practices. From that list of deficiencies the Commission can take over and see what other cities are doing and see what we can do differently in Eden Prairie. The Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 7 Commission can do the research and suggest policy changes or education strategies. Jester thought there may be some nebulous areas as we learn about the deficiencies. Jester said we need to meet with the Parks and Planning Commissions again, and also stay on top of recycling. MacMillan thought some of the Boy Scouts might want to take on the recycling issue. Jester asked if the High School requires students to do community service. Auerbach said it is required in some health classes and also is a requirement to get into college. Shrikhande said the whole motivation to conserve water is somehow connected to the status of our water supply. We may want to look into rain water,but our water supply is mostly ground water. He said it would be good to understand how the DNR monitors ground water on a local and regional level, and how they make sure we are meeting the standards. Jester noted there is a lot to understand about that. Olson thought it would be useful to get more information on various topics and that was why he suggested the presentation on solar panels. Jester thought the presentations to the Commission really need to be tied into something we are taking action on. If we are looking at taking action on water conservation, then getting more background information on that is important. Olson said he hoped there would be room to have presentations that give information of a general interest. Daniels suggested we have a 45 minute presentation each month and have a list of other things we want to accomplish during the year by quarter. Shrikhande said there is a federal tax rebate for fuel cell technology in homes, but we couldn't figure out how to use that. Daniels said there are no fuel cells inexpensive enough to be used in homes. It will come,but it is probably 5-15 years away. Jester thought Ms Herron and she can work on the Work Plan and put together the calendar. We could schedule a presentation from Ms Kurt in January. She said she liked Mr. Daniels' idea of having a presentation scheduled each month. Shrikhande said we could have internal presentations by one of our Commission members in the months we don't have external presentations. Jester asked if the Commission was in agreement to do a display at the Chamber Expo in March. The consensus was to do that. She said we will continue with the Work Plan at the next meeting. B. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile C. Ideas for Life in the Prairie Newsletter Daniels asked if they have done anything on 20-40-15 recently. Herron said they do that annually. Daniels thought it would be good to highlight one of the projects. Herron said she passed along to Mr. Neal the fact that the Commission wanted to highlight businesses that are making a difference in regard to conservation or Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 8 environmental issues and he agreed. Jester asked if she (Ms Jester) should communicate directly with the Communications Department. Herron said Joyce Lorenz told us to do that when she was here. Daniels said he would like to have Ms Lorenz back for a presentation again. D. Website Content Herron said Ms Stovring made some updates. She asked the Commission members to let her know if they have any ideas for the website. Shrikhande said a lot of stores are now giving rebates for bringing your own bags and asked if that could be an ordinance. Jester said we will be talking about that under New Business. Jester asked if we have checked to see if we could put the Environmental Corner from the newsletter on the website. Herron said we are in the middle of that. She said we sent out a link to subscribers to refer to the Life in the Prairie newsletter and look at the Environmental Corner. Daniels asked if we can highlight the website in the Life in the Prairie. He said we have talked about climate change and it would be nice to pursue that topic. IX. NEW BUSINESS A. Plastic Bay Tax Discussion—Sue Brown Brown said Washington D.C. and other cities have created a tax of 5¢ for disposable bags, and they have seen a 50% reduction in the use of plastic bags. She said a lot of different things go along with this. Part of the money generated goes into cleaning up parts of the city. She said a 5¢ tax is very nominal,but it is better than doing a refund. She said she knows this is shooting high, but she believes we should be leaders as we move forward and she would like to see us consider this. Olson asked what other cities have imposed the tax. Brown said she would look into whether there are cities in Minnesota who do this. Olson said the first question to address would be whether cities in Minnesota have the authority to create these kinds of taxes. Local governments have restrictions as to how they can tax; for example, they can't impose income tax. Daniels thought it might have to do with the city's charter. Olson thought the State Auditor's office might be a resource for this question. Jester asked if cities tax retail businesses. Olson said they can impose fees. Herron said we could add the subject to the Work Plan to see if other cities are doing it in Minnesota. Herron said it would be important to get feedback about it from the business community as well. She thought the commission could research the subject and provide a memo to City Council to weigh in on the subject. Brown said we would have to work with the local merchants. It becomes a small source of revenue and saves money for the merchants in the long run. She thought it might not meet with a tremendous amount of resistance. Conservation Commission Minutes November 9, 2010 Page 9 Brown said she would be willing to look into it some more and do more research about the tax structure. She just wanted to float this by the Commission because it is something she personally believes in. The more we can get plastic bags out of our life, the healthier our water and ground will be. Shrikhande noted we gave out recyclable bags, and he thought we could promote the use of those. Jester said Kowalski's and Target give 5¢ if you use those. She thought we might look at encouraging retailers to give more than 50. Daniels said there is an ordinance that grocery stores are supposed to provide bins for the recycling of plastic bags, and he wondered what the stores are doing with those bags. He thought it might be worth looking at having someone employed to pick up the recycling and dispose of it. That way it could be part of the property taxes. Jester thought there are a lot of logistics to work out,but she thought it is something we should research. Shrikhande said California has a refund for bottles and cans and he wondered how successful California is in reducing waste. He asked if we should include bottles and cans. Brown said those are collected by the trash services,but plastic bags aren't being collected by them right now. Shrikhande asked if we have any control over a refund for those since the waste management companies are handling those two items. Daniels said it would make no sense to have a refund. Brown said some waste management companies offer a refund to groups. As a community it would be difficult to implement unless we put in a point of purchase tax. Jester wasn't sure how they would manage it at a city level. Jester thought it might be good to have a presentation by Eureka Plastics in St. Paul. Shrikhande thought this may be something we should put in Life in the Prairie. Jester said Ms Brown will keep going on this subject, and we will add it to the Work Plan. X. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS XI. UPCOMING EVENTS Herron asked Commissioners to let her know of any upcoming events or other items to include on the Agenda. XII. NEXT MEETING A. Tuesday, December 14, 2010 XIII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by MacMillan, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:10 PM.