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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 02/08/2011 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, FEBUARY 8, 2011 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Geneva MacMillan, Prashant Shrikhande STAFF: Regina Herron, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Joshua Auerbach and Rachel Wood GUESTS: Philipp Muessig (MPCA) Dianne Plunkett Latham (Edina) I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:03 PM. Brown and Daniels arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Jester added Item V.A. Nine Mile Creek Water Resource Center, Item IX.E. Displays for Expo,Item VII.C. Bag Fees. Olson added Item VII.A. Public Assessed Clean Energy Program (PACE). MacMillan added Item VII.B. Water Sustainability. MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by MacMillan, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 4-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the January 11, 2011 Meeting MOTION: MacMillan moved, seconded by Shrikhande, to approve the minutes of the January 11, 2011 meeting as published. Motion carried 4-0. Brown arrived at 7:07 PM. IV. SPEAKERS A. Minnesota GreenStep Cities—Philipp Muessis! and Dianne Plunkett Latham Jester said heard a little bit about the Minnesota GreenStep Cities program from an Eden Prairie staff member at our last meeting. She said Philipp Muessig, MPCA, and Dianne Plunkett Latham, Chair of the Edina Energy & Environment Commission, are here to present more information on the program. Conservation Commission February 8, 2011 Page 2 Mr. Muessig said Governor Carlson kicked off the large public planning on sustainability in the 1990's. Seven organizations have put together the GreenStep program to provide a framework for cities to take more sustainability actions. There are five categories that provide the structure for sustainability action. He said it is an evolving program and challenges cities of different sizes to complete at least 16 of the 28 best management practices, with action required in each of the five categories. The cities involved in the program go through an assessment process to determine where they are in relation to the best practices. The progress of each of the participating cities is presented on the website. He reviewed the program requirements for each of the five categories. He said a city must have a resolution from the City Council to participate in the program, and he showed a sample resolution that is posted on their website. Herron noted Eden Prairie's Active Community Planning Handbook is referenced in the GreenStep best practices. Muessig said they pull the best of what is developed to use as examples and guidelines. Jester asked how long the MPCA has been doing this. Muessig said it was launched in mid-June of 2010. Jester asked if he is the primary staff person. Muessig said he is the only full time staff member but they are getting part time help throughout different departments. Jester asked how much support there is for the program. Muessig said they have 18 cities involved so far, and the program would probably go to one of the partner organizations if the state did not support it. Olson asked if any of the cities that signed up have fulfilled the required 16 best practices yet. Muessig said Hopkins has cleared 15 best practices,but as yet no city has fulfilled 16. He said all participating cities are required to enter the B3 bench- marking data in the database. Olson said in order to promote it to the City Council it would be good to be able to speak to what the city would look like if the program were to be implemented so it would be helpful if there were a city we could use as an example. Latham noted there is so much that could be done it can be difficult to know where to start. She said the program includes everything that is important and organizes it into a framework. The Edina City Council feels good about it because the MPCA and other partners promote it and it provides the framework needed. Jester asked if there is a time limit for participating in the program. Muessig said there are no progress requirements once the city submits a copy of the resolution. They have retired engineers and other resources to help cities that have signed their resolution and are working on their best practices. They will have a Step 4 status for cities that have completed the 16 best practices to demonstrate they are still doing the things they claimed credit for in Step 3. Jester asked if they will be tweaking the requirements as cities work on their certification. Muessig thought the changes will primarily refine the requirements. Latham noted it would be nice if it settled down. Muessig said they added a local air quality requirement after Edina suggested adding that. Conservation Commission February 8, 2011 Page 3 Latham gave a PowerPoint presentation on the Edina GreenStep project. She said they found their ten-member commission was not enough for the project so they delegated two requirements to their Transportation Commission and the Bike Task Force. A commission member was assigned to supervise each of the 16 best practices, and they also have 45 residents working as committees or task forces for the project. Muessig said Hopkins has had a"green intern" from the University of Minnesota who did some of the work that Ms Latham did in Edina. Jester asked who does the data entry and what kind of information is required. Muessig said usually a city staff person enters in the information for each of the best practices. Jester asked how long it takes to get feedback from the PCA about whether the step is completed. Muessig said he has been answering those requests but they are also bringing someone on to help with that. MacMillan asked about the role played by the League of Minnesota Cities. Muessig said they will design the award and give it to the cities that complete Step 3. Jester said we took action at our last meeting to pursue participation in this program, and we will discuss it further now we have more information. Latham said their commission voted on which steps to include in their 16 best practices. Jester asked if their staff was involved in that process. Latham said it was just their commission. Muessig noted the Mayor, the Chamber of Commerce or residents make the decisions in smaller cities. MacMillan asked Ms Latham how they advertise for people to be on the committees. Latham said the positions open on commissions are advertised in January. Anyone who doesn't get appointed to the commission is invited to be part of a working group. She said they do an article in the Edina Sun a couple of times a year and people apply then. Some people are more willing to be on working groups than to serve on a commission. Shrikhande asked why water conservation is not included in the best practices. Latham said the conservation rate structure is one of the items. Muessig said they did not include a water best practice but that might be something to consider adding. Jester asked if it is still the will of the Commission to move forward on the GreenStep Cities program. The consensus was to move forward. She said the next step is to bring information to the City Council through staff. She noted her sense is that there could be more work at the staff level in Eden Prairie. Herron said that staff time to work on the program requirements would be a concern. Jester said our scheduled workshop with the Council occurs in October,but we are a step ahead on this because of the research done by the staff person who did an inventory of steps we have completed. We have not run those by the PCA, so some of those may not be quite complete yet. Herron said she thought a report to the Council from the Commission would be a good start, and it could be included in Conservation Commission February 8, 2011 Page 4 their Friday report. Staff is already aware of the program because they were interviewed by Karen Kurt when she did her research. Olson asked what would go into the report. Herron said it would be some background information on the program and the commission recommendation. Jester said she was not sure how we would get feedback from them or gauge their interest in the program. Herron thought this is something the Council may want to participate in. She thought we should forward the report to them along with the proposed resolution and a request for feedback. Latham offered to send a copy of their sample report. Jester suggested she might contact the Mayor or Council Member Case. She thought there will be some questions,particularly about the level of staff commitment required. MacMillan thought some questions might be answered by looking at Edina's report. Olson said we might want to point to tangible benefits of the program. Muessig said there are benefits listed for each of the best practices. Daniels arrived at 8:27 PM. Jester suggested we write up a draft of the report for the packet and have that ready for the March meeting so the Commission can review it. She thought we might also check to see if we can move up the date for the workshop with the Council. Our 2011 work plan puts a lot of emphasis into this program, and she would rather not wait until October to meet with the Council. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Nine Mile Creek Water Resource Center Herron said the Council approved second reading of the project on January 18, and the development agreement was signed. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Public Assessed Clean Enemy Program--Olson Olson said he has seen references to the Public Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program that was developed to enable local businesses or homeowners to acquire technology for renewable energy and to pay for it by special assessment. He asked if staff has looked into the program and if they have any insight as to the possibilities of the program. Herron said she has not heard about the program but she could put it out to the rest of the staff and do some research on it. Muessig noted there are some issues raised by HUD for residential property but he thought it has great potential. B. Water Sustainability—MacMillan Conservation Commission February 8, 2011 Page 5 MacMillan distributed copies of a presentation on water sustainability given by Deborah Swackhammer to the League of Women Voters on January 22. She thought it would be great to have someone from that group come out to give the Commission a presentation about the program. Jester said the Clean Water Council has a separate list of priorities and is on a separate but similar track. The Clean Water Council directs the amendment dollars towards clean water. Shrikhande said there are people on the team who might be happy to come down and give a talk about it. MacMillan noted there will be a forum on Air Quality sponsored by the League of Women Voters on February 24 at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. C. Bay Fees--Brown Brown distributed copies of the legislation used by the District of Columbia to impose a non-disposable bag fee. She said the document contains all the information about the act. She asked if this is something the Commission is interested in moving forward with. If we do move forward, we would need to have some type of fund to receive the proceeds from the fees. She noted there are also requirements that outline what is acceptable for the disposable bags the retailers can provide. Jester said she would be interested in how it impacts small retailers. She thought it would be easier to implement for bigger stores. Brown said the City of Brownsville, TX enacted a ban on non-disposable bags. She offered to present the details of that program at the next meeting. She noted DC is the only city that is using a revenue- generating fee program. Jester said she would like to see similar information on imposing a ban along with information about how both approaches are working. Brown said she would get that. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS Jester asked if there will be students available to help with the Home & Garden Expo. Wood said there will be. IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Pond Management Research and Framework Discussion Herron said she needs more time to contact neighboring cities to see if they are doing anything about their ponds. Jester said it will probably come down to education. B. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Herron said there are two new items on the Project Profile. She said Mr. Olson asked if staff encouraged the use of permeable pavement for the Eden Pointe Parking Lot Conservation Commission February 8, 2011 Page 6 expansion project. She said we did encourage it,but they are not doing it. The soils in that area are poor so it is not a good site for permeable pavement. Herron said the PCA wants to install a liner on a portion of the Flying Cloud landfill area and need funding from the state to do that. In order to fund the project the state would need to own the property, so they are proposing to plat the property to enable the PCA to own the portion where they propose to put the liner. Jester asked if it is just a property transfer. Herron said she didn't know the details of the property acquisition, and at this time the project is incomplete. C. Ideas for Life in the Prairie Newsletter Jester said she was happy to see the article on recycling and asked for any ideas for the next issue. Brown suggested an article on non-disposable bags. Jester asked Ms Brown to give the information on non-disposable bags to Ms Herron. D. Website Content Herron said she was not able to link information for kids. Jester asked if there is anything out there about the Expo and the workshops available. Herron said there is not. E. Displays for Expo Jester said we need to get something over to the Communications Department for them to put together for our display. Brown said we have been running short on time, and Mr. Shrikhande has offered to donate his three posters. We could have those laminated and put them on the board to supplement the display the students will run. She said RecycleMoreMinnesota.org said we could use their material if we include reference to their website. She displayed some recycling facts she researched and suggested we put some of those on a poster. Herron said the Communications Department might want to convey an Eden Prairie specific message. Jester said Ms Stovring might have some statistics on our garbage haulers. Shrikhande said he is willing to provide his posters for the event but would like them returned to him. Jester asked if preparations for the interactive storm water display have been made. Shrikhande said he hasn't connected with them, and he will have to get it in advance. Wood asked what hours the students will need to man the display. Jester said it is from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Jester noted Mr. Daniels has the energy booth. Jester said we need to work out when we are setting up. MacMillan said she could help set up Friday night. X. NEW BUSINESS XI. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS Conservation Commission February 8, 2011 Page 7 XII. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Saturday, March 19—Chamber of Commerce Expo (Grace Church) B. Saturday-Sunday, May 7-8—Living Green Expo(MN State Fairsrounds) Jester asked if the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District meeting is tomorrow night. Herron said it is. MacMillan said she plans to attend the meeting. XIII. NEXT MEETING A. Tuesday, February 8, 2011 Herron said we will have a guest from Hennepin County to talk about recycling and how to better promote recycling throughout the County. Jester said we are trying to get someone from the USGS or the Freshwater Society to speak about water for the April meeting. XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Daniels, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6- 0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:30 PM.