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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 05/10/2011 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2011 7:00 PM, CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Kurt Lawton, Anthony Pini, Prashant Shrikhande STAFF: Regina Rojas, Staff Liaison Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary GUESTS: J.D. Kemper, Charlie Howley, Mary Sticha, GE Capital Fleet Services I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Brown arrived at 7:05 PM. Shrikhande arrived at 7:30 PM. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Daniels, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried 5-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the April 12, 2011 Meeting MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Pini, to approve the minutes of the April 12, 2011 meeting as published. Motion carried 5-0. Brown arrived at 7:05 PM. IV. SPEAKERS A. Mary Sticha and J. D. Kemper—GE Capital—Eco Experience Mary Sticha, Senior Vice President of Commercial Property for GE Capital, said GE has been very active in the Eco Space, and they have a unique opportunity with their fleet business. She reviewed GE Capital Fleet Services and said they are adding opportunities with electric fueled vehicles for their business. Jester asked if she was talking about shipping vehicles. Ms Sticha said they have a few medium/heavy trucks but it is mostly cars. Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 2 J. D. Kemper, GE Capital marketing team, said they want to be more environmentally friendly as they are helping their customers to be more eco friendly. He reviewed the plans and drawings for the eco-friendly facility. He said the new Eco Center building will be located in their unused outer parking lot, with a road course on the remaining part of the lot. They plan to install five charging stations at their site here in Eden Prairie. There will be a garage for 11 vehicles, and they plan to incorporate eco-friendly products into the building. Brown asked if they will be Dark Sky compliant. Mr. Kemper said the lighting will be focused down to where it will be used. Jester asked if they will recycle and reuse the asphalt that is on the parking lot now. Charlie Howley,project architect, said that is quite common to do and will be incorporated into the plans. Rojas said GE Capital will have to go through a public process with the Planning Commission and the City Council when they make the application. Pini asked why they weren't able to use permeable asphalt for the road course. Mr. Kemper said it was because of the maintenance required on the road course and the amount of usage and the weather conditions would cause it to not hold up. Brown said there is a company that makes permeable pavers that might work out for some of the road. Brown asked if they plan to use rain gardens. Mr. Howley said they will be reducing the amount of impervious surface overall, so the stormwater runoff volume and rate at the site will be decreased. He noted rain gardens have maintenance issues. Jester said there are other infiltration techniques, and asked if they have spoken with the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District. Mr. Howley said they have not yet met with them,but they plan to talk to them soon. He said they would defer to the Watershed District when it comes to stormwater management. Jester said they will have a lot of suggestions. Jester asked if native grasses could be used within the driving area so it would not need to be watered. Mr. Kemper said the center of the driving area would have to have short grass but they could use other grasses around the perimeter. Olson asked who will be using the driving course. Mr. Kemper replied it will be mostly customers and prospects who want to put electric vehicles in their fleet. He said they hope to partner with the University of Minnesota and others who are interested in green vehicles. Ms Sticha said there are a lot of new entrants in the market their customers want to drive to understand the performance. This will provide a chance to have the vehicles all together at one site. Lawton thought it would be good to do an event at the facility. Ms Sticha said they have talked about doing something with Hennepin Technical Center and the Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 3 Chamber would probably be interested. Mr. Kemper said the Minnesota Electric Vehicle Association is interested in doing something with them. Jester asked if they expect a lot of people will travel here. Ms Sticha said their customers come here anyway in the course of their business, and this will provide an opportunity to take them through the Center. Jester suggested they have educational signage as there will be other opportunities for education on ecological items. Ms Sticha said they will have a wall dedicated to displays. Mr. Kemper said they will have LED lighting and smart technology for managing energy usage. Customers will be able to learn how GE Capital is integrating green into the technology. Mr. Kemper said they would like to incorporate a wind turbine in Phase 2 of the project. Rojas said Best Buy had to go through a variance process because of the location of their wind turbine, but the City is open to this in general. Mr. Kemper said GE produces a fan style wind turbine which is a little more visible than the one at Best Buy. Jester asked if they plan to use water conserving appliances and fixtures. Mr. Kemper said they plan to install GE Energy Star appliances. Jester suggested they also use low flow toilets and faucets. Brown asked if they have plans for the open lot. Mr. Kemper said they have no plans at this time. Daniels said it would be nice if their engineer could study how to keep stormwater within the area. Mr. Howley said it will be easier when they determine what kind of soils they have. If the soils are sandy, they will be able to keep more of the water there. Shrikhande arrived at 7:30 PM. Daniels said it was nice to see the open area used for native grasses. Ms Sticha said it will be mowed once a year. Daniels suggested they have the runoff go over to the native plantings. Jester asked when they plan to apply. Mr. Kemper said it will be as soon as possible. Soil testing is set for early next week, and they are working on the site plans and architectural drawings. They would like to break ground sometime this year. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. Evening With The Watershed Jester said she and Ms Stovring attended the Riley-Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed District meeting at the American Legion in Chanhassen where they gave a two-hour Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 4 update about the projects they are doing. She noted this Watershed District concentrates on lakes. They are doing a great job of carp control in Riley Lake. VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Zero Waste Training Event—Sue Brown Brown said she attended this event a week and a half ago along with 25 other people from other commissions around the metro area. It is going to be a group that meets on a regular basis. They welcome everyone from commissions to come in and be part of the discussion. It was sponsored by the Alliance for Sustainability and Eureka Recycling. She said zero waste means trying to take waste out of the system entirely by changing what goes into our systems. Jester asked how often they will meet. Brown said they are talking about every couple of months, and they decided to continue to meet as a larger group rather than breaking into regions. Pini asked who Eureka Recycling is. Brown said they are one of the partners in the waste management business. Jester said they are like BFI but much smaller and are mostly active in St. Paul. Brown said there is only one organic composting waste disposal site and it is located in Rosemount. Organic waste must first to to Brooklyn Park and then to Rosemount. She said a lot of cities already have organics composting. Jester asked what their next step is. Brown said they are supposed to send her meeting notes, and she will send forward those to Ms Rojas for the Commission members. They will have another meeting sometime in the near future to talk about the next steps. Jester asked if this is something the Commission would like to follow. Olson thought it has good possibilities. Brown said she plans to go to the next meeting and would be pleased to represent the Commission. If others are interested in attending, the meetings are held in the Global Market near Hiawatha and Lake Street from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Arts In The Park Event Jester said this is scheduled for Saturday in Purgatory Park from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. They have four recycling containers for the Commission to watch over and will provide a table and tent for an informational display. She said she can be at the event Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 5 in the afternoon from 12:00 to 5:00 and could also help on Friday night but she can't be there Saturday morning. Brown said she could come over at 11:00 or so to help set up. She noted we need to redo the graphics. Rojas said she could have that done. She said they talked about us having a decorated rain barrel and recycled water bottle shakers. Shrikhande suggested people might want to take some of the water posters we made. Pini said he has to be there from 12:00 to 2:00 PM for the Eden Prairie Players and could come to the Commission booth after that. B. GreenStep Cities Timeline and Tasks Jester said we will present to the City Council at 7:00 PM on June 14, our regular meeting date, and will have our regular meeting after that at about 7:30 PM. She hoped everyone could be there. She is planning to give a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation. There is a resolution for the Council to consider and an outline of how we plan to get this done in the next two years. Jester asked Rojas if this has to go through the City Attorney before the Council meeting. Rojas said it did. She said she put together the "Whereas" statements in the draft resolution and noted the sample resolution focused on energy and climate change more than having a holistic approach. She said she thought about including our passing a Tree City USA ordinance as one of the "Whereas" statements. She said the resolution is necessary in order to participate in the program. Jester asked Rojas if she had spoken to her supervisor about being the liaison. Rojas said she did. The Commission discussed the points outlined in the draft resolution. The consensus was to change the second point to more closely match the one in the sample resolution. Rojas said she included the checklist of best practices in the packet, and noted we are an "A" category city. Everything with a check has been completed, although this has not been sent to the MPCA for their review and approval. Shrikhande asked if there is a timeline associated with this. Rojas said she understands the MPCA doesn't have a timeline,but we might want to give ourselves one. We can draft some of our goals and tailor them to Eden Prairie. We could also add to the list if we want to. It is a somewhat fluid program and they are open to new ideas. Shrikhande asked how we move it forward and who we work with. Rojas said the Commission and the staff liaison will be driving it forward. Jester said it would require working with different areas of the City staff, and the Commission's job will be to make sure progress is being made. Olson said at some point we would have to go to the MPCA and ask them to review the best practices and check them off. He thought we need to establish a timeline for Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 6 when we want to go to them with something. Jester said that would be laid out in the work plan. Daniels asked if we are under any legal obligations for this. Rojas said it is pretty broad. Daniels said the questions of why we are doing this and what we get out of it may be raised. Olson thought it is a way to compare ourselves with other cities. Jester thought it is similar to signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Pini said it is another aspect of the City's commitment to sustainable goals. Jester said we need to develop the presentation to the Council, and she was hoping we could use most of what Ms Kurt put together. Rojas said she has mentioned to her that the Commission will take it forward and she thought we should extend an invitation to her to participate. Jester said she will send Ms Kurt a personal invitation. She will work with Ms Rojas and Ms Kurt to put the presentation together and will email a draft to the Commission members a couple of weeks before the meeting with the Council. Jester asked if we need the work plan in hand. Rojas thought it would be a good idea, and the resolution says we will put together a work plan. She thought staff could put together a rough outline of the work plan for the PowerPoint presentation. She said the City Planner thought we could accomplish all of the steps within two years. City Manager Getschow is aware of the plan and is supportive. At 8:10 PM the Commission moved to Heritage Room II due to a tornado warning. The meeting was reconvened there at 8:17 PM. The Commission reviewed the program requirements that will need to be worked on. Rojas said examples of ways to meet program requirements would be through amendments to the comprehensive plan, zoning code, and we will need to adopt a complete green streets policy. Jester thought the Commission was interested in not only codifying this but really taking some steps to make changes. Brown said this is putting a stake in the ground. Jester said if we go through this over the next two years it would be good if each of these amendments and ordinances would come through the Commission. She recently heard about a complete green street project in North St. Paul where they totally redid the streets, and those are the types of things she would like to see us do. Rojas said the Council will want to know the background and why we are adopting this. Jester thought we can bring in the different steps as we go along, look at our neighbors to see what others are doing, and can fall back on the resolution once that is signed. We will have the elements of a rough work plan in the PowerPoint presentation. We might include what City departments are part of it and a rough estimate of which staff members and how long it will take to get things done. Olson thought we need three or four solid reasons why the City should get involved. Lawton offered to go shoot some photos for the presentation. Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 7 Brown said there was a lot of talk about who was going to lead the State at the Zero Waste Management meeting, and she wondered if the City Council thinks there is an advantage for Eden Prairie to be a leader in the green movement. Olson thought they were excited about the designation as the No. 1 City by Money Magazine, so we can mention we believe this will help Eden Prairie to continue in that direction. Jester thought we are acting like a No. 1 city by taking this step. The polls show residents like open space and parks. Daniels thought we need to talk about the different areas so they have an idea of what the 16 tasks are. That will probably take up most of the presentation. Jester said we could give some background, some reasons for participating, and the required subjects. Olson said he could see the Council asking what we could accomplish in the next year. Shrikhande said the Commission has the responsibility to drive this,but he asked who is responsible to do it and how do we interact. Rojas said she will be the main resource,but there will be other staff involved such as Parks & Recreation staff, Ms Stovring and City engineers. She said she will be the one to input the data into the MPCA web site. Lawton asked if the Council will raise a question about the workload on staff. Rojas said that could certainly come up. Pini asked if we have the resources capable of doing this. Rojas said the program is flexible so it is okay if it takes longer than two years. Daniels said a lot has already been accomplished through hard work by staff and careful planning. We are far ahead of what other cities have done in terms of energy savings. This finishes up that effort and gives recognition to the staff for what has been accomplished. Lawton thought that is a good selling point. Pini said this continues to highlight the City's commitment to environmental concerns. Jester said at some point she would ask other Commissioners present at the meeting to make comments. She will have a draft out around June 1 and will take any feedback. She also would be open to having help on the draft. C. Pond Management Research and Framework Discussion Rojas passed out information on wetland vegetation control to supplement the material she sent with the packets. She said Council Member Nelson was asking about a special service district or assessment for pond management, and Council Member Nelson thought this subject would be a good one for the Commission to research. She said Bloomington has a process for this, and Ms Stovring has spoken with the person who manages it there. It reportedly hasn't been the easiest process to manage and get residents to commit to. She said everyone in the neighborhood has to agree to participate in the program and sign the agreement. Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 8 Brown thought there might be a problem when they sell their homes. Rojas said this might work well with a Homeowners Association but is more difficult with a group of individual homeowners. She said Mr. Dietz believes educating residents might have a better impact than implementing a policy. Jester said it looks like a lot of administrative work. Pini asked if this is a big problem in Eden Prairie. Rojas said it is something that has been brought up by the City Council. Jester said it is an issue for some people who live on stormwater ponds,but she didn't know how often it rises to the level of coming to a Council Member. She thought we might have it as an item in the Eden Prairie newsletter and could also have another pond management workshop. Jester said she was not sure how we respond to Council Member Nelson. Rojas thought she was looking for some feedback from the Commission. Jester said she can talk to her tomorrow night and see what she would like in terms of feedback. Pini asked what it would take to look into this because they must be doing some of this somewhere. Rojas said Ms Stovring would probably be the best resource as to what we do now. Jester said staff is doing a pond inventory now to determine the capacity of the ponds,but she didn't think they are doing anything about the aquatic vegetation and aeration. Lawton thought we could start with education. Jester thought that could be our response back along with the information about Bloomington's policies and the reaction of their staff. Brown thought we might put together some figures regarding having the same policy as Bloomington. Jester thought we need a sense of what she is looking for. Daniels said while campaigning last year he had an experience with someone who was upset because the City put up stakes around a pond to limit mowing, and the homeowners didn't know about it beforehand. Jester said that sounds like another education piece. Daniels said it is an education piece for staff as well as the homeowner because the homeowner would not have been as upset if he had been better informed. D. Upcoming City Projects and Development—Project Profile Jester asked if there are more projects coming in now. Rojas said there is a 16-lot subdivision called Grand Haven at Marsh Cove that is planned for a church property near Duck Lake Trail. The church is selling the property. Jester said it is mostly lawn now and asked what type of stormwater management will be used. Rojas said there is a pond on the north side of the property, and they show some paver use. They are talking about doing some infiltration in the middle of the cul-de-sac. She said it is all proposed at this time, and no public hearing has been scheduled. Jester said we would just encourage as much stormwater infiltration and use of native plants as possible. Brown asked if they are doing pavement cuts and rain gardens. Rojas said she can pass the comments on to the project planner. Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 9 Pini asked if the City requires certain types of vegetation. Rojas said we have a tree replacement ordinance and a standard street design. If a property is asking for waivers from the code, the City can ask for things above and beyond to make the project better. She said they have a list of trees that are replacement trees but we don't require anything as far as vegetation. Daniels asked about the size of the lot. Rojas said it is 13,500 square feet, or aboutl/3 acre. Daniels thought this might be one of those places where we recommend a little denser lot size with more green space. Jester said we don't get very many residential developments any more. She would like to get one that would be a showcase on how to develop a neighborhood environmentally. E. Ideas for Life in the Prairie Newsletter F. Website Content Brown said she received information at a recent event on how to dispose of pharmaceuticals. She thought that would be a good idea for the newsletter. She gave a copy of the information to Ms Rojas. Lawton said he compiled a list of topics we have run in our space the last several years. He distributed copies of the list. He thought we could put PDF's with information on various subjects on the website. We could take some of the ideas we have done in the past and do a one page file on a lot of these topics. We could also use them as handouts at meetings where we are asked to present. Jester thought that was a good idea and there have been a lot of things created by Hennepin County or the MPCA. She said we can just look at what was done before and what makes sense to do next. She thanked Mr. Lawton for doing the research on this. Rojas noted Life in the Prairie is published every other month now. Lawton thought we could do an article on driveway sealants. Brown noted the City of Woodbury has gotten retailers to agree not to sell the bad type of driveway sealant. They also wrote it into an ordinance. Jester thought that might be timelier for the summer issue than the pharmaceutical information which we could include in a later issue. Jester suggested the Commission review the list of newsletter topics at the next meeting. G. Plastic Bays Conservation Commission May 10, 2011 Page 10 Brown said she had requested that this item be added via an email. She arrived after tonight's agenda was approved so she did not realize it had not been incorporated. The consensus was to include the item on the agenda. Brown said she found out there was a state-wide movement last year to put together a tax for non-reusable bags. The bill got weighed down in committee at the legislature and was not voted on. She has the information about that movement and distributed copies of endorsements from various entities including Super Valu stores. She said at the meeting she suggested changing the wording to be a fee and not a tax and making it a City-wide effort. She was encouraged by the response, and many of them said they would follow our lead. Olson thought we should put this on the agenda. Daniels asked if anyone did a study on the revenue the tax/fee would generate. Brown said if the bill had been passed, the gross revenue for 2011 was projected to be $28,700,000. X. NEW BUSINESS XI. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS XII. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Wednesday, May 11—Annual Boards and Commissions Banquet B. Saturday, May 14 (10:00 AM-5:00 PM)—Arts in the Park—Purgatory Creek Park C. Tuesday,June 14 (7:00 PM)—Presentation to City Council on GreenStep Cities Program—Council Chamber Rojas noted Parks and Recreation said the Fourth of July celebration is scaled back but booths will be open from 5:30 to 10:00 PM. Daniels said he would like a copy of that information. XIII. NEXT MEETING A. Tuesday,June 14, 2011 (7:30 PM) XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Lawton, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 7- 0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:20 PM.