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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 11/15/2011 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE CONSERVATION COMMISSION THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011 6:00 P.M., CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Sue Brown, Ray Daniels, Prashant Shrikhande, Anthony Pini, Kurt Lawton STAFF: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Leslie Stovring, Environmental Services Heidi Wojahn, Recording Secretary STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: McKenna Campbell-Potter, Rebecca Ebert, Kelly Hallowell I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Stovring added Item V.A. UPDATE ON RECYCLING POLICY. Rojas added Item V.B. EPA TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. Daniels added Item XI.C. ARTICLE ON WIND ENERGY. MOTION: Brown moved, seconded by Olson, to approve the amended agenda. Motion carried 7-0. III. MINUTES MOTION: Lawton moved, seconded by Daniels, to approve the October 11, 2011 minutes. Motion carried 7-0. IV. DISCUSSION—RECAP ON JOINT WORKSHOP WITH CITY COUNCIL Jester thanked everyone for their hard work. Time ran out,but it went well and feedback was excellent. There is some work yet to do,but they have direction. Daniels suggested following up with an email to Council to garner support for recycling in the parks. Jester explained it would be part of the work plan. Funding is needed for recycling containers. Stovring recommended a pilot program using equipment purchased with grant money and implementing a policy requiring recycling during both City events and events hosted by outside park users. Jester inquired if this would be an ordinace requiring Council action. Stovring replied it could be modeled after Edina's event recycling program and be part of CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 15, 2011 Page 2 the application process for outside events. For City events it would be part of the contract with the hauler. Daniels offered to follow-up with Edina and Bloomington in terms of how they handle parks recycling and will report at the next meeting. Jester reviewed workshop comments from council members in regards to a plastic bag surcharge. Suggestions included surveying local businesses that would be impacted and talking with national retailers in Washington D.C. and other cities where there is a similar program in place. Rojas said the Chamber of Commerce has a government committee. In the past, this committee has reviewed ordinances to gauge support from the business community prior to going to Council. She can coordinate a committee presentation. Olson said before going to the Chamber, they should go through the property management company's public relations department to get feedback from retailers at the shopping center. Daniels suggested Rotary Club as an additional avenue. The program should be phased-in with large retailers first followed by smaller ones. Lawton said it should begin with the most interested retailers participating in a pilot. Daniels and Olson talked about how to present this. It needs to be advantageous to the retailers. Brown will contact Washington D.C. to get information on how its media/education campaign got started and how the program was implemented. Jester and Olson will follow up with the local business community. Olson stated he would like to have a representative from the City of Edina come in and give an update on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). Edina is voting on this tonight, and it would be interesting to get a tour of the business taking advantage of this program to see it in action. Rojas said Scott Neal and Karen Kurt would be good contacts. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. UPDATE ON RECYCLING POLICY - Stovring Hennepin County is updating its recycling policy resulting in two major changes: 1) The County is requiring cities to require haulers servicing single and multi- family residences with individual pick-up to comply with a change in the types of materials to be collected. City Code will be revised to reflect this. All plastics 1 through 5 must be collected as well as aseptic and gable-topped containers. Examples of the latter two are juice boxes and milk cartons. 2) Education requirements are expanding, however all printed materials will need approval prior to publicaton. The purpose is to get everyone to use the proper terminology and to streamline language. Jester said this should extend to haulers as well. Stovring agreed. She would like to include in the ordinance that haulers must provide to their customers at least one education piece annually pre-approved by the County about what materials they accept. Currently 90 percent of Hennepin County recycling grant money must be credited back to residents. The City is allowed to keep 10 percent for education and administration. Stovring is working with the County on expanding how grant money can be used. One idea is to use it for promoting organics recycling. Eden Prairie is one of only two cities in the County without a contract for recycling. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 15, 2011 Page 3 It is profitable and worthwhile looking into a year or two from now. If using a single contractor, the City keeps all of the grant and gets a profit share. There is a big push towards organics recycling; it is inevitable in order to meet County goals. Other ordinances currently in the works relate to coal tar sealants and illicit discharge and detection. B. EPA TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE - Rojas Five light rail stations are proposed in Eden Prairie with a projected opening date of 2017 or 2018. Rojas is working on an application with Hennepin County for a technical assistance grant through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant for the Golden Triangle Station. SuperValu currently leases space in the area (formerly the Best Buy headquarters). Liberty Property owns that property and several others in the area. The long range goal over time is to change the area from outdated industrial buildings to mixed-use including residential. If the grant is approved, experts would develop a plan and provide guidance and technical assistance in making the transit station Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified. Some goals of a LEED neighborhood design are to have sustainable building materials and design, narrower street widths, create more of a grid pattern, and make the area walkable. A letter of support from the mayor is needed and Commission support is being sought, as well. The deadline for a letter of support is November 23. MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Shrikhande, to support the City of Eden Prairie's grant application to the EPA and endorse a LEED-certified station. Motion carried 7-0. Jester asked how involved the Commission will be in the development around each station in terms of native plantings, stormwater infiltration, and parking, etc. stating they don't want to get involved at the tail end of things. Rojas said she will bring stationary plans and the vision forward to the Commission and agreed to draft a letter of support to be signed on behalf of the Commission. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR None. VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. WATER CONSERVATION UTILITY RATE Shrikhande presented a proposed model for conservation-oriented tiered block water utility rates based on recommendations from the Commission. The proposal meets Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) guidelines and was prompted, in part, by the fact Eden Prairie is currently only meeting one of five guidelines. Chanhassen and Minnetonka are meeting three guidelines while Ann Arbor, MI is CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 15, 2011 Page 4 meeting all five. Chanhassen has seen a couple of its wells dry up and has an intense educational campaign posted on its website. It is too recent to determine the trend of water usage in Ann Arbor,but the whole Great Lakes region has developing water issues. Jester asked if there was any place for which data was available showing a particular water rate structure has saved water. Shrikhande said there is for the western part of the country and for Texas where groundwater is gone,but this is probably irrelevant to our situation. Shrikhande suggested inviting a representative from AWE to give a pitch or inviting the City of Orono, which worked with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to explain why its rate structure changed. Olson said he would rather hear about the impacts of a particular rate structure. There needs to be a benefit other than moral. Stovring pointed out a decimal error on page 1 of Shrikhande's proposal: revenue should read $9.1 million, not$91.5 million. Plans need to be kept revenue neutral. Tiers will not be changed in the near future; the current structure is too new and a significant price increase. The City has been receiving a lot of complaints about expensive water bills. More data is needed to see how the current system is working before changes can be considered. The City went from two to five tiers, and there is still a lot of confusion. Shrikhande asked if it would be possible to obtain a report on tier distribution and numbers of people complaining. Stovring responded it is too early to tell whether there is an impact on behavior patterns in terms of usage since this is the first year residents have gotten bills with the new structure. Olson said it might be worthwhile to do away with odd/even watering if a real impact on usage could be demonstrated. Stovring said odd/even will not be eliminated as it doesn't have anything to do with conserving water but rather ensures even usage. The current structure was put in place to penalize those who are really wasting water. Lawton pointed out usage is weather-dependent, too. Jester asked if we could look to the DNR since it is trying to expand community assistance programming in water usage. Shrikhande said he hasn't been able to connect with them. The two-year cycle for feedback makes things move slowly. Stovring commented the only way to speed things up would be to move to monthly billing cycles which would add $180,000 in expenses. Shrikhande said another option, if the proposed rate structure were put into place, would be to target the small percentage that overuse water and offer them assistance from the City in the way of a water audit and advice on how to reduce usage. This would be a more effective use of the rebate program and the incentive would motivate residents to conserve. Stovring said people who use the most typically aren't interested in conserving water and can afford the higher costs. Usage did not go down when the conservation surcharge was added. Another factor to consider when looking at rate structure is whether residents with larger lots should have larger bills and, if so,how should it be implemented? It would be an administrative nightmare to manage. She reminded commissioners there will be a rate hike next year. There was a difference of opinion amongst the CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 15, 2011 Page 5 Commission about whether, for example, a family of five should have to pay more per person than a family of three just because they are in separate tiers. Pini asked if there are separate irrigation meters. Stovring said no, but irrigation is being targeted. When the conservation surcharge first went into effect, there was no cap. In the second year, they received hundreds of complaints. A cap then went into effect from 1998 to 2006. They finally went to the more-aggressive, tiered rate structure which should help long-term. They are trying to get information out about programs to help with irrigation sensor installation, and they could look at incentives for naturalizing yards. Jester said while the concept of Shrikhande's proposal is good, it appears the timing is not. She thanked him for his time and effort adding it is all important information that needs to be kept. The steps to take now would be to pursue DNR assistance/education, track data coming from neighboring cities and Ann Arbor, and see if Chanhassen can gauge any difference because of their education campaign. Lawton thought the information was good,but agreed the timing was off. Olson concurred we need to monitor the situation here and in Ann Arbor and other comparable cities. Brown said the information was impactful; anything to save water is good. Shrikhande said he wanted to invite other cities to speak,but agreed the DNR might be best. Maybe he can find someone to address why they found an AWE guidelines-based structure to be more effective. Stovring said Sue Kotchevar and Robert Ellis could come in spring to give an update. Lawton suggested putting it in the work plan and figuring out the timing from there. Jester asked if Stovring was seeking Expo speakers. Stovring said she has Greg Thompson lined up for a WaterSmart Landscaping talk. Erik's Bike Shop will do bike tune-ups for kids on the activity floor. Stovring will have a stormwater table this year. Jester asked if Master Gardeners could focus on environmentally- sustainable landscaping such as natives and rain gardens. Stovring will ask. There are two booths for the Commission. She would like to show the stormwater piece of a video recently completed on utility rates. Jester said perhaps they could focus on recycling, as well. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS Ebert said the Tree Huggers Club has a meeting on Friday. They will survey students to see if they would be willing to support a 5-cent fee on disposable bags and maybe write letters to Council members if people strongly support this. Brown said the student involvement is tremendous. A student group in Idaho recently garnered a lot of support for a similar issue. Jester wondered if the high school can write into their contract with Allied Waste to provide recycling containers and services at the school and at the sports fields. IX. NEW BUSINESS Rojas gave the 2011 Annual Report. In the first quarter,pond management research goals were met as well as initial goals for Green Step Cities, although that will be ongoing CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 15, 2011 Page 6 throughout next year. The second and third quarter goals of developing strategies on water conservation and mandatory recycling at events at City facilities are still in the works. The fourth quarter plan was to continue implementing goals. It was agreed an ongoing reminder list plus a quarterly format seemed more manageable for the work plan than a monthly format. Rojas suggested removing pond management research since it was determined an educational approach is best. Commission members offered the following items for inclusion in the 2012 work plan: non-reusable bag fee/research/education, Green Step Cities, PACE, water use rate structure,parks and events recycling,pavement sealants, communications improvement, light rail, 20-40-15, educational outreach committee, green roofs, and solar shingles. Rojas and Jester will work on these documents and bring a draft to the next meeting for input. Shrikhande asked if the Commission would consider asking Council to visit the proposed tiered rate structure from a standpoint of bringing average usage down overall rather than just targeting high-tier irrigation users. Jester said the City supports water conservation; that is why the rebate program is in place. However, it is too soon to do this given the fact the rate structure was just changed. To change it again so quickly and try to re-educate citizens on charges is not acceptable. More time is needed to track data and garner staff support. It can be revisited a year from now for 2013. Olson said we would have more freedom examining different models including our own to gauge the impacts. He doesn't want to get behind any one particular model versus another at this point and feels the need to build a case for a better way first. Lawton said incremental changes are the way to go over quantum change. X. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. GREEN STEP CITIES PROGRAM Rojas reported no new information has been added to the website since the last meeting. She was interviewed by a PCA consultant who is working with a professor and a graduate student from the University of St. Thomas to survey GreenStep Cities participants regarding processes, goals, outreach, and feedback. She provided them with information. The plan is to really focus in on this in 2012. Brown announced other commissions were seeking assistance at a recent Zero Waste Management meeting with starting the GreenStep Cities process. She asked Rojas for any information they could share. Rojas replied she hadn't created anything new. The material used was primarily from the GreenStep Cities website. The initial checklist used to survey staff and the sample resolutions were from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Jester said MPCA has not yet reviewed what Eden Prairie has submitted. B. PACE LEGISLATION Olson said the next step in the process is to have a representative from Edina share information at the January meeting. Lawton suggested prioritizing this on the work plan. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 15, 2011 Page 7 C. COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES Lawton stated conservation materials are hard to find on the City website. The information is good; it is just difficult to get to. The website is in the process of being redesigned to make it more user-friendly. Jester added one has to go through public works to get to the environment. She would like to see environment on the homepage. Brown commented it is not just a problem for conservation. Pini said when entering key words in the search field, he gets a multitude of incidental hits instead of just a few relevant links. Shrikhande asked if the "Environmental Times" publications are archived. Rojas said "Life in the Prairie" is, but she is unsure about"Environmental Times". D. UPCOMING CITY PROJECTS AND DEVELOPMENT - PROFILE Rojas reported the new twenty-lot, single-family Notting Hill development north of Pioneer Trail and west of Mitchell Road was recommended for continuance. It is next to an established development, and neighbors are not in favor of the plan as it is proposed. Jester reaffirmed her concerns about the Commission getting involved too late in the game in regards to light rail. Rojas said she can give a presentation on what is being proposed. What the city has now are concept plans. There is a request out for proposal for preliminary engineering. Outreach will be headed up by the Metropolitan Council. She envisions the Commission getting involved in proposed development patterns around the stations such as landscape features, rainwater gardens, street activity, and trails. Pini requested to see something as soon as concepts start becoming available, even if it is just a first schematic. XI. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS A. GOOSE MANAGEMENT REPORT Jester referred to the Goose Management Program Summary memo distributed by Stovring. More geese were taken this year than last year,but overall the number is down from past years. Pini noted the costs for 2004 and 2011 were similar yet the numbers were very different. Rojas reported Stovring had said this was due to a processing change. B. STAR TRIBUNE RECYCLING ARTICLE Covered under Item V.A. C. ARTICLE ON WIND ENERGY Daniels reported the State of North Dakota is suing The State of Minnesota over Minnesota's Next Generation Energy Act. According to the article he read, Xcel CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 15, 2011 Page 8 Energy stated 39 percent of its nighttime electricity comes from renewable energy sources which means people are not using as much coal. XII. UPCOMING EVENTS A. HOME AND GARDEN EXPO The Expo will be held Saturday, March 17, 2012, 9 am-3 pm. Jester asked commissioners to mark their calendars. Help is needed: two people per shift for two shifts. Pini volunteered. XIII. FUTURE MEETINGS/EVENTS The next meeting is scheduled for December 13, 2011. Rojas suggested asking Robert Ellis, the new public works director, to talk about rain gardens, usage, water rate structure, and street redevelopment projects. XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Pini, to adjourn. Motion carried 7-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 8:10 p.m.