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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 12/13/2011 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011 7:00 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 COMMISSION STAFF: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary STUDENT MEMBERS: McKenna Campbell-Potter, Rebecca Ebert Kelly Hallowell I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Hallowell was absent. Olson arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Jester added Item VI.A. Update on Water Rate Structure--Shrikhande and Item VI.B. Non-reusable Bay Fee--Brown. MOTION: Brown moved, seconded by Pini, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 6-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the November 15, 2011 Regular Meeting MOTION: Daniels moved, seconded by Lawton, to approve the minutes of the November 15, 2011 meeting as published. Motion carried 6-0. IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. 2011 Annual Report and 2012 Work Plan Development Jester said she and Ms Rojas got together last week to go over the 2011 Annual Report and to put together topics discussed at the last meeting for the 2012 goals. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 2 2011 Annual Report Rojas said they were not sure about the second bullet under Native Landscaping on Page 5. Brown was quite sure we did not distribute native plant seeds at the Expo. Brown thought we spent more time on water infiltration and recycling than is listed in the draft document. Jester said they tried to capture all the accomplishments and categorize them. Brown thought we also did more than just conduct research on non-reusable bags. We presented a framework for a non- reusable bag fee to the City Council,researched the ordinance passed by the District of Columbia, collected letters of support, and continue to investigate what other parts of the country are doing. Jester asked the name of the group she participated in. Brown said it was the Zero Waste group. We participated in that meeting, not just attended it. Brown suggested including our efforts on driveway sealants. Rojas said Ms Stovring is working something for that. Brown said Mr. Shrikhande proposed an alternative for the water rate structure. Shrikhande said it is more of a proposed framework. Jester said she would like to reserve the use of the word "proposed" to something we formally presented. She suggested revising it to "developed possible recommendations for a conservation- based framework." Olson arrived at 7:15 PM. Pini thought "received '1' step" under the GreenStep Cities Program might need more explanation. Rojas said we received that after the resolution was passed by the City Council and we put in the information needed in order to be registered. Pini thought we could say we received first step acknowledgement from the MPCA. 2012 Goals and Work Plan Jester asked for comments on the draft 2012 Goals and Work Plan. Rojas said some staff members questioned the term "non-reusable bags." Brown said other cities she researched ran into a problem that people say they reuse bags. Pini asked if she got the term from her research in other cities. Brown was not sure but she offered to look through the information she has gathered to see if it could be clarified. Olson said the overall goal is to get people to use cloth bags that can be used over and over or to provide bags that are biodegradable like those used at Lakewinds. Brown said that could be confusing to consumers because they might recycle biodegradables rather than discarding them in the trash. She noted in D.C. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 3 they print "Recycle This Bag" on each one. Rojas thought we could keep this in mind for later discussion. Rojas said we have a June deadline for developing a work plan for the GreenStep Cities program. Jester said we might move that up to the 2nd quarter goals. Jester said we talked about having someone from Edina talk to us about the PACE program in January so that might be moved to first quarter. Rojas noted Edina did approve the program. Olson said he would like a copy of their program so he can present it at the next meeting. Pini asked if the rental contract for parks requires trash containers. Rojas said she hasn't looked at the contract. Pini said it would be nice to know what is in the contract. Lawton asked if we should have anything in the first quarter about website development. Rojas said the Communications Department is using the first quarter to roll out the new website. Jester thought we might want to add submitting articles or assisting with communications in each quarter. Lawton thought it would be better to leave it as a broad statement at this point. Pini suggested saying we would review the 20-40-15 program in the second quarter rather than just receive an update on it. Shrikhande said at the last meeting we talked about having the Utility Director talk to us in the first quarter. Jester said Mr. Ellis, Public Works Director, is coming to the February meeting and could discuss the new water rate structure as well as his thoughts on implementing more rain gardens during street reconstruction. We could add that to the first quarter. Rojas asked for comments on the second quarter bullet to evaluate green roofs and solar shingles for City property. Daniels said we have talked about trying to get the City to do something about that over the last four years. We have discussed that we would like to have input if there are new buildings planned for the City. He thought we might explore that with the Chamber of Commerce. He noted there is a green roof on the dentist's office on Hwy 5 and Eden Prairie Road. Olson thought we would need to talk about the benefits and how it looks in order to get people to consider it. Lawton suggested doing a case study. Jester thought this might be something that would be looked at if we have the PACE program. Jester said Council Member Nelson had an idea for a green projects "crawl" through the City to highlight some of these practices. It would be similar to the Art Crawl that is held each year where there would be someone at each location to educate people about that particular practice. She thought we might add evaluating a green projects crawl as a bullet. Rojas said the Art Crawl has a CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 4 brochure with a map and people can pick where they want to go. Olson thought we could discuss having a green project crawl format or just a tour. Jester said summer would be the best time to hold it and we could include the G.E. Eco Experience, a rain garden, and wind and solar projects. Because of the timing, she was not sure if we would want to consider it for this year. Rojas said Mr. Lotthammer told her the Parks Commission typically meets with other commissions every other year. He suggested the Conservation Commission join them on their annual bus tour of Eden Prairie parks in July. She was not sure what the theme of the tour would be. Jester thought it would be good if they could tailor the tour to what we would want. She said she is waiting for Ms Stovring to have time to sit down and discuss the possibilities for recycling containers in the park. Daniels said the Parks Commission has oversight of the natural resources in the City so he thought the tour should cover the conservation areas. Rojas said the Parks Commission meets on the first Monday of the month. Jester thought they might want to move the tour to our meeting date in July because their meeting date would fall during the week of the Fourth. Rojas asked if the Commission would want to have the tour serve as the meeting for July. Jester said we would know better closer to the time. Pini thought for the fourth quarter we could add a bullet to promote public awareness of green roofs and solar shingles, wind and rain gardens. Jester said we could make that more of an education item. Pini asked about the parks boundary survey mentioned on page 8. Rojas said it involves homes that share property boundaries with parks. The City is surveying all those properties to establish the boundaries. Daniels asked if the waterways are also included. Rojas said it is just the parks. Daniels suggested adding a note to encourage a survey of various creek setbacks as people are moving closer to the creeks. Pini thought it would be good to make people aware of where the boundaries are. Jester suggested adding a bullet on page 8 regarding education on creek and waterway setbacks. Jester said we also discussed having the LRT as a topic. Rojas reviewed the items on the 2012 Event Calendar. She noted the annual report and work plan scheduled for January will be included in the Council's Friday report. She said there is a placeholder in May for a joint meeting with the Planning Commission. She was informed that commissions get a workshop with the Council every other year unless something significant comes up. Jester noted we did not have a workshop with them in 2010, and the one we had in November lasted only 30 minutes. Olson asked if there are opportunities to invite Council Members to attend one of our meetings. Rojas said there are some options to give a presentation to the Council if something big comes up. Shrikhande asked about comments during the Open Podium session before the council meetings. Rojas CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 5 said there is an Open Podium before each Council meeting. Speakers have to sign up before the meeting date. Pini asked about the item to facilitate the Flying Cloud Landfill Annual Public Informational Meeting listed on Page 8. Rojas said this was an idea that came up a couple of years ago when the MPCA was going to replace the liner on the landfill; however, things are not moving on that right now. Jester thought we should remove the bullet to begin planning for the landfill public information meeting. Jester said she thought the word "commitments" in the heading at the top of Page 8 was too strong. Daniels suggested "areas of interest." Pini asked about the goal to create a strategy to begin Best Practices Review. Rojas said that was an idea from the former City Manager to put together a workbook that would give ideas for commercial or industrial property to use to implement green practices. Pini asked if it went beyond the idea stage. Shrikhande thought this might be combined with the GreenStep Cities program. Jester said Ms Rojas will make the changes and bring a final version to the January meeting. She asked Commission members to let her and Ms Rojas know as soon as possible of any other changes. V. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. Non-reusable Bay Press Jester said Eden Prairie News did a good job on their article on non-reusable bags. The Monday after the article was published she and Ms Rojas got calls from Channel 5 News about doing an on-air interview that afternoon. She said Ms Brown came to her house for the interview. They tried to let the reporter know it is an environmental issue and we are just in the beginning phase of it. She said the reporter asked questions and Ms Brown did a fantastic job in the interview. The reporter then went to interview Pat MulQueeny at the Chamber of Commerce and some shoppers at Kowalski's. Rojas said Mr. Getschow forwarded the email he sent to the City Council about the interview. Council Member Nelson forwarded an email she received from someone in the bag industry. The City Attorney mentioned to the City Directors that D.C.'s regulations are a lot different from the rest of the country. We would have to look into whether we could implement such a tax or fee here. Brown said it would be interesting to talk to the City Attorney and see what he says. Lawton thought that might change the direction of things. Jester noted at the workshop Council Member Case suggested trying to implement this in steps. VI. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 6 A. Update on Water Rate Structure—Shrikhande Shrikhande distributed a Water Pricing Primer prepared by Janice Beecher from Michigan State University and a memo describing conservation oriented inclining tier block water utility rates. He reviewed his memo which included information on Chanhassen and Minnetonka and a chart comparing municipal water use for those two cities and Eden Prairie. He said the Alliance for Water Efficiency believes the best examples of inclining tier block rate structure include: a first tier that provides minimal water usage for a typical household at the minimum reasonable price; subsequent tiers that are priced significantly higher than the prior tier; and a total of three or four tiers. He said the tiers are very compressed in our current rate structure so the number of people included in the higher tiers is very low. The proposed structure is proportional to the number of accounts. Shrikhande said he talked with the Chanhassen Utility Department. They said when a couple of their wells were going dry they tried to promote education for water conservation. That didn't work so they increased the price. He noted they include a lower tier for people who are at the poverty level. Jester thought the question is how do we use the information and is it possible for Eden Prairie to improve. Shrikhande said one of the things we learned from Ms Stovring and the Budget Advisory Commission was that the current tier structure was developed to curtail high irrigation usage. With the multi-tier structure some of the users are moved down,but that isn't effective if the tiers are too small. He thought we don't have a clear goal of what level we want. The DNR has said our current use is unsustainable. Olson asked if the DNR has given guidance as to what our usage should be. Shrikhande said according to the DNR representative the relationship is so complex they don't have the data to show there is a connection between ground water levels and usage in the cities. Olson said he would not want to wait around while the State figures it out. He wondered if we might take a recommendation to the City Council with a goal for overall usage in the next five years and a proposed rate structure that would help us get there. Shrikhande thought the Commission might not have the wherewithal to develop the recommendation or plan but we could give guidance and propose a framework. Olson asked if City staff has a goal in mind for long term usage. Rojas said she was not sure of the long term goals so that would be a good question for the Public Works Director who is scheduled to come to our meeting in February. Lawton thought we might put some thought into water use,reach some agreement on what is sustainable and then discuss how to reach that goal. Shrikhande said a short-term benefit would be that we could potentially delay capital investment for more wells by promoting conservation. He thought there has to be a goal to work CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 7 towards or our proposals will go nowhere. Jester said we can speak with Mr. Ellis about this in February and then discuss taking action. B. Non-reusable Bay Fee--Brown Brown said we have had discussion about the definition and she thought it was okay to go with "disposable" rather than "non-reusable." She distributed an article about Montgomery County, Maryland, adopting a bag fee of 5 cents per plastic or paper bag. She said they project$1,500,000 in revenue the first full year of the plan. They received opposition from big companies and some groups that included the American Chemistry Council, a trade group representing plastic bag manufacturers. Brown thought we need a cause to put our efforts behind so we can show people where the money would go. She called the Environmental Department in D.C. for more information on how their program was put into place,but she has yet to hear back from them. Jester said she did not see how we could pick a cause without City input. Olson noted the article says San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban non- biodegradable bags. Brown said there has been a lot of backlash to that because it is a ban rather than a fee. That is why we need to call it a fee. She showed a video of the Anacostia River project in D.C. Olson thought a potential selling point would be using the bag fee funds to get litter off the streets. Jester said there are a lot of places the fee could go. She noted Ms Stovring has talked about a problem with trash in our storm water system. Jester said Ms Brown will continue to research this subject. Brown said seeing what differences are made in the before and after environment makes the program real. She thought the next steps are to continue to talk to D.C., to put more information together and to develop an action plan. Jester asked if we need to look at a pilot program or a tiered implementation. She suggested Ms Brown and Mr. Olson talk to the Chamber about this. Olson said he would be interested in how bags and trash are impacting our storm water and other resources. Lawton thought we need to find the local angle. Brown suggested having someone in the Public Works Department talk about the impact on the City. Olson thought we should work on the angle that this is a way to control costs that impact our taxes. Rojas said she will talk to the City Attorney to make sure it is a possibility to implement the fee. Jester suggested Ms Brown forward a copy of D.C.'s ordinance to Ms Rojas. She also asked Ms Brown to keep watch for any movement at the Minnesota state level or in the City of Minneapolis. She thought we could try to figure out the next steps for this at our January meeting. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 8 VII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS Ebert said she met with the head of Food Administration for the High School. Schools through sixth grade use reusable items for lunch while the Middle School and High School do not. The administrator said she would be willing to do a trial with reusable silverware. Jester asked if Ms Ebert had discussed the bag ban with the Tree Huggers Club. Ebert said she polled her classmates on the ban, and the majority would support it. She will try to get more information. VIII. NEW BUSINESS IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. GreenStep Cities Program Rojas said she received an email that they will update their website tomorrow. It also gave a list of enhancements and changes. She noted she continues to input information but still does not know if they consider the input to be enough. The email stated the criteria are reviewed and reported on each spring. B. PACE Legislation Olson noted Edina did pass this legislation. C. Communication Strategies--Website,Life in the Prairie, Facebook, etc. Lawton said he submitted the report last month and assumes they are reviewing it. Jester asked if there is another Life in the Prairie deadline. Rojas said an issue is going to print now and there will be another one next quarter. Jester asked if they are still asking questions for residents to respond to. Rojas said they put city trivia questions,photos or articles to spark a two way conversation on the City's Facebook page. D. Upcoming City Projects and Development--Project Profile Rojas said the Planning Commission recommended approval of the Notting Hill project. The Duck Lake Vista 2nd Addition project is a two lot development on property that currently has one house on it. The Republic Eden Prairie Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Facility requires review and is scheduled for a presentation before the Conservation Commission. Pini asked about the size of the site. Rojas said she does not know the actual details as the project just came in. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 9 She said they plan to use their private utilities for their fleet of trucks. We might want to include them on the list of places for the proposed Green Crawl. Shrikhande thought we might look at the City's use of energy as part of an environmental dashboard. Jester said she liked the idea but she didn't know who would put it together. Ms Stovring has a number of reports but they are not combined into one. Shrikhande thought this would enable us to see the major themes and would allow us to see where we should focus. X. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS A. Recycling Ordinance Update Jester said the City updated the ordinance for licensed haulers to correspond to the County ordinance. We will continue to work with Ms Stovring on recycling in the parks. B. Minutes from the November 18, 2011 City Council Workshop Jester said this is an FYI item. XI. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Home and Garden Expo--March 17, 2012--9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Jester said we talked about having someone from Edina talk about PACE and having something on recycling in the parks. We need to decide what we are going to do. hi addition to planning for the Expo, we should take a closer look at GreenStep Cities to see if there is something we should be concentrate on for that program. XII. NEXT MEETING--January 10, 2012 Daniels said he hoped to have more definitive information on recycling in the parks for various cities. Jester asked if we should have Ms Stovring or Mr. Lotthammer present at the meeting. Rojas said she will sit down with them and invite them to the January meeting. Jester said Ms Stovring has money to purchase recycling containers and we should have input on what those should be. We also need a copy of the events contract with the changes for recycling. We will do more planning on non-reusable bags and will take a closer look at the GreenStep Cities. Shrikhande said he will bring more information if he hears more from Chanhassen. Rojas noted there is a conflict with our meeting in August because of the primary election date. We will have to reschedule that date. Jester said we could have that meeting at the CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES December 13, 2011 Page 10 end of July and combine it with our regular July meeting since we are having the tour with the Parks Commission in early July. XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Shrikhande. Motion carried 7-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:10 PM.