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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 02/14/2012 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2012 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 STUDENT MEMBERS: McKenna Campbell-Potter, Rebecca Ebert, Yasmin Atef-Vahid COMMISSION STAFF: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary GUESTS: Gary Johnson Robert Ellis, Public Works Director I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:01 P.M. Olson, Campbell-Potter, Ebert and Atef-Vahid were absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Jester moved Item XI.A. to Item V.C. MOTION: Pini moved, seconded by Shrikhande, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 6-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the January 10, 2012 Regular Meeting Jester said the words "applied for" should be changed to "received" in the first sentence of Item C, Page 3. MOTION: Shrikhande moved, seconded by Lawton, to approve the minutes of the January 10, 2012 meeting as amended. Motion carried 6-0. IV. GUESTS CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 2 A. Gary Johnson Jester introduced Gary Johnson who had asked to make some comments tonight. Mr. Johnson said he had concerns about the new tiered fees for water. He said the cost to irrigate his property in Silverwood went from $535 to nearly $1,000 after the tiered fees were implemented. He said the penalty he pays does not make him conserve more, and he can't afford the higher fees. He thought it was an unfair penalty unless the goal is to have all the lawns go brown. He thought the tiered rates should apply to commercial properties only, and the tiers should be reduced to some degree. He noted he has been talking to Mr. Ellis and others about this. Jester said she understood the dilemma,but it is a complex issue. The current level of groundwater usage in the City is not sustainable so we are struggling with how to make it more sustainable. She noted Mr. Shrikhande has been reviewing the issue and is trying to suggest ways to build more conservation into the tiered structure. We would like to develop some goals for water use, and that discussion is part of tonight's agenda. She invited Mr. Johnson to stay for that part of the meeting. B. Robert Ellis, Public Works Director 1. Water Use and Water Conservation Goals Ellis said in 2010 and previous years we had a flat rate structure and that did not cause people to watch how they used water. In April 2011 the new structure was put in place. The city has heard from quite a few people about the increasing block rate structure since it was implemented. He thought the rate structure is the right thing to do and is the best way to get people to conserve. With the quarterly billing system it takes time to understand the effect of the new rate structure. He said he would like to continue to watch it for a year or two to let people change their habits and react to the change. He reviewed the memo he received from the Conservation Commission suggesting the rate structure be changed to four tiers with about 50% of the customers included in the first tier. Shrikhande said much of the information from the memo came from the study done by the Alliance for Water Efficiency. Our discussions included factoring in the information we received from the DNR regarding groundwater sustainability. He thought we could enter into discussions with the Watershed District about what is a sustainable level of water usage and then develop a program to promote the goals. The proposed rate structure was a way of balancing for those people who really conserve water. He said the DNR is promoting a similar structure to the Alliance group. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 3 Ellis said during the irrigation months of 2011 66% of our users were in Tier 1. He said a cost of service analysis for different customers showed that irrigators represent 38% of the cost each year. In 2010 they provided 28% of the revenue,but in 2011 with the new rate structure they provided 39% of the revenue. He said the total revenue is $7,600,000 per year, with about $3,000,000 coming from irrigation. We need those revenue levels to support the system. He thought the discussion probably starts with setting goals for water consumption. Daniels asked if the figures included both commercial and residential. Ellis said they did. Jester asked if Mr. Ellis came here from a place that had goals. Ellis said the goal there was targeting city use in order to get off treated water and use other sources. He thought a prime goal for Eden Prairie would be to get off the more expensive treated water which might mean using storm water. Another idea would be some type of help to property owners who make improvements such as rain gardens. Shrikhande thought the Commission might be able to help develop some solutions. Lawton asked about the City's percentage of the total water usage. Ellis said it is about 1% of the total usage. Pini asked about the percentage of revenue from irrigation. Ellis said it is 39%. He noted the Parks Department has been doing a lot to conserve water. In recent years they have dropped their usage even though the amount of park land in the City has increased. Pini asked City's irrigation is from treated water. Ellis said we use one well,but the rest is treated water. Shrikhande asked if we could get a distribution of water categories. Ellis said he thought that information might be in the rate study. Jester asked if the next step would be working towards the sustainability goal. Ellis said he has not given this a lot of thought,but it starts with the goals and how we get to those goals. He thought there would be several components but it would probably include rate adjustments and education. Shrikhande noted the DNR representative, Dr. Jeanette Leete, said they are developing some information about groundwater flows. He thought we could participate in the research together. Ellis said he would work with the DNR to see what they are doing with groundwater and to do additional groundwater modeling. Jester said the message we got from Dr. Leete was that the current levels of usage are not sustainable so it would be worthwhile speaking with them. She asked if Mr. Ellis has touched base with the City of Chanhassen about this. Ellis said he has not. Jester noted they may be ahead CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 4 of us in setting goals. Shrikhande said they wanted a high rate structure but encountered resistance. Jester suggested Mr. Ellis continue to work with Mr. Shrikhande and that he get a copy of the presentation by Dr. Leete. Ellis said he will work with Mr. Shrikhande on goals as a starting place. He noted he will also be sensitive to the comments of Mr. Johnson; however he has no doubt the subject of water conservation will get bigger and bigger. Brown thought there might be a way to base the rate system on lot size so that the customer would pay a certain amount if the usage stayed within a certain amount but would pay a penalty for usage beyond that level. Lawton asked Mr. Johnson if he had received education from the service that set up his irrigation as to the soil type on his property and if he felt the City could do a better job of educating home owners on irrigation timing and amounts. Johnson said he was sure some education would be beneficial. The City requires watering on alternate days and he did not know if his system can put the recommended 1/2 inch of water on in the 16 hours allowed. Also, if a lot of it runs off the slope on his property, it wouldn't be wise to put that much on. Shrikhande suggested he might use a different kind of grass. Jester suggested using soil amendments. Ellis noted some people put compost on every year which holds the water better. He said the Parks Department uses a sophisticated controller that indicates how often and how long to water. Daniels said there was a law passed in 2008 calling for a water rate structure. Jester thought that was why the City changed our structure. Ellis said all cities of a certain size have to use an increasing block rate structure. 2. Incorporating Rain Gardens Into Street Projects Jester said the Commission was interested in getting Mr. Ellis'perspective on the use of rain gardens in street projects. Ellis said there have been two or three rain gardens built in the right of way. He noted Ms Stovring has been the person on staff who has been instrumental in considering their use. We encounter resistance on the part of the engineers because of their concerns about protecting the road bed. They are planning a tour of other cities this spring to find out what other cities are learning and will do a test this summer before drafting a policy about the use of rain gardens in street projects. Jester noted rain gardens in street projects are working in a lot of places such as the City of Plymouth. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 5 Shrikhande said he read that places like Europe use natural swimming pools as a feature to conserve water. Aquatic plants are used in the pools along with a foundation of gravel for filtration. 3. GreenStep Cities Program Ellis said he read over the information we provided on the program and looked at the best practice items that were highlighted. Rojas said she highlighted the ones she thought are related to Public Works. She said the Commission wanted to get feedback from him on the program. Ellis said he noticed there are a few the City has already done such as the 20/40/15 initiative. That program produced a 28% reduction in fuel usage in 2011, and he thought we can get to the 40%proposed in the initiative. There are a number of items we are already doing or will be doing in the next five years. We currently have 20% of the fleet using biofuels, and synthetic oil has improved efficiency. Ellis said he was not sure where the complete streets concept will go. Jester asked if they could incorporate that in their rain garden tour. Ellis said they keep trying to find good candidates in the City for the complete street concept. The City has invested a lot of money in trails, so this would be somewhat of a shift in policy. Shrikhande asked how we would get feedback from the community on a concept like complete streets. Ellis said they had a number of open houses for the Mitchell Road bike lane project,but 75-80% of those attending were opposed to it. They have looked at having a bicycle master plan for commuters. That would need a lot of public input to discuss the problems and to determine what bicycle commuters want. Jester noted the City Council has adopted working through the GreenStep program. Ellis said he would sit down with Ms Rojas and see which best practices make sense to work on. Jester noted the Commission would like to be used as an advisory group on this. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Enemy Savings Forum Recap Jester said Ms Rojas and Ms Brown attended this event. Rojas said the event occurred a couple of weeks ago and the main themes were to promote and encourage cities and counties to do energy audits, which Eden Prairie is doing already. They went through some case studies of programs including Edina's PACE program. Brown said they are talking about whether they can offer PACE to residential owners and about having cities offer loans in the form of bonds. B. Parks and Recreation Event (Movie in the Park--Environmental Theme) CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 6 Rojas said she and Ms Stovring were approached by the Parks and Recreation Department about showing the movie, WALL-E,in the parks this summer. They are still working things out but it will probably be shown on August 3. C. Disposable Bay Fee Leal Opinion Rojas said the meeting packet included the memo from the City Attorney explaining why the City does not have the authority to impose a tax or fee for disposable bags. Jester said she would like to know what the cities of Edina and Minneapolis are doing on this and if their city attorneys have taken a look at it. She thought it would be interesting to go back to the Minnesota Secretary of State with the statutory references made in Mr. Rosow's memo. Brown said she has shared the information with interested parties in both Edina and Minneapolis to get their opinion. At this point no one wants to fight the opinion. She was wondering where we go from here. She said there have been exceptions to the rule, and we might want to get support from other conservation commissions to discuss actions such as pursuing an amendment to the State law to allow disposable bag fees. Jester thought there are different avenues to get behavioral change. Lawton suggested some kind of incentive program for businesses. Brown thought we could put together a plan for how to proceed now we have a change in direction, and we might have a brainstorming session for that on next months' agenda. Jester thought it makes sense to plan how we move forward since we have spent considerable time on the issue. Pini thought we can try to figure out if there is another way to make an impact. We might target something specific for the fee so it would not go just to the City's General Fund. Brown thought we might find out what we could fund with this, although she didn't think that would change the City Attorney's opinion. There are a lot of other things we could be doing as well. Jester thought one avenue to pursue with the City Attorney is to ask him if having a designated reason for collecting the fee would change anything. Rojas said she wants to be cautious using his time. Jester thought we should table it for now and include an item on the March agenda to look at a workable plan for education about this subject. Brown said she could go to other communities about what they want to do but she thought Ms Rojas needs to give us advice. Rojas said the Commission does not have the backing from the City Council to go forward with the proposed fee. At this point the City is on board with the education piece,but there would need to be additional support to pursue the bag fee. The Council encouraged continuing research but gave no official backing. There is an item on the work plan to put a proposal to the Council for direction and working towards that would be the next step. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 7 VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. 2012 Environmental Initiative Awards Jester said the awards highlight individuals and businesses in different categories. She wondered if it would be worth forwarding a nomination for Eden Prairie for the 20-40-15 program. The nominations are due by March 2. She volunteered to work with Ms Stovring on the nomination form. The consensus was to go ahead with the nomination. Jester suggested nominating the GE Capital Eco Experience next year. VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Urban Land Institute--Rooftops and Rivers: Saving Money, Getting Green (Anthony Pini and Prashant Shrikhande) Pini and Shrikhande gave a PowerPoint presentation developed by the Minnesota Cities Storm Water Coalition. The slides reviewed the history of storm water management at the municipal level,point and non-point sources of storm water runoff, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System(NPDES)permits, Phase I and Phase 11 MS4 cities and other topics. Among the challenges for cities is the issue of potential costs for dredging ponds because of the pollutants found in many of the ponds. B. Undersround Wind Turbines (Ray Daniels) Daniels said the Sheer Wind group in Chaska has formulated a concept for underground wind turbines that would collect wind from above the ground and send it to a turbine structure underground. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS IX. NEW BUSINESS X. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. GreenStep Cities Program Rojas said next month she will bring a proposal based on the Department Directors' work plans to add to the list of Best Management Practices (BMP's) to work towards. She has invited Paul Sticha to give an update on the 20-40-15 program, either at next month's meeting or in April. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 8 Jester asked if there have been any changes with the website. Rojas said she has not received any additional information nor noticed any changes. B. PACE Legislation Rojas said there is no update on this topic. C. Communication Stratesies--Website,Life in the Prairie, Facebook, etc. Rojas said the Communications Department is still in the process of updating the website. It should be up and running in March or April. There will be a section on the home page called "Living Green." Rojas said the March/April issue has a section on plastic bag recycling and reuse. The Communications Department wants additional information about organizations that accept unusual items that are not accepted by trash haulers. Brown said the website, recyclemoreminnesota.org, goes through everything and shows where items can be recycled. Jester asked if there is one more issue before the City-wide recycling day as she wondered if we could help explain what to bring to the City-wide recycling. We could also incorporate something about where the items go. Lawton said the May- June deadline is March 30. Rojas said the January/February issue included information from Hennepin County about what items are accepted by trash haulers. D. Upcoming City Projects and Development--Project Profile Rojas reviewed the Project Profile, noting the first item for The Meadows at Riley Creek was withdrawn. That project will be revised and submitted as a new application. XI. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS A. 2011 Annual Report and 2012 Work Plan Jester asked if this is the final version. Rojas said it is final and is posted on the website under the Conservation Commission. XII. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Home and Garden Expo--March 17, 2012--9 AM to 3 PM CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES February 14, 2012 Page 9 Jester said we talked about shifts at the last meeting. She said she cannot be there for the whole afternoon shift but can help with setup and the morning shift. Rojas said she emailed the consultant about the storm water interactive display but has not heard back. XII. NEXT MEETING--March 13, 2012 XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Brown moved, seconded by Daniels, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 6-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:25 PM.