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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 07/31/2012 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JULY 31, 2012 7:00 P.M., CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Jester(Chair), Greg Olson (Vice Chair), Stacy Bettison, Sue Brown, Kurt Lawton, Anthony Pini, Prashant Shrikhande STAFF: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Andrew Rotschafer, Environmental Intern Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:03 PM. Brown, Pini and Shrikhande were absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Rotschafer added Item IV.D. Rebate Information. Jester added Item V.A. Parks Recyclins!. MOTION: Lawton moved, seconded by Olson, to approve the agenda as amended. Motion carried 4-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the June 12, 2012 Meeting MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Lawton, to approve the minutes of the June 12, 2012 meeting as published. Motion carried 4-0. IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. Commission Member Update Rojas said the City Manager and department directors felt that Mr. Pini should remain on the Commission even though he will be gone for a year because it would take quite a bit of time to recruit and to appoint someone else for the remainder of his term. She said she will continue to send him the meeting packets. CONSERVATION COMMISSION July 31, 2012 Page 2 B. GreenStep Cities Award Rojas said the Mayor and City Council were presented with the Step 2 Block for the GreenStep Cities award at the last Council meeting. At this time there is one more block that is awarded upon completion of all 16 required best practices. She said she will continue to add updates to the GreenStep Cities website as she receives feedback from the various City departments. Jester asked if there are plans to change anything or update any ordinances. Rojas said one example is to change our zoning ordinance to state that our Comprehensive Guide Plan and zoning ordinances are in compliance with each other. That will require the review and approval of both the Planning Commission and City Council. C. Blue Star Award Rotschafer said the application for the Blue Star award is almost complete. He noted it has turned out to be more of a comprehensive examination than he thought. There was quite a lot of information required about development and engineering. He has handed off the application to Ms Stovring. Jester asked if the Commission will review the final application. Rotschafer said Ms Stovring will review it. D. Rebate Information Rotschafer handed out information summarizing use of the landscaping, irrigation and appliance rebates. Jester asked if Ms Stovring has plans to change any of the programs. Rotschafer said she likes the way they are working. Jester noted the number of irrigation rebates seems low and asked if all new irrigation systems are installed with the controls. Rotschafer said some of them are. Bettison asked if a current irrigation system could be retrofitted. Rotschafer said it could. Bettison said she didn't know about the rebates and thought the installers may not be suggesting the rebates. Jester asked if there is a way to get information about the rebates to the installers. Rotschafer said a lot of people just install the systems themselves. Jester asked Rotschafer for suggestions on how we might reach the installers and also to find out how many installers are in the City. Lawton asked what percentage of single family homes are irrigated. Rojas said the Building Department might have a record of that. Olson asked if anyone installing an irrigation system must have a permit for it. Rojas said they are supposed to. CONSERVATION COMMISSION July 31, 2012 Page 3 V. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. Parks Recyclins! Rotschafer distributed copies of a memo with the results of his survey of four metropolitan cities'recycling programs and a sampler of recycling bins. Minneapolis is the only one of the four that provides recycling in all their parks, and they are working to renovate their recycling program. Bloomington, Hastings and Edina have somewhat similar programs. Bloomington noted they have tried recycling at their smaller parks but found there were high levels of contamination. He said Edina has tried many things to encourage their program, but it has not been successful. Jester asked if he checked with Chanhassen about their program because she thought that one has been very successful. Rotschafer said he did not but will check with them. Jester said they have nice containers, and they may be doing something else to help make it successful. Lawton asked if each of the four cities is using side-by-side containers that are clearly labeled. Rotschafer said not all do. Bloomington uses Rubbermaid containers. Jester asked if Bloomington's program is successful at the bigger parks. Rotschafer said they seem to be content with it. Bettison asked if we have had surveys about people's attitude and priorities regarding recycling. Rotschafer said there has been no study done about attitudes and priorities,but he thought most people today do recycling. Jester asked if we know how long the four cities have been doing the programs. Rotschafer said Edina has been doing theirs for a long time. Jester noted we don't know the tipping point for people to comply. Rotschafer said one problem is that partially empty bottles are not acceptable in the recycling containers. In addition, some of the four cities noted rotator injuries occurring as a result of pulling the heavy recycling bins to the trucks. He said Matt Bourne, Parks Supervisor, thought the Brute recycling rollout bin would be the most feasible. Rojas noted that is similar to what is proposed for the Round Lake splash pad area. Olson thought it is important to design an education component and to monitor the program. Bettison said whatever education we do should include explanations of why recycling is important as well as how to do recycling. Jester asked what Mr. Rotschafer's feeling is about where the City is headed with this program. Rotschafer thought it all starts with the educational component and should show what happens to material that is recycled and material that is not CONSERVATION COMMISSION July 31, 2012 Page 4 recycled. We would target highly frequented areas in the beginning and would probably contact the sports associations to inform them about the new recycling containers. Jester asked if he thought the Parks Department staff is ready to take this on. Rotschafer said staff is on board with it, and Matt Bourne likes the idea of using the trash truck rather than pulling bins. Lawton said good signage at the point of disposal is very important. Rotschafer suggested contacting the High School to see if any of the teachers would be interested in having the kids make the signs. Olson thought hiring a professional to design the signage would be important. Jester distributed copies of a draft resolution on recycling in the parks that she and Mr. Olson put together. She met with the City Manager and Ms Rojas today about the draft resolution. She told them we are trying to make a statement because we have been frustrated and have not seen progress. City Manager Getschow said a resolution is not usually put forward by a City commission. She asked Commission members for their feelings on whether we need a formal motion or resolution to support this. Jester asked if there was any discussion of developing a written strategy or plan. Rotschafer said there has not been. Bettison asked if there was something we could do as a commission to put together specific thoughts on a strategy for the next step. Rojas said the next step may be that a couple of Commission members sit down with the Parks and Engineering staff and dialogue to come up with topics of importance. Mr. Rotschafer could help get things going. Olson asked who the point person is on staff in terms of recycling. Rojas said Ms. Stovring is the Recycling Coordinator, and it would be Matt Bourne from a Parks Maintenance and Facility standpoint. Olson asked what Mr. Bourne is currently doing with this. Rotschafer said the Parks Department has recycling bins at Round Lake and Miller Lake. There will be more bins at Round Lake after the development project is completed. He said he talked to Stu Fox about the history of recycling in the parks and why the previous efforts didn't work. Olson said he would like to understand the overall strategy for this,how staff is going to implement it, and how often progress updates will be given. With that information we can get a sense of where we, as a Commission, can offer our support. Jester said she understood there is no overall strategy now. The next step would be to develop a strategy. Rojas said she could facilitate a couple of Commission members starting a dialogue with staff members. Olson asked who is assuming responsibility for developing the strategy. Rojas said it would be Matt Bourne, CONSERVATION COMMISSION July 31, 2012 Page 5 Leslie Stovring, and Mr. Rotschafer are currently on board with developing a strategy. Jester thought this still might warrant some official action. Bettison proposed that one or two people from the commission meet with Matt Bourne, Andrew Rotschafer and Leslie Stovring to talk about what they have done and what they see as the priorities in order to understand where they are at with the project and to communicate where the Conservation Commission is at. She was not sure Mr. Bourne is tasked with developing a strategy nor that a strategy is being developed. Whoever goes to the meeting could have a list of seven or eight things the Commission believes needs to be done. Lawton asked if this was discussed at the City Council. Rojas said it was brought up by Council Member Case at the May 15 meeting. At that meeting Jay Lotthammer said staff is working towards recycling in the parks. There has been some movement since that meeting, and Mr. Rotschafer has completed his research. Jester volunteered to meet with City staff. Jester said she could get in touch with Ms Brown to see if she would like to be involved. Olson said he would be open to meeting with staff, depending on his schedule. Bettison said that was her position as well. Jester suggested Ms Rojas put together a meeting, and then we can see who could attend. Lawton suggested we put together some sort of outline of what we want to learn. Bettison thought we could prepare a meeting agenda. Jester reviewed the points to be included in the agenda: • Who will develop the strategy for the program; • Budget; • Communication/education strategy; • Signage; • The focus of the program; • Overview of where staff is coming from; • What staff sees as the payoff for the City. Rotschafer said the educational component is very important, as is monitoring of the program. He thought there also is a question of how does one evaluate the program. Jester asked if he looked for grants. Rotschafer replied Hennepin County had grants available,but those are now closed. Olson suggested groups like the Rotary or Lions Club might want to put their name on the bins. Lawton suggested contacting the Isaac Walton League. Olson thought sports clubs might help promote the program. CONSERVATION COMMISSION July 31, 2012 Page 6 Bettison suggested meeting with the point person for the Minneapolis program to see what their renovation looks like, what has worked for them, what hasn't worked and what they are doing to fix it. VI. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. Parks Recreation and Natural Resources Commission Joint Tour (Grey Olson/Kurt Lawton) Rojas distributed copies of the City Manager's blog that described the tour. Rotschafer thought the pervious pavers being put in at Birch Island Park were very interesting. Lawton said the parking lot with the pavers was about half done when they were there. They had an interesting demonstration of how water drains through the concrete-based pavers. Rojas thought the area off the Flying Cloud maintenance site was interesting. A service in St. Paul takes diseased elm trees from that area at no cost to the City and converts them to energy. Lawton noted the City uses 100% salt on the roads rather than a mixture of salt and sand; whereas the Watershed district recommends no salt be used. He noted Stu Fox said the City monitors where the salt is put. VII. NEW BUSINESS VIII. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. LRT Community Advisory Commission (CAC) Update Rojas said the CAC did not have a meeting in July. She said Ms Bettison is our new full-time representative to the CAC since Mr. Pini is unable to serve. Jester said she attended the June meeting, and there were many issues discussed. She noted the group is very large. Rojas said they plan to have meetings centered around various topics. Jester said there seems to be issues among the members of the CAC. Homes are being impacted along parts of the proposed route. B. PACE Legislation Olson said he and Jeremy Kaplan presented information on the PACE program to City staff on July 25. They presented the program as a development tool that has little or no risk to the City. They did not receive a lot of feedback at the meeting. At the meeting the City Manager alluded to the possibility of a workshop on the program sometime this fall. Olson asked how we get to the point of having a CONSERVATION COMMISSION July 31, 2012 Page 7 workshop on this and where we go as a commission. He would like to hear back from staff as to what the action steps will be. Rojas said staff needs to put something together to identify the point person who would be in charge and the staff who would identify and monitor the program requirements. She thought the program has momentum, and Mr. Getschow mentioned the meeting in his Friday report to the City Council. If the Council directs going forward after the workshop session, staff would formally propose a program. Olson said, while this is not something that should be rushed,he was interested in what the timeline would look like and what has to happen before the workshop. Rojas said the next step is for the department directors and the City Manager to identify people who would work on the program. C. GreenStep Cities Program D. Water Conservation Strategies E. Comunication Strategies--Website,Life in the Prairie, Facebook, etc. Lawton said the Communication Department is doing a good job and they continue to put more information on the web site. He is monitoring how they handle the Living Green section, Jester asked Ms Bettison to provide input if she sees gaps or places we can improve on communications. Bettison said she will look more carefully at the information for the next meeting. She was gratified to see the article on recycling in the Eden Prairie News although she did not like the headline that said recycling was down. IX. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS A. Project Profile--City Projects and Development Jester asked about the projects that require waivers. Rojas reviewed the waivers requested for several of the projects. Olson asked if there are requirements regarding environmental sustainability for development proposals. Rojas said a project needs to meet code requirements, and every project is looked at on a case by case basis. Olson suggested having a tutorial for the Commission on how proposals are evaluated and what kind of sustainability requirements are included. Rojas said CONSERVATION COMMISSION July 31, 2012 Page 8 she could do such a presentation. She said she would bring a sample project and run through the process the Planning Department uses. Jester suggested that Ms Rojas and Ms Stovring point out any gaps in the code where we could be doing a better job, such as having a green building code. Rojas noted the City code cannot be more restrictive than the State building code. B. Recyclins! Spreadsheet Jester asked about the column entitled "2015 goal." Rojas said that is the goal for Hennepin County. Jester was concerned about how they propose we would meet that goal. X. UPCOMING EVENTS Jester said there will be a Clean Water event in September at the Arboretum. The cost to attend is $60. The event will concentrate on soil issues this time. Rojas said Commission members should contact her if they want to attend and she would see if there are funds in the budget. XI. NEXT MEETING--September 11, 2012 XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Olson moved, seconded by Lawton, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 4-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 8:35 PM.