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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 01/08/2013 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JANUARY 8, 2013 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 STUDENT MEMBERS: Sara Schmit, Katie Stoltz, Siddeswari Thunuguntla, Natalie Sell STAFF: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Lori Creamer, Recording Secretary I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jester called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Olson, Brown, Pini, Thununguntla and Stoltz were absent. Lawton arrived late. Since there was not a quorum to approve the agenda and minutes from the October 9th meeting, Jester started the meeting with the presentation by Rick Carter on the Urban Land Institute Regional Indicators Initiative. II. PRESENTATION A. Urban Land Institute (ULI) Regional Indicators Initiative Mr. Carter, with LHB, Inc presented the data gathered for 20 cities in a study of Energy, Potable Water, Travel, Waste and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from 2008- 2011. This project is part of the MN Pollution Control Agency's Greenstep Cities Program. Mr. Carter stated many cities have done greenhouse gas inventories,but this is the first state-wide effort of this scale. The Regional Indicators Initiative is also unique in its inclusion of potable water use as a metric. The project goals are to promote efficiency and sustainable change at the scale of the city through the following tasks: 1) collect 4 years of performance metric data for 20 cities 2) evaluate trends within the collected data 3) forecast business-as-usual outcomes based on the data 4) establish targets for reduction based on statewide greenhouse gas reduction goals 5) correlate reduction strategies with performance metrics 6) develop effective communication strategies to convey this information to cities. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2013 Page 2 Lawton arrived at 7:10 PM. Some of the project benefits to participating cities include highlight opportunities to save resources and money, provide a baseline for estimating the effectiveness of sustainability measures, enable comparison with future inventories and peer cities, inform subsequent analyses, plans, and policy decision by the cities and others, improve the cities' competitiveness for federal and state funding opportunities, assist in promoting public understanding of the cities; effects on climate change and serve as a model for other regions. Mr. Carter showed additional data and trends for residential and commercial uses of energy, water, travel and greenhouse gas emissions. A website is currently being developed for the Regional Indicators Initiative that will allow both cities and residents to explore the data. Any feedback the commission has would be greatly appreciated. The website would include descriptions of the project goals, history, and methodology, explanation of the metrics, graphs of collected data, trends and projections, explanation of how to make sense of the data, correlations between Best Management Practices and metrics and what the next steps of the programs will be. In conclusion, this initiative will be able to measure community-wide data; normalize by jobs,households and population; shows energy is the largest part of the CO2 pie; commercial/industrial energy consumption is greater than residential and residential water use is greater than commercial/industrial. The next steps will be to establish targets for each metric and include in cities comp plans; obtain data for 2012 for all twenty cities; measure data in five additional cities including those outside of the metro area and use regional indicators to inform BMP choices, establish policy, obtain funding and verify outcomes. III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Shrikhande added Item VII.B. Recyclins! DVD. MOTION: Shrikhande moved, seconded by Lawton, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried 4-0. IV. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the December 11, 2012 Meeting MOTION: Shrikhande moved, seconded by Bettison, to approve the minutes of the December 11, 2012 meeting as published. Motion carried 4-0. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2013 Page 3 V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. 2012 Annual Report and 2013 Draft Work Plan Rojas presented the report and work plan and stated the Council will be reviewing the work plan at the February 5, 2013 meeting. The Staff Liaison will present the work plan; however, the commission is invited to attend the meeting also. Jester had several additions/changes to the 2012 Accomplishments section including adding a bullet point under the Recycling and Solid Waste Management section stating the commission worked with city staff to develop a plan for recycling in the parks which resulted in a grant application awarded for purchasing containers. Under the Energy Conservation section adding on to the second bullet point stating commission worked with staff in obtaining speakers and presented to the Chamber of Commerce. Under the Community Outreach section delete second bullet point; add "interested citizens who received a water efficiency fixture to complete a survey" to the end of the third bullet point. Under the Water Quality, Water Quantity and Air Quality section add"resulted in working with staff on another update in the rate structure" to the seventh bullet point and add a bullet point"commission was instrumental in the minimum water usage being dropped on utility bills" Under the Commission Development section add a bullet point"Recycling Conference" and under the Other section add a bullet point"met with city staff including Economic Development, Planning& Engineering regarding the Southwest Light rail" There were several changes to the 2013 Goals and Work Plan section as well. In the first quarter under Greenstep Cities, add"consider how to use data from Regional Indicators presentation" 2nd Quarter under water quality and water conservation point one—insert "and work with staff as they implement right-of- way rain gardens" after"promote use of'. Third quarter add a bullet point "Explore what other communities are doing with staffing levels". Shrikhande stated he has 30 hours of volunteer time he would like to use helping plan and assist the city with a Zero waste event,recycling in the parks activities and support with analyzing data and provide recommendations. Under the Areas of Interest section the suggestion was made to change the title to Other Activities. Also add a bullet point for environmental educational opportunities. Shrinkhande asked if there could be a presentation of the comp plan at one of the upcoming commission meetings. Rojas stated the comp plan is on the city website and in 2 years we will be ramping up to amend the comp plan. Lawton mentioned it would be nice to set up a meeting in the 3rd quarter to talk about what the direction the city will be taking with the information presented CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2013 Page 4 tonight. Jester stated Sue Brown is interested in getting involved with environmental education to continue to look for opportunities to educate the public. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR A. 2013 Commission appointments Jester stated she would reapply to be on the Conservation Commission,however, she would like to step down as Chair. Council appoints the officers, so if anyone on the commission is interested in being the Chair please let Rojas know. B. Action Items from previous meetings Jester talked about how action items come up at a commission meeting and then by the next meeting, commissioners did not follow up on the items they said they would do because of one reason or another. She suggested either receiving the draft minutes within a week or two of the meeting so commission members can review the minutes and be reminded of the action items they were going to do. Another suggestion was to have someone at the meeting (Vice Chair) keep track of the action items and at the end of the meeting do a follow up or send an e-mail to the commissioner with their assignments for the next meeting. VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. LRT Community Advisory Commission Update Bettison reported there wasn't a meeting in December. The updates from the previous meeting minutes. There is a meeting this Thursday, January 10, 2013 to discuss the DEIS, not the comments, and consultants were awarded final contracts. Secondly, Bettison is unable to attend these meeting due to work schedule changes. She would be happy to continue corresponding with Sam O'Connell and get the updates and bring them to the commission. If anyone else is interested in being the primary contact or alternate, please e-mail Rojas. B. Recycling DVD Due to the time Jester asked if this item could be moved to the February meeting. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS Jester welcomed Natalie Sell as a new student representative for the Spring term. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2013 Page 5 No other updates. IX. NEW BUSINESS X. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. GreenStep Cities Program There are no new updates. Rojas will bring back what has been completed at a future meeting. B. Communication Strategies--Website,Life in the Prairie, Facebook, etc. Bettison commented on how impactful the water plant tour was for her and wondered how the commission can get that information out to the public. She suggested posting 10 interesting water facts on the city's Facebook page or run an article in the paper or Life in the Prairie in March since that is when the outdoors are starting to green up. Bettison will contact Lorenz, Communications Manager directly and get something going on that subject. XI. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS A. Upcoming City Projects and Development--Project Profile Rojas reported International School, Riley Views and The MAC Development Sites were on the consent agenda at the Council meeting tonight. XII. UPCOMING EVENTS A. Chamber of Commerce Home and Garden Expo--Saturday, March 16, 2013 (9 AM-3 PM) Shrikhande suggested using the recycling bins as a display and also coordinate with Grace church to use recycle bins during the event for those who participate. Hennepin County has bins available for use on demand. Jester asked who would like to coordinate the booth and who would be able to work the event? Rojas asked if they wanted to give away anything this year. In the past the giveaway items were reusable bags and last year shower heads. The suggestion was made for a nice water bottle. That would tie in with water usage and recycling. There will be more discussion on this at the February meeting. Lawton stated he would be willing to work the booth. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES January 8, 2013 Page 6 XIII. NEXT MEETING—February 12, 2013 XIV. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Bettison moved, seconded by Lawton, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 4-0. Chair Jester adjourned the meeting at 9:05 PM.