Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 06/25/2013 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY,JUNE 25, 2013 7:00 P.M., CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Greg Olson (Chair), Kurt Lawton (Vice Chair), Stacy Bettison, Laura Jester, Prashant Shrikhande STAFF: Regina Rojas, Planning Division Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary Robert Ellis, Public Works Director Hagen Kaczmarek, Environmental Tech I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Olson called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Jester moved, seconded by Lawton, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried 5-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes for the May 14, 2013 Meeting MOTION: Jester moved, seconded by Bettison, to approve the minutes of the May 14, 2013 meeting as published. Motion carried 5-0. IV. REPORTS FROM STAFF B. Green Crawl Update (taken out of sequence) Rojas noted the memo dated June 14 from Jackie Schwerm, City Manager's Intern, that gave an update on the plans for the Green Crawl. Olson asked about staff s view of the role the Commission plays in bringing this event forward and ensuring its success. Rojas said staff views this as being similar to the Art Crawl that is held by the Parks & Recreation Commission. For the Green Crawl she thought we would request businesses or residents to showcase something green. Staff would bring the applications to the Conservation Commission to act as the selection committee and also to help staff the event. The communication vehicles of the City would be available to do outreach for the event. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 2 Jester suggested we use the Home and Garden Expo to help publicize the event since it is a new endeavor and will take a little effort to communicate the event. Rojas thought we could work with the MPCA. Jester asked if the goal is to have all the Green Crawl sites within the City. Rojas said that was correct. Lawton said it would be great to have some diversity in the sites. Shrikhande said it would be nice to include the G.E. site. Rojas noted they would have to apply. Jester suggested we may need a little more lead time to get input on what sites should be included. Olson said we would want an early report on who is applying so that we could respond if it seems to be lagging. Kaczmarek said he has a database that includes people who have rain gardens. Shrikhande suggested developing a timeline of when the various planning events will take place. Olson said the Commission should expect to get updates monthly from now on. A. Water Conservation Efforts Ellis referred to his memo of June 14 that outlined efforts being made in the area of water conservation. The Public Works Department has been meeting as a group to discuss various ideas and explore the costs of the programs. He reviewed each of the 14 items included in his memo, as follows: 1. Real Time Water Consumption Data -- Ellis said they want to provide customers with a real time view of how much water they are using. The City could distribute a device or provide access to a software program that would allow for real time viewing of water consumption. They have met with one vendor about this technology and plan to meet with two more. He noted it will be expensive to replace every meter, and any system would require a new transponder in the home and on the City's water towers. Staff would like to get away from having to drive around the City reading the meters. Meters wear out and have to be replaced periodically. They plan to upgrade meters in about 1/10 of the City every year and also to send out a flyer to see who would be interested. Jester thought interested customers would probably be doing all they can to conserve water, and the rest won't care. Ellis said they need to reach out to the public about being more informed on water use. He thought there are more people interested in this than we think, even though most of them are interested in the money side of the issue. Bettison asked if staff will be able to quantify the data to show why the customer should care and if the new software has the capability of providing quantities. Ellis said the vendor they interviewed said it can be tailored to how a customer wants it. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 3 Bettison asked for examples of other communities where this is being used. Ellis said a lot of cities have gone with the Badger Meter that tells how much water has been used each day. Technology like this is being used mostly in the and states that struggle with water issues. Olson asked if it would provide usage comparisons similar to what customers currently receive from CenterPoint. Ellis said the vendors say they can do those comparisons. Shrikhande said the data would be good except that it is shown as thousands of gallons. He thought monthly billing might not be necessary once we have the data online and the rate structure has been reviewed. 2. Live Water Treatment Plant Production Display--Ellis said staff is exploring ways to display live data about the levels of water inside the City reservoirs. That is very important information during the summer months. Jester noted that would be similar to air quality alerts or fire danger levels. She could also see such real-time data being used by schools. Ellis said staff believes it can work after talking to a water treatment plant software vendor and the I.T. Department, and it may be possible to put it in place this summer. Lawton asked if there is merit to separating business and residential. Ellis said many businesses don't have anyone responsible for monitoring water usage. Jester noted she didn't see any items addressing commercial irrigation when water levels are critical. Ellis said most of the irrigation water goes to residential customers. Commercial customers fall under the same watering restrictions as residential customers. Olson thought this might be an opportunity to partner with the Chamber for some kind of liaison on water usage. Lawton asked if there would be merit in tying this into the aquifer levels. Ellis said we are installing two observation wells, and when we see what kind of data we get, we can determine how to share the data. 3. Monthly Residential Billing--Ellis said the City looked at this three years ago and determined it wasn't worth the investment from a financial standpoint. They have hired the firm AE2S to review the assumptions made three years ago. He thought that Item 1 and this item play hand-in-hand. 4. Review of Tiers within Rate Structure--Ellis said Mr. Shrikhande and he have had a number of conversations about this. We currently have a five-tier rate structure. In the winter most customers are in Tier 1,but in summer some of them CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 4 get closer to Tier 5. Staff plans to review the tier structure with the idea that a good structure would be four tiers with 25% of the customers in each. The cheapest water would be in Tier 1, and the cost would move up from there. Olson asked how our rate structure compares to other metropolitan municipalities. Ellis said we are at about the 50th percentile of the 30 cities they polled. Olson said he would like to see us tilt the structure to encourage people to use less water. Ellis said the data came from a study AE2S has been doing for a number of years to compare cities in several states. Every city has a different way of charging for water so it is hard to get a breakdown. He said a representative of the ULI who gave a presentation at the last City Council meeting reported the average water use for the metropolitan area is 109 gallons per day per person. He said Eden Prairie's average is 100 gallons, but we don't have heavy industrial use here. Ellis said they will review the tier structure and will present a final analysis. Shrikhande said it would be good to have a review at the preliminary stages so the Commission could have input. Ellis said he could have AE2S give a presentation to the Commission. 5. Review of Fixed Charge within Rate Structure--Ellis said in the current rate structure a customer pays $4.10 per month as a fixed charge, plus so much per gallon used beyond that charge. Some of the customers who use less water can have the fixed charge make up 50% of their bill. This keeps people from conserving water. AE2S and staff is looking at reducing the fixed charge. We would have to make up for that reduction, probably by redistributing it in the higher tiers. 6. Water Emergency--Ellis said they plan to redo the water emergency plan to make sure the City would be prepared to deal with an emergency. 7. Historical Water Use Data Gatheriniz--Ellis said they want to compare winter and summer usage to better understand the effects of our conservation efforts. Shrikhande asked if any study has been done about sewer water volume in different seasons of the year. Ellis said we don't track sewer water volume for residential customers. Commercial users are required to put a meter on anything within the building and a meter for the lawn irrigation. Shrikhande said, while it would double the meter costs for residential users, we would be able to look at the data for different seasons. Ellis said we have inflow and infiltration coming into the system. Shrikhande thought there was a program to eliminate water from sump pumps going into the City sewer system. Ellis said we did, and it has helped; however, we need to do communication about it every year. 8. Conservation Rebates--Ellis said we offer rebates for appliances, fixtures and irrigation equipment. Last year we budgeted $32,000 for rebates and plan to budget the same amount from here on out. In addition,rebates will be opened for CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 5 pervious pavement installation. Staff put in two rain gardens on City property last year. Lawton noted that should be part of the Green Crawl. 9. Customer Awards--Ellis said they plan to look at recognizing customers who have conserved water. Lawton said it would be great to do case studies on what the customers did. 10. Overwaterinz--Ellis said they are looking at identifying businesses and residential customers that overwater. Olson asked how aggressive the enforcement is. Ellis said we have a water cop who drives around, usually at night, and we also get reports if someone is watering on the wrong day. Bettison asked if the addresses of those who overwater would be made available. Kaczmarek said they are looking at the lot area of properties with high usage to determine the volume used and then to make that data available to customers. Ellis said they want to reach out to people and show how much they could save with water conservation measures. 11. Park and Recreation Department--Ellis said several years ago irrigation systems in some of the parks were retrofitted with smart technology. We determined we could conserve about 30% with that equipment. They have met with the Parks Department to discuss retrofitting the rest of the parks. 12. Installation of Observation Wells--Ellis said the DNR is trying to push this state-wide. The City has a construction contract to complete two observation wells that can collect data, and then we would share the data with other agencies. 13. Native Landscaping on City Property--Ellis said they plan to model this with the utility system sites by tilling up the sod and planting native grasses. Olson noted the Living Green paper has general references to native landscaping, but it would be helpful if residents could contact the City to get guidance on that. Ellis thought there were a couple of staff members that could help with that. Jester noted the website bluethumb.org lists information on the topic. Ellis said he will check that out to see if they could put a link to that on the website. Olson said the City seems to be well on board with native landscaping,but he thought we should be more explicit about the measures to take. Shrikhande thought there could be a team at a Green Crawl site to give demos of soils and examples of what could be done. Ellis said it is important to manage native landscapes after planting so that neighbors don't complain about it. 14. GIS Irrigation Modeling--Ellis said we have not checked into this much. Jester asked if the City is applying for a new well. Ellis said we are not currently applying but expect to in the future with our anticipated population growth. Jester thought we should be a partner with the Met Council's ground water studies. Ellis said that is one reason we are putting in the observation wells. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 6 Shrikhande thought we could report the leakage levels as well as usage levels after implementing the live water treatment plant production display. We could show the difference between what is being pumped out and what is being consumed. Lawton asked that the Commission be updated on what parameters are possible as they progress with the software installation. Bettison thought the topic of water is going to become huge in the years to come. The situation with White Bear Lake brought the topic of water more to the forefront,but she also thought people believe it is just an issue in White Bear Lake. She noted the Commission did a tour of the City's water plant and learned a lot of interesting things about the aquifer that could be packaged and communicated to make people more interested in it. She thought the Public Works Department deserves its own person to talk about water. This is an opportunity for Eden Prairie to really step out and become a leader on this topic. She thought the City should devote some resources to the topic of water. Jester agreed with Ms Bettison, and noted we are not at a crisis point yet but we are getting there. We need to get ahead of it and become a leader for the region. Olson said transparency and accountability are important. In addition he hoped the Commission has an opportunity to see what other communities are doing to deal with this topic to get a better sense of best practices. Jester thought we may need to look at and states to see what they are doing. Bettison said we need to dispel the notion that water is cheap. It will become more expensive and will cost more to deal with it then. C. Green Mid-market Neighborhood Update Rojas said the Commission received a presentation at the last meeting about proposed development on the MnDOT remnant piece at Scenic Heights and Hwy 212. The City released the RFP, and four developers submitted proposals. They interviewed three of the four and asked them for more information. Staff brought the information to a City Council workshop. There will be more information in August. Olson asked if the developers who responded have done business in the City before. Rojas said they have. V. REPORTS FROM CHAIR Olson said he understands the City is at least exploring the possibility of a joint powers agreement with the St. Paul Port Authority for the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program. Rojas said City staff put a hold on exploring CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 7 PACE as it would take a lot of staff time and there was not a lot of business interest. She said Dave Lindahl reached out to the County about managing the program. The County brought a number of cities and the St. Paul Port Authority together and then stepped back. The Finance and Economic Development Departments are taking the lead on looking into a joint powers agreement for PACE with the St. Paul Port Authority. Olson said the Commission would appreciate receiving an update at the next meeting. VI. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION A. LRT Community Advisory Commission (CAC) Update Rojas said there will be an Open House tomorrow from 4:30 to 7:00 PM at City Hall. Lawton asked if there will be a formal presentation. Rojas said it is only an open house. Lawton asked if there is a possibility of fewer than five stations being built in the City. Rojas said it would be a possibility and would depend on the cost of the project. She noted the municipal consent deadline is in the early fall. VII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS VIII. NEW BUSINESS Kaczmarek said he has contacted Matt Bourne about the recycling at Round Lake but has not heard back from him. IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Communication Topics--Website,Life in the Prairie, Facebook, etc. Rojas noted her memo of June 25 updating the Commission on environmental- related education and events in which the City has participated. Olson said the Commission appreciates such updates as a means of better supporting the education efforts. Rojas said she also included the Living Green section of Life in the Prairie. The City wide clean up day was a record event this year. Ms Stovring will have the actual data on weight in the coming months. Jester asked if there is a place to get rid of materials that could be reused, and if the clean-up day might incorporate a reusable materials section. Rojas said she will let staff know about the suggestion. She noted they started collecting bicycles at last year's event. Jester asked if we got the green leaf back on the home page. Rojas said we did not,but she has asked that it be brought back. X. INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS/HANDOUTS CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 8 A. Upcoming City Projects and Development--Project Profile Olson asked about the LSS Data Systems project. Rojas said it is a business by Shady Oak Road. The road construction in that area took part of their parking so this item would provide a waiver to allow them to replace some of that parking. Olson asked about the large acreage for the Reeder Ridge project. Rojas said the project is located on Eden Prairie Road south of the airport. There will be 30 acres of open space for preservation of the bluff area. They are asking for waivers for some of the lot dimensions. They plan to add infiltration in their cul de sac circles. Olson asked if they will give up 30 acres out of the total 78 acres. Rojas said a good part of the property is below the Metropolitan Urban Services Area (MUSA) line, so sewer and water is not available to that part. Olson asked about the background for the Nine-Mile Creek Watershed District development agreement extension. Rojas said that was the Barbara Karwar property. There was a provision in the development agreement that it needs to be acted on in two years so it needs to go back to the City Council for an extension. Bettison asked about the Bryant Lake Property item. Rojas said it is for property south of the lake that has to go through the Guide Plan change process due to a graphics error. It will be changed from parks and open space to low density residential. Homestead Partners is the developer, and they are making the request to change the Guide Plan. Jester asked if the property is owned by the public. Rojas said it is not owned by the City. There is a requirement that the zoning match the comprehensive plan, and the property is currently zoned rural and guided parks and open space. Bettison asked for an explanation of the term "graphics error." Rojas it means that someone colored the map incorrectly. She said she doesn't have a lot of information about it as it just came in. Bettison asked what the next step will be. Rojas said a planner will be assigned to evaluate the application to see if it is complete and to get input from other staff. If it is complete, it will be scheduled for a Planning Commission meeting. Jester asked about the Noterman Property item. Rojas said the Lion's Tap property does not have sewer and water hookup. The owners are proposing to change the MUSA line so they could have sewer and water connected to the property. They are also working with the County on road improvements to the area. There is an opportunity for the Noterman's to purchase or swap land with the County. Jester asked which other properties would change if the MUSA line was changed. Rojas said she was not sure. They would have to show how sewer and water could be extended and would also have to get Met Council approval. B. Life in the Prairie--Living Green XI. UPCOMING CITY EVENTS CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES June 25, 2013 Page 9 Rojas said the Fix-It Clinic will be held August 10 at the Senior Center from 12:00 to 4:00 PM. XII. NEXT MEETING August 13, 2013--Focus: 20-40-15 Update Rojas said she has invited Paul Sticha and Cliff Cracauer to give an update on the 20-40- 15 program. XIII. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Bettison moved, seconded by Lawton, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. Chair Olson adjourned the meeting at 8:45 PM.