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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConservation Commission - 11/10/2015 APPROVED MINUTES CONSERVATION COMMISSION TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015 7:00 P.M., CITY CENTER Prairie Room 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS: Greg Olson (Chair), Laura Jester(Vice Chair), Prashant Shrikhande, Lori Tritz, Amanda Anderson, Gena Gerard STUDENT MEMBERS: Emily Corpuz, Rachel Buckland, Jenna Horner STAFF: Tania Mahtani, Planning Division Leslie Stovring, Environmental Coordinator David Dahle, Engineering Division Jan Curielli, Recording Secretary GUESTS: Becky Copper I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Chair Olson called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Shrikhande, Gerard and Buckland were absent. Horner arrived late. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Jester moved, seconded by Anderson, to approve the agenda as published. Motion carried 4-0. III. MINUTES A. Approval of the Minutes for the October 13 2015 Meeting MOTION: Jester moved, seconded by Anderson, to approve the minutes of the October 13, 2015 meeting as published. Motion carried 4-0. IV. PRESENTERS B. David Dahle—Master Recyclers Program (taken out of sequence) David Dahle, Engineering Department, gave a PowerPoint presentation about the six-week Master Recycler/Composter class he attended recently. He reviewed the purpose and objectives of the course, and noted it was conducted by industry experts. He said the course included field trips and volunteer activities as well as training in waste prevention, recycling, life cycle of waste, composting/organics CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 10, 2015 Page 2 recycling, and hazardous waste. He presented information and tips about recycling and composting. He noted Eden Prairie has started composting at City Hall this month. He reviewed state and county recycling goals, including a goal to have 15% organics recycling by the year 2030. Jester asked if the organics recovery is for curbside or backyard. Dahle replied it is for curbside. Stovring distributed copies of a brochure entitled A Guide to Backyard Composting. Jester asked about the status of the initiative to ban plastic bags in St. Louis Park. Stovring said she did not know where they are at with that. Jester asked if Mr. Dahle had suggestions about how the City could disseminate this type of information or where we might do better at reducing our waste. Dahle suggested there should be more liaisons into the community. Jester noted there will be a new rule in January at the county that all businesses have to recycle, and she asked how the City plans to help businesses with that new rule. Stovring said that is coming from the MPCA,but they are not providing good nor consistent guidance with the program. Jester asked if the rule for recycling at businesses in the Eden Prairie Center will be available just to the businesses or also to patrons of the businesses. Stovring believed it is just for the businesses themselves. Jester suggested the Chamber have someone from the MPCA come and speak about the new rules. Stovring said we do have the means to put information into the newspaper starting in January; however, the program pertains only to certain type of recycling materials. Jester asked if there would be a way to promote the Master Recycling class to the community. Stovring replied it would be a good item for a Facebook post. Dahle said the next class will be offered in the early spring. B. Leslie Stovrins!—Annual Stormwater Permit—Educational Topics Stovring said she is starting to put together the plan for education topics for next year. She asked the Commission to give feedback on the list of potential topics that were included in the meeting packet. The topics will be put into the 2016 Education Plan for stormwater as well as recycling and water conservation education. She distributed copies of three brochures: Green Lawns, Not Green Lakes, Working Together to Protect Stormwater Ponds, and Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination. She has been handing out the green lawns brochure to volunteer groups as they work to clean up leaves and lawn debris. She mails the stormwater ponds brochure to neighborhoods where a property owner has been reported not to be acting responsibly with yard waste near stormwater ponds and wetlands. She plans to update the illicit discharge brochure for the Home Expo event along with another brochure about cleaning up pet waste. She noted Riley- Purgatory-Bluff Creek and Nine Mile Creek Watershed Districts are starting a Master Water Steward program in January 2016. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 10, 2015 Page 3 Jester suggested changing the pollutants box in the stormwater ponds brochure to "Pollutants that should not be washed..." to avoid any possible misunderstanding. She also thought the headline in red regarding the design of stormwater ponds and wetlands should be reworded to avoid any confusion about their purpose. Anderson asked if she wanted the feedback on the topics tonight. Mahtani suggested Commission Members bring their choices to the December meeting. Anderson asked about private wells in Eden Prairie. Stovring said there are quite a few because many people kept the wells for irrigation purposes. Anderson asked if the total number of wells would be big enough to be part of an education program. Stovring replied the watershed districts are interested in doing such a program because they are interested in tracking who has a private well. Anderson asked if the City would educate about what to look for regarding the problem of illicit discharge. Stovring said we could do that, and she always needs items to include in the two Living Green newsletters published during the year. Horner arrived at 7:40 pm. Tritz asked about the size of the problem with illicit discharge. Stovring said one of the biggest problems is people who wash paint brushes in the street. Staff also wants to educate people about draining their pools because those are the two issues about which she receives the most complaints. Stovring asked for suggestions regarding the Home Expo. She noted she did not include the topic of being pollinator friendly in the list of topics and will add that to the list. V. REPORTS FROM STAFF A. 20-40-15 Successor Program Update Mahtani said she received feedback from Commission Members at the last meeting about ranking the four broader goals taken from the Regional Indicators Initiatives (RII) website. She said a staff working group reviewed the feedback and is recommending the successor program be focused on the goal to reduce solid waste and the goal to reduce water consumption. The working group also decided to expand the second goal to include improving water quality. The group is recommending the name of the program be"Sustainable Eden Prairie" because there was feedback that it was difficult to know to what the name "20-40-15" referred. Mahtani said the next step will be to take the feedback from the Commission and the staff working group to the City Council in January or February and present the general scope of the program and the proposed name. After receiving Council CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 10, 2015 Page 4 feedback the next step would be the goals, strategy and implementation phase. She said the Commission will have a key role in that process next year. Jester noted the 20-40-15 program was focused on City functions and asked if the new program will also be focused on community participation. Mahtani believed there will be opportunities for both,but that has not yet been specifically identified. Jester believed that is a very big distinction, and pulling the community together to make a difference is entirely different from a focus on the City's functions. She believed we need specific goals for community participation. Olson said it is important to recognize the Commission will have an important role to play in engaging the public, and it is important that the City Council recognize that. Mahtani said the successor program will also include some energy reduction components because there are still opportunities for improvement in that area. Jester believed the "Sustainable Eden Prairie" title is broad enough to dovetail all the topics together. Mahtani showed six possible logos for the new program and asked for feedback. Jester said she liked the one on the lower left that was in color and had a figure that looked like a water drop. The rest of the Commission concurred. Tritz suggested doing a circular concept for the new goals, such as recycling and composting helps water quality and pollinators. She said it is important for the program to have goals. Jester said we do need quantitative measurements and goals because the 20-40-15 program had very concrete goals. B. 2015 Annual Report Mahtani asked the Commission for feedback on the draft 2015 Accomplishments she included in the meeting packet. She noted this will be used to create the PowerPoint presentation for the City Council at the beginning of the year. Anderson said it is nice to reflect back on what we have done this year. She urged the accomplishments be anchored back to what we planned to do. She would like to see a grid of what we said we would do and what we have accomplished. That would be helpful for the Commission as we lay out next year's plan. Jester said it would be interesting to see the links to our accomplishments. Stovring said Commission Members might be interested in attending the City Council workshop on the Local Water Management Plan next Tuesday, November 17. The watershed districts are interested in knowing if we plan to permit, and staff s recommendation is that we should not do permitting. Tritz said we did spend some time in 2015 on revising our definition of a Minnesota native planting to be in compliance with the DNR recommendation. Stovring said that might be a goal for next year. CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 10, 2015 Page 5 Stovring noted Fire Chief Esbensen liked the sustainable features done around the fire stations and would like to expand to more areas. She thought that would be a good goal to keep going next year. Mahtani asked for suggestions regarding the content of the draft 2015 Accomplishments. Jester suggested that all of the bullets start with the same type of wording, and noted there were a couple of issues regarding tenses. Mahtani said she will play with the format to provide opportunities for tracking. Anderson suggested having a grid adjacent to the descriptions. VI. REPORTS FROM CHAIR VII. REPORTS FROM COMMISSION Tritz asked for any feedback on the graphics she submitted to staff. Mahtani said Mr. Whalen is working on it. Tritz said she spent some time with Nine Mile and Riley- Purgatory-Bluff Creek Watershed Districts to get some suggestions for the water quality graphic. Both of them pointed out there are two points of entry—storm drains and shoreland restoration. She thought the one to concentrate on was storm drains because water from those runs straight to the lakes. There could be handouts developed that would really support the graphics for that. She asked the Commission to provide feedback on the draft she will put out on a Google drive. VIII. REPORTS FROM STUDENTS Corpuz said the Earth Day Retreat/Symposium is still scheduled for April 23, 2016. Mahtani asked her to email additional information as it becomes available. IX. CONTINUING BUSINESS A. Educational Outreach Materials (See Item VII.) X. UPCOMING EVENTS 2016 Joint City Council/Commission Workshop—January 19, 5:00-6:30 pm Mahtani said this will be an opportunity for the advisory commissions and the City Council to have a joint meeting to discuss accomplishments and goals. Olson commented we have two more meetings to pull together the information. XI. NEXT MEETING--December 8, 2015 XIII. ADJOURNMENT CONSERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES November 10, 2015 Page 6 MOTION: Anderson moved, seconded by Tritz, to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried 4-0. Chair Olson adjourned the meeting at 8:12 p.m.