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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 03/09/2022 Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting March 9, 2022 06/12/2019 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER: Andrea Elson, LCSB Chair, called the meeting to order at 8:30 pm 2. ROLL CALL: Board Members Present: Andrea Elson, Chair; Ross Cunniff, Vice Chair; Cole Kramer, Denise Culver, Elena Lopez, Joe Piesman, Vicky McLane, Mike Weber Excused: Alycia Crall NAD Staff: Alynn Karnes, Mary Boyts, Julia Feder, Tawyna Ernst, Katie Donahue, City Staff: Courtney Geer, FC Moves 3. AGENDA REVIEW: No changes to the agenda 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: No citizen participation 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Joe Piesman made a motion to approve the February LCSB meeting minutes. Cole seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved 7-0. Mike Weber abstained from voting as he was not in attendance of the February meeting 6. COMMUNICATION & BOARD MATTERS NEW BUSINESS ACTION ITEMS: Alynn Karnes, Land Conservation Specialist presented the Board with a proposed Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Larimer County to purchase a 675-acre property in the Foothills/Buckhorn/Redstone Priority Area. The County will donate $1,000,000 towards the acquisition and, in return, receive a conservation easement on the 675-acre property and all of Bobcat Ridge Natural Area at final closing. The conservation easement conveyance will encumber a total of 3,280 acres of Natural Areas owned land. The total cost to the City to acquire the 675-acre property and convey the conservation easement is $6,725,000 plus closing and due diligence costs. Discussion: Member Denise Culver asked if the property had been monitored or if any photo points had been completed. Alynn assured that process was more typical for conservation easements and wasn’t sure if any photo points had been completed but offered to inquire. Member Denise Culver asked if an independent assessment had been done to identify any wetlands or specific habitat. Alynn said that once the fee acquisition is closed a baseline report will be conducted that will include all that information for the conservation easement. Katie acknowledged that we had not done a full site inventory, but NAD staff have been out to the property several times. Often NAD has purchased property that needs restoration or work to improve habitat. Staff assured members that the habitat connectivity was highly considered when purchased. The property was platted for development and to conserve this property is a huge benefit to the current natural area already there, Bobcat Ridge Natural Area. A full inventory will take place as part of the property onboarding process. Julia explained DocuSign Envelope ID: E10D9F72-A885-4345-A9F6-4ADA495E26CF Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting/ March 9, 2022 03/09/2022 MINUTES Page 2 there are also water rights related to the property. Member Denise Culver volunteered to assist in the inventory of the property when that time comes. Member Vicky McLane inquired about financing the purchase of the property and whether that would deplete the current land conservation fund. Alynn assured members that money was left over from the previous year that would carry forward to this year that would cover the cost of the purchase. Additional funds are being sought out from various grants that could also fund additional and future properties. NAD Director Katie Donahue explained conversations are taking place with the City and County to identify opportunities to partner on future acquisitions. Demonstrating a partnership with others can also improve future funding with GOCO funds. Member Mike Weber inquired if Natural Areas was still considering selling off a portion of the 675-acre property that contains a residence and event center to expand revenues for future purchases. Natural Areas Director Katie Donahue explained for the specific structure and property the Board is referring to that NAD staff is considering utilizing that structure for future staff housing or facility rental similar to Primrose Studio. Member Cole Kramer agreed the connectivity of this property to Larimer County open space and Bobcat Ridge Natural Area is beneficial for habitat quality and should remain a priority when seeking out future acquisitions. Overall, Board members were in approval of the purchase of the property and in agreement to enter an IGA with Larimer County. Member Ross Cunniff made a motion that City Council approve an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Larimer County to partner on the purchase of a 675-acre property for the Bobcat Ridge Expansion Conservation Project. Member Cole Kramer seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved 8-0. UPDATES: BFO Process Timeline Katie Donahue, NAD Director explained the Budget for Outcomes (BFO) process to Board members. The BFO process is highly tied to the City’s overall strategic plan and priorities. Anything that we allocate money for is tied to a strategic plan goal and City Council’s goals. The way money is allocated and as spent is tied to a m atrix demonstrating how we are accomplishing our goals. The sales tax revenue is closely checked internally, within departments as well as by City Council. Typically, the city is on a two-year budget cycle, budgeting takes a significant amount of time. The last several years due to Covid, the city has been on a one-year budget. NAD is extremely DocuSign Envelope ID: E10D9F72-A885-4345-A9F6-4ADA495E26CF Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting/ March 9, 2022 03/09/2022 MINUTES Page 3 dialed in on the BFO process. The offers and establishing the budget will take the rest of the year. We are working on 2023/2024 budget. There will be several check-ins as our offers go through the process. City Council will approve in early December so NAD can begin to using that budget. Although, our funding is separate and we maintain a specific ballot language we have to follow the same BFO process that other departments use. Most of our budget will remain on track like the past. We will ask for additional resources for land conservation. A lot of the remaining will remain the same as the las t few years. We will also be looking at restoration projects when we do acquire land that needs restoration work. Katie explained that there won’t be a significant change to what we’ve done in the past. Our offers are due at the end of March. Katie will meet with the Community Services Directors to identify overlaps. We’ve been meeting with Utilities because we have a lot of overlap with their work as well. The request will be reviewed by Teams of City Staff, one citizen is on each BFO team and a separate team will be available to look at offers through a Diversity, Equity and Inclusing lens. Revised offers beginning of June will be looked at. NAD will come to the Board next month with a summary of what we are requesting and putting forward. The s ummer will hold a lot of deliberations and then in September it will be handed off to the City Council where City Council members will discuss the offers. City Council will then vote on November 15th and in December we will add that funding and be ready to utilize that funding in 2023, January. Discussion: Member Ross Cuniff suggested that if there was an offer that was below the recommendation of the cut line and the Board felt strongly about it, the Board could certainly submit a memorandum to City Council requesting so. Active Modes Courtney Geary, Active Modes Manager Cortney provided a summary of the goals of Active Modes to include updating and consolidating the 2011 Pedestrian Plan and the 2014 Bicycle Plan, creating a more formal waking program, and laying groundwork for achieving priority bicycle and pedestrian improvements guided by best practices. Active Modes, along with various formed committees and stakeholders are working through prioritization and recommendations. An online map, that was open to the public, gave an indication of where people walk, and bike and areas of concern were identified. Various safety concerns were identified by the teams so those areas will be reviewed. Courtney announced the release of the online map that will identify where active modes is most challenging. Most of those respondents were concerned with specific locations due to a gap or disconnect in the network or they don’t feel safe using active modes there. Next steps will be to make recommendations on the policy programs and DocuSign Envelope ID: E10D9F72-A885-4345-A9F6-4ADA495E26CF Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting/ March 9, 2022 03/09/2022 MINUTES Page 4 infrastructure. In May and June, a draft plan review will take place with an anticipated City Council adoption in August of 2022. Discussion: Member Ross Cunniff recommended that any policy changes should include a safety and enforcement component. Education and enforcement should be included in the network. He agrees there is no enforcement on the soft trails for e-bikes and dogs off leash. Chair Andrea Elson inquired about the pedestrian network and how that will c ome in to play. We currently have a bicycle network. How does the active modes fit in to that? Cortney explained that currently electric scooters are allowed to operate on street and bike facilities and the electric bikes are allowed on paved trails and parks. The other toy devices are only allowed on the sidewalk. We have been getting feedback on that as well. Member Cole Kramer said a lot of folks that work in Fort Collins, don’t call Fort Collins home. Has there been any thought to connectivity outside the GMA area, especially out east? There was another proposed connection off Rock Creek in Fort Collins maybe on Kechter, below Fossil High School. Can you comment on outside the GMA and how we can connect our existing network to future networks. Courtney said the Poudre Trail should be complete in 2024 and recommendations have been made for a separated bike line on Kechter Road. Mulberry will also have a recommendation for a side path, separated form the roadway. Member Joe Piesman suggested when listing the areas of main destination, the most bike intensive area is CSU campus. He suggested adding that area to Cortney’s list of high bike areas. Cortney agreed that CSU and downtown are the highest bike areas. There are currently some suggestions for improvement for the CSU area. Land Conservation Update Alynn Karnes, Land Conservation Specialist reviewed and discussed the initial topic that Dave Myers brought to the Board over the last few months about placing conservation easements on natural areas. Due to the Board’s interest with continuing with this conception, NAD has provided a project charter that includes goals for the project, how we expect to meet these goals and how the project fits in line with the Department’s framework. Alynn reviewed the priority ranking spreadsheet with the Board categorized by foothills, fossil creek, Mountains to Plains, Poudre River, Urban and Montane. The properties were split up by management zones due to location and common ecosystems. Alynn went on to describe how the properties were ranked by staff and how conservation easements were already in process were listed as well. Included in the list were properties co-owned by other departments and agencies. DocuSign Envelope ID: E10D9F72-A885-4345-A9F6-4ADA495E26CF Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting/ March 9, 2022 03/09/2022 MINUTES Page 5 Discussion: Chair Andrea Elson asked the Board to review the conservation easement materials again and suggested discussing the topic at the following meeting in April. Land Conservation Manager Hiring Katie Donahue, NAD Director explained that Alynn and her have been working on the plan for hiring the land conservation manager. Tawnya Ernst and Alynn Karnes are working well together to work with Julia Feder. Katie has spent the last couple of weeks speaking with staff about the organization of land conservation and how the work structure is. The job description is complete and she’s working with Human Resources to get the job posted. She’s hoping to sit down with Board members to get their thoughts on the position. This position requires a lot of relationship building with property owners. Katie will be working with recruiting staff to put together a strategy to identify potential applicants for the position. The posting will also go out on a national level to really get a good list of applicants, reaching out to partner organizations to post the position as well. GOCO Visioning Grant/next steps Katie Donahue, NAD Director reported the GoCo grants committee did not approve the Parks visioning grant proposal. There could be another opportunity to submit another application for the next cycle. Planning and Special Projects workgroup, within NAD, have been discussing other opportunities. Internally there has been discussion with Stormwater. Because it was a visioning grant it was difficult to explain all the pieces. 7. BOARD REPORTS: Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) Update Chair Andrea Elson reported that Mike had provided her a summary of the January meeting, however she left the meeting early as she had a conflict. She was unable to provide his summary. He asked her to report that the BAC finalized their 2022 Workplan and received an update on the City’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Action Plan and had an open forum with CDOT regarding bicycle infrastructure on state highways. In February he attended the Transportation Board meeting. Member Mike Weber reported on the February and March meeting he attended. One monthly meeting was going to be a joint meeting with Transportation Board and heard CDOT updates on Senate Bill 21, which is the massive transportation bill regarding alternative transportation, repairing bridges and other topics. Cortney Geary provided the same presentation that she provided in the LCSB meeting. Apparently, the Idaho Stop Bill, which is the Stop is Yield has been discussed off and on in the BAC for several years. The subject is now before the State of Colorado and the y are talking DocuSign Envelope ID: E10D9F72-A885-4345-A9F6-4ADA495E26CF Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting/ March 9, 2022 03/09/2022 MINUTES Page 6 about making it a statewide law. A memorandum was sent to City Council announcing that the BAC was not in favor of the law and that was based on discussion in 2008 and 2013. The discussion stated that the BAC was against it because it was partially considered a patch work law and community members wouldn’t know exactly what law to follow. That memo went forth without discussion, so the BAC held an emergency meeting to discuss that and then set forth to City Council saying the BAC in indeed in favor of the law, making the Stop as Yield a state law. The BAC is concerned about Safe Routes to School because they are against it. There’s an amendment going through about the law that states it doesn’t apply to kids under 14. The memo basically explains that the BAC is in favor of the law with the amendment that it doesn’t apply to children under 14. Discussion: Member Joe Piesman sat on the BAC for both those years of discussion and the discussion was very lengthy. The state is moving forward with the law, he thought it was a great idea. The police weighed in and had some concerns that if some city’s were adopting the law, it might become confusing, but if it was a state law then it would be across the board and might be more clear. LCSB Member Bios Chair Andrea Elson said the intent is that we have bios on hand to provide to speakers or others that might be interested in seeing Board member’s backgrounds. Andrea offered to put them together. Michelle offered to send out to the Board members once its complete. 1041 Committee Updates Chair Andrea Elson recognized the two groups within the Board that were staying up to date on the 1041 process, Denise and Ross and Vicky and Elena. She asked if anyone had anything to update. Ross had not attended any meetings yet and Denise announced the public release. Vicky announced that Ross and Denise are on the Boards and Commissions Committee. Vicky and Elena are on the City Manager’s Committee that represent the environmental groups. April Board Meeting format Chair Elson announced some members were interested in meeting next month in person. Some members were comfortable meeting in person and others would like to meet with a hybrid option. DocuSign Envelope ID: E10D9F72-A885-4345-A9F6-4ADA495E26CF Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting/ March 9, 2022 03/09/2022 MINUTES Page 7 8. Meeting adjourned: The meeting adjourned at 7:50 ______________________________ __________________ Andrea Elson, Chair Date DocuSign Envelope ID: E10D9F72-A885-4345-A9F6-4ADA495E26CF 4/27/2022