HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/29/2010 - City Plan - Air Quality Advisory Board
Natural Resources Department
215 North Mason
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.221.6600
970.224.6177 Fax
fcgov.com/naturalresources
M E M O R A N D U M
TO: Mayor Hutchinson and Councilmembers
FROM: Eric Levine, Chair, Air Quality Advisory Board
CC: Darin Atteberry, City Manager
Lucinda Smith, AQAB Staff Liaison
DATE: December 29, 2010
SUBJECT: AQAB Recommendations on City Plan
______________________________________________________________________________
The Air Quality Advisory Board has been involved in the Plan Fort Collins process and
discussed it at several meetings in 2010. We previously sent a memo to City Council on
November 10 stating that we had reviewed the air quality policy language in the Plan Fort
Collins draft and that we recommend that the Council adopt the principles and policies as stated.
The Board appreciates the efforts that have been made to coherently integrate transportation,
environment, energy, health and air quality challenges into the updated proposed City Plan.
At our December 20 meeting, the AQAB developed the following two recommendations on City
Plan for your consideration.
1. Add an action to “Implement a Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of Major
Development Projects” to the list of Immediate Actions in the City Plan Action Plan
table.
After reviewing the draft City Plan as well as briefly discussing “The Grove”, a residential
development proposal that proposes to use electric resistive heating for over 600 residential
units, the Board recommends that an item be added to the Immediate Action list of actions to
initiate a process to “Implement a Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of Major
Development Projects.” This action is in support of Policy ENV 11.1 that says the City will
consider scenarios for lowering climate impacts in all major planning efforts that impact
greenhouse gas emissions.
Comment to Immediate Action section of Plan Fort Collins
Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of Major Development Projects
The AQAB recommends that Council find a way to ensure that an integrated, comprehensive,
cross-departmental environmental review be performed by the City prior to approving any
major development action to verify all City plans (i.e. Climate Action Plan, Air Quality Plan,
Green Building, etc.) are fully accommodated. This review would also identify existing
policy gaps and lead to improvement and internal consistency in City plans and codes.
Motion passed unanimously 8-0-0.
2
2. Modify street over-sizing fee to support transit and develop a more sustainable way to
fund street maintenance.
When discussing critical needs for transportation funding and recognizing that a new
transportation paradigm is needed to address critical issues such as climate change, peak oil and
an aging population, the board recommends that the street over-sizing fee be made available to
transit as well, not just road capacity building and that a tax or fee be used to cover all the cost of
long-term street maintenance.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for the opportunity to
provide input into City Plan.
Recognizing that the City cannot build its way out of transportation issues, or even properly
maintain our current system, transportation policy should include:
o Street oversizing funds should be modified to include public transit as the means
to meet capacity demand for development and to
o Develop a sustainable tax/fee strategy to cover the long-term costs of street
maintenance and operations.
Motion passed unanimously 8-0-0.