HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/19/2023 - Natural Resources Advisory Board - Agenda - Regular MeetingAGENDA CITY OF FORT COLLINS· BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
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Natural Resources Advisory Board
REGULAR MEETING - July 19, 2023
Location: 222 Laporte, Colorado Room & Zoom: https://fcgov.zoom.us/j/94115567733
6:00 CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL
1.AGENDA REVIEW
2.COMMUNITY MEMBER PARTICIPATION
3.APPROVAL OF MINUTES-MAY
4.NEW BUSINESS
6:10 -6:30 Sustainable Funding Revenue Measures
Ginny Sawyer (Policy and Project Manager)/ Travis Starin {Chief Financial Officer) will provide
context and background on two potential November ballot measures to raise awareness amongst
board members prior to August 15 (if referred to ballot staff can no longer proactively
present/discuss). City Council will discuss at July 25 Work Session. (Discussion)
6:30 -7:10 Oil and Gas Operational Standards (Operations at Existing Wells)
Cassie Archuleta (Air Quality Program Manager) will provide an update regarding current oil and
gas operations and potential for additional regulations in Fort Collins in advance of a Council Work
Session scheduled for September 12. (Discussion)
7:10 -7:50 Oil and Gas Reverse Setbacks (New Development Near Existing Wells)
Kristie Raymond (Environmental Planner) will seek feedback on development standards for oil &
gas. Known as "reverse setbacks" these standards we last updated in 2018 and are organized in the
Land Use Code. The City of Fort Collins currently requires new residential lots be a minimum of
2,000 feet from all oil and gas facilities. This process seeks to update the reverse setback
development standards to reflect recent changes in state regulations and lessons learned over the
past 4 years. Staff is seeking a recommendation from the board ahead of City Council's First
Reading of an Ordinance on September 5. (Action)
5.OTHER BUSINESS / UPDATES
•Board Member Reports
•Six Month Calendar Review https://www.fcgov.com/cityclerklplanning-calendar.php
•Revisit action items from previous meetings & preview of next meeting
City Websites with Updates:
•Natural Resources Advisory Board webpage: https:llwww.fcqov.com/citvclerklnatural-resources.php
•Our Climate Future: https:llourcitv.fcqov.comlourclimatefuture
6.ADJOURN
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Natural Resources Advisory Board
REGULAR MEETING
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 – 6:00 PM
Remote
1. CALL TO ORDER: 6:07 PM
2. ROLL CALL
a. Board Members Present –
Danielle Buttke
Bryan David
Kevin Krause
Dawson Metcalf (Chair)
Barry Noon
Kelly Stewart (Vice Chair)
Matt Zoccali
b. Board Members Absent –
Lisa Andrews
Drew Derderian
c. Staff Members Present –
Honoré Depew, Staff Liaison
Julie Pignataro, Councilmember, NRAB liaison
Jason Graham, Utilities Water Director
d. Guest(s) –
None
3. AGENDA REVIEW
4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
a. Dawson motioned and Kelly seconded to approve the NRAB May minutes as
amended. Motion carried unanimously. 7-0
6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
7. NEW BUSINESS
a. Council Liaison Discussion – Councilmember Julie Pignataro (liaison to
NRAB) joined the board for introductions and general discussion of NRAB
work plan and Council/community priorities (Discussion)
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Discussion | Q + A
Dawson – Q – This board typically writes quite a few memos
throughout the year. Just curious from your opinion and perspective if
that is really the most effective way for us to contribute. Julie – A – I
think that’s a great question and I think every board is very different.
We do not get a lot of memos from the Golf Board or some of these
other boards and some have very different functions as well. I have
also been, since I have been on Council, the liaison to the Air Quality
Advisory Board. That board and this board are extremely high
functioning is how I call it. Yes, your memos are super effective. I
know you may not see that feedback. I think all seven of us up on the
dais obviously make decisions differently and so for some they need
more than others. I personally lean very heavily on our boards and
commissions, as the purpose is to be a separate body from Council
to help inform us. As far as the memos go, I think yours have been
just the right length. I’ve seen some that are a little too short and
some more often that are way too long. I did have to coach the Air
Quality Advisory Board a little bit earlier this year. I was like don’t
bother telling us what we’re doing right because it was a six-page
memo they sent us. Your board has been very good about sending
things in a timely manner and I credit that to your staff liaison to
knowing what’s going on. I know this isn’t part of your question, but I
just can’t help talk about it. We have a new Ad hoc boards and
commissions committee with me, Emily Francis, and Tricia Canonico
and we are tackling a lot of these things. I had a list four pages long
in this notebook about things I wanted to change about the boards
and commissions or things that need standardization, things to really
help move the process. I took a lot of those from how well this board
functions as well as the Air Quality Advisory Board. A big piece of that
is having a liaison that’s plugged in and knows what’s going on at the
Council level and is organized enough to know what’s coming so you
are not rushed to have to write a memo. Like oh they are going to be
talking about this next week and we don’t have a meeting.
Unfortunately, that happens more often than people like. So as part of
this I think there will be liaison training which will be very helpful.
Chair training as well; I did have one board fall apart because the
Chair didn’t do a very good job, unfortunately. Dawson – Comment –
I think that is really great information for us to think about potential
changes that come down the road and everything as well for us just
from a procedural standpoint. Kevin – Comment - If you want to
engage on that subject, I think just some bouncing feedback back to
you in route for 4 years I think that is great to have the training
because everyone walks in and there is nothing upfront. I commend
that; that is going to be very cool. I know it’s more overhead, but
function will kick into gear. Julie – Comment – Well you should see
the overhead we need when a problem occurred. So hopefully it’s
proactive and preventative in that way.
Julie – Q – Another thing we tried to do is three years ago we
instituted the one-year terms. What we were trying to do is make it
not seem like a huge commitment because all they had was four-year
terms at that time and hopefully get more young people involved. Like
if you were a student here or about to graduate but what the
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unanticipated consequences of that were the need to interview
constantly and there were some other administrative things
happening in the Clerk’s Office that made things really bad for a
while. Did you guys always have quorum, or did you have a problem
there? Kevin – A – We did maybe once or a couple times, but we still
have been functioning. Julie – Comment – So I think we will be
getting rid of those one-year terms. We will still have two- and four-
year terms and as Bryan knows we are not going to come after you if
you don’t serve out your term. Life happens. So hopefully that will
help some too with longevity everyone can still do it for 8 years total
but shouldn’t have to interview all the time.
Matt – Q – I’m pretty new to this. I am learning how it goes. I believe
in this board having autonomy and you know individuality about the
things we look at, the perspective we bring, and I also think it’s
important for me to understand what keeps you up at night about
these subjects that maybe we have an influence on or impact or
provide input towards. Julie – A – That is a great question, Matt. In
the environmental space, what keeps me up at night is making sure
that there are not unintended consequences to what we are doing.
We do hold a lot of power locally and so for some of the things we did
like putting in the plastic bag ban on the ballot was huge and thinking
really long and hard about the unintended consequences for possibly
the disabled or whatever it meant, if it was an equity thing and trying
to keep that in mind. That is just one kind of extreme example.
Another think I really pushed as a priority, and it did go through was
that the City now refers to it as a climate emergency and there was
some feedback that certain groups of people find that it didn’t
translate well and so it was kind of offensive to call it a climate
emergency. That was such a weird one for me because it was such a
no brainer and trying to empathize with that and realize what that
meant.
Barry – Comment – Some of the perfectives I have is that your
workload must be phenomenal, and you were talking about how you
appreciate a short memo. I totally get that. Where I think it becomes
difficult and I guess this is where you must really rely on staff. So, if
you are dealing with any sort of environmental assessment
document, they are never short and often the key things are buried
deep into these documents and I am thinking explicitly of Northern
Water and their so called mitigation or enhancement plan. All the
caveats about flow maintenance and peak flows start at about page
92 and there are so many conditions that have to be met before
there’s any obligation for so called mitigation to occur. You really
don’t get to these key things unless you put the hours into reading
these documents and I am wondering how you, because there’s so
many issues you deal with and I’m going to guess they are all quite
similar but often you really have to go into the weeds or you’re going
to be tricked into believing something that is simply not true. Julie –
Comment – That is a great point, and I’ll talk about it in a bigger
philosophical way first and that’s when I first started on Council, there
is an expectation from some that you know everything about
everything that comes to you. We get 500-to-1,000-page packets
every Tuesday night and learning how to trust staff. If we were a full-
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time council that might be a different story which is more like what the
commissioners are what we have in Denver proper which is this is
their daytime job as well. I can see that the expectations are more but
setting those expectations for the public is kind of something I’ve tried
to do but also assuring them that I have the skills to know when to
dive deep. That is something that took at least the first two years to
figure out. When something comes forward with NISP and we get that
entire technical document as part of our packet to read, that’s where
if it’s something that, I’m not a scientist, I may need some extra help. I
can always set a meeting with someone on staff and say let’s walk
through this and make sure on a whole separate level make sure that
staff understands clearly what Council’s, not expectation but feeling is
about a certain thing. So, I’ll use minimum wage as an example which
did not pass last night. That is something that at the beginning
Council was not clear in saying we want to raise the local minimum
wage. So, staff spent almost a year approaching it of let’s research
and see if raising the minimum wage is a good idea here or not. So
that is kind of a lesson learned for future is when we come up with a
priority, we need to make sure staff understands what the intent is.
So going back to the climate emergency language at the beginning
staff was like we are going to need $30,000 to do a study and we
were like no, just do it. Just change the words you are using. I asked
a lot of questions about when did you switch from global warming to
climate change? Was there even a process or did it just happen
gradually? That is what we are asking for, is this next evaluation of
words. I know that doesn’t directly answer what you were asking but it
is like a science and an art to figure out what to spend your time to
read. There are certain technical things that I will glaze over and
highlight. I don’t know if you watch Council often, but I do tend to ask
a lot of questions because there are things I know I could spend ten
hours reading and still not understand. I’ll be like ill just ask that
question instead. Barry – Comment – Just recently on the May 2nd I
gave an oral testimony about the wholeness project and for the 9th I
submitted written testimony that was quite detailed where I went line
by line from the approved mitigation plan and pointed out specifically
the language in there that are all these caveats and conditions, some
of which will probably never be met. I shouldn’t go off, but you can go
through the entire approved EIS on a word search for climate change,
you won’t find it. The science is horrific. You can’t get there unless
you dig deep and how can you possibly do that given the scope of
issues that you’re involved in. Julie – Comment – In that case, I
happened to go through the Water Literary Leaders’ class while I was
campaigning and then after I was selected, which I learned a lot
about water law and that sort of thing. Actually, three of us have gone
through that class now on Council so that is great because we have
that history. But knowing that part of the decision we were making
about the 1041, it wasn’t necessarily related/about NISP it was about
how we’re going to protect our natural areas from federal and state
level projects. Even though that stuff is important, it is kind of
separating that because, as I said up there on the dais, NISP project
showed us a flaw in our process, but we are not creating 1041 to try
and stop a particular project, it just showed us that flaw.
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Danielle – Q – Along those same lines, we have a lot of scientists on
this board which I think is fantastic and we do get into really technical
deep discussions in our meetings. Are meeting minutes something
you reference or is a situation we should probably go if we feel really
strongly if there are very specific nuance details probably go testify in
person, send additional comments, and/or structure our memo in
such a way to really highlight specifics that may get lost otherwise?
Julie – A – So a couple different things there. Yes, structure the
memo in a way that makes sure your point’s clear. So, when I say
short, I don’t mean lacking in anything I just mean to the point. And
then yes, and sometimes they include the minutes in our meeting
packets if it’s relevant to the decision we’re making. That happens
most of the time with planning and zoning. The thing about testimony
is it helps but one thing this Ad hoc Boards and Commissions
Committee is doing is, and I am not sure if its going to be encouraged
or mandated, that when people speak or email Council and are on a
board or commission, they need to say if they are representing the
whole board. They need to call out that they are on the board and say
if they are representing the opinion of the board of if they are just
there by themselves, which you totally can do. It is just a clarity thing
because there have been some things construed in the past. I am
happy to hear you guys read your minutes instead of just glazing over
that part of the agenda because I heard you say you had some
adjustments, so nice work there. Good job being thorough.
Danielle – Q – You mentioned affordable housing when you
introduced yourself and again, I am just so proud and impressed with
what the City has been able to accomplish in terms of really looking
at these tough issues and trying to address them at the root causes. I
think the messaging around some of these initiatives, however, was
not as spot on as it could have been, and we saw the public backlash
to that in terms of some miscommunication that people against these
policies put forward and that I think really confounded some of the
specifics and the intent. Moving forward are there lessons learned for
communication, public engagement, etc., with some of these issues
and/or what are the next steps there and how do we support you?
One of the things we talked about in our last meeting is that people
often weigh the status quo versus these changes which is a fallacy
because we know the community continues to grow, the climate crisis
continues to worsen, economic inequality continues to worsen, and
so it’s not the status quo versus these changes. It’s a future
projection where all these factors will impact our quality of life and
having more control over some of these policies. Julie – A – As far as
lessons learned from that whole thing, there’s a lot to unpack. The
decline in media and the quality of media locally is not helpful. And
then groups not meeting where you might normally have gotten
information like say, you would go to church and someone would say
hey you heard they’re working on the Land Use Code; just those
conversations are not happening anymore and I think we’re still trying
to figure out how to communicate coming out of the pandemic,
especially as more people work remotely and as we do with different
things remotely. So, the lesson learned there was to be more vigilant.
I have one on ones with the City Manager each month and I talk to
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her about what the Communications Department is or is not doing
differently because when we live in a time where so many people get
their news from social media; how do you fight misinformation or
disinformation and then get your message out and not get it lost in
everything that is out there? I don’t think anyone has that answer so
I’m hoping now specifically with the Land Use Code, the City has
done a ton of outreach sessions and I’ve met with a lot of people one
on one which is my preference, because I think that when you meet
in groups, sometimes voices tend to get drowned out. So, I think we
are all hearing very similar things about the different, what I am
calling the different buckets of issues that people face, are thinking,
projecting or, imagining. It’s all different. One thing that was definitely
lost was the environmental benefits of multi-family housing, the
environmental benefits of a duplex as opposed to a single-family
home. For me, I stuck so much with the air quality stuff because so
many people drive in and that got lost in the discussion. I hope we
come back to that. It’s interesting because we got so much done in
these two years and in my opinion, I am amazed and thrilled, and I
think maybe we moved too fast and so nobody caught up with us. I
was telling the Mayor today, because we also meet one on one each
month and I was like you know, as you guys talk in leadership
planning, it is okay if some things don’t get done because I watched it
and experienced it the first two years I was on Council where at the
end, everything’s coming to a head. You are doing all these huge
things at the end of a two-year term and things can get missed and it
can be really bad. So, I hope that is helpful. Danielle – Comment – It
is, and I think the environmental benefits, public health benefits, the
surge in General’s Loneliness Report just came out, community
benefits, the climate, resilience benefits, mutual aid and communities,
there’s so many benefits there and so I think there’s a lot of
opportunity. Let us know how we can help support that. You know
we’ve written memos in the past, but I think we have expertise and
passion here that can help articulate some of those points if it would
be helpful. Julie – Comment – Thank you. I would say for now, I
mean your community conversations with your neighbors because
what you are fighting, and this is not my own idea but what someone
said is what you are fighting is someone else’s imagination and that is
a hard thing to disagree with someone on and explain the data shows
that no one is going to come and scrape the house next to you and
build a triplex because that doesn’t make sense. You live in
Clarendon Hills. That is not how they see it. It’s still very different so I
think the conversations have helped. I know they’ve helped me and
the people I have met with. Sometimes, you just know you’re
never…like someone patted my arm and said I’m sorry when she
learned I lived in a split-level house, and I was like I don’t think we are
ever going to really see eye to eye. So that is okay, thanks for
listening to me and I listen to you and now we will purpose. Honoré –
Comment – This board has had a couple of conversations with the
planning team, Noah Beals and Meaghan Overton over the last ten
months. Julie – Comment – Okay, good. I am eager to see how this
goes and if we decide to put things to a vote. I have no idea. I am
glad no one asked me what are you guys going to do because I really
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have no idea. Honoré – Q – Is the plan to do something before the
end of this Council’s term though? Julie – A – I hope so but then
again, if it’s going to be rushed then no, which is a gamble. I mean
the thing I love about elections is you get immediate feedback. Even
though it’s kind of a win, lose thing, it is the way things go.
Kevin – Comment – I think the point of the imagination is like there’s
a real art in the storytelling side of it, and we’re all running our own
stories. So, how do you tell and show that story instead of showing
more of the nuts and bolts of the thing you want to accomplish. I think
to your point, how do you do that, where do you do that? But I think it
is those conversations, hearing those concerns, and figuring out how
to arm everyone with the same chapters in their story that they’re
forgetting about. For example, to build up their knowledge. I like how
you framed that as well. Julie – Comment – Well remember too
because most of you are in the science field, you can’t always talk to
everybody that way either right? Kevin – Comment – So I guess I
mean more like what we were talking about last meeting, it’s not a
choice of the same or the alternative. You’re imagining. There are
more layers to what you need to imagine with respect to will your
street still feel safe because there are more cars on it. There are a lot
of very similar examples that you have to go there and it’s easy for
everyone to imagine what they know in their world today. For
example, if you think parking is hard now, or whatever resonates and
also ties into that reality. It is going to be hard to park because
everyone has to. There’re more people that need to drive that area.
There’re so many layers that you just have to deal with and have
those sub storylines available to at least put out there for each
version of everyone else’s story. It’s hard but that is why we are here
because we know it is needed. So, I guess more ideas on how to do
that effectively. I guess that goes into my question when it comes to
priority setting, it feels like that’s a really important time to plug in but
your feedback on that, for our board or for the public when you all
come in with these ideas like you said, you want to pack everything
into this time that you have, at least that you know you have to start
to engage at that level in person because just in other conversations,
I’ve been told that it can have a huge impact where, if you engage
effectively at that moment versus just what’s in your head. Julie – A –
That is a great question. As a board you could because of the new
cadence for elections which is going to have so many benefits, even
though I was dead set against it. I was the only one, but I felt like I
was voted in for four years and eight months. I was with it for four
months and it was a disservice to my opponents’ future or past to get
a bonus of eight months, but the vote is a vote. You could start on it
before then, but you will know in early November who will be on
Council. They won’t start until January. You can provide a memo prior
to the first strategic weekend, which I would assume would be
somewhere in mid, possibly late January, they try to do it really
quickly, of priorities you would like to see. On a personal level outside
of your board stuff, if you have someone who is in a district, which is
2,4,6, and the mayor, which is everybody, I feel like you should feel
free to reach out to their campaigns and say just so you know I am
one of your constituents and I think this should be a priority. The thing
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about the whole priority setting, I call it the priority setting weekend
but that’s just how I’ve experienced it. When I came in my first time, I
didn’t really know what was going to happen that weekend and
someone said just bring a list of stuff that is important to you, and we
talk about it. Well, I did not realize that this is a weird game in some
ways. Mayor Troxell at the time came in and everyone puts their
ideas on yellow sticky notes, and he did like 40 of them and I’m sitting
here like I don’t know. He had very specific things. So, from that day
forward, I started a list for the next two years, being in term four
years, and then when we had our priority weekend the second time,
so that was with this Council now, they started talking about changing
the process and I was like no I am so ready this time. I had a
document, I had my reasons, I had worked on it for two years and
then I’ve done the same thing these last two years, so I am ready to
roll. Because I was so prepared last time, I’m thrilled to say that I
think I came forward with maybe 30 or so priorities, ten of them were
kind of already in process, and I believe 17 of them are part of our 31
priorities. I hate to make it sound like a numbers game because it is
important, but I do feel like being prepared and then having my
reasons helps tremendously. Kevin – Comment – So maybe for us,
that we are thinking in November timeframe that we are getting
something together that we want to push out in that January
timeframe because if you said someone else coming in new maybe
they’ve got a shortlist and can also pull from that. Julie – Comment –
I think that would be great.
Julie – Q – Well Thank you. First of all, I do appreciate your memos
and I know you send them to me and staff and its very effective to
make sure they get included in the appropriate packets, so that is
great. Thank you for your hard work. I am not sure what the cadence
of the annual plan is. When does that happen? Honoré – A – I know
the annual report is due in January from the prior year and then the
work plan is pretty much February or March. Julie – Comment – I
can’t remember they usually send them to me in bulk for all the
boards and liaisons and I love reading through those. I just want to let
you know we do read these. Even though we are not getting back to
you all the time, we do read them. It’s part of our job. So thank you.
Danielle – Comment – That might be another place for us to put
priorities as well if they are read. Julie – Comment – Yes, let me give
you that caveat, I read them. I will put it that way. I can’t dictate what
other people do.
b. Regional Water Update – Jason Graham, Utilities Water Director, shared
about the water supply and storage challenges faced by the Fort Collins
community, as discussed by City Council at a May 9th work session. The
discussion provided an overview of the Fort Collins Utility’s water system;
water supply challenges including drought, growth, and the Colorado River
Compact; current water storage projects; and the City’s role as a regional
partner with other water service providers in Northern Colorado ( Discussion).
Discussion | Q + A
Bryan – Q – Has the City looked at augmenting any of its depletions
on the West Slope out of priority? Jason – A – We have not; not to
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my knowledge. Bryan – Comment – I know some participants are
looking at that now. Jason – Comment – To my knowledge we have
not looked at it.
Jason – Comment – So Councilmember Pignataro asked if it
correlates with I-25, to go from south to north and nobody has ever
asked that, observed that but I have not gotten to that. Bryan – Q –
So it is only owned an operated by those cities? Jason – A – Greeley
is not up there, and Greeley has a lot of water storage. They are
tricky to divulge that information and how they account for it is not
really clear. I think they account for some aquifers and agriculture.
They have some different storage items that are hard to match up on
a graph like this. But I ask that question every time; I wish I had
Greeley’s number up here. I think that would be good.
Barry – Comment - I have been sending them (comments) in for
years in a lot of details. I don’t consider Northern Water to be an
honest broker, not even close. The CPW Mitigation Enhancement
plan should have never been approved. Then as I indicated, and I
wrote this up for the County Commissioner, so I have all this
documented. I have been working on reviewing all the draft
environmental impact statements all the way through the final, all the
mitigation plans. I am currently reviewing the Halligan mitigation plan
so I don’t have comments on that. It is interesting to go back to the
history of what the City of Fort Collins has done. In 2014, they
contracted with the Water Center and physical and biological
researchers, professors at CSU to develop the ecological response
model. That model already found the river to be impaired. That was
followed up by another City project the Poudre River Report Card in
2017 and that gave the river a grade of C and they concluded in that
report that the river could not sustain any further decreases in flow,
peak flows, and minimum flows during the summer. That was
followed up in 2020 by a peer-reviewed scientific publication of with
seven of the nine authors are CSU professors. Many of them involved
in the ecological response model and I will quote from their
conclusion in that paper: “changes from proposed additional water
development would essentially ensure that general and long-term
decline in Poudre River, aquatic and repairing ecosystem functions.”
So that are resources right here in town. People who are world
scholars in riverine ecosystems this was work done and
commissioned by the City and it’s as if the City has no memory of this
work that’s already been done. For Northern to claim that you can
enhance a river that has 62% of its flow already diverted by taking
more water out defies common sense. Its BS frankly and it doesn’t
match up with critical peer-reviewed scientific evaluations of the
status of the Poudre River. There are also other things that are not so
much in my area of expertise and knowledge but building dams and
reservoirs is really antiquated technology. You have incredible
evaporation loss and that is going to accelerate as climate warms and
recent work done by the EPA has also found that reservoirs are
highly significant source of methane emissions, so they exacerbate
climate change. None of these are in the environmental impact state,
none of this stuff. It is as if the science doesn’t exist, as if this river
hasn’t been studied for decades. The CSU Water Center for some
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reason doesn’t engage politically but if you read the work of Brad
Udall, their lead scientist, and you mentioned about how much water
we get through CBT, that is in serious decline. That puts more
pressure on taking water from the Poudre and those flows are also
declined and being exacerbated. I don’t know how you could possibly
think that you can increase demand when you have declining
availability. All you have to do is look at the data. There is an amazing
amount of data out there and its pie in the sky. To simply say that
they can mitigate, you can’t. I commented on their adaptive
management plan too. So, they must not have read any of the theory
of adaptive management. Adaptive management means you don’t
preclude any options that you may need to visit if you make an error.
Well, if you build a 1.2-billion-dollar dam that has a capacity, and I bet
it would never be filled ever, that’s larger than Horsetooth, that’s your
reversible. You can’t practice adaptive management because you
can’t revisit it. It is a permanent transformation of the environment
and the landscape. I could go on; I mean there is so much flawed in
this NISP project, and they are pulling wool over people’s eyes. The
big thing they are talking about is maintaining minimum flows in the
summer of 15-25 CFS. Well maintaining minimum flows is a big thing,
but the way to deal with that is not to have 60% of the water owned
by ditch companies and being diverted right when you come out of
the canyon. There is no way you can have recreational activity at 15
to 25 CFS. There is no way you could float a tube down there; you
would have to have a pad on your butt, and you wouldn’t even float.
The white-water park isn’t going to be used. You are not going to
inundate the flood plain. You’re not going to recharge the aquifers. I
could go on. One thing we do know is we know how rivers and
streams work. The science is phenomenally strong, and we know the
things you can’t do to them and sustain them as a river. So, I think
the whole NISP thing should be thrown out; It’s flawed, it’s
misleading, and I don’t think they are honest brokers. That is my
opinion. Jason – Comment – I appreciate that. My comment back or
challenge would be from a water standpoint or City standpoint, how
do we take everything you just said, and you are by far more of an
expert than I am but they have received all this permitting that has
been reviewed. They do have approval and we provided feedback
similar to yours and similar to that whole process. There is a cross
functional team of skilled people in the City that have done this,
dissected it over the last 20 some years. Council’s official position is
opposing this so I mean it’s not like we’ve done this dance with them
for the last 20 years to make sure that we are doing everything we
feel is responsible to address everything you just said and yet they
still got to where they are at. So how do we take it from where its at to
continue to mitigate or continue to I don’t know the answer. Barry –
Comment – It’s a total loss to me to how the City is where they are
at. When I mentioned 2014 Ecological Response Model, 2017 the
Poudre River Report Card where they give the river a C and say if
there are any more changes to the flow regime it will go even worse.
That’s work done by the City. It is as if it’s been ignored. And then the
peer reviewed publication by the core of the scientists here at CSU to
develop the Ecological Response Model and I read their conclusion.
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Do people not read these things? Jason – Comment – The City
doesn’t own the water. We don’t own everything; we don’t control
everything. So, we need to reconcile. How do we take all of that and
do it? Barry – Comment – That is why the 1041 has potential.
Because what it can do is keep the infrastructure from NISP outside
the City, it can change that retake which occurs around Mulberry and
Lemay. What is going to happen to the rest of the river, all the natural
areas, CSU Environmental Learning Center, our contributions as it
goes into Greeley? It is a re-uptake. How about the designation by
the US Congress in 2009 to say that the Poudre River is a natural
heritage area? Nine miles of that natural heritage area lies within the
bounds of Fort Collins. Has anyone thought about that because the
1041 set was put in place in 1974 to sustain the environment in
Colorado and it gave local municipalities, at different scales, the
ability to have regulatory bounds/powers beyond the boundaries and
that is something that it seemed like the legal service is here for the
City. I watched a video of a meeting with developers, I don’t know
how much of the Council was there and I couldn’t even believe that
the legal council for the City wasn’t aware that there’s been three
Colorado Supreme Court tests of 1041 Law and sustained the law’s
ability to regulate beyond the bounds of the municipality that’s
involved. We are downstream of Glade, so how can Glade, if it gets
built, not affect the City because it’s water flows downhill. I could go
on. I am sorry, I have been working on this for ten years and I can’t
believe all this BS they are saying about how they are going to make
the river better. I have quotes here, and one of the things I sent to
City Council for some of their meetings, quotes that they said, they’re
going to enhance and improve the river. Does that mean all the
scientists over at CSU who study the physical and biological
components, world known scholars in their field, that what they’re
saying is wrong and somehow Northern Water is right. I don’t think
so. This City would not be here if it weren’t for the Poudre. The
Poudre is the heart and soul of this City. And then climate change,
you read an environmental impact statement 1,500 pages or
whatever it is, you do a keyword search, its like climate
change…what? It’s like come on. Right away someone would lose
their credibility. If they submitted that for a graduate degree, in their
dissertation I’d fail them. What a joke. Anyhow, I will stop. Kevin –
Comment – We don’t want you to.
Matt – Q – You mentioned Mulberry, and there were possibilities with,
my understanding is that there’s water rights issues where you have
to put water back into the river after Mulberry and if you ride by
Mulberry on bike right now you smell effluent. The river is pretty much
Mulberry effluent. So, what would be the mitigation or what would
change with Mulberry as one of the solutions you had up on the
board? Maybe I interpreted that wrong. Jason – A – So there is a
water rights that we need to put in, I think it is five CFS from the
Mulberry facility. We have not met that simply because there is not
that much water going into the Mulberry treatment facility. So, we
don’t have that much water, for whatever reason that is going into the
Mulberry facility so we put in about two and a half and we have to
notify our downstream users and make sure we’re not harming them.
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The cool thing about the wastewater system is Mulberry is directly
tied to the Drake water reclamation facility. So, the Drake water
reclamation serves as redundancy for the Mulberry facility. Drake
rated 23 MGD. We only treat about 12-13 MGD so we have capacity
to shut Mulberry down and take that flow to Drake. From an
operational standpoint it makes sense. It is carbon limited at the
Drake facility so the biological process would do better with that
carbon coming to the Drake facility without having the Mulberry
facility upstream. So, there are operational reasons to do it. We have
talked about it as a wastewater utility for several years and so that is
one potential thing to talk about potentially the effluent into the river, if
that wasn’t there, head of clay is built and homestead is a natural
area we don’t want to impact. Could we float more river water down
to the Timnath Canal and pull off there where there is already existing
infrastructure. That would lessen the impact on other natural areas.
Matt – Q – So you would bypass Mulberry and send it to Drake but
run more water out of Glade down the channel? Jason – A – That is a
possibility. You just wouldn’t have to take it off before. Barry –
Comment – I could read you also all the caveats about whether that
augmented flow, flow augmentation will ever occur. Number one on
the key is it will never occur until there is full build out. Second, this is
in the mitigation report starting on page 92, it will never occur unless
it’s at least 72% full. It will never occur unless the minimum purchase
selling a 40,000-acre fee happens. That is the market allows them. I
could go on. There’s more. This all appears that we’re going to do
this great instream augmentation, low flow augmentation. Important?
Absolutely. But it’s all the “buts”. And it’s like whoever approved that
mitigation plan didn’t do their work. They simply didn’t do it. Those
should have been red flags. As soon as I started studying and
commenting on the mitigation plan, for my comments to the army
core, I couldn’t believe it. It’s like wait a second, this probably will
never happen. And if it does happen, it’s going to be decades after
that dam is built, full build out, 72% full. You look at climate change,
you look at declining flows, you look at what’s happening to the
Colorado River. What’s the chance they are going to reach 72%.
Another big thing, all the recreational benefits. Well, you are not going
to be able to launch a boat there. I would argue the last thing we
need is more motorized recreation. We certainly don’t need that.
Those are my opinions. Sorry, this stuff is important. All life, not just
us, all life depends on water, and we need to think about the rest of
life too, not just ourselves.
Matt – Q – Barry, I don’t know if this is a debate and I certainly am not
going to step into the ring with your knowledge, but I am just curious.
We have more and more people pouring into Colorado, and they
need water. So, I understand everything you are saying and it feels a
little bit like we’re looking in the rear view mirror with that. So, what
are the potential solutions? Do we limit growth? Barry – A – Yes, limit
growth right there. Danielle – Comment – I think this is where we
look to those lower basin states. We have already seen in Arizona,
communities that were built that no longer have water. We have
multiple landowners, agricultural development etc., that no longer
have access to water. That’s absolutely critical for people to live
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there. We have the salt and sea in California, right? A huge
development that was built that’s completely abandoned because
they no longer have access to water. I think it’s really interesting. Two
things, one was that you said there’s a 20-year mega drought. A
drought is a negative deviation from the expected norm. This is not a
drought; this is the status quo under the climate crisis and we need to
change our terminology because we have to get used to this reality.
We saw it in this last year. The combined crises of climate change
and inequity, which is a cause. Climate change is caused by this
inequity that requires constant consumption, has meant that last year
we didn’t see our expected growth. There is a problem with assuming
one potential future, especially when we have so much uncertainty as
the climate crisis. We are probably not going to see a lot of that
growth under the current economic situation, under the compounding
biodiversity and climate crises, and under all the really significant
impacts we’re going to see because of the climate crisis here from
wildfires to heat. We are at extreme risk of really significant heat in
Colorado because we don’t have the urban tree canopy because we
don’t have the water to support that. So, when we have the urban
heat island impacts, it can have really significant impacts here,
particularly for the higher elevation communities where you are at
higher risk of cardiovascular insult and our older population as we
have more retired people because they are the only people that can
afford to live here, move here. So, I think we have to plan for some of
these alternative futures, because those are, in fact, quite possibly
some of the futures we are going to see. Also, interesting to hear the
mention of support some of these bedroom communities, as you
mentioned, that’s the only place people can afford to live, and they
are driving into Fort Collins. The problem though with putting that as
part of our priorities is that we can say these are the conservation
practices that you need to practice if you’re utilizing our water here in
Fort Collins. We can’t say that for those other communities and so
prioritizing delivery to those other communities is essentially kicking
the can down the road just the same as saying, lets build up our
water supply to support more people when you know 10 years from
now, we’ll never have those supplies present. I think that those are
some of the challenges. You are in an impossible situation because
the science behind NISP is so flawed and so poorly done and yet
those policies and practices are so far down the road that the City
has to play ball. I do really question, what I didn’t see in your
presentation is what exactly does enhancing the environment look
like under option two. What does better utilization of water rights
mean? Better utilization could mean we sell it to the highest bidder, it
could mean we put it in the ground in aquifers, it could mean we
provide it to more people. Everyone has different values there and I
would like to see some more specifics of what exactly that would like
to be able to have a more informed opinion on what I hope isn’t the
future of NISP. I hope the 1041 and I hope that there are
opportunities to revisit some of those very flawed scientific rulings. I
just don’t feel like we have enough information to weigh those two
options in front of us, particularly given again the expectation only of
growth and more people when in reality we have some signals
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already suggesting that’s not going to be the case. Jason – A – I
appreciate that. That is a good point. I have thought about that. The
research I have done says 88% of the projected growth in Colorado
will happen on the Front Range in Northern Colorado. So that is the
lens I was looking through when I was doing this. The people are
coming so how do we, or don’t we limit growth, which is another
option but that doesn’t seem to be a policy kind of decision that we
are going to make. I don’t know. So how do we make sure that we
have water for the people that are coming? So that is one thing. The
other thing is when I say we need to better utilize the water right is
making sure that we have the ability to use all of our water rights in
whatever option we choose to do it. We don’t use all our water rights.
We let our water rights go right down the Poudre and we are
fortunate to leave some of them to ag but there is not a market for all
of them. So, we let some of them go down and it’s – I wouldn’t say a
waste. Barry – Comment – Not if you let them downstream, its not a
waste. It’s essential. Jason – Comment – It is essential. I guess what
I am saying is how do we better utilize, capture, or manage those
bottom rights that we currently don’t have a strategy to manage other
than releasing them out to ag as we need to. We have already
decided not to lease out the CBT shares that we have because that is
a question we get but because of the challenges with the Colorado
River, but we are not leasing those out but we do lease out Poudre
River shares and access what we plan on using so that is what I
mean by that.
Barry – Q – So the price for NISP keeps increasing over the 10 years
that I have been working/looking at this project. Now I think it’s 1/3
billion or something. Just think if that money had been used to
increase water use efficiency and agriculture, which is where 70-80%
of where water use goes. Get rid of flood agriculture, get rid of center
pivot. There was an article in the New York Times last week that says
every almond you eat uses 3.2 gallons of water to grow that. So,
agriculture is the elephant in the room. And that is whereas a society
we should be focusing on increasing water use efficiency and
agriculture. That is where we could get the biggest bang for our buck,
not building a reservoir. In other parts of this country, they’re tearing
dams down and we want to build a big one. I am guessing that thing
is never going to be full if its built, ever. All you have to do is look at
the climate change data and what’s happening to water. Hydrological
cycle on the earth is a closed cycle; we can’t create more H20. It is
what it is. The other point is about growth. I taught building
mathematical models of biological populations. You would never build
a model that didn’t have density dependence. That is feedback. The
density dependence happens when resources become limited and
population growth has to decline and eventually reach an equilibrium
where there is no growth at all. Every single biological population,
plants, or animals. You build a model of their population dynamics
and there’s feedback for resource limitation. We are a biological
population and it’s as if it applies to every other living thing on earth
except humans. It is absurd. We just won’t acknowledge that there
are limits to growth. There are limits to how much we can consume.
There are limits to how much development we’re going to have. If we
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live by the rules of economics, we’re all going to perish along with the
rest of biological diversity. If you look at the data, that’s exactly what’s
happening. I study fish and wildlife. All my career has been studying
declining populations, every single one. They’re all declining.
Everything I work on, and I work internationally too, they are all
declining. It is hard to teach a class when everything you are teaching
is in decline. We live by the same rules as every other biological
organism, and we are going to pay the price. Who is going to pay the
price? Our kids. So, it is irresponsible to think we can continue to go
on and live the way we’ve lived in the past. We’re advocating our
responsibility to the future generations, to our children, and
grandchildren, their kids and so on. That is why I get so passionate
about it because I really think we are at a phenomenal crisis point.
I’ve done a lot of work in India, and I have lived in India. There you
can see what the human welfare costs are of exceeding the resource
space: tremendous inequality of distribution of wealth, availability, and
tremendous human suffering. So, we need to say sometimes, you
know you just can’t keep building these things.
Kevin – Q – To ask a question related to policy with regard to how we
look at, okay we see this as the growth of the City and so, therefore,
is there an actual policy to say that the way we’re managing our water
and our sources and delivery and the whole thing is to meet that
future growth. Is there some level of policy in place that’s getting us to
do that? Because I guess when you look at Halligan for example and
I am just going back to the 7,400,200, 72% growth. We have talked
about this in the past with respect to the assumptions based on that,
climate change with that, and additional evaporated losses, different
run off conditions, that whole thing and in the same timeframe, what
is the foundation that we are building to. If we have a policy that said,
you know actually that same level of storage is needed for our current
population and that’s what we are meeting before we are saying we
are still open, everybody come here because we are building to here.
I just wonder because we’ve said your role is kind of impossible
because of the circumstances but is there a policy basis for those
decisions to be like no? At a former job of mine we use tenants a lot,
like here are tenants that we operate off of for a given for a whole
mission as well as for sub levels of projects and so forth. You go back
to the tenant, and you’d be like are we doing that or are we doing
something else. So, it just feels like if you don’t have that to operate
very clearly of, like we are holding on to the growth and these are our
assumptions versus we’re building to be truly resilient to our existing
community. And yes, that makes it harder to live here, it drives up
cost and so forth if water is more. But water is more so I feel like to
your point, Barry, how do we start to close that gap? More of it’s not
no growth but it’s saying here is the science. If these things are
connecting here, we’re planning for this to protect our community and
not say like come live here because we have 25% to go. I don’t know,
it’s a lot but it feels like you need the tools and the tool sets to be able
to do that. Jason – Comment – The plans that I go back to are those
strategic objectives on the first one of two slides. One of those is to
provide a resilient reliable water supply for the City of Fort Collins.
The projected growth in the City of Fort Collins is what I put up there.
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So, unless we want to change the way we manage our growth, then I
feel like it’s my job as a Water Utility Director to make sure that we
have water readily available, reliable, resilient, all that stuff for the
community. We also have one up there about how do we be regional
partners in the water space and in other issues. So that is where I
think my job gets even more impossible; how do we recognize what
you all are talking about and recognizing the regional partnership that
I feel is more of a higher level calling for the cold Colorado River
compact, and all this stuff. I think there’s an opportunity between
Greeley and us, Greeley is in Weld County but we are the largest city
in Larimer County and so we have a leadership role in that. Between
Greeley and us in Northern Colorado, what is our role in leadership in
that space. Weld County brings in ag. I think we talk a lot about the
ag representation in that Northern Colorado Water Alliance and how
do we make sure that they are not lost and that there are not buy and
dry kind of opportunities. Barry – Comment – Also the water they use
for fracking. It is huge quantities of water. Since it is proprietary
information who knows what that is doing to water quality, even if we
could harvest that water sometime in the future and the expense of
purifying that water could be absolutely massive. I mean the reality is
we have the water law from the 1870s that in no way envision that the
climate change crisis that we are in. There is a small group of people,
the ditch owners, and you all know how it works. The people who got
the water rights were farmers and miners and they are the ones who
still control. They have senior water rights and they’re rich. They are
not suffering at all. They are going to have enough water to fill their
swimming pools, but it is all the other people. Northern Water is not
trying to solve social problems; they are trying to get wealthier. That is
what it is all about. So, cities and leadership in cities have to have the
courage to call a spade a spade. No, this is not generally benefiting
all the citizens of Fort Collins. We need something. We need to
recognize the limits to growth, we need to recognize constraints, and
we need to have that burden somehow equitably distributed across
everyone, so it doesn’t just fall to one group who are already lacking
in political and social power. I don’t know how to do all of this, but you
can’t begin to solve a problem until you define the problem. That is
the first step. Kevin – Comment – Maybe one thing we could
consider, and I don’t know where this came from, but this doesn’t
have climate change on it. As a City can we do more to define? Jason
Comment – So there’s a lot of other strategic objectives. Kevin –
Comment – I get it, but it just feels like we could elevate every one of
these because you can’t do 4.4 without that consideration. What can
you do as a City if it’s just like our language matters a lot. Our stories
matter a lot, our partnerships, from that language and the stories and
it’s just like that’s maybe what we can keep contributing.
Julie – Comment – Can you go back to the map that shows the
different water districts? Another reason this is one of those widget
problems is that the City boundaries are much bigger than the actual
water utility. I don’t know if every one of those around us has bought
into NISP. Jason – Comment – The ones in the north have not. The
Fort Collins Loveland ones down below are part of NISP. Barry –
Comment – They may have bought in because they have been
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misled. Julie – Q – Well we can’t make them not buy in. So, with that
black dotted line, that is 24,000 Fort Collins residents. They do not
get Fort Collins water. So how do we help them? That is Shirley
Peel’s and Tricia Canonico’s districts, and I know that is on their
minds when we talk about this because that water provider decided
for better or worse… is that 50% there? I can’t remember, maybe I
am pulling these numbers out of a hat. The Loveland Fort Collins
water district, what does their water portfolio look like? Jason – A –
So, 90% is on CBT so depending on the Colorado basin is affected
they can be without water or challenged by the water. So, talk about
affordable housing and they have more expensive rates than we do.
We already have the cheapest rates as a City but the disparity may
be greater. Bryan – Comment – I think water is already having an
effect on growth I mean CBT is one of the most expensive commonly
treated water assets in the Western United States. One-unit costs
about $100,000 an acre foot right now and serves about two to four
homes per year. That is really expensive. Often developers have to
buy that water outright and then dedicate Fort Collins Loveland, or
they have to provide the equivalent of money for Fort Collins
Loveland to go in and buy that water. That is absolutely priced into a
home. So, there’s one factor of growth we have already seen in
housing affordability and no offense I can’t afford to buy a home here.
I would love to, but I can’t. There are many different reasons for that,
but water is playing a really impactful role in the cost of new homes.
That is partially done to not impact current residents and no increase
their rates out of control by providing these cashes and fees. New
people moving here are bearing that burden.
Bryan – Comment – Barry I want to push back in response to your
comments a little bit on agriculture being rich. I think that is a little
unfair. Maybe on paper theoretically, the theoretical value. Barry –
Comment – Ditch owners are rich. Bryan – Comment – Ditch owners
are mutual shareholders so its agricultural. It is the farmers
themselves. A lot of shares are already owned by municipalities, so
they are benefiting from that water. The ditch rights are only for
certain times of the year, which is irrigation season, so they need
storage. Cities need storage to make use of irrigation rights. I would
say there have been a lot of negative economic impacts when
municipalities have historically bought ditch rights and transferred the
water away from farmers into urban use. Buy and dry you mentioned.
We see that in the Arkansas River Valley. The cities have basically
gone to dust because there has not been an economic base. I think
there needs to be a better balance but also the solution of just
transferring water away from agricultural use, you still need storage to
provide year-round reliable supplies for municipalities. Barry – Q –
Well would you would agree that that is where most of the usage is?
Bryan – A – Yeah, absolutely. Barry – Q – Would you agree that
current irrigation practices aren’t necessarily state of the art? They
may be reflecting the way they’ve irrigated for decades and there
could be increased water use efficiency. Bryan – A – Certainly. I think
that, like you said, 1.3 billion could be redirected towards that
because that is probably the cost of installing drip on all these
systems. Barry – Comment – But if a resource is limited and water is
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limiting, we are all in agreement of that. And the major consumer is
the agricultural sector, doesn’t it seem logical that that is where you
would target increased water use efficiency. It is a simple resource
allocation question. Bryan – Comment – There is misalignment of
policies and incentives for farmers to change their practices. That is a
state level issue and that is part of the issue of the Colorado River
compact that we are seeing right now. Use it or lose it principle and I
think there are changes at the state level that makes it easier for
people to improve their efficiency. However, the South Platte is super
complicated, and I don’t want to get into this for everybody but some
of that water still is obligated to go where it has been before. So, you
can’t move all the water away from agriculture with efficiency. We
have also seen historically that if you improve efficiency farmers are
going to expand their use of it and it is obligated to return to meet the
compact with. Barry – Q – What is your solution? How would you
begin to tackle the problem. Bryan – Q – Which problem? Barry – A –
The fact that there is more demand than availability, the demand
keeps increasing, and with climate change scenarios, the availability
keeps decreasing and demand increases. I mean to me that’s the
problem. So how would you go about solving that? Bryan – A – We
are making a lot of gains in per capita efficiency that we are seeing in
urban use. Barry – Q – Are they fast enough? Only rich people can
afford to buy a house here. Bryan – A – Yeah... I mean I would think
that new development and regulations going in for new development
and the amount of water allowed on a lot is improving. Honestly, I
would say that I think there are available supplies. I think capturing it
when it is available is difficult. I am not saying build a reservoir
everywhere because I agree with you that there are profound
ecological impacts. However, I do believe you have to capture what
you can when it’s there. Barry – Q – But how about the people who
live in the communities downstream from you. What are your ethical
obligations to them? Bryan – A – Unknown. Barry – Q – What if your
kids live downstream? I think that we are all in this together. There is
one planet we are all in this together.
Bryan – Q – That is one question for you (Jason) talking about
Halligan, you would build storage capacity greater than current needs
necessary. Has the City considered using some of the water to
augment flows through the City of Fort Collins and then recapturing
below the City. Jason – A – Yeah, that is the advantage of controlling
Halligan Reservoir is to control flows, return flow, manage our water
rights in a better way for the downstream users. For them,
theoretically the health of the Poudre River.
Danielle – Q – So there is some really exciting science on nature-
based solutions for water storage that really dramatically improve the
resilience of watersheds, particularly during large scale fire events
where they cannot only act as fire breaks, but they can also filter and
really improve a lot of that turbidity problem, soot etc., during wildfire
events. Beavers and beaver dams are really that phenomenal both
resilience as well as a storage mechanism. Is your staff looking into
this opportunity because it does help address so many of our goals. It
helps improve resilience and it also improves economic recreational
opportunities too when we still have intact forest for people to
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recreate in. Jason – A – I can’t say I know the answer to the beaver
dam part. I do know that going back to, we do have natural areas and
they are really tied into those types of things. I don’t know if you know
Jill Oropeza, but she is really dialed into the wildfire mitigation. She’s
done all that kind of work, so she is really an expert in that area. I
can’t say if we have done it or not. I don’t know but I would be
surprised if we haven’t even looked at or talked about. Matt –
Comment – Danielle, if I can jump in, when Jared came and spoke to
this board a few months ago, he mentioned that they had done some
research in conjunction with CPRW about beavers. I don’t know any
more than that, but I do remember. Danielle – Comment – I asked a
question at that meeting specifically about this so I kind of knew the
answer but want to put it on the record that it is a really great
opportunity and I think we should do more to look into beaver
populations. Barry – Comment – In Rocky Mountain National Park
beaver population is really depressed compared to what they were
historically. Danielle – Comment – We have some IRA funding for
restoring beaver populations there. Barry – Comment – You have got
to reduce the elk population, which means you have to have wolves.
Danielle – Q – The other question I had was you present to Council
last night… Jason – Comment – Well no, it was a work session.
Danielle – A – So what are the next steps and what input do you
need from our board? Jason – A – Well I guess I am open to
whatever input you want to provide. I didn’t come really seeking input
but I am open to it. I would like to partner with any or all of you about
these conversations going forward. I don’t have all the answers and
my group doesn’t have all the answers. You have a lot of expertise in
that and if there’s a willingness to share, I would love to engage in
that. To answer your question about follow up from the work session
though, we did get clear directions on alternative one/option one. So,
we are going to make sure that Northern knows that we are capable,
willing and able to participate in those activities as they go forward
with their project. So that is option one. We are also setting up a
meeting with Greeley to kind of manage that a little bit because they
have some of the same things. There is also this idea, well its not
really an idea but Northern is interested in hiring a third party to help
with the adaptation management and this river master plan. We did
engage the Poudre River Coalition and they will not be taking a lead
in that role, but they will be at the table as well. So, we’re building this
network of groups of cities and non-profits to engage with Northern as
they go forward, all within the same capability. As far as the other
option 2, those conversations, we will look at some of that
infrastructure on the Poudre River, that was one we got support going
forward. The storage one I think I need to make sure that I
understand. So, from input or feedback from you all, it’s just really to
provide, through me or Honoré, and I am also the Water Commission
Liaison for the Water Board. So as that group talks about Halligan
and Northern, I can come back and engage this group and ask to give
updates if that’s of interest. I don’t know if I have a good answer other
than that is the next steps we are taking and have taken since the
work session. Julie – Comment – Can I interject really quick, so if I
understand it’s not that we don’t really have a decision point on
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05/17/2023 – MINUTES
Council coming forward. So that is something to consider as well.
Barry – Comment – So just coincidence, just yesterday I looked at
the current membership and expertise on the Poudre River Coalition
and there wasn’t a single CSU scientist who studies rivers and
streams. In fact, there was very little scientific expertise. It would be
like having a medical advisory board with no doctors or nurses on that
board. When I looked at the makeup, the goal was to have a healthy
working river. Well, when I hear those two things together, they are in
conflict with each other. It is a working river now and it is not healthy.
Even the City concluded that, and the subsequent scientific work has
concluded that it’s impaired already. I just looked at that and there’s
no one who studies the physical and biological dynamics of the river,
streams, and watershed. Matt – Comment – Barry, if I can jump in,
CPRW, and I have a soft spot for them because I work very closely
with them in the way with Cameron Peak Fire. They are not tasked
with doing that work, but they do hire people like Dr. Chuck Rhodes
and people like that to do the work that you’re saying. To provide
information about post-fire restoration. So CPRW was formed in the
wake of High Park in collaboration with City of Greeley, Fort Collins,
Larimer County to have a group to coordinate efforts. Barry – Q – But
isn’t that a different question than what we are talking about. We are
talking about water availability and water use. Matt – A – Indeed but I
was responding to your thoughts about the coalition not having the
right people on the board. They are a small nonprofit that is intended
to coordinate restoration activities, tree planting, erosion control, and
post fire restoration. So that is their role, and it came up with the
question about beavers and things like that, that could add to forest
watershed health. So that is just to clarify CPRW’s role. Jason –
Comment – That is why they are not taking a lead role in this going
forward. They recognize and we recognize the limitations of what they
do, the resources they have. But they are a stakeholder on the river,
and they have an interest in it and so Northern has asked them to be
involved in it. So, to what degree they are involved, it is kind of what
we’re all talking about.
Matt – Comment – I just want to say I appreciate Danielle’s question
to you about next steps for the board because we can continue to
debate on these ideas, but it feels like we need to come up with an
agreed upon action items, steps, or approaches. You all have taught
me a great deal tonight and that is helpful to see. What does this
group do with this discussion? Danielle – Comment – It is such a
fascinating conversation, and it also is a little bit déjà vu. It seems like
we continually in all of these issues arrive at the limits to growth, the
consumption-based economy that we are operating under and these
very optimistic setting future scenarios that we are planning towards.
Would it be helpful for us as a group to have a futures planning
session where we think about how do we actually decouple resource
use from population, extant or future? Where we think about what all
of these potential futures are instead of this Polyana futuristic
everything’s great situation and how do we build for a resilient future
that includes both that great Polyana situation as well as a much
more realistic two degrees of warming future we are moving towards.
I feel like we may be more effective as an organization if we have
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05/17/2023 – MINUTES
those same tenants, that you were mentioning earlier Kevin, that we
could really have some of these philosophic conversations about how
do we communicate as a board when we come up against these
limits to growth? How do we communicate as a board when we come
up against some of these decoupled. I wish the conversation tonight
was how do we put a better lever on reducing our water usage and
get a better lever on changing our values such that we value these
life sustaining ecosystem services. But we don’t have that framework
right now to have those conversations, and I feel like there’s work we
could do as a board to try and make that happen. Matt – Comment –
Your futures idea seems to me to be a really innovative way to
develop a work plan for this group. Danielle – Comment – I like that.
Kevin – Comment – And to help with the Council longer term big
product that has this stuff built in for decision making framework, and
a lot of staff arguably is doing some of the same stuff but there are
often bounds that are being worked with and I think that’s a hard
position. Honoré – Q – Julie, I wonder if the Ad hoc committee has
talked about increasing the opportunity for interdisciplinary
conversation between boards. We have our super issues meeting but
I know you are probably aware of the TPL pilot board. That was all
the boards that were supported by sustainability services. This was
2018 or 2019 came together on a single topic. Anything coming out of
that on a Ad hoc committee. Julie – A – Yeah because there were
some weird legal limitations from boards meeting each other and
collaborating, super weird legal stuff. So we have it as part of the new
policy, there will be a road but it has to come from a request from one
of the boards and at the approval of the liaisons. You can’t just meet
with the other boards. That will be coming. I think the Ad hoc board
will be done next month or the month after. So hopefully adopt those
in the next two months.
Matt – Q – So this board could not meet with the Water Commission?
Julie – A – No. It all started because the Youth Advisory Board
wanted to meet with a different Youth Advisory Board from a different
town. Which would have been great because there are a bunch of
kids and that would be awesome but then they were like no can’t do
it.
Jason – Comment – So one thing we didn’t talk too much about is
the water conservation side of things. That is part of that Colorado
Water Alliance because we can set conservation goals as a City of
Fort Collins, but Fort Collins Loveland doesn’t have to adhere by
them. So, it does get into that values that priorities and really that
conversation. We have talked about that as maybe that is potentially
the landing frame although I am optimistic in that but if we could get
at least the districts in the City of Fort Collins to agree on not putting
Kentucky bluegrass into your lawn and we have xeriscaping. So
having those kinds of conversations that get some consistency
across, so everyone in Fort Collins can play by the same
conservation rule. I think that’d be one good thing and a good way
that I think we could actually pull that lever to do but again, it takes
these partnerships, these conversations, this kind of shared value
commitment to doing that. I did want to let you know we are having
those conversations and trying to do that as well.
Page 22
05/17/2023 – MINUTES
Julie – Comment – If any of you live in those other water districts,
they have boards that frequently have elections just to let you know.
Danielle – Comment – I live smack dab in the middle of that blue
district, but we are served by Alco, so that map is really interesting to
me. Jason – Comment – There are enclaves in our district that are
served by Alco and Fort Collins. Just old systems. That was a
question that I think you asked, and the pipes are their pipes and their
system and there are not cross connections. But that is why there is a
box at the top and Alco, that is Anheuser Busch. The City of Fort
Collins serves that. Matt – Comment – I am South Fort Collins.
Danielle – Comment – We just had elections, I think. Matt –
Comment – They do not do as good of a job in communicating when
there is a watermain break. Jason – Comment – They contract that
out. So, I will highlight my group, we have crews that go out at two,
three in the morning, New Year’s, Christmas Day, whatever to fix that
stuff and if you live in Fort Collins Loveland or Alco they wait until
Monday where they can call a company to come out and do it. It is a
totally different customer service level expectation.
Jason – Comment – Whenever Honoré wants me back or whenever
you all want, I can come back. I can give you updates on anything
water. This is just one presentation but there are cool things; the
whole one water philosophy, the whole structure that we are doing,
we are the leading edge in that regard and in the industry so there is
a lot of cool stuff going on. It is complicated but it is cool. Wastewater
is fascinating. Meadow Springs Ranch is an amazing place that not
many people get to. It does take about four hours of a day but to go
up there and see the water, the conservation that we have done up
there. To me it is the biggest unknown sustainable success we have
in the City. The redirection of the black footed fairies, the prairie dogs,
the butterfly. We delisted the Colorado butterfly plant that we have
done out there. It is amazing out there and not too many know about
it, which is fine in some regards but I think the residents of Fort
Collins should be very proud of that operation.
8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS
a. Matt – It is not really a board member report, but I would like to promote for
the City of Fort Collins, this Saturday is the hazardous household waste
collection event. It is a great thing. You take your paint, pesticides and the City
takes care of it for you. It keeps it out of landfills, out of gutters, out of your
sheds, under your sink. Barry – Q – Where do you take that? Matt – A – I
believe it is at 625 9th Street. Drive in, drop it off, drive out. Honoré –
Comment – Just north of New Belgium. Danielle – Comment – And if your
truck is empty, you can go get some free mulch Saturday as well.
b. Danielle – So I attended the Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting last month
and the only thing of note I really want to highlight is this really amazing memo
the committee is hoping to put forward to really advocate for a bike park and
or additional bike infrastructure and more diverse infrastructure for the City.
One thing that I found really striking in the presentation from the Parks
Department was that the current inventory for actual infrastructure that’s being
built in parks moving forward disproportionately serves very young children,
and there really isn’t a lot of infrastructure serving kind of middle of the road
kids in terms of adolescents, older kids. They’re all dependent upon a very
traditional form or ideal for recreation. There is also a very distinct need for us
Page 23
05/17/2023 – MINUTES
as a culture to get more people used to bikes at an earlier age because this is
shown to be a really important social factors in people’s acceptance of biking
as a potential alternate form of transportation and getting people into biking
clubs. Having more biking parks is a really great way to do that. And then third
bike parks have a very different water use requirements than Kentucky
bluegrass that we currently have in a lot of our built infrastructure parks. It is a
great way of introducing more xeriscaping, reducing overall water usage as
well as again serving a more diverse portion of our community and potentially
providing some wildlife habitats. I think this is a potential issue. If this memo
goes forward that there’s some potential engagement of our group, and it’s
something to be thinking about the next time we have any voting items or
presentations from the Parks Department that come before the board. Matt –
Q – So not like a paved bike park but like we have a natural hill. Danielle – A –
What was the quote of working against other people’s imagination? In my
mind it’s only a xeriscape landscape. Kevin – A – I will say I think it is
everything. It’s a bike culture thing. When I ride around now, I’m personally not
feeling like our bike culture is growing. I’m feeling like we have a plan to divert
more trips to other modes. But the plan feels impossible when you’re
interacting with what’s out there right now. It feels like more cars. We can’t just
say we’re going to build more bike lanes. We have to look at how do we just
get more people culturally looking in that direction. To the point of what it looks
like, I think it should just be everything. Whatever can get youth this
opportunity and freedom to get out here by their house without having to be
shuttled somewhere. In my world, I am getting reports just in the last couple of
weeks of people taking a trip to what’s called Erie Single Track where they
take an open space and build these neat flowy, downhill lines of different
levels and abilities. In between them are all native grasses and it’s beautiful
and great that they are out there. Windsor just announced they are building
another park that has an asphalt pump track and people are commuting from
here and driving to take their kids to go ride bikes. I am blown away and I just
really want to work that cause because I think there’s a lot of benefits including
environmental on multiple levels.
c. Dawson – The discussion point that I am curious to bring up, as we’ve talked
about in our previous meeting, the 6-month planning calendar is looking a bit
wider over the next month or two. So, we did reach out to the new chief
sustainability officer, Jacob Castillo and he is available for 6/21 what would be
our meeting if we wanted to cancel the meeting and do a more social, get to
know, Jacob, maybe have some more conversation around what futures
planning could look like. So, cancel the meeting and have more of a social at
Avo’s like we did last year, I believe. So just interested to see who would be
available to do that in June. The board expressed interest; no motion needed.
The June meeting has been canceled. Honore and I won’t be able to make it
but Kelly, Honoré, and myself meet in planning for these meetings and
everything so perhaps from that conversation when we meet we could discuss
what July could potentially look like maybe regarding some of this future
planning.
9. STAFF REPORTS
10. OTHER BUSINESS
a. Six Month Calendar Review
Interest expressed in Land Use Code and Oil and Gas topics and
Page 24
05/17/2023 – MINUTES
combining some of the topics. Honoré will look to see if it is possible.
June – Canceled
July
Economic Health Strategic Plan – Circular Economy
Oil and Gas Reverse Setbacks & Oil and Gas Operational
Standards
August
LUC landscape standard update
Noah Beals coming back for update on Land Use Code
Parking Lot
ESD Background/Overview
11. ADJOURNMENT
a. (8:31pm)
Minutes approved by a vote of the Board/Commission on XX/XX/XX
Headline Copy Goes Here
Natural Resources Advisory Board
Ginny Sawyer
Travis Storin
Sustainable
Funding Efforts
Headline Copy Goes Here
REVENUE
Where the money comes from
Headline Copy Goes Here City Revenue 3
Sales Tax
Local Total: 3.85%
Base rate: 2.85% - ongoing
Street Maintenance .25% - renewable
Capital Improvement .25% - renewable
Open Space – renewable .25%
Keep Fort Collins Great .25% - renewable
Groceries: 2.25%
Property Tax
Fees, Fines, Grants
Headline Copy Goes Here 4GovernmentalRevenue
Sales & Use Tax:
Over 50% of the City’s
revenue without utilities
Property Tax:
Current City mill levy of
9.797 has not increased
since 1992
Poudre Fire Authority
receives 67% of the City’s
portion of property tax via
an IGA
Sales & use taxes,
53.22%
Charges for Services,
11.21%,
Property taxes ,
11.30%
Intergovernmental not
restricted to programs,
9.22%,
Grants and
Contributions,
11.51%,
Other, 3.56%,
2021 REVENUE BY SOURCE –
GOVERNMENTAL ACTIVITIES $305.7 MILLION
Headline Copy Goes Here
5
TOTAL ALLOCATION BY OUTCOME - $655.6M
GENERAL FUND & OTHER FUNDS - 2019
Headline Copy Goes Here
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
Boulder Denver Aurora*Grand
Junction
Brighton Colorado
Springs
Castle Rock Fort Collins Golden Littleton Greeley Loveland
State County Rate Other Taxes City Rate
6
Colorado City Full Stack
Sales Tax Rates
Located in three counties
TOTAL TAX RATES
revenue trends and comparisons)
Headline Copy Goes Here 7FortCollinsNetTaxableSales
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 20212022Millions
City Net Taxble City % of County Sales City Pop % of County
revenue trends and comparisons)
FORT COLLINS NET TAXABLE SALES
Headline Copy Goes Here Property Tax Breakdown
Headline Copy Goes Here 9TaxStack
3.85%
Current City
Sales Tax rate
2.85%
cent Street Maintenance
cent CCIP
Expiring 12/31/2025:
Headline Copy Goes Here 10TaxRenewalsOverTime
Long-term Look at Possible Tax Renewals
ASSUMES 10 YEAR TERMS
20502045204020352030202520202015
YEAR
Open Space Yes
25 yr ) | 2006 - 2030
KFCG
10 yr) | 2011 - 2020
KFCG.25
10 yr) | 2021 - 2030
Assume KFCG
10 yr) | 2031 - 2040
Street Maintenance
10 yr ) | 2016 - 2025
Assume Street Maintenance
10 yr ) | 2026 - 2035
Assume Street Maintenance
10 yr ) | 2036 - 2045
Community Capital
Improvement
10 yr) | 2016 - 2025
Assume
Capital Renewal
10 yr ) | 2026 - 2035
Assume
Capital Renewal
10 yr) | 2036 - 2045
Headline Copy Goes Here Identified Funding Needs 11
Masterplan to Build Out
Projects
To Achieve 10%
Affordable Housing Stock
To Accelerate Community
Transition From Fossil
Fuels
9.5M+ Annual Gap$14.7M Annual Gap $8-9.5+ Annual Gap$8-12M Annual Gap
ANNUAL REVENUE NEEDS = $40M TO $46M+
Replacements &
Masterplan Projects
Headline Copy Goes Here
Fort Collins system includes over 50 parks, 45 miles of paved trails, and 10 recreation facilities
Parks and Recreation Infrastructure Replacement
12WhatCouldDedicatedParksandRecreationRevenueFund?
Maintain appropriate levels of service
11M funding represents 2.4% of asset value
Replacement value of recreation facilities
200M+
Park infrastructure asset value $260M+
Examples:
Repaving parking lots
Roofing repairs/replacement, HVAC
replacements, electrical upgrades including LED
Conversion of courts from asphalt to post -tension
concrete
Irrigation system renovation, including
replacement of water management equipment
such as flow sensors & controllers
Provide equitable access to parks & recreation
experiences as identified in 2021 Parks and
Recreation master plan.
Currently 51% of playgrounds are beyond
expected lifespan.
Examples:
Replace play equipment, changing surfaces from sand to
ADA compliant material
Repair sections of cracked walkways, bringing walkway
slopes up to ADA standards
Locker room and restroom upgrades/replacement
Pedestrian bridge replacements, fencing repairs, water
feature renovations, bike park renovations, pedestrian
lighting replacement
Headline Copy Goes Here
13
ReCreate: Parks & Rec Master Plan Recommendation
Community & Neighborhood
Recreation Centers
3 by 2040
Community Pools
2 by 2040
Pool Priority
Investment Rating
was 197
Paved, Multi-use
trails were second
at 157
Headline Copy Goes Here
14
Recreation and Aquatics Considerations
Buildout calls for 3 new recreation centers
including the Southeast.
Buildout calls for 2 new pools.
Mulberry Pool needs replacement.
Recreation has utilized CCIP ¼-cent:
3M EPIC match (1985)
10M replacement Northside Aztlan (1997)
5.5M Senior Center Expansion (2006)
18M Southeast Facility (2015)
Dedicated funding would free up space in the
program for other priorities.
Funding would support the infrastructure
replacement at new facilities plus partial O&M
Headline Copy Goes Here 15OurClimateFuture – Climate, Transit, Housing
Big
Move Focus Investment
Target
4 Transit $14.7M
4 Active Modes $1.5M
6 Building Efficiency &
Electrification $2.85M
7 Housing Affordability $8-9.5M
13 Electric Vehicles $1.85M
2 & 10 Zero Waste $2M
Total Annual Investments:$31M+
Headline Copy Goes Here 16
Ongoing FC Utilities Climate Investments:
Energy Efficiency, Customer Renewable and Grid Flexibility programs; $6.6M annually
EPIC Loan program; up to $2.5M annually in available financing
Streetlight LED conversion; $1M annually
Efficiency Works programs (via Platte River budgeting); ~$5M annually
Ongoing Housing Investments:
Competitive Process for Affordable Housing Development; $1.5 -$3M awarded annually
From all sources – Federal, City General Fund & CCIP
Ongoing Transit Investments:
Building, Operating & Maintaining Routes; $22M annually
Includes local, federal, grant, and partner funding
OUR IMPACT
Community-wide total electricity use would be over 20% higher
without Utilities energy programs since 2005
Our Climate Future – Climate, Transit, Housing
Headline Copy Goes Here 17OurClimateFuture – Climate, Transit, Housing
Improve route frequencies and service
Bus operator resiliency
Remain fare-free
Procure additional buses and increase
operational frequencies
Add new route with 30-minute frequency on
Lemay/Trilby
New southeast micro-transit service
Local match for major capital projects
Unprecedented Federal dollars in grant funding
available to fund 60-80% of large transit projects.
West Elizabeth bus rapid transit
North transit maintenance facility
North College MAX extension
Mobility hubs
Big Move 4 – Convenient Transportation Choices: Transit
Estimated investment needed: $14.7M annually
Headline Copy Goes Here 18OurClimateFuture – Climate, Transit, Housing
Big Move 7 – Healthy Affordable Housing
City competitive process
Housing acquisition
redevelopment/preservation)
Land acquisition
New construction costs
Affordable homeownership renovation
Renovate affordable rental housing
Homeownership assistance
City-led efforts
Acquire properties for Land Bank (expand)
Offset fees for affordable projects (expand)
Develop incentive programs (energy
efficiency, voluntary affordability restrictions,
etc.)
Explore redevelopment partnerships
Estimated investment needed: $8-$9.5M annually
Headline Copy Goes Here 19
Big Move 13 – Electric Cars and Fleets
Resident Support
Support home electrical panel and
service upgrades for EVs
Public charging strategy,
implementation and maintenance
City Efforts
Transition all Transfort buses to zero
emission vehicles by 2040
Explore providing incentives for
community members for installation of
charging equipment in homes and
businesses
Explore expansion of level 3 public charging
opportunities for EVs
Estimated investment needed: $1.85M annually
Our Climate Future – Climate, Transit, Housing
Headline Copy Goes Here 20OurClimateFuture – Climate, Transit, Housing
Big Move 6 – Efficient, Emissions Free Buildings
Expand programs and incentives for
electrification of space and water heating
Propose adding minimum building
performance standards (BPS) for commercial
building stock and resources to support
Develop requirements for residential energy
disclosure at point of listing /sale
Support home electrical panel and service
upgrades for electrification
Evaluate proactive upgrades of infrastructure
to support building and transportation
electrification
Expand grid flexibility options in residential and
commercial buildings through battery storage and
other solutions
Explore Utility scale distributed energy resource
solutions (solar and battery installations)
Estimated investment needed: $2.65M annually
Headline Copy Goes Here 21OurClimateFuture – Climate, Transit, Housing
Big Move 4 – Convenient Transportation Choices: Active Modes
Rebates for E-bikes
Install in -street protected bike lanes and bicycle and pedestrian
crossing improvements
Local match to leverage many state and federal grant opportunities
available
Grade-separated crossings
Estimated investment needed: $1.5M annually
Headline Copy Goes Here 22
Big Moves 2 & 10 – Zero Waste
Improving recycling education and removing barriers to reusing and recycling
Growing the circular/sharing/reuse economy
Increasing recycling services through local waste infrastructure and operational
support
Local waste infrastructure investments
Estimated investment needed: $2M annually
Our Climate Future – Climate, Transit, Housing
Headline Copy Goes Here
REVENUE MECHANISMS
SOURCES”
Headline Copy Goes Here
24
Timeline
INTRODUCE NEEDS
Start meeting with
Council Finance
Committee (CFC)
2021 2023
Q1
2023
Q3/4
2023
Q2
2022
MORE
REFINEMENT
CFC and full
Council
NOVEMBER 2023
ELECTION
Determined by
Q2 decisions
Ballot language
determined by
August 15
DISCUSS
NEEDS/REFINE
MECHANISMS
2 full Council
Worksessions
and multiple CFC
meetings
DETERMINE
BALLOT
MEASURES
Work with Council
June 13 & July 25
Headline Copy Goes Here 25
Mechanism
Annual Revenue
Projection
Impact to
Residents
1 Special districts (Library District Mill Levy 3.0)$11M+Business, Resident
2 Property tax (Library District Mill Levy 3.0)$11M+Business, Resident
3 Large emitters fee $11M+Business
4 ¼-cent sales tax base rate increase $9M+Resident, Visitor
5 ¼-cent additional dedicated sales tax $9M+Resident, Visitor
6 Repurpose ¼-cent dedicated tax $9M+Resident, Visitor
7 Excise tax on specific goods $5M Resident, Visitor
8 Business occupational privilege tax ($4 monthly/$48 annually)$4M+Business
9 Tax on services (i.e., haircuts, vet service, financial services, etc.)$4M+Business, Visitor
10 User Fees (parks, transit) ($5 monthly/$60 annually)$4M Resident
11 Reconfigure capital expansion fees (Affordable housing)$2M Business
12 Establish new capital expansion fees (Affordable housing)$2M Business
13 Carbon Tax $2M Business
FULL LIST
Potential Funding Options
Headline Copy Goes Here 26Options
Category Funding
Mechanism Timing Potential Use Annual Revenue
Estimate Resident Annual Impact
Franchise Fee
to 3%
Natural Gas Bills Climate $1M
Council action only – does not require voter
approval
2% increase. ~ $14/household
Substance Tax 1 to 5% on
Alcohol/MJ/Nicotine TBD $6 to 11M+•$1 to 5 per $100 purchase in Fort Collins
Visitors also impacted
Utility
Occupation Tax
4.5% on Natural Gas
Bills
Climate
Umbrella $4M •4.5% residential increase per household
32 per residential household
Property Tax 1 to 5 Mills Parks & Rec $4 to 18M+•Residential increase of $21 to $107
Commercial increase of $87 to $435
Sales Tax Additional ¼ Cent
Dedicated Tax
Climate
Umbrella $10M
31 per resident/ $78* per household
Sales tax on food would remain at 2.25%
Visitors also impacted
Large Emitter
Tax $51/MT CO2e Climate
Umbrella $5M •N/A to residents
Two applicable businesses
Total $30M to 49M+•$145 to $231 net annual increase per
household* + impact of substance tax
Assumes a household size of 2.5 (American Community Survey 2021 1-year estimates, table DP04)
Headline Copy Goes Here
27
Current Package
Category Funding
Mechanism Timing Use Annual Revenue
Estimate Resident Annual Impact
Franchise Fee
to 3%Natural Gas Bills
2023
Active
in 2024)
Climate $1M
Council action only – does not require voter
approval
2% increase. ~ $14/household
Property Tax 5 Mills 2023
Parks & Rec
w/ Aquatics
Capital
18M
Residential increase of $143 on $400K home
Residential increase of $179 on $500K home
Residential increase of $268 on $750K home
Residential increase of $358 on $1M home
Commercial increase of $626 on $432K biz
Sales Tax Additional ¼ Cent
Dedicated Tax 2023 Our Climate
Future $10M
31 per resident/ $78* per household
Sales tax on food would remain at 2.25%
Visitors also impacted
Total $29M+•$235 net annual increase per household
Assumes a household size of 2.5 (American Community Survey 2021 1 -year estimates, table DP04)
Headline Copy Goes Here
Headline Copy Goes Here
0
5
10
15
20
25
Denver
City &
County)
Littleton Golden Boulder Greeley Fort
Collins
Loveland Castle
Rock
Aurora*Grand
Junction
Brighton
29
Colorado City
Property Tax Rates
Located in three counties
PFA receives 67% of the City’s
portion of property tax via an IGA
Approx. 6 of the City’s 9 mills
Colorado City Mill Levy Comparison
Oil and Gas Regulations
07-19-2023
Cassie Archuleta
Air Quality Program Manager
2Context
Senate Bill 19-181 (April 2019):
Change in Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) Mission from
fostering responsible, balanced development to regulating in a manner that protects
public health, safety & environment
Results in:
Extensive State Rulemkakings to align with Mission
Opportunity for increased local requirements
Action to date:
Participated in comprehensive rulemakings through ECMC (formerly COGCC) and
CDPHE (2019-2022)
Collaborated with County to provide leak inspection resources (purchase of Optical Gas
Imaging camera) (October 2022)
Adopted Land Use Code restrictions (zoning and setbacks) (April 2023)
Further Direction:
Return for addtional discussion regarding regulations and enforcement at existing wells
Operational Standards) (April 2023)
3AreasofFocus
New Oil and Gas Facilities
Land Use and Development
Standards
Siting requirements
Approval
procedures
Design standards
Existing Oil and Gas Facilities
Operational Standards
Emissions controls
Leak detection and
repair
Spill detection and
response
Reverse Setbacks
Land Use Standards
Distance for new
development from
existing wells
Adopted; April 4, 2023 Work Session Discussion;
Sept. 12 2023
First Reading scheduled;
Sept. 5, 2023
Objectives:
No new development, especially in natural areas
Mitigate (or eliminate) impacts from existing wells
New Regulatory Environment:
Newly adopted land use restrictions (City and County)
State operational regulations have tightened post SB -
181
State has invested more resources, and is working with
us as a partner
City is on a path towards eliminating impacts from
existing wells
Additional regulations will not accelerate path towards
objectives/outcomes
4
Adopted: Industrial Zone
restrictions and 2000’ setbacks
Impact: <1% Land Available
for new development
Themes from advocacy groups:
Slow the pace of consideration and adoption to allow
more time to review and understand code
State Regulations and County resources are not
enough; the City needs a regulatory/compliance
program
More trust in City than State and County
Additional engagement efforts to date:
Panel with City, State and County officials to discuss
regulatory structure (March 2023)
Targeted meeting with City, Larimer Alliance,
Earthworks and Colorado Department of Public Health
and Environment (CDPHE) representatives
Upcoming: City facilitating a joint meeting with
advocacy groups and CDPHE
What are continuing concerns?5
Operational
Standards
Financial Assurances
Reporting Requirements
Emissions Controls
Air Quality Monitoring
Leak Detection and Repair
Spill Detection and Response
O&G Development in Fort Collins 6
Producing
Injecting
Shut-In
Abandoned
City Limits
Well Status
DOUGLAS RD
7CaseStudy: Site with Compliance Issues
Description:
Tank battery (storage) and production
Outside City limits, within GMA
Potential for future City annexation
State Regulatory Actions:
ECMC declined application for redevelopment
date)
ECMC issued order to “shut -in” due to illegal
flaring of gas (date)
CDPHE has 2 compliance officers committed to
enforcement and regulations at Fort Collins Field
CDPHE issued Compliance Advisory (August 9,
2022); currently in discussions regarding
settlement agreement
City/County:
County supporting ongoing inspections and leak
detection (new OGI camera)
City in process of implementing fence-line
monitoring
The future of oil and gas development in Fort Collins…
State Action:
ECMC initially rejected financial assurance
plan; new plan approved
ECMC has denied further development at
existing wells without land use approvals
City/County Action:
New County land use code restricts new
development in Growth Management Area
New City land code restricts new development
in City limits
City/County request to plug and abandon of
existing low and non-producing wells
8
Adopted: Industrial Zone
restrictions and 2000’ setbacks
Impact: <1% Land Available
for new development
Ongoing:
Additional ECMC and CDPHE rulemakings
CDPHE settlement agreement for Hearthfire site
Larimer County Site inspections
Continued response to complaints/concerns with
OGI camera
Application to plug and abandon
Implement fenceline monitoring
Option under exploration:
Clarity in County rules to ensure application to
incorporated parts of County (e.g., operator
registration and emergency management plans)
Next Steps 9
Courtesy of Earthworks, Andrew Klooster
For More Information, Visit
THANK YOU!
fcgov.com/oilandgas
Oil and Gas Reverse
Setback Requirements
July 2023
Kirk Longstein
Senior Environmental Planner
Kristie Raymond
Environmental Planner
2Whatisareversesetback?
OG Reverse Setback
From the building
OG Setback
From the Well
Fort Collins Code
New wells:
2,000’ setback from all buildings
Existing Wells:
2,000’ setback from residential
Timeline 3
Key Dates:
1920’s – First Oil and Gas drilling in Fort Collins
2003 – Moratorium & 350’ reverse setbacks
2018 – Fort Collins LUC updates – 500’ reverse setbacks with 150’ alternative compliance for PA wells
2021 – SB181 Rule 604 updates – 2,000’ setback from new well siting
2023 – Fort Collins LUC updates – 2,000’ setback from new well siting
Senate Bill 181
UPDATED: January 15, 2021
Rule 604 b.
No Working Pad Surface will be located more than
500 feet and less than 2,000 feet from 1 or more
Residential Building Units or High Occupancy
Building Units
Any Wells, Tanks, separation equipment, or
compressors proposed on the Oil and Gas Location
will be located more than 2,000 feet from all
Residential Building Units or High Occupancy
Building Units
4
Current Land Use Code
UPDATED: September 2018
LUC Sec. 3.8.26 - provide standards to separate
residential land uses and high occupancy building
units from existing Oil and Gas Wells
500’ buffer or the Colorado Oil and Gas
Conservation Commission designated setback
distance, whichever is greater.
150’ buffer Alternative compliance buffer
reduction from plugged and abandoned wells.
5 years of annual soil gas and groundwater
monitoring at the well location.
5
A producing well operates in the Hearthfire subdivision north of
Fort Collins in this Oct. 23, 2013, photo. Coloradoan Library
Fort Collins Field 6
DOUGLAS RD
One Operator
Prospect Energy
City
10 Active Wells
o 4 Producing
o 6 Injecting
20 Abandoned Wells
o 6 Drilled and Abandoned
o 14 Plugged and Abandoned
GMA
16 Active Wells
o 8 Producing
o 8 Injecting
30 Abandoned Wells
Oil and Gas Overview 7
ACTIVE WELLS
Producing
Enhanced oil recovery
Injection (Enhanced Oil Recovery) Well
Fluids consisting of brine, freshwater, steam, polymers,
or carbon dioxide are injected into oil-bearing
formations to recover residual oil through a Production
Well.
Oil and Gas Overview 8
ABANDONDED
Drilled (Dry) and Abandoned Well which has proved
to be non-productive which means it was covered as
soon as it was drilled and never produced.
Plugged and Abandoned Well is permanently shut
down, plugged, wellhead removed, and considered
safe and secure by COGCC inspection.
9OilandGasMonitoring
Well Status Risk Trade -off
Plugging and Abandoning Low Potential casing failure & cement
shrinkage in clay soil and salty soil
Dry and Abandoned Low Potential conduit to adjacent ground water
source
Producing High Hydrocarbons present at the surface
during production
Injection – Enhanced
Recovery wells Medium
Closed loop freshwater injection.
subsurface risk for potential sources of
benzene
Injection – Disposal wells N/A – none in Fort
Collins
Brines are separated from hydrocarbons
at the surface and reinjected into the
same or similar underground formations
for disposal.
Greatest risk - older wells before 1950
Disclosure
Recorded Plat shall show the oil and gas
buffer on the property.
Condo Association declaration.
Written notice, in at least fourteen (14) point
font to any potential purchaser.
10
Allowed Uses
Secondary (uninhabitable) structures allowed
Secondary (habitable) structures not allowed
No permanent playground structures in common areas
11
12Staffrecommendation
2,000’ - active wells (PR &IJ)
500’ - inactive not fully reclaimed
150’ fully reclaimed
No monitoring for active well buffer
5 yrs. monitoring not fully reclaimed
1 yr. monitoring fully reclaimed
Montava
County Club Reserve
Hearth Fire
Sonders
Existing neighborhoods –
allowed use within the buffer:
Secondary structures allowed
No new common area playgrounds
1.Increase buffer for developments near existing oil and gas operations from 500’ to 2000’ to match
COGCC and Fort Collins new code setbacks
2.Allow modification of standards for active well buffers, no less than 500’
3.Decrease soil-gas and ground water monitoring requirements for plugged and abandoned wells
from 5 years to 1 year.
4.No change to buffer for developments near existing abandoned wells (not fully reclaimed) at 500’
5.No change to buffer near plugged and abandoned wells (fully reclaimed) at 150’
6.No change to disclosure requirements for future property owners via a property covenant
7.Add requirements for point-of-sale disclosure notice.
8.Add prohibition on detached occupiable buildings from existing buildings located within the oil
and gas buffer.
9.Setbacks include all occupiable buildings rather than residential only.
13Summaryofproposedchanges
14
Back up
Back up slides
15PeerCityreverseSetbackComparison
Municipality or County Producing well Plugged and
Abandoned
Broomfield 2,000’250’
Commerce City 1,000’50’
Erie 2,000’150’
Fort Collins 2,000’150’
Loveland 500’500’
Longmont 750’150’
Larimer County 1,000'200'
16PeerCityResearch - Reciprocal Setbacks
Municipality or
County
Includes All
Occupiable
Buildings
Certain Uses
Allowed within
Buffer
Differentiate
Between
Active and PA*
Wells
PA* 150'Monitoring
Requirement
for PA* Wells
Boulder X X X
Broomfield X X
Commerce City X
Erie X X X X X
Fort Collins X X X X
Loveland X
Longmont X X X X (occupied buildings)
Larimer County X X (can apply for
alternative compliance)
PA = Plugged/Abandoned Wells
17SetbackScenario
Active and abandoned wells
18SetbackScenario
Prior to the adoption of SB19-181
500 – Feet Reverse Setback
19SetbackScenario
After the adoption of SB19-181
2,000 – Feet Reverse Setback