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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/15/2023 - Natural Resources Advisory Board - Agenda - Regular Meeting Natural Resources Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING – November 15, 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 – JULY, AUGUST, & SEPTEMBER 4. NEW BUSINESS 6:10 – 6:45 Board Inputs to City Strategic Plan Review the City’s seven Strategic Outcomes and discuss where NRAB aligns. Discuss Council priority setting and how strategic plan input can inform. (Discussion) 6:45 – 7:30 Begin update to NRAB 2024 Work Plan Board Chair to lead work plan update process - due Nov. 30. (Discussion) 5. OTHER BUSINESS / UPDATES • Board Member Reports • The final Super Issue Meeting of 2023 will take place on December 4th at the Lincoln Center in the Columbine Room 5:30PM-7:30PM.  It will be a water-focused meeting and food will be provided • Boards and Commissions Open House on November 6th at City Hall 5PM-7PM. • Clarity on current terms and timing of new members, etc. • Six Month Calendar Review https://www.fcgov.com/cityclerk/planning-calendar.php • Revisit action items from previous meetings & preview of next meeting City Websites with Updates: • Natural Resources Advisory Board webpage: https://www.fcgov.com/cityclerk/natural-resources.php • Our Climate Future: https://ourcity.fcgov.com/ourclimatefuture 6. ADJOURN Page 1 07/19/2023 – MINUTES Natural Resources Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, July 19, 2023 – 6:00 PM 222 Laporte Avenue, Colorado River Room 1. CALL TO ORDER: 6:18 PM 2. ROLL CALL a. Board Members Present – • Danielle Buttke • Dawson Metcalf (Chair) • Drew Derderian • Kelly Stewart (Vice Chair) • Kevin Krause • Lisa Andrews • Matt Zoccali b. Board Members Absent – • Barry Noon • Bryan David c. Staff Members Present – • Honoré Depew, Staff Liaison • Ginny Sawyer, Policy and Project Manager • Cassie Archuleta, Air Quality Program Manager • Kristie Raymond, Environmental Planner • d. Guest(s) – • None 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Drew motioned and Kevin seconded to approve the NRAB May minutes as amended. Motion carried unanimously. 6-0 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Sustainable Funding Revenue Measures – Ginny Sawyer (Policy and Project Manager)/ Travis Storin (Chief Financial Officer) will provide context Page 2 07/19/2023 – MINUTES 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) • Discussion | Q + A • Kevin – Q – So for the Parks and Rec piece, just to reiterate or clarify, this item is just for the maintenance needs including aquatics but for new capitol, new items that are in the plan… Ginny – A – No, this would count. Kevin – Q – This includes new? Ginny – A – 5 Mills does. 3 Mills is what is needed to cover the park maintenance and replacement the additional two is where we are looking at. In the immediate future we’ve got the Southeast Community Center . In like five years, Mulberry Pool is probably going to die . So, we are going to need to do something. Any other “new” in the plan we would actually have some funding to drop on. Kevin – Q – So that is what I was going to ask. How specific is that additional 2 Mills tied to those specific efforts or needs? Ginny – A – We worked on that ballot language today. It says new or existing recreation facilities, or something similar. We can share those Council materials once they are out. Kevin – Comment – In my world that would matter and be important to other needs. Ginny – Comment – We did not say anything like pickleball courts or bike facilities. We just said new recreation. Kevin – Q – So that is not something that is in the upcoming work session? Ginny – A – Not necessarily. Kevin – Comment – So if there was an opportunity of input from different interest groups or needs, it still could maybe be helpful ahead of it? I am just thinking out loud. Ginny – Comment – I think people would want to think about getting it passed so we probably would want to be more general at this point in saying this would help to provide major maintenance and new facilities. Honoré – Comment – The wording I have is bullet one is fund replacement, accessibility, maintenance, and upgrades to parks, recreation, and aquatic facilities. Bullet two is to fund construction of indoor and outdoor recreation and aquatic facilities. That is close to what Council will see next Tuesday. • Ginny – Comment – I will tell you while I have you, because it is confusing, at this point Council has referenced three charter changes , charter clean ups. One addresses the candidate’s qualification. Basically, it is saying if you have a felony, you can still run for Council. Another one is a referendum clean up trying to match dates should we ever get a referendum in the charter. It is kind of technically complex. Then another one is looking to move residency requirements. Our City Manager, department heads, and certain titles have residency requirements. We’d like to take that out of the charter and put it in the City Code so that City Council can make exceptions if needed or change that. The City Manager requirements will stay in the charter. Right now, it is disappointing if we lose the best candidate because they live in Wellington. I think it’s unrealistic for people to be like, “oh you have to move three miles if you want this job. Good luck finding a home. For now, the requirements would stay the same and we put them in the code but then we could change them more easily than once a year, opportunity to go to the voters Page 3 07/19/2023 – MINUTES and ask. They also talked last night about possibly referring a ballot measure that says should Council look at the occupancy requirements and consider changing them. That language hasn’t been crafted but I think they might put something like that on the ballot as well. • Honoré – Comment – I think one important thing is that the funds can also be passed through directly to residents. That’s hopefully part of one of the speaking points that come forward as well. Ginny – Comment – I will also say I mentioned that once this gets referred, City staff is kind of out of it. We are just taking interested parties names to do one more meeting a little like this to run through speaking points in case there are folks that may be interested in promoting either of these items once they are referred. If you have any interest in being part of that let Honoré know, and he can pass your name onto me. b. Oil and Gas Operational Standards – 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) • Discussion | Q + A • Lisa – Q – When you say disappear, do you mean abandoned or what does that mean? Do they just walk away from it and not mitigate in anyway? Cassie – A – No, there are standards to it. They call it plug and abandon, but it means they surrender the mineral rights, and they have to fully reclaim. And there are ongoing concerns about plugged and abandoned wells that Kristie will touch on too. They don’t just completely disappear. There is some underground infrastructure that remains no matter what. These things are reaching down thousands of feet. • Kevin – Q – What would those advocacy groups say at this point that they want to see? Is it just that there should be that monitoring place, on going, and we should layer on that step. I think your point is the pace at which the State is moving is so different than it was a year ago. Do they have a list of exact requests at this point? Cassie – A – There is a list. One of the highlights of this is financial assurances; are there enough financial assurances to say they can afford to plug and abandon their well. That can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you’ll hear different numbers around that. The State just last April, adopted financial assurance requirements and so did Larimer County. You have some redundancy. So, they say, “hey what if the state doesn’t do it.” There is an example of one of them where we come back and say it is already there. What’s in the approved plan by the State is enough and there is pushback saying City get your own; have your own assurances. There are other examples . Air quality monitoring is one where the State already requires three months, for example, of monitoring when you get a new site. The County requires a lifetime if you are building next to residential areas. If the county were to implement that, has to have whole database structures, tracking, and infrastructure resources for that and it will only apply to new wells. So, we are saying we have some monitoring Page 4 07/19/2023 – MINUTES resources within our City budget and we can apply that to existing wells. So those are some examples of where it is kind of nuanced and we haven’t heard anything yet but that’ll move us toward objectives any faster. You can always say it has six months monitoring to six years. You can always strengthen that but we’re looking for the impact too. Kevin – Q – In the case of that one with their quality monitoring and the county requirement is that incorporated and unincorporated or would that only be in unincorporated? Cassie – A – County is unincorporated, so that is one of the edits we are asking the County; can you make that apply here. The State is, of course, the whole state and every new well. Kevin – Comment – so that is covered assuming the trust in the county level with the state level also having something. Cassie – Comment – Yes, assuming it would ever matter, because even for the County it is only triggered for a new well application. Anything existing is grandfathered in. So even if we had it, it is a question of if we would ever even use it. Kevin – Q – Is there monitoring in play at either of those levels ongoing for the State or County for legacy wells. Just identifying these problems like the field, you mentioned. How would that be identified other than somebody’s nose essentially that started it. Cassie – A – Often that is what gets someone out with a camera. Somebody notices something and a complaint is filed. State will send somebody or an advocacy group, like Earthworks has their own cameras. That is why we bought the County a camera so we can have closer resources to respond in a timely matter. The thing we are working on right now is called fence line monitoring. It’s not a super robust thing, but its this trace of molecular organics that if you have a peak, you can react to go check it out with the OGI camera. So, it’s like a continuous nose that’s out there. Kevin – Q – So that would be for all sites, or near all those existing 17 or so wells. Cassie – A – They are planning one next to the tank battery These other ones we have never heard a complaint or concern about in the history of those wells because they don’t do much. Kevin – Q – So it is a coupling of there are not new wells happening and the legacy ones are kind of clustered. They are either these (ones shown on screen) or getting fence line monitoring. So, your point is we are pretty covered. Because I agree, I mean, we should never have the point where someone’s nose is the indicator because there’s a huge problem and who knows how long it has been going on. That is not a good scenario. • Danielle – Q – Can you elaborate on the complaints about the OGI camera? What gaps exist in monitoring plugged and abandoned wells relative to operating ones? Cassie – A – Plugging and abandoning involves wells out of services. There’s no more production there. There is some cement that is poured down in the casing and there are a lot of regulations to how you can do that. Concerns are cracks over time. What if there’s pressure that comes back up. People continue to be concerned about plugged and abandoned wells. The State is looking more closely at that because emissions from plugged and abandoned wells are not well quantified. For us the County has gone and facilitated checks of these. We have done soil sampling Page 5 07/19/2023 – MINUTES and soil gas sampling around these, and we have detected nothing that can be attributed to oil and gas wells. Somethings attributed to agriculture is what we’ve found. You can use the OGI camera at a plugged and abandoned well but all you are going to find with that is if there is an active gas leak at that well and we use that mostly for our tank batteries. What we’re concerned about most with the plugged and abandoned wells is any water or soil contamination , especially since these were never gas wells to begin with. These have been oil wells and now they are zero pressure oil wells. Danielle – Q – What about water monitoring and injection wells? Cassie – A – We do have water monitoring at plugged and abandoned wells , injection and all active wells. I can look into that one more Daniel. There is no City requirement for monitoring around the injection wells. Nor did the City permit the injection wells. These predated any City activity. Danielle – Q – What about the complaints about the OGI cameras? Cassie – A – I can speak generally to what complaints are. We think the OGI camera is a really good thing. It’s expensive and its hard to come by. So that was a big investment. Well relatively. It was about $100,000 for the City to buy that for the County. The limitations of an OGI camera is what we’ve talked about. You have to be there with the camera to detect the leak, so it is not continuous monitoring. The camera is not. Kevin – Q – But you said the camera was triggered by the complaints. It has to be like we have to go check this out and then you mobilize the team that you’re working with at the County that has been trained to do that. Cassie – A – Yeah, so there can be a responsive inspection or a proactive one. The County is also regularly going out and checking. Neither one of those continuous but we’re trying to do more proactive ones now that they have staffing. Kevin – Q – So I guess to the point of plugged and abandoned, is there ever a cadence to which they will just go out with the camera once every five years to make sure there’s nothing unexpected happening. Cassie – A – Yes, the County is proactively inspecting those. The State does not have plugged and abandoned auditing requirements. As far as the rest of it, the operator has to do leak detection and repair plan. I think that one’s annually. We have an intergovernmental agreement with the County, and I believe we set up a 3-month Candance with that, but I will have to double check on it. That was part of our agreement. We will buy you a camera and you do some inspections of our wells. Kevin – Q – Are plugged and abandoned included? Cassie – A – Yes. Kevin – Comment – Theres not only mistrust in the state level but there’s certainly mistrust in operators’ longevity. To say great, they have this plan but then they’re gone because they have a bunch of legacy assets, so they are not there to do that. That is where I think a lot of the mistrust and conversation wise is that we can’t rely on that thing. It’s just good to get that. Cassie – Comment – Another mistrust I will add is before Senate Bill 181 the mission of the State regulatory body was to extract minerals, now their mission is to do that in a way that’s protective of the environment. That is a little nuance in language. They were pretty aggressive and preempted some of our local jurisdiction, so a lot of the mistrust comes from that as well. Page 6 07/19/2023 – MINUTES • Danielle – Comment – It seems like there may be an opportunity for messaging around reporting possible smells, visible leaks, etc. from wells to the public. Cassie – Comment – Yes, we have some highlights on the oil and gas City website. The State has resources for that but what we’ve talked about too is how do we get the people most impacted the best connected. We’ve talked about things like going to the HOA in the area and even doing door hangers to just say things about how to report leaks and spills. Kristie will talk a little bit about people moving in and notifications that come to people who are moving into houses in those areas to make sure they are aware there are oil and gas wells. • It is going to Council for discussion on Sept 12th. Cassie mentioned they are trying to figure out gaps now and if Council wants redundancy and if we should be investing City resources in that. • Kevin – Comment – To that point and maybe this is a well-known thing for City Council, for Broomfield who I think you said adopted further at the city level is it because the county level does not have the same level to where Larimer has gone for example? Cassie – A – I’d say it would be more to the fact that they have over 100 wells , often in close proximity to residences, and they adopted their regulations before the State had finished going through theirs. There’s a little bit of everyone going all at once, so there is going to be a lot of redundancy there and they also have to own some mineral rights, so they get some money back from their oil and gas. They use that to hire the staff that works in oil and gas. Most places have fully devoted staff for oil and gas because they have hundreds of wells, and it makes sense. Here we have a handful of old ones and it’s an add on for your air quality and planning folks so we just don’t have the resources, but that can be a question for Council on the resources to do more with oil and gas. • Matt – Q – Is there a lot of speculations for new wells that you have heard of? Cassie – A – None and the process is several years from what we understand from identifying a reserve that we want to tap into and making the case. Now they have to do alternative site analysis and you can do horizontal drilling, so you don’t have to be right above a resource to tap into a resource. It would almost be impossible to make a case that we need to be in this residential area to tap this resources and we are on the edge of a basin so there is not much to access here. Weld County is more in this base. So, there is no speculation that anyone is interested. That said though, our land use restrictions that we just got in place are pretty strict and places like Colorado Oil and Gas Association and American Petroleum Institute are seeing it as an example that they don’t want other communities to do. So even though there is no speculated development, we are still hearing some challenges from oil and gas advocacy groups. • Kevin – Q – With regards to injection there is such a high volume of water attributed with some of the horizontal and other drilling techniques, including injection that must occur there. Does anyone know what those water sources are? One thing we think about a lot Page 7 07/19/2023 – MINUTES obviously is being thoughtful of the use of water. Would there be any other regulations related to using City water for this purpose? Cassie – A – Oh, sure. For our specific oil filed, this is the water flood injection. Another water use conversation is hydraulic fracturing. For water flood injection they recirculate the water, and there’s some produced water and underground water. So, they are not introducing any new water is what they tell us. They just recirculate it. For hydraulic fracturing and the huge amounts of water used there in places like Weld County, the State is looki ng at more and more regulations about how you dispose of that and whether you have to treat it. If we got new wells in the City and they wanted water, they would have to go through our whole development review process. Housing developers are having trouble finding enough water, so they have to disclose and negotiate pay like any other development. Kevin – Q – I didn’t know if all sites have to have water onsite or if they try getting that injection water is there an opportunity to be like no you can’t do that from here at all? That just seems like a mismatch I am curious about as far as using water from certain sources for that purpose wherever they may take place like if you go over the County line. Cassie – A – It is one of the big concerns for Weld County staff is how much truck traffic is involved especially in the preproduction phases when the water is getting introduced. They don’t need a continuous supply is the thing. So does it make sense to pipeline the water. c. Oil and Gas Reverse Setbacks (New Development Near Existing Wells) – Kristie Raymond (Environmental Planner will seek feedback on development standards for oil and gas. Known as “reverse setbacks” these standards were 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) • Discussion | Q + A • Dawson – Q – (Regarding the plugged and abandoned wells) even that is consistent with the 2,000 ft? Kristie – A – Yes, once it was updated. Dawson – Q – Even if its not be taken out? Kristie – A – Because per the COGCC is more restricted. However, I will get into the proposal where we differentiate. • Lisa – Q – So the developer would do the monitoring? Kristie – A – The developer would do the monitoring. That is where it gets tricky when some people are like monitor forever. The developer leaves eventually, so who is doing that? • Dawson – A – Clarification question for me. When we say buffer zone and we’re saying the 150, 500, and 2,000 ft that means both building a home and also the addition of a new well. Kristie – A – No, I am not talking about new wells. The well is already there. So, my piece is what can we allow development to do around a well that is already there, drilled and abandoned, producing injections, plugged and Page 8 07/19/2023 – MINUTES abandoned. Ideally, we would like drilled and abandoned to be plugged and abandoned but the wells are already there. I do development review. When someone brings a development proposal in that’s what I’m looking at, the code. This is just a code clean up that’s already there, just revising it. Kristie clarified the difference between a setback and reverse setback. • Lisa – Q – Is that the norm that the developer does the monitoring? Kristie – A – Well, not everyone requires monitoring. If it is currently operating, the developer does the monitoring. Not all cities require monitoring. Kristie shared a slide what other cities have. A lot don’t require it, that is just something we have required. We found that five- year timeline wasn’t really doing a lot so do you do one year, 50 years? Ideally, we would like someone to come in and plug and abandon these drilled and abandoned wells. • Kelly – Q – What is the approximate cost to plug and abandon a well? Kristie – A – It varies based on depth of the well. Cassie – A – And some of the infrastructure, whether there are any pipelines that you’re also removing, and the age. We had an evaluation on that and averaged them all around $100,000. It’s a lot more for the ones that in involved in the battery because there’s so much surface disturbance there. Kristie – A – It’s different based on how deep the well, the age of the well; older wells have more issues. Lisa – Comment – But it sounds like if there were going to be a problem, it would be evident in the first year or so and there’s no need to monitor longer term. Kristie – Comment – There may never be a problem. Or there could be a problem in 100 years or one day. So that’s why we’re like you have to do five years because this well has been plugged and abandoned. Do one site assessment and see the levels there and if there are elevated levels then let’s clean it up before we do any development. • Danielle – Q – Given the alkaline and soils in this area, I suspect the risk of casing failure is abnormally high and that failures are not gradual but a queue. This would support ongoing periodic monitoring of plugged and abandoned wells perhaps once every five years . Has an interval for monitoring been discussed? Kristie – A – It has. There’s a lot of questions on who does the monitoring over a certain period of time, but it has been brought up at one of the stakeholder meetings and I’m sure Kirk has more discussions on this as well. I’m sorry, I don’t know what those exactly are, but I will make a note of that. Kevin – Comment – It’s kind of like we just don’t know what we don’t know scenarios but maybe what we do know is what Danielle pointed out or at least in some case studies we had one that was always being monitored every five years. That would be at least something to give a data point back should we be doing this for all because the cost. There are just unknowns. Kristie – Comment – I don’t know if they have all been plugged at the same time. They may be on all different time frames. • Kevin – Q – On your summary slide, for number two (allow modification of standards for active well buffers, no less than 500’) can you elaborate on what that is. Kristie – A – It’s modification of Page 9 07/19/2023 – MINUTES standards where we received a proposal on an injection well and they asked for that 500 feet and it can only go as far as a 500 foot for the producing and injection wells. Kevin – Q – Wouldn’t that be less than State standard? Kristie – A – Yeah, and I don’t know exactly how that works to be honest. Kevin – Comment – I am not clear why we are going there. Why don’t we just not have that, especially because it’s so specific. So as a developer it feels like I am going to go after that if it says there can be a standard down to 500. Great, that gives me a ton more viable developable land or units. I feel like if we’re going to 2,000 in the State why do we want to call that out so specifically. It feels counter unless I am not getting it. Kristie – Comment – The current language it has is the planning and zoning commission may grant a modification of standards pursuant to division 2.8 to reduce the 2,000 foot distance to no less than 500 feet provided the applicant provides a phase to environmental site assessment as part of the modification request showing that levels of oil and gas contaminants, if any, are within Federal environmental protection agency or State Health Department standards. The reasoning behind that is there is not a lot of scientific proof out there. Kevin – Q – Is that just for injection? Kristie – A – It’s not just for injection. It is put under both categories. But that is the reasoning I believe that it was added, is these injection wells, there is not a lot of literature out there saying that they post a lot of risk. Its more the risk is unknown. So, there wasn’t a lot either way. Cassie – A – The main risk we have talked about is what if the injection becomes a producing well. I know we touched on that. I mentioned the State stopped an application like that, but we still want to pay attention to worse case scenario. Since you are popping stuff into the ground there is not as much as an air risk. Just the mechanics of the well, we know there’s less risk from an injection well that is pumping water in rather than a producing well that is pulling some kind of product out. • Lisa – Q – What does that mean, an injection well? Kristie – A – Essentially water is injected in and there’s small reserves of oil left in there and it pressurizes and pushes the oil up. Then the oil and gas is separated out. It is a closed loop system. Lisa – Comment – Then they keep using the same water and contaminating the farm water. Kristie – Comment – The wells are sealed and done correctly, it’s a closed loop system. Lisa – Q – And it’s not fracking, this is something different? Kristie – A – It’s not fracking. It’s not waste water injection. If you look at scientific literature, that is what you keep coming up against. These enhanced oil recovery wells, there’s not a lot there because it’s just the water and then the gas gets separated out. So, it is a closed loop system. • Kevin – Comment – I guess my reaction is if we don’t feel like we know or that that could stop producing but it’s not plugged and abandoned so it’s still open. Maybe the infrastructure has a leak when it’s sitting there for five years, not producing. I feel uncomfortable with bearing on the side of we don’t know much because there is not much literature, so let’s go lower. Let’s protect and say it’s the same number. We don’t know what we don’t know so it’s the same number. We want to keep the population and the natural Page 10 07/19/2023 – MINUTES resources away from that. It’s in my direction and it doesn’t feel comfortable. • Lisa – Comment – I echo what Kevin said about number two. Why would you put that in there. This is the role but if you don’t like the role, here’s how you could challenge it. Why would you set that up and give everyone the opportunity to drag you into meetings and lawyers. • Matt – Q – Does number eight in the proposed rules (Add prohibition on detached occupiable buildings from existing buildings located within the oil and gas buffer) mean that if I am a homeowner or property owner within the oil and gas zone, I am not allowed to put an ADU on my property. Kristie – A – If there is an existing home within the buffer, you cannot add an ADU. You can add non occupiable buildings or structures. You just can’t add occupancy. • Danielle – Comment – Well service companies for residential water wells seem very experienced and confident in their assessments of how quickly water well casements degrade in Fort Collins soils, and they may be useful stakeholders to consult the considered interval monitoring. • Kevin – Q – I guess to Matt’s question on the ADUs and congregation areas, I haven’t had a lot of time to think about this but there are some nuances to that that feel strange. These people who own these properties are living there. To be like you can’t have a community swing set but they are living there 100% of the time, even though they are in a structure in that buffer, they are living there 100% of the time. They are in their house, in the buffer or in their backyard, in the buffer. So, it’s not congregated. I mean if there’s going to be an imminent explosion or something but if it’s just, we don’t want people to be near it like they are already near it. So as a homeowner, I feel like that would be tough. I would wrestle with that to be like, this is our house. So what is the difference? If I am right there at the swing set versus…I get the intent but similarly with ADUs, its like grandma’s living in the basement right now, she can’t live out back in the ADU but its already this known thing. As long as it’s a known thing that you live in this buffer zone. I hope you knew that before but if you’re trying to develop just a heads up that you are still in the Zone. I don’t know. That just jumped out as like you’re almost picking. Maybe their property values are already impacted in some way, just by being where they are but then to be like anyone else with a similar sort of property scale or neighborhood type can add ADUs, but you guys can’t. I mean they are already in the zone. Kristie – Comment – Or some of the neighbors can and some can’t. Kevin – Comment – Yeah, that’s a weird one. Kristie – Comment – Yeah that one is marked over many discussions. • Dawson – Q – Do we have any data around the number of households that are impacted by this jump? Kristie – A – No, but I can show you a map. For instance, proposed development on that vacant right side, that is impacted. • Matt – Comment – Kevin’s comments touched on my sentiments. If it Page 11 07/19/2023 – MINUTES can be shown through monitoring that this is safe, why impact the personal, proper decisions and values? Kristie – Comment – There still the risk of perception. There are a lot of holes in the literature currently. We just carried what we know at this point in time. Kevin – Comment – Maybe there is a difference between a developer and a property owner. As a developer you don’t have your vested interest. You have your vested interest but it’s a short-term thing. As a property owner you are already there. Kristie – Q – So how do you feel about an HOA putting a park in? Because I get what you are saying an ADU is maybe one person. Kevin – A – If it was an existing development, it would be hard. Its already there and there’s a development proposal for a neighborhood park, right? Because we are talking about reverse setbacks, not part of a brand-new development? Kristie – Comment – We are talking about both. It could be a brand-new development and they could say, okay we got the memo, no homes but we are going to put a park in this buffer. We are going to use that land to put a park in. Kevin – Comment – That I resonate with more. It’s the existing stuff that I’m uncomfortable with , where it’s my existing neighbor or homeowner wants to do “x”. Kristie – Comment – In some of these neighborhood’s wells have been plugged and abandoned to go ahead and allow more usage of the neighborhood. And more of that could be plugged and abandoned. • Kevin – Q – My only other question was to your point on changing the use from injecting to producing and the fact that it has sort of been tried and is an ambiguous area. Is there opportunity for City level regulation to say anytime a use change is proposed that that does put into effect whatever the new standards are. That feels like a loophole and if it’s not covered by the State or County, that feels like it is hanging out there. Kristie – A – That get complicated. Cassie – A – We had success in one case where we stopped it. Can they do it? Is there a challenge that would work? We don’t know. Our land use code gets trigged by a change in use. So, the new setbacks and zoning thing say that. That is regular setbacks, not reverse setbacks. So that also restricts the change in use. Kevin – Q – Is a change in use triggered by a change in the way the well is being used ? Is that a change in use by city code today? Cassie – A – Yes, it is. The fear is what if the State challenges that. Kevin – Comment – Sounds like we have a vehicle, that shouldn’t be something people are going like, anytime this could…no it kicks in all those things. Kristie – Comment – and that is the primary reason why injection and producing are both at that same buffer. Injecting seems like there’s less risk potential but if it can switch… Cassie – Comment – Correct me if I am wrong but I think that is why the planning and zoning review was built in there. If there could be some demonstration of that modification. Then you put the illness on the developer to demonstrate that this isn’t going to change from a shut in or injecting well. • Danielle – Comment – I would argue that currently we can only show that it is safe for a single point in time. Considerable future risks exist. • Kristie – Comment – There is a planning and zoning hearing tomorrow and then brought to Council September 5th. Kevin – Q – Would there be opportunity, just with some of this discussion, is there Page 12 07/19/2023 – MINUTES opportunity to introduce either meeting minutes or anything to that Council discussion? Kristie – A – If you all have something you would like to write up and share to Council, that would be helpful ; any comments or feedback you have. I know there’s stakeholder groups providing feedback as well. We’ve been talking to lots of different people. Kevin – Comment – I am not ready to support but I appreciate the early discussion and I think that it’d be nice to see where it goes. Kristie – Comment – The main piece of it is to clean and refine the current land use code. I do realize there’s some details that you still have questions about, and I don’t know how that would be worded on your end. Dawson – Comment – Maybe that’s what I am getting stuck on here too about this next step is based off a lot of points that people have brought up during this. I feel weird saying we as the Board general support it when we are thinking about other things. Danielle’s point is really sticking with me about the incremental monitoring. That is something I would want to push for personally. So that is where I am getting a little iffy about the general support piece. Kristie – Comment – Would you say there are some pieces you would support? Honore – Comment – Reviewing the minutes and the conversation you all had with your Council Liaison in May, with Julie Pignataro and you know different Council Members rely on Board and Commission recommendations to different degrees but certainly the likelihood that they would comb through the entire conversation may be limited. Something pointed that is clear and simplified that can be extracted and highlighted by staff would usually be the most influential and I don’t think that has to be a wholesale but if there are pieces of it that you want to make sure council knew that could also be teased in a memo. Dawson – Comment – I feel a memo makes more sense to me personally where we can make these defining pieces of what we support. I don’t know if other people feel differently about that. Lisa – Comment – What seems like we could say, I think we support the notion of moving from a 500 foot to a 2,00o foot limit. Dawson – Comment – I don’t think it would be best to even do that. Kristie – Comment – That part is the clean-up of the language, so it is less confusing for developers and staff. But then bringing it to that piece, you have the drilled and abandoned well in that 2,000 foot as well. You could say you support all but… Lisa – Comment – The concern about the impact of private property and how they’re utilizing it. For example, the playgrounds and ADUs. Kevin – Comment – So, we need to go through one through nine and see what level of support we have and then also any of the addons like monitoring to be explored or others like that. Dawson – Comment – and it makes more sense to me to do that in a memo. The Board discussed the logistics of the memo. Kristie will send draft code language to the Board. They will speak at the next meeting more on the memo. • Danielle – Comment – I will be more explicit. We purchased a 60- year-old home with three water wells and two of them were collapsed because of the alkaline soil degrading the casing, and every well company we spoke with said that was expected. I think incorporating a recommendation for interval monitoring, language acknowledging Page 13 07/19/2023 – MINUTES uncertainty and change based on evolving science, and support for current stated changes would be my recommendation. • The board will go through points one through nine (proposed changes) in the presentation to discuss if they support or don’t support the proposed changes during their next meeting. • Dawson motions and Kelly seconds to write a memo examining the summary of proposed changes, with considerations for an addition of making our suggestions on the proposed changes, with the additional element of adding a point of interval monitoring on sites. Motion passes unanimously 6-0. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS a. None 9. STAFF REPORTS 10. OTHER BUSINESS a. Six Month Calendar Review • August • Finalizing O&G memo • Land Use Code landscape standard updates • Update on Land Use Code • September • Economic Health Strategic Plan • Downtown Parking • Advancing Transit Initiatives 11. ADJOURNMENT a. (8:21pm) Minutes approved by a vote of the Board/Commission on XX/XX/XX Page 1 08/16/2023 – MINUTES Natural Resources Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, August 16, 2023 – 6:00 PM 222 Laporte Avenue, Colorado River Room 1. CALL TO ORDER: 6:05 PM 2. ROLL CALL a. Board Members Present – • Barry Noon • Danielle Buttke • Drew Derderian • Kelly Stewart (Vice Chair) • Kevin Krause • Lisa Andrews b. Board Members Absent – • Dawson Metcalf (Chair) • Matt Zoccali c. Staff Members Present – • Honoré Depew, Staff Liaison • Kendra Boot, City Forester • Katie Colins, Water Conservation Specialist • Mariel Miller, Water Conservation Manager • Kathryne Marko, Environmental Regulatory Affairs Manager d. Guest(s) – • None 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. No minutes to approve this month. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 7. NEW BUSINESS Page 2 08/16/2023 – MINUTES a. Landscape Standards Code Revisions – Kendra Boot (City Forester) and Katie Colins (Water Conservation Specialist) will share proposed updates to landscape standards for xeriscape, soil amendment, irrigation, and trees. Staff is seeking feedback and formal support from the board to move forward these updates as part of City Council’s priorities. (Action) • Discussion | Q + A • Lisa – Q – I have a question about the funding with at least 3 ½ FTEs; do people make payments for permission to do this kind of thing or where does this money come from? Does it come from the City, the applicant, or both? Kendra – A – We are not quite sure about that yet. We are analyzing what sort of funding sources, and it may be a combination. So, we are not quite sure about that yet, but it is a great question. • Barry – Comment – At our home we are in the process of doing xeriscaping between Mountain Ave and the sidewalk. We had to submit a plan to the City. The review process has taken a very long time. Maybe in the process of doing it, we didn’t do it ourselves; we contracted with someone to do it. We may have inadvertently violated some of the requirements for the financial incentives to do the xeriscaping. So, our experiences so far, have been a bit challenging but obviously we are very supportive of the program. In our case, it’s been a little bit difficult to know what we can and cannot do and the delay has been pretty pronounced. • Barry – Q – I have a number of questions and it may be in that longer document with all the yellow highlighting. I apologize I have not studied that exhaustively. Are there pesticide restrictions for concerns about pollinators and not adding onto the demise of pollinators, which has been quite well documented scientifically. Is that anything that is in the code? Kendra – A – Not that I am aware of as far as turf or xeriscaping goes. As far as trees, the forestry division maintains all the public trees, at least from what we know, and people do take things into their own hands and treat trees adjacent to their own homes. Property owners are supposed to get permits if they are doing any work to street trees. Not everyone may know that. We don’t allow neonicotinoid for treating public trees but that does not mean that they may be utilized on the grass in xeriscape. Barry – Comment – I am also on the County Environmental Advisory Board and that’s been an issue that we’ve dealt with in the last few months about developing a policy to not add further to the demise of pollinators . I am not sure how much communication occurs between City and County, even though we are embedded in the County. Kendra – Comment – I like that point and maybe that is something we can add to our education plans for these policy roll outs because it’s part of the landscape and toolbox of how you manage landscapes. Thank you for bringing that up. • Barry – Q – So another question is whether there’s any restriction on soil amendments and different fertilizers. Because, again, another Page 3 08/16/2023 – MINUTES thing that’s well documented across the country is the adverse effects of nitrogen and phosphorous loading on water supplies and then stream out. I wonder if that is part what you are proposing . Any restrictions there? Kathryn – A - So this isn’t so much of a restriction of not this, but you have to meet certain physical and organic components. So, it’s not straight fertilizer but the basic standard is its compost tilled into the soil. We also work with storm water, MS4, storm water runoff, and the quality impacting the waterways. By tilling it into the soil and working on the soil quality, you reduce how much you’re putting on top, how much can then run off, and reducing the overall application of people who don’t know. It’s hard to estimate when you are not an expert and just a homeowner. When your grass is dying, you want to fix it. It’s often unintended over application which is a big concern. Barry – Comment – At the scale of an individual household isn’t saying much but it’s the cumulative affect of hundreds if not thousands of households with too much fertilizer. Kathryn – Comment – by adding it into the actual soil, it is reducing the amount that needs to be put on top of that. • Barry – Q – Are there any recommended tree species for planting? Are they native? Is there a tradeoff or an argument both for deciduous and conifer trees. Kendra – A – We do have a couple of different recommendations list. I would say many of the trees are not native because I think there are 28 native trees in Colorado and probably five of those are deciduous. The rest are conifers. Many of those don’t live well down at this elevation. A lot of the trees that are on our recommended list is a mixture of trees that are xeric and can live in low water situations. I would say most of them are in that group. Then, we have some trees that require a little bit more water, like some of our maples for example. Many of the trees that are on our recommendation list are trees that are adequate for our planet, are fairly adequate for changing climate, and can live in many different situations, irrigated or non-irrigated. Barry – Comment – The most common forest type in the continental US are juniper forests. They are about 26% of forest cover. I think junipers probably do well here and in the future they will probably do even better, though they are not necessarily the most desirable trees in terms of casting share and ameliorating the temperature extremes like today. Kendra – Comment – I do agree. We don’t plant any evergreens or conifers in the public right of way for a number of reasons. Some of it is the shading in the winter and creating ice on sidewalks, roads, and parking areas. The other reason is we have clearance standards. Many of the conifers that grow well here its not great to raise their canopies up, spruce particularly. So, if we are planting them in the public right of way, these very narrow right of way strips, we can’t clear the sidewalks for people to walk down and park on the street. That is the biggest factor of planting conifers. The one thing that we have been trying the last four to five years is the deciduous conifers such as larch or glyptostrobus. So, they still get those feathery Page 4 08/16/2023 – MINUTES needles in that summertime, during the growing season and lose them for the winter so you can raise them up. They have a canopy and form instructor that is more similar to a deciduous tree. • Barry – Q – My final question has to do with the three City golf courses. What is being done there? There’s a lot that could be done to have them use less water and to make the fairways start further from the tee box. Just no water education there. Narrowing the fairways and requirement for what they plant. There is a program, it’s probably multiple ones, but there is an Audubon Society Program for golf courses. I lived in a little town and my son and oldest daughter played golf in college. I belonged to a country club and one of the things I did was push them to get Audubon Society Certified and to put up nesting structures for birds all around. It seems to me that there is quite a bit that could be done to better xeriscape the golf courses. Kendra – A – I am going to veer a little bit out of my normal lane and try to answer as much as I can about the golf courses. We don’t have our golf manager here with us, but I will say that the three of our golf courses are Audubon dedicated sanctuaries. We are part of that. Part of what goes into that is best management practices . You are taking into consideration water use and doing your best maintenance practices to make sure you are creating a conducive habitat for birds, species and other wildlife. We do meet those minimum standards if not I would say we probably go above and beyond. Our cemeteries are also dedicated, and I believe City Park is also dedicated. I wanted to touch on the water piece a little. I have heard my peers say that we are very efficient in the way we utilize water as a city organization. We also use a combination of well water and city water, but mostly well water. Last time I checked it was 90% ET. Last time when we were in a water shortage, we got down to 80% ET. We are very efficient at watering our golf courses and parks based on best practices. • Kelly – Q – What does “ET” stand for? Katie – A – Evapotranspiration. So essentially the amount of water a plant loses is measured in evapotranspiration and the idea of irrigation is to replace the water that is lost from the plant. So, when we talk about 90% of ET that means we are not replacing 100% of what’s lost we are replacing less than that. Kendra – Comment – I have one more thing to add about the golf courses. A big part of water loss comes from old infrastructure. For instance, Southridge just went through an entire update, brand new state-of-the-art infrastructure. That is going to save us, I can’t remember the numbers, but it’s astounding how much water that is going to save that golf course. City Park 9, that infrastructure replacement for that irrigation system is also coming soon. If we could have these nice infrastructure replacements every 30 or so years, its huge replacement and saving water. Katie – Comment – I will add to Southridge, they are converting more areas of the golf type nature to native or rough species. Barry – Comment – The Southridge course is in bad shape, and I think it’s because of Page 5 08/16/2023 – MINUTES the hard freezes we had in the winter, but it needs work. Katie – Comment – They have been putting a ton of work into it, especially in the last year. So exciting things over there. • Kevin – Q – As far as soil amendments or really all three parts, what has engagement been with installers and otherwise those who maintain infrastructure? Katie – A – We started public engagement on this project back in 2021. We had surveys with focus groups with the landscape industry. We reached out to developers and builders but didn’t get a great response there as well as property managers. We did have conversations back and forth and we’ll continue to go back to these folks to learn more about what the impact would be there. We have been engaging those groups through this process but also through our certified landscape professionals’ program. That is a list of landscape professionals in Fort Collins that have a water sense certification. We communicate with them on City projects, and they give us feedback. So, we have presented this direction to them as well. • Kevin – Q – What do you expect or anticipate from Council? Do you have any anticipation of what those conversations are or what they will be looking for? And then the budget piece is an add on question of how does it get covered? I know there are several asks for it. Are they more sensitive because of that. Katie – A – We took soil amendment and xeriscape topics to Council work session in January. Kendra, I think came two weeks after us with the tree policy. In those conversations we were really looking for direction and narrowing into specifics on turf maximums and other things so we had discussion around should it be zero percent, should it be 15. We went over that, and they seemed pretty happy with where we landed in the middle. Through public engagement especially, we have heard there is a little bit of heartburn around single family landscape standards among owners, builders, and the general public. Then on the other side people are really supportive of the direction. What we anticipate October 10 is bringing single family back up to get the temperature again from Council. They were supportive of it in January. We’ll continue to share what that engagement has been. When we’re talking about the resources needs and the employees that three and a half full time employee number comes from having to support single family landscape standards because we ha ve the processes and much of the staff in place to support the commercial, non-residential, or multifamily development review. But for single family where you have 400 homes going in, we don’t have a process to look at landscape plans, landscape inspections, irrigation checks and audits. So that is really where that three and a half number is. Kevin – Comment – I think the heartburn we can all relate to that desire to keep what is typical or what we are used to in the standard, so I totally get that. This board expressed last time excitement to be thoughtfully thinking about turf grass, especially with things that tend to be underutilized. I think there is probably a nice tie in with parks as Page 6 08/16/2023 – MINUTES well and developments to make sure that there is not a feeling of loss with respect to potential for activity that people expect. Katie – A – You could go wall to wall if you wanted. We don’t recommend it though. Kevin – Comment – So you could max on that as far as explaining the change. There’s still a lot there centralized. Kendra – Comment – We realized through Covid that parks are such an important, valuable asset. The community could go and hang out and feel safe. So, its good it’s part of the exception. Even when we are planning or developing new parks, we are considering pollinator gardens more natural, xeric landscape on the outskirts. We are looking at ways to bring that back. Katie – Comment – When we evaluated, we were looking at the recent parks that have gone in and looking at how those parks would or wouldn’t fit into this 30% 10,000 square foot thing. The 10,000 square foot cap is really where it gets tricky for soccer fields, football fields, outfields and things like that. More and more, the parks that are being put in, there’s a lot of community input and there’s a lot of excellent examples of best practice in those park designs and management of those parks. We found that they didn’t quite meet that 30%. They often went over but as far as gallon per square foot, much lower on average than only commercial or older parks. • Kelly – Q – So you guys are looking for formal support. I don’t know if the board feels like we are in a place to do that or what our options are to go about that. Honoré shared the different options with the board. • Barry – Comment – So again, and not looking at that full document exhaustively, two points I already raised so I will just touch on them briefly. I think sometimes regulations have an opportunity to gently teach someone. The issue with pollinators is really well documented that pollinators (insects, birds) are in decline. Also here, that is an issue. You could suggest restrictions on the use of pesticides with adverse effects on pollinators and then simply have a sentence or two saying that pollinators are in steep decline, and from pollinators we get totally free environmental services. They are absolutely critical for almost all of our crops and they’re totally free. We don’t have to pay them. Then a similar thing with nitrogen and phosphorus again, extremely well documented, of how t contributes to eutrophication and e coli breakouts in aquatic ecosystems. Just a sentence or two. It’s not like using a hammer. It’s saying we strongly recommend for these reasons. Maybe that sometimes has an effect without being preachy. Kendra – Comment – I like that feedback and I think each section or article starts out with a purpose statement. I think that’s a great spot for educating or bringing it front of mind to whomever is reading the code. It also makes me think that the land use code will be going through phase two update after the y push through phase one, which is affordable housing and update of the land use code. I believe phase two will probably be next year and that will likely include nature in the City policies. So, there will be other opportunities Page 7 08/16/2023 – MINUTES as well. We’ll take that back around the pollinators and pass it to Kirk Longstein and make sure we are bringing that in front of him. Barry – Comment – In that regard there is actually a formal pollinator report from the County Environmental Science Advisory Board that has just been approved and completed. That might be useful to look at. • Kelly – Q – Are we comfortable with a vote or would you prefer a memo? Barry – A – I think maybe as Honoré mention in the minutes and notes here. • Katie – Comment – I also want to say that we think that the general direction of these codes will likely remain as what you see here. We have our Boards and Commissions roadshow. We are collecting some additional feedback and we’ll be revising the code language that you received in your packet. I just want to point out that you’ve seen a proposed draft and some of the language in there might change but we don’t anticipate the direction changing significantly unless we were to pull single family out of there, for example. I just wanted to throw that out there in light of a recommendation. • Lisa – Q – It seems to me that the overall purpose of this is language change, and I did kind of go through it yesterday, is to bring things up to best practices and to consolidate further the goals of an environmentally sound community. That is what I get out of it, and I support that entirely. • Kevin motions and Lisa seconds to express support for the direction of the proposed code changes inclusive of single family remaining in there because it is important and to also highlight the importance of the educational opportunities pointed out with respect to pollinators and soil content additives and try to make that the center point of the public introduction to the code being waterwise. Motion passes unanimously. 5-0 b. NRAB Memo Review: Oil and Gas Reverse Setbacks – Review and finalize draft memo, prepared by NRAB Chair, regarding proposed changes to the City’s policies on oil and natural gas reverse setbacks. Memo is based on NRAB discussion and motion following the July 19 presentation by Kristie Raymond, in advance of a Council Work Session scheduled for September 12. (Action) • Discussion | Q + A • The Board discussed that the wording on number three was confusing regarding soil-gas and ground water monitoring timeline. They discussed the strong desire for ongoing monitoring vs a one- time assessment. They also requested the initial assessment be conducted within a year of it being plugged and abandoned. They also mentioned Danielle’s point from the discussion last meeting that the soil here tends to degrade things quicker. • Honore shared the most updated language of the code. The board still disagreed with an initial assessment and a five-year waiting period as the environment is not static or predictable . It should be a high priority activity because it is documented to have adverse human Page 8 08/16/2023 – MINUTES health impacts. There was a code change added from the original list they were given. • Barry shared that the County Environmental Advisory Board received a presentation on air quality in Larimer County. The air quality is bad in Larimer County and has gotten worse. It will be out of compliance for the next 3-5 years. Wind direction is the number one predictor of air quality in Larimer County and is correlated with the number of wells in Weld County, so he does not want to let up on oil and gas regulations and monitoring. • 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS a. Kevin – Council has been thinking about reimaging the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC). During their last meeting they were presented with an initial recommendation from a Council Sub Committee. The recommendation included it becoming a true board versus a committee made up by other boards so NRAB would no longer have a liaison. They also mentioned changing it to include all active modes. There are also some non-profits and other community groups that are part of BAC. They want to make those members not as defined of what organizations but have a body that is inclusive of those types of organizations as non-voting members. Kevin mentioned there was a heated discussion, but he supports the changes. It does cause some confusion for the Transportation Board and what they would then cover and what their roles would be . • Barry asked about e-bikes and how some of them you no longer have to pedal so they are more like a motorcycle and where they are allowed. Kevin mentioned that class one and two are allowed on trails but there is a courtesy lower speed limit that should be followed. There were studies done on speed and injuries. b. Kevin – Mentioned an email sent by utilities regarding a change in raw water . There is a proposal to change the way raw water requirements are structured, including the cost. Kevin mentioned it seemed like Council received feedback after the email went out from community members who were alarmed at the cost increase. It seems like there might be a balance or looking out for current costs and future costs. Kevin wonders if Council could use support or guidance from NRAB regarding this. c. Barry – The County and CSU Water Center are sponsoring a water education series. The first talk is on August 21st at 200 Oak St on water supply and Risks. The second talk is Sept 20th on water conservation. The third talk is on October 18th on watershed health and instream flows and the last one is on November 16th on what is next for Larimer County water. Barry stated Glade Reservoir and Northern Water is not on the agenda. It is open to the public and Barry will forward it to the Board. 9. STAFF REPORTS 10. OTHER BUSINESS a. Six Month Calendar Review Page 9 08/16/2023 – MINUTES • September • Water Supply Requirement Fee • Platte River Power Authority • Land Use Code Update • October • Economic Health Strategic Plan • Downtown Parking 11. ADJOURNMENT a. (7:56 pm) Minutes approved by a vote of the Board/Commission on XX/XX/XX Page 1 09/20/2023 – MINUTES Natural Resources Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, September 20, 2023 – 6:00 PM 222 Laporte Avenue, Colorado River Room 1. CALL TO ORDER: 6:04 PM 2. ROLL CALL a. Board Members Present – • Barry Noon • Danielle Buttke • Kelly Stewart (Vice Chair) • Kevin Krause • Lisa Andrews • Matt Zoccali b. Board Members Absent – • Dawson Metcalf (Chair) • Drew Derderian c. Staff Members Present – • Honoré Depew, Staff Liaison • Nick Combs, Comms & Marketing Manager, Utilities • Eric Keselburg, Parking Services Manager • Drew Brooks, Deputy Director, PDT d. Guest(s) – • Javier Camacho, Platte River Power Authority • Masood Ahmad, Platte River Power Authority • Carly Lynch, Platte River Power Authority 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. No minutes to approve this month. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Platte River Integrated Resource Plan – Platte River Power Authority (PRPA) will be presenting their upcoming Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for awareness and discussion. (Discussion) Page 2 09/20/2023 – MINUTES • Discussion | Q + A • Matt – Q – (Regarding the slide with budget system total) Can you give me an idea of what other purchases are? Javier – A – So that is our purchasing power, right? Masood – A – We are well connected with other utilities here. We buy and sell with all the transactions. In any hour, if our marginal cost is, say $20, and there is a power available at $19, we will buy it because that saves our customers money. And the same way, if our marginal cost is $20 and somebody’s willing to pay us $22, we’ll sell it. That is in real time. Then we also make forward transactions like we’ve made sales for next summer if we think we have access, energy and capacity. Matt – Q – If I did my math right, those numbers are not included in the non-carbon resource percentages. Masood – A – Yes, they are sperate. We have to keep them separate. It is hard to pinpoint the carbon structure of those purchases. A lot of times, this energy is available when there’s a lot of wind in the area. It’s very windy. They have, I think, 4,000 megawatts of wind. The prices drop. So, we say, hey, why should we be running coal. Typically, if it is below our marginal cost, it has to be renewable because renewable is a 0 marginal cost energy, but we don’t count the carbon of that. That is what our team is looking at. There are a number of options our team is considering. • Kevin – Q – As far as the modeling and opportunities, clearly on the demand side there has to be some gives there because you have additive sources coming online with EVs and home electronification and so forth. How much can that contribute when you think about changes in behavior, changes in improved installation building envelopes, and these things. Is there modeling and data that can come back to the City or already provided to the City to say this is how much of a difference these other things can make. Otherwise, as you indicated, it’s just more expensive. You either spend the money here with those efficiency upgrades that we talk about in. I guess I am trying to understand how much of an impact that can have , that actually changes behaviorally or on demand through these other methods that are just reducing demand from an unneeded demand perspective, is the best-case scenario versus the needed when you’re saying we’re electrifying the transportation side. Masood – A – There are two different demand areas. One is electrification the other is thermostat/electric heating. Let’s take them one by one. On electrification, as I mentioned, as more and more customers buy electric vehicles, that is a demand we have to meet. To the extent that the customers work with us to charge when we tell them it’s a better time to charge. When we tell them it’s a better time to charge, the price of electricity is lower and renewable is available, and don’t charge during certain hours to the extent to give us control of your charging time. That’s very valuable. You can give us the flexibility. That will definitely help us reduce the resources that we have to bring on time. Kevin – Q – Just to clarify, my question is not about those new sources of demand, but about existing demand, existing efficiencies. So, saying, should the City actually be spending four times what it’s spending to have more homes insulated more effectively rather than wait to spend the money by having to create Page 3 09/20/2023 – MINUTES these demand response technologies and additional battery storage and feeding that information back to the City? You’re going to spend money, so maybe we should be tripling down over here first because our model is showing that will take this demand down and we have to put online less sources. Is any of that in the modeling? Masood – A – Yeah, its not only modeling, which is future, it's happening now. Don’t quote me on these numbers but I can tell you ballpark. Our cost of electricity that we charge to our cities is a little over 100 million dollars a year for the four cities. We spent almost 10 million dollars on energy efficiency programs on behalf of the four cities. We have been doing this for the last 10-15 years. We have a track record where we are working with residential customers, industrial customers, and commercial. We are helping to reduce the demand. I have heard the City of Fort Collins has been able to reduce demand to the tune of one percent for energy efficiency measures. What we are looking at is less than overall. If you didn’t have energy efficiency programs, our demand would be growing at about a half percent per year more at the wholesale level. I think the City of Fort Collins is close to one percent but again, these numbers are just ballpark. A lot of activity is happening in this area. One quick comment; unfortunately, the heating load, there is not a lot of flexibility. We can, especially if it is extreme cold, we will not be shutting down your heater. What is the best scenario for electric utilities is you have your gas heat as well available as back up. Obviously, gas heat is more polluting but when the extreme temperatures come, if you have that back up, that puts less pressure on electric utilities because at some temperature s, the heat pump efficiency goes. At that time, everybody resorts to resistance heating. We see the demand growth is going to be really high. Now, peak demand is in summer but in the next two decades, we could become winter peaking if many of our customers have heat pumps, and they resort to resistance heating in extreme weather rather than keeping the gas heating as a backup. That is a better scenario for electric utilities. • Barry – Q – So candidly to ask you this, how optimistic are you that advances in technology can keep pace with advances in demand particularly along the Front Range, where population is growing almost exponentially. Masood – A – We all collectively made a forecast. Let’s look at the demand. In the 1990s the demand really grew fast. Since then, the energy efficiency efforts that Platte River and its communities made the demand, we have made a dent in that demand growth. It has been around one percent or so. Because of electrification and because of the heating load, the demand could jump up to two or three percent again. The demand is going to continue to grow, and the growth rate will be determined. We know electric adoption is already here. It’s accelerating and the electric heating is a little bit unfancy. So, it’s going to grow a little bit slower than electric transportation. But the technologies to go 100%, that’s the second part of your question, we have our consultant and advisors telling us, for example green hydrogen. There’s a lot of money being spent and it’s not commercial today but maybe by the middle of the next decade hydrogen could be a viable source where you don’t need to burn natural gas. You make green hydrogen when Page 4 09/20/2023 – MINUTES there is access renewable and you store it underground or in tanks and then tap on that every day in the evening when you need it or when there is extended dark period. That is hydrogen. Similar situation with the long duration energy storage, that technology a lot of R&D on that. Some pilots happening. We are thinking of a pilot ourselves but again by the middle of the next decade. Jaiver – Comment – I know this is not part of your question but something I do want to underscore that Masood did mention is we need to pursue these technologies because they are emerging technologies. We’re one of many utilities that are keeping an eye on how quickly these technologies are evolving but we are also looking from a tactical standpoint how we can actually integrate them into our portfolio versus other utilities, they are just keeping a pulse on how to eventually transition to their portfolio. What we have to do, because of our size of utility, we are 700-800 peaking utility as well as we are all around the generation and transmission side. We need to determine that these technologies are commercially viable which means we have to determine that they can actually function across other utilities. We also monitor how other utilities are adopting them. There are a lot of factors that we keep in. So yes, the demand is definitely continuing to grow, and we are keeping forecasts on that. Technology is evolving but, in a nutshell, at a slower pace. We need to just keep in mind that financial sustainability piece and make sure it does make sense when we want to introduce a new technology to our portfolio. • Barry – Q – I have a follow up comment. Let’s have a simple metric here. If we look at the demand to availability ratio and as that ratio, let’s say, approaches one or on some occasions even exceeds one. Then then price for megawatt or kilowatt, whatever the measurement unit is, access to that becomes socially inequitable. So, people who are already empowered and wealthy can afford to pay additional dollars for access to energy, but those who don’t have that ability… I have a broad thesis that so many of the social problems around the world can be explained by one metric, and that is the ratio of the distribution of wealth and opportunity. I’m concerned that this demand availability ratio, a simple metric like that, could exacerbate the inequitable distribution of access to energy. Javier – Comment – Your comment is well taken, which is why, as we continue to pursue our goal of the resource diversification policy, we are not relinquishing, and we’re relentless in that effort of our three foundational pillars. That of reliability, ensuring that we are living up to our responsibility and obligation that has been founded in our organic contract. The environmental responsibility which is one of the guiding principles that we were founded on, and the financial sustainability factor. As I mentioned we are not going to avoid rate increases but how do we actually ensure that it’s in a measurable amount? Masood – Comment – And minimal. That’s our starting point. We want to make sure the cost increase is minimal. Javier – Comment – Minimal knowing that they inevitably will increase. So, your comment is well taken and definitely something that guides us as part of this ongoing process. • Danielle – Comment – I think it’s really remarkable that you’re seeing a decrease in demand, because we know writ large globally, we are Page 5 09/20/2023 – MINUTES experiencing Jevon’s Paradox. Where we make more energy and people just simply consume more energy. We’re not actually seeing a net reduction in overall global energy use. Even as these renewable energies come on board, we’re just seeing demand increase because everything’s electrified. We used to sweep our floors, now we have a robot vacuum. We used to hand grind our own flour, now we have all these gadgets and screens that simply demand more electricity. I want to commend you on that because that is really remarkable. However, I still think it’s concerning particularly given Barry’s comment about equity and knowing that all the statics you stated about how much money is spent on attempting to reduce demand and yet, even with those pieces in place, we’re still just seeing that 1% reduction. So, I think a lot of the efforts to reduce demand are focused on simply making the infrastructure we have perform better but very little of that is actually spent on behavioral modification. How do we get people to actually change their behaviors, to turn off lights, to not have so many screens, etc. So, I feel like there’s a huge gaping hole in a lot of the portfolio. Javier – Comment – So you are talking about education and that is definitely something that keeps me up at night. Part of what I do at PRPA is managing our marketing outreach. What we’re doing in this very moment is crafting a strategy that is working regionally with our owner communities and really amplifying that education outreach. As Masood mentioned, through our efficiency works program, which you probably have heard of, and Fort Collins has a piece of that as well as the homes program, but we work very closely with the Fort Collins Utilities on that education. Now we’re starting to amplify that because we are seeing an evolution not only on the operations and the generation side, but what that’s going to look like on the consumer side. So, the relationship that an electric utility has with its customer is also changing. We are now having a relationship, not just transactional but relational. We need to influence behaviors or educate consumers on how to better utilize their appliances or what tools they have. We need to access data too because we also recognize that customers may already know how to use their home in an efficient way. That question is do they want to share the data with us. We are actively developing that strategy and recognizing that we’re not the only region or the only utility trying to figure this out. We are collaborating and establishing that strategy right now. • Danielle – Q – So along those lines, from a social equity standpoint, and I apologize that this is already in place, but when it comes to water usage, we know that there are surcharges placed on those high users. When it comes to electricity there’s other factors that need to be put in place, such as is this home owned or a rental. Someone that rents a home can probably not participate in efficiency works and cannot upgrade appliances or perform those energy reducing measures the same way that a homeowner can. Are those user search charges something you’re looking into to attempt to modulate those behaviors? Javier – A – That is a really good question, and I honestly couldn’t sit here and say yes. I would need to go back to our team to determine that. Since we are on the wholesale side, we at PRPA do not get down to what the actual customer bills look like. We Page 6 09/20/2023 – MINUTES have four major customers. Those are the four municipalities that we serve. It would be more on the distribution side that we need to be examining that. It’s definitely a conversation worth having. Honore – A – The City of Fort Collins, I don’t know about the other partners, has the EPIC homes program, which is a finance program that specifically targets landlords to make efficiency improvements in rentals. Javier – A – But your question about the billing side; how can you influence behavior on the billing side and I worked for water utilities so I know what you are talking about with the tier structure. You incentivize the water efficiency users. Danielle – Comment – And some of the best social marketing research has come out of utility billing social marketing approaches. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there. • Danielle – Q– The other thing that struck me was in your projections looking at hydropower, looking as though staying pretty static, despite the acknowledgement and I have a little bit of a miff by calling it a drought because we are not experiencing a drought; we are experiencing climate change. So, water and hydro will continue to decline and yet on your models it looked as though it was projected as being rather static. I think that’s somewhat questionable. The other thing I had a really bit question about was why rooftop solar was expected to remain static. I would have thought that rooftop solar production would grow over time. Masood – A – So let me address your comment about hydro. It is decreasing but very minutely. We do run scenarios and cases where there is less hydro available like “dark calms.” We want to make sure if there is hydro is less, we can provide electricity. We covered that at the wholesale level. Now your comment on the rooftop solar. This is older data , almost a year and a half to two years old. What we have seen is the actuals are coming in higher than we projected. We are almost up to 25 or 30 megawatts in our system with our peak demand of 700 megawatts. That’s 5%. It is coming at a higher rate. So, we’ve updated the forecast and if you see the latest charge almost double that but its 60-70% higher than that you have seen in that chart. • Danielle – Q – Really phenomenal modeling and explaining that is being shown tonight. There is an issue of aging infrastructure. A lot of homes that were built, prior to even 2000 only have 150-amp service, which is not supportive of a lot of the new heat pump technologies, particularly when electricity demands under our consumer driven lifestyle with all the screens and other electronic devices are asking so much. So, there’s a lot of debate that I’ve been exposed to in how are these technologies really going to be adopted when there’s an even bigger entry cost because that infrastructure is not set up to be able to allow us to switch directly from natural gas to the heat pump, to geothermal, or something along those lines. I am wondering how the industry is going to handle that there is more incentive and more investment in upgrading aging infrastructure or as Kevin alluded to could we instead focus that money on simply increasing efficiency and reducing demand to allow that transition to take place? Masood – A – First on the demand side, when we hired a consultant to do the forecast of heating demand, they brought up the limiting factor will not be customers desire but will be the constrains in the last mile as you Page 7 09/20/2023 – MINUTES referred to. That is why we may not become winter peaking as fast as customers would like, because of the limitations not on the supply side of not having enough green electrons but we don’t have enough pipeline at the end. I am also aware, and I think it’s an early stage, but the City of Fort Collins is starting to look at what they call feeder by feeder study. There are thousands of feeders for serving all those customers. I don’t want to speak on behalf of the City, but I am aware that the City is aware that some feeders may need upgrading and they are looking at it. When we were doing this study, this was an active discussion with the City. • Kevin – Comment – Just one more comment on the point of behavior change. I feel like we have to figure this out. There’s this human problem in this modern society problem where nobody wants change. We’re not figuring out ways to dive that change at scale. I hope that everyone can come together from all your customer utilities and you all. This psychology focused podcast I listened to recently on how to drive change and there has to be some different things attempted. If people are aware of how much more their existing unavoidable loads are going to cost them in the future, if they don’t take out their avoidable loads for example. If that picture isn’t painted for them in a very obvious way or if they don’t see that Danielle over here manages her energy this way, you can too. We need to crack that because all these other things aren’t lining up perfectly. It’s not a question just a hope that we are trying really innovative, maybe non -traditional things to get that messaging. Get that opportunity to resonate. Masood – Comment – I will add people respond to their pockets. If you look at Europe or even Japan, the cost of electricity is two or three times as much. They import energy there. GDP to energy consumption ratio is much better than ours. We are blessed with a lot of resources. It’s difficult to become more efficient when its 10 cents a kilowatt hour, when in Germany people are paying 32 cents. It is easier for them. Javier – Comment – Customers respond to incentives and it’s usually financial incentives or competitive incentives. You create a competition out of it and there are apps that are out there that allow you to compare your energy consumption to your neighbor or you compare your energy consumption to a household that looks like your household. The previous utility I was at had an app that did that. We saw great success with it and how customers were doing, particularly with those that were lower income. Even though you are low income, talking about the social and equity issue, smartphones are very affordable. It’s the computer that even low-income households couldn’t afford. So, you put the app in their hand and suddenly, you’re creating an equity issue and helping address it. Kevin – Comment – I think part of it is personalizing it, humanizing it. We’re unfamiliar with the neighbor comparisons. I’m picking on Danielle, but This is what Danielle did. Danielle doesn’t turn lights on during our meetings as you can see in her background because why does she need to. Danielle can keep her lights off. There’s a difference in saying what can I specifically do or what is someone specifically doing that’s worth it? It’s not everything but you have to start somewhere. That is my hope. • Page 8 09/20/2023 – MINUTES b. Downtown Parking System Update – Eric Keselburg (Parking Services Manager) and Drew Brooks (Deputy Director, Planning Development and Transportation) will share current activities, financial and maintenance trends, and seek input on future policy/operational improvements prior to an October 24 City Council Work Session. (Discussion) • Discussion | Q + A • Kevin – Q – Is what you just said in the slides? Drew – A – I don’t think so. Kevin – Comment – To me, it’s so painfully obvious. I would throw it out there. Shouldn’t that be the story we are telling so the decision makers can understand we are very different and it’s not working. Drew – Comment – I don’t think anybody doesn’t know that. I think the problem has been, I guess I would say politically, it has been difficult to make that change. Eric – Comment – I think the first 2013 plan identified if this than that. So, if we have a certain capacity off street, then we need to relook at our model. 2017 did the same. We are at that stage now. We want to go to Council’s discussion about right sizing. Kevin – Comment – I think that is what they are going to ask you. They are going to want to see that, so they don’t have to draw that out. Eric – Comment – We want the blessing to do some additional work. Kevin – Comment – I think like you said, you did the comparison on fines, why not show the like for like comparison. Drew – Comment – Yes, we certainly have done that with groups that we’ve met. We’ve shown case studies on what other communities are doing. • Matt – Q – Can you let me know who the other groups that you visited are? Drew – A – We have not visited any other boards as of yet. We’ve had several meetings that the DBA helped us to bring in participants, mostly business owners or folks that live in the downtown area. We’ve also had folks that were bicycle advocates and others that sat in on those sessions. We’ve had a pretty diverse group of participants in those settings. We’ve had between 20 and 30 folks that attended each of those three that we have had so far. Eric – Comment – The Parking Advisory Board was dissolved in 2021 due to a lack of form and a lack of interest. Drew – Comment – So there was a parking board before the pandemic and even before the pandemic, it was very difficult to get participants in that board. We very frequently did not have forum so eventually Council opted to dissolve them. Matt – Comment – It’s probably on your list but the commission for disabilities or those kinds of groups are really critical to include and ensure that kind of mobility and impairment is addressed. Drew – Comment – Yes, and to reiterate that the first part of this process is to get state of affairs if you will and take that back to Council. What we’re hoping to do is have a second phase of this where we would be much more robust where we would actually be talking about, okay here’s some actionable or operational changes we’d like to make and then taking that to all of those boards and commissions and having that robust conversation. Matt – Comment – I think the discussion about economics is great because I always think about it too. We mostly ride our bikes downtown but if we do ever drive, we go to the parking garage. It’s free the first hour and a buck for the second, and we are out of there within two hours. Page 9 09/20/2023 – MINUTES Usually, it's not very much money to cover coming down here. I can totally get on board with the discussion about how we need to pay our way to help with this process. Eric – Comment – And to right size. I’m not throwing numbers out but to have the parking structure be less dollar amount than for parking on the street. Does it look like a dollar an hour or is it less than that to incentivize that longer term use to free up that parking space? That’s some of the discussion we’ll be having after the Council meeting. • Lisa – Q – I wondered if that bar graph that showed the portion of occupancy by portion of the part of the day included garages as well. Drew – A – Just on street, on identified streets in the downtown area. Lisa – Q – What would that look like if you included the parking garages availability? Eric – A – A healthy parking garage capacity is 65-70%. They will fill up to capacity like we said, for things like New West Fest, or Taste of Fort Collins. That is when they were full. Overnight is less than daytime but we don’t have solid data around parking structure occupancy. Drew – A – I think anecdotally we could say that they are highly underused for most of the day. Lisa – Comment – That is my impression too. Eric – Comment – We can safely say you can always find a parking space in the parking structure. • Danielle – Q – I am excited to hear you bring up that behavior change approach of making on street parking more expensive than garage parking. I don’t think the answer is to decrease the price in the garage. As mentioned, it’s incredibly cheap and affordable, particularly for a city this size. I think the answer is simply to dramatically increase and/or have paid parking for that street parking. I think generally that parking is an overlooked behavior change modifier for a lot of the City’s carbon goals. When people are participating in optional recreational activities, that is when they are least tolerant of inconvenience. That’s when things are like, I am going to bike because it’s just easier and I don’t want to have to deal with looking for parking. Or I just got off work and I need to get there quickly so I’m going to bike because it’s faster. I’m going to take the Max because it’ faster than having to look for a parking space and walk and the uncertainty that comes there. I think that there needs to be greater integration of parking services into the Climate Action Plan than there currently is. Again, it is such powerful behavior change motivator because when we see that peak occupancy, it’s in the evenings. It’s not during the day and it’s not the morning. It is when people are least tolerant of inconvenience and therefore, we have the most power to nudge them toward different, more carbon friendly forms of transportation. Kevin – Comment – I guess I would add to that integration with the climate action plan and also with the most recent active modes plan. It feels like to have a goal as indicated in that plan, which is 50% mode share via active modes . We can look at space in our city, our space, how do we use our space and how we use our space is indicative of the results that we want to achieve. I would love to see, and I suspect council would love to see that tied to active modes and how that allows us to achieve that particular goal which is going to be a challenge. Tied to that, as you all have Page 10 09/20/2023 – MINUTES indicated, parking should certainly be covering itself and possibly a net positive to then fund the larger initiatives for active modes and these other areas that we’re looking to go back to voters from a taxation perspective for the climate action initiatives and so forth. Parking could be a revenue generator because it is in many ways necessary, and I am not arguing that but how we architect it can really impact those other goal areas which I think is exciting. The average person is not going to be impacted in a way that really detriments their life. It should be positive. The other area I have a concern with that perspective is the call out really, it feels like an ongoing call out of the economic vitality. Parking is the economic vitality is the message that certain groups push over and over but I question if the data across the world and across different municipalities really ties to that. I would love to see research or case studies brough forth to say these changes were made to the parki ng in these municipalities and they actually saw constant business or even an increase due to the accessibility of businesses by other modes, the ease, and not having to search out parking. I don’t know if its true, but it keeps getting put in there. I am not saying I have the exact studies folks in here might have them more readily, but I feel like I’ve read things on multiple occasions where the business community always pushes against parking changes. The result is parking changes are made and business increases because of other modes being more accessible to said businesses. We can’t keep beating that if it’s not possibly true. • Danielle – Q – Do you handle bike parking as well? Eric – A – We don’t handle bike parking, but we work closely with FC Moves regarding bicycle crowds or the downtown businesses that want to have a bike rack in the parking space in front of their business. So, we work with FC Moves on finding some viable options for bicycle parking. Danielle – Comment – I know I am speaking from a place of extreme privilege but there is a really vibrant and growing cargo bike community in Fort Collins of people using larger bikes to move children. At the same time, I’m seeing a trend of decreasing bike rack space. For example, there’s a big bike rack on East Mountain that was just moved over to the curbs, and you can’t actually get a cargo bike on it. There’s one on Olive that previously stuck out far enough into a parking space so you could get a cargo bike in there. You can no longer do that. When you have to bring a cargo bike up onto a curb through a dismount zone to park it, and you’re not as tall as your bike is long, it’s really challenging. I think we need to think about updating our parking infrastructure. I know it’s legal to park in a car parking spot with a bike in the City of Fort Collins, but no one would risk their integrity of their bike to one of those giant Diesel trucks to do that. I just want to plug in there that we need to be thinking about the changing bike trends that we see in the community when we are planning out this infrastructure. It is really frustrating to not have a safe place to take those bikes when you have little kids. Eric – Comment – That is good feedback. Thank you. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Page 11 09/20/2023 – MINUTES a. Barry – Barry was interested in learning more about the concept of Fort Collins becoming a dark sky city. He shared that the lights from Fort Collins have grown and dominate the sky. It also has a negative effect on migrating birds. They can see it from their cabin in the mountains. Honore shared the link to the webpage regarding this topic. Honore will add it to the planning calendar for NRAB. b. Kevin – Regarding the proposed changes to the Bicycle Advisory Committee, during the 1st reading, Council did unanimously vote to move it to an Active Modes Board. That will go to a second reading around the beginning of the year. c. Matt – Matt was interested in hearing more about the progress on the ground water contamination at the Larimer County Landfill but was not sure if it was in NRABs purview. 9. STAFF REPORTS a. Honore – Changes came last night regarding boards and commissions. There will be a new manual, flexibility for one or more boards to meet after Council liaison approval, and terms changes for members. 10. OTHER BUSINESS a. Six Month Calendar Review • October • Economic Health Strategic Plan; Circular Economy • Budgeting/Strategic Plan • NRAB 2021 Work Plan – due Nov 30 • November • Discuss Council priority setting (input and influence) • Strategic memo on Council priority setting • NRAB 2024 Work Plan – due Nov 30 • ESD Background/Overview & Input on restructuring (Honore + ESD Lead Team & Director) • Larimer County Landfill • Advancing Transit Initiatives Update • Only if input is desired and helpful prior to Dec 12 Work Session • December • Strategic memo on Council priority setting • Night Sky Initiative • Other business • End of Year Report • Water Supply Requirement fee discussion 11. ADJOURNMENT a. (8:11 pm) Page 12 09/20/2023 – MINUTES Minutes approved by a vote of the Board/Commission on XX/XX/XX Headline Copy Goes Here 2 Boards and Commissions Input for the 2024 Strategic Plan •Input part #1 – The What -What do the City’s Outcomes mean to you? o Think of the specific Outcomes most applicable to your Board or Commission o For the selected Outcome(s), how would you define it or describe it to your neighbor? •Input part #2 – The How -Thinking about those definitions, what could the City do to better achieve those Outcomes? •Optional action: Convey your group’s thoughts on these questions -Submit memos to: o lpollack@fcgov.com o aresseguie@fcgov.com -Inputs due by Friday 17 November DRAFTMEMORANDUM FROM THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD DATE:November 15,2023 TO:Mayor and City Council Members FROM:Dawson Metcalf on behalf of the Natural Resources Advisory Board SUBJECT:Natural Resources Advisory Board (NRAB)2023 Annual Work Plan Subject to further Council guidance,the general topics we anticipate covering in 2024 include: ●Reviewing City policies and planning initiatives for consistency with the City’s environmental goals and values,supported by Our Climate Future,through the principles of sustainability,via regular and subcommittee meetings; ●Addressing specific policies,plans and regulations by participating in task forces and special committees such as the Our Climate Future teams,Active Modes Plan, Bicycle Advisory Board,Regional Wasteshed Plan,1041 Powers planning,and providing feedback to Staff as a result of such participation; ●Developing recommendations to Council through Board discussion and consensus, followed by written memoranda and periodic attendance at Council meetings or hearings; ●Coordinating activities with other City Boards and Commissions as needed,such as the Air Quality,Energy,Economic,Water,Land Conservation and Stewardship,Parks and Recreation,and Transportation Boards. This work plan (attached)identifies issues that we anticipate will be considered by the NRAB during the year 2024.Of the Seven Key Outcome areas in the Fort Collins Strategic Plan, Environmental Health,Safe Community (particularly as it relates to water resources), Transportation and Mobility,Culture and Recreation,as well as Neighborhood Liveability and Social Health will largely shape our work.Our priority action items fall into the umbrella categories of:Waste Reduction and Recycling;Water Resources;Land Use and Low Impact Development,Climate Action Plan/Energy,Transportation Planning,. Other related issues will be addressed by the Board as they are brought before us by Council, Staff,or our own observations with the goal of providing timely input,using Council’s six-month calendar and Policy Agenda to help determine agenda items for our meetings.Finally,as appropriate,we will identify opportunities to promote sustainability in the face of COVID-19 impacts,including remote work,alternate transportation,and realigning budget priorities. DRAFTWelookforwardtoaproductiveyearofvolunteerservicetoCouncil,the citizens of Fort Collins,and our environment.Within the constraints of an advisory board,we will employ our knowledge,talents,and passions to the best of our abilities. As always,please feel free to contact us with any comments or questions regarding our work plan for 2023. Dawson Metcalf Chair,Natural Resources Advisory Board cc:Kelly DiMartino,City Manager Jacob Castillo,Chief Sustainability Officer Honore Depew,Climate Program Manager Julie Pignataro,City Council Liaison to the NRAB 2 DRAFTNRAB2024WorkPlan The main purpose of the NRAB is to help ensure the Sustainability of Our Community,i.e.,to systematically,creatively,and thoughtfully utilize environmental,human,and economic resources to meet our present needs and those of future generations without compromising the ecosystems on which we depend.We will also strongly consider human health in crafting our recommendations.We work closely with other boards and actively engage in joint board initiatives to encourage the goals of high functioning government and high impact civic engagement.To address these goals,the NRAB has identified the following areas of specific interest in 2024,with an overall view of integrating the principles of sustainability in each target area: 1)Waste Reduction and Recycling The NRAB is excited to provide input and leadership on implementation of the Regional Wasteshed Plan as part of “Our Climate Future”,including:monitoring and responding to impacts of the Cameron Peak fire on the lifespan of the landfill;hauling services oversight; Timberline Recycling Center;Community Recycling Ordinance (extending recycling services); Community Composting Project;education campaigns to increase residential and commercial recycling;mandatory recycling of construction debris and Hoffman Mills Road grinding facility; expansion of multi-family recycling;and expansion of commercial recycling. As needed,we will also review and comment on:hazardous waste or spills,toxic substances,air and water pollution prevention and remediation programs;and associated community outreach and education. 2)Water Resources The NRAB will focus on the variety of city-wide water resource issues including:Water Supply Vulnerability Assessment;the Stormwater Master Plan;Low Impact Development (LID) requirements for development and Metro Districts;Greywater Ordinance Development;and monitoring and reporting of water quality in Fossil Creek,Spring Creek,and the Poudre River. NRAB will continue to monitor and coordinate with Staff and other boards'review of water related projects and issues;e.g.,NISP/Glade,City of Fort Collins Water Conservation Plan, Development of 1041 Regulations,Thornton Pipeline,and Halligan/Seaman Reservoir Expansion.The NRAB will also review and monitor fire,spill and flooding impacts on water supply and storm and wastewater discharges. We will continue to review and comment on policies and funding affecting the health of the Poudre River ’s ecology,including Poudre River restoration and stabilization projects;health of aquatic organisms;Downtown River Master Plan;river rehabilitation projects;and Poudre River ecosystem modeling and health status projects.As appropriate,we will also look at near-river water resources such as gravel pits.We may also review city policies with respect to xeriscaping,permaculture,and urban agriculture,“keyline”irrigating,and other actions that promote more efficient water use. 3 DRAFTAsappropriate,the NRAB will work together with the Water Commission to provide input on water,wastewater and stormwater policy issues as they pertain to the goals for the City and the City’s Climate Action Plan and inform Our Climate Future. 3)Energy/Climate Action NRAB will review and comment on energy and climate-centered issues and work to identify opportunities and needs to ensure equity and inclusion in each of these initiatives.The NRAB will work with the Energy and Economic Health Boards to provide input on the Climate Economy Action Plan,Metro District incentives,EV Readiness Roadmap.Specific areas of consideration include:energy efficient development (e.g.,building codes that can contribute to CAP goals);plastic pollution;transitioning PRPA power facilities from coal and natural gas to renewable energy sources;residential and small-scale commercial solar rebate program;ongoing conservation and efficiency programs;and community solar gardens. As appropriate,the NRAB will work together with the Air Quality Board,Energy Board,and Transportation Board to provide input on the greenhouse gas emission goals for the City and the City’s Climate Action Plan and inform Our Climate Future. 4)Transportation Planning With the goal of reducing emissions,improving public health,safety,and the transportation experience for citizens,NRAB will review and contribute to local and regional issues affecting transportation planning in cooperation with the Transportation Board,Bicycle Advisory Committee,and others noted below.This includes specific support for revising and implementing the Active Modes Plan,with a push for aggressive mode shift goals (away from single occupant travel).Ongoing focus will remain on advocating on behalf of all citizens on the criticality of safe pedestrian and bicycle design and function across the city.Focus will further be placed on opportunities to increase connectivity across and between all potential corridors and trail surfaces,whether soft surface or paved,to increase routes supporting alternate modes of transportation.Based on an important and logical connection between transportation and access to nature,NRAB will also participate in planning and implementation activities related to the Natural Areas Plan and the Parks &Recreation Master Plan. 5)Circular Economy NRAB will review and comment on circular economy practices as it pertains to the Economic Health Outcome of the City of Fort Collins’Strategic Plan.NRAB views the further inclusion of circular economy practices as significant for fostering sustainable economic growth while reducing environmental impact and elevating the resilience and resource-efficiency of the Fort Collins community.This includes,but not limited to,advocating for platforms that promote sustainable consumption and purchasing;policies and incentives for more local green jobs; requirements for utilizing sustainable materials in construction. 4 DRAFT6)Other Related Issues a.Nature in the City:The NRAB is excited about the Nature in the City program.The NRAB will look for opportunities to explore public-private partnerships to enhance “natural”areas available to city residents. b.Local Agriculture:Explore issues and ideas in the local agriculture and food security movements including the Northern Colorado Foodshed Project. c.Oil and Gas:Monitor environmental issues related to oil and gas development in Fort Collins. d.Night Sky Protection and Outdoor Lighting Requirements:Monitor environmental issues related to impact of outdoor lighting. e.Participate in the Bicycle Advisory Committee,with specific focus on the revised Active Modes Plan. f.Equity:Work to advance equity in our community to lessen the negative impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations,enhance vulnerable populations’ability to access nature and support environmental stewardship,and ensure the wellbeing of the greatest number of residents. g.Rights of Nature for the Cache la Poudre River:Explore issues and ideas regarding the development and implementation of a Rights of Nature framework for the Cache la Poudre River. h.Resilient Urban Forest:Work to enhance and maintain an urban forest that is resilient in the face of climate change to positively impact the social well-being and physical health of community members.This includes the effective implementation of the Emerald Ash Borer Management and Response Plan. i.15-Minute City Concept Priority:Advocate for the implementation of development practices that facilitate the 15-minute city concept.This includes monitoring the impacts of new updates to the Land Use Code. 5