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Home My WebLink AboutEconomic Advisory Board - MINUTES - 01/17/2024Page 1 01/17/24 Minutes Economic Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, January 17, 2023 – 4:00 PM 300 LaPorte Avenue, Council Information Center 1. CALL TO ORDER: 4:03 PM 2. ROLL CALL a. Board Members Present – • Denny Coleman • Thierry Dossou • Erin Gray • Mistene Nugent • John Parks • Braulio Rojas • Richard Waal • Renee Walkup b. Board Members Absent – • c. Staff Members Present – • Jillian Fresa, Economic Health Manager, Economic Health Office • Erin Sporer, Business Support, Economic Health Office • Katherine Bailey, Project Manager, Utilities d. Guest(s) – • Val Kailburn • Evan Wetland • Kevin Jones, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION a. Val Kailburn and Evan Wetland introduced themselves. They both applied to be on the board and are observing. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Denny motions and Johns seconds to approve the November minutes as amended. Motion carries unanimously. 7-0. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. 2023 Annual Report • Will add minimum wage memo as contribution. • If anyone else has comments or additions let Braulio, Jillian, or Erin G Page 2 01/17/24 Minutes know. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Building Performance Standards (BPS) • Exploring building performance standards to help with City’s environmental goals as they are the most impactful direct policy action the City can take to reduce emissions by 2030. • Local benefits: health safety, comfort, resilience, reduce energy burden, economic growth, increased competitiveness, higher building occupancy and tenant retention, increased productivity of occupants, mitigate utility impacts of rising temperatures, improved indoor and outdoor air quality. • What are BPS? • Requires existing buildings to meet carbon or energy performance targets by specific deadlines. • Can include multiple standards allowing for flexibility while increasing performance for a different aspect of a building. • Targets become stricter over time, driving continuous long- term improvement. • BPS in practice at state and federal level • BPS development work already done – internal stakeholders, task force, technical committee, equity engagement, broad community engagement. • Technical committee, equity engagement and board community engagement will continue in 2024 • Targeting Council work session – Q1 or Q2, Council consideration – April • Task force recommendations • Include 50,000 square feet and above multifamily (3 stories and above) and commercial. • Cohort of small buildings with more achievable timeline/target. • Not to overlap with state requirements. • Excludes public buildings. • Mostly office and multifamily, retail and retail mall, and healthcare. • EUI targets with interim and final goal (2027 and 2030) • Maximum flexibility in pathways • Explore alternate pathways. • Technical committee follow up: cap or limit/max of reduction requirement. • Recommendation resources (financial and technical) • Education, tech support, incentives, and community engagement • Adjustments • Timeline and target management • Under resourced buildings • Additional assistance provided to under-resourced buildings. • Cost benefit analysis • Job creation and increased economic competitiveness. • Ran numbers about being an efficient building - increased Page 3 01/17/24 Minutes resale values, increased production, etc. • Shared resources – not comprehensive – included examples of greenhouse gas reduction fund, tax deductions and credits etc. • C-PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) • Innovative financing tool for existing buildings that provide C&I building owners a smarter way to modernize their buildings. • Other fund – Colorado Clean Energy Fund – for buildings that don’t fit within C-PACE • Xcel also has rebate and incentive programs. Questions • Are you responsible for architectural design, in or around the building? Have you talked to HR people on what they are seeing in terms of demand for perspective employers? • There is a big drive and more awareness for budlings to be more efficient. You can look online and compare a building to other buildings in the county. They are hoping to have a tool for perspective employees, buyers, or renters to see how much it would cost to rent or run that building. Once people recognize this is something you can check they will start to look for it. We are not looking at landscape that is external to the building, just looking at energy use in the interior of a building. • Have you done work around cost benefit analysis and how to improve that? • Yes, we are working on it now and will hopefully have it by Q2. • The white house has new guidance on how to do more impactful cost analysis including how to better public health cost benefits. Can we include that? We recently had a presentation regarding a Natural Gas plant that could be built. There is a 26% gap for reaching the goal. What is the thought on meeting that. Could we use new residential construction for meeting that gap or does that fall under a different jurisdiction? • It is a public health point. We want to be able to inform this policy is not just about climate goals; it is about investing in the community. If you can’t cool a building, there is a health threat. Utility bills will go up. Is there more we can do to mitigate that increase. We will be rolling in new construction but there is not a lot of that. New construction should be built in a way that it would not have an issue complying with these. For natural gas, some of them focus on greenhouse gas intensity targets vs EUI targets. Greenhouse gas is an electrification pathway. EUI is more of an efficiency pathway that promotes general electrification. Pushing someone to install electric resistant heat can be expensive compared to a gas alternative and you don’t want to inflict it on rate payers. • Seeing an increase in large companies that are interested in efficiency. Local businesses don’t inquire as much. It seems the impact of this is to squish differences between A, B, and C. Typically tenants pay for that. Have you engaged small businesses in this conversation and what is the feedback? Page 4 01/17/24 Minutes • That is the concern that tenants will pay. We did have a small business rep in the technical group. The owner is the one paying for it, the tenant is benefiting. Building standards could build upon the carbon neutrality goal. • You had mentioned that you are just focused on commercial and not residential. • It’s more bang for your buck. It doesn’t mean residential is not worth doing but the strain on workforce and residents is a huge undertaking for a small return. There are lots of rebates and incentives to voluntarily reduce usage in single family. We are considering exploring a residential rating system. Our BPS will also most likely not include industrial properties. • Do you know the general cost for business owners and penalty for not doing it? • Cost for each building will range. Something like lighting is quicky, easy, and an appealing way to reduce energy. Some budlings might say they want to do envelope change. We are developing tools to look at ranges based on various differences. Penalties have to be slightly higher than the cost of compliance. Denver factored it on an analysis to put solar panels on which was around 70 cents/KBT. It is on the agenda for the technical committee. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS a. Renee – There is a new respect for EAB at Council Meetings because they are participating in Council Meetings. Council will pay more attention and ask more advise. Stated the board needs to continue that. b. Braulio – Saw Richard at NoCo REDI. It was interesting and informative. Liked how every city has its own identity but can also collaborate so it will benefit the whole region. It is nice to see that the area is aligned and not just competitors. It is also nice to see the projects all together. c. Denny – Davina sent out a request for anyone who could make a presentation to the Leadership Fort Collins group. He participated with eight other panel members. He presented on what the board does and what Council has asked them to comment on. Participants, including a Planning and Zoning board member agreed that the Mulberry annexation needs more attention. Wants to see how the board can be more efficient to support staff and make it clearer. Jillian will reach out to Sylvia. d. Denny – Disappointed in Council regarding the Land Use Code. Opponents misled saying that nobody listened. He was disappointed when Council took it off again. They must have faith that we got it right. Braulio agrees that there needs to be a balance. Renee stated it might be best to wait and see what the State comes up with as it will supersede the City and County. e. Denny – Concerned from an insurance/liability stance. Renee stated they have no liability since they are not paid. 9. STAFF REPORTS 10. OTHER BUSINESS a. Council Calendar • Interested topics: Page 5 01/17/24 Minutes • Small business • Homelessness • Primary employer • Water supply requirement • Scheduled for Council in April • Jillian will see if they can present to the board in February b. Questions/Interest/Update • Mulberry Annexation • Plan was adopted by City Council • Michael Bussmann met with the County • City and County working together to get started and help with transitions for businesses • Working on engagement plan • Unhouse population with recent cold • Jillian will check with Social Sustainability • Renee heard they made some special accommodations • Denny requested a presentation on the regional airport • Heard there is disagreement • Braulio interested in hearing from NoCo REDI 11. ADJOURNMENT a. (5:45 PM) Minutes approved by a vote of the Board/Commission on 02/21/24