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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 09/26/2000coo-a�-Ih MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. September 26, 2000 For Reference: Eric Levine, Chair 229-5225 Scott Mason, Council Liaison 226-4824 Brian Woodruff, Staff Liaison 221-6604 Board Members Present Nancy York, John Schroeer, Eric Levine, Jim Dennison, Harry Edwards, Raymond Sons, Mandar Sunthankar, Linda Stanley, Chris Kavanaugh Board Members Absent None Staff Present Natural Resources Department: Brian Woodruff, Terry Klahn, Tom Shoemaker, Lucinda Smith Transportation Planning: Susanne Durkin -Schindler Fleet Services: Tracy Ochsner, Ken Marmon Guests: Ray Moe, LSA Associates Dirk Draper, LSA Associates Everett Bacon, LSA Associates The meeting was called to order at 7:05 Minutes The minutes of the July 25, 2000 meeting were unanimously approved. Review and Update Action List 1. Contact Mike Byrne about siting of public buildings — Pending — Linda Stanley will check to verify the library and the performing arts center are to be sited downtown. 2. Send memo to council regarding TransFort funding...."don't cut it" — Brian Woodruff held this item pending the outcome of tonight's meeting. Review Council six-month planning calendar — October 3 — Growth Initiative Resolution — Linda Stanley said John Fischbach has prepared a resolution against the initiative. She would not recommend that they support this resolution. The Board decided not to take any action. — November 21 — Performing Arts Center siting — December 12 — Transportation Maintenance funding Agenda Planning October: Climate Wise Campaign results Draft 2001 AQAB work plan November: Adopt 2001 AQAB work plan Air Quality Advisory Board September 26, 2000 Page 2 Mason Street Corridor, Susanne Durkin -Schindler, Durkin -Schindler said the Board had a presentation two months ago on this project. She's here tonight to answer questions and to receive a recommendation to be taken to Council. This is not the final design; it's a conceptual plan that covers a lot of subjects with a broad brush. The next steps following Council approval of the master plan include an environmental assessment, application for a New Start Grant, and final design and engineering of the bike path to Harmony. • Schroeer: Where do we stand with regard to the CSU property easement? CSU sees this as extremely beneficial to them, but losing any parking on the main campus would be a negative. They're willing to give up their easement to the City of Fort Collins as long as we would help them replace parking places, such as jointly constructing a parking structure. • Schroeer: Would that be available to citizens who wish to travel south? In theory yes, but because of their rules they would have to charge a fee. We'd replace about 85-128 spaces. They might come in and add a third or fourth tier to meet their demand. • Edward: This document is very well produced and shows a lot of work. I congratulate you on the high quality of presentation. What is the impact of this project of air quality in the City of Fort Collins? • Bacon: We came here two months ago and talked about the model at that time. At that time we were using an interim model. The things we've added give us more confidence in the model. • Sons: Can you summarize the "big picture"? • Bacon: If you look at 2020 conditions with the project versus without the project you see a decrease in air emissions and VMT. It's moving in a positive direction. • Edwards: Did you assume the current fleet mix? • Bacon: Yes. • Stanley: How much is a .42 tons -per -day decrease in terms of percentages? • Levine: It's less than I%. • Levine: How many months of VMT growth does this model offset? • Bacon: With a less than 1 % reduction, it's probably about four months of growth. • Durkin -Schindler: These numbers are worse case scenario. I'm offering that these numbers are very defensible, but also very conservative. • Levine: These are significant reductions. But, they're a small piece of the pie. • Edwards: The encouraging thing is there is quantification, it's great to see. At worst, the air impact is neutral. How is the model calibrated? • Bacon: We calibrate by running the model to see if it can simulate today's traffic levels. We did a lot of data collection. There were 1200 household surveys, where every member recorded every trip. There were also a lot of traffic counts and other things. • Levine: In July we hinted that we were more comfortable with some projections sooner than 2020. It seems like a long time away. I'd feel more comfortable with 2010. We didn't have the resources to build an interim model. It's speculative whether the entire system would be operational by then. If it was operational, you'd get a similar level of magnitude of emission reductions. • Dennison: Do you ever wind up generating a formal report? I would be interested if it's possible to get a copy from the City. We can give you a list of what those reports entail, they're public information. Air Quality Advisory Board September 26, 2000 Page 3 • Sunthankar: The planning is great, but what prevents housing and businesses from springing up in the corridor, and secondly, is the benefit worth the cost? We have built projections based on the City Structure Plan. We hope we will have the same type of uses. • Moe: City Plan has a projection of development in the corridor with or without the project. Do you do nothing, or do you put in an infrastructure to help mobility up and down the corridor? We say it provides increased mobility. We have money for the first phase, we're excited about getting federal monies --- federal agencies like the project. • Stanley: The other part of the cost benefit is the vehicle hours saved. That's a significant benefit to people. • Levine: What are the federal monies? TEA-21, new technology for transit vehicles. We went into this saying we're committed to using the highest quality technology available. Many of the transit administration grants are for rolling stock as well. We've built in that higher number to accommodate for the new technology that's more expensive. • Levine: Is there an estimate of the percentage of federal grant monies? There's a number of them. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) New Starts program is our best bet for the project over all. It's 80120 match money. • Levine: There are also federal grants for alternative vehicles, but the amount Colorado has received is zero. • Moe: A lot of that has to do with the aggressiveness of local communities. • Sunthankar: What's the total cost of this project? There's a range of anywhere from about 45 million, to 60 million dollars on the high side. We haven't gotten to the exact final design work. The bulk of the money would be spent on the transit side and rolling stock. This community has put about nine million into the first two phases of the project. If we get the federal New Start we may only need another three to four million. Ray Sons made the following motion: Move the AQAB recommend that the City Council accept the Mason Street Corridor Plan, and proceed with the Mason Street Corridor, and make plans to continue the work on the corridor until it is implemented in full. Ray Sons and Eric Levine will craft a memo. The motion was unanimously approved. City Budget, Tom Shoemaker Shoemaker said he wanted to provide an update of this years budget process. The City uses a two-year budgeting cycle. We are in the middle year of the cycle. In 1999 we set the 2000/2001 budget, but changes to the 2001 budget can still be considered. Our budget requests for 2001 have two things related to the air quality program that this board has spoken to — the cost -sharing money for a CO monitoring site and a request for a new Business Outreach/Pollution Prevention environmental planner. This has been called for in the Air Quality Action Plan and the Local Action Plan for Climate Protection. Air Quality Advisory Board September 26, 2000 Page 4 The Climate -Wise program has been very successful. We're hopeful it's a good model upon which to build. Adding a new position is fairly costly. There are also program costs, including at least $25,000 for consulting costs. We have also proposed $20,000 for development review functions. This would come from funds previously appropriated but not spent, which we call "productivity savings." The City Manager's recommendations do include the requests for the monitoring site and the new position. Stanley: Another program that applies is the 2020 Population Projections. It's important to get back on track with VMT. Where did that request come from? That's a request from Advance Planning. It does relate to the work of this Board. We agree the population projections in City Plan need to be updated. That's also in the City Manager's recommendations. Levine: Those numbers will affect VMT as well as air quality. Stanley: It seems important to get the growth estimates updated. They've been way off. Linda Stanley made the following motion.. Move that the AQAB recommend that City Council fund the following three items; 1) the Business Outreach/Pollution Prevention environmental planner, 2) the additional air quality monitoring site, and 3) the 2020 Population Projections. Chris Kavanaugh seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Visibility / Diesel, Ken Marmon, Tracy Ochsner; Fleet Services staff Brian Woodruff reminded the board of the consultant's presentation on visibility issues. One of the things he mentioned in terms of the things the City could do to improve visibility was reduce diesel emissions. Following a conversation about buses and what the City might be able to do to reduce emissions, the board had asked this be put on the agenda to continue the discussion. Ken and Tracy are here to answer questions and explore issues. • York: This weekend I went to a forum for converting to a hydrogen economy, it gave me hope for the future. I learned that with diesel when you idle you produce more CO2 than otherwise. I wish we'd start a campaign "Thank you for not idling." Apparently hydrogen and diesel can be combined. Ray Martinez said he'd like Fort Collins to be a hydrogen city. • Dennison: I thought the EPA said you can't drive a hydrogen vehicle on a public road. • Levine: There are some hydrogen buses. • York: I thought I saw something on public television where there's a city in California that fully utilizes hydrogen. • Woodruff: I believe you are thinking of the Los Angeles region that has mandated compressed natural gas for its trucks and busses, not hydrogen. Air Quality Advisory Board September 26, 2000 Page 5 • Marmon: Hydrogen proposals have been around for years, but hydrogen is not yet economical. We need a way to bring to the product in. Hydrogen will be the gas of the fuure. • York: Ray McAllister with the Hydrogen Association said he could sell a hydrogen power plant for about ten million dollars. We should bring in Morey Albertson and his graduate students to talk to us about it. • Woodruff: I read the advance materials for the workshop. This group at CSU wants to start up a hydrogen economy now. They're putting together a coalition to hold a conference on the subject in September 2001. • Dennison: It would be appropriate for the folks at the City to look into it. • Levine: What have you been doing and what technologies are you looking at? The City of Los Angeles said no to all types of diesel. • Marmon: We look at everything we can find on the market, and we look at everything we can do differently. We'd be glad to buy CNG buses, if we can come up with the 30 to 60 thousand dollars and find away to fuel them. We've been working with Public Service Company for fifteen years to do something about a public natural gas station in this town. We keep applying for grants. • Ochsner. Much depends on the capacity and how you size the station. Maintenance costs are higher. A lot of fleets out there have started to commit to CNG in their transit agencies. Advancements are being made on the technology side almost daily. More people are doing it, it's becoming more economical. • Edwards: It's important to stay abreast of those activities in other communities. Somehow, they're making it work. • Levine: I was looking on the intemet at grants. There's all of these federal monies for clean fuel and CNG fleets. All of Colorado's money went to the international airport. • Kavanaugh: The City needs a good grant writer. • Stanley: Why have the grants been turned down? They're very competitive. We also compete with other groups in the City. • Ochsner: There are good finding opportunities. This year for the first time we'll be looking at using CMAQ funds to fund a fueling station. • Woodruff: What about the business environment you find yourselves in? The people who specify and buy vehicles are departments. The City fleet does not have total control. We're very aggressive when we talk alternative fuels. If the infrastructure is in place we will bring in that type of vehicle. We have about one hundred propane vehicles. CNG is strong right now. We work with the customer and try to set policies. • Ochsner: There is a pilot program. We're bringing in a dedicated compressed natural gas van for dial -a -ride. It takes 8-10 hours to fill it. This particular vehicle will be the first one used on a daily basis, and will travel about 50-60 miles a day. • Edwards: That's a good start. • Dennison: It seems like we need a lot more information before the right way to move forward can be figured out. There are a lot of obstacles, the issues must be looked into, and data gathered before concrete steps are taken to develop a plan for the ultimate replacement of the entire fleet. We need to start now to get something in place. We don't want to miss another round of bus replacement. Have to think about getting the whole ball rolling. I would Air Quality Advisory Board September 26, 2000 Page 6 recommend that we consider advising the City to start getting the data and considering the issues. • Marmon: In most cases the City does "walk the talk." Fort Collins is a leader. • Stanley: It seems you need to have the political will to back it up. It shouldn't be a tough argument. The up front costs are high, but there is an obligation to promote public health in the City. There is still work to be done that could give impetus to speed up adoption of CNG, or give Council the political will to put it in the budget. • Levine: I would love to have a task force look at what you've said in a systematic way. I would like to see the health effects in the policy. • Schroeer: What happens if there is a failure among the busses in a CNG system? When you look at the spare ratio it is higher when you're running alternative fuel. • Stanley: What about converting diesel vehicles to CNG? • Schroeer. Converter kits as a general rule have been very marginal . • Mannon : We made a policy that we wouldn't do any more conversions. We had problems with the last round of conversion. The vehicles we converted were dirtier than when they were running on gasoline. • Edwards: Offer an extension of appreciation to Tracy and Ken. They appear to be pretty well plugged in as to what's coming on line. The City is moving at a pace that's comfortable with the resources we have. There's a pilot project under way. I kind of support the conservative cost conscious approach the City is following. Jim Dennison made the following motion: Move that we set up a task force to evaluate the issue with the department, and if possible, develop a recommendation on a plan to replace the fleet with clean fuel technology if it proves reasonable. Linda Stanley seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The Board voted unanimously to extend the meeting by seven minutes. Air Quality Action Plan — Mid Course Correction, Lucinda Smith Smith said that, when we switched from a two-year to a four-year plan cycle, we made provision for a mid -course correction. This correction will cover 2002 and 2003. It needs to be to Council by March, 2001. The purpose is to make sure the priorities in the action plan still fit, and to address new and emergent issues. We propose to discuss this at two board meetings — December, 2000 and January, 2001. In addition, would the Board be interested in being involved in advance of those meetings? Would Board members like to work with Staff, possibly in a sub -committee? Stanley: It sounds like a good idea for some of the board to be involved. I would volunteer if people think it's appropriate. But, I don't have any of the institutional memory. Woodruff. It's a thirty page document. It's good to have a person with fresh eyes to review it. 0 Dennison: It wouldn't hurt to have someone in the process. Air Quality Advisory Board September 26, 2000 Page 7 • Levine: I'm interested but I'm not ready to volunteer yet. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. ACTION LIST _ fram .Cantamhar 'm maet: -- ACTION ITEM WHO -- v BY... DONE 1. Check to verify the library and the new Linda October :new performing arts cenare to be sited downtown. 2. Memo to Council recommending 2001 Brian, Eric October budget priorities: TransFort, new monitoring site, business outreach, population update 3. Memo to Council recommending Mason Brian, Eric, October Street master plan Ray 4. Poll AQAB members regarding their interest Brian October in two committees: • Clean fuels • AQAP mid -course correction 5. Draft 2001 board work plan Eric, Brian October