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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 05/23/2000CX�-o S�-o g MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. May 23, 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, Eric Levine, Harry Edwards, Raymond Sons, Chris Kavanaugh Board Members Absent John Schroeer, Jim Dennison, Linda Stanley, Mandar Sunthankar Staff Present Natural Resources Department: Brian Woodruff, Terry Klahn, and Tom Shoemaker SmartTrips: Meg Corwin Announcements • City Council has extended the terms of all Board members through December 31 (instead of June 30). Nancy York and Ray Sons terms were due to expire at the end of June 2000. Both have agreed to remain on the Board until the end of the year. Guests None The meeting was called to order at 7:05 Minutes The April 25, 2000 minutes were approved with the following chan�e. April 25, 2000: Page 2, TransFort Strategic and Operating Plan, 2" bullet — change to read "The bus fleet comprising about 25 full-size buses is miniscule." Review and Update Action List 1. Anti -smoking campaigns in other communities — Jo Birckmeyer is preparing this information for distribution in the June packet. 2. Memo to Council on Holnam — Done 3. Memo to Council on TransFort — Done 4. Memo to Council on Library and Performing Arts Center sites - Done Harry Edwards requested clarification on the information related to anti -smoking campaigns in other communities. Woodruff said when Jo Birckmeyer spoke to the Board a request was made from Board members to put together information from campaigns in other communities, specifically communities in California. Air Quality Advisory Board May 23,2000 Page 2 Review Council six-month Planning calendar Community Dialogues: City Council is using the 5`h Tuesday to hold public meetings that invite people to come and chat about issues of concern. There are no specific topics. September 12: Campus West Subarea Plan Mason Street Transportation Corridor Master Plan Agenda Planning June — ClimateWise, Shift Gears for Clean Air, briefing on visibility project July — Mason Street Corridor Conceptual Plan (may need a recommendation in August) UNSCHEDULEDITEMS • Woodruff conveyed the message from the Board to Mike Powers regarding the siting of the new Library and the Performing Arts Center. Mike fully understands the Board's views and concerns. There doesn't appear to be any intent to have recommendations from the boards, however. Short Discussion Items • Change regular meeting time/place? There were not enough members present to make a decision. The consensus of those present was to change the time to 4:30 — 7:00. Woodruff will call absent members to see who might be interested in changing the time of the meeting to 4:30 p.m. • Holnam Update — Holnam will form a committee to review a list of fuels and materials. The committee will consist of citizens and other interested parties. Holnam contacted the City Manager and asked who should be on the committee. This week they are completing their list of possible candidates; next week they will recruit. The wood project is moving ahead; a test burn is scheduled for early June. Harry Edwards expressed support for Eric Levine being a part of the committee. • Radon regulation re -review — update postponed until next month. VMT Reduction Project — Report to the City Council Growth Management Committee, Tom Shoemaker Shoemaker said he was here on behalf of an interdepartmental committee, LUTRAQ. He is seeking feedback on the preliminary work, done with assistance from several Board members, before taking the preliminary recommendation to the Council Growth Management Committee. There are two groups of recommendations in the plan, 1) action plans for review in the next 2-3 months, and 2) action plans for review next year. Discussion • Edwards: Help me understand the different numbers regarding the population growth rate in document 00-05-04. There are quite a few different characterizations of growth. One group of numbers came from the 1995-1998 Mobility Report Card, the second set was from modeling done in 1996 and represents a population growth rate projected over twenty years. • Edwards: It's very important because City Plan and LUTRAQ both have a goal of reducing drive -alone trips by 10%. Will 10% reduction be enough to meet air quality goals? This has been a hot -button issue. Air Quality Advisory Board May 23,2000 Page 3 • Kavanaugh: Do the zoning, development regulation, and growth policies take into account their effect on the local economy? Those things are elements that were incorporated into City Plan and adopted in the Land Use Code, so I'd say no, but through the political process, and what we're seeing in terms of development, they have been. If the economy takes a strong downturn, our ability for capital funding will be weakened. City Plan is due to be updated in 2002, with preparation beginning next year. • Sons: I would like to complement Tom and Brian on the comprehensive nature of this report. I was concerned, when we wrote our memo last year to Council urging this study, there might be a minimizing of the problem. But, it seems that, so far, this is a serious effort to come to grips with a serious problem. • York: The City should lead by example. A model is only as good as the assumptions. I believe that our assumptions are in favor of the auto, we can't seem to get beyond it. It's not believed that people will give up their cars for another mode. Under "Barriers and Solutions" you say that people don't get it. I think people get it, it's just that there is not a safe alternative to the auto. It's important to reveal the costs. I can't emphasize that enough. Some people won't ride on Taft Hill or Shields. I would encourage more situations where groups of people and individuals submit ideas. My belief system is that if we create safe avenues for human powered modes people would use them. I would also like to see a shift in the laws. I would like to see the right-of-way given to human powered modes, and make cars go 15 mph on a select few streets. • York: I would like to know more about how/when developers receive variances. If so many variances need to be requested, maybe we should reconsider the standards. • Levine: The whole LUTRAQ team should be commended, a lot of thought has gone into these documents. I look forward to seeing the follow through. • Kavanaugh: Will you make recommendation on funding, such as sales tax increases? We will be looking at options. We'd also like to know if we can be more effective by getting more of the existing funding that's out there? • Levine: The department did make a vague reference to a sales tax that was more modest than the last one. I would like to see different solutions broken down. Can't help but think that when I see the short falls, how growth could be paying it's own way. SmartTrips Strategic Operations and Deployment Plan — Meg Corwin, Regional SmartTrips Manager Corwin gave an overview of the SmartTrips program. SmartTrips includes the three communities of Fort Collins, Greeley, and Loveland. The program is part of a package of strategies to reduce the number of trips in single occupant vehicles by 10% by the year 2015. A 10% reduction in SOV by 2015 is still possible, but only if all the TDM strategies are implemented aggressively. A review of the program suggested a continuation of existing activities and the addition of others including Teleworking and Site design, Transportation Management Organizations, a comprehensive evaluation program, and an increase in funding. Air Quality Advisory Board May 23,2000 Page 4 Discussion • Levine: Are you focusing on the employees, the work force? Yes, even though a large percentage of all trips are not work trips. Focussing on the business sector gives us the greatest opportunity for a captive audience. If people change the way they get to work there is a residual effect. We start with the larger businesses to get more bang for the buck. A nice way to approach smaller businesses is to treat them as a corridor or a group and get them working together. • Edwards: In your first list of objectives, the university was listed, but I didn't see anything on the second list related to the university. That's because it was a continuation of the first list. • Levine: The City is pretty serious about the VMT issue, doing monitoring and looking at contingency measures. Are there any milestone —criteria that are built into the SmartTrips program? Yes, the Mobility Report Card (MRC) is the monitoring device. • Levine: How about a major difference in trends? I would love to see something that takes something like that into account. That will come with more systematic implementation of a tracking device, building a huge database. The MRC will give bigger pictures. • York: I've heard criticism about the ride share program. People aren't able to get rides, and the proposed funding is for a computer program? People have trouble finding matches because the database is so small; there's a need for more effort in beefing up the data base. The van pool program is currently r/2 million dollars, $270,000 comes from fares, $181,000 from federal dollars, and the rest is incidental. We are rapidly reaching break -over, riders are starting to say they won't pay any more, they'll just drive their own cars. • Edwards: I would like to see a periodic quantitative evaluation of your progress. The Board unanimously approved the following motion. "Move that the Board recommend endorsement of the plan with the stipulation that quantitative measures of progress be defined and implemented. " Adiournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:30. ACTION LIST — from ay 23 meetin ACTION ITEM WHO BY... DONE 1. Information in packet on anti -smoking campaigns in other communities Jo Birckme er June 2. Provide information on Community Dialog Brian June 3. Poll Board members who are absent about changing the meting time to 4:30 — 7:00 Brian June 00-0 s-01 AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD DATE: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 LOCATION: 281 North College Avenue, Conference Room A TIME: 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. 7:00 CONVENE 1. Review and approve minutes of April 25, 2000 meeting 2. Review and update action list (appended to minutes) 3. Review Council six-month planning calendar 4. Agenda planning • Second-hand smoke ordinance — outreach plan (June) • ClimateWise campaign and "Shift Gears for Clean Air" campaign (June) • Visibility project briefing (June) • Mason St. Corridor concept plan (July & Sept) 5. Short discussion items — • Change regular meeting time/place? • Holnam update • Radon regulation re -review 7:30 VMT Reduction Proiect — Report to the City Council Growth Management Committee, Tom Shoemaker, Natural Resources Director Several packet items relate to this issue. The staff LUTRAQ Team is preparing an action plan to improve the City's VMT-reduction program. Members of the LUTRAQ Team will be on hand to hear the Board's feedback and comments on the work so far. ACTION: Recommendation to Council 8:15 SmartTrips Strategic Operations and Deployment Plan — Meg Corwin, Regional SMART Trips Manager Meg will brief the Board about the 2001-2006 SmartTrips operations plan, which is scheduled for a vote at the June 1 meeting of the North Front Range Transportation and Air Quality Planning Council. This is an opportunity to provide a recommendation to City Council member Mike Byrne, who represents Fort Collins on the Planning Council. ACTION: Recommendation to Council 9:30 ADJOURN