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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 05/07/2003MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE May 7, 2003 There was not a quorum at this meeting -no official action was taken. For Reference: Randy Fischer, NRAB Chair - 226-5383 Ray Martinez, Council Liaison - 416-2154 Greg Byrne, Staff Liaison - 221-6287 Board Members Present Kelly Ohlson, Nate Donovan, Arvind Panjabi, Sam Otero, Board Members Absent Randy Fischer, Linda Knowlton, Don Rodriguez, Phil Murphy, Steve Ryder Staff Present Natural Resources Dent: Mark Sears, Greg Byrne, Tom Vosburg, Terry Klahn, Margit Hentschel Utilities: Jim Hibbard, Bob Smith, Kevin McBride, Sue Paquette, Matt Fater, Susan Hayes City Managers Office: Sam McFerran Guests Eric Hamrick, Councilmember Jerry Koltenhauser, citizen Agenda Review Mark Sears said there will be one additional Natural Areas item. West Nile Virus McFerran said the team has broken into two committees, Education and Training, and Pest Management. The next component will be creating lists for a point of contact. He said the City wants to be responsible and will be basing decisions on best practices. There are five steps to be included in the program; public outreach, surveillance, inventory, mapping sources of water, and source reduction. Ohlson: When you say be responsive to the citizens, what does that mean? McFerran: We will dictate appropriate and reasonable responses depending upon the activity we see. We realize there will be some panic. The IPM policy is very objective. The criteria will dictate the response, it's not going to be driven by the public. It won't be driven by anything except research. Natural Resources Advisory Board May 7, 2003 Page 2 of 6 • Ohlson: When you talk about getting rid of puddles, I hope you don't mean wetlands and marshes. I hope you're talking about tires and low spots. We're not talking about natural systems where there is standing water. • McFerran: I'm not expecting that. If there's great contact with the public we'd do research on the appropriate response. • Ohlson: With the amount of spraying required to impact an area, isn't spraying more of a PR thing? • McFerran: It's not terribly effective. But if we knew there were adult mosquitoes in a certain part of town we would be responsible. • Donovan: Does the word get out before the control measure? • McFerran: I cant answer that, but my expectation is they would be proactive. • Ohlson: Are we going to do anything to prevent the hysteria? And, are we going to talk about people with ponds in their back yards, and recommend folks don't do those sorts of things. If we're telling people not to have water in tires, is it the same for birdbaths, ponds and those things? • McFerran: I don't think so. • Donovan: What's the overall cost of the program? • McFerran: So far we don't have a budget. • Ohlson: I like the approach, doing the best you can this year, and trying to create a permanent model for next year. • McFerran: We want to be prepared for any situation. We realize we started a bit too late this year. • Ohlson: Will you put something out that talks about what people can do voluntarily? • McFerran: I expect there will be something on the web page, and articles in the City utility news letter. There's a possibility of a hotline. • Panjabi: What is the trend so far in the warmer places? • McFerran: For every community the second summer has been the worse. In the 3`d and 4`h seasons it drops off a bit. Sustainability Inventory, Margit Hentschel Hentschel said she has been doing environmental management for about 20 years. Sustainability has become accepted as a global visionary way of approaching the social, economic, and environmental balance of the community. In our own City we have City Plan, sustainability is a cornerstone of the plan. • Ohlson: At some point we were going to see the recommendations and have feedback. Several of us would have had comments. • Hentschel: It's a baseline. We're going to put out a RFP for a SMS. It's a legal requirement between the City and EPA that we do the environmental management system and update the Framework for Environmental Action. • Ohlson: Is that still on line? At some point we need to get it to the top of the pile. • Hentschel: The Sustainability inventory was an important stepping stone. • Otero: Last week we talked about human health issues that were coming up. Tying in the human health portion is very important. Once you start down this track the Natural Resources Advisory Board May 7, 2003 Page 3 of 6 City can't go back. Once the City decides to be an advocate and be an example you can't change. • Ohlson: This is a big thing, the time is overdue. I support it 101 %. The City needs to get it's own house in order. • Ohlson: Are we going to work on buying practices through the whole City? Every department needs to have resources where they can contact NRD and say what are my options? • Hentschel: We hope that having these policy drivers opens the lines of communication between departments. • Otero: One of the things I found out doing these inventories is the more you get folks to understand the positive, and give praise for positives the more interested they become. It's important to give praise for doing the good things. • Ohlson: This brochure looks nice. It has recycling in there, but it doesn't talk about not creating the waste to begin with. And, it doesn't talk about water. • Donovan: All of this is good stuff, but it needs money to be implemented. Does the budget include money for sustainability or the SMS? • Byrne: We have money for this year. • Donovan: What happens next year? How do we get money to implement this stuff? • Byrne: I don't know if there will be a pool of one time money. If we do, it will be very limited. • Otero: There's proof that some of that stuff pays for itself. • Hentschel: There are 44 countries that have sustainable forests. There might be one retailer in the state of Colorado. We try our best, but we cant pay 5 times more for a desk. • Otero: They say you'll see the prices go down is if you buy. If they see a commitment from an entity like the City, you'll see those prices fall. But, it takes the initial capital. • Byrne: New Belgium sets aside 20% for new or untested technology, fully expecting 50% of it will fail. It's tough for us to make those spending decisions, but there is a lot more we can do. There's the worm composting at Nix. The City is starting these things as a matter of policy. • Ohlson: No one suggests doing all of the stuff all of the time, or overnight. But for instance, when buying desks, if we buy 10 desks and two of them are recycled, that's a start. Boxelder Creek & Cooper Slough Master Drainage Plans Jim Hibbard gave some background and a broad framework relating to revisions in the flood plain regulations and the stormwater master plans. Kevin McBride said the Framework for Environmental Action set the stage for the Stormwater Utility to adopt a watershed approach to stormwater quality. 0 Ohlson: Would an environmentalist like the 10 criteria? Natural Resources Advisory Board May 7, 2003 Page 4 of 6 • McBride: It's the best technique we could find for evaluating this. It's specific to most streams, but not suitable for wetlands. The way it's been used so far is to link up with designers that are working in the system. Designs are more than a hydrologic analysis of a channel. • Ohlson: Has everyone pretty much bought into this? • McBride: I don't know about projects that don't involve us. • Ohlson: When did you do the inventory, and is it complete? • McBride: It was over a two year period, and it's much more detailed. The inventory was completed a little over a year ago. • Ohlson: The goal is to know what's there and try to improve it. • Otero: They're taking the approach of looking at what's there, level of service, how does it function now, and how will it function in the future. • Ohlson: This is really good news. Were we forced to do this, or did we do this on our own? • McBride: The watershed approach in 1975 was well ahead of the curve as to what is required. We've gone much further down the road than what is typically required by the permit process. • Donovan: Are we continuing this, or will it get lost in the $49 million worth of improvements in one basin? • Hibbard: This will not get lost in flood control measure. It's an integral part. We're trying to identify opportunities, and when they come along we'll be ready with the framework. • Panjabi: Is property ownership a limiting factor on where you're able to do the projects? • McBride: So far they've been associated with projects we're already working on. We couldn't walk in and do a project on someone's private property. • Panjabi: Are you meeting any resistance? • McBride: It's all been pretty positive. • Panjabi: In the area of Spring Creek, is there any way to measure the impact of a projects ability to absorb flooding? • McBride: Habitat work isn't necessarily modeled to improve flooding. • Panjabi: Is there any way to evaluate how effective the projects are? • McBride: With the habitat rating methodology. • Panjabi: Do you measure flow, what's happening downsteam? • McBride: What would be more appropriate would be to go with what lives there, as far as aquatics in the stream. • Hibbard: These are done on the coat tails of flood control projects. • Ohlson: Do you go back and test? You've got the ten criteria to begin with. Do we have things in process to what happened in years 3,4,5? • McBride: We have to do evaluation to get wetlands permits. We have to evaluate yearly until year three. • Donovan: Is there some way to measure improvement? Natural Resources Advisory Board May 7, 2003 Page 5 of 6 • McBride: We've been working on the front end so far. We'll need to go back and re - map. • Donovan: What about baseline water quality monitoring? • McBride: We have done extensive monitoring. My belief now is that we have done systematic monitoring throughout every basin. We can spend a pile of money doing chemical monitoring. Then we'd have all of this data that doesn't tell us anything. We will monitor every storm sewer outfall, this is limited to chemical monitoring; looking for people dumping stuff. • Hibbard: It's our intention to follow up, but we haven't set an appropriate interval. Bob Smith spoke briefly about Boxelder and Cooper Slough. He said his main question is have we gone far enough with the list, and have we interpreted the philosophy correctly. • Ohlson: I agree with the philosophical points. What if someone's structure is 70%- 80% destroyed? Is that a new structure? • Smith: You can rebuild from the foundation or the ground, but you can't increase the footprint and you have to elevate out of the flood plain. We don't allow new mobile home parks. If a mobile home moves out and a new one comes in, it must be elevated and anchored. Over time it will become les and less flood prone. • Hibbard: All of the regs work together. • Otero: Everyone agrees that you don't want to impact areas by raising floodplains, but you don't want to drain it out either. Everyone believes it's a good thing to drain, but there's a lot of habitat. We don't want to go the other way and destroy the habitat that's already there. • Hibbard: That's especially true of Boxelder. • Ohlson: Are you working with NRD staff? • Smith: Yes, we have been and will continue to work with NRD. Natural Area Items Byrne said council considered an executive session for purposes of real estate, but it was not held. The City Attorney will bring forward code amendments that will expand the scope of what Council can discuss. • Sears: I was hoping for action on the Udall lease. • Ohlson: Unless you need our advice, simply proceed without us and do your business. It's not your fault we don't have a quorum. Just tell them you consulted with the NRAB, there was no quorum, but there's no problem. • Sears: It's a one year, renewable up to three years, lease. • Sears: There's also the 1.5 acre dedication off of Fossil Creek Dr, east of College Ave. We have to have an ordinance to accept the donation. • Ohlson: Is this a no-brainer? • Sears: It's a good addition. We didn't bring the Hersch home tonight. We still haven't decided exactly what we want to do with it. It's something the board should make a recommendation on. Natural Resources Advisory Board May 7, 2003 Page 6 of 6 • Sears: We have been working with Parks and looking at trail funding needs. • Ohlson: It's right on every level. We've always promised money for trails. Our battles are over placement, not money. We need to pony up and make it happen. • Sears: They're getting a lot of complaints about the asphalt trails. • Ohlson: I hope you weigh in if improvements can be made in placement. • Sears: Yes. We'll relocate the trail through Kingfisher Point. New Business • Byrne: John Stokes is the NRD director. He starts on Monday, May 12. • Donovan: As the transition continues there are issues going to Council that won't quit. We have things under control. I don't want the director to feel like board maintenance is a high priority. • Panjabi: I've seen a paint ball fort at the Dixon Reservoir in the heart of the riparian area. Mark Sears will let the rangers know. • Hamrick: Several Council members have requested code changes for the NRAB and AQAB as far as participating in annexation and zoning issues. • Arvind Panjabi will not be able to attend the June 4 meeting. • Nate Donovan said the Community Separator study was adopted last night • Eric Hamrick said there might be a change in Council liaison for some boards. • Erick Hamrick said budget review continues. Future Agenda Items June: Downtown Strategic Plan, Timothy Wilder I-25 Subarea Plan — Ken Waido Boxelder, Stormwater Utility July: Fossil Creek Regional Open Space Unscheduled: Parks Projects Update, Craig Foreman (?) Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.