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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 12/05/2002MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE December 5, 2001 For Reference: Randy Fischer, NRAB Chair - 226-5383 Ray Martinez, Council Liaison - 416-2154 Mark Sears, Staff Liaison - 416-2096 Board Members Present Reagan Waskom, Nate Donovan, Steve Ryder, Phil Murphy, Linda Knowlton, Don Rodriguez, Kelly Ohlson Board Members Absent Randy Fischer, Bonnie Pierce Staff Present Natural Resources Dept: Mark Sears, Terry Klahn, Michelle Pawar Building and Zoning: Felix Lee Park Planning & Development: Craig Foreman Utilities: Doug Swartz, Patty Bigner Guests Jeff Hatch, CSU student Kyle Orr, CSU student Joe Martin, Citizen Agenda Review • Appoint member to represent NRAB at Poudre River design charette • Appoint member to represent NRAB, and alternate, to I-25 Open Space Task Force • Decide how to communicate Mulberry issues to Council. New Home Program, Doug Swartz, Felix Lee Doug Swartz, Energy Service Engineer, presented information on the results of a comprehensive new home study. He explained that the study included market research and inspection of new homes under construction, as well as completed homes, to evaluate the impact of the energy code. Swartz provided an overview of the study. • Compliance varied and violations were commonplace. • The study looked at health and safety, comfort, and building durability. • There hasn't been a lot of public interest due to relatively low cost of energy. • Most homes had comfort problems somewhere in the house. Natural Resources Advisory Boo • December 5, 2001 Page 2 of 7 • There are problems with insulation installation and air sealing problems. • The quality of workmanship varied, even within the same house. • The average size air conditioner is two times large than necessary. This results in a higher cost for the homeowner, inefficient operating, and shorter life time for the equipment • Leaks and holes in ducts create problems. • Combustion safety is a concern with water heaters, furnaces, fireplaces and gas stoves. Gas ovens put out the most carbon monoxide. • Indoor air quality is not being considered as homes are designed and built. • The biggest chunk of energy dollars is spent on electricity, e.g., refrigerators and entertainment items. Air conditioning is only about 10 percent of the annual energy cost. • Air conditioning is increasing in Fort Collins, in both new homes and being installed by the homeowner. A large amount of overloaded transformers are being replaced. • Buyers do not generally think about things "behind the drywall". The things we're talking about are non -issues in the housing market. • There are opportunities to build better performing homes at little increase in cost by understanding design and construction details and doing testing for feedback on what works best. Swartz said what's next is education and training. There are three recommendations; 1) build awareness, 2) Determine if there is a problem, if so, define the problem, and 3) form stakeholder groups to explore options and develop an action plan. Felix Lee said it's been a learning curve for the industry and staff. As the studies come out we're learning more where to put our emphasis. Discussion • Murphy: As far as inspections go, are you still finding the same problems? • Lee: We've changed the contractor licensing requirements. It has more teeth; we're getting their attention. • Murphy: What happens when it's not done right? • Lee: They get failed, and can't proceed with the work. • Murphy: Were the problems across all price ranges? • Swartz: Nothing stood out as a low cost home problem. • Ryder: Is there still an Energy Score Program? • Swartz: Energy Score is a home energy rating system. The level of consumer awareness and use is not high. Energy Score can be an option for avoiding the prescription code, and is a whole house analysis. What we've learned is we need to take a good look at Energy Score and make it a system that does more than it does right now. It's possible to meet the code, and still have problems. • Ryder: If I wanted to spend the money, how would I get the most bang for the buck? • Swartz: Energy Score could definitely help with that. It's been a useful tool. • Lee: We have some money to resurrect builder training, there's been a lot of turnover in the industry. • Ohlson: I support the work you're doing in your separate areas. My concerns are about wanting to do more. My first concern is the question of "is there a problem"? Don't try to Natural Resources Advisory Bot • December 5, 2001 Page 3 of 7 soft pedal the problem, it's inaccurate and inappropriate in the context of home energy efficiency. • Swartz: A better way to say it is, "how big is the problem"? Do people care enough to change, given that we hear so little, just a handful of calls a year? There's no public outcry about this stuff. We need to see if people will weigh in. • Ohlson: That's why City employees are paid. It doesn't matter if there's any outcry. It's ok to come to us to build support, but you should move forward on your own. You should go until you meet with opposition from upper management, or the Council says no. • Lee: We're not going to back off the energy code by any means. We're addressing the problems we've identified. • Ohlson: With the duct leakage percentage, do we need code changes, or is inspection addressing the duct leakage? • Lee: It's hard to inspect duct leakage, there are so many aspects. • Ohlson: Shouldn't the code be looking at air conditioners that are twice as big as needed? Most people don't want something that's too big and inefficient. • Swartz: They don't know they're getting double what they need. It's easy to say to do the load calculation, but the load calculations I've seen are very erroneous. I don't know the right answer yet, but I totally agree it needs to be addressed. • Rodriguez: I'm fascinated by the comment of the framing crews having to install the air barriers. That's an institutional change. What might be an incentive to have that happen? • Swartz: That's the place we have to work the hardest. The kinds of changes we recommend are in their self-interest. When they get a call back on a cold tub, what are they going to do once they realize a $5 piece of material and 10 minutes could have prevented it. That's the approach we'll take to make that happen. • Ohlson: Under the benefits you should include pollution prevention. • Ohlson: Don't drag this out. There's great information, the study was outstanding. I don't want to see this wasted. I'd like to see it go from study to implementation and adoption. Colorado Front Range Trail, Craig Foreman, Bob Finch, Ben Pedrett Foreman said that the State believes people support linking trails. I just came from P&R, where they discussed the plan. What we're looking for is a motion we could take back and put in a packet for Council. Council will review the plan on January 18. Discussion • Waksom: Is the concept a ten -foot concrete trail? • Finch: We defer to the communities. • Rodriguez: Once a trail is established who manages and maintains it? • Finch: It would be who planned and built it. • Rodriguez: Why aren't you guys taking the lead in terms of design standards? It seems like a great opportunity for state parks to establish a presence. Are there plans for a unifying interpretive theme along the course? • Finch: That's the next step of the project, in terms of funding. There's a desire to have a logo for the trail, and uniform sign standards. The standards for construction are pretty well known. Most of this is not your two or three foot backcountry type of trail. • Rodriguez: Will it have handicap access? Natural Resources Advisory Bog • December 5, 2001 Page 4 of 7 • Finch: That's a choice communities will have to make. There's a desire to make it as ADA accessible as possible. • Knowlton: One of your goals is to enhance eco-heritage tourism. What do you mean? • Finch: Some areas along the front range there are communities who desire to have more people come to recreate. • Knowlton: What is eco-heritage tourism? • Finch: It's the idea that through recreation or interest in the environment, people might be motivated to use the trials. • Ohlson: I will vote no against this resolution, and will urge Council to do the same. Randy and I and some others attended the regional meeting in Fort Collins. To me a third guiding principal should be the proper placement and location of trails in relation to habitat. Go back to the goals of the project, they're all action words except when it gets to protecting habitat it's strive. Once again, the things that mean something to me, have the weakest language. The real language does matter. It should say "protect sensitive habitat", it shouldn't say strive. • Ohlson: I'm worried about the draining of resources. Will it take away from local trail dollars? • Finch: None of this money comes from the open space quadrant of GOCO. • Foreman: There's flexibility on changing the wording. I sent the resolution anticipating you would wordsmith it. • Finch: Within your jurisdiction you can adopt any wording you want. • Knowlton: So, you're going to have all the jurisdictions do a resolution. What happens if 50% do, and 50% don't? • Finch: If a community does not participate there will be a gap in the trail system. • Ohlson: Even if we don't go along with this resolution our work will continue. If the resolution added a third guiding principal, and a strong bullet I might be able to support the resolution. The key is how you state the words, and how they're placed. • Rodriguez: That's what your organization should be about. You should err on the side of the resource. • Donovan: I agree with Don. There's an opportunity here to educate entities. They might welcome the direction, and the process. • Ryder: Do you have an idea of what portion of this trail system is in Latimer County? • Foreman: I've got another set of maps. There's nothing new or added. • Finch: We're seeing far less new trial construction. We are working on system trails that have already been identified. We're going back and helping them rehab trails that have fallen into disrepair. It's been neat to see the different trail planners get together and try to make their systems work. • Ohlson: We need to add another guiding principal; "Strive to protect sensitive natural, wildlife, cultural and scenic resources when locating the trails, and under the bullets have more action words; protect. Linda Knowlton made the following motion: Move we approve this resolution, with the wording recommended by Kelly Ohlson regarding the guiding principals and bullet language. Natural Resources Advisory But • December 5, 2001 Page 5 of 7 • Foreman: I will put your changes in the resolution. The motion passed unanimously. Kim -Beck -Hi Property — Review Proposed Conservation Easement & Stewardship Plan, Mark Sears Sears provided background on the parcel and the current owner. Discussion • Waskom: Why is the envelope so big? It's all wheat fields. Their intention is to leave it as wheat until they chose to develop the property. The only area they can plant non-native is within 100' of their buildings. • Ohlson: Since this is in the Fort Collins/Loveland corridor, do you have any idea why we didn't buy this in 1994. • Ryder: They were probably going after the bigger parcels. • Ohlson: On page 5, under timber harvesting, we say dead trees may be cut for firewood. Unless it's going to fall down and kill someone, they don't need to cut down every dead tree. In the future we should work on the wording. We should be trying to protect some non- living trees that serve a real habitat function. We might just as well get it changed this time. • Ohlson: On page 6, under eradication of weeds, prairie dogs, and other pests, is there some legal reason we have to put prairie dogs in with pests. We need to reword that. • Ryder: Is it possible to tighten up the language of what a typical front range horse property is. I'm concerned about the property next door. The limitation is it can't exceed the twenty acres. • Ryder: Under colors and height limitation, should we specify something? Right now they have to negotiate with us. If we state it, 30 foot may sound fine, but if it's put in the wrong spot it may come back to haunt us. We want that to be negotiable. • Sears: We've asked Carrie to remove where it says that utilities must be buried unless the grantee consents in writing, and change to must be buried. • Rodriguez: Can we ask that the outdoor lighting be shielded lighting? We can add the language it should be shielded. • Ryder: Is there anything about cell towers? That wouldn't be allowed, the only things allowed are the buildings. • Ohlson: Regarding signage, we're paying full market value. It should be pointed out that it's a conservation easement of the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Program. It shouldn't be a sign for them. That's a good point. • Ohlson: On the bottom of page 4, it says EPA approved pesticides. Of course they're EPA approved pesticides. You can make it more specific. I would hope in the future we'd work on that language, and get a little more specific. • Wakson: On page 7 of the management plan, how will you respond to asking them to install a sign? • Ohlson: We should pay for the sign, we should put it up, and we should have control. That's probably the best way to handle that. • Sears: We brought this in for input. We'll keep polishing. This will serve as a template. Natural Resources Advisory But • December 5, 2001 Page 6 of 7 • Rodriguez: Has there been any thoughts of providing some type of incentive if they want to enhance the habitat? Once they develop the site they must restore to native vegetation. They can apply for grants. There was board consensus on this conservation easement. New Business ✓ Kelly Ohlson will be the NRAB representative to the Poudre River design charette. Don Rodriguez will be the alternate if Kelly can't attend. ✓ Randy Fischer will be the NRAB representative to the I-25 Open Space Task Force. Nate Donovan will be the alternate. Kelly Ohlson said it's important to remember we are representatives of the board, and to take, to the best of your ability, the board values. ✓ Murphy said that Donovan wants to know what's happened with the Mulberry Plan. There was confusion if Doug sent his opinion of what he heard to Council. If he did that was inappropriate. That's our job, if we chose to communicate our thoughts to Council. It would be nice to get a clarification. Sears said what Doug prepared was a power point slide of the major points made that night. He also tried to attach our minutes, but the minutes had not been reviewed or approved. ✓ Ohsson: On the Loveland Open Space Issue there were a couple things we wanted, what's happened with that. Sears said it's been shelved and will come back here after the first of the year. ✓ Ohlson: What's the status of the 2Id air monitoring station. ✓ Ohlson: Who will be doing what in Pollution Prevention. What's the game plan? Please let us know in a memo form, or in a work session. ✓ Ohlson: What's up with the trail reconstruction thing? I've called and left another message, but have never received a good answer. Sears said it's not under construction. Review of Minutes: October 17, 2001: The minutes of the October 17, 2001 meeting were unanimously approved. November 7, 2001 The minutes of the November 7, 2001 meeting were unanimously approved. Committee Reports Trails: Mark Sears and Paul Hudnut presented matrices of the kinds of trail designations we're thinking of. We'll continue to work to try to refine these designation types and come to consensus. There was a marked divergence of opinion. Jim Miller provided information on the trail closure from Maxwell to Reservoir Ridge. The December trails' meeting was cancelled. Solid Waste: The PAYT audit has been completed. The groundbreaking for the Rivendell recycling drop off site was today. Hope to be open in late February or March. Kelly Ohlson said it might be nice if there were a little publicity. Phil Murphy hopes the board will be invited to the grand opening ceremony. The Christmas tree recycling program begins December 26, and runs for 3 weeks. The leaf program went fairly well, but there is some room to tweak the program. Some would like to see it happen earlier. There was a good response for the neighborhood programs. Kelly Ohlson said we always like to reward the truth. Staff said it did Natural Resources Advisory But • December 5, 2001 Page 7 of 7 not work as well this year. His concern is to maximize the resource savings. A lot of people don't want to drive to Hagemans. Natural Areas Committee: Will meet on Thursday, December 13. The three topics are stewardship, acquisition philosophy, and acquisition updates. Announcements • Sears: We closed on the Elton & Kectner Franz property. It's the last remaining parcel that we had intended to add to the Cathy Fromme Prairie. • Sears: The Nix remodeling is progressing. Review Councils Six Month Planning Calendar No comments. Review Future Agenda Items: Ohlson: Would like to see a work session scheduled pertaining to water quality testing for the Poudre River and streams. Reagan Waskom made the following motion: As authorized by City Code, Section 2-31 (a)(3), I move to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing potential land acquisitions. The motion passed unanimously.