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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 11/17/1999MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD SPECIAL MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE November 17, 1999 AMENDED For Reference: Randy Fischer, NRAB Chair - 491-6303 Bill Bertschy, Council Liaison - 484-0181 Tom Shoemaker, Staff Liaison - 221-6265 Board Members Present Randy Fischer, Kelly Ohlson, Don Rodriguez, Jan Rastall, Reagan Waskom, Nate Donovan, Bill Miller Board Members Absent Rick Harness, Phil Murphy Staff Present Natural Resources Dent: Terry Klahn, Susie Gordon Guests Michael Doyle, CSU student Agenda Review • New Issues and Concerns: Kelly Ohlson stated this item requires Tom Shoemaker's attendance. It is something that will serve everyone well and make life easier. Ohlson said he would like to spend a few minutes talking about what will be covered and get into specifics when Shoemaker will be here. • Bill Miller — Larimer County EAB perspective on Cooper Slough Review and Approval of Minutes September 29, 1999 • Page 1, last sentence, change to read "Sears stated that in his opinion the proposed solutions will have minimal impact". • Page 4, 6a' paragraph, change to read "... it is named after them with a donation of three percent of the price of the land." • Page 4, 5a' paragraph, change to read "...he does not have the same high level of long term effort for natural areas that Kelly has." • Page 2, last paragraph, change to, "...when do they anticipate they will be exceeding their organic capacities?" Natural Resources Atsory Board • November 17, 1999 Page 2 October 20 1999 • Page 5, Number 3, change to "...I was therein 1992,1994,1995,1997 and now." • Page 3, 74' bullet, change to "My suggestion is this has to be nailed down." NRAB 1999 Annual Report Fischer said he tried to incorporate all of the comments he received into this version of the report. The main things he wanted to emphasize were 1) we have an advisory role to Council, and 2) we typically address Council Policy Agenda issues, or issues brought by staff' The information regarding how many times the board met has been moved. Discussion • Reagan Waskom asked why the number of field trips was omitted. Fischer responded it was an oversight. • Ohlson: The opening paragraph is good, but I would suggest a wording change in the second paragraph to something like "the following action items were considered by the NRAB" or, "the following issues were dealt with". • Ohlson: Is there a way we can call special meetings something other than special meetings? Fischer said the suggested wording is special meetings, but that he views all of the meetings as regular meetings. • Ohlson: It would be accurate to say that in 1999 the board convened 19 meetings. • Miller: It's a regular meeting that sometimes we don't have. • Ohlson: Technically it is a special meeting, but just saywe convened 19 meetings. • Miller: The memo needs to be corrected regarding me being Vice Chair until September, 2000, because my term will expire the end of June. NRAB 2000 Work Plan Fischer said he tried to follow the direction he was able to pick up from his own notes, and the notes of others. At the suggestion of the board he went to the web site and looked at the Council Policy Agenda and tried to incorporate things from the policy agenda into the work plan. For the Council version he just listed the topics, but for the board's own use and planning purposes he feels there ought to be a table with two columns. Discussion • Ohlson: Change all "Ft. Collins" to "Fort Collins". • Miller: Under the Transportation heading put VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) instead of the reverse. • Waskom: Is the acquisition and management of natural areas implied here? • Ohlson: Could we throw in something about water quality protection and monitoring? • Ohlson: On number six, under Environmental Protection, Health and Safetv, we need to highlight that we're talking about monitoring. The City Manager said the issue isn't if we need more, it's how many more we need. • Ohlson: We should add the AQAB to the second bullet on the first page. Fischer said these were good suggestions, and if anything comes up between now and the next meeting to let him know. Natural Resources Asory Board • November 17, 1999 Page 3 Solid Waste Reduction Program Susie Gordon said that a lot of ground was covered in 1999 toward developing an interim plan. Staff was directed by Council in January to investigate initiatives that the City might look at for increasing solid waste reduction and recycling. Many great ideas were identified. These ideas were discussed with Council in August. Two projects identified included amendments to the pay -as -you -throw ordinance and a resolution to establish a new, higher goal for solid waste diversion and recycling. The ordinance changes will require two hearings, with the first hearing scheduled for December and second in January. These are still in a flexible enough format so that board comments can be incorporated into them. The Solid Waste Committee worked really hard and gave useful comments. Discussion • Ohlson: I'm thrilled you're doing this. In section 2.c the wording about prosecution should be changed if possible. It's the kind of thing that can kill or weaken this if that word jumps out. • Ohlson: It should be explained that reducing the amount of waste generated in turn reduces everything from energy use to water and air pollution. They need to know why this is important. • Gordon: I've been trying to make sure the City Manager is informed about the code change. This won't be an automatic "slam dunk'. The City Attorney's Office is very supportive. In this ordinance it will be important to make sure people understand that we're just enforcing an ordinance that's already on the books. • Ohlson: The key is if John Fischbach is for it. • Fischer: Staff and Council have pulled two pretty important ordinances from their agenda in the last month. Kelly is on target, hopefully we'll have done our homework and laid the groundwork. Maybe the thing for board members to do is to start talking to Council members right now. • Gordon: What the trash haulers may object to is more record keeping. I'm hopeful we'll be able to resolve this. This is a way to more fairly enforce existing policy. Motion: The NRAB strongly endorses sta, ff's recommended policy on Solid Waste Diversion and the proposed amendments to the City's "Pay As You Throw" ordinance. New Issues and Concerns Kelly Ohlson said these are issues that have built up over the years. Ohison said he didn't want to do this item tonight because Tom Shoemaker isn't here, but will let the board know what he has in mind. The intent and goal is to actually end up in a better place. Some of these issues might need to be talked about over coffee, some in committee, and possibly a retreat. Following are examples of some of the concerns: — Natural Areas Action Plan — With all of the money, and the rate of growth of money, we need to know that staff have identified the top fifty wildlife habitat parcels and are actively pursuing their purchase. If they are not being pursued we need to know why. Natural Resources Asory Board • November 17, 1999 Page 5 • Waskom: There need to be ground rules about what we're trying to accomplish. • Rodriguez: There's a pretty good collective brain here. We could flush out a lot of ideas, staff could take them and run with them, or choose to ignore them. • Ohlson: The most uncomfortable things people will have to hear are the assertiveness issues. That's as uncomfortable as it will get. Review Future Agenda Items Natural Areas Work Plan — This report may not be ready, could be a few more weeks. Fischer suggested having the discussion even if the plan is not completed. Miller would like to have any information that's been put together in the packet. Review Council's 6-month planning calendar December 14, 1999 — Floodplain regulations may be postponed until January. NRAB and Larimer County Joint Meeting Bill Miller presented a brief overview of the joint meeting held November 13, 1999. There were several presenters including Dave Dubois, Dick Parachini, Gail McGaha- Miller and Ben Alexander. There was a one hour wrap-up. Miller said this meeting was a start. There is no action plan, but there is continuing interest to pursue a joint action. Randy Fischer said the meeting was worthwhile and educational. Announcements — Fischer: With the Oxbow issue heating up it's a good time to finalize the memo from several weeks ago regarding the Downtown River Corridor Implementation. If anyone has any comments please try to get them to me as soon as possible. — Fischer: There was an article in the Senior Voice saying that Stan Matsunaka wants to use lottery funds to fund education shortfalls. — Ohlson: As far as the retreat goes, my pledge is to get a more relaxed atmosphere, with less frustration showing. Review Action Log/Tickler List Natural Areas Committee field trip to Cooper Slough, Wednesday, December 8. Committee Reports Natural Areas Committee: The committee met on November 10 to talk about siting water tanks at Coyote Ridge. The Fort Collins/Loveland Water District is working in association with Melody Homes. The District is moving forward with the notion to site the water tanks on Coyote Ridge and negotiate an easement. They've identified a site in the natural area that is benign, from their perspective. These are one -million gallon tanks, in their specs they can site up to four tanks in this location. Mark Sears has been right on top of this from the beginning, and has worked hard and diligently. Sears thought Natural Resources Aisory Board • November 17, 1999 Page 4 We have to be looking outside the growth management area, nobody objects if we buy Poudre River land in Windsor. — Hazaleus Acquisition — All of a sudden something that wasn't on the radar screen was important. We should be doing better than that. If we don't have enough bodies, that's the money I would support, rather than the half-time education person that has been projected. We need to let Tom know we want to go outside the UGA and buy land when we have money in the bank. His answer that we're too busy is not good enough. — Development Review — I realize that staff does not report to us, but we do have a lot of good ideas. We want to have our ideas factored into the decision making. The department is heavy into education and air quality, and a little weak in some things, like the Cottonwood Glen Park site issue. Some people think they're the natural areas department, and not the natural resources department. Randy was told by one person it's not their job to go into parks and look at things. — Conservation Trust Fund — administrative costs need to be reviewed. — Assertiveness of the department - It shouldn't always be the board that has to spur things on. Discussion • Rodriguez: The notion about setting priorities is pretty logical. It would make good sense to establish criteria relating to acquisitions. • Miller: The list for property acquisitions goes back about ten years, the intent then was to focus inside the UGA. We need to go beyond that inventory. We need to start looking more intensely outside the UGA. • Ohlson: The public doesn't care if the land is outside the UGA. They just want to save the land. • Fischer: How do we discuss these issues? • Ohlson: The discussions will be overlapping. We're giving our opinions and feedback. This should have happened two years ago. • Rastall: It would be a good idea to have some kind of retreat. It would help me to be able to ask questions and get more information. There is some undercurrent stuff, I don't know if it's healthy or not. • Ohlson: I should be one of the biggest supporters of the department. I helped create the department. Now I view the department as an obstacle and opponent. That's a problem we need to get solved. It's time to get to a new level. There's been an avoidance mentality. • Waskom: Let's be wise about how to do this. We need to think about it and get Tom involved in the planning. Do we need to get a facilitator? • Ohlson: The intent is to get to a better place. I wouldn't worry about a facilitator. Natural Resources Advisory Board • November 17, 1999 Page 6 there might be a good alternative site at the landfill. The board won't revisit this issue until alternative plans are identified. Education Committee: The meeting was intended to be an update, but it was recognized that there are things on various plates that need to be looked at. Sue Kenney went through a review of various projects. Kelly Ohlson brought out several issues. The committee needs to meet again to hear Sue complete her review. The committee needs to look at ideas from various members and determine where they can be plugged into the process. Issues discussed included putting together a brochure for people who live adjacent to natural areas, the master naturalist program, and the possibility of setting up a community conservation corp. Larimer County EAB perspective on Cooper Slough Bill Miller said that six of the twelve members of the Larimer County Environmental Advisory board met to brainstorm. At a meeting with commissioners the board was authorized to set up direct liaisons with staff. There are folks at the County who are aware that the EAB will place high priorities on the Cooper Slough Area. Miller added that he is term -limited on the EAB and would heartily encourage one or more of the board members to apply for a position on that board. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 9:35