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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 05/03/2000MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE May 3, 2000 For Reference: Randy Fischer, NRAB Chair - 491-6303 Bill Bertschy, Council Liaison - 484-0181 Tom Shoemaker, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Randy Fischer, Kelly Ohlson, Don Rodriguez, Jan Rastall Reagan Waskom, Bill Miller, Nate Donovan Board Members Absent Phil Murphy, Rick Harness, Staff Present Natural Resources Dept: Mark Sears, Tom Shoemaker, Terry Klahn, Shirley Bruns, Susie Gordon Advance Planning: Joe Frank Agenda Review No changes. I-25 Corridor Vision Alternatives, Joe Frank Frank said he will be speaking first about the Regional Northern Colorado I-25 plan, followed by the sub -area plan. Plan foundations will be established in the regional plan, with more detail provided in the subarea plan. The study area is a 30-mile stretch of I-25, one mile wide on each side of the interstate. The area is from approximately two miles north of Anheuser Busch, to a line about two miles south of Highway 56. There is a lot of development with few design controls and no long range thinking. Currently six months into what is expected to be a twenty month process. We'll begin with an overall vision and then get into the details of how to get to that vision. The subarea plans will address the same issues, but in more detail. Additionally, the subarea plan will get into a lot more detail regarding open space and natural areas. Discussion • Ohlson: Could all three regions in the plan have different design guidelines? We're looking at the entire corridor as one piece, we might establish a base of design guidelines or standards. There may be some layers on top that communities might chose to modify for their own communities. Natural Resources Advisk Board May 3, 2000 Page 2 • Ohlson: Do these design guidelines mean public money? I don't think so, maybe gateway treatments, or interchanges as gateways, but it would mostly be zoning. The last thing we want is to use public money so more people will come here to develop. That's not what we have in mind. • Rodriguez: Does Alternative 3 lend itself to mass transit? There would be another step to look at potential stops and think about land uses. One of the important issues is to not lose opportunities. • Ohlson: Did you say there are two railroad stops planned, Johnstown and Loveland? Also, downtown Fort Collins, but the planning area is limited to one mile off of 1-25. • Ohlson: Isn't there a plan somewhere that clearly shows how the development should be done? We're not the first to do a plan along the interstate. This is the first we know of that's multi jurisdictional. Frank said there are three rivers that cross the corridor. The public was asked for their reaction regarding how to treat natural resource areas. The three choices considered are 1) outright preservation, 2) preserved as a visual buffer, and 3) preserved as a buffer with trail access. • Ohlson: We need to come up with another option. I thought we were at a new level with trail placement. • Miller: Studies keep coming in that demonstrate the impacts on wildlife. • Ohlson: Need to define who's going to pay for those, it's not a high priority for this board to spend money for the I-25 corridor. • Fischer: Have you discussed how the floodplains will be regulated? The issue has been on the table, we're getting input from the City to stay out of the floodplain. Frank listed five common themes that have surfaced: 1. Don't want the corridor to look like Denver or Los Angeles 2. Keep some areas open 3. Don't build residential next to the highway 4. Preserve some agricultural land — be creative 5. Preserve river corridors and views • Miller: Is anyone working on the idea of conservation easements? Yes, we're hearing from everyone that frontage roads aren't good. • Ohlson: I would like to see a bullet developed for being sensitive to wildlife and habitat, trail placement and areas for wildlife crossing. Wildlife doesn't fall under viewsheds. It's a separate, important issue. We're dealing with Windsor, Johnstown and Berthoud. We had to fight to get natural areas on this. This will be a good introduction for those communities to get them thinking about it • Ohlson: There's more to this than natural areas. There's lighting, run-off from parking lots. It's not just pieces of land bought with public money. It's all of the other impacts about development. I'll take those comments forward. Natural Resources Advisory Board is May 3, 2000 Page 3 • Fischer: I'd like to request that when you have the next focus group you specifically invite Kelly Ohlson. That would be fine, the next round of focus groups is planned for July. • Rodriguez: Do you envision an inter -governmental review board? Whatever guidelines all of the cities agree to will be formal and binding. Then it will be up to each community to implement them. It's a matter of resources in some of those communities, there has been discussion about shared revenues. It's all about sales tax. • Ohlson: That's only fair, we're able to have staff because they come here to shop. It's a real sensitive issue. • Ohlson: Make sure the private economic vested interests don't dominate the process. Community and public interests must be represented. Pay -As -You -Throw in Consolidated Trash Service Areas and Home Owners Associations, Susie Gordon Gordon said there have been concerns about the compliance of trash haulers with the PAYT rates when bidding on trash service for consolidated neighborhoods or HOA's. In February letters were sent to the haulers to ensure they understood and were complying with the PAYT rates. Part of the misunderstanding resulted from the interpretation of the ordinance. They were treating consolidated accounts as business accounts, because they bill monthly, instead of the usual quarterly billing for residential accounts. This has served as a heads -up, and we heard back they are planning to reformulate the way they prepare bids. Now that they know they are accountable, there will be self -policing. Discussion • Ohlson: I thought we had access to all of their records now. We talked about going to their records, we're not sure there are always written contracts. • Ohlson: I have no confidence in this industry. When you say we'll start with redoing the contracts, does that mean the existing contracts, or from here forward? These contracts come up for renewal on a fairly regular basis, that would be an opportunity to verify they're following through. • Ohlson: I would rather not have PAYT at all, than have a pretend one. If we need to do extra staff work we do it. I don't believe it should take a year cycle to get it where it needs to be. • Fischer: I have to echo Kelly's concerns. We can't rely on the haulers to self -police, we won't get anywhere toward a real PAYT. Confrontation isn't something anyone relishes, but we need to make some examples of people. We have an ordinance we can use to prosecute, we have a legitimate power and responsibility to do that. • Ohlson: When this came before Council, seven out of seven reiterated support for a PAYT system. We need to make sure any new contracts are right, and renewal should be done within a year. • Waskom: What would it take to ratchet it up a couple steps? If someone was blatantly out of compliance we could send a letter telling them to plan on changing when the time comes for the contract to turn over. • Shoemaker: We'd start with the information we have and verify it. Then we could turn it over to the attorneys and say "go get them". Natural Resources Advis Board May 3, 2000 Page 4 • Ohlson: I'm interest in results. I'd say let's get a time table and game plan. I'd like the Board's direction to be that in June or July staff begin the work and move forward on this. Part of the dilemma is that we talk out of both sides of our mouths. We urge people to consolidate. Education is important. We need to help them understand how it works. If we ticket people for playing music too loud, then we should ticket for non-compliance of PAYT. We need a game plan. Have any of the haulers ever seen a consequence on anything? My guess is no, and that doesn't work for me. • Shoemaker: We need to look at this from both angles. We have come a long way in the last five years. At the same time, this is one example of where it's not working. We're looking for a strategy to get results, but not unintended results such as a political blow up. • Gordon: We've seen a lot of change. We have to work cooperatively with these guys, we rely on them to carry out our public policies. I wish they were doing better, but we're making incremental progress. • Miller: Is there a requirement that each customer pay identical rates for a 30-gallon bag? It seems to me the way a hauler can sell consolidation to a neighborhood is lower the bag rate, but pay the same rate for each and every bag. That's how they're doing it, also lower base fees. • Ohlson: It's the capture theory, regulators become captive to the people they regulate. It a natural phenomenon. The compromises should be when the laws are formed. It wouldn't be hard to look at this and say we're serious. You have a fair period of time to comply, or we're going to follow through. Now they're ignoring it because there are no consequences. We're not captured. When we passed this ordinance who would have known how many wrinkles there would be? We're working through the lumps and bumps. We'll get this done. • Fischer: Do we need any formal action? • Rodriguez: You're moving in the right direction, you're asking these people to move from one paradigm to another. It takes time. • Waskom: Give it the time, but at some point you must make the threat. There needs to be a stepping up process. • Ohlson: I'm saying go slow, but start today and move along. Ignoring it is dishonest and immoral. • Fischer: I'd like to see this issue come more to the forefront. Spend more time on it. Don't worry about the sensitivities of the haulers. Nix Maintenance Center Update, Mark Sears Sears said a number of maintenance centers were researched. The program needs were identified as best as possible. We're interested in designing a facility with an eye to the future. Four different scenarios were researched, and it was determined that Nix had the best location with existing facilities. The Nix site would also be the lowest cost scenario due to the fact that the land is already owned, and there are existing buildings. There are benefits other than cost. It's a central location, fairly close to the NRD. It's adjacent to the Poudre River Trail and Spring Creek Trail and close to several large natural areas. Another benefit is the land is very conducive to supporting a nursery and natural grass Natural Resources Advisory Board • May 3, 2000 Page 5 sod farm. A benefit to the community is that when the water and sewer lines are brought in they will be extended up Hoffman Mill Road. Discussion • Ohlson: Will bringing those in serve as an incentive for development somewhere else? No, 1 don't think so, Hoffman -Mill is a private road. • Fischer: Why would there need to be sewer? Remaining on septic would be the cheaper way to go but we would have to prove that we can't bring sewer in. We felt we would not get approved, it will be better in the long run to be on a sewer system. Sears said the proposal is to remodel the large farm house into an office building. The farm house needs major restoration on the exterior, the interior requires very few changes. The upper floor will be four offices. The lower level needs men/women restrooms. The basement would not be used. Also plan to build a brand new maintenance building. Hopefully the barn and shed will be restored using Colorado Historic preservation funds. The barn and shed area will be utilized for interior and outdoor storage. • Waskom: Are you currently growing sod? Currently we buy native sod for areas like Fort Collins Heritage park. We mostly seed. • Ohlson: How did the dog facility get so large? Those are the sizes of the f elds they gave us. Police has never seen this drawing. We need to go out and refine that spot. • Waskom: Is that area irrigated? If it's restored to native grass we don't plan to irrigate. • Shoemaker: One of the benefits is to get the police dog training center off of Bignall. • Rodriguez: It needs to be done with sensitivity; proper buffers. We need to practice what we preach. 1 have no doubt we can achieve an operating agreement with the police department. • Ohlson: Is there a need for a 20-foot paved road? We're comfortable with the 20- feet. We would have liked gravel but that would require modifications. We would be asking for something that has never been allowed. . • Regan: Will it be fenced and lighted? The yard will be fenced. It will have minimal lighting. • Sears: In four weeks we submit designs, and hope to have them completed by the end of the year. Then we move on to the final design. • Ohlson: I'll need a lot of hand holding to get me to be ok with this. I never envisioned it would be a 2.2 million dollar expenditure for a natural area facility. I'm going to have to be convinced there's a need. We've tried to be "big" on our numbers. Currently we have a very inefficient operation. All equipment is parked at the equipment shop in afield, we have some storage garages on the east side, the wood shop is at Coyote Ridge, chemical storage is at the Park Shop. • Miller: This would make more efficient use of an eight hour day. Kelly Ohlson requested a tour of the proposed site. A site visit was scheduled for Wednesday, May 10. Anyone wishing to attend should meet at the Nix site at noon. Natural Resources Advis Board May 3, 2000 Page 6 New Business Kelly Ohlson had several items he wanted to bring to the attention of the board. 1. Council is considering an appeal related to xeriscaping. NRD needs to be plugged in and monitoring this. The regulations need to be looked at. 2. Neighborhood Resource Center is putting something together on pets and their impact. It would be a nice chance to mention the impact of cats. NRD should piggy- back on this. 3. Smoking Ordinance: There was a quote from an NRD employee, "We're not moving forward on the smoking ordinance unless everyone is on board and in agreement." Nothing falls under that category. Shoemaker: The Council committee said that they don't want NRD pushing this. They would like to know how the community stands on it. 4. If we're trying to educate the public, why are there blue spruce at the ELC? 5. Ohlson would like a copy of the Sauer easement. 6. Cooper Slough: The hearing is Monday at 7:00 p.m. Is there anything we should know? Will NRD be at the hearing? 7. What about the pipeline, is that all said and done (river to water treatment plant)? Karen Manci has been tracking the project. 8. Water tanks at Coyote Ridge? Meeting with engineers to walk to the site and will bring back to board for review before it goes to Council. 9. If the City is going to be perceived as being the lead for Earth Day, can we at least have some speakers that actually respect the environment? Having it at CSU was a mistake. Fischer:. Would like to set a time for the prairie dog committee to meet. It's not a standing committee, but there are some new wrinkles in the prairie dog policy that need to be looked at. Review of Minutes: April 5, 2000 Page 3, Floodplain Regulations: Randy Fischer felt the list of bulleted list of comments for the memo was very abbreviated. There was a strong point made of trying to include public welfare in addition to public health and safety issues. Page 3, Poudre River Downtown Plan, Yd bullet: Change to read: "Do not use City dollars to buy buffer zones already provided for by regulations". The minutes were unanimously adopted as amended. Committee Reports Trails: A combined committee with P&R was discussed. The issue needs to be revisited. Announcements Sears: Thursday, May 4, is an open house concerning the Hwy 287 project. It's in the environmental impact stage. Ohlson asked if the City organization is there representing our values. Shoemaker will find out. Review Council Six Month Planning Calendar Natural Resources AdOory Board May 3, 2000 Page 7 The summer schedule has had several changes. Review Action/Tickler Log Lee Martinez Park Committee Follow up on the P2 Presentation Discussion about Master Naturalist Program Review Future Agenda Items June 7, 2000: Lutraq-VMT Reduction Action Plan, Brian Woodruff Canal Importation Basin Master Plan, Susan Hayes The May 17 work session has been cancelled. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 10:15 to go into executive session.