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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 08/19/1992• MINUTES 14 CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD SPECIAL MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. - CONFERENCE ROOM AUGUST 19, 1992 For Reference: Will Smith, NRAB Chair - 221-0425 Cathy Fromme, Council liaison - 223-9360 Tom Shoemaker, Staff liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Deni LaRue, Bill Miller, Terri Knudsen, Tim Johnson, Will Smith Board Members Absent (excused) Steve Erthal, Hal Swope, Craig McGee, Phil Friedman Staff Present Tom Shoemaker, Julie Bothwell, Susie Gordon, Brian Woodruff Air Quality Strategic Plan (AOSP) Brian Woodruff and Susie Gordon of the Natural Resources Division made a presentation on the Air Quality Strategic Plan. Woodruff asked for the Board's view of the overall goals that are being set for air quality, priority pollutants, and pollution sources. Woodruff stated that the main points of the plan are to extend beyond carbon monoxide; establish community -chosen objectives as opposed to following the EPA's health -based standards; identify automobiles as the #1 source of air pollution; produce long term objectives; and establish short- term action strategies. Woodruff said that the Air Quality Task Force (AQTF) is involved in developing the AQSP. Previously, there have been regulatory and education programs for woodburning and automobile pollution. This year the program involves purchasing visibility monitoring equipment, working to enforce emission sticker laws, and some initial changes in the Land Development Guidance System. Woodruff explained the reasons for the air quality plan. Council's two-year workplan called for an increased focus on air quality management. To provide that focus, there needs to be a long-term policy framework. The Plan's objectives will provide targets to reach for, allow us to measure progress over time, and to include local concerns as well as federal mandates. The plan has four parts: 1) an overall goal statement that will take its place among the other goals of the comprehensive plan, 2) a list of priorities among types of air pollutions and sources, 3) objectives that will be measurable, and 4) action strategies. Woodruff stated that the goal statement, priorities, and objectives will be presented to Council in the fall. The goal statement priorities are available now and staff would like to receive comments on them. The Board will also be asked to comment on 1 objectives before they ai, presented to Council. If ouncil adopts the plan in January 1993, staff will start developing action strategies to fit the plan. Woodruff said the goal statement, "To continually improve Fort Collins air quality as the city grows," was written by City staff working with the AQTF. He explained that the AQSP's text includes thoughts about the implications of this goal. Woodruff asked for comments on whether the goal fits the Board's idea of where they should be going. The plan includes some value statements to define which pollutants are most important for Fort Collins. They are: health effects; air quality standards; public perception; emission trends; short-term over long-term, effects; and local over global concerns. Woodruff stated that, using those concepts, they came up with the following ranking: high priority pollutants include carbon monoxide, visibility reduction, indoor air pollutants, air toxics, and surface layer ozone; moderate priority pollutants include particulate matter, stratospheric ozone -depleting compounds, and greenhouse gasses; low priority pollutants include nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and acid deposition. Woodruff explained that priorities were based on the order in which pollutants should be worked on; it does not mean one is more dangerous than the other. Woodruff stated that the trend in Fort Collins at the present is that people are getting more dependent on automobiles; the average household has 2+ automobiles and this number is rising, and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is growing 30% faster than population growth. Woodruff stated that the next step of the plan is to develop objectives. The objectives are intended to be measures of effectiveness of strategies. Since automobiles have been identified as the number one source, objectives related to automobile tailpipe emissions will be set. Those will end up becoming targets for Transportation Planning and will help integrate air quality and transportation planning. Examples of objectives might be to: 1) reduce greenhouse gas emissions 1% per year, 2) reduce growth in average miles/household to zero in 5 years, then reduce 1%/year, or 3) reduce woodsmoke potential emissions 25% in 16 years. Woodruff concluded his presentation by saying that it was not necessary for the Board to make a formal statement, and that staff will be glad to receive comments on materials from individuals, or the whole Board. This will help staff prepare for the presentation at Council's worksession in October. Johnson stated that the goal statement is ambitious and will not be easy to achieve, but it is important to get it out in front of people so they begin to think about what it means. Smith stated that the goal is simple, but asked what constitutes "improvement." Woodruff answered that the step of identifying key sources of pollution can simplify it. Although they have a long list of pollutants to be concerned about, these pollutants come from limited kinds of sources. Focusing on the sources is a way to simplify the plan. LaRue stated that the goal statement is a direction for from staff to present to Council, but the public will see it as the direction the City is taking. She feels it should have more clarity because of a wide -based public audience. 2 Johnson stated A, in the high priority see four of the five pollutants can be measured directly by monitoring. He agreed that indoor air pollutants are important to recognize and asked if there is a strategy for monitoring inside of homes and buildings. Woodruff explained that indoor pollution is a high priority because it has health effects, has direct local impacts, and short-term as well as long-term impacts. He added that research is starting to show that indoor air quality is more important to total exposure than outdoor pollution. Knudsen suggested that, for the different priority groups, objectives set up for each group would be more helpful to achieve the goal statement. Woodruff responded that doing so would steer away from the direction staff is going, which is to focus more on source categories. Automobiles are number one because they are related to almost all pollution categories. The objective would be aimed at reducing tail -pipe emission overall as opposed to emissions of CO separate from air toxics. That way we can use measurements related to overall automobile operations that would serve as a surrogate for all the pollutants on the list. Natural Areas Policy Plan (NAPP) Tom Shoemaker reviewed the action plan of the NAPP. Shoemaker stated that they will be presenting the plan to Council October 6, with a number of public presentations before. Shoemaker handed out a draft letter regarding the goals, objectives and policies of the NAPP, to be presented to Council. Johnson suggested changing the first sentence in the last paragraph to read, "In closing, we want to thank the City Council for your leadership in developing a Natural Areas Policy Plan, and urge you to implement the plan." LaRue suggested to change the last sentence in the last paragraph to read, "Your efforts will help ensure the future quality of life in our City." Johnson moved and LaRue seconded to present the letter, with the minor changes, to Council. Smith stated he was looking for how part of the integration works with some of the larger plans and wanted to know if there was a strongly stated sentence to urge integration between programs. Shoemaker replied that a policy statement urges integration within the City. In terms of larger trade-offs in the community, he does not know of a way to address it. Smith stated that with the letter there is a strong picture, some set of objectives, and some set of policy statements, but there is not a definition of what is going to happen in the future. Shoemaker responded by saying that some of the conflicts are unavoidable, he believes that this raises the natural area questions to an equal level as some of the other concerns, so at least there will be consideration of natural values. The letter was unanimously approved. Shoemaker stated they pulled out the "meat" of the previous draft in terms of implementation strategies and included it in the form of an action plan. The action plan was the major thing that Council asked be added to the plan, to give some sense of how staff would approach implementation during the first five years and to give a general idea of what the cost would be. Johnson had concerns regarding the funding sour;_,..; page 6-19 does not add up to the previous description of the $8.9-10.5 million. Shoemaker stated page 6-19 was an annual table. The range of $8.9-10.5 over a five year period is taking the range that was given for the ongoing things, and then adding the one time items, and totaling them. They are not actually saying "buy all the high priority sites in the next five years"; rather, buy them within the limits of budget allocations. Johnson would like to clarify the text to say that "if it were done over five years., this would be the cost." Johnson said the cost of maintenance of the new acquisitions compared to developed parks should be identified. Shoemaker stated that the figures recorded reflect a range of $50 to $150 per acre. Miller asked if the $300,000 for the estimated available funding was what Council appropriated. Shoemaker answered yes it is assuming that $300,000 per year. In reference to page 6-11, strategy 1, Smith stated a large portion of the lands that are identified in the document'are under private ownership. He said that an important step was to look at changes in the LDGS, and asked if it is realistic to expect those to be completed by 1993, and what the modifications will be to the LDGS. Shoemaker responded yes, they have some good ideas about what needs to be changed and he believes this work can be done in 1993. They do have a contract with Shalkey Walker Associates and ERO that has been ongoing for some time and they are developing the second item of designing a mitigation manual. A revised draft will be completed January 11, 1993. Smith stated that he likes the strategies for public land management, recreation, education, interpretation, and public information. He said that the biggest concerns for him are the handling of private land management, and program funding, because program funding tends to rescue anything under private land management that may not be meeting the expectation of what is going to happen. Shoemaker said that it is his priority to get out to some of the key areas and talk with the landowners about cooperative planning approaches. Smith asked if some of the other City departments are saying how they want to see some of these things happen? Shoemaker said that all departments have had the opportunity to review an earlier draft of the plan and provide feedback. Departments that were interested were identified in the plan. Johnson said that regarding the area of public land management, pages 6-6 and 6-7, PL-4, he would like for education to be stressed more. He said if we are going to have natural areas and feel that they are important, then we need to explain to people why they are important. Shoemaker asked what the Board's general reactions to the Action Plan were. The Board agreed that it was reasonably and logically laid out. Johnson stated he liked the action plan overall and the only thought he had in terms of looking at the action plan and the plan as a whole was thinking of the public when one wants to get a sense of what the NAPP is. He asked if it is possible to take the whole document down to only a few pages. 4 Smith commented (Pat looking through the fi0sections, they are all actions within the scope of the City that the City can enact. He noted there is no recommendation in terms of legislative advocacy, i.e., water augmentation concerns. He does not see anything that specifically addresses what would be called continuous monitoring, or advocating either changes to, or exemptions from, certain legislative requirements. Smith said there may be legislative actions or advocacy actions the City could take that would ease some of the problems of being able to acquire or maintain natural areas. Shoemaker explained there is not a strategy stated in the document and there should be something to clarify that the City will use its legislative influence such as it is, to address these kinds of issues. Smith noted page 6-16, strategy 2, regarding status measures of how the City is doing, and asked if it is possible in the comprehensive report to develop some set of matrix showing how the City is doing on natural areas protection and how it contrasts to other cities. Shoemaker stated that staff needs to develop indicators relative to the objectives and he does intend to develop them. Smith recommended that the Land Use committee draft a letter endorsing the action plan. The committee will present a drafted letter at the September 2 meeting. Adiournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:30.