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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 03/14/19900 Board Members Absent: Deni LaRue Will Smith (excused) qr1 Wand Luthi Bill Miller Harold Swope Susan Whitmer (excused) Bob Wilkinson Edith Felchle Tan Shoemaker tes Minutes of the February 7, 1990 Natural Resources Advisory Board meeting were unanimously approved as submitted. Committee Reports Legislative Review and Hazardous Materials — Davis reported he has requested pesticide application data and will review and report on the data when he receives it. He reported that the State Legislature is considering pesticide legislation that saur3s much like the recently passed underground storage tank legislation in that it is an industry backed, weak law that would prohibit local goverzmexits from enacting more stringent regulations. Larnd Use -- luthi reported that the committee has reviewed its goals and has determined that all of the goals relate to an overall vision for Fort Collins. He said the Environmental Management Plan cannot be effective without such an overall vision. The goal of the land Use camnittee, therefore, is now to develop that overall vision. A population limit may be one element of that vision. The committee will ask for staff support in getting facts with which to develop that vision. Wilkinson said that to the extent that can be stated as an issue in the Environmental Management Plan, the vision may be developed within the framework of the Environmental Management Plan. Johnson said the board should interact with the Planning and Zoning Board on this. There was some discussion about whether it was appropriate for the board to take a growth limitation position. Education — Felchle gave an update on symposium plans. Dr. Evan Vlachos will be the keynote speaker, speaking on "Coping With and Adjusting To a Transforming Envirorvent." Probable workshop topics will be household hazardous waste, global warming, the Environmental Management Plan, recycling, ENERGY SOMWZILCH, Xeriscape/water conservation, the Transportation Plan, shopping envirorm entally, alternative fuels, composting, environmental audit, "Dump No Waste" stormdrain project, reduce/reuse/recycle, children's environmental materials, and disposable diapers. Water — DuBois highlighted four recent Water Board discussions. (1) there is a proposed policy to provide financial incentive for use of raw water for landscaping. (2) the Water Board has been concerned about water rights related to the proposed wilderness legislation. (3) the Water Department has drafted a long range (20-year) wastewater Management plan. Alternatives of the plan include (a) a regional plant, maybe near I25, that would take over several smaller plants; or (b) simply expanding the current plant. (4) The Water Board has also reviewed proposed state legislation requiring water metering. Recycling — Johnson reported that Smath is attending the Chamber of Commerce environmental committee meetings. The Chamber will contact larimer County ra la„ ing a tipping surcharge to support recycling. It was stated that City Council will consider recycling at its March 20 meeting. Shoemaker reported that the County adopted a 4-part recycling package that (1) authorized Canty Natural Resources to be involved in recycling — one step will be to work at the commercial level; (2) a 5% preference resolution for purchase of recycled products; (3) authorization of an RFP for rear end recycling at the landfill — City staff is speculating that the County is taking this step to determine if rear end recyclers are serious. In the matter of City recycling, Shoemaker said City Council has asked City staff to report on internal recycling and use of recycled products. The report is due April 3. Johnuscn made reference to a letter that was in the Coloradcan recently that suggested trash haulers do alternate week trash/recycling pick-up, i.e. each trash hauler would pick up trash every other week and would pick up recycling on alternate weeks. Environmental Manaaement Plan update Wilkinson reported that the staff Envirorm*ntal Management Plan committee recently discussed what the plan study area should be and what criteria should be used to develop the issue clusters. The committee decided that plan boundaries should generally be the Urban Growth Area but that boundaries will vary in some instances. Criteria for issue clustering should be staff and resource availability, analysis difficulty, and information availability. A sub criteria list should be developed to determine urgency. He announced four upcoming meetings to discuss the E7uvirorm*ntal Management Plan: March 19 — Citizen Planners, City Council Chambers, 7 p.m.; March 30, 31, April 1 — open House, Fort Collins Public Library; April 3 — Lague of Wadden Voters, Methodist Church, 9:30 a.m. ; April 10 — League of Women Voters, Nona Thayer's home, 7:30 p.m. Wilkinson reported he has met with the Chamber of Commerce and they are reviewing the Environmental Management Plan relative to their goals and objectives. Introduction of new staff member Wilkinson introduced Tom Shoemaker, the new resource associate on staff. Shoemaker gave information about his background and said that his assigunments will be to review proposed development plans, develop a natural areas policy plan, and help with recycling. He said a hot item that came up this week was the City Park gasoline contamination. He handed out a summary of activity on that situation. Mail Creek site visit Swope said the homeowners association has a clean up day scheduled for May 19 and would like NRAB to visit the site at 10 a.m. that day to tour and view the area and stay for a barbecue. Johnson suggested inviting Council, Bob Smith, the Planning and Zoning Board, Greg Hurst, and maybe the press. Johnson asked Swope to conment on the letter Bob Smith sent to the board regarding Stormwater activities in the Fossil Creek/Mail Creek area. Swope said trash and water quality are the main problems, water volume also is a problem. He said Stormwater plans to raise the spillway. He said Tam Gathman had promised use of Arbor Plaza mitigation money for a trash grate, but nothing was done. He said the grates that were installed above them are so wide they stop nothing. Johnson asked Swope to prepare a map to give board members directions for the May 19 site visit. Agenda settina discussion To facilitate agenda setting, it was suggested that those responsible for cammittee reports contact Johnson or Felchle about 10 days before each NRAB meeting to advise what they have for the agenda. Regarding presentations at meetings, it was mentioned that the board could consider having presentations only one or two months of the year, leaving the rest of the meetings for issue discussions. It was suggested that presenters be asked to advise the board if a presentation was simply for their information or if a specific action was being requested. It was suggested that wording for a bylaws charge allowing flexible agenda setting be available for the April meeting. It was suggested that a month -to -month annual agenda based on the board's goals (such as was done last year) should again be prepared. Luthi said he does not have a cohesive feeling about who NRAB is and where it is going. He said more interaction is needed between board members and between board members and the Natural Resources staff. He said he feels the need to do something visible in the community. Johnson referred to an earlier mention of having something to celebrate each year and suggested that recycling might be the action to celebrate this year. Iuthi suggested activities such as changing the Library landscaping to Xeriscape. Wilkinson said if the board is looking for activities they may want to consider the Faith Day work day at Gustav Swanson Nature Area scheduled for April 21. He said they may also want to consider supervising some ongoing weekend work at Gustav Swanson. It was suggested that NRAB could reoammend that Arbor Day planting be done at specific areas each year. For the April NRAB meeting, members were asked to identify which of the items in the Effective Meetings section of the group memory from the workshop are most iuportant to them. Wilkinson suggested the possibility of a tour of wetlands and tying that in with the board's annual picnic. Johnson, referring to Councirmember Horak's and former Councilmember Stoner's comments at the workshop, noted that each Mayor and each Counciler sees NRAB's role differently. That probably indicates that the board needs to look at what it thinks the NRAB role should be. Wthi said NRAB needs an idea of where each Council member stands on environmental matters. He also suggested proactively contacting people such as Bd Stoner (Fort Collins, Inc.) since they have resources available. Johnson said Stoner's oamnent at the workshop regarding updating Council on issues is important. He wondered if NRAB needs to update Council on the Environmental Management Plan. Wilkinson said there will be such an opportunity in May and again in August. Goose Manactanent Plan Swope said he thinks the plan is superficial. He handed out a letter he drafted relative to his opinions of the plan. He said that he talked to Division of Wildlife personnel and found out that it really isn't a goose management plan, but rather a public relations plan for geese in Fort Collins. Swope said he thinks the plan is ok as a public relations plan. It was moved and seconded to have Swope draft a letter stating that an alternative might be to provide areas outside the city closed to hunting, thus providing goose resting area outside the immediate urban area. The motion passed unanim usly. Harmony Corridor Plan ILrthi said the plan is disturbing with respect to natural resources. He said it provides incentives to developers such that if they provide set -back from harmony, they can by-pass Planning and Zoning. The implication is that the plan's purpose is to make the Harmony Corridor aesthetically pleasing. He said the plan is being pushed thru rapidly. Johnson asked the land Use Cona ttee to review the plan and cane back to NRAB in April. Felchle distributed information about the Planning Department's open house on the plan set for April 4. Iuthi said open houses are an effective way to sidetrack public issues. Wilkinson said the perceived "fast track" is to set expectations up front so developers know in advance what is expected of development in that area. Swope said it is dangerous when the City supersedes policy for development; they don't supersede policy for natural resources. Iuthi said developers have said there is too much citizen participation, so the purpose of the fast track method is to,get rid of citizen participation. Miller announced an Cperation Osprey meeting for March 22, 7 p.m., at the Northside Community Center. Johnson mentioned a recent meeting where David Rosgen spoke on hydrology and gave positive suggestions for Poudre River planning. Wilkinson gave a review of Rosgen's concepts. Johnson said these concepts may beccme more important in the near future if the Natural Resources division is asked to lead a study of the Poudre River. The meeting adjourned at 9:05.