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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 09/01/1993• MINUTES • CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 261 CONFERENCE ROOM - 281 N. COLLEGE SEPTEMBER 1, 1993 For Reference: Will Smith, NRAB Chair - 221-0425 Chris Kneeland, Council liaison - 221-2950 Tom Shoemaker, Staff liaison - 221-6263 Boardmembers Present Will Smith, Hal Swope, Lisa Howard, Katy Mason, Bill Miller, Phil Friedman, Craig McGee, Tim Johnson Boardmembers Absent Terri Knudsen Staff Present Tom Shoemaker, Julie Bothwell, Rob Wilkinson Guests Present Chris Kneeland, Council Liaison Bruce Hendee, Challenge Fort Collins, Approval of Minutes It was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved that the Minutes of the July 7, 1993 NRAB meeting be accepted as written with the following change: Miller suggested that Sentence three, Paragraph three, Page four, read, "This policy does say that native species planted in open space or natural areas would be species native to various geographic zones within the UGA." Council liaison Chris Kneeland was present. She wanted the Board to know that she does read the minutes and keeps up with the Board and feels that the Board is doing an excellent job on a wide variety of challenging topics. New Business Challenge Fort Collins Poudre Riverwalk ProOosal Bruce Hendee from Challenge Fort Collins was present to provide the Board information on the Poudre Riverwalk proposal. Hendee stated that he would like the Board to provide a letter to Council supporting a feasibility study for the Riverwalk. He would also like a representative from the Board that could participate in a task force for the Riverwalk. Hendee presented a slide presentation of river walks in Ft. Lauderdale, San Antonio, and Pueblo. Hendee stated that a portion 'of the riverwalk concept development so far has been funded through private donations and his vision of the 1 riverwalk is as a private and public partnership. Hendee said that there is a great deal of existing city owned -land and City parkland in the riverwalk study area, from west of Lee Martinez Farm east to Lincoln Avenue and perhaps to Mulberry. He said that most of the edge of the river was developed in the industrial era when people pretty much had an attitude of dominating the river instead of integrating with it. Hendee said the existing facilities owned by the City include Legacy Park, Lee Martinez Farm, the Power Plant, Northside Community Center, and the Gustav Swanson Nature Area. when people think of these sites they think of them individually and do not think of them as a whole, but if you add a riverwalk to connecting them, then you would begin to connect all these pieces together and see them as.a larger picture. He noted several other features of the area. For example, there area four businesses that currently separate Lee Martinez Park from the other side of the Aztlan Community Center. If those four businesses were not there, a greenbelt could suddenly blossom and it would be a gateway for the City on the north side of town. Hendee feels that the CSU power plant located on North College would play a wonderful role in the riverwalk concept. The power plant is an experimental facility for CSU and he has talked with CSU about the possibility of taking the lower tier and making it an interpretive center so visitors can come and find out a little about the research that is going on. Hendee noted that full development of the riverwalk would be a 20 to 30 year plan that would start with creating the riverwalk. He sees it incorporating the Natural Areas Plan and dovetailing the uses. It would also include incorporating some economic uses. He would like to see design guidelines developed to make sure the architecture is sensitive to the natural features. The notion of having it dovetail with the Natural Areas Plan is that there are a lot of areas along the river that are currently industrial uses that have long since outgrown their use and are candidates for redevelopment. Hendee's thinking is to go ahead with the riverwalk concept to protect the floodway completely without locating anything in it, except to improve the river habitat itself, i.e, work with groups like Trout Unlimited to create better fish habitat. In his view, the plan would leave the floodway exactly as it is or enhance it, protect areas of the floodplain identified as important in the Natural Areas Plan, and encourage redevelopment in appropriate redevelopment areas. Hendee stated that the potential benefits of the riverwalk would be to enhance education opportunities, both environmentally and culturally; to enhance awareness of the importance of the river; to enhance our overall sense of community; and to enhance recreational opportunities. Hendee stated that the next step is a feasibility study to determine what portions of the concept are feasible and what are not, and to try and get a better picture of what can occur along the river without creating an over -developed edge. He explained that if the feasibility study says something cannot be done, then it will be dropped. The feasibility study could be done a couple of different ways; either as a publicly -funded study or it could be done as a partnership, partly 2 funded by the City, Otly by private interests And partly thrn„nh .,Thor contributions. Hendee stated that he would like to have a task force to guide the study that would be representative of various aspects of the community. He would like to see a representative from the NRAB or the Natural Resources Division serve on the task force and represent the natural resources of the river. He stated that he would also like to have a variety of others, e.g., the Chamber of Commerce, the arts community, etc. Hendee stated that he plans to make a presentation to City Council at the budget hearing on September 21 and request City funding. On September 9 he has a "kickoff" session with a small group of people to try and figure out how to move the study ahead, either through the City or in the private market. He would like a representative from the Board or the Division to attend the meeting and give their ideas. Johnson stated that he does not want to see levees being built. When the river comes through every 10 or 25 years and scours and cleans out and doessomething completely new that is part of the natural system and he does not want to see it blocked up by amphitheaters. Hendee stated that he understood that and that the NAPP, floodplain studies, and departmental input begin to address the issue. He does not want to see levees either. Hendee stated that he agrees. with Johnson, but as you walk along the river there are a lot of areas that have been beaten up and those are areas that may be redeveloped some day. Hendee stated that the City can either take an ad -Hoc approach and deal with them on a case by case basis, or we can take a more proactive approach and identify both the areas that make a lot of sense for redevelopment and the areas to stay away from. He stated that by having an overall plan the community can address the Board's concerns and the redevelopment concerns of the private landowners. Smith asked how Hendee plans on meshing the educational opportunies of the riverwalk with other plans in the community. He noted that a lot of consideration is being given to the section of the river near the Environmental Learning Center and there is also a major program dealing• with educational opportunities in the riverwalk. Hendee answered that he thinks that the ELC is a natural setting while the downtown area has been impacted by development. The two areas would attract different people. Many people that are already sensitive to the natural environment would be more likely to go to a place like the Environmental Learning Center and they would seek a different kind of experience than the people that would come to the downtown riverwalk. Smith asked about the response of the Downtown Business Association regarding economic development. Hendee answered that there are two points, 1) The downtown river corridor plan that was formulated six years ago was developed along with and in'conjunction with the Downtown Business Association and they are strongly supportive of it, and 2) the City is trying to promote redevelopment in the north area in order to slow down the growth to the south. Hendee feels that the riverwalk concept makes sense in terms of creating a greater draw to the northside of the river. Smith asked if Riverside is a major stumbling block as long as there is truck traffic in the area. Hendee answered that the City has come out with a request for proposals for a corridor study that will study the corridor from I-25 all the way to the LaPorte bypass. The Corridor Study 3 involves public participation. Mason asked what the status was of the Performing Arts Center and the cooperative effort to try and do this in conjunction with CSU. Hendee answered that he met with some CSU staff along with City staff and Councilmembers and talked with them about the possibility of joint use, and they are interested in pursuing the idea further. McGee said that this is an opportunity to do a major restoration effort along the river and hopes there will be more natural area development, rather than commercial development. Smith suggested that one thing that might be useful to consider would be to allow development on the south and west banks of the river, and reclamation sites on the north and east side back to a natural state. This would provide a buffer zone and wildlife corridor on one side of the river, and yet still have an economic development on another side. Shoemaker stated that it is critical to have a fluid boundary north and south of the river because compatibility among uses depends on their location and design. Having the flexibility -to come south to the downtown area with the whole district concept allows you to build outside the floodplain and probably outside the floodway, but it still ties the two areas together. Shoemaker asked Hendee what his thinking was with the existing Poudre River Trail. It is already there and there may be an opportunity if this was to proceed to move the trail in some sections. Hendee answered that he did not know that carrying the walkway along the river would be a problem until he joined the Landscape Opportunity Study. Mason asked for more information on the feasibility study and who would be doing the study. Hendee answered that the study would start by compiling existing basic information. It would include wildlife areas, engineering data, utilities, visual and scenic resources, current land ownership and land use zoning, and would come up with an overall long term picture and a set of basic guidelines. Hendee said the next step would be to go through a consensus process to talk to landowners and interested groups and try to develop a program statement for what the river would be. And then lastly the study would develop a master plan that would appropriate uses for various locations. Hendee said that it would be accomplished by a private entity. Hendee stated that he would like the funding to come from a grant as well as public funding. Swope stated that he feels that the plan has a lot of merit. He is afraid that eventually the bulk of the funding might be available in the business community if they see potential for development along the river. He does not want to see commercialization in what is being portrayed as a natural area. Johnson stated that he strongly encourages removal of the industrial sites and restoration of those sites and moving the commercial sites back to Riverside, making access to the river easy. Smith asked if the Board was supportive of the feasibility study being done. The Board supported the feasibility study with some concerns: 4 McGee, Johnson, Swopeand Howard supported it with some qualification that ' the study include a major componentto study restoration of the natural areas. Mason also would like to see this qualification along with consideration of how the riverwalk would be developed and managed to ensure that the natural areas are taken care of. Miller stated that he has concerns about a Performing Arts Center. He stated that he has heard an idea of keeping the northeast side of the river undeveloped as possible; he is not sure where a performing arts center and amphitheater would be constructive. He would also like to see a public input process as part of the feasibility study to see how many people are really in favor of it. Staff will draft a letter with the Board's comments. Smith asked Shoemaker what his point of view was from staff's side. Shoemaker answered that Council recently adopted a work program that does not specifically identify this item. It does identify coordination of river projects as an important task. Shoemaker stated he would be looking for direction from the City Manager's Office before he would commit staff time to working actively on the riverwalk process. Smith stated that it would inappropriate for a boardmember to participate in .the task force that is forming to promote the riverwalk, but the board could assist in the group that guides the feasibility study. The Board could ,tell Council that it supports the feasibility study and would be willing to assist with the study if it occurs. McGee volunteered to be the representative to a future task force to guide the feasibility study. W_ .R.E.N. Pit Cooperative Reclamation Project In response to the Board's request for a briefing on the W.R.E.N. Pit, Rob Wilkinson, summarized the project and presented a slide show of the area. Wilkinson stated that a lot of the surrounding areas have been reclaimed as ponds in the past, for example Riverbend ponds. Staff noted that the ponds provide wildlife habitat for a limited number of species, but we have a lot.of those kinds of areas around the community. Because of this and the augmentation problem, cooperators started to approach this area to see how they could avoid the need for augmentation issue and create some habitat along the river that is more in character with some of the natural riparian areas. Wilkinson stated that they looked at old aerial photos and adjacent areas to get an idea of native habitats. They found that prior to mining, the area was a feedlot, and prior to that there were scattered cottonwoods across the site. To the north are oxbdws and wet meadows. Wilkinson stated that the whole southern edge and most of the eastern edge of the pit had started to naturalize with cottonwoods and cattail areas because those sites had not been mined for some time. Also, there were scattered stands of exotic species, including tamarisk and russian olive. He stated that some areas had been reseeded, but not with native grasses. Wilkinson stated that the interior part of the site was dissected with 5 several ditches that wertrused for drainage and they were also creating an exposed groundwater surface area that was going to require some augmentation. So, the goal was to try and create something more naturalistic that could utilize some of those resources through regrading and try to conserve some of the things that are nice about the site already. Wilkinson stated that they first started out by recognizing that the biggest thing that needed to be dealt with was the water augmentation issue. The City was interested in acquiring the site, but they were concerned about what their liabilities would be in terms of the water augmentation question. They met with the State Engineer's Office and Sean Hoff the local River Commissioner, and the Mine Reclamation Board to see how open they were to changing the existing reclamation plan. These agencies were excited about doing something more innovative that might get around the augmentation issue. Wilkinson stated that Jeff Lakey, Professor in Landscape Architecture at CSU took an interest in the site and had his students do a design project on how the area could be used. One of the nicer designs picked up on the concept of the oxbows and Wilkinson took that concept and modified it somewhat in developing a grading plan that would drain the site, and minimize the exposed groundwater surface and at the same time create wetland habitat. Wilkinson stated that U.S. Fish and Wildlife got involved because they were looking for a research area to deal with cottonwood regeneration. They saw this as an opportunity to test regeneration of cottonwoods by flooding the site and then drawing it down during the cotton bearing period to see what kind of natural establishment would occur. He stated that the concept plan was submitted to the Mine Land Reclamation Board and the State Engineer Office. It was approved. Wilkinson stated that the whole process took a little longer than expected so they did not start flooding the site until later in the year, so they did not get the whole site flooded. Still, there was fairly good cottonwood generation within a limited area, so the approach looks viable. Wilkinson stated that they did get a lot of Tamarisk because not all of the undesirable vegetation was removed during grading. In evaluating the situation, the Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that they reflood this year to kill off the seedling Tamarisk. So, they are going to hold that until October and then start to draw it down again. Wilkinson stated that their intent is to reflood next year and try and get the whole site flooded and draw down and get more cottonwood establishment. Smith asked why they wouldn't leave the plants over the winter and reflood in the spring. Wilkinson said that the older the plants get, the deeper the root system_ and the harder it is to eradicate them. Wilkinson stated that it is the growing season flooding that is really, critical. He also noted that they need to drain the site because it was flooded right after it was graded, so there may be some need for micrograding to make sure that it drains out before they finalize the acquisition of the site. Wilkinson stated that another part of the plan is to divert the ditch 6 through the site to Avide another source of wao for flooding. They had calculated the amount of water flowing. through there and figured that in 30 days the whole site would be floodedwithout the groundwater. Swope asked if the project is dependent on pumping. Wilkinson answered that flooding may be achieved by pumping of through groundwater inflow. The groundwater would flood it eventually, but they do not have a good sense of what volume they are getting. They did see a lot of additional groundwater coming in when the river was peaking, but have no way to judge the volume or how that might fluctuate year to year. Wilkinson stated that the ditch diversion was not accomplished because there is a high pressure line from Anheuser Busch and a sewer line that runs through a berm on the east side of the site that prevent simply cutting through the berm. So, they will have to look at burrowing under those lines. They would like to move this through there to provide somewhat of an open water feature on site without having to augment and also to help saturate the area that would serve as wetland. It would also provide another source of water for flooding. Wilkinson stated that acquisition is the next step and staff hopes to finalize the agreements within a few weeks. Shoemaker stated that this approach offers one potential alternative for better reclamation that avoids the very expensive augmentation requirement. The other thing that this project offers is the chance to gain experience on a moderate size site. Shoemaker stated that the other experimental part of the project that is as important as the actual "on the ground results" is building a relationship with one of the major mining operators. Shoemaker stated that one of the tricky things they are working towards is "successive operator status" where the City would take over the long term management of the site. They want to make sure that Western Mobile gives it to them in exactly the condition that it is permitted in; otherwise, the City will take over that liability. Shoemaker stated he feels that could finalize the agreements between staff and the landowner, and between staff and Western Mobile by the end of the year. Election of .New Officers It was voted unanimously to elect Miller as Chair and Friedman, Vice Chair for 193-194. Committee Appointments for 193-194 The members chose the committees that they would like to serve on for the following year: Recycling--- Swope, Howard, Smith, McGee Natural Areas --- Johnson, Miller, Mason, Education --- Friedman, Howard, Miller, Johnson Water and Hazardous Materials --- The Board decided to wait for these committees. Growth Management --- Friedman, McGee, Mason, Smith Knudsen will be asked which committee(s) she would like to serve on. VA Those marked in bol'a-'will be Chair for that committee. Special Meeting The Board agreed to have a meeting September 15, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. to review several proposed natural area acquisitions in the Foothills and the southeast Fossil Creek drainage. It will be a joint meeting with the Parks and Recreation Board. Steak Fry For the October 6, NRAB meeting Swope extended his invitation to the Board and the Natural Resources staff to a steak fry and to review the mitigation project. The Board accepted and will meet at 5:30 at Fairway Estates for the steak fry. Swope will arrange a room for the meeting at a nearby location. committee Reports At the July 7, NRAB meeting Miller agreed to draft a letter from the Board recommending to Council the City's involvement in the establishment of an environmental learning complex. Miller presented the letter to the Board for review. Smith suggested a stronger closing paragraph that states the Board looks for further involvement in the establishment of the ELC. Johnson moved and McGee seconded that the letter be sent to Council as amended with Smith's comment. It was unanimously passed. Announcements Smith announced that the Environmental Fair will be September 18, 1993 at Library Park. Miller announced that he attended the Larimer County Environmental Advisory Board meeting August 3, 1993. He stated that it is still in the formative stages and bylaws have to be created, but is very interesting. Adiournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m. 11