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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 05/01/1991MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. - CONFERENCE ROOM MAY 1, 1991 Board Members Present Tim Johnson Harold Swope Chuck Davis Board Members Absent (excused) Deni LaRue Board Members Absent (unexcused) Christine Ferguson Staff Present• Tom Shoemaker Julie Bothwell Will Smith Bill Miller Dave DuBois Edith Felchle Bob Wilkinson Minutes It was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved that the Minutes of April 3, and April 10, 1991 NRAB meetings be accepted as presented. Now Business Larimer County Trash Hauling Rate Structure Resolution Shoemaker stated that last year there was discussion about the linkage between how much people throw away and how much they pay to throw it away. The City and County met this past fall and worked to get State Legislation introduced to give the City power to require haulers to charge on a "pay as you throw" basis. The Bill was introduced by Representative Irwin from Loveland, and was killed in committee. Shoemaker said that subsequent to that, Pitkin County introduced an ordinance to do the same thing. Larimer County attorneys determined that such an ordinance is feasible for Larimer County. The proposed requirements are that trash haulers obtain a license and that they provide curbside recycling service within the Fort Collins urban growth area and the Loveland urban growth area. As a condition of licensing, haulers would be required to develop a means of charging customers on either a weight or volume basis. The intent is to reduce the amount of material going to the landfill and provide an incentive to the consumer to recycle. Shoemaker said that the County has released this as a draft and Frank Lancaster is in the process of getting public input. Lancaster anticipates that the Commissioners will consider this ordinance in early June. Swope asked if the ordinance says what items have to be recycled. Shoemaker replied that the structure is basically the same structure that is in the City's ordinance in that the County Director of Natural Resources must specify what has to be collected. This will be done by regulation. Shoemaker said that the trash haulers are not pleased with this new ordinance because they do not want any additional regulations on them, and this will require them to revamp their accounting systems. The implementation date is January 1992, so they do have time to make the adjustments. Smith moved, that a letter be written to Council encouraging support by Fort Collins City Council of the Larimer County volume or weight based rate structure. Smith will draft the letter. Introduction of Council Liaison Johnson introduced Cathy Fromme, the new Council Liaison to the NRAB. Councilmember Fromme summarized the premlinary policy agenda. She said the City Manager's Office will sort the policy agenda items under Council's current eleven goals and will identify the resources needed for each item before bringing them back to Council. Council will then prioritize the items for a final Policy Agenda. Councilmember Fromme said that Council reworded its goals a bit. Previously the first goal was the fiscal health of the City. The first goal now is environmental and the second goal is to "maintain the fiscal health of the City." Councilmember Fromme said that she does have a goal of forming a task force on growth, but right now she does not have the support for one. She feels that the citizens should have a say on how they want the town to grow. She asked for some help on presenting a position paper. Miller asked, "How do you address various items under the EMP when you do not have good concept of the vision?" Councilmember Fromme said that she felt that this could be one of the top five cities in the country if it was developed right. She feels that it will be more economically healthy if it grows with open space and clean air. Smith asked if there was a board that reported to Economic Development, what Economic Development is, and what citizen input exists for Economic Development. There were brief comments about what the role of such a board might be. Councilmember Fromme stated that growth questions tend to focus on how growth affects developers. She feels that the question should be how does this affect the environment and the developers. Shoemaker said that he will check to see if there is an ad -hoc committee dealing with economic development. Smith suggested maybe changing the word "growth" to something else because it polarizes too much. Councilmember Fromme feels that if the City is paying for the cost of growth, people should know that, and then they can decide if they want it. If taxpayers are subsidizing growth, they should have a say in what can come into the community. Shoemaker wanted to clarify with Councilmember Fromme and the NRAB the process for developing the policy agenda. Council met on April 27, and talked about process questions and started on the policy agenda; April 30 was focused on the policy agenda and resulted in a long list of recommendations. Those will be given to staff and the boards to look at and see what is needed in terms of project definition and resource needs. It will then be returned to Council June 3, for finalization. Johnson thanked Councilmember Fromme for talking with the Board. Fromme invited the NRAB to call her with any questions or comments they have. Staff Roles Shoemaker described the roles of staff for the NRAB. Bothwell is responsible for the minutes and agendas; however, she is still in training, Felchle will continue her role in reviewing the Minutes and gathering information for the Agenda. Shoemaker said that Felchle is now the point person for members to call with questions or comments and she will then talk with Shoemaker if needed. Shoemaker is the contact person for policy discussions. It was requested that an entire Natural Resources Division organization chart be sent to NRAB members. NRAB Ouorums Felchle said that a year or so ago, Council looked at the issue of alternate members on boards the decision, contrary to the recommendation of the NRAB, was to eliminate the alternate positions and just have the regular board members. However, it does not change the quorums. NRAB used to have 11 people from which to get a quorum of 5. Now there are 9 people from which to get that quorum and it is starting to be a problem. Felchle stated that it is now more important that each member put the board as a priority item on their schedules for attendance, and it is extremely important that members let staff know if they will be unable to attend so the meeting can be canceled if a quorum will not be in attendance. Smith stated that it was his understanding that there was a requirement of board members in terms of the number of consecutive meetings that could be missed even if they were excused absences. Felchle said that the way it is written, the limit refers to unexcused absences. Davis said that the Fire Authority took to their board the outline of the hazardous materials risk reduction program. Their board felt that the next step is to bring it before City Council for approval. Shoemaker stated that Warren Jones would like to come to the June NRAB meeting to ask for a recommendation. Davis commented that a decision was made to streamline the reporting process so that city, stated, and federal requirements can be met with one form. Shoemaker said that the only point left hanging by the Fire Authority Board was the need for state concurence on the submittal requirements. Warren Jones feels he has strong support for the program. Swope said he believes the Fire Authority should publish a list of the common hazardous wastes to enhance public understanding. Old Business Mitigation Fund Shoemaker said that approximately 50 applications were sent to groups believed to be interested in applying for mitigation funds. There also was a press release. Smith asked about the purpose of review by the board. Shoemaker replied that the board is empowered to make the decision regarding expenditure of the mitigation fund. Staff will administer the contracts once approved by the Board. It was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved that the NRAB have a special meeting on May 22, 7:00 p.m., to hear applications for the Mitigation Fund. The location will be announced in the Agenda. Smith asked if the board would be making a decision that night. Johnson replied a final decision could be made at the June 5 meeting. Development Chairs Meeting Regort Johnson said that the costs and benefits of growth were discussed at the meeting. He said Councilmember Fromme will be discussing this in Council deliberations in terms of their future agenda. Johnson said we will wait and see the results of that. Johnson also talked about funding of Natural Areas. He said that Earl Wilkinson stated that people from past councils would like to see a natural areas plan. Johnson said that Earl Wilkinson felt that since these areas are expensive, the only way to acquire the areas is to put an extra sales tax in front of the citizens; if they vote in favor of it, we can have it, but it is very expensive and it is hard to get voters to do that. Johnson feels that one of the reasons people live here is because of things like the natural areas; there should not be any reason why these funds could not come from the general budget just as much as the funding for the extension of Timberline Road. Johnson asked the NRAB how they felt about this and should the funding come from general tax or should it come from something extra. The consensus was that the NRAB agrees with this philosophy. Johnson would like everyone to be thinking about this and to discuss it at the June 5 meeting and present it to Council. Shoemaker commented that the June meeting would be good timing, because at that meeting it should be possible to discuss implementation alternatives which would include funding. Swope asked if there was a City policy that would prohibit 0 0 naming an area after someone that donated some land. He feels these should be advertising to see if someone would donate a natural open area. Johnson said that he does not see any problem with this. Natural Areas Policy Plan (NAPP) Shoemaker reported that on April 23, he presented the NAPP at the Council worksession. He said that it went well. Reaction indicated that they were pleased with the quality of the presentation and quality of the plan as a draft stage. The biggest concern was that a picture is being painted that is so nice it cannot be achieved. The direction that was given was to take some time in public review to make sure everyone has time to really look at it and give feedback. Council directed that work on an implementation plan be started so that at the time of adoption, an implementation strategy will be ready. Shoemaker said the Mayor would like to talk about how she can help this plan go forward. Wilkinson was concerned because very few people have commented on the draft plan. There was discussion about various groups that should be approached about the plan. Shoemaker said public comment will be taken until the end of May. Smith commented that as a first reading of Council, they would have passed this, but the key is, will they budget anything for it. Shoemaker said he feels they will read it and then budget some money for it. Swope gave Shoemaker his comments in writing about the NAPP. Shoemaker said he would like all comments and suggestions on the NAPP as soon as possible. At the June 5 meeting, he will update the board on the comments that have been received. A recommendation can be considered in July. Committee Reports (Unscheduled) Symposium Felchle said that the biggest disappointment was the crowd, approximately 200 people. She said she has received very few evaluations. The comments that she did hear from the attendees and the people that were involved in the evening were positive. There were good comments on the quality and choice of the films that were shown; positive and negative sides to the presentations. Felchle said there were a few negative comments from certificate recipients who were unhappy because they did not get more attention. Felchle expressed her appreciation to all the board members that helped with the symposium. Smith wrote a letter to Felchle and the Natural Resources Division congratulating them on the symposium, and thanking everyone for their work and efforts. It was moved, seconded, and passed unanimously to submit the letter to Felchle and staff on behalf of Smith and the NRAB. Land Use Johnson and Wilkinson met with Howard Alden to talk about the concept of the Environmental Learning Center. Johnson asked if board members would be interested in having a picnic at the learning center immediately prior to the June 5 NRAB meeting, and then continue the meeting at the adjacent water treatment plant. Board members agreed to do this. Johnson said Alden is developing a visionary master plan for the learning center that will be out at the end of July. Johnson said it would be great to have the City and Colorado State University working together on a project that both would benefit from. Transportation Plan Shoemaker handed out a memo about the Transportation Plan. He said the memo is from notes Smith took at the March 26 Council worksession. Announcements Felchle said that Luthi had resigned from the NRAB so there will be another opening. Felchle stated that the director of State Boards and Commissions was in town a few months ago to let people in all parts of the state know about commissions and how to apply for membership. She said that the governor is interested in a balance from all areas of the State. Felchle handed out information about several of the boards that might be interesting to people with interest in natural resources. The only one that still has an opening date for this year is Natural Areas. Smith handed out copies of the most recent issue of the Kodak Company paper for everyone to look at. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 9:15.