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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 04/05/2006MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD Special Meeting Carriage House at the Avery House April 5, 2006 For Reference: Linda Knowlton, NRAB Chair - 223-9328 Ben Manvel, Council Liaison - 217-1932 John Stokes, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Linda Knowlton, Jerry Hart, Glen Colton, Clint Skutchan, Alan Apt, Ryan Staychock, Rob Petterson, Nate Donovan, Joann Thomas Board Members Absent None Staff Present Natural Resources Dent: Tent' Klahn, John Stokes Guests Several CSU Students Ben Manvel, Council member Public Comments None This meeting was facilitated by Suzanne Jarboe -Simpson. Planning & Brainstorming • Jarboe -Simpson: Does everyone agree the purpose of the NRAB is to advise City Council on issues pertinent to their agenda, and to assist staff in achieving their work plan? • Staychock: I'm not sure that's accurate. I thought our focus was advising City Council on issues pertinent to natural resources, and I didn't know about helping staff to achieve their work plans. Are we bound by Council's agenda? • Apt: We focus on those issues, but we have the license to bring things to Council. • Manvel: Council would be happy if there is a group of people in the community who are watching the issues we might be ignoring. I think that would be great. • Staychock: As far as the staff component is one of our tasks to assist staff achieve their work plans? • Stokes: Indirectly. Like sustainability, you review the plan and we talk about what we're doing. You can say, hey, you're missing the boat in area x, or we want to encourage Council to beef up this plan. There are ways for the board to influence and assist staff. You're overseeing and giving advice. I view that as helpful. Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 2 of 9 • Knowlton: Any time we write a letter to Council recommending support for anything staff has brought to us we're assisting staff. • Manvel: Hopefully you're not just endorsing, you're refining. • Apt: It provides leverage for things that are going on. We can get on board and have an impact. • Stokes: The board needs to communicate to Council. If there is something staff isn't working on Council can direct the City manager to direct staff to work on it. • Apt: Staff works for the City Manager who works for Council. • Jarboe -Simpson: Give me a sense of what's different for the board now. • Staychock: The biggest difference is we don't have a vision of what our plan will entail. We need to figure that out, and gauge how we're going to advise City Council. • Hart: Half of our work load went away. We changed to one meeting a month. This is a great opportunity for the board to take a hard look at the areas we can focus in on to help Council with their decision making process and bring up issues to Council. • Jarboe -Simpson: During a change if a piece goes away folks end up with more time. Some folks run around really quickly and fill the space as quickly as possible. I don't know if that's what you're interested in, or if you have a strong interest in something purposeful and intentional. • Knowlton: We're only meeting half as often. We have to be purposeful. • Apt: We haven't been goal oriented. I know how long it takes to get anything done. We should be looking at Council and staff s agenda and asking where we can contribute. I hope we have short term goals and long term goals. • Jarboe -Simpson: Is there agreement in what level of detail you want to look at? • Petterson: I'd like to stay at a high level for today's purposes. But there should be examples so we know what we're talking about. For the purpose of clarification, the board agreed to go through the suggestions/ideas one by one: Better Use of CSU expertise: • Skutchan: As Ryan has brought up on a number of occasions we have to be better able to get additional informational sessions. When we talk it makes sense to get more information, in addition to what we get from staff. I don't feel we've truly taken advantage of that resource. • Petterson: To the extent we're looking for policy areas, this strikes me more as a tool than a policy area. • Jarboe -Simpson: That would be one of the evaluation criteria you use. • Hart: I'm not sure I agree. I think one of the things we need to do if we want to use CSU or other outside experts is to set up a way to get those contacts, and get feedback. Maybe a policy question would be how to make the contacts to use in a timely manner. • Staychock: I like the idea of a learning component in the work plan. Throughout the year we could make those contacts. Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 3 of 9 More Wind generation with solar firming • Apt: This goes along with my suggestions of overseeing the action plan for meeting the City's overall goal and reducing mercury emissions at all power plants. One benefit is cutting down on pollution. One of the criticisms with wind is its not firm. We need to think globally and act locally. We citizens of Fort Collins are partners in the power plants. As part of this action these are things we should be looking at. What are we doing as a City? We have Climate Wise and a policy to reduce green house gas emissions. We have a great innovative utility. There's an electric board as well. • Hart: That brings up other issues. I'm not clear about the other boards and what environmental issues they look at. How can we mesh with the other boards? • Apt: The Electric Board's mandate is rates and supply. When you look at mercury you're looking at air, fish. Why do we have mercury in fresh water fish ... power plants. There's a ripple through the natural environment. • Donovan: With regard to the energy supply policy update two or three years ago, this board made a significant contribution to that. This board can contribute. We work with utilities staff in a number of areas. • Colton: We're at 1% and we're supposed to be at 15%. What is the plan? City Council just passed the Clean Energy Resolution. If we want to be recognized as such then as a City we should be a leader in clean energy sources for our community. • Hart: Where we talk about overseeing the action plan, I don't think its broad enough to cover the whole gamut. Our responsibility in this area is broader than that. • Knowlton: We need one overarching goal, maybe environmental effect of the City's energy supply policies. Summarize the things we've been talking about. • Colton: Include Climate Wise and GHG emissions. • Donovan: City's energy supply & demand policies. • Apt: When I was on City Council it was changed to least costly and cleanest. Change the staff support for the NRAB from the NRD to the City Manager's Office • Staychock: Talk about broadening our scope and getting something done. Now we have to go to Council, then it goes to the City Manager's Office and then John. If our board support was in the CMO I could see them not letting things get through the cracks, like the water rate policy issues in the past. It wasn't under staff's purview to bring, yet it has a direct natural resource connection. The NRD is terribly understaffed and already has two other boards. Maybe their time can be better spent with less boards. I don't know much about the City Manager's Office, but I assume they have more resources. It's time for the City Manager's Office to look at natural resources from a global perspective. • Manvel: You want to be able to ask the City Manager's Office to work on issues? • Donovan: Practically, if we think things fall through the cracks at the NRD level and its tough for NRD to staff us, we haven't seen anything until we launch the staff support to the CMO. Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 4 of 9 Stokes: There's a parallel idea to Ryan's idea. When we were working on BFO one idea we kicked around was a cabinet level position, some one who reports directly to the City Manager's Office. Apt: I don't think that's a bad idea. There's a way to do it without radical change. The Board on Disability is funded by the City Manager's Office. But given where we are and what we do, Nate's correct, politically it wont fly. What we can do is say we need better communication. Maybe if we had the City Manager, or someone close, come to the meetings a few times a year. And pay close attention to Council's agenda. Stokes: Every single board in the City would like to have Darin as their liaison. Every single director would like to be able to work with Darin every day. He doesn't have time to put that kind of time into B&C's. Those folks work 60-70-80 hours a week, and still cant keep up. What Ryan has expressed is commonly expressed. What Ryan is getting at is an organizational design question. That's the way I interpret his remarks. Apt: Ben (Manvel) is a critical price. He's our man if we want to get the City Manager's ear. Climate Wise and commitment to GHG emission reduction • Colton: We need to get up to speed. There's Energy Management Team. There are lots of people in the community who helped develop goals which we're falling far short of. The actions are broad, reducing VMT, energy modes, green building. We should be working with and overseeing the climate protection status report put out by the City's energy management team, which I didn't even know existed. Maybe what we do fits into Utilities and Natural Resources. • Donovan: As a process point There's so much information that flows and I think practically its difficult for staff to get their hands on it and say it needs to go to this advisory board. And the same with Council. So much information flows to Council. It comes down to the advisory boards to ask the right questions to get what information we want. Because of the work loads and the level of information its not realistic to think that all of that is going to get filtered to the advisory boards in a timely manner. Development Review & Growth Management • Hart: I don't feel the City and boards are getting the information about the environmental costs of proposals and activities that are going on in the community. I'm not sure we're on top of things like development standards, buffers, and air and water quality issues. We have to think about effective ways to deal with sprawl, sustainability and green building. • Skutchan: At what level are we addressing that? How much are we going to get involved in the development review process? • Hart: I'm not thinking of commenting on development proposals. But if we saw a big development coming in, or something related to growth management. Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 5 of 9 • Apt: We should talk to CSU about the land they own in the foothills. That relates to Council agenda, the GMA boundary and the foothills. My concern is about the land out there. CSU owns a lot of land out there. They are strapped financially, why wouldn't they sell it? Shouldn't we be at the table talking about their plans? Shouldn't we be looking at it, maybe open space purchases, or purchasing development rights. • Hart: I'm talking about the educational aspect of letting people know what the trade- offs are. Growth management is a difficult thing to understand. • Knowlton: A couple things that relate are wildlife issues. That's related to growth in the foothills. And a tree policy, land use code changes, impacts of growth and its effect on natural resources. • Colton: We could comment on today's article about how we're losing ag land. We should send a memo to council that this should be brought up. Education • Hart: The people of Fort Collins have supported environmental issues quite well. We need to work on educational efforts to continue that support. Get the word out. • Apt: There are lots of organizations we can work with, Citizen Planners. • Petterson: I have a question about the intent of this in terms of doing education with the public. Is it that we would as a board initiate and drive it, or would we work through the NRD? • Hart: I had envisioned us working with people in the community. • Knwolton: We used to have an education committee. It might be time to rejuvenate it. Environmental Economics Skutchan: There's the resource recovery farm, we need to continue to build on that and use the education component as a business start up. I don't know how we go about this. You can look around the country and see different communities taking advantage of strong points. We should work with the Convention & Visitors Bureau. Included should be mentoring, Climate Wise, getting to the developers and others to show the benefits of being environmentally friendly, environmental clustering. Colton: Throw in sustainable agriculture. Skutchan: Find and stimulate greater cooperation between Weld and Larimer, and couple CSU with that. And the river corridor, there's a meeting today on that. Environmental Issues — Air/Water/Land • Hart: Outside of growth and development there are environmental issues we need to deal with. We need to talk about issues in general. Green Business & Green Building • Colton: This is part of the green business Clint was talking about, sustainable agriculture, supporting green business practices and green building stuff that goes on in the PSD. We could use more of that in our own government and houses. There's no reason houses shouldn't have solar panels, energy efficiency. • Apt: All City buildings should be as environmentally.... Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 6 of 9 • Stokes: There is an administrative policy that all structures must be LEED certified at a silver level. The new police building will be silver. To get to gold is hard and very expensive, but silver is a high quality building. Halligan & Milton Seeman expansion • Skutchan: There needs to be an emphasis on reality. We need to have updates from different folks. Water projects as a whole. • Knowlton: Water supply, storage and demand. Skutchan: And back to education. We need to work with HOA's and other entities to further work with them to see what they can do. We need to get them engrained to thinking that way. It's the thought process. We need to get them up to speed and come up with a policy direction. Manvel: There are good policies and publicity is very much needed. Land Use Code Revision • Staychock: I worked on the buffer standards thing with Kelly (Ohlson) and Randy (Fischer). It was fascinating. We need to be looking at what are the land use codes that inhibit sustainability. The infill regulations and standards. We need a tree policy, that doesn't mean save every tree. We need an objective policy. • Apt: There is a tree policy. • Colton: We need to look at the infill policy. • Manvel: There is going to be a review of the code in the business community. They would like to see changes in the code. Length of dialogue and agendas • Skutchan: I have a concern from the aspect that we have cut our work load in half. I made a commitment to this board. I assume we can have valued, well thought out dialogues. I would rather deal with things effectively than wont' about staying on time with the agenda. If I can hang than staff can hang. I want to make sure we're giving our full effort here. Sometimes I feel like we stifle knowledge to stay on time. • Donovan: We need more discipline or structure. Natural Resource issues in Road and Highway construction projects • Knowlton: Hwy 392 issue certainly has natural area implications. And Prospect Road, or any road widening or road project is likely to have environmental consequences, even if its not through a natural area. • Petterson: It ties with growth management issues. • Apt: And it relates to regional transportation. • Hart: Transportation has a major environmental impact. We need to look at aspects of the system; vehicles, mass transit, environmental impacts • Apt: If we're going to do that we need to look at the Transportation Board. Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 7 of 9 Stokes: The AQAB will have a joint meeting with them on April 19. It sounds like you might want to do the same thing. Hart: Do we want to put together our thoughts? We don't want to encroach. Knowlton: The outcome of tonight's meeting is a start. NRAB as a Sounding Board and Capacity Builder for natural resource related events • Staychock: I'm seeing more of a public involvement component. Invite folks to get the word out, come to us, let us know, there's 5, 10 minutes, whatever time needed for the public on the agenda. • Hart: Like the people coming to talk about the prairie dogs. Participate in Business Recruitment • Staychock: Look at the whole idea. People are part of the environment, we're producers, consumers. We need to be business friendly. We need to take a proactive role of what businesses fit into Fort Collins. Every business will have effects. • Manvel: Recruitment and encouragement of existing business. • Staychock: There's always a head-on collision between business and natural resources, there should be a link. Review of Future Budget Offers • Petterson: I think it fits into staff support. • Stokes: We start the new BFO process in a year. Council is interested in more citizen involvement. • Hart: It's even more important now if we're interested in expanding our purview. It might be a great opportunity if we'd get our act together to justify this cabinet post for environmental sustainability. It would be a great goal to shoot for. • Apt: The mayor is supportive of recruiting businesses involved in renewable energy. Solid Waste • Colton: We need to keep working on it. Sustainaility & Sustainability Action Plan • Staychock: Engage with all departments. Define what it means, define the natural resources that are important to the City of Fort Collins. • Knowlton: I have interest in the Sustainability Action Plan developed by NRD some years ago. I want to make sure its understood and implemented and that we're making progress. • Stokes: In May we'll have a presentation on that plan. • Colton: Economic Sustainability. All of the efforts are into economic vitality. Many communities have good lists of measures. We don't have anything like that. Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 8 of 9 Talk to CSU about the land • Donovan: We need that on the April 19 agenda. Annexation and the whole thing about the future of the foothills. We have addressed this in the past, things are going to start rolling Wildlife Issues • Skutchan: Wildlife corridors in the community, changes in development. It would be interesting to somehow address the adaptability of wildlife in and around the city. It goes to concerns with raptor habitat. I've noticed changes in patterns. How do they adapt? Discussion • Jarboee-Simpson: Are you willing to limit your focus? • Donovan: No. The work plans were intentionally long and broad. Council and the mayor asked us about that too. Practically yes, but in theory, no. • Skutchan: I don't think we've put together a work plan with the broader definition and refocus of this board. As a by-product if we want we can hone in on the next six to twelve months. We're in an identity crisis, who and what this board will be moving forward as. I don't want it to look like we've narrowed down to five topics. There's a long tern perspective. • Petterson: I would not. But from a prioritization point of view we need to. We wont be able to do all of this in the next year. I'd like to see a prioritization instead of scope limiting. • Knowlton: We shouldn't limit our scope, but we do need to set priorities. I came in thinking about a revised work plan, but I've changed my mind. I think this year will be a learning experience for us. We'll submit an annual report. That will be a way of determining what we're honing in on. • Apt: When I look at the list we only have 8 or 10. Eight is a reasonable number of things if we prioritize. • Staychock: No. I don't think natural resources is such a constant. The issues are very dynamic situations. • Petterson: I'm struggling. If we leave it like this, and maybe do some prioritization. The work of the prioritization will fall to the chair. • Apt: We must do Growth Management in May, Water is going to run us over, Energy is happening, Transportation/RTA is happening right now. If we don't get on top of these they'll go right by. Energy is the number 1 focus. Board members prioritized the list of topics individually. Following are the results: Energy (6 dots) Solid waste (3) Growth management (3) Transportation (3) Water supply/demand/storage (3) Natural Resources Advisory Board April 5, 2006 Page 9 of 9 Sustainability (3) Environmental economy (3) Organizational design and structure (3) Climate/pollution (1) Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m. Submitted by Terry Mahn Admin Support Supervisor