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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 03/28/2006MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 200 WEST MOUNTAIN AVE. March 28, 2006 For Reference: Eric Levine: Chair 493:6341 David Roy: Council Liaison 407:7393 Lucinda Smith: Staff Liaison 224:6085 Board Members Present Jeff Engell, Nancy York, Dale Adamy, Bruce Macdonald, Dave Dietrich, Eric Levine, Cherie Trine (arrived late). Board Members Absent Kip Carrico, Gregory McMaster Staff Present Natural Resources Department: Lucinda Smith, Kathy Collier: Tara McGibben: Terry Klahn Guests None The meeting was called to order at 5:34 p.m. Public Comments None ClimateWise Presentation by Kathy Collier: Climate Wise is a City of Fort Collins voluntary business outreach program that works with local companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting waste reduction, energy savings, alternative transportation, water conservation, and practicing pollution prevention. Through environmental assessments and creative solutions, the City of Fort Collins Climate Wise Team helps businesses tackle modem -day business challenges that impact bottom lines and the quality of life in Fort Collins. Kathy highlighted 2005 accomplishments, distributed the 2004/5 Annual Summary of Accomplishments, and discussed 2006 goals. • York: Who's that grant from? • Collier: CDPHE. • Levine: How much money was that? • Collier: $20,000. • Collier: In closing Kathy invited the air quality board to EnvirOvation. • York: You mentioned recycling rebates? • Collier: In talking with some of our partners, John Armstrong from recycling mentioned that there is a possibility of receiving rebates if you have enough cardboard. • York: So they actually get money back? Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 2 of 22 • Collier: Yes, and I'd have to ask John a little more information about that because he's looking into that. I can see if he'd get back to you on that. [Follow-up: John A. noted that this is still a "new" area, and some partners are able to work with their haulers about cardboard rebates or credits on their hauling bill. John is researching this area and is willing to share more information at a later time.] • York: I'd be curious about it. What is your budget? • Collier: My budget is between $54,000 and $56,000. There are a lot of start up costs this year. For instance, plaques will be purchased for all active partners. This is a win -win situation for partners to put up plaques in their lobby so their customers and employees know so that the citizens can support Climate Wise partners. It's also a win situation for us as it gives us more top of mind awareness. We are purchasing plaques for everyone this year because they don't have plaques. • York: The other thing is, you know when you compute savings of green house gases, is this over and above what they do? • Collier: Yes, what we would do is establish a baseline and then any of the measures they've started with us. Yes we calculate over and above what they had. [To clarify — most measures can be quantified from a baseline, however, as every partnering business has a unique set of circumstances, there are a few measures that have been very difficult to quantify, and some measures that produce quantifiable savings for years to come after a project has been implemented. Under the grant, Climate Wise staff have dedicated 2005 and 2006 to creating guidelines and policy to track and report credible measures.] • York: That's good. • Adamy: There's a bicycle program in Fort Collins, some kind of encouragement for business employees to ride bikes. Do you have some a similar program? • Collier: Is that the Free Wheels Program? • Adamy: Yes, it might be Vehicle Miles reduction program. • Collier: We do. That program has been stopped as of last year. However, businesses that already had those bicycles were able to keep them. We're continuing to track those miles. • Adamy: How would the company join ClimateWise? • Collier: They have to sign a partnership agreement and I sit down and talk with them about meeting the very minimal levels and see what their needs and interests are, and we go from there. • Adamy: Do you have any remarkable accomplishments as far as businesses competing with one another? • Collier: I'm careful of that because we've got small businesses that are doing really well, but then you've got the larger institutions such as CSU and the Poudre School District that are accomplishing a lot and both institutions are looking to do even more, for instance. I hate to highlight the larger businesses all of the time. I think the smaller companies are doing just as much as they can. • Adamy: Do we have some kind of data on how many tons the entire City of Fort Collins produces? • Smith: I know how many the city reduced. The report shows 2.467 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and that was in year 2004. • Adamy: Is it growing faster than we can reduce it? • Smith: Yes, every year it's grown. It would grow more if these offset efforts weren't happening, but it is growing and it's growing faster than per capita growth. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 3 of 22 • York: Do you do things like new studies? Do you send them out? • Collier: Yes, I try to send as much as I can just to keep partners in the loop on things. I receive a lot on the green building side and I like to send out information on what they can do as much as possible. And there are new rebate programs this year, for instance. • Macdonald: Do you confer that construction contractors will need new building design for approval. I mean building permits need approval from city and I can't help but notice how many new houses have a lot of north facing openings. • Collier: That's a good point but that's more on the utility side. Doug Swartz is responsible for highly efficient homes in Ft. Collins and he's doing a lot of research. We have a consultant on board, she's trying to build the first green residential home and that was in the Coloradoan a couple weeks ago. • Adamy: Can any residents participate in this, is it only for businesses? • Collier: It's a business program and utilities is more the residential side. So utilities-- they do a lot and right now they have their residential environmental series going on in the spring and the business environmental program is starting in the fall. • Engell: I have a question about the cost saving numbers. When it says cumulative, is that from 2003 to 2004? The 2003 number is included in the 2004 number? • Collier: Yes, that's correct. • Engell: Alright. • Collier: So for instance if you update your lighting, you can reap the savings on utility bills and return on investment for up to 10 years. At that point we're trying to make our data base as sophisticated as we can so that at 10 years we can look at a lighting project that will expire, the cost savings expires. But there are always new innovative things coming out. HVAC is up to 30 years. I can get more information if you like. • York: After 10 yrs there's no more cost savings? • Collier: For instance, you can almost look at it as energy star refrigerators. Years ago, the utilities used to offer rebates for energy star refrigerators because they were not common place; now they are. Energy star appliances are so common now that incentives don't need to be offered by the utilities. • Smith: Yes, the technology that you would buy off the shelf without trying to be energy efficient is on a par with something that you might have installed that was wasn't energy efficient 10 years ago. • Levine: Those monies could be better spent subsidizing something else that may need to create something new. • Collier: But right now utilities offers a rebate program for lighting projects. But the federal government is requiring that magnetic ballast and replacement of lighting be put into place by July 1, 2009. So eventually they're going to stop that rebate program as it's no longer going to be the newest technology and the most energy efficient. • Levine: I thought electronic ballast? • Collier: Yes, I'm sorry. You have to replace your magnetic ballasts with electronic. • Smith: Is that everywhere or just in federal government? • Collier: It's everywhere. In other words if you don't act soon you're going to replace them at your own initial capital costs. • Engell: I think it'd be a good selling point if companies were encouraged by it. From looking at 2003 to 2004, you were able to save an extra $500,000 for the business on an aggregate. And 2004 to 2005, you were able to save another $200,000. Essentially you've Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 4 of 22 got a marginal line that's going this direction and a line of businesses that's going this direction. • Collier: Yes, that's correct. I think for right now they are still looking into this. In 2005 that's only with 50% and that will probably shift quite a bit too because quite a few of the new partners we signed up last year have done some huge energy efficiency projects. • Engell: That's what it seems. A company can only become so efficient, at some point they're going to level out. So it seems like the natural progression would be to on -board more companies into the program. • Collier: Yes, we talked about that at length with our consultants and at some point you can get so efficient you'd have to purchase carbon offsets in the market. But that's as high as you can go. • Levine: I would agree with Jeff that getting a multiplier effect for businesses bringing each other in especially since this makes such a small network in business. Because some of it will tend to level out. With the small number of partners, as far as the potential of amount of businesses, it seems like the multiplier effect is really what to go after. • Collier: I agree, I think it's really important. I'm looking at the next budget cycle and controlling growth. • Levine: I don't know how it works among citizens since obviously some are probably pretty friendly and some are quite competitive in some areas. • Collier: A lot of the partners are really friendly. They understand we're all in this together. Some of the information we have to keep confidential for business and we roll it up as an aggregate. It's interesting to see all breweries come together. • Engell: Do the individual businesses get an idea of what they're able to save personally? • Collier: When we sit down and talk with them and they're interested in looking at specific areas. We go back 12 months and chart their utility bills and water bills. We talk to them about their interest in a specific project. We have a formula of how much of a rebate you'll receive and your return on investment which is usually about 2 '/2 years and then your cost savings down the line. So we have all that charted out. • Engell: That just seems like a great tool for them to apply to their program too whether it's within their own industry which is kind of like what Eric was thinking about, or whether it's outside industry business. It seems like they can go make the case for you and get more companies involved. I don't know how much you and your staff can manage is the issue? Maybe you can have other businesses lobby and do the heavy lifting and then the program would then self manage itself. • Collier: We have talked about that. A small coffee shop volunteered to produce table tents to let customers know about the program. • Levine: Is it harder for the smaller businesses? Do they require more hand holding at first, to sort of produce the numbers? • Collier: We have talked about that. We want to be careful in sending a huge city team out to a small business to assess their operations. In this day and age we don't want it to look like we have a lot of resources and that the city has a lot of money, which we don't. We talked at length about the new greenhouse gas reduction tool and how it's actually easier for smaller businesses to enter in all of their data and information. We've tossed around at what level do we support small verses large. We don't want to cut a specific type of business out. The chamber mentioned that 83% of the businesses in Fort Collins are 10 or fewer employees. We're developing process and procedural type things such as Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 5 of 22 at what level can we support you. With the limited resources we have we're trying to get as much out there and make it easy as possible for the businesses. Our theme for 2006 is accountably and flexibility with our partners. The steering committee understands smaller budget. • Levine: I did this pass -out. I can't vouch for the accuracy of this but I can vouch this is exactly what everyone read today in the Coloradoan. It's the Coloradoan article on recycling. So it's important obviously no matter what its accuracy which we'll get a take on from Susie Gordon just to make sure that it is accurate. One thing I noticed is that Delta Construction and Alliance Construction those two, I'm assuming construction industries, are partners. I noticed that 110,000 tons it says in here from diverting landfill. Not tons of CO2, actual tons diverted from landfill, if we get that. Are there any other construction companies here? • Collier: Neenan, Delta and Alliance all joined this past year and the reason for that is green building is growing immensely in this town. And construction waste is a piece of the green building topic which is a very hot topic. CSU has their Institute for the Built Environment where they educate company representatives on green building practices. These folks are really interested in joining ClimateWise. • Levine: We've had a couple of recycling goals that kind of haven't lived up to that. We have a new goal I guess for 50% diversion by 2010 which is coming right up and we're well into 2006. This would seem like a great thing. And the article makes it sound very much like the city has focused efforts very strongly on especially the construction industry. Of course a lot of that waste generated is because of the growth in Ft. Collins. • Collier: We at ClimateWise ask businesses with testimonials and help us mentor similar operations. This is good that we've got three pretty good size construction companies on board. We then can mentor other developers and other construction companies. • Levine: I'm wondering. I know for some development reviews I've seen various point systems used where you have to make certain amount. A project has to be a certain amount of points to get in and meet it, and there are lots of opportunities; lots of different point criteria you just have to have the aggregate to get to that certain number. This would be, when the city especially is not necessarily authorizing projects but when the city is doing its own projects instead of contracting out of the points system, this counts for points if you're a member of this program; or even by at what level you're a member. • Collier: The Chamber environmental committee, in terms of their environmental awards, you can earn extra points for being a ClimateWise partner. They just added that to their environmental program. • Levine: I would think that would be a real incentive for the competitors of those businesses that do make that cut because it's easier to get a little bit more to the top of the selection process. • Adamy: The board has discussed the possibility of meeting with the Poudre School District. Can you let us know what you're going to do out there? • Collier: Poudre School District has gathered a committee to review their operating procedures. They would like to design a sustainability management system. They are holding a conference in July called Colorado High Performing Schools. They want to have goals in place around the seminar. I've only been to one meeting and they've asked for a few outside participants' feedback to see the report and won't be seen until next week or so. They held 15 separate interviews with all different levels over at Poudre Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 6 of 22 School District from teachers, administrators and facilities. They're looking at how they're operating. From as simple as electronic documentation to building green schools and energy efficiency and wind power. They're working quickly to get an action plan by the summer. [Follow-up: next meeting and report will not be out until May] • Engell: CSU is getting ready to rollout pretty large projects within campus. They're also lobbying for a new certificate program for green building and sustainable building. Do you have any information on that program? It's going to be a certificate program in which people can take classes to become a certified green builder. Seems like it might be a logical connection between trying to lobby for CSU and do some of these projects that they have slated in a manner that's consistent with ClimateWise and some of the other city's missions. • Collier: CSU is doing a lot. They've got several different committees such has transportation and a green committee that looks at wind power purchases and Brian Dunbar, from Institute for the Built Environment, offers the Green Building course and has many graduates of that program. I am a graduate of that program. CSU's facilities folks are really interested in saving the money. • Engell: Well that's good that the projects are still in an infant enough stage that it's not too late to plan them with that sort of objective. • Collier: No, not at all. I know they're looking at building some green buildings there such as Academic Village and the new transit center, so that's exciting. • Levine: Bruce you said that you were dismayed at the amount of northern facing windows? • Macdonald: It seems like a lot of homes are being built without much consideration to exposure to sun. • Levine: I remember, at least 10 years ago, that council had a vote on solar orientation. • Smith: There is a code in City Plan with solar orientation for residential development. How they comply with it that I'm not sure. I think it's a certain percentage of homes and I think that assessment occurs in the development review stage. • Levine: I have heard several times over the years that, in several instances, it hasn't been met. And I don't see how that can be if it's a requirement. That's part of the development review process. There is a certain percentage by ordinance that has to be there. • Smith: I'd be happy to check with Doug Swartz who works on promoting energy efficiency and also our building and zoning department to get their take on the application of that requirement. • Levine: It wasn't a very high number. • Smith: I think it's 35%. • Levine: Council had several packages they voted on and a lot of parliamentary machinations and finally they got the ordinance requirement with a lower number. Some people that voted against what they wanted did from the parliamentary level. It got very esoteric. But anyway it makes me think. I guess this is just for business, if a developer has a business partner that wasn't necessarily going to replace light bulbs, but they were going to take a development and make twice as many south facing window exposures that were required, that would be an unbelievable energy savings over a 100 year life of the house and it would seem to me that there should be a way to include that kind of thing. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 7 of 22 • Collier: I think it's headed there. I have heard that several builders are looking that way. I know that there will be a development in 2 years in the Vine/Overland trail area of all green homes. I've heard from a consultant that it sells itself because people that plan on living there save money over time. • Smith: It is true the LEED program is also piloting or developing a neighborhood rating criteria? Neighborhood scale is where the orientation of houses and that sort of thing, transit options, come into play. So it's not the individual building and its components. The fact that there are going to be rating criteria and assistance in quantifying the benefits is one of the things that will help. Solar orientation would help too. • Levine: Some development projects are of the scale that qualifies them as a complete neighborhood. • Smith: Right, that's what I mean. It's very optimistic. • Collier: I think LEED for neighborhoods is scheduled to be released in 2007. However, sometimes those things are delayed. • York: You know I pick this up every time you come to us. I always try to encourage city government to look at city government itself. It's because the city has so many buildings and it could translate into real savings for tax payers. Maybe more importantly it's walking the walk. I work at Lincoln Center and I know they can benefit from this. • Smith: You are right. Things are happening, maybe not in an absolute comprehensive fashion but in terms of building energy efficiency, the city is going to enter into a performance contract. We'll release an RFP and will select an energy services company to do major retrofits to city buildings. And that is going to address a lot of the energy efficiency aspects. Another relationship to city energy efficiency is the idea that city is going to transition an existing staff person from their role in facilities into an energy manager position. Poudre School District has done this and has been extremely successful with this energy management position. So the combination of having that position and focus, and the certain components in the Action Plan for Sustainability that call for reporting back to the departments on energy use and increasing energy efficiency; together with the energy manager and performance contracts are city goals that will lead to improvements in energy efficiency. The Sustainability Action Plan is calling for improvements in other areas as well like recycling and things. And those are getting under way now, but it's not everything. There are some improvements. I'm not sure how broad your question was Nancy. • York: It's not a question, it was encouragement. • Smith: In what area? • Collier: The biggest savings are in energy and water. • York: Recycling is one issue that I have as far as even having a face on the Lincoln Center and the Senior Center that they really support recycling. When you rent out those rooms and have an event there, there's no recycling. There's recycling bins for the bar and paper recycling, but not in rooms. And lights, there's room for improvement but there's a consciousness that's just not there. • Levine: You could have used Suzie here. • Smith: She's over at City Council right now. • Levine: So Lucinda said that she thought this article was basically accurate as far as some of the numbers but the time frame does make it seem like this is all going to happen by tomorrow. Evidently it's not going to quite be as fast as that. And I guess one of my Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 8 of 22 questions and concerns is that by 2010 (that means by December 31 of 2009) we're tying to go from 25 to 50 percent? That's huge and if we don't start yesterday, when do we start? • Smith: I think the process is underway. A consultant was hired to develop recommendations, and staff is getting options and then getting Council feedback. • Levine: I mean with all these different ways of doing things and with all these entities this has to take some time. It seems like a very short time frame. • Collier: Recycling in terms of CO2 is the biggest. As far as cost savings it's energy and water. We try to work with the whole gambit as much as we can. • York: One of the other areas that disturbs me about business is the amount of Styrofoam and plastic that's used in restaurants. It's so bulky and it's petroleum based and I wish there was a committee that would look into cardboard containers like those the Chinese restaurants use and look into alternative materials. And maybe even have an advantage to buying a bunch of it representing several different businesses. • Collier: That's a very good point and a topic of discussion among the companies with cafeterias such as Whole Foods and Wild Oats. They're going with cardboard and other companies are changing out their Styrofoam. Trinity Lutheran Church was using styro foam cups for all their coffee drinkers. Now they've made ceramic mugs for everyone so they're saving some money. • Levine: Some of the multiplying effect, hopefully some of the synergism is all of those people attending that church will become aware. Just one last thing, I assume of course, you award ClimateWise partners for activities that involve replacing materials and recycling and all that, but what about manufactures who actually make a different product that's more energy efficient? What about the construction companies trying to improve energy efficiency in building homes? • Collier: Yes, there are construction companies that are trying to get into the LEED green building area. It's perfect in that you earn extra points for using certified materials and actually building a product that has rapidly renewable material so you're not cutting down forests. • Levine: How about a solar retrofit company where they just take a house and turn it 90 degrees and put it right back down? • Collier: Let me know if you have any other questions and if they come up do contact me. • Levine: Can I get your powerpoint presentation? There are a couple of numbers in there and if anyone else wants it holler. • Collier: Yes, I will send you the presentation. Please feel free to attend the ClimateWise showcase. • Levine: We have a joint board meeting so will have to miss it. • Collier: Thank you. • Levine: Next item is what we discussed last week. Does the board feel we're finished with ClimateWise? Yes. Discussion About Air Quality Barriers/Opportunities and Transportation Board Agenda • Levine: I did contact several council members last month and within the last couple of weeks. I have had most of the discussion with David Roy who was pretty enthusiastic. All talk so far, voice mail and email. But we had good communication on everything, but Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 9 of 22 non real time. He was fairly enthusiastic and maybe this could overcome humps or barriers in some areas that we could identify. Just like Climate Wise and everything I would think we start off by making sure no other entities are working on this. We don't want to duplicate efforts that have been or are being done now. That's just a waste of time. And the other suggestion, maybe it's the low hanging fruit that we go after. If we think some things are doable and very close to being done, maybe we can find some of the easy stuff • Smith: Would you be interested in discussing, with the transportation board, your interest in looking at these issues? I do know you have a joint meeting next month and Mark Jackson asked the board if they were interested in having a broader conversation with you instead of just having the VMT Best Practices presentation. I didn't know if they had other agenda items scheduled. The Transportation Board would like to have a broader follow-up conversation with you. I think that the VMT Best Practices item will take an hour. It would be helpful for the Transportation Board if you have things specifically you'd like to discuss with them; it would be helpful to let them know in advance. I wondered if that would help shape your conversation here. Are you interested in seeing whether jointly you and the Transportation Board would want to explore some of these questions (on Eric Levine's handout)? On some of them there is clearly overlap and on others there isn't. So it's just something to throw into the mix as you're thinking about it. • Levine: I think that's a great suggestion. Is this meeting on April 19 going to be three hours? • Smith: Yes. Three or two -and -a -half hours but the whole meeting is dedicated to a joint meeting. • Levine: So it sounds like we've got an hour and a half to two hours. • Smith: I would think so, yes. • Levine: It would seem like we can do something substantial in that amount of time. Let's refer to my handout and see if we can fill in some more of list. Any methodology as to what this will be except in the broadest strokes? • Smith: It might help if you identified some questions and if you have, maybe areas for dialog or maybe some specific questions. It seems that some have to do with gathering information and generally raising awareness, learning about each other. • Levine: Referred to the sheet at the bottom bullet: City of Ft. Collins -basic categories. • Macdonald: There's a real relation to traffic. Of course congestion is the real issue. Somehow getting cars off the highway. The public wants to relieve congestion, but is it possible to do that? • Levine: Obviously we're going to discuss emissions, depending on congestion, stop -and - go and how that will change per mile traffic. Also when there's too much congestion will drivers take the long way around to avoid the congestion thus increasing the VMT. • Macdonald: Is there a program underway from the city to look at congestion? Are they studying it? Do they have projects they want to do that are unfulfilled because there's no funding? • Smith: There is an effort called mobility management. It has been delayed because of lack of funding. It is being headed up by the Transportation Department. There is a Congestion Management Plan that was created in 1996. • Levine: It was the first major plan that this board ever reviewed. • Macdonald: It was a congestion management plan? Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 10 of 22 • Levine: Yes, and it was an armful. • Smith: I believe that's been assessed since then, but I don't believe there's been major overhaul. This could be among the questions you might ask. It sounds like you have some basic questions about transport planning, infrastructure creation/standards, the whole gambit. I don't want to get you off track. • Levine: No, we're on track. • Smith: I wonder if we could have someone from Transportation Planning come in and, if you have some specific questions to help guide them, they can give you overview. I have some ideas, but I'm not transportation planner. • Levine: The basic framework in 1996, the city was committed to having the population and VMT grow at same rate. They looked at 6 scenarios; it was a matrix with various land use and different transportation scenarios. Basically, when they ran those models, not one of them met the goals. So they came up with 2 additional scenarios. They were able to twist those so the goals were met but they were very difficult and expensive to achieve but at least there was something on paper which theoretically met those goals. So obviously it's how close can we come to doing this kind of thing. How close the city has come is the amount of congestion/VMT that we have now. That's been an on -going major effort. That's the basic LUTRAQ concept is to have everyone talking and working together. • Macdonald: So it's a 10 year old plan. Is it relevant today? Is it updated? • Smith: I don't know. • Dietrich: So we can add a bullet for assessment and review of the 1996 congestion management plan -what worked and what didn't. And what plans do you have for the future? • Smith: Right. • Levine: We've looked at that plan. • Dietrich: It's 10 years later. Did they follow plan? Did the plan only work the first year? Do they have any plans for the future? I would love to hear what they say if we're going to have discussions with the Transportation Board. • Macdonald: It would be a good thing to discuss. • Smith: They will probably have a basis but I'm not sure. They may not have answers to specific questions. • Levine: I think he needs some background to see how we've done and what we've done and what's worked and what hasn't. It was put into very specific frameworks. Transportation was like T1, T2, and T3. T3 was 30% shift from single occupancy vehicles for instance, using this and this and that regulation and this mixture. And there were various land use scenarios. One was sprawl and one was city with this much density. • Dietrich: What I remember about what was put into practice was that variances were given. We're going to have a certain amount of traffic congestion because we want to build a grocery store there, okay you want to build next that, yeah okay. • Levine: The devil's in the details. The devil's in the variances sometimes because they do add up. I'm assuming that may be some of what happened in terms of the solar orientation. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 11 of 22 • Dietrich: If our objective here is to add some relative discussion let's do it. Add a bullet: Assessment and review of the 1996 congestion management plan. What worked what didn't and where are we going in the future. • Levine: And what have we said that we're going to and haven't done yet. • Levine: It was a very big effort and there were lots of things on table and probably some good things that didn't get picked up. • Dietrich: They're probably chasing the problem rather that fixing it. If the problem begins to be intolerable they try to fix it. • Levine: It's interesting because I remember looking at those models as a member of the new air quality board. The congestion on Shields was very close to that use over time. And I remember those predictions were that incredible amounts of congestion were going to happen. It was almost a country road with very few cars. That incredible amount of congestion that I wouldn't have intuited at all. It didn't happen right when the model said it would. • York: It would seem to me that we can talk about congestion which is related to air quality but I would like to talk about health impacts and also greenhouse gas impacts. Greenhouse gas is becoming a more serious issue everyday. And according to the article, it's at a tipping point. • Levine: That was an article that I sent in. I apologize for the small type. I can assure everyone that if you had a rough time reading it, I had just as rough a time. • York: Maybe it's something that we can collaborate with them, and have an agreement, to send information to each other, such as the article that you've included. That would be exchanged to them and if they find information that's related to global warming or health impact studies they could send it to us • Levine: You brought this up at the last meeting and it was a kind of a placeholder as a possible recommendation. This is on the I-25 corridor and we talked about environmental impacts based on health of people living there. I haven't lost that, but at this meeting we'd need a little more so I'm suggesting that maybe in May we can take it up with even a possible recommendation. We need some information and background to be fully credited. One reason why I'm talking about all these issues and congestion management is because we have a meeting on the 19 with the transportation board. • York: I'm talking about that too. I'm talking about bringing up health impacts with them. • Smith: Them being the transportation board? • York: Yes. And also greenhouse gases and global warming. I go to their meetings sometimes every other month or more often but they never come to ours. • Smith: I think you have a great suggestion. This is an opportunity, among other things, when you have the joint meeting of the two boards to raise in their minds the importance of air quality issues and all of your concerns, objectives, and the issues about greenhouse gasses and health, exactly what you're saying. So as they look into their function, which is the transportation projects, it's fresher in their mind to look at other issues. I think that would actually be really productive and they may have some issues that they would want you to keep in mind as you're looking at projects too, to support their mission. • York: And sustainability issues too. . • Levine: If we're preparing for April 19, it feeds into this anyway. We're talking about creating some synergy here and getting players who make recommendations, etc. together at the table for some dialogue and exchange. So were doing this with a fellow Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 12 of 22 board and one that we're connected to. We should come up with now. We have an hour and a half or two hours evidently for some issues. And we have packets that will go out to both boards and information that will go out to both boards and we can come up with some of that now or between now and then. • York: For sure we should explore how to work more closely together with the transportation board. And have exchange of information be part of it. But a liaison would be great but I understand people are busy. • Macdonald: There's several things related to that. The Smartrips program, isn't that coming to an end? That's a good greenhouse program. That's eliminating the amount of fuel being burned. Greenhouse gases are directly related to how much fuel is burned, which is related to how far and how much people drive in their cars. If the transportation board would do anything it would be to make cars more efficient and make traffic more efficient and reduce the number of trips, some way of combining trips like carpool. Is there anything to replace Smartrips? • Smith: Some of the functions that SmarTrips are currently doing are being taken on by Transportation Planning. The bike planning is not going to go away. Some of the incentive programs are going away unless something changes. The first part of the joint meeting will address some your questions because it will be a VMT best practices review and they will be looking at alternative modes and how cities or communities configure their transportation demand management programs. What elements are in it, such as parking, parking restrictions, transportation planning, alternative modes of transit. Some of that will be looked at and discussed in terms of where we are as a benchmark compared to real models. You were asking what the city is going to do, right? • Macdonald: Yes, I mean the Transportation Board in particular as that's our purpose for going to the meeting, is to see what they're encouraging. • Smith: The Transportation Board has a broad work plan of 6 pages. It covers everything such as capital projects and all modes of planning. How they're going to implement all that I don't know. One thing that you can exchange is to tell them what you perceive biggest barriers to air quality improvement and they can tell you what their biggest barriers are to transportation goals. And that may be, to some extent, some of what you're getting at in terms of providing information back and forth. • Levine: What I was going to say at the very end of the congestion management plan, to close that off, what the city proved to be very good at was modeling. A lot of that modeling absolutely did turn out to be accurate. The fact that the scenarios did happen show that it wasn't as easy to turn things around. That's what the city wasn't good at. • Collier: In response to your question earlier, I do know that Metropolitan Planning Organization is taking over the carpooling and van pool side of the SmartTrips program. They have a carpool database. The vanpool database has almost doubled in the last few years mainly because of gas prices. • Levine: Let's hear it for higher gas prices. • Macdonald: The other thing is the vehicle inspection maintenance program ending this year. Do we know what the impact of that is going to be on air quality? • Smith: We know what the modeled impact is and it shows a slight worsening. We hired a consultant to look at that because the state does models that are not in scale with the city. I can send you the pdf. It shows a little bump then it shows it going back down as the cleaner cars become more and more predominant. It does allow a worsening which is Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 13 of 22 why we tried to have it be retained as long as possible and why we're exploring alternatives to it now. • Macdonald: I'd like to see that. • Smith: Okay. • Levine: What of course made me very concerned were that it was obviously a push in the state to end inspection program in Ft.Collins. The original models (Model 5b)showed that our air quality would be much worse without the emissions program When they didn't like that, they went to a Mobile 6 that was so new it wasn't even out for municipal consumption yet. It was a beta testing model. It showed something much different from what I would have intuited and they used that beta model. With models, what you put into them is what you'll get out of them. Just a couple of assumptions slightly different can really affect the prediction of model. And the state had a big incentive. It would be good to see both model predictions, model 5B and the original. • Smith: I will provide what I can. • York: Are we going to get the city to do some other pick up where emissions testing leaves off? • Smith: That remains to be seen. I was going to talk briefly about the pilot high -emitter project that we'll be doing this year. Potentially that could lead to a recommendation to do a local or regional or front range wide high -emitter program. Amazingly there's a bill in the state legislature that's proposing a high emitter program to be paid for by motorist at a $9 fee at registration. I'm surprised that something like that would come from the legislature. Year after year, I've heard that the Legislature would never go for remote sensing and here it is. I don't know if it really has a life. Governor Owens may not sign the bill. • York: The reason why I asked that question is we could look to them to try to lobby them to be part of our lobby for what ever we want from city council. And we should probably keep track of the bill and perhaps that would be another way to lobby and also help raise consciousness about emissions. • Levine: There's an article in Rocky Mountain News about a week and a half ago that read mobile emissions got a bad report card. • Smith: Are you saying the emissions testing? • Levine: The remote sensing program. • Smith: I can email you that article if you want. • Levine: I looked on line but couldn't find it. Sometimes it's easier to spend the two quarters. • Smith: I think, in summary, that article said that it wasn't doing its job in terms of screening out vehicles. They are now allowed to screen out up to 50% and they only screen out 15% or 8 %, a very small percentage, for a variety of reasons. • Dietrich: There have been a lot of false failures through the years. • Smith: Yes, there have been a lot of false failures. • Levine: The regular programs that we're getting rid of, and the rest that people want to get rid of, do a better job at this point at doing remote sensing? • Smith: Yes, in terms of providing air quality benefit, yes. It does involve a lot more people who have clean cars. The hope of the remote sensor is the technology where you just focus on hi polluting cars. • Dietrich: Remote sensing is difficult. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 14 of 22 • Levine: We had a demonstration of it; not only the basic remote sensing but some of the very new technology as well. It's still Steadman's technology? • Smith: It's fundamentally based on Dr. Don Steadman's technology but the state is using a device provided by ESP (Envirotest), the same company that runs the lanes down there. • Dietrich: Lucinda brought up a good point regarding the Transportation Board. Why don't we list a series of things considered to be barriers to air quality? Do we want to do that? • Levine: Yes, why don't we do that. • Macdonald: The barriers are we need to reduce the number of vehicles and increase the efficiency of vehicles. • Levine: Reduce the amount of driving. • Macdonald: I don' know how you say this but the transportation board may know. Is there any way to get some sort of institutional changes to get more people off the roads? I'll use the school district as an example. All the kids drive to high school, is there anyway to reduce that number? • Levine: Does transportation look at that that much? Seems like a lot of their focus is alternative and better ways to get around but of course the best way is efficiency. Do it more efficiently or don't do it at all. Which would translate into actual VMT reduction. • Smith: I think that the type of travel that people do which is the patterns, like commuting from school or home to school, to work and those kinds of patterns, are taken into account in transportation models that are used to plan ahead for the transportation infrastructure. In that way, maybe it's taken into account. In terms of actually looking into the reason why people are making those trips instead of coming up with other strategies to reduce it, that may happen in a piecemeal fashion. • Dietrich: An example would be CSU, they look at transport system to reduce the number of vehicle miles there. But when you look at Poudre School District, they never look at that. CSU is actually transportation planned to reduce the number of vehicles that drive. More people take the bus than drive. Poudre School District can be a similar type of scenario but it's not isolated. What do you do to get fewer kids to drive to high school? • Levine: The main approach to reducing VMT has never been the transportation so much as it's been land use; that is one of the contributing factors. If you build properly people don't have to drive and they can make closer trips to where they work, shop and live. Once your land use is sprawled out and everything is total suburbia in very low densities it's more difficult to cut down on VMT. That's why we have the LUTRAQ process. We can use another board, like Planning and Zoning or Natural Resources in this meeting and get all the entities together to discuss the waste. • York: The Transportation Board weighs in on plans just as we do. It would be interesting to find out how many Poudre High School students ride the bus verses well, there is no bus that goes. • Cherie: My son drove because we were out of the district. They changed the school district and all his friends were going there. We're on Mulberry Street by the Lincoln Center and since he wanted to go to Poudre and since there's no city bus, and there's no school bus and I'm working so he drove. • Dietrich: But the school district could provide a bus given they had the money. The bus systems for the high schools could be provided. It could be done, it can't be said that it couldn't be done. It just takes money. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 15 of 22 • York: By the school districts? • Dietrich: It's a matter of money. I don't care who does it. The school district doesn't have enough dollars per student to do it. The city has never taken on that responsibility and no one else has. But if you stand in front of Poudre High School, how many buses do you think come in? And Poudre, I would think, would be one of the bigger high schools, maybe 4 or 5 come in? • Cherie: Yes. • Dietrich: Not 20 buses, 4 or 5. So the only thing Poudre High School buses probably do is go up Poudre Canyon and make long reaches. Everybody in town needs to drive. • York: There's a city bus that goes out there. • Cherie: But they don't want to ride the bus, that's not cool. • Dietrich: There are so many choices and all kids want to drive to school. So how do you change that? Is that something the transportation board or anybody else can change? • Levine: That's a good question. And I've put the bike route here for a reason. I've done some market research in the last couple years, gotten a few bicycles, traveled more and in my opinion, this may be 80% of the bike transportation system. But you need close to 100%.I mean 80% is almost nothing, there's a lot of people in Ft. Collins. We just need a little more to make it viable. And the bicycle route is great for recreational riding and that's gone up by leaps and bounds. I'm suggesting that that should be an option for school kids as well as the community; a bicycle system that works. Obviously we can't use it all year round, I know that's a big problem. • Cherie: It would help them if they had a bus. There's no way my son would ride in ice and snow. • Dietrich: The only way kids would do that is if you forced them. • Cherie: At least if they had a bus when it snowed out. • Dietrich: The Eastern schools have the school buses because they don't allow the kids to drive to school. • Cherie: That would help because they all leave at lunch and then they're late coming back and they're truant and it would help the school district. • Dietrich: The reason why they let the students leave is because there's no teachers to watch them. • Smith: It's actually required in Loveland that the students leave at lunch. • Dietrich: Those kinds of things have to change if we're going to reduce major congestion. • Smith: I wonder if it would be helpful to see what city trip demographics are, just to get a sense. Where are the most trips happening, are they from home to work, length or number of trips or home to school? Those kinds of questions would help you get grounded on where to focus your efforts. • Dietrich: Does the Transportation board have that kind of information? • Smith: Yes, the transportation staff does, it goes into all the models. When they were doing the Mason Street Corridor, they did a comprehensive community travel survey where they stood out in different parts of the city and handed out flyers into people's cars and asked them to mail back. They got the data and that goes into the model. That's pretty incredible detail. • Dietrich: I would love to see that. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 16 of 22 • Levine: We need to do a time check, we're running out of time. Let's say we have an hour and a half with the transportation board for some issues. Maybe we should pick a couple and some materials that would equal up to that time. This doesn't have to be the last meeting we ever have with them. • Smith: (Reviewed T-Board 2006 work plan) Is this helpful at all? Transportation financing for transit is one of the main items on their work -plan. Here I see CSU transport funding and I've heard a lot of concerns and questions about Poudre School District. • Levine: Let's put that there. And also Nancy mentioned something about health effects. • Smith: Yes. • Dietrich: Along Nancy's questions, are there statistics on health? Has respiratory disease gone up or down? Things like that. • Smith: No there's not, Cherie's asked that question too. I'm not aware of readily available statistics. They exist at the statewide level and you might be able to apply those. And there are specific studies that talk about health effects in proximity to transportation corridors too. So the question is are you talking about general health statistics or in relation to transportation or both? • Dietrich: Specific to Fort Collins. • Levine: I don't think we have something, but I think one of those studies was done in the Denver area. • Adamy: Do you know if the city transportation services have any objectives when they're designing the transport system and making decisions? Do they incorporate health any issues? It sounds as though it's not their decision to consider that. • Smith: I am afraid I don't know whether they quantitatively factor in health effects or not. I know they consider it and there's language in the transportation plan and in the various more specific plans that talk about health benefits from reducing congestion and things. I don't know to what extent the Land Use Code has considered health effects. I know it's considered the health effects like not allowing daycare facilities to locate right next to certain air pollution sources. I don't know how that process happens, but there has been a consideration of health there. One question might be to what extent does the transportation department factor in health. • Levine: So we have two issues so far? • Smith: Health is one... • Levine: The school transportation issue and the health issue. • Smith: Okay, so school district and health. • Dietrich: We can broaden the school district topic with Lucinda's stats on where the major trips go to. We can focus on that, the first one being home to work, what are you doing about that. And the second one being home to school and what are you doing about that. • Cherie: And all the movie theatres are out south. It's the whole planning where certain things are in one location so everyone drives. • Dietrich: We can add home to recreation. • Levine: Don't the movie theatres have a campus east and campus west location? They got 20,000 college students right there. • Cherie: Do they still have that? • Levine: No, they got those multi-plexes that are 8 % miles out of town. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 17 of 22 • Smith: The city structure plan has tried to incorporate an activity center concept. This is where there are hubs with multi uses in proximity to neighborhoods and they're fed by transportation corridors and you can see it on a plan. There are several challenges in terms of getting it implemented on the ground. And then getting people going to the thing that is right in their neighborhood. • Dietrich: I think, in general, those plans were based on those types of businesses that used to be owned by small business vendors and now they're owned by large corporations. • Cherie: Maybe the city should charge for things that are going to cause a lot of traffic. Something to discourage it. • Dietrich: Location is not within our suit. • Cherie: I know, it's pretty hard and frankly that causes a lot of driving. • Levine: It causes transportation budgetary shortfalls. • York: The fact that growth is not paying its own way. • Levine: Transportation is the main issue. • York: I heard Ron Phillips and I went to a transfort meeting last week and Ron Phillips said that gas taxes and fees and stuff only pays for 25% of maintenance of our roads here in Ft. Collins. Growth not paying its own way is not an air quality issue, per se. • Levine: The transportation board deals a lot more with that more than we do, with all of their transportation short falls that happen. • Smith: Right, and provision of finance remains one of their main focuses. • York: Communication, ways for our two boards to work together. That should be explored. And global greenhouse gases. You know the only way that we can address all of it, the schools and congestion and everything, comes down to transit. • Levine: Is this going to be on the agendas for April 19? • Smith: Yes, you're going to have a common agenda, it's going to be one agenda. • Levine: Okay. • Smith: I will work with you and with Mark Jackson and we'll all work together to shape this. We have some specific questions identified and specific areas of conversation and they may have some too. • York: Reviewing the handout under the collaboration part, are there projects that we can work on together? • Levine: Under the communications part of the document, hopefully that will be a little shorter because we have two issues that may take up an hour and a half. And I'm saying an hour and a half so that maybe they'll have half an hour for their issues. • York: I would like us to be up to speed on that bill in legislature. • Smith: Okay, for that meeting? It's not a transportation issue, not a LUTRAQ issue, but more automotive. It might be better to focus on LUTRAQ type issues to optimize the time frame. • Levine: I think that with all of these people at the table, everything is going to take longer because there's going to be a little more inertia, more ballast. And I'm getting leery about putting too much on the agenda. • York: And the transportation board has large board. • Adamy: Didn't there used to be collaboration between Natural Resources and the Parks and Recreation Departments? Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 18 of 22 • Smith: I think they had joint work sessions. Which in board terminology, the work sessions are an informal meeting where minutes don't have to be taken. They sit and talk. • Adamy: Could this be structured that way? • Smith: Absolutely, it could be. This is going to be a "work session" for the air quality board because it's not your regular meeting time and it's going to be the transportation board's regular meeting. Do you want a regular meeting in April or not? I was assuming that this would take the place of your regular meeting but I just want to check with you. • Levine: I don't know. I'll find out. Do we need to make a formal motion or is everyone comfortable or not? • Smith: You have the option of planning it that way then if something came up where you felt it was really important to have your regular meeting then the regular meeting can happen. • Macdonald: I move at this point that we assume that our meeting with the Transportation Board meeting take the place of our regular meeting. • Levine: It doesn't seem like the agendas right now are incredibly heavy so I would be for an extra meeting pending the work load. We don't need to meet just for meeting's sake. • York: I think there's some incredibly important issues happening but I also feel very frustrated in being able to address critical issues. Does everybody know what I mean? • Cherie: No, what critical issues? • York: The issues of air quality and its impact on health and global warning are really important critical issues that we're not addressing. • Adamy: In regard to what Nancy is saying, we go to the Transportation Board meeting and their best practices VMT raises some issues that we'd like to discuss then the meeting after that regularly scheduled meeting would be a good opportunity to discuss. I think that will raise a lot of issues for us. • Levine: That can be option. • York: My frustration is bigger than the next meeting. The barriers are people's willingness to accept the topic nature of the solution because we love our cars and we'll drive `em. And people are reluctant to go to transit. • Adamy: I think another barrier also is the willingness of taxpayers to support funding. • York: I read, as far as transit projects go, something like 78% of ballot issues have been passed. I think people are becoming aware. As far as the kids driving to school, I think education about the impacts of kids driving to school would help modify that. • Dietrich: We have to have alternatives. The other barriers are political barriers and the economics of the situation. If it becomes unaffordable to drive then people won't drive. • York: It is kind of approaching that, the cost benefits of transit. What was that presentation that Brian mentioned? In that it said cities have a 500% increase in funds? What was that he was talking about? • Levine: You mean mobility management. • York: Yes, mobility management. That's what it is. • Levine: That's the term that Todd Litman from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute was saying. But to me, VMT, they say is a negative term and that the public doesn't understand it, but to me it's a quantifiable tern and a number. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 19 of 22 • Smith: It's more than just miles driven because it has to do with delay. That's the simple way that I understand it. It's not just miles, it's what kind of driving you do on those miles. • Levine: I guess my problem is since it's not quantifiable it could mean different things to different folks. • York: What Brian said was that in communities with a substantial investment in public transit, if you look at the stats on household expenditures they're saving five times as much. The speaker at the transfort meeting was a woman from Denver who is a transit based developer. I can't imagine the business community not insisting on transit because it's so beneficial to business. • Smith: That relates to the study of whether Ft. Collins can develop a transportation management area. There may or may not be potential that Ft. Collins businesses would be willing to help fund alternative transportation. • Levine: When are we going to get Victoria's results? April or May.) • Smith: April. • Levine: What about the council work session? Is it May 23? • Smith: I'm not sure. I don't think it's scheduled for a council work session. There was a transit, some sort of TDM update on the 23. • York: On the 23. It's a work session and it's a TDM presentation. • Smith: You can probably ask to have that made here. We have to find out exactly what it was. • Levine: That leaves one problem (conflict of Air Quality Board meetings with Council work session). • Smith: It is a problem and it's happened twice. • Levine: I'm surprised it's happening that much. • Smith: I know. It's just that Tuesday night conflicts with a study session. • Smith: I'm going to do a quick presentation on air quality. I can email it as well. What would you prefer? • Engell: Email works best for me. • Smith: Okay, if it's small I will bring printed copies. Air Quality Outreach Results and Plans Smith: Melissa Moran officially resigned her position with the city and we're in the process of trying to refill her position. That's why I'm talking to you about Track To Win. Smith proceeds with Air Quality Presentation-Trac to Win. Lucinda Smith provided the Board with a summary of the Track to Win campaign, held in the Fall 2005, and presented the air quality benefits results. Lucinda Smith asked if the board had any questions or comments on the program. • York: It is a good educational tool. • Engell: It raises awareness. • Adamy: Wasn't there a gas cap study? Was that included in this portion of your presentation? Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 20 of 22 • Smith: No, it wasn't included in this part of the presentation. It's not part of track to win, which was totally focused on citizens. • Engell: Is it going to be during same time of year? • Smith: It doesn't necessarily have to be. Do you think there were some problems with the timing last year? • Engell: I would recommend doing it during a more seasonable time of year to encourage biking and walking. People naturally assume it's winter and it's colder so they're less apt to walking and biking. Maybe if we did it in the spring time it could be an awareness that would last all season. I can see people getting out as an incentive but burning out as the weather gets colder. • Smith: Or in this case maybe in the fall because we're not prepared to do it in the spring because that was something that Melissa did. But I think that was a fair point. • Levine: What about early fall? • Smith: Like when? • Levine: Like September when people are back in school but still in summer behavior mode because early fall is pretty nice weather generally. • Smith: I agree, it makes sense to me. • Adamy: Are we considering adding some issues for things to do? • Smith: Do you have some? • Adamy: One idea would be to have them attend one or more board meetings, like air quality for educational purposes. • Smith: Any other ideas? • Dietrich: How many people did you expect to respond? • Smith: I think Melissa was hoping for 1000 but I can't say for sure. • York: Stop at the click should be added. • Engell: How about a referral incentive. You get your friends signed up as result of your participation. Would they get points? • York: If your check engine light goes on you can take car to an auto store and they will do an evaluation to check it out for free. Checkers also does an electronic analysis and you can borrow tools and you can take your old oil in and dump it at Checkers, but you take containers home. Lots of people drive with check engine light on and they ignore it. • Smith: You're right and it's especially bad if the light is flashing.... then, take it in right away! We have a flyer somewhere that was put together with a grant. We can try to get that out there. • York: Put that in the utility bill. • Smith: Yes, it's hard to know which things to focus on. Lucinda Smith proceeded with a presentation on Ozone and Hieh-Emitter The Board received a presentation about City plans to address this summer ozone (Stop at the Click Stickers, Lawn Mower Rebate program, gas cap program, general public outreach), about new developments related to the Colorado Ozone Action Plan, and about the federally funded "Pilot Emissions Repair Program" that will kick off later this spring. • Smith: It's past eight; would you like to continue for another five minutes? • Levine: Let's continue and we'll do the minutes really quick after this and won't review any board agendas or any of that. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 21 of 22 • Smith: Okay, presentation is continued. • York: I move that we approve the minutes • Levine: Any additions/corrections to the minutes? Minutes With the following changes, the minutes of the February 28, 2006 meeting were unanimously approved: • Adamy- Remove Adamy from saying, "our role as a board is to advise council" and state unknown. • Levine- Change April 16 to April 19. Other Business/Announcements Lucinda Smith noted the next meeting will be at the 215 Community room and they usually start at 6:00 on April 19. Eric requested to have coffee there. • York: Are we going to get a DVD on transforts strategic plan? • Levine: Let's do those. Council is giving so many presentations and DVDs are so cheap now. • Smith: I might see if they can put all recent transportation related work sessions presentations onto one DVD and then you'll have a choice. But then there might be a couple of others that might be of interest to you too. That way you don't get 10 DVDs. • Levine: I agree. Fill it up as much as it will hold. Air Quality Advisory Board 3/28/2006 Page 22 of 22 Meeting adjourned 8:17PM Submitted by Tara McGibben Administrative Secretary I Approved by the Board on Lam' '5� k. : 2006 Signed Tara McGibben Date Administrative Secretary I Extension: 6600