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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 05/16/2007MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD Regular Meeting 200 W. Mountain, Suite A May 16, 2007 For Reference: Ryan Staychock, NRAB Chair - 481-1801 Ben Manvel, Council Liaison - 217-1932 John Stokes, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Alan Apt, Glen Colton, Amy Dean, Rob Petterson, Joseph Piesman, Liz Pruessner, Clint Skutchan, Ryan Staychock Board Members Absent Linda Knowlton Staff Present Natural Resources Dent: John Stokes, Judi Vos Storm Water — Bob Smith Guests None present. The meeting was called to order at 6:04 p.m Review and Approval of Minutes: Liz moved to approve the minutes for April 18, 2007. 1 Colton seconded the motion which passed unanimously Boxelder/Cooper Slough Master Plan — Recommendations • Staychock asked if there were comments on the draft memorandum he had prepared for the Board's consideration. • Colton commented that it looked good. He would like to see it reference the sections in the City Plan. • Pruessner reminded the Board of Knowlton's suggestion in April that the memo should not reference City Plan. • Smith agreed that it may not be necessary. • Colton said he wants to make sure Council recognizes the items cited are in the City Plan. He feels it is important to have substance on how the Board came up with the information. • Apt agreed. • Ryan said to further address Knowlton's concerns; the Board needs to make two recommendations. The first would be that Council adopt the Boxelder plan and a similar motion related to Cooper Slough. Natural Resources Advisory Board May 16, 2007 Page 2 of 6 Colton moved to adopt the draft and reference the sections that relate to Boxelder specifically. Staychock agreed to reference the sections cited from the City Plan. Alan seconded the motion which was unanimous. Apt moved that the Natural Resources Advisory Board recommend to Council to support the Upper Cooper Slough executive summary that follows in accordance with the City of Fort Collin's City Plan. Dean seconded the motion which was unanimously approved Natural Resources General Fund Budget — John Stokes Stokes explained that the Department is just beginning to draft offers for the budgeting for outcomes (BFO) process. Once the offers are completed they will be presented to the Environmental Health results team. He stated there are currently 6.05 FTE's working on air quality, solid waste reduction, and greenhouse gas emissions with 5.05 FTEs funded in general fund and 1 FTE funded by the Utility program (Kathy Collier, Climate Wise program). The department proposes to continue with all the current programs and is asking for additional staff. The Natural Resources department general fund took a big hit (about 30%) several years ago. Going forward the department would like to fund current staff and bring in an additional 1.5 positions in staff: • .75 — Climatewise, '/z Tech, '/4 PR/Marketing • .5 — Sustainability Action Group - Need that person to help achieve sustainability goals and help the program to be successful • .25 — Solid Waste - bring Gordon back up to full-time — They are not currently staffed at a level to keep progress with goals. Stokes said if staffing stays the same, the Climate Wise program would have to stop accepting new members. He explained that the additions first have to go through the Service Area director. If approved, the offers are presented to the results team who gets an allocation from the Budget Lead team. The department will revise and resubmit the offers based on comments/suggestions from the results team. If the offers make it over the line, they go to the Budget Lead team and then to Council. • Petterson asked when it would be appropriate for the Board to offer their input. • Stokes replied that would be before the second round which would be June/July. • Petterson said he would be inclined to do it earlier. • Stokes said it would be appropriate for the Board to send a memo to council with recommendations and copy the chairman of the results team. Discussion followed about the types of recommendations that would be appropriate to come from the Board and the offers related to program dollars. Natural Resources Advisory Board May 16, 2007 Page 3 of 6 In response to a question asking Stokes if he would like to ask for other items above the offers currently submitted, he stated that he feels the proposed offers are on the right track for the program to be maximally effective. Stokes agreed to prepare a brief presentation for the June meeting to be followed by Board discussion. Cache La Poudre River Corridor National Heritage Area — Bill Bertschy Bertschy said the law was passed in 1996 by Congress establishing the Cache La Poudre National Heritage Area which has a Board of Directors. The Board consists of Weld County, Larimer County, Windsor, Greeley, Windsor, Fort Collins US Forest Service and National Parks Service. It is under the jurisdiction of the National Parks. Bertschy represents the Friend's of the Poudre. The National Heritage Area runs from the mouth of the Poudre to the confluence of the Platte River. Following a DVD presentation on the Poudre Heritage Alliance Bertschy continued by summarizing some of the issues. He said there is a fear of loosing the agricultural landscape in Weld County. The County and City have done more than Weld by establishing open spaces, dedicated sales tax and GOCO money to build trails. The importance of the corridor is that it has the potential to add an overlay to the river that is over appropriated; it would protect our piece and add an additional level of protection, and encourage us and our neighbors to save what is left. He explained that the corridor was created in 1996 and some funding was appropriated for about 10 years. Some great things have been done with funding including: - Oral history of old timers - 24 interpretive signs have been erected - Video - Ethnographic study done by a grad student at UNC - History of corridor done from the entire natural history of corridor - Management plan He said it has been hung up in congress waiting on a technical corrections bill. The bill allowed for local representation on the heritage Board which the court ruled unconstitutional in Natural Heritage legislation. The needed correction by congress has languished. The bill will allow additional funding, environmental education and additional protection of the corridor. Staychock asked Bertschy to explain the role of the National Heritage areas and its function. Bertschy responded that it is to help protect and interpret areas significant in the history of the United States. He said there is concern over the rapid development on the Poudre River corridor. If minimum stream flows are not kept there will be no reason to try to interpret the heritage. He said the Friend's of the Poudre are dedicated to the free flow of the river. Following a brief discussion about the issues relating to the technical corrections bill, Petterson asked if Bertschy would be taking this to Council and if he was looking to the NRAB for support. • Staychock said he would like the Board to ask council to revisit this and ask them to direct some staff time to the project. Natural Resources Advisory Board May 16, 2007 Page 4 of 6 Colton said Fort Collins should be a leader saying there are more important things than regional roads. Part of that would be protecting the river, agriculture, open spaces, land and the heritage of the area. Petterson said he felt like it's about getting funding for the heritage area. He would be very cautious in any memo of support about tying the heritage area to a broader concern about growth. He didn't disagree with the points Colton made but feels the Board should be politically savvy about how they identify the issues they are supporting. It's important to support the river, and the heritage. They could then address some of the more negative things separately. Apt asked if Bertschy wants the Board to take action during this meeting. Bertschy said yes. He hopes the Board could support the technical corrections. They want to get on Council's agenda soon. Petterson said he would like to see the proposal that is going to Council. He would like to see the old resolution and look at it again next month. Following discussion about what the recommendation would look like, Stokes suggested that it would make sense for the Friends of the Poudre to go to Council with their resolution, Council will ask staff to comment and it will come back to the Board at that time. • Staychock said he is concerned that they might miss the opportunity to give input on the national level. • Stokes said he would like to propose that the Board support the enactment of the Poudre River Heritage technical amendments, vote tonight to give a recommendation to Council to recommend that Congress adopt this act. • Staychock said he would draft a memo and forward to the Board for comment. Apt made a motion supporting the technical corrections bill for the National Heritage Area for the Poudre River. Petterson seconded the motion which was unanimously approved. Staychock said he would send a hard copy, and information to support the technical corrections. New Business Stokes said Lucinda Smith had asked if the Board would appoint an alternate to the Climate Task Force. He said in the event that Liz was unable to attend a meeting that the alternate would go in her place. Petterson nominated Ryan Staychock as the alternate representative of the Climate Task Force. Pruessner seconded the nomination which was unanimously approved. Apt commented that he would like to see something about green buildings on the next agenda. Natural Resources Advisory Board May 16, 2007 Page 5 of 6 Committee Meetings Pruessner gave a brief summary of the Environmental Economics committee meeting. Phil Freidman gave a presentation on the UniverCity Connections Energy Sustainability team's recommendations. They have a goal to do a demo project with net zero energy between residential, city and the university doing a 5 kW reduction which is 10% of the total for those three areas. This would include: • Conservation • Monitoring and reducing loads at peak times • Renewable energy demo projects • Educational aspect If they can show that it could be done (just a 10% reduction) it could help to get people on Board and jumpstart other Fort Collins industries. These projects could show people what can be done in a relatively short period of time. Apt mentioned a related item he would like to see on the agenda. When the Board spoke with Utilities about purchasing renewable energy credits, they said they were constrained to fund local wind because they have a least cost policy. He would like to see the Board look at the policy and work with the electric Board to get the policy changed. Six Month Planning Calendar Staychock said he would add the following items to the long term agenda: • Energy Policy • Glade • RTA • Green Building June — • ClimateWise • Budgeting for Outcomes • Glade Reservoir - EIS There was discussion about Glade Reservoir and what action the Board would like to take. • Staychock said he feels the Board should have addressed this a long time ago sending a memo to Council saying they were for/against the project. He believes if they wait for the EIS to come out, the proposed action in that EIS is likely to be what happens. He feels the Board missed the opportunity as a community and individual citizens to derail the project. If the is going to engage the conversation, they need to look at how it can be the most environmentally friendly project possible. • Stokes said the NCWCD will talk to council next week. • Apt commented that it would be good timing after Council has that meeting for the Board to say they oppose it. • Petterson asked that when the Board has a discussion about Glade on the agenda that they have a structured conversation directed toward a result. • Staychock asked in writing his recommendations, how does he incorporate the comments of other Board members that were not present at the meeting. • Colton said take their comments but they weren't here for the vote. Natural Resources Advisory Board May 16, 2007 Page 6 of 6 Petterson suggested that Staychock use his judgment as the chair for the Board, having listened to the discussion, craft something that represents the discussion at the meeting and add constructive comments if they have them. If the result is disagreeable, they will let him know. The meeting was adjourned at 8:10. Submitted by Judi Vos Adman Support Supervisor