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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 01/09/2008M • MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS LAND CONSERVATION & STEWARDSHIP BOARD Regular Meeting 200 W. Mountain, Suite A January 9, 2008 DATE: Wednesday, January 9, 2008 LOCATION: 200 W. Mountain Avenue, Suite A TIME: 6:00 p.m. • 0 For Reference: Linda Stanley - 493-7225 Mayor Doug Hutchinson - 416-2154 John Stokes, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Raymond Boyd, Linsey DeBell, Greg Eckert, Michelle Grooms, Trudy Haines, Vicky McLane, Linda Stanley, Dave Theobold, Karyl Ting Board Members Excused Council Liaison Mayor, Doug Hutchinson Staff Present Natural Resources / Natural Areas Department: Geri Kidawski, Mark Sears, John Stokes Kristin Powell, Acting Lead Ranger, City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Guests Stephen J. Steinbicker, Architecture West, LLC Jerry Robinson, Stewart & Associates Public Comments Agenda Review Stokes: I would like to talk briefly at the end of the meeting about community separators. Stanley: I would like to talk about a letter being circulated about Red Fox Meadows. Review and Approval of Minutes Vicky McLane moved to approve the December 12, 2007 meeting minutes. Michelle Grooms second. They were unanimously approved. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board January 9, 2008 Page 2 of 6 Volunteer Trail Host Program • Powell: I have been a Ranger with the City of Fort Collins since 1997, and I'm here this evening to talk about the Volunteer Trail Host Program (VTH). Volunteers are given a polo shirt, ball cap, name tag and a wind breaker or jacket all marked with the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Volunteer Trail Host logo. Powell's presentation included these talking points: o VTH program started in 2005 and has 54 active hosts. o Volunteers receive 15 hours training plus 5 in-service hours and are expected to give 20 hours patrol each year. o Primary duties are: • Serve as a visible presence in natural areas to enhance visitor experience, answer questions, monitor conditions, visitor safety and resource protection o Training is conducted primarily by rangers; volunteers practice field scenarios with rangers and each other. o Training topics include: • Safety, visitor contact, authority of the resource, emergency procedures, observation skills, natural area regulations and common violations, reporting methods, property mapping and more. • Powell: Hosts contributed 581 site visits hours in 2007 alone. They sign up for "site visits" and prepare log data on line. The log data is compiled weekly and the Rangers respond to VTH logs by email. VTH special appreciation events include exclusive Soapstone Prairie Natural Area tours, Gateway tour, CPR/I" aid and annual picnic. • Haines: How do you schedule volunteers for certain events or requests? • Powell: Our IT department set up an Access account management database where Hosts are assigned a password and can log in and sign up for an event or a site visit, and also record actual hours spent during the site visit among other things. • McLane: What are the male / female age splits? • Powell: We have quit a few retired folks, actually more males than females, we also have a few college students and several couples. • Grooms: What does patrol mean? • Powell: Mostly the Hosts walk trails; talk with hikers, bikers and equestrians and answerer questions. Sometimes, like at Bobcat Ridge they are stationed in the parking lot because that can be a very busy Natural area. • McLane: How do they handle a dog off leash in a Natural Area? • Powell: We do want the Host to make the contact, but only to their comfort level. • Grooms: Do they have a radio to call a Ranger? • Powell: We ask that they cant' their personal cell phone; in fact that is one of the requirements. We have one Ranger number and whoever is on duty that day will receive the cell phone call. In a few Natural Areas there is no cell phone reception so we have two way radios that the Host may pick up at the NIX office and use to contact a Ranger. M Land Conservation & Stewardship Board January 9, 2008 Page 3 of 6 • • Grooms: Do the VTH's have to re -up every year? • Powell: We do not have a re -up commitment currently, but we are talking about this. We are planning a partnership with Larimer County because our programs are similar and we have some adjoining properties. It would be nice to have a collaborative training. • Haines: You are looking to join forces. • Powell: Yes, we would have one account management system, and standard uniforms. • Haines: Would you consider two tiers of volunteers. One that you can rely on to do the events and commit to the hours and another tier that commits at a lower level of commitment. • Powell: That is a good suggestion. We are also thinking about a mentoring program where we would ask a VTH to consider making that commitment and perhaps getting involved in the training process also, giving us a two tier volunteer program. • Theobald: You've been highlighting the patrol aspects of the Volunteer Trail Host Program; to what extent can the volunteers provide information about the ecology. • Powell: Not to a large extent because we focus on public contact. This may fall under the title of the Master Naturalist program. • Ting: Do you have a way to tabulate dog incidents? • Powell: We do not have a way to extrapolate that information from the reports. • • Powell: In the spring we will collaborate with Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol. We are also looking into partnering with Larimer County to team train all future VTH recruits. We are discussing a name change to "Volunteer Ranger Assistants". • Haines: You can advertise through the Poudre Wilderness Volunteer program. I'd be happy to help with recruitment. • Grooms: How do you volunteer? • Powell: On the fc.gov.com web site under Natural Areas there is an on-line application under the volunteer tab, and a few months before our training program we start a media campaign. We also post program information at different Natural Area kiosks. • Stokes: We created a new position in the education outreach program, and Zoe Wyman has the position of Community Relations Coordinator. Sue Kenney is still with us and we hired Susan Schafer for the Education Volunteer Coordinator position. We are revising our internal strategic plan and one of the new goals is to greatly increase the use of volunteers in all elements of our program. This will be a job requirement where staff will have to use volunteers in some capacity in their work so we can grow our relationship with the volunteer community. Mustang Meadows Easement • Sears: J-B Investments, Inc., owner of approximately 52 acres located in the • southeast quadrant of intersection I-25 and prospect Roads is requesting a non- Land Conservation & Stewardship Board January 9, 2008 Page 4 of 6 exclusive drainage easement on, over, and across the contiguous 105 acre City of Fort Collins property formerly known as the Vangbo property located in the Timnath Community separator area on the east side of I-25 East Frontage road The requested easement is necessary to meet Larimer County's development requirements for the applicant's 52 acre property to the north of the easement area. The drainage easement is necessary to accommodate historic drainage from the proposed development. No negative financial impact is expected from this action. Pursuant to the requirements of the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas and Open Lands Easement Policy and the Natural Areas General Resource Protection and Restoration Standards, the applicant has paid the initial application fee of $500 and will be required to compensate the City Natural Areas program $7,900 for the Grant of the non-exclusive easement based on current land values as determined by Real Estate Services. • Haines: How wide is the ditch now? • Robinson: It is a shallow flood irrigation ditch. • McLane: You're taking 30 feet off the Vangbo property, how does this affect the value of the property? • Sears: We need to have that drainage cross in that way, and that is why they are compensating us $7,900. • Haines: What is going in at Mustang Meadows? • Steinbicker: At the north edge at East Prospect there is RV Service and Sales. This area is currently zoned commercial. • Haines: What type of commercial building will there be? • Steinbicker: An office warehouse, some retail, and closer to the intersection there may be some bank services. None of this is part of this proposal at this point. • Haines: What is to the West? • Steinbicker: Underdeveloped light residential and landscape ownership. • Haines: What will happen to that? • Steinbicker: Anything to the West is under the City of Fort Collins, and anything to the East is under the offices of Timnath and there is no emanate application for development. • McLane: Who maintains the 30 foot ditch? • Robinson: We do, the developer / property owners have that responsibility. This will be described in the easement document. • Haines: Of this area how much will be paved vs. buildings vs. open space? • Robinson: In the conceptual plan all the lots that are going into this area are fairly good size. We designed our range for 80 percent of pervious surfaces. • Haines: Are you requiring green space? • Robinson: The City of Fort Collins has requirements for green space. • Theobald: You are required to maintain the ditch, what are the standards or levels for weed maintenance. Is there a management plan? • Sears: The vegetation would be the property owners' responsibility. J-B Investments, Inc. will be required to restore the property to like vegetation. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board January 9, 2008 Page 5 of 6 • • Stanley: Mark when do you check on restoration for instance, if it has been done properly? • Sears: We monitor frequently, but it takes a number of years for vegetation to fully restore. • Haines: Is there discussion regarding green area space and how much will be set aside? • Stokes: The Community Separator does not include this property; it has been zoned for development. • Steinbicker: Our South buffer is accomplishing almost 14 acres of open space detention area, which will be natural area, out of the 50 some acres. Vicky McLane motioned that the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board recommend that City Council approve the conveyance of a 30 foot drainage easement along the north boundary of the Vangbo property to J-B Investments, Inc. contingent upon the County's approval of the site plan. Michelle Grooms second, and it was unanimously approved. 2008 Major Projects and 2007 Accomplishments Report 2007 - Sears prepared a list of major work items that the Natural Areas program completed or worked on in 2007. He highlighted a few items from the list with the Board. • There were a few questions from the Board. 2008 — Sears prepared a list of major work items that the Natural Areas program will work on or complete in 2008. He highlighted a few items from the list with the Board. • Grooms: How are Natural Areas named, is there a formal naming process? • Sears: There is a policy, but the policy is more of what we do not name our Natural Areas. Normally we put out a press release giving background of the property and solicit the community to enter names. Senior staff reviews the names and then selects one that best suits the Natural Area. • Stanley: I'm concerned about the focus of the program. Are we almost making it too good in respect to other focuses of the program at the cost of conservation? How much are these other work items taking away from buying land or community separators? • Sears: Over the life of the program at the end of 2006, 80 percent of our funds did go to land conservation. Over the next fifteen years of our program, most likely 50-80 percent will go to operations and maintenance. • Stanley: I'm not sure if that is what the voters want. • Stokes: This is an important question to ask us when we are presenting our budget to you. We've been very explicit over the last couple of years presenting our budget, long range and master plans to you. If we stripped away restoration, built less trails or if we did less maintenance or weed control this may not provide additional funding for land conservation. We have between 12-15 years where • the program spent at least 80 percent on land conservation. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board January 9, 2008 Page 6 of 6 We are not passing up on opportunities to conserve land if we have those, and we have not turned down an opportunity to purchase land because we didn't have the funds. We can include this conservation in next month's meeting of Community Separators. • Haines: I think the issue is what the trade-off is if a land deal does come up we may have to decide that X property restoration will get delayed two years. Do you feel comfortable that you can make these kinds of trade-offs? • Sears: John and I spend a lot of time strategizing cash flow so that we can afford certain properties. • Haines: I'm impressed with the team's work for 2007, but the one thing missing for me is the long range strategies. • Stokes: I will email to the Board our Budget for Outcomes offers. These are broad descriptions of what our programs and Natural Areas will be doing for the next couple of years, and there is a budget and a statistic attached for each program. • Sears: We can come to various LCSB meetings and present our five year public improvement plan. Rick Bachand, in Resource Management, has a similar plan, and this will give the Board a view of two years out and five years out. Additions to the Agenda • Stanley: I received comments from several Board members regarding our NISP Board comments memo to City Council. I'll redesign the memo and send it out again for Board comments. There was a short discussion from the Board regarding language in the memo. • Stanley: I have a letter from the EPA to the Army Corp of Engineers regarding Red Fox Meadows Natural Area. I will scan it and sent it to the Board. • Stokes: There will be a special City Council work session on the I-25 Corridor. I was asked to write a paragraph for the agenda I-25 summary about how the projects on I-25 will affect the community separators. The only area where we could see any direct impact was the Harmony / I-25 intersection at the Southwest corner. New Business: Announcements: Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m. Submitted by Geri Kidawski Administrative Secretary