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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 03/11/2009MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS LAND CONSERVATION & STEWARDSHIP BOARD Regular Meeting March 11, 2009 DATE: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 LOCATION: 215 N Mason Street, Conference Room 1-A TIME: 6:00 p.m. For Reference: Linsey DeBell - 217-7436 Mayor Doug Hutchinson - 416-2154 Mark Sears, Staff Liaison - 416-2096 Board Members Present Linsey DeBell, Lesli Ellis, Chris Gaughan, Juli Germany, Michelle Grooms, Trudy Haines Board Members Excused Raymond Boyd, Linda Stanley Council Liaison Mayor, Doug Hutchinson Staff Present Natural Resources / Natural Areas Department: Daylan Figgs, Geri Kidawski, Mark Sears Guests Matt Wempe, Transportation Planner Dana Leavitt, Environmental Planner David Kemp (DK), Bicycle Coordinator Mike Bello, Urban Development Partners, LLC (representing the owner of the Company) Kay L. Linder, Citizen Deanna McLane, Citizen Jacques Sasnow, CSU student Edward Chance, CSU student Cynthia Cotton, CSU student Jennifer Getchell, CSU student Rick Vitacca, CSU student Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, March 11; 2009 Page 2 of 8 Public Comments Kay L. Linder stated that she is displeased with the fumigation of the prairie dogs in four of the Natural Areas in Fort Collins. She said that Santa Fe and Albuquerque New Mexico do not allow this procedure within City limits. Linder asked why prairie dogs are not relocated to Soapstone Prairie Natural Area., Deanna McLane expressed her concerned with fumigation of prairie dogs in the Natural Areas. She quoted comments, in a memo to the City Manager's office, from John Stokes, Mark Sears and Marty Heffernan. She stated that she does not like the idea of wildlife being under attack. McLane would like to volunteer her time with the Natural Areas reseeding grazed areas, allowing prairie dogs to continue living in these areas and perhaps providing education opportunities for the public. • Gaughan: There are a number of wildlife biologists on the Board and we as a Board are very sensitive to this issue. • Sears: This item is not on our agenda this evening so there are no opportunities for dialogue or discussion, but as Manager of the Natural Areas I am always willing to visit with you at any time to discuss this issue. • DeBell: At the February meeting we had a comprehensive discussion on prairie dogs and the management plan. I recommend that you visit the Fort Collins web site and read the LSCB February 111h meeting minutes. • Grooms: The prairie dog management plan is a balanced approach and these are very hard decisions. You would be very hard pressed to find anyone in the Natural Areas program or on this Board that isn't sensitive to this issue or takes this issue lightly. These decisions deeply affect everyone involved. Agenda Review Review and Approval of Minutes Grooms moved to approve the February 11, 2009 meeting minutes as written. Gaughan second. It was unanimously approved. Bike Committee Representative • Gaughan: DK is the bike coordinator who brought Fort Collins up to a gold level bike community, awarded through the League of American Bicyclists. How this relates to our Board is that there are many bike trails in our Natural Areas. DK put together the Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) to help put our bike plan together. • DK: My main goal is to get more bicyclists out in the community and to help Fort Collins market its wonderful resources. We have 30 plus miles of paved trails in the City. We are one of the top 10 cities in the U.S. that is considered a bike friendly town. Chris Gaughan will be our conduit for the BAC, which is composed of 16 voting members from various Boards and Commissions and community stake holders throughout the city. There are nine non profit organizations in Fort Collins that coordinate special events for bicycling, so we are making bicycling year round. ti Land Conservation & Stewardship Board ' Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Page 3 of 8 • Haines: Are you a part of UniverCity? • DK: Yes, we have been a part of this since its inception. • Haines: How safe is it for students to get from the university campus to downtown? • DK: This is a major aspect that we are talking about. • Vitacea: In the environmental communications class (at CSU) this semester, there is a group working on bicycle friendly Fort Collins projects, which may be something you might be interested in hearing about in a future meeting. • DK: We would like to hear your ideas. • DeBell: I live near Pineridge and people are going there when gates are closed, and they are not using biking rules on the trail. As you are communicating with the community could you please encourage folks to obey closed trail signs and not bike on these trails when there are wet conditions because this causes considerable trail damage. • DK: We need to do some additional education on these issues. • Grooms: With Soapstone Natural Area opening soon I would like see the Natural Areas Department coordinate with your group to make sure bicycling rules and regulations are practiced. We want to be sure to protect the natural resources and archaeological sites out there. • Haines: I believe this is where the Volunteer Ranger Assistant program can educate the public also. • DK: One of the things going for us is that we have law enforcement available with the Natural Areas Rangers and they can be educators also. With our bike plan we combine multiple components. Currently we are based on four components engineering, enforcement, education and encouragement. If you blend two components like education and encouragement, you can come up with a marketing campaign and get your law enforcement on board with that, and then follow that with enforcement to bring behavioral change. • Grooms: Are you reaching out to elementary school systems to educate on rules and regulations for bikers? • DK: Education is in the foremost of our priorities. • Haines: Have you talked with the Downtown Business Association? • DK: Yes we work. We are taking out old signs and replacing them with new educational signs. We are also taking five car parking places and converting them to bike parking stalls. Visit fcgov.com/bicycling to view the pages on co- existence. • Gaughan: I'm wondering if we should work on one of those signs regarding not riding on wet trail for the Natural Areas trails. • DK: It's not all bicyclists who violate the law it's a few, and we need to educate those folks. Mountain Vista Subarea Plan Update • Wempe: The Mountain Vista Subarea Plan, as an element of City Plan was adopted in 1999. An update to this plan has been on the Council work program for several years. While staff has initiated the update process previously, staff N Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Page 4 of 8 was instructed to delay the update until separate discussions between the City and Anheuser-Bush InBev were complete. Direction for staff to proceed with the planning process was reinitiated in early 2008. This plan is projected to accommodate a significant portion of the City's future growth with approximately 15 acres of vacant land. The update to the Mountain Vista Subarea Plan will determine the land use, transportation network, drainage ways, open lands, trails, and other refinements necessary to guide future development in this important future growth area of the City. The process will also update the adopted vision, goals, and policies in the original document, based on new information. Wempe used poster maps to show the Board the framework plan. • Debell: Is this a mall area or is this a downtown area? • Wempe: It's envisioned as commercial. • Debell: When something is described as walk able what does that mean? • Matt: It's an area where the developer is trying to get more walking opportunity, as in sidewalks, and crosswalks. • Haines: In terms of this area and shopping, it seems like a huge area; and I'm interested in seeing smaller grocery stores and strip malls there so that folks can bike to these areas and shop. • Matt: There is an area there that allows for five acre parcel developments. All streets will have biking and walking areas. • Gaughan: Along those lines will there be a community place for a farmer's market? • Matt: We are starting to look at more specific pieces and there may be a library annex there also. We are talking about an enhanced travel corridor; Mason Street, and trails are a good example of this; it would be a high mobility corridor. • Haines: In terms of community separators we are protected on the North, but what about on the East? • Sears: As far as the northern section both east and west of I-25 is protected, but on the southern end Timnath has claimed most of the area. • DeBell: Are you looking for something specific from this board? • Matt: I want to give this Board an update on the Mountain Vista Subarea Plan. Some folks that we have presented to indicated that they would like us to come back and formulate a recommendation for City Council, but this is completely at your discretion. • Debell: What is the plan for running public transit to this area? • Matt: Transfort plans to run public transit to this area as part of the enhanced travel corridor. • Grooms: Once you've pick an option please consider coming back to the Board with an update. Drainage and Access Easement Request across Gustov Swanson • Figgs: Urban Development Partners, LLC is proposing a commercial industrial/ office property development which will be known as Inverness Innovation Park. N Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Page 5 of 8 The development will consist of four buildings on 7.6 acres situated on the north and south sides of Vine Drive, approximately'/ mile east of College Avenue. Urban Development Partners, LLC is proposing to construct a storm water detention pond located on private property designed to store a 100 year event. In the event that two closely timed precipitation events occur, that when combined exceed the 100 year design, storm water will flow through the pond into the historic floodway that crosses Gustav Swanson Natural Area and into the Poudre River. An existing spillway located within Gustav Swanson will be lowered approximately one foot to allow the water to enter the Poudre River at a designated and designed release point. The easement request is for a permanent easementand an access easement on Gustav Swanson Natural Area. • Levitt: Buffers are coming from the natural features and habitats. The proposed buildings, parking areas, and other project components are located outside of the 200 foot buffer zone to the Poudre River, but within the 50 foot buffer for Coy Pond and Coy Ditch. Following approval of the project, a development agreement is prepared to ensure that the project is built per the approved plans. Any special concerns or conditions in respect to the natural area or natural features can be included in the language of the development agreement to further ensure the protection of all the resources within the construction area. • Gaughan: Will that turn into a two track from the road? • Figgs: It will be a two track during the project, but it will be part of the restoration project later on. • DeBell: This would be a native vegetation area? • Levitt: Yes, the planner and I will ensure that that is the only type of landscaping in the area. • Grooms: Are there any pollutant issues from the detention pond? • Levitt: Any kind of development has to provide water quality for runoff. The runoff would come for the 100 year event other than that all drainage is going into the detention pond. • Figgs: The second part to this is that once we get into the 100 year event there will be water everywhere. • Haines: Will someone monitor the restored area after the work is completed. • Levitt: This is called the development agreement, which is typically a 3 year performance period. • DeBell: Is the purpose of the buffers, water quality, and wildlife? • Levitt: Yes, there are multiple uses for the buffer area. • Haines: What type of business will go in there? • Bello: The Rocky Mountain Incubator will be on the north side of the property. A Bio Med user is looking at the west portion of the north side, and a turbo engine designer looking at another portion. The south property does not have anyone specific interested in the area. • Haines: Can you make sure that the proposed businesses use 360 degree architecture with their buildings. E Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Page 6 of 8 • Levitt: They.have to submit a building evaluation for approval as part of the development. The architecture has to be compatible with the area, which has actual zoning requirements in that zone district. Grooms moved to recommend that City Council approve the conveyance of an access easement and drainage easement across a parcel known as Gustav Swanson Natural Area to the Urban Development Partners, LLC. Gaughan second. It was unanimously approved. 2009 Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act Grant • Figgs: This is the third Neotropical grant that we apply for and are successful in receiving, in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory. The City will use a 440 acre purchase of the Bernard Ranch as match toward the grant. Using the funds already spent on this land acquisition as match towards this grant is a great secondary benefit for the City. The $244,351 grant will fund Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory's critical research and monitoring work to inform conservation strategies and management for 30 high priority grassland birds within the Laramie Foothills Mountains to Plains Project, the Shortgrass Prairie Bird Conservation Region and in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico. This project will continue work funded by the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act since 2002 to conserve high -priority and declining grassland bird species of western North America. • Debell: If at some point we wanted out of this agreement is that possible? • Figgs: Typically with the Federal grants is payback or partial payback or substitutions of how we match. At that point it is negotiated. • Gaughan: These grants are competitive and hard to get so congratulations. • Grooms: Do we need to build observatory blinds? • Figgs: The work that will be done on site will be done by the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, and they've been up there for three years. • Grooms: They survey birds over how many acres? • Figgs: We will survey birds over several thousand acres between both properties. What we are focusing on in the two years of this grant is, we know our hot spots and now we want to understand how our management activities affect those, and we want to look at a second year of nest success. • DeBell: Are there costs associated with this that we wouldn't have otherwise? • Figgs: There are none. Gaughan motioned to recommend that City Council approve authorizing the use of a portion of the Bernard Ranch purchase as match for a Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act Grant administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Haines second. It was unanimously approved. t Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Page 7 of 8 Budgeting for Outcomes • Sears: In front of you is a memo from Mike Freeman, Chief Financial Officer outlining the input that he would like to receive from Boards and Commissions relating to Budgeting for Outcomes. This is a process that we go through every two years. The idea is to maximize the use of City revenues, prioritize our services and make sure we maximize our outcomes. The following are the adopted results that were used by the City staff and City Council to development 2008/2009 budget: 1. Economic Health 2. Environmental Health 3. Neighborhood Livability 4. Safer Community 5. Cultural, Recreational, and Educational Opportunities 6. Transportation 7. High -Performing Government • Ellis: Do you have to present the programs with qualitative results or quantitative results? • Sears: There are metrics and objectives that are identified when we submit these, and they do hold us accountable. • Gaughan: How much staff time gets spent dealing with this? • Sears: The first time, four years ago, we spent a sizable amount to time. Barb Brock is our financial coordinator and she does the majority of the work and she is also on the Results Team. Rick Bachand is on the Safe Community Results Team and John Stokes on the Environmental Health Results Team. This is where most of our staff time is spent. • DeBell: If I understand this correctly the City Council wants input on the overall rating structure for everyone. • Haines: I believe we need to comment on those items closely related to our Board. • Sears: Yes. We can comment on any thing that is closely related to our Board and what our mission is. The Board continued a discussion regarding the results statements. Debell took all the Board's comments and recommendations and will rewrite the results statements to reflect these. Debell will email the revisions among the Board members present at this meeting for their review and final comments. She will email- the final revised results statement to Mark Sears. New Business: Announcements: • Sears: I received an email regarding our replacement for Karyl Ting, and interviews for Boards and Commissions will be the last two weeks in March. Appointments will be considered after April 21, which will be after the new Council members have been elected. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Page 8 of 8 • Updates for land conservation: o We purchased 144 acres last Wednesday in the Wellington Community Separator. o We applied for and received a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) on the Bernard Ranch purchase phase I, and as we were ready for reimbursement we found out that the land did not get appraised for what we paid for it. GOCO said that the purchase options we paid, added to the price of the land, and GOCO has a strict policy that they will not enter into a deal where you paid more than what the land was appraised for. We may be able to go back to GOCO if the land value goes up. o Larimer Foothills Mountains to Plains Plan — there was about $1.7 million dollars to deal with Allen Ackerman on Slab Canyon, which is just to the West of Red Mountain Open Space. Because of the prime wind energy location in Slab Canyon, Mr. Ackerman is not ready to put a conservation easement on the land at this time. The County, as a lead applicant, is submitting substitution papers to the GOCO Board, there are seven potential deals that our partners put together. We need to have an agreement signed by March 31, 2009 on all seven of these deals in order to keep the money. o The trail contractor started work at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area and has several miles of trail all ready built. o We started taping the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area promotional video this week and it should be done by the end of April. It will be broadcasted on channel 14. The Grand Opening for Soapstone is June 6, 2009. • DeBell: Will there be any tours to Soapstone Prairie Natural Areas for the Board before the opening? • Sears: The Parks and Recreation Board have requested a tour and we can make this a joint tour. We will keep you informed on the date and time. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m. Submitted by Geri Kidawski Administrative Clerk II Approved