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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010 - Air Quality Advisory Board - Annual ReportCITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD M E M O R A N D U M TO: Mayor Hutchinson and City Council members FROM: Greg McMaster, Chair DATE: January 25, 2010 RE: 2010 Air Quality Advisory Board Annual Report In 2010, the Air quality Advisory Board held twelve regular meetings and one special retreat dedicated to the Air Quality plan update. The Board took the following actions: • Recommended that Council adopt the 2009 International Codes as presented with plans to add standards as local amendments, to address indoor air quality, low VOC paints, carpeting, building materials and best practices from the Green Building Code, that there be a process in the next review cycle (Green Building Code and basic code), to ask for Boards’ and Commissions’ input early enough in the process to support changes, that potential building code amendments should be made based on cost and risk, and that building codes should consider the risk to health and safety of citizens and reduce ambient emissions. • Moved to support the CO Redesignation Plan being proposed by CPDHE. AQAB support for the redesignation plan was communicated to City Council and the NFRMPO. • Made a recommendation to Council on Plan Fort Collins Key Policy Choices to focus key policies on high priority air pollutants, adopt and implement all the key policy choices contained in the ENV section of the Key Policy Choices document, to support enhanced travel corridors, activity centers and significantly increased mobility management, to consider mandatory approaches, find funding and focus on long-term solutions. • Made a recommendation on the 2011/2012 proposed budget to support the continuance of the air quality budget as proposed, recognizing that the impact of the air quality program on citizen’s quality of life exceeds the relatively small investment. • Made a recommendation to Council that the AQAB had reviewed the air quality policy language in the Plan Fort Collins draft and recommends that the Council adopt the principles and policies as stated and that the AQAB appreciates the efforts that have been 2 made to coherently integrate transportation, environment, energy, health and air quality challenges into the updated proposed City Plan. • Made two additional recommendations to Council in conjunction with the City Plan update: 1) Add an action to “Implement a Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of Major Development Projects” to the list of Immediate Actions in the City Plan Action Plan table, and 2) Modify street over-sizing fee to support transit and develop a more sustainable way to fund street maintenance. • A representative of AQAB continued to participate on the Bicycle Advisory Committee and the AQAB provided informal feedback to the Bike Advisory Committee on the bike map. • Appointed a representative to the Green Building Advisory Committee. • A representative of AQAB continued to participate on the West Nile Virus committee. • Held a joint meeting with the Natural Resources Advisory Board in August to discuss topics of mutual interest include climate protection actions and status. In addition, the Board received information and updates and discussed the following programs and issues: • Air Quality Plan Update • Plan Fort Collins • Transportation Master Plan • Return of motor vehicle emission testing to the North Front Range • West Nile Virus • Status of the Bike Advisory Committee • The green building program • Climate Action Plan and Climate Wise status • Together, in a joint meeting with the NRAB, discussed how to optimize communication with City Council • Review of air quality monitoring network • “Breathe Easy” Idling campaign The AQAB invested significant amounts of time in 2010 to strategic planning. We were instrumental in developing the updated Air Quality Plan and we discussed aspects of it at nine of our meetings in 2010. We also discussed Plan Fort Collins at six of our meetings, in addition to AQAB members attending various Plan Fort Collins public events. Citizen comments were made at three AQAB meetings in 2011 and CSU students attended three AQAB meetings during 2010. Please let me know if you have any questions.