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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 03/08/2018Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 1 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 Fort Collins Utilities Energy Board Minutes Thursday, March 8, 2018 Energy Board Chairperson Nick Michell, 970-215-9235 City Council Liaison Ross Cunniff, 970-420-7398 Energy Board Vice Chairperson Amanda Shores, 408-391-0062 Staff Liaison Tim McCollough, 970-305-1069 Roll Call Board Present: Chairperson Nick Michell, Alan Braslau, John Fassler, Amanda Shores, Stacey Baumgarn, Bill Becker Late Arrivals: Krishna Karnamadakala Board Absent: Jeremy Giovando, Greg Behm Others Present Staff: Tim McCollough, Christie Fredrickson, Aaron Iverson, Ryan Mounce, Tony Raeker, John Phelan, Cyril Vidergar, Mark Norris PRPA: Paul Davis Members of the Public: Rick Coen, Sue McFadden Meeting Convened Vice Chairperson Michell called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. Public Comment Sue McFadden, a development consultant for Revive, a geothermal and Green Community in Fort Collins, asked the board to look at net zero standards for commercial and residential standards in the new building codes. She said many cities are rebating something back if they reach net zero, which is less resources for the City and that is beneficial. Approval of February 8, 2018 Board Meeting Minutes In preparation for the meeting, board members submitted amendments via email to the February 8, 2018 minutes. The minutes were approved as amended. Announcements and Agenda Changes None Staff Reports Bloomberg Mayors’ Challenge Presentation Update John Phelan, Energy Services Manager DocuSign Envelope ID: 5D794C73-E091-4AF8-94DB-70370A821E63 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 2 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 (attachments available upon request) The City of Fort Collins was selected as one of 35 Champion Cities in the Bloomberg Mayors’ Challenge. There were about 350 Cities that submitted proposals related to urban challenges, such as climate, economic development, or health challenges. The City was awarded $100,000 to test and refine their proposal, “Ushering Rental Housing into the Age of Efficiency.” The goal of this project is to create an attractive and simple financing mechanism for owners and property managers to improve the efficiency performance of rental housing. The Bloomberg Project Ideas camp will begin March 19-20 in New York City, where the 35 Champion Cities will begin testing and prototyping. The core staff attending includes Jeff Mihelich, Sean Carpenter, John Phelan, and Ellison Carter (Colorado State University). Board member Braslau asked if this will significantly help the Income Qualified Rate pilot program? Mr. Phelan said they are linked to each other, but not formally; this project would be similar to another tool in the toolbox. Chairperson Michell asked how the project fits in with on-bill financing 2.0, and Mr. Phelan said 2.0 is the mechanism proposed, but the tools of how on-bill financing will work will be restarted anyway. Board member Becker asked if this program is directed toward older buildings, and Mr. Phelan said it certainly impacts older buildings and housing constructed in the 60s and 70s, but even all the way up through the 90s. Board member Fassler said energy efficiency of construction started to improve around 2005. Vice Chairperson Shores said she’s concerned about how the City will successfully attract property owners to a program like this. Mr. Phelan said that is a valid concern and that is part of staff’s testing, evaluations, and networking—trying to figure out what would make this program appealing to early adopters. Board member Karnamadakala asked how confident staff is that the costs would not be passed onto the tenants. Mr. Phelan said it’s a sticky situation, and he believes that’s one of the reasons Bloomberg has granted them this opportunity, to try and figure out that obstacle. Green Building Strategy Document Tony Raeker, Environmental Planner (attachments available upon request) The Green Building Program components are divided into four key areas: local codes/ordinances, incentives, education/outreach, and policy alignment. The City previously had three separate Green Building Websites, all of which were out of date and incorrect, so staff is working to redevelop the website and centralize the Green Building content. Key areas of focus for the website redesign are: information provided by audience type, accuracy, ease of use, and improved content. Board member Braslau commented that the website’s categories at present excludes some population groups, such as tenants of single family homes. Mr. Raeker said staff plans to expand on the website’s content significantly over the next year. DocuSign Envelope ID: 5D794C73-E091-4AF8-94DB-70370A821E63 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 3 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 The components of the Green Building Education and Outreach process are, lecture series (five different lectures, roughly every two months), training/education modules, case studies, and recognition system. In an effort to maintain ease of updating the suggested best-practices, staff hopes to do single modules on specific topics, including power points, and these will be added to the City’s education platform. Staff believes this will be easier than developing guidelines, so they can update the individual modules as updated building codes or citizen feedback is received. Staff is also developing chronological case studies of green building projects in the community; the studies will be added to the website. Mr. Raeker said he and the Green Building intern, Mark Norris, researched incentives used by 40 different green building programs, and interviewed at least eight of those cities. Now, an internal core team is evaluating incentive options for Fort Collins to determine which would be most effective and most feasible. Mr. Raeker anticipates as staff gets further along in that process they will come back to City Boards and Commissions seeking additional feedback. Mr. Raeker explained some of the non-energy benefits of Green Building, using examples of the Building Performance Project. Employees from seven different buildings all moved into the Utilities Administration Building at 222 LaPorte Avenue when it opened in the Fall of 2016. Prior to moving in, staff conducted a pre-occupancy survey on staff’s current thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, lighting comfort, ergonomics, and several other issues. They recently did a follow up occupancy survey, and found that the energy savings of the Utilities Administration Building are great (~$50,000-$60,000), but the productivity benefits came out to $375,000 (about six times more than the energy savings). The green design of the Utilities Administration Building creates a high-quality work place for employees. Mr. Raeker displayed a chart from the CDC and the National Institute of Health; the chart shows the cumulative impact of different factors to your overall health—a person’s physical/social (built) environment is just as important as their lifestyle/health behaviors, medical care, and genetics. HomeWise, an employee sustainability benefit program, connects employees’ Healthy Homes and Efficiency Works programs. The City’s pilot was completed in December (including the City of Fort Collins, Odell Brewing, and New Belgium Brewing). They held seminars (on-site, if enough employees were interested) about the programs and gave employees the opportunity to enroll on the spot, and the employer granted them time off work to participate. It is now moving to wider roll out. Some employers, such as Seventh Generation and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, have set up Sustainability Benefit Accounts, which allot their employees funding to purchase or to participate in sustainable programs or products. The end-goal of the City’s program is to encourage employers to set up sustainability benefit accounts for their employees. Mr. Raeker said, going forward, staff wants building codes to address future conditions, such as future climate, as opposed to current conditions. Other key goals for the code updates also include acting as a representative for Sustainability Services in code updates, and assisting the Energy Code Compliance specialist in developing training. The Green Building team also works with the Climate Economy Advisor (Sean Carpenter), and they will assist Mr. Carpenter with implementation of on-bill financing 2.0, advancing commercial PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy financing program), quantify and demonstrate non-energy benefits of going green, and researching and evaluating new financing tools and mechanisms. DocuSign Envelope ID: 5D794C73-E091-4AF8-94DB-70370A821E63 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 4 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 Chairperson Michell asked where to draw the line between incentivizing behaviors and requiring behaviors, especially pertaining to code changes and compliance. Mr. Raeker said his role leans more in the incentivize option, and staff is consistently discussing how to continue to raise that bar. Chairperson Michell also asked what kind of interest or feedback they’ve received back from developers overall. Mr. Raeker said the feedback has been mixed; the Green Building Program helps builders figure out the best path by incentivizing the behaviors the City wants. Board member Braslau asked if the City is raising the bar and incentives high enough, because it seems there is not a large jump between requirements and incentives right now. Mr. Raeker clarified that the Green Building incentives are not actually in place yet, but they will be soon. Board members expressed their desire to see some urgency behind programs and incentives like the Green Building Program. City Plan Ryan Mounce, City Planner Aaron Iverson, Senior Transportation Planner (attachments available upon request) City Plan is composed of the City’s Land Use Plan, Transportation Master Plan, and Transit Plan. These plans inform each other and influence how each plan is implemented. The purpose and goals of the City Plan are to help articulate our long-range community vision and strategy, provide high-level policy guidance and implementation recommendations, and to align with more specific neighborhood and department plans (e.g. Natural Areas Master Plan, Northside Neighborhoods Plan). Board member Baumgarn asked Mr. Mounce to define “long-range,” and clarify how often updates are completed. Mr. Mounce said the plans are updated every five to seven years, but long-range encompasses a high-level 20-year vision. He noted in this most recent update, they are trying to update City Plan to align with some of the City’s goals, such as the Climate Action Plan. Mr. Mounce anticipates the entire process will take about 14-16 months, and staff’s goal is to get City Plan adopted by City Council before Spring 2019, before a new council is seated. The steps in the process include existing conditions (the current phase), visioning, scenarios, draft plan & polices, and adoption. Traditionally, the City Plan update process has been very focused on large events like workshops and open houses, but staff is hoping to be more community-based this update cycle. Though staff will still hold larger events, citizens can also find other involvement opportunities on the City’s website, such as becoming a Plan Ambassador, or signing up for the City Plan email list. The last City Plan update was in 2011, and the focus at the time was aligning with the City’s key outcome areas, but it’s been about 20 years since the City looked at the built environment of the community, so Mr. Mounce explained that will be a large focus of City Plan’s current update. The Trends & Forces report the data foundation to the City Plan update. It is a Narrative and visual guide to current conditions and trends within the community & region. The report is made up of six key focus areas: Community Profile, Buildout & Development, Housing Access, Economy & Employment, Transportation & Mobility, and Climate Action. The public draft was just released on the project website and staff would like feedback. DocuSign Envelope ID: 5D794C73-E091-4AF8-94DB-70370A821E63 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 5 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 Mr. Mounce said Fort Collins has been experiencing steady growth for the last several years, and that is a trend they expect to continue. The community profile trends show an aging population, increasing diversity, and fewer households with children. Key challenges in the community profile include managing the growth in Fort Collins and the region, planning for the aging and diversification of the population, and ensuring equitable access to services, opportunities, and resources. Another key focus area from the report is Buildout & Development, and the key trends from that area show vacant lands in the Fort Collins Growth Management Area are diminishing, which is shifting development activity to more apartments and vacant lands are moving outside the City Utility service areas. In 2008, there were 9,600 acres of vacant lands, but by 2017, vacant land acreage had decreased by 28% to 6,900 acres. Trends seen in the Housing Access focus area show that Fort Collins is creating more job opportunities than housing units, and employment wages are not keeping pace with rent and home prices. The current housing capacity is not set up to meet the City’s long-term growth demands. Between 2010- 2016, Larimer County had an average of 3.2% job growth, but only 1.3% average annual housing growth. Additionally, the average annual income growth was 1.8%, but home prices increased an average of 4.4% annually. Mr. Mounce pointed out these statistics indicate Larimer County is importing its workforce (and will continue to do so), which has other implications, such as traffic congestion. He said based on the current trends, it will be difficult to achieve long-term affordable housing goals, and the City is implementing changes to its current land use mix to address the mismatch of housing supply and demand. Though steady job growth is expected through 2040, there is a changing retail landscape in Fort Collins, and there are constraints approaching for future industrial/office development. Mr. Iverson explained the key trends in the Transportation & Mobility focus area. He said single occupant vehicle trips remain the primary travel choice (76%), followed by carpooling (10%), bicycling/taxi/motorcycle (8%), walking (4%), and transit (2%). Both biking and transit have shown strong ridership growth, but commuting to and from the region is steadily increasing. Fort Collins population has grown 12% between 2011 and 2016, but transit ridership has increased 90%; Mr. Iverson attributed much of the ridership increase to the Max. The City is working diligently to improve the sidewalk and bicycling facilities throughout the community. The City spends a lot of time encouraging citizens to bike, and there is a lot of community outreach and active programs dedicated to the cause; however, the City does not put as much emphasis on a walking program as the biking side, and Mr. Iverson hopes to see an improved messaging campaign around walking. Board member Braslau commented that lighting is an important safety component for many pedestrians, and that could be improved in several areas throughout the community. Board member Karnamadakala asked if the City has data on pedestrian and bicycle ridership by gender. Mr. Iverson said though that data is not included in this report, the City does annual trail counts and targeted pedestrian and bicycle counts, and he would pass that information along to the Board. Vice Chairperson Shores said she used to ride her bike everywhere, but she is now the primary person to drop her daughter at daycare, and she’s not comfortable riding with her daughter and their belongings down busy roads, such as Drake, because it doesn’t seem safe. DocuSign Envelope ID: 5D794C73-E091-4AF8-94DB-70370A821E63 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 6 Energy Board Minutes March 8, 2018 Board member Baumgarn commented that both energy and transportation take a lot of long term planning, he hopes the City is on a good pathway from electricity supply, but it is a puzzle trying to figure out how to reduce emissions related to transportation. It’s the percentage that will grow, even if the total decreases. Chairperson Michell commended staff for considering both land use and transportation and transit at the same time, because he has always believed that all three are tightly interconnected, so when one is ignored, you can’t make up the difference with the other two. Board members discussed the importance of walkability, especially among the Harmony corridor or in the newly developed neighborhoods north of Old Town. Mr. Iverson said they would like to come back to the Board for a follow up presentation, and Mr. McCollough offered the June regular meeting and work session as possible options. Board Member Reports Board member Braslau brought up the proposed Platte River wind transmission line across Meadow Springs Ranch, which will be discussed at the joint meeting with the Water Board in April. Mr. McCollough said there will likely be three presentations on this topic: the first of which is scheduled at the joint meeting with Water Board, a second, more detailed, presentation by Enyo, and a final decision point (likely by Water Board). He noted Energy Board would be able to advise Council at any time during this process. Vice Chairperson Shores went to the Transportation Board where she heard a brief overview of City Plan. At that presentation, they also discussed electric bikes (e-bikes), and talked about trying to update City code so they would be allowed on trails. Future Agenda Review The Joint Meeting with the Water Board on April 19 is confirmed and scheduled. Mr. McCollough is trying to coordinate a presentation with Dan Zimmerle from Colorado State University, regarding a powerhouse research project, for the May or June Meeting. The Contact Voltage Survey will be presented at the May meeting. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m. Approved by the Energy Board on May 10, 2018 ________________________________ ______________ Marisa Olivas on behalf of Board Secretary, Christie Fredrickson Date DocuSign Envelope ID: 5D794C73-E091-4AF8-94DB-70370A821E63 5/8/2018