HomeMy WebLinkAboutEnergy Board - Minutes - 03/08/2018Energy Board Minutes
March 8, 2018
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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
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(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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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