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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 06/08/2022 Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting June 8, 2022/ 6:00 pm Primrose Studio 06/0 8 /2022 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER: 6:00 pm 2. ROLL CALL: Andrea Elson, Joe Piesman, Denise Culver, Elena Lopez, Mike Weber, Alycia Crall, Cole Kramer 3. Excused: Vicky McLane, Ross Cunniff 4. NAD/Other Staff: Matt Parker, Aaron Reed, Julia Feder, Alynn Karnes, Katie Donahue , Natural Areas Department; Kelly Smith, Community Development and Neighborhood Services 5. Public Participants: K-Lynn Cameron, Poudre Valley Community Farms and Stacey Lischka, Executive Director of Poudre Valley Community Farms; Kelly Ohlson, City Council member 6. AGENDA REVIEW: Chair Elson reviewed the agenda without changes 7. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Member Kramer made a motion to approve the May LCSB meeting minutes. Member Culver seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved 7-0. 8. COMMUNICATION & BOARD MATTERS ACTION ITEMS 1041 Update/Potential Memo to City Council Chair Elson announced a City Council Work Session will be held regarding draft 1041 regulations at the end of June and felt the Board should express support and reiterate why it’s important to natural areas. Member McClane send some suggested language for the draft memo. Chair Elson read the memo to the Board and asked for any changes or suggestions. The Board agreed to include language about additional natural areas of protection, along the Poudre River, in the memo. Kelly Smith will go before City Council on June 28, 2022, with the draft 1041 regulations. First reading option will be in November, with a second reading in December. Kelly reported a large gap between the first and second reading before City Council, allowing staff more time for any changes between the two. Kelly Ohlson reminded the Board to caution carrying over the issue into t he next City Council elections. Timing is of the essence especially when City Council members are in 2 -year cycles. Member Piesman made a motion to adopt the amended language in the 1041 Regulation memorandum to City Council. Member Culver seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved 7-0. Discussion: Member Piesman asked Kelly Smith how public comments were coming in. Kelly reported comments were coming in slow but that the working groups have been very DocuSign Envelope ID: 405342BA-D95F-4452-A2A2-D73EB8C9DE63 Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting June 8, 2022 06/08/20 22 MINUTES Page 2 valuable because the regulations can tend to be technical. Kelly is really leaning on the various 1041 Regulation working groups to provide feedback. Kelly will keep the Board informed of any additional public meetings and will come back to the Board when most of the public comments and workgroup feedback has been calculated and gathered if the Board is interested. Utility Easement of Maxwell Natural Area Alynn Karnes, Land Conservation Specialist presented to the Board a permanent utility and access easement request from Lumen Technologies across Maxwell Natural Area. The project is expected to take up to two weeks to complete. Lumen Technologies will string their aerial fiber optic cable across Xcel’s existing power poles and their proposed use of the same 30-foot-wide easement. Lumen will be required to follow City standards and guidelines for mitigation and restoration should they cause any damage to the natural area during installation. Board members had a lot of concerns and questions around ground disturbance, specifics about the easement, nesting in the area, and the danger of Natural Areas being seen as the first place to look when contemplating new easements. Alynn explained any restoration or reseeding fees would not be paid out of the easement fee, that would be a separate charge. Maxwell Natural Area would not have to close during the project and the project could certainly be held off until after nesting season. Member Kramer made a motion that City Council approve the recording of the permanent utility and access easement for Lumen Technologies on Maxwell Natural Area, after July 15th, 2022. Member Culver seconded the motion. The motion was approved 5-2, with Member Piesman and Member Lopez voting no. Agriculture Conservation Julia Feder, Environmental Planning Manager presented to the Board that in 2021 the department launched a pilot effort to shift agricultural practices on two properties identified in the 2020 LCSB presentation and Council work session. Those properties, Flores del Sol and Kestrel Fields Natural Areas were being managed in part through conventional agriculture and were not prioritized for restoration. Julia explained that part of the mission and conservation management value that guides the department’s work is detailed in the Open Space Yes ballot language. Julia covered conservation benefits, progress towards the goals and an overall 10-year outlook. Staff is still looking at ways to better manage agriculture in a different way. Currently Natural Areas Department is not looking at any additional properties for this type of conservation. Those two properties will continue to be monitored and managed over the next ten years to really get a good assessment of progress. DocuSign Envelope ID: 405342BA-D95F-4452-A2A2-D73EB8C9DE63 Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting June 8, 2022 06/08/20 22 MINUTES Page 3 Discussion: Protecting NAD’s water rights was discussed. Chair Elson asked about the water impact and reimbursement. Julia said we would transfer or get paid for that. NAD has done that in the past. Julia Colorado Legislature passed a law called Poudre Flows Plan that allows for more water to get back into the river in different ways. It allows payment to a farmer to put their water back in the river, but it still doesn’t change the ownership. For example, if we were to acquire water shares upstream, we would have to go through water court to change the decree for anyone owning water shares downstream so it can get complicated and expensive. Chair Elson asked about all the work going on at Kestrel Fields and how that’s not considered restoration. Julia explained that properties are rated by different factors to create top tiers restoration projects. Kestrel Fields and Flores del Sol were not even on any tiers for restoration, they would stay in agriculture for many years. We don’t have the resources to change everything back into a native landscape right now and manage it in the future. Because conservation agriculture is happening here, they are smaller scale improvements over leaving fields in smooth brome. Member Piesman mentioned that when the Open Space ballot was originally drafted, he didn’t think it was meant for this type of conservation. He feels like this is more urban agriculture more than anything and asks the Board how they thought the language was interpreted and visioned. Member Piesman feels like NAD has stuck th eir neck out to do this and before NAD purchases anymore of this type of land, they should be pilots only. Julia agrees that the pilot needs to be monitored and realize that it might be 8 -10 years. Julia feels like the Department needs to measure the ecological benefit. What truly is the benefit? This particular property was of high priority for conservation because it was going for development. The neighbors were very adamant about that not happening. There is immense community support and interest for Kestrel Fields and this type of restoration. Board members feel like this really should be a pilot before we buy anymore properties with this in mind. Joe is asked about the surrounding community members and how they feel. Kestrel and Flores del sol will take at least 10 years. Julia expressed that through public outreach NAD is confident the community members are excited and supportive. Councilmember Ohlson has concerns regarding this type of project for several reasons. He believes it’s not the vision of the ballot language. Moving forward with presentations he suggested not using the ballot language to justify the concept and instead focus on NAD’s work because what most people see is organic farming and not the difference between natural areas funds and general funds. He suggested getting some habitat going in those two areas. Kelly would like to see a 20–25-year restoration plan that includes cost, sites that are planned and acreage being restored. Julia confirmed NAD has something like that to share. The Board agreed to see how and where the project goes in terms of agricultural DocuSign Envelope ID: 405342BA-D95F-4452-A2A2-D73EB8C9DE63 Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Regular Meeting June 8, 2022 06/08/20 22 MINUTES Page 4 conservation. Chair Elson asked if Julia Feder would be willing to move her agenda item, Natural Areas Onboarding to another meeting given the lateness of the hour. Julia agreed. Metrics Follow-Up Alynn Karnes, Land Conservation Specialist provided a presentation to the Board on the natural area acquisitions over the last ten years, to include contributions from grants, Larimer County, and the City of Fort Collins. Most of the grants are GOCO grants. Overall Larimer County does fund approximately 18% of natural areas acquisitions. There are also partnership conservation properties with others. Bicycle Advisory Committee Update Member Weber reported that the BAC visited the Transportation Department since BAC is a subcommittee of the Transportation Department to look at data. Wetland Plant Resources Member Culver shared and offered several books on wetland plant resources with Board members that she published. Meeting adjourned at 8:43 __________________________ ____________________ Chair, Andrea Elson Date DocuSign Envelope ID: 405342BA-D95F-4452-A2A2-D73EB8C9DE63 7/14/2022