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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 02/26/2002MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 281 N. COLLEGE AVE. February 26, 2002 For Reference: Eric Levine, Chair 229-5225 Eric Hamrick, Council Liaison 226-4824 Lucinda Smith, Staff Liaison 224-6085 Board Members Present Nancy York, Linda Stanley, Cassie Archuleta, Katie Walters, and Eric Levine Board Members Absent Everett Bacon, Conrad Van Dyke, Jim Dennison, and Mandar Sunthankar Staff Present Natural Resources Department: Lucinda Smith, Sally Maggart, Brian Woodruff, Sarah Fox, and Michelle Pawar Advance Planning Department: Ken Waido Guests CSU students: Patrick Crossland and Carnie Fulton The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. City Plan Update, Ken Waido Ken Waido, Chief Planner, explained that when City Plan was adopted in 1997, a commitment was made to look at the plan every five years. He said the process will be similar to the type of effort when City Plan was initially developed. Waido added that Council will appoint a citizen advisory committee and the focus will be on citizen participation through public forums, informational sessions, open houses, an active web site and listening logs. Waido said that a major issue critical to the City Plan Update is coordination with the Transportation Plan Update. There will be two Requests for Proposals issued because there was concern that a single RFP would limit selection. Levine asked if the same consultant would be used for both plans. Waido responded that he did not know. York asked who selects the consultants. Waido responded that staff from Advance Planning would select for City Plan and Transportation staff would select for the Transportation Plan. York asked if air quality staff would be involved. Waido responded that they are represented on the City's technical team by Brian Woodruff. York asked if any City Plan indicators have been triggered. Waido responded that growth rate has been beyond parameters. York asked what growth numbers would be used this time. Waido said that he is working with the MPO on updating the numbers and developing another RFP to work with the State Demographer. He explained that there is concern about the demographer's geographic resolution and county data and the focus will be on how to translate the numbers. Stanley asked how many residential developments there have been under City Plan. Waido responded there have not been many. He said that Ridgen Farm was the first development that started through the whole system and there have been certain phases of other projects. Stanley asked if the mixed use aspect is happening. Waido said that there is some indication it is happening but it is one issue that needs to be reviewed. York asked what the timeline is for the update. Waido said that it will probably take from 18 months to two years. York said that she is concerned about density in downtown and would like to see TDU's. Waido said that he has discussed TDU's with the city attorney and, while it is a good tool to protect open areas and increase density, there is concern about equal protection. York said that open houses provide a good opportunity to talk with staff and get answers, but she would like more opportunity to hear questions from other people. She suggested using posters to advertise meetings because not everybody reads the paper nor is on a mailing list. Waido said that was a good suggestion and noted it is tough to get the silent majority involved. Stanley said that it is a bad idea to have the old committee reformed. She suggested starting over and having a representative from each board. Waido said that it will be a Council decision. Levine said that the AQAB would like to be in on the process. Nancy York made a motion to recommend to Council to include a board member on the committee. Linda Stanley seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously, 5-0. nuuame u oae uaame, reux Lee Eric Levine distributed copies of the text of an article from the Coloradoan newspaper dated January 31, 2002. He noted that the County's radon program seems to be more comprehensive than what the City has contemplated because it has both mitigation and testing requirements. Felix Lee, Director of Building & Zoning, said that the County's radon program has not been extremely effective in enforcement and verification. Lee noted that the City is working with other jurisdictions in the region in an intergovernmental effort for code consistency. He said that the standard process for code adoption is to review the code section by section, look at the proposed amendments and take recommendation from citizen boards and public hearings. Once a decision is made on a local amendment, the standard process for code adoption is to then take it to a code review committee. Levine said that the board has made recommendations on a radon initiative since 1995 when the original ordinance went before Council, and nothing has changed in Fort Collins. He added that the County has a comprehensive program where the City has a sheet of paper that is buried in a. stack of documentation when a house is purchased. Lee noted that the code review task group recommended to Council that radon mitigation be a voluntary action, and it was passed. Nancy York asked if there is anything about radon in the national code. Lee responded that there is a chapter on radon mitigation standards, similar to what we have locally. Air Quality Advisory Board February 26, 2002 Page 3 Levine said that he is concerned that the building code review group is a technical performance group concerned with mechanics, not public health. Lee said that the review board is concerned that studies done correlating incidents of lung cancer in minors with people in homes are inconclusive. Levine asked if there were any health professionals on the team. Lee responded, no. Lucinda Smith said that the intent of the agenda item was to talk about process and about how the radon issue will be addressed in the building code. She noted that we are mandated in the Air Quality Action Plan to evaluate radon standards in new construction, and the Natural Resources Department staff will work closely with the Building & Zoning staff. Lee added that he will be working with Natural Resources staff on this issue before it is time for local discussion. He said that boardmembers are welcome to attend the meetings. Levine said that this is what went on four years ago and we got snookered. He said that he wants to see a fairer process happen. Levine added that he is concerned about input in the front end of the process and would like to see a person with health expertise on as part of the process. Lee said that was a good suggestion. Brian Woodruff said that it would make more sense to have the health protection decisions made at the policy level, instead of having the technical code review team make these decisions. He would prefer to have the code review team directed to find a way to control radon in new homes and have that be a focus of the building code. He added that it makes sense to protect people in the community rather than have the team deliberate whether it is appropriate to have a code. Cassie Archuleta asked what other communities are doing about radon. Lee responded, nothing, other than Larimer County. Smith suggested having an internal discussion determining the best approach and return to the board with the proposal. Lee agreed. Smith asked if there were any other policy based health issues that jump out like this in the code. Lee responded, carbon monoxide, and noted that the code does not require a CO monitor. Stanley asked if there will be a code allowance made for alternative building materials like straw bale materials. Lee responded that it already exists. Archuleta asked if there were other studies about uranium hot spots. Sarah Fox responded that three out of four homes have ratings of seven pico curies. She explained that radon levels are consistently high throughout the City, but one house could be high and another low in the same neighborhood. Fox noted that the City has had a code for radon mitigation in new construction for about three years. The City also offers a voluntary course for builders to get certified. York asked if the big builders attend. Fox responded, yes. She added that building inspectors are inspecting the systems and have found that those being installed are following the standards.. Due to time constraints, Levine requested carrying the discussion over to the next meeting Minutes With the following changes, the minutes of the January 29, 2002 meeting were unanimously approved. • Correct the spelling of `Bertschy". • On the 4th page, "HFT" should be "HTF". Action Items 1. The HTF recommendation was sent out. A resolution will be on Council's March 19 agenda. 2. Stanley drafted a memo for Council's packet. It will be in the board's next packet. 3. "Behind the Drywall" memo will be discussed in March. 4. The Outdoor Air Quality Survey has not been sent. Boardmembers will receive an e- mail from the consultant, Cheryl Asmus, expanding the demographic discussion. Asmus drafted the original summary and it was pared down by Theresa Ramos -Garcia to simplify it, but it got pared down too much. Stanley said that she was not impressed with the simplified version of the summary. Smith said that she will post the full summary report on the web. 5. Diane Jones is the project manager for the Transportation Funding Strategy. She would like to come to the board to make a presentation. Smith will work with Jones and Levine to get this on a future agenda. Carbon Monoxide Redesignation Brian Woodruff, Environmental Planner, distributed copies of the updated Fort Collins CO Maintenance Plan Issues and Alternatives draft. He said that the first three pages remain the same. Woodruff reviewed the graphs. Woodruff said that one unforeseen issue is that we all know population projections are on the low side. He added that the 2003 Fort Collins numbers will probably come out higher with new projections, but we do not know by how much. Unforeseen population growth could bump up against the bar and could jeopardize transportation funds. Levine asked for an estimate of transportation funds that would be impacted. Woodruff responded about $50 million for the Mason Street Corridor and $9 million for the transit center at CSU. Woodruff explained that alternatives for action are summarized in three groups. The first is the do nothing alternative that allows the maintenance plan to go in as proposed. The second alternative is to try to change the redesignation process. The third alternative is to move on and get the maintenance plan behind us and ask the Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) to retain the Inspection/Maintenance as a State program even though it is being removed from the federal maintenance plan. Stanley asked what are the chances that the AQCC would be willing to do that. Woodruff responded that it is not clear. They are eager to get our area redesignated because we are the last area in Colorado in non -attainment status. He said that he would like the City and the AQCC in partnership to see that the air stays as clean as possible in Fort Collins. He noted that the legislature has rules for the AQCC that require them to jettison programs when they are no longer needed and that requirement cannot be changed unless the legislation is changed. Air Quality Advisory Board February 26, 2002 Page 5 York said that if the $15 paid for emission testing covers the cost of the program, we could retain it as a City program. Board members asked what program could replace the — 10% air quality benefit we currently get from the Inspection and Maintenance program, once that program is removed. Woodruff said that is a possibility but he does not know if it is doable. There would have to be a feasibility study on the issue. Smith added that part of the feasibility study would look at alternative programs. Woodruff explained that the staff recommendations were reviewed by the Clean Air Team and the Director, but they are not official until approved by the City Manager. He explained the three recommendations. Levine asked if the new VMT numbers will be the Regional MPO numbers. Woodruff said that it is a regional project and the entities would have to agree to consistent growth projections. He added that we would be using numbers in the City that are appropriate to Fort Collins' growth. Levine said that he is concerned about the updated numbers being low compared to what we know. York asked if travel diaries will be used again. Woodruff said that he did not think so because it is too expensive. He added that there is a desire to do some survey work on trips to update the travel models but it is not going to be done a two-year cycle. The boardmembers commended Woodruff on a job well done. Short Discussion Items 1. Update on the Secondhand Smoke Reduction Project • This is anticipated to be discussed at Council's May 14 Study Session. • Cassie Archuleta liked the gold and bronze standards of smoke. She would not want to see businesses affected. • Staff is evaluating how to approach public outreach.. • A white paper will be drafted to understand enforceability. • Katie Walters suggested surveying restaurants that do not allow smoking now to determine how it is working. • Statistical data can be provided but there cannot be a revenue increase guarantee. • Another complex part is the business community outreach. • A phased approach for implementation might be useful 2. Board members review the "Behind the Drywall" memo to Council • Not discussed. 3. Handout summary of Board comments from Outdoor Air Quality Survey • Not done. Announcements • Grand opening of the new recycling center on 3/22. • Reminder about the boards and commissions training. Brief update on Climate Wise and Cities for Climate Protection at Council's March 5 meeting. The air pollution graph has not been in the Coloradoan newspaper lately. Staff will check on it. Agenda Planning Review Council six-month planning calendar — Not done Future agendas — Not reviewed (Mar -CO redesignation, Rural Transportation Authority or Community Separators) Clear Bike rack — Not done The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. ACTION LIST — from February 2002 meeting ACTION ITEM WHO BY... DONE 1. Provide copies of the City plan Indicators Ken Waido March 19 report 2. Post AQ Survey summary to Web and notify Lucinda Early Board March 3. Draft memo in support of "Behind -the- Eric and March 19 Drywall" program for review at March Linda meeting. 4. Provide info on how MPO will update travel Lucinda March 19 models 5. Clarify how radon mitigation standards will Felix, March 26 be evaluated as part of Building code update, Sarah, especially when policy basis will be others ?? established.