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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAir Quality Advisory Board - Minutes - 09/26/2006MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS • AIR QUALITY ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING 200 WEST MOUNTAIN AVE. Sept 26, 2006 For Reference: Eric Levine, Chair 493-6341 David Roy, Council Liaison - 407-7393 Lucinda Smith, Staff Liaison 224-6085 Board Members Present Jeff Engell, Nancy York, Dale Adamy, Eric Levine, Gregory McMaster, Dave Dietrich Board Members Absent Kip Carrico, Cherie Trine (resigned), Bruce Macdonald (excused) Staff Present Natural Resources Department: Lucinda Smith, Tara McGibben. Kim Newcomer The meeting was called to order at 5:37pm. Public Comment • No public present. • Agenda Item 1: TRACK TO WIN CAMPAIGN by Kim Newcomer Newcomer gave the board the 2006 Track to Win flyer. Last's year program focused on alternative transportation. This year we've taken that same concept which is offering incentives in trying to change behavior and expanded it to greenhouse gas reduction. A couple of different categories are looked at. The intent is to raise awareness of greenhouse gas emissions and the role we all play and secondly to encourage people to take action in a particular interest and trying to get people who haven't participated in these behaviors before to actually try them. We moved from just alternative transportation to energy, waste reduction and a general category. Personal CO2 emissions can be calculated from the fcgov.com air quality link. The way it works is folks track the behaviors listed on the form over a six week period. Once the items on the list are completed they check the boxes and send in the form. The more one participates in the programs to reduce greenhouse gases, the more points they earn giving them more opportunities to enter in the drawing. We're excited about some of the partnerships that took place with this program. Last year we worked with SmarTrips; this year we're working with transportation planning. I spoke with the bicycling planner and the transfort group as well as other city departments such as utilities and recycling. Thanks to the partners who give us the free items like the 7-day stay at Maho Bay Resort at the Caribbean. Transfort mounted brochure racks on their buses so people will have access to this information on all 56 buses within the next 6 weeks. The outreach component of this is we're trying to get these flyers out to as many people as possible. And to a group that we think will actually participate, hence • Transfort. We're handing out brochures at different events such as the Mason Trail opening; we were at the sustainable living fair, we'll be at the take a kid mountain biking day; we'll be at the Farmer's Market on the 30th and try to get the word out at the grass roots level in that way. We're hoping to get the word out about the program by doing paid advertising and inserts Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 2 of 20 in The Fort Collins Forum and the Weekly. The impacts that this activity has is what's important, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that you can have as an individual. There's information on the fcgov.com web page and it's also listed on the internal intranet. We're also putting up a display at the Library next week. We've bumped up the time frame this year in hopes that will get more people involved. We want to tie in actions with direct reduction results by incorporating some educational bullet points and want people to know that as a city we are working on reducing greenhouse gas reductions. • Engell: The first time around it was not timed right, this time it's much more appropriately timed. Do you have any expectations as far as responses? • Newcomer: Last year there were 756 participants. This year our goal is 1000. We're focusing on getting more people to participate. The first time behavior category is put there to see if we really are preaching to the choir. If I ride my bike to work everyday this is pretty easy. Some folks have done some items 5 times just this week. We're trying to see how many people are checking their first time behavior? We don't have a benchmark goal for that; but we will for next year. • Engell: Are you distributing it at any where that you weren't last year? • Newcomer: The Weekly we didn't do last year and the Transfort buses. • Engell: Are you creating a data base on the information that's being presented? participants? • Newcomer: My goal for this since it has an email address is to ultimately develop a newsletter. As it's a community that we can talk to over and over again. Ultimately that's where we'd like to head and have that group of folks that are interested in air quality and that are actually taking steps to improve it. Focusing on this group of folks that are interested now and for other things we do in the future. • Engell: That's what I was thinking; keeping with the same people are the same people who care about Fort Collins. I calculated my own CO2 emissions, it was fun, but maybe at the end if you pop in an email address it would be seamless and feed it somewhere where the data can be put to use. • Newcomer: We wanted to have an on-line form so literally it pops up when you rode your bike and you click and save; same for the light bulb program and have it be automatic. • Smith: One other thing that may broaden participation this year is that it's open to people who live, work or attend school in Fort Collins. That means that people who are coming into the city for any reason can participate. Last year it was just for Fort Collins residents and some people were frustrated with that. • Smith: Some feedback that I heard from Rick Price is that as a participant last year, he was hoping on a follow up email stating thanks for participating; who won and who didn't. It might be good to respond proactively to the folks who participated because that's a good way to bring them in. • Dietrich: How much carbon dioxide is a trip worth? • Smith: We will buy the carbon off -sets for that, I don't know what that is. We can add it to the web site. There are a few additional actions listed on the web -site such as off- setting your jet travel. Another tangible one proposed by utilities is to check your attic insulation. There's some good practical tips on the site. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 3 of 20 • • Dietrich: The reason why is because a radio station had a person who drove his Prius car to CA to care for his elderly father and in two trips it wiped out the Prius for a year. For next year, how about tree planting? • York: Another possibility is having something on the site for new beginners and you can have one for the old stand-bys. • Newcomer: That's a good idea. To add some of the more complicated items and have the super bowl of greenhouse gas reduction. • Levine: I was going to suggest this very same thing (referring to the colored hand-out by Kim). I think the cost saving is excellent. If people see the dollars and cents even before they see the footprint, that may be good motivation. Where are they distributed? • Newcomer: We pass them out at event fairs. Due to cost of the color paper, we have that info on line. That's our only real large distribution. Maybe that's a consideration for next year; maybe even adding another column. • Levine: Maybe even some web links to tie people into some more information. There's not much of an educational component here except the actual listing. There are no cost savings according to actual greenhouse gas footprints. • Dietrich: What about the cost for I lxl7? • Newcomer: Distribution would cost more. But we can add another column that states impact. • Engell: That would be better; something that calculates the CO2 information and in dollar amounts. • • McMaster: (reading the handout) How do you calculate the $21.45 cost saving for riding Transfort? • Smith: The cost savings was calculated that way for people under age 17; it's free. When you start to factor in an unsubsidized bus fare, it overwhelms the cost savings. • Carrico: Last year I remember the all expense paid trip to Rockford Il. It didn't make it this year? • Smith: It was Myrtle Beach. • Carrico: I'm from Illinois so that was great. • Newcomer: We decided against that one this year. The travel company that we had worked with worked out a partnership with the airline that went under so the travel agency paid for the prize. The travel agency took the hit this year when it was redeemed; so they decided not to participate this year; we'll try again next year. • Levine: What is the budget for this campaign? • Newcomer: $8K total. That includes inserts, all printing, all event registration, distribution, all of the display, and some advertising. • Levine: Is it budgeted for next year? • Smith: Yes. • York: That's pretty good for $8K. Were you going to try to calculate how much CO2 was saved by all participants and do a public announcement? • Smith: Last eyar, it was done at council and the mayor announced it and some of the winners were present. • York: And press releases and The Forum and the Weekly. • • Levine: Thanks Kim. Agenda Item 2 Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 4 of 20 MOBILITY MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES • Levine: A lot of the information is fairly complete. We'll discuss everyone's favorite and non -favorite practices; as well as improving our city's report card. • York: I didn't do the assignment. What was the assignment? • Levine: I suggested either five strategies for five barriers or issues and read up on it and present it to the board. Present the pluses and minuses of the management plan. In the end it doesn't really matter, the methods used just in looking at the recommendations and filtering some of it and deciding what steps to recommend. • York: I thought what was strong was the point they made that the dollars that leave our community. I asked Councilman Roy to find how much gasoline we used and there's a rough estimate that he passed on. It's just under 56 million dollars. • Levine: Gallons per year. • York: Yes, it was gallons. • Levine: It's a lot of gas. • York: And a lot of dollars. That would be good to share with the community. • Levine: I remember the city's VMT was under 2 million miles per day, it wasn't that long ago. And now we're way over 3. • York: Another point was direct financial savings to municipal government through a reduced need to widen roads. That's listed on page 6 at the bottom. • McMaster: During Brian's talk last week, what struck me was something that is almost no budget wise was the lack of coordination between the city departments. • Levine: Page 12 is a good example of the degree of city communication. • McMaster: That struck me and I kept that in mind. • York: How did they actually word that? • Smith: Was it a recommendation? • York: It was one of their recommendations. • McMaster: That must be under institutional reforms under page III at the very beginning. • Smith: In the executive summary. • Levine: I didn't think that was really it though. • McMaster: That's where the discussion started to come because I asked the question what were they really saying there. It's not just internal lack of coordination; it's with other stake holders like CSU and PSD. That gets more difficult and involves more money. Those are certainly barriers I thought. • Levine: They singled CSU out fairly much as one of the major barriers as being one of the highest contributors of VMT but they're not walking the walk but driving the talk. • McMaster: They're driving! It seems to me, our discussions over all the meetings all comes back to transfort and totally inadequacy. I've asked people around what's the biggest transportation issue, everybody says transit. They can see that it's going in the wrong direction. • Levine: Would anyone like to go around the room and do a round table and bring it together. • McMaster: I blew out what I had to say. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 5 of 20 • • Carrico: The big things are the land use planning in terms of doing that in a smart way; to enable you to use alternate modes of transit. If a community doesn't have travel options for alternative options, what's the cost to that community, especially if gas prices go up. It really hits one community harder that doesn't have transit, doesn't have good bike system, doesn't have alternates to the single occupancy vehicle. That may be a good way to sell it in terms of what is it costing our community to not have some of these options that other communities have. I'm bigger on enabling biking vs. mass transit. Things like wider shoulders on some of the rural roads are issues that I've run into. I like traffic calming for helping make commuting by foot or bike a little less hair rising. The transit side I like the ski bus that CU does. That was why some students don't have a car. I don't think anything exists like that at CSU and it seems like a logical thing to have in place. That's what I got out of it. • Engell: What stood out in my mind is it seemed like it was a bunch of pages that listed how under -funded we are. Unfortunalty that's the reality and not what I was hoping to get out of it. I was hoping there would be another answer to fixing it other than, well, we don't have any money. It could be my bias in picking out those details. It was repetitive to read. There was a lot of good stuff. I was hoping to take a recommendation to council. What do we think the solution is? They note the Mason St. Corridor project and lean on that. Are there other recommendations on the list that can be done without budget constraints. What's the lower hanging fruit? I don't know if there is necessarily. It seems raising more money is a bigger discussion. • Levine: Todd's background is an economist and very pragmatic. Which is good but as • you said its item after item it shows the cost. • Engell: Which I can appreciate it; I'd rather see the cost making it more realistic. • Levine: We have a decent amount of money; we can pick some but not all; and that's unfortunate; that doesn't seem to be the case. • Engell: Exactly, it's kind of a soap box. • Dietrich: I looked at the university and schools. I wish there were more strategies listed in the report in how the city can involve more players. I would like to see more community forums; could there be a forum between CSU, PSD, hospital all be brought together and have discussions telling them the city can't do all this; and get feedback. How did the other cities do it? Do they all take the lead in terms of funding these programs? • Smith: I'm sorry I don't that; I'm not sure even if Brian would know that because it was Todd Littman who wrote up the discussions about the other cities. • Dietrich: Kip brought up the ski bus which I think is great. Is it the city of Boulder or CU? It's probably CU. One thing the city can do is continue to promote bicycle lanes and bicycle corridors. That had all those points in here and if certainly nothing else, I encourage the city to do that. The more congestion there and the more gas prices to up. More people have been riding bikes this year than I've seen any time in the past and as congestion gets more and more, the presence of paths allows more people to ride. What ever it takes as this is something the city has some control over. All in all, the report has good ideas; how do you make it work. • Levine: There are institutional barriers, especially the multijurisdictional ones; I • would love to see best practices and how the certain areas, all the jurisdictions and entities and the stake holders, the best practices where they've worked together and Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 6 of 20 done good things. How the most successful ones and how they overcome certain barriers. • Dietrich: I'm sure there are testimonials like that. Look at what Clinton did in the global initiative; he brought everyone in a room and everyone has to make some sort of commitment and say this is everyone's problem not just the cities problem. What commitment can we make as an institution even if it's small. I don't know how to do that. The city manager has to meet with CSU, something has to happen; start with the big boys and work on down. • Smith: Sometimes you start from the bottom up. • Dietrich: Sure, you have to get the framework laid. • Levine: This must be successful somewhere at some level in the US and I'd like to see detailed examples. • Dietrich: The mayor in Denver does this kind of thing. Staff and groundwork has to be laid. If you ask Penley, why don't you run a ski bus to the mountains? Someone has to say here's what CU does. • York: The president of CSU Green is pro -transit. He's approachable. • Engell: That would be appropriate he has the pulse of the students. • York: We can recommend to council that reveals our frustration with the lack of coordination with the city and the school coming together. • Dietrich: There are all kinds of examples. • York: But to spell it out that it's a constant concern and we see the need for collaboration; more energetic collaboration between PSD and CSU and the city. • Dietrich: Let us know what Brian thinks. • York: I don't know where to start. I would like to see us do a report to the community on air quality issues and emphasize global warming, ozone and particulates and the issues. I think we should send something to council and point out the strong points in the report and move towards collaboration in the various public entities. The city organization is actually pretty bad. Do you know Lucinda, how do CSU and the City interact? • Smith: It's really not very clear. Staff discusses different issues that are relevant to them. I'm getting the sense that over all Darin is the spokesperson for the city with CSU on all the broad policy issues, and there are a lot of them. • Levine: Obviously the unrelated housing is an issue with the students and the city. • York: Is there any reason that we can't communicate, as a board, directly to Darin? • Smith: He's copied on everything that you send to council anyway. Technically you would ask council to directly bring it to Darin's attention. And that's the way it works because the council is basically Darin's boss. • York: I just think we should do this. Otherwise it's depressing; you know what I mean, if we don't act well .... I'll wait to hear the outcome of the document. • Adamy: I think I'll dwell on the two issues of grade separated crossings (GSC) and Transfort. I see the grade separated crossings as a potential for traffic -calming. Lanes are widened and if we want to encourage bike and pedestrian traffic; that sort of proposal and inclusion into the City Plan I think would be valuable to future growth. I don't know if this document covered GSC other than just lightly; I don't remember seeing it. I remember as I drive down the one open lane on Timberline, had that construction included the grade separated crossing it could have saved the city a lot of I Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 7 of 20 • money doing it then as opposed to some point in the future if they saw a need for it. As construction continues around town I keep seeing opportunities for GSC, traffic calming and I would like to see that and to me that's a high priority and this document didn't include it I would say that would be something that I'd like to see. The other thing is Transfort. The chart on page 80 referring to annual rider ship. I made a couple calls and made a couple calculations of my own, and if I have this right, I'll generalize; rider ship is based on how many got on the bus not necessarily how many are on it at one point in time. So if I picked up my wife in Ft. Collins and dropped her at the exit to the freeway and drive to Cheyenne and back, picked her up again and went home, transfort would count that as two riders. Whether we went to Cheyenne together or not. The rider ship indicates that these buses are nearly full all the time; but as you see driving down the street they're nearly empty all the time upon a visual inspection. A recalculation for a more accurate portrayal of how many people are on the bus at any given point, ought to be valuable and ought to be included in this report. In that regard, I think we need to right -size the system. This report didn't talk about that. Right sizing would mean that we sell one of the big buses that's almost always empty, buy two smaller buses and use the larger buses during heavier commute hours and set it aside when it's not needed so we don't have the traffic tie-ups when it stops in traffic; we won't have the extra pollution, but I'm not sure how carbon dioxide issues are taken into account. Someone should investigate the right sizing of the transfort and the method on which they calculate rider ship. I did a calculation at one point. I can send email to the group if you like; a more accurate way of calculating rider ship. • Mathematically it doesn't work out when they say they're full and they appear to be empty. • Levine: Sure. • Engell: 14, 500 people who got on and off the bus, is that what they're saying? • York: In a year. • Engell: In a year, ok. • McMaster: It's 1.4 million. • Adamy: if you use those calculations divide the number of hours the buses are on the road and the number of buses; it comes out looking like the busses are full. Just use those calculations; the buses are not full. • McMaster: I imagine if you do a transfer that counts as being a rider. • Adamy: There's a length of time somebody has to be on the bus and they're counted as a rider for a distance. And there's a person that calculates that rider ship based on certain routes they're able to make; they're a part time employee of the city, they ride the bus a certain route and makes that calculation. It's a random count; but still when you look at it the observation doesn't bear out. I think we need to address that, publicize it and offer some changes as a result of that. • Dietrich: Do you know about the percent per occupancy in transfort? • Smith: I can find out; I don't know about time of day but I can ask. • Engell: They should have data like that. • Dietrich: I agree with Dale. That kind of presentation would be better. Some might be full and some might be 20%; it would be good to see. • • Adamy: It makes sense that if there's low rider ship during a certain part of the day that the bus be smaller. I had the opportunity to see people riding the bus at different times Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page S of 20 of the day and I don't think I counted more than 7 people over the 50 times I've counted. One exception downtown at 4:30 there were a bunch of people packed on the buses. 7 were the maximum otherwise, and I've seen the bus empty several times. • Levine: Are we seguing? I guess I said this last time; a comment on page 6. The work related transportation, vanpooling which is 15% of the pie. Again, the transfort figures I can understand why because VMT is a big concern of ours, for a lot of reasons. I understand the congestion that the city is going after during rush hours and the core areas such as the CSU schedule. As a resident I'm concerned about that because everybody has to deal with it. As a board member I'm concerned about VMT figures and the air quality figures and getting the most bang for the buck there. • Adamy: I didn't do the questioning that maybe I should do. The smaller vs the larger bus would have less pollution. • Levine: I'm assuming that a large part is not the bus itself but it's the staff that drives the bus. So bigger bus or smaller bus doesn't affect the cost as much as the size itself. • York: Except for the fumes. The big buses get 3.5 miles per gallon. I seem to remember reading that. • Adamy: And the smaller particulates, the smaller bus would be able to join a different classification. • Levine: Transfort is looking at their operational costs. Air quality isn't their main thing. On page 95, the stakeholder interview. Who is group 1? • Smith: Good question. • Levine: Is it downtown business? • Smith: Or could it be collectively city staff. It wouldn't be parking management or smart trips. • Levine: What is your organization or group's attitude? ...'The public doesn't really care.' Eric's job is in conflict with that ... Is it Eric Bracke? It's not me. • Smith: It probably is Eric Bracke. It's a good guess, he's the traffic engineer. • Levine: I'll just emphasize what others have said. We need to start conversations with CSU. The suggestions that we have some of these conversations made over spring and summer this just drives it home even more. We should have started these conversations 10 or 15 years ago. We're long overdue with conversations. Whatever the process, we haven't even begun the process. I suggest the transportation board review this very carefully. I would like them to have our output and we need theirs; it's a different perspective, they should be experts in that field, I think they need to learn a little more of ours. Both boards should meet with CSU and discuss the outcome of this report. It would have been productive if we had some output like some of the output we've had from this. The timing wasn't right. It would be really constructive with some real product that the last meeting didn't have. On page 24 the bike plan; it included a dollar amount for bicycle improvements of $100,000. That's not enough money for improvements. The bicycle program in Fort Collins is under -funded and the connections in the newer part of town is much better than the older part. And it says that in this report, that it's a complete retrofit because this system was never designed for bicyclist. • Carrico: The $100,000 is maintenance; probably not infrastructure. • Levine: Paint that's needed. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 9 of 20 • • York: I participated in the MPO charette. They referred to adding bike paths you want; they're low cost and there was no dollar amount associated with it unlike everything else with a $50M price tag. Relative to other costs, bike paths aren't much money. • Levine: The BFO process. The more I think of it the more I see it has some downsides. The whole compartmentalization and the various fiefdoms that it seems to promote just in general. And the competition between the various departments and Tom said the same things. He's on the other side now because he's the head of the IT department for the city and he needs to defend his own turf against budget cuts which are going to have to be made. If the institutional short falls are demanding an integrated approach to this, I don't see how this helps very much. • McMaster: Doesn't that come back to what we were talking about earlier in that being lack of coordination. • York: According to the agenda and my watch we should be done by now. Lucinda, what's going to happen with Brian? • Smith: There were lots of points. What we're doing at staff level is sharing this report with staff who worked on it; they haven't had an opportunity to receive the whole report. A presentation is scheduled for October 18 at the transportation board by Judy Dorsey. It's focusing on the actual highlights and benefits of best practices. I know the transportation board has seen some of this. It's going to the NRAB and P&Z boards too. The opportunity to have a presentation that really captures the great benefit of some of these best practices as well as the evaluation and some recommendations is what's going to happen. The report will be posted on the city's air quality web -site but • transportation will have a link to it. • Levine: I'm assuming that where we have our grade, on page 2 and 3, the best practices will get a grade of A which is not on either of these pages anywhere. The outlined best practices would be an A. Our best grade is a B+ which is ride share program, the Vango. However, the Vango services 400 people total. It would be nice to get a better grade on the really big stuff with lots of VMT and lots of trips rather than a great mark on such a small piece; which is fine but not when you get mediocre grades on the big pictures. • Smith: That crossed my mind. One way you can focus is to look at the grades; that's one way to choose what to focus on. This is relevant to the comments I've heard about the lack of coordination internally -- the city is undertaking an evaluation of our organizational structure. They've hired a consultant to do that. It started out just looking at the transportation area, and now it's going to expand to environmental services and some other things as well. I've asked John Stokes and Greg to please have the consultants interview Brian so that he can share the mobility management report. That's a prime opportunity to get this message out about the compartmentalization and lack of cohesive effort to address mobility that we have now. • Levine: Does the city pick the consultant? • Smith: I think so. • Levine: I would suggest Albert Shelly be selected. • Smith: I think they've already done it; I don't know when it is. • 0 York: When did they undertake that? Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 10 of 20 • Smith: I don't know, I only just learned about it recently. They're planning interviews with staff. This is an internal administrative thing. I'm not sure how much the council is involved, but I'm sure they know. • York: Do you remember that fellow that was here a while back who talked about the various meetings staff goes to all the time? • Smith: I remember but may be mixing it up with the time spent on board meetings. • York: It had to do with planning and to stream line the planning. It sounds like they're doing it again. • Smith: Well, I can't say anything about that other than it's underway. It makes it an opportune time to raise these issues and I think there will be some reorganization in an effort to streamline and make things more efficient and that's good. The other area Brian brought up where I think there is potentially great opportunity he makes the point that generally mobility management best practices can be used to help support the idea of a transportation maintenance fee (TMF) ; because the transportation maintenance fee is based on the number of trips generated; and if we can at the same time offer businesses assistance in reducing their trips and therefore their costs via the transportation maintenance fee; is lessens the blow and promotes good air quality and reduced congestion. I don't know how far we'll be able to get with that because things are moving ahead really rapidly. Now the council is discussing the budget and the transportation maintenance fee and parks fee are two of the things they're discussing as a revenue source. You may have been aware that the council at least seemed reluctant to consider the transportation maintenance fee for a while. In any case, there's a valid point that can be made about mobility management practices helping to lessen TMF burden. I'm not sure how the transportation department feels about this. I forgot to mention that Brian will be sharing this with the CSU Sustainable Transportation Committee. He's more or less on that committee now and that includes some city staff as well as people throughout the CSU organization and that's a great opportunity to raise this issue. The new director of parking services will be there. We have to balance the amount of time that Brian is spending on this as opposed to other equally important items such as building collaboration on green building both within the city and externally; that's the other big chunk on his work -plan this year. There is good information in this report and we should continue to get the word out, but Brian will spend the rest of his time this year on building that collaboration in green building because things are happening there really quickly with large developments coming in and being approved. The more that we can promote and incentivize awareness about green building practices, that that will positively impact air quality as well. Brian won't be able to spend a lot of time on mobility management so that's where the board can come in and be helpful. That's what currently planned; we're not planning to try to set up any forums. • Levine: We can recommend to council, though, outside of the formal staff process and staff commitment. The entire thing about land use and the connection between transportation and development fees. I hear transportation fees on the tax -paying citizen; I've asked this question to Ron Phillips when he was head of transportation and I said beyond small amounts isn't most of the transportation short fall caused by new developments that are increasing beyond the revenue that they pull in over the long- term. All he could say was not all of that. In other words, people's transportation habits are not going to be driving 40% more and if they're driving appreciably more it's Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 11 of 20 • usually because of the problems that new growth in town has caused such as levels of service going way down so people change their travel behavior. So much of increase of VMT is caused by growth beyond a certain point. It's a question of fairness and it's a question of new growth paying it's way and when streets get clogged; the cost of putting a new house in as far as transportation services is higher that it was. Probably every new development, depending on where, is higher. Council after council really hasn't addressed that because the building and development industry is very powerful in Fort Collins. We've never really successfully addressed it. VMT is taken out of our policy now, is that correct? • Smith: The policy now about VMT is that the city will strive to meet or exceed the VMT best practices of other communities, so it's not the quantitative objective it was before. • Levine: A 2004 memo states council voted to remove the long term VMT goal which is tied to population. Mobility management is listed all over here; it's completely based on VMT. I don't see why this board shouldn't recommend to council that we put VMT back in and make it a kind of metric or commitment and look at everything at least in terms of the quantifiable number rather than, I don't know what the city's doing now, it's probably floundering. I don't think the city's ever come up with anything. • Smith: Do you mean as another metric? • Levine: Workable, yeah. • Smith: Transportation planning is working on the model that they're calling Fort Collins Moves and I think that's involving mobility metrics like delay and congestion, • those kinds of things. • Levine: It reminded me of a school giving report cards and giving grades but taking test scores out of the equation completely. So it would be based on other items other than the real issues. • Smith: I think they felt that mobility is a more comprehensive and holistic way to look at the issue than just VMT. • Levine: This report is discussing it and they use the terms inter -changeably. I think the city is just kidding themselves. • Smith: That could be one of your recommendations. • Levine: Absolutely. • Smith: I know that you want to move forward and formulate a recommendation at some point and that you want to have other meetings with other stake holders. Would it be helpful or would it be circumventing your long term objective if were to try to bring in some staff from PSD like the transportation resource manager, Tom Chaffin. He doesn't get to the level of where new schools go, which is a big part of the transportation issue, be he does work on the bus scheduling and those kinds of things. And CSU, Cindy Leinweber, who's the head of this CSU transportation committee who reports to the parking manager. They might be able to answer questions. Would that be helpful? • Levine: I'm really concerned that'd it be too soon to get the most bang for the buck. You don't get a second chance at a first impression and I'd like it more organized. • • • York: It would be good in gathering information. Smith: One way to approach it would be to prepare in advance a list of questions and things that you want to find out more about. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 12 of 20 • Levine: Just having that discussion to be comfortable, I'm not there and it would be too much homework for me to complete in such a short time. The minutes will be taken and bullet a list and have discussions and evaluate some of those as well. • Dietrich: What's the harm on having someone come in and give us a 15 minute presentation on what the sustainability transportation committee is doing and what they're doing and what their goals are. • Smith: It doesn't have to be presented necessarily as the discussion opportunity, it could be a fact-finding preliminary talk. • Dietrich: We could restrict it to 20 minutes and brief us on your organization's plans. • Adamy: I'd like to have a concept of that with Tim Chaffin too. Would that fit with our information gathering concept, that way everybody's information would follow along the same line? I'm thinking sustainability and try to focus it around that concept. • Smith: PSD is just now wrapping up their sustainability management system; it would be interesting to hear from whoever was involved with transportation issues on that because that person might actually have the broader perspective on that. We can find out who would be the best spokesperson and we can have them here. • York: Have them in the same room at the same time. • Smith: It's just a thought; I wasn't trying to preempt the well prepared discussion. It seems like some of the same questions keep coming up and I don't know the answers. • Adamy: What's next month's agenda? • Smith: I think some things could be bumped. Tentatively you were having a citizen come in right, Ellen Lawson was going to come in and talk. It would be good to begin in October regarding the work plan because you have to finish the year 2007 workplan by the end of the November meeting. The other two items that were on there were a summary of the radon project from Brian; we can wait on that or not, and a summary on the high emitter project from me that can wait too. I don't think it's possible to do all of those things at once, so that would be your choice. • Levine: It sounds like we have two items that we can defer. I think we need to start the work plan in October. • Adamy: Could we have a third party somewhere, perhaps another 20 minute segment besides CSU or PSD or any other opportunities for sustainability? Any ideas as long as we're going it? Is that too much? • Levine: I would love for us to come and ask questions in terms of knowing more than one side of the issue. We have these players come in and what are you doing in terms of air quality they're going to tell you everything they're doing; they're not going to tell you what best practices are elsewhere and what they're not doing. I would love to have a rounded view and then ask the pointed questions as far as what are you not doing perhaps and what could you be doing more of and why. What are the barriers. Without bringing something else to the table I think we're going to get spoon fed what they're doing at best. • York: We can find out how much interaction there is or not. And keep that in mind. • Levine: How does everyone feel? It's fine with me; I think we can do this in November too. • McMaster: November and December meeting dates aren't decided yet. • Levine: Lucinda and I discussed this already and think the thanksgiving meeting won't be a problem for most of the board members but the December meeting will be a Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 13 of20 • problem for members. Is that guess correct or not? That came up last year too. We had an early December meeting last year. • Dietrich: When is the Thanksgiving meeting? • Smith: It's November 28 and December 26. • Levine: Is November a problem for anyone around here? I think we were right. • Smith: Okay. • York: Before we leave the transportation issue; do we see any benefit in weighing in for a transportation fee and dial a ride being drawn in and contemplating putting in 3 new routes in exchange. The routes are E. Harmony, Timberline and E. Prospect. Is there any feeling about weighing in on an opinion on any of that. • Dietrich: Dial a ride is going away? • York: It's going to be reduced in exchange for the savings they're putting in 30 minute service; that's one of the prospects. Their putting in service on Harmony; and some service on Timberline and Prospect Road. • McMaster: Which is actually a huge improvement at least to get the buses moving at least some time. • Dietrich: So is this pretty much a done deal? • Smith: I wanted to look at the council schedule for adopting a budget; I don't have it in front of me. There's a work session scheduled in October and two readings in November. You'd want to provide information on budget issues as soon as possible. If you wait until the October meeting it's probably too late. Any board is welcome to provide input on the budget, but I haven't seen a high level of outreach seeking board • input on this budget process. • York: The transportation board approved the proposal. An example of the transportation fee, and in the case sited, people without autos were exempt. The only exemptions is the schools and governments are exempt from the transportation fee. We don't have to , we can let it go. I thought we should at least make that decision; leave it; or encourage or discourage from an air quality standpoint. • McMaster: Doesn't that get back to some other issues we've been talking about such as west nile virus; it's like we're running out of time; we knew that. • York: We don't have to do anything. • Dietrich: You want to propose a motion for the board to weigh in? • York: Do we want to weigh in or not? • Levine: I don't think I know enough to weigh in; I would abstain. I would welcome a recommendation. • Adamy: Unless if we wanted to weigh in on the concept of if there was a fee then a portion of the fee could be related to something related to air quality? I'm sure they haven't considered that. I don't know if it's appropriate. • York: I think it's for pavement maintanence. • Smith: Right. That's true, that's what it's for; it's to fill a need. • Levine: Free transportation in Missoula MT increased rider ship 66%. Free transfort and expand the service after 6:30. Hook them then charge the fee after a one year period. • • York: Let's move on. • Levine: We need some sort of program like that. It's a legitimate program and we should do something that acquaints people with transit. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 14 of 20 • McMaster: Even when they did that at CSU by offering staff a free day of riding; not all took it. It depends how you do it. $1.50 a trip, and you want to run errands, I agree it's not much, but somehow it makes a difference. • Levine: I will look at the minutes and bullet the comments and produce a list and continue in October. How do you feel about getting an invitee in October or November. • McMaster: Are we sending something to council sometime? That's got to be the goal and work around that. • York: I hope so; that's a good point. • Smith: I would be curious what the transportation board says and if there's a common theme; that would be powerful. The minutes would be available shortly thereafter to read from the transportation board and P&Z meeting; and you're welcome to attend the meeting too. • Levine: We can exchange reading output via the minutes. • Carrico: Does it make sense for one of us to attend the transportation board meeting? • Smith: The meeting is October 18. It's at 5:45pm. • York: They have good dinners and meeting at the community room at 215 N. Mason. • Levine: Didn't you attend this last month Nancy? • York: I think more than one person attending would be good. • Adamy: I tried to go but haven't been. I can try to attend this time. • Levine: Sounds good. • Dietrich: I don't see why not have someone from the sustainability group come in for a short presentation and find out their plans. When is Brian presenting? • Smith: I don't know; I think it's going to be at the next meeting and they meet monthly so it should be before the next time the board meets. • Dietrich: Keep it short and just say thanks for coming. I think we have a lot to talk about and let's get together in the future. • York: The PSD person also? • Dietrich: I think that'd be great too. I don't know if you want to do this all in the same meeting; spread it out among several meetings. • York: I'd like them to have a chance to listen to each other. • McMaster: It'd be a great way to start to actually bring them together. Both systems have lots of constraints. The other obvious one is since you have them both there say what's your interaction? • Dietrich: Interaction with each other, or between CSU? • McMaster: PSD. • Adamy: If the theme is sustainability perhaps they're all thinking along the same lines if we present that's what we're looking for. I think that will draw some issues that may bring us together. • Levine: If we can schedule it; say both couldn't make it. See if both can attend in November. • Smith: Okay, so you'd prefer to have them both here. • Levine: It sounds like it. A short presentation such as 15 minutes. • York: It'll take the whole meeting the way we are. • Smith: I'll work on scheduling that. • Levine: It sounds like we can put off the other agenda items. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 15 of 20 • Agenda Item 3: WEST NILE VIRUS Eric handed out two hand-outs on west nile virus. • McMaster: Three board members here have been part of the task force. One thing I sense is the board struggles with is that a lot of people don't have the background on the issue and that impedes our ability as a board to move forward one way or the other on issues. • Levine: One way is to get the task force together again. There's no bandwidth within the city. • McMaster: Are you talking about a sub -committee meeting then? • Levine: Tom suggested we could convene this without staff support; if we felt that it would be productive. Since we met last, that whole presentation was fairly reassuring. We were discussing the budget cycles and all the funds committed, basically a half - million dollars of the budget cycle. Then all of a sudden we came really close to having adulticiding. • McMaster: People realized it was too late to do it. That was never part of the discussion. It's stunning how it played out in the paper and the lack of rigorous information. • Levine: What the city has done, that the city has a real program in place and how it was developed never makes the paper. What seems to make the paper is west nile outbreak is here again and we need to spray adulticides or were all going to die. That's the level of • what you read in the paper. • Adamy: Any opportunity for a press release from the board? Do you think the Coloradoan would print it? • Smith: You can certainly do a letter to the editor, a soapbox. They probably would print it. • Dietrich: Where are we going with this discussion? What do you want to do? • McMaster: The issues that we've dealt with the programs that we either have in place or come dangerously close to implementing have an environmental, economic, health cost related to them. We don't adequately look at the effectiveness of all of those versus other options; and really look at what we're doing. So we now basically have institutionalized this program without long term funding and no longer a reevaluation of the program in any meaningful manner. Thru BFO, the city staff understandably so, punted on the issue. It goes through the system and up to council study sessions, it's a limited group that's brought to the table; there's not an advocate to bring out the other side to speak to the issue. As a scientist, it's been shocking to me the process that's been going on. • Dietrich: From an air quality standpoint the only issue is the spraying for adulticiding. • McMaster: Yes and it comes down to a budget issue where everyone is screaming for money. • Carrico: Could you pick any city program and could you say that this could be better supported than something else; it's not an air quality issue itself. • Dietrich: A west nile advisory panel; I'm just not sure I understand where we come in. • McMaster: The air quality board is the one that mainly lead the way to create the west • nile task force. • York: It was because of the spraying. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 16 of 20 • McMaster: They were the ones that took the initiative to get that task force going then the NRAB came on board with them. It was those two boards that created it in the first place and that even began to address the issue. Historically we've had that tie-in. But it is loose as you were saying; and it's primarily because of the spraying. • Levine: Adulficiding is a part of what we do to address west nile; and as long as it is, the other components are connected so we really have to look at the whole program if you want to address the adulticiding issue. • Dietrich: So as a board do we propose the city re-establish a west nile task force? • Levine: We can do it ourselves, we don't have to propose it. • Dietrich: The air quality board? Does what? • Levine: Ad -hoc task force of expertise that reports back to the air quality board. That's part of our operating by-laws. • Smith: The bi-laws say you can convene an ad -hoc committee to address technical issues. • Levine: And it specifically says that we can. • Dietrich: Okay, fine. So that's what you want to do. • McMaster: Yeah but would that hold sway in the city? • Smith: That's the point. I think Tom Vosburg made last time too. He suggested the results of the task force would have more impact if it was sanctioned and supported by the city council and/or the city manager; if they were really wanting that information. • Levine: Here's something from the air quality board minutes from October of last year from Tom: Is there a set of policies that went forward to council to adopt adulticides trigger criteria. I can't read it all, Tom's saying too much. But Tom's saying, but then there's some additional loop hole clauses that say if there is any one single human case then the county health department is going to say that we should start adulticiding. The city basically at the end of this is left with some trigger criteria that was developed by the county that the city, as far as policy, was going to do exactly what the county says. That I don't think is driven by good information. It's driven by data and politics as much as the data. I think it's a mess basically and I would love to clear that up. I would love to get a policy that's mainly data driven by the city. • Adamy: From a citizen perspective and all the times that I've watched this in the paper I agree with your perspective and approach. It's encouraging and reassuring to see someone having those thoughts. I'll volunteer to be on the task force. • Levine: The other piece is the newspaper reporting on this and the mis-information. • Dietrich: I would agree totally that if there is interest on this board to convene and do an ad -hoc west nile task force to go ahead. • York: I would like to reach out to the NRAB as we did before. • McMaster: A lot of the budget for that program is coming from the natural resources program, right? • Smith: That's true. From the natural areas program. • York: $80,000. That program is being taken advantage of. • McMaster: The only question then is whether we do a sub committee here or try to push to get it from either city manager or council. • Levine: If they say no, we can always do it. Maybe we should ask. Tom wasn't very encouraging; he just said the amount of staff time and budget; and the fact that he's the head of a different department. He's the one who has ownership and the knowledge and history of the issue. He doesn't seem to be a champion on it. } Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 17 of 20 • • McMaster: He wanted to get out of this anyway. • Levine: We can ask. I just don't know exactly how to go about that. • McMaster: Would it be better to try to go through the city manager or council? • Smith: How was it done last year? • York: We got a concern and the city came to us. • Smith: I think that's right too. There was interest already expressed first by air quality and then you brought natural resources board in and then it was really an issue on the minds of council too so they provided the staff support and coordination. Is that correct? Did the city organize it and lead it? • McMaster: Yes, that's where Tom came in. • 'Smith: Okay, I see. • Levine: We had most of the committee. The membership was basically there then the city came in and supported it from the first meeting on. That was before the budget shortfall. • McMaster: What's the best sell in making this happen? To work the NRAB regarding committee membership and have a city staff member just to get organized. Have one serious working meeting. Out of that meeting we could have a summarization and create a recommendation. Three meetings maximum. I would think the first and last meetings would be the shortest because you do a lot of that ahead of time; and one serious working meeting. • Levine: One way is to do this and ask the city if they can provide support as much as their resources would allow. • York: The only support would be staff time. • • Levine: A meeting place perhaps, I don't know. • York: It would be important for some staff person to explain the program as it is now to the committee members.. We might also explore with the NRAB their interest and availability. • Levine: Tom seemed to think some of those key people are still around. I see with the group; one would be an evaluation of how we're doing. One would be you have to address the trigger criteria and get some real criteria. We could discuss how to address the press and how to get some real information out to the public. The other issue is every budget cycle we're committing half million dollars. Could we put that money in other places in this program that would give us more bang for the buck. Those are the main questions we should ask. • McMaster: Do we even keep the program going; there's good argument for that to some extent. • Levine: I agree. • McMaster: It's been mentioned every time Tom Vosburg attended, and I guess mentioned everywhere is idea of education is as effective as anything and it's so inexpensive. Why aren't we focusing on that? • York: And education now seems to be reduced, "to slather on the DEET and stay indoors and where long sleeves"; not about the other preventatives. Who's going to take the lead? • Levine: I will with the vice chair. • York: I move we undertake a task force committee on west nile virus. • • Levine: We three were in the first one. It wouldn't be bad if all three of us re -committed. • McMaster: Yes, is there any question of that? Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 18 of 20 • Levine: I don't know. You ok? It's just you're more in on something if you've made a formal commitment in public and it's in the minutes. • McMaster: Oh, I see what you mean. • Carrico: Are we making a motion to establish ourselves as the west nile advisory committee? What is your end goal? • McMaster: We want to reform the west nile task force between the AQAB, members of the public, the public health community, NRAB and CSU. We could A: revisit the original groups' membership. • York: I do think we should do that. • Levine: The Board's by-laws say "A board may also convene at ad -hoc citizen task groups to provide additional technical expertise to the board to the planning of specific strategies." Or recommendations I would imagine. • McMaster: We're suggesting that we form an ad -hoc... • York: That we reconvene perhaps, the west nile virus task force and to answer the questions of trigger point ... what is that? • Levine: I don't know if we have to be that specific. • York: Is there a second? • Adamy: I will second the motion. • Levine: I'm assuming there's no more discussion on this. Everyone voting in favor of the motion say I. All say I. Motion passed, no one against or sustaining. Motion: York: I move we undertake a task force committee on west nile virus. Second: Adamy Vote: All in favor, None opposed, none abstain. Motion passes. • Smith: Eric, will you talk to the NRAB chair? Or how do you want to invite them? • Levine: I will. • Smith: Okay, great. • York: We're a half hour behind. • Levine: Then we're right on schedule. We have two minutes to approve, July and August. • Adamy: How complicated are the minutes? I don't have too many changes. If it goes fairly fast it might be a good idea to get them done. • Smith: I'd like to encourage you to approve the minutes because citizens would like to read the minutes on the web. With the following changes the minutes for July 25, 2006 AQAB minutes were unanimously approved. Changes are the following: • McMaster - Remove Ken Moore. With the following changes the minutes for August 22, 2006 AQAB minutes were unanimously approved. Changes are the following: • Carrico: Page 12. I would assume it's(in place of that) pretty small, smaller than even public relations. Air Quality Advisory Board 9/26/2006 Page 19 of 20 • • All: Add Dave Dietrich to August. • Levine: Page 13: it's really a half a million we're looking at from the budget side. Replace side with cycle. Page 6: the virus is one out of 5 will show no noticeable symptoms. (remove no). • McMaster: Page 7 change McBailey to LeBailey. Correct all minor typos. Agenda Item 4 REVIEW NOVEMBER AND DEC MEETING SCHEDULES • Smith: It would be helpful to discuss the December meeting now so that everyone can plan ahead. • Levine: Absolutely. • Adamy: Are you suggesting moving the date or eliminating it? • Levine: Like we did last year. • Adamy: I'm in favor of that. • Levine: The 19th of December is good for me too. • Smith: That works for everyone? We'll officially move the meeting to the Tuesday, a week before, December 19. Thank you. • Levine: We can do Ozone in October or do it now. • Smith: There's no urgency. I can send you the presentation and the data sheet; whatever you want. • • Levine: Could we have the materials now before the next meeting? • Smith: I can give them to you now and give you the color copies so you can see the data sheet high -lighting all the readings that are over .85 or higher. I'll email it too. • Levine: Why not have this now. Is there anymore business? Seeing as how we're just a couple minutes beyond the board meeting, is there a motion to adjourn? • McMaster: Motion to adjourn. • Engell: I second. Updates • None Committee Updates • None Agenda Planning • None Meeting adjourned 8.06 PM 0 Air Quality Advisory Board 1/20/2005 Page 20 of 20 Submitted by Tara McGibben Administrative Secretary I Approved by the Board on! /L�, , �:4 2006 Signed OG Tara McGibben Date Administrative Secretary I Extension: 6600