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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 05/09/2007MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS LAND CONSERVATION & STEWARDSHIP BOARD DATE: LOCATION: TIME: For Reference: Regular Meeting 200 W. Mountain, Suite A May 9, 2007 Wednesday, May 9, 2007 200 W. Mountain Avenue, Suite A 6:00 p.m. Bill Bertschy - 491-7377 Mayor Doug Hutchinson - 416-2154 John Stokes, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Bill Bertschy, Michelle Brown, Greg Eckert, Michelle Grooms, Mayor, Doug Hutchinson, Vicky McLane, Greg Snyder, Linda Stanley, Dave Theobold, Karyl Ting Board Members Excused Council Liaison Mayor, Doug Hutchinson Staff Present Natural Resources / Natural Areas Department: Daylan Figgs, Geri Kidawski, Mark Sears, John Stokes Guests Latimer County — Facilitator: K-Lynn Cameron Executive Director of CLRS — Marty Heffernan Bertschy: I'd like to welcome Mayor, Doug Hutchinson to the meeting. Mr. Mayor do you have any comments? Mayor Hutchinson: I've appreciated the good minutes and watching what this Board has been doing. Any time there is a meeting topic that the Board feels I should be aware of please contact me and I will attend the meeting. Bertschy: You may be interested in attending the next meeting where we'll discuss the Management Plan update. We will contact you regarding this. Public Comments No comment Land Conservation & Stewardship Board May 9, 2007 Page 2 of 8 Attending: Donovan Marino Angela Kurr Agenda Review Review and Approval of Minutes • Stanley: I have a lot of concerns regarding Red Fox Meadows and I feel that wasn't reflected properly in the minutes. • Bertschy: In what part of the minutes? • Stanley: Well I probably spoke more than anybody. • Snyder: There was a lot more discussion, but I think the minutes encapsulate the direction of the discussion. • Stanley: I spoke more than anyone else and there is only one or two of my comments in the minutes. However, I would like it to reiterate that even though things look nice on the map we did talk a number of times about the wetlands regarding seeing if we can do more than a one to one replacement of wetlands. I've seen too many of these projects for storm water that could have been done much better. I hope that the Natural Areas will be done better. • Bertschy: I see two areas; one is the format and the second is the content. Geri do you have any thoughts on the minutes, you were taking the minutes the last time. How do you take the minutes, as verbatim as possible? • Geri: No, I was asked by the Board to make them as concise as possible, and still keep the main idea clear. I'm open to the Board's view as to how they would like to see the minutes written. • Theobold: I think one possibility would be that if there is a summary point that you may feel is important to write them up as an addendum to the minutes. I hate to incrementally do that, but if you think something is important than you need to write an addendum. • Stokes: I think what we need to do is to amend the minutes and include more transcription of what was said at the meeting. • Bertschy: Linda you received these minutes in advance, you read them and if you felt they did not reflect what you said in the meeting you could add an addendum. • Stanley: Well I don't remember exactly what I said. I know that I spoke a lot and I feel that the minutes do not reflect all of my concerns on this particular issue. There are more staff pieces in there, and I think that is less important than having Board comments. I think the thing to do is to go back and listen to the minutes and have them re -written. I know I can talk in incomplete sentences because I'm taking on the top of my head, but I would like more of my comments written into the minutes. • Bertschy: Lets request that the April minutes be rewritten, and postpone the approval of the minutes until the next meeting. Linda Stanley motioned to postpone approval of the April 11, 2007 Board minutes until after they are rewritten and presented to the Board in May. Michelle Grooms second. It was unanimously approved. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board May 9, 2007 Page 3 of 8 Update from County Open Lands Program • Cameron: I'd like to thank the Board for inviting me to the meeting. It is so nice to work with the City of Fort Collins on projects, and develop so many partnerships. • Cameron: I would like to update the Board on Hermit Park: o We closed on February 15, 2007. We were able to come up with the money by talking out a 1.2 million dollar loan against ourselves, and the collateral was two home sites on the property. We now have only $120,000 left to raise of that 1.2 million dollars. We will meet next Tuesday with the Loveland Community Council, which has on their consent agenda, to give $440,000 towards the project. o What we are looking at now is foundations. We received $25,000 from the McWhinney Foundation and $25,000 from the Erion Foundation. Doug Erion is a sculptor. o We've met with Northern Colorado Community Foundation and we will be taking their Board members up there on May 19`h. The Town of Berthoud is interested in becoming a partner, and we will be touching base with some of the folks in Longmont and Boulder also. o hi terms of the Management Plan we have two meetings coming up one in Estes on May 17, and the second at the Loveland Center on May 21. o We've also learned what we need to do to open the property. There are 15 cabins on the property and we would like to open 8 of them by fall 2007. It will take us a year to go through the special review process with the County to get camp ground camping. o It looks like we will not have to do a left turn lane off the highway; we've worked with CDOT on that. o The Natural Heritage program will be up there trapping for the three rare threatened amphibians that could be in the wetlands there. Audubon has been doing bird surveys at Hermit Park also. The State Archeologist is volunteering his time, and we are working with the US Forest Service. o We've met with all of our neighbors and that is going well. This time next year we hope to have the Park fully opened. We are all ready getting requests for weddings. o This summer we are taking the McWhinney Foundation and others to the Park for a picnic in appreciation for their support. • Cameron: In regards to Red Mountain we are working with the Division of Wildlife on a grant proposal for 1.75 million dollars to acquire one of the last holdings, which is very critical to us. We are hoping to have a contract signed by this Friday May 11, 2007. • Cameron: I'll pass around the maps of the conceptual trails layout, which consists of eight to ten miles of trails. • Bertschy: Where is the main entrance to Red Mountain? Land Conservation & Stewardship Board May 9, 2007 Page 4 of 8 • Cameron: Improving the two and a half miles of County Road 21 would be our preferred route, but we need to acquire an in -holding, however if we don't, we'll have to improve five miles of road. • Stokes: I would like to mention that we prefer improving the two and half miles of road alternative because it would help us at Soapstone. • Cameron: We just hired a new Land Stewardship Manager, Tim D'Mato. Tim used to be with Boulder County, and we are looking forward to him taking us to the next level in terms of land stewardship, and working with us on open lands as well as the weed district, which is in our department also. What's going on legislatively? o Open sales tax exemptions passed, which was very important to counties. This frees up monies to use, and the one percent can be used for other things. • Stokes: K-Lynn at some point it may be good to have Board conversation about the effort by the County to extend the tax. This would have a major implication for this program of whether it stays in effect or not. As you know we use the money that we receive from the County to help pay for our staff, and our capital improvements so this is very critical to our program. Cameron continued to say: o House bill 1361, which has to do with the Colorado Tax Credit program is before the Governor for signature. This bill passed between both the Senate and the House. The Colorado Coalition of Land Trust spear- headed this piece of legislation. o The Privatization of the Lottery is being looked at by the Title Board. What this basically does is bond a huge influx of money that comes in for your purposes. We like to bond because we can get the money today and we can buy the land and protect the land at today's prices while it is still available. What has happened is there is now other funding, which could have a potential to hurt local governments and counties in that the share is reduced. This could also hurt State Parks and the Division of Wildlife. Great Outdoors Colorado has contracted with an attorney to comment on how this will impact us. It's a non -issue if it does not make it through the Title Board, and we should know by May 16, 2007. • Snyder: This is to change the original Colorado Lottery law that was supposed to be for capital construction? • Cameron: Yes, this is another change. Our Colorado Open Space Alliance is paying attention to this. • Cameron: Mark and I are working with the Colorado Open Space Alliance (COSA), which is putting together a leadership program for employees of open space programs throughout the State. The purpose is to set up a mentor program for the next generation of open space leadership. This will be a year long program. • Stanley: Are you completely out of money in the County for right now, in terms of new projects? Land Conservation & Stewardship Board May 9, 2007 Page 5 of 8 • Cameron: Were we are in the County is, for the next five years we have 8.5 million dollars, 6.8 million of that allocated to projects. We have 1.7 to 2 million dollars for projects that are unforeseen opportunities like Hermit Park, etc. • Snyder: Is that dollar figure a fake estimate as far as not using big sales tax increase projections? • Cameron: We are projecting three percent for sales tax each year, and a six percent increase in expenses. • Stanley: If your real sales tax increases then you'll get more? • Cameron: Yes, that is a good thing for the County. Soapstone Prairie Natural Areas Management Plan Update Figgs passed out maps to the Board for their review. Figgs presented a PowerPoint to the Board which contained: - Current Conditions o Very good spring moisture o Well ahead of 06 in plant growth o NRCS, NA, Folsom — grazing at 90%, June 1, 2007 start date, fill to 90% by mid June - Surveys 07 o RMBO inventory and nest searches o Cultural Archaeological survey o Fish o Butterfly o Amphibian o Rare Plant o Grazing / recreation interaction study County Road 15 o Approximately 9 miles 0 3 Bridge Crossings — Rawhide Wire Draw Tributary to Wire — Neighborhood meeting (April 4) — Prebles survey scheduled June 4 Archaeological survey (June) Facilities o Conceptual o Start with 2 parking areas o Phase 2 may add others Management Plan o Draft o Technical Advisory Group Meeting May — June o Open house in July o Issues Land Conservation & Stewardship Board May 9, 2007 Page 6 of 8 Rock Climbing Horse Drawn Vehicles on Trails Dogs Camping - Laramie Foothills Mountain to Plains Map— Figgs reviewed with Board. - Soapstone Prairie Natural Area Map — Figgs reviewed with Board - 07 Work Plan o Replaced 4 water tanks; working on 2 others o Fence modification o 09 Grazing Plan NRCS technical assistance Cross fence options Water development • Ting: Are there other areas where people are allowed to climb? • Figgs: Piano Boulder is the only one that I am aware of. • Stokes: Piano Boulder is the only place we have for bouldering. There isn't a good place to climb at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. • McLane: You may want to add back -country camping under issues. • Figgs: Yes, we can do that. • Bertschy: Can we get a copy of the Larimer Foothills map? • Figgs: Yes, I would be glad to send one to you. Figgs reviewed with the Board the Soapstone Prairie Natural Areas map handed out earlier to the Board. • Figgs: Not all trails will have all users on them especially to the north of the property • Stanley: Are there internal fences to keep cattle from wandering around? • Figgs: The ranch is separated into eight pastures, so there is cross -fencing. • Stanley: You will keep most of the fencing there for the grazing? • Figgs: At least initially. The other thing we are looking at is the next grazing plan, which will take place on the property in 2009. By then we will know more about the property, and we will also know if we want to graze it differently. • McLane: What is cross -fencing? • Figgs: When you cut a pasture in half. • Snyder: What will you use for fencing? • Figgs: The fences we'll build internally will be four strand fencing with a smooth bottom. We've also looked at cross -fencing with a few strands of electric. • Snyder: Can you use solar electric? • Figgs: Yes, and they are great for wildlife because if you do not electrify the bottom wire they can scoot under that wire. • Theobold: Are there any plans or discussions about the cattle on the property, there may be an opportunity to make this a working landscape by making a Land Conservation & Stewardship Board May 9, 2007 Page 7 of 8 connection back to the city residents, either by marketing the beef back to the city or just somehow making that connection. Stokes: We've had that conversation internally about bringing that product back mto town. • Theobold: Would that include local beef processors? • Stokes: There are some local beef processors. We are trying to ease into this project, and you can tell from Daylan's presentation that there is a lot for us to do just to get Soapstone Prairie Natural Area open. We feel that our primary responsibility right now is to understand the property and the resources as well as we can, and to get the improvements build so we can get the public on the property in a way that respects financial and cultural resources. Some things have been built into the Management Plan that will be off in the future. We just do not have the time or the resources to deal with that right now. What we need to deal with right now is the tasks at hand, getting our roads built, the parking lots constructed, and the trails in, and going through the public processes. We will have this property open in June 2009; we promised the public that we would do that. One of the nice things about having this property for a few years before opening it to the public is that we've been able to have some time understanding the cultural and natural resources here, so we can plan around that and develop and build an intelligent plan. All the work that Daylan and our partners have done to help with this is baseline work that will take us well into the future when we have to make decisions about management. As we begin that change on the land we'll be able to document that. • Snyder: Would it be possible on a long term development for camping, to do something like the Yurt trail up in the Colorado State Forest, only without the Yurts? You can make a long loop trail and prepare some campsites that are off the trail that people, if they wanted to camp there, would have to make a reservation for. • Stokes: We've talked about an idea just like that, and that may be something to consider in the future, we are not prepared to go to that level now but it is a great idea. Camping will definitely be a permitted activity, because we have some cultural resources that are very precious and we need to protect them. We want people to know that we care, and we want to hand them the right information so we know where they are, and that they are safe, because of the vast property. I'd like to mention that the parking lot that the county will be building, will be on the Southwest corner of Soapstone and that it is very important to our overall objective of getting visitors on this property. Visitors will be able to use the third parking lot that the county is building, to gain access to the West side of Soapstone. The parking lots that we are purposing are in the middle of Soapstone, which will be a long haul to get to the West side. We think that most people who want to use the West side of Soapstone will be using the County parking lot to access our property. Eckert: Daylan are you doing any kind of night sky analysis? Figgs: We're not, but that is a great idea, I'd like to talk to you about that. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board May 9, 2007 Page 8 of 8 Marty Heffernan introduced himself to the Board, and complimented the Natural Areas Staff on the work they do. New Business: No new business Announcements: None Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m. Submitted by Geri Kidawski