Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 07/09/2008MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS LAND CONSERVATION & STEWARDSHIP BOARD Regular Meeting July 9, 2008 DATE: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 LOCATION: 215 N Mason Street, Conference Room 1-A TIME: 6:00 p.m. For Reference: Linda Stanley - 491-7377 Mayor Doug Hutchinson - 416-2154 John Stokes, Staff Liaison - 221-6263 Board Members Present Raymond Boyd, Linsey DeBell, Chris Gaughan, Michelle Grooms, Trudy Haines, Linda Stanley, Karyl Ting Board Members Excused Vicky McLane Council Liaison Mayor, Doug Hutchinson Staff Present Natural Resources / Natural Areas Department: Geri Kidawski, Karen Manci, Mark Sears, John Stokes Guests Craig Foreman, Park Planning and Development Manager Kellie Devore-Gogola - citizen Eric Easley - citizen Public Comments Agenda Review Stanley: The East Prospect Road Landscaping Project is an addition to the agenda, and it will be the first item on the agenda this evening. Review and Approval of Minutes Boyd made a motion to approve the May 14, 2008 meeting minutes as written. Haines second. It was unanimously approved. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Page 2 of 8 The East Prospect Road Landscaping Project • Sears: Kyle Lambrecht, is here with us this evening and is the project manager for the East Prospect Road Landscaping project. He is in the process of designing the landscaping, using the comprehensive plan designed in the 1990's for the Prospect Road Streetscape plan. The plan basically tries to emulate the existing native landscaping that is all ready there. No action needs to be taken by this Board. Kyle is here to answer any questions you may have. Sears pointed out on a diagram the kinds of trees, and shrubs that will be used, and where they will be planted. • Haines: Will there be irrigation for the landscaping? • Kyle: We do have planned irrigation to help the plants and trees get established. However, once the area is established the native plants will not need irrigation. • Sears: In the future there may be road lanes added, so the landscaping will be planted back far enough from the road. • Stanley: Is this landscaping low maintenance compared to an urban landscape plan? • Kyle: Maintenance of the landscape will be important from the start, however once established it will be low maintenance. • Haines: Will the area be irrigated with water from the pond? • Kyle: There is a'/a inch water meter by Running Deer Natural Areas parking lot and more than likely that will provide us with enough water for the project. Prairie Ridge Natural Area Agricultural Lease • Sears: The City of Fort Collins and the City of Loveland jointly own the 785 acre Prairie Ridge Natural Area. Funding for this acquisition was provided by the two entities. The City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, and the City of Loveland entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on March 22, 2000, regarding their joint ownership of the Property and related rights and responsibilities. The City of Loveland is identified in the IGA as the managing entity and is responsible for the management of the property. The current lease expires on July 31, 2008. The tenant (Harry Sauer) has indicated the desire to lease the property for at least one additional year. The City of Loveland has negotiated a Dryland wheat lease for one year with provisions for up to two (2) one-year renewals. Lease renewals will occur if requested by the tenant and if approved by the City of Loveland as the managing entity. • Haines: If the tenant is planning on retiring then why are we doing this, is there another alternative? • Sears: The goal for all of the wheat land property owned and managed by Loveland, Larimer County and Fort Collins in the FC-LVLD community separator has always been to restore the property to native vegetation. Loveland plans to restore Prairie Ridge at sometime in the near future. Natural Areas has already started restoring portions of our wheat fields and will continue restoration Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Page 3 of 8 until we are complete, hopefully prior to the farmer retiring. Latimer County plans to lease Longview Farm for wheat production for as long as possible. • Gaughan: Will there be trails through the large areas that are going to be restored? • Sears: The City of Loveland plans to construct a trail across Prairie Ridge that will connect to Coyote Ridge. The City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Program and Parks Planning Department are working with Latimer County to plan and develop a trail along the east side of Shields Street that would cross Hazaleus Natural Area, Colina Mariposa Natural Area and Longview Farm that would connect Fort Collins' trail network into Loveland's trail network. Gaughan made a motion for the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board to recommend that City Council approve the Lease of the Prairie Ridge Natural Area jointly owned by the City of Fort Collins and the City of Loveland for Dryland farming for one year with up to two (2) one- year renewals. Grooms second, and it was unanimously approved. Poudre Trail Realignment across Kingfisher Point Natural Area • Foreman: I met with Karen Manci (Senior Environmental Planner, Natural Areas Program) and Marsha Hilmes-Robinson (Floodplain Administrator, Stormwater) regarding locating the Poudre River Bike Trail from Nix Natural Area to Timberline Road south to the Kingfisher Point levee. The current trail is asphalt and in need of replacement with concrete. The reconstruction will provide an opportunity to pull the trail away from the riparian zone. Marsha expressed concerns about relocating the trail on top of or on the side slope of the levee. • Manci: I have concerns about relocating the trail to an area that was previously undisturbed by public use. However, pulling the trail back 100 to 150 feet through this stretch will help protect the trail from future flood events and greatly increase the buffer distance along the riparian corridor. Craig prepared two options for realigning the Poudre River Bike Trail from Nix Natural Area to Timberline Road for review and comments by the Natural Areas Program. Mark Sears (Natural Areas program Manager) presented the options to the Senior Staff of the Natural Areas program for discussion. Mark Sears, Karen Manci and Rick Bachand (Senior Environmental Planner, Natural Areas Program) walked both alignments and further discussed the potential impacts with each option. • Haines: Will the new trail have shade? • Manci: Most of the trail is not shaded. • Foreman: Ideally I'd like to put shade trees for every ''/< mile bringing resources to the trail creating a shady area. • Stanley: How many places currently along the trail need to be pulled away from the river when building the new trail? Foreman pointed out on a diagram, the largest section near the river that needs to be pulled away from the river. • Grooms: I like the option of pulling the trail away from the river about 100 to 150 feet as opposed to the option of 450 to 650 feet. • Boyd: Are there any nesting Great Blue Herons along the river in this area? Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Page 4 of 8 • Manci: Not nesting just feeding. • Stanley: When I first read about the realignment of the Poudre River Bike trail my bias was to go with moving the trail 450 to 650 feet away from the river. But after this discussion I would agree with moving the trail only 100 to 150 feet. • Stanley: Do you need a recommendation or comments. • Foreman: Just comments. We will steak the new trail and the Board can come out to see it. • Haines: The long range plan for some trails may depend on this trail. • Manci: I'd be happy to walk the trail with any of the Board members. Please contact me and we can make arrangements. • Haines: This was a very well done presentation. Stanley: This Board sent a memo to members of the Fort Collins City Council regarding comments pertaining to proposed development at the southwest corner of I-25 and Harmony Road. There was a misunderstanding by one of the members of the City Council who believed that I was having secretive meetings to write the memo. A column in the Fort Collins NOW called this memo a political scandal. I sent a response to the publisher and the editor of the Fort Collins NOW who printed my response verbatim in the NOW. I did not say that it was a letter to the editor. • Haines: In the future the Board should vote, during the meeting, to write a memo and have it routed to Board members via email, to make sure that it reflects all the sentiments that were discussed regarding a specific agenda item. Northern Integrated Supply Project Update • Stokes: I would like to show the Board the presentation given to the City Council Work Session on June 10, 2008 regarding the Status Report on Preliminary Review of NISP Draft EIS. Where we are now in the process is that City staff continues to work on developing its comments. We will go to Council on September 2"d, and hopefully they will pass a resolution that day endorsing staffs comments. We plan on submitting the comments to the Army Corp of Engineers before September 13, 2008, which is the last date to submit comments. • Stanley: This Board will make a recommendation at the August meeting. • Stokes: That's correct. We will release our comments nearer to the date of the Council meeting. This Board may not have the benefit of having the comment package to view. • Haines: What Boards are weighing in? • Stokes: This Board, Parks and Recreation, Water Board, Natural Resources Advisory Board, several Boards have weighed in all ready. The Water Board recommended that we ask the Army Corp of Engineers for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which we will be requesting. • Stanley: If I understand the by-laws correctly, we can not provide comments directly to the Army Crop of Engineers; we have to go through City Council? • Stokes: As a Board we need to provide comments to City Council. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Page 5 of 8 Stokes presented to the Board a presentation on "Statue Report on Preliminary Review of NISP Draft EIS" which consisted of the following information: • NEPA process • The Project o The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District in collaboration with 12 municipalities and water districts, is proposing to build the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP) • Project Impacts to Water flow & Quality ■ Project Impacts to River function ■ Project Impacts to Wildlife and Habitat ■ Project Impacts to Visitor Experience • Potential Economic impacts ■ Draft EIS Deficiencies ■ Next Steps Boyd: Will they divert water from the tunnel under Grand Lake? Stokes: They would take the water that comes into Horsetooth now, and drop it further south. They would replace that water with water from Glade Reservoir, building a pipeline from Glade to Horsetooth. This is a problem because the water that they are taking has total organic carbon (TOC) in it, and is something we have to treat. TOC is highest in the spring and summer when we have our peak flows. We would have to build a new system to treat the TOC content in the water. • Ting: Are those the issues from the EIS? • Stokes: They touch on it in the EIS. • Ting: There's no economic issue with this? • Stokes: They have to look at the water impact, but we feel an adequate job has not been done regarding this. • Grooms: Will the City be responsible for building and operation of the treatment plant? • Stokes: That's an open question. • Debell: Can they buy the ditch rights? • Stokes: They are not buying any ditch rights. There are two major water rights that they are using. One is a junior water right called the Gray Mountain right, which can only be used during peak flows. The second water right used is via exchange. • Debell: Those water rights pull through town? • Stokes: No, those water rights currently do not go through town. • Grooms: Hank Brown mentioned minimum stream flows and about how this is all a compromise, can you speak to some of the things that he talks about. • Stokes: The history is that at one time there was a proposal to build a main stream dam. If you read the minutes from that record, it does not preclude our ability to build a reservoir somewhere else up stream and down stream. It states that all the permanent regulations and conditions at the time of the proposal to build that project would have to be followed. Now they are going through the EIS process because they are required to do so. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Page 6 of 8 • Grooms: What about the minimum stream flows? • Stokes: The City of Fort Collins owns two flow rights in the Poudre River. One is the Recreational In -Stream Flow Right, which is very small water right and very junior. We have never exercised that right. The second water right is also a small water right by the break water treatment plant, and is very junior. The argument that Hank Brown is making with the District is wrong. • Gaughan: From a Natural Areas perspective the argument of more standing water, more mosquitoes in our Natural Areas and West Nile virus, goes along with that minimum flow right. • Stokes: We are commenting on this issue. • Haines: There is a difference between analyzing vs. characterizing; they would come to different conclusions. • Stokes: Yes, at least we will make that argument. • Stanley: Are you redoing some of this analysis on your own? • Stokes: No, we are critiquing their analysis. Our comments to the Army Corp of Engineers will be substantive, scientific and will be driven by the data that we have, and as a City that is very important to us. • Gaughan: As a Board we should be focusing on the "Project Impacts to Water Flow and Quality" when writing our memo. • Ting: In terms of clean water regulations, where will they violate water rights? • Stokes: I `m not knowledgeable enough to speak about the Clean Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will focus on clean water regulations, because they are the regulators for discharging permits and water quality. • Haines: Does the City of Fort Collins have legal council knowledgeable in water regulations? • Stokes: We have not had to work with a water attorney, we have access to water attorneys and we have our own City attorneys as well. We are doing well on the legal side of this. • Haines: The folks that make these decisions regarding the River, do they have scientific backgrounds? • Stokes: The Army Crop of Engineers have competent experts working for them. However, they have one person working on this project, and he is also working on five different and huge EIS's. This may be why this document has so many problems. • Grooms: What is the cost? • Stokes: The proponents gave $6 million dollars for the project. The Natural Areas contributed $50,000 in 2007 and $50,000 in 2008. The total budget may be around three quarters of a million dollars, including monies all ready spent. • Ting: Does this include staff time. • Stokes: No. • Grooms: How often do these things get approved? • Stokes: What I've been told by very knowledgeable people is that when a project reaches this stage and a draft environmental statement has been issued, it is more likely, than not, that the project will be permitted. However, sometimes projects land in court and can spend ten or twenty years there. If they agree to accept our Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Page 7 of 8 Environmental Impact Statement and they take our comments seriously, they have a lot of work to do. • Grooms: Are they taking under consideration all the small developing communities that need water, with no regards or concerns to Fort Collins water supply? • Stokes: The Corp has a process called "purpose in need", and the purpose is to provide water, so the court views this as its roll. • Haines: This will enable for these communities to build 80 thousand more houses. They haven't done an environmental impact study regarding the impact of these housing developments in terms of air quality or water quality. • Stokes: They are looking at cumulative impacts with water in this area. • Haines: Why such a small extension? • Stokes: Typically the time period is 45 days. They doubled that once and are reluctant to double it again. They are under a lot of pressure to extend the process, and not to extend the process. • Ting: The constituency of the Northern Colorado water conservancy district, Fort Collins and Greeley are part of that. Is the Government the determining factor? • Stokes: They have a non -elected Board. • Ting: Has there been any outreach to our legislative components? • Stokes: The City has hired a lobbyist, and we met with our legislators to let them know that we have legitimate concerns about this project and that we would like their support to obtain an extension. I believe those efforts were successful and we received a great editorial in the Denver Post. • Gaughan: As a Board we should write something. • Grooms: I suggest that we continue to express our concerns and other things that directly affect this Board. • Stanley: This item will be on the August agenda so there will be more information at that time. • Stokes There may be some refinement, but there won't be too much more that will be new. We talked about the major themes this evening. • Haines: Lets start a draft and bring it to the next Board meeting for discussion • Gaughan: I will start the draft and bring it to the August meeting. New Business: Announcements: • Sears: Rachael Steeves put together a proposal for a grant from GOCO for the Bernard Ranch. On the first phase we received $265,000. They said that they would help re -coop monies that we didn't get on the first phase. • Stokes: We submitted a major grant proposal to GOCO in collaboration with the County for trail work at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. • Stanley: Mark can you comment on the road issues with the landowners at Soapstone Natural Area. • Sears: There were only one or two landowners that were upset, and it has all been resolved. The road is essentially done and in a week the county will give us their Land Conservation & Stewardship Board Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Page 8 of 8 approval. There is a small section up to the North parking lot that needs to be completed, the North parking lot is currently under construction and should be completed at the end of July. The South parking lot has been completed for about a month. The picnic shelters that overlook the Lindenmeier site are going out to bid. • Ting: I'd like to make a request for a field trip by the Board to Soapstone Natural Area. • Stokes: We will communicate by email and pick a date at the August Board meeting. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 8 Submitted by Geri Administrative Sec