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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLand Conservation And Stewardship Board - Minutes - 05/09/2018Land Conservation and Stewardship Board 1 MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS LAND CONSERVATION & STEWARDSHIP BOARD Regular Meeting May 9, 2018 1745 Hoffman Mill Road 5:30 p.m. Council Liaison: Gerry Horak 217-2993 For Reference: Edward Reifsnyder, Chair 817-821-4644 David Tweedale, Vice Chair 970-219-2422 Raymond Watts, Communications 970-690-4250 Daylan Figgs, Staff Liaison 970-416-2814 Board Members Present: David Tweedale, Edward Reifsnyder, Vicky McLane, Joseph Piesman, Andrea Elson, Kelly Ohlson, Marcia Patton-Mallory, Raymond Watts, Mike Weber NAD Staff: Mark Sears, Daylan Figgs, John Stokes Public Attendees: Cole Kramer, Dave Myers Call meeting to order: 5:30 pm Introductions/ Public Comments: Approval of Minutes: Joe reported that April’s minutes reflected a 7-2 vote in favor of the Water Park when the vote was actually 6-2, as Ed Reifsnyder was absent for that meeting. Marcia had a couple of editorial changes to the minutes David Tweedale made a motion to approve the April LCSB meeting minutes. Andrea Elson seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved. Land Conservation and Stewardship Board 2 Communication and Board Matters: Joe attended a joint Water and Energy Board meeting on May 3rd . He and David Tweedale attended the “Super Issue” meeting for Boards and Commission, organized by the City Clerk’s office on May 7th . He wanted to also discuss the e-bike issue and get a report from Marcia on the last Bicycle Advisory Board meeting. Joe reported one topic of the joint Water/Energy Board meeting was the proposed Platte River Power Authority/ENYO transmission line project at Meadow Springs. The project was presented by PRPA staff and Jason Graham, who represents the watertreatment and biosolids division of Utilities. City Council will seek out the Water Board’s recommendations for the project. Joe reported that City Council will still be open to other recommendations. Daylan reported that ENYO would assist with the permitting process of the project as well as Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The NAD will hire a contractor to review energy and wildlife impacts. Daylan will bring maps to the next LCSB meeting to demonstrate the proposed options. David and Joe attended the Boards and Commissions Super Issues meeting on May 7th. The focus of that meeting was Budget for Outcomes (BFO) and roles and inputs from various boards and commissions. The first deadline is June 8th for BFO comments. Any communications should go through David Young, Communications Officer and then David will forward them to the appropriate review team. Joe explained that it didn’t have to be a polished memo and that after John presents the NAD BFO offers he thought it might be a good idea to draft a memo on the proposed suggestions or proposals. City Manager’s will make a recommendation August 31st ; September 11th is Council Work Session and September 18th is a public hearing when individuals can address City Council. September 28th is when they want all Boards and Commission to write any formal memos to City Council. David reported that you can get as specific as one would like but that it requires a substantial amount of time. David suggested going to https://ourcity.fcgov.com/ to view the various BFO proposals. Joe suggested getting any information the board felt important on BFO to the review team. Marcia reported on the final draft of the e-bike memo to the Transportation Board. The Transportation Board adopted the memo and the next step will be for FC Moves staff to review. Marcia also spoke with Luke about the idea of an e-bike demo and Marcia suggested Luke set it up and invite various board members to experience those bikes. Next steps would be to make a recommendation to City Council. John reported that he has had a couple of citizen complaints to City Council about NAD’s lethal management of prairie dogs at Fossil Creek Wetlands Natural Area. John attended the City Council meeting and was asked to generate a memo on the issue. John will share the memo as soon as it makes its way within the internal review process. As soon as the memo is released to Land Conservation and Stewardship Board 3 City Council he will send it to the Board. John reported to the Board that prairie dog management has always been a controversial issue in the community and NAD’s Wildlife Conservation Guidelines thoroughly and clearly articulates our approach to prairie dog management. Some people might not agree with our approach but that’s the document we use to guide us on this issue. Joe reviewed the annual agenda and asked about the Kingfisher Point tour for the Board. Daylan suggested looking at the site after the restoration had been completed. All agreed to take the tour 45 minutes before the June Board meeting. Joe asked about the Soapstone Prairie, bison tour. Daylan explained that Jennifer Barfield and he would select a series of dates to offer the Board. He would like to delay that tour until the newly-born calves get a little bigger. He suggested sometime in September. John reported that there would be two other memorandums going to City Council. One memo would be on trails and trail maintenance and the other memo would address our use of chemicals on our properties. John will send the memo out to the Board for review. Discussion Items Natural Areas and Conserved Lands Easement Policy Daylan Figs, Environmental Program Manager and Mark Sears, Natural Areas Program Manager provided an overview on the Natural Areas and Conserved Land Easement Policy approved by City Council in 2012. Mark reported that we average about 6-12 easements requests per year for recommendation to City Council. Adopting an easement policy is a way to give to the entities requesting easements a process to follow and to identify the types of projects that are allowed. Mark explained that when NAD staff brings an easement request to the Board that they can expect that NAD staff has reviewed the easement request thoroughly using the policy that is put in place as well as General Resource Protection Standards. If there any exceptions to those, NAD staff will inform the Board. Mark explained that our engineers and environmentalist go through a very rigorous process before the easement even goes before the Board. To offer a better understanding of easement requests in the city, Mark offered a description of our natural areas. The Natural Areas Department has 23 miles of streets that at some point will need widening. We have only 4 miles that have curb, gutter and sidewalk. There is 27 miles of road adjacent to our natural areas. We have over 700 adjoining properties to NAD properties. Coincidentally we are neighbors to a lot of undeveloped land. If we’re in a drainage way, that is where the sewer lines and drainage ditches are going to be constructed. Mark explained how those easement requests will continue to go through our easement policy review process. Ed asked about the 23 miles and if there was a city determined standard right of way. Mark explained that the City’s Transportation Master Plan designates whether the future of that road is going to be a local street or major arterial. Joe asked if there may be easement requests that are Land Conservation and Stewardship Board 4 outrageous that are never brought to the Board. Mark explained that anyone has a right to come to the board but the easement policy fends off most of those requests. Kelly had some suggested changes to the easement policy. Daylan offered to check with the City Attorney’s office to see what changes can be made without having to go to City Council. Daylan reported that NAD collects a $1,500 administration fee at the start of any easement request. If staff time exceeds the $1,500 payment, the entity requesting the easement is billed the additional costs. Daylan went on to explain the two easement compensation categories. One compensation is the appraised value and the other is the ecological goods and services value. Budgeting for Outcomes 2019-2020 John Stokes, Natural Area Director provided an update on Budgeting for Outcome offers submitted by Natural Area and provided an overview of the 2019-2020 budget. John briefly described the individual enhancement offers. o Environmental Learning Center diversion structure. We need to design and permit the rebuild the low head diversion dam for $750K. Construction would be the next BFO cycle. We would split this with Utilities, Natural Areas and the general fund. o Water Resource Engineer. This position would be shared between Parks, Utilities and Natural Areas to manage water rights and our augmentation plan. o GIS Specialist. NAD has an hourly GIS specialist right now. We’d like to make that a permanent, full time position. o West Nile Virus. We put an enhancement offer for a ¼ of an FTE, public health professional. Right now, Matt Parker and Mike Calhoun are the primary staff handling that. That position is for a public health professional. o Matt Parker put in an offer to examine the effects of the chemical, currently being used, is having on the mosquito population. o Camp cleaning services. This is for contractual work to clean up transient camps. o Nature in the City will be an enhancement offer for each year $180K. Discussion: Some Board members felt camp cleaning services should be funded by general funds as it is an issue for the whole community. Those services are contracted out due to safety reasons. John provided background information on the Environmental Learning Center design cost. The original water right was obtained by Utilities as part of the effort to fight Thornton when they were in water court changing some of their water rights. The City created these two diversions at the Coy Ditch and the Environmental Learning Center. It could protect several thousand feet of water in the future, that’s why this is so important. NAD believes the water rights are beneficial to the ecological health of the river and our properties along the river; that’s where the split comes from. The conversation evolved around who would benefit. John Land Conservation and Stewardship Board 5 explained that the permitting fee could potentially be very costly. The split for the $750K would be split three ways. John went on to describe the conversion positions and how they are not part of the enhancement requests. If all those conversions are approved there will be 43.25 permanent FTEs. If you take all our hourlies and divide by 10 months you get an additional ten staff. Kelly suggested emphasizing the minimal staff increase over the last few years. There was discussion about prioritizing the enhancement offers and writing a memorandum to City Council listing those top priorities. Joe agreed to list the priorities in a memorandum and then send them to the Board for review. Kelly agreed that the priorities would be: o The conversion of the GIS mapping staff from an hourly position to a classified position o The Water Engineer position to be shared with Utilities and Parks o Environmental Learning Center dam rehabilitation, design & permitting Although the Board agreed Encampment Cleaning Services was a needed item to assist in cleanup of camps in the Natural Areas, the Board feels this is a community-wide problem and should be funded by the General Fund and not NAD monies. Joe agreed to draft the memorandum to City Council. John reviewed the highlights of green and blue monies. He reviewed our projected 2019/2020 revenues and expenditures, including Open Space Yes revenues and the green and blue split. John reminded the Board that NAD will lose OSY revenue in 2020 because of how the ballot language is written with the County receiving additional funds from that revenue. Our debt service will expire in 2019, that’s $1.3M a year that can go back into land conservation because we’ve almost paid off our loan for the purchase of Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. John will send the memos and budget charts to the Board members. Land Conservation Updates Mark Sears, Natural Areas Program Manager provided an update on land conservation. He reported closing on the Humane Society Property for 3.5 acres. The building has been demolished and the site is clean. We will be doing some minor grading and adding some top soil. Regardless, we will reseed the area. This acreage is adjacent to Prairie Dog Meadows. In April we closed on 49 acres purchased from CSU that straddles Centennial Drive, going north of the dam. This acreage will be added to Maxwell Natural Area. Land Conservation and Stewardship Board 6 Approved: ____________________________, Chair ____________________Date ____________________________, Secretary Michelle Vattano