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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019/05/01 - ADMIN - Minutes - Environment & Sustainability Commission - Regular St. Louis Park Administrative Services Department • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2531 • Fax: 952.924.2170 • TTY: 952.924.2518 Environment and sustainability commission (ESC): Sustainable SLP Minutes May 1, 2019 Community Room, St. Louis Park City Hall Members present: Chair Bridget Rathsack, Shaina Ashare, Nicole Ciulla, Stefan Collinet-Adler, Zoe Frank, Ryan Griffin, Larry Kraft, Jim Leuthner, Claire Lukens Excused absence: Katie Christiansen, Sue Bloyer, Hannah Ampe Staff present: Meg McMonigal, principal planner, ESC Liaison Guests: Sandy Fazeli, Lotus Engineering and Sustainability; Marc Berg, Biking 1. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Chair Rathsack. 2. The minutes of the April 2018 meeting were approved with an abstention from Larry Kraft. 3. Business a. Update from city council meeting Ms. McMonigal noted a staff group has been formed to discuss and move forward the E3 benchmarking ordinance. The city is getting help from Hennepin County on this as well. Time is being spent on how to roll this out to business, and it will be presented to city council for adoption by end of this year. Chair Rathsack stated they had a good discussion with council and they were supportive, the council indicated check-ins two to four times a year and/or written reports throughout the year would be appreciated. She added the council is excited about this, and appreciated the ESC brought more information forward. Mayor Spano noted an example of additional staff added for the city’s racial equity programs, and that this might be the direction the ESC is moving toward also. Ms. McMonigal added the Windsource program will be pursued by the city and Shannon Pinc is working on this. Initially this cost was thought to be $100,000 per year, and an estimate will be provided soon. Mr. Kraft was happy about the support of the ESC’s work. If things can be framed to help drive things forward, the council will support it. Being specific will be helpful and the ESC will need to provide the monthly report to council with goals included, for each month and directives to the council as well. St. Louis Park Administrative Services Department • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2531 • Fax: 952.924.2170 • TTY: 952.924.2518 Mr. Griffin stated he felt good about support from the council and added providing information to the council ongoing will be helpful, as well as sitting in on study sessions and connecting with council members informally. Monthly updates to the council are also essential. Mr. Griffin added if one of the ESC members can be at every council meeting - that will also be helpful. Communication will need to be continuously presented to the council by the ESC. Mr. Griffin stated collaboration with the planning commission would also be helpful as it relates to sustainability. Mr. Griffin stated a draft could be written as a monthly report to the council and reviewed by the ESC. b. Sandy Fazeli, Lotus Engineering and Sustainability Ms. Fazeli pointed out a suite of tools that could be worked on to facilitate resources for businesses, and properties that serve low-income housing. This would not be limited to benchmarking tools, but also would discuss other steps to PACE or financing tools, that the city could present to businesses. Mr. Griffin stated the city needs to push for 100 percent renewable. However, Chair Rathsack stated she worries businesses will be concerned with the high of costs for a renewable program such as Windsource. The message would need to be balanced so businesses can see cost savings as well via efficiency measures and/or city incentives. Mr. Collinet-Adler stated having a team up and running will be necessary for this to work. Mr. Kraft added a business program involves items to talk about, a publicity plan and an outreach plan, including events and door knocking. Chair Rathsack added this should be also tied into the B3 ordinance process. Possibly Lotus will be involved being a liaison with B3. Ms. Fazeli stated she will talk more about the business outreach climate action program with Ms. Pinc. She added Lotus could put together a work plan at a high level and help engage council. For the next meeting, Ms. Fazeli stated she will come back to the ESC with a sketch of what this might look like. Ms. McMonigal stated Shannon Pinc is working with Twin West to meet with businesses, along with the community development staff. The benchmarking group will create a business outreach strategy as well. Mr. Griffin asked if there are ways to leverage this work and talk to businesses about the CAP also. Ms. McMonigal stated yes, this is why staff is working on this with Twin West and community development currently. St. Louis Park Administrative Services Department • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2531 • Fax: 952.924.2170 • TTY: 952.924.2518 Ms. Fazeli noted surveys that will be going out to residents. Ms. McMonigal stated staff has a large email list of residents that request notification and it was used for the comprehensive plan, and very high numbers of responses were received. Chair Rathsack asked if the response was high for businesses. Ms. McMonigal stated that is a good question, and staff would need to look further into that. Mr. Griffin stated alignment of the goals would be helpful, in order of importance and how to achieve them. Ms. Fazoli noted the residential toolkit they worked on as well. This will be a resource to residents that want to take CAP action. The toolkit will be sent by email to the ESC to view more in depth. She stated Lotus will be looking for commissioner feedback by May 10. Ms. McMonigal stated this information could be on the city cable station, as well as videos could be used to make the information more dynamic. She asked also that more graphics be used vs. information. Mr. Kraft suggested that what the top three items residents can do would be most impactful, and this checklist should be introduced first to residents as their first “to do” items. These should be the easiest things and most impactful items as well. Then those who are further along can get more information. Chair Rathsack added that a game board could be introduced to students, and they can bring it home to play with their families as a way to also introduce the action items to the entire household. Niki stated right now this is focused on discreet action and asked how it can be incorporated into more community actions. She added climate anxiety is real, and we have to keep this in mind. She stated resources should be given to people, but framing this as a community of action is important in order to see the scope of their contributions. She added it is important this is collaborative framing. Ms. McMonigal agreed guilt is not a great motivator. Ms. Fazoli noted other items in her report including other toolkkits being worked on and a pledge platform for residents and businesses. Ms. Fazoli noted her goal for the June meeting will be a potential program structure backed up by work other cities have done. She added if other feedback comes up, please contact her, and monthly reports will be given to the ESC if she is not able to be at the meetings in person. St. Louis Park Administrative Services Department • 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416 www.stlouispark.org • Phone: 952.924.2531 • Fax: 952.924.2170 • TTY: 952.924.2518 c. Solar/SEEDS event recap Commissioner Frank noted they had a good turnout, with five sign-ups, one of which was reached through door knocking. Mr. Kraft stated 9 people are signed up currently and 18 will be needed. He asked how more publicity can be added about the event. Chair Rathsack stated the Children’s First Ice Cream Social might be a place to recruit more folks, along with putting information on Nextdoor and in the Park Perspectives. She added she can share the information with individuals in Minneapolis as well. d. EV event Mr. Collinet-Adler stated they are five weeks (June 8, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the ROC) from the event now and vendors are being confirmed. American Lung Association will provide a list of new car dealers that will be there. Communications will go out from the city and he asked the ESC to share the information widely, as well as distributing flyers for the event. Staff will help develop the flyers with content provided by Mr. Collinet-Adler. Ms. Ashare will help to provide packaged food items and Ms. Bloyer will work on the raffle. Help is needed with tabling and sign up. Mr. Collinet-Adler will send out the Facebook invite and encouraged all to get the word out on the event. Chair Rathsack will connect with staff to make sure the toolkit arrives at all event tables for ESC. Ms. McMonigal will make sure city staff posts on Next Door. e. Ecotacular brainstorm ideas – held this topic for future meeting. f. Reminder: Biking event – May 18 Mr. Berg stated 200 have been invited on Facebook, and two people have said they will attend. He added more should be signing up as it is biking month, and he noted the biking route will change for the event. Mr. Berg will send notice to the Sun Sailor for their list of events. He added ride marshals will be recruited. Chair Rathsack added invites should be sent to the city council also, and reminded all to wear biking helmets. g. Reminder: Children’s First Ice Cream Social on May 19 from 2 - 5 p.m. Upcoming meetings: • Elect chair and vice chair – first meeting in June • June staff speaker: planning and development staff • Note: Meg McMonigal out June meeting – Lauren will be at meeting • July meeting moved to July 10, due to 4th of July holiday. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.