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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016/07/06 - ADMIN - Minutes - Environment & Sustainability Commission - RegularMINUTES ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION: SUSTAINABLE SLP ST. LOUIS PARK, MINNESOTA July 6, 2016 Community Room, City Hall MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Rachel Harris, Francie Abramson, Chris Anderson, Joe Barten, Terry Gips, Ryan Griffin, Julie Rappaport, Nancy Rose, Judy Voigt. EXCUSED ABSENCE: Chris Anderson, Jayne Stevenson STAFF PRESENT: Shannon Pinc, Jane Adade, Staff Intern, and Recording Secretary (Ms. Pappas). GUESTS: Sophia Skinner, SLP high school student 1. The meeting was called to order at 6:32 p.m. Chair Harris asked the commissioners to introduce themselves and share with the group. 2. The minutes of the June 1, 2016 meeting were approved unanimously. 3. New Business a. Overarching Goals i. Comprehensive Plan – LoGoPep- Shannon explained this is the acronym for Local Government Program for Energy Planning, and St. Louis Park is one of five pilot cities selected. She added it was developed out of Green Step Cities. Shannon did the application for the energy templates and ideas which can be included in the Comprehensive Plan. She added the U of M is also included in the partnership and the kick-off is the end of July. This will be a one-year pilot program and Shannon will report back after the kick off meeting. ii. Green Step Cities – Rachel/Nancy The City has achieved level 2, and is working toward achievement of level 3. Nancy said that some specified GS Actions will require changes in City staff practices, and those discussions have not yet begun. It will require some of Shannon’s time to interface with staff to discuss new policies or practices. Terry asked for clarification and said his understanding was that some of the items at level 3 were already completed. Nancy agreed that some GS Actions have been completed, but others have not been begun. Chair Harris said the Nancy is working alone on the Green Steps actions and is looking for members to join this work group. She suggested the commissioners go to the web site and review the 29 best practices for Green Steps and then contact Shannon or Nancy by July 15th, if anyone is interested in working on this. She added the work group is working with staff on this also, as it touches on other areas of the city also. Environment and Sustainability -2- July 6, 2016 Commission Meeting iii. Climate Action Plan – Shannon updated the commission. She stated the work group is working on the larger energy plan with Ryan, and it will be presented to the commission soon. She reminded the commission that the city passed a resolution the students had submitted, to work on a climate action plan, and to start work on that within 30 days. She said staff is working on this and researching, talking to colleagues, and consultants. Shannon wrote an RFP, and is now meeting with consultants who want to learn more. There will be a youth component included and a focused climate action plan committee will be formed, including community members and staff. She noted the commission will not be able to do all of this work. More strategies will be discussed at future meetings, along with recruiting in order to get more citizens involved in this project. Nancy asked how the energy plan will fit into LoGoPep of the Comprehensive Plan. Shannon stated that is unknown as this time, however there will be some overlap, and the same players will be working together to develop these plans. Ryan asked if the RFP is posted anywhere. Shannon noted it is not posted, but has been sent to consultants for review and response by July 25th. She added the plan must be completed by the end of 2016 and staff is working closely with iMatter and Larry Craft, along with the stakeholder group. Ryan asked if there is an approved budget from the city on this project. Shannon noted yes there is, along with additional dollars for retreats, consultants and surveys that the commission would like to pursue. She added that more information will be forthcoming on this also. b. Recap of Recent Events i. Organic Living Workshop – April 16, 2016 – Chair Harris noted the council is interested in combining the April events into one event in the future. Shannon stated the April 16 workshop had 95 attendees, with about 30 exhibitors. She added is was a beautiful day, so it was difficult to get folks to attend. However, there were amazing speakers, and great exhibitors during the 6-hour event. Additionally, direction from the council, through City Manager Harmening, is to do less events, or combine or consolidate events, and move to an earlier date, such as in March. Staff is also looking at rebranding these events, or using alternative strategies to market. Shannon added it has been lots of effort with little return. Student Sophia Skinner however noted the event was advertised all over, including on the city website, in newsletters, and on social media. She added if youth had done more to publicize this, it may have helped. Shannon said if the commissioners have ideas on this, please forward them to her, and she will bring back the suggestions for review. Environment and Sustainability -3- July 6, 2016 Commission Meeting Terry stated this has been a struggle in past years also, and it is important that it gets resolved. He noted that Edina does a large yearly energy event, and gets a large turnout, adding it might be helpful to work more with potential partners on this event. Ryan added they might possibly piggy-back off an existing event, such as Parktacular – or some other non-sustainability event - so the workshop might be exposed to people who wouldn’t normally attend. Chair Harris reminded the commission to please send ideas about this event to Shannon by July 15th. ii. Earth Day Dinner & Visioning – April 24, 2016 – Julie R and Judy V reported. Julie distributed some photographs from the event, and noted a number of positive comments from those in attendance. She stated 122 dinners were served and there were 96 attendees at the event. She did however note that they had some complaints from folks who were turned away at door, and could not participate in the visioning. All food leftovers were donated to STEP. She added it would be better to have surveys distributed to folks as they enter the event, and also time the workshops better during the day. Julie added this was the first time the kitchen at Lenox was used as a public kitchen, and they were surprised how many it could feed. Some suggestions from the visioning included the following: Get kids involved in school nutrition, bring more fresh food into the school kitchens, and provide more exposure to nature, through community or school gardens. Judy thanked Julie for all of her work, and thanked Terry and Ryan for speaking at the event. She noted Mayor Spano was there also, and provided some comments also about getting more people involved. Judy also mentioned that hers and Julie’s families and husbands helped with cooking for the event, and she wished more people had attended this amazing event. Terry agreed with Judy, noting it was a huge amount of work, with incredible volunteers. He noted there were many people in attendance who had not come in the past, and Ryan gave a great talk, while the youth’s presentation was powerful. He stated he was energized by the event and the visions was great, especially hearing new perspectives. Chair Harris asked Julie to email the final report to Shannon, who will then distribute it to the commission. iii. Solar Power Hour – April 12, 2016 – Shannon explained that Cindy Larson O’Neil’s work on the energy group went into this event. There were 25 community members that attended, and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA), sanctioned the event. The commission discussed the event and if it was worthwhile, noting also there was a Environment and Sustainability -4- July 6, 2016 Commission Meeting certain sales pitch-type atmosphere to it. They also noted it was cost prohibitive at this point, to do solar within the City, but it’s a start. c. Work Groups i. Transportation – Bike tour Proposal – Ryan is now leading this group, which stemmed out of the energy work group. Ryan stated the mission involves reduction of emissions, and the group is local. He added it touches health, safety, climate change, water, and urban planning. Additionally, the big goal this year is to create a living streets policy. Ryan noted the City of Mpls recently wrote a new Complete Streets Policy streets policy prioritizing the sharing of streets in this order: walking, biking, public transit and cars. He added Edina is doing similar work with their policy. Judy noted that when we redo our streets it is important to consider the amount of impervious pavement and the storm water that runs off of this pavement into our creeks, lakes and streams. In addition to being impervious, concrete is an extremely carbon dirty product adding to a negative environmental impact. The Living Streets policy goes beyond Complete Streets and includes these pavement/stormwater runoff considerations into the plan, adding vegetation to help clean the water that runs off of these impervious surfaces. Vegetation also improves the aesthetics and helps clean the air. Trees are especially helpful in that they shade the concrete and help reduce the heat island effect. Ryan added its best that when a street is touched, it is completed for the future – so it is done all at once and right the first time. Ryan stated there is good work happening at the city level. He added the work group and the city will need to think about a policy that will last for 20-30 years. He added there will also need to be work done on bike paths, and the work group is currently looking for input on this, and help from staff to map out a route. Ryan noted there may be some easy wins on bike paths, and just adding a stripe might be helpful, but added this will need to be prioritized. Ryan and Shannon will work on a doodle poll to send to the commissioners, asking them to send information and ideas on how to plan. Chair Harris stated the city provided a van tour looking at what’s working what’s not on city streets, which was helpful. She added if any commissioners are interested in being on this work group, please let Shannon know. ii. Education & Action – SET Tour September – Julie noted a tour to the mulch store was conducted, and Judy and Terry attended as well. There were about 25 people on the tour, and it was very interesting and worthwhile. Environment and Sustainability -5- July 6, 2016 Commission Meeting She added additional tours to other facilities including solid waste, composting and recycling locations will be scheduled. She added the work group would be happy to support bike tours also. Terry stated the work group wants to move ahead on a baseline survey now, related to sustainability. He added however there are still some conflict of interest issues to work out. There is a meeting on July 14th with Emily Barker and Shannon, and a survey may be taken during the next tour. All commissioners and youth, and any others are invited to attend the next tour. Julie noted the harvest festival where educational workshops and garden tours will be done at the end of August. Originally, she noted, the commission was looking at sponsoring this event, however originally it was a SLP sees event, so there is a question if the commission can sponsor this or not. Chair Harris said this will need to be worked out before it is brought to the commission as an event. Francie stated perhaps the commission should explore to see if this event is a conflict of interest, with the city attorney prior to further planning. Chair Harris pointed out if a commissioner sits on an outside board of a group/committee, then the commission is not able to sponsor an event for that particular group/committee. iii. Communications – Judy gave a report in the absence of Chris Anderson tonight. She noted the group recently had a Facebook page launch and training, and nothing has happened since the last meeting. Terry stated the group would like others to join, adding this group should include young people, and should be dynamic. Chair Harris stated anyone is invited to join this group, even if they are not a communications or PR person. She added the city council has asked for less work groups, so we may be able to combine this one with another. iv. Work Group Summaries for new commissioners Water, Land and Wildlife – Nancy explained she had a conversation with Mayor Spano. She learned that the Council is rather disappointed as they expected more new ideas about the Environment. She added that WLW may develop a purpose statement on water management systems and green stormwater infrastructure. She also added that two Commissioners will be joining the WLW group. Chair Harris noted the commission has received differing points of view from the council, and the city manager, and the commission will take these all under advisement. She added the council wants more focused efforts and less work groups. Environment and Sustainability -6- July 6, 2016 Commission Meeting She noted the November retreat will be a good place to work through these issues while planning the 2017 focus. Terry stated he hoped the commission and council could work this out in a positive way, while still working on the commissions 3 priorities. He added it’s a work in progress. Zero Waste – Judy stated this is the most functional group she has been on, but added it will be taking a little break for now. She stated the group has great people on it, and everyone is very knowledgeable about composting and zero waste. It has been suggested by members of the Zero Waste work group that we consider what Minneapolis does in charging everyone for the Organic Waste service whether they participate or not. Joe noted that the work groups can work on the big picture or can also explain what was learned in a staff meeting. Then that information can be included on the sustainability website, with each workgroup doing their own communications. d. Announcements i. Annual Retreat- potential dates/times – Chair Harris proposed this be set up for November 2016 and asked commissioners to weigh in on several dates. Shannon will send out a doodle to ask for availability of commissioners on several dates in November, and also look into having a facilitator again for the retreat. Terry asked why the commission only has 10 commissioners, instead of 12. Shannon stated currently there is no dwelling commissioner, no business commissioner, and no second youth member. The youth member will be appointed after school begins in September. There were no applicants that applied for the other open spots. 4. The meeting was adjourned at 8:33 p.m.