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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017/04/05 - ADMIN - Minutes - Environment & Sustainability Commission - RegularMINUTES ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION: SUSTAINABLE SLP ST. LOUIS PARK, MINNESOTA April 5, 2017 Community Room, City Hall MEMBERS PRESENT: Interim Chair Ryan Griffin, Terry Gips, Julie Rappaport, Jayne Stephenson, Judy Voigt EXCUSED ABSENCE: Chris Anderson, Nancy Rose STAFF PRESENT: Shannon Pinc and Recording Secretary (Ms. Pappas) GUESTS: Bridget Rathsack, and Sue Bloyer, community members 1. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Interim Chair Griffin and the commissioners introduced themselves. 2. The minutes of the March 1, 2017 meeting were tabled to the May 3, 2017 meeting. 3. Business a. Elections- Chair and Vice Chair – Terry made a motion to nominate Ryan Griffin for ESC acting chair. Jayne seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Commissioner’s Judy Voigt and Jayne Stephenson are leaving the commission; however, Jayne will stay over the summer months, and then will leave for college in September. Terry mentioned that it has been tradition that the commission alternate male and female chair and vice chair members every year when possible. Terry made a motion to table the nomination for vice chair until the May meeting. Ryan seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. b. Project Team Updates – Judy gave an update on the Green Steps Cities, as it relates to energy, and noted some progress has been made on the energy benchmarking program. She mentioned the upcoming Energy Efficiency in Business meeting on April 19, with the Renewables group, which is all part of the energy action plan. Judy noted she and Shannon attended the Hennepin County Benchmarking meeting for small cities, and met some folks from Minneapolis, who do work in the energy transparency program. Their energy star portfolio scores are reported on their website. Environment and Sustainability -2- April 5, 2017 Commission Meeting Judy stated she hopes St. Louis Park can be a pilot city for energy benchmarking, assuming the commission wants to do this. She added it will need to be discussed further, and then possibly do work toward an ordinance. Shannon stated if that is the case, it will need to go to the council as a formal presentation, and get consent – first for the benchmarking policy and secondly for the disclosure ordinance. Judy agreed, this will need to go through the right channels. Terry asked what would the cost be for building owners, will there be more paperwork, or more time involved in this process. Judy stated this will be for bigger buildings, bigger energy users first. From there, we would work with tax assessors to find building owners, and work with energy assessment groups. The program would be voluntary to begin with, and then we will work toward an ordinance, possibly making it a requirement for businesses. Judy noted Minneapolis started with 100,000 square feet buildings, and then moved to 50,000 square feet buildings. Additionally, she noted, they began with municipal buildings at 25,000 square feet, and used this size as their example. Judy added it will be difficult to set up, but Minneapolis set up help groups, and classes, webinars and a help desk to get the process started. There may be some costs to the city, so that would need to be addressed also. Acting Chair Ryan stated we will need to pitch this to council and to the business community, adding it would be a huge opportunity to save money. Judy stated she will take this topic to the next joint meeting on April 19th, and then bring back next steps to the full group at the May ESC meeting. Judy made a motion to have the Energy Efficiency/Renewables Group further pursue and investigate St. Louis Park becoming a pilot city for Hennepin County Benchmarking Platform. Jayne seconded the motion which passed unanimously. Julie stated she would like to get the Jewish Community Center and Day School connected to this project, and have them be a case study possibly. She will work on this further. Judy added a group of students from the University of Minnesota is working on this also, and will be presenting this information on April 12. She added this group will be interviewing a select group of businesses for this project. Shannon stated she will forward the details of this project and presentation to the commission. Ryan asked if the commission could invite all the nominees to the next meeting to hear about the benchmarking platform. He noted there might be some interest from the Planning Commission also, on an ordinance related to this, if Hennepin County does a presentation. He added the ESC could also invite Sean Walther along with the Planning Commission, to attend. Environment and Sustainability -3- April 5, 2017 Commission Meeting Shannon will check on inviting the Planning Commission and the candidates also. Judy will check on Hennepin County (Sara Jordan and Leah Hiniker) presenting at the next commission meeting in May. Shannon noted the wind campaign flyers also, and added more can be made so the commissioners can take them to other meetings. She added there will need to be a lot of social media to make this a success, along with Next Door. She also noted that people are asking about the Arcadia program, and she is working to find out more about this. Terry stated it will be important to still be doing wind, and there will be credits for that. He added this should be publicized during Earth month, and telling folks they can save 10% on their bill. *This was a mistake, these is no 10% discount with this campaign and commission members were provided the correct information. Ryan added it is not common knowledge about the wind source program, and it may be simpler to say if going 100% renewable energy, can save $3-6 per month on your bill. He added this can be discussed in next steps. c. Other Announcements – Julie spoke on the Earth Day and Community Visioning and Dinner and stated this would be a great place to have a table on wind source. The event is Tuesday, April 25th, and a sign-up sheet will be added. Jayne is speaking at Edina Morningside church regarding Earth Day and iMatter. She stated she will have copies there to pass out on wind source. March for Science will be held on April 22 at the capital in St. Paul. Also, the Peoples Climate March will be held April 29, as will the Clean up the Creek Day. Terry stated for the Comprehensive Plan, he would like to do a survey about attitudes and actions in the city. He added he has contacted a Professor at Macalester to do this work, but has not heard back from her yet. He may also contact the U of M for help with this survey. The 35th National Pesticide Forum is April 28-29 and is convened by Beyond Pesticides, UMN Institute on the Environment, and Organic Consumers Association. Ecotacular is June 16 and Xcel Energy will be there. Judy will be there with table. d. Visioning Exercise – Terry and Julie were trained to do facilitate visioning process, and tonight will look at the Big Questions with the ESC members. Environment and Sustainability -4- April 5, 2017 Commission Meeting Terry stated the assignment is good for us to answer questions both as commissioners but also through the lens of a community member as well, and then facilitate a process of visioning focused on sustainability. Terry noted one important question to ask is: How would you envision SLP being a leader in environment and sustainability and equitable resiliency (racial, economic, etc.) Terry asked about sustainability and the visioning process and how it might look 10-20 years down the road, perhaps if the city were totally sustainable. He asked what it might look like if there were no boundaries, no barriers, and no challenges to achieving sustainability. Terry asked the commissioners to dream about what that might look like. From there, he said, a sustainability action plan will be developed, which is the comprehensive plan part. He said they will find most people have the same values, goals, dreams. He added, as a commission, he would hope members describe what they like to have as their vision. He added this is totally wide open and he encouraged the commissioners to be bold and touch all areas, in hopes of capturing what they would like to see. As the commissioners brainstormed, Julie stated she will capture all the ideas on paper and send them to the commission to review, and add more. Julie asked the group how they felt about approaching the Sun Sailor about publishing the ESC visioning. The group decided to circulate all ideas to the commission first, before publishing. Ryan had one final announcement noting that Judy has served on the commission for the past four years, as well as the water, land and wildlife, energy, zero waste, communications, living streets, and transportation work groups, and he thanked her for her service. Terry added it is unbelievable how hard Judy has worked, and noted how many meetings she has gone to over the years. He stated she has given her heart and soul for this commission and it is truly appreciated. Judy thanked them and stated she still hopes to work on the energy action work group. The meeting was adjourned 8:30 p.m.