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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024/02/07 - ADMIN - Agenda Packets - Environment & Sustainability Commission - Regular Environment & sustainability commission meeting February 7, 2024 6:30 p.m. All board members/commissioners will participate in this meeting at St. Louis Park City Hall, Westwood Room, 5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park, MN 55416. Agenda 1. Call to order a. Roll call 2. Approval of minutes (October 4, 2023) 3. Business (6:40 p.m.) a. Discussion of draft memo from ESC to city council re: proposed boards & commissions restructuring b. Discussion of sustainability and expanding neighborhood housing options 4. Staff updates (7:45 p.m.) 5. Work plan update a. Expand our outreach i. Events work group update b. Share our voice i. State policy update (Legislature is adjourned until February 12) c. Measure our progress i. Staff and volunteer reports (quarterly and as needed) 6. Environmental Justice and current events open discussion 7. Upcoming/proposed events a. Plan for March ESC meeting 8. Adjournment Future meeting and event dates: • March ESC meeting, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. • Save the date: Arbor Day celebration, May 11 from 9 a.m. until noon Memo January 11th, 2024 To: St. Louis Park City Council From: St. Louis Park Environment & Sustainability Commission We, the commissioners of the St. Louis Park Environment & Sustainability Commission (ESC), urge City Council not to restructure boards and commissions into one single body, as recommended by staff. We believe that the primary purpose of advisory commissions is to harness collective expertise and connections with the community to directly advise City Council, providing valuable insight and catalyzing systemic change. In the 11 years since our inception, the ESC has helped advance many key proposals, including the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy, Climate Action Plan, Climate Inheritance Resolution, Climate Emergency Resolution, and creating a dedicated city Sustainability division. We have also contributed recommendations on many other sustainability topics, from walkability and living streets, to tree preservation, anti-idling, and waste reduction. Maintaining the current commission structure, while working directly with Council and staff to address the barriers identified in the consultant report will be the best approach for our group. While we are interested in preserving the current composition of the ESC, we understand there may be other commissions that could be better served by an alternative structure. In this case, the ESC could maintain its current structure, while other commissions get reorganized. This would be in line with the option for strategic priority-based commissions, as outlined in the original proposal from city staff. In many ways, the ESC is already very much aligned to city strategic priorities, so this would be the least disruptive transition to our mission and ability to drive impact. We believe our current ESC structure is most effective because of: • Ability to directly engage Council. • Dedicated staff focused entirely on sustainability, and strong leadership. • Regular meeting times that are scheduled many months in advance. • A good size - enough people for various perspectives, but small enough to allow everyone a voice in meetings. This also allows commissioners to be involved at various levels of time commitment while still being able to build trust and get things done. • Opportunities for smaller working groups within the ESC to work on specific issues and/or actions. • An annual work plan developed during a half day retreat facilitated by City staff. We feel we will lose many of these with the proposed restructure to a single body: • Ability to directly advise Council. • Ability to bring community priorities to our commission and Council. • Loss of the sense of urgency in addressing the climate crisis now. While we understand the city and the community have other priori�es, the climate crisis is singular in the all-encompassing nature of the problem and the catastrophic consequences of not moving urgently enough. • Loss of knowledge and expertise due to the reduction in the total number of sustainability- focused commissioners with the single-body model. • Face time with City staff due to a reduction in the number of hours of regularly scheduled meetings, and the loss of regular engagement with sustainability staff. • Loss of commissioner assistance to City staff in engaging with the public during events. In this time of climate emergency, the ESC has been instrumental in bringing action to our community’s strong desire to address the climate crisis. While our city has made great strides, we believe that we are a long way from meeting our commitments toward being a sustainable, resilient, net-zero city. We strongly believe that there is a crucial and continued need for our direct input to the City Council, our support for city staff, and our engagement and outreach in the community. Please do not get rid of the Environment & Sustainability Commission in favor of a single advisory body. Thank you, St. Louis Park Environment & Sustainability Commission