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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20190115 REST Minutes ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY TASK FORCE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES January 15, 2019 CALL TO ORDER Pursuant to due call and notice thereof the meeting of the Environment & Sustainability Task Force (REST) of the City of Rosemount was called to order on January 15, 2019, at 5:32 p.m. in the Conference Room of the City Hall, 2875 145th St West, Rosemount. Attendees included Task Force Members: Renee Burman (Chair), Katie Koch-Laveen, John Smith, Karen Malkowski, Victoria Schlautman, and Vanessa Demuth. Absent: Mark Glende and Joanne Johnson Staff present included the following; - Derick Anderson, Senior Engineer Technician - Kyle Klatt, Senior Planner - Jes Braun, GreenCorp Member - Anthony Nemcek, Planner - Logan Martin, City Administrator - Brian Erickson, Public Works Director Guest in attendance; - Rebecca Higgins Rosemount Resident and former chair of REST ADDITIONS OR CORRECTIONS TO AGENDA Update from Avery Hildebrand with Conservation MN was added to the agenda. The Dakota County Water Forum is on May 6th, 2019 and Braun will be presenting. Hildebrand is still looking for volunteers to help plan the event. APPROVAL OF THE DECEMBER MINUTES Motion by Demuth, Second Koch-Laveen Motion carried. PRESENTATIONS a. Pale Blue Dot: Sustainability/Resiliency in Comprehensive Plans – Ted Redmond Redmond gave a presentation on resilience which he described as the ability to bounce back. Vulnerability assessment may be the most important team it with the incident response plan. Smith asked about the feasibility of green roofs. Ted shared that green roofs have a 6 to 7-year payback and make sense for owner occupants. Higgins asked about vulnerable populations and environmental justice issues. Redmond said the vulnerability assessment is one of the most important tools we could do. The areas where vulnerable people are at can be mapped and overlay all of the tools he has like canopy cover and see that vulnerable populations often live in areas with less tree canopy, heat islands are created and the areas are less walkable. It is difficult to do resilient planning without knowing where the economic vulnerable populations are. Vulnerable populations are growing. One option for the city is to require all new commercial building to do a solar feasibility study. Contractors will do this for free or you can pay for someone to do it. The study and cost for solar should be submitted with the building plan. The buildings should be required to be built solar ready. There are many strategies that aren’t that painful. Malkowski asked about programs for solar since ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY TASK FORCE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES January 15, 2019 there are not a lot of utility rebates. Redmond said solar is still fantastic. If we could do one this that would be to promote the incentive tax credit for solar. Redmond recommends that we do a communication with content and put it in front of every commercial building owners and resident, but commercial owners will benefit the most. The federal incentive tax credit for solar is for every commercial building and resident in the city it pays for 30% of the array. Commercial can capture the entire expense with depreciation in 6 years which ends up knocking off 50% of the cost of the array. If they don’t want to do the investment they can do PPA, a direct purchasing campaign. PPA is when a third party owns the array, puts it on your building and sells you the power. Should look to partner with the technical college. As soon as the array is on your building you will start saving money day one, like 10% of energy bill. When the city owns the building so they should purchase the array or go with a PPA or go with a hybrid of the two called a pre-paid PPA with a developer who will share their tax-advantage with you, and you pay 85% of the array, you own it after 7 years so the developer gets the full tax advantage for 7 years. Demuth asked staff what percent of city energy is from solar. Nemcek stated it was 60% of all the city energy use. Schlautman asked about how we can best create a green building for the city’s new recreation center that is being discussed. Redmond stated that net zero buildings will cost more compared to traditional but are closer to the middle of the pack in capital costs. But the opportunity is that you harvest savings over time. Seven year pay back for a city is not bad and after the 7 years it is paying you back. Need clear goals of what we want for the project and then pick the team members. Have the architects and engineers as a team at the beginning and test prototypes to maximize efficiency. There are many meaningful things that can be done that are free. There needs to be an upfront discussion of the orientation of the building and parking lot. City can require that all buildings be solar ready for new construction. Redmond has guidelines he can send us for all city building to be solar ready with a switch gear for the load. We can use a city map of contaminated sites, like at UMORE to connect the property owner with renewable energy opportunities. NEW BUSINESS a. Draft City Comprehensive Plan This item was moved up for City staff at the meeting. The REST will set up a sub-committee to the discuss comp plan. Klatt stated they need the comments back before the end of March which is the end of the open comment period. Klatt said they are not making whole scale revisions to the plan but are taking comments and incorporating them. They don’t want to completely revise what we have. The comp plan is a living document and can always be tweaked. They are following the Met Council model. Nemcek stated that the resiliency section of the comp plan is really high level the goal of it is to be the justification to dig in for further and future steps Also that this is a resiliency chapter not a resiliency plan. Burman wrote ideas on a flip chart from the group. Braun suggested city-wide water softening as a way to mitigate chloride use by household and businesses. Demuth explained that lime softening is the environmental friendly alternative to salt ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY TASK FORCE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES January 15, 2019 using softeners Anderson said first ring cities like Richfield, Bloomington, Minneapolis and St. Paul lime soften. Burman suggested adopting stormwater reuse practices. Demuth pointed out that there are no green clovers/shamrock in the water sections to identify resiliency items. Klatt said staff should probably go through the water supply and surface water section which were completed by the consultant. They want to do this before it goes to council to make it consistent with the rest of the plan. Schlautman would like to add that government buildings are built as sustainable as possible. Higgins would like to add green purchasing to the plan. Burman asked what the term “city-wide” means. Nemcek stated city-wide is the city and residents. Higgins stated that there are EPA grant funds for renewable energy on brownfields that can’t be redeveloped. It may be appropriate for the comp plan to state this. The brownfields could be mapped and targeted for renewables. Nemcek stated he will be meeting with Braun to get the city bumped up to Green Steps level 3. OLD BUSINESS 5.a. Proposed Climate Resolution Update – Erickson This will not be on the 2/5 work session but will be on a future work session. 5.b. Energy Action Plan Moved up on the agenda because Erickson will have to leave for a city council meeting. Martin will set the table for the upcoming PIE presentation to city council work session. Malkowski agreed to give the presentation to the city council on February 5th. 5.c. Salt Conservation Update – Erickson Reduced salt use is included in the public works quality standards. They will continue to salt the main streets, curves, hills and intersections within neighborhoods. Schlautman asked if they have an almanac of salt use historically. Erickson shared a recent table of equipment, hours and salt costs with average salt use for Q4 from 2017 and 2018. Higgins suggested that the data can be used to build a database and determine trends. Erickson all metrics are tracked now in the asset management system called Cartegraph. Burman asked if the precipitation/snowfall is being tracked away. Erickson did not know. 5.d. Task Force Bylaws Update – Burman Malkowski nominated Burman for chair. Second by Demuth. Votes: Yes 6 No 0 Burman elected chair. Schlautman nominated Smith for vice chair. Second by Burman ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY TASK FORCE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES January 15, 2019 Votes: Yes 6 No 0 Smith elected vice chair. Burman said that she, Malkowski, and Glende must reapply to the REST to be appointed by March. Anderson will send an email remining all three to reapply. Applications due February 27th. 5.e. Booth Banner Update – Schlautman Schlautman will work with Anderson to get the banner ordered. 5.f. Mascot Update – we are tabling mascot at this time because the costume was a TV character. 5.g. Energy Action Plan Workplan Update/Needs/Next Steps The Well -Schlautman and Braun will be meeting with The Well on January 17th to discuss best practices, resources and outreach to parishioners  Rental Housing – Braun will email flyer to rentals 5.h. Website and Social Media Communications Update Weekly posting: “Conserve and Preserve Rosemount” Braun’s blog posts are liked. Website updates need to be sent to Johnson who sends them to Alan Cox. 5.i. GreenCorps Workplan Update – Anderson Taking off leaf collection study proven to not be feasible and can create more phosphorus. Feedback from the city they are not open to this. Braun needs to step back from PIE and focus on stormwater, Burman and Malkowski will meet with Logan to discuss next steps and a possible Xcel partially funded intern to help implement the Energy Action Plan. ANNOUNCEMENTS Smith is working to have his HOA common areas planted with pollinator plants. Braun stated that she can help. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Demuth to adjourn the meeting at 7:30, Second Burman.