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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEC Packet 031119 City of Falcon Heights Environment Commission City Hall 2077 W. Larpenteur Avenue Monday, March 11, 2019 6:30 p.m. A G E N D A A. CALL TO ORDER: 6:30 p.m. B. ROLL CALL: Jim Wassenberg ____ Nick Olson ____ Farook Meah ____ Martin McCleery ____ Patrick Mathwig ____ Ned Mohan ____ Jordyn Bucholtz ____ Staff Liaison Markon ____ C. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: October 8, 2018, December 10, 2018, and February 11, 2019 D. AGENDA 1. Update on projects since February meeting 2. Update on available grant programs 3. Environment/sustainability column in City newsletter E. NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS F. ADJOURN Next Meeting: April 8, 2019 If you have a disability and need accommodation in order to attend this meeting, please notify City Hall 48 hours in advance between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at 651-792-7600. We will be happy to help. Falcon Heights Environment Commission October 8th, 2018 6:30 p.m. Meeting Minutes Present: Chair Wassenberg, Vice Chair Meah, Secretary Olson, Staff Liaison Markon, Mayor Lindstrom, and Commissioners: Holmes, Mathwig, McCleery. 1) Approval of Minutes Tabled. Liaison Markon to complete for September. 2) News and Announcements • New Environment Commission member, Ned Mohan, has been appointed. • There will be no Environment Commission meeting on November 12th because it is Veteran’s Day and City will be closed. • 798 LED light bulbs have been distributed. 3) Continue Comprehensive Plan Review The Commission spent the meeting discussing the draft Comprehensive Plan for the City of Falcon Heights. Commissioners went through the draft document to review the edits proposed by members, and to clean up old language from previous comprehensive plans. The edits will be finalized by Liaison Markon. There will be a joint meeting with the Planning Commission on October 23rd to discuss comments and revisions. Commission agreed to attend this meeting to present edits and fine tune recommendations on 2040 Plan. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 8:06 PM. Next Meeting: Planning Commission Meeting on October 23rd at 7 pm Falcon Heights Environment Commission December 10th, 2018 6:30 p.m. Meeting Minutes Present: Chair Wassenberg, Vice Chair Meah, Secretary Olson, Staff Liaison Markon, Mayor Lindstrom, and Commissioners: Holmes, Mathwig, McCleery, and Mohan. 1) Approval of Minutes Tabled 2) News and Announcements • Chair Wassenberg and Alexis T. (CERT) presented to the City Council on the efficacy of the Watts and Drops Initiative that provided ~800 LED lightbulbs to Falcon Heights residents. One lessons learned was the importance of contact time in getting feedback from residents. • A questions was asked by McCleery about the efficacy of the “Tag Program” that was recently initiated by City. Liaison Markon shared that the tags have been used a few times for uncleared sidewalks (e.g. no shoveling or overgrown vegetation). • This is Patti’s last Commission Meeting. She has completed two 3-year terms. The Environment Commission thanked her for service and dedication to helping the City achieves its environmental goals. • The Planning Commission did not have the required quorum to vote on the proposed changes to the 2040 Comprehensive Plan at the previous meeting. However, changes are anticipated to be included and sent to Met Council for next step of planning process. 3) Recycling Discussion with Tennis Sanitation Willie and Angela from Tennis Sanitation sat down with the Environment Commission members for an informal question and answer session. Some of the highlights from the discussion include: • 2017 there were 30 homes that never participated in recycling. Overall, Falcon Heights has very high participation rates. Tennis can provide a list of homes not participating. • There was a lot of discussion about plastics recycling and recent news stories about China refusing plastic wastes. Tennis stated that they have very low residuals because they have a lot of partnerships and end market opportunities that can use majority of plastics received. • Plastic bags are no longer accepted. Tennis was exploring a diesel fuel end market for the bags, but that did not work out. Some grocery stores are accepting plastics bags, which tend to be less contaminated upon reception. • Tennis felt like the flyers distributed have been helpful, but that they now also have magnet available. City could choose to subsidize or use grant funds towards purchasing (~$1.5/magnet) 4) 2019 Work Plan and Goals Chair Wassenberg submitted a list of ideas for the Environment Commission for 2019. There is a desire amongst several of the members to take a more actionable role than the previous year, which was mostly focused on discussion and edits to 2040 Comprehensive Plan. It was recommend that at the next meeting the members pick or present some alternative the ideas to carry forward. Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at 8:23 PM. Next Meeting: January 14th, 2019 at 7 pm City of Falcon Heights Environment Commission Monday, February 11, 2019 6:30 pm Meeting Minutes A. CALL TO ORDER: Jim Wassenberg called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. B. ROLL CALL: Jim Wassenberg X_ Nick Olson X_ Farook Meah X Martin McCleery X Patrick Mathwig X Ned Mohan X Jordyn Bucholtz _X Council Liaison Lindstrom X Staff Liaison Markon _X C. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The meeting minutes from September 10, 2018 were approved. D. AGENDA 1. Election of Officers Jim Wassenberg was reelected as chair, Nick Olson was elected as Vice Chair and Jordyn Bucholtz was elected as secretary. 2. 2019 Work Plan and Goals Commissioners continued to discuss the list of ideas for Environment Commission for 2019. Jim Wassenberg discussed the use of a spreadsheet with contacts and collaborators for the sustainability fair. Peter Lindstrom discussed prospective grant opportunities. The commissioners discussed working with another city for the sustainability fair. Jim will be meeting with other environment commissions to discuss LED bulb program expansion. Nick discussed native landscaping. Peter will be bringing green building and beekeeping ideas to the retreat. 3. Consider voluntary stretch code Mayor Lindstrom introduced the idea of a voluntary stretch code, which was requested by the City of Minneapolis. There is a proposal before the state legislature which would expand the Sustainable Building 2030 program to cities who volunteer to put the measures of SB30 in place. Commissioners voted unanimously to recommend approval of the voluntary stretch code. 4. Consider meatless Monday proposal Jordyn introduced meatless Monday as a project she is currently working on for a policy class at the University of Minnesota. The idea of the program is for institutions like schools to forgo serving meat on one day each week to promote healthy eating habits and conserve energy. Jordyn is interested in if this proposal would be feasible at the Falcon Heights Elementary School. Commissioners offered suggestions about the program. Jim noted that attending a school board meeting would be a good step. E. ADJOURN The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 p.m.