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l[I 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes May 8, 2012 Page 3 GreenStep recognition. He stated the City is currently at Step 2 out of three steps and the City has completed 16 out of 28 best practices. He advised the City has converted all traffic signals to energy efficient LED, has seen a 50% reduction in paper towels through the use of bathroom hand drivers, has adopted a policy to purchase only EnergyStar certified appliances and paper that is made of 30% recycled material, has supported a winter and summer farmers market, and has regularly replaced or added boulevard and park trees. He also congratulated the City on its water reuse plans which are highly regarded in the community. Mr. Addison Lewis explained that their work focused on determining what it would take for the City to get to Step 3 and they completed an inventory of best practices and additional steps needed to reach Step 3. He stated they had discussions with staff from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPGA) to help determine what would be required and the student's primary role was to serve as a source of communication between the City and GreenStep representatives. He advised they presented a report to staff identifying steps to move forward to Step 3 and ideas included adopting an environmentally friendly purchasing policy, agreeing to purchase paper that is at least 30% recycled material, and continued EnergyStar purchases. He stated that a preliminary review done by the MPCA indicates the agency will recommend the City for Step 3 approval and this will be followed by a final review by the League of Minnesota Cities. He noted that there are currently no other cities that have reached Step 3 recognition and pending approval by the League, St. Anthony will be the first city to reach the Step 3 level. He presented a poster made by the students for the Sustainability Communities conference held in March and stated other city officials were interested and encouraged about what has been done here and are excited to get started in the GreenStep program using St. Anthony as a role model. Ms. Caroline Gwinn congratulated the City on its work to make sustainability a priority and stated they were proud to assist the City in its efforts. She explained that they looked at ways to further the City's momentum in the GreenStep Cities program and what it would take to become a Step 4 city. She noted that Step 4 does not yet exist, but if Step 4 is implemented, it may be based on the star system found on the GreenStep Cities website. She discussed the best practice related to adoption and implementation of a comprehensive plan and the City's 2008 comprehensive plan could be used to target sustainability by seeking community input and implementing a direct set of goals based on the comprehensive plan. She stated another best practice related to mixed uses includes a three -star item on the GreenStep Cities website which suggests bringing in a Minnesota Design Team charrette to participate in an intensive three day event that includes designing and planning new sustainability plans. She stated another area to consider is improving the City's air quality ordinance to organize the ordinance in a way that citizens can easily obtain information on how to get a permit, etc., rather than providing a link to the Fire Department website. She also suggested the City review a State of Washington local air quality ordinance that the EPA is considering using as a model. She stated that the best practice related to local food requires a city to report on the percentage of residents living within a Y4 mile radius of a local food source. She indicated that the City could receive credit for its farmers market near the Apache Plaza housing development. She stated the students were pleased to spend time working with the City and they had a great time. Councilmember Stille thanked the students for spending time with the City and was hopeful that the experience was mutually beneficial. He stated that many of the things on the best practices