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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC WORKSESSION 05022016 Work Session Agenda Monday, May 2, 2016 5:30 p.m. (food available at 5:15 pm) 1. Comprehensive Plan Update. Breanne Rothstein, City Planner presenting 2. Community Solar Garden Subscription. Amir Nadav presenting 3. Adjournment Next Work Sessions: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 – Tour of the City – Leave City Hall at 4:00 pm Tuesday, May 31, 2016 – after Joint Meeting with School Board City of St. Anthony CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION City Council Chambers Minutes March 28, 2016 Present: Mayor & Council. Jerry Faust, Mayor; Hal Gray, Councilmember; Randy Stille, Councilmember; and Bonnie Brever, Councilmember. Absent: Jan Jenson, Councilmember Staff: Mark Casey, City Manager and Shelly Rueckert, Finance Director Guest: Barbara Raye, CTV Strategic Planning Facilitator Call to Order: Meeting called to order by Mayor Faust at 7:00 p.m. CTV Strategic Planning Input Session: The Mayor and Council provided input on their overall dissatisfaction of CTV including unequitable funding and poor choices of expenditures. By consensus of the Mayor and Council, there was no interest in using any of the City’s cable franchise fee for additional funding. UB Technology: Staff presented a proposal on the purchase of metering reading data collection equipment and software to provide customers with direct access to meter data on a real time and historical basis. By consensus of the Mayor and Council, staff was directed to move forward with the purchase. Staff also presented information on providing an option of paying utility bills with a credit card. Staff will bring various options back at a future meeting. Adjourn: The meeting adjourned at 8:37 p.m. Minutes respectfully submitted by Mark Casey, City Manager. 1. C o m p r e h e n s i v e P l a n U p d a t e COMPREHENSIVE PLAN U PDATE CITY COUNCIL – MAY 2, 2016 SUMMARY The Comp Plan Steering Committee met on Monday April 25, 2016 to discuss the below items. Staff is looking to provide an update to Council about what action items have been completed to date, what items remain, and is looking for feedback on the direction of the Comp Plan process thus far. TRENDS • Increasing land values, relative to house value • Diversification (ethnic, age, income) • Aging, outdated commercial • Increasing desire for physical connectivity • High market demand for rental housing (affordable and high priced) • Higher clearance in industrial property • Increasing demand for live/work spaces LAND USE THEMES • Encourage re-development of key locations of underutilized and aging commercial, residential, and industrial property within the city (Walmart site, Kenzie District, former bowling alley site, industrial park) • Enhance and upgrade the industrial park • Encourage the development of higher density and mixed use (retail/housing) development • Maintain and enhance current public park and community center facilities • Encourage a multi-generational community • Encourage the re-development of Kenzie Terrace into a mixed use, walkable area • Focus re-develop in areas served with transit • Land uses should be integrated, walkable, and sustainable HOUSING THEMES • Maintain and increase supply of affordable housing (required) • Increase overall supply of housing • Provide options for nicer, higher end housing • Encourage housing churn by developing desirable and a variety of senior housing options • Allow for investment in improvements and additions to existing homes • Tighten code enforcement DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Anything related to commercial (besides re-development into mixed use) Stinson • Tear-downs (encourage or discourage) • Walmart site • Affordable housing strategies • Proactive or responsive to market policies for: 1. Affordable housing (ADUs, micro-units) 2. Re-development of certain areas (financing mechanisms, land use plans) 3. Mixed use (live/work, flexible use districts like innovation districts) 4. Small area planning 5. Teardowns/upgrades (lot coverage, height, setbacks) 6. Code enforcement 7. Sustainable, walkable policies (green districts, connectivity policies, parking standards) 8. Density • What are we missing? PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLAN 4.19.2016 PHASE I: BACKGROUND AND VISIONING 1st Steering Committee: February 22nd at 5:30 p.m. –Background and Demographics Parks Commission: March 7th at 7:00 p.m. – Parks and Trails Visioning Community Engagement Event: Wine Tasting: March 19th 2 to 5 p.m. 2nd Steering Committee Meeting: March 28th 5:30 – Review of 2008 Comp Plan - Canceled Community Visioning Meeting: tentatively April 11 6 to 8 p.m. 2nd Steering Committee Meeting: April 25th at 5:30 p.m. – Land Use and Housing Themes Council Worksession Update – May 2nd ECFE class chat – Landings: 2:30 to 3:30 (May 3rd) ECFE class chat - Diamond 8: 10:00-10:45 (May 5th) ECFE class chat - Autumn Woods: (4 to 5) (May 5th) ECFE Parent Council meet and greet: prior to meeting on May 10th Chat and Chowder 12: 00 p.m.: Landings (May 11th) PHASE II: LAND USE R ELATED TOPICS 3rd Steering Committee Meeting: May 23rd at 5:30 – Land Use, Housing and Economic Development Goals and draft Land Use Map Parks Commission: June 6 at 7:00 p.m. – Parks and Trails Goals Council Update: June 14th at 7:00 p.m. – Progress to Date and Upcoming Community Engagement Events Community Engagement Event: Advance Workshop on Sustainability (Goals and Implementation): June 28 (4 to 8 tentatively) PHASE III: TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (INFRASTRUCTURE) 4th Steering Committee Meeting: June 27th at 5:30 – Infrastructure Goals 5th Steering Committee Meeting: July 25th at 5:30 – Infrastructure Goals City Council worksession (check in) – tentative PHASE IV: IMPLEMENTATION/POLICIES Community Engagement Event: Village Fest: August 6th daytime 6th Steering Committee Meeting: August 22 at 5:30 p.m. – Land use, Housing, and Economic Development Implementation 7th Steering Committee Meeting: September 26 at 5:30 p.m. – Infrastructure Implementation PHASE V: DRAFT PLAN 8th Steering Committee Meeting: October 24 at 5:30 p.m. – Draft Plan Community Engagement Event: Wine Tasting: November 19th 2 to 5 p.m. Community Meeting: Draft Plan: November 19th 6 to 8 p.m. 9th Steering Committee Meeting: November 24 at 5:30 p.m. – Draft Plan Planning Commission Meeting: November 24 at 7:00 p.m. – Public Hearing on Draft Plan City Council Meeting: December 13 at 7:00 p.m. – Preliminary Approval and Authorize Submittal to Met Council PHASE VI: MET COUNCIL APPROVAL PROCESS Adjacent Community Review – December through May 2017 Submit to Met Council – June 2017 Approval by Met Council – October 2017 Final Adoption/Approval by City Council – October 2017 2. C o m m u n i t y S o l a r G a r d e n S u b s c r i p t i o n 1 Memorandum TO: Mayor and City Council City Manager FROM: Amir Nadav DATE: May 2, 2016 SUBJECT: Community Solar Garden Subscription Recommendation: Authorize preparation of community solar garden subscription agreements with approved developer(s) for up to 500 kilowatts in total. The subscription agreement will be brought back to the City Council at a future meeting for approval. Summary: Community solar gardens represent a way for the City of St. Anthony to participate in the development of solar energy technology in Minnesota without the direct responsibility of owning and maintaining an on- site solar array. Under this arrangement, the city would “subscribe” to a portion of the energy produced by a solar array that is owned and maintained by a third party. The city would receive credit on its electricity bill from Xcel Energy for the production of solar energy and in turn make subscription payments to the community solar garden developer. The city would not make an upfront payment to fund the construction of a community solar garden. The city received proposals from three developers that participated in the “Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative” coordinated by the Metropolitan Council. City staff recommends proceeding with community solar garden subscriptions not to exceed 500 kilowatts, which represents approximately one- third of the electricity demand from all of the city government’s facilities. Staff estimate that a subscription of 500 kilowatts would result in a net present value of electricity cost savings to the city of approximately $400,000 over the 25-year life of the subscription agreements. Background: In July 2015, the city of St. Anthony submitted a letter of intent to the Metropolitan Council to participate in the “Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative.” This allowed the city to consider opportunities to subscribe to community solar gardens that emerge from the Metropolitan Council’s Request for Proposals for Community Solar Garden Subscription Agreements. The Metropolitan Council negotiated 2 subscription agreements with five solar garden developers, and a lottery was conducted to allocate subscription capacity to participating local governments. Additional information about the “Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative” is available in the fact sheet attached. Community Solar Gardens operate under Minnesota Statute 216B.1641 and regulatory oversight provided by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Eligible gardens have no less than five subscribers, and no subscriber may account for more than 40% of the garden’s capacity. Eligible subscribers must be retail electric customers of the utility served by the garden, and located in the same or adjacent county as the garden. Additional information and requirements are described in the attached “Frequently Asked Questions” document provided by Xcel Energy. Round 1 lottery results were announced on January 28, 2016 and local governments were requested to signal their intent to consider subscription opportunities by February 29, 2016. Unclaimed lottery tickets were re-allocated in a second lottery, and results were announced on April 5, 2016. The city of St. Anthony participated in both rounds of the lottery and offered to consider subscription opportunities that do not exceed 1.5 million kilowatt-hours (“kWh”) of annual electricity production, equivalent to approximately 880 kilowatts (“kW”) of solar garden capacity. The city of St. Anthony was offered subscription agreements for a total of 920 kW of capacity distributed across the following three community solar gardens: • 120 kW in a community solar garden to be developed by SolarStone in Wright County • 200 kW in a community solar garden to be developed by USSolar in Carver County • 200 kW in a community solar garden to be developed by USSolar in Wright County • 400 kW in two community solar gardens to be developed by TruNorth Solar in Carver County Considerations: Community Solar Garden subscription agreements represent 25 year contracts. The city may subscribe up to 120% of the annual electricity consumption of one or more facilities. Once a community solar garden is operational, the city will make monthly payments to the garden operator for its portion of the energy produced. The city will also receive credits on its electricity bill from Xcel Energy for the city’s portion of the energy produced. The utility bill credit may also include a payment for the “renewable energy credits,” which would represent Xcel Energy’s acquisition of, and legal claim to, the solar energy attributes. Subscription rates and bill credits may vary depending on a number of factors. The developer determines the subscription rate. All developers offer a “pay-as-you-go” subscription with no upfront payments required from subscribers for the construction costs of the solar garden. Subscription rates may vary based on the Xcel Energy rate plan of the facility subscribed and may, or may not, include an annual escalation in the rate. Bill credit rates are determined by the Xcel Energy rate plan that applies to each facility and may change annually following review by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Bill credit rates for 2015 varied by customer type as follows: • Residential: $0.12743 per kWh • Small General Service: $0.12431 per kWh • General Service: $0.09914 per kWh 3 Renewable Energy Credit payments are set at $0.02 per kWh for gardens smaller than 250 kW and $0.03 per kWh for gardens equal to, or larger than, 250 kW. The city has several facilities that qualify for the “Small General Service” bill credit rate, however the majority of the city’s facilities and electricity use qualify for the “General Service” bill credit rate. While electric demand from the city’s accounts exceeds the 920 kW of solar garden capacity offered to the city through the lottery, the city’s “Small General Service” accounts represent approximately 86 kW of solar garden capacity. The city may transfer or terminate its community solar garden subscription under certain conditions and termination fees may apply. All subscription agreements provide guarantees for a percentage of the solar garden’s estimated future production under certain circumstances. Estimated Savings: The Metropolitan Council and the Clean Energy Resource Teams (“CERTS”) provided calculators to estimate the potential financial impact of subscribing to a community solar garden. Details of the subscription agreements from the three solar garden developers offered to the city of St. Anthony were entered into the calculators, and the results from three scenarios appear below. The calculators are sensitive to a number of variables such as the future increase in bill credit rates, discount rates, and solar panel degradation factor, among others. For this reason, the figures cited below should be considered as estimates and not guarantees of future savings. Attachments: • Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative Description • Minnesota Subscribers Frequently Asked Questions (Subscribers) 4 Community Solar Garden Subscription Estimated Cumulative Savings Scenarios City staff reviewed the estimated financial implications of all of the solar gardens subscriptions currently available to the city. The scenarios below estimate the cost savings from the staff recommendation of a subscription not to exceed 500 kilowatts. The city may request a lower subscription capacity than allocated, and final capacity will depend on eligible facilities and program rules to be discussed with the developers. The estimates below are subject to a number of variables and do not represent guaranteed savings. Table 1: Estimated Net Present Value of Subscription Agreement Cumulative Savings Subscription Size Scenario 1 Standard assumptions* Scenario 2 No increase in solar bill credit Scenario 3 Solar bill credit increases by 3% / yr 500 kW (approximately 1/3 of city’s electrical demand) $410,870 $15,809 $475,049 *Standard assumptions provided by the Clean Energy Resource Teams calculator include: • Annual increase in bill credits: 2.65% • Year 1 bill credit: $0.11914/kWh for General Service; $0.14431/kWh for Small General Service (inclusive of $0.02/kWh renewable energy credit payment) • Discount rate: 4% • Annual solar panel production factor: 1649 kWh / kW • Annual decrease in solar panel performance: 0.5% mncerts.org/solargardens/collaborative 7/23/2015 Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative: An Opportunity for Metro Area Local Governments Description: Community Solar Gardens create a new opportunity for local government entities to support clean energy, save on energy bills for public buildings and plants, and hedge against the future price volatility of electricity. The Community Solar Subscriber Collaborative is a joint effort for Metro area local governments to procure solar garden subscriptions from a single RFP process. By working together, government entities gain an economy of scale in the solicitation process (reducing the administrative burden to vet developers) and in attractiveness to developers, resulting in better pricing and subscription terms. The process below describes how the RFP will be issued and how local governments are able to procure solar garden subscriptions through this initiative. Process: 1. Letter of Intent: Interested local governments sign a non-binding letter of intent declaring their intent to subscribe, and attach to the letter a list of the premises and loads they are interested in subscribing. Interested entities must be willing to subscribe to at least 100kW of solar production (equivalent to 120,000 kWh annual consumption). 2. Joint Powers Agreement (Optional): Local governments requiring a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) to be signed according to their procurement policies may sign a community solar garden subscription-specific JPA. 3. Request for Proposals: The Metropolitan Council will publish an RFP for developers to provide community solar garden subscriptions to the local governments that signed a Letter of Intent. Developers’ proposals will include a list of the counties they can provide subscriptions to and how much capacity they have available for each county. 4. Developer Selection: A team of governmental participants from the core steering group and major subscribers, selected by the Council, will evaluate proposals received, ranking them according to qualifications, experience, and price. 5. Lottery Process: Local governments that signed a Letter of Intent will be entered into a lottery for available garden subscriptions. Local governments drawn in the lottery will have the first right of refusal to subscribe to the garden(s) for which they are drawn. mncerts.org/solargardens/collaborative 7/23/2015 6. Execute Subscription Agreement(s): In order to secure its subscription(s), each local government entity will need to execute its own Subscription Agreement(s) with the developer it is purchasing a subscription from. 7. Garden Approval Process: There is currently a long queue for community solar gardens to be approved by Xcel energy before they can be built. This process is expected to take 18-21 weeks after the initial application is submitted and may be longer as this is a new program in Minnesota and the number of garden applications has been much higher than expected. 8. Garden Construction: Construction of each garden can take from 1 to 6 months or longer depending on the permitting and process at the host site. 9. Energy Produced; Bill Credits Assigned: Once the garden is approved and built, it will begin producing solar energy, delivered to Xcel and credited to subscribing entities in the form of $/kWh bill credits. Timeline: Action Date RFP Published by Met Council July 10th, 2015 Letters of Intent due to Met Council Due July 24th, 2015 Joint Powers Agreements signed (if deemed necessary by participating entities) Due July 24th, 2015 Proposals Due August 21st, 2015 Selection and Ranking of Proposals August-November 2015 Lottery Process Dec. 2015-Jan. 2016 Execute Subscription Agreements January 2016 Contact for Questions: Trevor Drake Project Coordinator Great Plains Institute 612-767-7291 tdrake@gpisd.net. Download documents, read frequent questions, and find more information online at mncerts.org/solargardens/collaborative Page 1 of 4 Updated 03/18/2015 Solar*Rewards® Community® Minnesota Subscriber FAQs How can I subscribe to a community solar garden? In order to be a subscriber to the Minnesota Solar*Rewards Community (S*RC) program, you must be an Xcel Energy electric retail customer in Minnesota. The location of the customer premise associated with the account receiving the bill credit must be in the county where the solar garden is located, or in an adjacent county. You can decide which garden you are interested in and contact one of the many Garden Operators developing solar gardens in Minnesota. Requirements are largely defined in Minn. Statute §216B.1641. Subscriber Requirements The following rules apply to all Solar*Rewards Community subscribers:  A subscriber must be an electric retail customer of Xcel Energy  Subscriptions must not exceed 120% of your average annual electric energy usage  Subscriptions must not exceed 40% of a single garden  Subscribers will be provided a monthly credit on their bill. The credit will be determined on a dollars per kilowatt-hours produced ($/kWh) basis by Xcel Energy. Am I eligible to receive a bill credit? What type of credit is available? Xcel Energy customers subscribing to a solar garden are eligible for a solar energy bill credit. Bill credit rates can be found in our Section 9 Tariff. The “Standard Bill Credit” is the applicable retail rate in effect at the time of energy generation. The “Enhanced Bill Credit” is the sum of the applicable Standard Bill Credit and the Commission-approved Renewable Energy Credit (REC) pricing. A Solar*Rewards Community garden electing to sell its RECs (via the Enhanced Bill Credit) to the Company for subscribed energy, shall be at the Commission-approved REC price in place on the date the garden’s application is considered by the Company to be complete. How is the credit amount determined? Each month, the solar production from a community solar garden is recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). The production amount is then allocated, based on each customer’s subscription size. The customer’s bill credit is calculated by multiplying the number of kWh by the bill credit rate ($/kWh). Detailed information on the calculation of the bill credit can be found in the published Tariff on our website. Bill credits are applied to the final billed amount, after all electric charges, adjustments, riders, taxes and fees are added in. Therefore the credits will have no impact on the taxable amount owed by the subscriber. When are credits posted? Page 2 of 4 Updated 03/18/2015 On the ninth of every month, each subscriber's share of energy production from the community solar garden is posted to his/her account as a bill credit. Because customers are on different billing cycles, the timing for when each subscriber will see their credit depends on the day their meter is read. If a subscriber's billing cycle (three-day, meter-reading window):  Is before the ninth of the month: the bill will reflect Solar*Rewards Community credits with a one-month lag time/delay. (For example, a September bill will show credits from July.)  Is after the ninth of the month: the bill will reflect Solar*Rewards Community credits for the previous month. (For example, the September bill will show credits from August.)  Contains the ninth of the month: the Solar*Rewards Community bill credit reflected may be from the previous month, or may have a one-month lag. For this small subset of subscribers, bill credits will not be reflected on their bills each and every month; some bills may include two months’ worth of bill credits, while some bills may not show any credits. Xcel Energy is not able change customers' billing cycles. However, if a customer is on a meter-reading cycle that results in a bill generating on or near the ninth of the month, we have the ability to delay the creation of that bill, in order to ensure that the customer will only see one credit applied to each bill cycle. If you would like to discuss this option, please send us an email at srcmn@xcelenergy.com. While the credits are reflected differently based on the timing for each customer's bill, please remember that the Solar*Rewards Community bill credits will be posted regularly to customer accounts on the ninth of each month. How does the 120% rule apply to customers? Subscriptions must not exceed 120% of your average annual electric energy usage. If there is less than four months of consumption history, the new home calculator can be used to generate an estimate. For properties that are over 4,500 square feet, without consumption history, please submit an energy audit (HERS Rating or similar) or load calculations for the property. Please submit all system sizing paperwork to srcmn@xcelenergy.com . We use the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) PVWatts® calculator to convert a subscriber’s allocation in kW to annual output in kWh. That number is then checked against the customer’s historic usage or the home usage estimator for compliance with the 120% rule. NREL’s PVWatts calculator can be found on their website. Page 3 of 4 Updated 03/18/2015 How does the 40% allocation requirement work? Minn. Statute §216B.1641 defines a subscriber as “a retail customer of a utility who owns one or more subscriptions of a solar garden facility interconnected with that utility.” A retail customer is a separate person or corporation and is the legal name of the party as defined by state law and existing Xcel Energy tariffs. Further, affiliates of a legal entity will be treated as the same person or entity for the purposes of subscription with the exception of government entities. Political subdivisions of a government entity or public agency can be considered separate retail customers of the utility as defined by Minn. Stat. §216B.02, Subd. 2. If a governmental agency composed of sufficient political subdivisions or agencies has a different account, each political subdivision or agency may have a 40% interest in a single garden. To provide some context as to whether or not you may be at risk for allocating more than the legislated 40% threshold, we’ve provided the below questions to help identify possible cases. If you answer “yes” to one or more of the below questions and intend to subscribe to 40% or more of any solar garden, we suggest you contact the S*RC team at srcmn@xcelenergy.com. We’ll contact you within seven calendar days to help resolve your questions.  Do you have more than one physical location to which subscriptions can be attributed?  Do you have more than one account?  Does the premise address on your bill differ from the billing address?  Are you one of many accounts for the same type of business?  Do you have political subdivisions and do you have separate financials per subdivision? For further clarity, we’ve put together the following questions and answers about this topic:  How do I know whether or not I have multiple accounts under one legal entity? There are a couple of ways you can determine whether or not you have multiple accounts that would be combined for the purposes of the 40% requirement. First, if your bill is sent to an alternative address (versus your location) and you receive multiple bills, it is likely that you have several accounts associated with one legal entity.  What is meant by “affiliates are considered the same entity”? State statute provides guidance with the definitions of “person” and “corporation”, which are as follows: “Person” means a natural person, a partnership, or two or more persons having a joint or common interest, and a corporation as hereinbefore defined. (As noted in Minn. Stat. §216B.02, Subd.3) “Corporation” means a private corporation, a public corporation, a municipality, an association, a cooperative whether incorporated or not, a joint stock association, a business trust, or any political subdivision or agency. (As noted in Minn. Stat. §216B.02, Subd. 2.) Therefore, as defined by statute for our S*RC Community Program, a “person” includes corporations associations or partnerships having a “joint or common interest”. Xcel Energy does not have insight into specific customer legal structures, but if your company and another company are affiliated businesses, then together these two businesses can only own up to a 40% interest in one garden. Page 4 of 4 Updated 03/18/2015  As a government agency, I have different political subdivisions. Can I have a 40% interest in one garden per political subdivision? The likely answer is yes. Government entities have specific statutes that define them differently than regular “corporations”. Some cities have different political subdivisions and have legal entities such as City X Fire Department and City X Libraries. Each subdivision can have a 40% interest. In order to determine if you are a political subdivision or agency, we provide guidance in the linked document.  How can I determine if there is a “joint or common” interest between two legal entities? o If you can accurately state “yes” to all of the following, then there is no “joint or common” interest and each legal entity would be its own subscriber. You can confirm: o There is no partnership or joint venture between them? o They have not united together for the same purpose? o There is no common owner between them? o They are not part of the same corporate family – not affiliates, corporate subunits, nor otherwise related companies? o They are independent companies?  Do different legal names and Federal Tax ID number constitute a different subscriber? Not necessarily. Having a different legal name and/or a different Federal Tax ID does not by itself show that these are not the same subscriber.  As an elementary school, our bills are paid by the district. Who is the “retail customer”? Generally speaking, elementary schools and high schools in the same district are considered one legal entity and therefore together could not have more than a 40% interest in one garden. What should I do if I still have questions? Most customers should have very little difficulty determining their eligibility. But if you are unsure of your legal structure, we recommend you discuss this option with your legal representative and then contact srcmn@xcelenergy.com to help determine your eligibility for Solar*Rewards Community.