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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2009-08-17 City of Lake Oswego Sustainability Advisory Board Minutes August 17, 2009 I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Chair Jean Baumann called the Sustainability Advisory Board meeting of August 17, 2009 to order at approximately 6:30 p.m. in the Santiam Rood of the West End Building, 4101 Kruse Way, Lake Oswego, Oregon. Members present: Chair Baumann, Vice Chair Dorothy Atwood, *Bruce Brown, Craig Diamond, Ron Gronowski, Paul Lyons and Gregory Monahan. Matt Briggs, Jacob Shimkus, and Grant Watkinson were not present. Guests: Jeannie McGuire and Mary Marylou Colver, Historic Resources Advisory Board. Council liaison: Kristin Johnson Staff present: Jonna Papaefthimiou, Staff Liaison/Natural Resource Planner; David Donaldson, Assistant City Manager; and Susan Millhauser, Sustainability Planner. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Brown moved to accept the Minutes of April 20, 2009 as edited. Atwood seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous agreement. Brown moved to accept the Minutes of May 15, 2009 as edited. Atwood seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous agreement. Gronowski moved to accept the Minutes of June 15, 2009 . Brown seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous agreement. Atwood moved to accept the Minutes of July 20, 2009 . Brown seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous agreement. III. ANNOUNCEMENTS There was to be an Oregon Sustainability Center presentation on October 14, 2009. Spokane County had banned phosphate-based detergents. SAB meetings were scheduled for the third Monday of each month for the rest of the year. IV. PUBLIC COMMENT (None) V. REGULAR BUSINESS Report: Neighborhood Planning Brown reported that a neighborhood planning group had been meeting monthly since last March and considering the neighborhood planning process. The group was composed of the two neighborhood planners, two neighborhood association representatives, a City Councilor and two Planning Commissioners. They advocated fashioning a template for neighborhoods to use to fashion neighborhood plans. Brown had suggested the SAB could help them incorporate sustainability into the template, which contained the City of Lake Oswego Minutes of August 17, 2009 Page 2 of 5 following elements: land use and neighborhood character; transportation; housing; open space and recreation; environmental sustainability; citizen involvement; public safety; and economic development. Atwood suggested the SAB assign liaisons to each neighborhood association. Papaefthimiou agreed to arrange for them to get together with the neighborhood chairs at the quarterly meeting of all City neighborhood chairs and at the annual boards and commissions dinner. Brown planned to find out from a neighborhood planner what the next step would be in creating the template. Baumann asked him to find out if the neighborhood planners had sustainability training or if the City would arrange for such training. Brown was to report back at the next SAB meeting. *Brown then left the meeting. Historic Resources Advisory Board presentation to SAB Chair Jeannie McGuire and Vice Chair Marylou Colver, represented the Historic Resources Advisory Board (HRAB). They were concerned that developers were replacing historic structures with new ones because the land was so valuable. They observed that Historic Preservation Month and Sustainability Action Month (SAM) were both in May. They suggested SAM highlight the sustainability of preserving historic structures. It took more resources and energy to demolish a building – historic or not - and build a new one than to keep the existing structure. So preserving existing structures was the sustainable choice. Some communities did not allow demolition of any habitable residence. Colver advocated modifying the current City code to make remodeling easier. She felt it encouraged teardowns. She also advocated relocating structures when there was no other choice, and adopting local deconstruction standards. She offered a slide show presentation. During the discussion Papaefthimiou advised the average size of a new house in the R- 10 zone in Lake Oswego was 6,000 sq. ft in 2008. The slide show included pictures of many local houses that had been torn down. Colver advised that it was important to define “deconstruction.” Some McVey properties that the City expected to be carefully deconstructed so the parts could be reused had been knocked down. The material was recyclable, but the parts were not reusable. SAB members recalled one Affordable Housing Task Force idea had been to charge a teardown fee for habitable houses. Lyons noted that Cook County, IL. Was charging $30,000 to $50,000. Brown suggested also requiring all new development to be built to LEED Gold standards. Baumann asked what the HRAB representatives had done so far to work toward their goals. Colver related that she had served on the Infill Task Force, which had recommended code changes currently being considered by the Planning Commission. One change they wanted was to the code provision that when the value of an existing, nonconforming, house was increased by 50% or more the new portion had to comply with current code standards. Colver confirmed she was the HRAB’s liaison to the SAB. Baumann observed SAB membership had just changed and the new board had not established their work plan or chosen a new liaison to the HRAB yet. She anticipated the liaison could work with the HRAB to fashion a strategy for the two boards to work together on common goals. She clarified that the City had adopted a sustainability plan for its own operations, but the SAB was going to work on a community sustainability plan. Housing goals could be incorporated into that plan. Atwood offered to serve as the SAM “point person” for the HRAB. She suggested they could talk about how to promote the annual historic homes tour or other sustainability-related HRAB events. She said the photographs of so many houses that had been demolished in the City could be very City of Lake Oswego Minutes of August 17, 2009 Page 3 of 5 effective. Colver related that she had also created a “Lost Landmarks” display. Baumann agreed to Millhauser’s suggestion that the staff start looking at code related to building and land use. SAB thanked the HRAB representatives. Election of New SAB Leadership The term of service of new board officers was one year. The rules specified that someone could serve in a leadership position for two consecutive terms. Craig Diamond nominated himself and Grant Watkinson to serve as co-chairs . Monahan seconded the nominations. There were no other nominations. During the discussion period Diamond explained how he and Grant believed the co-chairing arrangement would work. Diamond and Watkinson were elected Co-chairs of the Sustainability Advisory Board by unanimous vote. Diamond asked Baumann to continue to chair the remainder of that night’s meeting. Update: City Sustainability Plan Millhauser continued her series of updates regarding the City’s efforts to meet the goals of the City Sustainability Plan. This report focused on the Waste Reduction and Recycling aspects of the Plan. It called for reducing overall solid waste by 20% by 2012 and eventually achieving zero waste disposal from City operations. It called for purchasing products made from 100% recycled materials or products that could easily be taken apart and re-used for other purposes. She reported the City was doing a good job of recycling general office materials and maintenance department materials. They had purchased a food waste composter to use at the Adult Community Center, where meals were prepared, but had to move it to George Rogers Park because of a rat problem. The library recycled DVDs. The Plan called for starting with baseline information. Systems were being set up to collect it. They tracked what was purchased and recycled and where it went. The City sent used batteries and used toner cartridges and light tubes to different vendors to recycle. The county tracked the aggregate volume of garbage collected and recycled and reported it to Metro, but the City had to use other means to track its own solid waste. They currently tracked overall solid waste going to a landfill by type and weight. The City and Allied Waste had analyzed a normal weekly dumpster load at ten City facilities to find out what was in them. They planned to conduct these waste audits semiannually. They had found personal garbage in the WEB dumpster. Parks Maintenance and school district staff were developing recycling strategies for events. The City had Energy Star compliant dishwashers in their facilities and used washable plates, cups and silverware. Millhauser planned to draft a policy that prohibited City purchase of bottled water for City meetings. In practice, however, the City did not purchase bottled water any more. The City had streamlined their recyclables collection process. Millhauser said the City practice was to encourage deconstruction, but the McVey experience Colver talked about showed the need for a formal policy. The City had looked into offering to recycle employees’ personal hazardous waste but found that if they offered that service to the staff they would have to offer it to the general public too. Space for it was also a problem. The City offered employees electronic deposit of pay and electronic pay stubs to save paper. Brown suggested the City send the SAB electronic announcements and notices and use the “Echo” font to save paper and ink. Millhauser reported most City printers were set to default to double-sided printing and City of Lake Oswego Minutes of August 17, 2009 Page 4 of 5 they were using 100% recycled paper for most printing and copying, even though they paid a premium for that. The City had adopted a business recycling requirement that will be implemented in November. They continued to work on ways to track waste and train the staff at City facilities. Lyons suggested a public awareness campaign was needed so residents understood they should not contaminate recycle containers with food garbage. Millhauser reported that a Metro study two years ago showed that the Lake Oswego area had relatively low levels of contamination compared with other cities. Baumann suggested it might be time for another study to find out if it was a problem the City should make people aware of. Donaldson said he would ask Allied Waste about that. He reported they planned to use more versatile trucks so they could reduce the number of trucks they used for pickup. SAB members suggested a recycling education program might be a good theme for the next SAM. They could demonstrate what was in a load of garbage and what could be done with it. Millhauser said the City sustainability steering committee envisioned a south metro food waste composting system. They wanted to ensure that when the Foothills District was redeveloped there would still be a recycling facility. The code should ensure there was adequate room for garbage and recycling containers and that trucks could reach them. Baumann suggested the staff could help the SAB fashion a community sustainability plan by highlighting the ideas from the City plan that could apply to the community. She and Diamond asked Millhauser to summarize what the City’s sustainability targets were, how well they were doing, and what they needed to do better in a one page report. Millhauser said the management team was going to be asked to take more responsibility for developing targets, reporting, and accomplishing those goals. Atwood asked her to come back to the next meeting and report on City procurement practices. Millhauser also planned to present the draft Energy Efficiency and Conservation grant strategy at that meeting. Update: Community Sustainability Baumann reported the Community Sustainability Framework work group was benchmarking what other communities were doing. They had looked at six jurisdictions so far. Grant Watkinson had joined the group. After benchmarking they planned to present a community sustainability engagement process to the SAB. They had found that Vancouver had completed their planning process in 18 months. The first six months had been spent educating stakeholders. The work group learned that the process needed to be staffed, and should not totally depend on volunteers. All the jurisdictions used a process that involved local government review. The work group was still looking for cities with similar demographics and characteristics as Lake Oswego. They asked SAB members to help identify them. They needed more information about funding sources. Baumann reported that the Planning and Building Services Director had agreed the SAB could use the 1,000-person survey for two months. She anticipated the first month could focus on climate change and the second month on community sustainability. She said the work group planned to report to the City Council at the Council’s October 20th study session. They planned to present the “business case” for fashioning a community sustainability plan. Update: SAM 2010 City of Lake Oswego Minutes of August 17, 2009 Page 5 of 5 Atwood said she, Lyons, Brown, Shimkus and Watkinson had met twice so far. She was also reconnecting with members of the 2009 SAM Advisory Group and finding much interest in participating in 2010. Atwood anticipated the next SAM would highlight sustainable practices by local residents and businesses. They needed to create a media strategy. The new AmeriCorps worker might help with that. She asked SAB members to identify people who would be willing to showcase what they were doing. Friends of Tryon Creek had offered to host several events. The Chamber had offered to make presentation time available at their networking events and monthly luncheon. The Eco Network of parents of school children wanted to participate. The Library was planning many sustainability-related activities. Lisa Murphy, Patrick Rowe and Amin Wahab wanted to stay involved. People had suggested a sustainable house tour, a garden tour, and a bike event. Atwood and Baumann suggested using the same survey questions for the online community survey and on the survey form at events. Baumann advised that when Atwood was ready to formalize steering committee membership she should inform the City Council. Update: Climate Change Action Plan The Board members decided to postpone this discussion until their September 21st meeting when they would have more time. Meanwhile they were to read the memorandum Diamond had sent them that afternoon and offer him their comments. Update: Clean Streams Plan Papaefthimiou announced that the revised draft of the Clean Streams Plan would be distributed on September 8th. There was to be a short period of public review before the City Council considered adopting it. She suggested the SAB join the NRAB at their September 16th meeting so the boards could listen to the consultant’s presentation, discuss the plan and decide whether they wanted to issue a joint recommendation. Atwood moved to hold a special joint SAB/NRAB meeting on September 16th . Brown seconded the motion and it passed by unanimous vote. VI. ADJOURNMENT There being no other business Chair Baumann adjourned the meeting at 8:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jonna Papaefthimiou Natural Resource Planner L:\Boards & Commissions\SAB\Minutes\2009\LO SAB2009 08-17 APPROVED.doc