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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017.01.25 Conservation Commission Agenda Packet ASHLAND CONSERVATION COMMISSION Meeting Agenda January 25, 2016 — 6:00 PM Community Development Building, Siskiyou Room 51 Winburn Way 1. Call to Order 2. Consent Agenda 2.1. Minutes December 14, 2016 Commission meeting 3. Announcements (15 min) 3.1. Welcome to New Commissioner—David Sommer—ASD 3.2. Next Regular Meeting: January 25, 2017 3.3. Upcoming Sub-committee meeting 3.4. Other Announcements from Commissioners 4. Public Forum 0 0 min to be evenly divided by public wishing to speak) 5. Reports / Presentations/Updates (30 min) 5.1. Recology Quarterly Update (5 min) 5.2. Council Update- Councilor Rosenthal (5 min) 5.3. City Conservation Programs and Operations—Hanks(5 min) 5.4. Water Subcommittee Update—Weir(15 min) 6. Old Business (45 min) 6.1. Commission Monthly Column in Sneak Preview (5 min) Feburary—Energy Efficiency—Hanks/Weir March—CEAP Update—CEAP Committee April—Water related?? 6.2. Climate &Energy Action Plan—Project Update (10 min) tt : ass s ss . 6.3 Conservation Commission—Powers/Duties Discussion(20 min) 6.4 Earth Bowl—Discussion/Decision for 2017 —Weir(10 min) 7. New Business (20 min) 7.1. Nominations for 2017 Chair/Vice Chair(terms begin in April) 7.2. Update on Commissioner Terms/Vacancies Four Members Up in 2018 Two Members Up in 2019 Three Members Appointed as Representatives 7.3. Conservation Classes (Low Impact Living Series) —2017 Update(Beigel-Coryell/Buck) 8. Wrap Up (5 min) 8.1 Items to be added to next agenda CITY 0, F Minutes for the Conservation Commission December 14,2016 Page 1 of 2 MINUTES FOR THE ASHLAND CONSERVATION COMMISSION Wednesday, December 14, 2016 Siskiyou Room, 51 Winburn Way 1. Call to Order Chair Bryan Sohl called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Commissioners Mark Weir, James McGinnis, Cara Cruickshank, Jaime Rosenthal, Risa Buck, Roxane Beigel-Coryell, and Marni Koopman were present. Staff member Adam Hanks was present. Council liaison Rich Rosenthal was absent. 2. Consent Agenda Beigel-Coryell/McGinnis m/s to approve the minutes of October 26, 2016, with the replacement of the word, "actuate" with "accurate" in the SOU Quarterly Report. Discussion: None. Voice Vote: All Ayes. Motion Passes. 3. Announcements The next commission meeting will be January 25, 2016. The appointment of the Ashland School District representative to the commission is on the December 201h City Council agenda. SOU is starting their greenhouse gas update. The Governor's Regional Solutions Team will be coming to SOU in January to learn about SOU and some of their conservation projects. SOU students are looking at creating a solar power purchase project between students and the university. The university is looking at doing a retrofit of the stadium lights to LED with the help of City of Ashland reimbursement programs. 4. Public Forum Huelz— stated he will be sending an e-mail about understanding the double-bundle in order to help get more solar panels installed. Solar panels, windmills, LEDs and electric cars are all we need to make a big difference. He wonders how much water would be used for local food production within five miles of Ashland but can't get a good answer. Local food production is important for when climate change causes a rise in gas prices. We should have a composting program to help people doing local food production. He stated that Portland is now requiring energy audits to be shown on all real estate transactions and we should model this requirement. 5. Reports/Presentations/Updates City Conservation Programs and Operations—Hanks stated conservation staff participate in a ductless heat program and are hoping to expand the program, especially in the multi-family rental market. Larry Giardina is finishing a solar site assessment for all City-owned facilities. Hopefully this will identify some good options for increasing solar use. Downtown Recycling Pilot Program Update—Buck stated that it is going well, and they have a goal of getting at least half of the total garbage cans in the downtown core sponsored with recycling baskets in time for the April 2017 raise in the refund rate for recyclables. Hanks has been talking to the Parks Department to see if they are interested in posting identical signage to the downtown basket signage for consistency of messaging and ease of use. Minutes for the Conservation Commission December 14,2016 Page 2 of 2 Water Subcommittee—Cruickshank stated the subcommittee had a good meeting with Conservation Analyst, Julie Smitherman. Ms. Smitherman was able to give information on current programs and upcoming plans. They discussed the possibility of holding a grey-water and/or rainwater catchment class in 2017. Additionally there will be a student assisting Ms. Smitherman in researching rebate program opportunities. Group discussed some of the new storm water requirements coming into effect in the near future and how those may be good education opportunities. 6. Old Business Sneak Preview Column—Group discussed some of the upcoming deadlines and potential topics. Cruickshank/Weir m/s to allow GEOS to use the January edition for an article on their recent survey results, based on the flyer Koopman presented. Discussion: None. Voice Vote: All Ayes. Motion Passes. Climate &Energy Action Plan— Sohl stated that the third open house occurred on December 7th. Overall there was good attendance and positive feedback afterward. The second draft of the action plan is now out and the committee will continue to work on it, as well as the implementation plan at their next meeting on January 4. He gave an overview of the current timeline for presentation to Council. Earth Bowl—Weir stated he had met with Rogue Climate and SOCAN but there was no champion to step forward from either group so this event will not occur in the next year. If either group does want to continue with the event, Weir will let the commission know. 7. New Business Boardman Plant— Group discussed the articles they had read regarding the proposed biomass conversion. They discussed whether having a report to Council or a request that a letter be written for Council signature would be necessary but determined that this was not the most effective use of the group's time. Miscellaneous—Group discussed where this group could potentially help with the CEAP implementation and getting the community to make some necessary but difficult changes. This may require that the group take the opportunity to do a goal setting for the upcoming year(s). 8. Wrap Up Group requested that the following topics be on an upcoming agenda: • Goals and strategies for this commission Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Diana Shiplet Executive Assistant CITY OF AS H L.AN D Council Communication January 23, 2017, Study Session Preview of the Climate and Energy Action Plan FROM: Adam Hanks, Management Analyst, adam@ashland.or.us SUMMARY The ad-hoc Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP) Committee has worked with City staff, the project consultant team and extensive participation and input from the community to develop a Climate and Energy Action Plan. Prior to final edits and formal committee motion to approve the final plan and associated implementing documents, the plan is being presented to Council to provide an early opportunity to walk through the document, ask questions and provide direction on several key policy issues that will be a part of the formal plan review and acceptance deliberation scheduled for the March 71 2016, Council business meeting. BACKGROUND AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS: At the instigation of the Conservation Commission and with the support of Council, Mayor Stromberg created the LEAP in June of 2015 with a core group of members. Additional members have been added since that time, with a final member total of 13 (11 voting members). The CEAP began meeting in September of 2015, assisting staff in the development and issuance of a request for proposals for consultant services for the project. With considerable involvement of the committee in the review and selection process, Cascadia Consulting Group was selected in February of 2016 to assist the committee and City staff in the development of the plan document as well as facilitate the public involvement process throughout the project. Background Technical Materials To provide a foundation and technical background for the development of the plan, two important data driven documents were developed and used by the committee and the project team throughout the planning process. Ashland's first Greenhouse Gas Inventory was completed in February of 2016 and is the benchmark for measuring progress in carbon emission reductions over the life of the plan. The inventory provides both community wide and city operations emissions data across all emissions sectors and will continue to be a vital tool as the project moves into initial implementation and beyond. A local Climate Trends Summary was developed by the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute to provide ranges of likely climate impacts to our local area between now and 2080. This provides the committee, City staff and the community with a clear understanding of what types and magnitude of adaptation solutions will be needed to mitigate the impacts of these likely future trends. Page 1 of 3 CITY OF AS I 1� L.AN D Project Milestone Update The CEAP presented the Council a progress report and presentation at the July 19, 2017 Council meeting. In addition to a general process update, the committee presented its initial overall plan goals and targets, as they form the foundation for the rest of the plan. The primary recommended goal of being a carbon neutral community by 2047 (using sector based methodology, i.e. not including consumption) has since been replaced by a more aggressive science based goal of reducing community carbon emissions by 8%per year on average. Public Involvement& Input In addition to the nearly thirty total ad-hoc committee meetings that all contained valuable public input, the Committee and project team held three separate public open houses to inform the public and solicit input at three distinct phases of the plan development. Between the open houses and online survey opportunities, well over 300 individuals were a part of the public involvement efforts. Additionally, individual committee members and City staff met with many of the community leaders and partner entities to provide additional exposure and input opportunities to the process. Plan Document Summary The plan is organized by overarching goals and targets, strategies for addressing and meeting those goals/targets and a series of implementing actions in five key focus areas. Also included in the plan are suggested indicators to track progress and success on an individual action basis and process recommendations for the continued review and updating of the document on three year cycles. Current Project Status The current draft plan presented to Council is nearly a finished product. The committee and the project team will take the study session input received from Council, along with final committee and project team proposed adjustments and edits and prepare a final draft document for the formal plan review, deliberation and acceptance by Council currently scheduled for March 7, 2017. Key Policy Issues In addition to the wide ranging and impactful strategies and actions contained within the plan document itself, there a several key policy issues that accompany the plan. They include: • Recommendation to adopt the plan goals/targets by Ordinance • Recommendation that the plan goals/targets ordinance be adopted concurrently to the adoption of the overall CEAP document. • Recommendation to create a new City Advisory Commission dedicated to oversight of plan implementation and plan revisions/updates on the recommended three year schedule. • Recommendation to include funding in the BN2017-19 budget for a full-time City staff position dedicated to implementation and updating of the CEAP. Sample ordinances were provided to the Committee by interested members of the community and staff revised the documents with input from the Committee to better match City Municipal Code and to ensure consistency between the ordinances and the CEAP document, but have not yet gone through a formal review by the City Attorney. Each of these sample ordinances are included in this meeting packet for Council review and direction. Page 2 of 3 �r CITY OF AS I 1� L.AN D The creation and funding for a new full-time staff position has been well discussed at the committee level and staff has had initial internal discussion with the City's Human Resource Dept to develop a formal job description and identify the appropriate location within the City' classification and compensation structure and will be developing a proposed"add package" in the upcoming budget process. There has been consistent public support and committee discussion of the importance of placing this proposed new staffing resource at a location and level within the City's organizational chart that ensures effective cross departmental collaboration, focus and commitment on successful implementation of the identified actions. COUNCIL GOALS SUPPORTED: 22. Prepare for the impact of climate change on the community. 22.1 Develop and implement a community climate change and energy plan FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: In addition to the staffing "add package"noted above, staff will be developing an overall LEAP implementation budget that identifies funding sources and recommendations for specific actions in various Department budgets. Many of the actions require prioritization of staff time in specific Departments, others involve suggested re-prioritization of already planned appropriations and some are proposals for incremental increases in appropriation for existing programs to increase their effectiveness and success. STAFF RECOMMENDATION AND REQUESTED ACTION: The intent of this presentation and discussion is to provide a general understanding of the content and layout of the CEAP document and its associated implementing documents. Additionally, both the committee and the project team is interested in feedback and suggested direction on the key policy issues noted as well as questions and feedback on the overall document and process to date. SUGGESTED MOTION: N/A ATTACHMENTS: Draft Climate and Enemy Action Plan—January 2017 Plan Milestone &Update - July 19, 2016 Council Meeting DRAFT ordinance setting goals and targets DRAFT ordinance establishing a new Commission ADDITIONAL LINKS: Project Background Materials—www.ashland.or.us/climateplan • GHG Inventory • Climate Trends Summary • Open House—Public Input Summaries • CEAP Ad-hoc Committee agendas/minutes/packets Page 3 of 3 �r BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OF ASHLAND, OREGON AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING THE CURRENT AND FUTURE PROTECTION OF THE HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELFARE OF RESIDENTS AND ECOSYSTEMS OF THE CITY OF ASHLAND, OREGON, A. Climate change is caused by anthropogenic activities,primarily from the consumption of fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases,primarily carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, the primary component of natural gas. B. Mean global temperature is increasing as a result of increased concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. C. The decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record; 2015 and 2014 are the two the hottest years on record; and the twelve consecutive months of May 2015 through April 2016 have each set a record for global average surface temperatures for their respective months. D. CO2 levels in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million(ppm) for the first time in 800,000 years in the year 2013 and now are at the brink of permanently remaining above 400 ppm in the absence of a global effort to reduce emissions. E. Scientists predict that by 2100 average global temperatures will be 2 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they are now, depending on the rate of emissions. F. As climate change continues,the Pacific Northwest will experience a considerable amount of variation in temperature and precipitation. This is expected to have a significant impact on the local environment, economy, and community while affecting all sectors including water and other natural resources, agriculture, and recreation/tourism. G. Emissions of greenhouse gases are already impacting global ecosystems causing ocean acidification, ocean warming, and warming of the Earth's surface. Continuation of these trends lead to rising seas, more frequent and severe weather events,heavy rainfall and flooding,heat waves and drought, intense and destructive wildfires, disrupted ecosystems and agriculture,more disease, famine, disrupted economic sectors and job markets, conflict and human loss of life, increased social and economic inequity resulting in a an added burden on those least able to adapt. H. The health,welfare, and economic future of the citizens of Ashland are threatened by these climatic changes. I. Meaningful action is needed at all levels of government to mitigate climate change, effectuate climate recovery, and leave a healthier environment and atmosphere for future generations. The City of Ashland ("The City") is ready to do its part, and will engage its residents,visitors,businesses and organizations to do the same. K. This ordinance is based on the widely-accepted science of climate change. Specifically,this ordinance is a direct effort to contribute to climate stabilization and to respond to the present and future adverse impacts climate change poses to our health and safety, our environment, and our local and global economies. L. State and Federal goals and mandates—More to come here M. With the passage of this ordinance,Ashland commits itself to actively and significantly reducing all GHG emissions emanating from within city limits. The GHG reduction targets prescribed in this ordinance are designed to be consistent with science-based goals,primarily the goal of returning global atmospheric CO2 concentrations to below 350 ppm by the year 2100. N. The City will be guided and directed by a Climate and Energy Action Plan,which will be created and developed by the City with input from Ashland residents. Progress in meeting the prescribed reductions will be monitored and reported on by the City, and course corrections to the plan can and should be made, as needed over time. 0. Failure to complete the Climate and Energy Action Plan and take meaningful action could permanently affect the safety,health,welfare, and economic future of the City and its residents. Delayed action could also result in increased City costs and community impacts. SECTION 1: The City of Ashland Municipal Code(AMC) Chapter 9 is amended by adding new Sections to read as follows: 9.40 CLIMATE RECOVERY 9.40.010 Definitions -The following words and phrases whenever used in this chapter shall be construed as defined in this section. A. "Carbon Neutral"means zero net emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) B. "City Operations"means C. "GHG Baseline"means the carbon emissions calculations for 2015 as found in the 2016 Greenhouse Gas Inventory document D. More to come 9.40.20 —Climate Recovery Goals-Community A. By the year 2100,total community greenhouse gas emissions shall be reduced to an amount that is no more than the city of Ashland's average share of a global atmospheric greenhouse gas level of 350 ppm,which is estimated in 2016 to require an annual average emission reduction of 8%. B. The per capita fossil fuel use in the City shall be reduced by at least 50%by 2030 and 100% 2050. 9.40.030—Climate Recovery Goals—City Operations A. Using actions contained in the Climate and Energy Action Plan, City operations, facilities and services shall reach carbon neutrality by 2030. B. The City shall reduce its fossil fuel consumption by at least 50% by 2030 and 100%by 2050. 9.40.040—Climate and Energy Action Plan A. The Climate and Energy Action Plan shall contain the following: 1. Plan for City Operations(LEAP-CO),which shall contain specific and measurable GHG reduction targets and milestones to guide and direct City operations in achieving the required carbon mitigation and fossil fuel reduction targets. 2. Plan for the Community(CEAP-C),which shall contain specific and measurable GHG reduction targets and milestones to guide and direct the community in achieving the required carbon mitigation and fossil fuel reduction targets. 3. Each plan shall contain the following: a. Strategies, actions,timelines and progress indicators to meet GHG reduction targets b. Measurements to evaluate progress and achievement of actions c. Minimum reporting content and schedule for City Council for CEAP and GHG Inventory d. Identified process for plan amendments, including comprehensive review on a three year cycle. e. Identified role of the Climate and Energy Action Plan Commission in advisory and recommendation capacity for CEAP implementation and updates ORDINANCE NO. AN ORDINANCE CREATING THE CLIMATE AND ENERGY ACTION COMMISSION 2.27—Climate and Energy Action Plan Advisory Commission 2.27.005—Purpose Upon adoption of this ordinance,the Mayor shall establish a permanent Citizen Commission to provide oversight and recommendations regarding the implementation of the Climate and Energy Action Plan, as well as recommending updates and modifications to the Climate and Energy Action Plan(LEAP) document. 2.27.010—Establishment—Membership The Commission shall reflect and represent a wide range of community interests and perspectives, including environmental, energy efficiency,renewable energy, academic and business, low income, equity, and health, communities of color and elderly. The Commission shall consist of nine(9)voting members, including at least two (2) of whom shall be 25-years-old or younger at the time of appointment. Eight(8) of the members shall reside within the City, and one(1)may be an at large member living within the Ashland urban growth boundary. One (1)Mayor or City Councilor and one (1) City staff person shall serve on the Commission as non-voting, ex-officio members. The primary staff liaison shall be appointed by the City Administrator and shall serve as Secretary of the Commission. Voting members shall be appointed by the Mayor with confirmation by the City Council 2.27.020-Powers and Duties A. Monitor and advise on the Implementation of the Climate and Energy Action Plan for the Community and City Operations B. Recommend modifications to benchmarks,targets or implementing actions contained in the CEAP as needed to incorporate the best available science and practices to achieve CEAP related goals and targets. C. Monitor progress toward achieving the reductions of GHG emissions prescribed by this ordinance D. Work to ensure that the CEAP considers public input and long-term social, economic and environmental impacts E. Recommend changes in city ordinances,rules and processes that facilitate and/or incentivize residents and businesses to reduce their GHG emissions F. Work to ensure the plans are socially equitable for all community members including low-income, young people,persons of color, elderly and those living with disabilities. G. Work to ensure the CEAP protects Ashland's quality of life by identifying,benefiting, and preserving long-term natural resources, services, amenities, institutions, industries, and community characteristics valued by Ashland residents.