City of Lawrence

Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB)

May 12, 2008 (5:30 PM) Meeting Minutes

MEMBERS PRESENT:	Chris Cobb, Paul Dietz, Dickie Heckler, Sarah Hill-Nelson , Matt Lehrman, Daniel Poull, Laura Routh, Simran Sethi, Brian Sifton, Cindy Strecker
MEMBERS ABSENT:
STAFF PRESENT:	Tammy Bennett, Kathy Richardson
CITY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
PUBLIC PRESENT:

Call Meeting to Order (Daniel Poull, Chairperson)

Take Roll Call to Determine Quorum of Members

Approval of meeting Minutes

Motion and second to approve the April 9, 2008 minutes (Lehrman/Routh).

Vote: Motion was passed unanimously.

Update on Climate Protection Task Force

Simran Sethi, SAB representative on the Lawrence Climate Protection Task Force, discussed highlights of the April Task Force meeting:

- Kansas City Climate Protection Task Force presentation by Dennis Murphey, Chief Environmental Officer, City of Kansas City, MO.

- Grow Green Checklist presentation by Beth Johnson, Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

For a schedule of upcoming meetings and notes from previous meetings Tammy Bennett suggests checking out the website www.lawrenceks.org/climate_protection.

Letter to City regarding Tax Increment Financing and Transportation Development Districts (TIF/TDD) Policy

Motion and second to approve letter drafted by Laura Routh on behalf of SAB regarding the pending adoption of city policies related to the creation of TIF/TDD (Poull/Heckler).

Vote: Motion was passed unanimously.

The letter has already been sent to the City of Lawrence. The final draft of this letter (see attached) was approved by SAB via e-mail because the deadline for TIF/TDD comments was on May 9, 2008 and this vote could not wait for an upcoming SAB meeting. Laura Routh reported that Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager will notify SAB when the TIF/TDD is placed on the City Commission agenda.

Update on Aspen Institute Environmental Forum – Paul Dietz

Paul Dietz gave an overview on the Environmental Forum he attended in Aspen earlier this year. He handed out notes from the Forum (see attached).

Lawrence Transit System

There was discussion regarding the Lawrence Transit System, the “T”. SAB questioned if they want to make a statement or take some action regarding the City Commission’s deliberation about eliminating or changing the current “T” service due to budget issues. Tammy Bennett commented that the latest she heard regarding the City Commission initiative was to move the “T” to a sales tax vote. SAB agreed that they would like to make a statement regarding the essence of public transportation and not so much the process (i.e. sales tax vote).

SAB discussed having Paul Dietz draft a letter to the City Commission on behalf of SAB regarding the essence of public transportation and the sustainability value. Some board members were concerned about the timing. Would the letter need to be drafted and approved prior to the next meeting? SAB decided to continue this conversation via e-mail.

Home Energy Conservation Fair Planning

Sarah Hill-Nelson asked if the City had received a call from Kathy Lewis from the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce who is interested in partnering with the City’s WRR Division by joining the Home Energy Conservation Fair (HECF) and a Lawrence Sustainability Trade Show into one event. Kathy Richardson reported that she has not received a call from the Chamber of Commerce. SAB agreed that the appropriate role for the Chamber of Commerce could be becoming a sponsor of the HECF.

Sarah also reported that the Lawrence Sustainability Week is no longer in the works for this year. Originally the plan was to have the City’s HECF be part of this larger event.

Kathy Richardson reported that staff has not yet identified a location or date for the HECF but that it is something staff is working on.

Laura Routh, Dickie Heckler, Chris Cobb, and Daniel Poull volunteered to be on the HECF Team this year.

Waste Reduction and Recycling (WRR) Report

Kathy Richardson e-mailed the WRR report to SAB (attached). Things to note:

- WRR will no longer separate in-house magazine recycling due to very small amounts collected. Magazines will now be commingled with Mixed Paper.

- HHW program in April shows significant increase in drop off appointments compared to the previous month. This is due to the warmer weather.

- The Earth Day Celebration was a success! Thanks to all SAB volunteers at this event and to KU Environs for hosting the Parade. Exhibitors and vendors at the Earth Day Celebration in South Park were very happy with this event’s turnout. Many have already said they will participate next year.

- The Imagination & Place Environmental Award was on Earth Day, April 22^nd. Five volunteers/volunteer organizations were recipients of this award (see attachment).

- First Lawrence Electronic Recycling Event was a hit! A total of 676 vehicles came though the event. For the event survey results and photos see attachment. The City plans to have another electronic recycling event in the fall.

Miscellaneous and Guest Comments

Laura Routh mentioned she has not drafted the memo for inviting potential guest speakers to future SAB meetings.

No SAB member was able to attend the Douglas/Jefferson Counties Solid Waste Management Meeting earlier this month. Kathy Richardson was not able to attend the meeting either.

What is the status of the Recycling Survey? Tammy Bennett stated that City staff has seen a draft of the Recycling Survey Report and she was hoping ETC Institute could present the Survey Results at the next SAB meeting in June.

Meeting adjourned 7:30 p.m.

Next meeting: June 11, 2008

Attachments:

Letter to City regarding Tax Increment Financing and Transportation Development Districts (TIF/TDD) Policy
Paul Dietz’s notes from the Aspen Institute Environmental Forum
Waste Reduction and Recycling Division Report

o Earth Day Celebration Event Summary

o Imagination & Place Environmental Award Event Summary

o Electronic Recycling Event Summary

o Survey Results from the Electronic Recycling Event

Attachment: Letter to City regarding Tax Increment Financing and Transportation Development Districts (TIF/TDD) Policy

May 7, 2008

Ms. Diane Stoddard

Assistant City Manager

City of Lawrence, Kansas

Dear Ms. Stoddard,

The Sustainability Advisory Board wishes to comment on the City’s pending adoption of policies related to the creation of Tax Increment Financing Districts and Transportation Development Districts (TIF/TDD). We request that our comments be made part of the public record regarding this issue.

Given the City’s increasing focus on making Lawrence a more sustainable community, the new TIF/TDD policy provides an ideal opportunity to begin structuring public incentives to reflect sustainability goals. While the current document has merit, the lack of any provisions for environmental performance is a significant oversight. We are concerned that the current draft contains no language to encourage environmental performance nor does the draft ask applicants to address the environmental impacts of proposed projects.

In regard to resource consumption and pollution, less is generally better. Thus, as part of the TIF/TDD process, quantifiable environmental externalities should be considered. Appropriate assessment might include review of a project’s proposed impacts to water, sewer, energy and land resources and those environmental impacts which resulting in increased infrastructure costs for the community. By failing to seek environmental information in advance, the City potentially risks assuming additional financial burdens related to fixing infrastructure limitations caused by projects receiving TIF/TDD abatements.

We believe that applicants should be invited to provide specific information about the environmental impacts of their project, including but not limited to waste management related to demolition and construction; proposed construction storm water management practices; and water, wastewater and energy impacts expected from new development or redevelopment. The resulting data might illuminate potential efficiencies for TIF/TDD recipients. Significant energy and water conservation opportunities may be available but would remain unrealized with the current proposed language. In light of ever-increasing energy and infrastructure costs, some conservation standard is reasonable. Further, projects should be required to comply with all state, federal and local environmental regulations.

The City must ensure that projects receiving public funding are consistent with the sustainability objectives of our community.

To that end, we propose the following four (4) specific modifications to the City’s TIF/TDD process:

Those applicants which can demonstrate quantifiable pollution prevention, waste reduction, brownfields redevelopment, LEED or green building techniques or other conservation or efficiency efforts in their expansions should be given preference in abatement awards. Applications can be scored on the aforementioned factors, and targeted when evidence is shown that the application is complete and the proposal consistent with the overall development, planning and environmental goals of the community.

Disclosure of specific environmental information should be required by all Companies seeking TIF/TFF funding. Applications should include the following information: total estimated volume of water and waste water to be used and generated annually, and an estimate of annual energy consumption.

Applicants should be required to include specific information regarding past environmental performance and compliance, and also be required to disclose notices of non-compliance or violation issued by State or Federal agencies within the three years preceding the application.

An applicant’s compliance with environmental regulations should be expected and considered as part of both awards and annual reviews.

Environmental accountability is desirable and may help the City promote the TIF/TDD process as one which is credible with taxpayers. Public support for projects can be strengthened by a process which honestly assesses and openly discloses environmental impacts and spurs innovation in conservation and building.

By accepting a TIF/TDD policy with no environmental language, the City abandons what could be a strong bargaining position to ensure regulatory compliance and inspire environmental excellence.

As we are witnessing in Greensburg, Kansas, growth, re-development and environmental excellence can and should be mutually reinforcing. As a tangible manifestation of the City’s development goals and environmental values, our funding mechanisms should inspire innovation, confidence, and accountability while ensuring protection of our community’s natural resource base.

We believe that being a sustainable City will help promote economic development. Our public incentive guidelines should reflect the Community’s values regarding sustainability, and thus we should actively seek to attract sustainable business and redevelopment.

We appreciate your consideration of our comments regarding this proposal. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions regarding this submittal.

Sincerely,

Laura Routh, Recording Secretary

On behalf of the Sustainability Advisory Board

(e)cc: Daniel Poull, Chair, Sustainability Advisory Board

Attachment: Paul Dietz’s notes from the Aspen Institute Environmental Forum

Notes from the Aspen Institute Environmental Forum 2008 (www.aspenenvironment.org)

Daniel G. Nocera, a professor of energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presented world-wide energy demand data in a very succinct manner at the first ever Aspen Institute Environmental Forum in Aspen Colorado last month. He said that right now, human demand for energy (for all sources) is about 12.8 trillion watts (or terawatts). By 2050, this demand is expected to have grown to about 30 terawatts (as the human population heads towards 9 billion people. If this energy is supplied by coal, natural gas and oil, an overheated planet is almost assured. How can we supply the additional 18 terawatts needed by 2050? If we cut down every plant on earth and make them into fuel, we’ll achieve 7 terawatts, and we won’t have anything to eat. If we build nuclear plants, around 8 terawatts can be achieved if we build a new 1000 megawatt plant every 1.6 days until 2050. This is not very likely. If we take all of the wind energy available close to the earth’s surface, we’d achieve about 2 terawatts. An additional terawatt can be achieved if we dam every other river on the planet. He summed up his mental math with the following: “So, no more eating, nuclear power plants all over, dead birds everywhere, and I dam every other river and I just eke out what we’ll need in 40 years.

Biologist EO Wilson Says Soccer Moms Are Natural History’s Enemy

In a candid conversation with an audience here at the Aspen Environment Forum, eminent biologist/naturalist EO Wilson said soccer moms are killing off bio-education because they don’t let their children experience nature.

In what he calls the “soccer mom syndrome” Wilson said the worst thing a parent can do for a child is to take him or her to a botanical garden where all the trees are marked and labeled. Instead, “Go to the seashore and give them a pail and bucket. Let them experience nature…and then come back and ask questions,” Wilson said, admittedly paraphrasing Rachel Carson’s advice. Carson famously wrote the book “Silent Spring.”

Wilson, who is compiling an encyclopedia of life (www.eol.org), which will describe every species known to man, didn’t back down when a woman from the audience said that she would “forgive him” for the soccer mom comment.

“Don’t,” he responded. “Think on it.”

Wilson filled more than an hour of questions and answers with witty remarks and barbs. And to be sure, his tone was playful. Yet, there was a seriousness behind his “soccer mom” remarks that struck a cord with many people in the audience: Have children been largely cut off from nature because of technology?

Many people agreed that they have, with video games, the Internet and structured play times replacing — as comedian George Carlin commented in a recent skit — sitting outside in a yard with a stick wondering how to entertain themselves.

That creative process — kinesthetic — is perhaps immunizing children from nature and therefore creating a social environment that entails less caring for the outdoors and all its splendors, people said.

It’s an interesting discussion in an age when children’s schedules and days are filled with all sorts of activities–but leave little time for children to entertain themselves outside.

Wilson said there is nothing to fear with nature. “I feel more afraid sometimes in big cities than when I step into a rainforest,” he said.

Appreciation, in other words, can only be had by first-hand experience. Virtual surrogates just won’t do.

Soccer moms take note and, I’m sure, some offense.

March 27th, 2008 by Thomas Kostigen in natural resources | 33 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

Aspen Environment Forum: My Three Take-Aways

Many years ago, someone offered me a piece of advice when I was suffering from information overload at a conference: don't try to absorb or act on everything; just make sure to write down your "3 Take-Aways" before you leave.

This approach has worked out pretty well for me over the years, and last week I dispatched this piece of advice to a young participant of this year's Aspen Environment Forum.

Then I took my own advice. So, here are my 3 Take-Aways from the Forum:

1. There is much to be done and we need all energy options (and plenty of patience) to make progress and ensure prosperity.

2. There are plenty of solutions and plenty of opportunities, but the window to act is now (especially regarding energy efficiency, alternative energy technology, and along the value chain).

3. The New Green Economy needs to be inclusive, especially mobilizing training and redeployment opportunities for disadvantaged and poor people in stressed communities -- to move from pollution and prison culture to solution and social uplift environmentalism.

That seems like a lot, but really one flows to the next. We can do this if we just get our butts in gear. What are we waiting for?

And, I don't remember who you were, but if you're out there, thanks for the good advice!

This site contains a lot of great video clips from the forum:

The Best of Aspen Environment Forum, PlumTV, March 23, 2008

http://aspen.plumtv.com/stories/aspen_environment_forum

Another Great Site:

http://www.kunstler.com/

James Kunstler presented a great lecture on sustainable building, etc.

American Indians: It’s on your shoulders Now

John Colson
March 29, 2008

It was a study in incongruity.

The normally placid environs of the Aspen Institute’s campus, above the juncture of Castle Creek and the Roaring Fork River, were awash in human frenzy as the institute’s Environmental Forum cranked into high gear last week.

Old junker Subarus fought for parking spaces with high-priced SUVs; bejeweled and fashionably draped scions of wealth and privilege strode purposefully toward the Doerr-Hosier Center while swanky black Hybrid SUVs sped past in manic flight. Those gleaming behemoths sported signs shouting their status as shuttle vehicles for Forum participants, but all those that I saw were empty, and their pilots seemed determined to get to some unknown destination at top speed, regardless of the risks to human and other life that happened to step into their paths.

Inside the Doerr-Hosier Center, a buffet table filled with delicacies offered a bit of sustaining energy to the participants, who were seated in overflow style at tables while a small band of American Indians gave the welcoming invocation onstage at the front of the room.

The juxtaposition of the luxurious surroundings, the pampered guests and the Indians in full regalia was, to me, a bit disconcerting. Not two centuries earlier, the ancestors of these two disparate people might just as easily have been firing guns and arrows at each other as the battle for ownership of the Roaring Fork Valley wound to its inexorable conclusion.

And, in fact, the words of these native inhabitants of this land appeared to echo my sense of alarmed confusion. It seems as though every other phrase was some variant on a theme that we “white eyes” have put ourselves in charge of this continent, and we aren’t doing a good job of keeping it together. And the truth behind the words is a demand that we get it together or give it up, possibly to dump the whole thing back in the Indians’ collective lap.

The undercurrent, of course, is that the Indians did much better as they muddled through their tenure at the top of the animalistic hierarchy here, but of course they didn’t have plastics, an oil-based economy and a penchant for fouling their own nest, all of which seem to have become the ruling ethos of white society.

This brings to mind a couple of times back in the 1980s when I, in the company of a coal company’s environmental apologist and a couple of semi-retired hippies in street clothes, visited two ancient Ute Indian sites.

One was in the hills above the improbably named nexus of human enterprise called El Jebel, which once was just a trailer park perched alongside Highway 82 between Carbondale and Basalt. I was told long ago that the name means “The Mountain” in Hebrew, perhaps a reference to the looming presence of a nearby massif, Basalt Mountain. How a Hebrew moniker ever got applied to a trailer park in the middle of nowhere was never properly explained.

But I digress. That first site was little more than a house of sticks, intertwined over a living space so small that the Indian who lived there must have been either single or gay, and there were no others nearby to indicate any kind of gathering place of the tribe. But it offered a splendid view up toward Aspen and down toward Glenwood Springs, and seemed like a nice place to hang out or stand lookout for an approaching cavalry troop.

The second was more sacred in nature, a hollow in a canyon where paintings festooned the walls of a cave and one, in the shape of a spiral, was at the exact spot where the sun first shone on summer solstice mornings — or would have, if a gnarled old piñon tree hadn’t grown up to block the view. The tree looked to be 400 years old or so, tall but hunched, like an old man doing penance for a sin long forgotten.

Again, no sign of the multiple habitations that must have served as temporary shelter for the wandering tribe.

And perhaps that was the message to be taken away from these two sites, and from the Indians’ tenure in general. They left no massive garbage dumps, no bombed-out relics of homes gone empty, no ribbons of concrete and asphalt scarring the watchful hills, no toxic residue in the land.

So those regally robed representatives of the displaced Indian nations were right, I guess. We’ve done a lousy job of stewardship so far, and we’d better wake up and fly right before, as one of the Environmental Forum speakers mentioned, this old Earth tires of our ways, shrugs mightily and dumps us onto the garbage heap of history.

“You, the white man, killed us off or herded us onto reservations,” their words meant to me. “Fine. It’s all on your shoulders now. Don’t make hash out of it, leave us alone to preserve what we can of our culture while making a little money off your gambling addiction, and keep those whiskey drummers out of our wikiups. That’s all we ask.”

Amen to that.

Attachment: Waste Reduction and Recycling Division Report

Fibers Report

Old Corrugated Containers (OCC)

Cardboard Tons Revenue

Current YTD 399.14 $52,149.96

Prior YTD 346.92 $38,995.05

Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2008: $130.66 Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2007: $112.41

Old Newspapers (ONP)

Newspaper Tons Revenue

Current YTD 241.29 $30,037.02

Prior YTD 325.79 $31,113.75

Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2008: $124.49 Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2007: $95.50

Office Waste Paper (SOP)

Sorted Office Paper Tons Revenue

Current YTD 16.80 $3,631.30

Prior YTD N/A N/A

Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2008: $216.15 Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2007: N/A

Old Magazines (OMG)

Old Magazines Tons Revenue

Current YTD No shipments N/A

Prior YTD 0.63 $40.63

Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2008: N/A Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2007: $65.00

Mixed Waste Paper (MIX)

Mixed Waste Paper Tons Revenue

Current YTD 51.75 $4,819.26

Prior YTD N/A N/A

Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2008: $93.12 Avg. Price/ton thru Apr. 2007: N/A

TOTAL ytd tons Revenue

708.98 $90,637.54

Prior YTD 673.34 $70,152.43

Note: We have decided to co-mingle the small amounts of magazines collected in-house with mixed waste paper thus there will be no shipments of magazines this year.

Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Program Report

Compost Program

Yard Waste Collection of grass, leaves and woody debris began in March. Tonnage increased for the month of April.

Yard Trimmings collection: Year to date

	2007 TOTAL	January 2008	February 2008	March 2008	April 2008
Total Tons collected curbside	14,455.85	NA	NA	1,035.71	1,575.54
Commercial YW received	449.21	0.8	0.7	119.1	105.5
Other YW received (Christmas Trees)	29.38	20.46 (1716 trees)	NA	NA	NA
Total tons this month	14,934.44	21.26	0.7	1,154.81	1,681.04
Average Preferred Container Compliance	99%	NA	NA	97.6%	99%