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2020-01-09 Committee on the Environment Minutes DocuSign Envelope ID:09C96C2D-3E7A-4121-8377-25BB4E26FDE3 _ City of Denton City Hall MINUTES 41-11tomm215 E.McKinney Street DENTON COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT Denton,Texas www.cityofdenton.com Thursday, January 9, 2020 11:30 a.m. City Council Work Session Room After determining that a quorum of the Committee on the Environment of the Denton City Council was present, the Committee on the Environment thereafter convened into an Open Meeting on Thursday, January 9, 2020 at 11:37 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas Council Members: Chair Council Member Keely Briggs, Council Member Paul Meltzer and Council Member Jesse Davis Also Attending: Mario Canizares, ACM; Kenneth Banks, General Manager Utilities; Brian Boerner, Director Solid Waste; Terry Naulty,Asst Director DME; Katherine Barnett, Sustainability& Customer Initiatives Manager; Vanessa Ellison, Recycling Education Coord; Sarah Luxton, Sustainability Coordinator; James Douglas, Conservation Program Coord; Misty Adams, Recycling Education Coord; Kim Mankin, Utility Administration Manager REGULAR MEETING A. COE20-001 - Consider approval of the minutes of November 4, 2019. Approved B. COE20-002 —Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the Committee on the Environment recommendations for the Sustainability Plan update. Katherine Barnett gave the presentation stating that she wanted to make sure everything was captured from the last meeting. Definition of Sustainability was shown first which is `Meeting today's needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet those same needs'. This was selected by the residents in both 2012 and 2018 citizen surveys, and the Plan vision and Guiding Principles remain consistent in 2018 update. The guiding principles were then shown and briefly discussed. -Involve the community in developing and implementing the Plan. -Develop partnerships that encourage collaboration on sustainability issues. -Promote energy management practices within municipal operations and throughout the community that are efficient and economically sound while reducing emissions. -Support transportation strategies that reduce air pollution and increase alternative transportation choices. -Support waste management strategies, including diversion, reuse, recycling, and energy producing disposal options. -Support green building and sustainable site management within the Denton community through policy implementation, education, and incentives. -Maintain a diversified power supply portfolio while establishing aggressive energy efficiency and energy conservation programs. -Commit to the use and purchase of environmentally and socially responsible materials and products. DocuSign Envelope ID:09C96C2D-3E7A-4121-8377-25BB4E26FDE3 -Provide high quality drinking water, wastewater treatment, and watershed management in ways that are environmentally and economically sustainable for current and future customers. -Conduct all the activities above with a focus on inclusiveness, equity, and social responsibility All the Focus areas include -Water -Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Management -Energy Conservation and Efficiency -Landuse and Open/Natural Space -Transportation -Education, Communication and Community Involvement -Material Resource Management -Environment, Resiliency, and Public Health Barnett then broke out the focus areas and talked about them individually. Water was talked about first regarding gray water systems. This is included in Water Conservation Strategy 5. Air -Public Air Monitors Goal to improve regional air quality -Change set a reduction target to a number Staff will present additional information in February -Add Community Level Emissions Goal 1 addresses community emissions Energy -Roof Top Solar Existing program—track through Key Performance Indicators (KPI) -Incorporate new building codes Goal 4 - addresses adoption of building codes Briggs asked a question regarding the delay in adopting the building codes. Barnett answered sometimes the delay is on the NCTCOG recommendations. The State hasn't updated the code in several years while we were updating every time a new one was released. Meltzer asked if the topic of municipal Roof Top Solar come up or been evaluated. Briggs answered that she has requested for new or renovated buildings for that to be evaluated. Meltzer then asked about existing buildings. Kenneth Banks answered it has been evaluated, generally it is cost prohibitive due to the retrofit of older buildings. -EV Charging stations Included in Transportation -Using Battery Storage Can be evaluated and tracked through existing solar program KPI Land use -Creekside restoration Goals and strategies—green infrastructure strategy—includes open space goals Davis asked for more information regarding the green infrastructure strategy, Barnett explained. Barnett stated she will revisit the presentation that Todd Estes gave when he talked about restoring creek DocuSign Envelope ID:09C96C2D-3E7A-4121-8377-25BB4E26FDE3 channels. Mario Canizares stated that there will be a presentation in February about this creek corridor to the full Council. -Tree canopy in single family zoning Goals and Strategy 6 - increase canopy Meltzer stated that during the time of approving the new tree ordinance it seemed that none of the requirements applied to existing single family or duplex zoned property. The rational was that people want to cut their own trees. Meltzer offered a clarification if that was the intention it should state owner domicile. This would keep people from buying up land and clear-cutting trees. Barnett will talk to planning regarding to this item. -ESA Goal 2, strategy 3 - relating to increase of trails, the 10-minute walk from Parks is included in this plan. Meltzer added that he would like to see the national average exceeded. Briggs also added the more walking the less vehicular traffic. Transportation -Volkswagen Grant possible uses Goal 3 —Implement Clean Fleet Policy -Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations (strategy revisions) Briggs asked if the Charging Stations presentation will go to full Council. Barnett answered they are looking at an EV strategy to address charging and infrastructure needs. There is a grant being looked at currently to replace the charging stations. Denton County has more electric vehicles per capita than Dallas or Tarrant County. Current strategy is to encourage sustainable modes of transportation including carpooling options, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and public transportation. Education Green Business Program -Strategy 3, Key Performance Indicator (KPI) There are six businesses registered and ten that are filling out the applications. James Douglas has been working with PCO to see how we can recognize new participants, and advertise better. Briggs asked if staff wanted to set goals regarding how many participants would sign up. She thinks it is great. Barnett answered after a year they can come back with KPI and growth numbers and information. Rebates and audits -Goals and KPI Barnett stated that staff has really been promoting the water audits this year. Staff has developed information to talk about high bills, and a first place to look may be to see if your sprinkler system is leaking. Meltzer asked if customer service has messages playing during their on-hold time. If they so, this might be a good message to check your sprinkler system for high bills. Denton Sustainable schools -Goals and strategy 5, increase education through Denton Sustainable Schools DocuSign Envelope ID:09C96C2D-3E7A-4121-8377-25BB4E26FDE3 Briggs would like a higher profile for sustainable schools. One concern is that kids were recycling cartons and now they are not. Vanessa responded that some schools are still recycling the cartons, and some are not. It is related to the liquid that must be poured out from cartons to recycle them. Material Resource Management/Solid Waste -Includes Solid Waste Long Range Plan Sustainability will work with Solid Waste to incorporate recommendations included in Solid Waste Management Strategy. Davis talked about less packaging or more sustainable packaging at grocery stores. Barnett stated that would be a great idea for a class or on-line brochure. -Styrofoam reduction Styrofoam reduction will be highlighted in 2019 annual update There was some discussion regarding Styrofoam. Brian Boerner talked about the length of time it takes for Styrofoam and plastic to break down. Environment, Resiliency, &Public Health -Revise and Implement Pest Management Plan Evaluate implementation of Integrated Pest Management Plan Next Steps include -presenting to Council -incorporate the changes -adopt and implement Barnett then asked for any other ideas for this Plan. There was discussion regarding a citizen sustainability group with Canizares. Briggs added she didn't think the group would be a part of COE, it would be a separate committee. The purpose of this committee would be to generate thoughts on how to accomplish the goals for sustainability and would vet items before they go to the COE and to Council. There was a discussion of whether the committee should be part of the Sustainability Plan. There was further discussion regarding the purpose. Davis talked about the relationship between the citizen committee and this Committee. Briggs stated she knows of people that would like to be involved with this committee, it doesn't have to be a committee that goes on forever, maybe to see this Plan through fruition. Meltzer added the roles need to be defined. Davis asked if there are cities with both citizen committees as well as Council committees for Sustainability, Barnett stated she has not found one. Meltzer added that this could be presented to Council in conjunction with the Sustainability Plan but not as a part of. All were favor of having a citizen committee. C. COE20-003—Assistant City Manager Update: 1. Sustainability Events 2. Workshop with National League of Cities DocuSign Envelope ID:09C96C2D-3E7A-4121-8377-25BB4E26FDE3 3. NCTCOG Awards 4. Matrix CONCLUDING ITEMS Under Section 551.042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, respond to inquiries from the Committee on the Environment or the public with specific factual information or recitation of policy, or accept a proposal to place the matter on the agenda for an upcoming meeting AND Under Section 551.0415 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, provide reports about items of community interest regarding which no action will be taken, to include: expressions of thanks, congratulations, or condolence; information regarding holiday schedules; an honorary or salutary recognition of a public official, public employee, or other citizen; a reminder about an upcoming event organized or sponsored by the governing body; information regarding a social, ceremonial, or community event organized or sponsored by an entity other than the governing body that was attended or is scheduled to be attended by a member of the governing body or an official or employee of the municipality; or an announcement involving an imminent threat to the public health and safety of people in the municipality that has arisen after the posting of the agenda Briggs - Earth day, 50th year, there is a big push environmentally. She would like the city to host an Earth Day event SCRAP wants to help partnership with DISD art students for the flier. Briggs - SolSmart designation information Adjournment: 12:48 pm Approved on February 3, 2020 DocuSigneddbbyy: ✓� S Kee y riggs .DocuSiigned by:: 6M �' iV, Kim Mankin