Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-11-09 EEC AgendaAgenda Energy and Environment Commission City Of Edina, Minnesota City Hall - Community Room Meeting will take place in person. Masks are optional. Thursday, November 9, 2023 7:00 PM I.Call To Order II.Roll Call III.Approval Of Meeting Agenda IV.Approval Of Meeting Minutes A.Minutes: Energy and Environment Commission Oct 12, 2023 V.Community Comment During "Community Comment," the Board/Commission will invite residents to share relevant issues or concerns. Individuals must limit their comments to three minutes. The Chair may limit the number of speakers on the same issue in the interest of time and topic. Generally speaking, items that are elsewhere on tonight's agenda may not be addressed during Community Comment. Individuals should not expect the Chair or Board/Commission Members to respond to their comments tonight. Instead, the Board/Commission might refer the matter to sta% for consideration at a future meeting. VI.Reports/Recommendations A.Advisory Communication: Organized Trash Collection B.Review & Recommend: Commercial Tree Ordinance VII.Chair And Member Comments VIII.Sta, Comments IX.Adjournment The City of Edina wants all residents to be comfortable being part of the public process. If you need assistance in the way of hearing ampli/cation, an interpreter, large-print documents or something else, please call 952-927-8861 72 hours in advance of the meeting. Date: November 9, 2023 Agenda Item #: IV.A. To:Energy and Environment Commission Item Type: Minutes From:Grace Hancock, Sustainability Manager Item Activity: Subject:Minutes: Energy and Environment Commission Oct 12, 2023 Action CITY OF EDINA 4801 West 50th Street Edina, MN 55424 www.edinamn.gov ACTION REQUESTED: Approve EEC meeting minutes, Oct 12, 2023 INTRODUCTION: ATTACHMENTS: Description EEC Minutes: Oct 12, 2023 Agenda Energy and Environment Commission City Of Edina, Minnesota City Hall - Community Room Meeting will take place in person. Masks are optional. Thursday, October 12, 2023 7:00 PM I.Call To Order Chair Martinez called the meeting to order at 7:10pm, after a group photo at 7pm II.Roll Call Answering roll call were Chair Martinez, Vice Chair Lukens, Commissioners Weber, Hovanec, Tessman and Haugen, and student Commissioners Pugh and Langsweirdt. Late: Commissioners Lanzas, Dakane Absent: Commissioner Schima III.Approval Of Meeting Agenda Motion by Teri Hovanec to Approve Meeting Agenda. Seconded by Hilda Martinez Salgado. Motion Carried. IV.Approval Of Meeting Minutes A.Minutes: Energy and Environment Commission Sep 14, 2023 Motion by Cory Lukens to Approve Meeting Minutes. Seconded by Teri Hovanec. Motion Carried. V.Community Comment No community comment was received During "Community Comment," the Board/Commission will invite residents to share relevant issues or concerns. Individuals must limit their comments to three minutes. The Chair may limit the number of speakers on the same issue in the interest of time and topic. Generally speaking, items that are elsewhere on tonight's agenda may not be addressed during Community Comment. Individuals should not expect the Chair or Board/Commission Members to respond to their comments tonight. Instead, the Board/Commission might refer the matter to staff for consideration at a future meeting. VI.Reports/Recommendations A.2023 Workplan Update Discussion Commissioners provided updates on 2023 work plan items underway VII.Chair And Member Comments Chair described Council feedback on 24 WP proposal Commissioners discussed the memo from staff regarding organized trash collection; Commissioners expressed their dismay at the lack of a staff recommendations. They shared specific concerns related to memo content and format of information. Commissioners underscored their perspective that more staff is needed to implement the CAP. Commissioners discussed the need for City Council to show leadership through robust Climate Action Plan implementation. VIII.Staff Comments IX.Adjournment The EEC meeting adjourned at 8:18pm. Motion by Teri Hovanec to Adjourn. Seconded by Tom Tessman. Motion Carried. T he City of Edina wants all residents to be comfortable being part of the public process. If you need assistance in the way of hearing amplification, an interpreter, large-print documents or something else, please call 952-927-8861 72 hours in advance of the meeting. Date: November 9, 2023 Agenda Item #: VI.A. To:Energy and Environment Commission Item Type: Report and Recommendation From:Grace Hancock, Sustainability Manager Item Activity: Subject:Advisory Communication: Organized Trash Collection Action CITY OF EDINA 4801 West 50th Street Edina, MN 55424 www.edinamn.gov ACTION REQUESTED: Receive and vote to approve Advisory Communication from Commissioner Haugen requesting that City Council take specific actions related to organized trash collection. This advisory communication will be advanced to City Council for their 11/21/2023 meeting. INTRODUCTION: ATTACHMENTS: Description 2023 EEC OTC Advisory Communication Date: 11/09/2023 To: Mayor and City Council From: Energy & Environment Commission Subject: Advisory Communication on Organized Trash Collection (OTC) Action Requested: 1. Call a vote on November 21, 2023 upon receipt of the Staff Report on OTC 2. Vote to initiate the statutory process on OTC under MN Statute 115A.94 Background: Over the past 3 years, City Council has directed a stakeholder group consisting of EEC, ETC, numerous city staff, the City Attorney, City Manager, outside council, waste haulers, and City Council to research, report on, and discuss Organized Trash Collection and its potential deployment in Edina. This work has culminated in a report – authored by 7 City of Edina staff members – that you will be receiving in the November 21, 2023 Council meeting. November 21, 2023 is the day to act, one way or another, on OTC. Assessment: Why EEC supports initiating the statutory process on OTC: 1. Initiating the statutory process does NOT bind the city to implementing OTC. Per outside council, upon initiating the statutory process “nothing locks the city into taking any further steps to implement organized collection beyond the meet and confer period.” The data gaps we currently have – related to market share, traffic safety, fuel efficiency – are a direct result of the haulers being unwilling to provide private data they would otherwise share during the initial phase of OTC. By initiating the process, we will get additional data that will be instrumental in crafting a successful implementation plan. 2. 59% of residents want OTC. It’s no longer 50/50. In the 2023 Quality of Life survey, the number of supporters (46% of respondents) outweighs the number of opponents (32% of respondents) by a factor of 1.44 to 1. Factoring only those who answered the question one way or another, the supporters represent 59% of residents. This is new data that we did not have in previous conversations on the topic and clearly indicates that OTC is preferred by residents. 3. OTC impacts multiple climate issues and actions in the Climate Action Plan. a. Waste diversion – this supports waste diversion from landfill by standardizing the hauling process and allowing yard waste to be collected separately city-wide. Page 2 b. Waste stream management will also support measurement of waste reduction efforts by requiring that haulers share waste data with the city. c. Taking 5 heavy vehicles off the road 5 days a week will reduce our GHG emissions, however the specific impact was not measured by staff. 4. The vast majority of the policy outcomes associated with OTC are net positive. Staff conclude that the outcomes of OTC are either neutral or positive, specifically: a. Greenhouse Gas emissions – positive (i.e. reduction in emissions) b. Equity – positive c. Traffic safety – neutral (arguably positive) d. Traffic noise – positive e. Customer Service – neutral f. Impact to roads – neutral (arguably positive) 5. Staff’s “major concern” relates to their lack of a plan on how to staff this. This is not a policy outcome evaluation and is presented as such. a. Staff place their “major concern” on page 1 of their report without mentioning that later in the report, they have a solution: use a fee within the new contract structure under OTC to fund a new staff position to manage OTC. b. Bloomington and Richfield have already successfully implemented OTC. This is not a brand new policy without precedent. This is not an unmanageable quagmire. c. Edina is capable of implementing OTC. Staffing is a consideration that should be solved when creating the implementation plan and drafting the final policy. 6. Staff wrongly concludes that "a traffic safety issue does not exist with garage trucks." Staff used an incomplete dataset from MNDOT. Staff even acknowledged that “due to the limitations of the dataset, it is not possible to determine what percentage of crashes specifically involved a garbage truck.” Yet, knowingly using a limited dataset, they conclude that there is no issue. At best, staff still has no idea whether there is an issue. 7. Every week in Edina, 6 garbage trucks drive down every single street to collect the same waste stream. This is fundamentally unnecessary. Recommendation: The Energy & Environment Commission respectfully recommends that Council take action on November 21, 2023 to initiate the statutory process on Organized Trash Collection under Minnesota State Statute 115A.94. Date: November 9, 2023 Agenda Item #: VI.B. To:Energy and Environment Commission Item Type: Report and Recommendation From:Grace Hancock, Sustainability Manager Item Activity: Subject:Review & Recommend: Commercial Tree Ordinance CITY OF EDINA 4801 West 50th Street Edina, MN 55424 www.edinamn.gov ACTION REQUESTED: Review draft report to be advanced to Council as a Report/Recommendation. Either approve at November meeting, or add comments for changes to be made and approved at EEC's December meeting INTRODUCTION: Council charged EEC as part of their 2023 work plan to "review and recommend changes to Edina’s Commercial Tree Ordinance by comparing to similar ordinances adopted in relevant cities; determine if changes should be made. ATTACHMENTS: Description EEC Review-Recommend - Commercial Tree Ordinance Existing Edina City Code - Commercial Landscaping 1 DATE: November 9, 2023 TO: City Council, City of Edina FROM: Energy & Environment Commission SUBJECT: Report and Recommendation with proposed revisions to the City of Edina Commercial Tree Protection Ordinance Action Requested: Direct staff to draft a Commercial Tree Protection ordinance aligned with the revised Residential tree protection ordinance implemented in 2022. Background: EEC has determined through research and conversations with peer cities that Edina has a major gap in its tree protection as it relates to Commercial development projects. No other city we spoke with – St Louis Park, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Stillwater, or Maplewood – exempts Commercial projects from tree protection. All those cities protect trees on both commercial and residential projects in the same manner with the same (or similar) ordinance. The goal of implementing a Commercial Tree Protection Ordinance in Edina is simple; to maintain our canopy of healthy, mature trees. For implementation, we can lean on much of the work completed in 2022 on the residential ordinance. Ultimately, this will result in: • Fewer clearcut lots during redevelopment, and/or replanting of a significant portion of what is removed • Tree protection requirements linked to size of trees • Edina will have extensive tree protection and will have adopted best practices already in place in MN • Developers will be accountable for either protecting trees or replacing them if removal is the only option Recommendation: We recommend that Council direct staff develop a tree protection ordinance for commercial projects that applies all applicable measures from the residential ordinance to the commercial ordinance, including: 1) Adding existing trees to “protected” and “heritage” status at the same size & height requirements as in Sec. 10-82. 2) Requirement that a commercial project replace what it removes according to the schedules in Sec. 10-82. 3) Fees in lieu of replacement according to the fee schedule in Sec. 10-82. 4) Removal of the “credit for existing trees” Sec. 36-1438 (the current landscaping requirements for Commercial projects). This would be redundant with the proposed additions. 5) EEC also recommends that the ordinance reflects additions along the following areas: a. Xeriscaping – encourage the planting of species that are drought resistant. b. Climate-adaptive – encourage the planting of species that are likely to thrive as our climate changes, as defined by the University of Minnesota Extension. Staff has expressed concerns related to its ability – based on bandwidth – to enforce the escrow component of Sec. 10-82, and EEC does not feel that this is a necessary aspect of a Commercial ordinance. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) a. b. c. d. e. f. (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (1) Subdivision II. - Landscaping Sec. 36-1436. - Application of requirements. All properties shall comply with the requirements of this subdivision except for single dwelling unit or double dwelling unit lots, public parks, playgrounds and athletic facilities, and public and private golf courses, except that clubhouses, parking areas and other structures accessory to the golf courses shall comply. (Code 1970; Code 1992, § 850.10(1)A) Sec. 36-1437. - Landscape plan requirements. Landscape plans shall be prepared by a landscape architect or other qualified individual acceptable to the city planner. Landscape plans shall be drawn to a scale of not smaller than one inch equals 30 feet and shall include the following information: Boundary lines of the property with accurate dimensions. Locations of existing and proposed buildings, parking lots, roads and other improvements. Proposed grading plan with two-foot contour intervals. Location, approximate size and common name of existing trees and shrubs. Planting schedule containing: Symbols; Quantities; Common names and botanical names; Size of plant materials; Root condition; and Special planting instructions. Planting details illustrating proposed locations of all new plant material. Locations and details of other landscape features, including berms, fences and planter boxes. Details of restoration of disturbed areas, including areas to be sodded or seeded. Location and details of irrigation systems. Details and cross sections of all required screening. (Code 1970; Code 1992, § 850.10(1)B) Sec. 36-1438. - Minimum requirements. All open areas of a lot which are not used and improved for required parking areas, drives or storage shall be landscaped with a combination of overstory trees, understory trees, shrubs, flowers and ground cover materials. (2) (3) (4) a. b. c. 1. 2. 3. Minimum number of overstory trees. The number of overstory trees on the lot or tract shall be not less than the perimeter of the lot or tract as measured in feet divided by 40. Understory trees and shrubs. In addition to the required number of overstory trees, a full complement of understory trees and shrubs shall be provided to complete a quality landscape treatment of the site. Minimum size and root condition of required overstory trees. MINIMUM AMOUNT OF REQUIRED TREES Front Building Height Tree Type Deciduous (in feet)Coniferous (in feet)Less than 24 feet 24 feet or Greater Ornamental 2 or less 5 or less 5%5% Complimentary 2½ or greater 6 or greater 60%25% Accent 3½ or greater 8 or greater 20%25% Primary 4½ or greater 10 or greater 10%20% Full 5½ or greater 12 or greater 5%20% Calculations to determine minimum number of trees are always rounded up. Tree size, as to deciduous, is the diameter of the tree measured six inches above the ground. Tree size, as to coniferous, is measured in height. All new overstory trees shall be balled and burlapped or moved from the growing site by tree spade. Species. All required overstory trees shall be composed of species which are classified as overstory trees by the American Nurseryman's Association. Trees which are considered as half trees, shrubs, understory trees or ornamental trees shall not be included in the count of required overstory trees; Not more than 50 percent of the required number of overstory trees shall be composed of one species; No required overstory trees shall include: All species of the genus Ulmus (elm); Box elder; All species of the genus Populous (poplar); or 4. d. (5) (6) a. b. c. Ginkgo, female only; and All plant materials shall be indigenous to the hardiness zone of the area in which the city is located. Credit for existing trees. The total number of required new overstory trees may be offset by the retention of existing overstory trees on the lot provided that the trees satisfy the requirements of this division as to size and species. The planner shall determine the amount of the credit for existing trees based upon their location and distribution on the lot. Ground cover. All unimproved portions of the lot or tract shall be sodded. Provided, however: Areas reserved for future approved building expansions may be seeded; Undisturbed areas containing existing viable natural vegetation which can be maintained free of weeds may be left undisturbed; and Slopes steeper than 3:1 ratio may be seeded. (Code 1970; Code 1992, § 850.10(1)C) Sec. 36-1439. - Landscaping inspection fee. A landscaping inspection fee in the amount set out in section 2-724 shall be paid to the city at the time a building or other permit is issued for work to be done on the same property as the landscaping work, and as a condition to the issuance of the permit. (Code 1970; Code 1992, § 850.10(1)D) Secs. 36-1440—36-1456. - Reserved.