0015th 2024 um electronic meeting of the environmental commission this meeting is in accordance with executive orders set in place in 2020 all that long ago by the governor in to affect social distancing and mitigate the spread of covid-19 unfortunately we're still in some circumstances related to that um we intend to conduct the meeting similarly to an in-person meeting and please be patient if there are technical issues um public comment is welcome and will be by telephone only to speak at public comment please call 099 and enter meeting ID 962 6452 this information is available on the published agenda in the Public Notices section of the city website and on the broadcast of this meeting on CTN Channel 16 um so with that uh I would like to call our meeting to order uh and ask
002Sean uh to read Our Land acknowledgement statement yes thank you uh I acknowledge that the land the city of Van Arbor occupies is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of the Anish shab including Odawa oji and BMI and W andat peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands obtained generally and unconscionable ways from indigenous peoples The Taking of this land was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 knowing where we live work study and recreate does not change the past but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can Empower us and our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals thank you and Sean would you call the rule please yes uh council member Ean
003here in Arbor Michigan thank you uh Vice chairperson Brown here in an arber thank you uh commissioner Cowart here thank you commissioner Curtis here an arbor thank you uh commissioner Dale here and N Arbor thank you council member dish all right uh commissioner Graham here thank you commissioner guber all right uh commissioner meron you're in an arbor thank you commissioner mki you're at my home in an arbor thank you uh chairperson Mitchell here Nan arber thank you commissioner nedrich an arbor thank you and commissioner weing Arbor thank you and that is a quorum good thank you um and I want to just say right now that I want to thank um Sean this is his last meeting that he's um joining us as our direct staff member and he's done a great job for us
004all this time been very responsive to questions and gaining information and we really appreciate it thank you Sean and welcome to Aon um who's joining us and will be our subsequent staff person um um so uh okay so I'm going to move forward with um approval of the agenda I would like an an motion to approve the agenda no ISO move thanks Steve a second any discussion of the agenda changes edits hearing none everyone who approves please say I raise your hand hi okay thank you looks like it's an unanimous thank you um I'd like to move on to approval of the minutes from November 30th it's been that long since we've met um I'd like a motion to approve the minutes of that meeting I move to approve the minutes as written thank you
005any second thank you Steve um and uh discussion of minutes well okay if we approved let's all say I or raise your hand both hi hi okay I'm gonna call them approved thank you all um and let's move on to our first public commentary um for public comment this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes please call 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 962 0336 6453 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand um by uh calling out the last three digits of your phone number and in in that will be in order electron in order to electronically raise your hand sorry uh please press pound uh star n on your phone you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and then press
006star six to unmute mute your phone you'll um when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background noise so that we may hear you clearly and please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments so uh Sean can you see if anyone is available to speak with us yes we do have a raised hand and also I just admitted council member dish apologies council member dish if you were sitting there for a minute um all right we do have a caller uh phone number ending in 228 uh so caller ending in 228 I aot to talk you'll have to unmute and then please ask your question hello can you hear me we can yes thank you great hello my name is Greg Woodring I'm the president of
007Ann Arbor for Public Power and I'm calling in to uh request that you pass the uh resolution calling on city council to fund a phase two feasibility study Ander for Public Power just recently earlier this week released our recommendations for the scope of such a feasibility study uh and I'd just like to remind the commission that phase one feasibility study had a lot of great information in it and a lot of potential Pathways that the city could take however one very important takeaway is that the only way that the city can actually reach 100% Renewable Power is with a municipal electric utility well the uh feasibility study did propose several possible ways to mitigate our carbon emissions such as the seu which could account for about 10% of our carbon emissions almost all of the
008other reductions relied on uh Financial Accounting schemes like renewable energy credits this is not a sufficient means to address the climate crisis we need to go beyond simply buying credits to offset the emissions that are still going to exist if we go down such a pathway if we are to truly re reach our 2030 carbon neutrality goal then we need to move off of dte's dirty power generation and onto 100% Renewable Power the only realistic pathway we have to that is full municipalization and a phase 2 feasibility study will provide the city with the ability to make a sound offer to DTE with a much more exact price another major flaw of the phase one feasibility study is that it did not arrive at a uh reasonable range for the study uh for the cost
009of municipalization the phase two feasibility study should be largely focused on removing the uncertainty around the legalities of municipalization and coming to a much more reasonable price uh this is of the utmost importance that we uh move forward on this quickly in tandem with other City goals however municipalization in the study was projected to take too long to reach our 2030 carbon neutrality goals and aror for Public Power believes that that is not a founded belief but even if it is the longer we take in delaying on uh doing these studies and moving forward longer it will ultimately take to arrive even if it takes longer than 2030 it's important for us to actually reach 100% Renewable Power both as our commitments to the world but also to lead in this space and show other
010communities uh Pathways to reach it themselves so thank you for your consideration I hope that you will pass this resolution thanks are there other callers SE uh yeah we do have a caller uh number ending in 245 you have not raised your hand uh if you would like to speak please do raise your hand um by pressing star nine all right uh all right caller number uh ending in 245 I've allowed you to speak uh you will have to unmute to do so uh you can unmute by pressing uh star six uh so can you hear me we can yes yes uh my name is Kathleen Murphy I live at 315 in the Vista Street in an arbor and um I'm calling and we'll be repeating some of the same things that uh Greg Woodling
011said be before me um I'm also I also work with an Amber for Public Power and um I think and we think that a municipal electorate utility is what um an i needs for it could bring 100% Renewable Power it could reduce uh our coal and gas dependency um it could remove the um the air pollution effects of dirty energy generation and it could improve the health health impacts on communities and but in order to have a municipal utility we have to um have a m we have to have a feasibility study feasibility study to to know how much it would cost and that would um that study would have to include a more thorough and accurate examination and evaluation of dte's infrastructure include a legal analysis that provides a much more precise estimate of
012the cost of acquisition beyond the physical assets and it would require opportunities or include opportunities to upgrade the system for improved reliability and to incorporate renewable power generation so for all those uh reasons I um urge the commission to uh support a phase two feasibility study for mun municipalization thank you very much thank you are there any other callers Shan we do not have any other call oh one just popped on the line uh caller ending in 134 if you would like to speak uh please raise your hand oh you just have all right uh caller ending in 134 you should be able to unmute by pressing star six uh and then ask your question or give your comment um thank you uh this is Ken Garber I live at 28 H Hill Court in
013N Arbor um I wasn't going to speak but I was inspired by the previous two speakers to add my voice theirs um to urge you to approve uh the resolution asking Council to go forward with a phase two um municipalization feasibility study um won't repeat what they said but I'll just point out that the phase one study authors recommended this course of action um that the city do a phase two um for mainly for the reason that um the ammuni has greater longterm potential than the other options considered in the uh energy options analysis to achieve the a20 goals over time um so uh that's it uh if the cost is an issue uh the consultant stated that the phase two depending on the scope should cost between three and $500,000 this is not cheap
014but it's comparable to phase one one and um I think would be a good return on the city's investment so thanks for considering this and um good luck with the meeting uh I do not see any other callers on the line at this time oh Rita you are muted so sorry um thank you all right so um thank you to uh the commentors who called in I appreciate those messages um we're going to move into our um unfinished business from prior meetings um the first item of business is review of our um policy recommendations that would go to the state legislature through our city council members um we know from um advice from city council or I'm sorry from staff that that this um set of recommendations that we put together probably won't go to
015the legislature until next year it we just got off cycle but I think it's worthwhile for us to have made this list um together and appreciate the work that everyone did to put together these comments and and have them um collected um so with that I would like to to um ask the group if you have any questions comments um if you want to look at the recommendations again um then we would do so if you're ready to make a vote we can do that as well are there any questions comments or anything about the legislative recommendations uh commissioner mki thank thank you um I don't have the list in front of me right now but in the first group by recollection there um is a recommendation related to driver's license or something like that
016and um I support it but I was wondering why that's coming from this commission and why it's grouped in the grouping that it's in and why it's grouped from the environment basically coming from the en environmental commission if somebody could comment on that um that would at least uh I would better I understand the context of how it ended up on the list right okay um I appreciate that question and um I see commissioner Graham's hand because I believe this was your contribution and I'll appreciate your comments it is a lot of people work in stewardship of the environment are likely not legal residents um it's just ridiculous that these people drive around without a license um thankfully in the anabor area when they are stopped or in an accident or something the je DARS
017are very generous and careful and they don't charge them for driving without a license which would get them in serious trouble but um it would be better if all of these folks were licensed provided their living in Michigan and can prove it thank you um do you think that it would be worthwhile to um add that as a a kind of a note to this for our reference for the future um for anyone who's reading it well I think it's a widespread problem across the state and I it's a very well-known problem I I further exactly how you would determine residency and so on is up to the Secretary of State but uh I don't think this language is perfect about that but um it's other states have done this um it's beneficial all the
018way around okay right I was only thinking of um including something more explanatory in this particular one so that it has a better chance is having a response um with respect to our our issues yes no any thoughts I think that makes sense I think people don't understand the background may not understand the rationale for and why it's in the context of an environmental commission recommendation right um do we want to say some words that would be included right now and would like to look at the list I don't want to belabor this but I do want to make sure that we get kind of this moved along so maybe the simple word change would be to change residency status the citizenship status then it's clear that all residents in Michigan should be licensed whether
019they're citizens or not thank you Sean if I may just shine in chime in again maybe a uh a bullet point under that indented just uh that Expresses in one sentence uh the rationale that Chris uh described that there a lot of people in working in um this this um this service area are likely undocumented workers and that uh you know it doesn't make sense that these people are driving around without a license something to it's that effect it's not just Environmental Services it's home home health care it's hospitals it's anybody that's able to hire non-legal employees somehow or rather is essential Services a a a good descriptor broad descriptor or some of them may not be considered essential but that's word that came during the covid pandemic um so Chris you you you make
020suggestion Steve go ahead yeah I just like to mention that on January 10th um Sean informed us or just to remind everybody that Sean informed us that council's decided to submit this only once every two years uh coinciding with the start of a new legislative period so I'm not sure if um um these won't uh won't be uh won't pertain to this year let legislative session or potentially but potentially 2025 thanks Steve I was just trying to get these in a in a form that we can pass along to council so that it's at least in a place can kind of a placeholder and that we can um place on a calendar for reactivation say next December something like that so that it gets in the cube um all right would wording to the effect
021that um John just suggested um workers in service positions um will benefit and and the general public will benefit by having driver's licenses I like Sean's addition it's not maybe they are driving without a license they have no other way to get to work it's I I mean uh it's and it's not just environment but that's fine for our purposes and right I think that's that's where we can comment you know and and others can certainly join in um I would be comfortable with that addition if you want to use the word r rather than maybe um that sounds good to me I would just motion to maybe move it into a section that's called like human health and safety um as opposed to biodiversity because I do think you know I want everyone to
022have a driver's license that's driving and as a human you know it would be more safe so and that is an environmental concern um but I don't think it belongs under biodiversity agree I agree yeah I agree I think that's a great suggestion thank you um so Sean if you could just move it down that would be great it came out of our biodiversity group but yes you're right it's definitely broadly applicable you're good at that Sean thank you excellent uh any other comments on any of the items so yes just know that this is kind of going to be on the Shelf um but we certainly can pass it on to our council members to have it forwarded to council and we'll bring it they'll bring it back and review all right um could
023I have a motion to accept these [Music] recommendations Anya thank you and seconded by Sarah thank you great oh let's let's vote on it or any discussion further discussion um not a hand up okay let's vote all in favor where your hand say hi hi thank you hi all right good um we'll now move on to our second um piece of Unfinished Business and this is the draft um resolution in support of a phase two in feasibility study for municipalization of electricity for the city of an arbor um this is still in draft and I did show it to you all last time um and I'll uh just say openly that I have been um participating in the Anor for Public Power Group just so you all know that um I do feel that it
024is within the the realm of of uh the environmental Commission in terms of the public health safety and Welfare the clean air water and land um that that we address this um and talk about it um I would like for us to um have this be a discussion today and not to go to a formal vote the reason is that I have talked with staff um and we will have an opportunity um next month to have some additional comments from staff who've been working on um uh public uh Power for or alternative energy for the city and it would be worthwhile I think for us to hear from them this isn't a usual ual topic or I I would say that among us we Pro we have not spent a lot of time on this
025and it's not necessarily within a full realm of our expertise but I think we have some um observations and concerns as as people working on environmental issues so that's the reason for my bringing it to you and I would love to have any comments or questions that could be passed on and addressed I hope missioner Brown yeah this is excellent but um and I'm it's great that staff will be able to come at our February 22nd meeting I think to discuss this further but I I'm just wondering I mean one of the Alternatives is this seu proposal and we also have this ongoing um you know neighborhood um um neighborhood scale uh geothermal heating coing proposal that um I know that um The OSI staff got a grant to uh you know to write up
026a proposal so I'm wondering when that proposal would be or or feasibility study I guess it is I'm wondering when that would be available for public View and um when that when they expect that analysis and that report to be completed the analysis and Report related to which which part oh just uh to to setting up a geothermal right system you know in the Brian neighborhood yep because this serves as a for the rest of the city and I think it would be it would be good information to have before any major decision is made just to have it have it available as a uh because presumably there'll be some cost and timeline um timelines um estimates in that report yeah so I think that would be so um is there Sean are you able
027to address that particular question or should we just put it on the side and make sure that we get it to the staff uh unfortunately that is not in my work area so I don't know the answer okay so Steve I want to just make sure I get the question so you would like to know the status of the alternative um the geothermal heating and yeah the Briant yeah the Briant um when the feasibility study when that's expected to be uh completed and available for public uh viewing and that includes you know cost estimates and um different scenarios okay so I would just remind people that this is probably would be a key would probably be one of the principal um Pathways for the seu and um and with or without DTE you know where
028you use this geothermal energy as a a number of communities it seems to be a cost-effective solution a lot of in fact private liberal arts colleges are already installing them like Princeton um Overland actually University of Michigan is Michigan yeah yeah exactly yes so and I'm also wondering what kind of cooperation is envisaged between the city and the university in terms of sharing um you know sharing um a plan uh for such a system if the university uh carbon neutrality U operation is already figured out that this is a viable option for them um I'm wondering if the city is also inquiring with the university about how they could cooperate together to reduce costs and and timelines okay for implementation across both the university and the city you know thanks I mean I'm happy to
029yeah I don't have the option to get rooftop solar so I'm eager for any opportunity to invest my own money in getting my house carbon neutral as soon as possible so I would see this as well as the municipalization as viable paths okay thank you um commissioner Curtis yeah so my concern is you know the phase one study recommended pursuing both the seu and the municipalization I don't know if the city has resources bandwidth to do both at the same time that's something OSI really needs to decide can do we have the money do we have the people to do that um and if not then we might want to start with the seu wait a couple of years get that going and then start the mun option um it was the phase one study
030was clear with the mun we're not going to achieve 100% reliability by 2030 are extremely unlikely and because there's a lot of legal hurdles before we get started on that the seu we can do it now that there's no legal hurdles it's just do we want to spend the money to do it and let's do it um and when you start start talking about reliability U that's power Poes and lines and stuff like that that's really not the reliability that's not the you know where we're getting the energy from so it's a different study wasn't really addressed in Phase One at all um I think it's a reasonable assumption with the munity option eventually the reliability be better but you have to get to the munity option then you have to have the money spent
031to get the power Poes and everything else upgraded so it's not like we're going to snap our fingers with the mun option and have a reliable grid that's not going to happen like that it's going to take a while thanks yeah I mean also like a well-run utility should have started burying all those lines 40 years ago 50 years ago right um yes and I just would like to contribute one one observation that our environmental commission missed one full meeting last year and deferred a meeting meeting delayed a meeting because of power outage so we have experienced the liability issues ourselves directly so um missioner Mery yeah a couple of comments and questions um first of all as best I can I'll uh elaborate on Steve's Point as far as I know and maybe Sean
032or Aon can get back with us on this um the uh OSI received the Grant from the doe to do an engineering study for Bryant and and I I think it's it's basically one year half a million dollars and I recall that being in the fall so I assume that something in the fall time frame would be available um my read of the whole situation is a district geoexchange as is being studied would primarily replace natural gas furnaces um and so is not as significant um on the electrical side which is you know really we're addressing with this resolution although clearly if you go to a district uh Geo exchange system you have to provide um electrical supply to that so it would certainly have some implications there's another thing that's also in process and
033as far as I know it's going on essentially behind closed doors because it's a the whole thing is confidential which is the renegotiation of the natural gas franchise um and that obviously would also have some implications on whether or not you'd go ahead with a district geothermal or it could be wrapped into um any new franchise agreement for in that regard um so that's what I know um um I you know still relevant to this I think but um maybe not to the same degree that um some of us might think um a question that I had and then another comment and that is um I'm aware of the report that went out last year um it was discussed at length in the energy commission about the different Pathways um in evaluating the seu versus
034other Pathways like um municipalization um by condemning dte's assets and taking those over I'm not aware that the final report has been issued um and um if so I I don't know maybe it's on the city's website but I I just I haven't read it yet and I know there were a significant number of comments that were submitted um and came out of the energy Commission as well as just were submitted um in writing to OSI and so what I would hope is is that before we vote on on this that we would actually have the final report with uh the comments being taken into consideration and and hopefully addressed and then the last thing I would like excuse me John I just want to be sure I understand which comments you mean comments that
035were submitted in in the draft version of the the report on options to 100% renewable energy okay so that there was there was a draft that was released it was released for for review and for comments and um it uh like I said those were submitted but I don't know that those have been addressed and a final report um issued so you know I think um the final report um would have certainly some bearing on um at least provide input to the environmental Commission on how we might vote on on this resolution and then the last thing um that I wanted to call people's attention to uh this came up in the comments uh the public comments there was an mive article that was published on January 18th written by Ryan Stanton um the headline
036is Ann Arbor for Public Power calls on City to take next step to ditch DTE Energy and that article in included the following statement quote the Detroit based company also has said it's committed to uh partner with Ann Arbor to meet the city's goal to power the entire Community with 100% renewable energy by 2030 I had not heard that before I sent an email to Joe Lang on the 22nd and called get called to his uh attention a couple of points first of all that quote says 100% renewable energy energy is not just electrical energy it's also energy in the form of natural gas so I'm not aware that DTE has committed to 100% renewable energy either on the electrical side or on the natural gas side and certainly in total secondly I asked in
037effect who is the source of of this information I mean obviously Ryan wrote it but presumably somebody from OSI could talk to him and he's essentially citing a statement from the from DTE so I would really like to know um if that's coming from an authoritative Source um and um I've asked um also that these questions be addressed in the February and energy commission meeting I've not yet heard back from Joe um but obviously that would be relevant to any discussion and action we might take on this resolution and then finally I just made an editorial comment that if the statement isn't true it should be really corrected um and we should call for for mli to to clarify or correct the statement and frankly if it is true then it should be celebrated because
038it would be amazing if DTE is committed to supplying Ann Arbor with 100% renewable energy so those were my comments and questions thank you thank you um good observations and thanks for following up on that um and I'll go to um commissioner Graham and okay thanks ready um this is complicated and I'm I I read a lot I pay attention and I have haven't seen nearly enough information on any of these subjects I think I probably should join the energy Commission in order to understand I'm these are very heavy duty decisions to make and probably have some very significant costs associated with them I'm very glad a lot of the discussion here is not about reli viability but it's about the source of our energy and how we incorporate much less carbon footprint into how
039we energize ourselves it's also complicated between electricity and gas how we deal with each is very different [Music] um I'm um I'm I'm I will find it difficult to vote for this motion without knowing a lot more and I do know because I do pay attention what Edison are doing or ET is doing in the community they are spending a remarkable amount of money upgrading electricity overhead lines adding a whole lot more energy to this community Through very St much stronger infrastructure structure um 20 years ago the electricity on my circuit which comes from the anber woods little substation underneath the water tower was probably out five or six times a year and sometimes for quite a number of days they've really completely reconstructed not just our circuit but all the way back to the
040Monroe power plant there are much heavier Duty lines and much more defense against trees going on part of that was to bring a a very substantial upgrade in amount of electricity coming in the University through the new substation on South State Street um the second part of that is that we have very different weather than we had 20 to 50 years ago when our overhead electric lines were installed and a lot of people blame DTE for what are much more serious storms and well it's quite correct if all our electric lines were underground it would be better but the cost of doing that is very significant so I'm really eager to hear where I can read where I can learn one of the downfalls of not having a daily newspaper with great journalists employed there
041is that we don't have a source where we get these things very easily so um thanks commissioner Graham um I do want to say that this um resolution is about a study of further moving us forward as quickly as we can toward having 100% renewable energy which is the a20 goal so the the questions are what is kind of what is the source of energy it does not necessarily have to be um generated here within our borders um but we do need we need reliability we need clean energy um from sources that we know are are reliable and we need to look at costs so I think all of those things are important and that those would be a part of a feasibility study so this is intended to support moving forward with better information
042for all of us and and for the community um commissioner I'm sorry council member Amman thanks I was just thinking um you know another important piece of context to this discussion is the um clean energy bill that was passed um by our state in November and I believe someone correct me if I'm wrong that requires all of the energy producers in Michigan to be on Renewables by 2040 which I know is further than our goal um but I think what we also learned from the feasibility study is that you know the Takeover of dte's infrastructure to meet our 100% Renewables is going to take past 2030 very likely with the legal challenges ahead and I just that's I think that's an important point so cheers to the state for doing something um and that we're
043in a position a better position I think now to put pressure on than ever thank you um all right um so here's what I think um appears that we might be at a low of of this discussion but I will appreciate um your sending in any questions that you would like to make sure to have addressed um I will coate them and make sure that they get out to everyone to review beforehand and make sure that they also get to um the office of sustainability for um to be addressed um I'm hoping I haven't confirmed this um but I'm hoping that we'll have an assessment by the office of sustainability and Innovations on the first level of the sustainability I'm sorry a feasibility study um so that they can comment on it and and let
044us know their interpretation of it um the concern that I have I'll just say with with DTE is that much of its power right now is intended to come from natural gas for quite a long time and so that is a concern in terms of it being um clean and clean and renewable energy so right um thank you this is a a really good discussion o I see another hand Erin yeah and I just wanted to quickly add there is a City web page specific to this study and this effort if you all have not seen that and I know it's not convenient to drop a link in um a live meeting but um you know I think if you just search for renewable energy pathway city of Y Aro that'll take you right to
045it and there's um direction to sign up for News letters to to stay updated on all the information perfect thank you all right um once again thank you um and I would like to move on now to our our new business for the evening which is a presentation by Sean Reynolds um who is the staff initiator of the 10,000 trees program um and he's going to present with us on to us on the um the startup and um not exactly the status because it's under study but um but the the initial underpinnings of the 10,000 trees program so thank you Sean for preparing information and for being here to present it yeah thank you appreciate it uh I'm going to share my screen with my presentation all right uh so um as as chair Mitchell
046uh has has said uh I'm going to be giving you uh an update on the 10,000 trees initiative um how it uh has been going so far where we're at and a little bit looking forward at the end of the presentation um so just as a recap um and for those of you who may not know uh 10,000 trees initiative was started uh in Spring of 2021 um it is one of the actions that is outlined specifically in strategy six of our a20 plan which is to enhance the resilience of our people in our place uh the action under that strategy uh related to trees specifically uh calls out having 10,000 additional trees planted pled on public property in the City by 2030 and 10,000 trees additional trees planted on private property in the City
047by 2030 uh there are uh many folks working on the public property side of things uh at the city uh from our Forestry Department to our parks department uh but there was no one looking at the private property aspect uh and so the office of sustainability and Innovations uh launched the 10,000 trees initiative to tackle that side of things so uh we have distributed trees uh through two main methods so far uh these are our community tree planting events and our free tree giveaway events uh at our community tree bonding events uh these are targeted events uh in neighborhoods or at Community spaces such as uh a house of worship or a community center uh they uh plantings themselves are volunteer planting events that are staff L uh we're typically planting two to 3ish inch
048caliper uh ball and burlap or containerized trees uh and we do preliminary site visits with the folks who are going to be receiving the trees ahead of time um which I will talk about in a little bit uh in terms of the education and Outreach that we do around our trees uh but that's the the general um uh uh layout of the community tree planting program our second program is our free tree giveaway program this is a uh tree distribution event um that is open to all County residents uh the trees that are should red through this program are self- planted by the residents who receive them and they are typically much smaller they are two to 3ish foot tall seedlings um so very small seedlings that we're giving out through that program uh in
049terms of the education uh that we provide to folks who are receiving trees um as I mentioned during the community tree planting events uh beforehand I actually go out and I meet with each uh person who's going to be getting a tree uh and I look at their uh their yard or their their private property uh and look at the locations that they're interested in planting trees uh I make sure that those are good locations for planting a trees so far enough away from the house for example Not underneath of a power line if it's going to be a large tree uh we talk about the species options that they have based on what do they want um so are they looking for a tree that will provide lots of shade because their house uh
050is doesn't get any shade in the summer and it's getting too warm um are they looking for a tree that will produce fruit for them that they can actually Harvest and eat um and then also based off location so again if the site that they're looking at planting a tree is underneath of a power line then I stear them away from the the larger tree species that could cause um uh issues with that power line and then we also talk about uh the maintenance uh after the tree has been planted for them how they can keep that tree uh alive and and happy uh everybody who gets a tree through the program whether that's the free tree giveaway or the Community tree planting uh they all receive a tree planting card uh a tree information
051card specific to the species that they received uh as well as links to maintenance resources such as the uh United States Forest Services uh tree owners manual so these are uh some examples of those uh educational materials on the left here we have the tree planting card that we give to them which was actually developed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources uh and then on the right here we have an example of our information cards uh this is the one for the Paw Paw that we have put together uh it has some generic information about the tree uh some information about the the benefits that can be provided by the tree uh a few fun facts and then information about how to plant that tree where to plant that tree um again a link
052to the arbor days planting guide in this instance uh and then uh also information about caring for that tree moving forward all right uh so to get into little of the data of what we have done so far uh we have distributed 5,52 trees so far uh so we are more than halfway to that 10 10,000 tree goal already uh the free tree giveaways have accounted for 99% of those 5,000 is trees uh with 1% coming through the Community Tree plantings uh and the trees have been relatively evenly distributed across the three years of the program so far uh with a little bit less in 2022 uh than in the other two years uh the those 5,000 trees have consisted of 31 different species uh of those species 68% of them have been native species
053and 32% have been non-native species uh the uh in terms of the number of trees so out of those 5,000 trees 87% of them have been uh one of those native species and only 133% have been one of the non-native non-invasive uh well adapted to our climate species uh these are the different species that we have given out uh so you can see here are native species uh these include everything from Pines and spruces uh to larger shade trees like lendons and Oaks uh some Maples um and then all the way down to smaller trees um like the American hornbeam and then some flowering uh dog Woods Eastern R Buds and uh servus berries and hackberries for example uh and in terms of non-native species we have given out some Norway spruce uh bald Cyprus
054yellow wood Magnolia cusa Dogwood flowering cherry Sweet Cherry Peach pear and apple uh these trees have come from a few different sources uh our community trop hunting trees um so these are the the larger caler trees that we've planted in voler vents uh these have come from uh three different nurseries Loi Farms nature and nurture and wild type and our free tree giveaways we get all of these seedlings that we give out for that through the was wash all County Conservation District uh they uh have their annual tree and shrub sales uh we partner with them to purchase the seedlings uh through that um their trees primarily uh come from alpha Nursery in Holland Michigan and angles Nursery in fville Michigan although there are additional nurseries that they Source trees from as well uh I
055have linked here uh to the web page that lists every Nursery that they get their trees from uh I do see a hand from Vice chairperson Brown oh hi Sean I don't mean to interrupt you I can wait till the end okay great thank you all right uh in terms of the community response uh we have seen that has been a very popular program um just from the fact that our forri registrations have sold out within about a day uh ever since the very uh first one that we had um and then we did actually do a survey uh after the fall 2021 free tree giveaway uh where we asked folks who had attended to uh give us a little bit of feedback um and you can see that the overall satisfaction rating was uh
0568.7 from the respondents um also uh for the trees themselves was an 8.7 uh the self-reported preparedness level to plant and maintain their trees was a nine um hopefully that that holds true and they were that confidence came from the educational materials we provided uh and then we did also hear a lot of desire for smaller species to fit the uh Urban yard sizes um but also um some desire for larger shade trees so we're trying to focus on species that meet those two criteria moving forward uh speaking of moving forward we do have our next free tree giveaway that is going to be our spring 2024 one which will be held on April 27th or 28th we have not determined the exact date yet um but we are going to be Distributing around 4,500
057trees uh at that event it's going to be our largest free tree giveaway yet uh and it is going to be nine all Native species uh that we're going to be giving out through that event uh also the city of Van Arbor's uh Forestry Department office of sustainability Innovations and Natural Area PR preservation departments uh with support from the Wason County Conservation District have been awarded a $1 million Grant from the USDA forest service through the uh Ira uh funds that are available to the forest Service uh this grant is going to actually be uh given to us through a pass through partner American forests uh but it will be supporting an update to the city's Urban Tree canopy analysis uh we'll be doing tree planting on private property through the 10,000 trees initiative uh
058primarily through the community tree planting program we are going to be doing some strategic planning around our natural areas management uh and then there is also funding in there for a feasibility study to look into if we can start our own uh tree nursery um that would be owned by the city and or County um to to uh help uh produce trees for the County's uh tree sales and for our free tree giveaways and potentially our street trees as well we are also currently planning a survival study uh so this is going to be our way of checking up on all the trees that we've given out so far seeing how they're doing uh if they were ever planted in the first place uh because you know when we have those free tree giveaways once
059we hand the tree off to folks we don't know what has come of it uh so we want to figure that out we to go see did they actually plant it where they said they were going to plant it uh and if they did is it still alive how's it doing what's the condition on those trees uh we will also be checking up on the ones that we've planted through our community tree planting events which we know were in in really great condition when we put them in the ground um but we're going to check up on them and make sure that they're still that way uh that will also uh potentially involve um some discussions uh with the homeowners um around uh how they are feeling in terms of uh C taking care of
060their tree uh if they need any support in that uh Etc uh so we are working with our AER cor members that we have uh with our office uh to develop that uh and then implement it hopefully this uh late spring or early summer we are also working on putting together some educational programs um so these are going to be uh essentially classes that folks can take uh to learn about different aspects of Forestry and different aspects of our our Urban uh tree canopy um they're going to be open to everyone in the public uh and really we're we're trying to just increase engagement around our Urban trees um build public understanding of why a healthy Urban Tree canopy is important uh and potentially actually create a cohort of tree ambassadors in our community so
061we already have our um uh citizen pruners program which is a really awesome program through our Forestry Department and appap um but looking to potentially expand that and and get some folks who uh also can can go out and check on the health of trees let us know if they're seeing signs of pestor disease in trees um in in the city uh they can they can go to their neighbors who and say uh who may be struggling to keep a tree alive and provide uh support and encouragement in doing that so hopefully we can uh really expand our public interest uh in taking care of our city trees uh and with that I will uh end my presentation and shop stop sharing uh and move on to questions uh so I share ver BR um
062yeah thanks Sean um what do you define as native yes so for the purposes of our program we are following the same um uh rules I guess uh as the Forestry Department um so anything that is native to the state of Michigan we are considering to be native uh it may be native to Northern Michigan not necessarily to Southeastern Michigan um but if it is a a species that is native to the state of Michigan then we're considering it native okay because with global warming I mean you expect the ranges to be traveling northward we do yes um so some of this some of those non-native species that we had planted um are ones that are found in like Ohio and and a little bit further south so those ranges are likely moving up into
063the area where you know they're not native to here but they will be very well adapted to yeah I se Yellowwood is one of those and um and I've noticed that you don't have Buckeyes in there no we have not given out any Buckey yet all right well that's it thanks uh commissioner Curtis um yeah a few questions oh why any non-native trees at all sounds like for 2024 you're not giving out any non-natives um and for the nursery is is there a problem you're trying to solve it sounds like you're getting plenty of trees from the concert cons a district right now but if you're have you looked at partnering with a local Nursery to pick those up and maybe pre-ordering them from a local Nursery so you can't expect a small local Nursery
064to have thousands of trees of of saplings or whatever you might need but if you tell them a couple years in advance they could probably grow them for us and then we would not only have local we would have local genome type also which is better than just Michigan native um and I'm wondering what happens after you hit 10,000 trees sounds like you're going to be 9500 in April so you're almost there or do you continue and um are you mapping out where the trees are going so we know if we're getting trees to the right area of the city where we have um openings in the canopy where we need the the trees the most and um on the the community tree planting how do people apply for that and is that something you
065could push into like the Community Action Network housing because they probably need the trees more than anybody great thank you sorry just noting uh the questions here um so why any non-natives at all um are we uh mapping the trees uh how do folks apply to this community tree planting program um and there were two others in there that I am blanking on what the nursery for the nursery can can you look at partnering with the local Nursery May trees to make that a more viable option for them right oh and then the other one was what happens when we reach 10,000 perfect thank you great questions uh so in terms of why we're planning uh non-natives uh again some of those non-natives are uh ones that are uh very well adapted to our climate
066uh especially um the potential climate that we're going to have in the future uh so we are trying to uh put those in um to uh make sure that we have you know some of our trees in our Urban canopy that are well adapted uh as our climate changes uh also uh it is uh important to increase the diversity of our Urban Tree canopy uh we want to make sure that we have a wider diversity so that if something were to come along uh for example that uh killed off all of our Maples we would be in big trouble because we have quite a few Maples in our pentry Academy so the more different varieties of trees that we can have hopefully we can uh help to Stave off some of those those large uh
067impact events um the uh mapping of trees we are we do have a map uh we of all the trees uh that we have distributed uh in terms of the address where folks said that they were going to plant the trees um so again that may not necessarily be where the trees ended up uh but we do know that that was where they were supposed to go um and so part of the uh the survival study is going to be making sure that we have a more accurate map of where those trees have gone uh also those free tree giveaways again they are open to any Resident of wasal County uh so we do know that much fewer of those trees have actually gone to folks in the city of Ann Arbor itself uh I
068am blinking on the exact number it's on our web page it's somewhere around like 3,200 I believe uh of the trees we know have gone to folks in the city of an arbor um which leads into your question about what happens when we reach 10,000 we keep going um obviously if we get to 10,000 trees that we have given out through the program that was that that's meeting our goal essentially uh but we also want to reach 10,000 new trees specifically that have gone into the city of an arbor uh that is that is that what actually was in the uh a20 plan so that's the real goal so getting to that would be the next kind of Step essentially uh but also you know these these seedlings uh as as many as we give
069out they are so small and so young even if you do everything correctly so many of them are just not going to survive unfortunately um so we know that even though we've distributed 10,000 it's definitely not going to be that many that are alive uh so we're going to want to keep going and keep getting these trees out uh and and replacing the ones that aren't making it um so that we can continue to add to our tree canopy we're also going to be focusing more moving forward on our community tree planting events in instead of our ref tree giveaways because Community tree planting events we can get out these larger trees that are much more likely to survive and are also more immediately providing the benefits that we want to see uh so we're
070really excited um about that grant that we got from the usdaa for service uh because that's going to allow us to really focus on those getting those bigger trees out through those Community Tree pointing events uh for those Community Tree pointing events uh we have not had an application process for any of the ones that we have done so far uh we have done one that was at um a senior living facility uh that one actually came about as a result of a uh wish it's I forget what they called the program but it's essentially a make AWI um sort of program for uh senior residents uh in our in our city through the um uh the parks run uh Senior Center um so we had a wish from a resident at that at facility
071to have some trees planted and we worked with them to do that uh the other two Community Tree planning events that we've done so far have both been in the Bryant neighborhood as part of our targeted work uh in that neighborhood uh to make it one of the first first fully decarbonized communities in America um but uh moving forward we're going to be opening up to additional uh neighborhoods and areas uh we really like to work with uh Community Partners in these areas um who can help us with the uh Outreach uh getting folks interested uh letting us know who is interested and then we can go around and do those site visits um so we've been working with Community Action Network and Bryant um so uh if uh you know of any uh Community
072organizations uh here in in Arbor who might be interested in in uh working to get a tree planting done in their Community please let me know um and then uh your other question was uh what about Partnerships with uh local nurseries uh we've been really lucky to be able to work with the Washington County Conservation District so far uh in getting uh those trees um unfortunately getting as many as we need for the free tree giveaways as you mentioned uh is very difficult um with some of the smaller local nurseries um so we've been lucky to do that with the cons Conservation District uh moving forward with the focus on the community tree planting events those have much fewer trees going out but again they're larger um so we are looking to partner with local
073nurseries on that much more heavily um since it will be smaller quantities of trees um and that is also uh why we are looking uh through that Grant into the possibility of creating our own Nursery um here with the city and the county um to to help uh provide some of that stock uh that you know we we simply can't reach the number that we really want to be getting out uh through through the local nurseries that that we have here uh and I think that was all your questions hopefully that answered all of them all right uh commissioner Marson hi thanks for your presentation it's very interesting are owners of commercial properties eligible for the community tree planting events yes as long as it is uh privately owned property uh then is is definitely
074eligible for uh the 10,000 trades initiative uh chairperson Mitchell you are muted back to some picky details um first up I want to say I loved seeing holes in leaves in one of your slides um as one who appreciates pollinators it's good to see um recognition of um uh potential caterpillar damage that could be food for Birds um and so do you include um education on the um kind of the the the bigger picture of what trees contribute including um biodiversity so Court yes definitely as we're building out those educational um programs we we really want to include uh all of the different benefits that that trees provide um and uh that uh Native pollinators can provide to our trees uh inversely um in in that that programming for sure okay awesome well the trees
075also provide food for the pollinators is is the other part um so one other um kind of picky detail um you showed us the paaw and I know know that those are dious trees and so you need a male female in order to get the fruit do you do that do you pair the paaw uh yes so we actually have uh not given out any paw Pauls yet uh we did one um planting that was sort of outside the 10,000 trees initiative where we we actually uh a group of our a2j ambassadors put together a uh fruit Orchard um and and we did plant two pawpaws there and we we did make sure that we had a male and a female at that one um I believe that one of the species we're doing at
076the upcoming spring giveaway is PA Pauls um so I have not worked out exactly how we're going to go about doing that uh making sure folks want fruit that they get a male and a female um but we're we're going to look into it okay I know it can be tricky but I appreciate that you're doing it thanks thank you uh commissioner Dale um yeah I had a similar question following up on on ANS um about you know trying to get a little bit further reach into some uh neighborhoods and so I'm wondering if if you proactively are reaching out to like homeowners associations or landlords or different you know people who might um manage multif family Residential Properties um I could see there being less incentive it's if it's not where they are living
077right but those might the areas that need need more of it so I'm wondering if that's built into the program yeah definitely uh multif family uh uh complexes certainly uh would be eligible and we would be really excited about getting some treates into those um as we now have uh a whole bunch of funding from the forest Service uh to move forward with that we are going to be uh starting to Target some Outreach to uh folks like like multif family um Property Owners um to to encourage them to to be a part of the progr thank you appreciate that Insight uh commissioner Graham you are muted uh commissioner Graham you're muted I'm sorry nice congratulations you must be having a great deal of fun with this I I'm I'm impressed that people are coming
078and that you're handing out so many trees and and um they're taking them home or to their place wherever it is and planting planning them um um I have quivel um one is with some of the species on your list and two and more broadly is a lack of cultural and cautionary information associated with each tree Lisa or Rita began to bring it up when she talked about pawpa having male and female trees and you don't really get the fruit which is the big deal about them um without both um and I don't see in the materials the cultural information for example most confer like sandy soil and that's not what most places in ant Arbor have or at least some rich well- drained soil if not Sandy um if you're giving away pear trees
079they're most likely invasive species maybe you're giving away natives fruit trees tell me if you are um I um I'm not sure most peach trees planted here will produce fruit without spraying I can go on down the list um I'm just concerned that um oh I guess I'll bring up silver maple here's a native species um that would probably well in 40 some years of being a vision I've never planted a silver maple anywhere for anybody and would refuse why because they get gigantic they grow very fast they have very weak wood and break and storms um it's a tree that The Growers tell homeowners well this will grow fast and you'll get saved but the downside down the years is very heavy and I wouldn't have it on the list so I'm I don't
080know how to incorporate into your program someone who really knows plants and really can advise you or help you produce materials so that people can see them before they get what they're asking for so they learn lastly um there's one oak on the list pin o um they do not grow well in clay soils which is most of an arbor a lot of people would like Oaks I would like to see a lot more species of Oaks on your list including some from the Ozarks which if you're really serious about climate adaptation uh there's some very interesting plants down there and that would be a good reason to do our own Nursery is to grow some of these plants that are quite a bit further south that are also really uh fit into our ecosystems
081here um I don't know you I I'm I don't want to be critical I think planting trees kind of like pocket Forest is a good thing to do but we I would like to see just a great deal more sophistication in what we're doing and how we're doing it sorry thank you thank you I I appreciate those comments um yeah definitely uh putting together being able to have our own nursery and being able to grow what we want to grow would be really helpful um uh we have been pretty Limited in the species that we've been able to select um in terms of they are the ones that the Conservation District has had available for us to purchase uh through their sales uh I will say that some of those species the silver maple included
082uh those we did not even uh th those were distributed early on when we were just taking trees that were left over from the Conservation District sales and those were what we were giving away so we had not even ordered those specifically the district sold Autumn Olive for 50 years um for wildlife and HED RS across Southern Michigan on farms Farmers bought them by the thousands very terrible invasive species it was very difficult to stop them from doing that as I say I I'm um maybe that's not the right source for things that we'd like to do here free not withstanding thank you uh I do know the Conservation District is also is also doing a lot to try to um uh think more strategically um about the the species that they're offering um I
083I will also say uh very briefly that the uh the Tre information cards that we give out they do have some information about the types of soils that are preferred by the trees um on there so we are trying to get out that information um and uh with my site visits I I do try to ask folks about the type of soils that they have and try to um uh offer species to them that that would do well in this so but thank you I really appreciate your comments uh and definitely we are we are working to try to to make this uh more strategic in the species that we're offering for sure good thank you thank you uh commissioner mury thank you um and thanks for the presentation and I remember your first presentation
084and I can definitely see where you've work to continuously improve the program so I I applaud your work on this really great um just a couple of quick thoughts um I assume you're not giving out uh Bradford pairs um but fruiting pear trees right yes correct great great and by the way sample size of of two I have two in my yard and both are fruiting well and and the same with peaches I have two in my yard and both are also really great uh in terms of bearing so that's not not indicative of it's going to happen across an arbor but just a quick fii um two other quick comments um the the survival survey I really applaud that I would just uh recommend that you consider just doing some statistical sampling I don't
085think you have to sample you know thousands of trees 100 trees if it's done well should give you a really good idea of how you know how well the different species are doing um and then the other thing is um I don't know if the home energy advisers um are thought of in this way but um I've happened to live in my last two homes had large um shade trees on the South and West sides and large deciduous shade trees and they were wonderful in terms of really providing um a cooling effect in the summertime and um you know if that that could be a hint given out to to homeowners um that are contacting the city for energy I mean that's really a a great way and then you get all the other benefits
086of of trees that we all talked about many many times so um those were my couple of thoughts and again well done and uh good luck with the program thank you I appreciate that commission riski um yeah I will say anecdotally one of the the folks that we were able to get a tree for U through the community trip hunting program and Bryant uh this past fall I think it was I'm losing track of time um but uh there there was a resident who uh had a a south facing um backyard uh with absolutely no trees in it and they their AC simply was not able to keep up with keeping their their house shaded uh so we were able to get them a large shade tree and back in that backyard um so definitely
087uh hoping that that will help alleviate some of their problems and and very glad to hear that your pears and peaches are are producing well that's good uh chair person Mitchell all right so I just want to bring up the opposite um concern and and consideration because I'm not sure how to address it but um trees on the South Side could potentially block solar panel installation so how are we addressing that because I I think it's it's not just for this program it's for everybody you know and and existing trees I would really hate to see anyone take down a tree because of solar panels and I'm personally not doing that um but and and I'm very unlikely to ever have solar panels on my house because of that but how do we I think
088that's a question that would be really good for discussion and I don't know if you have any insights on that Sean or anyone else yeah thank you it's it's definitely um something that we've been talking about a lot um Julie Roth and I on the Osa team have had this discussion a couple of times um basically our general thought is is you know if you have a large mature tree that is potentially blocking solar panels it makes sense to leave that tree up rather than cut it down to put on solar panels uh if however you are do not have a tree that is currently blocking um but you you might want solar panel in the future we recommend not putting a tree there that might potentially Block in the future um with that resonant
089that I mentioned earlier uh they you know they had absolutely nothing in that backyard uh so we put in one tree to help shade uh the bedroom side of their house where they you know we really want them to at least have some GL when they were trying to sleep at night uh in the Summers uh and we left the other uh half of the backyard open so that if they wanted to get solar panels in the future they that would be a possibility um because we I did talk to them ahead of time and ask are you interested in potentially getting solar panels you know especially since it was in Bryant where we're working really closely with that neighborhood to decarbonize and we have been putting uh we have been getting grants to put
090in solar panels on some folks houses uh definitely wanted to make sure that there was some room back there so that is that is part of the conversation that we're having with folks is is balancing uh the potential future for solar panels with the potential uh future of the trees right and I think so just to add another layer of complexity it's possibly not only that um resident's house but perhaps their neighbors that who may want to have solar panels so you wouldn't want to set up a conflict and I think that that can happen or has happened um and would be potentially something that we should consider talking about from a policy perspective how do we deal with that you know yeah it's it's a great point for sure I would welcome quickly on
091the solar solar access is what some people have termed that the energy commission looked at that maybe four years ago and um in discussions with a city um that that died um so I I don't know it could be that doesn't mean just because it was looked at once you know that doesn't mean it should be looked at again um I'm I'm not of that that ilk but uh I I um I know that it's been considered before um and it it's a thorny issue in many many regards obviously right just want to you know it's been it's been dealt with so there's some history there that we could refer to if we take it back up again okay thanks yeah um um I was also actually really quickly sorry I was reminded uh one
092of the other things that we're looking at uh with this grant is potentially purchasing a software that the ARB Day Foundation has developed that actually allows folks when they are getting a tree through us uh to go in uh and see a satellite imagery of their property uh and place the tree in different parts of their property and it will tell them if that is a good location or not based on if it is too close to the house if there it's too close to utilities um it will actually provide information about how much shading of the house it will do if it would uh conflict with solar panels that on the house things of that sort so it's a really cool tool that we're looking into potentially purchasing um great are there any other
093questions for Sean and then I just want to say thank you very much we'll um look forward to having you back to talk about survival when you have information for us that' be great um and uh so let's move on um we are now at the point of reports from committees uh commissions staff and so I guess I'll just go through my little roster here um I would like to call on the biodiversity working group any anything to report Mr Curtis uh we had a meeting last month we talked about a few different things um the need to refresh the the pollinator homepage that's out there so we're going to start looking at that and what we could do to make sure we keep that information current um the idea of maybe having the city
094having an educational meeting with landscaping companies to talk about native plants to kind of get them up to speed on what they're doing and how to do it and we talked about um some of us went to a the stewardship Network as a local cluster and we went to that meeting some of us went to that meeting so we went through the meeting minutes and updated everybody else on what was going on there that's it great thank thank you um circular Academy sure uh happy to share a couple of things we're continuing with our research phase for uh construction and demolition uh we've talked with two communities Madison and Austin about their work on this topic we are speaking with representative a representative from King County in uh Washington State next month and we're trying
095to reach out to about three more communities who've been doing this for number of years to understand their work uh we're also doing some end market analysis right now trying to understand where are there places where materials can go how much of a challenge would that be it's been kind of interesting to see how much is does exist but is it the right alignment etc etc um and we're starting to think about some highlevel components of what might be in an ordinance including things like per percentages and phasing and um timelines and then we're also uh do building a stakeholder map for once we complete the research phase that we'd be ready to move into a stakeholder engagement phase but we're trying to map that out now as we do our research to know who
096the contacts would be for that phase and I think that's it sounds really interesting thank you um I'm going to water quality would be Mr Brown yeah not much here um I'm still working on um trying to investigate the uh petroleum Motors in Allen Creek drain in West Park try to see if we can locate some Origins and um get some remediation uh Sarah do you have anything to add no I don't have anything to add thanks Steve okay going to move on to to the uh energy commission yeah real short uh last month or this month I should say we uh talked about our agenda items for the coming year and voted on those um if anybody's interested I could share those once um those have been finally compiled I haven't seen the final
097results um and then I just want to call uh everyone's attention to what I think will be a very interesting presentation in our next meeting it will be given by um of M's uh sees Dean overp uh he's going to give a his personal um assessment of um climate and climate change um Rita and I at least um heard sort of uh a preliminary version of that at uh the Great Lakes renewable energy association's annual meeting in December um and he's on the agenda for the February meeting um and I think um anybody that could either um view that live or then watch it um afterwards we'll find it very interesting it's very compelling so that's all thanks thank you um Mr mky could you just remind me of the date of that energy commission
098meeting uh let me see just a second second Tuesday which is the 13th six o'clock by the way not s o'clock our meetings are at 6 great thank you you're welcome all right um Parks advisory missioner Marson yeah we've had that we had a meeting in December and January so far that um I will summarize uh we had a presentation on the Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan uh that has recommendations and a a very substantial work plan to bring our Parks facilities up to the current standards we have recommended purchase of um this the materials for the splash pad that's going to be installed at Bicentennial Park that's the former Southeast an arbor Park is what it used to be named um we recommended financial support of the Leslie science nature center playscape construction
099we've recommended approval of um changes to chapter 42 of the city code that's the um part of the code that lays out the green belt plan uh the green belt program and um the administ of that program recommended several changes um we uh the parks apartment is prepping for um summer camp programs um they have a pretty substantial summer camp program in the um for kids they uh let's see Parks natural areas preservation they removed 55 red oak trees and bird Hills to prevent the spread of Oak wlth and then um and then we've recommended uh the approval of several contracts at our last meeting pertaining to park operations so that's what we've been up to great sounds very busy um thank you um and U next time my list is the Transportation Commission I
100think yeah so uh the news on that is that uh council member Briggs and I both share a passion in this area so we are taking turns and so I'm not the liaison anymore to that commission she is so I'm sorry that I don't have any updates I will be paying attention though when I have some news I'm happy to share it um do you want to hear Council news too sure we just passed and sorry council member dis but I'm just so excited that we passed uh ordinance change to allow front and backyard solar which had previously been banned for what I understand to be primarily aesthetic reasons and so uh I'm very happy to see this changed so just passed on Monday excellent I have a ton of things to add because council
101member acman is forgetting that we haven't met with this body since November so that means that we can also tell this body that we passed the phasing out of gas powerered leaf blowers um and boy have we heard a lot about that from a very from a community that feels like we are I don't know outline children but that's just the way some people feel about their gas blow leaf blowers um we also in December um on the consent agenda approved a couple of fee sales through the green belt program to Farmers um there were two of them and that is just a really amazing thing that we're now doing with the green belt um it's super important that we not just protect Farmland but that we also protect the livelihood of farming um the
102we also signed anou with um yeah that that uh that approves a c sharing between the city the county and here on waterl Pathways initiative um to do that piece that builds a tunnel and gets you know makes a huge connection on the B2B Trail so that is incredibly exciting um thank you for that oh you are more than welcome since I have been elected I have been I haven't like they didn't really let me work on it but I kept saying I want this I want this so I'm really really glad that it happened and obviously I'm not the only person who was saying that but um uh and then there there were a couple of things that we approved moved um to uh Equity programs to support decarbonization for people who cannot afford
103to purchase this themselves and I don't I'm just not going in all the details because it would just really bore you if I did um but we also are uh we also did a almost well a $900,000 [Music] contract with Walker Miller Energy Services to administer the home energy advisor program and that is going to also be really really exciting um and then uh I think there was one more thing that you would be interested in maybe not no I don't think so I think the rest of it is planning stuff y it's planning stuff so yeah it was a really busy uh couple of months December and January in terms of things that the environmental commission would be happy about great thank you um council member dish do you mind staying on and talking
104about the Planning Commission since we usually have a report on that um yes I have to reopen the document I just closed um I mean yeah we did the Plymouth resoning uh that Council just voted on and uh well I mean I think that I don't know how much of what's happening on planning is interesting to you all [Music] um yeah it looks like John's got a question about the other stuff I mentioned and I'll try to find this document again my thing I just I just wanted to applaud Council for passing tc1 zoning along Plymouth Road because I think that has the potential along with the other tc1 zones of significantly uh addressing scope three emissions over the long term um related to commun uh commuting and and a lot of other things um
105so I don't know that we'll see the benefits that immediately but um in the long term I think that's really significant so hats off to council for doing that great um I oh I see council member Atman yeah I'm sorry just I forgot to mention that we also got a memo back from City administrator that was attached to our last meeting packet um that was uh you know based on our request before for them to identify incentives to electrification of buildings and so a set of recommendations came back a set of things that they looked at that they don't recommend are in that memo too and um I just I look forward to working on it with the council member dish and other of my colleagues to think about what we can push forward to
106um to get better outcomes out of our de developments yeah and speaking of that we were hoping that this body might have a discussion at that memo so that um as we I mean we are planning on developing resolutions out of it resolutions saying let's build an ordinance on this or let's you know implement this procedure or whatever and you know we'd be happy to have your feedback both early and then as those things begin protction um I'll call myself just for a second um I do want to add one um question that I would appreciate the um being addressed in the corridor res zonings um I have this vision of the zero setbacks as lacking trees and I would like to not have that Vision um if there's a way to um address the
107issue of inclusion of green infrastructure that supports all the reasons that we're involved in this commission for clean air clean water mental health Etc um I'll stop talking but but that's a concern that I have to make sure that that these are walkable and livable spaces thanks looks like I'm trying to share my screen but I'm not there okay sorry um council member atmin I think you should call in council member dish because I'm sure she's going to say the thing that I was going to say but say it even better because she's on planning all right no okay I'll take a stab you can tell me say what you're gonna say but you can say it okay um we actually maybe this is one thing that we forgot to mention is we did pass
108before we we passed I can't remember if it was in December or November uh but a basically a change to the tc1 specifications that that does a setback from the curb line and that's basically to account for the fact that these rights of way are different in different areas so what we don't want is a big massive expans of office grass with a building that's like 100 feet back um but we do specifically was called out in this change was allowing for amenities like bus stops Street trees for shade wider sidewalks you know to support more people walking around uh bike facilities so we do not have zero setbacks um I don't think I understood that so I appreciate that disc is that a that's a genuine change from what you've been building the last
10910 years or so correct do you mean building in terms of buildings or do you mean building well let's just look at the stretch between State Street and division on hereon street there's no setback there past uh 10 foot sidewalk yeah but there's a 10-ft sidewalk that's it no trees no loading zones no no bike lane that's not a tc1 district though just no it's not and it's an M do road so in terms of B our setbacks but uh yeah but in terms of bike Lanes we can't put I don't think we can I don't know but I don't think we can put bike Lanes on here so this change applies to the to the three South State stadium now Plymouth maybe coming up Washington applies to those districts not and to be clear
110it doesn't specify you know I don't believe I I don't you know Council mition would know this better than I would but this doesn't specify what goes in that area it just specifies that there will be a certain amount of distance at a minimum and a maximum from the curve line I don't think it's speed what goes there and it also doesn't acquire that area either so if it is part of the developer private property um we're not allowing them to build in it but if we wanted to use it as right of way for public amenities we would have to get it from them in some way purchased maybe um I don't know trade or you know I mean there's there are many ways that one acquires these kinds of things we just did
111a transfer over on South State of some city right away that we don't really want and and the developer there does want so um the the so this was a really controversial thing actually Rita um but the reason why we pushed it was for exactly what you said that in many areas along tc1 there are you know buildings are so far away you probably couldn't even hit them if you threw something but on other parts of tc1 the property line comes right up to sidewalk and if you did not make this rule that that it needs to be set back there would be no ability you know to have anything other than a five to S foot sidewalk which is completely inadequate for anything we need it's even worse than a long Heron which has
112a pretty wide side and so what staff did then was to measure this right away from the back of the curb rather than the property line so in many instances we will be you know when you build something new along tc1 you will have to build it closer to the sidewalk than some than many of the buildings are there and in some instances you will have to set it farther back than you would have if you were allowed to come up to the property property line and so this I think that this was really well thought out because it it allows us to have right away where we want it but it also forces buildings to come buildings that are too far back if if you know properties are added to those I mean if
113buildings are added to those properties or if buildings are knocked down and somebody wants to re you know rebuild them they have to come closer to the street which is where we want them but they but we judged what would be a good amenity space to give us pedestrian cycling and some trees and that's what that's how we figured came up with the the the setback the new setback how many is it Lisa how many feet is it I can't remember I think it's 18 to something I was gonna say the same thing it's 18 to something I would have to and and does the 18 include the sidewalk y it's measured from the curve line right so part of whatever is in that space is going to be sidewalk okay it would be but
114we um we really wanted to strike a balance between uh you know a Suburban style of development and moving things closer to the curb but still having enough space and this um this was based on our downtown mostly which in the DDA District that is where we have you know a lot of amenities and bike lanes and and this was also done with the assump assumption that we aren't going to be moving curbs anytime soon because that would be another way to create right away but along some of these corridors it's just not likely that we can have a bus lane you know if we want bus Rapid Transit and car lanes and bike Lanes if we move curbs and so it was a it was a a lot of thought went into this and
115it created a fair amount of comp controversy um among some people who really felt that zero setback was absolutely the way to go and so I'm really pleased to see it um and I was I I think that staff was courageous in pursuing it and also creative in what they brought to us thank you I like it thank you were you gonna add something Lisa I thought that I think I maybe interrupted you okay right um by my list I am next up with chairperson report um and I was going to call out the um point of our um it's really upcoming that I'm talking about these things um review of the administrator recommendations with respect to electrification I think that would be a really interesting discussion for us to have um so we'll um
116work with staff um um to make sure that you have that information well ahead of time um and I feel I have some questions in mind that I may frame um I'm hoping that we get some kind of numeric information associated with us um that I hope to frame use to help frame the discussion um and we'll try and get that out early enough so that it can be looked at by council members or Commissioners um but ahead of time so that you all can think about it as well um the the other thing I wanted to bring up is something that Aaron called to our attention which is the galman plume National pollution discharge elimination system report is out and available for comment um Erin gave us a link to that report and we
117can all look at it and should to see if we have some questions that and comments that we should place in in on on that um document um there is a card meeting coming up February 6 at 7M card is the Coalition active for remediation of di dioxine again directed at the Gman plume so um I encourage anyone who's interested to join in on that meeting um and I can send out the link for it sorry I don't have it with me at the moment um and the last thing I want to ask is for all of us to be prepared to um provide suggestions for agenda items for the future items to make sure that we have on our list and that we make sure to um prioritize and I have talked with Aon
118recently and we were thinking of having a session on how to um make sure that we get this group in a functional um position to work on prior things that are a priority for for the community that we're serving in this commission so that's that's coming up and with that I hope that we are we're pretty close to where we need to be um our next meeting will be February 22nd which we heard earlier um and I just touched on items for the next agenda and so we're up for our second opportunity for public comment unless anybody wants to tell me that I miss something and I always do hi Sean uh if I could just jump in really quick with the staff update I just want to call attention to the fact that the
119um uh attached to the staff update uh files in the agenda is the um second quarter Financial reports for the solid waste fund uh so those are there if you would like to see those um and then also the biannual composition audit of single stream cycling was completed uh on December 2nd and the contamination rate was found to be 11.69% um so those are our two updates from Public Works uh OSI is going to be working uh or putting out uh sustainability series again in 2024 as we've done the last few years um with topics on electrification home energy writing disclosure the circular economy equity and home Energy rebates um so if you're interested you can see that in the staff announcements as well uh and then finally um as uh chairperson Mitchell mentioned earlier
120this is my last meeting um so I just wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to all of you um for the time that I have spent as your staff leaz on uh and you are going to be in in really great hands with uh Aaron so uh I look forward to uh presenting to you I'm sure on the future about the 10,000 Tre is initiative if nothing else so appreciate you um I see commissioner Curtis's hand up so on the contamination rate on is is it getting better or worse and do we have a Target that we're trying to achieve and do you have any idea uh I am not sure that would be a question for Sarah Mason who I believe will be at the February meeting talking about some uh
121Solid Waste stuff so thanks uh council member dish I do not know if it's getting better or worse and I wish I had a better memory but I think that uh 11.9% is well below the national average so wherever we're going we're still better than many many communities but we should definitely ask um Sarah Mason to give us the actual numbers on that one and thanks for the reminder Sean because I was I was the one that that asked for this upcoming meeting to deal with the solid waste and so I'm looking forward to that information as well um I can it will be an interesting discussion because I think there are also seasonal things that happen that that can make that um assessment of what what we see in the compost in particular um
122different seasonally um meaning like if there are a lot of leaves it's different from the rest of the season that's kind of what is in my mind um okay with any other items without any other items I'm going to move on to the public comment and this is the second opportunity tonight for persons in the community to speak for up to three minutes uh please call 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 962 6453 and City staff will select callers that have raised their hand by uh activating star n on their phone um they'll call out the last three digits of your phone number and uh you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak press star six to unmute your phone and when speaking please move to a quiet area
123and mute any TV or background noises so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments um so uh Sean do you see anyone who wants to speak with us uh I do not see anyone in the queue at the moment I'm gonna give just a few seconds and um uh while we are waiting I don't believe we've announced the next scheduled meeting yet I think I inter no that's okay it was 22nd um and um yeah so I'll see you all then um and we'll be communicating in between now and then and just one more check Sean anybody else on the phone willome to talk with us we do not have anyone online okay all right so thank you again Sean welcome Erin um and
124thanks everyone for your conversation tonight I really appreciate it and um look forward to continuing our work together oh may I may I do we have to I have to call for adjournment right is everybody ready to adjourn all right good night good night thanks everyone thank you thanks reading thank you