Ann Arbor Environmental Commission 10/26/23

001this is the no um October 26th 2023 electronic meeting of the environmental commission here in an arbor this meeting is in accordance with the executive ORD set in place in 2020 by the governor to affect social distancing and mitigate the spread of Co the co 19 virus we intend to conduct the meeting similar to an in purpose iners meeting please be patient as there if there are technical issues public comment is welcome and will be via telephone only to speak to the public at public comment call 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 922 1644 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 AT&T channel 99 and online on at A2 go.org watch CN and um

002with that I would like to ask Sean to um read the land Heritage statement yes thank you chairperson Mitchell I acknowledge that the land the city of an arbor occupies is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of the Anish shab including Odawa oju and badmi and W and do peoples I further acknowledge other City stands like almost all property in the United States on lands obtained generally in 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 in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals thank you Sean and would you now

003call the role please sure I do have um a phone number on the line that I don't recognize but if it is a commissioner can you please raise your hand so I will promote you um if you're not a commissioner keep your hand lowered but if you are a commissioner please raise your hand and the the raise hand is star nine uh star nine to raise your hand yes just in case somebody doesn't know all right I'm not seeing a hand rais so I don't think it's commissioner so I'll do the roll call thank you yes uh council member Amman here Ann Arbor thank you uh Vice chairperson Brown uh here in an arbor thank you commissioner caart here thank you commissioner Curtis here an arbor thank you commissioner Dale here an arber thank you

004uh council member dish oh looks like council member just dish just joined I'm going to promote them welcome council member dish we are doing roll call and I just got to your name I'm here in an arbor thank you that was good thank you uh commissioner Graham I'm here thank you commissioner guber all right uh commissioner here in Arbor thank you commissioner mki all right uh chairperson Mitchell here in an arbor thank you commissioner nrich Ken an aror thank you and commissioner whing all right uh and that is a quorum all right super great thanks everyone to um who's here at the meeting tonight um I would now like to ask for a motion to approve our agenda for tonight I see a hand Chris Graham and a second from commissioner Curtis um thank you

005is there any discussion of the agenda and if not I ask for a vote to approve the agenda raise your hand thank you looks like we have an agenda accepted thank you um I now ask for an approve a motion to approve our minutes from September 28 commissioner dish and seconded by commissioner Dale thank you um any discussion of the minutes from September see no hands um I call for a vote to approve the minutes from September raise your hand looks like uh almost 100% is there okay thank you thanks everybody okay let's go for it hey Rita I'm gonna abstain I'm gonna abstain because I wasn't here okay thank you thanks for letting us know good point um all right so that's um minus or abstain on one um but passes by majority vote

006so um thank you all um I would now like to move to the section of our meeting which is public comment I'm going to read a brief statement um and this is when Sean usually pops up this information on the screen as well um this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes please call 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 922 1644 um City staff will select call that have raised their hand one by one excuse me calling the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand please press star n on your phone you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak you can press then press star six to unmute your phone when speaking please move to a quiet area

007and 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 and um do you have see anyone who is interested in speaking with us yes we do have a hand raised from caller uh ending in 411 again that's phone number ending in 411 I'm now allowing you to talk uh good evening uh uh Sher Mitchell uh can you hear me yes great uh this is James deore um multitasking with a phone phone and trying to read a statement so bear with me for just a sec while I I switch screens here and uh here we are and I want to thank uh uh members of the environmental commission and good evening my name is James deore and I speak to

008you as an environmental activists currently involved with several committees in the Michigan sier club and a former member of the City Planning Commission as as you know several months ago a subcommittee related to natural features uh um created a draft ordinance of a revised true ordinance to replace language in chapter 57 as I understand it the commission and others by uh were advised by the office sustainability initiatives to hold off on further action until the comprehensive land use plan is revised a question I ask here is this um major decisions on resoning and major new land Parcels have been approved this year by the city before the comprehensive plan uh revision has even been underway and the city has no hesitation in this area uh making these changes why is the question of protecting trees

009being delayed while other revisions of the city ordinances are moving forward there appears to be a lack of fairness here mature desus trees depending on the spey required Decades of growth to provide carbon capture and creation of oxygen yet recently I observed a public housing project clearcut all the mature trees on this parcel close to my neighborhood I should also note cries was proved earlier and OSI has been silent on this matter providing seedings and saffings OSI has done is doing especially as some of conifers does not address the climate crisis when short-term action is needed now there seems to be hypocrisy and oiz part or at least enabling it if we are truly to embrace taking on the climate crisis then part and partiel of that is protecting our mature tree canopy I'm surprised

010that Oris and transigence related to this considering the hard work that members of this body have put and created a draft ordinance and given the change as impact on our natural features in the years of comprehensive PES revision will be adopted and that's going to be a long process we really can't wait any longer we must move now in moving the tree ordinance forward and I hope this commission makes this message clear to members of this Council and to the council members here please take note of this and act on it folks thank you for taking uh uh uh consideration my REM s and may each of you have a great evening uh thank you thank you we always appreciate hearing from the public um Sean are there any additional callers I do not see

011any additional callers all right um I would like to now move to our next agenda item which is a presentation by um a guest speaker speaker Heidi trudell um I see her good um Heidi is a bird expert and will be um has been involved in a group called just save birds and more you'll hear about it and um this is really important information for us to take in um for our consideration as we advise Council moving forward on how we continue to live with nature um as we move forward as a city um and I also welcome Juliet Berger who's here who is our city ornithologist and I'm really happy to have you with us tonight Julia both of you Heidi um with that I'm going to stop talking and um ask you um

012Heidi to further introduce yourself as you wish and I know you have a presentation for us sure um thank you so much for having me I'm going to attempt to share my screen I hope everyone can hear me okay yes okay can everyone see my screen hopefully it looks is full screen um it is not quite full screen but if I go into slideshow uh okay maybe that works that looks good to me okay cool um yeah please let me know if there's any formatting issues on your end um anyway the the bottom line of this is there has been a lot of push back in a lot of places bigger than us and if they can do it so can we the list of tiny fine print places and organizations on the left um

013it's everything from colleges to actual States uh municipalities you name it these are places that have already passed some level of bird safe building code or ordinance um and yes I am wearing a lot of hats just save Birds is my quasi Consulting um site of life but I have been wearing the washed and off safe passage hat with Wasa I believe it's now bird Alliance uh or pending bird Alliance formerly known as Wasa otan but I've also been uh working in a similar window Collision prevention capacity with um safe passage of Great Lakes which is also updating their name from Detroit otan to Detroit third Alliance uh and I've been on the board with the bird center of Michigan uh as well as the conservation committee for Black Swamp bird Observatory pretty much all

014of these since sometime in 2015 16 or 17 um and there is a very long version of this presentation uh at the QR code so feel free to take a screenshot or photo now um because the the full version of this is over a 100 slides long and gets into a little bit more detail than I have time for tonight at least I won't keep you all night I'll try not to um course full screen I can't see the clock so you might have to cut me off at some point okay but um who I am why I'm here uh 20 years and two months ago in Southern Illinois I made the mistake of being a bird loving undergrad at a college that had Big Shiny windows and every student on that campus told me

015every time they saw a dead bird which was a lot turns out um so I started a collision monitoring campus on that project and after three years I got out of there because that was I was the only student on campus doing it it was a lot it was chaos um I tried to Branch out did Wind Farm surveys in Texas turns out that's also a lot of dead birds so um I I've tried I swear I've tried I've worked at zoos I've worked at libraries I've the tech startups um turns out there's glass everywhere and everywhere there's glass birds are hitting so on the side I've always been graning in window Collision activism and advocacy and then when I moved up here at the end of um oops the IPS salant District Library was

016like right there and I couldn't not check it so that's that's where we are today from from 2015 now I've just been dead bird researching my way through Southeast Michigan and Beyond um so yes that's a lot of hats and one of the biggest misconceptions regionally and globally is that if you turn off the lights the birds are suddenly safe and that is not at all the case um you can turn off all of the lights but that doesn't stop collisions during the day I will say that I am thrilled that an arbor has such a good lighting code and has made so much progress in that direction um there's obviously still a lot that we can do my second love is moths and moths are obviously very impacted by lights um but that being

017said it's not just Birds it's not just moths um light is bad for humans um a lot of bird people try to push for uh Lights Out programs doing spring and fall migration but like we have bats year round well up here they they either migrate or hyate but um further south we have BS year round up here we have moths during the summer and birds during the summer and people during the summer um and I know because an arbor is really pushing for sustainability goals responsible lighting is really good for saving energy reducing carbon emissions um like it's the easiest thing we can do in that direction but it does get way too much credit in the window Collision side of things um and to also address some of the additional myths um skyscrapers

018get a lot of press because when things go terribly wrong it's often that skyscrapers um I was unfortunately in Chicago on October 6th fifth was the day that everything went horribly wrong with birds at McCormick Place I was driving into Chicago when that happened on the sixth I gave a presentation um to Architects about birds hitting windows in Chicago um but the haric place a lot of tall building the ipsilanti District Library also not a tall building the average high-rise and lowrise generally kill between 25 30 Birds a year it's just with better Landscaping better habitat bigger Windows more reflection my worst low rise in Michigan kills upwards of 300 Birds per year Ipsy Library somewhere there are a lot of aspis asps um minimum 70 that we find but what we find is just

019the tip of the iceberg and for residential buildings uh obviously the better the habitat the more we try to make our yards attractive for wildlife native plants all that good stuff we are attracting Birds to an area that's dangerous unless we have fixed our windows so this is a problem that will only stop when we run out of birds and I'm not a fan of that idea but um yeah so just to to get this out there highrises are a problem they are not our problem so we need to address it where it happens this is a photo from somewhere on the U ofm campus uh I guess tap and Hall um from 2016 I believe if anyone wants to guess at how many birds it's the same photo on each side um if anyone

020wants to guess how many birds are there I will take a sip of water it is a trick question five it is five so basically because warblers look like leaves and uh leaves look like leaves it is really hard to spot birds that of hit windows we are also up against lawnmowers squirrels cats foxes coyotes you name it um what we find is a small fraction of what actually hits It's guesstimated that for every bird we find there are five to eight that we don't that could be because if it was lucky lucky in quotes um it perhaps flew away to die elsewhere of its injuries um but a bird flying away just if it's out of sight it just dies out of sight um full recovery is actually very um low odds another myth

021is that migration happens in nicely defined Flyway Corridor things the entire continent lights up at very different um in very different ways at different times of the year birds have zero regard for geography they are going with the winds and migration can shift very broadly from year to year so what we end up with is really cool birds that are not ours you know they're breeding in the boreal forests of Canada they're wintering in Central and South America and they're dying at our Windows because we happened to be there um I keep picking on the ipy District Library but that's been there since 2006 and minimum 100 Birds a year these are coming from all over the place half of the birds in the photo should have been spending their winter on coffee farms in

022Central and South America eating coffee pests so every time a bird hits your window 50/50 odds that it should have been preventing coffee pests from getting at your beans um so the more things we kill the more pesticide goes into the coffee um and then after I took the the photo went back to the car found two more hummingbirds on my way back to the car which is why there are two little ovals there so the birds we're killing are not house sparrows pigeons starlings um the vast majority our species already in Decline and this is an extremely tangible way that we can reduce uh our impact um it's no wonder why they hit um so to give you an idea of what my first full fall study there showed um basically if we were

023to fix just the worst buildings in the area Ipsy the library itself is as bad as the two other worst buildings combined so if we just fixed the worst three buildings that wash safe passage was monitoring at the time we would have taken care of the vast majority of strikes for the region again for every bird we find there are 5 to eight that we don't these numbers are staggering the species diversity is really phenomenal um this is a very biodiverse region and the fact that a handful of buildings are doing this much cumulative damage again Ipsy library has been there since 2006 has not been decreasing in bird strikes year after year they have no opportunity to learn things they live in Canada and you know next year they might be migrating further east

024of here um anyway so the the basics of bird collisions are essentially that if a bird thinks it can fly to something or through something that's how they die and in discussions with the actual architects of the biological sciences building they said they specified glass as clear as possible so Birds would see that there's nothing inside for them to go to however you will notice there's a very strong reflection of sky and you can actually see vegetation on the other side of the building um we do know that this building is killing birds um I am not on the inside of that I try to give them as much Elbow Room as possible so I will not be Uninvited um but I do know that they have a fair number of birds coming in uh

025to their collections as a result of striping so another myth is the more masonry of building has the safer it is people think they need to build build a perfect brick box to be safe for birds unfortunately even with a brick box if you have a window and it's not a safe box a safe window um it's still this is the natatorium on the EMU campus it kills as many birds as the other average low Rises around it they're all just concentrated at very narrow Windows because birds see essentially a tunnel that they can get through but it's not so you can build a fully glass box as long as it's a safe product um so it's there is Nuance here and unfortunately most people think that putting glass is a a light like oops

026you hit a window um I see this in media all the time pick a movie that has a bird in it the bird at some point Harry Potter Finding Nemo like every movie has Birds hting Windows uh unfortunately birds are moving head first at high speed and they technically hit twice when a bird hit hits glass it first impacts usually face first and then it falls it's really hard to study the injuries that birds sustain when they hit because we don't know if they end up with um poroid fractures dislocated the the injuries they still say are really not okay um this is why I don't do Bird Rehab I just pick up the dead ones because you can't stress out a dead bird um Bird Center of Michigan can rehab them all day but

027yeah the injuries they sustain untreated are more often than not fat um that being said it's if birds are lucky enough to survive they're up against people cats dogs squirrels um raccoons blossoms skunks protein is protein is protein and what gets me is through white froed Sparrow studies they have track how heavy the birds were that survived of course they pick up survivors weigh them rehab them release them the birds that died also got weighed and the birds were plump and fat and juicy and most likely to survive migration because physics is physics were the ones more likely to die because they had that much extra weight behind them when they pit which means that the thinner Birds we can't really say emaciated because if they were that emaciated migration would be a to begin

028with but that is terrifying for overall population Health if our plump juicy birds that should be making it to Central and South America in one easy go are the ones more likely to die on impact so this is this has broad ramifications well beyond um just like my windows can't be that bad I only get X number per year again for the ones we see there's a lot we don't a lot of folks also think that it's a quick death birds have a lot of extra vertebrae they all have floppy necks um the injuries largely if you're super lucky it's quick but there are so many that we find that definitely did not die a quick death um if you find a bird that looks like it's sleeping and is dead that was not a

029fast death if it was completely sprawled out it probably hopefully died on impact and then fell that way um it's really traumatic for people who deal with this obviously but um there's also so this misperception that like oh if you leave it alone it'll be fine whereas if we saw a kitten or a puppy that had been hit by a car we would know to take it to a vet um there's really not a good cultural understanding of rehabs exist for this reason so um yeah we we at least have the brid center of Michigan which is a phenomenal organization and I would not have agreed to be on their board had it not been fantastic um anyway so the good news is we can rely on a set of pretty decent products and fairly

030straightforward visual cues to indicate to birds that they cannot go in a par a particular direction um The Challenge there is that all materials with image formation and or transparency need visual markers the visual markers need to accommodate all of our visual environments and the entire surface yes all of it does need to be covered because as we saw with the natatorium you can have brick on one side or a brick pattern on glass on one side and if you have unmarked glass birds will just fly towards the unmarked glass um here so it's basically Traffic Safety but in three dimensions because birds are like that they will fly at full speed through tiny spaces and if the bridge is out one of these will be a more effective communication device than the other if

031you have one Hawk sticker in the middle of the window the bird will fly around it if you have a mosaic grid of Hawk stickers birds are much less like to fly around it because there's no around to go because they're too you the gaps are too small it can be Hawk stickers it can be pianos it can be Halloween stickers it can be Christmas stickers as long as the pattern is dense enough There's Hope unfortunately people put a lot of faith in products that do not work even though um a lot of products claim to work with just one sticker that being said if we need to pitch it to Architects it's actually not terribly hard because visual interest custom patterns artistic expression all of those good things can work towards ultimately saving birds

032and with the climate doing what it's doing um thermal performance is coming to be um much more of a a critical point in this stuff privacy there are some options that can increase your privacy uh some of them help with glare control obviously you'll be getting higher employee productivity if they're not getting distracted for 15 minutes every time a bird hits uh which also lends to occupant well-being but the thermal performance is really fun because depending on the product that you pick you can like the Justice Center has frosted stripes on the glass that's for thermal performance not for Birds but it's actually effective for Birds too so Architects are doing this anyway they just need to pick patterns that work slightly differently um yeah so glass is complicated and this is where we can't

033necessarily broadly paint a one siiz fits all solution if we are promoting products or if we are writing codes because because every single building is going to have a slightly different set of needs um this lower left corner that's actually Clear G clear glass um but because it's shaded there's no backlighting it looks black that's the same window at a slightly off angle looking completely reflective so the same spot looking very different just depending on where you are and so we need to pick a product that works in both of those conditions for that particular um set of windows so because everything behaves different differently Architects love this they love modeling thermal Performance Based on geography and this is their jam and their modeling will do wonders for the rest of us um but but

034bird products when they are tested and certified by the American bird Conservancy are tested under static conditions so quick crash close in glass most windows are double plane Birds obviously interact with the side that is on the outside surface one most low energy Coatings go on Surface 2 or Surface three and then the inside where we smush our noses is surface four things that we put on Surface four in most cases are pretty useless things on Surface 3 in many cases are pretty useless Surface 2 in some cases it can be okay but surface one is where the magic is most likely to happen if it's going to happen which is a challenge for the actual glass industry because manufacturing processes uh can be tricky and why do these surfaces matter um this is over

035here in the alen neighborhood um you can take a couple steps in a different direction slight angle change and you can see that a number on or a a marker on Surface one there's good visual contrast you even get some Shadow there it really pops and across the uh different angles you can consistently see it I did add a black and a white stripe to indicate like if the number was black it would actually get lost pretty easily in Shadows um stuff on surface for if it was black we would not be able to see it at all in most of these photos but um this is the difference between birds not hitting and probably birds hitting but again spacing is everything this is just letting you know how much uh visual contrast gets lost

036between the multiple surfaces the bottom line is if you can't see it they can't see it and the more you see it the more they see it so the Justice Center I guarantee you they were not thinking of birds when they did this this would have cost them zero extra dollars in their budget they did it anyway um yeah more of this you can also do different patterns again um if people are factoring thermal performance into their Design This should not be complicated for them but but with products themselves um tests and threat Factor scores are not created equal they do not work across all buildings not all products are appropriate for the existing test methods um It's Complicated tunnel testing is where most of the magic happens and while it's really good at what

037it does what it covers is a very narrow slice of that dynamic lighting range um and the resulting scores that come from it end up being used for code and you can still make these are not the greatest examples for what I need to say here but um The Limited information that folks are able to draw from to make decisions end up going in different directions um and if people are still hellbent on using clear products in things like railings it's not a matter of if birds will hit it's a matter of when birds will hit and how many so factoring in bird safety early in the design process will get you something that looks reasonable and not offensive as opposed to people have to take things into their own hands to fix it uh

038UV products are almost never a good idea there are very few cases when it's actually a good idea to use them um too many things need to be taken into consideration to suggest them as a blanket solution um but UV is the darling of everyone because people don't see it and birds supposedly do however not all birds see UV UV is a very short wavelength and birds that do see UV see the full visible spectrum that we see but also a hint of UV so it is really an uphill battle even for the birds that can see it for us to like this pattern is incredibly faint and this actual building has been modified since then anyway uh the bird Conservancy American bird Conservancy actually has a really good model Code 100% of build should

039be bird friendly for the first 100t and that is fantastic um you can have a bad bus shelter bus shelters on average kill between two to 10 Birds per year if their glass it's so easy to fix a bus shelter um a bad one could kill you know 30 Birds a year but Seattle has done an amazing job in acid Edge patterns um there was a study from Poland that says that graffiti saves birds like things like this um really indicate that there are some really simple changes that we can make in our community that can be artistic creative and actually have a really long lasting impact in a good way for Birds um and then they also suggest of course any of the danger zones danger zones clear walkways clear corner things like that

040need them to be bird friendly regardless of their height um and then the threat Factor down here is a little tricky so most regulations right now are really bad um Canada has a couple decent ones um but there's so many loopholes that you can build something that meets code and it will still be terrible for Birds um anyway the the fresh batch of Lead version five just came out last month um and at least they use the 2 by two inch spacing guidelines but it's still overly complicated and doesn't need to be but the way most municipalities have written their codes they don't seem to think that it needs to fly to most buildings or um you know they've bumped into like square footage um with retrofits New York is already seeing push back because

041uh folks want to replace 90% of the windows this year and then 10% of the windows next year to avoid triggering the 100% window replacement um that would kick in with retrofits we've also seen like oh if you're going to ret elit and replace 50% of the glass then it kicks in so they're doing 45% this year and doing 45% next year and then 10% the year after that so some of these regulations the the loopholes just never end um and when I talk about test scores and threat factors um a lot of this stuff is getting written into code when anything at 90 mm or 4 in anywhere is not going to prevent hummingbirds from hitting hummingbirds kinglets systens uh mat catchers some of the smaller wobblers it's like 20% of birds are not

042going to be helped by stuff that has 4 inch SPAC in so the reason these scores came into existence was through tunnel testing which could not test hunting birds so this is basically saying seat belts are great but only specifying that seat belts need to be in the front seat like who needs it in the back seat uh the 2 by two helps more than 4x4 with those size so breaking that down because people think rightfully so that a threat factor of 10 should be better than a threat factor of 15 or 20 but not only is that not necessarily the case because they physically cannot test huming Birds um but every building is different some of these products may not work well when backlit they may not work well with um a Darkly shaded

043complex visual background um it it really does depend and really Hammer at home this threat factor of 15 these Dots here that same pattern rotated 90° score a 20 but both of those do not perform as well as vertical stripes in the wild so in the test these I mean they still scored well enough to be used but these perform way better in Saving birds in the wild than the dot pattern that even though it was magically rot rotated 90 de and scored a different score the test is inconsistent and it's one of the challenges that the research Community is up against uh but in the meantime it's what we have and people are putting into code so yeah this is this is what we're working with um and this is where y'all come in

044because we can't solve it without a lot of communication and everyone is trying to reinvent the wheel in this space I fall somewhere in the research but not academic kind of Lights Out group but also there's a lot going on here and codes are relying on glass people and researchers but the industry is waiting for the codes to figure out what they need to build and Architects are just of stuck in the middle and I do feel bad for them actually um but getting best practices current and making sure that codes can relate to that um is is going to be a very interesting challenge the Canadian standards um put their bird code into effect in 2019 and their code is structured so that every five years it's up for review slash updating um I

045really like that because it means every five years they like hey what's Best Practices um but there's no indication of where they're sourcing that information um who's on the Review Committee like how that process goes so it's it's an interesting challenge because almost everything in the architectural world in the municipal code uh communication world all of that points back to the American bird conservancy and their test scores which threat factors as we saw can not be the most um broadly applicable stats out there so it's a kind of challenging spot to be in for all of us but um again things change rapidly all the information that I send out I add a note that if it's been if it's been more than four to six months then you know contact me something probably needs

046to be updated um but also the year is really important some of these buildings that I'm getting contacted about have been constructed within the last three to four years they did everything right and they're getting a ton of birds hitting but the materials that they're using they found online and best practices from like 2009 so there are a lot of myths and misunderstandings and there's just a lot of outdated information about collisions out there um and there are some combinations of things that can work but if it's on this list it's there for a reason um and yeah broadly applying any of this information um can get a little messy now when I say that New York did a great job with their code I mean they blanket statement said new construction and retrofits need

047to meet these standards so they have fewer loopholes in a lot of places um while they do still limit things to various threat Factor scores um the New York Community has at this point two decades of closely working with New York City ottan um to get some of this information understood in the architectural Community but uh it's kind of a mess out there because if you reach out to ornithologists they're looking at bird populations not necessarily picking up things at Windows if you reach out to biologists they are entirely in the dark because they're not paying attention to buildings at all Pest Control ends up getting a lot of the calls about these questions because birds are pests and clearly this is like a roosting problem or nesting problem or poop right um so they

048have a very different perspective Collision researchers myself sorry our plant life are on the timer um actually I can turn it off yeah close enough um forgot about that um so cision research have limited access to Glass industry Architects certainly are not um researching this stuff for funsies um beyond the American birding Association not American biring Association American bird Conservancy there we go um so glass industry is still restricted by the tests that the American bird Conservancy does and then cost and brand in wins every time because Hawk stickers are cheap and fast and you feel good once you put them up and like maybe you're getting less strikes now um so it's it's a challenge um risk levels are basically always underestimated um there was a study done in Canada last spring that found

049so the people who lived in the home thought that they had four strikes during the span of the study and over 30 were detected they had remote camera setup thing going on um because they just wanted to find out if people who live in their own home 247 because they both worked from home um and they did turn off the cameras when they weren't home like the vast majority of the strikes they didn't hear they didn't see uh there were only four bodies that they found out of over these strikes so we know that what's happening is way worse than what we're seeing up close in personal um and monitoring we're up against all kinds of different things and then when it comes to Architects working with clients clients hear like oh a bird safe

050building I guess that seems neat but how much extra might it cost if the architect hasn't planned in a design with their thermal performance they might think they have to go for an actual bird safe product uh separately which they assume drives up cost even though it doesn't actually um and it it's just this self self-perpetuating cycle of um you know things not being done right so then you have to put a Post-It note mural on the library every year or so uh so the children will not be horrified during story time when Birds hit but at certain angles the mural still looks like trees and Sky um anyway I think I'm neck deep in this and I think we this is the last slide this is the last slide y'all um so yeah collisions

051themselves can be quite complicated we have information on how to make it stop um the research Community we're still actually putting together the elephant we have not pieced it entirely together yet but if we wait until we've pieced it all together we will be out of birds by then um and so I I think we're in a really good position right now to say if if New York can do it and they're up against some of the most impressive uh construction lobbies out there um there's no reason we can't start factoring this into to new construction retr City buildings uh U ofm actually did in their July of um campus planning documents add bird consider or bird Collision considerations into their design guide um whether or not they use it as more than a bookmark

052we'll see but um you it's not news to them so I'm I'm semi optimistic that they will be considering it in the future at least but anyway I thank you for your time um I'm excited to hear questions that you might have about this and how I can help you help birds in whatever capacity possible thank you Heidi that was great um I would like to open this up for um I'll say up to 10 minutes of questions and I hope that we hear plenty of them from um our group here any any particular questions here we go um commissioner Brown um yeah thanks Heidi um when you say New York do you mean New York state or New York City or in this case New York City proper okay thank you misser Dale yeah

053hi Heidi thank you so much this is a topic I'm really interested in and I have been wanting to know more about and clearly have a lot more I still need to understand about it um I'm what I'm wondering is you know on one hand getting into the design guidelines and actually implemented in in new builds but what is the most effective way to to go back and retroactively get it into buildings you know is it something that can be applied to the outside of buildings at like a massive scale and yeah yeah um again per building you kind of have to to piece together what works best for it what the goals are of the occupants um it's somewhere between Goldilocks and Cinderella in terms of making sure that you get the right fit

054um but I will say there's a group called feather friendly uh they're pretty well known for their dots I would say um of course the slide that I left out of here for the UV stuff um is a great example if if you go to the the full version of the slideshow in the UV section there's a picture of my finger next to a bunch of dots that is feather friendly that's one of the most widely applied retrofit products um it's very highly effective um man if I got Commission on the amount of stuff that I I'm a fan it's super effective um they're not the only product that I adore but um it's it's pretty straightforward it works across a lot of different visual um situations and yeah it's it's generally very inoffensive to

055people um and it at scale can be applied pretty quickly too uh and honestly for most of the retrofits the challenge ends up the cost of Labor so it's really hard to get a quote on any of these products because they you it might be a dollar per square foot it might be $5 dollar per square foot but most of it comes down to do we need to rent a cherry picker to apply it practical comment anyone else Mr Graham this is a film that's applied to the outside or um it's it's a set of dots that are made of vinyl film um there's also a product that you know how buses have ads on the side but from the inside you can see out from the outside people can't see in um there's a

056film very similar to that that is often used in deterring bird collisions uh I will say though they make a clear product of that and I do not advise that whatsoever it's three times more expensive than their the regular Baseline solid looking stuff um but people love it because it's clear but it does not work because it's clear um that being said again as much as I love that it's a uniform surface that you know it's like looking through a screen what I don't love about it is it has a much shorter lifespan than feather friendly um but again it depends if people want to do uh like REI REI has an ad on their window like every six months with something different for marketing purposes if people want to do that awesome you can

057swap it out every six months and you will never have to deal with it you know getting crunchy after seven to 10 years um and you can get really creative with patterns with your marketing um art schools love it because again there's there's no limit to the creativity that can go into it but um yeah it there there's so many different options so it seems like there's just a fundamental conflict between clear glass and bird yeah strikes and and we haven't found a way to figure that out yet that's correct I am sorry I this is tough yeah missioner Dale another I have a lot of questions but instead of hitting you with all of them I'm I'm wondering two things and maybe it's just something you can point meet us to later or something

058um do you know of a list of you whether it's universities or other major institutions that have implemented it so that we you know might look at places have done that can I share my screen again yeah okay let me back here I want to say that um we can make available the full set of slides this was because we had our agenda yeah we'll we'll arrange for that so this spreadsheet is chaos uh it's just for funsies where I dump links um but IT addresses in part some of the places that have um in writing somewhere in their codes bird related things um I'm happy to email you this as well but like there are a lot of groups doing bird safe stuff and I would say more than half of them are campus-based

059and I'm happy to put you in touch with my my colleagues at any of these places uh some of them I don't have enough information on if you know anyone at uh Colorado State University or St lawence um I I have a a lot of Blanks on here like I I know they're doing things but I don't know who has enough information to to fill in the blanks on that but I I can I can hook you up I I would I would love to see as much of the spreadsheet as you're willing to share absolutely yeah I can send you link for it um just save birs gmail.com I'll I'll send you stuff okay okay thanks any other commissioner questions I just want to say that um Heidi first off thank you this is

060really great um I was kind of fascinated with the whole bus stop thing you know it's like a low-level Collision opportunity um and yet an opportunity to do something pretty good right um is something to think about and maybe we can work with our own bus systems here in town on things like that um it's great because you can engage Arts students you can engage various elementary schools you know here's your bus stop you get to decorate it however you want it can be as permanent as you want it can be as temporary as you want um but yeah if if you're trying to not scare Architects or whomever Developers um I'm happy to share this spreadsheet with whomever but yeah like it it doesn't have to visually be scary and it doesn't have to

061financially be scary right um we I am so happy that Julia you were able to join us I wonder if you have any particular comments that you'd like to add um because you know our area um and may have your own concerns and and ideas um my best recommendation is to make your windows safe for birds using one of these outside treatments out uh the exterior of the window treatment and um I can say that I left one pane of my screen door without dots on it and I killed a magnolia warbler this fall took it to the bird center it was still alive it was was very feisty and within 24 hours it died for and so there's so much more going on than we all know like Heidi said um there are so

062many birds that hit and fly off and then die alone somewhere else not by your window so each one of us can do something in our own homes um to make them more safe for birds and as for city ordinances and whatnot I'm um that would take a lot more staff uh consideration and consultation um than just my own opinion for what work has been fantastic and and and Visionary and the movement has grown up around her in our community yeah um a couple years ago John Lowry who's a member of wash otan uh shared with me that he had ordered poite Escape which is the solid looking material that you can see out just fine um but from the outside looks solid uh and he had gotten enough to do his entire house and

063so he did his entire house but had not gotten around to doing one of the smaller kitchen windows and it took 10 years before an oven bird hit that window but it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when yeah so if we all fixed one window that we know A bird hit like I I think I ran the numbers on this um since 2004 I have presented or in one form or another done Outreach for approximately 36,000 people and if each of them fixed one window that killed 15 Birds a year so this would be like a bad window um or two windows that combined killed 15 Birds a year that would be 530 something thousand Birds per year saved and like I have to hope that this link that I've pulled

064up right here um my current house has pretty steep overhangs so I don't really need to worry about rain directly hitting the glass but um a friend of mine colleague in Canada busted out a bunch of markers to see how they would do in the weather friend of mine and Dexter did the 2-inch white stripes on her house in 2017 or 18 and she hasn't even needed to touch those up yet and she has had no strikes at her house at all since doing this and it's just a $3 marker wow yeah it's it's just you have to get out there and do it yeah that's what I did as soon as that Magnolia warbler hit my little screen door was make 2 by two grid with a magic marker washable marker we can all

065do something um personally to save birds from hian glance yeah um oh I see two more hands commissioner Atman thank you uh what about screens like if you have screens over your windows that's good screens are great I love screens they have to be on the outside surface for some reason there been a lot of houses in Michigan that have the screens on the inside but yes screens are wonderful that explains why I have just one window that has strikes because the screens happen to be on the inside of that window they're they're certainly not perfect but they are so much better than the AL yeah than the alternative thank you commissioner Graham and I think this should probably be the last question for now but we'll we'll move on I mean we'll get more

066y so the stripes or dots or whatever two inches Max apart yeah got it thank you yeah you very much for doing of course yeah and about the screen thing um that's also the least offensive option for almost any HOA and it makes sense to them probably you know that's part of it yeah yeah um if they have any complaints at least with the markers you can wipe them down wait till they're not looking or you do them on the side of the house that nobody can see right great thank you um well I hope that this is just the beginning yeah of of some conversations that um that we can have on this particular issue and um I hoping that um Heidi and perhaps Juliet as well could join some of our discussions in

067our um newly um launched biodiversity workg group um because this may be something that we want to work on together um and bring something back to the environmental commission for f the consideration so um I'm hoping that that's the case that we can do that thank you so much for having us yeah thank you so much this is great thanks to Heidi all of her all right um all right so I'm going to move us on to our next item um and that is bringing us back once again to administrative um review of our um environmental commission bylaws we are almost done I hope and um we got some help from um the city's Dei office um diversity equity and inclusion office I'm looking for my copy here it is um and I hope that

068um you all have had a chance to at least scan um the redline document that we sent out um and I'd like to just quickly go through these um my goal for tonight would be for us to um look at what the these question these items are that are redlined um see if we agree with them and are ready to move this on to further review by staff and then the next steps which I think is legal team and then City council is that correct Sean uh I um would also recommend uh letting uh Public Works uh do a review of it as um that the new uh staff leaz on um uh the environmental services manager will be in that department um and just the switch of liaison from OSI to Public Works it

069seems to make sense to me for for product works to take a look but okay so uh quite a few months sounds like okay but let's what I'm hoping is that we get it moved out of our um uh review process and moved on to the next and shepher it through um okay Sean do you mind sharing the screen and um we'll just tick these off there are not very many but I did find a couple of um small things that I wanted to highlight for the group so in our purpose objectives and duties um there's a suggestion from the Dei office that we add the the final um statement which is the commission will approach their work through a lens of environmental equity and Justice and the commission acknowledges the historical inequitable practice against

070marginalized communities including but not limited to indigenous Nations who were shepherds of the land and water in Anarbor I have a a personal comment on that one but I wonder if if uh anyone from the group has anything um to call out or comment and I think M Graham is your hand still up or is that a an active question okay all right I'll just say my um my particular question um that I asked is about the use of the um word were as past tense because I think that there are indigenous people in our in our midst um and so I think what I would ask is how to craft a a a statement that shows that there's sort of an ongoing um stewardship or engagement that that we would like to encourage so

071I don't feel like um it's correct to word Smith is here at this point but I just raised that question about um stating this as as a past kind of thing and actually acknowledging that there are living breathing active indigenous people and others um a model for making progress and making real efforts in this area is David mechner's work with indigenous tribes at MAA Gardens m I don't know of anyone else who has done more or gained more trust or has leaped ahead of most of us in not just recognizing but in actually figuring out ways to do stuff and I don't know what the answers are for the city I I would just recommend that we have some kind of group come together and work on it um certainly the protection of the city's

072biodiversity honors the steward about 10,000 years stewardship of Native Americans here who presented us with an extraordinary environment when we arrived we Europeans arrived I our statement should be backed up with some actual work just my opinion I think that is excellent and like to see us take action on that um certainly we can we can work on language but it's beyond that right Chris it's more than just what's written here it's like living and and the um Bridges to cross to gain trust are very deep and very difficult I agree thank you um so let's just take that on as kind of like an advisement thing and I do like the idea of reaching out to um David mner um that would be very helpful I hope that we can accomplish that all right

073so our next change item is um in section 325 where we added um challenges to biodiversity as part one of our um items for advice to council and the city administrator and any comments on that that's really what we've been talking about for a while um let's just go down to number seven we added um to advise the city council administrator on matters relating to sustainable development clean production Environmental Technologies biodiversity and strategies of the A2 City's a20 carbon neutrality plan that are associated with solid waste and natural features we did to go on that I'm hearing nothing I'm G to move on to number nine um this would Now read to publish and present an annual report to City Council on the activities and recommendations of the work groups committees and the commission as

074a whole it leaves out a lot of some the the particular detail but I think it's more consistent with where we are likely to operate and um doesn't kind of box Us in too tightly what do you all think about this right oh let's move on to number 11 I'm going to take nothing no comment as yes um number 11 is to advise city council and City administrator on enhancing the awareness understanding commitment and active involvement of um skip locals of community members in ensuring wise stewardship of the city's natural resources and enhancement of biodiversity now and in the future through educational education volunteers some public private Partnerships and incentive programs I see your hand commissioner Graham forgive me I did appreciate the change made in the previous document that changed our original language I

075suggested to prove residency is the qualifying factor for um issuing a driver license to anyone and everyone regardless of citizenship status I appreciated the change whoever made it thank you sorry to okay that's in our that's in our um that's in our um lobbying document this is still our bylaws oh sorry yeah that's okay that's okay we're coming to that one okay that's okay I was okay um I wasn't getting behind no you we not you were way ahead okay um okay the next one down [Music] is got that okay um a new number 15 um to create a sub quorum to create sub Quorum work groups designated to report back to the commission as a whole with recommendations um and then there's a reference below but that's that's not to be part of the

076bylaw ultimately all right and then we would just renumber the subsequent items and then we're going on to way down to a question to our City attorney about um conflict of interest just how do we do the annual process if is there a paper or something we need to sign or some some way to acknowledge that so that is not part of the byw it's just a question to address the management of our conflict of in interest statement okay next one is pretty far along it is um article 7.12 there it is um this is just something that I just noticed that it was like our bylaws said that we we're going to have public comment for 2 minutes but our practice has been 3 minutes and and Council uses 3 minutes so I propose

077that we use three minutes for us in our bylaws see no comment if you have one let me know um otherwise we're going to move on to that the end not quite okay 9.6 yeah uh which is the commission may also create work groups or designate certain members to perform research or develop recommendations on specific topics without creating a committee committee is really a more formal kind of arrangement and um this is just to support our our more informal kind of activities and that's that so environmental commission any com comments concerns questions hearing none um I'm going to just ask if we have could have a a motion to proceed with management of these through the city process and we'll um ask Sean to give us some guidance and the legal team as well did

078I have a motion thank you commissioner Dale seconded by commissioner Curtis everyone okay with moving our bylaws forward as written thank raise your hand I see almost everyone Mr Graham are you voting okay with this or Y thank you okay we got 100% thank you all um thanks here we go moving at a snails pace our next item that we were going to talk about has to do with um uh preparing us really for our next session but but at least a brief discussion of things that we would like to ask our um city um what do our city lobbyists to work on um in the name of environmental issues um that we would advise Council to ask our lobbyists to move forward and so with that I um uh at commissioner Curtis's good suggest

079question um included the list that we had prepared in March um and I wonder if anyone has any additions to this um for natural features solid waste water quality pollinators I see commissioner Cowart thank you yeah something that's come up with the circular economy discussions is a ban on uh compact fluoresence uh because they contain mercury and encouraging the shift to LEDs ah okay do you see that as being like a state um level thing yes okay do you know of any um active legislative effort to date I've asked the new circular economy staff member to pass that along it was uh will is his name will Garcia who brought that up so as soon as I get some more information from him on that be happy to pass that along that's great okay that

080sounds great yeah I was worried about those bulbs on commissioner Graham of course uh there almost are no complex fluoresence in the stores anymore almost everything there is Led which is going in the right direction very fast I know there are some but and I think prices favor the LEDs yep um commiss Brown um regarding Solid Waste number one which is amend 115 to prevent organic waste disposal and landfills there's a complication here in that um almost all um Municipal Solid Waste are uh or you know wastewater treatment waste um sewage sludge relabeled as by solids they're sufficiently contaminated with posos chemicals that they uh that um our own city has no longer spreading them on agricultural Fields but um you know shipping them to a landfill uh pending you know pending um determinations of

081what the legal status is going to be because there are extensive Legacy contaminations there's been you know eiga has been resistant to test any agricultural fields or biosolids being applied on agricultural land so um this is a gray area right now that's probably going to fall um into a situation where most Municipal organic biosolids will not be legally disposable on agricultural lands so the land going to a toxic landfill Stephen or or are they going to Arbor Hills I'm not exactly sure I think um I City staff will have to be asked that question um but I you know part of the why this is all in flux is because um I mean EPA still hasn't acknowledged any of these as hazardous waste well there are farms that have been completely ruined by this practice

082that's correct the regulatory apparatus um moves very slowly seems like a good idea for us to provide a strong nudge any others in addition to what is included in our packet council member dish yeah I wanted to put in a plea for tipping fees um for legislation to increase the cost of tiping fees in Michigan because and this too comes out of the work of the circular economy slash formerly known as zero waste um working group because um if one of the barriers to um an effective construction and demolition policy um is if it's cheaper for people to landfill their stuff then bring it to the CND sorting facility and pay whatever fee they have to pay and get the value they get for that so um uh and I know that Yousef Robbie used

083to be very excited about tipping fees of course he's not in the Senate anymore but um I think that there's probably support from Senator Irwin and I know that there has been a bill on that um but I do not know what it is but I can do some checking and find out um what there is here um and I wondered did um when I I I suppose you've all looked at the document that Sean sent us Mr Reynolds sent us that has what the council's policy suggestions are with the policy committees formal program is they it's clearly very rigorously prioritized and it's clear that they got a lot of Staff feedback in doing it I me you could tell that sustainability staff had a lot of input because a lot of the energy policies

084that we need to reach a20 are foregrounded in that I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile um to prioritize these still further I mean our list or the one the one that Council has yeah our list because councils is councils used to be a huge long grab bag and it and I think that it was less effective that way and so I think that the policy committee this year or I guess at this point it's last year but anyway did put a lot of effort of thinking about priorities and really um connecting the suggestions to City initiatives that are seen as very high priority and that are underway and so I don't you know I think it would take some it would take some hard choices to do that with this list and so I

085don't know if that's the best idea or if it's because this is coming from a commission if simply putting forward everything that um you know that we can see as valuable and allowing the policy Comm to prioritize and weed out would be the best strategy and I I'm actually kind of posing that as a open question to anyone here what they think would be best um but and if people are amenable to um tipping fees I'm happy to keep uh to to find out more information about that and then I wondered if anybody could just illuminate what um what you take to be the current State policy on deer and what we would be asking for from the State Legislative discussion regarding deer management can yeah if anyone could just because um I am I'm

086confused I mean I know that a problem we have with the state is that they won't let us do a sterilization thing anymore that was a pilot project and they won't bring that back and that was effective and good and it was something that people could come together around and that didn't didn't activate so many of the um animal rights activists and they won't let us do that anymore so is that the discussion that we want to reopen because otherwise I don't think that they have a lot of bearing I mean like we could do what we want except we can't do another sterilization program it's more up to us so I'm not I'm not sure what the legislative discussion would look like other than a discussion around the sterilization pilot so did anyone have

087a what's the thinking behind that um I think that I I can't fully speak to the full range of this except to say that there is still concern um about um deer management in the city and in our region in general um and the effect that it has on um the the full ecosystem um y I totally understand that so yeah yeah but I'm not sure why that would be something we would lobby at the state level over unless we wanted to Lobby about but it wouldn't be the legislator legislature it would be Eagle that we need to Lobby about um letting us sterilize again um I mean this is a city issue um there's very little chance of that I the hunters hold heavy sway even in a democratic legislature that's there The Hunting

088Community was extraordinary offended by it offended by by the sterilization yes okay [Music] um so all I can say is right now this was a carryover from our prior discussion and so it I think it remains a concern of of our group and so that's why it's still on this list yeah I'm saying that I understand that but if this list is to be on the policy committee State Legislative lobbying I don't think this belongs on it because I don't think that it's I I don't think that that's where where the pressure needs to be I mean I am not I am as you know um concerned about our deer management policies but um unless someone could specify what they think uh we need from the state I'm not sure that it should be on

089here yesterday at the state parks advisory committee meeting I brought up the subject of the duty of the DNR and particularly the parks division to protect biodiversity on state parks and I suggested that we sit down with hunters and mucc and state parks folks and Wildlife folks and work out a way to deal with too many deer on our state parks which many of which represent the highest level of biodiversity in the state I don't know the answer but I think some of the things that we discovered in an arbor about how to go about these things things uh will contribute to that answer and um I think there's no doubt and I think the majority of people recognize there is no doubt in Southern Michigan we have too many deer particularly in our Urban

090and Suburban areas and there needs to be some serious work done to find a way to deal with this we were very successful in two parts of our city somewhat successful in the third part never mind sterilization we were very successful in making a drastic change in the damage that was occurring here and uh we need to get back to it and we need to do our best to inform other people in the state about how to go about it much is happening actually a lot of people a lot of places are getting very frustrated we did a great job and uh we have to find a way to get through this problem a lot of people say well we have too many cootes we have too many geese we have too many we have

091Beaver for heaven sakes nothing in any of those nuisance animals Rises to the degree of damage to our biodiversity and our ecosystems that deer are presenting us I don't I'm not arguing with you Lisa I am simply saying that uh we got to get there somehow so I agree and I'd like us to keep this on our list for discussion so we have another session where we can do this at the end of November and I'm hoping that we can have a um perhaps our discussion in our biodiversity work group specifically and see if we can come up with some suggestions and and some ways forward um that's what I'd like to take as an approach um I would like to add to this list um support for some legislation that is ongoing with respect

092to pollinators specifically um and it is some legislation that's being right now one one bill in particular with an Associated one um is being being um shephered through by uh representative Ryans um District 47 of the house um and it is um with restricting use of neonicotinoid pesticides as a class um from use on the state's public lands um so it's under discussion I know and I would just like to send support for that um to go forward um as an arber saying we support it that that is my one wish to add to this and at least it's specific enough and and has some um current activity anyone else with any additions um then I think with that I'm going to ask that um each of the work groups take a look at this

093and see if we want to tighten up any of the aspects of the the document um certainly that seems like a reasonable kind of thing to me um and um with that any other questions or comments about this particular thing on our agenda tonight because I think we are at a point to call for reports from our commission committees other commissions and Council okay um first up let's go with let's go with biodiversity Mr Graham do you want to take a lead on that we may or may not have we've met twice and um are inventing our duties and um um working through a whole set of ideas about what we might do and how we might do it um uh without I would say a huge degree of commitment in One Direction there's too

094much on the table still um perhaps once we get to the next meeting we'll be doing better but at least there's an interest in trying to gather a group of people who are extraordinarily well informed in this area to begin to talk with us about um what it would take practically and effectively to not just protect the biodiversity we have in the city but impr proove it and I'm very tickled about the bird presentation to tonight because clearly Birds particularly song birds and migratory birds are in great decline right now there are birds I used to see frequently I was a little boy I never see anymore in the city and including pheasant out my back window that was not a native species but nonetheless they're gone and gone for much of the state and

095so I I um we'll keep you posted I'm I'm I'm thrilled at this kind of reinvention of what we're doing with natural features in the city and uh think it will bear more interesting fruit and one really needs to thank Rita and Brooks for their um leadership in this idea and this way of going ahead all right thank you for that report um let's go to Circular economy sure I'll get it started and then Lisa please add whatever uh you'd like or I miss um so we meet monthly uh we met last week uh so let me back up where our Focus this fall or this year is on CNT corruption and Demolition and working on pulling together information analyzing that and thinking about is it's possible to move forward with some type of coordinance

096for that within the city and or in partnership with the county um we've pulled together a lot of information we've started to analyze that right now we are focused on conversations with other municipalities that have implemented C and ordinances last week we had a wonderful conversation with several reps from um Wisconsin Madison and the surrounding County and next month we're going to be talking with representatives from the city of Austin uh so that's kind of our Focus um there's a lot of good things going on but the main challenge seems to be you know do we how do we move forward in the best way knowing that there isn't really a facility now to take things at scale Lisa you are as always superb at doing this J hun um I would uh add that

097um I I think what Sarah Mason said at our last meeting was really that right now we're in a phase of deciding if this is even something we should be pursuing right now um because it does appear I mean unless it would turn out that our current murf could has capacity to take CND D waste with which I don't know that it does uh Madison has two sorting facilities so two murfs basically and so that would put it pretty far off um so still it is great to be exploring this and talking to other cities who've done this and Madison gave us really great feedback and inspiration around um how they how they're able to even without perfect reporting from the people that are that are participating and dealing responsibly with their stuff they're able

098to talk about carbon emissions that they're achieving from it and so you know we could do some good work but um I if I may just add an item to include it's just it occurs to me that there are a number of developments under proposal that will place a lot of buildings um I'm thinking of south of Packard toward Madison a lot of buildings that when I look at them I see these gorgeous carved Foundation Stones um from the 1800s and the thought of losing those just in landfill is kind of painful um and so I don't know what to say about that but it would be so great to um address that there are windows and doors there that function right um if there's any way to manage that um and and I know

099that timing is an issue right now right increased tipping fees back to our policy agent can that be done fast let's go for it he push okay all right um let's see uh all right I'm G to lose track but I think that next is harks hi that's me thank you commissioner maren uh we met last week uh the Parks Commission last met last week um we had a presentation on the city golf courses they had a huge turnout this year for golf uh set a record this year the number of rounds played at both golf courses um they also talked about the various um some of the stewardship projects that they carry out on the golf courses um the monarchs in the rough we have four acres of wetland on golf courses um solar

100panels are being installed at both both or have been installed at both and um they're working on using uh organic fertilizer to keep the the grass nice um and then we had pres a presentation on uh the Barton bamir tunnel Trail and tunnel project it's going to be done in two phases um this winter they will be Paving the section um in the Barton nature area that's going to become part of the border to border Trail and then late summer they hope to Begin work on the um underpass that's going to go underneath the railroad track to connect bamir to Barton um and then finally we had a presentation on a big project that's going to be happening at the Barton Dam um there's the embankment that uh forms the I think that's uh that'll

101be the west side of the Barton pond it's going to have uh it needs to be reinforced with it's an earn embankment and it needs to have more Earth um I don't know all the technical details of it but um uh this is work that's mandated by um uh the the federal agency I think it is that um um ensures that our dams are safe um and that project is going to be a long one because access to the embankment is via the parks uh via the the path that's in the park there because they need to go underneath the railroad track that um that uh is right that uh traverses right there between the embankment and here on River Drive so for this project is going to take about 24 months and during that

102time access to the Barton dam is going to be cut off like um right now you know Park users can go up to the dam and cross it so during that time they will not be able to do that um so that's going to be a long project it's going to probably start next summer 2024 and that's all I have thank you that's really very interesting all of it um okay I think our next one is transportation commissioner Amman yeah um I have a couple things one one resolution that was passed in our last city council meeting that first was passed by Transportation Commission and that was about um restoring uh safe comfortable walking and bike facilities across the eight Crossings uh across us23 that we have within the city um so that is a

103request of mdat it also calls for them not to you know widen the freeway in the process of this $250 million project that we should be instead investing in thinking about ways to facilitate mass transit uh on those corridors there's another one I guess this is my city Council report because this one didn't go through the Transportation Commission first but it is transportation related and that is the resolution that we passed calling on MD do um not to build a six mile wall I believe it was through an arbor along the railroad tracks um basically we're calling on them to you know we all want safe legal Crossing across the railroad tracks um there are better ways to do it than building a wall and I think that actually listened because the last I saw

104they had updated and said they're going to re-engage with u the different municipalities and the community I guess I don't know really what that means but it seems like we at least got their attention so that seems like a positive thank you so I have a thing to add to that which is a concern that that I think has been raised by people in that group which is um Wildlife Crossing of those areas that are right along the river it's just such a natural kind of thing and sorry yeah the that was one of the things mentioned in the in the petition that we cited too and in the resolution so thanks for bringing that up yeah yeah thank you um go for it um uh okay all right I have I missed um we

105do need planning and city council I guess are the two that I know and I may have missed another one uh also energy commission and water quality oh yeah thank you energy you want to hear from energy I know John mury is not here today so I think that's no info and I'm sorry Sean I did not hear the second one you said the water quality working group oh water quality yeah um let's see I just we have not met uh but I have two things I'd like to announce and one is that um the here on River Watershed Council you know is um working through its Mid Michigan partners Consortium to come up with tmdl recommendations for uh I want to remind people that the city is in a consent decree with eaga to

106reduce its phosphorus pollution uh nutrient pollution of the hon river which is causing harmful alal blooms or contributing to harmful Al alal blooms in Fort Lake and Belleville Lake Downstream of an arbor and so um they're working out a plan and there's there it's still on a draft form so there's nothing specific to report now it's going to be slow um the basic action that's mandated over the next couple of years is uh just Gathering more data um is what I've heard so far so I'll report back when I hear more about this um the second thing is that you know um yesterday there was a press conference um the uh Jeff Irwin our state senator has been driving legislation to bring back polluter accountability legislation so a whole package of bills was submitted simultaneously

107by Jason Morgan who's our house representative in an arbor and um you know who replaced Yousef Robi and so they've introduced a whole set of bills both in the house and the Senate and there was a press conference um held U um yesterday morning at 9:00 a.m. in Lancing and so um there there's a YouTube recording of that that I could share with people if they're interested but um this is important legislation it existed um here it was um uh first dra was first U propose proposed um in the around 1990 or earlier by uh by um Lanta Pollock who was a state senator at the time now she's on the board of lcv and uh but the whole the whole um the legislation was gutted by Governor angler back in 1994 so um it's

108not the same as the legislation before because you know um knowledge has has changed since then so it's a pretty good bill package and um they've done a good job it looks like there it's got bipartisan support and so you know the only U the only objection is going to come from the chemistry Council and the uh American chemistry Council and the Chamber of Commerce State's Chamber of Commerce so we're seeing what's how that's going to get through the legislature but um it's looking good so far and um people are urging everybody to contact their Senator their elected representatives in the state including the governor about what they think about this package that's it great thank you all right uh uh coint toas Planning Commission versus Council so there's really just two things I think

109going on one is that uh planning C Council Planning Commission excuse me will be talking next week about extending the tc1 zoning to Plymouth Road um and there's a public Outreach meeting there's been a public Outreach meeting for that one already um and there will there is upcoming a public Outreach meeting for the Washington count count Corridor um and the other thing is is that um we had another meeting with uh the folks who are redeveloping part of Brierwood and it is it is what we hope for in the sense that they are um you know taking a parking lot and turning it back into a green space with housing which is the reverse of joanny Mitchell so yay um and they're they are committed to an all El electric facility provided that DTE confirms

110that there is capacity and so I don't quite know how to interpret that because DTE hasn't been entirely Cooperative but I think the developer is is an advocate for electrification and so that's where we are and as far as that's all I can think of that is directly relevant to this group thank you that's exciting um all right Council would you like to take that council member acman I think I reported everything that was relevant to this group unless I missed anything council member dish okay all right um did I miss [Music] anything just the chair person's report oh the chairperson's report hello um um I have not a lot to report my my report was more on on related to the biodiversity and and the legislation um relating to pollinators um you have Sean

111thank you given us a great report on from staff um which includes our our new um environmental services manager coming up um there was something else I was going to say that's really it right um right any other questions or comments right now from anyone because I would move on to um announce our next scheduled meeting which is different um from our usual um pattern it will be um we got to get there Thursday November 30th after Thanksgiving and this is because of our schedule that often impinges on the holidays to avoid that so this will be our year-end meeting um our next one will be at the end toward the end of January so November 3rd 30th for um our next meeting um I'd like to move on now to the second public comment

112this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes please call 888 788 099 and enter meeting ID 922 1644 City staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand please press star nine on your phone you'll 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 and mute M any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments thank you um Sean do you see any hands raised we do not have any right now okay I'll give a short pause and

113um just say to to you all thank you for um being here this meeting and thank you for all your dedication to environmental issues which are so important for all of us um and next any any additional hands John we do not have anyone calling in all right I would like to entertain a motion to adjourn anyone want to raise your hand for commissioner Brown thank you commissioner Curtis second um all in favor of adjourning thank you all great thank you I like working with you a lot thank you good night thank you thank you