Loading...
Green Committee Packet 2008 06-23-08 C/TI- �� o United City of Yorkville ° 800 Game Farm Road EST �cl 1836 Yorkville, Illinois 60560 ® I f--� Telephone: 630-553 -4350 �, T ' o Fax: 630-553 -7575 <bE AGENDA YORIMLLE GREEN COMMITTEE .Lune 23, 2008 7 :00 P.M. Yorkville Public Library First Floor Meeting Room Call to order: Welcome Members and Guests : Approval/Correction of Minutes: April 14, 2008 Old Business : 1 . Tree Survey Recommendation 2. Water Conservation Presentation 3 . E-waste Site Grant Status New Business : 1 , Number of Members, Voting and Non-voting, New Chairman 2. Education Committee 3 . Rolling on the River 4. Light Bulb Distribution Additional Business : Adjournment: United City of Yorkville Green Committee Meeting Seventh Meeting — April 14, 2008 DRAFT The meeting was called to order by .Till Fleishman at 7 : 15 pm Present: Stephanie Boettcher, City of Yorkville liaison Anne Engelhardt, Member Jill Fleislunan, Chair Al Green, Member Laura Haake, City of Yorkville Planner Debbie Horaz, Member Marta Keane, Secretary Mariann Manthei, Member Joe Plocher, Alderman Robyn Sutcliff, Alderman Committee Members Absent: Tony Graff, Ralph Pfister, Chuck Roberts, Phil Stuephert Guests: Cheryl Lee, Guest (Lee Builders), Tedd Lonquist Minutes: Minutes from March 24 meeting approved as presented, moved by Al Green, seconded by Marianne Manthei, unanimous. E-Scrap Permanent Collection Program Ms. Engelhardt attended a meeting with the City' s grant writer to obtain a grant for an electronic recycling drop-off. Bart Olson and Eric from the Public Works Department attended the meeting as well. Location possibilities and costs under various scenarios were discussed. The grant from DCEO is up to $60,000; it requires matching funds of at least 25%. The project is now primarily on the City staff shoulders. Space issues arose at the meeting and the idea of a mobile trailer was discussed. Ms. Keane's e-mail regarding the grant, the cost of pick-up with a CDL's licensed driver using a semi-trailer and the possible lower cost of using non-CDL driver with a 24' truck was discussed. Water Conservation Seminar Ace Hardware will be at the April 280i presentation with raffle items for attendees. Cheryl Lee will be there with some energy saving appliances and presenting ways builders may help homeowners reduce water usage. Ms. Fleishman has some pamphlets that will be placed on Ms Lee's table and a box of water reduction devices that will be given as a door prize. There needs to be a few extra people to assist with greeting attendees, assist with rain barrel sales and to assist with CFL distribution. All assistants should be at the library by 6:00 p.m. The Environmental Law & Policy Center will be setting-up much earlier and will be bringing some refreshments. The Conservation Foundation will not be present but we need to have at least 30 people to sign-up for the barrels to get the price of $50 per barrel. Ms. Lee offered to take the Rain Barrel sign-up sheets to St. Patrick's Building Green and Energy Efficient event scheduled for April 26b. Ms. Engelhardt offered to take the Rain Barrel sign-up sheets to the showing of Inconvenient Truth at the Yorkville Congregational Church on April 20th. Tree Ordinance Laura Haake, City Park Planner, covered the existing landscape ordinance. She explained that a landscape plan for a new development includes a tree inventory, tree removal plans, sign plans, street plans, etc. If any trees are considered highly valued but must be removed, a replacement is required — for instance a 30" diameter tree removed requires 6 smaller diameter trees be planted as part of the landscape plan when the development plan is submitted. If a 30" diameter tree is removed after the plan approval that was not designed in the original removal plan, then the developer must replace it with 12 trees. I In response to questions, Ms. Haake stated that plans are created to require spacing of trees to allow for tree maturity widths. These requirements do not apply to single home properties, but apply to larger parcels being developed. Many questions arose about various development and single-family parcels related to tree loss. Ms. Haake explained that the first step might be to do a citywide tree inventory to learn where trees are needed, what trees are highly valued, eta A tree canopy ordinance can be enacted to differing degrees, targeting only lots being improved (subject to building permits) or all parcels. These types of programs do have costs. A tree inventory may cost $650 to $850 per day, while a strict tree canopy ordinance may require full-time arbofists or contracted oversight. Currently one tree is required every 50 linear feet, two are required on comer lots, one on each street. At this time the engineering department checks the trees that builders plant, but the engineers are not arborists and don't always recognize if trees are planted properly or if the species is appropriate. Part of Ms. Haake's job is to assist the engineering department but a staff arborist would be more appropriate, The City has funding available for an inventory of street right-of-way trees. Ms. Lee suggested contacting a high school teacher (Tony Robbins) to arrange to have students inventory trees as part of a class that already includes some outdoor tree identification. Everyone liked the idea of partnering with the school but then how much additional time would this project take? If this project is delayed, more trees would remain unprotected. The concept generally accepted was a contractor might be asked to work with students, if Mr. Robbins agreed to incorporate some of the work into his class schedule; but to keep the tree inventory project on a feasible time schedule, working with students should not become a requirement. Ms. Lee volunteered to ask Tony Robbins, a Yorkville High School teacher, if he would be willing to utilize students as part of his curriculum to perform any of the tree inventory duties. Ms. Fleishman asked Ms. Lee to work with Ms. Horaz to create a recommmendation to the City from the Committee requesting funding of a professional Parkway Tree Inventory an d a teacher/student private property survey. Ms. Fleishman suggested this recommendation be ready for the April 22nd City Council Meeting to be presented with the Water Conservation ordinance, Alderman Sutcliff suggested contacting alderman prior to a meeting to explain our upcoming recommendations. On May 20°i the Yorkville City Council will be meeting with the Oswego City Council in a special meeting. The Green Committee has been invited to attend this special joint meeting. The time has not been set but Ms. Boettcher will let us know via e-mail soon. Water Ordinance Al Green gave a brief description of the fully rewritten water ordinance that will be e- mailed to everyone tomorrow. The Committee was asked to provide feedback via e-mail so this can be presented at the next Public Works Committee meeting. Emphasis was placed on educational elements including public outreach including presentations such as the Committee has already arranged, door hangers, brochures, newsletter articles, usage contests between residents, student poster contests, rain garden contests, effluent water treatment, etc. The second part of the plan addresses conservation through ordinances. Peak demand rates after a base amount, building codes for fixtures, banning of sod (although such a step is unlikely — simply encouraged), addressing sod requirements in homeowner associations, encouraging native plantings, replacement trees on private property and not just in parkways. Announcements Ms. Fleishman expressed appreciation to Al Green for all his work on revising this draft water conservation ordinance. Ms. Fleishman received several calls this week, including one from Mr. Cliff Jahp and wants a speaker to attend the May 6`h Lions Club about the Green Committee's activities. A request was made from an apartment dweller that wants recycling. We should make this an item on a future Committee meeting. A complaint was made regarding the water park development in light of the Committee's effort to reduce water usage. The park recycles water but is still expected to utilize 6 million gallons a year due to evaporation, A conservation consideration plan was made by the park development in conjunction with the Bristol Bay subdivision development. It includes swales and a passive recreational facility. A question was raised as to what happens to the water at the end of the season and Ms. Fleishman hoped to have an answer by the next meeting. Ms. Engelhardt suggested that the newspaper should put an article together on these issues, Ms. Engelhardt and Ms. Fleishman met with Bob Browning of LLC to learn how the transfer station proposed for Plano will operate. They acknowledged that the facility will do some valuable recycling of yard waste but the City of Yorkville will be negatively impacted by traffic from this site. The City of Yorkville has written a letter to the Village of Plano about this issue and no further action will be taken by the Committee but individual action is encouraged. Alderman Sutcliff suggested e-mailing Plano alderman directly. A survey was developed for Committee members to express their perspectives on being a member of the committee, on how issues are being handled by the committee and to provide suggestions for improvements. Ms. Fleishman requested its completion and return by the next meeting. A press release was passed out by Ms. Boettcher about the Building Green and Energy Efficient Homes Expo. at St. Patrick's Church. It will be on April 26 from 9am-3pm. Meeting adjourned at 9: 17pm