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
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T ' o Fax: 630-553 -7575
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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