All right everyone, welcome to the Sustainability Framework Advisory
Committee. It is Friday, August 26th and it's 1 of 02 and we are in the City
Council Work Session Room. We do have a quorum. Mr. Stevens may make it today but
I'm looking to be maybe absent as well if you want to document that. And we do have a full agenda today
so I just ask that maybe we take our questions down and then at the end of
the presentation we can go through and ask them and we can get started with our
first item for individual consideration. Consider approval of the June 29, 2022
minutes. Anybody have any comments on this? Oh it's no good to approve. Okay. Second.
All right. All in favor? Aye. All right. We'll move on to item B. Receive a report and hold a
discussion regarding the current tree code requirements and the development
impacts to trees.
Can we have Colleen Fitzgerald? It's Patrick, sorry. I knew I was going to do that.
From Development Services to Landscape Planner. We're going to talk to us about tree code today.
Welcome. Come on in. And just a friendly reminder to everyone, we are using the
mics that are hanging from the ceiling, so speak loudly.
Good afternoon everyone. Colleen Fitzpatrick, Landscape Planner with the
Planning Department and Development Services. Today we will be going over the
current tree code which is the 2019 EDC and go over tree preservation requirements. So
we had a request from the committee to go over the current tree code
requirements and I'm guessing part of that was probably fueled by the large
amount of construction going on throughout Denton. Pretty much anywhere you
turn you can see dirt turning, things happening. So I just wanted to go over
the 2019 tree code today. Some of the projects that you're probably seeing
constructed today are under older code, so the 2002 code, but all the ones that
are being reviewed today that will be built will be going into the 2019 code.
So today we will be going over what those tree code requirements are, how
we're reviewing them, and how they're enforced. So what are those requirements?
We're going to start with preservation. We're going to break it up into two
spots. Preservation and then mitigation. The overall standard preservation
requirement is a minimum of 30% preservation of the total DVH of
heritage and quality trees. On the next slide I'm going to go over definitions,
but there's several definitions that categorize trees different way. As far
as DVH, what that means is diameter at breast height. So you're measuring the
diameter of the trunk of the tree at four and a half feet from the ground up.
So basically arms length and then you measure that diameter of the tree, not
the circumference, but the diameter. So standard preservation is 30% of the
inches of quality heritage trees. It's not a tree-per-tree basis, it's a
percentage of the total inches on the site. There is an option for a lower
preservation amount that goes to 20%, but the mitigation rate will be higher if
you go below that 30% minimum. I wanted to address ESAs, environmentally
sensitive areas. Tree code requirements and ESAs are separate requirements. They
do not double dip like they did previously in the 2002 code. So when
we're looking at tree preservation we do not count ESA tree canopy as part of
those calculations. So they have their separate requirements. ESAs are
undeveloped areas, they're to be preserved in perpetuity. Tree code are
tree preservation requirements in the development impact area or DIA. So on the
table we have just a generic example. Anything that would be considered green,
the trees in the green spot, you can see the removals of the X and the green,
those would go towards tree code. The trees in blue would be a riparian buffer,
so those would be ESA category trees and those would go towards your ESA
preservation requirements. We're not going to go into ESAs, but this is just
showing the relationship, how we're reviewing them with the new code. The red
area where it says encroachment into ESA includes EIA. If there's an alternative
ESA proposed to go into an ESA for drainage or into a riparian area, they
have to file for an alternative ESA. Any area where they're developing to do
those stormwater encroachments ends up in the DIA, so then that gets kicked to
tree preservation. So then we add those calculations of canopy into tree
preservation and they get moved out of the ESA to preservation. So into those
tree definitions, secondary trees are four different types of trees. So
secondary are considered healthy ash, healthy boat arc, which is also known as
Osage orange. If you see those big brain-like apples throughout town, that's
part of the Osage orange or boat arc tree, packberry trees, and codwood trees.
And those are trees that are six inches wide in diameter and above. Those
species, six inches and above, are secondary trees. Quality trees are all
non-secondary trees that are between 16 inches and 18 inches. So one thing to
keep in mind is that all protected trees, when you get into these categories,
anything that's six inches wide and larger are going to be protected for
the DDC. So secondary trees, you got your ash, boat arc, packberry, and codwood, six
inches and larger. Quality, non-secondary trees that are between six and 18 inches.
Heritage trees are all quality trees that are 18 inches and larger, and all
post oaks are considered heritage trees even if they're below that 18 inch
requirement. So all post oaks, no matter how big they are, six inches and above,
will be heritage trees. Non-protected trees are dead or unhealthy trees, trees
that pose an imminent or immediate threat to persons or property,
crape myrtles, ornamental pears, mesquite, honey locust, and noxious and invasive
trees on the Texas Department of Agriculture. Landmark trees are a special
category. We actually do not have many in the City of Denton because they have to
be registered. So we only actually have six trees that are marked as landmark,
and those are either with the Texas Big Tree Registry, the property owner has to
designate them or request to be designated to be on that registry, or
there have been some private property of relationships with the City of Denton,
where they've usually been a private owner that designates a tree, and then
the city will accept that designation as landmark. The only one on
public property that we have is at the new DPS site over on McKinney and Mayhill.
There is a large landmark tree there. The others that we have a record of are on
private property. So how do we review this? The City of Denton has created a
resource to help make the tree preservation process easier for us to
review and the development community to submit their applications.
What the Planning Department has done is they've created an inventory list, so an
Excel file, where you can see the different categories of information that
we need per DDC requirements, and then it out calculates in the table on the far, I
guess, right side for you looking at that. That's where all the information in the
tree inventory data ends up in the tree mitigation worksheet. The trees that are
marked on the tree inventory data are the ones that are being preserved, and as
you can see in the box over there, 30% preservation has been achieved because
they're meeting the inches. It's not a tree-for-tree removal basis, it's per the
inches. So they're preserving, looks like they need to preserve 49 inches, but
they're actually preserving 69 inches, so they're above that 30% preservation
requirement, and they're only keeping five trees. As far as mitigation goes, so
the mitigation table on the right is where we can see that. I'm going to go
back and let you see what a 30% mitigation will look like if they
follow that standard requirement. You can see on the very bottom, it says
negative 74.5 inches. When we see that on a final plat, when we're looking at
landscape plantings and trying to figure out if they owe tree mitigation into the
tree bun, if that's negative, they're not going to owe a feed. There are standard
landscape requirements that will make them, or they have to follow certain
landscape requirements that they're required to put trees on site, so this
doesn't mean they don't have a site with no trees. They still have to meet those
landscape requirements, but those requirements do not go towards
mitigation because they don't have to pay that. However, on this sheet, if we
look at it, any tree that's removed has to be replaced. So, sorry I'm going to go
backtrack here. When we look at the 20% mitigation, I wanted to show you at the
bottom here, if they're at 20% so they go below 30, now they're in a total where
they have to pay mitigation. So, we compare those landscape plans. If they
go below the 30, they're going to have to pay into the tree bun or plant more
trees to make up for that. So, they're at positive 71.65. So, as far as
mitigation goes, that's kind of the difference between 30% and 20%. When
you remove a protected tree, you have to replace it. Where can you replace it?
Either on the property, and they have to be at least two inches in caliber inch, so
that's the measurement diameter, when they're planted and above. So, they can
either be on the site paying to the tree fund or on a location mutually agreed
upon by the city and property owner. Sometimes developers don't necessarily
want to see their tree fund go into a place where they don't know where their
money's going. They'll coordinate with Parks Department and see if they can put
those trees and see them actually get planted within their project timeline and
see that actually go to use. So, that's an example of if they choose not to go
into the tree fund, they want to coordinate with the city to put the
trees elsewhere, that's where the trees are going. They want to put that money
towards immediate action in plantings. So, this is the overview. We kind of went
over the charts. 30% preservation, there's a different replacement ratio
rate. 20% preservation, there's a higher mitigation rate. So, when we're looking
at these on review, STAB is going to look at it in a three-year period, and then on
the mitigation table, if they owe mitigation, you multiply the 71 inches at
the bottom by $200, and that's how much they owe. Here are some examples of how
we're reviewing the 2019 DDC. On the early stages of development, we're
looking at construction impacts in 7.7.4 D. There are distances that you need to
be away from the drip line, construction activity to help preserve the life of a
tree. You can see on this side, on the before picture, they had a smaller area,
the yellow area was the only area where they're preserving the heritage and
quality trees. After discussing this with their engineers and landscape
architects, we were able to encourage them to preserve more trees based on
their construction implications. You can see on the after photo, they have
extended that area in the center, and they've added an additional landscape
area along the frontage there, so they've increased their preservation with the
with the way that we've been reviewing this, and to increase preservation. So
this is just one example. Here's another one. The original submittal, the trees in
yellow on the before, were going to be impacted by either grading or the septic
being put in on the other side of the grading area. So after conversations, we
bring up the concerns. What you're showing in the plans is going to impact
the critical root zone of these trees, and they're not actually going to receive
preservation credit. So we were able, they didn't, their intent was not to
remove any trees, so we brought up the concerns, and then they revised their
site layout to reduce the impact and reduce the loss of trees. Okay, so
enforcement, how do we enforce this, or how do we enforce this. Mitification fees
are due at the time of the filing of the final flat. Staff will surveillance the
area from construction up to three years. If we do see a violation, we issue a
stop work order. We have building permit go out there, stop the work on the site,
tell them to put the fence back up, or they cannot work until they have fixed
the situation. Ways that they can fix the situation is through additional
plantings in the available open space on the site, or they pay just a
straight fee into the mitigation fund. It was requested that we add some of the
tree fund data in the last five years, so you can see at least on the right side
there, those are some of the statistics that we've had, and we gathered the data
for at least this year. It's still definitely in progress, but you can see
that total there, and then we also have the tree fund balance, which is around
half a million dollars that's currently existing in that account. Here's some
examples of violations that we've seen on site, and we're trying to avoid in the
development review stage. So you can probably see what's going on here, and
how it's not good. The tree is already seeing signs of decline. The imagery here,
the construction crews have totally decimated half of the critical root zone.
We've already seen root damage, so we contacted the developer and let them
know that this tree needs to have a mitigation fee paid, or they need to
remedy the situation by planting trees on the site. So these are the type of
examples that go on as far as violation goes. Here's another one that's similar.
There's excavation, which is a violation in our DDC under section D. They have
removed the tree fencing after we had inspected and approved the site to begin,
and they excavated under the critical root zone. We actually had a call from a
resident that notified us of the situation, and we acted on it immediately.
We had building inspections go out and stop the situation, and then they paid
it to the tree fund. You can see the same situation happening on the right side.
Here's another one as far as compaction goes. This is the last slide, at least for
enforcement's go. Where we have compaction issues, first of all, there's no tree
fencing. There's supposed to be tree fencing around these. That's a violation.
And then they're storing heavy equipment, which is a specific category under the
DDC that you were not supposed to do. And then on the far right side, you can see
the trees that are next to the home. We want to avoid long-term conflicts with
trees. This happened probably after the developer was long gone. There was
compaction during the construction of the retaining wall. You can see the
canopy is going over that section, so the root zones were impacted, and we have
increased drainage, which may have also left the depth of the tree. But these are
just examples of what we're trying to avoid and address as far as tree code
and new construction. And with that, I'll take any questions. Anybody have questions?
I do. Go ahead, Ed. Thanks for the presentation. Do we have any idea how
much carbon is sequestered by the current canopy that we have? I do not have that
information. For a tree code review, we're specifically looking at DBH that is
preserved, so we do not have that data collected at the time of the development
review. Okay, what do you think? I don't know, maybe it's... I think it would be
interesting to know if we could get that information. And is the canopy increasing?
For development? I mean... Just deaden's tree canopy, or is this a question that's
really not related to what you presented? I think it's a combination. Yeah, I don't
think it really relates, but with our landscape requirements being as strict
as they are, and we do encourage... well, we don't encourage... we make developers
replace what they're planting, and they have to meet that mitigation ratio and
replacement. So the landscape plans definitely have lots of trees that are
replacing what is removed. Some instances, they're replacing what species that are
better than what is on the site. Some sites have disease or secondary trees
that aren't as valued, and they're putting in quality and heritage trees, or I
guess quality species in. So we are also making up for that, but the carbon
sequestration, that's a really good question, that unfortunately we can't
enforce in development services to collect that data, but I think that's
really interesting to look into. Yeah, I think especially with the climate action
plan coming up. Are newly planted trees irrigated? Did they put irrigation
systems in? Yes. And how long do they usually stay irrigated? They should be in
perpetuity unless they're planning to do zero escaping. I would work
with them on a maintenance plan to make sure that those are established before
they start pulling back on that water supply. And that leads me to my final
question, which you just mentioned. Are we seeing more, or are we seeing any
developers who are coming in and zero escaping? Yes, we've seen at least three
requests. I think there's only one that I've seen move forward with
implementation. It's one of the data centers. They aren't zero escaping
everything, but they're doing permanent irrigation on their landscape beds and
irrigating their trees. But turf, they're putting in native seed, and then they're
going to temporarily irrigate that to establishment. And then after
that's established, there will be no turf irrigation at that point. Great, thanks
pretty much. So the initial site inventory, those are
self-reported numbers, right? Whenever a developer's looking at a plat and it's
reported to... They have to be verified or collected by the
DDC professional. So if I don't have a verification on their profession that's
related to the DDC, I will kick the plans back and not accept them. So it either
has to be a certified arborist, an urban forester, a landscape architect, or a land
surveyor with tree identification. And each of those positions, are they all
under say like a standardized certification? Because I know for some
you could be under ISA, but for an urban forester, I didn't know that that was a
criteria we had. I don't see them submitted or reviewed by an urban
forester. It's an option in the DDC, but if let's say there's a violation and
they're contesting what I'm telling them is a violation, I say please hire an ISA
certified arborist to verify what you're telling me is correct. And if they
provide that, I'll look into it professionally and get their response.
But yes we have professionals, ISA, they have to verify it. It has to be on the
plan saying I'm responsible for identifying the accurate information on
this site. So if there's incongruencies with what you might inspect on site and
what they've reported, are those rectified in the development process or is
there like a keep that happens immediately? Yes, that's actually happened before. So if I see a site and I am concerned the
data is not accurate, I will ask them about that during the review process and
ask for clarification on the methods that were used to collect the data.
So then during the development process you said is it standard for three times
for your office to inspect the site or is that the average that you shoot for?
Usually they're off-site inspections, so I look at aerial photography because
there's just so much development coming in. We have to be delicate with our
time and where it's being used. Usually I get on site. Sometimes during the
development review they'll invite you on site and ask you whatever questions
that they have, but typically inspections happen whenever things
approved and we're doing tree fencing inspections, but what I think your
concern is coming from is is the data accurate and are we approving things
that should be approved, right? So we have to trust the professionals that are
submitting the plans. If they're not providing that professional certification
then we can kick it back and not accept the plans, but we can't contest every
single project because it's not possible and then you're also overriding their
professional certification. So you can you can't contest everything. You have to
trust the system and their professionalism with their license, but if
there's a concern that maybe there was some misinterpretation, you can question
it and then you can try to clarify the issue. What would you see as a proper
process given you're working with limited staff and limited time when a
site violation does exist? Is it encouraged for residents to report or
is it better for you to engage from the office in that process? Oh I love
when citizens tell me what's going on. It's helpful. It's our community. I
appreciate their involvement. Like the one example that you saw, they understood
that something strange was happening and they notified staff and that caused a
chain of reaction for us to take action. Because we can't be everywhere at once.
If there's something happening we definitely welcome. Sorry rolling
through. Post-project violations like the last example that you showed where you
often expect up to three years outright or at least they're supposed to ensure
that their mitigation survives up till then. When you have an issue like the
image on the right where it's years after potentially development, how are
those situations rectified where it was, I'm going to use the word, the fault of the
developer that a mitigate or a preserve tree ended up dying. How is that
situation resolved in the long run so far as it relates to mitigation of the tree?
Yes that's a good question. We look at the code, which code was it adopted under
and what we can enforce. Because it is 2019 we might not have that enforcement
with the older code. So we look at all aspects of the project, what was reviewed,
what code it falls under. So if this had happened, let's say under the 2019 code,
we would reach out to the property owner and try to rectify the situation. Final question.
When it's a city project and we're working on city lands or city easement
and the city contractor has a violation, we're already paying them. Do they pay us
back in the tree fund for say mortality that they didn't anticipate or an issue
like the image on the left where the contractor may have not fully understood
what our criteria was for preservation. How are those issues when it's our own
people in a sense? The code still applies to them. We do have provisions in the code
that if it's for public improvements or enhancements of roadway infrastructure
they can be exempt from the tree code for that sort of use. So it just depends
on the situation. If it's going in for sewer line that has to happen, it's sort of
multiple communities. There's not much we can do about it. They're protected in our
code. But if there are solutions where we can avoid the removal of the tree, we're
going to try to pursue that. Thank you so much. One question. What the heck happened in 2020 that there was almost a million others?
I wish I could tell you that but I wasn't here when that happened. Nobody talks
about that. That's such an outlier relative to everything else. Yes I cannot
speak to that. I started in October of last year, so 2021. I'm seeing some head
shakes. I'm not sure. A bunch of violations. I mean is that what that's telling us?
I think it might be telling us there was more development because as more of
these projects get approved and start going, it's a combination. It's not
always violations. It's the final flat and the projects coming through. So some
of these projects, I've seen people $1,000. I've seen people owe $200,000.
So it just depends on the type of projects that are moving forward and
going through construction at that time. That may have been a year where there
was way more construction than we saw in the previous years. It may also have been old
growth forest just cut like you know like a lot of bigger trees.
Sorry. I just have just one too. Why why the 30% number? I guess I'm asking
because this is so the city's developing rapidly. You can imagine someday where
we're built out as it were. Does the city have a goal to have a
certain, like if you can count all the DBH and all the trees now, do we want to
stay at that same number? Do we want to have an acceptable percentage less than
that in the future? Do we want to grow that? Like what is the goal and is the 30%
number designed to get us there? Or is that just what's legally we can get away
with? I believe legally that could be something you guys appear to. It could be
legally or it's what council put before us in the code. Haley can speak to that.
Yeah when we were updating the tree code, that's right on the microphone, when we
went through the tree code update in 2019 we were looking at trying to balance all
the factors. So obviously we have our landscaping requirements that are higher
than a lot of other cities. Our tree preservation was already significantly
more than other cities so we didn't we couldn't make a drastic jump from where
we were in our 02 code which averaged from like 10 to 20 percent depending on
the site. But we did want to increase that amount that was council's desire. So
we looked at what the recommended amount of tree coverage for our area is which
based on our ecosystem was anywhere from 20 to 40 percent depending on what part
of the city you were in and what ecoregion that was within. So the 30%
was a good balance where we felt like we were we were marginally increasing our
requirements that are to be quite honest already much higher than other cities in
the area and tend to get questioned and challenged a lot more because of that. So
we wanted to to get to a number that was an increase but not a drastic increase.
So 30% was that balance that council ended on at that time.
Interesting. Thank you.
Yeah I was gonna it used to be 20% it could go down to 10% and so when we
approved the new code we got it to 30% down to 20%. So it's a little bit of
increase but I believe the overall canopy goal for the city is 30%. So I
don't know with all the development if we're further away from that goal I
think we were like 20% 40% so I don't know where we are on that goal.
And I would have to look to Heywood and Michael for that answer but I know just
based on as Colleen spoke to our landscape requirements combined with our
tree code canopies increasing on all of these properties that we're seeing
developing. So the trees might be small today but over time we will definitely
get to a much higher tree canopy overall for the city. And if those die they need to be
replaced. So if they just go through and kill a bunch of them they have to be to
be in compliance with code. You have a follow up? No I'm glad you said that because I there
was a presentation a while back by our urban forester that showed actually the
city is a tree maker like like the forest has grown as we've developed it
seems like and it seems like that's what you're saying is going to happen. Yes
if you think of an industrial site on the west side of town when they come in
there may be just a handful of mosquitoes or something on the property
because it's mostly been cattle land. We're requiring them to plant back at
least enough trees to someday have at least 20% tree canopy coverage on that
side at a minimum just based on their zoning district. So over time we'll see
that increase but Heywood probably has that. So we do have an overall goal of 40%
tree canopy and we did some some numbers looking at coal hunter development
based on you know the tree canopy that's there now versus once the site is built
out and the data showed out remember the numbers specifically that there would be
an increase but it's also site dependent. Some sites you may go in and
have 100% or near 100% tree canopy cover where you're never going to get 100% if
you build something there because you at least have that building footprint and
the area that you're developing. The other thing to keep in mind is the coal
preserves based on diameter of the wrench which there isn't a direct link or
correspondence to canopy size. It's not a linear progression. In some cases once
the tree gets a certain size the canopy will actually start to shrink a little as
the tree gets you know towards the downside of this life cycle. So
hope that helps to answer and clarify a little bit. While you're here I have a
question for you. So on the landmark trees we heard that there's not a lot
but I know that as development is increasing there's a lot more old growth
forests that are going to be developed. Have you or anybody do they recommend to
the developers like this should be a landmark tree and like give them
information on the process or is that like out of our? So for example the DPS
site calling reference I was the one that reviewed those plans when it came
in and they were struggling to meet tree code so we sat down and reviewed the
plans in detail with them and saw I can't remember the inches of the tree it's like
27 or it was a significantly size poster so I was like hey looking at the state
database you probably qualify for landmark tree if you do this you're
going to get a little more credit and it can help offset because they were having
to plant a forest of trees back on site to meet our landscape requirements. So we
have those negotiations with them where possible when we see those trees that it
looks like could be a good candidate for that but ultimately it is the property
owner who has to agree to designate and in that case they were amenable to doing
that. Okay well that's good to know. And my last question is as far as dead trees is
that up to the citizens or is there a a way for the city to go out and like
within that three years if there's a lot of trees that are dead on a new
development how is that enforced and who finds those I mean I know that with the
drought I've seen lots of little trees that are dead so like how does that
process work? Are these new plantings or preserved plantings? New plantings. Okay
I think we could have code enforcement go out and I would wait till it's a good
time of year to plant at least but you can give them the notification and we
would work with them on replacing that but I think that's something we can get
building inspections on our code enforcement into. So that's recorded? Yeah so I think there are
ways that we can enforce that to make sure that's get replaced. All right awesome
thank you. Anybody else have any questions? I appreciate the presentation. Thank you
all for coming today.
We will move on to our next item. Item C. Receive a report, hold a discussion and
give staff feedback on sustainability framework metrics and implementation
tracking dashboards.
Good afternoon committee members. I'm James Subliss the conservation programs
coordinator. So today we wanted to review with you an internal dashboard that we
have been using to make sure that the sustainability framework is on track and
that we are working in progress all of those goals strategies and metrics that
are included. So today we'll go through a quick background of the sustainability
framework and also how the dashboard functions. Some of the details related to
that. We'll do a quick demonstration with the dashboard and then we will take some
next steps some feedback and we will go through that. So again the purpose of the
framework so this is a guiding document that allows the city to be a sustainable
community that improves the environment and utilizes resources in ways that are
fiscally and socially responsible and its implementation is also the charge of
this committee. So kind of an important document there. It's got eight key focus
areas, 66 goals and strategies which are the general principles and methods that
showcase progress for the framework itself and then we have 36 metrics and
those metrics help to track whether those goals and strategies are making
good progress. Again as the sustainability framework advisory
committee progress and metrics tracking will ensure that we are staying on the
path with the implementation of the framework. Areas of improvement can be
easily identified internally as we review this and areas of success can be
highlighted and replicated. So some things to note during the dashboard
demonstration for the goals and strategies you'll see four different
categories those are ongoing, incomplete, in progress and complete and so ongoing
that just means that the language surrounding that goal or strategy
implies that there's not necessarily a completion something like continue to
improve the efficiency of city buildings or energy efficiency so that's something
that's always going to be an ongoing goal as a part of that framework. The
ones that are a little bit more binary have that set completion threshold
associated with them will be designated as either incomplete or complete if
steps have been taken on those items they will be noted as in progress but
maybe they haven't reached quite the goal that was set out. With the metrics
the metrics are a year-over-year metric so when we look at 2019 it is in
relationship to the year before so those metrics are either designated as
improved or declined if it is the same and there's no change and then it's
possible that with some of the more recent years the data is not available
and so that designation is in there as well. With that I will pull up the
dashboard real quick. Again this is just for our internal review so far so you
can see all of the different key focus areas there on the left-hand side one
through eight and all of the different years so we'll start here with some of
the goals and strategies. As you can see a good portion of the goals and
strategies are ongoing and so the 25% of goals and strategies here you can see
are really going to be the ones that change over time so as we move from 2019
to 2020 you can see some of those movements in progress and as we go here
in 2021 we're moving more of those items into the complete in progress
categories. We can also if we have questions about where we're at on
certain items we can go ahead and sort by whatever key focus area that is and
we can get a quick glimpse so if we are talking to other departments or
anything like that we can get a quick sense of where everything is at. Very
similar here with the metrics so just to give you kind of an example here so
we'll go into the energy and energy conservation and efficiency. So for 2020
we saw year-over-year improvement in every single one of those metrics which
was great to see and so once again that's a comparison to 2019. As we move
into 2020 we had a slight decline or 2021 we had a slight decline in the
number of participants in the rebate program and we had a slight decline in
our internal energy consumption numbers. So once again just a really good way to
kind of if we have an internal question about something go and give a check on
that here in our dashboard.
So for our next steps we want to continue to update the dashboard in
terms of our 2022 numbers which will be going in here in the fall and as we
move through January and complete the 2022 calendar year. We're also going to
consider options to utilize this dashboard as a virtual counterpart to
the written document itself. It sort of functions that way for us internally.
One thing that we do want to make sure that we're doing for some of those
ongoing goals and strategies is that each year we're keeping track of what
items what achievements have gone into those ongoing activities and basically
what action items are we taking to improve those and typically they will
be reflected in the metrics so we can attribute some of those action items as
we see those change as well. So pretty quick overview but with that I will take
any questions that you might have. So I'm just curious if we there would be any
value in adding absolute numbers where it's possible say like change in
renewable energy for D&E would be like an absolute value once right knowing not just a
percentage of change but what value we started and where we went to. Sure and we
do have that information I think this is a quick look of did it increase or did
it decline so that we can sort in that way so we can identify okay this year
maybe this is what our priorities are at a glance. So all of the absolute
values are in there and that's something that if we build it out a little bit
more we could include as a part of that rather than just the relative change in
the percentage. Just one other one it seems like we're making some good
progress in a lot of these key areas I'm just curious I know obviously this would
be for internal use but if we're proud of our progress is there some way to
highlight what we do have ongoing where we have progressed in some areas and in
other words publicizing some of the elements of this that would be a tool
online perhaps for residents to look at. Yeah absolutely so I think this one
functions really well for our internal uses I think that we'll probably design
something very similar or even if it's just a posting you know what I mean of
the 2022 2022 highlights for example we could do something like an annual report
that would be a little bit more publicly digestible and I think that's really the
next step with us. Thank you. Anybody else? Adam? Just a quick question that was one of my questions so
thank you. The data you're capturing is going to be really broad because it
applies to a whole bunch of things the cities have going on so for example the
40% tree canopy cover we just talked about is something that would be tracked
here. Yes correct. I just want to get a sense of the scope of this. Yeah and for the
metrics it really helps us kind of put everything under one roof so that we you
know every year we're making sure that we're going out to those departments
that may be the the holders of that data and we're centralizing you know what's
important to the framework. Does council have access to this or
or people who advise council on decisions so that like does this feed
into informing decision-making? So right now this is our essentially our internal
tracking of the framework and the results can be exported in any number of
ways as we just reported to committee on the environment earlier this week and so
they got a snapshot of some of the results of and I think that will be the
process that that continues in. So what you're saying is that this dashboard as
it is with the information it now contains will not be accessible through
the sustainability website? In its current format correct. Yeah what do you
envision how do you envision putting it on the website? I imagine that like I
said I think that an annual report is going to be in the works and a next step
that comes out of this especially now that it is easily housed. Is there a
reason for keeping it internal like this? I think it's purely a functionality item.
What are you meaning what? So just if there's a bit of a learning curve with
sorting through some of this and so we would want something that would be a
little bit more a little bit more friendly and public-facing. Okay then I
would really be happy if a public a dashboard for public consumption, current
not just a year end, but I think something that could be posted that the
public could access so that and you could put in there check out these
highlights here's what we're doing because it's a it's amazing it's an
amazing organizational tool and I think people need to know about it because if
they do they'll take advantage of it and know what you guys are all about.
I actually agree with that because a lot of people are seeing a lot of
development change. A lot of development is clearing initially and the trees will come up and it's depressing.
And so if you see things like this it tells us that we're doing something in
the city other than just stripping off the surface and putting out a track housing thing, it tells us we're doing something else.
So I think the more people can access this type of information for our city the better.
I also had on my notes that I think this would be great information to share on
the sustainability web page and then hearing you talk about how it might not
be in our usual usable interface. I do think don't we have an open data page or
we used to a long time ago where something like this might be implemented
a little bit easier in that. I know that several years ago we did and it was
maintained and it was it was user friendly like we could go to it. It was
something separate from the city of Denton but it was an open data.
There was a metrics database that was very simple with the arrows and the yellow and the red.
I'd like to be able to build this in a way where we can share most of the data
but maybe not have as many clicks to get to each of the important pieces right so
well I I think it would be fantastic to see the goals that we're moving towards
and how you know how we're progressing but I did have a question on say like
here's an example the sustainability metrics greenhouse gas emissions for
municipal government operations. Our target is just to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions. There's no like number target or you know so how how do we see
or we just kind of like oh well they were reduced by like 0.5 percent yeah you
know what I mean like do we get to come through and kind of add to this a little
bit more or? Well we've adopted the science-based target now which we didn't
have when we adopted the 2020 plan so we can put more targets on that. We have the
community-wide reduction okay so we can tie back to those now so that okay so
that is in your those community-based goals are in in your document they're
not in this hard paper copy but we do have a goal now like a number goal. Right
yeah for for example for the greenhouse gas emissions and as things update we
can and really this I mean this is meant to pair with the document itself but we
can certainly make those changes as they become more more relevant like that. Okay
I just want to make sure that that was overlapping you know that was
coordinating and then I just want to say this is great it shows that this just
isn't an empty document you know like which a lot of things are so this is
really fantastic thank you and then maybe we could do an insert or in the
newsletter or something just to kind of overall highlight as you know while we're
waiting for kind of just a snapshot of our annual update. Yeah it goes on this it gets me
thinking do we know how people receive information about the cities to
standardize? Where are they getting this information? Where do we get this information?
You're on live TV. Yeah no I know that but it's like it's it's not in the DRC is it
it's the city's web page is nice but it's hard to kind of navigate through
that so you really got to look and I just I don't know maybe I'm just thinking
out loud it's a little bit off topic but it's like I I want to know this stuff
right and I'm on this committee and I'm seeing this here but I want to know this
as a citizen how these things are going on how do we how do we get that message
out there? I think that's actually in another item coming up. Oh really? Okay good yes.
Yeah yeah all right. Anybody have any questions about this one? Thank you JT.
Thank you. I appreciate it. Okay we will move on to item D. Receive a report. Oh
that's what we just did isn't it? No.
See okay so we see report hold the discussion and give staff feedback on
action items and implementation strategies using current and future
sustainability framework fund. We're going to jump up for this one, Catherine Barnett
sustainability manager and then JT is going to help take notes as we work through this one.
Okay. I think everyone will help take notes as we work through this one. So just a little bit of background talk about the
framework fund work plan and the progress then we'll go into some
brainstorming and suggestions and if we need to we can pull up some of our staff
brainstorming to help us up with that discussion and feedback in next steps. So
just a little bit of background we know the framework was adopted in 2020 then
we had this committee come on for their first meeting in May of 21. The work plan
was approved March 22nd of 22. We've been working on that since it was adopted
or approved by council and we have additional funding coming to 2022-2023
of the year that we need to talk about. So here are the items from the framework
fund work plan that was approved by council. So the climate action plan is in
process. We've had our kickoff meeting with that. Our air quality monitors are in
procurement right now. It's open for proposals. Low-income weatherization. We
are trying to get some other plans that we can compare to so we're not
reinventing the wheel and trying to find data sources for some of our low-income
programs where there's already verification process there that we don't
have to just completely start over. So I have some staff time on that and then the
food fellows program is going to kick off in September with a compost class and
then move into planting, gardening, herb gardening, just trying gardening for
everyone. So we'll work on that one and then we have started some alternative
transportation education and we will work on that when it's not a hundred and
five degrees and people want to walk in. City fluid electrification. We have some
hurdles there just due to supply issues. Rainwater capture and then the solar
structures and efficiency upgrades are just taking a little bit longer to get
off the ground. So the climate action plan RFP was awarded July 19th. We had
the kickoff on July 22nd and we had our engagement data and planning kickoff on
the 11th of August. So moving pretty quickly right now we're still on target
for a May/June deliverable. As I said the air quality monitors are in purchasing
and we're moving through the other two programs. So now we get to the fun part.
Brainstorming, where to spend up to four million dollars on sustainability projects next year.
We gave you the focus areas. We gave you the copy of the plan so you can refer to the focus areas and we want to open it up for discussion, ideas for projects that we could work on, anything that might fit under one of the eight focus areas.
My initial thought is that once we get the climate action plan back, this would
probably help us direct more specifics. So this is just kind of
brainstorming and eventually it might change when we get those. I think we
can keep narrowing down because we get projects there that are more defined, maybe, for the climate action.
Sorry, the delivery on the climate action plan is for 2023. What month? May/June. So that's almost a year and a half.
So lots of time to think about that. And Michael is edging over this way.
I was going to say, yes. Come on up here, he's supposed to be.
Michael Gotti, Director of Environmental Services and Sustainability. Just want to remind you, we're going to have the funds. They'll accrue next year as the funds come into the fund.
So it's projected we might get to four million. We would like input from y'all on what we could do during next year with those funds.
Knowing the climate action plan is coming, which will then refine some of that and the climate action plan should be timed excellent for the following year's work plan as well.
So we're going to continue to have the fund. So there's things that y'all recommended this year that we didn't have funds for.
You want to continue those and move those into next year or you want to go a different direction. We just want to hear your input.
The money could roll in kind of month by month. It could be larger slugs. It just kind of depends how it comes in. But it's projected to be up to four million next year.
Can I ask you a question? Is there any possibility of any funds coming in from this recent bill that was passed, the IRA, with all the incentives in it that the city could take advantage of?
There are potentials there, yes, and we are looking at that. I don't have any perfect details on that. This would be a separate, in a sense, separate pot of money to do other things with that we're here watching.
Great. You could keep us updated on that. That would be great. Thanks.
Thank you all.
I would like to add more to transportation, biking infrastructure, pedestrian infrastructure, put some more money towards that for sure.
I know sidewalks, I think that supplemental to the city budget would be helpful.
Any ideas?
I also had some ideas on transportation.
Go ahead.
Some of it related to, kind of on the same strand as our alternative education program, but like an adult cycling training course.
Just because I know there's a lot of barriers that that was never part of your childhood when you have the flexibility to make mistakes and mess up, but as an adult in reality, if you're not already educated on how to operate a bike, it can be a really intimidating burden.
So I'm just curious if there is perhaps a local partnership maybe with the folks at Bike Denton, where we could partner some of those fundings to have a class specifically for that, as well as like fund things like if you are in early childhood development courses for younger children as well that we could go through the city, I think would be really fun.
And then second, also under transportation, perhaps also greenhouse gas management, since our number one emissions factors, those vehicle miles traveled, looking at alternative transportation.
Having been in Denver all summer, they have a really, really interesting bike rental program that's offered through the city that has qualifications and verifications to just ensure that their city resources are being allocated responsibly.
But if you don't have the means to independently purchase your own bicycle, it was a really cool program where they give you one effectively, you rent it from them, almost like a library book.
But kind of in the same vein, if that wasn't the direction we wanted to go, similar to how we do the solar rebate program, I'm curious if we could explore a bike rebate program.
I don't know if that would happen pre or post purchase, but just a couple ideas.
So just a question on the Denver program. So it wasn't one where there were the bikes around town, you had to go and apply and rent the bike from the city?
It would not be another lying situation for Denton. Yeah, it was a, call it a city fleet that you would apply towards, and I can email you this link if that's great.
That would be amazing.
And so you would rent effectively as the same you would from a public library of book, you would rent from the city, from their city bike fleet for an appropriate amount of time after you presented them some qualification documents like actually proving residency in the city, and they would loan you this bike.
And I've seen that implemented in New York as well. So that was the program we could create, or again, the voucher rebate idea if you were to purchase a bike.
We did a little bit of learning.
We have a loaner program.
Years ago.
Wait, wait, sorry, I had a long flashback, but it was a city staff loaner program. And we have a bike shop over at the service center where we could work on.
The PD helped us with bike maintenance. So, one of the things we're talking about is getting with the sustainable schools program bringing back, is it bike rodeo? Am I making that up? No, we get bike rodeo.
So, we could do an adult bike rodeo and a kids, you know, we used to set up at Collins and do the bike rodeo.
On this bike talk, if you set back up that center, people could bring their bikes that were broken or donated them and then they could, you know, be refurbished and keep them out of the landfills and, you know, give kids or adults bikes that can't afford them.
It's kind of like the bike repair clinic or even a bike repair room.
Similar to this education course is the how to actually repair and fix up your bike so it would be less of a cost burden if say it busted or the wheel fell off or whatever and you knew how to do that yourself.
I would love that. I have a broken bike right now.
Anybody else?
Yeah, this isn't about bikes.
Something like, I'd like to say brainstorming.
I don't know if DME wants to go into the battery charging business.
But I could see city-sponsored or city-owned charging stations at city facilities.
And especially with the projection of EV ownership, as we're all aware of, how that is going to become the norm.
And this ties in also with municipal projects like solar structures actually having parking lots, city parking lots that have solar screens that feed into battery chargers.
So, I mean, just looking down the road a little bit but we know what's coming and I think this should certainly be part of the discussion.
It also ties in with city fleet electrification too.
City is going to have to have battery chargers for its own vehicles so perhaps that program could be expanded to the public as well.
Yeah, I think if you look into the structures like in the city hall parking lot or the operations parking lot that has the solar on top, maybe we could help purchase some of those around.
Or even put a couple of fast chargers, you know, like one at the library or one, I don't even know.
I guess it would have to be a partnership with DME but we could look into that.
And there are a couple of chargers going in this week at the development services building.
And then I know that there's a grant out for a fast charger and I think a level two.
This could be another IRA component too.
And I mean, as far as reducing waste and food waste, there was a program, I forget what city it is, that they handed out food processors, like free to homeowners to help reduce the food waste.
So I know we want to encourage composting but maybe not everybody wants to do it or they don't have a place to do it.
But they could, you know, have a food processor to help the waste go instead of.
Oh, the garbage disposal?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, I'm saying food processing, sorry.
What are we making?
Sorry.
Garbage disposal.
That's right.
I read down that and I just kept reading it.
No, no, no, that's good, that's good.
You're like, she's gone insane.
There's a lot that goes in my salsa, but I don't know.
Sorry, garbage disposal.
No, no, no, no, that's a great idea.
I like that.
Yeah.
I'm trying to look at the topics up here.
So water, water conservation, obviously needs to be in the forefront.
Any, any suggestions for water conservation?
I had water down because we kind of left it out of the older goals.
Water conservation, something about aren't there gadgets you can put on your sprinklers to control how much?
Rain sensors and moisture meters for irrigation for lawns.
Yeah.
I would like to look into having incentives for people to zero escape.
I mean, I'm already looking at tearing our lawn out and changing it up because it's, I don't want to even see my water bill.
And on Keep It Beautiful, you know how they hand out trees, maybe we could partner with them and hand out native plants instead of just trees that take a lot of water to establish.
Like just a native plant giveaway or something, drought tolerant.
Yeah, that would be a great, great campaign.
A lot of places look at doing that strip of land between the street and the sidewalk and incentivizing people to pull the lawn out of that area.
Plant, butterfly nards and other things.
But we don't have enough sidewalks to do something about that sadly.
But that's like another option.
Well, and to go along with our National Wildlife Community Certification, if we incentivized kind of your habitat, plants, a box similar to what AgriLife used to do with their butterfly garden box with all the plants you need to create your habitat.
Then it gives people a step ahead on that certification process as well.
Okay, native low water use.
I don't know how this would connect and it needs a lot more rainstorming, but kind of underwater, kind of our way of use.
I know in our development code we allow in stormwater swales for those to be vegetated with native vegetation and that those don't have to be managed in the same way that we would manage a lawn.
So I'm just wondering if there's, I don't know how often that gets adopted in someone's plan.
I've only seen it crop up in a handful of times.
Ryan High School did a project recently where they were redoing one of their drainages and decided to vegetate it with native vegetation.
But only a handful of examples come to mind. I wonder if there's a way that we could encourage that route of water management a little bit more over just your turfed grass bio soils.
I'm not sure exactly how that relationship would look like because we can't require it without changing the code.
I think that's something that Colleen, it sounds like she would be in favor, so I think we made a new ally with Colleen.
She's nice.
She is, she is. So I think that that's something that we can talk to development services about and see what would it take for more developments to choose something like that.
If it's a cost burden or just an education burden that it's an option for them or what to do with it after you've installed it and how to manage it.
I'm not sure what the hurdles are. It's just strange to me that it's not taken up as much as it could be.
And have we, and we may do this, each department in the city, maybe if they have a copy of our goals and strategies and then they can kind of get back to us on what they think. Maybe they have an idea that they've wanted to do for a long time and haven't been able to because of restrictions.
I think that would be helpful for us too if there's a list. They might think of something that we might not.
Also, you may, you're probably aware of this, but North Texas, a gentleman named Patel is their energy manager now. And they are, they have their own carbon inventory.
I'm working on the new one now, but they have two years passed, but they're starting their own discussion for a university climate action plan.
So I think it would be good if we could include them in our dialogs in some cases as well because they seem to be on the same track.
Okay. And he's the energy manager?
Yeah, I'll send you his information.
Okay, that'd be great.
Yeah.
And so on water, too, we can talk to the other departments, talk to water and wastewater, and is there expanding plants and growing, what could we help them do to be more energy efficient?
And then at the same time, water conservation?
I'm kind of quiet because I don't know enough about what the other departments need, you know, or where money already exists to do some of this stuff.
Kind of like we were talking about with some of our first year projects where maybe we're paying an incremental cost. So maybe if drainage is going in and working on something, but then they weren't going to expand and take it outside of that drainage footprint. Maybe we do something to work on the areas along the drainage channel and improve that or restore that.
Definitely like that idea. If there's a chance to do restoration in some areas. And I'm looking at, depending on how well some of the things go that we had earlier, I mean, if they are very successful, like the low income weatherization, maybe adding more money to that.
And I think fleet, as more vehicles become available, that pot of money can grow.
And on fleet, I don't remember, does that include, because I know at one point, like, parks got an electric lawnmower. I mean, does that include all of those things that we can electrify?
Anything that would run through fleet.
Yes. And so they're all aware of that.
I think it's just the supply right now on the vehicles. What's out there doesn't necessarily match up with what was due for replacement right now. So conversation is happening with fleet to see how we can mesh things together to work a little better.
So energy, even when we're at 100% renewable, of course we want energy efficiency, because these summer bills this year, everybody was hurrying.
So the weatherization is going to be key to that.
Our audit and rebate program, which is funded separately, still is something that we're working towards. The rebates, you'll hear about a little bit about next week, but trying to keep up with inflation, too, with our rebates.
So talking about that, talking about how we can rethink our audit program in the future.
Did the rebates, speaking of rebates, did that money run out really quickly again for like windows and solar?
No, we still have funding in that program.
The solar funds were deleted, but I think there's 110,000 left in the other part. That's what Tony told me.
Do we rebate for electric lawn equipment?
We do not yet.
That might be something we can add.
Anybody else?
On energy, does DME do anything with smart grid technology, for example, are there some places where people can have their thermostat effectively controlled, they can opt into it to modulate when there's high demand?
Do we have stuff like that?
We do not currently have the demand management program for smart thermostats through DME. That is something that they've talked about with demand response in past conversations.
I don't know where we are with that right now. We can get DME. We can ask that question next week.
I'm wondering, because you're right, we have 100% renewable, at least kind of. We want to electrify more things so then we want to have a way to also decrease the demand on the grid, right?
Yes.
If we could play a role there, a small role.
On that note, do we give out or rebate for smart thermometers?
We do.
Okay. That is one of our rebates. We do electric vehicle rebate, HVAC, windows, insulation, ductwork. I don't know if there's a rebate for duct repairs. I'm forgetting something. I'm looking at JT. Which rebate did I forget?
Duct tape.
Maybe just as we increase the programs or add to it, just on that education and outreach, make sure that there's some funding that stays in there for that so that people know what's available to them.
And putting native plants back in and trying to make that area more of a natural habitat. So those could be some projects that could be tackled more quickly than some others that require all of our ramp up to build a program.
Would that be something you're interested in?
I know for our last round of recommendations we talked about participating in our public land acquisition fund that parks overseas. I just wonder, and I vocalize a little opposition there because it's just way beyond the scale of our budget, but I wonder if the energies and resources we're thinking about for that space could be directed into these more very limited timeline projects like the smaller restoration thing.
Kind of like the strip along the railroad off Colorado and Shady Oaks that parks just did that GOAT project on. Be an excellent candidate for something like a restoration project.
Okay. I'm trying to think about exactly where that is.
It's right across from Spencer Generating Plant.
Oh, okay. I was thinking about the goats on my heels, right?
That's right, yeah.
Different GOAT project.
And I mean, I think having a little sign like, you know, this restoration project was, you know, paid for by these funds so that people can see them being used.
Start making the connection.
In our community, yeah. And then it might trigger something in their head like, oh, I need to go find out what's going on.
I can look up all the stuff we're doing.
So anything else so far have been some of what we brainstormed on.
Go ahead.
Okay. So when we were talking about water, we were talking about irrigation classes and incentives.
One of the things we learned is a lot of folks move into a new home and they don't know how to control their sprinkler system.
They don't know how that controller works.
So some classes about that, increased natural habitat stormwater controls at city facilities, previous paving, reclaimed water reuse, and then the ice swim support and stormwater impact reduction projects.
So I think we kind of touched on most of that.
This is just a little more fleshed out maybe.
But if these are things that kind of build in with what we were talking about with water, then we can build, mesh that all together with the notes.
Yeah. On the previous paving, how would, where would that be implemented and how? Would that like the development services department or?
It could be the development services. It could be on city projects.
Okay.
You know, we've seen some really great purviews paving and some not so great.
Right. Yeah. Yeah.
So some best practices maybe that we can demonstrate on city projects to try to get the development community to buy in.
Okay.
What are some of the like irrigation classes and incentives?
I mean, incentives go to people to change their habits.
Classes require people to, I guess they could do it. You could do everything online. It requires them kind of buying into that.
Unless there's more outreach with irrigation.
So I believe we did two irrigation classes this year so far.
You know, and maybe it's encouraging folks to learn how to install drip irrigation instead of the sprinkler heads and moving more to that type of system.
And then just learning about their controller and then how to water their yard where rather than soaking it, you know,
and everything running off after doing a 10 minute zone, you know, do it a couple of times and not as frequently throughout the week.
So there's just different methods depending on your soil.
And we provide for engaging other tools in those classes. But it could be a virtual class, it could be an in-person class.
And then maybe work with someone in town that have a rebate for some of the supplies.
Have we ever done virtual classes for irrigation?
I believe one.
Okay. I just wonder if that's something that maybe we partner with DTV and we record it once.
And you know, it's something that could be available online for people because I know obviously with class attendance as if anything,
it's very scheduled and lifestyle driven that it's difficult to get people to come out to participate.
But I just wonder having something as like a resource posted would be really easily accessible when, okay, I'm at my house.
I'm looking at my controller right now. I could pull up something.
It would just be if we're already doing classes in person, it might be worth the time to build it.
That would be like the composting. If there was like a bunch of things available.
I meet so many people who are like, I live in a new house, I know nothing about landscaping or growing plants.
So they just resort to whatever else, which is mow grass and water grass. That's it. That's it.
So I think that's a great idea for us or for the department to partnership with DTV on some of these
main issues that somebody may want to look up on their own in their own time for information.
If somebody wants to volunteer their house and their sprinkler system.
I'm willing. So we did have the electric landscape equipment incentives as an idea.
Would that just apply to homeowners? Because a lot of that equipment is being used by landscapers.
So that's where you make the difference is that you get those guys to go electric.
One of the ones who are doing 90 percent of the mowing, blowing, edging and weeding in the city.
That's a total gap. That's why I see it.
There is a lot of that. I think we would just have to find a way to make sure that equipment
was being used in the city of Denton primarily. So if we could have some type of verification.
If it's a local company. If it's a local company. Right.
I mean, we know a lot of the landscapers in town, but they're always changing.
So we can ask about that and then make it something that we work with our contractors to ask that they use electric equipment.
I think it might be a higher priority to just ensure at first city departments or contractors
who are doing landscaping that we can replace or as things come up for replacement.
Encourage them to adopt an electric vehicle or equipment.
And that might be almost more of a demonstration and that might also encourage more uptake from businesses.
I just think it might get messy if we're trying to, might look weird if we're giving money to businesses.
Versus incentivizing residents to purchase equipment. I think it's a whole different category.
But I would love to see all city vehicles and equipment first being electrified before we start talking about something else.
We're in Texas giving money to businesses.
I just added that one way you can do that with the businesses is you can incentivize the person hiring the company
to where we offset the cost of that service if they can verify and confirm they're using electric.
That way we're actually giving it back to the folks in Denton instead of directly to the business.
Sounds good.
Alright. And I love my electric lawnmower. It is awesome.
I recommend that.
So facility fund support for energy, water conservation and management.
Internal facilities still bring improvement on our internal facilities. We know that through our tracking and management.
So land use. I mentioned this a little bit with restoration, walking trails.
A little bit more of a scenic stroll type of environment where you've got some shade.
We've talked about that before where nobody wants to walk on the sidewalk.
It's 105 degrees right next to the street so we can get them off into the green space with some trees.
Maybe a surface that isn't concrete.
I think that would be something that we would all like to see including the green infrastructure with drainage.
NWF community support. I mentioned the boxes for PAPTAP, pollinator way station, pocket prairies, tree rescue.
Anything that we can do along those lines I think fits in with what we've talked about today.
Is there anything else that jogs something for you in land use?
Anybody?
I guess the only thing I can think of and I think it's already being addressed is that Parks was talking about plantings to stop the erosion.
Like in Avondale where the banks have just collapsed and there's actually hazard fence up.
Keep people from going over the precipice. But that might go in with the green infrastructure in terms of the drainage.
They restore some of the riparian habitat.
Is that all the drainage area there?
Yeah.
Like after this rain storm when the level goes up it just rips it up because there's no trees in that particular part. There's no root systems to hold the soil in.
Okay. So it sounds like some grasses.
What I'm afraid of is they're going to say the only thing we can do now is channel this and put concrete in.
No.
I don't want that.
All right. And we've seen some other technologies on some other channels that have challenges.
I'll chain myself too. I'll lay down.
All right. So there are alternative transportation incentives, city facility, EV charging, bike infrastructure, bike repair, education clinics.
I love the bike rental idea.
Definitely got that. And then anything that we might be able to do to help encourage bike infrastructure, pedestrian infrastructure, I think will fit with the transportation sector.
I think we covered it.
Okay.
I mean just adding that the bike repair and education and what did you say it used to be?
We did our training. It was a bike rodeo and there was like a skills contest at the half day out at Collins Stadium.
We were going to talk to the PD and see if they were still willing to do any of that in sustainable schools.
So we can visit with them and if they don't have the resources, I'm sure they can point us to some resources that can help with some adult clinics.
And I was going to say there may be some bike shops around that may want to partner.
Yeah. I think we'd open it up to all the bike shops in town.
Yes, ma'am.
So we talked a little bit about bringing businesses into education and outreach.
I have reductions in education materials for businesses.
Privat removal, just education to the community.
But if we remove Privat, what we can put back in its place that may be a better food source, better habitat, materials resource management,
the locking bars and chute lids have done amazing things with our recycling contamination.
So maybe supporting some of the there is a cost associated with it.
So maybe supporting that cost for some businesses that may not want to invest in it, but it's going to be the best practice going forward.
So maybe a little bit of support for that.
New downtown recycling containers that are appropriately sized.
You know, the big bellies were there long before we had as much restaurant activity on the square.
So the waste stream has changed since we talked about that before.
So I think that looking at some different alternatives for recycling to make sure that we're actually capturing recycling instead of all the trash would be great.
How do those recycling containers work downtown?
Does the city, does the recycling, do they come in?
How do we know that that all goes to recycling and is it contaminated?
So our valet team picks those up.
Okay.
Yes, valet.
Yeah, valet.
So the valet that does the big bellies.
Well, they're emptying the big bellies, too, since they're in the area.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
Yeah, they're almost always contaminated.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, I would think so.
So yeah, maybe when we do that, just something that would be a little more restrictive lid.
Probably maybe focus on bottles and canes, not wet waste.
That's what the primary contaminants are.
Yeah.
I'd like just a second idling reduction efforts.
Okay.
There's been work done over in my neighborhood where they bring those huge trucks come in.
I don't know what the correct name is.
They're like a dump truck on steroids, really long.
And they just sit there in the street with their engines on, waiting to be told to come and do whatever they need to do.
They're gone now, fortunately, but I see a lot of that.
And even certain businesses, when they deliver their services and are out of their vehicle for a while, keep the engines running.
I think a lot of people don't know about the restrictions on that.
Well, then the idling restrictions, aren't they just for the City of Denton vehicles right now, the ordinance?
There have been some changes with COG on the state's idling.
Okay.
So there's some updates coming on that.
Good.
Brandon, did you have something else?
No.
I was wondering if you could go into the organics program expansion.
So we're going to want to have a pilot organics on the square.
It's a co-grant.
So we put a placeholder in there if that's accessible to maybe expand that to other areas of town.
It will work nastily with the ballet, since we already have the individual touches of the restaurants downtown.
We talked about this on our agenda item when we discussed the downtown ballet service, right?
Yes.
And on the star foam, I know that we don't recycle star foam, but another city, we recommend that people take it to Dallas or some place has?
There's a place in Dallas and then Frisco.
That also has a densifier.
So we have been talking about doing some collection events where people can bring it and drop it off and we can take one large load.
Yeah, I would like that.
And then also with some of the larger plastics like the rubber made containers that don't go through our recycling facility well, but still could be compacted and recycled, special collections or drop-offs for this.
And then, of course, sustainable purchasing support.
We work with our purchasing team to make sure that folks are thinking about what they're purchasing and could there be a different fit for that.
If we come to anything where there may be a cost incentive or a cost differential, maybe we need to incentivize it a little bit to get it over the hump to a better choice.
Has there been any specific attention given to plastic reduction, as in plastic water bottles and vending machines and stuff like that?
We were making some strides with that before COVID and then single use became the norm again.
So I think we'll start moving in that direction again.
So local food and community gardens for funding.
Maybe we can partner with organizations to establish more community gardens that are closer to where people live.
The Shiloh model is working really well with the raised beds, so if we can have someone from Shiloh come in and help teach classes about how to get the most production out of those raised beds, I think that would be a great community benefit.
And then eco-friendly playgrounds, wellness workout stations, something that I see whenever I travel around places and you see more of that active lifestyle type of equipment for adults as well as children.
So we talked about that and then we mentioned the curvy trails.
And on the community garden, I know that we just have one now at Bowling Green Park near North Lakes.
I think having one over on the southern town maybe by MLK, just a small community garden would be great. It would balance it out.
Yeah, I agree with that. And then maybe even one at Dania.
I woke up in when Drew Huston was working on this. He was really thinking about a project that was like edible landscaping out at MLK.
So I wondered too, perhaps that idea could be exported to just other city facilities if there's a specific space, especially if it's a high traffic space where more edible landscaping could be installed.
I would have distributed a little bit more, but I like intentional urban gardens as well. It would be cool to have more than just the one town by North Lakes.
Don't we do foraging classes? We haven't done a foraging class in a while, but yes we have in the past.
I need to find a new instructor. So we'll provide some feedback on the brainstorming at our next meeting.
We'll reach out to departments and see what projects they might have on that back burner, if they need a little bit more of an incentive or some funding to help them get that started.
And we will come back with some flushed out ideas, more ideas at our next meeting.
We'll come up with anything in the meantime, feel free.
Yeah, those are really great. Thanks everybody.
Alright, we will move on to our next item. E, Receiver Report and Public Discussion on an Update Regarding Climate Action Adaptation Planning.
That would be me again. I'll just say it. So just a little bit of background, progress update and next steps.
So the framework referenced the development of a climate action plan, so we did move forward with that with the council recommendation in March.
We used the sustainability framework on dollars to secure the consulting contract.
Sustainable Solutions Group was selected as the consultant. As I said earlier, we had our pick off at the end of July.
We started working on the data transfer, started working on the pre-engagement strategies, and the pre-engagement is going to be very important.
And I hope you all saw the email with the request for a couple of names.
What they're asking for with the pre-engagement is to get folks who are very engaged in the community to talk to them about how best to engage dentally
so that we get as much support, not as much support, but as much feedback as we developed the climate action plan.
We want people who are for and against it, so it doesn't have to be just supporters.
And a lot of times with our public engagement, it's the same small crowd that comes out.
We would like to develop a larger audience for the development of the climate plan.
So that's what the pre-engagement request was.
Just if you know anybody that's engaged in the community, that would be a great person for them to talk to about denting and how to engage with folks.
We're always looking for more ideas. We try as many avenues as we can, and it still feels like that one-on-one conversation is the best way, which is good.
Now we're back out in the community and we're having this.
So just to clarify, you would like names of individuals who not necessarily are environmental and climate-focused, but are like marketing outreach-focused?
Marketing outreach-focused or community that are really engaged in the community.
Okay.
Yeah, we all know people that touch different segments of the community that maybe weren't involved in.
So just a wide range of folks for them to choose from.
And then they'll only take about six of the 20 and 24 names that we get, and then they'll compile all those results.
So I'll just verify that someone's willing to be interviewed, and then they'll choose who they're going to interview.
Are you going to help the interviewees kind of understand the expectations that this meeting is going to have?
Yes.
Okay, excellent.
We will have to reach out to everyone before their names are given to our SSG.
So they are scheduled for a presentation with ESMAC in September, and we should be pretty well along with the data collection and about ready to kick off the full engagement plan by then.
I think it would be nice to hear from them how they work through the process of developing a plan and their engagement strategies.
It's been interesting so far in our meetings with them, just the different approaches they take.
Any questions on that?
Can you tell me what other cities they've worked with, if any?
Not off the top of my head.
I can give you a list.
This isn't their first?
No, it will be their first one in Texas, but they do have one of the team, and she's been with Tina I think for about five years, and she does live in Austin.
So she's familiar with Texas, but they have not done a plan in Texas before.
They've got a really interesting website that has a lot of, they've done a lot of stuff.
A lot in Canada?
Yeah, they're in Vancouver.
And they just opened an Albany office recently.
So in my mind, I have kind of like the 2030 plan process.
Do you think it will look something kind of like that in terms of the community engagement type activities?
So there will be focus groups, there will be one-on-one meeting in a box kind of things, or we can go out to neighborhood meetings.
Similar to 2030?
2040?
Yeah, no, 2040.
Yeah, similar.
Okay, thank you.
I guess if you want to, we're on staff reports, so if you want to stay on out there.
Sure.
Comfortable.
I may go grab the matrix, though.
Dan, kind of wave at everyone, we have the Bird City, Texas update, and Dan is our new sustainability coordinator.
Hello, welcome.
Dan is already working on our Bird City re-application, and he's been great working with NWF and all things wildlife.
As well as the mom action plan and everything else, but he's getting us caught up on all things wildlife.
Alright, now I read the update, it was pretty good, it's good.
Do you have any questions for him about that?
Okay, I'll grab the matrix.
Any questions on the matrix?
Matrix questions?
Do you have any questions about the matrix for us?
I don't have any about the matrix for you?
Okay.
Alright, well, it looks like we're good on the matrix.
So we can move on to our last concluding items.
Does anybody have anything they want to add to the matrix, any new business items you would like to discuss?
Adam?
This was raised by Ed already, the IRA, which I think is going to have maybe a lot of funding for cities seeking climate goals.
It'd be nice, I don't know if this is necessarily a matrix item, but something to just keep on our radar.
And I'm really curious about does the city have, do we feel like we have the staff and the infrastructure in place to identify those funds
and feed them into the projects that we want to have going, you know?
So maybe if it's not a whole presentation, maybe just an update in the staff report for next meeting on that?
Because I think I did hear we were looking into it.
So that's good.
That'd be good information for us to have.
Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I'd like to see if we can find out how much carbon is sequestered by our current tree canopy.
And also at some point, discussion of perhaps future incentives with developers for zero escape.
I think everybody good?
Thank you, everyone, for your time today.
I believe we are done and we will close the meeting at 2.44.
Thank you.