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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01.03.2022 MinutesCITY OF OSHKOSH SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY BOARD Minutes January 3rd, 2022 PRESENT: Eric Degroot, Pat Dwyer Hallquist, Lisa Marone, Vic Oliver, Bob Poeschl, Bradley Spanbauer, Michelle Bogden-Muetzel, Margy Davey EXCUSED: Ken Osmond, Aaron Wojciechowski ABSENT: STAFF AND OTHERS: Brandon Nielsen (Staff Liaison), Staff (Oshkosh Media) I. Call to Order Chair Margy Davey called the meeting to order and a quorum was declared present. II. Public Comment There was no public comment III. Approval of Minutes, December 6th, 2021 No board members had any revisions for the minutes. The board approved the December 6th minutes 8-0 (Poeschl / Hallquist). Motion by Mr. Poeschl to accept the minutes as written. Seconded by Ms. Dwyer-Hallquist Motion carried 8-0. IV. 2022 SAB Goals Mr. Nielsen opened and shared the goals document with everyone so it could be seen and actively edited. Restaurant Composting Ms. Davey asked Mr. Spanbauer if he and Mr. Osmond are wanting to continue the research on restaurant composting. Mr. Spanbauer explained that he and Mr. Osmond have had conversations with UWO bio digester employees and that those conversations are planned to continue. Their plan is to use Mr. Osmond’s restaurant operations as a test pilot site and expand this idea/concept from there. Mr. Spanbauer expects to see movement on this goal in 2022. Municipal and city-wide use of solar energy Ms. Davey explained that some of this goals has been met with the zoning code changes that occurred in 2021 but work is still needed on the city website. Mr. Nielsen explained that he has a list of target items that can be addressed on the city’s website and plans to create different documents and get those on the website when time permits. Mr. Nielsen added that Mr. Spanbauer and he met to brainstorm what information these documents should include regarding solar. Mr. Nielsen added that, regarding solar at a municipal level, he looked into applying for the Energy Innovation Grant to get solar panels installed on a city building and discovered that previous grant recipients have had matching funds, so the city did not apply in this grant cycle because there are currently no matching funds for this. He encouraged SAB to consider coming up with something, such as a comprehensive energy study, that could be proposed to council during the CIP funding cycle; which could then be used as matching funds during the next Energy Innovation Grant cycle. Mr. Poeschl said that SAB requesting funds would be unique because it has never been done before but sees it as a possibility of getting approved to help move forward city goals. Sustainable Solutions to Waste Management Ms. Davey asked if this goal differed from the Restaurant Composing goals. Mr. Poeschl stated that he would be okay with combining the two. Mr. Spanbauer said that he would like to see them separate because this goal is broader. Ms. Muetzel agreed that she sees these being two separate goals. Mr. Spanbauer would like to have this under the education and outreach objective where SAB could create an educational pamphlet and get that out with a water bill. Ms. Davey explained that this topic may also fall under the ordinance and code changes objective. Ms. Muetzel acknowledged that a lot of the waste management done in the city is ultimately regulated at the county level and also feels that the wording of this goal should be changed to something more attainable and actionable, such as, developing educational items for sustainable waste management. Ms. Davey recommended three goals be combined into one as they are within the same topic area. Those being Restaurant Composting, Sustainable Solutions to Waste Management, and Reduce Plastic Usage. Community Gardens Mr. Poeschl stated that Growing Oshkosh was planning to move forward with some community gardens this year but that decision has since changed. He said that his focus on this goal is to find individuals who are interested in planting a community garden on the RDA infill lots that are available and that for SAB as whole this goal should be put on hold. Mr. Poeschl had to leave the meeting early so he added one thing before he left. Mr. Poeschl wants SAB to create avenues to encourage the Oshkosh School District to construct new buildings in environmentally friendly sustainable ways, to include utilizing solar arrays. He added that he would like to see a government collaborative and believes there is a great need for a level of collaboration right now. Ms. Davey stated that she would be interested in working with Mr. Poeschl on this goal. Ms. Hallquist voice support of Mr. Poeschl’s comments. Mr. Spanbauer asked Mr. Poeschl the logistics of community gardens on RDA lots. Mr. Poeschl explained that the RDA lots are for sale or for lease. While a lot is for sale someone, or an organization, can lease the land to plant a community gardens for $1 dollar a year. EV Phase-in / Inventory / Replacement of Traditional Vehicles Mr. Degroot stated that he would like to keep this in his focus for 2022 and would like to see the city do an city wide energy audit to maximize their energy efficiency because investing in the infrastructure now is going to be more cost effective than retroactively doing it in the future. He added that he would like to see legislature passed that required future purchases of fleet vehicles be hybrid or electric. Mr. Nielsen added that he believes the correct way to go about securing funding for future fleet vehicle purchases is to ask council to set aside funds into an account which could then be used when a new vehicle needs to be purchased. He explained that this account could then be used to make up the difference in cost from a gas vehicle to a hybrid or electric vehicle. Review code for Permeable Pavers Ms. Davey said she would like to get this ordinance written so that it was friendlier in allowing permeable pavers in driveway applications. Ms. Oliver stated that UWO students could investigate this language in the code and report back to us. Mr. Nielsen reminded the group that the UWO students did look at the code last year and found that permeable pavers are allowed in a certain zoning district overlay but the overlay is not currently in any part of the city, and therefore, permeable pavers in driveway applications are not currently permitted. Mr. Nielsen added that he does not know why the code was written this way but is opening to looking into it if the board wanted him to. The board agreed to review the UWO student report, converse about this goal at a later time, and try to complete this goal in 2022. Carbon Fee and Dividend Act This goal was removed as it was completed in 2021. Energy analysis of city’s energy consumption Mr. Spanbauer plans to look at UW Oshkosh’s energy planning and then relate that to climate action and resiliency to come up with a plan on how the city could benefit from that conversation. Mr. Spanbauer plans to dig into this a bit and get back to the board at the March meeting with an update. Investigate Salt on roadways and research alternatives Ms. Muetzel said that this was addressed in 2021 and it was discovered that the city is doing a lot of positive things in regards to salt usage on the roadways so this goal has been completed. Ms. Muetzel would be open to creating an educational pamphlet for residents so they could learn the effects of over salting and best practices when using salt during winter. Mr. Spanbauer and Ms. Hallquist voiced their support for educational information being sent out to residents regarding salt usage. Urban Agriculture Ms. Davey requested that Urban Agriculture be added to the goals document with it falling under the ordinance and code change objective and a completion date of 2022. Native Landscaping Ordinance Review Ms. Muetzel requested that Native Landscaping Ordinance review/change be added to the goals document with it falling under the ordinance and code change objective and a completion date of 2022. She explained that UWO students have already made recommended language changes for this ordinance and it is just a matter of revisiting their report and putting a document forward for the board and city staff to review. Sustainable Oshkosh Webpage Ms. Marone said that all of the links are fixed except one that is titled Oshkosh Free Cycle. She plans to send that link to Mr. Nielsen so he can work with IT to get that fixed. Ms. Marone plans to research other community’s sustainability websites to come up with content ideas for Oshkosh’s website. Ms. Davey added that new content could then be shared on the SAB Facebook page. Coordinate SAB’s facilitation of Rain Barrel workshop Ms. Davey recommended leaving this goal on the sheet because it is ongoing and continuously happens periodically throughout the year. Ms. Oliver stated that there are currently no more barrels stored anywhere. Ms. Davey said she could likely get more barrels when needed. Create 2021 Annual Report Mr. Nielsen will be working on this for State of the City. Support Menominee Park Shoreland Restoration Project Ms. Muetzel explained that she report to the parks board and SAB with updates on this project and it is ongoing. Create Education Program for the public on energy, composting, Bird Fest, Farmer’s Market, etc. Ms. Oliver said this is an ongoing goal. Recycling/Clean up (bins at Farmer’s Market, city parks, etc.) Ms. Davey asked the group if anyone had any thoughts on this and nobody did. This goal will continue to be put on hold. Environmental Leadership Award Ms. Davey explained that this award will be presented at State of City in March 2022 and is an ongoing goal to nominate someone or an organization yearly. V. Agenda Items for Future Meeting Mr. Davey said that Salt Wise and City of Oshkosh Attorneys plan to do a presentations at the February meeting. Ms. Davey said that for March we can plan on Mr. Spanbauer providing an update on the energy analysis for the city. Ms. Hallquist would like to see a discussion on the ordinance change for native landscaping at an upcoming meeting with an eventual edit happening to the language in the ordinance. Ms. Muetzel and Ms. Hallquist plan to work together on putting together a proposed draft ordinance. There was conversation about the new processes and how it all is supposed to function. Mr. Nielsen explained that the presentation that will occur at February’s meeting should help with understanding how a proposed ordinance change goes through its process of becoming an actual new ordinance. VI. Next Meeting, Monday, February 7th, 2022 VII. Adjournment The board voted 8-0 to adjourn (Oliver / Muetzel) Motion by Ms. Oliver to adjourn. Seconded by Ms. Bogden-Muetzel Motion carried 7-0. Recorded by: Brandon Nielsen, Assistant Planner