HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-02-19 ENR Minutes
Environmental and Natural Resources Commission Minutes
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Council Chambers - Maplewood City Hall
1830 County Road BEast
Call to Order: 5: 15 p.rn.
Members Present:
Margaret Behrens
Frederica Musgrave
Carol Mason Sherrill
Ginny Yingling
Staff Present:
Oakley Biesanz
Ginny Gaynor
Du Wayne Konewko
Shann Finwall
Approval of Af.!enda: Approved Agenda
Approval of Minutes: January 9, 2008 minutes tabled to March
Commission Presentations:
. Dale Trippler has been appointed to start as a new commissioner for ENR.
Visitor Presentations: none
Staff Presentations:
1) Shann Finwall announced that she is now the staff liaison to the commission.
. Update on Comprehensive plan process - ENR commission will be active in
reviewing the natural resources plan.
. Staff noted the following dates:
o March 4 - The surface water plan and the tree program will be reviewed.
o March 18 - Joint meeting with the Planning Commission, ENR, Community
Design Board and Parks Commission regarding natural resources and
greenway corridors.
o April 1 - environmental corridors.
o May 6 - We will make a recommendation for the natural resources
comprehensive plan hoping to have this plan wrapped up by June.
o Neighborhood meetings on April 22 and May 22.
Questions for Shann:
Are other communities giving us their comprehensive plan updates? Who reviews and
comments on these plans from other communities? Staff answered that the surrounding
communities are required to submit their comprehensive plan to us for review. Generally
city staff will review these, but we would bring it to the commissions ifbig changes that
affect our city occur.
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Definition of a comprehensive plan requested: Long range vision guide required by the
Metropolitan Council, it basically helps the city guide land uses. Cities are required to
submit a comprehensive plan every 10 years. The 2002 comprehensive plan is on the
website.
2) Ginny Gaynor gave an update on environmental corridors:
. The March 18 meeting is when the corridors and the concepts that go along with them
will be presented to the joint commissions.
. Weare writing a grant to embrace open space which will give us an opportunity to
present workshops to show the homeowners what they can be doing.
3) Administrative Business:
. Jim Beardsley has resigned from the commission.
. It was agreed to keep the regular meeting as scheduled, the first Tuesday of the month
from 5:15 to 6:45.
. Requirements of retreats versus workshops. The city council will be working out
policy decisions at their retreat, for now the consensus is that all meetings are
videotaped. Staff will look at the availability of meeting rooms for the retreat which
is tentatively scheduled for AprilS, 9am-noon.
. Kathleen Juenemann has joined the meeting she is the liaison for the commission.
New Business:
Recycling report:
Shann Finwall introduced three representatives of Eureka Recycling, Alex Danovitch, Chris
Goodwin and Diana Kennedy.
Eureka presentation:
. Weare here to walk you through the 2007 recycling findings and also present ideas and
recommendations for the 2008 work plan.
. Eureka is a nonprofit recycler with a mission to demonstrate that waste is preventable.
. Alex presented 2007 findings: in 2006 multi-family buildings were set up and on the
program. In 2007 500 units were added. We have almost completed all ofthe apartment
buildings. We put a lot of work into making recycling areas look unique, not like
dumpsters. Total tons increased to 180 tons for multi-family.
. Diana discussed curbside recycling: The recycling rate in Maplewood remained steady,
most other cities in the metro area declining. Added new materials included milk cartons
and juice boxes. Educated residents on plastics. We saw a decrease in the residual rate
which means residents are recycling more ofthe right stuff. There is a need to educate
residents on differentiating recyclable from non-recyclable materials.
. The City of Maplewood modeled bottle to bottle recycling. It takes three times less
energy to make a glass bottle from a glass bottle. In 2008 Eureka is working on obtaining
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a machine that would be used to sort glass which means those loads won't need to be
shipped out to Chicago.
. Recommendations - to focus on curbside recyclers, invest in public space recycling,
maintain focus on multi-family program to sustain the work being done and to continue a
monitoring program using reports from Eureka Recycling.
. Make a year-long effort finding opportunities to distribute recycling bins in the
community.
. There needs to be a state-wide policy that defines the difference between yard wastes and
organics.
. Only Maplewood material is put on the sorter then the results are reported back to
Maplewood.
Adiourn
7:50 p.rn.
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