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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-05-20 ENR Minutes ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MINUTES MONDAY, MAY 20,2008 COUNCIL CHAMBERS - MAPLEWOOD CITY HALL 1830 COUNTY ROAD BEAST Chairperson Yingling called the meeting to order at 5:20 p.m. ATTENDANCE: Commissioner Carole Lynne Commissioner Carol Mason Sherrill Commissioner Frederica Musgrave Commissioner Dale Trippler Chair Ginny Yingling Excused Present Present Present Present STAFF PRESENT Shann Finwall, Environmental Planner VISITORS PRESENT Dr. Mike Manthei, President of Silver Lake Improvement Association Wendy Crowel, Department of Natural Resources - Invasive Species Program Lincoln Fetcher, President of Valley Branch Watershed District APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Chair Yingling made a motion to approve the agenda, seconded by Commissioner Trippler. The motion carried by a vote of 4 to O. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: April 21, 2008: A motion to adopt the April 21, 2008, minutes was made by Commissioner Musgrave, seconded by Chair Yingling. The motion carried by a vote of 4 to O. NEW BUSINESS: Silver Lake Improvement Association - Request for Herbicide Treatment Funding for the Control of Curlyleaf Pondweed and Eurasian Watermilfoil in Silver Lake Commissioner Trippler - He is wondering why the city rejected the request last year? Planner Finwall - The ENR and Parks Commission recommended funding the treatment, but the city council ultimately denied the request. Commissioner Musgrave - Curious about what was discovered regarding the fishing pier, there appeared to be a lot of questions left open by the parks commission regarding this. She also has questions regarding funding. 1 Planner Finwall - Regarding boat ramp, the Parks Commission has applied for a grant from the Department of Natural Resources to help fund a fishing pier which is part of the Joy Park master plan. Additional signage has been installed near the boat ramp to help alleviate concerns about boats coming into the lake or exiting the lake with invasive species. Commissioner Musgrave - The recommendation by city staff last year included additional studies and shoreline improvement by the residents. Commissioner Mason Sherrill - What are homeowners on the lake doing regarding mitigation for this? What is their stake in this? Dr. Mike Manthei, President of Silver Lake Improvement Association - When we came to the city council for funding the city council denied our request. The mayor told him he should have gone to the ENR commission first which he then did. He remembered a staff person making the recommendations. Chair Yingling - Recalled the ENR Commission meeting where they discussed the item last year. Chair Yingling stated that the ENR Commission ultimately recommended approval. Dr. Manthei - Many Silver Lake residents attended the Nature Center's shoreline restoration session and one of the residents subsequently undertook planted native plantings of their shoreline. In addition, several residents have installed rip-rap for erosion control. Dr. Manthei stated that this is an opportunity to help the quality of a lake before it becomes impaired. Chair Yingling - Wants to make sure that if the city assists in funding the treatment of the lake that there is a plan and commitment by all lake owners for improving the water quality by restoring the shoreline. Commissioner Mason Sherrill - Concerned that chemical treatment is also killing native plants and wondered what kind of an impact that will have on aquatic animals? Can the killed natives be reintroduced at a later point? Dr. Manthei - Only a very small percentage of the native Northern milfoil was killed off last year by the treatment. Wendy Crowel, DNR - there were several native species that were reduced or killed following treatment, which was unexpected. The DNR will be doing the same plant survey again next year. We want so see the abundance and frequency of the plants. There is plenty of coontail in the lake, which offers excellent habitat for many invertebrates. She thinks that the seed bank for Northern milfoil is already in the sediment of Silver Lake. If there are favorable conditions this year the plants will reappear and it won't be necessary to reintroduce them. Commissioner Trippler - He didn't get a sense from the DNR report to the legislature that the treatment grant program was providing great benefit to the dollar. Ms. Crowel - The intent of the grant is to take lakes with high amounts of invasive plants and be able to reduce the plants significantly. Their aim is not to eradicate the plant 2 completely. In regards to ecological benefits, many of these projects have just started. We do not have the data yet to determine whether these ecological benefits can be achieved. Commissioner Trippler - Is anybody at the DNR looking at the comparative benefit of limiting nutrient input to the lake versus adding chemicals? Ms. Crowel - She does not know of any single person at the DNR trying to pull that data together. In many cases both will need to be done. Commissioner Musgrave - Concerned about the long term use of these products. Ms. Crowel - Part of what we are doing is monitoring the plant community. It is adaptive management. We are very cautious of how we put the herbicides in the water. Chair Yingling - You mentioned that the treatment has already been done this year. The ENR is therefore not voting on whether this should happen or not, we are voting on whether the city participates and has some say in how it is done. As such, what does this mean for the city's overall budget? Planner Finwall - does not know overall scheme of the budget except to say that this item was not included in the 2008 budget. If approved, the funds would have to come from future EUF and PAC funds or be pulled from another project. Commissioner Trippler - Why is city staff recommending funding one-half of the treatment? Planner Finwall- The ENR and Parks Commission recommended that amount last year in order to show the city's initial support. City staff has followed suit this year since it is a tight budget year. Chair Yingling - Asked the question to the commissioners "Given all the other constraints, is this something we should be spending our funds on? What are our highest needs and priorities?" Commissioner Trippler - Feels that our first priority is to recommend to the city council whether we think doing lake treatment is worthwhile. The question of money is a policy decision for the city council. He was looking at this from the standpoint of what the request was, what the results show, and whether or not it was showing a benefit or causing damage. He would like to know what the association is doing in terms of phosphorus limits on their shorelines. Ms. Crowel - found less Eurasian watermilfoil this spring than last spring. She did not know whether it is a phosphorus or nitrogen limiting lake and is not aware of the association's efforts to restore shoreline. Commissioner Musgrave - She received three e-mail questions: 'Who is cleaning up the back waters? There may be run-off from illegal compost sites. Has a comparison been done to find out what neighboring cities are spending on preventing pollution? When we talk about money and contributing money what is the big picture?" 3 Lincoln Fetcher, President of Valley Branch Watershed District - . Silver Lake is one of the cleanest and most pristine bodies of water in the watershed district. It is also one of the most heavily used recreation lakes in the metro area. It is a high priority area for the watershed district. The watershed district has put a lot of focus and energy in that lake in a number of ways including restoring part of the southeast shoreline and adding a bio retention site on the southwest corner that captures a significant amount of the run off. . Silver Lake has a lot of the storm water run off going directly in the lake from the street which is a challenge. The surrounding wetlands clean the water before it goes into the lake. The phosphorus loading is believed to be internal. . We have instigated a number of projects to improve run-off. We did a study on the water quality coming in from the north end. We will need to eventually do some restoration of that channel. . The biggest issue around the lake is the direct storm water runoff, which we are working with the City of North St. Paul to alleviate and also to get them to stop mowing down to the edge of the lake in their park. . The boat ramp should not be associated with this funding issue as it is Ramsey County's. . With the 1.5 million dollar plan to do work within Joy Park on the north side it seems like the focus on that would have to do with recreation. . It would make sense that part of that funding would be related to the water. Since the City of Maplewood owns the largest amount of shoreline on the lake, it is appropriate that the city be involved. Commissioner Musgrave -- Looking at runoff, maintenance, and protection of shoreline-- is there some way of saying Maplewood is doing a better job in terms of stormwater runoff in spite of our having a larger proportion of shoreline. Mr. Fetcher - It appears that Maplewood's participation in this matter is needed. There is a serious shoreline erosion problem on the north side and elsewhere around the lake which is contributing to the problem. Geese population is reduced when there is a large amount of vegetation around the lake. Shoreline restoration within the park will provide a good demonstration and education for the public. Commissioner Yingling - Is this something we want to recommend to the city council, that lake treatment is a good thing and that we support it? If so, do we want to make any recommendation about what kind of support they should be giving to it? Commissioner Mason Sherrill - A positive recommendation to the city council is telling them yes, we think that water is important and that the city needs to be doing something. We can put it into words that are more explicit. We need to be proactive and aggressive in taking care of our water. One thing that stands out to her regarding Silver Lake is that we could get some very good data and information in treating our other impaired waters. Commissioner Musgrave - Agreed with sending a message in regards to being proactive about water quality. How are we going to go about it, how are we going to prioritize and where do we want to put our funding in the first step effort? 4 Commissioner Mason Sherrill- Where the funding is coming from is not the ENR's responsibility to debate. Chair Yingling - The Joy Park Master Plan calls for some shoreline restoration on the park's shoreline, which would mean more native species and reducing erosion. Dr. Manthei - On the east side on the Joy Park shoreline there is a stormwater pipe. When the city is discussing storm water this should be addressed. He also mentioned that it is a spring fed lake. Commissioner Musgrave - I would like to have two motions from the ENR Commission, one that we are concerned about water quality and one that we do or don't support funding for the treatment of the lake. Chair Yingling - Do we have a consensus from the commission that we do support moving forward with these treatments? Commissioner Trippler - He does not like the general concept of poisoning something to make it better. He would recommend that the city provide some support to see if this is a way of dealing with these invasive species. He would also recommend that the city look into doing everything it possibly can to limit the amount of nutrients getting into the lake in the first place, monitoring the people who use the lake to make sure they don't keep bringing the invasive species in, and having a strong enforcement component so people get fined heavily for bringing in the invasive species on their boats. Commissioner Trippler - Would like to move the staff recommendation to support this study for this year at this level. Chair Yingling - With the caveat that the city needs to be looking at the input end both in terms of additional inputs from recreational users and getting our own house in order on storm water and other shoreline protection. Commissioner Trippler - four years from now when the study is over we can take a look at the invasive species section of the DN R to find out what their recommendations are and what they learned from this study. We won't want to put any more money into it if it is not working. A motion was made by Commissioner Trippler, seconded by Commissioner Mason Sherrill to fund the treatment of Silver Lake with herbicide to treat curly leaf pondweed and Eurasian watermilfoil. Funding of the treatment would be $8,250, one-half to come from the EUF fund and the other half from PAC. The motion passed by a vote of three to one, with Commissioner Musgrave voting against the motion. Commissioner Musgrave stated that she didn't support funding the treatment during a tight budget year, but did support improvement of water quality in the city's lakes. 5 UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Rules of Procedure Commissioner Musgrave had a question regarding section G - does it need to specify that if the chair can't attend the city council meeting then the vice chair should attend, and if the vice chair can't attend the chair will appoint someone to attend? Chair Yingling suggested that the language suggested by Commissioner Musgrave be added. The Commission discussed the final remaining section of the Rules of Procedure which included election of chair and vice chair. A motion was made by Commissioner Yingling, seconded by Commissioner Mason Sherrill to approve the election of chair and vice chair section of the ENR rules. The motion was carried by a vote of 4 to O. Following is the rules of procedure language previously adopted by the commission as well as the new language added during the May 20 meeting for the rules of procedure: ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION RULES OF PROCEDURE We, the members of the Environmental and Natural Resources Commission of the City of Maplewood, Minnesota, created pursuant to Division 4, Sections 18.180 to 18.189 of the Maplewood Code of Ordinances, hereby adopt the following "Rules of Procedure," subject to the provisions of said Article, which is hereby made a part of these Rules: A. APPOINTMENTS The city council shall make appointments to the environmental and natural resources commission by following the current city appointment policy. B. MEETINGS 1. All meetings shall be held in the council chambers in Maplewood City Hall, 1830 E. County Road B, unless otherwise directed by the chairperson or staff, in which case at least 24 hours notice will be given to all commissioners. 2. Regular meetings shall be held at 5:15 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each calendar month, provided that when the meeting falls on a legal holiday or voting day, such meeting shall be rescheduled. 3. Special meetings may be held upon call by the chairperson or in hislher absence, by the vice chairperson, or by any other commissioner with the concurrence of a majority of the commissioners with at least 48 hours notice to all commissioners. 6 C. PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT In addition to carrying out the duties prescribed in city ordinance the environmental planner or a designated replacement shall: 1. Prepare the agenda for each meeting. 2. Act as technical advisor on any matter which comes before the commission. 3. Make written recommendations to the commission on matters referred to the commission. 4. Schedule any matter with the city council that has been reviewed by the commission that requires city council approval. D. AGENDA 1. Copies of the agenda, together with pertinent staff reports and copies of the minutes of the previous meeting shall be made available to each member of the commission no later than three days prior to the next scheduled meeting. 2. The agenda format shall generally read as follows: a. Call to Order b. Roll Call c. Approval of Agenda d. Approval of Minutes e. Unfinished Business f. New Business g. Visitor Presentations h. Commissioner Presentations i. Staff Presentations j. Adjournment E. QUORUM 1. A simple majority of the current membership of the commissioners shall constitute a quorum. 2. Any commissioner who abstains from voting on a particular question because of possible conflict of interest or other reason shall not be considered a member of the commission for the purpose of determining a quorum for the consideration of the issue. 3. Any action by the commission shall require a majority vote of the members present. F. ELECTION OF OFFICERS A chairperson and vice chairperson shall be elected at the first environmental and natural resources commission in January of each year and will serve until their 7 successors have been elected. Nominations and members interested in serving as the chairperson or vice-chairperson shall be announced at the last meeting of the year. The chairperson will call for further nominations at the first meeting in January each year prior to the election. G. DUTIES OF THE CHAIRPERSON 1. In addition to the duties prescribed in the ordinance, the chair shall represent the commission at each city council meeting where a commission item is on the agenda, to present the commission's recommendations and to answer questions from the city council regarding the decision. If the chair is unavailable to attend the city council meeting, the chair will appoint a representative from the commission. H. CHAIRPERSON AND VICE-CHAIRPERSON 1. The chairperson, vice chairperson, and such officers as the commission may decide shall be elected and assume duties according to the current ordinance. 2. In the absence of the chairperson, the vice chairperson shall perform all duties required of the chairperson. When both the chairperson and the vice chairperson are absent, the attending members shall elect a chairperson pro tem. 3. If the chairperson resigns from or is otherwise no longer on the commission, the vice chairperson shall become the acting chairperson until the commission can hold an election for new officers. If the vice chairperson resigns or is otherwise no longer on the commission, the commission will elect a new vice chairperson at the next possible commission meeting. I. TEMPORARY COMMITTEES 1. The commission shall elect by a majority vote such standing committees and temporary committees as may be required and such committees will be charged with the duties, examinations, investigations, and inquiries relative to subjects assigned by the chair. 2. No standing or temporary committee shall have the power to commit the commission to the endorsement of any plan or program without the express approval of the commission. J. VACANCIES The environmental and natural resources commission positions shall be vacated or recommended to the city council for vacation according to the current environmental and natural resources ordinances. K. AMENDMENT OR SUSPENSION OF RULES 1. Any of the foregoing rules may be temporarily suspended by a majority vote of the commissioners present. 8 2. The "Rules of Procedure" may be amended at any regular meeting by a majority vote. L. RULES OF ORDER In all points not covered by these rules, the commission shall be governed in its procedures by Robert's Rules of Order, Revised. STAFF PRESENTATIONS: Items a. and c were tabled until the next meeting. b. Comprehensive Plan Open House (May 22): Planner Finwall reminded the Commission of the city's open house for the comprehensive plan to be held May 22 at the community center. ADJOURNMENT: 6:50 9