- January 15th, and here we are for our January meeting. So I have to get rolling with this super interesting
- agenda of things and updates from the team. So we'll go ahead and kick off the report. OK, here we all
- go. And that's Heidi Brown here, Nadia Cain. Here.
- here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- and especially those of you under the weather, you're champions and good sports. They are having a little
- trouble hearing us. Is it just me or is it everybody? I feel like it's mostly- As more people have been
- talking, I think it's mostly Rachel. Yeah, it's mostly Rachel. I'm having a hard time hearing everyone,
- but I'll turn it up. All right. I'll try to project more and-
- We'll just pass the owl around. Perfect. Okay, great. Well, thank you for joining us, lovely remote
- joiners. We are now going to hopefully take a look at the December minutes. Hopefully everyone had a
- chance to look through those and supply any feedback or edits to Rachel as needed. I move we approve
- the December minutes. Thank you.
- Okay. There's quality in Parkhurst. Okay. Okay. Heidi Brown. Okay. Not anything. Yes. Matt Colby. Yes.
- Norman Cranston. Yes. Adam Fudegard. Yes. Shannon Dyke. Yes.
- Adam Martinez. Yes. Mitchell Owens. Yes. David Parkers. Yes. Carrie Albright. Yes. Motion passes.
- Thank you. Thank you to everybody for weighing in on that. At this point, we are moving along to our
- new business for the evening. First things first are the Title 20 Unified Development Ordinance, basically
- UDO amendments. So we have Jamie with us who is going to step in and share. Hi, can you hear me okay?
- Yeah, that's great. Okay, so I'm Jamie Kreindler. I'm the senior zoning planner and one of Rachel's
- co-workers in development services. So thanks for having me. And for starters, I'll go over the affordable
- housing incentives. This is something that went before council
- yesterday, I believe, but I think it got continued. So a definitive decision wasn't made yet. But what's
- proposed, or I guess, Rachel, can you just scroll down and show what's existing? Sorry. If you could
- go back. Back up. Oh, you're good. Is this existing? No, go one page. Maybe one more, sorry. One more.
- There, okay, so this table shows the four of the zoning districts for residential, R1, R2, R3, R4, and
- the maximum pervious surface coverage that's currently existing in code. So for R1, maximum pervious
- surface allowed is 30%, R2 is 40, R3 is 45, and then R4 is 50. And now Rachel, you can go to the,
- proposed amendments. So in the UDO, there's some incentives for develops. Yeah, that's a good spot.
- You can go up. Yep, right there is perfect. So in the current UDO, there's incentives for developers
- that use affordable housing as a part of their project. And this is already in the code, but one of
- the changes that is being proposed to council
- has to do with the maximum impervious surface coverage and increasing that to 80 percent for developments
- that are using affordable housing. That is a somewhat substantial change. Obviously, it hasn't been
- decided on yet, but council wanted us to share this with you. Jackie Scanlon, our assistant director,
- worked on this memo. If you have questions after this meeting, I would say she's probably a good contact
- in planning
- You can get in touch with Arthur Rachel or me or whatever works best. But that's the main change with
- the affordable housing incentive that I wanted to share. There are also some language proposed that
- it's intended for owner occupancy. That's a little bit challenging to enforce, but that's a goal of
- council that they want to encourage occupied units rather than just rentals.
- Are there any questions I can answer about that change? May I clarify just to make sure I'm thinking
- about this correctly? Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. So in these developments where there
- is an incentive to have more affordable housing, it doesn't change the volume of residential spaces.
- It is just the price point for it.
- that right so far? I honestly don't know all the intricacies. I'd have to go back in and read the code
- just to know exactly how it works. But I guess it's saying here so proposed changes are intended to
- incentivize developers in creation of affordable housing units. So the what basically we're offering
- offering is, you know, some
- modifications to the dimensional standards if they're using the affordable housing incentive. But I'm
- not prepared really to answer all the intricacies of how that works. The reason I ask is because in
- my head I'm thinking if it is affordable housing, presumably lower income residents, if we are saying
- it is okay to have more impervious or basically thinking about what is the green space, what is the
- natural space, what is the
- How is the soil of these areas being treated? And are we baking in some, what some might be considered
- like environmental justice issues about the ability for, or the priority of green space and how that
- land is being used. Are we incentivizing the use of it being more parking lots, more,
- So I want to understand the benefit of increasing impervious services that you're reducing the lot size.
- Is that the or increase density? Yeah. So I think with the incentive, how it is now is it allows developers
- to reduce the lot sizes. So if you're
- If you can maybe think of like a habitat for humanity project. So there's like smaller lots. And if
- you increase the impervious surface that's allowed, then that might allow for like a bigger house to
- be built on a small lot. So I think that's where some of the challenges come in with impervious surface.
- I mean, I totally get it from an environmental perspective. I think the idea is if you're reducing the
- size of lots, if you have a,
- you know, impervious surface coverage limitation, then you can only build a house of a certain size.
- So by increasing it, then you're allowing maybe a bigger house to be built on a small lot. Dan, do you
- have a question? Yeah, I just, I wonder why the huge jump to 80% from, you know, the 40s or 30s. I can
- sort of understand the rationale you're giving, though I do really want a second.
- carries larger concern about the kind of justice issues around this, especially long term, and the need
- for green space but but also why is it so huge why wasn't it wasn't I could understand if we're a little
- more moderated. That's honestly a good question and I did not write the memo I'm kind of presenting
- on behalf of Jackie so I apologize if I don't have all the details.
- Maybe that's a question we can, Rachel, that we can go back to Jackie to clarify. And I know it was
- important to at least some of the council members to get input from the environmental commission on
- this proposed change. So I don't know if there's the possibility of the commission writing a memo or
- something like that, a letter. I'm not sure how it typically works, but there may be an opportunity
- to do that too, so they can get your input.
- They discussed the idea of if there's going to be a reduced lot size and increased impervious service,
- if there could be like communal green space, which might be a reduction, overall reduction in or increase
- impervious service, but there could still be the additional. Have they talked about that, like requiring
- a green space?
- Um, I don't know if they talk about requiring green space, but I know with a lot of the developments,
- there are common area requirements for tree preservation and whatnot. So, um, like with the, the North
- Grove subdivision that some of us looked at the last, or the first time I came here, uh, they had common
- areas included with the development that's set aside for tree preservation to meet those requirements,
- stormwater, things like that. So that's a good question too.
- or anything that would be helpful to share with Jamie? I think there's more conversation to be had.
- Is there anything else we can read about this? Can you shout it into the speakers? Is there anything
- else we can read to learn more about the proposal or how soon do you need an opinion? That's a good
- question. I think they had it before council last night, but I think it got continued maybe in two weeks
- is when it's going back to council.
- Say that again. February 4th. Okay. Yeah. So you say February 4th, that's in like three weeks. Yeah.
- Okay. So that's, that sounds like when it's going back. I know that council usually provides their packet
- the Friday before. Um, I don't know how early before they provide the packet, uh, that they, that their
- team prefers to have a letter. Um, I can ask on that though.
- Um, yeah, I'll ask, but as far as the memo, I mean, it's in the packet. It was in the council packet.
- Yeah, it's in that packet. Um, it was in the council packet. That was the best last night. Um, so those
- would be the areas to find the most information right now. Yeah, I mean, I understand that, um, affordable
- housing is a, is a crisis and it's something that we want to address to the best of our ability. Um, but I do
- some of these numbers that jumped to 80% feels kind of wild. And under tier two projects, projects that
- meet the tier two affordability standards may increase the maximum impervious surface coverage allowance
- by 10%. Does that mean we'd be at 90% impervious surface? Like I want more units, but at the same time,
- stormwater will still exist. So I just, I want to know how well thought through this is, if there's
- going to be sufficient, you know, detention or retention ponds on these sites where it's going to get us
- enough affordable units that then won't flood. I just, I just have some concerns. And I did not write
- the memo and I wasn't really involved with any of the conversations. So sorry, I'm not the best translator,
- but doing my best. Yeah. And if there's informal comments, you're welcome to pass that on to me and
- I can pass them on to Jackie slash the department. And I will find out how
- earlier, like a memo would be needed, but I didn't think that you all thought I needed some. I'm just
- trying to understand. So the goal is to have more units on site. Yeah. So you have less information
- that you can spread out. Yes. And Jackie had a really good, I think she was using like a post-it note
- diagram in her meetings. I can't replicate on the board like how she described it. She described it
- pretty well.
- but obviously there's some concerns, so happy to pass those along. Yeah, it seems that it's being designed
- to encourage density, which we generally support. We just want to make sure it's sensible density,
- I guess, and that, right, that tree canopy can continue to exist, that stormwater can be reasonably
- managed, that- That the people that are living here don't have a lower quality of- Yeah, just, you know,
- that we got units in but at what cost.
- Again, not targeting the presenter, just some curiosity as to how the percentages were chosen, but then
- also would love to hear assurances from somebody about how that's going to function well for the future
- residents. What Rachel said reminded me of something that Jackie was sharing with us.
- Like you said, part of this is to encourage density. So, you know, preventing sprawl and the environmental
- concerns that come with that. So, are these all multifamily units? Or is this? No. It says in here,
- single family and duplex residential lots. Okay.
- Jamie, can you describe the differences between like R1 to R4, if you know on the top of your head?
- It's okay if you don't. Yeah, so the R1 through R4 are generally the lower density zoning districts,
- so not the ones that are for multifamily and those bigger projects. So yeah, some of the differences
- are the maximum pervious surface coverage, minimum lot size, setbacks, things like that. So generally
- the R1 would have the bigger
- lots though they're still relatively small i would say in city of bloomington do the remote like the
- the zoomed in commissioners have any questions i know we've been talking a lot i'll just also say that
- you know i spent some time trying to make sense of this document which is there's a lot here um and
- it would be nice if we
- had a little bit more time to sit with it and try to understand it. It'd also be nice if we, I mean,
- Rachel, can we send questions to you about it? I do think that all of the issues that have been raised
- are really important issues, but I can't entirely get my head around all of these. I mean, there's the
- sort of the changes you just mentioned, but then of course, there's all the other environmental changes
- also below in the document.
- It's unfortunate that we only have before February 4th to weigh in on this. If there are more specific
- questions for Jamie, to get a temperature of the EC as far as this goes, like we just said, there's
- a council meeting on the 4th and we would likely need to get this to them
- At least by the Friday before, but probably days before that. So the last week of January, do folks
- want to make some time to write a letter, write a memo? I know that we want to make sure we are well
- researched. We understand this. We're saying we want to say, um, we also don't have a lot of time. So
- how do people feel about prioritizing this in one way or another? I think I'd be curious to hear the
- answers to some of the questions we had before.
- going either way on it. Okay, so the questions I have written down are Carrie's question. And I want
- to note, you know, we aren't allowed to use environmental justice as reasonings for our decisions. So
- I just already incentivizing areas that are utilizing affordable homes and reducing the amount of green
- space for those areas. Did that kind of capture the spirit of the questions? Yeah. This quick notes.
- And if there's, if maybe a clearance threshold for the surface occurs, can a communal marine space be
- required? And then overall, once I understand the jump to 80 and just how that 80% how's that was chosen?
- Does that kind of cover? And then that's a question about like stormwater drainage retention ponds,
- anything that might be needed to offset if the. If that's also been competing to or outside of the 80%.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- to clarify something. So when I read this, it seems to me like this isn't talking about building an
- entire neighborhood that is 80% impervious. If there's an existing lot, for example, you could increase
- the amount of impervious coverage, but that wouldn't necessarily mean the entire neighborhood has the
- full 80%, right? Jamie, is it by what or is it by entire development?
- You know, I think it's specifically for the developments that are using the affordable housing incentives
- and following the regulations and that section of code. Yeah, so I guess it could be an individual law,
- but it's more likely to be a larger development. Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
- Looking forward to hearing answers. With what we know so far, I'm interested in writing a memo. But
- getting some answers may shape that or even potentially make me walk that back. I also might try to
- attend on the fourth. But yeah, looking forward to more information and tentatively interested in writing
- a memo. Yeah. Okay. I think that sounds good. I think the best next step is
- Please, please, please try to read this. Please, please, please try to educate yourself on anything
- you have questions on or if there's more questions you have. We have a wonderful senior environmental
- planner that is our liaison who can likely answer basic questions about city planning and things like
- that if you have them. It will really, really help us write a letter more efficiently and probably more
- effectively if we are looking into the things we have questions about. And that's why these kinds of ad hoc
- you know, spitballing conversations are a little hard. We, you know, it's health lacking presenters.
- So thank you, Jamie. Yeah, no problem. But it sounds like if we're able to get Jackie's responses, do
- we want to set a tentative sort of, sort of ECPC-ish within that bucket, a tentative ECPC meeting right
- now, and then we cancel it if there's suddenly this great consensus of, okay, we don't need to weigh
- in. Do we want to set something now so we follow through with it? I can go over here.
- We love meetings. So fun. So the last, so the, we have all of next week. And then the week after that
- is the final week of January. We have to submit whatever we're going to do. Does it make sense for us
- to try to schedule something next week then to write a memo? Rachel, is it expected that we'd be able
- to get answers pretty fast?
- I can send Jackie an email first thing tomorrow morning or when I get home tonight. I know the questions
- are important and time is of the essence. So I'll send her an email and maybe try to shoot for a meeting
- with her first thing. But yeah, I'm hoping that she can answer questions pretty soon. In the past, we've
- scheduled ECPC meetings on Tuesdays at 530.
- Um, that would be the 20th at five 30. Do we want to tend to the plan? We could do that or we could
- do, we can't do that one. It's within the 48 hours since Monday's holiday. Oh, okay. So Thursday,
- for example, what are you as, I mean, anyone who wants to join can weigh in. We obviously have a maximum
- of how many of us can gather in one place at one time, but, um, especially for folks who are on the ECPC.
- what time works for you what day works for you we have a light pollution working group meeting wednesday
- at seven aside from that i'm good yeah i'm only probably ever going to be available like 6 30 or 7 in
- the evenings just because i'm driving back from indy every single day but that's like doesn't have to um
- necessarily determine anything, but if it's later, I'll be more likely to attend it. Okay. Thank you
- for that. And thanks. Thanks for doing this, even though you're driving so much all the time.
- I'm so sorry. Um, so like Thursday, seven, that Thursday, Rachel, can you see if it is, I guess, mainly
- clarification is who, who wants, who are the five people who want to be physically present? Because
- if we're picking a time based on
- Yeah, I don't know. The ECPC is officially Adam, Matt, Kerry, Mitchell, David, and then Norm and Nadia
- have thrown their hats in to maybe stay in the loop. So technically if all five of us go, that's full
- roster. Okay. And if people know they're not available for that, especially those five people I just
- named, you won't be. You won't be. Okay. So we've got an opening.
- Yeah, we want all the input that we can get, but. Right. Okay. Right. And Nadia, it sounds like you
- would, if it was like at seven o'clock that you would be interested in joining. Yeah. Okay. Mitchell,
- if it was seven o'clock next Thursday, is that a time that you would be able to join or would you like
- to offer your seat to someone else?
- to come, because I just was out this entire week and need to catch up on life and stuff. So I don't
- think I'll be able to make it. Thank you. Thank you for your honesty. OK. OK, so we have Heidi. I would
- be happy to go. Matt would like to go. Anne would like to go. And then? No, mix five. OK. Great.
- Well, if that works for seven o'clock next Thursday. Let's see what rooms are doable. Back in Ellie
- room. Yeah, I think Kelly's the best option. No, you have to say. Or the unlock room, which is over
- here. They're about the same size. I think Kelly's might be a little bit bigger. So, okay. Okay, there's
- five of us. That's true. All right. Okay, so.
- 7 o'clock in the Kelly around. And we will go through. I'm so sorry. Would you? OK, so I tried to get
- the buffers and nobody's running over and class keys available starting at 7. I don't know if there's
- another group that not run over though. Give me to stick with Kelly. This could be safe. Honestly, Kelly's
- OK with me and we can get past the doors. OK, yes, I'll make sure that OK. Thank you.
- Great. Great. Okay, we'll look forward to hearing back from Jackie and putting together a memo. Yeah.
- Any other thoughts or input people would like to share before we move to the next event within our agenda?
- Okay. Okay. And I also think I have to show everybody on here. So I'm trying to figure out how to best
- do that and share. Yeah, I think when everybody splits, I don't know if I can do that easily.
- You may have to show everybody if we're voting, right? Use the windows and then the arrow keys. I'm
- going to pin the three people that are commissioners. That's a good idea. No, no, it's not a good idea.
- The CRSFs. We don't need the CRSFs. Mm-hmm. Wow, does it only let you do one? No, it should let you
- do multiple. All the others are just asking for a place pin. Oh, okay. Well, if you did it all for voting, I wonder
- Okay, Jamie, moving on to the environmental amendments, I will zoom in a little bit and see if I can
- finish the list. Okay, so I will run through some of our proposed amendments that have some environmental
- considerations for.
- 2026 and I will definitely credit Rachel since she worked very closely with me on putting this list
- together and she was involved with a lot of the conversations about the proposed amendments. We also
- worked some with Haskell Smith the urban forester and he had some input from the tree commission so
- you'll see some of those changes in here. For example the first two or the first three actually first
- three rows
- are cleaning up some of the language to remove ornamental trees, just to remove the word ornamental
- from the code and just clarifying the size of canopy trees. So clarifying small, medium canopy and large
- canopy trees when appropriate. And then row four here is adding a new allowed
- disturbance in the streamside zone for zone one, riparian buffer. So it's allowing demolition of existing
- structure with some conditions attached to that and requiring a remediation plan to be approved by Rachel,
- in this case, senior environmental planner. So that's what that's about. Okay, expand on this one to
- build something in the riparian zone. If it's not in a lot of disturbance, that would still require
- a variance.
- This is so any like sheds or other structures that are currently in there, it gets it out if they want,
- and there can be a remediation plan. So then it's going back to more of a native, healthy streamside
- landscape rather than having a building that people might be going in and out of, or if it's abandoned,
- not letting it be run down. Are there any questions about this one? Were you saying that the removal
- is now no longer requires a variance?
- The removal does not require a barrier. Gotcha. Okay. And were there any questions on the ornamental
- trees? Go ahead, Jamie. Sorry. Oh, you're totally fine. Feel free to jump in whenever. So the next one
- is changing right now. It's a two acre threshold. Uh, it's changing the two acres, reducing it to one
- acres for minimum required, uh, vegetation and
- we are kind of cleaning up some of the language. So we're adding language preference, maybe given to
- protecting heritage trees that are of particular value due to their type, size or age. And I know Rachel,
- you were involved with this change too. So feel free to add anything that you want. I'll jump in here
- too. So this is part of the tree preservation section. This piece of code gave the director some, an
- authorization to provide smaller parcels
- of two acres or less, we need to see on the tree preservation standards. So we are reducing that to
- one acre. So one plus now needs to comply with those and doesn't have that kind of discretion with the
- director like it used to. They would need a variance if they are exceeding the tree preservation
- requirements. Who's the director? David Piddle. He's been at a couple of these meetings.
- Any questions about that one? Go ahead, Jamie. Okay. And then the next one is modifying the language
- for slopes. And this is to be consistent with the change in state law. So just changing that from 12
- to 25%. And then Rachel and I worked on these next few too. So there's just some formatting changes
- with the flood, floodway section and
- If you go to keep going, Rachel, the last one here says any activity exempted from a floodplain development
- permit does not need a conditional use approval. So that's the language that would be added on here.
- Yeah. So the formatting errors, the rest of the code uses the Roman numerals. This piece of code is
- the capital letters. So just making that consistent. This new section is things like signs don't need a
- development permits and put a sign into a flood zone. So right now when there's a list of things that
- need a conditional use approval through the Board of Zoning Appeals. And so we're saying for the activities
- exempted from the permit side, they also don't need that conditional use approval. Any questions?
- All right. And then this next one is adding language that says for auto sales, electric vehicle charging
- requirements are only based on customer and employee parking. You need a second to digest this one. Okay.
- So I'll say I think this one's coming from Jamie, correct me if I'm wrong, but you've received a couple
- of petitions of car sales businesses. And so the way the code reads is per the entire parking lot. So,
- you know, these display spots of these vehicles for sale.
- they were technically contributing to what is required. And so the Board of Zoning Appeals was going
- ahead and approving these variances from the standards. So this is making kind of the pattern of what
- the VCA was approving and putting it into code. Makes sense. Yeah, makes sense. Thanks for clarifying,
- Rachel. Yeah. Okay, you probably know some more about the recent history than me. So the next one is
- um regarding street lighting plans so there was a change i think last year with the tro overlay district
- with the street lighting and this is just adopting that same language in the the md downtown district
- of code anything go ahead keep going okay and then the next one is
- having to do, so we're adding language that only the urban forester and the senior environmental planner
- have, they can approve columnar trees, but otherwise they're not allowed. So that's just clarifying
- that. And now let's add a request from Haskell, the urban forester. Oops, sorry.
- that we're proposing to add some language about stormwater management facilities. So regarding
- the substitutions, it says a maximum 30% may be substituted or as approved by the planning and transportation
- director. And I think that had to do with conversations with CBU. Do you know more about that, Rachel?
- I don't know the full history. It was kind of in brief from my understanding
- there were development complaints about what was required by CBU in addition to planning. So I think
- it's consolidating that list and having that substitution to be a maximum of 30% whenever stormwater
- plantings are being utilized at the site. Does that sound right, Jamie? Yeah, I think so. Any questions
- about this one?
- So this one would be overall reducing the amount of landscaping required. And then the next one is regarding
- street trees. So it's allowing for street tree plantings. They can be reduced to one and a half inch
- caliper if approved by the urban forester. So I think some of this is to maybe be a little bit pro developer or just
- Yeah, so right now it's two inches, so it'd be giving the developers some flexibilities to reduce that
- to one and a half inch caliper, if approved by the urban forester. And this is only for street trees.
- Yeah, and Haskell was a fan of this, and we put this for only street trees and not interior trees, because
- street trees are highly managed. And that first year, the developer has to keep them alive. And then
- after that first year, it's turned over to the urban forester. I think it's the year.
- and turn it over to the urban forester. And then it's kept alive by the city and managed by the city.
- So that's why we are requiring the approval from Haskell, but it's only fine to street trees. Okay.
- The tree protection barrier language, that was actually already adopted in code, but it wasn't in Munich.
- What was it? It was like in our PDF, but not in Muni code. So we just wanted to make sure it was consistent.
- Making sure it was consistent, but this one was just for moving. There was a dot-dot at the end of activity.
- So this one's just one of the periods and not making it a confidence. Yeah. So that's a minor typo cleanup.
- The next one is,
- Adding language mulch or decorative stone is allowed within 12 inches of ground mechanicals. And later
- in this document, you'll see that we add a definition to define decorative stone as well. The plastic
- net. Oh, sorry, Jamie. Go ahead, Dave. What are ground mechanicals? I think those are like air conditioning
- units or if there's outdoor
- freezers. Is that what that is referring to Jamie? Uh, sounds right to me. I can look it up. Okay. Not
- all of these were presented by Jamie or myself. These are, you know, um, things that we assess as a
- group, but I'm not intrinsically familiar with everything. Um, anything that seemed environmental, I
- pushed to present to everybody. So, um, if you want a definition of what the, of what kind of biomechanicals could be,
- I'm thinking it's like HVAC units and outdoor refrigeration. Go ahead, Janie. Okay. And then the plastic
- netting language, this, if I recall correctly, was previously in code and then it got removed and now
- it's coming back. I don't know if that had to do with certain titles that manage it, like MS4. Yeah.
- This one was in the UDO in Title 20 when we monitored erosion control. Erosion control was moved to
- Title 13, which is the title CBU administers. New state law doesn't allow erosion control agencies to
- have this type of ordinance. So we were putting it back into Title 20. All right, and then the next few
- are changes that Haskell worked with us on. So we're adding chokecherry single stem as a tree. And for
- the smoke tree, the parentheses is referring to, with the parentheses, it means it's prohibited as an
- interior tree. So we're removing the parentheses so it'd be allowed.
- And there is a typo with the shining sumac, so that's being fixed. And then a new, is it called taxonomy?
- Is that how it's referred to? Yeah, so there's new taxonomy with, I don't even know how you say that,
- but. That's easy to know. Okay. And then we're adding some language about the separation for street
- trees. So it's,
- for feet or as required for utility separation. Sometimes you see those conflicts. So we just wanted
- to allow that in the code. We did some work with our engineering department as well and just cleaned
- up some language. So right now it's referred to as transportation and traffic engineer and we're changing
- that to city engineering department.
- And we're adding language for parking lots with 20 or more parking spaces. There should not be more
- than 10 parking spaces in a row without a landscape bump out island or end cap. I can clarify on this
- one. So this language, theoretically, if there was a parking lot with like 50 parking spaces, they could
- put all of their islands or bump outs in one section. So this language is just adding so they are more
- evenly distributed.
- I think does have some climate benefits, too, that you mentioned, Rachel. Yeah. The next few are similar
- to what you saw earlier, just cleaning up the ornamental tree language and clarifying when it's a small
- medium tree or a large tree. And these changes, we were already interpreting in that way, just clarifying
- for the sake of developers. And I think are we on?
- Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So this one would be removing the last sentence that says a minimum of 75% of
- the required trees shall be canopy trees. Do you remember some of the reasoning with that one? I think
- the way that we were setting up, there is no way if, or it was either, it was always possible. I think if there,
- being required to do these minimum amounts, it's always going to be 75% or greater. So it just seems
- redundant or confusing. It's basically covered by the first sentence. So like Rachel said, it's a bit
- redundant. All right, I think we can keep going unless there's questions. Yeah, just the additional
- clarifications of removing ornamental, adding small, medium, or large.
- Okay. This next one is taking out the last sentence where it says in cases where a stormwater management
- permit is not required, no development shall occur unless the site development permit has been issued.
- So this one's for the floodplain development permit. Usually they're hand in hand whenever a floodplain
- development permit is required. Previously or currently I should say that a site development permit
- is always required.
- The proposal is to remove the site development permit part of it. So it would just be a standalone permit
- in some cases. There can still be another permit if it meets the threshold for site development permit.
- And then I think if you need more clarification on what common area lot is, I'm happy to provide that,
- but this is
- refining the definition for common area and just clarifying that a common area does not provide relief
- from zoning requirements that would normally exist between a property and adjacent properties. I don't
- know if there were attempts at a loophole in the past or whatnot, but basically, the common area isn't
- supposed to be the buffer between adjacent properties. This is just preventing
- any loopholes that might try to do that. I think why Rachel wanted to bring it to you is that common
- areas oftentimes are used for environmental benefits, tree preservation, and things like that. Now we're
- on the last page. This is the proposed definition for decorative stone. It says natural stone that is
- washed or finished where the total aggregate utilizes at least two inches in size.
- as an alternative to mulch. And the last two are, again, just cleaning up that ornamental tree language.
- So that's what I have. Any questions for Jamie for right now? And this is all in the packet from the
- agenda tonight. And at this time, I think this will go before Plan Commission
- in March. On March 9th is the date that we have right now. So to include these proposed changes, and
- there's a bunch of other ones too, but these are the ones that we flagged as having the most relevance
- to the environmental commission. And so Jamie, if they wanted to write a letter to the planning commission,
- would that be needed by the department about like 10 days before?
- Yeah, that sounds right. We try to get the packets out about a week in advance. So yeah, I would say
- if you could shoot for 10 days beforehand, then that would definitely get it into the packet by then.
- So as folks are able to review this, if there are things that stand out from this specific proposal
- that we want to weigh in on, or people feel strongly about considering writing a memo for this, we would
- just need to lock it down everywhere I'm getting.
- So. Okay. Thank you, Jamie. Okay. Appreciate you all. Yeah. Thanks for having me. All right. I'm going
- to sign off, but enjoy the rest of your meeting and thanks for having me. Thanks again. All right.
- See ya. All right. That was a lot, but hopefully people felt like that was cool to have like the walkthrough
- of the proposed changes. I feel like that's something that we talked a lot about. So being able to hear it and
- have somebody, have multiple people explain it through business. If there's questions as you guys go
- through it, feel free to message me or if there's more context needed on why a certain change is being
- proposed, feel free to message me. Sounds good. Okay. I think the next agenda item is me, their handbook
- update. So I don't think everybody was here last meeting, so I'll just cover it quickly again. I think
- this is the page.
- Placement 37. Yes. Okay. So I recently said I recently found this out, but going to municipal code has
- attendance requirements for commissioners. So the rule is you cannot miss more than three or if you
- miss three consecutive meetings or four regularly scheduled meetings within a 12 month period, it's
- potential reason for the removal.
- While the EC itself cannot remove you, the council or mayor, whatever the appointing body that appointed
- you can remove you. So I think the EC thought previously that would be good just to put this in the
- handbook for clarification. Just I don't think we have attendance notes in the handbooks before outside
- of the Zoom requirements. So were there any questions about the attendance?
- And this is just a monthly feeding. So it's not in group stuff or anything. It's just for the month
- events. Questions? Cool. I think this one called for a vote because it's a modification. Yeah. I move
- that we approve the handbook as amended.
- Thank you. Okay. Naughty of pain. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
- All right, well then we're gonna move on to the next item. Here we are. Next item on the list is the
- commission residency requirement. That was basically a follow-up to what Matt Flaherty came and talked
- to us about last month where it was discussing if we had any strong opinions on how we consider commissioners
- that are not within the city limits that are potentially within Monroe County as far as being eligible
- for the EC.
- And looking at my notes, math, language. It was a little bit like, if we have a problem, we should say
- something. I think that's what it was. But let me double check to make sure I'm correct. Let's see.
- If we want to change, OK, so I have the potential to have a maximum of residents who live outside the
- city. And it's that.
- So mightn't say that if it's something that we want to change, that we want to recommend that they extend
- some form of the EC's commissioner positions or any of admissions positions to include county, that
- we would want to write some sort of document supporting that. Our conversation last month had to do
- with thinking about what
- benefit can it bring to have somebody from outside the city limits who's still part of the Monroe County
- community, specifically when we talk about things like air, soil, and water, which doesn't necessarily
- follow the lines of the city. What do we think about that? Is that something we want to intentionally
- say we would like to have that consideration or would we support that consideration being worked into
- the language for commission or consideration?
- As of last month, we didn't say we have a strong, yes, let's write something up. We were kind of like,
- we're open to what they decide on the larger scale and don't have particularly strong feelings one way
- or the other. Does anyone want to revisit that stance while we have a moment? Nice, okay. Sounds like
- we're all okay with writing the tides of what that committee is considering. I haven't heard anything
- else from Matt as far as if this is
- leaning in one direction. So we can continue that conversation as it comes here. I did put it as a voting
- item. Do you care to take a quick vote on just that's the stance of what we're doing? My thought is
- that because we are not doing anything. Yeah, because we're not responding to anything at this time.
- Does anybody have any strong opinions on that? That's how I felt as well. Since we don't have a particularly
- strong stance, I don't see a point in recording it as a vote at this time.
- Excellent. Okay. The next thing on the list is Tree Commission Seed. So Dave has been serving as our
- amazing Tree Commission representative at the recurring meetings and has been reporting back to us every
- month. But I believe Dave's last meeting was this week? I resigned from the Tree Commission this past Monday.
- All right. Officially. Officially. Okay, and so what we know is that the Seedtree Commission takes place
- every third Monday of the month. Except for... Except for when there's a university, what, Dr. Martin
- Luther King, they... Yeah, I assume if...
- the second Monday instead of the third Monday, but. Gotcha. I was at a holidays. It'd be third Monday
- of the month at 9.30. It sounds like they are now meeting in city hall for these meetings. Yes, except
- that as it gets warmer, they'll probably meet in city parks as well. It had to do with they couldn't
- meet out at the. Cemetery.
- out by the cemetery because it wasn't open for wheelchairs and things. But if they could pick out a
- city park that was available for lunch wheelchairs that would probably meet there at some point as the
- weather improved. Did you get the impression that if we have a few months without a designated EC rep
- that that would be okay or do they need to
- have a clear run for us alone. Is there anybody that knows they'd be interested in at least going to
- maybe a few months worth of these meetings that would like to raise their hand on it? I don't think
- there is a virtual option for these meetings as far as I know. Okay. All right. Well, please, please
- think about it. Think about your Mondays. Think about your schedule.
- In the past, it's been really helpful just because there is so much that the Urban Forester is doing
- and that the Tree Commission is working towards that is relevant to us. It's really, really helpful
- having that representative there. But obviously, if this mix of folks doesn't have availability for
- that, that's okay too. Okay. We'll think about it. Thank you again, Dave, for doing that for us for so long.
- Speaking of things that the EC does, we're at the working group update section, so I'm going to go ahead
- and pass it to Matt, who I believe is calling on biodiversity. Biodiversity has not met since we last
- met, and we have not set a regular meeting time either. Still looking forward to particularly
- habitat connectivity reach or work, and that'll probably blend with outreach working group at some point,
- but do not currently have a meeting set. In this moment, do you want to set a meeting or just wait until
- you feel like you've got a more concrete agenda? I must admit, I am not in a big hurry to schedule those
- meetings, especially with the amount of effort EcoHeroes is going to take up until April. Perfect. So
- I'm going to probably
- unless there's a call for an urgent matter, we're gonna wait a little bit on biodiversity. I think between
- the outreach and the eco-heroes, there's biodiversity is probably going pretty well. Okay, great. Eco-heroes,
- so we are off and running and Rachel was kind enough to print out some of the flyers that we've made.
- If you are somebody who is interested and able, sorry, remote folks, interested and able to put these up
- Around town, there are a handful of different designs. We are going to be sending them to the different
- educators in town to share them with their students, share them across their faculty. And I'm going
- to actually pass these around to the group. If you think you have a place that you want to put these
- up, please do. Please let us know. We're trying to cover as much ground as possible to get the word
- out about the submission. Can you share a PDF or PowerPoint
- And then I have to share my box. Yes, absolutely. And so these are, these are basically our call for
- entries. And we are at our last meeting, we got through a lot of stuff, but we talked through the sponsorship
- and donor list. And so Rachel, I wanted to ask you, we have this great big list that we've come up with. And
- I would love for anyone on the EC to be able to look at that, to say that they have a personal contact
- that they can reach out to. Is there a way for me to give you that list and you share it with the group
- or for us to do something with that? Or does that need to be like, I can ask. I think it might have
- to be in a peddled setting. Okay. Okay. That'd be great. And in the meantime, we're basically,
- solidifying the language store sponsors, the list of sponsors, the places that we'd like to put some
- of these flyers up. If we need more flyers, we can get more of them. But ideally, we'd have a really
- good turnout this year. There's a lot of excitement from our group. Heidi has put together a big resource
- list of a ton of different ways to think about the theme and lots of supporting material for educators.
- And oh, is it on there? Yes.
- Okay, awesome. So this is this great big list of all these different resources that you can use to learn
- more about the topics if they're looking for some inspiration on what to do. So that's the QR code?
- The QR code takes you to the Ecohears page. Sorry, where did you get to this? How did you get to this?
- It's linked on there. Yeah. And then we also have this great list of ideas that Adam came up with of
- ways to interpret the theme. So people are trying to think of like, I don't know, what am I supposed
- to do? Like make a painting? I don't know. It's a bunch of really creative takes on the topic of our
- nature at night. So hopefully that will help people kind of unlock some creativity when it comes to
- thinking through the theme. We are starting to accept entries on St. Patrick's Day and we will accept
- them through the 7th of April knowing that we might have to extend it by like 24 hours if
- when we inevitably have everyone submit theirs for the last second. But yeah, this is out. I think,
- Rachael, you said that you were working on a press release that the city who had to review all of our
- materials has agreed to help share some of that stuff. We obviously can post some of this on social
- media. So I think we're just trying to get the word out, get people excited about it, really think about
- the different interpretations of this theme. And to our guests here,
- Anyone can submit something. It can be any, I mean, ideally from limited, but it can be whatever take
- you want on it. And yeah, we're eager to get this up and rolling. I will say from the city side, I've
- done the website update, the budget I set with the controller's office. So they can get moving on that
- too, whenever you're ready to order. And then there is an upcoming Earth Day meeting, the first Earth
- Day meeting planning meeting as a group.
- I'll be able to read that. Awesome. Do you have notes from last year about anything from our group that
- we shared? Like, oh, this part was really awesome or this part wasn't awesome? I think the biggest thing
- I remember is that it was hard to hear. Was that the main item? They're aware of the audio complaints.
- I think that was the big thing. I think that was the majority of it. I think the rest of it, unless,
- Adam, you remember anything else, was us deciding what we were doing with our time. And, you know, we
- had like some, some interactive stuff that people were doing, which was really cool. So, um, if we're
- still hoping to get like pictures, I think we ideally would have like a sort of streamlined like,
- When you go on stage, you get the thing, then you can step here and get your picture and stuff. Kind
- of a flow through it. Yeah. So maybe just kind of verifying that that flow of things makes sense. Like
- we'll have the person come up, they get their handshake from a city representative, they get a certificate,
- they get their prize and they get a photo. And I think last year, yeah, it was a little bit of trying
- to make sure that was working and also the sound being so. Okay, then here's that flow chart again.
- So they get a handshake from a city representative, they receive a certificate, they receive a gift
- bag, and they get their photo. Maybe not in that order, but. The photo would be with the city representative.
- Yeah. Okay. And then lighting up for all of these things. Yeah. Big question. Do we have city legal approved
- language for either the emails to the educators or to the potential sponsors. I don't remember on our
- timeline when one of those things sent out, but it feels like now-ish. I think the educators, they said
- that was fine. I think the sponsor letter was included in that for a while, so I think they said yes
- to that. Is there a specific date you want me to have those sent out, on or by?
- the so I can't remember from our it was it was supposed to it was supposed to be on monday but because
- of just a brutal process we're so waiting um it would be I mean I guess it would be like as soon as
- you're able and it would include in theory it would include like specific links to the resource list
- maybe to adam's idea list and then to a couple of these graphics so we can get you that okay and you
- can send all those things great and again it opens
- So our idea is to get people interested and thinking about it. So when the doors open, they already
- have it ready instead of starting it. Anything I missed? That's kind of the big thing we're doing right
- now. So I feel like it takes a little bit more space. Anybody? Okay. Then passing it along to the ECPC.
- Which Rachel was there? Yeah, no. Dean hadn't heard or it was canceled last week, I think. I will say
- the 2511 North Dunn side, the north road that ECT2 decided, and that's where I went around, had a lot
- of public comment at Plain Commission. I was off work, but I watched some of the Plain Commission and
- some of the comments. So it will be going back to Plain Commission.
- And then going to the Board of Zoning Appeals. So if there is a change of heart of writing a letter,
- something can still be submitted. But for now, I think the decision was I wanted to be written. And
- then I think our next meeting is scheduled outside of the meeting on the 22nd. The next meeting will
- be on February 5th during the day at 1130, and that's if
- there are petitions that should be presented to ECPC and then a meeting on February 10th without staff
- for a letter to be written again, if you so choose. What time is the February 10th one? That one is
- at 5.30. Any questions for ECPC? I believe so.
- So we have a meeting, I just said, Wednesday, next Monday at 7 p.m. here. I think we only have four
- people planning on attending right now, so four more persons can join and more will welcome. We're probably
- gonna keep it pretty easy again because of the Eco Heroes thing. Yeah, that's it for us. I did get a
- sense, I was in a meeting today with Parks and
- they might be somewhat open to reducing light at parks properties. Their number one priority is safety.
- So I think that might be a discussion that could reach them. Outreach and education met just before
- this meeting. Do either of you want to share kind of what you had to go through? Adam, you want to?
- Look at you, you're so pretty.
- So primarily we talked about the organization of the resource materials that we have on the Environmental
- Commission website. So the landing page has a, the bottom of the page has a brochures and fact sheet
- link. And that link, the information is, the title of the page once you get to it is natural landscaping.
- that. So what we're thinking is this would be a landing page for all of the educated the beyond just
- landscaping other materials that we'd like to include. So we would change the title of this page to
- brochures or and then have subcategories beneath it, which will include natural landscaping. But then
- what other categories did we
- think about. We discussed that some categories could be kind of inspired by working groups. It could
- be a category with water type information. There could be a category that has some of our dark sky resources
- from the light pollution group. We don't want to flood any particular subject matter. So we want to
- decide what the most important and or current resources are to us. But this way, it can be more than
- just landscaping. It can be kind of a landing spot for various environmental information.
- And we talked about, because we have all these great working groups and all these lovely leads to the
- working groups, our thought was to be able to flush out the brochures and facts page that we would ask
- each working group to provide three-ish links to resources that are either sort of good starting points
- that are, you know, well kept up that are appropriate that our city will approve us putting on city website.
- but also thinking about what's relevant to Bloomington. And people who are in the city of Bloomington
- are most likely the ones who are gonna be looking at these pages. So when it comes to light pollution,
- if there's any material that is relevant to Southern Indiana or whatever it is in a way that is an easy
- link that would be approved by the city for its content and its quality, we would love to ask each working
- group to provide maybe three links. And it could be a PDF too, if that's the right fit. It just needs
- to be something
- And then we just have those subtitles for each of those topics and then have a little material on each
- of them. Yeah. Anything else? I have a question about informational brochures. As you know, we have
- talked a bit about producing some info for homeowners with lawnmowers about cutting the frequency of
- the grass, frequency of grass cutting.
- I've been thinking about it. You've seen some copy that may become part of it. I just wanted to very
- quickly show you what it might show like. The whole idea is very simple. Don't cut your grass every
- week if you can let it go two weeks. And that will
- you will then have a very important effect on your personal production of greenhouse gas. And you've
- seen some copies of this already, and I'd like your advice on proceeding, like design and distribution.
- It should be a flyer of some kind. Where might it be distributed? Through the city, perhaps? I was thinking
- of stuffing it into a water bill,
- I don't know whether the water department will approve that. There's one way to get it out to everybody,
- but some kind of mass distribution that's easy and doesn't cost much and gets the idea out. Preferably
- before we all start fitting grass again in the spring. I think this has actually been on our agenda
- for the last few months to make sure that we had time to talk about it. I know it's not on this one
- necessarily, but when it comes to the copy, I think our first step was doing like maybe an op-ed.
- that we were talking about doing something for the, for the newspaper. It's kind of like our first.
- Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. I remember what was, what was last shared with us. And I can't remember how
- months ago, how many months ago that was. I thought it, I thought it read a lot like a guest column
- and that that would be a very reasonable place to start. Um, and there are one time reach, which is
- a bit of a drawback and the paper has a decrease in circulation. Although it's, it's online.
- In other words, I don't think it's a very good place for this information. That's my personal opinion.
- The appeal to me, I suppose, was also how immediate it can be. That is something that if you have a
- copy, if it's going to go out as the EC, I don't know if we need to vote, or if you're just going to
- publish it as yourself,
- than I don't imagine that it would. But that's a thing that can be done on any timeline rather than
- having to make sure we have a brochure, right? And have a distribution plan and everything as we're
- already, as spring is a lot and that you see. I will say like, uh, where you done? I didn't mean to
- interrupt. Um, if, you know, if anything is making the newspaper or getting anything being posted online,
- if you are referencing yourself as a member of the environmental commission, it has to be approved through the city.
- If you're representing yourself as a resident of Wilmington or whatnot as an individual person and not
- referencing your affiliation with the environmental commission, representing the environmental commission
- I should say, I think that's fine. But any type of language as a representation of the EC that's largely
- distributed should be reviewed by the city. I don't think that this is a Norm Crampton project at all.
- It's an EC project and I'm assuming
- that I would bring in copy for you all to review and say, yeah, okay, go ahead. That's how it has to
- be done, I think by the commission. I think what you've talked about before, I think you're talking
- to the right folks about the kinds of priorities we have. In the annual planning meeting, one of the
- things we did was we talked about the different initiatives that we thought would be
- useful for us to prioritize in a year and education and outreach were one of those reviewing our materials
- and all of that. Part of it is being on either being in one of the working groups to help escort that
- along or being being able to provide the materials through whatever channel has to be to get to the
- working group that then can look at and decide what to do with it. Do you
- Do you have interest in joining the outreach and education, we're working group to help with this, or
- would you prefer to craft something that then gets sent through for our next meeting? That's gonna be
- the smoothest way to do it is to learn something for the next meeting. Okay. Yeah. So I would say if
- I, what I think would be helpful is especially if it's like a fire that you're wanting to have, like
- be a little jazzy. Um, do you mind if I say this real quick? Um,
- So like if you had like a flyer, it could be that you just like write whatever the words you want and
- just like draw a little circle of like, this might be a picture or like, this might be a thing that
- has detailed information or whatever. Like it doesn't have to be finalized, but just an idea of what
- you're thinking. And then the education outreach group can then take a look at it and either give feedback
- on it or figure out how to workshop it or whatever it would be. And then we can bring that back to,
- you know, whatever the next BC meeting is.
- And then ultimately, depending on how the group feels about it, then running through the city communications
- person to get approval on, like, is it okay for us to even make this? And then where are we going to
- put it? How are we going to share it with whomever it is? So it's like a multi-part process, but that
- might be a good way to start. So at the next meeting, if I bring something in that looks exactly what
- it should be and circulated and everybody can look at it, would that work?
- I mean, it's an idea on paper. Yeah. Even if it was perfect on paper that everybody decided that's something
- to move forward with, at the February meeting, people could not take copies of that and distribute it.
- Oh, no, absolutely not. No, I'm thinking purely for discussion and recommendations and revisions by
- you all. Perfect. Yeah, that sounds great. If you want to do it at the next meeting, that would be great.
- And we'll move that to the agenda.
- Cool. If you can send me a proof or something before the meeting, I'll put it in the back end. Awesome.
- Okay, great. All right, so I'll add that to the notes. Anything else on the education and outreach side
- of it that we didn't cover? Oh, I have a question. Yeah. Is there any way to change how many people
- are going to the left page and what's the length they're actually using? Yeah. Like how useful is that?
- I can ask. I can't say it.
- RITS might be able to see it. I don't know. I can figure out who to ask if we can. Yeah, I'm sure that
- everyone is out there. No one's going there, really. It's definitely possible whether or not they actually
- keep track of it. Yeah, yeah. They may not put it, but it would be nice if they did if we were to actually
- post it. OK. All right, the special projects work group has not done anything, although Mitchell will
- probably start talking through the item stuff, assuming it's still
- out there probably start putting that on the agenda soon. So TBD, speaking of Mitchell, how's that water
- quality working group? Can't hear you. We can't hear you. Well, I met with him only the two of us were
- there and we didn't accomplish much.
- It does show you it's unmuted, so I'm not sure why we can't hear you. And we heard you in the boats.
- We heard you in the boats before. There we go. Yeah. Weird. I don't know what happened. I'm going to
- play my talk.
- Um, yeah, we had a meeting that was just me and Dave, uh, last week, I think. Um, but we were chatting,
- uh, trying to get some ideas about kind of building on the education outreach stuff, like what we wanted
- to do for that. Um, and, uh, had a couple of ideas that we were spitballing around. I also saw in the
- minutes for last month, let me pull it up again.
- I can find it. Somebody mentioned something about wanting to potentially tour the new stormwater or
- like the new water treatment plant. Yeah. I think that's something we could get ginned up pretty easily
- if people are interested in doing that. Because I can just shout out to people at utilities and
- see if they could schedule us something. They also, the stormwater folks, told us if we ever wanted
- to tour any of the kind of stormwater installations or projects that had to go in as mitigation stuff
- for construction projects in town, like any of the rain gardens or anything like that, if there was
- ever interest in that, just let them know and they'd be happy to because they can just do inspections
- whenever they feel like it and bring us along.
- If there's ever any interest in that kind of stuff, let me know. I can get it organized and that can
- be some water quality working group stuff. Yeah, hopefully. Was that Dave? Where's the new water treatment
- plant? I don't remember. I see. I remember them talking about it. I don't remember where it is.
- Okay. Cool. I'll probably start bothering her and try and get more regular meetings on the schedule
- soon, but not too many before eco heroes to try and start thinking about that. Uh, and also, uh, getting
- in contact with the utilities people again, to see like how the follow-up if from
- because I'm assuming they've talked to their board about the data collection they did last year and
- how they want to follow up and how we can help with that and everything. So we'll schedule things when
- I can get them. Awesome. Thank you, Mitchell. That sounds great. All right. OK, great. Well, then we're
- on to the next stage of our meeting. We're buzzing along at 719. We are now at the public
- comment section where members of the public can have five minutes to introduce themselves or just say
- hello or, yeah. Yeah, I'm Carl Reiser. Yeah, I attended a couple meetings ago to come and say hi again.
- I just wanted to point out a couple things. A couple meetings ago, you guys were having your big planning
- meeting and you mentioned reaching out to
- potentially sending people out to like HOAs or neighborhood associations. I did have some informal discussion
- with my neighborhood association and they'd be totally on board with you guys coming out. I also talked
- with Park Ridge East, some members of Park Ridge. Some members of Park Ridge East would also be interested.
- And I also talked to the leadership of Blue Ridge. And they would also potentially be interested in
- having you guys talk about the initiatives and you go heroes, that stuff.
- Thank you so much. That's incredible. Okay. That is fantastic. And I think, I can't remember, I think
- we had your contact information from a previous visit. Is that if we, if we're interested in following
- up on this stuff? Yeah. Okay. Great. You don't have to say it. Yeah. And your social security.
- Well, we will. That sounds great. I would love to keep nudging all of this along. And thank you so much
- for bringing that up in those conversations. That's really, really helpful. Great. Well, thanks, Clara.
- All right. Any other questions? Yes. My name is James Ford. And I don't have a lot of formal comments,
- but some response to some things that have been said this evening. The first is a plug for a media outlet
- called V Square Bulletin, which is
- quick goodbye and then they would ask instance, and he wrote a nice article about the meeting from Monday
- night, the planet mission that they talked a lot about in North row. So if you missed that meeting,
- I advise that you go to the B square bulletin and find the article about that meeting. It's a very thorough,
- non-partisan, academic, intellectually written piece that will explain everything that we're gonna need.
- Second thing, the comment about the lawn mowers and these flyers about lawn mowers, I live in a neighborhood
- where there's a lot of student rentals. So the people who cut the lawns are these lawn companies, which
- are very aggressive about trying to convince the property owners that they need to have the lawn spent
- this week, even though they don't, because they charge it again. And then they followed up with
- meat eaters, which they don't be. They follow that up with the lawn, the leaf blowers every day,
- every week, they have leaf blowers and they charge their owners and property owners. And so it's frustrating.
- Who do you talk to? You can't really talk to these property owners because they're controlled by their
- lawn companies. They have to have it done and you can't talk to the companies. In my neighborhood, the
- last several weeks, so there was a little bit of snow.
- They came out with their leaf blowers, not the snow blowers, the leaf blowers, to blow the snow around.
- And it was very frustrating and I thought it would be nice to have some city code regulation about maybe
- loose rates when you can, or loose rules rather than leaf blowers and weed eaters and gas powered equipment.
- I think you've raised a very important question, and that is getting to be contracted. I live in a condo
- in Cochertree, and everything is run by the big companies, you know. And it's much easier to contract
- at all and forget about it than it is to manage it well. And I think that's what we're seeking. The
- third question I have is for Rachel. She made a passing comment, and I'd just like to clarify.
- you said we cannot take into consideration environmental justice at some point. And I want to, I was
- hoping that you could explain what that means. I'm sorry, I'm naive. No, that's okay. That's a federal
- and state executive order. So things like social and demographic data are not able to play into government
- decisions. So we aren't able to make decisions based on like race,
- social status, things of that nature, and that's coming from the state and federal administrations.
- Thank you very much. Under the current administration. Under the current administration, yeah.
- One more thing, you're looking for a liaison between this group and the tree commission. Does it have
- to be somebody who's on the commission?
- I believe so. It has to be somebody appointed from the Environmental Commission. Yeah, thank you. We
- have open seats. Technically, anyone could attend that and report to us. But there is a standing ECC
- on the Tree Commission. Are you on the Tree Commission? Thank you, Gene. Thanks for sharing your thoughts
- and asking your questions. Okay, great. And there's no online members of the public? Yeah.
- All right, okay. Then moving along to the staff updates. Okay. Did I put these in the right order is
- the question. I think I did. No, I didn't. Okay. So Council Member Piedmont-Smith asked us to, or asked
- liaisons from the Marlowe Commission as well as the Commission on Sustainability to share this great
- opportunity. I think that we can carry on that email.
- Um, but so the waste reduction district is doing a community grant program. I think the deadline is
- coming up pretty soon. Um, I don't know much about this program personally. Um, so there are project
- guidelines in the, um, in this, the, I think the last page of this packet. Um, so let's see.
- Preference will be given to innovative solid waste reduction reuse and recycling programs that can serve
- as models to other communities and institutions in Monroe County. So if there's any ideas that each
- of you would like to propose and follow up on, this would be a chance to do that. I don't really know
- much about this other than what is provided on this sheet. And then the waste reductions website
- to share this too. Is this something that Special Projects is interested in pursuing or if there's any
- ideas that anybody would like to share right now? What's the date for this? I think it's January 31st.
- I think it's really soon. Who's funding the grant?
- I believe the Monroe County or Waste Reduction District of Monroe County. Okay. And I heard of this
- district. Yeah. That's different than election and recycling. Yeah. So this is I don't know. So city
- residents, I assume. I'm not a resident of the city. So this is a little bit of assumption for me. I
- assume the
- Wilmington has a trash collector or has contracts out of trash collector. I've been in meetings in the
- past where there's been confusion of how to track the amount of trash because the Mineral County trash
- in the city of Wilmington trash gets sent to the same place and sometimes the same trucks are used.
- So there's contracts in here. The Waste Reduction District is a somewhat separate entity, I believe.
- No, they probably work together. I would say they work together. Maybe they're addressing an issue that's
- going on and looking for ways to solve the overflow. Okay, the waste reduction district looks like they
- might be the ones who run the recycling centers around Monroe County as a whole.
- Yeah, I think they offer like, yeah, different educational programs and stuff like that. So they had
- a name change last year. Yeah, they were the district. Yeah, they're back to Waste Reduction District.
- So as Rachel said, these grants can go to nonprofit schools, libraries, civic organizations, clubs,
- businesses. And they said it obviously is just like a jumping off point, but some ideas for things like
- Purchase permanent bins for recycling. Purchase or recycle content playground, park, trail equipment,
- composting equipment, disposal containers for like cigarette butts or pet waste. And then also funding
- environmental education outreach activities. I think looking through this grant, I'd be open to what
- other people think. I think it's worth us really like giving it a hard look, but I think that
- this kind of thing might be the perfect opportunity as we're building out how we think about outreach.
- Does it make sense for us to like try to work with another organization or like help them do the grant
- like to do something where it's like it's not necessarily environmental commission is receiving the
- grant because I don't know that a lot of physical material belongings is what we're trying to necessarily
- fund. And it seems like that's another direction that this is going so like hopefully like
- Um, items that are needed, but it's something we're thinking about as far as like, what are things that
- we would like to promote, especially as, as far as like what's disposal does and stuff. Yeah, thanks.
- Any other thoughts you'd want to say out loud? I mean, maybe they're also funding that the time it spends
- with various systems approach. And I don't know what does the funding go for.
- Yeah, they try to outline without being like too restrictive around like, it has to be this or that,
- but trying to say like, these are the kinds of things, but I think it actually might list a few things
- that are not eligible as well. So I think you have to find out what is the wave streaming consists of,
- parts of the wave stream can be diverted or some kind of recycled. Yeah. And I think do some research.
- Yeah. And I think that the idea is like,
- for the EC especially, you know, what are our priorities? What is our role? What would make sense when
- we think about waste management as far as, you know, recycling, food waste, things like that. When we
- think about who we are as a group, what makes sense for us to have as part of our initiatives or what
- are priorities that we have or groups or organizations that make sense for us to be thinking about as
- far as it pertains to the work that we do and then saying, okay, in that view, is there something that
- would make sense for us to try and say,
- we could use a grant to do that. So I think it's kind of like figuring out like who we are and what
- makes sense for us and anybody else that might need to be in that conversation and then go from there.
- Cause yeah, thinking about all of like, what does waste look like in Wilmington? It's just overwhelming.
- And it's a mess because human, you know, like our consumption and our waste is just a huge issue.
- So yeah, kind of figure out like what's relevant to us.
- I'm sure there's a lot there's a lot of there's departments there's entire district you know groups
- in charge of this stuff so yeah yeah so people have thoughts on this please feel free to shout it out
- but that's kind of I think it's a it's nice to try and like push ourselves into the mindset of like
- okay if we're gonna do this what's it look like and really try and make it happen even if we don't end
- up doing it getting ourselves into the habit of really trying to consider what opportunities are out
- there okay
- The other staff update I had is I had an email from the Monroe County Master Gardener Gardener Fair.
- So that will be taking place on Saturday, April 11th. And it was an application for if any group would
- like to table. So does the EC typically table this event? Would you like to?
- We have in the past. What do people think about that? I think we missed last year, maybe just because
- not enough people were available. We have in the past. You said it was April, what was it? 11th. Oh,
- we did it the weekend before. Yeah, I think that's why we didn't do it last year. I think we all were
- okay with that when the moment came. But Matt, you've done that Garden Fair before, right? Do you want
- to describe it for folks who maybe haven't seen it? I mean, it's just kind of the switchyard pavilion
- packed with
- I mean, everything from vendors to other groups like MCIRUS and people have a presence. People distribute
- literature or yeah, some people sell things. I think one of the things we did a couple of years ago,
- the last time I was at it was we brought a big pad of paper and asked people their environmental concerns.
- It was just like a way for kind of public facing feedback and to maybe potentially inspire things for a future.
- Uh, planning type meetings, but we also had some of our lit there to hand out and it was just, uh, it
- was a good way to have conversations with members of the public. So I think if we do have people who
- can attend, you know, I, you know, a couple hours at a time or something that it would be worth doing.
- Um, but it's going to come down to availability. You can talk about the hat. Can you change your hand?
- And there are stickers now. And by that time, is it possible that we will have reviewed some of our
- materials that we hand out and had the opportunity to like, you know, freshen things up or anything
- like that if Tion is able to present her? That piece of material I showed you before during the meeting.
- I think that would just be as a digital format. So I can see if the, I think more than special need
- to be had, like what exactly, like the brochure, if we were wanting to pronounce it, like what that
- looks like. Not for Fiona's document that she'd worked on, but using that as a reference for the things
- that we have that we currently would have handed out, were there not to be some discrepancies in like
- what's in printed material versus what Fiona's got.
- I mean, it would be like a couple of months to be able to like cross-reference what's in there and make
- sense of what we're handing out. Yeah. I think that would be enough time. I might ask you after the
- meeting, just to make sure I'm like understanding your question correctly. I think that would be enough
- time. Is there interest? It's a lift, but is there interest? So if you don't have that, the virtual document,
- Is there interest to update the brochures based off what is in the virtual document with like copy and
- pasting the brochures to be printed out? Yeah, I think that's one of the things we're talking about.
- I don't think it would have to be every single thing. I think she could do one brochure. I don't know
- if she could do like all of the different brochures, exact replica, but kind of solidate a brochure
- with, you know, the information. Yeah, I think if it's okay with you for us to kind of like keep
- trying to see how far we can get this in and see if we can come up with it. That would be nice. Do you
- know if there's a deadline when we'd need to sign up for this event? Would be, I think it works. Would
- you guys be a vendor, maybe?
- like there's a. I haven't seen a deadline but I will. There we go. Maybe by March 15th. At least by
- March 15th. Okay. Is there anybody who is somewhat interested in in tabling for me to do that?
- April 11th. It's a I think it's Saturday. We'll be out of town. I feel like we need a part of the day.
- We have to
- Oh, for sure. Yeah, we wouldn't want to have to do. Yeah, we wouldn't want to do the whole day. Yeah,
- if it's from was it 94? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think, I think we have a few, a few priorities going
- on right now that will be hopefully kind of primed for that. It'll be after the cutoff for eco heroes,
- but that's okay. We can still promote the fact that there will be
- supposedly an eco hero ceremony and stuff like that, but there's, you know, obviously lots of materials
- that we have, um, and the habitat and activity plan for sure that we can talk about. Jane admitted she's
- out of town otherwise she would. Um, but, uh, so just to talk about schedule of that week. So there'll
- be voting for eco heroes, whoever wants to come in and vote on the heart, um, there, which that time
- is not set in stone right now. Uh, I think we,
- Oh yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. And then so there'd be the mineral kind of garden fair on April 11th. Um,
- there is a environmental commission meeting the following Thursday and then, or the day, the following
- Saturday. So it would be a busy couple of weeks. So I just want to make sure everybody is okay with
- dedicating that amount of time. Then we think about it and everyone is not required to attend the garden fair.
- and attend the Eco Heroes event. We of course would really, really love it to have all of the people
- that are available to help with these things, but that's how we do these things. But yes, those things
- are not required and we're just. Just for fun. Just for fun. Just for fun. We'd love to have more bodies,
- especially when it's like sharing shifts and things like that. It's a well attended event. So I think
- if we confidently believe that we can have at least two people there at a time for that,
- that time period, I think it might be wise to do the indoor single space. If we don't collectively think
- we can pull that off, then this is still a good event, generally speaking, but it might not be earlier.
- But if we have enough people who think they can put in at least a little bit of time there so that we
- have a table, it would be a good opportunity to promote habitat connectivity plan, just have conversations
- with residents and have sun lit on hand.
- Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So you can also just Earth Day in general. Yeah. Just make sure I captured who
- is interested. I think I heard Heidi. Matt, were you interested in tabling or no? Yes, if I can. Okay. And then
- I heard Adam Martinez. Okay. Thank you. I'm gonna be a strong Navy. I think it's a great idea to do
- it. So if nothing else, do you want to sleep on it for a month and decide formally at the February meeting?
- Since it seems like we have itself a little March 10 register. Let's do it. Let's do it. I do have a
- comment I just realized. Unfortunately, I can't be there, but this would be a good place to advertise
- the... Yeah, absolutely. Just through a laptop or an actual paper mat? We can do it on phones, too.
- It's one of those we have.
- we have lit with the QR code and that's been the most popular way at, or at least it was at Bugfest,
- so at our last tabling event. That's the chosen route. Cool. I think that's all I have for the staff
- update. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Well, rounding the corner to the reports, we'll go ahead and go through. So Dave,
- I know that you ended your time at the Tree Commission, but was there any major takeaways you'd like
- to share with us from that meeting? Well, we took notes on Monday, so Tree Commission meetings will
- basically always start unless there's outside business with the Urban Foresters Report, Pascal Smith's
- report. This year he talked about, this month he talked about
- Removing a lot of dead trees. I miss where those were from. Well, from all over the city, actually.
- And a lot of calorie payers were taken out. There's a $50,000 grant for adjunct tree assessment. And
- so they have a grant to do that.
- to the Tree City USA is somewhat different from Tree City, but we're now involved in that. We're very
- likely to get approval and unlike with the B city
- that's free. So that was basically his report. And then I gave a report about the Environmental Commission
- and what we had done last. Then we had a report from Mia Williams, who's the IU landscape architect.
- She talked about they didn't plant much last year.
- She wants a map of where trees on campus could be planted. And she's in fact going to retire from her
- job as landscape architect, I think she said in late April. So whether they will have somebody on the
- tree commission from the university after that, I assume they will. Well, that's what I have to say
- about the tree commission.
- Perfect, thank you. Was there an Iraq meeting? I told you about the December meeting at our last meeting
- here. Nothing new from France, like from Rome. All right, thank you, Dave. Matt, any viewings of the
- because? Yeah, I caught up. I was able to view
- On cats, the one that I missed from December, they welcomed two new commissioners they kind of discuss
- their 2025 and review and talked about how they wanted to do 2026 priority planning discussion and meetings
- and whatnot I don't think they made any decisions on that they just discussed.
- Um, and their January one I watched, uh, they had a really informative presentation on, um, transportation
- emissions, how they're measured and their impact on our, uh, climate baseline. Um, was that from a local?
- Yes. They were, and I don't remember the names. There was a person in, um, at the table presenting and
- there was someone else for the city who was virtual that had
- kind of provided some context, but it was a good half an hour presentation, I'd say, about the ways
- it should be measured and the way that that's affecting the city's data, because we were making a change
- on that. They also discussed, I guess it's funny seeing this back, they had three members rolling off.
- So yeah, gain two, lose three, I guess. They discussed planning,
- officers, rules, but again it seems like a lot of that's going to be determined either at a special
- meeting or a next meeting. So that's what I got from Bicos. Awesome, thank you. Great, and then lastly
- MC Iris and Rachel we just talked a little bit about. I was not able to attend a meeting yesterday.
- Their agenda though, they haven't passed out minutes, but their agenda indicated that
- They were talking about the reduced invasive species website, or part of their website. And so they
- are giving a $30 gift certificate if you need to replace a calorie pear, tree of heaven, or an Asian
- bush train supple. They've also talked about distributing yard signs of just how to, the yard sign basically
- says, how to control invasive species and gives a QR code to NCIRS website.
- And then they talked about weed wrangles and their native crate sale. Okay. Um, okay. So at this point,
- I believe we are onto just commissioner announcements. So anything that is relevant to the EC thing.
- Yeah. Uh, I would like this to be my last environmental commission meeting. I plan to retire from.
- this commission as well as from the tree commission. Oh, okay. We're breaking our hearts. Give us a
- heads up. Oh man. Well, Dave, thank you. I know you've done this for a long time and you've been supporting
- the Bloomington community and all of in various ways and caring for it. So thank you for doing this.
- This has been, it's been really amazing having you in the commission and also in all the different working
- groups and contributing so much.
- Yeah, well, I haven't been contributing very much lately. Yeah, I thought it was because you were moving
- to Tahiti and they're like, I won't be in Bloomington anymore. I'll be on the tropical islands. The
- pre-commission meeting was down in the McCloskey room downstairs. Frank McCloskey, when he was mayor,
- appointed me to be in Barnsville. Wow. How long have you been on this commission? Back in 1975. Wow.
- 50 years. Wow. Well, I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say I'm so sorry to lose you. We loved having
- you. You've been such an important part of the commission. And I'm excited for you to have your Thursday
- nights free in future months. Who knows what you'll get into. But yeah, thank you so much for all you've
- done for the commission.
- We know your boss is your garden, so hopefully it's a good boss moving forward. Well, it let me down
- last year. I'm planning to come back with it this year. Well, thank you, thank you. To make the announcement
- that our February meeting says officer elections on it. That was on my list. Yeah, we don't seem, we
- don't have like a
- nominations type process or anything at this point, but I just generally wanted to encourage people
- to go for it. The positions aren't scary. I would be perfectly happy if someone else wanted to do this
- spot. I could also stay at this spot, but I'd help people along. Don't be afraid of taking on a little
- more on the commission. The roles of each
- officer is listed in the handbook. So it's in our most recent packet. It's also listed on our website
- under reports. So I will get the most recent one updated. So it'll say January 15th probably, but it's
- in our handbook. So if you're curious about that, feel free to review and or ask me questions or ask
- questions for officers.
- Yeah, that was on my list, too, of things to talk about. So the way that officers work, we have a chair
- who's a real mouthy leader, bossy person, and anyone is welcome to fill this role. We have a vice chair
- who is also our treasurer, so helps with how we handle the EC's budget. And then we have our secretary,
- who is the hero of the group, who takes notes on everything that we cover and then shares them with
- Rachel. We all look through and publish them each month.
- So all three of those positions can go to whomever. You don't have to be the most tenured person on
- the EC. It is somebody who is ready to be engaged, ready to come to as many meetings as they can and
- really be part of this group. But anyone who is interested in being nominated or being considered for
- one of these roles can just let us know. They can let me and Rachel know. You can say it out right now.
- And between now and the next meeting, I will be reaching out to a few of you to be kind of the nominating
- committee. And the goal of that is to basically come up with at least one nominee for each position
- that we can vote on. So those folks will just be chatting with each other or communicating with other
- commissioners to say, would you be interested in being on the docket for treasurer this year or vice
- chair treasurer? I know what you're thinking, Matt.
- We will need to have a formal meeting set for that conversation to happen. So when I will work with
- that. That task is commission business. Yeah. I was more going to say, yeah, prepare to self-nominate
- at the February meeting. Yeah. If you have any questions, is that a thing we're allowed to talk to each
- other about? Are you allowed to email the current chair and ask them about being the chair? Because
- it's a voting item.
- Because that's correct. Because I actually think it might be easier to not. I mean, we've had like a
- kind of slate committee in the past, but I don't, I don't know if we need to. I think it might be, I
- thought it was in like the nomination. Yeah. Um, I would say he needs to be publicly noticed because
- it's about a potential vote.
- It's about business and the duties of the commission. I don't want to give that answer. I think that's
- the right answer though. Yeah. So look forward to that and it will be your option to say no if you don't
- want to be on the nominating committee, but it's also a great way for you to help shape the future of
- this commission. So please don't say no right away is what I'm saying, but I will be in touch about that.
- You can always do that. You can always do that. They can decline the nomination, but you can always
- bring in snacks and then ask. I'm just joking. I'm joking. There's no variety. One way or another to
- be prepared in February, we have to fill the pre-rolls. And also we have vacancies still and I haven't,
- I didn't see anything about the
- confirmation about the end of January position. So that's part of why we don't do it until February.
- Yeah. Um, so, uh, commissioners who have terms expiring, um, if you have not heard about your reappointment,
- you can still serve in your role for 90 days after, um, appointment ends. Um, so I know several of you
- have any fear. You're one of them. We haven't heard by being January and still not by February.
- I think you're allowed to serve in 90 days after January 31st. The two vacancies or soon to be three
- vacancies, do you know the breakdown of council versus mayor? I don't know. I'm mayor. Okay. Dave, I
- guess I want to formally ask you if you would like to withdraw your application for next year. Yes.
- Okay. I figured I just wanted to make sure it's okay for me to email them. Yeah.
- One council, one mayor. I was going to say, I know there's someone in the room who's applied and I wondered
- if there was any way you could nudge either the mayor or the council to help us get him on board. They
- are aware of all of the applications. All that to say when it comes to voting in officers, if for some
- reason someone gets voted in and then they are serving up to 90 days in a floating position and then
- they do not get reappointed to the commission, then we will have to just elect a new
- I did notice that we are, the Environmental Commission is appointed to, I think, interview committee
- B, if I'm remembering correctly, and there is not, whatever interview committee that we are assigned
- to, they don't have a meeting set up right now. So if that, I can reach out to your council members
- to encourage a meeting to be scheduled. Awesome, awesome.
- the tree commission that's getting new officers as well. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, that was one of
- the bigger things. The other thing I just wanted to mention was, Nadia, at one point we had talked about
- potentially having Joe Cottle do a guest spot, and we had originally marked February as a potential
- date for that. So I just wanted to check in on if that conversation's happened, if you want to
- propose a different date or if that's something you want to check out and then let us know if that's
- something to plan for. Yeah, I can definitely reach out to him. I stopped working at the DNR office
- in Bloomington in December when I graduated. I kind of like had everything come to an end. So I can
- reach out to him because the holidays are over and he's probably back now and proposed February and
- I can let you know as soon as I hear something. So that sounds great. And then
- We talked about Adam doing a presentation in March, if that still sounds good. Any other announcements
- from folks? There was a correction. If we are on committee B, Matt said they did have a meeting today.
- Today at 5.15. I don't know the outcome of that meeting, but they met. Cool. We'll take it. Any other
- announcements from commissioners when we've just got a few moments left?
- Amen. Okay. Well, it's 7.55. Motion adjourned. Okay, I step in. Thank you. All right. Thank you. 7.55.
- Have a great rest of your Thursday.