Environmental Sustainability Council

Environmental Sustainability Council Meeting Thursday, February 16th, 7:30 - 9:30 pm, Art Room, Community Center DRAFT MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER Members Cory Weiss (Chair), Chris McCloud, Jon Ward, Tom Cash, Tika Wallace (Youth Rep), Hannah Trauberman (Youth Rep); Peter Oppenheimer City Staff: Kate Walker (Staff Liaison and Environmental Programs Coordinator) Public: Andrew Young 2. PUBLIC COMMENTS Andrew Young attended as potential new ESC member 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (JANUARY 19TH) Minutes of the previous meeting were approved with no objections. 4. GUEST SPEAKER Paul Stoddard, City of Falls Church Principal Planner, continued reviewing the “Development Review Guide,” (one-pager distributed at meeting) presented by Rick Goff at the prior ESC meeting (19th January). He suggested that the ESC consider how it can support the goals of the three groups with specific legal powers in development review: the City Council, the Planning Commission and the Architectural Advisory Board. He also recommended that we engage with other advisory groups that have synergistic interests (e.g., the Citizen’s Advisory Commission on Transportation), and ensure we have representatives at key public and community meetings In addition, he recommended that the ESC go before relevant decision authority(ies) and advocate for projects that incorporate desirable environmental attributes, to support their approval. ESC members discussed linking policies to ESC goals, and cooperating with other commissions. Mr. Stoddard also discussed the status of current development projects in the City and the status of the City Council Vision. Over 900 public participants commented on the update of Chapter 1 of the Comprehensive Plan, which includes Vision Statement, Draft Indicators (i.e., measureable indicators of progress towards meeting the vision), and Values. The draft Vision statement will now be reviewed by the Planning Commission, which drafts the Comprehensive Plan. Indicators for the vision will be worked out with individual boards and commissions. Quantifying the Indicators is an evolving process, which will be performed mainly through the Annual Community Profile. City staff time allocated to investigate data sources is about 40 hrs per year for all Indicators). 5. NEW BUSINESS Community Stewards: Kate will distribute to ESC members a discussion document on the potential reinvention of the City’s Block Captain network. 6. ONGOING BUSINESS ESC Goals regarding renovation of existing buildings: This agenda topic was subsumed in the Q&A with Paul Stoddard. ESC Goals regarding raising awareness of home certification process: Not discussed. 1 of 2 Information Items:  Peter will monitor meetings of the Economic Development Authority (EDA) to identify projects potentially entering the development pipeline, to support the ESC goal of influencing the sustainability of that development. The EDA has recently addressed the “Downtown Plaza” project; “Holiday Lights;” and “Cottage Housing.”  Cory reported City Council’s approval of the ordinance allowing cottage housing developments. She also reported on a tour of Bob Young’s proposed cottage housing site, which will incorporate solar panels on a parking structure and may be close to Net Zero energy. In addition, the project will be designed to capture all stormwater on-site.  Kate reported the following items: an RFP will be soon be issued for roadside collection of food & organic waste for composting; an engineering services firm has been selected for the Big Chimneys Park work and some site surveys have been completed; the Campus Redevelopment Project Economic Task Force will soon be initiated. 7. NEXT MEETING Thursday, March 16, 2017. This will be a working session to review and update the existing draft and previously agreed ‘Voluntary Concessions’ (VCs) to reflect the ESC’s priorities. After this initial session, the ESC will engage other commissions and stakeholders in a discussion of how best to pursue environmentally sustainable development in Falls Church. In addition, the ESC will work to develop a stand-alone document to communicate its aspirations for mixed-use projects. Supporting ACTION ITEMS:  All: Review and begin commenting on VC’s: Energy Transition Subcommittee members are asked to focus on energy-related VCs, while other ESC members will focus on non-energy-related VCs.  Cory: Create draft ESC guidelines for mixed-use development for review at the March meeting.  Tom Cash: Attend Architectural Advisory Board meeting (1st Wednesdays, Council Chambers), to introduce ESC and listen to AAB discussions. 2 of 2