Environmental Sustainability Council

Falls Church Environmental Sustainability Council Meeting July 20th, 2017, 7:30-9:30 PM, Dogwood Room, City Hall Minutes 1. Call to Order Members: Cory Firestone Weiss (Chair), Thomas Cash, Andrew Young, Philip Skotte, Jon Ward, Chris McCloud, Andrew Crawford, Sarah Beaman, Dan Sze (City Council Liaison), Kate Walker (Staff Liaison & Environmental Programs Coordinator) Youth Representatives: Niharika Singhvi, Evelyn Duross, Hannah Trauberman Invited speakers: Elizabeth Crowther (DPW intern) Public: Tim Masters, Melissa Christensen 2. Public Comment Resident Marty Meserve submitted an email to the ESC expressing concern about residents spraying for mosquitos. This topic has surfaced previously in Falls Church, and the city is limited in actions it can take due to Virginia being a Dillon Rule state, which narrowly defines the power of local governments. That said, the ESC agreed to explore the following:  Submit an op-ed in the Falls Church News Press (Philip Skotte)  Include a flyer with solid waste pickup (Elizabeth Crowther)  Suggest that the RainSmart program integrate guidance on sustainable alternatives into its outreach materials (Cory Weiss) 3. Approval of the Minutes (June 15th) Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed to without objection. 4. Commercial Recycling Survey Elizabeth Crowther, intern for the summer with the city’s Department of Public Works, provided the ESC with an overview of her audit of the city’s commercial business recycling practices. Per city code, every business is required, at a minimum, to have a system to get recyclable material from their facility to a recycling center. In total, 1,109 businesses and 20 multi-family residences were included in the study, and its results showed Falls Church City businesses were:  Fully compliant – 31%  Partially compliant 24%  No recycling – 45% The city has not implemented any recent enforcement efforts. Next steps for DPW include:  Talk to larger buildings about getting dumpsters; eventually pursue fines  Identify top 3 candidates to approach for cooperation; Dan Sze offered to help. 5. Youth Representative Introductions and Projects Each of this year’s youth representatives introduced themselves and highlighted the projects they plan to work on:  Evelyn Duross (junior) – Operation EarthWatch  Niharika Singhvi (sophomore) – climate action plan analysis  Hannah Trauberman (senior) – Operation EarthWatch 6. Green Building Policy Cory Weiss reviewed ESC’s progress on developing a green building policy, which started with considering updates to the city’s list of Voluntary Concessions (VCs) for its Special Exception process but has evolved to conversations about a stand-alone green building policy that includes incentives. Cory presented three potential courses of action that the ESC could recommend to City decision-makers. Each of the options was based on Arlington’s Green Building Bonus Density Program, which the program’s manager presented at the ESC’s June meeting and which has yielded many LEED Silver or better buildings in Arlington. The options were:  Adopt Arlington’s model as-is  Use Arlington’s model but adjust the priority credits  Significantly modify the Arlington model The ESC agreed to pursue the second option - leverage Arlington’s model but use different priority credits. The ESC strongly supports developing a policy based on the widely used LEED framework. Members raised a number of issues to address while developing a proposed policy. While there are benefits to adopting Arlington’s model, Falls Church should tailor the model to its unique identity and specific expectations regarding development. Similarly, Arlington’s program hinges on a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) based incentive; the ESC had questions about how that might work, and what alternatives might be, given that Falls Church uses height rather than FAR in its special exceptions approval process. In addition, the ESC noted that staff capacity to implement a green building policy should be considered. Cory agreed to take the lead on next steps, which will include a series of conversations with City staff and other stakeholders on how Falls Church might develop a green building incentive program. In addition, the ESC will need to document expectations for what a policy might look like and the benefits of such a policy for the City, as well as plan to engage other city boards and commissions. 7. RainSmart Jason Widstrom requested feedback on the RainSmart grant program proposal (the city only received one submission), and the ESC agreed to recommend moving forward with it. While the ESC members agreed that it is great the city is pursuing this program, it has limited impact and the ESC would like to see the city do more. Specifically, the Northern  Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District (NVSWCD) has a larger program with a more generous array of practices and funding available. Falls Church City could potentially sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to access NVSWCD funds like Fairfax City. 8. Information Items  Broad and Washington Development Project VCs o Tree commission request to offset elimination of 77 trees with funding to the city’s stormwater program for use on green space – ESC supportive o Other VCs being discussed – LEED Gold, stormwater management improvements  JDM Associates has offered to train ESC students to perform Energy Star benchmarking of City-owned buildings  Request the mayor to sign a “We Are Still In” letter related to the Paris Climate Agreement; goal to get it in as a resolution for following Monday’s city council meeting  Tom Cash raised electric bike access to trails as a possible legislative issue. He will research and report back next meeting.  Tom Cash volunteered to be ESC Vice Chair 9. Next Meeting Thursday, September 14th, 2017, Dogwood Room, City Hall Minutes: Phil Skotte Minutes prepared by Andrew N. Young