Conservation Commission

Meeting Minutes of the Montpelier Conservation Commission August 9, 2012 Attendees: Erik Escelstyn, Chris Hilke, Roy Schiff  Target Resource Overlay District (TROD) o Slopes  Like approach where split into three groups  0-14% development ok, no conservation value alone.  15-24% conservation value for erosion and runoff control.  >25% prohibition on development. o Natural Communities  Difficult to select top 10 priorities since context and scale so important.  Two options emerged that could be used in place.  TNC Mark Anderson’s habitat resilience mapping that combines geophysical factors to understand corridors and linkages.  Recent Vermont natural Communities “high biodiversity” areas.  Chris to email MCC and CVRPC maps for consideration. o “Development review” by MCC  Members happy to take on increased role for review of some development plans.  Feel these needs to be supportive and early in design process to tweak designs to conserve values.  Prefer Conservation Consultation to illustrate it is a pre-design meeting to get project rolling and possibly look over site together, rather than typical regulated design review that is often burdensome to developers late in design.  Landed on required consultation if 3 or more overlapping values exist in project location. Recommended, but not required, if 2 or less present.  This must be collaborative and supportive, and is about focusing development rather than prohibiting it. o Map edits and ideas  Leave layers as shades of greens. Remove outlines on green shades to reduce clutter.  Revise map based on decision from natural communities, and then compare to parks greenprint for internal review. Likely not part of values explicitly.  Add legend to chart.  Number of Conservation Values rather than Constraints.  Add black to legend and define o CVRPC please email list of conservation values in current screen and rough idea of data source.  Berlin Pond Update o Hold on letter to City Council. Erik to check in on Berlin.  Other Announcements o Jim Condos meeting on open meeting law Wednesday August 15 at 5pm in Council Chambers. Roy and Chris away on vacation. Can anyone else attend?