Conservation Commission

Montpelier Conservation Commission Minutes November 13, 2014 Attendees: Geoff Beyer, Ben Eastman, John Fox, Chris Hilke, Jim Murphy, Shawn White (minutes taker)  Language for MCC’s “charge” o Sandy Pitonyak has requested that we send her a written charge for the MCC. This would be used to give to City Council members and other city officials who need information about city committees. o The mission of the MCC as written on the city website is awkward and seems to be missing words. It is not clear where the website language (which is in quotes) originally comes from. o MCC will work on language via email/Google docs. *Shawn will start a Google Doc and send a link  AVCC Summit Recap o Geoff, Roy, Shawn, and Chris attended o Justin Kenney (DEC) reiterated it is important to use probable threat of an MS4 designation by the state to get buy-in from the City Council on stormwater mitigation and sensitive zoning. If the city can show it is proactive about addressing stormwater and the water quality of local waterways it may be able to avoid the designation (which would further burden the city’s finances).  Stormwater Mitigation in Montpelier o Voters need to understand the implications of the MS4 designation so they will support any city actions on stormwater mitigation. o The city got an ERP grant to develop a Stormwater Master Plan o The MCC can help support this by setting up a joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission- and DRB? and bringing Justin in to give his stormwater talk. We may want to include Warren Kitzmiller and Mary Hooper as well. *We will ask Roy Schiff (not present) to ask John Hollar to set this up.  o We discussed the idea of writing an article or two for the Bridge as part of a possible Water/River issue (and include information about the implications MS4 designation). Not sure if any of us have the time to do this.  Solar Panel Array at the Stump Dump o Placement could be better- requires tree removal and encroaches into the corridor between parks o Montpelier Rec would also like to use the site for a new ball field. City might try to purchase land on the ridge nearby. Part of the current site would still be used as a stump dump. o An overall plan should be made that considers all possible uses.  Greening America’s Capitols Grant (EPA grant awarded to the City) o The city had a public meeting/design charrette about this in early November- Geoff attended. The meeting was not well promoted, but several good ideas were discussed. The MCC should ask to be included and to get more information about this on the city website. *Shawn will contact Kevin Casey (Planning Dept) about this.  Berlin Pond o Warren Kitzmiller is promoting state-wide drinking water protection and has helped form the Vermont Clean Water Coalition.  Carr Lot/1 Taylor Street o City plans are solidifying and include 30 residential apartments, 45 parking spaces, and little green space. The city is missing a great opportunity to promote the river. o There is still concern that the contaminated soils have not been sufficiently remediated and that the rebuilding of the old retaining wall will stir up contaminated sediments on the river bottom. Other concerns are that the CAP and the city’s story about the site don’t match, and that the cost to the city is likely to be $400,000 higher than what is currently touted.  o We should get more involved in the VT Association for the Blind site across the North Branch from the 1 Taylor site. This ought to be green space since the city is losing a potential green space at 1 Taylor.  Zoning Rewrite o The Planning Commission has posted a draft map of zoning districts online and in the City Hall. o We need to be more involved in this rewrite. We should re-present the TROD maps we made to the City Council and Planning Commission. It might be effective to do this after they hear Justin’s stormwater presentation. o This should be on the agenda for the next meeting.  Other o The MCC needs more involvement and more people to provide more muscle power. The MCC still has one committee member seat and 2 high school representative seats open. We need to be proactive about reaching out to the high school and getting high school students involved. *Chris will contact Matt McLane about high school representatives o We also need to ask Sandy Pitonyak to repost the MCC vacancy *John will contact Sandy. (11/14/14 update: Sandy needs something verifying that Mary Harbaugh is no longer a member of the commission.)