Sustainability Advisory Commission Meeting

APPROVED CITY OF URBANA, ILLINOIS SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMISSION Council Chambers, Urbana City Building Tuesday, September 1, 2020 Commissioners Present: Stacy Gloss, Andrew Stumpf, Morgan White, Grace Wilken, Maddy Garbacz Commissioners Absent: Tomas Delgado, Megan McGinty Staff Present: Scott Tess Call to Order, Roll Call, and Declaration of Quorum Stacy Gloss called the meeting to order, a roll was called and a quorum was present. Approval of Minutes Morgan White motioned to approve the minutes for the August 4, 2020 meeting. Andrew Stumpf seconded the motion. Maddy Garbacz, Stacy Gloss, Andrew Stumpf, Morgan White and Grace Wilken voted yes to approve the minutes. The motion passed. Changes to the Agenda There were no changes to the Agenda. Public Input There was no public input. Staff Report Scott Tess gave the following updates: Closed Landfill Urbana City Council has approved an updated Champaign-Urbana Solid Waste Disposal System (CUSWDS) Agreement which extends the partnership between the two cities and streamlines the governance of the joint action agency with responsibility for managing a portion of the Urbana closed landfill. Staff will be developing a request for quote for replacement of an existing, defective sampling well at the CUSWDS landfill with the assistance of the City’s hydrogeology consultant. Geothermal Geothermal Urbana-Champaign is schedule to release a request for proposal for a geothermal installer on August 31. The program expects to commence Geothermal Power Hours in October. Solar Urbana-Champaign Solar UC has 30 contracts signed totaling 85kw of capacity triggering the first graduated price reduction. 1  APPROVED Ucycle Ucycle is planning for additional recycling collections in select multifamily apartments that have a history of overflowing recycling cans during move in and move out of students. We will be working with code enforcement to keep the alleys behind multifamily apartments near campus reasonably clean and ordered during this fall’s move in schedule. Urbana Community Solar Nexamp, Trajectory Energy Partners, and the City of Urbana held two webinars to share information about the Urbana Community Solar subscription opportunity. The collaborative is seeking organizations to co-host future webinars. Urban Forest The City has submitted a letter of interest to Lumpkin Family Foundation for a grant to study the intersection of tree canopy, vacant tree sites, and environmental justice zones. If the Foundation believes the project is a good fit with their goals and priorities, they will ask the City to expand the letter of interest to a grant application. Next Sustainability Advisory Commission Meeting October 6 at 7:00 pm in Council Chambers at the Urbana City Building or by Zoom depending on circumstances. Approval of Updated Commission bylaws incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice Morgan White shared that she worked with Maddy Garbacz. She mentioned that the youth perspective was helpful in seeing the bylaws in a different light and they came up with the suggestion that terms be defined in the beginning of the document to help readers understand the bylaws easily. Stacy Gloss made suggestion of using the white space in the Sustainability Advisory Commission page as an educational space. Grace Wilken shared that she focused on the new additions and worked with Megan McGinty. The commission spent time discussing updates and changes to the bylaws based on comments by SAC members on the document. Discussion of Comprehensive Plan Due to the extended discussion of Commission bylaws updates, a discussion of the Comprehensive Plan is being tabled. However, Grace Wilken asked what the deadline for the new Comprehensive Plan is, what the time frame for the Plan is (15 years?) and what the Commission’s role is with regards to the Comprehensive Plan. Scott Tess shared that there is a graphic of the Comprehensive Plan Roadmap. Currently, we are at Step 2. Unfinished Business Grace Wilken brought up issues of the goals for the Commission and how these goals can be addressed and measured. Announcements The Sustainability Advisory Commission has an immediate opening for Commission Member. Interested parties may download the application form at: https://www.urbanaillinois.us/boards/sustainability-advisory-commission. 2  APPROVED The University of Illinois has created a COVID-19 Contact Tracing App. Information can be found at www.safer.illinois.edu The Institute for Sustainability Energy and Environment on campus is hosting a community conversation to explore the idea of using micro-nuclear advance reactor technology on campus to help meet campus energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals as outlined in the Illinois Climate Action Plan on Thursday, September 10, 2020. Registration at www.go.illinois.edu/nuclearconversation. National Green Infrastructure Certification Program hosted starts October 5, 2020 at Parkland College. The next Sustainability Advisory Commission meeting is scheduled for October 8, 2020. With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned. This meeting was recorded. 3