Climate Action Plan Standing Committee

CAP Standing Committee Meeting Online via WebEx November 18, 2020 In Attendance Committee Members: Hilary Lindh, Karin Hilding, Sierra McCartney, Casey Lewis, Jen Sybrant, Ben Davis Public: Robin Paone A. Meeting was called to order at 5:30 pm B. Approval of Minutes – October minutes unanimously approved. C. Open Committee Position Sierra McCartney will not be renewing her committee position, which expires this December. The committee thanked her for her service and hopes she will return when time allows. Committee members were asked to share the opportunity for the open position with anyone who might be interested. D. Committee Status Updates 1. Parks and Recreation • Consultants Reforestation and Shearwater met with Parks Board regarding irrigation/water audit. Recommendation to update technology so leaks can be easily identified and located. Working on addressing Board comments. • Joey from library looking at more options for improving lighting. 2. Planning • Continuing work on Highway 93 Corridor plan – will include goals for and images of drought resistant landscaping 3. Public Works • Karin asked Mikaela from Conservation District to create a brochure for alternatives to Kentucky bluegrass lawn that could be distributed to homeowners and developers; production is on hold since Parks’ consultants are working on similar information for the City. • The Viaduct underpass project has shutdown for winter; the underpass will not be safe to use until the project is completed next spring. • As part of the Transportation Plan update, we had a transit specific meeting with Snow Bus, Eagle Transit, Glacier National Park. • Signs for Depot Transit Hub to be installed shortly – the hub is completed and usable. o Staff to draft a press release that Snow Bus and Eagle Transit can review/contribute to, then submit to paper to help get the word out about the new facility. 1  • Alpenglow apartments with solar panels – will be included on Sustainability webpage. o Ben suggested asking Homeword whether the landscaping could showcase native, drought-tolerant species that could act as a demonstration for other developments. • Thinking about putting together a storyboard to show locations and info about sustainably designed homes and businesses around town – much like Missoula does for Energy Smart projects. o Ben asked about tracking energy used by EV charging stations in parking garage. Zak tried to separate out that data from the building’s energy use but did not have any success. Karin will follow up with Ben Dahlberg. • DEQ grant for fast charging stations is only available to communities within the mapped regional corridor. Whitefish is not within the corridor, but Kalispell is. 4. Casey • Climate Smart grant money is available for a yet undefined winter-related event. • Flathead Basin Commission water quality education and outreach partnership to develop basin-wide water quality messaging much like the AIS Clean, Drain, Dry campaign but for non-point source pollution. The FBC will be the lead and the partnership group (municipalities and educators) will provide feedback on the types of issues that need messaging. These might include septic leachate, stormwater management, lawn fertilization, water conservation, etc. City of Whitefish has been invited to the initial partnership meeting in December and staff will meet internally to determine who should represent the City. The committee briefly looked at the sustainability pages of some of the communities Ryder had previously provided. Aspen, CO and Durango, CO both have pages that use icons and other graphics rather than a lot of text. These are most representative of what staff would like to do for the Whitefish sustainability webpage. E. Public Comment Robin Paone – interested in vacant committee position. Hilary will forward her the position description and application instructions. F. Adjournment – Meeting adjourned at 6:20 pm Next meeting: December 16th 2