Climate Action Plan Standing Committee

Climate Action Plan Standing Committee Meeting Minutes June 19, 2024 The regular meeting of the Climate Action Plan Standing Committee will be held on Wednesday, the 19th of June, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers Conference Room at City Hall, 415 East 2nd Street. A. Call to Order – Committee Chair Dakota Whitman Attending: Liz, Robin, Karin, Dakota, Keegan, Fabiola, Nathan, Julie Mullins (Explore Whitefish), Dave Taylor B. Approval of Minutes from the May 15th, 2024 meeting. Motion by Robin, seconded by Karin. Minutes approved unanimously. C. Communications/Outreach/Education – • Report from Fabiola on her work. She is assisting both Climate Smart Glacier Country and the CAP committee. She may provide the CAP projects status update, last done in 2020. o Baseline of City bills used for energy. Robin asked if Fabiola will be gathering information from school district gas bills. Fabiola said no, but Efficient and Healthy Schools is being used for benchmarking, retro commissioning, and data collection at Glacier High School and it could be applied to Whitefish School District. Fabiola will also be applying for grant for HEPA filters. • Land use in relation to Climate Action (see attached CAP section). Dakota sent the committee an email on this subject on May 4th. Also, we will note expansion of city housing planner position to include “community resiliency”. Paid parking downtown – should the CAP committee recommend this? o Transportation, Growth Policy- Nathan would like committee to provide information to help develop land use policies to help achieve CAP goals. Committee would like to have bike rack locations added to Explore Whitefish map. Karin said she will contact Kevin to add this layer to the map. Dave noted that most of ‘new growth’ will be done on outskirts of town. 90% of in-town high density projects have been completed/redevelopment. Karin mentioned that transit plan of 2020 did not include committee work, rather one member for many committees to create transit plan. CAP is identified as a Lead on Transit Plan. Karin thinks committee could map out 1-mile area around downtown where we could have parking lots. 5-over-1 housing types discussed; Karin says old historic homes in town are being torn down to build condos/short term rentals. Dave stated the City’s option of incentivizing new builds to create higher density. But lack of ladder truck at Fire Department and downtown master plan is what limits building heights. B-1 to b-2 zoning changes in 2019, one parking spot per unit. Incentive programs density incentives are a challenge with annexation. o Fabiola stated that Logan Health employee shuttle system could be a good model for public transportation. Dakota would like to present one doable task to Council.  Paid parking downtown pilot program was discussed. Dave stated Dixon contract/study could conduct this. Committee discussed the possibility of demand system to help parking spots turn over faster, technology is better for these systems, easy to customize/flexible. Dave suggests asking Council to conduct a study. Possible name could be Parking Management Plan. Karin will forward parking study and council goals to committee. Dakota and Nathan will draft statement to present to City Council. D. Project Updates • Existing Projects o Community Solar Project o Transit Update - Proposed Flathead Commuter Route county commissioners voted against - Mobility Platform/Transit MOU o FY 25 city budget process related to CAP committee ▪ Retro-commissioning of ESC Building ▪ Public Works EV charging coordinated with FEC. o C-PACE status – Provide info on city website. Provide link to C-PACE info under Sustainability webpage. o Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Plan –Add comments to map on website. ▪ Karin will send link to committee. Once plan is done, then they can apply for grants. o Mountain Towns 2030 Collaboration and Summit Update o Recycling Recommendations? ▪ Committee is willing to shelf this topic for now, committee feels like they have enough info and knowledge on this topic to recommit to it in the future if it is raised again. o Follow up – April 30th Weatherization & Electrification Workshop –Fabi may write an article. • Upcoming Events and Proposed Projects o The Montana DEQ Climate Pollution Reduction Plan update E. Other Committee Status Updates o Robin- Grant Writer Consultant o Dave- New Resiliency Planner Position Open F. Public Comment G. Adjournment- 4:56pm