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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-07-26 CAC Approved Minutes Jefferson County/City of Port Townsend Climate Action Committee Meeting Minutes Wednesday, July 26th, 2017, 3:30 - 5:30 PM Jefferson County Public Health, Port Townsend, WA Members Present: Cindy Jayne, Deb Stinson, Leesa Monroe, Eric Toews, Dave Wilkinson, Jeff Randall, Matt Ready, Laura Tucker, and Kate Dean Absent: Scott Walker, Tammi Rubert, Sonja Hammer, Darren Wilson, Ashley Rosser Staff: Laura Tucker, Jefferson County; Judy Surber, City of Port Townsend Guests: Kate Chadwick, Rick Doherty Scribes: Jeff Randall Topic Recommendation/Action Call to order 3:30PM. Did brief introductions. Approval of Agenda & Minutes Motion to approve agenda, unanimously approved. Motion to approve May 24, 2017 minutes by Deborah Stinson, second by Dave Wilkinson, approved. Public Comment Rick Doherty asked how many members are on the committee. Cindy answered 13 current members, with 15 positions total. Two are unfilled at this time. City of Port Townsend Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) Update Judy Surber – City of Port Townsend  Critical areas ordinance required by Growth Management Act. Needs to be based on Best Available Science. Must protect the environment and the public. Designed to avoid impacts or reduce and mitigate impacts.  5 Critical Areas – Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, wetlands, frequently flooded areas, critical aquifer recharge areas, and geologically hazardous areas.  Critical areas ordinance and the comprehensive plan updates are reviewed by the state Department of Commerce and the city’s CAO also requires approval by the Department of Ecology  City is coming to the Climate Action Committee regarding those provisions of the Critical Areas Ordinance that relate to climate change. Cindy Jayne Reviewed the draft letter from the CAC to the Planning Commission. It starts with a summary of the climate projections relevant to the CAO. These include warmer and drier climate (proposed edit to that section to change “warmer and drier temperatures” to “warmer and drier climate”), warmer waters, ocean acidification, increased risk of fire, sea level rise impacts on shoreline properties, increased stormwater flows from more intense winter precipitation, reduced snowpack and water supplies, possible saltwater intrusion into aquifers, increased erosion rates of shoreline properties, and increased possibility of flooding. It also included that Best Available Science definition be modified to note that climate change projections shall be included. Eric Toews Was concerned about changing the definition of BAS because it does encompass all science, including climate change science. Jeff Randall Suggested that perhaps instead of changing the BAS definition, some language could be added in the purpose and intent statement of CAO referring to the ordinance needs to deal with climate change impacts. The group agreed and city staff was asked to draft possible language for Planning Commission consideration. Group Discussion Talked about the need for engineering studies of geologic hazardous areas and erosion not just look at past historical erosion rates but look at trends of increasing erosion due to climate change impacts in determining necessary structure setbacks from the bluff. Group also talked about extending impervious surface limits of residential development to other types of development (commercial and industrial) if practical. Regarding aquifer recharge areas, the group encouraged including language that recognizes potential for future use of groundwater for drinking water. Regarding maintaining flood storage areas, the group agreed that excepting marine waters from maintaining flood storage because the term doesn’t apply the same way to marine waters as it does to river or stream corridors. In construction standards for flood hazard prevention the draft letter recommended that section 16.08 of the municipal code be reviewed and modified to take into consideration sea level rise projections for all types of construction in the near future, and cited a recent example from the City of Olympia, Washington. Motion by Laura Tucker, second by Eric Toews to forward the letter of comments on the CAO ordinance to the City of Port Townsend Planning Commission, with the changes above. Motion passed unanimously. How can the CAC best help incorporate climate change into upcoming city and county plans (water management plans, stormwater plans, etc.), and/or building codes? Staff noted that CAC is advisory to the BoCC and Council and thus a request to review an item should come from the BoCC and Council. Discussed adding to the standard agenda what documents are coming up for review that might benefit from a review from a climate change perspective? This could apply to all organizations represented at the CAC. CAC members will alert the Committee of possible opportunities to weigh in on planning documents. CAC update to city and county councils Cindy and Laura gave a brief update on the CAC Update presentation given to the BOCC on 7/10/17. One of the outcomes was that Philip Morely proposed that Cindy come back and give the presentation to his department heads, and that they incorporate climate adaptation and mitigation into their work plans for 2018. That would be the county goal for 2017. Laura also offered to assist the departments. Cindy to follow up with an email to Philip to schedule it. Eric Toews noted that he would like to schedule a presentation to the port. A question arose as to whether the presentation could be modified to better suit each organization’s needs. Deb Stinson said she would check on the process. For the city update from the CAC, due to the constraints of the city council schedule, it was proposed the slides be turned into a pdf with a cover letter for city council. At the next meeting, presentations to other organizations will be discussed. Updates on Recent and Upcoming Events, Activities and Goals  Deb Stinson noted that she had received many inquiries regarding signing on with other mayors to adopt, honor and uphold the Paris Climate Agreement goals. She agreed with the pledge, and applied, and is waiting for confirmation from them. (There is one caveat in Port Townsend’s application regarding the timing of when the greenhouse gas inventory is updated, which the CAC previously recommended be done at a later date.) Laura noted that the newly revised EnviroStars program may provide some of that data from the participating businesses.  Kate discussed the upcoming solicitation for Near Term Actions (NTAs) for the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) Action Agenda 2018-2022. She noted that the Climate Preparedness Plan for the North Olympic Peninsula was funded through a National Estuaries Program, and that for future funding, organizations will need to show they are in the PSP action agenda. Climate adaptation and mitigation is one of their priorities. The process to get an NTA submitted is just starting. They are due on Jan 10, but should be submitted to the PSP Lead Integrating Organization ahead of that. We should all think about what organizations might want to apply, and what are the key strategies. If your organization or jurisdiction have projects related to climate change, connect with Kate by September. Judy noted examples could be stormwater outfalls, etc. Deb suggested looking at prioritized projects in recently updated plans. Judy suggested checking with the PUD for ideas. Cindy will send a request to NOPRC&D.  Laura noted that the movie “An Inconvenient Sequel” will be playing at the Rose Theater starting on August 4th for one week or more. There will be an informational table with materials related to climate change. Anyone interested in climate change is encouraged to help staff it, and should contact Laura Tucker.  Dave Wilkinson noted that another set of King Tide photos were taken recently, and he is also tracking actual tide levels with predicted, along with the weather factors.  Cindy noted that she and Ian Miller recently gave a presentation to the Port Townsend Marine Science Center regarding sea level rise projections.  Cindy noted that she had compiled the organizational climate goal statements from the previous meetings into a one page summary, which was handed out at the meeting. If any edits are needed, let Cindy know. Public Comment Rick Doherty asked how native nations are included in reviews of items such as the Critical Area Ordinances. Judy noted that the appropriate tribes are notified through the SEPA process. Rick encourages interaction with the tribes. Next Steps & Agenda Planning It was noted that the next meeting, if we had met at our regular August time, would be November 22nd, which is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Agreed to move the meeting to Nov 29. Discussed considering the following items for the next meeting’s agenda: presentations planning and process for modifying it; more information on the BOCC presentation and discussion; GHG inventory plan; PSP NTA; 2017 Goals revisited; 2018 Goals planned Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 5:35 p.m.