 I would like to now call the June 17, 2020 Longmont Sustainability Advisory Board meeting to order. Can we please start with a roll call? Thank you so much, Kate. So I will start with all of the board members. Once I read your name, if you'll just raise your hand and say here, then I'll call out our staff members. Kate Collardson chair. Here. Cody flag board member. Violetta, I know I'm going to rip up your last name. If you could pronounce that for me, please. You're on mute. Violetta Manukian. Thank you so much as our vice chair. Kay Bullmeyer. Here. Thank you, Kay. And Jim Metcalf. Wonderful. Thank you. Staff members to here today, Lisa Knoblock. Here. Annie Noble. Here. Francie Jaffe. Here. Bernice Tellez. Here. Tim Ellis. Here. Susan Bartlett. Here. Dave Hornbecker. Here. Perfect. And our city council liaison today is Polly Christensen. I'll call you on mute. Thank you. Thank you, Tammy. All right. Anyone wishing to speak during the public invited to be heard. Section will need to watch the live stream of the meeting. Instructions for how to call in to provide comment will be given during the meeting and displayed on the screen at the appropriate time. Comments are limited to three minutes per person and each speaker will be asked to state their name and address for the record prior to proceeding with their comments. Chair. I just want to advise you that although I, it says live on custom live streaming, I am not seeing it live on our YouTube channel. So I'm going to go ahead and stop that. It's not going to work for me today. Okay. So you can continue without the public invited to be heard, except for the one comment from the public that I believe Lisa wants to read into the record. Great. Thank you, Susan. Okay. So this is sustainability program manager Lisa. I received an email. Can you hear me? Yes, but we're, we still need to approve the minutes from the last. Sorry, go ahead. Could I have a motion to approve the minutes from February 19th. Meeting. I moved to approve the minutes from February 19th, 2020. Thank you. Second that motion. Thank you, Cody. All in favor, raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Minutes are approved. Was unanimous. Voting. Okay. Now on to Lisa for public invited to be heard. Okay. Great. So I received an email at 306 PM this afternoon from. This person wanted me to read the following statement for the sustainability advisory board. That Longmont needs to study the problems with EMF specifically regarding the possible implementation of AMI smart reneering in the city mentioned in last January is Longmont newsletter. In parentheses, the one that goes out with the utility bill. Additionally, we have an internationally recognized expert in wired communications in the area. Tim Schochl who I'm sure would be more than willing to come and give a presentation to this group. He loves Longmont next light and fiber and the fiber optic system. And as an amazing innovator in his field, I'd be happy to give you his contact info. Although you may already have it from some of his books that were left with some committee members or not. That's it. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to the next item on the agenda. Are there any revisions or submissions of documents? Any staff. Have anything. Okay. We will move on to item seven general business. Looks like we have an update from the climate action task force. So I just wanted to provide you all an update with where things are out with the climate action task force. And also say it's really nice to see all of your faces. It's been quite a while. So I hope everybody is doing. Well, or as well as people can be doing, given everything going on these days. So. We, as everything else postponed a lot of the work of the climate action task force. If you recall their initial recommendations report. Was due to city council on April 8th. So we were fast and furious getting those recommendations done. And then. COVID happened and everything got put on hold. And we kind of had to rework everything to. Organize that group by email to continue their work remotely. So we have. We did take a bit of a break, but we have been able to do that. And they resumed meetings in early June. And they have been finalizing the recommendations and pulling together the final report. And that is set to go. To city council over two different city council sessions, because it's a pretty. Substantive report. So that will be the first presentation will be on June 30th. And they, they will discuss the recommendations in the building, energy use, renewable energy and transportation topic areas. And then they'll do a second presentation on July 7th. And they'll cover the recommendations in the adaptation and resilience land use and waste management and education and outreach. Topic areas. And then they'll cover the recommendations. And then they'll cover the recommendations. And in addition to the work that that group has been doing, the just transition plan committee that has been meeting concurrently that's been focusing specifically on developing recommendations for integrating equity into climate action. Also has their recommendations that have been integrated into the climate action report recommendations report. And they will also present their recommendations on July 7th as well. And then they'll cover the recommendations and bring them to this board, as well as the transportation board and the water board in July. So you all have an opportunity to review all of those recommendations in depth. And provide comments and feedback to city council. In the after the July meeting. So. I just wanted to let you all know that that's. What's happening with that group. And what we're proposing to council is regarding governance and how oversight and accountability is. Done moving forward to make sure that these recommendations. Don't just sit on a shelf somewhere. And what they're proposing to council, although it will ultimately be up to council to really determine how we move forward. After the report is presented. Is that. That responsibility get integrated into the scope of the sustainability advisory board. So that's what we're going to do. And then we look together at doing quarterly reporting, which we do already with regards to the sustainability plan strategies. But adding the climate action. Recommendation specifically. So that there, that'll be built into probably at what I imagine, assuming that city council. Approves this is on a quarterly basis. That'll be a standing agenda item for this group. To really look at how those recommendations are progressing. So that's what we're going to do. So that's what we're going to do. So that's what we're going to do. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to be up to city council with regards to those recommendations. So I just wanted to give you all a heads up, but that's what they determined makes the most sense from an oversight and accountability standpoint. Again, it'll be up to city council for that final determination of what, what that looks like moving forward. So I'll update you all in July. At the next meeting as well. But I wanted that to be on your radar. Does anyone have any questions. Yeah. Okay. When did you say that that's a sports report was going to go to council? That's going to be after we review it. Or before. No, so before. So June 30th and July 7th are the two presentation dates. I'll bring the full report to you all in. To your July meeting, which. I think it's the. Or something like that. I can't remember off the top of my head. So any other questions or comments on that piece? Yeah. So Lisa, the quarterly report, you know, to sort of ongoing monitoring. Is that going to be different? Or it's going to fall under the umbrella of your monitoring of the sustainability plan. That hasn't been quite determined yet. I imagine that'll be part of the conversation with council of what, what, what, what, what, what, what do they want to see in terms of that quarterly report, what level of. Depth and detail and all of that sort of stuff right now. As you know, that quarterly report is just a big spreadsheet. I've long. That to be in a different format and just have not had the time or capacity to sit down with that. So. But I, I do imagine that it'll be an opportunity for us to figure out how to do that reporting process differently, but it'll really get up to council in terms of what they want to see. So we'll have to wait and see what their feedback on that is. Okay. Thank you. Anything else on that piece? Okay. So item seven B and Susan, I think you have, you should have a slide for this one. Great. Can everybody see that? Okay. Yeah. Okay. So if you all remember, I believe it was our last meeting or a second class meeting. I think it was our last meeting that we had a pretty in depth conversation around what the sustainability advisory board wanted to prioritize for 2020. And we have kind of that, that ranking process that we went through to determine our topic areas to really dig into. And then obviously COVID happened. So I did go back to all of those topic areas and put that on the slide. And I think that we have a lot of, a lot of discussion about whether this revised proposed plan. I think there's nothing that gets left out, but there are things that have to kind of double up in meetings, which I think is okay. But it might make some of these meetings a little. Needy. So, but there are some opportunities as well. And I just wanted to run through this and make sure that this is, this is, you know, I'm not saying that this is going to be a long term, or if you think this is too much, if we need to push something to 2021, we'll probably have to reserve that conversation for later cause we have a lot to get through today. But so climate action, as I mentioned in July. The update to the sustainability plan, and I'll provide you a little bit more of an update to this later in the meeting. Has been postponed due to budget constraints from COVID. So, I think we'll be able to launch later this year in conjunction with an update to the envisioned long month comprehensive plan. And all of those expenditures are on hold right now. So that process is on hold probably. At least until 2021. But that also remains to be seen with the current budget situation. There was a focus on education and outreach. I think the climate action task force has a topic area specifically focused on education and outreach. And they have, I think, five or six recommendations in that area that we can go over in July. But I thought that in August or September, we can work with this group to really determine. What role this group wants to play specifically in that education and outreach piece. I think there are some opportunities for you all there. So, I think we'll be able to do that. So, I think we'll be able to do that. So, I'm digging into recycling and composting around waste diversion. So, Charlie, who's our sanitation manager. Has a presentation that he'll be taking to council in August. And looking for some additional direction. So we want to make sure that he also comes to this group and gives an update on where things are at. And get some feedback from this group in terms of some of those recommendations. So, I think that those are the things that we wanted to do. We wanted to do a more in-depth presentation on what their. Proposal is for city council. So I think that those things between August and September can go. In October. We can do an update on water efficiency. And I know folks had really wanted to dig into that piece of. What, what are we currently seeing around projections of. Climate change. And there's been some new information and reports coming out. So I thought that would be a good time. For Francie to provide you all an update on water efficiency. And pesticides and pollinators. I think those things can go together in October. And then electrification and renewables. We are currently Tim. Who's on this group here. Has been leading the development of an electrification plan with LPC. That's just getting going. But I think November and Tim, you and I can check in about this. If this timing doesn't work, but at least we could provide you an update on where, where that process is that. And that's also a recommendation that is coming out of the rec, the climate action task forces around electrification as well. And then we always cancel our December meeting because it's usually around the 20th or 21st. And nobody shows up. So does that sound. Good to everybody. Folks can just kind of. Either give me a thumbs up or if you have any. Concerns or objections. For you to jump in. Some thumbs up. Thank you for. Figuring that out where we can still get everything in. I really do appreciate that. That looks good. Great. Okay. Any major objections with that? Okay. And I will, I'm going to give you all a heads up now. I also tried to plan this in a way that I will be going on parental leave sometime in August. And we'll be out for August, September, and most likely October as well. So I tried to set it up where these things could happen without me being present as well. So that you guys have a solid agenda for those months that, that I'll be out. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. Congratulations. It's funny to, I was going to mention it to you all before and it was early and now I'm like, if you saw me, it would be very obvious, but. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So with that, I think we can move on to the next agenda item. Which is the sustainability plan overview. So came up recently because we've had a lot of. New folks step on to the advisory board. And then I think I should also, I think we mentioned this in an email, but in case anybody didn't see it. I think it's been on the sustainability advisory board for a while. Got a new job in Boston, if I'm remembering correctly, and he and his family moved out there recently. So he had to step down from the advisory board. So I believe we have. One vacancy currently. So we'll have some new folks coming on as well. But that it would probably be good for us to just do a brief overview of the sustainability plan just so that everybody, if you're not familiar with it. Understands what the sustainability plan. Is, and especially because it's the primary charge of this group. And what the. The breadth of that plan covers. So. Susan, I sent you that PDF. Yep. There we go. So what I'll do is just, I'm not going to read through all of this, but Susan, if you want to scroll to the page that says, Um, Aira quality. This is a summary you all would have received this via email. Um, the document itself is, you know, over a hundred pages. It's pretty substantive, but this is a great summary of the 10 topic areas that the sustainability plan covers. And kind of our primary objective and. The recommendations that are found in each. Our strategies that are found in each three go. this is not a great setup I apologize with with the way that we did the logistics of this meeting I didn't have time to actually put a slide presentation together so so air quality is the first one our focus on that is obviously improving air quality that's around oil and gas monitoring and leak detection improving monitoring and access to air quality information for residents so that's feedback that we've gotten a lot from folks particularly around things like ozone and wildfire days of increasing the information that people have access to especially when we have for air quality days so people can take measures to protect themselves and their families especially for folks that have respiratory conditions and things like that and then looking at developing an ozone reduction incentive and enforcement program so as you all probably know the interior front range area is out of attainment with regards to ozone that's a huge focus of the state right now as well and obviously there are ties to climate change and things like transportation and oil and gas development so that's the main focus on air quality like I said I'm going to run through all these if you guys have any questions or terrifying questions or anything in the meantime just holler oh Susan will you go back one second sorry to the that previous page thanks so the buildings and infrastructure that's focused on increasing code that really helps support sustainable practices looking at we've been developing an internal sustainability evaluation system that helps again support sustainable practices for city plans and projects and then we have a focus on indoor air quality and then tying particularly resource conservation to affordable housing so that part of that is the program that the housing rehabilitation program and the low energy low income energy efficiency program are working together on on that piece to help reduce utility bills for low income households all right Susan you can scroll to the next page community cohesion and resilience the bulk of the work that we're doing around that is developing neighborhood-based sustainability programs that's our partnership with community services so we have a program right now called the that we're in the process of developing called the sustainable neighborhood solutions program and that's really developing a whole framework that's focused on capacity building through sustainability and education and outreach to neighborhoods and so we'll definitely keep you posted as that program develops part of that is also tied to the neighborhood impact granting program which we got funds for through the Bullard County sustainability tax which is getting ready to launch in the next couple weeks here where we'll actually provide small grants to neighborhood-based groups to do neighborhood-based sustainability projects so we're pretty excited about that work we would like to work more with the St. Rain Valley School District around community resilience we haven't made much headway in that area yet and then continuous focus on community education or community engagement and that's a big component of equity that we've been focusing on and then the next one is economic Lisa yeah would you like to take questions at the end of all the sections or I have one about community cohesion uh sure if you have a clarifying question yeah you can go ahead and ask a question now I think that's okay um I seem to remember the sustainable opportunities lifestyles and leadership program yeah what is happening there yeah so that program is actually launching right now so we're in the process of looking for what we're calling community technicians so that program that Violeta is referring to is is part of this process I apologize for not mentioning it it's an adaptation of a program that came out of CU and their work with Boulder Housing Partners where they do in-home direct installs of energy efficient lighting and water efficiency measures like areas and faucets and things like that um but we've really expanded it to be again more of a capacity building program and we have two neighborhoods that we're piloting that in the Kytley neighborhood and the in between housing facility uh and so we are in the process of hiring what we call technician so those are folks that will be trained on sustainable practices in particular you know how to go into folks home and kind of do a very high level assessment and then helps people swap out lightbulbs and water fixtures and things like that and then connect them with additional resources um whether that be you know signing up for the care program which is the low-income energy efficiency program connecting them to transportation or food access resources so there's a lot of different components that we're working to build out with that and eventually we'd like to have a workforce development component of that um but we're just in the pilot phase now um and like I said looking to hire those technicians um and get that program off the ground this summer it's it's not being affected no it was postponed because of covid and we have had to to really rework how we're doing the outreach in that process and as those technicians on board and train them part of that process is going to have to be if people if they are going into people's homes they need to have PPE and all of that sort of stuff and if people don't feel comfortable bringing people into their homes at this time how we can support them virtually and provide them probably with some sort of kit that they can install things themselves rather than have a technician walk through their home so those are all things that we're actually trying to figure out right now but yeah that it has been impacted because of covid yeah really quick what was the name of that group again it's the sole program it's sustainable opportunities lifestyle and leadership that's o l l lifestyle and leadership thank you yeah thank you lisa yeah all right so moving on to economic vitality this is really all of the incredible work that bernice does through the sustainable business program and her support for uh underrepresented businesses her work has been really important especially in this period of time with covid and all of the impact that is happening to businesses locally connecting them with resources making sure that people have timely information and can access grant opportunities and other funding opportunities that are coming down and then she will also be focusing more on the workforce development piece as well um bernice did you want to add anything to that since you're on the call i think you you covered everything i just want to mention that we are doing well i was still working hard during this pandemic supporting minority owned businesses and we faced other type of challenges so we really emphasized the equity work that has been a foundation of our sustainability so yeah i just wanted to mention that but you covered everything thank you lisa thank you okay susan you can scroll to the next page so energy that one we've talked quite a bit about uh the focus areas are really um energy efficiency renewable energy working with low income households uh increasing participation in both our commercial and residential energy efficiency programs through efficiency works and then looking at opportunities for municipal facilities as well we just went through an assessment to look at energy energy efficiency opportunities for some of our municipal facilities and the next phase of that is looking at opportunities for electrification for those facilities and then the greenhouse gas emissions monitoring work falls under that category as well we are wrapping up right now our 2019 greenhouse gas inventory and we'll be bringing the findings of that report to you in the next couple months uh as well and then you can scroll up to the food systems one there so the food systems i would say is an area where we do have strategies focused on supporting local food production local food retail and food access i would say this is an area where where we really haven't gotten a lot of traction i guess is probably the way to put it um since we developed the sustainability plan we're always looking for opportunities in that but there is a lot of work that happens locally through local groups so i think that the city so far has been more supporting some of the work that's been happening locally um one of the projects that we are funding through the sustainability tax for those of you that were part of those conversations last year when we were prioritizing those projects is to supply funds to the boulder county farmers market wick program it's their double up food bucks program where it provides uh additional funding to wick families which is with the women infants and children's program where they get vouchers for the farmers market where they can buy fresh produce and it actually they get so every $10 that we put in they get $20 worth of produce so um and they are also due to covid working on pivoting how they can do pickup like food pickups like basket pickups and stuff like that so folks aren't having to be there in person um yeah poly you're on mute so the um people in charge of um envision long mod are trying to get rid of every farm in town and even the ones adjacent so how does that work with our attempt to connect people to um local food resources what are we doing to encourage uh studying this at our community studying food production and studying farming and agricultural studies in our high schools or at our community college um we have uh oland farms and the other farmer down the road are trying very hard to get carbon sequestrin studies doing uh are we is boulder county resource conservation board actually doing anything in long month um tell me something about the garden district cafeteria program i don't know anything about that so that's that sounds very interesting um and have we opened any community um what do they call kitchens where you can actually produce food where they're certified and all that yeah so those are all great questions and as i mentioned before like i said this is an area where i feel like we haven't really done very much and of that that updating the sustainability plan and envision i think there will when we're able to do that again there's a lot of opportunity for us to focus more in depth on this area in particular because i know those are issues that have come up um so with regards to the boulder county resource conservation board and the county and the city of blur put in funds to do a carbon sequestration study uh it was about a year and a half or two years ago and they then subsequently identified five boulder county owned sites that they are doing research now and around um carbon sequestration right those sites are are any of them in long month or near long month um i know they're all boulder county owned open space sites i don't remember off the top of my head where they're all located we did express to them that we were interested in working with them on that project and that we would be happy to identify city owned land and they decided to go with their own properties so what we've been doing is essentially just tracking and monitoring that study um to see what the outcomes of that are um so yeah we didn't have funds to put into that so their focus mostly has been like i said with the city of boulder on that project um so we are i mean i think they're definitely open to working with us but you know right now we're just seeing what the what those sites come up with it's going to be a couple years that they're going to track the the data um to see what the outcomes of those essentially each site they're testing a different methodology and seeing what the carbon sequestration potential is for each of those methodologies so it's going to be a while before they have um information that's really applicable for this region that comes out of that uh and then some of the other things that you mentioned just there we haven't really gotten very far on those things okay yeah Lisa if i heard Paulie correctly how come Envision Longmont is trying to get rid of farms if we were supposed to be working together with them the sustainability plan and Envision Longmont we were led to believe were in sync hmm so how did that happen if you look at the Envision Longmont their discussion of agriculture is about two sentences long and planning and zoning has in mind to get rid of to zone out every bit of agricultural land within the city so that we can have more greater density of housing but then part of the reason that people move here is to have little uh areas where they can have some chickens or a llama or something like on Rogers road but that is what we have in mind so we have a lot to get through today and that's a that's a much bigger thank you yeah bring Erin in to talk about that more specifically okay thank you okay Susan you can scroll to the next area so natural environment that's very much focused on the protection and restoration of open space we did complete the open space master plan and the wildlife management plan both of those came to this group when they were underway the we're we are hoping to update the tree canopy plan this year although that might be unhauled because of budget constraints with COVID again and then part of the button rock plan I guess is under the water section but we'll have somebody that from the natural resources group come and talk to you guys in August about the update to the button rock management plan transportation that area is focused on access to transit uh alternative transportation so biking and walking and then increasing electric vehicles through both our own fleet and then encouraging that within the public sphere as well we're in the process of doing an equitable carbon free transportation roadmap right now which is a big mouthful but that's what Sarah Sarah and Abby are on today to talk to you guys about that plan there okay we can move on so in our last two are waste as you would imagine this one's pretty straightforward it's focused on increasing waste diversion in both the commercial and residential sector so that's recycling and composting but also eventually looking more at things like construction and demolition waste and putting some standards and ordinances in place around that really focusing on the commercial sector which as we've talked to this group about before we currently don't provide services to the commercial sector and we're just now in the last year have some data to work from on what our baseline is around waste hauling and waste diversion in the commercial sector and part of the greenhouse gas inventory that we're doing is a life cycle cost analysis around waste so we'll bring that information to you guys as well when that's completed and then the water section is focused primarily on water efficiency and water quality uh Francie do you want to add anything to that? No okay and as I said in October I'll have Francie provide you guys a more in-depth update on the water efficiency master plan and those strategies and progress in that so that's um internet shells the sustainability plan um obviously there's a lot of strategies in here and we can't do them all at once so that quarterly report that we talked about is really the best place to go for information in terms of where what the status of each of those strategies are and any notable sort of pieces that are um associated with any of those strategies so and then now we'll be adding the climate action recommendations to that as well some of those recommendations that are coming out of the task force are just reaffirming a lot of the work that we're already doing and looking for opportunities to accelerate or expand that work and really prioritizing some of those pieces that are already in the system. Are there any other questions or comments on that piece? Okay so with that I'm going to hand it over to Sarah and Abby who have been the consultants that have been working with us on the carbon free transportation roadmap again that was a project that was funded from the bowler county sustainability tax and it was an opportunity for us to really dig more into that section of our greenhouse gas emissions that come from transportation which is about 30 percent which is a pretty big chunk and it's also a really tough nut to crack so we hired these folks to really help us dig into that and figure out what some some feasible strategies are for us to be looking at locally with the caveat that we started this process before COVID and COVID is substantially impacting transportation in particular so we we don't really know how yet I think what the long-term impact on transit and transportation are due to COVID but hopefully we'll at least get some information through this process and some actionable items that we can continue to move forward kind of despite that situation so with that I will hand it over to those to thank you Lisa well thank you all for for allowing us to come before you today we're really excited to talk about the equitable carbon free transportation roadmap that is currently underway and we'll wait for the presentation to load but basically the as as Lisa articulated the purpose of this roadmap is relate to promote and ensure equitable access to forms of carbon free transportation um and carbon free really relates to walking rolling biking as well as electric vehicle adoption and so in order to ensure that this carbon free transportation roadmap is equitable we are specifically targeting and engaging the Latinx disability and senior communities in particular next slide uh this effort is being funded by the boulder county sustainability tax and is led by city of longmont staff um i'm joined today by abby bohanan from ambg consulting but we're also supported by our partners at brendle group who are being led by lynn coppage so my name is sarah davis and i'm the founder and ceo of sard consulting we're a dember based land use planning company that focuses specifically on electrifying and engaging renewable energy resources that support our transportation and energy systems building off of my own personal experience working in both the solar industry and at tesla for a number of years building out their charging infrastructure network and um i'm excited to have abby introduce herself and then i'll do a little quick introduction about brendle group as well abby hey everyone i'm abby from ambg consulting um ambg consulting sort of pairs um public health and in the built environment and bringing community voice into um into really shaping the decisions that are being made um and in the built environment um we have done several projects um where we're using a community organizing framework to really engage um members from from the ground up um in order to kind of like help yeah help help people kind of have a hand in shaping their their communities um especially those who are most often left out of the planning process um we're really excited about this this project because um as the world moves forward and and um we work towards a more sustainable future we want to make sure that um that all members of longmont and and all members of most communities are um are part of that plan and nobody's really left out so um thanks for letting us train you today thanks abby um and just a few notes on brendle group's contribution to this effort um they're really taking the lead on the the data collection and analytics side um and so they have been incorporating both the 2018 and 2019 greenhouse gas inventories as well as collecting data from various transit agencies that supply um transit support for longmont citizens as well as uh dr cog and others who collect transportation related data as it relates to the city and the region next slide please so we were charged with a number of goals um and so this is building off of the envision longmont process as well as the sustainability plan and the october 2019 climate emergency declaration by city council uh we've really are focusing on this being an implementation based roadmap uh where we're going from today in 2020 and trying to achieve a 33 percent reduction and transportation related emissions by 2050 so within that timeframe our overarching goals are to reduce emissions increase electrification reduce single occupancy vehicle miles traveled whether that's to through or from longmont um with the overall goal to increase air quality next slide please so here's just a high level overview of our schedule as lisa mentioned um we did kick off the project right as co vid was starting to um become an apparent impactor of not only transportation systems but our ability to engage the public um our goal is still to wrap up later this summer with an adoptable version of the roadmap for city council um and right now we are relatively on track in meeting that we want to give ourselves enough time that we're engaging all all of the members of the community who want to have their voice heard um and want to share their perspective on transportation uh experiences in the city so that goal that i mentioned before reducing 33 percent of emissions by 2050 uh really is coupled with longmont power and communications and plate river power authorities goal of reaching 100 percent renewable energy as we increase electrification we have to be mindful of where we are sourcing that energy that's being generated um for those zero emission vehicles next slide so how we're we're approaching this project is multifold we recognize that not only are there physical aspects to transportation road quality whether bike lanes are protected or not trail availability and everything down to even signage that's at a pedestrian scale so that people know um you know how to get to certain areas of the city if they're on foot or or wheeling we're also looking at the cultural aspects that come with transportation how can we help employers either incentivize or at least raise awareness among their employees of the benefits of carpooling and other transportation demand management systems um we're also looking at ways that we can support overall community education and awareness not only about electric vehicles but also with the growing uh electric scooter and electric bike industries um and just getting out and walking around your neighborhood uh or trying to connect you from where you live to where you need to go whether that's a doctor's appointment or grocery shopping and then of course we recognize that the city themselves plays a key role in the success of this type of program so we will not only be looking at regulatory barriers and how we can make suggestions on new code language but also ways that the city can look at their own fleet and their own ability to provide public or or available charging infrastructure throughout the city uh to support the overall goals of this road map next slide so this is just a graphical representation just kind of hitting on that high point of we're here in 2020 we're trying to get to 2050 there's a lot of ways that we can get there um and these just kind of highlight a few things that i maybe didn't uh include earlier you know we recognize that in the in the near term due to the effects of COVID capital investments are probably going to be limited so how can we work to build partnerships with private entities or other public institutions in order to help further these goals what incentives will there be on the horizon to help citizens and residents make sure that these are available and affordable to them and then what can we do just to raise the overall awareness of these emerging technologies how they work what are you know the the costs to entry and and then how can the city kind of further support the growing ev adoption because you guys are really starting to to expand in terms of how many ev owners are within the city and we recognize that not everybody has the ability to charge at home whether that's because of electrical limitations or because maybe they live in a multifamily dwelling where having a charging infrastructure in a shared parking environment may be challenging so this is where i'm going to turn it over to abby because there's a lots of ways that we have digitally for you to get involved share your thoughts and feedback we want to hear everything and so far we've gotten a really great response rate so next slide and i'll turn it over to abby so um as sarah said we've we've had to sort of sort of pivot our approach with covet and so our current our current focus is really in conducting a series of key informant interviews as well as providing an online questionnaire for folks to fill out we do conduct the interviews in spanish or english and the questionnaire is also available in spanish or english so those are sort of the primary ways that we're asking folks to get involved with the plan i don't think that i have the ability to drop something in a chat box um because the because the way the zoom is set up but perhaps i can email out the link to the group afterwards or i i'm not sure how to how to get that out um i know you can send all that to me and i can pass it on to the group okay sounds great yeah so as um as sarah mentioned um we're especially hoping to hear from people in the latinx community um people with disability or mobility impairments impairments um and older adults to help kind of shape this roadmap so um if you would like to be interviewed or if you know of anybody who would like to be interviewed please feel free to send me an email um we're setting up interviews over the next couple weeks um so um we'd love to yeah we'd love we'd love to hear from you um and if you have any other questions about about the roadmap um as a whole you can either contact myself or you can contact sarah um as well so um with that are there are there any questions that anybody has kind of off the bat poly um it seems to me that a lot of your strategy has to do with uh everyone having electrical vehicles and actually a good portion of long mount can't afford cars period much less electric vehicles i don't see anything in here about public transportation which is the way most of the world gets around and has for a long time and continues to do so so what are you doing about public transportation especially for people who who are disabled and people who are getting older who are not going to really be able to drive a car that's a great question poly and what we're finding in the data is really where we're getting at emphasizing electric vehicles um based on the data points that we're pulling from the greenhouse gas emissions electric vehicles are key to long mount being able to achieve their 33 percent reduction goal by 2050 um actually what our model shows is that in the near term even if we if long mount had electric electrified transit that it would actually be um more demanding of the system and therefore require more non renewable energy to power that so there is a little bit of a balance and this is a long timeline and so we are trying to come up with ways that we can take a stepped approach we recognize that especially co in light of covid people's pocket books are being hit hard um and so you know we're not for example taking the adoption rate that we saw last year and assuming that this year next year or even the year after that is going to mimic that in any way we do also recognize that electric vehicle types models and costs are continuing to evolve and we're keeping a close eye on that so that when this report is finalized it is as accurate to date as possible but there's likely going to need to be a revisitation of this out once covid impacts are have kind of mellowed out a little bit um and as the technology continues to evolve but uh the report you know is carbon free transportation and so we're definitely looking at things like how do we encourage people to do mode shifting in the short term um whether that is you know looking at transit even though it's not carbon free um it does have an impact on reduced emissions um and looking at ways to even consolidate trips so that in the short term if you do have a gas powered vehicle like many of us do that um you're they're limiting how many emissions are really um expelling from your vehicle just by trying to do everything at once um and and not making multiple trips throughout the day or week uh we have a couple questions in the questionnaire that get at you know people's abilities to work from home um and we recognize that as uh there are some people who that that is very um likely that they would be able to work from home in light of covid or otherwise whereas there is a population within long month that because of their job function or the requirements of their job that that's just not possible and so we have to come up with solutions and we are coming up with solutions that hit on each one of those cases so while some of the imagery in our presentation really stresses that EVs are the one of the major solutions in getting to long month's goals there's a lot of other things that are going to be uh needed in the short term Violetta um I was wondering if you were considering since um you know a law of a lot of low income people work in service industries and um don't own a car and if there could be some kind of partnership between the private sector let's say um um restaurant owners or that could give eco passes to their waiters dishwashers you know but get it tax credit for it so you have a partnership between the city and the private sector that induces people to ride the bus but the bus costs to these people is a large percentage of their income the passes to go on public transit so if that could be helped we are definitely exploring different types of incentives um and also looking at employers that we could um suggest the city to partner with in the future um and one of the in the survey is is is getting at exactly your point which employers are already offering some form of an incentive or you know a monetary benefit to people to incentivize one or more types of transportation um but yes I've written down your your point and I will um thank you thank you uh Violetta so this is Bernice uh city of Longmont yeah with a sustainable business program uh we offer businesses to earn points to get a more higher level of certification if they provide eco passes to their employees that's good but you have very few businesses in that program I'm assuming but it's a good beginning thank you better news good point jeep holly you look like you really want to say you're on mute though I just want to make a quick comment the city of Longmont has been buying the fare box for everybody for the last uh five years that I've been on council or six years so we already do provide free transportation around Longmont the city provides that right now yeah but but a lot of people work in Boulder county or further so that's what I'm referring to thank you yes james hi thank you for that um I just a couple questions first I wanted to thank uh Pauline Violetta for bringing up the public transportation aspect because I think a lot of the impacts of uh people driving single person cars are uh hit on so many different aspects of our sustainability plan the livability uh you know how much space in our town is used for parking lots you know as we're into this housing crunch and things like that it's it there's so many different impacts that go beyond obviously the carbon production is a big part of that but it goes well beyond that that I think uh trying to reduce the number of single person cars uh regardless of what they're doing is is a is going to help us meet a lot of our goals anyways but I actually just had a very kind of basic question is that 33 percent goal uh total or per capita uh considering how much uh Longmont's going to be growing in population in the next uh 20 30 years that's a good question but one for Lisa and her team yeah that's a total number Jim not a per capita number okay yeah and the inventory does what in our modeling's uh information do try to take into account what we're projecting from due to population growth great thank you very much well thank you all for your comments and questions really appreciate it and um if you have any further information or thoughts that you'd like to relay please reach out to Lisa she can contact us thank you again for your time thank you very much yeah thank you thanks so much okay uh the next item on our agenda is a budget update is that you Lisa yeah that's me and there's not a whole lot to say other than a big thumbs down as you all can imagine um we you know the city along with everybody else has been getting pretty hit pretty hard from a revenue standpoint uh due to COVID and um I we've been providing those our our finance manager has been providing those updates to the city manager and city council on a pretty regular basis so where we're at particularly with sustainability uh we're kind of in we're in an okay spot right now in part because we're funded through so many different sources so we're not relying on just one fund or one revenue source so we have a little bit more of a buffer than I would say maybe other folks in other areas do um that said as I mentioned before pretty much all of our expenditures for 2020 are currently on hold uh so anything that really wasn't underway before COVID happened uh we're just putting a stop on for right now that might change later on in the year if if and when we have a better projection of uh what this recession that we're now in is going to look like moving forward but there's just a lot of questions on that right now so pretty much anything that's not you know in absolute essential service um is kind of frozen for the moment we are in a selective hiring freeze uh as well so we're not bringing on any new staff unless it does help with those essential services and then looking forward to 2021 as well um at least the current request has been that we don't add any additional requests as far as sustainability goes so we have at least for the time being you know gotten the okay to keep our operating budget flat um however the the final budget isn't approved until October and a lot can happen between now and then so there's not really any guarantees with any of that right now and the commitment from our leadership and from city council very much is to first and foremost maintain our staff so that's really our priority for us to be able to do that um it's really um unfortunate for you know so many reasons but climate change in particular and the climate action task force recommendations we're we're really hoping to set us up for um expanding that work in 2021 and beyond it's a pretty critical time from a climate change standpoint in the next decade and so that's going to be a real challenge I think you know especially for those of you who've been kind of with us for a while know that we're you know we're pretty used to being you know scrappy and resourceful and sustainability um we'll continue to do that we have an amazing team who's super talented they do great work um you know we haven't had a ton of resources to begin with so you know we're just going to keep on doing that we continue to look for opportunities for partnerships and collaborations and things like that where we work a lot you know with a lot of other departments as you all know and there are some opportunities as we look to covid recovery in particular to really I think build back in a more resilient way and to be looking at how does the opportunity for recovery um where we are going to need new job opportunities skills development workforce development all those sorts of things to get people back to work to get people into jobs that have opportunities for advancement and living wages and all those sorts of things and those things can very much be incorporated into the transition to clean energy economy a lot of the transportation issues that we've been discussing so those conversations are definitely happening not only within long month but on the state and national level as well and there are likely to be just sorry stimulus funds that might be coming down from the federal government and we're watching those pretty closely and looking for opportunities to be able to jump on those and make sure that if we are going after the that funding that we are looking at the resilience and equity and sustainability components of that as well and opportunities to move this work forward as we transition from kind of response mode to recovery mode so I just wanted to let you all know that that's kind of where where that's at and if anybody has you know bags of gold hiding anywhere that they want to share please feel free to do that so so that's that's where we're at with budget stuff and then the next item on the agenda here is the neighborhood impact granting program so I've talked to you all about that that's a granting program that we're launching in partnership with our community services department in the Longmont community foundation that's funded through the boulder county sustainability tax and then the city has put in some funds as well and then the community foundation will be seeking additional donations from the business community and that's a granting program for we're rolling it out first for registered neighborhood groups through the neighborhood group leaders association and then we'll plan to eventually expand that to other community-based organizations and other community groups as well but we're kind of keeping it small to roll out and then that's specific for folks that want to do neighborhood-based sustainability projects and we have a whole framework and guidelines and things that are associated with that and we as part of that we have a selection committee that we're pulling together that will review grant applications and help determine the groups that are going to be awarded those grants and the amounts that those those groups will be awarded right now we're looking at probably two to three granting cycles so one in July given this year because things have been postponed we're probably going to try to do three so one in July one in August and one in September it's going to be kind of a work in progress as we not only roll out this program but do it amidst COVID and there's going to be a lot of details and logistics that I'm sure are going to cause some kinks in that but we would like a representative from the sustainability advisory board to sit on that selection committee and so I wanted to bring that to you all it's probably we're estimating about six to eight hours of work per granting cycle so that'll be reviewing grant applications and then one meeting where the entire selection committee will sit down and discuss the applications and come up with their the the grantees that they want to award so I wanted to put it out there to you all to see if you if there's anybody that's particularly interested in that or if you want to nominate somebody or vote on somebody from this group to participate in that selection committee Jim I review grants all the time for my job so I'd be I'd love to be involved and nominate Jim um be elective I I've reviewed grants for the Boulder Community Foundation for a couple of years I was a volunteer there so I could do one of these cycles if James does another and we could what what's the total amount for dispersal we this year we have thirty five thousand dollars available to disperse and they're thinking of how many you know grants would that turn into but we don't know it depends on what people apply for so we're putting those guidelines together now and have some kind of recommendations on granting amounts based on the types of projects that people want to do but we're also not we're not um capping the amount that people can request so projects come through because we want to be open from anything from somebody who wants to hold you know a workshop on you know community gardening to you know somebody that wants to yeah that's very flexible great okay thank you um okay so do we want to be elected when could we have maybe Jim as the first person in you as an alternate or otherwise we wanted we can do a vote to see because we I think we want to have it kind of one person be the main person um so we have some consistency there oh you want one person for the entire three cycles yeah and then an alternate yeah and you guys can make your case and we can vote or or you know James James wants to do this I can be the alternate but I'm questioning the approach though in my mind because um it's okay I'm not questioning anything let's just go with that yeah I mean I'd love to I'm actually I'm on an executive committee of a geoscience grant program as well so even the structure of it I'd love to see and see if there's anything that I could add that'd be fantastic okay and I'm happy to you know take that feedback back to that you know like I said it's it's going to be a work in progress so if there's feedback on how we can do the selection committee or the selection process better I'm I'm definitely I'm all ears for that fantastic I'd love to okay well I can follow up with you guys on that then thank you so much thank you and then the sustainability coalition update that's pretty brief and we have partners in energy that we want to get to so we had our we had to postpone the main meeting again because of COVID we had a virtual meeting a couple weeks ago that went really well we had a great turnout and our next meeting will be in August and we will also go through the climate action task force recommendation at that meeting so we'll make sure that you guys have that information and then with that I want to hand it over to Susan Bartlett from LPC to talk about the partners in energy program and their request from you all for support thanks Lisa I appreciate it and as Lisa said I'm Susan Bartlett I'm a key account manager with LPC relatively new I started in mid-January right before the universe shifted with COVID it seems like so thanks for taking a little time to catch up on this topic with me given all the other things you have to cover um and Susan do you want to put there it is okay um we can sit on this slide for a minute this afternoon I want to give you an update on where we are with partners in energy work and that's what the excel energy um we introduced it to us fall Robert Love did I was here in a different capacity but Robert presented the opportunity to you excel energy provides natural gas to much of the remote community and I do understand that many in our community are keen to move away from natural gas and so our aim with this collaboration is simply to make existing buildings energy efficient as possible right now and to do this by leveraging the resources that we have available you go to the next slide so um just as a backdrop I'll say that and you all know this climate the climate challenge I'm working toward the city's goals of a hundred percent renewable electric energy by 2030 is going to take a concerted effort on all of these integrated initiatives and the partners in energy work online specifically with the built environment efforts and then it focuses on commercial building energy efficiency as well as energy efficiency in low-income in our community and it also supports the sustainability plan targets that Lisa talked about earlier relative to buildings and that energy topic um and incidentally we believe that the things that are in this effort align really well with what's coming out of the climate action task force of course things look considerably different now than they did when we talked to you in the fall but our aim with this effort is to be nimble and to be flexible and to make progress where we can until we sort of emerge later on next slide please so here's where we are in the process um of course it included a pause at the end of March until now because of COVID and other priorities so as I said back in the fall we introduced the collaboration to this group and to council and then we worked with excel to develop a work plan we wrapped that up in March we intended to come back to you in March and also to come back to city council um but given cancellations we're just kind of getting back on track with that and what we want to achieve is a green light to start working with excel energy and some of the identified activities in our work plan as soon as possible and you know we're especially looking at benchmarking since that's that's getting underway so overall our efforts will take us through November of 2021 and that'll give us a little time to evaluate our progress and results and then work back to this board as well as city council by the end of the year 2020 next slide please so just as a recap um partners in energy is this opportunity for us to have greater access to community wide natural gas data that we get from excel energy and also to have access to some resources through excel energy to support overall energy efficiency in our buildings um just as a side note we're part of a growing cadre of Colorado communities that are participating in partners in energy you know some of those communities include Fort Collins uh Lafayette, Erie, Superior, Lewisville so several in Boulder County as well as Broomfield and North uh North Glen, Greeley, Westminster and you know each of our communities are looking to make progress on climate and sustainability goals and so I consider this an opportunity also to be involved in a really strong network of other communities that are sharing best practices and so I think it's a great opportunity for us so the first phase of partners in energy again started last fall it included excel energy sharing this natural gas data with us over the past four years we'll continue to get updates on this data every year it also included a facilitated planning process to help us develop a work plan that was specific to long-run priorities and we completed that work plan in March and that's really where we are today we're ready to get started on the activities in the work plan we've built in some flexibility given the impacts of COVID-19 and just knowing that not everything we planned that's in the plan from March is going to happen at the same pace that it might have happened otherwise and so that's really where we are today we're ready to implement the work plan and it's built on three strategies that are really already underway at the city and that align well with the climate action task first recommendations that you're going to learn about and in our work plan we identify specific opportunities for us to collaborate with excel energy so that we have a little bit bigger impact as we move forward with these initiatives and that that also involves some continued data support and taking advantage of some of their expertise with benchmarking and branding and marketing and outreach and that sort of next slide these are just a couple of examples of some co-branding that partners in energy has done with a couple of other communities the one on the left is with Fort Collins utilities and it was an effort to drum up participation in the home energy assessment program before before COVID when people actually wanted other people to come into their house and do some assessments the one on the right was with room feel they really focused on commercial energy efficiency and they wanted to promote energy efficiency in their business community so these are just some examples things might be together to do some outreach on our efforts next slide so as I mentioned there there are three strategies that are detailed in the work plan the first one is commercial building benchmarking and LPC has been working on a benchmarking demonstration project already this year that hopefully will inform a broader program for the coming years and we're using this time to determine kind of the benefits for businesses as well as the overall benefits for our community for having this kind of program so the work plan maps out how we can take advantage of excel energy's experience working with other communities that have done benchmarking like Denver and Fort Collins they have similar programs and we want to use that kind of framework to inform our own development for our program like it to be as navigable and successful as possible for participants and so we want to be able to leverage some of that experience the collaboration is going to allow us to draw on excel energy's engagement and outreach know-how it'll also give us some access to benchmarking staff they have available they understand portfolio manager which is the free benchmarking platform that we are using and kind of leverage their experience helping participants to access and upload their utility data which is really important and then finally we just want to mobilize their energy benchmarking training expertise so that things go as smoothly as possible for our participants in the moment there will be a learning curve for our building owners in this community and we would like to be able to make that process as smooth as possible some of the targets that we have for this year are to benchmark a handful of municipal buildings over the summer and then also about 10 additional commercial buildings in the community to help us kind of walk through the process work out some of the kinks get some feedback from participants and then ultimately to roll out a broader program that would address all commercial buildings in one line that are greater than three thousand square and so we're wanting to raise awareness about energy use in buildings and we're hoping for overall improved commercial building efficiency next slide so the second strategy Lisa talked about earlier it's an ongoing program the low income residential energy efficiency program that helps income qualified residents that have high energy burdens make some improvements to their home for comfort to lower their bills and just generally to create a healthier environment last year the city supported 32 homes with services and we want to increase this level of support to more than 80 households over the next 16 to 20 months and this support is pending additional funding that we hope to receive from bolder county or other sources but we also want to leverage oh I just see a notification from Lisa I'll go fast okay I'll go faster thanks um so so we want to be able to take advantage of some of excel energy's channels and marketing capabilities to kind of get our news out our information out to participants that would be eligible for this program next slide so this last strategy you've also heard on heard about already that builds on the success of the long-run sustainable business program that began last year and berenice has made a lot of headway with this program we had 21 businesses that were certified last year the work plan targets are to really increase that we'd like to have 50 new businesses certified over the next um you know 16 to 24 months and we definitely want to have a focus on equity and minority on businesses and again in this instance we're looking to leverage um some resources from excel to quantify results of business activities to do sector-specific education and continue to be there and the next slide please so what I need this afternoon or what I'm asking is for this board to provide a letter of recommendation that we can take to council on July 7th they're going to have a full agenda uh we we'd like that letter to indicate your support for the activities and the collaboration in the work plan if we get green light from council Dave Hornbacher who's the director of lpc will sign another non-binding memorandum of understanding that simply states our intentions and those of excel energy to work together toward the work plan targets and there was a draft letter that was provided in your packet along with the draft that memorandum of understanding so I'm happy to answer any questions and let me know what you'd like to know so anybody have questions for Susan about with no questions yes sorry Polly go ahead um I don't really have a question I just wanted to say that I really appreciate what you're doing because there are so many savings you can get from huge buildings that waste a lot of energy I mean a lot of them were built a long time ago when it wasn't you know in the 70s no one thought about this stuff at all and they built some incredibly wasteful buildings um and we're going to have to you know fix them up because it's impossible to heat them but I wish we had also I mean I know this is what you're doing is the large buildings that's terrific I I'm all for that but I hope we can get more going on with people being able to mitigate their homes there are a lot of buildings here that were built in the late 1800s and they really don't have any insulation and people can't afford to insulate them so things like that are something I hope we can do in the future I hope so too and I think that probably will be included in some of the climate action task force recommendations in terms of you know residential building updates and maintenance and just recommissioning retro commissioning in general of buildings so while it may not be included specifically in in our work plan it's it's out there we want to be able to support it because you're right there's a lot of work that we can do a lot of energy to be saved there are there comments or questions okay thank you again for your time yeah thank you thank you Susan for that presentation we do need a motion on uh the request for a letter I wish I improved the letter I second that okay uh so Kay made the motion uh Jim second the letter might have a question oh yes the letter you're muted can you please repeat what the motion is about I didn't get it to endorse the letter in the packet okay so the endorsement is after this presentation the there's a letter we endorse that they present this to council that we agree with what they're presenting is that correct what I'm yes essentially the letter is just something that says that you agree that we should we should go ahead and carry out the activities that we've identified okay thank you thank you okay uh all in favor raise your hand and say aye hi hi okay that is unanimous so the motion passes okay um thank you thank you so the next item on the agenda will kind of speak through things uh anything anything from the board does anybody have anything they want to bring up okay uh council polly do you have anything for us um well council isn't getting a lot done it seems like mostly we're screaming at each other but and everybody's calling us up to yell at us about COVID because they don't like wearing masks and uh Mark McIntosh Lake is being destroyed and Dickinson Park is being destroyed everybody's mad about everything however um I did want to bring up so anyway if you want to yell at me go feel free um uh I did want to bring up something that Lisa was talking about because uh we're working on we'll be working on the budget through the summer but we're getting financial reports and uh as Lisa said it it is not uh good I my hope is that um maybe a miracle will happen as the president has said and everything will be just swell um right now we're going to we're predicted to be about 14 or million 14 or 15 million dollars short on our budget so it's going to be a painful year and um I think it's great if uh the estimate is that we can keep this budget for this group to be flat for the sustainability board that's that's really good but um it's it's just it's a real shame because there's so many things that that this board could do and that we could do with the sustainability plan and the various organizations if we had the money you know coordinating these things like with low income insulation and retrofitting that saves a huge amount of stuff and makes its town better and enables people to live in their homes but we're not going to be able to expand anything for the next year and um so I just want to let you know that happy news I'm always so full of happy news but you know we'll get through this and things will be better in a year and hopefully things will be better in the fall but we just have to keep vigilant about not letting uh infection rate go back up again that would be disastrous but if we can keep it under control and we have been doing a very good job of that um uh then things will get better faster so let's hope we can do that that thanks anyway thanks for that update poly and thanks for the work that you do yeah really appreciate it and and before we adjourn I do want to recognize every all the staff on the call this is this is an difficult time for everybody and I really appreciate everyone coming together and working through this all of the teamwork thank you okay uh that gets us through our agenda can I get a motion to adjourn move to adjourn thank you Jen second thank you Cody all right all in favor fine all right 504 we're adjourning me stay safe take care thanks everyone thanks thanks again bye thank you see you next month thanks bye