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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCFE minutes 111218Attachment 1 Orange County Commission for the Environment Meeting Summary November 12, 2018 Richard Whitted Building, 300 Tryon Street, Hillsborough Present: Bradley Saul (Chair), Bill Ward, Jim Eichel, Jeremy Marzuola, Jody Eimers, Lynne Gronback, Matt Crook, Carrie Fletcher Absent: Bill Kaiser (Vice Chair), Alan Parry, Kim Piracci, Laura Doherty, Will Stanley, Bill Newby Staff: Brennan Bouma, Kim Livingston, David Stancil I. Call to Order – Saul called the meeting to order at 7:35. II. Additions or Changes to Agenda – None III. Approval of Draft Minutes from October 8, 2018 – The minutes were approved unanimously following a motion to do so as offered by Eichel and seconded by Eimers. IV. CFE Annual Report and Related Items Staff led a discussion on the draft annual report and opportunities for CFE members to serve as liaisons with the Orange County Orange Unified Transportation Board (OUTBoard) and Intergovernmental Parks Work Group (IPWG) advisory boards, as well as the annual election of CFE officers in December. Gronback expressed interest in serving as the IPWG liaison, which meets twice per year. Marzuola expressed interest in serving as one of the OUTBoard liaisons, which meets monthly, if there can be more than one representative who shares the responsibility. Livingston will report back in December on the rules for liaisons. Marzuola asked how many terms the Chair and Vice Chair can serve. Livingston reported that the Chair and Vice Chair can serve three consecutive terms. Both the current Chair and Vice Chair could serve again if elected. V. BOCC Abstract Environmental Impact Consideration Staff led a discussion concerning the BOCC request for consideration of the possible environmental impacts of agenda items. Stancil gave an overview and explained that each agenda abstract contains a financial and social impact of the agenda item and now the BOCC is requesting each item be evaluated for its Attachment 1 potential environmental impact. Stancil stressed that the evaluation needs to be concise to fit within the two page agenda item abstract. Bouma reviewed attachment 5 and explained that the CFE needs to come up with a model example, a few sentences for BOCC abstracts, five or six environmental impact measures, and a short narrative explaining the measures. Bouma suggested that it should be in open response format, thematic or qualitative in nature, and usable for the layperson. Crook suggested that there could be a liaison for each department who is trained in environmental impacts. This liaison could then serve as the support staff for each agenda abstract drafter in the corresponding department. The CFE could train the liaisons and serve as support for that staff person. Stancil suggested that the template prompt could say “further the environmental goal by…” as to not create a list that could be cut and pasted to the agenda abstract, which BOCC has said they do not want. Saul suggested that an item could have a negative impact. He further suggested that a checklist could be used as a first cut that follows with a more informative narrative. Gronback offered that she liked a decision tree approach. Eichel suggested that the agenda abstract could have a referendum references of more information was needed. Marzuola stated that he liked Attachment B of the agenda Attachment 5 because it provided the most useful information. Bouma suggested the CFE review a draft of the environmental impacts at the December meeting. Bouma will run test with the draft environmental impacts with sample agenda items. VI. SOE 2019 Update Staff led a discussion concerning the updated SOE timeline, event planning and possible partners, and in-house graphics capabilities. Gronback and Fletcher agreed to be on the SOE events committee. Livingston explained that the SOE rollout event could possibly be in collaboration with other entities such as Triangle Land Conservancy, Eno River Association, and the Eno-New Hope Conservation Collaborative. The event could go beyond the SOE and include such things as the Eno-New Hope Landscape Corridor Plan. Livingston described the types of graphics Orange County could provide for the SOE report which includes a printed booklet, infographics, and brochure. Multiple CFE members expressed their interest in wanting the SOE to be an interactive webpage with imbedded links to more content rather than printed materials. Attachment 1 VII. Committee Meetings CFE Committees met to discuss the 2019 State of the Environment report. Committees discussed their indicator issue selections and progress by the assigned committee members on the indicators related to these issues. VIII. Updates and Information Items Staff and CFE members provided updates on the following items: Continued action items from pervious CFE meetings  Orange County Legislative Message  Rural Buffer Research/Community Viz  Divestment Resolution  Idle Reduction Petition Updates:  I-40 Widening Project Public Comment Period (Attachment 9)  IGPCC Report Executive Summary (Attachment 10)  Draft OWASA Approach for Management of Forested Lands (Attachment 11) IX. Adjournment – Saul adjourned the meeting at 9:12 following the unanimous approval of a motion to adjourn the meeting which was offered by Crook and seconded by Fletcher.