City of Urbana Sustainability Advisory Commission Met May 4.
Here are the minutes provided by the commission:
Commissioners Present: James Corbin, Tomas Delgado, Maddy Garbacz, Stacy Gloss, Jessica Lehmkuhl, Andrew Stumpf, Morgan White, Grace Wilken
Commissioners Absent: None
Staff Present: Scott Tess
Call to Order, Roll Call, and Declaration of Quorum
Chair Gloss called the meeting to order, a roll was called and a quorum was present.
Approval of Minutes
Commission Member White motioned to approve the minutes from the March 2, 2021 meeting. Commission Member Corbin seconded the motion and carried by roll call vote as follows:
Aye: James Corbin, Tomas Delgado, Maddy Garbacz, Stacy Gloss, Jessica Lehmkuhl, Andrew Stumpf, Morgan White, Grace Wilken
Nay: None
Additions/Changes to the Agenda
Commission Member White requested to add a three-minute item under Unfinished Business for Food Waste Composting.
Public Input
Sarah Nixon, a member of the public, shared an informal proposal for significantly reducing the landfill via a diversion program on green foods using hogs and goats. A discussion ensued with the commission members and Ms. Nixon.
Presentations
Gabe Lewis, Planner of the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission shared information on Champaign-Urbana’s Bike Month 2021. Information including dynamic and static calendars are available at www.cubikemonth.org.
Staff Report
City Comprehensive Plan
Staff continue to invite public engagement with the City Comprehensive Plan development. Residents can use https://imagineurbana.com/ to place pins with text on an interactive map or post image and text on an idea wall, among other features on the website. Staff has also been inviting residents to provide feedback through paper survey’s at outside events. SAC members and residents are encouraged to create an account on the website and provide input.
Scheduled Events
∙ Downtown Historic District Walking Tour Month of May
∙ Bike to School Day May 5
∙ Mother’s Day Bike Ride May 9
∙ Urbana Green Loop Bike Ride May 22
∙ Head Start Awareness Walk September 25
Community Solar
Nexamp is nearing completion of land preparations for solar panel racking. Staff continue to support subscription recruitment activities.
Geothermal
Geothermal Urbana-Champaign has secured eleven contracts for installation totaling 49 tons of capacity and has 25 proposals totaling 88 tons of capacity out for review by property owners. The deadline for signing contracts is May 30.
Landscape Recycling Center (LRC)
The LRC has resumed delivery service and is now booked a month in advance. The LRC continues to seek grant funding to build infrastructure to provide for a food scrap composting pilot project.
Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)
Staff is supporting the County Administrator’s efforts to establish a county-wide PACE program to allow commercial facilities to secure loans for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects on a special assessment paid on the tax bill. This arrangement garners better loan terms due to the secure nature of repayment and is expected to increase the amount of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
Public Engagement
Staff spoke to the University of Illinois class ESE 482 Challenges in Sustainability about City sustainability work.
Rain Barrel and Compost Bin Sale
Staff is working to complete a contract with a vendor for an all online, all delivery bulk rain barrel and compost bin sale. Final dates have not been set, but delivery would likely take place in May. The sales website will open shortly after the contract is executed.
Street Tree Analysis
Still continues to work with a vendor to provide analysis of street tree data with race and income data. Final deliverables are expected in May.
Ucycle
On Saturday, April 10, the Illinois EPA hosted a household hazardous waste (HHW) event in Champaign. The Cities of Urbana and Champaign and Champaign County staff organized and promoted the event. The turnout was excellent with 874 of the 980 households that signed up participating – a 89% participation rate. We are still awaiting total results of materials collected to date. During the event, the Champaign County Environmental Stewards
(https://www.ccenvstew.com/) promoted a survey for residents to take regarding householdhazardous in the County. Here is a link to their survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PJ5RRF9
Preliminary survey results indicate that more than 500 participants have filled out the survey and the majority (59%) favor a permanent drop-off site for HHW materials; and the majority of respondents (85%) are willing to pay a small fee to make that happen. More than 82% of respondents thus far are willing to pay $5-10 to drop off HHW at a collection site. More details of the preliminary results can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-879WMSLL9/
Announcements
∙ Virtual Backyard Composting Workshop hosted by U-Cycle and the Urbana Park District Learn about the composting process, how to set up a compost bin, and the key components for successful compost. Saturday, May 08, 2021 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Registration is required. https://www.urbanaparks.org/events/free-virtual-backyard-composting workshop/
∙ Spring Bird-a-Thon: May 9-16, 2021 The Bird-a-thon is our annual fundraiser, and is held in May. It starts the Sunday after the Illinois Spring Bird Count and lasts one week. http://www.champaigncountyaudubon.org/
∙ Residential Electronics Collection Event – Scheduled for Saturday, May 22, 2021 https://ecycle.simplybook.me/v2/?fbclid=IwAR388Mt6PzrYgCoK3n6vP7GF39G2Tjdh3PgqsD2dVHd_1yNmQVanPw71q8#book
Unfinished Business
There were no announcements.
Next Sustainability Advisory Commission Meeting
June 1, 2021 at 7:00 pm in Council Chambers at the Urbana City Building or by Zoom depending on circumstances.
Unfinished Business
There was no unfinished business.
With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.
This meeting was recorded.
http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/SAC%20Approved%20Minutes%20May2021_0.pdf
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