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07/19/2023 Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 City of Clearwater Main Library- Council Chambers 100 N. Osceola Avenue Clearwater, FL 33755 e Meeting Minutes Wednesday, July 19, 2023 4:00 PM Main Library - Council Chambers Environmental Advisory Board 1 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 Roll Call Present4 - Chair Jared Leone, Vice Chair John Thomas, Board Member Marita Lynch, and Board Member Glenna Wentworth (arrived 4:04 p.m.) Absent 1 - Board Member Sheila Sullivan Also Present— Micah Maxwell — Chief Innovation Officer and Nicole Sprague — Deputy City Clerk 1.Call To Order The Chair called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. at the Main Library 2. Approval of Minutes 2.1 Approve April 19, 2023 EAB meeting minutes and May 17, 2023 Special EAB meeting minutes Member Lynch moved to approve the minutes of the April 19, 2023 EAB meeting and the May 17, 2023 Special EAB meeting as submitted in written summation. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. 3. Citizens to be Heard Regarding Items Not on the Agenda Wayne Carothers expressed concerns regarding the lost cemetery at Cleveland St. and Missouri Ave. and said the city's response has been slow and closure needs to be brought to the families of the deceased and the Crum's. Chief Innovation Officer Micah Maxwell said the City Manager is organizing a meeting between community members and city staff to discuss the best path forward. Brian Beckman reviewed the number of solar permits that were issued in the city. He said the installations equate to reduced pounds of carbon dioxide created and savings on energy bills. He said the Inflation Reduction Act provides rebates for solar installations and said the city could pass along this type of information. Maryellen Gordon, Sarah Brown Caudell, and Jeffrey Dennis expressed concerns with the development at 420-432 Bay Ave., and said the project plan does not meet the stated criteria of the Downtown Development Goals or Greenprint 2.0. The renderings of the development show manicured landscape and not the natural mangroves that currently exist 2 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 there. The construction site would produce toxic runoff and they requested the project be delayed until resident concerns were addressed. The wildlife along the waterfront will be disturbed. Bill Jonson said the code does not specify how and when it would be appropriate for staff to approve a pool installation seaward of the coastal construction line; the general acceptance criteria is neighborhood based where as the coastal construction line is environmentally based and he suggested the EAB review the criteria. He requested the Board continue to support the vegetation in the renovation of the medians on Gulf to Bay Blvd.; they are being renovated without the vegetation that was once there. 4. New Business Items 4.1 EAB/Staff Alignment In May, staff and the board had a follow up discussion on the EAB/Staff alignment. Staff has provided the updated playbook based on our last conversation in May. If the board is in agreement with the playbook, staff can finalize the document. Sustainability Division Manager Cassie Cordova introduced herself. Mr. Maxwell reviewed the updated board objective. In response to comments, Mr. Maxwell said the objective is a high level statement and the Board will get into specifics as the conversations continue. The Playbook is a living document and the goals can be updated as the Board sees fit. Member Lynch moved to approve the Playbook format as presented. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. A concern was expressed regarding repetitive language in the objective statement. Mr. Maxwell said he would work on combining the newly worded objective with the objective statement in code. He said he would bring back new wording at the next meeting. Member Thomas moved to amend the motion to include the original objective statement in the Playbook. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously. 3 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 4.2 Review of First Year of Energy Savings with Cenergistic. In order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and meet the goals laid out in Greenprint 2.0, the City has committed to increasing energy efficiency within its facilities. To support this commitment, the City entered a five-year contract with Cenergistic Inc. of Dallas, Texas in March of 2022 to maximize energy efficiency within city facilities. Cenergistic has worked for over 34 years to help more than 1,450 organization across the nation reduce greenhouse gases and save money in electricity, natural gas, and water costs. The company achieves such reductions by applying advanced technology and behavior-based conservation programs within buildings, as well as embed full-time onsite Energy Specialists to ensure all equipment and operation are working at peak efficiency and optimization. At this time, data representing electric and gas use in the first year of the program has been uploaded into the energy tracking system and Cenergistic will be providing a report on the results. Because water costs were added mid-year, staff and Cenergistic are still working through implementation of that data. When it is complete the total savings for Performance Year 1 (April 2022-March 2023) will be finalized. Sustainability Specialist Melody Yin reviewed the program information. The program began in March 2022 with the baseline year set as February 2019 through February 2020, to avoid the pandemic period. There was a 9% annual reduction in electricity consumption and a 27% annual reduction in natural gas consumption. There was a savings of over$450,000 in electric and natural gas costs. In response to questions, Ms. Yin said energy savings could be realized elsewhere. Cenergistic has suggested some equipment upgrades to ensure systems are running as efficient as possible. She said as part of the contract with Cenergistic, the city was required to implement employee behavior policies, such as keeping rooms at a certain temperature and turning off work stations at the end of the day, etc. In response to a suggestion, Mr. Maxwell said a green fund will be discussed at a future meeting. In response to a question, he said Cenergistic's energy savings projections were not achieved this year. He said the cost of the program, including the software, is guaranteed by Cenergistic. The equipment upgrades would be a cost to the city, but would provide efficiency related savings on the back end. A comment was made that the city should be commended for partnering with Cenergistic and the sustainability efforts and achievements will show year after year, it is not just about dollars and cents. 4 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 One individual spoke in support of the program. 4.3 Review Solar Implementation Plan. In Fiscal Year 2022, staff engaged a consultant, McKim & Creed, to complete a review of most city facilities. The study was commissioned by the City to assist with planning for solar installations and to provide a tool that could be adjusted for changing environments. The tool identified eight weighted categories: Internal Rate of Return, Simple Payback, Electricity Offset, Longevity of Roof, Simplicity of Install, Public Relations, Building Efficiency, and Scalability. Buildings were then ranked based on these categories and weights. The original thought was that this document would provide a planning document to help staff determine funding needed to begin solar installations. Between the start and end of the study, the City received two non-city generated funding allocations, one from the Department of Energy, and a second from ARPA funding allocated by City Council. Both had timelines by which expenditure needed to be completed, and the total allocation was $3,000,000. The expense timing requirement, the status of the funding as non-city generated funding allocations, and staff resource limitations pushed staff to alter the categories and weights of the McKim and Creed formula to fit the current environment. The new scoring looked at Internal Rate of Return, Electricity Offset, and a new category, the ratio of individual install costs to the $3,000,000 allocation amount. The intent was to make sure the city was getting good return on the projects, limiting the quantity of projects that needed to be managed so staff could focus on quality installations within the defined timeline, and setting up to see how buildings with a high percentage of renewable energy operate. Staff then coupled this with a qualitative review of the new top ten to make any reasonable adjustments that were driven by various non-quantitative factors to come up with the best options. The result was that three of the top ten from McKim and Creed remained in the top 10 for the city's adjusted scoring. The reasons that the other seven dropped out related to lower cost to allocation ratios (four), a change in status of buildings (two), and a low electricity offset (one). The three that were consistent on both lists were consistent with the top three for the adjusted city list, and the fourth ranked building became the Long Center due to its very high cost to allocation ratio. Staff then looked at the new top ten from a qualitative perspective to ensure the quantitative approach was balanced with factors not definable by numbers. This included factoring in construction projects that did not previously exist, secondary benefits of installations, potential shifts in financial impact, and reimagination of some projects that leverage multiple uses that exist on single parcels. The result of this adjustment is that the top four facilities remained the same, and they are estimated to use up $2,250,000 of the $3,000,000 allocation. The fifth rated opportunity became an installation on the Osceola Avenue 5 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 parking garage. This is a new structure that was neither acquired nor designed at the time the study began. As the new construction has been planned to have solar as part of the installation and the allocation of design resources has already been made to the Osceola project, this project made sense to add to the list, bringing the total up to $2,550,000 of the $3,000,000 allocation. As to the remainder of the allocation, staff has five other potential high benefit options for installation, each of which requires some additional work to confirm, and all include the use of carport solar applications. Two of these are the MSB and Garden Avenue Garages, where solar carports would be placed on the roof of the facilities, offering shading for those rooftop parking spaces. The MSB garage is a unique scenario because the garage itself cannot does not utilize much power, however there may be real opportunities related to the Police station south of the garage. Staff are working to determine if state law will preclude the City from transferring power from the garage to the station. Should that not be an option, the solar installation for MSB would be timed with the acquisition of electric fleet vehicles, which would then be charged electricity generated by solar captured onsite and stored in battery technology. The recent renovation work at MSB garage has prepared the garage for an easier conversion to either scenario with the inclusion of strategically placed conduit during that project. Similarly, Garden Avenue garage also presents an opportunity for EV charging, though it could be used in both fleet and public applications. Staff would again time installation based on fleet acquisition, but also on the public demand for EV charging downtown. The final three may be the most exciting opportunities for solar installation because they include opportunities for social benefits as well as environmental and financial benefits. Fire Station 46 was not included in the original study because it had already been planned for a Solar Installation. When the peel and stick application that was planned for FS46 became unavailable, the team began searching for an alternative, however the design engineers could not identify an installation that would be appropriate for an emergency facility in that location. As an alternative, we have identified an opportunity to leverage an uncommon parcel make up where Fire Station 46, a large parking lot (Lot 36), and a park (Mandalay Park) all occupy a single parcel. While normally facilities like these would occupy separate parcels, this set up allows us to utilize power generated on one or more of these uses for the benefit of the other uses. Conceptually staff believes that leveraging the parking lot for this makes sense due to its proximity to the Fire Station, and the use of carports to generate the electricity would create a secondary social benefit by allowing for shaded parking or overhead shelter. Additionally, because this is a high traffic area, there may be an educational or inspirational opportunity for beachgoers. Like Fire Station 46, the North Greenwood Library also provides a unique parcel and the opportunity for the creation of shaded parking or shelter for either patrons of the library, or the adjacent athletic fields. In this scenario, we could use the North Greenwood Library parking lot for generation instead of the building roof or provide shading for those attending events at the athletic fields for those needing to get out of the sun or who might be caught in inclement 6 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 weather. The final opportunity is at the Beach Library/Recreation facility and the Beach Pool. Similarly, to the above scenarios, these sit on the same parcel, but they have a large parking lot between them. The McKim and Creed study looked at generation of power at the structures of the buildings themselves, however we believe there may be some value in once again taking a covered parking approach, as the lot is generally unshaded and we may be able to leverage the location of the parking lot to ensure efficient power distribution, whether that is the pool side or the building side. An additional benefit of some of these carport applications is that they allow for a lot more standardization for installation and maintenance of the exterior elements of the system, as roof materials and styles can vary greatly. Carport applications are generally made on asphalt lots with minimal grade changes and spacing and layout that is typically standard. Prior to moving forward with these opportunities, we would need to coordinate with Planning and Development, as the City's Land Development Code will likely need to be tweaked in some areas to address these types of installations, however early discussions lead us to believe that there is a path forward. For now, staff intends to move ahead with the top five opportunities and work towards refining the carport installations. As staff moves beyond the non-city generated allocations for Solar, staff will continue to apply a mix of quantitative and qualitative information to determine what makes sense based on a balance of social, environmental, and financial goals. No action is required at this time for this item, however the expense associated with each project will be up for consideration by City Council at a later date. Mr. Maxwell reviewed the location possibilities for future solar installation. The fleet building roof has been identified because it is a large area and the roof is in need of replacement. The roof at Countryside Recreation Center is solar ready with infrastructure but there is a roof leak issue that is being addressed. The Solid Waste transfer station is the third possibility, with solar being retrofitted onto the building. A new parking garage on Osceola Ave. will be constructed with solar infrastructure and the Long Center is undergoing renovations in the near future and solar is being introduced there. There have been discussions to potentially build covered parking structures at the North Greenwood Library, Fire Station 46, and the Beach Library/Recreation Center and use the roofs for solar installations. A solar installation at the MSB parking garage might be able to provide power to the Police Department which sits to the south of the garage. Solar installations at the MSB garage and the Garden Avenue garage could provide the electricity to charging stations for the city's future EV fleet. In response to questions, Mr. Maxwell said five EV chargers are expected to be installed in Coachman Park within the next month. He said the city hopes solar panels will generate 85% of the electricity needed for the fleet complex. Fire Station 47 is in the design phase now and solar installation is being reviewed, the property sits in a wooded area. 7 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 One individual questioned if the new city hall would have solar installation. Mr. Maxwell said it is the city's intention to have solar and EV chargers installed in the new city hall. 4.4 EAB Legislative Priorities City Council will be setting its legislative priorities for the 2024 state and legislative sessions over the next few months. Staff has attached last years list of priorities as a basis for conversation, and would recommend that if the board has any items it would like recommend the Council add or remove from the list, the July meeting is likely the best meeting to provide those recommendations so they can be considered. Should the board vote to make any recommendations, staff anticipates summarizing them and forwarding the information to the City Clerk so they can be included in discussions. Mr. Maxwell requested the Board provide feedback on legislative priorities and items they would like Council to be aware of. Comments were made that the Board should look at the advances that have been made with artificial turf, there are pros and cons of use and it is now sold at local home improvement stores. It was said that the city should monitor any legislative bill that could hinder net metering. It was said that Cooper's Bayou is a unique piece of land that the public does not have access to. There is federal and state funding available for environmental education and to develop the management plan for the property. One individual said the City of St. Petersburg is considering a new ordinance requiring new developments to install a certain number of EV charging stations, depending on the type and size of the development. It is being based on a similar ordinance adopted by Largo. Mr. Maxwell said a preview of the Engineering plans for Cooper's Bayou will be presented to the Board in October. He said the Board's legislative priorities will be shared with Council and staff will look into how the region is responding to the planning of future EV charging stations. 4.5 FY 2024 Budget. City Council has passed its preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2024. Staff has provided three documents for your review and any comment or recommendations you may have. • The capital plan document outlines the planed capital plans for the next six years and is likely the most important document for review. 8 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 • The organizational chart provides a view of how the city staff is organized. • The FTE changes document shows what changes are occurring from FY23 to FY24 as it relates to employees. Staff will identify projects that may be of note during the meeting and try and answer any questions by the board. The full preliminary budget document is available at www.myglearwater.com <http://www.myclearwater.com>. Mr. Maxwell said he will have the Budget Director speak to the Board at a future meeting to discuss when the appropriate time would be to address any budgetary priorities the Board may have. 4.6 Review near term items with the EAB. Based on discussions at last month's meeting staff has identified a timeline for discussing some of the near-term concerns of the board. One item was pushed back from the July meeting due to the park opening preparation impacting staff time throughout the city. Staff would like to reschedule that to October. Items that have been added to future months are listed below. October Cooper's Bayou design Feebate/Green Fund Herbicides/Pesticides Recycling Update Parks and Recreation Master Plan January Budget Priorities for EAB Greenprint Implementation Update Ready for 100 April Update on Solar July Cenergistic Year Two Legislative Priorities for 2025 Mr. Maxwell identified and reviewed topics to be discussed at future meetings. He said the Board may email him other topics or priorities to include on future agendas. 5. Old Business Items Chair Leone requested information regarding the light pollution issue atCooper's Bayou. He requested a field trip to Cooper's Bayou after staff has provided a presentation of the plans and to Lake Belleview to see what has transpired in the last couple of years. He said at the last meeting, staff said the Stevenson's Creek 9 City of Clearwater Environmental Advisory Board Meeting Minutes July 19, 2023 water management plan would be updated and he requested the information be provided to the Board. Mr. Maxwell said he will report on the updated information when he receives it. 6. Director's Report 7. Board Members to be Heard Member Lynch thanked staff for the comprehensive agenda. She said Tampa Bay Wise Water offers residential rebates for shallow wells, toilets, and smart irrigation controls and said the City should look into participating in that program. Chair Leon encouraged all to take the Parks and Recreation Master Plan online survey. He said a there is a scheduled clean-up of Stevenson's Creek that upcoming weekend as well as a neighborhood clean-up in State Street Park the following weekend. He encouraged all to visit the new Coachman Park. He said the Board has the ability to schedule special meetings as needed. 8. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m. Attest: C'Co 490V4i- Board PteXer City of Clearwater 10