EC 2017 12 13
Chanhassen Environmental Commission (EC)
Regular Meeting
December 13, 2017
Members Present: Charlotte Chappell, Bill Chappell, Don Vasatka, Keith Butcher, David Hess
Members Absent: Wayne Benbow, Rachel Popken
Staff Present: Jill Sinclair, Environmental Resource Specialist; Todd Gerhardt, City Manager
Guest Speaker: Diana McKeown, Metro CERT (Clean Energy Resource Team) Director and GreenStep Cities
representative
GreenStep Cities presentation: Diana McKeown works for CERTS which is based at the Great Plains Institute
and also assists with the GreenSteps Cities program which the MPCA co-directs. She gave an overview of the
program and explained that originally GreenSteps was called Green Star and had an energy focus but became
more broadly focused on sustainability. The program is voluntary and action oriented. In November, Lakeville
became the newest city to join. There are also 3 tribes in the state that are members. Neighboring cities that are
members include Victoria, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Shorewood, and Jordan. The program has staff that can
help cities with each action item. It can also help with press releases and media. There are a total of 5 possible
‘Steps’ or levels that a city can achieve. Steps 1-3 are taking actions to set a city up for greater sustainability.
Steps 4-5 are about getting results from those actions. Diana asked what the EC had done so far in their interest in
GreenSteps. Don shared that the EC has done some research and completed a very preliminary inventory of the
city’s actions to date. He also said that the EC has presented GSC to the City Council who then directed the EC
to gather more information on the program including costs, staff time, etc. Diana said a lot of cities are concerned
about those issues too. The most time intensive aspect is the BMP inventory at the beginning. Updating the
inventory is a minimal amount of time. Cities go at their own pace and if a city is considered inactive if no
actions are taken for three years. Diana wondered if Chanhassen was part of the Regional Indicators Initiative.
Todd said we weren’t. Diana explained that cities who are a part of it pay a consultant about $2000 or so to
gather data on resource usage within the city pertaining to water, energy, travel, waste and greenhouse gas
emissions. There’s lots of valuable information gathered for cities who want to pursue greater overall efficiency
and sustainability. Diana also mentioned the Benchmark Program that requires any publically funded building to
register their energy use. The city doesn’t currently do that. Returning to the topic of GSC, Todd said that
Chanhassen is doing a lot of the actions already, but the city isn’t getting recognized for them currently. When
the EC did the preliminary inventory they found that the city could become a step 2 city currently without
pursuing any new actions. Todd said that the city council will be reviewing GSC at their January work session
and considering it as a goal for 2018.
Minutes: November minutes were approved.
2018 Work Plan review: The commission discussed changes to the work plan for 2018. Charlotte suggested
that the fall event be the leaf pick up again. The commission agreed and also noted that the fen walk and water
treatment plant tour be deleted for 2018. Keith suggested that a past project/tour list be kept so that new
commissioners could use it as a reference. The commission would like to add more structure for GSC to the
calendar including in Jan. – decide what to present for resolution; Feb – GSC project planning; May 1- GSC
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application deadline. The shred event needs to be added. Possible tours include wastewater treatment plant, or
the Arb pollinator barn. The 5-year plan can be put in a light work load month like September. A revised work
plan will be sent out with the next meeting packet.
General Discussion:
Jill informed the commission that the Arbor Day tree planting event will be held at Power Hill Park.
Jill will send out the current directory so that everyone can update their contact info.
Meeting adjourned at 7:50 pm
Minutes prepared by Jill Sinclair
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