Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 05/10/20231 South Burlington Energy Committee Meeting Minutes May 10, 2023 Committee members present: Steve Crowley, Keith Epstein, Ethan Goldman, Rob Meader, Tim Perrin(Chair), MJ Reale (Vice Chair), Sam Swanson Committee members absent: Ahmad Abdel-Fattah, Frans Van Boden, Carrie McLaughlin, Ken Pulido, City staff present: Ilona Blanchard, Lou Bresee City council member present: Andrew Chalnick Community members present: Gerry Silverstein Convene: Tim called the meeting to order at 6:40 PM. MJ volunteered to serve as scribe. Public comments not related to the meeting agenda - none Minutes. The Committee reviewed and adopted the draft meeting minutes from the previous regular April 12 meeting, and the May 3 special meeting. Keith moved and Steve seconded Keith’s motion to adopt the minutes for April 12 and the Keith moved and Sam seconded Keith’s motion to adopt the minutes for May 3. In each case the members present voted unanimously to adopt the minutes as presented. Comprehensive Plan SBEC was asked to provide feedback and recommendations for the City’s Comprehensive Plan section relating to the CAP and Energy. This is also known as the Act 174 Plan. After the April 12, 2023 meeting, Steve and Keith volunteered to compile the comments and feedback from various Energy Committee members on the draft Energy section of the Comprehensive Plan, which served as our framework to guide a discussion at a special meeting on May 3, 2023. That night the group made it through about half of the document (Introduction, Objectives, and Transportation Sector sections). Tonight’s meeting continued that work with detailed discussion and tracking changes, through the Buildings and Thermal, Energy Use by City Government, Energy Production, and Outreach and Implementation sections. Ethan had reviewed the document and described how we need clarity on what the goals/targets really mean. He spoke to Melanie who is working on adding 2050 goals. Right now we have only 2030 goals. Ethan recommends incorporating the 2050 goals into our document with our preferred wording. There was a discussion on how to frame all of the targets as a percentage of the baseline and he can discuss this with Melanie. The group discussed the challenges and importance of connecting the Comprehensive Plan with CAP. The Comp Plan drives city policy and programs so specific CAP targets and implementation details need to be included. There were a number of process comments so we are clear on what is expected by Planning Commission from us. Objectives are separate from this document. We can make note of Strategies but they are more of a side bar to the main 2 document. We need to spell out Strategies if they are different than what is in CAP. For example, home energy scores. There was discussion about how strong to make the language and whether we feel this document is aspirational. The group also talked about the importance of equity issues in all of these Comp Plan elements and community outreach. Once all of the changes were made to the document, Keith made a motion to pass it on to the Planning Commission. Steve seconded and the group voted unanimously yes. The document was due the next day so Ilona offered to clean up the document and send to Planning Commission. Community Engagement Tim provided a brief summary of a meeting held on May 8 with Tim, MJ, Carrie, Rob and Keith. We would like to have Fall community event to support CAP and to kick off an energy workshop series. The group is considering Saturday, September 30 – 10am to 2pm. A spreadsheet in the google drive includes ideas, contacts etc for the event. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XKbI9LexQHvY- 6b3axqNek4d7nsYPUDE/edit#gid=129100301. The first step was to provide an overview to Ilona so she could tell us how to proceed. Ilona provided feedback on a few things to consider like translation (French, Spanish, Tibetan, Arabic) of materials. We can contact USCRI. She also suggested involving the SB Family Program. Ilona suggested we create a short proposal and send it to her and she will find out who on City staff we should connect. MJ will draft a proposal and send to this group and then send the final to Ilona. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_VY80eoFqRn47W-XqZDAh9WX_Ah0Umsd/edit Adjourn: Meeting adjourned approximately at 9:15pm. Next Regular Meeting: Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 6:30pm.