HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Open Space IZ Committee - 02/20/2019South Burlington Open Space Interim Zoning Commi ee February 20, 2019
The Open Space IZ Commi ee held a regular mee ng on Wednesday, February 20, 2019, at 7:00 pm, in the upstairsConference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street .
Members present: Vince Bolduc, Alyson Chalnick, Meaghan Emery, Bernie Gagnon, Amanda Holland, Sophie Mazowita,Be y Milizia, Duncan Murdoch, Allan Strong, Sam Swanson, Tami Zylka. Also present: Paul Conner, Planning and ZoningDirector. Public a endees:
1. Direc ons on emergency evacua on procedures from conference room:
Allan called the mee ng to order and provided instruc ons on emergency evacua on of the building.
2. Addi ons, dele ons or changes in order of agenda items:
No changes were made.
3. Comments from the public not related to the agenda:
No issues were raised.
4. Discussion: Criteria for priori zing open space protec on:
Allan showed the group the overall final rankings of the different criteria. Surface waters and wetlands and waterwaysgot the highest number of points. Allan gave members the chance to share their reasons. Allan began with waterresources (wetlands and stormwater) as a large umbrella that protects our water resources, then looked at differentcriteria that hit various priori es for South Burlington. Tami sought to represent Recrea on and Parks and the public.Sam approached the task from the basis of the importance of water and of the watershed, an ecological perspec ve.He added that he hopes that the findings of the Commi ee will allow us to see where addi onal solar might belocated in the City, although it should not be the dominant driver. Meaghan affirmed Sam’s ranking principles,focusing first on ecology and no ng where addi onal uses could be implemented, such as solar, ac ve recrea on, ordog parks. Vince noted some consensus points and remarked the difficulty of the assignments. Sophie noted theoverlaps and sought to choose criteria that were more general and more significant in surface area on the City map.Be y had not been able to complete her rankings, but stressed that the presence of dogs does affect the ecology; wehave to consider how dogs fit into the ecological picture. Alyson suggested condensing/combining similar categories.She picked watersheds as a top priority because our watersheds are impaired. Amanda found that the criteria did notcapture smaller priori es; using the Open Space Report as a guide, she created her own criteria for half of them: nearresiden al areas (for neighborhood parks), for instance. Paul recommended the map in the 2002 Open SpaceStrategy. Duncan chose to use the City’s Comprehensive Plan as his top priority, and as an umbrella; he also rankedvulnerability to development high; saw that water was a resource that, if protected, benefited wildlife; suggestedeasements as the best way to conserve; he included forest structure for the role of trees in CO2 filtering. Meaghanapproached the task from her perspec ve as a member of the public: how to protect the environment and how toeducate the public on the importance of environmental conserva on: where should roads not go to preserve wildlifecorridors? How can protec on of riparian connec vity and vernal pools serve to protect water quality and giveeduca onal opportuni es? Forests were important to her as were rare communi es and habitat func ons. Berniefocused on wildlife and promo ng the protec on and movement of wildlife; order of the rankings wasn’t asimportant to him as all of them together. He chose connec vity and proximity as one, and he sees the value inconsidering abu ng parcels; surface waters, wetlands and waterways were also among his priori es; and he sawparcel size overall as a key criterium in addi on to wildlife protec on and movement.
Vince asked about forest structure and parcel size. Duncan saw the composi on and condi on of the trees as keyaspects of forest structure, and Bernie explained his choice of parcel size so that a certain parcel size could be set asthe threshold. Sophie chose habitat blocks to maintain wildlife habitats. Amanda asked about the available data forhabitat blocks, and Paul responded that the State’s latest data dates from 2014. Duncan shared that the best way toprotect the lake is to have sufficient buffers, which are covered under riparian connec vity.
Sam suggested that we parse through criteria by looking at how we might respond to key values in addi on toiden fying the areas of consensus. Allan iden fied four possible categories: water, wildlife, forest, and views, andadded parcel size and connec vity as addi onal criteria. Members then focused on wildlife corridors and the impactof roads and mi ga on strategies. Tami suggested we define “open space.” Allan recommended that we look at theNatural Resource Inventory map, and Bernie noted that the areas in blue, “Parcels over Four Acres with less than 10%impervious cover,” are where we should put our focus. Our final report could include the Natural Resource Protec onareas as a given and build from there. Bernie suggested evalua ng the blue areas against the ranking criteria: goal is5-10 evalua on criteria in order to rank a parcel higher or lower. Lower ranked parcels could be iden fied as poten alareas of interest for ac ve recrea on, dog parks, or solar. Paul offered to help narrow the blue areas for the membersto consider, keeping in mind the nature of the parcels around the blue areas. Members considered possible “buckets”that could capture the collec ve priori es of the commi ee members. Paul and Bernie noted some of the criteriathat the Planning Commission is currently working on: wildlife corridors, river corridors, and very steep slopes, for
instance. Allan asked if there were members who would be willing to look through the criteria to include incategories: Be y, Alyson, and Allan volunteered.
5. Discussion: Next steps for engaging SB residents in open space conserva on priori es
Carried over into next mee ng un l we have tested our criteria.
6. Review and approval of Mee ng Minutes of February 5, 2019:
Bernie moved to approve the minutes, Tami seconded. They were approved 9-0-2 (Be y and Sam abstained).
7. Adjourn:
The mee ng adjourned shortly a er 9pm. The next mee ng is on Tuesday, March 5 at 7pm, in City Hall.