Sustainable Broomfield Community Task Force
Draft Minutes Kick-off Meeting
April 22,
2009
This was the first Sustainable Broomfield Task Force Meeting.
The expectations of the Task Force and their responsibilities were
discussed. Community focus
group results from meetings with
Broomfield
residents on sustainability were presented.
The Task Force went through an overview of the 2005 Comprehensive
Plan and went into more detail with the Environmental Stewardship
Section. Finally, the Task
Force was presented with a background on sustainability and the
different definitions that have been used in the past.
Task Force Members Present: Mayor Pat Quinn, Linda Reynolds, Kevin
Jacobs, Patrick Tennyson, Susan MacGregor, Beverly Pneuman, Marcia
Heiser, Sam Taylor, Irene Lalich, Felix Flechas, Rick Ahrens, Jeffery
Kerrane, Jeffery McPherson, Jean Wilkie, Hal Lunka, Linda Fahrenbruch,
Judy Enderle, Roger Kelley, Jini Bates, Kerry Pettis, Nicholas Fazzini,
Klea Jones, Mark Kuhl, Bryce Isaacson, Jeremy Fancher, Liz Law-Evans,
Lisa Moore,
David Hastings,
Don Dunshee, Jessica Erickson, Jennifer Kerr
Absent: Geoffrey Urland,
Aaron Loertscher
Others in attendance: Bob
Gaiser, Randy Ahrens, Charles Ozaki, Kevin Standbridge, Kathy Schnoor,
Derek Okubo, Anu Ramaswami, Debbi Main, Erin Wright,
Meghan Bernard
6:35
– Welcome and Introductions
6:40
– Derek Okubo, the meeting facilitator from the National Civic League
(NCL), discussed the
agenda for the Task Force.
The Task Force has the responsibility to understand the
Environmental Stewardship section of the 2005 Comprehensive Plan.
They will begin work on a definition of “sustainability” and
develop a vision for the task at hand.
6:44
– Task Force Introductions: The members present were asked to share
their name, length of residence in
Broomfield,
and an expectation of themselves during the process in order to help
this committee succeed.
Many people had an environmental background and looked forward to
learning more about sustainability and how they can make their community
more sustainable.
7:11
– Charge of the Task Force:
To update the Environmental Stewardship section of the 2005
Comprehensive Plan
Derek laid out the Committee Process Outline:
·
April – Kick off meeting
·
May – Assessment 1
·
June – Assessment 2
·
July – Begin Work on Focus Areas (teams); Community Open House
·
August – Goals, Policies, and Actions
·
September – Goals, policies, and actions
·
November – Community Open House
·
December – finalize goals, policies and actions
Discussion of Meeting Day Options:
Three different meeting days were presented; 2nd Thursday, 3rd
Monday, and 4th Wednesday.
On each of these days at least 3 people could not attend the
meetings. It was decided
that the meeting days would be rotated through so everyone has an
opportunity to attend the meetings.
Meeting days will be posted on the
Broomfield’s
Sustainability Project web page for future reference.
Email meeting reminders will be sent to the Task Force prior to
each meeting.
7:25
– Derek presented the operating agreements that the Task Force will
follow at each meeting.
These include, starting and ending the meetings on time, being on
time/commit to meetings, no personal attacks, agree to disagree,
everyone participates, one speaker at a time, make decisions by
consensus, stay on the topic at hand, take a risk, bring ideas to the
table, meet requested deadlines, and content decisions are made by the
committee during the meetings.
The group agreed to these guidelines.
7:28
–
Community Focus Group Results presented by Erin Wright, graduate
student at the
University
of
Colorado Denver.
University
of
Colorado Denver
graduate students conducted focus groups with residents of
Broomfield
to gain more insight into how residents define sustainability.
Twenty-seven residents participated and discussed what they think
a sustainable
Broomfield
would look like.
Residents discussed positive characteristics of
Broomfield
including the small town feel and its convenient location between
Boulder
and
Denver.
Some negative characteristics about the community included
concern about the auto-centric built environment and lack of community
services for convenient alternative transit and lower income families.
The focus group participants felt that sustainability was a
balance between environment and growth, practical and financial
benefits, and a concern for various populations.
The group suggested several programs to address sustainability
including green buildings, energy efficiency, renewable energy
opportunities, smart grid and many others.
One suggested method to promote sustainability is education
of residents and the community.
The responsibility for implementing sustainability was thought to
be with the government through transparency and leading
by example, businesses through leading by example and taking an active
role in the community, and individual residents through engaging in
local politics and changing their personal behavior.
Focus group participants felt that one of the challenges to
implementing sustainability would be the tension between growth, quality
of life and revenues and the intangibility of outcomes and benefits of
sustainability. Questions
for clarification were asked after the presentation.
7:56
– Discussion of the implications of sustainability
After the focus group presentation the table was opened up for
discussion on the issues of sustainability. The Task Force members
recognized the conflict between growth, quality of life and revenue as biggest concerns.
There was a concern that the focus groups and the upcoming
surveys are not representative of the
Broomfield
population. Ways to
increase responses to the survey were discussed.
8:10
– Break
8:20
– Dave Shinneman,
Broomfield’s
Planning Director gave an overview of the 2005 Comprehensive Plan.
The plan provides citizens guidance for the development of the
community in the future. The Comprehensive Plan has a vision statement
with 10 elements within the plan.
The definition of sustainability in the plan was stated as “long
term social, economic and environmental sustainability of the
community”. The
Environmental Stewardship core values were stewardship of the
environment; economic security and opportunity (balanced mix of land
uses). The priorities
covered in the Comprehensive Plan included fiscal sustainability within
the plan, environmental stewardship, areas of change, areas of
stability, interconnected open space and green edge, creating social
gathering places, community services and facilities, walkable community.
The Comprehensive Plan is broken down into goals, policies and
action steps.
8:37
–
Environmental Stewardship Section Summary was presented by Kathy
Schnoor,
Broomfield’s
Environmental Services Superintendent. The goals of the Environmental
Stewardship section include an environmental ethic, sustainability,
quality of life, regional partnership, compliance, and education.
Kathy went through each of these goals and the specific programs
and how to attain these goals according to the plan.
8:56
– Defining and Measuring Sustainability
- Dr. Anu Ramaswami, University of Colorado Denver
Dr. Ramaswami presented several different definitions of
sustainability including the 1987 Gro Brundtland definition: “Sustainable development is development that meets
the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.”
Dr. Ramaswami also discussed the different components of
sustainability to include the 3 E’s (environment, economics, and social
equity). There are over 500
definitions of sustainability and Dr. Ramaswami presented the Task Force
with a selection of them.
9:15
– Discussion of the Vision from 2005 Comprehensive Plan
“Broomfield
is the leader in implementing environmental stewardship policies that
help to create a desirable and sustainable community now and for future
generations.” The Task
Force members were given the responsibility to review this vision
statement and bring suggestions for improvement and revision to the next
meeting.
Next meeting was scheduled for May 27 at
6:30 p.m.
Task Force members are to review the Environmental Stewardship
section of the Comprehensive Plan.
The meeting was adjourned at
___9:30__.
Minutes Prepared by _Meghan
Bernard______
Approved by _(consideration of approval 5/27/09)_
Chair
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