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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - MGG - 02-10-2010Milton. Date: February 10, 2010, 12:00 — 2:00 p.m. ORIGINAL Milton Grows Green Committee Minutes February 10, 2010 [Approved] Place: City of Milton Executive Conference Room, City Hall Attendees: Marc Arrington, Amy Peters, Jack Lindon, Francia Lindon, Jon McPhail, Todd Harkleroad, Cindy Eade, Gordon Hunter and Vic Knight. I. Agenda: The Agenda was posted on the City's web site prior to the meeting. It. Approval of Prior Minutes: Minutes from January 14, 2010 were voted on and unanimously approved. III. Updates & Announcements: Drug disposal is becoming a serious problem for municipal water systems and landfills. The largest source of pharmaceutical by products in our drinking water comes from the improper disposal of unused medications flushed down the drain. There aren't adequate filtering systems to extract these drugs from drinking water and they are hazardous to aquatic life. For several successive Saturdays in February, 9 am to 12 pm, Keep Cobb Beautiful along with Kaiser Permanente of Georgia are holding medical disposal days at Cobb Senior Centers. They will accept unused or expired over-the-counter and prescription drugs in liquid or pill form, sharps and needles, diabetes materials, catheters, tubing, etc. in corporation with the local Police Dept. Committee Reports: Air, Water & Energy - Septic Tanks: Caryl Aifaro scheduled a "lunch and learn" type meeting on February 16 for about 2 hours. New Community Development Director, Lynn Tully, Carter Lucas and Chris will there. Bob Freeman, Sustainable Infrastructure & Decentralized Wastewater, Water Protection Division, EPA, Region IV, will give an overview with case studies on septic system types to City staff and MGG members. Fulton County's DHR manual has provisions for types of structures and for septic inspection requirements. They approve designs. Its Unified Storm Water Management Program considers anything that doesn't fall from the sky or come from a wellhead as pollution. Anything running across land picking up contaminants has to be managed so its not going into streams. This would include septic systems that overflow. Milton's ordinance comes under utilities. Both ordinances have to be looked at at the same time. Dept. of Public Health is also involved as it relates to health issues. Bob gave good resource information on what "sustainability" means in this context, on cost and other benefits of conservation subdivisions and various advances in septic system designs. Stream Buffer Protection Pamphlet: Jack Lindon had made changes in the pamphlet consistent with Carter Lucas's article in the Milton Herald. He asked for comments from MGG members. MGG would like to tap into the City's resources to identify residents who own parcels abutting streams and to actually do the mailing once the City has approved the pamphlet. It would be sent to them under the auspices of the Public Works Dept. All homeowners associations should also get the pamphlet since many of Milton's subdivisions have streams and/or drainage ditches. 140A maintenance programs should be sensitive to the specific preservation requirements of the city's stream buffer ordinance. There should be a discussion with Carter about how he wants the cover letter to read. Gordon mentioned the "Green" book, which talks about agricultural, needs which may be in conflict with the ordinance. (Note: I have sent Gordon an e-mail Tasking for information about this) Storm water runoff is a more nebulous issue harder to address. Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, February 10, 2010 ,Wage 1 ALL KI-TON GROWS GREEN DOCUMENTS ARE PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER WITH AT LEAST S-90A POST -CONSUMER CONTENT_ MGG can become better educated. There are a number of different sources for information such as Southface's Energy Committee's Sustainable Roundtable breakfast on sustainability and the Dept. of Community Affairs programs on grants. Certifications & Designations: Bruce couldn't make it to the meeting. Amy's been very much involved with it. Jon talked to Janet Leiberman from the city of Rowsell that's gotten a silver designation. The woman who put together their notebook used to work for Jon. We are at the point where we are actually putting flesh to the bones. The idea is to come up with a draft of what we will need in the way of an ordinance. Then meet with the appropriate people on the city staff. Chris and Carter will identify the individuals. We will then sit down with them and go over the suggestions and their likely probability. The EPA web site has all kinds of suggestions for governments including remodeling guidelines for city buildings. We're going to have our notebook in an electronic version. The ARC, Atlanta Regional Commission, is the agency that certifies the designation. This certification will make the city eligible for all kinds of grants. RRR: Bulky Trash Day has been set for March 20, 2010 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Roswell Public Works Division, 1810 Roswell Recycle Center on Hembree Road. There is a list of acceptable items posted on the City of Milton web site_ There was a discussion on what Milton residents should pay for its citizens to use the Roswell Recycle Center. Operating costs for the Center run abound $400,000 per year. Compensation should be proportional to use. Lets think of 5% as our proportional use. If we drive our waste haulers to actually do the recycling they are mandated to do, this would drive down use of the Center by our citizens. If commodity prices were what they were a few years back, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Code enforcement in Milton is becoming a reality. Forsyth County is opening a recycling center off of McGinnis Ferry Rd and Rt. 9. Keep Milton Beautiful: (KMB) there has to be an "executive director" of this to keep the financial records and records. The people who have volunteered far the training are. Marc, Gina, Jack, Francia, Kathy, Julie Pinckney and Wilson. Jon will check on what the responsibilities are. There was a discussion on Keep North Fulton Beautiful having reserved or bought the U.R.L. KMB.org. If they aren't going to use it, there should be peer pressure to relinquish it. Adopt -A -Road: there has been a press release about it_ The city's web site is about to post the legal documents and get it to where responses are directed back to Gina. This has gotten good press as well. Good questions asked by Joan Durbin for her article Jan. 12 in the Milton Neighbor. But all local papers covered it. With MGG we are going for "local control." Bring One for the Chipper: 480 trees and good press for this one too. Scottsdale Farms would like to be a part of it next year. (Good place for lunch.) Tree seller could feel good about keeping trees out of landfills. Put hang tags on trees, when they are sold, telling purchasers where and when they can be recycled. We could develop a list of groups that will collect them from homes as fundraisers. Could develop some type of "chit" program for people who bought from local growers and recycled the trees could get something like perhaps free lattes. Vic talked about the TV cable program "Undercover Boss" that the Waste Management COO did. He really saw the struggle the employees had and meet a few of the customers. Good human -interest story and interesting concept. Hazardous Waste Day: There was an extended discussion on this. It is an expensive endeavor with estimates around $70,000 for 600 people to participate. Those pre -registered would be checked off as they enter. The types of materials accepted as well as the volume determine the cost. Latex paint is one of the most common materials disposed. The point is to keep liquid materials like this out of storm drains. Education is key on how to handle left over paint. It can be disposed of at a cheaper cost if it can be "solidified," but then it just goes into a landfill. Paint manufacturers should take some responsibility for disposal of their product. If you could get a sponsor to take back their material, it would be a win —win for everybody. Clean Harbors, for example, gives a brake down of how it disposes of its material and it all doesn't wind up in landfills. The water is extracted and the cans are recycled. It was also suggested that H.S. Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, February 10, 2010 p. 2 drama clubs, etc. be allowed to come by and pick up paint they might need. There is a paint manufacturer in Hall County that probably does the private label that might want to take some. Home Depot might be a good source for information on this. Jack passed out a list of possible hazard waste products. Cell phones and batteries were added. We don't have a date or budget for this yet so discussion is in its initial stage. Have to give residents sufficient notice so they can collect the materials. Cindy is working with E-Cycle that recycles electronic materials and can generate some money for a sponsoring group — can be used as a fundraiser for school clubs. LUGS: Jon is looking into ordinances in other areas of the country that define "ascending" properties in some manner or that designate areas large enough, dispersed throughout Milton to preserve. Jon has talked with Dr. Allen at GA Tech to let him take information on the area to a class and let twenty-five minds look at it as a "case study" or first draft. This would then go to the City fathers. One of the biggest problems is Highway 140, which is a likely receiving area that will probably be developed. It could take a couple of small "pods" that were well defined with specific standards. If you had some provisions in place in a special overlay zoning of some kind, it could be used to grant development above and beyond in exchange for funds to purchase development rights in other areas we'd want to preserve. A market is developed for the person who wants to take the value out of his land. The farmer is paid for his development rights. In a perfect world, the amount would be equal the present value of the diminution in the future earning prospects off the increase in the appreciation of the land. He wouldn't pay the increase taxes that come with appreciation. Economists have a way to figure this out. CPAC has said they would like to have transfer of development rights (TODs). There is a model state statue for TODs but we should have something put into local zoning law on the mechanism of how this would work. A gain in the tax base in the developed area would offset the loss in revenue from the area that is preserved. The zoning issues and overlay districts and intermediary whose going to handle the development rights in perpetuity hasn't been spelled out in the state law. The case study would make an attempt to define these areas. Jon is looking for more eyes to look at the document before it's given to the City. There are areas along Rt. 140 where the city border crisscrosses a few times with Doswell. Anything dealing with this area would have to be carefully coordinated with Roswell Jack, Amy, Hunter and Francia will take a look at it, estimated at 15 pages. Keep ]Milton Beautiful: (KMB) there has to be an "executive director" of this to keep the financial records and records. The people who have volunteered for the training are: Marc, Gina, Jack, Francia, Kathy, Julie Pinckney and Wilson. Jon will check on what the responsibilities are. There was a discussion on Keep North Fulton Beautiful having reserved or bought the U.R.L. KM13.org. If they aren't going to use it, there should be peer pressure to relinquish it. April 171h is the date for our Earth Day Event at Birmingham Park. Gina and Kathy are the main coordinators. It will contain information of the Clean Air Campaign, Zero Waste Zone, Community Gardens, a Silent Auction, Art Contest for elementary schools and possible tree planting as a carbon off -set. More to come. The meeting adjourned at 2:30 p. ATTEST: Dyt Jon B. McPhail, Co-C air Francia Lindon, Secretary Milton Grows Green Committee Meeting Minutes, February 10, 2010 p. 3