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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 08 17 Minutes Minutes Ÿ Tuesday, August 8, 2017 Ÿ 6:15 p.m. Robert Gilliam Municipal Complex, City Hall Second Floor South Conference Room 150 Dexter Court, Elgin, IL 60120 A. Call to order (chairperson) B. Roll Call (staff liaison) C. Approval of previous meeting’s minutes June meeting minutes were approved. July meeting minutes were approved. D. Other persons present Rizwan Arastu was present and introduced himself. He recently presented to the commission on beekeeping and was happy to answer questions and partake in the tonight’s discussion item. Chairperson Laura Knoerr announced her resignation. Chairperson Knoerr nominated Commissioner Aagesen to take her place as chair effective immediately. The motion was passed unanimously. Senior Management Analyst Laura Valdez attended and provided an update about the Student Representatives joining commissions. The Sustainability Commission is one of the boards and commissions that will receive a student representative for a term of the school year. The new position will be non-voting, but help provide additional perspective to community initatives. E. Discussion Items 1. Mayor’s Monarch Pledge Consider providing support for Mayor’s Monarch Pledge action items Commissioner Knoerr motioned that the commission support the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge with signage and funding up to $1000. F. Old Business 1. Beekeeping Discuss criteria and recommendations for a city ordinance Consider setbacks vs. number of hives/size of yard. Maybe just a cap of 4 hives would be easier. Could break down by 2 per ¼ acre, or 4 per ½ acre. If IDA is inspecting the health of the colonies, code would still be needed to inspect the zoning and setbacks. The permit fee would cover verifying notifications and code officer visit. Perhaps lower the $65 permit since it’s not a small structure. When coming in for a license, we should provide people with information or resources. Perhaps we can create an online discussion board that is hosted on the cities website but not maintained by staff. It could have one group for chicken license holders and one for bees. Tia will help find a list of items. There are educational classes around the Fox Valley residents can take to learn about beekeeping. A motion for Liaison to bring a presentation forward to City Council with some recommendations and see if they would like to move forward with developing an ordinance. Lot sizes vary under 6,000 square feet to over 20,000. 2. Sustainability Action Plan Update Review commissioner research findings and plan next steps to achieving objectives Liaison will send out Sustainability Action Plan progress report spreadsheet to everyone since there are new members. Chair Knoerr said she had difficulty finding other cities that limit gardening in the front yard, many just noted not weeds over certain heights. Commissioner Hajek said native vegetation in the front yard should be allowed, but it could be an issue for code enforcement. Liaison will look into the Conservation at Home program more. Commission should review the progress report and look for some “low hanging fruit” action items that can be addressed. Commissioner Hajek suggested looking at it through the lens of items related to municipal code, investment or education, we could win by tackling some of the education-based items. Reviewing all educational items may be helpful to tackle low hanging fruit, and also make a big impact. Perhaps its better to redefine how we move forward that moving forward. The group could also look at a category per meeting and seeing collectively if this plan is supportive of the city’s strategic plan or if that supports this plan. The commission expressed they are looking forward to hearing feedback from the community survey’s sustainability question responses. 3. Backyard Chickens Discuss program expansion Commissioner Aagesen made a motion to have liaison ask council to bump up the number of licenses to 100. The motion passed unanimously. 4. Trip to Freedom Field Discuss organizing fall trip to Freedom Field open to the public Commissioners Aagesen, Masterson, Anderson, Knoeer, Hajek and Segel all plan to attend. Liaison will email Chet to followup. G. Commissioner comments/announcements Sustainability Honor Roll – Liaison put out a call for nominations and will send all nominees and survey link to vote after August 15. d Kane County Food Hub will be in Elgin and run by the owners of the Dream Kitchen Commission will reevaluate meeting start time for January 2018 H. Adjourn The City of Elgin is subject to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. Individuals with disabilities who plan to attend this meeting and who require certain accommodations in order to allow them to observe and/or participate in this meeting, or who have questions regarding the accessibility of the meeting or the facilities, are requested to contact ADA coordinator, at (847) 931-6076, or TTY/TDD (847) 931-5616 promptly to allow the City of Elgin to make reasonable accommodations for those persons.