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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/16/1997 MINUTES OF MEETING CITY OF WHEAT RIDGE PLANNING COMMISSION October 16, 1997 1. CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Chairperson WILLIAMS at 7:30 p.m., on October 16, 1997, in the Cauncil Chambers of the Municipal Building, 7500 West 29th Avenue, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. 2. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Anne Brinkman Carl A. Cerveny Jay Rasplicka Tom Shockley Nancy Snow Janice Thompson Harry Williams STAFF PRESENT: Regional Air Quality Council Meredith Reckert, Planner 7enifer Roche, Assistant Secretary • Alan White, Director of Planning PUBLIC HEARING The following is the official copy of Planning Commission minutes for the Public Hearing of October 16, 1997. A copy of these minutes is retained both in the office of the City Clerk and in the Department of Planning and Development of the City of Wheat Ridge. 3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 4. APPROVE THE ORDER OF THE AGENDA A motion was made by Commissioner TIIOMPSON, seconded by Commissioner SNOW to accept the order of the agenda. The Committee agreed by consensus. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES September 18, 1997 Commissioner RASPLICKA motioned, Commissioner CERVENY seconded, to approve the Minutes as amended. Motion carried 6-0 with Commissioner BRINKNIAN abstaining. 6. PUBLIC FORUM (This is the time for anyone to speak on any subject not appearing under Item 7 of the Public Hearing section of the agenda.) • ~azk Robertson, 3992 Moore Street, Wheat Ridge, candidate for City Council, came to this meeting to introduce himself to the Planning Commission. 7. PUBLIC HEARING No Public Hearing scheduled. 8. CLOSE THE PUBLIC HEARING 9. OLD BUSINESS 10. NEW BUSINESS The new business was the presentation/study session with the Regional Air Quality Council regazding air quality, transportation and land use. Meg Franco, representative of the Regional Air Quality Council, management of the transportation program, spoke to the Planning Commission regarding two issues. The first issue is the long range quality plan they are working on, the second topic is the local Air Quality Tools Handbook. The ~egional Air Quality Council is the lead air quality planning agency for the 6 county metropolitan Denver region. The RAQC is required by the Federal Clean Air Act and was chartered by the Governor in 1990. There are roughly 37 members which half of those members are local government representatives and the other half are appointed by the Govemor which represents different communities. Discussions continued on the RAQC history ,as well as, charts explaining future trends, future projections, State visibility exceedances, VMT versus population growth, and mobile source contributions. She stated, there have been many positive improvements involved in the Federal standards but the State standards are not as positive. The issues Ms Franco focused on were primarily transportation and land use. The reason for this is because the mobile source side of things is a large contributor to the air quality problems in the Denver region. The RAQC is focusing on a long range transportation Plan which allows them to look into the future beyond 5 yrs. Ms. Franco pointed out this is a Comprehensive plan instead of looking at one issue at a time. The RAQC has been working on this project since September, 1995 and currently aze at phase 2. Ms. Franco explained that phase 2 is trying to get input from local governments to see what the feasibility pertaining to this project. Another topic briefly reviewed in the study session was phase 1, the strategy on the potential sources of revenue which could be used to fund measures in different sections. The work of the transportation and land use sub-committee(established by RAQC) have proposed strategies for reducing mobile source emissions by reducing vehicular tripmaking and regional vehicle miles of travel. Members of the Committee studied a wide range of possible transportation/landuse strategies and eventually narrowed these to a short list of priority measures. The Subcommittee categorized priority measures into four sections; 1) Pricing measures 2) supply measures • 3)support group 4) Land use measures. Discussion continued. ti Commissioner THOMPSON asked if agricultural land throughout Colorado is classified as more viable, which in return, would protect it from urban sprawl? Ms. Franco replied that the RAQC has not addressed this particular issue but noted that someone is taking notes so it will be looked at by RAQC. Commissioner BRINKMAN asked if the polycentric portion of the Tools Handbook would be expanded on? Meg replied that it would not address this issue as strongly as the other issues because the RAQC had to make a choice on what to focus. more of their attention on. Commissioner WILLIAMS asked how much fireplaces contribute to the air pollution and does the wood smoke produced a contributor to the PM10? Ms. Franco replied that fireplace wood smoke contributes roughly 12-15%. She stated the majority of the PM10 is caused by the mobile sources and pointed out that the VMT is the number 1 contributor to the air pollution. Commissioner CERVENY asked if the VMT= total vehicles traveled per capita? Ms. Franco explained that no it is not per capita, it is total vehicles traveled in the region and there are a variety of factors in the formula which figures out the VMT. Commissioner SHOCKLEY asked where does the money go? He also stated that he is opposed to the RAQC taxing the citizens? He feels like the people who drive would be penalized and feels that it is ~nfalr to tax the people more for driving. He feels there is a better tactic to resolving the Air Pollution problem. Commissioner BRINICMAN asked whether the RAQC is going to educate the public and are they trying to target other cities before they finish their Comprehensive Plans? Meg answered yes, the transportation land use sub-committee has launched a major educational campaign. Another attempt they're focusing on is lectures to the Planning Commissions and City Councils to get their input. Study session continued. Commissioner WILLIAMS commented that any way you look at it, the issues discussed tonight all come down to economics. He feels that one possible solution is to stop subsidizing the cost of gasoline. Mark Roberts commented on the issue of raising taxes and stated he was opposed regarding that particular issue. 11. DISCUSSION AND DECISION ITEMS Commissioner CERVENY inquired if there was a need for discussion on the relationship between land value vs. home value. The committee agreed by consensus not to have Commissioner CERVENY'S discussion item as a study session. 0 •12. COMMITTEE AND DEPARTMENT REPORTS 13. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m. by consery~ '~enifer Roche, Recording Secretary •