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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20190416 Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission April 16, 2019 Chairperson McKnight called the meeting to order at 4:32 PM. Commissioners in attendance: Scott Marcoux, Spencer McKnight, Ruth Carver, Don Love, Brittanie Rockhill, Jimmy Marcus Staff present: Jeannine Stickle, Records Manager Andrea Bryan, Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Phelan, Deputy Planning Director STAFF COMMENTS Ms. Phelan welcomed new commissioners Brittanie Rockhill and Don Love. She stated that she would schedule a training with the new commissioners to train them on public hearing and legalities. There is a special meeting next week, due to rescheduling from the runoff election day. This meeting will be a little different because there are no public hearings. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Mr. McKnight welcomed the new commissioners. PUBLIC COMMENTS None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mr. Marcus motioned to approve the minutes from the March 26th meeting. Mr. Marcoux seconded. All in favor. Motion carried. DECLARATION OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST None. PUBLIC HEARING None. OTHER BUSINESS C.J. Oliver introduced himself as the Environmental Health and Sustainability Director for the City. He thanked the commissioners for having him at the meeting. He stated that his purpose at the meeting is to make the commissioners aware of the upcoming changes happening with the Rio Grande Recycle Center. He stated that he is working to get to word out about the survey regarding the Recycling Center which is at Aspen Community Voice. Environmental Health would like to encourage as many people as possible to make their voice heard through that survey. Mr. Oliver gave some historical background on the recycle center. He stated that the County has helped fund the recycle center since the 1990s. When the City introduced curbside recycling in 2005, the amount of material collected at the Recycle Center stayed flat. At the beginning of 2019, the County passed a County-wide ordinance requiring curbside recycling. Because of that, they felt that there was no longer a strong need to have a community drop off center. On top of that, for the past decade, the price available to haulers for recyclable commodities has continually declined. As a result, the County is no longer offering funding for the recycle center starting September 1st. Mr. Oliver stated that Council has asked staff to collect community input on what the Community would like to see there. Environmental Health condensed that into three options and wanted to get a sense of where the community is on those. The first option is to leave it just like it is today, which would cost the City more than $250,000. The second option is to close the center and turn it into a park-scape setting. That comes at an operations cost of $0, though some cost to turn the space back into a park. The third option is to turn the recycle center into a hybrid collection facility that would target a few harder to recycle options that have some significant value, plus provide a community drop-off center for compost and yard waste that’s open year-round. The cost on that would be somewhere between one third to one half of what it costs to haul single stream recycling out of the recycle center now. Mr. Oliver stated that staff have reached out to businesses, run ads on Grassroots TV, put adds in the newspaper, and are doing popup events at the recycle center in order to get the word out. He stated that, if people want to continue to have a recycle center in that location, there will need to be a conversation about where that money could come from out of the general fund or if there would be a tipping fee out of the landfill. Mr. McKnight asked if the commissioners had any questions for Mr. Oliver. Mr. Marcoux asked what kind of feedback Mr. Oliver has been getting so far. Mr. Oliver stated that 325 surveys have come in so far and about 90% of those responses have been in favor of keeping the recycle center there, with a 50/50 split on keeping it as it is now and moving to the hybrid recycling. In conversations with businesses, no single person has wanted to close it down. Mr. Marcoux asked if pickup would fluctuate with busy and quiet times of the week and year. Mr. Oliver stated that it would. Mr. McKnight asked if the people who want the recycle center to remain as it is now are giving an idea of why they want it that way. Mr. Oliver said that he has heard responses that range from “using the recycle center is my social hour,” to “I don’t have enough space at my house,” and “I don’t trust that my HOA’s system is working properly and I want to make sure my stuff gets recycled.” Ms. Carver asked if there is a value to anything that’s being recycled or if it is just being thrown away. Mr. Oliver stated that the things dropped at the recycle center is absolutely recycled. They can tolerate a 20% contamination rate and still recycle the stuff. The average contamination rate at the recycle center is about 5%. He stated that the saleable value of those commodities is low. Cardboard is the best. Plastic is worthless. Glass somewhere in the middle. At the recycle center, the stuff makes it back into the recycling stream regardless of price. Ms. Carver stated that, as an eco-friendly community, it’s important to recycle the plastic whether it makes money or not. She asked for more information on recycling at the landfill if the recycle center closes. Mr. Oliver replied that everyone would be able to take recyclable goods to the landfill for free during their regular open hours. Ms. Phelan stated that the landfill takes other items for recycling that cannot go to the Rio Grande Recycle Center, such as textiles. Mr. Oliver stated that that was correct, though they do charge to recycle some of those things. Ms. Carver stated her opinion that the City electronic pickup should be moved closer to when people are in town, like in the middle of April. Mr. Marcus asked what the current options are for compost. Mr. Oliver stated that citizens can currently pick up a bin from Environmental Health for free and contract with waste haulers that haul compost. You can also drop compost off at the Pitkin County Landfill free of charge. Also, the City currently provides a grass and leaf collection bin at the recycle center. That bin would be part of the hybrid recycling approach. Ms. Rockhill asked about infrastructure around composting, seeing that it is likely to smell. Mr. Oliver stated that staff would make sure that the frequency of hauling for compost prevented an odor issue. He stated that there won’t be a need for significant improvement. The biggest need would be to ensure that the bin was adequately wildlife proof. If the City moved to food composting, there would need to be more infrastructure to house that to ensure that it’s as wildlife-proof as possible. Mr. Marcoux asked if there is equipment that can be purchased that could compact everything to reduce the amount of hauling needed. Mr. Oliver stated that a cardboard bailor would significantly reduce hauling, however, those machines are dangerous to use and would require a designated person there to operate it. Mr. Love asked Mr. Oliver if he has any sense of what percentage of total City recycling is collected there. Mr. Oliver stated that the recycle center accounts for 40% of the waste diversion from the City of Aspen. Businesses account for about 80% of the volume, and they are mostly recycling cardboard. Mr. McKnight asked if there are any studies that show a similar area in a similar situation. He asked if more recyclables will end up in the trash if the recycle center is closed. Mr. Oliver replied that they will, particularly businesses which don’t have space to store their recyclables. He stated that successful recycling programs have both a curbside and community drop-off component. Mr. Love asked if it’s true that curbside recycling works less well in multi-family residential situations. Mr. Oliver agreed that that is true for many reasons. Mr. McKnight asked Mr. Oliver what he thinks the right move is. Mr. Oliver stated that his opinion is that the best solution is the hybrid approach. They would get some interns or temporary staff to do outreach and help people maximize their curbside recycling potential. Then the hybrid facility would have an additive effect on top of what curbside offers. That is the best program and costs a lot less than continuing to do the same thing. Mr. McKnight asked if there is a way to track where the trash and recycling is going under a new program. Mr. Oliver stated that there is. He stated that they have a great sense of what the base volume is, and they could get reports from haulers about Without significant change. Another benefit of the hybrid approach is that the City can walk it back to what it is now if they see a negative effect. Ms. Carver asked if single-stream recycling or individual type recycling costs more. Mr. Oliver stated that single-stream collects more goods, but it does cost more money since somebody has to separate it. Mr. Love asked if there is potential for Aspen Skiing Company to fund some recycling efforts. Mr. Oliver stated that staff have initiated some of those conversations. He stated that they have not been very interested. Their focus is more on renewable energy than waste reduction. Ms. Carver asked if newspaper can go into cardboard recycling. Mr. Oliver stated that newspapers are great for composting or they can be recycled. It is not the same as cardboard. Ms. Carver asked where newspapers would go in the hybrid recycling plan. Mr. Oliver stated that they can go into the single-stream curbside recycling or compost. Ms. Rockhill asked if there is potential for compost bins around the city, next to the trash and recycling bins. Mr. Oliver stated that it is something that the City would be interested in in the future but finding the right container to guard the compost from wildlife is the big barrier. Mr. McKnight stated that the meeting was open for public comment. Ms. Phelan stated that the meeting is not a public hearing, therefore it is at the Commission’s discretion if they would like to have public comment. She suggested setting parameters around it. Mr. McKnight stated that they would hold public comment but would keep it to 1 minute. Toni Kronberg introduced herself and thanked the Commission. She stated that, in 2006, the community came forward with a request to have curbside recycling and that one of the benefits is the reduction in cars driving to the Rio Grande Recycle Center. She stated that the recycle center is not zoned as a recycle center. She stated that she wants to know where Mr. Oliver gets his statistics from so that she can validate that. She asked the commissioners to consider why Pitkin County is dropping funding for the recycle center. Mr. McKnight thanked Ms. Kronberg for her input and thanked staff for explaining the procedures to him. He opened the meeting to commissioner discussion. Ms. Carver stated that her preference would be to keep the recycle center as it is. Ms. Rockhill stated that it is important to get the word out about the survey at Aspen Community Voice. Mr. McKnight stated that he is leaning towards Mr. Oliver’s recommendation towards select recycling. He stated that duplicating efforts is not worth it, but he is worried that people will throw recyclables in the trash if the center goes away. Mr. Marcoux asked Mr. Oliver what the most popular options for fund reallocation are. Mr. Oliver stated that they haven’t jumped into that yet. Mr. Love stated that he thinks the hybrid solution is the best. Ms. Rockhill stated that compost collection in the hybrid solution might make up for the people who don’t make the transition to the new system. Mr. Love stated that he would like to see a marketing campaign go along with the transition. Mr. McKnight asked if Ms. Carver is the only one for the full recycling center. He stated that the majority of commissioners support the plan of hybrid recycling. Mr. Marcus stated that, for him, the obvious solution Is the hybrid. He stated that he sees the benefit of compost counterbalancing losing the plastic recycling. He asked what the City can do to reduce the amount of plastic use in the first place. Mr. Marcoux asked if there is any way for the City to communicate with the State that they would like Colorado to be part of the bottle deposit program. Ms. Carver commented on the amount of waste caused by plastic straws. She asked if the City can sell metal straws. Mr. McKnight thanked Mr. Oliver for attending the meeting. Ms. Phelan asked if the commissioners want to have the follow-up from the Council work session at this meeting or if they want to put it off until a future meeting. Mr. McKnight stated that the new Council coming in June might have different ideas about how they would like the Planning and Zoning Commission to interact with Council and it might be good to have another discussion when the new Council comes on. He stated that it’s his opinion that he would like to push the discussion to another meeting. Ms. Carver stated that she likes Mr. McKnight’s suggestion of meeting with the new Council. ADJOURN Ms. Carver motioned to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Marcoux seconded. Meeting adjourned at 5:26 pm. Jeannine Stickle Records Manager