Agenda - Environmental Policy Board - 04/16/2018

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City Planner Anderson asked if there are any items that the Board feels have been left out of the planning cycle for the next 10 years. Board Member Valentine noted the changing retail market and stated that will continue to be a changing market that will have a huge effect on commercial development because of the continuing trend for buyers to purchase goods online. He noted that although it is hard to predict what will happen in that market, that has been a part of the discussions in updating the Comprehensive Plan. 5.02: Review Draft Mississippi River Critical Corridor Area Chapter of Comprehensive Plan City Planner Anderson presented the staff report. He stated that the purpose of this case is to review a draft of the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Chapter of the Comprehensive Plan. He advised that staff will continue to refine the chapter but wanted to provide the Board with an opportunity to review and comment prior to the public open house on April 9tn Chairperson Stodola asked if this section would fall under the same recommendation as the previous chapter, regarding the possibility of adding language to require updating documents. City Planner Anderson commented that the natural resources inventory would include all parts of the City, including the corridor, and therefore he did not feel that the language would be necessary in this chapter. He stated that if it is the preference of the Board, the language could be added to this chapter. Chairperson Stodola agreed that the language to be included in the last chapter would be sufficient to address all applicable areas. Board Member Valentine stated that it could be helpful to have a brief statement to the same nature for this chapter. Board Member Hiatt commented that it could be helpful to have updated information for specific items that would apply to this area, such as soil erosion. He noted that there may be possibilities for adding funding partners for this area because of the shared resource. He explained that if the City can stress that they would like to have updated data, to the extent possible, it could help to possibly gain assistance from the other partners that have an interest in this corridor. City Planner Anderson agreed that perhaps that would open a door for potential grant funds to accomplish that data collection work in this specific corridor and perhaps adding that statement to this section would make more sense than he originally thought. Board Member Anderson referenced the statement regarding a positive learning environment and asked if there are methods that will be used to attempt to communicate this information and get people interested. City Planner Anderson replied that through the Resilient Communities Partnership, staff is working with an adult education course on organics recycling. He stated that group is helping to develop an outline on how best to communicate and educate the community on that topic. He Environmental Policy Board / March 19, 2018 Page 3 of 5