Minutes - Environmental Policy Board - 09/10/2007

Home

Motion by Board Member Freeburg and seconded by Board Member Harvey to forward the NRI to City Council for recognition as an official planning tool for the City of Ramsey and forward the completed NRI to other public agencies such as the MN DNR and the ACD. Motion carried. Voting Yes: Acting Chairperson Max, Board Members Freeburg, Harvey and S ibil ski. Voting No: None. Absent: Chairperson McDilda, Board Members Bentz and Olds. Board Member Sibilski requested the final report be sent out to the EPB prior to the presentation to the Council. Environmental Coordinator Anderson stated that he would work with Bonestroo to get an electronic copy of the report out to the EPB and allow a brief period of time, something like 48 hours or so, for any additional input. Board Member Freeburg asked if September 25 is a regular Council meeting and Environmental Coordinator Anderson responded it will be discussed and presented at a work session, followed by an agenda item on the regular Council agenda. Environmental Coordinator Anderson will notify the EBP regarding the starting time of the work session. Case #2 Open Space Referendum Environmental Coordinator Anderson reviewed that in February of this year, the Board amended its work plan to include researching an open space referendum. Subsequently, in April, a representative of the Trust for Public Land (TPL) was invited to present and discuss the referendum process with the Board. Part of that discussion focused on what an appropriate .timeline would be for a successful campaign, which was suggested to be around twelve months or so. The 2008 election is a little over a year away, and if an open space referendum question were to be included on the ballot, the preliminary work should begin relatively soon. However, the first step would be bringing this concept forward to City Council to gauge their interest/willingness to include an open space referendum question on next year's ballot. Environmental Coordinator Anderson advised that this topic has been scheduled for a Council work session on September 25,2007. Thus, Staff would recommend that the Board discuss and formulate the basic premise for an open space referendum as well as why the time to include this on an election ballot is now. Environmental Coordinator Anderson presented a draft topic report that would be provided to the City Council for their review on the topic of Open Space Referendum. Board Member Sibilski reviewed he had a discussion with Councilmember Strommen regarding putting this on the agenda for a Council work session. Board Member Sibilski stated he would like to get the Councilmemberson board and hope they would direct the EPB to put together a plan for the referendum and a survey of the City to see what the residents think of this and how much taxes they would be willing to pay to get this done. Board Member Sibilski stated he spoke with Cordelia Pierson with the Trust for Public Land regarding the extent that the City should be involved with this process. She stated that the City can and should be involved up to the point that it is decided to include a referendum question on the ballot. After this point the City should only provide information to residents inquiring about the referendum without taking a side or advocating for it. Environmental Policy Board / September 10, 2007 Page 3 of8