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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008/04/02 - Agenda Packet - Special~ ~~ rt~_ a ` .,5 AGENDA CITY COUNCIL, FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT AND REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY SPECIAL MEETING Wednesday, April 2, 2008 ~ 3:00 p.m. City Hall ~ Tri Communities Room 10500 Civic Center Drive 4 Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 A. CALL TO ORDER 1. Pledge of Allegiance 2. Roll Call: Mayor/PresidentlChairman Kurth Mayor Pro TemNice President/Vice Chairman Michael CouncillBoard/Agencymembers Gutierrez, Spagnolo and Williams B. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC This is the time and place for the general public to address the City Council, Fire Protection District and Redevelopment Agency on any item listed on the agenda. State law prohibits the Council, Fire Board and Agency from addressing any issue not previously Included on the Agenda. The Council, Flre Board and Agency may receive testimony and set the matter for a subsequent meeting. Comments are to be limited to five minutes per individual ar less, as deemed necessary by the Chair, depending upon the number of Individuals desiring to speak. All communications are to be addressed directly to the Council, Fire Board and Agency, not to the members of the audience. This Is a professional business meeting and courtesy and decorum are expected. Please refrain from any debate between audience and speaker, making loud noises, or engaging in any activity which might be disruptive to the decorum of the meeting. The public communications period will not exceed one hour prior to the commencement of the business portion of the agenda. During this one hour period, all those who wish to speak on a topic contained In the business portion of the agenda will be given priority, and no further speaker cards for these business items (with the exception of public hearing items) will be accepted once the business portion of the agenda commences. Any other public communications which have not concluded during this one hour period may resume after the regular business portion of the agenda has been completed. C. ITEM OF DISCUSSION 1. OVERVIEW OF "GREEN" SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM FOR RANCHO CUCAMONGA D. ADJOURNMENT I, Debra J. Adams, City Clerk of the City of Rancho Cucamonga, hereby certify that a true, accurate copy of the foregoing agenda was posted on March 27, 2008, per Government Code 54954.2 at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, California. P1 .~~~.., ;gym }: ~. r , „3 ~' T H E C I T Y O F Rnncao CocnrloHCn Staff Report DATE: April 2, 2008 TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council Jack Lam, AICP, City Manager FROM: James R. Troyer, Planning Director BY: Jennifer Nakamura, Associate Planner SUBJECT: DISCUSSION OF "GREEN" SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM IN RANCHO CUCAMONGA RECOMMENDATION: The City Council review the information provided in the staff report and attachments and provide direction to staff as needed. INTRODUCTION: At the Goal Setting Workshop for 2008, the City Council expressed an interest in the development of a Green" Sustainability Program for Rancho Cucamonga. In response to City Council's direction, staff began compiling information regarding "Green" programs, conducted an internal audit of green-related programs currently offered by the City, contacted other cities with sustainability programs, and began discussing this concept with the City's General Plan consultant, Hogle-Ireland. The culmination of these efforts was amulti- departmental staff workshop held on March 12'h to learn more about sustainability and gather input regarding potential green programs. The information gathered from this workshop, as well as a recommendation to develop a "Green" Sustainability Program in Rancho Cucamonga, will be presented to the City Council at the April 2nd Study Session. BACKGROUND: Last summer, staff identified the need to update the City's General Plan to reflect the changing development of the City and provide an updated blueprint for the future. Through the competitive bid process, staff selected Hogle-Ireland to guide the City through the update process. On November 7, 2007, Council confirmed staff's selection. The City Council identified Healthy Cities and sustainability as the main themes to be interwoven throughout the General Plan. During the January 2008 Goal Setting session, the Council expressed interest in exploring a green program as part of their 2008 goals. Staff has been working with Hogle-Ireland to incorporate Healthy Cities elements as well as sustainability into the General Plan. Staff conducted research on other municipalities' sustainability plans both locally and nationally to see what is being done and determine how to incorporate sustainability into future development and maintenance of the City through the General Plan. P2 CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT DISCUSSION OF SUSTAINABILITY IN RANCHO CUCAMONGA June 5, 2002 Page 2 The City Council has already acknowledged the .need to take a leadership role in addressing environmental impacts to improve health and economic well-being in the community. Council has expressed its support for regional sustainability efforts and adopted a resolution supporting the City's participation in the Green Valley Initiative Program with the County of San Bernardino. This program is dedicated to transforming the Inland Empire region into the "green valley" and encouraging sustainable economic development while protecting natural resources and the environment. On March 12, 2008, a staff workshop was held to learn more about sustainability, present a list of current actions various departments are already doing that promote sustainability, and brainstorm potential future sustainability programs. Over 25 staff members attended, with representation from every department. The session was led by our General Plan Consultant, Hogle-Ireland and their sustainability consultant, John Zinner. Representatives from the County of San Bernardino Green Valley Initiative Program also joined the discussion to serve as a resource. This workshop demonstrated that Rancho Cucamonga provides a number of "green" types of programs to the community and does a significant amount to encourage sustainability. The City offers a variety of programs including the Construction and Demolition Program, the City-wide recycling program (including Household Hazardous Waste, Electronic Waste, and Sharps Collection for medical waste), and the banned use of polystyrene products at City facilities, among others. A detailed summary list of these efforts is attached for your review. Staff is also conducting an inventory of all municipal buildings currently in the planning process to determine how we can incorporate fiscally responsible sustainable elements into their design and/or construction. Staff will present its findings to the Council once the research is complete. The purpose of the Council Workshop on April 2nd is designed to present an overview of the concepts of sustainability. Sam Gennawey from Hogle -Ireland as well as John Zinner will lead the discussion on defining sustainability and why sustainability is relevant in Rancho Cucamonga. We will also discuss existing programs already in place that promote sustainability. Staff will seek further direction from the City Council on how the City of Rancho Cucamonga moves forward with developing a sustainability plan initially at the April 2"d workshop and in the upcoming month. Respectfully submitted, James R. Troyer, AICP Planning Director JT:JN/Is Attachments: Overview of Current City of Rancho Cucamonga Green.Sustainability Related Efforts P3 Current Rancho Cucamonga GreenlSustainability Related Efforts Citywide • 29 parks, 28 playgrounds • 29.84 miles of trails • Pacific Electric Trail (5 mile segment) • No smoking ordinance • 4110 Work Schedule Planning • General Plan Vision Statement -encourages attributes of Healthy Cities • General Plan update- underway to include Healthy City element with goals addressing global warming, AB 32 (Global Warming Solutions Act), sustainable design and green building among others. • Green Valley Initiative -adopted resolution supporting initiatives City Clerk • Agenda Packets -eliminated the number of paper agenda packets we make by 36% beginning summer 2007. We have gone from 42 to 27 complete agenda packets. Purchasing • Informal Green Purchasing Guidelines -general policy to purchase recycled material when possible • Office Depot Analysis -report in progress detailing procurement data Building and Safety • Neighborhood clean-up events • Strict dust control measures • No green pools ordinance • Aggressive enforcement of maintenance standards Capital Projects Section Environmentally Friendly Street Overlay Practices -The City uses Asphalt Rubber Hot Mix for all of its major overlay projects. The material used to pave streets is a combination of crumb rubber from tires, tennis balls, and other recycled materials blended with asphalt to create a quieter, safer driving surface, as well as diverting materials from landfills. Transportation Development Section City Traffic Signals -All traffic signals have been retrofitted with LED red lights. The red lights in a traffic signal are the highest energy consumers because they are on the "on" phase longer that green or yellow. Green lights are next and we have been replacing them as old incandescent lamps burn out. Yellow caution lights burn far les minutes per year and last a very long time but we are replacing them whenever they burn out. Incandescent lamps use more energy than LED lamps but right now the LED's don't last as long as Incandescent lamps and the LED lamps are much more expensive than incandescent. All new traffic signals built in the City are fitted with all LED lamps. Municipal Utility Section P4 Energy Conservation - RCMU offers free energy audits to its customers, as well as rebates for lighting retrofits, HVAC tune-up, and solar installations. Park Development Section Environmentally Friendly Play Surfaces -All City parks are required to be built with rubberized play surfaces made from recycled tires. This is an environmentally sound measure to divert waste from landfills, and also a safety precaution for young children utilizing play equipment. Integrated Waste/NPDES Section • Recycling and Waste Diversion Programs for single family homes, multi-unit residences, businesses, schools and City facilities - There is one franchised waste hauler within the City that collects commingled recyclables, greenwaste, and trash from residents and businesses, as well as construction and demolition debris. Residents are automatically provided with all three collection containers. Businesses, multi-unit residences, and school programs are adjusted to the individual needs of the facility. Diversion rate is 54%. Recycling and Waste Diversion Education -Staff provides print and multi-media educational materials, presentations, and involvement in community events to raise awareness and encourage participation. • Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility -The City operates a HHW collection facility in partnership with San Bernardino County Fire. The facility is open to any SB County resident on Saturday mornings, Sam - 12noon. The facility collects HHW and electronic waste and averages 150 participants each week. • Sharps Collection Program -The Sharps Collection Program is coordinated with the Fire District and funded by Environmental Programs. Residents can pick up empty collection containers and drop off used sharps at any of the six fire stations. The City collects approximately 1,200 pounds of used sharps per year. • Construction and Demolition Debris Ordinance -The City enacted an ordinance requiring construction and demolition projects to divert 50% of the waste produced as a result of the project from the landfill. Permitees are required to pay and diversion deposit that is refunded upon project completion and verification of compliance. • NPDES Stormwater Program -The City enforces permit guidelines, conducts inspections of businesses and construction projects, and provides education and guidance to the community and business on proper stormwater management. ' • Polystyrene Ban -The City Council enacted a ban on the use of polystyrene products at all City facilities, City sponsored events, and programs. Public Works Section • Energy Efficient Lighting in all City Buildings - 4,900 lamps, 3,154 ballasts and 131 exit signs have been upgraded in all city facilities reducing each light fixture by 70 watts and reducing heat generated by fixtures thereby lowering demand on air conditioning. All new City buildings are designed with energy efficiency in mind. Electric Vehicle Charging Stations -When electric vehicles came out some years ago, the City installed 21 electric charging stations in high traffic City facilities and parks including the Civic Center and the Metrolink Train station. P5 Calsense Computerized Irrigation Controllers - In .1987 the City began investing in a computerized irrigation control system that allows us to manage our extensive system of irrigation controllers throughout the City. Today well over 400 individual parks and landscaped parkways are controlled and managed via centralized computers. The system allows us to turn off hundreds of sprinklers at one time in the event of rain, it monitors and automatically shuts off sprinklers if they are broken by vehicle accidents or vandalism and repair notices are instantly posted on the main controller computer so maintenance crews can be quickly dispatched. This system has saved thousands and thousands of gallons of water over the years. Variable Speed Drive Pumps and Motors -All of the City's large buildings have complex heating, air conditioning and hot water systems that rely on lots of pumps and electric motors that are needed to move air and water throughout the buildings. Old technology used pumps and mbtors that always ran at the same high speed all of the time. They used a lot of electricity. Almost all of those old pumps and motors have been replaced with "variable speed drives" which allow them to run at lower speeds when the demand is low or to switch to low speed after warming up. This is the same technology used in new super efficient refrigerators, washing machines and home air conditioning. • Chilled Water Cooling -The Civic Center uses a large cold water system to make air conditioning for the building. We are currently in.the process of completing a modernization of the system that employs three super efficient compressors that replace six old and not so efficient compressors. We estimate that we will save enough electricity to pay for the project within two or three years. • Electric Vehicles - We were one of the first local agencies to acquire electric pick up trucks several years ago when they first came out. We experienced great success with the trucks for over three years until they were recalled by the manufacturer as the program was discontinued. • Electric Utility Carts and Grounds Maintenance Equipment-For many years we have been replacing our gas powered utility carts with electric carts. We currently have over 15 carts in service. We also routinely replace gas-powered grounds maintenance mowers and rakes with electric whenever possible. • Hybrid Electric Vehicles -Soon after the loss of the electric pick ups Toyota came out with the Hybrid Prius. We were one of the first local agencies to put one into service. The City now has two and we love them. Last year we also purchased our first Ford Hybrid Escapes. We now have four ih service; we love them and plan to introduce more into our fleet. We have 13 Escape Hybrids on order and 9 more in our vehicle replacement schedule for FY 08/09. • Compressed Natural Gas Vehicles -Last fiscal year the City purchased its first CNG street sweeper replacing an older diesel powered sweeper. Over the next six years we will replace several more sweepers and two dump trucks with clean burning CNG. Over the next twelve years, we will replace all of our heavy trucks with CNG and as technology improves we will likely replace dur tractors with CNG. • Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Station -This year we are going to build a CNG fueling station to service our new "Green" fleet. • New Above Ground Fuel Storage Tanks at the City Yard-Within the next several months, we will replace our underground fuel tanks with more environmentally-friendly above ground tanks so all potential leaks are caught immediately and do not contaminate the soil. • Super Low Flow Urinals-Public Works Facilities Staff is currently setting up testing of super low flow urinals (which may be supported by grant funding). If successful, this program will save several hundreds of gallons of precious water. P6 Reclaimed Water-Public Works Parks staff is currently developing a transition plan with Cucamonga Valley Water District to begin transitioning landscaped parkway irrigation systems to reclaimed water.