Charlottesville Water Resource Protection Program Advisory Committee Draft Minutes for Meeting #15 Date: October 30, 2017; 3pm Location: City Space Attendees: Advisory Committee Members: Jeff Adkins, Morgan Butler, Dustin Greene, Dave Hirschman Rebecca Quinn, Michael Ramsey, Trey Steigman City Staff: Lauren Hildebrand, Bob Brown Public Comment: None. Prior meeting’s minutes: The draft meeting minutes for the committee’s August 7, 2017 meeting were approved with the following changes: Anne Coates is not a member of the advisory committee and should be listed instead as a member of the public. In “Staff Presentation” section, add a hyperlink to staff’s final presentation to Council. Also in “Staff Presentation” section, revise bullet on baseline impervious surface layer. Also, Ms. Quinn pointed out the need to post more recent meeting minutes on the City’s WRPP webpage and suggested archiving older minutes. Staff and the AC agreed to post minutes for up to two years from the date of the meeting and archive minutes from earlier meetings. Staff Updates: (a) Master Plan Projects: Mr. Brown explained that three projects from CIP I (water quality) and nine projects from CIP II (drainage) have been issued for survey. This facilitates the next steps for these projects, which include looking at easements that may be needed and developing designs. With the River Street project specifically, one of the two private property owners are not interested in allowing a survey; however, the City may be able to adequately address the outfall problem even if it only has access to the second property. For the remaining projects on the CIP I and CIP II lists, the City will wait to advance them until a new stormwater utility program administrator has been hired. Staff also updated the AC on two active projects not included in the Master Plan: (i) the Forest Hills Park bio-retention project (design complete, bidding expected in January; construction between February and Memorial Day); and (ii) the River Run/Pen Park project (City-owned property located in County; County is doing the project but the City and County are considering a cost-share whereby the City would get the Nitrogen credits). (b) FY 19 Proposed Budget: Staff is proposing the budget for the upcoming year to be flat, and they plan to evaluate next spring whether to advance a new four- or five-year business plan. Mr. Greene pointed out that DEQ uses a five-year MS4 permit cycle and that the current cycle will be coming to an end in 2019. Mr. Greene stated that DEQ often makes BMP standards more stringent when it renews those permits, and he suggested the City factor DEQ’s timing into its own timing on the stormwater utility program business plan. (c) Utility Administrator Replacement: Ms. Hildebrand explained that the position was advertised; the application period closed October 14. The next step will be phone interviews of top candidates. Several committee members suggested staff consider having 1 an AC member participate in panel interviews of the top candidates. During a post-meeting phone call Ms. Hildebrand confirmed that while a common practice for director-level positions, City does not include members of the public on interview panels for management-level positions. She did commit to including questions about the AC and the interviewee’s perspective on working with the AC in the interview processes. Committee Items: (a) Master Plan projects on private property: Ms. Quinn asked whether the Master Plan DDS methodology penalizes in any way projects located on private property. Ms. Hildebrand and Mr. Brown replied that it does not, but pointed out that the “feasibility” component of a project’s score is lower if multiple property owners are involved. Mr. Steigman asked if local utilities have the ability to use eminent domain to resolve drainage issues. Ms. Hildebrand stated that she believes they do, although she noted they rarely, if ever, exercise that authority. (b) Cleaning out drainage grates and drop inlets: Ms. Quinn asked whether the City gets credit under the Chesapeake Bay TMDL for cleaning out drop inlets and inquired how frequently they are cleaned. Staff responded they are typically done on a 7-10-year cycle. Ms. Quinn recommended cleaning particularly visible structures located downtown and around UVA more frequently. Mr. Hirschman stated his belief that credit is potentially available for cleaning drop inlets. (c) End-of-Year Report: Mr. Hirschman suggested changing the format of the ACs EOY report so that it includes more graphics, reduces text, and has more of a “dashboard” format. Mr. Butler raised the concern that overhauling the format may take more time and resources than the AC has as its disposal before the 2017 report is due; he recommended an approach based primarily on populating last year’s format with updated information, while adding graphics where they are available and cutting or streamlining unnecessary text. Mr. Hirschman offered to work with Mr. Becker on updating the 2016 EOY report, and Mr. Steigman offered to look through staff’s September presentation to Council for graphics to incorporate into the 2017 EOY report. Mr. Butler agreed to look through meeting minutes from 2017 for pertinent information to include in the 2017 report. Other Items: ➢ Staff and Mr. Hirschman gave a brief update on the EPA Region III joint program that was discussed at the AC’s prior meeting. The program is based on using a public-private partnership approach to achieve Bay TMDL and other stormwater requirements. The City is trying to keep the program moving forward while it fills the stormwater utility program administrator position. ➢ Ms. Quinn pointed out that City Code contains a provision that, when applied to the WRPP-AC, limits AC members to two terms. She stated that the AC may want to recommend to Council that it expressly increase the “term limit” for AC members once the completion of a number of the original members’ second terms begin to approach in a year or two. ➢ Ms. Quinn suggested considering whether Bay TMDL credits might potentially be available to the City in connection with an upcoming UVA development project for which the University has asked the city to close Brandon Avenue and part of Monroe Lane to allow development of a “model green student community”. Ms. Hildebrand 2 noted UVA owns most of the adjacent parcels and wants the streets vacated so they can meet stormwater management requirements for all adjacent parcels, rather than individually. ➢ The AC briefly discussed the status of the County’s exploration of a stormwater utility program. ➢ Our next meeting has not yet been scheduled. Staff indicated they would wait to schedule it until a new stormwater utility administrator has been hired. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:50pm. 3