Planning Commission Regular Meeting/Work Session

Good evening. Welcome to the regularly scheduled meeting of the City of Fairfax Planning Commission for Monday, October 14th, 2024. First Order of Business is our Pledge of Allegiance. Please join me as you are able. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Our next Order of Business is discussion and adoption of the agenda. The agenda was issued ahead of meeting as required. By the way, we do have a quorum. We're a little light tonight, but four members are a quorum, so we do meet the requirements for a quorum. Any comments on the agenda? Mr. Rice.

Mr. Chair, I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. Second. Second. It's been moved and second to adopt the agenda as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes unanimously. Next Order of Business is presentations by the public on any matter not calling for a public hearing. We have no public hearings this evening, so this is the time for anyone who would like to address. The Planning Commission may do so at this time. Madam Clerk, has anybody signed up ahead of time? No, no one signed up. Thank you. Anybody in the chamber like to speak to the Planning Commission at this time? Seeing none, we will move on to consideration of the September 23rd meeting minutes. Mr. Chair, I move that we adopt the meeting minutes from the September 23rd, 2024 regular meeting as provided.

Second. Second. It's been moved and second to approve them as issued. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes unanimously. No items requiring a public hearing tonight or not requiring a public hearing nor are there any public hearings. So we'll recess our regular meeting and go into a work session. This is a work session for an update on the Urban Forest Master Plan. We'll have a discussion on the overview of the plan as it stands at this point. Welcome Ms. Stafford and company. Thank you. Thank you. I will pull up the presentation. So tonight we bring to you an overview of the Urban Forest Master Plan project. We'll provide an overview of the work plan, the engagement plan, work done to date as well as the project timeline.

And then we'll open it up to discussion and any feedback you all might have at this time. With me tonight is Dr. Garrett Wolfe from the project team. He's been leading the stakeholder and engagement portion of the project. And so I will turn it over to him to provide the presentation. Thank you, Anna. Members of the commission, thank you for having me to speak tonight about the Urban Forest Master Plan. As Anna mentioned, I'm Dr. Garrett Wolfe. I'm the director of Environmental Resilience and Ecosystem Restoration at Marstel Day, one of the project team members, leading the outreach and engagement portion for this effort. I'm briefly just going to mention the other primary team members. So the prime on this project is Davie Resource Group or DRG.

Matt Erb is the project manager. He's a senior associate consultant and an ISA certified arborist. He's also joined by Ashley McElhaney, an urban forestry planner and a certified arborist. Joining me as part of my project team on the community engagement is Madison Freiberger as a support facilitator. And then Wetland Studies and Solutions is a partner providing technical support, particularly on the invasive species survey. Of course, Anna is the PM on the city side. Next slide. So during today's meeting, we'll provide a brief overview, as Anna mentioned, work plan, engagement plan, and current status of the project timeline. Following the meeting, I'd love any feedback that you all are willing to provide.

With that, I'll go into an overview of the master plan. So to start an urban forest refers to all the trees growing within the city. This includes public and private property, street trees, street trees, and parks. The master plan, I'm sure I don't need to explain what a master plan is to the planning commission, but it will be a planning and guiding document that allows strategic planning and resource allocation for urban tree management in the long term. Generally, urban forest master plans explore tree maintenance, planting needs, staff capacity and budget, invasive species, tree-related policies, volunteer opportunities, and additional relevant topics for the community. This particular master plan will cover a 20-year planning horizon, and it will identify the community's shared vision and goals, as well as priorities,

and address specific challenges and opportunities within the city, which are revealed in part through outreach efforts like these. Next slide. This will be the first-ever urban forest master plan for the city. It will create a cohesive management strategy to maximize the city's time and taxpayer dollars while responding to current and future conditions. Using a variety of recommendations, the master plan will address three overarching goals. First, sustainability to ensure that actions support long-term goals and use resources wisely. Resiliency to address challenges such as climate change and disease affecting the urban forest. And equity, ensuring all members of the community have access to and benefit from the urban forest.

Fairfax's urban forest provides significant benefits to the community, such as improved air quality, carbon sequestration, and stormwater runoff reduction. The bottom line is that the urban forest is an important asset for the city of Fairfax and will benefit from a cohesive management plan. Next slide. The master plan will cover a handful of topics, as you can see on the slide up there. Existing conditions of the urban forest, results from public outreach and engagement activities, which will take place throughout plan development, a shared vision for the urban forest, recommendations to attain that shared vision, implementation guidance in five-year cycles of that 20-year planning horizon,

and metrics for implementation of success to monitor progress and efficacy. Community engagement is a major part of the process from start to finish, and it's important that the plan works for both the city and its residents. Next, we're going to talk about the work plan, provide a little bit more detail about that particular process. So the master plan will be developed in two phases, which we'll discuss more in a few slides. Input for both the city and other stakeholders is critical throughout the development. We're currently about halfway through phase one, which focuses on understanding existing conditions through data collection and analysis. The project team is completing an invasive species assessment and a review of existing tree-related policies and documents.

Invasive species assessment documents existing conditions and will be scored on several categories, including an ecosystem score, a non-native invasive score, civic engagement and cultural value score, and that scoring is currently in progress. The project team has also reviewed city policy and planning documents, including the 2021 urban forestry program evaluation report, the 2035 comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, public facilities manual, the tree preservation and planting guide, which is part of that manual, and the stormwater utility credit program manual. This data collection and analysis helps us understand the condition, opportunities, and constraints of the city's urban forest and management practices.

Next slide. In addition, the State of the Urban Forest report, which is currently in progress, assesses tree inventory data, including tree species, conditions, benefits of the urban forest, urban tree canopy, change over time, and other metrics related to the health of the urban forest. Using a set of universal indicators of sustainable urban forest to evaluate Fairfax's trees, stakeholders, and management strategies, it also reviews city operations to understand how the urban forest program functions and what needs exist. The report will summarize these key findings and inform the master plan goals and recommendations. An outline will be formed for the master plan near the end of phase one, which will be late winter, early spring of 2025,

and report drafts and final report will be developed throughout phase two, intending to end about a year from now. Next slide. As part of the planning effort, of course, is an engagement plan. This engagement plan is essentially a work plan specifically for outreach strategies for the master plan. It's a living document constantly updated over the course of the project and identifies who will be involved, how, and when. Some of our strategies include a steering committee, which meets every other month, to provide updates and receive input. Members serve as liaisons to other groups. We are conducting stakeholder interviews, meeting with specific internal and external groups, to get details about operations, involvement, challenges, and opportunities.

Stakeholder tracking and tiering. So based on our encounters with stakeholders, we're developing a database of who has been involved and when, and their primary topics of concern. This will serve as a reference throughout the process and for the city's use afterwards. We've conducted a number of tabling events, including at Fall Fest, for those of you who might have been out there on Saturday. We currently have a public survey active to gauge the public's connection to and perception of the urban forest. We're conducting public meetings. The first one was held in July and the second one will be Thursday. We would love to see you there. There will also be two in phase two. Also the Engage Fairfax webpage, which serves as a project hub with updates, meeting information, public surveys, and answers to frequently asked questions.

These strategies all aim to provide the community with a variety of ways to get involved and stay updated on the progress. Next slide. Our engagement efforts strive to accommodate as many residents as possible and reduce or eliminate barriers to involvement. Our meetings are offered both in-person and virtual formats. The virtual format offers closed captioning and translated captioning. The virtual format is also recorded to allow residents who cannot attend to watch it later. We've selected meeting locations with ample parking, accessible space, and access to transit. We conduct both digital and paper-based advertising to try and reach as broad an audience as we possibly can. The public survey is hosted online and can be translated in browser.

Flyers and digital notices have been translated into Spanish for distribution. Paper copies of the survey are also available. I saw a stack of them at the front door as I came in. In terms of tracking public input, it varies depending on the strategy. For public meetings, meeting minutes and recordings are kept. For the survey, the data will be tabulated. Stakeholder interviews, the feedback is summarized. The stakeholder database is used to track who has attended and their relevant topics to them. Incorporated feed, we'll incorporate feedback as we go to further inform both the work plan and the engagement plan. And we'll be referencing public and stakeholder input heavily as the master plan is developed throughout phase two.

Comments on the master plan will also be tracked and responded to via comment matrices. Next slide. For a brief overview of just where we are in the engagement process, as I've mentioned, two steering committees have been held so far, July and September. The first public meeting was held in July and the next one will be this week for in-person and next week for virtual. The public survey is live through October 25th and we're about halfway through our stakeholder interviews. Next slide is a project timeline. I've covered a lot of this material already. The community engagement and plan development will continue, of course, through phase two. Phase two, which will be nine months commencing after phase one, which is on the screen.

This will include several drafts of the master plan, continued steering committee meetings, continued tabling, and two additional public meetings, including a workshop and final presentation. And, of course, continuous updates to the Engage Fairfax webpage. Next slide. Those continued updates to the Engage Fairfax webpage are, of course, publicly available to help people understand where we are in the process. We've also heard from lots of folks that City Clips and City Scene are excellent sources of information where people regularly go to to access that information. So we'll be continuing to push out updates in those forums as well. The public survey is accessible from the Engage Fairfax webpage.

And if you want to go ahead and take a picture of that QR code, you can take it right now if you want. I have it on my slide, but not on there. Sorry about that. So just to wrap up, we want to reiterate that the master plan covers a broad range of topics that affect both the city and its residents, including tree maintenance, planting, policy, stewardship opportunities, and invasive species. The need for public input throughout the process is, of course, crucial. We appreciate any feedback from the Commission on the topics shared during this presentation tonight. That input will help us create a responsive, actionable plan to guide Fairfax's urban forest management activities for the next 20 years.

You can just bring up that next slide as a friendly reminder of what we'd like to cover. And so I'll, of course, turn it back over to the Commission for any feedback or questions that you might have. Thank you. Ms. Stafford, do you have any further comments at this point? No. And again, I encourage if you guys have any preliminary input beyond what we have shared, thoughts on the plan itself. We're open to continued feedback. Great. Thank you. Commissioners. Ms. Lockhart. I really appreciate the thought and the care you've put into the community outreach, because that obviously is such a big part of this. Do you feel like you are getting a return on investment from that effort? Are you getting collecting feedback?

And is the feedback useful for purposes of developing this plan? Or is there maybe some kind of cross-pollination that needs to happen between different public outreach streams to make it more useful? Great question. I mean, I feel like we've gotten a lot of feedback so far. I think the proof will really be Thursday's public meeting. I certainly anticipate a large turnout. The first public meeting, as I think I mentioned, had over 60 people. So basically a full house in our part of the Sherwood Center. So again, I anticipate a pretty large group, both certainly for the in-person session on Thursday and then virtual. I've talked to lots of people who seems like that will be the one that they attend.

So I expect a big turnout for that as well. We've gotten a lot of great feedback. As I'm sure you're all aware, trees are a hot-button issue right now in the city. And I think the challenges with the George Snyder Trail, as much consternation as I'm sure that has created for a lot of folks with the city, has brought a lot of attention to this particular project and helped the engagement on this. While that particular initiative has certainly provided folks with ample opportunity to provide some frustrated comments to us, I do think that they recognize that this particular engagement process has been extremely active. And so we've gotten a lot of both positive and, well, it's all positive in terms of how it contributes to this plan.

But we've gotten just a lot of wonderful feedback, both on how the engagement process can continue to work, and I think those recommendations will be a part of this plan for how initiatives can be successful into the future, particularly for trees, but can probably be applicable more broadly. But I think we've received a lot of really wonderful feedback. And I'm excited for Thursday where we'll be doing kind of workshop, Charette-style, so people have a chance to get their hands on a map and show us not just what they're thinking about but where. And so, yeah, we've had really wonderful, positive feedback so far. That's good to hear. Yeah, because we've collected a lot of... I'm sorry. Oh, no, it's fine.

I've seen a lot of feedback specifically about trees on development-esque projects, the trails and others. Sure. You know, who's planting trees? What types of trees are they planting? Where are they planting them? Who's checking on the trees after the fact? Yeah. And I'm sure you're getting it too, but I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't stone piped in particular project areas. So, thank you. I certainly don't feel like it has been, but Anna, I'll let you continue to add to that. No, and I mean, we have tried to go to different groups that we don't feel like are typically engaged. Like, we attended all the back-to-school nights at most of the elementary schools and the middle school as well,

and we felt like that was kind of a unique engagement process. I will say, overall, those that are engaged are definitely engaged at the moment. And I do think when people are engaged with city projects is definitely, I guess, seasonal component to it that I see that we are getting high volumes at certain points and less, you know, when other people are busy, vacation, holidays, things like that. And so, it's still the typical challenges on a city project. Thank you. Mr. Rice. So, I'm glad to see you both here. And I had a little briefing at the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting just a few nights ago. So, I think my history with this starts probably 2012-ish, and I had a student intern that was working with the sustainability coordinator and looking at the use of ITRE for building kind of a canopy assessment at that time.

And I know that there had been previous efforts at that, and I know obviously that's an ongoing effort for the city to figure out where the canopy stands. So, in another project, students and I are having a little bit of frustration because the data that we use to make assessments that rely on tree canopy are based on LIDAR data, which was collected in 2017, made available in 2018. And the USGS 3D Elevation Program hasn't updated that LIDAR yet. Fairfax County and a couple other jurisdictions, Loudoun County, Stafford County, and Prince William County have all put up some money to get new LIDAR coverage. The city, just by default, because of its position within the county, may be covered by that LIDAR acquisition.

Yet, the people that I've talked to that are involved in putting up money to get better data to do this kind of work are very frustrated because the collection date for that LIDAR run was December 2022. And that data is just almost releasable to the people who paid for it. It won't be publicly available for a few more months through the web portals that the federal government uses. So, the lack of having good contemporary data, LIDAR data particularly, that can make kind of biomass estimations in the canopy by looking at the LIDAR returns, it's very difficult to accept those as kind of realistic views of the canopy because, frankly, right now, those are based on a 2017 collection date. The other tool that we typically use is the Virginia Basemap ortho imagery.

The Virginia Basemap ortho imagery is collected about every four years. While Arlington and Loudoun County usually do a buy-up where they give a little bit of extra money to get better resolution, to get down to six-inch and three-inch resolutions, Fairfax County and Fairfax City have largely not done that. We're still looking at 2021 imagery. So, we have nothing I'm aware of outside some very specialty data products from the private domain that probably are not affordable. We're basing, at the very best, our canopy estimates on a 2017 LIDAR data set and a 2021 ortho imagery data set. So, what's the strategy for trying to figure out what's actually happening now? ITRE may not be, you know, crowdsourcing is great, but it's definitely not something that could be done uniformly throughout the city without a huge amount of effort.

So, what's the strategy for making sure that the estimates of canopy and the entire master plan that's based on that are actually correct with regard to what we have? Yes. So, it is definitely a challenge that I would say when I did the canopy assessment a year or so ago that I was already seeing. And I think through this process and actually through stakeholder engagement interviews, I think the biggest strategy that I'm seeing is the communication around that imagery and around those assessments and how the way the city, the project team is going to inform goals and recommendations out of the plan. Because I think that's one metric that can be used, but ultimately we want to protect and grow our tree canopy coverage in the city.

We're a highly developing city where we need to provide specific recommendations as to where we're preserving versus where we're replanting after land disturbance. And so, I think the strategy is their help informed by these projects and assessments, but I think ultimately they're highly imperfect, particularly when you're trying to make them accessible by the public at the scale that we are for this project. And even with talking with urban foresters at Fairfax County, they run into the same issue where it's a snapshot in time. The moment the imagery changes or the moment the information on the ground changes, it's outdated. And so, you can only use it to a certain extent. And so, I think on a professional side, I have interest in it and I think can be useful in the city over time tracking as a metric as it changes and grows or decreases.

But I think when it comes to, again, the core goals and recommendations, I think we're talking about the strategies of how we communicate these metrics. Because I've heard from the public that there's deep concerns that it's showing from the 2021 data that the canopy has increased. But as we know, invasives are highly prevalent. Land development, we're a highly developed region, not even city. Those threats are there. And so, they're concerned that the advocation for the urban forest is going to get diminished by these projects. And I totally hear that. And so, I think the communication strategy is the biggest tool we have. Yeah. Just to add to that. I mean, we all recognize that the canopy data is just one data point in amongst quite a few.

And we've actually heard quite a lot from folks that we've done outreach with that while they, you know, understand what canopy data is, they're concerned about the over-reliance on data that doesn't include the understory, the habitat value. And so, they're far, at least folks we've talked to, have been far more interested not in canopy data, which I have actually found interesting. That usually is, it's a very understandable data set. But I also think that, you know, this as part of continuously updating and tracking that, tracking canopy data, once probably you've gone through at least two data capture cycles, then the ability to track, like, when development is occurring, what's being lost as a result of that, what's being gained as a result of at least city, private slot, harder city-based planting initiatives.

Then you can sort of keep that up as you go. And these, I'm sure, will be recommendations that are a part of the master plan. I'm much more confident about the direction we're moving since Anna's been hired. When I started this, it was a part-time sort of hobby effort from somebody in public works who liked trees and was pretty good. And it was spreadsheet-based. There was no GIS component. And it, you know, was well-meaning. But there was no way even to keep up with the city's own inventory of street trees and specimen trees even here. The ability to do that just didn't exist. And so the city now has excellent staff to help this happen. And I'm very encouraged, especially the insertion, perhaps, of an inside plan review and making sure that soil volumes and the appropriate trees planted in the appropriate place.

And that's probably the biggest impact I can think of by far in terms of what we do. Again, I'm concerned about the idea that a lot of the things that we may be viewing and basing in terms of the canopy assessment are based on data that's just out of date. And it's frustrating. It's frustrating in my other project, which is solar rooftop assessment work for NVRC. And the fact that we're producing a product based on seven-year-old data is just not acceptable. If the city had an opportunity to buy up within the Virginia Basemap Imagery Program, there's a mechanism for it. EVA, the statewide acquisitions programs, allows cities to do that at a fairly reasonable rate. We may figure out how to join forces with the county to get better data.

And when the county sees something inadequate, they mobilize to get collection done more quickly in a way that's very impressive. We have some really impressive staff. I think we need to try to figure out how to work with folks over in the county that are aggressively looking for data to support their activities. Because when they collect, they essentially collect for us as well. I just want to note that the Virginia Basemap OrthoImagery Stakeholder Inclusion process has a deadline that's tomorrow. It's October 15, 2024. For municipalities to indicate their interest in either getting higher resolution ortho imagery, which is incredibly useful, or participate in collection out of cycle. And I think a phone call to Gregory Bacon or some other folks over in the Fairfax County side that do imagery collection to support canopy assessments would be worthwhile.

And hopefully we can be able to carry out the work that you're presenting to us with information that's up to date. Thanks. I just also want to add that when the data becomes available, hopefully soon from the most recent capture that you mentioned, we're of course able to incorporate that. Which, again, still dated, but better than what we currently have. And then also what you just described about partnering with the county is a great example of a potential type of recommendation that would fall into the master plan. Yeah. So as a default, the imagery that we can gather and get for free at no cost is released on a four-year kind of rolling basis by the Virginia Information Technology Agency through the Virginia Basemap Program.

And it's incredibly valuable. Every municipality uses it. Someone two decades ago made some very insightful decisions about making sure the state collects this ortho imagery to support things like canopy assessment. Incredibly valuable data layer that's used constantly. But, again, buying up and getting better resolution and quicker collection. So we're sitting at 2021, and we'll have a collection that will happen soon that will be available about a year later. And I just really hope we can do everything we can to make sure that we have the best data that we're making our assessments and judgments on. Yeah. Yeah. And it's definitely when it comes to the regional partnerships. It's on our radar in terms of even our climate action plan that will be upcoming through our sustainability program manager that some of these goals we have to set at a regional level as well as we need the data to be consistent with our regional partners as we set goals.

And so there's certainly – that's why I say, like, as a professional, I'm still interested in the data, but I'm nervous with how the city and the public utilizes the data. And so we're trying to make sure that we're careful and kind of nuanced in how we are going to use it with this plan. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Coleman. I was going to say, I think this is a really interesting project. I'm looking to kind of see where it's going. And selfishly, I'm really interested in the invasive part because both houses I've owned in the city – I mean, my current one, I've got porcelain berry, I've got privet, and I've got all the honeysuckle in the world that I'm trying to figure out what in the world I'm going to do with.

It's like whack-a-mole. So to me, that's probably the most interesting thing because it's – you just – you don't know it's there until you really open your eyes. So I think that's going to be the most interesting subset for me to see. But, yeah, it's going to be – it's interesting. Yeah, I mean, we've certainly heard a lot of concern from city residents and staff about the invasives. And I think particularly from the staff side, you know, looking for more strategic direction, particularly because it can be such an investment to battle, especially in the public spaces that the city has a responsibility for. And so I think that'll be some, you know, great next steps to come from the assessment and the plan itself.

I'll offer my backyard if you guys want to test anything out on it. Planet studies. Thank you. A number of things came to mind. We're both ahead of the presentation and I watched the city council briefing as well, which is similar to this. A couple of – a number of questions are going to be all over the map probably now. Could you refresh my memory what phase two is? I get the sense – you know, we're talking a lot about phase one. Sorry, what or when? What? What. So basically phase one is data capture and analysis, including engagement. Phase two is really the development of the plan itself. So an outline for what the plan will include will be developed basically at the end of phase one, beginning of phase two.

So that's February, March timeframe we're looking at. And then throughout the next nine months, so basically up until this time next year, basically turning that outline into the master plan itself, including regular updates on the status and questions we may have for you and other stakeholder groups. So that's kind of the deliverable. Question I have about what this plan is. Do we anticipate this being policy, guidance, input to other things, some combination of the above? Yeah, I would say a combination of the above. It was identified in the comprehensive plan, and so it kind of started there. And then we'll work down in terms of directing what additional policies we may need, as well as how we implement those policies, what resources we need.

And so I think there will be guidelines to help as we're talking with stakeholder groups and we see what those top priorities are. We'll build those out more, but then through the implementation and things like that, we'll be looking at it as more of a guiding document and policy for the city, similar to how transportation uses their bike master plan or parks uses their park master plan to identify what projects they want to go after and what metrics they have to meet to sort of meet those. It just needs to be very clear at the end what is policy and what is nice to have guidance or whatever, and I'm sure you'll work that as we get through it. You've talked about a number of city-related projects like transportation and projects.

How is the development community involved here? The comprehensive plan has some very important goals related to the urban forest and canopy. We also have some important goals related to development and redevelopment in the city, which ultimately impact trees. Is the development community engaged in this? Are they on your key stakeholders list or do we think this is outside the scope of development, which I hope is not the answer? We haven't engaged directly with the private land development groups. One of our first groups, of course, was the city manager's office to get the perspective of the senior leadership team, department heads. And then we have engaged the development review team on city staff side to get their perspective in the challenges they face during plan review.

Again, using transportation as the example of street tree conflicts with the multimodal path recommendations and how we're going to provide those recommendations moving forward. And so we are engaging with those staff. I would say the engagement with the development community open to suggestions as to how that might look. But I think the focus is really on the longer scale goals. And then I think of the engagement with the development land development groups with the actual policy development. So ordinance updates, the standards, those sort of components that those are recommendations that come out of the plan and get implemented and built out after it's been adopted. Can I just add one thing?

I think so particularly the comprehensive plan is something we're looking at very closely because we understand that there are certainly opportunities for conflict there that we would want to avoid in the development of this plan, but also the opportunities to kind of push back and forth and really understand what are potential priorities in terms of it's not development versus trees, but what are priorities and where might those priorities move in different directions. And so I think that's a conversation that we're constantly having. And Paul is, of course, a part of the steering committee and so is getting regular updates on this project. I'm still not here. We're going to directly engage the development community.

But at some point, I think we probably need to if it impacts them. And I think it will. I forget what the document's called now that the Board of Architectural Review uses, but there are tree planting guidelines in there and what's suitable for where, which our development community relies on. So somehow we need to, I think, make sure that connection is available. And that particular document that you're mentioning is part of what we have reviewed for our existing conditions. And so it was a built-in part of the analysis in phase one. You talked about a shared vision for the urban forest. Can I make sure I understand shared by whom? Who are the stakeholders? Is it the city departments you're talking about, CDP, transportation, parks and rec?

I mean, to me, my focus is actually community residents. When it comes to me being successful as a city urban forester with these, it's to try to build, grow the urban forest that they are looking to live in. And so a lot of the vision aspect has been trying to gather that from boards, commissions, as well as other stakeholder groups, whether it be partner, nonprofit organizations. And then, of course, in our public meeting, number two is largely focused on trying to gather that information. There will be directed activities to try to get, like, charrette activities, to get direct input by community residents on the shared vision. And then when I see city staff and the city organization, it's their roles more implementing that vision and how that can be implemented.

And so there is input that has to come both ways from city staff for that in terms of what's possible, what resources are actually available currently and into the future. And so it is a shared process, but it is the approach we're taking is starting with the community residents. Thank you. You heard my comments about the development community. There are partners in the city as well. We rely on them heavily for some very important things, including the economic vitality, which is part of our vision for the city, as well as the sustainability kind of issues. So I just want to make sure we're looking at this in a balanced way, because what we have to as a planning commission, because our comprehensive plan is pretty darn comprehensive.

So as Dr. Wolfe talked about the George Snyder Trail, that's just one of many issues. It's much larger, much, much larger than that. And it's important we do what we do. I've had a number of great discussions with Ms. Stafford about some local issues, but we have a big, broad issue. I wish you well on Thursday's meeting. You probably are aware, at least you are, Ms. Stafford, but there's a bit of a conflict with another public meeting related to a city development transportation project in the city, also on Thursday, which is the Cambridge Road, Eaton Place. I'm going to put on my running shoes and try to hit some of both of those sessions, but I wish you well. I think you had a great process going so far for engaging the public.

I'd like to hear a little bit more about engagement with the development community, perhaps down the road, because they also play an important role in the vitality of the city. I think many developers are keen to preserve and protect trees as best they can, but there are some realities associated with it. Fortunately, Ms. Stafford is a great resource for the city, and it's very helpful at assessing, kind of on behalf of the city, the state of some of our trees in the city, and whether they're preservable or worthy of preservation. And the long-term vision may be better to remove and replant with better selections and with better practices. So I think it's really exciting what we can get out of this.

I wish you all as you go ahead. Any other comments or questions from the commission? Okay. Thank you. Thank you all very much for your time. Thank you. All right. We shall reconvene our regular meeting and move to Mr. Naphti's staff report. Thank you, Chair Fetler and members of the Planning Commission. A quick recap, going back to the City Council October 8th meeting. As you all are aware, the City Council approved the amendments to the comprehensive plan that stemmed from the five-year review. The updated plan is now posted on our website. I did want to thank the Planning Commissioners. I also want to thank Vice Chair Lockhart for coming and making the introductory remarks at that meeting.

It did a lot to help make sure the Council was aware of the efforts that the Planning Commission made into it. But I also wanted to mention, as I did at that meeting, that the Planning Commission did put a lot of additional effort into developing these amendments. You are a volunteer board. And you attended a lot of meetings outside of your regular meetings. And actually took it upon yourselves to go visit other boards and commissions to make sure we're getting all the information we needed. So we look forward to coming back to you in the next couple of months to talk about some next steps, other projects, and other issues that might be coming out of those amendments that will be primary responsibility of the Planning Commission.

Another item from that meeting, we had an introduction of the current two-year transportation program that is just beginning. A couple of projects of interest to the Planning Commission. One item on that list is the Fairfax Circle intersection evaluation. You may recall from the Fairfax Circle small area plan, one of the proposed changes to the intersection that was developed in a previous study was selected as was intended through the small area plan. However, we all felt that we didn't have enough information to know that that option would be working the best to serve both vehicles and pedestrians and other users. And so the idea was to move forward with a more in-depth evaluation and perhaps put some more

certainty into that before we take any next steps. So we'll be beginning that with this if it is funded. Another item of interest is a bicycle route wayfinding and signage investment that are recommended in the bicycle master plan that is now incorporated as part of the comprehensive plan. There are proposed improvements to the Trap Road, Lynnhurst Drive, Main Street intersection. This project isn't specifically identified in the comprehensive plan or any of our documents. However, there is general recommendations to try to improve offset intersections, which this is one, and it has become a safety problem. For more information on the two-year transportation program and to look at the full list of projects,

you can visit that on their Engage page, which is now up. The City Council also that night had a discussion on the urban forest measure plan similar to what you had tonight. Looking forward to the next meeting, October 22nd. They will hold their public hearing on the proposal for a Taco Bell. This project was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission on September 9. Upcoming for the Planning Commission, October 28th, as of now, the only item we have confirmed for the agenda is an update on the city's citywide green building policy. Also on that project, they will be having a community meeting on Thursday, November 7th from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Sherwood Center. Registration is encouraged but not required.

You can register by going to their Engage page. We also sent you a link in the email we sent you about this this evening. We also just discussed now the urban forest management plan public meeting this Thursday in person at 6.30 to 9 p.m. in Sherwood and then the virtual option October 23rd next Wednesday, 6.30 to 9 p.m. Zoom link will be posted on the Air Engage page. And Chair Feather mentioned the Chenebridge Road Eaton Place project meeting also tonight. I believe that is here in City Hall Atrium at 6 p.m. I wanted to mention the fall festival that took place this weekend. We had a booth there as well as several other city agencies. And I wanted to say thank you to those who came. We had a planning exercise where people could participate by identifying particular issues that were most important to them.

We had six issues laid out on the table, and we gave them each six coins, and they could distribute those coins however they wanted. Vice Chair Lockhart participated with her kids. So I hope they enjoyed that and learned something. But just, again, this is very informal. I wouldn't say this is any kind of survey results or anything like that. But just so you know how it turned out, the six topics were environmental sustainability, local character, affordable housing, economic development, open space, and walkability and bikeability. The way the votes turned out was affordable housing having the most votes with 623. Environmental sustainability with 559. Walkability and bikeability with 444. Open space with 469.

Economic development with 301. And local character with 263. Last thing I wanted to mention, I wanted to ask you tonight about the November 11 Planning Commission meeting and the December 23rd Planning Commission meeting. November 11 is a city holiday, so we need to cancel it. The question was going to be whether we should replace it with an alternative date, which we have done in the past when we've had a lot of things going on or a certain item that had to be discussed by a certain date. It doesn't appear to be the case. We have a couple items that will be coming up around that time, but looking at them, they could all be moved to November 25th, which is Thanksgiving week just as a heads up, but we should all be here.

So since there's only four of you here tonight, I could bring this up at the next meeting to see what people think, or we could decide on this tonight if we want to just cancel it or reschedule. But as of now, we don't necessarily have anything for the agenda if we had an alternative date. So I guess I would say we would need to cancel, and we could come back to you if we do have anything that needs to be discussed before November 25th, and you can decide whether to reschedule. Does that work for everybody? Okay. And then lastly, December 23rd, not a city holiday, but I wanted to see if the Planning Commission is interested in canceling that meeting. We do not have anything proposed for the agenda.

We typically don't that close to the holidays. So we want to confirm it's okay with the Commission to go ahead and cancel that meeting. Sentiments? I'll actually not be in town myself. Okay. Okay. So November 11th will be canceled. At your next meeting, October 28th, we will let you know if there's a reason. Well, actually, we'll send you an email beforehand if anything comes up to let you know if there is a reason. We would request you consider an alternate date for November 11th. Otherwise, we'll assume the next meeting will be October 28th. The following meeting will be November 25th. Would there be a reason? And if the only thing we have for the 28th is the green building policy, is there an urgency to that that we couldn't defer that to the end of November?

Or do you anticipate the 25th of November to be a pretty full agenda? We have a couple things piling up. I'd also – I can get back to you. I'd rather talk to the sustainability coordinator to see if there is a timeline need to have a conversation with you before November 25th. Is the role just kind of informational like tonight, though? If that project is further along, they're sharing recommendations. And so I think they'll be looking for feedback. Okay. They made a presentation at Pratt, and it was good. It generated a lot of conversation. And the city has enough big capital projects coming up that the whole way that a green building policy might interleave with $420 million of capital projects over the next five years is sort of big.

Anyway, I enjoyed the briefing that we got at Pratt on Thursday. And I think at least that policy deserves some good attention whenever we end up having it. Okay. Okay. We will – yeah, we will talk to her and double-check our schedule for those two meetings, October 28th and November 25th. I'm not sure what the sense of the rest of the commissioners who are present tonight feel about – it may be a one-meeting topic during – but anyway. I'm in town? Okay. Good. Thanks for the input. It's on a very long night. I think it's better. Yeah. Thanks for the input, Mr. Reiss. Okay. What else? That's all for the staff report. Okay. Comments from the commissioners? Mr. Coleman? No comments. This is the updates.

Nothing from me. Thank you to the planning team for your hard work at the festival. Mr. Reiss. Good. As I mentioned, I attended a Pratt meeting. It was a long one, full of conversation. The pace of those meetings is a little slower than these. And so it was three and a half hours of discussion. But a couple of things. The first, the 4th of July discussion has been ongoing, kind of looking at what happened a few months ago and where the next celebration would be. The issue, of course, is launching fireworks and insurance issues related to turf fields that are fairly substantial in terms of insuring and protecting. So there was a decision made that, given all the other considerations, that the celebration in July 25 would be back at the stadium.

And that sort of there's been a lot of planning and thinking and discussion about that. So there will be some insurance involved in the deployment of the show. But it will have some safety protections. And it will be convenient. It will be the recognizable regular event everybody is already used to. And people who are perhaps further away who like to watch it from Stafford or the parking lot of, you know, whatever restaurant they happen to go to on the boulevard, those people will be able to participate as they have in past years. It is 10 months away or perhaps nine months away, but it's a big enough regional event that the planning takes place year round. And so and then the financial prep for it starts now.

We talked a little bit about a parks foundation. I know I haven't mentioned this, but a lot of municipalities have a foundation that's separate from the Parks and Recreation Department, whose goal is to kind of do strategic kind of benevolent activity to perhaps raise money for land acquisition, to perhaps be a vehicle for bequests or donations. And so I suggested this a few months ago, but I think the parks director and the board chair had already been having discussions about it. So we're setting bylaws and figuring out what representation on the board of directors looks like. And that will ultimately probably be appointed by city council. But it can be significant because people enjoy open space and parks and it contributes to the quality of life in the city.

And having a strategic organization that can accept donations in a nonprofit capacity is a big deal. And so that's something that's still developing and probably more on that later. We talked a little bit about Tice Park. Tice Park's renovation is fairly significant, a multimillion-dollar renovation, and some financial juggling has taken place to try to do the project the way it was envisioned. And there were some money shifting, a little bit of money shifting being done to make sure that that happens. We're looking at a kind of strategic plan for parks. And a couple of other things on our agenda. We spent most of our time at our meeting last Thursday on the green building policy and on the urban forestry policy.

So I think we had one of those tonight, and we'll have another one in a few weeks. And that's it. Thank you. You mentioned the Parks Foundation and Tice Park. The City Council also addressed those at their last meeting. And I think by consent or acclamation approved the Tice Park funding project as it was presented for the contract, yes, to go forward. So that's good news. From my perspective, the only thing I would like to do is add my thanks again to this body for the work on the comprehensive plan. I appreciate Ms. Lockhart covering the City Council public hearing. I was at the work session we held a few weeks prior and also expressed my appreciation publicly for all your role, the role of everybody involved, city staff as well as the other boards and commissions.

So we should feel good about what we've done. It was even less discussion than I would have imagined to get the approval from the City Council. So I think the work we did, the preparation we did, the conversations we had along the way I think were quite helpful. So I just want to thank you all again for that. I have nothing else. So with that, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.