We discussed identifying the actions that City has already taken. Staff, Planning & Community Development Director Heather McCartney and Senior Planner Glen Pickus, will be creating a list that we’ll be discussing. The Gold LEED-certified City Hall is our most obvious accomplishment, as well as the efficiencies and features of the new community center (including a green roof). We also recently began publishing the city newsletter using recycled paper. I’m sure the list of green, sustainable actions the city is taking will be much longer.
We also talked about identifying some policy priorities and guidelines for routine project selection. The Council regularly approves annual funding for street improvements, stormwater projects, and other projects. Though city staff likely has systems in place to prioritize these projects, the Committee agreed it would be appropriate to bring in some concepts of sustainability in how projects are designed or selected. We discussed a checklist as a possible tool for staff. We don’t want to introduce some extra bureaucracy, but some documentation to demonstrate consideration of the concepts would be useful.
Finally, planning staff is working with a consultant who specializes in visioning. We hope to have a meeting in May at some point, bringing the council, parks and planning commissioners, and staff together. One of the consultants specializes in strategic illustration. That process entails one of the facilitators illustrating the concepts and discussion, resulting in a graphic representation of the group’s ideas. I’ve seen other examples and they are a great result that is easy to use in the future and communicates the vision well. The photo is from a company called Alchemy—the first google result, and a good example of this concept.
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