Policy Committee Notes -- August 8, 2008

Sustainability Alliance of Southwest Colorado

• Twin Buttes. Annexation of Twin Buttes and approval of the conceptual design has been recommended to the City Council by the City Planning Commission. The Council has postponed consideration until October. Reactions among Policy Committee members have been mixed, with enthusiasm for the systemic approach to a sustainable housing development mitigated by dismay over the potential loss of extraordinary open space and wildlife habitat. Nancy Jacques is pursuing the idea of a land swap that would preserve the Twin Buttes property while facilitating development of a comparable sustainable village elsewhere, possibly on Florida Mesa. Bliss Bruen has suggested that the Sustainability Alliance host a forum to facilitate discussion of the Twin Buttes proposal outside of the polarizing environment of a formal public hearing. 
  
• Oil and gas regulations. Upon recommendation by the Smart Energy Committee and with approval from the Executive Committee, Dick wrote to the County Planning Board proposing an amendment to the revised oil and gas regulations that would require the industry to provide greenhouse gas emissions data according to a standard protocol and to cooperate with the county in seeking to minimize emissions from ongoing operations. 
  
• Advocacy criteria. The Twin Buttes and oil and gas issues raise the question of establishing clear guidelines for how Committees and/or the Board should decide whether to undertake advocacy on public issues. 
  
• Energy and Food contingency planning. Rebecca Koeppen and Tom Riesing have pointed out the potential for a local emergency stemming from rising energy and food costs. They will explore the food security issue with City and County officials to ascertain the status of contingency planning.
   
• Candidate forum. The San Juan Citizens Alliance is sponsoring a forum for CountyCommissioner candidates on September 8 at FortLewisCollege. This event probably will focus on environment/sustainability issues and we likely will have a role to play in framing the event.
  
• Zero Waste consultant. The Green Business Roundtable has suggested extending an invitation to zero waste expert (and graduate of the 2005 Durango ZERI training) Gary Liss to visit during the winter or spring. After consultation with the SASCO Executive Committee, Dick has solicited support from the City and County for hosting this event. A zero waste initiative would be an important element of a climate/sustainability action plan.
  
• Plastic bag campaign. Several suggestions have come forward in recent months about a campaign to ban plastic bags. Dick as suggested that any such campaign be part of a larger and more systematic zero waste initiative. 

• County and City budget processes. The County budget process is seeking to align both internal and external budget requests with priorities expressed in the La Plata County Compass. This specifically includes examination of systemic linkages among the 6 major strategic areas. The City Council has identified sustainability as a budget priority for 2009, but it’s unclear at present how this will play out in the budget process. 

• Sustainability forum. It has been suggested that the Sustainability Alliance sponsor a public forum for Nancy Andrews, Walt Serfoss, and Aileen Tracy to update City, County, and 4CORE sustainability/climate efforts, but no action has been taken.
  
• Parks and Recreation bond issue. The initiative proposed by City Councilor Scott Graham will not appear on the 2008 ballot. 
  
• Water issues. Paul Sheldon has suggested that water supply will become an increasing urgent issue in the coming years. We should stay alert to these developments.