Story by: Kelly Showers, Marketing Outreach Director, and Event Coordinator, GreeningDetroit.com
Great things are happening in the city of Detroit. On April 21st the Detroit City Council Green Task Force, Lead by Detroit Councilman Scott Benson, held its Second Annual Earth Day Award ceremony and breakfast. This celebration acknowledges the pillars in our community that are promoting the green initiative and sustainability.More
Green Task Force Meeting Minutes 4-19-2018
Guest speaker: Mayor Duggan
Meeting starts promptly at 3:00p.m. at 3408 Woodward Avenue
Mayor Duggan is introduced by Councilman Benson to a record attendance.More
The Detroit City Council Green Task Force will recognize 20 local businesses and residents who are bold thinkers and innovative leaders in changing the green landscape of Detroit on Earth Day, April 21. Awardees, from each City Council District, include Detroiters actively involved in community gardening, recycling, and sustainable living initiatives and a business bringing energy efficient solutions to buildings in Detroit. More
The Detroit City Council Green Task Force will recognize 20 local businesses and residents who are bold thinkers and innovative leaders in changing the green landscape of Detroit on Earth Day, April 21. Awardees, from each City Council District, include Detroiters actively involved in community gardening, recycling, and sustainable living initiatives and a business bringing energy efficient solutions to buildings in Detroit.
The awards will be presented at a brunch at 10 a.m. at the IBEW Local 58, 1358 Abbott, Detroit, MI 48226. The event is by invitation only. More
First time the GTF Meeting is Televised
Meeting comes to order 3:1
Introductions are made by the attendees
Councilman Benson introduces Passion MurrayMore
I: Welcome II: Introductions
Each person introduces themselves. 32 total people in attendance.
III: Presentations:
Presentation (A): Simone Lightfoot, National Wildlife Federation
Simone heads the National Urban Initiatives department for NWF. The organization’s urban work is less known, but recently and they have doubled down on that work. Last September brought to national stage. Simone stresses how conservation work can be scientific and talk in terms of data, but it is a struggle getting “black and brown” perspectives on conservation and environmental issues. In an effort to incorporate some of these missing voices, NWF organized “GREEN TALK & CHEWS” focus group events in Detroit, Cleveland, and Toledo, where residents of color discussed their local knowledge and perception of issues relating to the environment and conservation. To support authenticity, the focus groups were held at familiar restaurants with parking, avoiding white sterile walls. Rather than focus on scientific data, the point of these meetings were to hear unfiltered grass roots perspectives from all levels, to receive raw feedback. Hence, the document outlining the results from the project does not include an executive summary.
Water was a common thread and issue in the focus group discussions, relating to utility shutoffs/water privatization, lead poisoning, quality, degrading infrastructure, corruption, flooding, algal glooms, and recreation. In Detroit in particular several other themes emerged as well, including residential foreclosures, police brutality, public education being under assault, and Detroit’s community health overall. Simone stresses that it’s difficult to talk about “green” issues/things if kids in these communities are getting shot, so it is important to think and talk about guns and other issues more pressing to urban centers as well. Another issues brought up by participants was accessibility for the elderly. Things like the time length of cross-walk lights and the height of bus steps are issues. Open question of how we care for and look out for the elderly in bad situations.
Simone mentions how NWF is struggling with budget issues since under the new Trump administration. In the past the organization has had to handle changes in budget by a few million here, or a few million there, but now entire agencies are being cut.
Looking forward, while agriculture is always being pushed by cities, but there are more options than that in terms of “greenifying” a city. Infrastructure and greenways and other things are import ant too. Open question: how can green organizations help smaller local organizations? It’s important to understand shifting demographics. More and more foundations are demanding/requiring diversity in organizations, and Simone stresses that in general conservation has to become less “white”. However, it’s important to acknowledge that just putting people of color on boards and in management positions being it’s a requirement isn’t authentic and doesn’t help solve racism in institutions/organizations. Searching for authenticity and underrepresented voices is the goal of this program. Simone is trying to connected and help people, not have it all just be words.
Presentation (B): Joel Howrani Heeres, Office of Sustainability
Introduces himself. He worked at ecoworks for several years on climate change action plans, also worked at DTE for a while (private sector), now in government.
The new sustainability office is a small office within the Mayor’s, so to get stuff done we need to leverage relationships with others.
Joel is brand new on the job so things are in flux, but his current areas of focus include increasing walk and bike-ability in the city, increasing water/air quality, and increasing better quality of life.
We should think of Joel and the new office as a convener and engager with all the environmental/sustainability things already going on in the city. With the rentable bikes downtown and the new q-line, we have an opportunity to start marketing ourselves with new transit. Biggest LED streetlight system in the country is something we can highlight as well.
Open question: how do we establish and plan our common metrics to work toward together? Creating a sustainability action agenda for the city is one of Joel’s top priorities. Open question: in order rot establish the action plan, should we consider asking local people what are the issues they are facing in the neighborhoods. and what theirs ideas on solutions are? Joel wants to make it a really participatory thing, leveraging and working through established community organizations (including the task force!) to get this done. Let’s use our ears to collect valuable info to make this action plan Another goal is to create a website to track goals online and to make info easily accessible.
Joel cares about this stuff in his daily life – he is a bike commuter, collects rain water, has a garden, and wants to share this with others. He wants to build community and make people feel better economically and environmentally.
Question regarding the action plan: will you include all the work that has already been done? (Simone in regards to her work with the NWF). Answer: Absolutely. Non of this is reinventing the wheel, so they try to use everything they can. Leverage all the work that has been done. Focus on ways to measure the goals.
Will Tiny homes be part of the plan? Leverage what’s been happening before.
Open question: how to we institutionalize this work? How do we infuse this work into policy master plan? The long term plan is to make this automatic, have it fit right in.
Open question: how do we create a constituency for this work? We need to think about ways to hold politicians and adminisation down the road accountable.
Question: ought we require recycling ordinances in new developments? Answer: Institutionalize it, so all new developments start with it. We should Divert as much as we can off the bat. Another question about Incineration issue comes up, but Joel says it’s a big issue and he doesn’t have enough info or experience to answer those questions yet.
Question: In regards to green spaces, how can we/should we create accessibility for all users? Answer: this issue needs to be considered for every single new space we create. We must incorporate perspectives on diversity in the implementation of new spaces.
Question: regarding the action plan, do you see certain priorities bubbling up? And how do you prioritize them? Answer: the action plan will serve as a master plan. Collective decision making will be utilized. Some might be city goals, while others my be community based goals. Use different levels between community and city.
IV: Sub-committee Updates
Zero-Waste: Nattelie: met last month. Working on what the priorities are of the group. Create a zero waste plan for the group and how to implement that. They are trying to get municipal buildings on the recycling program. Working on policies for waste.July meeting at Depot yard. Reached goal of 20% recycling participation, so the new goal of 30% for NEXT august. Creating plans for event zero-waste and recycling. (Kerwin) PSA went out, played on TV and a few radio spots. Open questionL: is the PSA on the website?
Renee Wallace: composting sub-committee. She serves on the Michigan organics council. New legislation in process as it relates to composting. Recommendations being synthesized by DEQ to refine them to go into legislation. 29th of this month and also 29th of next month. Talk to her about joining the committee or learn more. Anyone interested in looking at these things from the DEQ, you can look at the two reports hosted on the DEQ website.
Blue-Green: upcoming meeting this coming tuesday at 1pm. 2727 case avenue. Someone from UM SNRE presenting at 2pm.
Renewable energy subcommittee: Exciting Benson has asked them to make a report for him on health and safety. Advisory group now for both sides of government between task force and sustainability office. Next meeting 71 Garfield on July 14th. Discussion about commitments to standards that building owners reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 and that all new buildings be carbon neutral by 2030.
Can the city become 100% renewable? Joel discusses how it can be an issue of haves and have-nots, and that we need to be realistic about what we could be afford and what’s best for the city. But what’s really cheapest? Regardless, our decisions have to represent our environmental as well as social values.
V: Closing
Call to order: 3:08 pm
I. Welcome
Councilman Benson opens the meeting, welcoming everyone.
Benson asks for a show of hands of who made it to the Earth Day Green Awards Ceremony. Only a few hands rise, and Benson calls on the task force for better attendance of next year’s event. Despite a lack of a attendance from the task force, Benson announces the event was very good, and that it was great to recognize lots of hardworking people.
II. Introductions
17 attendees present.
Each attendee introduces themselves
During Kerwin Wimberley’s introduction, he announces that the task force’s biggest win to date is that the recycling goal of 20% participation has been met. Benson adds on that a new recycling PSA going out soon that explains how easy recycling is. The video will include Benson talking about recycling with kids, should be fun, cute, and informative.
To date the recycling program has been successful by removing barriers to entry with recycling. Now 1 out of every 5 homes is part of the recycling program. The task force should be proud of the fact that 20% was accomplished within only three years. Several partners have made this possible. Green Living Science has played a big part in the education on recycling in schools.
III. Presentations
Presentation 1: Monica DeGarmo with DPSCD Office of School Nutrition regarding the Farm and Garden Program and student family engagement
The Office of School Nutrition is a local food authority, so the program is funded by the USDA. Providing schools with food is the office’s number one priority. The office serves 141 total schools, 85 of which are DPSCD schools (additional schools come on because the Office of School Nutrition is federally obligated to provide resources when any public schools ask for support). In the DPSCD schools they provide 80,000 meals per day during the school year. During the summer the office also organizes the Meet Up and Eat Up program. Fresh fruits and veggies snack program from the USDA allows for purchase of fresh ingredients.
Shareholders vs stakeholders: In 2008 the program shifted back to operating in-house, when they had been outsourced previously. Before 2008 37% of the budget was spent on food. When outsourced the program announced it would being in $25 million in funding over 5 years, but they ended up only bringing in $1.4 million. Since the program shifted back to in-house in 2008, 52% of budget is now spent on food. 35% of the total amount of food provided by the program is locally sourced, which is a lot compared to other school food programs.
Revenue and Budget: CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) reimbursement of $3.24 per meal. It doesn’t matter now if you don’t “qualify” for a free meal; there are no more tokens so everyone in the schools get free meals without stigma. A little known fact is that the DPSCD Office of School Nutrition also provides district catering to generate additional revenue, which helps its programs.
Vendor/supplier policy: the program prefers Michigan produce/ingredients. Contract language allows them to pick contracts with Michigan farms that are more expensive than out of state. The office works with Cultivate Michigan to make this happen.
Nutrition: Partnership with Lifetime Fitness and their foundation. Zero tolerance of harmful and unhealthy ingredients, several of which are in addition to the USDA requirements.
OSN food item highlights: No chocolate milk (parents still upset about this), Meatless Mondays, no deep fryers, increased salad bars, no carnival food, Russell street deli (trying to get that partnership happen), Detroit Made bread everyday, accessible fruits.
Food Systems Change: Started in 2013, and the program provides school gardens. Students build the garden beds. Currently there are 76 school gardens. 6 raised 8X4 foot gardens per school. Monthly professional development trainings. STEAM curriculum resources. Academic aspect of running gardens is a place for growth perhaps?
Drew Farm, a local Detroit area urban farm on reclaimed land, is where a lot of the program’s food is grown. They want to replicate this farm in additional DPSCD sites. Drew Farms provides over 20,000 pounds of food straight to schools.
Improving youth connection to food: There are STEAM field trips to visit farms. Partnerships with local universities to get interns for instructors. Outdoor educational experiential learning college courses are an avenue to explore as well. In 2016 there were 38 field trips.
Greening of Detroit: Green Core will hire 100 students in the summer as employees. But they need help on the farms, so they budgeted 15 students to work full-time on the farms June through august (applications available!).
Farm stands sell the produce grown during the summer. There are 5 farm stand locations.
Family and community engagement: Family Farm Days events happen through partnerships with Keep Growing Detroit and other organizations. Starry Nights events at Drew farm as well. They are looking to incorporate fitness events in as well to tie in with the health aspect of food.
Catherine Ferguson Farm: Fall Harvest Festival. October 7th save the date!
EPA Local Food, Local Places: awards local food places. Focused at Mackenzie Elementary. They help to repurpose land so we can use it better. Thank you to Detroit City council for helping make that happen.
Presentation 2: Karl Kaebnick on DOIT city website
Isn’t it hard to remember the days for curbside pickup of your garbage, recycling, and yard waste? How can we get better and more easily accessible information to the public? Karl is here to present the reworked Public Works website that makes getting this info much easier.
(Link): Detroitmi.com/publicworks
The change to the website is that you can look at a map of pick-up zones that is color coded, with the colors corresponding to certain pickup schedules listed at the top of the map. If you can’t locate your area visually on the map, you can type in your address to find exact place and it will tell you what day pickups are for you. You can also put phone number in to get text message reminders each week when you need to put your garbage/recycling out. Can look at the calendar to see, and sign up to get reminders for, advanced notice special days and general recycling information. The site includes a game you can play that tests you on where to put waste – either curbside recycling or trash, or items you can drop off at Recycle Here! At the end you can sign up for a free bin! The site also a ‘waste sorter’ search option, where you can search for specific terms and it will tell you how to handle them. Note that Recycle Here takes electronics from Detroit residents only.
They are looking for feedback if you want to check it out. Feedback helpful since they still haven’t done the hard launch yet. Almost everything was done in house for this project and under budget! Kerwin looking to put the new Recycling PSA on the site as well once it’s up and running. In response to question about what old people/people who don’t/can’t use the internet should do to get information, Karl says that Green Living Science still does their Green Ambassador Program to try and connect elders who don’t use the internet.
End of presentation.
Benson excited about the new sustainability office that is currently launching for the city, so lots of exciting things happening.
Going back to the discussion of recycling win, Benson mentions that San Francisco has a recycling program that is incredibly successful, but that that took them 30 years, and we’re trying to do this much faster and should be proud about reaching 20% participation in only 3 years. Benson also announces that he wants Detroit to be a Blue Ribbon sustainable city in the future, but will look into more what the requirements of that designation are.
IV. Update on Committees
Newest committee is The Renewable Energy Subcommittee: have met twice now. Represent a variety of community and organizations and solar businesses. Want to make Detroit a renewable energy city. Looking into neighborhood solar. The huge power outages in February made these goals seem like a necessity. One of the goals is, can Detroit be the same as Grand Rapids and become completely renewable (for buildings)? What does it take to do that? Social justice piece is important and we will need to work on that. They are grateful to Benson for getting this committee together. The next meeting is June 8th 12pm to 2pm at Hannan House.
Benson mentions again how great the public private partnerships are within this task force. It’s great and really unique.
Blue Green Infrastructure met last Tuesday: There were presentations by Detroit Design Collaborative Center. From these they saw a great matrix of all the organizations working on storm water management in the city. Asked if those documents can be shared. Question moving forward is – how do we share/organize/ house this type of information? Focus on non-residential level, and what activities people can do to offset drainage charges. Next month U of M will be coming to talk about new GI report. Next meeting is the third Tuesday the same week of this meeting June 20th at 1-3pm (Location?).
Recycling update – not present
For good of the group
United States Green Building Council offer courses on LEED (Mondays from 6-8) Starting June 5th until the end of July. Classes focus on 7 different topics. Get continuing education credits if you are involved.
Dona Wilkins with Green Door. Green Door’s Blue Green Core has youth summer programs where they hire youth to do things all related to water. Beach monitoring at Belle Isle Beach and also storm water management and how to test drinking water are a few of the project areas. Program is looking for people 16-19 year old. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources funds this in order to expose young people to careers in the natural resources.
Benson: If you want to make PSAs on TV talk to him and he can help you get connected to get your message out.
How many people follow the Green Task Force on Facebook? Not many people, easiest and cheapest way to share information, so go like and follow the page!
The Sustainable Detroit Forum is looking for presentations in October.
The Detroit Water Festival is moving to the fall. You can sign up with students.
Michigan association of environmental professionals offers grants: apply to them based on education related programming for k-12 ages.
Benson regarding the task force in general: in the first year nothing was getting done, just a lot of talking. However, the Task Force began seeing success when recycling became the focus. With that priority we moved forward and made meaningful changes. But what’s next for the council? What’s our next big thing?
Litter suggested as the next issue we tackle, an idea that seems to be supported by many people in the room with a positive response. Another suggestion is to become a polystyrene-free city. The last suggestion is to “greenify the code”, or focus on initiatives to make Detroit’s public policies more environmentally friendly.
V. Closing.
4:30 meeting adjourned.
Michigan State University Detroit Center
3408 Woodward Ave.
Detroit MI 48201
Agenda
3:00 Welcome
3:05 Introductions
3:10 META Expo Development at the State Fairgrounds – Beth Hagenbuch and Ken Weikal
3:50 Subcommittee Updates
4:05 Good of the order
Call to Order – 3:11
Speaker METAexpo Development at the State Fairgrounds –
Beth Hagenbuch and Ken Weikal
Lafayette Greens Award winning gardens by Westin Hotel
Kresge Award Winners
Introduction to master plan made State Fair Grounds Development Coalition
157 acres owned by the public?
Asked to create a vision for the area with
Advocates for Detroit Future City; their ideas to be placed into the area
A teachable Historic area would maintained within the space along with:
Sustainable Green Development
Walkable Urbanism and Complete Streets
Information also utilized from Data Driven Detroit
The document given won a mission ALA award as a graphic representation that could be given to other agencies and municipalities
The main reason they are presenting is that the groups they represent had heard that the city planning office will be holding community meetings to get ideas. “We would like you to attend and be vocal about your ideas and we would like to have the information shared.”
Key Assets of the property:
Shows handout:
Woodward Avenue Action Association gave credible numbers of the lifestyle along Woodward
Imagine this as Uptown; the interface of the city and suburbs
From the Handout:
METAexpo is a citizens led vision and conceptual master plan for 21st century transit and economic development at the Michigan State Fairgrounds, in response to the current Big Box Shopping Center development proposal at this historic property. It is a visual communication of the collective ideas of community members and a request for public sector participation and planning for our shared future.
Constant Expo of Green and Blue Technology; a New Detroit Future City within this area
Regional Impact
Opportunities for Place Making – a place for development – a district, a corridor; the MEDC says, a place where entrepreneurs are developing areas of growth, a place that exists, or has iconic architecture or history within in as a center or focus area
State fair was always under the states control, but since then, this CENTER OF EVERYTHING has lots of opportunity for transit centering, created new economy and global opportunities-
Peter – The development of this area is happening NOW
A great place to hook this area to the rest of the transit community – these rights of way have to be insured, otherwise there will never be a good connection between bus and rail systems.
Shows Graphic in detail
This type of idea for mixed use in an area, there are several types of federal funding many times over, especially when backed by the community.
Q- Is there still the possibility of a Wayne State Community College Representation?
A.- There is all kinds of room; almost anything anybody would like to place upon it could be represented
Beth – Talked about the development of something meaningful meant a community and the ideas of many organizations.
Developers can be sharing when they are creating the online space; it’s a lot bigger than just relying on one developer to create this; it should be shared by the developers that create mixed use spaces
Q.- What is the point of entry for the ‘world’ to see this area, especially when it comes to transit to and from the airport
A.- One idea is – Fly in to the airport, have the bus or train come through directly to the center, and then transit goes up and down Woodward
Could get the Big 3 to collaborate to create outreaches to other areas of the suburbs
Q.- Is anything started yet?
Peter – The community group has asked us to invite you to the discussion
Katherine- Waste Man. – There was a man from Canada who also explained that this is a part of an important piece of history; including the Seabiscuit story – the this is the area when all of the parties met that had to do with the success of that story.
Benson – Next steps?
This was initiated by the community groups that have been looking for development for the past 20 years. Nothing will happen unless the people and organizations that have a voice or interest in what this will be or what can happen speak up in support of the project.
Q.
Contact for further information is Karen Hammer, President SFDC
SFDCMichigan@gmail.com
Notes from the Zero-waste subcommittee – Melanie Berkowitz? SP? from Zero Waste Detroit, asked to head new subcommittee – not just public works, but having businesses engaged in composting and food waste, strategic thinking about zero-waste
Talked about the San Francisco trip we took in November and the energy ideas that came out of it. 14 members went to San Francisco to see what type of initiatives they are doing, very diverse city in all ways.
In the 1990s the city took on the task of being leaders in stormwater, it took a lot of hard work. They are the gov. arms and administration – their colors and sizes are different
state support for funding green corporations
There are incentives to have citizens recycle, (our statistics: 13% participation in city recycling in Detroit). The suggestion was that people must be TOLD to do it by the government; in the city projects are implemented by communication with people within the diverse neighborhoods that put up the communication pieces and the conversations are created and implemented
Council President, Brenda Jones is now the face of recycling in Detroit. She will be doing this city wide.
PSA coming soon, need to prioritize the contracts and taking people to SF helped get city on board to get the strategy created and implemented.
Looking at goals: in 2 years we want this amount of waste diverted to get to 60% as opposed to 13% of people in the area to participate in the recycling program.
Melanie’s team is to develop the plan and is looking for volunteers to assist and to think about recycling in institutions, landlords on board, etc.
This committee will have funding to help develop these structures for the city
The ask for volunteers
Kathy – WM – Keep Detroit Beautiful may have funding or volunteers as well as Keep America Beautiful non-profit as a funding aid
Peter – is the program citywide?
Melanie – Yes, since winter of 2014 – $25.00 one time fee
District 7 had a successful event at Don Bosco, which showed a lot of interest in the program.
Educational component has not happened as well
Outreach events can be found on their website
Q.- Irma – when are meetings?
A. – not yet, but Melanie will send sign up sheet around for interested parties
Blue green subcommittee report:
IRMA – Author of Reimagining Detroit City, writer Brundage spoke at their last meeting about many of the things they spoke of including food security and development, soil testing, urban land trust, reforestation,
Brief Notes from the GREEN TASK FORCE Blue/Green Infrastructure Subcommittee
Meeting on January 19, 2016
Mr. Gallagher discussed his observations on what he called a “breakthrough” of seeing acceptance in the last ten (10) years of viewing vacant land as an asset versus a liability.
Specifics mentioned include:
Ended discussion with an invitation to contact him with GI projects
Members were to review and send their ideas and suggestions
Next Meeting: February 25, 2016
Michigan State University Detroit Center 3408 Woodward Ave. Detroit MI 48201
Green Task Force Meeting Minutes, June 26th, 2014
Held at MSU Detroit Center, Woodward Ave.
Hosted by Government Affairs
In Attendance:
Aimee LaLonde-Norman, Rachel Gaylord-Miles, Ryan Oswald,
Cathleen Francois, Eric Dovas, Todd Scott, Gary Wozniak,
Patrick Smithbauer, Regina Royan, Doug Strane, Jeff Gaines,
Phil Hadley, Margaret Weber, James Rydquist, Sandra Yu,
Zegbe N’Namch, LeReina Wheeler, Christopher Cynar, Khalil Mogassabi,
Christopher Dorle, Erma Leaphart, Kari Jordan, Khalil Ligon, Guy Williams
Chuck Rivers, the director with Governmental Affairs is introduced by Scott Benson. Speaks of the history of the building, welcomes everyone and invites everyone for tours.
Scott Benson asks for short introductions.
First presentation Todd Scott Detroit Greenways Coalition; speaks of southeast Michigan history of greenways. Local match funding generally wasn’t available for grants so Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan launched Greenways Initiative. They created the Coalition with other Detroit non-profits and the city as well as philanthropy.
Now a non-profit whose vision “is a strong, healthy, vibrant City of Detroit and region where a seamless network of greenways, green spaces, blueways and complete streets is an integral part of people’s active lifestyle including day-to-day transportation and recreation.”
.
Detroit non-motorized Transportation Plan was looked at and approved in 2008, so bike lanes are being added each year.
Coalition created network vision to connect trails and bike lanes. Scott showed the progress from the Riverwalk and Belle Isle to the progress made so far, including Underground Railroad bike route.
By end of 2014 and spring 2015, Dequindre Cut extension will be completed with bike lanes Hamtramck and MIdtown. East Jefferson getting bike lanes at City’s east border.
Major M1 Rail safety issues on Woodward led to MDOT providing $1 million dollars to utilize Cass Ave. instead. Will include bike parking, repair stations, and bike counters in the ground that will give number total annually.
Public Bike Sharing planned and grant acceptance will be known this week for roll out of March next year. At least 35 stations to begin with.
Bike access to Canada presented, looking at new bridge, ferry service.
Inner Circle Greenway 26 mile loop, funding for railroad property being utilized. Looking to connect the figure 8 to Windsor; $15 million TIGER grant application was created but changed to $1 million TIGER planning grant due to M1 Rail.
The Green Lane National project chooses 6 cities every other year for cycle tracks — protected bike lanes. Detroit applied, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis were chosen this year, hoping Detroit is chosen in the future.
“It’s about the people we’re building this for. No other city has the biking culture that Detroit has.” Speaks of the diversity and connection of the people involved, as well as Slow Role.
Question on business of biking rentals on either side of the tunnel or bridge.
Katherine Underwood; Urban Livestock update.
People allowed to have gardens for primary use, now wanting livestock to be within law.
City law states no code for it; going about it in a deliberate way to change this.
Even though people want livestock, others do not want or embrace it; the response is that their voices and concerns will be listened to.
Coming up with community education format. Working on what this will look like. Posters taken to community meetings so that the consideration of livestock is being brought up and asking what their thoughts and concerns are as well as their ideas of education and engagement.
Need to figure out what animals and numbers should be allowed.
Hens and rabbits, goats, many honey bees are being kept.
Numbers allowed may differ in different neighborhoods.
Push back comes from more traditional areas and neighborhoods.
Ways being considered; permission from neighbors, lot of vacancy and activity means that you can do things differently; more agricultural activity and animals. Complications in process can be an opportunity for Detroit to lead in this arena; how many animals, set backs, manure management, rodent prevention, protection of health and welfare of animals is important. Animal Control is working within this area.
MSU and MI dept of agricultural development are concerned and involved in making sure things go well. Concern about goats and the exposure of toxins and bio-accumulation is discussed.
Exciting is that people now have a source of food. Eggs, milk, honey products. Source of income; soap making, research opportunities, opportunity for Detroit to be leaders in urban livestock.
Detroit listed as number one (check report name).
Detroit has oldest 4H in country. MSU thinks this is good for creating interest in veterinary and agricultural education.
Concept of Urban Livestock Guild discussed.
This may be a way to challenge people to be responsible for each other and the concept of Urban Livestock. Creates support, education, and cooperation with the regulatory agencies.
City doesn’t go out of their way to find people taking care of livestock; they just look at the problems and complaints, as most people utilize them for personal use.
Q&A
Wayne county farm Bureau has nothing to do with the situation yet.
Fish farms are currently legal.
Distinction between residential and commercial zoning step-up will be considered in the ordinances, possibly determined by square footage.
Detroit Future Cities open spaces looks at natural resources risk with Urban Livestock. Proper balance within this could actually improve this. What do you think are the positives? It is being looked at within the committee and review processes will be in place. Informal relationship with Universities will help figure this out. No one is looking at large scale agriculture that will impact things negatively in the community.
With density of neighborhoods in the future, what do you see?
Detroit Future Cities looking at what makes sense for appropriately zoned areas. The city is not anticipating over a 20 year period being repopulated; increments will be considered as permanent green space.
Contamination in urban soils and how that is addressed is discussed. MSU taking the lead in research. City doesn’t have the capabilities to do these things, asking people to consider this testing for themselves.
Water Sub-committee Report
Chris Cynar, Kathleen and Irma asked to weigh in.
Everything is work in progress
Draft of MLU shared with Mr. Benson’s office; purpose is to help city dept. develop a consistent way to manage water.
Law dept. from Wayne state helping on zoning ordinances for storm water and green infrastructure strategies and policies.
Maximizing open space and parking issues being researched.
The water sub-committee has policy and evacuation departments. Community map being worked on to highlight the work being done within the city. Rough draft for educational guidance on how to mange rain water and utilizing water shed management. Detroit doesn’t have the same ordinances as the outer areas.
Green Task Force information on Storm water management program is on Mr. Benson’s government site.
July or September …… being put on the agenda
Mr. Benson states:
Storm water management being highlighted as a main issue in Detroit for Task force right now. Fees and implementation of design for drainage are part of the conversation started now and Task Force will be brought in later once this is in place.
Permits and assessment and how they are taxed are discussed.
Does the city have the power to say to the assessment department, “No taxes will be given to the green infrastructure upgrades?” is discussed.
Plumbing code in ’09 states you must have an improved way to dispose of storm water. Challenging and discussing with the state that approval should be include a green infrastructure upgrade.
LEED process could be circumvented by
Sandra Yu speaks on Detroit Environmental Agenda
Detroit Climate action coalition stake holder review of climate conversation within the city.
Green jobs training starting in september; looking for students and employer partners, will send out information.
Environmental agenda history is discussed.
How to get the champions of the city and city council to discuss the issues that are important from both sides.
Listed all organizations that got together in ’09 to create voter guides, took candidates on tours of toxic areas, reported on environmental safety and wrote recommendations on areas of concern. Their group looked at how to make all of these things working together, then had city council meeting to discuss what was in the Detroit Environmental Agenda and encourage support.
They requested more businesses and the general public to give input on this as well.
Looking for support on key next steps from the Task Force.
Follow up meeting with Councilman Benson who gave suggestions on how to move this forward and gain support from the city council.
Strom water sub-commit chair speaks of the research sustainability element of her teams research (listen at 75:00).
Benson: speaks of the expansion of the Task Force, “Are we ready to have additional sub-committees to address the issues that are needed?”
Master planning question; what is the outlook; Benson will check PNDD with them for update
Underwood: 9 different areas of the city being looked at in an incremental way; Mayer looking at this at the end of July
Specific time tables not determined; challenges of this discussed. (Consultant to the city speaking). Intension is to get to the specific issues fo the differnet neighborhoods and detrmine the best way to move forward for the city at large.
52 neighborhoods being addressed.
Benson states that email is the best way to get personal questions to be addressed.
Sub-committees needed; only have one right now
Green Infrastructure Subcommittee considered. Detroit Future City could be utilized as a resource for this. Gentleman states he’s willing to take on sub-committee chair for this.
Sandra would like to work on the master plan re-vsion and recommendation with others.
Climate adaptation and planning for climate change as a sub-committee is discussed.
Climate environment work group DAC detroit action colaborative mentioned as working within the ideas of one of the sub-committees.
Guy Williams has process suggestion. “seems like the beneficial impact is preparing material for City Council. Can we look at sequencing instead of the breadth of what we are doing. There is a time coming when actual items can be vetted. Brings the questions of what we can do within a more structured master plan.
Discussion of large scale projects and their sustainability impact
Is there a consensus of what sustainability means?
Let’s identify what policies are still being determined by the new council and how we can impact those processes.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Group coming to Detroit doing the Rust Best Tour from Seattle Washington. Series of events for them will be sent out; please come and engage with this group.
Detroit Climate Conversation invitation going on tonight.
City plan within the city plan based on the transportation that moves within the city area. Meeting with developers of the fair grounds group.
Sierra Club having 2nd Rain barrels on the Riverfront event on July 26th 10:00. mirainbarrel.com
Traffic ordinances defined now as states ordinances instead of the old city ordinances. Registration is voluntary. Forming youth bike task force to update the laws. Specific laws and fees are discussed.
Events and activities can be emailed to Councilman Benson to be sent out from the office.
Meeting closed at 4:50 p.m.
