Wetlands Review Board (Sunset Date 5/31/2023)

FINAL MINUTES WETLANDS REVIEW BOARD January 19, 2017, 5:15 p.m. City Hall Room 224 Meeting Summary I. Roll Call Board Members Present: Brenda Wright, Irene Gallion, Amy Sumner, Hal Geiger, Dan Miller Board Members Absent: Lisa Hoferkamp, Percy Frisby, Andrew Campbell, Nina Horne A quorum was present. Staff Members Present: Teri Camery, Senior Planner; Jill Maclean, Senior Planner Public Present: none Meeting called to order at 5:20 p.m. II. Minutes approved with one correction for the October 20, 2016 Regular Meeting III. Agenda approved IV. Public Participation on Non-Agenda Items. None. V. Board Comments. None. VI. Agenda Items 1) Lemon Creek Area Plan Staff presentation Ms. Camery provided a brief overview of the Lemon Creek Area Planning effort and explained that the Board will be reviewing the natural resources chapter at a later date. CDD is not requesting any board comments or motions at this meeting; this meeting is to provide the board with a general background on the effort. She said that the natural resources chapter provides a broad summary of major issues and the wetlands and streams of the area, along WRB Minutes – Regular Meeting January 19, 2017 Page 1 of 3 with potential goals and objectives; the chapter is not intended to serve as a watershed analysis. Ms. Maclean explained the Lemon Creek planning process, which began last February-March. The process began with establishing a steering committee comprised of residents and property owners in the area. Ms. Maclean listed the chapters of the plan, the progression of meetings that have happened so far on those meetings, and the timeline for meetings on the remaining chapters. Ms. Maclean showed the physical boundaries of the plan, which ends at Fred Meyer, includes upper Lemon Creek Valley (Hidden Valley), and stops just before the Pioneer Home. She reviewed the zoning districts in the area, and described the focus group meetings, in which participants identified the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities of the Lemon Creek area. She briefly reviewed the top items in each of these categories. Ms. Maclean concluded by noting the upcoming public workshop on February 4. Ms. Gallion asked about whether landfill discharge has been addressed in the plan. Ms. Maclean said that it has been talked about extensively, and addressing wetland pollution could be addressed as a goal in either the land use chapter or natural resources chapter. Ms. Wright asked about ownership of the large wetland area behind the old Wal-Mart. Ms. Camery said it was owned by S & S Development, and that large proposals had been made in the past to fill the whole area, which is intertidal wetland. However those proposals were denied by the Corps of Engineers. VII. Updates Juneau Wetlands Management Plan Ms. Camery explained that the JWMP has been on hold due to changes in the Corps of Engineers, other departmental priorities at CDD, and also because CDD is waiting for the final report from the WESPAK technical review. She provided the background in the WESPAK technical review process and explained how useful this report will be to the final JWMP. Dr. Geiger said the report was nearly completed, and included recommendations on summarizing the scores. Ms. Camery said this information will be especially helpful to CDD and the Board when it's time to rank wetlands into higher and lower values. Streamside Setback Ordinance Ms. Camery said that CDD was actively working on revising the streamside setback ordinance. She said that CDD intends to keep the basic elements of the 25-foot no disturbance zone and 50-foot no-development zone, however the code will have a departmental approval process for restoration projects and other developments with minimal impacts, rather than requiring a variance for all developments with those zones as in the past. She said the goal is to set minimum standards in code, rather than determining mitigation on a case by case basis, to improve consistency and reduce the need for variances. WRB Minutes – Regular Meeting January 19, 2017 Page 2 of 3 Ms. Camery said that CDD was establishing a technical working group with agency representatives for the detailed work on the revision. The working group would likely meet two or three times, and then the revision would come back to the Wetlands Review Board for review. She said the revision is a very high priority and the goal is to bring it to the Planning Commission by May, however review by the CBJ Law Department may take some time. She noted that she is also revising the eagle nest setback ordinance. She explained that the board has never reviewed eagle nest issues because the Board's founding language refers to wetlands and streams. VIII. Planning Commission Liaison Update The board welcomed back Dan Miller. IX. Next meeting Regular Meeting. Thursday February 16, 5:15 pm, City Hall room 224. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:05 p.m. WRB Minutes – Regular Meeting January 19, 2017 Page 3 of 3