Loading...
ECDC mtg notes 11-19-2020 -APPROVEDCITY of BEVERLY ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL Beverly, Massachusetts 01915 Phone (978) 921 -6000 Fax (978) 921 -6187 Mayor Michael P. Cahill Members Neiland Douglas William Howard Richard Marino Michael O'Brien Richard Vincent City Council President Paul Guanci Darlene Wynne Michael Collins Denise Deschamps M E n NG NOTES FROM NOVBVI BBR 19, 2020 AOCEPTED BY ECDC ON 12 -10 -2020 Members participating: City Council President Paul Guanci; Neiland Douglas; William Howard; Rchard Marino; Michael O'Brien; Rchard Vincent; Darlene Wynne; Michael Collins; Denise Deschamps. Other participants: Emily Hutchings, Assistant Director, Beverly Planning and Development Department; Erina Keefe, Director of Sustainability, City of Beverly. Council President Guand, as ECDCChair, reads aloud a statement relative to changes in the Open Meeting Law that provide opportunity for remote meetings given the limit in the number of people that may gather in one place asconsequence of the MMD-19 pandemic. The meeting is being recorded. Guand called the roll. With a quorum established the meeting was called to order. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF SE1 BBR 10, 2020 M DTI NG MINUTES The first agenda item was the review and approval of ECDCmeeting minutes from their meeting that took place on October 08, 2020. Guand asked if any oft he members would like to suggest edits to the draft minutes. Hearing no suggestions for edits Guand asked for a motion to accept. V ncent offered motion to approve and William Howard seconded the motion. The meeting minuteswere accepted. Erina Keefe introduced herself and provided a brief overview of her professional experience including her work as an environmental planner and consultant working for a non - profit. Keefe is impressed with how much city has accomplished and its strong commitment from the Mayor, and leadership amongst staff, such as Mike Collins, instituting measures resulting in significant energy reductions in schools and publicbuilding. Keefe's responsibilities will include project management and promotion of sustainability Page 1 of 4 principles. Currently she is working on new website which she hopes to have completed by the end of the year and she is also working on climate action plan with Emily Hutchings. Emily Hutchings introduced herself and discussed Climate Action Ran, which the Clty is developing jointly with the City of Salem. Funds supporting the project from the M unidpal Vulnerability Grant received in January 2020. The project kicked off in July of thisyear. The consulting team of KlAwas hired to help develop the plan. The process began with an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions inventory, assessingall municipal emissions separately from the community -at- large. Theinventories are almost complete and ready to be shared with the public. They are working on a base -line assessment and goal setting, eventually developing a blueprint for actions, concluding with afinal plan. Community engagement will be sought throughout the planning process. Over 1,000 (one thousand) people have completed an on -line survey. There isa Climate Action Advisory Committee and Council president Guanci isa member oft he Committee. The Advisory Committee has met once and will meet again in December. Next piece isto collect test imonials about actual individual effortsthat have had a positive impact such as erecting solar panels, composting, planting trees. The Clty will also be asking Boards and Commissions to share info /submit testimonials. The project also has website and social media presence called ResilientTogether.or Hutchings will keep ECDC members in the loop and certainly Guand may provide updates as well. Douglas inquires, given the number of ways in which dimate change will impact Beverly, how will the plan address the impacts of elevated sea levels. He continued that Cummings Center isa fundamental component of the City's economic ecosystem and the extent to which tidal could damage infrastructure could result could be economically crippling. There has already been damage. How would you deal with thistype of issue? Hutchings explained that part of the plan will identify actionsthat could be taken by the community to protect assets including business assets. Ehe anticipates that this effort will look at Cummings property specifically to determine what can be done. Howard mentioned that a few months ago Mike Collins provided the ECDCwith an update on the City's effort to mitigate flooding at Cummings Center and noted the lessthan positive input from the Elate. Neiland Douglas stated that he was discouraged by Collins' report. Douglas looks upon this issue asa crudal concern and one that will take years of planning to address. In addition, there isthe need to finance the mitigating measures. Hutchings stated that this isjust the type of thing that should be part of the conversation. Part of the process includes trying to get buy -in from different members of the community. Thereare business leaders on the Advisory Committee including an engineer from Cummings. For every action, even if is small such as solar on rooves they want to understand the cost, time line, who leads it, who supports it. Keefe stated that the impacts of dimate change do feel imminent and so there needs to be a sense urgency resulting in implementation of early measures. We know storms are becoming more intense/ frequent and sea levelswill rise. We need climate adaptation aswell asa reduction in greenhouse gases. We need interventions. Maybe move facilities to top floors. Douglas also expressed concern regarding Beverly's infrastructure. It isa matter of great concern from the perspective of economic development. How power and communication gets provided for is of urgent concern. Drainage and waste removal systems particularly hazardous waste, i.e. Varian, those Page 2 of 4 matters loom important. Need to look at development areas, specifically, and how they will be impacted. Hutching's noted that there are seven distinct componentsof the plan including (1) buildings and Development; (2) natural Fasources; (3) Public Health and Safety; (4) SDlid Waste; (5) Mobility; (6) Energy; (7) Infrastructure. SD Infrastructure is a critical piece. Eric Barber isa member of the corestaff team and will be providing his expertise. In Salem, bnna Ide, Director of Capital Improvements & Sustainable Operations is also a member of the core team. The Consultant team is also very well versed in infrastructure. SBveral Advisory Committee members recognize its importance. It will be a major piece of the plan. Keefe mentioned solar energy and decreasing costsof installation over the last decade. The return or investment lessthan fiveyears. Aslarger systems are constructed potential for savings significant. Douglasasks how the analysiswill proceed in order to gain an understanding of the magnitude od the issues involved and how to addressthem, in addition to the overarching concernsof education and learning and how to incorporate these topics into a curriculum, both academic and technical. This aspect not really addressed in the master plan. It does impact the ability address objectives. Hutchings responded that there are three education professionals on the Advisory Committee. The process of educating the community and students has begun. The consulting team is in the process of developing educational materials. Mme have already developed. They have been working with the Library to get info out about the survey. They created bookmark for the Library to distribute. They have also initiated discussions with different people from the school re how to connect with kids and families. They are working with the middle school librarian. Education will be ongoing. The planning process condudes in June of next year but education will continue. Hutchings will look to the ECDCto pursue some of these actions. Perhaps give the 13 DCsome homework Keefe asked the ECDC members why they singled out sustainability as a priority. Ehe sees this planning process as an opportunity to educate the community, talking about things that might not normally come up in conversation. Beverly teachers seem to have appetite for incorporating this topic into their curriculum. Keefe shares that she is always available to hear about ideas. Douglas stated that the ECDC identified climate change as an issue but they did not identify specific initiatives. The ECDC knew it was going to impact all aspects of our lives, including economic and community development. Now 2 years after the 13 DCdeveloped its strategy they would like to update it and introduce new initiatives. It is necessary to advance the understanding of issues and how to address them. Guand invites Darlene Wynne to share updates on various topics. Master Ran -the final draft of master plan was released on Friday. The Planning Board will take action on December 15. The Qty Council will be presented with the master plan and asked to endorse it. Wynne will set up office hours so people can jump into a Google meeting to ask questions. The Qty is still trying to identify the best outreach methods during this difficult period. Wynne noted that the topic of education did not address education, intentionally. The master plan is intended as high level view of issues. Certainly, education is a critical piece of what makes Beverly attractive asa community in which to live but the master plan would not address educational programming or a curriculum. The master planning processwaseducational in itsown right such as using it as mechanism to educate people about climate action. Page 3 of 4 Douglas notes that education was identified as primary objective in the ECDCstrategy. Skill development and educational programming will be reflective of skills needed in global economy. He is also Concerned about the concept of citizenship and how that is conveyed. William Howard mentioned that a company called Change is 9mple, has a presence in several elementary schools and its staff teach about sustainability. Douglas mentioned that asa member of the Fbtary Club he sitson their Scholarship Committee. All of the applicants expressed concern about climate change and many plan to pursue careers in related fields. Microenterprise Grant -Wynne explained that there have been two funding rounds, reminding ECDC members that the funds were targeted to small busi nesses with 5 or fewer employees. Therewere a number of strings attached including the requirement of having to have been open since January of 2019. The first round yielded 7 -9 successful applicants with each receiving $10,000/ maximum. The finds should be paid out in December. It has been along process. Fbund 2 applications are being reviewed. There is$130,000.00 in remaining funds. There will likely be a Fbund 3 which will be a rolling application. Rease send people to Wynne or Deschamps who might qualify. If the funds awarded to Beverly are not spent they will need to be returned. Another small business grant program -The Sate created a new grant program to help small businesses but the application deadline has already passed. We don't know which Beverly businesses applied for thisgrant. Bigibility requirements little looser for this program. Outdoor Dining- It iswinding down. The City isasking businesseswhich businesseswant to continue with outdoor dining thru the winter. It doesn't seem like a lot of businesses will request barriers longer. The Ordinance now saysthey can operate outside until December 31. Another potential grant opportunity - The City is considering possible application to the Shared Sreets program. There is a desire to get any businesses that closed for the winter open as soon as possible next year. As part of a revised application (previously applied), the City would package it with pedestrian access improvements, particularly at the Beverly Depot. Rchard Vincent asks if there has been any discussion of liquor license fees. Guanci confirms fees have been waved Emergency COVID -19 Business Support Task Force -Wynne mentioned that the Task Force has not met in awhile. The City has been responding to any issues as t hey arise. As more residents are remaining at home they are using on street parking and this hasthrown the downtown parking strategy out of whack. The City has been trying to negotiate with homeowners because they want to stick with strategy. Massworks grant award -Wynne announced that the City has received MassWorks grant funding for improvements tot he SDhier /Tozer Fbad intersection which will support /enhance the future Anchor Fbint development. The residents of Anchor Fbint will be families. Vincent made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which was seconded by Michael O'Brien. The meeting adjourned. Page 4 of 4