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McKinney to reorganize environmental services, Sustainability Plan
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
McKinney staff members assure residents the city is not moving away from, but rather more closely dissecting, the Sustainability Plan drafted in recent months.
Responding to recent city council discussions about the coming fiscal year's budget, citizens voiced their concern that the 19-chapter, 329-initiative plan was moving to the bottom of the city's priority list. That's not the case, says Deputy City Manager Joe Williams.
"I've assembled a team with me... (and) all the directors of the major components of the city, because each one of these initiatives touches on somebody in the city," said Williams, who headed the city's sustainability talks over the last several months. "They're going to be our resident go-to expert to do the analysis on each one of these initiatives."
One step in that direction is doing away with the Office of Environmental Stewardship (OES), and reorganizing its functions within Public Works and Environmental Services - as proposed in the FY 2013 budget.
Jorge Castillo, environmental grants coordinator and one of three OES staff members, was hired through part of the $1 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant the city received in 2010, the same grant that had the city draft a sustainability plan. Those funds have been exhausted, hence Castillo's position is no longer needed.
Martha Fipps, environmental education coordinator and another OES member, will continue her educational outreach, on water conservation, recycling and other environmental issues, under Environmental Services. The city will not retain OES Manager Julie Smith, but instead will consolidate and transfer her duties to Eric Hopes, current environmental and fleet services manager.
Community education and staff-to-council advice through Environmental Services will continue, but the city will lessen its push for large-scale, environment-friendly projects, Gray said.
"The area that I think gets a bit outside of the bounds where I think we need to be, at this moment in time at least, is the area that kind of focuses on going out and doing things with, in most cases, the federal grants that are associated sometimes with large capital projects," he told the council Aug. 21. "Those are important initiatives, and ones we'll still be looking at, but we'll be taking a focus off of those things as part of the proposed budget."
When prompted by At-large Councilman David Brooks to provide examples of initiatives the city won't continue to pursue, Gray alluded to the electric-vehicle charging stations in the city, saying "those kinds of opportunities may not be the best to take."
Similar initiatives, ones that should not or cannot be pursued right now, are included in the Sustainability Plan, Williams said. The plan, paid for mostly by the DOE grant, was drafted by consultants with help from more than 400 citizens who participated in three public-input meetings last year.
At one meeting, attendees discussed specific topics such as green building, parks, urban canopy and renewable energy, while the city staff recorded their suggestions. Protection of open space, more walkable neighborhoods and alternative forms of transportation were high on most residents' lists.
Williams last week assigned each of the 329 initiatives to specific city directors and employees, who in the next few weeks will outline the initiatives' pros and cons, costs and probability. Williams will then present their assessments and related recommendations to the council.
"A lot of this stuff is already covered in the parks master plan and the comprehensive zoning plan," said Williams, who mentioned LED lighting in city facilities as a Sustainability Plan initiative already in place. "Some of it is already covered...in much more depth and is much more analysis-driven, instead of just a thought from a group of citizens or a consultant."
City spokesperson Anna Clark said it is important residents realize the city is not, in any way, dismissing the plan, but going through it piece-by-piece to separate what's already happening, and what should or can come to fruition.
An overreaching idea, Williams said, is when the plan calls for home builders to include home fuel cells in their blueprints to provide 100 percent of energy needs for homeowners' homes and vehicles.
"If we had a crystal ball and we could look 30 years into the future and knew that there would be home fuel cells, OK," he said. "But I don't know if that technology will ever exist, so why would we require a home builder now to...provide a space for a fuel cell that's not even being created?"
Decades from now, though, is exactly where District 1 Councilman Don Day said the city's focus should be. In response to citizens opposed to the plan, he said, "It's not about the United Nations agenda, it's not about global warming, it's not about protecting the spotted owl; it's about protecting the future for our children."
He asked how the city could increase its tax base to better fund its schools, and how it could assuage continued transportation issues and the shortage of 18,000 jobs. Day brought up Detroit, Mich., as a glaring example of a city that didn't spotlight sustainability.
"If you don't like our plan, tell us what's wrong with it," he said at the work session. "It's a local plan for our local folks."
Williams emphasized last week that the plan is "a draft document of some ideas put together by some consultants and citizens that we may or may not implement" - thus the need to analyze each suggestion case-by-case.
District 2 Councilmember Geralyn Kever said that once an analysis is complete, the council should show the revised plan to the public - an action Gray agreed would show what the city plans to do with each initiative.
As long as there's still a plan, there shouldn't be a problem.
"We don't want to send a mixed message to the community that we're no longer committed to sustainability, that the handful of folks who expressed opposition did not deter our commitment to a sustainable city," he said. "I just want us to be careful we don't lose our focus on the sustainable future of McKinney."
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