Commission on the Environment

 Meeting Minutes
May 9, 2006

1.	Welcome, News and Agenda Review
	The meeting was called to order at 7:35pm in the Blue Crab Room at Rockville City Hall.  Because there is not a quorum no official business will be conducted at this meeting.  Also note that since last month’s “meeting” was the Stormwater Management Summit, there are no meeting minutes for approval.
2.	Sustainability Issue Paper Review
	SY had commented that the initial sustainability paper could be stronger – put numbers and dollars to it in a measurably way.  FK mentioned that selecting certain environmental metrics for the list generated by the Commission could be used.  JL mentioned that we will also need to determine what the baseline is for these metrics to be able to say we want no degradation from this point.  FK mentioned that determining what Rockville’s “major issue(s)” are environmentally can help frame this approach. NW to send out original sustainability paper, comments, and environmental metrics for discussion
3.	Stormwater Management Summit Evaluation
	FK collected a total of 11 responses to the Stormwater Summit evaluation form.  The results are summarized below.
	Stormwater Management Summit Evaluation Yes No Maybe Was the forum informative? 11     Was the presentation understandable? 11     Presented in sufficient detail? 11     Relevant to Rockville? 9     Panel more relevant than presentation? 7 4   Would you attend a similar forum in the future? 7 1 3
	In addition, the following topics were suggested as areas of interest for the future: 1. Improved wildlife habitat in Rockville 2. Native plantings / landscaping, Low Impact Development (LID) techniques 3. Ways to reduce energy use and cost – improving energy efficiency 4. Sanitary services 5. Practical seminar on some of the above – e.g., small green roofs or solar installation for energy efficiency Additional comments included: 1. Forum needs to be better advertised 2. Monthly column in Rockville Reports on different topics; quarterly summit on specific topic 3. Consider getting more of this information to the schools 4. More stormwater management is needed in parts of Rockville 5. Driveways with pervious surfaces not currently allowed in Rockville – this needs to be changed 6. Wildlife crossings needed where the parks cross the roads JL mentioned that in response to desire for more information being presented to the community, EC could develop a stormwater management “traveling roadshow” appropriate for schools, civic associations, etc.  Could also put this as a program on The Rockville Channel.
4.	Working Group Updates & Issues
	SY mentioned that the Watersheds & SWM group has been looking at the Cabin John watershed, and could tell that many streams have been either straightened or piped.  This would be a priority watershed for improvement.  NW mentioned that Cabin John is due for a new watershed study beginning in FY07 – this working group will want to stay directly involved in that process.
5.	Staff Update / Other Issues
	NW mentioned that the zoning ordinance website has been updated to include all white papers at http://www.rockvillemd.gov/zoning/whitepapers.htm  There will be a presentation to the Mayor & Council of the next version of the zoning ordinance outline on June 19th. Rec & Parks has been working on pulling together an informative brochure on coyotes for insertion into an upcoming Rockville Reports – more information on that to follow. There will be a charette at the COMSAT facility June 2nd – 4th; this facility was one of the initial designs of Cesar Pelli, who himself will be attending a portion of this process and giving a speech.  NW has already emailed everyone more information on this event.
6.	Wrap-Up and Adjourn
	Meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm.