Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

okay thank you everyone for coming today to today's County Planning Koga County Planning Commission my name is Michael deor and this is the August 8th 2024 meeting um can I uh call the role please mayor Burke here Joe nany here mayor Dy Jones director Deber here mayor Gallow director Juan mayor CTS here mayor orcut council person Simon mayor Weiss here wheo here you have a quorum okay thank you thank you I'm sorry I uh didn't have an opportunity to get dress for today's meeting properly I um we've been without power so uh and I I am sure that our executive director who lives just down the street from me she's had issues also so but uh thank want go ahead sorry Mike if I could director deor if I could just say I I'm sorry I'm not there I'm not far I'm upstairs but um I am recovering from covid so I thought I would keep you from any remnants I might have and do this this way so hopefully all your family friends and homes are in good shape obviously we have a lot of Mayors who have their hands full um who are not here with us today and I appreciate you guys taking the time to be here we do have some business that needed your attention this month and so um I am here and I appreciate you guys being here so with that thank you thanks Mary appreciate that um all right there any comments from the public none uh approval of the minutes from the June 13 2024 meeting I'm going to make a motion to approve those minutes second from mayor Willow any comments seeing all those in favor say I

I those opposed that motion carries we will go right to the resolutions Mary thank you um our first order of business is resolution 248 8-a Eric Engel our new one of our new principal planners is here to present this matter for you hi Eric good evening Mr or good afternoon Mr chair good afternoon commission members used to the evening meetings um coming from here city of Pon here so uh this first order of business is resolution number 2400 or I'm sorry 0808 a um this is a resolution authorizing the County Planning Commission to uh enter into an agreement with the city of South uid for some planning services and this is related to uh Tod uh zoning um essentially the County Planning we recently completed a TOD overlay zoning guide and to business or best pra practices manual as you all recall uh that concluded with a wonderful uh Workshop completed by staff um and so based on that work the city of of South uid reached out to us um to enhance uh basically modify some several uh districts the Mayfield green district and the uh Cedar Center District Two commercial districts that they feel need enhanced and um from a walkability and access to Transit uh uh perspective um as well as just overall design uh uh guidelines um and so ultimately their goal is to reclassify all those under one Tod zoning ordinance um so this is a zoning map for reference here so the mg District the Mayfield green district is it kind of acts like they're uh downtown core essentially um so that's in the green there um and the purple as well highlighted is the Cedar uh Cedar Center Zone that they have um both of these are

bisected by Major Transit uh lines and so again just um following their lead with wanting to make this more Transit friendly um we're we're happy to oblige that so uh it's just some tasks that we're going that we're going to be going through with with these guys um utilize uh recently completed Tod study materials as mentioned to draft recommended zoning changes um this really is kind of like our first test pilot uh code um related to the work that we've done previously we're also going to partner with the city's project and legal teams um um obviously make sure all of those are in line with orc um as well as other laws that may come into play evaluate recommended zoning changes by testing regulations against those existing Lots in in those districts in the mg and CC districts uh and then coordinate uh the review process with the city's uh Planning Commission as well as their ARB Council and and the public in general so working with uh planning staff there uh to get the word out there on this um in order to really kind of just get feedback right want it to be the best that it can be with regards to what the folks want over in South uid um and so ultimately uh the request for the proposal um for those planning services will cost $15,000 100% of that will be paid um for by the city uh phases one and two will be charged this year with phases three and four being charged at the conclusion of the project in 2025 uh which is expected to be uh late January so January 28th we we're expecting that to be concluded um so that concludes my comments uh take any questions or comments if you if you all have any no problem seeing none uh Wes just uh trying to get a sense on how to vote on this do we need to wait for potential coup concerns notf come

if uh Sunny Simon should be walking in the door within the next three minutes so if we held the vote held off until she got here I think that including any deliberation yeah and I think I'm sorry Wes you're you were breaking up a little bit but I think what we said was we've got a quorum for um board action and a an exstension is an action by a board member so if it's not a yay or nay but I guess if it's we needs approval majority then close I think my belie I haven't seen this come up before so so I'm trying my best to these Waters um but if mayor Willow recuses it's as if she's not deliberating voting or even here for this particular item so in which case that would leave us with five exension she can't abstain right I I think she would need to fully recuse yeah because I don't believe that she could even participate in the deliberations how about we just table the item for now there's some other items well actually we have another member here another member okay yeah W welcome perfect timing so uh Eric if it's all right maybe just do a a quick summary AB presentation yeah absolutely you want me to leave I seen uh uh for director Wong we're discussing resolution 24808 okay yes so this is a resolution um to authorize the County Planning Commission to go into uh an agreement with the city of South ID for a to Zone update um for their codes essentially they're looking

at two districts that they want to combine into one Transit oriented development code um it's basically just their kind of downt downtown core their mg District as well as an outer kind of commercial District right um on the the edge of University Heights there um the CC District their Cedar Center districts um they're looking at just overall enhancements accessibility to to Transit stops as well as walkability um and overall design guideline enhancements for for those districts so okay all right any further questions or comments see none all those in favor oh I'm sorry move approval second I'm sorry okay that's been moved and seconded any other further questions or comments all right seeing none all those in favor say I I I those opposed that motion thank you very much thank you guys we look forward to working with them okay just a big thank thank you to Eric because he jumped right into this one um pretty much on his first day so thank you Eric okay we'll move on to the next item information single family zoning results update Mary yes so I'm going to let Patrick huitt take this one as you guys know we've been working for several years at this point on single family zoning and implementing changes in our first suburbs community and so we've got some updates for you that we'd like to share um so that we can um tout our successes uh here in Koga County Patrick thank you Mary thank you members of the board uh you have in front of you this progress on infill document uh which is our opportunity to come back we don't always update folks on all of the improvements that have been made after the fact so we wanted to take an opportunity today to give an update on

the single family zoning analysis that uh we completed uh with and on behalf of the first suburbs Consortium well I'm going to go through through some slides here in a second I'm going to invite Jennifer kosma the first suburbs director uh to give some background and overview to this project thank you Patrick thank you for the opportunity to speak to today many of you I know as members of the organization or just um in years of us working together as a region my name is Jennifer kusma I'm the executive director of the first suburbs Consortium and we have a number of different um uh areas of focus that we work on certainly advocacy work is very important for us but other ways we work together is through Best Practices sharing and Regional program development and through some of the monthly committee meetings that occur our houses committee had run into the same conversation for a few months about wow we've got all these great lots that we can go redevelop on but boy it's really becoming a problem to get these things through our processes uh we reached out to our colleagues at County Planning Commission with a couple of the cities um initially and at the end of the call I kind of expanded the proposal to potentially include all 19 member communities at which time Patrick um partially smiled and partially gasped I think at the same time um it's been a wonderful collaborative effort for suburb cities in many cases are very similar and also very different um the housing stock in Garfield Heights is quite different from the housing stock in Shaker Heights but the needs of those communities were the same for many cities there is not a defined planning department or even person for most communities Planning and Zoning updates are made I would say on an as need needed basis as things are coming at the city instead of a um proactive way to encourage development so this was a real effort for all of our

communities to take a look at what we're doing to make our processes easier to bring infill to our cities uh We've really um benefited from this effort we've had a number of communities make some steps already we have others that I know are talking about it um one of the things that has timed up so well with this has been the state's interest and housing in Ohio and it's been great to be on the Forefront of that discussion and talk about how we've been working on making those code enhancements on behalf of our communities um I cannot thank this board and this staff enough for their help in this work um I have no doubt that we overstepped our scope at time to time but the Planning Commission staff and Leadership was dedicated to providing a product that made um this the the best possible finished item that we could um we have presented this at numerous APA conferences both local Statewide um just last week we participated in the local APA advocacy day to talk about housing needs across Ohio and specifically here in kayaga County so it's really been a launching pad to not only make improvements at the cities but to be able to speak with not only a regional but now a perspective that we can share with the state as well thank you thank you Jennifer can we use this s oh wonderful okay so as Jennifer uh just described uh the single family zoning analysis was really completed in 2023 and it came out with a number of uh deliverables which are listed here one included a development professional survey to really get an understanding of how the development Community understood Planning and Zoning in the first suburbs uh and then the other resources were really for the communities a code update options uh report that outline different ways communities could make changes to address the zoning issues we identified an infill incentive options guide book

so that communities could understand ways of attracting new development a design guidelines guide book because we found that almost no communities that had designed boards actually had guidelines to follow so this guide book outlined what those guidelines could look like uh resources documents that could be handed out to developers community members Etc to talk about infill um in infill development and an online tool to test some of these changes what did we find uh some of you uh may have heard this before more than 5,300 vacant single family zoned Lots in the first suburbs what we found about zoning zoning maps are often out of date some communities uh couldn't even find a zoning map they didn't have a virtual one it was a a printed one in City Hall but really what was important was looking at the zoning how disconnected zoning was from what was on the ground uh huge numbers of non-conforming lots 41% of lots in the first suburbs didn't meet the minimum lot size requirements and even higher percent didn't meet the minimum lot size requirements in that Community 30% of existing homes did not meet the front setback requirements of the code so when we look at the vacant lot that we see here this is in Garfield Heights actually how do we make it possible to build on that without having regulatory barriers to do so so what have we done well there been a number of communities that have already made updates as a result of this uh Warrenville Heights Brooklyn Maple Heights and recently South uclid have all already adopted codes uh to address some of these issues the city of Warrenville Heights simply made all buildable Lots or all Lots buildable regardless of area and width requirements uh Brooklyn made some major changes throughout their single family zoning code Maple Heights reduced the size uh of their lot requirements in the city of South uid we were able to work with uh as part of this Pro process to

create an infill overlay uh District that included both design guidelines and a streamlined review and approval process they're not done though um or the first suburbs aren't done I should say uh oh the first suburbs aren't done but this PowerPoint presentation might be no um there we go uh four other communities have zoning updates underway right now the city of uid we going in front of their Planning Commission on the oh go back one Kevin city of uclid we going in front of their Planning Commission next week for new uh residential codes uh the city of Garfield Heights and the City of Lakewood are both underway in a complete uh zoning code overhaul and we're working with the city of East Cleveland to develop a residential overlay district for the Southwest portion of their Community all of which would further uh the goals of the single family zoning analysis next slide so what does this mean well code changes have ranged from large scale to small scale Warrenville Heights for instance simply added this text Lots separately owned and duly recorded prior to the effective date of this ordinance shall be considered buildable lots that single line just made every lot in their Community buildable without a variance and that's the number changes to zoning across those four communities just the first four that have been adopted mean more than 13,000 Parcels no longer need a variance for lot size or width to be developed that reduces red tape that reduces time it brings developers to the table um so we're really proud of the changes that we and uh individual communities with the first suburbs have been able to do what does this mean well communities are building new Housing South uid is a great example we've been working very closely with them Builders are responding to these changes in South uclid there are 56 new infill housing projects that are being built using the zoning overlay that was recently adopted and there's more than a 100 new homes

that are projected for construction in the next two years and importantly they're ranging in size and in uh price points from $270,000 to $400,000 for those already sold homes this is a an example home in South uclid that is one of those 56 new info and we really wanted to pull out the actual quote that we have in this document so I'm going to read this uh this is from Ashley Holloway the assistant director of Planning and Development generally info construction required multiple variances that prolonged the approval process this was a barrier to developers individual home builders current residents that wanted to improve their homes and insurance companies that ensure existing homes as a built-out community constructing infill housing on vacant lots and remaining undeveloped land sites is the primary type of housing which is constructed in our city infill development is booming since the overlay was adopted so we're seeing new housing built in our communities because of these zoning changes we wanted to bring that back because we often don't come back and say what did we do with all this information this is real changes on the ground that mean new homes new places for people to live thank you so much to Jennifer kosma who has been invaluable as a partner and as a friend throughout this process as well as uh the individual communities the land bank that was critical and understanding the developers perspective and First Federal of Lakewood we're still available to assist so other communities that are interested we are happy to work with you all of those resources are available for free on our website County planning. us/ single family for download and use happy to answer any questions as well thanks Patrick questions I comment we now have 145 new homes next year B were uh started at 270 but the lowest one is

360 going for just shy of 500,000 because of that two developers housing developers who have never built in the in outb like ctland they call and they're like you want to come in maybe 550 750 and I'm just sitting there in my you know in my office like this is unbelievable but because of what we did with County Planning just changed everything and it was this fast us it was that fast because for 270 you have no finished basement no patio no deck nothing's upgraded the house starts at 270 and then by the time you add everything 365 385 42 485 you know it was funny when when the first house came in at like 365 385 and Michael love said to me oh they just built a Shack in South chuckled but the thing that really hit us was these these know some of these have been s here 1960s think about them great pieces but we had all these obstacles and it changed everything everything we can't thank you enough and I know we were so pleased to work on this and I'll just add the house on the front is one that the landbank built it's beautiful we got to tour it it required two variances but the land bank was able

to work through it based on the new infill overlay it wouldn't require any variances and that's what we want to do is build houses like this that match the neighborhood that don't require extra regulatory barriers to build a World War Bungalow Street beats are popping up and there are some that look like this front but it's a ranch so it fits in so when you look at it it's still the Peaks and everything but in working um with the Planning Commission I it it just it was like turning on I'm like that was how easy after we got to that point I it took us a while because your Council and you're playing 16 I don't think it was quite that long but it it was it wasn't a short process because we made a lot of changes yeah we did have a lot but I thank you I I just want to say this doesn't happen in a vacuum and and the mayor um I have to say willo LED this also and the Planning Commission facilitated this with your expertise but it was mayor who was out there um networking and was able to bring in I think our first developer and invited them into the community and and it's um snowball since then so it's the mayor and her team also that I just have to call out as the leadership that is a partner with the Planning Commission so thank you absolutely it's kind of nice when you can say oh and yeah she's walking her dog exactly am I go ahead mayor Burke yeah I I just want to say thank you to the first suburbs because I I think was in this house right here I think this was the one that we went and tour and I got to tell you the houses on both sides when when I was asking they said well this house is 170,000 that one's 170 but

this one was 300 some thousand and I inquired as to who's going to buy this house and they said it's already under contract and I come to find out it was somebody coming from Chicago toand Cleveland and we're we talk all the time about attracting talent to our region the talent's coming they're buying these houses so I was pleased to hear that because we're going through this the zoning um right now in Garfield Heights and I see what's going on in Maple Heights I see the houses they're building in the next community over so I'm very anxious to get our stuff together so that we can experience the same success and I I I thank you all for for that thank you um I won't repeat um everything that's been said before but I agree 110% with all of it I would just say one additional thing that um um you know in a in an environment where politics and um um government workers are questioned about their dedication sometimes and their um their dedication and and and expertise and knowledge this is exactly what we should be doing we should be looking at ways that we can assist our residents make their lives a little easier um and promote growth uh in our community and um um it's a just a shining example of what we as members of this board as well as our our day jobs uh we we should be doing and um so we thank you I know I had opportunity to hear you make multiple presentations um over the course of the last year and a half and uh I learned something new every time uh you presented so thank you again for everyone Jenifer um everyone's efforts really appreciate it and I will add um we are almost ahead of the curve a little bit in kyoki county in terms of zoning reform this is now something that

is uh being talked about nationally uh talked about at the state level is as uh Jennifer kma mentioned that zoning reform to be able to unlock more housing is uh something that is occurring and we can already show some results with the Tod work that we that Eric talked about that will working in partnership with city of South uid continues to open up those opportunities and we're excited to see that too outstanding all right thank you very much thanks Patrick thanks director kman also really appreciate it okay um Mary is there anything else oh I'm sorry the executive director's report Mary go ahead you're muted there sorry uh sorry thanks I won't take too much time because I know Solid Waste has um a big schedule um of topics to discuss today as well but I just think on the single family zoning uh we just had an APA Ohio the Cleveland chapter event last week and this was a report that we were able to hand out to legislators who attended that event um and then as part of the APA National advocacy group I've been asked again to join them in DC in September so this is a document that will most certainly go with me we've shared the results with APA National um we wanted to really just be able to capture the success that's happening here because we hear about all these other counties who are doing such great work on infill housing and Zoning reform and so I think this document I just want to give kudos to Patrick and the team because it really does concisely share the information and direct results of the zoning changes so thank you to everybody on that so uh Kevin you can go to the next one um just very quickly um most of you know um our Allison ball who headed up our hudsy program dwick enra um she unfortunately has left us she had last day on July 31st um and so at this point we have reassigned duties to our existing staff and we will not be

posting that position right now but a big thank you to Moren and Megan and Elaine and Jim and Susan and others who are taking on additional work to make sure that the programs that she was overseeing uh continue on so I told her not to be a stranger she has taken a position with noaca and part of their grants management section so we obviously wish her well and we'll miss her dearly so she's not far away um but the team's done a really great job and mean the timing of getting the hutsy program launched and getting all this um moving ahead as she left um it was a team effort for sure so I just want to thank the staff for for that um a quick update on the East 22nd Street small area plan I know there was a a great meeting um what day was that Tuesday um the chief Epstein at the city of Cleveland called together a whole bunch of different uh Partners who are doing all kinds of different plans in the city of Cleveland and downtown and so Joyce I just want to thank you for your team and your leadership um Patrick and Alex on our team uh there's a lot of discussions of what should happen or what could happen uh on East 22nd Street there between the interbelt curve and uh the post office and so a lot of interest there's a lot of um hands I guess working in this area and so we have been working very closely with Joyce and her team uh to make sure we don't overdue work uh Cleveland State is going to be doing some work for councilman star um the campus district is doing some kind of an update to a Master Plan not starting necessarily in this area but we're really trying to coordinate the efforts so that we can have a coordinated Outreach to the several institutions that are there and the stakeholders so that there's not multiple people um coming at them with different requests for data so we are looking at this um again in partnership with the city of Cleveland to do more of an existing conditions uh strategy and Alex long and our team and Patrick have

been leading that effort and so uh it is going to continue to have a lot of coordination I think this is you know one of the the big roles that we County Planning can play because we do Encompass the county that we can help communities and various stakeholders make sure that this is an area that is um given some attention given the potential future of the Juvenile Justice Center site that the county owns and then you know there's been Talk of the women's stalker Stadium and just everything going on with the inter belt so no shortage of things happening there so we are um happy to be working with the city of Cleveland on trying to coordinate all those efforts and I would let's see if director Wong wanted to say anything about that but thank you Mary um I think you covered it very well but you know a large portion of this is you know coordinating with the key land owners most of whom you could count on two hands because they're all institutional and you know Central is one of the um most segregated and lowest income neighborhoods in Cleveland and so you know wanting some special attention to make sure that um you know this neighborhood is really connected in with what's happening downtown as well as other neighborhoods and especially with East 22nd Street connection over from downtown to Central wanting to make sure there's a a proper Gateway um to which you know the the residents of CMHA um the now um you know transitioning Vincent property tric and other institutions kind of have a more knit together um neighborhood I think they also mentioned that the metrop parks received uh the uh largest award to date for their Slavic Village connector Trail which will actually go right through that geography um from Slavic Village up Broadway to downtown and so that's another connection point for this neighborhood um to be to be better connected so thank you thank you direct Wong yeah and I think it's really important um that we we have been had great

conversations with all a lot of the stakeholders there already who have been wanting to do their own master plan and are willing to kind of work with us and wait a little bit so we can figure out how best everybody moves forward so uh we'll keep you posted on that um but ongoing discussions and uh I think we're getting close to kind of determine how to proceed so um just a couple updates on the um kind of remaining 2024 budget uh and then thinking about 2025 Jennifer did provide a nice report to at our last board meeting about where we were with our budget and understanding having um two key hires that we have had this year we do know that we will have um a bit of a shortfall with our budget here and we do know that we are um in conversation with OBM just about the County's budget in general um and how we can look to save um you know dollars um through various ways of looking at our budgets and so we we do know that um we've always committed to um we needed the staff their key staff that we were able to hire and so um that's something that we stand behind and so we uh we will be short by the end of the year uh in terms of personnel funding and so that is something that we've been already having discussions with OBM on um you know to make sure that we are um in good shape for that before the end of the year you know and like everything else I mean everybody's U memberships and professional um conference attendance has increased in cost and so all those costs continue to Rise um we also have you know just seen higher rates across other things that we have needed to secure for our department but um big kudos to Jennifer I mean she does a wonderful job of making sure we're spending responsibly and uh you know making sure we're watching the bottom line so looking at ways to continue to um save money um but making sure that our folks are being able to speak at conferences and attend conferences professional development um

and then you know it's just something that we're facing and so looking ahead to 2025 um just starting to flag some things um and where we're looking at for next year so you know we did become part of the neighborly family which is software that healthy Urban Tree canopy is going through and so that was a an add-on to the Department of development's contract which is a huge cost savings and so that is something that we had a five-year commitment for on that um program that software and so it's something that we have to make sure that we have the funds to cover that you know going forward but um feeling confident that we can find that and you know we've had discussions in the past about potentially having spending Authority on some of our revenues and so if we need to get to that point then then we will have to look at that as well so um that's it for that one probably and then um big thank you to Wesley who's there today uh we have been talking at length about bylaws powers and duties in our board terms we've uncovered every time I think we think we solve one issue we find something else um our bylaws have been kind of uh in flux and I know thank you to councilwoman Simon and mayor Willow we've had discussions about getting those updated and those continue uh it needs to happen we have found some other issues where I think you know we've come across a 1990 um board resolution that capped um my ability to contract at $55,000 and looking if that is something that um is still realistic given the cost of services uh these days if it should be higher and then also thinking about what that language actually meant is it you know revenues of more than 5,000 a um a total estimate of cost over 5,000 so we've been working through some of that and we'd hope to have a resolution for you this month to look at but that will be something that's coming in the future uh the other thing that we've been looking at is you know maybe things that we were silent on in our bylaws that probably need should should be included and so looking through some

examples for that and so to Mayor Willow and councilman and and Wesley will have a meeting again um after this meeting at some point we'll get something scheduled so that we can sit down and walk through those but the other thing that we've identified is the way that our board terms have been assigned and approved by Council we want to try and clean up um you know by how Revis code it's a three-year term and sometimes what's happening is the term may start in January but the person's not actually approved by Council until you know June or something um so we really are trying to get away from this January to December because we always run into the issue for our organizational meeting in the new year that technically there's board members terms who've already expired but yet they're taking action at the at the organizational meeting and so we were going to try and clean those up uh I have a meeting scheduled uh tomorrow actually with Chris Alvarado um who's the regional collaborations director and one of the new staff that's helping with um legislative lays on to look at how we write any future resolution for our board terms to make sure that we're compliant with the actual three-year term and that we can stagger these dates so we don't have everything ending um on December 31st we do have seats that expire at the end of December so that's another part of the conversation um obviously those can be renewed um but just making sure that we line things up correctly with um actual term dates that meet you know meet the threeyear requirement so I don't know Wesley if you had any anything to add for that one no Mary I think you summed it up thank you okay and then finally before we turn things over to Elizabeth and her team um as you know last year we got our new logo we've gotten our branding um and you'll see some staff there we got finally got our new logo pins our little lapel pins and so Annette has those for each of you today and so uh we'd like

each of you to have those um the county executive was in our office for a meeting and he asked immediately if he could get one of those and I guess cuz he an alumni we said that's fine so um obviously I know you have your own pins representing your own cities but I figure if there's events that you'd feel comfortable wearing AR Lael pin as a board member I would appreciate you doing that and again I just want to thank you all for your time and your service because I know how extremely busy you are especially given this week's events with these storms and um I know there's a lot on your plates daily in your own CI so I really appreciate your support and uh I think we've got a lot of great things to come so with that I will end my report thank you comments from anyone go ahead one quick thing to add mainly Wesley and uh I completely agree agree with you Mary on the board uh terms and everything else but there might be a legal opinion floating around where it indicates that if nobody is appointed to fill the seat that person can actually take action in even if their term is expired we looked into that some time ago so it may obviously yeah obviously it's not the ideal situation but it might help from the legal aspects of when uh actions were taken in the past so we can talk off right and I think you're right because I the way it says it is that they're even though they have an expiration date of their term which could be December 31st it says that they're actually a member until the organizational meeting but it's it's very contradictory so if we can clean things up it probably would be best you know we're doing bylaws and other things it's probably a good time to take a look at it but I think you're right right on a former legal opinion yeah I'd like to see that because I know the statute's very clear it says three years under 71322 of the code yeah and so we we as Mary clearly set out we we do this thing where we have like retroactively fill a term and and it's it's not my preference I'll just say

that yeah I think because too if we've already had meetings from January to June before they were technically seated it looks like on a record that they should have been acting on items that happened since January and they would not have been details okay thanks Mary any further comments uh from the board members thanks for the report Mary appreciate uh we'll move on Old business anything no new business nothing okay I'm going to make a motion to adjourn so we can get right into the policy solid waste policy committee so motion to adjourn second second by mayor Burke all those in favor say I I that motion carries thank you um can I just kick off the next yep Kevin should have the deck all right okay yeah so I'm going to call to order the uh Kyo County Solid Waste District policy committee meeting for a August 8 2024 uh Anette call the role please yes mayor Burke here onani here director deor here director Juan here mayor CTS here council person Simon here mayor Weiss here mayor weow Mr Weber Miss wh you have a quum okay thank you very much um approval of the minutes from the June 13 202 policy committee meeting uh I'll make a motion to approve those minutes is there a second second second by council person sorry that's okay um all those in

favor say I I I that motion carries uh District updates uh we do have one action item and I just want to make sure we have a quorum so in regards to timeline to make sure we get to that item so with that being said uh District updates Beth go ahead okay thank you um Kevin could we go into oh we have the um we wanted to go over the last few chapters of the draft Plan update which um later in today's meeting We'll be asking you your consideration for the passage of a resolution to allow us to forward this draft update document to the EPA um per our um legislation and format book we are required to send the EPA A draft copy of the solid waste plan they have um 45 days to review it we have an opportunity to review those they're called non-binding advisory comments bring those back and then we have um an actual public hearing um a written comment period to um to receive additional comments and incorporate those in the plan so this won't be quite the last time you see this rather long document but um today we wanted to go over the last couple of um appendices that we um needed to go over with you and I'm going to turn it over to Amy she's going to go over kind of the schedule that Still Remains with the overall Plan update before you is the schedule uh the date that is highlighted in yellow is

today's date August 8th uh for the Quorum as Beth described to certify this first draft of the plan for submission to the EPA you will see immediately below that line there's an appendix T that we've not presented but that appendix T just contains the support documents which would be the res solution uh is so approved today that would become appendix t uh for the submission to EPA and then over the next 8 months as Beth described there's the non-binding advisory opinions back from EPA the public hearing and so forth so the next policy Committee Action as is expected in April of uh 2025 so we wanted to oops excuse me goodness oops I think I went too far hold on a second we missed V all right I I don't may I Advance one yes okay thank you Beth and I with technology I apologize uh so appendix V is one we hadn't presented uh previously this is an inventory of the open dumps and other disposal facilities that are located I'll have Revised Code uh requires that they be identified and then the environmental crimes task force is charged with investigating those sites um there are no reported Ash foundary sand or slag disposal sites in the county the map that you see before you just has uh the lines delineating the five different police districts the way we receive the district receives those inventories is based off Police District oops this is appendix W um this shows

where all of our materials go so in appendix w we have to provide maps for the EPA to review all of um this is in a textual format in Prior appendices but what this demonstrates is that um Kaa County similar to the city of New York we export all of our waste out of Kaa County County there are no active landfills within kyoga County we export to 17 different landfills throughout the state so we are always very cognizant of making sure that our reduction activities are as great as they can be so as to not impose too much on our neighbors and those other communities um one of the other Maps um indicates um the drop offs is kind of the map depending on how you're look at the furthest back back there that is a map that we have to indicate where the drop offs are and per the EPA a drop off is considered one that collects five items so that map is not inclusive of singular item drop off such as just paper or just clothing but we have that map which indicates where there are drop offs throughout the district that are collecting five recyclable items or more um and then the kind of the most forward map um is a representation of in our district by political subdivision who is the processor for recyclables and we've colorcoded them we do have in Kaa County we're very unique in that um we have four recycling sheds that we participate in and that is is Kimble and rumy Republic Services and waste management

and you can see those are colorcoded to get some idea of who is the processor regardless if you are privately Contracting for collection services or if you're still a municipal collector who is the processor that's getting those recycl so those are the items we have to include in appendix W and then I'll go ahead and begin with the chapters so chapter one in the plan plan is an introduction it just outlines what is required by the state's Solid Waste plan so it reviews what the solid waste district is to do uh it's to demonstrate that you have access to uh landfill capacity for eight years from the start of the planning period it identifies that you're committed to achieving the goals established in the plan and that you have a budget uh for implementing the plan does also highlight uh the district's core values um from their staff the responsibility the Integrity the financial stewardship collaboration and education um they they do their best educating empowering and enabling people across the county to reduce reuse recycle uh chapter two is the district profile it's an overview of the general characteristics of the district so it presents information on the communities and political jurisdictions population counts and population Trends the available infrastructure to manage waste and recyclable materials and provides a listing and account on Commercial businesses and institutional entities and Industrial businesses so just to show on the screen uh this indicates the reference your

population and that Cleveland city was the largest political subdivision in terms of population and demonstrates change uh in population chapter three then is the waste generation chapter and what this does is summarize kyoga County's historical and projected Solid Waste generation it's broken down into the residential commercial and Industrial this is information collected through survey data and then the disposal data from the Ohio EPA and you'll see up on the slide the generation for uh pounds per person per day for their recycling plus disposal is 7.1 pounds um right and uh there's a a modest projection for that residential commercial uh projected increase in terms of tonnage so it'll increase 4.1% or 177,000 tons by the end of the planning period your 2040 chapter four is waste management and this summarizes the district's strategy to manage solid waste that kayoga county has estimated to generate during that entire planning period Beth mentioned those 17 landfills um there are 17 transfer stations that are listed 23 compost facilities that receive kyoga County material and then there are 59 processors of single and multimaterial um so these could be scrapyards these are Brokers processors and such that are

listed chapter five um um deals with um the programming that we'll be carrying forward from our existing plan as well as new programs and um you know the new programming was developed based on um meetings with our stakeholders to find out what they felt was valuable um in chapter 5 the programmingsoftware assistance for our communities um our perennial favorite if you ask your service directors are the grants um we will be continuing and um working very closely with our environmental crimes task force um we will be continuing to promote the material Marketplace um that's also known as reple and that is hosted by the OA and what that is is that's for the industrial side and you know for example if you have a byproduct and you produce this on a regular basis you can post that in hopes that someone may find that that byproduct or that um off speec material or whatever it may be may actually be a feed stock you want in your own business so it's kind of a matchmaking for circularity um we will continue with our household hazards waste collection program um your community is very much appreciate that and we appreciate them participating um we will continue to keep our website updated with the latest and greatest information for each of your communities um we do post on our website um every time your processor changes we have that very specific information as to the materials that your processor accepts we have that available on our website so your

residents can access that we also will continue with our toolkit so we actually have templates that your communities can use and their icons that we've develop so you can you know your staffs can just kind of pluck those from our website and utilize those in their own Outreach and educational material we're going to continue um enforcement activities by helping to fund both the County Board of Health as well as Cleveland and we will look at continuing with our court community services um litter collection program um some of these programs we're going to expand not only carry forward but expand um for example we will be expanding the types and programming acceptable through our grant program we'll be going from three types of Grants actually to four and increasing the dollar amounts so trying to reach greater programming um more of an operation bent to really get those materials collected into End Market um we will be promoting um food waste drop offs we're still trying to um build an infrastructure within the district for that and um we also will be promoting um two of the heaviest materials that are in the waist Stream So that would be fiber or you think of your cardboard and glass so we are looking to do some singular drop off development going forward um the regional harmonization is again continuing down our path of creating um icons that can be utilized on our website and in the the toolkits that we produce that your communities can utilize so no matter what community you may be in if you see oh your

community takes cardboard that same icon appears throughout the the C the districts and the county here um and then um again we had mentioned that we are going to keep our website up to date based on who you're Recycling and or compost hopefully processor may be and um we want to also kind of venture into the area of sharing tables we' we'd like to expand not only food waste um Recycling and composting but the idea of perfectly good food how can we get that into the hand hands of those that are in need whether that be in communities or in schools so um we want to look at promoting share tables in different um venues and institutions and lastly um we'd like to conduct uh textile recycling analysis um in the state of Ohio we have quite a bit of textile um warehousing U manufacturing and we really want to get a deeper understanding of what that looks like and specifically in our district and what can we do to help either reuse those products or find a better use for um for those as an end product and we don't want to see those go to a landfill so chapter five deals with things being carried forward and then also things that we are looking to implement the last chapter is chapter six and um that is our budget and um we have to for all 15 years of the planning period albe it we will be back in front of you two more times for a plan update before we ever get to the end of this

15-year planning period um we have to show our budget revenue and expenditures to the state we have to also demonstrate that we keep a positive um fund balance so in in those projections you know we have to include what we estimate as inflationary factors um we will not be adding any new staff that we can think of currently um the budget in chapter six does uh project those new programs and the existing programs that we just talked about so for example looking to expand our cour community services contract to a third team out there there will be an increase in cost associ ated with that um you know we're looking to expand activities the environmental crimes task force so there may be some increased fees there um based on all of that um and our commitment to keeping a 12-month fund balance um we may have to come back to you in 2032 and ask for a generation fee um that will not be immediately included Ed in this plan but we did want to you know as you look in case you have a burning desire to look at the appendices um you would notice that we are projecting that um that would be in two plans from now so um but we wanted to bring you up to date on that these chapters appear at the beginning of our plan update and really what they are as they are kind of synopses of what is outlaid in a lot of detail in all of those appendices that appear at the back so um kind of the the short version is if you want to get a flavor of what the plan really is read the chapters we don't want to discourage

you from digging into the appendices but it is over 300 pages long the entire document so um but the new format does provide kind of a synopsis up front more details in the back and with that um what we would like you to consider today is um authorizing us to send this draft document to the Ohio EPA for their non-binding advisory comments what they do is they read through it and double check our numbers and make any comments if they want to you know Rec make recommendations um they have 45 days to do that they send us back a document with that and um we would review we'll be reviewing that with you later this year and um and we included a copy of the resolution in your packet if not I've got to spare in case I've got a copy of it here be thanks um so we would ask at that point that um at this point excuse me that um to consider resolution 2488 which is um authorizing the transmittal of the draft Solid Waste plan to the oea thanks Beth really appreciate it anybody have any comments on the updated draft any thoughts Mr just a thought to just thank you for the thorough explanation yeah thank you so much this is a huge task and you've done really well getting it synthesized for us and to present to the state the question I had was a slide Amy um addressed it looked like a projection of a reduction in residential um landfill uh material was that did I look at that correctly that we're expecting a reduction as that's the goal of the plan right so in chapter four chapter or three

total waste backwards oh it's projected to continue increasing in total tons and then it drops in 2031 it drops mm and that's correlated to what we are planning to do as part of this plan or is that some other factors there there are several factors that are built into that one is hopefully our increase in reduction we also are projecting a continued decrease in population which has an effect on everything so between those two items um that would have you know eventually an impact so so reduction in population in the county yes in the district yeah I know or Al generally too but Ohio well the state I mean the United States although maybe we can entice more people Chicago yes with the new housing maybe with the new housing we can entice more people back okay okay great no thank you it's it's a lot of work I I know no I don't know but what I can see detail all right thank you any other comments from anyone no mayor one question The Bu yes yeah currently we have over 3.2 million in our fund balance and as Solid

Waste districts go um historically districts don't like to keep an exorbitant fund balance um we feel that the legislature at the state level gets a little itchy with that when they see districts with very large fund balances and so you know we have an opportunity to expand some programming consume some of that fund balance to do things we haven't particularly done and then you'll notice I had mentioned that in 2032 we would possibly be looking at if if we do all the programming that we have projected that will eat into our fund balance and if they are stilled well then we might in 3030 or 2032 need to increase our generation fee from $2 a ton to 27 and um which because we want to keep about a Year's worth of operating expenses in our fund balance which is about 1.5 million so in 31 we fall below that comfort zone and we want to build that up again um I guess the other thing that I I can mention here is currently the average um generation fee in the state is $4.75 per per ton and we're currently at two so we have historically strived to to remain one of the lowest in the state but still offering what we believe are great programs and so you know even if we do increase this in a handful of years from now our generation fee from 2 to 275 you know we'd still be one of the lowest in the state so but yes we are consuming some of that fund balance yep you're welcome thanks any other further comments

questions can you can you direct us to where the draft is posted if it is posted somewhere we have not posted we did send you a pdf version of the document um we won't typically post that until we get um The non-binding Advisory comments back from the district or excuse me from the oepa and um because then we have to post it for our public comment period which is 30 days and we'll probably be reaching out to all of you um we typically try to do um a public meeting kind of in each of the quadrants four four areas of the district so um once we get the non- bindings back then we will post that on our website understood thank you okay thanks I'm going to make a motion to uh approve resolution two two 4808 I'll second that motion second by mayor CTS any further comments all those in favor say I I those opposed thank you thank you very much Beth you're welcome and the entire team we can send you an a a copy too okay okay thanks uh any District announcements by any chance no any sorry just it was an agenda I was I was ready to run away I'm sorry um um we we actually do have one quick announcement I I didn't list it on here because it occurred after we sent the um the agenda out um so we have presented our first um business Champion award so this was a program that we developed and um we actually launched it in 2023 and it's it's different levels there's a green level there's um a gold

you know and a platinum um and the the business award varies it's just focus focuses on solid waste and reduction so we're not looking at at you know energy consumption or anything like that but the Holden auum uh the botanical gardens was our first awarde and um please do visit our website or Facebook there's some great pictures there and um Dorene shriber who is our business um specialist she's the one who developed this program and um we will have another five coming online this year so American Greetings will be the second company to which we award uh both of which um the Botanical Gardens and American Greetings are at the Platinum level which is the top level so I'm they they are doing everything physically possible to reduce truly what they are sending to the landfill so and we have created some very neat plaques which will be individually um created for the businesses to reflect their individual businesses so if you do get online you'll notice that the one that Holden alarum has and the one that American Greetings will receive shortly look a little different but we wanted to do that because we are using um upcycled materials to make the plaques so that's great Beth thank any uh anything else seeing none but thank you Beth really appreciate all the good work you guys are doing over there at the solid waste District any other further discussion items seeing none I'll make a motion to adjourn thank you all right thank you everyone we stay thank you everyone

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