Environmental Advisory Board

order quiet and maybe That's awesome.

Mhm.

I just time like to call the meeting to order. I did hit it pretty hard. I wanted to wake everyone up including myself. Um, first item on business is approval of last month's meetings. Everyone should have a copy of them sent to them. Is Do I have a motion to accept? a motion to accept. Thank you, Bill. Do I have a motion second? I'll second. I'll second. Second. That's all right, David. Thank

you, David. All right. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Next is public comment. I don't believe we have any. Council member comments is the next item.

[clears throat]

Just going right through them, huh? Uh good afternoon, everybody. Uh how are you doing? So, um I guess I have three things to update you on. The first is we had a meeting at council meeting. Uh there were no rezonings at the previous meeting, the one we just had. There were two um at the previous meeting in March. If you remember the Welch Homestead PUD, it's the one off US 1, uh Lennar project, and then there was Camp Branch Lane, which is a project off of Holland, right? That had um some environmental issues. So, both of them um I mean, you can go online and look at the agenda and see exactly what they offered. I want to go through it, but it wasn't a tremendous a lot, and we ended up continuing both of them. Uh you know, expressing our dissatisfaction with some of the conditions, and I'm told they are going to come back with updated conditions if they haven't done so already. And so, that's good news. So, the third thing has to do with the um UDO amendment that we talked about to modify the um the EAB's uh rights and responsibilities as it pertains to um to to voting on on projects. It hit a little bump, I would say at the planning board. And there's, by the way, a statutory process for UDO amendments. It's not, you know, it's actually defined in in state law that it has to go to the uh the planning board for public hearing, and they give the recommendation, and then it goes to council for public hearing, and it has a recommendation. The planning board denied it, and I talked to the vice chair, and um he had some concerns about you know, the the scope of the the amendment and and he felt like, you know, I don't know, maybe Were you there, Nora? You were not there. Okay, [snorts] so um, so he had some concerns we have to work

through about the the scope of it and he thought maybe the the environmental board was um, trying to push the powers and I was like, you know, this actually came from me. I was trying to empower the boards and I think that wasn't clear. There's some confusion. Um, I'm not sure what the plan is if they're planning to take it to council anyway, which would be the second meeting in April. Um, yeah. So, it's going to go to council with a recommendation for denial from the planning board and the council can then, you know, So, it's ironic like the whole thing is I'm trying to empower the board, so I do want to work with the planning board and and address their concerns. So, we'll have that conversation and see if we can clear that up. Yes. With the denial, are there any comments for modifications that they're going to bring? I can speak to that. Yeah, I can speak to that. Uh, so as part of the process, uh, what will most likely happen if the council's in favor of it, they requested council review their minutes um, from that meeting, but they won't be available probably till after the May 11th meeting. So, there's a good likelihood that this will be continued and there'll be some further conversation. Like uh, council member McNabb he said there was concerns about uh, maybe the scope it should be a little more focused or limited. There was concerns on how the development community will react and whether this will put undue burden on them. So, there's some stuff just to talk through and things like that. There was nothing unreasonable, it's just this is part of the process and as we move forward to empower you guys further, there'll be more conversation down the road [clears throat] in the future. Yep. Sir, when when is that going to come up? Second meeting in In April would be the to council. It's been noticed to come before council on the 28th. Um, and it's so it'll be its own item for that particular amendment that'll go before the council. Um, given that the board has asked that the council review the minutes, there's a potential that it could be continued or council may take action that night. Yeah. Yeah. And again, like we're trying to empower you guys. We also want the planning board to be empowered. We want this to be a, you know, a collaborative process where all of our residents when they volunteer on the boards feel like they can have an impact. So, we're

Would it help for anybody on the board to have a show up or be available for comments? Cuz I mean

the idea behind this in my mind is is to is to put the onus on the developer to justify why they're not going along with the recommendations. And they may have good justification. Uh yeah, it could be helpful if you guys uh and Mark as the chair, I think you would probably be on point as the first guy to reach out to the planning board chair and say, "Hey, do you want to talk about this or not?" But uh it's certainly a conversation that, you know, we encourage. We want We want our boards to collaborate and have this conversation. They're they're certainly um you know, able to to raise their concerns and we're happy to work through them. So, yeah, at the actual meeting, I think uh I wasn't anticipating. I didn't hear that there would be issues. So, I would I would have showed up and talked about it and maybe one of you or, you know, could have showed up as well, but it is what it is and, you know, there's no uh no big rush, but that is a part of my report is there's stuff going on. I'm still committed to the idea and we'll we'll go through the process. Um if if the board would like to uh staff is happy to send you uh the YouTube link with that specific where that section starts. So, you can review and decide whether or not you want to attend or provide emails or contact anyone else as well. I'm happy to do that.

[clears throat]

We certainly need some help to have a little bit of poop here. Because they just look at us and walk away quite often. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for doing what you're doing. No problem. And um when do you do you think the minutes will be available? Has the clerk said when There may be a draft available sooner than the May 11th meeting, but um they won't be approved until until the planning board approves them at their probably their May 11th meeting. Right. So, that's that's the hiccup, too, is they want us to review the comments to the minutes. And I think there was some public comment as well uh maybe from development community about the about the proposal that they wanted us to review and be part of the council's final decision on it. So That's where we're at. Staff announcements. All right, I actually have quite a few

announcements. So bear with me. I'm going to read through them all. Starting we had a few of the AIB members attend the town council meeting last Tuesday to accept the greener together resolution and the Earth Day and Festival Proclamation. So I just wanted to thank them for coming out. It was great to see them on Tuesday. And then we have a lot of upcoming events for Earth Month. So first one is on the 22nd on Earth Day. I'm going to be out in the courtyard behind Town Hall with Allison our volunteer coordinator just kind of doing like a pop-up tabling event. So I'll just be sitting outside. We're going to have some outreach materials. Just be there to chat with folks. So if you're out and about on I think it's Wednesday the 22nd feel free to swing by and chat and say hi. Next up is I'm sorry. What time? 12:00 to 4:00. So almost all day. Nice to get out of the office. Then on the 23rd the next day that Thursday is our Community University series and this one is Spring into Sustainability. So the first speaker we're going to have is Kelsey Sosa and she's with the NC Cooperative Extension at the Wake County Center and she's going to be talking about sustainable landscaping. And then Brandon Robertson our solid waste manager here in town is going to talk about waste management and then I'll be there talking as well about some of our environmental programs that we've got going on. And that's from 6:00 to 8:00 at the Senior Center on the 23rd. Then that weekend, that Saturday on the 25th is Earth Fest. Uh this year's theme is sustainable fashion. So, there's going to be a sustainable fashion show. I will be in the fashion show, so come laugh at me if you want to. But, it should be really fun. There's staff in that. Um we're going to have a documentary screening of Refabricate, which is a local documentary about um folks here in the triangle in the sustainable fashion

field. Um we're going to have some author talks, some guest speakers. There's a clothing swap. There's going to be sewing workshops, a live band. Um so, it's just a big afternoon. And of course, EAB will be there with a table. Um so, that's 12:00 to 4:00 in out here again, the Town Hall campus. And then the 27th, we are launching um a new Apex Natural Heritage Trail. Um so, it's a little trail. It's interpretive signs. There's 10 stops throughout Apex Nature Park. And so, we're putting the signs out on the 27th. And then that night from 5:30 to 7:00 at the Nature Park, we're doing a guided walk. So, we'll be walking through and looking at the signs. But, it's kind of a three-in-one event. Um so, we're also going to be doing a bioblitz. So, the town is in um an organization called Science Across NC. We're a partner. Um so, they have a big bioblitz event throughout the whole state. That's the 24th through the 27th. So, we're kind of getting in on the last day. Um we're going to be participating in the bioblitz. So, using iNaturalist to log species that we see. And then we're also going to be doing a cleanup. So, as we're walking around, we're going to be picking up litter. Which I haven't seen too much litter in the Nature Park, but if there is any, we'll pick it up. Um and that's a part of we just got a grant in 2025 to get Clear Stream recycling and trash bins. Um and that was through the National Recreation and Parks Association. So, we're actually in a recycling race um as a part of that grant. So, all these clean up events um the one on the 27th and then like we're going to count the Earth Fest trash and recycling from that event um will count towards that recycling race. So, we're trying to come in first place for that. So, again, that's the 27th. It's a big three-in-one event, but it should be a lot of fun. Um 5:30 to 7:00 at the Nature Park. And that one you do need to register for. All the other ones you can just show up um come as you are. But,

there is um a registration link through the volunteer portal for that event. And all of these events you can find them on the town calendar um on our main webpage, but then also on the environmental leadership webpage under the get involved tab. There's links to all the calendar dates there, too. So, that was a lot, but glad that we're doing a lot. Um and that's all I have. Uh Nora, what is the name of the BioBlitz uh partner that you have? Uh Science Across NC. Science Across NC. Is that and you said that's part of the iNaturalist BioBlitz? Um so, is that part of the City Nature Challenge? That's a worldwide thing. And we did back in February um they had a backyard birding event with Science Across NC.

was them as well. I did I did see that. I mean, I didn't attempt it, but I did see that.

Yep. And then in July they're doing like a big moth night event. So, we're going to have an event with that as well. Um should be a lot of fun. Mr. Chairman, one thing I actually forgot to mention that just occurred to me that's actually kind of important um to make sure you guys are aware. Do you know what's going on with the grass collection in the town of Apex? See [clears throat] some nods, great. Um but, there is a sustainability It It's not entirely about sustainability, but it's not entirely not about sustainability. Um, but it it's a big thing. There was a big presentation at the last council meeting from our uh public works director about what the what the plans are and and um, you know, go watch it if you're interested, but at a high level the town is looking to uh stop grass collection for yard waste. And part of the reason is because um, we have an issue with our storm water and our uh permits for our our uh you know, storm water system in Apex. There's all these rules where it's not supposed to be within a certain number of feet of a storm drain. It's not supposed to be um put out a certain number hours before collection that just

no one follows in Apex. And um, this on curb grass collection we're like the last community or the second last community in the area that does this. It's really not how it's normally done and and the problem is when it rains the grass, which has all sorts of pesticides and stuff on it, gets washed under the storm drain and gets into uh you know, our our creeks and and eventually down in the lake. So, it's not great. The other issue is because of the pesticides and stuff a lot of our collection points have stopped accepting it and no one will sign a contract with us to There's one site we have left that we're dumping it today and they refuse to sign a contract to commit to continue doing it. So, uh our contract's expired and sort of like the writing's on the wall and council made the decision in February to to end grass collection for the site reasons and for the storm water reasons and uh and all that. It's not a popular decision. People don't like to you know, to lose services, but there's a lot of good reasons behind it and a lot of it is just outside of our control. If they this one site stops collecting it then uh then we're done. And people ask about Holly Springs and Cary, if that comes up, they're fundamentally in the same situation, but we were told that they currently have contracts that haven't yet expired. And once their contracts for for dumping of this waste expires, they may be in the same situation and may make the same decision. So, there's a going to be a big communication about it, a big rollout. Staff is going to um you know, it'll there'll be a focus on the sustainability element and how it's bad to dump grass into into dumps and why you should just leave it in your yard and grass cycling it's called and all that. But, that is not the sole reason. The The biggest driver is no one takes the stuff anymore. So. Just wanted to mention that when the meeting came up. Thanks. So, the recommendation is to just leave the grass uh just kind of blow it back onto your lawn. Yeah, basically. Yeah, um so, mulch mowers have like a mulch setting or most of them do where it'll cut it a little uh a little finer and it just kind of goes into your yard and grass is actually

mostly water. So, if you leave it in and it's sunny, it's going to evaporate out the thing and turn into dust fairly quickly. And that's kind of why what's happening now is a little insane because we're driving this stuff like an hour and a half away to like Southern Harnett County or whatever to dump it and we're hauling this big semi full of like what's essentially water and we're paying per ton to dump water down there and then the guy's got to drive back. So, it's really inefficient and really expensive now and that landfill site at any point could tell us cuz we have no contract that could say, "Yeah, we're we're done." cuz they have all sorts of permits with DEQ and the same issues with with uh you know, the pesticides and stuff that that we have. Is there going to be a push to get people to expand their more natural areas? Yeah. I mean, that's what I was

Could be. Yeah. It could be. Yeah. I'm I'm I did not hear anything like that in the comms plan. So, the the comms team can come up and and discuss their plan, but that That's a good suggestion, yeah. One option. I think the biggest thing The big focus I heard was grass cycling cuz it's actually better for your yard to leave the grass clippings in it. Like, people don't know that. They think it's waste you got to throw away. It's mostly water and it still retains all of the fertilizers and stuff that you put in it. Then you put it back, it's like free fertilizer. So, it's you know, and and your your your landscapers, like they they mulch in your yard. They're not dragging the stuff away generally. Cuz it's expensive. You got to pay someone to take it. Um So, yeah, there there is a plan they're putting together. Uh so far it's not really been a popular move. Some people get it. A lot of people they just, you know, they don't like to lose the service that they had. You know. So. What about leaves? I I've heard that leaves aren't going to be picked up. Once every 2 weeks, is that the program now? Uh leaf service is not changing. We're we're keeping the leaf service. Because the issue the the real impetus here is that um that these places are going to stop taking it. And they actually we have no issues disposing of leaves. I think there's multiple sites. It doesn't have

apparently the same fertilizer issues that that grass does nowadays. And uh leaf collection is a bigger deal for a lot of people. So, we're going to keep the sucker trucks are only going to run for the leaf collection. I think they're changing the zones and how they work it, but the general idea is the same. In the fall they'll run the leaf trucks. Collect uh I think it's like 7 days, seven collection points or something. Where do they haul the leaves now? I'm not sure the exact place, but I was I was just told there's The issue with grass is there's there's tons of yard waste sites in Wake County, but a lot of them have um all of them except for one has stopped accepting grass. And the one that does accept it is Raleigh, and they want to do it for themselves. Like they they had the foresight to build their own. They're big enough. They have their own site. They have their own stuff. They have We had suggested uh leaf composting what, 18 months ago? Yeah. And the staff member that was here, I felt that he kind of just looked like that we were aliens. Um and nothing's happened. Not zero. I think uh we were discussing and we've actually penciled in like a transfer station. I'm not sure how much space you'd need for a full composting operation, but that was always kind of on the whiteboard of a something to explore. We don't have the space in Apex obviously for a full-fledged yard waste permanent disposal site. It would be a transfer station where the trucks you know But you can have a composting site on that there. A long time ago they had they just dumped the leaves at the end of E.P. Perry Road out there where we have some facility and some space. Yeah. And frankly uh when I got here I found out that there was leaves out there composted. I I I went out there with my truck and filled it up. I mean it was at that time everybody was a small town. Yeah. And it was the greatest thing in the world. Yeah. Yeah, I mean composting has come up in a couple different contexts like not only here composting grass too it composts pretty nicely. You know, it just has the same pesticide issue but also um food composting like

having a drop-off station like Cary does. If we could have like a an Apex composting site that you can bring all sorts of stuff to and and pick up compost, you know, the the finished product if you want it. But they are kind of right now ideas in the sky as opposed to something funded.

There there is a private company that does pick up compost. Yeah, Compost Now. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it is but Yeah, Compost Now like 50 bucks a month for two things now. They just raised the prices on me, so. I have I have a natural area. Yeah. There you go. Yep, and and that's one option too for anyone watching with your grass like if you if you don't want to compost in your yard or it's too too uh too high to compost and you want to cut it low and bag it, you can just put a pile of grass in your a sunny spot in your yard and it'll go away eventually. It's It is mostly water and just turn into dirt. So. Will the yard waste fees or taxes change when the service It's a good question. Um so that's complicated. The The issue is today um, yard waste does not recover anywhere close to their actual costs. And um, they used to, but when we started having to pay for dumping yard waste, our costs went through the roof a couple years ago. And uh, I think this year, I don't know what the number is exactly, like we The fees we pay covered 80% of the cost of the program. It's projected to go down to 60% in a couple years. So, in this budget, we're raising the fees pretty significantly to get back to 100% cost recovery of the yard waste program, cuz it's a utility and it's actually supposed to recover its costs. That's the whole point of having a fee. And the reason it's going up is because we've been paying to dump everything for the past couple years. With all the changes, um, there's a hope it would go down, but I don't think that's really how the world works. I think mostly you're trying to slow the increase. Like for another example is we're at the point in a um, in a an equipment replacement cycle where we have to buy the side loaders, we have to buy all new trucks, and those are like a quarter million dollars each,

and starting those costs in, and we haven't done that in a really long time. So, it's easy to keep fees low as we're not buying a new truck. But now that we have to replace one of those trucks, that's actually a really major cost. And that was another point as to why this is coming up is we had to know what kind of trucks to buy. Like if we were going to keep doing grass, uh, or we're going to not going to go to containers, whatever, that changes the product you buy, and it's time to replace the trucks. I guess they're falling apart or something. Or, you know, one's always broken down, that kind of thing. But we are keeping the the sucker trucks to do the leaf, and we're buying another one of those this year, too. So. Next item is the uh, tree sub committee draft presentation. Yeah.

I'm going to talk about the Earth bust. Uh just final items before we get into that. Okay, so last time I know we mentioned or I think it was John, someone mentioned seeing the sign-ups again. So, here's the list of everyone that has signed up so far. Um so, we have our morning set-up slot, tabling throughout the rest of the day. So, tabling from 12:00 to 4:00. And then break down 4:00 to 5:00. Usually it doesn't take that long. Um but if you don't see your name or you want to be added

anywhere else, you can let me know. Or um in the agenda, I sent a link to the sign-up genius as well. So, you can use that, too. But any questions? Anyone want to change anything? I am not sure if we are available that weekend, but if we are, is there a certain time that would be most helpful? Um it looked like It was a fair amount of spots, but if there's That's why I hadn't signed up yet. I wasn't I'm not sure if we're here, but Maybe I would say the morning or the middle of the day. I feel like

morning or just morning like Just morning. Yeah, morning it's tabling. Morning tabling? Yeah. So, maybe that like noon to 1:00. It starts at noon, so um it doesn't take that long to set up, but like last year we had some trouble finding a table, which we're not going to have that problem this year. Um we've got our table. We had a couple items that we were waiting on to come in, so we just recently reordered some stuff, but we'll have everything there um the day of. Our table, table weights, giveaways, um we'll have our recycling game. The only thing that we need for that is a pizza box. So, if anyone wants to take one for the team and get to go pizza. Okay, sweet. Um so, we should be all good. Um and if you're signed up, you signed up through the sign up genius, you'll get a reminder as well of the times. Um and you don't have to stay the whole time, you know, come and go. Um but it looks like we have enough people, so should be good with that. And then that's the sign up genius link, so that is in the agenda if you need it. What What time is startup time? Um I said meet at 10:00, and if you uh if I were you guys, I would park in the Mason Street parking lot because I'm pretty sure they're going to shut the

Town Hall campus off. It's an easy walk over. Sometimes the cars don't

Sometimes get in your way. Um but we can meet there because that's where the table is anyways. We'll get that loaded up and then walk over to Town Hall. Do we want to meet at 10:00 or 10:30?

10:30? Let's do 10:30. Yeah. 10:30 [snorts] works. So, then our last item was um I know we talked about one and to look at the survey again. So if you're new, last year we did a survey at the booth um that citizens could come up and scan. It was a QR code. Um and it was a pretty quick survey I thought. So we just wanted to go through it again tonight and see if there's anything we want to add. Um I've already started making um the 2026 one so I just copied everything but um I've got it pulled up on my laptop so we can edit it as we go. But is there anything specifically you guys want to ask? Is there anything we want to take away this year? I would like to ask if you can enlarge it a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Are you bringing birdhouses? Yeah. Cute.

[clears throat]

And I can edit this up until the morning of. So keep those papers, look at them, think thing um think it over. Um you can shoot me an email anytime but just for now um if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Uh the first drop down, where do you live? What what does that look like? Like what are the choices? The choices are Apex, Cary, Holly Springs, or other. You spend a lot of time on that last year. I was going to say are we are we soliciting feedback of people who live outside of Apex for a particular reason? No, we we we we don't have to. But I mean, there are people that don't live in Apex that attend the events. So, maybe it would be nice to just sort those out. Differentiate. Yeah. I don't think we should

thinking about moving here at some point Yeah. from nearby towns? towns? For the environmental concerns, were there any um write-ins that would be helpful that we could use? We did have write-ins last year um that were helpful. A lot of them were just like programming suggestions. Okay.

Um so, those were nice to have. A lot of people wrote in about development. Someone wrote charm. So, just anecdotal evidence. It's nice to have. I'm interested to see if um

the second to last and the one above, those two questions about were you familiar with our sustainability action plan and the tree canopy programs and our pollinator programs. I'm interested to see if we have more people check yes that they were aware this year. Um so, we'll see about that. Do we for the first question, is that um I guess like what's the intent of that? Do we feel like that's actionable? Well, it was for last year. So, last year our number one or the number one concern that people listed was tree canopy. So, that really spun off the whole tree canopy UDO subcommittee work that we've been doing. So, we do intend to take action on the results. Yeah. Yep. Did we get any many write-in ideas? We did. Um not a ton, but we got a good amount, I would say. I think we had I don't remember the exact number, but I think we had close to 90 people actually fill out the survey like completely uh complete it. So, I mean we had a good amount of people, more than I thought would actually take the time to stand there and answer. Um so, yeah. It was a It was a good amount of input. With no incentive, I assume. There's no incentive to to complete Yep. Yep. Do we want to put in a line for an age range? Um we did at the bottom. I think it just didn't make it on the sheet. I just didn't want to print it. But, we do. So, we have how old are you? And then we did like little radio buttons of different age ranges. I think that would be helpful. I can Yeah, I'll show it up here.

Yeah, it's But, it was down there. And we actually had some younger people fill it out. I don't know if we had anyone that clicked younger than 12, but we definitely had some 13 to 17 um year-olds fill it out. And this year at the top um under this section, I went ahead and included the link to the EAB webpage and the environmental programs webpage. So, people are there, they can follow those links. And remind me, Nora, last year did we left the survey open for a little bit after the event?

Yeah, I think we left it open definitely until the end of the month. Like, I think it was until the end of April. The folks who did use the QR code that they could go home and Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I think the uptake at the event was kind of low and we were like

Yeah. Yep. You would think the opposite. We were surprised, too. A lot of people said they were going to do it and then they don't. Yeah. I tried to get a lot of parents who the kids were playing the game and be like, "Well, while you're waiting, do the survey." Yep. And last year we just had the little um like a little stand. It was like one sheet that had the QR code. Do we want to do that yes again? Yeah. And we probably made made something uh about links to the board page and to the environmental sustainability page and In the in this new one? Well, not not in the survey itself, but I'm

Oh, but just on the table? Yeah. Yep. And would it be worthwhile to have just

like one sheet that has just like this that has the question, so we can be like, "Hey, it's not really that long and these are the Yeah. Yeah. That would be good. Just like an example. Yeah. Like example.

going to ask you. We can laminate it. I'll get it laminated. That always looks official.

[laughter]

Okay. Anything else?

Or for the second question for the environmental concerns, uh would you consider adding, um a checkbox for lighting {slash} noise pollution? Yes, we can add that. Both five or separate? Yeah. Um I we could do separate, yeah. I mean, I I think they're both important. Okay. Those are added now. Great. Anything else? I have a suggestion. Maybe you could ask like if they'd be interested in volunteering for the environmental programs, like Mhm. invasive species removal. Yeah, that is a good one. And I would say if you when you do do that, make sure we're also capturing there like if yeah like a drop down if yes, name and email so that we can

Yeah. contact them. That's a good idea. Thank you. Okay, keep in mind that this is anonymous, so they would have to provide some sort of contact Yeah. Maybe just like the link to the volunteer portal. Yeah, there is like a general there's like a general sign up volunteer or volunteer sign up, so like any new events that are posted, they can

[clears throat] sign up that way. Um but yeah, even if we linked just the link to the page, we could do that. But I mean, I don't think it would be I don't know if it would be bad necessarily if people wanted to give their email. I don't know. Thoughts on that? Can you set it up to be like they are interested in like their email optional and then a the link appear or sign up through You know what I mean?

Yeah. That's probably I'll have to mess around with Cognito and see if we can do that. And then who's responsible for any outreach to if someone says they are if it unless it could automatically send. Um well, it'll just go to the form results. So, like I'll go through them and send emails to Allison to the volunteer coordinator. Yeah, I like the email or just have the link pop up. I'll see if I can get that to work. Good. Anything else? And if you do think of anything, um again, just let me know cuz I can edit Sorry, I have two questions last two questions. Um yes.

Before this survey, were you familiar with Apex Sustainability Action Plan? What if someone is Do Do we mean before this event? Cuz they could complete the survey and still not be aware of the act.

Yeah, we let's change that. That's a good point. Are you familiar? Yeah. Yeah, and then the learn more and then same one for the

the the next one. Yeah.

Okay. Uh all right, got that updated. All right, anything else? Is this survey only given to the residents attending Earth Fest or is this something that's available Well, actually what we did last year was we put it on the webpage and I think we made a social post um saying or maybe it was a message in like the All in Apex newsletter. I think it was in All in Apex. That I think we had the survey open for like one more week and we linked it so people could fill it out that way. So, we could do that again. It's possible they don't attend Earth Fest and they still Yeah. Yep. I just imagine that the folks attending Earth Fest it's going to be a little bit you know, biased.

Yeah. Yeah.

love to hear about people who um you know, don't you know, get up to go do these things but what do they care about?

Yeah. Yep. Yeah, that's good. I'm making a note of that. Okay. Hey Nora. Yes.

Um I can't remember last year if we had um any type of board if we were doing any

in-person polling at all at the booth. Um I don't think we were, but sometimes what's helpful when we do planning booths is we'll have the initial the long form survey. Obviously, they can access via the phone or we can ask them questions, but sometimes just having maybe one question or two questions to ask them on the site and having maybe a board to write it down could be beneficial. A good question I thought off the top of head would be um asking, you know, on in your survey you ask are they aware of any of our sustainability programs? Ask them which one is their favorite. That'll open the dialogue they'll be like, oh, I don't know what they are, tell me about them, stuff like that. And then you can ask, you know, what do you think is the most important environmental factor facing Apex right now? And you might get a wide variety of answers. You might get some real generic ones, but then you can at least use that information to have further conversation. Yeah, I like that. That's a good idea. We did have a notebook one year where we had people write down, you know, what what they wanted before we started doing the survey. And it wasn't that useful. Some sometimes having it visually there so they walk by and read it will get them talking and get them wanting to interact with you on that. So, we all know data centers is a hot topic issue. Someone's going to walk by and they're going to say data centers. And so, other people going to read that and they're going to be like, oh, what's this about? And they might want to start talking about environmental issues. Do we have whiteboards? I I guarantee that we can get some type of large writing board for you, yeah. Or just like a a big pad. Yeah, big pads. I'm sure Shannon has has some stuff. We definitely have easels and such. Okay. Anything else Earth Fest related? I I have something. I I

um For the third question, select select up to three most important functions for the town's environmental programs team to undertake. Uh when I read habitat restoration, um are we reading about uh terrestrial ecosystems or also uh were you also thinking about um like cleaning up like the creeks and like the the streams and the lakes? I think that's included in that. Or like thinking about our invasive removal programs, like that kind of work as well. Okay. And I ask because I you know I I moved from South Florida and we always uh differentiated the two. Um we did a lot of uh really like imperiled habitat restorations where it was like planting very endangered flowers and trees, for example. But then all the Again, we had a coast, but all the coastal stuff and like the water was like its own separate thing.

Yeah. Yeah. So I just I guess I maybe have that mindset. Um yeah. I I That's a question that popped in my head. Wanted to know. Has the town ever done some sort of like terrestrial uh habitat restoration? Or has it always been like a cleaning up like waterways? Not Yeah, not that I know of. Um just cuz I've only been here a year, so I'm not At least in the year's time we haven't. Um I don't know about beforehand. But I know that we have been doing like stream cleanup work. Storm water has been doing that for a while. Um but I don't know about specific habitat restoration. But that would be awesome. I would love to get into that if we had you know a location uh that would work. Does the Does the town have uh some sort of like environmental uh department? Is it Would that fall under the parks? No, it's me. Well, maybe that could be a question. Maybe should we have a department for um conservation or Uh and that's kind of what my role has been so far with the town is trying to like get everyone across departments that has a little

piece of the environmental world together. So, now we have like an acting environmental programs team. We meet monthly and talk about, you know, the different events that we have going on, but there's no unified department. So, and like I'm in the planning department. Right. So, there's a lot of interdepartmental work. We're working together, but there's no one department again. And that's one more person than we had a couple of years ago.

Yeah. So, what [clears throat] a question should we have a environmental department? Should that be a question? Because I would check that box. Yeah, we could add that. I like that. It isn't quite environmental, but it is we had a sustainability department before. And we still have the And well, we still have the sustainability coordinator position, but he's in the budget department. So, we're all spread out.

multiple hats being Is it Phil? No, it's Dawn. Dawn Reeves. Which, um, like we had Phil and Allison come and talk. I want Dawn to come present to the board soon. We just got busy with the data center subcommittee and everything else this month, but um, I'm going to try to get him to come soon talk about the action plan. Remember a long time ago they tried to do, uh, Beaver Creek, I think. Oh.

again? And I don't know whether it was the town or not. But the problem was I think they they fixed it. But the storm water situation as it is with the 10-year storm, it got blown out the next year or two. Oh, yeah.

it was it you almost have to go back and and fix fix the the correction.

threat.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

All right. I think we're good with Earth Best items. Um if we have any questions before next Saturday, just email me or I think some of you have my number, you can text me as well. Okay. We'll jump into the tree subcommittee presentation. Um we just had a subcommittee meeting. We've been editing the slides as we go, but we haven't practiced presenting this yet, so uh don't think too poorly of me. And a lot of this is um I know we have some new members, but a lot of this information, especially the background information, is um things that we already went over when I gave those initial tree canopy presentation. So, for the sake of time, I'm going to zoom through the background. Um and again, this is Let me back up and say this is the work that the tree canopy subcommittee has been working on since When did we start meeting? Summer of last year? Yeah, like okay, like fall of last year. Um so, we've been working on it for a minute now, um and we're going to be presenting this to town council at the work session on the 30th. So, today we're getting feedback from you guys um to see if there's anything that we're missing, anything you guys want included. um especially once we get to the recommendations. But, just for background, um what is urban tree canopy? It's the layers of leaves and the branches that provide shade. Urban tree canopy also buy Um a lot of our work is based off the Wake County tree canopy assessment that happened back in 2018.

Um we're losing 2,000 acres of tree canopy. It was a 15% decrease in total canopy um and a 9% decline in canopy um related to the overall land cover of Wake County. So, I I don't think I have to tell you guys why tree canopy matters. Um you know, helps our air quality, your water quality, reduces heat island effect, um it benefits public health. We love to be outside. All of these good reasons. And we know that preserving tree canopy is a community priority because our Earth Fest survey from last year, um the number one environmental concern that people listed was loss of tree canopy. But, currently, we're um a part of Arbor Day's Tree City USA Foundation. You guys know this. Um we were recently awarded the Tree Line USA certification um through our electric department. Um Game Plan Apex, we list tree canopy as a priority there. We have our Plant the Peak program. And then I mentioned the Earth Fest survey. So, the purpose of the presentation, why we're at the Town Council meeting on the 30th, is to offer code recommendations to strengthen the long-term protection of trees and natural area here in Apex. So, our recommendations are informed by, again, that 2018 Wake County um trees and stormwater survey, best practices from uh peer municipalities and then other municipalities around the country and then a document that was created by the Cape Fear Alliance for trees. It's called Code and Canopy. So, we're hoping that council direction um we'll get council direction for staff to advance some of their priority strategies. So, here's just a snapshot of our current town tree policies. Not going to read through all of these now with you guys. We did talk about those um in my presentations a couple months ago.

But, you can see we've already got a lot of good um code and policies written in. But, we can always do better. So, here are um subcommittee recommendations. So, we split them up into a best and a better category and they're not um you'll see they're numbered coming up, but the numbers don't influence the rank. We're just numbering them for the sake of having a number. So, we can go back to them. So, here are our best or highest priority recommendations. Hire a dedicated urban forester. Um and we're hoping that this urban forester could create our urban forestry master plan. Um it would be great to have one person in town that's solely focused on doing this work. Um I don't have a forestry background. I have a marine science background, so it's definitely not trees. There's no trees in the ocean. Um so, I'm learning a lot of this as I go. And then we have a lot of people across departments that are also doing tree preservation work, but it would be great to have one person to kind of steer the ship with our initiatives. So, currently there's no dedicated position that does this. Um and then reviews again are done by our planners and our zoning compliance officers. And that's just one piece of all of the other work that they're doing. So, it would be great to take that off of their plates. So, our recommendation is to amend the UDO to formally establish a chief urban forester role that can kind of oversee all of this work. And so, we've listed some um example chief urban forester job duties. I think we actually took this from Carrie, but same kind of um duties would apply here to interpret, administer, and enforce the provisions of section um 8.1.2, resource conservation, and our landscaping, buffering, and screening section of the UDO.

To lead and supervise our tree regulation review, enforcement, compliance. Um I won't read through all of them, but you can see they have a lot of work that they would be able to do in town. So, number two is to review um the RCA criteria. So, we're asking to amend um section 8 of the UDO to prohibit or reduce the credit that's allowed for impervious surfaces, um like private recreation areas, pools, tennis courts, tot lots that all count towards RCA. So, the stated purpose of RCA is to preserve those natural areas and preserve wildlife habitat, um but allowing those paved surfaces is doing the opposite. So, um we're asking to restrict or eliminate those impervious surfaces um that credit under that section of the RCA.

[clears throat]

Is that on going forward? Sorry, did Sorry, were you just saying someone else's comment? I'm sorry, what'd you say? I I said that was your provision for the play lot that got in there. Like counting the uh to encourage the play lawns Yeah. to move it be modified to be built by the UDO back. Yeah. Which on the spot I thought it was all right. But like it was it was in there because we wanted to encourage developments to create more play areas for kids. So the idea was coordinated towards RCA. Yeah. That's I'm sorry I couldn't I couldn't hear you fully. Yeah. So maybe the recommendation is to have those play lawns but the grass ones maybe just not the paved concrete. Yeah. You're okay with that. Yeah. But the the general point I made is correct that like what's happened over the years is we have these strong RCA requirements but if you look at the UDO now there's a bunch of car routes. Yeah. And you have that stuff like I don't know what else is in there I think. Storm water ponds are probably in there.

Yeah. Talk about other ones too. We talked about credits for solar panels too at one point. Never actually happened but it was like you know, our RCA budget is sort of like one of the levers that we have to make people do stuff. All right. Next up is to establish champion and heritage trees. So we're asking to designate trees of exceptional size, age, or cultural value. You can see we have some um criteria listed. Um currently in the code we do have specimen trees that are hardwood trees that are greater than 18 in caliper. Um but we don't have any enhanced protections or designations um or mitigation ratios for those trees. And then side note just for our group. But we have um throughout some of these slides you'll see that we have example code language from that code and canopy document. So I think what we're going to do is do like a separate slide just to have that example language. Um and if you know, council or whoever wants to go back and look at that, um they can have that but we won't read the whole thing during the presentation.

[clears throat]

So, next up is to protect critical root zone. Um we're asking to update uh the CRZ definition to include all trees um including those that are under 8 in diameter at breast height um and stand-alone trees. So, why is that important? Um it helps to protect tree health and longevity. It prevents soil compaction and helps to maintain those structural stabilities of the tree. Let me put an example in here. This is actually from Baltimore, but we thought this was the best um illustration to show. So, you can see um in their code trees that are greater than 8 in DBH um they have a 1-in

uh radius around the CRZ. So, if it's a 10-in DBH tree the critical root zone is 10 in. So, if trees are 8 in or smaller um or if that like this example, it's a 6-in tree, but they have that two extra inches of the critical root zone. So, it's eight radius. And stand-alone trees as well it's uh 1-in diameter breast height, 1 and 1/2 radius for the critical root zone. So, we're recommending that as well. Yeah, just to follow up with that Nora. It's it's for every inch of caliper, it's a foot. Uh with the ratio. So, a 10-in tree would have a 10-ft critical root zone area. And currently it's a 1:1 ratio in Apex where what we've done is we've seen that in some other places that have gotten more serious about extending those because they don't feel that it really encompasses what the critical root zone is actually stretching into as it grows. Um next up is standardizing town policies regarding landscaping. Um so, we're asking number one to go ahead and adopt the native plant UDO that the EAB has been working on since 2024. Um that would make town landscaping required to use 100% native plants. And we're asking um for that to be adopted, but then also for that interdepartmental work to come together to make sure we're actually following through with those policies. So, moving into our better category, um our like medium priority level, again, they're not ranked, but we're just numbering them. Um the first up is tree mitigation fund. So, we're asking to create a dedicated tree mitigation fund. Um our example's modeled off Charlotte's program. This would require contractors and any supervisors to complete um a tree preservation training as well. So, we're asking for this um because

these um mitigation funds we've seen, they can help to fund programs like um in Charlotte, they have a tree canopy preservation program. So, that's basically land acquisition. Um they have a tree canopy care fund. So, that's for their private tree plantings and for maintenance with those trees. And then they also have a street tree planting program that they fund through their mitigation fund. Next up is landscape standards for new development. So, we're asking for greater than 75% um native plants required in all landscape plans. Uh less than or equal to 25% of those max speed uh per species or cultivar. So, um trying to break up those monocultures. And then we're also asking for 600 cubic feet um minimum soil volume for large canopy trees. Uh we know that monocultures are very vulnerable to pest, to large uh or diseases. And those diversity help to bolster that resilience to those pests. And then adequate soil volume is critical for those large trees to be able to reach their full health. So currently um the code does require native and adaptive species, but there's no set percentages for those. Um so we're asking to set those thresholds. The 600 cubic feet, is that I'm sorry for Does it apply to parking lots and things like that, too? Because That's what I would assume. Bruce, do we know? Um current current I mean, this would be something we'd work towards. Uh right now though, size-wise, the your parking islands are usually for large trees are 350 ft or 250 ft for smaller understory trees. Um so this would be something that we would amend and probably have to do additional research on exactly to find out how that we could implement the best kind of cubic area for the parking islands and those type of trees.

Uh this is some of that example code language again. Um but you can see like we wouldn't have to do too much um research to find this language in the code and canopy document. They have really great examples laid out already. Next up is incentivizing preservation or flexible standards. And if you have questions, I'm going to refer to Bruce on some of these because again, this is I don't have a planning background. Um but we're asking to grant density incentives um for bonus dwelling units for projects that preserve greater than or equal to 25% of the existing canopy. And then we're also asking to allow dimensional reductions or setbacks for projects that exceed canopy standards greater than or equal to 25%. Um and all the research that we've been doing, we've seen that these positive incentives can be more effective than penalties in encouraging these developers to actually integrate tree preservation into their planning from the very beginning. So, we're asking again to create that formal canopy preservation and incentive program with those defined thresholds in the UDO. And again, that's some example code language. Next up is requiring resource management plans. So, we're asking for RMPs for projects that are over 2 acres, including early-stage professional tree inventories and surveys that are done by those certified arborist. This is to ensure that those existing trees are accurately identified and that they're protected in the design process, which helps to improve our preservation outcomes to avoid that canopy loss. And again, just some example code language. And then last up is mandating alternative routing analysis, and we're

thinking specifically to utilities, but we'll have to look into if that could apply to other areas. But, we're asking to require those routing analysis for essential services that might impact trees um and to do that through coordination if we have an urban forester um to get those preliminary planning set in place to route around. Uh again that example code language at the bottom. You can move to the next slide. And then this is just a chart, a wrap-up of all of the policy and this programmatic goals or recommendations. Um got them split up into our high, our best, and then our lower better categories. And then that's it. So, questions. And then the next steps we're thinking um to get council directive to ask what are their highest priority items and then hopefully once we know that staff will start working on UDO amendments getting that process started. If there is an urban forester position added or if that's one of their priorities and get that discussion started. And then you guys will continue to do the good work that you're doing already with trees for the triangle the tree City Arbor Day Foundation program and everything else we have in the works. That's it. So any anything we want added any questions any feedback anything? This was This was a group effort. This was a lot of work. So thanks to the subcommittee members.

It looks wonderful. The only thing I comes to my mind I hope we don't come up against state rules that spank us. Yeah. That's a concern. Yeah, that is.

I think I think it looks great. I think clearly a lot of thought and effort was put into it. Um I hesitate a little I know you said that the numbers are the it's not like a rank.

Yeah. But I hesitate to maybe make the first suggestion of hiring Yeah.

role. Yeah. Um for various reasons but um Yeah, I'm we could

other than that I think it looks great.

We could move that. I'm not saying remove it. I'm just saying

Yeah, just move it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we could do that. Anything else? Is there something glaringly obvious that we're missing. Do we want to ask for like a certain timeline for decision-making or anything or Ooh. Maybe. I don't know about that. I don't know. I imagine they'll all come at different Wait, what do you mean just council kind of approve it or not? Yeah. feedback Yeah. So, is it going to a work session? Yes. Yeah. I imagine we'll get feedback in the work session. Okay. Right? Um maybe in the process maybe you might refer it to the planning staff and say you guys comment on all this so that I don't I don't have any final decisions. We may have a project pretty quick. Some direction will be given in general and then you know, probably want to get public feedback as well on these changes, you know, um there's a lot of different um communities and interest groups that all want to have their say as well, so Yeah, I think at the at the work session we'll get some general direction and probably looking for feedback and then

develop staff or tell staff to develop some final proposals and we'll have to go through the usual UDO process that we talked about earlier where it goes to the planning board Would you guys like to come back to you first before it goes up to the planning work session? I think that would be a process, too. I think we would need to make a full recommendation for these things to council for the council to consider I agree, yeah. I think you I think you have a subcommittee recommendation full board recommendation and changes if you wanted to. And then council. But what I'm saying is um so eventually this will be drafted some subset of them hopefully into actual language and you know, if you guys don't approve of that, have it come back to you to see what's going to happen. Because the the normal process is it would go to planning board. The statutory process is planning board and then council. What we talked about earlier. But this case is different. Go to council, come back to you, whatever happens, and then whenever you get the final language. It could be many months from now. I'm not sure how long one time this stuff usually takes to actually operate. But we do we do amendments on the one month cycle. And there's stuff scheduled for each month that probably got on the calendar for some month in the future. I think it'd be great if they could come back to us. Yeah, that's reasonable. Yeah. Yeah. And and when it comes back to you, we could have the discussion of a lot of plans we'll do kind of implementation timelines. You could provide recommendations at that time that the planning board and council can review, take those recommendations into account when they think about it. Okay. Anything else? I I have a question about the data early on. I think you showed a map of canopy cover. Yes.

In Apex. You said that data set is from 2018.

Yes, and I think that's the most recent one. I don't think there's been another one done yet for Wake County. Yeah, so I figured if you had a more recent one, you would have used a more recent one.

Yeah. I I did have a question. I I I for one I love data sets and, you know, visual things. The only note I have is maybe some data on temperature rise in Apex. Kind of like average temperatures. I imagine that's there's even less canopy cover now at seven Yeah. Right. Almost eight years later. Um I would love to see something on on temperature rise. Like how hot has Apex gotten now that we have less canopy cover. Um there are there are a handful of cities across the world who have moved towards regaining some of that canopy um and their temperatures have dropped like 1.5° C on average Yeah. which is I mean three a little bit over 3° sounds like nothing. But But it adds up. Yeah. Yeah. Um I think that would be a good maybe selling point. And actually um I'm glad that you brought that up. Um the a few of us from the environmental programs team, the state climate office is doing an extreme heat cohort program. So we've been in that cohort and we were actually paired with NC State master students in the GIS program and they made maps for us because we didn't have maps before of um the plant the peak trees, like just the locations of where we give trees away. So we have maps of that now. We have maps of our Arbor Day planting trees. And then they did an overlay map of heat islands um around town. So like you can see completely on the downtown strip, it's completely red. But then like all of our

parks are blue, green, uh very cool. So we have a lot of those maps now that we're just waiting to get them from state. Um so they'll be public and we'll have those online. Um and I can probably put screenshots of that in this. I just hadn't thought to do that yet. So yeah, thank you for reminding me of that.

[clears throat]

When we talk about heat islands, um this board recommended that we look at coding our parking lots white or not quite white, but Phoenix does that. Phoenix does their roads. And that seemed to disappear. I don't know what happened to it. We even talked about just white roofs in the cohort. Yeah. But it it just went down a rabbit hole someplace. Yeah. We can get

Look at that. Yeah, we can look into that.

Especially the town. To use the town as an example. Yep. So do they just paint? They coat it. Now I and I I looked up This has been some time ago. Uh Phoenix got into it. Of course, they're one hell of a hot zone. Yeah. And uh it would be interesting to see what data they have. It's how to You know, the concern is obviously if it's going to get worn off. Yeah. But if they're doing Like if they just paint, it'll get chipped off and after a couple years it'll be Yeah. The and and certainly roadways. And they did roadways, I believe. Um but parking lots are certainly a lot less uh The question is how much more is that going to cost the developers to to do that? Whatever it is, they'll complain.

[laughter]

Sure will. And I would be curious, too. I mean, because since then sort of people become more aware of microplastics and that kind of stuff breaking down in the environment. So But it doesn't have to be obviously I don't I don't

We could find out what they used. Yeah. To uh to coat it. And if they're still doing it. And if they're still doing it. Yeah, what their success rate was. I was wondering So to Daniel's point about data, is there anything else So the the bottom bullet point there mentions like the value of the canopy. Do we have any other data that supports especially if you're going to ask her a full-time position, like what's the besides altruistic like what's the value to some of these efforts, which I know would be really hard to quantify, but um are there any downstream positive effects like that we attempt to Um yeah, I'm sure there's data out there about that. fairly in depth. Yeah. Yeah, it might just be worth plugging a few more things that can And I'm sure now like extension, I bet they have information too or like um cooperative extension. Wake Wake County actually got into planting yearly 1-year-old seedlings and monitored it over I think 5 years or something. I don't know what the time rate was to see how green kind of it got and they got some really I think they have good data on that. Okay. And I mean soon I think there will be better data coming out. I think there's like I think it's like a 1-m resolution land cover data set that's not too far out from being released. Um so there should be some better data coming out.

All right, are you guys ready for the work shop? Yes. Do we need to make a motion on this or Yeah, we need to make a motion to recess uh take a recess to re- and reconvene upstairs in 10 minutes.

to make a motion Oh, on this? Since it was a subcommittee recommendation.

Oh, yes. Good point. I need to call get a motion on presenting these slides as updated by Nora? I move. Okay, thanks, Susan. Do I have a second?

Second. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passed. Next is a meeting we need to take a right recess uh 10-minute recess to walk upstairs, get into the training room. Susan's going to provide us some great data on how she evaluates um the changes that they're they're asking for and such. Um do I have a motion to recess for 10 minutes? I move we have a recess to consider I have a second? I second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. See you up there at 10 minutes from now.

Woo.