Yeah.

I just got there and just very much.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I just have a presentation.

Oh, I think something definitely probably and cross the slowness.

And then I was just thinking about this way.

And it's a fine.

Yeah, everyone was very few as well.

Is that what we have to say?

Yeah.

It it might be how seat.

I don't know.

I've been here for two minutes, so I'm going to break it off.

But yeah, of course.

I could reference it to that point.

I just wanted to unlock it.

Yeah, she doesn't work on that.

She just should be on the phone.

Well, you can have to actually do the loading part and take the time.

So I have to have it so it's great.

So I mean I think we can discuss it after the light thing.

I think what was your information that we got.

Um that's great.

We can do it whatever makes it easier.

I have gotten any submissions yet because the deadline isn't until about the sixth of April.

So that have distributed it to all of the money.

Um they were receptive to it.

But again, I could have five submissions where I could have you with the labored.

And we could do it online too.

If you want to do it, I mean we could take a photo of each one of the ones we chose selected, and then maybe you could rank them, and then we can rank them all.

So we combine the rankings just like that.

And that would make it easy.

That's an easy way to do it.

Sure.

And then people could do it individually.

As opposed to a meeting to take up meeting time.

Would that be easier to speak?

Yes, just make it.

I think it would be good to get a good idea.

But well, that's the end of the book.

Well, the names would I would hide the names.

I didn't specifically ask them to put their name on the thing, but you know what I mean.

Yeah, no, no, I do, but I'm also wanting to include in the sustainability.

That's great.

To give it more public recognition, yeah, we'll still be good.

Why don't you work out whatever you think is best how you buy it?

Let me know.

Okay.

It can be online.

It could be because I'm giving awards to the stated five finalists.

So that would be on plastics.

And a couple of early people could help reduce it to five.

And then you can write them.

You can write them however you want.

Or it would be voluntary if you want to do it that way.

Or if you don't want to be included in this, then that's fine.

And so the board people it could be voluntary for the board if they feel uncomfortable.

I don't know how it works.

So I just it's just uh ladieship.

Like the logistics of it.

Well, who would we ask to get that?

Because I've gotten permission from the school district.

They honored that.

So would you want me to ask the mayor if that's okay?

Um do you want me to I'm happy to go to someone uh say it's okay or um I just I just have to go back to the board and by the clerks.

I don't I know how things have gotten disentangled these days.

Yeah, and I don't want to make it complicated.

And if you would choose to just not be involved in that class of the data, but the recognition is because that sounds great.

I don't want to make it hard.

Although I see just work too.

I just like uh rules and it says motion carry zero zero.

Can we vote to pass it to the channel?

I decided to do it.

I didn't catch it.

Yeah, so it's under now.

Well, yeah, all of it's the one.

So that was actually in the problem.

Yeah.

But then we can just do the actual motion currently.

I guess it was five or four six.

Oh, but first make them change the motion carrying six six zero.

Yeah, sure.

Um welcome to the March 11th meeting of the Sustainability Advisory Board.

Good evening and welcome to the March 11th meeting of the Sustainability Advisory Board.

Before we begin, I'd like to explain the various ways to participate in tonight's meeting.

First, you can join us here in person in the commission room, or you can join us remotely by going to Bozeman.net and clicking on the meetings tab where you'll find the agenda for this meeting.

Click the link on the agenda page to join.

You can provide public comment on an agenda item by using the raise your hand feature.

We take public comment in the room first and then move online.

Lastly, this board has decided to refer to one another on a first name basis for ease of communication.

With that, I call the March 11th meeting of the Sustainability Advisory Board to order.

Natalie, are there any changes to the agenda?

There are no changes to the agenda.

Okay.

Are there any disclosures board members would like to make on tonight's agenda?

Okay, no disclosures.

Would anyone like to approve the minutes from the January 14th meeting?

Um we do I will propose an amendment to change the motion carried to 6-0.

Second to that.

What?

Did I move it by doing the amendment?

Um I I think typically someone who's not the facilitator of the meeting needs to make the motion for the um the minutes.

So we'll get a motion from another board member, and then that same board member can move to amend the main motion for for that um change of of the vote count.

So I move to pass the minutes with the amendment.

I second that motion with the amended of the to approve the amended.

Okay.

And this is the vote for the amendment.

Yes.

Kristen?

Aye.

Brooke?

Aye.

Nick?

Aye.

Kendra.

Aye.

Motion passes.

So now we'll need to vote on the main motion.

Yep.

Um do the thing again.

Move to approve the minute.

Move to approve the minutes as amended.

Yes.

Okay.

I second that motion to approve the amendment as amended.

Okay, Kesley.

Can you please facilitate the vote?

Kristen.

Aye.

Brooke, aye.

Nick, aye.

Kendra.

Aye.

Motion pass.

I'm back.

It's all tricky start to the meeting.

Are there any FYIs anyone on the board would like to share?

I think we have one from Natalie.

Go ahead, first.

Um I do have one.

Um there will be a presentation on campus.

Uh MSU's campus, Senator Tester, among some other speakers will be featured on a panel event about the importance of public things on Friday, April 10th from 5 to 7:30.

Um, and you can find the information on the events calendar.

Can I also hop in here and just say hello?

Um you all have have met me now.

My name's Emma Bodie, and I'm the um uh city commissioner currently, and I'm hopping on this board as your city commission liaison for the next two years if everything goes well.

Um I'm just really excited to be back.

I chaired this board as several of you know a few years ago, and it's just really cool to come back to this space in a different seat and see some familiar faces and some new faces.

So um, yeah, I look forward to working with you all.

Thanks for being here.

All right, thank you, Commissioner Bodhi.

We're very happy to have you back.

And um good evening, members of the board.

Um I just wanted to really highlight um some upcoming events for April.

Of course, there's always a lot of Earth Day events, and our flagship um event is the Bozeman Cleanup Week, which has been hosted for um many, many years, a couple decades, and um was really um initiated by the Bozeman Beatification Advisory Board and the volunteers um involved there.

So we are continuing to carry that torch and um it's transition from a cleanup day to a real cleanup week, and in fact, people can clean up year-round um by requesting the the bags from the city of Bozeman and the equipment.

So technically, one could clean up any time, but this is an opportunity to convene as a community to just clean up the community and share in that pride of Bozeman.

So how it works, you can register yourself or a group online at our website, Bozeman.net slash cleanup.

You can also just show up and pick up your cleanup kit and equipment from the Gallatin Valley Earth Day Festival on Saturday, April 25th.

We'll be hosting a table there from 9 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

where you can get your your bags and vests and a further description of best practices and cleaning up.

And then we ask people to leave their filled bags along the boulevard and tied up along the boulevard, and our solid waste staff will come and pick up those bags because they are specially colored green or yellow.

And people are again welcome to clean up throughout the week and we'll keep track of how many bags we collect.

And it's it's just a fun community event.

And we do encourage people to submit pictures and share, share in the fun.

So I mentioned the Gallatin Valley Earth Day celebration, and just want to flag when you go to their website.

And there's some really neat upcoming events with a friend of our program, Julia Ryder, discussing uh heat and drought, and her emphasis is on human health.

And then another upcoming event, April 8th, um focused on grassland ecosystem health and Keystone Species.

And this already occurred, but the Zero Waste Living Simplified.

This is supposed to be a really fun, um, interesting talk.

And then at the actual festival, I'll go back to that agenda.

Um there's this is again April 25th at the Gallatin Valley Fairgrounds.

There's exhibits, talks, music, food, children activities.

Um most of this starts around 10 with a magic show, a petting zoo, um, face painting, and then some of the talks, a water wise workshop hosted by the City of Bozeman's water conservation division, um a composting workshop at noon, and then um a fan favorite, the live Raptor presentation at one.

So you're all invited to come out and participate.

It's um a really well-attended fun community event.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

Any other FYIs.

Okay.

Um now I'll ask if there's any public comment on non-agenda items in person.

Sorry.

Thanks, Natalie.

Thank you, Emma, and the rest of you.

Christy.

Um, my name is Terry Quatrero, and um it was really fun listening to the cleanup day because back in 97 um I was on the beautification board, and uh it started out as um very something very simple and became a grand event with the mayor flipping burgers and doing all that kind of stuff.

So that I didn't want to take up my three minutes explaining that, but I do want to thank Natalie for um and the sustainability board for continuing that very successful and very um positive activity coming from the city of Bozeman.

And that was one thing I enjoyed the most being on the beautification board was that the two things we did, beautification awards and also um the cleanup day were very positively recepted, accepted by the city and uh I mean by the public, and um that positivity spread to how they felt about the city uh board and such.

So it was lots of fun.

Lots of work too.

And I also, uh, in regards to Earth Day, which is why I'm speaking.

I'm doing it like a youngster here, and I have it on my phone, so pardon me if I have to use my glasses and take a time because it's still hard to read.

Um I want to also commend Ann Ready because all of what you saw on that screen.

I mean, every little item is due to the work of Anne Ready.

Um, she's been doing this now for about five years, and it's very successful.

It's grown immensely.

And um also thank you to the solid waste Bozeman uh for streamlining the cleanup day the way it's going now.

It's really quite amazing and spreading it out and letting people do their own thing.

Uh so again, I'm Terry Quatrero.

I was on the beautification board for about 23 years, and also on the Gallatin County Solid Waste Board for two and a half years.

Um, and I'm here because I want to help promote citywide the sustainability and reduce the use of single-use plastics.

It comes from the ordinance that was overwhelmingly passed a couple years ago, 63% to ban plastic, and I know that part of it is under um court right now because of the ban on bans, but there was also part of that ordinance that doesn't talk specifically about banning plastic, and that was that the city of Bozeman would help promote or explain to retailers and the public the importance of not using plastic or to put it another way, the harmful effects of microplastics.

So I want to ask the board, I'll read this, to promote sustainability and reduce the use of single-use plastics, as was voted overwhelmingly in the city residents, and to create a healthy earth healthy you.

That's the theme for Earth Day this year.

I'm asking the board to help the in the following ways to remind the public to bring their reusable bags into the store when they're shopping.

Um Valley Beyond Plastics and Gallant Valley Earth Day are sponsoring a contest for fourth and fifth graders in the public schools in the county to create a poster.

And um in any way that this sustainability board can help out with that.

Um all I I've distributed the posters, I've taught I've talked to all the schools, and I will be receiving the posters and picking them up, so I will be doing that.

The two boards that I just mentioned will go over the applicants and select what we think might be some of the finalists, and we're just asking if it's possible, if it can be worked out without any laborious details or taking up too much of your time to have you look over some of the finalists and give us some suggestions on what you think might be a good way to remind people to bring their reusable bags from the car into the store.

That's the number one reason people don't use reusable, really use really reusable bags.

Um the other thing I'm asking is that Gallant Valley Beyond Plastic, if you would allow or like to choose some representatives from that board, we would be happy to volunteer to help in in-house in the city set up posters.

We would provide the posters, we would perhaps provide some of the receptacles so that just within the city hall itself and any other ways we can to promote individuals' understanding that bringing a plastic water bottle is probably not the most preferred way, and also it has a ton of microplastics in it.

Um that's the second thing.

Um I'm also asking that this board review information submitted by an expert.

We have an expert who has actually started her own nonprofit regarding um the medical aspects of the um harmful effects of microplastics.

So she's quite knowledgeable on that.

And she also was formally working for the National Beyond Plastics organization.

And she has agreed to help set up a link or some information with your approval and of course the cities in regards to research she has done and the groups she's involved with have done in the harmful effects of microplastics.

What we're trying to do is bring a public awareness to that.

And in that case, hopefully reducing the use of single-use plastics.

And then I'm done.

Thank you for listening.

I appreciate it.

And just get back to me in any way you can, or let Natalie know and she can let me know how we can help, or if you want to participate in whatever ways you as a board decide.

That's approved by the city commission.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much.

We do.

Go ahead.

There we go, Marcia.

I believe you should be able to talk.

Hi, thank you.

It's Marcia Cafe, Bozeman resident.

And in addition, hopefully you all got the letter I sent today with the comments for the folks doing the IWRP and also for your work plan for the sustainability board.

But I just realized I neglected to invite you all, or a few of you if you have to worry about quorums, to the Bozeman Tree Coalition second annual meeting.

It's on Tuesday night, March 31st, and it's from 6 30 to 7 30.

Doors open at 6 15.

It's at the Bozeman Community Library in the large community room.

And this year's theme is expanding Bozeman's Tree Canopy.

And we have about 23 email subscribers that will all be invited to.

Last year we had fewer, but and about 30 or 40 people attended, but we want it to keep growing.

And it's a great opportunity to learn firsthand about the exciting program between Gallatin Watershed Council, Green Infrastructure from Virginia, and the City of Bozeman's Forestry Division, who are all working together on the project called Branch Out Bozeman, which I'm sure you're all familiar with.

The speakers include Matt Lee, the director of forest conservation with Green Infrastructure Center, and Jared Trilling, local uh project manager with the Gallatin Watershed Council.

And they are both directly involved with the city and we'll be speaking about the BOB program.

And life refreshments and door prizes will be provided.

So wanted to invite you and see if a few of you could make it.

Thanks.

That's it.

Thank you very much for that comment.

Natalie, did you could we just ask Marcia to repeat the date and time?

Apologies.

Sure.

Marcia, could you please repeat the date and time and maybe location of that meeting?

Sure, happy to.

Thank you.

The date is the last day of this month.

So Tuesday, March 31st, from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m.

at the Bozeman Community Library, the large room.

And doors will open for people to come in.

We'll have some tablers there at about 6.15 p.m.

And then we have the two speakers.

Matt Lee will be via Zoom and Jared will be in person.

Was that too fast?

No, I think we got it.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Any other public comment online?

No.

Okay.

So with that, we'll move to the main agenda items.

First up is the Water Advisory Committee for the Integrated Water Resources Plan Update and Alternatives by myself, Brooke Loniman.

So I will go up to the podium.

Okay, is this yes, this is on.

Hi everyone.

Um nice to see you again.

I presented um an update in January, and there were some questions from the board.

So I um gathered some information based on your questions, and I'm here to present an update.

Um just a reminder.

Um, so I am representing this board on the WAC, the Water Advisory Committee for the Integrated Water Resources Plan update.

Just a reminder, it was last updated in 2023.

Um, and this is mostly around water supply issues under the purview of the city of Bozeman.

Um the purpose of this water advisory committee is to bring together diverse set of perspectives that reflect the community to help shape the future of the water resources.

Um this is like this board advisory to the Bozeman City Commission, uh, providing insight and recommendations grounded in community values and technical expertise.

I'm part of the public advisory committee.

We also have um people with technical expertise.

Um, so we will provide input on the all alternatives that were provided and develop a formal recommendation to the city of Bozeman.

Um in response to a question on the water users in the city.

Um Jessica Alstrom helped me out with this uh split between 64% residential and 23% commercial of the residential water use.

40% of that goes into lawns and landscapes, usually in the summertime.

Um this is a big improvement since the conservation program of the city began.

It was about 50% at that time, um, and now down to about 40%.

So 10% reduction in um kind of lawn and landscape water use.

Um and then the total surface water rights in the Gallatin Valley Basin is 15,000 um CFS, which is a volume number.

Um approximate use from the city of Bozeman to put that in perspective is about 19 CFS.

Climate change assumptions were another question that I received, and we're not quite there yet, is is what I heard.

So one of the consulting firms on the prop project, AE2S, uh, one of the technical consulting firms, they will be writing up a memo on all the basis of the planning assumptions.

We don't have that memo yet.

Um I will provide hard numbers to you all once I have them from the city.

Um, but whatever they are, we're planning to use the worst case scenario assumptions for the impacts of climate change on the yield from our municipal watersheds.

So I'll have to get back to you on the exact numbers.

So now I'm gonna go through the universe of all possible alternatives that we are uh looking at as a WAC.

Um and I just want to preface this with a couple of things.

One is that this is a complete uh list of alternatives, so like a universe of all possibilities.

We're going to whittle those down and uh you know come up with a kind of smaller list to um advise to the city.

Um this list, so this list does not represent final recommendations for priorities, uh, really just potential strategies.

Also um alternatives from the 2013 IWERP are included, but they just might be um uh their name might be a little revised.

Also, some alternatives that the city is actively pursuing based on the previous IWERP are also included in the document.

So really it is all the possible universe.

It's like some to keep doing, maybe do a little differently, some to add water conservation measures are not included, but they will be discussed in more detail uh with the WAC, and then I'll pass them on to you at a later date.

Also, I am not part of the technical committee, so I will answer your questions to the best of my ability on particular alternatives.

Um just a reminder uh of what we're like how we're gonna rate these alternatives, um technical dimensions in terms of like in existing infra infrastructure compatibility, water rights, environmental, like are we complying with environmental laws, what is the carbon footprint, et cetera.

Social having to do with you know our health and well-being in the valley uh in the city, economic um in terms of you know the costs, capital investment, economies of scale of the alternatives, and then of course, all of these two support water supply and how well do they do that, considering long-term things like redundancy, climate resiliency, et cetera.

So there are 10 categories of alternatives.

Um what I'm really looking for is um, I mean, if you have thoughts on very specific alternatives, I would love to hear it.

But are it maybe if there are categories that you think should be elevated or not elevated, that might be the best way to go about this just because there are so many.

So, yeah, if any individual alternatives kind of stand out as like that's the one or no goes, then maybe mention those, but otherwise we'll focus on the categories.

And I will have a QR code for the survey that the um IWERP group is circulating right now for input from the from the public.

So I'll have that QR code at the end for you all.

It says it only takes five to ten minutes.

Okay.

You should have you got this list in the agenda, so hopefully you can have those in notes in front of you.

The first category is just on sourdough physical storage.

So we have the highlight dam, and they're talking one of the alternatives I should say is to construct a dam at sourdough as well.

So it could be a single large dam, um consolidate and maximize the use of legally available storage volume.

It could be multiple low head dams, um, it could be naturalized storage, could be a combination of these things.

Um the naturalized storage, from what I understand, is going to be more costly and more maintenance.

I it would be kind of more mimicking natural systems, but it would be a lot of uh for the city to manage.

Um, but it could potentially be done in combination with these other um alternatives.

So that's the kind of building some kind of dam infrastructure at sourdough.

Um this category talks about water reclamation facility, um kind of with our existing um water reclamation facility that we have down by um East Gallatin.

The East Gallatin.

Um we did get to tour this facility in um January, which is really interesting to see.

So some of these really all have to do with treating using that non-potable um effluent for irrigation in various ways.

So in new developments within city limits, um, outside simul city limits for industrial users.

There is one number five.

Oop, it's a touch screen.

Um that is uh for using it for turning it into potable water.

That would take a huge upgrade at our current water reclamation facility.

Um the other ones installing purple pipe, like effluent reuse for um irrigation for parks and green space would also take, you know, that's what the asterisk says it would take some additional treatment of effluent, but it wouldn't be the amount of infrastructure or changes need to make it potable.

So those are some of those.

Um and recharging groundwater uh with effluent, that number six would definitely need additional treatment, but also the natural process of um the water going through the soil would would help with that.

Okay, then non-potable irrigation, similar, um, but maybe uh bigger scale.

So a city utility, um, you know, invest in that to distribute non-potable water throughout the city for irrigation.

So kind of a a new facility, a new um operation.

Targeted retrofit, so retrofit all the existing city parks, commercial properties to utilize non-potable water for irrigation.

Of course, all of this would rely on that um water reclamation facility being upgraded to be able to do all of this.

You know, requiring new developments, requiring it in you know, open spaces and parks and/or private lots like people's yards.

And then there's water rights, which is very, very complex.

And I will keep it at the acquisition of existing surface water rights within the sourdough and highlight watersheds from people that are willing to sell them.

We are what we call a closed basin here, so all of the water rights are spoken for.

So we need to buy them from somebody who's willing to sell them.

We could also lease them, so lease them from agricultural users for use in the city, of course.

We're talking about the city of Bozeman.

Um, and there is a gallatin water trust that is currently being developed and could help streamline leasing.

Number five is a big one, importing water, so from another uh drainage.

So not the gallatin uh basin, but an adjacent one such as the Missouri River Canyon Ferry, sort of piping water over a divide, the Yellowstone River, or some other adjacent drainage supply, invest in identifying drainages that we could purchase and transfer those water rates.

Groundwater development has to do with wells or well fields and aquifers.

So either within city limits, build a municipal groundwater supply, so a well, kind of very obviously utility scale well mitigation for surface water impacts, and or with Belgrade.

So creating a joint municipal groundwater supply, um, such as a well or well field between bosom and Belgrade, um, being able to maybe choose from hydrogeologic conditions that are um better for that kind of thing.

And then deep confined is a little out of my technical knowledge, but um basically my understanding is we would find a place in the valley that the city could use that is naturally um has you know groundwater very deep that we could uh drill into.

But I can I can confirm that.

And then um back to dams.

So we have a dam up at highlight.

So number seven is um doing various things to optimize our use of the existing dam at highlights.

So it might be um, you know, supporting development of other alternatives uh with highlight reservoir.

We might um actually own that we could own the dam.

Of course, that comes with um maintenance, comes with risks and all of that that the city would then have to take on.

So the Department of Natural Resources currently owns and operates that.

Um we would buy it from them.

Purchase more shares on the reservoir.

We don't actually the city doesn't actually own all the water rights shares in the reservoir, so we could do that.

Um we could physically raise the dam.

That would increase storage and increase available shares.

Um also we could just dredge it.

It hasn't been dredged in a while, which means just cleaning it up and digging out um kind of the silt uh in there.

That could also be a resiliency project and preserving the integrity of the dam.

Optimization is just really improve the existing infrastructure and really um you know put in some new features that would optimize the use of water and allow wind to winter storage and use.

And then there is uh the number six is um kind of like a study, proposing a study to evaluate the um conveyance loss assessment.

So the water comes out of the dam and is mostly surface water coming out, so some of it evaporates or some of it goes into the groundwater.

So what about how could we look at reducing that conveyance loss as much as possible, you know, while it moves downstream.

Um initial investigations, you know, kind of put in place, say that we we could do a study, there could be actionable items here.

So that's all to do with highlight.

Others a big category, there's a lot here.

I'd be happy to come back to this.

There's um I also know there's some kind of nuance in a they're all put into other, but there's some nuance in each of these.

Um, and there's also some water rights nuance to here.

So um some of the other is like um valley storage for groundwater mitigation, so work with uh features in the valley, but this would be water rights allocated to the city.

Um so to mitigate groundwater development with groundwater recharge, basically using existing valley features to try and create like little mini reservoirs, um, particularly during like peak flows, runoff season, and capture that.

Um, then a lot of that would also go back into the aquifer.

Sourdough groundwater storage, same idea.

Um valley storage for water supply, very similar idea.

There's kind of more about the water rights in that one.

Um actually transferring or leasing, like buying or leasing the surface water rights there, not just mitigating groundwater recharge.

Canal company impoundment would be a like creating or hiring a private company to basically um construct a private reservoir, and then we would lease the water from that project, but they would maintain it.

Ditch improvements, so we have irrigation ditch canals running through um the city and the valley, and um currently they are unlined.

Um, and so some of the water, the surface water does get recharged into the groundwater, but we could line those and then no nothing like nothing would recharge the groundwater, and that's a one of the nuanced um things that we're talking about in the WAC.

Um, and then rainwater capture and storm water uh storage and reuse, those um capture and temporarily store rainwater for distribution.

We have to confirm that that wouldn't um what's the word?

Um disrupt anybody else's water rights.

Um so we do have a water rights uh expert on the WAC.

And um, so those two I'm not as well equipped to speak to, but I know that those issues have already been brought up, but right now we're looking at all the possibilities.

And then Lyman utilization, we do have a storage facility over on the um bridger side of the of the valley by Lyman Creek, which is where the I guess northern third of the city gets their water.

Um and so just continue to identify opportunities to optimize the use of that spring in that storage facility.

Nine is a another few kind of odd ones here.

But all under the bucket of resiliency.

So kind of looking at the long-term water supply and how to support that in our city.

So for instance, if you've heard of cloud seeding where they actually like sprinkle the clouds with a chemical that then makes it rain or snow.

And yeah, I can take questions on that.

Drought reserve would be just more storage, more storage at highlight, more storage at Lyman, more storage at um, you know, at sourdough, um, leasing agricultural rights, doing that conveyance loss study, um, and then holding water in reserve for emergency use.

And that would reduce the water supply available for new development, however.

We'd basically say this percent of water goes to um just you know, in case of drought.

Um I should say that I learned on the drinking water tour that we do already hold a certain amount of water um in reserve for fire season.

So there's always a certain amount of water being stored that can be used to fight fires.

So that's already be that's already there.

This would be on top of that.

Um yeah, start to work with uh Belgrade to establish a physical connection to their water supply system, uh only in case of emergencies.

And then stuff like um watershed restoration to improve yield, um, like thinking about more kind of systems based, like floodplain reconnection forest management and all of that.

Um the funding for these would have to, we'd have to show a clear connection to the city's water supply because a lot of them are long-term kind of indirect effects.

And then snow fencing and mounding would be um collecting snow strategically, basically within our drinking water supply basin.

So Lyman Sourdone Highlight to act as many reservoirs, but also sort of slow down the uh snow melt.

Um kind of if you just extend make the snow melt a little slower as well.

Um kind of packing it in and strategically putting it in places, it'll take longer to melt.

Okay, number 10.

Thank you for sticking with me.

Um sourdough water treatment plant expansion.

This is not a supply alternative, but it would be required if supply to sourdough water treatment plant um exceeds a certain amount.

Um I just having just gone on the tour of the water treatment plant, my understanding is we are not even near capacity.

Um like after that, I was wondering why this was on the list because apparently we're um even in peak demand, we're only using about half the facility.

But depending on the climate change assumptions that come back and and all of that, I guess we're gonna revisit this as a possibility.

Thank you for that.

So any questions, comments, or or I'd love to hear what you would support the least or most.

Yes, Kendra.

I could probably ask questions about this for the rest of our agenda, so I'm gonna try to hold myself back.

Um couple questions that came to mind, questions slash comments, um, three part.

So the the water reclamation effluent, I mean, that's a really interesting option.

Where does the effluent go now?

Does it go back to the river?

Yeah, ESKeleton.

Okay.

Um then the question about the deep confined groundwater.

Do we have the hydrologic data that suggests there are deep groundwater reserves?

Or has that not been assessed?

I think that I mean, I think, yeah, we're not assessing like build it in one specific place.

So my sense is there would be a study to determine that if that alternative made the list.

Awesome.

And of these, like this whole list or these categories, are there any that from sort of both technical feasibility and budget perspective are sort of rising to the top that are likely going to make the most sense?

I think some of the um highlight reservoir maintenance seems to be like um, you know, it's already existing, so it would be more a maintenance, maybe not the buying it part, that would be pretty cost intensive, but some of the other things like maintenance or um buying more shares in it.

Um of the non uh potable irrigation ideas, of course, that might take the investment in the water reclamation facility, but it would reduce um you know our use of potable water for landscaping.

So on balance, that might you know be good.

I think groundwater development is one that's um been kind of gotten a lot of attention as well.

Um wells or well fields with Belgrade in the valley.

The other ones, you know, I I should I have a slide at the end.

We're gonna have a meeting April 6th, and I'll give you the time and I don't have the location yet.

But um, so if you did want to come and to that meeting and ask all the questions of the water experts you want, like please do.

Um so that's where we're at, and I think we'll have those discussions at that meeting.

So that yeah.

Yeah, thank you.

Um I was just gonna chime in that um and I think you touched on some of the highlight ones making potentially the most sense.

Um seems to me like any opportunity to um kind of maximize the benefit of existing infrastructure there would certainly um seem pretty reasonable.

Um yeah, I and I also had one swap small question.

Is there currently like any infrastructure up sourdough uh at Mystic Lake there?

Like, is there a small dam of some sort or is that all just natural there?

I don't believe there is one, but do you know?

My understanding is that there used to be a dam that became unstable, and so it's not actually retaining any water.

Um, but I don't want to be quoted on that.

Um but I if you go up there you you can see some some structure.

Right.

Um, but but yeah, I don't think it's like serving our our water um the amount of water we're able to hold municipally.

And I can ask that question.

Um so far it hasn't come up in any of our discussions of of um refurbishing anything.

So if there was one there, it might be just like let's start from scratch.

If if my like weak memory is correct, the the geology around where this old dam was built is not like good geology for a dam.

Yeah.

Um so I just don't know if that memory is correct, like if there's any ability to just kind of you know spruce it up and put a new dam in there.

I think it's like a structurally unsound.

I think you're right, and that's why that multiple low head dam approach was proposed.

So instead of one large one, it's multiple small ones.

Yeah, for that reason.

That makes sense.

Yeah, thank you.

Thanks.

Well, I guess add a comment.

Um yeah, I agree with the comments on kind of first looking at improving existing infrastructure.

And I definitely have concerns about new damming of sourdough and just the ecological impacts that that would have.

So I hope if that's uh pursued as an option, there are very intensive environmental um assessments for that.

So yeah, and then the other one I really like is the non-potable irrigation.

I think that'd be a huge opportunity to save our potable water for actually drinking and all the kind of wasteful uses of water like golf courses, no offense to golfers.

Um could be with non-potable irrigation.

So I like that one as well.

Okay.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um new to this process, um, having missed the presentation in January.

So I I also just first blush and after seeing this presentation, agree with um what Nick and Aaron have said um verbatim, actually.

Um then I would also just add um from my new role.

This is a topic of discussion at many mountain cities.

Um, and one of the things is looking to how you can use um snow making or other things to prolong your season.

So maybe reaching out to some other places that have already had to confront this.

Um mountain towns, um, for example, um, we've already had to confront this issue more rapidly than we have and looking for what novel ideas they have.

Uh might not be appropriate, but it might be worthwhile.

So yeah, is that kind of around the snow mounding idea?

Yeah, okay.

Um reflective panels over it, snow mounding, snow making.

Um looking at how you would do that too.

So we didn't discuss it at the WAC.

I will be talking about it though.

I did find out about this technology that Canada uses where instead of plowing the streets, they suck it up, compress it into a tight little ball, and then spit it out, and then the line the streets are lined with these like super compressed snowballs, and they take forever to melt.

And um, anyway, they do that for the reason to let it melt more slowly.

And um anyway, so I saw that too.

I was excited to do cool.

So I'll be bringing that up to the WAC as well.

And I'm happy to follow resources like that too that I come across to you moving forward.

Okay.

Okay, cool.

I think we should consider the um snow for building co-benefits of highly compressed snowblocks on Main Street.

We could start a festival in the winter and snow fork building contest.

Um I do have one question as well, Frick.

Uh I was shocked by the stat that says there's a 20% conveyance loss from highlight.

Am I understanding that right?

That like from the moment we open the gate at the highlight reservoir, we lose 20% of the water by the time it reaches Boseman.

We guess I think loss is the nuance there because some of it gets evaporated.

Yeah.

But some of it goes into groundwater.

Yeah.

So it's not lost.

Um, but it is lost to the water right users downstream.

Right.

And I imagine there's a lot of cottonwood trees that are um, you know, benefiting the birds in the ecosystem and and the residents that live alongside the conveyance ditch.

Yeah.

I would not consider that to be you know necessarily a loss for them.

Yeah.

Um yeah, that sounds like like a really juicy 20% of the water we could gain, but but also a pretty controversial 20% of water that we could we could gain.

Um I'll also just add that in the city commission um kind of joint meeting that we had with Belgrade last year.

We were talking a bit about how Belgrade's peak water season um occurs at the exact kind of time of year that Bozeman has the lowest amount of water and vice versa, because they're very much on a um, you know, river fluvial plane flow kind of water source, um, whereas a lot of our water comes from um highlight reservoir and and snowmelt and things like that.

So I am really excited to see some of the things on here being um interconnecting with Belgrade and thinking about ways that we may be able to be able to be more resilient and kind of co-benefit from the differences in like the the temporal nature of our respective water reserves.

Thank you.

Any other comments or anything that stood out to you that you would not support, you'd be very like upset to see supported.

The other one that I was yeah, definitely do not support is the cloud seating.

I think that's as you mentioned, it's gotten a lot of talk.

So I'd be curious to hear like what the topic of those conversations have been.

Um, but I know it's pretty controversial in terms of just not knowing the downstream impacts of shooting chemicals into the sky.

Those concerns have been raised um definitely in the public advisory committee that I was on, and and um we'll see on the April 6th meeting, but I don't think those will go away.

I think that what the concern was is yeah, just knowing the science and what would the modeling be of its effects.

I don't know if it's appropriate for me to weigh in or not.

I'm sure I'll get my my bite at the apple, but I will just say the the importing water from other water basins generally has been something that um this commission, a previous commission talked about like one time, and we still get public comments to this day about like how absurd it would be to make a pipeline from Canyon Ferry.

Um so I I think this commission will be really reticent to explore any importing water from other water basins tactic before we've fully exhausted like the other alternatives.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um if you have more questions, please let me know.

Um we did tour the water treatment plant and boson water reclamation facility um in January, which were kind of big to-dos on the list for us.

So I and I was really very happy that I was able to make it.

Um if you're ever able to make one of those tours, they're really cool.

Um let's see here.

Um, I should say they're really cool because our facilities are um really kind of top of the line, and our staff, our city staff are really dedicated.

Um, so the combination of that means they're really good facilities.

We have really good drinking water.

Um and then April 6th, 11 to 2, we'll be meeting as a combined WAC to start forming concrete suggestions for the city commission.

Um, if you were interested in attending that, um, I can update you.

Gosh, it's coming up soon.

I don't have the location yet.

Um, or maybe I do, I can check my calendar.

We will likely have more meetings into kind of, we were told late 2026, so there would be more opportunities to come to a meeting if you're interested.

I think if you are interested in coming, then you just have to let me or Natalie know, right?

So we can count.

And if there's gonna be four or more, we'd have to post it, but that's fine, we can do that.

Yeah.

I have one more comment.

Sure, I'm chatty today.

Um I'm just looking at my notes.

One of the like other options was a canal company building their own reservoir that we would then lease from.

Yeah.

Um, that also made me feel really like uncomfortable.

I I think we're navigating so many challenges around privately held utilities and wishing that we could make them public.

Um I I just worry about like an investment that kind of shoehorns um uh a future Bozeman population into wishing we'd made a different choice today for for them in the future.

Um and I I just think that a reservoir that we own as the city or that we own our shares in gives the public a lot more um power and representation and um how that's priced and ecologically, like what impacts it has.

Okay.

Thanks.

Any other comments?

I'll just leave this up.

I want to give you time to snap that QR code.

Um this is through the IWERP group on Engage Bozeman.

Um if you, you know, you can email me, I'll send you the link if you need it.

Um, but um you can just kind of pull it up on this QR code and have it for later.

Um, would really appreciate your feedback by this survey as well, and then forward it to anybody that you um would like to share it with.

As many perspectives as we can get would be great.

Anything else?

Thank you.

I really appreciate your feedback.

I'm gonna bring this back to the meeting on April 6th, and I'll like this is very helpful.

Um thank you so much.

Thank you for this update, Mark, and for all the work on this.

Thank you, Brooke.

Um, we're very fortunate to have you uh bring all of this detailed information back to us.

And um, I just want to just as like a point of order.

We advertise this as a special presentation, but since we had a little bit more than QA on it, I'm wondering if we should offer the opportunity for public comment.

Um is there any pub there's any public comment in the room on this agenda item?

Uh no, is there any public comment online?

No, not Carlene.

Okay, well, that's thank you to Roman for the opportunity.

Okay, um moving to the second agenda item, um, ClearPath 2.0 emissions modeling and scenario tool introduction by Kesley Carlson Handle.

Okay, good evening, members of the board.

Um, I know that we have a lot to go over, so I'll try to make this as quick as possible.

Um we are um presenting tonight a tool we're pretty excited to share with you known as ClearPath 2.0.

Um this is a tool um uh utilized from uh Ickley.

If you're not familiar, um they're the local governments for sustainability.

Um we in the past have used their ClearPath um 1.0 tool to help us track and calculate community scale greenhouse gas emissions inventories and scope.

Um and ClearPath uh is a widely used tool with uh scientifically backed standards.

Uh it's a global organization and and represents generally just the best in class emissions accounting and sustainability reporting.

Um ClearPath 2.0 is the evolution of that tool in the form of an online platform that uh is going to help us communicate greenhouse gas emissions inventories on a little bit more of a detailed level in able the ability to look at our current emissions, um future outlooks and model some of the transitions scenarios that uh would help us to achieve our climate goals.

Um I wanted to um take a moment to say that what we get to share with you this evening is kind of the tool in its infancy.

Um we are still very much fine-tuning a lot of the modeling and projections.

Um we're also um again fine-tuning the data that was migrated from ClearPath 1.0.

So while we're looking at these models and projections, just keep in mind that these are not hard and fast figures, very much a dynamic model that is intended to be updated frequently with the best data available.

So what we're looking at right now is kind of just a show and tell trying to give you guys a sense of the functionality of the tool, right?

So here in our main slide, this is kind of the default landing page of the tool.

It is, like I said, like a dashboard style online platform.

And as you can tell, it's it's just has a nice polished aesthetic.

Here is sort of the emissions landing page.

This is a little bit of the introduction here.

So you can see that we have our 2024 reported emissions here kind of forefront.

In the top left corner is uh total emissions from 2024.

Um in the center at the top, there's a uh a percent projected um increase based on what we know as the business as usual model.

Uh and then we have uh projected decreases to be able to reach our 2050 goal of carbon neutrality.

Um in the left portion here, the colorful side, we have our 24 emissions by sector with stationary energy or building energy, um, transportation, waste, our um uh industrial processes and scope three in those smaller boxes.

And then you can also see that breakdown in the diagram on the right, um emissions by sector, and each one of our historical inventories is represented in that white line, um, each by a white dot there.

And then our business as usual as well as our climate goal projection, and then in our future um kind of beyond 24 in this diagram is showing a little bit of the model functionality in our projections to be able to get our emissions lowered in each one of those sectors to get us closer to that goal.

Um if we dig a little bit deeper, we're looking at our transportation uh transportation sector here.

Um again, we have our uh total transportation sector emissions in the top left corner, um projected increase in the center, and the projected decrease based on some of these transitions.

Um we have our emissions categorized by source from on-road emissions, aviation, off-road emissions, and again a diagram showing those specific sector emissions in each inventory year, along with our projected business as usual and projected emissions based on this transition scenario.

So here is where we're gonna start to get into some of the um what really differentiates ClearPath 1.0 from 2.0.

Um this is a lot of the modeling and projections in the development of ClearPath 2.0, ICLE partnered with Climate View, which is an international climate scenario modeling platform.

They have some really, really neat tools.

Um this basically enables us to more easily model some of these what they call transition pathways through transition elements or activity shifts and behavioral changes, right?

Um here we're looking at Bozeman's projected transition pathway.

Um we have the total number of emissions reductions by 2050 uh that we would need to achieve on this uh, or that we would achieve using this pathway.

In the center, we have an 86% reflecting the overall uh goal contribution from that 2050 reduction.

And then there's also this pathway gap.

This is 14% that is just that, it's a gap, it's uh future solutions.

Um, you know, we understand that there's a lot of development um happening in several sectors, and there are certainly um technologies that are going to come up that are going to help us reach these goals, and we don't have those just yet.

Umtably is the energy mix, um, as we all well know.

Much of the work done in emissions reduction is done via electrification.

So part of the cool thing of this model is it helps us to incorporate the electricity demand increase that's associated with all of these various different transitions that we're proposing here.

So that is not unrecognized here, right?

Sticking with our transportation sector.

In the top right corner, sorry, these get very busy.

In the top right corner, this is a deeper dive into the transportation transitions.

As we can see again, there's the total emissions reduction necessary by 2050.

The understanding that about 27% of emissions reduction in our transportation sector accounts for our overall goal.

And then we have transition elements in the top right-hand corner.

And this is basically referring to the modeled actions or transitions that would help us get there, right?

Again, we have it categorized by on-road aviation and off-road emissions.

And here it really highlights that in this particular model scenario, a lot of the emissions reduction that we would be able to achieve is in that on-road emissions source of that sector.

In the left-hand corner, bottom quarter, that breaks down into on-road transportation by personal transportation as well as freight.

So there's a it gets fairly granular here, which is helpful in looking at these at more of like an activity level, right?

Drilling down again deeper into our personal transportation, emissions, transitions.

These are some of the transition elements identified and are basically some of the activity shifts that we would be able to utilize currently in our kind of toolkit to be able to achieve our 2050 goal.

Again, there's the overall emissions reduction, 10% total contribution in personal transportation, as well as five transition elements, and this is where we get to highlight some of the finer detail on these actions.

So in the this top-down diagram reflects uh the list here in our shifting transition elements.

The we we have um shift to travel by diesel bus, is that kind of that top wedge.

Um, and then our eventual uh shift to travel by electric electric bus, um, which helps us phase out diesel.

We have a shift to walking and cycling, as well as a shift to electric cars and electric bikes.

Um here we have uh a little bit more detail into that shift by um electric cars, um again, total emissions reduction, 7% potential.

Um, and this is where the tool really helps to shine.

This is just one example.

In that top right-hand corner, you can see 27,000 um vehicles of type battery electric electric vehicle by 2050.

So the ClearPath 2.0 tool helps us to take the comparison that we've previously had of emissions associated with internal combustion engine um vehicles and uh uh emissions associated with EVs, and and helps to kind of translate great how many cars would we need to take off of the road in that ice category and transition to an EV category to be able to achieve this potential of emissions reduction.

Um here we have um kind of small on the bottom of this diagram, you can see our progress.

We're able to like note and track progress.

Um these are the number of EVs attributable to City of Bozeman, uh, and then our target projection for increase in EVs, right.

We are also able to use this tool to um map the connections between the climate plan actions as laid out and these transitions that are supposed to do um you know projected to help us get to uh these goals.

Um each one of these uh plays a certain role, whether it's direct, um indirect policy project, uh, and this is where we can drill down into the work that the city of Bozeman is doing to be able to push in that right direction.

Um here's just one example of expanding one of the action items listed in the climate plan.

Um this is where we're able to kind of shine a light on the the work that the city is doing, um, but I think that it also does a good job in um kind of highlighting that this is an overall community push, right?

This is not um this can't be done single-handedly by the city of Bozeman transitioning our city fleet.

It has to kind of be an overall influence, indirect, direct.

So like I said, you know, there's I think 50 some action items, maybe 60 some action items.

Um, and each one of them is linked to one of these transition elements.

Um there's a whole suite.

Um, like I said, this is kind of just a show and tell of this overall functionality of the tool.

Um yeah, we're we're really excited to continue developing, um, uh kind of lock in our numbers there.

I mean, I've I should actually highlight, particularly in our transportation emissions.

Um, you know, as I said, this is a dynamic model.

We're really looking forward to being able to take the the upcoming transportation plan and apply a lot of their findings into this model so we can tighten up those numbers.

I think that there's like kind of a myriad of options in terms of of improving this on a uh you know annual basis.

So really looking forward to being able to share it um with the public.

It is intended to be a public-facing tool.

We intend to put it on the website as soon as we're able to feel um really confident in our models and projections and um yeah, utilize this as a communication tool.

So are there any questions?

Um, and don't feel like you need to come up with anything at this moment.

You're also welcome to um ask questions in the future.

Just wanted to let you know that we're here to answer if you anything popped up.

Um, yeah, I just want to start by saying thank you so much.

This is an incredible amount of work, and I think it will be very helpful as like a boundary tool for um residents, um also thinking students.

Um it will be really an amazing tool.

So thank you for all of the work that has gone into this.

Um do we want to start maybe Aaron and go this way?

And again, you don't have to have comments or questions, but if you do, feel free.

Sure.

Thanks, Kesley.

This is really exciting to see.

This uh made me think when you said it's intended to be public-facing, it made me think of the city um drop water counter app, like email that goes out every month, and it tells you where your water use was in comparison to other users in your neighborhood and in the city.

And I guess two thoughts about that.

One is I'm wondering if there is an ability for this to be more even more um like my brain is not working at 7 p.m.

But um engaging rather than people having to go to the website, but is there a way that there could be something set out on a monthly basis, or there are some or there are any of those comparisons of like, oh, you have an electric vehicle, look how much CO2 you're saving, or this is how you're contributing to the city.

Something like that where it's sort of like a um cultural shift and kind of that um collective action mentality, I think would be really cool if there is the opportunity for that.

Um so I guess that's more of a comment, but maybe a question if you know.

Yeah, no, definitely.

Um I actually really like that suggestion.

Um, like I said, this is a whole new process for Ickley.

They're really, really open and receptive to suggestions.

There is nothing even resembling that currently.

Um but I think that that's a really great engagement tool, especially since this is supposed to be kind of a forward-facing um public communication process.

Um, so I, if nothing else can bring that to Ickley and kind of send it across their board and say this is a meaningful suggestion.

So did you have to?

Just um I love that suggestion, and I'm sure that there's something along those lines that we could do, but overall um we're able to do that with water because we are a water, we own the water utility, and we um are able to access water use information and make some general assumptions about a household based on information that people are willing to provide.

And this is um at the community scale, and we don't have direct access to anyone's utility information or um their personal information.

Um, but it is likely that there's something along those lines where we can do some more direct engagement.

Thank you.

Cool.

And maybe while we're talking about the water counter tool, I love that.

And I'm wondering if how frequently you look at like the assumptions that are made for your target use, because I find I mean, we're pretty low users of water, but it feels like the targets are super high.

And so that's I know another conversation, but maybe just like a flag to relook at those and you know, look at the targets, and if we're if we want to encourage conserving more.

Thank you.

But I love that tool.

This is super exciting.

And one thing that jumped out to me again and again and again, but this is really um indicative of the leadership that the city of Bozeman is taking and moving demonstrating what you're doing so that it's possible for our community to do it as well.

So that's what I see as a main opportunity for this tool.

And I'm hoping that there's an opportunity to, I know sometimes the commission, county commission and the city commission have joint meetings.

I think this is something that everyone in our region should really know about and have an opportunity to see you, Kesley give a demonstration or Natalie give a demonstration about this because when I look at this, it's taking the plan and putting it into action and showing what that action can do.

And I think this is a really, really powerful um communication tool, monitoring tool, and then hopefully we'll be inspirational for people to join this effort.

I'm I'm personally inspired by this.

So thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Quickly add there that um this won't be ready by Earth Week, will it?

Because you could get on the program.

Um that would be but I agree with Kristen on some sort of public presentation would be great.

And then I'll just add on to um Erin's comment about um, I wonder if you know we have engage Bozeman.

Um, I wonder if there could be like a feature of the transit, like, hey, this month we're gonna feature this transition pathway.

And it could be seasonally focused, like, hey, summer's coming.

Have you thought about an e-bike?

You know, and then like have a link to the tool to be so maybe there's some something like that that could be helpful.

Okay, thank you.

Um I don't have anything substantial to that, but super exciting and interesting.

Thanks for the presentation.

Yeah, this is this is really cool.

I haven't seen anything like this at a community level.

Um, I think it brings to mind a couple of things.

One being the importance of this level of information at a community level, especially in a world in which other levels of government are sharing less information with us on these topics.

So um it's harder for people to connect to what do our missions look like, what is our trajectory look like?

And I love that it has the forward modeling all the way to 2050.

So I assume you know it's uh it's gonna provide a ton of value to the city and the commissioners to be able to like pull those little levers and say, okay, of the things the city has control over, which ones are worth our time and money.

Um and just one clarifying question in the there's a list of categories.

How is energy mix different from commercial and residential use?

Is that sort of the natural gas piece where energy mix is the electric piece, or how are those defined?

Um I'm gonna give you like a half half of an answer because I'm still very much learning about this.

Um it is my understanding that the energy mix incorporates natural gas.

Um but but again, you so many of these um modeled transitions are moving away from natural gas and uh incorporating that increase in electricity demand, right?

But electricity comes with its own associated emissions.

Um our utility uh in particular um you know has a uh its own emissions factor.

Um so I uh to my understanding this is accounting for um the increase in electricity, um, our utilities particular um emissions uh and and uh uh to my understanding, it does not really keep natural gas in there, I will say.

Um I think the building and energy use is is mostly accounting for all of those emissions with natural gas.

Um that's why we see that kind of like dwindling later, right?

Um, because we yeah, that was my assumption.

Yeah.

I guess in terms of feedback, um, and I you know, we're probably stuck a little bit with the capabilities of the software at this time, but if there are options to like turn on feature, you know, if you hover over something, if if there's sort of the additional information bubble that can come up, um I know you know there are probably certain people that will be highly critical of something like this.

So the more um we can be clear about like underlying assumptions will hopefully help people you know be thoughtful when they take a look at it.

Yeah, absolutely.

No, that thank you, that's helpful.

That's helpful.

And in our community, I feel like people there are either people that want to know that you're doing something or people that want to know every single thing that you're doing.

So that might be helpful.

Yeah, absolutely.

No, I I think that there is a small amount of room for clarification in there.

And again, you know, the platform very much still developing, so helpful to have some suggestions to go back to Ickley.

And um, they're pretty receptive to input right now.

So I um just really excited to see this, both like as a sustainability person and a little bit of a data nerd.

This is like scratching all the itches.

Um so yeah, thank you for your work on this.

Um I I have two questions.

I'm curious if the ability to toggle things is going to be reserved just for staff.

Um and like the thing that we present more forward-facing is sort of like here's the transition pathway plan, or is the intent for residents to be able to play with the tool as well.

So currently um we are only able to present to the public one scenario.

Um, there is a capability on the back end of this platform for multiple scenarios, um, which is something that we're exploring, but that's currently only available to internal staff.

Um I know that that is again something that's been brought up with Ickley for instance um in these cases where a lot of utilities are are moving around what their energy mix looks like.

Um so people want to understand um more so what that what that outlook looks like, yeah, 20 years down the line.

So okay, great.

And then my other question is I'm wondering if before this gets you know pushed out to the the public, if some of the colors could be changed when you're you know looking in on transportation, all the different wedges are the same color of green, or you know, right now residential energies and communal commercial energy use look like they're the same to me, unless I'm a little colorblind right now.

Um is that something that we can like toggle before it goes live?

Sort of um oddly enough, I actually brought this exact same thing up to Ickley.

Um and you're not crazy, residential and commercial energy use on the same color.

That's uh but um these are uh all what is it w keg?

These are all um ADA specific color schemes that they have built into the platform.

Um I'm sure that we're not the only ones who are suggesting a little bit more variety.

Um so yes, hoping to see um any even yeah, similar in, you know, here um each one of these are kind of colored um uh to to match the association with transportation, but I think that it would be helpful to have gradient.

Um yeah, certainly.

And one of the things that definitely doesn't stand out in this like stagnant presentation is it all of this is interactive, so as you're kind of like togling over each one of these, it you know, the the diagram does highlight um it's not it still doesn't make it stand out as much as I think it should.

But so you could hover over the wedge and it would say this is electric cars.

Yes, okay, that's really helpful.

Yeah, helpful, yeah.

Okay.

I don't know if it's possible, but if you wanted to provide the public an opportunity to explore different scenarios in a very theoretical way, maybe you could just link to like a program like En-ROADS from MIT or something that's more geared towards education and and leave your stuff just perfect.

That is a remarkable tool.

Yeah.

Androads and all project drawdown.

Those are two good tools.

All right.

Yeah, I could spend hours with NRAs.

Right.

Yeah.

But I building on that, um, we have always looked at N-ROATs and wish that it would be more localized.

And so this is sort of our our wish come true that it's available at the local level.

This is the type of modeling we did with the climate plan, but it was not dynamic.

We had one or two scenarios that we could run, and it was a massive spreadsheet.

This allows us to adjust over time, but I could see potentially you know, hosting focused workshops on different scenarios, um, maybe by sector, um, similar to to what Brooke was describing.

And um I I think there's ways that we can make it accessible to the public while not necessarily being able to have every lever um dynamically available at all times.

I mean, it might not be appropriate to say that this just takes my breath away.

I think I'm so excited about this.

So yeah, we're really excited about it as well.

We we some of us in the room know what what this really means, and it's it's a lot, and thank you, and a lot of work too.

So thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Anything else?

So thanks.

Thank you very much.

Okay, and our last agenda item work session on the 2026-2027 is sustainability advisory board work plan review by Natalie Meyer.

Thanks, Natalie.

Thank you, Brooke, and members of the board.

And this is going to be a high-level discussion, and I'm going to lean on Commissioner Bodie quite a bit, but what let me pull this up.

Okay, so as the board knows, we've talked quite a bit around this two-year work plan.

Um that is part of our um the the work we do under the resolution for the sustainability board is establish a two-year work plan that's tied to commission priorities.

And we this is our third um effort to develop a two-year work plan, and it happens to coincide with um uh new members of the commission and um quite a bit of organizational change.

And so getting to this this point of having uh commission priorities and being able to lead a conversation with this um group on how to align with those priorities.

Um it hasn't taken a great deal of time, but that's what we're trying to track and follow.

And um I'm really excited to share that the city commission um adopted a version of these commission priorities last Tuesday evening, and there were some amendments, and I wasn't quite able to get my hands on the the amended version.

Um, but I overall the um headers here still stand, and all the sub-bullets still stand with maybe some um fine-tuning around um emphasis.

And um I you know, I I think if Commissioner Bodie has any commentary on this um priorities list, um, I would just open the the floor for a moment here.

Um thanks, Natalie.

Yeah, I'll um just try and summarize the amendments from memory here.

We changed um the word keep in the first um priority to um advance the safety um of Bozeman.

Um I'm gonna butcher the language there, but we just kind of spent a little bit of time debating the difference between the word make and keep and how um neither really kind of met the moment that we're in, and and the goal is more to advance, continue to work on our safety and welcoming this of this community.

Um and then we added a point C to the fourth heading um on heritage neighborhoods and environment, focusing on um watershed health, which is a recommendation from um the Gallatin watershed um council.

So I'm expect to see that added there, and I think there's um some potential overlap with this board and in that addition, although I I think it's kind of related to the work that's already in this priorities and that you've already been working on on the integrated water resources plan and Bozeman Creek.

So a little redundancy there and the final draft, we removed the numbers because there was um people questioning if priority one was more important than priority two, and it was simply the the semantics of of how staff put this together and did not indicate that there was a prioritization there.

So those will just be bullet points, so there's no questioning in the future of if if we prefer one of these over the others.

Um I I think that captures all the adjustments we made.

Thank you for jumping in there on the spot.

So um when we look at this list, it um appears that there's some very obvious intersections with the sustainability board and um some that may be a little bit more indirect.

Um, but this was the basis for uh developing that table that I shared with with you all in the agenda.

And I do see this as a skeleton structure for um for a conversation.

And this is organized by different areas of emphasis, the first being board governance, planning efforts, and then more around engagement and pretty specific policy questions.

So we'll start off by just saying our goal tonight is to introduce these topics and get your initial feedback before we go into developing the details and working with staff and our commission liaison on exactly what each of these items will entail.

But our goal as a board, we're focused on implementation of the climate plan.

We're focused on resiliency and emissions reductions.

So I think everyone here, especially with Kesley's presentation, has a general sense of our emissions targets and the most significant sources of emissions at the community level.

So with that lens, I fully expect this board to have some good commentary and discussion on these items.

So the first two pretty easy ethics training, you already checked the box this year.

Great job.

And there's also as part of this commission work plan a review of the advisory boards and a focus on how to make the boards more effective, or just reviewing to make sure that the process is effective.

And we've already started that review process, but there could be subsequent conversations with you as individuals, and we'll expect kind of a report out on that over the next year.

For planning efforts, these first items are directly referenced in the commission priorities.

And with that, something called the neighborhood conservation overlay district.

And that's been in place since 1991.

Most of those regulations associated with the NCOD are in the municipal Bozeman municipal code, and it's applied to all new developments and alterations in these historic districts through a process called a certificate of appropriateness.

And the city for a number of years has wanted to review those standards.

And that started back in 2022, this review by starting the local landmark program report.

And some of you might recall that we we heard a presentation on that landmark program back in September of 2024.

And that was intended to start research, start community engagement, and inform really kind of high-level draft policy and regulation changes.

That plan was adopted, and now the community development department is embarking on the actual policy updates.

And just this Tuesday night, they uh adopted the community engagement plan for that process.

So it's coming, and there are references in the landmark program report specific to sustainability.

There's discussion around adaptive reuse of buildings and acknowledging the emissions from that embodied energy embodied carbon in existing buildings and the benefits of reuse.

And there's also discussion of the what's the word I'm looking for here?

Um deconstruction policies and programs.

And the report definitely sort of leans on the sustainability division to look into those those policies as a future action.

And so when we talk about the NCOD, my hope is that we can get community development to come and present on the proposed policies and begin to consider those those recommendations related to deconstruction policies.

So that's that's probably the most complex one to contemplate for this group, but I think everyone will see those connections as we get further into it.

Do you have anything to add on that one?

No way.

I think that's a good summary.

Okay.

All right.

And then the next one is the integrated water resources plan.

Doesn't need much explanation because you just heard a detailed presentation, and we're just really happy to have a high level of engagement in that plan and our chair's participation.

The urban forest management plan and I would group in there in there that category, the branch out Bozeman program.

This planning process is getting underway.

Not completely unlike the conversation that was referenced in public comment.

Both valuable conversations, but glad to say that we're going to be bringing that discussion here too.

The Bozeman Creek Vision Plan.

This was adopted as a commission priority, I think back in 2024.

Yeah.

And the intention here is to look at the primary waterway coming through Bozeman and focus on the ecological health.

Talk about ways to provide better connectivity and celebrate the natural heritage related to that creek, and of course, mitigate flood hazards within the urbanized sections of Bozeman Creek.

And just a few weeks ago, the Bozeman City Commission adopted an engagement plan related to that planning process, which I should say is a partnership far beyond the city of Bozeman.

There's a lot of organizations that have really led and helped the city really make it a bigger priority and a bigger partnership.

So we're we're really excited about it.

And part of that engagement plan includes a discussion with the sustainability board at at least two different points in the planning process.

But stay tuned.

And then the next two are really legacy items from our previous work plans and electric mobility planning.

We identified this as a priority in the climate plan.

And also develop really clear design guidelines for EV infrastructure and making sure we're just reducing barriers and thinking of ways to develop creative partnerships to deploy EV infrastructure.

But certainly not it didn't rise to an assumption on the commission priorities list.

So we'll we'll stay tuned on that one.

And then the green power program, this is an item that's been on the list for a while.

This board has participated in conversations in the past, and we expect that to continue into the future.

And I would anticipate that that will be coming back to this board in the not so distant future.

So still still relevant to include here.

And I might defer to Commissioner or invite Commissioner Bodie to share any thoughts on the urban transportation district and the relevance over the next two years.

Yeah, I'd be happy to.

It's a really exciting and important time for our transition from the streamline that was held and sponsored by the HRDC to the Urban Transportation District Board in the district, which was mandated to be created when the census found that our community grew to a certain level.

And we are rethinking the different routes of our bus service to create better efficiencies and better correlate them to where our ridership is.

And also the frequency.

Nice.

Thank you very much.

The next item related to engagement.

This board is packed with people who could provide input on the town and gown relationship between the city and MSU.

And this is a broader goal.

It's not certainly not limited to sustainability, but I think there's plenty of intersections that we could where we can insert ourselves and make sure that both everyone on campus and off campus is aware of the some of the environmental services provided by the city of Bozeman and think more deliberately around that engagement piece.

And I think Kesley's presentation is an excellent example of where we could improve communication with students and through through class presentations and a number of different avenues.

And I'll pause there in case anyone wants to chime in.

Okay, so this next one, uh sustainable development awards.

And this idea um was pulled from public comment that we've received on a few occasions.

And um, but it is very much consistent with some of the recommendations in the climate plan um, namely action one B5 encouraging above code construction.

And um the idea here would be to um leverage an idea that existed before around the beautification awards that we are really congratulating and lifting up those developments that embody environmental and energy excellence and serve as a model uh for others to emulate.

And um the climate plan, of course, addresses a wide range of sustainability goals from energy efficiency to renewable energy to transportation, waste and the natural environment.

So I I think there's um a host of angles that that could be um used to create um categories for awards, um request nominations from the community, and have this board recognize um some really exceptional developments in the community.

And we have not developed this criteria um or the categories, but I I think that could be um hashed out in several work sessions, and um it could become a really just positive way to reinforce the the type of development that we want to see in this community.

And then cleanup week, um, that's actually written into the resolution of of this board, so it will stay there.

And um then the last item is again a legacy item from the last work plan developing a high performance building standard for city facilities.

Um so that includes new construction, it would probably uh be limited to a certain square foot over a certain square footage uh for buildings, and um could also be considered for um any development that the the city of Bozeman leads.

And I'm anxious to get input from this board.

I think we could get some really excellent presentations from um MSU staff on how they have approached this, and I think we have a few people lined up willing to do so.

Um there's plenty of standards out there to evaluate the the challenge uh for this board will be to try to come up with a standard that is universal enough for a wide variety of building types and development types, and also in ensuring that we um can still move forward with with projects um and we we propose something that is cost effective for for the taxpayer.

And um I this is very consistent with our our climate plan, consistent with how we have tried to approach um development of of new facilities, but to memorialize that as a policy um I I think is worthwhile for for the city and its leadership role.

So those are the items that I identified and would recommend building out a work plan from, but I would really love to hear from this board if there's something significant that we're missing here.

Um also acknowledge that there's always like opportunities to address other topics as as we move through um through the year, and uh we definitely have done that, but this is a plan that should be approved by the city commission.

And um I guess I would offer if we are proposing a lot more or something dramatically different.

Um we we need to recognize that our staff capacity is right here, and um we we um introducing a lot of new ideas means probably thinking about um how we can downsize something else.

So thank you, Natalie, very much.

Um Kendra, why don't we start with you and go around?

You don't have to have comments, but if you do, can you share questions?

Uh yeah, thanks for walking us through this.

Um I think there's some really exciting stuff in here, and I don't have any other comments at the moment.

Thanks for going over this.

Um not included, and I'm I'm curious if you have more comments on that.

And I personally think that that feels like an important area.

Absolutely, and I think that will always be an emphasis of um our programming.

The reason I pulled it off is because I thought that these two items on the screen, the sustainable development awards and the high performance building standard for city facilities were more um concrete items that support those broader objectives that we could check off.

I think we're not going to walk away from energy efficiency and electrification, and you will continue to hear about it from us if there's something in that category that would be nice to include in a work plan.

Um absolutely interested in that.

Thanks for the explanation.

Yeah, that sounds good that it will be addressed from different angles.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, thank you.

The only I mean, I think this is really comprehensive and a lot to take on for two years.

So it's uh it's good.

Um I know that the topic of affordability has come up.

Is that covered in one of these categories here?

Um, or is that just maybe not part of our work plan, but maybe we'll be kind of we'll have one of those topics you said that might be introduced later.

Or is that not under the purview of this board?

Yeah.

I think the intersection of affordability and sustainability is um absolutely within the purview of this board, and I I think there could be um specific projects like the Fowler project where this board could certainly weigh in.

The future of that project is um not clear to me at this point.

Um, but I I think it is an area of of general interest, and um if we could find more specific ways to to get at it, I'm I'm interested.

Um I don't I don't know if Commissioner Bodie has anything yet.

I think I know affordable housing.

Sorry, I missed that word.

But um, yeah, so that may be specific and not something for this board on their work on our work plan.

But so sorry, Commissioner, I don't know if you were Yeah, I I think the the Fowler Avenue um project is a really good example of a place where there could be overlap.

Um the the primary goal of the Fowler Avenue project is to figure out how to um get some affordable housing built.

And it's going through the stakeholder process, and so um as the different stakeholder groups convene, they'll be kind of defining how that could come into fruition and and what other emphasis will will be made on um you know community and neighborhood character and and the types of buildings and and their uses.

And so um I think it's too early for me to say whether or not um one of the the goals from that stakeholder group will be sustainability.

Um and I I do think that I would love for the affordable housing that we build um as a city.

Um I'm just getting shivers even like saying those words, we haven't done it yet, but when we do, um I I hope that that will be built with um resiliency in mind and thinking about um yeah, the the changing climate, how how we can make some of our most um vulnerable and and least financed community members um homes that will protect them through yeah, a changing climate.

Um so I think resiliency is a really important thing to be thinking about in that project, and then the most sustainable buildings are oftentimes not the most affordable buildings if if they're for sale, which is the goal with the Fowler project.

Um if we were developing a for rent project, I I think there could be a really good um argument for introducing some sustainability measures that will save costs over the course of the the building.

So um that was a long way to say, I'm not sure yet.

But if if there is an opportunity for some sustainability considerations, I'll definitely ask that the city manager make sure it gets onto this agenda.

Sure.

So maybe maybe it's not on the work plan, but maybe we have a visit from them if they decide to come seek our feedback.

That would be totally possible.

Right.

I I believe so.

If I could add something to that, I think we should expand the purview of this and and maybe as a group start to tackle this assumption that most people have or this knee-jerk reaction that if it's sustainable, it's not affordable.

I don't think that you should sacrifice sustainability or environmental considerations just to build affordable housing.

Um, and I think it's really in how you frame the affordability question.

Um, and I think we can have some great experience in that with the high performance building standards, for example.

So these are taxpayer funded buildings.

Um during my time at MSU, that was one of the most impactful um uh programs that we had for saving money, actually.

So because the cost of operating the building is 10 times the cost on average of building it, um, and that's in places that tear down buildings, which is not where we live.

Um we don't often tear down buildings here and build new ones after 50 years, they last a hundred years, so and they just get more and more expensive to operate as time goes on.

So I would say maybe we take a stab at that and would offer up to the commission our expertise here on this board to look at uh long-term affordability and who actually is receiving the benefits of the affordability.

Is it in the build or is it in the operation of um and the monthly heating bills and water bills of that um of those houses?

So those there's different ways of getting at the economics of this that I think we should really strongly evaluate before we make statements that sustainability isn't affordability.

Um just to clarify, I didn't mean to say that you know, rip broad, um, but but when it comes to um for sale price tag at the moment they buy, um, there are some some challenges, and one of the the biggest challenges that we we face with the for sale is people not being able to qualify for the down payment or the loan on the initial cost of the building.

And I I think there's a lot of arguments to be made about you're going to save money in the long run.

Um and yeah, I mean, just thinking about like the mortgage I'm paying right now, like I could save so much money if I just had the money to pay the house outright.

Um so yeah, I I think if this board can weigh in on and provide more perspective for the commission and um what places is it worth making that additional investment to look at long-term affordable affordability for uh low-income people living in those homes and and where that trade-off is is not worth it because it's gonna drive up the the price tag to uh a point that's too high to meet the primary purpose of the project, which is low-income affordable housing.

Yeah.

And I'll just add on that, I think to Kristen's point, sometimes there are simple things in the way where you put windows and like just very simple things that we could also potentially offer.

Yeah, I I think if if there's appetite and interest from the board and in those types of areas, I think the commission would be really um open to receiving that kind of feedback.

Um, just grounding ourselves in this is not the sustainability project, it's the affordable housing project, and I do want a sustainability project for the record.

Like I wish we could be building that housing too.

Um I just know some people in some other affordable housing areas that are have astronomical heating bills, so it's you know, not something that they were ever expecting when they were so excited to qualify for that, and then they get into it and they are looking for other ways to either forego heat or supplement that heat, and that's an area that is sort of in our control but out of our control.

We don't have control over what the utility rates are, so we need to be making sure that we're helping people, especially people who need it the most to have houses that in our climate um are what are weather appropriate.

So I feel a little strongly about this, so sorry for that.

Um back to the board.

I'm passionate tonight.

So one of the things that I've uh tried to float with my fellow commissioners and the city manager is um in the affordable housing project making some requirements that like the most basic you save money on them kind of affordability measures are included in those projects.

And one of the responses that um our city manager had for me was essentially like, well, if it's economical developers are already doing it.

Um and I would love to have evidence to prove otherwise.

Um I I think there is out there, but I I honestly don't know what what those things are.

So if if this can if this board um would want to dig into that, I think that could be helpful.

Yeah, when I mean I think this is like a huge topic, right?

There's I think there are also some, you know, you have to start with like with what's your starting point.

Is this a goal you have?

I mean, a lot of decisions about buildings um can be made around orientation or buildings that might not look like the buildings we're all used to seeing in our single family home neighborhoods, and and you know, builders and architects might not be used to designing in this this area.

So I think there um there are probably pathways to affordability that's more climate resilient, you know, less energy usage, but um you know, we might have to dig a little deeper than like maybe you know, and I and I have no idea how this procurement process works with the city who who's bidding to build these projects and design these projects and um you know what's available as far as thinking a little more broadly.

I mean, for most of the time, the fact that like we orient all of our houses facing the street rather than facing south makes no sense.

We would save huge amounts of our building energy used by facing our houses the right way, you know, at a minimum.

So the garage of my house is on the south facing side.

So super useful, right?

For solar gain.

Yeah, so that's horrible.

Um, I think that's a really good point, like solar orientation.

And there's certainly going to be times where um orienting the building in the perfect way might limit the number of units you could put on on the building or on a on a lot.

Um, so I I wouldn't want to be overly prescriptive with that, but um it sounds like there's meat enough here for a much broader discussion.

It it sounds like it.

I'm I'm convinced that we probably could have a good discussion and um yeah, some of the low-cost lesson learns that we've picked up from MSU, even with like transpired solar collectors and um what we've learned through the commissioning process and the value of making sure that we actually get what we signed up for through a third-party engineer that those things um yeah, pay dividends.

And I I think we we probably could have an intentional conversation about it without stepping into this realm of uh eroding what the what the goals are to create affordable housing.

Thank you, Aaron.

I wanted to make sure you had a chance.

Sure.

Um yeah, I think this is a really interesting discussion and would also like to have a more extended discussion on it because I think in some ways those two goals can go hand in hand.

And yeah, I think finding the low-hanging fruit for our sustainability and yeah, trying to think of the economics, not just the sticker price, but like the long term, and how do we factor that in too?

Yeah.

Um yeah, I let's see if I have anything else.

Yeah, I think the only other comment I had was I also noticed electrification wasn't on here.

And I was curious, you have the high performance building standard for city facilities, and I know at some point we had talked about like non-city facilities, like commercial and other developments and high performance standards.

And is that already in the UDC or is that something that this board can also tackle?

Because I feel like the amount of non-city facilities is far greater than city facilities, so can we correct?

Yeah.

Um the the overall challenge is that we can't dictate um building code, it's adopted at the state level.

So we enforce the state adopted code.

We can't do any more or any less unless we're incentivizing it.

So our efforts to incentivize that are have really been focused on this concept of the planned development zone.

And that focuses on energy transportation and water conservation.

That's the sustainable PDZ.

Right now, we only have um one project that has um chosen that pathway, and they haven't gotten far enough into it to really uh apply it at this point.

But I am by necessity updating some of that language in the PDZ based on some of the changes that we've seen in the tax code.

We had aligned it with federal tax code to ensure that people, if if they used our standard, they could also take advantage of the federal tax and credit uh incentive of up to five dollars per per square foot.

And some of those supporting resources are no longer there.

So I need to do this quickly.

Um I hope we could bring it potentially back to the to the board, but I am already late on it, and um it would be better to have something in place and rather than risk having someone come through the door and we don't have a real a real program.

Um so that's that's the tension right there, but it doesn't mean that we can't um think long-term, like how could we improve this over time?

Um it can be updated on a pretty regular basis.

Um I would also just say that like to complement that incentive is what we have here with the sustainable development awards, like trying to elevate that the good, um, not I shouldn't say good, but the the ones that are are really leading by example and making sure that we're celebrating those um in a variety of ways.

And I think part of that conversation could be what are what are those steps to recognition.

Um our internal goal is to make sure that we are um doing our best to enforce the the energy code.

Um if we had buildings that were energy code compliant, we wouldn't have these issues that Kristen referenced of outrageous power bills.

The energy code's really pretty good.

Um we just need to make sure that every building's hitting that mark within the city of Bozeman.

Okay.

Thanks.

Yeah.

I was just gonna jump in and add another thought I had on regarding efficiency and maybe kind of tying into the affordability discussion.

Um I'm just curious if there's any opportunity for the city to play a role in like supporting financing for certain efficiency projects that might pay themselves off through those efficiencies gained.

Um I don't have a lot of the details on how that would work.

I am having a conversation with someone tomorrow in my day job who's trying to stand up something like that, like larger statewide level.

Um but yeah, just something to put out there if there might be a role for the city to assist um lower income folks accessing these things that will save money in the long term.

Yeah.

We always find ourselves a little short on incentives for all of the um values of of our community.

So that that can be tough.

Um we we do fortunately have the commercial property assessed clean energy tool that I think we could do a much better job of uh promoting and and sharing.

Um we were somewhat waiting for the state to receive um federal funding.

And I think last time I talked to you, I said it was still in play, and maybe it's not now.

Um so yes, that we had an expectation that there would be a funding source of available.

Um so certainly could be a good time to regroup and think about those creative partnerships, and yeah, happy to talk about that more.

I'll also jump in here and say um the commission priority around affordable housing and affordability is very vaguely worded in our priorities.

Um we are scheduling a work session to kind of flesh out the the work plans for this, and we will at some point have a discussion where we define what what that looks like.

And I I think it's the intention of my colleagues to kind of look at the menu of things.

And some of us are talking about like um municipal housing and you know, um taking it out of the the market and and doing more like building of housing ourselves.

And and I think other of us are looking at more um market-based strategies.

And I know Commissioner Sweeney has been talking about um some kind of financing system to help people build um affordable housing like ADUs or or um other projects like that.

And so the financing part of this, it feels like a little bit TBD, and once once we have that broader conversation as as a commission, we can kind of narrow in and understand what we want to keep on the table.

I I think financing has been most talked about in the realm of like how do we help people build more neighborhood scale affordable housing rather than how do we help residents invest in um renewable energy and efficiency measures.

But I I think if you set up a system for one, it could be pretty well translated to a system for the other.

And um I I think that would be a really interesting conversation.

Okay.

All right.

Um any other questions at this time.

Then I will ask if there's any public comment on this work session agenda item in the room.

No, in online.

Um speak.

I would.

Thank you so much for taking public comment.

I was hanging in here to the end just in case.

Um I really appreciate this conversation you were having about tweaks to um the housing projects and you know, affordability and how the sustainability board can you know be involved with that.

And I think it's really great that you're talking about things like the solar orientation of homes.

I remember being in towns in uh New Zealand and all the homes face you know south to take advantage of that.

Um and the window, the types of windows, such as smaller windows to the north and west in the west where it's hot.

So I'd like you to just, you know, I I will disclose again that I'm uh co-founder of the Bozeman Tree Coalition, but the trees are also just a strong interest of mine.

Anyway, but I'd really consider you guys talking about uh keeping trying to work within the NCOD update and other areas about keeping existing mature trees.

You know, trees are considered one of the only um oh what's the word appreciating uh infrastructures and you know they do a great job for insulating homes from wind and excessive heat.

Um so I think they're a low-hanging fruit.

You were talking about that kind of a category, especially when the trees are in the north and west sides of sites that are going to be either redeveloped or developed for the first time.

And if you travel north seventh, there's a recent loss just to bring this to your attention.

Um on North Seventh near Aston Street, and I'll try to make this quick.

Um you might remember there were two very large and healthy spruce trees on the west side of the building that's currently being built, which is about three stories, and it's an affordable housing project.

And they were removed to allow for corner to corner development, and on that site, actually, there were 23 um 21 other smaller but mature trees of a variety of species that were moved, even though they were in this NCOD area.

These two trees would have blocked, they were huge, and they would have covered the whole west side of that building, and they would have blocked the building from the afternoon sun, the wind, which often comes from the west, and the road dust.

And um their cooling effect would have been probably uh reflective on the cooling bills, you know, whether somebody has to buy a fan to cool down their apartment, because I think those will be rentals.

Anyway, I'd really like you to you know take that into account because it's part of sustainability.

It can be a low-hanging fruit category.

Um, and it would be great to have your input on that NCO up NCOD update, which is happening um this year.

Okay, that's probably about three minutes.

So thank you.

Thanks for having public comment on both of those topics.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for that comment.

Um any other comment, online public comment?

Okay.

Um any further board discussion on the work plan.

Even just amongst ourselves, sir.

Okay, then I think that wraps it up.

Yeah, I think my my takeaway here is just uh an interest in additionally working on affordability or having a discussion around that.

And I I recognize this is a work session, so um not really don't know if it'd be appropriate to like amend the work plan to add that in or how we might go about um just recognizing that that feedback from the board.

Um I would recognize that feedback and look for a way to incorporate it in a more built-out version of this.

And um yeah, perhaps it's gonna take some conversation with my my colleagues to to figure out how to do it, but I I'm pretty confident we can do it in some capacity.

Okay, great.

Yeah, sounds good.

Okay, thank you.

And with that, this meeting is adjourned.

Great.

Thank you.