Park Ridge Sustainability Commission Meeting - May 6, 2026
Park Ridge Sustainability Commission Meeting - May 6, 2026
The Park Ridge Sustainability Commission met on May 6, 2026, at 7:00 PM in City Hall Council Chambers. Commissioners present: Vanessa Anderson, Christopher Arwadi, Matt Doubleday, Greg Fallico, Michelle Lagrata, Brad Olson, and Kevin Roose. Tracy Etsy was absent but sent updates. The commission approved the April 1, 2026 meeting minutes, discussed calendar events, began budget planning for the next fiscal year, and reviewed work items including mobility, waste and recycling, education and outreach, and climate/energy topics.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the meeting minutes from April 1, 2026, by unanimous vote.
Discussion Items
Calendar
- Tracy Etsy requested a volunteer to attend the Farmers Market Committee meeting on May 20, 2026, at 6:30 PM to coordinate zero-waste activities. Several members offered.
- The commission received an invitation to staff a table at the Water and Wellness Health Fair on June 6, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the Maine Township Town Hall. Members expressed interest and planned to register by May 8. The event is free.
- The EV Expo is scheduled for June 27, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM on Summit Avenue.
- The Sustainable Yard Walk and Bike Ride is set for July 12, 2026.
- The Go Green Garden Walk and Plant Sale is this weekend.
Budget
- The commission discussed preparing the fiscal year 2027 budget request. Chair will circulate last year's budget as a template, remove completed projects, and add new priorities (e.g., LED street lighting, EV initiatives). Members were asked to submit ideas for budget items by the next meeting.
Mobility
- Commissioner (unidentified) announced community bike rides planned for every other Sunday this summer; will coordinate with Health Commission and local bike shop.
- A meeting is scheduled with Drew from Planning to refresh the bike/pedestrian mobility plan.
- State Senate Bill 3366, regarding high-speed e-bikes (over 28 mph, over 750 watt motors), passed the Illinois Senate 54-0 and now goes to the House. The bill would require driver's license, title registration, and insurance for such devices.
Waste and Recycling
- Community composting: The commissioner is comparing costs between SBC and Urban Canopy for handling community composting buckets. Will present analysis by June meeting.
- Concerns were raised about SBC's acceptance of bones, meat, cheese, and compostable packaging. Members questioned whether the composting facility (Patriot Acres) is permitted to process such materials. The commission will reach out to city staff to obtain EPA permit information for SBC's compost facility to ensure transparency.
- The commission's webpage on composting may need updates due to the switch from Collective Resource to Urban Canopy and the new waste hauler (SBC). The QR code on a downtown banner links to the composting page, so accurate information is needed.
- Members will monitor fill levels at the D-road bins (downtown train station) to gauge usage after SBC starts.
Education and Outreach
- The commission voted to provide $200 in monetary support to the One Earth Film Festival, which already took place. The funding comes from the community events portion of the budget (total $500). The commission will ask for logo placement or visibility at future events.
Climate/Energy
- EV Memo: The city council showed interest; the memo is on the council action list for an upcoming meeting. The commission discussed expanding the scope of a proposed EV feasibility study to include demand assessment among uptown residents, parking enforcement impacts, and the effect of a new 2024 Illinois law allowing EV charger installations in condos and apartments at tenant expense. City attorney raised concerns about three-hour parking limits downtown.
- The commission considered joining the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus for resources; a vote to apply was previously taken.
- Community Solar Webpage: A draft proposal was presented, modeled after Oak Park's page. The commission agreed to add a "Community Solar" link on the sustainability page, linking to the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) website for education and provider comparisons. Language will be refined for SEO.
- Building energy efficiency: Members discussed the need for an asset management inventory of city-owned buildings (roofs, HVAC) to plan for solar panel installations and energy upgrades. The ComEd Energy Efficiency Program (through trade allies) offers free assessments and incentives for municipal buildings. The commission may prioritize requesting a city-wide energy audit.
Key Outcomes
- Approved minutes from April 1, 2026.
- Voted (unanimously) to provide $200 to One Earth Film Festival.
- Decided to request city staff to verify the composting facility permit for SBC.
- Agreed to proceed with creating a community solar information page on the commission website, with final language to be approved at the next meeting.
- Next meeting scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, 2026, at 7:00 PM.
Meeting Transcript
Right. Um yeah, I don't know, but they still have to maintain them. And so at some point, like the HVAC on this building is gonna be end of life. Right. And so there's Brad said he'd be here. So we will have five. Oh my gosh. Is that is it gonna just give me five of us? Yeah, it's just five of us today. Yeah. Okay. Um we'll have to wait, I guess, until Brad shows up. Feel free to I'm just getting onto the internet. Um Chris, you should talk to Jen. She's has a experience with uh LED street lights and oh, cool. Well, not well, wait I I was um when I was on the task force before in my um previous work. I was uh I worked in marketing for a uh comed trade ally. Oh, cool. Uh Verday, and so they did uh lighting retrofits for public sector. Um mostly LED, and then they got into HVAC, and now they're doing um EV parking. Oh great, okay. And other things like that. They did a lot of work at the park district. With Park Ridge Park District, yeah. Well they did like uh South Parks football field lights that they had to replace there and stuff. Oh, gotcha. Okay, but they they work with the comed program, so I'm a little familiar with the energy efficiency program. That's great. Yeah, and you know, Kevin and I have talked about that with you know some of the EDB chargers and that kind of stuff and like grant funding that we might be able to get to common with medicine for that. Um same thing with the street lighting replacement that they're working on right now up by Lutheran, um, which was something that we advocated for last year. Um and so you know, I mean, same thing, right? Right. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's one of the things that I think we need to be more proactive about is like you know what programs are out there that we as a city could be taking advantage of because if we don't, I mean, not only are we not making any sort of change, but also yeah, totally on board with that. And those seemed to change wildly. Oh yeah, exactly. Yeah, I was a project manager in the lighting industry. Uh so very familiar with that. Filled out a lot of DCO grants and commed grants and stuff like that back. So are the is the lighting the gas light lights are all going to LED? Yeah, uh so up by Lutheran, we identified that as kind of the lowest hanging fruit because there were those were the most 400 watt lights. Um yeah, I think there's like 62 of them in that neighborhood over there, and so start with the I always was interested in that because um over on Devon where I'm at, I'm near Devon and Cumberland. Oh, you're by me then. Yeah, I'm on Brofi. Right, yeah, okay, cool. Yeah. Um right by Duncan's or north of Brickton Park. Oh, I'm uh like right down the street from Triple Scooped. Oh, nice. Oh, that's a good place to live. Yeah, we're we all have diabetes now.
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