Infrastructure & Sustainability – Joint Meeting Notes – March 17th 2022

Published On: March 17th, 2022Categories: Focus Team Updates, Infrastructure, Natural & Built Sustainability

Focus Team: Infrastructure/Sustainability Joint Meeting

Date and Location: Thursday, March 17, 2022 – 443 Oak Nonprofit Center and Zoom

Estimated Attendance: 32 including staff & consultants

Guiding Questions:  

N/A

Key Technical Information Shared:  

Michelle Stewart, Exec. Director of Yampa Valley Sustainability Council (technical consultant to Brown  Ranch) and Patrick Staib, Sustainability Team Co-chair, presented sustainability priorities at Brown  Ranch and key intersections with the infrastructure team. See attached slides. Meeting recording is  available upon request.

Sustainability Directions:

Overall – Analysis and Modeling

  • Analyze community-scale energy and water systems to compare with more conventional  approaches
  • Analyze energy and water demand and systems for future climate scenarios (2050, 2080) • Evaluate life-cycle costs vs first costs in infrastructure cost analysis

Energy

  • Prioritize the smallest carbon footprint that can provide long-term affordability and energy  security for
  • residents.
  • When modeling electricity needs, consider all-electric buildings, on-site electricity generation,  and
  • connected heating/cooling and/or ground source heat pump systems.

Water

  • Assume low-flow, minimal water use as baseline for modeling residences.
  • Minimize impervious surfaces and manage stormwater runoff to support “natural” open space.  “slow it, sink it, spread it.”

Transportation

  • Prioritize multimodal transit (public, biking, and walking) over vehicular transit. • When modeling electricity needs, consider increased use of EV and EVSE transportation Materials

• Consider a zero-waste community, with more centralized trash and recycling, when evaluating  street widths and alleyways.