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okay good afternoon everyone Welcome to
our work session of Las Cruces City
Council today is Monday November 28 2022
it's approximately 1 p.m uh happy
anniversary to my parents I've been
their 70th anniversary today if my dad
been alive so
about my parents if you please join me
in the pledge please
thank you
okay so now we're gonna have our
pet of the week
Amy the Felix I'm sorry did I pronounce
that okay to Felix from the Animal
Services Board
or the ASC MV
when I be able to find it here and
City Council
I probably try work sessions work
sessions
now try that one
there you go
alrighty hello I am Amy De Felix with
the Animal Services Center of the
Messiah Valley
um here are both of our pets of the week
our dog and cat of the week starting
with our cat her name is Meredith her
ASC number is 53781 and here's what she
has to say I'm a calm and elegant girl
who loves the Finer Things in life pets
and Cuddles I like making biscuits in
your lap when I'm feeling happy and if
you're listen closely enough you can
hear my quiet purr I'm hardly ever too
loud so if you need an acquired or
companion who is still sweet and
affectionate I'm the one for you
and our dog of the week his name is Ted
his ANC number is 48011 and he says that
he's ready for a fun love or if you're
ready for a fun-loving good-looking boy
who knows how to get time he'll look no
further I'm so interested in everything
and I love playing all day I need a
family to help guide and direct my
energy into healthy Outlets like long
walks rugged toys or treat puzzles but I
promise that it's worth it for my love
and affection
okay thank you Amy
okay next is going to be Giselle
balamatis from the Workforce Connection
it's going to be presenting the jobs of
the week
good afternoon mayor and Council
all right for the jobs of this week we
have city of Las Cruces is hiring for An
Inspector General they're paying 85 224
000 a year open until filled we have
White Sands of Missile Range who is
hiring for food and beverage attendant
that pays 16 an hour and it closes
December 29th
Admiral beverage Corporation is hiring a
night warehouse laborer that pays 22 000
or 30 000 depending on experience and
closes February 17th of 2023
First National Bank Texas is hiring a
bilingual personal banker and that pays
30 000 to 38 000 depending on experience
and that closes February 16th of 2023.
the Salvation Army is hiring a seasonal
bell ringer that pays 11.50 an hour and
that closes December 8th and teresco is
hiring a developmentalist specialist and
that pays between 14 hours to 19 hours
19 an hour I'm sorry depending on
experience and that closes on December
15th for a full list of jobs you can
please go to Las Los Dash cruises.org or
mcl.com
and as always you can always connect
with our New Mexico Workforce Connection
by calling them at
575-524-6250 or you can visit them in
person at 226 South Alameda Boulevard
Las Cruces New Mexico
and you can always visit them at their
webpage at playing them.com as well as
download the app thank you mayor
very good question
yes
the range of pay
I have 85k to 124.
thank you you're welcome
okay so we have two items on the agenda
first one is the 3.1 sustainability
quarterly update and Lisa LaRock our
sustainability coordinator will be
presenting
nope
I think I'm opening them up the wrong
place aren't I
I've never had to go first so I'm
looking for where they are located
anybody
do you know where they are
the bottom
sorry no
Council presentations
please
work sessions
good good afternoon mayor council and
um people in the audience my name is
Lisa LaRock besides being I.T
dysfunctional I am this is
sustainability officer for the city of
Las Cruces
um and I'm very happy to be first it's a
new experience for me as evidenced by me
not finding the folder
so I have been asked to provide a
quarterly report for you mostly on the
climate action plan but other areas
related to sustainability and Jenny
Hernandez the sustainability specialist
and I will be sharing building
electrification with you today
so the first thing I wanted to do is
give a global overview in the last
couple weeks the United Nations
convention on climate change had a
meeting now as the the cop 27 in Egypt
and one of the things that they
concluded after this meeting is that our
need to mitigate climate change is more
urgent than ever that the technology is
available and that it's more
sophisticated than ever
but that market forces globally aren't
going to be enough to make the changes
with the speed that we needed although
the inflation reduction Act is going to
be helpful in that area for the United
States and that policy has to drive the
change and that the Investments have to
um be the three to six times higher so
with that sense of urgency we've tried
to step up
to remind you about the climate action
plan we did an inventory in 2018 and in
that inventory
we created a percentage pie here and we
will be focusing on the building sector
which is both the commercial and the
residential and together those two Blues
slices of the pie are 38 percent of our
greenhouse gas emissions so they're a
significant part of why
um what of what this the city-wide we're
doing to contribute to greenhouse gases
the 53 of that those two blue colored
pies are the greenhouse gases that come
from electricity emissions from
electricity in 2018 and 44
of the the pies the commercial and
residential pies are emissions that come
from natural gas
we were developing the climate action
plan we came up with several different
strategies to try to address the
building sector the first three
strategies that we came up with were
were Energy Efficiency so we tackled
either Municipal
residential or commercial sectors and we
had a goal for 2030 and we have a goal
for 2050. and they're different
percentages but they all on an average
are about 25 percent and you'll see that
that a 25 percent
um reduction in energy use was our goal
but
that doesn't amount to as much in
greenhouse gases because the most you
can do with Greenhouse the most that can
happen with with Energy Efficiency is
you can reduce buildings energy load by
10 to 20 percent because you're just
making something more efficient you're
still using the same equipment that you
used or the same types of equipment that
you use but you're making it more more
efficient in some areas
the the fourth strategy that we came up
with is building decarbonization and
what that does is it decreases the
uh greenhouse gases to ultimately to
zero so how can we do that one of the
reasons that we can do that
is because
there's the New Mexico energy transition
act that requires that utilities use
renewable and carbon free fuels by 2045
and so they're going down and with
different milestones in 2025 and 2030
and 2040 so over the course of time by
the time we reach 2025 any electricity
that we use will not have carbon in it
because the utilities are mandated to
only generate electricity from carbon
free sources from renewable energy
and then concurrently as we Electrify
buildings we're also removing natural
gas from new construction and then that
too would
um increase the amount of electricity
and then decrease the amount of natural
gas as we go towards
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electrifying and decarbonizing buildings
and and beyond that
it the idea of electrifying more
buildings will actually help us reach
our greenhouse gas emissions more
quickly because we will be removing
natural gas from that
sector and it will also improve the
resiliency of buildings because
especially for low and moderate income
people because
they're the
new sophisticated energy efficient
um
and subsidized
appliances and HVAC systems that they'll
be getting will be ones that
assured that their household
temperatures are safe in extreme weather
events and that their bills will be
decreased because of the Energy
Efficiency of these new types of
appliances
and with that I let Jenny take a deeper
dive into the different strategies that
we're doing
thanks Lisa
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mayor council
um Jenny Atlantis a sustainability
specialist for the record and so as Lisa
explained one of the goals that will
help us achieve our building
decarbonization in the cap is
um having to do with proposed code
amendments so if you remember almost
about a year ago we brought forward the
resolution for All City buildings to be
all-electric and the guidance given was
to create something similar for Citywide
so we are currently working on that
however
we are taking an approach that we are
proposing for the code amendments to be
um electric ready so I'll dive into
exactly uh what that means so what we're
currently doing is we've contracted new
buildings Institute which is the
consultant that has many years of
experience working with other cities to
do something similar and so we really
asked them to achieve three goals in
this draft amendment of codes and that
is first to take our current code what
we currently use and follow and just
insert electric Readiness so electric
Readiness means that you can essentially
plug and play when you are ready to
convert to an all-electric home so that
just means taking your
um panel most homes older homes have a
120 volt panel and so what this code
would say is now you have to put a 240
volt in it and that just means that if
you have if you want to get an EV later
it has the capacity to let you put a
charger in for your EV if you want to
switch say your gas water heater to an
electric heat pump it has the capacity
on the panel to do that so that's one of
the components we've asked them to do
the second thing was to take to take a
look at energy efficient Concepts that
have high impact and that are cost
effective and so what they've done is
they've looked at iecc 20 21 and iecc is
the international energy conservation
code
um and they've taken those components
that are cost impact and cost effective
with high impact I'm sorry and sprinkle
it into the proposed code so there's a
few
um so I'll give you an example one of
them is having to do with light sensors
so they've added that to that piece of
it and the last thing we've asked them
to do is to create a stretch coat
stretch code means that it's voluntary
it's an extra Step Beyond what is
required and that stretch code means
that we've had them write it in a way
that is all electric so that means that
everything in the house runs on all
electric and the reason that we did this
is to
match it or align it with the induction
inflation reduction act because the
inflation reduction act has monies that
can people can qualify for if they build
all electric or as they start to
transition to all electric so I'm going
to show you some examples on that but
before I move to that slide again I just
want to clarify that base code is what
is mandatory so that's kind of the first
two levels you'll see on there stretch
codes are voluntary so it's not
mandatory if they want they can meet
those voluntary stretch codes and it's
highly encouraged and incentivized
through the IRA and this only pertains
to all new construction and the
commercial stretch code is what this
city will adopt as the minimum
requirements for our city buildings
which again is that last component that
is all electric
excuse me Jenny before you go further
can you
um just for clarification for council
members of the public those watching at
home on TV can you right now when a
person's building a new home they're
usually of course electrical outlets and
then there's usually gas as well
and so and of course there's the breaker
box and all that can you kind of from
that from that um
I forgot what they call it when they at
that stage when they're building the
house can you kind of
transition and just share with with the
with us what exactly changes at that at
that level
so what would
uh the only thing I would have to change
is your panel so it goes from right now
it's 120 so I would put a 240 in at new
construction and then I would run the
conduits and the wiring to be ready for
an electric charger and the same thing I
would run it for your stove so it'll
still have natural gas but it'll have
everything prepared for if I want to put
in an electric or induction stove top
and so that's all it's doing it's
preparing everything so if you want to
switch you can but you it's not we're
not taking out gas right now so that's
all it'll be
thank you of course and so to the
mayor's Point what exactly does that
look like when we say we want to align
it with the IRA funding that is coming
down so I have two scenarios here to
kind of give you an idea of what that
means and then I'll give you a very
specific example of how it'll qualify
for Builders and developers so the first
two columns the First Column you'll see
is this is if you are low income to
moderate income based on the average
medium household income and so there are
um rebates for low to moderate income
and you have the potential to get up to
fourteen thousand dollars in rebates
again rebates is point of sale either
discount or refund money that you will
receive then the second column is tax
credits right so that you have to wait
until the the end of the year to get
that tax credit but the tax credit can
be doubled with the rebate in this
instance so if I am low to moderate
income I can get the rebate of four
thousand dollars for my electrical panel
and then at the end of the year still
um get six hundred dollars for tax
credits I want to point out that these
are caps so this is the most I can get
and if you fall in between that moderate
income you have the potential to get
half of those costs covered and if I am
low to moderate income you get a hundred
percent of those costs covered and so
you'll see that under the tax credit
columns I have berries because of your
moderate income it'll just depend on
your income what the qualifying tax
credit amount is and then the last
column is for folks who are above medium
income and so they will most likely
really well they will only qualify for
tax credits and none of the rebates and
so you'll see though that because they
don't get any of the rebates they get
more of the tax credit qualifications
um and so this again depends on the
income above the medium income and so
essentially what the codes are doing is
preparing folks to be able to get some
of this and specifically for our
Builders and developers we've really
curated the stretch code which again is
voluntary to streamline them to get this
funding and so if you are
constructing new residential homes you
can get up to five thousand dollar five
thousand dollars if you meet the
requirements for the doe Zero Energy
ready homes which is what we've aligned
the voluntary stretch votes to follow so
if you follow those stretch codes you
will be meeting the doe Zero Energy
ready homes and so you'll see here that
that's five thousand dollars per unit
and if you're building commercial
buildings you still are able for a tax
credit that just varies a little bit
more because it depends on the Energy
savings that you're getting versus
meeting specific requirements and then
so this yellow chart is just
um the same thing but explained with
numbers so you'll get up to 2 500 if you
meet the EPA energy star and then if you
go all the way to the doe you'll get
that five thousand dollar rebate and so
all of this again is connected to the
codes but as we move forward we have
other initiatives to help with
um specifically with this and I'm gonna
pass it back to Lisa to cover that
so real quick Jenny I don't know if you
know the answer to this so these are
federal tax credits of course
are there any from the state that you're
aware of that's a great question mayor
yes there are some from the state that I
have not included here
um but there are it's called the
Sustainable Building tax credit that
qualifies you to get tax credits not
rebates but tax credits for essentially
doing this so on top of this money you
can also qualify for State money which
is a sustainable Sustainable Building
tax credit and we also have local
rebates through El Paso Electric that
will qualify you for some of these
things as well so the credit is
primarily credit on your tax return with
the state correct and and can you I know
you mentioned what it is but what is the
stretch code again
the stretch code is basically
um say I'm I'm building a new home and
obviously I have to follow our coat
right and so I follow it but I want to
go beyond what's required in just the
code and this stretch code is serves as
a guidance to help them like if I want
to go beyond electric ready and I want
to go all electric this tells you how to
do that and pairs it with the funding
for them to qualify for
thank you
counselor Flores thank you Mr Mayor and
thank you so much for your presentation
so
um
these are credits that go to the
prospective new home owner is that
correct
so how is that how does that work in
terms I mean what if there's a
prospective buyer who says I really
don't want to buy a house that so does
this adhere also to the Builder and then
passes on to the does it adhere to the
Builder and then it passes on to the
buyer how does that work Council of
Florida is a great question so the
rebates are for mostly for retrofits of
housing so I as the homeowner would get
that but if I am building new homes and
I build them to these requirements I the
Builder would be able to get the tax
credit not the rebate but the tax credit
now the million dollar question that we
are still unclear about is if I buy a
home that the Builder has constructed to
these requirements and I move in can I
still get the 14 thousand dollar rebate
or the tax credits because these items
exist in my home that I have now
purchased and that we are unclear about
I would my best estimation is that the
Fourteen thousand dollars you will not
be able to qualify for because in the uh
wording in in the policy it says when
you switch out a gas for an electric and
because I bought the home as is I'm
going to say that you cannot qualify for
the rebates but what's unclear is that
if I can still qualify for the tax
credits after I've moved into a new home
that is constructed to these standards
so since we're looking at this as uh to
potential codification right so are we
going to get things that more
information that's clearer on that uh
Council Flores yes as as it's moving
through
um our hope is to bring this to a
working session in February to you for
specifically once we're done with the
draft code proposal and by that time at
the federal level there should be more
clarifications because you should be
able to tap into this funding by January
okay so yes and then as far as cop 27
goes I get some weekly reports from the
League of Women Voters and there was
some concern that we have actually
Fallen back in terms of catching up with
our goals that I was aware of in at cop
23 which was five years ago so um are
the steps that we are taking uh playing
that catch-up game or are we how how are
we contributing
um to the
that uh I should say
that goal that we haven't achieved as
expected back in in 2017. councilor
Florida
yeah at least no thank you very much
thank you Lisa thank you Miss Jenny Lisa
Lorac again
um
so the answer to the question
definitively mayor and councilor Flores
is that we're planning an inventory next
year to be able to actually measure the
progress that we've made but I will say
that
from our work with all the different
contractors that we've engaged and I'll
tell you about in a second with the next
slide that we have gotten a lot of
positive feedback that we are very
forward thinking and taking actions and
codifying actions that are still
aren't being that that's that's very
important and not being done in a lot of
different cities so in terms of New
Mexico will be the first city to ask for
codifying this
and towards that I'd like to move to the
net to the last slide and give you the
whole picture of what we're doing in
terms of really trying to make an impact
on building
decarbonization or electrification we're
doing several different things to
prepare
the industry and residents about
electrification
adoption one of the things is that we're
doing is we're going to be giving a full
day construction industry training on
the technologies that are available now
the codes that we're proposing that are
aligned with
the IRA rebates the Technologies and the
codes
obviously and then we're also preparing
a lot of additional materials to
that our research and and numerically
based one about the
um the myths and facts that people have
about uh electrification and new
construction and whether or not those
hearsay sorts of
um pieces of information that you've
heard are actually myth or fact we are
doing a cost analysis with for
construction with the tax credits so
we'll actually be able to show the true
bottom line to the construction industry
they have the prerogative of building
houses
and just following the basic code or
they can see if they did the stretch
code with the tax credit that they get
and some other choices that they make
that in fact that they that this would
um be a selling point for people since
it's the longest term investment that
you have and then there's
another analysis that we're doing as a
life cycle cost so not just the initial
cost of the appliance or the HVAC system
but looking at it over the life of the
appliance or infrastructure and how that
ultimately saves money and we've seen
that done in different National and
Regional markets but we're working with
NBI again to take that analysis
um at a local level so it's pertinent to
what we're doing we're also putting in
some public workshops that we're
offering on January 20th and 21st at the
power up Las Cruces Expo and training
and we have uh volunteers that are
helping us with an exhibitor's expo with
all the manufacturers and installers and
we have a website and ongoing research
on an ongoing Outreach rather with that
so we're really trying to make a
concerted effort to move adoption of
going electric because of the fact that
that energy source is moving to a zero
carbon base that we feel that this is
the best way to make that large impact
on on what our goals are
for the climate action plan
so with that I we can will stand for
questions and comments thank you very
much
I'm counselor Graham
it won't light up oh my God have I been
recalled
that's how they tell you
thank you uh sorry for that
technological snafu that was that was
kind of weird uh thank you mayor and
thanks so much uh Lisa and Jenny I
always really enjoy your presentations
if we could go back to slide six please
thanks so just to make sure I understand
when you say the rebates are primarily
aimed at retrofits so that would mean
existing homes these are not new
constructions so like my house that I
live in if I went through uh if I went
through the upgrades then these are the
rebates for which I as an existing
homeowner would I would uh
apply mayor councilor beta I'm don't
want to go into your program but that's
cool but I am on her mic okay you're
right you know you get a little nervous
up here I do know who you are no you're
all good what are you doing on her mic
um yeah
so um sorry uh
if your income was
uh 50 was a below the median income yes
you would qualify for all those rebates
okay if your income is above that
for much of that you get a tax credit
you you would you would be able to
travel in the third lane and uh but the
but you can it it reboots you you can
spend money and get tax you you don't
have to do everything in one year for
one time thirty percent tax credit you
can parse it out over several years okay
great thank you that that clears it up
and uh those of my colleagues and you
Lisa and Jenny who share space with me
and the transportation sustainability
and infrastructure PRC have already
heard this line of thought
um
but I just
I urge us all to remain mindful of the
idea that rebates are wonderful but it
also means you have to have the cash in
hand at the start to be able to make the
upgrades and for a lot of for a lot of
folks that may not be possible so what
are the best practices that we can look
at especially at the local level to help
Empower people
um you know to to make that possible
mayor councilor Graham the
the
there are two different factors that
well there are multiple strategies
towards that
one of them is that it's an instant
rebate at the time of sale so you get
you get the money immediately if there
is some sort of upfront costs that occur
there are some other areas that are
available through our local banks or
through a green bank which is actually a
loan program where you have a short-term
loan because you know that the money is
guaranteed and then you pass it on that
way but most often they are trying to be
very sensitive to that the idea of a tax
credit though is problematic if you
don't end up right uh having money that
you owe that's deducted and that is one
that we continue to challenge but I
think it really shows that the Fourteen
thousand dollars we've calculated a full
retrofit and it's about twenty two
thousand dollars for installation and
um and cost of appliances is that right
twenty three thousand so that's a that's
a lot you know but that's that's really
good to hear that there's instant rebate
and and some local options because I
know the navigating the state and
federal process can be can be difficult
so I'm glad to hear that there's
something here locally and and mayor
councilor Graham we are also aware of
how challenging it has been to navigate
even this learning curve for us and
um we're trying to look for a way to set
aside funding to prove divide
Advocates counselors to work with the
LMI Community to help them navigate this
whole thing with
great with assistance all right thank
you so much thank you mayor
thank you councilor Koran thank you
thank you mayor Thank you Lisa and Jenny
this was great and also just for the
record if they meant to recall one of us
I suspect it was me so there's clearly
confusion on the part of the mics okay
yeah
thank you for so much for presenting
today and for coming to TSI and giving
us kind of the grounding for this
conversation I I do want to just really
appreciate you all for the way that
you're the ways that you're thinking
about this and giving us an opportunity
to give feedback from the TSI committee
as well I did want to just note one
possible follow-up we are having another
TSI PRC meeting next Tuesday here and
the uh one part of that a small part of
the TSI PRC will actually be a
presentation from El Paso Electric to
talk about the very specific short-term
immediate rebates and discounts that
people in the community can get such so
we're trying to kind of dissipate that
information in every way that we
possibly can Less on the Builder end and
more on the consumer end but we will
have that presentation at 8 30 next
Tuesday Morning in the conference room
upstairs so just to add to the to the
dissipation of the information and and
hopefully get more folks engaged as much
as possible so thank you again
thanks mayor thank you both so much for
the presentation on your next slide
um
yes where you talked about tax credit
for contractors you know often when we
make decisions regarding impact fees or
anything that is related to contractors
the go-to sort of
um talking point is well the contractor
is just going to pass it on to the
consumer right they're just going to
pass it on to the home buyer I'm curious
about how this
um imagine this five thousand dollar per
unit is the cap as Jenny said I'm just
curious if you can speak to that
um like if you've seen this before if
this is something that's going to be
really great for contractors I mean it
seems
excellent for me and so I'm just curious
if you could talk a little bit more
about
um you know addressing that concern that
often contractors have in terms of you
know how we may get expensive for them
to do business
mayor councilor Ben Como that's a really
great question so
45 L and 1790
um to be specific are already actually
existing
tax credits the only thing is that
they've increased it by
a lot
um and so and obviously to coincide with
that is that they've made they've
adopted the requirements to meet the
goals that are aligned with reducing our
greenhouse gas emissions So currently 45
l in 1790
standards are not
um as I guess you could say energy
efficient and so what they've done is
they've increased that pot of money but
they've also made the standards to
ensure that it will
be cost effective give Energy Efficiency
and as Lisa was mentioning really over
the lifetime ensuring that it is
worthwhile to to do that so those those
standards will be aligned to meet those
goals and so all they've done is
increase the money for this bucket so I
would argue that it's probably more
appealing than the how the current tax
credit stands awesome Jenny thank you so
much for your analysis thanks mayor
anybody else okay is um
there's quite a few members of the
public here were any of you here to had
any questions on
on this presentation
okay CNN oh yes if you want to come
forward we'll give you three minutes
just state your name please
yeah we we can't take any comment from
back there we have to pick you up on the
recorder sorry
and I just need you to state your name
please
sorry I'm not familiar with any of the
protocol here but my question is my
first time here so can you state your
name please oh my name is Sue riba
and my question is where can we find all
this information
for the public so that we can study
these things a little bit more carefully
that's awesome okay thank you sue
mayor council and Mr riba
um there thank you for the opportunity
to say again that on January 20th and
21st of 2023 will be hosting a Expo and
training at the Las Cruces convention
center and then we will also be putting
up a website that will have all this
material we will have a we'll be
training some people to to help the low
and moderate income Community navigate
these different sites and there's one
more uh
oh and there's a training specifically
for the public from um at the Expo
called rewiring from rewiring America
that helps with that and
um we also hope to have some additional
trainings uh if possible kind of uh
riffing off Lush and lean not ripping
riffing and
um to to do some local discussions with
folks about the advantages of that
opportunity and we'll be talking more
about that in a upcoming work session
okay great thanks Lisa I have another
question yes counselor thank
you same thank you again Lisa and Jenny
um as far as the uh January 2020 and 21
um
event where you also have information
regarding the income levels that are
considered low median and or medium
whatever High
and just generally do you know what they
are offhand at this point
mayor councilor Flores it depends on the
number of people in the household so it
gets a little bit more complicated but
we will have uh exhibit
um
exhibitors that will have that
information and be able to walk you
through the rebates as well as having in
our training we'll have sessions that
just deal with that in a much deeper
dive
it's it's not simple there's no doubt
about it but we we want to get in the
front of the queue to be able to take
advantage of as much money as we can
okay and then I have an Ask
um or
who do I ask oh
our acting city manager
Enrique I have an ask for the city
manager for City management we really
need to get this word out to the people
you know just to the residents of Las
Cruces and
um I think a lot of us our our older
homes some I think most of them are well
what do I know but there are
Spanish-speaking people Spanish speaking
only
residents and if this could be a
programmatic announcement in our
newspaper or submit to the newspaper and
I don't we don't have a newspaper but
the city The Sun News or whatever just
to let people know that this is coming
because that's about what six weeks away
at this point or less
less so if we could get that information
out regularly through our radio stations
and and to have bilingual people there
um that would be very helpful and I
think effective and I think that people
will be responsive the more education
the more information they have
mayor councilor Flores we have hired a
marketing team to help us get the word
out and it's just starting to ramp up
now we're kind of competing with the
holidays but the idea of having
bilingual staff there is certainly an
important one to keep in mind great
thank you so much thank you thank you
mayor
good suggestion there counselor okay
thank you Lisa thank you everyone for
your presentation thank you Jenny next
item is going to be item 3.2 city of Las
Cruces Tree Care ordinance Franco
granillo will be presenting
there you are
good afternoon mayor members of council
Franco cranio Parks and Recreation we're
here to discuss our our proposal or our
guidelines for our tree ordinance policy
that we'd like to implement
but before I do before we get started
I'd like to point out some people in the
crowd that have been a huge part of this
so some of our internal partners of
course Rhonda with water conservation
will work with her regarding our
plantings and water savings
of course Lisa with our sustainability
so we can make sure to have a continued
program for tree canopy increasing and
also Kathy Matthews are our landscape
architect because she also assists big
time when it comes to review and design
review for neighborhoods and plantings
when we accept a new piece of property
and also one of the most important parts
of our our tree care ordinance and
policies and procedures as our tree
stewards we have several of them here
right now and if you'd like to stay
under a wave you know she can be
acknowledged we really appreciate all
your help
[Applause]
we wouldn't be able to do as much as we
do without them we have a lot of staff
that we plant with but these are the
people that help us year round and also
Mr fenske Mr Finley and Mr White we kind
of bounce ideas off them and they give
us some some of our best practices that
we use to this day
so before I get started we also have
Alyssa O'Brien she's our she comes from
the state forestry office and she's a
urban and Community forestry program
manager so she's going to discuss the
benefits the many benefits of trees and
how this ordinance can really help us as
a city
thank you
players for having me here
as Franco stated I am Alyssa O'Brien
with New Mexico State forestry I'm the
urban and Community forestry program
manager
for the state
all right so just briefly in summary
what I'm going to speak about
is kind of
trees protect us and that we need to
protect them what exactly are Las Cruces
trees providing for Las Cruces what are
those benefits
um I'm going to kind of overview the
economic infrastructure health
environmental Community benefits that
these trees are providing and then why
do they need protection why can't they
just stand alone and be themselves and
how can an ordinance be the thing that's
going to be protecting them
so first off in one of the benefits is
the economic benefit of Las Cruces trees
um this is based off of a 2014 study
done in Las Cruces by Davey Tree and
state forestry but it was estimated that
the structural value of all of Las
Cruces trees was 205 million so I can
only imagine it's gone up since now
since then with the value of money and
this is the market cost of the tree if
you cut down all the trees in Las Cruces
and then had to replace them so that's
how much it would cost
but that's just the market cost so
that's just the cost that it would cost
to go to a local landscaper and have
these trees put back in there are so
many other benefits economic benefits
that trees provide that are not part of
their purchase price so if you buy a
tree you're really getting a great
investment each tree provides about
thirty one thousand dollars in benefits
that are not part of its purchase price
so next time you're at the store you
know look in the Hundred Dollar Tree
like 31. it's a really great return on
investment it's about 450 on average
and the kind of benefits that are
involved in this are I'm going to kind
of go over
but they're one of the few pieces of
infrastructure that actually appreciates
and doesn't depreciate over time
if you take care of it correctly
so some of these benefits that are not
caught up in the purchase price this is
from the 2014 study so again it could
only have it might have changed slightly
since then it shows that Las Cruces
trees are removing a lot of of the
city's air pollution
about 92 tons of air pollution 45 tons
of that is is an ozone
trees are able to intercept and hold
small particles on their surface and
then absorb gas pollution so if you go
past a tree that's located along a busy
highway and you touch the leaves a lot
of times you'll come away with a black
coating on your hand but that's black
coating is something that's being
absorbed by the trees and filtered by
the trees not in your lungs
a study by The Nature Conservancy here
showed that one tree can remove between
seven to twenty four percent of the
pollution around it so rather than
having little Hat by air filters all
along your Highway tree tree looks much
nicer
globally the World Health Organization
estimated that 90 of global Urban
dwellers were exposed to these
particulates and that globally it causes
three million premature deaths
they are estimating that by 2050 that
will globally be 6.2 Million Lives
it's not
not necessarily in Las Cruces but
they're doing lots of good and then
the value of carbon sequestration this
is for Las Cruces
is 17 800 tons of carbon is sequestered
so kind of stored in those trees
and that's only going to become more and
more relevant it's a current Hot Topic
that uh
one of our our billionaires recently
posted on Twitter that he was going to
give a million dollars for the best
carbon storage device and one of the
best carbon storage devices is his trees
and so people responded back on Twitter
saying it's trees and he donated his
million dollars to tree planting so not
a high-tech solution carbon
sequestration just plant a tree
um trees also provide lower energy costs
kind of dovetailing with the last
presentation and carbon emission
reductions just for the city of Las
Cruces it in 2014 it totaled about six
hundred thousand dollars that's only
going to increase as temperatures rise
and Rising energy costs but basically
what's happening is there's lowered
energy costs
for businesses and homes that have trees
planted around them that are insulating
the homes and also providing shading
benefits
trees also provide considerable rain
water and storm water volume and
Pollution Control through rainfall
interception and intensity reduction
storm water infiltration and uptake
facilitation and nutrient load reduction
it's a lot of words but Urban storm
water is normally usually moved away
really quickly to prevent flooding in
our cities
super important however moving these
large quantities of untreated Urban
storm water to Downstream water sources
like Rio Grande you often lose water so
you're just kind of funneling all that
water you decrease the water quality and
you increase treatment costs further
down the road as it just picks picks
more pollutants up in those channels
instead with trees the canopy can
intercept rain delaying the runoff to
storm drains allows the storm water
control system to work more efficiently
and reduces the chances of becoming
overwhelmed for the city of Las Cruces
it was about in 2014 about 898
000 cubic feet of runoff that the street
that the trees were able to process
and they were able to reduce the storm
water intensity by 25 to 70 depending on
the tree canopy where they were
um
and then also the tree roots condition
the soil to help increase the
infiltration of water into the soil so
kind of slowing it down like a sponge
rather than just running off this
increases its ability to store greater
volumes of water so you're not just
losing that water by having it run off
into your River and further down the
system you're actually kind of keeping
the water in the system for you to use
and that amount that was shown to be
stored was in Las Cruces between 69 to
350 percent more water was stored
underneath these trees than areas that
were comparable with bare ground
all right so the health benefits of
trees
um this is an amazing fact that I feel
like everyone should know heat is the
leading weather-related killer in the
U.S
um even more so than hurricanes fires uh
tornadoes they think of these big
natural disasters that FEMA pays for and
I mean they're huge National tragedies
but heat is like the silent killer it's
the leading killer of people that that
you're just not hearing about because
it's
these people don't have voices a lot of
the times and it's just not spoken up
it's not as dramatic as and FEMA can't
necessarily come and have a heat
emergency but
in urban areas the H2 is even even more
um kind of urgent Urban structures such
as buildings roads other infrastructure
absorb and then re-emit the sun's heat
more than natural landscapes such as
forests and water bodies you've probably
seen that even if you just walk through
a park the park is often just feels a
lot cooler if you walk through some of
our beautiful state and national forests
it just feels a lot cooler than when
you're in the parking lot a lot of the
trees around here still have their their
green leaves you go a little ways up
into the mountains all the leaves are
gone so these urban areas where these
structures are highly concentrated and
Greenery is limited become islands of
higher temperature
relative to outlying areas and this is
for Las Cruces daytime temperatures were
about
we're between 1 to 18 degrees higher
than temperatures in outlying areas and
then the nighttime temperatures were
about two to five degrees higher so they
just kind of hold on to that heat
um
this is really especially relevant to
Las Cruces because this is 2018 mapping
so more recently showed that all of the
city had dangerously High average
temperatures of 93 to 107 degrees
Fahrenheit and that was just the average
for annual temperatures so that's it's a
really high average annual temperature
when temperatures are this warm it does
become a health issue
but on the bright side trees every 10
percent increase in your overall tree
canopy generates a two degree reduction
in ambient heat so trees are able to
provide this health this this cooling
benefit by providing shade releasing
water vapor and then reducing your air
conditioning costs by 30 percent
so they are able to often when you go
into the shade
and this was particular to Las Cruces
the areas were 20 to 45 degrees cooler
which is a huge huge difference
especially if it's 90 degrees if you go
somewhere it's 100 degrees and it's 80
degrees in the shade that's that's
life-saving
the trees
and now why they need protection why
can't we just leave the trees be where
they are and
and
hope hope all will be good so this is
kind of a summary of Las Cruces tree
cover canopy cover is the measure that's
kind of the standard that's used to
determine how a city is doing to kind of
compare different cities to compare
municipalities and how they're doing to
reduce their heat island effect and
providing shade for the residents the
general metric that towns Across America
strive for is 30 percent
I'm sorry there's a little sticky note
on there
um
30 with impervious surfaces being as low
as possible so 30 cover of trees which
is a little bit
um difficult to achieve here in the air
in southwest
I do have to acknowledge that it's a lot
easier if you go Pacific Northwest or
east coast
um but the land you study from 2014
showed Las Cruces tree cover was at four
percent with impervious surface being 30
percent and bare ground being 54 so lots
of areas potentially for trees
potentially and then looking at maps
from 2018 the tree cover was at 12 so
definitely it's improving or it was
either measured differently but it's
still a ways to go
um just in kind of comparison
um throughout our state Albuquerque is
at 14 Carlsbad is at 16 and Santa Fe is
at 18 percent
but those places are also don't get as
high of temperature so they don't
necessarily need it as much as Las
Cruces potentially
so the trees need our protection
ordinances are kind of the way that you
can get there what ordinances do
are they protect and enhance all these
tree benefits that Las Cruces currently
has
they Street whoops
hold on
so they kind of Set uh standards to help
you protect maintain and increase your
tree canopy so protecting what you have
maintaining what you have and then also
hopefully increasing what you
getting more they also have provide for
a healthier Forest by setting standards
for where you can place trees
and then they also can have increased
safety because if you're placing the
trees in the right right places there's
less issues with hazards and tree
failure later on improved quality of
community I would know I would rather be
in an area that has a lot of trees I'm
probably special but
they've shown that people will spend 30
percent more at stores that have
tree-lined canopies they've shown that
housing prices go up if there's more
trees
it's usually on
depends on the area but for New Mexico
as a whole it's about thirty thousand
dollars is is what average house price
goes up by if you put it just a tree in
the front yard
costs for energy
and then
um the ordinance itself would uh make it
collaborative easier for departments in
the community to work together having
less conflict so there would be an
authority that would be able to kind of
hold accountable
the trees you know uh hold accountable
people's actions towards the trees there
we go
um and kind of have standards for how
your community's trees are are dealt
with so someone decides to go to a city
park and chop down a tree you know that
it would be able to be held accountable
um if they decide to go and
um plant a tree they would also be held
accountable so
other ways that ordinances can protect
and enhance all these tree benefits
um
for Street tree ordinances which I
believe is what we're proposing
initially is um kind of the publicly
owned tree setting a model example of
Tree Care these that set standards that
help maintain healthy trees through good
maintenance and cultural practices they
set the responsibility for trees with
one department or a person so that
management can be coordinated to
eliminate conflicts Waste inefficiency
Management of trees
this often happens where one person
plants a tree and then another person
mows it over you know just or no one
knows whose responsibility it is to take
care of that tree so that kind of
eliminates a lot of this this waste and
inefficiency that often happens
landscape standards also control can be
used to control privately owned trees
following the models that by Street
trees Ordnance standards that could
include excluded species so species that
are on our state banned list
currently how it stands uh
we have invasive species that you're not
supposed to plant as a state but if you
don't have a city ordinance there's
nothing that that you can do really to
stop a private landowner for going and
planting a bunch of invasive trees or
doing cultural practices that might not
necessarily be good for the city as a
whole
so having a tree that could potentially
Harbor a dangerous pest or something
like that
ordinances can also be specific to
preserving or protecting your existing
trees so I was talking about people
going into your city parks and just
chopping down a tree or running into a
tree with their vehicle ordinances can
help to increase tree cover by putting
limits so that trees are protected or
are an important component in design for
new development they can also provide
limits or checks on development so that
canopy cover is maintained while still
encouraging responsible development
trees can also be integrated into other
ordinances that protect important areas
or provide important services such as
providing a buffer around a river or a
buffer around a busy highway to kind of
stop that pollution or erosion control
production
and these buffers can protect views
noises or sensitive waterways by
mandating that trees are are left or
planted after after the fact after these
roads are put in
and then kind of a last
side benefit of an ordinance is that
true City USA is a national recognition
program that publicly demonstrates
commitment to the environment and pride
of community
um one of their requirements is they
have they have several requirements but
one of the first the big ones is that
your city needs to have a tree ordinance
um
and then the other the other ones are
fun they're just like you have to have a
tree celebration and things like that
that would be super easy for for Las
Cruces hopefully to get
um but the number one the kind of the
biggest hurdle is is having that
ordinance in place and that just shows
that you're a community that's really
committed to the environment committed
to being proud of living in that
community and having trees there so I
listed some of the other tree cities
that New Mexico has and Texas so El Paso
14 years Carlsbad 12 Santa Fe 11 and
Albuquerque 23. so they've all had these
ordinances in place for quite a while
and ventry cities for quite a while and
so some of the benefits that can come
with that you can get free trees it's
National recognition program so you're
on their website
um and it's just a good kind of way to
be recognized you get a big sign that
you can put underneath your
um as you come into town recognizing
your tree City
um and these are some of the other
cities in our in your area that have
ordinances just to kind of you're not
alone and that there's there's other
um
other people that we can look to to kind
of give guidance and to to provide
models and and ask questions which we
have been doing for how how their
ordinances are working out
thank you for your time
thank you for that yeah so I was just
going to ask
I know when I had discussed with this a
while back with ifo about a tree
ordinance I was I guess I was
envisioning more of
of how we can add to add to more trees
in the city so this was very interesting
as far as the carrying of trees but do
we have a presentation on on how we can
Envision expanding our tree canopy in
the city did you did
was that worked on at all I mean I know
we've talked a little bit about downtown
you know with the shade and how we can
maybe look at adding bigger larger trees
there but what other areas like maybe
the multi-use paths some of the parks so
the mayor council members that's a good
question
um
this ordinance is going to provide
guidance on a lot of different uh items
regarding Tree Care and tree planting
when it comes to adding more trees this
ordinance will discuss planting the
right tree in the right place we have to
make sure that we don't have any
utilities on top or on bottom of a tree
we have to make sure that the tree is
able to thrive in the uh in the planter
or in the section that's going to be
planted in so looking at those kinds of
things especially with the property that
we currently have this is going to help
guide us in adding more trees in the
city and we're also looking at doing
some things where we can increase the
increase of tree canopy on private
property because we're running out of
property on City on city property in our
in our public parks the reason is is we
plant if we plant too many trees in our
in our public parks we're going to shade
out the turf and we're also we'll make
our uniform
not our irrigation not uniform because
it's going to hit trees instead of turf
so we're looking at all those things and
um also the more treason plant the more
difficult it is to mold so we have to
make sure that we have things in a
really good balance regarding Turf and
tree planting but this ordinance will
discuss uh
the opportunities to increase our tree
canopy in several different areas with
the property that we do maintain and
that we own right now
um I have a presentation on my own took
over right now with Jimmy's assistant so
maybe that will answer some some of your
questions as we move along
I do have a preliminary question you
have a question tells us yeah go ahead
thank you
um Mr granillo Franco so you keep
referring to this ordinance ordinance is
this something that who's proposing it
who's drafting it is that what you're
going to do right now
is that what you're going to present a
proposed ordinance uh mayor in Council
Flores what we're looking at doing right
now is providing information to show
what we'd like to have in the ordinance
and as the city is going through
ordinance I guess maintenance right now
and upgrading our ordinances so once all
those ordinances are are in the books
we'd like we'd like to add this as well
but it's going to have to go through
several reads so it can be approved so
those are some of the things that we're
doing right now just providing some
information on what we'd like to have in
our ordinance with your approval yeah
down the road it'll come back to us for
a vote Yes but insofar I I'm just
curious about imposing
um
this on Builders developers or Builders
I suppose would it extend to them mayor
mayor and Council Flores right now we're
just looking to get this done on our
property on on public property anything
regarding prior property construction or
you know a store we're looking at that
down the road but what this will help
with as well is when a contractor is
working on our property or or developing
something for us they're going to know
what treats to plant based on the space
that they have in the soil that they
have so it's not like we're tying them
down to anything but they're going to
have a
along with their ordinances and our uh
kind of we're going to try and provide a
menu that they can pick from to plant
trees in a location that will Earth
Drive well on private property well I
mean this isn't legal advice or anything
like that but the fact that it is a
health and safety issue it might fly
that would be for our City attorney
whose office to determine but I think
that that's something that is something
we should be looking at because there is
just so much development going on north
of 70 South of 70 and Eastward on and I
think you know hopefully our legal
department or the information you're
coming across we'll cover that
because that's something that we're very
concerned about thank you yes mayor and
Council Flores uh with with these
ordinances and with our standards a lot
of this will be hammered out during the
ordinance process but also we're going
to have to speak with codes because they
may need assistance unfortunately items
as well so we need to check that
everything and that everyone has the
proper resources to get this done
thank you Mr good on you thank you mayor
sure thanks
okay this will be our mayor and members
of council this is going to be our city
portion of the presentation that
discusses uh some of the tree care items
that we're looking at accomplishing and
we'll discuss a little bit about Tree
City USA as well
so as Alyssa mentioned you know why it's
very important to have a true ordinance
again to provide protection of public
trees
and you know the the better you protect
our trees the longer their last it'll
provide shade it'll provide community
and
you know we don't have a lot in place
right now to protect our trees uh
whether it's internal projects
construction
when we first plant them in Parks we
need to make sure we have these
guidelines in place or trees will Thrive
for many years to come and we have uh we
have a tree canopy that's not just young
trees and old trees we need something in
the middle to sustain our tree canopy
throughout the years
um we also want to ensure that the the
trees are planted in the right places
like we mentioned before no utilities
above or below we don't want to have
them planted in very narrow Parkways
because it doesn't allow the tree to
expand and we also end up heaving
sidewalks and interrupting utilities
we also want to establish a guideline
for tree care and proper planting which
that refers to again we want to have the
trees in the right place but we also
wanted to plant it properly we don't
want to plant it too deep we want to
have the correct trees for the climate
that they're in and for the soil that
they're in and for basically so we can
have water savings you know if we plant
the right trees we don't have to spend a
ton of money to ensure that they grow
properly
and also we also we want to obtain the
tree City USA designation which I
believe we have everything in place
other than a tree ordinance and I'll go
over some of those items towards the end
of this presentation and again
um a coordination with our
sustainability office some of these
things
once we coordinate with Lisa and our
water conservation departments and again
like I mentioned with Kathy we can
ensure that we plant the proper trees in
the proper place because we're dealing
with the Departments that handle the
water conservation if we plant
sustainable Landscapes and the trees
will last a lot longer than what they
have now at times and then during our
design review you know Kathy and myself
Jimmy as well
we can identify any issues that we see
regarding tree planting again whether
it's in um
a narrow planter or in a place that a
tree shouldn't be planted that we have
to remove five years later so those are
some of the things that we're trying to
avoid by obtaining this ordinance
so I'm going to ask that Jimmy speak to
some more next slides because he deals
with these items on a daily basis the
the tree plantings the the areas that
they shouldn't be in you know those
kinds of things he can speak to them
very clearly
good afternoon mayor councilor I'm Jimmy
zabriskie I'm the municipal of the
community Forester with the city
we've been working on this well I've
been here five years I know we presented
the council back about five years ago
we think we have things in much better
order now
and one of the things that we'd like to
guide this the American national
standards Institute
um has all kinds of information on how
to properly maintain care and plan for
trees and that's the direction we want
to go we just want to make sure that
when our department plants a tree or the
when other departments are working
around our city trees that they follow
these standards it's it's not rocket
science it's just it's
as with anything there's a lot of wrong
ways to do things and there's one right
way to do things and
since I've been doing this for many many
years I've seen a lot of wrong ways that
things are done and we just want to do
things the right way and this will help
guide us it's just all in black and
white be very easy to to follow
um
me or Kathy will be the one that will
look over plans and make sure that the
trees that are being specified on the
plans are ones that are good for our
area it seems like a lot of the plans
that we get are from
designers that are not in the area and
we have to Nick some of those plants
because something that might grow in
Albuquerque won't do good here or
something that might grow good in Tucson
won't do good here so we want to make
sure that we have oversight on that in
in these two pictures on the slide you
can see on the pine trees that's in one
of our city parks and the trees are
planted right underneath
power lines and so they've been topped
and that's a horrible thing to do to a
tree especially an evergreen tree that
has a strong central leader and the
other picture is the Downtown Plaza and
those tree planters were
not constructed well and we've had to go
in and retrofit them a lot of the trees
grew into the sides of them and so in
the future I and Kathy can look over
these plans look over the plant lists
and make sure that the trees are being
planted properly or the trees are
planted in in correct locations so we
don't have the issues like we do in
these two photographs
also
it's in the policy we have now but since
I've been here the last couple years
I've been able to inspect plant
materials before it gets planted and in
these two pictures you can see in the
the photograph the the tree that was in
a 24 inch box was in that container way
too long and The Roots were beginning to
grow around it and that is not a good
tree that you'd want to plant same with
the the other picture that's a close-up
of a very small diameter tree that when
it was young in a nursery The Roots grew
around in a circle and eventually that
tree is going to kill itself because
it's called root girdling it'll just
choke itself so
this ordinance will help ensure that
either I or Kathy will be able to
inspect the plant material as
specifically the trees so that we
select high quality trees so we don't
have to replace them in the future
and also there'll be
standards that are like I say it's in
black and white on how to properly prune
trees
if a tree is properly pruned you don't
notice it because it looks good when a
tree is not properly pruned you see the
stubs and there's a lot of topping of
trees that goes on and this would help
eliminate well we don't do it on our
property now but I have
gotten upset with contractors who have
done that on City trees and this way if
we pass an ordinance they'll be held
liable for that and hopefully it won't
happen in the future
and this is an example of some
construction that was done recently
around one of the parking lots right on
the corner of Water Street and Las
Cruces we didn't have an ordinance in
place the contractor piled debris around
the tree tore up the roots that tree is
no longer there after about two years it
died so if we have an ordinance passed I
think it would help eliminate this
and with that I'll turn it back to
Franco thank you
Tree City USA designation we do meet
many of these many of the criteria again
the only thing we're missing is the
ordinance so we do have a tree board or
Department responsible for public trees
which is our department
um Sonia is the department director also
weighs in on any kind of tree issue or
tree tree care or tree safety problem we
also have our Parks and Rec board that
we can bring things to for items two for
discussion we do have an Arbor Day
observance and Proclamation and we also
do a tree giveaway this year we weren't
able to because we didn't receive the
grant because the the supplier couldn't
meet the amount of
the supply that we needed for the trees
so and also we have a community forestry
program which uh Jimmy uh that's part of
his daily duties is overseeing that
program and the annual budget of at
least two dollars per capita we do meet
that through our tree purchases through
staff time irrigation we are meeting
that criteria uh pretty easily I would
imagine and the only thing we lack is
the tree care ordinance that that's what
we're trying to pass here or get passed
here
um
one of the one before I go to discussion
I'd like to go back to one of the
questions that the mayor had regarding
the tree canopy increase
um in our Peak Performance plan we're
responsible for planning 300 trees a
year we met that goal every year for the
last three to four years so we are
increasing our tree canopy but we also
inventory the trees that we take out and
the reason we have to take out a lot of
trees is because of improper planting or
they're interrupting utility or service
so we have both items documented the
both the planting and the removal so we
are increasing our tree canopy yearly
right now we dropped it down to 250
trees a year because again we're running
out of space to plant in our Parks but
we're also looking at other options to
increase the tree canopy on private
property so I just want to let you know
that we do a really good job to increase
our tree canopy but we still need to do
more
Franklin thank you for the information
is that net increase or is that
um you know if you planted 250 or 300
trees but you had to get rid of a
hundred because of the died is that a
net increase or that you're talking
about mayor and council members right
now we're just looking at the number of
250 to 300 getting in I think that uh to
get them and I think that um the the
reason that we do have to remove trees
for those kind of issues that I
mentioned the utility interruptions and
stuff those and I became becoming safety
hazards and and we don't want those kind
of trees in our on our property but we
do replace those as well so we end up
let's say we plant 250 and take out 25
later on in the year we will replace
that 25 that we took out with more trees
from our inventory
so you're saying this is a net yes this
is a net 250 or 300 trees
kind of an idea of where they are where
they're at
where we plant them we plant them a
mayor and Council we plant them
city-wide we planted on Trails recently
we plant in Parks we already have a plan
on where to plant this planting season
we planted some of Veterans Park we
planted some at pioneer
we planted city-wide in every District
okay thank you
thank you councilman
so much for this very informative
presentation I really appreciate
learning from all three of you
um yes I have a couple questions so is
have you been working with the I'm
guessing you work with utilities closely
on a lot of these things but more
specifically with the folks who are
creating the water conservation plan I
feel like there's such a great
um intersection there with
um as we move forward and helping people
reduce their use of grass on their lawns
right like helping them figure out what
kind of trees to plant where to plant
right like I feel like there's such a
great connection with the water
conservation plan I'm wondering if
you've talked to the folks at utilities
mayor and counselor Ben Cuomo uh to
answer your first question about
utilities we do work with utilities
closely especially when we have to
remove a tree it's causing an issue so
we do have communication with utilities
when it comes to tree planting and the
water conservation we
we've recently started our monthly
meetings again with Ronda and Water
Conservation so we haven't really spoke
a lot about the actual plan on my end
but um that's something that Rhonda and
I are both aware of that
you know if we're planting a lot of
water wise shrubs and trees but we're
planting too many of them then we're
really not saving water so this is
something that we've been discussing
that we want to move forward on to make
sure we plant the right trees the right
shrubs and the right amount so we're not
wasting water right and we're also
looking at improving our irrigation
setup to where we're not we're not so
close to sidewalks so when we get that
even a two mile per hour Breeze we're
not spilling into the sidewalk into the
street so we're looking at all those
things and I think that
the more often that we meet we'll get on
the same page regarding these items
because we already are you know we just
need to continue to meet and discuss
that's great that's really great and it
seems like for the city internally we
have a lot of those plans in place but I
do think it's important that we also
begin to inform and educate the public
about obviously their use of water in an
area like ours but then additionally
around trees and how a tree can improve
can actually improve your property uh
price and but like what kind of trees to
plant in all those kind and who to call
before you plant a tree and those kinds
of things I think it's just really
important as we begin talking about
private
um increasing the tree canopy on private
property yeah definitely for us uh part
of all this needs to be education to the
public and staff and the more we know I
think the more successful we'll have
regarding tree Health in the future
great in terms of the ordinance I
um I'm sorry I forgot your name but she
had mentioned something around
um naming an authority who is the
authority that would get to do
um the accountability on this have you
all discussed who that would be mayor
and councilor Ben Cuomo there would be
several steps um we'll we'll get an
alert that there's an issue with the
tree whether it's something that wasn't
uh something that was planned without
without our permission something needs
to be taken down there'll be several
steps it will get to me usually first or
a Parks manager Jimmy will weigh in and
then at the very end if we can't come up
with the solution or we need to alert
counsel because it's in a high
visibility High use part Sonia will also
step in and provide guidance on that so
usually it's going to start in the in
the department on the on the department
level you know myself managers or Jimmy
but then we'll also get all the
information of Sonia so if you're asking
for accountability it would probably
definitely be between Sony and I okay I
also was wondering if codes would be
need to be involved and if they are have
you spoken to them
mayor counselor it's the same as a water
conservation department or section we do
speak with codes often especially about
hazardous trees trees buckling sidewalks
things like that so we haven't really
discussed the accountability portion
because it ends up in our in our lap but
when it comes to enforcement they do
help a lot especially when it comes to
trees and coaching different types of
property whether it's public or private
so they do visit with the homeowners
pretty often okay great
um
on the goban trails like the mayor
mentioned I'm just curious I know that
obviously we have this
contract with elephant view Irrigation
District is that an area we will be able
to plant more trees on on some of the
new trails
mayor and councilor Ben Cuomo regarding
the gopan trails
the design is pretty well done and we've
accepted some of the trails already but
a lot of the trail areas the shoulders
are very narrow three foot or maybe even
less so we couldn't uh get proper
Irrigation in there and the trees
wouldn't make it on a planting that
small so I don't think we're going to
see more trees planted under okay on
those Trails okay no that's really
helpful we don't want another Plaza
situation
um
and then my last question you know a
couple of years ago I had some
constituents reach out to me about a
tree a big tree on Amos Avenue in
Hoagland and it was huge and it would
block traffic often and so I you know
passed it on and the tree was taken down
and I actually got notified that because
of the tree was taken down we were able
to finish a part of the sidewalk there
and even though that was good I actually
really regret not coming to the forest
or first or through parks and having a
wider discussion around is it do we need
to remove it right
um and so I'm curious if
and I think you have this internal sort
of policy but I do think as we move
forward with this more
um concrete policy if we can have a
policy around if we have to remove a
tree then that we have to replant
another tree somewhere else right like I
I know you said that you sort of do that
now but I just think that should be
written out somewhere concretely that if
a tree needs to come out for whatever
reason that we're actually going to
replant a tree elsewhere close by right
mayor and counselor right now we do
practice that
um
if we see a tree that's causing an issue
on a sidewalk or utility we won't find
another tree right there for the same
reason but we also practice two for one
so we may plant it in the in a park very
close to the area or somewhere else in
the city that needs trees but we'll
replace that one two for one okay thank
you I'm I'm really excited to see this
come through and to work with folks like
all of you and all of the Stuart done on
how we can improve private and how we
can you know push the private property
owners to to plant more trees in their
areas that's that sounds like an
exciting discussion thank you thank you
thank you counselor thank
you I think for this presentation
in my district of course I have a few
different considerations that might
sounds like not necessarily apply to
some of the information that we heard
today I have an area Conway Avenue that
has a really well matured tree canopy
and we had to remove about 20 16 to 20
trees due to safety issues and granted
they were they were dead there were some
rats in them there you know it was a
problem at Big safety problem so we did
have to remove that is an area that has
not seen any sort of replantation it
does have other considerations like
power lines however it's a very um
marked area that this is like a
a fabric of this community it's the one
area that it is part of them for just
the heart the culture of the
neighborhood and of course property
values everything like that too so how
when we look at this ordinance are we
going to address some of those issues
too when we have these different types
of communities and I also recognize that
these trees were along like eBid so we
were right next to Messiah so are we
going to be working with other
governmental agencies too
uh mayor and counselor
that's a good question and it's a
difficult question because there's many
different aspects to it during I
remember that that project because we
had to work with several different
departments including Jimmy and myself
and I think that having an ordinance in
place would really help because as
Alyssa mentioned that an ordinance gives
you Direction and it gives you
accountability so in a situation like
that we would have to reach out to the
actual Property Owners whether it be
eBid if it's an easement with El Paso
Electric or if it belongs to us and sit
with those Property Owners to discuss
what can go in there and what can Thrive
without creating an issue with utilities
or anything else
well one thing I can uh one thing that I
feel that could be done in situations
like that is we wouldn't want to plant a
tree of the same size again but maybe we
can plant something that can provide
color and something that can provide you
know a nice aesthetic instead of having
something that's just really huge that
we're gonna have to end up taking out or
cutting down at some at some point
so I I think that the ordinance can
speak to ownership and property and it
can lead to a different conversation on
what can actually be planted that we can
that will make it and that we don't have
to remove five years later so I think
that's how the ordinance can help
something like that but there is also
um
other things to consider again like the
utilities I'm
I always lean towards safety so if we're
going to have something there that's
overhead or below or something where it
might cause an erosion issue because the
roots are coming outside the ground or
something like that I'll always look at
the property and and the safety aspect
regarding that before I contact anybody
but again the ordinance can speak to
that it will help us contact the
property owners and then we can make a
plan moving forward
thank you and then looking at addressing
it looked like you said about three
percent of the trees were on as city
property if we're looking to increase
with that number do we have any cost
estimates on what we need to make sure
we're budgeting for maintenance
um I think that mayor and councilor
our biggest cost when it comes to
planting trees is water
if there's not a water meter in place or
a water source nearby we're going to
look at between 30 and 40 000 to get the
water there just to plant maybe 10 trees
so
um when it comes to budgeting we have we
have we would have to know what land
people are looking at trees requesting
trees to be planted on and then we can
come back with a dollar amount regarding
water we buy trees every year with our
budget and we store them in the nursery
not for too long so because we don't
want to be root Bound in the nursery but
some of the some of the things that we
do you know people don't realize the
cost again like water our utility
increase throughout the year because we
have to pay larger utility bills because
we're watering more so I think that we
could provide a cost if we
find out what land that we're going to
actually put more trees on because we
have to decide what's there and what's
not you know especially regarding water
and water meters but we do have we do
have the budget already for trees for
supplies for maintenance for contract
work regarding tree removal and limb
removal we already have those things in
place so that really does help but it's
the unknowns that that really hurt us
that you know but I'm not sure where you
want to plant so I'd have to I have to
look at the land before I can give you
an estimate
okay thank you for that and I'll be
reaching out to you about Conway so but
thank you very much for the presentation
and thank you mayor Council Flores thank
you mayor and thank you again
um
are there any
designated trees that are protected in
the state of New Mexico
and I know in Los Angeles where I grew
up we have the tree people and the tree
people determine which trees are to be
protected no matter what and the one and
the ones in my neighborhood are the
sycamores and I have a sycamore that
I absolutely love but um you know it's
caused a sidewalk to buckle and then the
homeowner is pretty much responsible for
that and I wouldn't want that tree down
for anything in the world but do we have
anything that's designated and protected
on private property and
um
and if so
um we need an ordinance I mean I hope
the ordinance includes I hope that we
can get this by I don't think Mr Nichols
or other people well yeah Catherine is
here
but to I'd really like to see a Nord the
ordinance include trees on
on homes that are being built I don't
know if we can impose that but again the
health and safety issue might might do
that and then to have a protected
species in that ordinance as well
irrespective of whether it's Municipal
on city land Municipal property or
private property is it being looked at
mayor and Council councilor Flores I'm
going to ask that Alyssa Jimmy answered
the question regarding protective trees
but I would like to let you know that
we're in the mindset right now of
we don't want to take trees down
unnecessarily so if we have a tree
that's blocking a flagpole well it's
paid to move the flagpole instead of cut
down the tree so that's that's what
we're looking at doing with this
ordinance and these kinds of guidelines
so whether it's a protected tree or not
we're looking out for the safety and the
health of the trees first and if it's
something that's interrupting utility or
a sidewalk then you know what we'll look
at taking it out but regarding your
question about protected trees I feel
gym muralista could answer better than
me right now
Mr Mayor counselors uh thank you for
your question
um yes we do
and it's kind of dependent on we don't
have kind of Statewide standards for
tree protection
um but we do based on different
communities and different communities
ordinances so if they have in place of
preservation ordinance that would
protect those trees and each Community
is is different so we could definitely
have something in in the ordinance that
would protect based on
historical value a lot of a lot of
communities have them for historical
value things around like a plaza
um that just if they they can't be taken
out or that the contractor or local
developer would have to pay pretty hefty
fine if they if they have to
um another thing is age
um so cultural historical value age and
then and then certain species we have
lists of of trees that are on our
Statewide and National register as well
and those treats are protected as well
but it's all based on the local
communities what the local communities
want so if that's something that the
local community wants is to protect
these trees and to protect them for
their cultural store whatever factors
that's something that could be written
in right now I don't have the exact
which cities have them I know that Santa
Fe Albuquerque Deming Carlsbad and El
Paso have preservation
ordinances so certain trees over with
certain restrictions where they can't be
taken down okay okay but an apropos of
of having an ordinance if it could
include
preserve preserving private property uh
say a tree is there already and it's a
protected tree
and if it was to cause any damage maybe
there can be an ordinance the ordinance
can include that the city would
um maybe help I don't know yeah I don't
know if there's language like that but
it seems that if it's on private
property if it's a protected tree and
that tree The Roots whatever are causing
major damage to sewer lines or whatever
um that the city would help out I don't
know if that could be done yeah yeah
certain piece have for sure done that
okay and especially sometimes it can be
like income based and sometimes it can
be like paying a fine as well and if you
really want to take down this Heritage
tree you just have to pay a hefty fine
okay replace the tree too so it's just
kind of how you word your ordinance but
that's definitely something that this
ordinance could have the power to do
which currently y'all don't have so
would it um would I guess uh in terms of
all things being fair
would that ordinance allow a homeowner
then for good cause to
get rid of a Heritage tree a historical
tree yeah yeah usually they're written
in place just because there are issues
like safety or health or if someone
wants to construct a pool or something
you know there's usually kind of
addendums and steps so the first kind of
level is that you want to protect these
trees but then if someone comes to you
and it's like I really can't live with
this tree I'm allergic to it or it's
going to fall in my house you need to
have an addendum in the the the
ordinance for how that's going to be
dealt with so whether it's through the
city pays for it or or the homeowner
gets subsidized to take it out or
something like that so it just depends
on how you write your ordinance but
that's definitely something that can be
added in for sure okay thank you yeah
thank you so Mr granillo is that
language that you're looking at
um we are looking at things like that
but again we're looking at public
property to start with but I believe I
believe just just to start we're looking
at prior property as well but I think
Catherine can provide more information
regarding property at this time oh great
thank you
good afternoon mayor city council as all
of you know we've been working on
Realize Las Cruces excuse me Catherine I
need you to state your name sure sorry
about that Catherine Harrison Rogers
senior planner with the city of Las
Cruces for the record
um as you all know we are working on our
realize Las Cruces land use Land
Development code part of that actually
includes a whole section devoted to tree
preservation it would do all of the
things that you were talking about
specifically on private property and yes
there is a clause in case there are any
safety hazards or anything associated
with Stud treat but I did want to
reassure you yes we the language is
already drafted and already written so
it's there you're welcome
so
Franco I need some clarification I I was
um has that been run through legal as
far as the city helping to remove a tree
from a person's private property I would
think that the anti-donation Clause
would come into play and wouldn't allow
us to do that I mean we have residents
who have bees in their yard and we tell
them we can't help you who you you call
up well I know the fire department there
has a there was a fellow that did that
but and other animals I mean we if we
can provide them a trap but we can't
really do that has that been cleared
through mayor and council members we
don't assist people with removing
treason private property at all what
we'll do is if we'll get we get calls
very often about prior property and we
just don't disregard them what we'll do
is we'll give them some advice maybe
we'll let them know what we see but we
don't assist them with removing or
anything like that
okay and then the other thing and I
can't remember the type of trees um
someone was I don't know if Catherine or
Alyssa alluded to it I just remember
years ago when I would knock on doors
myself and and they would there was one
particular tree that people were
allergic to and they said can the city
not allow these type of trees and I
can't remember what it is probably a
mulberry tree there you go yeah um some
cities don't allow those to be planted
anymore yeah mulberry tree I believe
it's Mulberry but uh we're not really in
the practice of planting those either
they're very difficult to find anymore
because of that reason okay
so um yeah I am interested in in seeing
the tree ordinance move forward but I
have to tell you I'm really would be
really cautious when it comes to private
property
you know that's that's telling people
what they can do on their own property
and it's kind of tough to do that so
okay good
any other questions did any of you in
the public have any comment you'd like
to say
okay it's okay we'll see none thank you
for your your help and thank you for
this presentation and we appreciate it
very much thank you yeah thanks
okay well it looks like that's it so if
there's nothing further entertain a
motion to adjourn sound move to Beta
second ocean Bay by counselor beta
second by councilman Como that we
adjourn Christine
this is on the motion to adjourn the
work session counselor beta yes
councilor Graham yes oh and my mic's
working again
councilor Ben Como yes councilor Koran
yes counselor Flores yes councilor
Gandara is absent and mayor yes
okay it's uh we're adjourned it's 2 43
p.m thank you enjoy the rest of the day
is
this song I'm sorry what
one of the one of them
one of them
I I don't keep them on I don't keep
records of them but it's one of them
okay
okay this is the agenda setting meeting
for our December 5th 2022 city council
meeting number one non-consent one
non-consent number two non-consent two
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non-consent for consent four consent
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