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III.2. U of M Student Projects; Elverum December 15, 2020 Council Report 2020-102 U of MN Student Projects Proposed Action No action required. Overview Students from the University of MN Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management Program will be presenting their end of the semester projects for Council. A copy of the executive summaries for their projects is included. Supporting Documents  Executive Summary Kersten Elverum, Community Development and Planning Director ESPM 4041W: Problem Solving for Environmental Change Prepared for the City of Hopkins staff, officials, and residents, and in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Presentations by students in the Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management Program College of Food, Agricultural, & Natural Resource Sciences University of Minnesota December 15, 2020 Recommendations for a resilient, equitable, & sustainable Hopkins Welcome This fall, students in the Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management capstone course at the University of Minnesota gathered and synthesized information about the City of Hopkins. Ten groups developed recommendations in a wide range of areas including sustainability metrics, urban forest stewardship, policy changes, and community engagement, among others. While the projects are tailored to Hopkins, we believe many of the findings and recommendations are applicable to other to cities and towns throughout Minnesota. It is our hope that city staff, officials, and residents will find this work useful in their pursuit of a sustainable future for their communities. Presentation Schedule Groups will present to the City Council of Hopkins on December 15, 2020. Presentations will be grouped into three blocks, with four minutes for each presentation and some additional time for questions between each block of presentations. Hopkins officials and managers will be given digital copies of the reports, appendix materials, presentations, and websites for future reference. Block 1 Block 2 GreenStep Cities Advancement Nolan Wright, Bridget Robertson°^, Alana Honaker, & Jaycie Thomsen°* Urban Forest Media and Outreach Plan Mack Holmes°*, Annette Johnson^, Danny Knuth, Bailey Tangen°, & Hannah Henricksen Zoning for Sustainable Buildings Abby Hornberger, Abigail Clapp°^, Adam Janicki*, Hannah Francis, & Ellie Steiner° Community-Led Urban Tree Survey Aaron Hyams°, Mary Clare McAleer^, Julia Kobilka, Samantha Schnoll°*, & Annie Zeiler Enhancement of Native Vegetation in Parks and Right-of-Ways Emily Casper*, Eudora Johnson^, Alexandra Calametti°, Dirk Last°, & Margarette McGann Policy Recommendations for the Preservation of Urban Forest Canopy Phillip Davis*°, Rachel Balster^, Ally Palminteri°, Kelsey Keinholz, & Molly O’Neil Block 3 Community Engaged Strategy for Implementing Bee Lawns Hannah Weber°, Nancy Fahmy*, Christopher Macke, Emily Locke, & Joe Holdreith°^ Ash Management Planning for Urban Forests Wystan Duhn*, Ryan Hankins^, Nick Bugajski°, Jiaming Huo, & Katie Hembre° Advancing Park Equity and Accessibility Alexis Ganske, Cassie Hagen*, Nadia Janis°^, Megan Murphy, & Colin Robinson° Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Forests Sean Lim*, Liv Bunde*, Clare Grilley^°, Cassondra Janssen, Kai Knudson, & Abigail Sveen° *denotes group leader, ^denotes group liaison, ° denotes presenter Instructors Kristen C. Nelson, Professor; Eric North, Professor; Hannah Ramer, Teaching Assistant Acknowledgements We would like to thank the City of Hopkins for providing the opportunity to work with them and with other professionals in the community to develop these reports. We would especially like to thank Kersten Elverum, Jan Youngquist, and Jason Lindahl of the City of Hopkins as well as Valerie McClannahan of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for their extended support. GreenStep Cities Advancement Nolan Wright, Bridget Robertson (presenter), Alana Honaker, Jaycie Thomsen (presenter) GreenStep Cities is a program that works with cities to assist and acknowledge their work towards environmental and sustainable goals. The program is based around twenty-nine best practices that a city can choose to implement based on their goals and needs. Each best practice has different actions, for example, using LED lights, promoting local food production and new developments of parks and green spaces, that can be recognized by the GreenSteps program to develop a city profile. As a city completes actions, their status as a GreenStep city moves from Step 1 all the way to Step 3. In order to reach Steps 4 and 5, a city is required to report performance metrics on various topics such as renewable energy, city buildings and lighting and more. Through the assistance from interns from the University of Minnesota, Hopkins began developing their GreenSteps profile in 2010 and worked towards implementing sustainable and environmental policies and practices. The city has completed forty-six total actions to date. This achievement has earned the city of Hopkins a Step 3 recognition from the GreenStep Cities program. Although their GreenSteps profile has not been updated since 2013, the city of Hopkins is excited to begin working towards becoming a Step 4 city. A team of University of Minnesota students in the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management major were tasked to work with the City of Hopkins to provide recommendations the city can use to advance their sustainability efforts through the GreenStep Cities program. This report aims to provide Hopkins with the guidance and tools to build a more robust GreenSteps profile and to advance to a Step 4 GreenStep city. We used four key research techniques to inform these recommendations- literature review, key informant interviews, case studies, and a comparative policy analysis. The literature review examined the role and effectiveness of voluntary sustainable cities programs. Key informant interviews provided insights into the resources available to cities for GreenStep Cities advancement. Case studies looked to leading GreenStep cities for progressive examples. The comparative policy analysis analyzed the 2040 comprehensive plan against the GreenStep best practices to guide next steps. The synthesis of results from each research method guided the following recommendations: 1. Apply for an MPCA GreenCorps member to create and undertake a data gathering plan 2. Establish a yearly internship program 3. Build an internal Green Team to coordinate actions across city departments 4. Begin using the GreenStep Cities Step ⅘ excel worksheet to track data and metrics By implementing the following recommendations in this report, Hopkins can advance as a Step 4 GreenStep City. After a year of data reporting, Hopkins has the potential to advance to a Step 5 GreenStep City if they make progress in at least three eligible core metric elements. Not only will advancement to Step 4 reduce Hopkins’ carbon emissions and energy consumption, it will save Hopkins money and increase public investment. Zoning for Sustainable Buildings Abby Hornberger, Abigail Clapp (presenter), Adam Janicki, Hannah Francis, Ellie Steiner (presenter) The City of Hopkins, Minnesota, will be facing increasing population densities and the effects of climate change now and into the future. With three new light rail transit stops, the city can expect an influx of commuters and residents in their downtown area. As precipitation variability and extreme weather events are projected to increase, the city will have to adapt and mitigate these effects by creating resilient infrastructure. The project objective is to provide Hopkins city planners with recommendations for improving zoning for sustainable buildings. The report methods include literature reviews, case studies, and key informant interviews. Literature reviews focus on five key considerations—education, sustainable building construction, certifications and standards, programs and partnerships, and funding options/ incentives. Case studies were selected based on their success in reaching sustainability standards and geographically to fit Hopkin’s climate. Interviews were conducted with sustainability professionals to gather in-depth information on our preliminary findings. The research for this report supports a variety of tools to support sustainable building. Education and community engagement were found to be important for changing community behavior. Creating partnerships with local organizations will lower the financial burden of sustainable buildings. Non- financial incentives are a good first step to increasing sustainability of buildings, however, codes and regulations that require a desired level of sustainability are more effective. Certifications and standards such as B3, Energy Star, and LEED are good systems for measuring the desired level of sustainability. For these reasons we recommend the following actions for Hopkins: ● Engage community members through an online or community center sustainable development education program to increase public support and community action. ● Create and strengthen partnerships with local organizations and agencies that provide funding and/or programs to advance and guide the transition to sustainable development. ● Create non-financial incentives to encourage sustainable development within commercial and residential building areas. ● Adopt building codes and ordinances that incentivize sustainable design and promotes the utilization of sustainability rating systems and performance standards to increase the efficiency, longevity, and financial savings of every building. Enhancement of Native Vegetation in Parks and Right-of-Ways Emily Casper, Eudora Johnson, Alexandra Calametti (presenter), Dirk Last (presenter), Margarette McGann Hopkins is a suburban city located about 10 miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2019, the city produced a Draft Comprehensive Plan for the year 2040. As part of the plan, they identified ways in which Hopkins can improve the natural environment within the community. To help reach the sustainability goals outlined in their plan, Hopkins partnered with students from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. The report's overall goal is to supply the city with recommendations on enhancing the vegetation in Hopkins' parks and rights-of-ways (ROW). While designing these recommendations, students needed to keep in mind the project's city partners' desired outcomes. These include a list of recommended vegetation, funding sources, community involvement, and invasive species management strategies. Data collection techniques consisted of site visits, key informant interviews, literature review, cost estimate & environmental service assessment, and ArcGIS inventory to gather information on these topics. The key informant interviews provided insight into different management strategies for native vegetation and some short and long-term funding opportunities suitable for Hopkins. A literature review on the benefits of vegetation enhancement and community engagement provided additional information for our project. Additionally, site visits and the use of geospatial databases and tools such as ArcGIS and EDDMaps helped identify the most common invasive species found throughout Hopkins. After identifying these, online literature research was conducted to determine Buckthorn's best management practices, Creeping Charlie, Leafy Spurge, and Wild Parsnip. Based on the information gathered, four recommendations were developed in this report to suit Hopkins’ needs: 1. Enhance parks using site-specific alternative vegetation, management strategies, and funding opportunities 2. Improve right-of-ways using site-specific alternative vegetation, management strategies, and funding opportunities 3. Engage the local community to assist in supporting, implementing and sustaining vegetation projects, and 4. Consider various invasive species management strategies for the most commonly found Hopkin’s invasives to protect native species and biodiversity. Urban Forest Media and Outreach Plan Mack Holmes (presenter), Annette Johnson, Danny Knuth, Bailey Tangen (presenter), Hannah Henricksen In collaboration with the city of Hopkins, students from the University of Minnesota have outlined an urban forest outreach and media plan centered on tree species education and management, outdoor community engagement, and social media campaigns and education for use in the city of Hopkins. This report and the campaign recommendations to follow aim to assist in the following ways: 1. Community engagement a. Community engagement not only allows for citizens to learn about urban forests, but it increases government-citizen transparency and empowers the citizens of the city. 2. Promotion of the city of Hopkins and emphasize healthy living a. By increasing public parks and improving upon the urban forest Hopkins citizens will find themselves outdoors more often and other similar cities will look to Hopkins’ plans as inspiration and motivation to better their urban forests. To accomplish these goals and provide accurate recommendations for Hopkins, a number of research methods were employed. These methods include literature reviews, census and demographic data research, research paper analyses, Hopkins land use research, and examination of previous outreach campaigns done by both Hopkins and other small cities. The research led to a number of findings, however the most important and the ones that heavily influenced our recommendations are as follows. First, although Hopkins has limited social media presence, their Facebook page is quite active and is visited often. Hopkins has a large portion of the population within the 25-34 year old range. This corresponds quite closely to the distribution of users of Facebook, one of Hopkins main communication pathways. Second, Hopkins has an active and tailorable newsletter that can help reach those who don't utilize social media. Third, demographics are one of the most important factors when designing effective outreach campaigns. Based on the research and findings the following recommendations for possible media campaigns will assist Hopkins cultivate a more environmentally engaged and informed community. Campaigns range from community events (tree scavenger hunt) to redistribution of space in available communication paths (citizen resources). Community-Led Urban Tree Survey Aaron Hyams (presenter), Mary Clare McAleer, Julia Kobilka, Samantha Schnoll (presenter), Annie Zeiler The City of Hopkins, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, identified a need to develop a community-led urban tree survey program. This program will engage the community members of Hopkins through volunteering, promote awareness of Hopkin’s urban trees, and produce data on the current state of the urban canopy. A team of five senior students in the Environmental Science, Policy and Management program at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities worked to recommend steps which can be used to create a volunteer tree surveying program. The project team coordinated with stakeholders including City of Hopkins staff and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Urban Forestry experts to develop this report. A literature review of sampling methods, volunteer recruitment, and volunteer training was performed to help guide recommendations for the City of Hopkins. Additionally, a case study was conducted in which neighboring communities were inquired about how they perform urban tree surveys to identify strategies Hopkins may utilize with their efforts. Lastly, a COVID-19 adaptation plan was included in this report. This adaptation plan aims to ensure the health and safety of all community volunteers participating in surveying efforts. Based on this study, the following four recommendations can help Hopkins create a community-led urban tree survey program. ● Engage in targeted community outreach to recruit inspired volunteers: ○ Identifying a volunteer coordinator will aid in volunteer recruitment, training, and surveying. ● Utilize available software (i-Tree) to record and analyze data collected by volunteers: ○ Data collected by volunteers will need to be stored and referenced to develop a city- wide tree management plan. ○ i-Tree software is available for free and developed by the United States Forest Service. ● Train volunteers with tree identification tools available through the University of Minnesota: ○ Tree identification cards may be used to train volunteers participating in surveying efforts. ● COVID -19 adaptations must be implemented for volunteer safety: ○ Limiting the sharing of equipment, encouraging volunteer groups of immediate family members, and requiring face coverings are all recommended to allow for safe and effective surveying. Policy Recommendations for the Preservation of Hopkins Urban Forest Canopy Phillip Davis (presenter), Rachel Balster, Ally Palminteri (presenter), Kelsey Keinholz, Molly O’Neil It is becoming increasingly more important for cities across the state of Minnesota to establish more resilient urban tree canopies as challenges such as climate change introduce long lasting effects on our ecosystems. The goal of this project is to provide Hopkins policy options that will support their goals to increase the resilience of their urban forest canopy, protect the canopy from diseases and pests, and preserve the environmental and cultural benefits of an urban forest. This report outlines our research methods, the findings of our research, and the recommendations we propose to achieve these goals for Hopkins. We hope that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will use this project as a guide to create effective standards for tree care guides and city tree ordinances across the state of Minnesota. To create substantial and feasible recommendations we focused our research on analyzing exists sets of city codes and ordinances throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area, conducting key informant interviews with professionals who work in the urban forestry and public policy fields, and conducting a comparative ordinance analysis that allowed us to create a set of standards (Bronze, Silver or Gold) by which city ordinances may be graded based on our findings. The results of our research were as follows: education needs to become a primary focus throughout the city to engage residents in the protection of their natural landscapes; the cities within our sample had a mix of bronze, silver, and gold standards for disease and pest control, as well as tree preservation; and that no city within our sample had a system of ordinances set into place focusing on the protection and designation of heritage trees. Using the results of our research we have outlined multiple recommendations for Hopkins to further establish a healthy urban forest canopy. We found that community engagement and education should be the primary focus in achieving these goals, which will in time allow for better enforcement of the city’s urban tree ordinances. Hopkins should work closely with landlords and homeowners to identify incentives that would aid in the prevention of tree pests and diseases and tree preservation. Finally, we believe the creation of a community oriented tree heritage program will foster public awareness surrounding the city’s socially, culturally, and environmentally significant trees. Community Engaged Strategy for Implementing Bee Lawns Hannah Weber (presenter), Nancy Fahmy, Christopher Macke, Emily Locke, Joe Holdreith (presenter) Hopkins City planners are constantly looking to improve and diversify their parks and other green spaces. With growing concern from the public regarding bee decline, Hopkins is looking to add more pollinator habitat through introducing flowering vegetation to their urban landscape. Adding pollinator -friendly vegetation will not only support pollinator conservation, but will also add aesthetic and emotional value to Hopkins’ green spaces. The objective of this report is to suggest bee lawns as a solution to enhance Hopkins green spaces; bee lawns ideally will make green spaces more attractive to residents, incentivize a strong connection to native ecology, and encourage homeowners and other landowners to implement bee conservation into private spaces. In order to best meet the needs of Hopkins, we conducted research to determine where bee lawns could be implemented in Hopkins, as well as what flowering plant species would work well in a seed mix based on different light requirements and planting times. The collected data includes a map of Hopkins’ parks and calculations of acreage in each park, and characteristics of native species that thrive in bee lawns. Hopkins’ parks contain many areas that would be appropriate for bee lawn implementation, mainly areas that are currently turfgrass or have low vegetation and low rates of foot traffic. Based on the above data, we offer recommendations on types of areas where bee lawns could be implemented, an educational outreach plan, alternative solutions to support Hopkin’s sustainability goals, and a three-year plan outlining how Hopkins might go about implementing bee lawns in their parks. The three year plan starts with surveying residents to judge feelings, following with passing a pledge to become a pollinator-friendly city, and ending with bee lawn implementation. In addition to addressing broader environmental initiatives, a main objective of this project is to provide a plan for educating residents and Hopkins staff about bee conservation; the community should feel interested and equipped to implement bee lawns. Advancing Park Equity and Accessibility Alexis Ganske, Cassie Hagen, Nadia Janis (presenter), Megan Murphy, Colin Robinson (presenter) Hopkins, Minnesota is distinguished by its rich, historic downtown, diverse demographics, and unique access to nature. This four-mile town contains 19 parks and natural areas that offer diverse amenities and opportunities for recreation, including hockey rinks, trails, playgrounds, and soccer fields. These spaces are vital in fostering Hopkins’ sense of community as individuals are encouraged to interact with one another. Given the indisputable importance of these spaces, we partnered with the city of Hopkins to support the goal of all citizens having access to park resources and that the amenities contained within them meet their needs. This senior capstone project, along with nine other reports, seeks to maintain Hopkins' identity while cultivating its built, natural, social, and economic environments into a resilient, equitable, and sustainable community. To holistically understand the Hopkins park system and community and accurately recommend areas of improvement to the city of Hopkins, we engaged in multi-pronged methods: ● Review of Hopkins 2040 Comprehensive Plan ● Case study investigation of privately-owned public spaces ● Key informant interviews with diverse experts ● Community insights through park board meetings ● Mapping barriers to Hopkins park access across demographics After careful consideration of Hopkins’ current park systems, our recommendations surrounding Hopkins park planning and assessment can be summarized as such: 1. Inclusively evaluate current park engagement through community-adapted tools. To supplement our findings, we also designed a survey to assess current park use and resident priorities for future park enhancement projects, which is included in the appendices of our report. 2. Strategically design trails and amenities to overcome barriers and increase accessibility. Park inclusivity can be maximized through accessible trail design, park amenities updates that cater to people with disabilities, culturally appropriate amenities, amenities that cater to diverse age groups, and distribution of educational materials that help to overcome psychological barriers to park access. 3. Carefully evaluate the tradeoffs in considering the creation of privately-owned public space. Despite the indisputable benefits of increased park space, privately-owned public space has been found to be exclusionary and may have irreversible community consequences. The potential for the ‘pricing-out’ of Hopkins’ diverse neighborhoods outweighs the marginal benefits that would be seen with the incentivization and implementation of privately-owned public spaces. 4. Utilize a combination of funding sources for park improvement projects Due to limited community resources, it is essential to creatively combine funding sources to allow for the creation of trails and the update of park amenities without increasing Hopkins residents’ taxes. Multiple private funding sources can be engaged, including grants, equipment rental, and corporate sponsorship. With the careful consideration of these recommendations, we believe that Hopkins’ already robust park system can be elevated to serve the community’s changing needs and become holistically inclusive of all citizens. Ash Management Planning for Urban Forests Wystan Duhn, Ryan Hankins, Nick Bugajski (presenter), Jiaming Huo, Katie Hembre (presenter) Emerald ash borer (EAB) is an invasive species that is expected to severely reduce standing ash tree populations in cities across the United States. EAB’s presence in urban forests presents safety hazards, risks property damage in neighborhoods, and can amount to millions of dollars a year in urban forest management costs around the country. The recent emergence of EAB in Hopkins, Minnesota, is expected to cause more issues for residents and businesses as time progresses. Thus, there is an urgent need to slow the spread of EAB in Hopkins. With the recommendations we provide in this plan, we hope to help the City of Hopkins be best prepared for limiting the spread of EAB within the city and Minnesota. To address the problem of EAB management, we propose Gold, Silver and Bronze recommendations to prevent and treat the spread and infection of EAB. The tiered recommendations give Hopkins various options to respond to EAB with different levels of resources as well as a roadmap for improving ash management strategy if additional become available. Our recommendations include action steps for upcycling wood waste, strategic management practices including removal of trees and other management practice to prevent EAB spread, and forestry budget impacts. Climate Change Adaptation and Urban Forests Sean Lim, Liv Bunde, Clare Grilley (presenter), Cassondra Janssen, Kai Knudson, Abigail Sveen (presenter) The City of Hopkins, Minnesota has the opportunity to adapt to and mitigate climate change impacts by implementing the recommendations presented in the findings of this report. University of Minnesota students collaborated with the city of Hopkins, urban planners, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to create this report which offers the next steps which are tailored to the specifics o f Hopkins. These next steps will be for the 2040 Comprehensive Plan that the City of Hopkins will be finalizing later this year. This report is the result of that partnership and includes research, data collection methods, and final guidance for Hopkins to use. To complete this report, data collection was done using various data collection and analysis tools, as well as literature review. Using scientific literature and available local data our recommendations are that Hopkins catalog the makeup of its urban canopy within its geographical boundaries, beginning with building out a comprehensive detailed report and database of the species makeup on each street, then expanding to parks and other lands. Then, we recommend that Hopkins prioritize underrepresented tree species that are adapted to future climate projections. Additionally, Hopkins could also plant or maintain existing populations of Oak, Little-leaf linden, and American hophornbeam. In cases where Maple, Aspen, Tamarack, or Elm trees are already planted, it would be beneficial to maintain those trees, instead of replacing them.