Buffalo’s Green Gold Development Corporation, Board Meeting

Green Gold Development Corporation

Board Meeting

Thursday, January 20, 2000

Scott Adams, In Site/Div. of Planning

Joshua Alter, In Site Design Team

Jeanine Baran, BERC

Nick Bonifacio, Councilmember, Niagara District

Jean Brun, Community Foundation for Greater Bflo

Jay Burney, GreenWatch

John Cinquino, HSBC

Jean Egan, Staff to CM Martino

Drew Eszak, Erie County Dept. of Environment & Planning

Al Festaiuti, Organic Lawn & Garden

Jean Fonzi, Applied Mechanical

Stuart Franklin, Nature’s Lawn

Gordon Fraser, Buffalo State College

Paul Fuhrmann, Ecology & Env. Inc.

Dr. Joseph A. Gardella, SUNYAB Environment & Society Institute/CAS

Richard Grainger, Conserval Systems

David More, Azar More

Jon Gardner, Kavinoky & Cook

David Hahn-Baker, Inside Out M. Hammersly, Buffalo News

Andrew Ivchenko, Clean Air Technologies

Edward Johnson, Citibank

David Kaczor, Bufaflo Niagara Partnership

Bruce Kohrn, SBK Environmental

Randi Mail, Green Gold Intern

Mary Martino, Councilmember South District

Bonnie Mikolajczak, M&T Bank

Dave Miller, Clean Air Technologies

Mark Moser, Lake Front Recycling

Bill Nowak, Council Staff

James Pitts, Council President

Jim Quinn, T.V.S

Michael Raab, Erie County Dept. of Environment & Planning

Mark Schneckenberger, Env. Compliance, Inc.

Joe Schmidbauer, Bflo Institute of Urban Ecology

Linda R. Shaw, Knauf, Craig, Koegel & Shaw Brownfield Coalition

Holly Sinnott, Empire State Development

Chuck Thomas, City Div. of Planning

Paul Troy, Liquid Solutions

Darlene Vogel, Urban Resource Partnership of Buffalo

J. B. Walsh, Ecology & Env. Inc.

Ed Zielinski, Env.-Bflo Org.

Political Consultants

Brownfields Legislative Proposal

Linda Shaw gave an extensive introduction on the Brownfields Coalition Bill, drafted by a private sector coalition that has attempted to get input from all interested stakeholders. The new bill, in synch with Smart Growth tactics offers many new changes and improvements compared to that of Superfund. According to Ms. Shaw, the bill:

Takes an area-wide approach, focusing on whole neighborhoods
Creates a voluntary clean-up program that encourages polluting corporations and individual buyers to participate
Lessens the burden on owners who volunteer to cleanup brownfields
Focuses on financial incentives driven by how well the site is cleaned.
Clean-up participants can get a 75% tax credit

Shortens the amount of time determining whether one can be a volunteer while eliminating the DEC ‘s role since the potential participants are clearly defined.

Sets a 60 day period for plan review andaddresses liability so that releases are received at the end of the clean-up.
Clearly defines the issue of fraud.
Shifts the responsibility of devising soil standards to the private sector not the DEC so that all involved parties are represented.
Lastly, the bill makes naturally occurring contamination levels a goal of those cleaning up a site and addresses groundwater issues.

Ms. Shaw was upbeat on the level and breadth of support for the Coalition bill. Inasmuch as the Governor has a working group that has also developed a brownfield bill, thereis hope that action might be taken on this issue in the near future

Common Council Green Gold Development Designation Plan – Chuck Thomas

Mr. Thomas gave out maps of the Symbiosis area and the William Gaiter Parkway along with property information for each parcel. He suggested amending the Coastal review Zone Ordinance as a way to integrate these areas into the Green Gold strategy.

Clean Air Technologies International, Inc. – David Miller and Andrew Ivchenko

Mr. Miller spoke about his company’s new product and shared a little bit of its history. Clear Air Technologies came up with a small, portable device that can measure vehicle exhaust emissions. It has the potential to go in every vehicle, even in planes and boats. Dave was very enthusiastic and talked about the environmental sector has the most potential of technical growth, not to mention a lot of room for profit. His company has already received calls from Ford Co. and the EPA to work collaboratively with their product ideas. Dave pointed out that they anticipate many more partnerships within the next year. Clear Air’s product is one of a kind and has the capacity for society to make big strides in reducing air pollution in heavily congested areas.

Western NYS Organic Landscape Association

Al Festaiuti, along with partner Stuart Franklin have created the Organic Landscape Association. Concerned about the lack of such an association in our area, Al emphasized that Long Island has 7 such organizations. The #1 goal is to reduce pesticide use in WNY. Interested in establishing some type of certification in the field, they formed criteria as to what is considered to be "organic landscaping" and this included:

No traditional lawncare program (ex. weed and feed)
Participation in IPM )Integrated Pest Management) and Lawncare Management
75% substances used must be organic

Two board members, both with UB affiliations were excited about the endeavor. David Hahn-Baker was thrilled about private sector interest. Joe Gardella invited Al and Stuart to attend the next Environmental Task Force meeting at the UB to share information on organic lawncare. Joe mentioned UB’s President Greiner’s order in May 1999, to spray campus lawns with herbicides to eliminate dandelions for graduation weekend and the campus community’s disappointment with his decision.

Letter on a Buffalo River Institute - Jay Burney presented information on his letter to the editor which challenged Governor Pataki to augment his proposal for a Hudson River Institute by "twinning" it with a WNY Institute that would look at the Buffalo and Niagara Rivers.

Earth Festival 2000 – David Hahn-Baker presented on this year’s local earth Day events. Rather than limiting things to one day, a month long "Earth Festival " comprising several creative events is being planned. JD Hartman of Great Lakes United

(886-0142) I scoordinating.