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Dakota County, cities collaborate to become ‘greener’

With public resources strained at all levels, reducing energy consumption is a strategy for both trimming budgets and being environmentally responsible. Dakota County, for many years a champion of low-impact development and sustainable building practices, is leading by example.

Take the Lebanon Hills Regional Park Visitor Center at Schulze Lake. Completed in 2003, the 6,000-square-foot Center is beautiful, functional and environmentally friendly. Large, south-facing vertical windows bring in light and warmth. Vegetated (green) roofs and rainwater gardens outside capture and filter rain water. The building has dozens of other sustainable features, including renewable and recycled materials, energy-saving design and fixtures, and low-flow-plumbing. 

 

“Lebanon Hills is where we began to learn what role parks could play in demonstrating green building design,” said Bruce Blair, Manager of Facility and Natural Resource Development for Dakota County. “The architect, Paul Anderson [Partners & Sirny, Minneapolis], was passionate about doing something different and well.”

The Visitor Center, and the new Schaar’s Bluff Gathering Center in Spring Lake Park Reserve, are two signs of Dakota County’s commitment to lower the County’s energy consumption and reduce its impact on the environment, said County Commissioner Tom Egan. “We’re very proud of them.”

Working with cities to identify energy-saving ideas

“We’re trying to become Minnesota’s first green county,” Egan said. “We’re working collaboratively with our cities to make it happen.” A number of cities in the county have signed on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, he said.

In 2008, the County participated in a county-wide “greening initiative” through a pre-existing joint powers board of the County and 11 municipalities known as the Dakota County High Performance Partnership (HiPP). The partnership began in 2004 to identify collaborative opportunities for local governments. One of its most visible successes was the development of a centralized public safety dispatching center, Dakota Communications Center, which opened in 2007.

Under the greening initiative, the County and cities have been sharing information about effective energy-saving strategies, learning about rebates and grants offered by utilities for energy-saving projects, and exploring the potential for a common sustainability project, according to Michelle Beeman, Environment and Natural Resources Director for Dakota County.

“While we didn’t land on any new project to pursue jointly, everyone came away with renewed enthusiasm and ideas [for local projects],” Beeman said. The County decided to conduct a greenhouse gas inventory of its government operations, which will be used “as a tool to inform our next steps to save energy and build more sustainable practices,” she said.

County Commissioner Nancy Schouweiler said that HiPP has been a good mechanism for exchanging ideas and developing proposals for local energy-saving projects. Because most cities don’t have the resources to hire environmental management staff, it gives county staff the opportunity to share their expertise, she said. 

County is developing energy policy

In 2008, the County also launched an internal effort to develop an energy policy and an energy plan. Representatives from a wide swath of county operations are involved. The County already has very advanced building standards, and standards for low-impact development and stormwater management, Beeman explained, “But we hope to keep pushing and improving on our current practices.”

Beeman said she expects a draft of the energy plan to go to the county board in March or April.