If not for the ppl who took the time to come to say their piece at the Jvl CC mtgs, this charter/contract could've been rushed into without scrutinizing. Is that what you really want from your elected representatives? All who live in Rock Cty should be watching this to make sure we are not now OR in the future obligated to live under some govt bureaucracy's idea of how Jvl should be run for the sake of better environmental practice. Is this contract easy to get out of as the DNR claims? This is one question that is, as yet, unanswered. There are free market solutions for improving the environment. Perhaps some entrepreneur could find a way to help improve the local economy at the same time as help the environment - what a concept. I say - don't rely on the govt to do the job!

bearcat - I don't believe that Madison is a Green Tier Legacy Community. It does make me sad that they are opting for high density housing with no more than 1 parking space per unit forcing the use of alternative transportation. If they can't mandate it, then the option is to make it undesirable by "guiding" (like Green Tier Legacy) you to a particular mindset or force by giving one no choice.

bearcat - you need to ride a bike in Madison because property taxes prohibit the cost of using a car or the purchase of a second car.

Regarding the uninformed public comment against Green Tier urban planning (there are so many issues of disinformation to choose from, so I'll just pick one!):

No one can be "forced" to ride a bicycle under Green Tier (or any other program I've ever heard of).

Green Tier merely encourages local governments to do things such as making your community a safer and more appealing place to ride bikes for all purposes, for people who realize that bike riding is an excellent means of accomplishing many daily and life-long goals.

For example, if a family's wage earners can ride a bike to work most of the time instead of driving, you can save on (i.e. omit) the costs of owning a second car, or even avoid owning any car at all (in a few rare and amazing communities).

In Madison, my wife and I both commute by bike, 3.5 miles each way (I ahve been a bike commuter for 47 years, since I was 16). Even with two teenage sons (now away in college), we never felt we needed to own a second car. We have been able to use our one car mainly for vacation travel (when we don't take a train) and for bringing home big stuff like lumber for home repairs and other bulky purchases. Not owning a second car can save up to $7,500 per year.

Since we bike most of the time (using our very good bus service on a few icy winter days) we also save by not having any parking costs, which amounts to about $18 per day for each of around 200 work days per year.

That is a lot of savings. In our case, most of these savings have gone toward helping our sons immensely with high college tuition costs. It also gives us more money to enjoy occasionally dining out and engaging in other activites that help our local and state economies - rather than sending thousands of dollars to far-off oil company directors.

This not only helps make our family budget more "sustainable," but also contributes in small but important ways to making our community more sustainable, through less air pollution, less demand to turn healthy green space and farmland into parking lots, an absence of obesity and all its related costs, and through many other benefits that are both private and public.

Green Tier planning helps communities lower everyone's energy costs for summer cooling (a big issue this week) by maximizing tree coverage and other measures that keep urban temperatures a little lower. Similar measures can help treat stormwater by more natural means, such as constructed wetlands, rather than paying tens of thousands of rate-payer dollars annually for electricity to run it through a treatment plant (or simply directing it to and fouling the Rock River).

Green Tier can have many more significant benefits for forward-looking communities. I sincerely hope that when this issue comes up again in Janesville, people will have a far better-informed idea of what it is and is not - and then give the concept the support it deserves.

R1234,

Excellent post..That is all obvious to anyone with a brain...Too bad so many are without brains.

Janesville citizens do not want Green Tier 63% to 36%.
http://wclo.com/polls/2012/jun/green-tie...

Green Tier is a passive layer of government that guides one to exceed regulation by the DNR.

The green initiative has been around a long time. It sounds great and the consensus (consesnus can be achieved by a party of two) is that some laws have made the world a nicer place to live. However, is this true? I think not. If the same jobs were sent overseas and then to China by American Corporations and the jobs which pollute are still in existence, how is this possible? China is still a part of the planet and it is polluting like crazy. The jobs went there along with our economy and the pollution. Without the rigid rules of our regulating bodies, the polution may even be worse. So, with that logic, what did we actually do? We distributed our wealth and jobs to China and other undeveloped countries. We are sustaining the wealth of the American Corporations who built factories there and the despots who rule. A couple of things bear this out. The president shut down the oil rigs in the Gulf for drilling. He then gave Brazil $2 billion dollars to drill oil and made a commitment to purchase from them. The jobs went, the oil went but they are still on this planet. We gave them $2 billion and will still have to pay them for oil. We have effectively agreed to pay twice for something we could have done here. Our auto industry has been decimated but cars are still being produced. All the nasty jobs making parts are being done off shore and they were good paying jobs. We mostly just assemble the parts now but the pollution is still being generated elswhere on this planet. My question is: How are we really saving this planet? All we have accomplished so far is to redistribute our wealth and our jobs to other countries. Our jobs numbers are in the tank. The GDP is stagnant, but our lightbulbs with mercury are being imported from China. Our car parts are being manufactured elsewhere. Our oil is being imported. Our computers are made in China. The cloth for our clothing and the clothing itself is manufactured in sweatshops in undeveloped countries. These people working in these industries in undeveloped countries will never reap the benefits of industry because they are ruled by dictators. We will continue to slide while prices climb and jobs disappear. Is this Green Tier a ruse to redistribute wealth with lovely language making you feel good? Will their guidance allow you to be led down a path of economic destruction while making you think you are doing a "world" of good? Corporations are making banner profits but former industrialized nations are collapsing. The undeveloped countries doing the manufacturing are doing really well but their people aren't. What, exactly are we sustaining?

Interesting that NO ONE has seen the application to the DNR for the geothermal units being installed at the ice arena, or that no one knows who got the required permit for the project.

sustainability is just that, Kimmmm...an idea of how land use should be managed...unfortunately, many people in power don't have the faculties to do the job they were elected to do, and many don't have the scientific background to make decisions regarding sound land use policy...why should our community not want to participate? are there that many people with little or no forethought? if we do not manage our resources properly there will be no economy to support us....why not invest in a better future? are you happy being a mass consumer? will your grand-kids feel the same way?

The "idea of sustainability" is a foreign import: Other countries telling us that we shouldn't live in single family homes, have air conditioning, private transportation. They want to slash middle class living down so that all the serfs are poor and only the elite get the amenities. If this wasn't revealed in the committees, then they didn't do enough research. It is spelled out clearly in the documents from the 1992 Rio summit.

Belman your tatics won't work

Where are the environmentalists when it was decided to use the Lions Pond for placing geothermal units?

Who did the impact study on the pond, and who obtained the license from the DNR (as required) for the placing of the geothermal units?

How much water will be drawn off for ice making? (I asked someone at the city. The answer...."not that much".

Kimmmm - the Green Tier didn't get trounced by the council, they've already voted to bring it back. I am not trying to damage control for anything. Damage control? People on city committees are appointed to do research on issues and make recommendations, as the council doesn't have the time to do everything. Volunteers are there to support the council. When a committee works on something for 4 years, and the Council nods all the way along, it's rather disappointing when they do an about face. Everyone that has spent time on this has wasted their time.

Chris1950 - yeah, it's all unicorns and rainbows. No need to research any further :)

Wow. People don't even want to look at the future and the options?

I went to the link suggested on Agenda 21. Here's one of the quotes, which looks pretty sensible to me....

'Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 specifically calls for each community to formulate its own Local Agenda 21: ”Each local authority should enter into a dialogue with its citizens, local organizations, and private enterprises to formulate 'a Local Agenda 21.' Through consultation and consensus-building, local authorities would learn from citizens and from local, civic, community, business and industrial organizations and acquire the information needed for formulating the best strategies.” - Agenda 21, Chapter 28, sec 1.3'

How dangerous is it for government to talk to its citizens and businesses to figure out what the community should be in the future?

I wonder why so many out of towners felt it was their role to bend the City's decisions to their views?

janesvillean - if Janesville doesn't adopt the Green Tier strategies, what's the point of being a "Green Tier" city ?

Belman, the John Birch Society didn't create Agenda 21, they just oppose it. The UN crafted it and all of our "presidents" from Bush Sr. to Obama are advancing it.

Wislady you are so out of it. You do not have a clue. Agenda 21 is from the John Birch Socity and the right wing groups.

RockEnvironmentalNetwork is trying to do damage control because Green Tier got trounced at the council meeting. He/she uses words like, "hysteria" and "doomsday" to discount the people that actually did the research, not like the ones that sit on committees to feel important and to control the behavior of others. Unelected committees have no business telling us what to do anyway!

How fitting the emerald ash borer is strikingly green.

The Green Tier - Agenda 21 link is clear...
From 1000 Friends of Wisconsin mission..."3. Educate and market Smart Growth concepts through Green Tier Communities."
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From the United Nations Millennium Paper 2nd Issue on implementing Local Agenda 21... "So, we call our processes something
else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth."
http://www.unedforum.org/publications/mi......
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We can debate the wisdom of entangling Janesville in an expensive bureaucratic sustainability web, but the 1000 Friends Smart Growth Green Tier & United Nations Agenda 21 connection is in black and white.

With a 1000 friends of Wisconsin, who needs enemies?

The Green Tier program has NOTHING to do with Agenda 21. If you believe this, then you have a gross misunderstanding of Green Tier. 1000 Friends of Wisconsin is not conspiring with the UN to take your property or force you to drive a Toyota and use your sidewalk. Enough with the hysteria, people! Had the City built green actions into their Comprehensive Plan as requested by the SJC, there would be no need for a separate green action plan. Our current comp plan was adopted after GM closed, but is based on GM being the major employment anchor. It was out of date when the Council adopted it, and includes 10k acres of prime farmland for future development. The Council hammered away at the DNR Rep, but didn't ask one single question of the doomsday group of people from out of town, asking them to back up their claims. The SJC has been working on this program and reviewing Green Action Plans since 2008. Does the Council think we would bring them something that would put the City into harms way? Really....I thought this was what committees were for. If the Council doesn't listen to the people on the committees, that were created to do research and provide recommendations to the Council, then what a waste of time for anyone volunteering for a City committee.

Marcie as a reporter you should investigate this green tier scam, people use the green word to disguise a lot of things some not so good. We and the city will have less and less say in the way the city is run. This is the beginning of agenda 21 in which the UN wants one government, do your research please. Remember how the dnr told us how to operate our landfill
We had to let other cities use it and other county. Be forewarned

lovemycountry, what you're looking at is a list of IDEAS ("sustainable strategies") with a score, things that communities joining the charter MAY consider adopting. This is not a requirement, but obviously you're reading with your paranoid glasses instead of your reading comprehension glasses.

Global warming is a hoax. It is a business looking for and investor. It is a cause looking for someone to transfer wealth. It is being used in so many ways to bring down the US its rediculous. See the new fees and taxes for European travel -- leveled only against US citizens. It is a joke. A bad one.

*Easements take private property rights away.
*You shouldn't have to enter into a control grid to share information with other counties in Wisconsin.
*Carbon Dioxide is NOT a problem that causes "anthropogenic global warming". They aren't even using the term anymore because it was proved to be untrue. So they change it to climate change because no one can dispute that the climate changes. This article attempted to ridicule the very dangerous aspects of Agenda 21 and the local public/private partnerships that are trying to put this through in every community in our country. The people that spoke against this initiative should be commended! They have done the research and aren't afraid to speak the truth. They are the true stewards of this city!

Here are two items from Transportation Use Policy at http://greentiercommunities.org/?page_id... ...
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2 Require bike parking for all new non-residential and multifamily uses.
5 Require large employers seeking rezoning to provide subsidized transit.
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Will the city by penalized if they fail to do so ? Will the costs deter business expansion in Janesville ?

I am wondering why the paper frequently has 2 links to the same story, with separate comments on each?// Not the first time I've seen this.. Belman..If the totalitarian vision of Agenda 21 is your view of 'moving forward', then any thinking person, teaparty or otherwise would gladly support going back to "Mayberry"... Barney Fife was a genius compared to backers of this NOT innocuous plan.

http://www.green-agenda.com/agenda21.htm...

Here are two items from Land Use Policy at http://greentiercommunities.org/?page_id...
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Protection
10 Establish 75-foot natural vegetation zone easement from surface water.
6 Create an inventory wetlands and insure no net annual loss.
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Will the city by penalized if they fail to do so ? What will the cost be to taxpayers and businesses to comply ?

The more I read about this Steeber person, wow, what a piece of work.

I respectfully disagree with you. I prefer locally made decisions vs being in lockstep with a national plan. In California the dreen plan includes high density housing with shared green space, preferably near a commuter rail line near employment.High density condo living. Wow,not for me. Everyone cares about the environment. The right steps are already taken without going to extreme measures. Just because something like Green Tier is offered does not make it necessary.As for operating in a vacuum, sorry excuse with all the information available today from many sources.

The point is, whz_bng, now those entities won't be operating in a vacuum. They'll be part of a statewide partnership and can benefit from the experience of the other participants. It's really not that different from the "peer city" studies that the City Manager often uses to make decisions and recommendations. Ultimately it means creating measurable goals and checking how well we are doing rather than just doing stuff and patting ourselves on the back. That means some costs, but the benefits of cleaner air and water should be clear, as well as saving taxpayer money on energy.
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Withdrawal IS an option under the charter, and even if we just fail to follow through, we can be removed from it anyway. It's not some kind of binding contract signed in blood.
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The suspicion with which Janesville has greeted this program is, alas, typical and pretty much shows us up as a bunch of paranoid yahoos as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

Jnsvl, Why do we need another entity to be involved? Janesville alresdy has a Sustainable Development committee, an environmental com., A city plan commish, a sidewalk comm. a city council ect. to make these decisions. It looked to me as just another fed make job program with another layer of paperwork. $25,000 to start, when do they want something in return? You know they will. 1% was stated as possible state credit, whoopee. Watching it Tv it seemed like a couple of council member were bored and wanted to leave early. Namely RS. He seemed concerned if another meeting was scheduled it would be a late night. If it takes to much of you time RS, do not run again.

This is basically an utterly innocuous program that has only voluntary compliance built in, so that cities (or private companies and organizations) can qualify for a higher level of sustainability than required by law. The city is already moving to biofuel gas for its vehicle fleet on a replacement basis, for example, but if we wanted to commit to something like a carbon footprint reduction plan with defined targets (10% less energy usage by 2015, to pull numbers out of my hat), the program provides resources for doing that and in some cases getting state credit and/or assistance with upfront costs.
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I hear somebody was afraid we would all be forced to ride bicycles. That's ridiculous, since this has no legal authority over private citizens, but it would be an awesome goal. Thanks for suggesting it, conspiracy guy!

If they would keep the tea party group off the steets Janesville might move forward. If not it is back to Mayberry.

....."despite a warning by Steeber that delaying a decision and bringing it back will mean another late meeting." Hmmm....gathering more information and accomplishing common sense goals seems more important than watching the clock.

*sigh*