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Sustainability committee begins work to create project evaluation protocol
Summary
The committee agreed to develop a standard protocol to evaluate parks, public works and development projects for environmental impacts and sustainability benefits; options include using ICLEI tools, researching comparable towns' processes, and assigning leads with checklists across 10 target sustainability areas.
Chair Christine Moon framed Item F as the committee’s third 2026 goal: design a protocol that governs how projects come to the committee and how the committee evaluates them for sustainability impacts.
Moon outlined two parts: (1) the referral or initiation path for projects that the committee should review, and (2) the evaluation process so reviews do not "spin our wheels." She suggested using ICLEI’s toolkit if the committee secures membership, surveying adopted plans from comparable communities (Moscow, McCall, Whitefish, Nelson, Hanover) for practical examples, or contacting those jurisdictions directly to ask how advisory committees operate.
Members proposed practical approaches: split the research (each member reviews one or two city plans), create a common list of evaluation questions, and assign two members as leads for each of the committee’s 10 target sustainability areas to guide discussion and prepare reports. One member recommended a checklist that reduces deliberations to clear yes/no items where appropriate.
Next steps: volunteers will take on city plan reviews and draft a standardized question set and checklist for the committee to review at the June meeting.
