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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - Climate Action Plan Task Force - 11/29/2021 Climate Action Plan Task Force 180 Market Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sbvt.gov Meeting Monday, November 29, 2021 City Hall, 180 Market Street, Room 301 7:00 pm This meeting will be held both in person and digitally via GoToMeeting. Participation Options: In person: South Burlington City Hall Room 301, 180 Market Street Assisted Listening Service Available; reach out to staff before meeting begins Interactive Online (audio & video): https://www.gotomeet.me/SBCity/climatetaskforce-2021-11-29 Telephone (audio only): 1 (669) 224-3412; Access Code: 377-745-941 AGENDA: 1. Instructions on existing building in case of emergency and review of technology options – Paul Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning (7:00 pm) 2. Welcome and introduction of Task Force members and support! (7:02 pm) 3. Agenda: Additions, deletions or changes in order of agenda items (7:20 pm) 4. Open to the public for items not related to the agenda (7:22 pm) 5. City Council Climate Resolutions; Charge of the Task Force; Roles, Helen Riehle, City Council Liaison and Paul Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning (7:25 pm) 6. Summary and review of Draft Consultant Scope of Work, Project Deliverables, and public outreach plan; Melanie Needle, Senior Planner, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (7:40 pm) 7. Other Business (8:30 pm) a. Discuss Task Force meeting schedule and election of officers for next meeting 8. Adjourn (8:40 pm) Respectfully submitted, Paul Conner, AICP, Paul Conner, AICP Director of Planning & Zoning Chief Sustainability Officer 180 Market Street South Burlington, VT 05403 tel 802.846.4106 fax 802.846.4101 www.sbvt.gov MEMORANDUM TO: South Burlington Climate Action Plan Task Force FROM: Paul Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning & Chief Sustainability Officer SUBJECT: Introductory Meeting DATE: November 29, 2021 meeting Welcome everyone, and thank you for agreeing to serve on the Climate Action Plan Task Force! The City Council has made creating and adopting this Plan among their top priorities for this year; to that end, they’ve created this Task Force, supported the hiring of CCRPC staff to lead the work in developing the product, and asked all City committees to reserve time in their works plans to assist as needed. City staff support will also be a key part of this effort. A brief background: The City Council first adopted a resolution joining the Vermont Climate Pledge in 2017 and in doing do, pledged to meet or exceed the obligations of the United States in the Paris Agreement and directing the undertaking of a Climate Action Plan. This was re-affirmed in a 2021 Resolution. Subsequently, the Council adopted the Charter establishing this Task Force and its charge to work with the CCRPC and Vermont Climate Council to develop the Climate Action Plan. The targets contained within the legislation passed by the State, as well as the Paris Agreement lay out an ambitious challenge. The City’s Climate Action Plan will present the roadmap (Pathways) to achieve these targets. The Climate Action Plan will contain two parts, prepared in phases. The Principal Plan, which is the focus of the immediate work, will lay out the Pathways to achieve the targets by sector and provide the analysis, supporting information, and foundation for the second part, the Sector-Specific Implementation Plans. Individual plans will take a deeper dive and prepare specific actions and deliverables with the identified pathways. In preparation for this very first meeting, we have put together some resources for members to review in advance of this first meeting. They include: 1. The 2017 and 2021 Council Resolutions on Climate Change 2. The Task Force’s 2021 Charter 3. Draft Scope of Work for the Plan with the CCRPC [enclosed] 4. Example Climate Action Plans and an outline from ICLEI that we anticipate using for preparing the City’s first-ever Climate Action Plan. Here are a few Melanie found for us: Keene, NH Northfield, MN Urbana, IL 5. Short video on how the ClearPath: The Local Government Climate Action Tool works to assess the efficacy of different possible pathways to meet Climate targets. 2 Meeting notes by agenda item: 1. Instructions on existing building in case of emergency and review of technology options (7:00 pm) Paul will provide brief instructions on exiting the building 2. Welcome and introduction of Task Force members and support! (7:02 pm) We’ll go around the room with introductions. Please provide a brief background on yourself, your areas of interest, the standing committee you are a member of, and any specific hopes you have for this group 3. Agenda: Additions, deletions or changes in order of agenda items (7:20 pm) For this very first meeting, staff will lead the meeting; at the end of the meeting we’ll have a discussion about schedule and plan for election of officers of the Task Force at your 2nd meeting; this will give folks a chance to know one another a little before you select your leadership team. 4. Open to the public for items not related to the agenda (7:22 pm) This item will be on each agenda for the public to introduce / share something that is not otherwise on the agenda; the Task Force can later under Other Business or to discus at a future meeting. 5. City Council Climate Resolutions; Charge of the Task Force; Roles This item will be a brief overview of the resolutions & the charge of the Task Force, and the roles of staff, CCRPC, the Task Force, and the Council Liaison 6. Summary and review of Draft Consultant Scope of Work, Project Deliverables, and public outreach plan; Melanie Needle, Senior Planner, Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (7:40 pm) Melanie Needle will introduce the draft Scope of Work, including CCRPC tasks, answer questions, gather feedback on anything missing, and discuss some key up-front decisions & direction from the Task Force. 7. Other Business (8:30 pm) a. Discuss Task Force meeting schedule and election of officers for next meeting The Scope calls for monthly Task Force meetings through the winter & spring, with possible special meeting or meetings for community input. We can plan to do an online poll of available regular dates, but would like to confirm some basic information up front (example: daytime meeting, early evening, later evening) 8. Adjourn (8:40 pm) 1 City of South Burlington Draft Scope of Work Climate Action Plan The City of South Burlington seeks to develop a Climate Action Plan (the Plan). The Plan will serve as the road map for meeting the city’s climate goals and to prepare the city for the effects of climate change over the coming decades. The City Council established a climate goal, by resolution, to “join the State of Vermont and other communities and business in the Vermont Climate Pledge Coalition, and in so doing, pledges to meet or exceed the obligations of the United States in the Paris Agreement1. Accordingly, the city seeks a plan that launches a sustained commitment by the city to identify and pursue new pathways to address the climate crisis. The plan will enable the city to identify specific pathways and actions required to achieve the city and State’s ambitious energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. The Plan will help to prepare the city to withstand weather and climate-related hazards by coordinating and cross- referencing the City’s All-Hazards Mitigation Plan. The Plan will also establish measurable pathways accompanied by cohesive high-level actions to meet the goals for decreasing fossil fuel consumption and increase renewable energy generation and utilization in the transportation, electricity, building, government operations, and land use sectors. Plan Structure Recognizing the scale of this effort, climate action planning will be conducted in two broad phases: creation of the Principal Plan which is described in this scope and sector-specific implementation plans that will be developed after the principal plan adoption. The principal plan will lay out a set of clear pathways and high-level actions to meet the City’s Climate goals, the sector-specific implementation plans will provide a deeper dive into more specific measurable actions to be taken to meet these goals according to sector. The implementation plans will include developing specific policies, incentives, regulations, and/or partnerships to meet the climate goals. There will be a specific implementation plan for each sector. The first implementation plan to be developed will be for the transportation sector; the City’s largest energy consumption sector. The transportation implementation plan will be developed in line with the principal plan in FY22. Other sectors will likely include energy production and use, government operations, and others to be defined through the development of the Principal Plan. The Climate Action Plan will be prepared to become a component of the City’s Comprehensive Plan either by adopting it by refence or by incorporating the Climate Action Plan into the 2024 Comprehensive Plan to serve as both the Climate Action Plan and the Comprehensive Plan. Integrating the Climate Action Plan into the Comprehensive Plan is not included in this scope. The Climate Action Plan will also be drafted to include the necessary components, as defined in the Vermont Department of Public Service Energy Planning Standards, needed to enable the City to pursue a determination of energy compliance from the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC). 1 The State of Vermont’s present goal is to meet 90% of Vermont’s energy needs by renewable sources and increased efficiency. The Paris Agreement establishes Country-specific targets for the major emitters including the United States in an effort to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, while pursuing the means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. 2 Take Force and Community Engagement Community engagement and input are integral to the success of the plan. The City has established a Task Force that will provide project direction and guidance to City and CCRPC staff and will submit the draft Climate Action Plan to the City Council for consideration and adoption. CCRPC staff will provide assessments, analyses, draft text and pathways for the Task Force’s consideration. The Task Force, with support from CCRPC and City staff, will review and provide direction on drafts and review community feedback on the Plan. CCRPC Staff will serve as project manager and principal author of the Principal Plan; City Staff will lead community outreach and engagement Task 1: Task Force Introduction and Finalize Project Scope (November 2021 – January 2022) The Climate Action Plan Task Force will have its initial meeting (s), review and refine the draft Scope of Work, and affirm the project timeline, Task Force meeting schedule, and outreach plan. Task 2: Prepare Draft Climate Action Plan (January 2022 – May 2022) CCRPC staff will prepare the principal plan and energy/ghg analysis in alignment with the Department of Public Service Energy Planning Standards, Vermont’s Climate Action Plan and ICLEI’s best practices for climate action and resilience planning for review by the Task Force. The plan will identify the pathways and actions for the city to achieve the obligations of the Vermont Climate Pledge Coalition and the State of Vermont’s energy goals which focus on building energy, land use, carbon sequestration, renewable energy, sustainable transportation, natural resources, city infrastructure/programs, and solid waste. A potential outline of the Plan is included on page 3. Specific activities for task 2 include: • Task 2A: Energy and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Assessment Develop an assessment to estimate current and future energy use/ ghg emissions for inclusion in the Plan. To accomplish this, the following data sources and tools are available for the Task Force’s consideration: o South Burlington intern work on current ghg emissions accounting and energy consumption o CCRPC’s Energy Planning Guide for the City of South Burlington. o Updated Low Emissions Energy Platform (LEAP) energy and ghg data under development by the Vermont Department of Public Service o ICLEI’s ClearPath tool to analyze potential pathways for reducing emissions and energy use under two scenarios consisting of “business as usual” and climate smart scenario through 2030 and 2050. • Task 2B: Identify, evaluate, and refine pathways and high-level actions needed to achieve the state overarching goals. o Using the work of the Vermont Climate Council and as a foundation, identify pathways and actions for the following sectors: building energy, land use, carbon sequestration, renewable energy, sustainable transportation, natural resources, city infrastructure/programs, and solid waste. Identify responsible entities for each pathway/action and the time frame for advancing each pathway/action. o Pathway Analysis: If selected as a tool, utilize ICLEI’s ClearPath tool to assess the effectiveness of pathways by assessing the cost/benefit, co-benefits, and timeliness of each pathway to achieve the City’s goals. 3 o Pathway selection, emphasis, and prioritization: Provide drafts and support to the Task Force in selecting initial, and final pathways to be included in the Principal Plan, and next steps for each sector-specific Implementation Plan. CCRPC and City staff will provide supporting analysis and evaluation of pathways for effectiveness and consistency with the City’s Comprehensive Plan goals to support the Task Force. • Task 2C: Prepare a draft Climate Action plan according to the draft table of contents on page 3. Specific items in the outline may be subject to change. Provide recommendations for adaptation elements for inclusion in the concurrent update to the City’s All Hazard Mitigation Plan. Task 3: Public outreach (January -June 2022) The project will incorporate robust public outreach and input throughout the process. City Staff will take the lead on public outreach, with support from CCRPC staff .This will include: • Task 3A: Regular Task Force Meetings, to be held consistent with the Vermont Open Meeting Law. Task Force meetings will be supported by CCRPC staff with assistance from City Staff. • Task 3B: Solicit pathway ideas that the City will undertake to reduce ghg emissions and energy use.. City Committees and the public will be invited to provide initial pathway ideas via a combination of meetings, invitations to provide input, and/or online surveying. This task will be undertaken principally by City Staff and with support from the Task Force and CCRPC Staff. • Task 3C: Solicit feedback on draft pathways recommended by the Task Force. Committee and community feedback on the initial draft pathways prepared by the Task Force will be sought using methods such as those identified in Task 4B. This task will be undertaken principally by City Staff with support from Task Force and CCRPC Staff. • Task 3D: Task Force final approval and submittal to Council. Public meeting and action by the Task Force to approve and submit the draft Principal Plan to the City Council. This task will be jointly supported by CCRPC and City Staff • Task 3E: Council consideration and action. City Council to review and hold public meetings/hearings in accordance with City procedure to consider the Principal Plan for adoption. This task will be jointly supported by CCRPC and City Staff Deliverables CCRPC Staff will deliver the following: • Final Climate and Energy Action Plan for consideration by City Council. The Plan will include all requirements of the State’s energy planning standards as well as content and analysis related to climate planning. A pdf will be needed for the public process to approve the plan. Subsequent to adoption, the city may purse a dynamic online platform for the Plan. • Throughout the Plan development CCRPC staff will prepare a total of 4 drafts consisting of 2 drafts for the Task Force, 1 draft for the Planning Commission, and 1 final draft for the City Council. • CCRPC Staff will attend monthly Task Force meetings and assist with agenda setting • CCRPC Staff will also prepare any necessary PowerPoint presentations needed for effective communication and summarization of the Plan. • A review of the plan to ensure consistency with the State Energy Planning Standards. 4 City Staff will provide the following: • Meeting setup including posting of agendas, room selection, digital platforms; posting of minutes; other open meeting law requirements • Lead public outreach efforts including input meetings, invitations for community participation, collation of ideas and comments; maintaining a project website • Consultant (CCRPC) management and review of working drafts and deliverables; • Delivery of existing data as warranted to CCRPC • Review and coordination with related Plan, including All Hazard Mitigation Plan and City Comprehensive Plan Climate Action Plan DRAFT Table of Contents Executive Summary Introduction Purpose, Scope, and Process Behind the Climate Action Plan Vision Statements and Objectives Climate Change Policy The Policy Context of Climate Planning Benefits of Climate Protection Measures Climate Equity Within South Burlington Energy and GHG Emissions Community-Wide Energy and GHG Emissions City Operations GHG Emissions GHG Reduction Target The Climate Action Plan The Impact on Emissions Emissions Reduction Focus Areas Cross-Cutting Pathways & Actions Government Operations & Community Pathways & Actions Commercial Buildings Pathways & Actions Residential Buildings Pathways & Actions Energy Production Pathways & Actions Waste, Composting & Recycling Pathways & Actions Water & Wastewater Management Pathways & Actions Transportation & Land Use Pathways & Actions [Other Focus Area] Climate Adaptation [cross-reference to Hazard Mitigation Plan] Food Supply Public Health Energy Flooding Water Supply Heat and Wildfire Natural Systems and Wildlife Preparedness Monitoring Plan Appendix I: Methodology Appendix II: Climate Change Science Appendix III: Public outreach and process