Hold Preliminary Public Hearing on Draft Climate Action and Resiliency Plan and Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration and Schedule Final Council Action for September 3, 2019.  (Public Works 310)
Good evening. Good evening, Madam Mayor. Members of the City Council. I am Liam Garland, a public works director here in the city of Alameda. And I'm really excited tonight about this draft action, alameda Climate Action and Resiliency Plan. This plan, we think from the state side, we think it's ready. Oh, it reflects a lot of what the community has shared with us and has many revisions since the draft that was shared publicly in May. But not only that, that's on top of a robust community engagement process that was started at the beginning of this plan . So if you look at this slide that gives you an overview of the process, you'll see that we had three community input sessions and in fact one of those sessions was really three meetings in different parts of the city. We had a task force from the beginning of the plan that was comprised of various stakeholders from the business community, from the environmental groups, from even some homeowner's association associations who might be affected by this plan. We also convened an interdepartmental team inside of city government called a Green Team and had Community Action for Sustainable Alameda participate on that green team. And finally, we've been working with regional agencies, our partner neighbors and climate experts, including consultants at the Eastern Research Group who've supported us through the process. And I think over the last 24 to 48 hours, you've seen some of those stakeholders weigh in on the plan. Now, staff think it's ready, but we're ready to hear whether that's true or not. And so the number one goal for tonight is to hear from the public and hear from the council about your thoughts about the plan. If the thoughts are mostly positive and there's not many changes to be made and those aren't significant, then we'll be back on September 2nd for the final action to adopt the plan. If the suggested revisions are major, well, then the timeline gets more uncertain and we go out into the later fall and or winter. Speaking of time, we don't have a ton tonight, so we've got a hard stop around seven given everything that's on the council docket. And we've got some public speakers tonight who I know want I want to share their comments. So the staff presentation is going to be really short tonight. The plan in one form or another has been out for a couple of months and we're keeping our presentation short. Let me just share two more comments. One is staff is already focused on implementation. If you look at the budget that City Council adopted recently that had more than $3 million in projects and programs consistent with the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan. If you look at tonight's agenda, we've got a climate impact section of each of those staff reports. We've also got an item on consent for the beginning, the active transportation plan process on regular agenda. We've got there's the question of whether to take the next step to explore a new stormwater fee that could essentially help implement some measures related to sea level rise and climate change. So in tonight's agenda, you can see the Climate Action or resiliency plan in action. I do want to call out a couple groups and people right now, which is Community Action for Sustainable Alameda. They've been a part of this process from the beginning, not even the beginning of this, but the beginning of the Local Action Plan for Climate Protection back in 2008. They've been a key community partner throughout the process and deserve a ton of praise in terms of getting us to where we are tonight. In addition, Aaron Smith, who you're going to hear from in just a moment, and Patrick Pellegrini oday, they've helped turn this climate plan into something that I at least am really proud of. So I just want to thank them before I turn it over to Aaron for the remainder of the presentation. Thank you, Mr. Galan. I like that you're wearing a green blouse. I think that's symbolic of us in spirit. Good evening, Madam Mayor. Vice Mayor, members of the Council. It is great to be before you presenting Almeida's first Climate Action and Resiliency Plan. The presentation that you have in the meeting packet for this evening tells. A young climate enthusiast. Yes. Very young tells the presentation, and the packet tonight tells an important and compelling story that culminates in the draft plan before you this evening. It conveys the challenges we face with an evolving climate. And ends with actions, specific actions the city can take to build resiliency in the face of sea level rise and other climate hazards. As Leon mentioned, tonight is about hearing from you, from other agencies and the public. And so with that, I will only tell a condensed version of that story, touching on key content of the plan that will set the stage for the discussion that will follow. So as Liam mentioned, the Climate Action Resiliency Plan is an update to our 28 Local Action Plan for Climate Protection. However, now it's with an expanded and integrated approach that includes both greenhouse gas reduction and climate adaptation. This integrated approach is what the state calls almeida's climate safe path. Let me explain. The graph shown here in the right has a time on the horizontal axis and degrees of global warming on the vertical. The two different red and blue lines represent different greenhouse gas emission pathways. The red being a high emissions pathway or business as usual. No major global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The blue represents a lower emissions pathway. And what this demonstrates is the direct impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the degrees of warming, which are explicitly linked to the severity of sea level rise storms and other known climate hazards. Aluminum cases. The actions in this plan tonight directly reduce local almeida's greenhouse gas reductions. It's also intended to set example for other municipalities in the hopes of catalyzing change at the global scale, which, if successful, leads us on, or at least near that blue emissions pathway, since there's a lot of uncertainty in how this will unfold. To be climate safe today, we have to minimize risk from climate hazards that are shown on that high emissions pathway and and allow for an iterative planning process. And we coined this as adaptive management in the plan. What this allows is to plan for a worst case scenario today. But as time unfolds, emissions reduce. Predictive models refine. We are continuously modern monitoring and able to revise our adaptive approach. The carp, I'm going to call it the carp acronym. The Carp Vision and Goals captures the sentiment of climate safe planning, and it's the result of significant input and feedback from the community. And as you'll hear, the vision was modified for consistency with council's recent declaration of a climate emergency. Alameda will be an innovative leader in achieving net zero carbon emissions and community resilience as soon as possible and serve as an example that inspires similarly impacted cities to do the same. Our community members will be a vital part of this ongoing process. The Carp also identifies eight specific targeted goals one for greenhouse gas reduction, one for each of the climate hazards known that we know are in our future, and another for effective implementation and capacity building in regards to greenhouse gas reductions. We started this process with an emissions inventory that we used to be able to assess the progress in meeting the goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions 25% below 2005 levels. That target was set in 2008. We also conducted the emissions inventory to be able to set further looking and further reducing goals. The analysis did confirm a 23% reduction from 2005 levels in 2020, just shy of the stated goal. It's now time to look towards 2030 and the smokestack shown on the right in orange represents what Alameda is. Greenhouse gas emissions would be in 2030 under a business as usual scenario or no proactive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The smoke stack on the right, the upper half blue or really gray as shown here tonight. The upper half represents those needed 50% reductions. And the first notch, as you can see, there's kind of a lighter blue color that's reductions from actions already committed to. And this represents an enormous amount of work that still needs to be done. And that work is captured in the Transportation Choices Plan, the zero waste implementation plan, update, our urban forestry program, and AMP's continued delivery of zero or of clean or zero carbon power. But that's not enough. And as shown below the lighter blue notch, the 41,700, that is, additional emissions needed to reach a 50% reduction. And I failed to say that 50% reduction that we've set for 2030 is more aggressive than that set by the state. We have to acknowledge it's only a step towards carbon neutrality. So the additional actions that are noted in the gray section, that's where the Caap really puts its emphasis. Given AMP's delivery of clean up, clean power. Ah, excuse me. I'm sorry. Our emissions are predominantly from fossil fuel use in the transportation sector, as well as natural gas use in the building sector. For transportation, the plan focuses first on how we can get deeper cuts in vehicle miles traveled or further and encourage mode shift from that in the Transportation Choices plan. It secondly looks at how we can expand electric vehicle adoption and the charging station that needs to go with that in the building sector. The emphasis is primarily on getting rid of debt, reducing natural gas use. And there's two approaches. There's the existing building stock, and that means fuel switching. So switching appliances that currently use natural gas to those that are electric. And then, of course, doing any necessary upgrades to the electrical panel to be able to support that. It also means a commitment to all electric for new residential development. And it also these actions here. I don't want to. I definitely want to make mention that these, coupled with energy conservation and distributed rooftop solar, are certainly a pathway towards a more resilient Alameda sequestration, which is the drawdown of carbon from the atmosphere since some emissions will likely continue. Sequestration allows a means to reach that carbon neutrality and the carp commits on the sequestration front to expansions in our urban forestry program, as well as the application of compost as a soil amendment in our parks and open spaces while doing our part to set the globe on that lower emissions pathway. We are also planning to manage risk that is predicted under our current climate emergency. We already are experiencing climate change impacts here in Alameda. For those that have gone out at a king tide, you can see our shorelines, blooming periods of drought, poor air quality from wildfire. These are expected to get more frequent and more severe. Adapting and building resilience to climate change is essential for the long term health of the community. This planning process we looked at and characterized existing and future conditions for known climate hazards, and I'll read these here and they're noted on the slide, which is sea level rise and storm surge, extreme heat, inland flooding, and that's for more frequent and intense storms, wildfire fires, which for us is predominantly poor air quality drought and liquefaction. So groundwater rising can lead to an increased incident and impact from liquefaction. We took this characterization of existing and future conditions and conducted a vulnerability assessment to understand exposure as well as the adaptive capacity of the community and our built environment. And from that, we were able to target and develop strategies and actions at the asset and citywide scale as a low lying island city. Sea level rise in flooding is a very real and tangible risk. As such, the plan presents 11 priority locations or asset groups where a specific and deeper dove was done to understand the extent of flooding in impact and to develop site specific strategies. The plan then provides general strategies to build resilience by sector. These are more best management practices and aren't necessarily location specific, but they are to be integrated citywide and in an effort to build both the public and environment, build resiliency against climate change. So I'm going to get into those 11 locations to help organize the enormity of this analysis. We used a framework of prioritizing that which is impacted soonest and with greatest consequence. And so for Alameda. Significant shoreline overtopping is seen at 24 and 36 inches of sea level rise. This is a scenario that's expected mid to late century daily, but could occur today if a 50 year storm were to be experienced. So by targeting that impacted soonest and with greatest consequence, we're actually managing risk that's real and present today while allowing more time to unfold in the hopes that that global greenhouse gas emissions truck trajectory does shift down lower. So shown here in the 11 priority sites, the pink hatched polygons that you're seeing are areas that are are already being addressed in another plan. For instance, the Alameda Point Master Infrastructure Plan, as well as being addressed in new developments like those shown on the northern waterfront, the Climate Action Resiliency Plan. Did not set out to reinvent those plans, but rather incorporate the work that's already being done. I'm not going to read off just for the sake of time. That's a visual of where those 11 locations are. But I do think it's super important to mention here that climate change knows no borders and that Alameda can't and shouldn't solve this in a vacuum. So Doolittle Drive, shown as number eight on the right, presents a really good example. So we have Caltrans, the city of Oakland, the Port East Bay Regional Park District, and the city, among other agencies, very vested and have a vested interest in a multi benefit solution to the height of Doolittle, which at about 36 inches of sea level rise, becomes deficient in terms of flood protection. So it's essential that Alameda attracts the evolving landscape of local, state, county governance structures related to both mitigation and adaptation, and possibly seek leadership opportunities that may help shear steer the formation of those structures and policies to ensure an effective launch. The plan lays out specific, implementable, implementable actions for the first five years shown here is phase one, which covers the first two years, includes the hiring of a sustainability coordinator, reconvening of the green team that Leon mentioned, as well as the task force. Among the other items listed, the CAAP underscores the importance of monitoring and annual reporting, not only to evaluate the efficacy of the actions implemented, but to maintain, maintain transparency with the public, allow an opportunity for the Council to change and adjust course as needed, and of course to adapt to the changing conditions at year 2024. So about five years in, it is slated for an update to our greenhouse gas emissions as well as a more comprehensive update to the plan. And with that, that ends my very condensed version of the story, and I hope that you all had time to read the full story in your packet. Thank you, Lisbeth. Very nice. And did you have more you want to add? Only that we've got about eight public speakers just to help in terms of the management of topics. So I was going to find out first if we had any clarifying questions that the council wanted to ask before we launched into our public speakers. Anybody want to ask clarifying questions? Yeah. Councilmember Daisuke. So one of the biggest, you know, communications that I've got from a variety of people through a variety of sources, has been about the congestion pricing, particularly the tolls through the through the Webster tube, posi tube. Now, my reading of the materials, I didn't see it related to any policy strategies or actions, although I saw it within the text, referenced within the text or referenced within. I forgot what the term was, key items or something like that at the end. So what? So is it correct to say that it's not part of policy strategies or actions that are part. Of the both? Sure, there's two answers to that. One is in the projection of where we would be in 2030 if the measures that we've laid out to get to our 50% cut goal congestion pricing is not one of the measures that's required to get to that 50% cut. However, given Almeida's vision is to get to or proposed division is to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. And the context of that, then what the COP suggests is to continue the discussion of congestion pricing because there are significant greenhouse gas reduction benefits through such a strategy. Does that make sense? And I guess or let me say, David, does that answer the question? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? Anything else? Councilmember O.D.. I'm trying to read your expression. Yeah, I wanted to be quick. Just last quick question. For Mr. Garland. Yeah. So on the staff report you listed, you know, the adaptation and the different asset categories and referenced the table and carp. So these were some of the the areas that needed work. So the veterans card, we've funded that in the last budget or in this upcoming budget, right? Yes. Veteran's Court. So again, for each of the 11 locations, there's near mid and long term strategies that are presented. So that which was funded or partially funded is the near term, which is the raising of the road at Veterans Court. Okay. And then I'm not going to get ahead of ourselves, but we have the storm. And then tonight before you was funding of which is another. One of the 11 items is funding of the storm capacity upgrades. Okay. So we're, you know, again, not getting ahead of ourselves, but we've already started. Yes. On at least two of the yes priority areas. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Okay. We're ready to a comment. Okay. So we have eight speakers. So that means 2 minutes apiece? Correct. Okay. So when you hear your name called because they didn't close in, call a few at a time, just be ready to scoot out to the aisle and we'll keep things moving along. Okay. So the first three are. Mia Ketterer, Kelly Malinowski, Pat Potter. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor and council members. I am a caterer from Stop Waste. We are the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, Source Reduction, Recycling Board and Energy Council. We have programs that align with the Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, and our board's recently adopted priorities that specifically focus on climate protection. We've been helping Alameda County jurisdictions with Climate Action Planning since 2008 and have been reviewing the recent updates of plans. So our perspective is informed by that, and we want to commend you for reaching this point. If anything, we've seen the climate action planning process is not easy or simple. So thank you for your leadership. You are one of the first cities in Alameda County to get to the post 2020 Climate Action Action Planning Outcomes. We support your 50% reduction target for 2030. It is in alignment with other Alameda County jurisdictions and is in the more ambitious half of those jurisdictions. We applaud the inclusion specifically of consumption based emissions, which really are all of the global emissions related to the things that we consume from our Waste Management Authority perspective. This is really important and it also empowers residents to do more to affect climate change globally. It also promises more accessible and equitable solutions than many of the traditional climate action strategies. We also support key strategies that are in the Climate Action Plan and Resiliency Plan that align with our board priorities, specifically each one electrifying existing buildings. That is a critical piece to reaching deep decarbonization in the building sector and aligns with our Energy Council priorities and S-1 sequestration, which uses compost in the most climate beneficial way. So again, we thank you. And we we look forward to working with you and supporting you in the implementation of this ambitious plan. Thank you very much. Next is Kelly and then Pat Potter and then Damien Mason. Hey, wait until you're ready. Good evening, Madam Chair. And members of the board. My name is Kalman Koski. I'm from the California State Coastal Conservancy, non regulatory grantmaking state agency. Climate change is already having significant and widespread impacts on California's economy and environment, and local governments have an important role to play to reduce emissions. And you're also at the forefront of efforts to adapt to the ongoing anticipated effects of climate change. In 2007, we incorporated our climate change considerations into our strategic planning. 2009 we adopted a policy. 2012 The Governor empowered us with specific legislation to plan for and adapt to the impacts of climate. And that's when we launched our climate ready program. We have since funded 57 climate projects across the state to the tune of 10.7 million. But we like to say we've been doing adaptation since the seventies with wetland restoration and the San Francisco Bay. We have studied and supported this countywide sea level rise assessments from Marin County, San Mateo County. We worked with Alameda County. We've done assessments that Crissy Field, SFO, and most recently we've enjoyed working with Liam and Patrick and our staff in the city of Alameda to review and provide input and the caap and and most jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay have just done seal rise vulnerability assessments and they're kind of transitioning to look at other hazards, transitioning to look at adaptation strategies. So in this way, the city of Alameda is in a leader. You guys are kind of ahead of the game, including those 11 priority areas for sea level rise and including specific adaptation strategies. You guys are really leading the charge, so congratulations. Thank you so much for being so forward thinking and innovative and we really appreciate you guys kind of taking the lead in the region and we're looking forward to working together with you to implement these strategies. As we are a natural resources agency, we always have a preference for the nature based green staff. But here to support you as a partner. And thank you so much for your leadership. Thank you so much for coming. And while there is a lot to commend in what we're hearing, we do have this rule that we don't do applause or any other sort of interruptions, just keep things moving along. So I know it's tempting. So, Pat Potter. Good evening. Bicycling and walking are the only forms of transportation that do not pollute. And so I feel it is important to emphasize these forms of transportation in the pursuit of our emissions reduction goals. Carp strategy to convert drivers from fossil fueled cars to electric cars, resulting in 12% of Alameda in driving EVs in ten years. Our real goal should be to get 40% more Alameda biking and walking. To do this, start with replicating Karp's Electric Vehicle Promotion Campaign found on page 30. Implement communications and outreach activities to promote the acquisition of bicycles. Promote a retail price rebate for each new bicycle offered. Discounts at shops and restaurants for people who ride their bikes to them. There are 10,000 kilometers who cannot drive a car but who can bike and walk. We should be supporting those people by providing safe, protected bike lanes throughout the island and by helping them develop good biking skills. If we do, by the time we reach our targeted emission reduction goal in ten years, these alamy and the ones who come after them will more likely ride a bike around the island than want to buy an electric car. What else will get 40% of all means on to bikes? Adequately fund bike racks in all locations where people gather. Promote shared vehicle programs for bikes. Electric bikes and electric scooters. Transform some car parking spaces into bike and scooter parking spaces. Prioritize building the bicycle pedestrian bridge across the street where between West Alameda and Oakland, where there is a glaring gap in the bike network. In order to accomplish what Karp is setting out. We need to look through the lens of a city like Amsterdam, where 58% of the population over 12 rides a bicycle. I thought I had 3 minutes. I had it down. And you did? You did well, but I'll. Mail it to you. Okay? Oh, okay. Oh, there is more. Okay. We have Damian Mason, Elizabeth Green, then William Smith. Good evening, council and members of city staff. I'm Damian Mason, Almaty, native member of Community Action for Sustainable Alameda and co-founder of the Climate Restoration Circle of San Francisco Bay. I want to thank everyone who's worked so hard on this plan and encouraged City Council to adopt and implement it. We must imagine, embrace and build new pathways to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. In so doing, will help to grow a better future for us all. Alameda imparts almost everything off island. This is a quote from the executive summary. And our consumption based emissions from the goods and services we buy are much higher per person than our production based emissions. This means consumption based emissions create one of the best opportunities for Alameda to make a difference in our carbon footprint. One key to this is local production and local consumption, starting with our food. This would be a big step to reduce our city's consumption based carbon footprint toward our new climate emergency goal of zero emissions. Repair, reuse and buying local durable goods are good steps. But I find reducing food waste feeding our kitchen my kitchen scraps to my worm bin. Folks that have built compost bins, chicken coops, beehives planted fruit trees and raised beds for organic gardening are some of the most exciting ways we can all make a big impact. The city of Alameda can boost these efforts by turning all of our public parks and city open spaces into maximum carbon sinks with pulse grazing livestock instead of gas mowers and leaf blowers. We can integrate regenerative garden living soil labs into all of our K-through-12 schools. We can integrate regenerative oh, sorry. We can plant a ten or more acres of food forest along the Cross Alameda Trail, currently in construction or at the College of Alameda and install climate victory community gardens with surplus food so much. That's great. Elizabeth. You can give it to the Smith and Mark Perlin. Good evening. Yes, my name is Elizabeth Green. I'm an architectural historian, retired from the state of California. I submitted this comment online in May. But I regarding this issue that I'll talk about in the Karp Report, but I haven't seen it addressed online in any of the comments or documents. So I want to draw your attention to a problem that's hidden in the fine print of Chapter three, page 36. Table three, dash six. It's called new GHG emissions reduction actions for energy use in the building sector. It has a supplemental actions box at the bottom of the table and in the supplemental actions box. The second bulleted item reads Draft Zoning Code Amendment to facilitate facility reduction in energy use by exempting energy efficient windows and doors from the design review process. I can find no explanation or justification for this action in the report. The proposal to exempt energy efficient Windows and doors from Design Review is inconsistent with Alamitos Municipal Code. This long standing city policy already allows exemption from design review for windows and doors, not on a front or street side elevation, which don't alter the character defining features of the building and which are a good visual match for the original item being replaced. However, to completely exempt all energy efficient windows and doors from any design review could result in alterations which would damage the architectural integrity of almeida's beloved historic buildings and neighborhoods. Furthermore, energy efficient windows and doors are readily available on the market in dimensions, proportions, details and styles that are compatible with the original styles of Almeida's historic buildings. So that compliance with design review is within reach of homeowners. Title 24 already requires that Windows and doors be an energy efficient. It's difficult to comprehend the reason for this action. Thank you so. Much. I also request that you revise the mitigations subject. I don't know. I don't know. Mayor Ashcraft and members of the council and staff. I'm William Smith, speaking to you tonight on behalf of the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club commends you and the city of Alamitos Green Working Team, Task Force and Staff for producing a comprehensive and innovative Climate Action and Resiliency Plan Corp. to build a climate safe path for the City of Alameda. We also commend the Alameda community for strong engagement in development of the plan. We urge you to approve the Climate Action Resiliency Plan, see and enthusiastically support the timely implementation. The CAAP is a state of the art plan that includes many innovative, impactful and equitable actions that are important for the future of Alameda and set a high bar for other communities to emulate. We strongly support the consideration for equity and vulnerable populations expressed throughout the plan. In particular, an overarching commitment to social equity as a guiding principle. And including anti displacement as a key change. Key climate change land use principle la carte proposes numerous actions to implement the above elements that will benefit vulnerable populations with respect to addressing the future flooding in Alameda. If natural adaptation and other actions recommended in the caap prove inadequate, we respectfully suggest that Alameda also consider relocating structures and or abandonment of development through strategies commonly referred to as managed retreat. These strategies support a redevelopment pattern and realignment of development along coasts. So natural erosion and other coastal processes, including beach formation and habitat formation, can continue. The Sierra Club is committed to helping the city of Alameda build on this leading position and looks forward to supporting implementation in the coming years. Thank you. Mark Perlin and Ruth Abbe. Good. Late afternoon, everyone. My name is Mark Furlan. I'm representing the climate restoration circle. Thank you there. And Aaron Smith used the term mode shift. And as a alum of Alameda High, which I represent on my t shirt and like Damien mason, Amelia Earhart, there needs to be a mode shift. And yeah, I'm in support of the plan. But yeah, there's a site known as Doolittle Drive in the name of Jimmy Doolittle, which I always felt was really ironic because Jimmy Doolittle did so much. And that's kind of the mode shift connection I want to make between what's taken place here. Tolls on the Webster Tube Bridge. We get our tunnel. We need to think about really mode shifting and doing something more proactive instead of monetizing, you know, the the what's going on here. It's that Alameda is in a unique position. We have a lot to be fortunate for and we need to ask more of all of y'all. I'd like to see all tape and notes at these meetings. I take notes when I speak and about topics involving the climate because I'm so fiercely passionate about implementation. So I'll leave you with two points of implementation. Every parking lot in Alameda that has ten or more spots must have electric vehicle charging. So LNG needs to go. Electric vehicles need to come in. They don't have to be infrastructure connected. You can be off grid and I'll yield the rest of my time to the board who I'm sure would like to speak more. Thank you so much. Okay. I mean, you do have 30 more seconds, but as you wish. Are there any urgent questions? This is actually public speaking as opposed to Q&A, but thank you from a fellow Hornet. Okay. Yeah, thanks. Thank you. All right. And then that would be Ruth. Abby next. Uh, good evening, Ruth. Abby from Community Action for Sustainable Alameda CASA was actually formed as a partnership with the city and the community to put the community action into the city's climate goals. And for the last ten years, we've been a partner with the city Alameda Municipal Power and Alameda Unified School District in implementing the goals of the city's Climate Action Plan. We have been very closely involved with the city. In the end, the development of the new Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, and we wholeheartedly recommend adoption of this plan. In activist circles, we. Say that we are always satisfied, always happy, never satisfied. We are very happy with this plan. We are not satisfied. But that's because there will be more planning coming up. There will be an annual process for updating of the plan and to reach the goals of the city's climate emergency declaration. Very specifically, there will be a climate, there will be an active transportation plan that's on your agenda tonight, which we're extremely. Excited about and we are. Very excited about the update to the city's street tree plan, which we believe should be a urban forestry plan. So we will be partners with the city in the development of those plans and work closely with you and your staff in the development of those plans. We wholeheartedly recommend moving forward with this plan. It is very comprehensive, excellent, groundbreaking, new, and you should be very proud of your city, your staff and your community for getting behind these initiatives. Thank you. Then you speakers are doing a great job. Do we. Have them? And that was our last speaker. Okay. Well, I'm going to open it up for a council discussion, but I just want to start by saying a huge thank you, especially to you pioneers. Ruth Abby, who just spoke, was one of them for years. And I don't see Debbie Ryan in the audience, but we do allow people to take vacations in the summer. But we really are a better city and able to make the kind of progress we're making because we have some excellent, dedicated staff, but we also have some amazingly talented, impressive members of the community who all just spoke . And I'm just always so grateful that you take your time to attend these meetings, organize events. I if I'm ever leaving my office late on the evening that Cossa meets, I look into the room and you've got, you know, 25 people around that table and I mean month after month and this has been going on for years . So thank you all for helping make us a better, more resilient city. So with that, who would like to start off with comments? Um, is it, is, is the baby at a good place where you want to speak or you want to not disturb him? Okay, you wait. Let's start. Okay. So, Councilman Brody. Thanks. I'll start then. First of all, I want to echo the mayor's comments she just made and give a great debt of thanks and appreciation to everyone who worked so hard on this. I would have to agree with with Liam in your opening remarks. It's rare to give one minus suggestion, but I'll get to that. You know, also give a shout out to COSLA for all their work. And they were the impetus, if I remember correctly, for actually accelerating this. We had had this on our plan to do I think starting now. And thanks to referral by my former colleague Mr. Matarese and CASA's leadership, we were able to get this done early and you know, it's really not early because, you know, we're on the front lines of climate change, so it's kind of late, but you know, it's early according to the plan. So, you know, the one overarching comment I would want to say is, you know, let's not make let's make sure we don't put this on the shelf and let it sit like other plans we've done. So we need to implement this and we and we need to prioritize it. So funding is always going to be an issue for me. So I'm particularly curious on the different ways that we can find to fund this, and I really appreciate it has, as Mr. Smith mentioned, you know, the equity component that's running throughout throughout the Climate Action Plan. So I really appreciated that because that's a priority of mine. So just going through really quickly, you know, on the greenhouse gas thing, I mean, the composting, I don't know if anyone many people have heard of the the Marin Carbon Project and I saw Mia there. You know, I'm on the subway support and we're really proud and excited about about what benefits come from composting on a large scale. I mean, just mind boggling the benefits that that, you know, major composting has. And, you know, we look at our parks and all of them are grass. And so maybe it's time we start thinking about doing other ways of parks, you know, composting and things like that. When we talk about electronic vehicles, you know, I think Pat Potter made made the point, you know, it's not just changing to electric vehicles. We actually have to reduce the amount of cars on our street. So I think that was the the goal of our transportation plan. You know, one, reducing trips, you know, in to reducing emissions. So let's not lose sight of the the reducing trips. So whether it's doing things for bicycles or finding ways to incentivize people to get out of their cars, I think that's something we need to make sure we prioritize. You know, buildings are probably the biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions. So Berkeley just did their, you know, all new construction is electric. So I think that's that's something good that we need to we need to think about. On adapting. Oh, also, you know, a lot of times when we have plans and, you know, we focus on parking. So if you build parking, people are going to drive. If you don't build parking, people are going to find other ways to get there. So I think we need to deemphasize parking, you know, when we we put together these these major projects and these plans. So that's something I think I've mentioned before. So on adapting like I ask the question and thanks Heron for asking. You know, some of these projects are underway. The Veterans Court, you know hopefully will do make a decision on the storm storm water situation today. We have an infrastructure bond which I'm sure will come back. I've said all along, I think that the entire infrastructure bond should be devoted to sea level rise because we're really going to have a hard time finding a way to pay for it. And, you know, to me, it's more important that we deal with this issue than some of the other things that that we've talked about in the infrastructure cost, the funding plan, this climate fund. I'm interested to learn more about the Climate Fund proposal that was in there. And my one thing I would add, and I've kind of been harping on this for five years, you know, wetlands mitigation bank, I mean, that's a way to restore wetlands and at the same time generate revenue that we can use to pay for some of these these projects. So I know we put that in our toolbox not to look at it and, you know, not not to not to implement it, but just to keep it there. I think we need to move it more to the forefront, especially, you know, seeing the cost that we have. And then on the implementation, again, you know, let's not put it on the shelf and let it sit there. We need to work on that. And our council, I think, took a great step under the vice mayor's leadership to declare a climate emergency. So I think it's incumbent on all of us to make sure that we do keep this front and center and that we do focus on this. We don't let it sit on the shelf. And it's up to you to hold us accountable and make sure that we do so. Thanks very much for everyone in the community and on staff for all their hard work. Oh, sure. Thank you, Councilman Brody, Councilman de SAG. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate the effort put towards this. What I like most, especially about the Climate Action Plan before us, is the section having to do with building resilience, dealing with the particularly the goals having to deal with a sea level rise and the flood flooding, inland flooding. Also the different goals having to do with the excessive. Things like that. What I am concerned about, though, is the part the part on the GHG emissions, particularly as it relates to the tolls and also as it relates to basically undoing Measure A, which the people of Alameda had put together with regard to the tolls. If the if the intention of the tolls on on Webster the posi tube is to encourage people to do electric vehicles. It seems to me that several trends are emerging and they're emerging faster than we think. And the trains have to do with more people taking either electric vehicles, more people not owning cars anymore. And so more people ride, share, car sharing. So the notion of having to do a tolls in order to do to negatively affect behavior, I think that's pretty heavy handed on the part of City Hall, quite frankly. So I don't support tolls. I don't support the congestion pricing. And I'm very concerned about the effort to undermine Measure A if you're going to undermine measure, then you need to be clear what measure is what the history of it is, how it's been protecting our neighborhoods. And you can't just, you know, use this this emergency in order to undo it. You can certainly encourage, if you howsoever you want, encourage it. But you have to give a full picture of what Measure A is all about. So I and I didn't see that full picture when, when it came to the discussion on the GST discussion. So I like the part about the building resilience. I'm very concerned about the part about GHG emissions, particularly as it relates to the tolls and as it relates to Measure A, I think the point raised by the resident Elizabeth Green is an important point. There are historic buildings that you can't just, you know, willy nilly decide to put the wrong kind of windows and change the rules to to facilitate that. I think we have to respect the fact that we have an architectural history in the city of Alameda. At the end of the day, this, after all, is still the city of homes and beaches. So so I have problems with one part. I like the other part. And if I may ask, just by way of discussion, can you count some everyday? So help us understand what you mean by this attempt to undermine misery using the climate emergency. Yeah, it's right here. These talks about. Building more. On land on chapter three, page 32, we talked about creating higher and higher density, the need to change zoning to allow it's right there at the first bullet point changed zoning to allow more multi-family use. Also we found loose if you want to if you want to do that, then you have to be explicit. All I'm saying is be explicit and talk about that. You have to undo a measure. You have to undo the the number of units that are allowed on on a parcel. And you also have to undo measure as a result, as it relates to accessory dwelling units, you can't just you know, and I think that that this needs to speak. If you're going to if you want to undo measure eight, then you need to talk about it in a clear way so that the people know and they can make their decision based on eyes wide open. Okay. Thank you. Vice Mayor, ready to go next? Sure. Thank you. So I'd like to start by giving my strong appreciation to our staff for when I was glad to hear from one of our not partners, but somebody who's been working with you calling me innovative and forward thinking and probably one of the most forward thinking plans in the Bay Area. I agree. I was proud to tell some people I work with about it the other day and they were all quite impressed with the work that you guys have all done. And it ultimately we have a fantastic community and whatever else but that the city team that has worked hard to put together this document really deserves a lot of credit. So I want to make sure that that's very clear. I'll tell the story. I think I may have told it here before when I was on the planning board and the first ship that Liam was asked to bring forward for approval came forward after he became acting public works director came forward and had a climate action section in it. And in that in that document, it literally stated that the city's climate policy was that this is a regional issue. There's nothing the city can do about it. And so we're not going to do anything. I called them and I was like, Hey, this seems a little funny. We live in a region we need to plug in, we need to do some things. And he said, You know, I missed that. Somebody else wrote this document before I became the acting public works director and literally changed it right there. And by the time we got to the planning board a week later, that had been erased. And I think it was a change in direction for the city that really let this here. I want to be clear, the change is staff's willingness to engage and understand this issue and actually see it as something that was important, needed to be spent time and fine to grant funding to do so much appreciation. I mean, unless I hear some significant changes being proposed in this document tonight, I almost wonder why we wouldn't be approving this rather than just giving comments and asking for it to come back in September. I have a couple of comments. I think they can be addressed even after approval. I would like to see the Climate Emergency Declaration added to this document. I think when we approve the climate declaration, we actually approved it with the idea that it was supposed to be more or less the preamble to this document, setting up the the overall, why are we doing this? And so that was kind of the commitment we made to the community as well. How are we doing this? How does it all fit in? Don't worry, this will be the preamble to that document. So I'd like to see that right at the beginning before after the acknowledgments is fine. I think we can be a little clearer in the document. Again, these are just small changes. But regarding the timeline for 36 inches of sea level rise, our city address addresses sea level rise in a lot of different places with a lot of different numbers. And so the timeframe really matters. And at least in the version which I read, the original public version, the revised version. So if it if it did get changed, I apologize. I didn't see it. It was not it never said actually 36 inches of sea level rise by such and such a date just kept using 36. And I think we should be clear about that. I really appreciate it. So this is going to be a multipronged point, but I really appreciate all the language in this that does address the importance of mode shift and the kind of prioritizing of mode shift over electrification of our transportation system. It says that electrification is important and we have to do it to get there. But that I mean, you know, CARB, the state already recognizes that we're going to need to see a 15 to 25% reduction in VMT in order to meet our climate goals over and above electrification for electrification of the transportation system. And so I think that's really important. One place and I've raised this with staff, there are some staffing costs in here that identify about four FTE is towards electrifying our vehicles, incentivizing, building the infrastructure, etc. for EVs. I'm not arguing with that. But to the point that one of our speakers made earlier, I think there was an assumption that the transportation choices plan kind of dealt with that in its other place. If the idea is that the Transportation Choices plan actually identifies new positions to make sure that we are going above and beyond the work that our current staff can do, I think we and I'm pretty confident it doesn't and I see Andrew Thomas's head shaking. I do think we need to think about whether or not we are being actually as aggressive, if we are not staffing up our transportation team to match the work that needs to be done, whether or not we're being as aggressive actually in intention with. The multi-modal work. I understand that that this is this is I really appreciate the hey, it's going to take staff to do this work and this is how much and that was the intent it wasn't day you know, just hire these four people and we're done. But I would like to see somewhere where instead of it's saying not applicable to the transportation choices stuff in here related to staffing that it might actually identify the staffing we need to really get the work done. I really I'm excited about the groundwater study. I actually feel like that's another thing that we are we need to do but is going to be groundbreaking and also really important in helping us think about how we mitigate long term. And I really want to I want to appreciate that it's in there. Just make sure that it's something that comes forward pretty, pretty quick and pretty soon because it could change the way that we're thinking about long term mitigation. Great point about the drought and its connections through East Bay mud to our water use and etc.. I would like to see if we can sometime along the next six months or whatever else, talk about some policy encouragement that the Council could send to East Bay mud whereby their pricing is better, incentivizing reduction of reduced water and not overly supporting east of the hills water users who use 2 to 3 times as much water and pay very little for the extra water they're using that here. It's a very difficult policy balance. I'm not saying it's easy and we may not be able to find that, but I'd like to see if there's a way for us to include that. I'd like to I just wanted to kind of acknowledge the maps are really useful and helpful. You know, we get asked or I get asked at least a lot why are we creating development in places that are very likely to be some of the first places submerged in the problem are not the problem. But the fact of the matter is, is that on the other side of those developments that are typically houses that are not currently protected are also going to be submerged. And if we develop correctly and provide the mitigations necessary, we are actually not just mitigating for new development, but we're using that new development to incentivize and finance the protections for those existing residents in a way that the city would have to pay for if we aren't doing that. And I think the maps really help with that comment. I, I had a different take on the housing actions section. I appreciate that it says we should consider things. I don't think it says we should just ignore the charter, etc.. I'd like to see a policy though. I think it does a great job of talking about the importance of land use and housing as it relates to climate. I would like to see us add a policy that says that, you know, we should adopt a new general plan amendment as it relates to land use and zoning obviously will go through our planning board, etc.. Two other quick places I there are a number of places in which there is talk about rezoning property or creating tidelands neighborhoods, etc., where we are literally starting to talk about very small sections of the island whereby people who own and live in that housing may be asked to either give it up or change the nature of the housing. And I just want to be careful that we don't get too far where we start impacting the property values of the land that is owned by those people without having really engaged them in a conversation about what it's going to take to protect that value and also give them an opportunity to participate in the discussion because it's real and that devaluing is going to come if we don't do something. But I just want to be you know, I think the plan walks carefully, but I think that now that it's starting to put these things in actions, we need to start engaging those people really, really soon about kind of what does this all mean as we start moving forward in time? I'm out of time, so I'll stop there. But I'm happy to support this if somebody makes that motion. Okay. But we have another councilmember and another councilmember in the mayor to briefly speak. I mean, I'm going to speak before you may speak as long as you want it, Councilmember Bella. So thank you again, everyone who worked on this. I think that this was a tremendous undertaking and it shows that when we work together we get great work product. So a few comments in addition to the note about updating our fleet and electrifying it, I would also like some sort of notation or look at fleet reduction where possible. I think that it's not enough just to electrify, but I think we also need to really revisit how much of our fleet is necessary. And that's something that I think would be a cost savings, but also potentially a benefit, obviously, to the environment with regards to the traffic signals. Translation, if we could indicate I'm assuming that these and I think we've we've spoken about this these are Alameda traffic signals. But if if there's a possibility of also and I know we have continued to talk to Oakland about their signals but that that also be a part of this and that we note that there because I think it's important we have to work with them too. And there's significant issues with some of their signals. First and last mile modes of transit. I know we're still unfortunately lime bike is now just lime scooter. That said, I think having those connectors where AC transit and the ferry to connect those to where we have gaps and to give an update on that and to note that in here, I think that's important. I don't know what we're doing. I know we have staff working on it, but I think including that in this is would be helpful in terms of where we're at. And then if I could just suggest that we add an appendix and that would be and to update this, this is a living document as much as it is a kind of it's a starting point, really. But to add an appendix every year when we do our budgets and when we revisit the mid-year budget cycle to include our expenditures to date towards this plan, and I know that we've been noting it, but I think adding it to this actual document will help keep us accountable as well as give us an accounting and the community and accounting in terms of seeing what portions of this plan we've moved on, where we made those expenditures, what funds we got them from. And I think that that's just a helpful kind of year to year feedback that we can be looking at both staff and council as well as the public. But I'm ready to support this tonight. And I know that, you know, there's there's different provisions in there that that might read differently. I think our intent, at least, has really been to move forward on this and to streamline different policies and procedures within the city so that we can actually be effective at achieving these goals. So thank you very much. And I'm ready to support this tonight. Okay. Well, I don't want to stand in the way, but very briefly, again, thank you to all the participants. And I was thinking back in the early days of CASA. It's hard to believe now, but in the Alameda Unified School District, our schools didn't even have recycling bins and receptacles where the students and faculty and staff could sort their their trash and and cancer came in. I think the city helped and communicated with the school district. And now the kids are some of our strongest advocates. I don't think you have to look very far back in time to see that climate change is real. I mean, if you've been following the news out of Louisiana and New Orleans and some of the other cities in the last week, that they're both undergoing heavy rains and some flooding and just unusual amounts of rain that have are saturating the the groundwater, the water table. There was just a report that came out today that Northern California by mid-century and we're almost at 2020, but my mid-century, our climates will be our temperatures will be sometimes ten degrees higher for months at a time because of climate change. And so climate is changing and we have to change to and I, I understand Councilmember de your sensitivity about measuring. I'm also mindful that there is a charter revision subcommittee that you're a member of. And, you know, maybe it is something that that comes back to the to the voters because we can't presume to keep doing business as usual. Well, there was even a there's even a chart that shows us what the business as usual model looks like. And it's it's it's frightening. So I think we all have to do some mode shifting. But so with that, I, I love everything about this and I'm also very proud of our city staff and our, our community partners for all the accolades that you got for this plan. Now, help me understand, we are asked to schedule final climate action for this for September three. Is there is there a reading is a reason that we have to wait that long. Essentially, there's some sequence noticing that we can do between now and then, September 3rd, which will enable adoption to be possible on September 3rd. All right. Well, does someone want to make that motion to bring the let's see how to state it. But are you just chomping at the bit there? I can sense that. Okay. So do you. So we're here. I'm here to hold a preliminary public hearing. We have held on this plan. This draft plan in depth. Draft. Mitigated negative declarations, schedule the final council action for September 3rd, which like to make a motion to that effect. Mr. Vice. Mayor. Yes, with. With the. Edition of the comments that were made tonight. And also the city manager recommendations. Do you have those bullets up in front of you? The okay. The city manager seeks the city council input of any possible changes. We've done that and then work on first year milestones and work on elements of climate change outlined in the adopted budget. So that would all be rolled into your motion, would it? Yes. Great. Do we have a second? Second? Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor. I any oppose. Oppose. One opposed. Any abstentions. All right. This item carries 4 to 1. Thank you, everyone. Okay, now we are going to move quickly on. We're still within our time frame. We have one more item item to be in, I believe our city attorney, even Chen is presenting that. A very short staff report, Carol, mayor and council. This item seeks authorization from the Council for the City Attorney's Office to sign on to amicus briefs that are requested of the city. Those briefs come at irregular times with very limited free notice, which makes it difficult for our office to seek specific council authorization in the two meeting timeframe. So what we're proposing tonight is that Council authorize our office to sign on whenever doing so would be consistent with an official position that the Council has already taken. If that is not possible, we will still seek to bring all items that do not fall into that category to the Council and close session for discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chan. I understand we have one public speaker on this item. We do. It's former Mayor Spencer. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak on this evening. Council Staff. I wanted to as much as this proposal may seem like it's not a big deal, I think it actually is a big deal. I think it gives a lot of power to the city attorney's office that we as a council in the past may not have supported every the wording of a policy that we already adopted. And if you looked at the example, it spoke to Airbnb and that it falls under the policy of wanting local control. So as long so that was the policy, this council has not made any decisions on Airbnb. However, yes, we usually support local control. However, we don't always and I'm going to bring your attention to SB 649 when that came to us. As much as the league had wanted us to support local control, and I think as a majority we did in regards to not having the state determine where the cell phone antennas could be. We did have, I believe, at least one council member that either abstained or opposed that issue when it came to us, so that the policy that the city. Attorney is speaking. To of wanting local control under that very, very broad policy. Any amicus brief that comes to them, unbeknownst to counsel, they're asking to have permission to weigh in on. And as much as it takes time to have it go to council. There are ways to expedite it and not have our city attorney's office making decisions, weighing in on issues that you as a council have never weighed in on. And if it comes to you, you might actually say, no, I don't support that. Yes, generally we support the principle, however, not always specifically. And I actually so I so that's why I wanted to make sure you all are understanding what the city attorney's office is actually asking. That is a lot of authority that you would be giving to the city attorney's office that they've never had before to weigh in on specific policy issues, submitting briefs on behalf of you all, on issues that in fact have never even ever come to council. So I hope that you will keep the power with the council, figure out a way to have the city attorney bring it in an expedited manner. But I think it's very important that you protect your own authority and not end up having the city attorney making decisions for you. And that's the best example I could find recently was SB 649. Thank you. All right. Do we have any council comment? Are we ready? Councilmember Dave said, please. So my reading of of the staff report was that you're seeking the ability to join in this what's called an amicus brief with regard to basically platforms through which entities rent out short term rentals. The issue with regard to local control on this particular matter has to do with local governments throughout California. Want to be able to regulate those platforms because otherwise those platforms could conceivably rent out Airbnbs or VR blogs that are not up to snuff or code. So that's why we need to exercise local control. Councilmember Dysart That's exactly right. And it has to do with this particular issue. It's not like we're not giving you like this license to do anything about local control. It's just, you know, having to do with no. And with respect to other action items that the Council may have already taken a vote on an official position on. Okay. So let me just and by saying I appreciate former mayor trespass for taking the time to come out and and voice our opinion. But I'm satisfied with the with the staff report that was presented with and I believe that that we're moving in the right direction. Thanks, Councilmember Desert Councilman Brody. I'll be brief. I think this is a great idea or situation just like now. And we don't have time to agenda something. Hopefully that's part of the process. You know, when you actually sign on, maybe in the next meeting, you know, give us a copy of the brief as an informational item on the on on the staff report. But I'm ready to move approval of this item. Is that a motion? Yes, it is. Do I have a second? All right. It's been moved by Councilmember Ody, seconded by Councilmember de SAG, all in favor, by any opposed abstentions. The measure passes unanimously. Good work, counsel. All right. So we got the motion, and we are going to start our council meeting at seven or just a couple of minutes after seven, because I'm going to give this council that's been going since 5:00 a quick break. So. Well, everybody promised to be back by five after seven. Yes, that's an 11 minute break. Okay. We're starting at 507705. Do you think I need a break? Okay, you. Oh. Are you okay? Hello? He's at work. Okay. Audience and staff. Is the microphone. Why is. Hello? Okay. I guess there's Tony Johnson in the back. Okay, we are starting the meeting. Could everyone please take your seats? Everyone means everyone. Please sit down. Now, if you are sitting next to an empty chair, would you raise your hand so we can get people out of the aisles? People standing up in the sides. Please go sit where there is an empty chair. We will keep the fire marshal happier that way. Oh, and there's also overflow seating in room 360, which is just outside the elevator. Okay, again, if you have an empty chair next to you, raise your hand. How did you know that? Okay. People along the wall, there's empty seats. Okay. It's 7.5. We are resuming. Thanks, everyone. All right, so where are we, Madam Clerk? 659 APF a meeting that just has two consent items. Yes. Where we are. Okay. So this is the the special meeting of the Alameda Public Financing Authority. Roll call vote has been notified present. All right. And then the concert calendar. We have no speakers. Okay. Do I have a motion of approval? The consent counter. Second, I have a motion. The second for the AP consent calendar. All in favor, I. Okay. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries unanimously. Okay. Now we move to the regular city council meeting of the city of our city council. This is Tuesday, July 16, 2019. Hello, everyone. It's always nice to see a big crowd and we are going to get started. And also I'm just going to lay out a few ground rules because we do have such a robust crowd tonight. I ask that we simply listen to our speakers. You will if you're a speaker, you'll know that you either have 2 minutes or 3 minutes, depending on how many speakers I ask to not have any applause, booing, doing the wave, because we just want to get everybody to be heard. The Council to deliberate. I always say my goal is to start and finish a meeting in the same day. And so with that we are going to get started. So Roca. Real cause the notice five present. Okay agenda changes. I have an item I need to I'd like to pull from the consent calendar. Is this the time to do so? You can if you want to. We also are subject items either way. Okay. Okay. Well, let me just say that I would like to have pulled from the consent calendar item five P, that's P isn't Peter. And we have speakers on RN and. Oh, okay, so we're in P. Okay. I would like to. Put 5ff. As in frame. Okay. And I would like to poll five C. Okay. So we're pulling five C, five F Mr. Customer days. What are you guy. 050 but that's pulled. That's already pulled. Council member How about you?