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2019-06-06 Citizens Climate Protectioin Committee MiCitizens Committee on US Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement Mission: 1. Encourage citizens to be a part of the solution 2. Encourage City staff and citizens to conserve current resources 3. Work with the City Council to implement ideas 4. Effectively address the future impacts of climate change DRAFT Climate Protection Committee (CPC) June 6, 2019 - Meeting Minutes In Attendance: Cynthia Pruitt, Mark Johnson (Consultant), Steve Fisher, Jenna Nand, Janice Freeman, Nancy Fleck, Lisa Conley, David Schaefer, Shane Hope Opening: The regular meeting of the CPC was called to order at 8:45 am on June 6, 2019 in the Fortner Conference Room of City Hall by Cynthia Pruitt. Introductions & Minutes: Committee members signed in and stated their two word goal for attending. A motion was made and seconded to approve the May 3rd minutes. The committee approved the minutes. GHG Reduction Tool (the Tool) by Mark Johnson, consultant with ESA MARK: We want to spend about 5 minutes on each line item metric so we have a chance to review all the items. The committee recommendations for each metric is listed on the slides (Hank Landau, Lisa Herb and Cynthia Pruitt all making recommendations and comments.) SHANE:Our recommendations will be presented to the City Council in July depending upon the Council's schedule. MARK: Be sure to get a copy of the background handouts provided. 1) Edmonds 2050 Forecasted Emissions (MT CO2e) AKA "The Donut" shows emissions if we continue on a path of business as usual. 2) 2050 BAU Emissions (ranked largest to smallest) They should be helpful in discussing the metrics. Remember by reducing the largest GHG contributors we will provide the biggest impact. These ten areas should be the easiest to influence and give us the greatest impact. However there are many other factors out there that will be address in other ways. For example the new state laws with respect to reducing GHG caused by electricity. MARK: As we review these areas consider: How aggressively do we want to try to achieve results? Our ten areas of focus follow: TR-1 ADDITIONAL COMMERCIAL AND MULTI -FAMILY UNITS AT CENTERS - Reduce vehicle miles travelled (VM7) through more sustainable land use patterns. CYNTHIA: I am a skeptic when it comes to this area because there was so much community push -back with respect to adding more affordable housing. JENNA: The stigma was with adding low income housing not simply adding more multi -family housing per -say. MARK: If we set a goal of 2100 units by 2035 that is less than 2 buildings per year. CYNTHIA: Two buildings a year is a good visual for carrying this message to the Council. DAVID: Does that square with the GMA population gain? SHANE: The GMA targets cover single-family and multi -family. We are focuses simply on growth of multi -family units in just the areas identified as commercial centers in the city. MARK: We are focused on 4 centers in the City zoned commercial/multi-family. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a goal of 2100 units by 2035. TR-2 PERCENT OF COMMUTERS USING TRANSIT - Reduce VMT by improving transit systems. (i.e., get people to use transit more). MARK: Increasing transit ridership by 20% is an aggressive goal. SHANE: This goal can be easily reached with a shuttle from Edmonds to the new light rail station. CTE is committed to making connections easier from Edmonds. Mark: In the comments section, you see that Hank feels we should be doing better than 20%. LISA C.: Is there a visual for this item as well? MARK: The light rail is the visual. CYNTHIA: A goal of having each resident add 1 trip a week via transit seems reachable. It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a goal of 20% ridership by 2035. TR-3 PERCENT OF COMMUTERS WALKING OR BIKING TO WORK - Reduce VMT by promoting active transportation (i.e., bike riding and walking). MARK: The City currently has 5% of the population riding/walking to work. Our goal is to double it to 10%. CYNTHIA: I believe people like Hank who do this are passionate about it and will make sacrifices to reach this goal; so we should push the goal to 12%. JENNA: I think weather and hills play a big factor for people to actually walk or bike. SHANE: We need to look at this as some or most days, people would walk or bike. It wouldn't be an everyday goal. DAVID: What employment growth; how will it affect the goal? SHANE: I feel we can easily meet our employment growth. We surpassed our last employment growth goals. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a goal of 12% by 2050. TR-4 PERCENT OF COMMUTERS CARPOOLING AND/OR USING AN ALTERNATE WORK WEEK - Reduce VMT by promoting carpooling and vehicle sharing. MARK: Statistically 20% of the City's population uses flextime and society continues to move in that direction. Millennials place a hive value on work flexibility. CYNTHIA: It is common practice in my workplace and my neighborhood. JENNA: I see this as a trend that will continue to rise. STEVE: Even the Public Works department takes advantage of carpooling with a Van Pool. SHANE: A lot of folks work longer hours with a 4-10 work week. JENNA: There are a lot of AP's out there for car -sharing. Plus Uber & Lyft promote car -sharing among it's riders. MARK: While carpooling is used, currently only 8% of the City's population uses carpooling. To set a goal of 15% is a big jump. CYNTHIA: Lisa Herbs numbers seem to be slightly more aggressive at 4.4% by 2035 and 6% by 2050. Why don't we use 4.4% for our 2035 goal? MARK: Let's avoid decimals when creating our calculations-5% would be better. CYNTHIA: Well let's round down to 4% then. It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a goal of 4% by 2035 and 6% by 2050. TR-5 PERCENT OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES - Reduce GHG by promoting low -carbon vehicles. MARK: The City currently has just over 1 car per person with a population of 40,000 people. JENNA: 165 of those cars are electric, because I'm one of them. MARK: So if we set a goal for 840 cars being electric by 2035 that would be 20% of the cars. The car manufacturers are already heading this way. In 2025 Volvo will be creating only electric cars and China is looks to as well. JENNA: As gas prices go higher people will start looking to electric cars more and there is technology to retrofit your car as well. CYNTHIA: Hank's comments encourages us to look at a higher target-15,000 electric cars by 2050. JENNA: Although a lot depends on local infrastructure. We need more and better charging stations. SHANE: The City is looking at adjusting the code so new multifamily housing would have the rough in's for charging stations. Infrastructure after -all is the City's main business, so we need to plan for where the future is leading us when planning for new development. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a goal of 9% by 2035 and 15% by 2050. W-1 REDUCTION IN SOLID WASTE GENERATION - Reduce material consumption. MARK: How much do you think Edmonds can achieve on this goal? CYNTHIA: We've made a lot of progress on sorting out recyclables. STEVE: With the recycling market drying up the State is looking at new ways to handle recyclables. It is hard to predict what will happen going forward. Manufacturers are working toward solutions as consumers continue to ask for reusable goods. A Loop system where packaging and products return to the manufacturer t be reused is being discussed. Materials management reduction is a hot topic. MARK: People continue to make choices JENNA: Solid waste reduction is important to most people. How can we increase our community composting? Is there more we can do within in the City to increase composting? USA C.: Food waste is still a big component of trash. People need more education about putting Food Waste into their yard waste so it can be composted. We could get some reduction that way. STEVE: The City has been working toward food waste reduction. And we will be making more changes next year. MARK: Reducing food waste would help us. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a goal of 25% by 2035 and 50% by 2050. EY-1 NUMBER OF NEW RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL SOLAR PV SYSTEMS INSTALLED - Increase amount of electricity generation by solar power. MARK: The City currently has 164 solar installations with 18 new ones coming online in 2018. If we are able to add 20 new installations a year we could reach 300 solar installations with just business as usual. SO to double that to 600 is a moderate increase. STEVE: Is this based on the number of solar installations or their size? MARK: This would be the number based on single family, commercial, and multifamily buildings. CYNTHIA: Would all new buildings receive incentives for going solar? Could we be form aggressive in our 2050 goal with a focus on commercial? NANCY: We had a free inspection to look at solar, but the cost was still prohibitive. CYNTHIA: I am optimistic that the technology will get better so more people will want to go solar as the price goes down. JENNA: What can we do besides use incentives to get people to choose solar? MARK: The City can facilitate group purchases. STEVE: We pursued that in Edmonds when South County set a goal fo adding 25 solar buildings. SHANE: Incentives gave solar a good boost. MARK: In Oregon they have a program where solar is pays for itself in six years. STEVE: My solar installation just paid for itself and I've had it maybe four or five years. MARK: Single family home growth will help us reach our goal easily by 2050. SHANE: We should steer a way from any pie in the sky goals. We need something achievable. MARK: Solar growth by housing units is more than just adding new housing, it is also about converting to solar on existing homes. People are motivated not just by concerns by for the environment, but also they are concerned about reducing their monthly power bill AND being self -resilient if "the big one" or some natural disaster should strike our area. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a fairly aggressive goal of solar panels on 600 on residential units by 2035 and 100 on commercial units by 2050. EY 2 PERCENT OF RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL AREA RETROFITTED - Reduce electricity consumption and energy intensity of existing buildings by sector, improve efficiency of wastewater treatment plant. MARK: If 1 % of the houses per year are retrofitted that would equal 150 houses per year. SHANE: Retrofit here kicks into effect when the homeowner makes changes on 75% or more of the value of the home. CYNTHIA: It would be nice to have a footnote that this means new construction on an existing home. MARK: This is for major updates only. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to meet the goals as they are set forth in Mark's presentation. EY-3 PERCENT OF NEW, LEED-CERTIFIED RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT - Improve efficiency of new building. CYNTHIA: I feel very pessimistic on our ability to achieve the goals set here. JENNA: How much more does it cost to meet LEED Gold vs. LEED Silver? If we offer rebates will more builders want to achieve LEED Gold? SHANE: Maintenance costs are less with LEED Gold, but there are too many unknowns. It is just easier to encourage builders to meet LEED Silver. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to recommend the goals as they are in the presentation. EY-4 NUMBER OF TREES PLANTED - Increase carbon sequestration. MARK: Adding more trees to a city of this size does not make a significant impact on climate change. However during this process it has been made clear that citizens place a large value on trees so we have added it to our metrics. DAVID: Won't adding more trees to our community reduce our ability to increase our solar power installations? MARK: Yes, adding more trees could have an impact on the City's ability to increase solar installations. JENNA: It is important to continue to look for ways to keep our tree cover as developers continue to clearcut lots in their effort to rapidly build more homes. MARK: How do you expect the City manage to add all those trees it's limited size? SHANE: The City's Urban Forestry goal is to increase our tree cover by 1 % which would mean adding 13,000 more trees —which is definitely a stretch goal. CYNTHIA: It is the consensus of the committee to recommend a goal of the existing targets mentioned in the presentation. Public Comments: JANICE: Pedestrians need first right of using sidewalks as bikes, scooters, Segways and others are using sidewalks to the detriment of pedestrians. We need better sidewalks and pathways for pedestrians which can be more easily shared with others.) want CPC members to be aware of the impact on seniors and others who have mobility challenges. Self -driving cars could benefit seniors with respect to giving them greater mobility. Increasing access to solar power is very important to seniors as a means to be self -resilient during an emergency such as a major earth quake. Making opportunities to grow your own groceries also would provide greater self -resilience for our community. I want to be sure CPC members keep in mind the big picture as they set forth their plans for the future. Announcements: The Agenda for July 4, 2019 Meeting: The Adjournment: Meeting was adjourned at am by . The next general meeting will be on Thursday, July 4, 2019 beginning at 8:45 am in the Fortner Conference Room at City Hall.