Review: Workshop on Climate Action Plan
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Bronwyn's Council Review |
As usual for the review, my comments are red and italicized in the context of the latest Council Preview by David Martin.
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Usually some of the agenda items will have a period where members of the public may briefly speak to Council.
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The Ames City Council meets on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. The agenda includes:
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Workshop on Climate Action Plan. In this workshop, our Climate Action Planning team will inform Council about the expected results if the community were to proceed on a business-as-usual basis, report on community engagement, and present the climate target setting alternatives developed by our consultants at Sustainability Solutions Group. The City Council is not being asked to set a climate target at this meeting; that will come later.
The consultants presented on three main topics. First, they reviewed public input methods to-date and future opportunities for input. For example, you can now take a survey on the Climate Action Plan on-line (through December 10th). Input is being gathered from several sources; the public, the Steering Committee (Council), and the supplemental input committee, which is comprised of members representing a number of facets of Ames. For the full list, you can see it from our August 24th meeting. Next, the consultants reviewed the "business as usual" scenario, showing where emissions are projected if the City continues on as it is now. Finally, the consultants presented 4 options for emissions targets, two of which achieved approximately a 50% decrease by 2030 and one of which projected an 80% decrease by 2030. The fourth plan wasn't charted in terms of reduction percentage yet, but was described as plan in which we pick achievable goals and then see where our reduction percentage ends up. All four of the plans project net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050. In December (after on-line public input wraps up) Council will be asked to choose one of the four paths.
Communications to Council: The following items are requests and communications to Council that aren't published on the agenda, so we won't deliberate them substantially. This includes staff reports and communications or requests from constituents and developers. Typically, Council will ask city staff for more information, put the item on a future agenda for deliberation and possible action, or just accept the communication, taking no further action.
- Ames Main Street. This letter reports on some recent activities by the Ames Main Street organization and requests time to present an update to Council.
This item was placed on a future agenda, 6-0.
Thanks for reading,
Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen
Ames City Council, At Large