Review: Workshop on Climate Action Plan
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Rachel's Council Review |
As usual for the review, my comments are red and italicized in the context of the latest Council Preview by Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen.
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or watch the meeting live on Mediacom Channel 12
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 the following. Note that you can generally click on individual agenda items below to get the full staff report or other explanation.
- 1. Discussion on proposed low-carbon scenario.
At our workshop on Tuesday, Council will be presented with the 29 action items that SSG (the consultant) propose as our path to reaching our reduction goal of 83% by 2030, and net-zero by 2050. We will also review the following sources of feedback:- Actions Survey Summary.
Council will review the results of our most recent public survey, which ran from March 2nd through the 20th, and garnered 626 responses. Topics ranged from building and energy efficiency to transportation to waste systems, and asked respondents their interest in adopting more sustainable practices and any obstacles to doing so. - Ames SIC March 28th.
The other source of input Council will review is from our Supplemental Input Committee, which is a group comprised of over 20 representatives of a variety of community sectors (residents, businesses, non-profits, faith-based groups, ISU, human service agencies, etc.). - The responses from both sources are exactly what you might expect, concerns about the cost/feasibility of improvements and reiteration of the importance of undertaking strong goals due to the hidden cost of inaction.
During the workshop, council reviewed the results of the action survey, as well as learned about SSG's financial modeling process. The SSG consultants presented what actions would need to be done in six different areas in order to reach our targets (83% reduction by 2030, net-zero emissions by 2050). These large focus areas are building retrofits, net-zero new construction, renewable energy generation, reducing vehicle emissions, increase active transportation and transit use, and reduce waste emissions. The first run of SSG's modeling with these suggested actions resulted in a 70% reduction by 2030 and 94% reduction by 2050. SSG ran another model to get closer to the targets we set, which would result in a 78% reduction by 2030 and 98% reduction by 2050, but would come at an additional cost due to the need to purchase Renewable Energy Certificates.
The next step in our climate action planning process is to have city staff work with the consultants on four different elements: what is the feasibility to implement each action, what is the city of Ames's legal authority to fund and legal authority to implement the tasks, what will the cost to citizens be for items that are charged by the city or by other parties (utility fees/property tax payments/permit fees vs. apartment rent payments/building lease payments/construction costs), and what is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions per $100,000 of investment. These items will help council understand what actions are feasible for the city, and will help us to prioritize the actions that provide the greatest carbon reduction for the least investment.
At the conclusion of the workshop, council moved to ask staff to continue working with the consultants to develop the "how" of the climate action plan, including the four elements outlined above. The motion passed 5-1, Gartin voting nay.
- Actions Survey Summary.
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.
- Subdivision request for 2359 210th St.
This item was for our information only, and no council action was requested at this time.
Thanks for reading,
Rachel Junck
Ames City Council, 4th Ward