Residents joined a Zoom meeting on July 31 to hear an update about the La Cañada Flintridge’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, presented by Kristin Cushman, the stakeholder outreach lead from Blue Strike Environmental, a consultancy hired by the city.
About 10 community members joined the meeting, where Cushman presented updated goal targets, strategies and a timeline.
Blue Strike Environmental is leading the effort to collect data, develop an outreach and engagement plan, researching state, local and international greenhouse gas reduction targets, and develop a vulnerability assessment to identify the city’s exposure to the future impacts of climate change.
The consultant conducted a baseline assessment to understand the progress the city has made since 2016 and identified future strategies.
“We have identified 58 strategies, each with actions associated and have all been compiled to an Excel document, which is called the climate action tracker,” said Cushman. “It has goals, strategies and specifications. It has identified people responsible for each action, the cost associated and the year implementation.”
The current goals for the 2023 CAAP include:
- Reduce 40% of greenhouse gas emissions below 2007 levels by 2030;
- Reduce 58% of greenhouse gas emissions below 2007 levels by 2035, which is the same goal as the 2016 CAP;
- Carbon neutrality commitment by 2045.
Instead of presenting the 58 strategies at once, Cushman pulled out the top 10 that will offer the “biggest bang for your buck.”
Analysis for the plan is based on expertise and a deep dive on greenhouse gas savings from now until 2050, said Cushman.
The top-10 items included transitioning to 100% renewable energy, creating educational campaigns, joining the Clean Power Alliance and reducing vehicular traffic, to name a few.
“One of the biggest opportunities for the city, in my opinion, is to join the Clean Power Alliance,” Cushman said, adding that the city is already looking into to this.
The Clean Power Alliance offers high levels of renewable energy at competitive rates to benefit local communities. According to their website, 32 communities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties have opted for clean power through the Clean Power Alliance.
“Joining would allow the city more control over its energy sources and provide funding [for] some of these projects,” said Cushman.
She did say a lot of the strategies don’t have metrics that state a percentage and year goal but will move into that direction once they get feedback from the city.
Cushman also spoke in length about possibly adopting a ride-sharing program with Lyft or Uber to combat the city’s problem of not having a traditional school bus system.
“We are leaving it on the table, because it has a huge potential for vehicle miles traveled reductions,” said Cushman.
To make better progress from the 2016 Climate Action Plan, a top-10 strategy included integrating climate action and adaptation into city functions.
This strategy is designed to make sure the process is moving forward.
“The city admitted that they weren’t as successful in tracking progress to date in the 2016 CAP,” said Cushman. “The staffing was the main hurdle.”
Cushman now works with the city on what is the best way to make progress in this current plan, which includes hiring a full-time person or consultant.
“As things change, we need to stay flexible in when and how we implement the actions in this plan,” said Cushman. “I think if we can set a solid structure around communication and accountability, then I think there is going to be a lot of room for improvement here.”
Community members liked the ideas shared by Cushman and asked about other topics of interest such as fire prevention, leaf blowers and trash haulers.
Cushman showed an Excel sheet that had the 58 strategies organized into categories such as energy, built environment, resource conservation, transportation, green community and climate resilience.
NEXT STEPS
The consultant will talk about current strategies and in the next two weeks, will move toward the prioritization phase to compile a list of potential funding strategies. The city can then peruse or identify what funding currently exists in the budget.
In October, the first draft should come out and Cushman will do another workshop to present more information. Fine tuning, communication with the City Council and adoption should take place in November.
“The city is really wanting this, and they are looking for the top 10 things that they can take in hand to the City Council and make it simple for [them] to approve,” said Cushman.
To watch the recorded Zoom meeting and learn more about the CAAP, visit cityoflcf.org/climateaction/.
First published in the August 10 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
