Your holidays will be much merrier with a strong plan to promote walking, bicycling and transit in the new year. Please take a quick moment to:
Strengthen the Alameda County Climate Action Plan
The Alameda County Climate Action Plan will come up for final adoption at the board of supervisors meeting next Tuesday (Dec. 21) at 2pm. According to the planning department, there has been very little support from the environmental, bicycle, transportation or green building community at recent meetings, resulting in significant weakening of key staff recommendations by the real estate, chamber of commerce and building industry who have been attending the meetings. Please consider sending a letter to the board of supervisors to support the staff proposal (see March 2010 document) Climate Action Plan Page. Alice Lai Bitker, President Alameda County Board of Supervisors 1221 Oak Street, #536
Oakland, CA 94612 Alameda County Board of Supervisors Contact Page. Below is the list of key recommendations that have been eliminated or weakened. The key reason is that local jurisdictions are apparently now able to claim credit for GHG emission reductions from state initiatives (Pavley, low carbon fuel standard, renewable energy portfolio standard, etc.) thus lowering the amount of GHG reductions needed. But the county’s goal is only reducing to 1990 levels by 2020! For a PP with short overview of the changes and process: Roundtable PowerPoint Presentation 9/29/2010 (1.8Mb)*
- E-4 Adopt a Residential Energy Conservation Ordinance requiring point-of-sale energy efficiency upgrades.
- E-9 Adopt a Commercial Energy Conservation Ordinance requiring point-of-sale energy efficiency upgrades.
- E-11: Require new commercial parking lots with over 20 spaces to mitigate heat gain through the use of shade trees, solar arrays, or cool pavement. E-12 Adopt an ordinance that requires use of recycled materials for 10% of building materials in new construction. This is very achievable
- T-3 Adopt ordinance that requires new development to provide adequate bicycle parking for tenants and customers; requires businesses with more than 350 employees to provide facilities including showers, lockers, and Class I bicycle storage. (Staff originally recommended 50). The current proposal of businesses with 375 employees sets an unrealistic bar for this policy, since very few businesses of this size are built.
- T-14 Develop commercial area parking fee. Parking pricing has been demonstrated to be one of the most effective, low cost and quickest way to affect travel behavior within communities. The Joint Policy Committee is also considering a regional parking pricing policy. The fees generated can be dedicated to funding GHG reduction measures in the commercial areas and residential communities where they are collected. We urge the planning commission to reconsider these important recommendations to curb greenhouse gas emissions while promoting healthier environments and more active communities. These proposals will provide many health and cost benefits to the county and assist in both mitigation and adaptation of the effects of climate change.
Attached as a PDF is the Bicycle Coalition letter to the County Board of Supervisors.