Planning, Economic Development and Land Use Committee

These meetings are being held in accordance to Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order and other Federal and State Orders that impact in-person attendance at public meetings, if applicable orders expire or are revoked before any of the below mentioned dates, this will be an in-person meeting in City Hall, please check our website and Facebook for updates. Please submit your public comment via email commoncouncil@albanyny.gov or on our website by 12pm on the date of the meeting. These comments will be shared with members and/ or read for the record at the meeting. The meeting will be held using Zoom and streamed through the Albany Common Council’s Facebook. To stream this video please visit: https://www.facebook.com/albany.commoncouncil. If we experience any technical difficulties on Facebook, the video will be streamed to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-rQHp1fBLPcdk_4N6J4XbQ COMMON COUNCIL MEETING PLANNING, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND LAND USE COMMITTEE Cathy Fahey, Chair DATES: * Tuesday, April 20, 2021 Tuesday, May 4, 2021 Tuesday, May 18, 2021 Tuesday, June 1, 2021 Tuesday, June 15, 2021 Tuesday, June 29, 2021 Wednesday, June 30, 2021 TIME: 5:30 p.m. TOPIC(S) OF DISCUSSION/CONSIDERATION: Unified Sustainable Development Ordinance (USDO) Amendments *During the April 20, 2021 meeting the committee will also discuss Resolution 7.21.20R RESOLUTION NUMBER 7.21.20R RESOLUTION DECLARING A CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND CALLING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION TO RESTORE A SAFE CLIMATE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD: YES Councilmember Anane introduced the following: RESOLUTION NUMBER 7.21.20R RESOLUTION DECLARING A CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND CALLING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION TO RESTORE A SAFE CLIMATE WHEREAS, on April 22, 2016, world leaders from 174 countries and the European Union recognized the threat of climate change and the urgent need to combat it by signing the Paris Agreement, agreeing to keep global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C; and WHEREAS, on October 8, 2018, the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) released a special report, which projected that limiting warming to the 1.5°C target this century will require an unprecedented transformation of every sector of the global economy over the next 12 years; and WHEREAS, on November 23, 2018, the United States Fourth National Climate Assessment (“NCA4”) was released and details the massive threat that climate change poses to the American economy, our environment and climate stability, and underscores the need for immediate action to address a climate emergency at all levels of government; and WHEREAS, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), global temperatures in 2018 were 83°C (1.5°F) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, and the past five years are collectively the warmest in modern history; and WHEREAS, the increased and intensifying wildfires, floods, rising seas, diseases, droughts and extreme weather brought on by global warming demonstrates that the Earth is too hot to be a safe environment; and WHEREAS, World Wildlife Fund’s 2018 Living Planet report finds that there has been a 60% decline in global wildlife populations between 1970 and 2014, with causes including overfishing, pollution and climate change; WHEREAS, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, human activity has already severely altered 40% of the marine environment, 50% of inland waterways, and 75% of the planet’s land, and it is projected that half-to-one million species are threatened with extinction, many within the next few decades; and WHEREAS, restoring a safe and stable climate requires accelerated actions to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors to end the 6th mass extinction of species, and to protect all people and species from the increasingly severe consequences of climate change; and WHEREAS, a sweeping transition to clean energy systems that centers on equity and justice in their solutions is vital to our future and must include the following goals: dramatically expand existing renewable power sources and deploy new production capacity with the goal of meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources; build a national, energy-efficient, “smart” grid; upgrade every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety; eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing, agricultural and other industries, including by investing in local-scale agriculture in communities across the country; repair and improve transportation and other infrastructure, and upgrade water infrastructure to ensure universal access to clean water; fund massive investment in the decrease of greenhouse gases; and WHEREAS, marginalized populations, including people of color, immigrants, indigenous communities, low-income individuals, people with disabilities, and the unhoused are already disproportionately affected by climate change, and will continue to bear an excess burden as temperatures increase, oceans rise, and disasters worsen; and WHEREAS, addressing climate change fairly requires transitioning from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy that is ecologically sustainable and equitable for all people, especially those most impacted by climate change already and those who will be most impacted in the future; and WHEREAS, people around the world have a fundamental human right to clean, healthy and adequate air, water, land, food, education, healthcare, and shelter; and WHEREAS, the economy must shift from dirty energy that benefits fossil fuel companies to energy democracy that benefits our people, environment and a clean, renewable energy economy, from funding new highways to expanding public transit, from incinerators and landfills to zero waste products, from industrial food systems to food sovereignty, from car-dependent sprawl and destructive unbridled growth to smart urban development without displacement, and from destructive over-development to habitat and ecosystem restoration; and WHEREAS, building a society that is resilient to the current, expected, and potential effects of climate change will protect health, lives, ecosystems, and economies, and such resilience efforts will have the greatest positive impact if the most dramatic potential consequences of climate change are taken into account; and WHEREAS, climate justice calls for climate resilience planning that addresses the specific experiences, vulnerabilities, and needs of marginalized communities within the City of Albany, who must be included and supported in actively engaging in climate resilience planning, policy, and actions; and WHEREAS, actions to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and/or decrease greenhouse gases may be taken in ways that also improve resilience to the effects of climate change, and vice versa; and WHEREAS, climate justice requires that frontline communities that have historically borne the brunt of the extractive fossil-fuel economy, participate actively in the planning and implementation of this mobilization effort to address climate change at all levels of government and that they benefit first from the transition to a renewable energy economy; and WHEREAS, nearly 400 cities, districts and counties across the world representing over 34 million people collectively have recently declared or officially acknowledged the existence of a global climate emergency, including New York City, Hoboken, San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Montgomery County, Oakland, Richmond, and Santa Cruz in the United States, Bristol and London in the United Kingdom and many cities in Australia, Canada, and Switzerland; and WHEREAS, the City of Albany, as the capital of one of the largest states in the country, can act as a global leader by both converting to an ecologically, socially, and economically regenerative economy at emergency speed, and by organizing a transition to renewable energy and climate emergency mobilization effort; now, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Albany Common Council declares a climate emergency and call for an immediate emergency mobilization to restore a safe climate. To: Danielle Gillespie, City Clerk From: John-Raphael Pichardo, Esq., Research Counsel Re: Request for Common Council Legislation Supporting Memorandum Date: January 15, 2020 RESOLUTION NUMBER 7.21.20R TITLE RESOLUTION DECLARING A CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND CALLING FOR AN IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY MOBILIZATION TO RESTORE A SAFE CLIMATE GENERAL PURPOSE OF LEGISLATION To bring attention to the significant and near-term implications of climate change in our community and around the world NECESSITY FOR LEGISLATION AND ANY CHANGE TO EXISTING LAW The necessity is to bring attention to the significant and near-term implications of climate change in our community and around the world, as well to show that the Common Council is aware of this challenge and the need to act proactively to address it. No changes to existing law. FISCAL IMPACT(S) N/A