Climate Action Subcommittee

City Hall, Council Chamber City of Santa Rosa 100 Santa Rosa Avenue Santa Rosa, CA 95404 Climate Action Subcommittee Regular Meeting Minutes - Final Wednesday, May 12, 2021 4:00 PM 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL Mayor Rogers called the meeting to order. Present: 3 - Chris Rogers, Eddie Alvarez and Natalie Rogers 2. ANNOUNCEMENTS NONE 3. PUBLIC COMMENTS Mike Turgeon appreciates the move to monthly meetings and would also like to see an upcoming meetings list, like City Council. Kevin shared that during the recent Climate Workshop hosted by the County of Sonoma, a comprehensive plan was laid out for the County to address climate change: allocating $10 million for a new Climate Division and 3 full time equivalents, laying out 21 suggested climate actions all with time frames, and 11 of those actions with projected costs to accomplish; would like to see the Climate Action Subcommittee lay out a similar list with time frames and projected costs; some ideas would be to follow Petaluma’s lead with prohibition on new gas stations, small fleet of battery school buses and can be used as cooling & charging centers, etc. during PSPS, build a model municipal microgrid, get people out of their cars - give people a vision on using their cars less - build 1 planned complete street (i.e. Sonoma Ave) to show residents what it can be like. Mark Mortensen seconded Mike & Kevin’s comments. 4. DISCUSSION ITEMS 4.1 INTRODUCTION TO SB 1383 (SHORT-LIVED CLIMATE POLLUTANTS - ORGANIC WASTE REDUCTIONS) REQUIREMENTS AND IMPACTS (Continued from March 10, 2021) It is recommended by the Transportation and Public Works Department that the City Council Climate Action Subcommittee receive information and ask any questions of staff regarding Senate Bill 1383 -Short-lived Climate Pollutants - Organic Waste Reductions. City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 5 Climate Action Subcommittee Regular Meeting Minutes - Final May 12, 2021 Presented by: Joey Hejnowicz Attachments: Staff Report Presentation Joey Hejnowicz, Administrative Analyst with Transportation & Public Works, gave a presentation and answered Subcommittee member’s questions. PUBLIC COMMENT Mark Mortensen, Friends of the Climate Action Plan, thanked Joey for the comprehensive report and what stood out is that it is a team effort, hopefully that is included in the CAS report to CC; great to see the tonnage targets - terrific to have voided emissions brought forth which we want to keep track of; FOCAP provided a list of climate actions back when the City adopted the climate emergency resolution which included suggested actions, and had a section on solid waste and point out three of them- (1) Item 6.5: make zero waste normal - all events on City property be zero waste, (2) reducing solid waste by building on existing programs and redirect edible excess to homeless shelters & food banks, and (3) Item #6.7: close the loop on food and yard waste - establish a Citywide composting program to make it convenient for residents and make that compost readily available for carbon gardening. Kevin commented that $400,000 mandated for compost procurement is really something, imagine as Joey mentioned inevitable rate increases and think about this from a social justice/equity perspective, people of low income may create less food waste than others, if there is anyway that the rate increases could be adjusted based on income categories. Xinci, Zero Waste Sonoma, wanted to address Subcommittee member’s questions and some points in the presentation: Joey mentioned timeline of letters in June/July, instead have partnered with haulers to include the information about SB 1383 with their biannual or quarterly newsletters; hoping to not have to amend the JPA; Council Member Alvarez asked about food recovery limitations - the Good Samaritan Law protects restaurants & food facilities from liability when donating food in good faith and will work on incorporating into education during the outreach, other limitations is that it takes extra time and staff effort to separate food instead of putting into green compost bin; Mayor Rogers asked about the bills to delay SB 1383-those bills take time to pass in Legislation and if they do pass it would only delay enforcement or implementation for at least a year, Zero Waste Sonoma going full speed ahead with SB 1383 implementation. City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 5 Climate Action Subcommittee Regular Meeting Minutes - Final May 12, 2021 Jenny thanked Joey for the presentation; overall it sounds like a good idea to try to get food to people who really need it as a top priority and to compost what can’t be used, but people being the first priority and animals being the second; Joey did mention the production of biogas and was hoping to hear more about that, her understanding that biogas is producing methane - highly flammable and toxic biproducts. Alema Silverman, Friends of the Climate Action Plan, appreciated the presentation and think that Joey did a really good job; a few concerns or requests: would like to get compost back to use for mulch in the yard, and what is the best way to dispose of soft plastics? Karen asked a question that she has called Recology about: she lives in a condo complex so only green waste bin available is the large size one, has there been any discussion on having smaller size green waste bins? END OF PUBLIC COMMENT Mayor Rogers requested Joey Hejnowicz to answer some questions asked during public comment. 4.2 GAS STATION REGULATION DISCUSSION The purpose of this item is to provide background on the City’s existing gas station regulations and to introduce potential policy options. Staff is seeking direction from the Subcommittee on potential changes to the regulations. Presented by: Senior Planner Amy Nicholson Attachments: Staff Presentation Public Comment as of 5/11/21 Late Correspndence as of 5/14/21 Amy Nicholson, Senior Planner with Planning & Economic Development, gave a presentation, answered Subcommittee member’s questions, and received direction from the Subcommittee on moving forward. PUBLIC COMMENT Mark Mortensen, Friends of the Climate Action Plan, thanked Amy for the presentation; as you can see from the map, there are plenty of gas stations in the Santa Rosa area so we don’t need anymore, strongly encourage the CAS to select option 1 - no new gas stations at all; Sonoma County is the only City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 5 Climate Action Subcommittee Regular Meeting Minutes - Final May 12, 2021 multi-jurisdictional county in the country with climate emergency resolutions in all jurisdictions and think we can do the same thing on gas; I would hope that the Council would go ahead and direct staff to finish up on the detail work as far as changing ownership and current infrastructure and get an ordinance ready to bring directly to the Council to keep things moving. Alema, Friends of the Climate Action Plan, strongly supports banning new gas stations; her understanding as an architect is that anytime a gas station changes owners there does need to be updates to the infrastructure, perhaps there will be cleaner ways of putting in infrastructure in the future; as many people switch to electric cars, we need more charging stations, not gas stations. Woody Hastings, Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations, mentioned that the Coalition did send in some written comments previously and did not see them; we support a prohibition of new gas stations in the City; it gets to the question of what does a climate emergency resolution mean?, and expanding gasoline or natural gas infrastructure is the wrong direction; urge to keep it simple and start with a prohibition including expansion of existing gas stations; and we should expect to see gas stations phasing out within the next 10-15 years. Tom Amato & Chris Thompson, Oakmont Democrats & Oakmont Progressives thanked the Subcommittee members for taking the time to listen to the community; support the ban on new gas stations; the goal is to phase out gas stations and not be distracted by zoning and other exceptions; if the sale of gas powered vehicles is to be stopped in 2035, we really need to begin to phase out gas infrastructure and this is one way to do it and be a leader nationally; where I live I see a burnt out hill, the other day we had our first Red Flag Warning, the urgency of climate change is on us and just going to get worse and we need to everything we can to move away from fossil fuels. Jenny Blaker, Co-Coordinator of Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations, urge Subcommittee to choose Option #1, apart from the ones that are already into the process; do not prolong dependence on fossil fuels into the future, as gas stations close those sites need to be cleaned up; choosing Option #1 would save the City time and money on applications and opposition to the applications, CONGAS has already seen 3 gas station applications as a result of a lot of public opposition which will only continue. 5. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS NONE 6. DEPARTMENT REPORTS City of Santa Rosa Regular Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 5 Climate Action Subcommittee Regular Meeting Minutes - Final May 12, 2021 Amy Nicholson, Senior Planner for Planning & Economic Development, thanked Kimberly Hopwood for hosting while Kali is out on leave; we are hosting 10 Community Vision Workshops for the General Plan Update occurring this week and next week via Zoom, more information can be found at www.santarosaforward.com, 1 workshop will be held for each district with the Council Member participating; appreciate Mike & Kevin’s comments on upcoming meetings list and we are working on finalizing a upcoming meetings list to inform subcommittee and staff of issues that staff are working on and to align with RCPA’s climate mobilization strategy; planning staff are reviewing a draft report from a climate adaptation workshop held in January and will bring the report to the Subcommittee soon. 7. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Rogers adjourned the meeting. Approved on: September 8, 2021 /s/ Kimberly Hopwood, Recording Secretary