Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutcc min 1997/02/13Special Meeting/Worksession of the Chula Vista City Council Thursday, February 13, 1997 5:15 p.m. 1. ROLL CALL: Present: Absent: Also Present: CALL TO ORDER Council Conference Room Administration Building Councilmember(s): Moot, Rindone, Salas, and Mayor Horton Councilmember(s): Padilia City Manager, John Goss; Deputy City Manager, George Krempl; City Attorney, John Kaheny: and City Clerk, Beverly Authelet BUSINESS 2. REPORT: CARBON DIOXIDE REDUCTION PLAN - On 2/22/94, Council approved a resolution to join the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) Urban Carbon Dioxide Reduction Project and related cities for Climate Protection campaign. As part of this initiative, the City participated in a major planning effort involving eleven cities throughout the world. A consortium was developed by ICLEI, an association of local governments dedicated to the prevention of local, regional. global environmental problems through municipal action to coordinate the planning effort. After two and a half years of planning in conjunction with a designated citizens task force, staff is bringing liarward the report for Conncil to review and provide direction to staff prior to bringing the thll report to Council at a regularly scheduled meeting. (Environmental Resource Manager) Mayor Horton opened the meeting. Requesting to speak early was Clay Hinkle because he had another comnutment. · Clay Hinkle, 850 Lagoon Drive, Chula Vista, an Environmental Air Specialist at Rohr. He wanted to provide the following positive features of the program: It is built on consensus and on a non-cohesive model which they t~el most regulations in the future need to be. CO2 reduction is part of the benefit which yon get when you do some of these programs, because you also reduce other criteria pollutants at the same time CO2 is produced. As with any program, implementation is when you determine whether it is going to be a success or a failure. He felt the components of this program were very strong. What needs to happen is to make sure that there is a stake holder involved in each program so that as it is implemented, it is implemented in the "real" world. It needs to be implemented with the people that it is going to effect. He encouraged having an implementing committee l~3r each part of the program. He tblt that this was the right direction and was pleased to see the City of Chula Vista take a leadership role. He cautioned to make sure that the before and afters were measured in order to see if a particnlar part of the program is effective. There must be a way to monitor this. Deputy City Manger, George Krempl, presented an introduction to the Plan. He stated that the intent was to bring the Plan back fi~r Council approved. Minutes February 13, 1997 Page 2 Presentation was made by Susan Herney, Chair of the CO2. Task Force. Ms. Herney stated that they started out as a group of lay people, scientists, and technocrats. The first task of the group was to assemble and analyze the data. They relied upon a consultant which the City had hired with grant funds. They had to establish a baseline figure of how much CO2 is produced in the City of Chula Vista in 1990 and what could they look at to reduce this by year 2010. They evaluated 168 generic measures which came from the consultant. They discarded 78 of the measures as not suitable. They came up with a possible list of 90 measures. Their task was to select 20 measures for initial implementation that the consultant would take and do the computations in order to know how much could realistically be reduced by the Year 2010 if the measures were implemented. They evaluated the measures in five categories: transportation, land use~ building measures, municipal measures, and alternative fuel. In Chula Vista, two-thirds of the CO2 is generated by automobile travel. They only dealt with the measures that Chnla Vista has control over. They eventually came up with 20 measures to work on. Eliot Allen, consultant from Criterion Inc., presented the CO2 Reduction Plan. He stated that the issue was that the earth is absorbing quite a bit of radiation from the sun. These gases help to keep the earth warm. The problem is that we are combusting fossil fuels faster than Mother Nature intended. These gases are concentrating close to the surthce of the earth at levels that are leading some scientists to conclude that the climate is warming up as though it was a trapped "greenhouse". Although there is not total agreement on this issue, there is enough agreement that we should try to stabilize these emissions until we know whether this is causing the global climates to change adversely. There is fear that if this is true, we will see an increase in energy demands as people have to run their air conditioners more often, will see affects to water supply as snow packs in the mountains change, there are predictions of ocean levels rising which would be a concern to Chula Vista, a whole host of wild life habitat and agricultural impacts all of which portend to be potential dangerous circumstances for the economy and the environment. He led the Council through some key pieces of the numbers that set the stage for the selection process which are included in the Reduction Plan beli~re Council. Barbara Bamberger went over the twenty action measures which were: 1. Municipal Clean Fuel Vehicles: Purchase of clean fuel vehicles during normal turn-over of municipal fleet which will include electric, natural gas, and other alternative fueled vehicles. 2. Private Fleet Clean Fuel Vehicles: Purchase of clean fuel vehicles during normal turn-over of fleets in the private sector. 3. Clean Fuel Demonstration Project: High visibility pilot demonstration of new clean fuel technologies. The first project is hydrogen buses tbr the City transit system. A total of three hydrogen buses are proposed which will be operated in the city system. This program would result in an annual net energy savings of 3,634 million BTU. 4. Telecommuting and Telecenters: Working at home via computer link, and at nearby centers to avoid or reduce commute trips. Ten new neighborhood telecenters are proposed in addition to the existing two centers. (A program already introduced to the City). 5. Municipal Building Upgrades and Employee Trip Reduction: Energy efficiency retrofits of municipal buildings, and employee trip reduction through telecommuting and vanpooling. (A program already in effect). 6. Enhanced Pedestrian Connections to Transit: Installation of direct, convenient walkways and crossings between bus stops and surrounding land-uses. 7. Increased Housing Density Near Transit: General increase in land-use and zoning designations to reach an average of 14-18 dwelling units per net acre or more within 1/4 mile of major transit routes and stops throughout the City. 8. Site Design with Transit Orientation: Placement of buildings and circulation routes to emphasize transit rather than auto access; also includes bus turn-outs, other stop amenities. Minutes February 13, 1997 Page 3 9. Increased Land-Use Mix: Greater dispersion of a wide variety of land-uses generally; siting of neighborhood commercial uses in residential areas; inclusion of housing in commercial and light industrial areas. 10. Reduced Commercial Parking Requirements: Lower parking space requirements; allowance for shared lots and shared parking; allowance for on-street spaces. (The most controversial measure). 11. Site Design with Pedestrian/Bicycle Orientation: Placement of buildings and circulation routes to emphasize pedestrian and bicycle access without excluding autos; includes pedestrian benches, bike paths, bike racks. 12. Bicycle Integration with Transit and Employment: Bike storage at major transit stops, employment areas. Encourage employers to provide showers at major transit nodes. Bike racks on buses. 13. Bicycle Lanes, Paths, and Routes: Continued implementation of the City's bicycle master plan, including installation of seven miles of lanes/routes annually (amount needed to complete the bike plan by 2010). Emphasis is to be given to separate bike paths as opposed to striping bike lanes on streets. 14. Energy Efficient Landscaping: Installation of shade trees tbr new single-family home as part of an overall city-wide tree-planting effort to reduce ambient temperatures, smog formation, energy use, and CO2. 15. Solar Pool Heating: Mandatory building code requirement tbr solar heating of new pools or optional motorized insulated pool cover. 16. Traffic Signal and System Upgrades: Retrofitling of signals with high-efficiency LED lamps. These lamps are not yet approved by Caltrans, but current testing elsewhere in California may allow their use in the near future. Also, implementation of a signal automation and timing program modeled after Toronto's SCOOT program. 17. Student Transit Subsidy: Encourage transit subsidies to mitigate new development related to area impact. Councilmember Salas expressed that high schools have large parking lots. If you are going to encourage students to take the bus to school, the schools make it too convenient tbr the students to drive to school and park. Councilmember Rindone stated there are employers who subsidize their employees tbr the parking fees, thus encouraging thein to drive instead of using mass transit. They see that a lot at MTDB in trying to get people to use the trolley to go downtown instead of driving. 18. Energy Efficient Building Recognition Program: This measure includes encouragement for builders to voluntarily incorporate efficiency features in their prc~iects, and rewards them with "energy star" or comparable recognition and lower permit fees. The objective is recognizing exemplary buildings and promoting their marketability. The program would apply to residential and nonresidential new construction and remodels. Councilman Rindone wanted staff to look into this since we have the Otay Ranch project coining up soon. 19. Municipal Life-Cycle Purchasing Standards: Inclusion of life-cycle energy costs as a selection criterion in a comprehensive purchasing policy t't~r energy-consuming equipment. Such equipment includes vehicles, copy machines, computers~ and motor-driven devices. Where applicable, equipment should be Energy Star compliant, and Energy Star guidelines should be incorporated in bid solicitation documents. The scope of this measure should also extend to new construction and remodeling of municipal buildings. 20. Increased Employment Density Near Transit: General increase in land-use and zoning designations to ti~cus employment-generating land-uses within quarter mile of major transit stops throughout the City. Addressing Council were: Minutes February 13, 1997 Page 4 · Rod Davis, Chamber of Commerce Manager, stated that the Chamber Board of Directors voted to endorse the proposed CO2 Reduction Plan insothr as the twenty proposed measures will be implemented by voluntary - not mandatory - procedures and activities; will not disadvantage the City of Chula Vista's economic development potential with regard to attracting and competing for new businesses; and will not cause the City to increase budget or staffing unless the increases are off~set by grant funds. The Chamber encourages the City Council to adopt wording in this regard. Although the Chamber has taken no official position on the global warming/greenhouse issue, the Chamber endorses the CO2 Reduction Plan in its belief that the action steps recommended are of value to the community in and of themselves. · Steven Sachs, 401 B Street, San Diego, 92119, Senior Planner with SANDAG, stated that he had participated in the process with the Task Force as a liaison with the consultant and SANDAG. He reminded Council that CO2 consumption emissions and energy consumption are basically the same thing. SANDAG did prepare a regional energy plan that was adopted in December 1994. The City's planning process started soon afterwards. At SANDAG they see what the Council is doing is a customization and implementation of the regional energy plan. The Task Force and staff' has done an excellent job in taking the regional actions and recommendations and making them make sense liar the City. Also, he stated that although there are jurisdictions around the region that are doing some of these things, Chula Vista is the one place that is comprehensively looking at it. · William Claycomb, 409 Palm Avenue, Ste 100, Imperial Beach, 91932, President of Save Our Bay, Inc. He stated that they thought that global warming was going to be a gradual process. He stated that it will not happen that way. We will be subjected to violent storms which we are now witnessing around the world. Mt. Zion Insurance Company in Switzerland and Save Our Bay have stated that global warming is happening, and it is happening because of man's production of the greenhouse gases. The solution will not come from the federal government but from small individual groups working on this. Councilmember Rindone stated he was excited about ICLEI which is an international organization that is effectuating local policy. Chula Vista is a member and is the only agency that has a population of less than one million. He stated this organization has a different philosophy than he has ever seen in any other organization. They want an involvement of an elected official working with staffs from the various cities to be the champions of the environmental prqjects to know that the way you are going to et't~ctuate change is through the participation of local people and not necessarily through national governments. · Jeff Colborn, 1547A Jayken Way, Chula Vista, 91910, CEO of Metallic Power. He felt Chula Vista has supported them substantially in their efforts to develop this technology and to win funding for technology development from the State and from other agencies. He l~lt that as the City takes the lead and invests in Clean Fuel Vehicles, a lot of the private fleets will do likewise. · Ty Compton, 1339 Gretchen Place, Chula Vista, 91910, also a member of the Economic Development Commission. He felt it was important tbr the City to educate the people. Councilmember Rindone suggested that staff be directed to look at substituting the curriculum in the schools with other options that can enhance education opportunities on this subject. ADJOURNMENT There being no further discussion, Mayor Horton a~iourned the meeting at 6:53 p.m. City Clerk