Title
Staff Report for a Resolution of the San Leandro City Council Adopting an Addendum to the San Leandro 2035 General Plan Environmental Impact Report and a Resolution of the San Leandro City Council Adopting the City of San Leandro 2021 Climate Action Plan
Staffreport
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council open a public hearing and take comments, then adopt the Addendum to the San Leandro 2035 General Plan EIR and adopt the City of San Leandro 2021 Climate Action Plan.
BACKGROUND
The scope of work for the General Plan 2035 contract with DCE | Planning Center (now known as PlaceWorks) included updating the City of San Leandro’s 2009 Climate Action Plan (CAP) for the target year of 2020. The work was not yet started during the adoption of General Plan 2035 due to a shift in priorities to complete a Zoning Code Update concurrent with the General Plan 2035 adoption in 2016. With the impending retirement of the Sustainability Manager at the time, the decision was made to separate out the CAP update from the General Plan update in order to align with the new state greenhouse gas (GHG) targets and defer the work until the new Sustainability Manager was hired.
In 2017, the State of California released its Scoping Plan that outlined new GHG reduction goals for the target years of 2030 and 2050. In 2019, the City Council adopted its 2030 and 2050 GHG emissions reduction targets of 40% and 80% respectively, to conform to the State’s reduction goals, which are science-based and vetted for cost-effectiveness and feasibility. To this end, the City’s 2009 CAP has been updated to address the 2030 and 2050 GHG reduction targets and to qualify for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) streamlining under Section 15183.5 of the CEQA guidelines.
The 2021 CAP includes the following key components for climate mitigation and GHG emissions reduction:
A. Quantification of GHG emissions with baseline and future forecast inventories;
B. Establishment of the level whereby activities covered by the CAP would not exceed targets of 40% for 2030 and 80% for 2050, consistent with State targets and the General Plan and measured-based on substantial evidence;
C. Identification and analysis of GHG emissions resulting from specific actions anticipated within San Leandro;
D. Specification of measures, including performance standards, that would achieve the GHG emissions reductions targets;
E. Establishment of a mechanism to monitor the CAP’s progress towards reaching the adopted targets; and
F. Adoption of the CAP in a public process including environmental review under CEQA guidelines.
In addition to addressing GHG emissions reductions, the 2021 CAP also focuses on climate adaptation. As evidenced by recent extreme weather and climate-induced conditions, the region is already experiencing impacts related to climate change that require the City to focus on resilience and adaptation. Senate Bill (SB) 379 requires that local agencies review and update General Plan Safety Elements to address climate adaptation and resiliency strategies or create a stand-alone Climate Adaptation Plan. As the 2035 General Plan was updated prior to the passage of SB 379, the creation of a stand-alone climate adaptation plan will satisfy this State mandate. The 2021 CAP includes the following components to address climate adaptation:
A. Identification of potential climate change hazards and important physical, social, and natural assets in the community;
B. Assessment and analysis of potential impacts and adaptative capacity to determine the vulnerability for populations, natural resources, and community assets;
C. Development of adaptation strategies based on the results of the vulnerability assessment; and
D. Development of the adaptation implementation framework.
Community Involvement
From September 2019 to December 2020, the Sustainability Office held close to 150 in-person and virtual small-group meetings, 1:1 meetings, and presentations to community groups to introduce the City’s climate program and the upcoming CAP update, the bulk of which were held in the first six months. Audiences included parent associations, labor alliances, faith groups, elementary and high school students, service clubs, Indigenous leaders, climate and bicycling organizations, disability advocates, local businesses, and more.
In addition to meeting with community groups, the Sustainability Office also convened with internal City staff as part of the interdepartmental Green Team (established in 2018), the staff group that would be responsible for implementing portions of the adopted CAP. Throughout the update process, the Green Team met bi-monthly for updates and feedback on the CAP, training on specific climate topics, and cross-department sharing.
A total of two public workshops, two online surveys, and a climate board game were organized to help the public understand the climate planning process and provide input on the CAP. An initial online survey was conducted in November-December 2019 prior to the kickoff workshop, where 195 participants responded on their climate priorities and concerns. The climate board game, Game of Extremes, was developed by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) to educate community members about the climate adaptation planning process in an interactive hands-on way. The Sustainability Office facilitated the game for six different classes at Monroe Elementary and San Leandro High School, as well as one game for the general public.
The kickoff public workshop for the CAP update was held in person on February 20, 2020 with over 90 community members in attendance. PlaceWorks and the Sustainability Office gave a presentation overview of the CAP update process, including what had been achieved thus far, and what was expected for the following months. Community members then broke out into discussion at their tables, facilitated by Green Team members, about their primary concerns and suggestions around major climate sectors. Chinese and Spanish translations, childcare, and dinner was provided for meeting accessibility.
After refining strategies with the interdepartmental Green Team, in September 2020 the draft strategies were uploaded to an online platform, Consider.It, for the public to vote and comment on. All strategies were translated into Spanish and Chinese on separate forums for accessibility. Targeted outreach was conducted to business leaders, regional agencies, and community champions. About 100 users responded across all of the forums.
The second public workshop was held virtually in October 2020 with community partners and Green Team members facilitating breakout rooms for specific discussions by stakeholder group. Spanish interpretation was provided. With the CAP draft policies available, the focus of the workshop was on implementation and how the community can collaborate to work on climate action together. Breakout groups were divided into faith groups, schools/youth, neighborhoods, businesses, families, and Spanish speakers, facilitated by representatives from the Interfaith Homeless Network, the San Leandro Unified School District Board members, San Leandro High’s Eco Club, Mission Bay community members, Building Futures for Women and Children, the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce, Community Impact Lab, and PlaceWorks staff respectively. About 60 people attended the virtual workshop.
Plan Overview
This CAP update was prepared in accordance with a set of principles that are globally applicable to climate action planning work. These principles include a comprehensive and integrated approach that is ambitious while also being relevant and actionable, an engagement effort that is fair and inclusive, and analyses and reports that are evidence-based, transparent, and verifiable. Beyond these principles, this CAP is centered around the principle of equity, which is central to the community members of San Leandro.
GHG emissions have declined steadily from 2005 levels. In 2017, GHG emissions totaled 573,580 MTCO2e (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent), a decrease of 20 percent from 2005 levels. GHG emissions from energy, transportation, solid waste, and water and wastewater production declined as a result of cleaner electricity supply, more robust recycling and composting programs, and energy efficiency upgrades made at the City’s Water Pollution Control Plant. With projected changes in households, jobs, and other community changes anticipated in looking out to 2050, San Leandro’s GHG emissions are expected to increase by approximately 21 percent by 2050 (relative to 2017 emissions) if no action is taken to reduce emissions. This emissions forecast guided the development of climate mitigation strategies and the scale of action needed to meet the GHG reduction targets.
Similarly, the climate vulnerability assessment helped guide the development of the adaptation strategies. San Leandro, like most communities in California, is expected to experience multiple direct impacts as a result of climate change, including potential flooding, sea level rise, wildfires, drought, extreme heat, and resulting negative effects on public health and biodiversity. Low-lying coastal areas, such as the San Leandro Shoreline, which extends from Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline south to San Lorenzo Creek, are most susceptible to the effects of bay shore flooding. This will be aggravated by sea level rise, which is projected to rise approximately 24 inches by 2050 and as much as 84 inches by 2100 along San Leandro’s shoreline. The number of extreme heat days in San Leandro is projected to increase from four days per year historically, to an average of 12 extreme heat days per year by midcentury and an average of up to 22 extreme heat days per year by the end of the century. The season for extreme heat also coincides with wildfire and smoke season; longer and more intense wildfires are expected in California, leading to increased frequency of poor air quality, as evidenced in the last few years. In San Leandro, high fire hazard severity zones are located along the Bay-O-Vista and Daniels Drive area.
In total, the 2021 CAP includes 54 climate mitigation strategies and 59 climate adaptation strategies. The mitigation strategies are organized into 13 categories and includes the anticipated GHG emissions reduction and co-benefits to the action:
• Building electrification (BE)
• Residential energy efficiency (RF)
• Commercial energy efficiency (CF)
• Municipal renewable energy and energy efficiency (ME)
• Renewable energy (RE)
• Reducing auto dependency (AD)
• Active and alternative transportation (AT)
• Transportation electrification and low-carbon fuels (TE)
• Waste management (WM)
• Waste reduction and reuse (WR)
• Water efficiency (WE)
• Community Consumption (CC)
• Equity and just transition (EJ)
The climate change adaptation strategies are organized into six overarching goals that address the following (with co-benefits similarly highlighted):
• Overall community hazardous conditions preparation and response
• Public health and safety
• Resilient development
• Resilient infrastructure
• Biological and cultural resources
• Future CAP updates
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
On September 19, 2016, the City Council adopted the 2035 General Plan, along with the associated California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) environmental impact report (EIR).
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Public Resources Code Section 21000, et seq., and the State CEQA Guidelines Section 15162 requires that when an EIR has been certified for a project, no subsequent EIR need be prepared for that project unless the lead agency determines, on the basis of substantial evidence in light of the whole record, that one or more of the following exists:
1. Substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the previous EIR due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects;
2. Substantial changes occur with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which will require major revisions to the previous EIR due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; or
3. New information of substantial importance, which was not known and could not have been known with exercise of reasonable diligence at the time of the previous EIR was certified as complete shows any of the following:
a. The project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the previous EIR;
b. Significant effects previously examined will be substantially more severe than shown in the previous EIR;
c. Mitigation measures or alternatives previously found not to be feasible would in fact be feasible and would substantially reduce one or more significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative; or
d. Mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measures or alternative.
Planning staff has reviewed the proposed project and analyzed it based upon Section 15162 of the CEQA Guidelines. Pursuant to CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines, the City of San Leandro completed an Addendum (Exhibit A to the Resolution) to the San Leandro 2035 General Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The Addendum includes an analysis of the proposed project, based on Appendix G of the CEQA Guidelines, and whether the environmental effects from the proposed project would be any different from those disclosed in the Certified EIR. The Addendum concluded that the proposed project would not result in any new significant impacts or substantially increase the severity of any significant impacts identified in the Certified EIR. No new information of substantial importance was identified, and no new mitigation measures would be necessary to reduce significant impacts. Applicable mitigation measures from the Certified EIR will be included as conditions of approval when future projects are processed for planning approvals.
PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS AND PUBLIC HEARING DRAFT
The draft CAP was presented to Planning Commission on June 3, 2021 and was recommended for conditional approval with Planning Commission recommendations based on comments made during the June 3rd meeting. The recommendations were made 5-1-1, with one Commissioner absent. The Planning Commission recommended that the City Council adopt the 2021 CAP with consideration of Planning Commission comments as outlined below.
Chair Boldt
• Make action language more mandatory, include the CAP update to 5 years, time frames and benchmarks for actions
• Equity components are essential. Include mandatory contractor pre-qualifications for projects
Commissioner Breslin
• Make action language mandatory and more implementable with a road map
• Commit to Reach Code with mandatory EV parking and solar on new buildings, to be implemented a year from now
Vice Chair Pon
• Include concrete transportation actions, such as more bike lanes
• Make action language mandatory
• Give electric bikes/mopeds for people turning in old combustion engine vehicles
• The 2021 CAP did not provide a plan to achieve the 80% reduction in GHG emissions. The elephant in the room was Transportation (60%). To get to 80%, I asked you approximately how much would we need to reduce the Transportation (ICE) source? You guesstimate 2/3rds. My request was to lay out a plan that our City should implement to reach that 2/3rds reduction. If funding wasn't now available to implement, the Council should find that money. The other ideas mentioned were part of the Plan. If there isn't a plan to achieve that 80%, then exclude that 2050 objective from the plan.
Commissioner Solis
• Add a Resident Advisory Committee for the update of the next CAP
Commissioner Tejada
• Continue community outreach in person
• Include enforceable actions and make action language mandatory
• Highlight Complete Streets actions and work with regional agencies (ACTC, CalTrans) to partner. Consider 880 northbound and westbound merge for on-ramp configuration and the Washington Blvd. overpass for complete streets model. Include roundabouts and case studies for traffic calming
• Promote renewable energy and greywater retrofit marketing campaigns in newspaper
• Expand provisions for new EV parking infrastructure with heat map of feasible locations
In addition to Planning Commissioner comments, written public comments were also received from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Construction Trades Workforce Initiative (CTWI) and AC Transit, all asking for stronger mandatory language for actions, as detailed in Attachment 3. CTWI and AC Transit additionally called for specific actions around contractor pre-qualifications and concrete transit actions. Comments were also received from the online public review survey, as detailed in Attachment 3.
So that the City Council may more easily review and consider, these recommendations were incorporated into the CAP Public Hearing Draft (Attachment 1) as redlined changes to the original Public Review Draft (Attachment 2). The following updates were made:
• General: Added a new section in the introduction on “How to Use This Plan” with concrete actions out to 2030 and setting a long-term path for 2050, with the ability to go beyond the action implementation laid out in the document.
• CC: Added new inventory section on consumption-based emissions and new mitigation section for consumption-based strategies (CC), moving strategies EJ-1-3 to CC-1-3. Added new strategy for carbon sequestration (CC-4).
• EJ-3: Added new strategy on just transition to replace environmentally harmful industries with green jobs. Includes commitment for use of construction contractor pre-qualifications for City projects over certain cost threshold.
• BE-1: Incentivize significant building retrofits with fewer or no natural gas appliances.
• BE-2: Commit to developing reach code limiting natural gas use in new construction.
• RE-2: Assuming implementation of a reach code for solar installation prior to the next building code going into effect at the beginning of 2023. This would assume widespread compliance for homes and offices, with more exemptions for non-office non-residential facilities.
• RE-1: Substantial increases in post-2030 electrification in existing homes and offices, which would be consistent with incentive programs or a mandatory replacement ordinance going in sometime around 2040. For the purposes of avoiding double-counting, a slight decrease in 2050 emission savings from RF-3 and RF-4 will be seen as a result.
• RE-4: Commit to developing reach code for solar installation for non-residential buildings.
• CF-2: Expand effectiveness of and participation in Alameda County’s Green Business program.
• ME-1: Continue implementing municipal energy efficiency retrofits.
• ME-3: Commit to installation of battery storage systems and microgrids at City facilities for backup energy sources.
• AT-1: Require local employers above a certain number of employees to develop programs for ridesharing, flextime, telecommuting, and other means to reduce commute trips and congestion, and achieve a 10% mode shift. Action includes requiring employer and homeowner association participation in the San Leandro Transportation Management Organization for the LINKS shuttle as conditions of development.
• AT-2: Action includes promoting incentive program for trading in old cars for electric bikes or scooters.
• AT-3: Commit to implementing bikeshare, scooters, and micro-mobility options.
• AT-5: Work collaboratively with AC Transit and BART for abundant, affordable, accessible public transit through improved service frequency, coverage, and quality throughout San Leandro. Action includes promoting AC Transit’s EasyPass program to residents and committing to improving transit speeds through transit priority signals, dedicated transit lanes, premium amenities, and other infrastructure improvements to speed transit service.
• TE-1: Increased light-duty EV adoption in 2050 up to 40%.
• TE-2: Increase availability of publicly-accessible EV charging stations at multi-family residential buildings, retail centers, offices, and public facilities. Actions include committing to reach codes to include mandatory EV installed to a capacity equivalent to CalGreen Tier 2.
• TE-3: Increase heavy-duty EV adoption in 2050 from 5% to 25%. Again, this is more of an assumption in response to projected widespread heavy-duty EV availability.
• TE-4: Increase in EVs in the municipal fleet due to an administrative protocol.
• TE-6: Promote fuel efficiency and alternative fuels for taxis and Transportation Network Companies (TNCs).
• WR-3: Actions include enforcing SB1383 to recover edible food that is otherwise wasted and distribute that food for human consumption.
• AS-2: Actions include developing a tree master plan and expanding air quality monitoring around the community.
• AS-4: Actions include developing requirements for use of green infrastructure and low-impact development to reduce stormwater runoff into the water pollution treatment plant.
• Implementation Strategy 1: Support regular updates to consumption-based GHG emissions inventory.
• Implementation Strategy 4: Update the CAP within five years of adoption to incorporate new technology, practices, and other options to further reduce emissions. Establish a Resident Advisory Committee to help inform and guide the CAP update process.
The updated GHG emissions reduction quantifications show that there would be an expected 41 percent reduction in GHG emissions below 2005 levels by 2030 and an expected 70 percent reduction in GHG emissions below 2005 levels by 2050 from these measures.
The strategies in the CAP are sufficient to meet the City’s adopted target of reducing GHG emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. On its own the CAP strategies do not achieve the City’s 2050 GHG reduction target, but they do place San Leandro on a trajectory toward continued GHG emission reduction that will support increased reduction activities in the future. It is likely that there will be new policies and regulations, technologies, personal and economic behaviors and preferences, and other factors that emerge in coming years. These factors cannot be accurately forecasted in this CAP, but they will likely be able to reduce GHG emissions beyond the levels identified here. Future updates to the CAP will be able to better assess the GHG emissions reductions from these factors and include them as part of San Leandro’s GHG reduction strategy as appropriate. Future updates to the CAP may include more stringent GHG reduction targets as they are feasible and appropriate.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1: Climate Action Plan 2021 Public Hearing Draft (redlined)
Attachment 2: Climate Action Plan 2021 Public Review Draft
Attachment 3: Combined CAP 2021 Public Comments
Attachment 4: CAP EIR Public Hearing Addendum (redlined)
Attachment 5: CAP EIR Public Review Addendum
PREPARED BY: Hoi-Fei Mok, Sustainability Manager