Attachment A: Current Climate Smart Initiatives
Updated as of 2/28/22
Ref.
No.
Project Title Project Description Lead
Department
1 Parking and
Transportation
Demand
Management
(TDM) Policy
This policy will remove parking minimum requirements citywide and implement transportation demand management requirements to expand transportation options in and near new development. This effort, which seeks to reduce the amount of Vehicle Miles Travelled in the City (and their resulting contribution to greenhouse gas emissions) has been ongoing since mid-2019. The proposal is to update Title 20 (the Zoning Ordinance) to move away from mandatory minimum parking
requirements based on the project size and use and instead move towards a more flexible approach that will allow developments to evaluate their specific parking needs while the site is being planned for development. In conjunction, the ordinance will expand TDM project requirements to encourage new and existing residents to shift trips from single-occupancy vehicles to alternatives such as transit, biking and walking. These TDM requirements can be fulfilled with infrastructure (such as building or expanding bicycle and pedestrian facilities) or programs such as providing transit passes or bike share memberships to tenants. Specific effort has been made to ensure that these TDM measures are as equitable as possible. Staff expects to bring this policy and ordinance update to City Council by Summer 2022.
Planning,
Building, and
Code
Enforcement
(PBCE)
2 Building Reach
Code Update
The City intends to update its reach code for new construction to reflect 2022 Building Code updates and to evaluate additional reach code updates in collaboration with regional partners (Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Peninsula Clean Energy, and East Bay Clean Energy).
PBCE
3 General Plan
Updates
The General Plan Four-Year Review was completed in January 2022.
It included the City’s adoption of California Senate Bill 9 (SB9) which would allow up to 4 housing units on existing single-family properties without discretionary review.
PBCE
4 Urban Village
Plans
Urban village plans were approved for the Berryessa BART Urban Village in June 2021 and the North 1st Street Local Transit Village in March 2021. The Berryessa BART Urban Village plan was adopted in June 2021 to allow an additional 5,100 high density housing units. The N 1
st Street urban village plan, currently in development, will permit up to 1,678 additional housing units. Staff is working on the Five Wounds Station Area Plan, which will update and consolidate existing urban village plans for Roosevelt Park, Little Portugal, Five Wounds, and 24 th
Street and William, with work on this effort expected to be completed by summer 2023.
PBCE
5 Move San José The Move San José will lay out a set of strategies to bring the bold transportation goals of Envision 2040 San José General Plan and Climate Smart San José to life. The Plan is developing projects and policies that make progress on goals like increased walking, biking, and transit use, decreased auto dependence, increased safety, and making our streets designed around people, not cars. A draft is currently posted online for public comment.
The City is also advancing targeted plans to improve mobility throughout San José, including through Urban Village and associated Transportation Improvement Plans; pedestrian safety plans like Walk Safe San José; and complete street and safety redesign efforts (e.g., Vision Zero and transit priority corridors like King and Monterey Roads).
Department of
Transportation
(DOT)
6 Delivering Zero
Emissions
Communities
(DZEC)
Initiatives
The work under the DZEC grant, awarded in June 2021, includes the analysis of commercial freight GHG emissions data, working with an Equity Task Force to prioritize actions to reduce freight emissions, and hosting an Urban Freight Working Group to encourage GHG emissions reduction commitment(s) from commercial freight companies.
DOT
7 Emerging
Mobility Action
Plan
A plan that centers on racial equity and seeks to identify the most effective ways to leverage new mobility services and technologies to ensure they serve everyone in San José, especially marginalized communities and communities of color.
DOT
8 Transit First
Policy
A policy to prioritize speeding transit on city streets and in land use plans.
DOT
9 Better Bike
Plan 2025
The Better Bike Plan 2025, adopted in October 2020, calls for 250 miles of existing bike lanes upgraded to protected lanes, 100 miles of new protected bike lanes, and 100 miles of new bike boulevards. There are currently 408 miles of on-street bike infrastructure in the city, with the majority of the City's bikeways being painted lanes that run alongside travel lanes. This targeted approach helps the City progress towards its mode shift goal of 15 percent of trips made by bike in 2040.
DOT
10 Ride-Hailing
Electrification
Uber and Lyft are taking steps to encourage their drivers to shift to EVs. Staff continue to look for ways the City can indirectly support these efforts.
DOT
11 One-Way
Vehicle Sharing
Due to staffing constraints, DOT has not yet adopted administrative regulations for the one-way vehicle sharing program. In addition, several one-way vehicle sharing companies indicated they were unlikely to expand to new markets until COVID subsided and ridership levels increased to pre-COVID levels. With conditions improving, staff intend to make adoption of regulations a priority in the next quarter.
DOT
12 Statewide
Switch is On
Marketing
Campaign
In collaboration with other local and regional government agencies, electricity providers, and the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC), the City of San José is participating in another iteration of the statewide The Switch Is On campaign, designed to educate consumers about the benefits of using electric appliances in their homes and encourage the adoption of home electrification technologies. The campaign provides participating partners with access to The Switch Is On website and a suite of creative assets for marketing purposes. City staff began marketing the campaign in December 2021, with a big push in spring 2022 to coincide with the launch of SJCE’s energy efficiency programs.
Community
Energy
Department
(CED)
13 Energy
Efficiency
Programs
San José Clean Energy (SJCE) secured $5.1 million from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to offer two energy efficiency programs over three years, beginning Spring 2022. The first program offers discounts on energy efficient electric appliances, including refrigerators, clothes washer, dryers, and dishwashers, to moderate- CED
income single-family households as well as single-family households located in disadvantaged communities. The second program will incentivize energy-efficient upgrades to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), refrigeration, and hot water distribution systems for small commercial buildings, including schools. SJCE aims to serve 250 residential customers, 100 businesses, and three schools annually.
The City allocated $500,000 in federal relief funds to expand access to the residential program over the next two years.
14 Solar Access
(Disadvantaged
Communities-
Green Tariff
Program)
Solar Access is an SJCE program that offers low-income customers living in disadvantaged communities a 20 percent bill discount and 100 percent solar energy from a solar facility in Northern California.
Customers can receive the discount as long as they meet the eligibility requirements. The program’s aim is to allow low-income residents who do not own their home and thus do not qualify for the DAC-Single- family Affordable Solar Homes program to gain access to 100% solar energy without needing to install any equipment. The program is entirely funded by the CPUC. Solar Access has enrolled over 600 San José residents and is expected to run for 20 years. Program capacity of approximately 800 customers has not yet been met, so recruitment of customers is still ongoing.
CED
15 Integrated
Resource Plan
In late-2022, SJCE will submit an Integrated Resource Plan to the California Public Utilities Commission. It is a long-term utility plan to ensure SJCE procures energy resources to meet load needs and achieve the City’s climate goals.
CED
16 California
Electric Vehicle
Infrastructure
Project
(CALeVIP)
On December 16, 2020, SJCE launched CALeVIP as part of a joint project with Peninsula Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, City of Palo Alto Utilities, and Silicon Valley Power. CALeVIP is a California Energy Commission (CEC) co-funded rebate program for Level 2 and Direct Current Fast Charging infrastructure. The CEC has contributed $10 million while SJCE contributed $4 million to the total pool of $14 million rebate funds for the City of San José. The program is being administered by the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE). Rebates can go to projects located at workplaces, multi-unit CED
dwellings, public agencies, shopping centers, and other locations for public charging. Funds were reserved within a matter of hours.
Approximately 46 percent of funding was reserved for installations in low-income communities and disadvantaged communities and there were additional incentives for installations in those areas. CSE is currently reviewing applications and some projects have begun receiving incentives.
17 Existing
Building
Electrification
Plan
The Existing Building Electrification Plan provides look at how to equitably electrify existing buildings in San José It does not include any mandates but contains a series of recommendations including policy and program options centered around four key areas: workforce development and job opportunities, housing and energy costs, energy reliability, and health and air quality.
Environmental
Service
Department
(ESD)
18 Zero Emissions
Neighborhood
(ZEN) Pilot
Climate Smart has been developing the ZEN program concept with the support of the Climate Challenge. The ZEN is intended to bring a suite of Climate Smart building, mobility, and water improvements to households in a pilot neighborhood. The neighborhood will be selected based on equity data indicators, input from local community-based organizations, and interest from residents. The ZEN pilot design will be co-created with the participating households and is expected to be completed in mid-2022.
ESD
19 GoGreen
Teams
Pilot to facilitate resident leaders in forming and engaging a team of friends or neighbors through a series of meetings leading to climate and resiliency actions, with progress tracking on the City’s Climate Smart Challenge platform.
ESD
20 Climate Smart
Challenge
Staff continue to promote the City’s Climate Smart Challenge platform which currently has 775 users. Participants have completed more than 1,000 climate actions that have resulted in $45,000 saved, 127 tons of CO2 reduction and 169,000 gallons of water saved.
ESD
21 Climate Smart
Champion
Awards
Staff opened up the 3rd annual Climate Smart Champion Awards for nominations on February 9. The awards will recognize individuals and/or organizations for outstanding efforts in 2021 that align with Climate Smart goals. Nominations are set to close in March and awardees will be recognized at an event in April 2022.
ESD
22 New Climate
Smart Natural
and Working
Lands (NWL)
Element
In July 2019, the City executed a MOU, including a cost sharing agreement, with the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (OSA) to evaluate how NWLs could contribute to meeting Climate Smart GHG emissions reduction goals. Staff awarded the consulting services to Cascadia Partners, LLC in January 2020. Cascadia developed a spatially derived tool (i.e. modeling platform) and methodologies to analyze the GHG contributions of NWLs in coordination with the NWL interdepartmental Project Management Team, consisting of key OSA, City, and Cascadia team members, and the Technical Advisory Committee, consisting of 30 NWL technical experts from local and statewide agencies. The results of these analyses were presented in a draft NWL Technical Report in March 2021.The first draft of the NWL Element, which lays out the new Climate Smart NWL indictors, metrics, and progress milestones, was shared with the public in January 2022. The team will complete the cost and equity components of the element by April 30, 2022.
ESD
23 New Climate
Smart Zero
Waste Element
(ZWE)
The ZWE is intended to account for the City’s net greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the solid waste sector. It will assess and reevaluate the prioritization of the City’s zero waste strategies and address related critical issues regarding recycling markets, changing waste regulations, domestic reuse potential, local infrastructure related to waste, and landfill capacity.
ESD
24 Advanced
Metering
Infrastructure
(AMI)
Deployment
AMI will allow residents and commercial businesses to view water usage data in nearly real-time, increasing potable water usage awareness and leak detection efficiency. San Jose Municipal Water will complete a pilot of three technologies in Q1 2022 and develop a full implementation plan to deploy AMI to more than 26,000 service connections. San Jose Water Company, which services approximately 80 percent of the city, will conduct a phased AMI deployment during the next few years.
ESD
25 Integrated
Water
Increasing recycled water use is a goal within Climate Smart San Jose.
The objective of the IWIP is to integrate existing water infrastructure to create a cohesive distribution system conveying stormwater, non- ESD
Infrastructure
Program (IWIP)
potable groundwater, and recycled water to maximize underutilized assets and increase the non-potable water supply. South Bay Water Recycling and San Jose Municipal Water will complete an expanded pilot project in 2022 to assess the efficacy of bioretention ponds to expand recycled water applications by improving recycled water quality and to diversify San Jose’s water resources portfolio.
26 Water Efficient
Landscaping
Ordinance
(WELO)
Update
The objective of the WELO update will be to replace high-water- consuming with drought-tolerant landscaping and to reduce impermeable surface area citywide.
ESD
27 Energy and
Water Building
Performance
Ordinance
(BPO)
On December 11, 2018, San José City Council approved the BPO.
Through a phased-in implementation schedule, the BPO requires property owners of large commercial and multi-family properties 20,000 square feet in size and above to benchmark these properties’ energy and water use and report this to the City annually, using the US EPA ENERGYSTAR Portfolio Manager® (ESPM) platform. On a rolling five-year cycle, starting in 2023, buildings will also have to complete one of the two “Beyond Benchmarking Pathways” through which they will have to either 1) demonstrate high performance or performance improvement; or 2) complete an audit, building re-tuning, or targeted efficiency actions with the goal of improving their performance. Starting in 2020, owners were also required to submit a reporting fee (currently $150) concurrently with their benchmarking report. The BPO builds on existing state law (CA Assembly Bill 802) that established a statewide building energy use benchmarking program for buildings 50,000 sf in size and larger. Compliance with San José’s BPO relieves building owners from reporting to the state. In 2021, Staff began sharing energy and water data with buildings via customized scorecards.
ESD