May 8, 2023
San Rafael City Council
1400 Fifth Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901
RE: City Goals and Objectives 2003 to 2025
Honorable Mayor and Councilmembers,
Sustainable San Rafael welcomes the opportunity to share our thoughts on effective City goals and objectives for the next two years. Although all four of the policy focus areas that you have identified are of great importance, we will focus mainly on the 2-year goals presented by staff at last week's Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) implementation update.
Of greatest importance are the goals that lead to significant reductions of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are driving the climate crisis, and over which the City has considerable control:
• Electric Vehicle Strategy (goal 4). We look forward to San Rafael's approval of the EV Acceleration Strategy
recently finalized by the Marin Climate and Energy
Partnership, and your selection of implementation
priorities from those recommended in the Plan. Rapid
adoption of EVs can cut our GHG footprint over 60%.
• Building Electrification (goal 5). A further 25%
reduction of GHG can come from replacing methane
with electrical appliances like heat pumps to heat our
businesses and homes and provide hot water. We ask
that this goal include the objective to "Work with the
County and others to develop and implement an
Existing Building Electrification Plan." The County is
scheduled to complete this Plan during FY2023-34.
• Mandatory Organics Recycling (goal 2). Another 5% of
GHG emissions can be addressed by continuing strong
implementation of SB1383 to reduce landfill methane.
We are especially pleased to see the objective to
"Identify opportunities for organic waste diversion
that also sequesters carbon"
In addition to these core GHG reduction measures, other draft CCAP goals that we urge you to adopt include continued work to increase Climate Preparedness (goals 8 and 9) and achieve an Equitable Low-Carbon Economy (goal 6), together with innovative new initiatives like the Citywide Integration of BOARD OF DIRECTORS
William Carney, President
Linda Jackson, Vice President
Stuart Siegel, Secretary
Arlin Benavides
Greg Brockbank
Kay Karchevski
Kiki La Porta
Annika Osborn
Howard Schwartz
415.302.0110
climate action through all departments (goal 1), exploring a Climate Financing District (goal 3), and weighing in on State Legislation that could help or hinder the City's sustainability, climate change, and preparedness goals (goal 10).
Sustainable San Rafael also has been pleased to work with the Department of Public Works and local conservation and
community leaders for several years to advance the General Plan's urban forestry policies and update the City's Street Tree Ordinance. Following an investment of over five years of staff, legal consultant, and community effort, we look forward to your adoption of the revised Street Tree Ordinance in the current fiscal year, as promised last year.
We urge the Council to continue moving forward this coming year with implementation of key remaining portions of the General Plan urban forestry policies, specifically a Street Tree Inventory (Community Design and Preservation Program
CDP-3.5B), Street Tree Master Plan (Program CDP-3.5A), and Tree Preservation regulations (Conservation and Climate Change Element Program C-1.17A).
We also request that you integrate this work with the General Plan's other urban forestry policies to protect, maintain and expand San Rafael's tree canopy. By implementing these
General Plan policies together as a coherent whole, we can achieve a comprehensive tree plan for San Rafael in a
coordinated and cost-effective manner.
Climate change makes this work urgent, given the significant role that trees play in sequestering the greenhouse gases that cause climate change and in cooling our community during intensifying heat events.
We urge you to include these important sustainability and urban forestry measures in your goals and objectives for the next two years. Thank you.
Sincerely,
William Carney,
President