Energy and Climate Change Element Added to General Plan
The City of Richmond, California, is having a very large impact on how communities nationwide will plan for the future. Building on its breakthrough concept of including a Public Health element in its General Plan, the City has launched the development of an Energy and Climate Change (ECC) element, thanks to a $75,000 grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.“Richmond is at the forefront of new thinking about the impact of the built environment on humans and the earth; our General Plan now includes climate change as an integral element,” said Bill Lindsay, Richmond City Manager. A General Plan provides policy and planning guidance for the physical development of a city.
“The Community and City leadership believe that it is critical that we address our environmental responsibility in planning for Richmond’s future,” stated Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. “Although climate change is a global issue, there are dramatic relationships between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and our local transportation and land use patterns.”
In the Bay Area overall, transportation is responsible for 50 percent of total GHG emissions. “Where we locate housing, transit hubs, shopping and jobs determines how much we drive,” said Mayor McLaughlin. “More pedestrian-friendly and transit-friendly urban design can reduce our dependence on cars—as well as our energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.” In Richmond itself, industrial activities are responsible for the majority of the city’s GHG emissions.
The ECC element is intended to put Richmond on a path to making significant reductions in its GHGs in the way the entire city now operates as well as in anticipation of future development. It may be the first of its kind in the country and will provide a road map for other California cities that will be required to address GHGs as a result of the implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32). The development of the ECC will involve the participation of the entire community who will be invited to recommend ideas and help shape the final policy recommendations.
The city has 32 miles of bay shoreline and many regional natural resources including wetlands, creeks, native habitats and shoreline parks that would be affected by rising sea levels and changing weather patterns. In addition, many of Richmond’s neighborhoods are located near heavy industrial operations. This heightens environmental and social equity concerns among residents.
The ECC element will pinpoint how the City’s land use and transportation framework affects energy consumption and determine what policies to enact to regulate and reduce GHGs. With the grant money, the City’s technical planning experts will:
• Assess current transportation in relation to the built environment;
• Conduct a Citywide inventory of GHGs;
• Review existing policies that have an impact on energy and climate change; and
• Develop new goals and policies to address energy conservation, sustainable and alternative energy production, sustainable business development and reduction of climate change impacts in the City.
The Richmond General Plan Energy and Climate Change element is being developed by MIG, Inc., a Berkeley-based land-use planning firm. MIG will also form and manage a Technical Advisory Group composed of climate change experts and city and community leaders whose recommendations will be reviewed by Richmond’s General Plan Advisory Committee.
Other sustainability concepts will also be incorporated into the General Plan, such as natural resource conservation, transit-oriented development, access to many modes of transportation, green building incentives, and public health.
“Richmond’s industrial background and our history of challenges with environmental justice make us well-suited to provide groundbreaking leadership in the area of progressive environmental planning—as Mayor, I am dedicated to evolving policy at a local level to affect global change,” added Mayor McLaughlin.
