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Home My WebLink About8.2 City's Climate Action PlanG~~~ Off' DU~~~ ~9~~~~jz ~ /l O~LIFOR~~~ STAFF REPORT CITY CLERK DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL File # ^®0^®-0® DATE: March 2, 2010 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers FROM: Joni Pattillo, City Manager SUBJE Consultant Services Agreement with AECOM Technical Services, Inc. to provide assistance to the City on the preparation of the City's Climate Action Plan. Prepared By: Martha Aja, Environmental Specialist EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The City Council will consider a Consulting Services Agreement with AECOM to provide assistance to the Caty on the preparation of the City's Climate Action Plan. The preparation of a Climate Action Plan will enable the City to continue to develop and ensures that individual development projects would not be subject to extensive environmental review based solely on the project's anticipated greenhouse gas emissions as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the CEQA Thresholds proposed by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD). FINANCIAL IMPACT: The fee for services provided by AECOM is $27,510. This program is not part of the adopted FY 2009-2010 Budget and an additional appropriation from the General Fund Budgeted Contingent Reserve and from Measure D reserves is recommended. Measure D funds will be used to pay for 50% and the City's General Fund will pay for 50% of the Consultant Services Agreement. RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a Consulting Services Agreement between the City of Dublin and AECOM and adopt the Budget Change for the amount of $27,510. a~~ Submitt Reviewed By: viewe B Administrative A lyst Administrative Services Director Assistant ity Manager V Page 1 of 4 ITEM NO. D ~ ~-- DESCRIPTION: Background On July 17, 2007, the Dublin City Council passed Resolution 139-07 approving participation in the Climate Protection Project for Alameda County jurisdictions. The Alameda County Climate Protection Project (ACCPP) was launched by ICLEI -Local Governments for Sustainability in partnership with StopWaste.Org and the Alameda County Conference of Mayors. ICLEI was founded in 1990 as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (now officially called ICLEI -Local Governments for Sustainability). ICLEI is an international association of local governments that have made a commitment to sustainable development. In committing to this project, the jurisdictions within Alameda County embarked on an on-going, coordinated effort to reduce emissions, improve air quality, reduce waste and cut energy use. In doing so, the City of Dublin committed to ICLEI's 5-milestone methodology for reducing GHG emissions, which includes: Milestone 1: Conduct a baseline emissions inventory and forecast; Milestone 2: Adopt an emissions reduction target; Milestone 3: Develop a Climate Action Plan for reducing emissions; Milestone 4: Implement policies and measures; and Milestone 5: Monitor and verify results. To date, the City of Dublin has completed Milestone 1 and is currently working on Milestones 2 and 3. The City of Dublin's inventory was conducted by ICLEI in partnership with City Staff. The purpose of the baseline emissions inventory is to determine the levels of greenhouse gas emissions that Dublin emitted in its 2005 base year. Per the inventory, the community of Dublin emitted approximately 357,211 metric tons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) in the year 2005. Vehicles on roads and state highways in Dublin are by far the largest source of Dublin's community emissions (65.3%). Emissions from the built environment account collectively for almost one-third (31.1 %) of community emissions. The remainder of Dublin's emissions are from waste sent to landfills (3.5%) by Dublin residents and businesses. Factoring in expected growth from 2005 to 2020, the City of Dublin's emissions are projected to grow over this decade and a half by approximately 36.8% from 357,211 to 488,542 metric tons of COZe. As part of the preparation of its Climate Action Plan, the City will propose a reduction target to reduce the City's greenhouse gas emissions by a certain percentage below a business-as-usual scenario, consistent with state legislation such as Assembly Bill 32 (Nunez & Pavley, 2006), which institutes a mandatory reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. The City will work with AECOM to develop a reduction target that is both achievable and consistent with California climate change legislation. The reduction target, once determined, will be presented to the City Council along with the Climate Action Plan for consideration. ANALYSIS: Bay Area Air Quality Management District The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) staff analyzed various options for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) air quality thresholds of significance for use within Page 2 of 4 BAAQMD's jurisdiction. The BAAQMD has direct and indirect regulatory authority over sources of air pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area Air Basin, of which the City of Dublin is a part. BAAQMD has undertaken an effort to review all of its currently-recommended CEQA thresholds and is revising them where appropriate and developing new thresholds where necessary. The overall goal of this effort is to develop CEQA significance criteria that ensures any new development that will occur in the future implements appropriate and feasible emission reduction measures to mitigate significant air quality impacts. The Air District's recommended CEQA significance thresholds have been vetted through a public review process and will be presented to the BAAQMD Board of Directors for adoption at either their April or June 2010 meeting. It is anticipated that the BAAQMD Board of Directors will adopt the proposed CEQA significance thresholds at one of these meetings with the effective date being 30-60 days thereafter (the Air District will decide the effective date at the time of adoption). BAAQMD does not currently have an adopted threshold of significance for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One of the primary objectives in updating the current CEQA Guidelines is to identify GHG significance thresholds, analytical methodologies and mitigation measures to ensure new land use development meets its fair share of the emission reductions needed to address the cumulative environmental impact from GHG emissions. The BAAQMD is proposing a threshold of 1,100 metric tons of CO2e/yr for development projects. Projects with emissions greater than the proposed threshold would be required to mitigate to the proposed threshold level or reduce project emissions by a percentage deemed feasible by the Lead Agency. The project threshold proposed by the BAAQMD (1,100 metric tons of CO2e/yr) is equivalent to approximately 60 single-family units, 78 multi-family units, a supermarket exceeding 8,000 square feet and an office park exceeding 50,000 square feet. As evident by the examples above, a significant percentage of development projects in Dublin would exceed the proposed threshold and would therefore trigger substantial environmental review, which would result in significant cost increases and project delays for future development within Dublin. BAAQMD's approach to developing a threshold of significance for GHG emissions is to identify the emissions level for which a project would not be expected to substantially conflict with existing California legislation adopted to reduce statewide GHG emissions. If a project would generate GHG emissions above the threshold level, it would be considered to contribute substantially to a cumulative impact and would be considered significant. Alternatively, a City may prepare a Climate Action Plan which is consistent with AB 32 goals. The Air District encourages such planning efforts and recognizes that careful upfront planning by local agencies is invaluable to achieving the state's GHG reduction goals. A Climate Action Plan can either be incorporated into a City's General Plan or a stand alone document. A Climate Action Plan is a plan that compiles all existing and potential activities occurring within a community to address reducing GHG emissions. A Climate Action Plan is the culmination of all related sustainability initiatives taken by a jurisdiction and provides a coordinated strategy and direction for all related efforts to follow. A Climate Action Plan also ensures that a jurisdictions future activities and development patterns conform to California climate change legislation. If a project is consistent with an adopted Qualified Climate Action Plan that addresses the project's GHG emissions, it can be presumed that the project will not have significant GHG emission reductions. The BAAQMD has identified various items that should be included in a Climate Action Plan in order for the plan to be considered "qualified." One of the requirements is Page 3 of 4 to quantify the reduction effectiveness of each of the measures identified in the Climate Action Plan including disclosure of the calculation method and accompanying assumptions. The preparation of a Qualified Climate Action Plan will enable the City of Dublin to continue to develop and ensures that individual development projects would not be subject to extensive environmental review based solely on the project's anticipated greenhouse gas emissions. Without a Qualified Climate Action Plan, each development project that contributes 1,100 metric tons or more of CO2e/yr would be considered to contribute substantially to a cumulative impact, and would be considered significant. In summary, the absence of a Qualified Climate Action Plan would result in each development project having to do extensive analysis on their anticipated GHG emissions and could possibly trigger extensive environmental review such as the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report, which would slow down development and increase the costs incurred by developers. To avoid this situation, the City of Dublin is moving expeditiously to prepare a Qualified Climate Action Plan which meets the City's objectives to allow development to continue to occur. Scope of Work The City sent a scope of services to several qualified firms soliciting assistance on the preparation of our Climate Action Plan. City Staff reviewed the proposals and narrowed down the field to two finalists. The City interviewed the two finalists and selected AECOM. The assistance that will be provided by AECOM includes assistance in calculating the GHG emissions reductions to be achieved by measures in the Climate Action Plan in addition to emissions reductions that will be achieved by State initiatives such as the Renewable Portfolio Standard and Assembly Bill 1493 (Pavley). Additionally, AECOM will peer review the City of Dublin Climate Action Plan for technical accuracy and to ensure that the various sections address all required topics. AECOM is very familiar with the GHG environmental and regulatory setting and will be able to provide useful input on the document. The cost for AECOM to provide assistance to the City of Dublin on the preparation of the City's Climate Action Plan is $27,510. As previously noted, Measure D funds will be used to pay for 50% of the Consultant Services Agreement and 50% of the funding for this project will come from the City's General Fund. NOTICING REQUIREMENTS/PUBLIC OUTREACH: Not Applicable ATTACHMENTS: 1. Resolution authorizing the City Manager to execute a Consulting Services Agreement between the City of Dublin and AECOM. 2. Budget Change. Page 4 of 4 Ida RESOLUTION NO. XX -10 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN *********** AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONSULTING SERVICES AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF DUBLIN AND AECOM TECHNICAL SERVICES INC. WHEREAS, on July 17, 2007 the Dublin City Council passed Resolution 139-07 approving participation in the Climate Protection Project for Alameda County jurisdictions; and WHEREAS, the City of Dublin has committed to ICLEI's 5 milestone methodology, which includes the development of a Climate Action Plan; and WHEREAS, AECOM is very familiar with the greenhouse gas environmental and regulatory setting and will be able to provide useful information to the City; and WHEREAS, AECOM has demonstrated that they have the ability and knowledge to provide assistance to the City of Dublin on the preparation of the City's Climate Action Plan; and WHEREAS, AECOM will perform the work outlined in the Proposal/Scope of Work and according to the Fee Schedule and timeline therein; and WHEREAS, the fee for the work that will be provided by AECOM is $27,510; and WHEREAS, Measure D funds (50%) and the City's General Fund (50%) will be used to pay for the Consultant Services Agreement; and NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Dublin does authorize the City Manager to execute a Consultant Services Agreement on behalf of the City. PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED this 2"d day of March, 2010, by the following vote: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTEST: City Clerk Mayor ~~e~~ ~ g- ~ 3~~11 ~ ATTACHMENT 1 CITY OF DUBLIN BUDGET CHANGE FORM FY 2009 / 2010 CHANGE FORM # New Appropriations (City Council Approval Required) _X_ From Unappropriated Reserves (Fund) From New Revenues 1)p~C'RF~AfiF afiili~TF7~ A('f'(IIINT ANi(1TT}VT Budget Transfers: _X _ From Budgeted Contingent Reserve (1001.1901.81101) Within Same Department Activity Between Departments (City Council Approval Required) Other fN(~RTt':A~i+' RiTlll7k'T e(~~~ni r~l°r s ntrr n rnirr Name: EXPENSE -GENERAL FUND - Budgeted Contingent Reserve GL Account #: 1001.1901.81101 13,755 Name: EXPENSE - Measure D Fund, Environmental Services Program -Contract Services GL Account #: 2302.5201.64001 27,510 Fin Mgr/ASD: o~ ~~ a~ Signature Date: Z /`Il2olU REASON FOR BUDGET CHANGE ENTRY: Fee for consulting services provided by AECOM to provide assistance to the City on the preparation of the City's Climate Action Plan is $27,510. Since this program was not part of the adopted FY2009-2010 Budget, Staff recommends 50% of the contract amount or $13,755 is financed by a transfer from the Budgeted Contingent Reserve to the Measure D fund. The remainder 50% of the contract amount will be paid[ from~~t }hey~ Measure D Fund Unappropriated Reserve. City Man er: `~~~~~;t:~0 Date: ~~~ Signature As Approved at the City Council Meeting. on: Date: 3/2/2010 Mayor: Date: Signature Posted By: Date: Signature G: IBudget Chm~gesl2_2009_10116_3_2_IO_Chmate Action PIan.DOC ATTACHMENT # 2