Mountain View Council Sustainability Committee Meeting – December 2, 2025
Mountain View Council Sustainability Committee Meeting – December 2, 2025
The Council Sustainability Committee (CSC) met on December 2, 2025, to review a draft Climate Vulnerability Assessment (CVA), consider next steps for an integrated climate strategy, discuss the decarbonization roadmap, and approve an EV charger rebate program for multifamily properties. The committee voted on several items, including a contract amendment for a combined decarbonization and resiliency plan.
Consent Calendar
- The committee unanimously approved the minutes from the November 6, 2035 meeting. (Note: The transcript references minutes from 2035, which is a future date relative to the meeting date; this appears to be a transcription error.)
Public Comments & Testimony
- Bruce Karney (longtime resident): Criticized the lack of a clear 2045 vision, stating the CVA did not answer the “right visionary question” and called for scenarios to guide five-year steps. He argued the city needs a vision of what 2045 realistically looks like and urged staff to focus on that rather than small-scale actions.
- Hala Alshawani (resident): Noted that the hottest areas in the city (e.g., Cuesta Park, Sylvan Park) were non-intuitive and resulted from plastic turf and lack of trees. She advocated for policies banning artificial turf and protecting green barriers near freeways, emphasizing that these are low-hanging fruit.
- Mary Day (virtual): Supported considering a time-of-sale requirement for electrification (modeled after Berkeley) and suggested optimizing the number of EV chargers per multifamily property to maximize adoption.
- Another virtual speaker (unidentified) echoed support for time-of-sale requirements and suggested partnering with SVCE on a trial program.
Discussion Items
5.1 Draft Climate Vulnerability Assessment & Integrated Climate Strategy
Staff from the Sustainability Division and Cascadia Consulting presented the draft CVA, which analyzed climate hazards (extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding) across health, emergency management, economy, and housing/infrastructure sectors. Key findings:
- By late century, Mountain View is projected to experience 23 extreme heat days (≥91°F) and 78 warm nights (≥65°F) per year.
- South Mountain View, Rengstorff, Shoreline, and Sylvan Park show the highest heat exposure, often coinciding with mobile home parks, older buildings, and paved surfaces.
- Critical facilities (e.g., El Camino Health, fire stations) and vulnerable populations (older adults, low-income, unhoused) are disproportionately affected.
- Flashing risks include localized flooding on key roadways and flood zones overlapping with commercial assets worth >$670 million. Staff recommended a contract amendment (from ~$223,000 to ~$370,000) to develop an integrated climate strategy combining decarbonization and resiliency planning, emphasizing a five-year roadmap.
Committee members expressed concerns about:
- The need for more near-term action rather than extended planning.
- Lack of quantified decarbonization goals and honest assessment of progress toward 2045 carbon neutrality.
- The importance of ground‑truthing heat maps to understand local conditions (e.g., artificial turf, tree canopy).
- Overlap with other city projects (parks, transportation, housing) and the need to avoid working at cross‑purposes.
- Collaboration with external partners (SVCE, county, region).
Member Clark noted that without proof of at least 25% decarbonization progress in the next five years, she could not support an unfocused plan. Staff acknowledged that the federal landscape (IRA, clean car rules) has shifted dramatically and that local actions alone cannot achieve the 2045 goal without offsets or very costly measures.
5.2 Local Actions for Decarbonization Roadmap
Staff presented an updated list of actions—including guiding principles (e.g., emphasis on substantial emission reductions, regular review, collaboration) and specific new items added from November feedback (e.g., autonomous minibuses, enhanced outreach, permit streamlining). The list still includes end‑of‑flow of natural gas and time‑of‑sale requirements (as per the staff report). Public comment suggested adding solar thermal hot water, addressing direct‑access electricity emissions, and exploring balcony solar.
5.3 EV Charger Rebate Program for Multifamily Properties
Staff proposed a rebate program funded by a $379,921 SVCE grant, offering up to $8,500 per Level 2 port (stacked on SVCE’s rebates) to cover 100% of project costs for existing multifamily properties. The goal is to install ~180 ports. The program includes a property owner ambassador for outreach. Committee members praised the plan and asked about repairing existing broken chargers; staff agreed to investigate.
5.4 Verbal Update – Sustainability & Resiliency Division Progress
Staff reported that the heat pump water heater rebate program is fully subscribed and will be amended with additional funds. More details will be provided in future council connections reports.
Key Outcomes
- Item 5.1 (CVA & Integrated Climate Strategy): Motion passed unanimously (3‑0) with amendments to:
- Conduct extensive ground‑truthing of the heat map.
- Include explicit quantification of decarbonization expectations in the five‑year roadmap.
- Maximize overlap with existing city projects (parks, transportation, housing).
- Add a map of localized flooding hotspots (identified through the community rating system). The contract amendment will be brought to city council for approval.
- Item 5.2 (Decarbonization Roadmap Actions): Motion passed unanimously (3‑0) to recommend the updated list, incorporating committee and public suggestions for further consideration (solar thermal, direct‑access electricity, balcony solar, recirculation pumps).
- Item 5.3 (EV Charger Rebate Program): Motion passed unanimously (3‑0) to adopt the staff recommendation and launch the program in spring 2026.
- Committee Comments: Member Showalter proposed that future regional sea‑level rise meetings be held as official CSC meetings to comply with the Brown Act, and suggested exploring a permanent sustainability advisory board.
Meeting Transcript
shown on the screen. When the chair announces the item on which you wish to speak, click on the raise hand feature in Zoom or star nine on your phone. When the chair calls your name to provide public comment, if you're participating via phone, please press star six to unmute yourself. For in-person attendees, please fill out a speaker card which you can find on the sign-in table to left of the door. Now item number one is complete and we will move on to item number two, roll call. Ms. Lee, can you take roll? Chair Hicks, here. Member Showalter, here. So we have a quorum and I've heard that member Clark will arrive momentarily. We're now to item number three, approving the minutes. This would be the CSC meeting minutes from November 6 of 2035. Does anyone have any comments or questions about the meeting? Would would anyone like to make a motion to approve the meeting minutes? So moved. I'll second. And Miss Lee, can you take a vote? Certainly. Chair Hicks. Yes. Member Showalter. Yes. We're now on item number four, which is oral communications. I don't know, it's oral communications from the public, and this portion of the meeting is reserved for people wishing to address the committee on any matter not on the agenda. You are allowed to speak on any topic you'd like for up to three minutes. state law prohibits the CSC from acting on non-agendized items. Would any member of the public like to provide comment on an item that is not on the agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. And if you're here in person, give a speaker call. So nobody is here in person to speak on this during public speaking. Do we have anybody? Ms. Lynn, do we have anybody? No, no raised hands virtually. No virtual speakers. Okay, we will now close the oral communication item and move to our discussion and action items. First, we have new business, first 5.1, which is a draft climate vulnerability assessment and scope of services to develop an integrated climate strategy comprised of decarbonization and resiliency. This item will be presented by staff from the Sustainability Division and also Cascadia Consulting Group. Ms. Lee will commence the presentation. Thank you, Chair. I'm pleased to be here this evening to talk with the committee about the draft of our climate vulnerability assessment and also proposed amendments to our existing contract with Cascadia. Next slide. Just by way of a little bit of background, this project commenced at the end of 2024. November 19th, Council approved the scope of work for Cascadia to undertake a climate vulnerability assessment. In April of this year, we brought to the committee the framework, deliverables and focus areas that we would be pursuing within the vulnerability assessment. And then in June of this year, we came to the committee with a preliminary kind of glimpse into what the CBA would look like. We had a focused look at the heat data that we were analyzing. And this evening, we are prepared to present to you the draft of the full vulnerability assessment. Next slide. The process of developing the CBA has been thorough. We started with reviewing plans across the city that were already underway or that had been adopted. understanding what the city's goals already were and analysis that had already been undertaken. So, for example, the city has been active in planning for sea level rise. And so our consultants were reviewing some of that work. Next, the Cascadia and the team worked to develop what we call climate impact summaries, just to start to understand by climate impact, what would our future in Mountain View look like with regards to climate change? And today we're at this phase of being ready to present the draft vulnerability assessment. This includes our literature review,
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