Committee of the Environment Meeting - December 7, 2017
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Committee of the Environment Meeting - December 7, 2017
The Committee of the Environment held its last meeting of the year on December 7, 2017, with Councilmembers Alvarez (Chair), Ward, Sherman, and Kate present. The agenda included amendments to the municipal code for recyclable material franchise exclusion, adoption of the Vernal Pool Habitat Conservation Plan, annual climate action plan report, a new planning tool for community plan updates, and a recycling update at city facilities.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of the record of action items from the November 2, 2017 meeting and consent agenda items 1-7 were approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
Item 8 (Recyclable Material Franchise Exclusion):
- Ellie Brown (San Diego Food System Alliance/Healthy Soils Coalition) supported the amendments but asked for periodic enrollment until 2020 and a food recovery vision.
- Sarah Messina (Food to Soil) supported, highlighting community composting benefits.
- Mickey Nabb (Business for Good) supported, asked for space for future innovation.
- Jeremy Ogle (San Diego County Disposal Association) expressed concern about revenue loss (up to $27 per ton in fees) and asked for a cap on certified collectors or limiting eligibility to pre-July 2017 operators.
Item 9 (Vernal Pool Habitat Conservation Plan):
- Jim Whalen (Planning Commission) supported the plan as a compromise.
- David Hogan (11 environmental organizations) supported in concept but requested improvements including a larger preserve in Otay Mesa, addressing the Pure Water site, and improving the inventory.
- Tom Story (Crossborder Express) opposed expansion, stating the proposed preserve is already larger than needed.
- Richard Halsey (California Chaparral Institute) concerned about missing vernal pools and lack of educational component.
- Van Collinsworth (Preserve Wild SAND) asked for modifications.
- Frank Landis (California Native Plant Society) asked for delay to resolve issues.
- Matthew Adams (San Diego Building Industry Association) supported as a compromise.
- Deborah Knight (Friends of Rose Canyon) asked staff to work with environmental groups.
Item 10 (Climate Action Plan Annual Report):
- Sebastian Saria (Climate Action Campaign) urged moving forward on Community Choice Energy (CCE) business plan with a clear timeline.
- Sophie Wolfram (Climate Action Campaign) raised concerns about VMT projections, mode share targets, adaptation plan funding, and need for a transportation master plan.
Item 11 (Planning Tool for Community Plans):
- Sophie Wolfram reiterated the need for a transportation master plan.
Discussion Items
Item 8: Recyclable Material Franchise Exclusion Amendments Staff (Mario Sierra, Ken Prue) presented proposed revisions to the Municipal Code allowing food waste under the existing 1,000-ton carve-out for certified recyclers, adding exclusions for solid/liquid byproducts from food processing, and requiring property owner notification for food waste. Fiscal impact estimated at up to $540,000 per year. Committee discussed balancing revenue loss with support for community composting. Councilmember Ward requested an analysis of permits and an IBA report by fall 2018.
Item 9: Vernal Pool Habitat Conservation Plan (VPHCP) Staff (Jeff Murphy, Kristen Fauberger) presented a 31-year plan to protect seven vernal pool species, with a conservation strategy allowing impacts to degraded pools in exchange for preservation/restoration of high-value habitat. Total cost ~$13 million (2014 dollars), no new budget needed. Environmental groups raised concerns about inventory completeness, road rut pools, and preserve size in Otay Mesa. Developers supported the plan. Committee voted to forward to council with a request for continued stakeholder meetings and IBA analysis.
Item 10: Climate Action Plan 2017 Annual Report Staff (Cody Hooven) reported a 19% reduction in GHG emissions below 2010 baseline, 66% waste diversion, and progress on clean energy and mobility. Committee discussed data accuracy, mode share metrics, and the enforceability of CAP targets. Next steps for CCE include quarterly updates starting February 2018. Adaptation plan funding: $438,000 SB1 grant plus $100,000 Coastal Commission grant (total need $800,000). Informational item; no vote.
Item 11: Community Plan Updates Planning Tool Staff (Jeff Murphy, Alyssa Mudo) introduced a custom modeling tool to assess land use scenarios against CAP mode share targets, using SCAG and MXD models. Tool will produce heat maps for density and employment intensity. First use with Midway and Old Town community plan updates in spring 2018. Informational item.
Item 12: Recycling at City Facilities Staff (Angela Colton) reported city facility diversion rate reached 69% in FY2017, up from 25% in FY2016, due to expanded data collection and education. Eight of 13 department groups exceed 50% goal. Next steps: address underperforming departments, streamline data. Informational item.
Key Outcomes
- Item 8: Motion to forward to full City Council with friendly amendments (analysis of CRMC permits and IBA report by fall 2018) passed unanimously.
- Item 9: Motion to forward to full City Council with request for continued stakeholder meetings and IBA analysis passed unanimously.
- Items 10, 11, 12: Informational only; no votes taken.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everybody. We will call the meeting to order. This is uh the meeting of the committee of the environment. December seventh, twenty seventeen meeting, our last meeting of the year. Thank you all for being here. We have several items on the agenda today, so we'll get started. Um we have uh Councilmember Ward, Councilmember Sherman, myself present, Councilmember Kate will be joining us shortly. First thing we'll do is we'll take up the approval with a record of action items for our previous meeting on November 2nd. Unless there's any committee member questions or comments. Uh that will be approved by unanimous consent. All right. Uh any committee member comments. Or IBA or Mayor's Office. Anybody? Councilman Ward. Thank you, Council Chair Alvarez. Um just wanted to speak briefly about community choice energy. I recently had the opportunity to go to San Francisco uh for a quick visit, but a very uh busy visit over the Thanksgiving week uh to learn about some of the active CCEs about their formation and their current operation. As we heard in this committee in September, community choice energy is feasible in San Diego. And that said there remain a number of questions on exit fees, financial liabilities to the city, potential liabilities, and whether a CCE would result in more renewable energy for the San Diego customers. I had the opportunity to meet with Clean Power SF, which is San Francisco's municipal community choice provider. Um with Marine Clean Energy, the state's first C C E that had a lot of uh challenges getting up and running uh that others have learned from. Uh the nonprofit C C E advocacy organizations, former San Francisco supervisors that went through this process, and TUC staff. I'm confident that from these meetings at San Diego is on track to properly implement a CCE and Mayor Faulkner's recent announcement to move forward with the business plan as a positive step and an opportunity for us as policy makers and for the public to ensure that our C C E will keep rates competitive, provide more renewable energy, and invest back into our communities. I believe we're in that unique position to learn from the formation of current CCEs across California, and they welcome our outreach to help us move forward. Um I also wanted to briefly address cities' role on mitigating climate change on the national and the international stage. Um, around the world, cities, large and small, signed up to commit upholding the standards of the Paris Climate Accord, despite the announcement out of Washington, D.C. to be the only nation in the world not to sign on right now. And I appreciate Mayor Faulkner's and my colleagues' commitments to uphold the Paris Climate Accord by joining the Climate Mayors Coalition. He has also been selected by Sierra Club as one of the mayors for mayors for 100, keeping San Diego on pace for a 100% clean energy future. This past week, mayors and representatives from cities across the country gathered in Chicago for the North American Climate Summit. And I was happy to see that we were represented by Cody Hooven and San Diego was a finalist for a Cities for Action Climate Award. During this conference, 51 mayors signed on to the Chicago Climate Charter, declaring their commitment to tackle climate change in their cities. And as San Diego is already ahead of the curve on climate change mitigation, I hope that we can continue to take advantage of the opportunities to show the country and the world that climate action that uh that in climate action, we are the leaders. And as we will be learning from others in California on C CE implementation, we should be sharing best practices with other major cities and challenging ourselves to even more expeditiously act on climate change. So thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much, Councilman Ward. Thanks for sharing that experience with us. And um with that, we do not have any other uh comments from the committee members, so we will now take up the consent agenda. There have been no requests to pull any items from the public. Uh any council member have any questions or want to pull any of the items is one through seven. Councilmember Ward makes a motion to move the items. I will second that. All in favor? All right. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Those of you who worked on those seven items, appreciate you answering our questions, and we'll see you at council. We are now moving on to number eight.
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