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Sustainable San Rafael
Location: Center for Volunteers and Nonprofit Leadership (CVNL) 1. Main presentation: Judy Klein, MD took us through her presentation on health impacts of global warming. There was some interesting follow-up discussion, but no specific action steps for SSR. 2. Green Building: Bob Brown is currently working on a possible draft GB ordinance. Denise Bellas has been in regular contact with him and has provided copies of ordinances from many nearby jurisdictions. He is also seeking input from stakeholders such as local builders and other potentially effected businesses. He is aiming for a next meeting on this in early November. Jerry Balletto noted that there may still be some concern about the legal issue of a mandatory GB ordinance not pre-empting/conflicting with the state building code. As far as we know, Bob is still in favor of a mandatory ordinance and believes the legal question can be managed. Still, we need to stay close to this in weeks ahead. 3. Climate Protection/ICLEI: Drew Krupinsky made a brief presentation of his background and position with the county. He is an intern on the sustainability staff working on the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory process. The US Mayors Agreement, which San Rafael signed in June, commits the city government to achieving Kyoto targets in its operations (GHG emissions 7% below 1990 levels by 2012). The first step in this is the inventory of current emissions, which Drew is available to help them with. So far , he has been unsuccessful in making contact with the city to discuss this. He also noted that the recently-passed state GHG bill (AB 32) will require monitoring GHGs for both the city as a whole and for Government operations specifically, starting sometime in 2008. There was discussion of the apparent lack of any city action on this front since they signed the Mayors Agreement and what SSR might do to get something started. (It was later suggested that perhaps the next SSR meeting should be a single-issue work session on re-igniting this issue at City Hall. Otherwise the signing of the Mayors Agreement is at risk of becoming simply an exercise in "spin.") 4. LNG Terminals: Ed Mainland raised the issue that California is at a key decision point regarding Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. There are currently 4 terminals proposed to serve the CA energy market, Coos Bay, Baja California, Long Beach and offshore from Oxnard. Importing LNG would have a long chain of negative GHG impacts plus the risk of catastrophic explosion. Moreover, if the state meets its agreed-upon targets for GHG emissions, there will be no need for imported LNG. Finally, importing LNG will stunt the future of renewable energy by under-pricing it. (Domestic gas is now as expensive as wind power and rising. Imported LNG would reverse this trend.) PG&E and others are hoping to see some of these terminals approved without a public fuss. This seems especially likely for Baja and Coos Bay, which want the economic benefit. The environmental community needs to get educated and active on this issue now. 5. Canal Bridge: Ted Posthuma brought us up to date on his proposed bridge between the Canal neighborhood and the high school. The city recently conducted a survey of Canal stakeholders on their needs. It identified 5 top transportation needs, of which the bridge was #3. These results are now being studied by the Planning Board. Also, several County Supervisors have expressed interest in the project. Ted wants to put together a citizen group to purchase the land for the northern terminus of the bridge (next to the boat shop) to help speed the project along. He also asked that SSR take an official position favoring the bridge and communicate that to the city. 6. Trees on 4th Street: Sandra Sellinger reported that on Oct 6, her group was finally able to walk the 4th street area with the project arborists and other city officials. They got a hearing for the idea of preserving selected mature Liquid Ambers, but the response was uniformly negative. The project team is clearly committed to tearing out all the established trees and replacing them with smaller, more easily-managed species. The next, and probably last, step will be a public study session with city and project staff on Monday, Nov 6 at 5:30. Sandra hopes a large group of SSR members will attend to demonstrate support for keeping at least a few of the mature trees. Sandra also has a new project: she would like to start pushing for the new county-wide general plan to include the creation of an Urban Forestry department in the County Government. 7. "Toxic Trespass": Ginger Souders-Mason briefed us on the creation of CATT - "Communities Abolishing Toxic Trespass," a group formed to work on the issue of unwitting/involuntary public exposure to toxics. An example of TT would be buildings that frequently spray public spaces (and even people) with insecticides as part of their pest-control program. Ginger says that the problem is much bigger than most people realize. SSR members were urged to join her. 8. "CleanTech Summit" Conference - Richard Schorske briefed us on this event, scheduled for the morning of November 30 at the Indian Valley Campus of COM. This is an event geared toward officials and decision-makers. An all-star cast of speakers has been recruited to address two topics: a) making Community Choice Aggregation happen in Marin and b) turning Marin into a center of excellence for the clean technology industries that are emerging from the fight against global warming. 9. Sustainable Marin: Ed Mainland briefed us on a move to turn Sustainable Marin from a mostly passive "umbrella" organization into an active force working with the BOS and county staff on county-wide sustainability issues and helping to enable and assist the formation of sustainable-city groups (like SSR and Sustainable Novato) where they don't currently exist. Both of these have been happening for the past several years, but at an informal/unofficial level. The first step will be a meeting with all Marin sustainable organizations. No firm date yet, but probably late November.
Adjourned: 9:10 PM | ||
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