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City of Pleasanton Climate Action Plan. CAP Format, Approach, and Content appendix of Recommended Changes to the Hayward General Plan. San Francisco mentions that it has existing policies in place to support reducing transportation- related greenhouse gas emissions, including those in the General Plan. San Leandro states that its General Plan includes policies and actions that guide long -range development decisions in the City to promote environmental sustainability for current and future generations. In terms of overall style and format, the CAP must provide sufficient technical detail while conveying concepts and pertinent information to a wide range of readers. In our review of Bay Area CAPs, we found that other cities have achieved varying levels of success in striking the proper balance. Those that are most successful combine clear, straightforward writing with informative tables and figures; and relegate technical information, such as assumptions, sources, and calculations of GHG reduction potential, to technical appendices. Of the CAPs reviewed, those for the City of San Carlos and the City of San Ramon best achieve this kind of balance. They both score highly in terms of content, including most if not all of the required elements of a "qualified CAP," and both are well - integrated with their city's General Plan, identifying General Plan policies that support CAP emission reduction strategics. They also score well in terms of overall document design and layout. Alongside San Carlos, the City of Albany CAP stands out for its clarity of presentation and in particular for its visual style. The San Carlos CAP does a good job of projecting emissions and presenting targets for 2020 and 2030, explaining GHG reduction scenarios, considering the impact of state policy initiatives, and quantifying the costs and emissions reduction potential of individual measures. The CAP relies heavily on ICLEI's Climate and Air Pollution Planning Assistant (CAPPA) tool to quantify the impacts of reduction measures, but it does not clearly present how the contributions of the State initiatives are quantified. State measures account for approximately 60% of the community -wide emission reductions needed for meeting the city's 2020 target. The CAP produced for Pleasanton's neighbor, the City of San Ramon, integrates well with that city's General Plan and claims to be a "qualified CAP" under BAAQMD guidelines. Strategies are primarily based upon the land use, transportation, and conservation policies that are part of the General Plan 2030, recent specific plans, and major development plans in the City. The CAP demonstrates that the city's General Plan policies and CAP strategies, in combination with state policy, would reduce emissions to 1990 levels, or 15% below its 2008 baseline. The CAP uses transparent methods to quantify the GHG reducing effects of state policy (primarily fuel efficiency, tailpipe standards, and building efficiency) and targets a minimum 15% reduction (from business as usual) for all new development projects in the City, presenting a scenario where it achieves (at minimum) a 15% overall reduction in emissions from its 2008 baseline. It relies substantially on the premise that the two largest sources over which the City has jurisdiction, mobile sources and new building construction, will see substantial emission reductions from state regulations on fuel efficiency in motor vehicles and energy efficiency in buildings. Overall, it projects that state measures will provide 92% of community -wide emission reductions needed for meeting the city's 2020 target. There is no official response yet from BAAQMD to indicate whether the methods used in San Ramon's CAP are consistent with their "qualified CAP" guidelines. Other stand -out CAPs in our review include the City of San Leandro CAP, for its cost - benefit analysis of GHG reduction strategies, and the City of Hayward CAP, for its detailed comparative evaluation and prioritization of strategies. We recommend drawing from the document design, organizational, and methodological approaches in the five CAPs mentioned here to guide development of the City of Pleasanton CAP. In terms of document appearance, we will use ESA's standard style guide for formatting text, tables, and graphics. We will use descriptive graphics and figures liberally to illustrate concepts and present quantitative information in an accessible manner. ESA intends to review the San Carlos and San Ramon CAPs in detail with BAAQMD, in particular the methodologies used to quantify state policy impacts, to determine how well they meet the intent and rigor of the BAAQMD guidelines and the expectations of the State Attorney General. 3