09 - Laserfiche WebLink

BACKGROUND On August 16, 2011, the City Council approved the draft CAP strategy, and staff began work on a supplemental Environmental Impact Report. Staff submitted the draft plan to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) during the environmental review period for review and comment. Based on feedback from the BAAQMD, staff made some adjustments to the draft plan. The specific changes that BAAQMD requested were: 1. Remove the credit for GHG emissions from the plan that are attributed to fuel price increases. 2. Move strategies in the Community Engagement section to the appropriate CAP sectors to appropriately reflect where the reductions would occur. 3. Change "incentivize" to `require" in all Land Use measures addressing municipal development codes related to density, infill, mixed-use, and transit-oriented development. 4. Change assist employers or work with employers to require employers to offer transportation and parking demand management programs; and 5. Reduce minimum size requirements of employers targeted for TDM programs 100+ to 50+ employees. Staff had expected the BAAQMD to request changes and had planned for such a request by reserving some measures that could meet the target and not change the structure of the plan as developed by the community process. Staff worked with District personnel to incorporate these changes and asked the District to provide an updated comment letter. We were successful in working with the District toward this goal and received a revised comment letter on January 6, 2012 stating that the City plan met the requirements of a qualified CAP. The changes that were made did not change the intent of the plan to educate and collaborate — and not regulate — the community to attain the CAP goals. Below are the changes incorporated into the final CAP: 1 . The fuel price impact "credit" was removed; 2. We moved the Community Engagement strategies into the relevant energy or land use categories as requested. 3. The future reductions expected from the solar program were improved based on the strong results we have achieved since inception of the program, and expect to sustain; 4. The impact of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) measures was thus strengthened through a more aggressive reduction calculation supported by the District; and 5. We targeted TDM programs for commercial developments of 100+ employees combined rather than individual companies of 50+ or more. The most significant reason we were successful was due to our ability to work with District personnel to make changes that did not require the prescriptive suggestion to make all land use strategies required and require any further regulatory enforcements at this time. This was possible due to all the proactive steps our community has taken over Page 2 of 6