Minutes from June 13th GRCC Meeting

Meeting started at 10:15 am.

Attending:

Bob Barrett

Alex Cannara

Nils Davis

June Flora

Kate Forrest

Patti Fry

Davena Gentry

Christine Hertzog

Kristin Kuntz, Duriseti, Menlo Park Environmental Quality Commissioner

Michal Lenchner

Adina Levin

Carol McClelland

Debbia Mytels (guest speaker)

Heather Nelson

Margaret Pettijean

Mitch Slomiak, Menlo Park Environmental Quality Commissioner

Chloe Songer

Joe Walmsley

Climate Action Plan (CAP) Update

Mitch reported on the City Council's 5/20/09 adoption of Menlo Park's first CAP. He indicated that the City's final budget proposal includes funds to revise the CAP to address gaps in this first version, one of which is the setting of a community-wide target for greenhouse gas reduction. Mitch briefly shared research provided by GRCC members (Karen Wong, John Kadvany, Mitch) on CAP targets by communities that are widely perceived as leaders within the US.

Bay Area Climate Action Leadership: A Discussion with Debbie Mytels

Debbie's biography can be found on Acterra's website: http://acterra.org/aboutus/acterra_staff.html

Debbie described two key Acterra programs, and then described several of the leading initiatives and/or municipalities in the Bay Area across a set of climate action categories. High level notes follow.

Green@Home (Acterra progam)

--175 volunteers trained for home energy audits [house calls]

--Menlo Park has funded Acterra for 250 house calls with 30-35 accomplished to date

Be the Change (Acterra progam)

--9-month environmental leadership training program that includes:

-environmental education

-social change process

-behavior change

-personal skills development

-each graduate accomplishes one project

--GRCC member and meeting attendee Christine H. just graduated. Her project can be found: http://www.smartgridlibrary.com

Debbie/Acterra definition of "Leadership"

-Find ways to do things that have not been done before

-Bring people together to find solutions

Leadership in Land Use Planning

--Toughest problem to address from political viewpoint

--Bay Area communities are mostly built out

--Greenbelt Alliance is major leader in preserving a greenbelt around developed areas and preventing further sprawl

--Asserts that 2 million projected population growth in Bay Area over next 20 years can be accommodated by infill rather than sprawl

--Bay Area Air Quality Management District provides grants for cities to develop smart growth elements in their general plans

Leadership in Transportation

--Public transit initiatives are critical, but difficult from political perspective

--BART to San Jose

--High speed rail

--Employee commute programs and carpooling are becoming more prevalent

--Redwood City and Santa Clara have major introductions of low emission vehicles into their municipal fleets

--GRCC's Drive Less Campaign has been adapted by a group in Heyward: http://www.TransFormCA.org

Leadership in Energy Efficiency

--Green@Home is leading program

--Many federal grants available now to cities for energy efficiency investments, both for municipal and community programs

--Sunnyvale is investing their $1M block grant into streetlight conversion to high efficiency LEDs [was back burner project until funding was available]

--Under AB-811 California has instituted a funding mechanism for solar and energy efficiency improvements

--Municipality can setup a funding district alone or with others and raise bonds to fund residential and commercial improvements, to be paid back as part of property tax obligations

--Sonoma County is in process of setting this up

--San Mateo County is exploring

Leadership in Renewable Energy

--Federal stimulus funding can be used to implement solar

--Sierra Club had solar permit fee study which has resulted in many cities, including Menlo Park, reducing or dropping solar permit fees, which were impediment to adoption

Leadership in Water Conservation

--Tuolumne River Trust (Peter Drekmeier) focuses on importance of "conservation first"

--Redwood City has become a local leader:

--Use of recycled [grey] water for landscape irrigation and other appropriate uses

--Water allocation plan with usage cuts that prioritize residents and businesses that are over-using on per capita basis

--Avoids penalizing people who are already conserving

--Menlo Park has challenge of 4 different water districts serving various parts of community

--Landscaping initiatives (low water; drought tolerant) are very important

--Limits on impervious surfaces are very important

Leadership in Habitat Preservation

--Bay-Friendly Landscape Group is one leader

--Important to encourage proliferation of native plants, bees, butterflies

Leadership in Food

--Community gardens

--Local farmers' markets

--Community-supported agriculture

--Locally grown food

--Some communities have rules limiting frontyard gardens or backyard chickens, which are impediment

--Some cities have adopted requirements for municipal events to only purchase local and/or organic food

--Program on the "One Block Diet" to be held 6/18 at Cubberly

Leadership in Trees

--California Re-Leaf is a leader

--There are at least 12 tree-related organizations in Bay Area, including Canopy in Palo Alto

--Menlo Park's Fair Oaks neighborhood had community effort that resulted in planting of 250 oak trees

--Trees for Menlo Park was responsible for plantings on El Camino

--Tree protection ordinances for private heritage trees are important

--Parking lot planting ordinances can reduce heat island effect

Leadership in Green Building

--Focus is currently on new construction

--Ordinances for retrofit is major challenge and are very important

Leadership in Green Jobs

--There could be many opportunities in Belle Haven to couple energy efficiency retrofits with green job training

Leadership in Green Community Building

--CA Interfaith Power & Light (focuses on communities of faith)

--Go Go Verde (web tools for green community building; local sustainability efforts); in beta, to be released soon

--Superbia! by Dan Chiras & David Wann is filled with ideas about neighborhood-based sharing for a more sustainable local environment (food, tools, etc.)

Planning for June 24 Menlo Park Block Party

--Discussion led by Kristin & Davena who are organizing the GRCC's table and efforts

--Primary GRCC Focus is to signup people for GRCC email list and to recruit new volunteers; public education important as well

--Focus of table (the educational draw) is water conservation

--Exhibit on raised beds with plants loaned by Roger Reynolds

--Badges to be handed out to people who stop at table that say "I'm Greening Menlo Park"

--GRCC volunteers to wear "Ask Me about Greening Menlo Park"

--Kristin to modify information cards used last year per Minutes from last GRCC meeting

--Kristin and Davena are filling out table sign-up schedule, and several meeting attendees signed up

--Carol to provide 200 copies of GRCC brochure and self-survey

--Carol (Kent) to bring GRCC banner and way to mount it

GRCC Resources + Summer Meeting Schedule

--Carol and Mitch described their overload with GRCC tasks and concerns about burning out. Reviewed the tasks they want to work on v. those that they have worked on due to shortage in volunteer commitments.

--Mitch will send synopsis to full GRCC Yahoo Group and prepare sign-up sheet for Block Party

--Kristin volunteered to track commitments from volunteers

--Christine affirmed that she will help with GRCC newsletter, email blasts, and other marketing/outreach areas.....specifics to be determined

--More help will be needed than Christine will be able to commit; a team of 3-5 is desirable

--Nils affirmed that he will help with event programming, including dates, logistics, speakers

--More help with be needed than Nils will be able to commit; a Co-Chair and 2-3 other volunteers is desirable

--For summer months there will likely be one more GRCC community meeting and one social event

--Community meeting likely for late July, when Carol/Mitch are available

--Social event likely for late August

--Nils and Mitch to meet after GRCC meeting to brainstorm further

Adjourned at 12:45pm