What's New in Elk Grove
Global Climate Sustainability
Sustainability of Global Climate has become a common concern among California’s elected officials and community members. The City of Elk Grove aims to establish goals and policies to address these concerns and to establish the mechanism for communities to proactively address sustainability. The concept of sustainability is a holistic concept that involves more than environmental protection, green building, or the preservation of open space. Sustainability implies promoting thriving communities that last into the future, where support systems function efficiently to serve community needs.
Background Information
Why go green?
The 2006 Inventory of California Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks (2006) ranks the state of California as the second largest emitter of GHG in the country and twelfth to sixteenth largest in the world. The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in California in 2004 were the transportation (38%), electricity generation (25%), and industrial (20%) sectors.
The State Attorney General recently began legal action against a California community for inadequately analyzing climate change impacts within the Environmental Impact Report for that community’s General Plan Update. This indicates that even in light of on-going discussions about the scientific foundations of the climate change issue, the State is actively requiring agencies to participate in the discussion, relying upon litigation if necessary.
Existing City policies and standards to sustain global climate….
Improvement Standards/Design Guidelines:
- The City’s Improvement Standards require streets to be designed to accommodate multiple forms of mobility including vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
- The City’s Design Guidelines establish design standards for single family and multiple family residential developments and commercial developments, which are aimed at providing pedestrian amenities within projects as well as pedestrian connections to the City’s network of sidewalks and trails.
Ordinances:
- Water Conservation: The City’s Water Conservation Ordinance requires landscaping within development projects to meet certain standards of water use.
- Purchasing: The City’s new Purchasing Ordinance establishes a recycled product preference.
Partnership with SMUD:
www.smud.org
The City was the first to adopt a Resolution in support of SMUD’s solar energy program, which resulted in a streamlined building permit process at no cost to the customer for residential photovoltaic panels.
Planning Department:
www.egplanning.org
Planning staff is actively participating in regional as well as State efforts to address global warming impacts within CEQA documents, aimed both at individual development projects and long-range planning efforts.
Public Works Department:
www.egpublicworks.org
Public Works is working to reduce energy use by the City’s transportation system through improvements to signal timing and installation of LED lighting element in traffic signal and crosswalk lights.
Recycling Programs:
www.egtrashrecycleservices.org
Elk Grove has continually enhanced the local solid waste system by implementing aggressive recycling programs including collection of electronic waste. The City has also taken the first steps to providing a local transfer station facility, which when operated, is expected to reduce vehicle miles traveled by waste collection vehicles as well as local residents.
Transit Services:
www.e-tran.org
Elk Grove’s very own local transportation system, e-tran, has actively pursued the continued availability of existing park-and-ride lots and has identified new park-and-ride lots throughout the City. Transit services has installed numerous bus shelters and provided expanded bus service to encourage commuting and reduce the reliance on single-occupancy vehicles. The City has actively promoted fuel efficiency for the City’s bus, police, and maintenance vehicle fleet by using CNG buses. The City has seen a substantial increase in ridership of the bus system in recent years.
Zoning Code:
www.egplanning.org
The City’s Zoning Code requires development projects to provide bicycle parking and other facilities for commuters. The City’s Trails Master Plan identifies a community-wide trail system and as appropriate, requires development projects to provide land for trail segments and install trail facilities as projects are being built.
Programs and policies in progress
- Participation in the Regional Greenhouses Gases Inventory
- Signatories to the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement
- Participation in CARB’s Local Government Protocol Workshops to determine thresholds of significance for AB 32 compliance
- Participation in regional workshops conducted by the California Climate Action
- SMUD Tree Program
Stay Tuned
The City of Elk Grove will be undertaking additional green activities, policies and programs as directed in the future. Please click here if you wish to receive regular updates made to this webpage.
Comments/Questions
Please send to Angela Frost at afrost@elkgrovecity.org or (916) 478-2203.
Last updated: 1/24/11 12:15 PM
