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Council Agenda - City of BurbankTuesday, April 24, 2007Study Session |
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Council Agenda - City of BurbankTuesday, April 24, 2007Study Session |
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PURPOSE:
This report provides Council with an overview of the work completed to date in support of the City�s efforts to achieve its urban sustainability goals. The report provides background information about the principles of sustainability and presents a draft action plan that articulates the target goals and the steps that must be taken to achieve these goals.
BACKGROUND:
As part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2006-07 goal setting process, several Council Members discussed a desire to consider the principles of sustainability in various City operations. While the City has had a long history of promoting sustainable efforts through a number of programs involving several City departments, a comprehensive assessment of all the efforts had not been compiled to date, and an integrated program of moving the City toward a more sustainable future had not yet been adopted. The desire to move forward with sustainability efforts was further reiterated during an August 29, 2006, staff report to Council regarding zero waste.
To address this, the City Manager�s office convened a team comprised of several department heads and key staff to develop a recommended approach. The core team included:
The sustainability team began meeting in September 2006 and reviewed examples of sustainability plans adopted by other cities. The City of Santa Monica was one of the first communities to formally adopt a sustainability plan in 1994, which they updated in February 2003. The City of Seattle was also a leader in this field, having adopted its guiding principles for the environment in 1992.
More recently, however, a growing number of cities are modeling their programs on the Urban Environmental Accords (Accords). These Accords (Attachment 1) were unveiled on June 5, 2005 as part of the United Nations Environmental Programme World Environment Day in San Francisco, California. Developed as a collaborative platform to help build ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable futures for the world�s urban populations, the Accords were signed by the mayors of 87 cities from around the globe. These initial signatories called on other mayors around the world to sign the Accords and similarly work toward implementing them. As of October 2006, 12 more cities (including the City of Pasadena who adopted the Accords in September 2006) have joined in, bringing the total participation to 99 (Attachment 2).
The Accords include a series of 21 actions that cities can take to achieve urban sustainability, promote healthy economies, advance social equity, and protect the planet�s natural systems. Cities are urged to implement as many of the 21 actions as they can before World Environment Day 2012 (seven years after the initial signing day). To recognize the progress made by cities in implementing the Accords, the Accords included a Green Star Program, which is similar to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for buildings. At the end of the seven years (in 2012), a city would receive the following number of �stars� for the actions it has implemented:
The City of Burbank�s sustainability team reviewed the Accords and the manner in which the City of Pasadena had addressed them. The general consensus of the team was that the City of Burbank was well on its way to implementing many of the actions, and that pursuing an internationally recognized, systematic method of quantifying our combined sustainability efforts would be beneficial to the community. Therefore, the City Manager�s office directed the various departments to develop a brief discussion paper for each of the Accord�s 21 action items for Council�s consideration. In addition, staff developed a 22nd action item unique to Burbank regarding social justice.
ANALYSIS:
A draft of the City of Burbank�s Action Plan for implementing the United Nations Urban Environmental Accords is provided as Attachment 3. The status of each of the 22 actions by 2012 is indicated in the table as �Achieved,� �Likely,� or �Unknown.�
To date, staff believes that Burbank has completely achieved four actions, is likely to achieve 15 additional actions by 2012, with three actions unknown. By 2012 the City has the potential of claiming completion of 19 actions.
The status for implementing the recommendations to fully implement each action is indicated as �Existing � On-going� (which means an existing program is in place), �New � Administrative� (which means a new staff-driven initiative is needed), or �New � Legislative� (which means a new ordinance, resolution, or adoption of a plan that needs formal Council approval). Of the 95 action plan recommendations, 34 are existing on-going, 30 are new administrative, and 31 will require formal Council approval and are considered new legislative.
The Action Plan is followed by a series of discussion papers that provide additional information about each of the 22 actions (Attachment 4).
FISCAL IMPACT:
Some staffing and program costs associated with implementing the actions in support of the Accords can be incorporated into existing departmental operating budgets. Additional costs associated with implementing individual actions may vary as feasibility studies are completed and the specific costs and associated benefits are analyzed.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that Council provide input on the draft Urban Environmental Accords Action Plan and direct staff to incorporate comments into a final draft to be brought back for Council adoption.
Attachments:
Attachment 1 � Urban Environmental Accords Attachment 2 � Urban Environmental Accords Signing Cities Attachment 3 � Draft City of Burbank Action Plan; United Nations Environmental Accords Attachment 4 � Draft Sustainability Discussion Papers
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