City of San Rafael

Climate Change Action Plan

In 2006 San Rafael was one of the early signatories to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, committing the City to working towards meeting the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. To provide a roadmap on how the City can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its own municipal operations as well as influence residents and businesses in San Rafael to reduce their emissions, the City Council called for the preparation of a Climate Change Action Plan.

In March, 2008 the City Council appointed a 14-member Green Ribbon Committee composed of volunteers with diverse expertise but a common interest in sustainability to prepare a draft plan with extensive community input. The Council also appointed volunteer subject experts to four “Green Teams” which tackled issues such as transportation, waste reduction, land use, green building, energy conservation and adaptation.

The result of this community planning effort is the San Rafael Climate Change Action Plan which was adopted by the City Council on April 20, 2009.

The City of San Rafael adopted a mandatory green building ordinance in 2007 which was applicable only to new residential and commercial buildings. The Climate Change Action Plan, adopted in 2009, identified that 34% of our local greenhouse gas production comes from energy use in residential and commercial buildings. Since over 80% of our construction activity involves renovations of existing buildings, the Climate Change Action Plan recommended that the City update its green building ordinance to address remodeling as well as new construction.

Rather than updating San Rafael’s green building regulations in isolation, the City Council endorsed a collaborative process with other Marin cities, towns and the County. In May 2009, Mayor Al Boro requested that other mayors appoint a city council member or planning commissioner to a task force to help develop a model green building ordinance for adoption throughout Marin County. This collaborative process was dubbed Marin Green BERST (Green Building, Energy Retrofit and Solar Transformation). The intention was to have recommendations for green building emerge from the building trades for consideration by the appointed task force. Therefore, a Technical Advisory Committee was assembled, consisting of architects, contractors, realtors, energy consultants, building officials, home performance auditors, environmentalists and representatives from the Marin Municipal Water District, Marin Builders Association, Marin Energy Authority and PG&E. The initial Technical Advisory Committee included 17 individuals, but expanded to over 40 throughout the process.

The Technical Advisory Committee met 18 times between August and October 2009 and developed recommendations for a comprehensive set of green building regulations intended to significantly reduce energy and water demands and therefore greenhouse gas production from residential and commercial buildings. These recommendations were shared with the BERST Task Force in September and October 2009, and were endorsed by the Task Force in November, 2009.

It is intended that each jurisdiction in Marin will ultimately adopt a similar version of the Model Green Building Ordinance, with local refinement to address the size and scale of development most common in that particular jurisdiction. It is also expected that, by relying upon common ordinance provisions, building officials will collaborate in the enforcement and future refinement of the green building regulations.

The BERST process also included examination of incentives for property owners to incorporate green building and energy reduction techniques into their projects. This process is on-going. Both federal and California utility tax credits and rebates will be available in fall 2010 which utilize the concepts of building performance testing built into the Model Green Building Ordinance provisions. Work is also being done to develop a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program, similar to that underway in Sonoma County. PACE financing allows property owners to finance energy and water efficiency upgrades with no money down, placing the loan obligation on the property tax for repayment typically in 15-20 years. If done correctly, a positive cash flow can result, whereby reductions in utility costs exceed the annual loan financing. It is hoped that a PACE program can be launched in Marin in late 2010 or 2011.

The City will also hold quarterly meetings to share its progress in implementing the many programs in the adopted Climate Change Action Plan. These meetings will be held at 7pm in the San Rafael City Council Chambers on the last Thursday of July (30^th), October (29^th), January (28^th), and April (29^th).