TO: Napa County Climate Action Committee
FROM: Brian D. Bordona, Director of Napa County Planning, Building, & Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Ryan Melendez, Planner II - Sustainability
SUBJECT: June 2024: Staff update on the status of the Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (RCAAP) Development
RECOMMENDATION
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PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: Staff will deliver a presentation on two intermediary documents of the RCAAP and provide updates on community engagement to the Climate Action Committee.
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BACKGROUND
RCAAP Documents: The Ascent Environmental team has completed drafts of a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Forecast Memo (Memo) and a Climate Vulnerability Assessment (VA). These documents are now published on the RCAAP Project Website <https://climateactionnapa.konveio.com/>, where the public can review and provide comments. These documents are also attached to this staff report.
The GHG Emissions Forecast Memo provides an update to the Final Napa County Regional Greenhouse Gas Forecast (2019-2030) that was delivered to Napa County on November 29, 2022. The RCAAP GHG Emissions Forecast Memo estimates a breakdown of forecasted emissions in each of the six jurisdictions in the region, under both “business-as-usual” (BAU) and legislative-adjusted BAU scenarios for the years 2030, 2035, and 2045. Under the BAU scenario, forecasts provide an estimate of future GHG levels based on a continuation of current trends in activity and anticipated growth. Under the legislative-adjusted BAU scenario, the forecasts are adjusted to account for Federal, State, and regional legislative actions to reduce emissions in the future. The legislative-adjusted BAU scenario does not account for proposed new local GHG reduction measures, and thus this scenario illustrates the scale of reductions that would still be needed to achieve the region’s GHG reduction goals. Staff and the consultant team are working on drafting set of proposed GHG emissions reduction measures that will further reduce GHG emissions (in addition to legislative reductions applied to the forecasts) to achieve the region’s GHG reduction goals.
The Climate Vulnerability Assessment (VA) identifies and analyzes climate change effects that will impact Napa County, and is the first step in the adaptation planning process as part of the RCAAP. The purpose of the VA is to analyze countywide exposure to existing hazards, identify potential climate-related impacts from these hazards and sensitivities to these hazards and impacts, and determine the existing capacity of the County’s municipalities to prepare for and adapt to these impacts, known as adaptive capacity. The VA will inform the next steps in the RCAAP’s adaptation planning process, which include the development of climate adaptation and resilience strategies. The VA builds upon existing hazards that were identified in various jurisdictional planning documents such as the County’s Multijurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP), the City of Napa’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan, Safety Elements of jurisdictional General Plans, and more. The VA explores historical data of several hazards including drought, flooding, and wildfire and continues to describe the primary and secondary effects of climate change. These include increased temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, sea level rise, increased fire risk, extreme precipitation and flooding, drought and water supply issues, and energy grid impacts. The VA examines the impacts that each climate hazard might have on vulnerable populations, the built environment, and community functions. The VA also evaluates the current state of adaptive capacity of the populations, built environment, and community functions to adjust to climate change effects and their associated potential impacts. Adaptive capacity refers to a community’s current and future ability to address climate-related impacts. Finally, the VA provides a Vulnerability Score accounting for low, medium, and high qualifiers for a given hazard’s Adaptive Capacity and Potential Impact. Higher scores should be prioritized first and lower scores later.
Community Engagement: In May, Napa RCD staff and the Napa County Public Information Officer (PIO) team created a schedule for media outreach content for the RCAAP. The Napa RCD staff and County PIO will be working with the PIOs from other jurisdictions to coordinate messaging and posting media content.
The Napa RCD staff has also prepared a schedule for community engagement meetings. The City and County RCAAP staff and Napa RCD staff will be conducting six (6) Focus Group Discussions with five (5) key focus group participant categories. The categories are as follows: Youth, Families, Public Health, Community Based Organizations, Multi-Language Populations. The sixth meeting will be an overflow meeting for those who were unable to attend a prior meeting. The Focus Group Discussions will take place via Zoom or Microsoft Teams throughout the week of July 8th. Additionally, the first RCAAP Community Meeting will take place on July 24th at 6 PM at the Yountville Community Center. This meeting will be open to all members of the public. The meeting will be led in English with Spanish language accessibility. At this meeting, Napa RCD, City and County RCAAP team, and Ascent staff will be providing an overview of the RCAAP and the documents produced to date, providing a prospective timeline of RCAAP development, and leading an interactive discussion to solicit feedback on the RCAAP and Climate Action in Napa County.
Important upcoming RCAAP updates:
July 2024:
- Public release of the Draft GHG Emissions Reduction Framework and accompanying measures (actions) and the Draft Climate Adaptation Memo.
- Staff request a working group session of the Climate Action Committee (CAC) members to discuss and provide direction on the proposed greenhouse gas reduction and climate adaptation measures. *These measures will be the nuts and bolts of the RCAAP, meaning these measures will directly influence how Napa County will achieve our GHG emissions reduction goals and hazard preparedness and climate adaptation in the coming years.
- Napa RCD and City/County staff will provide updates on the outcomes of several Focus Group Discussions and the first RCAAP Community Meeting.
- Ascent will begin to draft implementation/prioritization matrices based on refined draft measures following the July CAC meeting.
August 2024:
- Ascent and subconsultants, Jacobs and EPS, will aim to complete an analysis of GHG emissions reductions from proposed GHG reduction measures, as well as a draft cost estimate and funding and financial analyses for the implementation of climate action and adaptation measures. RCAAP project staff will review and provide feedback.
- Ascent will begin preparing an administrative Draft RCAAP.
RCAAP Project Background:
At the October 6, 2022 meeting of the Napa County League of Governments (NCLOG), which includes representatives from all six jurisdictions, there was broad support for proceeding with a Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan to provide a policy and implementation framework for reducing GHG emissions. There was also general agreement that each jurisdiction should consider the proposal for a Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan at a future Council/Board meeting, to guide Climate Action Committee (CAC) representatives as they move forward. Over the next five months, all six jurisdictions approved the idea of moving forward with the preparation of a Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.
At their May 26, 2023, meeting, the CAC made the preparation of the RCAAP its top priority for the 2023-2024 Fiscal Year. Over the next three months, County staff worked with staff from the cities/town, the Napa Valley Transportation Authority, and the Napa County Resource Conservation District to prepare the RFP, which was approved by the Board of Supervisors on September 12, 2023.
The RFP was released on September 15, 2023. The submittal period ended on October 27, 2023. Staff unanimously recommended Ascent Environmental as the preferred consultant. The CAC unanimously affirmed staff’s recommendation of Ascent Environmental in a special meeting held on November 27, 2023.
At their December 19, 2023 meeting, the Napa County Board of Supervisors approved Agreement No. 240241B with Ascent Environmental, Inc (Ascent) to prepare a RCAAP for a maximum of $599,600 for the term December 19, 2023 through December 31, 2025.
It should be noted that as a part of their scope of work, Ascent Environmental will evaluate the options that the jurisdictions have under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for adoption of the RCAAP. If an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is required, Ascent and staff estimate that there would be an additional $250,000 to $400,000 in costs. The cost of an EIR would be borne by the member jurisdictions unless additional funding is secured.
On Thursday January 11, 2024, Napa County held a kickoff meeting for the RCAAP development. Participants included consultants from Ascent, staff from Napa County, Napa RCD, the cities of Napa, St. Helena, and Calistoga. At this kickoff meeting, the RCAAP development team discussed the project overview, public outreach and engagement strategy, the data and documents needed to help update GHG forecasts and targets, communication channels, and established a standing biweekly meeting schedule to coordinate on plan development. Staff recommends giving regular updates to the CAC regarding the progress of the RCAAP development.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.