City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council discuss the subject of sustainability,
including a report from the City Council Sustainability Subcommittee, and the topics
of water conservation.
DISCUSSION:
The City Council’s Sustainability Subcommittee (Council Member Malsin and
Council Member Silbiger) are requested to provide an update to the City Council.
Also, staff will provide an update on the subject of water conservation.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Notes from the Sustainability Subcommittee Meetings of 10/15/09 and 12/10/09.
MOTIONS:
That the City Council:
Discuss the subject, receive a report from the City Council Sustainability
Subcommittee, receive a update on water conservation from staff, and direct the
City Manager as deemed appropriate.
Meeting Date: 01/11/10 Item Number: D-1
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM: Discussion of the Subject of Sustainability,
including a Report from the Sustainability Subcommittee, and the Topic of Water
Conservation.
Contact Person/Dept.: Mark Scott Phone Number: 310-253-6000
Fiscal Impact: Yes [] No [X] General Fund: Yes [] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: [X]
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date: ________________
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Agenda and Meetings – City Council (01/06/10)
Department Approval:
Martin R. Cole (01/06/10)
City Attorney Approval:
Carol A. Schwab (by H. Baker) (01/06/10)
City Manager Approval:
Mark Scott (01/06/10)
MEETING DATE: January 11, 2010
AGENDA ITEM: Discussion of the Subject of Sustainability, including a
Report from the Sustainability Subcommittee, and the Topic of Water
Conservation.
ATTACHMENTS
Pages
1. Notes from the Sustainability Subcommittee 1-4
Meetings of 10/15/09 and 12/10/09.Sustainability Subcommittee Meeting Notes from October 15, 2009 meeting and
Action items for December 10, 2009
Notes
Review of notes from past meeting
1. The notes from the September 10, 2009 meeting were reviewed and approved.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant
2. Charles announced that we received an Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Block Grant award, which will fund projects at two local parks. He mentioned
that we may include these projects as part of a larger energy efficiency project to
be discussed later.
Breadth of committees re: sustainability issues
3. Charles, Gary and Scott summarized the two different visions for a sustainability
committee or committees that we had discussed at the September 10 th meeting.
4. Scott described his support for narrower, focused committees at this point on
issues like landscaping standards and AB 811 implementation.
5. Gary expressed support for a broad committee focused more generally on
sustainability issues, as opposed to narrower committees.
6. Mark acknowledged the breadth of the topic of sustainability and suggested that
the city might not be the best place to house such a committee given the
challenges that committees often face when they have to operate within the
structure of the City (i.e. complying with Brown Act requirements, etc.). He
recommended that City staff participate in the committee, just not "own" the
committee. He mentioned that he has seen committees like the one he is
suggesting focus on 1) low-hanging policies (i.e. plastic bag ordinances), 2)
organizing special events, and 3) educating with community forums, etc.
7. Mark also mentioned that another possibility besides the ones Scott, Mark, and
he brought up is to incorporate this committee into the General Plan process.
However, the timeline on that option would be longer.
8. Scott said that he was fine with the concept of a sustainability committee outside
of City Hall, but indicated that there is still a need for input on specific topics.
9. Mark suggested that it might be preferable to ask people to informally help on
those specific topics rather than to form formal committees.
10.Gary recognized some of the challenges with the requirements imposed on
formal committees, but also suggested that they are beneficial because they
show the Council's commitment to the issue of sustainability and also encourage
more commitment from participants. He expressed a desire to have a centralplace for the public to come and discuss sustainability issues, and suggested that
another possibility is that we could open the Sustainable Subcommittee up to the
community.
11.Per Gary's suggestion, we decided to discuss the different options for a
committee or committees re: sustainability with the full City Council.
RFP for PPA and Performance Contract
12.Charles reported that he talked to someone from Chevron about potentially
partnering with the school district on an RFP for a power purchase agreement
(PPA). Based on this discussion, Charles didn't think that there would be
financial benefits from partnering with the school district and it might just
complicate the process.
13.Charles also reported that staff is also looking at the separate but related issue of
possibly entering into a performance contract whereby a company would audit
city buildings and use the audit to find energy savings sufficient to fund other
improvements.
14.Charles indicated that Honeywell is looking at putting together a proposal.
Charles would like to get more companies involved, though, and thus staff is in
the process of drafting an RFQ now.
15.Scott mentioned that DWP has a program to install solar photovoltaic on private
property and asked if there might be an opportunity for the city to encourage
solar through making the addition of solar a condition of development or working
with private property owners in other ways.
16.Sol mentioned the article that was distributed at the meeting, which described
two recent bills that were signed that will encourage the placement of solar
photovoltaic by requiring utilities to pay people more for the energy they feed into
the system (a.k.a. feed in tariff).
17.Suggestions were also made for additional places where solar panels could be
installed, including the Kirk Douglas Theater and the Senior Center parking lot.
18.Charles mentioned that West LA College is considering turning 10100 Jefferson
into a solar park and is interested in partnering with the city. He indicated that we
are in the preliminary stages of exploring that option.
19.Craig mentioned that requests for the purchase of small amounts of solar
photovoltaics have been removed from the budget proposal by Finance in the
past.
20. Charles indicated that we would probably have the RFP for the PPA and
performance contract prepared and ready to go by the end of the year.
AB 811 21. Helen provided a summary of LA County's efforts to create a countywide AB 811
program. She went over the timeline, which is relatively aggressive and provided
a brief overview of some of the details that the County has yet to finalize in the
areas of: 1) eligible owners and properties, 2) eligible improvements, 3)
financing, and 4) grants. She mentioned that LA County is asking COGs and
cities to write letters of support for the County's grant applications.
22. Gary expressed support for the program, but indicated that we should make sure
the letter of support doesn't commit us to joining the program prior to City Council
officially making that determination.
Ahwahnee Principles
23. Damian reported that Santa Monica has decided on language for its resolution
re: the Ahwahnee Principles. Santa Monica is planning to "affirm its support" for
the original, water, and economic development principles. It is planning to
"endorse" the climate change principles. Beverly Hills is also planning to "affirm
its support" for the principles.
24. Mark expressed the opinion that he was not uncomfortable with that language
but that he thought it was a little odd.
25. Gary what we plan to do with these principles after we affirm our support for
them. Charles responded that will use them as a reference document that helps
guide us as we make policies, similar to the way we use the AIA study as a
reference.
26_ There was agreement that we should pass draft a resolution with somewhat
similar language to Santa Monica and Beverly Hills for the Council's
consideration.
Model Water Efficiency Ordinance
27. Helen provided a summary of the contents of the Model Water Efficiency
Ordinance that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) created. DWR is
requiring that all jurisdictions pass the Model Ordinance or one at least as
effective by January 1, 2010 or the Ordinance will go into effect automatically.
28.The ordinance is a lengthy document that spells out specific requirements for a
landscape documentation package, including a worksheet, soil management
report, landscape design plan, irrigation design plan, and grading design plan for
new or rehabilitated landscapes over 2,500 or 5,000 square feet requiring a
permit, plan check, or design review. It also has some provisions covering
existing landscapes over 1 acre in size.
29. Scott explained that Beverly Hills is adopting an ordinance that has a consistent
2,500 square feet requirement and lists the details in regulations rather than an
ordinance itself.30. Helen suggested that we may want to consider something similar to Beverly Hills,
but that we'll know more after the meeting that DWR is holding on Oct. 20th.
31.Gary suggested that we bring up this issue again as the first item on the agenda
for the next meeting, which we agreed to do.
32. Charles suggested that another department besides Public Works would be most
appropriate to take the lead on this ordinance, since it relates to private property
or large public parcels rather than the public right-of-way. He and Sol will
discuss who should be involved.
Other
33.Scott mentioned that he was emailed by someone who has smart irrigation
system that waters 20 minutes per day rather than 15 minutes and asked about
whether we should amend the ordinance to take that into account.
Next Meeting
34.We did not schedule the next meeting. It was subsequently scheduled for
12/10/2009 at 7:30 am.
Follow-Up/Action Items
1. 614/09 (Gary) — Put ARRA projects on City website (Eric).
2. 7/10/09 (Scott) — Look into the feasibility of creating a Sustainable Community
Plan based on a model plan and how best to do this (separately or
independently).
3. 10/15/2009 — Bring PPA RFP/performance contract back to the Subcommittee
(Eric).
4. 10/15/2009 — Provide County with letter of support re: AB 811 (Helen).
5. 10/15/2009 — Bring resolution re: Ahawahnee Principles to City Council
(Damian).
6. 10/15/2009 (Gary) — Discuss Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance at next
meeting.
7. 10/15/2009 — Look into whether Water Conservation Ordinance should be
changed to accommodate smart irrigation systems that water for 20 min (Helen).