NORTHAMPTON — The city’s draft Climate Resilience and Regeneration Plan looks at how the city can adapt to climate change and make the city carbon-neutral by 2050 — a goal endorsed by City Council a January 2018 resolution.
Some say 2050 isn’t soon enough. Alisa Klein, Ward 7 city councilor and a member of the Energy and Sustainability Commission said, “ A number of us on the commission feel like we need a much more rigorous and strengthened plan to try and achieve carbon neutrality for 2030, not 2050.”
That’s one of a series of comments on the plan from the Energy and Sustainability Commission and the public.
Recently, the commission wrote comments on the plan with suggested changes. “Though well-meaning, the CRRP lacks ambition, fails to delineate measurable outcomes, and leaves several critical policy gaps,” feedback dated Nov. 14 said. The commission suggested that it form a series of working groups to strengthen the plan before it is submitted to City Council.
The draft 97-page plan includes, among many other ideas, an inventory detailing where the city is creating the most greenhouse gases, a suggestion to create an infrastructure plan for flood resiliency, and a suggestion to expand composting in schools and other large facilities.
It also suggests potentially requiring new city buildings to meet net-zero energy standards and to shift toward heating buildings with air- and ground-sourced heat pumps instead of using oil and natural gas.
Wayne Feiden, director of planning and sustainability, the office that is leading the creation of the plan, and a member of the Energy and Sustainability Commission, said that legally only the Planning Board needs to adopt the plan, but that his office wants other bodies like the City Council and the Energy and Sustainability Commission to also adopt it.
“Practically, our goal is always to build a consensus,” he said, adding that the Energy and Sustainability Commission is likely months away from an official vote. “We have a lot of comments, but that’s good.”
Individuals and groups such as Grow Food Northampton, Northampton Neighbors and Friends of Northampton Trails submitted comments on the plan to the Energy and Sustainability Commission last month.
Many commended the city for working on the plan and its commitment to the initiative, but also suggested the plan adopt more specific metrics and steps.
“We noticed a lack of specificity in the plan,” the Sunrise Movement Hub of Northampton wrote in an email to the commission, “and as youth, we can’t afford to gamble on the will of future politicians to carry out a vague plan. Specific metrics are necessary.”
“Without a roadmap, this plan is powerless,” Nancy Polan, legislative director of the Northampton Area League of Women Voters, wrote. “How and when will data be collected to track carbon emissions? In what year will the city: begin to transition to zero-emission vehicles in its municipal fleet?” the letter asks.
“I’m proud to see Northampton taking steps to address the climate crisis,” wrote Florence resident Jonathan Goldman in his comments. “While the climate plan includes many many steps Northampton must take to counteract climate change, there is a lack of urgency.”
Others said they would like the plan to acknowledge that there is a “climate emergency.”
Several groups, such as the Friends of Northampton Trails, said they liked the idea of implementing climate education in Northampton public schools.
Feiden said more comments will be collected and the plan will be revised. “We’re in no hurry to adopt the plan,” he said. “There’s no deadline for the plan.”
Mayor David Narkewicz has a number of proposed changes to the city’s administrative code that will be heard in a public hearing at City Council on Thursday evening.
One would make the director of planning and sustainability the chairman of the Energy and Sustainability Commission and the director of central services the vice chairman.
Other changes include making the director of public works the chairman of the Transportation and Parking Commission and the police chief the vice chairman.
The two bodies are unique because “membership combines executive branch officials, legislative branch elected officials, and city residents,” Narkewicz wrote in a Nov. 18 letter to the City Council about the proposal.
He wrote that the changes would help make it clear that these advisory bodies are “executive branch agencies as defined by the City Charter.” He said there has been frequent public confusion about the distinction between executive and legislative branch committees, “particularly when one or both bodies have been chaired by a member of the City Council.”
Feiden said if he became chairman of the Energy and Sustainability Commission through the mayor’s proposed city code amendment, it wouldn’t change how the commission treats the Climate Resilience and Regeneration Plan.
But commission member Gordon Meadows disagreed, saying the change would help push the Climate Resilience and Regeneration Plan through.
“It seems awfully convenient timing,” said Meadows, who thinks the plan needs significant work. “I feel like if this is a term paper in a class, you’d end up with a D,” he told the Gazette, adding that was his personal opinion not that of the commission.
Lilly Lombard, who chairs the Public Shade Tree Commission, also opposes the change.
“I believe these commissions must have the freedom to nominate and elect their own leadership — those who demonstrate the right balance of vision, drive, and skill to chair a dynamic commission,” she wrote in a letter to several city councilors.
Klein said she has heard some concerns from residents, such as “the director of the Planning and Sustainability Department may have particular interests … an agenda he could move forward as the chair.”
Her personal opinion? “I have questions that I hope to have answered,” she said. “My inclination is that it should be elected internally.”
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.