In November 2015, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors approved the 2016-2019 Strategic Plan that included four primary goals: Thriving Residents, Safe Communities, Sustainable Environment, and Flourishing Agriculture, which are supported by principles of Operational Excellence. Within each broad Strategic Plan Goal, a number of Priority Focus Areas were identified. In the final year of that plan, the 2019-20 Recommended Budget included resources designed to further the action items necessary to progress the Priority Focus Area objectives. One of the funded initiatives related to the Sustainable Environment element of the plan was to determine the feasibility of updating the existing Yolo County Climate Action Plan (CAP) or to create a companion plan with additional actionable items. The staff report from the June 2019 Board of Supervisors meeting where the funded initiatives were discussed is included as Attachment C. In lieu of preparing a new CAP, it was decided to prepare a sustainability plan that would serve as an umbrella to the CAP and address more than just reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
A sustainability plan is intended to be comprehensive and views sustainability as the intersection of social, economic, and environmental factors and seeks to support progress in each of these areas. In October 2019, the County released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the development of a Sustainability Plan and on December 14, 2019, staff returned to the Board with an update on Yolo County’s existing sustainability efforts including climate change adaptation and resiliency strategies. In this update, staff discussed the many strategies the County has utilized to enhance sustainability, including the development of a Climate Action Plan in 2011 and greenhouse gas inventory update in 2018, and identified the development and implementation of a County Sustainability Plan as the strategy to continue implementing the Board’s 2020 priorities under the Sustainable Environment goal area. The December 2019 staff report is included as Attachment D.
In January of 2020, staff received authorization from the Board of Supervisors to hire Ascent Environmental to develop a Yolo County Sustainability Plan to identify goals and strategies for both the unincorporated communities within Yolo County and the County as an organization. The January 2020 staff report is included as Attachment E.
With the Sustainability Plan development underway, in February 2020, staff met with representatives of a local climate advocacy group (Yolo Climate Coalition) who were working on a resolution declaring a climate emergency for the Board of Supervisors to adopt. The purpose of the meeting was to identify where similarities with the County's upcoming Sustainability Plan existed and to provide some feedback on the resolution itself. County staff continued to collaborate with community advocates as they drafted the emergency resolution so that the resolution could inform not only the Sustainability Plan, but also future legislative and regulatory efforts. On September 29, 2020, the Board of Supervisors passed the resolution declaring an emergency climate crisis in Yolo County. The September 2020 staff report is included as Attachment F.
Yolo County Sustainability Plan
The Sustainability Plan is intended to be a ‘living document’ that will be updated over the course of implementation as science and technology advances. The implementation of the Plan will be a collaborative effort on the part of the County, other local, state and federal government agencies, as well as community-organized groups whose work overlaps with matters related to sustainability. The Yolo County Sustainability Plan is included as Attachment A.
The fundamental difference between a Sustainability Plan and a Climate Action Plan is that a CAP focuses solely on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), whereas a Sustainability Plan comprehensively addresses multiple topics related to improving quality of life and protecting natural resources under one plan. While the goals outlined in the Yolo County Climate Action Plan support components of the proposed Sustainability Plan, the intent is to use the Sustainability Plan to identify broader strategies at creating sustainable human and natural ecosystems by including and involving all of Yolo’s communities, including those historically not involved in the planning process, in building resilient communities and systems.
A breakdown of the eight elements of the Sustainability Plan and key objectives for each element are included in the table below and the full list can be reviewed in Attachment A.
| Ecological Health |
Improve management of ecosystems through protection of sensitive species and habitats. |
| Water |
Conserve and protect water quality and availability. |
| Air Quality |
Improve air quality and protect low-income communities from bearing disproportionate pollution burdens. |
| Buildings |
Promote green building to design resilient buildings and infrastructure. |
| Waste |
Reduce waste generation and increase waste diversion. |
| Local Food |
Promote equitable local food systems. |
| Agriculture |
Ensure food security and preserve agricultural lands. |
| Education |
Support community health through education. |
The first step in the Sustainability Plan’s development process included outreach to the various stakeholder groups. The four main groups that were consulted in the development of the plan include the public at-large, community organizations and citizen groups, County departments and staff whose mandates overlap with one or more elements of the Sustainability Plan, elected officials, as well as Local, Regional, State and Federal Agencies and Special Districts.
The onset of the global COVID-19 health pandemic disrupted components of the public and stakeholder engagement that were planned as part of the Sustainability Plan’s development. Originally, the project team planned to conduct 2-3 pop-up workshops at key gathering places (e.g., farmers markets, County fair, etc.) to solicit input on the Sustainability Plan, but this did not occur due to shelter-in-place health directives to avoid large gatherings and maintain social-distance. The groups were involved using a variety of engagement methods including direct interviews, briefings with various groups, and electronic distribution of materials. The project team conducted public workshops via Zoom in September and December of 2020 where the community was invited to provide feedback on the existing conditions report and draft recommendations for the eight elements of the plan.
In the development of the plan, the project team conducted a review of the local, state, and federal environmental plans and programs that Yolo County participates in with sustainability goals to establish a baseline from which future progress towards sustainability can be measured. By understanding the existing landscape of sustainability programs, the County and its partners can better determine where to focus future efforts to improve sustainability. This assessment of sustainability-related plans and programs is contained in the Existing Conditions Report (see Attachment B).
For each of the eight elements there is a description of the sustainability goals, a summary of the existing County and regional plans, programs, and policies related to that element, and an evaluation of related state and federal programs that could be leveraged by the County in the future. The objectives and indicators for each sustainability element will be collaboratively refined with stakeholder groups and the broader community during the implementation phase of the Plan.
The emergency climate resolution passed by the Board called for a future advisory group to develop and propose a new Climate Action Plan (Yolo County 2022 Climate Action Plan) designed to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions in Yolo County and achieve a carbon negative footprint by 2030. The first strategy included in the implementation of the ecological health element of the Sustainability Plan is direction to develop an equitable and inclusive outreach plan, in collaboration with existing community groups, to guide the update of the 2011 Climate Action Plan and to conduct a climate vulnerability assessment develop adaption and resilience strategies to protect those at-risk communities.
Staff recommends approval of the Yolo County Sustainability Plan so County staff and community-organized groups can begin implementing strategies described in the Plan, including a potential update to the 2011 Climate Action Plan. |