Town of Fairfax[PDF]*

Climate change mitigation efforts by Marin governments have been notably effective in meeting their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Response: Agree. The Town has worked with the County of Marin, other cities, towns, and many other partners to develop an integrated approach toward climate change planning, adaptation and mitigation. In Fairfax, we were able to achieve our 2020 greenhouse gas emission goal by the end of 2016. However, we recognize that the vast bulk of this accomplishment came as a result of the State of California Renewable Portfolio Standard on the electricity grid, the introduction of Marin Clean Energy, and particularly its Deep Green offering, coupled with its adoption by such county-wide entities as MMWD. The Town of Fairfax has by far the highest % of MCE Deep Green Opt-ups of all of the 36 MCE Member Jurisdictions - 8.6%." While our emissions have come down by more than our target goal, we recognize that we must significantly increase our efforts if we hope to achieve even a similar level of achievement in the future. The IPCC recommends that the Town achieve a reduction that is twice as large in the next ten years. Marin cannot mitigate climate disaster alone, but Marin has and should continue to have a major influence as an example to other communities, which gives us the opportunity and the responsibility to act swiftly and aggressively.

Adaptation planning is essential to protect local public utility and transportation infrastructure as well as private property interests, and to enable Marin's citizens to maintain their current standards of living. Response: Agree. We agree that adaptation planning is essential. However, we also believe that mitigation, in the short term, is as important as adaptation. The climate is changing, and, if we do not stop its advance, we will never have the resources to keep up with it in our adaptation efforts. Small prevention is always worth a pound of cure, but prevention must be collective, while adaptation can be more individual. We must be exceedingly careful not to divert resources to adaptation and thereby starve mitigation efforts. The best course will be to focus heavily on responses that can build both adaptation and mitigation.

With the BayWAVE and C-SMART initial vulnerability assessments completed, the county is now well-positioned to focus on adaptation planning and policies related to sea level rise. Response: Agree.

The existing adaptation efforts across the county pay insufficient attention to the other potential effects of climate change, including impacts on public health, ecosystems, and social equity. Response: Agree. While we agree, it should be noted that recent actions have produced significant progress on these concerns. The Grand Jury cites "the working group of Marin's county and municipal planners that helped develop the countywide, multi-jurisdictional local hazard mitigation plan recently adopted by the county's board of supervisors and all the cities and towns" (p. 18). This Working Group has been expanded to encompass the mandates of California Government Code Section 65302(g)(4), which now require that cities and counties update their General Plan Safety Elements to address climate adaptation and resiliency strategies across the full breadth of hazard and safety issues, not just sea level rise. The Working Group has synthesized this General Plan Safety Element work with the substantive hazard adaptation requirements of the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP) Update, which is required to maintain FEMA funding eligibility. The membership of the working group has been expanded to include the Planning Directors of each jurisdiction to strengthen the integration of adaptation planning with broader community development processes. Also, through the enactment and participation in the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority (MWPA), Fairfax and most of the County (except Tiburon and Belvedere) have made a tremendous investment in climate adaptation for prevention of wildfires. Approximately $20M in revenue annually will be expended for 10 years to conduct the work of the new JPA. MWPA is the only nearly countywide wildfire adaptation approach in the State. Furthermore, the Town of Fairfax is uniquely positioned to disseminate any future countywide communications on the other potential effects of climate change via Town boards and commissions associated with public health, ecosystems, and social equity including, but not limited to, Age-Friendly Fairfax, the Fairfax Open Space Committee, and the Racial Equity and Social Justice Committee. These advisory bodies may also review and report on on-the-ground climate impacts, which can be shared with the Town Council and other countywide deliberative/advisory bodies. In addition, we understand that the County of Marin and other Marin communities responses to the Grand Jury report will describe the countywide and/or local efforts to address the potential effects of climate change, including impacts on public health, ecosystems, and social equity.

There are insufficient staff and financial resources devoted to climate change adaptation efforts across county government as well as in the cities, towns, and other agencies, and many of the existing efforts are highly dependent on grant funding. Response: Agree. Please note that we also recommend that mitigation efforts receive the same, if not more, staff and financial resources as adaptation activities.

Cross-jurisdictional collaboration and coordination will be required for successful adaptation efforts, but Marin lacks any overarching organizational or governance structure to facilitate this. Response: Agree. We agree there is no single entity directing the collaborative and cross-jurisdictional climate adaptation efforts. There are, however, many ongoing efforts that approach climate change issues in a coordinated, cross-jurisdictional manner, including, but not limited to, BayWAVE, Drawdown: Marin (currently led by the County with a new County- nonprofit in development), Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers (MCCMC) Climate Action Committee, and the Marin Climate & Energy Partnership (MCEP). The Town will participate in and cooperate with any county-wide organization to facilitate cross-jurisdictional collaboration and coordination efforts for both adaptation and mitigation efforts.