Office of the County Administrator County of Marin December 8, 2020 Matthew H. Hymel County Administrator DEC 0 8 2020*

Climate change mitigation efforts by Marin governments have been notably effective in meeting their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Response: Agree. We have worked with our cities, towns, and many other partners to develop an integrated approach toward climate change planning, adaptation and mitigation. Despite some early successes, like reducing County emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012 (eight years ahead of schedule), there is still much work to do. In December 2020, the Board of Supervisors will be asked to adopt the Climate Action Plan Update which includes targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions levels to 40 percent below 1990 equivalent emissions levels by 2030 via mitigation-based measures and to 60 percent below 2005 emissions levels by 2030 via a combination of mitigation and sequestration measures. The mitigation plus sequestration goal is in line with the Drawdown: Marin goals and is more aggressive than current goals.

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.

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: Disagree. 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. -------------------------------------- County of Marin Response to Grand Jury Report Findings and Recommendations "Climate Change: How Will Marin Adapt?" September 11, 2020 Drawdown: Marin is a community-driven campaign to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for climate change impacts, with an Executive Steering Committee, Community Outreach Partnership Council, and Stakeholder Collaborative. Dr. Matthew Willis, Marin County Public Health Officer, serves on the Executive Steering Committee and he and his team contribute Public Health information to the ongoing climate discussions as active participants. Additionally, the recent mandate for an Environmental Justice Element for each General Plan (Gov. Code Sec. 65302(h)(2)) will formalize the growing training and outreach that has already been undertaken to incorporate equity and to substantively engage members of socially vulnerable communities in the planning process. These efforts put into effect the "collaboration to include a consistent, coordinated approach to adaptation planning for all of Marin" called for in the Grand Jury's report. Marin County Public Works continues to work with data around emergency response, transportation, and sea level rise. Public engagement with the data will move forward in targeted communities to better communicate risks and gather input towards steps that improve resiliency and access for the near and mid-term time periods. These data support vulnerable populations through transit-assistance, emergency centers, and with planning to inform the location of resilience hubs in local communities. In addition, Marin County Public Works and Marin County Parks are working on restoration projects on county-owned properties. These are multi-benefit projects that include ecosystem improvements, flood and sea level rise protection, and recreation. Current adaptation projects are focused on wetland restoration to take advantage of grant funds and include Bothin and McInnis Marsh, Bolinas Lagoon, Deer Island, and Richardson Bay beach projects. These are critical steps in adaptation as they reduce impacts from wind and waves, reduce water levels, address habitat restoration, and increase flood protection. The challenge for adaptation projects is not simply a lack of coordination, but a need to generate projects that address the problem, garner consensus from the public, and are funded sufficiently for construction, operation, and long-term maintenance. Sea levels will likely continue to rise, creating a challenge for shoreline scale design and engineering. Consensus is necessary but challenging given the large number of privately owned parcels and varied shoreline uses. Funding sources often favor restoration, but rarely cover the long-term costs associated with maintenance and operation of infrastructure needed to protect critically low-lying developed areas. There is also no permitting or regulatory consensus on what can be permitted outside of a focus on nature-based and habitat-focused wetland restoration projects. While there is intrinsic value in nature-based approaches in locations where they are viable (and the County has been a leader in developing nature-based projects), in many areas they will be inadequate to protect large areas of urbanized Marin from flooding. Many implementation barriers are outside of County control and will likely require a significant revamping of both regulatory permitting (including endangered species laws) as well as CEQA reform, which requires all projects to be evaluated against a static baseline - a sometimes poor assumption in a system where the baseline is changing and litigation often slows projects. The County's sea level rise planning has long focused on equity and health impacts. Staff have worked with Marin City and the Canal area of San Rafael to learn from the community and support planning for resilience. The County and City of San Rafael recently submitted a grant proposal to work with the Canal around resiliency and adaptation. Additionally, using a grant from the Marin County of Marin Response to Grand Jury Report Findings and Recommendations "Climate Change: How Will Marin Adapt?" September 11, 2020 Community Foundation, the Drawdown: Marin initiative has attempted to address equity and integrate it meaningfully into the initiative (2018-2020) and identify ways to continue this work as outlined in the Plan, which will go to the Board of Supervisors in December 2020. This is the latest in an ongoing effort to work with vulnerable populations throughout the County.

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.

Within the county government, there is no single coordinating body focused on climate change, which could impede the ability to unify county efforts around a common strategy and plan. Response: Agree.

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: Partially disagree. Although we agree there is no single entity directing the work of these valuable collaborative and interjurisdictional efforts, there are many ongoing efforts that precisely fit this need - including BayWAVE; Drawdown: Marin (currently led by the County with a new County-nonprofit in development); the Marin Climate & Energy Partnership (MCEP); a cross-departmental and collaborative Climate Action Plan (CAP) subcommittee that coordinates community engagement efforts; and the Environmental Justice and Safety Elements for each General Plan. In addition, the new Marin Wildfire Prevent Authority (MWPA), approved by voters in March, became operational July 1, 2020. Comprised of 17 fire-responsible agencies throughout Marin, the MWPA joint powers resolution underscores the role that climate change plays in the escalating threat of wildfires and the importance of collaboration and coordination. 2000 County of Marin Response to Grand Jury Report Findings and Recommendations "Climate Change: How Will Marin Adapt?" September 11, 2020 GRAND JURY RECOMMENDATIONS