Historically, the City of Davis has been a leader in environmentally sensitive community planning and design. The city has a wonderful network of bike lanes, greenbelts, and parks that provide transportation options and recreational benefits. We are the only city in the country to have received the Platinum Award for Bicycle Friendliness. Our neighborhoods pioneered many eco-friendly design standards. Davis was one of the first to develop a citywide recycling program and set aside open space, wetlands, and an agricultural buffer.
The two issues of "livability" and "energy efficiency" that drive our community planning and development in Davis are important to the people who live here, an attraction to people and businesses to locate here, and require ongoing articulation in the planning process to ensure that they are understood and not taken for granted.
Today, our state and our country needs Davis' leadership on environmental issues more than ever as the monumental issue of global climate change has become ever more compelling. Climate change imposes a layer of urgency over all other topics. Climate change will require everyone --- individuals, local governments, states, and nations --- to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Individuals are limited in what they can do to reduce emissions, and to adapt to change. Local government has jurisdiction over building codes, community design, transportation options, and other issues that can both reduce emissions and assist in adaptation. Leadership is required at the local government level to do our part to address the effects of climate change and protect citizens from their consequences. Although the first, most urgent focus is appropriately on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and adapting community design and building to meet future needs, the key to a longer term solution lies in incorporating the concept of "sustainability" into current policy discussions and decisions.
Over the next four years, I will work to:
1. Restore Davis's leadership in environmental stewardship and responsible smart planning.
- Work with the Davis Climate Action Team to complete the process of auditing City of Davis buildings, vehicles, programs, and services. This team should accelerate development of a plan to meet council-established targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Identify visible symbols of energy efficiency and renewable energy production to provide Davis residents with concrete feedback on the progress towards our goals. For example, creating a kiosk, or other structure (possibly in conjunction with the city public art program) that registers each bicycle that passes on the street, with a running counter to tally the number on a daily, weekly, or annual basis. In addition, a similar display that shows monthly total gas and electricity usage in the city, with comparison to prior year amounts. This display would be located in one or more locations where a substantial number of residents would see it on a daily basis. It would provide an instrument for every member of the community to observe and measure the effectiveness of every program the city (or the schools) adopts.
- Partner with PG&E to invest funds in local projects to reduce energy consumption right here in town. PG&E currently has a program that can determine emissions for each utility bill, calculates a cost to offset these emissions, and adds this amount as a surcharge to the monthly bill. The city can encourage residents to sign up for the project, with proceeds from each home going to a fund the city could use to finance local renewable energy projects and programs.
- Identify mechanisms for financing and installing photovoltaic cells on Davis houses and apartments to make solar energy work in Davis.
- Plan for meeting specific housing needs in our community - seniors, students and working families need to live in the same community where they work and study and not be forced to commute from neighboring towns.
2. Reduce Davis's carbon footprint and minimize contributions to climate change. Include active consideration of sustainable, smart growth planning principles in the next General Plan update.
3. Ensure a supply of clean and affordable water and improving our wastewater treatment plant.
4. Strengthen Davis's commitment to bicycles and environmentally friendly transportation.
- Establish a Bicycle Museum and Center in downtown Davis. The museum would house exhibits related to bicycle history, displays and interactive exhibits, as well as providing information on routes and safety. The bicycle center could provide loaner bicycles as a low-cost transportation solution for visitors to Davis.
- Implement a separated bike path from Davis to Woodland allowing those residents who live there and work here to commute safely by bicycle.
- Enhance traffic planning for use of neighborhood electric vehicles. During the last four years, I have consistently driven an electric GEM car to events and meetings in the city. It truly is a low-cost and feasible method of environmentally friendly transportation!
- Work with UNITRANS to decrease the size of buses and increase the frequency and rotues to increase residents' use of public transit.
5. Designate a "green business zone" in one of our struggling neighborhood shopping centers. Such a zone could include an electric car sales center, a photovoltaic business, retail shops marketing rainfall harvesting and composting equipment and other similar busineses.