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25 <br /> 1 The first round of Climate Action Fund projects was proposed by the Commission for the <br /> 2 Environment last year and approved by the Board of Commissioners. These include funding for <br /> 3 solar projects for each of the school districts, a LED lighting campaign for lower-income <br /> 4 residents, and additional funding to weatherize and preserve affordable housing. <br /> 5 <br /> 6 For the 2020-21 funding cycle, $478,657 in funding was budgeted to support climate action <br /> 7 projects that will benefit Orange County residents both socially and financially. Following the <br /> 8 direction of the Board of Commissioners, the process for soliciting and selecting projects to <br /> 9 receive funding was conducted through a formal grant program. <br /> 10 <br /> 11 The scoring and eligibility guidelines were created by the BOCC and developed the remaining <br /> 12 application elements borrowing from the successful model of the Outside Agency funding <br /> 13 process. The application period for this first round of grants opened on September 18, 2020 and <br /> 14 closed on November 9, 2020. <br /> 15 <br /> 16 The Community Climate Action grant program received seven applications in this round from a <br /> 17 variety of non-profit and public organizations whose total requests add up to more than $1.2 <br /> 18 million. While staff fielded some questions from prospective applicants from the private sector, <br /> 19 no private sector applications were received. <br /> 20 <br /> 21 Grant applications were reviewed and scored by the Commission for the Environment (CFE) <br /> 22 and the Human Relations Commission (HRC). On December 14, 2020 each of these <br /> 23 Commissions voted to forward their final scoring and comments to the BOCC. <br /> 24 <br /> 25 The following is a rank-order summary table of their combined project scoring and <br /> 26 recommendations, and more details on each project are available in Attachment 1 (Project <br /> 27 Descriptions, Scoring, and Comments): <br /> 28 <br /> Total Rank <br /> Applicant Funding Recommended Score <br /> Project Out of 7 <br /> (Collaborators) Requested Funding Level Out of applications) <br /> 25 is <br /> Solar Panels on Habitat for Humanity of <br /> Affordable Habitat $95,000 $95,000 21.7 1 <br /> Homes Orange County <br /> NAACP of Chapel Hill <br /> and Carrboro <br /> Water Heater (Rebuilding Together of <br /> Replacement the Triangle and Habitat $122,100 $122,100 21.2 2 <br /> for Humanity of Orange <br /> County) <br /> Cane Creek Reservoir <br /> 352.4kW DC Solar OWASA $75,000 $75,000 19.6 3 <br /> Array <br /> Tree Planting Program Town of Chapel Hill $40,000 $40,000 18.5 4 <br /> Solar-powered Electric <br /> Vehicle Charging Town of Chapel Hill $18,500 $18,500 17.7 5 <br /> Station <br />