4-3-24 PB Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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8 DRAFT 100 course we'll have the brand-new strategic plan on this page as well. And then under the programs side of things, 101 if you clicked on that, you can see all the programs that we have currently in Orange County that are helping to 102 fight climate change. 103 104 As part of our climate action planning process, we developed an updated greenhouse gas inventory, and no 105 surprise here, but it tells us that transportation and energy use continue to be our two biggest greenhouse gas 106 emission producers. So to be able to lower those greenhouse gases, we developed the top foundational things 107 that we should be doing in the county. And some of those things include reducing the vehicle miles that we're 108 traveling by 30 percent. We want to do that by 2050. And we also want to increase our community EV adoption 109 rates. We want to do that by 50 percent by 2035 and 100 percent by 2050. We also want to establish an 110 electrification plan in order to help us transition off of fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy, so that's something 111 that I'll be working on this year. And then we want to increase our community-wide solar 25 percent by 2035. 112 113 Underpinning all of our foundational strategies is an emphasis on equity and ensuring that our climate actions 114 are being prioritized first and foremost to our vulnerable populations in Orange County. We also want to create 115 a culture of sustainability in Orange County and integrate sustainability in all the work that we do. When it comes 116 to planning,when it comes to budget development,when it comes to rolling out new programs and initiatives,we 117 always want to have that lense of sustainability in our thought process. 118 119 Our plan is broken up into 70 different strategies and 188 associated actions, and we have five different focus 120 areas. Transportation-we're really looking at ways that we can encourage more public transportation and more 121 ridership in our public transportation options. We also want to create walkable streets, bikeable streets, and 122 obviously we want to increase our EV adoption rates. Under the built environment and energy category, we're 123 really looking at ways that we can become as energy efficient as we possibly can within our buildings, and so 124 looking at deploying LED lights and things like energy-efficient heating and cooling systems would fall under that 125 category. And then, obviously, adding as much solar as we can to our buildings. 126 127 Under resource conservation, we're really looking at ways that we can reduce our overall waste in Orange 128 County,figuring out strategies to reduce our waste when it comes to single-use items, so putting things in reuse 129 longer. And then really hoping to promote composting as much as we can as a really great way to reduce our 130 waste in Orange County. 131 132 Under green community,there's so many items here. We want to continue to promote our policies and programs 133 that continue to preserve our open space in Orange County. We want to promote our nature-based solutions in 134 order to mitigate things like flooding that we experience from storm events, and we have a goal of planting trees, 135 a lot of trees; in fact, 10,000 trees in 10 years, so those are some of the strategies that you'll find under our green 136 community. 137 138 And then,finally, under resilient community, here we're really looking at ways that we can become more resilient 139 against the storms that we know are coming our way. So looking at ways that we can help mitigate flooding and 140 looking at ways that we can help mitigate the extreme effects of heat. And so here is an example of built 141 environment and energy focus area and the strategy and associated action under this category. And one thing 142 that I like to highlight in one of our actions here is to advocate for energy-efficient building codes with the North 143 Carolina Building Code Council. I know there has been some challenges with that. What we're trying to do is to 144 really look at ways that we can incentivize developers to build sustainably. And some things that some other 145 local jurisdictions have been deploying as strategies to do that include things like bonus density in exchange for 146 a green building, offering tax incentives,fast tracking permitting for green building, and even offering a rebate for 147 the portion of the construction permit fees that promote energy efficiencies. So, looking forward to having some 148 conversations with planning staff to see what makes sense for Orange County to do, how we can learn what 149 other communities are doing, and seeing if we can deploy some of those strategies here.