Vacaville Planning Commission to further review city’s energy plan

The Vacaville Planning Commission will revisit the city’s energy conservation strategy at a special meeting Tuesday.

According to a staff report by acting Community Development Director Fred Buderi, Senior Planner Christina Love and Traffic Engineer Gwen Owens, the City Council adopted the Environmental Impact Report for the city’s General Plan update as well as Energy and Conservation Action Strategy (ECAS) documents in 2015. The strategy seeks to improve environmental sustainability in Vacaville by developing a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve greater conservation of resources with regard to transportation and land use, energy, water, solid waste and open space in a manner that aligns with California’s goal of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The ECAS is required to be reviewed by the city every five years and updated as necessary to continue reducing emissions.

On July 1, Senate Bill 743 went into effect, requiring the state’s Office of Planning and Research to amend California Environmental Quality Act guidelines to revise the analysis of traffic impacts by removing the Level of Service standard and replacing it with Vehicle Miles Traveled ( VMT).

On Oct. 20, the city addressed these statewide changes by intiating a change to the transportation element of both the ECAS and General Plan. The Planning Commission held a scoping hearing for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) during a Notice of Preparation comment period, which lasted from Sept. 28 to Oct. 28. The commission made and received comments for staff to consider when analyzing the amendments.

“The SEIR will analyze the environmental effects of the General Plan Amendment to the Transportation Element to create and incorporate the new Vehicle Miles Traveled policies and actions, and effects of an update to the Energy Conservation Action Strategy to include additional measures for GHG reduction,” the report’s authors wrote.

Buderi, Love and Owens wrote that Vacaville is due for a review and update of the ECAS.

“Fortunately, the required general plan amendments regarding VMT coincided with the ECAS’s time for review,” they wrote. “Because the largest source of GHG emissions is motor vehicles, combining the efforts related to the VMT policy amendments with the review and update of the ECAS was logical and efficient.”

Although VMT measures are incorporated into the city’s ECAS, the authors emphasized that the strategy should also take into consideration other factors that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, such as land use, building design, solid waste and utilities, and try to mitigate the impacts of those.

Staff and consultants are returning to the commission for a study session to seek input on possible ECAS strategies to be drafted into the proposed policies and actions. A similar session will be held at the City Council’s Jan. 26 meeting, and the draft strategies are expected to be completed in February before a 45- day public review period.

The discussion will review the existing conditions of the ECAS, future targets to look forward to for 2030 and how Vacaville compares to other jurisdictions.

This is the only item on the commission’s agenda for Tuesday.

The commission will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The meeting can be viewed on Channel 26 or on the city’s YouTube page at Youtube.com/channel/UCLC4Gd7Z-4rwlWOciZVhlJJw. Viewers who would like to participate in the meeting can join at Cov.zoom.us/j/95836284733?pwd=Z1lQWm5xRnAzMEZIR2pxUFpTNlh-mdz09 using the password “677771” and the “Raise hand” function.

They may also join by phone at 877- 853- 5257 or 888- 475- 4499. Participants may dial *67 to keep their number from appearing on the screen.