November 18, 2021
Hi Agnes,
Unfortunately I can’t attend your climate change meeting today. However, I have the following comments (most provided by LandWatch’s climate consultant):
- Carmel’s proposed reduction measures are comprehensive and cover a wide range of topics, but many are expected to have little to no impact.
- Carmel should focus on the most important and impactful areas to reduce emissions. These are:
- Building electrification
- EVs
- Reducing how much the local workforce drives by building more apartments/affordable housing.
- Current proposals around these the areas are insufficient. Carmel needs to go much further, faster. Specifically, Carmel should
- Eliminate gas in new buildings and develop a robust program to help make it easy and simple for residents to electrify their homes. Like changing a lightbulb.
- Add EV chargers on every block*, and streamline EV charger permitting to comply with AB 1236 and 970, per guidance from Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development. Apparently, Carmel hasn’t yet started. (https://business.ca.gov/industries/zero-emission-vehicles/plug-in-readiness/)
- Create dedicated protected bikeways physically separated from traffic, need not just a bicycle plan and signage.
- Support bus lanes to provide frequent and fast connections to other cities, and improved pedestrian safety and wider sidewalks.
- Lastly, Carmel also needs to promote building more housing (especially apartments) for the thousands of workers who commute daily to work in restaurants and stores (according to https://onthemap.ces.census.gov/ ~ 2000 people). More apartments/affordable homes = fewer cars
Without bold actions, Carmel will not significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For further background, see the materials I submitted previously.
Regards,
Michael
