Sonoma County residents explore climate resiliency plans; look toward potential public funding effort

Make initiatives to reduce the impacts of human-caused climate change more feasible for people with fewer financial resources. Focus climate resiliency efforts around existing sectors of Sonoma County’s social, economic and natural landscape.

Those were two clear messages to emerge from a gathering of county residents asked to consider locally generated proposals to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The virtual public meeting, convened on Wednesday evening by Sonoma County’s Regional Climate Protection Authority, was intended to shape a summer poll that would gauge public support for a funding measure to move the authority toward achieving its goal of a carbon-neutral county by 2030.

Through three online polls focused on programs designed by authority committees and centered around buildings, transportation, and land and water management, about 140 people identified as priorities:

• Extending financial assistance to low-income households, tenants and landlords to boost their ability to take measures to reduce carbon emissions — reflecting a principle that the buildings committee had tried to emphasize, said co-committee leader Ann Edminster.

“You'll see this over and over again, where we're looking at it and saying, ‘OK, let's not forget the equity component of all this,’ ” said Edminster.

• Improving and expanding bike paths and walkways with an eye toward greater safety for bicyclists and pedestrians;

“What we're really focusing on is how can we give people who are ready to try other modes of transportation, other than single-user, gas-powered vehicles, options for getting out. That's where we think we can make the most progress in the short term,” said Alexa Forrester, co-leader of the authority’s transportation committee.

• Supporting agricultural practices that would increase carbon sequestration and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Caryl Hart, former Sonoma County Regional Parks director and leader of the authority’s land and water committee, said such practices range from preserving redwood forests to changing soil management practices.

“Natural ecosystems like forest grasslands, wetlands, and oceans, all play a crucial role in sequestering carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, helping to mitigate climate change,“ Hart said.

Those and other programs that received high marks Wednesday will inform a June and July survey or poll that will ask county residents whether they would support a public funding mechanism to pursue those identified priorities, and what that mechanism might look like, said Fifth District Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, the climate authority’s vice-chair.

Because, under law, the authority is an authorized climate resilience district, it would be able to go directly to voters for financing in some cases, Hopkins said. In other cases, funding measures would need to be realized through ballot measures initiated independently by the county and its nine cities.

“We are definitely open to considering innovative funding mechanisms,” Hopkins said after the meeting.

Santa Rosa City Councilman Chris Rogers, chair of the authority’s Board of Directors, said after the meeting that “real polling data” is needed to assess public support for any ballot measure — if that were the path the authority were to follow. But the priorities identified Wednesday provide a “good road map for that poll,” he said.

Rogers said in a text message that the attendance at the meeting went beyond the “people who show up to every meeting.”

“It was much broader, which does tell me there’s interest.” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay