State, cities tie growth to climate change

To many current state and local officials, addressing climate change appears to be the right thing to do, according to Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane. But when it comes to the available ways to address climate change there is no one size fits all — yet.

Addressing climate change will be on the minds of state officials once again in the Department of Community Trade and Economic Development (CTED) this summer when SB 6580, creating a voluntary program and tools for cities and counties to begin measuring climate change through land use and transportation planning, goes into effect.

The original bill, sponsored by Marr, sought to include a mandatory climate change requirement in the state’s Growth Management Act. Instead, the final bill establishes a way for cities and counties to voluntarily address climate change using software and methodologies that will be developed by CTED at the end of 2009.

“The goal was to link our effort addressing climate change at the state level with what’s going on at the local level,” Marr said. “This allows cities and counties to make decisions that work best for them.”

In Spokane, Marr said, the goal of developing urban centers is to help residents drive less in order to meet their basic needs and therefore cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. The same idea is part of the East Gateway project in Mill Creek, where city manager Tim Burns said the goal is to create a place where people can live, work and play. The issue of climate change is also being addressed in Lake Forest Park, where city manager David Cline expects an overall climate protection campaign action plan to be discussed in early June.

“We are actually doing a lot in this area — it’s a very timely topic,” Cline said.

Several ideas so far, according to Cline, have been focused around transportation and how city vehicles are used. Other efforts may include work on a community no-idling policy and encouraging more carpooling and transit use.

While cities are actively considering and pursuing their own strategies to address climate change, Marr believes the tools developed by CTED could provide some consistency between how impacts of greenhouse gas emissions are measured across individual jurisdictions. In addition, the bill allows for up to three cities and three counties to be chosen through a competitive process to be part of a pilot program and receive grants and technical funding for their efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change using the methodologies, estimates and computer software developed by the CTED.

In the absence of a state program, cities including Edmonds and Lake Forest Park have joined ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainbility, a membership association that offers information, training, and technical services to analyze greenhouse gas emissions. Even with programs currently available, April Putney, political director of Futurewise, said she believes the state should help cities gain the resources they need to address climate change.

“Not every city can afford to pay for such climate change methodologies so it makes sense to incorporate those into the state level,” she said.

Sen. Darlene Fairly, D-Lake Forest Park, said the bill offers a first step for cities to access the state’s help in their efforts to address climate change.

“If your jurisdiction wants to address climate change, then it gives you some help to do that,” she said.

She’s not sure what jurisdictions, if any, within the 32nd District are likely to vie for the spots in the state’s pilot program.

“We have a very environmentally conscious district, so for me it was very easy helping this through the legislature,” she said.

Mill Creek may be interested in taking part in the state’s voluntary program when it’s ready, but will continue developing guidelines for a city strategy, focused on eliminating the city’s carbon footprint, according to Burns.

“We want to keep it simple. We’re in the infancy stages right now,” he said, referring to the city’s strategy. “I think a state program would provide some consistency for all cities to measure their effect on climate change.”