The Chattanooga City Council has formally adopted Mayor Tim Kelly’s Climate Action Plan, a growth strategy that will protect Chattanoogans’ quality of life and increase national competitiveness amid changes to the climate and international economy.
The plan includes a series of actions to drive smart, clean-energy growth, protect natural resources, and strengthen the local economy, driving home Chattanooga’s leading position as a green, sustainable city in a changing world.
“At its core, this is a sustainability plan for Chattanooga, one that will lead to social and economic benefits that all residents care about – like more transportation options, good-paying jobs, more accessible parks and greenways, and energy cost savings for taxpayers,” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. “I want to thank our City Council for their vision and leadership in formally adopting the plan tonight.”
“As we look ahead, I’m committed to ensuring community engagement and input remain at the forefront of this work,” continued Kelly. “That’s why our next step will be to convene a committee with representatives from every corner of the city, who will help guide implementation of the plan in the years to come.”
The City made a number of minor additions and clarifications to the plan this week, in response to the feedback received during and after the public hearing held on March 21. Additions emphasize the need for key progress measurements focused on public health and equity, and include a new strategy to analyze the region’s food systems, with the goal of better understanding how to plan for sustainable, healthy food sources over the long term.
The Kelly administration also added a preamble to emphasize to residents that no action or data collection mechanism recommended in the plan will violate their privacy, restrict their movement, or lead to community-wide laws, mandates, or surveillance.
The updated version of the plan is available at cha.city/sustainability.
“The best cities are made up of residents who are engaged and civically involved, and it was inspiring to see so many folks share their thoughts and input in response to this plan,” said the City’s Director of Sustainability Erik Schmidt. “We look forward to continuing the conversation with the community as we work together to make Chattanooga’s neighborhoods more livable and sustainable for the future, as well as working with partner organizations who are already making great strides in their work to this end.”
What’s in the Climate Action Plan
The Climate Action Plan includes 6 goals and 104 strategies, which all include actions that fall into four main categories: transportation, buildings and waste, green spaces and waterways, and jobs and opportunity.
Together, these actions will preserve and protect Chattanooga’s natural resources by reducing the city’s carbon footprint and the amount of waste sent to local landfills.
At the same time, they will lead to significant economic and social benefits – such as new, integrated transportation options, operational cost savings across city government, better, more accessible park systems and wildlife preserves, and new, good-paying jobs and skill-building opportunities.
A video explainer of the plan is available here.
Pursuing the actions in the plan will help qualify the city to receive a portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars in grant opportunities that are being made available by the federal government, as well as millions more in philanthropic and private investments that would have generational impacts.
Next Steps
With adoption of the plan, the City will immediately begin work to establish two committees: an internal Climate Action Plan implementation committee, comprising City staff who will ensure the plan’s goals are integrated into all departmental work; and an external Chattanooga Climate, Sustainability, and Resilience (CSR) committee, which will include representatives from across Chattanooga who will work with city staff to engage the community in the implementation of the plan city-wide.
The committees will develop and publish a full list of key performance indicators, and updates will be reported on a regular basis to City Council, published on the City website, and incorporated into regular Plan updates.
The City will also seek City Council approval in the coming weeks to offer commercial property owners a financing approach that would make it easier for them to finance clean energy and resiliency improvements. The strategy, known as Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resilience (C-PACER), allows property owners to repay financing for clean energy and resiliency upgrades through voluntary special assessments placed on their properties, which are billed and collected as part of their annual property tax bills and then remitted to the lender.
Benefits of the program include higher performing buildings and property values, and significant energy efficiency cost savings for property owners. More than 37 states currently have legislation enabling C-PACER financing, including Tennessee.
As a privately financed economic development tool, C-PACER does not affect tax bills of non-participating residents, nor does it impact grants or other public funding.