DATE: January 30, 2024
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Director of Public Works
SUBJECT
Title
Hayward 2040 General Plan: Adopt Resolutions Amending the Hayward 2040 General Plan to Include the Updated Climate Action Plan, an Amended Hazards Element, and a New Environmental Justice Element; and Approval of Related Environmental Analysis Prepared Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That the Council adopts a resolution approving an amendment to the Hayward 2040 General Plan to incorporate the updated Climate Action Plan (Attachment II), and reviews and makes findings to approve the Initial Study, Negative Declaration, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Thresholds Guidance Report prepared pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act; and that the Council adopts a resolution approving amendments to the Hayward 2040 General Plan to include an updated Hazards Element and a new Environmental Justice Element (Attachment III), and makes findings to approve the related Addendum prepared pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act.
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SUMMARY
This report summarizes amendments to the Hayward 2040 General Plan and Climate Action Plan including:
• An updated Climate Action Plan (CAP) to address the climate crisis and establish the policies and programs needed to meet the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets adopted by Council.
• An updated Hazards Element incorporating new policies and programs and amendments to existing policies to adequately address climate crisis hazards and improve community resilience in compliance with recent state legislation.
• A new Environmental Justice Element addressing negative environmental impacts known to disproportionately affect marginalized populations, by adopting specific policies and programs that address pollution burden, public facilities, food access, safe and sanitary homes, physical activity and health, and civic engagement, as required by State law.
This project was initiated in the summer of 2021 when the City hired Rincon Consultants to conduct a comprehensive update of the City’s Housing Element, Climate Action Plan, Hazards Element and Environmental Justice Element. Community engagement for all four elements was conducted between 2021 and 2023 in order to maximize community outreach, support relationship building, and ensure comprehensive and consistent messaging around the topics of housing, environmental justice, safety and hazard planning, and climate change. Earlier this year, the City completed work on the Housing Element, which was subsequently certified by the State in July 2023.
The CAP, Hazards, and Environmental Justice Elements were released for a 40-day public review period between October 2023 and December 2023. A summary of comments, staff responses, and modifications to the Draft documents is included in Attachment IV to this report. Following recommendations of approval by the Council Sustainability Committee (November 13, 2023), and the Planning Commission (December 14, 2023), staff is recommending that the City Council review and approve the updates to the Climate Action Plan, Hazards Element and new Environmental Justice Element and related CEQA Greenhouse Gas Emissions thresholds (Attachment V), General Plan Implementation Programs (Attachment VI), and related environmental analysis for the CAP and Hazards Element/Environmental Justice Element (Attachments VII and VIII, respectively).
The City’s GHG reduction targets are very ambitious and will be very challenging to achieve. The CAP, Hazards, and Environmental Justice elements have a combined total of 223 new actions and programs that would implement the draft policies. The updated CAP identifies more than 180 actions and programs - all of which will need to be implemented to meet the 2030 GHG reduction target in less than six years. As a result, staff will request significant resources to implement the CAP. In addition, significant community participation will be required to successfully implement the various programs included in the CAP. These documents are aspirational and even if all goals and programs are not achieved within the stated timeframes, progress will have been made towards the City’s long term GHG reduction and related goals.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment I Staff Report
Attachment II Resolution CAP
Attachment III Resolution Hazards and Environmental Justice Elements
Attachment IV Public Comments and Responses
Attachment V Final CEQA GHG Emissions Thresholds+Guidance Report
Attachment VI General Plan Implementation Programs
Attachment VII Final Initial Study and Negative Declaration for CAP and Environmental Justice
Attachment VIII CEQA Addendum to CAP
Attachment IX Draft CAP with Appendices
Attachment X Draft Hazards Element and Technical Reports
Attachment XI Draft Environmental Justice Element and Technical Report