GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A long-term roadmap toward a more sustainable, greener Grand Rapids has reached a milestone.
On Tuesday, the Grand Rapids City Commission voted to approve its top 20 priorities of the city's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP).
Since declaring climate change a crisis in 2021, the city has committed to developing the plan in an attempt to reduce 62.8% of the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
The CAAP, according to publicly available documents, "aims to mitigate the harmful impacts of climate change through a series of voluntary and incentive-based actions while avoiding unintended consequences that could make housing and development less affordable."
The adoption of the CAAP does not immediately implement the plan, but rather lets city staff research the cost and feasibility of its prioritized actions.
"As far as this plan goes, there are not mandates," Mayor David LaGrand said during the city commission meeting on Tuesday. "I think one of the things we can do as a city is make our city more welcoming for more people and create more space for more people."
The only dissenting vote on the board, First Ward Commissioner Drew Robbins said he worried about the CAAP's impact on local business.
"If I wanted to start a business in the city, I think even just reading this plan as written would give me some pause, to say, 'Am I going to risk putting my business in the city of Grand Rapids, or am I going to go over to Walker where I’m never going to have to think about this?'" Robbins said.
During the meeting, a number of Grand Rapids area business leaders also voiced concern over the CAAP, including Josh Lunger, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Grand Rapids Chamber.
"If we start adding additional requirements to make every project solve every problem, we will slow this down," he said. "We're concerned about impact versus intent."
The city reiterated the CAAP is not mandate-based.
"There are no policies, ordinances or other regulatory measures that go into effect as a result of the Commission's actions today," Third Ward Commissioner Marshall Kilgore said. "I think some of this, sadly, these unsupported claims feel like fear mongering."
"Who's going to go to your businesses if they can't breathe the air on the walk there?" Kilgore said. "[The CAAP] doesn't prevent us from doing things in the future, it simply gives us a foundation on which to build."
What is the CAAP?
- 6 sectors
- 16 goals
- 197 actions
What are the six sectors?
- Energy Systems
- Residential Homes
- Buildings and Industry
- Transportation
- Nature Based Solutions
- Food Systems
What are the 20 actions being prioritized by the city?
- Energy Systems
- Partner with energy utilities serving the community to enhance access to and awareness of their existing services, programs and compliance with clean energy and other climate-related commitments, with a special emphasis on offerings designed to help vulnerable populations, small businesses and essential services.
- Continue to advocate for federal and state legislation that keeps the federal and state government at the forefront of sustainable and climate focused energy systems, including bills that support privately-owned, community solar arrays allowing individual or organizational ownership and wealth generating opportunities.
- Leverage funding sources, including local green banks and on-bill financing, to expand access to low and no cost financing for on-site renewable energy and/or other low to no emissions energy technology (e.g. combined heat and power, geothermal, etc.)
- Identify and support active community hubs to transition to resilience hubs prioritizing Neighborhood Opportunity Funds.
- Residential Homes
- Explore the feasibility of innovative financing solutions like creating a green revolving fund, green cost share program, buy-down options, on-bill financing or other sustainable public financing programs that help residents finance home energy updates while investing in serving additional households.
- Assess and reduce barriers to innovative housing solutions such as modular construction, tiny homes, prefabricated materials, and new building methods.
- Explore tools and strategies for protecting residents at risk of displacement.
- Buildings and Industry
- Help building stakeholders (developers, owners, operators, tenants), especially small and minority-owned businesses, access funding and financing to implement energy efficiency.
- Partner with Vicinity Energy to continue to implement efficiency projects and pursue electrification of steam generation and the sourcing of renewable energy as a strategy to reduce process emissions as well as help their downtown customers achieve building related emissions reductions.
- Enhance access to and use of actual data (energy use, cost, emissions) in building development, design, construction and operation decisions.
- Transportation Strategy
- Install and expand new separated/protected bike lanes and safety infrastructure on major streets.
- Expand and promote the DART EV car-share pilot program.
- Add new pedestrian amenities that incorporate accessibility.
- Nature Based Solutions
- Prioritize neighborhoods with a low tree equity score, low-canopy neighborhoods and neighborhoods with populations at higher risk of adverse outcomes of urban heat island effects and outdoor air pollution, for tree plantings and habitat restoration.
- Pursue an update to the zoning ordinance to include native and native-adapted plantings by adopting a Landscape Manual to capture evolving best practices and provide guidance for all projects subject to landscaping standards.
- Food Systems
- Adopt the recommendations of the Urban Agriculture Committee to reduce barriers in the code to greenhouses and hoop houses to grow food within city limits.
- Pursue a pilot program to utilize food scrap, mulch, and wood waste in the creation of compost soil and bio-char.
- Increase public access to composting services.
- Review ordinance language and identify opportunities to reduce barriers to composting.
- Pursue recommendations of the Urban Agriculture Committee to reduce barriers to backyard livestock and edible trees and shrubs.
