02-27-19 Joint Health and Public Safety and Utilities

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK people. We are the second (2nd) in Indiana to sign. Carmel beat us to it, but they have not accomplished anything since they've signed it. So, we're the first (1st) city to complete a Global Covenant of Mayors compliant inventory. We've taken the first (1St) two (2) of the four(4) steps, we did the commitment step,we preformed our community greenhouse gas inventory, so our next steps are to set our emissions targets and make the plan to reach reductions targets. Those are the four (4) main steps of the Global Covenant. The Global Covenant also encourages Cities to evaluate climate vulnerability and also improve access to climate sustainability. It is usually the wealthier households and businesses that can afford solar and other alternative energies, and lower income families who could really benefit do not always have access. This is a Global Covenant, so there are folks in really under resourced communities around the globe that will just never have access if we don't plan for that. That is the end of my first (1st)presentation. I gave you a bit of an overview and then I'll pick up where this left off and I'll get a little more into detail about what we will be doing moving forward. Ms. Dorau introduced the two (2) invited speakers. Ms. Dorau stated, Leah Thill will be speaking first (1st). She is the Senior Environmental Planner with the Michiana Area Council of Governments(MACOG).We asked her to be part of the invited panel because they have a regional approach to sustainability that is unique because it reflects their specific mission and I feel that MACOG is a really impactful organization because they provide access to technical and financial resources, and they help drive regional collaboration which is difficult to do from the City level. We are really fortunate to have MACOG as a City partner. Leah Thill, Senior Environmental Planner for MACOG with offices located on the 11th floor of the County-City Building, stated, MACOG is the Michiana Area Council of Governments. We are a voluntary organization of local governments, thirty-five (35) cities and towns covering the four (4)counties that are shown on the map,including St.Joseph County where we are,but also Elkhart, Marshall and Kosciusko Counties, covering several other cities. Our vision is to advance the region's economic vitality, enhance quality of life and place, and build that strong sense of place across the region and expand opportunities that attract and retain talent. We do that by collaboratively studying and attempting to resolve interlocal issues. Those could be transportation, transit, economic development, environmental and sustainability issues as well. Many things cross the boundaries that are set in terms of municipal borders, especially watersheds which have their own natural boundaries. As far as collaboration along that scale to make an impact, I wanted to give some context to the general work that we do. Our main program areas are transportation, transit, community development and sustainability. We're probably best known for our work around transportation or our GIS map. We're the metropolitan planning organization, rural planning organization,and economic development district for the region,but I'm here to talk about some of the other areas that we don't share as much about. The first (1St) is transit; public transit. MACOG operates the Interurban Trolley in Goshen and Elkhart and has been doing that for twenty (20) years as well as the paratransit service. In terms of community development,we have assisted in preparing comprehensive plans for small towns or other studies like parking studies. She continued, Sustainability is the area where the majority of my work is in so that's what I'm here to talk about today. I am going to touch on four (4) key areas. The first three (3) are most related to emissions impacts and then the fourth(4th) would fall into the category of preparing for or mitigating what we might expect in terms of flooding or some other things like that as well. I'll start with transportation because that's the area where we do the most work. Air quality improvement projects and grants that MACOG has been involved with have helped procure and EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 6