Title
Comprehensive Plan Update - Energy Comments and Issues
Recommendations
City Manager Recommendation:
Move to recommend that Council adopt Energy section of Land Use and Urban Design Chapter as proposed.
Report
Issue:
In reviewing public comments regarding the proposed Comprehensive Plan update, the Council concluded that some policies and proposals related to energy should receive further review. The Council referred these issues to its Land Use and Environment Committee for review and discussion. In particular, the Council suggested that policies related to solar access by development and alternatives to fossil fuels should receive attention.
Staff Contact:
Todd Stamm, Principal Planner, Community Planning and Development Department, 360.753.8597
Presenter(s):
Todd Stamm, Principal Planner, Community Planning and Development Department
Background and Analysis:
Municipal plans often address local energy production, consumption or conservation, or all three. In the last few decades the energy crises of 1973 and 1979 brought on by reduced oil output, Washington State solar access legislation of 1979, and the Washington Public Power Supply System nuclear-power bond default of 1983, led to further interest in this topic. As a result, by 1988 Olympia's Comprehensive Plan included an Energy chapter. That chapter was readopted with little change in the City's 1994 Comprehensive Plan update responsive to the Growth Management Act. The continuing need to address air pollution issues associated with energy derived from fossil fuels - especially the resulting changes in climate - have led to continued attention on local energy issues.
The 1988 Energy chapter generally described the state of energy issues in Olympia, and made recommendations for various means of addressing them. As a result, the policies of Olympia's current plan are generally advisory - and focus on potential actions, for example ERG 2.4 reads "The City should conduct...
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