Information about legislation local solutions to global warming climate change smart growth

The choices that we make today about how we manage growth lock us into patterns that determine our global warming pollution for decades.  In order to achieve the State’s goal of significantly reducing climate emissions, we must make responsible decisions now so we can reduce driving and promote efficient, livable communities.

Poorly planned development is driving global warming pollution in 3 main ways:

• Transportation. Poorly planned development creates auto-oriented neighborhoods farther away from jobs, schools, health care and other needs. The traffic which results from this development is Washington’s largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions.  Individuals living in more compact neighborhoods that include pedestrian and bicycle-friendly features and convenient access to transit reduce their driving by 15 to 50%.

• Loss of farm and forest land. Poorly planned development is the leading cause of farm and forest conversion – another contributor to global warming. Washington loses ten acres of farmland every hour. Trees that have been cut down and farms that have been paved over lose their carbon sequestration function. Further, the loss of local farms results in increased greenhouse gases from hauling food across the country instead of across the county.

• Buildings and energy efficiency. About 25 to 30% of total U.S. energy consumption is used for building operations- such as heating and cooling. Smart growth communities tend to concentrate residents in more efficient housing with less floor area, and in some cases shared walls. Further integrating green building design into more compact communities can reduce building energy consumption by up to 50% at little additional cost.
  
  Washington has already taken steps to manage growth and development through the adoption of the Growth Management Act (GMA). We adopted the GMA in 1990 – 1991 and its approach recognizes the state’s diversity from urban to rural and east to west – this is where the local solutions to global warming come in. Our Growth Management Act is an excellent framework for tackling global warming – most cities and counties are already required to develop a local comprehensive land use plan. The choices made in comprehensive plans about where a growing population will live and work and how they will get around have a huge impact on global warming emissions. The GMA puts forward state goals and allows cities and counties figure out how to achieve those goals locally.
  
  “Local Solution to Global Warming” would add a 15th goal of reducing climate impact to the GMA and identify reducing global warming as an important aspect of comprehensive planning. This provision would require local governments to plan to minimize land use contributions to global warming. This approach will give local governments the tools, local control and directive to make responsible choices about where we live, how we get to work, and how we do those with less impact on our climate.
  
  Counties with more than 50,000 people and cities with more than 30,000 people would be required to:
  

  • Evaluate current emissions and impacts of potential future decisions;

  • Evaluate decisions that substantially increase global warming pollution and determine how best to minimize those impacts;

  • Develop plans to hit the Governor’s climate reduction goals through their comprehensive planning process.

  This new required element will be phased-in during the next update cycle starting in 2011 (every seven years counties and cities are required to revisit their comprehensive plans). Each local government will have the flexibility to determine how to reach the goal of reduced climate impact using approaches that work best for them.
  
  Options will include, but are not limited to:
  

  • Encouraging more compact and transit oriented development in urban growth areas;

  • Establishing transfer of development right programs to protect forests and farmland;

  • Encouraging use of new technologies that reduce global warming pollution and increase efficiency;

  • Providing more urban forest investments.

  For more information contact Futurewise Lobbyist April Putney; 206-343-0681 x120.