Arvada unveils draft Climate and Sustainability Action Plan with targets, metrics and $900,000 in startup grant

Arvada’s draft Climate and Sustainability Action Plan (CASAP) was presented at a Feb. 10 workshop, with staff and the Sustainability Advisory Committee asking council for feedback on targets, strategy prioritization and implementation steps.

Alex Pray, chair of the Arvada Sustainability Advisory Committee, opened the session with ASAC's letter of support and noted the plan reflects more than two years of committee and staff work. Jacqueline Rhodes, a city staffer, said the workshop’s goal was to gather council feedback so the plan can return to council for formal adoption with revisions.

Senior sustainability coordinator Steven Russell delivered the main presentation, framing the problem and the proposed targets. Russell told council that “the city of Arvada has already decreased community wide GHG emissions by 17% since the 2015 baseline,” and proposed community-wide targets of 40% by 2030 and 75% by 2050 against that baseline. He added the plan proposes a local-government operations goal aligned with net-zero by 2050, including a 40% reduction by 2030 for municipal operations.

The draft CASAP organizes work into six sectors — built environment, economic development, land stewardship, management practices, transportation and utilities — and lists 27 overarching goals with 143 strategies, 146 proposed metrics and 65 potential partners. Russell said the plan is intentionally designed as a "living document," balancing specificity and flexibility, and committing to annual action plans that will prioritize roughly five to ten implementable actions each year.

On funding, Russell said the city expects a mix of grants and city appropriations and noted a recent "$900,000 grant" will help jump-start code adoption and staff support: "We've already won this fall a $900,000 grant," he said, adding the funds will likely be used to hire two additional staff (contractors) to support building code transition and community resources.

Council members asked technical and policy questions during a long Q&A. Council member Ambrose pressed staff to make future public surveys statistically representative before changing prioritization weights; Council member Griffith urged staff to keep weights close to the survey results or to repeat the survey annually. Several members, including Mayor Pro Tem Mormon and Council member Davis, asked for clearer cost–benefit examples and for equity to be more prominent in prioritization and implementation.

Russell said the engagement included 269 unique survey responses (not statistically representative) and that staff had coded free responses to guide priority weighting. He acknowledged equity and inclusion scored lower in the survey than expected and said staff will propose ways to increase emphasis on equity when returning to council.

Council generally expressed support for the plan’s goals and for a phased implementation approach that emphasizes measurable pilot actions and annual reporting. Staff committed to prepare example annual action plans, refine priority weights as warranted by additional outreach or surveys, and return to council with a revised document for adoption in a future meeting.

If adopted, the CASAP will be used as a lens for city decisions and to open eligibility for grants and collaboration opportunities with regional partners. Council directed staff to provide clearer cost-benefit examples in future reporting and to prioritize equity in implementation planning.