Richmond Rising reports progress on $35 million TCC grant; city, partners outline near-term deadlines and project milestones

Richmond — City staff and partner organizations on Aug. 6 updated the Richmond Rising stakeholder committee on implementation of the city’s $35,000,000 Transformative Climate Communities grant, reporting grant submissions, project design milestones, budget-to-date figures and a series of near-term deadlines for invoices, evaluation data and community outreach.

Beatrice Guerrero, a City of Richmond staff member leading the meeting, summarized program-wide progress and finances. “Richmond Rising ... will receive $35,000,000 to bring health, economic, and environmental benefits to the Iron Triangle, Santa Fe, and Coronado neighborhoods,” Guerrero said, adding that partners provide guidance but the community steering committee does not hold final decision-making authority.

Why it matters: The Strategic Growth Council’s TCC grant is funding multiple city-led and partner-run projects — from streets and trails to solar installations, workforce training and community engagement. Several projects reported being close to contractual or design milestones that affect when construction, hiring and community programs can begin or scale.

Key fiscal and schedule updates

- City-level finances and grant submissions: Guerrero said the city submitted a $155,000 request to the Active Transportation Capital Design Technical Assistance program and provided budget estimates to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) for Regional Measure 3 (RM3) funding. Guerrero said an MTC hearing the next day would consider a roughly $10,000,000 RM3 allocation that the project team expects would cover remaining costs for neighborhood complete-streets work and related wellness fields.

- Project totals and remaining budgets reported in the meeting (as stated by speakers): city-level expenditures to date $341,000 with $351,000 remaining; a separate $150,000 state contract was finalized and the city is seeking reimbursement; Neighborhood Complete Streets expenditures to date $95,000 and the project team reported a remaining budget figure in the meeting transcript (see clarifying details). Trust Republic Land’s Richmond Wellness Trail reported $250,000 spent and a remaining budget of $4,500,000; bike-hub work reported $526,000 spent and $472,000 remaining; UC Berkeley evaluation reported $403,000 spent and $666,000 remaining. Several partner programs reported their own expenditures and remaining budgets during the update.

Project design and permitting

- Neighborhood Complete Streets (Harborway): Guerrero said consultants finalized 90% design plans and the city provided comments on the 60% plans earlier; the team expects a 100% plan submittal within two weeks to meet an August deadline that will allow community review of the final plans.

- Richmond Wellness Trail (Marina Way South): Terrence, project manager for Trust Republic Land, said the project team received a permit set and submitted it to the city engineer for review and is coordinating with AC Transit, railroad owners and other agencies for crossing work. “We have continued coordination with city departments, AC Transit, and partner organizations on project design and approvals,” Terrence said.

- Railroad crossings and multi-agency reviews were described as active dependencies for the Wellness Trail; project managers said they would hold a diagnostic coordination meeting with railroad owners and consultants in the coming weeks.

Resilient Homes, workforce training and community programs

- Resilient Homes and solar installs: Ambessa Canteb, representing the Resilient Homes team, said the program contracted 27 clients in July and reported 17 energy-efficiency projects under contract with a local implementer. “We contracted 27 clients in July for solar,” Ambessa said. She reported internal expenditures and a remaining program budget and said outreach and a community solar workshop were planned.

- Workforce development and training: Alex, workforce manager for GRID Alternatives (referred to in the meeting as a workforce partner), reported completion of a second cohort that built 39 kilowatts across installations and included trainees from the TCC area. Alex said partners are finalizing an RFP review and expect to select an implementation proposal for the workforce and economic opportunity plan.

- Youth fellows and community rides: Staff reported ongoing youth-fellow recruitment and coordination; the next community ride was scheduled for Aug. 16; the TCC summer celebration is scheduled for Aug. 23 at Unity/Union Park.

Evaluation, reporting and next deadlines

- Indicator tracking and evaluation: Jason from UC Berkeley, the evaluation lead, asked partners to supply year-2 data covering Aug. 2024 through July 2025 and set an internal deadline for city-submitted data of Aug. 29 to enable analysis and report assembly. “We want the data from August 2024 through July 2025,” Jason said. He noted UC Berkeley will produce case studies for select projects and will help partners fill the shared data-tracking sheet.

- Invoices and deliverables: Staff and partners were reminded that a leverage report, annual report, and invoicing materials were due the following week; partners were asked to coordinate with city staff for invoice and reimbursement issues already in process.

Community engagement, outreach materials and events

- Outreach materials and link hub: Project staff displayed new English/Spanish flyers and a link-tree/QR-code hub that directs residents to program sign-up forms. Staff asked partners to review and provide link updates for their programs; partners suggested copy and design edits (for example, left-aligned text and clearer differentiation between street-tree and fruit-tree programs).

- Training and community programs: Urban Tilts described a paid watershed restoration training (September–December) and invited residents to apply by Aug. 22. Climate health promoter trainings and a Resilient Homes promotional video were also in production.

No formal votes; actions mostly administrative

No formal motions or votes were recorded in the meeting. Several items produced staff directions or next steps — including submitting RM3 materials, finalizing 100% design for the Harborway Complete Streets project, coordinating railroad crossing diagnostics for the Wellness Trail, completing invoices and the leverage report, and collecting evaluation data by the stated deadlines.

What attendees asked for and what partners can expect

Committee members and partners asked for clarifications on vandalism at recent park plantings, faster delivery of participant gift cards for trainings, clearer outreach copy to reduce public confusion between tree programs, and more time in some training curricula. Staff committed to follow-up meetings and to publish updated flyers and link-tree content based on partner feedback.

The meeting closed with reminders about upcoming outreach events (community ride Aug. 16; TCC summer celebration Aug. 23) and an invitation to the next steering-committee meeting and the planned community workshop in September.

Ending

Partners and city staff said they would circulate updated links, finalize outstanding invoices and design tasks, and return to the committee with confirmed RM3 results after the MTC hearing.