The Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted Aug. 21 to adopt an updated charter for the county's Climate Action Commission, shifting the panel from its original 11-member CAP'development focus to a nine-member advisory body concentrated on implementation and funding prioritization.

Why the change: The original commission was formed to develop the county'wide Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAP) and spent many meetings advising staff during CAP development. With the CAP adopted, staff and commissioners worked to reshape the commission's role toward implementation: reviewing an annual CAP implementation plan and annual CAP funding strategy; advising on engagement; and providing early advisory review on a limited set of high-impact discretionary projects (for example certain large rezoning or conversion proposals).

New composition and process: The revised charter preserves five supervisorial-district seats and reduces the at-large membership while adding four subject-matter seats aligned to implementation needs: a business community representative (to help industry engagement), a natural and working lands lead (recommended from Yolo RCD), a transportation sector seat (recommended from Yolo TDA), and additional technical expertise. UC Davis and Yolo County Office of Education retain ex officio seats. The charter also staggers terms to avoid complete turnover.

Advisory review role clarified: The charter authorizes the commission as an advisory body to review discrete discretionary land-use projects that meet defined criteria (e.g., general-plan amendments, rezones, conversions of >20 acres of ag or habitat, projects >100,000 gross square feet, subdivisions over 50 lots, or proposals with fossil-fuel infrastructure). Staff emphasized the commission's role is early and advisory only; it will not make final land-use decisions.

Board vote and next steps: The board approved the updated charter and directed recruitment for the new membership with an anticipated relaunch in January and bimonthly meetings thereafter. The commission will present an annual CAP implementation and funding report to the board and will be available for early advisory review of major discretionary projects as needed.

How this matters locally: The charter reframe aims to accelerate implementation of prioritized CAP early-action projects, direct scarce funding to the highest-impact actions, and expand partnerships with business, transportation and natural-lands partners for countywide decarbonization and adaptation efforts.