Commission continues scoring of climate action items; staff flag solar partnership, net‑zero housing and municipal electrification

Staff led the commission through the remaining items in the city’s Accelerating Iowa City’s Climate Actions Plan, asking commissioners to score and prioritize policy and project actions focused on buildings and municipal projects.

For building codes, staff described two related policy tracks: BCP‑1 (advocate for state adoption of advanced energy codes) and BCP‑2 (local adoption of aggressive energy codes). Staff noted that while municipalities in Iowa can technically adopt higher standards, recent state-level preemption of locally adopted building rules has made some cities reluctant, prompting staff to prioritize incentives as an alternative pathway. Commissioners were told the city has included energy‑code advocacy in its legislative priorities and staff requested commissioners assign a priority ranking to guide future work.

On municipal projects, staff described BPP‑1: pursuing a solar and/or battery storage partnership with MidAmerican Energy (and noted Eastern Iowa Light and Power as an alternate utility partner). The commission discussed that MidAmerican previously proposed a roughly five‑acre solar array near the waterworks park; that project was not installed in Iowa City and a similar capacity was placed in Hills. Commissioners asked about benefits and who would capture them; staff clarified that siting near the municipal water or wastewater plants has the advantage of colocating generation near high municipal electrical loads and could improve municipal energy profiles; commissioners suggested the water‑related load concentration and resilience benefits be highlighted in further discussions.

BPP‑2 would pursue a net‑zero public housing initiative. Staff said net‑zero is easier on new construction and noted existing partnerships (e.g., with Habitat for Humanity and local housing trusts) and incentive tools such as HERS incentive grants; several projects had recently applied for HERS ratings, staff said. Commissioners discussed whether the housing authority and the city should return to constructing city‑owned public housing to better achieve net‑zero outcomes, and staff noted a potential pathway is setting aside climate dollars for municipal net‑zero projects.

BPP‑3 covered municipal building efficiency and electrification; staff described ongoing LED retrofits, quarterly coordination with MidAmerican Energy on city projects, the public works building being cited by the U.S. Green Building Council as a high‑performing example and interest in adding EV charging at parks. Commissioners asked for clear, measurable municipal metrics — for example, municipal greenhouse gas inventory updates and metrics tied to energy savings — and staff said the city completes municipal greenhouse‑gas inventories and will use them to track progress.

BPP‑4 asked commissioners to consider advocating for state legislative changes to enable subscription‑based community solar. Staff reported two bills had been introduced in the legislature (one in each chamber) but did not reach a floor vote this session and suggested the commission might keep community solar on the legislative priorities list.

Staff said commissioners should return scoring sheets and that staff will compile scores and bring a prioritized list back in August; the commission will select one or two top items and attempt to attach measurable objectives in a later session.