Ithaca Green New Deal staff lay out funding status, program timeline and legal tweak for CCA and DER plan

At a regular meeting of the Ithaca Green New Deal steering group, staff detailed the status of multiple funding streams, a planned rooftop solar pilot and workforce training, and said the city will send a revised local law on community choice aggregation (CCA) and the distributed energy resources (DER) plan to City Council for review and a public hearing in June.

Rebecca, a project staff member leading the plan development, told the committee that federal, state and philanthropic funds are committed or under consideration for several projects. She said the hydrogen project carries a $1,000,000 earmark and that a separate $1.5 million earmark for an ICSD/workforce effort remains “floating in the ether of the Department of Energy.” She said the Park Foundation funding could provide about $12,000 for electric-vehicle training for local mechanics, and that a $200,000 capital allocation from last year will be used to assess rooftop solar for GIAC and potentially other city facilities, but must be spent by the end of calendar year 2025.

“The changes are insignificant, but what it really does is it takes the original local law . . . and instead of having one local law that covers both CCA . . . and the DER plan . . . separates them into two different laws,” Rebecca said, describing the legal change that staff are recommending. She said the split is intended to give the City more flexibility to administer CCA and DER separately in the future.

Tom Hirasuna, a town of Ithaca resident and co-chair of the Climate Reality Finger Lakes chapter, used the meeting—s public-comment period to invite committee members to a chapter meeting and to note outreach materials.

Staff said the amended local laws will be discussed with counsel, scheduled for a council discussion the following Wednesday, and set for a public hearing and council vote in June. Staff also said foundational DER program development activities tied to state funding are expected to begin next month if contracting can be completed.

Committee members asked for clarifications about timelines and funding sources. Staff said the CCA-related energy-supply request-for-proposal process will likely shift toward late summer or early fall, which could delay supplier selection but may align procurement with the utilities— winter planning cycle. On outreach, staff said the committee will review and provide comments before the package goes to council.

On smaller projects, Rebecca described a participatory budgeting pilot in which roughly 500 responses were recorded; green space was the most-selected category. She said the pilot also surfaced accessibility concerns (seating and water access) and other design questions that may be addressed outside the participatory budget process through regular planning work.

Officials discussed workforce and public-health risks from climate change cited in NYSERDA—s state-level assessment, which staff used to develop sector risk summaries that underlie the recommendations. Committee members emphasized the need to prioritize among the more than 70 recommended actions, identify which actions require city-only effort versus county or regional cooperation, and add clearer analysis of funding requirements and the fiscal risks of inaction.

Committee members suggested adding an at-a-glance fiscal indicator and a short list of high-priority near-term actions and recommended that staff circulate a shared document for written feedback between meetings so members can review specific recommendations more efficiently.

Staff said they will circulate a shared comment document to the committee for consolidated input and will return with further timeline and funding details as they become available.