Delray Beach spotlights climate action, tree-canopy and youth programs in All-America City bid

Delray Beach is pitching its sustainability and community-engagement programs as it vies for a fourth All-America City Award, officials said on the Village Vibes podcast. Janai, a representative from the city’s education office, said the city is a three-time winner, most recently in 2017, and is preparing a delegation to present in Denver June 27–29.

The All-America City Award, administered by the National Civic League, this year emphasized “strengthening environmental sustainability through inclusive community engagement,” Janai said. That theme guided Delray Beach’s application and its selection of featured nonprofit partners and city initiatives.

City and nonprofit leaders described three community programs highlighted in the application. Janai said Community Greening’s youth arborist team, tree giveaways and urban orchards were central to the submission and noted the group’s community garden that allows residents to “pick and eat” produce. She also identified the Delray Beach Children’s Garden, Sandoway Discovery Center and the Delray Beach Historical Society as partners that work with youth to build environmental awareness.

Chris, from Delray Beach’s sustainability department, framed the submission around the department’s climate action plan development process and a large civic-engagement effort that informed it. “We split the climate action into six major categories,” Chris said, and staff ran an eight-month outreach effort at about 22 locations that yielded roughly 350 survey responses. Chris said the responses were used to form interdepartmental work groups and to prioritize strategies for the city’s comprehensive plan.

Officials and partners emphasized equity in tree canopy and green access. Janai said the city used a study to locate neighborhoods with limited tree canopy and linked those disparities to air quality, pollution and property values. The city’s response, she said, includes targeted tree-planting and canopy campaigns in those neighborhoods.

Survey respondents ranked multimodal transportation as the top priority, Chris said. He described outreach to regional providers and stakeholders — including Palm Tran, Tri-Rail, Freebee, the Downtown Development Authority and the Community Redevelopment Agency — and said staff convened transportation work groups and outside consultants to explore safe bike lanes, transit connections and commuter access to downtown businesses.

City staff framed several resilience issues that informed the climate-action priorities, including increased coastal flooding and concerns about saltwater intrusion into the freshwater lens used for drinking water. Chris said stormwater and water-infrastructure strategies and protecting freshwater supplies were among the community’s commonly cited priorities.

Officials emphasized that the All-America City application was as much about demonstrating collaborative processes as it was about specific projects. Chris described the outreach and work-group approach as a way to identify what departments are already doing, prioritize next steps and coordinate across city departments over the next six to 12 months.

The delegation team will make the final presentation in Denver on June 27–29, city officials said. If recognized, the award would mark Delray Beach’s fourth All-America City title; the city was previously recognized in 2017.