Davis commission reviews Climate Action and Adaptation Plan implementation, cites funding gap and next steps

The City of Davis Transportation Commission on Jan. 13 heard an overview of the city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan and preliminary work to implement transportation-related measures intended to help the city reach carbon neutrality by 2040.

Carrie Lux, sustainability program manager for the City of Davis, delivered the presentation and said the CAP and its environmental review (a negative declaration) were adopted April 18, 2023 and that the plan’s goal — directed by the City Council — is to “come up with a plan that attains carbon neutrality by 2,040.” Lux told commissioners the CAP organizes actions by sector and co-benefits and that staff are now moving from planning to implementation and tracking.

The CAP assigns actions across five sectors, Lux said, and the transportation and land-use sector contains the largest share of transportation-related measures. She said staff have completed a municipal fleet electric-vehicle transition plan covering the city’s 158 vehicles, begun installing charging infrastructure, procured an EV van for Davis Community Transit and are developing a public-facing climate dashboard to track progress.

Lux also described ongoing technical work: the city’s baseline greenhouse‑gas inventory uses 2016 data and staff committed in the CAP to update inventories every two years. She said the city used an origin-destination analysis carried out with a consultant to better understand travel patterns; staff cited Fehr & Peers for that work. Lux said transportation remains the largest source of local emissions and that the CAP actions were selected for emission reduction potential, local control and equity co‑benefits.

On funding, Lux told the commission there is no single dedicated pot of money for CAP implementation. “We don’t have a lump sum of money that is dedicated toward CAP implementation,” she said, and added the near‑term resource gap is “in the neighborhood right now of half a $1,000,000, not multiple 1,000,000 of dollars.” Lux said grants and creative financing will be used, and noted specific grant successes and partnerships — including SACOG funds for charging infrastructure and a home energy score pilot with Yolo County.

Commissioners pressed staff on several implementation points. One asked whether the CAP contemplates requirements for EV chargers at major shopping centers; Lux said a Yolo County zero‑emissions vehicle master‑planning process, funded by the state and including cities and the university, is just starting and will address allocation of community chargers. Lux noted the practical difference between city‑owned sites (where staff can directly install chargers) and private shopping centers, where public–private arrangements or commercial incentives are often required.

Public comment focused on bicycle safety: Gary Sampler, a resident, urged the commission to address road conditions and driver behavior that force cars into bike lanes. “There are plenty of sections of the bike lanes where the drivers routinely drive into the bike lanes … in order to get around obstacles in the road,” he said.

Commission discussion ranged across fare policy, low‑cost cycling improvements and regional coordination. Several commissioners argued that expanding service and schedule frequency will do more for ridership than a systemwide fare‑free policy, while others said targeted fare relief for specific rider groups could be politically viable. Commissioners repeatedly recommended investing in maintenance and lower‑cost safety measures — brighter striping, better lighting and short‑term operational changes such as signal timing — in addition to pursuing larger capital projects.

Lux emphasized that the CAP is a planning document and that each action needs additional feasibility, scheduling and funding work before implementation. She said staff plan a CAP update in 2025 that will re‑examine actions and the path to the 2040 carbon neutrality target and will include an updated vulnerability assessment and greenhouse‑gas inventory.

The commission asked staff to provide further detail on transportation implementation items in future meetings and to work with regional partners to coordinate grant seeking and service planning.

For now, Lux said the focus will remain on establishing internal implementation capacity, pursuing grants and producing the dashboard and updated inventory that will let the city measure progress against CAP actions.