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City hears how Proposition 4 could fund water, parks, coastal and heat-resilience projects
Summary
A pro bono presentation outlined how the $10 billion Proposition 4 bond adopted in 2024 breaks into chapters — water, coastal resilience, parks, extreme-heat mitigation and working lands — and urged early coordination, grant tracking and partnerships to pursue competitive and noncompetitive state grants.
A pro bono lobbyist for the Guadalupe Community Action Committee told the City Council that Proposition 4, a $10 billion statewide climate resilience bond approved by voters in 2024, creates several grant opportunities relevant to Guadalupe including water infrastructure, coastal and wetland restoration, parks, extreme heat mitigation and working-lands support.
"Proposition 4 is a $10,000,000,000 California climate resilience bond that was approved by the voters last November," Alfredo Arredondo said during a council presentation. He said the bond requires that at least 40% of funds benefit disadvantaged or vulnerable communities and that state agencies will roll out chapter-specific grant programs over the coming months.
Arredondo told the council the largest single category in the bond is water resilience, about $3.8 billion, which can support drinking-water and wastewater treatment upgrades, stormwater capture and flood-risk work. He said a separate coastal-resilience chapter carries about $1.2 billion for dunes, wetland restoration and projects that improve public access to coasts and estuaries. Other chapters discussed include $1.2 billion for biodiversity/land conservation, $700 million for parks and recreation, $300 million for climate‑smart agriculture and a chapter for extreme-heat mitigation that can fund urban forestry and cooling centers.
"Part of the relevance here to Guadalupe could be to fund upgrades to local water infrastructure, whether that's wells, groundwater treatment facilities, and overall ensuring safe drinking water," Arredondo said.
Council members and staff discussed local ways to prepare. Arredondo recommended getting on department listservs, attending grant webinars and coordinating regionally with the county, conservation organizations and neighboring cities. He said the Legislature would return from summer recess within weeks and appropriations and program guidelines would begin to be established at state agencies.
The presentation included a table Arredondo said he shared with the Guadalupe Community Action Committee that breaks out individual grant sections and links to state resources; he offered to share that spreadsheet with city staff.
Council members suggested linking the Proposition 4 strategy to Guadalupe's climate-action planning and to existing parks and trail concepts (including a proposed trail connection to Leroy Park and dune/estuary restoration). No formal action or funding commitment was taken at the meeting; the presentation concluded with a staff recommendation to engage early and prepare applications as grant guides are published.
Arredondo also named state agencies that are likely to run individual grant programs, including the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board for water chapters, and encouraged staff to pursue technical‑assistance resources intended to help disadvantaged communities prepare competitive proposals.
The presentation closed with Arredondo offering to provide his slide deck and the table he prepared to city staff and local partners.
