McCall council adopts 'Rooted in Resilience' plan, approves Resolution 26-05

The McCall City Council voted to adopt the Rooted and Resilience climate action plan and approved Resolution 26-05, authorizing the mayor to sign documents needed to implement the plan.

The plan groups strategies under three focus areas — transportation; health and resilience; and destination management — and ranks proposed measures using five prioritization criteria: environmental impact, greenhouse-gas emission reductions, feasibility, co-benefits and community alignment. It recommends actions ranging from piloting bike or e-bike sharing and prioritizing road projects with sustainability co-benefits to creating zoning overlays for high fire-risk areas, implementing the city’s local housing action plan, and expanding renewable-energy and energy-resilience options such as wind, hydropower and solar heat systems.

Consultants who presented the plan said the recommendations were shaped by public engagement, steering-committee review and peer-community research. Grace (consultant) summarized the community input: “This is what was really important to the community and those surveys,” and said those priorities are reflected in the final plan’s organization and scoring.

The plan also highlights implementation-focused items already underway or soon to be scoped: updating downtown parking management and the transportation master plan (including complete-streets policy language), exploring recycling and composting programs, conducting fleet-management and commuter-incentive work, and expanding environmental-education partnerships. Meredith (city staff) said water-quality protection, parking management and micro-mobility rose to the top in community surveys and that the city is already pursuing related work such as wildland-urban-interface overlay conversations with Valley County fire districts.

During discussion council members emphasized implementation and community buy-in. Mayor Bob Giles praised the presentation as “an executive summary of a very detailed document” and said the council is united in implementing the plan. Council members repeatedly urged staff to translate strategies into concrete, fundable next steps and to coordinate the plan with the city’s comprehensive plan update.

Formal action: a council member moved to approve Resolution 26-05 adopting the Rooted and Resilience plan as a guiding policy for the City of McCall; the motion was seconded and the council took a roll-call vote. Council member Machesic voted yes, Council member Thrower voted yes, Mayor Giles voted yes and Council member Nelson voted yes; the motion passed.

The consultants and staff emphasized continued engagement with the plan’s steering committee and with regional partners. Presenters noted the plan includes novel engagement materials (a youth-targeted comic book, photographic storytelling and an interactive “big moves” exercise) and that the plan will be coordinated with other local planning efforts during implementation.

Council and staff identified immediate implementation priorities such as low-cost transportation changes to encourage mode shift, completion of missing pathways and temporary measures (e.g., short-term gravel pathways) where permanent sidewalks are not yet built, and refining funding pathways for the plan’s recommendations.

The council asked staff to return with implementation phasing and funding options and thanked the steering committee for its volunteer work. The meeting then paused for a short break before proceeding to other agenda items.