Mountain View committee approves modeling of additional local decarbonization measures, directs five‑year roadmap toward 2045 goal

The Council Sustainability Committee on Nov. 6 voted to have staff model five additional local decarbonization measures and directed the project team to prepare a five‑year roadmap aimed at Mountain View's adopted 2045 decarbonization goal.

The committee's decision followed a presentation by staff and Cascadia Consulting Group that updated the city's decarbonization analysis and modeled the effects of state, regional and local policies. "We're experiencing setbacks, delays, or outright policy reversals at the regional, state, and federal levels," Danielle Lee, the city's chief sustainability and resiliency officer, told the committee. "Our hands are increasingly tied, and it feels like the levers for change that we have are disappearing before our eyes."

Cascadia's Haley Weinberg summarized the modeling. Under a business‑as‑usual scenario, the city's emissions could reach roughly 500,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2045, Weinberg said. When the model includes currently modeled state and regional commitments and market trends, those emissions fall to about 189,500 metric tons CO2e by 2045, a roughly 62% decline compared with the no‑action scenario.

The consultants and staff told the committee a substantial emissions gap remains. They reported a remaining gap of about 185,000 metric tons CO2e by 2045 and said 65% of remaining emissions in that year are projected to come from on‑road vehicles. "Local action can serve as a safeguard or backstop if existing regional or state policies don't deliver as expected," Weinberg said.

At the meeting staff presented five local measures that had already been modeled (reach codes adopted in September, outreach/education/incentives for building electrification, a transportation demand management ordinance, implementation of an active transportation plan, and mixed‑use/transit‑oriented development in existing and in‑progress plans). Staff asked the committee to approve modeling five additional local measures: expanding EV charging at existing multifamily properties, continued outreach/marketing to encourage EV uptake, parking management changes (including eliminating parking requirements in certain precise plans), time‑of‑sale energy requirements for properties, and modeling the city's zero‑waste plan to address landfill emissions.

A committee member moved to approve staff recommendations to model the remaining five measures and direct development of a five‑year roadmap aimed at the 2045 decarbonization goal; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously (Chair Hicks: yes; Member Clark: yes; Member Showalter: yes). The motion did not specify funding for any of the modeled measures.

Committee members and members of the public raised questions about several items: how population and employment growth factors were used in the model, equity and administrative implications of potential time‑of‑sale requirements, and the relative effectiveness of different transportation measures at reducing vehicle miles traveled. A public commenter also urged study of thermal solar water heating on multifamily roofs as a preheater for water systems.

Staff said next steps include presenting the draft Climate Vulnerability Assessment to the committee on Dec. 1, completing the requested additional modeling and returning early in 2026 with the expanded modeling results and a proposed five‑year roadmap for committee and council consideration.

The committee's action is procedural: it authorizes further modeling and directs development of a roadmap but does not adopt any new regulation or expenditure. The committee recorded the motion as moved and seconded on the record and captured a unanimous vote.