Sustainability staff set out a broad suite of funding priorities on Friday intended to advance Flagstaff’s climate and resilience goals across mitigation, equity and preparedness.

Nicole Antonopoulos, the city’s sustainability director, summarized 12 areas staff would like council to consider for the next budget cycle. Key items include retaining two contracted climate positions (an energy specialist and a resilience specialist) that support public-facing programs; continuing and expanding the Energy Upgrades for Healthy Homes and HEPA filter distribution programs; scaling a wildfire-resilient home pilot (including $600 microgrants targeted at elderly and low-income residents); an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) Accelerator phase 2 including prefab and buy-refurbish pilots; an electric-vehicle pilot for the police department (one EV patrol vehicle and one level-2 charger to test feasibility); incentives for net-zero new development; resilience-hub grants and microgrants to local businesses to support electrification; and funding for a long-term municipal energy plan to anticipate higher organizational energy needs (for example, Red Gap Ranch scenarios staff said could increase load materially).

Antonopoulos emphasized that staff will pair each request with impact criteria: greenhouse-gas mitigation potential, resilience and preparedness benefits, equity reach, workforce development, return on investment and operational cost savings. She asked council for alignment on the program list before staff develops formal dollar estimates and budget requests.

Council and staff asked technical and implementation questions — for example, whether EV chargers would require expanded infrastructure and how ADU prefab plans would meet building codes — and staff replied they are collecting quotes and expect to return with cost estimates.

What’s next: sustainability will provide price tags and implementation plans as part of the regular budget process; several items are one-time or pilot requests, while others (two contracted positions) are recommended to continue as recurring support.