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City presents Riverside2050 general plan and climate action outreach; 1,700+ mural submissions and greenhouse-gas inventory released
Summary
City planners and sustainability staff updated the council on Riverside2050 outreach, including 218 stakeholder comments, more than 1,700 community mural submissions and a 2023 greenhouse gas inventory showing transportation as the largest emissions sector and energy accounting for just over 40% of city emissions.
City planners updated the City Council on Riverside2050 outreach and climate planning on June 10, describing robust community engagement and early technical findings ahead of land-use alternatives later this year.
Matthew Taylor, principal planner, said the outreach program included a stakeholder briefing with 44 organizations, a neighborhood land-use workshop attended by about 150 residents, seven pop-up events across April and May and an online land-use mapping activity. "We collected 218 different comments from that meeting," Taylor said, and the team has catalogued community input to inform draft alternatives slated for presentation in September–October.
Community contributions: The project collected more than 1,700 individual artwork submissions for a community mural project; staff said consultants analyzed themes to inform the plan. Taylor urged councilmembers to point out any missing constituencies for targeted outreach as the team prepares draft land-use concepts.
Greenhouse-gas inventory: Fortino Morales, the city's sustainability manager, summarized the 2023 greenhouse-gas emissions inventory prepared following ICLEI/US community inventory protocols, noting: "The largest sector is transportation," and that the energy sector represents "just over 40%" of emissions. Morales described downward emission trends since 2007 driven partly by a cleaner electrical grid, while transportation emissions have remained relatively stable.
Why it matters: Staff said the existing-conditions report provides the analytical foundation for environmental review and policy choices in the general-plan update; the city will use the inventory and community input to develop adaptation and resilience actions and feed local findings into regional and international convenings through ICLEI.
Next steps: Staff said an additional workshop series is planned for fall 2025 to show draft alternative land-use concepts and asked council to help identify missing voices and convenings. The project website (Riverside2050.com) hosts the existing-conditions report and participatory tools for public comment.
Closing: Council thanked staff for broad outreach and encouraged continued engagement with neighborhood groups and stakeholder organizations ahead of the next milestone.
