Lakewood to use $355,000 state NECC grant to expand urban forestry, climate resilience work
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Summary
City staff told council the Department of Commerce NECC grant will provide $355,000 (match by staff time) to support climate-resilience work required under House Bill 1181, fund urban-forest planning, urban heat resilience strategies and public engagement, and leverage ARPA and City Tree Fund dollars for implementation.
Miss Spear told the Lakewood City Council that the city has an opportunity to receive $355,000 from the Washington State Department of Commerce under the Natural Environment and Climate Change (NECC) grant program to help meet state requirements in House Bill 1181 and advance local urban-forestry and climate-resilience work.
"What this allows us to have is $355,000 from state grant funding, which can be matched by staff in kind time, so no dollars are required for a match," Miss Spear said, adding the grant permits reimbursement for certain activities from mid-2025 through mid-2027.
Spear said the grant will fund work on the climate and resiliency subelements required by HB 1181, urban heat-resilience strategies, an urban forest management plan, planting and depaving mini-grants, and public educational events. She said staff plan to partner with Pierce Conservation District and the Tacoma Tree Foundation and to use ARPA and City Tree Fund dollars for activities outside the grant scope.
Council members asked whether the urban heat resilience work will require code changes. Spear said that will depend on the data analysis and recommendations produced by the project: the grant funds mapping and analysis and will inform any suggested amendments to local code or tree-mitigation language. "It is probably gonna be within what is recommended through our climate advisory board or entity," she said.
The grant work includes completing elements of the Department of Commerceclimate element workbook, a state-provided checklist jurisdictions must fill out to show what they have done or committed to do; Spear said the workbook is a compliance checklist rather than a finished product and that the city aims to complete required subelements by mid-2027 to meet the 2029 comprehensive-plan incorporation deadline.
Next steps: The council heard the presentation and asked clarifying questions about timeline, partner roles and whether concepts such as tree banking could be evaluated. Staff said the contract and scope are in the packet and that the grant item is on the consent agenda for the coming week.
