Bell Gardens planning commission recommends City Council adopt climate action plan

The Bell Gardens Planning Commission voted on Feb. 18, 2026, to approve staff recommendations and forward the draft Bell Gardens Climate Action Plan and an accompanying mitigated negative declaration to the City Council for consideration.

City staff and consultants presented the draft plan during a public hearing that outlined community and municipal greenhouse-gas (GHG) inventories, five focus-area strategies—energy and buildings, transportation and mobility, resource conservation, green community, and resilience and adaptation—and an implementation roadmap that includes monitoring, cost estimates, and funding sources. "For the record, my name is Adrian Flores, associate planner with the City of Bell Gardens planning division," said Adrian Flores, introducing the staff recommendation to find the ISMND prepared pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act and to adopt Resolution PC 2026-01 recommending City Council adoption of the CAP and certification of the mitigated negative declaration.

The plan is intended to align with statewide GHG reduction targets and provide an actionable, equity-focused implementation framework. "The CAP will be implemented with long-term climate objectives consistent with the California statewide greenhouse gas reduction targets, reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2045," the staff presentation stated. Consultants said the plan is structured as a "living document" with strategy-level key performance indicators and an implementation schedule staff can update as initiatives begin.

Consultants from BlueStrike Environmental and Impact Sciences presented technical details, including the city’s first comprehensive 2023 GHG inventories for both community and municipal operations. Transportation accounted for about half of community emissions in the draft inventory, while the city’s fleet represented the largest share of municipal emissions. Impact Sciences’ Brett Pomeroy, the CEQA consultant, said the city published a draft initial study/mitigated negative declaration (ISMND) on Dec. 23, 2025, with a public comment period that closed Jan. 23, 2026. He said the city received agency and tribal comment letters from Caltrans District 7, the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, and the Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians (Kizh Nation), and staff prepared responses and a mitigation monitoring and reporting program (MMRP).

Commissioners pressed consultants on a discrepancy between emissions numbers in an attachment and those shown in the presentation. BlueStrike explained that recent Southern California Edison data released a previously aggregated nonresidential electricity category; incorporating that nonresidential category increased electricity-related emissions in the community inventory. The consultant noted that industrial electricity emissions increased the inventory by approximately 12,000 metric tons. "We received additional information from Southern California Edison that outlined two sectors for electricity—residential and nonresidential—that was not initially provided during the process of conducting greenhouse-gas inventories," the consultant said, and staff said the final draft will be updated to reflect the revised numbers.

Staff also described public outreach and feedback: engagement included in-person meetings, a yard outreach event, steering-committee meetings, four focus groups, and a bilingual community survey. Staff reported receiving two public comment letters from local advocates—Laura Cortez of Communities for Environmental Justice and Britney Rivas of Communities for a Better Environment—whose letters praised aspects of the draft and suggested clarifications and additions related to environmental justice, biking infrastructure, and drought-tolerant landscaping. Consultants said they incorporated clarifying language in response to comments (for example, a footnote explaining the "72-hour island mode" for cooling centers to mean operation without grid power using solar-plus-storage for a defined period).

Impact Sciences noted a procedural benefit should the City Council adopt the CAP: if certified, the CAP could serve as a qualified GHG reduction plan under CEQA section 15183.5, enabling streamlined GHG analyses for future discretionary projects that demonstrate consistency with CAP strategies. Mr. Hernandez noted the MMRP includes a revised tribal mitigation requested during consultation with the Gabrielino Band of Mission Indians and asked that any motion include that change.

After questions and no public speakers, a commissioner moved to approve staff recommendations; the motion was seconded and passed on a roll-call vote. The planning secretary announced the motion passed and staff said the item will be introduced to City Council on March 23, 2026.

The Planning Commission also approved the consent calendar and heard staff comments about an upcoming transit-oriented community plan for Garfield and Florence, then adjourned the meeting at 6:13 p.m.