Maplewood commission reviews draft climate mitigation plan, seeks public feedback through April 1

Commissioner Ted Redmond, presenting virtually as a consultant with his firm Pale Blue Dot, reviewed Maplewood’s draft climate mitigation plan and invited public input ahead of a planned final review in May.

Redmond said the planning effort began in January 2024 and produced a draft shaped by baseline studies, a 22-member planning team of staff, volunteers and residents, and a community survey. “Over 79% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that it's important for the city to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Redmond said, and added that most respondents reported personal experience of climate impacts.

The draft sets two principal targets: an interim goal to cut emissions 46% below 2013 levels by 2035 and a long-term goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The plan is organized around three sectors — transportation, buildings (housing) and waste — with 14 strategies supported by a menu of 55 actions and partnership opportunities with entities such as Ramsey County, the Metropolitan Council and utilities.

In transportation, Redmond outlined targets intended to reduce vehicle miles traveled by roughly 7–12%, increase public-transit use by 5%, and grow the share of zero-emission vehicles to roughly 20% of vehicles on the road. For buildings, the plan calls for expanding distributed renewable electricity to 15%, improving energy efficiency to lower electricity use by 5%, and cutting on-site fossil-fuel combustion by 27% through efficiency and fuel-switching measures. Waste-sector strategies aim to reduce solid-waste generation and increase organics and recycling diversion; Redmond estimated those changes would yield about a 13% emissions reduction within that sector.

Redmond presented an emissions baseline and projection: Maplewood’s community-wide emissions were described as just over 410,000 metric tons in 2022, with transportation accounting for about half and buildings about 48%. He said the combined sector strategies could yield an approximately 48% reduction over the plan’s implementation timeframe and illustrated an estimated $180,000,000 in cumulative community-wide benefits when accounting for the social cost of avoided carbon and operating-cost changes.

Staff and commissioners emphasized the plan’s public-facing tools. Sean Finwall, the city’s sustainability coordinator, said the draft is available online with section-by-section survey forms and a QR code to submit comments. “We do not have a live chat during the meeting,” Finwall said; instead he directed residents to www.maplewoodmn.gov/climate and offered his contact for questions.

Commissioner Leitz, who served on the task force, praised the inclusion of an actionable ‘‘what you can do’’ section and the embedded resource links for residents and urged broad review and comment.

Redmond and staff underscored next steps and timing: a Parks Commission briefing, a March 23 presentation to City Council, a commissioned final presentation on May 13 and a council receipt of the final draft on June 8. Finwall and Redmond said the public comment period closes on April 1.

Because the commission did not have a quorum tonight, it did not take formal action on the draft; commissioners said they expect to return the plan for a recommendation to City Council once public input is incorporated and a quorum is present.