Alachua County expands resiliency staff, advances climate action plan and housing energy-efficiency program

Alachua County officials on Tuesday reported steady progress on a countywide climate action plan, the creation of a new county resiliency office and expansion of an energy-efficiency program that now serves renters in the City of Gainesville.

Steve Hostet, director of the county environmental protection department, told the joint board the county has been submitting chapters of a draft climate action plan to the Citizen Climate Advisory Committee for review and public comment and expects to release the plan’s introductory chapter this month. He said staff plan a fall presentation for formal board consideration and are assembling a festival-style public adoption event tentatively targeted for Nov. 8.

"We've been reviewing the first draft of the climate action plan chapters," Hostet said, noting staff have circulated chapters on natural resources, water resources, energy, flooding, land use and transportation, heat, health and food security. He added that the green-industry chapter will require prolonged stakeholder outreach and may not be ready for the board's fall adoption.

The county also announced a new resiliency office within the environmental protection department, currently staffed by two employees. Jennison Kip Searcy, who introduced themself to the board as "Jennison Kip Searcy" and said they use "Kip," described plans to synthesize chapter drafts into a living climate action plan linked to a public dashboard.

"I'm...doing a lot of reaching out and working with staff on trying to synthesize and put this written document into a truly living climate action plan, which will tie to a dashboard," Searcy said.

Betsy Riley, who staff identified as part of the new resiliency office, provided program details for the county's Energy Efficiency Program. She said the program is open to Gainesville renters and offers assistance "up to $15,000 for energy efficiency improvements," with 20 signed agreements across nine landlords and 13 projects fully closed out so far. Riley said the average grant per unit has been a little over $13,000 and projected household energy savings of about $2,000 over seven years.

Riley said the county is capping awards at eight units per landlord to spread funds across more properties and currently is operating "very close to staff capacity," meaning program expansion would require additional resources.

County staff also summarized financing and technical resources: the ECIP revolving fund is being readied for a new solar installation project; several projects qualify for federal Inflation Reduction Act rebates; and the county has received technical assistance from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop specifications for solar on county facilities.

Hostet told the board staff will circulate the interlocal agreement governing the joint body for review ahead of June and said the agreement is set to sunset this year, prompting possible language changes and a formal review process.

Next steps: staff will circulate chapter drafts in advance of the board’s June meeting, pursue stakeholder outreach on the green-jobs chapter and continue program implementation and grant pursuit. The board did not take a formal vote on program changes at the meeting.

Provenance: County climate-plan chapters and event scheduling were discussed by Steve Hostet (SEG 149–SEG 176). Program details for the Energy Efficiency Program were provided by Betsy Riley (SEG 546–SEG 595).