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Advisory members and board prioritize natural lands, buildings and transportation as top climate-action themes
Summary
In small-group work participants clustered priorities into themes (food & soil, natural & working lands, renewables, net-zero buildings, transportation, waste diversion) and voted on near-term actions; staff and the advisory committee agreed to compile an inventory and prepare an RFP scoping package.
At a facilitated visioning exercise participants imagined Chatham County in 2045 and grouped specific outcomes under broad themes: food and soil (regenerative agriculture and local food production), natural and working lands (preserving forest and farmland), renewable energy (residential and community solar), buildings (net-zero for new construction and restoration of existing structures), transportation (mode shift and fleet electrification), waste diversion and water protection. Groups then used a limited dot-vote to indicate where short-term county progress was feasible and where long-term investment was needed.
Board members and staff synthesized the group results and identified immediate next steps to maintain momentum: compile the retreat notes into a report, gather example RFPs and consultant scopes from peer communities, map overlaps with Plan Chatham and other local plans, and present an initial summary at the board’s December meeting with a November 20 advisory follow-up. Committee members offered to inventory existing programs to reduce consultant costs and to help shape the RFP scope.
