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Regional planner asks Mabton to prioritize community assets in climate element; city allocated about $100,000
Summary
Byron of YVCOG presented the climate element process and asked council to choose one priority asset per category; the city was allocated roughly $100,000 for the element and the first‑year regional effort cost about $690,000 across nine jurisdictions, with roughly $150,000 spent so far.
Byron, a regional land‑use manager with YVCOG, walked the council through a proposed climate element and an accompanying community asset list. He said the project groups assets into 11 categories and asked the council to pick one priority asset within each category so staff can identify tailored resiliency goals, policies and actions.
Byron described the funding and timeline: the climate element is being funded through the Climate Commitment Act; he said the city of Mabton was allocated about $100,000 to create its climate element and that the nine‑jurisdiction first year budget totaled about $690,000, of which his team spent roughly $150,000 (about $60,000 per jurisdiction) on outreach and planning. He emphasized that those funds cannot be used for capital expenditures but can be used to prepare engineering or schematic work that would support later capital projects.
He gave examples of practical resiliency measures — backup generators for food banks or public facilities, drought‑tolerant tree selection for parks to limit irrigation demand, and HVAC capacity checks for community gathering spaces — and said he would like a draft ready for the planning commission by June. Councilors asked questions about what counts as climate‑related design and whether projects such as police or fire station redesigns could qualify if they include resiliency components; Byron said design elements tied to resiliency could be funded, but full capital builds could not be paid for from the allocation.
Byron also offered to return with additional detail and staff recommended a workshop if council wanted to deliberate more thoroughly before committing priorities.
