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Organization: City of Santa Clarita
Date: October 1, 2008
Santa Clarita Wins 2008 Clean Air Award
Santa Clarita Named a 'Model Community' by AQMD
The South Coast Air Quality Management District presented a handful of prestigious awards today to cities in the region which have demonstrated their commitment and action to improving the air we breathe. Santa Clarita was the recipient of the Model Community Award presented to Mayor Bob Kellar at today's event.
Santa Clarita received the award for its innovative and aggressive approach to improving the air quality in our region. Some of the programs presented in the winning award application include Bike to Work Day, Transit Oriented development plans, an environmentally preferable purchasing policy, air quality advocacy, a community energy partnership, facilities energy efficiencies and the City's urban forestry programs.
"One of the very unique aspects of Santa Clarita is our ability to effectively balance the needs of businesses and residents with our concerns about the environment. Our winning of both a Model Community Award for Air Quality and being consecutively named one of Los Angeles Top 5 Most Business Friendly Cities is a clear example of this successful balance," commented Bob Kellar, Mayor.
Bike to Work Day held in May is part of the City's rideshare program. The City has been providing rideshare incentives for a decade to show its commitment to air quality. Overall, 23 business teams, totaling 268 employees, participated in this year's Bike to Work Day. The City of Santa Clarita alone had a total of 33 riders. The number of participating businesses and bicyclists increases every year.
Santa Clarita's Bike Friendly Community program began in 2007, when the League of American Bicyclists selected the City of Santa Clarita for a Bike Friendly Community certification. A community must demonstrate achievements in each of the five categories in order to be considered for an award.
Transit-Oriented Development, strategically incorporated into the City's Newhall neighborhood, has been master planned for redevelopment. The Downtown Newhall Specific Plan, adopted in 2005, has a guiding principle of transit-oriented development. In the 1990's, the City secured three Metrolink stations within City limits. The Newhall Station is in the heart of Newhall. The redevelopment plan calls for infill and mixed use development near the Newhall Metrolink station to encourage residents to reduce, if not eliminate, car use in day-to-day living.
Community Energy Partnership/Energy Coalition is a partnership among ten Southern California cities, Southern California Edison, The Gas Company, and The Energy Coalition. Its mission is to build positive relationships among cities, energy consumers, and their serving utilities, and to educate communities about sustainable and efficient energy practices.
With the City's Facilities Energy Efficiency program, the City worked to develop its Transit Maintenance Facility (TMF) as a high-quality project. It is environmentally sensitive by using state-of-the-art energy efficiency and sustainable building methods. This project was the first, but not the last, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified building in the City and received a Gold rating by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
Santa Clarita's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy calls for phasing out vehicles with less polluting alternatives such as low sulfur or bio-diesel, compressed natural gas, other bio-based fuels, hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, and electric batteries. All interior paint shall contain the lowest concentrations practicable of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A recent janitorial supplies' contract has resulted in significantly more environmentally friendly cleaning products. This policy also sets a LEED Silver standard for new and redeveloped City buildings.
For the City's 'On Road Heavy Duty Fleet Particulate Traps,' the City invested over $50,000 to retrofit all the heavy-duty diesel vehicles in the fleet with particulate traps. This far exceeds the regulation required number of retrofits. The City plans to purchase a CNG 'vactor truck' in the next year to more efficiently clean out storm water catch basins and protect water quality in the Santa Clara River.
Through Santa Clarita's Urban Forestry program, the City has been awarded a Tree City USA designation for eighteen consecutive years. Each year, the Neighborhood Leaf Out (NLO) program undertakes an extensive outreach effort by providing educational opportunities to all citizens. The neighborhood leaf out public outreach program organizes volunteer tree plantings throughout the City and arranges educational programs at local schools. The program reduced the City's dependency on tree planting services, while educating citizens on proper tree planting and maintenance as well as the annual Oak Tree Day celebrations each year. The City regularly conducts public outreach programs, such as Arbor Day, River Rally, Oak Tree Day, and Make a Difference Day. Volunteers who contribute their time and effort to beautify our community through tree plantings promote environmental awareness of trees.
Through the City's Air Quality Advocacy program, the City works with the SCAQMD on air quality concerns in the Santa Clarita Valley. In 1991, the City adopted its first Air Quality Chapter of the General Plan; it was updated in 2000. As a result, in 2004, the group embarked on a Sub-Regional Plan for the Santa Clarita Valley. The town hall meeting that the SCAQMD held in Santa Clarita, was one of the best-attended town hall meetings the SCAQMD has ever hosted. Some of this was related to the CEMEX gravel mining concern, while others had concerns about the ozone pollution in the Santa Clarita area. The City supported 1157 and other rules and laws the SCAQMD has worked to pass.
The City of Santa Clarita has an air quality chapter in its General Plan. Cities rarely have an air quality chapter and this effort was visionary. During Bike to Work Day, Santa Clarita boasted four pit stops, which is the largest number for any city in Los Angeles County. Our Bike to Work Day efforts won awards from Metro. The TMF rice straw bale construction was unique and required leadership from our staff and management, as building codes were only recently inclusive of straw bale construction. Lastly, the City is unique in that 98 percent of the ozone air pollution sources come from areas outside the City's control, while having some of the worst ozone air pollution in the nation.
