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As Dallas tackles climate change, the city could try to change how North Texans get to work, how they power their homes, and how much shade they have.
A year after the City Council unanimously voted to create its first climate action plan, a draft is ready. The Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan is the product of community meetings and input from more than 6,000 Dallas residents.
The plan includes 90 proposals, many of them focusing on reducing greenhouse gases to meet the city’s boldest goal: eliminating such emissions by 2050.
The plan is expected to launch April 22, which is Earth Day. Residents can review and comment on the plan at dallasclimateaction.com through March 3.
After the review period ends, the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability will review the responses.
City leaders have described the plan, which was developed by AECOM Technical Services, as an ambitious and necessary response to looming environmental threats.
“Dallas is a healthy, safe and economically vibrant city. But to be a truly resilient city, Dallas must prepare for the effects of climate change,” Mayor Eric Johnson said in a prepared statement.
Too weak, some say
But since the draft’s release Feb. 4, some Dallas residents have said it doesn’t adequately address all the problems the city will face.
Several members of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led activist group focused on climate change and job creation, attended Wednesday’s City Council meeting to express their concerns about the plan.
“While I — and my generation — appreciate that the city of Dallas is currently working to prevent climate change, we’d like to emphasize the importance of being more aggressive before we reach tipping points of no return,” said Samuel Posten, 13, as dozens of group members stood behind him, linking arms.
Local business owner Javier Enriquez, 25, also told council members that the plan’s goals won’t yield progress quickly enough.
“The luxury of incremental change is no longer a viable path, and incredible threats require incredible solutions,” he said.
Irving-based Fluor Corp., which built the Horseshoe in downtown Dallas and several other local highway projects, is expected to announce strategic changes Tuesday as part of a turnaround plan.
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Evelyn Mayo, board chairwoman for Downwinders at Risk, a community group focused on clean-air issues in North Texas, said the city didn’t do enough to gather public input.
“Public meetings meant to generate input were poorly attended, poorly publicized and often hard to find,” she said. “Without an equitable process, there are no equitable outcomes. What could have been a vehicle to undo Dallas’ decades of systemic environmental racism, unfortunately is yet another top-down plan that even if implemented, will likely leave front-line communities right where they are: on the front line.”
Jim Schermbeck, a long-time environmental community organizer in North Texas, said the climate action plan’s proposals could do more.
“Most are without imagination or timelines, meaning that even the most milquetoast-like recommendations being made will have to be fought for tooth and nail to be done in a timely manner,” he wrote in a post for Downwinders at Risk. “… The list of recommendations is effusive about stormwater management and tree-planting and silent on more challenging issues such as inequitable pollution burdens and the city’s own reliance on natural gas.”
Here are notable pieces of the plan and how they could affect people:
Dallas’ new climate action plan would call for adding air-quality monitoring stations, expanding recycling efforts, making Dallas Love Field operations carbon-neutral and encouraging more widespread use of drought-resistant plants.
Dallas’ new climate action plan would call for adding air-quality monitoring stations, expanding recycling efforts, making Dallas Love Field operations carbon-neutral and encouraging more widespread use of drought-resistant plants.(File)
Energy efficiency
The plan sets a target of making all new construction “net-zero energy” within 10 years. The term means that the amount of energy used by a building is equal to the amount of renewable energy produced there.
Related goals include making operations at Love Field Airport carbon neutral, updating building codes to favor solar energy and better accommodating electric vehicles.
Air quality
Many of the plan’s goals would improve air quality, at least indirectly. To measure progress, Dallas plans to work with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to install more monitoring stations across the city.
The plan also suggests changing zoning standards to make sure new industries that produce harmful emissions are located safely away from neighborhoods.
Water resources
The city is focusing on detecting and repairing leaks in the water system and encouraging businesses and homeowners to cultivate drought-tolerant plants.
Leaders are continuing to create plans to protect the city’s water infrastructure facilities from extreme weather.
Although droughts may become more extreme, by the end of the century, North Texas could see up to 40% more days with severe thunderstorms, the plan says. Improving storm drainage and flood protection will continue to be a priority. The city has 84 such projects in the works.
The plan also would encourage use of renewable energy such as solar panels, attack illegal dumping, include possible incentives for ride-sharing services to electrify their fleets, and try to better distribute the city’s tree canopy, much of which currently is confined to the Great Trinity Forest.
The plan also would encourage use of renewable energy such as solar panels, attack illegal dumping, include possible incentives for ride-sharing services to electrify their fleets, and try to better distribute the city’s tree canopy, much of which currently is confined to the Great Trinity Forest.(File)
Waste and recycling
The city plans to expand its recycling program and do more to reduce illegal dumping.
It also wants to ensure that staff members who buy good goods and services for the city focus on green options, including use of content that is high in recycled materials, providing locally sourced food for city-sponsored events, and using less-toxic cleaning products.
Transportation
The plan calls for 100% electric bus fleets for DART and Dallas ISD by 2040 and for expanding public transit options.
Ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft could receive incentives to electrify their fleets.
Green spaces
The city wants to expand its tree canopy by over 40% by 2050 and reduce the urban heat island index by 75% by 2050.
About 14.7 million trees are within Dallas city limits, according to the Texas Trees Foundation. But about 46% of those are in the Great Trinity Forest. In addition to adding more trees, the city wants to distribute them more evenly.
The plan calls for creating more green space by using city-owned properties to create small parks and vine walls. The goal is for 95% of Dallas’ population to live within a half-mile walk of a park or trail by 2050.