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At its meeting on Tuesday, June 18, the Menlo Park City Council held a study session to review the drafts of the new environmental justice element and updated safety element, which focus on protecting residents in Belle Haven from environmental hazards. These two elements are being created and updated respectively as a part of Menlo Park’s housing element update process in order to comply with state regulations.
At the meeting, public commenters and city council members alike emphasized accountability and clarity around prioritization. Staff were asked to include language in the elements that ensures the city will follow through with the programs outlined in the elements. The public and council members also asked that the city’s budget reflect this commitment to environmental justice.
Council members Betsy Nash and Maria Doerr, as well as Mayor Cecilia Taylor, expressed the desire to see more information about indoor air quality, cooling centers and tenant assistance included in the environmental justice element.
In considering the updated safety element, there was a focus on improved seismic safety, in addition to the updates already suggested around wildfire and climate resilience. Mayor Taylor also brought up looking into developing biosafety standards for biotechnology firms operating near housing developments, after the topic was brought up at the city council’s May 21 meeting.
The environmental justice element is a new requirement from the state, and this is Menlo Park’s first time creating one. The purpose of an environmental justice element is to provide a roadmap for the city to address the unique public health risks, such as sea level rise, unstable housing, pollution, air quality, food deserts, heat islands, flooding and more that are present in “underserved communities.” The environmental justice element also aims to bolster civic engagement in these underserved communities.
In Menlo Park, the communities of Belle Haven and the Bayfront areas north of Highway 101 are defined as “underserved communities,” according to state criteria. Menlo Park’s history of segregation, redlining and other institutionalized inequalities has led to disproportionately worse outcomes in the Belle Haven and Bayfront neighborhoods.
The safety element is a section of the general plan that identifies risks in the community and potential strategies for mitigation. The safety element update is focused on addressing new requirements from the state, such as climate change adaptation and resilience, sea level rise, wildfire hazards and community evacuation routes. The last time the city updated its safety element was in 2013.
Accountability
At the study session, public commenters and council members asked that the text in the environmental justice element build in accountability for the city to ensure that proposed programs are actually implemented.
“I would love to see us make sure we’re focusing on, as we move forward with the environmental justice element, specific metrics that are numeric in some way that we can track and say how far along are we to reaching our goals,” said Doerr.
Pam Jones, a longtime resident of Belle Haven, said that the city has studied the needs of Belle Haven residents over and over again, but no actionable progress has been seen in the over 30 years since the first community needs assessment in 1993.
“The commonality is about funding,” she said. “We now have the opportunity to fully address significant issues that have affected the neighborhood. The commitment needed from the city is to seek funding in our budget and through matching funds.”
“My hope is that you will stay invested (in environmental justice), because a lot of these things that we’re bringing to you are not new issues, right?,” said Violet Wulf-Saena, executive director of Climate Resilient Communities. “I think it’s time to take action.”
A city staff report says that staff will explore options to strengthen language around the city’s commitment and accountability to environmental justice, but recommends that the language “be cautious of potentially overpromising and under-delivering as this could result in decreased
community morale, support and trust.”
Funding
Another big question that came up during the study session is where the funding for these additional programs is going to come from, given that the city is projected to run an $800,000 deficit in the next fiscal year.
“I would be curious to hear from staff, maybe not right now, but just how that would actually work to get money from the general fund, given our budget constraints,” said Nash.
In order to get some funding from sources outside the city’s general fund, Taylor, Nash and Doerr expressed support for using approximately $1 million from the Bayfront Mitigation Fund to support environmental justice element programs. The staff report also suggests that matching grant funds from the city’s Vision Zero action plan and urban forestry efforts may also help boost financial feasibility.
“Funding and staffing can be constraints to overcome but should not be seen as insurmountable barriers,” says the staff report.
Community engagement
The latest updates to the environmental justice and safety elements come as the result of a lengthy public outreach and engagement process. Over the last few months, city staff have attended and hosted at least five community events to talk about the environmental justice and safety elements, in addition to disseminating materials to residents via emails, flyers and social media.
Priorities in the draft environmental justice program were determined by feedback from members of the underserved communities that the element is trying to strengthen.
The community said that improving air quality, preserving open space, building affordable housing, reducing pollution, providing more bike and pedestrian infrastructure and educating the community about environmental justice issues were top priorities for the environmental justice element.
In the interest of keeping the Belle Haven community involved, this meeting was the first time a satellite viewing location of the City Council meeting was offered at the new Belle Haven Community Campus.
“I want to thank you for having the satellite at BHCC,” said resident Pam Jones. “That is just really powerful and helps the community to know that we really are … being included, and that what we have to say is valuable.”
Doerr said that continuing to have meetings at the community campus, on this topic and others, could help keep the council and city accountable to the needs of that community.
“Having these meetings moving forward in the campus center, I think would be wonderful to see,” she said.
After feedback is implemented by city staff, the elements will tentatively be considered for adoption in fall of this year.
Keep track of adoption progress for these two elements at menlopark.gov/housingelement.
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