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Services – Planning for Community Resilience

Planning for Community Resilience

Equity, climate change, and community resilience planning, policy, and program development is the foundation of Farallon Strategies’ work. With backgrounds in climate action and adaptation planning, expertise in developing environmental justice elements and equity plans, and in-depth policy knowledge across local planning constructs, our team has extensive experience working at all levels of government and with non-profit partners to create solutions for local, regional, and statewide issues.

Project Descriptions

State of Climate Resilience Planning in California: An Analysis of Senate Bill 379

Farallon Strategies is partnering with Climate Resolve to provide an analysis of best practices and critical gaps in SB 379 planning and implementation throughout the State of California. This desktop review portion of this research project entails reviewing Local Hazard Mitigation Plans, Safety Elements, and Climate Adaptation Plans, as well as reports and academic literature reviewing the state of climate resilience planning and integration in California. As part of the stakeholder analysis, Farallon Strategies interviewed planning staff at key municipalities and community organizations that were involved in planning updates, as well as consultant firm and agency staff that have provided technical assistance and guidance to support local jurisdictions that comply with SB 379. By providing this analysis, Farallon Strategies seeks to raise the standard of safety elements to support general plans that achieve statutory compliance, as well as those that go beyond mere compliance, and result in policies that better reflect community priorities and generate a pipeline of high-impact resilience and equity-centered projects.

City of Irvine General Plan Update

Farallon Strategies, partnered with Harris & Associates, is supporting the comprehensive update of the City of Irvine’s General Plan. Farallon Strategies is supporting the update of the City’s Safety Element and development of its new Environmental Protection Element. The Safety Element update will feature the development of the Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Strategy, including conducting a vulnerability assessment and developing adaptation and resilience goals, policies, objectives, and implementation measures, in compliance with SB 379. In addition, Farallon Strategies is leading the development of a new Environmental Protection and Climate Action Element. Our team is incorporating relevant information from the City’s CAAP and Strategic Energy Plan. In addition to updating technical elements of the plan, Farallon Strategies, in partnership with Climate Resolve, will lead stakeholder and public engagement in order to ensure strategies developed are consistent with community priorities and regional policies.

County of Santa Clara Health & EJ Element

The Farallon Strategies Team, partnering with Beth Altshuler Muñoz Consulting, is updating the County of Santa Clara’s General Plan Health Element with environmental justice goals, policies, and objectives, as well as engaging with, and determining the priorities of, residents and stakeholders that experience an elevated pollution burden within the unincorporated communities east of Gilroy. Using a racial equity framework, the Health Element update addresses the needs and pollution burdens of the County’s identified community, and includes environmental justice goals, policies, and objectives for the County of Santa Clara. This project will result in a Health Element in compliance with SB1000, and in alignment with Santa Clara County’s existing plans. The updated Health Element will include environmental justice policies and objectives to reduce the unique and compounded health risks faced by the County’s identified community and outline improvements and programs that may address their needs.

Strategic Growth Council’s Transformative Climate Communities

Farallon Strategies is supporting Estolano Advisors in providing technical assistance to TCC applicants. Based on our experience with urban planning and working with disadvantaged, low-income, and unincorporated communities in California, Farallon Strategies is supporting the development of work plans, refinement of project scopes and narratives, and confirming alignment with program guidelines. Our team coordinates across local jurisdictions, the project team, and state agencies to provide technical support and address project-specific concerns while concurrently providing recommendations to SGC on how to improve future rounds of the program.

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