By J. Graber | Scottsdale Independent
After a host of public speakers blasted Scottsdale’s sustainability plan for being too vague during a city council meeting in March, only two members of the public spoke out about the updated plan that was presented to council Nov. 13 – and they supported it.
Members of the public felt in the past that the plan lacked baseline information, goals and strategies on how to reach them, but that wasn’t the case Nov. 13.
“The draft sections of the sustainability plan are much improved from the prior iterations and present a solid foundation from which the city can measure and improve air quality and continue to show leadership in its water conservation efforts,” said Ute Brady, the chairwoman of the Scottsdale Environmental Advisory Commission, who was speaking as a private citizen.
“The plan now includes critical components like better indicators and specific goals, and it outlines the environmental, social and economic benefits of actions taken. This is really wonderful,” Brady added.
The other speaker was from the Nature Conservancy in Arizona. She praised the council’s focus on issues like increasing the tree canopy inside the city.
Scottsdale Sustainability Director Lisa McNeilly gave the credit to the city council for allowing the plan, which is still a work in progress, to take shape.
“Your input in the past has really sharpened the focus of this plan, made it a priority while allowing sufficient time to develop the baseline metrics and set some of the specific targets,” she said.
McNeilly presented updates on three parts of the plan: the introduction, air quality and water. She did not address energy, waste and extreme heat elements of the plan.
A sustainability plan will help improve things like the quality of life and health benefits against some long-standing trends like the drought, extreme heat and air pollution, McNeilly said; however, she also noted it will serve to do things like ensure a robust economy in the future as well.
“We know these benefits outweigh the up front costs because people are already taking some of these steps,” McNeilly said. “We have shopping centers with covered shade, that have solar panels on them. We know hundreds of residents are composting their food waste.”
The water section of the plan included targets like reducing residential water use from 199 gallons per person per day to 170 by 2033, reduce the city’s potable water use by an additional 5% relative to 2022 by 2027, reduce irrigation water use for homeowners associations by 10% from 2022 levels by 2033 and reduce commercial water use by 10% from 2022 levels by 2033.
Council met the water targets, which included implementation strategies and cost predictions, with mixed feedback.
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