California Planners Discover Saving The World From Climate Change Is Hard!

At last year’s CCAPA conference, planners embraced the issue of climate change this gusto. They clearly saw climate change as their issue, and the conversation was very enthusiastic, even somewhat heady at times.

A year later, cold reality is setting in, and planners are full of questions. How does one actually address climate change in a general plan update? Which policies will truly be effective? How do I keep from getting sued by Jerry Brown? What the heck does my city do with the applications that keep coming across the front counter? How should an environmental review document address a project’s potential greenhouse gas contributions? Can I still use a negative declaration? And what about the potential impacts of climate change on a project?