0:00
wonderful it was to have such great participation um and unique perspectives shared over
0:05
the past several days you know from where i said i just i know that is going to take all of us
0:12
to become a low-carbon city to achieve the goals that we have set
0:17
out to achieve and so so many folks from stakeholders to city staff
0:23
to our partners have been a part of these conversations for a long time and it was so wonderful to see um you get a
0:30
chance to participate um i i guess i'd also like to give a very specific thank you to
0:36
lorna allen as well as katie and andrew who were on the core
0:41
team who helped put together a lot of the work that led us to this point so
0:47
big shout out to them for all their work and our climate challenge partners for funding this
0:52
effort and always being such great partners around this work and i guess the last thing i'll say is
0:59
that this panel had a very challenging task in front of them i know it was an
1:05
untraditional type of task to to look at the concept of a brazilian
1:12
innovation district and our strategic energy action plan and think about how that can become a
1:17
reality and be embedded into some of our planning work with the comp plan and the udo
1:24
so uh i just really appreciate their uh your your brains and your thinking
1:30
around this um non-traditional task and challenging tasks that we have ahead of us so i think before
1:37
i hand it over to craig i'm kind of looking to see who's on this call if there's anything lorna that you
1:45
might want to add i think i will let you do that and then i will hand it over to craig
1:53
i see that uh tylo has joined us so i was going to actually ask how if there's anything you wanted to add
2:00
oh uh thank you lorna i think uh sarah said it well um i think i've
2:05
participated a couple times now and i'm glad with what i'm hearing um i think we're
2:11
positioning ourselves to be where we really truly want to be where all of these things come together so
2:17
once again thank you very much i know it's been a lot of time commitment from everybody's
2:23
side but i really want to say thank you to everyone uh who has participated both um
2:31
great leading the team that's really investing their time in teaching us new things and ideas
2:37
learning from other places our community members teresa and the uli
2:43
team for teaming up with us really appreciate everyone thank you
2:51
great well then craig um i will hand it over to you right thank you um and
2:58
whoever is advancing the slides we'll go ahead and do that one more time um i think most of
3:07
you all saw you know this is a technical assistance panel um which is a very normal thing that the
3:13
urban land institute does but we don't live in uh normal times um
3:18
so uh this is our first uh for charlotte um in one of the first
3:26
virtual technical assistance panels uh being conducted by the urban land institute and um as part of
3:33
our panel um you know virtual the virtual nature of it allowed us to bring in
3:40
folks from across the country um but we still were limited by time zones
3:46
so we couldn't start earlier than 10 o'clock and had to knock off earlier in some days so these were
3:52
sort of add to that learning the technology that sometimes doesn't always
3:58
favor uh um deadlines um so we are uh
4:04
we appreciate your patience and waiting on this uh i will once again uh thank the panel
4:11
um that joined us uh from from their locations um janet from seattle stephen
4:18
from pittsburgh walker from los angeles and shelby from atlanta by way of puerto rico and so
4:25
we're going to kind of go through some of our thoughts and findings these
4:30
are by no means uh finished we still have work to do and some more thought to put into some
4:38
of this um this is in many ways um a starting point
4:43
for us to work on the report it's a much more robust element
4:51
and so we greatly appreciate um you know again your patience with this
4:57
um we are is as was mentioned earlier there's a lot of
5:02
things to assimilate as part of this effort there's a lot of stuff that's going on um in charlotte and so it took us
5:10
um i mean it probably took us a day and a half just to kind of understand everything that was going on
5:16
um and uh those of you all who are in it on a day-to-day basis recognize the sort of
5:21
velocity of processes that are happening so um
5:27
i think that's uh you know it's it's cyril it's a growing city there are a lot of things really great things going on so it's
5:33
sort of added to the excitement about this particular project now if you go to the next slide
5:43
so at the very beginning of our effort as with everything with uli panels we
5:50
ask our clients to tell us what it is that you need us to do as part of this effort normally uli panels look at projects or
5:58
or specific things that are sort of geographically based what do we do with this site how can we
6:06
put this particular use in this community on this one this is much more policy
6:12
based and so the policy questions that were posed to us
6:18
related to the things that are happening in the community today how do we integrate this into the udo
6:24
unified development ordinance as well as the comprehensive plan i'll add to that um you know what implementation options
6:31
are there tools uh to be able to implement the strategic energy action plan
6:37
and you know what's the right level of carrots and sticks for achieving implementation i think one
6:43
of the things that we certainly learned as a panel charlotte is very much an incentive based
6:49
city uh we encourage partnerships in lots of different ways and so you
6:56
probably are going to hear a lot more about the incentive side than you will about the regulatory side
7:01
as part of this but there's a little bit in there so next slide
7:08
uh so maybe i see some familiar
7:25
craig you froze up so you may have to repeat yourself
7:40
they were able to contact and thank you those who participated for giving us your time i
7:58
think i had a weak connection there but i should be better now if you go to the next slide
8:06
so we heard a lot of different things from the stakeholders um you know none of this probably comes as
8:12
any surprise uh folks here we're talking about um you know strategic energy action plan number one
8:19
obviously that duke is certainly the critical partner in all of this um but there were a lot of other things
8:24
i think that were very important that we kind of heard over and over again you know city of charlotte
8:31
this is a the state of north carolina is what's referred to as a dylan's rule state so
8:36
we can only do in north carolina what the general assembly permits us to do um and you know that kind of comes and
8:43
goes the political cycles um you know they ebb and flow um and
8:51
maybe the relationship hasn't been great in the past couple years but it was in the past and it may be better in the
8:58
future as well we talked a little bit about the carrots versus the stixx approach
9:04
we know that there are a lot of partnerships and there's a lot of things that are already happening in this community and
9:11
you know i think one of the interesting comments that we got out of the public was that covet has proven to
9:17
us that we can innovate quickly there are a lot of things that we kind of uh you know grind through the
9:24
bureaucracy of of of thinking about these things and the normal course of things but we
9:29
actually have a crisis in our face uh we can do things fast if we if we're able to so it's just a reminder
9:37
that we don't always uh necessarily need to re rely upon
9:43
a very prolonged process in order to try things um i think that that's important um
9:48
that's definitely a part of this effort um and this uh you see a lot of um acronyms in
9:57
here uh the c app and even covid um reds um and other things you know i think
10:04
it's important that when we kind of look at all of these elements we need to make things less complicated
10:10
and more approachable for the community and part of that is making sure that we have a consistency
10:17
of focus there are definitely a lot of things that one of the things we heard um that there
10:22
are many different city departments that are doing different things sometimes they're consistent
10:28
not always but sometimes and they're better than they have been in years past but there are some times
10:36
when uh certain geographies are targeted um [Music]
10:41
by one department versus another and so i think that's an important element to that
10:46
um so if you go to the next slide
10:52
so there were a number of key findings we'll kind of lead with some of this information that we
10:59
have you know the for the comprehensive plan um
11:05
it really needs to include climate climate neutrality and resilience um as you know certainly key pillars as
11:12
much as possible or certainly cross-cutting topics and actually one of the things that we kind
11:18
of discovered was the resilience has been added into the
11:23
comp plan as one of the core principles was not part of an earlier document
11:29
so there's definitely been an advancement of thinking about that on the udo side perhaps there's an
11:35
overlay zone or some other type of technique and providing flexibility in standards and procedures
11:41
we'll talk about that in a minute um the the rids or whatever they end up
11:47
being called um you probably need to focus on energy and moving that city towards its
11:52
2050 carbon neutrality goal there are a lot of things that can be done um and i
11:59
think one of the things that we struggle with was when you put the terms resilience and innovation in front of
12:06
the word district it can mean an awful lot uh very high expectations
12:12
for one particular area and sometimes it's better just to focus um on the key components get that stuff
12:20
done right and then advance it there's a number of tools i think about
12:27
how do we accelerate this uh we'll talk about that um again we the the name of it we think
12:34
needs to be changed to emphasize energy rather than resilience and so we'll talk about how that
12:41
really gets folded in and you know energy resilience is more
12:48
than just energy efficiency there's energy cost burdens there's health impacts
12:55
there's a lot of things that go into that we need to make sure that we sort of underscore particularly when we're
13:01
looking at it through one of the core principles which is equity we need to make sure that
13:07
that's a key component and the next slide please
13:14
we did definitely think that you need to have an area where you can incubate i think one of the things that we uh
13:20
talked about quite a bit was whether you need to have a district that incubates these ideas or whether they're
13:26
uh you know projects or sites that maybe get spread around more
13:32
opportunistically i'd say we're not settled on that one yet i think there's opportunities for
13:37
both um i talked about equity and how it's really just a critical component and it really
13:43
definitely needs to be a lens through which everything is viewed um you know sustain um funding and
13:51
financing um is a big part of this um who's putting money in uh to be able to do that some of the
13:58
efforts thus far in the north and smart district have been using what we call opm other people's money um
14:06
and i think they're gonna there's gonna be continue to be um opportunities for that um and then
14:12
there's some things that we definitely wanna make sure that you focus on transit proximity is i think key
14:21
the availability of civilian land and historically disinvested areas of the city
14:26
these are the places that probably need the most help and we need to make sure that again
14:32
resources continue to be focused in those locations you can go to the next slide please
14:41
you know we talked about this quite a bit it is the comprehensive plan is is
14:48
moving in this direction principles are all about
14:54
being authentic being integrated and being um and we think that that's a
15:01
key component um and we um you know that's all part of the the conversation that we've had
15:08
um as part of this effort uh next slide please
15:13
i'm going to turn it over to stephen um and he's going to share some of his thoughts
15:20
everybody i'm stephen baumgartner from pittsburgh great to be with you yeah i think this reinforces just what some of the stuff craig went through
15:26
when this resiliency definition was pulled from the sea app which really speaks
15:32
broadly to a wide range of shocks and stresses and not just climate related but other social
15:39
health community other other pieces so that wide range of resiliency
15:44
is an important one that i think needs to be elevated and we the panel kind of agree that it needs to
15:50
be elevated to prominence because when you say one district is resilient it implies the others aren't
15:55
perhaps but also the german innovation districts as well kind of established term we pulled the
16:01
definition from the global innovation district organization
16:06
out of boston and that these these innovation districts are really focused on this you can read it here then subs of
16:13
economic activity for innovation entrepreneurship creativity and place making intersect it's it's really um it's you know
16:22
fairly defined around the economic development around research and sort of catalyzing ideas and less about
16:27
the solutions that are applied to them as being innovative so i think we struggled with that as a
16:34
as a panel a little bit that i think what we're really what we really heard is that the intent of the rid
16:41
you can see this green box over here is to is to define physical places spaces
16:46
areas right that to innovate on energy solutions to advance the sea app climate action goals of neutrality by
16:53
2050. so that's a really important sort of distinction i mean it's a little bit
16:58
different if you were going to just sort of ask a 100 person panel what they
17:03
think the definition of resilient innovation districts are they may not come up with this but we heard to focus on energy
17:10
um but critical to that is ensuring that equity goals of the city are are
17:18
are fundamental as well as the resiliency goals of the city are fundamental but again focusing on advancing the 2015
17:25
neutrality goals so um maybe i'll just pause there and see if the panel or any
17:32
anyone else wants to react to that and then we can move forward a little bit into that but i think that's pretty important distinction
17:42
so on the next slide um
17:48
i think you know is is this idea of you know a name is important because i think you
17:54
know there's a the physicality is important is it you know to craig's earlier point is it could it be a building could it be a
18:00
cluster of buildings is it an area is it a neighborhood is it a district corridors you know all
18:05
these things do matter so maybe there's something that needs to be flexible and is it about innovating is it about
18:11
catalyzing spurring accelerating um and is it about energy carbon climate you know i think we all were
18:17
are thinking about names but again equity and resiliency should
18:23
absolutely be elevated and amplified um we feel and and the comp plan feels like
18:30
a great place to do that as well as other plans and that whatever these rids are new rids
18:36
um have to start with those as fundamental but really again focus on
18:41
on um accelerating and advancing the the the energy goals in the c app so
18:47
maybe uh maybe a a a more appropriate term is something like a zone of energy innovation or
18:53
you'll see a couple of these others here so we're not here to recommend necessarily although there's some red text that says recommended these are
18:59
working working drafts but you know we do think that something more appropriate to what we understand the roles of these zones
19:05
are would be something like a zone of energy innovation um
19:11
then we can we can come back and challenge all of these as well but uh that this is some of the stuff we came up on
19:16
came to and then on the next slide and this was a again amplifying one of
19:23
craig's earlier points this was a a screen grab from the early early versions of the comp plan
19:29
and words like authentic equitable and integrated really important words we didn't notice the word resiliency on here
19:36
resilient and not to say you put a name you know you put the word resilient in a graphic and you're done right
19:42
that's not the implication but to say that it is to borrow a a phrase from one of
19:48
my co-pilot panelists it is a kind of through line that should be applied to
19:53
city wide capital c as well as lowercase c community um throughout the entire comp plan and
20:01
that's really fundamental because i feel like resiliency we feel like resiliency is really is really that overarching umbrella kind
20:07
of characteristic that really needs to resonate through all districts and all and all in all panelists and
20:12
these rids or whatever we're calling them is acting a little bit differently advancing the energy goals but with
20:19
equity and resiliency and some of these other things as a through line
20:25
and then the next uh next slide we talked about scales briefly again with craig um you know could
20:32
this sort of um application be applied to sort of like a building or space like an incubator
20:38
could it be like an area or cluster campus three four buildings corridors is it a neighborhood
20:43
or neighborhoods like in north end and i think those are conversations we want to have about application
20:48
and in scalp
20:55
and you know we just started to think about some of the some of the definitions and potentially [Music]
21:01
shifting a little bit of the language to a line more to what we had heard coming out of this group that
21:07
whether or not z you know um zone of energy innovation if that's the name or any other name
21:13
we heard that it should promote enter innovative energy solutions at multiple scales building infrastructure system
21:19
scales for neighborhood and communities to help catalyze the city to address your low carbon goals
21:25
and these zones should actually ensure solutions that enhance your city's
21:32
equity and resiliency goals right so i think that's a that's a slight shift um staying with the intent that was an
21:38
outcome of this of this panel
21:45
yeah i'm not sure we need to go into these now craig but i think these are some of the questions we were asking ourselves if the real charge is to address
21:52
low-carbon districts there's a suite of services solutions tools partnerships the
21:57
processes that um we think are fundamental to answering that question if the question is how do you ensure all
22:05
neighborhoods and districts are equitable and resilient while also addressing carbon this is there's an entirely
22:11
separate and maybe more cross-cutting set of tools and opportunities and processes
22:17
ecodistricts is a really great one that a lot of our panelists most if not all of our panelists have experience in and we can talk more about
22:23
that um uh but we wouldn't say ecodistricts is the tool to advance
22:28
just low-carbon districts eco districts is certainly much more broad broad-ranging is process-based
22:36
um it is a lot about building consensus through community engagement and these types of things for
22:41
for equitable and resilient outcomes um so those are just two scales of questions we are trying to answer simultaneously
22:47
and i think through the process and listening to to you all we really we're focusing on these raids again
22:53
being energy driven while ensuring equitable outcomes
23:02
janet hello everyone i'm janet schull and i'm with the city
23:08
of seattle's office of planning and community development i'm a community planner urban designer
23:14
and i work have worked a lot here in my office on policy development
23:19
related to concrete as a plan neighborhood plan and also transit investment and tod work
23:27
so one of the things that captured our attention and thinking about the the question you posed about how the
23:34
comprehensive plan and the udo could be utilized as a tool to implement reds we
23:41
start thinking about the utilization of overlay districts and it is a tool that you currently are
23:47
using in your land use regulations and there are many different types of overlay districts existing today
23:54
so just taking a little look at how that might be an opportunity particularly as you develop
24:00
the comprehensive plan and pull together the udo that we see an
24:05
opportunity for the comprehensive plan to contain policies that are supportive of an overlay
24:11
district designation that they could that those policies and the plan could
24:16
consider including an art even a separate element or an element embedded within an overall land use
24:22
element of the comprehensive plan where rid specific goals and policies
24:28
could reside that the typologies because we don't see this at all as a one-size-fit-all
24:34
opportunity so rig typologies could be defined here and described and the conference of plan
24:40
becomes a tool to focus um and support investments that you would
24:46
be attracting and uplifting in designated red areas and then we started thinking
24:54
about what would be some of the locational criteria and where suggesting light rail
25:00
accessibility places where their stations either exist or planned
25:06
should reside within an overlay district the historically disinvested areas
25:11
would be a criteria areas with where you know you have planned infrastructure
25:17
improvements and might be able to attract additional investment areas that have city-owned land or
25:23
buildings areas where you there are known community partners and that speaks a
25:28
little bit to the eco district model as well that's a critical factor if you were to to look
25:33
at an eco district as a as a tool in a red tech partners and and then higher
25:40
educational research partners would be things to look at and many of these things you have identified
25:47
in some of your work next slide please
25:52
and then we were asked to think about tools and this pertains primarily to the udo what are some tools to be
25:58
considered and whether or not an overlay district becomes a
26:04
preferred mechanism if it one were incorporated in the udo there are some
26:09
tools that could easily be employed via an overlay district are focused within
26:14
this area and in particular flexible development standards
26:19
and pilot projects we did hear there are some current limitations and what can be done
26:26
in terms of either running up against some land use or even building code
26:32
related limitations and so this could be an area where
26:38
perhaps flexible development could be attractive there could possibly
26:45
be some ways to to think up to move outside the box a little bit
26:51
and try some things out in designated areas that perhaps you're not ready to quite
26:56
allow throughout the greater charlotte area and then looking at applying density
27:02
bonuses for projects that incorporate and demonstrate low energy and efficient
27:08
mechanisms and construction techniques micro grids mobility choices ev infrastructure
27:18
parking we heard a lot about the importance of trying to move folks out of private automobiles in
27:24
terms of the goals you have established so we see some room here
27:29
for consideration of maybe no no minimum parking requirements within
27:35
the district parking maximums incentives for bicycle parking that the overlay districts could be
27:41
places where you would identify interest in attracting zero car zero carbon demonstration buildings
27:49
bio energy with carbon capture and storage and net metering and i think i have one
27:55
more next slide one more and then just thinking a little bit
28:01
about some opportunities and considerations if the idea of utilizing overlay districts is
28:09
attractive and something you want to pursue we see that with
28:14
overlay districts designation there's some real opportunities to vet these areas with with community
28:22
strengthening your existing partnerships and identifying new and emerging partnerships
28:28
around areas that would meet criteria for overlay designation and that these areas
28:34
can position the city for attracting private investment grant funding and other capital improvements particularly if you've
28:41
embedded and supported these districts in your comprehensive plan policy language that can oftentimes be
28:48
ways to strengthen your competitiveness and also just
28:54
pointing out areas where you're attracting investment and then some considerations that these
29:00
districts are applied and implemented via co-creation with community partners i think that's one of the big takeaways from the
29:06
stakeholder engagement over the last day or so is that there's a lot of folks in community
29:13
doing a lot of work already and want to be involved and and have a say in and where rids are
29:18
applied and how they are implemented and then overlay districts should recognize we've already stated this there's no
29:25
one-size-fits-all approach there might we believe there could be some typologies that are identified
29:31
um and that there yeah there's many different ways that this
29:36
could be implemented and then thinking about if criteria are being applied are these criteria required or desired
29:44
we think probably most in most cases they would be desired criteria but perhaps
29:51
transit access might be one that would be a requirement
29:56
and i believe shelby might be up next maybe i'm that no it's back to is it
30:05
sorry craig well in what um with janet was just talking about um about how that kind of converts so
30:12
this is a you know a quick pass at using the place types that the
30:17
comprehensive plan is using um and looking at certain tools uh coming right out of the
30:25
strategic energy action plan um and where they might go relative to both
30:30
context and what we're trying to address as part of that so just kind of looking at certain neighborhoods
30:36
some neighborhoods are going to create more ghg greenhouse gases by nature of where
30:42
they're located because of transportation and so really trying to address those issues i think is going to be critical
30:50
um whereas some other areas are really more buildings focused um and so how do we address those things
30:56
so you know one of the things that um you know the residential uh electric
31:01
vehicle charging i saw that there was a comment about that in the chat you know
31:06
the city of atlanta has recently i guess maybe more than a year ago now actually adopted
31:12
rules that require all new multifamily in most buildings to
31:19
insert new electric vehicle infrastructure with new construction
31:24
far far cheaper to do it at the get-go than to try to retrofit for it so
31:29
that's one of those things when we're talking about a regulatory element that could be inserted as part
31:36
of the udo some of these other things are going to be more policy based or infrastructure
31:43
infrastructure based so they may sit at the comprehensive plant level
31:49
so it's you know where this stuff goes i think is going to be really important we still haven't nailed all that stuff
31:55
down but that's kind of our thinking and where we are with that we'll go to the next one
32:03
one of the other uh tools that we're looking at is this idea of maybe creating sister districts
32:11
and you know there's a lot of conversation about the river district being sort of a greenfield opportunity for
32:17
looking at something like that well you know there's opportunities to maybe look at
32:23
both at the same time um this is not actually the northeast
32:28
or the north end smart district this is the west charlotte on the other side of the
32:34
airport and you know is there a way that the two can be twinned if you will to
32:42
look at both how do we retrofit as well as when we look at new construction is there some value capture in both both
32:50
expertise as well as revenue they can move from one project to the other
32:56
so that the new construction as someone mentioned in our interviews the the new
33:02
shiny object to the west of the airport can that help to have a very real
33:09
partnership with the neighborhoods on the other side of the airport so you know thoughts about that
33:17
and i think there's some other tools and techniques that we can look at as well it's interesting downtown memphis
33:24
um some of you may be familiar with mud island um and uh harbor town uh very successful
33:31
very high-end housing project in the middle of the mississippi river they created a
33:39
value capture district that included the inland neighboring district
33:46
that is you know pretty marginal and so they were able to capture
33:52
revenues from the development of the one area and move them to the
33:58
area other area and make some very significant investments um in smart growth development in lots
34:05
of different ways affordable housing strategic energy initiatives
34:11
and a lot of other infrastructure investments using the same uh sort of that twinning
34:17
if you will next slide
34:22
um and then you know this idea there are definitely a number of different places where money is being invested in the community today
34:29
um and trying to kind of encourage and i know that again something the city certainly would like to do
34:35
but we have heard uh for lots of different people that there are you know different pots of money getting
34:40
put in different places uh and so if there's a way that there can be some level of consistency
34:46
about that and focusing those investments consistently um and and you know then interfacing
34:53
that with these um whatever we want to call them um
34:58
that help focus on implementing the strategic energy action plan
35:03
it's just another layer of public investment that is consistent with all the other public investment that's happening
35:09
in these particular areas next slide
35:15
um and there were a number of strategies that were identified um i think that you know there's you have
35:21
lots of partners uh for sure um all across the globe and looking at it
35:26
and we're gonna kind of dig into these a little bit more um to once we get our heads around
35:33
um sort of the end pieces of this and make those specific recommendations
35:39
with our final report but you can see this the different things that different people are doing
35:46
again around the globe so you're not alone as part of that at all next slide
35:54
we've talked about eco districts oh i'm stepping over shelby's
36:06
that's fine um yeah i think uh just continuing your thought there we
36:11
we did hear and wanted to echo back to the group that there are many
36:18
different ways to package up um whatever desired outcome
36:24
is appropriate for charlotte um the first slide there had some various um various
36:31
word combinations that essentially all um got to the same goal
36:38
of creating this innovative district around achieving energy goals and so whatever
36:44
you call it i think the important thing is that you look at and the report will go into more detail
36:49
on various examples that exist out there some more focused on
36:54
process like eco districts um eco districts as most of you have heard during the last
37:00
couple of days are really focused on starting with the neighborhood planning process the public engagement process and really
37:07
wants to put people and plan it at the center of every urban development decision that will lean heavily and bring a lot
37:13
more of the resilient themes into the strategy and stop process making but i thought it was also good to make
37:19
sure we were giving you some tangible examples of things that might be a little bit more private sector based and voluntary
37:26
incentive-based programs that have worked in several other cities that are similar to charlotte
37:32
the 2030 district is one that would be probably beneficial to look at
37:38
especially if you decide that this could be implemented in an area that has some
37:44
large commercial building with some desire for shared vision around sustainability
37:50
economic growth better buildings challenge is another similar one that the doe launched and in atlanta
37:57
had some success sounds similar to some work that has already begun through envision charlotte and could be
38:03
expanded or just leveraged in some way and to achieve the goals of the cf
38:12
but essentially it is a public-private partnership that would allow for the private sector
38:20
to set their own goals and maybe then the public sector can support those and think about policy down the road
38:27
that would start to formalize some of the voluntary commitments that are made
38:32
by the private sector but it is a recognition and incentive based program that
38:39
could be successful in charlotte as well so again these were just ideas and ways to think about um
38:47
how to not recreate the wheel but to just think about what has worked in other areas and could
38:52
work to at least get the conversation started
38:59
in charlotte that is a valuable outcome of the atlanta better buildings challenge that i assume is creating
39:05
a cohort of individuals and private sector companies service providers
39:11
manufacturers anybody else that was at the table was there to talk about opportunities
39:18
and challenges specific to the region and so if even if uh the
39:24
districts the ribs are a virtual platform for connection i think that's valuable and i think that we heard from everybody
39:30
even in just the last two days the connections between projects were really important
39:35
and and are definitely at the core of the culture in charlotte as well so i don't want to undervalue the
39:44
power of trust building in the private and public sector along with community relationships and
39:52
leveraging existing work that we heard is really quite underway insurance
39:59
i'll stop there so thank you
40:08
all right next slide
40:13
so we know that the relationship with the general assembly hasn't been great
40:19
necessarily in the last couple years but that hasn't always been the case is it time to ask permission to change
40:25
rules in a specific district and i think you know if you want to be
40:31
able to make changes i think it's important that
40:37
we understand what the opportunities are with that and maybe by sort of designating uh one zone if you
40:45
will one location rather than a sort of blanket permission
40:50
it may be politically more feasible to do that um but you know it's it's a test i think part of it is
40:56
too that there may be in addition to sort of applying certain things uh we may be looking at for um
41:03
minimizing certain types of rules that may be out there today that we have
41:09
a difficult time with so building code and other things that are
41:15
sort of fixed so you know it's an idea um it's a
41:20
thought um and uh you know i think it's we definitely heard sort of lots of we'll say pushback of
41:27
well the legislature won't let us do that well at some point um you know
41:34
you can't we just need to move off of that um in some way shape or form so um whatever
41:40
needs to happen to uh try to do something different i will say that this legislature may be
41:45
uh more open to um reducing some rules um when you add some
41:51
incentives to do different things as well um so i think there's some ways um but
41:56
again you know things things go in cycles next slide
42:08
so i just kind of want to come back to um you know what we talked about at the very beginning um you know there are a number of key
42:14
findings and we kind of uh rolled through those um as part of that um you know this is a
42:22
is a complicated issue and uh there but it's a it's an exciting opportunity
42:28
for the city i mean the city was very bold in uh the adopting the strategic
42:33
energy action plan and moving in that direction i think it's time to take the next steps
42:40
and it's uh i think they're they're key um i'd like to have uh
42:47
walker um come up and um just sort of uh touch on some of these
42:54
um and apply his thoughts as well sure yeah i think um we ran through
43:02
these at the beginning but you can just touch on on a few items i think um you know what we're trying to do is to
43:07
understand these relationships between the the um you know the read the udo and the cop plan and i think
43:13
as we mentioned a couple times really feeling like resilience and it does appear that that cut
43:19
added into those three kind of uh internal other pillars so resilience is in there
43:26
but just in my scan through the comp plan it was hard to trace the line between the comp plans um policy structure
43:35
and this um sort of established commitment to get to carbon neutrality by 2050 so i think
43:42
there's an opportunity to bring climate or carbon um more strongly into
43:47
the into the comp plan um and um and again we kind of put down a couple options
43:53
make it a pillar or just have it be introduced as a cross-cutting topic sort
43:59
of like equity has been done we talked about um sort of
44:04
after things expanding greatly about what a rid could be and all the things that could be included we said it should really just
44:10
be focused on energy and you know being an implement tool for the
44:16
um the c op the thing i found interesting is looking at the c app is there's a way that you know this district can really be
44:22
beneficial in implementing a number of the other actions so there could be net zero public buildings
44:27
not zero private buildings there could be investments in all kinds of sustainable modes of transportation electric bikes
44:34
regular bikes electric scooters um electric vehicle charging and then this
44:39
key issue of green workforce development um you know maybe the district is a place where there's that job training or
44:45
some of the initial jobs are generated through retrofitting existing houses or
44:52
you know installing some of this this technology
44:57
we talked about the name plenty of times stephen had some great ideas we really
45:04
do want to say that you know once you bring resilience into the room you have to talk about social and
45:10
physical vulnerabilities you have to talk about historic disinvestment about historic trauma
45:17
and so we don't want um energy resilience to just be too narrowly defined as sort of
45:23
you know distribution capacity or preventing disruptions but really to understand things like if you have a leaky house
45:32
that gives you a high energy cost burden it could also be much less comfortable or healthy to be in that house during a
45:38
high heat day or during a cold snap so just by virtue of doing simple weatherization and maybe some appliance
45:44
upgrades for things that aren't combusting well you know you could have a cascading series of benefits across
45:50
you know energy carbon health and well-being you can go to the next slide
45:58
i think we do feel a rid is a place um we talked about it being an idea or a set of principles or protocol but
46:06
um there's quite a lot of discussion about what um that there should be a place where play
46:12
says um and then um there was some discussion in that that last um
46:18
bullet um that was discussed um about you know some of the jenna talked about what some of those
46:24
factors should be but uh we keep coming up with this um sort of creating a place where it's
46:29
flexibility open-mindedness um is uh the norm and it's really a place
46:36
um where here it says okay to break the rules but i also realize it could be a place to make the rules because there may be ideas or
46:43
technologies that just don't have a regulatory structure and these could be places where you
46:49
figure out you know in a pilot approach what that regulatory structure might need to look like
46:55
um we've discussed a lot about equity um which came across um loud and clear
47:01
this comment you know the shiny things will happen as a matter of course but we need to see the investment you
47:07
know in resilience in energy city-wide and particularly in those historically disadvantaged communities
47:15
and then this bullet about financing just recognizes that you know there's lots of good ideas out there it's fun to spend a couple ideas talking
47:22
about a couple days talking about ideas with some interesting colleagues but you know implementing stuff takes money
47:28
and so we need to be conscious of leveraging existing funds whether it's cbdg or home funds or your first time
47:34
home buyer program or your home repair program um leveraging the rebates from duke energy
47:41
and then it really is clear that there's a culture of collaboration and partnership
47:46
in charlotte you have some you know some big um companies headquartered there who do
47:53
seem to be willing to be you know investors in the community and so i think you know having a a place to land a lot of um
48:02
sort of motivation and desire to affect change can be very helpful so there's a straight sort of a
48:08
discourse about community development that comes out of mit about capital absorption and saying you know you need the money
48:15
but you need places where the money can hit the ground where it's been sort of cultivated and there's readiness there's partnerships
48:21
in place there's political will there's sort of a basic plan already established and so i think these
48:28
districts can be one of those places that could you know absorb ideas but also be a place to you
48:33
know absorb investment um funding and financing so a little bit
48:38
more my perspective on things and i'll hand it back to you craig thank you walker go to the next slide
48:45
which is probably our last one so um thank you all um for your patience i want to thank um
48:52
the panel um even though they didn't travel here it definitely felt like um we were sort of all together working
49:00
long and hard on this um and uh appreciate everyone's effort and this is
49:06
an all volunteer panel uh we're all donating our time
49:11
uh to this effort both before and after this event as well so
49:16
um i'd like to thank janet and stephen and walker and shelby for contributing their time and effort
49:23
um and what they're going to contribute after this um they don't know how much that's going to be yet but uh
49:31
so i appreciate that our next steps are a panel report coming out in september and
49:39
with more of our final recommendations that are part of that if anyone has any questions you want to
49:46
throw into the chat we'll be happy to answer a few of them we've got just a couple minutes here
49:54
as we're doing it this is certainly not the be all and
50:10
all
50:16
well um we uh no questions um so that kind of there is there going
50:21
to be a draft for comment yes there will you know the this is a well
50:27
let me let me put it this way so the uli um we're hired to produce these tap um
50:33
technical assistance panels they're not public policy um it's a set of opinions and recommendations from a
50:39
panel of experts from across the country looking at a specific issue
50:45
for the client in this particular case the city to consider as deck steps so we typically don't
50:52
issue public drafts for public comment there our client will review them just to make
50:59
sure everything is accurate but then moving into
51:05
that sort of set of recommendations it's basically just a kind of a working paper if you will a white paper
51:11
passing along so it will be up to the city as the client to determine what from those
51:17
recommendations they'd like to implement in advance
51:26
thank you for that question
51:32
so one of the questions is talking about some of the rules that you'd recommend breaking um i think that there are i'd like to
51:40
bring some of my other panelists in to sort of answer that as well some of the
51:48
minimum thresholds of certain things parking i think is certainly something that's within the purview of the city
51:54
today minims and maximums but there are other
52:00
elements of infrastructure design perhaps not everything has to be gold-plated
52:06
like it is in the suburbs to be able to kind of bring it up and do different things i think we can look at other elements of
52:14
perhaps the building code other elements of exceeding
52:19
um the current building code um as opposed to sort of making it less but really encouraging uh new projects to
52:27
exceed the building code um which today we are really kind of limited to
52:32
the minimum basic standards of what's in the state building code yeah just a couple other examples are
52:40
um you know use of greywater greywater treatment through natural systems so it can be challenging just to take
52:46
shower water and capture it and hold it for less than 24 hours and use it to flush the toilets which
52:53
you know maybe you guys get a lot of rain but in california you know i'm in la like we import all our water
52:58
from you know aspen mammoth and mount shasta so it's crazy that i have perfect water from aspen in my toilet and i
53:06
can't cap right i can't take my shower water and use it to flush my toilet
53:11
without having to get some special waiver on title 22 in the state you know water code so you know
53:18
shelby mentioned that the living building at georgia tech you know also went through a lot of hoops on the water side so
53:23
you know i think climate change will alter patterns of precipitation that's something to look at
53:29
uh we actually heard a lot about street standards and so there may be opportunities to do different kinds of streets shared streets booners
53:37
um yeah you know in the planning of some of these districts that don't have to meet the what is it the center left turn lane
53:43
wide requirements of the department of transportation we've talked about net zero buildings there
53:48
were some issues that came up about net metering not being able to put more solar on your roof than your
53:54
building would need even if you would like to share it with your neighbor in some community solar
53:59
situation so um these are just a few of the ideas
54:04
that i think you know could be could be put forward and where and i i really like this idea of sort of
54:10
breaking the rules but with the intention of making rules that actually can move forward you
54:16
know push the idea forward and make it more replicable and transferable
54:23
thank you walker very good all right so uh lots of other um
54:31
great sort of echoing of things that we talked about in the chat um as you mentioned this is definitely
54:36
not our our last hurrah for this we've got some effort to put into the final report so please
54:43
i hope that you'll look forward to that as well um on behalf of our panel um i appreciate the opportunity uh to um
54:52
to work with you all uh this is important work um and you know i'm i'm personally glad
54:58
to live in a region um that's talking and having these conversations
55:04
um and uh you know charlotte is a place um that has understood that there are
55:10
hard things to be done and we do it better together so
55:15
um i want to thank you to our client um and to the client team for helping us
55:21
out with everything you've been doing and for your leadership here in this region
55:26
so thank you so much and i hope you all have a great afternoon happy ozone alert day everyone