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20211013 Special City Council Minutes City of Beverly Special Joint City Council Meeting with Salem City Council' Public Meeting Minutes 1011 I 1:'I I b tA-% 2: Wednesday, October 13,2021, 6:30pm This meeting was conducted pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021. This remote meeting was held over Zoom and live streamed by BevCam. Christine Madore, Salem City Council President, called the meeting to order at 6:38pm. City Clerk, Lisa Kent,took the attendance of the Beverly City Council by roll call. Beverly Members Present: Stacy Ames (arrived at 6:57pm),Dominic Copeland,Kathleen Feldman,Timothy Flaherty (arrived at 6:48pm), Julie Flowers, Scott Houseman(arrived at 6:57pm), Todd Rotondo,Estelle Rand Beverly Members Absent: Paul Guanci Councilors recited the pledge of allegiance. Kimberley Driscoll,Mayor of the City of Salem, stated this is a pretty historic meeting. It is not often that Beverly and Salem City Councils come together. Beverly and Salem share a coastline, have similar attributes and are in each other's backyards all the time, so it makes sense to work on this together. The [Resilient Together] plan had a lot of community input. The hope is that this meeting could really ensure that Beverly and Salem are building awareness and growing advocacy for a climate change agenda and that can be dual tracked. There is a lot of work ahead. Driscoll expressed her excitement to have this action plan. Jenna Ide,Director of Sustainability, Capital,Resiliency in Salem,thanked the mayors and communities for their support. Ide stated that her work is really coordinating the efforts of so many others. What can be seen tonight is where things are now and where they are going. It is a community effort and an ongoing conversation. Flaherty joined at 6:48pm. Erina Keefe, Sustainability Director in Beverly, gave a high-level glimpse at what the plan contains. She presented on the climate action and resilience plan(Resilient Together) and reviewed some of the program's goals,priorities and actions. Ames and Houseman joined the meeting at 6:57pm. Keefe highlighted some of the resources and tools from the project,including the resilient- together.org website. Madore opened it to questions or comments. Rotondo left at 7:08pm. Feldman commented on the business toolkit and resident toolkit and asked if there are ideas on legislation for some of the long term plans to have teeth and policy behind some of the great ideas. Keefe stated the toolkits are suggestions and cannot be enforced but often have a return on investment. There will be codes that municipalities can vote to adopt coming later on. Houseman asked as policy makers what can be done to combine the strength of common voices to help push a climate resilience and clean energy future at the state house. Driscoll discussed some of the things Salem is doing. If there are ways to develop local policies and ordinances to work on together, it makes for a more level playing field and hopefully puts into play the items, goals and objectives in the Resilient Together plan. Jointly governing with respect to policies and ordinances would make a lot of sense. Flowers stated she was curious to think together about how to make sure these mitigation strategies are accessible for all residents. Madore stated the power of regional partnership at a local level is boundless. Madore highlighted the importance of thinking about where the bar is set for the accessibility of these incentives, tracking who is benefitting from them and leveling the playing field on these action steps. Madore asked if the joint commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%by 2030 was informed by specific metrics and if it is achievable. Keefe stated it is aggressive and requires movement right now in significant and meaningful ways. The major high impact areas are mostly the building sector and transportation. Electrification, removing fossil fuels from the roads and businesses, is a challenge right now. Driscoll talked about coming up with strategies for transportation and working on the community engagement piece. Rand stated she loves the long-term thinking about behavior changes and the grassroots support for this kind of shift. Rand stated she represents the downtown of Beverly which has a lot of transit-oriented development and expressed curiosity about the immediacy of the need for policy �I to guide development so that any new development is part of the solution. Keefe stated a net-zero building code that could be adopted for new development is about 13-14 months away. In the interim, as new proposals come online, there have been discussions with the developers. Driscoll stated the intention is to be thoughtful about wanting housing and construction that will follow greener practices and how to think about the impacts and do it smartly. Wynne stated she is intrigued by a green construction ordinance like Salem is looking at and balancing that and what can be required. Wynne talked about weighing the things wanted out of a project and ending up with feasible development opportunities with aligned expectations. Rand supported the idea of the strength of these two neighboring communities tackling that together because then leverage is doubled and raising the bar for expectations on development. Councilor Turiel from Salem stated one dilemma to take in mind is that there are housing issues in both communities and building codes and in developing policies based on this, there will be the need to find ways to incentivize this for developers. Many of the technologies for a greener structure are more efficient for the long haul,but most developers are not looking at the long haul but at how to build and sell. i Flaherty stated funding is also going to be the difference of what can be done. Flaherty asked about EV charging around the cities. Keefe, Driscoll and Houseman talked about some of the locations and how to plan and put together a network with partners. Copeland stated one of the frustrating things when it comes to sustainability is seeing each department working on its own. It would be nice to see everyone come under one umbrella to 3 Beverly City Council Meeting Minutes—October 13,2021 page 2 of 4 form a coherent game plan. Erina has been doing that more for Beverly, but also across the North Shore eventually being able to come up with some sort of coherent sustainability practice. Copeland asked if that is something that is being looked towards. Driscoll stated Salem formed a sustainability and resiliency division and things are done very collaboratively. What gets budgeted, gets done, so Salem is budgeting and hiring people. Driscoll stated she is hopeful that will position the city well. Keefe stated there are a lot of regional networks that staff participate in. Councilor McCarthy from Salem recognized everyone on the call and stated that it speaks volumes to the commitment of the people on the call to their communities. Decisions made now will have effects years down the road. Sometimes more money will be spent on a project to get it right; it is going to be a long-term benefit. Starting this relationship is going to be beneficial moving forward. The more that can be done together,the better off. Madore stated another big issue facing both communities is housing. Beverly, Salem and Peabody have a joint memorandum of understanding for housing. That is something worth exploring for resilience. Councilor Dibble from Salem stated city g councilors can lead the charge and promote other do the same. Dibble stated he welcomes the green building ordinance and would people t� � � encourage Beverly to take a look at what Salem has created. Dibble asked how much of the human health impact of natural gas has been looked at. Keefe stated it has not been looked at a lot. Local groups have been doing a lot of advocacy around that. The plan revolves more around solutions, like how to expedite the transition and replacement of cast iron pipe with PVC since cast iron is really responsible for the gas leaks. There are some incentives in Beverly. National Grid is charged for cutting into a road so one of the incentives Beverly has is just allowing them to do it for free while doing other utility and road rehab work. Part of it is trying to understand what the levers for city intervention are. Keefe stated there is a push to electrify and get fossil fuel out of new developments at a minimum and to not see any new gas connections. The economics have turned in the past couple years so that moving from propane or oil directly to electric heat pumps makes more sense than trying to get a new gas line installed. Councilor Riccardi from Salem noted that she loved hearing all the support for a green building ordinance and that she is really excited to continue that support and momentum into action to get the green building ordinance passed. Jenna Ide and her team have been working really hard on getting it updated. Riccardi highlighted the importance of continuing communication and education with the public for steps that can be done and will add up. Riccardi also noted the importance of making sure tools can get into the hands of everyone. Madore thanked fellow councilors and the clerks and staff for putting this together. Madore stated she looks forward to implementing some of these recommendations. Riccardi moved that the presentation be received and placed on file for the Salem City Council. A roll call vote was taken, and the motion carried (9 in favor-2 absent). I Rand echoed comments on this being something to be proud of for our communities. Houseman moved to receive and place on file. Flowers seconded. A roll call vote was taken, and the motion carried (8-0). Beverly City Council Meeting Minutes—October 13,2021 page 3 of 4 McCarthy moved to adjourn. A roll call vote was taken, and the Salem City Council meeting was adjourned unanimously. Houseman motioned to adjourn the Beverly City Council meeting. Ames seconded. A roll call vote was taken, and the motion carried(8-0). The meeting adjourned at 7:58pm. Beverly City Council Meeting Minutes—October 13,2021 page 4 of 4