Fullerton City Council members voted unanimously to adopt the city\u2019s first Environmental Justice Element (EJE) at last Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n
The plan, also known as Appendix N, outlines eight goals aiming to bring the city into compliance with new requirements established by Senate Bill 1000. SB 1000 asks that cities or counties with disadvantaged communities put in place environmental justice goals, policies and programs.<\/p>\n
Government codes require that the EJE reduce health risks, promote community participation throughout decision making and that the city prioritizes investment in programs related to the EJE.<\/p>\n
When identifying what communities qualify as disadvantaged, criterias passed down from the California Environmental Protection Agency\u00a0 take local data such as median income, pollution burden, health surveys and air monitoring into account.<\/p>\n
City planners identified nine disadvantaged communities within Fullerton, concentrated within three areas: Southeast Fullerton, Southwest Fullerton and the Industrial Corridor.<\/p>\n
CalEnviroScreen provides a score for communities\u2019 pollution levels and their demographic vulnerability to environmental risks. Individuals with asthma, cardiovascular diseases, low birthweight and diabetes are included in CalEnviroScreen\u2019s consideration of vulnerable populations within communities; a higher score indicates higher levels and risks of pollution.<\/p>\n
Disadvantaged communities rank among the top 25% of CalEnviroScreen scorers, and impacted communities within Fullerton were observed to have exposure to toxic releases from industrial facilities and drinking water contaminants that correlate with Fullerton\u2019s oil industries and are concentrated around railroads and freeways.<\/p>\n
Eight goals of the plan were identified, and they encompass varied environmental concerns such as reducing climate change vulnerability and air, noise, water and odor control. The EJE additionally aims to provide residents of these communities with equitable access to housing, healthy food, parks, public facilities and transportation.<\/p>\n
In its plan of action, EJE outlines city efforts to continually monitor and combat community pollutants, as well as monitor new and existing programs to ensure equitable access among communities.<\/p>\n
To meet SB 1000\u2019s requirement to increase participation, the EJE aims to increase civic engagement in land use and environmental decision-making processes.<\/p>\n
During the presentation, Senior Planner Yan Gao discussed survey results that revealed that only 45% of respondents have heard of the term \u201cenvironmental justice,\u201d which, as defined by the state, is \u201cthe fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notable community concerns included air, water and land pollution as well as land use. Surveyed community priorities included affordable housing, cleaner streets and increasing green areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In public comments emailed to planners before the meeting, a few residents cited the Coyote Hills Golf Course as a source of noise pollution to nearby residential areas.<\/p>\n
As part of community outreach, EJE planners contacted local tribal leaders in accordance with state law.<\/p>\n
The city plans to submit the plan to the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation by November.<\/p>\n
Also during the meeting, city planners introduced an ordinance that would place an irrigation ban on non-functional turf across the city.<\/p>\n
Non-functional turf is turf that is not usually walked on, such as turf used in street right-of-ways or around parking lots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If adopted, the ordinance would allow exemptions for non-functional turf around cemeteries and for turf that must be irrigated for public health and tree health.<\/p>\n
The motion to adopt the ordinance and update municipal water codes passed unanimously, and must be brought back to city council at a future date for adoption into the municipal code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fullerton City Council members voted unanimously to adopt the city\u2019s first Environmental Justice Element (EJE) at last Tuesday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,25113,196194,2628,49831,827],"class_list":["post-508494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-contamination","tag-environmental-justice-element","tag-fullerton","tag-fullerton-city-council","tag-ordinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}