Environment and Energy

Overview

Environment and Energy

Article President’s Message Joanne Mounce

Making Cities Smarter

A few key principles apply to any smart city efforts, regardless of size or scope.

Article Features Ignacio Dayrit

Fight Blight in Your City With Brownfields Tools

An underused set of funding resources offers tools that cities can use for virtually any site.

Hayward’s Water Facility Ranked in Top 30 for On-Site Green Power Production

The facility produces excess energy equivalent to approximately $400,000 annually and offsets energy costs for other city facilities.

Article Features Julia Lave Johnston

Planning to Save: Increasing Your Community’s Resiliency

Adaptation planning helps cities endure current and future impacts and thrive.

Article Features Scott Schneider

Fort Bragg Makes Bees a Priority

Fort Bragg is California’s first Bee City USA®.

Article Features Karalee Browne

California Cities Shine in $5 Million Energy Prize Challenge

Despite the many innovative efficiency measures now in place throughout the country, the United States wastes more than half of all energy produced. Eight California cities are competing for a $5…

Article Features Roberta Childers

Woodland Builds a Healthy Urban Forest, One Tree at a Time

Woodland strives to promote the importance of expanding its tree canopy to provide environmental, economic, health and aesthetic benefits. Because trees help reduce greenhouse gases, the city aims…

Article Features

Local Streets and Roads Awards Recognize Best Practices

The annual Outstanding Local Streets and Roads Project Awards Program recognizes projects that promote fiscal and environmental sustainability in the local transportation system and can be…

Article City Forum Cory Golden

Fix-It Fairs and Repair Cafés Divert Waste, Aim to Change Mindset

Repair cafés help cities send a message that just because something is broken, it need not be thrown away.

Article Features Steve Sanders

Sustainability Offers a Path to Prosperity

Sustainable communities are often better able to thrive and become more prosperous; sustainability is not just about the environment.

Article Legal Notes Karen TiedemannLynn HutchinsRafael Yaquian

What You Need to Know About AB 2 and Community Revitalization Tools

City officials seeking creative ways to finance economic development projects should take a look at the tools provided by AB 2.

Article City Forum Eva Spiegel

Volunteers Needed: Study Examines New Ways to Fund Transportation Infrastructure

A statewide study will examine replacing the outdated gasoline tax with a road user charge.

Article Features Julia Lave Johnston

Planning for Healthy and Sustainable Cities: National City Offers a Model

National City used a comprehensive planning approach to address community environmental and health concerns.

Clovis Builds Dry Creek Trailhead to Educate and Connect the Community

The City of Clovis transformed a three-acre unimproved lot into an educational community recreation area that protects natural resources and promotes healthy living.

California Cities Use Creative Approaches to Recycling

As California residents and businesses increase the amount of material they recycle, local governments seek ways to build additional recycling facilities and expand existing programs.

Article City Forum Mark Cowin

California’s Water: Drought, Floods And Preparedness

Although we have millions of acre-feet of empty space behind dams to capture storm runoff and snowmelt, that space cannot protect Californians against levee breaks, mudslides or overflowing urban…

Article Features Dan Carrigg

2015 Legislative Year in Review

Significant positive developments for the League included the adoption of a new economic development tool for lower-income communities and the passage of a medical marijuana regulatory bill package.

Salinas Fosters Ag Tech Innovation

Technology will soon be radically transforming agriculture and the Salinas Valley, home to an agricultural industry that generates over $8 billion annually.