About

BHC assisted the City of Burlington in preparing its first Climate Element. We conducted a comprehensive audit of existing policies, development codes, and planning documents to assess their effectiveness in addressing greenhouse gas emissions reduction and fostering climate resilience, in compliance with the climate planning requirements under the GMA. The policy audit identified existing policy strengths and gaps, highlighted opportunities to strengthen Burlington’s approach to climate issues, and identified co-benefits of existing policies. Based on this analysis, BHC prepared a detailed policy recommendations memo outlining updates to multiple elements of the Comprehensive Plan and Municipal Code, in addition to policy recommendations for the new Climate Element. As part of this project, we also supported the integration of climate-resilience strategies into the City’s Improvement Program (CIP) and the Public Facilities and Services Element of the Comprehensive Plan by compiling a list of recommended projects, identifying potential funding sources, helping to prioritize the projects, and working alongside city staff and the consultant team to incorporate them into the6-Year and 20-Year CIP lists. Additionally, BHC provided redlines to the Public Facilities and Services Element and created a green infrastructure inventory for the city that included a series of GIS maps.

Features

• Climate Resiliency Planning
• Policy Recommendations for a New Climate Resilience Element and Development Code Updates
• Climate Policy Gaps Analysis
• Comprehensive Plan Update Integration
• Green Infrastructure Inventory
• GIS Mapping