HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 12-15-2020; 12-3 - Information Item - Update on First Round of Applications for the Orange County Community Climate Action Grant 1
ORANGE COUNTY
NORTH CAROLINA
Asset Management Services
Date: December 15, 2020
To: Board of Orange County Commissioners
From: Brennan Bouma, Sustainability Coordinator
Steven Arndt, Director Asset Management Services
RE: Update on First Round of Applications for the Orange County Community Climate Action Grant
As part of the FY20 budget, the Board of Orange County Commissioners created the Orange County Climate
Action Fund dedicated to accelerating climate change mitigation actions in Orange County.This decision was
motivated in part to help the County meet the climate change mitigation goals set by the Commissioners in
recent years:
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions community-wide by 26 percent by 2025 (from 2005 levels).
• Transition to a 100% renewable energy based economy by 2050.
The first round of Climate Action Fund projects were proposed by the Commission for the Environment last year
and approved by the Commissioners.These include funding for solar projects for each of the school districts, a
LED lighting campaign for lower-income residents, and additional funding to weatherize and preserve affordable
housing.
For the 2020-21 funding cycle, $478,657 in funding was budgeted to support climate action projects that will
benefit Orange County residents both socially and financially. Following the direction of the Board of Orange
County Commissioners,the process for soliciting and selecting projects to receive funding is being conducted
through a formal grant program.
The scoring and eligibility guidelines were created by the Board of County Commissioners and staff pulled
together the remaining application elements borrowing from the successful model of the Outside Agency
funding process.The application period for this first round of grant opened on September 18tn and closed on
November 9tn
The Community Climate Action grant program received 7 applications in this round from a variety of non-profit
and public organizations whose total requests add up to more than $1.2 million. While staff fielded some
questions from prospective applicants from the private sector, no private sector applications were received.
At the time of writing, applications are being reviewed and scored by the Commission for the Environment (CFE)
and the Human Relations Commission (HRC). Both of these commissions have their regular meetings on the
second-Monday of the month, meaning that they will have met to discuss and harmonize their final scores and
feedback on December 14tn
In the interest of allowing the Board of County Commissioners more than 24 hours to review these scores and
recommendations, staff will pass along the combined feedback and scores from the HRC and CFE and will look
forward to discussing these proposed projects at the Board's next opportunity on January 19tn
P.O. Box 8181 * Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278
Telephone: (919)245-2625